How Well Do You Maintain Balance?[Quiz]

I will admit I don’t totally agree with being “in balance”.  I’ve read in the Web of Life that living creatures are never in a state of balance. That’s how you know that they’re alive. But we’ve now come to see balance or life balance to mean having enough enjoyment or pleasure to balance life’s pain, work or displeasure.

Sometimes we do tip the “balance” too far. Sometimes we don’t eat, or eat too much, we don’t exercise. There’s so much that we overdo. So think of this quiz as a litmus test to see if you are not practicing self-care and you are overworked.

Take this quiz to see how well you are meeting responsibilities, while also recognizing and fulfilling personal needs and wants.

Answer True or False:

1. The only way I can successfully manage my life is to take care of myself physically and emotionally.
2. Nurturing myself enlarges my capacity to help others.
3. I eat healthfully and exercise regularly.
4. I get check-ups, go to the dentist, and take preventative precautions.
5. I set aside personal, quiet time for myself, whether I’m meditating or simply letting my thoughts drift.
6. I experience the gifts of each season: ice skating, sledding, bundled-up beach walks; gardening, hiking, more time outside; camping, swimming, barbeques; harvesting the bounty, gathering wood, spending more time inside.
7. Creativity nurtures me, too. I do what I love, whether that’s cooking, drawing, painting, writing, dancing, singing or another creative pursuit.
8. Reaching out to others enriches my life. I spend quality time with family and friends.
9. Contributing to the world provides connection and purpose, so I give my time, energy and experience where it is most useful.
10. I notice and heed the emotional signals that tell me I’m out of balance: irritability, overwhelm, resentment.
11. If I feel that I’m catching a cold, I realize I may have stressed my immune system with overactivity, so I stop and take care of myself.
12. When I need or want to, I say no to requests for my time.
13. I listen to and honor the requests my body makes for such things as a nap, a walk, green vegetables, hot soup.
14. If I have something planned for myself, I don’t just toss that aside when someone makes a request of me.
15. I’m busy, but I find time to do the things I want to do.
16. I’m happy. I regularly experience well-being, contentment, even joy.

If you answered false more often than true, you may want to take a look at the questions to which you answered false and see if you can incorporate something of its message into your life. Please don’t hesitate to call if you’d like to explore this issue further.

Used under license, © 2011 Claire Communications

The Avengers Marketing

Adventures in Drip Marketing and the 4 Quadrants

The Avengers turned out to be a huge blockbuster of a hit. It earned 700 million its opening weekend beating the final in the Harry Potter series.  I watched the Avengers, a while after the craziness 0f opening weekend in New Zealand. It was a 9 p.m. movie, jam packed and I sat next to a mom and her two kids. I of course went to see Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johanson’s characters. The five of us (including my husband) are almost a perfect cross section of the four quadrants (the mom looked under 25): men over 25, men under 25, women over 25, women under 25.

I did think it was a good movie. Not as awesome as the Hunger Games, which had a very compelling plot, but pretty good.

So why did it gross 205 million in it’s opening weekend beating the final Harry Potter film? It hit the billion dollar mark just as quickly as Avatar did and is now one of only 11 movies to have made over one billion dollars in sales.

So just what was it that created such a success?

There’s many reasons, including when it debuted and what other movies it competed against and product placement, but I think there are two big reasons:

1. Quadrant Crossover
2. Drip content marketing

Quadrant Crossover

As I was referring to earlier, movies are categorized into one of 4 quadrants: men over 25, men under 25, women over 25, women under 25. Movies that can “cross over” and appeal to more than one quadrant generally does much better. In this uncertain economy, film studios are actually demanding scripts that will have “cross over” appeal.

The Avengers hit all 4 quadrants. Men over 25 and under 25 because of the action sequences and the comic books, nostalgia and accompanying products from all the individual movies that led up to the Avengers. Women under 25 and over 25 because of the strong female character (black widow, played by Scarlett Johanson) as well as the “hot guy” factor.

Drip Content Marketing

I am using this concept loosely. It’s generally used in web marketing.

Drip marketing is a communication strategy that sends, or “drips,” a pre-written set of messages to customers or prospects over time.

From “Iron Man 1″, Marvel/Disney has been hinting about the Avengers. Again, note the lead up. It took them 5 years of cross promoting through 5 different movies…giving hints to their audiences. Of course you cannot forget the app, mix of traditional and new marketing methods and the final marketing blitz that shaped the overwhelming success of the Avengers.

So what the Avenger marketing success mean to you and your business?

1. Plan your marketing strategy and make sure that you’re are foremost in your potential clients’ minds.
2. Remember that good marketing takes time, a strategy and patience.
3. Even though you’re targeting one market, remember to plan for “crossover” or other market appeal.
4. Give teasers, hints and messages of “things to come” to generate buzz and interest.

Feel free to comment on how the Avengers has affected your marketing!

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© 2012 Lakshmi Gosyne

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

“Lakshmi Gosyne helps women entrepreneurs learn, love and profit from online technology and social media. Find out more about how to make technology work for you by visiting www.lakshmigosyne.com”

How to set boundaries and goals without alienating your partner

As your business grows, you will too. There will be business programs, services and items that will push buttons both for you and for your partner.

Asking for what you want—and setting boundaries around what you don’t want—is a key life skill. But sometimes in our enthusiasm to practice this skill, we over-do our own assertiveness and end up with a partner who shuts down, gets angry or feels resentful. Here are four tips for developing your assertiveness in a way that will actually strengthen, deepen and enrich your relationship—thus avoiding the “alienation trap”:

1. Get Clear.

Being assertive starts with knowing what you are—and aren’t—willing to be, do, or have. For many of us, coming to this knowledge is a real task unto itself. Here, it may be useful to ask: “In an ideal world, what would I like to happen?” Focusing on an ideal outcome opens our minds, prevents us from falling into passivity or “victim-thinking,” and helps us get really clear on what we want and don’t want.

2. Set Boundaries.

Once you know what outcome you need (or want), share it with your partner. Pay attention to the way stating your boundary feels in your body. With practice, you can actually sense when you’re hitting the “sweet spot.” It can feel really pleasurable, even exhilarating, to express your needs or desires out loud. Phrases like “such and such doesn’t work for me” are simple ways of being assertive while maintaining connection with your partner.

3. Make a Regular Habit of Stating Your Needs and Desires.

You can build your assertiveness the same way you build any muscle: exercise. Practice speaking up about your needs, big or small, on a daily basis.  When you speak up about things that are less controversial—such as where to go to dinner, requesting help unloading the dishwasher or what TV program to watch—both you and your partner get used to your assertiveness. It becomes easier for you to practice and for your partner to hear. Also, when bigger issues come along, you and your partner will have a healthy process in place for dealing with differences in needs, and you’ll have greater confidence in the resilience of your partnership.

4. Give as Much as You Get.

Assertiveness is a two-way street. If you want your boundaries to be respected, you must return the courtesy to your partner. If she doesn’t want you to use the bathroom when she’s in the shower, don’t. If he asks you to give him a half an hour after work before you talk and connect, respect that. When it comes to following through on a partner’s reasonable request, actions really do speak louder than words.

If your partner isn’t respecting your boundaries even though you’ve set them clearly, it may be time for professional help for you and/or your relationship.

Used under license, © 2011 Claire Communications

Charging what you’re worth

My mentors have worked really hard to get me to raise my fees and charge what I’m worth. Somehow, I had got it in my head that I’m only worth a certain amount a month and it seems that I “manifest” that every month (for those non-manifesters out there, I’m not referring to the Secret, I just seemed to somehow not work or get paid after that “quota”. I guess you can also call it “self-sabotaging”).

Despite all of my mentor’s good work, it didn’t hit home until I was logging my monthly sales goals in Michael Port’s sexy new program: solid.ly. I realized that the amount I wanted to make a month scared the *&() out of me! So of course I do an internet search to “remove money blocks” and there’s a deluge of information on the internet on how to stop money blocks. EFT, Morty Leftkoe just a whole bunch of long-winded stuff. And I was really worried for a while until I got a e-mail article from Craig Ballantyne about, coincidentally, the exact same thing.

When Craig started off in the internet business. He was working hard and charging little. He wasn’t getting stuff paid on time. One company didn’t even pay him his full fee… and then…. I was a bit excited to see what he did next. This was the answer to my question!

Craig wrote that the one thing that got him out of poverty was: He decided he was worth more and charged the new prices for all new work. Can you believe it? No coach who coached him through it, no long-winded ritual. Just the decision… and then the action followed. So how does that relate to you and me?

Charge what you honestly think you’re worth

I don’t believe in ripping off people. Decide on what is a fair price for the experience you have, time in business etc. and then charge that. BUT take the action to able to raise your fees in 3-6 months time. This means upgrading your industry, personal, and business skills as well as taking your experience into account.

There’s a lovely affirmation that one of the coaches I’ve chatted with have given me: “I charge well for my services as a way of valuing myself and my gifts”. I have undervalued my gifts in the past, don’t go doing that to yourself.

Your Services are Valuable

Many people make the mistake in assuming that they can charge the same as their hourly fee at work. You can’t do this. Why? Because you need to pay for: insurance, “office space”, marketing and promotion, etc. Companies pay all of these “hidden extras” for having employees. You are actually saving your clients money because they don’t have to pay taxes on your salary. Trust me. I had employees. I know. So don’t under charge.

Look at what your contemporaries are charging

One of the things that made Craig change his fees is that he looked at a colleague’s fee rate. He realized that he was under charging by a lot! The other trick here is to think about who you want to work with. Do you want to work with customers who can’t pay, cannot afford and who you have to demand your fees (more than once)? Or do you want to deal with people where money isn’t the issue, just the value they get out of it?

You need to keep all this in mind while deciding what fees to charge. Remember, you’re worth it.

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© 2012 Lakshmi Gosyne

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

“Lakshmi Gosyne helps women entrepreneurs learn, love and profit from online technology and social media. Find out more about how to make technology work for you by visiting www.lakshmigosyne.com”

The Start-up of You

I’ve just finished reading The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform your Career by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha.

Despite the name-dropping and obvious LinkedIn plugs (Hoffman is a co-founder of LinkedIn), I really resonated with this book. I was at the right place in building my business to read this and it fleshed-out some ideas of mine that were already forming from my experience.

Here are the main points made in this book:

1. We should all be in permanent beta, ready to regroup, reform and pursue new opportunities.
2. Our career paths should be based on our: assets, aspirations, values and market realities. All these interact and change and so should your career path.
3. Plan to Adapt: Have a plan A, B and Z. Know that You can’t do Ready, Aim, Fire in a business it’s more like Aim Fire Aim Fire Aim Fire.
4. Networking is crucial to business success, but networking where genuine relationships are formed with can lead to strategic alliances.
5. Always be on the lookout for new ideas, opportunities and potential career jumps and be willing to hustle when the opportunity arises.
6. Take intelligent risks
7. and finally who you know IS what you know. Tapping into the intelligence of your network.

Style of writing

The style of writing is conversational and very easy to read. I like books that I can put down and then pick up and get right back into. It’s like having a great conversation with someone.

Pros and Cons
It makes some very good points. I especially like the idea that entrepreneurs are not on a straight path to success and that their alliances and networks will help them gather information and make career decisions. I don’t know about 5 years from now, but this book talks about people that you want to know more about: The COO of Google, Founders of Paypal, Facebook, YouTube, Yelp, Kiva and Square just to name a few.

I do feel this is a “must-read” for all entrepreneurs, especially ones who are interested in internet marketing and technology.

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© 2012 Lakshmi Gosyne

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

“Lakshmi Gosyne helps women entrepreneurs learn, love and profit from online technology and social media. Find out more about how to make technology work for you by visiting www.lakshmigosyne.com”

The Road to Success is Messy at Best

My husband and I were on a walk one afternoon when he commented on the fact that he “had nothing to show” financially considering he’s been working for 20 years.

Now my husband and I don’t live a “regular” life, he in particular has lead a very interesting, rewarding life. For 4 years he worked 6-months in New Zealand and then spent 6-months in Italy. He lived in Japan, the UK, and the USA.  He works from home developing software and applications for a variety of companies. What I love about him is that he chooses lifestyle over money. How he lives and enjoys his life is very important to him.

I love to write, draw, paint and design. I haven’t had a full-time day job since 2009. We have “followed the sun” for the past two years. Travelling up to North America when it’s been winter here. However, because of our values and our lifestyle, we don’t have the ability to earn a “steady” income and paycheck and therefore stash a nest-egg away in the bank. Being an entrepreneur is scary because there is no certainty. Other entrepreneurs have felt this at one point or another.

But I’m straying from the point a bit, so here it is.

We entrepreneurs are told a myth. The myth is that the path to success is a straight line. People who are successful knew what they wanted, worked hard and consistently to get where they were and took no detours along the way.

That isn’t true. I’ve been reading “The Startup of You” by Linked In co-founder Reid Hoffman and he gave me some pretty interesting stories about the COO of Facebook, himself and Zappos. The similarities are this, successful people are adaptable, take risks, and although they have core values, they can translate that into a variety of work based on their strengths.

So many successful people have started out just where you (and I) are at now. And don’t think even for a minute that success may not be a few years, or even months away. As I told one of my clients recently the path less taken is harder because there are more obstacles in the way.

People don’t get what you’re doing. Hey even you don’t get what you’re doing sometimes, but not knowing is part of the journey. Try new things and take new risks.

Here’s what you should be doing instead:

1. Find other people who have done what you want to do and follow them on Facebook or Twitter (Reid Hoffman’s advice)
2. Get advice from people who are respected in your industry, not your brother-in-law…
3. Do not beat yourself up about something failing or not doing as well as you’d like, at least you took the risk and tried it
4. Take a look at where you are now and take steps towards where you want to be, but know that you may need to change directions based on the market, your interests changing, a change in your client or customer needs
5. Celebrate that where you are will be part of your journey to success and will become part of your success story!

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© 2012 Lakshmi Gosyne

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

“Lakshmi Gosyne helps women entrepreneurs learn, love and profit from online technology and social media. Find out more about how to make technology work for you by visiting www.lakshmigosyne.com”

 

The Hunger Games and Marketing

The Hunger Games is an interesting study on marketing. Both in the context of the book/movie as well as the buzz that was generated around the movie making it the third highest debut film of all time (of course this is only for movies that have not debuted in summer) but $152 million on opening weekend, bringing in almost $400 million dollars world wide to date makes this movie a smash hit.

Just a quick recap. The Hunger Games is a post-apocalyptic young adult novel recently turned movie written by Suzanne Collins and published by Scholastic in September 2008.

So how did they do it? Was it the solid fan base? The fact that they sponsored a fan to see the making of the film and gaining fan support? Maybe the fact that they’ve teamed  up  The fact that this type of movie appeals to a wide variety of  ages and genders? It certainly wasn’t the marketing budget of $45 million (most studios spend upward of $100 million for a major release).

**spoiler alert! hope you’ve read the book or watched the movie by now…**

I (as a psychology major, sorry but it’s true) am equally fascinated by the idea of marketing in the story of the movie as well. Haymitch (the District 12 Mentor) does say that a major part of the Games is to get people to “like you” and Cinna helps the District 12 tributes to “make an impression”  it seems spontaneous, but I’m sure that Cinna planned well and knew that Katniss (or Peeta) would be refered to as “on fire”.

In the book part of what helps Katniss and Peeta win these games is “playing to their audience”. Both give their audience interesting, compelling characters. A warrior goddess, “the girl on fire” and the love struck boy are both characters that people feel a connection to. Katniss plays to this well when she deliberately acts her part to get Peeta medicine and the “death pact” of eating the berries. She’s a fast learner.

Once Haymitch, starts taking an interest in them more than his drinking and Cinna, their ingenious stylist lights them both “on fire” the District 12 tributes have made a strong impression on the Capitol.

I’m sure that Lionsgate must have “taken a page” from the book. They made sure that the book fan base liked them — both by having the current fans give their blessing and by giving assurances that they would remain faithful to the book.
They began promoting in 2009 (that’s 4 years of planning and execution!) and had teams dedicated to speaking to fans, how to deal with the promotion of the film given the grim content (kids killing kids is not a good look).

So here’s what I’ve learned about marketing from the Hunger Games:

Have an amazing product

The Hunger Games appeals to a wide variety of people on a number of levels. It’s a sci-fi, it has action, suspense and thrills, it features a strong capable female protagonist, it appeals to a teen audience. There’s romance but just enough. I could go on, but you know what I mean.

Listen to your fans

Lionsgate made sure to get feedback from fans of the books  and a growing number of fans that their marketing efforts produced. Nurturing that feedback loop and working with the suggestions of fans helped ensure their success. Katniss also did this when she played up the “star-crossed lovers” idea, something that she used to get the result she wanted.

Get people to “know you, like you, trust you”

Lionsgate did this with interesting websites, games and contests. Things like being able to sign up as a citizen of the Capitol or being a member of a District and using Twitter and Facebook to help facilitate this.

Reward interest and loyalty

Here’s what I got from the New York Times “On Dec. 15, 100 days before the movie’s release, the studio created a new poster and cut it into 100 puzzle pieces. It then gave digital versions of those pieces to 100 Web sites and asked them to post their puzzle piece on Twitter in lockstep.

Fans had to search Twitter to put together the poster, either by printing out the pieces and cutting them out or using a program like Photoshop. “The Hunger Games” trended worldwide on Twitter within minutes.”

Stand behind a cause

Lionsgate has teamed up with the World Food Programme and Feeding America, encouraging fans to learn more about world hunger and donate to these charities.

Katniss also stands for a cause, at first this is just about saving her sister and trying not to get killed but eventually it involves hope and freedom. Something that people worldwide can resonate with.

May the odds be ever in your favor…

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© 2012 Lakshmi Gosyne

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

“Lakshmi Gosyne helps women entrepreneurs learn, love and profit from online technology and social media. Find out more about how to make technology work for you by visiting www.lakshmigosyne.com”

Near Field Communication: Another mind-blowing step in consumer technology

With the launch of Google Wallet comes the popularization of innovative technology; and the technology driving “tapping your phone” to pay is “Near Field Communication” or NFC. This as well as the fact that I’m working with a start-up on using NFC technology makes me feel that it’s about time I wrote about it.

NFC uses a very weak radio frequency which will only exchange information if the two points, a reader and a target (usually a chip in your phone and a “tag”) are very close together (which is why you need to “tap” your phone).

Bringing the reader close to the tag activates the reader and  transfers information instantly, and let me tell you, that chip or tag can hold a lot of information. It can scan a bar code and automatically pay, it can present you with a special offer, a video, pictures, text or all the above at the same time.

Once you get your mind around it, it’s pretty amazing.

In fact, you may already have used NFC without even realizing it.

If you’ve got a MasterCard Pay and Go or any quick pass or fast pass key, tag of fob key to pay for your gasoline; you’ve already experienced the convenience of NFC.

What does this mean to me, the entrepreneur?

Well at first, it may seem daunting. Another new technology to learn about! However, this can be a great bonus for small business. If you are just starting off and don’t want to get a merchant account for credit cards, this technology opens up a lot of new possibilities. If your customers have an online wallet, all you need to have is the NFC chip. Online purchases will become easier. You can also use things like PayPal Here or Square to use your smart phone to accept credit cards. So get excited people! Especially my Star Trek mates… the future is here. I will be updating you more as the start-up officially launches at the end of this month.

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© 2012 Lakshmi Gosyne

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

“Lakshmi Gosyne helps women entrepreneurs learn, love and profit from online technology and social media. Find out more about how to make technology work for you by visiting www.lakshmigosyne.com”

Power vs. Force

Power vs. Force by David R. Hawkins is a book that many, including Steve Pavlina, include in their recommended reading lists. I borrowed this book from the library and have read it twice through before writing this post.

Power vs. Force has a very interesting premise and everything hinges on this: You can determine the truth, strength, power of an object, person or statement using Kinesiology and “K-testing”. It is the “arm test” that many inspirational or self-help gurus use.

Pros and Cons
The levels of consciousness and the difference between Power and Force as described in this book is relevant to everyone in business. What are the root causes? Why are we starting a business? A business — whether it is a product or a service — should start with something that serves people. It should also have meaning and be associated with a deep value such as love, beauty, truth, authenticity or knowledge.

Think about why you started your business. Is it to serve people or just about making money or having freedom? I have stopped asking questions like “will I make money with this?” or statements like “I want to start my own business because I want the freedom and flexibility.” That is not true. A business makes you the boss, but until you hire staff, it makes you everybody else as well (sales and marketing, accounting, administrator, janitor, product developer and CEO). Somehow people have bought into the idea that your own business is the same as working in an office except it’s flexible (If you’re productive and you have a great boss, you might be able to do this without starting your own business) but that’s simply not true. A true entrepreneur sees suffering and problems that people are desperate to solve and creates a solution.

Another good thing about this book is that they give a list of words that are higher frequency attractors and lower attractors. What was interesting is that many copywriters use the same words for their sales letters: Abundant, Timeless, Free, Gifted, Healing, Intuitive and Inspiring just to name a few.

It made me stop and think about why I am in business, what are my values and what do I want to create with my life.

The main con with the book is that if you don’t believe in the “K-testing” or the “arm test”, a lot of the book holds no meaning for you. You must believe that the “arm test” works. Dr. Hawkins gives empirical scientific proof, but I am concerned about the premise of the test as well as “experimenter’s bias”. Of course this is just my opinion and does not mean that this test does or does not work.

Overall an eye-opening read, even for sceptics.

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© 2012 Lakshmi Gosyne

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

“Lakshmi Gosyne helps women entrepreneurs learn, love and profit from online technology and social media. Find out more about how to make technology work for you by visiting www.lakshmigosyne.com”

Are webinars right for YOUR business?

I’m hearing a lot about webinars and teleseminars for some time now. I jumped not only on the webinar, but teleseminar bandwagon and hosted a virtual online conference back in January 2012 for my Newbie Yoga website. I also began to host webinars on a monthly basis.  Not as many people attended both the monthly webinars or the conference as I had hoped. It’s obvious now, but why would you attend a monthly yoga audio webinar? My teleseminar series took months to organize and I got to meet new people and get my message out into the world as a host and an expert. As valuable as that was, I may not do a teleseminar series again without looking at the following:

Find out how your audience consumes their information

An online event was so foreign to my target market (beginners to yoga) that I had to talk many of them through the process of listening to the calls, getting the mp3 downloads etc. Some of my speakers were the same. You should experiment with the media you use to get your message across and if your audience don’t respond to  video or audio online, don’t do a webinar. Yoga works best when you hold “live” or “in-person” sessions. Whereas a webinar or video series for internet marketers should hit the sweet spot.

Make sure there is a strong interest in your topic

So maybe your audience responds well to webinars, teleseminars and online marketing. That doesn’t mean your event will be an instant hit. Why not? because if they do respond well to this form of information, they are probably getting flooded with information on webinars, virtual events from a variety of people. So how do you make yours stand out? Personally I get 3-5 invitations a day to a virtual event of some kind. Yet I only sign up to 1-2 a week. What makes me decide that I want to attend? A topic that I feel I need the answers to desperately. So make sure that the topic you are speaking about is one that you or your community desperately need answered.

Give away valuable content that they can act on today

You only have one chance to ensure that your audience feels that it was worth their time (and possibly money!) to attend your virtual event. I’ve attended events where the topic was compelling, I was excited to get the information and then all the host or hosts spoke about was how I could get this information by paying for their product/service or attending their paid event. This is not acceptable. If you do this then expect to lose the trust of your audience. Even if you do this once. I will not attend certain virtual events because I had this kind of experience with the host.

I am not saying that you should not promote your service/product etc. but you must give your audience the information that you say you were going to. It doesn’t have to go into great depth but it should be valuable content.

Get a guest host or guest interviewer

For some reason, people feel the message that we’re receiving has more “authority” if you’ve managed to get another person involved. There are many people that are very interested in getting their message out into the world and if you’ve been doing what I’ve told you to in my free report, you should have plenty of people willing to interview you and be interviewed. You can take turns and then cross promote to both of your audiences.

So how do I start?

I share more details in a future post, but to start you off, the best way to find out if webinars are right for your niche community is by hosting one. There are free ways to do this (disclaimer:these are not affiliate links nor am I getting any money for referring you to these sites) one is Blogtalkradio.com and another is Freeconferencing.com, there are advantages to both and you don’t have to spend a dime on either. If you have given this information to your audience and you can start off with 5-10 people attending (or listening); then you’re in for a beautiful and profitable relationships with Virtual Events.

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© 2012 Lakshmi Gosyne

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

“Lakshmi Gosyne helps women entrepreneurs learn, love and profit from online technology and social media. Find out more about how to make technology work for you by visiting www.lakshmigosyne.com”