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.

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.

As I posted last week, I had decided to get back to some of my basics of Internet Marketing, going back to some things I was taught early on and start building results from there. I spent some time on the phone with my mentor going over what I was doing and getting some instructions on what I need to do differently.

Its great having a mentor that is willing to help, to point out what I needed to change, and give me a lot of ideas on how to make it better. And it has.

This is where it stands:

1. I took a website with little traffic, little backlinks, little anything (other than the basic page put up) and decided to see how much traffic I could drive to it. The website is http://www.123CallBrent.com. This website is geared to gather prospects for my business.

2. I began with some basic Articles.

3. I ramped up some video marketing.

4. Blogging and forum marketing increased.

So far, so good. The last week of June I nearly quintupled my traffic (remember, small amounts). So far, the whole 3 days in July, my unique visitors counter is almost at what it was for June.

I have a lot of videos and websites in the top 20 of Google for a particular term. I had, at one point this past week, 7 of the top 10 spots in Google for this keyword combination. I have had a lot of that replaced, but nothing that cannot be done again in short order.

What is really good is the amount of conversions I am getting. This list is growing everyday with people wanting to know more about the company, my Internet Marketing, the company product, and what all we are doing. Its fairly exciting seeing all of this take place.

What is great about video marketing is that you don’t have to be great to do videos. I’ll admit, I sound like a hick on video (probably sound like this in person too, but you never notice how you sound).

But anything works for a video. For instance, I was recording today and Brooklyn decided she wanted to be in a video. I was trying to hurry as we wanted to clean out the pool and hop in.

It ended up being a GREAT video opportunity, one that I will have in multiple spots on the Internet in very short order.

In fact, one of my mentors pointed me to a website that only reaffirmed my belief that although I think I am horrible doing video I can be successful at it. Check it out, its a great website with some decent videos: http://www.stompervision.com.

What are my next steps from here?

Well, I am going to do a lot of video marketing, some with my website squeeze page and some with just my phone number. The goal is to get people to pick up the phone and call me instead of me chasing people. With the amount of traffic I am getting and the way it is picking up, I expect to see an increase of legitimate prospects over the next month.

I’ve been thinking on this for some time now, and there is no nice way to say it:

Just because you have a title does not make you a leader.

Brent, what in the world does this mean?

All too often we confuse people in a position or with a certain “badge” on their name with being a leader. A lot of times this could not be further from the truth. Just having a title or a function does not entitle you to being leader. Rather, your attitude and actions are what make you a leader.

I’ve had the privilege and honor to be in leadership on a variety of leaders and over a variety of people and groups. The one thing I always knew was that if I was going to be given a leader’s title, I had to have a leader’s actions. I could not simply take on the designation without taking on the responsibility that comes with it.

A group I used to associate with regularly all have leadership titles or functions within a common organization. To the common person, they are in leadership and therefore are “leaders.” Yet when I look at how these individuals treat others and the attitudes they carry with themselves, I realize they are nothing more than someone with the title. I would not consider any of these leaders in the sense that this article is referring to.

A leader has to accomplish two things to be a leader, and these two things must be in their daily lives and not just in the function they perform.

First, a leader must be willing to serve those who follow them. I knew when I was elected president of my fraternity in college that I had more responsibility than just leading meetings and making decisions. I had to be the one that helped the most, that served the most, and the one who set the example of what it meant to be in the frat. The same goes for various other positions of leadership I have been in. I had to work harder to serve those around me than I had to make decisions or pat myself on the back. What I see from a lot of people is a self serving attitude in leadership instead of a serving others attitude. If you are not willing to serve, you are not ready to lead. The best leaders I have served under motivated me to do my best by watching them do their best.

A leader must also possess an attitude. This term often comes across negatively, but in this case it is meant to be positive. The attitude the leader must have is one of caring, one of compassion, one of servant hood (as discussed above), and then one of authority. People do not respect leaders who show authority before compassion. People might obey, but respect is often missing. This is not always an easy task to accomplish but must be done to be a fully effective leader.

If you are sitting here doing some soul searching, as I often did in my development of my leadership thoughts, than there are probably some points in there that apply to you. How do you treat others? How do you serve? Do you set the example or do you tell others about the example?

Remember that even after you are gone, your character and integrity stick with people. As a leader, make sure what sticks is an example of what leadership should be and not what the title affords you.

This past weekend was a nice two-day holiday for April and me. We decided to dash out-of-town last minute and get down to Tunica for two nights.

We stayed at Sam’s Town, which is not our normal place (usually stay at Gold Strike). The rooms were okay, the gaming floor was so-so, but the poker was hopping!

We got there Sunday around 4, took forever to check-in, got settled in, and then we both decided to play a poker tournament. This is April’s 2nd live tournament ever, but she wanted to play for the pure fun of playing and have a good time.

She bubbled the final table (finished 11th, top 10 get seated at the final table), I finished 3rd for $300. Good start to the trip.

We had a medium win on a slot machine and were way up for the trip.

The next afternoon, we play the same buy-in tournament. This time I almost made the final table again (12th, took two horrendous beats, both times with getting my chips in with a big lead), but April ended up making the final table and chopping (dividing the remaining prize pool) for $400 with three other guys.

The trip was short, profitable, and fun…but mainly just short.

Energy

Zurvita, a marketing company I work with, is going to be offering energy services in the near future. Two other companies in direct marketing have done this and done it successfully, but they have been on a smaller scale within the United States.

I put the press release up on my Zurvita Blog. You can read it at http://www.brentworley.com/zurvita-blog/.

I’m big on making money (it might not buy happiness, but it does buy time freedom). Having the ability to earn on a necessity that people have, a service that they have to have.

Its an exciting time in Zurvita and things only seems to be getting better!

Reunions

This weekend is my high school 10 year reunion. At first I was a little hesitant to go (most of the people that I was close with in high school I still keep in touch with). But a couple a friends got me thinking and now we are going to one event tomorrow night for it. I’m probably going to take pictures and post them of the old group.

I’ll be surprised to see who shows up and who doesn’t. I believe we graduated 215, so if we hit 33% of that I think we’ll be doing good. I am excited about meeting back up with a few people, most of which I have been in contact with over the last few years.

So thats it for now. I’ll be back with a post reunion report and some updates on some Internet Marketing things I am experimenting with.

I’m seeing something interesting in the home business/network marketing circles.

People who I thought would have no interest in them are all-of-the-sudden joining them.

One person I know well made it quite clear to me a few years back that he would never join one of those “pyramid schemes.” I received a text message from him the other day pointing me to a website with a presentation for a rather well known company.

Personally, I’m excited about what the future holds for home businesses. It is evident that more and more companies are moving to a word-of-mouth or referral method of getting additional business. Banks, retail stores, etc, are all offering affiliate programs geared towards having others advertise their products and services and getting paid a percentage of the cost or a referral fee.

There are many services that are very high quality that are offered through network marketing companies. I work with one fairly new company, but what they currently offer (and will offer soon) will be a huge help to individuals, families, businesses, pets, and everything inbetween.

For instance, on plan they have now is just geared towards helping people save money.

A future plan is going to be geared towards health care, but not in the typical fashion that most plans in this niche are fashioned.

How about tech support?

Legal help?

But here is what is really great about all of this: This is not the only company offering great services to consumers while allowing people to build an additional income stream. And while not every company is a best-fit for any one particular individual, there are companies out there that are a fit for everyone.

Cosmetics

Purses

Vitamins and nutritional supplemtns

Weightloss

Legal plans

Kitchen gadgets

Websites

Adult…umm…nevermind

Candles

You get the point. While any one company may, or may not, be a fit for you, there is one out there.

And if an all-out business is not for you, you can always concentrate on affiliate marketing and simply build websites geared towards driving traffic and generating sales.

In my usual manner of filing taxes, I use Turbo Tax’s online system (usually a higher priced one as I have business expenses I need to mark on a Schedule C as well as do my personal taxes).

Never again.

Since Turbo Tax loves Santa Barbara Bank and Trust (SBB&T) for their direct deposit option, using them will force the IRS to mail your rebate to you instead of having it wired into your bank account.

How nice of Intuit to inform me of this.  Oh wait, they did not.  I found this out after digging through their website, wondering if I would get my rebate this week or not.

Some people are claiming that they are receiving direct deposit.  I decided to place a call to Intuit to discuss this with them.  Their response?  Paper check mailed no later than May 30th.

Turbo Tax fully let me down this year, not only with the rebate, but the fact that their software showed me getting a larger return than what I actually received.  Their software had an error in it, the IRS caught it, and my refund was less.  Supposedly they have a 100% accuracy guarantee, but they will only pay the amount of penalty plus interest and not reimburse the cost of using their service (which was nearly $100).

I do not think I’ll use Turbo Tax for any future tax filings.

Just think that 5 years ago we were complaining that gas prices were above $1.20/gallon. Now we are faced with prices that make even Honda drivers cringe. After all, your car may get 30 miles to the gallon, but putting in nearly $50 still hurts.

With gas rising, though, marketing efforts for anyone who offer a product or company that can earn them extra should increase as well. People are looking for second income streams or second jobs. With this in mind, ramping up your online marketing is becoming critical.

I’m personally trying to write more articles, start up more sites on pages with Page Rank, and other methods to draw people to one of my many primary copy sites. I’m also going to be increasing some of my affiliate marketing efforts in hopes of earning a few extra dollars here and there myself.

So its time to break out the old dusty brain and begin working diligently again. Write more articles, increase your web presence, and spend some time learning more about marketing online will drastically help your traffic, your business, and eventually your personal pain at the pump.