Monday, October 18, 2010

Direct Selling and Blogger Moms…How Can We Work Together?

Direct Selling and Blogger Moms…How Can We Work Together?

I think this is a really great article on how to increase your sphere of influence out there on the internet. Take the time to find the right blog sites and get to know the blog host. Once you get to know the host and understand the purpose of the blog, you can decide how to present your opportunity and/or product via product reviews, contests, etc.

I urge you to connect with Jennifer Fong to receive updates from her blog on Social Media Marketing. She's very open with valuable, useful information as it relates to Direct Sellers.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Shaklee Independent Distributor

September 21, 2010

Ten Ways To Increase Your Twitter Followers:

1. Explain to your followers what retweeting is and encourage them to retweet your links. Retweeting pushes your @username into foreign social graphs, resulting in clicks back to your profile. Track your retweets using retweetisthttp://retweetist.com/.

2. Fill out your bio. Your latest tweets and @replies don’t mean much to someone that doesn’t know you. Your bio is the only place you have to tell people who you are. Also, your bio is displayed on Twitter’s Suggested Users page. Leaving it blank or non-descriptive doesn’t encourage people to add you.

3. As @garyveehttp://twitter.com/garyvee says, “link it up.” Put links to your Twitter profile everywhere. Link it on your Digg, LinkedIn, Facebook, blog, email signature, and everywhere else you live online. Also, check out the great feedburner-like badges from TwitterCounter for your blog.

4. Tweet about your passions in life and #hash tag them. Quality content coupled with an easy way to find it never fails. If others enjoy your content, they’ll add you. Learn more about #hash tagging here

5. Bring your twitter account into the physical world. Every time I give a talk, speak on a panel, shoot a podcast, present slides, or hand out business cards, I figure out a way to broadcast or display my twitter account.

6. Take pictures. Pictures are heavily retweeted/spread around. This one from US Airways Flight 1549 has been viewed 350,000+ times. For mobile pics use iPhone apps such as Tweetie or Twitterific , both which support on the go uploading.

7. Start a contest. @jasoncalacanis offered a free macbook air if he reached the #1 most followed spot. That never happened, but Jason added thousands of followers…brilliant.

8. Follow the top twitter users and watch what they tweet. Pay attention to the type of content they sent out and how they address their audiences.

9. Reply to/get involved in #hash tag memes. search.twitter.com lists the hot ‘trending topics. Look for the #hash topics and jump in on the conversation (see #4 for links to #hash instructions).

10. Track your results. TwitterCounter will show you how many new users you’re adding per day and Qwitter will email you when someone unfollows you after a tweet.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

I haven't forgotten you!

I'm working on several projects simultaneously, but you can pull updates from my PWS at leightest.myshaklee.com or my facebook account - I try to update it daily!

Just friend me - leigh bordelon!

Monday, August 2, 2010

How to incorporate social media into your marketing strategy - Andrew Katz, BlueWave Computing LLC

How to incorporate social media into your marketing strategy - Andrew Katz, BlueWave Computing LLC

Using the internet to market your business

I'm often asked about using the internet to build your business. Lots of folks say "Hey, that's a great idea! I'll never have to leave home!" and others say "There's nothing good on the internet. Bah!"

In reality, for the Shaklee Distributor, it's more of a middle ground kinda thing. Let's be honest - if you build so much traffic to your site that you get thousands of hits a day, you'll be ovewhelmed by people that you have to train, follow up with etc. You will be lucky to get business from and/or retain even 1%. If you NEVER use the internet, you'll miss out on customers and prospects who do use the internet. The best thing I can tell you is to try to find some balance. It's good to direct traffic to your site - that way you can engage with people you'd never meet with "in real life" - off of the internet. I suppose it's a good thing it takes time to learn how to use internet marketing, build links and your page rank and all that...it gives you time to prepare for volume, learn from your mistakes (without blowing anything up) and find all the places you can streamline your efforts.

So, if you're going to use the net, where do you start?

1. Create an online presence. Something that talks about you, your specialty, and why someone should want to work with you. Sell yourself!

2. Sign up for some share accounts. Social Media has a ton of sites that you can join to share information with the great, unwashed masses. :D

3. Set up your auto-responder emails - have those in place before you publish your site.

4. Create some page where you provide useful information...whether it's an article, observations and thoughts on an article posted elsewhere, something you thought up all by yourself...content is key. Creating a page is easier than you think and less expensive - find a free one! You can also do what I'm doing - using one of my PWS pages.

5. Ask EVERY SINGLE PERSON YOU KNOW to share your article page on facebook, twitter, and the myriad of other share sites there are. Ask them to email it to their contact lists so that you get visits to that site. If anyone who visits your site has their own site, visit it - comment, see if it's appropriate for a link exchange.

6. Make sure you always provide a means by which someone can contact you. Email (not associated publicly to your street address - let's be careful, kids) or phone (again, not publicly associated to your street address), if they can't reach you, you can't develop a rapport with them. Have your "interview" questions ready...you need to know what they want before you can help them!

7. Find sites that will do a link exchange or even just link to your site without you linking to theirs. Search engines like that. How do you do it? Search the internet for content that is related to your article/content but not in competition with it. You can read more about link building here.

Note: If there is term in this article you don't understand, google it.

Good luck!

Friday, July 23, 2010

What are those "share sites" anyway?

July 20, 2010

I always tell you to "share" your site using the icons on the PWS...but, how do you know what they are? Well, I've gone through them and here's a short cut for the sites that i could either access or read (some were in other languages). Take a look and join a few to start sharing, finding conversations to get involved with and promoting your business!

Monday, July 19, 2010

How to win friends and influence people with social media networking

How to win friends and influence people with social media networking
by Lyndon Antcliff, 31 July 2009

To get results on social media sites you need great content with great headlines that will grab readers’ attention, make them want more and pass on a link to others. You will also need a significant network of friends and contacts or to be very nice to someone who has. Lyndon Antcliff is one such connector and here he gives 17 top tips to help you build your own social media network.

There is no shortcut for building a quality and sizeable network. It takes time. Use the following tips to make sure you make the most of your efforts:

Start with your own blog and make it the focal point of all your social media accounts with links to and from it. Your blog is where you show who you are and that you are a real person. People want to know about the people they do business with, and in a digital world your blog is the best place to show them.

Open accounts with Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Digg and LinkedIn. On each of these sites, find users who share your interests. There are thousands of social media sites, but start with the biggest.

Make sure people know about your social media accounts. Link to them on your blog, in your email signature and on your newsletters.

Find and join social sites for the specific markets you work in, eg WAYN for travel, Kaboodle for shoppers, Peak Performance for athletes, Sphinn for online marketing, MPORA for extreme sports, etc.

Pick an avatar that stands out. This is the photo or graphic accompanying your accounts and it is how you will be recognized. It is best to have a photograph or a graphic which stands out. If in doubt about what to use, keep it simple.

Make sure you have only one active account per social site. Admins take a dim view of people trying to manipulate their sites and it may get you and your website a ban.

Be open and accessible. Make all your social media accounts known and open to contact, comments and chat.

Be authentic. Don't fake it. Be yourself - you are what is unique and interesting about you.

The easiest way to be popular is to be helpful. Everyone loves someone who will help them at no cost. It also displays your expertise, builds your brand and reputation.

Be polite.

Make friends. This is harder than it sounds when you start out as there is little reason for someone who does not know you to be your friend. The key is to make yourself useful and to avoid being irritating. Searching for people with the same interests as you usually gets good results.

Spend a small amount of time each day on your accounts. Regular contributions over time will work and help you get noticed. The more people see you around, the more you will build trust.

Only present high quality stories to sites like Digg and StumbleUpon. Do not submit your own content initially. Vote on stories that are in your niche. Be seen to be the expert that you are.

Following a power user will not get you noticed as they already have too many followers to care about you. Follow people who are in your niche and have a desire to communicate and network.

Do not pay for votes or use automated processes to inflate your votes artificially, this may get you and your site banned and at best will only bring short term success.

Find interesting stories within your niche before anyone else. Use RSS or Twitter to subscribe to news and specialists sites whose content users of your social sites love. This is how power users got to be who they are.

Be persistent.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Sharing updates and promos with your friends

July 13, 2010

Learned something new for social media.

Distributors; encourage your customers to put up facebook posts and tweet about you, your service and your products!!

Find a blog site that reviews products and ask them to review one of your products, then post that review!

All of these comments and posts will create indexed pages for search engines, buzz about you to your friends' friends and blogger followers!

Monday, June 21, 2010

No More Internet Marketing Secrets: Keyword Research Strategies

No More Internet Marketing Secrets: Keyword Research Strategies

On Page Search Engine Optimization!

Another update from SEOBook:

On-Page SEO

A Ranking Dropkick From Google ... From #1 to #1,000 :(

In November of 2003 Google did a major update to their search relevancy algorithms, which was known in the SEO community as the Florida update. That update marked the day that SEO became hard. Prior to that point in time, on page optimization tips from many SEOs would have sounded something like this "use your keywords heavily everywhere." But that update changed how on-page-optimization works.

"Over Optimized" = Spammy

Keyword density is an ineffective measure of relevancy, so excessive repetition is not an effective SEO strategy. Many (formerly top ranked) pages and sites that use keywords too aggressively end up getting completely filtered out of the search results.

Google's Matt Cutts described the type of pages that disappeared in this video: Click here to see more!

Monday, June 14, 2010

Keyword Research Strategies

Keyword Research Strategies

Use the Most Relevant Keywords

Yesterday we discussed the precise targeting offered by keywords. But even if a keyword is valuable, it might not be valuable to your business. For example, if you are a dentist in Chicago, it is not worth the effort to try to rank for the word dentist. Why? 99% of the people searching for that phrase do not live near Chicago, and are irrelevant prospects. What you would want to rank for, if you were a Chicago dentist, would be things like

Chicago dentist Chicago dentists dentist in Chicago

Understanding Searcher Intent (read more here)

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

How Search Engines Work

Keyword Basics Part 1: How search engines work by Ken McGaffin, 28 May 2010

One of the most frequently asked questions from website owners is, "Why can't my site be found on Google?" They know it's important to appear in search engine results but they just don't know why it doesn't happen to them. This is Part 1 of Ken McGaffin's Keyword Basics series

Website owners may well be in awe of the 'black arts' of search engine optimization or puzzled by the complexity of it all. If they're unlucky they will have paid out money to some snake oil salesman guaranteeing to get them to the top of Google's search rankings in 48 hours - and been sorely disappointed with the lack of traffic that results.

Most search engine optimizers are highly ethical, professional people but they do tend to keep their cards close to their chest.

The big secret is there is no big secret.

Read the rest of Ken's article here.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Free Web Banner Creator

Create Free Web Banners!

BannerFans.com


April 21. 2010


I wanted to share this amazing website, where you can make your own banners for iTrack. I like it because you can create your own custom hyperlink-able images with text and everything! Go on - get creative!



Tips: Once you create your banner, use the update banner button to show your changes. Once you've finished, use the Get Codes button to download the Code for webpages/blogs/Myspace. Use the HTML link (pws) or Source code to paste the banner into the page.





BannerFans.com







March 9, 2010


iTrack training at 10 am pst. Importing contacts and an open call.


Training in Memphis is Sold Out!













Thursday February 25, 2010


Social Media Revolution


What are you doing to get involved in social media marketing? Take a look at this video - I promise you WILL get Fired Up!













Wednesday February 10th




If you attended my iTrack training class in Bellingham, Wa last week, please take a moment to take this quick survey!



Tuesday, January 26th


Blogging


If you are going to create a blog for business purposes, here are some questions you'll need to answer before you get started:





  1. Who are you? What is your online presence?

  2. Who is your audience?

  3. What is your blog's unique selling point?

  4. What traffic building solutions will give you the best return on your investment (your time is money!!)

  5. How are you going to convert casual blog readers into loyal subscribers?


You can find the answers to these questions and more just by 'googling' these questions. Chris Garrett also has a great looking book to help you if you're interested.




Saturday, January 23




Just finished my presentation at Future Masters on Building your business online. Feel free to take a look at the powerpoint. Click the link, then scroll to the bottom of the page and download!



Friday, January 15th




In addition to being able to use the videos on youtube posted by fcshaklee, I have also posted videos under the user name leighbshaklee.






Friday, January 8th