Frankly, I’m always a bit skeptical. There are only a few people I trust.

For myself I look for:

1) people who have been doing it for a while.

2) people who evidence they are actually successful at it.

And, when I do take the plunge and buy their products, if their ideas work for me as an author and business person, only then do I recommend them.

One of the handful of mentors who meet the above criteria is

Alex Mandossian.

You’ve heard me promote the classes I took from him: Virtual Book Tour Secrets, Teleseminar Secrets, Podcast Secrets.

Yes, I’ve taken all three, and whenever I’ve utilized the ideas I learned (there are so many!), my business has grown, my book sales have soared.

One of the best things about Alex’s training, in my opinion, has always been the QA sessions, in which Alex essentially coaches you on your particular issue (if you’re smart enough to ask a question).

Well, now Alex is making available similar coaching, once a month.

And–it won’t cost you anything!

On the first Thursday of the month, Alex will be answering questions about “electronic marketing”–how to boost your productivity and your profits via electronic media.

You can access Alex’s unique 45-minute tele-training during one or both of these two convenient sessions:

Morning Session: 9am Pacific/12pm Eastern
Evening Session: 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern

You even get a 2-page page “Action Guide” that’s available for you to download now!

Worth Considering: Access to Alex’s Bonus Training

If you’d also like private access to a special, advanced training at 6pm Pacific/9pm Eastern, choose that option after asking your question.

I encourage you to try Alex’s training. I think you’ll see why he’s one of the few people I recommend you train under, even if you don’t consider yourself and “entrepreneur.” (That’s Alex’s main market, but his principles apply to authors as well.)

Go ahead. Ask your question now. Listen in as he answers questions you may not even known you need to ask. I can guarantee, you will learn something useful.

It’s been very frustrating, but enlightening.

Frustrating because, of course, so much of what I do is dependent on being able to hook up to the Internet. Whether it’s research, email, Twitter, connecting to the various accounts that allow me to get my work done, I must be connected or I’m “up a creek without a paddle,” as the cliché goes.

It’s also been an enlightening experience because

it’s caused me to consider what I’d do if connection to the World Wide Web were permanently severed. It’s made me ponder the nature of most of my work now–dealing with information, connecting with people and networks through technology.

I’ve been trying to recall what life was like before all this technology. Can you recall what it was like not to have any email to check? Not to have to deal with dozens if not hundreds of emails in my inbox, not to mention Twitter and Facebook updates? Not to have to figure out cable connections and computer settings and how a modem and Linksys box are configured? (When did the word “configure” even enter into my vocabulary?)

Time has felt different these past few days. It feels like there’s more of it. Funny how much time slips by when you’re online.

So what did I do instead of the work I would have done? I cleaned out clutter. I attended a wedding and a graduation party, relaxing with friends. I bought some flowers and would have planted them, if it had not rained. I called a friend. I cooked better meals. I took my daughter shopping for clothes.

I also went to the library and used public access. (Unfortunately, it was closed most of the weekend, since it was a holiday.)

What I couldn’t do: pay my bills (I do it online), research for new waterbed mattress, update Twitter and Facebook, read my emails (I trust my friends understand), listen to a teleseminar and catch up with the training I’ve been trying to get to for weeks, and get much of my work done.

Ah well. There are gifts and blessings in everything, I believe. I’m pondering what the gifts in this experience are, but I think I’m getting close.

In fact, I recall a verse from the well-known Psalm 23: “He makes me lie down in green pastures.” Emphasis on “makes me.” These past several days, I’ve been forced to “lie down” and the pastures have, in fact, been green.

So for that, I’m grateful. The “abundant gift” has been rest of a sort. I guess God knew I needed it.

Especially for service-oriented companies, good support is crucial to me in any firm that wants to keep my business.

I want to honor the wonderful service I’ve recently received from the company I use for my ecommerce needs: 1shoppingcart.com.

This is the company I’ve always recommended if you want

an integrated system for handling email lists (where the names go, and where you mail out your emails from), selling products online, setting up an affiliate system so other people can sell your products and get credited.

I haven’t had a lot of problems, I have to say. Most of the times I’ve contacted them have been about issues where I just didn’t understand how something worked, I set something up wrong, and the like.

The support people have always been courteous, thorough, and kind. They are very patient with my lack of technical acuity.

Recently, I mentioned on Twitter a question I had about email deliverability. Someone from 1shoppingcart got right back to me, posted a reply, sent an email with yet more detailed instructions, and then even offered to “go the extra mile” on an issue.

Very impressive.

So thank you, all you folks at 1shoppingcart.com. Keep up the good work. I recommend you without reservation.

People with ideas (or something to sell) want to be read. They want their emails, newsletters, blog posts, web pages, letters or other communications read.

If it’s video or audio, you want to be viewed or heard.

Bottom line: Human beings need to be “well heard” by other human beings.

What makes other people want to read, listen to, or watch you?

One thing, above all else.

I talk about that one thing in my latest Publishing Coach Weekly article.

Please read “The Heart of Success: What Makes People Want to Read You.”

This one is a writing AND marketing tip. I think you’ll be inspired.

I even give you (as usual) some resources to explore: samples of what I’m talking about, and a great brand-new book–just came out today–that will make you sigh, “Finally, an approach to marketing that I can embrace!” It’s THE alternative to the kind of hyped-up marketing we all find so wearisome.

“If I spend X dollars, will I likely at least recoup my investment?”

This is a question I ask myself any time I spend money, especially on my business.

I operate on a shoestring budget. Not because I’m so cheap, but because I like to get the best value for my dollar as possible. It’s smart to keep things simple and lean. I am not afraid to spend money on training, tools, etc. if they will truly help me become a more successful author and business person. But any expenditure should, ideally, be an investment.

There are lots of ways to spend money, and some of it is an expense, some an investment.

I try to make sure as many of my expenditures as possible are investments, rather than merely expenses.

With that in mind, I thought I’d evaluate some of the smaller expenditures that turned out to be investments with very good ROI, and tell you why.

Best $14.39 (amazon price) I Ever Spent:

Maria Veloso’s Web Copy that Sells (Second Edition). This is a must-have reference work for any copy (persuasive writing) you do. It will help you with more than web copy; you can use her principles, especially the Trifecta Neuro-Affective Principle, for book titles, email copy, even book proposals. (I also suggest you download a free copy of her excellent ebook, Frame-of-Mind Marketing.)

Best $15.59 I Ever Spent: The Secret Code of Success by Noah St. John. This little book is probably the last “self-help” book you’ll ever need. Full of great insights that turn typical self-help advice on its head, explains why most of what you hear doesn’t work, and shows what does. If all you get out of it is how to do “afformations,” it will change your life.

Best $27 per month: Jimmy D. Brown’s Membernaire course. If information is what you want to sell, then this course on how to create, market, and profit from a “fixed term membership site” is well worth it. Jimmy knows so much about content creation, marketing, repurposing, the whole shebang. And he has a gift for making it easy and doable. I have bought most of his courses, and they are all excellent. A less expensive option, that’s still a great investment, is his Small Reports Fortune course. Here’s a free Special Report to give you a taste.

Best Money ($197) I Ever Spent (period): XSite Pro Web Design Software. This may be one of the best investments I’ve ever made. It’s saved me so much time–I can create great-looking websites in literally minutes. It’s also saved me money–no designers or webmaster needed. Here’s one I did most recently, in around 20 minutes. The template was one of the hundreds I could have used that came with the program. You don’t need to know html or anything like that. You don’t need to know what a plugin is, like you do with a blog. Everything you need is in the program, and it’s as easy to use as MS Word. (Not much different, really.)

Besides the time, money, and hassle I prevent by not needing a webmaster or designer, by being able to change my website quickly and easily, it also gives me GREAT search-engine ranking. Supposedly blogs get greater search engine ranking, but my XSite Pro sites actually do better. That latest website I created, www.developyouraudience.com, was only created 3 weeks ago. Yet if you search “develop your audience” on Google, it comes up #1 on page 1. That’s because of the excellent search-engine optimization already built in. And again, it’s easy to use. All you need to know is what keywords you want to use. The program does it all.

So if you’ve been balking at putting up a website because it seems too hard … if you’re paying a webmaster to do every little change you want to make (and waiting for days for it to get done) … if you are intimidated by what you need to know to put up a great-looking blog … then this will be the best $197 you ever spend as well.

So that’s an introduction to some of the best lower-cost expenditures I’ve made that have given me great ROI. I recommend any of them without any reservation whatsoever.

Aside from taking the “Develop Your Audience” class (which you can still do, it’s all recorded–hint hint <g>), the best way is to start a blog and then start to point to that through the MPOW technique, developed by Internet marketing expert, Bonnie Dillabough. (Bonnie’s techniques snag more than a quarter of a million hits on her Yaktivate.com podcasting network–per month You can attend her Internet marketing classes for free on Saturdays; details here.)

MPOW stands for

Multiple Presences on the Web. First you have your focal point. If you’re a writer, make it a blog. If you’re a talker, make it a podcast. (More about this in my recent Publishing Coach Weekly article, “Are You a Writer or a Talker?“)

Then, you set about getting all sorts of links back to your blog or podcast. You put up articles at ezinearticles.com and other article directories. You comment on other people’s blogs. You start a Twitter account and get followers who would be interested in your message. You list your podcast in podcasting directories.

You make as many things point to your focal point as possible. And you keep adding good content to your blog/podcast on a consistent basis.

What this does is raise your rank in the search engines, enables people to find you, and if you do make a contact, say with a media person, when they google your name, it comes up with an impressive number of entries.

I just googled my name; 22,900 results. When I googled “publishing coach” one of my sites showed up in about half of the results on pages 1 and 2.

See what I mean about “multiple”?

One more note about those results for my name: a good number of them are social network profiles. Another way to be “all over the Web.”

None of the things I mentioned cost anything, aside from the basics of having a web hosting company to host your site. You can get free software (audacity) to record your podcasts, so all you’d need is a microphone.

Over time, as you do these things, you begin to attract people who want to hear your message. Over time, you build your audience.

Did you notice I repeated something?

“Over time.”

As Bonnie Dillabough says often, “The Internet is not instant pudding.”

It does take time.

There are, however, ways to lessen the time it takes.

How to Lessen the Time

First, if you are very, very clear about your message, and you know it’s a message people want to hear, then you can build your audience quicker. (That’s what the Develop Your Audience class is all about. Listen to my interview with Russell Cox here.)

Second, you can use leverage. If you can get the media interested in you, or get interviewed by someone who has a large audience, that provides leverage and is probably both the fastest AND most cost-effective way.

So get to know the media. Sign up for helpareporterout.com, and you’ll get reports on what reporters and journalists are looking for–delivered to your email inbox–three times a day.

So those are my two tips: remember MPOW, and leverage what you do as much as possible.

It would have taken me 5 minutes at most to do the same thing in XSite Pro, the web design software I use for most of my sites.

People keep telling me WordPress blogs are better, so easy to use.

My experience has been: I could not even have a WP blog without Cathy Perkins, “the wordpress wizard.” I listen to her free weekly teleseminars and without those, and her expert help when needed, I’d be lost.

On the other hand, I’ve had very few issues with XSP. I can put up a web site in minutes. This one I put up in 10 minutes. The template came with the program. It was a matter of copying and pasting the copy I’d already written in Word. (And unlike copying and pasting from Word to a WP blog, I have little to no issues with formatting.)

What about search engine ranking with XSP vs. WordPress? Well, when I put in the keywords ‘develop your audience” into Google just now, my WP blog (this one, which I’ve been posting on for years) came up 3rd, and my NEW site (the XSite Pro site, www.developyouraudience.com) came up FIRST.

That’s because the search engine optimization is built into XSite Pro and it’s entirely controlled by me. Very easy to do, too. With a blog, supposedly it’s “built in.” There are plug-ins you can use to optimize. But that involves, again, a whole lot more work than what I have to do with XSite Pro.

AND, the work I did do on my new blog page, I had to know html to figure out how to format the look. I don’t have to know one thing about html to use XSite Pro. If you can use Word, you can use XSite Pro–they are that similar.

So, again, I have to say I much prefer XSite Pro web design software. It’s a very small investment to make for software that will save you gobs of time on creating a website. You absolutely do not need any webmaster with XSite Pro. Their support is fantastic if you do have problems. It’s honestly one of the best products and companies I’ve run across–period.

And I’m pretty picky.

This is especially true about your author platform. Hyatt points out all the ways a publisher can tell how many people visit your blog, or how many previous books you’ve sold. (By the way, the tool he mentioned, Compete.com, is something you can use to track your own progress. Especially if you take the “Develop Your Audience” class.)

One thing I’ll add that’s also part of this “New Era of Publishing”: we’re all so connected now. If I want to check out a person’s integrity, I have a whole network of people I can ask who probably have had dealings with the person or product. While I always give the benefit of the doubt to people, if several people say a company, person, or product did not live up to expectations, then I take note.

Hyatt gives excellent advice. Read it and take it to heart, and you’ll sleep well at night.

I am extending the registration (and a special discount) for another couple of days.

Because the calls are recorded, you can easily catch up before next Tuesday’s class.

The class covered the basis of your “core promise” and introduced the tool Russell developed by which you can map out your “audience development path”–on one page.

Russell’s “audience development path” brings great focus and clarity to WHAT you want to say, WHO your audience is, and HOW you want to deliver your message.

In addition, Russell will teach you the right sequence of what to do to become very clear on these three things.

This kind of focus is, to my mind, absolutely necessary for

everything else you do to become a successful author.

THIS is how you build a successful author platform.

Once you “get” this approach, you will use it for every project you start.

I took Russell’s class before (twice, actually), and it’s made a HUGE difference in my business.

Another valuable thing about this class is the way he teaches it.

This is interactive, community-based learning. Bonnie Dubrow and I add our perspectives, both during the class and by adding our own notes, tools, and other information.

(For instance, I am going to post on our “community classroom” site my cool brainstorming tool that will help students process what Russell is teaching, quicker.)

Other students are also sharing information, such as the student who gave us a link to a video on using Twitter.

Nobody else I know teaches this way.

You feel like you get so much, not only from the instructors, but from the other students as well. The others in this class are very sharp, all doing cutting-edge work.

You’ll meet them, have a chance to share what you’re doing, benefit from their ideas and input as well as from us three instructors.

We’re also going to help each other focus on what the “freedom” theme of our message is, that we’ll be tying in with the upcoming media focus on freedom and independence as July 4 approaches.

So, if you need more clarity on your message, want to create an Internet brand, build your author platform and leverage media exposure, please go here and sign up before 10 p.m. on Friday, May 1, to get this class for $200 less.

Note: Because of the interactive approach I mention above, we can only enroll 5 more students before Friday 10 p.m. If this is right for you, go here.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people and companies who prey on the desire so many of us have to be a published author.

That really gets me angry.

That’s why you will never see Google Adsense ads on this site. I know the kind of ads that will show up. All the ones that will steer you in exactly the wrong direction.

(Though, come to think of it, I could just have the ads show up, and somewhere have a warning: AVOID ALL COMPANIES THAT ADVERTISE ON THIS PAGE! Somehow I don’t think Google or the advertisers would like that.)

By the way, a good blog to check out is Writer Beware Blog. This publishing industry watchdog group, sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, shines a light into the dark corners of the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes, and pitfalls.

Now, a word about people, products and services I do recommend.

The people or companies I recommend are those I have dealt with personally and checked out enough that I can vouch for their integrity and the quality of their services and products.

The products I recommend are those that I have paid for myself, in almost every case, and can vouch that they are a true investment–as in, whatever you pay, you will at least get your initial investment back in a reasonable period of time (assuming you do your part and apply what
you learn).

If you have never seen me recommend something you’re checking out … well, my silence is eloquent. You may notice that I don’t recommend a lot of products and people you may hear about otherwise.

However, obviously I can’t check out everyone and everything, and I will never publicly say anything negative about anyone. So if you are wondering if a person or product is a good investment, I invite you to email me personally about what it is you’re considering.

I’ll give you my honest opinion, PRIVATELY.

And if you have a bad experience with someone/something I recommend, I want to hear about it, okay?

‘Nough said on that.