A couple of days ago, I was watching the Subway Series on TV…. the Yankees against the Mets.  As always, it was a hard fought series.

What I saw in the first game of the series really intrigued me.  The Yankees had a young, 23-year old pitcher going against the Mets.  His name is Joba Chamberlain.  Joba is very talented but extremely inexperienced, especially in big series such as the Yankees-Mets rivalry.

Catching for the Yankees was veteran Jorge Posada.   Jorge has been through it all… the pressures of big games, hostile crowds, and even a few World Series.  He knows how to call a game, and is generally trusted among the pitchers.

So what do I see on Friday night?

I see this young, inexperienced pitcher calling off his catcher time after time (NOTE:  for non-baseball fans, the catcher generally indicates a sign to the pitcher, telling him which pitch to throw.  The pitcher can accept this call, or he can “shake it off” by shaking his head NO, and the catcher will try another pitch).

Here is Posada, one of the most experienced big time catchers in the league, and he is being shaken off by the 23 year old “know it all” pitcher.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

So what happened?

Not surprisingly, Chamberlain imploded, walking in a couple of runs, hitting batters with the bases loaded, and totally losing his cool.  It was obvious that Posada was steamed, and with good reason. Chamberlain was gone by the 4th inning.

Chamberlain decided to REINVENT THE WHEEL. He decided that, even with his inexperience, he knew better than the experienced catcher on the right pitches to throw.  Posada, having been in numerous big games in critical situations, knew which pitches Chamberlain should throw.  He knew what would work.  He had a proven system that has worked time and again in the past.

But Chamberlain thought he knew better.  And he failed miserably.

Why am I telling you this story?

Because I see the same mistake being made by Network Marketing newbies every day.  They come into the business, all gung-ho and excited to light the Network Marketing world on fire.

But rather than going with a system that has proven to be successful, well established strategies that have worked for some of the top leaders in network marketing, they decide to “go it alone”.

They decide their way will be better.

And they fail. And they quit believing it’s all a scam and can’t be done.  Thinking only the leaders make the money.

In reality, all they had to do was plug into systems that already work.

As new home business owners, there are so many new things to learn and implement.  It can be a bit overwhelming.

Don’t exacerbate this by trying to reinvent the wheel.

To your success!

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From our last post, hopefully you’ve been able to set up a killer MySpace profile.  But now what?

How do you best use MySpace to market your business?

Welcome to Day 19 of the “30 Tips in 30 Days” Blog Special for the month of December.  If you’ve missed any of the previous posts, click on the Business and Marketing Tips category on the right sidebar.

Question:  “How do I best use MySpace to market your business?”

Answer:  YOU DON’T!!

At least not directly.

As I’ve stated here before, one of the biggest mistakes home business owners make when using social marketing is TRYING TO MARKET THEIR BUSINESS DIRECTLY.

Why is it a mistake?  Because people come to MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook to enjoy content and build relationships.

They DO NOT want to be sold to.

So what do you do?

You build relationships with people, become friends, and through your content, get them interested in what you do.

How do you add friends?

There are a couple ways:

• Manually — you can use the Search feature to search MySpace for people with specific interests, locations, nationalities — pretty much whatever you are looking for.  Once you find them, you can send them a friend request.  HINT:  Read their profile and send them a short message that indicates what about them interests you.  If you do this, you will almost always get your friends request accepted

• Automated — there are several software packages that will allow you to add friends to MySpace automatically.  My favorite of these is AddNewFriends.com.  They have a free feature that allows you to add up to 50-100 friends per day.  You can also add a short message that you can send with your friend request.  You can make this message something general to apply to everyone.  You will probably get a lower percentage of people to accept your friend request, but you can add ALOT more FRIENDS in a short period of time using automated software.  HINT:  Don’t add more than 100 friends per day (or 50 to be safe) using automated software — if you do, you run the risk of getting shut down by MySpace.

How else can you find friends on MySpace?

One of the ways I use most is to go to the Groups feature.

MySpace has dozens of group categories to choose from, and hundreds of groups.  Find some that share similar interests to yourself and start checking out profiles.  You can also add an entire group of friends using AddNewFriends.com.

For example, I attended Rutgers University and there is a specific group that includes Rutgers current students and graduates.  Great resource for me.  First of all we have something in common already before we’ve ever met.  Secondly, these are usually people of high intelligence, willing to check out new opportunities to make money online.

Use the Group Search feature to add friends to MySpace.  It’s the best way to  start making friends with people with similar interests.

To your prosperity and your new relationships!

Bob

Check out my new blog!

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Today let’s talk about MySpace.   I will assume that you have all signed up for a MySpace account.  If not, go get your Myspace account now!

Welcome to Day 18 of the “30 Tips in 30 Days” Holiday Blog special, where I am providing a marketing or online business tip for each day in the month of December.  If you’ve missed any of the previous posts, simply click on the Business and Marketing Tips Category on the right sidebar.

If you are marketing online and you are not on MySpace, you are making a big mistake.

This is not your teenagers MySpace anymore!

Online business owners are flocking to the social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook like never before.  The reason?  Because there is money on the table.  If there wasn’t, you wouldn’t see them on these sites.

So get with it, get your account, and set up your profile.

In today’s post, I am going to give you some easy TIPS to follow to set up a killer MySpace profile.

But before I do, a word of warning.

Remember the video on social marketing I put on this blog a few days ago (see post “Are you Getting Social Networking All Wrong?)  If not, go back and view it again.  And again.   Because if there is one thing that will kill your results using MySpace, it is blatant PLUGGING of your BUSINESS.  In fact, it also may get your account deleted.

MySpace if for building relationships. People to people.  Get interested in what makes other people click.  What are their interests and goals.  Share with them about you and your dreams and aspirations.

In other words, take the time to get to know people, help them with their problems, and MySpace will pay off for your big time!

OK, enough preaching from the pulpit (my wife hates it when I do that)….

Here are 5 Tips to Building a Great MySpace Profile Page:

• Headline: This is a short blurb that means something to you that will show up next to your picture.  Have fun with it.   It can be a quotation, passage, or anything that means something special to you.  A

• Photo: Your MySpace photo is important, because it will be displayed prominantly on your profile page.  Make sure it is a good picture of you, smiling, being happy, enjoying life.  Nobody wants to know an Eeyore (for those Winnie the Pooh fans).

• About Me:  this sections, as it is named, is YOUR STORY. It is the heart of your profile.  And you want to get it right.

Jimmy Davis of MLM Goldmine outlined a great template for creating a great “About Me” section.

He calls it MyStory Marketing, and it is what I used to create my MySpace profile.

Here are the steps:

1. State who you are.  Sounds obvious, but some people forget.  If you have a website, you can claim ownership of it.  For example, we wrote on our profile….”Hi, our names are Bob and Rosemary Clarke, and we are the authors and creators of Carbon-Copy-Professional.com.  Even if you are just getting started in the industry, you have instant credibility with this statement.
2. Give a short summary of WHY you are making this MySpace page.  Paint your picture.  What got you to this point of your life.  Maybe you just got laid off and you are looking to network.  Maybe you are so stressed out at your job that you can’t stand it anymore.  Or maybe, with the high cost of everything right now, you just need more money!  Whatever the reasons, state it clearly.  This is the OUTLINE THE PROBLEM phase of your profile.
3. Next, give some more personal information about yourself. Where you live, where you were born, what are your hobbies, your likes, your dislikes.   In other words, tell your story.  This is MyStory Marketing at its best.
4. Now, provide the solution to your problem that you outlined above. It can start with a phrase like, “All of these frustrations ended when we finally….”
5. Call To Action. What do you want your readers to do?  Ask them to visit your website, or if you want them to contact you, provide the information.  Make it clear, but don’t be pushy.

• More Photos: Now add some more photos.  NOT business photos, but some of you having fun with friends or family.  I used a site called Slide.com to post my pictures.  You can see them on my MySpace page.

• Other sections: Here you can put in more personal information about you.  Your interests, you favorite television shows, favorite movies and books, etc.  Let people get to know the REAL YOU.  This is all about getting real.  If you are not authentic, people will spot it a mile away.

Again, this is supposed to be about the personal side of you, not the business side.  Make it fun and personal!

OK, a couple more tips before we wrap up this post.

1. When you are typing your About Me section, type it in the blog section of your page.  This section allows you to add alot of HTML, and works just as if you were creating a document in Microsoft Word.  You can add bold, italics, colors, etc. that you would not be able to add by simply typing in the About Me template.  After you are finished, you can cut and paste to the appropriate section of your profile.
2. If you can make YouTube videos, as I know you all can after the last few posts, try making a video about yourself (not focused on your business).  Tell your story, and post it in your About Me section. Very powerful!
3. Add a Twitter box to your MySpace page (more on Twitter later).  This will allow people to see what you are up to on an ongoing basis.

So go out and create your own personal MySpace page.  It’s fun to do, and will help you create relationships that may or may not pan out for your business.  If so, great, you have a new customer.  But if not, no worries.  At least you have added a whole bunch of new friends!  Not bad!

Tomorrow we will discuss how to add friends to your MySpace page.

Til next time, folks.

Bob

Visit MY MySpace page!

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