| 4/6/2012 Editors: Rebecca Morgan & Ken Braly See "About SpeakerNet News" at the end for information on how to submit tips and use this newsletter. Remember, your "dues" for this free ezine are submitting two tips a quarter. Send your best tips to editor@SpeakerNetNews.com. Teleseminar Info Thursday, April 12 Maximize Your Income from Every Speech with Ron Rosenberg  You've heard it before: speaking fees alone may not be enough to sustain your business. Ron Rosenberg has a unique and highly successful business model. Read below about what he's going to share with us; his techniques can multiply your income. Register or preorder the recording.
Save the dates:
Feedback about SNN teleseminars/webinars: "Love the value for the money!" ?Gerry Benard
How to Get Clients from Your Website Having a steady, abundant stream of potential buyers flocking to your website sounds amazing. It would make your marketing efforts so much easier. You know there is much more you could do to get people to check out and buy your products/services, but what would yield the biggest payoff for your time? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been the secret for years. However, knowing what to do and doing it well aren't the same. Generating traffic does not always equate to getting buyers. It can be frustrating to have a lot of new or repeat visitors, yet few sales. These three experts share their perspective on what works and what doesn't. Their experience will help you decide what you should do next to make your Web presence work much better. - "How to Be the Easiest Speaker to Find on Google" with Heather Lutze
- "Make Your Website a Profit Center: Internet Marketing Techniques for Speakers, Authors and Consultants" with Ford Saeks
- "How to Build a High-Traffic Website and Convert That Traffic to Sales!" with Tom Gray
Download now All SNN single-focused packages are detailed here. Miscellaneous Tips Track where new email subscribers come from ? Kathy Fediw Do you track the source of your new ezine subscribers, other than those you collect at your speaking engagements? Most providers such as Constant Contact allow you to create a custom field to collect this information. We asked our new subscribers to our online magazine where they found out about us and here are the results: - 37% found us through an Internet search.
- 21% were referred by their boss, or their boss signed them up.
- 13% were recommended by one of our writers or advertisers.
- 11% found us through one of our postings on an online industry chatroom or message board.
- 11% were referred by a colleague, or had our email magazine forwarded to them by a colleague.
- 7% found us through LinkedIn.
That shows you the power of the Internet, and the power of referrals and recommendations. (Editors' note: Kathy will share more details of how she turned her free ezine into a profit-making publication in her April 23 SNN teleseminar, "Transforming Your Newsletter into a Money-Making Online Magazine" Register or preorder the recording.)
Profitable reason to subscribe to print periodicals ? Michael Mercer Nowadays, getting magazines and newspapers online is the rage. However, I consistently find it vastly more profitable and better for client relations to receive paper copies of periodicals, e.g., Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, plus other periodicals that appeal to my market. In each issue, I find an article that a client or prospect will find useful. I cut out that article, hand-write a personal note on it, and mail the article in an envelope to the specific client or prospect. I almost always get phone calls from those people thanking me for mailing personally chosen articles with a nice hand-written note. Sometimes, I also land additional business during their phone calls to me or shortly after that. In contrast, when I email an article from digital versions of the same periodicals, I very seldom get calls or even an emailed thank you. And emailing articles has not resulted in getting more business. People value tremendously the personal touch. They cherish receiving personally chosen articles printed on paper plus a hand-written note. Apparently, executives and managers value this personal touch on paper a lot more than getting one more email.
Articles on using Pinterest for your business ? Lisa Braithwaite When I first looked at Pinterest (the photo- and video-sharing site), I couldn't imagine how it could be useful for my coaching business?until I read these two articles by Alyssa Gregory: Both articles are packed with real examples from business owners about creative ways to use Pinterest. Now I have five boards for my business: one for presentation tools, one for recommended reading, one for favorite speakers and bloggers, one for PowerPoint resources and one for speaker resources. Each image links back to my site or the site I'm recommending. I've only set them up this week and I already have between 75 and 150 followers for each board. It's another creative way to be a resource for current and potential clients.
Seth Godin interview on future of books ? Shelle Rose Charvet This short audio is worth a listen for us in the book universe. Seth Godin is interviewed by Gian Gomeshi on whether writers will be paid for their work in the future. Scroll down and click on the Listen link.
More payments being offloaded ? Susan RoAne More corporations are off-loading the speaker payment process to third-party companies to protect themselves from the 1099 contractors who may not file correct taxes, have the required insurance, etc. These third-party companies take out federal and state tax, unemployment insurance, and disability from your payment. The result is that you get a W2. We get less of our money up front. I asked around and have been advised that we will see more of this in the future.
Tips for speaking to hearing/sight-impaired audience members ? Carole Rossick I am a trainer with severe bilateral hearing. These tips are for you personally, or for you to discuss with the event planner. - Please don't assume everyone has perfect hearing and vision.
- Schedule more time to present material at a slower pace.
- Stop talking while they are reading or note taking.
- Remain where you are visible to everyone.
- Minimize glare from bright lights and windows.
- Use a high-lumen projector with a quiet fan so slides will not wash out in full lights on conditions necessary to see, hear, and speechread.
- Slides should be readable from the back of the room.
- Use fewer words, larger plain fonts, and a contrasting solid background.
- For Q&A, pass around a wireless microphone or an Assistive Listening System (ALS).
- Use an ALS receiver with headphone or neckloop.
- Offer use of ALS receivers.
- Slightly slow down your speech.
- Enunciate or pronounce words as distinctly as possible.
- Project and use a lower pitch.
- Arrange theater-style seating in semicircular pattern.
- Give them up-front seating.
- Obtain the onsite or remote services of a CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) provider to transcribe verbatim what is said during proceedings.
- Let people with vision loss handle any objects you display.
- Describe images they cannot see well or at all.
- Rephrase to confirm you understand before responding to comments/questions. Everyone will then know what was said and not just your response.
- Ask participants to submit an anonymous comment sheet indicating occupation, what was most beneficial and why, what was least useful and why, and what they would like to have seen done differently.
- If one-on-one, maintain eye contact while speaking or listening.
Technology Tips Be self-contained ? Mike Podolinsky I've found that being self-contained when it comes to equipment reduces my stress and improves my performance quality. For the past 8+ years I've carried: - 17" Macbook Pro
- Bose Companion Speakers for music and slideshow sound
- 10 meters/32 feet of VGA cable so I can connect my Macbook Pro up on stage
- 2 extra female-to-female adapters (to extend my VGA cable with others)
- 10 meters/32 ft. of audio cable
- surge protector multi-tap power cord
- remote controls (now using Tripp-Lite Pro with 30-meter/98-foot range)
- 2 backup remotes and extra batteries
- 2 dongles (Mac to VGA connector)
- wide tape for cords
All fits in a wheeled computer bag with room to spare. If sharing the platform with others, I include a simple A/B box (2 computers connect to one projector), and for big conferences, my passive hum arrestor (works half the time to prevent hum due to poorly grounded systems) and 1 or 2 of my own projectors; the new one is a 4300-ANSI-lumens XGA Optima. This way, I *know* what I planned will *work*. Why take chances with onsite equipment? I used to carry my own wireless Telex mic and 10 meters of 3-pin Canon low-impedance cable with several adapters, but only one venue in the past 8 years didn't have a good-quality handheld wireless mic so I've let that go.
Configuring FaceBook Timeline pages ? Ami Simms Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income has a great video tutorial on how to configure the new FaceBook Timeline pages for your personal and professional FB accounts.
Cool PPT display feature ? Karen Wright In case others don't know this, in PowerPoint 2010 you can run a slide show on 1/4 of your screen while you simultaneously show other docs on the rest of the screen. Nice for presentations, but especially useful while designing your PPT show and leader guide concurrently. Nice improvement from XP.
Quickly go to any slide in PowerPoint ? Ellen Finkelstein If you want to skip slides, there's a better way than quickly clicking past the ones you don't want to show. If you have a slide list, you can simply type the number of the slide you want to go to and press Enter. No one will know that you skipped slides! To create a slide list, in the left-hand pane, click the Outline pane, right-click and choose Collapse, then Collapse All. (In PowerPoint 2003, display the Outlining toolbar and click Collapse All.) Then choose File/Print. From the Print What drop-down list (In PowerPoint 2010, click the drop-down list that says Fill Page Slides), choose Outline View. Then print and you'll get a list of slide numbers and their titles. (If you don't have any text in the title placeholder, the title will be blank. If you don't want text but want a title for your slide list, use the Title layout, insert descriptive text in the title placeholder, and then drag the placeholder off the slide. The title will show in your slide list, but not in Slide Show view.)
Online image editor ? Tom Gray With online image editor Picnik moving into Google it's nice to have a couple of other image editors to draw on. Jan Vermeiren brought two great tools to my attention, pixlr.com and drpic.com. Pixlr seems to be the more powerful of the two but I like the ease of use and easy photo effects available with DrPic. (Editors' note: Tom shared easy-to-follow instructions in his SNN teleseminar How to Start a Blog: A Step-by-Step Guide and more great content in How to Build a High-Traffic Website and Convert That Traffic to Sales!) Travel Tips Using your iPhone overseas ? Scott Friedman This article is worth a read on using your iPhone overseas. Requests for Info / Advice Organizing research material ? Shumi Shetty How do you organize your research materials that you use to keep upgrading your content? I normally highlight good points when I read a book, get it typed into a separate Word document meant for research on a specific topic. I also give subheadings. What about when you want to capture points from CDs?do you just jot down the notes or get that CD transcribed? In short, how do you go about collecting and organizing your research materials from the various media you read and listen to as a part of your content development?
How to respond to contact requests from people you don't know ? Lisa Fahoury I receive frequent LinkedIn invites from people who don't offer any context for how we might know each other. Maybe I'm crazy, but I'm highly protective of my professional network. If at some point you're going to ask me for a recommendation or a referral, I want to be 100% comfortable knowing and trusting you. Isn't that the point of a network, after all? I don't want to be rude or make anyone feel foolish for having contacted me, but on the other hand I'm not interested in having a network filled with strangers or people who are simply playing a numbers game. What is the right way to respond? I'd love to hear how others handle this. Do most people accept all comers? I'll collect the helpful responses for an SNN compilation. SpeakerNet News Teleseminar Info Thursday, April 12 Maximize Your Income from Every Speech with Ron Rosenberg Relying on a single revenue source?like speaking, or consulting, or coaching?is a recipe for disaster. But it doesn't have to be this way. If you know the right strategies and tactics, you can double your income with offerings that benefit your audience members as well as add to your bank account. Ron has built a thriving business by ensuring that every engagement brings maximum revenue before, during, and after his presentation. He will spill the beans about how he's built a lucrative speaking business with three distinct income streams. Plus, he gets repeat business from the same groups! But it's not a slam dunk. There are pitfalls to avoid; tactics you might have thought would work, but don't. Ron will share what he's learned that works, as well as what hasn't. You will learn: - how Ron's three-legged business model can expand your bank account
- how to build a multi-tiered membership program that works like an annuity
- a proven approach to leverage your exciting content into new products
- 4 specific things you can do to increase membership retention
- what Ron has learned doesn't work
Don't miss your opportunity to hear how you can add a new revenue streams to your speaking business and have money coming in even when you're not speaking! Register or order the CD or MP3 recording. Note: people who register for the teleseminar will get the MP3 recording of the session for free. Date: Thursday, April 12 Time: 7:00 pm Eastern, 6 pm Central, 5 pm Mountain, 4 pm Pacific Length: 60 minutes Cost: $25
Special Limited-Time Offer: If you want more information on ideas on creating ongoing income, we're suggesting the MP3 recordings of several earlier programs to complement this program: - "Subscription Products: Getting Customers to Pay You Again and Again (and Again)" with Ron Rosenberg
- "Create a Paid Mentorship Program to Capitalize on Your Expertise" with Marcia Yudkin
With your order of this live or recorded teleseminar, at checkout you will be offered these recordings. About SpeakerNet News Copyright note: Submission of an email message or artwork affirms that you are able to and have given us non-exclusive permission to reprint the content of your message in all forms, electronic or otherwise, in all languages throughout the world. Copyright ©2012 SpeakerNet News. Permission must be granted to reprint any item (other than your own posting). | | SpeakerNet News Sponsors  CartoonResource.com is the leading source of cartoons, caricatures, custom animation reels and logos for speakers and authors. Search and buy cartoons at cartoonresource.com. Contact us at andrew@ cartoonresource.com or 616/551-2238.
A small group of speakers will spend April 12 with Larry Winget and Joe Calloway in Scottsdale. Includes on-going coaching after the event. Info at WingetCallowaySpeaker Event.com
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