Brent Worley Blog

I use a lot of videos in my Internet Marketing. In fact, my mentor releases a lot of videos for us to use in our video marketing (although I really want to get back to making my own, just working on limited time right now).

But my revelation today about video marketing was less with a video specific for my business but more with a video posted months ago as just a family video.

Brookyn was fascinated by the Subway $5 foot long song…she sang it all the time. So I caught her singing it on video and uploaded it to YouTube.

Of course, since it was not a marketing video I did not pay any attention to it. So tonight when I went to upload a new video, imagine my surprise when I saw the video had over 300 views!

No keywords (really), no attention paid to what it was about, but garnered a lot of views.

I’m taking this as a lesson in getting additional video key words just right. I know why this got a lot of views…and taking this bit of knowledge I learned from this I plan to work on getting my other videos extra exposure.

Enjoy the video….It has been enjoyed by others over 300 times!

Just learned something about Wordpress.com this weekend.

My previous post I had written that I had started a new blog on a Substantial Income Opportunity.  I had that blog hosted on Wordpress.com (Wordpress is my blog platform of choice).  However, I had links to my “third party” sites which made the blog appear as overly commercial.

So Wordpress removed it.

A little bummed about it as it had just hit #1 in Google.

But here’s the great thing:  I’m not done, yet.  I have re-installed the Substantial Income Opportunity blog on one of my hosted sites.  If I got it to #1 in Google once, I can get it to #1 again.

Be watching here to see how I do.

The warning about Wordpress is that the number of keyword links you have should be monitored.  I am willing to bet I was detected due to anchoring my text in an article to my website.

I’m working through some Internet Marketing training that our team is using and attempting to do it step-by-step without many shortcuts.  I feel that if I am doing the exact things the system lays out, I can help my team members succeed in Internet Marketing.

So, following step 7 of the system, I have started a new blog:

Substantial Income Opportunity Blog

The goal here is very simple, and something to try when doing Internet marketing:

1. Have some videos, articles, etc, ready to go.  In this case, my main keywords are “Substantial Income Opportunity” and a secondary keyword that I will use is “Legitimate Home Based Business.”  These are two keywords with great stats.
2. Start a blog.  I personally prefer to host my own, but our system has people hosting it at Wordpress.com.  So, I decided to post my Substantial Income Opportunity blog there.
3. Add videos, articles, random thoughts, etc, all keyword rich.  The goal is to get as many websites, post, etc, in the top 5-10 of Google for your main keywords.

I’ll be adding more videos, comments, articles, etc, to try to gain as much exposure on these keywords and then moving on to another set.

Does this method work?  Absolutely!  In fact, in my post “Does Internet Marketing Work” I talk about a site promoting FHA training.  Well, I have not touched that site since May, its not even ranking in the top 10 for Google any longer (none of my articles even crack the top 30) and I still managed to get a paycheck for August.

I’ll keep this blog updated with how my results are.  This blog post should help push that blog a little bit further, too.

I’ll never forget that day…or the major events of the weeks that followed in my life and our country.

I was working from home that day, had no TV or radio on, when I got an email from my mom to my work account telling what had happened.

I stepped into the living room, sat on the floor, and watched in enough time to see the second tower  collapse.

I was still a full-time student as well at the time.  Class that day was not officially dismissed, although my  first professor admitted that there was no point in having  class with everything that was going on…so he dismissed.

Some of my other classes still met that day.  I was one of two drum majors for our marching band.  We met that day not knowing if we would have a game that Saturday or not.

Lines to get gas were backed up, fearing more attacks.  On my way home from marching, word that an explosion in Afghanistan made me question whether we had already launched an attack.

That Friday, they told us we would not have a ballgame on Saturday, so band dismissed.  Early Saturday morning, we were told the game would go on.  I had the chance to step down from my duties for that Saturday and rejoin my section in the band while the Director of Bands conducted for the day.

I’ll never forget that the actions of one day caused our Director to change his mind on the next set of songs, moving from a theme centered around Queen to a theme centered around our patriotism.  I remember my fellow drum major and the percussion marching instructor writing an amazing version of the Star Spangled Banner for our band.

And I’ll never forget conducting “America The Beautiful” in front of thousands, being thankful that I had that opportunity.

I remember listening to the morning radio shows all that week and the next.  People hurt, stressed, angry…and a radio show geared more towards humor (crass at times) turned into a venue for people to air their minds, similar to most talk radio shows.

No, I’ll never forget that day.

I’ll never forget that two weeks later my father-in-law was informed that his National Guard unit was being activated for deployment overseas…and my finance trying to inform me of this while I traveled with the band out-of-state.

I’ll never forget the decision to get married early, in fear that my bride’s father would not be home for the wedding just a couple of months later.

I’ll never forget the angst and fear in my wife’s eyes and voice, worried that her father may never be coming home; a reality of the task at hand.

I won’t forget flying the American flag outside of my house at the time…the first time in my lifetime I can remember U.S. flags being sold out at most of the major stores.

No, I’ll never forget…and I hope that proud Americans everywhere will never forget.

I wrote here that DirecTV seemed to have a major glitch in their billing system with how my bill was generated.

Well, they handled it right.

After spending around 30 minutes discussing what all caused the issue, they came to the conclusion that they needed some time to get it resolved (understandably, as there were major issues that would take some time to clean up).  They got it right.

By the way, I love my DirecTV.  Being a college football junkie, I took a lot of pleasure watching multiple games in High-Def this weekend on ESPN and ESPN2.  If you are not watching football in HD, you don’t know what you are missing….so get DirecTV and catch at least 4-6 games each Saturday this fall in HD.

(Now, if I can just find a great affiliate program for them…..)

I just finished posting about Vista Print trying to rip off my wife, but feel one more is needed to add to the watch list: DirecTV.

Now, I will say that I LOVE my DirecTV service.  I don’t feel anything they have done is intentional, but their billing software lacks something to be desired.

Some history:

We moved last November to our new house.  When I scheduled the move, I was given the offer for 3 free months of their premium service and the rest of the NFL Sunday Ticket at no cost and could cancel at the end of the term.  I accepted, mainly to watch HBO and Starz over the holidays.

The nightmare begins

After cancelling the premium package without issue, I notice I have an extra $65 (roughly) on my bill.  I look it up and it is for the NFL Sunday Ticket.  I call, have a long round of discussions with the customer service, and they agree to remove it (after all, it was their boiler room that misrepresented the deal to me…had I known they would charge me for it, I would have canceled as I do not watch that much NFL football).

In May/June timeframe, I notice they have charged me again.  I get back on the phone with them, go through the same process, and they remove again and credit me what they had charged me.  They are being responsive (although it took an hour on the phone with them to get the problem fixed).

And here is where it gets really, really bizarre….

I look at my recent bills.  Not only am I getting charged for the NFL Sunday Ticket, but I am getting charged for two services:  the HD DVR and the HD DVR with no locals.

They started billing me this way in June.

The HD DVR with No Locals (I have locals, so not the one I use) is $69.99/month they were overcharging me, including a partial billing cycle.  The billing system had things so screwed up that the customer service rep said it would take them about an hour to get it straightened out.

Now, I do not think DirecTV is trying to scam me with their dual billing.  I believe that is a fault of the billing system and not something done intentional.  The NFL Sunday Ticket deal has been a pain and I believe that I personally was misrepresented on that offer.

But this entire ordeal has me thinking…How many people are paying their bills by autopay that might not immediately notice this issue?  I know I would not have noticed for a few weeks unless I was monitoring my bank account.  I don’t think DirecTV does this purposely, but I know that some other places might.

So buyer beware - monitor your bills to make sure something screwy doesn’t happen.

And DirecTV, if you are reading, please make sure I am not billed again for the NFL Sunday Ticket.  Thanks.

My wife had recently ordered business cards from Vista Print.  She paid for shipping only with their free offer.  All was fine and dandy until last week:

She had a $48 charge from them.

She threw up the red flag and called her bank.  The bank froze her account and began a fraud investigation.  They called Vista Print inquiring about the reason for the charge.

Here’s the scam, folks:

They try to secretly sign you up for other services (i.e. they cross sell you and your information and make it extremely difficult to know what happened).  My wife made sure to not accept any of the offers, and yet was still charged.

Many users on the Internet have reported similar problems (Rip-off Reports has several people complaining about it as well as many blogs detailing the issue).

Luckily for them, they willing gave back the money actually withdrawn….$19.95.

But wait…where did $48 come from?

When my wife talked with them they did not see any charges, much less $48.  Why did it show up as this and not $19.95?

The bank fears that someone at Vista Print might be scamming on top of the scam.  They could be (not confirmed, and just pure speculation) overcharging customers on top of the never-approved cross sold services and pocketing the rest.  Is this happening?  No one knows for sure, but the bank found it extremely odd that this was occurring.

Buyer, beware!  If you are using Vista Print, you may be getting charged more than shipping on your order.

As for us, we’ll pass on Vista for any future needs.

With everything I am learning about Internet Marketing, I figured it was time I was nice and helped the wife (April) out with her BeautiControl business.

So we did some keyword research, put together a sales page, and are in the beginning stages of getting a fully-functional Internet marketing system down for her.

Feel free to check out her site:

Spa Quality Products

Her goal is to find ladies who want to look good, feel good, and like spa products but don’t always have the time or money to go to the spa.

We worked on the sales copy together….not super-pro standards, but functional.

http://www.spaqualityproducts.com

Brent

When passion meets opportunity, you have a recipe for success.

So many people trade off one or the other.  They see a job as an opportunity to provide for their family or their needs, but it is simply not what they are passionate about.

Others find passion about something but there is not a market for it.

However, when the two collide, it creates something very exciting and often something very big.

I’ve learned that I really have very few passions in life, but there is one that I have routinely found the most gratifying:  Being a leader.

Now…being a leader, from my perspective, has nothing to do with power, authority, control, recognition, or any of the typical thoughts that come up with the word.  Instead, I believe the most important things that a leader does are empowerment and encouragement.

I have seen a lot of people want to be a “leader” for all of the wrong reasons.  When I was younger, I was the same way.  In fact, I remember in high school wanting to be the section leader in my band just so others would look up to me.  I see others want to be a leader so that they will be viewed better than others.

But as I have worked on leadership development, I have learned that the recognition is nice (in fact, I have dreams and goals about one aspect of recognition, probably my only selfish thought in this regard) and being respected is nice, but what makes me excited is the ability to see others grow, transform, and become something that they might not have been had someone not taken the time to pour into their lives.

For me personally, my business is exactly what I want to develop a leadership role in.

Why?

Again, I won’t deny the fact that I want one form of recognition from this company.  It has been a dream of mine for some time, but not for the “look at me” reason.

But I do want to be an inspiration to someone.

I want to be an inspiration not so others will talk highly of me, and not so that others will want to put me on a pedastal, but so that maybe my story would lift someone else up to become something more, to work harder, to achieve more, and to be on that stage with a similar goal.

My passion is to lead others.  It is to help others fulfill what they are capable of, to achieve a life-changing success in their own lives, and to have a positive impact in their lives.

I’m fortunate that my passion has found the opportunity to attach itself to.

This opportunity presents not only a chance for people to become financially independent, but also for them to develop themselves, their abilities, their personalities, and more.

To me, that makes my recipe for success that much stronger.

I must admit….

I am a little bit bored tonight so I thought I would find fun or useful apps for my iPhone that I could use while I attend Energize ‘08.

That’s when I found the Wordpress app.

So this is the first of many post coming from my phone as I cover the conference and some interviews with some top online and offline network marketers.