Training Archives » JonMcCaw.com | Social Media Tips & Strategies For New Business Owners

Building A Brand As An Entrepreneur

Should Your
Business Be Branded?

Have you ever thought about building a brand for your online business? I have seen so many people just jump in and start sharing links without building that consistent brand that people will know like and trust.

Building a brand in today’s world is not only necessary but it’s a requirement in my opinion. As a newbie in online marketing, I found myself pretty much getting nowhere. I had a tough time getting sales and that was a real bummer.

I attended a Marketing Mastery Event in Las Vegas, Nevada back in 2017. My wife and I went through some pretty awesome training on building a brand and how it literally makes you the authority of your niche.? The way this material was presented was not only on point but also showed us why to build our brand.

When you’re branding is on point your following will grow.? Whether it’s blogging, online marketing, or an offline business.? This is how they (your crowd) associate you and can find you in a busy world.

Why Should We Brand Our Businesses?

Imagine going into a storefront and wanting to buy a cheeseburger, soda, and french fries. You don’t really know anything other than what you followed your nose to find. But you know they sell all of these things you desire to have for lunch.

You have just 3 seconds to make a great impression online. Use it wisely. Click To Tweet

Now you have a choice to go to a branded burger establishment or the one you’re in. Most would leave and go to something that they already know because change is tough for people. But if the place you’re in had some sort of branding. They would make more sales because if they like the food, they would tell others about their experience.

This is why I’m also pretty jazzed up that you’re looking to branding yourself. It’s a subject that intermediates and newbies alike are searching online. Essentially, anyone that does not have a brand needs to build a brand immediately.

Being that it’s the new entrepreneur and even some of the more seasoned (intermediates) searching these terms, it’s a viable topic to talk about here.

Building A Brand From The Start

If you were to go to google and search for keyword terms about this topic you would probably see stuff like the following:

How to build a brand
How to build a brand online
How to build a brand on social media
How to build a brand on Twitter
How to build a brand on Facebook
How to build a brand fast
How to build a brand on Instagram

You get the point. People are searching for brands which they can trust.

Because, thousands type this type of question into Google, Yahoo or Bing. You’ll want them to search for your brand there as well.

Branding All Entrepreneurial Endeavors

The last part of the equation is you, the entrepreneur. Let’s dig in so that you can build your brand even if you’re brand new in business.

Are you thinking about branding your business? If not, I would encourage you to do so. Branding will bring about a professionalism that a business needs to be taken seriously. It will also give you a better believe in what you’re doing because, let’s face it, most people have more respect for a branded business.

The general opinion of a self-branded website is that it’s not a fly by night operation looking to make a quick buck. You’re in this to help people become successful too!

What Elements Do You Need To Build Your Brand Marketing?

First off, you should be already aware that if you’re posting on social media, or talking to other people offline – you’re already a brand.

That said…

Your next step is to focus your brand on something that you believe in so that customers can pick you out of a crowd from your branding. Don’t just pick something out of thin air, to begin with. Starting with something that is a passion and you can talk for days about would be your first logical step towards branding yourself and your company.

Other questions you should have answers to are:

What am I all about?
What’s my passion?
What do I want to do that I can talk about all the time?

After you have answered those questions, it’s time to move over to your next step in this process.

Building a brand can skyrocket your conversions and get you to your goals much faster Click To Tweet

Step 2 – Building A Brand

When I started with online marketing, I thought it was going to be a breeze and that it really doesn’t matter if I branded myself or not. Afterall, that would come out in my videos and my social media post, right?

This is just a half-truth in the world of social media.

What you should do when you’re building a brand for someone or yourself is to go through the questions above and then pick 3-5 people who are authorities in your niche. Follow them and pick out what they are doing that is working.

These people could be competitors, influencers or people already doing what you want to be like.

That’s what you want!

People will find you and already have a great perception of you and your business.

Think about who your customers are and why they would want to work with you in business. After you figure that out, go get some ideas from other brands on logo's, colors, and taglines. Click To Tweet

Step 3 – The Elements Of Building Your Brand

Tagline – This is where you get to tell your customer how you can help them
Colors – Figure out the colors you want to use that both you and your customer will align with. You’ll need to get the hex codes for each color. Typically there are 3 colors used in a brand.
Logo – Can be your name or a graphic representation of you.com
Font(s) – This is where you separate yourself from the pack by selecting 1 or 2 fonts that you use in your business.

These are the basic elements to get your brand up and running like a boss! The tools that I love to use to accomplish the graphics side of branding are, Photoshop CC 2018, Canva, and PicMonkey

As you delve into these elements you’ll want to consider if you want to appeal to male, female, old, young, rich, poor, love to travel, etcetera.

Once you have figured out what your colors are and who you’d like to appeal your brand to fitting. The next step is to get photos done.

Now the question is do you want to get professional photos or are you starting out with a smaller budget and just going to use a friend to take a photo with a camera phone or if you know someone that has a DSLR and is willing to take a few shots of you.

Step 4 – Stepping Into Your Brand

This is where the rubber meets the road and gets very exciting. You have a business that has declared to the world what you stand for and even more important, what you do not stand for.

If you try to sell to everyone, you'll sell to nobody. Click To Tweet

The action step here is to start building a following. Find 3-5 topics that you can talk about such as blogging, branding, marketing, Facebook, Instagram, Social Media.

Once you have built your following to 1,000 on ONE PLATFORM (social media is not ONE PLATFORM). You can then find another platform to build a following on. This is very important because this will help you stay laser focused in your business. You’ll begin to find things that work on that one platform and things that do not work.

This is how you master your platform and when you have built that following. Put together a short pdf of what you learned about your first platform that you have mastered. Your followers will love it and you can build more of a following with that short PDF.

Step 5 – Building Your Brand – Email List

You’ve probably heard it said from many successful marketers and I’ll say it here too!

If I had it to do all over again, I’d start building my email list from the very beginning!

Why would they say this to you from the other side of building a list?

I’m going to take a wild stab in the dark 🙂

They see how much more they have left on the table by not building an email list. Don’t make the same mistake. Build your email list now!

Last tip before I close.

BONUS: When you’re out there on social media, provide value but don’t give away the house. In other words, give them enough to build curiosity. Then ask for their email address to give the rest of the information. You’ll find that your email list will start growing faster than you thought and it won’t cost you a dime.

Now, go out and take action.

This is so important that I think it’s worth a tweet:

Build a posting strategy for ONE social media outlet, then MASTER IT. Only when you have mastered one social media strategy should you move over to a different social media platform. #Branding #Marketing Click To Tweet

When I say ‘mastered’ I mean you’re making $1k-5k from that outlet alone.

How To Answer The Question: “How Much Money Have You Made So Far?”

It’s that dreaded question that almost every new business owner frets. Its a question that, quite frankly has too much anxiety living around it. That question is “how much money have you made so far?”

If you listen to those that have just started you’ll quite often hear them say:

What do I do if they ask me how much I have made? They won’t want to join me if they know I just started and haven’t made anything yet.

Another thing that people may consider is to blatantly lie about how much they have made. So, this presents itself as an issue that needs to be corrected.

Here’s a quick Facebook Live video that I did to answer this very question.

How To Answer The Question, “How Much Do You Make?”

It’s not hard to just be real and face the fact that you’re on the same path that someone below you will have to travel. Be genuine with the people you talk with throughout your day. It’s actually quite attractive to see and hear the truth spoken.

How you answer people's #honest questions determines how far you go in #business and in #life Click To Tweet

This subject of how much money have you made so far is a small subject to write a blog post about. However, when you know the truth about how to answer this question, you’ll know the secret behind success in life.

Now if you’re not a video viewer and just want to scan through this blog post to get the answer to how you should respond to the question of “how much money do you make in your business?” I’ll let you in on the best response…

…EVER!

The Golden Nugget

Here it is…

I’m just starting out but I’ve connected with mentors who have been guiding me through the steps to making my first 6 figure income. Now I can give you access to these mentors and shorten up your learning curve and get you making money right from the start. The choice is yours!

I know you can just tweet this out or copy and paste it into a marketing email. But if people like, know, and trust you, they may also know that you wouldn’t talk to them like this. So find a way to convey this in your own voice. Simple as personalizing it to your personality.

Since this post is all about brevity, you’ll want to remember these guidelines.

Be completely honest. (honesty pays HUGE dividends)
Show your prospect that it’s not about the money you have made but how you can help THEM make money.

Most of the time when a question like this is answered, the prospect is either terrified of success in their life, or it’s a safe way to say no to you.

Conclusion To “How Much Money have you made?”

If you provide value to your prospects you will see much more in conversions than if you just say you’re just starting out. Give them a reason to join you. Also, remember that just because they said no to you now doesn’t mean they said no to you forever. Keep being a person of integrity and providing value. Some will join you later, some won’t.

I heard that it takes up to 7 times to present something to someone before making a decision. Those that quit after the 2nd or 3rd attempt are the ones that are part of the masses who fail most of the time.

Now if you found value in this post, please share and comment on this blog and go visit me on my Facebook fan page.

Have an abundant and prosperous day!

Tips To Make It Big In Home Business

It’s pretty awesome to see people that start a home business and want to make it big in home business. The sad part is that about 96% of them fail to make it anywhere near the level that they desired to make it to when they started.

So do most will fail at business… Online or Offline?

Before I get into the question of how to make it big in home business. I am going to give you a little background on where I fit into all this and why I’m writing about this topic.

I started out as a teen going door to door with the American way (Amway for short). It was a way for me to make a few extra bucks and help my parents out as well. however, that didn’t last too long as I was met with obstacles that I found too much for me to tackle at a young age. I was literally more into playing baseball during the summers.

Once I was able to sign up as a distributor of Amway at the ripe age of 21, things weren’t much different. One exception was that I had friends that helped me and we would have weekly meetings at a Denny’s to discuss business strategy. A local mastermind if you will. Today, these would be called meetups as we are all using the power of the internet and running zoom meetings or using Skype for personal one on ones.

As I saw no real improvement in my business after a few years of hoping things would improve (Talking to people was scary for me at the time), I let my distributorship lapse and most of our team moved away or quit as well.

The questions you’ll have to master and the challenges that arise at very odd times are what makes most decide to quit on their dreams. But for those that have a bigger why than what life deals them. Those are the ones that make it.

The Online Marketing Adventures

Then I found internet marketing to be a great venture because it happened on the internet. The internet at the time was a place where people could be anonymous. Little did I know that in order to be successful, you actually had to be vulnerable to them.

It was all about building trust and becoming a friend to them. You know… relationships!

So there I was Running ads and chatting up people online so that I could build that trust. That was the way to go. Or so it seemed to be.

What I found out was a lot of resistance with chatting and ads needed to have more creativity to work. For this reason, I told myself “I’m out” #Sharktank 😉

So, when I take this instance and hold it up against the landscape of home business owners today, I find some similarities that hold true.

It just doesn’t matter what age or stage in life you come from. You have to continually be working on your inner game in order to be a success on the outside.

So let’s get into the how’s of making it big in home business.

1. Read Books

Just not any ol’ book will do with this one. It’s going to take a wise choice. The book you probably don’t want to read is probably the one you need to read. That being said, it also has to be one that will do you the most improvement.

I found that if you tackle the hard to conquer issues first your ride will smooth out much sooner than if you wait until the end. Just like the saying goes…

"If you procrastinate what needs to be done, You'll never accomplish anything that matters the most to you." Click To Tweet

Here are a few books that I personally recommend (because I refer to them over and over). Mostly, the audible version on my way to work in the morning but the book is the best to have for notes.

Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill
Go Pro by Eric Worre
Vlog Like A Boss by Amy Schmittauer

2. Hang around people that are better than you.

It’s said that you are the average of the 5 people you hang around the most. Does this mean physically visiting them?

Yes, it really does mean just as it says. However, you can circumvent that by hanging out with your mentors online using things like Skype, zoom, and any other video conferencing tool.

3. Consistency

If you’re ready to REALLY make it big in home business, you have to realize that it will never happen unless you are consistent over time. Thirty, sixty, ninety days is a great start.

I like to relate this to sports because that’s what I did growing up. I was told by my coaches that if I didn’t show up to practice, I didn’t get to play in the game. So what did I do? I practiced until I proved to myself and my coach that I could handle playing and eventually start.

This is what it takes to make it big in business. Consistency.

4. Build Relationships

Relationships and business go hand in hand if you desire to be big in home business

I started building a business in 2010. What I thought I could get by with ended up biting me in the butt.

Relationships are necessary. They can be the biggest asset you can have in business and in your life. So, when I finally got over the fear of being wrong or even having people attack me for no reason at all. I started growing as a person and that is attractive to people. The relationships start to build and a byproduct of that so does your business.

Build relationships with your team. Your income depends on it and so do your people. They do not want to feel like they have been left out in the dark to fend for themselves.

Which brings me to the next tip…

5. Authenticity

When you’re building a business online, it’s so easy to hide behind your computer screen. I’ve mentioned above that the best way to build relationships is to hang around other people that have what you want. They will teach you and more importantly, influence you to make better decisions due to having a better mindset.

Being authentic will give your team a sense that you have their backs and will do what it takes to build their business.

These are the 5 biggest tips that I can give you that will help you make it big in home business.

If you are looking for instruction on how to become a better affiliate marketer.

How to Overcome Scam or Pyramid Scheme Objections

This Is A “(Fill In The Blank Objection)”

If you’re in business, you’ve probably heard many responses as to why they won’t join you in business. But you need to know that it’s not the end of the journey for your prospect. In today’s post, we are going to tackle how to overcome scam or pyramid scheme objections.

Here are a couple of retorts, if you will, that you could ask them.

Of course, do this in a manner that says to them that you care about them and would never WILLINGLY mislead them.

Ask them the question: “Do you have a job?”. Most of the time, they are going to say yes. If they don’t have a job, ask them what they do for a living.
- The point of this line of questioning is to show them that they are already in a pyramid system that is rapidly changing. As a result, you can then show them how we are now in a digital world.
Ask if they have been paying attention to how difficult it is to trade time for money. This is a question to build your authority. You know something that they need to learn about (online or offline presence).
Ask them if they are willing open thier mind to new possibilities. If they cannot see themselves jumping in and learning, then show them this video

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This Is A Scam

If you receive a retort from someone who you are trying to scam them into buying. Right off you probably should ask yourself, how much do you want a person that is quick on the draw to distrust what you do?

The other consideration is that when they do come back with this objection, it’s mainly out of fear. Fear comes from many instances.

This is where you find out if you can move forward with prospecting them or if you just need to move on and forward.

Ask these questions:

Is this a reaction based because of fear of losing money?
Does this person not trust people who want to help them? So everything is a scam to them.
What is their motivation for wanting to start a home business?

Find out a little more about them and see if you can find out why they respond like they have to you. Because the whole idea here is to find out how you can overcome scam or pyramid scheme objection they have tossed out at you.

Why The Scam or Pyramid Objection Is Presented

There is a deeper issue going on here when the objection of a pyramid or scam comes up. Typically, they have either been a part of or heard someone gets taken for their money if the customer is claiming your business is a scam.

If we were to delve a bit deeper into the scam objection, you’ll see that the customer does not trust you…

..YET!

If you’re willing to put some effort into gaining their trust, you will have a customer and perhaps a great friend!

On the pyramid side of things, it’s just a matter of showing the prospect that they are already in a system built on pyramids. It’s called the industrial age where people show up to work every day. Putting in their 8-12 hours of work for hourly pay.

The only thing that has changed is that we have moved to the digital age and the potentially wealthy are learning how to leverage their time to make themselves rich both in time and financially.

What You’re Saying To The Prospect.

So, the choice is theirs (or yours if the shoe fits).

Learn the way to wealth and prosperity or continue getting what you’ve always been receiving.

Most people are not happy with what they are bringing in, so they look in other avenues to increase. I believe that’s why uber and other services are so popular. Because it’s the belief that they don’t have to sell anything to receive an extra income.

The truth of the matter is that you are always selling something.

How else would a driver for Uber get a tip? They are selling their service to the rider. If the ride was pleasant, the driver is more likely to get a tip from the rider. Even a good write up for the driver is great with a 5 star rating. When we are in business for ourselves, we depend on testimonials and word of mouth advertising.

Now if you’re already selling at every turn but you’re not willing to recognize that you are selling, You should just embrace it and work with what you know. Be honest and never mislead a customer.

There’s truth to the saying,

What you put out into the world will come back to you. So abide in the best policy ever, #Truth. Click To Tweet

Maybe not 10 fold but it will come back stronger than you delivered it.

Overcome Scam or Pyramid Scheme Objections: Conclusion

That’s how you overcome scam or pyramid objections. Most people try to hide and tell prospects that they are doing great and that’s where the hill gets very slippery.

Just be honest and upfront. If you want to color your story a bit. Be honest in how you do it.

Something to the effect of “You know, I’m just starting out and I’m working with a group of great leaders that are showing me step by step how to succeed with any system. This system is the one that I think is the best to learn from.”

How to Overcome Scam or Pyramid Scheme Objections #BlogPost is a quick and great read. Click To Tweet

If you have wanted to do something extra from home to actually learn how to make money and not be part of the huge numbers that do not make money. I urge you to take a challenge that will give you “over the shoulder” training to help you start making money. However, there’s a catch.

The catch is that you have to be serious and passionate about making money and helping others do the same. If you can promise to do that then you can start the challenge.

Now it’s your time to crush it in whatever business you choose to build.

You are the best version of yourself at this very moment in time. Embrace it and you'll see things you never thought was possible Click To Tweet

Confessions Of A Knowledge Hoarder?

One of the most violated strategies of any online or home business is that of the knowledge hoarder.? If you’ve gone to any sort of training, and never did a thing with that information.? You might be a knowledge hoarder!

Now have you ever thought of yourself as a hoarder?

I didn’t until I took a step back and wondered why I wasn’t getting any traction to my online business.? Then I decided to take a look at why.

That’s when I started to realize that there’s more to just online business that just learning.

I know there’s a ton to learn about entrepreneurial endeavors.? But at what point will you start teaching what you’re learning.

Symptoms Of A Knowledge Hoarder

So there are a few excuses for this syndrome that affects nearly 95% of people on the internet and are entrepreneurs.? If you remember that you are only as good as your next excuse, you’ll start to own up and THAT’S when you start making huge progress in your entrepreneurial endeavors.

Symptom #1

I haven’t done this before so I need to practice this skill.

Ok, so maybe you need to practice a day or a week.

Fair.? I completely get that.

So now that you’ve waited over a month, why haven’t you practiced this skill yet and started teaching what you have learned?

Symptom #2

Now, I’ve sat down and listened to someone talk for an hour or two and they gave really awesome content.? So much so that you took REALLY good notes and plan on putting those notes into practice.

(enter jeopardy theme song here)

Alex, I’d like to take knowledge hoarding for $200 please…

…haha

So you went as far as taking notes on a webinar or at an event. Now what?!

Those notes that you’re taking might be misplaced somewhere if you have any similarity to how I organized my notes. It didn’t matter that I have the notes app on my iPhone either.

Notes may keep your notes in one place, but that doesn’t mean they are organized by title.? I know you can search out your notes for specific keywords, but what if you just want to do some review?

My point is that when I started out, I just did notes with the run and gun approach.? Pull out a piece of paper and pen then wrote what I thought I needed to remember about the talk I was listening to.

Be intentional in everything you do. Click To Tweet

Afterwards, those notes seemed to get lost in the car, which those papers went into a big bag when I would detail the inside of the car.

Notes officially “misplaced”.

Strategies For Better Results

Do you remember when you were taught how to build a business?? The strategy is Learn. Do. Teach.

I’m probably one of the biggest knowledge hoarders that I know.? sounds familiar, right?? (I feel like a complete ID10T because I have all this knowledge and am withholding it from you.)

What To Do About Knowledge Hoarder Excuses

Confessions of a Knowledge Hoarder. Excuses — No need to feel trapped in your own endeavors. Go get what you want!

There’s really only one way out of this mess I like to call, knowledge hoarding.

It’s a simple fix though.

Take one step and start implementing what you know as well as what you learned.? Now teach it in some way.? There’s a really great way to do that. I’m pretty sure you know a few ways to spread your knowledge around.? You can blog about it, do a video (YouTube, Vimeo).

Now if you’re up to being completely transparent with your audience, you can do a LIVE video either on Facebook, Instagram, Google+, YouTube – which requires 1000 subscribers for mobile LIVE – or do a periscope.? All of these options are great options to begin teaching.

THink about how you will be impacting the marketplace.

Test and tweak your marketing all the time.? But only test 1-2 things at a time for your mental health's sake. Click To Tweet

Fear of producing great content

I’ve found over the years of my endeavors in the online world of business, I have had a healthy fear – is that even possible to be healthy in fear – of producing the content that I learned.

I supposed it’s simple to figure out why.? Maybe you have been in this camp as well.? Perhaps you can relate to what my fear was all about.

I thought that because I learned something that everyone would go to the same source and learn about the same stuff that I learned and just didn’t need to be the one to teach the topic.? I was told I’m a great teacher and that I should just forget about what could happen (all negative thoughts of failure, rejection, and anything you could imagine) and jump in and follow Nike’s theme.

Just Do It.

Fear of anything is not valid. Know you are greater than any fear. GO GET WHAT YOU WANT! Click To Tweet

One of the things you will experience when you cancel out that fear in your head is you feel free to be creative, give advice, jump all in.

I remember a time when I was just starting out in the MLM industry.? A family member approached and I asked about the shakes that she was taking and if they were getting good results.? I? tried them and did my due diligence about the company, then signed up!? I had aspirations to greatness.

Believe me!

Never did I know how to go about getting all these aspirations into a strategy that would reach the masses.? I was dumbfounded when others were absolutely crushing it.

Where are they getting all these leads, and ultimately a bigger downline (just like I was shooting for) I learned a ton from this system

All I could see was the social media influence of friends and family to go and talk to about the new products I had just bought into.

I had a huge fear of talking to strangers, and I am still a little shy.? However, I found strategies that I can walk right into and apply.? Fear has gone because I took action on a strategy that I learned about.? Maybe it was doing a video on YouTube or blogging.

The Write Methods Of Sharing

I used to think blogging was just one big waste of time.? Well, it turns out that it really isn’t wasteful at all.? Why you say, did you think that?

It started when I began my journey in the entrepreneurial world.? I started promoting a company that soon fell by the wayside.? I had to find another to promote.? At least that was what I thought at the time.

So I jumped into a business that sold blogs and told you to blog every day for 3 weeks straight, then it was a 30-day blogging challenge.? All to get page views and yet this blogging industry was so very new.? Nobody REALLY knew how to blog properly to get any traction.

Sure they would get views, sales, etc. by sending their blog posts to their lists of thousands.? But what about the writing methods and where to share them to get the best ROI?? How about finding your crowd?

RECOMMENDED READING:?5 Benefits of Blogging For Your Business

Blogging To Make Money

There's one way to get your message out to your nich? and only one way, said nobody ever. Click To Tweet

Like I mentioned above, there’s an awesome opportunity to blog about what you know.? I like this method because not only are you putting it down on “paper” but you are offering your “notes” to the world essentially.? Your notes can be as ugly as ever or very neat and organized.

Obviously, I believe the more organized and readable it is, the more page views you’ll get and repeat visitors.

So, blogging is a great way to start.

Recommended reading: Start A Blog In Less Than 30 Minutes

There are 2 questions you’ll need to ask yourself first before embarking on the blogging journey.

Who is your niche?? You’ll need to dig in and really be specific on this one.? The reason for this is many.
1. You need to know their language, so you can speak it to them.? Most of the time they have a lingo that you can speak to them and that will be a form of trust.? This brings in the know, like, trust factors when it comes to selling things to your niche/audience.
What is your reason for wanting a better life or for endeavoring to have more?? If your reason for making a splash in business isn’t strong enough, or about something or someone other than yourself, you will end up quitting or never starting.? Solidify your WHY.? Don’t put it off..

As a recovering knowledge hoarder, I know how hard it can be to take that first step.? Honestly, you just have to jump?and trust that you are better for it.

Don’t listen to naysayers.? They are the very people who want to hold you back because they didn’t have the guts to jump out long enough for their parachute to open.? You have got to believe in yourself…

The world can be your oyster if you let it.

Now go get your dreams realized.

Confessions of a knowledge hoarder — Pin For Later

How To Start A WordPress Blog With No Prior Technical Experience

I thought since I have been blogging for years now that I would sit down and actually write a blog. This blog will explain in layman’s terms How to Start a WordPress Blog with no prior technical experience.

In that spirit, this is a perfect venue to get your ideas put on digital paper. This will allow you to help hundreds if not thousands per month by sharing your knowledge and life. I know when I started a blog I found it to be a bit intimidating – even though I work in the Information Technology field for years. There were things that I knew had to be a big part of blogging and just being able to start a WordPress blog the right way is very important.

Honestly, I do have a few ideas rolling around in my head all the time.? However, it’s actually implementing those ideas into a blog post.?Let’s jump in and I’ll start to show you just how to start a WordPress blog with no prior technical experience.

Where To Start First, Your Guide To How To Start A WordPress Blog

You’ve got an idea in your head to start writing about a particular subject that you’re passionate about. I know how much blogging is one of the best income solutions online. It allows you to pretty much have a story written presence online 24/7. But you have to keep in mind that you’re going to need this to be a long-term solution to whatever it is you are aiming to solve.

So, the first step is to have a place to write these great ideas down. Ideas that you could talk days and perhaps months and years about. Narrow these ideas down to 1-2 and then select the one you want to talk about.

Structure Of A Blog

All websites are set up like a house. The website is akin to the inside of your home. The place you decorate inside and outside would be akin to your theme. However, you don’t have a website until you first have an address (you.com).

Your website address is available at any ICANN registrar which is a company licensed to sell website addresses, such as google.com. Fortunately, you can do this at SiteGround and keep things all under one roof.

The only missing part that we haven’t talked about yet, is the hosting. This is the equivalent to the land which you will be building your house on. The hosting gives you a place to be creative, build things, write things and then share it with the world by inviting them into your special spot on the internet.

Your Plot Of Land

In order to get your website to live on the internet, you’ll need to purchase some web hosting. This is pretty cheap and can run as low as $2.99/month for the cPanel web hosting. I prefer to use the Managed WordPress hosting, which normally runs at $7.99/month. However, through my relationship with GoDaddy, I can get you a discount using my link that brings your cost down to $3.99/month.

You’re going to be in search of a web host so that your website can live on the internet. I use the best hosting around. It’s called Managed WordPress hosting and most companies have it but you’ll want to find the host with the most uptime, as well as, the best speed.

I have been with Godaddy for a few years now and each time I need their help, they always manage to exceed my expectations. Whether they go the extra mile in showing me something new about their hosting, or they are just happy to help in any way possible.

They are always first class when I need to get in touch with them. Both the chat and phone models are great but I prefer to talk to an individual that is based right here in my time zone which is in the western part of the USA. Generally speaking, using the phone is better when calling support. You’ll get more skilled technicians.

Different Types Of Hosting

If you’ve Googled or Bing’d a few keywords about hosting accounts, you’ll notice different types of hosting packages. There’s cPanel hosting (uses Windows or Linux) and there’s “Managed WordPress Hosting” solutions. The cPanel installations allow you to do all the legwork of installing the WordPress installation. This can get quite tedious if you don’t know what you are doing.

I personally use the Managed WordPress hosting on my blog. Having a blog should be about blogging and not doing technical support on your blog installation. This is something that I found myself doing a few times when I moved a couple of sites to a different host.

Ultimately, I returned back to GoDaddy and remain a happy customer. If you’re ready to change hosting companies or are looking for a great place to start your WordPress blog, You’ll be happy with SiteGround hosting packages.

WordPress Automation Hosting

I love that the Managed WordPress Hosting has a migration assistant by GoDaddy which does all the common tasks for you during the installation. This allows you to get your website up and running in a matter of minutes rather than hours. This feature will greatly minimize your need to know technical things if you already have a blog on a different hosting platform.

That being said, if you already have a blog on a different host, consider coming over to SiteGround. They have awesome customer service and they have a plan that will make life much easier for you.

So, if you’re ready for a smooth, hassle-free experience, then set yourself up with Managed WordPress Hosting, for around $3.99/month. This includes 1 website and 10GB of storage. Perfect for anyone that is just getting started.

Key Features of WordPress Hosting

Right off the bat, you’ll notice that there are a few features that come with your Managed WordPress hosting account. So let’s go take a look at these features that are going to help you start a WordPress blog the right way.

Automatic Daily Backups

I’ve used this several times to fix something that I thought would be lost in translation or what most would call editing. I was SO GLAD that I had this available to use because it allowed me to do more of a time shift on my blog. This is a huge bonus and a lifesaver. You have the option to restore the files, database, or both files and database for up to 14 days. What does this all mean? Well, your WordPress installation is essentially a database. That database (or DB for techies) is loaded up with a bunch of files. You’re going to have complete control over what you restore, down to the day.

How To Use The Staging Site

The staging site is something that has recently come on to the scene of hosting. When you move a site into Siteground hosting, the system will automatically put your site into a staging mode.

This will change all of your links to reflect the auto-generated staging domain. The main reason for using the staging site is so that you can do upgrades on your site without having to affect the live site. Once you have made all the changes, you can sync up your site with the production site and then you will not have been in a downstate.

This will help build your authority in blogging or whatever niche you decided to serve.

This feature comes in very handy, as it allows you to go to your site to verify that everything transferred successfully.

Pictures, posts, links. All of it synced to perfection before you hit the button to transfer over to the live domain. As far as testing your website, you can test your plugins to verify that they will not crash your website. If there’s a question at all in adding a plug-in or code to your website, I can’t stress enough the importance of using your staging site. It’s very important to test things before publishing to a public view.

Multiple Site Management
Once again, I run a few different sites and the ability to log into my account on Godaddy is so very convenient. The website management page is very easy to understand and navigate. All in one place. Another part of the multiple site management is auto update and site performance measuring. Pretty much everything you have to do on a website using cPanel is automated for you with WordPress Hosting on the GoDaddy platform.

Site Uptime Guarantee

This is one stat that seems to get ignored because of the efficiency of all the web hosts. However, keeping your website up and running is one area that SiteGround excels in. The site uptime guarantee for SiteGround is 99.9%. I have never seen my website go down in the years I’ve been with them. This is a testament to the proficient GoDaddy system.

These are just a few of the features that you would enjoy using WordPress hosting with GoDaddy. If you already have a hosting account and have been using cPanel the whole time, you’ll definitely want to change over to the WordPress hosting.

Moving YourSite.com to SiteGround Managed WordPress Hosting

There’s another easy option to move over to GoDaddy. It’s the migration assistant by GoDaddy.

If you have a running website on another hosting platform, simply input the website address. When you see “login URL“, it’s just asking for your website address. For instance, I would use JonMcCaw.com in this field.

Select the button below the field that you input your website address to start the process.

Almost there…

This is the perfect time to go get that cup of coffee (or a refill).

Actually, the time required is all dependant on the size of your website. My website took a mere 40 minutes to migrate over. Just for measurement sake, my site has been on the net since 2010 and I posted occasionally.

The only caveat for migration assistant by GoDaddy to work is to make sure all your links are set to your domain name and not an automatically generated staging domain name before you migrate over to the GoDaddy Managed WordPress Hosting.

Now that you have set up a WordPress blog on the Godaddy hosting system, it’s time to start blogging.

What To Blog About

Hosting is the part of the setup that you’ll want to get set up right before doing any blogging. I keep going on and on about Godaddy because with the managed service they really have taken the difficulty away and automated backups for the previous 30 days.

So what is it that you want to blog about?

When you think about setting up a WordPress blog, you think that there’s a lot to think about when writing each blog. This is true but what I kick myself for is when I started blogging, I didn’t go all out and blog more consistently. So the technical side will work itself out. But, if you’re not blogging about what makes you go then you’re leaving things on the table.

And you know, you may not want to be leaving these things on the table.

If you made it this far you have officially learned how to start a WordPress blog. Now, if you’re ready for the next step, go read the next blog post that’s all about the best plug-ins to have loaded in your WordPress dashboard.

How To Use Facebook Live To Better Engage Your Followers

Live video is all the rage these days. Today, I’m going to show you how to use Facebook live to come across more genuine, personal, and grow your audience.

So is there a proper way to do this to get the fullest out of your live platform? Do you need to use Facebook Live? Absolutely not. But for the sake of this post, I’m going to teach you about Facebook Live.

Instagram, Twitter, Tik Toc, and others will be on another post.

How To Use Facebook Live To Grow Your Tribe

Facebook has been one of those platforms that seem to grow each day and they have the ability to say what goes and what stays on their platform. That’s why Facebook is doing a live video feed for everyone. It’s what snapchat, instagram, twitter, and YouTube all have in common now days.

How do you have success, if even just a little bit, in the world of live or recorded for that matter, video?

I believe there are 3 principles you should begin immediately practicing because doing them every time is tough.

So without further ado…

The 3 Tips That Will Grow Your Facebook Live Following

Look into the lens during your Facebook LIVE, not at yourself. if you are using a smartphone, that would be the small hole at the ear side of the phone when you’re talking on it.. if you are using any other type of digital camera, especially the ones that have the pop out screen so you can see yourself – Look at the lens.
Talk to the video camera like it’s your best friend or family. Make that personal connection through the camera lens.
Use pattern interrupts to get your viewers to stay longer in your video.
Keep your videos short. That would be approximately 2-5 minutes when doing your videos on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram or snapchat

Facebook Live Video is a great tool for you to use in the coming year to exponentially grow your business. But you have to start doing a video like you’re a pro. Confidence is attractive and when you get these three principles down, you will start to see many more people get on your live videos. These principles are true no matter where you do video. It doesn’t have to be on Facebook or YouTube. Or even a LIVE! video for that matter.

Better Rankings?!?

Facebook will give you better rankings and show your videos if you do a LIVE! This isn’t a secret anymore, so get out there and do a LIVE!

The reason that video is the best tool that’s FREE to create is that when people watch a video they get that sense that they know who you are and how you react. This is key to building trust. So it makes sense that the social media outlets such as Facebook, YouTube & Instagram, Periscope

Now that you know how to use Facebook live strategies which will build your Facebook Live following, go put them to use.

Facebook Live is the wave of the future. Learn the basic must have strategies and you can write your own paycheck. Click To Tweet

If you want to start learning these cool tips and trick at a more in-depth level, I invite you to join me in using the very system I use to learn about the how to’s of marketing which in turn help me attract people like yourself into business. It’s all about duplication and allowing your people to believe they can do what you are doing as well.

I have a set plan on sharing with you when you join my team. The plan is to get you to make 6 figures a year but you have to be willing to be coachable and listen and follow through with instructions. If that’s you, go ahead and get your trial started here.

Here are some other great articles you may want to check out about Facebook Marketing:

How to Use Facebook Live: The Ultimate Guide – How to use Facebook Live. Go to the News Feed, and tap the “Live” option denoted by the camcorder icon. Give Facebook access to ?
Facebook Media – Tips for Using Facebook Live – Since rolling out Facebook Live, we’ve seen people and publishers around the world seize the opportunity to share their experiences as they happen

Email List Cleaning With GetResponse

There are lots of tasks to do when you are doing email marketing. ?None of them more important than doing email list cleaning. ?Removing inactive email addresses that never open your emails is key to cleaning out your list. So, here’s your quick and simple instruction guide on Cleaning your email list with?GetResponse

For those that want to read through on the subject, here’s your quick guide to email pruning for GetResponse

The first step is to login to your GetResponse account and then head over to the top of the screen and click “Contacts” –> “Search Contacts”

From there you should have a screen that looks similar to the one below.

Now, the next step is to start searching for the contacts that have not opened any of your emails. ?This is done by doing a search on your campaigns (example below)

The only change from the above photo for you is to change the time period. ?I recommend you change it to 30 or 60 days (1 month / 2 months) that way you have a fresh list at all times.

When you’ve got your contacts who are not opening your emails all you do then is click the blue button that says “Show Contacts”.

This will take you to a new screen where you can edit those contacts. (see below)

Select the “Choose all” box at the top, then scroll to the bottom and select “action”, then “Move to Campaign” or Remove from Account / Remove from Campaign.

That is all that it takes to do this manually every 30 days to 60 days. ?Some marketers will say to do this twice a year. However, ?if You are looking to optimize your list for buyers only – get those tire kickers off your list. This will make room for those that are actually interested in your product or service. ?Watch the video on how to do an email list cleaning. ?You’ll want to rinse and repeat this process until GetResponse has an automated way to do this just like the more expensive services have such as Drip.

More than likely you found this post because you have a subscription with GetResponse or you are looking for an autoresponder to use in your business. ?There are a few of them to use and currently I’m using GetResponse and have been using it for almost 5 years. ?There are others you can use such as Aweber, MailChimp, Drip, Infusionsoft, and many others. ?Those are the ones that just came to mind.

IF you are using Aweber or GetResponse, be mindful of the emails you send out.? If you are sending out the same version of every other marketer in your company, you should be shuttering and wondering what to do next.? This post will give you more information on what GetResponse (and most other autoresponders) will do for you and how to play inside of their rules to get the most out of their service.

Both GetResponse and Aweber are probably the most popular autoresponders out in the marketplace. ?So the only precaution that I think you need to be aware of is that due to its popularity. You’ll need to be extra careful about spamming. ?That means you need to be providing value based content in your emails. ?Also, there’s some great tips and strategies that i share with my team to help you get better deliverability.

So, if you’re not cleaning your list (segmenting), you’re doing yourself a disservice and ruining your sending reputation. ?Email List Cleaning With GetResponse is imperative. In fact, list cleaning is imperative in any Autoresponder service. ?People just don’t open your emails all the time.

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So as we are still not living in a perfect world.? We can prepare for those that just are not interested in your content.? Even though it’s the best on the planet. :0

To do this, you’ll need to create a workflow that will get run every day, week, or month.? It all depends on your marketing.? However, you should be cleaning out emails that do not interact with you for 60 days.

I have since switched over to a new Autoresponder called Drip.? They designed their service to fill in the gaps that were not there in other services.? I love that I can get automation, access to all the feature rich service.? You can get started for FREE until you go over 100 contacts.? After you reach that level, it’s just $49/month or you can get a discount by paying yearly.

I moved over to Drip because I was in that group of IP addresses that were not deliverable.? GetResponse will not confirm or deny if you’re in that group because they want to keep you on a subscription.? Don’t get me wrong, GetResponse is a great service, and I know many of my mentors that still use GetResponse to pull in huge incomes via email.

It’s absolutely important to do?email list cleaning with GetResponse.

In a perfect world, your emails would get read all the time, and you’d be providing riveting information all the time as well. ?That’s just not the case.

Hope this helps you get better conversions and sales ultimately.

Get your free 30 day trial of GetResponse (new and improved)

Project Apex Team Training – Inbox Rates with GetResponse

This is going to change how you think about email marketing. ?The team training is where we learn our strategies and apply them to our business.? This week we are talking about how to Inbox with Getresponse.

As a customer and current customer, I believe this is the best choice for new entrepreneurs.

If you don’t have GetResponse: ?Get it here

Inboxing With GetResponse

Your marketing needs to include a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager), and doing email marketing with GetResponse is the best choice because it’s got the best bang for the buck. ?The only drawback to using GetResponse is that there are a lot of people using it and that increases the odds of people using it for spam (knowingly or not). This video is a team training about how to inbox with GetResponse.

Thankfully, both companies monitor spammy emails and shut down accounts as fast as you can blink.? This can be a deterrent as well as a feature though.? If you truly don’t know you’re being spammy, you would think that the company hosting your email will give you a warning.? Nowadays that just doesn’t happen.? Customers are expected to know better and know that the words considered to be spammy are avoided and/or used appropriately.

That brings up a point that would help you in the long run with any service.? Be sure to have a backup of your leads and follow-ups.? I’d make it a point to back up your leads after each run of traffic.? For me, its monthly right now.

There are many players in the autoresponder market and to my knowledge, there are 2 major players to consider when you’re brand new in the online business industry.? Both are entry-level autoresponders.? And even skilled marketers use these solutions for email.? That says a lot!

Setup GetResponse?to further your brand marketing.

Features Of A Good AutoResponder

Outside of these AR’s you will get into lower level solutions and much higher level solutions. The lower level solutions are a great starting point for those just entering into the internet marketing niche. ?The choice is yours and that choice should be based on your experience level and the deliverability of each solution.

Things you should look for in an autoresponder are:

Deliverability
Ease of use (how well could a new user navigate around the program and send an email)
Customer service of the company

Of course, there are ways to structure your emails so that you are positioning yourself to stay out of the spam folder – and in the video, above they go into these strategies.

How To Stay Out Of The Spam Folder

Basically, if you want to stay inboxed you should avoid making hard claims of making money, using any sort of hot spam word, such as “Rich”, “Money”, and any keyword that is associated with those words.

Inboxing is how you make money so getting on the right platform and using the right techniques are paramount to being successful in home business or in online marketing.

GetResponse is one of the starting points when entering into a home business that has a presence online.? I’m sure that you’ll want to know how to inbox with Getresponse.? It’s the same with most email systems as far as inboxing goes.

The key to staying in the inbox with GetResponse is to provide value 95% of the time and pitch only 5%.? Your subscribers will thank you for it.? How they do that is up to them and what ways you provide them to do so.

At the time this blog was written, GetResponse has a much more feature-rich experience than most other autoresponders.

One of the features I really love about GetResponse is their marketing automation.

If you’re ready to make a purchasing decision, or you’re on my team already.? GetResponse, is the choice that will make life much easier to integrate with your offers.? Inboxing with GetResponse, along with the marketing automation, will definitely make your open rates go way up.? This is due to how the marketing automation works.

7 New Thoughts About Simple Mindset Strategies That Will Turn Your World Upside Down.

Today, I’m sharing a quick story with you about making it to your desired goals and it all applies to how you take action. The simple mindset strategy that helps boost your vision to get there.

This video that I made is the first of my video challenge and is titled, “A Simple Mindset Strategy That Drives You Straight To Success”.? I’ve since changed the title so that it will get more views.? The job of a marketer and a blogger is to tell others about your product.? If you’re not getting views, then your message is not being seen.? That can be directly linked back to the titles you’re putting on your blog posts, YouTube videos (any videos really), and social media posts.

Basically, if you’re wanting to have a post go viral you need to have a viral title as well.

I digress…

Watch this short 1-minute video.? I know there’s a huge group of people who struggle with this one success inhibiting trait.

Check out the video here (Facebook)

Get your tires on the pavement and I’ll see you on Success Island!

Let me know in the comments if you’ve experienced this and have overcome the bad habit that I’m talking about in the video.

Simple Mindset Strategy Hacks To Avoid

Here’s a quick list of traits that will hold success out of your lap.? Even if you seem to be successful, are you able to remove one of these traits further to enjoy even greater success?

?Fear
Fear is probably enemy #1 on everyone’s list.? I know personally, that fear has made my life more difficult than it really should have been.? Bowing to fear has stopped so many destinies.? Let’s make a pact that fear has no grip on our decision making from here on out.? Fair enough?
That being said, if you’re not moving forward, you’ll need to ask yourself where you’re letting fear in.? I’m a big believer in doing things that are productive in a timely fashion.? That, to me, means almost immediately.? If I’m not able to do them immediately, I’ll make it a point to write it down or put it on my reminders list on my phone.
Procrastination
This one simple mindset strategy has its roots in fear.? But it’s also one of those traits that you can do something about it right away (rather than procrastinating… LOL)
The best way to rid yourself of procrastination is to be just like Nike.? Just Do It.? If you analyze your schedule, you’ll soon find out that most of your items that go on your list are things that are small and can be done immediately.
If you put this into practice, not only will you feel better, but you’ll also get more done.
Social Skills
This is not too common, but this trait does exist in our world.
However, most of the time its due to a bad upbringing, abuse, some sort of disease that impairs those skills or personality trait that was present from birth.? If you know you have to work on your social skills, there are support groups and programs that are set up to help improve social skills.
Mindset
First of all, if you follow this blog at all, you know that mindset is HUGE in achieving success.? If you have a bad mindset, you can do all the other things right and your mindset will somehow, someway sabotage your success.
The great thing about our minds is that we have the control of what we believe.? I’ve read a book called “The Secrets of the Millionaire Mindset” by T. Harv Eker.? He states in the very beginning of the book, that you should never believe what he says nor should you believe anything you say either.
In other words, always be listening to your thoughts but never believe them until you have good reason to do so.? I believe vetting would be the proper term for what I’m conveying to you.
Environment
It’s been said that you are the average of the 5 people you spend most of your time with in life.
So, if you spend your time around people who are broke or have a terrible mindset, you too, will be the average of that environment.
Granted this one can be argued as not being a trait.? However, I believe that if it affects you in some way, it can be argued that it is a trait.
Perfectionism?
Do you have experience being a perfectionist?
Perhaps you say that it’s what has helped you get where you are at today?
That can be true but it seems like perfectionism can also make it tough to produce in the entrepreneurial genre.? This can and does hold many people back and away from the goal of success in life.
Knowledge
Simple yet a problem for some.? If you don’t know much about where you’re going, you’ll not get to any destination.
Think about the airplane pilot.? 99% of the time, they start out in the WRONG DIRECTION.? They make adjustments according to the knowledge they gain and boom… the plane is on track to get to the destination they desire to get to – and most of the time – they are on time!

Final Thoughts on Simple Mindset Strategy Skills

Now, if you haven’t watched the video, please take a minute and watch.? The skills of a business person will take a thousand hours before the craft is well-defined.

Comment below on the Simple Mindset Strategy that I talk about in the video.