In this three minute audio, I talk about why all links are not created equally.

[download the mp3]

I’ve been building some wonderful new relationships as a result of my affliation with Network Solutions and Women Grow Business. One of them was with a lovely new client of mine who helps other companies grow. Most of her marketing occurs offline, so she sought out my help in penetrating new markets using online resources.

She was especially interested in social media, but she didn’t get how blogs increase revenues. So I told her the analogy in the audio below.

Of course, your blog is not a store. It’s more like the lounge of a store, the area between commerce and window-shopping. But for the sake of the analogy, it works for the syndication idea.

Anyone else have more ideas about how we explain where blogging fits in to pre-selling and pre-marketing to offline-oriented business people? Do share (if you have a blog post about it, I’ll update with a link to it.)

I recorded this audio before I went to BlogWorld last October, and forgot to publish it. I wasn’t able to ask people what they do, and why, but once you read this post, please feel free to respond below.

Links to things mentioned in this audio:

• The Instant Google Traffic System – thanks to everyone who bought this so I could have a safe time at BlogWorld.
• The Blog World Expo
• What I Do

After you listen to the audio, please answer the question in the comment section- what’s the story of how you got into business for yourself or why you started your company or ended up at your current job.

Don’t forget to tell me WHY you’re still doing it today, even when it gets hard.

Here are the steps:

1- Find your audience.
2- Find and research a sore point.
3- Find and research an existing expert.
4- Start at the easiest point and go for the widest exposure.
5- Start again at the narrowest niche and get the most specialized exposure/
6- Leverage both into maximum exposure.
7- Repeat monthly, at least.

I go more specific and in-depth in the audio. If you can’t see the player, feel free to download the mp3.

You hear so much about how the economy is down…

and sales are down…

and traffic, profits, life, work is down, that it’s almost a culture shock to see local small business not just making it, but kicking butt, in your area.

I mean, everyone is broke, but people I know for a fact aren’t well off have iPads.

There’s supposedly no money in circulation, right? But Starbucks is packed every time I go.

We’ll come back to all that in a minute. One thing I want to make clear – this isn’t an isolated incident. I’m not offering this as mockery to people who have lost their jobs or had to let people go, due to the rocky economic climate.

I’m offering this as hope that perhaps, the way we need to measure what’s successful in our country is changing. I’m offering this out as hope, hope that it’s not just one business that can do something like this to make a hard time a thriving time.

Hope that we can ALL make it.

In fact, I have four examples I’ll be focusing on this week in this and other blogs:

1. The Dominican Hair Salons
2. Cindy’s Karaoke
3. Annie’s Art Gallery, and
4. Fish Market Restaurant

Before you think “this isn’t for me” event marketing works whether your business operates online, offline or both.

In this audio I’ll be discussing:

• What Event Marketing Is
• Why It Works
• Examples of Successful Event Marketing Implementation

Can’t see the player? Download here.
Coming up soon:

• Examples of Event Marketing succeeding online
• Tips on How to Create a Must-Attend Event
• Marketing Your Event Offline
• Marketing Your Event Online

Here’s the gist of the audio, not even close to being a transcript – but this should give you enough information to decide if you want to take five minutes to listen to it.

In it, I discuss:

• the top reasons I started podcasting again
• why I’m using AudioBoo specifically
• how CoachIyabo inspired me to use AudioBoo
• why I would take 35 audio or video podcast subscribers over 10,000 people browsing my site, any day.

Download here if you can’t see the player.

Today I bring you a short rant in which I reveal some things I secretly HATE but still use to increase my traffic, and thus my subscription rate, and thus my sales, and ultimately, my income.

If you can’t see the player, you can download the audio here.

I'm going to be really informal here, hence the small letters above. This is an audio about these 5 things.

1. An idea I got from a discussion I participated in with Denise Wakeman.
2. The results one of my traffic students, Coach Iyabo got after she followed this advice.
3. How to participate in this traffic tip as part of a group experiment for free peer counseling. (Join our Open for Web Business Group for more details).
4. My new monthly group and peer coaching program. (More info on Friday)
5. $7 Fast Facebook Traffic Special Ending in a few hours.

MP3 File

Resources:

Audioboo
Denise Wakeman’s FB page, The Blog Squad.

Recorded via cell phone. I previewed it via cell, so hopefully it’ll sound okay.

[download mp3]

In my last article, we talked about the wrong way to network with groups. This is one of the right ways – at least it is if you want the result of growing your business via Facebook without looking like a spammer.

There will be times where, no matter how you try, you simply can’t share your ideas with text alone.

At the same time, you may not be willing to whip out your video recording software and go through the steps of editing a video, adding or editing sound, uploading it to a server and possibly converting it to a format that would be most easily shared.

An easy in-between would be to share your ideas as a slideshow presentation, the same way you would if you were going to do a lecture. All it requires is the software to make the show, and a way to distribute it once it’s created.

And of course, content that makes sense without a presenter to walk you through the steps.

The Equipment You Need

Now, if you’re a PC User, chances are, you have Microsoft Office, and have access to Powerpoint, or can get access to it at a local internet cafe. If you’re a Mac User, even money says you’re going for the slick effects a Keynote presentation is capable of (this is the program that most recently converted me to Mac – and of course I still have Powerpoint, so best of both worlds!)

What if you’re not Ms. or Mr. Moneybags, and you need a decent tool, that won’t empty your wallet? Or if you want to use something platform independent that will save in a format compatible with either system for editing?

You can always download the Open Office suite for free. It’s got word processing, spreadsheet software and can create presentations, and has a version for both Windows or Mac.

Then there’s always Google Docs. Not only can you create presentations from your browser, you can open presentations in other formats, or simply use Google Docs to share your documents with the world.

It’s also a good idea to have a way to get graphics for your presentation that are royalty-free, so you won’t have to pay a fee each time they appear. There are tons of places where you can find royalty-free clip art, though not as many where you can find them for free.

Don’t forget to include your URL! Make it clickable if you can, if you can’t, make it visible from every slide.

Okay, you found a place for photos or clip art, and you’ve picked your software. Now what?

Finding An Idea to Share

You need to make your slideshow not just worth viewing, but worthwhile for someone to tell a friend about. Start thinking about a question people keep asking you, the kind where they sigh with relief when they get the answer. Something that’s a question people wouldn’t expect to get a free answer to, that’s related to your business or site.

What do you keep getting emails about?

What is in your FAQ?

What questions do folks leave in your blog comments?

What are people asking about in forums?

Take your time and find something juicy.

Spreading the Word

Now, you’ve got your slideshow. It’s beautiful. It’s concise. People get epiphanies while viewing it. Angels sing.

Okay, maybe it’s just useful. Yeah, actually I was throwing a curve ball at you to see if you were paying attention. What you want is to do a basic, clear slideshow that’s not so fancy that the effects get in the way of the presentation. If you’re using effects, a good rule of thumb comes from fashion – complete the presentation and then take one effect out. Don’t try to be too perfect or fancy or you’ll never be done. Just make it good, get it out.

Now, it’s perfect for your purposes. How will anyone hear about it?

This is where our good old friend social media comes in, combined with a few more traditional ways of sharing.

Sharing step one, publish it in a shareable format. As mentioned, Google Docs will help you share it with the world as a public link you can send anyone to, but did you know that you can also embed them into your site?

Another popular option for embedding presentations is SlideShare, which can also help you go viral because, like Google Docs, it provides code which allows other to share.

You might also try BubbleShare,  KoffeePhoto, and SlideBoom. i have two other favorite tools for sharing slides, but I want to save them for our next SlideShow traffic tip.

In the meantime, Sharing step two is; Tell Everyone.

• Let your list know and ask for help sharing it.
• Call your networking contacts and get even more help.
• Ask your favorite expert or an admired peer what they think, and if they can think of people who will find it useful.
• Put it on your site.
• Link to it.
• Tell your friends to put it on their sites and link to it.
• Tweet it with a link
• Update your status on Facebook.

Tell.
Everyone.

That’s it. If you’re lucky it’ll go viral, but even if you just do okay, you’ll have spread the word about your ideas much farther than your solitary grasp.

Reward yourself accordingly with a nap, beer, or good cheer. Rinse and repeat.

As always, please be aware that the free audios will NOT be studio quality. We’ve been told there’s an echo at about 15 minutes in, for 2 minutes, but that you can still hear me okay. Unfortunately I can’t correct this on the fly, still not well enough to do all the manuvering involved.

MP3 File

So here we are, we somehow made it to 2009. I checked and all my limbs are intact and in working order.

Pretty much, anyway.

Today, I wanted to start the New Year with what may well become the tradition of this site and the newsletter: more frequent audio updates.

In this rebirrth of the Free Traffic Tips Minicast:

* What's New with Me
* What's New with Traffic Generation – the answer is going to be a huge surprise to some of you.
* A Query About What's New With You

We'll Have a Poll up you can vote on with the top answers to one of the questions in this audio — we're going to be asking YOU to help decide the direction of the year.

What secrets do you want me to spill? What do you want to learn? Or do you just need a routine to help you put all of this into practice?

Answer the question in the podcast and you could win a prize- we're giving one for my favorite answer, the first answer, and every fifth answer.

The catch is – you won't know until the comments are published…