Biz Tips Blog: Internet Marketing Tips

SOBCon08 provided great insights to social networking

This past weekend I attended SOBCon08 in Chicago (SOB = Successful Outstanding Bloggers). It was a whirlwind two-day event starting Friday night with a river cruise and ending at noon on Sunday after a full day of outstanding presentations, 5 minute pitches by some participants, lots of networking, LOTS of twittering, lots of photos, and lots of blogger love.

I've compiled a list of links (below) - by no means complete because EVERYONE was blogging and tweeting about the event - so you can get a sense of what was covered and more importantly HOW the event was covered by the participants.

Social media and social networking RULED.

Throughout the presentations, everyone was posting on twitter important points and tips shared by the speakers. This enabled thousands of people who could not attend the event to get a flavor of what was going on and to participate in a limited way by commenting and asking questions.  If you're not using Twitter yet, sign up now. You can follow me at http://twitter.com/BlogSquad (click on the Follow button).

If you could ask one question...

...what would it be? Let me be more specific: if you could ask an entrepreneur one question about business or marketing, what would you ask?

This week, Thursday through Saturday, we'll be attending Adam Urbanski's InfoProduct Intensive in Newport Beach, CA. Since both Patsi and I have Flip Videos, we're going to do 2 minute interviews with as many of the participants as possible.

We want to know what other entrepreneurs are doing to make their businesses successful.

That's where you come in. If you could ask an entrepreneur one question about business or marketing, what would you ask?

Click the comment link below and let us know your burning question. If we pick your question, we'll send you a gift. Not sure what yet, since I'm making this up as I'm writing, but we promise it will be good!

We have a couple of ideas about what we want to know, but the videos are for you, to give you insights into how others are doing business, on and offline. So, we won't muddy the waters by posting our ideas. We want to hear from you. But you've got to submit your question by Wednesday night because we're out of here early Thursday morning.

Create a Wow: Free Virtual Conference Starts on Tuesday

Are you struggling to make a splash online? Need some fresh ideas or expert advice? If so, you won't want to miss the Create A WOW Virtual Conference at www.CreateAWOW.com. Patsi and I are presenters at the conference and hope you’ll listen to our class about blogging as a marketing tool.

The free virtual conference will be held online from January 8 - 11, 2008 and will be a collection of audios and videos  you can listen/view at your convenience. Each presentation is about 20 minutes so you get lots of actionable-value in bite-size chunks.

We're honored to be included alongside this highly talented group of professionals who will be sharing their knowledge and expertise with you -- giving you tons of quality information for creating your own WOW online. There's no charge for this online event which includes the following classes:

How to Get The Most out of the Create a Wow Conference - Learn how to implement what you learn!
Presented by Rory Cohen, President

BlogWorld Expo Interviews and Photos

Most of our BlogWorld posts are on Build a Better Blog.  Here's a quick directory of where to find info:

Video interviews with bloggers on Build a Better Blog

BlogWorld photos posted on Flickr

The Blog Squad interviewed on BlogTalkRadio at BlogWorld

(Photo left to right: Andy Wibbels, me, Andrew Paradies, Toby Bloomberg)

Related Post:
BlogWorld Expo - Some Random Thoughts

BlogWorld Expo - Some Random Thoughts

I'm at McCarron Airport in Las Vegas, waiting for my flight back to Burbank after attending the BlogWorld Expo. Since I'm not in a rush, I gave up my seat on the overbooked flight I was on in exchange for $100 + the cost of my flight.  That will pay for my flight to see my family at Christmas! And it gives me some time to reflect on the last few days.

For me, BWE started on the flight to Las Vegas when I was seated next to a fellow who had been hired by Pajamas Media, one of the BWE sponsors, to entertain folks at their booth. Evan Sayet is a right-wing comedian and though our politics were polar opposites, we had a nice chat.

I relay this encounter because it is about the power of social media and blogs. Sayet gave a speech at the Heritage Foundation on how modern liberals think, a few months ago. It was posted on YouTube and has been viewed over 300,000 times. As result of the exposure, he got a book deal with an advance. You never know who is going to read your blog or see your videos.

For Sayet, it was a fluke and has lead to more gigs. As it was for our friend Gregory K. Pincus who wrote a blog post that went wildly viral and resulted in a NY Times article and a 3 book deal.

BlogWorld Expo Posts

Patsi and I have been at BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas for the last two days. We are posting audio and video interviews over on Build A Better Blog. We've connected with some of our colleagues, bloggers we read and clients. I'll be posting 5 new video interviews in the next day or two.

What I Missed at Mega Speaking Empire

Actually I missed everything at Mark Victor Hansen's Mega Speaking Empire because I did not attend.  But, Patsi did attend and has reported on her experience. Fortunately I got to visit with Patsi and our colleague Kathleen Gage at breakfast and at dinner.

But the one other person I would like to have seen is my marketing mentor, Tom Antion. No matter how many times I've heard his presentations, I always learn something new from him and in this case I would like to have closely studied his speaking style.  He's a master, both at presenting tons of useful content -- no fluff in his presentations -- and selling mega bucks in product and consulting at the back of the room.

Fortunately, Tom just launched a membership site for public speakers. True to form, it's called Amazing Public Speaking ($5 for a 30 day trial), and since he's considered a top speaker, earning up to $250,000 for one gig, I plan on making time to study the 250+ videos he has on the site. The discussion forum seems pretty active and I recognize names of some well-known speakers so it seems there are a lot of pros sharing their expertise.

I've resisted the public speaking thing for a long time, but over and over, keep hearing that speaking is THE way to build one's business. So reluctantly I go forth. On Friday, I'm moderating a panel discussion on blog design at BlogWorld Expo so I'll be out there!

Drinking from the firehose

Saturday was an intense day of injecting information directly into my brain.  While Patsi was at the Mega Speaking Empire event, coincidentally in the same hotel, I spent the day with 25 others in a room with The System creator, Ken McCarthy at the System Intensive.

I started the day with a 7:30 breakfast with Patsi and our colleague Kathleen Gage of Street Smarts Marketing whom I had never met in person.  We jammed a lot of potential joint venture ideas in to an hour before we all moved on to our workshops.

The System Intensive was approximately 8 hours of Ken McCarthy giving the bird's eye view of marketing online and off.  McCarthy comes from a lineage of direct marketers and then transferred that knowledge to online marketing. The day started with an introduction to the direct marketing giants like Maxwell Sackheim, Eugene Schwartz, John Caples, David Ogilvy, and Gary Halbert.

Ken McCarthy's System Intensive

Anyone planning to attend Ken McCarthy's System Intensive this Saturday in Los Angeles? I'll be there and would love to meet up if you'll be there too. I've been following McCarthy for many years and since he's going to be in L.A. I figured I couldn't and shouldn't pass up the opportunity to experience his training in person. The one day System Intensive is limited to 50 people so it will undoubtedly be an excellent high-level learning experience.

Coincidentally, Patsi will be at Mark Victor Hansen's 3 day Mega Speaking Event at the same hotel at the same time. The Blog Squad is splitting up to soak up as much professional development as possible.

Let us know if you'll be at either event.

White Papers: Learn to Write Them in Beautiful San Diego

Here's my personal invitation to join me in my home town, beautiful San Diego, for a one-day workshop on writing White Papers. Let's have lunch on Mission Bay and learn how to harness the marketing power of white papers. Michael Stelzner is teaching this workshop, and he wrote the book on Writing White Papers for your business.

Space is limited to 25 participants because he will be working with us intensively.

Here's why this is important:

White papers are one of the most complex (and rewarding) writing projects you will likely ever undertake. They're expensive to outsource, so I'm learning to write my own, and you should too.

White papers also happen to be one of the most sought-after resources by prospects, according numerous studies by MarketingSherpa, CMO Council and KnowledgeStorm.

If you register before next Tuesday, July 31st at midnight, you'll get the early bird discount. This workshop will more than pay for itself in valuable writing skills that you can use to grow your business.

It's what you need to learn to write if you want to get new clients based on intelligent, well-researched, relationship marketing.

For more information, visit Michael's White Paper Seminar page here. The Mission Bay Hyatt is just gorgeous, so you can combine a weekend with a tax-deductible business expense.

To learn more about why this is so important, we interviewed Michael on Blogging and Beyond radio. Michael also revealed important information in a white paper teleseminar last month. You can get the CD here.