Every year since 2007, the unemployment rate has been steadily rising. The soft economy has displaced a large number of income earners.  That means each year since, more people have lost their jobs, more households have lost their income and more people have been forced to dig  into their retirement savings in order to survive. The present times have left us with anxiety just getting by day to day. Subsequently, add to this the further dread of facing a very uncertain future.  In the face of the entire crisis, many have found relief in network marketing opportunities.

It had, maybe still has, a shaky reputation with schemes designed to trick and mislead. However, I have found that network marketing has grown into an industry where the honestly successful now outnumber the scammers. Those who have earned an honest buck through network marketing know and endorse it as a feasible option to replace a nine-to-five job and earn additional income.

A network marketing business can be the best solution in this recession mainly because of its practicability.

1.       It is a business that does not require a great amount of financial capital to start or grow.

2.       It is a business which anyone can set-up at home making their own hours by working through the Internet.

3.       It is a business that guarantees huge pay-offs versus investment if it is done correctly.

No other type of business can offer all three benefits. Only network marketing can get all three advantages to work for you if you have the right strategy. For someone who has been in this business for three years and who has gone through several economic highs and lows, I am convinced that anyone who is determined to work hard to put together a feasible strategy can thrive in this industry. Success in network marketing is largely dependent on skillful planning. That is, formulating a tactical plan of action for joining at the right time with the right company. Look for a company that offers the right product or service and an honest earning structure using the most effective marketing formula to recruit and sell.

With the recession, the network marketing industry is ripe for the harvest. It is the fastest growing business trend in today’s economic market. As a distributor, this places you in a very favorable position to grow your existing business or venture into new products and ideas. Do your research and examine your strategy because in the end, it all boils down to having the right strategy.  A typical network marketing strategy involves:

1.       The right time. This opportunity can open a lot of open doors for you and others. With a lot of people looking for new financial opportunities, many are ready for the chance to try out new ideas to make more money. But, also, it’s a wonderful time for you to bring in potential leads and grow your downline.

2.       The right company/ product/earning potential. Remember, these three are your selling points: a reputable company, a strong product, a lucrative income structure.  These are the marks of a great network marketing opportunity. They are what people will look into when searching for a network marketing group to join in. They are what potential leads will scrutinize when you finally get the chance to talk to them and make your presentation.  When marketing your network marketing opportunity make sure you consider these facts:

• The recession has turned the economy into a “need” consumer market. Present your products or services to consumers in such a way that they will regard them as necessities rather than mere luxuries.
• Income and profit is always the bottom line. Present your income structure in such a way that potential leads will see it as more lucrative than the competition. Highlight discounts, opportunities for growth and other benefits as they increase their sales and go up the organizational ladder.
• Highlight the company’s track record for achievement and growth to make for a more convincing presentation.

3.       The right marketing formula. The right formula turns leads to actual buyers. Conversions are the real indicators for success. A formula for success is not just individual selling but includes building a strong downline that can duplicate your efforts. You need to recruit people who are as determined to grow their business as you are. This is a very necessary strategy in network marketing because it is a numbers game. Without a strong team that can give you repeat sales and repeat recruitments, your own efforts become slow-moving.

These are significant factors that can mean success or failure for you in the network marketing industry. It is definitely not about signing up with every available business out there and expecting things to just fall into place and the money to start rolling in. Network marketing is serious business. Network marketing is hard work. A victorious mindset is one that is properly adept at starting up this business, organizing and running it every day and working out every possible hindrance to your progress.

I don’t pretend that there is a “Big Secret” to success or a “Fast and Easy way” to make money. As a trained athlete, I live out, and therefore recommend, the principles of planning, hard work, discipline and commitment.  Much of the information I pass on to my partners in business is aimed at preparing them for the hard road ahead and to help them get rolling towards success.

While I am of the mindset that there is no fixed formula to making a business successful, there are, however, a few basic guidelines that I consider as the groundwork to success–basic preparatory tasks that form the foundation of the online marketing business. These tools are fundamentally important as they will mark the starting point from which the marketing business develops, whether the road chosen to go into is affiliate marketing, network marketing or multi-marketing.

1). BUYING THE DOMAIN NAME. I always suggest buying a domain when you’ve decided on what market you’re going to promote because it will be a great branding strategy to have a domain name that’s registered as closely related to your business as possible. Free domains are not a wise long-term investment, as search engines and directories don’t include them in their listing and so your site will hardly show up in any search results. Also, it may be regarded as a “personal home page” by potential leads and business partners, rather than an active marketing site with an opportunity offer.

2). DESIGNING THE SITE STRUCTURE. Imagine losing out on a sale because a potential buyer gets frustrated with navigating through the website. Build it simple and easy, giving consideration to the likelihood that not every one of your potential leads will be adept at handling the computer. If you’re dealing with content and computer terminology that most people might not be familiar with, then you will need to consider that any information you put out is readily understood and that the site interface is easy to deal with. As much as the product line-up will greatly influence buying decisions, the sales process also has a strong effect so put some emphasis on the ease and speed of filling out an order form, and directly linking to the merchant site or to a payment processor. Also remember to put your own mark on things, especially in automated communication. A well-designed site is also a mark of professionalism and will attract potential leads to partner up with you.

3). THE CONTENT PLAN. You will need to decide at the start on what kind of site you will be promoting in order that all the content will match up to that concept:

Content sites are sites intended for teaching and training. Information that is given out here has subject matter which the target market will find instructional or gives a hint to the products being promoted. To a certain extent, details will be given out on product promotions, but only as a side feature.  The objective of getting people to click through to the merchant website is covered up by the use of links that are not immediately obvious.

Product Information sites – The content here is entirely about product details: prices, descriptions and images. There is absolutely no attempt to teach or train in this type of site. Instead, all content is geared towards an up-front presentation of the products and to get site visitors to click on highly visible links to the merchant store to buy the products.

4). FORMING THE MARKETING/PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY. Though there is no fixed formula for coming up with the winning strategy, a plan of action is the very keystone to attaining it. All the supporting elements of your business are interrelated to one another. Once you’ve got them all planned out it will be easy to form a course of action and lock everything in place. This is where your creativity and motivation are really tried and tested. At the very least, you will need a plan of action for these vital elements of the business:

• FOR GETTING FOUND – You can easily get found when you increase traffic to your website. Getting traffic will be one of the most challenging strategies to put into effect. Seeing that traffic is where the bulk of people are, the strategy you implement here will greatly impact your volume of leads and sales. You can get traffic in the usual ways:

1)      Pay for it through pay per click advertising

2)      Get it for free from the search engines

• FOR LEAD GENERATION – Expanding your base group will get you more targeted leads:  those people who are highly likely to be interested in your business. RSS feeds are a fast and simple way to build your list and because they are opt-in subscriptions you can be more direct in your marketing communications. E-mail marketing is another direct way to promote, get potential leads and do targeted follow-up if you can provide relevant material that will not be perceived as junk mail.
• FOR SALES CONVERSION – The idea of increasing sales conversions is to get site visitors to actually buy your products or to contribute to the advertising revenue of your site by clicking on the ads. Popular ways to do this is by holding a contest, giving out bonuses or you can break the mold and offer something totally new that other people will really catch on with.

5). BUILDING YOUR TEAM. The technique to making productive business partnerships is to find top-quality marketers. What you really want to get are those people who are able to produce traffic and convert them to sales. These partners may be trained to duplicate your system or they may completely think out of the box on their own, what matters is that they are effective and active and will produce real results for them personally and for you as well in partnership with them. To achieve this:

• Offer more lucrative terms than the competition – this is sure bait as nothing beats the appeal of a higher profit advantage
• Even something as simple as an exclusive link layout or advertising and training provisions, and especially a real, sincere offer of assistance and friendship will help mark you out considerably from the entire crowd of marketers out there and will help potential business partners decide that you are the only man (or woman) they want to do business with.

These two marketing methods are extremely popular home-based businesses, online and offline, because both are proven powerful money-making systems that can generate lasting income if done with the right companies and if carried out correctly through an effective promotional method.

There are varying points of views as to which marketing system is better, MLM or affiliate marketing. I think that the most noteworthy differences are the following:

1). Income Potential. The bulk of income in affiliate marketing is through a one time payment based solely on individual sales. Some affiliate companies can let you earn additionally from the sales of people who become your affiliates but this is usually limited to your first affiliate or at most up to the second affiliate only.  In MLM network marketing, you have the power to leverage your income depending on the number of down-line levels you can create.  The big advantage in this system is that other people can produce income for you.  Once you set things in motion, you start to earn from your own sales and the sales of those who sign-up under you, and you continue making money from your initial efforts as long as you keep things moving.

2). Limitations in promoting and marketing. Affiliate marketing is a faster system to set-up and start-up since there are no rigorous restrictions from the parent company. While affiliate marketers have the liberty to employ all kinds of strategies to promote, recruit and gain new customers, MLM network marketers can only carry out promotional activities that are in compliance to the policies and procedures of the parent company, otherwise they risk termination due to contract violations.

3). Support System. There is better support in MLM from the upline, downline and parent company. This support comes in the form of training, advertising provisions and networking relationships.

I think the choice of which marketing system is better is a matter of preference, discretion and careful research. There should be no issue as to whether both MLM and affiliate marketing can be incorporated in one business because the two can definitely be used to supplement one another successfully. We see this in a great number of successful marketers who have become “multi-affiliates” or “super affiliates” simply because they have put together lucrative multiple streams of income from selling MLM products, by generating leads through an income opportunity or through affiliate programs.

I think it is good business sense nowadays that every small business owner should implement as many income streams as is viable into their business plan. The key point to remember so that both affiliate marketing and MLM network marketing can work profitably in combination with one another is to set up multiple streams of income that go together. Important points to consider when doing this:

• Choose your products. You need to make sure that the products you choose to market are in line with your overall business plan. It is vital to the branding process that everything about your business should convey a consistent and unified idea. Never make the mistake that a great deal of other people have made when they choose to market anything and everything they assume they can make money out of and then find out in the long run  that they have sacrificed their credibility. Choose products that are not available elsewhere in the market and are at a competitive price.

• Choose the right company. Partner up with companies that provide products and services which people simply want to pay for regardless if they need to recruit other people or not. This is a good indication that the company is not a pyramid or “ponzi” scheme as this ensures that even the last person in will be able to benefit.

• Use good judgment. Always provide value to your target market. This way, anything and everything that you market that is useful and helpful to them will only add to your credibility. Always operate with integrity.  Study the terms of agreement between you and the companies you are in association with and where needed then comply with their policies and procedures.

There is good money to be made in both MLM and affiliate marketing. You can make thousands of dollars from a single affiliate product in just one launch or you can earn continuous money from a steady stream of MLM networks. Some people are making every effort to have both opportunities work for them. They earn money from a primary MLM or affiliate program and they also earn more money from other affiliate products.

Other people use MLM marketing exclusively because they like the long-term income potential that results from the multi-level compensation structure, but they also need the benefits of affiliate marketing and so they expand online by selling to and recruiting affiliate marketers through niche websites that are interconnected to their MLM business.

I honestly prefer to use both MLM and affiliate marketing simply because I like the idea of multiple income opportunities. It’s a tricky, complex and demanding approach to use, but every business is hard work anyway and any success will not just come easy, so I figure the added effort will pay off.

Those who have been following me for sometime now would know that I am a very strong supporter of social media. My blogs and profile pages in Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter have allowed me to network better, do marketing on a wider scale and communicate to my following quickly and directly. I have grown my community and built deep relationships with people on a personal as well as professional level. People now know of my business as a result of my social networking efforts. I know that it can accomplish business marketing objectives because I have seen real conversions for my business in terms of bringing in new leads and sales.

So, yes, I can say that at this point, social media has been fairly successfully for my business. I have made it work for me simply through trial and error. In the course of social networking, I have discovered what works and what doesn’t work for me:

Social media is an online and offline tool

Social media networking does not change the fact that in business you are dealing with real people. Whether networking, marketing and selling takes place face to face complete with dinner and after-dinner drinks or entirely online through Twitter or Facebook, you network, market and sell to a real person. Any connection requires some form of communication and that is where social media can be applied as an online AND offline tool. It bridges the online gap through interactive communication and it also maintains offline relations. What connection is started offline can be continued online and, as much as possible, if at all possible, what is started online is taken to the next level offline. Social media gives the advantage now of a wider, global market to reach with tools to get to people more quickly and more directly because time, distance and location are no longer limitations. Social media worked for me because it was easy to keep in constant touch with people I was connecting with online and offline. Whether virtual or real, actual communication and connection is continuous. The key is to merge your social media efforts in both the online and offline worlds to grow, strengthen and secure connections.

You can sell in social media

Not through spamming and not by getting yourself banned from social media sites, but through a socially correct way. There is a proper, carefully planned and targeted way to sell in social media and it is this approach that will give you real results. When an interested person comes across a valuable offer, sales can actually happen. It is your job, through social media tools, to get them interested and to get them to see the value in your offer. The real power of social media is seen when there are actual, tangible and solid conversions for your business. All the effort to network and build the community is because you see the likelihood of acquiring potential leads, potential customers and potential sales. So at some point, all that possibility must translate to actual sign-ups, actual sales, new leads and loyal buyers.

You must use the right social channels for your purpose

It is important to zero in on your target audience so that you get to those people who are highly likely to be interested in your business. But, it is also important to take into account that not all social media sites serve the same purpose. If your goal is to brand and sell, Facebook and Twitter are great sites for that. You can network and brand in LinkedIn but the selling part happens away from the site, it is improper to do any form of selling within there. Digg or Stumble Upon can help with branding as they are great sites for content distribution but you can’t also sell in there. However, all sites can help build your online presence. Identify what sites the greatest number of your target market is at and then concentrate all efforts on dealing with them there fittingly. It may be good to start with 2 or 3 sites but always be on the lookout for the next popular hangout so you can get new leads early on.

You must be worth following

Social media is all about providing value. As long as people get some importance or usefulness in reading your blog, if they hit upon some impact on your Facebook or LinkedIn content or they perceive some end-result by way of your business, they will follow, they will friend, they will re-tweet, they will subscribe — they will make the effort to connect with you somehow. It can be that you share common interests or that they have an actual need for what you have; all the same, the key is to make a connection. Offer a product with value, share an expertise that is useful and helpful, be worth something to your community — that’s how you get a lot of followers, that’s how you attract new leads, that’s how you get sales.

I guess the real bottom line here is: Do what works for your business. Social media experts and gurus may make some sense from time to time. But I know it for a fact, there are no hard rules in social media, there is no holy grail by which you must stick to or else you’ll fail, and that goes with online marketing or any form of business marketing as a whole. The basics, the long-established standards of traditional marketing or the new groundbreaking approaches of modern marketing are there to guide not dictate. While it is vital to adapt to technology and embrace change in order to survive, it is also critical to keep in mind that every business is unique and that it’s complicated to run a business as there are many parts that make the whole. Social media may be one approach that can work for your business…or it might not work for you at all. The only way to make social media work is to do that which gives back the best results.

Many people claim that Technorati is beneficial to any new blog. Its credibility to rank blogs is acknowledged by a large number of bloggers, advertisers and web users.  The sizable population single-handily has the power to influence.

I have gathered enough information on the benefits my blog can receive from signing up into the Technorati website, so I recently made the decision to list my blog. Here is my token, RH7Z7B5VTVRR. I hope that Technorati picks it up soon to verify that this is my claim and, therefore, index my blog. These are some of the reasons why I think Technorati can be profitable to blogging:

1. Technorati is a major search engine that specifically tracks blogs. This suggests that Technorati has the capability to drive highly targeted traffic to blogs.  With over 100 million blogs indexed, Google considers Technorati major enough that it set up a contender to it, the Google Blog Search. To rank high in Technorati search results, it is important to use the appropriate tags in unique blog contents as tags help classify search results.

2. Technorati is one approach any blogger can utilize for free to gain greater blog exposure to widen its readership base. It doesn’t cost anything to sign up into Technorati. Getting your blog indexed by Technorati means your content can be read and redistributed by their large community, any of whom can be likely subscribers to your feed.

3. Technorati is a blog content collection authority. Every new post made by each blog that is registered in Technorati immediately gets indexed to its directory listing and included in any web search made for any specified tags typed in.  This real-time synchronization of over 100 million registered blog contents ensures that any Technorati search always results in up-to-date online information. To the web consumer, this makes Technorati a valuable resource site for the latest information on just about any given topic.

4. Technorati is an influential community website that can help establish your blog social standing in the blogosphere and the entire web simply by endorsing your blog as informative and accurate to your niche market. Technorati determines your blog’s authority primarily by the number of incoming links to your blog in a six month period. The higher your Technorati authority, the more your blog can be considered as worth reading, worth sharing and worth mentioning by the blogging community. One way to boost your Technorati authority is to produce valuable content that other bloggers would want to link to.

5. Technorati is a blog ranking system which the blogging population and many advertisers recognize as weighty.  Blogs are rated through link building and through popular vote. A large number of bloggers and advertisers use the Technorati Top 100 Most Linked-to Blogs and the Technorati Top 100 Most Favorite lists to gauge blog popularity and authority.

Getting high traffic leads to greater exposure for your blog, this then results to a wider readership base. Many blog readers imply popularity, which then makes the blog appealing to advertisers.  That’s the profit-making effect of Technorati to any blog.

“Business is like a wheelbarrow–it stands still until someone pushes it.” Anonymous

A business strategy is the game plan for any business. An effective line of attack guides the business direction clearly. From the point of launch, to the moment the business levels off, encounters setbacks, and gains momentum again or pushes off to another direction, the business strategy is at work non-stop. It’s a working plan, a thought out strategy, you constantly refer to when making your business decisions and solutions. It’s Plan A, Plan B, Plan C — which one will you play out during specific conditions in your business? Without a business strategy as a guide, you will lose direction. Simply put, your business success or failure, whether you win the game or not, largely depends on the business strategy you as business owner put at play.

Like any trained athlete, I know not to get into the game without a game plan. I know I had to have a planned direction to maneuver my business or else I’ll fail. There is no perfect game plan at the onset of any business. Just like coaching, you review stats and tweak the game plan from time to time according to what’s working and what’s not.Here are a few basic rules I considered in setting up my own business game plan:

1. Outline the business as clearly as you can at the start.

• Be precise about your business idea and research your market thoroughly
• Take on the business mindset, know what challenges to expect in running your own business

2. Form your short-term and long-term goals

• Remember to be S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-directed) when setting goals
• Plan short-term for the quick-fixes and immediate deadlines. Plan long-term for your bottom line.

3.  Set your action plans, giving attention to the income-generating aspects of the business:

• Marketing (traffic-generating) strategies to make use of
• Advertising plan to promote the business
• Selling plan for finding leads, bringing in actual buyers, increasing revenue

4. Check your business progress.

• Implement your action plans, then measure and correct or adjust after that.
• Be ready to act on any setbacks. Time is critical in business, the sooner delays and drawbacks are dealt with, the better the chances for the business to get back on track.

I manage my business like going into a game — all geared up with a game plan, with several plan options on stand-by in case I need to change the game up at anytime. Each day, I go in for the play, put my best foot forward, change up the game plan when called for, and play the game all over again.

“I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big.” Donald Trump

Before the setup of my marketing company, Perfect Pitch Marketing Group, I had no idea what kind of business to go into. I just knew I wanted to go into business and was determined to make things work. I had the right attitude, but the hardest part was deciding on a business idea I felt confident I could do … until someone gave me some information about the VoIP business opportunity. That got me thinking big in this direction.

Figuring out what online business to go into can be overwhelming. Just look into Google and you see pages of suggestions. Which ones are the legitimate ways to make money online? What kind of business is the right business idea? Just like me, I know a lot of people who want to start their own business, but don’t know how or where to start, and just need a helping hand towards the right direction.

Basically, I just ask myself this question when figuring out ideas: “Is my good idea, a good idea to others, too?” It’s the basic economics of supply and demand. For any business to work there has to be consumer demand. If I believe in a product or service and many other people think the same way, then I go for it. It’s all about market research and gut-feel for me … knowing the great product in detail, zeroing in on the target market, studying the competition,  estimating market challenges, and trusting my instincts.These are some of the online business ideas I am into, which I believe are legitimate, long-term, guaranteed ways to make you money online. These business ideas cost very little to start up, but have very promising returns on investment when done correctly:

Through your Blog or Website

1. Renting out advertising space to marketers, if your site has high traffic then advertisers can pay you to place their banners or pop-ups on your site
2. Contextual advertising by simply displaying ads related to the content on your web-page and earning from the number of clicks made (Google’s Ad-sense program or Kontera)
3. There are actually different blog styles to fit your business concept. You can find out here: Dosh Dosh: How to Make Money Blogging
4. You can make money with your blogs by means of paid blogging. See how here: Dosh Dosh: A Definitive List of Paid Blogging Websites
5. Use your website as an e-commerce storefront to sell products/services complete with online catalog, shopping cart, multiple payment options
6. Use your website to sell informational products.  Highlight your expertise or any skill you’re good at and then promote. There are people who would pay to know what you know.

Through Affiliate Marketing and Network Marketing

No matter what you might have heard about online affiliate marketing and network marketing being scams and all, I know for a fact that most affiliate and network marketing programs are legitimate companies and that you can make substantial income through them.

• In affiliate marketing, you earn one time commission on each sale made. Good examples: Amazon, Clickbank, DISH Network affiliate program

• In network marketing, earnings are based on the number of levels achieved, personal sales plus downline sales and referral fees. Good examples: 5LINX VoIP network marketing program and other network marketing ideas here.

No matter which marketing method you use, make sure you examine the product/service and the income structure so that you get the most out of these two systems for your business.

These are all legitimate and profitable business ideas to start with. I hope one of them inspires your business vision. And keep in mind, there are countless get-rich-quick scams out there, so be careful. There is no easy road to success. If any business idea sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Do research, weigh up all the pros and cons, don’t procrastinate, make the decision and then get started on making the idea a reality right away.

“In business, I’ve discovered that my purpose is to do my best to my utmost ability every day. That’s my standard. I learned early in my life that I had high standards.”

Donald Trump

One of the reasons I started this blog was for it to be a platform where I could share ideas about what I learned as I continue to grow my business. I share my personal success by giving out information of value to anyone starting  their own business. To show them how stuff I learned has worked for me, with the hope that it would help others too.

Starting Perfect Pitch Marketing Group has kicked off many challenges to me as business owner. For one, I am eager to gain  a lot of business advice,  so there is a lot of information to process. I think I suffer more from burn out via information overload than on any other aspect of the business.

As I grow my business, the struggle for me is in:

1. dealing with so many emotions about it’s direction — fear, worry, insecurity, impatience, eagerness
2. learning to focus, balancing things, pacing myself
3. coming up with business ideas

The road to business triumph is not easy, but here’s what I learned along the way so far:

RESEARCH can really help switch on that light bulb of ideas. By making inquiries, delving into several recommendations, and studying a number of options I got beyond the confusing first step of forming my own business model. Information empowers me. I think information can change the direction of any business–it can develop it or destroy it. When you have correct facts, data, figures, expertise, comprehension, ideas on any business you want to get into, then you can plan on a course of action that can help set you out in the right direction. So, gather information, make the decision, and then get started on it right away.

PLANNING is really needed because now I have a guideline to operate my business on. A business plan starts with researching on business ideas followed by outlining your business strategy for branding, advertising, selling, dealing with setbacks, and making profits.

HARD WORK, TIME MANAGEMENT AND MONEY are critical in business. I didn’t expect to make tons of money right away, but I did count on making money at some point through hard work and persistence. Time management is a skill I am learning to master daily; by prioritizing I can actually get more things done. Money makes it easy to set all my ideas in motion.

ANTICIPATE some bad days. Reality check: there will be setbacks to the good days. I always try to take away something of value from all the hard times that come my way and the mistakes that I make. I believe that difficult things happen because I need to learn something from them. So, take the loss along with the profits, the criticisms along with the praise … overwhelmed with hard luck? All successful business people have had their share, let’s just keep getting up, never give in, and keep moving forward.

WORK OUT THE BASICS. I didn’t know everything when I launched my marketing business, I wasn’t technology savvy and didn’t know the in’s and out’s of the marketing game, but I knew enough computer skills to make things work, and had successful associates to mentor me. You can’t know everything all at once when you start the ball rolling, but at the very least go into your business equipped with the essentials. Invest money wisely on the foundational work such as the structural design of your website/blog, educating yourself through online trainings that can help you put everything together and acquiring tools/plug-ins/apps and how-to materials that are only really necessary.

CREATE A POSITIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT. I owe my success to hard work, persistence and the great people whom I work with. I think it’s basic business wisdom to partner with people who can be solid business allies to you. Pick out business associates and employees whom you can trust to share your vision with, whom you can call on during tough times and help you press forward.

CONCENTRATE. To persist, I focus on the task at hand and stick with it through thick and thin. I refuse to get sidetracked, so I gain confidence by concentrating on completing what I can do one task at a time, one day at a time — and then, give myself a pat on the back for those little achievements. My business strategy helps out a lot because it gives me direction and keeps me on track. I set a deadline for each task each day always aiming towards the time lines I’ve set for the bigger outcome.

One thing I know from my own experience is that starting a business and running it daily, will require great commitment from you as business owner.  It takes a lot of effort to keep going despite the setbacks.  As a pro-athlete, I have been trained to focus and persist. But I’ve realized that building a business calls for twice as much focus and persistence — it’s a whole new ballgame I take on everyday.

Video marketing and blogging is an extra winning combination to educate, entertain and connect to get effective online branding, prospecting, marketing, building expertise and growing your network.

Videos don’t need to be recorded with expensive equipment. Quality is as much about the information the video contains and not the superficial effects. Good quality videos are just like high-quality written content. To be effective as a marketing tool, video content will need to be well thought-out, adequately informative and convincing.

Think through the following guidelines prior to recording:

1) Target to your market.

• Who is your target audience? For your message to hit home it needs to be heard by receptive listeners.
• What do they need? What information can you give them in relation to your brand message?
• How do you connect to them? Your online personality will need to be expressed here.

2) Give attention to value entertainment rather than selling.

• What is the purpose of your video? What do you want your audience to do after giving them some information you think they need? Your message needs to be convincing enough to be able to convert your audience.
• How is your video valuable to your audience? What improvement, what help, what profit, what benefit do they gain from watching it?
• While you need to sound convincing and powerful, you need to do it with good-humor, holding their attention the entire short-span of your video.

3) Highlight audience participation.

Effective marketing values the customer. To add value to their viewing, get your audience involved. Make them feel that they are a part of something. Videos are interactive by nature so it’s easier to keep the communication two-way.

• Solicit viewer response by asking them to rate your video, leave comments, suggest opinions. It would be way cooler if they reply back to you in videos.
• Feature a blog contest to get your audience to share their own videos on a common theme.
• Ask them to submit lists of “Top Videos” or “Favorite Videos” of most helpful online business tools, topics, related blogs, etc.
• For more effective product endorsements, create videos of  live customer testimonials of people who have actually used your products

4) Grab attention, then maintain and sustain.

Create a series of vlogs to prolong interest and keep your audience coming back for more. Just like written content, if a topic is too long, break your videos down into several parts and post them in succession.

• Make videos about progress reports, if you’ve installed a new plug-in for your blog that you think can be very helpful, make a video to talk about it. Make another video for a how-to tutorial, then a third video to report your progress.  I’m sure your audience will stick around to find out if the plug-in worked for you or not.
• For more fascinating product presentations, create a string of videos to promote a range of products movie-trailer style, spotlighting one product at a time.

Video marketing is all about creating video content that will attract and engage prospects. The whole point of using video is that it’s a different way, at times maybe an even more absorbing way, than written content, to capture the attention of targeted consumers. Make them listen to a strong message so as to convert them to actual buyers.

There are blogs that put video onto their mostly text blogs, and some blogs that will use text on their mostly vlog sites. There are a that few will make use of the two just about equally. However which way, video blogging or vlogging, is another creative way to take your blog to the next level.

The world is all set for more videos on blogs as we see video sharing sites on the rise everywhere and YouTube taking the #2 rank in search results next to Google.

To me, recording a vlog is very much like preparing for a TV or radio interview or public speaking appearance. In order to successfully get the right message across:

1. You need to sound powerful while engaging and entertaining your audience
2. You need to consider overall vlog quality output, because a poorly made vlog takes a direct hit on your brand image

I learned a few tips along the way as I got the hang of video recording:

1) Grab attention quickly and prolong interest.

• Keep the vlog short and direct by delivering your message within three to five minutes
• Hold attention by using a strong voice, change up your tone and pitch so that it’s not a dull monotone
• Keep facial expressions subtle: Smile, move your head and shoulders from time to time and use your eyes to emphasize your point

2). Look professional and comfortable.

• Portray yourself in a good way by dressing up properly, appearing clean and neatly put together
• Talk to your audience pleasantly, come across as agreeable and good-humored
• Whether you’re standing, sitting or reclining, position your stance in a relaxed and composed manner
• Stay focused on the video, as it will show if you are distracted

3) Prepare before recording.

• Rehearse before a take so that you sound articulate. Gather the whole idea of your message together and study what you need to say, otherwise you’ll falter and hesitate due to a lack of words.  A script works, but memorize it to keep things natural.
• Check equipment – Make sure batteries are charged, AC adapter attached, lighting is adequate, sound is clear, ensure the camera is steady (use a tripod if needed) so you don’t catch wobbly images.

4)  Record and prepare for publication.

• You can’t perfect a take at one go. It’s best to take several takes of footage and then edit using video editing software to change around scenes, correct sound levels, add in music, effects, titles and links to get one quality video recording.
• Post your video on your blog, on your sales page and share to other video-sharing sites like YouTube, MySpaceTV, MetaCafe, Google Video, Yahoo Video, Revver, Vimeo, MSN’s Soapbox, to name a few

Blog content shouldn’t be just all text. Short and straightforward videos are just as powerful and even more engaging than text, since the greater part of the population like to watch than read. Try adding video together with your blog content as part of your entire online marketing efforts.