Hey guys, welcome to Shama.tv. We are starting a brand-new segment here on Shama.tv today. It’s going to be called “Whiteboard Wednesdays.” And the idea is that some concepts are easier for me to explain to you with drawing pictures and making little labels than it is just me talking into the camera. So we’re going to start doing Whiteboard Wednesdays. I really look forward to your thoughts on it, and I want to see what you guys think – if you think we should do more of these – because I’m really excited about Whiteboard Wednesdays, so we’ll kick this episode off and we’ll see what you guys think, okay? So be sure to let me know your thoughts in the Comments.

So today I want to talk about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), but I want to explain it, how SEO can be summed up in three steps. Like, I get a lot of questions that are concerned with search engine optimization, and I thought, I can draw a little pyramid on here, a little visual, and maybe it will help explain search engine optimization, the process of getting ranked for Google, okay?

So we’re going to start right down here. There are going to be three, two, one – my pen’s a little weak – so down here, as you guys can see, I didn’t go into art or become an artist for a very good reason. I can’t draw. But hopefully you guys can still understand the concept.

So Number 3 we’re going to talk about is structure. The way your site is structured says a lot about it to the search engines, and by structure, I mean what’s it coded on? What kind of language? Is the code clean? Does it take a long time to load? WordPress, for example, to build your web site on, is excellent because it provides excellent structure. It provides the basis for everything else. So your web site structure, a good web site built the right way goes very far. So I’m going to sum that up in the structure.

The second and most important thing is going to be content. Your content matters, guys, but if you don’t have this part, if you don’t have the structure right, if your site’s not built right, you’re not going to be able to leverage this as well as you could. So content is very important and if you say good things and people like what you have to say, it will inevitably lead to this: Links.

The more people that link back to your content, and the higher your Google rank goes, your page rank goes. And all this matters.

So SEO summed up in three steps, guys. Structure: your web site structure; Content, what you’re putting out there, whether it’s in video or a written form. I’ve done another video which explains if you do videos, I highly recommend you transcribe them because Google can’t really understand the way videos are built. And then of course, links. If other people verify that what you have to say is good by providing you a link, up goes your page rank, so…

This has been your first Whiteboard Wednesday from here at Shama.tv. I hope you enjoyed it, and I look forward to your thoughts.

Hey guys, welcome to Shama.tv. It is book review and giveaway time once again here, and I’m excited. This is a really good book. I’m talking about “Rubies in the Orchard” by Lynda Resnick. Here it is. My good friend, Elizabeth Marshall, who does author teleseminars at authorteleseminars.com actually works with a lot of these authors to do their teleseminars and promote their books, and she gave me a copy of this.

And I’ve got to tell you, I love Lynda’s story because she is really the turnaround queen. You know, her and her husband have taken products like PomWonderful, Fiji Water, Teleflora, the Franklin Mint Company and just turned them around. So they’ve bought these businesses, built them, turned them around and in this book, Lynda talks about brand-building and the things that she’s learned in her life about marketing, and it’s a great read. I finished it in one sitting. I absolutely recommend it.

And so here’s what we’re going to do. Here’s where the contest part comes in. I want you to tell me your turnaround story. Tell me about a time that you took a product or a service or your marketing, whatever it was, a business overall, and turned it around. And it can be a short story, a long story, however big you want to do it. Leave it in the Comments section and we will pick the best turnaround story and send them this book, a copy of this: “Rubies in the Orchard,” by Lynda Resnick. Again, great read, and I hope you guys enter, and I hope one of you wins!

Hey guys, welcome to Shama.tv. I’m back sans Snoopy and full of the ‘60s hair, so interesting to see what you guys think about that – just trying out a new style.

I want to talk about marketing today, actually, with you guys, and something that’s really near and dear to my heart, of course. But here’s the thing about marketing. A lot of people don’t understand how it’s meant to work and I read an analogy a few months back, and I think it was in Michael Neill’s newsletter, which I really enjoy. (I can’t be completely sure that that’s where I got it.)

But here’s the analogy, and I really liked it, and it’s something that’s stuck with me, so I wanted to share it with you guys and see what you think. So, think about a big steaming hot cup of coffee with two handles, okay? So it’s a mug of hot steaming coffee with two handles. And maybe I should have props to explain this, but you know: big steaming cup, coffee, two handles. You guys got it?

That coffee is your product. It is your service. It is whatever you’re offering. It’s whatever you’re selling. That’s the coffee.

Now, one handle is your connection to that coffee or your product, so it’s how you view your product. It’s what you think about it. It’s your personal relationship. Now, if you’re an artist, it’s whatever your connection to the art is. If you’re an internet marketer, it’s whatever you’re selling and however you’re connected to it. If you’re a consultant, maybe it’s just, you know, how you’re helping the company, but it’s your angle, if you will. That’s your handle.

The other handle on the coffee mug is how the people who are meant to drink that coffee relate to it, okay? And it’s really interesting because a one-handled mug is not going to fly. You need two handles on the marketing mug.

I just thought it was a really nice analogy because not only do you need to understand how you connect with the product, which usually comes easier for people, but you also need to have this other handle where you are offering a grasp of your coffee or the mug that the coffee is in, for people who are going to be drinking that coffee. And it may not necessarily be the way you connect to the product.

So maybe the way you connect to your art is, you know, you’re very personally connected to it. It’s cathartic, whatever it may be. But someone else may connect to it because they think it’s beautiful and that’s it. And they just love how it looks. And so, it’s really marketing. I think it’s a great analogy and example that you need two handles for your product, and that’s really good marketing.

So anyways, it a cute little analogy I wanted to share with you guys, and interesting to hear your thoughts and see what you guys thought about that.