Dickie's Blog

Who Knew Amazon Reviews Could be So Useful?!

2012-01-23T10:05:00.002Z

I got a brilliant tip from Paul Elliott, an Internet Marketing Ninja! He led an expert session at a 4Networking Make It Happen Monday event earlier this month.

He shared with the group how powerful Amazon Reviews can be and not in the way you might think! He explained the power of them in helping you find out where demand is for your products and/or services.

I'm a huge advocate that every business owner should be creating products based around their business. You should write books, create DVDs, host workshops, and hold seminars all based around your area of expertise.

Paul shared a huge nugget of gold with us. If you are wondering what to write about or which particular area of your expertise to focus on, then check out the reviews on Amazon.

Let me explain. Search on Amazon for books which have been written about your industry or chosen subject and scroll down to the reviews. You're looking for the detailed reviews; not the ones which just say "This is a great book, buy it!" What you want are the reviews which give detailed feedback.

For example: Nick Dougan's review of Inbound Marketing goes into some detail. Nick is a Top 1,000 reviewer on Amazon so you can take it his reviews are always pretty good and spot on. Have a read through and you'll see him highlight some areas which he found interesting:

Using social media along with search engine optimisation and customer conversions
Explaining the different social media platforms
Converting customers
Using landing pages on your website
Sing up forms so you can get customer contact details
Autoresponders & email marketing
Focusing on strategy
Negative about quality of paper used in printing book - so think about this with yours

So from just 1 review of a book about Internet Marketing I've found 7 points worth focusing on and a great tip to avoid - make sure your book is published professional using quality paper.
And I love Nick Dougan's final comment: "If there is a better book covering this subject matter in such an integrated way, please use "comment" to tell me about it."

That tells me if I was an Internet Marketing person and I wrote a book based around these points, then it would be worthwhile, because if Nick Dougan is interested in a similar book to Inbound Marketing, then I'm sure there will be plenty of others too.

So if you're considering writing a book; holding a seminar or webinar, or launching a new product or service, before you do get yourself onto Amazon and check out some of the relevant reviews of products in similar markets to yours. You'll find out what others like and dislike and this useful feedback might just be really useful to you.

See also - Have You Productised Your Business Yet?

This System is Worth over £175,000 to Your Business

2012-01-19T20:25:00.001Z

I was listening to a brilliant audio CD presented by Mike Litman called Greatness Held Hostage.

One of the chapters on the CD is the story of Ivy Lee and Charles M. Schwab of Bethlehem Steel.

It shares a really powerful lesson and idea of how to ensure you focus on the important things you need to do each day in your business, to really help and grow and drive your business forward. It's about doing the important tasks and not getting bogged down with all the daily distractions.

Ivy Lee, shared with Charles Schwab of the Bethlehem Steel Company his secret of writing a list of things he needed to do each day. He told Schwab to write on an index card the six most important things he must do the next day. "Tomorrow morning start on number one, and stay with it until you have completed it. Then go on to number two and then number three and then number four… Don’t worry if you don't complete everything by the end of the day. At least you will have completed the most important tasks. Do this every day."

"Try it out as long as you wish and then send me a cheque for what YOU think it's worth".

The whole meeting lasted about twenty-five minutes. Two weeks later, Schwab sent Lee a cheque for £16,000! He added a note saying the lesson was the most profitable from a money standpoint he had every learned.

£16,000 in 1910 would today be worth over £175,000!!

Did it work? In five years it turned the unknown Bethlehem Steel Company into the biggest independent steel producer in the world; made Schwab a hundred million dollar fortune, and the best known steel man alive at that time.

So get going today - start using Ivy Lee's system.

At the end of each day:

Write down the 6 most important things you need to do the next day
Number them in order of importance
Do the tasks from the most important to least important and in order, starting at number one
After you've finished the first task, cross it off the list and move on to the next task
Any unfinished tasks are rolled over to the next day
Do this every day for the next fortnight

Please let me know how you get on; add your comment below.

Have You Productised Your Business yet?

2011-12-24T00:09:00.002Z

I'm constantly looking to stretch myself and learn more from life. I think this is one of the ways we grow; become better people; become more successful. I'd hate to stagnate. I'm never going to be someone who accepts life as it is. I believe there are people who go through life accepting the cards they have been dealt; accepting mediocrity. This is a crying shame.

I'm the opposite - I strive to further myself and to grow and become the best I can be. Thanks to this way of thinking I chose to attend one of Peter Thomson's brilliant seminars in London in September 2010. It was a product creation seminar.

Every Business Should Have Products
Peter spent the day explaining how important it is for every business to have products which it can sell and what he means by products is physical products such as books, CD Audios and DVDs with content based around your business and your area of expertise.

My Book
My book "31 Mistakes Every Online Business Makes" is a great example of a product which I created to share my knowledge and help other people. I've already had it turned into a Kindle version so people with a Kindle and people with an iPhone or iPad can download it via the Amazon Kindle website. And thanks to Phil Clarkson, a Bristol based business trainer, I'm now creating an audiobook version of it.
Phil saw my book and congratulated me but explained he would never buy it. At first I was a tad upset, but Phil immediately explained that he doesn't like to read books, but he loves to listen to books in his car! So one product very quickly turned into three products!

Leverage
Brad Sugars, the CEO and Founder of ActionCoach shared with me at one of his seminars the secret of "Leverage". Brad explained the beauty of leverage was only doing the work once and getting paid over and over and over again! Brad's written over 14 books on business and he gets paid each and every time somone buys one of his books. Compare this to any consultantcy or training based business where you get paid for your time. Sure, the money can still be good, but we only have 24 hours a day and most people only work a maximum of 10 hours so you only really have 10 hours to bill out your services. So you have to keep on keeping on!

Every time you get paid, you have to do the work all over again. If you run seminars you have to keep doing the same seminar over and over again. However, instead, you could record a video of your seminar and then sell it on DVD. Now wouldn't that be cool? Think how many times people have said to you, "I'd have loved to come to that but I can't make that date." If you had a DVD of your seminar you could sell them a copy to watch at their leisure!

What Products can you Create?
So think about your business - what products can you create? When I ask people this question I usually get the standard repsonses of "I can't write" or "I don't have anything worth sharing" or "I don't want to share my secrets; my competitors will copy me" etc.

Lucky for you Peter Thomson says you can; you do and you should share! Each and every one of us is unique with a wealth of experience, advice and guidance we can share with our target market. If you're a business coach, your experience of life and business and coaching is completely different to any other business coach out there.

So get your thinking cap on and start creating products for your business. No matter what your business is, you can create a product or products which will provide useful advice to your target audience.

If you're a car valeter, you could sell DVDs showing people how to polish a car properly.
If you're a personal fitness trainer, record your exercise sessions and create a DVD.
If you're an estate agent, start using video to market your client's houses.
If you have a blog and been writing it for a while now, use your blog posts and turn them into a book!

What products have you created for your business? Please share them by adding a comment below.

Why You Should @Reply on Twitter

2011-11-10T10:20:00.004Z

Did you know that if I start a Tweet with the @ symbol when I reply to somebody, for example:

@jamieforster Yes let's do that; good plan mate.

only people who follow both Jamie Forster and I will see the tweet in their Twitter stream.

A lot of people worry about being "too noisy" on Twitter and so don't want to reply to people or carry on a conversation with people on Twitter for fear of filling other followers' streams with the tweets.

By knowing this, more people will engage with each other in conversations on Twitter without having to worry about drowning the streams of their other followers.

You can watch the video below on this by Gary Vaynerchuk - "The @ system, do you understand it?" where Gary explains that most people he speaks to had no idea about this aspect of the @ reply feature.

You'll see that Gary is very passionate about this!!

So start to use the @ reply and don't worry about drowning your followers with your conversations. Actually, it's quite important that you do @ reply to people - one of the criteria I and many others use when choosing to follow people on Twitter is whether they have conversations. The @ reply in your timeline shows me that you engage with others and I like that.

If your Twitter feed is just full of broadcast message then I won't follow you back.

The screenshot below shows you what I mean:

However, if your Twitter feed has @ reply messages as well as content then I am way more likely to follow you back.

The screenshot below of @thebrandbuilder shows you a good mix:

So don't worry about replying to your Twitter connections with the @ reply. In fact, I suggest you should do it more often. Not only does it show to potential followers that you'll engage in conversation with them; it will make your Twitter connections deeper and more enriched.

4 Steps to Help You Develop Persistence

2011-11-07T10:00:00.009Z

As many of you know, I'm a huge fan of "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill.

If you would like a copy of his book you can enter my FREE prize draw here -

This was me finishing the Windsor Triathlon!

www.thinkandgrowrichoffer.co.uk

The following is an excerpt from the book which I hope you'll find useful.

How to Develop Persistence

There are four simple steps which lead to the habit of persistence. They call for no great amount of intelligence, no particular amount of education and but little time or effort.

A definite purpose backed by a burning desire for its fulfillment
A definite plan, expressed in continuous action
A mind closed tightly against all negative and discouraging influences, including negative suggestions of relatives, friends and acquaintances
A friendly alliance with one or more persons who will encourage one to follow through with both plan and purpose

These four steps are essential for success in all walks of life. The entire purpose of the thirteen principles (from Think and Grow Rich) is to enable one to take these four steps as a matter of habit.

There is a magnificent reward for all who learn to take these four steps. It is the privilege of writing one's own ticket, and making life yield whatever price is asked.

I speak to hundreds of business owners in the UK and most of them don't have a definite of purpose, or a goal of where they are heading. Without knowing this how can you back it with a burning desire?

I have had huge success from applying many of the 13 principles in Napoleon Hill's book and the 4 steps laid out above are one of the key "secrets" to success.

I urge you to get your hands on a copy of "Think and Grow Rich" and begin applying Hill's 13 principles as soon as you can. I'm giving away a FREE copy of a beautiful, hard back version of the book, every fortnight until the end of next year, 2012! Go to www.thinkandgrowrichoffer.co.uk to enter your chance of grabbing your FREE copy.

It's Easy to Do and It's Easy Not to Do

2011-11-03T22:08:00.004Z

We all have dreams and goals of the things we want in life; the things we want to achieve both personal and business related.
I'm the most positive person I know and I love life and grab it with both hands every single day. Life is truly wonderful and the things we can achieve as humans never cease to amaze me.
To get whatever it is you want in life is easy! To totally transform your life from where you are today to where you really want to be is easy!
It's easy to have everything you ever wanted out of life. It's easy to become fit and get that body you've always wanted. It's easy to get out of debt and become financially independent.

So why is it that so many people are unhappy, unfulfilled, unhealthy, obese, and financially on the bread line? It's because every action that is easy to do, is also easy NOT to do!

It's the simple, small steps and actions taken consistently on a daily basis which over time will transform your life. But these steps and actions are easy NOT to do.

Why? Because if you don't do them nothing bad will happen - today!

If you're trying to lose weight but you sneak a Krispy Kreme donut - you won't put on very much weight - today. In fact, you won't really notice the affect at all - today. You won't suffer or fail - today!
If you add more debt to your already over burdened credit card by buying the thing you want today; it won't bankrupt you - today. You won't need to pay it off - today. Again, you won't even notice the difference - today.

Something is easy NOT to do if it has little affect on you - today. Also, NOT doing something is normally far more comfortable than doing it would be. Like NOT going to the gym today and staying slumped on the sofa watching the football.

But those simple NOT doing things, over time, compounded, result in you being over weight; up to your eye balls in debt etc. It will ruin you, destroy you and ruin any chances for success.

You have two choices each and every day on every single action.

A simple, positive action, repeated day after day
A simple, negative action, repeated day after day

Anyone who's been watching the X Factor will have noticed how good Gary Barlow looks. He's lost loads of weight and has toned up and is looking fitter than ever before. On a recent interview with Jonathan Ross, Jonathan explained that Gary just says no to any food offered to him which is unhealthy or fattening. Gary Barlow's simple, positive action of resisting those foods which are bad for him, repeated day after day has helped him shed the weight. It would be so easy for Gary NOT to resist and to just have some chips or slice of cake. But by resisting and consistenly saying no to temptation it's been easy for him to lose weight.

What easy things can you start doing every day to help you reach your dream or goal? Start today - stop making those things you need to do, easy NOT to do and start making them easy to do.

My New Business Book!

2011-10-26T17:12:00.002+01:00

I justed wanted to share with you this video blog which is a quick plug for my new book - 31 Mistakes Every Online Business Makes.

You can register your interest today by going to www.31mistakes.co.uk

Twitter Spam & How to Avoid It

2011-10-11T21:21:00.004+01:00

There has been a recent wave of Spam on Twitter.

The main way the spammers use Twitter is by hacking into accounts and sending Direct Messages (DMs) to people with links to dodgy websites. The website will ask you to enter your Twitter username and password.

PLEASE NOTE: Twitter will NEVER ask you to download something or sign-in to a non-Twitter website.

You receive the DM and because it's from someone you know you can be tricked into clicking the link and because the website seems like a Twitter log in page you think nothing of it and enter your details.
The recent one doing the rounds was like the one in the example below.

I've hidden the id of the sender to protect them. The tweet reads: "I saw a bad blog about you. Have you seen this?" Followed by the link.

I use Hootsuite to manage many of my social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, which is what I recommend to every one. You don't need to download any software - you just go to www.hootsuite.com.

In the image above you'll see there is a + symbol to the right of the URL in the tweet. If you click on this it expands into a box like the one in the image so you can check the URL and see where it's actually going. In this example you can see the WARNING sign and so you would never click the link.

So DO NOT click any links in DMs unless you were expecting a message with a link from the person and if you use Hootsuite you can check the URL first by clicking the + symbol first.

What to do if you are hacked
On speaking to some of the people I know locally who have had their Twitter accounts hacked I realised that many of them didn't know what to do about the hacking and how to secure their Twitter account.

I also realised that many didn't fully understand why these spammers or hackers do this. So I'm just going to explain and hopefully this will help a lot of people.

If your Twitter account is compromised go to the Twitter support site here: https://support.twitter.com/articles/31796

The hackers and spammers do this to get your password. Once they get your password they can then log in and send more DM spam to other unsuspecting people on Twitter and capture more passwords.

They want your password because way too many people use the same password for other website such as PayPal. If the hackers can get into your PayPal account they can spend your money!

So be warned. If your Twitter account has been compromised make sure you change your password on all the websites where you use the same password. And STOP using the same password for everything.

If you want a brilliant new system for creating and remembering passwords go to the Oxford Internet Institute website here: https://passwordcard.oii.ox.ac.uk/ This is a fantastic system!

The Circle of Life - How Family Support Helps Breed Success

2011-10-10T12:16:00.005+01:00

I was watching the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend and saw a few shots on television which got me thinking.

Jenson Button's dad was there. Sebastian Vettel's dad was there. Mark Webber's dad was there. Felippe Massa's dad was there.

They were all there supporting their son's in the race. There was something special about it, it felt good to see the dad's all intently focused on the TV screens in the pit garages as they cheered their sons on. I'll never forget the passion John Button showed at Brazil when his son Jenson won the World Champioship.

This photo was taken in Japan as Jenson's dad and Sebastian Vettel's dad watched their sons on the podium.

My Dad's Support
It reminded me of my school days when I played football for my school and a local league club team. My dad came to every home game we played. It was magic to have him stood there on the sidelines cheering me on. I was a goalkeeper and his cheers when I made a great save filled me full of pride and his encouraging words as I picked the ball out of the back of my net after the opposition had scored were a huge help to me.

There is no doubt when dad was at a game I stepped up my efforts and played much better in those matches. He was great with the other players too and I often got comments from some of the others such as "I wish I had a dad who was cool like your's." And "My dad never comes to our games, you're so lucky."

Affect our Parents Have
And it got me thinking about our businesses and the affect our parents have had on our success. Now don't get me wrong - I'm not giving you an excuse to blame your parents on any lack of current success!

My dad was always there for me and never stole any of my dreams; quite the opposite; he encouraged me to reach for the moon. In fact, when I went to him back in 1988 with the idea to join me in an MLM business, NSA, selling water filters, he came to a meeting and joined there and then. We built a great little business when his doctor and accountant joined the network. It was so cool to be working with my dad on a part time business.

I lost my dad to cancer in 2000 and I really miss his support, advice and guidance. But I'm lucky; I've got a great step-father who is also always there for me and his constant support and advice has been priceless. Thanks Al!!

Amazing Support of my Step-Father
My day to day business activities are varied and now I'm a non-executive director of Nominet my work load has increased dramatically and it's been invaluable to have my step-father to talk to and get advice and opinions.

To have had great advice and support during those moments when a key decision in my life has been needed, have made a huge difference in my life. We've all been there when we reach those crossroads and we have to decide what the right next step is. When we get head hunted or when we've been made redundant - what next? What do we do? These are my options but which one is the right one? To have our parents there for those key moments is priceless.

My Wonderful Mum
My Mum is always there for me. We speak every other day on the phone and she is the best listener in the world. I ring her and tell her everything and she just listens and then offers her support and opinion. She's amazing. I love you Mum! xx

Cancer Research UK
When dad died I decided to raise money for Imperial Cancer Research, now Cancer Research UK, in his memory. To date I've raised just over £20,000 for CRUK and I'm so, so proud. I took up triathlon in 2001 and have done 8 triathlons all for charity to raise money in dad's memory. My website www.formydad.co.uk has more information if you're interested.

I'll never forget doing the Crystal Palace triathlon and my mum and step-father came along to cheer me on. Having swum and biked I then had to run 6.5 miles and the final part was a couple of laps inside the awesome Crystal Palace athletic track. As I entered the stadium I was struggling; my legs hurt and my breathing was really laboured. Then I saw my step-father going nuts, shouting and cheering me on and I nearly broke down in tears there and then. It was amazing and although I was on my last legs his encouragement got me round those last laps of the track. A really special day.

My father-in-law has made a huge difference to my life too. As a successful businessman his advice has been so valuable and he too supports and encourages me. He came along to my very first triathlon in Stratford-upon-Avon and he printed two huge banners with my name on with an image of a runner!

This photo of it is in a bar when my wife, father-in-law and friends enjoyed lunch whilst I was racing round the countryside on my bike!

So our parents are so important in our early lives and I am blessed to have a gorgeous mum and wonderful step-father and to have had the best dad in the world. They made me the guy I am today, their encouragement and support was life changing and I thank you Mum and Al and Dad from the bottom of my heart. Our parent-in-laws can also make a huge difference too. I love you all so much xxx

However, other guys I know weren't so lucky and aren't so lucky even now. Many of the guys I've met didn't have a decent relationship with their dads and it's proved critical. I know two such men from my city days who's dad's were never there for them. Too busy working or away on business and one dad who was just so old fashioned that they had never hugged or embraced. How sad is that?

Now I know I'm more tactile than most but the bond with a father and son is special and those hugs are so important. And their help and support is vital in our up bringing.

The circle of life

Its made me realise that we need to be there for our children and we need our parents to be there for us too. It's like the circle of life. I need the support, encouragement and advice of my parents and my daughter needs the same.

I'll never miss another of my daughter's swimming galas or any future sporting occasion. Recently I've taken her karting in Bristol and she really enjoys it. Who knows - one day maybe I'll be flying round the world to support her as she races in F1!! Now wouldn't that be cool?!

I work from home a lot of the time and I am so thankful for that. This gives me the flexibility to be able to go along to her school to support her, like my dad used to support me. Recently she was playing her guitar in a school concert. I moved heaven and earth to be there and her face lit up when she saw me and my wife walk in. That meant everything to me and more importantly, it meant everything to our daughter.

Be there for your children
So think about your business and your life and if you have children then think about the positive affect you can have on their lives. Life is so fragile - here today, gone tomorrow. Don't let work rule your life. If your son or daughter has sports day or a football match or hockey game, then drop everything and make sure you're there on the sidelines cheering them on.

When you come home from a busy day at the office and your son or daughter comes running up to tell you all about their day at school, make sure you take the time to listen to them. And I mean really listen to them. Give them your undivided attention and show them how much you truly care.

And as they go out into the world to make their fortune remember how important your love, encouragement, support and advice is in helping their success.

Start making a difference today. When your children come home tonight, tell them how proud you and how much you love them. Hug them. And make sure you're at their next big school occasion.

Call them today

If your children are older and working, stop what you're doing and call them and tell them how proud you are. It will make their day. Make the time to meet up with them and spend time with them. It's so easy in today's busy world not to make time for family, but it's the bed rock of the circle of life.

And don't forget your parents - even if they haven't always been there for you - just pick up the phone and call them too. Call them and tell them you love them and thank them for all their support and tell them how proud you are to have them as your mum and dad. And then book a date to go and see them and make it one to remember.

If you haven't got children and you've lost your parents - then call me and I'll tell you how proud I am of you! My mobile is 07976 614043 of you can email at dickie at dickiearmour.me.uk

Don't let life take over and smother you - take time out to tell your loved ones you truly care and that you are so proud of them. Take time to be there at those major events in their life to support them. Support your children emotionally and thank your parents for everything they've done for you.

You can't imagine the difference it will make to them.

I'm So Sorry I Don't Always Notice Your Retweets!

2011-09-23T15:40:00.005+01:00

I just wanted to post a quick blog post to say thank you to you if you have been retweeting some of my tweets on Twitter. I'm so sorry I don't always notice your RTs.

I've realised over the last few months that many of you have been sending out RTs of my content and yet they don't appear in my @ mentions feed in Twitter, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or any other 3rd party Twitter app.

It will be the same for you too. If you're on Twitter and you're sending out tweets with interesting content you can bet that people will have retweeted your tweets and you won't have noticed either.

This is because there are 2 kinds of retweets on Twitter.

The straight forward retweet where you just click the RT button
The retweet with a comment

If you just do a straight forward RT they will not appear in the mentions feed of the person you retweeted.

So for all of you who have been RTing my content but I haven't thanked - then I'm truly sorry. Please forgive me - truly; I didn't notice. It's not that I'm NOT listening. Far from it. It's just one of the many quirks of the Twitter platform.

So if you want to make sure the person you are RTing notices the fact that you've retweeted his or her content, make sure you don't use the Twitter website. Instead use a 3rd party app such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck.

When I'm RTing I usually like to add a comment at the end of the RT so people actually know I've taken the time to either read the article which they tweeted about or make a relevant comment. I think it's a nice thing to do.

If you just use the Twitter website then when you click the retweet link you have no option to add a message. The tweet is just retweeted without any comment from you.

The other reason I like to use the newer method of RTing via Hootsuite is because sometimes people's original tweets are too long, so I have to precis the tweet before I can RT.

So always make sure you don't go over about 104 characters with your tweets. You can read more about the reasons why in a previous post - Twitter Retweet Advice

So again, I'm so sorry I don't always notice your RTs, but thank you so much for sharing my tweets and I look forward to staying connected with you online and off line too.

I'm Going to Miss Y'All, Trey

2011-09-08T01:08:00.009+01:00

Trey Pennington

I won't forget Sunday 4th September, EVER.
6:15pm UK time. I lost a friend and mentor - Trey Pennington.

We are all new to social media but social media isn't new. As Nick Tadd put it at What's Next - Cardiff in May - social media has been around since the cavemen days. We've always used different media to be social. But today's tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Google + etc have changed social media into an instant, on-demand, always on world.

I like the Social Media Train journey analogy which I first heard at Like Minds in October 2009. I wrote a couple of blog posts about it back in Dec 2009 and Jan 2010.
Social Media - Why You Need to be On Board

The Social Media Train Journey - What to do Once You're On Board

My "birth date" on Twitter is 23rd Jan 2009 so I'm fairly new, like most of us. And thanks to Like Minds I met Trey in October 2009, quite early on. Only 2 years ago, but such is the power of Twitter and Facebook and the telephone and email - during those 2 years Trey and I became good friends. He was my mentor in many ways on social media. I always had huge respect for him. He was just the nicest guy you could ever wish to meet. He was someone who made you feel special, he gave first without ever questioning what he would or could get in return.

Thanks to Trey's busy UK speaking schedule we were able to meet up and hang out quite a few times. One of my fondest memories of Trey was he always had his video camera with mini-boom mike at the ready!

Spot his video camera on the shelf behind him in this photo of us in Bristol, UK in June 2010.

And I loved the fact he was so keen to interview as many people as possible. He was great at that; at giving exposure to others first.

At that first Like Minds conference in Exeter I remember meeting Trey and Olivier and we hit it off right away.

Dickie, Trey and Vanessa - Like Minds 2010

Please do read Olivier's amazing blog "Heartbroken" to give you an idea of how close they both were. One of the founders of Like Minds, Scott Gould aslo wrote a lovely blog - Trey Pennington - Like Minds Loses a Piece of it's Heart. Two very moving blog posts!

I remember Trey came out with a phrase "Dollars and cents - pounds and pence" and liked it so much he asked someone to tweet it. My tweet appeared on the TwitterFall behind Trey; he turned round to look and laughed.

I also played a very small role in chauffeuring Trey to a couple of events. The first was to a social media monitoring conference in London.

Trey's comment in reply to me.

The other was in May this year when I picked him up from London Gatwick and drove him to Cardiff for the What's Next event. Unbeknown to me, Trey was filming in the airport as he came through Passport Control and wrote a blog post featuring it.
What’s the ROI of social media? How about exploring the VALUE of social media?

In just a short time we met up face to face on 9 seperate occasions and with all the tweets and Facebook posts and blog comments we had between us, were able to build a strong bond. I looked up to Trey and used him as a mentor. He set some brilliant examples of how to use social media. He always talked about the three fold need of humans:

Everyone wants to be heard
Everyone wants to be understood
Everyone wants to know his or her life matters

Trey was the perfect example of making sure he helped as many people achieve this and I can't thank him enough for everything he did for me.
I was so devasated to have been out on Sauturday night when Trey posted a couple of posts on my Facebook wall. I didn't know it then, but less than 24 hours later Trey would be gone and I missed my final chance to speak to him and I am gutted. :-(

Trey was a real modern day "George Bailey" who's life affected so many others in such an amazing way and positive way. If Trey had never been born, the world would have been a very different place. The Social Media landscape would have been completely different. Trey contributed so much to so many and sadly, because of that, perhaps never took enough time to spend on himself. To make sure he was heard, understood and recognised.

And I so, so wish Trey's "Clarence" had come down to save him in time. To have been able to show him that his life, really was a wonderful life.

I Don't Have the Time to Use Social Media!

2011-08-15T11:44:00.000+01:00

It still amazes me how many businesses aren't using social media. Last week I was on an online forum where a lady was saying social media is just a waste of time. I gave a talk recently and I asked 4 questions:

1. How many of you are on LinkedIn? Everyone raised their hands.

2. How many of you are on Twitter? Half the hands dropped

3. How many of you have a Facebook business page? Only 5 people kept their hands up.

4. How many of you have a YouTube channel? Only 2 people kept up their hands and one of them was me!

Most of the audience had smartphones; iPhones and Androids etc and yet they weren't really using social media and one of the biggest reason people give me is they don't have the time. And the answer to question 1 is a bit misleading. The fact that everyone put their hands up doesn't tell the full story. We might all be on LinkedIn but in most cases all we have is a profile. To find out how you should be using LinkedIn see my blog post - How to use LinkedIn Effectively for Your Business

It takes too long - where do you find the time?

I get this question quite a lot. I try to answer it honestly. To begin with it can take a few hours out of your day whilst you learn how to use each platform but once you are familiar with Twitter, Facebook, Google+ etc then you can dip in and out throughout the day when you have a spare 5 or 10 minutes. And don't even begin to pretend you're too busy and never have 5 minutes spare!

Think about your average day
It's the same for all of us - we only have 24 hours each day! And in fact, many of our daily routines are the same. Travelling to work, waiting for the kettle to boil, going to the loo, waiting for a train or bus, and waiting for a meeting.
There are always 5 or 10 minute gaps in our day which we can use to dip into social media.

• How do you get to work? Train, tube or bus?

Then you've got time whilst you're travelling. I know London Underground only has reception on limited parts of the network but if you're travelling by train you normally get 2 or 3 minutes on the platform when waiting for your next train. I see people on the bus everyday who just sit staring out the window. This is a perfect time to dip into Twitter and Facebook to see what conversations are going on.

• Making a cup of tea or coffee

The kettle takes about 3 minutes to boil. Perfect time for a quick look at Twitter.

• Going to the loo!

The perfect sit down time to catch up with your social media activities!

• Whilst printing multiple documents

On my printer it can take 4 to 5 minutes to print out hand out sheets. This is a perfect time for me to dip into Google Reader and find a few good blog posts which I can schedule to send on Twitter.

• Whilst on hold to a call centre

This can take hours sometimes & people say they don't have time! I was on hold this morning to ADT, our alarm company to book a routine inspection. I was on hold for 6 minutes. I had the handset on loudspeaker and used that time to catch up on LinkedIn, accept connections and join in a conversation in one of my groups.

• Waiting for the start of a conference or training session

We've all been in the situation where we're at a conference, sat waiting for it to begin. This is a great time to get out your smartphone, iPad or laptop and quickly check Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter.
When I'm at a conference or training day I like to take photos of the presenters/speakers and post them to Twitter.

• During a conference

Nowadays it's become acceptable that members of the audience will be tweeting during the conference. This can be seen by some as being rude. People on mobile devices tweeting are not concentrating on the speaker! Whilst I get that; I prefer to flip it on it's head and think of all the free publicty the speakers and the conferences are getting nowadays, with many people tweeting about it. (Assuming that it's good publicity! It works both ways of course!)

• Waiting for an appointment

The great thing with smartphones is we always have them with us and they are so quick and easy to use. Sitting in a reception area waiting to go into an appointment is a good time to check in.

• Sat in your car between meetings

I often arrive early for some of my meetings. I love using this time on social media. I just sit in my car and catch up.

• On the commute home

Great time to wish people on Twitter a nice evening and see how their days have gone. It doesn't take long to jump into Facebook and add some comments and Likes to your contacts' pages.

• Watching TV in the evening

This is the time when I go through Google Reader and choose the articles and blog posts which I'm going to post on Twitter and Facebook and Google +.

I use Hootsuite and I schedule a lot of my content and I like to do this in front of the TV. My wife often likes to watch stuff I'm not into so I can still sit with her, but instead of wasting time while a TV show I'm not interested in washes over me; I sit and schedule some of my daily content for the coming week.

You CAN Find the Time

You have to change your thinking on social media - it's just another tool in your marketing tool box so you must spend some time on your strategy and creating your content. But people I speak to don't think spending time on social media is real work! It absolutely is real work and the sooner you reset your thinking on this and realise it is work and time spent on social media is a good investment of your time, the better.

Only then will you start to take it seriously and begin to find the time in your day when you can dip into social media.

Please share how you find the time.
How do you use social media? What are the times in your day when you dip into Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn?

7 Brilliant Business & Personal Development Audio Books

2011-08-04T19:22:00.001+01:00

I love reading and my current focus has been on business books across quite a wide range from business, Internet marketing, personal success, positive thinking and social media. But a few months ago a good friend of mine, Stuart Edmonstone, introduced me to Darren Hardy. Darren is a best selling author and the founder of Entrepreneur Magazine. His audio series, "The Compound Effect" is excellent and in one section of it Darren refers to how we can better spend our spare time. For example whilst driving he suggest instead of listening to the radio or a music CD we would be wiser spending that time in our car listening to business and personal development audio books.
I have followed Darren's advice and thought I'd share my top 7 Business and Personal Development Audio books with you.

Business

Awaken the Entrepreneur Within by Michael E. Gerber
The Most Successful Small Business in the World by Michael E. Gerber
Flight Plan: The Real Secret of Success by Brian Tracey
Motivation: The Key to Accomplishment by Zig Ziglar
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy

The Mental Game of Life by Topher Morrison

These are not listed in any particular order but my favourite is without doubt Think & Grow Rich. I downloaded my copy from iTunes and I have to say it's a great source for brilliant audio books.
I hope you'll try some or all of these audios and please share your favourite business and personal development audio books.

How to Use LinkedIn Effectively for your Business

2011-07-07T10:00:00.001+01:00

LinkedIn is one of the most popular social media networks especially for business. There are over 101 million people on it, with the UK being the 3rd largest country of users with just over 6 million.
For full stats from January 2011 see http://www.slideshare.net/amover/linked-in-demographics-and-statistics-2011

But I've found from talking to loads of local business people that most people tend to just have a profile and in many cases they haven't got a 100% filled in profile.

I was lucky enough to attend a brilliant Social Media conference - What's Next 2011 - in Cardiff a few weeks ago. There were some incredible speakers and for me the 3 highlights were Trey Pennington, Mark Perl and Nick Tadd.

Mark Perl did a brilliant session on LinkedIn. Mark's energy and enthusiasm is infectious and he showed us how to use LinkedIn for business. And I thought it might be useful to share my 4 top take homes with you.

1. Your Connections' Connections

Mark pointed out the importance of our connections. He explained that they all know people who we could do business with. It seemed so obvious after he pointed this out to us!
We spend time each week cold calling and trying to get in front of key decision makers and yet we've got a huge pool of potential customers right in front our noses on LinkedIn.
Mark shared with us how we should spend some time looking at our connections' connections to see who they know. Assuming we know who our ideal customer is then we can look for them within that pool of connections.
Mark explained how he'd been trying to get hold of this guy - John Smith- and after a search on LinkedIn he saw that one of his connections - Steve - was connected to John Smith. So Mark called Steve and explained he'd love an intro to John Smith. Mark explained what he did and how he was going to help John and Steve was so impressed he said he'd be happy to get in touch with John and tell him all about Mark.
A few days later imagine Mark's surprise when he got a call out of the blue from John Smith, the guy he'd been trying to connect with! Steve had called John and because they knew each other; liked each other and trusted each other, John took Steve's word that Mark was a good guy and John was happy to get in touch.
So instead of Mark having to cold call John, the opposite happened! John called Mark and was a very warm lead thanks to the power of the referral from Steve.
Isn't that much better then wasting time cold-calling and trying to get past gate keepers?!!

So take a 15 or 20 minutes, at least once a week, to go through your connections and see if they know the people you're looking to connect with and if they do, ask them for an introduction. You'll be amazed at what can happen.

2. Join Groups & Get Involved

One of the other areas we often over look is Groups.
There are thousands of Groups on LinkedIn and so there will definitely be a few which are relevant to you and your business.
For example, I'm a member of a Group called Business Link in the South West as that's where I'm based and its a great group for connecting with other business people in my area.
You can also create your own group. If you want to create a Group based on your area of expertise you can. You can then invite your other connections to join your new Group.
Once you've found some groups which are relevant to your business, get involved by posting a question if you need help or dive in and answer a question that has been asked by one of the other members of the group.
When you do this your photo appears next to your posting along with a link to your LinkedIn profile page. So it's a great way for people to find out more about you.
If you are answering questions and being as helpful as possible the chances are other people will notice you and want to find out more about you.
The only downside to some groups is you see people trying to answer questions just to position themselves and offer their services or products. As with all social media platforms; it's NOT about broadcasting or touting for business. If you try and do this, you will be found out very quickly.
Try to remember the Know - Like - Trust mantra. People tend to do business with people they know and like and trust so there is no point at all in trying to sell.
Be a genuinely nice person and be as helpful as you can with your advice and you will build a good reputation. Then, and only then, will the business flow.

3. Give Testimonials

This was another gem from Mark Perl. I tried this last week and it felt great and I got some wonderful messages back from people.
The other good thing about giving testimonials to others is that some of the people will return the favour. Now please note - you don't just give testimonials because you want them to give you a testimonial in return!! You have to genuinely want to give someone a testimonial because you think and believe they truly deserve it.
Have a look through your connections and see who you've done business with who you think deserves a testimonial from you; or find a work colleague and give them a testimonial. Try to find two or three people each week and give them a testimonial. This isn't a hard and fast rule; you might only do 2 or 3 a month. Just go with what feels right for you.
It is a great feeling when you do give someone a testimonial. I knew they would be happy and I imagined their reaction as they got the email from LinkedIn telling them about my testimonial. I love it when I receive a nice testimonial from others; it sets you up for the rest of your day.
So get cracking and start giving testimonials to those people you think deserve it.

4. Complete your Profile
There are a couple of reasons for doing this.

Other people looking at your profile want to know as much about you as possible. The more information you can give the better. If you are using LinkedIn to find other job opportunities then obviously you must give a full career history as possible.
Whenever you update your profile, your connections will see this in their timeline. LinkedIn also sends out a weekly email update which tells you which of your connections have updated their profile; changed photo etc. It also tells you who your connections are now connected to.
Your profile will appear very high on the search engines results. If you search my name "Dickie Armour" on Google you'll see my LinkedIn profile appears 5th on the search result.

So make sure you complete your profile and update it often. Every time it's updated your connections will be notified and this brings you back into their minds again.

These are just my 4 top take homes from Mark Perl's brilliant talk at the Social Media conference - What's Next 2011 in Cardiff. If you really want to learn how to use LinkedIn properly I highly recommend you get in touch with Mark Perl. He'll give you all the help and guidance you need.

So get going - make sure you spend time looking into your connections' connections and asking for referrals to those key decidion makers you want to speak to. Join the Groups you're interested in and get involved in the conversations going on there. Please give testimonials; you'll feel great and you'll feel even better when people start giving you testimonials and get your profile completed to 100% and keep it updated.

If you know me and we're not already connected on LinkedIn my profile is http://www.linkedin.com/in/dickiearmour Please do connect and if I know you I will of course accept.

Please do add your comments below and share how you're using LinkedIn.

Think and Grow Rich - Very Special Offer!

2011-05-03T16:26:00.008+01:00

I've been a big fan of Napoleon Hill since I first read his brilliant book Think and Grow Rich back in the late 1980's.
It's amazing that it was written nearly 100 years ago! Everyone should read this book and in fact I have a very special offer for you at the end of this blog post.

Parallels
I love the parallels between the depression of 1929 and today, as we struggle out of our current ongoing recession, which many have referred to as a depression. With the last budget, it seems that we're not quite out of the woods yet!

Hill refers to the 1930s as being a time of great opportunity and it very much feels like that today. In his book he runs us through his thirteen steps to riches, but it's not just about the money. Each step has so many tips and tricks on how we can simply set ourselves up to succeed.

The New Way of Marketing Services
In the chapter on Organised Planning Hill refers to "The New Way of Marketing Services". This section blew me away! He was so ahead of his time on this stuff. He refers to how companies need to care more about their employees and their customers and how we should be treating our customers with courtesy and great service. He refers to his QQS rating which is brilliant!

Q uality
Q uantity
S pirit

Summed up, it means we should give the best quality of service in the quantity we are capable of (meaning to do everything we possibly can) and in the best possible spirit by being courteous and caring and with a smile.

This was 1929 remember! I was constantly amazed as I read Think and Grow Rich and had to keep reminding myself that it was written such a long time ago. Hill even refers to how the bankers have had to change their attitudes and how they engage with their customers. It could have been written last week!!

The book was originally priced at $2.50 and the publisher ordered a print run of 5,000 copies which was a bit optomistic at the time. These 5,000 copies sold out in just 3 weeks! And it's gone on to sell millions of copies all over the world!

It's amazing to me that all those years ago Hill claimed that thoughts become things and stated the now well known quote:

"Whatever the human mind can conceive and believe, it can acheive."

He made these claims at a time when people were locked up for out of the ordinary thinking and claims!

Here's a wonderful video of Napoleon Hill explaning how he met Andrew Carnegie and he outlines the main theory behind his book.

You get what you focus on
Many people I know still don't accept the simple fact that our thoughts can and do become a reality. I used to play a lot of golf and it's a great example of getting what you think about and focus on. Imagine lining up to play your next shot which is over water. If you don't catch your thoughts in time, you won't be able to stop yourself from focusing on the water and saying things like, "I must not go in the water. I must not land in the water. I must not hit my shot short." This is not ideal and you can imagine the end result. You'll land your golf ball in the water because that's what you were focusing on!

Instead, you should focus on the green and just ignore any hazards such as water or bunkers, but human nature leads us to focus on the things we don't want. Think about it, whenever we ask people what they want they easily come back with a list of the things they don't want, but very few people know with absolute clarity what it is they DO want.

Think and Grow Rich is a truly remarkable book and if you haven't read it then I urge you to get yourself a copy and take time out to read it from cover to cover.

My Offer!!
So as promised earlier, I have a very special offer for you. Every fortnight from May 3rd for the rest of 2011 I am giving away a FREE hardback copy of Think and Grow Rich.

To be in with your chance of winning a copy you just have to do 2 things:
1. Follow me on Twitter - @dickiearmour
2. Like the Business Mentors Club Facebook page

That's it. As long as you've liked the Business Mentors Club Facebook page and you're following me on Twitter, your name will be added into the draw every two weeks for the rest of the year. So you'll have 17 chances to win!

My eight year old daughter will randomly select a person every 2 weeks from a hat and the winner will receive a copy of the book.

Please go to www.thinkandgrowrichoffer.co.uk for more details.

It's NOT about me - it's all about YOU!

2011-04-11T11:27:00.000+01:00

This week I've decided to start a little bit of promoting via Twitter.

I've got a few followers now and I was thinking about how I could help them. What's the point of us all being connected if we don't get to know each other? But it's tricky.

We are all mega busy, running around each day, running our businesses, wading through hundreds of emails, arranging meetings, looking afer customers, more meetings, business networking, tweeting, Facebook postings, LinkedIn discussions, Q&A on Quora, conversations on Ecademy, wandering aimlessly around Second Life, recording videos, uploading them to YouTube and Viddler and Vimeo, tweeting, recording audios, uploading them to audioboo or burning them to CD, or trying to figure out how to get them onto our website, tweeting, writing blogs, writing books, writing eBooks, writing posts on forums, email marketing, writing press releases, arranging your new business cards, doing your accounts, keeping on top of your cash flow and so on and so on and so on!

And that's just the business side of things. Our personal lives can be just as hectic and we often have to find time to make arrangements for that during our working hours too. Looking after our loved ones, arranging parties, booking holidays, school trips, children's activities during the holidays, arranging the Mum & Dad taxi service for all your children's parties and functions, shopping, family visits etc...

So I know you're all busy.

Which is why I thought I'd spend some time this week helping you.

I'm going to radmomly promote 2 of my followers' businesses on Twitter every day this week. At 11:30am and 2:30pm and 11:45am and 2:45pm each day, UK time.

I love people and I love helping people and I realised that whilst I do ReTweet a lot of people's content; I've not done much promoting of other people's businesses.

Zig Ziglar said "If we help enough people get what they want, we'll eventually get what we want".

I hope this will bring me closer to some of my followers and we will get to know each other. I think that's one of the wonderful things about life; it will be great to surprise a few followers with my tweets and it's just nice to help people.I know how it feels when I get a testimonial from someone or when someone says something nice about me and my business.

It's those random acts of kindness that we don't often make enough time for in life. So many people are too busy bigging themselves up and trying to sell and promote their own products and services that they forget about the other people. It's NOT about me! It's all about YOU!

So I'm sorry I can't help with your hectic daily schedules in your business and family lives! But I hope my random week of kindness will at least put a smile on your face and who knows - we may go from just being followers of each other on Twitter to real life friends.

2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report

2011-04-08T18:40:00.001+01:00

Have you ever asked yourself any of these questions? “Where are my peers targeting their social media efforts? What benefits are they achieving? Where will they focus their future activities?”

Look no further.

All of the answers (and more) are right here in this free social media report from Michael Stelzner at Social Media Examiner.

Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2011 from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo.

To understand how marketers are using social media, Social Media Examiner commissioned the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report.

They set out to uncover the “who, what, where, when and why” of social media marketing with this report.

A significant 3,300 social media marketers provided valuable insight you won’t find elsewhere. In this free report, you’ll discover:

The top 10 social media questions marketers want answered
How much time marketers invest with social media activities
The top benefits of social media marketing and how time invested affects results
The most used social media tools and services
Marketers’ future social media plans
Activities social media marketers are outsourcing
And much more!

If you’re responsible for marketing your business, you’ll want to closely analyze the pages of this free 41-page report and use it to persuade others.

Remember, the nature of social media is to “share,” so if you like the report, please let your peers know about it.

>> Download the report here by right-clicking (control click on Macs). NOTE: Having trouble downloading? The file is large and may not display properly in some browsers. Try right-clicking (or control-click on Mac) to save it to your hard drive.

What do you think about these findings? Please share your comments in the box below.

FourSquare - A Great Way to Get More Loyal Customers

2011-03-28T12:39:00.003+01:00

If you own a retail outlet or a location such as an ice cream van or hot dog or burger stand then you can get more loyal customers using this simple to set up social media website - Foursquare.com

Foursquare is a location based social media platform on which users "check-in" to let others know where they are and what they're doing. It uses geo-location on a mobile device such as an Android phone, iPhone, smartphone, iPad, or laptop. So you have to be actually in the venue or very nearby to be able to check in.

Each time you check in you have the option to share the fact with your Foursquare friends and you can also post a message about it to Twitter and Facebook. So it's a great way for retail venues to market themselves, as it increases your exposure on these different social networks each time users check in at your venue.

Earn Rewards
Users can earn points for each check-in and there's a weekly league table of all your friends and also of all the people in the same City as you.

You can also get special deals offered by the different locations you check in at. For example, if you check in regularly, many establishments offer discounts and specials. On the screenshot below you'll see that The Doubletree by Hilton Cadbury House offers a free cookie to anyone who checks in. They also offer 20% discount to the Mayor.

Becoming Mayor
If you check in more often than anyone else over a 60 day period, you become the mayor of the venue. As you can see above I'm the Mayor of Cadbury House and so I get a 20% discount when I buy anything there. This is a great incentive for me, as it's my gym!
Stuart Edmonstone and I are working out regularly as we progress towards our goal of getting a body like Brad Pitt's! See www.bradsbody.com for more details. Stuart and I often pop into the cafe after a workout so it's great to get the discount as mayor.

Domino's Pizza
In July 2010, Domino's Pizza attributed strong growth in online sales to its use of promotions on location-based mobile application Foursquare and social media after revealing a 29% surge in pre-tax profits to £17.5m.

In May 2010, Domino's launched a nationwide promotion in the UK on Foursquare that encouraged users to check-in at its outlets. Every Wednesday the mayor of Domino's Pizza gets a FREE small pizza. I know quite a few people in Bristol who love this deal and all compete to be the mayor each Wednesday!

Badges - The Foursquare Trophy Case
As users check in they are awarded badges. These badges are given to users to reward them and motivate them to explore more venues around their location.

Recently Foursquare added The Partner Badge program which allows brands to create their own badges on Foursquare which can then be awarded to their brand advocates. See Everything in its right place: unveiling the new Trophy Case for full details on this.

Start Promoting your Business
So set up your account today and start offering rewards to your loyal customers for coming into your venue. You can find out more at http://foursquare.com/business/venues and if you want to promote your brand to your customers and potential customers go to http://foursquare.com/business/brands. This has details about how you can set up a Foursquare Page to help you connect with your followers on Foursquare.

So get onto Foursquare today and get your business set up so your followers can start checking in with you!

Beware of this Domain Name Renewal SCAM!

2011-03-07T10:10:00.007Z

Please READ this carefully.

A friend received this letter in the post last week from an outfit called Domain Renewal Group. They were originally called the Domain Registry of America (DRoA).
The Domain Renewal Group have been using this under hand sales tactic for a few years now and it's something which needs to be stopped.

Please click the image below to see large version.

The letter is very clever in the way it's written. It makes the reader assume that their domain name is due for renewal with this company. Most domain names need to be renewed every 2 years and to the less versed on these things it is quite easy to forget who you registered your domain name with. So the assumption is this letter is an invoice which must be paid.

They send the letter out about 3 months prior to the renewal date of the domain before your normal reminder gets sent out by your current domain name registration company.

It is NOT an invoice
It's an attempt by DRoA to get you to pay them for a domain name that they don't even control! Many people and businesses fall for this trap. Make sure you are NOT one of them!

If you get one - DO NOT FILL IT IN!!

Consequences can be disasterous
You need to know what happens when someone does pay this dodgy outfit. The consequences can be disasterous to your business.

When you pay them, they email you telling you to transfer your domain name to them. Most people will ignore this email, thinking it's just a confirmation of payment.
A few months later, you will get a reminder email from your current provider. You'll probably scratch your head at this time wondering why you're getting another reminder when you've already paid to renew!
Most people will ignore the email assuming it's an over sight.

PLEASE NOTE: If you get an email reminder then contact the person or company who sent the email and check to see if your domain name needs to be renewed.
If these reminder emails are ignored your domain name will expire and the first thing you'll know about it is when your email and website stops working.

Remember the look of this Letter
Please click the image above and familiarise yourself with the look of the letter.

If you receive one of these in the post, ignore it and call the person who looks after your domain name and website.

If you have any doubts please get in touch and I will be happy to advise you.

So you want to start Blogging?

2011-03-02T09:45:00.000Z

I speak to business owners every week who aren't blogging and get frustrated and worried about the fact. Everyone is talking about blogging as the next big thing. Gary Vaynerchuk talked about the personal brand Gold Rush back in 2008 and it still holds true today. It's not too late for you to find your niche and then you should talk about it and blog about it.

So if you want to start blogging - where do you begin?

The 2 main tools for setting up a blog are:

Blogger - A blogging website set up by Google
WordPress - a hosted software platform available with most mainstream hosting companies.

Blogger is probably your best option if you aren't too technical.

WordPress is much more powerful and with the help from your friendly web designer, it can be used to create very impressive looking blogs and even fully fledged websites.

Blogger is accessible on the Internet via a browser at www.blogger.com There you can set up your account and get going straight away.

You can follow a tour of Blogger via this link http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g which is great for anyone who is new to blogging.

The other option is WordPress.
As I said, your hosting company will probably support WordPress. You can find out all about it at the WordPress website. http://wordpress.org/

The great thing about Blogger and WordPress is that they are both FREE to use.

If you need help getting either of these set up and working then please get in touch and I can point you in the right direction. I'm sure others who can help will be adding their comments here so keep a look out in the comments section below this article.

What's your Subject?
Once you've got your preferred blogging platform set up you need to write your first blog. I'm not going into the mechanics of each and how they work etc. Both are very intuitive and won't take you long to get to grips with writing, editing and publishing.

What you need to think about is what you are going to blog about? What's your area of expertise? What are you passionate about? What industry are you in?

Have a look at some of the other blogs you like or blogs written by others in your sector. This will give you some good ideas.

Get Writing
But it's important you find your "place"; your vibe for what you want to write about.
Then just go for it. Get writing. By following your passion and writing about stuff you find really interesting, it will be far easier for you to keep going. You'll also find that other like-minded people will also find what you write about interesting.

I keep a list of blog ideas on my Notepad app on my iPad and iPhone and I add to this list constantly. This blog was an idea I got from reading another blog. So make sure you start and keep a list of new ideas for blog articles and add to it as often as you can.

How often?
Once you know what you're going to write about and you've got a few ideas for articles then you need to decide how often you're going to write. I would suggest once or twice a month to begin with. If you're good at writing then you could go for once a week, but remember; once you get an audience - even if it's just an audience of 2 or 3 - they will get used to how often you write your blog and people like consistency. So don't write loads of articles and then stop for a month or two. This will lose you readers, and one of the reasons for you blogging is to increase your audience size.

Marketing
You also need to think about how you let your connections know about your blog. I'd suggest an email to your close friends and family is a good start. They'll help spread the word. You can also drop an email to your customers; if you're writing about your industry then your customers should find it interesting.

Then use the different Social Media networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ecademy etc and before you know it you'll be blogging like a pro and your blog will be gaining in popularity.

Forget Will Power - You Need "Why" Power!

2011-02-26T18:01:00.002Z

We all make the same mistake over and over again in life - we rely far too much on our will power to help us reach a goal or dream.

Think about it. People are trying to lose weight all over the world. The same people have tried umpteen times before and they have relied on their will power to help them achieve their weight loss goal.

A friend of mine has tried numerous diets and joined Weight Watchers and Slimming World and done loads of different exercise classes. Her last effort was joining a Reiki and Yogo session. She's tried everything and she always tells me how her will power will see her through. And yet she's still over weight and desperate to lose weight.

I've done the same myself and been the victim of my weak will power. I've wanted a six pack for years. I've been a member of a total of 10 different health clubs over the years and yet I've never managed to lose weight and get my six pack.

And that's because I was relying on my will power to see me through.

Instead we should be using our Why Power.

I realise this now. Darren Hardy talks about the Why Power in his brilliant audio CD series The Compound Effect.

We need a big enough reason why. We need to know why we want to do something and it needs to be absolutely clear and strong in your mind. We also need to make sure we are following our own reasons why and not someone else's. You know the sort - when your dad tells you you need to get a proper job, when your partner tells you your family needs stability and a proper job instead of working for yourself.

So think about what your goals and dreams are. Think really hard. Take some time out to think about why you want what you want. Is it what you REALLY want? And if it is; think about the reasons WHY you want it.

I'd always wanted my six pack but never really had a big enough why. I've always kept myself reasonably fit - I swam at school and played football and rugby. I played American Football for the Stock Exchange Stags when I worked in the City. I did triathlons to raise money for Cancer Research UK in memory of my dad, John Armour. I ran the Cardiff Half Marathon in October 2009. But none of this training ever got me close to getting my six pack. Because I didn't have a big enough WHY.

But now, thanks to Stuart Edmonstone, I've got my reason why. We've set up a website about our story and what we are aiming for - www.bradsbody.com
And it's not just one reason. It's a hatful of reasons!

I was 45 this month so this could be my last chance!
I WANT a body like Brad Pitt!
We've told everyone so we have to do it now!
I'm now doing public speaking and do 2 or 3 talks each month; I want to look good when stood in front of an audience.
I've always done lots of karting and the weight loss really helps with lap times! ;-)
I'm off on holiday in the summer and I can imagine rubbing in my suntan lotion into my flat stomach instead rolls of fat!
Stuart and I keep each other motivated - it's great having a buddy to keep you on track.
I've always wanted to be really fit and to look good - I've wanted it for years! And at last I can feel it's within my grasp!
I will feel so proud to have achieved this huge goal!

And not only do I now know I'm going to get my body like Brad Pitt; I'll have the 6 pack I've always wanted! And Stuart and I have an even bigger goal - we're raising £20,000 for Marys Meals! A charity that feeds impoverished children all over the world.

And once we've got our bodies - we want to meet Brad Pitt and pose in a photo with him on a beach. I can see it already. Me, Brad Pitt and Stuart, arms round each other, with our shirts open, smiling with our 6 packs on show!

(If you're reading this and you know Brad Pitt - please put us in touch with him!)

So don't just rely on your will power. You'll need it but you'll need a lot more besides. You'll need to know WHY you're doing it; WHY you want to do it and it really helps to visualise yourself already doing whatever it is.

Whatever it is you want to achieve; whether it's personal or something to do with your business - you need WHY power!

Twitter Retweet Advice

2011-01-22T15:19:00.001Z

For those of you who use Twitter regularly you will most probably know all about this, but please do add your comments to help the newer Twitter users.

I've seen many of my followers make the same mistake when it comes to retweeting. To give yourself the best possible chance of getting others to retweet your tweets you need to make sure you leave enough characters free at the end of every tweet.

You need to allow for their username which gets added along with "RT" at the front of their retweet. If you use all 140 characters there won't be enough room for this and either the end of your tweet gets cropped or the other users will have to precise your original tweet. Worse case, they won't bother with the retweet at all because it's too much hassle.

So make sure you leave enough characters free so there's room for their username.

Also, people use many different apps when tweeting and the apps all use different protocols for how they handle retweets. (RT @, via @, retweet @, r/tweet, "tweet" via, etc) So this obviously affects the number of spare characters needed when retweeting.

I always try to use a margin of 36 spare characters, especially when my tweet is content driven with a link to a useful article. Let me explain why I think the margin of 36 spare characters is the optimum.

The maximum characters which can be used for a username on Twitter is 15. So with the @ included that's 16. I then add an extra 20 spare characters so others can add a few characters of their own for a comment. So this means your tweet with content, article titles and link should be no more than 104 characters.

So remember to leave about 36 spare characters next time you tweet and make it easier for your followers to retweet your content.

It's All About the Traffic

2011-01-18T16:36:00.004Z

If your blog has low levels of traffic this might mean that the content is not that good. However, there are also instances where a great blog doesn't get much traffic either. The key in getting traffic is to come up with a strategy and make everyone notice your blog. There are a few things that you need to consider with regards to generating traffic to your blog and these are not that different from planning a regular website.

The only exception is that blogs can generate traffic a lot faster. What you should consider first is your target audience and look at your current stats to see where your blog’s traffic is coming from at the moment.

The Content
The content of your blog is very important. It is the reason why people visit your blog. Try to make your blog interesting and make the content relevant and of high value to your target audience. Find out what your audience wants and don't be afraid to ask them if your past blog posts were interesting.

The content is especially important if you are planning sales from your blog. First, you must become a trustworthy and credible source of information before you start selling your products or services. Blogs are an excellent medium for sales since they allow you to connect and converse through the use of the content. But without great content your blog is unlikely to achieve the following and credibility you aspire to.

In order to grow the audience on your blog, remember you MUST publish frequently and make sure that the entry you are about to publish is meaningful and of high value. When you get comments on any of your blog posts always engage with your audience by replying to these posts. A lot of people I speak to don't think they should be posting comments on their own blog. You should definitely post replies to any comments you get. Lastly, just be yourself; be genuine and don't ever try to be someone you're not.

The Ping
One of the huge benefits of blogging is the blog software ping. The ping updates the servers where your blog is hosted, to notify that your content has been updated. Search engines and blog directories then check these update servers for the latest updates; this is the reason why your blog’s content gets into search engines so quickly.

Pings make blogs excellent search engine optimisation tools. In some cases it only takes a few hours day for your latest blog post to get into the search engines! However, your blog’s content will usually only ever take a few days maximum to get into most search engines.

RSS Feeds
RSS feeds are also important. Not only can you publish your blog posts quickly and get them picked up by the search engines; you can also get your posts seen by a wider audience by using RSS feeds. RSS Feeds allow others to subscribe to and find your content and if they find it of interest they will point their audience to your blog posts.

Social Media
Using social media as a means to promote your blog is incredibly powerful. Now, this doesn't mean just shouting about your latest blog post on Twitter or Facebook. But as in the RSS Feeds mentioned above, if people find your stuff interesting they will tweet about it on Twitter and post about it on their Facebook walls. While people don't like people over selling their businesses on Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn it's quite acceptable to most users if you post or tweet to let your followers and friends know about your new blog post.

So make sure you're using social media and that it forms part of your strategy for getting more traffic to your blog.

There are endless ways to promote your blog. Just keep in mind that there is no strategy for quick money when it comes to profitable blogging. It requires dedication, time, a strategy for the content and patience before the vistors start queuing up outside your blog.

Take Action in 2011 - Getting Things Done

2011-01-04T10:25:00.000Z

Getting things done has been a focus of mine for a while now. You may have seen a couple of older blog posts of mine on the subject:

My Business Timetable

Solve your Problems Overnight

2010 has been a great year for me and one of things I've tried to remain focused on is taking action. So many people talk about doing stuff but then don't follow through with taking the required action.

I love lists; To Do Lists and I write mine the night before each day, so I know what I've got to get on with the very next day. Then, using my Business Timetable I allocate a block of time; perhaps 15 minutes or 30 minutes to a particular task. As you will have seen in my blog post on My Business Timetable I mention an online stopwatch which I used to time these sessions.

This system has been working really well for me but last month I discovered an incredible new piece of software which uses the following simple system. It consists of just 3 simple steps:

Write down all the things you want to get done today.
Assign a block of time for each task such as 25 minutes.
Select a task, start the timer and focus on nothing else until that particular task is done.

See, I said it was simple! It's exactly the same in principle as I've been using but this incredible software is the killer difference.

This system, once in place, and as long as you use it, will make you more productive than you could have imagined! I know, because I use the software myself and it's totally transformed my productivity. Just take a look at how my blog post rate has risen towards the end of 2010. I'm also writing 2 eBooks on different aspects of business and I've recently created www.bradsbody.com with a friend.

I always liked my system, but if I'm truly honest, the stopwatch countdown timer was a bit hit and miss and not massively efficient.

This system automates the 3 simple steps and includes some great reports so you can see where you spend your time and the interface is really clean and intuitive.

I really recommend you watch the video which shows the software in action - just click the link below*:

www.dickiearmour.me.uk/gettingthingsdone

The New Year is the perfect time to get this system up and running in your business.

www.dickiearmour.me.uk/gettingthingsdone

Happy New Year and I hope it's a very prosperous one for you.

*This is an affiliate link. I make just a few quid to add towards my daughter's inheritance! ;-)

Forget about New Year's Resolutions!

2010-12-29T10:16:00.001Z

In the UK we have a long standing habit of setting New Year's resolutions. A New Year's resolution is something you want to do or achieve. So a typical New Year's resolution might be I want to give up smoking; or I want to lose weight this year; or I want to learn Mandarin etc.

Most people I know set New Year's resolutions but most of them rarely achieve or do them. It has always seemed strange to me why we set New Year's resolutions? What's the point in setting out to do something without then monitoring your progress?! People rarely ever check to see how they are getting on when they set a New Year's resolution.

Every New Year's Eve one of the topics of conversation will be New Year's resolutions. "What are you going to do this year?" "What's your New Year's resolution going to be this year?" I've been to many New Year's Eve parties where friends have told me what they are going to do in the coming year. Not one of them followed through.

That's because a New Year's resolution is not a big enough dream or passion. It's more of a passing want, something they'd like to do or achieve but there is usually a lack of belief behind it. Without absolute clarity and belief a New Year's resolution is always going to be hard to achieve.

I think it's always much better to set goals. But goal setting has never been that popular in the UK. Goal setting is perceived to be a very American thing. Now I don't think that's an issue but there are lots of Brits who think the Americans are a little on the loud side and over the top. I don't. I love Americans and I love their passion and drive. Which is why I do like goal setting. But with books like "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne and "The Success Principles"ec by Jack Canfield people are beginning to wake up to the power of goal setting.

As many of you know I've got a massive goal for 2011. I'm getting a body like Brad Pitt's by August 2011. http://bradsbody.com tells the full story.

So don't bother with a New Year's resolution this year! Think about some of those dreams and goals you've always wanted to achieve. Instead of a New Year's resolution, this year set a goal to achieve what you've always wanted.

To help you achieve your dreams and goals I recommend Billy Cox's brilliant book "The Dream Book". You can get your free copy here: http://www.dreamit.tv

Happy New Year and I hope you achieve everything you want in 2011. Please add your comments below and share what your goals and dreams are for 2011.

My Christmas Present!

2010-12-26T12:25:00.000Z

Merry Christmas everyone.

I just wanted to share this video I took on Christmas Day just after I opened my present for my gorgeous wife and fantastic father-in-law.

I hope you got some amazing presents too and that you have enjoyed the Festive holidays with your loved ones.

Right I'm off to play with my new toy!!

My Massive Goal and Dream for 2011

2010-12-20T16:10:00.001Z

I suddenly realised that I hadn't shared with you the story of my latest crazy dream.

By August 2011 I will have a body like Brad Pitt's! This has been a dream of mine for many years and in 2 months time I'll be 45 years old. The dream of that body with a flat stomach and rippling muscles has felt like it's been slipping away from me in recent years.

But not now! Thanks to Stuart Edmonstone my dream is suddenly massive, clear, in bright vibrant colour and feels very up close and personal!! Together Stuart and I have set off on this new journey and we are both extremely excited and committed.

We also realised that taking on this challenge would require hard work and determination and we'd need help and support along the way. We decided one of the best ways of not giving up on this dream was to tell the world. And we've been doing it for the last month or so. We've told everyone we meet. There are so many people who now know, that they are a constant reminder and help each time we think about eating a mince pie or slice of cake!!Christmas is a tough, tough time to be doing this but it will be so worthwhile in the long run.

To further commit ourselves to this dream we have created a website dedicated to our story getting a body like Brad Pitt's and we hope thousands of others will join us on their very own journeys. We have also created a hash tag on Twitter where you can follow us and our members - #bradsbody

We blog regularly on the Bradsbody.com website so do visit often to check our progress.

We also need your help.
We want to reach out to Brad Pitt and let him know about our challenge and hope that he will agree to meet Stuart and I in the Autumn of 2011. We want to pose in a photo with Brad Pitt on a beach so we can prove to everyone that we did it!! We've got 8 months to use social media and the world wide web to reach out to Brad Pitt. At this stage we have no idea what he will think, but we truly hope he will appreciate what an inspiration he is being to us and all our members.

So please help us spread the word.

You can read the full story at BradsBody.com

Networking for Business - In Summary

2010-12-03T10:20:00.011Z

So that's it - my experience, advice and guidance on networking for business.

It’s your approach and attitude which are so important and remember that no one’s here to buy anything. Get your story clear so you can tell everyone about it and just be yourself. People buy people so take time to get to know the people at each meeting and over time you’ll make some great, new friends and find suppliers.

The other thing you’ll get from networking is improved motivation and confidence and please, please, please, remember to follow up!

Business Networking Groups

For anyone who's interesting in trying networking for the first time here is a list of some networking organisations in the UK:

In case you missed any of the other articles in the series just click the relevant link below:

Networking for Busines - Introduction
Networking for Busines - Part 1
Networking for Busines - Part 2
Networking for Busines - Part 3
Networking for Busines - Part 4
Networking for Busines - Part 5
Networking for Busines - Part 6
Networking for Busines - Part 7

I hope you enjoyed this series! I'll be doing a few more blog series in 2011. If there is a particular area of business where you need help and advice, please add your comments below and I might create a series especially for you!

Business Cards - what do you do with them?

2010-12-02T10:20:00.004Z

Jeffrey Gitomer is a huge advocate of Networking to help grow your business. I've been networking for a while now and the one thing I've noticed is the number of business cards I collect. I don't mean I'm a collector of business cards! I mean each time I meet someone at the various networking events I attend; I am given their business card.

I now have hundreds of the things! Here is a picture of my desk a few months ago before I came up with my system.

What do you do with all the business cards you've collected over time?

You need a system
I'm pleased to say I've now got a system. Michael E. Gerber would be very proud of me! As soon as I get back to my office from a meeting I take out the business cards from my jacket pocket and place them on my desk in front of my keyboard. I then open my Sharepoint contact list and add all the details from each one into the relevant contact list.This synchs with my Outlook contacts which in turn syncs with my iPhone so I only have to add the information once and I have the details where I need them.

In the case of those people who have asked for more information and help with domain names I ask them for permission to add them to my mailing list and all those I also add into MailChimp.*

Now you don't need to use an Intranet Sharepoint system from TWG Systems like I do. You might use a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool such as ACT! or Salesforce or HighRise. But even starting out with a simple Excel spreadsheet is better that nothing at all.

Easy to stay & get in touch
You need a contact database so you can keep in touch with your contacts. So you can keep those people who have asked, in touch with your products and services and news. So you can keep in touch with those contacts who might become suppliers of yours. Imagine if one afternoon you need to get in touch with one of those contacts who's card is amoungst the hundreds spread over your desk, or in your drawer. How will you find their contact details? If you've entered them in a database one quick search and you've got all the relevant details to hand.

So start adding your contact's details into a system today.

*MailChimp is an amazing Email Marketing tool and it's free for up to 1,000 contacts! It is brilliant for small business owners. I will be writing a seperate blog post on MailChimp in the next couple of weeks.

Networking for Business - Part 7

2010-12-01T10:20:00.032Z

Follow Up

It staggers me how many people in Networking don't follow up effectively!

Don’t forget to Follow Up! It’s amazing how many people say they will do something, call you or send you an email and never do! So do make sure you follow up with any of the people you’ve met and agreed to do something for. This follow up should ideally be the same day, so later on that afternoon or at the latest the next day. Any longer than this and you’ll probably end up forgetting and if you do remember the perception won’t be as good as it could have been.

It’s so easy to use the “I’ve been so busy!” excuse and yes we’ve all used it haven’t we?! “I’m so sorry I didn’t get straight back to you; I’ve been flat out”. But this is great! I love it when people don’t follow up; especially my competitors, because if you actually do follow up in good time, you’ll be head and shoulders above the rest. Most people don’t follow up effectively so this gives you a big jump ahead of them.

Keep Following Up

Also make sure you keep following up. If someone was interested in your products or services then keep following up. Keep calling them and keep sending them emails and of course if you are both part of the same business network give them a gentle reminder next time you see them.

Email Marketing
If you are not using email marketing in your business you should be. Email Marketing is now really simple to implement and can be really cost effective. I highly recommend MailChimp. MailChimp is a very easy to use email marketing system, accessed via a web browser. It is brilliant for following up any leads. You can send up to 5,000 emails a month and you can have up to 1,000 contacts in your account and all for FREE!
People can subscribed to your email campaign and you can add their details, with their permission. Then you simply send out your email campaign to let them know about your latest deals and offers.

Social Media

Another effective way to follow up is via the various social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, FaceBook and online forums. The 4Networking forum is a brilliant, free resource for businesses and it's a great way to follow up after a business breakfast.
LinkedIn is an excellent platform for connecting with business professional and it's quite typical to get a few LinkedIn requests a fter a business network breakfast or lunch.
Twitter is brilliant for connecting with your fellow networkers and for keeping in touch with each other and arranging follow up meetings.
So make sure you embrace the different social media websites and use them as part of your follow up mix.

The Telephone

As old fashioned as it seems to becoming; don't forget to use the telephone! It is still without doubt THE best follow up tool in your following up tool box. Too many people rely on email to the job for them. I always like to follow up via email, social media AND the telephone.

So don't be one of the masses; make sure you follow up and do what you said you would do and then keep following up!

Networking for Business - Part 6

2010-11-29T10:20:00.030Z

Motivation & Confidence

One of the huge benefits of networking is the extra motivation and confidence you get.

Those people who know me, know that I don’t lack motivation. I’m quite an extrovert, I love life, I jump out of bed every morning with a smile on my face. One of my favourite sayings is "Life's too short not to live it up a little!"

Helps you Grow as a Person

But networking has given me even more motivation and it can for you too. Because I work from home a lot of the time, it was fantastic for me to be able to get out of the home office and actually start networking with people and again many who know me found it hard to believe that I was really scared of speaking in public. Having to do the 40 seconds or 1 minute rounds when I had to stand up and introduce myself and my business was terrifying at first. But having done so on a regular basis over the last year and a half I actually look forward to it and I now give regular talks to different groups and within 4Networking I am doing 4Sights all over the South West of England.

Help & Support

So the motivation and confidence I’ve got from networking has been great and part of that comes from all the help and support you get from the other members. Many of the people who come to these networking meetings have a lifetime of experience in business and so it’s a great place to come and get help and advice and to share and to learn from other business owners who have been in your situation. It’s also a great place to get support at times of trouble. I was feeling very down recently and I was amazed at how many new friends from networking called me up and made me feel so much better. I've also been for coffee with a couple of people who approached me asking for help on their business. I'm no expert, but they wanted someone to talk things through with and I was so pleased to be able to help.

If you've got a business issue or problem which you need help with, think about those who you know in your network and go to them. Ask them if they'll spare you some time. You'll be amazed at how happy most people will be to help. The "Can you help?" section on the 4Networking forum is a brilliant place to go to get help, advice and guidance. It's also a great place for you to offer your help to others who need it.

Testimonials

The other area where you can get renewed motivation is from doing a good job for a customer and getting a wonderful testimonial. This always sets me up for a great week. Remember this and please do give testimonials to anyone you do business with within your business network. It will absolutely make their week!

LinkedIn

Many of your contacts will be on LinkedIn so do ask any of them who you've done work for to give you a testimonial on LinkedIn. Once you've got some good ones, add them to your website too.

My next blog post will discuss one of THE most important aspects of networking - Follow Up!

Related Posts:
How to Use LinkedIn Effectively for Your Business

Networking for Business - Part 5

2010-11-26T10:20:00.003Z

Suppliers

Again I didn't envisage that there would be suppliers I'd use in the room when I started networking. After all, why would there be? I wasn't there to buy! I was there to market my business and products and services!

But I quickly realised that there were potential suppliers for my business in the room. For example I’m now using a call answering service called answer.co.uk . I’d never thought about a call answer service before. I’ve been in business for 28 years and you’d think I should know better but we were missing calls. So on the recommendation from Mr Kim Hambley and the lovely Katie Millman I tried the service. Now our calls are taken by a professional call answering team and our customers have been very impressed. So think about your own business. If you're a one-man or one-woman band who answers your call when you aren't able to? It sounds far more professional to have your calls answered in your company name. It can also make your business seem bigger than it really is and gives your customers and potential new customers a good first impression.

I got my business cards printed by a guy I met through networking. The coffee mug I take with me and I take to most meetings was supplied by a fellow networker. And all of this was a surprise to me. I went along looking to sell my business and services and tell people about what I did but I suddenly realised there were potential suppliers in the room. I used to get all my stationary from a stationary retail outlet in an industrial estate near my office – I don’t anymore. I use KN Office supplies because I like Nick Elston, their sales guy who I met through networking, and their service is excellent. All my websites are done and looked after by Jamie Forster the owner of www.motley.co.uk. When I meet anyone who needs help with their website design I always recommend Jamie - he's absolutely brilliant. I've now got my own "Cloud"! An intranet system supplied by Andrew Twigg from TWG Systems. It's great, I can connect anytime, from anywhere and have access to my important documents, contacts and so much more.

So I’ve been giving business to others and I will continue to do so. So think about suppliers which you might need. Do you need business cards, do you need help in your business, do you need graphic design, do you need web site design, do you need stationary, what do you need? Also think about others who you know who might need the products or services of the businesses of those people in the room. It's always a great feeling to refer business to your fellow networkers. So just be aware of this during the 40 seconds / 1 minute section and listen out for any potential suppliers that might be in the room.

My next post is all about the motivation and confidence you can get from business networking.

Networking for Business - Part 4

2010-11-24T10:20:00.001Z

Friends

This was a huge bonus for me. I didn't see the whole friend factor at all. I came along like most people do at the start and I came along to sell; to market my business and products and services.

Business still happens

But that’s not what happens. Yes, of course it does happen. I’ve done a lot of business through networking. We do Twitter for Business workshops and Blogging workshops all under the umbrella of our brand www.learnsocialmedia.co.uk and we haven’t done any advertising. It’s all been promoted via email marketing and networking. The last event we ran last a couple of weeks ago was a sell out and all as a direct result of networking. I've had 43 new customers as direct result of networking and I now look after all their domain name requirements via www.freeparking.co.uk. One of those is a business coach and they have transferred in 5 domain names but they have also bought 11 new domain names for their business.

Know - Like - Friends!

So networking can be incredibly powerful for your business. But it’s the whole friendship thing which I hadn’t imagined and because you are seeing the same people each time its natural that over time, you will get to know them and like them. And that's when the business starts to happen. As I say, I've had quite a few customers transfer their domain names over to us from our compettiors and all because they know they have a hot line into me! A face they know; like and trust. Much more preferable than doing busines with a faceless organisation where they don't know anyone personally.

Coffee Mornings!

I love the 21^st century! I now do coffee mornings!!

Normally the domain of women, us men – well me anyway! – are now doing coffee mornings too! I meet people regularly for coffee and this has really helped cement friendships and of course, over time business happens too.

So don’t just think of networking as a business tool. There will be new friends of yours in the room at the next meeting you attend! And that was a great added bonus for me.

In my next blog post we talk about another unseen gem - suppliers.

How To Get More Done - Concentrate!

2010-11-23T10:25:00.000Z

I was driving back to the office the other day and noticed a general trend in people's driving habits which got me thinking about business.

I was driving along a dual carriageway approaching a set of traffic lights. Both lanes went straight on. The traffic in the left hand lane was backed up with about 12 cars sat in a line but the right hand lane was empty. So I moved into the right hand lane and instead of having to queue up behind the others, when the lights went green, I sailed on effortlessly.

This got me thinking, why do so many drivers just "happily" sit in queues instead of going in the other lane and making effortless progess. I thought at first that perhaps it was a British thing. We're well known as a nation who "like" to queue for everything!

But as I continued my journey I noticed other drivers dithering and not making progress; being slow to react to traffic lights changing and sitting behind slow vehicles like lorries and buses. Now please don't get me wrong; this isn't about speed or getting from A to B in record time. But it's about people being focused on the job in hand and doing it well. I realised that many of the drivers I journeyed with that morning were not at all focused on the job in hand. They weren't concentrating on driving. They were oblivious to the traffic. They seemed to be in their own little worlds.

And I think this is something we all do from time to time when we're driving. Overtime, driving becomes second nature. (If you're a learner driver, then I do feel your pain! I promise you it does get easier wth practice!) So we don't concentrate on driving as much as we should. Instead we sit in traffic thinking about our lives; the work we have to do; the problems we're currently having; dreaming about that special person we just met etc..

Get in the game!
Which is why we end up sitting behind the slow vehicles and sitting in a long line of other cars. It's not that we really like queuing! I just think we're "not in the game", as Billy Cox would say. We need to get in the game! We need to really focus on the job in hand. We need to concentrate! Can you imagine what better drivers we would be if we concentrated. If we lived and breathed everything about the car, the noise of the engine, all our surroundings, the traffic lights, the speed, the steering wheel, changing gear at the right time and if we remembered our Highway Code. "Mirror, signal, manoeuvre". How many times have you seen someone start to pull out into your lane before they have indicated? It happens all the time.

Start focusing
It's the same in business. We are not concentrating. We are getting distracted. We don't focus intently on each task as we set about them. We let other things get in the way and disturb us. It's understandable really. With so many applications open at one time on a PC or Mac how can expect not to be disturbed?! An email drops into your in box; a new tweet arrives in Tweetdeck; a phone call.

Wouldn't it be much better if we set out with the right intention? Close all the applications on your computer and just leave open the one you are using for that 20 - 30 minutes. If you are working on your next email marketing campaign and you're writing the content for one of the follow up emails. I would write it in Word first. Close all the other programs down and just leave Word open. Close all your browsers, close Outlook or whichever email client you use. Switch off your mobile phone and divert your phone. And then just focus - concentrate - on the task at hand.

You'll be amazed at how much more effective you will be. You might even stop sitting in traffic and start to pick the empty lanes at traffic lights! Please try it and let me know how you get on.

Networking for Business - Part 3

2010-11-22T10:20:00.004Z

People Buy People

And over time as you get to know other people in the network business begins to happen because people buy people. It's the whole Know - Like - Trust.

The same people
One of the great things about networking is you get to know lots of people and it’s only over a period of time that you get to know each other. So you go along to these regular lunchtime meetings and the same people appear – now a lot of people moan and say oh it’s going to be all the same faces – but I think that’s BRILLIANT! I want to see the same faces because it’s only over the 3^rd or 4^th cup of coffee with someone that you actually start to strike a bond and start to create some rapport. You suddenly find that we’re both into motor racing, or we’re both into fishing or wow we both like knitting! Well, perhaps not knitting but you get my point!

Acquaintances
So it’s really important that you make those acquaintances over a regular period of time. If there’s 30 people at the event you won't get to meet them all properly. You'll get to chat with a few but there's never enough time to meet everyone. So you'll want to go again and meet the others next time and get to know their businesses because you won't have spoken yet and chances are you won't fully know what they do.

Speaker Slot
I highly recommend putting yourself forward for one of the speaking slots. All networks usually offer a 10 minute section where one of the members can present to the group – everybody gets to know slightly better and that’s why I’d urge you to put yourself forward for the members’ section. Absolutely vital because then everybody in the room gets to know you and your business a little bit better. Not only do you get to tell your story in the 40 seconds or 1 minute round but you get an extra 10 minutes when people can listen to you and get more of a feel for what you’re like as a person. That would be good wouldn’t it?

People buy people so you’ve got to get to know each other. And there will be some people in the room that you won’t particularly get on with and that’s fine. But there will be some people that you really warm to and not only will you really warm to them, they’ll actually become friends.

And it's the whole freind factor I'm going to discuss in my next blog.

Networking for Business - Part 2

2010-11-19T12:13:00.004Z

What's Your Story?

Last time I suggested that you should change your approach to networking and instead of going along to sell your products or your services you should go along to share your story.

Is Your Story Clear?

And in order to share your story you need to know what your story is. So what is your story? Have you got your story clear? Most networking events give you between 40 seconds and 1 minute to stand up and tell people about you and your business. But in the past have you got your story clear? Was there something you meant to say but forget in the nervousness of it all! Of course some of us get nervous during the 40seconds / 1 minute round. It’s nerve racking standing up in front of other people.

Practice Your Story

Which is why you need to make sure you have your story completely clear and you must practice it prior to the meeting. If you practice it then when it comes to your turn, you can absolutely nail it, so that you let people know exactly what you do, so that they understand what it is you do what; what special offer you’re running; what event you’ve got coming up, when and where and what sort of referrals you’re looking for.

Make it Memorable

So make sure you spend some time getting your story right and try to make it memorable and exciting so that people want to know more about it. There's a guy called Jay Blake from Ichthus Video who does a brilliant 40 seconds. He holds up a tiny funnel and explains that this is what most small businesses are using as their sales funnel and then produces a huge blue funnel and asks if you want to know how to get a huge sales funnel full of leads have a chat with him. Jay runs a video business and helps companies film and add video content to their websites to help them generate a huge improvement in interest and therefore leads. The fact I'm writing about Jay here shows that it was memorable!

If people understand what it is that you do and what sort of customers you’re looking for, then if they know people who need the services or products which you sell, they will think of you rather than anyone else. And of course as you get to know each other more business starts to happen because people buy people.

My next blog post is all about how people have to get to know each other before the magic of business can happen.

Networking for Business - Part 1

2010-11-17T13:02:00.004Z

Your Attitude & Your Approach

Your attitude and your approach both set you up for success in networking. Just think about it for a second. Why do you go networking? The reason we all go networking is to promote and market our business, our products and our services to other business people in our local area.

But nobody is there to buy anything. Let me repeat that – nobody is there to buy anything. You don’t go networking to buy anything do you? No! We all network for the same reasons – those same reasons all wrap up into one main reason – We all go networking to market our businesses, to let other people know about our business, to let people know about our products and services in the hope that they might buy from us. But nobody goes networking to buy from us! We’re there to let other people know about our businesses.

So approach networking with the right attitude and go along to listen and to find out about other people’s business. If people are only there to tell you about their business, their products and services; then go along and in a completely counter-intuitive way turn up to listen and find out more about the other people in the room. Don’t be the kind of person who comes along and just tells people all about what they do and how wonderful their business is. Don’t be one of those people who just hands out business cards to everyone. People aren’t interested! Stop selling because nobody's buying!

Listen to what other people do and think about how you might be able to help them; who you might be able to put them in touch with. And by being that kind of person, I promise you, you’ll be staggered at the serendipitous things that can happen.

That’s my word of the year by the way – Serendipity! I’ve had so many serendipitous moments on the back of networking – it’s been incredible.

So approach networking with the right attitude and don’t go along to sell anything. In my next blog post I'll be explaining about how and why you should share your story.

Beware when Christmas shopping Online!

2010-11-16T10:45:00.003Z

My wife was recently shopping online for Ugg Boots and got very excited when she found the following website.

If you click the image to see the full size you'll see that it's a website called www.uggboots-xmas-sale.com and at first glance it does look like the real thing.

My wife called me in to have a look at how good their prices were and I too was amazed. But the old cliche; "if it looks too good to be true, it is too good to be true" got me wondering.

Using my Internet detective skills I did a WHOIS look up on the domain name. A WHOIS Look up is just a search which is generated at the central domain name Registry database and is available to the general public. It shows information like when a domain name was registered, when it's due to expire and who the Registrant (Legal owner) of the domain name is.

A quick look at the WHOIS record confirmed immediately that this was indeed too good to be true. It is registered to someone in China and is yet another of those Phishing type website where they are passing themselves off as the real Ugg Boots company.

There have been a lot of these sort of websites set up in China. Nominet, the .uk central Registry closed down just over 1,200 such websites last year working in conjunction with Scotland Yard's eCrime unit. Read the news article here:

Over a thousand scam websites targeting Christmas shoppers shut down after online raid by Scotland Yard's e-crime unit.

Much to my wife's relief she hadn't processed an order and we saved ourselves all the aggro that would have ensued in trying to chase our order. Now, perhaps we might have actually received the UGG Boots but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that the boots wouldn't have been the real deal!

If you find a website like this one and you think the prices look really cheap; think twice. Do a WHOIS look up to see if the website is owned by the legitimate company and if in doubt DON'T buy from the website.

To do a WHOIS Look Up just go to the Domain Tools website and enter the domain name of the website without the "www" and click the "lookup" button. See the image below for an example:

By all means drop me an email and I''l be pleased to do some Internet detective work for you. So please take care when shopping for your Christmas pressies online this year.

Networking for Business - Introduction

2010-11-15T10:24:00.006Z

Over the next few weeks I'm going to share with you my experience of Business Networking and I hope this will help you become more effective with your Business Networking activity. I love people and helping people and I've been networking really effectively throughout 2010.

Now please don’t get me wrong – I am NOT an expert – I don’t profess to be an expert on Networking, but I’ve been doing it very effectively for the last year and a half and it has transformed my business; I’ve made an awful lot of friends, I’ve grown as a person and it’s been absolutely brilliant for me and my business.

I am a member of a nationwide business network called 4Networking and there are over 260 linked groups in the UK. So while my posts might be slightly more skewed around the way 4Networking is structured, I do believe and hope that my posts will be of help, benefit and interest to all people who go business networking.

In fact I was pleased to see one of my mentors; Jeffrey Gitomer writing about Networking in his brilliant book - The Little Red Book of Selling. In Principle 5 of the book it's titled "It's Not Work - It's Net work" and Jeffrey makes 3 key points:

1. Get face to face first
Meeting someone on the phone is not the best way to start any relationship... when you meet someone face to face you can see them and hear them at the same time. This is 100 times more insightful.

2. Networking eliminates cold calling
Jeffrey considers cold calling to be a waste of time because when you cold call you are interrupting someone by trying to barge in and sell them something.

If you meet them first and they like you, you have a much better chance of doing business with them.

Imagine cold calling someone and then meeting them at a networking event. What would you say to them? "Hey remember me? I'm the guy who cold called you and you hung up om me!"

3. Networking leads to Referrals
By helping other people first you'll find that other people will help you. Not every person you meet whilst networking is a direct prospect but they may well know someone who is.

In this Blog series I'm going to share with you some ideas and some tips and some advice on how I’ve used Networking and I hope that this advice and tips and ideas will help you with your approach to networking.

In my next blog post I'll explain why your approach to networking is of the most importance.

My next 9 Blog Posts

2010-11-12T18:20:00.000Z

As my subscribers slowly increase I thought it might be useful and interesting for you all to know what's coming up in the next few weeks on my blog.

I've decided to post a Blog Series on Networking for Business. It's going to run over a 3 week period from next week taking us into the 2nd week of December. There will be 9 posts in the series and I hope that you'll find it interesting and of use. The posts will go out 3 times a week on Monday, Wednesday & Friday.

Networking is a huge gold mine for people and business and there are lots of hidden benefits which people don't always realise they'll get from going networking on a regular basis.

If you currently go networking I hope my blog series will give you some new ideas and if you don't go to a regular network I would strongly encourage you to try. And I hope my Blog Series will be of use and inspire you to try it.

The first one in the series will be posted on Monday 15th November at 10:20am GMT.

10 Brilliant Business Books I've Read This Year

2010-11-09T16:54:00.000Z

I've always been an avid reader of business books and this year I've discovered quite a few gems which I thought I'd share with you.

Brad Sugars suggests that we should all be learning each and every day. I went to see Brad give a talk in the UK recently and he said "the more you learn; the more you earn." He also stated towards the end of his talk that "if we can out learn him, that will be the day we can out earn him!" There will be a few of Brad Sugars business books on my reading list for next year!

One of the best ways to learn business related advice and guidance and ideas is from buisness books written by business people who have been there, seen it, and done it!

In no particular order, listed below are ten of my favourite ones which I've read this year. I'm not doing a full review of each one but I've included a few words to summarise my thoughts.

Crush It - Gary Vaynerchuk

I absolutely LOVE this book. Gary Vee explains how every single employee who is not happy should just leave and get on with following their passion in life. He says that if we follow our passion and build a business based on our passion then we can quite quickly monetise it.

Read Crush It and cash in on your passion.

Trust Agents - Chris Brogan & Julien Smith

This book is awesome and very special to me. I went to Like Minds in Exeter in Feb 2010 and met Chris Brogan and he signed my copy of Trust Agents! He really is a very special guy and the stuff he and Julien have written in Trust Agents is brillaint and they show you how to use your influenece in the digital world in a way that remains honest, effective and profitable.

Simon Bunker has written a god review on his website http://bloggingbookworm.com/review-trust-agents/ and you'll see my comment where you can see a photo of Chris signing my book at Like Minds!

SuperTrends of Future China - James K. Yuann & Jason Inch

This is the book I'm actually still reading right now. It is excellent. China without doubt are going to be a massive world leader and some of the business opportunities suggested in this book are absolutlely ready to jump on board right now.

The mobile phone market is going to be huge and the Internet is already helping China to be the world's largest online users with over 200 million online. Yet, this only equates to 17% penetration! Unreal!

The Go Giver - Bob Burg & John David Mann

This is one of my favourite book of 2010 because I love and totally buy in to the Go Giver concept. There are too many people in business who are all about Me, Me Me and take, take, take.
It's the most amazing story of how the main character, Joe learns the 5 Laws of Stratospheric Success. The Go Giver was an absolutely serendipitous read for me as it reinforced so many of my own beliefs. Read my review here.
And how cool that Bob Burg took the time out to comment too! He and I are now connected via Twitter which just blows me away!

Awaken the Entrepreneur Within - Michael E. Gerber

I have to just state here that I am a massive fan of Michael Gerber. He is truly a genius, a brilliant story teller and a mesmerising speaker. This book is all about Michael's Dreaming Room. A fantastic concept of going into the dreaming room to find your inner entrpreneur and to create the perfect business that fills your passion and a gap in the market.
Michael writes in such an easy to read style; it really flows and I couldn't put it down.

Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill

This book was written in the late 1920s and is just as relevant today and seems quite timely with us coming out of our recent major recession. It was written at the end of the great depression so there are many parallels.
The 13 steps to riches are incredible and I still find it staggering that Napoleon Hill came up with this stuff of brilliance all those years ago.
Get yourself a copy and read it again and again.

The Luck Factor - Dr Richard Wiseman

This is a great book which explains that there really is no such thing as luck. We all make our own luck. It's a sort of scientific research piece based on interviewing loads of lucky and unlucky people to discover the difference. There are some great stories used as examples.
The good news is the unlucky people in life can improve their luck using 4 scientific principles of luck and these can significantly change your life.

Get off Your Arse - Brad Burton

This is not your stereotypical business book but don't pre-judge it. GOYA is incredible and it's packed full of brillaint tips, advice and guidance for small businesses.
Brad Burton is the founder of 4Networking; the UK's fastest growing business network with over 250 joined up groups across the UK.
Brad's style is easy to read and doesn't pull any punches. It's refreshing to have a business book which tells it to you straight.

Know Me, Like Me, Follow Me - Penny Power with Thomas Power

I've been an advocate of Penny and Thomas Power for many years and I was so thrilled when Penny released this book. It is packed with a wealth of her's and Thomas' business experience gained from founding and running the world's first social network - Ecademy.
The book explains some of the different platforms but more importantly it goes into the how and the why it's so important to connect and get to know people and have conversations.
Penny is passionate about Social Media and calls it the Individual Revolution.

The Little Red Book of Selling - Jeffrey Gitomer

This is a beautifully produced book and one you feel like you want to take care of. It's a cloth bound hardback with lovely shiny pages and it's crammed packed full of sales wisdom.
The chapters are short and punchy with loads of great side notes and some brilliant quotes.
Each chapter is based on a principle and in each one there is a link back to Jeffrey's website where you can get all sorts of extra, valuable freebies.
All of us our sales people in one shape or another - this great book is like a sales person's bible. Grab your copy and take it with you everywhere!

I hope you too enjoy these as much as I have and I one quick declaration - the links to each book uses my Amazon affiliate code. I hope you don't mind. If you buy just a couple of them I'll get about 3p so thanks for assisting me in amassing my daughter's inheritance!

Please do comment and let me know what you thought of any of these books. Also, please do share any other business books you like that you recommend.

Taking Quality Time out to Think

2010-10-31T17:04:00.000Z

I love to take time out most days to have some quiet, quality time to gather my thoughts and get my head clear. The day to day noise of business can often be difficult to cut through when trying to resolve an issue or get your head clear for quality thinking and new ideas to form.

I shot this video on holiday last week to share with you how I like to take time out to gather my thoughts:

I also take our Jack Russell puppy out for walks at lunch time or late afternoon and on these walks I usually take my iPhone and headset with me so I can listen to motivational audios or talks I'm putting together. Today, I went on one such walk and listened through the talk I'm doing next week in Bristol. I record my talk onto audio using the Voice Memo app on my iPhone and then I can listen to it anywhere I'm on the go; even in the car.

The photo on the left was taken on my walk today and I love this tree. We're lucky to live on the edge of some wonderful countryside.

So take some time out this week and spend it quietly, gathering your thoughts and leave all the clutter behind. Just zone out and let your mind clear and you'll be amazed at how you can then allow new thoughts and ideas to flow in. It's also a very effective way of getting your mind straight when you have an issue you're trying to resolve.

Please let me know how you get on.

5 Things You Didn't Know About Me!

2010-10-19T18:09:00.000+01:00

I try to keep my blog based around my business and business topics which I feel you will be interested in. But I'm mindful that sometimes it's nice to get to know the person behind the blog.

I know you can do so by going to my website and reading the About Me page and following some of my random Tweets on Twitter but today I thought it might be fun to share 5 things you definitely wouldn't know about me!

1. I was on TV as a contestant on Blind Date in 1988 and Catchphrase in 1981!

Saturday night in the 80s involved wathcing Baywatch, Catchphrase and Blind Date and then heading out to the pub for the night. No - I've not appeared in Baywatch. But 2 out of 3 ain't bad! Blind Date was great fun and really interesting seeing behind the scenes of the ITV studios. I failed dismally, wasn't chosen and I thought I seemed quite arrogant - something which horrified me. So I had to make amends and was over the moon to go on Carchphrase with Roy Walker and I won and went through the "M" square and won a wonderful holiday to Hong Kong and Bali. Both Cilla Black and Roy Walker were lovely people and made all of us feel so welcome. I'm sure one of the satellite channels repeats them from time to time - if only I got paid royalties! Idid have a video of both shows but am quite pleased it was lost years ago!

2. I'm a PADI Divemaster and absolutely love scuba diving!

I learnt to dive in 1993 with The London Scuba Diving School which was set up by Ian Pattison and he become one of my best friends. The diving club he set up was really sociable and we went on some great diving trips around the UK and on some of the best holidays in The Red Sea in Egypt. The photo on the left was of me with Ian Pattison and the captain and our divemaster with a huge Tuna which we caught on one of the dives. It was really tasty that night with rice and veg! I have so many wonderful memories from those days. The PADI system is great and it makes it very natural to work your way up through the levels. I stopped at Divemaster because I never wanted to be an Instructor. If you ever want to talk diving adventures get in touch and if you don't yet scuba dive and would like to, then get in touch with The London Scuba Diving School - they are fantastic.

3. I can count to 10 in Cantonese!

In 1975 my Dad got a job in Hong Kong and at the impressionable age of 9 I jetted off to the Far East with my Dad, Mum and my sister. We lived there for two years on the 25th floor in a nice, three bedroom apartment called Baguio Villas. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet I found this photo which is almost the exact view from our apartment!
The swimming pool was the one I learnt to swim in and my sister and I used to cycle round these roads all the time. Happy days. Because it was so humid school would end at 2pm and so every afternoon I came home and would spend hours in the pool.
There was a small shanti village down below our block, on the beach and we used to go down there and meet the local Chinese children. They always had a huge stock of fire crackers and they would give us a few and we would all swap swear words! The swear words I know in Cantonese are not repeatable. The Chinese are professionals when it comes to their swear words!!

So here is one to ten in Cantonese:

Yat
Yee
Saam
Say
Ummm
Lock
Chat
Bat
Gow
Sup

My daughter will be learning Mandarin at her school and I've decided to learn Mandarin too. With China set to become the world's leading power I figure it makes sense to have a grasp of their language even if it's just basic. If you too would like to learn, I highly recommend Yangyang. Her DVD - "Learn Chinese with Yangyang" is very good.

4. I met Tom Cruise and did a rendition of "Top Gun" with him!

My friends own Daytona Motorsport and in 1996 they invited me and my wife to pop in to meet Tom Cruise. He'd been filming Mission Impossible and he loved to wind down at the end of a film shoot by racing round a kart track. Daytona used to have a circuit in Wood Lane, West London opposite the BBC TV Centre. I'd had a late night race booked and my friend had asked if he could change the date as he needed the track. But he only gave me 24 hours notice! Which is why he was kind enough to invite us along. I'll never forget seeing Tom Cruise sauntering over to us and me being introduced as the guy who had been booked and he thanked me for letting him race.
Me being me - those of you who know me well know I'm no shrinking violet - just looked him straight in the eyes and said "You asshole; you're lucky to be here. You just did a fly by past my control tower at over 200 knots. I want some butts!"
The guys from Daytona froze and thankfully Tom cracked up laughing. He and I then went through a rendition of the Top Gun dog fight scene: "Voodoo one, Voodoo One! Woods been hit, Woods been hit!" Can you imagine! Me doing "Voodoo one, this bogey's all over me" with Tom Cruise! It was awesome.
And then my wife grabbed Tom and gave him a big kiss. And whilst they were having a photo taken, arms round each other, I jabbed Tom in the chest and said "Hey, has my wife got F*** Me written on her forehead?" and Tom lost it laughing and we had the best night. He told us loads of stories about Top Gun and Cocktail and he was just the nicest guy.

5. One night I woke up in Prison!

I was 21 and a stockbroker in London and was like many young people working in the City. I used to go out most nights and we sure knew how to party. This particular night an American friend who I'd made in Hong Kong was in London and he and I went out drinking. It was a Wednesday night and we met at a cocktail bar in Covent Garden called "Rumours". We decided to try to drink our way through the entire cocktail menu. I don't remember much past a Bloody Mary - I never was any good at drinking!
The next thing I remember was waking up in my mate's bedroom. It was very white. White floors, white tiled walls and there were no windows. Obviously very hungover it didn't register at first. I noticed my jeans were wet from the lower thigh down. I thought I'd peed myself but checked and hadn't. My head was agony and I had the worst hangover of my life!I then looked over to the door and that's when it hit me like a haed on car crash! There were 3 little bars across a small window in the door and no door handle - I was in prison!!
I sat bolt upright and tried to think. I could only remember being in Rumours and nothing else. I then began to panick. I was worried about having a criminal record. As a stockbroker, under the FSA rules you had to be a "fit and proper person". Anyone with a criminal record was out. I suddenly felt pain in my right wrist and looked down to see a very sore line around half my wrist which had been bleeding but was now caked dry. I knew it must have been a handcuff rub mark, which heightened my panicked state!
I jumped up and knocked on the door. Within seconds I heard "Mr Armour, we'll let you out in a moment."
A nice police man unlocked the door and escorted me to the front desk where I was reunited with a plastic bag of my possessions; watch, wallet, tube pass.
I quickly asked the officer, "What am I doing in here?"
The policeman laughed as did the desk sarjeant. "We found you in Hyde Park, in a puddle drinking Meths with 3 tramps!"
I was shocked and he went on to tell me that I was very keen to stay with them and seemed to be enjoying myself!
I then asked, "Have I got a criminal record?"
"No, not at all. We took you in for your own safety to sober up. You wouldn't tell us where you lived and you weren't too happy about us taken you in. Sorry about the handcuff marks; they should heal quite quickly."
I apologised profusely and very embarrassedly took myself home for a quick soak in the bath before work.
As I travelled to work I felt horrendous. I'd never had such a bad hangover in my life and thankfully I was in such a state when I got to the Stock Exchange my boss saw the state of me, thanked me for making the effort to turn up and sent me home for the day.
Needless to say I've given up drinking Meths and most of my friends now are NOT tramps! ;-)

So there you have it. 5 things you definitely wouldn't have known about me!

What's Your Story?

2010-10-12T17:30:00.000+01:00

Every business owner has a story; a story about why they started their business; what the key reasons were at the time and what drove them to make the decsion and to take the first step.

Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart had his story, Fred Smith, the founder of Federal Express had his story and Ray Kroc, the founder of MacDonalds had his story. In fact Ray Kroc would sit down with his future MacDoanlds Francishees and before they went on their training and before they got the keys to their new store, Ray Kroc would share his story with them.

Michael Gerber recently started his new business at the young age of 73 and he calls it "The Dreaming Room". His latest bestselling book, "Awakening the Entrepreneur Within" explains his latest story.The book is excellent and takes you on the whole journey of creating a new business from the initial idea right through to getting going. Part of this process is creating your story. It must be compelling and passionate so that people can buy into it. Especially important if you are going to be employing staff. Your new recruits need to know your story - you will need to tell it to them so they know your dream; your vision and they can join you on your journey.

It's often difficult for staff who don't know the owner's story. They do their job but it would be way more fulfiling if they knew the story of the business, the reason why the company is doing what it's doing. Can you imagine how much more exciting it would be if you knew your boss' dream and vision for the business? How many bosses have sat down and told each member of staff their story? Think about how your staff would feel if you took the time to actually sit down with them in the next week and told them your story and how important your business is and what you want to achieve in your business and how you need their help. You're on a journey together and you want their help and their committment. During these tough times you can explain why it might not be possible to give them a pay rise, but by spending some quality time with them, telling them your story, you'll be surprised at how much happier they will be and how much more effective they will be at their job.

If you run your own business then you need to have your story and be ready to tell it at every opportunity. Martin Luther King, Jr had a dream. He knew what his story was and in telling it to the world on 28th August 1963 he changed the course of history.

People buy people and if you have a passionate story then people will warm to you and will be more ready to help you. It will help you when you engage suppliers - they will understand your story and know what you're trying to achieve and be more likely to help you if they can. If they love your story and buy into your story they will be almost as enthusiastic about it as you and be pleased to partner with you.

What's My Story?
I call myself an Internet Evangelist! I love everything to do with the Internet. I'm passionate about helping business owners get back control and stay in control of their online business. So many people don't know where their website is hosted or if the domain name is even owned by them. See my Blog post from June - http://blog.dickiearmour.me.uk/2010/06/are-you-in-control-of-your-online.html . I spend every day helping people get back control of their domain names and it gives me a massive sense of satisfaction. The Internet is perceived to be quite complicated and people get really confiused about domain names, websites, and email and so I love to help our customers understand and I give them help and advice on how they can remain in control which helps them avoid many of the pitfalls.

So what's your story? What's the story of your business and why you started it? Take time out today to hone your story and then go and tell the world! If you have staff make a promise to meet with each of them within 1 week and sit them down and tell them your story and the vital part they play in it.

Personal Domain Names & Why you Should Own Yours

2010-10-05T16:46:00.000+01:00

It still surprises me the number of people I meet who do not own their personal domain name. I own:
dickiearmour.com
dickiearmour.co.uk
dickiearmour.me.uk
richardarmour.co.uk
and my wife and daughter have their personal domain names too.

A domain name is a finite source. There can only be one dickiearmour.co.uk and once it's been registered no one else can get it, as long as I renew it at the time of renewal, or I forget to renew it! You never know when you might want to use your own domain name and if you haven't protected it by registering it, then you could be disappointed when the time comes that you do want to use it and try to register it.

The obvious two main uses of a personal domain name are for:

Email
and/or
A website

When you get broadband you automatically get an email address from your broadband provider. So if I was with BT or Sky my email address might be dickie.armour@sky.com or dickiearmour134@btinternet.com. Now that's all well and good but what happens when I change broadband provider to say Orange? I lose my old email account and have to set up a new email address with Orange and then go through all the hassle of telling my friends and family, many of whom won't remember and will still continue to send emails to you at your old email address!

With your own personal domain name this doesn't happen. I'm with Tiscali - now TalkTalk - for my broadband and even though I do have a tiscali.co.uk email address I never use it. I don't need to. I use an email address on my personal domain name - dickie@dickiearmour.me.uk. So if and when I change broadband providers it makes no difference to me that TalkTalk will delete my old tiscail.co.uk email account because I don't use it. And, I won't have to bother telling my friends, family and business contacts because they all use my dickie@dickiearmour.me.uk email address already.

My wife rides dressage horses and has represented GB on numerous occasions; in March 2007 on The Spanish Sunshine Tour, August 2007 at Hickstead and May 2009, at the Royal Windsor Horse Show. She hasn't got a website but does have a personal domain name which she uses for email. But she is now considering getting a website designed and as a rider she wants to use her own name for the website because like most sports people they promote themselves using their brand - their own name. So she has no worries on that score because she's already got her own domain name!

Perhaps there will come a time when you want to set up a website on your own personal domain name. You might want to start blogging and use your own name for your blog or perhaps you are a business coach or a consultant or a trainer. It makes sense to use your own name as your business and therefore a personal domain name would be needed.

The other area where I'm a huge advocate of getting a personal domain name is for our children. I bought the .co.uk and .com in our daughter's name and I'm really pleased I did. She is already beginning to use it with friends at school and even had to send her maths teacher an email of some photos of shapes last week. He was so impressed she had her own email address!! I bought her domain names soon after she was born. I did a search of my daughter's name on Google recently and there is a Doctor in the Midlands with the same name. Now if she ever wants to regsiter her domain name she won't be able to use the .com or the .co.uk version because my daughter has got those!

In America there has been a trend of buying domain names for newborn babies since about 2007. See this article from the Fox News website - Parents Rush to Register Newborn Babies' Internet Domain Names and I'm surprised more people here in the UK don't do this. The children of today and tomorrow are going to be living and breathing the Internet and will no doubt have websites and blogs of their own. The other thing you can do with your own domain name is point it to your Facebook, Twitter or whichever social network page of your choice. With the younger generation embracing these social networks I think we'll see a lot more of this in the future.

So protect your's and your children's Internet identity today and get your personal domain names before someone else does.

Writing Copy for Email Campaigns - How I get in the Zone

2010-09-27T12:00:00.000+01:00

When I sit down to write an email or letter firstly I make sure I will have no distractions.

No Distractions

So I close all other applications on my PC so I just have Word open. I use Word for doing my draft emails too. I then just cut and paste them into an Outlook email when it’s ready. I make sure my mobile phone is off or at least on silent. I also unplug the phone socket in my office and tell reception that I will not be available for 20 minutes or however long I need. To really make sure I won’t be disturbed I very often go to a coffee shop with my laptop. As I mentioned in My Business Time Table I use an online countdown timer www.online-stopwatch.com to set chunks of time and at the end of that time a loud alarm rings alerting me to stop.

Then I start to think about what the reason is for the letter or email – what is my desired outcome? What is the objective I’m trying to achieve? For example if it’s to tell someone about my great products or services with a view to getting an appointment then I make it short sharp and snappy and I always make sure that I have a VERY OBVIOUS call to action. So they know what I would like them to do next.

Email Marketing Campaigns

If you're doing an email marketing campaign you will need to send out a number of different emails. It's important for you to spend some time deciding on the different emails and what your call to action is going to be in each one. For example; let's suppose you're a vocal coach and you want to work with music producers and vocal artists. Your two key target markets are obvious - vocal artists and music producers. Assuming you have a contact database you can now start to plan your email campaign to them.

You'll probably aim a seperate campaign at each target market, but some of the content will be relvant to both so you can re-use some of your content. For the Music Producers you could plan the following emails:

Initial introduction email - your service and what makes you special with a call to action of a FREE session with one of their vocalists to show what you can do.
1st Follow Up email - Just a polite email briefly reminding them about your service and mentioning the special offer and ask them to get in touch.
Outside of the email campaign I always recommend a phone call to the person to follow up the email.
2nd Follow Up email - great to speak to you and just wanted to show you this video of some testimonials. Again mention the call to action.
3rd Follow Up email - Include some recent success story you've had working with a music producer and how you helped them cut down studio time.
4th Follow Up email - Send them a few links to some articles you've written on vocal coaching or perhaps promote an event your running.

You get the general idea. You should always be looking for reasons to get back in touch with your prospective customers and also your existing customers. To make it relevant I make sure I know my target market and make sure my message tells them NOT about the features but instead it MUST tell them about the benefits – what they will get from dealing with me; my company; buying my products and services. What is it they are looking for and does my product or service fulfil that need?

Just get Writing

Then I just start to write the message. I don’t worry about the spelling or grammar too much to begin with. I even switch my paragraphs around after I’ve read the message a few times. I find that just writing the beginning part gets my creative juices flowing and I can get into the right groove and then I find the right approach and message.

It's also a good practice to read other emails you get from time to time. Find the ones you like and which made you take action and look at them. What was it about those emails? Copy their ideas and tailor them for your business and products and services.

You should start with a beginning a middle and an end and make sure there are compelling calls to action. For example if you are offering them a FREE session with you then make sure your email states this clearly:

Call today to secure your FREE session with me - only 10 FREE places left.

Use an offer with a deadline so they are more persuaded to act quickly.

Also, make sure you include links back to your website in your emails so it's nice and easy for them to click and get to your website. These links can direct them to the exact place on your website where you want them to visit.

The Subject Line

The other area when email marketing you must spend time on is the Subject Line of the email. The subject line is the first thing they will see so it must grab their attention without being too over the top. I always include their first name at the beginning of the subject line. This is very effective at grabbing their attention because you've used their name and they will assume you know them.

James, this amazing new service is set to revolutionise the Music Business!

There are words and phrases you should try to avoid using in subject lines otherwise you get caught in ISP Spam filters, but that's a huge subject all on it's own and not my speciality.

So Plan & Get Writing

So make sure you plan your campaign and what each message subject will be and then just start writing. Put aside some time each day to work on your content and keep going. And if you'd like some help and guidance or if you have any questions please feel free to get in touch.

Please add your comments below and please do add your advice too.

Nobody is Practising Anything

2010-08-26T19:15:00.000+01:00

If you run your own business or you run a department of a business what do you do every day?

Have you ever taken time out to think about what happens each day at work?

A typical day for a sales person called John might look something like this.

09:00 Arrive, relax into their desk place and chat
09:30 Make a coffee

09:45 Open their email

09:50 Call their spouse to let them know they arrived to work safely

10:00 Go to the loo

10:15 Have a chat with office colleague

10:30 Reply to some emails

10:45 Post arrives

10:50 Read through post

11:00 Make first cold call

11:30 After 6 NOs on the calls they break for a coffee

11:45 Call their friend to make plans for the evening

12:00 Reply to some emails

12:30 Follow up on a few leads and quotes

13:00 Lunch Break

14:10 Back from lunch

14:15 Close 1 lucky deal

14:20 Celebrate by making a coffee

14:45 Drive to appointment

15:45 Arrive unprepared not really knowing anything about the potential client

16:15 Leave having had a great meeting

17:15 Arrive back at office to tell boss how great the meeting was

17:30 Head for home

Anyone running their own business has to make every hour of every day count. They could never afford to waste time in the way that John does.

But most small business owners aren't practising anything. Instead, like John, they are reacting to the day. To the emails that arrive; to the phone calls they receive; to the post that arrives etc. This is a fundamental flaw in most small businesses.

Instead they should be practising every single day. Michael Gerber of eMyth Worldwide tells a great story about his saxaphone teacher, Merl. Merl told Michael if he wanted to be the best saxophone player in the world he had to practice 5 hours a day, 5 days a week.
One day he said, "Michael, you don't make music; the music finds you. Your job is to practice."

And that is what Michael says we should do; practice, practice, practice - looking for the music, looking for the music. And one day after Michael had been practicing his saxophone playing for a few weeks, suddenly the music would just turn up, and all the hairs on the back of Michael's neck would stand on end and Merl would join in and play harmony. It was amazing.

Michael says we can do the same in our businesses. If we practice the right things everyday, suddenly our music will show up.

So what are you practicing in your business? Don't be like John, who doesn't really practice anything and hopes and prays the music will show up for him.

Instead, practice the right things for your business. Don't react to the things that you know are going to happen everyday - email; post; phonecalls etc.
Make the things that don't usually happen, happen. Become proactive and see what a difference it can make to your business.

My Business Time Table

2010-08-18T11:24:00.000+01:00

Time Management Inspired by my Daughter!

It amazes me how much my daughter learns at school. It also amazes me at how much holiday she gets! Which led me to think she probably spends more time on holiday than she does at school!

Yet, she gets so much done. This got me thinking. If she and her classmates spend such little time at school how come they are able to learn so much and do so much at school?

Then it hit me. They have a school time table which they stick to. The teachers and the children know what lessons they are doing and when. Every day is mapped out on the school time table which includes breaks and lunch time.

I loved this idea - it was so simple and yet so effective! So I decided to create a business time table for my daily tasks.

I spent some time planning the layout and I now have the perfect template for my Business Time Table. It even has breaks and lunch time which for me is great because I never, ever took morning or afternoon breaks. In fact, it's still tricky to stick to, as here I am at 11pm writing this blog post!

How do you manage your time? Do you end up getting distracted by the events of the day? Checking your email too often and feeling you have to respond right away? Do you find the incoming phone calls distract and take you off on a different tangent?

Don't let these day to day events distract you. Don't be reactive - instead get proactive on your business. When you're working on a particular blog post or article then close all the other applications on your computer. This will really help you focus.

I also use a wonderful online timer at www.online-stopwatch.com. I set a certain chuck of time to a task and when the alarm bell rings I stop what I'm doing and move on to the next thing. Just like a bell at the end of lesson at school. But no, I don't scramble to put all my books away and rush to my next class! However, it could be a bit of fun to run out of my office and then back in again!

Start using a time table for your business and begin controlling the things you need to focus on.

And if you would like a copy of my Business Time Table template please email me at info@dickiearmour.me.uk and I'll be glad to send it to you.

My Twitter Presence

2010-08-12T17:13:00.001+01:00

This blog post has been triggered by a great post I read by Chris Brogan at www.chrisbrogan.com.
In Chris' article he talks about how hard it can be to manage 146,000 followers and to be able to engage with them. He then explains his mindset and methodology and some of the tools he uses.

Here I'll share what I do. Like Chris, his way is wonderful, your way will be wonderful too. My way is just the way I choose to use Twitter.

My Twitter Presence

My Account

@DickieArmour

The Tools

Here's a list of the tools I use for Twitter:

Hootsuite – for my desktop.
TweetDeck - for my desktop.
Hootsuite – for my phone.
TweetDeck - for my phone.
Seesmic Mobile - for my phone.
Echofon - for my phone.
ManageFlitter - for manual deletion of inactive followers
Twitter Search – for search strings.
Listorious – for finding good Twitter lists.

My Twitter Goals

I use Twitter for many different things. My main goal is to connect with like-minded people around the world. My reasons for using Twitter are probably different to your's. Your goals are also okay. (Oh, and you’re doing it wrong!)

I use Twitter to find like-minded people
I use Twitter to have 2 way conversations
I use Twitter to raise my profile
I use Twitter to provide interesting stuff to my community
I use Twitter to promote other people’s stuff much more than I do to promote my stuff
I use Twitter to find out about upcoming events
I use Twitter to keep in touch with friends
I use Twitter to keep in touch with customers
I use Twitter to find business (via search)
I use Twitter to find new suppliers
I use Twitter to spy on competitors
I use Twitter to get help with all sorts of things
I use Twitter to send & receive DMs rather than email sometimes
I use Twitter to give me magical moments of Serendipity

My Twitter Methods

I never follow the Home Feed (Your Friends). It flows too fast to keep up!
I use loads of different search strings.
I save these searches and have them in columns in both TweetDeck and Hootsuite.
I always check my @replies and DM columns so I can be sure to reply and join in the convesrations.
I use lists so I can catch up on conversations and tweets from the different groups I'm interested in.
I follow lots of other Lists. You'll find people have already done the hard work for you.
For example Nigel Legg has a great List of people in Bristol,UK where I live. So I follow this list instead of wasting time creating my own.
I tend to follow back most people. I won't follow you if you don't have a profile photo or logo.
I like to provide interesting articles on Internet marketing, Social Media, business, sales & marketing
I schedule my article tweets using Hootsuite, usually the previous night.
I always retweet things I find of interest and think others will also find interesting.
I often post tweets with photos of where I am or things I see or books I'm reading.
I try to reply as often as I can. If I miss your @ message, I’m very sorry.
I like Echofon on my iPhone because it autocompletes @ usernames for the more tricky ones which are easy to forget or mistype.
I use Twitter to send & receive DMs rather than email sometimes.
I often use Twitter to get answers and to get help.
Twitter is a great place to connect with companies like BT. BT have been excellent with their customer service on Twitter.
Don't rely on using Twitter to always reach me. If you need me immediately, just call me on my mobile phone.
But of course, the old fashioned ways of communicating like email and phone still work!
Twitter is an amazing place for serendipity! Try it and see!

How do YOU use Twitter?

This is how I use Twitter. Chris Brogan said it would be fun to see your post on his “My Twitter Presence.” Or feel free to put your links to such posts and comments in the comments section below.

Are you in control of your Online Business?

2010-06-16T13:28:00.000+01:00

Your online business is an important part of your company and you should be in full control of it. The 3 main elements which make up your online business are:

Your domain name
Your website
Your website hosting

You need to make sure you know where your domain name "lives". Do you look after it yourself and have access to a control panel for the domain name? Or do you rely on a 3rd party such as a web designer or media agency?

I suggest that you should be in control of your domain name and look after the renewal process yourself. If you have a good web designer and they look after it for you then that's OK but you still need to check a few things for your peace of mind.

1. Your Domain Name
The first thing you should check is that you are the Registrant of your domain name. You can do a WHOIS lookup of your domain name. A WHOIS lookup is just a search of the central Registry's database to see the key info on a domain name such as:

Regsitrant
Registrar
Expiry Date
Domain Status

A Registrant is the recognised legal owner of the domain name.

A Registrar is an organisation accredited by either ICANN or the National Registry to manage the regiostration and renewal of domain nams

The Expiry Date is the date when a domain name lapses. All domain names have to be renewed on a regular basis. .co.uk domain names have to be renewed every 2 years.

Domain Status shows the current state of a domain and will usually say something like "Domain renewed until 18th March 2011". If the domain name has not been renewed it might say "Renewal Required" or "Pending Deletion".

If you go to http://whois.domaintools.com/ you can enter your domain name and see all the relevant WHOIS information. The image below shows you the WHOIS lookup result of my domain name dickiearmour.me.uk

Click the image to see a larger version

If your name isn't listed as Registrant nor your company name then you need to rectify this as soon as you can. If you need any help or guidance on this please do get in touch and I'll be happy to help you.

So let's assume that you ARE the Registrant of your domain name; the next thing to check is your website.

2. Your Website
If you don't yet have a website then you MUST have a website. Again get in touch and I can point you in the right direction for some excellent web design companies.

If you do have a website the next question is do you have a copy of your website? What I mean by this is do you have all the pages, images, folders etc that make up your website? If not you MUST get a copy.

If your website was designed for you by a web designer then you can ask them for a copy of your website and ask them to put it on a DVD for you. There has been some debate around IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) and Copyright. Some web design companies argue that the work of a web design is their's and so don't always feel they should have to give you a copy. Most of the ones I deal with are very happy to give their customers a copy of their websites. So make sure you get a copy of your website.

More and more people are using CMS (Content Management Systems) to update their websites themselves. This can be a good and easy way of keeping your website current. But you should be aware that in most cases, if you wanted to move your website to another hosting company, or the current provider who sold you the CMS goes out of business you won't be able to move your current website. Most CMS website can only be hosted on the same hosting platform as the CMS. So using a CMS you will never be in full control of your website.

But what happens if they go out of business or decide to leave the rat race and go off surfing in Hawaii? I speak to customers every single day who have lost control of their online business for these very reasons. The first thing that happens is the website hosting is switched off and your website and email stops working. You then have to begin the Internet Detective work of finding out where your website used to live and how you can get back control of it.

If your domain name was not registered in you or your company name then that's often a huge hurdle to get over. Even if you are the Registrant it can still be hard for the man on the street to find out who the current Registrar is and get back control of it.
If your web designer looks after the domain name as well as hosting, they will be the one who gets the renewal reminders, so in many cases you won't even know when your domain name is due for renewal. If a domain name is not renewed after a certain period the domain name will be suspended by the central Registry. Again, your email and website will stop working.

3. Your Website Hosting
In most cases you won't know anything about the hosting of your website. It will have been arranged and set up by your web designer. But again, part of being in control of your online business is knowing where your website lives. Find out from your current provider who they use to host your website.

Some web designers may not be happy to share this with you because hosting is one area where they make money. Now that's fine; most people understand that business is business and if they're indirectly looking after every aspect of your online business, it's fine and acceptable for them to add a margin to things like hosting and domain name renewals.

But do press them and insist on them telling you where your website is hosted. You can even explain you're not trying to find out to check prices, but that you just want to know in case anything were to happen to them or their business. That way should anything untoward happen you will find it much easier to keep control of your online business.

If you don't want to rock the boat with your web designer, there are clever tools you can use via the Internet to find out where your domain name and website live. Get in touch and I'll be happy to do some digging around for you.

So, make sure you do a WHOIS lookup of your domain name and ensure you or your company is the Regsitrant. Also make a mental or calendar note of when your domain name is due for renewal.

Get a copy of your website as soon as you can.

Find out where your website is hosted and make sure you get the contact details in case of disaster striking.

Please do get in touch if any of this worries you and you need some help and guidance. By getting and staying in control of your online business you can relax and concentrate on the more important day to day task in your business.

4Networking - My first 5 Months

2010-06-02T17:30:00.000+01:00

I've never really done any serious sort of networking. I worked in the City in London for nearly 17 years and there was networking of sorts, but most of that happened in bars, clubs and restaurants with customers. The last 10 years I've been involved with the Internet which isn't always the most sociable place as we're all too busy sat in front of computer screens!

But I discovered 4Networking(4N) just over 5 months ago, in December 2010.

The video below will give you a snapshot of how it works:

Learn about 4Networking in 1 minute

I went to a couple of meetings and loved the people and the relaxed format so I joined on 23rd December 2009. And in 5 short months I've had a blast; I've got lots of new customers; made some great new friends and last month I became the Group Leader of Bristol Cribbs.

The beauty of the 4N is that with a Passport membership you can go to any breakfast meeting anywhere in in the UK. As of 29th May 2010 there were 215 4N business breakfast groups.

See the complete list on the Meetings page of the 4N website.

I personally go to most of the ones around Bristol and Somserset but I also link up with some of the other members and we arrange "Road Trips". 8 of us recently travelled to Hatfield, Hertfordshire and stayed over night and it was excellent.

The power of the Road Trip is in how it helps to increase your profile and get your name and company out there. Read the buzz on the forum that was generated by the 8 of us travelling up to Hatfield!!

Mr Kim Hambley, Nick "Monster" Elston, Simon Bunker, Me, Olly Culverhouse, Tara Gillam

The format of every meeting is the same so it's great when you go to other groups because you know the agenda and so there are no surprises. I also love the fact that people who are in the same industry as each other can go along to the same group. It's always baffled me why other business networks limit a group to just one web designer and just one accountant etc. People from the same industry often pass work on to each other and will have different skill sets.

Also, and for me this is the real key behind any kind of networking whether online via Social Media websites or offline at face to face business networks - people do business with people they know, like and trust. If I was in one of those other networks where there was only one web design person and I didn't like them then I'm never going to do business with them nor pass business on to them.

As Group Leader of Bristol Cribbs it has really helped to raise my profile. I love the venue at Berwick Lodge; a new boutique style hotel in Bristol which is aiming for 5 star status! I'm proud to say we're the only 4N group with a red carpet to welcome our guests!

So if you run a business or you're someone responsible for business development in your company then I highly recommend 4N. You can come along to up to 3 meetings before you have to join so you can try the format to see if it suits you. I'll hazard a guess that you too will enjoy it; you'll make some wonderful new friends but as important you'll win lots of new customers too.

See you on the 4N circuit soon!

Where's the Lid to Your Company's Jigsaw Puzzle?

2010-05-27T23:01:00.000+01:00

I absolutely love Michael Gerber!

Perhaps I should add here, that I can get quite excited about life and I do love lots of things! And I'm happily married; so when I say "I absolutely love Michael Gerber" please take it the right way! ;-)

OK, now where was I? Oh yes, Michael Gerber. For those of you who don't know who he is (shame on you!) go to Michael Gerber's website to find out more.

I was fortunate enough to see Michael talk in Leeds in 2004 and I got to meet him afterwards while he signed his book. You can listen to the very evening I went to on a Red Audio CD. Just go to the Red Audio website to get your copy.

This is not an affiliate link and I make no financial gain from your purchase
He was a really nice guy and when you listen to his talk you'll realise not only is he very funny; he's incredibly smart about small businesses.

The part on the CD when he tells the stary of Ace and Bob is hilarious and it's a key turning point in Michaels' life. He realised that most small business owners don't have a clue about business. Most small business owners don't have any systems in place by which to run their businesses. They just react to the day; phonecalls; emails; customers.

"It was like someboday had bought a jigsaw puzzle, thrown the pieces on the floor.... and thrown away the cover of the box.... Nobody had a picture of the finished puzzle of the business they owned!" Michael Gerber

Mechanics open garages, chefs open restaurants, chiropractors open clinics and Michael Gerber thinks this is a profound mistake. Just because a chef can cook doesn't mean he can run a business. Just because a chiropractor can fix people doesn't mean she can run a business.

He says that nearly all small business owners are busy, busy, busy everyday, working in their businesses instead of ON their businesses and at the end of the week they wonder where the time's gone. Every business needs to have systems to follow. "This is how we do it here; no not that way; this way." Most small businesses are reactive instead of proactive and Michael Gerber says it's a tragic shame.

So where's the lid of the jigsaw puzzle of your business? If you've lost it don't worry. You can start today and decide what the picture of the finished puzzle of your business looks like. Leave all those peices scattered on the floor of your office for now and take some time out to think about the vision of your business.

What do you want to achieve with your business?
What's the reason you started it originally?
What's your story?
Do you want to build it into the world's biggest something? Like MacDonalds or Walmart?
Or do you just want a nice income each year?
Do you want to build a business which you can pass on to your children?
Or do you want to sell up in 7 years time for mutli-millons?

Whatever it is you want, you need to get the picture clear in your head and put some systems & processes in place so you can begin to stick your jigsaw pieces together.

The beauty of this is you get to decide! I look forward to hearing about your jigsaw puzzle.

Why I love Volcanoes & Virgin Holidays!

2010-05-02T21:44:00.000+01:00

On April 13th I flew with my family on holiday to Dubai. Our friends booked the holiday as a group booking for the 6 of us and boy oh boy are we happy they did it with Virgin Holidays!

We booked just a 6 day holiday as we were staying in The Atlantis Hotel on The Palm and it's not the cheapest hotel in Dubai.

On arrival at the airport we all said we wished we'd booked for a few days longer.

Confusicious said: "Be careful what you wish for!"

Little did we know the Icelandic volcano was to affect us and so many other air travellers around the world.

It was soon apparent from watching Sky and BBC news in our room that the affects of the volcanic ash were far reaching. But even when the UK airspace was closed we didn't envisage the closure would be more than a day or so.

Our Virgin Holidays Rep, Fares Malaeb, was at our hotel everyday at 11am to book excursions etc but as the situation worsened he was the bearer of the bad news that we were unable to fly home. Initially, there was drama as we imagined the implications but the next day our Rep explained that Virgin Holidays would be paying for our hotel room and breakfast for every day we were stranded!

Fares was incredible. He was excellent and did a very good job keeping us all in touch every single day. Many of the others contacted him day and night by mobile and also text and Fares was unwavering in his service.
On one particular morning, when the situation had once again changed, there were a few, very angry customers who were quite rude to Fares. But Fares was always polite and he was excellent at calming people down. He of course had me there to help too! On a few occasions I argued with some of the Virgin Holidays customers explaining that these were unprecedented circumstances and that Virgin and Fares were doing everything they could etc..

Virgin Holiday, you have an excellent rep. I hope Fares Malaeb receives the recognition he deserves for his tireless hard work and sleepless nights.

As you can see from the photo on the right, the pool was lovely and it became my working office each day. I had my iPhone and free wi-fi from the hotel so I was able to handle emails and phone calls. So I could have happily stayed for a while!

We watched all the doom and gloom on the news and whilst I have a huge amount of sympathy and some empathy with my fellow, stranded tourists; I appreciate our situation was no where near as bad as many of those stuck at airports or those who had to take on a plane, train and automobile type of trip to get back home.

So a huge THANK YOU to Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Holidays and to Fares Malaeb, for looking after us so well and taking the panic and strain and stress out of our situation.

I will defintely be booking ALL future holidays with Virgin Holidays. Any chance you can make sure Fares is our rep each time we travel with you??!! ;-)

Right I'm off to finish opening my 2 weeks worth of post and emails and get back to all my customers' requests.

I love volcanoes and Virgin Holidays!!

P.S. My mate has a video of me whizzing down the "Leap of Faith" slide screaming "I love Virgin Holidays!" I'll upload it here as soon as he sends it to me. :-)

DRoA - Domain Name Scumbags - who's up for stopping them?!

2010-02-28T18:19:00.000Z

OK, we've put up with the Domain Renewal Group for long enough. It's time for some action.

I wrote a post back in April 2009 - Domain Name Scam!

DRoA are still sending these letters out to thousands of Registrants (owners of domain names) and duping them into paying inflated renewal prices and attempting to get unsuspecting consumers to transfer their domain names to DRoA.

I sent a Tweet to Rod Beckstrom the CEO of ICAAN last week and he replied saying "Form a group to take them on if you wish!".

There MUST be something we can all do together to stop these letters being sent out by the Domain Renewal Group.

I am going to be contacting some of my peers within the ISP industry with a view to forming an action group. I will also be contacting the leaders within the domain name Registries.

Please post your comments here if you have suggestions and would like to get involved. This malpractice has gone on for far too long and MUST to be stopped!

In the meantime, please let everyone you know, know about this Scam so they don't become the next victim.

Your Domain Name & Website - 3 Questions You Must Ask Yourself

2010-02-26T23:51:00.000Z

As we move further into 2010 and beyond we are becoming more and more reliant on the web especially if we have an online business.

If you are running your own online business and relying on your website to bring you in new business then you NEED to think about these 3 questions:

If this video raises any issues for you please get in touch and I will be really happy to help you get your domain name or website issue resolved.

Drop me an email to dickie at dickiearmour.me.uk or add a comment below.

Domain Name Scam or Clever Sales Tactic?

2010-02-03T15:37:00.000Z

We hear about online Internet scams everyday but a little bit like the Domain Registry of America scam I wrote about in April 2009; this latest one is more of an underhand sales tactic than an out and out scam.

A client of mine who runs and owns bristolvaleting.co.uk & bristolvaleting.com contacted me recently panicking about a trademark issue. He had been contacted by a company in Hong Kong who told him someone was trying to register bristolvaleting.com.hk and bristolvaleting.cc and he asked me what he should do.

He was genuinely worried that someone was trying to steal his brand and thought that they might be able to "grab" his .com domain name too. But because the email he received was from a company in the Far East he was also concerned about the legal aspects of it.

See a copy of the email below. I've fudged some of the information to protect identities.

Click the image to see a larger version

I told him not to worry about it all and to just ignore the email.

This email is very common and used by many domain name registration business in Hong Kong and China as a sales tactic to get UK, European and US businesses to buy domain names.

As I said to my client, why on earth would anyone in the Far East want to register bristolvaleting as a domain name? It pretty much says what my client's business is - he's a car valeter in the Bristol area. I don't think owning bristolvaleting.com.hk would help him win any more local business!

But many companies do fall for these sales tactics. Make sure you check the source of the enquiry before panicking and don't get puffed into buying anything you don't want.

If you ever need any help or advice with anything Internet related then please get in touch. I'll be happy to help and I won't even charge you! My advice is free.

The Social Media Train Journey - What to do Once You're On Board

2010-01-13T22:25:00.000Z

OK, so the train has just left the station and you've met up with a few nice people on the way to your seat.

There's a real buzz going on down in the buffet car - you should definitely have a conversation with the following movers and shakers in there:

(Listed as I go in no particular order)

If you feel you should be on this list, then please comment and I'll be happy to add your details. Sorry in advance if I missed you out!

On you way back from the buffet car it's worth checking out the #likeminds Twitter carriage; you'll hear the buzz as you approach! :)

First Things First

On a usual train journey if you're like me you'll find a seat and sit there, keep yourself to yourself and read the paper, work on your laptop or read a book. You'll be able to hear snippets of the conversations going on around you but even if one of the convesations sounds of great interest to you; you would never dream of getting up and sitting down to join in with those people talking! Can you imagine their reactions!

On the Social Media Train you can listen to other people's conversations too but the real difference is when you find an interesting topic on which you have something to add; you CAN jump in and join the conversation. Using the search function on Twitter you can actually search for specific conversations around your industry or a subject matter close to your heart. That might be a conversation on a completely different Social Media carriage and it might even be on a train in another country!

Listen
So take time to find those people who are having conversations that interest you and begin by just listening. Yep, that's right - just listen. It is socially acceptable to eavesdrop on other people's conversations on social media platforms. They are using a public platform for their discussions and know that other people will be listening, so they won't be offended. In fact people welcome others to join in and contribute to the conversation.

Wouldn't your train journey whizz by if you could just jump in and out of conversations in every carriage of the train?!!

Contribute
Now you've found a few people who are talking about subjects which interest you, take the plunge. Have a think about how you can enter the conversation and make a contribution.
Don't just broadcast a sales type ad message:
"Hi there. I hear you like skiing. I run a ski holiday company called Ski With Us Now. Book your skiing holiday with us; we're great!"

Instead offer something of value such as your expertise:
"Hi, I see you're thinking of skiing in France. I really recommend Les Deux Alpes or Chamonix. I can recommend some great hotels too."

Perhaps you could also tweet a few links to some interesting websites - not yours. They can find yours via your profile details and they'll respect you more if they see that you are NOT plugging your own stuff.

Know - Like - Trust
As you start to contribute and have more and more conversations with people you will get to know them and begin to like and slowly, over time you'll start to trust them.
The same is true of the realtionships they'll be forming with you. They will be getting to know; like and trust you too.

This is when the Social Media Magic happens; the sparks begin to fly and before you even realise it, you'll be doing business together!!

But people won't do business with you if you just listen and they definitely won't do business with you if you just broadcast. You have to take part in the conversations. You have to contribute and over time people will get to know you, they'll like you and eventually they'll trust you.

And just remember - we're on all the train journey together - so let's have some fun too along the way.

I'm off to the buffett car. Look forward to meeting you there!

My first ever Video Blog!

2009-12-20T23:00:00.000Z

There's no doubt that 2009 has been a huge year for Social Media and 2010 is set to be even bigger.

I'm reading Gary Vaynerchuk's book - Crush It! and one of the things he recommends we should all be doing more of is video blogging.

So here's my first ever video blog taken in my office with my iPhone.

I'm sure the quality and content will both improve as we move through 2010!!

In the meantime have a very Merry Christmas and here's to a prosperous, happy and meteoric 2010!!

Christmas is a time for giving - But who is buying this BS?

2009-12-15T22:40:00.000Z

It never ceases to amaze me how generous some people can be and especially at this time of year. Christmas is a time for giving but I had begun to think folks had forgetten this. You see all the ads on TV and the children and parents who all want, want, want.
"Daddy, please can I have that? Oh please Daddy."

"Oh darling, it's only 3 carats, Pretty please with a cherry on top!"

We are such an on demand society that I thought the era of giving was dying. But this week I've been amazed at what people will do for others. And not just any people. Complete strangers seem to be incredibly generous.

Today I got an email from a lady called Amanda Guld from West Africa. She emailed completely out of the blue and she told me that she had a cheque for me for $900,000! I nearly fell off my chair. She said she had been trying to get hold of me with no luck. I couldn't understand this as my name "Dickie Armour" is easily looked up on any of the search engines and all my email addresses work and I've had the same telephone numbers for years. But Mrs Amanda Guld was having trouble. I guess the Interent in West Africa might be a little slower.

Anyways, she told me she had deposited my cheque with a UPS Courier called Daniel Cole and I was to get in touch to get my cheque. I am so excited. I've pretty much got all of the $900,000 spent already. Aston Martin DB9 Volante will be arriving any day now.

Aren't people just so generous?!! The other thing I'm truly excited about is a complete stranger called Martha Smith emailed me this time last week and has promised me that she can help me pull in over $40,000 a month using her easy to follow system! Now this truly is great news because as soon as I spend the $900,000 that Amanda Guld's sending me I'll need some more bucks, so I'm quite excited about this new online marketing system. It sounds like a no brainer. Hey, Martha I will be in touch real soon.

So that's my good news about two incredibly generous strangers but as if this wasn't special enough, my mate called me yesterday to tell me he had won £2.6million in the Dutch Lottery. He got an email from them telling him he had won. Can you believe that?! And what was really staggering about my mate winning this? He hadn't even bought a ticket! He was so excited and is convinced a friend or member of his family must have bought the ticket for him. And like me he's got his Aston Martin DB9 arriving anyday too.

So Christmas 2009 has been incredible - so many nice strangers getting in touch with me to give me loads of money!

Merry Christmas you scumbags!

Please tell me you are not someone who buys this BS when you get an email from a complete stranger? Well if it's not you then who is being taken in? We all need to wake up and stop being so gullible! Surely as people who Blog; use Twitter; Facebook; LinkedIn; Ecadeny; Flickr; YouTube etc we should be educating all our friends and family NOT to get sucked into this crap?!

So which one of you hasn't told all your friends and family?

If we all stop being so gullible and we stop responding to these idiots surely this problem will eventually go away? Please promise to do your bit in 2010 and spread the word through your friends and family. If they haven't bought a lottery ticket then they have not won!
If they get an email from West Africa, Nigeria, Russia, China or any where from a stranger claiming they are holding some long lost family inheritance, please tell them not to respond.

And if they are promised some clever system will make them the next Internet gazzilonaire, then tell them not to bother. Or perhaps do like I do and get in touch and ask them to prove it by letting me use the system free for 6 months and if it's as good as they claim, they should be happy to put their money where their mouth is!

But best of all, tell your friends and family that the next time (and sadly there will be a next time) they get an incredible, too good to be true offer from a complete stranger, they should simply hit the delete button and carry on with their day.

You can read more about other these and other well known scams in this article I wrote in January 2009.

My First Mobile Blog - Twitter Search Nearby Function

2009-11-26T13:41:00.004Z

I'm actually sat at my desk trying this Blogger app on my iPhone. It amazes me how far Internet related technology has come in the last 5 years.
It didn't seem that long ago that everyone was talking about WAP enabled websites and how they were going to be the next big thing!
So as I said I'm just trying this new blog app out. I could be sat on a train; waiting for my flight at an airport or I could be sat by the pool on holiday writing my blog!
OK, so I can type but can I add photos? Ummm, let's see.

Yes, it seems I can! This is a photo of a book which arrived in the post this morning. Thanks Jim for sending it to me. It's by a guy called Brad Burton and the title speaks for itself! www.getoffyourarse.biz Brad's book site.
OK, so I got off my preverbial and am writing my blog using the new iPhone app I've been meaning to download and try. Thanks Brad!
I love the iPhone. I use Tweetie** for Twitter and I recently discovered the "search nearby" function. See screenshot below.

This was a search in Bristol and I used it to show a mate of mine. He's a car valeter and was asking how he could use Twitter to find new customers. His concern was that he wanted to connect with local people and not so many people from the US and other countries. He likes connecting with people but he would be unlikely to win much car Valeting business from someone in Texas!

So I showed him how the Search Nearby function works explaining that he can find people in his area in real time. He can them connect with them and perhaps offer a promotion or similar via Twitter!
He was blown away and has already won 2 customers as a direct result of using this Search Nearby function.

So if you're in the Bristol area watch out for @bristolvaleting. I'm sure he'll seek you out soon! Or if you need your car Valeting perhaps you could seek him out instead! He's offering a 10% discount on 19th Dec.
www.bristolvaleting.com

So there you have it. My new blog post from my iPhone.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

**Update - July 2010. Tweetie for Twitter became Twitter for iPhone a while back. If you want more info go to http://blog.twitter.com/2010/05/twitter-for-iphone.html

Social Media - Why you need to be on board

2009-11-04T18:19:00.000Z

The video below demonstrates the power of Social Media and why you should be on board.

I was staggered when I read some of the stats in the video! "If Facebook was a country it would be the 4th largest"!
This is a really exciting time! Social Media has been around for a few years now but it is only in the last few months that a real buzz has started. More and more people are using Twitter, FaceBook, FriendFeed, and Blogs and people are engaging with each other in a way we hadn't imagined.

These aren't just loose and random connections, but genuine conversations which are leading to new friendships and business relationships with real meaning.

It's hard to explain precisely but there is something happening and no one truly knows where the current thirst for social media is taking us. It's a bit like being on a train which has just left the station. It's not too late for people to jump on board; it will be stopping at all stations. The atmosphere is electric and all those on board are really energised and full of enthusiasm and whilst there appear to be quite a few experts on board; it's also clear that none of them can say for sure what's going to happen on the journey and the really exciting part is this - no one knows where the train will end up!

If you're considering getting involved on Twitter or Facebook, LinkedIn or Ecademy or any of the other social networks, then do it! Jump on board the train - "right here - right now!" I also suggest setting up a profile on as many of them as possible. The reason for this is many people have a preference and only use one or two of the social network websites. So if you want to maximise your chance of being discovered, then you need a profile on as many of these sites as possible. If someone's preferred site is Ecademy and they are using Ecademy to search for someone with your area of expertise, if you're not on Ecademy then they won't find you.

Many experts are saying that social media profiles are beginning to be more effective than a company website. This doesn't mean there is no need for a corporate website; of course there is still a need! But what it tells you is you should have both. You need a company website so those people you are having conversations with via the social media websites can find your company website when they are ready.

The social network websites are getting good search engine rankings so somebody looking for you or your business stands more chance of finding your social media profile via one of the many websites than they will of finding your official company website.

The image above shows the result of a search on Google for me - "Dickie Armour". Whilst my personal website is 1st (not hard when you have a name like mine) you'll see that within the first 2 pages my profile comes up on at least 10 different social media websites including my blog. But neither of my company websites appear in the top 20 search results.

What about a great friend of mine, Jamie Forster? See the Google Search result for him below.

Again, his company website doesn't appear either, but he does appear 4 times in the first ten results. And from any of those 4 links you can find Jamie's company website.

So you need to have your profile on as many of the different social media websites as possible to increase your chance of being found and to be able to connect with a person on their preferred social media arena.

So all aboard! This train departs from the next station near you right now. Join us on the journey; I've not a clue where it's going, but it's going to be great fun, we're all going to learn bucket loads of stuff and I promise you'll make some wonderful new friends and you might just pick up some new business along the way.

Social Networking - Are you just a card dealer?

2009-10-17T10:54:00.000+01:00

There are more and more people attending networking events and there are a huge number of people networking on the many different social media websites.

But how are you contributing to these different mediums?

Networking Offline

When you attend an event, whether it's a business breakfast; a seminar; a training day with networking breaks, what are your expectations?

Many people attend these events with the definite intention of winning new customers by selling to as many of the people there as possible. We've all been to meetings where there's a guy working through the crowd handing out his business cards, rather like a bumble bee flitting from flower to flower. He stays with a person for no more than a few moments; long enough to impress them with his well honed "elevator pitch" before he's off to find his next victim. He doesn't spare more than a minute to listen to the other person. He doesn't really care what they do. He listens for long enough to discover if they are a potential victim; someone he can sell to.

This is serial networking at it's worst. In business and in life people buy people. So it is important that you learn the art of being a caring networker. People are NOT going to “buy you” if you’re just a card dealer. You have to truly care about the other person and it’s always a good start if you can make a great first impression.

The word SHINE was introduced to me at a recent marketing conference I attended and like any conference or seminar there was an element of networking throughout the event. A great guy called Mark Perl was the host and he explained the concept of SHINE.

   S - Smile
   H - Handshake
   I - Eye Contact
   N - Name
   E - Enthusiasm

Smile as you look at the person and shake their hand firmly but not weakly or with a limp wrist. Equally don’t crush the other person’s hand! Look them in the eye and keep looking at them as you give them your name and listen as they say their name. Be enthusiastic during this. Don’t speak in a boring, monotone voice but introduce yourself as if you’re excited.
Then once you’ve done the introductions ask questions. Ask the person what they do for a living. Ask them how they heard about the event, ask them where they live.

I always try to find out as much as I can about the other person and I always try to ask them the first question. This really puts the other person at ease because people naturally enjoy talking about themselves. Always try to show real interest in what they are telling you and find out if you have some things in common. The best way to do this is to make sure you really listen. Don’t get distracted by other people in the room or a loud conversation going on nearby. Stay focused on the other person while they’re speaking and try not to interrupt them.

I have a general rule that I never offer my business card until either I’ve discovered that the person I’m talking to is someone I want to connect with and stay in touch with; or they ask me for my business card. And if they are someone I want to connect with I always ask them for their card and in most cases they reciprocate by asking for mine.

Networking Online

Many of the same rules apply when you are participating via online social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ecademy, Bebo, Xing, MySpace or on people’s blogs and your own blog. But the main mistake people make when using these sites is, without realising it they become the card dealer! They just broadcast messages about themselves and their business. They send tweets on Twitter promoting their company.

The art of communication through social media is having conversations. You have to take part in discussions with people and you have to go where the conversation is taking place. If your favourite social network is Facebook and you only “talk” to people on Facebook you are going to be missing out on a whole load of conversations which you might want to take part in.

Use some of the aggregator tools such as FriendFeed to see where the conversations are taking place and then go and join in. This is the beauty of using social media. Unlike a bar or a café where conversations are happening but you don’t feel you can “barge in” and just sit down at a table and join a conversation with strangers. On social media sites you can. You can see a conversation happening around a subject that interests you and you can jump right in by posting your opinion.

You can add your comments to a conversation and people can read them and reply and all in real time. It’s amazing to watch and take part in and it is so exciting when you then make a connection with someone in this way.

I follow some runners on Twitter and I was training to run a half marathon and we were having a conversation about training. I tweeted about why I was raising money for Cancer Research UK and a lady I had never met joined in the conversation. She wrote a lovely reply saying how moved she was by my story about my dad dying of cancer and she very generously sponsored me via my fundraising website! That just blew me away. About a month later on the marketing weekend I mentioned earlier there were over 200 people from all over the UK there and the hosts asked members of the audience to stand up and give feedback. I heard this lady introduce herself and I realised it was the same lady who had sponsored me via Twitter. During the break we met up and it was just amazing to meet this generous person in real life! We are now connected and we have met up since and become really good friends.

So try and take part more in the conversations going on and post comments on people’s blogs. There is nothing worse that writing a blog and getting no comments! It happens to us all, so I make sure if I read an interesting blog that I post a comment and add my opinion. It’s also nice to share things which you have found interesting from other people. Don’t just share your stuff. It’s more rewarding to let people know about other people’s stuff and one day, you never know, someone might just promote our stuff.

Take part in the conversations and start to contribute more, but please don’t be a card dealer.

Part 3 - Fantastic & Rare Tony Robbins Audio from 1989.

2009-10-10T18:53:00.000+01:00

As promised Tony Robbins, a world renowned expert on Leadership Psychology, has released an incredible audio this time from 20 years ago!

It's a rare recording Tony did back in 1989 and I'd like to give it to you.

You can download it here for free as a gift from Tony:

http://www.moneymastersseries.com/audiodownload.php

This has NEVER been released before ...but I think it's *critical* that you hear it because you'll discover what Tony calls the "5 Keys to Wealth & Happiness".

Please download this as soon as you can because Tony has said he doesn't think he'll be leaving it on the Internet for long.