by Patricia Mayo

Photo by Sanja Gjenero

I’ll be the first to admit - I don’t know it all. Sure I’ve been around a lot, but sometimes you just have to lean on someone a lot more experienced than yourself.

If you will remember from the first episode on building a successful business out of MyChingo.com, one of the product’s biggest target markets is educators. I’m certainly not an expert on the education industry, but Matt Herzberger definitely qualifies.

Matt is right in the middle of everywhere MyChingo wants to go. He works in higher ed filling seats and working with the technology students want in the classroom, the mind behind the @makechange Twitter bot, runs an edublog aggregator at BlogHighEd.org, and an apparent master at sucking up because he got BlogHighEd.org to move up on Alltop.com.

In this episode, Matt helps me figure out how to get MyChingo in front of educators, with insights on what really matters to them and how to position it to succeed.

The music is “The Colorful Box” (not yet completed or released) by Sedition, and it continues at the end of the podcast so be sure to stick around. If you would like to promote your music in next week’s podcast, please feel free to get in touch.

(in case you didn’t know, Sedition is my “band,” it’s just me, and just a hobby)

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If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed so you never miss the next great communication tip. Thanks for stopping by, I hope to see you often!

Trisha, @mayobrains on Twitter

 

 Mobasoft Case Study Ep 2 [31:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

by Patricia Mayo

You’ve seen the headlines - “The new revolutionary way to…” - “Super insider secrets for…” - “The easiest way to…” - “…that THEY don’t want you to know!”

Photo by Moza

As a ghostwriter for many years of those awful five page sales letters and “make money online” information products, I’ve seen - and written - it all. You wouldn’t believe how the “make money online” business really works - and how little of it, actually does.

The reason why all those neat tricks you learned in “make money online” information products don’t work is two fold: the mindset behind it, and the mindset it produces.

More people go into debt chasing some “revolutionary new super secret easy way to make money online” - including, and especially, blogging for money. But you know as well as I do - most of these “insider tricks” are junk, and just an inside joke to trick you into buying.

Real internet marketers don’t sell “online money making secrets” - they give them away for free. Think about it. If they really are making the money they claim, why do they have to sell the information product that teaches you how to make money?

by Patricia Mayo

Photo by Sanja Gjenero

Building a business from scratch and bootstrapping it the whole way is not easy, by any means - but Michael Bailey of Mobasoft, creator of MyChingo.com, has done it at least three times. He is six figures in debt, about as optimistic as an American economist, yet still kicking.

Why? He loves what he does. Michael realizes that money is simply a means to an end, and he only wants to make MyChingo profitable so he can work full time to add more features for the community.

I fell in love with Michael’s story, his ideals, his ethics, and his passion for innovation. That’s why this is only the very first in a series on building a successful online business - because I am not going to stop helping him until he is on track to pay off his massive debt.

Join us for our first discussion of his amazing story, and the equally astounding stories of the people who use MyChingo - including a husband’s journey to help his wife out of a persistent vegetative state.

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 Mobasoft Case Study Ep 1 [37:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I’m putting together my first ever podcast, and I didn’t want you guys to miss out on all the hilarity that comes with it. So here is a little preview of the first episode for the MyChingo.com case study coming out tomorrow.

Please do let me know what you think before I finalize the 37 minute broadcast You can get in touch with Michael Bailey on Twitter @mobasoft, or read his famed “depressive random ramblings” (you will understand in the full podcast) on the Mobasoft blog.

The music is by a good friend of mine, Animus Invidious.

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 Mobasoft Case Study Ep 1: Bloopers [3:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

by Carson McKee of Direct Contact

It’s so easy, so why doesn’t everyone use it? Social media - merely a buzzword to some, is an absolutely invaluable tool for many business to business networkers.

And yet, so many still seem to think it’s not worth their time. Why not?

In this guest post, LinkedIn and sales specialist Carson McKee takes an in-depth look at the problems solved and perceived to have been created by the networking breakthroughs of social media.

While social media has been embraced by many marketers today – it’s still the early days for business to business (B2B) marketers.

A Waste of Time?

Many social media sites are blocked in the work place, like Facebook and YouTube are where I work. So right off the bat, access is a problem. While many business environments allow access to Linkedin (I train sales people on using Linkedin as a business development tool), use of social media at many work places is seen as unproductive or a waste of time.

by Patricia Mayo

The numbers are down. Conversions just aren’t happening. You feel at your worst and it’s starting to affect everything you do. You want to give up, but is it really time to go back to the drawing board?

I hope not, because that is exactly where I stand right now. My problem - the ad copy is too effective!