Have you been wondering what all this stuff about personal branding is about?  It’s
something you’ll need to do online. It’s amazing how much it has to do with
belly dancing and scuba diving, read on to see what I mean….

Have you ever wondered how to brand yourself, when there’s so many others blogging and wanting attention and branding themselves.

There are all these “leaders” on the internet who’ve branded themselves already.

You might be thinking to yourself, “why should I bother when there’s so many others out there?

Well, here’s why I think you should bother

- because there’s no-one else like YOU, and only you can be you!
Thinking back to when I learned to scuba dive, my instructor branded herself just by being her.

The scuba diver above is a picture of me just after I learned to dive, I love this picture because it shows I can actually achieve whatever I want to do. (learning was a
real challenge for me:-)

Anyway, back to my diving instructor. She loved diving so much, and she wanted
all her students to be good divers so they could enjoy themselves.

She was always there when I needed her.

Like one night when I went on my first night dive, and my buddy and I got lost (because it was so dark), she found us while making sure everyone else stayed
with her as well.

Now, you might choose a niche which is belly dancing, or  scuba diving, or just being YOU.

The trick (not really a trick – the skill) is to just be You. My scuba diving instructor doesn’t teach people to swim, even though they need to be able to swim before they can learn to dive.

She limits herself to teaching people how to dive underwater because that’s what she knows and loves best. You can’t be known for everything, so stick to what you know and love.

Or, stick to something you really want to know and love.

Create your Persona

My scuba diving instructor is pretty funny and sometimes scary underwater. One time there were about 8 of us diving together and we came across this
rather large stingray. It was not long after Steve Irwin had passed away, so we all kept our distance, even though we were in awe of this magnificent creature.

Our diving instructor went pretty close to it, and afterwards she told me she was going to get really close, but she thought we might all freak out.

Anyway, sometimes on the internet, it’s not easy to just be yourself, so it is easier to create a persona that mixes who you are and who you want to be.

That way you may find it easier to magnify the personality traits needed to attract the right people.

It seems that…

We fall in love with those who are brave enough to do what we think we can’t.

Look at how so many fell in love with Steve Irwin! As long as you’re basing your character off who YOU really are, you’ll be able to keep it authentic and still
look great as just yourself.

Finding Your Voice

My scuba diving instructor talks and laughs with all her students, just like she’s one of them.

She never looks down on anyone even when we do something really stupid underwater like getting caught in some fishing line and not being able to get out.

She just helps you out, and we get on with having fun on our dive.

So…..  branding yourself online is the same as someone like a scuba diving instructor branding themselves. It is all about being genuine and showing people that you are one of them. Sometimes we try to teach people things and sound more authoritative.

We do this because we think our audience will trust us more. Instead of that, it can alienate you from the people you’re trying to connect with.

Another tip for branding…

Make your brand accessible.

My scuba diving instructor creates a community around herself. She has social barbecues and social dives, and makes herself available. People can go down to her shop and talk to her whenever they want. She’ll take us out diving with her if that’s what we want.

When you make your brand accessible, you become part of your community.

Answer questions and praise those who are doing well.

Your personal brand is YOU

It’s who you are, what you believe, and what you want to put out there to others.

So, what does a personal brand mean to you?

Let me know in the comments on this post here…

Remember to always have fun whatever you choose to do!

Julieanne van Zyl

If you’re further advanced with your internet marketing – i.e. if you’ve set up your direct email campaign, have your opt-in page, and your blog, and you’re getting traffic, now’s the time to start thinking about some more advanced ways of branding yourself.

As you know, the well known successful internet network marketers like Ann Sieg, Mike Dillard, and Jonathan Budd all have their own E-book or E-books. If you really want to be known as a leader and brand yourself, writing an E-book is the next step (yes I’m in the process of writing my 2nd book:-). I wrote an e-book years ago, and it’s pretty old-fashioned now, so I’m almost finished my new one!

Renegade Professional have some new training in their educational series of videos and it’s about Creating an E-book. I really encourage you to at least try out Renegade Professional for 30 days and see how much you can learn! Even if you’re not ready to write an E-book, you can learn everything else required to have a huge internet network marketing business.

Click here to Sign up for Renegade Professional with a 30 day money back guarantee

Technorati Tags: how to write an e-book, renegade professional

I just came an amazing article on personal branding. The author of the post, Lisa Barone, describes what branding really means by looking at how her belly dancing instructor “brands herself”.

I must say, I hadn’t really looked at branding like this before. Thinking back to when I learnt to scuba dive, my instructor has branded herself.

Being yourself, that lovely human being that you are
Have you ever wondered how to brand yourself, when there’s so many others blogging and wanting attention and branding themselves. There are all these “leaders” on the internet who’ve branded themselves. People like Ann Sieg, Mike Dillard, Mike Klingler and lots of other network marketers we see as leaders.

Sometimes, it seems like they’ve done it all, so why should you bother? Well, here’s why I think you should bother – because there’s no-one else like YOU, and only you can be you!

Like my scuba diving instructor, she loved diving so much, and she wanted all her students to be good divers so they could enjoy themselves.

She was always there when I needed her. Like one night when I went on my first night dive, and my buddy and I got lost (because it was so dark), she found us while making sure everyone else stayed with her as well.

Your Niche could be belly dancing or scuba diving or just YOU
My scuba diving instructor doesn’t teach people to swim, even though they need to be able to swim before they can learn to dive. She limits herself to teaching people how to dive underwater because that’s what she knows and loves best.

You can’t be known for everything, so stick to what you know and love. Or, stick to something you really want to know and love.

Create your Persona
My scuba diving instructor is pretty funny and sometimes scary underwater. One time there were about 8 of us diving together and we came across this rather large stingray. It was not long after Steve Irwin had passed away, and we all kept our distance, even though we were in awe of this magnificent creature.

Our diving instructor went pretty close to it, and afterwards she told me she was going to get really close, but she thought we might all freak out.

Anyway, sometimes on the internet, it’s not easy to just be yourself, so as Lisa says in her article, it would be easier to create a persona that mixes who you are and who you want to be. That way you may find it easier to magnify the personality traits needed to attract the right people.

As Lisa says:

We fall in love with those who are brave enough to do what we think we can’t. As long as you’re basing your character off who you really are, you’ll be able to keep it authentic and still look great naked.

Finding Your Voice
My scuba diving instructor talks and laughs with all her students, just like she’s one of them. She never looks down on anyone even when we do something really stupid underwater like getting caught in some fishing line and not being able to get out. She just helps you out, and we get on with having fun on our dive.

So, it’s all about being genuine and showing people that you are one of them. Sometimes we try to teach people things and sound more authoritative thinking our audience will trust us more. Instead of that, it can alienate you from the people you’re trying to connect with.

Another tip in the article is to:

Make your brand accessible

My scuba diving instructor creates a community around herself. She has social barbecues and social dives, and makes herself available. People can go down to her shop and talk to her whenever they want.

When you make your brand accessible, you become part of your community. If you answer questions and praise those who are doing well.

Lisa says

Your personal brand is you. It’s who you are, what you believe, and what you want to put out there to others.

You can read Lisa’s article here at Copy Blogger

So, what does a personal brand mean to you?    Let me know in the comments below, would like to hear what it means to you.

Technorati Tags: Branding Yourself

Mari Smith knows a lot about Facebook and how to use it, she’s a consultant in Social Media and in “Social Networking for Fun and Profit. She’s done a wonderful job of explaining how to add a custom landing tab to your Facebook fan page, and gives away other tips and details for using Facebook pages in this post.

So, if you want a little more advanced instruction with graphical details, here’s where to look: Mari Smith Facebook Modifications

Technorati Tags: facebook customisation

A Marketing Consulting business that I’m aligned with just had a press release, announcing an innovative web marketing system for Australian small and medium business owners. As part of the announcement, Infinite Marketing Consulting are giving a free website appraisal.

To find out more, see the press release here about Infinite Marketing Consulting

Technorati Tags: infinite marketing consulting

Branding yourself is being talked about more and more these days. It’s a lot easier to brand yourself and your business on the internet. The best way to brand yourself is by using your own name on all the Social marketing sites and even have a website/blog with your own name.

Once people get to know you at the Social marketing sites like Twitter and FaceBook, they will go to Google to find out more about you. Once they go to google and type in your name, you want them to see that you’re active online.

So… if you’re just starting out in your business, I suggest using your name (first name and last name) at whatever sites you join.

When you’re in business on the Internet, the best way to differentiate yourself from everyone else, is just to BE yourself!

Do you think it’s best to use YOUR name as the domain name for your blog, or to use your main keywords in the domain name?

Love to hear what you think…

Regards from Julieanne

Technorati Tags: Branding Yourself

I just read on the Mashable blog that Google have made an announcement about another change for their search engine.

It would be best to update (or at least get one) a Google profile, so you’re ready for these changes. If you have your social marketing sites like Facebook, Twitter, Digg etc linked to on your Google profile, these will start showing up in search results.

Change is good! The next few years is going to see a LOT of changes on the Internet, even more than we’ve had over the last few years!

Technorati Tags: social media

If you want to brand yourself using Twitter and Facebook and other social marketing sites, you’ll require some tools to assist you! Mari Smith is the lady to follow when it comes to learning about Facebook and Twitter. Back in September, she posted a list (and description) of tools that she uses for Twitter. You can read her post by clicking here:- Tips Tricks tools for Twitter

Technorati Tags: mari smith, twitter tools

A great way to create a relationship with people on the internet, is to have a page about yourself, plus some photos for people to see what kinds of things you like and what you look like!  This has made  a tremendous difference in our business over the last 8 years, and we can’t emphasize how important it is. 

The next thing to do is set up a page about yourself,  so people can get to know you. Click on the following link for the lesson showing you how to set up a Page about You and Photos on your MLM Internet Blog.

Technorati Tags: build a relationship, photos

A newsletter is an essential part of Network Marketing on the internet, and having one for potential customers is especially important. There is always lots of content to send out about the products, testimonials, and other information you come across.

Offer your newsletter from as many places as you can: your blog, your online shop site, or any of the Web 2.0 sites that make provision for a form. It’s best to use a good, reliable autoresponder to send the newsletter. John and I use Aweber, which is a very reliable autoresponder to use.

When you offer your newsletter, always make a “form” for people to fill out. Don’t send them an email address to subscribe to, because you won’t get many subscribers. If you’re sending people especially to sign up for your newsletter, place the form on one page, so they can see it easily. Like this one here: Vemma product newsletter

Technorati Tags: follow up, Marketing Conversions, newsletter