Brendon Burchard is right when he says people are uncomfortable talking about making money – especially off their message. They WANT to do it and NEED to do it, but they’re uncomfortable talking about it. I am too, but it’s natural and necessary. We need to put income in our pockets to sustain the message.

One way to “make money more quickly” online is with promotional partners. This can be an affiliate who registers to *sell your product for a commission*. A promotional partner can also be someone you joint venture with where you combine forces to sell a product or service – anyone that has an audience, that aligns with your message, that can help promote you. Collaboration is KEY and there are a few things you need to be educated about to make the most out of gaining these promo partners.

I’m laying out these insights below under the assumption that you are to do one of two things:

1. You have a product you want others to sell and once it’s ready, you’ll ask people to support you. (affiliate)
2. You have an IDEA for a product and you are going to invite someone to partner with you to make it a success. (jv partner, joint venture partner)

Insight #1 about Promotional Partners: Make the Product (or Idea) Count

You can’t just create a product in day then expect people with big email lists to want to promote it. I know that I will only ever tell my audience about something that I truly believe in and know would make a positive impact. Spend the time to make the product the best you can – insane value and professionally packaged. If you want to collaborate and build a product with a partner instead, then do your research and flush out your ideas first, THEN approach your desired jv partner. Show your promotional partners how badly you want this, and how much you deserve their help.

Insight #2 about Promotional Partners: Your Message must Align with Theirs

If my whole business is about generating income off of Google AdWords and you are offering meditation CDs, we are not in alignment with each other’s messages. You could approach me because I have a loyal and big email list to promote to, but I still wouldn’t promote you because your CDs don’t align with my message. It’s important to connect with industry leaders that can relate to what you are promoting. It must align naturally with their products and services and message.

Insight #3 about Promotional Partners: How to Ask?

This is the biggest question I get and the answer is mostly, “Just Ask!” … but there’s a touch more to it. First, know this will be a numbers game like anything else. You can’t target one person to help and if they say no, you give up. Make a list of 50 people that might align with your message and product (idea). Then do your due diligence and see the way they speak to their audience – what are their key points – how do they ask for the order with their audience (soft, hard, etc.). Then use that information to your benefit and create a strategy around it. Email the potential promo partner and follow this type of sequence:

• Compliment them and let them know why you are excited about what they’re doing
• Explain that the more you read and researched them, the more you felt in alignment with their message
• Briefly explain who you are and what your message is
• Unveil your product or product idea
• Ask for the order in a way that is mutually beneficial: “I think that if we work together we can get our message out there in a bigger way and help more people. Can we setup a time to discuss my ideas?”

The whole email should NOT be long. You’ll have to work on refining your message so it’s short, concise and to the point (not in a pitchy way but in a super genuine, want-to-help-the-world way).

Insight #4 about Promotional Partners: How Much Is Too Much?

We are all extremely busy. When you look at the people you target, expect them to be 2-5 times busier than you. They have been building their empire, they have dozens of products, tons of people contacting them all the time. They will not be excited to do MORE work just because you need help and have a nice message. You want to make it as EASY as possible for them to help you. For example, one key to success for an Amazon Bestseller Book Campaign is to write ALL marketing materials for the promotional partners so they just have to copy/paste on the book launch date. We write multiple emails, dozens of Facebook posts and Twitter tweets, etc. We want to make it super easy for people to share our message and then our chances for success increase!

Promotional partners IS the way to do business this year. I’m telling you… Promo partners and guest blogging (more to come later) should be a constant priority for you. Above Facebook – above it all. This is the way to MUCH faster results.

Your Challenge:

Start today by doing 1-hour of research online. Open an excel spreadsheet and start keeping a record of interesting websites that could be potential avenues for you. Look at how often the website owner is blogging, how active are they on social networks, are they consistently building their business, do they have great testimonials, etc. Just keep making record of all the websites that are in alignment with you and look to be doing things right. Then the next time you can carve out an hour (ahem, make this a priority) you’ll go back into each site and study the website owner even more to carve out their message and see what their interests are. You’ll basically just keep building your case until you’re ready to take action and ask for the order.

Today is the day though… it’s time to take action!

If you thought this article was helpful, I would love to hear your feedback and help me share it on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. If you are interested in writing for InsightfulDevelopment.com, click here to learn about out Guest Writing program.

The best way to reach a large number of people and get your message across on the internet today is through video but not just any video. It must be a video that captures and keeps your audienceʼs attention.

Video is considered by Google as a higher form of engagement than a simple blog or article and ranks higher in the ratings. Therefore you have a better shot at reaching more people if you do a video rather than a simple article. And the more people that watch your video, the higher you will rank on Google and the more likelihood people who are searching in your niche market will see a link to your video and watch it.

'Evolution of Dance' Example Viral Video

6 Key Elements of a Viral Video

So how do you make your video go viral so you rank as high as possible on Google?

1. Keep your video short and to the point.
2. Keep it simple and entertaining.
3. State the problem in your niche market you are going to help them solve right up front in the beginning of the video.
4. Give them useful information so that you move them from a place of no or little knowledge to a place of educated knowledge that puts them ahead in their industry.
5. Choose a title with key words – ones that captures your niche marketʼs attention and offers a solution to their problem.
6. Create a coordinated attack with link bait so that you rank on the first page of Google within 24 hours of posting your video.

Youʼre probably wondering what a coordinated attack is. Itʼs when you post your video on as many social networking sites as possible and get large numbers of people to link back to your video and share it all on the same day. The way to do that is to create link bait, something that causes people to click on your link to watch and share your video.

7 Steps to Create a Coordinated Attack

1. Post your Video on YouTube and other social networking videos sites such as Vimeo.
2. Post it on Blog sites, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networking sites.
3. Put a Call to Action in it asking people if they liked the video or found it useful to please share it with others.
4. Email it to your mailing list and ask them to share it with others.
5. Do online press releases with a link to your video.
6. Contact as many people as possible, especially people who have large email mailing lists and social networking audiences to post, email and blog about your video as well.
7. Offer link bait, such as an ethical bribe offering more knowledge, a free gift, or a chance to win a contest in order to get them to link back to your website and share your video.

When Google sees a large number of people linking to a video within a 24 hour period, it views that as a high form of engagement and moves the video quickly up in rankings.

Did you find this post helpful? Lend us a hand in getting the
word out by sharing this on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
Let’s show Beth some love.

Beth Rosen is a film producer, #1 best selling author and business entrepreneur who offers various products, services, courses and private coaching designed to accelerate your path to success and happiness. She is currently offering a unique online movie-making course called The Back Door to Hollywood which teaches you how to make a professional movie/video, how to stand out from the crowd and how to create your own lucky break. For more information, please visit www.BethRosen.com.

This customized URL is called a vanity URL and this same feature can be achieved with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube!

Google+ doesn’t have this option integrated into Google+ just yet, but I’ve discovered a Plan B that achieves the same result. Check it out:

Step 1. Go to your Google+ and click on your name to get to your profile page.

Step 2. In the top URL bar you’ll see the link to your profile page is something that looks like this: https://plus.google.com/u/0/103959927931081174806/posts?hl=en

Step 3. You’ll want to copy the long strong of numbers only (https://plus.google.com/u/0/103959927931081174806/posts?hl=en) — this is your number ID

Step 4. Next go to www.Gplus.to and you’ll see a screen that looks like this:

Step 5. On the left field add in your desired username, then paste in your Google+ number ID (the series of number from Step 3) into the right field. Click Add.

If the username is available still, then you’ll be all set! This will give you a new Google+ vanity URL until Google comes out with a built-in feature into their social network.

Check me out: http://Gplus.to/AmberLudwig

If you thought this post was helpful, please share with others so they may get the same great tip!

So many people have this dilemma. The next step is to rush, rush through logo and website design, rush to add content to the site, rush to turn that sign over to read “Open for business!”

My suggestion? Ask your web developer (how do you know if your web person is any good? click here) to put up a blog with a decent free theme. Someplace you can go to and start blogging now. You don’t have to have your logo done, web design done – nada. Just get “something” up and start the race. The key is to write content while you build the site – then add the design and branding in within the next month or two when you’re all set. This way you generate traffic NOW instead of waiting another two months (that would be super frustrating for you).

The #1 way to get a LOT more traffic and a LOT more results is to blog your heart out. Get to 100 blog posts as fast as possible. This will be key in starting to build your online platform! Adding content alone will give you a big increase in traffic. The faster you want results, the faster you should write blog posts with good valuable content.

Then people come to your site and love your blog post content. At that time, they will want to know what else they can get from you. So, what you want to work on creating is a KILLER good “free introductory offer” to give away in exchange for people signing up to your email list. It has to be something everyone wants NOW. (Such as the “7 things you are doing every day to kiss your financial future good-bye”) Something that everyone wants, today.

Let’s say you make a 7-15 page, beautifully designed and formatted eBook. I can help with the design and formatting (which needed to be done AFTER your branding and logo design so you have congruency). Once your eBook is ready (let’s say you have a goal to knock out the content in 7-10 days – design takes 2-3 days usually), now you have a high value product free on your site. Now you are leaps better at capturing leads.

Then you go to your calendar and make a note that once or twice a month, you send a high-value email to that email list so they are staying connected to you and interested in you.

Next, you start working on creating a $97 product. Maybe it is a 2 DVD or CD set (that is beautifully packaged – now that you have a brand and logo) and a small workbook. So you now funnel people from your free eBook to your $97 product that people can’t live without.

Then, you create the outline for a really great 4-8 week teleseminar. One a month maybe where you deliver a process or method, and then give the listeners a challenge to go execute on. Then end with a Q&A. Charge $300 per person.

Now you have a TON of free content from your blog and eBook (and other things you’ll naturally be a part of such as guest blogging, radio interviews, podcasting maybe), you have your rockin $97 product and teleseminar recordings. Now it’s time to start building your membership site (which could take 6-12 months to create). You give a high value call once a month, plus access to all of your content and interviews, etc. You charge $50-100 a month.

etc etc. By this point, you may not have even realized it, but you have an online platform now!

Now backing up, by the time your website design is done, set a goal for the number of blog posts you want to publish and have your eBook content done (or maybe the whole final eBook done).

Once that is done and design is complete, package it all together and then you work to create that next product to generate good starting income. You don’t need to wait for the perfect website – I can’t stress that enough.

Design is your brand, it is what people will see to connect with you, trust you and remember you. Let the content be so great that they don’t even care if you have a design.

Anything worthwhile doing takes time.

My CHALLENGE for you today is:

• Sit down and write out 30 ideas for topics you could write about that is related to your message or topic. Just brainstorm – free write. There’s no need to make this perfect. When you are just getting started, I say “JUST WRITE” than focus so hard on what topic you need to write about to be perfect, perfect. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself to be perfect – just add value to people’s lives!
• Next, go to your calendar and write a reasonable and realistic schedule for how often you want to publish a blog post. Remember the goal is 100 posts as fast a possible. That could take you a year or 6 months – that is up to you. A good goal to start is twice a week. Then get used to that and up the ante again to 3 posts a week.
• Then, just start. It’s that easy, just “go”.

If you need help or have questions about building out your online platform, I would like to invite you to make a Facebook post below. If you want advice or direction, I’m always more than happy to share what I know. Thank you in advance for your interaction:

“I just started reading your ebook – Online Evolutions – and I wanted to let you know that it is truly inspirational! You talk about many of the same principles that I applied to my sales regime and daily routine early in my career. I must say that I needed a “refresher course”. Keep writing and offering up principles to live by!”  — Joyce K

“Thanks Amber! I got the hard copy of the (Online Evolutions) book in the mail yesterday. Thanks for your note. You are so great! I am excited! Thanks again! You rock!!!! “  — Sarah

I’ve been asked throughout this year, “When’s the next volume coming??” Thank you all for your patience as I could get this formatted and prepped for you. Today I can announce, “IT’S HERE!”

I had a ton of fun putting together Online Evolutions, Volume 2. I got so inspired I even started Volume 3 already!

So What is Online Evolutions 2 Anyway?

If You – Or Someone You Know – Wants to…

• How to create an eBook or product that sells or can go viral
• 21 tips to improve online efforts for better results
• Learn about eCommerce and selling products online, effectively
• Get over anxiety of not knowing what to do next or how to do it
• Learn key design and social media strategies every website owner should know

…Then Online Evolutions 2 has become one of the most important purchases you can make today.

Online Evolutions 2 is a 67-page collection of my top training articles and includes an impressive lineup of do-it-myself strategies that can give you the progress you’re wanting to boost your online status!

What if I need more convincing?

Online Evolutions, Volume 2 is really only for those of you who already know my work, the value I provide and don’t need convincing. However, you can download Online Evolutions 1 for FREE in the right sidebar to get a taste of the value. Then I am confident you will come back to look at Volume 2 as it holds 67 PAGES of more, more, more value.

Oh ya, almost forgot, I have a SPECIAL surprise for you…

I don’t know what got into me as I was finalizing this eBook, haha, but I got a wild itch to throw in a special surprise to those of you who have purchased the downloadable eBook OR the hard copy version. The catch is, you have to READ the book in order to get the surprise! Somewhere in one of the 67 pages I have a section blocked off a small section that has a link. This link will lead you to a special surprise that will absolutely make an impact on the way you look at your website and the way it performs for you. That’s all I can say!

So, what are the options to get  your hands on Online Evolutions 2?

Option 1.  You can get the Instant-Download eBook version for only $29.97

Option 2. You can get a printed, signed, hard copy version for $39.97 and get the eBook free while you wait a couple days for me to ship the book to you.

Once you get your copy, please let me know your thoughts. All I want to do is provide value to you and make your life easier. I know we are in an Information Age where you are bombarded with hundreds of “To-dos” and “Must-dos”. My goal is to tell you what is actually important and how to execute easily and without spending gobs of money. We must all pool together and help support each other toward success. From me to you – enjoy what I have prepared for you! 

The bummer is that most business owners THINK they have a clear message. They think all they need is “more web traffic” and everyone will buy from them. If you are not getting the sales you want, you may want to revisit your message. It could be confusing or not worded correctly, which creates a lack of interest and no one buys.

When developing/refining your message, think first about your audience. What do you want them to think? Feel? Do? Feelings are what motivate people to act. That feeling may be compassion, concern, anger or joy. One of your goals in delivering your message should be to spark a feeling, whether it’s pride, frustration or outrage.

It’s smart to come up with three talking points, stories and examples that support your key message. These may change based on the needs and interests of your audience.

Take out a sheet of paper and go through the following exercise I have developed for you (free hand suggested, not on computer). It is extremely important you follow the sequence! Start by answering question #1 to the best of your ability, then move on to #2.

• What is your overall passion?
• What are your objectives? What do you want to have happen in your company?
• What products or services do you offer, do you want to develop?
• Who is your audience?
• Develop a mission statement (refine and rewrite until it is crystal clear).
• Why are you committed to this mission? How will you show your commitment?
• Why is this mission important to your audience?

• Use the above information to create an elevator pitch (a few sentences to explain your company and passion to a prospect in 30 seconds or less!). Refine and edit until you have it down pat and feel 100% confident in your pitch.
• List three supporting points/benefits for your elevator pitch.
• List three examples/stories/facts that support this pitch (good to have this in your back pocket for when the prospect asks you for more information).

• Use your elevator pitch as a foundation to write a 15 word or less power statement. Explain your company vision and services in 15 words or less. (This is a great sentence to use in your social network bio section which usually allows for 140 characters or less.)

• Finally, use your power statement to develop a new branding tagline which needs to be 5 words or less ideally, no more than 7 words.

If you follow this sequence (and all instructions above) you will feel more empowered than you ever have about the direction of your business. You will have renewed energy and confidence to become the industry authority and expert in your niche. I would suggest you not take another step in your company unless it’s this one. Everything stems from your message and branding tagline.

Today I’d encourage you to go download Marty’s white paper which is another one of his must-read whitepapers, but also to watch the video below by Napoleon Hill and really let his nuggets soak in. Take notes, watch it again and again, then apply these pearls of wisdom and watch your business and personal life grow in the most positive direction!

Yes! It’s called Google Alerts and it’s free to use.

Google Alerts isn’t exactly a new concept, but it’s one that could be of great importance to you in the future. Every single day the Internet is exploding with new information, ideas, start-ups, training modules, video, membership sites, blogs, social networking tools… the list goes on and on. Wouldn’t it be nice to “follow” the latest updates for certain keywords that you choose?

Here’s how it works:

 
You sign up for as many keywords or keyword phrases as you want into the Google Alerts system. You can monitor blogs, videos, news, groups or web (only), OR select “comprehensive” and get updates on all of the above. You can get email notifications daily, weekly or as it happens. Then you hit “Create Alert” and bam! You get email notifications of the latest on the web for that keyword you selected.

Here’s a screenshot of what you’d receive: (click on the image to zoom)

Instructions to Set Up Google Alerts:

1. Go to http://www.google.com/alerts
2. Type in the keyword or keyword phrase you want to be updated about (ie. internet marketing, health care reform, credit, etc.)
3. Select the type of news update you are notified about. If you select ‘video’ only updates with video on that keyword will be emailed to you. If you select ‘comprehensive’ you will be notified on all areas of the drop down list.
4. Select the frequency of updates: daily, weekly, or as-it-happens
5. Type in your email address and click “Create Alert”
6. You will be taken to a dashboard of alerts. There you can manage all alerts or add new ones.

It’s that easy! Google Alerts is an easy way to stay up-to-date and make yourself known as a leader in your industry.

This 3rd post in the 3-part series concludes “Blast From the Past” week where I deliver the top insights and training pieces I’ve written since starting this website. Print them out, share then on Facebook/Twitter, or just enjoy the content!

I hope you enjoyed this short series. Sometimes with blogs, new visitors just come in and don’t look back on all the incredible information written about in the past. Bookmark these posts if you want to refer back to them anytime.

Post 1:

5 Ways to Create a Blog Post Strategy to Gain Exposure and More Traffic: You can have all the education in the world, but it’s the execution that really starts your training. So today I share some of the things I’ve done to keep me on mark with my goals to getting traffic, getting subscribers, and just plain enjoying the ride…

Post 2:

14 Online Product Ideas You Can Create Cheaply to Make Money Online: Even if you are still in the stage of dreaming what it would be like to have your own website, it’s important to actively think about what you can create that is of value to others. Each person has a unique view on life and their particular set of issues to overcome. So, yes, you too can create a product or series of products to sell online and feel good about it….

Post 3:

Low-to-No Cost Methods for Driving Traffic: Not everyone can afford thousands of dollars to spend on hiring a web development and marketing team to help them keep up with the more than 200,000,000 blogs out there alone. I was just on a forum and saw this question: Does anyone have any suggestions for low to no cost methods for marketing the service offered by one’s website? I thought I’d share my reply for you to also benefit from……

Post 4:

75-pages of Step-by-Step Instructions & Strategies to Answer Your Online Questions and Inspire You to Take Action in 2010!: InsightfulDevelopment.com started from a passion to give back. I have had incredible mentors that taught me huge amounts about both online and offline business success. Maybe you’ve read some of my training pieces, but you haven’t read them all. Online Evolutions is a compilation of my 30 most valuable training articles, reordered and expanded to benefit you even more. Volume 1 covers a wide range of introductory and advanced strategies for both online and offline arenas. I set it up this way because…

Post 5:

Starting an Internet Business with Low Budget and Little Starting Knowledge: You have quite the journey ahead, but it’s absolutely possible. I can tell you that getting your business online or even starting a blog would be a smart move…it’s just where things are headed. Starting a blog is honestly your best bet on a low budget. You can start your own WordPress blog (wordpress.com) for free – it will just take time. You can create your own look and feel by choosing a theme. A blog is sort of an online…

Post 6:

What is a Backlink and How to Get Lots of Them!: A backlink is basically a link to your website from another website (an inbound link). Backlinks are key to good Search Engine Optimization (SEO)! The more links you have pointing to your website, it conveys a message to Google and Bing about how important your website is. The more important your website is, the higher you rank in search engines. Another reason backlinks are key is because…

Post 7:

Protect Your Business By Increasing Security on Social Networks and Your Website: If you are a website owner or social networking addict, listen up here! There *are* spammers out there who get a kick out of flooding your Inbox with Viagra and other offers. There *are* disgruntled freelance web people that have the knowledge to cause a hiccup (or greater) in your business online. There *are* hackers that could do anything to your website they could almost image…if they wanted. Yes, a very scary and harsh reality. I lay it out for you because I don’t want you to be the next “good person through and through that gets a surprise and a setback” – literally and mentally….

Please share this post on Facebook and/or Twitter so others can benefit from the same info! Cheers!

Note: Google ranks a page or post of your website based on over 200 sets of criteria. Backlinks are merely one of them. But, a key one.

How to Gets Lots of Backlinks

Spoiler alert: There are no quick-to-implement or “overnight success” tips here. If you’re looking to get 1,500 backlinks in a day, go to the other websites that look like scams. Then you’ll find that just like every other idea relating to Internet Marketing… it takes time and consistency to build a large network of backlinks.

So, the key is to get your website URL on other websites, right? If you are on Facebook, you’ve probably listed your web URL in your profile – that counts as a backlink. You’re liking this idea already aren’t you. Twitter, OnePage, LinkedIn, DooID.. the list goes on.

Once you’ve covered all the major social networks you’ll have a dozen or so links. Now it’s time to dig deeper. One method you may have heard of is “link exchanging”. That means you approach me and say “I’ll put your link on my site if you put my link on your site”. You can usually tell when this happens on a website because you’ll see a page called “Recommended Links” or something close. It has a list of links on a page, usually stuffed under a Resources section. This *does* count as a backlink.

If your web designer or developer added a link on the very bottom of your site saying something like “Site Design by blah blah” – this is a backlink, helping to increase their search engine ranking and traffic. That’s not a bad thing either. If you love your website and it was a job well done, it hurts no one to give them credit (spoken like a true Internet professional!).

Here’s a goodie – listen up! Comment on someone’s blog (wink wink). Almost every blog I’ve seen has a comments section where you can have the option of adding your website URL. That counts as a backlink! Think if you just add one comment on 50 blogs related to your industry – that’s 50 backlinks and you’re well on your way. If you’re going to leave a comment on someone’s blog though, try to make it one that adds to the quality of the post content. This helps future readers get educated even more and gets them a LOT more interested in checking out your site!

Along this line of thinking, you could also write a quality blog post, and send it to a blog owner asking if they’ll publish your post as a Guest Blogger. Then you can most often add in a 1-2 sentence author signature at the end. Count another backlink.

Writing articles and syndicating them on article sites. There are hundreds of article syndication and press release websites on the web. If you add 1-3 articles on each site that’s huge progress! Note, check to see ahead of time if the site allows links in the article content OR if they allow an author signature line. If you can’t do either, leave fast.

I’ve seen some websites where in the sidebar, they have a section that says “Link to Me” with the HTML code ready and waiting for you to copy and paste into your website. It would look something like:

<a href=”http://insightfuldevelopment.com” target=”_blank”>Amber’s Business Website</a>

There are a lot of different ways you can get backlinks back to your website. I’ve even had people link to my site because they loved the quality of my content and wanted to share a post on their site. Very cool.

Creating backlinks should be a steady priority, but not THE priority. I vote it’s more important to write quality content often and build your website rankings that way. Just the other day I made a blog post on a topic and within 4 hours was ranked #3 in Google for that keyword. It happens when you focus on playing the Internet Marketing rules for success.

Feel free to share your thoughts on ways you get backlinks for your website. Otherwise, get to work!