#1: I Enjoy What I’m Doing

Let’s face it, even if you are doing well (refering to income) from something you do, but find it a chore, repetitive, boring, etc, you’d bound to quit doing it after a period of time (depending on the financial return, it could be weeks, months or years). Which is why you hear of bankers, lawyers and even doctors becoming actors, singers and sometimes even internet marketers!

If you’re contemplating starting a podcast or a vidcast, consider the fact that you might have few (or possibly no) listeners/viewers while you’re starting up. Do you keep going? Or do you write it off as something that “doesn’t work”? (There’s a number of parallels with internet marketing and affiliate marketing here…)

Choosing something you enjoy means it’ll bring you intrinsic joy (you get pleasure from doing the activity itself) vs doing it for money or free stuff.

#2: Being Prepared

A carryover from my days as a journalist, it takes a couple of hours to prepare for each call before I get on the conference with the guest. This time is spend researching the guest, reading their blog, forum posts, checking out their speaking gigs at events, conferences, other podcasts.

This boils down to “knowing your shit”.

Some podcasts can go on an ad-hoc, free wheeling, stream-of-consciousness style. I’ve noticed they tend to die after a couple of weeks or 6 months down the road, where the folks feel they have said all they’ve had to say.

Planning is important, especially if you’re seeing podcasting as a long-haul effort, vs just pumping out 1-2 podcasts, then trying to figure out what to do next.

#3 Create Value and Paying It Forward

You may publish a free podcast, but it costs you time, effort and some cash to put it together.

Likewise, listeners also “pay” with time spent listening to the call.

Aiming to give value to the listeners should be a priority for any current or potential content publisher. Do listeners leave feeling good, feeling like they’ve learned something? That they can apply something in their life or business?

If you delivered on those aspects, you’ve succeeded in your mission.

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Of these principles, I consider having fun to be the most important. Because if you aren’t, chances are that others won’t either.

Live long and prosper.

In an episode of TheSpew, a business-related podcast on the GeekCast content network, I had the opportunity to discuss this issue with Missy Ward, Lisa Picarille, Connie Berg and Karen White.

While Missy and Shawn Collins are able to effectively inject personal opinions, together with the business content in their twitter streams and blog posts, some of us who’re focused towards corporate clients who are less familiar with the social media environment and operate on a more “rules-based” corporate culture, seeing someone tweet about how great “Lost” was last night or “Free Cone Day” at Ben and Jerry’s might be perplexed, confused and even get riled up because they can’t figure it out.

If you’re a consultant/trainer, there’s a split between presenting a professional image because that’s what’s expected, compared to having the free rein to say what you really think.

It was insightful hearing Lisa, Karen, Connie and Missy who are all engaged with consulting, share their experience in managing these expectations. And any social marketer can get some food for thought in handling this personal vs professional dichotomy on the social networks.

Check out TheSpew Episode #8 on GeekCast.

Having worked with large campaigns, I had a chance to ask her about setting up and launching new websites, especially for internet marketers with smaller operations.

During our discussion, we talked about:

• How Danielle got involved in internet marketing
• The elements to create a long term and sustainable web business
• How to organize your site structure for user accessibility and search engine crawlability
• Conducting competitive research and using that data in your campaign
• How to optimize your site, including specific techniques
• A case study of a successful website which is tweaked regularly
• How to incorporate specific techniques to increase repeat visitors and customer retention

Check out the podcast below:

Links:

• Danielle’s MsDanielle blog
• Danielle on twitter
• Bankaholic

During the course of our conversation, Sam talked about:

• How he got involved in online marketing and his quest to become a Renaissance man.
• How he has “given up marketing”
• Ethics and morals in affiliate marketing
• What inspires him to podcast
• The origin and direction of his Thinking.fm podcast network
• Monetization options for podcast network owners
• One of his favorite podcasts and why it works effectively

Sam’s one of the deep thinkers in the internet marketing industry and it’s always a pleasure to talk to authority who helps shape the industry.

Checkout the podcast below:

Links:

• Sam Harrelson’s personal website
• Sam on Twitter
• Thinking.fm
• Sam’s previous Friday Podcast appearance

Or the opposite scenario “no one” is doing it, so you should be the first.

I have been downloading and listening fairly religiously to the Geekcast podcasts (one of the Geeksters Shawn Collins mentioned that the new episodes come out every Tuesday) and watching Gary Vaynerchuk’s video posts.

So the $1m question is if you like this audio and video content, should you also jump on the metaphorical bandwagon and fire up your Flip camera too?

Here’s where I might differ from some of the others – there’s 2 elements to communication – there’s form (whether you write something on a sheet of paper, take a photo, do a blog post, shoot a video) and there’s function (AKA content) – the meaning behind your message.

In the rock-paper-scissors equation of multimedia…

• graphics trump text-alone (a picture says a thousand words?)
• audio trumps graphics (usually)
• and video trumps static images and audio, right?

In most cases, if you’re judging the value of communication (whether it’s a blog post, a forum post), on the FORM alone, that might be true.

But once you add the function/content equation into it,  I think Content > Form.

I’ve listened to scratchy MP3 files remastered from decaying audio cassette tapes (remember what those are?) to get some information which I’ve then been able to apply in my business or in my personal life.

You might’ve had the experience of walking in a crummy used bookstore and picked up a crumbling ragged old book (rare and out-of-print to boot), and might’ve picked up some useful information.

They say that “knowledge is power” – I don’t think that quite works, rather “applied knowledge is power”

Notice the “container” in which the information came in doesn’t play into the equation.

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Applying this to the audio/video channels and especially to social media – providing value to your consumers is going to be key to your survival in the long-term.

Building on business fundamentals and borrowing from some of the dubious PR spin out there, creating a “unique user experience” can and does provide some novelty value (even if it’s something as unique as the Naked News).

But if you want longevity, you MUST have a reason beyond “nobody/everybody is also doing a podcast or video blog”

Bottomline: the last man (or woman) standing at the end of the day is going to be the one who bears in mind the saying “it’s about the content, stupid.“

Instead of going along the lines of “what product to create”, an asset-based approach and solving a need will help you conceptualize a product with a hungry market behind it.

Click the “more” tab to access the notes:

In the business world, creating and marketing your own product ranks at the top of the value chain.

It creates unmatched opportunities to:
1) Brand yourself
2) Control product or service pricing and distribution
3) Gives you free rein to develop related products, form joint ventures.

Bottomline is that you’re in control.

Misbelief is that you need to put together something exotic like belly dancing or how to make a blackforest cake to have it sell online.

Not true.

—when i first started blogging, i had the belief that i needed to blog about something that no one was talking or writing about. needed to invent new techniques… not true.

Instead, you need to find something you’re good at, and you’re capable of teaching, to put it online, and more importantly market it effectively to the people who will find it relevant.

Assets – easy to think of ebook or a CD or DVD as an asset, but it’s more than that.
A particularly insightful forum posting or email reply, or a comprehensive answer on your customer support board forms the foundation of your knowledge base.

Some criticism about “crappy ebooks”. A lot of it has to deal with the fact that there’s no “knowledge base” in place.

So want to go beyond thinking of selling a physical or electronic book, or a CD, DVD or teleseminar for a moment and focus only on assets.

Assets are your knowledge. Something you know, something useful to somebody else that will bring them value, help them solve a problem and that they’re be willing to pay a fee for, to solve a problem or challenge they’re facing.

Looking at the root of things, let’s look at tapping the assets you already possess.

what you already know and seems common will provide value to someone out there.

• know how to cook chicken fried rice – lots of americans and europeans coming over to singapore, find that the local food here is delicious. wouldn’t you logically be able to market it to ready market over ebay or your own product site?
• curry national dish in the UK – what passes for curry isn’t very pleasant, why not put together your receipes and start marketing them.
• stay at home mom in pennsylvania or ohio and you have a great biscuits and gravy receipe – get in touch with me. it’s one of my favorite foods. would be popular in asia.
• busy professionals, how do you keep your house in decent condition in 1 hours quick cleaning a week?

know lots of programmers who’d benefit from it.

So the issue with creating a product or generating a profit with it has nothing to do with how to create a CD or write a book.
The issue is more basic than that.
So skip the idea of thinking you have to be an accomplished belly dancer. You don’t even have to be a rocket scientist to do well on the Internet.

You only need to be able to think out of the box, and bring value to your customers.

Notes follow, click the “More” below:

The Next Internet Millionaire.

There’s a virus spreading across the internet, especially hitting those who’ve just come onto the web.
I call it the “Spectator” mentality:

Symptoms include: listening to WebmasterRadio all day, but the irony is you might know everything, but never really DO anything about it.
Efforts might include setting up a 5-page website, or a blog somewhere or a squidoo lens.

Do you use the “hope and pray” model of traffic generation and monetization?

Set it up, let it sit, heck stats every few hours then wonder why there’re no sales?

Unfortunately neither Internet Marketing nor life is not a spectator sport,
Creating a website and letting it standing there in the middle of cyberspace is like erecting a billboard in the desert.

Is it any wonder that new marketers frequently come crying that Internet Marketing “doesn’t work”?

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There’s more to internet marketing than spending a couple of hours making a website and letting it sit there.

In the Japanese language, the word “problem” is also same word as “opportunity”.

A comedian once said:

Can you help me with my credit card opportunity?
“I am experiencing many cash opportunities! Would you like to help?”

Call me cynical, but i think help should be reserved for the helpless?

Want help? learn to help yourself.

“no money, but want to start in Internet Marketing?”

Reality check: what’s complaining about it going to do?
Precedent: of the gurus and successful affiliates I know, a number only had $20 in the bank starting out.

Solution: get a payday loan, cash advance, borrow from friends and family.
To make some quick cash: go to forum, check the services section: do directory submission, write an article, go to blogger, set up a content site.
[not encouraged for the long term, but you do what you need to to survive]

Look at your options, most important, take action!

Success factors:

• Attitude: do you see opportunity or problems?
• Action: willing to put in effort to get what you want? Or are you using the hope and pray method? not very effective.
• The X-Factor: you need to see it inside of yourself, you need to stop guru worshipping, stop out of the shadows.

I appreciate positive comments, but what would encourage me more is hearing about your success in applying some of what you read on this blog, another blog, or on a forum.

Wondering who the next internet millionaire is going to be?
Head to the bathroom, and look in the mirror.

Notes follow (click on “More”)

Marketing Wizard Yanik Silver, has started a new series on his Internet Lifestyle blog.
So I’d like to reflect on what the “Internet lifestyle” means to me.

In prison, biggest pain is being prevented from doing what you want.

Out here, you might be in a different type of prison, restrained by having to go to the office from 9 to 5, or restained by being unable to go on a vacation (except during down time, whenever that may be).

The Internet lifestyle gives:

Money Freedom

-freedom from bills, freedrom from worrying about inflation, freedom from having to think about paying the mortgage.
Which is one of the reasons why cash advance, mortgage refinance and credit cards are among the hottest CPA offers.

Compare Time freedom versus Money freedom.
Time freedom is an even bigger one.

Time freedom to me means being able to bring my daughter to playschool twice a week, going to the mall in the middle of the afternoon, or taking a 2 hour nap after lunch, watching movie in the afternoon.

The Freedom of time, Freedom of money.
That’s the Internet Lifestyle.

Download audio file (WhoIsAndrewWee.com-friday-podcast4.mp3)

For session notes, click more:
Podcast content development

The 2 points of view from the world of podcasting:

• Podcaster-centric: me, me, me. generally works if you’re a celebrity, a known face. famous or notorious. what you say is news.
• Listener-centric: what do people who tune into this podcast want to hear.

Psychographics: profiling and being aware of your listeners profile and demographics

Psychographic date:

• age
• gender
• location
• what are their interests?
• experience level? new? experienced? expert?

Your podcasting mission: create something appropriate.
Being all things to all men:

Although some might try to create content that appeals to everyone, you’ll not have much success.

Does it work?

Similar to a website which appeals to everyone.

You will have some success, but traffic profile will be quite fragmented.
Do you choose to be brutally honest? Do you want to be encouraging?

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The search for news:
look for news:

The “eyes wide open” approach:

• keep eyes and ears open for content
• be disciplined in your filtering process
• check sources like google news, slashdot.net or boingboing, techcrunch
• set up news alerts at various services
• use RSS – scan headlines (accumilate news) let it run into hundreds. if in thousands, can see patterns, sets you up to do a ‘trend’ or industry story,

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Podcast Story Development:

Develop an angle to every story.

• flat report – factual based
• personality – a viewpoint for or against a position

Are you?

• Howard Stern
• Rush Limbaugh
• Larry King, probe where viewers are keen to find more information.

The Short Attention Span Audience
It’s very important to cut to the chase.
On the net, assume everyone has a short attention span
Same principles as Internet Marketing, you need to capture your listeners attention within the first 10 seconds.

If you bore them, you will lose them.

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Mr Personality
Most important factor is that you must feel you have something to say.
You might have good info, but if you feel it’s boring, or you don’t want to do it, it will show.
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Conclusion:

• Content development: Be listener-centric
• Develop an angle
• Keep the interest level high