After a previous post about list building I received the following questions:

What is a ‘self-hosted’ blog? Why is this different from a blogspot or freebie blog? Why is ‘self-hosted’ better?

Question: What Is A Self Hosted Blog?

WhoIsHollyPowell is hosted on our own server using the wordpress free software. We have a host server account using hostgator where we have loaded wordpress. WordPress is a very powerful open-source blogging platform. Some folks use wordpress for their websites because of the ease of use.

Question: Why is ‘self-hosted’ better?

As opposed to a blogger account or wordpress.com account you have control over adsense, content, EVERYTHING. Without your own hosted wordpress blog you lose control. I have heard of many horror stories where folks have blogged away and created beautiful websites using the free options ONLY to have them deleted for whatever reason; and guess what you almost have no alternative but to start over.

Now I’m not the blogging expert there are several resources on the web. Check out Michael Martine’s blog. He has incredible information about blogging tools and more.

Question: What is the difference in blogspot or a freebie account?

Nothing, if you use a freebie blogger account you run the risk of having your blog deleted on any given day without notice.

Again, I’m not the blog expert. These are just the basics.

Everybody knows that we are all about building multiple-streams of income and we hope that you too understand the power behind it. Whether it is a $3, $5 or $150 deal they should all make you money.

Here is what most of you do. You start a program and you start sending emails from your gmail or hotmail account!!! OMG, STOP it already!

Get a blog started. All you need to build a list is a blog/website and an autoresponder. Some of you are worried about that cost…but I’m here to say that you’re losing more money by NOT having a marketing system.

You’re worried about the cost? BUT you can’t build a true list IF you aren’t using some type of marketing system. And do NOT even think about using the one from your company. ONLY newbies do that.

You need to start gathering leads. Here is what I suggest.

Create a web page where you gather leads. Give something away. It doesn’t have to be something big. It can be an e book. Some of you think you can’t create an e book but you can. Hell, if you ask us we’ll give you one you can give away to your opt-ins.

Then start sending out email to your list regularly. Every day, every three days, every week; it doesn’t matter as long as you’re consistent. IF you start your list by sending out a daily email they will come to expect it. If you start out irregularly you’ll get more people opt out.

Then get you a blog started. NOT a blogger account or a blogspot; not a freebie blog. You absolutely must have a self-hosted blog account.

After you get your marketing system and your blog started it is time to drive traffic. We’ll cover that in our next post.

What started as a small neighborhood project has now turned to a nationwide avalanche of giving back. So many of take for granted the gifts in our life.

Angel Food Ministries is a great way for you to start giving back.

Here is how this was started…

With a heart to help others and a generous spirit, Joe and Linda Wingo founded Angel Food Ministries in 1994 to provide food for friends and neighbors who were struggling financially. Today, they are still doing the same thing. The Angel Food program now is helping provide food relief to more than 500,000 families each month.

Now you take part in this in a huge way. You probably work with some folks who would be willing to participate even on a monthly basis. Adopt a family or a senior and give them the gift of food each month. It will cost you $120 to feed a family of four for a month. But split 3, 4, or even 10 ways. If you could find 10 co-workers willing to spend $12 a month you can adopt a family and help provide food for them.

Angel Food Ministries December menu.

You can probably think of many more ways to give back this is just one of them.

Visit the website for more details. But you gotta hurry the order deadline for December is December 7.

Adopt a family in your neighborhood and give the gift of food. You can contact your local school system to see if they know of some families who could use this wonderful gift.

Do you know if your social marketing is working for you?

Jack Humphrey shared this link with his readers and I am loving it so far.

BudURL provides an easy way for you to track your social marketing affectiveness. By the way, if you are not tracking your Social Media efforts–you’re wasting your time–by tracking your campaigns you will know what works and what doesn’t.

Are you sending out newsletters that never get clicked? Are you blogging for nothing? Are your videos getting clicked on?

Now you’ll know.

What exactly is BudURL?

Most of you have used or at least heard about Tinyurl–BudURL is also a domain “shortening” service–but with a twist.

The difference here is with BudURL you can use live click tracking! For example, you load a video and you use a BudURL in your description to your website–want to know how many people clicked on that link?

Now you’ll know. You write a “tweet”, a blog, an article–use a different BudURL for each and see which one was more affective.

Another example, set up an account at TweetLater–create 3 or 4 different “tweets” to the same URL but use different words–be sure to use BudURL to create different tracking links–you’ll see which “tweet” got the most traffic.

Use BudURL in your video descriptions–you’ll be surprised–the traffic you’re getting–and then you might be surprised how many people are actually going to the video and NOT watching it at all–could it be the Title? I’m not sure but play around with BudURL–see if you can get better results with different video titles.

BudURL makes it easy to track because there is a description box so you can keep notes about where you placed the BudURL.

Most of you know that I use online methods to generate our own leads. The best lead you can have is the one you generated yourself–hands down.

However, we also know that having a constant flow of leads is very important especially for the newbie marketer.

In the beginning of my online network marketing experience I spent literally $1,000′s buying leads. Then I learned that if I could create a simple newsletter, mini-course, etc. and give that away I could generate my own leads–so I developed a mini 14 day bootcamp–and that site that pulls leads almost everyday. Now that is nice for sure.

That is all well and good but most folks don’t even know what an autoresponder is much less how to create a page that will generate leads–so for those of you just starting out OR those of you who want more leads running through your funnel…we have a solution.

My friend Connie introduced me to a site that gives away leads. Yes, there is an upgrade–isn’t there always? I confess I haven’t upgraded yet but will soon–it just makes sense.

The whole purpose here is to get folks started through your funnel. Yes the leads are free and you can advertise your site as well–so go ahead and check the site out.

Free Leads For You