Branding The World Daily

Learn Together, Build Together, Earn Together

Source: http://btwdaily.com

Do you want to learn the basics to online marketing?A lot of new people come online every day. Oftentimes, they are at a loss and don't know where to start. I went through the same thing when I started. I still learn a lot to this day. That's one important thing to keep in mind before you start. Your mindset. You need to know what you want to achieve, then just work on how to get there.

I'm a part of a small community group where we learn about HTML basics, setting up and maintaining a WordPress blog, Tracking ad promotions and campaigns, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your site, setting up and making a lead-capture page, among others. I must say that I've already learned a lot by joining our group. It's called Branding the World Daily (BTW Daily). Ted Sawyer holds discussions daily 11:00 A.M. EST.

One valuable lesson I've learned is to BRAND MYSELF. This is crucial if you want to create an online presence. I currently have a self-hosted site in my name. I Am Raincrystal. I strive to maintain a site that is filled with quality content. A lot of the tips, insights, and suggestions I share stemmed from BTW Daily discussions and learnings. I encourage you to check out my site and join us in Branding the World Daily. Hope to see you there! ^_^

Branding Is The Key To Your Success Online!

I'm sharing this from an email I received today. It's truly too good not to share...

If you're a member of the traffic exchange featured below, then no doubt you would have received it too. I just hope that you stopped long enough to read it... LOL :p So thank you to Matthew Graves for this...

The question is a common one.

"What is the most important thing I should do first to achieve success online?"

Well, after more than a decade working in the Internet Marketing business, and more than 3 decades is business overall, my experience has taught me that building a recognizable name in your niche is a key to lasting success. Many people and businesses come and go, especially in the traffic exchange and Internet Marketing world. However, there are a group of names that everyone in the industry recognizes. Right off the top of my head, here are a few that come to mind: Jon Olsen, Paul Kinder, Tony Tezak, Darren Olander, Sean Supplee, Tim Rash, Tim Linden, John Guanzon, Steve Ayling ... and the list goes on. I can think of a whole group of others, who I hope will forgive me for not including them here.

The important point is that you want your name on that list of names which immediately come to mind when someone thinks about your niche.

The key to your long-lasting Internet success is not getting a sale or signup this week. When you are first starting out in this business, your focus needs to be on building your brand. Building your brand is just as important to you as building the Coke brand is to Coca-Cola. You want to become a recognized authority in your field. With that authority comes influence and with influence comes income.

So, you ask, how do you build your brand? Well, the scope of that question is beyond a single email, but here is a good first start.

1. Focus On Your Brand First - What you focus on is what will get done. Keep your focus on building your brand at this point, not on making a sale. You want long-term success, not short-term, fleeting signups. Make sure your efforts are focused on the long-term effects.

2. Become an Expert - You cannot learn too much about your niche. In order to build the respect and influence of others, you have to know what you are talking about. Simple as that. Learn all that you can, and only communicate what you know. Don't damage your brand with what you say.

3. Personalize Your Promos - You don't want to be promoting generic affiliate signup pages, banners, or text ads. You want your name, or even better, your name and picture out there. Just make sure the picture is a good representation of yourself. It shouldn't look like a jail mugshot. The tools that are available to create your own splash pages and banners, like AdKreator or InstantSplash, make doing this so easy.

4. Prepare Your Tools - The best core tool to building your brand is a blog. It is the heart of any branding campaign. You want people to subscribe to your blog and you want to distribute interesting and valuable information in your blog posts. Wordpress has a great free blog service, as do other sites like BlogSpot. To drive members to your blog, use the social media tools, like Facebook and Twitter. Of course, use the traffic exchanges and list builders to drive traffic to your blog as well.

5. Build Relationships - The best way to get people to remember you is for them to really get to know you. Be yourself online. Build your online relationships just like the offline ones. Treat people with respect and focus on how you can help them. The more help you give away, the more you will receive in return. Use Facebook - how many friends do you have? Join groups within your niche. Participate in webinars, like those by TE Live and Affiliate Funnel. Get your name and personality out there.

So there you have it! For all the newbies out there, this is a concise format of what you need to work on as you're starting on your journey to success. I've started on my path, I hope it won't take long before you do so as well.

Association, Recall, & Personal Branding

Association (definition) - the process of forming mental connections between sensations, ideas, or memories

Recall (definition) - the process of remembering (especially the process of recovering information by mental effort)

Yes, I did begin this post with two definitions. However, I don't really want to go into lengthy, academic discussions over these concepts. What I do want is to mention them in relation to Personal Branding. If you're new and unsure what the term means, simply put, it is establishing your identity together with the products you are promoting. It could be adding your picture -- I suggest using a nice-looking picture --, your name or nickname -- I like using Rain (short for Raincrystal) as I like it and it's easier to remember and spell LOL --, using a favorite color, or coming up with your own logo.

As a classic example, the image on the left brings to mind a popular fast food chain. Even little children can recognize this famous brand. I'm sure you do too. ^_^

Locally, where I am from, this character on the right is the trademark for the most popular local competitor of the yellow arches above. Having an identity is truly important as it sets you apart from the rest. This isn't any different in Internet marketing. You would want people to see your picture and name on splash pages and associate it with the programs you are promoting. 

Personal branding is a way for people to know you, and hopefully to like and trust you. It takes time to build a good relationship with people -- online or offline, but branding is something you can start doing early on, if you're serious about online marketing.

Personal branding is just the start. You will need to go out there and interact with people, perhaps chat a little on traffic exchanges, read and comment on blogs and forums of interest. Just a little note or pointer though, it would really help if you be yourself and be genuinely interested in people. And since you would be promoting yourself, I believe it would be to your advantage to be tactful and mindful of your comments and conduct. After all, you wouldn't want to establish a negative association with your name or brand. I've seen some people getting a lot of attention by being nasty in their comments. I personally don't think it helps.

Another tip is to find a really good program and stick with it. Start small but be consistent and persistent. If you are to sign-up with different programs, try to choose ones that you would personally recommend even to family and friends. Remember, you're promoting with your brand so you wouldn't want to be associated with bogus programs and tarnish your name and reputation.

On a final note, I would like to credit Diane Merriam for inspiring me to write today's post. I've read and re-read her book, Branding For Dollar$ and I find it helpful and informative.

In upcoming posts, I plan to share information from e-books that I've read or been reading. Often times a number of us download these free resources but hardly read them at all. LOL! I intend to share bits and pieces as well as give my own inputs. So watch out for that..