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Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

Here’s a test to see whether this post from my iPhone will work.

I’m conducting a quick survey to see what you most want to know about Twitter.  Both the poll and its current results are displayed below.

Sign in to your Ezine Articles account – http://www.ezinearticles.com and go to Create a Widget, which is under the Author Tools drop-down menu.

Select your choice of Widget Content from the tab of the same name, and click on Widget Theme, where you can change the colour, width, height and number of articles.

To fit my Kubrick theme, I needed a width of 195 and I selected the light blue theme.  You can also customise your theme’s colours by using the Custom Theme tab.

Then just click on the link to get your html code for your website.

If you’re using Wordpress, add a new Text widget in the Design/Widgets menu.  Paste in the html code, save, and your EzineArticles widget should appear!

If you, like me, use Wordpress, there’s a nice little widget that fits (just) into the standard Kubrick sidebar.  You can see an example on the right there.

It’s an official Twitter-produced piece of code, and works via Flash.

I had (in fact, still have) the Wordpress TwitterTools plugin, but after a while I found all the short Twitter messages cluttering up my blog was a pain.

But this widget is rather good, as it keeps all your Tweets in a sidebar widget.  So people can read them if they want, scroll down for more, or ignore them if they don’t.

You can get the code here: http://twitter.com/widgets .  Or just click on the link in my widget on the right there.

The same site allows you to create specific widgets for Facebook, MySpace, Blogger and Typepad, or even a normal webpage. 

If you’re using Wordpress, like me, you click on “Other“.  Then follow the menu, ensuring you actually click on “Flash Widget” and then click again on “Interactive Widget“.

Once you copy the code, you’ll need to use the Wordpress Widget editor on your Wordpress blog (easy to use) that’s under the “Design” menu, and paste the code into a “Text” widget that you need to add.  And I had to reduce the width parameters in the code to make it fit (196 pixels in my case).

But it works very well, I think.  Have a look at my recent Tweets over on the right.

I’ve been invited to present at Dan Bradbury’s upcoming Internet Marketing Masterclass on 28th February-1st March.  I’ll be joining a stellar line up of internet marketers and together we’ll be presenting more successful IM strategies than you can shake a stick at.

I aim to show that internet marketing can be straightforward for coaches when approached in the right way.

It doesn’t have to involve learning html, fighting with html editors and generally being frustrated with the length of time it takes to do anything.

I’ll show you how to do it more quickly and more easily than you’ve experienced it before.

The tickets go on sale shortly, but for now, check out this audio postcard!

http://is.gd/eqDI

Why do I believe that every coach should have an autoresponder package?

Here are some of the benefits coaches get from having an autoresponder like 1shoppingcart.

Note that the first two are concepts we discussed in recent posts.

Benefits of an Autoresponder

1. You Leverage your Time

You create a newsletter, an email or a whole email-delivered course once. Then it’s delivered to many people, on demand. So the modality is one to many, rather than one to one.

So your time is leveraged – you get to interact with many, many prospects for the time it would normally take to deal with one.

2. You Automate your Business

Instead of manually subscribing and unsubscribing people, and manually sending out emails, your autoresponder does this for you automatically. And the more you can do to cut down on repetitive administration, the better.

This has progressively more benefit the larger your list grows.

3. You Grow your List

Assuming you’re delivering content of value to your subscribers, they will stay with you. And your list will grow.

The larger your list, the more people will buy from you when you make them an offer.

4. You Develop a Relationship with your List

As you are marketing to your list over time, you have the opportunity to get your list to know, like and trust you.

If you consistently deliver value to them, over time they will trust you. And then you’re in a much better position to sell to them.

Next Steps

I do hope this posting has been of use to you, and has illustrated what an autoresponder can do for you.

If you’d like to know how to set up and configure an autoresponder, I guide you through this process in detail with Alun’s Squeeze Paqe Builder.

So many people have trouble with this, and yet with Alun’s Squeeze Page Builder it’s so easy.

I provide two videos, easy to follow manuals a FAQ and a glossary as well as a menu-driven utility that builds the page for you.

It couldn’t be easier.

Click here for more information:
http://www.brandingyou.org/aspb.html

marketing, internet marketing, autoresponder, alun richards, coaching

Conclusions – What These Technology Trends Mean

• The rapidly expanding set of online tools are allowing savvy coaches to leverage their marketing efforts.
• They are benefitting from the tools’ outsourcing, leverage of time and automation.
• The online tools available today can aid coaches in all aspects of their marketing – from market research through prospecting, new product development, packaging and
  distribution.
• Coaching excellence is no longer enough. Being clear what niche you operate in as a coach is more vital than ever. Your coaching services must be differentiated from the mass of coaches out there. This differentiation may be via the target market you choose to pursue, via your specialisation, or both. These technologies can aid in your differentiation – but only if you’re crystal clear on it already!
• Having a website and newsletter is no longer enough. Both must be targeted at the market segment that will value you as a coach – what you have to offer, your services. And of course, to have credibility, you must be able to demonstrate your skills, experience and knowledge in that area.
• While the list of technologies can seem overwhelming at first, these technologies can help coaches now, and their functionality and scope will only increase.
• The winners in the use of the web-based technologies will be those unafraid to experiment, and who use technology for the benefits it can bring to them and their clients, rather than for its own sake. In other words, they will offering something that is wanted – their content will be relevant and valuable to their target market.

Action Steps

1. Based on what you’ve read above, what are the areas you feel you need to take action on?

2. What are the three specific actions that you will take this week?

1. ______________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________________

3. Based on these actions, what external resources will I need?

Alun Richards provides products and services that help coaches with their marketing. If you’d like to hear more about how Internet tools can help you as a coach, listen to Alun’s recent teleclass on Intenet Marketing Mentoring here:

http://www.arhost.co.uk/imm

And you can sign up for Alun’s Internet Marketing Mentoring course here:

http://www.brandingyou.org/immbook.html

© Copyright Alun Richards 2008. All Rights Reserved. You may freely distribute this article providing you do so in its entirety; ensuring the copyright and contact details above are included.

marketing, coaching, internet marketing, alun richards

In our last post we looked at what new technologies should do for a coach. Now let’s look at the hottest technology trends that coaches can benefit from.

The Rise of Blogging

The rise of blogging has been fuelled by the sheer ease of updating a blog. With no need for html knowledge, this in turn has meant a decrease in the need for webmasters.

A coach can now create online content on a blog as quickly and as easily as one can type into Word.
The Use of Audio

Both audio and video are creeping into coaches’ websites. And the ease of adding audio and video to a blog has led to multi-media, content-rich blogs. These are far more attractive to new prospects and to search engines alike.

The next big technology trend in audio is likely to be coaches’ podcasts, growing out of audio postings to blogs.

The Use of Video

YouTube videos embedded into websites and blogs are becoming commonplace. Anyone with a digital cam-corder, digital camera, webcam or even a phone can create video content, upload it to YouTube, and link from your blog or website.

Video recording and editing applications like Camtasia and Jing are making video content creation a breeze.

And the trend has been fuelled further by cheap but quality video camcorders like the Flip video camcorder.

Using Autoresponders

I consider an autoresponder to be the first tool a coach should embrace. The ability to reach so many people so easily, the automation of admin tasks and the leveraging of time make the decision to have an autoresponder an obvious one.

Running Teleseminars

Those coaches who consistently utilise teleseminars, the content of which meets their clients’ needs will prosper. As with other media, the content must be relevant and valuable to the client.

Teleseminars are one of those media that allow a coach to develop a relationship with a prospect rapidly. Then prospects get to know, like and trust the coach rapidly.

The Rise of Social Media

There has been a dramatic rise in the use of social media sites and tools such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Used effectively, these sites can develop and deepen relationships remarkably quickly.

So we’ve covered a number of the more important and fastest growing technologies available to coaches.

In the next posting we’ll look at their implications for coaches.

coaching, marketing, internet marketing, Alun Richards

We are in the midst of an explosion in the availability of affordable, easy to use web-based technologies. And savvy coaches are beginning to realise what benefits this can have to their coaching practices.

A coach’s website is taken for granted these days, as is their newsletter. If you look at several coaches’ websites you’ll see a remarkable consistency. They no longer differentiate. The area in which to compete has moved on.

So what are the fast-growing areas of web-based technologies for coaches? And where can we differentiate ourselves?

First, let’s identify three concepts coaches should embrace to make the best use of their limited time. These are outsourcing, leveraging of time and automation. Any worthwhile internet technology should use one or more of these.

Let’s just explore what they mean.

1. Outsourcing

Smart coaches outsource low-added value tasks like the transcription of teleseminars or presentations and also higher value activities like design. This allows coaches to concentrate on running their practices.

Two useful outsourcing sites are Elance.com, for a whole manner of services and 99designs.com for design work.

2. The Leveraging of Time

There are a number of technologies that allow the leveraging of a coach’s time.  Instead of always having to deal 1:1 with clients, you can interact 1:many with your clients via teleclasses, autoresponders, blogs and podcasts. In this way you can reach more people at the same time, and still deliver value.

Another way of leveraging time is to repurpose your content. That is, find other purposes, or formats for your previously created content. So you could post articles to you blog, create press releases out of them, record them as an audio or compile them with others into an ebook or physical book.

3. Automation

We’re seeing far more use of internet automation – for taking payments, keeping in touch with prospects via autoresponders and newsletters, online surveys, membership sites… – the list is long and growing.

This means that services that previously required a small admin team can be undertaken by coaches themselves.

If coaches adopt technologies that help them with outsourcing, the leverage of time and automation, they can get far, far more done in the same amount of time.

In our next post, we’ll examine some of the more popular technologies out there today.

coaching, marketing, internet marketing, Alun Richards