Facebook has now attracted those smarmy, get rich quick folks. It’s getting quite gross, but whenever something is hot, there will be some who will jump on the bandwagon to make a quick buck.

As I look at all these tall claims of making thousands on Facebook in just 6 hours, it seems too good to be true. Typically it is, however, the claim isn’t untrue.

In the 5 years that I’ve been writing my own sales copy and reading others, I now understand what these “claims” really mean. Here are some examples to illustrate my point.

More on What the Hype In Sales Letters Really Mean

I love holidays. Canadians celebrated Victoria Day last week Monday. Americans are celebrating Memorial Day today, while the British are enjoying a Bank Holiday.

Whenever there’s a holiday, I just love to celebrate with a sale. So, I’m having another one of my infamous fire sales.

How does it work? I take a bunch of products from my vault and bundle them together in a package. Then, I offer the package at a steep discount. The only catch is that you have to act early since every day we inch closer to the end of the sale, the price goes up by a few dollars. Sort of like a Dutch auction.

Click here to check out the products in the Social Media Power Pack. Hopefully, you’ll be in the celebratory mood after you see what’s included in this package.

Paul Colligan has done it again. He got me thinking about his recent blog post. In it, he says that going pro in New Media helps the environment.

He’s right. Absolutely right.

Today, April 22nd, is Earth Day and I’ll be honest. I don’t care about the environment. Actually, I do care about the environment, I just don’t care about all the hype surrounding it.

It seems that people care about the environment only when it’s cool to do so. Al Gore says we should care, so we do. Leonardo DiCaprio says we should care about the environment, so we do.

Remember acid rain in the 1980s? It was cool then. Now, no one talks about acid rain. Did we cure acid rain or did it just go away because it was no longer cool to talk about anymore? Now, it’s all about being green because that’s cool.

Frankly, I don’t care about labels. I don’t care which celebrities is pushing whatever green project just because they need to do something nice to divert people’s attention from their DUI arrest.

Instead, like Paul, I do my own part in being green.

More on Turn Your New Media Hobby Into a Business to Save the Environment on Earth Day

I’ve seen alot of people talking about using podcasting and social media to recession proof your business. While I respect their opinions and think it’s all good advice, many are simply jumping on the bandwagon.

A recession is only one economic downturn that a business will face. There are also times when a business will go through weeks of not seeing any money, despite how healthy the economy is.

That’s why on Wednesday April 16th @ 8pm EDT, I’m going to talk about the 3 ways to use podcasting and social media to beat any economic downturn. I will help you understand in this FREE 75 minute call how to survive when your business goes through a few of months without any money rolling in.

So join me for my free call on Wednesday April 16, 2008 at 8pm EDT (New York time). You can get the call in details by clicking here. Only those on the mailing list will receive the recording and transcripts.

I’d like to invite you to a 75 minute teleclass that I’m hosting on Wednesday April 16, 2008 @ 8pm EDT.

The teleclass is called 3 Ways Podcasting & Social Media Can Help You Stay Profitable During Any Economic Slow Down. I’m excited about this teleclass and I’d love for you to join me.

This FREE teleclass is designed to do 2 things:

• To give you tips on how you can use podcasting and social media to recession proof your business.
• To share with you a brand new program that I’m launching.

If you’ve been on any of my teleclasses, 95% of the information you get on these calls will help you put it into action right away. To get the call in details, enter your first name and email in the boxes below.

If you’re reading this in your feed reader, you’ll have to go to my blog to enter your deets. Just click on the title of this post so you can enter your info in the fields.

So, when’s the last time you were invited by your country’s largest book retailer to preview the launch of their online community? That happened to me last Fall. I went to Indigo Books’ head office in downtown Toronto after receiving an email invitation to join them.

It was an intimate gathering - about 10 of us in the room - including Stuart MacDonald, one of the organizers behind Mesh. I had a chance to go step-by-step through Indigo’s online community which was led by their Online Experience Specialist.

The 10 minute video below gives you a quick snapshot of the community. I offer my opinions on how businesses can use the online community through Indigo Books to build rapport with prospects and offer a value add to your own customers using the often overlooked marketing tool - books.

 

 Podcast Video [10:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

What do you think? Is there a business application for using Indigo’s Online Community? (view the video first so you’re more informed)

I have a reach of about 10,000 through my RSS feed, email list, mailing list and search engine traffic. I tell you this not to boast, but to share with you how careful I am about the things I talk about on my blog and in my weekly ezine.

Each person has put some trust in my expertise and knowledge. In return, I protect my list by only talking about programs and case studies that will be of value to my audience.

This is a two way relationship. Ted joins my list. I send him information. Ted continues to subscribe to my list because he sees value in what I’m delivering. I continue to send information of value. As long as Ted continues to subscribe, I know he’s finding value.

Of course, there could be a few reasons why Ted doesn’t unsubscribe. I won’t know until I ask him. But until I do, I make sure that what I deliver to Ted is relevant to him and his current situation. Then, I times Ted by 10,000 and that responsibility becomes even bigger.

How much do you respect the trust that your list gives you? What criteria do you use before you share something with your list?

I’ve been enjoying a computer and Internet free week. I’m kind of proud that I was only tempted to go online once on Wednesday and that was all of one hour just to grab a phone number to call a colleague and approve some blog comments.

It’s Friday and I am continuing to enjoy this break. I won’t be online again until Monday. Then, it’s full steam ahead, tying up some loose ends from the Social Media Telesummit and planning my next program, Social Media Mastery and starting my breakfast seminars on Podcasting for Profit.

Something in my feed reader prompted me to post to my blog today. It was a post by Janet Barclay. You probably don’t know who she is and that’s okay. You see, Janet did something 2 years ago that has drastically changed her life.

After hearing me speak at the Professional Organizers in Canada AGM in October 2006, Janet took on my challenge. She was one of 2 professionals organizers in a room of 150 who stepped out of their comfort zone and launched a blog. She’s enjoying this experience and hopes to grow her audience in 2008.

I’m happy to have helped so many people, including Janet Barclay who is using a blog to break out of her shell and build her business online. Or John Molendyk who heard me speak at an event in June 2006 and launched a blog to chronicle his mother-in-law’s struggle with cancer.

Over coffee last Christmas, John shared with me how touched he was that strangers were leaving comments on his blog to share their comments and feedback. He found this sense of community comforting while dealing with his mother-in-law’s illness.

This to me is so amazing. People who are using their blogs, not just to blog, but to tell their stories. Ramon Williamson, who provided the closing keynote at the Social Media Telesummit, gave the best definition of social media that I have heard to date. He said:

“Social media is collaborative storytelling accelerated by technology.”

While social media is being used to make money, build brands and generate leads, it’s the storytelling that will build communities. This has always been my goal - to teach business people how to use social media to build communities where stories can be shared. 

My question to you - How can I help you tell your story? What information should I share on this blog that will benefit you and your business? Should I review tools? Should I provide step by step video tutorials? What is your biggest question about podcasting and social media? What do you want to see here? Leave your comments below. 

I’m going to do my very first video interview tonight, January 31, 2007 at 7pm EST with Sherman Hu (pictured left). I invite you to attend. It’s a free one hour session and Sherman will be asking me about podcasting and the Social Media Telesummit.

You can access the session via your phone or if you’re online, you can access the session via a tool I’ve never heard of called Yugma. I had a chance to test it out with Sherman on Tuesday and the interface looks alot like GoToMeeting, the only difference is that you can incorporate live video into the interface.

To get the access information, click here to grab all the info from Sherman’s blog. There’s no sign up, just read his blog entry and you’ll find the call in details and the Yugma meeting id. Please come with your podcasting and social media questions as you can ask them live.

Next post - Lessons learned about setting up a quick video studio.

I’ve got a treat for you! Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff are the dynamic duo behind The Blog Squad.

Not only did I snag these ladies to speak at the Social Media Telesummit, but they’re going to join me live tonight for Preview Call #3.

We’re going to talk about social media tools. We’ll explain the difference between blogging, podcasting, microblogging and a few other tools. Plus, we’ll explain how to use these tools for business.

I invite you to join us on Wednesday January 30, 2008 at 5pm PST / 8pm EST. To get the call-in details, please enter your first name and email address below. If you can’t make the call, sign up anyways as only those on the list will get access to the MP3 recording.

As a thank you for signing up, you will also receive my complimentary bi-weekly ezine Make Selling Fun & Profitable.