Lylizm

Internet Marketing Made Simple

Getting High and Staying High

Staying High Hot Air BalloonsGoing to a live event is always thrilling and you leave with a special buzz…known as the ‘conference high.’  However, the high you get at a training conference or camp can quickly fade.  If you want to make that high last for a long time follow the steps below.

Before you ask, no, I don’t ‘get high.’  I don’t need drugs to enjoy my life.  As a matter of fact, I have had many people ask what I was using and some of them were willing to pay good money for it.

I am high today because I just got back from JobCrusher’s Leverage Summit where I learned how to use leverage for my business.  (You can find out more about JobCrusher here.  And, if you went to the conference, you can ask me for my notes and I will send you a copy that I created!)

Making your ‘Live Event High’ Last

  •   Make handwritten notes.  I know in today’s digital age, this sounds crazy.  There is a lost art of taking notes by hand, but trust me this it the first step to keeping your conference high for a long time.  You don’t have to jot complete thoughts, just jot enough to remind you what was said.
  •  Write out meaningful quotes word for word, then underline it.
  •   Jot down and draw attention to action items.  Action items are anything that you need to do based on the information you just learned.  Anything that is said that you want to take action on, jot in the side column, star it, highlight it…whatever it takes, just make it noticable.
  •  Make a short summary of each sessions in your own words at the end of each night.  (This step is optional if you don’t like to write, you can skip it, but it will help you remember.)  Write a few paragraphs in your own words about what was taught and what it meant to you.  Really connect to the ‘why.’  The more you access those feelings and convey them in a way that communicates to you, the more likely you will remember the event.
  •  Type up your notes.  When you are through with the entire event (and rested up).  Yes, add the same notes you hand wrote early to your digital device.  Make complete sentences where you just noted the ideas.  You may be tempted to just skip to this step, but don’t do that. It will short out the process of how your brain puts information into your long-term memory and that is what you want to do.
  •   Type your notes as if you are going to share them with someone else.  You want to convey the entire idea.  If you pretend you have to teach the information to someone else, you with synthisize and internalize the information.  (Whoa, that’s a lot of -ize!)  What this means is the information becomes ‘more real’ to you.
  •   Re-read your notes everyday for about a week.  Then, once a week for three months.
  •   Make a single page write up of all the quotes that you found memorable.  You can post it near your computer, on your bathroom mirror, frame it or use and editing program to make your own piece of art.  Putting these in a way that communicates to you will make all the difference.
  •  Get the recording.  If they have a recording of the event, and you can afford it, get at copy to listen to.  Listen to no more than one session a day.  You have gone through so many sessions, they may blur together.  Listening to one a day makes your brain focus on one idea. It will last in your long-term memory better.
  • Socialize with friends you met at the conference.  Socializing is so easy today with Facebook, Twitter, et al.  When you reconnect after the conference, just seeing their face will trigger memories and solidify the information that you gained in your brain.  It is like an image trigger to your cerebral cortex which engages recent memories. (Can you tell I like the way the brain works?)
  •   Make a list of all of your action items and put dates to them.  Look for the action items that you jotted in the columns, starred or highlighted.  Put them in a document with date and steps you will take to make that happen.  Or better yet, put the whole sentence directly in your calendar on the specific date for that action item as well as the steps leading up to that action.  You want these ‘ideas’ to become real to you.  If you put a date on them, your brain will want to make it happen.

As I end out this article, I want to make sure that you realize that the value of any new information is only as good as what you do with it.  If you don’t remember and take action on what you learned, any conference can be a waste of your time and money!

If you would like to share more ideas about making the conference high last, post them below. OR if you went to the Leverage Summit and woud like a copy of my notes, I would gladly share them with you, all you have to do is ask.

Lylizm for the day: Let’s get high and stay high together. . without drugs of course!

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2012 Marketing Predictions

WOW!  It’s 2012 already?  Wasn’t the world supposed to end or something. . .again!?

If the world ends, I am ready, are you? In the mean time, I want to give you an insider’s take on what people are saying this year will look like in the online and marketing world.  I have done a bunch of research and boiled it down to these simple nuggets of truth.

  • Videos will RULE the world! –  If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a video worth that is created with 30 pictures a second? (30 frames per second is the common digital video creation rate.)  Youtube will continue changing to connect with the social media crowd and continue offer a good replacement for things like television and movie sites.
  • Ten Times Value for Half Price – The economy is looking better, for the most part.  Even so, people want to get the most for their money.  They want to pay small amounts for large benefits.  It has been like this for a while, but with all the voices out there, consumers have a lot more choice.  Consumers will be leery about making big purchases, but will jump at small easy to afford options.  Be ready to offer them more bang for their little bucks.
  • You WIN! – People want to get to know others, so be yourself and you will win.  That is what social media is all about.   Creating a unique voice among all the chatter is going to be key.  People have had enough of the marketers always trying to sell something and will be looking for people that they can relate to.  Consistent, unique and even creative marketing is going to take over from the buy it now before its gone mentality.

I could write thousands of different directions for each of these, but like I said, I want to boil it down to the basics.  Yes, everyone had their little take on what things will look like this year.  It really does not matter what people predict, it only matters what they do.

If you want this year to be better for you, do more, interact more . . be more.  This year is just waiting for you to do something extraordinary, so get out there and do it.

Revolutionary Resolutions

new year resolution commitResolutions are things we do for about a week on New Year’s Day.  They make us feel better for a little while, but they don’t stick, why not?  I say it is time for a resolution revolution!

If you want to make your resolution revolutionary, take these tips and stand firm on the fact that this year you are going to be a better you.

  • Know exactly what you want. It may take some research, but find out what you need to do to accomplish your resolution.  The more you know about it, the better you will be able to set actual steps to accomplish it.  For instance, if you want to read more this year, go to your library and make a list of books you want to read.  Then, decide how often and how much you want to read.  You may decide to read one book a month, or one every two months. Putting a date on it will make the resolution more real.  When you take action, to dig a little deeper, on your resolutions, they go from resolutions to goals.  You can accomplish goals where you may give up on a resolution.  (BTW: goals are not a bad word, use them well young padiwan!)
  • Make them memorable.  Get creative: post your new goals anywhere you will see them.  Use quotes, pictures, videos, or whatever it takes to inspire you.  The more you surround yourself with what you want the more likely it is to happen.  If you can ‘see’ it happening, you can make it happen.  Your brain does not know the difference and you will succeed.
  • Give yourself rewards.  When you accomplish a little bit towards your goal, have a reward system.  This will trigger your brain to thinking you are doing good and give you a sense of accomplishment.  If you are trying to eat healthy, it might be OK to reward yourself with a big milkshake once a week to remind you that you are doing a good job.  These rewards are something to look forward to when you are wanting to cheat a little bit on your resolution.  They give you that extra edge to get past your weak moments.
  • Change your definition.  Resolutions came from a word meaning “to break into parts.”  When you create a resolution, you break it into parts to decide if you could handle it or not.  The word has the essence of “solving a problem,” meaning that you should look for ways that you can actually accomplish your task.  People take promises heavily; your word is your bond.  When you make a resolution, you are deciding that you want this year to be a better year.  You are making a promise to yourself and you should take it seriously.  If you can’t break it into action steps on how you will accomplish this task, you may not be ready to make it your resolution.  When you make it a promise to yourself, there is a better chance it will last.
  • Involve others.  If you are going to make a resolution, tell others.  Make a pact with someone you know and it will become more real.  My wife and I are trying to eat healthier.  When one of us mentions a ‘not so healthy’ food, we gently remind each other of healthy alternatives and that we have a cheat day coming.  If you want to hold true to your commitment, enlist people who care about you and want to help you do better.  Have them think of ways to help you, for instance a text reminder from a friends will give you little boosts to remind you that you can do it.

This year can only be different if I make it different.

Are you ready to join me in this resolution revolution and make this year better than ever?

Quantent

As I said in an earlier post, my brain works faster than my mouth and sometimes I get some results that are worthy of sharing.

Today is one of those days.  I was thinking about content for sharing online.  I thought, “We need to have quality content, but there needs to be a good amount that is covers what it needs to cover, but quality is better than quantity.” As my brains whireled around these thoughs, out popped the word “quantent.”

It a word is comprised of: content, quality and quantity.  Let’s break these apart and see why they are important.

  • Content:  Content is anything you put online: artlicles, blogs, videos, tweets,…When you are doing any kind of marketing, you need to have content that relate to the people you are trying to connect with.  Remember, online marketing is about building relationships.  Content, then, is the door where we inivte people into our lives so that they can connect with us.
  • Quality: Everthing you do online represents who you are.  You want to show your best. Striving for excellence does not mean you need to be perfect.  But your followers deserve to see your best.  If you don’t spell well, get a friend or family member to read it over for you.  It is worth going the extra mile because that is what you would want someone to do for you, right?  If I am inviting friends over, I tidy up the place and make sure it looks (and smells) good for my guests.  You want to do the same with your webpage and online presence.
  • Quantity: We need to add value for our followers.  We want to post relevant information, not just fluff to say we have something online.  The key on quantity is to have just enough material to cover your subject.  There is nothing worse than going to a page and reading a large article only to find out that there was no actual information in it. If you give enough information to keep your followers informed, when you offer something, they will buy because they know and trust you.

Keep your webpage (or any online presence) filled with quantent and you will see results.  Internet marketing is not about being flashy, salesy or spammy, it is about building relationships.  People buy from people they like and trust.

Lylizm: “Good QUANTENT builds relationships.”

Get your FEET moving

I have a tendency to combine words when I say them sometimes.  I think it is because my brain works faster than my mouth.  And if  you have heard me speak when I am excited, you will know that is quite a feat.

See, I just thought FEET and imagined little toes sprining up…activate, lylizm….

So, how can we put FEET to our internet marketing?

  • Find your voice – Be original. It clicked for me just recently, honestly.  I had to totally redo my whole webpage recently because of a hosting error (totally my fault).  I began to put up all my articles, then I realized, there is nothing special about my articles.  You can find things like them on almost any search engine.  I needed to find my voice again.  A good friend of mine was introducing me to a group of internet marketers and told to me to tell them about what a Lylizm was.  It clicked, I forgot to make it Lyleriffic! Now, I am not stuck on my name, really.  I just like the zip of a Lylizm. It is a quick, to the point snippet of insight.  I hope these pages will be that for you.
  • Establish relationships – People like to buy from people that they trust.  When you are doing any kind of busines, people want to know who they are dealing with.  When you take time to build a relationship with someone, they trust you.  There are only ten fast-food type places in our small town.  Even thought, my wife and I are trying to eat healthier, we freqently go to a local Golden Chick even though it has mainly fried food.  We go there because the owner had taken time to talk to us and build a relationship with us.  Like the old Cheers sitcom theme says, “everyone likes to go where everybody knows your name.”
  • Encourage interaction – The more a customer interacts with you online, the more they ‘buy into’ what you do.  You can always ask questions, but take it up a notch.  If you are designing a new book cover, let your readers vote on it.  If you are comng out with a new menu item, let those on your list be the first to try it.  Then, when you market, thank them for their participation by offering a bit of a discount, ‘since they were involved’ in the process.  Now, don’t just do what you want, truly involve them.  I knew a guy whose entire book was written and edited by his readers.  You would think that they would not buy it since they created it, but they bought it because they were ‘part’ of it.
  • Take action daily – Honestly, I am not talking about taking ANY action.  I am talking about taking specific action that will lead to making money for you.  You need to take time to learn, yes, but if you are not putting what you learn in practice you are wasting your time.  I like to tell my clients, “You can read all the books about swimming you want, but until you actually get in the water, you won’t know what you are doing.”  Actions that lead towards making money are things like, building your list, connecting with your list, creating products, etc…

I hope these tips help you get your feet moving.  The funny thing about this article, is I started to write a totally different article, but got distracted by my own lylizm thinking when I used the word ‘feat.’  Isn’t life fun!?

I hope this helps you get a little grasp on internet marketing.

Lylizm: Get your FEET moving.

 

Flowing and growing

Recently, I was meeting with some like-minded entrepreneurs.  While talking about internet marketing, I kept hearing them say, “Now I am swimming.”  I let that roll around in my head and thought I was missing something.  Then, I thought,  “Well, since we are talking about internet, and you surf the internet, swimming may have something to do with that….”

Then, my Lylizm senses took over: What does water have to do with internet marketing?

  • We surf in an ocean.
  • We swim in a lake.
  • We float down a river.

The ocean is where many rivers and other bodies of water enter.  It is a turbulent place always tossing and turning in many different directions.  You surf waiting for the next big wave, ride it in to the shore, then, paddle back out for the next big wave to come.  (In internet marketing this is called the “shiny object syndrome.”)

A lake is a smaller spillway.  You can swim because it has a defined shoreline and the turbulence it not as noticeable as the ocean.  The catch is, you do everything.  You have to put forth all the effort to get anywhere. (In internet marketing this is called the “lone ranger approach.”)

A river is always flowing in one direction.  When you flow in a river, you are moved along by the stream to a single specific destination. (In internet marketing we call this focus.)

So, what can we learn from a river?  Instead of waiting for the next big wave to come along or putting all your own effort in, take a ride along with something that is already moving in the direction you want to go.  Find those like-minded individuals and tag along for a fun ride down the river of success.

Keep in mind:

  • When you have your strategy in place, shiny objects won’t distract you. 
  • When you have a team in place, you won’t get wore out doing it all on your own. 

Be a river marketer.  Find your flow and it will be easier to grow.

What is internet marketing?

Internet marketing is thrown around online all the time.  I want to make sure you know exactly what we are talking about when we use the term internet marketing.

First, the internet …you are on it right now.  It is this huge world wide web . . . uh, let’s make it simple.  It is a whole bunch of computers connected together and talking in a way that we humans can understand.  To a computer, these words are just a bunch of zeros and ones.

Whew, I am glad we got that out of the way.  Now, marketing…hmmm, that one is a bit more difficult to nail down.

A market is where a whole bunch of people get together for the purpose of purchasing something.  You go to, say, a Walmart or another grocery store.  These are called markets because they put all the things you need in one area.

So, marketing, it putting things in one area, right?

Not exactly.  Marketing is getting people to notice where you put all these things together so they will buy from you.  If you go to a street market in Mexico, people are yelling and trying to get your attention so you will come look at their stuff and buy it.  They are marketing at the market.

Simple put, marketing is getting the word out there that you are in business and you have something to sell.

So, internet marketing is communicating in a way that gets people to notice where you put your products or services online and encouraging them to buy.

Don’t try to make it more complicated than that.

We will have a lot more about types of marketing, ways of marketing, and all kinds of goodies. I just wanted to make sure we are on the ‘same page’ when we use the word ‘internet marketing.’