Whether you’re promoting your workshops, seminars or other real or virtual events organized by you or your business, using Linkedin Events feature is a great way to maximize your results. By using the Events app in Linkedin, you can drive traffic to your events and get more people to sign up.

Generally speaking, if you’re an expert in your field, hosting your own seminars and workshops is a great way to multiply your marketing efforts. You can host free tele-seminars where people call in to listen in to your presentation, or an interview. Tele-seminars are great lead generators. The same applies to webinars, which are a bit complicated to set up, but provide you with added features and benefits. Both of these free events are great ways to create information products.

Before you can create events on Linkedin, you must log in to Linkedin and add the Linkedin Events application, found in the Linkedin Application Directory. Follow the simple instructions and make sure you select the option to Display on my profile which will show the Events on your profile. Then you’ll be ready to create your first Linkedin Events page!

Once you’ve created the Linkedin Events page, it’s time to promote it to your Linkedin connections. In this video you can learn how you can share the link to the Events page via Facebook and Twitter. Also, there are three ways to tell your Linkedin connections about this new Events page. However, I recommend using the Create Message in your Linkedin inbox to create and send a marketing message to your connections.

Remember, you can only send a message to up to 50 recipients at a time, so if you want to send it to 500 connections you will have to (re)create and send at least 10 separate messages. For this purpose I recommend creating a separate text document with your subject line and the message content, and then using that document as a template for your Linkedin messages.

I hope you’ll enjoy the video and if you have questions please leave a comment here.

The term information product is typically associated with educational e-books (of either Kindle, simple PDF, or e-pub variety), audio recordings, or digital video recordings, and, in most cases, a combination of all of the above. Essentially, and info product is some sort of intellectual property content, stored in a digital format suitable for selling on the Internet.

Why to Create Information Products?

If you’re a solo professional, run a small business, or a consulting practice, you’re an expert in your field and you have knowledge you could put into an information product. In your own business you can make only so much per hour, and there are only so many hours you’re willing to commit to working in your business. If you really want to start making money “while you sleep” you should seriously consider creating information products and selling them online.

How to Create Information Products

There are a few simple ways of how to make products to sell on line.

1. Adobe PDF e-books: The easiest to create, from a technical point of view, is an e-book in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. Today, most word processing applications, such as MS Word, have the ability to save your written document in PDF format. This can be anything from a 1-page checklist, 20-page special report or a 100-page booklet, or longer.
2. Audio Recordings:
   • Every computer sold these days has the ability to record audio. So, once you’ve written your e-book, you can simply read it into the computer and your have another version of your info product!
   • Another source of audio recordings can be a tele-seminar you can host. Typically you host a free tele-seminar as a lead-generation tool, but you can also sell tickets to the tele-seminar to double your efforts: you make money selling the tickets to the live event (which you then record), and then you have the recording to sell to anyone who either couldn’t make it to the live event, or it wasn’t practical for them to attend the live event because of a time-zone difference, e.g. if you’re based in Canada, and some of your audience is in Australia. You can invite industry-recognized experts and interview them, either as a two-way conversation with no audience or a live tele-seminar.
3. Video Recordings:
   • Using a web cam you can record a video of yourself talking about a subject of your expertise. If you can also mix in slides from a PowerPoint presentation, but to do this you will have to have some video-editing software, such as iMovie, available for the Mac. To take video to the next level, you can hire a videographer to record a live seminar or workshop that you host. Make sure you make enough money selling the tickets, so that your video recording and editing costs don’t eat too much of your profits. To keep your costs low, consider hiring a student from a local visual arts college. You really don’t need broadcast-quality video for your information product, because it will most likely be watched on a computer screen.
   • Another option for creating video is screen capture video. Using programs such as Camtasia (available for both Mac and PC), or a less capable but still OK for most uses Voila!

The easiest way I found of creating info products is having a tele-seminar. You invite one or two fellow experts on a subject and you interview them. Most conference call service providers will allow you to record the whole thing, and then you can download it to your computer as an mp3 file, and, presto!, you have your 1st info-product.

To take it to the next level, you can hire a transcriptionist to transcribe the spoken words into a text document, which you can further enhance by editing, adding your affiliate links to services/products mentioned in the interview. There, you have your second info-product.

How to Sell Your Information Products Online

Next, what you need to do is have a shopping cart plugin installed on your WordPress blog. If you don’t have a WordPress-based web site try this shopping cart software. Using your own shopping cart gives you the most flexibility, but requires some technical knowledge.

For payment processing I recommend PayPal. It’s been around a long time, is part of the big eBay group, and works world-wide. Good thing about PayPal is that it doesn’t cost anything unless you make a sale: there are no monthly fees or setup costs. All they take is a small percentage per each transaction, e.g $2.50-$3.20 per $100 sale, depending on your monthly volume.

Once you have your product created and loaded up to your site, it’s time to promote it. Write blog posts about it on your own site; looks for guest blogging opportunities; post to social media sites such as Linkedin, facebook, etc.

One of the best ways to make more sales is to recruit other people to sell it for you: your affiliate network. To create an affiliate program on your WordPress-based blog site I recommend this easy WP affiliate plugin. There are others, but this one is really affordable, and works well. If your web site is not running on WordPress try this affiliate software.

I knew that title will intrigue you, please feel free to comment.

These days we all rarely receive anything other than bills and junk mail in our mail boxes, so if you take the time to send a real greeting card to your clients, business partners and suppliers, you will stand out from the crowd.

Actually, it’s more like, you’ll be the only one there, no crowd :-)

I personally use an online service called SendOutCards, which gives me the flexibility of creating a single greeting card and then selecting a group of people to receive it. Groups such as: clients, suppliers, friends, family, etc.

SendOutCards prints, addresses, personalizes and sends real postcards, greeting cards, gifts, etc. through the postal system. This is not an e-card service.

SOC also allows me to enclose a gift with my greeting card, such as Starbucks or Tim Hortons gift cards, books, cookies, etc.

I also had them digitize my own handwriting and signatures into a font, so my cards look like they were handwritten. How cool is that!

The system is getting better and better. Now they also offer printing of calendars, posters, even business cards.

Are you using Linkedin’s relatively new feature called “Companies”?

You should create a Linkedin company page, even if you don’t have an incorporated business.

One of the advantages of having a company page on Linkedin is that you can create a services/products page, such as this one.

Once you’ve created a product page, you should invite your clients and contact on Linkedin to recommend your product or service.

This kind of recommendation is somewhat easier to get since all it takes is two clicks of a mouse, and writing a comment is optional, so your clients and contacts don’t have to spend time writing an endorsement.

Having a Linkedin company page also works well if you’re trying to separate your business from your own personal profile, and for building a brand.

To learn more about effective use of Linkedin for business, check out my Linkedin to the Max seminar. On this page you’ll also see how I use Linkedin’s feature to show how many recommendations my service page has received.

Linkedin, the free online business networking site used by more than 100 million users world wide, is becoming the place to be if you’re looking to grow your business with social media. Chances are you already have an account, but you may not know how to use Linkedin to generate leads and grow your business.

I’ve been using Linkedin for over 3 years now, and have figured out an easy and effective way to use it to generate about 20% of new business by investing just 10 minutes a day.

Since September 2010 I’ve been hosting a series of hands-on seminars on how to use Linkedin for business, which I call taking Linkedin to the Max! The next session is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 6, 10am-12:30pm. Start the “new business year” the right way and invest in the marketing of your business.

In 2-1/2 hours I will share with you the tips and tricks on how you, too, can use this free online resource to grow your business. Many business owners, just like you, have attended one of the 10 previous sessions of this workshop and recommend it to their connections on Linkedin. Check out their recommendations here.

Many more testimonials can be found on my blog.

It’s a small investment on your part and it’s going to work for you or you get your tuition back, no fuss. (I have yet to receive a refund request…)

Register on line or if you prefer to pay by cheque call 905-844-4247 or toll-free 1-877-ibiz-269 to reserve your seat (reg. bus. hours please)

I hope you can make it,

Boris Mahovac R.G.D.
e-Marketing Coach, Web Developer and Speaker

P.S.
Free bonus educational audio CD is included with your ticket.

You may have heard me speak or write about how email advertising still reigns in terms of return on investment (ROI), and you wanted to try making some money from your list of contacts. Please, don’t make the error of using your PC to send your email marketing messages! Same goes for using any web mail service, such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or MSN.

PC programs such as Outlook, Eudora, Apple Mail or online email services may be free to use, but they were not designed to send bulk email messages such as newsletters and e-flyers.

Most Internet Service Providers (ISP), and most online email services limit the number of recipients that you can use in any single email message. This means that, depending on the size of your list, it may take you several sends to complete the “blast”.

If you’re using your own email program to send your e-newsletter you don’t, for the most part, have no idea what happens to your beautiful creation once it leaves your computer. You don’t really know if your audience receives your messages, if they open them, if they click on any links that are included in the content, etc.

If you work in Canada, the US, or any country that has a modern “anti-spam” law, the easiest way to play by the rules of opt in email marketing is to use an Email Service Provider (ESP). All these companies do all day is send permission based email marketing messages on behalf of their clients.

I highly recommend one such service: MadMimi. You can even use their service for free for as long as you have fewer than 100 email contacts. MadMimi’s email marketing software is an online service you pay for monthly based on the size of your list. For example, if you have 1,000 contacts your monthly cost will be only US$10. Their pricing is typically 20%-50% lower than their competition (such as iContact, Aweber, or GetResponse). Admittedly, these other services offer more features, but have a higher learning curve, or cost more, or both.

I’ve used about a dozen or so ESPs over the years, but have been recommending MadMimi for their superior customer service and extreme ease of use. If you’re able to use a computer so send regular emails, you’ll be up and running with MadMimi in minutes.

To learn more about email marketing best practises visit my Email Marketing Blog.

When publishing articles on your business blog (or any web site) your task doesn’t end with writing your blog post, you should also concentrate on optimizing it for search engines.

Actually, to get the benefit of search engine traffic, even before starting a blog post, do some keyword research. First, compile a list of keywords (and, more importantly, keyword phrases) you think your business should rank for. Then, use the free Google Keyword tool and type in those phrases to find out how many actual searches are done per month. You would be surprised how different Google’s list may turn out from your own. Use the list Google suggest as your starting point.

You want to find keyword phrases with low competition and high search volume.

If your site or blog is promoting a business with a local focus, such as a beauty salon, or carpet cleaning, pay attention to the local search volume, rather than global.

Then, when you’ve decided on the overall keyword phrases for your site (or home page), use the same Google Keyword tool to generate ideas for sub page titles, post headlines and subheads.

Specifically, pay attention to and hand craft the following three meta tags:

• Meta title: This may be different, or a variation of the post title, and ideally not longer than 60-70 characters. If your post title is longer than 70 characters, made sure you condense it to less than that for the title meta tag.
• Meta description: If you’re using an SEO plugin for your WordPress-based blog, it will most likely be able to generate a description tag for you, but I advise against it. Instead, you should write your own description, ideally not more than 150 characters long, and making sure you use at least one keyword phrase as suggested by the Google Keyword tool. If you can also include a call to action, such as “Visit my site for more,” that would be great. Think of the description as the summary of your blog post, or page.
• 1-5 meta keyword phrases: As per this video, Google ignores meta keywords, but some search engines still read them, so it won’t hurt to add them. Add only those keywords that are actually used on the page. Resist the temptation of “keyword stuffing” as some search engines may punish your page for it.

My clients get the benefit of one-on-one instruction in the art of Search Engine Optimization. If your web site is not producing results for you, please book a complimentary meeting or toll-free call so we can find out if I would be a good fit to help you get more out of your online presence. If you’re on a limited budget, you can learn from my live workshops or self-study courses.

Linkedin is one of the most important online networking sites for professionals, with 80* million members worldwide. If you’re not a member yet, please check out my Linkedin profile and join today.

I’ve been actively using this networking site for just over two years now. Today I can safely say that my business would be significantly different without it, as I use Linkedin to generate about 20% of my business income. About half of that is comes from existing clients, and the other half represents new business coming from new clients.

Although Linkedin can be used for job search, or simply to join alumni networks and groups, I will share some of my tips and strategies on how to use Linkedin to boost your business, especially if you’re a self-employed service professional.

Part of my business here at the iBizAcademy is teaching and coaching and as many who have attended my live workshops and seminars testify, I teach social networking in plain English, so that even technophobes can apply the new skills immediately.

How To Use Linkedin Polls to Help You Make Better Business Decisions

There are many ways to use Linkedin to grow your client base, but today I will focus on one, lesser-known “application” called Linkedin Polls.

As I always do in my workshops, I will use a real-life example of how I used Linkedin Polls to leverage the collective wisdom and experience business professionals to help me make my own business decisions.

When I started hosting my live training seminars, I thought that weekdays would probably work best, and I picked the 10am-1pm time slot. I figured by 10am people can finish their morning chores, such as driving kids to school, and be ready for business. However, when I started promoting my seminars, occasionally I’d get a reply from someone who is interested in attending but the time didn’t work for them, so they asked if I did any evening classes.

Well, this got me thinking that perhaps my own preferences may not be the same as other peoples’. So how can you figure out what other people think? Ask them! I used the Linkedin Poll application and asked them one simple question: If you have 3 hours to invest in a training seminar to help you boost your business, WHEN would you be most likely to attend? I then sent the link to this poll to my connections and received 58 responses (20% of my connections responded). I was relieved to learn that 48% of respondents did in fact prefer the weekday 10am-1pm time!

So next time you need to make a business decision tap into the collective wisdom of Linkedin members.

To learn more about how to use Linkedin to get more clients subscribe to my blog, or join me at the next Linkedin to the Max! workshop.

*As of Oct. 2010

When I teach my clients how to come up with ideas for their business blogs I always emphasize: Your business blog should be mainly about your business, but you can also publish an occasional post unrelated to your business.

Writing about your area of expertise should come easy and naturally because you’re writing about stuff you know lots about. Even so, you can get stuck for ideas so I suggest you write article ideas down as soon as you come up with them. Use Post-it notes, napkins or open a Word document, whatever works for you.

One thing you should always remember: write as if you’re telling a story to a friend, so use a casual tone, without big words, as a matter of fact, try to throw in non-business words like “stuff” and “cool.” You’re not writing your blog to impress your peers, but to establish yourself as a likable person who is also an expert in the field of (insert your expertise here).

The trick in making a business blog successful is writing about your field of expertise but adding your own personal touch to the stories. I emphasize the word stories as compared to articles or blog posts.

Telling stories about your clients’ problems and how you solve them will not only bring out the you in your writing but will also make it easier for you to come up with content: simply listen to your clients’ needs, problems, complaints, etc. and you’ll have an unlimited source of content ideas.

People love to relate to stories. If you can find a way to package your knowledge into interesting stories you will have no trouble getting your audience to get to know, like and trust you. And what better way to start a client-provider relationship!

I’m writing this post from a veranda with a great view of the north-west Adriatic coast of Croatia, where I’m currently on vacation. This trip is different from our previous vacations in that we’re staying a full 5 weeks, so I needed to bring my laptop to stay in touch with my clients (after I finish this post I need to send an email newsletter for a UK-based client).

Although I did a pretty good job of making sure I have all my passwords with me, I was given a shock by Facebook when I tried logging in for the first time after we landed here. Although I entered my user ID and password Facebook recognised I was trying to log in from a different geographical location and, as a security measure, forced me to confirm my account. At first I thought, great, I like this, but then the trouble started: Facebook used a very unusual method of confirming my account – it asked me to give the names of seven of my Facebook friends! Although I only have a few hundred FB friends, I certainly can’t remember all of their names!

Facebook showed me pictures of no fewer than seven of my friends – but not their default profile photos, but random images from their photo albums, where my friends were sometimes pictured from the side, with other people, or in poor image conditions.

Somehow I managed to confirm my account after two tries, so now I am OK. The moral of this story for you: know thy Facebook friends if you’re planning on traveling abroad.