Anyway, you know what free seminars I'm talking about, right? The ones that you get invited to all the time through the mail? You know, the ones that promise to give you a free gift and a complimentary lunch or dinner just for attending? They’re usually about some sort of packaged real estate, marketing, or motivational deal that they’re trying to sell you. The way they promote them is really pretty annoying, I have to admit. They seem to try to make you feel like you’ve been specially hand-selected from an elite handful of A-listed professionals and executives to attend some secret meeting that no one else in your industry has the right to attend. Psssshhhhh…please. We all know better. Because we know better, most people HATE those things. Well, I’ve got a little secret. I LOVE those things!! I’m not kidding either. I go to almost all of them that I get invited to.
Last Friday I attended a one that was put on by StoresOnline Incorporated. It was considered a “preview” (I later found out) to what would soon be a “great opportunity”. After work at 6:00pm I attended the seminar with my buddy "Think-tank". This is the guy I go to when I need to bounce an idea off of someone. He’s the kind of guy who won’t just say, “mm-hhmmm” like most other people do. He’ll jump right in there and conceptualize with me. He’s probably just humoring me, actually, but that’s valuable to me. If I ever really do achieve my big break through, this is the guy that’s going to claim the assist. Like me, he’s always got a new idea or two floating around, and needs a good sounding board and/or devil’s advocate perspective.
So anyway, “Think-tank” and I went to this thing and enjoyed the presentation. Now, just for the record, I very rarely go to these things to buy into what is being sold. Yes, I know that there will ALWAYS be something for sell. However, I typically go for the free information that is being packaged around the products that are for sell. The free give-aways are nice too, but even they are really just a novelty fringe benefit that ends up getting discarded. For instance, a few months ago, I attended a seminar by a guy named Randy Crane. What a fascinating dude. He’s a very successful and very good presenter of information, and quite approachable. His deal was real estate. Yes, he was selling products and services, but that isn’t what I went in for, nor is it what I left with. I left with a free give-away (CD by Robert Kiyosaki - one of my long-time motivational mentors), some mints (you can never have too many mints), and some information about the mortgage industry that I had never heard before. This was my first introduction to MMA’s (Merge Market Accounts), and about how negative amortization loans work. I learned how to buy homes that are in foreclosure, how to keep from going into foreclosure and I learned about bit more about what other types of investments there are out there. That was a VERY valuable education to me. Being a people-person, I also walked away with a better understanding about how to make a good presentation, how to keep the interest of the audience, and how useful a good PowerPoint presentation is. It was a well-spent 90 minutes.
Well, at the end of Friday’s seminar, “Think-tank” and I discussed what we liked and disliked about the presentation. Did the guy maintain a good level of attention from the audience? Did he use good slides and other visual aids? Was he compelling enough to close the deal with his audience? And so on… The free dinner was okay (but FREE), the give-away (a planner/calculator/address book) was crap, and the internet marketing information was actually pretty good. The best part was that I actually wanted to know MORE about this company’s internet marketing strategies by the time the presentation was over. At $20 for two people, it was a no-brainer. So, for just $20, we signed up to participate in their ALL-DAY internet marketing workshop. My logic; in the worst case scenario, I’d just get up and walk out of the workshop at a cost of $20, and go back to work. “Think-tank” was in too, so at least I would have someone there to commiserate with and cut the cost in half since we could BOTH attend for that price.
Monday morning I came in and put in for a day off on Wednesday the 29th. So, yesterday, I got to sleep in until 7:30 (and hour an a half extra) and got into my usual business casual attire, and headed out for the Red Rock Hotel & Casino, prepared to learn a new thing or two about the great world of internet marketing. As an owner and administrator of 2 websites, I was definitely NOT disappointed! This ended up being one of the best spent $20 I’ve had in very long time! They’re not kidding when they say that investing in your education is the best way to go!
The workshop started out slowly and typically enough. First things first, they wasted the first hour or so reviewing stuff we had been told about StoresOnline last Friday at the “preview”. More about the “deal” they were offering. Then, finally, their equivalent to a keynote speaker was introduced. The guys name was Victor Gonzales. This guy was GREAT. He was funny, insightful, educational, engaging and NOT pompous (a relief after listening to some of the StoresOnline staff). He wasn’t an employee of StoresOnline, but was invited by them to speak as a successful StoresOnline software end-user client. I have to admit that as the day went on, I found myself REALLY wanting the StoresOnline software. It seems all-inclusive, extremely intuitive, and very useful. Unfortunately it would cost me more than I was willing to part with (for now). I already HAVE two websites, e-commerce capability, and enough curiosity and drive to learn on my own how to find other needed resources. Nevertheless, the software looks AWESOME. Not $2,700 per year and $30 per month awesome, but awesome nonetheless.
The non-biased and generic internet marketing information Victor taught throughout the day was invaluable to me! I learned a TON of new marketing strategies that I’m VERY excited to try out on my own websites. Lunch was provided as a part of the $20 is cost me to attend (yes, it cost me $20 and not just $10 because “Think-tank” was unable to attend). Lunch was definitely a secondary thought when this whole thing was planned. Ugh… I wasn’t even sure chicken (if, in fact, that’s what it was) could come in that shape. Oh well... it wasn’t extra and I didn’t starve. It may, however, have contributed to the major migraine I ended up going to bed with last night.
In hind sight, I would gladly have paid $100 to attend that workshop for all the valuable information I came away with. Here are just a select few of the strategies that were covered in great deal over the 8 hours I attended;
- Drop Shipping (a way to earn money with relatively no overhead in a win/win relationship
- What a Conversion Rate (CR) is and how it can affect my business
- What Value Per Visitor (VIV) is and how I can use it
- The 8 critical website features (LOL…I’m currently only employing 3 of them…Oops!!)
- The 3 most commonly made internet marketing mistakes (I’m making 2 of them…Ugh!!)
- Definition of a “Shadow Site”
- The value of a Reverse Search Engine
- How to effectively target specific demographics
- The 2-Step Distribution method
- The correct process to new website creation and research
- How search engines function
- How to optimize a website to be highly ranked by search engines
- The definition and use of Geo-targeting
- The differences between vertical and horizontal portals and how to use them effectively
- The definition and uses of Affiliate programs and Link Trading
Overall, the workshop was WELL worth my time and $20. Was it worth taking a day off from work? ABSOLUTELY!
I've learned: that not being on the first page of a search engine is like putting a billboard up in the middle of a forest.
I'm glad: That I now have some tools that have been proven to improve internet marketing success
I wish: that I would have had this information before I built my websites initially!
I will: spend some much needed time refining my websites and building more based on this new information.
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