Spence Smith

If you are brand new to the internet and have no idea what it means to have a presence online or maybe you already have a presence online but you haven’t figured out how to make it really work for yourself or you business, then come spend the day with Randy Elrod and I at LifeWork 2.0 Seminar on Saturday, January 9,2010.

We will show you how to start a blog, use social networking sites like Facebook, build a following on Twitter and make it all work together in a way that doesn’t take up every minute of every day of your life, but just becomes one part of life while driving traffic to your brand and increasing loyalty among your clients, customers and fans.

If you are a CEO and you want to learn how to bring employees into your world, put a better face on your company and lead the charge into the new business model of the digital world, then come let us show you how to build a better experience for everyone in your sphere of influence.

If you are a business looking to build a more loyal customer base, we will teach you how to create a conversation with them and get the kind of feedback that gives you the ability to go to the next level in your business.

If you are an artist or author looking to build a larger fan base that is truly interacting with you, we will show you the how to build a strong fan base through authenticity, transparency and conversation.

If you are a leader in the church and you want to learn who to grow your congregation though the internet, we will show you how use blogging and social networking to create an atmosphere that brings people into the life of the church.

If you are a mom who has something to share and wants to be more involved in the mom blog community, we will show you how to get started and build a fun network around you.

We will also give you the behind-the-scenes tools to use Search Engine Optimization to bring traffic to your site without having to pay a dime for a sponsored link or ad.

All of this in one day as we show you how to manage your online reputation. Did you know you have a reputation online? The question is Who is leading the conversation? You or someone else? We will show you how to lead the conversation and rule your online world.

Its a fun day and it’s packed full of useful information. We hope you will join us.

So if you want to sign up… just click HERE for registration and more info or click on the LifeWork banner in my side bar.

Some people have no idea what we are saying when Randy Elrod and I start talking about Search Engine Optimization(SEO), and having a presence online…and simply the ability to be found online! . Sure… you might have an easy dot COM name that is simple to find if you Google it (spencesmith.com). But that’s just one part of it. And it’s one part of what we teach at LifeWork 2.0.

If you want people to find you because of the products you offer or because your content is of a particular subject matter, then learning how to optimize your site so that the search engines (google,yahoo,etc) recognize what you are about is crucial. This is a huge way to create traffic and key to creating a conversation online with your fans and clients.

There are a lot of SEO (search engine optimization) experts out there who are getting paid a lot of money to get a company to pop up on the first page of Google.  In fact some of these people are on monthly retainers. There’s nothing wrong with this as long as you are getting what you want.

At LifeWork 2.0, Randy and I teach you ways to do this on your own in such a simple way that YOU can do this yourself and save YOU and YOUR company a lot of money in the process.

We consulted one company who had misspellings in their keywords. They were paying a guy who was an “expert” thousands of dollars a month for good SEO and in a matter of minutes Randy and I showed them how they had been wasting their money. For them it was like paying a mechanic to fix their car but for some reason they had to always get their car fixed. HMMM I wonder why? Job security maybe?

Google makes it very easy for us everyday-non-programmer-types to do this well. But in order for a person to learn how, there are a few valuable components that you must know in the process.

So… During a LifeWork 2.0 seminar we teach Search Engine Optimization that anyone can do. But it’s just one part of the day.

If you so choose to come to one of our seminars, you will learn all about online reputation, blogs vs. traditional websites, social networking as well as twitter from beginning to advanced uses.

Come join us and let us teach you how to create a two-way conversation with your fans and clients. It will be fun… I assure you… and you will leave with your head-spinning full of refreshing new ideas for the future of you and your brand.

The next LifeWork 2.0 Seminar is July 30, 2009 in Nashville, TN and it’s hosted by our friends Michael Hyatt and Lindsey Nobles from Thomas Nelson. You can follow them on twitter too. @michaelhyatt, @lnobles, and  @thomasnelson.

Click here to register for LifeWork 2.0.

My friend and fellow blogger, Brody Harper wrote this great blog that I’m re-posting below. I was an artist traveling in a band for years and he is right on the money. I blog and my life is ten times busier than I ever was traveling in a band even though I was on the road more as an artist…so for all you artist friends reading this…warning…you might just be convicted enough to stop acting like an artist and get proactive with something that’s passing your creative mind up…Thanks Brody! Once again…you rock.

But It’s Still Not Happening
Brody Harper

We
have all said it a million times. We all know that blogging helps
musicians spread news about what they are up to. News that people want
to read, people want to know, and people want to keep checking back
for. Record labels are trying to figure out how to get their artists to
blog. Managers are begging their artists to blog. Even their road
managers, at times, are harassing them to blog. But it’s still not
happening. I wonder why not.

So far today five hundred and ninety nine people have come here.  Five hundred and ninety nine people.
To read what? About my beef with DVD previews? Not necessarily. But
they came, and they engaged. Well, some of them did. Others just
stopped in and read it and left because it was something they didn’t
care about. And it’s not because they saw me on some stage or heard one
of my songs on the radio. Now imagine if they had.

Several artist have told me that they don’t know what to blog about.
Neither does anyone else. I never know. I just wait to see what the day
has for me. I never blog ahead. I always blog whatever pops into my
head when I am at the computer. Either that or something pops in there
and I remember it until I get a chance to sit down and get it out. I
think artists are afraid to do that. I think several artists are afraid
to sound unprofessional or like they are regular people. But if people
wanted to hear you say something “professional” they would buy a CD or
read some interview that you did. They don’t want adds that the label
is going to sell them, they want to know who you are. So there goes
that excuse.

HT: Brody Harper

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I found this article on the New York Magazine website and thought it was interesting. In the Tuesday morning group I belong to, lead by Blogfather Elrod, we read the  book  ‘The Long Tail’ by Wired
magazine editor-in-chief Chris Anderson. It’s a great read for those trying to wrap their minds around how the internet is changing how we do business whether you are in the entertainment industry, sales, etc…So…here’s to us little bloggers in the world on the B and C and D and E lists f the world…Read below…

The Long Tail

At
the very top, a small number of A-list blogs have thousands of sites
with inbound links pointing toward them, driving huge amounts of
traffic. Everyone else—the B-list and C-list blogs—has very few links
and thus a much smaller readership. Curves like this exist in many
fields: A tiny number of movie stars get more roles than all the
others, and a small number of rich people own the vast majority of all
the world’s wealth.

Is all lost for the B- and C-list bloggers?

[...]