Virtual Event Success

This ticket was opened in April. Again, I will withhold the name, but will publish the ticket in its entirety:

Leesa:
Please send me a copy of your various podcasting info products so I can determine the potential for me being an affiliate to promote your work to the nearly 2000 practitioners I’ve trained worldwide. Most want  to increase their business using the internet and I believe podcasting may be one important aspect of their efforts.
God speed
[name withheld] 

(**sigh**) There are many problems with this request:

1. You can only become one of my affiliates after you’ve bought a product. I made this change because I found that the affiliates with top sales were the ones who already used the product personally.
2. I don’t just send out my products at no charge to anyone. Well, not true. I’ve sent out review copies of my book to people who I know are influential in their industry. The factors I use to determine influence are subjective, however, one criteria is that I know who you are and I contact you first.

Our reply?

Our affiliate program is open only to current customers. You will receive an invitation to join our affiliate program after you’ve made a purchase. We recently made this change because we find that the best people to refer our products and services to others are those who have used them personally.

BTW, Leesa’s book, Podcasting for Profit, is an inexpensive way to discover what podcasting can do for your business and those who you trained. You can download 2 free chapters at http://www.podcastingforprofitbook.com to get a taste of all the great content that is waiting for you in her book.

I got a rather interesting ticket via my helpdesk about a couple months ago. I won’t identify the sender, but I will publish the request in its entirety.

My name is [name withheld]. I recently heard your interview and I love your ideas! Can you help me get started with podcasting? We have a very genuine and unique product line. I feel our customers and the world would benefit from our product(s). I really DO NOT have the time to sit and read a book, however, I do have the time to get instructions on how to get going with this adventure. I really feel I could use your help. Can you dedicate a few hours for my project ?

Now, why would I find this particular ticket interesting? It’s this line:

I really DO NOT have the time to sit and read a book, however, I do have the time to get instructions on how to get going with this adventure.

(**sigh**) The problem is that all my tips, tricks and tactics are IN THE BOOK. The time it would take me to get this chap going on this adventure would be equivalent to him just buying the book and reading it.

In essence, he was asking for the coles notes for Podcasting for Profit, only he wanted the coles notes delivered by me over the phone. Unfortunately, the coles notes just doesn’t exist either on paper or via a private 1-to-1 with me.

Our reply?

Thank you for contacting us, but Leesa no longer does one-on-one consultations or coaching sessions. She does have a podcasting membership that might be of value to you. There are monthly training audios, and the blog is full of valuable information about how to make money podcasting. You can get more information about it at http://www.sixfigurepodcasting.com

Travis Greenlee (pictured left), who was one of the featured speakers at the Social Media Telesummit, is holding a free webinar on Tuesday March 4 @ 1pm EST (New York time) on the 3 simple ways to attract more and better clients, income, and outrageous opportunities using social media.

When Travis spoke at the Social Media Telesummit, he over delivered on the content. His session was only supposed to be 45 minutes in length, however, he kept me and the attendees riveted to the phone for close to 80 minutes. I have no clue how to cut down his session to 74 minutes so I can burn it to CD for attendees.

If he delivered that much content at my event, I can only imagine what he’ll do at his event. Here are just a few of the many things you will learn:

• How to transform your expertise into information products for marketing, motivating, and making money.
• How to harness the power of technology to leverage your time and multiply your income by earning more and working less.
• Learn three simple web 2.0 social media strategies to build a highly responsive database from scratch even with no traffic.
• Key strategies for getting 100′s of people to promote your products and programs for free and dramatically increase your revenues.
• How to gain greater control and freedom from your business, once and for all.

Travis is also giving away the following items to all who register for this event:

• 60 Minute Digital Audio Training
• Downloadable Course Workbook
• Practice Builder Podcast Insights
• Power Tips Mentoring eJournal

Click here to register your spot for this free webinar on March 4th @ 1pm EST

Some have called the Social Media Telesummit a get rich scheme or an attempt to hoodwink Google with search engine shenanigans.

Others have said that the Social Media Telesummit information page is clunky, reads like a snake oil sales brochure (that via email) and other adjectives that have yet to cross my visual and auditory plane.

I was going to write a lengthy post defending my actions, but then I stumbled upon this post at Presentation Zen. What caught my eye was this:

(1) Never apologize for your enthusiasm, passion, or vision.
(2) Never apologize for being inspired by another human being.
(3) Seek out inspiration (don’t wait for it).
(4) Inspire others by sharing your talents and time.
(5) And no matter what: Don’t let the bozos grind you down, ever.

The world needs more inspiration, not less. Speaking is not the only way to inspire—actions inspire too, often more—but leaders know how to inspire with both words and action.

The image below, by way of Presentation Zen who got the image from author Jessica Hagy, speaks louder than any word I can write.

Branding is key to any social media strategy. For example, I chose the colours that I did for my blog because it reminds me of a bowl of Skittles. And I love Skittles. Colourful, sweet and yummy.

My intent is to show people that social media is colourful, sweet, yummy and fun. So, when someone else describes me or one of my products in a fun way, it confirms that my brand is working.

While perusing my feed reader, I came across a post by Andy Wibbels. He’s speaking at the Social Media Telesummit on Friday and while reading his summary of the event, I smiled. Why? It was fun, funny and upbeat. In particular, Andy wrote:

Not sure what this whole ’social media’ nutty-ness is about? Flummoxed over Facebook? Distraught over Digg? Podcasting maven Leesa Barnes has put together a gaggle of experts to take you on a guided tour of the internet marketing landscape exploring topics like social bookmarking, social networks, virtual worlds, podcasting, blogging, branding – the whole shebang! This is a fantastic sampler platter of what is working online right here, right now. I’m presenting on Friday with a session called session Time, Money, Sex (and Salvation). I think it’ll be fun.

Nutty mess, flummoxed, gaggle, shebang. Love the adjectives. Playful, fun and energetic.  I’m glad that Andy has captured that in his blurb about the Telesummit.

The Social Media Telesummit is becoming its own social media case study. It’s fascinating to see the Telesummit speakers and my affiliates use Twitter, Facebook, blogs, podcasts, videos and other social media tools to promote this event.

One of the biggest concerns I see about the Telesummit is the number of sessions. Some have complained that they can’t sit on their phone for 4 hours a day over 8 days.

The Telesummit is so much more than the live sessions. While I’d love to hear an audience of people interacting with myself and the speakers through each and every session, it’s how attendees consume and interact with the content AFTER the live sessions are over where the true value lies.

Paul Colligan captures it so nicely in this 9 minute video. He explains the 7 ways to get the most out of the Telesummit using the analogy of a buffet. It’s well worth the viewing whether you plan to attend the Telesummit – or not.

Please note – If you want to attend any of the live sessions, register before 11:59pm EST on February 20th. After the 20th, you will have only one payment option (the most expensive one) and you lose out on the bonuses. In essence, you’ll pay more for less. Click here to grab your seat right now and participate in this innovative event.

Christina Hills (pictured left), better known as the Shopping Cart Queen, is one of the speakers at the upcoming Social Media Telesummit.

She spent some time with me talking about why emails and autoresponders work much better than RSS alone. The recording is below and I invite you to listen.

Here’s what she shared in this 18 minute audio recording:

• Why email is a better option than RSS (blame your grandmother)
• What an autoresponder captures that an RSS feed can not
• The one thing that Leesa does every time someone joins her autoresponder list (and why Christina thinks this is an awesome idea)

This is a sneak peek of all the awesome content Christina will share during her session at the Social Media Telesummit.  If you haven’t registered your spot, do so today because after February 20th, you’ll have to wait 12 months for the next one.

Update: It’s back up. I’m pretty sure that my shopping cart provider got alot of phone calls about this.

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Oh my goodness! The tool that I rely on for 100% of my business is down. This is the first time in the 3 years I’ve been using it that it is not working. Here’s the error I get when I try to access the page:

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error ’80004005′
[DBNETLIB][ConnectionOpen (Connect()).]SQL Server does not exist or access denied.
E:\PRIVATE\_PRIVATELABELMASTER\../weblook1.asp, line 47

Now, 27 seconds later, I’m getting this error:

Provider error ’80004005′
Unspecified error
E:\PRIVATE\_PRIVATELABELMASTER\../weblook1.asp, line 47

I’m 5 days away from the launch of my event and this is happening. I can’t believe this.