All the probloggers say not to apologize if you haven’t blogged for a little while, so I’m not going to say sorry. Instead I’ll just tell you what else I have been doing recently. First of all I have been writing pretty much all the content for the new Fresh Air Studios website. Fresh Air Studios is the professional audio production studio where I am based as a voiceover. The website hasn’t been fully launched yet but feel free to check it out, especially if you have a business that could benefit from a variety of audio solutions.
I have also been making use of Jason Moffatt’s Easy Video Sales, that I won recently. This is excellent stuff and I promise to create a proper review of it very soon, but in the meantime you can see his superb Mass Control presentation for absolutely nothing (you do need to give your name and email address). Mass Control was Frank Kern’s high priced event earlier this year and Jason gave away many of his video hijacker tips during his presentation (and then Ed Dale backed him up with a brilliant but simple YouTube trick near the end).
As part of the Immediate Edge I have been beta testing some new software called Market Samurai. This is not available at the moment but again I promise you a more detailed review. Apologies if you are following me on Twitter and fed-up of me raving about Market Samurai, but this is the best keyword/niche finding software I have ever used and they have already incorporated the extra information that Google is now revealing (as mentioned in my last post).
Finally, I have been gearing up for the Thirty Day Challenge which officially begins on 1st August. All the entries are in for the podcast intro competition and I’m almost sure I have found the winner (it’s a tough one, and I may need to make more than one intro). So, the next week will have to include me creating the intro in time for the challenge launch. I hope to video some of the process so you can see what’s involved.
There have been some changes over at Google with their free keyword tool that could make a huge difference to your keyword research. Take a look at this “Incredible Google News” video Ed Dale has just released - he is practically wetting himself with excitement due to the implications of these changes (sorry, can’t include it on the blog as Wordpress aren’t letting me embed a seesmic video).
This is going to save you a lot of guesswork and research, and is exactly the reason I recommend the Thirty Day Challenge (free) and the Immediate Edge. Ed and his team jump on this stuff straight away and test everything, using proven keywords (a luxury many of us, especially those just starting out on the Internet, don’t have).
Jennie asked a couple of questions in the last post about my blog that I can answer quite easily. Firstly, she liked the audio player bars and wondered how I integrated them to match the rest of the blog.
This was simple. I used the 1 Pixel Out Audio Player Wordpress plugin. Once you have plugged it into your wordpress site and activated it, you can change the colours of different aspects of the player. So I just checked my theme for the main colour codes and played with the audio player options until I liked what I saw.
As for the comments box, this just comes as part and parcel of the Wordpress theme I use from Copyblogger. There’s lots of changes I could make to the blog, especially if I downloaded the Organic theme, but I’m happy with this for now.
Finally, where do I find time to do it? That one’s not so easy to answer. I just make time when I can. I should blog more often than I do - I’d like to blog here at least once a day - but I do as much as I can and try not to sweat it too much if I miss a day or two (or more)!
Please feel free to add your own questions or make comments below.
For the past 2 years I have created an intro for Ed Dale’s Thirty Day Challenge podcasts (actually the first one I created was for his Smackdown comp with Frank Kern in UltraUnderachievers, but it was used later for the 30DC).
This year I thought we should do it differently. This is partly because the pressure is on to be more creative than last year – eek! – but also because I thought it would be great to harness some of your creativity.
So, the plan is that we open it up as a competition and ask you to come up with your most creative scripts for this year’s Thirty Day Challenge podcast introduction.
If you feel up to the challenge, get your creativity flowing and write a script for me. The best one will be turned into an audio “masterpiece” and will have the honour of being heard by Thirty Day Challengers throughout the world (I’ll even send you a copy for posterity).
Now, because this is also to help you experience the reality of creating online audio, there are going to be some restrictions. Much as I would love you to be able to use any music, any voice actor and any creative concept you would like, this is not going to be possible due to costs and copyright laws.
So, this is the framework you need to work within:
Script to record should be between 30 and 90 seconds – any longer and it gets a bit tiresome (in fact, a minute of tightly written copy is preferable to 90secs with unnecessary padding)
You can use either a male or female voiceover or both but you are restricted to Jon Iles and/or Sally Williams (click on their names to listen to their showreels). This is simply because I work with them and know they will be happy to participate in the project. Jon is able to do some character voices and that fantastic deep movie trailer voice. If you don’t know whether something is possible with those voiceovers, include it anyway and I’ll see what I can do.
You cannot specify a particular music track as this is likely to cost a fortune in royalties, but you can say that music should be in the style of, for example, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Titanic etc. Or, you can simply specify that you would like it to have romantic music or sci-fi music. And, yes, you can have more than one piece of music on the podcast.
You can use sound effects (but please don’t make them too tricky to find or create – the sound of a specific Ferrari engine while travelling at 100 mph may be beyond my capabilities )
You can’t completely rip-off someone else’s work. For example, much as Ed would like a Kung-Fu Panda theme this year, it will probably breach copyright and have Dreamworks suing our a*ses quicker than you can say “Prepare for Awesomeness” Writing a script that completely mimics a film or tv script is a no-no (as well as being uncreative) but the occasional quote or referencing a film or tv show should be OK.
Once you have your ideas, please write them down in a script. Start with a brief paragraph explaining your overall concept, and then write your script, making it clear what is said by the voiceover, where the music comes in and where any sound effects are required.
The more detail the better, but don’t go overboard and write a screenplay! You’ve got 10 days to get your entry in (I’ll stop taking entries at midnight on Saturday 12th July), which should allow time to create the intro in time for the main challenge starting on August 1st. And if I really get my stuff together I will film some of the creation process too so you can see what’s involved.
Paste your script into an email and send it to lisa.hartwell@gmail.com. Include your real name, your forum name and a contact email address.
Oh, and if you aren’t already a Thirty Day Challenge participant, please sign up so you can get to grips with the concept of the Challenge before your write your script.
I think that’s everything but feel free to ask questions here on the blog or over at the relevant thread on the Thirty Day Challenge forum.
If this is your first year of the challenge and think I am speaking another language when I mention podcast intros, then take a listen to these previous ones for some ideas.
This was the intro in 2006 (remember it was originally created for the Smackdown battle between Ed Dale and Frank Kern in their UltraUnderachievers program):
Lots of stuff has been going on recently, so I’ll get right on and tell you about it.
Firstly, just over a week ago John Cow announced the results of his Cowpetition, and guess what? I won first prize! Woo Hoo! A copy of David Cavanagh’s 52 Week “Getting Started On The Internet” Program - including 52 weeks of live conference calls, 1 on 1 coaching and membership site. Also includes 4 day live workshop in Pattaya Beach Thailand ($9,997 Value). I got started in the Internet quite a while ago now, but I’m really looking forward to David’s coaching as there is always something new to learn and different perspectives to see.
About 7 hours after this was announced I logged into Twitter and saw Jason Moffatt (http://twitter.com/jasonmoffatt) make a Tweet offering a free subscription to Easy Video Sales to the first person who Twittered back. I sent a Tweet and, low and behold, I won! Thanks Jason. Again looking forward to this as Jason is doing great stuff with video online.
Well, deciding I was on a roll, I bought a Euro Millions ticket that day (a very rare occurrence for me as I don’t usually go in for lotteries) and guess what? Yes, I won again! OK, it wasn’t the £34 million jackpot, but £22.50 isn’t to be sniffed at (that’s about half a tank of petrol at the moment).
I started a new Twitter survey (if you aren’t following me on Twitter yet, you can find me at http://twitter.com/audiomarketing) to find out what people would most like to know about creating and using audio online. PollDaddy.com offer a free service to create polls on Twitter and you can also add that poll to your website/blog. If you haven’t taken the survey yet, please add your preference to the right of this post. At the moment, most people seem to want to know more about the technical stuff, so I will definitely be dealing with that in future posts (I feel some videos coming on).
I’ve left this a bit late, but Yanik Silver has released the latest Underground Online Seminar DVDs. You only have until tomorrow to get your hands on them (sorry for the late notice). I have attended 2 of Yanik’s seminars and bought the DVDs/CDs for all of them because he manages to find some of the best and most successful people in the Internet world (and usually people who do not speak at conferences as a rule). Much of the information divulged at these conferences is groundbreaking and stuff you can run with straight away (not just lofty ideals but concrete methods). Yanik is an excellent copywriter too, so check out what he has done with the sales pages for this launch (and when Yanik says that something is limited, he means it).
And finally, we are well into Pre-Season over at the Thirty Day Challenge but there is still time to get onboard. The pre-season videos so far have covered loads of flocking good advice on using the Flock browser and how to use Google Reader to save a huge amount of time out of your day. The actual challenge starts August 1st so there is plenty of time to get involved and catch up with the pre-season training, but it is best to do it NOW while it’s fresh in your mind. I’ve already used the word groundbreaking in this post but I am going to use it again – the (free) teaching over at the Thirty Day Challenge is almost always groundbreaking and worth checking out even if you’ve been working online for a long time, or you have an offline business and want to see how the power of the Internet can be harnessed to improve business.
Don’t forget you can add any thoughts and comments here on the blog or feel free to Twitter me (just add @audiomarketing to your Tweet and I will see it).
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. This post is something I’ve wanted to express for a long time. So grab some popcorn and your beverage of choice. You’re in for a long one.I was recently called out and attacked by Mark Hopkins over at the blog Mashable with his latest post, Is Twitter Vulnerable To Marketer Attack?Mark apparently got his motivation to make such a post after reading blogger Duncan Riley’s recent post (also directed at me and showing a recent email I sent to my list) Pending Sign Of The Twitter Apocalypse: It’s Being Talked About By Internet Marketers.
If there is one thing guaranteed to get people to read and comment on your blog it’s to write something absolutely flaming about someone or something other people respect. That happened over at Mashable today with established Internet Marketers (in particular John Reese) being “called out” for their (mis)use of Twitter.
Interestingly, it was a Twitter post by Mashable that ensured readers saw the blog post quickly and Twitter that enabled the buzz surrounding it to spread quickly.
I’m not going to go into great detail about the Mashable blog post or John Reese’s response (please read them for yourselves), except to say that I’m glad John did respond. Many times the big names in Internet Marketing get slammed online and they choose not to respond because it stirs up a hornets’ nest, raises the profile of the person who called them out, and leaves a distinctly bad taste in readers’ mouths (not to mention that life is too short to constantly battle the dissenters). But in this case it was a strong personal attack written on a well-read blog, and by targeting John Reese they were also slating a whole lot of other people who make their money online (themselves included).
Apart from the unnecessary, unprovoked and un-researched attack on John, my own feelings after reading the Mashable post are:
what right has anyone (apart from the owners of Twitter) to say whether someone is using Twitter in the right or wrong way? If people feel like someone they are following is hard-selling them they simply STOP following them. It’s as easy as that.
what makes what Mashable do on Twitter any different from me, John Reese or anyone else who has an online business? They build a relationship with followers by posting some personal stuff, some useful stuff, some links to interesting sites and some links to their own blog/website (where they make money). Interestingly I stopped following Mashable because I felt bombarded by them…but I still follow John Reese.
what is wrong with being an ebook seller? The Mashable post made it sound unethical and so many people act like selling ebooks is ripping people off. I sell ebooks and know many others who sell them too. When done right, they are well-written, informative and helpful. They enable people to find help on topics that are time sensitive or not profitable enough to warrant a physical book. One of my ebooks has less than a 2% refund rate so the buyers at least believe they got value for money.
I suppose my point is that I feel a little miffed (a weak way of saying p**sed off) that someone believes they have taken the high ground on something when they have no right to take it (especially as they did it poorly on popular blog). Writing a blog and making money on it from advertising and affiliate products is no different from promoting voiceover or writing services online, or selling ebooks on growing tomatoes, or making money on ebay, or… It makes us all Internet Marketers. It’s time to get over thinking that Internet Marketing is solely about ripping people off.
OK, I think I’m done. I need some chamomile tea now to calm me down (and I hate chamomile tea)!
Like others who have commented on this on their blogs I am simply contributing to Mashable’s traffic by mentioning it here, but if you want to find out where this originated then by all means go check it out, but also have a look at John Reese’s blog reply Wake Up Call and I enjoyed reading Alice Seba’s blog post on this too: Marketing Blogs: Hollywood Tabloid Style (Alice is always the voice of reason).
Lisa
P.S. To follow me on Twitter go to http://twitter.com/audiomarketing
I blogged previously about the ways you can use PLR creatively to promote your websites, gather leads and create products. In my Creative PLR post I mentioned how much I love the All Private Label content provided by Alice Seba and Mila Sidman. Well, they have just emailed me with a special offer for 2 new mini memberships: Craft PLR and Travel PLR.
Prsonally I am not in the craft niche but I am always on the look-out for quality travel plr, so I signed up for the All Travel Content Mini Membership straight away
At the moment, you can claim a $5 trial of each of the memberships by entering coupon code:
89684
Each membership includes 10 articles and 5 product profiles/reviews (great for monetizing your site). To test the content for just $5 go to:
First of all, how exciting is this - I’m blogging from my Flock browser. Am I cool or what? (who shouted “what”?). I downloaded Flock a couple of months ago and now that we are using it for the Thirty Day Challenge I’m planning to learn lots more about it from Ed Dale and Dan Raine.
But the main reason for this post is that another challenge is happening online at the moment that you might want to catch up on, especially if you are into blogging and/or selling websites. John Cow and Garry Conn are going head-to-head (in fact they have already started) to see who can set up a brand new blog and then sell it for the most money within a month.
I love this sort of challenge, because they promise full disclosure of what they are doing and they are letting you watch for free. It’s one of those win-win situations. They have to succeed (or at least come close) otherwise they look stupid, and in the meantime you get to learn heaps from them.
Dan Raine did a similar thing with his $15k challenge and although he missed the mark by a few hundred dollars (and has been paying for it ever since with the pink thong video), he proved his credentials as an excellent marketer. That made a helluva lot more people want to learn from him and take part in the Thirty Day Challenge and/or Immediate Edge.
I suspect that John Cow and Garry Conn are using this as an opportunity to raise their blog readerships and with a huge prize giveaway as well, they should succeed. If you want to learn more about the challenge and all the prizes (and there’s some lovely stuff there including courses from Ed ‘Mankini’ Dale, Stompernet, Frank Kern, Jeff Walker…) then check out the Cowpetition (see what he did there?).
Especially if you are starting out online at the moment I highly recommend you grab all these free offers whenever you can - whether it be a fly-on-the-wall moment like this one where you can learn by watching others or a participatory challenge like 30DC. As someone pointed out in reference to last year’s Thirty Day Challenge - they learnt more from doing that free training than they ever did from the $1500 course they had just bought..and it made the difference between throwing in the towel with their business and becoming successful and profitable. You can start buying the high-priced courses once you have some basics and cash flow behind you.
I don’t want to get into a major discussion about the differences between men and women when it comes marketing and business, or differences in general, but I can see that it is a topic many of you have deliberated over and given some thought to.
While I accept that there are some differences that are probably universal, I also think there is so much that influences who we are as individuals - both nature and nurture - that we can’t categorize people simply by sex. Women who thrive in business do not necessarily take on traditionally male traits. I know women who are girly girls and I know women who are what we might have called tomboys when we were younger. I always considered myself a tomboy but one of my friends says I’m quite girly next to her. Similarly I have many male friends (and relate better to men in general) who run the gamut from having very soft feminine sides to being full-on butch guys showing off their pecks and talking cars and stuff!
For myself, I don’t understand when some of my female friends talk about their biological clocks ticking away and the overwhelming urge to have children. It just hasn’t happened to me. I love children but don’t have this hormone rush that tells me I must have my own. Too much testosterone in the womb? (this is the latest theory as to why some women prefer techie subjects more than others) Conversely, my sister always wanted to be a stay at home mum and didn’t understand my drive for career satisfaction. Same mum, same upbringing, two very different people
We’re all different. And that’s what I love about people - their individualism. So, while many women share similar characteristics, it is their differences that make them unique.
As watzzupsport said “it takes all types to make up this world.” Wouldn’t it be dull if we were all the same? Don’t feel you have to compromise yourself in order to fit in to a stereotype.
So, relating this to your search for a mentor or masterminding group, it is important to find others you can communicate well with, respect, feel comfortable around, and find common ground with. For most women that will be other women and for most men that will be other men, but it doesn’t have to be.
I wish you all well in your search and remember to celebrate your differences!
Allison Reynolds wrote an interesting blog post “On Being a Window Washer” She related it to her own experiences, asking why there were fewer successful female internet marketers, and reflecting on needing a mentor to bounce things off.
I started writing a reply but it got so long I decided I’d make it a blog post instead.
There are fewer women in Internet Marketing just as there are fewer women in business and marketing as a whole. The number of women getting involved in IT is declining, and many people springboard from IT into internet marketing because they think they already have the skills for it. Now, I’m not going to get into a debate about why this is, but I suspect it is partly an education issue, and partly about the way others view women and women view themselves. Who knows? There simply are fewer female Internet Marketers.
However, I do think there are more females IMers than anyone realises. Women are less likely to attend IM seminars (perhaps due to family constraints), and if you look at any IM forum there are many women subscribed to them and making some useful posts, but they tend not to be overly vocal. Many Work At Home Mums find there way into Internet Marketing but have no desire to use up their already precious time commenting in forums.
I have had this discussion with a number of female Internet Marketers. When you go to an IM seminar or read emails in this field there is the impression that there is a bit of a boy’s club that all the male IM “gurus” belong to. It’s not that they don’t have respect for the females out there - Rosalind Gardner, Alice Seba, Michelle Macpherson, to name just a few - it’s just boys will be boys, and they like their toys and partying together and showing off their cars and phones to each other. OK, maybe that’s a bit unfair. But, I think they do have a greater need to buddy-up with others in the same field as them.
Most women who are successful in the IM world have different priorities, and while they want to be successful in their field they are less concerned with letting everyone know about it. I know a few women who are super-successful Internet Marketers but they keep it very quiet - happy to get on with making the money without needing any of the glory. I also know a lot of women who are content to make a steady income in this field in order to be able to stay at home with their kids and have a good lifestyle but who have no intention of stepping it up and making millions.
If you are a woman in the IM world and are feeling isolated or want to find a female mentor, I would suggest you look within the forums you frequent or at seminars you attend. Make friends with people and keep an eye on who makes pointed observations. You will find that they are usually the ones who are least likely to make a noise or who are incredibly helpful but never brag.
I made a friend at the first marketing seminar I ever attended who pointed me towards the Thirty Day Challenge material from the first year. Since then we have attended a couple of seminars together and have stayed in touch. Whenever we meet up we have the best masterminding sessions. If you saw us at a seminar you would think I was the most successful simply because she is quite reserved about her business while I love the sound of my own voice (hazard of the job, and because my main focus has always been to sell my voiceover services). At the last seminar she even started telling everyone that I was her mentor, when if anything it is the other way round. It became an in joke! But it made me very conscious of the fact that at every seminar I have attended the people making the most noise are not usually the ones making the most money or having the most success.
You may have your male Internet Marketing “gurus” talking about their last masterminding session together in Las Vegas, but to be honest it pays for them to boost their connections because they are selling to the IM world. However, at any IM seminar you could be sitting next to someone who is making millions selling information products to Scuba Divers and just wants to keep a low profile. It’s not that they are avoiding conversations and friendships, they are just a little more careful about what they say and to whom they say it.
So, if you want to find a mentor or someone to brainstorm with, my recommendation is not to follow the loudest crowd but to strike up friendships and relationships with those you encounter in forums and at seminars. If you are doing the Thirty Day Challenge this year, become part of a group with people (or women) with different backgrounds, abilities and experience. Most people find their mentors initially through building a relationship or recommendations from friends. While it is possible to approach someone you respect directly and persuade them to be your mentor, forging an initial relationship with them will strengthen the chance of them saying yes.
