Product Funnel

Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
4pm to 6pm Pacific Time
7pm to 9pm Eastern Time

If you’re ready to turn your website from a free-loader to a fee-loader, then this seminar is for you. This is a way to create a passive form of income for your business. Products also raise the perceived level of expertise in your niche.

In this powerful information-packed seminar you will learn:

• What information products are
• Why you need information products
• How you can create information products
• How to market and profit from information products

Here are some of the ways your business will benefit from information products:

• Create an ongoing passive income stream
• Expand your brand and credibility as an expert
• Enjoy benefits of being an author
• Have back of the room sales for seminars and talks
• Create products others can sell for commission with affiliate programs
• Build a product funnel; there are no limits

Click Here To Register

North San Diego Business At Large

North San Diego Business At Large

Show Notes: July 16, 2010

Rick Itzkowich, Linkedin For Dummies, is the co-founder and Vice President of Productive Learning & Leisure. PL&L is an organization that offers unique courses, learning adventures and products that promote self-development and enhance people’s success in both their business and personal life. As a small business owner himself, Rick understands the cost of marketing. Over his 20 years in the industry, he has identified and designed highly successful online and offline strategies to cost-effectively market a business’ products and services.

As the creator of the 15-video tutorial LinkedIn Power Success Program, Rick has created live presentations and products that meet today’s demand for tools to use with social media. His marketing articles, podcasts and blog messages regarding how to add LinkedIn to a company’s marketing plan, as well as his QuoteActions or web-based quotes and actions to keep your brand “top of mind” are in high demand. The LinkedIn Power Success Program video series and eBook, Social Networking for Business Profits, educate the solopreneur and small business owner in powerful referral marketing strategies. Most recently Rick was a presenter at You Learn Twit Face, an international social media conference held in Dubai. Rick is also a featured columnist for The National Networker (TNNW). His column is titled — Being There When It Matters.

The second half of the show is dedicated to answering your questions about Linkedin and using it to grow your business. I’ll be interviewing Joe Binning, Medcor, about his Linkedin strategies and the success he’s found on Linkedin. He’s a real business owner finding success with social media.

Send your question to debra(at)northsandiegobusiness(dot)com.

North San Diego Business At Large

North San Diego Business At Large
Show Notes: June 25, 2010

I am often asked  about using social media in business. Most of my fellow business owners are wary of spending time with Facebook and Twitter, especially Twitter.

Today I’m answering a lot of those questions, sharing why, or why you wouldn’t want to use social media. I know you’re hearing that you HAVE to use it or be left behind.

Social media can be a tremendous benefit to your business, but to a certain degree you have to participate. So, I’m letting you know that you DON’T have to participate, but…participating can bring you, and your business, tremendous rewards.

This is an ongoing series, so if you have any questions, use the contact form and I’ll add them to the list. Check out the Upcoming Show Details post for the schedule of topics.

Let me know how you are using social media. I’d love to hear success stories. Feel free to comment!

North San Diego Business At Large

North San Diego Business At Large
Show Schedule, Fridays, 3:00 PM PT

On June 25th’s episode, Overview of Social Media for Business,  we started a social media series designed to answer your questions about using social media, Facebook, Twitter, Blogging and more as a marketing strategy for your business.

Use the North San Diego Business contact form to ask your questions.

7/30/2010 3:00 PM – Facebook Pages, An Overview
Now that you have a Facebook account we’re going to talk about how you can create a business page on Facebook.

8/06/2010 3:00 PM – Twitter for Business, An Overview
We’ll talk about what Twitter is and how it can fit into a business marketing plan.

8/13/2010 3:00 PM – Felena Hanson Ties It All Together
In this episode Felena Hanson, Perspective Marketing, helps tie it all together for us. She’ll share ideas on why you’d want to use social media and how you might use it.

North San Diego Business At Large

North San Diego Business At Large
Show Notes: May 21, 2010

My guest this episode was Felena Hanson, Perspective Marketing.

Felena Hanson brings over twelve years of marketing and management experience to the table. She’s not only an industry expert but also a marketing professor, author, and international speaker.

Her background includes, marketing plan creation and implementation, marketing management, brand management, product positioning, market research, marketing communications, web marketing and customer relationship management.

She has worked as an Account Director for PremiereGroup, a marketing agency in Los Angeles, California, where her responsibilities included managing marketing communications programs for clients such as DIRECTV, SunAmerica, Fox News Channel, Washington Mutual and Epson.

North San Diego Business At Large

North San Diego Business At Large
Show Notes: April 23, 2010

What a great interview with Lynn Pittman on developing your business brand. We talked about building your tribe, determining your brand, some branding mistakes and how to build relationships with your clients and customers.

Lynn shared one of our great small business resources, outside of Mind Masters Entrepreneur Association, the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at 1823 Mission Ave. in Oceanside.

We also spoke about the upcoming Project Management Institute May 12th – 14th event. The 7th Annual Leadership and Education Conference Mission : : Success with Apollo 13 Flight Director, Gene Kranz.

This is the premier business conference featuring national speakers, hands on workshops, tutorials, seminars, networking events and more featuring the latest in technology, program management and leadership skills. The Project of the Year Award Winners Will Be Announced at the Kick Off Celebration May 12, 2010. For more information and to register for the conference visit conference.pmi-sd.org

North San Diego Business At Large

North San Diego Business At Large
Show Notes: April 16, 2010

Today I interviewed Vicki Garcia, Marketing Impressions, about small business marketing. Vicki has over 20 years experience with all aspects of marketing a small business.

Some of the tools we covered were:

• ISSUU a site that allows you to upload pdfs then turns the pdfs into ebooks with pages that flip. It includes a widget bookshelf that you can put on your website.
• EzineArticles a site that let’s you publish articles that are available for bloggers, webmasters and others to use as content on their site. It also gives out an “Expert” badge for your site.
• SlideShare is a site that you can upload your PowerPoint presentations to and share them with bloggers and others.
• Meetups for Small Business Marketing, San Diego Speakers Guild and Numbers At Work
• San Diego Airport Green Build Contractor Sign Up

North San Diego Business At Large

North San Diego Business At Large
Show Notes: April 12, 2010

The Women In Business Symposium is being held Thursday, May 20, 2010 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. This is the 11th year Sheila McDonnell has been producing this event.

Sheryl Roush

Sheryl Roush, Sparkle Presentations, will be the Mistress of Ceremonies. Anyone who knows Sheryl can tell you it’s an excellent event to attend, just because she’s there. she brings a passion to any event she’s involved with, and she really does “come from the heart.”

Sheryl has authored a “Heart Book Series” with several titles, Heart of a Woman, Heart of a Mother, and her current releases, Heart of a Military Woman and Heart of a Business Woman. But that’s not all.

Dee Sanford

Dee Sanford, Dee Sanford International, is one of the two keynote speakers. Dee is a Motivational Speaker, Trainer, TV & Internet Radio Host, and Founder of Two Networking Organizations.

Dee will be speaking about “The Power of Big Dreams and the Boldness to Make Them Happen”

Judy Carter

Judy Cater, Comedy Workshops,  will be the Symposium’s other keynote speakers.

Judy is a professional comedian and will be speaking about Stress Reduction: Laughing Your Way Out of Stress—Turning Problems into Punch Lines.

The Early Bird deadline is May 10, 2010.  There are still opportunities to market your business through sponsorship, or becoming one of the exhibitors. Make sure to register now for this wonderful networking event.

Networking Is About Relationships

I’ve told this story many times. I published Networks, later renamed to The Business Resource, in the early ’90s….yes, I’ve been around that long. It was a time of large networking events. The Business Resource had it’s own membership, and it’s own networking events.

One event I would often attend had an interesting way of passing business cards…red solo cups, the 16oz size. The cups would be placed around a table and you simply walked around the table and dropped a business card in each cup. At the end of the evening, you picked up your cup and left. Now we have Speed Networking.

So why do I tell this story again…Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit a structured referral organization. That’s a networking group that allows only one person from each “type” or “discipline” in business, ie: one banker, one real estate agent and so on. The visit took me back to the slammin’ days of networking and the red solo cups.

As I approached I saw some business buddies I knew, so it was noted when I signed in that I already had “friends” here. I mentioned that we belonged to another structured referral organization and was immediately greeted with the “rules” about what I could belong to and what I couldn’t belong to. That would be welcome enough, but there’s more…

Bless Mindy Selinger’s heart when she hears this…as I filled out my name tag (reminder to self, Mindy was right…get my own name tag) the woman behind the table asked me to stop and write my name so people could read it.  In other words, my writing sucks. Now, admittedly, I do have my Dad’s way of writing, but is that really something you want to say to someone who is checking out membership in your group…and you’re meeting for the first time? After all, you’re going to ask me to fork out $330 annual fees, plus $100 registration fee and $40 a month in food/room fees, as well as requiring me to attend a “good member training”.

Now the fun part. This organization asks that the guests place their cards on a tray and the tray is passed around for all the others to take the guests cards. The members card box is also passed around, but somehow it didn’t get to my table. So, they had my card, but I didn’t have theirs…well accept for the people I really did meet, converse with, and exchange cards.

When I checked my email this am, one of the members emailed me about how nice it was that I attended their meeting and how happy I would be as a member. Then, she put me on her email list…..here’s where I bristle. I never met her. She never came to me and introduced herself and I never found my way to her to introduce myself. If she had, and if she’d used the approach with me in person that she used over the call we just had, she’d realize I have a professional relationship with an anti-aging skin care consultant. If I had any referrals, he would be the first person I’d refer. Why? Because he and I have been networking for well over a year. I know him, and if anyone I knew needed anti-aging products I’d refer them to him. He and I have a business relationship.

So, along comes the phone call today. I don’t care for people not telling the truth. She called, reminded me that we had met, which we hadn’t, and told me she called to ask me about my business. However, the next sentence was…. “if you remember I have the anti-aging skin care line.” I told her I was well acquainted with the line, and it’s major competitor, and knew many consultants with each company. With that she ended the call…before she could find out what I did, which is the reason she called me.

Two points to be made with this story.

1. Taking a business card off a table, tray or other item does not constitute meeting someone. In the internet marketing world, we live by the CanSpam Act. There should be a reasonable expectation that we’ve met before you add me to your email list. At least there was an unsubscribe I could use, and did use.
2. Don’t lie to me. Don’t call me and tell me you met me. If you had met me, you would have known I was not an ideal client for you. However, if you had a conversation with me in which I told you I had an existing business relationship, and you still tried to “sell” to me, what does that say about your integrity?

Networking is about relationships. If your networking group is holding an open house, maybe you don’t need to worry about whether you can read a name on a tag or not. Maybe you can forgo the “rules” talk at the door. Maybe you should actually try to meet the guests and not just collect cards. You’re the host!

For as much as we hear that relationship marketing is the way to go, or that you want to aim for “referrals of a lifetime” there are still plenty of business owners out there who are all about the red solo cups.

Need A Website?

• Do you find yourself answering the same questions over and over?
• Do you want to build an email list for your business?
• Do you want to create passive income with your website?

Digital download products are the answer! And, you can learn how to create a digital, downloadable product for your business! Debra Simpson, Syndicating Your Content, is holding her monthly webinar on Creating and Marketing Your Business With Digital Products on Wednesday, March 24th.

Whether you need to build your list, show your expertise, “pre sell” your prospects, a digital document that can be downloaded from your site is the answer. A digital product creates online visibility, elevates your perceived level of expertise and can bring you passive income.

Learn how to create digital products and how you can use them to leverage your business, especially online.