Are you in Email Overload? You know what I mean… spending a couple of hours a day wading through your inbox, trying to get through to the important emails and finding yourself going down all kinds of “rabbit holes”, finding time ticking away that should have been focused on other things, like product creation, answering student questions and spending quality time with family?
After coming back from the holidays, my first two weeks of 2010 were spent feeling like this so I decided to conduct…

The Email Overload Experiment

Let me know what you think and if this inspires you to outsource your inbox to a fabulous VA or just to get radical and stop the reactivity! So you can focus on growng your business, taking care of yourself and your family!

With this experiment, I want to see how it feels to stay completely away from email, one of my VAs Verna will be adding to our “virtual office space” the things I should look at while she responds to and sets up interview requests, guides students to the forums in Membership areas where I’ll be 3 times a week to answer their specific questions and I communicate with people just via social media marketing tools like Twitter and Facebook… It was scary to give up this much control, but I think I’ve gained several hours a day to create more products and be able to think!

It’s Christmas and I’m spending it in a beautiful 3 story cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains with Jeff, the boys and our dogs!It’s great (& necessary) to take some well-deserved time off to spend together and appreciate all the blessing we’ve created over the last years… One of the things that have helped us both is the ability to create several online businesses, so I thought a great gift for my subscribers and readers would be… The 12 Free (or Very Low Cost) Product Creation Resources of Christmas!

12. My favorite place to get ecovers, ECoverArt.com has rolled out a brand new website called http://MyEcoverMaker.com You can make beautiful Ecovers for all kinds of products and ot’s 100% free! I played with it and the service later emailed me a brand new ecover I designed.

11. I’ve been using Photoshop for many years. I purchased it (expensive!) because I couldn’t afford a designer to create the labels for my bath & beauty products so I decided I would learn it and it has been one of the best things I’ve ever done. There’s a fabulous online service that allows you to do most of the same things to create and edit graphics… http://Pixlr.com <== What a resource! Have fun creating your own “add buttons like the ones I have on this site, or editing your photos to fit your website, or add your website name to your graphics!

10. In 2010, if you’re online… you MUST learn to use video. It is simply not an option any longer… AND there are several ways to do video at low cost. You can always use your computers webcam, the video option if you have one on your phone or buy a low cost flip video at http://TheFlip.com (or google/Ebay for a slightly used one. You don’t NEED the HD version to create great video infomercials or trainings.

9. A FABULOUS resource when you’re first beginning to use video is http://CuePrompter.com I was very nervous in the beginning when using video and I would always forget 1/2 of what I wanted to say, until I found this online teleprompter. Just tape it (yes, tape it) to the cover of your laptop, where the “eye” of the camera is directly above the screen, cut and paste your copy into this website, when you’re all ready, hit F11 on your keyboard for an “extra trick” to make it even easier (you have to try it to see what I mean) but this can make you go from looking like a video newbie to an online broadcast professional.

8. Once you’ve created your video, PC users can use Windows Movie Maker which is on most PCs free. Sometimes it’s a little hidden, just look carefully in all your Programs to find it. If you’re on a Mac, you can use iMovie to do editing! It’s free.

7. Once you’ve finished your awesome video, now what?! Well, you have to get it in front of people! Upload it to your You Tube channel AND use Tube Mogul to send it to even more video sharing sites. http://YouTube.com and http://TubeMogul.com

6. To create Audios or do Teleseminars there’s http://FreeConferenceCalling.com This is a free conference call service that allows you to record what you say. If you’re the only one on the call, it won’t record, but just use your cellphone to call in and allow recording or get a friend to call in. You can do group calls and create products with this service. I’ve got a course called Teleseminars Made Easy that shows you how to use Instant Teleseminar (a paid service) which gives tips on why & how to use Teleseminars AND shows you step by step video how to use FreeConferenceCalling.com Here’s my special page for the course at a Christmas price!

5. If you have an iPhone, you must get this fantastic (and Free!) app called Dragon Dictation. It lets you dictate and gives you the text to email. Great for sending messages easily and I even experimented last week dictating my “tweets”!

4. WordPress. It’s amazing that you can get WordPress allowing you to have a website, just like this one easily and without needing to know html, that super tech-geek language that can be scary and confusing to us regular folks… Get a low cost domain name, low cost hosting like Host Gator (that is my affiliate link!) and voila! You can have a website up in the few clicks of your mouse…

3. WordPress plugins! A must have (that’s also Free!) is the WP Easy Uploader. I also love My Page Order, Backup to name a few! All you have to do is “google” those names and you’ll find them.

2. Once you have your website up… what else do you need? Well, against popular belief, simply putting up your website does not guarantee you’ll have traffic. Use services like http://EzineArticles.com http://ArticlesBase.com http://Twitter.com http://YouTube.com http://Facebook.com to send targeted traffic, people interested in what you have to offer to your site…

And the # 1 Free Resource you have to create your money-making products is… *drumroll*

1. YOU!

You creativity, your resourcefulness, your passion, drive, ability to learn AND your willingness to get out of your comfort zone and do whatever it takes…

and stop talking about what you will do and actually do it…

even when you feel the fear.

Courage is like a muscle. The more you use it, the more you have. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy 2010!

Several weeks ago I got a comment from David Tomen about how to market his Ebook… Here’s his blog comment:

Hi Maritza: Wasn’t sure where to put this comment but the end of this article seems appropriate. I just wanted to thank you for the tutorials and inspiration in how to create an eBook. I was looking around for info on how-to articles and found you. I recently published the Used Boat Buying Guide which you can find here: http://oasisyachts.com/used-boat-buying-guide. It is by no means a best seller and I need some additional help on how to get the word out. It may never sell in the thousands (although it should considering that there are over 17 million registered boats in the USA). What I learned however during this process can now be easily duplicated. So thanks once again. DM me @DavidTomen on Twitter with your email address and I will be happy to send you a compimentary copy.

Warm regards,
David Tomen

I love seeing people take action so I sent him a DM (direct message via twitter) and told him I would make a blog post to help him out. I grabbed part of a video about how to market your Ebook after you’ve created it…

The video shows several ways to makret your Ebook once you complete it and now with the super-explosion of  Social Marketing Tools, it’s even easier for you to connect with people looking for your information. Other ideas specifically for David:

• I can’t tell how often you post on your blog because the posts aren’t dated (great strategy because people think day old posts are “yesterday’s news”), but post often!
• You could start a weekly boat life video show – obviously you know how to do videos http://www.youtube.com/DavidTomen Just fire your video up and show people living the life with a yacht… if that doesn’t sound amazing I don’t know what does! Go interview your friends with yachts or customers  – I just found out I’ll be interviewing Gary Vaynerchuk of Winelibrary tv soon and he’s inspired me to begin a daily video blog show about different aspects of online biz (unedited, unscripted and completely real!) You obviously have a great sense of humor with your “Spousal Conversion Kit”
• Went to your twitter accout, definitely find more people who are interested in boats, yachting etc. Go to http://search.twitter.com and enter the keywords to find them… and them follow them Also, tweet about your videos, your Ebook and stuff on your blog. Find nautical quotes http://quotegarden.com or just “google” it. Load quotes/tweets into http://Hootsuite.com so you can have them going while you’re on your yacht! Or use the search field on the right hand side of your twitter toolbar to enter boats near: Florida
• Engage with people! Let yourself go in your videos. The videos where I get the best response are the ones where I almost feel like a “used car salesman” (not that there’s anything wrong with that…) But I let go and get enthusiastic. Maybe listen to some loud inspiring music beforehand and just don’t care what people will think… some will like you, some will love you and some will be trolls (not my word, Seth Godin’s) and criticize you. I will applaud you!
• Think of Social Marketing with the 80/20 rule 80% social 20% marketing. And make offers… from time to time, make a direct offer for your Ebook.

Hope this helps! Love, Maritza

PS I’d love to hear other comments and /or ideas for David. As always please comment below (and check out my new “sexy toolbar” when you go to post your comment)

Ay chihuahua! It’s been a couple of weeks since making a blog post! I’ve been busy in the “Product Creation Lab” creating a new course called Social Marketing Blueprint… Jeff & I are so excited about the course and the launch… Last night members got access to their new Member’s Area to rave reviews. But, I have to tell you… Although this is one of the most exciting and fulfilling projects I’ve embarked upon, especially since I know we’ll be helping a lot of amazing people get their websites found… it’s been a lot of W.O.R.K.

I’m never shy to get in and get dirty and work hard. One of the things my family blessed me (a 1st generation American in this case) with is a huge “get-it-done-no-matter-what-MacGyver” work ethic… and I LOVE challenges.

This Halloween, I’ve decided I have no choice but to “dress up” as  the Product Creation Hunchback…

Usually I go as a witch or a devil or something where I can still be girly, but this year my back has let me know that I MUST be a hunchback from bending over the computer for 14 hour days creating this curriculum! And on the preview call with Alex Mandossian, one of my mentors I greatly respect, I got this wonderful comment…  “Maritza, one of your strengths is the ability to create outstanding curriculum.” – Alex Mandossian Can you say cool & humbling at the same time…? And although I have a fabulous team surrounding me, Jeff Herring my SMB partner,  Tracy Shiflett the head VA extraordinaire, Irene Hachar, Luz Castillo & Kimberly from FIC printing who did a fantastic job with the Diamond Deadline Online Success Planners… Whoever tells you that success is instant and effortless is just dead wrong.

While it’s true that success can be easier by leveraging the tools of the Internet and now Social Marketing, I don’t believe anyone who creates long term success has done it without W.O.R.K.

W = Willingness to do Whatever it takes.

O = Overcoming your own intertia AND Overcoming the pebbles that will get in the way

R = Reasons why you want to create this (Add value to others, to yourself, your family, creating a legacy… what is your compelling Reason Why?)

K = Kindness to yourself & others when things done work out “perfectly”… one of my biggest mottos I remind myself about over and over and over again… It’s all about “Progress & not about Perfection” Cut yourself a break and do the absolute best you can and be kind when it isn’t exactly as you imagined.

Well after midnight last night, when I crawled into bed… I finished reading Gary Vaynerchuck’s book Crush It! and my biggest takeaway is that when you combine passion with hustle… you don’t even notice when you turn into a Hunchback because you are having so much darn fun, so appreciative of all the new students, so excited to create a fabulous commmunity with them…

And Jeff & I will be starting a video blog show about Online Biz Meets Real Life with free tips, inspiration and showing the “hustle behind the scenes”. I’ve never been happier and felt more fulfilled… even if I do look like an Igor…

As always, I’d love to hear from you and share what you’ll be dressing as for Halloween!

I’m in Santiago, Chile getting on a boat tomorrow to cruise around to Buenos Aires on vacation. And about to begin actually creating part of a product while I’m here! Cool, I can tell my accountant I was actually working while on vacation… which of course, I will be!

I’ll be emailing my lists about it in the next few days with a video and several follow up videos, giving them the insider’s view of what I’m doing, how and why…

I am really loving video! It’s a great way of creating products fast. Then get your videos transcribed and I have a VA who turns those into accompanying manuals!

Want to see some of the products I’ve created quickly by mostly speaking them and using video?

Here’s a video with a behind-the-scenes tour of my Easy Online Marketing Training website!