If you plan to have a successful, business, blog or membership site, you must build a list of clients or subscribers. Success is not necessarily measured in money or whether you get rich, but that you accomplish the goals you have set for your business, site or blog. Success is in your list.

I can vouch for that first-hand. My tutoring business started out strong this summer because I had a list built from 3 years of tutoring students while working for a tutoring company. (The company closed so I was on my own). I made sure to keep all the student contact information I received and contact information for all the schools those students attended.

When I needed a substantial number of clients to launch in August 2009, I emailed my list. It’s not that big compared to many website lists, but the conversion rate is far higher. High school tutoring in math and science in my city is a very targeted niche so a small list works fine. I have about 40 contacts, and I got 5 clients right away for multiple sessions per week from it. I’ve used free marketing techniques such as Google Local and my homeschool blog and my membership in a few local homeschool groups to market as well.

This example demonstrates that to be successful in the physical world as well as the online world, you need a responsive list. The more targeted your list the better your conversion will be. I’m not talking specifically about sales conversion, but getting people to do something you want them to do when you email them.

If you run a non-profit and are seeking volunteers for an event, you want a list of people who are very likely to say yes and show up when you ask them for help.

Here is a second video by Yaro Starak about list-building for a membership site. The same ideas are easily transferable to your local business. Here it is:

Slide Show Video

I am considering a math and science tutoring membership site online for people who need help but can’t afford private one-on-one tutoring in person. I could provide a month of online service for the price of one to two hours of private tutoring.

More about Yaro Starak: Yaro is a lifestyle guru. He makes about $200,000 US a year from his online endeavors, and he travels the world whenever he wants. Last year he traveled around the globe for most of the year. He can run his business from anywhere he has an internet connection. He isn’t a millionaire and doesn’t strive to be one. He just wants to be able to spend his time any way he chooses.

If you want to set up a membership site and need a course to walk you through it, get the Membership Site Masterplan free report at that link and read it. Then you will be ready to decide if the course is right for you. You will be on an opt-in list to receive the report so you will be emailed when the course opens. You can opt-out at anytime and you won’t be spammed.

Membership Site Mastermind opens again on Tuesday, October 27 and closes again on Friday, October 30 at midnight. It will open one more time in 2009 for about 36 hours at 9 am on November 3rd and will close again on November 4th at midnight. All times are U.S. Eastern time.

If you’re interested in setting up a really great blog, Blog Mastermind is open continuously and you can sign up for that class anytime. But be sure to read the Blog Profits Blueprint first!

Here is the link to the video again:

Slide Show Video

Here’s to your success,
Sherri
Graduate of Blog Mastermind and Membership Site Mastermind

Membership Site Masterplan
Blog Profits Blueprint

FresheVenture.com is holding a Best Blog powered by WordPress contest. I’m entering this blog, and I would appreciate you voting for me! Click in the banner box below to vote starting September 1st.

This is one of my younger blogs that I designed to help offline businesses promote themselves online with a blog and free tools. I also build WordPress blogs and static websites, but I don’t design themes. I can customize one somewhat, but I have a tech person who does the heavy lifting for my clients.

The purpose of the blog contest is to get some new exposure to your blog. You can also win some cool prizes, but for me, new readers and new clients are my goals. If you find your business in need of some online help, please contact me through my

Please tweet this, digg it, stumble it, share it on facebook, or any of the social media you like most. And don’t forget to head over and vote for me! Click in this box to vote:

To your business success,
Sherri

Technorati Tags: blog design contest, WordPress design contest

A blogger colleague of mine, Keller Hawthorne, wrote a fantastic article comparing two courses I highly recommend: Become-a-Blogger and Blog Mastermind.

I encourage you to click the link and read her article: Blog Mastermind v Become a Blogger Review and Comparison

It is packed with great information you need to compare the two courses. She describes the courses in detail and uses comparison tables to give you the differences in a nutshell. She also describes clearly to whom each course it targeted.

If you’re thinking about either or both of these courses, this article is for you.

Blog Mastermind v Become a Blogger Review and Comparison

Here’s to your business success!

Sherri

Technorati Tags: Become-A-Blogger, Blog Mastermind, blogging coaching, blogging course, free quality blogging info, Gideon Shalwick, Yaro Starak

Hello!

Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick just sent me an urgent note to let you know they are very briefly opening up their powerful blogging coaching program, Become-A-Blogger Premium, again. (This is the paid program. Become-A-Blogger is the free video program that anyone can watch at any time).

Why?

Well, they said that they got HEAPS of people that missed out because of the 4th of July Holiday in the United States last week.

And they wanted to give those people another opportunity to join their fantastic program, along with all the other 420 students who’ve already signed up this time around.

So, this is your chance to get in!

They’re opening doors on Tuesday, July 7th at 2pm EDT (U.S. Eastern Daylight Savings Time), and they said they’ll shut the doors again 24 hrs after that, July 8th at 2pm EDT. (The sales page will only accept sign-ups during this period. If you go there early, it won’t be open).

Here is the page where you can sign up:

Become A Blogger Premium/signup

My best,

Sherri

PS: Don’t forget that they’re only keeping doors open 24 hrs this time to give you the opportunity to sign up in case you missed out last week because of the holidays.

Become A Blogger Premium/signup

Technorati Tags: Become A Blogger Premium, blogging coaching, blogging course, Gideon Shalwick, Yaro Starak

Okay, this is a huge amount of information and a lot to absorb, but I want you to have the chance to at least look at some of it before the Become-A-Blogger Premium paid coaching program reopens tomorrow (July 7) for just 24 hours. If you want to sign up, come back tomorrow on at 2 p.m. U.S. Eastern Daylight Savings time to get the link.

1. What You Will Learn In Free Become-A-Blogger Videos

In this post I’ll give you a syllabus of what you will learn in the 10 free Become-A-Blogger video series.

• Each video is around 12 minutes long; some are shorter and some are a little longer.
• You don’t have to watch them all at once.
• You can watch one and go back later to watch more.

Click the button below for immediate access:

1. Video 1 – Why You Should Use WordPress.org software
2. Video 2 – How To Get Your Own Domain Name
3. Video 3 - How To Get a Web Host on HostGator (click here to get an account) Or see button below to get started for just $1. Pricing: $9.95/mo if paid monthly; $7.95/mo if paid annually.
4. Video 4 – How To Install WordPress
5. Video 5 – How To Upload Files To Your HostGator Web Host Using FTP
6. Video 6 – Choosing A WordPress Theme For Your New Blog
7. Video 7 – How To Install And Use WordPress Plugins
8. Video 8 – How To Create Your First Blog Post and Blog Page
9. Video 9 – What RSS Is And Why You Need It
10. Video 10 – How To Use Google FeedBurner For Supercharging Your RSS Capabilities

I recommend watching the videos as a preface to the Become-A-Blogger program, but they stand on their own as very valuable, step-by-step guidance to starting your own blog now. These videos contain all the  information you need to start your blog today.

If you already have a blog on a free service, such as Blogger.com or WordPress.com, you can move your blog to your own domain name and private hosting. WordPress software has an easy import feature from several public hosts that will load all your posts from your free blog to your privately hosted blog. You don’t have to start over or lose any information to move your blog to your own host and URL.

Quick review:

Immediate access to the free videos (click this button):

Get your HostGator account here (click this button):

2.Free Roadmap to Become-A-Blogger

A-list blogger Yaro Starak,  my blogging mentor, just sent me a
note about a powerful report he released that caused an upheaval in the blogosphere (cost = zero)…

Roadmap to Become A Blogger

If you are interested in starting your own blog and becoming a successful blogger, this may be just the information you’ve been looking for.

Check it out: The roadmap report has now been downloaded
over 20,000 times!

That’s got to tell you something about the quality of the report. I mean, heck, 20,000 downloads? That’s enough people to start a small city!

I’ve also read the report twice and it is fantastic! Like the Blog Profits Blueprint, the Roadmap to Become a Blogger will teach you a lot of things you’ve never heard of before.

The report reveals a step-by-step guide that takes you from absolute beginner to blogging pro in 5 easy milestones.

Once you have your blog all set up, you’ll also learn some extremely powerful “X-Factor” strategies for driving truckloads of traffic to your blog using a range of multimedia tools and the latest social media tactics. This information is for beginning and more advanced bloggers. If you want to take your blog to the next level, the “X-Factor” strategies are just what you need.

And of course, you know what that means right?

The more traffic you get, the more readers you will have and the more bucks you can make online!

But you should really check it out for yourself and see why so many other people around the world are raving about this report…

Here is the page again:

Roadmap to Become A Blogger

Oh, and Gideon tells me that he’s also programmed in a powerful 7-part mini course (at zero cost) that accompanies the Roadmap Report…and he says that people have been lapping it up!

Better check it out here now:

Roadmap to Become A Blogger

3. Which of these powerful traffic tips do you NOT use?

You don’t see this kind of thing very often, but Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick from Become-A-Blogger have just released one of their premium content videos to the general public free of charge and your email address is not required to watch it:

Become a Blogger Premium Free Video

Inside the video, Yaro talks about what he calls “Impact Marketing Techniques” – the kind of tricks he’s used himself to drive hoards of new traffic to his own 6-figure income blog.

Now, what makes this video so special?

Well, normally you’d have to pay for it.

But not today…

You can watch it at no cost right now, without one of those opt-in forms – nice for a change really:

Become a Blogger Premium Free Video

In any case, I just thought I’d let you know about this powerful video, because no matter what you do online, you can never know enough about how to drive crazy amounts of traffic to your blog.

4. Seven Killer YouTube Traffic Tips–The YouTube X-Factor

Check this out…

YouTube-X-Factor Video

It’s a video that shows you, step-by-step, how to optimize your YouTube videos to help you drive a lot more traffic back to your blog.

Gideon Shalwick, the guy who created the video, tells me that he tried these exact same strategies on one of his own YouTube channels, and got about 67,400 views in just 8 weeks!

That is a huge number of views for anyone who isn’t already a star. As far as the world is concerned, Gideon is a regular guy with a blog, just like you and me.

At first I thought he was just kidding, but then I saw his channel, and my jaw dropped at the results (he actually shows the same channel inside the video).

So, if you want to get more traffic from YouTube, you’ll like this…

YouTube-X-Factor Video

Also, download the Blog Profits Blueprint. It’s a free report that goes hand-in-hand with the Roadmap to Become-A-Blogger.

I know this is a lot in one post, but the Become-A-Blogger Premium paid coaching course will be opening back up for just 24 hours tomorrow, July 7 at 2 p.m. U.S. Eastern Daylight Savings Time.

Whether or not you join the paid coaching course, this material is gold and you will learn a lot about setting up a blog and writing great content for it.

Technorati Tags: Become-A-Blogger, Blog Profits Blueprint, free quality blogging info, Gideon Shalwick, learn to blog, Yaro Starak