I have been talking about upgrading my free wordpress blog to a self hosted blog for several months. I had a hard time deciding on the wordpress theme that I want to work with every day. Thanks to all of you that gave me your input and ideas.

Please be sure to follow me to my new site. The new site is a combination of internet marketing and social media marketing for real estate & mortgage professionals. The new and improved site can be found at…DRUM ROLL PLEASE….

Social Media Marketing

Go check it out and let me know what you think! Leave some comments, subscribe, keep coming back and stay a while! Thanks for helping me to get to the 1st page of Google for the search term, “internet business blogs”. We will see you on the other side…

Naomi Trower

Social Networking

There has been quite a buzz about social networking and whether it’s a waste of time for your business. Can you really market effectively on social networking sites? How is this possible? Most people believe that these sites have a lot of people that are attempting to sell their opportunity to each other.

However, statistics show that there are 75,000 people/day looking for home based businesses. I’m sure this number is growing daily especially with 70,000 layoffs on Bloody Monday. What a better place to find these people than on social networking sites! The key is to find your target market and focus your efforts in those areas. Here are some of the sites that I visit and have had many people join my business opportunity.

Myspace – This is my #1 lead source for my business in the social networking arena although many people continuously bash Myspace.  That’s ok because I’ll just take that business, thank you very much!

Facebook – is quickly taking over the #2 spot and could be my #1 source very soon. There are some great features such as Facebook Pages for your business.

Twitter – is the newest buzz word in the neighborhood and I’ve actually had a few sales from this source already! Make sure to check out my Twitter tips to grow your business. I also highly recommend following Mari Smith on Twitter and Facebook.  She gave me all the tips for my Facebook business page.

Sta.rtup.biz – is a great place to meet like-minded individuals and those looking to start a new business. I’ve received my largest amount of traffic from posting this article to this site. I also gained 700 new Twitter followers from one twitter blog post on this site!

Youtube – videos are the wave of the future. Many people love watching videos more than reading content so this is a great avenue to promote your business.

Here are some professional networking sites that you can align yourself with potential business partners.

Professional Networking Sites
Ecademy
LinkedIn
Ziggs
Xing

One of the main keys to success is to plan. Many people spend too much time on the social networking sites and do not get much done with their actual business. I’m not advocating joining every single site but choose a select few and focus on them.

Be sure to allot a certain amount of time for each site so you don’t run into the problem of spending all day on certain sites. For example, I try my best to get on Twitter in the morning, afternoon and evening for 10 – 20 minutes each time. This allows me to interact with different people as there are different high traffic times for Twitter.

My top places to visit on a daily basis are Twitter, Facebook and Star.tup.biz. Go make some friends as people are more inclined to buy from people they know. Which ones are your favorite social networking sites?

Naomi Trower

Life has been crazy hectic lately. When is it ever slow in my life? I’ve just gotten over the flu bug and it must have been a strong strain because no amount of Emergen-C was working this time around. I’ve been able to avoid a cold/flu for the past year with Emergen-C so my no cold/flu record has officially been broken.

I’ve also been busy with tinkering with my new blog design for my fat loss blog.  I have to give many props to Tony Newton from the Warrior forum for all of his help with my new design. It takes some getting used to working with the new blog theme but I’m getting the hang of it and it has a cool look. Thanks so much Tony!! You are the best!

My next project is to convert this blog to a self hosted site. I’m having a hard time choosing between 2 wordpress themes. One of them has the functionality that I want but not necessarily all of the colors that I would prefer. I know colors can be changed in the CSS area but do I really want to get into all of that detail? Ok I digress and am doing too much relationship marketing right now..On to my tips…

Relationship Marketing Tip #1:

Do Your Best To Make Your Intentions Clear From The Start

It is very important to let your readers know your intentions. I love to research things that are of interest to me and let others know about my findings. I like to offer this information and guide people along the way. This is especially true for my fat loss blog. I’m on a quest to lose my belly fat and I’m sharing my ups and downs along the way. I’ve had more people buy my products because they see the success that I’m having with my own weight loss rather than me trying to shove something down their throats. I share what’s going on in my life, the good and the bad because people can relate to that.

Relationship Marketing Tip #2:

Make Your Customers Feel Like They Can Talk To You And That You Actually Care About What They Have To Say

I value input and direction and I try my best to answer questions and and provide feedback to relate to my customers. I make it my goal to respond to people and make them feel included. Everyone wants to feel like they are wanted and belong to a group. Why not let it be my group of growing your business on the internet or my group of moms trying to lose that stubborn belly fat?

Relationship Marketing Tip #3:

Be Yourself Even If Some People Don’t Like It

I love joking around and at times it comes out in my blogs. I have to remember to do this more often because my husband and I could be the next stand up comedians in real life. Or maybe it’s just that we both crack up at each other, I don’t know. :) We’ve had people tell us that we could take our show on the road…ha! ha!

I could give ya a bunch more relationship marketing tips but I’ll stop here for now. Enjoy your weekend! I plan to celebrate my 10 year anniversary since last week I was too sick to celebrate! A mudslide sounds really good right now…Yum!

This article on relationship marketing tips is brought to you by nctrower.wordpress.com

Naomi Trower
Internet Entrepreneur

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What is the difference between a Facebook Page and a Facebook Profile, you ask? The most common user account is a Facebook profile. It is personal in nature where you can add your business or personal websites. You can integrate business related imports such as your blog or feeds such as FriendFeed and Twitter.

A Facebook Page is actually a page that promotes a business, a music group, favorite TV show or politician. It is not as easily found on Facebook how to create these pages. These pages are free, however, you can pay to do some advertising campaigns. There are various applications that you can add to these pages as well but they aren’t as interactive as your main profile page.

Your main profile page allows you to have up to 5,000 friends. I know most of you are thinking why would I want more than that? Well it all depends on what your focus is on Facebook. The Facebook page, however, is unlimited to the number of fans that join your group. This is a great way to capture more customers, fans or friends when you reach your personal profile limit.

Comment below if you would like to create your own Facebook page. Here are my Facebook pages My Health & Fitness Page and My Internet Marketing Store and my personal profile.  Feel free to become a fan of my pages and add me as a friend! The number of people flocking to Facebook is growing rapidly on a daily basis so get on over there and mingle!

Naomi Trower
Internet Entrepreneur

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RT, hashtags, all this new stuff to learn about Twitter. Every time I turn around there is something new to learn! It’s like keeping up with the lastest fashion trends…Do you Retweet a lot?

Retweet is the newest addition to Twitter that allows your tweet to be sent around Twitter virally.

Great things to retweet about would be:

1. Breaking News – I had a conversation all day with @DanaWillhoit about the octuplets drama!

2. How To’s – more and more people are looking how to do certain things so learn what things people are looking for most

3. Questions can be retweeted to others to find answers

4. Charities – there were hundreds of retweets for the Australian fire aid.

Get more involved and retweet! Especially my stuff! LOL Just kidding..No I’m not so get over there and retweet my stuff!

Watch this crazy video of Jason Moffat’s twittertreasure.com fully utilizing the retweet feature:

Naomi Trower
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I’m sure they will move straight to the search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and you must ask yourself this question, have you positioned your business for these people to come knocking on your door?

Here are 3 ways to Position Your Business

1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – make sure your websites are keyword rich with the right search terms

2. Google Adwords Campaign – you will need to set aside a budget for this but the returns are so worth the investment IF you have the right campaign tools.

3. Yahoo Campaign – this isn’t as competitive as Google so you can spend less money on your CPC (Cost per Click)

Some of these people will also search the free classifieds so get your business out there as well. Today’s economic downturn has many people wondering how long will this recession last? There are many more layoffs predicted in 2009. Position your business for success this year and despite this year’s gloomy outlook, 2009 could be your year to shine!

This article on Bloody Monday is brought to you by www.nctrower.wordpress.com

Naomi Trower
Internet Entrepreneur
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The use of the right business tools are key to any business. This saves on the frustration that can come from using the wrong techniques and tools. It is also important to measure which tactics are working or not working for your business. 

Here are 3 Steps to Ensure You Are Using the Right Tools:

1. Don’t Be Araid to Change Your Plan. If one plan of action isn’t working after a substantial testing period, drop that plan and pursue the plan that leads to success. Failure is just another attempt at success. The most successful people in life had a string of failures before their most successful product.

2. Get a Mentor. One of the quickest way to eliminate this trial and error process is mentorship. Why waste time and energy on a trial and error basis when you can have someone show you the most successful business tools? It’s also important to choose a mentor that can make themselves available to you on a consistent basis. This can be via email, skype, webinar but what’s most important is the consistent training to lead you in the right direction. MyNetBizSecrets.com has an extensive back office training program that is available 24/7 while your mentor might not be that readily accessible.

3. Get a Tracking System. It is also vital to use a tracking software that will show you just what ads or techniques are bringing you the most profit. I’ve talked to several business owners and I have asked them what techniques they’ve seen that has brought them the most success. I am always surprised to hear a lot of them say that they weren’t sure. It’s very important to know which tools are bringing you the most profit so you don’t waste time with those that aren’t bringing any profit.

As Kylon states, it is important to find the tools to promote your business that brings you the most efficiency and effectiveness. MyNetBizSecrets.com can help you to find the tools that will promote and launch any business on the internet. 

This article on Promoting Your Business is brought to you by www.nctrower.wordpress.com

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What are some of the top things that you are searching for in your business? People are in different stages in their business model and I’d like to know where you stand. There are people that are looking for free ways to drive traffic to their site, people that are looking to improve SEO optimization and people that are looking for new blog designs.

Personally, I’m looking to transfer this blog from a free blog to a self-hosted site with more bells and whistles.  So naturally my internet searches have been focused on business and professional wordpress themes. Here are some themes that I’ve bookmarked so far. Please feel free to comment on any wordpress designs that you would suggest.

http://titanium.ithemes.com/

http://www.one-theme.com/wp/

http://essence.ithemes.com/

I really like the titanium theme but I’m not sure if I get a true feel of the site. I can’t envision what would go into the Feature #1 and #2 area.  I really like the social sites feature as I’m a very social gal. I probably can’t fit all my social networks in there!

I’m also digging the one-theme look, but the redundancy in the categories shown in different ways kinda bugs me, but maybe those can be changed to different options? I’m not real sure. I guess I will try to ask more questions about those wordpress designs before I make the big plunge. Be sure to participate in my poll!

P.S. Take a look at the Youtube video in the Titanium wordpress theme. Seth Godin’s book, “The Dip” should be an interesting read…

 View This Poll

 
Naomi Trower
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Affiliate marketing is a business that one can sell other people’s products and earn commissions from them. The sales are tracked through special links that are provided to the affiliate marketer which they place on their site to sell those items from. It’s best to create your own domain names for better marketability with GoDaddy.com

Affiliate Marketing has gotten a bad rap in years past, so it’s time to educate aspiring business owners about the truth behind this legitimate business. Let’s bust those myths and bring forth the truth about this potential money maker!

Myth #1 – It’s just another get rich quick scheme.

Truth- This myth probably originated around the time Internet frauds and scams hit an all time high. Most people aren’t aware of what affiliate marketing is and probably heard others who’ve said they made a lot of money from it, so they assumed it fell into the scam category. The truth is that it’s a legitimate business that you could make money from, but you will not get rich quick. It takes time and work to make it a success.

Myth #2 - It’s a waste of time. No one will want the junk you would be selling anyway.

Truth- First of all, you aren’t selling junk. You pick the items yourself and research them to see whether or not they’re worth the effort. When you find good quality products and work hard selling them, you will earn some decent commissions, so the time would not be wasted. You get out of it, what you put into it.

Myth #3 – Affiliate Marketing sites sell themselves.

Truth- The only way these sites will actually sell themselves is if you work hard to provide the best possible site and use the best possible marketing methods. You will still need to bust your rump to get those results though, so technically the sites don’t sell themselves.

Myth #4 - You can make money overnight!

Truth- Most affiliate marketers would love it if this were true. But it’s not. It will take quite a bit of time to get the ball rolling for you to find what works and doesn’t work. When you finally get on your feet and know how the process works effectively, then you can start earning more money. It won’t come overnight.

That being said, once you discover how to make that money, then yes, it is possible to go to sleep one night with X amount of dollars in your account and wake up to more. That’s where making money overnight comes into play, but that doesn’t mean you just throw a link on your site one day and wake up the next with a hefty account balance.

Myths #5 – Just build a website. Your customers will find you.

Truth- This holds some truth to it, but it’s lacking some details. You will need a website to sell affiliate products from, but customers aren’t going to find you unless you market, market and market some more. Just because you publish a site on the World Wide Web, does not guarantee everyone out there is going to stumble upon your site. You need to get your site out there and let it find them!

Affiliate marketing is a legitimate business that you can make money from. It’s like any other small business. You have to work hard at making it a success. The rewards of your hard work and dedication can be great once you get your business gets up and running.

Here are my top money makers:

Naomi Trower
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Oh Twitter how I love thee! Let me count the ways…Although you might not hear those exact words said very often online, you know it’s true when you login to your Twitter account or visit someone’s blog.

With the emergence of WordPress plug-ins like TwitThis and the various twitter badges found on numerous blogs throughout the Internet, it is obvious people adore Twitter. Just what is it that makes this social networking site so lovable? Let’s find out.

The question posed by Twitter, “What are you doing?” has become almost as popular as AOL’s “You’ve got mail.” So much so that it has even caught the eye of offline news mediums such as USA Today, CNN, and ABC. This helps to make the application popular all on its own. Those who think Twitter is just a place for computer or Internet geeks can rest assured it’s nothing of the sort.

For many, Twitter is a way to interact with like-minded individuals. Whether one is a stay at home mom who craves adult conversation, an at home worker who misses the water cooler chit-chat from past jobs, or the business owner who wants to reach more of their target market, this form of social media fills a need. It makes it easier for people to connect with others in a way they might not have previously been able to in the past.

The fact Twitter is easily accessible and even simpler to navigate makes it a favorite as well. Anyone can create a twitter account of their own with nothing more than a user name and a password. Once that’s done, it’s easy to customize your profile and begin following other tweeps, as those who use Twitter affectionately call one another.

To follow what another person is doing, just visit their page and click the follow button. You’ve now been added as a follower and when you login to your account you will see their messages on your screen.

Twitter’s arrival has also lead to the creation of different platforms and applications to make it appealing to just about everyone. Popular applications include, TwitterFox, Twhirl, TweetDeck,TweetMyBlog, and TweetLater. TwitterFox and Twhirl give users who prefer the instant messaging look and feel a way to use Twitter in somewhat the same manner. TwitterFox is an extension for the Firefox browser and Twhirl is a desktop application.

TweetMyBlog is a way to automatically post updates from a user’s blog to Twitter. In order to use it all one needs is a Twitter account and an RSS feed from their blog. It will automatically posts a tweet using your account when your blog is updated.

TweetDeck is another desktop application that allows for more organization of updates. Instead of posting all a users tweets one right after another, it allows the user to organize tweets into separate columns within the application. For those who have customers and friends on Twitter this is a great feature. I was a little turned off by the initial black and gray desktop colors but easily changed the colors to fit my personality.

There are some newer applications such as TwitWall and MyTweetSpace. TwitWall allows you to customize your profile with video, pictures and bookmarking options. MyTweetSpace allows more design options for your profile. Check out some of these features and discover your favorites. I’m off to tweet with my tweeps!

Naomi Trower

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