Greetings Blog Family,

The time has come for us to stop having one night stands in pursuit of our worthy goals and dreams. It is really frustrating to see us waste our energy, dissipating our energy and efforts with all the starting and stopping in pursuit of our goals and dreams. We need consistency.

Consistency is the key

Consistency is a monster because it provides you with two of the essential elements of success that you need to take your business, life, endeavors to the next level.

The elements that I am talking about are confidence and motivation. Confidence grows internally when you perform day and day and create a track record of success that you can feel and is tangible in your life. The momentum comes from from this consistency and creates the energy, enthusiasm, and belief that you need to make everything you desire to happen.

Get the video in your life and share it with others. Now is our time!

First in the Mind, then in Reality!

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Blog Family,

Health is wealth and I want to encourage you to get some and pass it on. I have been on this kick for the past few weeks because I have set out to accomplish one of my major life goals, running the Chicago marathon. But instead of just throwing myself into 26 miles of pain, I plan on running an half marathon this year and next year tackling the big boy marathon.

Believe me Health is Wealth!

Some of you out there might be thinking that health isn’t all that important to your future, but I say that it is very important to your future. Think about it, regardless of what your goals are health is at the center of it. How would accomplish any of your goals if you were not in at least decent health? How could you travel around the world, climb a mountain, or even climb the corporate ladder if your health is out of whack.

Often times, I get someone that says health isn’t wealth, nor their goal. They want to create financial freedom for their descendants. But I say how can you do this if your health is not in order? Seriously, it is going to take massive energy and effort to make this a reality, but if you are not working out where is it going to come from?

Then, let’s say you hit your goal of financial freedom. Don’t you want to be around long enough to watch your family enjoy the fruits of your life long labor? I would think that you would.

Check out the video

Enjoy the video and make sure you let me know what you think, but I hope it is able to inspire you to get off your butt and get into the fitness game.

Big Shout out to Chase Harris as he is taking the iBeachBody.com Fitness Challenge!!

Check out his website site at http://www.iBeachBody.com or keep up with his fitness challenge on his YouTube page at http://www.YouTube.com/iBeachBody

Half Marathon Workout Plan

This is the half marathon workout schedule that I am working out with. It is a great workout plan for beginning runners. Check it out here: http://www.halhigdon.com/halfmarathon/novice.htm

First in the Mind, then in Reality!

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Greetings Blog Family,

Another week has come and gone. This time it has found me ready for it and aiming for the stars. I am fired up. As you will see over the next few weeks I have some very special material planned for this blog and am very excited about it.

It dawned on my not long ago that I wanted to own a media empire and have the influence and reach that many of the power stations had. This realization made me began to look at this blog and my other ones a little bit differently. Blogs and the Internet has given ordinary people like myself without hundreds of billions of dollars the power and access to reach millions if we have the ability or chops to make it happen. Well, I am going to find out because I love to get in front of the camera and share what I know. The wild thing is that I know many other people that feel the same, so as little organization and effort can make all of this a reality.

Last Week Goals

1. Video Blog at FreddieTaylor.com – I was successful in getting back on the video wagon here at FreddieTaylor.com with the launch of my weekly series, Balance. That was a lot of fun and it is replacing my Monday Motivational Moments that was a feature on this site.

The reason I changed the name is because I wanted to motivate, but there are some other subjects I want to get into as well and Balance will allow me to do so. As entrepreneurs, we cannot be so one sided and focused on money and the bottom line, there is just way too much more to life than that. Balance is my effort to discuss many of these issues as well.

2. Study New Business - I was able to study my new business model and am very excited about it. There is a little bit more understanding to go, but I will have to learn that on the fly. Now is the time to get out and get it going, so I will.

3. Prepare for my Picking Comps presentation - This past weekend, my partners and I held a 3 day event called the Ultimate Foreclosure Workshop. You can view it at UltimateForeclosureWorkshop.com. It was a stunning success. We had 17 paid participants, so there was some margin made and most importantly, the participants were excited about the information they received and pleased with their purchase. In short, we delivered, which is what you want when you are taking people’s money. Our thought is to under promise and over deliver….that we did.

As for my presentation, I thought it could have went better, but not a bad job. Like most entrepreneurs, I am pretty critical of myself and always expect better. Next presentation, I will do better.

This Week

Now is the time to roar into the next week and get it crackin! Here are my major goals for the week.

1. Plan – It is official in my mind that this is my last year in the appraisal business. I have to cut the cord and get out now. The question is what exactly will I do in the future, so I want to lay out a detailed plan to ensure that I am making solid progress everyday. This may take a week or so as I have several projects in the works, but need to tie them together in a cohesive way to capitalize on their synergies.

2. Complete Landing Page – One of my new ventures requires that I complete a video for this landing page I am creating. This has to get done and the sooner the better. So, I will be all over that early in the week and hopefully able to make it happen.

3. Full Week @ FT.com – I want to follow up my last week with another solid week here on this site. You will see a few more post as I back away from appraisal business and get more into my online work. I am very excited, but like any transition there is always some anxiety…However, I am ready to strike!

Let’s go get’em!

Now is our time to shine. I have defined my week and plan on being all over it. Will you do the same? If you don’t make the goals public, that is cool. Write them on your board, look at them, intimidate them, and get them done!

First in the Mind, then in Reality!

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Blog Family,

I confess. From time to time, I watch QVC. I said it. But you have to hear me out before condemning me as an outcast to know that I was doing market research for you. While 

watching a sale for pediatric posturepedic pillows,  it hit me.

The lessons to be learned from QVC are invaluable.

What is QVC?

QVC is one of the largest multimedia retailers in the world, and broadcast live 24 hours a day, 364 days of the year. This is the live show that sells the products constructed by the worlds entrepreneurs in a quick hitting, in your face, shop at home style.

According to their website, QVC is a wholly owned subsidiary 

of Liberty Media Corporation attributed to the Liberty Interactive Group. Trades under the Nasdaq as LINTA. QVC was founded in 1986 by Joesph Segal. In it’s first full fiscal year of business, QVC’s revenues exceeded $122 million. This is outstanding and was a record in American business history for sales of a new public company.

Additional information on the QVC website reveals the company received more than 181 million phone calls last in the United States alone, shipped 166 million units worldwide. Net sales for 2007 was more than $7 billion and they reach more than 166 million cable and satellite homes worldwide.

What does QVC have to do with Entrepreneurs?

I think it is safe to say that QVC has a winning business model and is doing a lot of things the right way. Therefore, I thought that maybe as entrepreneurs and bloggers, we could gleam some insight from QVC that has made them so successful and apply it to our individual businesses.

QVC sales the products of entrepreneurs like you in real time. There tactics and influencers have been effective enough to drive the kind of numbers that they are reporting. Maybe there is something to learn from this phenomenon known as QVC for each of our businesses.

Marketing Lessons from QVC

1) Prominent Product Positioning. Although they are only limited to your television screen, the QVC administrators have mastered art of prominently placing their products on the screen to maximize visibility and give the potential buyers an idea of how big the product is they are viewing and how it is used. This is done by showing the product next to common items in the home or someones hand to give an idea of size. And they are always demonstrating the use of the products as well as giving suggestions on how it can be used by the end buyers.

2) Repetition of your message and selling points. Repetition seems to be one of the key strategies that QVC employs to move their products. And moving their products is their specialty. Watching the show on pillows, they sold over 52,000 units while I was watching the show. Simply amazing! And one of the key points I noticed during this segment was how many times and variety of different ways they repeated the product name and unique selling points. The lesson for you is to make your offering visible and repeat the benefits as often as you can without driving the customer or readers crazy. The point is you have to get your message into their minds so they can realize this is something they need. This can only be done through repetition.

3) Urgency. I love the way QVC uses urgency to convert sales. Yes, they spokes person does let you know that this is a limited time only offer. But the subtle way they do it is the best….with the clock. They will have a countdown clock in the corner of screen letting the viewers know that this product will only be available for the next 5 minutes, so they better act now. Another way they utilize this tactic is by saying there is is only 1,000 of these units available and they show how many are left in stock. Again, emphasizing the urgency the viewer needs to use to get one of these great deals. In your business, maybe you could have time sensitive dates for your readers or customers to act on to take advantage of your offerings.

4) Appeal to Desire to Belong. I had trouble naming this, but it works. The point I am trying to illustrate is they use of “everyone else is doing it, so you should as well” tactic utilized by the QVC. Example, on the screen they would flash how many orders have been sold. As mentioned above, during the sale of the pillows they kept flashing the number of sales they have made. This was done for urgency because they said only so many units would be sold, but also to let people know that others have found this to be a great buy. Sometimes as entrepreneurs and bloggers, we utilize this tactic in the form of testimonials, which QVC does as well with live callers that are buying the products. They allow the presenters to interview them after making a purchase. The viewer identifies with the buyer and thinks maybe this will be a good deal for them as well. The desire to belong is great in a many of our markets, so consider using this tool at your disposal as well.

5) Show Savings. Regardless of the market and especially today, people are looking for a savings. You should not allow the consumers to calculate the savings they will benefit from buying your product or service. QVC does this with the side bar on the screen where they will show the retail price of an item, the marked down price, and the difference is the saving. In addition, they will have specials if someone bought two items, then they would get the second one for $5 off. Instead of just letting this savings slide, they would highlight that and encourage the buyers to get two in order to save more money. The more they buy, the more they save. It is a great way to get your potential buyers one step closer to making a purchase with you.

6) Make Purchase Recommendations.  As mentioned in #5, QVC will make various packages that the buyers can choose from and illustrate the savings involved. This is a great idea, but don’t loss the other recommendation in there. The opportunity to tell your audience what they need. QVC was selling pillows in sets of two, but encourage the viewers to buy two sets of two pillows for the savings, their spouse, even the guest bedroom. If you can build your ethos, trust, with your audience, then they will believe you and take your council in purchase decisions.

7) Connect Features & Benefits to Buyer Needs. You are aware that QVC utilized spokespeople to promote the products during the individual segments. The people are not talking aimlessly about the products they are selling, but they strategically mentioning the features and benefits of each item and drawing a directly relationship to the needs of their buyers. As an example, the pillows were to provide great support for the users and this point was demonstrated by having someone lie on their pillow and a regular store bought pillow. Once this demonstration was made and you could clearly see the difference in the two pillows, the presenters spent a lot of time telling the viewers how and why this will benefit them and solve their needs. Everything from the quality of the pillow will save you money because you will buy less, to the better nights rest and refreshed feeling you will spring out of bed was covered. Your buyers will not buy if they don’t understand how your product will help them out specifically. Spend time driving that point home.

8 ) Easy, Visible Purchase Options. If you watch QVC, there is no doubt that you can find out how to purchase their goods. First of all, the spokesperson is going to mention how you can do this every so often, but it is also plastered all over the screen. They have the phone number visible (large) and the website clearly visible. They let their viewers know exactly how they can pay for the goods, by credit card, eCheck, PayPal, but not C.O.D. It is very important to never leave your potential buyers guessing. Every delay is a moment for them to turn away and entertain someone else’s offer. Don’t give them that chance, provide them the information they need to make a purchase decision.

The Monster Marketer that is QVC

Without a doubt, the people at QVC have mastered their business model and does very well with it. As entrepreneurs, we should not spend out time trying to talk down or bad about another business, but instead we must learn from their successes. Everyday QVC runs in most countries, take a few moments to watch their broadcast from time to time. You might find a bargain that is right up your alley, but I am certain you will feel the power of their marketing efforts, notice the tactics I mentioned, and more.

Now go into the world, find your markets, implement the marketing strategies of the QVC and dominate. These tactics can be used on your website, commercials (if you run them), flyers, during presentations, radio spots, news paper ads, and more. If you find any additional strategies they are using, be sure to share them with us here. We are all here to learn and grow from one another.

First in the Mind, then in Reality!

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Greetings Blog Family,

I wanted to take a quick moment to share something with you that I discovered and had been trying to figure out for some time now. How to link from your WordPress blog to a PayPal payment option?

Why would you want to do this?

If you are actually asking this question, then making money with your blogging efforts might not be your main focus. And that is fine, but there are people out there that are interested in doing such a thing. These individuals might want to sell goods, products, ebooks, ideas, consulting, or even accept donations through their blog, but Paypal doesn’t work the regular way with WordPress.

Why not just use a plugin or a landing page?

Cause I am tired of loading 500 plugins to my sites and using one less will help with my sanity. Ok, maybe it isn’t that bad, but using less plugins than necessary couldn’t hurt. Besides, this method is actually easier than using the plugins that are available.

As for landing pages, well that is another possibility, but it also creates extra work as well. You have create, design, layout, and tweak the landing page to make sure that the branding is consistent with your blog and then upload the PayPal html to make the link work. What a hassle when you can just link directly from your WordPress blog and have all the branding and everything in tact already.

How to link to WordPress to a PayPal Payment.

First of all, go to PayPal and follow these instructions.

1 – Log in to your PayPal account

2 – Click Merchant Services

3 – Click Buy Now Button, or whatever is necessary

4 – Customize your purchase experience

5 – Click on Create Button

6 – THIS IS THE CRUX OF THE MATTER - You will have two options, one with HTML code for Websites & the second for links in email. Even though you are linking from your website, you want to use the Email option, believe it or not.

This is where my problem was in the past because I wanted to use the code for Websites. However, the code for websites is a form and  you are not allowed to use these functions on WordPress. So, use the email link.

7 – Search for a PayPal button that you would like to use & upload to your WordPress blog

8 – Insert the PayPal button in the location you desire, switch to HTML view and create a link from that PayPal button to the email link that you generated from your PayPal account.

9 – Save and Publish!

10 - Smile because you just created a link to your PayPal payment from your WordPress blog and didn’t have to use a plugin or landing page.

Hope this tip is useful for you in the future. I know it is going to help me take my blogging, site flipping, and niche site building efforts to the next level by allowing me to link directly to my PayPal payment pages and not having to use plugins or landing pages.

First in the Mind, then in Reality!

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Greetings Blog Family,

The time has finally come where we get to the conclusion of our first Internet Marketing Experiment #1: Creating an eBook with Help. You can see the first installment of this experiment here, IME#1.

If you recall, the purpose of this experiment was to create an ebook with little to no effort to give away on my blog to subscribers and build my subscription base and email list. The source for this technique was the eCode by Joe Vitale and Jon Ho Mok, from Chapter 30, page 141 #1, 30 Ways to Create an eBook with little to no writing.

So about a month and a half ago, I set out on this experiment. You can view the details here. 

The Results

The crux of the matter is YES, this technique works as I have successfully orchestrated an ebook from this method. Blogosphere Big Shots is the ebook and I urge you to downloads and test it out yourself to see what the quality of the book is now.

I invited 14 Bloggers to submit an article for the ebook, made topic suggestions, created a due date, collected the material, organized it, and produced the ebook. It really was that simple.

Suggestions

If you are going to try this technique yourself, here are few of my suggestions to you.

1) Work with Quality Bloggers – This will cut down on the frustrations because they will hit the deadlines and produce quality content that you desire. This business is all about quality content and good people will deliver that for you. Besides, you will appreciate their professionalism.

2) Define Topics and Length – I made a list of topics and ask each blogger to write on one or two topics. Also, I asked for 500 to 750 words from each blogger per article. This was to give them a guide, but I did let them know that if they needed more words to go for it. Some came in longer, but it was all good.

3) Set Due Date 1 Week Before You Need It – This is an editing trick I learned from running a magazine. Tell the contributors one due date, but have another week in your schedule for extra time. If everything comes in on time great, but usually things won’t and it will not throw your schedule off. Something always comes up when dealing with larger groups of successful people. your roll as coordinator is to work around these issues, so be prepared.

4) Edit as the Articles Come In – This saves time and efficiency. Reduces down time in the project. I didn’t do this personally, but have learned from that mistake. Besides since you are telling the contributors to send in the articles a week early, while you are waiting for all of them to come in you could be editing and not losing any real time on the project.

5) Give Links in the eBook to the Contributing Bloggers – This is the least you could do for them. In my eBook, I wrote a few sentences about the bloggers on their behalf in my own words along with a link back to their respective sites. All of them seemed to really appreciate the personal touch. Give it a try.

Go Get’em!

Well blog Family, there you have it. Our first Internet Marketing Experiment was a success. Hopefully, you learned something during this experiment. At the very least, I hope you realized blogging is a full contact sport and if you get out there and meet, mingle, and communicate with other bloggers, then anything is possible.

If you have any questions, please drop them below. i will be glad to share what I have learned from you and help you make this happen for your blog. I would like to know who out there is considering using this technique in  your business and if you do, please keep me posted and maybe even give me a shout out during your effort. It would be appreciated.

First in the Mind, then in Reality!

IM Experiment #1: Conclusion – Creating an Ebook With Help from Freddie Taylor on Vimeo

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Greetings Blog Family,

What’s crackin this morning? Let’s get down to business. We have work to do and goals to accomplish this week. Let’s be sure to get out the gate running.

You’ve Been Studying

You have been reading, learning, and planning your future blogging empire for months now. You are buying the materials, courses, memberships and more getting ready to take the blogosphere by storm. And this is a great thing. You should be involved in your future to the point that you are planning it out. 

Remember, here at FreddieTaylor.com, we believe Thought is Possibility, First in the Mind, then in Reality. So it is obvious that I am a proponent of planning and forethought.

However, there is a huge problem with excessive planning.

 

The Problem

 

“There will always be a better way.” – Common Sense (Not the rapper!)

There is always a better mouse trap, especially if you are sitting around thinking about it all day and night. You can find flaws in the best of business models from Google to Amazon to Suijej.com. Okay, maybe not Suitej.com, but any other mere mortal’s website. (LOL! I like to razz Suite J with the Ole Big Head Avatar sometimes. He things I am super straight laced.)

Procrastination by Perfection

The point is there will always be imperfections in a business or blog. It is not what you can notice from pre-launch stage, but the practical alterations made in the post launch phase or actual business.

There comes a point when you have to let go and shoot the ball. Let the business out of the box. 

Go Before You’re Ready

All the lights will never be green, your ducks will never be in a row, but at some point you have to go for it. Success is not a destination, but a journey. You cannot partake of this journey from the business sidelines. Let’s go, Blog Family!

Surprise Contest – Find the error in video and win 125×125 banner ad.

- The first person to comment correctly about the error in the video, wins!
- The error I am thinking about, may be other areas, but only one is the winning error.
- You must be a subscriber to enter be considered for victory.
- Winner gets a 1 month 125×125 banner ad on FreddieTaylor.com
- How’s that for my first contest? Basically, I notice this error while finalizing this post and didn’t want to go back and make the change. So, I decided to reward the first person that finds it & hopefully no one else will mention it. Agreed?

*************************************************

Do you go to early or wait to long to launch a business or change in your business?

Let’s hear it in the comment section.

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