I am getting a lot of questions about my new Marketing Matters video podcast and so I thought I would do a series of ongoing blog posts about how I set it up, including the video podcast equipment that I use as well as the why behind the new show.

Be sure and check back to keep getting updates on my podcasting journey. Also, please share this with your friends on facebook who might want to do a video podcast for themselves.

Note: Some of the links are my affiliate links. If you feel like using my suggestions great. It not it is no problem as well.

The Why Behind The Show

I would like to start out with the why behind the show. This is what fuels the how in the first place and also, is something important that I think people should think about.

For about 10 years, I have been making money online. I have made money from all sorts of things. I have written successful ebooks and even built a travel site that was 100% written by ghostwriters which pays my mortgage each month (One sidenote that many of my listeners already know about is I have never even flown on an airplane before).

You hear a lot about making money from your passion. I have been able to do that for years. I have also been able to make money from things that I am not so passionate about because I have developed my skills of marketing online. My friend Tomaz from Freedom Ideas is who turned me onto the concept of being pasisonate about your lifestyle.

As I get older and my goals have changed, I decided to make a change in my business. I want to only work on projects where my passion and energy is there AS WELL AS buyers are present. Being passionate about something doesn’t mean that people are going to hand you money for that. You still have to have a real solution to a real problem someone is facing. Look to see what people are buying right now.

I asked myself a few questions.

• What do I talk watch,read,think,dream,search google about on a fairly consistent basis?
• What would I do if I didn’t need money anymore (of course this is besides watching movies in my tricked out home theater room ha)?
• What are my values?
• Do people spend money on the things that I am interested in?

Well, on a weekly basis, without fail, I am talking about marketing and business, usually with my marketing junkie buddies Jonathan, Scott and Greg. If I am not doing that, I have my 160 gig ipod jammed with marketing audios and videos on various business related topics. I relax to Dan Kennedy talking about writing salescopy to influential people. I am a geek in this area.

I also don’t like to write. When I do write, I write very detailed and elaborate brain dump’s about topics but they are few and far between. Writing for me is extremely slow. I am impatient and want to make something happen now. Even with this post, I wrestled about just sharing it on video instead of writing. However, I chose writing because I feel I don’t want to lose any important details I want to share with my readers about this whole process.

One of the questions I asked has to do with how I want to leave this world and what I believe (values). On the front of my car, I have a plate that says “Start A Business Make A Difference“.

I believe entrepreneurs have the power to change the world. We come up with the ideas and give people the jobs to carry those ideas out. We are the ones out there selling people solutions to peoples problems that can change their life. Some of those solutions can change a their financial family tree.

Example: John D. Rockefellar was the first billionaire. Not only was he successful in business, he created the Rockefellar Medical Institute  which has saved thousands of lives by finding cures for diseases.

I like video. I have been doing videos since 2006. Most were what I call “ghetto faboulous” but they made me money because they built the know like and trust. I enjoy doing video. I am comfortable on video.

I am sharing all this with you because I wanted you to see my thought process of how I came to start Marketing Matters.

When I analyzed all my answers, I came up with:

I would like to do a video show on the topic of marketing that gives people specific activities that they can use to grow their business. I also want this project to help social causes that I believe in as well. I want to build a community of people like my buddies Jonathan, Greg and Scott to hang out with and talk about my favorite subject.

I then went to work on the name. I wanted something that people could easily remember. I thought of the word “matter”.

We all want to matter to someone. We want our message to matter. To be successful, your marketing DOES have to matter. Also, using the word matter is a bit of a play on words since we donate money to rescue orphans in Peru when someone buys our products. We matter to the orphans. This is how I came up with the name www.MarketingMattersPodcast.com.

 How I Setup My Video Podcast

In this section, I would like to discuss the process and steps I went through to setup my video podcast. I am not an expert on this topic and don’t claim to be. There could be better or worse ways to go about it but this is what I did.

First I went and registered my domain name with Godaddy. Next, I went and setup hosting over at hostgator. I still use their baby account to host all my sites.

Once my hosting was setup, I went and chose a wordpress theme. I wanted a simple and clean look to the site. I chose the fast blog theme. There are some great themes out there that work well with video. I know whoo themes has some you might want to check out.

Once I got my theme installed, I activated the plugins I wanted and added my aweber code for people to subscribe.

I also went over to Fiverr.com and got my logo done for…you guessed it…five bucks!! Crazy right?

Now that my site is up, I needed to make sure I have everything to actually put together a show.

I knew I wanted to do video interviews with people over skype. I also knew I wanted to have them split screen. Bill Myers, which is one of my secret underground mentors, helped me with a cheap but awesome solution. It is called, Replay Telecorder for Skype. It allows you to do split screen interviews and I think it is only $20. I need to mention that I use a pc so I am sure it is a bit different on a mac.

Next, I needed a good webcam. I wanted to do a professional show. Many new computers have awesome webcams so you might not need to buy one yourself. I bought the Microsoft Livecam HD webcam. It is awesome and simple to get started.

One of my inspirations for doing a video podcast is David Siteman Garland who runs The Rise To The Top. He has a great video podcast on business and health topics. I decided to use the same audio equipment he uses for his show since there is no use in reinventing the wheel. I bought the :

• Rode Podcaster USB Dynamic Microphone
• Nady MPF-6  6-Inch Clamp On Microphone Pop Filter
• Rode PSM 1 Shockmount For Podcaster
• Rode PSA1 Swivel Mount Studio Microphone Boom

The great thing about the microphone is it hooks right into my usb ports. It sounds awesome as well. I would say this is a mid to higher range mic. Highly suggest using it.

I use the easy video player to play my video podcasts. It is awesome and simple to use. I have them hosted on a Amazon S3 account.

Once you are setup, you want to make sure that you have a good background with good lighting. Remember, do it right. Make it professional. I have heard it said, act like Oprah is watching your show. If she likes you, it could change your business overnight.

Once you do a show, you will want to edit the show. I use Camtasia for that. You can also use Sony Vegas Studio. Another option is to outsource it all together. You can find great work for a really cheap price like I do.

I decided to get a nice video intro done as well to spice my show up a bit. I paid $100 for mine which is a STEAL.

I believe that is it for this post. In the next post, I will discuss putting together the content of the show.

What are your thoughts and questions?

You can actually change your life by just making an extra $500 per month in extra income. It’s true!

If you look around at the hype on the internet about starting a business, all you read about is making an extra $5,000-10,000 in 30 days with very little effort. Now, I am not against that and nor do I believe that there aren’t people doing that, however that is not the norm.

In this post, I would like to get you to think about the possibilities of what you could do in your life by just making an exta $17 a day or $500 a month. I think you will be shocked…and hopefully inspired.

1. Pay Off Debt

It is no secret that debt destroys marriages and relationships. Having debt causes massive stress in the lives of individuals. Also, by having debt, you miss out on business and investment opportunities that could really change your life. The quicker that you get a plan to pay it off the better.

When I was in college, I ran up A LOT of student loan debt (and I am not even a Dr. lol). Instead of credit cards, I used my 0% interest loans. Terrible mistake! As I got older, I got a few more loans and some other debt. It was not good. Slowly but surely, I paid off all my debt except for my student loans. Lord willing, I will be debt free within a year. I can tell you, those times were stressful for me.

There are tons of financial books out there with various plans. Find one that you feel good about and FOLLOW it. Listen, $500 extra per month thrown on your debt can make a big difference in your life. That is how I got started.

Leo Quinn is a good friend of mine and has a great system for paying off debt. I used his program to get my credit report looking better. He has sample letters and such that I used to clean everything up. You can check out his “How To Own Your Paycheck Again!” program. I highly endorse it.

2. Remodel Your House

Have the pictures in Southern Living created the desire to make a few changes around the old homestead? Are you simply tired of the way your house looks—both inside and out? Is your kitchen from the 1950’s, but you are still using it in the 2000’s? Or has your family outgrown your house, but you do not want to move?

If you earn an extra $500 a month that can be dedicated solely to your remodel project, you have the potential to get a great return on your investment when you go to sell your house or just provide a nicer atmosphere for your family to enjoy.

What would you remodel with your extra money?

3. Invest For Retirement

Wouldn’t it be nice to have the cash reserves readily available to take advantage of a good investment when it comes along?

If you had an extra $500 a month to invest in mutual funds, real estate, or the stock market, you could start building a portfolio that would allow you to make more investments, travel, or retire.

A simple investment of $500 per month could earn you interest for number of years. That would be your extra money working for you to help you create the life you only dream about now.

Take a look at many of the financial calculators online and start playing with some numbers. You will be amazed at how just a little investment of $500 can add up to thousands of dollars.

Have you figured out what your number is so you can retire?

4. Buy Your Dream Car

Is your car about to give up the ghost? Maybe there is a car that you have been wanting for a while but couldn’t afford it on your family budget. An extra $500 a month coming in should be enough to cover a car payment and insurance.

Even better, use that money and pay cash for your car like I did last year. That way you don’t take on any new debt. The picture of the car above is mine. I was able to pay cash for it last September with the extra money I made in my home based greeting card business.

I LOVE my turbo charged Saturn Sky Redline (260hp  )and have wanted one ever since it came out back in 2007. I just wanted to wait until the timing was right.

What type of vehicle would you buy if you had an extra $500 a month coming in each month?

5. Go On A Family Vacation

I know of one family that goes to Disney world each year. It cost about $5000 and they do it every year. Imagine all the memories that they have created on those family vacations. That could be you if you have $500 a month extra you could put towards saving for that epic vacation.

One of the things I have been able to do is pay for a log cabin in one of our favorite places which is Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It feels good to walk in and pay for it each year. We invite my family and my in-laws to join us for three days. We LOVE it.

Where would you go to create memories?

6. Give More To Charity

I think most people are good people. I think most people would love to do more for people if they had the means. $500 a month that goes to your favorite charities or maybe your church could go a LONG WAY in someone’s life. There are some great organizations that could use a generous donation.

John D. Rockefeller is my favorite businessman of all time. He made a ton of money while he was alive. That isn’t all he did either. He gave away a massive amount of money to start schools and other ventures. You might of heard of the Rockefeller Medical Institute. That one institute has saved thousands of lives by curing diseases. All of this has happened, and keeps happening, long after Mr. Rockefeller has passed.

Who would you give to if you made another $500 a month?

7. Pay For Childcare

Owning a daycare…THAT is the business to be in! ha!

We are expecting our first child in October and so I have now been enlightened on the cost of child care. It’s NUTS!!!!

With an extra $500 a month of passive income coming in each month, child care wouldn’t hurt so much.

I hope this has given you some ideas on how $500 a month could change your life. One of the things that has worked for me is creating projects to pay for my lifestyle. I have websites that pay for my debt, mortgage and health insurance….all with passive income.

So what would YOU spend your $500 on if you had it coming in each month passively? Please comment below.

P.S. Another idea for you is to pay your house off early.

P. P. S. If you are needing to raise money quick, you might take a look at my ebook “50 Ways To Raise $50-1,000 In 30 Days Or Less“.

One of the hardest things to do in business is to generate enough prospects for your business in hope that some of them will convert to paying customers or clients.

In this post, I am going share with you two amazingly simple ideas that you can use to generate local internet prospects.

1. Meetup.com - I am shocked that more people don’t know or use this site to generate leads for their business.  Basically, it is a site where groups of local people meet about a certain topic.

I am joking around of course, but if you wanted to market to left-handed women who like to knit, there is a meetup group somewhere in your town. ha!

Seriously though, using the power of Meetup is just smart business. You can join for free and start attending other Meetup groups about whatever topic you choose or you can start your own.

When I put together a marketing plan, I try and think of marketing to “groups” of people. That way I can go through the numbers quick enough to get to the people who want to pay me for my product or service.

If you think Meetup is something that you would like to check out for yourself, be sure and download my free report 5 Proven Ways To Generate Unlimited Free L.O.C.A.L. Leads Using Meetup.com.

You will discover how to make money from the members before they even do business with you (I share two case studies with you). This method allows you to erase the cost of your marketing efforts.

2. Local Tips Website – This idea is a simple one to put together and if you don’t have a lot of money to spend on marketing, could be a great option for you.

Here is the overview of this concept:

Put together a website giving away free tips on a topic that your market would be interested and drive traffic to it using partners and other other mediums mentioned in my free local lead generation report.

Start by putting up a basic website that allows visitors to get free tips from you by giving you their name and email address. A great example is my local lead generation squeeze page.

As far as content goes, you will write some tips to give away but where the magic happens is you gather 3-5 partners that target the same prospects as you do BUT do not compete with you.  Have THEM provide content as well. Drip the tips through email using an autoresponder. Once or twice per week is a good idea.

Have each person pitch in some money (50-100 bucks a month) to market the site in the newspapers locally. If you find just a handful of partners, it won’t cost you a dime to market your business because you can pass on the cost to the other partners.

How cool is that?

Take just one of these ideas (or both), and run with them. Don’t be shocked if you start generating leads for your business. Success leaves clues.

Dave

Everyone at certain times in our lives, needs some extra cash.  We have ALL been there. Today I am going to use $500 as our example because from my experience, that would help most people. Keep in mind, that is only $17 a day!

It seems that every week I meet a few people in those situations.

If you asked me my thoughts on how to make money quick using the internet, I would say that offering a service to people is the absolute quickest way.

In this article, I am going to share with you just one sure-fire way to make at least $500 a month (more if you want to work) that you can start today. All you need is one piece of easy to use software. I am going to show you where to get your first clients as well. Here we go:

Offer an article spinning service.

What is article spinning?

Website owners may pay writers to perform spinning manually, rewriting all or parts of articles. Writers also spin their own articles, manually or automatically, allowing them to sell the same articles with slight variations to a number of clients or to use the article for multiple purposes, for example as content and also for article marketing.

This is a VERY popular strategy and there are thousands of potential clients out there for you.

When offering a service, your time is money so the quicker you get the service done, the more you are making per hour and the more clients you can take. This is why you want to use an article spinning software like The Best Spinner (that is literally the name of the software) to make your life VERY easy.

The Best Spinner is a software created by a good Christian internet marketer named Jonathan Leger. He specializes in creating software that helps website owners rank in the search engines. I have spent TONS of money with Jon because his stuff just works.

Go to his site and watch the quick video on how to use the software. It is so dang easy.

4 Places To Get Your First Clients

Now that you have the software, you need clients. Here are 4 places that you can go right now and find clients. These are in no certain order.

1. Fiverr.com – This is a site that you can post projects that you would do for $5. You can also find projects that people will do for $5 (obviously lol). Post a project on there for free and you should be able to get some leads.

2. Vworker.com – This is my main site for getting outsourcing done. I have used them for years. People post projects and contractors bid on them.

3. Scriptlance.com – This is another site like Vworker.com that you can bid on projects.

4. Google.com – This might sound obvious but you can google certain keywords and find websites that are writing content for their site. You can approach them and make them an offer.

Here Are Two Huge Bonus Tips For You

1. Google Alerts – Google has a free service where you can type in keywords and they will bring you back a list of websites that mention those keywords. Approach those blogs and websites that mention “article spinning” and terms like that. They are PRIME prospects for you.

2. Sell In Bulk – Our goal is $17 a day, instead of doing one article for someone, offer them a package deal. Maybe sell your service in batches of 4-10 articles. If you do it like that, you don’t have to spend time prospecting for leads.

I hope someone runs with The Best Spinner and my prospecting tips. It is a simple and cheap way to put money in your pocket right now!

Dave

After speaking to over 500 people on the phone and in person, I started seeing trends and learning a thing or two about the the struggles people have with making money online.

Most people are so eager to start an internet business so they can leave their job but have no clue where to start. There are tons of people trying to compete for their dollar online which doesn’t make it any easier.

I have noticed also, that most people that I have spoken to aren’t 32 years old and have been making money online for nine years either. They typically are in their thirties or older, have a job and a nice family (maybe even a picket fence too).

They still have dreams though of leaving their job and making money online. This article is for all of the people I have spoken to over the years who aren’t tech geeks but plan to make money online.

I would like to give you seven, very powerful reasons why you should consider using SBI to build your internet empire.

SBI isn’t the only way to do it. I want people to know that. I do own two VERY successful SBI sites though so I believe 100% in SBI.  I also have “several” friends who make money online every month due to their SBI site.

I recommend that you should see the quick slideshow tour yourself as well as the video tour.  They really explain SBI.

Here are the top seven reasons why you should consider using SiteBuildIt (SBI) to build your website.

1. It works - SBI has been around since 1997. On the internet, that is like the beginning of time basically.

Anything that has been around that long selling online isn’t a fluke. There are hundreds and even thousands of documented success stories with real folks as well.

Speaking of which, I own two very successful SBI sites myself. One of them I created for my mlm greeting card business.  I have about $270 invested in that site and as of this post, it has made over $23,223. Not bad considering I hardly even work on the site anymore.

My other site is in the area of travel. I talk about visiting the coolest places to visit on earth. This site almost pays my mortgage every month using the Google adsense program. This site is about three years old. I work on this site maybe once every other month. It just sits there and makes me money. The site is getting about 32,000 people a month with free traffic. THAT is the power of SBI.

2. No html skills required - One of the things that holds people back is the lack of tech skills. With SBI’s block builder, there are no html skills needed. If you do want to make you site look better or add some bolding here and there, you do have that option.  Now there are no more excuses to getting started with your own virtual real estate online.

3. 10 day Video action guide – You might be like me. I am very visual. I like to see how things are done instead of just read about it. That is why I think SBI’s video action guide is so cool.

The video guide is broken up into ten days. All you have to do is follow the video each day. It doesn’t get any better or easier than that. You can’t get lost.

4. Built-in keyword tool – One of the tools every internet marketer needs is a keyword tool. There are lots of good ones out there. There isn’t one that is absolutely perfect though. They range from free (googles) to about $150.

I love SBI’s keyword tool that comes with SBI because the layout is really simple and it is very clear on which keywords are a winner and which keywords would be losers.

5. Awesome forum – Dr. Evoy, the creator of SBI, is a very giving person and there are thousands of SBIers in the forum that think the world of him. They are very thankful for SBI and how it has had an impact on their families lives.

Because of that fact, many SBIers spend great deals of time in the forum helping others succeed without any payment. I always joke around that Sitsell’s forum is like a cult….but in a good way.  lol

If you get stuck, this is a great place to go to get free help.

6. Content 2.0 – C2 as we call it is a REALLY cool feature within SBI.  Basically you can write an article for your site and you can activate C2 which allows people to comment on your article and write their own article for your site.

The cool thing about that is their content gets submitted to the search engines and you will get more FREE traffic to your site for it. How cool is that? 

7. Great value – Dr. Evoy has never raised the price of SBI since he created the sitebuilder. He HAS however, added features into SBI that would cost most people thousands of dollars if they were to buy it on their own.  You can actually compare the cost to other hosting companies yourself by going here.

In closing, SBI is a website building software that has many built in features that if bought separately, would cost you a lot more than you pay for SBI. It is a great value and many people who were once skeptical, tried SBI and have found success.

At the end of the day, the biggest reason why should try it is because it flat out works!

My SiteBuildIt Bonus Package

If you decided that you would like to invest in SBI to begin your online business journey, then be sure and check out my bonus for going through my affiliate link. I put together quite a package for you. Click here for details.

Dave