Document 6504306

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Document 6504306

Praise for Sandra Martini
“Sandy’s commitment and focus on my needs as a client is exceptional. It doesn’t
matter how long you've been in business; if you're running one or trying to get
one off the ground, Sandy can help you make it even more successful!
Her dedicated partnership, brilliant collaboration, cherished friendship and ability
to bring humor to any situation greatly enhance both my business and my life.”
Gina Weller, Alpharetta, Georgia
www.wellerconsulting.com
“Sandy,
I'm very excited and busy working with your "How to Make Money as a Virtual
Assistant!" I've spent hundreds of dollars on promises to help me to make
money at doing what I enjoy. However; your system has delivered the "meat
and potatoes" on how to design a proven plan.
I've been so excited and working with your e-book that I've scheduled working on
the Client information Tracker this weekend. Your whole package is so uplifting
and supportive. It's like having a helping hand guiding me along the correct path
to success.”
Niki Crego
Gateway Secretarial Services, London OH
[email protected]
© 2007-2008 Sandra P. Martini, All Rights Reserved -- www.SandraMartini.com
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"Every time I finish a conversation with Sandy, I am excited and energized to
implement what she has recommended for my business. By helping me see the
hard results that I provide to my clients, Sandy inspired me to ask for, AND GET,
a 20% increase in what I charge.
Following her suggestions is a lot easier than I imagined it would be and her
techniques work!”
Karley Grandy, Virtual Assistant
Klamath Falls, Oregon
“Sandy’s wealth of knowledge and her willingness to share it abundantly have
affected my business like the lines on a highway at night: without the lines you
have to slow down to stay on course. Sandy’s impact on my business has
allowed me to cruise confidently in the fast lane towards my desired success!”
Lisa Almeida
www.planitproduction.com
"Sandy is the glue that keeps my business running smoothly. Her wisdom and
insight enables me to stay focused on the big picture, while her calm demeanor
and sense of humor keeps me on track toward accomplishing my goals. I would
highly recommend her services to anyone desiring exponential growth in their
own business."
Sharon Moist
www.SharonMoist.com
www.TheIndustryCoach.com
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"Sandy has been such a great resource and supporter to me and my business.
Things that I'd pegged as confusing to deal with have become much easier to
address as I've watched her facilitate through them, teach me tricks to deal with
them more effectively and basically feel more in control of the logistics of my
business.
Even a quick 10 minute conversation can save hours of work and get you back to
the things you love to be doing, saving your energy for the reasons you got into
business in the first place! Sandy seamlessly helps this happen. I highly
recommend her as a part of any team!"
Anese Cavanaugh, DareToEngage, Inc.
Heroic Leadership Coach & Consultant
www.DareToEngage.com
"As an entrepreneur, I am both blessed and cursed by constantly coming up with
several new innovations for my business. Each time I'd start with the same level
of excitement and then get distracted and start working on another project.
Sandy keeps me focused and makes me accountable so I work only on those
projects which drastically increase my revenue.
She is extremely knowledgeable and generously shares her knowledge and
experience by providing specific suggestions in the areas of online marketing and
running a small business. I highly recommend Sandy to anyone who wants a
successful business!"
Lance Puig
York Street Properties, Inc.
www.yorkstreethomes.com
"I hired Sandy to coach me during a transition time to propel my writing and PR
consulting business to the next professional level. She is an astute listener with a
gentle, encouraging, and caring style and offered wise and practical suggestions
tailored specifically to my particular situation. She has been so successful herself
working virtually as The Automatic Business Coach that I now consider her my
virtual and internet marketing role model."
Kathryn Bechen
Kathryn Bechen Ink
www.KathrynBechenInk.com
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How To Repurpose Your
Content: Do It Once and Get
Paid Again and Again
A Marketing Conversation
By Sandra P. Martini
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Also by Sandra P. Martini:
How to Make Money as a Virtual Assistant
Power & Soul (contributing author)
How to Find, Hire & Maintain a Successful Virtual Team
How to Host Teleseminars Which Build your List and Make You
Money! A Step-by-Step Guide
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Copyright © August 2007 by Sandra P. Martini
Updated March 2008
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying,
recording, retrieval system, without prior written permission from the author,
except for the inclusion of quotes.
Printed in the United States of America
Requests for permission to make copies of any part of this book can be made to:
Sandra Martini
SMG Communications
330 Bedford Street, #897
Lakeville, MA 02347
508.946.0676
www.SandraMartini.com
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Dedicated to my clients
and all I’ve learned from each of them.
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Table of Contents
Introduction
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What You Need To Do To Get Results From This System
12
How to Read and Use This System
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Section 1: Why Repurpose and Package
15
Section 2: Knowing What You Know
25
Section 3: #1 Way to Repurpose: Article Marketing
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Section 4: Beyond Article Marketing
61
Section 5: Repurposing for Publicity: Press Releases
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Section 6: Making It Happen: The Tools You Need
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Section 7: How to Build a Business Through Repurposing
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Word-for-Word Audio Transcription
108
Appendix A: List of Article Directories
162
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Appendix B: Article Submission Schedule
164
Appendix C: 5 Simple & Easy Ways to Use Facebook
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To Market Your Business
Appendix D: Press Release Checklist
170
Resources
172
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Introduction
Dear Fellow Entrepreneur,
CONGRATULATIONS on investing in yourself and your business by purchasing
this “marketing conversation” on how to repurpose your content or, in layman’s
terms, how to work once and benefit (through exposure and increased income)
again and again!
You recognize the value of your time and want to get the most bang for every
minute you spend working in your business.
The number of ways you can repurpose and repackage your content is limited
only by your imagination. While we focus heavily on article marketing as the
most popular way to repurpose your work, I’ve described several throughout this
workbook. Not all of them will be for you. I encourage you to select only those
activities that resonate with you and you are comfortable with. After all, you’re
creating a business that works FOR YOU!
For example, you may feel at home while giving a teleseminar to 100 people or
you may hide under the covers at the thought of presenting to others. This guide
provides enough techniques that you should only do those you are comfortable
with.
You’ll notice that this book is written differently than most. I’ve approached it as
a conversation – a marketing conversation between me and one of my clients.
© 2007 Sandra P. Martini, All Rights Reserved -- www.SandraMartini.com
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I’ve found that people often learn best through stories and this topic is one that
lends itself to that format. To keep things clear, the “client voice” is lighter (in
blue for online readers) than mine.
I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it for you!
The assignments at the end of each section are simple to do and will help you
begin repurposing right away.
So, let’s get started!
Dedicated To Your Extraordinary Success,
Sandra P. Martini
March 2008
© 2007-2008 Sandra P. Martini, All Rights Reserved.
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What You Need To Do To Get Results From This System
In order to get results, you need to read through the entire system (no skipping
sections) and do all of the assignments.
By spending SOME time each day on repurposing activities, you’ll see your
exposure, and credibility, grow if you follow the guidelines described throughout
this system.
You can spend as little as 5 minutes using article marketing techniques or 60
minutes recording a teleseminar to offer as a product or free giveaway. The
choice is yours – it’s important that you carve out some time each day however.
Personally, I spend different amounts of time each day – all depending what I’ve
planned for that day. And time just sitting and “thinking” about my articles and
my marketing pyramid and how I can repurpose existing works is part of it.
The absolutely, positively most important thing when it comes to repurposing
your work is CONSISTENCY. Without consistency, your results will be
haphazard.
Repurposing works like compounded interest: an act (such as article marketing)
that you take today will provide you benefits throughout the life of your business.
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The most acts you take, the more the benefits “compound” – article marketing
done today will generate more and more exposure in the months and years to
come.
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How To Read and Use This System
The information in this System CAN be overwhelming. My recommendation is
that you:
1. Read it through. No notetaking, no marking passages…just read it
through.
2. Grab a pen, a highlighter and some sticky notes. Begin reading
through it all again, only take notes, work on the assignments at the end of
each section and write down “repurpose inspiration” whenever it strikes
and mark it with a sticky note. This will insure you capture your inspiration
and can refer back it later (you will NOT remember it otherwise – there’s
too much information here).
3. The activities in this System will result in greater exposure and greater
revenue for your business – GUARANTEED – as long as they are done
consistently throughout the life of your business. Think of each item as a
foundation that you continue to build upon. Skipping steps means a weak
foundation.
4. Use the system. As odd as that sounds, please don’t let this become one
of those systems you invest in and then place on your bookshelf unused.
I’ll say it again: Using this System WILL result in greater exposure and
greater revenue for your business GUARANTEED.
5. Delegate and outsource. Once you can afford to have an assistant
(even for 5 hours a month), hire out some of the simpler pieces such as
article marketing and article publishing so you can focus on the larger
repurposing and repackaging items.
If you get stuck or have any questions, please email me at
[email protected]. I’m happy to help.
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Section 1: Why Repurpose & Repackage?
“I’m not sure I understand what you mean when you say ‘repurpose and
repackage my material’. Can you please explain it again?”
Of course, “repurposing” or “repackaging” your material is a fancy phrase for how
you share the skills and knowledge that you’ve gained from years of experience
in your industry, hobbies, life, etc.
“Repurpose” and “Repackage” mean slightly different things:
“Repurposing” is when you take an existing item and use it in a different
way. For example, you write an article which you then expand upon and
turn into a teleseminar.
“Repackaging” is when you take an existing item and alter the formatting
or the media. For example, you write several articles which you then
combine into an e-book and sell as a compilation or you record the article
and give it away as a podcast.
Despite the difference in their meaning, we’re going to treat them as
interchangeable for the purpose of this discussion as you can usually repurpose
what you can repackage and vice versa.
To better explain the concept, here’s a visual representation of how repurposing
can work:
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How To Repurpose: A Visual Guide
The purpose of your
Teleseminar is to
generate “Products”
“Repurpose” transcripts
to a 3-ring binder!
“Repurpose” your tele-content
to a best-selling book!
“Repurpose” recordings
to an audio CD set!
and recordings to a group
coaching program!
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What’s In It For Me – a.k.a. “Benefits of Repurposing &
Repackaging”
“Gee Sandra, that’s great. I can spend my time, energy and money repurposing
and repackaging my knowledge to help humankind learn more precisely. While
that’s a great goal and, my business mission includes helping people so that’s a
goal I support, I need to make some money so I can pay my bills.”
Okay, okay…it’s not ALL about what you can do for others. Repurposing and
repackaging allow for a whole host of benefits for you, the creator, as well.
Let me run down just a few of them here:
You can reach a larger audience with your materials if you package it in
ways that they understand. Where you may have only reached people
reading your newsletter before, now you can reach everyone who uses
iTunes if you podcast your articles.
You can now sell your knowledge/information to people who may not be
able to afford to work with you directly. Coaches, consultants, service
professionals and virtual assistants, to name a few, have specialized
knowledge that they can package (via audio, articles, ebooks, special
reports, video, workshops, etc.) and sell for a variety of price points.
Some of those price points should be low enough for potential clients to
“sample” what you have to offer.
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By offering your information in a variety of different ways, including ebooks
and hardcopy books, you gain the instant credibility that is given to
authors. You can leverage this credibility into speaking engagements,
consultancies, joint ventures to gain newsletter subscribers, make
additional sales. . . the list goes on.
“This is all exactly what I want and need to hear, but I’m afraid I still have to make
money and all the exposure and expert status in the world won’t pay my bills.
How can I turn this into cash?”
You are impatient today, aren’t you? I was saving that for last, but we’ll go over it
now since you’re so anxious.
Another advantage to repurposing and repacking your materials is definitely. . .
Creation of additional revenue streams
o You can take a book you’ve written and sold for, say, $14.95
(average price of a new hardcopy, non-fiction book) and turn it into
a multimedia (CDs with workbook in a binder) home study course
and now charge $495.
o Your revenue streams can be either:
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Active – where you put on and present at a live workshop or
you lead a live teleseminar or
Passive – where you create an item once (such as an
ebook) and it sells and is fulfilled “on its own” with no
involvement from you. This is where you sit back and the
money is automatically deposited into your bank account –
assuming you have a product that people are willing to pay
for of course! ☺
Active and passive – this is both what I recommend and
what I practice. Some of your products require your active
participation (such as leading a teleseminar) and others only
require people to need your product *and* find it for sale
online.
Here’s one example of something I recently did:
1. I wrote an article on strategies for a successful teleseminar. You can
read it at http://www.sandramartini.com/abc.php?article=000070.
2. I got such great feedback from my readers, I gave a free teleseminar
called “How To Host Your Own Teleseminar”. You can listen at
http://www.sandramartini.com/teleseminar-call.html.
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a. In preparing for the teleseminar, I asked those who signed up
what their number one question was, and was sure to answer it on
the call.
3. I then expanded on the article and the call and turned it into a product
called “How to Host Teleseminars Which Make You Money: A Step-byStep Guide”.
a. I included the call and transcription as a bonus to the product.
There are plenty more examples of what you can do throughout this manual.
Repurposing and repackaging allow you to save both time and effort in
that you can create an item and offer different levels at different price
points in order to:
o Get prospects into your marketing funnel by offering a free taste of
your materials.
o Move prospects through your funnel by offering different types of
packages with add-ons and higher rates so they can choose what’s
best for their situation and budget.
You know you need continued exposure for your small business – repurposing
and repackaging your materials allow you to do it while saving time and effort.
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In order to see all the increased exposure you’re going to get through
repurposing, I want you to set up a Google Alert with your name and your
business name (if different).
Google Alert is a free service offered by Google which will send you an email
every day/week (you choose) showing you whenever something new has been
added to the Web on a certain topic.
In setting up your Alert, insure you do the following two things:
1. Put your topic (your name or business name, for example) in quotation
marks to avoid false alerts. For example: “Sandra Martini”
2. Select “Comprehensive” for your search – this will show you all the listings
rather than simply blogs or other items.
Now that you know what “repurposing and repackaging” are, I want you to take a
step back and do a small assignment.
“Homework?”
Yes, you can think of it as homework. . .or you can think of it as helping you
move your business forward. Here’s your “homework” and we’ll pick up
tomorrow.
“No guilt there. Okay, bring it on!”
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Section 1: Assignment
1. Brainstorm and write down at least 3 ideas for repurposing or
repackaging knowledge or material that you have on hand (meaning in your
head or products already done).
1.
2.
3.
2. Set up a Google Alert in at least your name and your business name at
www.google.com/alerts
List your alerts below (remember to put them in quotes):
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Section 2: Knowing What You Know
So, how did you do with your assignment?
“I don’t know. I tried to come up with things and my mind was blank. I’m a smart
person, this shouldn’t have been so tough, but it was.
Maybe I just don’t have anything that other people would value and pay for. I
mean, most people know what I know.”
Let me digress for a moment and explain the phenomenon you’re experiencing.
It’s part of what we call “conscious competence” and it’s critical to understanding
what you’re going through.
To keep it very simple, there are 4 stages – stay with me here:
1. Unconscious incompetence
a. This is the stage where you don’t know what you don’t know.
You’re not aware that something exists and therefore you’re not
aware that you know nothing about it.
i. For purposes of our demonstration, let’s use the skill of
“walking”. When you were a baby, you didn’t know about
walking and so didn’t realize that you couldn’t do it.
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2. Conscious incompetence
a. You now know that a certain “thing” exists and you realize that you
know nothing about it.
i. As a crawling baby, you saw others stand and walk and
knew you couldn’t do it, but wanted to try.
3. Conscious competence
a. You now know about the skill AND you know how to do it. You
need to think about it when you’re doing it and you’re not an expert,
but you have the basics down.
i. Think of a toddler here. He will waddle about and get from
Point A to Point B, but he’s concentrating and stumbling
while doing it.
4. Unconscious competence
a. Not only do you know what the skill is, you have become so good at
it that you no longer think about it when you do it.
i. If you want to go outside and get the mail, you get up and do
it. You no longer think about the process of how to walk to
the mailbox.
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You are currently in Stage 4 Unconscious competence when it comes to your
skills and abilities. You know everything *so* well that you no longer think about
it or even realize that you have a skill.
Does this make sense?
“Oh WOW, I think I get it!
You’re saying that I know a lot of things and I know some of them so well that I’ve
forgotten I know them. Is that right?”
In a nutshell, yes.
It’s like adding 2 + 4. You do it automatically, you no longer, I hope, have to
count on your fingers to get the answer. And yet it’s still a skill that you had to
learn at one point, and now you’ve long since forgotten that you have that
particular skill.
“Great, I get it now. But how do I know which skills I have that people may need
or be willing to pay for information to have?
If I know it so well that I’ve forgotten it, how do I remember it again?”
I’m glad you asked! Now that you understand the concept of “unconscious
competence”, you’re ready for your next assignment.
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1. Taking no more than 10 – 12 minutes, write 30 problems that you solve
for your clients.
For example: I solve the problem of overwhelm by teaching my clients how to
implement systems to put their marketing on autopilot and allow it to attract their
ideal clients.
It’s important not to get hung up on this. Write down whatever comes to
mind and move on to the next line. Ready? GO!
I solve the problem of. . .
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
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7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
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21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
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How did you do with your last assignment?
“I started strong and then faltered after putting down 5 items. I thought of what
you said and looked at what I do from my clients’ perspective. It got easier at
that point, but I definitely need to spend some time on this.”
Once you get the hang of identifying the problems you solve, you’ll have an
easier time identifying people who need your solutions – these people are also
known as your niche or target audience.
After all, there’s no sense in you doing all this work if no one is interested in what
you have to offer.
SURVEY YOUR LIST
If you currently have a list of clients, prospects, or ezine subscribers, you can
survey them using a tool such as Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com) to
learn about their wants, needs and desires.
For example, if you’re a resume writer, you may want to ask whether it’s more
important to get “a” job versus “the” job.
You can then write articles and hold teleseminars based on what your prospects
expressed an interest in.
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If using surveys, don’t expect people to invest more than 2-3 minutes in
responding, so chose your questions carefully.
It also helps to give them a “gift” for taking the survey.
A gift could be:
an mp3 download of an audio class
a special report
a tool or resource
Another approach is to find a group of people who have a need and then create a
solution for that need. I’ll save that for a future conversation on niche marketing.
“You’re no fun! So are we ready to talk about HOW I can repurpose and
repackage my stuff?”
Absolutely! Let’s get started!
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Section 3: The #1 Way to Repurpose:
Article Marketing
There are tons of different ways to repurpose and repackage your information –
we’re going to take a walk through what you COULD do. Not what you need to
do, or even should do, but what is possible.
Before we do that, however, I want to give you a quick visual on some of the
things you can do with an ezine article.
Any questions?
“Nope, I’m ready to get started.”
Let’s start with your newsletter. You write articles that are published in an ezine
that goes to all your readers.
“I have a question.”
Okay, shoot.
“I don’t currently have a newsletter. I plan to have one and I know I need to get
one done, but…well, the truth is, I’m not a good writer. Does this mean I’m out of
luck with this stuff?”
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First, let me tell you that anyone can do the type of writing that we are talking
about here. You do not need to be Ernest Hemmingway or Charles Dickens to
use article marketing in building your business.
Grab a pen and paper and let’s pretend that you are a virtual assistant.
“Okay.”
As a virtual assistant, please list 5 things that you do for your clients to free up
their time?
“Hmm…okay, I’m done.”
Now I want you to put a sentence in front of that list stating that the following is a
brief list of ways virtual assistants free up time for their clients.
“Okay, done.”
Great. Now I’d like you to put a sentence at the end of the list stating that
business owners can free up a ton of their time and make more money by doing
what they love by delegating these tasks to a virtual assistant.
“All set.”
There…you’ve just written your first article!
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“WOW! That was MUCH easier than when I try to do it, but I’m still concerned.
I’m the kid in school who failed whenever we had to write an essay even if I knew
the subject matter. How can I do all this article marketing if I can’t write?”
Okay, I see you’re very unsure about the writing part so let’s discuss it a bit more.
There are a few different ways to handle this:
1. Hire someone to write for you
2. You write and hire someone to polish
3. You write an article suitable for repurposing as we briefly discussed above
Numbers 1 and 2 are pretty self-explanatory.
You can hire someone at either www.Elance.com or www.Guru.com or any other
number of sites to write articles for you. You tell them the subject area and they
research and write.
While I haven’t used this service, I’ve heard that you can get six pretty decent
articles written for about $100. Just be clear when creating your request for bid
about your timeline for needing the article(s).
And now for a little more detail on number 3…
How to Write an Article in 3 Simple Steps
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I want you to go back to your assignment for Section 3. This is where you
described 30 problems that your clients are having.
Now that you’ve looked over the problems, pick one that you can provide 3-5 tips
on solving/handing.
For example, my husband and I are great at growing tomatoes. We have
bushels of them and are still eating fresh, homegrown tomatoes at Thanksgiving.
Our friends constantly ask: “How do you grow so many tomatoes and how do you
keep them into November?” (Remember, I live in Massachusetts, so this is a
nifty thing.)
Their question is the “problem” and our answer the “solution”. Here are 3 things
we do:
1. We work organic mulch into the soil each year.
2. We bury the tomato plants (even ones we grow from seed) so that there is
only one branch showing – everything else is under the dirt.
3. We pick all the green tomatoes before the first frost and store them in
plastic grocery bags. When we’re ready for tomatoes, we pull some out
and sit them in a sunny window until ripe.
Add an introductory sentence such as:
“If you’re looking to be the envy of your friends as you grow the most tomatoes in
the neighborhood and are still be eating them come Thanksgiving, these three
Tip Top Tomato Techniques are for you:”
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Then list the 3 tips (or 5 or 7 or 10 – you choose, but I wouldn’t go more than 10
simply to keep the article under 1000 words).
Now wrap it all up with a final sentence such as:
“Growing bushels of tomatoes takes a little work up front and at the end –
everything in between is simply, water, water, water. Happy Gardening and
enjoy your tomatoes!”
Now this may be more than you ever wanted to know about growing tomatoes,
but it shows you how to quickly and easily create articles based on tips you share
off the top of your head.
Does this make sense?
“ABSOLUTELY! Even I can do this!”
If you are unsure about your writing style, try following the above format. You will
have created a great, attention-grabbing article. Remember…people like lists.
Lists are easy to read and digest, especially for the online readers.
Are you ready to continue?
“Oh yeah! Let’s do it!”
I’m glad you’re getting excited again.
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Depending on the overall goal (gain exposure, make money, etc.) in repurposing
your articles, here are 8 quick and easy things you can do with those articles
(we’ll cover a lot more in Section 4):
Submit to
Article
Post on
Directories for
Turn into a
Exposure
your plog or
special
blog
report
Post on your
Turn into a
Ezine Article
MySpace
teleseminar
page
Record and
Create a
turn into a
compilation
podcast or CD
Use as a
tips booklet
chapter for
ebook
“WOW! I never realized I could do so much with my articles! I’m going to create
my ezine and start sending it out biweekly instead of the monthly newsletter I had
planned so I have more articles on hand.”
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It’s a great idea to send your articles out weekly or biweekly, just be sure that you
are always providing informative content and not simply writing for the sake of
writing and creating content.
You owe your readers quality information presented in an easy-to-digest format.
Without it, they are free to unsubscribe and tell everyone they know about their
experience.
Remember, people experience something good and they *may* tell 5 people.
People experience something bad and they *will* tell at least 10 people. In this
time of all-too-short days and too-much to do, wasting someone’s time is one of
the worst things you can do.
“I understand. Treat my prospects like I want to be treated.”
Exactly. Now let’s review some ways you can repurpose and repackage your
quality content.
First and foremost is repurposing your articles so that they bring you maximum
exposure. By marketing your articles to other ezines, websites and even print
publications, you’ll gain tons of exposure…for free!
I highly recommend you “market” about 75 – 80% of your articles on article
directories and in print publications in order to gain exposure and drive people to
either your website or your ezine sign-up page/link (if you don’t yet have a
website set up).
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“Why wouldn’t I market ALL of my articles on the article directories rather than
just 75-80% of them”
Great question! You can submit all of your articles to article directory sites and
print publications if you wish.
I choose not to as it allows me to offer compilation ebooks of articles never
before published. You don’t need to sell the compilation, you can offer it as a
bonus for another product.
Can you see how the fact that these articles have never before been published or
“released” gives them a certain appeal?
“Absolutely! My kids always want “the latest” or any “limited editions.”
Excellent, now that you know why to release only some of your writings, let’s
move on to article marketing and how it is a must for marketing your business.
“Marketing your articles” or “article marketing” is a form of advertising. You
submit your articles to online directories which, in turn, make the content
available for their readers.
It’s a win-win: you are getting publicity (usually at no cost) and the article
directories are getting free content for their site.
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This free publicity positions you as an expert in your industry. As your articles
appear more and more on the Web, they build credibility in the mind of your
prospects.
“Okay, I understand that and see the win in it for me, but why would article
directories want a bunch of articles they didn’t write for content? What’s in it for
them?”
Many article directories monetize their site. That is, they have Google Adsense
or another form of advertising on their sites.
So, when a visitor goes to their article directory site, sees a link for “virtual
assistants” and clicks on it, the article directory makes money. The key is that
they have fresh, updated content so that the advertising links are relevant to the
material (no sense having articles on small business marketing and ad links for
basket weaving).
“That makes perfect sense. I knew money had to be involved somewhere.”
To answer the second part of your question “How do people know to visit your
site after reading your article?”
“Oh yeah, I was so caught up in the money angle, I almost forgot about that.”
It’s not always about the money. If you focus on great content, the article
directories will list your article, the web spiders and robots will find and index the
article and you will see increased visitors to your website/ezine sign-up page.
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There is a box – called an “Author’s Resource Box” – at the end of your articles
This box is what drives readers to your website. We’ll talk more about it in a
minute.
“Okay.”
To continue where we left off. . .
In addition to getting you exposure, submitting your articles to online directories
will create hundreds of incoming links to your website, and while I’m not a Search
Engine Optimization (SEO) expert, I know the spiders and robots love these
incoming links.
This, in turn, will help boost your rankings on Google, Yahoo, Ask and other
online search engines. Again…getting you more exposure and more unique
visitors.
You can see how this is like a pyramid with everything building on the foundation
of your articles.
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More traffic &
credibility
Articles indexed, linking back to
your site, building ranking
Submit the article to directories for increased
exposure
You write an article for your ezine
“I definitely need to start doing this. How do I do it?”
Depending how many directories you want to submit your articles to, it can take a
little while to set up as you must create a username and password for each and
some require a biography or other information.
I recommend you either pick a few to get started or hire a virtual assistant or
automatic repurposing service to set them up for you.
In setting up your username and password, I recommend that you choose a free
email account (not your primary business or personal account) as you will get a
lot of email from the directories. Many send you a link to EVERY article that’s
posted.
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Article directories are also a favorite place for spammers to harvest email
addresses to send junk mail to. You don’t want these hitting your primary inbox
and a free email account is a great way to get around it.
You can get a free email account through Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail to name a
few.
For a list of article directories that I recommend, please see Appendix A.
Article Publishing
“This is all great information. Are there other places I can post my articles
besides article directories?”
Absolutely! To start with, you may want to post your ezine in Charlie Page’s
Directory of Ezines. This allows other ezine publishers who are searching for
information on a specific topic or industry to find your ezine and publish your
articles.
It also allows you to search out other ezines and note which ones accept article
submissions. Most of these will give you a specific email address or URL to send
your articles to.
Once you select a list of publishers who accept articles AND who fall within your
topic area, you can either set up a group in your email program or create a
separate list using your list service or autoresponder.
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I set up a list using my autoresponder system (www.SandraCart.com). This
allows me to send out articles to ALL my private publishers at once with a few
clicks (more on autoresponders in Section 6).
“That sounds simple. Can you tell me what you usually write to them?”
Of course. Here’s an example of what I usually send:
Email Subject Line: Article Submission: Give Yourself a Raise, Get An Assistant
Message:
Dear Editor:
Your listing in the “Directory of Ezines” states that you accept article submissions from
outside authors. Would you like to use my article titled “Give Yourself a Raise, Get an
Assistant” in a future issue?
You’re welcome to use this article for FREE, provided it remains intact and you retain my
entire resource box at the end of the article. If you’d like to publish it, please send me a
copy of the issue it appears in.
If you have any questions, please write me at [email protected]. If you do not
accept articles, I apologize. Please let me know and I’ll remove you from my list.
Best wishes,
Sandra Martini
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Email signature goes here
ARTICLE POSTED HERE
Does that help?
“Yes, thanks. That’s exactly what I needed. I know it’s simple, but sometimes
it’s just easier to see it in writing.”
I completely understand and it’s my pleasure. You have just proven what I said
earlier about different people wanting to receive information in different ways.
“You’re right. I didn’t even realize that until you just pointed it out.”
Notice that I included the article in the body of my email. Never attach a file
when sending your article to ezine publishers – they will assume it’s spam or a
virus.
Your article should be in text format, with each line no longer than 60 characters
(yes, this includes spaces) and posted under your signature in the body of your
email.
Formatting Tip: To avoid uneven emails where one line is long and
the next is only two words, end each line with a space and a hard
return (hit “enter” button). This will ensure your lines break where
you want them to and not all over the place.
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Posting To Your Own Website
In addition to the article directories, I highly recommend that you post your
articles on your own website.
“Is this because of the web spiders?”
In part, yes. The spiders absolutely LOVE fresh content and by continuously
posting your articles to your website, you will keep them coming back for more
which will help to continue boosting your traffic.
There are several reasons to post articles on your own site however:
1. As mentioned above, the spiders and webbots love fresh content and will
keep coming back to your website for more. This results in more traffic and
better rankings for you.
2. Some of the free article directory sites don’t actually list your article on their
site, but they ask for a link from you and then they list the link. You can now
provide a link back to the article on your own site, thus driving even more traffic!
“What if I only have a simple website and am not ready to do a fancy one. How
would I list my articles on my site?”
If you only have a simple site and want to include your articles, you can create a
list of articles where each article links to an autoresponder.
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“I’m not sure I understand.”
For example, the first two articles on your list could be:
Goal Setting & “The Word”
How to Identify Your Target Market
When someone clicks on either of those article titles, they are prompted to send
a blank email to an autoresponder.
Once they send that blank email, the autoresponder will automatically reply with
your article embedded in an email. You can test this by clicking on either of the
above article titles.
Neat, huh? You now have the same capability as a “fancy site” without the
programming time. We’ll be discussing autoresponders more in Section 6.
That’s great! It makes everything much more *real* to me as I see how this can
easily be done and am currently working with a tight budget. Thank you!”
My pleasure. No conversation on article marketing would be complete without a
mention of…
Blogs, Plogs, MySpace, Facebook and other “Social
Networking” Websites
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Another quick and easy way to increase traffic to your website while repurposing
your articles is to have a personalized blog, also known as a “plog” (personalized
blog), where you post your articles and tidbits about what’s going on in your life
(either business or personal).
You can see an example of my plog at www.SandrasPlog.com. I use TypePad
to publish it and love their service – you can also use other services such as
Blogger or Wordpress (each offers a free version).
You can even add an ezine sign-up link to your plog or blog so that people who
stumble across it can join your list immediately.
You want to always be looking for ways you can repurpose that you may not
have thought of. For example, in addition to posting to your own blog, you can
post comments on OTHER people’s blogs.
This does two things for you:
1. Gives you exposure to an audience you may not otherwise have “met” –
just be sure to include your website as part of your signature in the
comment.
2. Gives you information about what other blogs and bloggers are
discussing, also known as more article topics for you! ☺
“WOW, that’s great. Where else can I post my articles to?”
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Okay, I’ll give you one more. I don’t want you to spend all your (or your VA’s)
time posting articles.
My last suggestion for you today is MySpace and Facebook.
“MySpace? Isn’t that for teenagers and musicians?”
No, it’s not just for teenagers and musicans anymore – small business owners
and entrepreneurs have jumped in and morphed it into a great networking site.
I have a very simple MySpace page which took less than an hour to set up. You
can see what I’ve done with my MySpace page by visiting
www.myspace.com/SandraMartini.
You’ll see there’s a blog with…
“Your articles?”
You guessed it! I also post my articles on my MySpace blog and have a link for
readers to sign up for my ezine or visit my website on the home page of my
MySpace.
My friend Nancy Marmolejo wrote an e-book on setting up a MySpace page for
your business. You can learn more about it here.
“What are other “Social Networking” sites?”
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“Social Networking” sites are websites where the goal is personal interaction
between members.
In addition to “MySpace”, there’s:
YouTube (www.YouTube.com)
Facebook (www.Facebook.com)
Linked In (www.LinkedIn.com)
Ryze (www.Ryze.com)
All the blogs (yours and others)
Yahoo/Google Forums (www.YahooGroups.com or
www.GoogleGroups.com)
You can see an example of my Facebook page (this one took about 15 minutes
to set up) here.
Facebook has a neat feature where you can have it AUTOMATICALLY (you
know how I love that term) update your profile page with the latest postings from
your blog.
Think of this as it doing double-duty. I wrote an article on the benefits of using
Facebook in your marketing and have included it in Appendix C.
“You said earlier that I shouldn’t market all my writing and it made sense then,
but why, if the goal is maximum exposure, wouldn’t I submit ALL of my articles to
the directories?”
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Different people will tell you different things for this. Personally, I recommend
holding some articles back so that your ezine readers and clients are the only
ones who get ALL of your articles.
After all, they’ve gone to the time and trouble of signing up for your newsletter or
purchasing your services, they should receive all your best information…and
receive it FIRST.
“’Receive it first?’ Does that mean that I should submit my articles to directories
at a different time than when I send out my newsletter?”
This is one of those “personal choices”. I advise submitting your articles at least
2 days after you send out your ezine. This gives your ezine readers “first dibs”
on the information you provide.
I also recommend setting up a schedule for when you post to article directories to
ensure you don’t forget.
For example, I send out my ezine each Tuesday. My team posts to article
directories on Thursdays and Fridays.
“I understand…if I set up a schedule, it’s more likely to get done regularly instead
of just when I have time. Right?”
You’re absolutely correct! Whenever you schedule something, it becomes part of
a structured plan and part of your overall marketing system. This insures that it
happens and happens consistently.
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Let’s recap quickly…we’ve discussed:
several ways to repurpose your ezine articles in addition to article
marketing
the benefit of article directories and how you can use them
why you don’t want to post ALL your content on directories
the importance of scheduling your article postings
How are you doing with all this information?
“It’s a little overwhelming when I try to think of it all at once, but when you break it
down, it’s actually pretty simple.”
I couldn’t have said it better! And remember, you can hire a team to completely
handle this, or any part of it, for you and many virtual assistants work by the hour
without a retainer so you’ll pay only for the time they spend working on your
project.
Are you ready to move on to the “Author’s Resource Box”?
Absolutely! Let’s do it!
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The Author’s Resource Box on article directories is similar to your resource box
on your ezine. This is where you get to talk about yourself and include a “call to
action” for readers to visit your website, sign up for your ezine, etc.
It’s understood in the industry that publishers who wish to reprint your articles are
required to:
1. keep your article 100% intact and
2. include your Resource Box
This means that your Resource Box is prime real estate for you to get someone
to visit your website or sign up for your ezine. If you have a free bonus you
include with your ezine subscription, mention that here as well.
Your Resource Box is the one place where you can include a “call to action” to
encourage readers to visit your website.
Many article directories have a limit on how large your Resource Box can be – 5
lines or 450 characters (NOT words) is what I typically see, so you want to stay
within those guidelines.
Here’s what I use as my resource box (please feel free to model it with your own
information):
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Get Sandra Martini’s FREE “5 Simple Steps to Putting Your Marketing on
Autopilot” e-course/audio mini-workshop and her FREE small business success
how-to tips at www.SandraMartini.com.
Or
Sandra Martini is creator of the “9 Steps to Getting Control of Your Business”
system. To learn more about this step-by-step program for small business
success, and to sign up for her FREE how-to articles and teleseminars, visit
www.SandraMartini.com.
Or to mix it up a little more…
For the past 5 years, Sandra Martini has been showing self-employed business
owners how to get more clients consistently by implementing processes and
systems to put their marketing on autopilot. Visit Sandra at
www.SandraMartini.com for details, compelling client testimonials and her free
audio series “5 Simple and Easy Steps to Put Your Marketing on Autopilot”.
Your Resource Box should include a call to action to get the reader interested in
clicking on your site so they can sign up for your ezine list.
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It’s by having them on your ezine list that you have permission to send them your
articles and promote yourself on a regular basis. In this way, they will come to
see you as the logical person to go to when they need your product or service.
If you have extra room in your Resource Box, you can encourage other
publishers to reprint your article by stating:
“You are welcome to reprint this article as long as the entire article and this
resource box are included.”
Whenever you post articles to your own MySpace page or plog, you still want to
include a resource box at the end.
Here are examples of what I use (there’s more than one as I am constantly
rotating and updating to keep things fresh):
Want to use this article in your ezine or on your website? You can, as long
as you include this complete blurb with it: Get Sandra Martini’s FREE “5 Simple
Steps to Putting Your Marketing on Autopilot” e-course/audio mini-workshop and
her FREE small business success how-to tips at www.SandraMartini.com.
OR
Want to use this article in your ezine or on your website? You can, as long
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as you include this complete blurb with it: For the past 5 years, Sandra Martini
has been showing self-employed business owners how to get more clients
consistently by implementing processes and systems to put their marketing on
autopilot. Visit Sandra at www.SandraMartini.com for details, compelling client
testimonials and her free audio series “5 Simple and Easy Steps to Put Your
Marketing on Autopilot”.
This way you’ve planted the thought in their minds that they can reuse your
article and saved them the hassle of contacting you for permission.
How are you doing so far?
“I get it. I want to make it as easy as possible for people to click through my
articles to my website and for other publishers to reprint my material. Doing this
will get me additional exposure and build my credibility. Right?”
That’s exactly it! GREAT! Now it’s time for your next assignment.
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1. I placed 8 spokes in my Ezine Article Wagon Wheel. Which of those
activities are ways in which you will repurpose your articles?
The 8 spokes are:
Post to article directories
Post to your plog
Record and use in a podcast/CD
Turn into a teleseminar
Post on your MySpace/Facebook page
Turn into a compilation tips booklet
Expand and turn into a special report
Use as a chapter in an e-book
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2. What email address will you use for your article directory listings?
I recommend you obtain a free account from either Yahoo (www.yahoo.com),
Google (www.gmail.com) or Hotmail (www.hotmail.com) to avoid overwhelming
your primary account.
3. Assuming you are going to submit your articles to different directories,
when would you do it? What schedule will you use?
For example: I send out my ezine each Tuesday. My team posts articles to
directories on Thursdays.
4. Select a date by which you will have set up your MySpace, Facebook or
other Social Networking site page.
Nancy’s book is a great step-by-step MySpace resource if you are unsure of the
steps. You can learn more here.
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5. Create a Resource Box with a strong call to action for use in your article
marketing efforts.
Note: Many directories have a limit of either 450 words or five lines. In creating
your Resource Box, stay within these guidelines to insure maximum usage.
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Section 4: Beyond Article Marketing
I know the last section had a ton of information in it. How do you feel?
“Well, I know I said it was simple when you break it down, but I’m still pretty
overwhelmed. There’s so much to do and so many ways to do it.”
I don’t want you to be overwhelmed. Remember…”A journey of a thousand
miles begins with a single step.”
And, what’s VERY important to remember is that each thing you do builds upon
all the other things you’ve done – you’re building the foundation of a strong
business. That said, if you only want to do one type of repurposing or only want
to submit to one article directory, your business will still benefit.
There’s no rule to how much of this you need to do. This workbook exists to
show you the options.
“Phew. I knew everything you just said of course, but it’s still nice to hear! So
are we done?”
Oh no, we’re not done yet. We’ve spent quite a bit of time discussing article
marketing. It’s now time to discuss some of the other ways you can repurpose
and repackage your work.
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Once you’ve written your articles, submitted them to an article directory or two
and posted them on your blog or MySpace, it’s time to think about what else you
can do with them.
You’ll want to create some informational products which are free and then others
with different price points. This pyramid illustration demonstrates the types of
products and services you may want to consider creating as well as approximate
price points.
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$3000
and up
$100 thru $2997
Coaching Clubs
Home Study Courses
Here is a quick list of some things you can do with your articles – you’ll notice
that the list gets progressively more complex in terms of the repackaging (and
what you can charge for it):
record your article (using the Tools listed in Section 6) and use it as an
audio newsletter
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put the recording onto a CD and send it to new ezine subscribers as a free
gift
sell the recording with a transcript as a stand alone product (depending on
your topic and the type of information, these can sell for anywhere
between $19 and $97)
compile several articles and sell as a special report (these are usually less
than $20 unless there is a lot of “how to” information, then you can charge
more)
use one of your articles as the basis for an ebook compilation involving
other authors (think of the extra publicity as ALL authors promote!) (these
are typically less than $20 as the value of information varies depending on
the author)
combine all the tips from your article and create and sell a tips booklet
(these are typically less than $20)
break down an article and use it as a free or paid e-course or audio course
(people prefer to receive e-courses and audio courses for free – this would
make a great lead generator)
compile several articles and sell with CD recordings for a bundled special
report (you could charge up to $97 easily for this – even higher depending
on content)
use each article as a separate chapter in an electronic or hardcopy book
record your article and post as a podcast on iTunes, transcribe into a PDF
file and then sell on your site (you could charge anywhere from $19 - $97
for the PDF and audio file – especially if you added a handout for them to
fill in on key points)
record your article and offer it as a perk to members of your private
coaching program
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record all your articles and sell as a subscription audio series (this could
easily go for $97 - $147 depending on content)
turn your article into a press release related to a free teleclass that you are
offering
offer your ebooks and special reports to other entrepreneurs to offer as
free bonuses with their products
syndicate your articles and have them run in offline newspapers and/or
magazines (this is especially useful if you target a specialized niche)
use your articles as the basis for a teleclass which can be either free or
paid
be available for radio/tv interviews on your industry (since you are fast
becoming an expert)
accept paid advertising in your ezine
have all your classes transcribed and sell the transcriptions with the CD or
mp3 file
create a monthly subscription-based community where you share your
information and contribute to a forum (these vary in price from $9.95 to
$397/month and higher depending what else you include with the
program)
expand upon your articles and turn them into a X-week teleboot camp
(again, price is limited only by your imagination and the content – a friend
of mine is currently offering a 10-week teleboot camp for $1997)
create a system from the information in your articles and sell it as a
bundled system complete with CDs and transcripts (again, price is limited
only by your imagination and the content – a friend of mine is currently
offering a home study course for $2997)
create a speech based on your system and give keynote presentations
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turn your speech into a free preview teleseminar to introduce people to
your workshop
serve as the point person in a compilation book – you write one chapter
and have clients write others
give webinars to train clients on your system or offer as advertisement for
workshops
donate some of your products to charities/fundraisers for publicity
sell your products to large corporations for their employees
create a group coaching program to go through the system together
(curriculum-based)
joint venture with other successful business owners
offer a weekend workshop to go over your system
offer a high end group coaching program
record (audio and video) your workshop and sell it as a home study
system for those who couldn’t attend
set up a “Day with you” where clients can come and coach with you for
one day
offer to train “trainers” on your system and license your program
The above list is not comprehensive by any means and is limited only by your
imagination.
For example, you can offer teleclasses which you charge your general list for, but
offer as a perk in one of your group coaching programs.
Not only does this create additional value for your coaching program, you are
getting paid to host the call in the first place.
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1. List 5 different ways you can repurpose or repackage something you are
doing today.
Note: It can be either a product or service. For example, if you bill clients “by the
hour”, you could create a retainer program where you charge $X for Y hours.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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Section 5: Repurposing for Publicity
We’ve discussed several different ways you can repurpose and repackage
everything you do.
What we haven’t fully covered is how to get increased publicity in a “mass” way
through the press.
There are two primary reasons to repurpose your work through press
releases:
1. Submission to online press release distribution services will build quality
incoming links to your website which will give you higher rankings in the
search engines and MAY result in press.
2. Faxing your press releases, when done right, to local and regional media
outlets may result in press.
Notice that numbers 1 and 2 both state “may result in press”, this is because the
press react to what’s “hot” at any given time. Their work is story driven based on
current events. In order to stand a better chance of getting press, your
release needs not only to tie to current events, but to give the reporter a
slant on the story that’s new and makes HIM stand out for writing it.
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Don’t underestimate the power of the previous paragraph. While short, it
contains everything you need to know about how to end up in print, on radio, or
otherwise in the media!
Let’s start with #1 from above...
There are several online press release distribution sites which allow you to
upload your release with a photo.
The most popular of these is www.PRWeb.com. PRWeb charges a base fee of
$80.00 to post a press release on their site – you can then purchase “higher
placement” (meaning when people go to their site, you are closer to the top of the
page) on their site in $10.00 increments.
If you are looking to use online releases to generate incoming links to your
website, I don’t recommend you pay any more than you need to.
There are also several free sites for posting press releases. Here are just a few:
⇒ www.PRlog.com
⇒ www.i-newswire.com
⇒ www.free-press-release.com
You can also enter “free press release sites” into a search engine such as Yahoo
or Google for additional free listing sites.
Effective press releases WILL result in free publicity for you and your business.
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Let’s take a look at #2 from above…faxing press release to local and regional
media in order to get in the media.
You’ll notice that I put emphasis on the fact that the press releases must be done
correctly. The reason is simple: Reporters receive a number of releases daily
and many are junk. You want to separate yourself by showing the reporter you
know HOW to prepare a release and what elements he’s looking for in
determining if it’s worthy of a story.
How are you doing so far?
“Great! To be sure I understand…when you say “media”, you mean print like
newspapers and magazines as well as radio and possibly even television?”
Exactly! The word “media” for our purposes describes any and all ways people
receive information.
“Okay, I’m good. Please continue.”
As I mentioned earlier, the media receives a lot of press releases and you want
to ensure that, out of their stack, they’re calling you.
How to Prepare a Press Release So It Gets Read
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In preparing your press release, you first need to insure that you follow the
proper format which is described below and a sample of which is included at the
end of this section.
1. The press release must be on 8/12 x 11” paper (in the U.S.).
2. The following should be in the upper left corner “FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE” or, if you would like it to be considered for a certain day, you
can state “FOR RELEASE ON VALENTINE’S DAY”.
3. The upper right corner should contain your contact information and include
a phone number where a live person will answer.
4. The release should NOT be single spaced: 1 ½ at a minimum or double is
preferred (this allows the reporter to make notes without writing over your
release).
5. The release should have an attention grabbing headline suitable for your
market.
6. The body should contain at least 3 sections: intro (not more than 2-3
sentences), main section (can be one paragraph and then another with a
good quote) and closing.
7. Every press release must end with “###” centered at the bottom of the
page – this tells the reporter that the release is over and they’ve read all
there is.
8. It should be no more than one page – the goal is to get the reporter to call
you, not to give away the whole story.
9. And, perhaps most importantly, your press release should TELL about
something and SELL NOTHING. This is NOT a sales letter, nor is it an
advertisement. Your job with a press release is to offer free information
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the reporter can share with the public, not sell your services. Your
“payment” is the publicity you’ll get.
I’ve included a Press Release Checklist in Appendix D for you to print and
keep handy.
“Thanks! There’s a lot to remember.”
Once you create the first press release, you’ll have your own template and will
only need to change your story – everything else will remain the same (unless
you are choosing a release date other than “immediate”).
It’s like anything: the first time is a little more work and then you’ve created a
process and you simply need to tweak it going forward.
Are we okay to move forward?
“Absolutely!”
Distributing Your Press Releases
We’ve already discussed posting your press releases online (to free or paid
submission sites) in order to gain additional incoming links to your website, blog
or opt-in page.
Distributing press releases to your local and regional media (or any media)
should be done via fax.
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“Fax? But everyone emails these days?”
Exactly! Everyone emails and reporters come in to find a few hundred emails in
their inbox.
Faxes however get placed on someone’s desk. They stand out. It’s how the
media has received press releases for years and it’s what they’re used to.
Rather than force them to do it “your way”, you want to make it as easy as
possible for them to:
1. see your release and
2. act upon it.
No cover sheet is needed – you simply fax your one page press release to the
appropriate number.
Many newspaper departments have their own fax numbers and it may take you a
little research (perfect task for a virtual assistant) to get the right numbers, but
once you have them, you’re all set.
So how are you going to send your press releases?
“I’m faxing them and have made a note to ask my husband to look for fax contact
information when he’s reading our local papers.”
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Great! You’re off to a good start!
And now we’re going to touch on content a bit.
You want to ensure that your press release is relevant to what’s going on in the
world/your area when you fax it in OR that it’s a good human interest story.
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“I get it. You’ve taken a situation and reframed it in a way which shows you as
the expert.”
Exactly! And that’s how you want to write your press releases in order to grab
the media’s attention.
If you want to learn more about press releases (I’m not an expert by any means),
I highly recommend you check out Paul Hartunian’s stuff at
www.PressReleasesMadeEasy.com (he’s the man who sold the Brooklyn Bridge
back in the 1980s).
As with everything else, the key here is consistency: it may not be the first or
even the tenth release you submit, but it will happen.
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1. Take out your calendar and, looking at all the holidays, come up with at
least 2 ways you can tie your business into at least two holidays or
seasons.
Doing the above will give you a great basis for a new slant on a familiar story.
Holiday/Season:
Your Tie-in:
Holiday/Season:
Your Tie-in:
2. What part of your business would make a good human interest story?
Are you sponsoring an event? Did you release a new product? Are you
the only one in your industry doing a certain thing? Are you doing a
familiar thing in a new way?
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Put yourself in a reporter’s shoes for a few moments – what do you do (or how
do you do it differently) that would be interesting to read on the front page of your
local/regional paper?
By being on the lookout for the opportunities, you’ll be ready to jump on them.
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Section 6: The Tools to Make It All Happen
“WOW! I can really do a lot with the information that I create. I never really
thought it through before, but you’ve made it clear.
Now I just need to figure out how to get it done.”
The tools that you need to make it happen really depend on WHAT you want to
do and how you wish to put your products together.
For example, let’s take a look at that diagram from Section 1:
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How To Repurpose: A Visual Guide
The purpose of your
Teleseminar is to
generate “Products”
to a 3-ring binder!
“Repurpose” your tele-content
to a best-selling book!
“Repurpose” recordings
to an audio CD set!
and recordings to a group
coaching program!
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In order to implement repurposing such as the above shows, you need to:
1. Write an article which serves as the basis of your teleseminar topic OR
otherwise determined a teleseminar topic your target audience would be
interested in.
a. Tools Needed
i. Knowledge of your target audience.
ii. Possibly SurveyMoney.com in order to survey your target
audience.
1. They offer a free version you can use and their
system is very customer friendly (non-techy).
2. Host Your Teleseminar
a. Tools Needed:
i. Teleconference Bridge Line – see this section for
recommendations.
ii. Topic – taken care of in Item 1 above
iii. Audience – having a live audience is optional and discussed
later in this section.
iv. Recording – you can do this either through your
Teleconference Bridge Line or through Audio Acrobat.
v. Someone to transcribe your calls.
You can make do without the resources and tools listed in the following section,
but if you plan on regularly selling products online, I don’t recommend it as it will
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be more time consuming for you and the experience less-than-ideal for your
clients.
Autoresponders
I’ve referenced the autoresponder a few times, so let’s start with that.
In order to automatically follow-up with your clients when you offer teleseminars
or sell products, you’ll want to have an autoresponder.
“I’ll also need one if I just want to list articles on my website, right?”
Yes…if you want a simple listing and don’t want to host the articles on your site,
you will want to have an autoresponder system so your prospects have a way of
getting the articles which does NOT involve you.
You want to insure that, as your business increases, you set up systems and
processes to service your clients and prospects in as automated, yet still
personal, way as possible. Autoresponders do this.
Autoresponders are emails that you set up once and are automatically sent out
on based on a trigger. Autoresponders can be set up as text or html (just like
your email newsletter can be in either text or html format).
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For example: You purchase an ebook and receive a receipt with a download link
via email seconds later. And then you receive follow-up emails every few days
for two weeks.
That receipt and those follow-up emails were sent via an autoresponder which
was set up to start when you purchased the ebook and then send another email
every few days for two weeks.
OR
You have a list of articles on your website and you want your prospects to be
able to click on the title and receive the full article via email.
In this case, the autoresponder is set to go out once it receives an email from
your prospect. The article will be sent and that will be the end of it.
There are a variety of autoresponder systems you can choose from – some are
free and some aren’t.
My favorite stand-alone autoresponder system is Aweber.com.
That said, I prefer using an all-in-one shopping cart system which includes an
autoresponder component so my autoresponders are sent out immediately when
someone purchases something and I don’t need to move people between
systems at a later date.
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Shopping Cart
My shopping cart of choice is SandraCart.com – it’s Tom Antion’s version of
1shopping cart and, has some nice tutorials for the beginner and a free 30 day
trial.
It also allows you to have an unlimited number of autoresponders. Meaning you
can have an autoresponder for every one of your articles, plus as follow-ups for
when your products are purchased, and then additional autoresponders for ecourses and audio courses.
In addition to serving as an autoresponder service, SandraCart also:
allows you to sell your electronic products and have it automatically deliver
them to your clients (like how this book was sent to you in electronic
format)
allows you to set up an affiliate program so people can refer your products
to others and earn a commission from you. You can learn about or sign
up for mine at www.SandraMartini.com/affiliateprogram.php.
allows you to send out your ezine from the shopping cart so you don’t
need another service – if you don’t know html, you will want someone to
set up a template for you (I recommend Jennifer at
www.BestBizWebsiteSolutions.com).
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allows you to collect credit cards and have the payments automatically
deposited into your bank account using a merchant account
allows you to get paid via PayPal and still automatically deliver electronic
products
allows you to track different advertisements and sales pages to see which
converts better so you know where to put your efforts and advertising
dollars
You get the idea. A shopping cart is critical to a smoothly-run business which
plans on selling products online for the long term.
“It does do a lot. I bet it’s really expensive.”
I have the “Pro” version of the shopping cart and pay $99.00/month. It’s WELL
worth the money for the time and energy it saves me and my team.
“That’s not bad at all. Especially if you’re using the autoresponders and selling
products. But what if I’m not ready to have digital products? Do they have a less
expensive version?”
If you are just starting out and want to use the autoresponder portion of the
system, but not offer digital products YET, you can also sign up for the $49.00
version.
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What’s great about this is that you can upgrade to the “Pro” version when you’re
ready and all your prospect and client information is in one place.
This is especially important because, if you switch ezine, newsletter or
autoresponder providers, the new provider will require you to have everyone optin again and this will result in lost subscribers – no matter how much they like
your information, some people just will not take the extra step when you ask.
Just remember that, depending on what you are offering and the market you’re
in, you may not be making thousands of dollars a month out of the gate.
Teleconference Line
If you are planning on offering teleseminars, you will need a teleconference line.
There are several companies which offer these services for free and the only
cost to you (and your participants) is the cost of a normal long distance phone
line – teleconference bridge lines are usually located in Florida or Nevada and
this is where the long distance calls will go to if you don’t have a flat rate plan.
When you sign up, you are automatically sent an email with instructions on how
to use the line and what different commands are (this is another way to use
autoresponders):
You can mute all your participants (this comes in handy when some
callers have children, pets or are on a cell phone)
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You can record your calls
You can have guest speakers join in
My favorites for the free services are:
TheBasementVentures.com
o Allows up to 250 people on your call
o Allows replays of the call
o You keep your number
o Allows you to see who has joined your call through an online
interface
FreeConferenceCall.com
o Allows up to 99 people on your call
o Allows replays of the call
o Number is good for 120 days and then you get a new one
There are several other bridge line companies out there, but these two are very
user friendly as well as free.
Regardless of which system you decide you go with, you will want to use a landbased telephone for the clearest connection.
This means:
⇒ NO cell phone
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⇒ NO cordless phone
⇒ NO VOIP (Voice Over IP)
Of the three, VOIP calls actually get dropped the most and you do not want to get
dropped off your own call!
One bridge line/online streaming of the call I recommend for those who have
international participants is www.InstantTeleseminar.com.
Instant Teleseminar costs $47.00/month and allows you to host the call on the
telephone AND online. As a result, people in the UK, South Africa, US or
Australia can “listen in” through their internet connection rather than having to
dial an international phone number.
The system also allows those listening in on the web to type in questions which
will go to the call moderator.
Audio
If you’re looking to put audio on your website or record audio classes, I highly
recommend you get an account with Audio Acrobat.
They have awesome free webinar trainings, a free 30 day trial and great
customer service.
Audio Acrobat allows you to:
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Record teleconference calls
Using your telephone, call in a recording (such as an article for your
newsletter)
Upload audio files
Allowing others to dial a phone number and replay your calls
Upload video footage so you can place it on your website
There is no limit on the amount of audio you can upload/record.
Their website is intuitive and step-by-step from creating new audio to publishing
your file on the web (and deciding whether to allow listeners to download it or
not). It’s a great all-in-one.
Their full service costs $19.95/month after the free trial and it’s worth every
penny.
There are free audio services you can use, but this is one area I’d advise you to
get the paid version.
Ezine Service
If you’re not yet sending out your own ezine or email newsletter, you’ll be
interested in Constant Contact or Aweber.
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Constant Contact offers a free 60-day trial and can be as low as free – based on
number of photos and number of subscribers. The cost of Aweber is
$19.95/month.
Both services recommended are easy-to-use and include a ton of modifiable
templates to help those not familiar with html send out a professional-looking
email newsletter.
Please note that you are paying for the service, NOT the number of ezines/enewsletters you send out in a month.
For example, Aweber costs $19.95/month whether you send out 1 or 101.
Constant Contact is based on your photo library and total subscribers – not how
many times you send them emails.
You can also use your shopping cart, but will either need to know html or have
someone design a template for you (you can find great people who do this at
Elance.com and Guru.com).
I periodically offer a 4-week teleboot camp on how to send out an ezine (from
concept to completion). You can learn more at JumpstartMyEzine.com.
The above tools cover the basics of what you need in order to start repurposing
and repackaging your content.
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There are several other things you could do, and use, and many of them are
included in my 6 Figure Online Business Success Tools which you receive as a
bonus with this product.
If you can afford it, you want to set your business up for where you’ll be, not
where you are today.
Let’s look at the average monthly cost:
Shopping Cart
$99.00/mo
Audio Acrobat
$19.95/mo
Constant Contact
$10.00/mo
Teleconference Line
FREE
Total
$128.95/mo
For less than $130/month or the cost of a nice dinner you have everything you
need to run a successful online business and repurpose all your articles and
teleseminars.
Or, if you’re not interested in having downloadable digital products right now, you
can do for:
Shopping Cart
$49.00/mo
Audio Acrobat
$19.95/mo
Constant Contact
$10.00/mo (sending out your ezine through your
shopping cart will eliminate this $10)
Teleconference Line
FREE
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Total
$78.95/mo
You now have the ability to:
$ Send out a weekly, biweekly or monthly email newsletter or tipzine
$ Put audio on your website or in your newsletter
$ Host and record teleseminars – on YOUR schedule
$ Create and sell ebooks (with the $128.95/mo tools)
$ Create an unlimited number of autoresponders to follow-up with your
clients and prospects
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1. Sign up for a free trial of a shopping cart so you are able to test
autoresponders and an all-in-one solution
Note: I highly recommend SandraCart.com or, for autoresponders only
www.Aweber.com or the $49.00 version of www.SandraCart.com.
Username:
Password:
2. Sign up for a teleconference bridge line and play around making
recordings – remember, this is to be FUN!
Note: I highly recommend FreeConferenceCall.com and
TheBasementVentures.com for those with US and Canadian-based participants
and www.InstantTeleseminars.com for those with participants abroad.
Username:
Password:
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Section 7: How To Build A Business
Through Repurposing
Now that we’ve taken a detailed look at article marketing as well as a variety of
other ways you can repurpose and repackage everything you do, let’s look at
how you can build a business using these strategies.
The following takes you through the different stages of starting a business
through selling your first few products.
Assumptions:
1. We’re going into the gardening business and teach homeowners how to
garden.
2. This is a new business which we’re building from scratch.
3. We’re starting on January 1st.
Okay, now that that’s all settled, let’s get started!
January 1st
1. I convince my husband that we will not lose the house and that I can make
money working from home.
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2. I write 3 articles on planning for spring planting following the 3 steps
revealed in Section 4 of this workbook.
January 2nd
1. I write a special report on “How To Grow Your Own Food Even If You’re
Don’t Have a Green Thumb” which I’m going to offer as incentive to sign
up for my newsletter.
2. I sign up for a free account with Constant Contact and spend an hour
looking through all their templates – I know I want to have pictures (I’m a
gardener after all) in an html format (because they are more attractive).
a. After reviewing their templates, I set up my “Welcome” email along
with the other one-time setups within Constant Contact.
3. I choose a domain name for my business and purchase the domain name
and a 5-page Website Tonight account from GoDaddy.
a. I spend the remainder of the day trying to figure out Website
Tonight and write the copy for my one-page website (while I can
have up to 5 pages, for now, I just want one page for them to sign
up for my newsletter). This is called a “squeeze” page or “opt-in”
page (you can see mine at www.SandraMartini.com).
January 3rd
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1. Having conquered Website Tonight, I upload my free special report to their
system as a pdf file (I converted it to a pdf using a free software called
PrimoPDF).
2. I now have a single page opt-in site where I talk about my free special
report and ask people to sign up for my biweekly newsletter (using the
html coding which Constant Contact provided for me).
3. I write a compelling Resource Box (Section 3) for my article marketing.
4. I then post two of the articles on EACH of the following: Ezine Articles,
Self Growth and Flowers & Gardens Article Directory with my compelling
Resource Box.
January 5th
1. I email all my friends, family, neighbors and former colleagues about my
new endeavor and invite them to sign up for my newsletter. Telling them
that they can, of course, unsubscribe at any time.
2. I created a profile on Facebook and MySpace and included my domain
name on both. I’ve now started publishing my articles on my MySpace
blog as well.
3. My FIRST non-family, friend, neighbor, colleague “person” signs up!!! Oh
my, looks like we’re REALLY going to have to do this now!
January 8th
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1. I’ve spent the last several days futzing about with my ezine template – I
am using the last article I had written last week and want it to be
PERFECT! It’s now time to send it out to my 11 subscribers! WHOO
HOO!
2. I get an email invite from someone who’s doing something called a
“teleclass” and sign up to learn more about what it’s all about.
January 10th
1. I just finished listening to teleclass. I can do those. I sign up for a
teleconference line using one of the resources in Section 6 and go to work
on my next newsletter.
January 22nd
1. Issue 2 has been finalized and is winging its way through cyberspace to
my 17 subscribers (they’re trickling in from those two articles I posted).
Included in this issue is an invite to my very own teleclass – hubby doesn’t
understand what I’m doing, but is proud to see movement!
2. I get a sign-up for my teleclass! Not yet sure if I’ll be doing these
regularly, I don’t sign up for an autoresponder service, but instead use a
“letter” template within Constant Contact and send it out each time
someone new signs up (you can send only to new subscribers on a
certain list and I’ve created a list for this teleclass).
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January 25th
1. My teleclass is in two days and I send out a solo email reminding my now
list of 21 subscribers. ANOTHER TWO SIGN-UPS!
January 27th
1. The class is tonight. I’ve scripted everything out, set up a recording, even
did a cute little handout for them to fill in as we go along. I’ve got hours
into preparing for this call.
a. One person showed, ONE PERSON! It’s okay…I gave the call and
it was a good call if I do say so myself. She thanked me for all the
information.
2. Lying in bed, I’m frustrated at all the time spent preparing when only one
person showed. Then it hits me – Section 4 of the workbook!
a. I have the recording, I can get someone to transcribe it and POOF!
my very first product!
b. Product…okay, that means either shopping cart of PayPal. For
now, I choose PayPal until we see how it sells (no sense incurring
an additional $99/month when I only have 17 subscribers).
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c. I signed up for www.SandraAudio.com so I can easily allow them to
download the audio file – cost = $19.95 for unlimited audios.
February 9th
1. Issue 3 was great – got two emails thanking me and we’re up to 23
subscribers – I’ve been posting all my articles to the same three sites each
week and am thinking about adding a fourth next week.
2. After uploading the PDF files to my GoDaddy account, I sent out a solo
email announcing my very first product. The audio file and handout from
my teleclass along with the pdf transcript of it. I’ve added a link to my
email so they can pay via PayPal ($19) and then I’ll email them the links
through Constant Contact – not ideal, but doable for now.
February 11th
1. 3 people have bought my audio/transcript combo – that’s $57! Hubby is
pleased and wants me to send more solo emails. ☺
February 19th
1. Issue 4 is another raving success with 4 more subscribers and another
sale! I post articles to article directories – I’m up to 6 now and promise to
stop before 10.
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2. Now it’s time to get more subscribers. After listening to a teleclass on how
to do teleclasses, I now know that I can promote them for free online.
Time for another class and more promotions.
February 26th
1. Sent out solo email announcing my new teleclass: “How to Battle Insects
Eating Your Crops – An Organic Approach”.
a. I’ve created the cover already and am just waiting for the call to
bundle this into a product.
2. Listed the call details on several teleclass sites, in different forums and on
my Facebook and MySpace profiles and told people who signed up for the
teleclass that they would also receive a courtesy subscription to my
newsletter.
February 28th
1. WHOO HOO! I’ve doubled my list. 56 people and going strong! I’ve also
got 26 sign-ups for my teleclass.
March 1st
1. I hold teleclass. 11 people show up and all enjoy the call – I announce
that I am recording the call and will be selling with a transcript and offer
people who were on the call 10% discount.
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March 4th
1. I announce product as “coming soon” in newsletter and repurpose my
article in 8 sites and on my MySpace blog. More subscribers trickle in.
March 10th
1. “How to Battle Insects Eating Your Crops – An Organic Approach” audio
and transcript product is launched via solo email and an announcement
posted on my blog and MySpace with a special bonus for the first 10
people: a 15-minute call with me to discuss any gardening issue.
2. I write next week’s (March 18) ezine article early and discuss battling
insects, even adding page numbers where they can find more on the topic
in my new product – at the end of the article, I mention the product again.
March 19th
1. I’ve sold 25 “How to Battle Insects Eating Your Crops – An Organic
Approach” products! WHOO HOO!!! Hubby is now fully on board and
wants to know if I can do this every week.
2. It’s time to invest in the shopping cart as this gives me the ability to have
autoresponders automatically follow-up with my clients and prospects. I’m
also starting to sell enough that manually sending these out is no longer
an efficient use of my time. I sign up for the Pro Version at $99/month at
www.SandraCart.com.
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March 20th – March 26th
1. Whew! It’s been a busy week: I hired a business coach to help me make
sense of the next steps, uploaded my free special report to
SandraCart.com and created an autoresponder to go with it which
mentions my products along with several tips, applied for a merchant
account so I can accept credit cards through my shopping cart, created
autoresponders for each of my products (and uploaded those to the
shopping cart so when someone purchases, it’s automatic), made each of
the products “Featured Products” so they show up on the order screen as
“You may be interested in…” and mapped out my next 3 ezine articles
which will then form the outline of a ebook on “A Beginner’s Guide to
Growing Organic Vegetables at Home” with an anticipated launch date of
May 9th (thanks to my coach for the last two items – we did that in one
call).
2. All the while, I’ve continued with my article marketing and more
subscribers continue to come in.
3. My coach recommended that I contact other ezine publishers in the
gardening area and offer them my articles for publication (with my
Resource Box) and do a postcard mailing offering my ezine once I can
afford it. That’s on the list for next week.
March 31st – April 4th
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1.
The hectic pace continues! I’m meeting with my coach three times a
month and it’s funny, but it pushes me to get more done. One question
she has me asking myself is “Was I productive or busy today?”
Knowing that question is coming at the end of each day really
motivates me.
2.
I’ve emailed five ezine publishers about using my article. No response
from 3, autoresponder from a 4th saying they’d get back to me and a
YES from the 5th (turns out she was going on vacation and looking for
an article) – her list is 2000 according to the Directory of Ezines and it
will run on April 10th!
3.
I create and purchase postcards announcing my free report and
newsletter (using www.OvernightPrints.com and spending less than
$100) and send them to addresses in my area, gardening clubs and
bring a stack to the local nurseries to hand out.
4.
All articles written for Beginner Organic Home Gardening product and
flushing them out to give the ebook some more substance. Debating
between creating a lower end cover myself or hiring out
(www.SandraCovers.com) to have a professional one done.
a. Posted basic articles on 10 article marketing sites as well as my
blogs.
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5.
Decided to do this cover myself to keep costs down and be able to
offer my first ebook for $29 (if I paid for a “real” cover, I would have to
increase the price). Now working on cover.
6.
20 new subscribers this week.
April 7th – 11th
1.
YES! I picked up 51 subscribers this week from the combination
postcard mailing and article marketing. I think a few even came from
the other ezine my article was published in, but it’s early as it only ran
late yesterday.
2.
I prepare a solo email on “Getting Ready for Spring” to go out next
week after my newsletter listing all my products as I don’t want the
second thing (after my free report) that the new 51 people receive to
be a promotional email).
3.
I do send a solo email promoting a free teleclass that I’ll do on Monday
of next week about “Getting Ready for Spring” which will be a
precursor to the solo email that goes out later in the week (thanks
coach!). I used my shopping cart to create (in three clicks) a signup
page and an autoresponder so I can offer them something special for
registering for the call.
4.
I start looking for website designers who can combine all my pages
into a simple site.
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April 14th – 18th
1.
Teleclass was a resounding success! 49 signups and 33 show-ups! I
downloaded the call to a CD so I can use it for more lead generation –
I’m going to do one for each season and then bundle as a set with
transcripts and a calendar checklist and start selling in November as a
great holiday gift for the gardener in your life (or yourself) – I’ll ask
nurseries if they will include in their gift baskets and give them a
portion of all proceeds (my coach tells me it’s time for an affiliate
program in order to automate this task – on the list for next week).
2.
I include free link to teleclass in newsletter on Tuesday (11 people
clicked on it and 7 listened to the whole call – Constant Contact and
SandraAudio can tell me this).
3.
I send a broadcast email to the autoresponder for the teleclass telling
them they are invited to a “private” sale and I offer them 15% off all my
products by giving them a coupon code from my shopping cart.
4.
I send out a solo email announcing all my products (without the coupon
code) on Thursday (4 more people had listened to teleclass).
5.
By Saturday, I sold $577 worth of products (no single product was over
$29) and almost everyone on autoresponder bought at least one item
with their special discount!
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6.
I also received an invite from the woman whose ezine I was a guest for
– she wants to interview me for a teleseminar for her list and she’s
going to give me a copy of the interview! We set the date for two
weeks from now to give us both time to promote the call and since she
doesn’t yet have a shopping cart, I offered to handle the registration
and sending out of call date/time end of it – this way everyone who
signs up gets on my list!).
7.
87 new subscribers this week – major bump looks to be a combination
of postcard mailing and guest article in ezine. WHOO HOO!
The above is a rough timeline of when you can expect things to happen,
what actually happens will depend on the following:
1. Are you doing it all yourself or hiring out? If hiring out, you save the
learning curve and should know that money usually buys you speed of
implementation.
2. How focused are you? Are you working on this DAILY or “when you have
time”? Are you religious about posting your articles online?
3. Your industry – the more specialized your industry is, the quicker people
will find you and purchase from you IF you have good content.
You can see how repurposing her articles let her grow her business more quickly
than she otherwise might have done.
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The next step is to start speaking out to further build her list and, starting locally,
create ½ day, day or weekend workshops where clients get their hands dirty.
Section 4 shows you several ways you can continue building upon your original
articles in order to become the expert in your field.
Are you ready to build your business using repurposing strategies?
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Last Advice from Your Coach
Combined together, all of these steps may seem a bit overwhelming, but if you
take them one at a time, you’ll see that the steps are actually simple and, by
doing them, you can free up more of your time to focus solely on revenuegenerating activities.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, but with the right planning and systems, building your
business will be a lot quicker and smoother and it will grow and prosper. Be
consistent in your marketing activities, delegate what you can while focusing on
those things that only YOU can do and everything will come together.
In the end, it’s a combination of your personality, your comfort level with different
mediums, the needs of your target audience, what you choose to do in house
versus outsource and the type of skills that you have and wish to tap.
If you need additional help or resources, please visit my site, SandraMartini.com.
I’m constantly adding new resources for small business owners.
Also, please share your success stories with me – which of the tips in this
workbook really worked for you? I’d love to know and may publish your
testimonial on my website – giving you increased exposure!
If you still have questions, feel stuck or need a gentle push in the right direction,
please email me at [email protected].
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Audio Transcript
Of Live Teleseminar
With Q&A
The following teleseminar
was given live in October
2007 by Sandra Martini
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How to Repurpose Your Work
Teleseminar Transcript: October 2007
Sandy: This is Sandy Martini from The Automatic Business
Coach & Mentor and tonight we’re going to talk about how to
repurpose your material, a simple system to creating it once and
getting exposure again and again. We’ve got callers from all over
the country on the phone with us and I’ll just mention again real
quick that the line will not be muted unless we find that we need to
and if you want to self mute you can press four, star. If you want
to ask any questions, you can press four, star again to unmute or if
you’re in a quiet location you can just pop in at any time. So I’m
going to go ahead and jump right in and get started.
The first thing I wanted to talk about is what exactly is repurposing.
I know there’s been some confusion over what that phrase means
and the sense that I’m using it tonight is simply to take existing
work that you’ve done and to use it in a new and different way. So
it allows you to take something such as an artile that you’ve written
and reuse it to record it into a podcast, make it a teleseminar or
take a bunch of different articles that you’ve written and turn them
into a compilation, tip booklet, or special report or something else.
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So it’s using work that you’ve already done and basically how to
get the mileage out of it, so you want to know what exactly can I
do with all of this.
The type of repurposing that I do the most and that I find has had
a phenomenal effect on not only my exposure but my list building,
my clientele and my expert status is article marketing. What I do is
I write articles for my ezine and my newsletter comes out weekly.
It doesn’t matter if yours does or not and, quite frankly, it doesn’t
matter if you don’t even have your email newsletter up and running
yet. If you’re able to write an article or if you’re able to write a
bunch of tips, you’re able to repurpose your work and get a bunch
of use out of it that you might not have thought of in the beginning.
For example, let’s talk about article directories for example. Does
everybody know what an article directory is?
Participant: No.
Sandy: Okay, great. Article directories are places on the internet
where people have setup a website that does nothing except list
other people’s articles, so the entire goal of the website is to list
articles in all different categories. Some sites are specific. For
example, IdeaMarketers.com, they typically have marketing
related articles. Another site called BestManagementArticles.com
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has articles related to managing your small business and your not
so small business, so it focuses on more management. A site
such as EzineArticles.com is truly a compilation site. It has articles
on pretty much everything. There’s business, non-business,
health, wellness, sports. Most topics that you can think of that
people are interested in, gardening, hobbies in general, you can
find articles about it on EzineArticles.
Participant: I’m sorry. Could you mention the first two you said
again? What they are again? I’m sorry.
Sandy: Oh, no, absolutely. The first one is IdeaMarketers.com,
so i-d-e-a marketers.com and the second one is
BestManagementArticles.com, all run together so no spaces.
In terms of why article directories do this…and most of them by the
way are free, so if you write an article you can post it to most of
these directories for free. I’ll start by saying that some of them do
have a review process and the review is basically to make sure
that 1. your article is of a certain length and it depends on the
directory. The average is that it’s got to be at least 400 words.
And then the second thing is they want to make sure that your
article is not a blatant advertisement and promotion for your
services. So they want to make sure that you are actually giving
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some type of content and some value to the reader, you’re giving
some type of information. Does that make sense?
Participant: Yes.
Sandy: Great. Now, the reason that these article directories
exist, I mean, if they’re free the first question in my head was,
“Well, why are they doing this?” It’s not humanitarian. They’re
making their money off of Google Adwords and Yahoo Search
Marketing. And how that works is if you give them an article full of
relevant information let’s say about gardening and you’re talking
all about how to grow the perfect azalea bush, for example,
companies who are interested in promoting their services will
signup for a Google Adword account and let’s say it’s Home Depot
and they’re having azalea sale and they have a Google Adword
account, those ads will popup all around your article.
If anyone, not in your article but around it, so if anyone clicks on
one of those ads that owner of the article directory has just made
money and they’ve made it from Google. The way that they can
get the most amount of money is by having as many articles as
possible about either as many topics or their niche topic whichever
they prefer.
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The Google Adwords are very simple in that Google gives them a
script meaning just some web language, some HTML language, to
include on their website, so they don’t have to go in and change
the ads all the time to make sure they’re relevant. This script from
Google looks at your article and sees all the different key words,
like the word azalea in gardening, and it says, “Oh, let me go look
at all my azalea people and all of my gardening related people and
plug those ads in here.” And that’s how they make money. So it’s
not that they’re doing this just to promote your work, they’re doing
it to make money. But the side benefit is that you can post your
articles to these places and get an incredible amount of exposure
and you’re getting it from anyone who goes to their site and looks
for stuff. You’re also getting it if you do a Google search or a
Yahoo search on your name or azaleas, for example, and you’ve
written enough articles, you’re now going to come at the top of the
list because no longer do you just have your website, if you even
have a website. There are a lot of people who are running
extremely successful business with no website simply by writing
articles and either sending them out in an ezine or posting them to
all of these different article directories and they’re getting exposure
that way. Does that make sense?
Participant: Yes.
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Sandy: Okay, great.
Participant: May I ask a quick question?
Sandy: Of course.
Participant: You listed three, IdeaMarketers,
BestManagementArticles, ezine; is there some source that we
could access that might give us a longer list than that of places we
can post articles?
Sandy: Absolutely. First, there are thousands of these
directories, absolutely thousands. The three I gave you are
extremely popular. I’ll give you another one and the three I gave
you are also free. First of all, let me answer your question. One of
the places you can go is just to do a Google search or a Yahoo
search on article directories and you’ll be flooded with them. What
I would enter is “article directories” and put whatever your topic is,
whatever it is that you’re able to write about, your content and that
way you might find some that are more specific just to what you
do.
But the other one that I wanted to mention, and this one is not free
and there’s a reason for it, this one is called
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SubmitYourArticle.com. It’s $37.00 a month and what this site
does is really a huge timesaver.
It will take your article and submit it to over 100 other directories
automatically, which is why they charge and what makes it so
valuable. What you need to do initially to reap the benefits of all of
that is set it up so that you signup for say SubmitYourArticle and
you go in and you look at all the article directories that they have
relationships with, you decide which ones you’re interested in,
which ones you like and you setup a user name and password for
each of them and those are all free behind it. What will then
happen is when you submit your article to them, it will submit it to
all of those other places and so you’ve done five/six minutes worth
of work and all of the sudden gone out to 10, 20, 30, 50, 60, 100,
depending how many you setup, different article directories
automatically.
Participant: May I ask how you pay the $37? Do they bill you
monthly, do they take it out of your credit card, how does that
work?
Sandy: They bill you monthly. I pay them via Paypal. I’m not
sure if you can also charge a credit card or not. It’s been so long
since I’ve looked at the billing function. I’ve used them for a
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couple of years now and the price hasn’t gone up in a couple of
years, but they automatically hit my PayPal for $37.00 every
month. The one thing they do is they limit you to posting eight
articles per month. You can post them any timeframe all on the
same day or two a week however you wish, but they do limit you to
eight per month and some directories will limit you but not all. It
really depends on the ownership of the directory.
SubmitYourArticle does it simply because they then have to push it
out to all of those other sites and it’s just a resource capability for
them, but it’s a wonderful feature that they offer because it saves
you the time of going to all of these independent directories.
There are virtual assistants and other people who do nothing but
submit articles to directories, so you could hire s
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the end of your article you have what’s called an authors resource
box. Is everyone familiar with what that is?
Participant: Yes.
Sandy: Okay, great. I’ll give just a really quick example to make it
easy. For those of you who read my ezine, at the end of the
article I have a little blurb and it says, you know, “If you want to
use this article in your ezine, feel free. Just include this blurb with
it.” That blurb is slightly different from what I put out on the article
directories, serves as a call to action for people who read your
article. Mine does two things and yours should as well if you
choose to do this.
One it gives permission to people to use the article. I want people
to use my article as many ways as they can provided they do two
things. One, they keep my resource box intact because that gives
me credit for writing the article and two they don’t change the
article itself. So I want to share my information, I want to share my
knowledge, I want you to take my article and publish it in your
ezine if you think it’ll be of benefits to your readers, I just ask that
you do the two things. You keep the resource box intact and you
leave the article alone. You don’t change any of the words.
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Now, when you put it on an article directory site you want to do
one more thing. You want to have a call to action inviting the
reader to either signup for your special report if you have one,
signup for your ezine or visit your website so they can learn more
about you. It’s very simple to do in the language. You simply say,
you know, do you want more information like this, was this
information valuable, if so click here or visit sandramartini.com to
learn more. They can go to that place. They can either signup for
your ezine if you have one. If you have a simple website where
you’re talking about your services, they can read it and say, “Yes,
that’s for me,” or, “No, it’s not.” But what it does is your article,
which will now be at hundreds of places across the internet, will be
driving traffic back to you and it will do it in two ways. The one
way we just discussed, the resource box says, “Hey, come visit.”
That leaves it up to the people. They can visit. They can choose
not to.
The second way is it creates a link to your website. The more
incoming links you have, real solid links, the better it is for search
engine rankings, so if you want your website to rise up in the
rankings you want to have a lot of good, solid incoming links.
Using article directories helps you do that because your resource
box in every article that you post on every directory is going to link
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back to your website or it’s going to link to your ezine signup page
if you have one.
If you don’t have a website, I suggest that you get a very simple
one page website and you can get these from GoDaddy for, I
think, you can do it for like $53.00 for two years, it’s not expensive
and have a simple page that just says this is a little bit about me,
signup for my ezine and click here and you can do it, assuming
that you have the email newsletter. It’s something that will drive
lots of traffic to you and could result in new clients that will
definitely result in increased exposure. What that does for you is it
positions you as an expert. The more places that you read about
somebody, the more times you see their name, whether you
realize it or not you begin to think, “Wow, Sandra knows what
she’s talking about. I mean, she must. I’ve seen her here and
here and here and, oh, over there too.” It gives you more
credibility because the written word, the published word as human
nature we tend to believe it more.
You’ve seen it all over there assuming that the information
resonates with you and rings true with you, you now tend to
recognize these people as experts and this is how you too can
become known as an expert in whatever your industry is. And
remember you don’t need to have an ezine; you don’t need to
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have a website to take advantage of this. It’s helpful if you do.
You’ll get more exposure, but you don’t have to. Anyone have any
questions about that so far?
Participant: I do. I’m wondering, I’m assuming that you would
have to submit a lot of different articles. You don’t want to be
submitting the same one to all these different places; is that true?
Sandy: No. And that’s a great question. You can submit the
same article to all of these different places for a couple of simple
reasons. One, you have no idea who’s reading these different
article directories, so people who go to EzineArticles may not be
the same people who go to BestManagementArticles. This way
you’re getting your article out to as many people as possible. And
I actually encourage you to submit the same article to the different
directories. The second thing is if someone does a search on let’s
stay with azaleas for this second, if someone does a search on
azaleas well now you’re listed on EzineArticles, IdeaMarketers,
bestmanagement, SubmitYourArticle, plus the 50 places that they
sent your azalea article to, you are more likely to show up in the
top rankings of Google because your name and the word azalea
are all tied together because you’ve submitted your article, the
same article, to so many different sites. So it’s definitely
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something that I encourage you to do to use the same article in
different places. Does that help you understand why?
Participant: Yeah, that does. I just have one more question
that’s related to that.
Sandy: Sure.
Participant: Do you set yourself a goal like weekly or monthly as
to how many articles you’re going to write and send out like per
month or per week?
Sandy: For me, that’s simple because I produce an ezine, so my
ezine goes out every week therefore I have an article every week.
My question to you would be do you have an email newsletter?
Participant: I do, but it goes out once a month.
Sandy: Okay. So for you, you would have an article go out a
minimum of once a month.
Participant: Right.
Sandy: If you’re feeling inspired and you just feel like writing
something, you could do another one and submit it to the
directories, but once a month is fine. I would try not to do anything
longer than that because you’re going to lose some of the
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compounding effect of putting multiple articles in, but once a
month is fine.
Participant: Okay, thank you.
Sandy: And in addition…Oh, I’m sorry, did you have a question?
Participant: No.
Sandy: Okay. I was going to say in addition to the article
directories, which are critical for getting your name out there they
really are especially since most of them are free. It’s just the time
and once you get into the habit of doing it you can submit your
article to, let’s say, EzineArticles in under five minutes. It takes my
assistant probably five to seven minutes to submit an article each
week to EzineArticles, so it’s not time intensive unless, of course,
you’re doing thousands of article directories. The other thing is, in
addition to the article directories, you can also setup a blog. Does
everyone know what a blog is?
Participant: Um-hum.
Sandy: Okay, great.
Participant: But I’ve heard they’re kind of a waste of time. Is that
true?
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Sandy: Personally, I would say no, but it depends on why you’re
doing the blog. It depends what your goals are in doing it. For
me, my goals in doing my blog, I do two things with it. One, my
ezine articles are posted on my blog, so it’s yet another place that
people can read my article. Spiders, those little robots that the
different search engines send out, absolutely love blogs. They
love them as much as they love article directories because they’re
always getting fresh, new content.
So for my blog which is at sandrasplog, and a plog is just an
abbreviation for a personalized blog, so mine is at
sandrasplog.com you can see what it looks like. I do two things.
One, I post my article and two whenever I’m in the mood, and I
literally mean that whenever I feel inspired, I’ll go out there and I’ll
just jot a note.
I’ll write about whatever is going on right then, sometimes my
personal life, more often I have a category that I call, “A Day in the
Life of,” and it’s just, you know, something going on with small
business and small business management. I then am linked to
some other places where when I write a blog article or a blog
posting it says, “Oh, Sandra just updated that,” and it pings me
and it lists in all of its features, “Hey, we just got a new blog
posting from Sandra.” And this is all free of charge, so I’ve now
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just gotten yet more exposure from people who may not be
scouring article directories, but may be involved in the blog world
because blogging is so popular right now.
So people who have nothing to do with the article directories,
they’re not interested in looking for articles or authors, but they are
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it so that you can take my article on azaleas and put it in your
gardening newsletter and say, “Hey, we have a great article from
Sandra this week on azaleas.”
So now you can take that and use it one for that purpose. Two,
some people just refuse to signup for email newsletters. You
know, they think, “Hey, my inbox is swamped enough. I’m getting
enough spam, I’m getting enough junk there’s no need for me to
signup for anybody’s newsletter if I want the information I’ll just go
out on Google and I’ll search for it.” These people use article
directories as a research tool, so they’re going okay I want to know
A, B, C or D, I’ll go here or here and this way I’m not getting just
Sandra’s viewpoint on azaleas I’m getting all the authors that
wrote about azaleas and I’m getting it quickly and easily. And they
know that they’re getting it in short concise articles, so that they
can see a whole bunch of different people’s perspective on
azaleas in this case.
Participant: So two reasons that they would search the internet
for these articles is one they may need something to put into their
ezine or newsletter and two would they be looking for maybe a
qualified writer because, you know, if that’s what you do, you’re a
freelance writer for instance, they’d be looking for somebody that
was qualified to write on a certain subject?
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Sandy: Or they’re just looking for information about a certain
subject, so it can be any of those reasons. They can either be
looking for people who have written about different things or they
can be looking just for information on that topic and to decide if it’s
a topic worth them exploring or not.
Participant: Okay.
Sandy: For example, I was recently in the newspapers here for a
book that I’m an author in and when I spoke with one of the
newspaper reporters who was doing an article about me he told
me that he went to a bunch of article directories and did a search
about my field, not about me but about my field, because he
wanted to see how many other people were doing business
coaching the way I do it and he was finding that out by looking at
who was writing and submitting articles.
You know, he had already done his research on me, now he was
doing his research on the industry as the whole. And rather than
go to Google where you can get so much information, he went to
the article directories because those are the people that he knew
were serious because they were taking the time to write and
submit articles.
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So people use it for a wide variety of reasons half of which I
probably have no idea. Other people, for example, let’s play for a
second and say that you’re working on an information product and
you’re going to publish an e-book for example and your e-book is
going to be about gardening. You can go out to article directories
and find a whole bunch of articles on gardening, contact those
authors and say, “Hey, I’m putting together an e-book, a
compilation e-book, do you mind if I use your article in it?” Now, if
someone contacted you and asked you that what would you say?
Participant: Sure.
Sandy: “Absolutely. The more free exposure I can get the
happier I am, so if you want to use my article please feel free, go
ahead.” That’s another way. And people will take a bunch of
different articles, combine them and sell them. And they didn’t pay
anything for the material and the authors, such as you and I, are
happy because we’re getting additional exposure. We didn’t have
to pay for the exposure, it’s free publicity and Jane Doe over here
has made a compilation book that she’s selling, so that somebody
like my mother who grows azaleas if she’s really interested in it or
if she’s a hobby gardener and she sees this e-book for $19.00
she’s like, “Oh, great, that’s just what I’m looking for,” because to
her she would rather by the book with 50 articles in it than do the
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research to find those 50 articles. For her, it’s all about saving
time and making things convenient. That’s another reason why
people would go to the article directories. Does that help some?
Participant: Very much.
Sandy: Now, besides the article directories and the blogs, one
other place that I would really suggest that you post your articles is
MySpace. And I know that people think that that’s just absolutely
ludicrous because MySpace is for teenagers, it’s really not. Small
business owners and entrepreneurs have taken MySpace and
morphed it into the networking site basically for hip businesses.
You can build a little friends network out on MySpace just, you
know, as teenagers are doing these days only it’s of business
owners. Oprah has a site. She has a MySpace page. The
presidential candidates now do. Everyone is recognizing the value
of MySpace as a huge networking site.
Now, MySpace, which of course is also free, also has a blog
capability to it and it’s just your MySpace blog, it’s very simple.
Guess where I post my article? On my MySpace blog. So I have
taken my one article and published on a variety of article
directories, published it on my personal plog and published it on
my MySpace blog.
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I am now covering the widest possible public area that I can in
terms of getting information about my articles out there. I have
actually had a client in the past call me and say, “I want to work
with you.” I didn’t know her. We had never spoken. She was not
a subscriber to my ezine, but she had read enough of my stuff on
the internet through the article directories and such that she felt
that she had come to know me and she knew based on that
information that she wanted to hire me. We worked together for
quite a while. And what was my marketing cost involved in getting
her? Absolutely nothing aside from my assistant’s time in posting
the articles.
She did all of this research on me and decided that I was the
coach that she wanted to work with all based on the fact of these
articles that I had posted or rather Gina & Karley had posted, just
in case they’re listening, but that were posted and then I got
exposure off of. So you have no idea how people are using or
reviewing your information or in some cases you have no idea that
they are even looking at it and then all of the sudden you can walk
in your office, the phone rings and somebody wants to hire you for
whatever it is that you do.
It’s amazing what you can do with repurposing something that
you’ve written. To take the article another step…let me back up
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for a second. Some people feel that they can’t write. First of all, I
disagree. Everybody has it in them to write. It’s just a matter of
training yourself to learn how to do it.
When I first started writing, I thought my writing was absolutely
atrocious and now I’m asked to be in books and my articles are
everywhere and I’m getting clients just on the basis of them. It’s a
simple process to learn, to train yourself. It’s just you have to learn
to do it and train yourself to sit down everyday and write, which is
what I do and some days the stuff that I write the paper’s not fit to
burn it’s so bad. But by doing it over and over everyday, you get
your mind to thinking how to write and how to communicate.
Some people say, “Yeah, that’s all great, great, great, but I can’t
do that. That’s not for me.”
And that’s fine. I bet you those people can sit down and write ten
tips. If you can write five tips, three tips, ten tips, put a sentence at
the beginning, a sentence at the end, you’ve just done an article
and it can be about ten tips for whatever your industry is. You
know, ten mistakes you don’t want to make when growing azaleas,
for example. Ten things you must do when you train a new puppy.
In my experience, remove all rugs from your house. But there’s
very simple things that you can do where people who didn’t think
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they could write now go, “Well, I can do that. Well, I can write
down five ways to do X or five things that you need to know.” Add
a sentence at the beginning, a sentence at the end, bam, you
have an article. If you have an article, you have a way to get
exposure. Any questions on that?
All right. We’ll go with a new. Another thing you can do with your
articles is why wait for someone else to compile them into an ebook, you can do it yourself. You can take your articles, let’s say
you’ve written four articles on goal setting for example, you can
combine those articles, put them in a special report and sell them
for $9.95, $12.95, whatever you think it’s worth depending how
many articles are in there, because people would rather pay for
the convenience of getting that all in one than of going to search
for the articles.
If I was to tell you, you can find these articles out on the internet,
go get them or all of these articles are available in my archive on
my website, you know, go get them and read them, most people
will say to you, “No, no. Just give them to me. No, no, I want
them now. No, no, I’ll never go search for them just give them to
me.” They’re willing to pay for convenience.
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Participant: That’s interesting. I would never have though that. I
was just going to ask that question well if they can go get the
articles for free why would they pay for it? But that’s interesting.
Sandy: They’ll pay you for convenience. People are going to pay
you to do certain things. One of them is to save them time.
Another is to save them money, to save them effort. Any one of
these things people will be willing to pay for. If you can save them
time, money, effort, frustration, they will take out their credit card
and they will pay you.
It sounds extremely harsh and very business like, but it’s true.
And you’re doing them a disservice if you don’t let them do that for
you because otherwise they may never go get the information that
could help them, so as a business owner your job is to make it
available. If they’re not interested, they won’t buy and that’s okay.
It’s not right for them, but if it is right for them and you haven’t
made it available, you’ve done them a disservice. You haven’t
done all you could do for your business and you don’t have to do it
for all of your articles. Do it for a couple and see what happens. If
nobody buys them, then you know, “Okay. The people who are
my readers, my clients aren’t interested in this. I know not to do
another one.” But if they do buy it, you now know, “Wow, they like
this,” and two, “I got to do more.” They’re very simple to do they’re
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just compiling all of the information you’ve got into one thing
because people like to be handed the information. They want you
to make it easy for them.
In this day of everybody rushing around and everybody’s
overwhelmed and everybody has too much to do, everybody’s
busy, if you can make something easy for them they’ll give you
$9.95 for it, if it’s something they’re interested in.
So you want to know that the people that you’re writing your
articles for are interested in what you have to say or they’re
interested in the information that you’re presenting and that comes
down to just making sure that your articles are either going in the
article directories because people there that are searching for
them they’re definitely interested because they sought you out.
They found your article. It doesn’t matter how they found it, they
found it. There was something in your article that drew them to
you. Those people are extremely highly qualified to want to
purchase something from you assuming your article was good.
And good is defined as not the best writing style in the world
because your writing style can be bad, you know, not totally, totally
horrible, but you don’t have to be a great a writer.
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You do have to give great information. You have to give useable
information. You have to present it in a simple way that’s easy to
digest. That’s what people understand. That’s what people are
willing to pay for and that’s what makes you a success with your
readers whether your readers are people from your ezine that you
know and love or people that are reading your article on an article
directory and have no idea who you are until they’ve stumbled
across you. Does anyone have any questions about that?
Participant: I have a question about ezines or you said this
compilation of articles that one of us had written and put it into an
e-book. This is something that they would download?
Sandy: Yes.
Participant: Okay.
Sandy: Anything that’s an e-book is something that they would
download and if your business is extremely new and you don’t
have the ability for them to download at this time, and what I mean
by that is you don’t yet have a shopping cart, there are other
things that you can do. One, which I don’t recommend but for very
new businesses would be okay, you could have them order it via
Paypal, for example this way you don’t need to be able to process
credit cards yourself. They can order it via Paypal and many
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businesses successfully do that, so that’s fine. The second part,
which is the part I don’t recommend, is once you see the receipt
come through you could email them the PDF file. You could email
them the e-book.
Participant: Why do you say that’s not a good idea to do for too
long? Does it look to unprofessional or is it just not good for
business?
Sandy: It’s extremely time intensive on your part, so in best case
scenario you have 50 orders a day. You will not be doing anything
aside from sending emails all day.
Participant: But let me…
Sandy: You’d be sitting there…go ahead.
Participant: For instance, I have Paypal on my site. I don’t yet
have a shopping cart that takes credit cards directly and I realize
that I probably need to do that at some point sooner rather than
later, but when you start adding on all these automatic things like
AWeber in order to do this type of stuff, doesn’t it get really
expensive? Don’t you need to be really making a profit before you
can start adding all that stuff on?
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Sandy: It depends what you add. There are I would suggest two
ways to sell the e-book. One, you could email it yourself if you’re
just starting out and if your sales aren’t that busy; just know that
that’s a short-term solution. The second way you could use
something like ClickBank. ClickBank is a service which will not
charge you. They’ll take your product and they’ll let other people
sell it, but you’ll have to pay them a commission, so it’s
clickbank.com. That’s something you can use.
Participant: Are you saying quick or click?
Sandy: Click, c-l-i-c-k.
Sandy: Clickbank.com. The downside of ClickBank, a gazillion
people are using, so in order to make it worthwhile for people to
want to sell your product you’re going to have to make your
commissions pretty high meaning I will give you 50% of the
product price if you sell this for me. Do you know what an affiliate
program is? Does everyone know what that is?
Participant: No.
Participant: Sort of.
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Sandy: Affiliate programs, and I’m getting ready to launch mine,
are if you bring a referral to me meaning I have an e-book called
How to Make Money as a Virtual Assistant and it currently sells for
$59.00 if you refer Jane Doe to me and Jane comes to my website
and Jane buys that book I will give you a commission. I will give
you 25% of the cost of the product and that is my thank you to you
for referring Jane because I may never have made any sale
whatsoever if you hadn’t referred her to me. Does that make
sense?
Participant: Absolutely.
Sandy: ClickBank is one huge affiliate program, so people signup
and they make all their money by referring other people’s
products. So if you’re competing with ClickBank it’s not a matter of
you knowing me and going, “Yeah, she does good work. I like her
work. Let me tell you about her and here’s the link.” And the link
by the way just so you don’t think that this is well you could say I
didn’t refer, etcetera, affiliate programs are done by links, so what I
give you if you signed up for my affiliate program you would have
a link that’s yours and it has a number attached to it. And you give
someone your link and they click on that link and they come to my
website, but it’s tracked back to you, so for three years anything
that individual purchases from me it comes back to you.
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It stores their information for three years, so anything they buy you
get credit for and if you get credit for it you get paid for it.
ClickBank is a huge program, a huge system that has thousands
and thousands of people selling products. The difference there is
its cold. It’s not you’re referring somebody that you know or
somebody whose ezine you get and you’ve learned to trust, you’re
referring products based solely on how much commission you’ll
make. So if you want to sell our products on ClickBank, you need
to offer a higher commission to make it attractive for people to
refer others to you. I know that sounds a little confusing. Does
that make sense?
Participant: Yeah, it does. It makes sense.
Sandy: Okay. Let me talk really quick. I want to come back to
the AWeber comment. Let me talk about shopping carts. You can
purchase a subscription to something called a shopping cart and
what a shopping cart does depending on the program is it allows
you to offer a credit card, so MasterCard, Visa, Discover, etc.. It
gives you links, so that when you click on this link and you go to
my shopping cart it’s essentially an order form and anyone who’s
purchased online you’ve seen these.
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You click on the link, you go to this pretty little form and it says this
is what you’re buying, you say yep. It takes you to the next page
where you enter your credit card information, great. You hit yes I
want to buy. It then processes the credit card. Now, I’m going to
tell you what happens a little bit behind the scenes. It processes
the credit card, you then get a receipt and you’re taken to a thank
you page and if you purchased an e-book or electronic product
there’s a link for you to download that product right there.
So, bam, there’s your link, you open it, and you save the book to
your hard drive, you now own the product. Me, the owner, the
person who sold you this e-book, I’m not involved at all. Not only
am I not involved, I had no idea you did it until I get an email from
the system which said, “Hey, Jane just bought your e-book How to
Make Money as a Virtual Assistant.” So it takes you out of the
emailing and having to worry about that.
Participant: But did you have to setup the link or did they do that
for you? I mean, is it technically difficult to set that up or you just
purchase it and it’s setup on that account?
Sandy: It’s very simple. You have a different link for every
product because every product costs a different amount of money,
so what you do…the shopping cart that I use, it’s sandracart.com
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and that’s my affiliate link meaning it takes you to the shopping
cart I use and if you choose to signup with them I make a small
commission off it. It’s important to note that that commission in no
way affects what you pay. What you pay, in this case for the one I
use, it has a free 30-day trial and for the pro-version and the proversion is what I use and what I recommend, it’s $99.00 a month.
You don’t need AWeber. It does everything that AWeber does
and 20 times more. It does all your downloads automatically for
you. It allows you to accept credit cards. It has autoresponders.
Does everybody know what an autoresponder is?
Participant: Yes.
Participant: Sort of.
Sandy: Does anyone not know? Okay. So it has
autoresponders. Let me take you through that for a second.
You’ve just purchased How to Make Money as a VA. You got the
thank you page and there’s the link and you click on it and you
save it. By the time you get back to your email box, there’s an
email from me saying thank you for purchasing this. Just in case
you missed it here’s the link because some people don’t recognize
the link and click through or, you know, any number of things
happen, so they missed saving the e-book.
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I don’t want you to have to call me and say, “Hey, I didn’t get my
link.” I want to be as customer service oriented as I can, so what I
do is say, “Thank you for purchasing. By the way, in case you
didn’t see it before here’s the link again,” so you can definitely get
the book. With that particular product, I offer bonuses. So I say,
“By the way, here are the links to your bonuses. Here’s bonus
number one, bonus number two and here are the links so you can
go get those at your convenience.” Again, thank you, blah, blah,
blah.
A few days later with no involvement from me or my team, you’re
going to get another email that says, again thank you for ordering.
I just want to check in. Make sure you haven’t had any problems
downloading, do you have any questions, blah, blah, blah. About
a week later, you’ll get another email from me saying, “Just
checking in. I want to make sure that you’ve had a chance to look
through it and that you don’t have any questions. If you do, with
the purchase of your e-book, you get a free question. Feel free to
ask me any question you want about how to run your virtual
assistant business, what to do, etc.” And that’s it. I sign off and
say, “Again, thanks for your support.” All of these emails go out
with no involvement from either my team or myself.
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Participant: What was the name of the shopping cart thingy
again?
Sandy: Sandracart.com, all run together. And it does all of that
for $99.00 a month. Now, on the back end when you’ve
purchased the How to Make Money as a VA book, it will tell me, I’ll
get an email and my assistant will get an email that says Jane just
bought this. Great, now I know that Jane’s bought it and it will tell
me how you paid whether Paypal or credit card just because the
system handles them differently and that’s it. That’s all I know.
Three days later, the money’s in my bank account. I’ve done
nothing. My team’s done nothing. It simply told us that a sale was
made, how it was paid for. In the case of Paypal, Gina has to go
out to Paypal you know, withdraw the money or keep it in the
account whatever she’s doing that week. In the case of a credit
card, it’s automatically deposited and in the merchant account, the
credit company will take some fee off. Typically, it’s 2% of
whatever the purchase price was, so you don’t have to pay them
every month. When you make a sale is when they get paid and
they take it right off the purchase price, which I actually like
because one it’s one less bill to deal with and two if I’m not making
any money neither are they. Unlike your shopping cart, which in
the case of the $99.00 a month that hits my bank account or my
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credit card every month automatically, so I wouldn’t suggest
getting a shopping cart until you’re ready to sell something.
Participant: Yeah.
Sandy: You want to be ready to sell something first. And in the
beginning, you can do it by sending emails out just know that it’s
not effective and what it doesn’t give you, it doesn’t give you the
automatic ability to follow up because you don’t have the
autoresponders and the last thing you want to be spending all of
your time doing is saying, “Okay. Jane bought the book on
Monday so today I’ve got to send her this email. Harry bought it
last Friday, so he’s on this email.”
You’ll drive yourself insane and your customer service won’t be
good. So when you’re starting to do a few sales, it’s definitely
something that you want to do. You know, you want to invest the
$99.00 a month, but until you’re ready to sell products it’s not
worth doing. And if you’re not sure how your product is going to
work, you can simply do it by hand or do it manually…
Participant: Until you know how much you’re going to be selling
or have an idea?
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Sandy: Right. The downside is that unless you have another way
to process credit cards, you can only accept Paypal and you’re
going to eliminate some percentage of buyers that way.
Participant: I thought that they could pay with credit card on
Paypal though?
Sandy: They can if they realize that. A lot of people love Paypal
and I’m one of them. I absolutely adore it. A lot of people don’t.
They’re afraid of it. There’s been enough publicity of people
impersonating Paypal, you know, which if you know to look for it
you don’t worry about it but there’s been enough publicity that
some people won’t use Paypal. And in terms of what percentage
that is, who knows. It depends on your industry and the people
that you’re attracting. Are they savvy internet users who know
what Paypal is great or are they not? Can I ask what industry
you’re in?
Participant: Me?
Sandy: Yep.
Participant: It’s a little different. I’m a channel. I don’t know if
you know what that is.
Sandy: I do.
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Sandy: It’s overwhelming at first.
Participant: Uh-huh.
Sandy: It truly is, I know.
Participant: I’ve really thought about, “I don’t know if I can do
this kind of thing.”
Sandy: Don’t let the tools get in the way of you fulfilling your
dream and your mission because if you break them down and you
think about it, it’s really very simple. It’s overwhelming when you
look at it and say, “Oh my goodness, autoresponders, shopping
carts, emails, article directories, blogs, MySpace, what do I do?”
And it just becomes this whole fog and this haze. But if you say,
“Okay. She wants me to repurpose my material that means that I
need to do something with promoting my articles and I can do as
little as one article directory a week and it will take me five minutes
once I get used to it. I can do that. I can do five to ten minutes a
week.” Okay, good.
And then you get that going, you know, and you get used to it and
you get comfortable with it. And then you say, “Now, wait a
minute. She said I need a MySpace page. I think she’s insane,
but okay. Fine, I’ll go with that.” And MySpace is actually really
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Participant: So it’s good for networking too then?
Sandy: It is fabulous. And one of the features of MySpace, in
addition to the blog, I have over 600 people a week reading my
MySpace blog.
Participant: You’re kidding, wow.
Sandy: I’m not. I have no idea who these people are. I don’t
know if they’ve signed up for my ezine, maybe they have, maybe
they haven’t because I don’t know who they are. I can’t track that
well. I’m just like, “Wow, okay then.” On the front page of my
MySpace page it says what my latest blog entry is. I didn’t even
know it did that. It does it all by itself. I was like, “Wow.” You
know, I’ll write a blog, and I’ll hit post, I’ll go my front page and
there it is. So anyone who comes to my page will now see what
my latest blog is without even going to the blog, so they can make
the decision. Then the other thing it allows you to do is it allows
you to send broadcasts to all your friends and this as simple as
typing I want to send a note, I want to send a broadcast. You type
you’re little note, hey everyone, I’m offering a teleclass on
repurposing blah, blah, blah, you click send and all of your friends
get it.
Participant: Oh, that’s great.
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Sandy: And it doesn’t annoy them. It’s not obnoxious. It simply
goes up on their MySpace page, so that when they login they see
it just sitting there. They don’t have to delete it because when the
next note comes it pushes it down. You know, they kind of go in
hierarchical order, so it’s another way for me to promote a
teleclass, the launch of a new product, whatever, just by literally
taking a minute to type something up and send it out. And it goes
to all my MySpace friends, whether I know them or not.
Participant: That’s cool.
Sandy; It’s very cool and it’s free. So there are, I mean, we’ve
gotten a little off track in terms of the repurposing stuff, but I think
you get the idea of you can really do so much just by starting with
an article or a few tips that you have. And let me just real quick
before we wrap up I’ll see if anyone has any questions, but I want
to run down reasons why you want to repurpose. And we’ve
discussed some, but I just want to put them all together so you
really get it:
1. The increased exposure. You really just…you can’t go
wrong here. For no or very little cost if you go to
SubmitYourArticle, you get all of this exposure for something that
you’re already doing anyway.
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2. Very simple information products. Even if you’re someone
who hadn’t thought about doing information products and you’re
like, “Well, I’m not an information marketer.” That’s okay. What
this does is it gives you the ability to create additional revenue
streams. So maybe your clients are a little low this month, maybe
cash flow isn’t quite where you wish it was, if you’ve got some
information products, a compilation special report, for example, or
an e-book where you took one of your articles…you can take let’s
say five articles, turn each one into a chapter, bang, you’ve just
written an e-book. Okay. Now, you can be making sales on this
stuff and it’s totally passive. You’ve done nothing more than
written the work once and now you have another revenue stream
and it helps to offset the cash flow.
3. Different mediums appeal to different people in different
ways and this is something we didn’t cover as much on the call,
but if you get my ezine you’ll see that now in addition to writing my
article I record it so you can hear my voice. And I do that because
some people just like to listen. Several of my ezine readers take
my article and they download it, which is why I let you download it,
they download it into their iPod and they list to mine and, you
know, whoever else they’re listening to when they’re in the car,
going for a walk, at the gym, whatever. Some people prefer to
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listen, so if you take your articles and you record them you can
now do two things. One, you can include it as part of your ezine
and let me tell you to record the article it takes 30 seconds longer
than it takes for you to read the entire article. That’s how easy it is
to record. And the service I use for that is, again an affiliate link,
SandraAudio.com for that is $19.95 per month with a free 30-day
trial and you can do as many unlimited recordings as you want, so
it doesn’t matter how many you do it’s the same price. They also
do video. Again, all wrapped up in for the price.
Participant: That’s good.
Participant: What’s it called?
Sandy: SandraAudio.com. And that’s my affiliate link. And I love
them and what I love most about them is I was so intimated to use
audio in the beginning. I’m like, “I’m never going to figure this out.”
I’m just really not good that way sometimes, so I’m like, “I’m never
going to figure this out.” And my assistant was overwhelmed and
I’m like, “Well, I could tell her to do it, but in the end I’m the one
that’s going to have to do the recordings because it needs to be
my voice.” What I ended up doing was saying, “Hey, do you guys
offer any trainings?” I had no idea. They hold trainings twice a
week, every week that are free. They’re webinars, so they walk
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you step-by-step and the guy, his name is Dave to tell you how
much I’ve asked questions, he is extremely knowledgeable and
very friendly. And literally, the day after the training I’m like, “Hey,
what else can I record?” I just became this little recording maven.
Participant: You’re being broken up by a sound that blocks your
voice?
Sandy: Oh, I’m sorry. Am I coming across okay to other people?
Participant: I keep hearing a loud hum.
Participant: I heard it one time. Now, it’s fine.
Participant: Sandra, I’m hearing you fine.
Participant: I can hear you okay as well.
Sandy: Okay, great. Well, I’ll get ready to wrap up because it
seems some people are having a little difficulty with the line.
Another reason why you want to do this in terms of repurposing
your articles, you want to be able to offer different price points.
For example, let’s say you are an intuitive coach and you charge
$500 a month for coaching services, just to throw a number out
there. Not everyone can afford that, but people may still want
information that you have and they may still want a taste of what
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you offer, well if you can take your articles and turn them into an ebook for $29.95, $39.00, whatever price is appropriate for you,
you’re now allowing them to work with you. One, without you
being hands-on which is great because there’s only so many
clients you can reasonably talk to in a day. And two, it’s at a price
that they can afford, so you’re really doing them a service by
taking your articles, expanding upon them, offering more meat
around them, maybe recording them, putting them into a CD, so
now instead of reading them they can listen to them in the car and
you’re speaking to them on the level that they wish to be spoken
to. Not everyone learns the same way, so some people learn by
listening, others by reading, some by watching and this way you’re
catering to all needs. And the more you cater to people and what
their needs are, the more successful you’re going to be.
And then we also discussed that it’s a huge credibility builder, so it
gives you so much credibility to be out there and people to be able
to see you and go to different places and different sites. And they
see you on Google, they see you on Yahoo and their over here
doing something and they see you, so as much as possible you
want to repurpose what you do because it saves you not just time
and energy but the need to recreate more and more different work
and products. You still need to keep doing that, but you want to
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get the most out of it as you can rather than simply write an article,
put it in your ezine, send it out and now it’s done.
Basically, you’ve…I don’t want to say you’ve wasted your time, but
you haven’t gotten the most bang for the buck out of the time that
you spent writing that article, so you want to get as much mileage,
as much use out of everything that you do. You want to leverage
yourself as much as possible, so that you reap all of these
additional benefits. You want to put it out there that, “Yes, I’m
ready to play big and the way I’m ready to do this is by sharing my
information with as many people as possible.” Does anyone have
any questions?
Participant: I do. I’m a feature writer. I’ve written all kinds of
feature articles and I also contribute to the newsletter for a
business group that I belong to, but, you know, I don’t get paid for
them, they’re just articles that I write for the publication. Can I use
those articles, I wrote them it’s not like I got paid for them and
there’s a copyright or anything, I can use those articles and post
those?
Sandy: That would probably depend on your relationship with the
publications you’re writing them for. Are they claiming ownership
to the articles or no?
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Participant: You know, I don’t think so.
Sandy: If you have ownership of the articles, then you can
certainly publish them. But if they have ownership, meaning by
virtue putting them in their publications, if they’ve got some type of
agreement where they say, “Okay. It’s now ours because you’ve
published it with is.” It’s something you would have to check with
the people that you’re writing the articles for.
Participant: Okay. And I’m going to ask them what?
Sandy: You want to ask them if you have reprint rights to those
articles. You know, I’ve written the articles, am I free to use the
articles in other ways? And if you do, then you can go to article
directories, MySpace. If you’re looking for more clients, your
example would be perfect for blogs in MySpace because you can
say, “Hey, I’m a writer and this is what I do and here are a bunch
of samples of my work.” You know, and they’re all in one concise
place that people can look through and go, “Wow, yeah, I need
that.”
Participant: Oh, okay.
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Sandy: But you want to make sure that you do have the ability to
reprint them that there’s not some agreement that you may not be
aware of with the people that are publishing them now.
Participant: Well, it’s a newsletter for a VA group, virtual
assistant.
Sandy: Yep. Can I ask which one?
Participant: IVAA.
Sandy: Oh, okay. I would ask, I don’t remember who the
president is right now, but I would ask IVAA if it’s something that
they’re okay with you doing and I’d be surprised if they weren’t.
Participant: Yeah, I don’t think it’ll be a problem, but it’s good to
ensure that that’s the case.
Sandy: Right. I mean, you don’t want to end up not being able to
work with them in the future if you do something that you weren’t
aware of. So I would definitely check with them and make sure
that it’s okay, but again I’d be really surprised if they had a
problem with it but I’d still clear it just to be safe.
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Sandy: Oh, you’re welcome. Does anyone else have any
questions? No? Okay.
There’s one more thing I just want to mention really quick and I
know that we’ve gone over a bit here, but this I think will help a bit
with the overwhelmed. One thing that I do, let me first tell you, is
before I have my assistants do anything I do it first. And the
reason is that I want to understand what I’m getting them into and
if they have any questions, you know, I can then help and answer.
When I started to post to article sites, I was extremely haphazard.
I would do it when I had time. Huge mistake. I said, “Okay. This
isn’t working.”
What I do now is I publish my ezine on Tuesdays, for article
directories the information goes in on Thursdays and Fridays every
week. And it’s now a schedule and this forces, now Gina my
assistant, this forces Gina to know that it doesn’t matter what else
is going on in her world on Thursday she will post my article to
Ezine Articles, period, and because she knows that it no longer
gets done “when we have time” because you never have time.
You know, if you did it that way, you’d never get it done, so we
now have a schedule that every Thursday that’s done and ever
Friday I’ll post to a blog or MySpace and sometimes I’m not as
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good about that. I need to delegate it to her to make sure it gets
done, but what it does is it stops you from saying, “Okay. I’ll do it
next week. I’ll make sure I have time next week.” And next week
never comes. So if you decide to post articles, what you want to
do is make sure to set up a schedule for yourself so that it gets
done. It just becomes a habit. It gets done at a certain time or a
certain day every week.
Participant: That’s very helpful, thank you.
Sandy: You’re welcome. And I’ve got…let me tell you about a
product that I have coming out. It was supposed to actually be
ready for this call, but it will be out tomorrow. We’re having a little
hosting difficulties with my website. I’m doing a product on how to
repurpose your work, you know, do it once and get exposure and
get paid over and over again. And in there, I’ll have not only a
schedule of when we do things and how we do it taking advantage
of the most popular days to do it and when I say most popular I
mean when the material gets read the most.
For example, you may have noticed I send out my ezine every
Tuesday. There’s a reason for that and that’s because Tuesdays
through Thursdays are the most popular days to send out an ezine
that gets opened. Sending them out Monday and Friday, they
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have significantly lower read rates and then the weekends are just
not a good time.
And that’s largely because a lot of people take Mondays and
Fridays off. When they come back, they’re so overwhelmed
because they’ve taken a day off that they’re playing catch up and
in the process of playing catch up reading the ezine, building their
business is not something their doing. They’re answering their
phone calls. They’re dealing with their clients, so Tuesday through
Thursday has the highest readership. And then it has the highest
readership when you send it between the hours of 9:00 to 5:00 US
time, assuming your clients are US based.
Well, 9:00 to 5:00 US time really means 1:00 to 5:00 PM Eastern
Time because that covers the west coast in terms of their at work
for those who work the 9:00 to 5:00 shift, east coast they’re still at
work because anything that comes in overnight runs the risk of
going through that automatic delete, delete, delete, delete, delete
that people go through in the morning when they’re cleaning out
any junk or spam that’s came in overnight. They may catch you.
They may not. Sometimes they just get in the habit and you’re
deleted by mistake, so if you’re sending out ezines you want to
send them out Tuesday through Thursday 1:00 to 5:00 PM
Eastern Time to get the most high open rate.
159
I will be sending out more information on that and it explains, we
talked a little bit about the tools you need for repurposing, my ebook on repurposing and repackaging your materials includes all
of the tools that you need and rough costs in terms of the basics to
get up and going and get done.
I go into examples of resources boxes and give you phrasing and
words to use as well as discussing a whole host of ways that you
can reuse your articles and then ways that you can repackage the
material that you’ve reused from your articles. Wow, so many re’s
in there. You’ll get a link to that with the recording of this call
probably tomorrow afternoon. And does anyone have any
questions before we wrap up, anything else I can answer?
Participant: No. But I’d certainly like to thank you for the
information.
Participant: I would too. It’s been really helpful.
Sandy: You’re very welcome. And feel free, you know, if anyone
has any follow-up questions, my email is
[email protected]. Feel free to shoot me a question over
and I’ll answer it in the email that goes out tomorrow with the link
to this call and that way everybody can benefit from the response.
160
Well, I want to thank you all for hanging in with me. We’ve went
quite a bit over, but hopefully the information was useful to
everybody.
Participant: Very much so, thank you very much, Sandra.
Participant: Yes. Thank you for all the information.
Sandy: You’re very welcome.
Participant: Thank you from Reno, Nevada.
Sandy: Well, you’re very welcome, Reno. And this is
Massachusetts signing off then. Take care and I’ll speak to you
through the ezine.
Participant: Okay, bye-bye.
Participant: Okay, bye now.
Participant: Thanks Sandy, bye.
Sandy: Bye-bye.
161
APPENDIX A
Listing of Article Directories
162
ARTICLE SUBMISSION SITES
Site Name
101 Home Business
Aardvark Articles
Advertising Knowhow
Advertising Moms
All The Websites
Alumbo
ArriveNet Editorials
Article Avenue
Article Blast
Article Factory
Article Submissions
Article Time
Article Warehouse
Article World.net
Best Management Articles
Biz-ewomen
BOC Online
Business Highlight
Click Partners
Constant Contact
Content-Articles
EzineArticles
Idea Marketers
Michael Fortin's Copywriters Board
Money and Motivation
Search Warp
Self Growth
Submit Your Article
U.S, Web Pros
Valuable Content
Work at Home Articles
URL
http://www.101homebusiness.org
http://www.aardvarkarticles.net
http://www.advertisingknowhow.com
http://www.advertisingmoms.com
http://www.allthewebsites.org
http://www.alumbo.com
http://www.arrivenet.com
http://www.articleavenue.com
http://www.articblast.com
http://www.articlesfactory.com
http://www.articlesubmissions.com
http://www.articletime.com/
http://www.articlewarehouse.com
http://www.articleworld.net
http://www.bestmanagementarticles.com
http://www.biz-ewomen.com
http://www.boconline.com
http://www.businesshighlight.org
http://www.click-partners.com
http://www.constant-content.com
http://www.content-articles.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.ideamarketers.com
http://www.copywritersboard.com
http://www.moneyandmotivation.com
http://www.searchwarp.com
http://www.selfgrowth.com
http://www.submityourarticle.com
http://www.uswebpros.com
http://www.valuablecontent.com
http://www.workathomearticles.net
(c) 2007-2008 Sandra P. Martini
Your Username
Your Password
Comments
$37/mo, submits to other sites for you
163
APPENDIX B
Article Submission Schedule
164
ARTICLE SUBMISSION SCHEDULE
The following schedule is adhered to each week and insures that we don't miss any of the steps in my marketing plan.
Weekday
Description
Write article
Record article for podcast
Send out ezine
Post article to SandraMartini.com
Post article to submission sites
Post article to MySpace
Post article to SandrasPlog.com
Mondays
Mondays
Tuesdays
Thursdays
Thursdays and Fridays
Fridays
Fridays
(c) 2007-2008 Sandra P. Martini
Person Responsible
Sandra
Sandra
Gina
Gina
Gina
Gina
Gina
Comments
I write daily, but finalize on Mondays
VA who handles the technical aspect of
sending out my ezine
165
APPENDIX C
5 Simple and Easy Ways to Use Facebook to Market
Your Business
166
5 Simple and Easy Ways to Use Facebook to Market
Your Business
Facebook is another in a long list of social networking sites. There's MySpace,
LinkedIn, Ryze, etc.
Certainly too many to join and keep up with AND run your business at the same
time.
I spent some time playing around on Facebook this weekend and wanted to
share some of the ways you can easily market your business using it -- without a
lot of time or effort:
1. Include your website/blog link on your profile page.
By including links to your website and blog, you invite anyone who visits your
page to quickly and easily visit your website, opt-in page, blog, etc.
I even link to my MySpace page.
2. Post notes just like you would in an online forum.
Have something to share? Post a note on your or someone else's "wall" and
watch the responses come flooding in!
3. Invite people to your events.
167
Have an upcoming teleclass? Invite your friends, and their friends.
A friend of mine is holding a teleclass later today and she got about 45
registrants from Facebook alone (makes it worth the 5 minutes to post a notice!).
4. Use an RSS feed to show your blog entries.
Not only is this another effective way to repurpose your blog entries and reach
people who may not have known about you otherwise, it's done automatically for
you!
5. Set up groups which relate to your business, hobbies, etc.
You can join others' groups or set up your own and invite your friends to
participate.
As much as I enjoy MySpace, LinkedIn and some of the other sites, Facebook
has won me over as being the simplest to set up and most fun network out there.
Your Coaching Challenge
If you don't yet have a Facebook account, it's time to get one. Just visit
www.facebook.com to sign up for a f'ree account today!
And if you already have a Facebook account, how can you better use it to market
your business without a lot of time and effort?
168
Once you create the system, it runs automatically - take an hour this week to get
things going!
Copyright 2008 Sandra P. Martini.
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEBSITE? Please do!
Feel free to reprint any tip on your website, own newsletter or message boards.
Please write ©2008 Sandra P. Martini, The Automatic Business Coach & Mentor.
Get Sandra Martini's FREE "5 Simple Steps to Putting Your Marketing on
Autopilot" e-course/audio mini-workshop and her FREE small business success
how-to tips at www.SandraMartini.com.
169
APPENDIX D
Press Release Checklist
170
PRESS RELEASE CHECKLIST
Please complete this checklist BEFORE sending out (even online) any press
releases.
□ The press release must be on 8/12 x 11” paper (in the U.S.).
□ “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” or, if you would like it to be considered for
a certain day, you can state “FOR RELEASE ON VALENTINE’S DAY” is
in the upper left corner.
□ The upper right corner contains contact information and a phone number
someone will answer.
□ The release should is 1 ½ or double spaced.
□ There is an attention-grabbing headline.
□ The body has at least 3 sections: intro (not more than 2-3 sentences),
main section (can be one paragraph and then another with a good quote)
and closing.
□ The release ends with “###” centered at the bottom of the page.
□ The release is one page only.
□ The press release “tells”, advertising sells and this is NOT advertising.
171
Here are valuable resources
to support you in propelling your business
ever forward and upward...
172
Successful Entrepreneurs Share Their Stories...
42 successful entrepreneurs (including yours truly) share
their personal, profound stories and secrets for creating the
business and life of your dreams.
Included among the authors are: Alexandria Brown (the
"Ezine Queen"), Kim Duke (the "Sales Diva"), Ari Galper,
Fabienne Fredrickson, Christine Kloser...and many more!
Discover the secrets to unlocking practically ANY business or personal challenge you're
currently facing! You will learn:
~ How to use "soul power" to create a life of prosperity, passion and purpose and
contribute the unique gifts that only YOU can give the world.
~ How to build a million-dollar business (YES SERIOUSLY!) from scratch and without
having to slave, struggle or sell-out to get there.
~ Super marketing and sales secrets and truths that allow you to be yourself, live in truth
and sell more than ever before (and OH what a relief it is!)
~ Simple ways to stop "surviving" as an entrepreneur and start THRIVING...with more
health, wealth, love and happiness than you've ever imagined!
Kendra Todd (author of Risk and Grow Rich, and winner of the 2005 The Apprentice TV
show with Donald Trump) says:
"Success requires having the courage to take risks, and that means tapping into your
own personal power. The secrets and strategies revealed in Power and Soul will
shorten your entrepreneurial learning curve and help you make more money!"
Visit http://www.PowerAndSoul.com today to get your copy!
173
Are You Doing All The *RIGHT* Things and Still Not
Making Money as a Virtual Assistant or Consultant?
"How to Make Money as a VA" will teach you simple strategies
for making your VA or consultant practice a raving success!
Are you like most Virtual Assistants and Consultants...
~ Desperately clinging to clients that are either too demanding, unrealistic in their expectations or
don't pay on time for fear of losing them and having no clients?
~ Or do you wish you had ANY clients and lay awake at night wondering how you're going to
make your business a success so you don't have to get a 9-5 job and can still be there for your
family?
~ Working days and nights, but still don't feel like your business is moving forward?
Finally, "How to Make Money as a Virtual Assistant" Eliminates the Fluff and Gives You PROVEN
STRATEGIES for Building Your VA Practice!
For more information, please visit www.VAGuideToMoney.com.
174
“JUMPSTART MY EZINE” Teleseminar
If you’ve been struggling to get your ezine (email newsletter) out, this is the
teleseminar for you!
In only 4 weeks, you will go from dreaming about your ezine to actually sending it
out. It’s perfect for beginners and as a refresher for those who have just started
and want to learn some more tips and tricks.
Once you have completed this teleseminar, you'll have the information,
accountability and team support to get your ezine DONE! No more looking at it
sitting on your "to do" list and feeling that twinge of guilt as you force your eyes to
move to the next item.
IMPORTANT NOTE: I don't play around and I don't beat around the bush with
long-winded theories and unusable advice. I get straight to the heart of things,
telling you exactly what you need to know to create and send out your ezine.
Visit http://www.JumpstartMyEzine.com to learn more today!
175
About the author
Sandra Martini, a leading small business expert, coach and author, uses her
experiences (good and bad) and successes to teach solopreneurs and small
business owners smart, simple ways to work smarter, not harder while
implementing systems to increase their profits and have more freedom in, and
from, their businesses.
She regularly offers:
E-courses
FREE articles
personal coaching
group coaching
special reports
paid teleclasses
FREE teleclasses
E-books
....that help coaches, entrepreneurs, virtual assistants and service professionals
change the way they do business and truly turn their passions into profits. You
can learn more about these great resources at www.SandraMartini.com.
For FREE how-to articles and tips to help you work smarter, not harder while
increasing your profits AND to be notified of upcoming teleclasses and
workshops, sign up for Sandra’s weekly e-zine Success Strategies at
www.SandraMartini.com.
176
Turning Passions into Profits
After acquiring a strong background in project management, marketing and
finance, Sandra started consulting in 1995 and launched her first business
endeavor, The Red Pen, in 1996 in Washington, DC.
Her natural talent for getting things done and making things happen resulted in
Sandra consulting with clients such as the American Medical Association, Peace
Corps, Prudential Insurance and Seabury & Smith insurance underwriters.
After returning to Massachusetts, Sandra put her business on the backburner
and spent the next 7 years in the entertainment industry within "Corporate
America." In New England, the perception is often that success comes from
prestigious positions with large corporations.
Following the corporate path as Director of Operations for a nationwide satellite
television company, she learned a lot, but most especially that corporate life
wasn't for her. Sandra didn't want the commuting, corporate politics, and the
thought that someone else was benefiting from all her hard work – wanting
MORE, wanting FREEDOM, INDEPENDENCE, and PERSONAL SUCCESSES,
she began dedicating nights and weekends to rebuilding her business.
As a result, Sandra has been a very successful solopreneur for several years
now and wouldn't trade it for anything.
177
Her articles on productivity and time management, marketing, small business
management and finances have motivated readers worldwide and are published
regularly on hundreds of sites on the Web.
Sandra now lives in beautiful rural Massachusetts with her fabulous husband
Jerry, their three dogs and three cats and loves the freedom that her business
allows!
You can reach her at [email protected].
For free articles and resources, please visit www.SandraMartini.com.
178
DISCLAIMER AND TERMS OF USE AGREEMENT
(ALL THAT LEGAL STUFF)
The author and publisher of this tutorial and the accompanying materials have used their best
efforts in preparing this tutorial. The author and publisher make no representation or warranties
with respect to accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contents of this tutorial. The
information contained in this tutorial is strictly for educational purposes. Therefore, if you wish to
apply ideas contained in this tutorial, you are taking full responsibility for your actions.
Every effort has been made to accurately represent this product and its potential. Even though
this industry is one of the few where one can write their own check in terms of earnings, there is
no guarantee that you will earn any money using the techniques and ideas in these materials.
Examples in these materials are not to be interpreted as a promise or guarantee of earnings.
Earning potential is entirely dependent on the person using our product, ideas and techniques.
We do not purport this as a “get rich scheme.”
Any claims made of actual earnings or examples of actual results can be verified upon request.
Your level of success in attaining the results claimed in our materials depends on the time you
devote to the program, ideas and techniques mentioned, your finances, knowledge and various
skills. Since these factors differ according to individuals, we cannot guarantee your success or
income level. Nor are we responsible for any of your actions.
Materials in our product and our website may contain information that concludes or is based upon
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Forward-looking statements give our expectations or forecasts of the future events. You can
identify these statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts.
They use words such as :anticipate,” “estimate,” “expect,” “project,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” and
other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with a description of potential earnings or
financial performance.
Any and all forward looking statements here or on any of our sales materials ar intended to
express our opinion of earning potential. Many factors will be important in determining your actual
results and no guarantees are made that you will achieve results similar to ours or anybody
else’s, in fact no guarantees are made that you will achieve any results from our ideas and
techniques in our material.
The author and publisher disclaim any warranties (express or implied), merchantability, or fitness
for any particular purpose. The author and publisher shall in no event be held liable to any party
for any direct, indirect, punitive, special, incidental or other consequential damages arising
directly or indirectly from any use of this material, which is provided “as is”, and without
warranties.
As always, the advice of a competent legal, tax, accounting or other professional should be
sought.
The author and publisher do not warrant the performance, effectiveness or applicability of any
sites listed or linked to in this tutorial. All links are for information purposes only and are not
warranted for content, accuracy or any other implied or explicit purpose.
This manual is © 2007-2008 by Sandra P. Martini. No part of this may be copied, or changed in
any format, sold, or used in any way other than what is outlined within tutorial under any
circumstances.
179

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