Something has been bothering me for quite a while now. I’ve quietly watched entrepreneurs fall prey to the BS advice from off-line marketing “pros” and Internet Marketing “gurus.” But now, the same type of garbage is being pushed by New Media proselytizers too. I may not have all the answers. But I know that here and now, you and I can put a stop to it all.

Look, let’s face it. If you’re looking to use New Media to market it can feel like you’re Dorothy sucked up in a twister and dropped in Oz. And once you land in this majestic world of New Media Oz, how do you make heads or tails out of this fantasy land of reported fame and fortune? And what’s your yellow brick road?

Witches, flying monkeys, a yellow brick road… we’ve got it all

On the outskirts of Oz, the self-appointed elite of the mainstream media and Madison Avenue thumb their noses at New Media. Tucked away in their cold castles of incestuous iniquity they gaze into their crystal balls of packaged propaganda and pronounce New Media a fantasy land populated by “horny teenagers and political pundits.”

We know the New Media marketplace is much more than that. But it does have its share of pitfalls and traps.

For instance, when we were completing research for our book ‘Secrets of Online Persuasion’ we found many well-meaning fans of New Media misleading entrepreneurs who wanted to market with New Media.

Much of that misinformation comes from two camps within New Media itself. I like to think of them as the Wicked Witches of the East and West.

The Wicked Witches of the East

The Wicked Witches from the East should be easy for you to crush as an entrepreneur. These are the people who think “fame” equals profit. And just like in the movie Wizard of Oz Dorothy’s house crushes the Wicked Witch of the East; your house should crush these witches as you land in New Media Oz.

As a matter of fact, this group is so laughable that South Park did a full episode poking fun at the new breed of “Internet Stars” who think by getting hundreds of thousands of views they’ll get rich. Sadly this is a rabbit trail that many entrepreneurs get lured down.

This quick 3-minute mashup shows their skit that’s spot-on with the dollar value of what many people consider “New Media stars.” They spoof on many of the “stars” that have gone viral or gotten media accolades. (Warning: as usual for South Park, this is NOT kid friendly.)

Fact #1: fame does NOT equal profit (especially when marketing with New Media.

OK… we all know the movie storyline. “Ding dong, the witch is dead.” But just when you think things are fine, along comes another witch. And we’ve got the same thing here in New Media Oz.

Enter - the Wicked Witches of the West

This group is much more dangerous for business owners, especially start-ups. This group of witches is made up of Social Media evangelists who think they run a business just because they use a communication channel.

Like the winged monkeys from the Land of Oz these

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I know, I know… testing and tracking! Uggghh. Without doubt, this topic can seem a little “techie.” But if you want to make winning raving fans and make making money easy and fun, here’s the key. You need to know EXACTLY what Captivates attention (the “C” in Tribal Seduction CHARM formula) and Motivates them to action (the “M” in CHARM) is critical.

A great free tool to make your testing and tracking easy is Google’s Website optimizer. But even with this Google powered tool, it can be a little imposing if you’ve never done testing and tracking to boost your traffic and sales conversions.

Well Google has done a full video walk-through of their free Website Optimizer service making it simple to get going. It’s 63-minutes on YouTube, but well worth the time. (Yes, no 10-minute video limit for Google since they own it. )

The video primarily addresses what to test on standard sales pages (and Marketing PRO pages if you’re using the BLOG i360 system.) But you’ll get some good ideas on how to use Google’s Website Optimizer with your regular blog too.

What’s covered?

• A brief introduction to Website Optimizer for new users
• Best testing practices
• Top elements to test on any webpage
• Top mistakes people make when developing new content to test

We’ll be doing testing and tracking using BLOG i360 sites over the next 60-days, with a more “New Media Marketing” focused test series. And we’ll share what we find with Tribal Seduction subscribers.

What will you test?

• Did you get some interesting ideas from the video? What are they? Share em’ in a comment. Your ideas will help other readers spur their own new ideas.
• What would you like to know about testing in general? And testing with New Media in particular?
• Share your thoughts/questions below so we can focus on your interests in future updates here at Tribal Seduction.

A new application on Facebook, called Market Lodge will pay users a 10% commission on sales made on their recommendations. And vendors can submit products for approval, so long as they’re willing to cough up a 35% commission on each product sale.

Market Lodge is the brainchild of a startup called bSocial Networks. They’re betting that Facebook users will like the idea of helping merchants sell to their friends. I’m betting it’ll open the doors to a flood of fledgling Marketplace Molesters.

Here’s how you can make sure you don’t become one of them.

If you’re going to test Market Lodge, keep two things in mind

Facebook hasn’t been a friendly place for profit since opening it’s door to developers. I’ve never seen more useless widgets for fun and games in one place than what you’ll find after 12-months of “open door development” on Facebook.

And while Market Lodge is a step in the right direction, the way I see it, it’s got two challenges:

1. Facebook tried to capitalize on membership connections last year by introducing a marketing system that allowed friends to broadcast product endorsements to each other.

That’s been a dud. Mostly because Facebook’s users revolted when they realized there was a feature called “Beacon.” That little devil tracked and shared information about their purchases and other actions made on other Web sites. Users’ are now allowed to turn off Beacon, but it’s still a dud.

2. Online social networks as a whole have had trouble generating big profits from advertising. Even powerhouse Google Inc. has admitted that they haven’t found the right marketing mix partnering with News Corp.’s MySpace.com.

In both cases the problem is rooted in an old-school marketing mindset and interruption-style of communication. Understand this, apply the C.H.A.R.M. Formula of Tribal Seduction, and you’ll be ahead of the pack out of the gate.

Market Lodge is a good idea, but…

It actually makes it easier for regular Joe’s and Jane’s to make money making recommendations. But that’s where the danger lies.

“Average” people don’t know how to market or sell without Molesting friends and family. (Doubt me? Just think of a friend who’s all fired up about the new MLM they joined.)

Hell, most people who call themselves marketers or sales professionals don’t know how to do that. Even fewer know how to seduce.

Affiliates — keep it low key

So if you plan on becoming an affiliate with Market Lodge, keep it low key. Treat your recommendations relevant to topical conversations you engage in.

Unless you have a really strong personal brand that attracts a “clean” list of friends — stay away from network-wide promotional messages. And even if you’ve got that highly focused network of friends, take the time to create some good (connection-based) content as a mass message, and strategically inject a relevant recommendation.

Vendors — give it a shot

If you’re a vendor, you can request that bSocial add your product to their line up. The vendor registration process is ridiculously simple (which to me implies that you may not hear back from them if they don’t like your product.) You can learn more about becoming a Market Lodge vendor here.

If you’ve used Market Lodge, share what your experiences have been. And if you give it a try (either as an affiliate or vendor) come back and share your experience.

OK, I finally got two minutes to breathe here, and a question came to mind. How are you using New Media to grow your subscriber list, get more clients, or make more money?

I’ve been dedicating every spare minute to managing our terrific programming team and prepping for the latest upgrade to the BLOGi360 system. And Deb has been managing the production team for the Tribal Seduction course. Deb’s been Twittering and doing some postings at our other blogs, but I’ve chosen to use what little free time I have to Kite Board and go to the gym. (Yeah, yeah… that’s right - priorites.:) )

As I just got ready to sign off and head out to 24-Hour Fitness for a workout, I caught this commercial on my office TV.

And it hit me. We’ve been spending most of our time helping create tools that help others leverage the power of New Media. And systems that make it easy for the average small business owner and entrepreneur to build a business from the inside out, focusing on what they do best.

You know, the things that make them money, instead of the techie-geek stuff or “trial-and-error” strategies for growing a profitable business.

And yes, these New Media tools are making us money by helping other business owners save time, focus on their strengths, and make more money. Pretty obvious, straight forward stuff.

But then I thought about it. How many people out there are leveraging the power of New Media to make more money? I didn’t know the answer. I have no idea how many people are “innovating” and how many are making real gains in their business.

So here’s the big question:

How are you using blogs, podcasts, online video, social networks, or social filters to:

- save time?
- grow your subscriber list?
- get more clients?
- leverage your passions and strengths for more profits?

And if you’re not putting New Media to work, what’s holding you back?

What’s your story? I’d love to read them. More importantly, what you share may inspire another business owner to keep moving forward.

Whether it’s wins or struggles… it’ll help us all.

So let’s hear your stories!

Play Now:

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Canadian radio show host, Wayne Kelly (of the Wayne and Jayne Radio Show,) recently interviewed us on New Media Marketing for members of his On Air Publicity course. I thought you’d enjoy “listening in” as Wayne grilled us and kept us focused on the basics.

In this audio podcast we cover the basics of New Media Marketing including:

• An intro to the New Media Marketplace
• Simplifying your mastery of New Media with 5 Core Channels
• Building the hub of your New Media Marketing Matrix

The audio runs about 45-minutes, and listening in for the discussion on the 5 Core New Media Channels on it’s own is well worth it. With hundreds of New Media and Web 2.0 choices out there, knowing that it all filters down to just 5 channels is a BIG pressure relief!

Enjoy!

What makes a Marketplace Molester? And how do Tribal Seducers act in contrast? Knowing the difference can set you up to attract crowds of raving fans… or be scorned and hated by the masses.

Here we’ve got some examples of a Marketplace Molester, Physical Spammer, and a legendary Tribal Seducer in and about Sydney.

Now with New Media… it’s easier than ever to be a Tribal Seducer. Why would anyone want to take the Marketplace Molester approach?

Have you seen them?

So know that you know what a Marketplace Molester looks like in the real world, can you think of some that you’ve seen online?

What about Tribal Seducers — online or off-line? I bet they’re fewer you can think of. But the ones that do pop to mind, you’re probably a fan of (or at least respect.)

In this video we’re going to take a look at social bookmarking and how to use social bookmarking to build your tribe and make more money online. We’ll reveal four steps that automagically happen when you leverage social bookmarking sites… PLUS one final step that is critical if you’re going to use this New Media channel for boosting your traffic, list optin growth, and sales.

(Download video transcript & charts below)

Step 1 - by you

The first step is following the basics that we laid out in Part One of this series; What is Social Bookmarking? Understand that you need to have some social bookmarking accounts set up.

Once you’ve created your post (or page) on your blog, you’re going to go to the various bookmarking sites. (A complete list is provided within the PDF download below.) You’ll want to bookmark your at the various sites. It can be one or two, or it could be a couple dozen.

Step 2 - automagic

Once you have your post bookmarked, almost immediately the Google spider, and the Yahoo spider and the MSN spiders, any of the search engine spiders, are going to come into these sites.

Search engines love the social bookmarking sites because they’re highly ranked and they’re highly credible. The content that is being created here is filtered by human beings. So the search engines see it as being a highly credible source of links to valuable content.

The Google spider crawls through the social bookmarking sites, immediately follows the link back to your site, checks the post that has been bookmarked, comes back to the Google home and further increases the ranking on that content for you. That increases the chances of you being found by the general public. They find the content based on the keywords that they’ve entered. Generally the search engines will lead them into your home page. (There are some key things that need to be on the home page, but we’ll get to that in a little bit.)

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Learn tips to save time when selecting and editing your MySpace Layout.

In this video series, Coach Deb walks Coach Kathleen through the process of selecting your profile layout to reflect your “brand” on MySpace. This is the second part of this 4-video episode.

In addition to the “how-to pimp out your profile on MySpace” I also give an additional 9 MySpace time saving tips in the next video.

Part three (10min)

Here are just a few of the tips Coach Deb shared with her coaching client in this episode #3c on how to pimp your profile using easy layout codes for MySpace:

Part four (10min)

This last How To MySpace video will review specifically how to select the perfect layout for your business and brand, grab coding, and embed it easily in your profile, with a few tricks and time saving tips when managing your profile.

You’ll learn a MEGA Tip on:

Coach Deb
AKA: The Motivation MD on MySpace

* NOTE – RE: The Organizational Table referenced in this video episode: Unless requested heavily here in the comments by MySpace fans to upload that tool to this post – the pdf will be uploaded to the Member’s section of The Business Owner’s Coaching Club for VIP coaching clients of RPM Success Group Inc.

Deborah Micek is a co-founder of the international business coaching company RPM Success Group ® Inc. She and her partner John Paul are authors of the hit book Secrets Of Online Persuasion. They are creators of the ONLY Web site system to put New Media to work marketing FOR you — BLOG i360™. For media contacts or speaking requests & partnering inquires, contact Deborah at [MotivationMD@gmail.com]. Or, share your thoughts & comments below.

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Do you remember hearing in part one of this article why old-school interruption style marketing is dead? It’s true, especially online. We looked at one cause, the "Delusional Coma". Then we showed how you can reverse that common online marketer disease and use it to your advantage with the Tribal Seduction Formula; CHARM™ (Captivate - Hook - Advance - Reinforce - Motivate).

As you read through part two here, you’ll quickly see how to turn the challenges of marketing and selling online into big advantages for you.

Let’s get right to the second major cause for the death of interruption style marketing…

Reversal #2: The waves and the weather

In the regular off-line world, weather is simply a set of meteorological conditions we experience in any geographic area. The marketplace is no different.

If you were to assume the conditions of the online marketplace are the same as last year, that would be just as silly as crossing the Rocky Mountains in January without checking the weather forecast. Don’t try this at home kids… either one will lead to injury or death!

Today’s online marketplace is a new world thanks to the influence of New Media and Web 2.0. And this is a big problem for many marketers.

Old school marketers resistant to marketplace changes are like Eskimos building igloos in Hawaii. They can be the best at what they do, but continue to rebuild what won’t work in this new online environment.

Three years ago a shift in the mainstream marketplace began like tiny waves lapping away at the shoreline. Today, those changes have become a tsunami of change sweeping across the business landscape.

That tidal wave of transformation is powered not so much by New Media itself. But by the illusion of control that New Media gives to the "man or woman on the street." (Yes, it is an illusion, and we’ll be discussing in detail how you can covertly harness and benefit from this sociological fact as time goes on.)

The reality of the marketplace is this; the "average Joe and Jane" have grabbed their surf boards and are freely riding the waves of the New Media marketplace. They "get it." The ones sitting on the shoreline watching in fear are small business owners, marketers, and sales professionals.

Some eager marketers do dive in. They doggie-paddle furiously, trying to peddle their wares using New Media channels with old-school marketing tactics. But as they flail about in the fast moving waters, they’re caught up in hidden rip-tides and swept away very quickly. Their videos, posts, podcasts, and entire web presence flounders as the marketplace pummels them like a 40-foot wave on a black-flag beach day.

There are only so many more days they can crawl back up on the beach of constrained thinking and return to poorly veiled versions of their old tactics. Soon the rising tide consumer control will swamp the beach, and their businesses. Trust me — you DO NOT want to join them.

So how can you dive in to the New Media marketplace and not get swamped?

Well, there is the obvious — following along, engaging, and making connections here at Tribal Seduction.

But the most important action you can do is to grasp this simple Tribal Seduction mindset:

People buy WHO you are, NOT what you are selling.

Re-read that and let it sink in for a minute.

No matter how good you are at what you do in life, it’s not as important as who it is you are.

once you grasp that mindset, get out into waters of the New Media Marketplace. there are three ways for you to start applying this new mindset to make a heck of lot more money (and make it easier too.)

1. Find the influence leaders (those who gather Tribes of raving fans in social networks, blogs, podcasts, online video, and even off-line on specialized cable channels. Observe who these people are, what they do, and how their fans respond.

2. Start interacting to establish your online persona and brand.

 

Scott has a great series filled with lots of tips and strategies for networking in online communities. And Deb has a great video series on how to harness the power of MySpace and its’170-million+ members.

3. If you’re the sharp marketer I know you are, (and yes I know that you’re a savvy person because you’ve read this far,) then building a true "Web presence", not just a Web site should be tops on your list too.

"Web site" vs. a "Web Presence"

A Web site sits there and you work for it. You drive the traffic, the content is only seen by people who come to it, and it is a one-way channel.

A Web presence on the other hand — it lives and works for you… 24-7-365! Add content to different New Media channels and each channel will work for you, bringing people from targeted Tribe to you. You can use individual channels like blogs, podcasts, online video and social networks combining them on your own with list-building and conversion sites. OR you can use a complete integrated Web presence builder like the BLOG i360 New Media marketing system.

No matter which route you start with, remember the Tribal Seduction mindset of "WHO is more important than WHAT."

Don’t worry about finding people succeeding in Tribal Seduction in your niche. It’s actually an advantage to model ideas from outside your niche or industry. Just start out with two or three of the most popular shows, sites, or personas for each channel and follow them regularly.

When you do this you’ll begin to see the "Who you are, not what you’re selling" principle at work. And as you learn more secret tells of Tribal Seduction, you’ll be able to put it to work for you.

You can use both the Delusional Coma and the Waves and Weather to your advantage. These two factors are working together, and they’re changing the rules for marketing online.

No longer can you just be a Marketplace Molester, "info-product" pusher or List Pimp

It’s true both online and off-line, (unless you want to work 4-times as hard for a fraction of the results.) The big bucks and the big fame are being garnered by those who use the Tribal Seduction Formula of CHARM to continuously move people to higher and higher levels of seduction.

If it’s not obvious to you yet, it will become crystal clear as we begin to reveal more of the Tribal Seduction mindset needed to win friends and influence people in today’s marketplace.

As we roll into Tribal Seduction strategies, and various studies or commentaries on online marketing strategies that work with people (instead of using them) — you’ll see how you can win where yesterday’s gurus are faltering.

John Paul Micek is a co-founder of the international business coaching company RPM Success Group ® Inc. He and his partner Deborah are authors of the hit book Secrets Of Online Persuasion. They are creators of the ONLY Web site system to put New Media to work marketing FOR you — BLOG i360™. For media contacts or speaking requests & partnering inquires, contact J.P. at [krazycapitalist@gmail.com]. Or, share your thoughts & comments below.

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Does your MySpace Profile reflect “the real you” and your business persona?

If you’re not quite clear what a brand is, or how to brand yourself on MySpace – you’re at the right place! In this video series, Coach Deb walks Coach Kathleen through the process of branding yourself on MySpace, from creating the perfect URL in the last episode, to finding the perfect layout in this 4-part video episode in this post.

WARNING about MySpace:

In addition to the “how-to pimp out your profile on MySpace” I also gave Coach Kathleen over a dozen coaching tips throughout the first two videos alone on what to do, and what NOT to do when branding yourself on MySpace – including a tip on how to avoid sites that have codes disguised as a layout but actually created by Hackers!

Enjoy this episode - it’s broken up into FOUR-PARTS over the next two blog posts!

The first two videos in this post will give you an overview of how to Pimp Your Space, give you warnings about places to go to find codes and avoid the hackers.

Part one (8min)

Here are just a few of the tips Coach Deb shared with her coaching client in this episode on how to pimp your profile on MySpace:

Part two (4min)

The second two videos in the next post will specifically go over how to select the perfect layout for your business and brand, grab coding, and embed it easily in your profile, with a few tricks and time saving tips when managing your profile.

Coach Deb
AKA: The Motivation MD on MySpace

* NOTE – RE: The Organizational Table referenced in this video episode: Unless requested heavily here in the comments by MySpace fans to upload that tool to this post – the pdf will be uploaded to the Member’s section of The Business Owner’s Coaching Club for VIP coaching clients of RPM Success Group Inc.”>

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