Archives for August 2009 | Meet Roy Dunne

I Want to Advertise My Home Business for Free: A Cheap and Easy Guide for How and Why to Spread the Word of You, Inc.

Before we get started, why are we talking about spreading the word of YOU when you say “Roy, I told you I want to advertise my home business for free, what does spreading the word of me have to do with my business?”

The short and simple answer: Everything.

There are three main understandings that are necessary to bring together to begin a successful online business marketing campaign.

1. The understanding that people connect with and join not a business or company, but you.

2. You need to leverage as many free methods of marketing available to you online to be effective. The more the merrier.

3. The understanding that your advertising needs to give universal value to your target market before directing them to your product, regardless of what method of marketing you use. People join people of value, not a sales pitch.

Even as I type this hundreds of new startup home based companies are preparing to launch, and they’ll tell you all the recycled crap of “Everyone needs this product! Get in on the ground floor! Use our materials to promote our…uh…I mean ‘YOUR’ business.” All of the home-based businesses, even the best ones, do this. From this you get everyone and their brother spewing forth methods and materials that barely worked decades ago (admittedly it works, but for a VERY select gifted few.)

What many people in the home based business and MLM field must understand is the one truth that will raise your business to new heights if you embrace it, or crush your hopes of a life of seeing your child grow up knowing who his/her parents are. That one truth is this:

People don’t join a company, at least not directly. They join YOU! They join you because they connect with you and trust you to guide them to what they need to succeed in their new entrepreneurial adventure. It is the one major part that cannot be duplicated, and at the same time is where all of your influence truly begins. As powerful as this truth is it’s only one part of the equation.

There are people in the network marketing field that I have worked with personally that know this principle better than most. At the same time they are not leveraging all the free materials we have at our disposal thanks to the second part of the equation, the great blessing bestowed upon the business world known as high-speed internet.

Through this we have boatloads of free methods at our disposal to spread the word of You, Inc. such as video sites like YouTube and Viddler; social media sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter; and free blogs like WordPress.com and Blogspot.com. The more of these methods you use and link to each other the better. Many, if not all, of these sites will allow you to automatically (or at least allow to to do manually with little effort) update to all your other avenues of marketing when you manually update just one area such as a blog.

I have seen the most successful leaders in this business set up these different methods to promote themselves using less personal sites like video sites and social media sites (since there’s a limit as to how long your messages can be) and link them to their blog and/or personalized website which acts as a main hub for their marketing efforts for themselves and their business.

This next area may be the trickiest, but also the absolute most crucial aspect to master. That is you must freely give away messages (and sometimes products) that are highly valuable to people in and of themselves before you send them to buy your product. As a general rule of thumb, 80%+ should be value-based content, whereas 20% or less of your message informs people of your product or service you provide and where to get it. This is highly important since Google is not a fan of blatant sales pitches; any site that appears to be one instantly gets “slapped,” meaning it gets knocked to the bottom of the search listings IF it’s still on the listings at all.

There is an optional fourth understanding you may eventually want to put into action, but only when the income’s right.

Eventually, when you start making money from your free advertising you may want to start seeking out paid methods to leverage your free marketing efforts. You may not find this necessary, as there are people in this industry that have made over $2,000,000 in one year using nothing but free advertising. That little statistic will more than likely keep you saying “I want to advertise my home business for free.” But those who have taken the paid marketing plunge usually notice incredibly quick returns on their investment when utilized properly. Remember, just because you pay money for advertising doesn’t mean it comes with a guarantee. Remember to treat this with as much, if not more, care as your free marketing efforts. Properly utilized, this can drastically improve your bottom line, but improper use will leave you feeling like you just got mugged.

These are the three main understandings that are necessary to bring together to begin a successful online business marketing campaign: The understanding that people connect with and join not a business or company, but you; the necessity to leverage as many free methods of marketing available to you online to be effective; and understanding that your advertising needs to give universal value to your target market before directing them to your product, regardless of what method of marketing you use. When the time and money are right, paid advertising can certainly springboard you to eyeballs that may not have otherwise seen what you have to offer.

But regardless of what methods you use to get your name out there, remember it’s you and your information you are giving to people. In this day and age of the me-too home based business avalanche it is absolutely critical to stand out from the crowd and give a personal touch to your message.

The days of succeeding in business by being a nameless cookie-cutter automaton are long gone. Those who are willing to put their name and face on the line are the only type people trust; those are the only type most have ever really trusted, and you will be an elite member of the only type people will trust when you begin to share your personal message, share your personal story, and truly become the CEO of a new type of corporation; the one we will all come to know as You, Inc.

A Confused Breakfast In A Wonderful World

Who knew breakfast could be so entertaining? I wandered into a German cafe in Nuremberg, which was at first a little difficult; I speak VERY little German and I could hear the alluring call of all the surrounding, and very familiar, American restaurants (Pizza Hut, Burger King, and Fourbucks Coffee.)

But I was determined, for once in my stay here, to have at least ONE semi-traditional German breakfast (or Frühstück in German. You learn something new everyday.) even though I saw what I wanted, even though I understood about 75% of what the menu said, I was still somewhat unprepared for what happened next.

I placed my order, all in German (I’m so proud of me.) Soon after I ordered she did the one thing that many tourists ignorant of the language absolutely fear; she asked a question… In German… As if I was going to actually (gasp) understand her. But this time, I actually DID! She asked if I wanted bacon or ham in German and I understood her! And replied back in German! Woohoo! I successfully passed myself off as a local…or so I thought. Then the German question onslaught followed.

What kind of bread do you want?
Which kind of jelly?
Do you want coffee?
Which kind of coffee?
(Did I tell you the coffee costs extra? I didn’t? Oops, my bad.)

This poor woman was saying all this stuff while physically pointing and showing me what the hell she was talking about. I was 2 years old all over again. I could tell by the odd communication that she thought I was not a tourist, but a local with a serious yet oddly adorable mental deficiency.

We finally finished the ordering ordeal and I paid for my yummy breakfast I clumsily ordered, and I walk to my table expecting my dining experience to be a somewhat quiet one. My delusions of mental peace was suddenly shattered when 2 middle-aged women started talking to me in German…very fast I might add.

Throughout the onslaught of words I did not understand I managed to pick up a word that sounded familiar: pepper. I’m thinking they need some pepper. I understood! Woohoo…until I tried to hand the pepper to the ladies. It turns out they were wondering why I wasn’t adding pepper to my ham & eggs. What else could I do except be a typical, confused American, asking “When did breakfast become so damn confusing?” The whole time the ladies and I were busting up laughing at how absolutely confused I was. I didn’t care; I was happy I could be the free entertainment. I even told them that at the end.

These little exchanges reminded me of a few important things. For starters, sometimes being a confused foreigner can be incredibly fun if you allow yourself to look silly for the sake of entertainment. Even a simple conversation that normally has absolutely no apparent importance can supply you with hilarious memories, even if you may be the only one who can see or appreciate the humor of that moment.

It also taught me to keep my eyes open in the here and now. There’s so much beauty and wisdom all around us if we simply find the time to slow down and pay attention with all of our senses to only what is happening right here, right now at this very moment. There is so much in this world that we take for granted; we pass by these visions and events of pure wonder and dismiss them without a second thought. How much more beautiful would this world really be when we decide to stop being so much in our heads, being focused from the outside in, and begin to really see and recognize the miracles that we pass by every, focusing from the inside out.

It’s amazing how the simplest of life’s experiences can show us so much, but only when we allow ourselves to listen to and see what the messages in these experiences really are. Sometimes it may be necessary to forget ourselves and lose ourselves in the moment to see what is really right in front of us. We may not be able to choose what experiences we may have, but it absolutely IS our responsibility to choose what we take from these experiences whether they be obvious blessings or blessings disguised as complete catastrophes. When we allow ourselves to STOP…and really pay attention to the world around us without the chatter going on between our ears, that is when true clarity occurs. That is when we can see the world, each other, and ourselves as the miracles they really are.

I know it’s a far stretch to take all this from a confused cafe experience, but more wondrous things started from stranger places. They also started as an idea, regardless of where the idea actually came from. Most importantly, it a start in the right direction, and a simple idea that many people, myself included, need a daily reminder of. It may be a while until this becomes mainstream belief, but until then it’s vital that we understand that it all starts as a belief within ourselves. When we focus on beauty is when we really start to see it in front of us. Let’s make sure we see it in ourselves. From there it’s only a matter of time before what appear to be miracles appear before us on a regular basis; from there we will truly begin to see, and begin to say “What a wonderful world.”