Internet Marketing Tips from Denise Wakeman

Been there, done that. What you can learn from the experts.

One of the reasons I invest in my professional development is that I want to accelerate the growth of my business. I make a serious investment in my business: I attend mastermind retreats, I hire mentors, I take classes, and I buy ebooks and "traditional" books.

I also follow a lot of successful people. I watch what they do, how they do it and when I see something I can model for my own business, I adapt it and try it.

That's why I jumped on the chance to contribute to a FREE ebook that my colleague Scott Stratten (unmarketing on twitter) compiled with responses from 39 of his colleagues about what they would do differently if they could go back to the beginning of their speaking/coaching/writing career. 

If I Could Go Back:
Successful Speakers, Authors & Coaches Reflect on What They'd Do Differently

You get to tap into the hindsight from successful people including Leesa Barnes, Alexis Neely, Mari Smith, Adam Urbanski, Michael Bungay Stainer, and me (!), to name just a few. I learned so much from the other contributors, especially around getting started as a speaker since it's not my strong suit.

If I Could Go Back is 123 pages of pure gold and it's totally free. Scott is not selling anything. He is building his list, though. He loves to share information and this is an example you can study and model for your own business.

Watch his videos, study his process and then figure out how you can do something similar in your own niche.

And read the ebook. As I said, it's pure gold and I'm pretty sure you'll get find a few golden nuggets you apply to your business.

Kick Start America - How You Can Help Get Our Economy Back on Track

In previous posts I've told you about Dave Lakhani. Dave is quite brilliant in my humble opinion, as a marketer, a masterful speaker, and top notch trainer. I'm always blown away when I hear and see Dave present. I study his language and style because it works. I've been a fan for some time and his latest project seals the deal for me.

Dave recently published How to Sell When Nobody's Buying which sold out online and in bookstores within 8 hours of the launch.

In conjunction with the book and media buzz he's getting, Dave is launching an initiative called Kick Start America.  I heard about it in April and he's officially announced it today.

Watch Dave's video in which he explains why he's created Kick Start America.

If you want to be connected with a very powerful person (tons of connections), potentially get a lot of visibility, and contribute to helping entrepreneurs around the country, then take a look at Dave Lakhani's plan to Kick Start America and reboot the economy. It's pretty impressive.

I'm not selling anything here. Neither is Dave, though there is a fee to participate which helps offset costs; Dave is putting in $150K of his own money. I'm in. The potential visibility is nice but it's not my primary motivator. I believe strongly in what Dave is setting out to do and I want to make a meaningful contribution. In fact it dovetails nicely with my passion for Kiva.org which supports entrepreneurs around the world in the form of micro-lending.

I wanted to let you know about this opportunity. Maybe it resonates with you too.

Related Post:

Dave Lakhani on How to Sell When Nobody's Buying

Facebook Vanity URLs are Available Now. Get Yours.

All the buzz for the last week has been the news that Facebook will now allow you to get a Vanity URL for your profile and fan pages (if you had 1000+ fans BEFORE May 31). So instead of your profile link looking like this:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=528355718
... it now looks like this: http://facebook.com/denisewakeman

Much better, right? Plus supposedly it's going to help with search results (see my post on how to dominate the search results for your name).

On June 12 at 9:01 pm PT, the custom (vanity) Facebook URL were released and there was a "land grab".  According to Mashable, 200,000 new usernames were registered in 3 minutes and 500,000 had been registered within 15 minutes. 

Why should you care? It's IMPORTANT because it will make it much easier to share a memorable link to your profile and for your clients and customers to find you on Facebook.

If you haven't grabbed your vanity URL yet, get the details here:
http://www.facebook.com/username/

How to Dominate the Search Results for Your Name

Lately I've been talking a lot about making sure your Google Profile is complete and up to date. After hearing me talk about it on a recent teleseminar, I got an email from a colleague asking how to dominate the "name" search results (vs. keywords for your niche).

As you know, it's becoming more and more common to do searches on people to check them out ... before you do business with them... after meeting them at networking events ... if you're considering hiring them... the list goes on.

So what do people find when they search on your name? If you've got a common name, they may not find YOU. 

Back to my colleague. His name is common enough that several people around the world come up on the search results for his name. He wanted to know why his blog wasn't showing up on a search for his name since he's an active blogger.

This is where a little bit of search engine optimization (SEO) comes in. 

How to Sell When Nobody's Buying

In this economy everyone is looking for an edge, a way to find the buyers who still have money left to buy. Let’s face it, that last 18 months haven’t been easy on businesses.

My friend and someone I consider a mentor, Dave Lakhani has been studying the effect of the economy on sales, marketing, buyer behavior and buyer psychology and the thing he said that really got my attention was that “Sales changed and nobody told the salespeople.” As I thought about that and read through the research and process Dave teaches in his new book How To Sell When Nobody’s Buying  (and how to sell even more when they are) , I realized how right he was and how much there was to learn to master selling in this economy. And for that reason alone, I want you to get a copy of this book today.

In the book you’ll learn:

=> Which social media tool you must be using right now to find hidden sources of buyers eager to buy from you

=> How buyer psychology and behavior changed and what you must do to influence them now

=> An exact implementation plan that is guaranteed to get you more business and more sales right now (and that’s only chapter 0)

=> Dave teaches you the key concept of how to be seen to sell and how to build relationships that last and prosper.

You can read more here on Dave’s site.

Plus, there are chapters on selling with Facebook and social media by Mari Smith and Dr. Rachna Jain, two friends and colleagues I admire tremendously.