Are you trying to get started with a website, blog, or lead generation page? Are you trying to sort through all of the different software programs available for email marketing, blogging, managing social media, and webcasting? Here is my simple walk through:

Start With Hosting

If you are going to manage an online presence you will need a website. The first steps include setting up a hosting account where you will be able to host your domain names and build your website(s). GoDaddy is very popular but I personally prefer Hostmonster. The key is in picking a reliable company with good customer service and competitive prices. Follow the following links to get the best discounts from these hosting providers. Godaddy. Hostmonster. Hostgator, 1&1.

Setup Your Website

Unless you are willing to invest BIG money into programmers and web designers you will probably be best off utilizing WordPress. WordPress is a no cost, versatile, user friendly system that you can install in a single click through any of the above hosting providers. Tutorials abound online and on YouTube for how to use WordPress. Start on my WordPress tutorials to begin.

Blog SEO & Syndication

Setup your site to automatically syndicate your content across the web. This will increase your organic search engine rankings and bring more visitors to your site. Start with this short article on video syndication but to really make this happen I suggest getting your hands on my e-book, “The Blog SEO & Syndication Formula.” Don’t worry, you can get a free copy sent to your email if you subscribe to my quarterly newsletter. Look for the subscription form on the right side of my site.

Email Marketing

Building an email marketing database is crucial to the success of any online strategy. I have spent time writing about the best methodologies and tools. Read my overview on the why and the how here.

Social Media

Can you believe that just a few years ago the idea of a business being on Facebook was laughed at? As you get started building your online brand and driving traffic to your site, Twitter can be one of the best tools in your back pocket. As you grow and engage your audience Facebook becomes a required tool. Read this overview about how to build and grow an audience on Facebook & Twitter. Then check out this article about building & engaging your Twitter audience.

Webcasting

One of the best ways to engage your audience and present your topics is through online seminars, or webinars. Webinars present an opportunity to connect with your team, prospects, or online readers/followers in real time. You can utilize webinars to discuss a recent book, talk about industry changes, present research, present products, or train a team. Use this link to get your own webinar room.

Hopefully this short summary will help jump start your website on the track to success!

Late October of 2010 Google changed the search engine marketing (SEM) game again. The format in which local business results are displayed within search results changed dramatically. In the past I used to think of paid search, local search, and organic search (seo) as distinctly different strategies of search engine marketing. The changes from last fall have caused these 3 distinctions to meld into one complete strategy. Local results are displayed in every different part of the page depending on the search being conducted, and more than ever local listings play a bigger part in organic search results.

What is Google Places? Google places is the Google local business directory. In many ways it another yellow pages online solution, different from yellowpages.com or citysearch.com because it integrates with the most popular search engine on the planet. Local businesses can go to www.google.com/localbusinesscenter and list or claim their business to ensure that they appear in relevant results.

Important components of Google Places. Your Google Places page is essentially your most effective or non-effective micro-site or landing page. Depending on the quality of the content it can be a great service to driving more phone calls to your business, and visitors to your site. Considering the massive impact of the service and the fact that it doesn’t cost anything; Google Places has become essential. You can of course include basic info including phone, address, websites, etc. You can also include videos, pictures, and a description of your service or product. Don’t forget to select 5 key categories in which you operate to help Google index your business in searches properly.

Google Places Reviews. Your Google Places page/listing will accumulate all the reviews about your business from the various popular consumer review sites including Yelp, UrbanSpoon, InsiderPages, CitySearch, Dine.com, Travelocity, etc. In addition consumers can post reviews directly to your Google Places page. Both types of reviews are important. You want to drive more good reviews to the various consumer review sites so that you increase your total exposure and reputation online. You want to especially focus on Google Places reviews because it will give you greater strength in your Google Boost advertising (to be discussed below). Utilize the friends and family who do business with you to get some positive reviews quickly. The total number of reviews and how many stars out of 5 that you have on average will be BIG factors that will separate you from your competition in search results. RESPOND to negative reviews. Negative reviews can be your best friend if you respond with concern, eager to make a bad experience positive.

Google Places Tags. For $25 per month you can include a yellow “tag” on your Google Places listing. For many larger businesses this is a no-brainer!! All the research supports that that yellow tag and its accompanying offer/special will bring you more clicks than your competition. It does not however guarantee number one results on the page.

Google Boost. Google Boost is the simplified version of Google Adwords. It allows you to utilize your current Google Places listing as a paid ad in the paid search results of the search results page. It removes a lot of the complicated work that generally goes into a Google Adwords campaign. You can still set campaign budgets or weekly/daily budgets. This is where your Google Places reviews really pay off. You may have 200 total reviews on Google Places, of which 180 came from third party review sites and 20 were made natively on your Google Places page. In that case your Google Boost ad will show only the 20 reviews.

Google Pages Analytics. Like any other type of online advertising you will be able to measure the results from your Google Pages listings. The analytics will outline how many impressions and clicks your listing received over a specific time period. You will also be able to see the top search terms which led people to your page. This is an effective tool that you can use to determine the best keywords for your paid search and SEO efforts.

Stop ignoring this powerful & free tool and get your listing claimed and built out right away!

Jacob S Paulsen

This 10 minute tutorial video is designed for people who are new to WordPress and are logging in for their first time. In this tutorial you will learn how to read your WordPress dashboard and how to edit and create new pages and blog posts.

One of the most common things I’ve heard from local advertisers when discussing internet marketing and SEO is, “How am I supposed to use Facebook & Twitter for my business?” Local businesses know very little about internet marketing or social media on average. They generally know that they need a good website and that they are supposed to have a Facebook page and Twitter. In a society where 4 of the top 10 most popular sites online are social media sites, local advertisers are being bombarded with pressure from all directions to participate in the buzz. The problem is that nobody is offering very much advice on HOW to use these social media sites to bring in the business.

Today I want to give you a very basic understanding of how you should be viewing and using Facebook and Twitter to bring in the cash. Remember that marketing is marketing regardless of being online or offline. It’s just as important to drive traffic to your website as it is to drive traffic to your local business or store. Likewise, it’s just as important to build a list of potential customers online as offline. I’m going to separate our discussion into these two categories.

First, Building a List from Social Media sites:

Twitter and Facebook can be a strong way to bring new people to your site and sell your products and services but you must first have an audience. Start with a Facebook Page (not a group or personal profile) and ask friends and family to “like” your page. Go to Twitter.com and setup your profile there right away also. We can now split the work of building a list into two action steps. First you must create content that is worth people looking at. Second, you must let enough people know about you and give them a reason to follow you. The easiest way to create content is to Blog. Setup a blog page on your website and consistently write articles on the blog about your core competency. This can be done by ANY industry. Content can be educational, entertaining, or even a little personal in nature. Once you start blogging you can automate the process of feeding that information into Facebook & Twitter. On Facebook you can use the “Notes” application to import your RSS feed (provided by your blog) into your page. For Twitter there are a variety of ways to auto-post your blog entries to Twitter depending on what blogging software you are using but I personally like TweetAdder which is easy to use and can effectively syndicate your blog content into Twitter. Other types of content for your Facebook page can be the tedious updates such as a new line of product or type of service you offer, specials & coupons, upcoming events, pictures of loyal clients or customers, etc.

Now that you have some content you need to let people know about it. Put up a sign in your business or store letting customers know they should follow you on Facebook & Twitter for special updates and offers. When you do business with a new customer or client ask them if they are on Facebook and ask them if you can send them a page suggestion for your business. They will always say yes. The easiest and fastest way to build a following on Twitter is to follow other people on Twitter. People are likely to follow you back if you follow them first. Don’t randomly follow anyone on Twitter. You need to target potential customers. There are a variety of tools that you can use on Twitter to search for users based on their location, or based on keywords they use in their tweets. My favorite of those tools is TweetAdder.

I have now been using TweetAdder for about a year. Before TweetAdder I used a handful of other “Auto-Pilot” Twitter programs that left me unsatisfied. When I am looking for Twitter software I am looking for a program that will do the following:

• Auto follow users based on specific criteria such as keyword or location
• Auto unfollow users who don’t follow me back after a specified time period.
• Auto send Direct Messages to users who follow me
• Auto Tweet from an RSS feed or a pre-designated set of Tweets
• Be compatible with PC and Mac
• Have an app from which I can manage it from my phone

TweetAdder does (almost all) this and a lot more… with style. It’s only lacking in the mobile app category, but none of its competitors have mobile apps either so maybe I’m asking too much.

Second, Driving Traffic from Social Media Sites:

Now that you have consistent content to share with your followers on Facebook and Twitter, and your following is growing we need to focus in on bringing those people to your website or in the front door of the business to buy product. Everything you post on Facebook or Twitter should have a link that takes the user back to your site to view the picture, the “whole story,” the full blog post, or complete details about a promotion or sale.

Utilize a URL shortening service such as www.bit.ly to shorten your URLs and track how many people are clicking on them. This will help you zero in on best practices including the best time of day to post, the best type of content to post, and even the right type of wording to use in new posts.

Remember that building a following in social media is SUPER important but you must learn to utilize the tool to bring you more traffic and more business without it becoming a huge drain on time and resources to maintain it.

Jacob S Paulsen

Our own belief system controls our reality.

In the Harry Potter book “The Half Blood Prince,” Ron believes that he has been given , the lucky potion. Because his own belief system is changed, his reality also changes. He performs as if he had been lucky. Clearly this effect would only work if Ron already had the skills necessary to perform. The important point is how our own beliefs change our reality.

Each of us live in a reality that is generated based on what we see and not what is actually there. This is a huge problem in relationships and discussions since none of us can understand the world as seen through anyone else’s perspective. This is a huge bonus however because it also means that you have the power within you to change the world by simply altering your own beliefs. This is done by filling your mind with positive thinking, good education, and hard work. By sharpening our skills and increasing our mental capacity we become capable of changing our own world around us.

In the same book when Harry Potter finally understands that he must kill Voldermort because of who he is and what he did to his family instead of the prophecy it changes everything. The end result is the same but his world changes because of the reason. In his words “It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to death and walking into the arena with your head held high.”  Dumbledore worked hard to explain to him the importance of this single thing because changing Harry Potter’s belief would alter his own reality and make him all the more likely to succeed in his task.

What does this mean for you? It means that you have control over your world. All the complaining about your job, life, family, or circumstance is your own fault. Not just because you are a whiner (although true) but more importantly because the things you whine about are shaped in your own reality because of your own belief system over which you have COMPLETE CONTROL.

It also means that the way to change your own world is to change your beliefs. This means learning, finding purpose, and understanding your own values. To live by your own values and be conscious of the act will cause in effect a peaceful and happy reality! You are the author of your reality and you hold the power to change it.

The first weekend of June I had a unique opportunity to do some executive protection work (bodyguard) for some well known people visiting Salt Lake City for a convention. Many of you may not know that while I’m an internet marketer and a network marketer, by trade I’m a security professional.

The company convention was that of a relatively new MLM named Zrii. The CEO and owner is Bill Farley, owner of the White Sox and he and his family’s safety were my primary concern throughout the three day convention but we also had a guest visit from both Deepak Chopra and Anthony Robbins for whom we were also responsible.

While I of course don’t mean to promote Zrii in this post I do want to share some insights that I learned from these great speakers and people both on stage and backstage.

Deepak Chopra. Deepak when you see this article in your google alerts email on your blackberry you will remember that I’m the guy that followed you around in Salt Lake that weekend. The content that Deepak delivered was great and I admit that even though its my job to not pay attention to him but instead the crowd, I struggled.

I think the general theme of his speech was understanding the “soul” of the man and how it is connected to the mind and body. Very intriguing and and I must say very original. There was no question to his credibility and while he wasn’t exactly full of energy I still felt like the audience was very connected and aware. It made me want to buy some of his books!

What was he like backstage? Deepak was very in the zone before he went on stage. He wasn’t annoying or stuck up but just focused. Despite him wanting to be truly alone he accepted every visitor who came back to make his acquaintance. That having been said he was generally quiet and reserved.

I think I would have seen a more lively side of him if he hadn’t had a cold. He wasn’t able to stay on site very long and on the way back t

o the hotel from the venue he spent most of the time reviewing his google alerts on his blackberry. When he finished he asked me about Salt Lake. He either was sincerely interested in Salt Lake, felt awkward in the silence, or just wanted to chat with me a little. Either way we had a nice little chat on the way back to the hotel and I felt his transparency in his character. I liked him.

Anthony Robbins. Anthony Robbins does somehow seem to live a life of the constant passion for which he is so well know for on stage. He doesn’t travel alone and on this trip had his own stage assistant, sound manager, and “handler.” I also understand that he is rarely away from his wife but this was one of those rare occasions.

On stage he did a great job of delivering what I suspect he normally would consider his 3 day signature seminar in about 4 hours. Once again I wasn’t supposed to be paying close attention but a couple of the key things I will remember were his phrase, “motion creates emotion,” which effectively means that we can control how we feel by our own body posture and movement. He demonstrated this by inviting the entire crowd to do several 90 second role plays.

What was he like backstage? Best put, he was friendly. He just seemed to like people and everyone around felt that. He agreed without question to take a picture with me and the other security guys and that was super cool.

In talking to a member of his staff I also learned that his travel schedule is extreme. He is constantly going from one place to another and due to his tendency to stay on stage until he feels he is done he is often cutting it really close to the wire. To be quite frank I don’t know how he keeps it up. It seems exhausting.

Oh and also just a quick note that I met Thurl Bailey at the convention and he is AWESOME!!!

I get a lot of phone calls from online friends who need assistance in setting up their websites and their social media profiles to begin working in internet marketing and social networking. Every once in awhile I think to myself that I should write a 2 page guide to “Online Domination Setup” which I could just email to these people who call me.

Today is that day. If you already have a website with 1000 plus visitors per week and more than 3000 twitter followers I would suggest you stop reading now and seek higher level training. For those of you who are still beginners here is what you need to know in less than two pages. To prove it I have provided a downloadable PDF file at the end of this post.

Online Marketing Umbrella Concepts:

First, you basically separate all of your online work and websites into these 3 categories:

1. Social Media – This is where you meet people and create relationships with them… NOTHING MORE.
2. Personal Website – This is where people you meet who want to learn more about you will come to do so. Your personal site needs to be in the form of a blog and it needs to contain informational, inspirational, and entertaining content. If best find a specific niche where with you can help your readers. The “niche” of this website is “Becoming More, Inspiration & Resources for Entrepreneurs.”
3. Sales Pages. This is where you will sell your products and opportunities to those who visited your personal site and wanted to know what you do for a living and to those who searched you out in search engines, etc.

Second, You will need to create a HUGE following in social media in order to really make a difference. This will require…

1. Sincerity. You will have to really care about the people you meet and have their best interests at heart
2. Marketing Ethics. Don’t SPAM people. (IE: marketing without permission or relationship)
3. Time. This will not happen over night. Do a little everyday over a long period of time and results will come.

TO DOs of Getting Started…

1. Get Your Own Website Started:
   1. Get a hosting account at either Godaddy or hostmonster. If you choose Godaddy get the deluxe hosting or higher. Buy the domain www.yourname.com as this will be the most important real estate you own in the virtual world. This one hosting account will allow you to host dozens of different websites down the road and it is necessary to get one eventually… why not now.
   2. Install WordPress onto the main directory of your website. This can be done painlessly with either Godaddy or Hostmonster. There are tons of tutorial videos on Youtube and I also have some on the “Tutorials” page of my site. Watch these same tutorials to help you set up your WordPress site with the best themes, plugins, etc.
   3. Decide what your online niche is going to be. Are you the Mountain Biking Kenyan who owns his own home business? Sorry, that’s already taken…
   4. Create content for your site and remember content should generally be either informative/educational, personal, or entertaining.
   5. Find a way to monetize your site by putting relevant ads onto your page from a affiliate group such as Linkshare or CommissionJunction If you already have your own products/opportunity to market put ads up for it or perhaps its own page.
2. Create a strong presence in Social Media. Focus on YouTube.com, Facebook, and Twitter but also any other network that is specific to your own niche or market. Example: if you live in Brazil you are likely to also focus on Orkut.comwhich is the most popular Brazilian social media site. Here are some tips:
   1. Create profiles that are both personal and professional in nature. You don’t want people to think you are a robot, but you don’t want them to think you are an amateur either.
   2. Don’t go on an adding friend frenzy. Search out and connect with the type of people that share your interests or make up your target market
   3. Don’t spread yourself to thin. If you are going to have a presence then have a real active presence.
   4. Don’t be a hypocrite. Don’t ask anyone to spend time looking at or commenting on your content unless you are willing and actively doing the same for them.
   5. Search out the best tools that allow you to syndicate content and increase your followers without spending tons of money. In my experience the paid tools are barely any better than the free ones and usually come with a sales pitch of their own.
3. Continue Your Education… by subscribing to blogs and sites to people who can help you grow. The easiest way to do this is by using an RSS reader like Google Reader. Go to http://reader.google.com and you will figure out without too much effort how to get started subscribing to other people’s sites. You will also find that most sites (like mine) have a subscribe option somewhere on the page. (top right). Your google reader will let you know every time someone who’s site you follow writes a new article/post and you will be able to keep up to date with the latest content without having to visit everyone’s site everyday.

Online Marketing Resources:

• PixelPipe.com Picture Syndication
• Ping.fm Status Update, Micro-Blogging Syndication
• TubeMogul.com Video Syndication
• TweetLater.com Schedule Tweets and Auto-Follow/Auto-UnFollow + Auto DMs
• Reader.google.com Best RSS reader for subscribing to other people’s blogs.
• Feedburner.com Program owned by Google that will help you give people to option of subscribing to your site via email.

Online Marketing Explanations:

• WordPress: WordPress is the BEST program to use to host your website, blog, or both. This is true for three basic reasons.
  • The way it interacts with the Search Engines is PERFECT!!!
  • The versatility of how it will perform or look is second to none
  • The ability for non geeky folk to be able to use it and not screw anything up is amazing
• Youtube, Facebook, & Twitter are the most important simply because they are the most popular. I would encourage you to find other social networks specific to your hobbies, passions, and specific product/opportunity.
• In setting up your sales pages as explained above you will use your same hosting account. Just buy a new domain, host it in a sub-directory (folder) and install WordPress.

Favorite WordPress Plugins: (See my tutorial videos on the “Tutorials” page for descriptions and instructions.

• All In One SEO
• Google XML Sitemap
• Google Analytics for WordPress
• Cforms
• Social Media Page

Download this Page in PDF Form.

What are my Top 10? Top 10 of what? Everything:

Top 10 Most Important Habits of Success

1. Regular Planning/Goal Setting Sessions
2. Daily Exercise
3. Early to Bed, Early to Rise
4. Education Driven, Studious
5. Absolute Integrity
6. Belief in and worship of a higher being
7. Humility
8. Clock Builder, not Time Teller
9. Strong Support Team At Home (AKA Family)
10. Charity

Top 10 Personal Development/Business books:

1. 7 Habits
2. 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
3. Atlas Shrugged
4. Rich Dad Poor Dad
5. Raving Fans
6. The Speed of Trust
7. Good to Great
8. Who Took my Money?
9. Think and Grow Rich
10. The E-Myth Revisited

Top 10 Most Inspirational Movies

1. Rudy
2. Pistol Pete
3. Without Limits
4. Remember the Titans
5. Pursuit of Happyness
6. The Miracle
7. The Legend of Bagger Vance
8. The Truman Show
9. Cinderella Man
10. Forest Gump
11. October Sky

Top 10 Other Favorite Books

1. Porter Rockwell
2. 1776
3. All Harry Potter Books
4. The Count of Monte Cristo
5. The Cronicles of Narnia
6. Hmm…. I guess all I read are the business books

Top 10 Favorite Social Media Tools

1. Ping.fm
2. PixelPipe
3. Tweetlater
4. Twitter Karma
5. My Android cell phone
6. WordPress
7. Email Marketer
8. Commission Junction
9. Google Analytics
10. Tube Mogul

Top 10 Most often used programs on my computer

1. Firefox
2. Skype
3. Camtasia
4. Filezilla
5. Itunes
6. Format Factory
7. Microsoft Office (of course)
8. Quickbooks
9. Gmote
10. Google Desktop

Top 10 Favorite Web Sites

1. Goodreads
2. Twitter
3. Facebook
4. AndroidSocialMedia
5. Start Geocaching
6. WebcastRooms
7. BuddyRunner
8. Youtube
9. My Website
10. Orkut

Getting Personal…

Top 10 things you didn’t know about me (maybe)

1. I’m an avid runner
2. I’m obsessed with guns and wish I worked for the secret service
3. I’m a certified NRA instructor and teach Utah CCW Classes
4. I’m deaf in one ear
5. I read/write/speak Portuguese fluently
6. I live in Utah right now but want to move to Colorado ASAP
7. I don’t really follow any sports at all
8. I think that men without a gun and a dog are not really men.
9. I currently have ownership in 4 business that are not my MLM business
10. I’m Mormon

Top 10 Most Favorite Things (In case you hadn’t figured them out by now)

1. My Cell Phone
2. Porter Rockwell
3. GeoCaching
4. Action Flicks
5. Guns, Security, and related things
6. AudioBooks
7. Dogs
8. US History
9. Eating
10. Making Money

I am continuing my series of tutorial videos with these two tutorials about WordPress plugins. The first video goes over three CRUCIAL plugins that all wordpress sites should be using and the second video covers the cforms plugin which I have found to be the best for creating forms on your site. After you watch these videos (or don’t) please fill out the form below to tell me what other types of tutorials you would like to see for wordpress or any other social media site, etc.

What else would you like to learn about internet marketing or social media? Tell me below:

This morning I enjoyed an engaging conversation with fellow internet marketer Andrew James, who among other things is preparing for a 1000 mile bike ride. He knows that I’m preparing for a 1/2 marathon (weak in comparison). Our conversation led me to draw some conclusions about these passions that we enjoy.

Everyone I look up to is passionate. We don’t usually share the same passions but the point is that we have them. Passions I am arguing draw people toward you, and expand greatly your personal network. It doesn’t matter if you are passionate about cooking, running, fashion, harry potter, or firearms the point is that you are not alone in these passions. There are HUGE communities of people out there who share your likes and dislikes.

If your likes and dislike are just that…. simple likes than you are unlikely to form new friendships or seek out others who share your likes. If however you have strong likes that become passions you are likely to find others and inspire them to be passionate also. This is the first key: Your own Passions will drive you to find other like-passionate people.

The second key: Being passionate makes you unique and attractive. If you are truly to become “attractive” as we use the term in marketing then you must become unique and appealing. Being passionate is the first key to being unique. I would challenge you to find someone else in this world that shares all of my passions. (If such a person exists please contact me). Being passionate will make you unique and this in turn makes you more attractive than the average Joe.

Now assuming that you understand the importance of being passionate about something; or even better several things let me outline some tips on how to live your life of passion, personal development, and marketing!

1. Search our passions that are healthy and doable. Do not decide you are passionate about big game hunting if you live in Miami, FL. Make sure your passions will be healthy to your lifestyle and that of your family.
2. After deciding on a passion, identify communities both local and online that share your passion. Network with them. Learn the jargon, attend events, and create friendships.
3. Set BIG goals within your passion. If you like to read novels, set a goal to read a new novel every week for 3 months. If you like to cook, set a goal to arrange a charity dinner for homeless people. Do something BIG that lies within your passion.
4. Announce your goals to EVERYONE around you. This will make you more accountable to your goal and it will continue to attract more people to you; both those who do and don’t share your passion. Recruit others to work toward the same goal with you.
5. Now, brainstorm to discover way to monetize your passion. I’m not suggesting that you give up your current job/business to cook/read/run full time. I’m suggesting that there may be ways to utilize your passion and your goals to further build your business or create perhaps a side income.

If you can do this your life will be enhanced and your bank account will thank you. This process is in line with developing a better you, growing your business, and most important creating a close-knit family unity.

As a last note allow me to tell you about some of my passions that perhaps you, my readers might share.

I love running, spelunking, geocaching, American history (specifically anything related to our founding fathers & the revolutionary war), firearms and 2nd amendment rights, dogs, listening to audiobooks, cell phones (specifically the android platform), and of course my AWESOME family!

What are you passionate about?