So you are a serial investor in internet programs and can’t get no satisfaction (apologies to the Rolling Stones)? Do you want to have a blog and have no idea where to start? Are you tech-challenged and the idea of running a website actually scares the pants off you – could be embarrassing!
You are not alone. If you seriously want to start a blog there is a great program for you. It is called Become a Blogger. It’s a series of videos hosted by Gideon Shalwick. Yaro Starak is a partner in the program and he provides very valuable strategic direction. I have written about both Gideon and Yaro and their approach to the business of internet marketing and blogging. I am particularly impressed by their hard work makes good approach and not promising overnight success.
What is the Become a Blogger (BAB) Program ?
BAB is a series of step by step videos that set you on the course of setting up and optimizing a blog through to monetization of your efforts. It is for beginners or near beginners who may have stumbled through on their own or who might be dissatisfied with other programs that failed to provide practical steps to getting started. Without the practical advice it is unlikely you will be able to TAKE ACTION in an effective manner.
Gideon and Yaro give you some straightforward practical steps. It is hand holding if you like. If you sincerely want to TAKE ACTION this program is for you.
BAB takes you through the steps of starting a Wordpress blog with your own website and the plugs ins you must have. Do you want to back up your blog? Do you want to be found by search engines? Look for guidance in BAB.
Gideon’s passion is multimedia and he guides you through putting images, audio and video on you blog. This all lets you stand out from the crowd. Don’t worry it is for beginners and you should be able to follow the detailed step by step screen shots. You will be amazed what you can do in a few simple steps.. If you get stuck you can post a question that will be answered promptly.
Gideon’s excellent step by step videos helped me start a Podcast on my hat blog Many Hatty Returns and get it on iTunes. Please check out my Podcast on Many Hatty Returns and on iTunes. All of this was developed using Gideon’s advice.
BAB will also help you with writer’s cramp if you suffer from that and other mission critical stuff like traffic generation and monetization.
If you are looking for an advanced exploration of the topics you probably will not find it in BAB. You will definitely get enough information to get you started and up and running. You will get support from Gideon and Yaro. You might want to check out Yaro’s more advanced programs such as Blog Mastermind.
Here is a flavour of the type of guidance you get in BAB:
The seven steps to create your own email opt in form using the AWeber email service.
Create a confirmation page and an opt in page
Create a new list in AWeber
Modify the confirmation details
Create a new Web Form
Copy and Paste the code into your blog sidebar
Program your first follow up message
Testing everything
Yes this looks intimidating but I promise you that you will be following it in no time. If you decide to hire a tech person to do this stuff you will certainly understand it better by following Gideon’s step by step approach.
Unlike many programs you continue to have access to the training and guidance after you have paid for it and the course is officially over. That is not what you get on many other membership programs so take particular note of this. All of us have events in life that cause us to stumble for a while. It is comforting that you can go back and restart or review the training on Gideon and Yaro’s membership sites and not worry about losing anything. (I joined another membership site in the summer to help with multimedia training. I signed up for a six month period. When my Mother passed away in September I lost three months as I cut back on a lot of my activities. The only way to have continued access to the valuable training was for me to renew and renew and renew. In Gideon and Yaro’s programs there are no such worries beyond your reasonable commitment when you join).
The icing on the cake are the conference calls with Yaro and Gideon at least once a month.
Members of Gideon and Yaro’s programs pose questions at all levels and often this lasts two hours (thank you Skype for making it affordable). You can pose questions in the forum and listen to the archived version of course. Part of the fun for me is to interact with Gideon and Yaro personally. AND you get to participate even after you have paid and run the course of the training period. It keeps on giving. This stuff is worth 10 times the price of the programs in my opinion.
The Become a Blogger site is re-launching this week. The first step is to grab your copy of the free ebook Road Map to Become a Blogger.
I am an affiliate of all of Gideon and Yaro’s programs, and yes FTC I get paid commissions if you join through me. I am also an affiliate of AWeber.
I have spent the summer learning a whole lot of things about blogging. I have learned the ins and outs of Twitter and I have over 7,500 followers. I recently started podcasting on Many Hatty Returns http://www.manyhattyreturns.com. Recently I have been working on getting some You Tube videos on line. I bought a camera and I have a number of videos in the can and I am about to edit them. I joined Dave Kaminski’s Webvideo University and he is teaching me how to get web video on line from a technical and marketing perspective. I need the hand holding to get over the fear factor. I will post a review of Dave’s program soon. You can check Dave’s program out by clicking on the banner on this site. Dave has a very useful free weekly email with tips of relatively little or unknown sites/techniques (I am an affiliate and student in his program).
I joined Yaro Starak’s Membership Site program but I confess I am behind a bit due to other commitments. I like the ability to go at my own pace and that I am still a member after the payment program ends. I completed the Blog Mastermind Program and I really loved it. What I have seen of Yaro’s membership training I really love. Yaro recently re-opened the program and I have updated my post (includes my affiliate links to Yaro’s programs).
I am ready now to get back to this site and to feed you with some information and tidbits about my blogging experiences and lessons learned.
Time is here again for me to share my frustrations and experiences with the business of blogging. I reiterate that I am still a beginner like many of you and I am seeking the keys to doing well on the Internet. I have found that it takes time. I do not believe that it is the impossible dream.
SIGN UP FOR MEMBERSHIP MASTERMIND ENDS TODAY MONDAY MAY 11 AT MIDNIGHT EST (IE EASTERN NORTH AMERICA TIME - YOU FIGUR IT OUT) ACT SOON
I have previously written this week about having a profitable membership site. Just recently I completed Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind course on Blogging and I am a very satisfied student. I also joined Yaro’s Membership Site Mastermind Course. The relaunch of the course is ending in a very few days on Monday! The good thing about a membership site is that you only need a few hundred students to make it profitable. You can make a profit in a very narrow niche since the whole world is at you disposal at least the English speaking world or perhaps in your own language? There are endless possibilities. I personally am eager to find out more and would love to have you as a fellow student and I can see your input on the Membership Site Forum.
If you are still sitting on the fence down load the very content rich copy of Yaro’s Free no obligation e-book now. If you do not want to continue receiving Yaro’s (or anybody else’s emails for that matter) you can unsubscribe at any time.
Just to give you a flavour of the content of the report here are the Chapter headings:
Yaro recently interviewed a Brazilian Blogger who set up a new membership site yielding him $10,000 a month from a membership site.
Daniel Scocco used his blog as a launch pad for a membership site.
He did a 5-day launch and brought in OVER 200 members at $48 a month. If you do the math on that, he generated a $10,000 a month income stream in just five days.
That’s incredible and inspiring stuff and you can hear Daniel and Yaro break down exactly what he did in this podcast interview here (it won’t cost you anything) -
What’s particularly powerful about Daniel’s story was how he was able to leverage the relationships he built up with high-profile experts in his industry.
He invited well known people to contribute content to his membership site, which meant he didn’t have to do all the content creation work.
He also leveraged their fame and access to people to help sell his membership site. A brilliant strategy that you could replicate in your market, so you need to listen to this interview.
Please do not wait any longer to join me on Yaro’s Membership Site Mastermind program. You only have until next Monday!
Fair Disclosure
I am an affiliate of both the Blog Mastermind Program and the Membership Site Mastermind Program.
Yaro Starak’s Membership Site Mastermind Site Program opens up TODAY. In my last post you will find my unreserved endorsement of Yaro Starak and his approach to coaching. (I myself am a member of his programs and I find them really useful. And I am a professional accountant - albeit out of the box sometimes). The post also links to a video where Yaro looks at two case studies of membership program launches. I think and hope that you will be impressed by Yaro’s personable approach as I am.
The Master Plan e book is chock full of information on how to set up Membership Sites on the Internet.
This is a very valuable program that will teach you all the steps to getting your membership site program on line. You will get access to my Internet mentor Yaro Starak.
You can JOIN NOW at the following page. (WARNING if you don’t like long sales pages watch the video at the top of the landing page instead)
Good luck with your membership site and enjoy Yaro’s program.
If you are a Blogger like me you owe it to yourself to take a look at this avenue of monetizing your passion further and take it beyond affiliate sales to the next level. I am in Yaro’s Membership Site Program and I really hope that you will join me and we can interact in the Forums and elsewhere as fellow students.
Sorry for the sales type posting here. I really like Yaro and everything he does. If I was not fully behind him I would not be this forceful with affiliate links even.
Yaro Starak my all time mentor is re-launching his Membership Site Program. Yaro is a young Australian with mysterious Toronto connections (no it’s not me) who is going from strength to strength in the Internet Marketing business.
For a number of years now Yaro has been a blogger. I have completed Yaro’s Blog Mastermind and Membership site programs (updated) and I am a very satisfied student. Yaro is quite the opposite of your normal Internet marketer.
Here are Five Reasons I recommend Yaro Starak.
He does not Spam you in the sales funnel process
He offers free e-books that are substantial and content rich and actually provide a lot of tools for you to get started. Yes you need to sign up for his email list to get the ebook (he teaches this method in his courses). However, the emails themselves contain very valuable hints.
Check out the ebooks for his two main programs. You can grab your own copies of these valuable resources at the following links.
He teaches that success comes through effort and does not hold out the promise of instant riches with little or no investment of time or money.
He is the very opposite of many of the late night Internet marketing jockeys I see on late night television. These imply that you can gain the keys to freedom for something like $39.95. Clearly this nominal “investment” is just the beginning and you will be asked to join programs with a monthly subscription or buy additional products. These people just don’t tell you upfront what the investment of money or time is required. Yaro is very upfront about the cost of his programs and he does have a real guarantee. He also preaches the work ethic. You may not succeed if you do the work but you will certainly fail if you do not apply the lessons. Unfortunately too many people have been lead to believe that they can succeed with little effort and their dreams of financial independence or just getting out of the unemployment or welfare trap are easily crushed. I have paid for many programs in the past and Yaro’s is the best. I have actually applied his advice and I am way further than I would have been without him. I’m not profitable yet but Yaro has helped me stay on target and I believe I will succeed through continuing focus.
He cares about your success
Yes, this sounds sappy and you may not believe it. It’s not about numbers at any price. He looks at a smaller number of students and a higher yet reachable cost. Just the right price to ensure you value the content and treat it seriously but not prohibitively expensive for most. (Note Yaro discusses the various pricing methods in his Membership Site Free Report). He also explains things well and does not talk down to you. You do not have to have a college degree to understand them. Many of his segments are designed to keep your morale up. I have been encouraged to continue by looking at Yaro’s smiley positive face and his encouraging writing. He has been there done that and probably did not even get the T Shirt. You and I can profit from his early mistakes and get up on the learning curve by avoiding Yaro’s early mistakes and profiting from his experiences.
The lessons and resources are detailed, numerous and focused
You will not be disappointed with the resources and lessons in Yaro’s courses. He uses a combination of written words, spoken words and videos. He adds useful external references to the mix. The whole experience is enhanced through Forums and frequent Conference calls that are tailored to different world time zones.
Remember again you actually have to participate.
Many have said that Yaro’s stuff is too detailed. Don’t worry or get stressed out. You may have day jobs at least for the time being. You do not have to rush to get through his programs since you have continuing access after the program is finished so you can catch up at your pace. That’s the point these are the courses that keep on giving and giving even when your official lessons are over - you still have access to Yaro.
Yaro does not practice a “bait and switch” approach
Many programs will have a front person making the sales pitch and you will be turned over to “Associates” who actually teach you the methods of the main person - the “guru”. You will have access to Yaro in both of his programs through forums, e mail and telephone conferences. Yes he is busy and employs people to do administration and answer some questions in the Forum. But you will always have access to him personally. I know I have just completed the lessons in the Blog Mastermind program
All this adds up to value for you. Yaro has never short changed me in his courses. I am a professional accountant and I look at value added and cost benefit very closely.
Please take a close look at both of his programs.
As I said in my introduction Yaro has re-launched his Membership Site Program and I will be writing more about that during the launch period. My advice is do not procrastinate but certainly grab your Free information packed report now - you have nothing to lose - you can unsubscibe to the emails if you are not interested. I think it’s worth “kicking the tires”of Yaro’s very effective Membership Site business model.
The start of the video is really inspiring, as Yaro takes you through a slide-show from his 8-month trip around the world.
During his trip he conducted two different membership site launches in two different countries. One of these launches alone generated $211,969 and the other resulted in a $20,000 a month income stream.
In the second half of this video Yaro Starak takes you behind the scenes of two case studies of people who are using his online marketing principles to build businesses in unique niches:
- Fran Kerr is helping people treat acne with alternative methods
- Jay Jay is a professional illusionist and magician, who teaches people his tricks using online video
I am a satisfied student from the Blog Mastermind program and I have joined Yaro’s Membership Site Mastermind program. I would love to have you as a fellow student and read your Forum comments and questions.
By the way everyone if you are not already following me on Twitter please drop by and follow me at
(UPDATE - @darlasycamore)
The small print.
The links are all my affiliate links thanks for your support of this blog.
UPDATE October 27 2009
Yaro has opened up his Membership Site Mastermind Program for the second and last time this year.
I still stand by my evaluation of him and his programs. He underpromises and over delivers. The best feature is that you stay involved with him even after the formal period has ended. You have access to the materials and the updates as long as he owns the program. One of the big bonuses is that you attend calls with him and his associate Gideon bi weekly and ask any question - I am a member of his programs and I find this valuable to keep me going and to help me up the learning curve. Here are the links to the membership site information again (yes they are affiliate links). My endorsement is sincere:
If you are a woman blogger and have an established blog you might want to consider having your blog reviewed and listed on three sites that are specifically geared to women bloggers. You will raise your profile (more search engine love) and join communities of other women bloggers.
You can list your blog on this site. There is a one time nominal fee of $5. Before listing your blog will be reviewed by a real person to “keep those stinky boys out”(their words not mine). They also want to ensure quality and keep the listings “spam free”. Obviously some judgement has to be exercised here but you know if you are or are somewhat marginal. There are thousands of blogs listed (3110 blogs) in at least a dozen languages. This site has quite a bit of Google love.
Blog submissions are manually reviewed and the aim is to have a comprehensive listing of the best blogs by women. The blogs are listed by category. When you are approved for listing Fay, the owner of the site, puts a post on the blog that goes out to all subscribed to the blog feed - nice touch. Fay will also send you a personal note also a nice touch.
There are minimum guidelines to ensure that the directory is spam free. Your blog has to be at least seven days old and have at least five entries to be considered. Fay takes great pains in doing the review. I would suggest that you are even more established before making a submission to the site.
There are several blogs listed on this site. Blogs with male authors are accepted under certain conditions - read on.
There are quite stringent guidelines to have your blog listed on this site:
1. Your blog is written by:
- A woman or a group of women
- A man who attended BlogHer
- A man whose blogging is of particular quality and relevance to the women who participate in and read BlogHer, as determined by an editor
- Two or more people, women and men, where the blogs by men satisfy the above requirements
2. Your blog contains no unacceptable content
3. Your blog is active and open to the public.
- Your blog must be at least 30 days old.
- Blogs that are not updated regularly will not be accepted.
………………………………………………….
My blog Many Hatty Returns is listed on all three sites. In due course I will list all of my blogs on the sites including this blog.
I wish you ladies luck in getting your blogs listed on these sites. To recap they must be spam free, mature and regularly updated. The directory owners will include your blog or refuse it at their discretion so please be sure before making your submission for approval.
While we are on issues pertaining to women (sorry guys) I thought that you would be interested in another site dealing with women’s issues that I found recently. Check out Power Women Magazine - an Internet magazine on women’s issues. I found this through Twitter connections or rather they found me.
UPDATE
Another Directory site for listing Blogs by women is Shes Connected Please check it out and list your blog.
I would like to draw your attention to a site that shows you how to get your video on line from first principles and for the complete beginner. The site shows you step by step how to shoot the video, edit it and get it on You Tube.
In a series of videos on the site www.getyourvideoonline.com Gideon Shalwick shows you how to shoot a simple video (a talking head) with a web cam. He shows how to light the scene using improvised construction lighting readily available from hardware stores. Then he shows you how to edit the video and add impressive titles to your work using software that is available at no extra cost. You can also add intro and fade out music from a Royalty free music source. The end product looks quite good even if it is shoot with improvised resources at nominal cost. Finally Gideon shows you the process of getting your video uploaded to You Tube.
This series of videos is all free and too good to be true perhaps. Gideon makes this material available as a way of showcasing his great talent for producing instructional videos as well as showcasing other products he has for sale on line.
One of these activities is the Become a Blogger program. This is a blogging how to program taught through a series of videos. I am a member of Gideon’s program and I have learned a lot from Gideon. Currently I have been studying his series of videos on Podcasting. I credit Gideon with initiating me into Nerdland by teaching me how to do FTP transfers. What’s next I wonder? Unfortunately at this time the Become a Blogger program is closed to new members. Likely it will open up in a few months but there is no guarantee of course. When it does it might be in a new format - I don’t know. When and if it opens up I will be sure to let you know as soon as possible on this site.
Here is the link to the Become a Blogger Program (yes it’s an affiliate link).
Gideon’s partner in the Become a Blogger series is fellow Australian Yaro Starak. Yaro has a membership site of his own called Blog Mastermind. I am a member of that program also. I will do a review of this program in the near future. I have completed the six and final month of the program and I can honestly say that Yaro over-delivers on his promises. It’s really hard work to carry out the weekly tasks. If you apply yourself you will learn all the facts about blogging that you might have been afraid to ask. The resources on the membership site, the member’s forum and the frequent interactive conference calls are worth several multiples of the monthly membership. If you are serious about blogging you will not regret joining Yaro’s program.
Here is the link to Yaro’s site (yes it is an affiliate link also). I will say it was about two months before I took the leap and I did not regret it. I would not have got as far as I have without my prized mentor. One of the benefits of the Blog Mastermind program is your continuing access to the program after the six months this includes the ability to ask Yaro a specific question on the conference call. How’s that for value? You can download a free e-book from Yaro that’s chock full of blogging information. As all the internet folks say somewhat jarringly (is that a word?) you can grab it here by signing up for Yaro’s emails. I would add that the emails are far from spam they themselves contain useful information. It was two months before I decided to take the plunge and I wish I had joined earlier. I would not have learned as much without him. My knowledge has grown exponentially. Once again I emphasize that YOU must be willing to work at it. No Action = No Results.
(NOTE links have been updated to Yaro’s new Affiliate site April 14, 2009)
If you want to have a membership site of your very own Yaro teaches that in a separate program and I have just joined that. I have a lot of confidence in Yaro and he has my unreserved endorsement. Believe me I do not readily give such endorsements - yes I get paid for an affiliate referral but I am very comfortable with this - expect to be put to work on your project or just don’t go there.
Back to Gideon. Here is why I am endorsing Gideon also.
He breaks things down into simple step by step elements.
He does not overload you with extraneous information - just enough to get your feet wet.
If you follow the steps closely you will not go wrong (at least not likely).
Gideon is very open and responsive to questions on a timely basis.
He over delivers on expectations.
He errs on the side of simple alternatives that are cost effective(cheap) rather than recommending expensive software and hardware and other types of equipment not really needed for a beginner.
My intention is to have about one article a week on this blog which is still in infancy. Time flies when you are having fun and I notice that I have missed a bit. I have been learning Podcasting which is taking time and I am also learning Twitter. I have learned a lot about Twitter and I will write a post about it in a few weeks when I have some more experience under my belt. I went from a handful (literally) of followers at the beginning of March to over 1100 now. Stay tuned for some hard won lessons in this blog.
The biggest question I get asked is how to make money with social media. People want to know the ROI - return on investment - on social media before they spend any more time using tools such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs and LinkedIn.
In my book, Podcasting for Profit, I explored 3 distinct ways businesses can make money with a podcast. I interviewed over 50 podcasters around the world who shared with me how they’re earning five, six, even seven figures from an audio and video podcast.
I’ve found that the 3 methods of making money with podcasting can be used to make money with social media. I’ve listed the 3 methods below and the monetization tools for each one:
Direct Method = Tools you would use to monetize your content. You would get paid for playing an audio advertisement in a podcast episode, for posting an ad on your blog, for selling your premium content through a membership website or by asking your visitors for a donation.
While generating traffic is a key ingredient to how much you can charge, you’re making money from directly selling your content to others or asking others to subsidize the cost of producing your content. Examples of the direct method are:
Advertising
Sponsorship
Tip Jars
Donations
Premium Content
Paid Subscriptions
Licensing
Selling Archived Content
Grants
Indirect Method = Opportunities that help you monetize your social media skills and expertise. You would make money by being hired to speak or teach others about social media. Whether you get a book deal or sign a TV contract, whether you lead a workshop or speak in front of an audience, you are making money indirectly from social media simply because your skills and expertise is in hot demand. Examples of the indirect method are:
Speaking Engagements
Book or Music Deals
Presentations
Consulting
Teaching
Job Opportunities
Movie or TV Contracts
Integrated Method = Techniques to monetize your audience by turning them into customers.You use social media to generate leads and turn your traffic into paying customers. This is especially effective for those who sell products and services and need a way to turn that valuable traffic and leads into clients. Examples of the integrated method are:
Affiliate Marketing
Selling Services
Selling Products
Selling Memberships
List Building
Contests / Surveys
Merchandise
Some social media tools can only be used in one of the methods above. Others can be used in all 3. I’ll share with you some specific case studies in next week’s ezine. If you’re new to social media, get started on your profitable social media journey by registering for the Social Media Start Up live event taking place in a city near you or over the phone. Click here for more info.
Reprinted by Permission from Leesa Barnes
Leesa Barnes is an award winning blogger and critically acclaimed author who helps businesses get active using social media in 3 simple steps. To learn how you can become Marketing Fit, visit http://www.marketingfit.com to get your complimentary to get your complimentary kit called the Marketing Fit Success Kit containing a social media checklist, mindmap, MP3 file and a complimentary subscription to the Marketing Fit ezine.
I met Leesa at a Networking event in Toronto and I am in the process of reading her book on Podcasting Profits. I will write a review here when I complete my read.
