When you get what you want in your struggle for self

And the world makes you King for a day.

Just go to the mirror and look at yourself

And see what that man has to say.

For it isn’t your father or mother or wife

Whose judgement you must pass,

The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life

Is the one staring back from the glass.

You may be like Jack Horner and chisel a plum

And think you’re a wonderful guy.

But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum

If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

He’s the fellow to please- nevermind all the rest,

For he’s with you clear to the end

And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test

If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years

And get pats on the back as you pass

But your final reward will be heartache and tears

If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.

-Anonymous

One of my favorite truth telling poems. Will always love it, in good times and bad.

Anyone who really knows how to market, knows that piggy backing yourself on hot topics is a great way to ride to success. Whether it be from someone who is already successful or from piggybacking off a specific product or idea, it can really pay off big dividends in the end.

Take a look at Oprah, she simply mentioned Kindle on one of her shows and BOOM sales went through the roof. And along came all sorts of publishers vying to get their book onto the Kindle platform. It was the place to be.

Well guess what todays show was about….you guessed it INTERNET MARKETING. In fact, it was about multiple marketers who have hit the millions, all from working online. So guess what will happen next…Thousands will come online seeking the golden egg. The perfect way to increase their income from home. Now is the time to pull the dust off that product that you have been sitting on. Now is the time to launch your how to make money online products. Now is the time to make your own money, by providing the flocks with ways to make theirs.

And the best part, because Oprah mentioned it, it will create big waves. Kindles were sold out for months after she mentioned it. Could you imagine sitting atop the search engines right now for make money, or make money online. You would be hit with this wave of traffic. So what are you waiting for. Grab hold of the hot trends and make someone else do the work and publicity for you.

I’ve had some recent talks with Vince and others about the concept of branding online and it seems that a lot of people just don’t “get it.” They don’t understand the potential it has to take your income and your name to higher levels. In fact, so few choose to brand themselves online that those that do, stand heads above the rest, because you always know when something is their product. Like the Nike swoosh. You see anything with it on it, no matter how far removed from shoes it is, and you know that they created it. Now isn’t that the type of brand recognition you would want to see in your own business? I know it is in mine.

SO how exactly do you start the branding process?

It’s simple. (Or not so simple for some) You need to find out what your USP is (your unique selling position.) You see mine is being a momma to 5, mine is being a parent, mine is the rags to riches story, mine is the being unique aspect. There are many levels in which I stand out from the crowd and yet, fit specifically in others. And you will find that once you know your own branding abilities you will also find a whole new market. Why not market to those who would associate with us best. Are you a single dad, right away that gives you more trust with other single dads. Teenage mother, guess what, other teenage mothers will find it easier to associate with you. It is already half the battle, you are already winning the game because you have the trust factor. They trust you because you are like them. You have already overcome one of the hardest things to do in internet marketing.

But it doesn’t end there. You should try and seek a title, albeit, it may be a made up one, but it needs to be one that describes you and your brand. Going back to the Nike example there is “Just do it” you hear the phrase and you associate it with them. Mine is Money Making Momma. Now let’s expand on that. You need to use that where ever you can, you need people to associate that title with you. Sign your emails that way (make it the line under your signature), use it on your  , as your title, use it wherever you can until others associate it with you. Once you have hit that point you know you are doing it right. Check out my sites, you’ll see it plenty of places, check out my  Twitter page, it’s right there at the top, check out my Facebook page, yep it’s there too, even my custom title on WF has it and you know that’s what people associate with me now. It does take time, so don’t expect it to happen overnight.

Another key element is finding something you can transfer as much as possible. Again with the Nike example, you see the swoosh on clothes, hats, merchandise and it works, on all levels. Mine works across the board too as in the IM area it brings in the down to earth level, that most can associate with more than the “guru.” It screams to them a comfort level that they don’t notice but have on a subconcious level. It makes them stop and go, if a mom to 5 from cold ass Canada can do this, so can I.

So start branding, get known and run with your brand.

Okay first forgive me for the scatterbrained post I am about to make, it covers so much and yet so little but all needs to be added, for once an idea sparks within my mind I have to create it and act on it or have it drive me mad until I do LOL.

First for my regular readers you’ll notice I pulled the membership plugin on the site. Why? Well I realized I don’t need to profit off the knowledge I share here. And I don’t want to feel like I am being untrue to myself and those I have built relationships with. I love to share knowledge, I love to learn and may the Angels take me the day that ever changes. So in true fashion, all I have done, all I have written is now open to be read and learnt by the world.

My second portion is to update on the traffic I was talking about earlier this month. I will warn you there are some odd spikes and I will explain those too. You see anytime Vince seems to mention my name on BTR or anywhere else, everyone comes checking to see who I am, and being as this site is right smack on my own name domain, this is where they end up. But on the otherhand, you will also see the traffic is slwoly building. Nothing more than the RSS and Directory submits, regular updates and regular mentions by a certain someone on his show. That’s all that is driving traffic to this site.

Server Stats

As you can see there was a spike yesterday again as a result of Vince’s show and it is still trickling in today as I am already at 26 visitors and it is not even 10 am here. So as you can see from submitting I doubled my traffic and granted it wasn’t much to begin with, remember this site is only about a month old and now averaging around 1K visitors a month so well on it’s way.

And as I am sure you’ve also noticed around here, I am here more, why? Because life is inspiring. I found it difficult to post daily for the blog challenge because it felt forced, it felt like something I HAD to do, and I’m not a girl to have to do anything. I do what I want, because I want to. So needless to say, if I have nothing to say for a week, I won’t post, if I have everything to say in a day, you may find a new post every few hours and to me that is key. When this place I love to come to and write and express myself feels like a JOB forget punch the timecard out cause I won’t be back.

A lot of people online hide behind BS anonymous names and facades and don’t ever let anyone near them. Whether this be fear or for some other reason, in todays world of internet marketing, this could very well be causing harm to your business. Branding yourself and your personality puts you heads above those who are unknown.

So many people hide out and pretend to be that which they are not, and the one downfall this will have, even if not instantly seen, is that you will lose. You cannot keep a mask up forever. At some point you may slip, something may change in your life or your perspective and all of a sudden the mask reveals the real you and your customers lose their trust factor, they lose all credibility with you. Everything you spent however long building just crashed at your feet because you weren’t real. After all, you lied, you weren’t true to yourself so why should they buy from you, why should they believe a word you have to say. And then you lose your all mighty dollar.

Wouldn’t it just be better to be yourself and take the customers and keep em for life?

I mean for every person who walks away because I am a young gothic mom to 5 little ones, I have 9 that love me. And my business is built on that. Everyday I receive emails from people that are astonished at the fact I present the real me. Sure, sometimes it would be easier to pretend to be someone else and hide from my real life, but all that will do is bite me in the ass in the end. I would rather come out screaming at the world, letting them know who I am, what I am about and have them love me or hate me for who I actually am than some BS masquerade I decided to try to be. I would much rather build a relationship of trust and credibility from the start. I mean look around you, there are no walls encompassing us all, no boundaries but if you are one way online and completely different in real life you will bleed at some point. You will screw up, it’s inevitable. Or perhaps you crawl outta the hole you are hiding in and hit a Internet Marketing convention and low and behold all those affiliates, associates or colleagues no longer trust you because they do not know you.

Why ruin all you have to hide who you are? Be proud of who you are, where you came from and the shit you’ve been through because without it, you wouldn’t be you. Life is too short to give a rats ass what others think. Live your life and run your business as yourself and for yourself and suddenly, all that seemed too hard, seemed too difficult to overcome is gone. You are no longer trying to adjust to how you think the world wants you to be, but instead being who you want to be and enjoying life and all it entails.