Getting a Coach is very important if you want to find success in running an internet business.  When I was younger a Coach is someone who you would assume led a sports team of some kind. These days the term coach can mean anything.

If you are struggling with leading a healthy life then a life coach would be someone that can help you.

Need to loose a few pounds than look for a weight loss coach.

So now the latest is getting an Coach for your internet business.  You will need a very good and seasoned internet marketer that fully and truly understands how to create a profitable internet business.

Do not think that you don’t need a website because you have a physical brick and mortar type of business. Many customers use the internet first to find the product or service they are looking for.  Then take that information to pin point the exact location they need call or visit.

Could you imagine the 2012 Super Bowl winners Baltimore Ravens without a Head Coach? You see everyone need some help to get something working and a Coach for your internet business  is no different. But maybe you are not quite sure why you need a coach in the first place. Here is some of the ways you can be helped

Top 5 Reasons why you need to get a Coach for your Internet Business

1. Develop a a Social Media Platform: Do you use Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media web sites? Currently social media is extremely hot. This is probably one of the most important tasks you need to establish when building your online brand.

2. Search Engine Optimization: Just because you build it don’t always mean they will come. This may work offline, but it just doesn’t work online. There are numerous ways to get your website shown to hungry buyers. The trick is getting them to visit your site rather than a competitor.

3. Website Development: Many business owners understand they need a website created, but are you using it to maximize your potential? There is so many things you can do with a website. Probably the biggest mistake I see businesses use their online, is just using it as an online version of a brochure.

4. Create an Online Sales Process: Are you correctly integrating your sales process into your existing website? Are you correctly gathering leads and turning them into customers? What about your existing customer database?

5.  Help Creating Trust:  nowadays trust is an important factor when running a business.  People are very strict and weary giving their money to people.  They research and ensure that they will get what they are paying for.  The Coach will establish methods to convey trust to your customers

You basically need help in developing an online blueprint. Their is well over billions of different website, but their is still a way for any business to gain foot into all that clutter. As long as you can clear pin point directions, there is nothing stopping you from having a successful web footprint.

The post Top 5 Reasons why you need to get a Coach for your Internet Business appeared first on Official Blog of Thomas Wooldridge.

Yahoo officially buys out Tumblr

As of this morning Yahoo’s board does something crazy again and purchases a start that made 13 million dollars last year  for a whopping $1 billion dollars.

Yahoo not surprisingly over pays for an internet property.  Tumblr made 13 million dollars last year.  How they came to the conclusion that it is worth 1 billion dollars is beyond me.  At 13 million a year, it would take 76 years to make 1 billion dollars.  All you have to do is watch one episode of Shark Tank to understand how to put a valuation in a company.

CEO of Tumblr David Karp and CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer,

Lately large internet companies are buying out the smaller properties.  Facebook bought out instagram for one BILLION dollars also.  They have yet to even charge of advertising so they haven’t even made any money from advertising yet.  Tumblr has very limited ways to advertise.  I believe they using the same advertising model as Twitter is with sponsored posts and getting more followers to the account.

Here is why 1.1 Billion dollars was a Bad Deal

I could never put that much stock into an internet property.  Mainly because the volatility in this type of market place.  All you have to do is look up the history of the dot com bust in the early 2000.  Back when internet companies’ stock prices were thru the roof.   It’s even hard to imagine that a company like Facebook has more money than Disney or even General Motors.   These traditional brick and morter business actually have real physical properties.  Disney has their theme parks and General Motors makes physical cars for people to drive.  Internet properties like Facebook and Yahoo are just simply virtual. Any web property can be a fad and only good at the moment.  It doesn’t take much to die a slow death on the internet, alas Myspace

Tumblr has a dark side of the internet.  Things that Ultra clean, family oriented Yahoo may not approve of.   In my personal opinion i believe these sites attract a bulk of their traffic.  It’s just a fact that their is alot of porn traffic going to Tumblr.

You can look up the history of Yahoo purchases and you will notice they purchased a web property that was sorta of similar to Tumblr.  This company was called Geocities and they bought it for $5 billion dollars.  Yahoo officially shut down Geocities the site in 2009.

I guess time will eventually tell if they make money off of this acquisition.  My money is that this was a total FAIL.

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The post Yahoo Buys out Tumblr and Why 1 Billion Dollars was way too Much appeared first on Official Blog of Thomas Wooldridge.

Are you the smartest person in your circle of friends?  You might think that is a worthy accomplishment.  Actually it could be because of some selfish self satisfaction that you want to be.  This just needs to be temporary because you could be in serious trouble if you keep it this way for a long time.

Just like anything else you need to be challenged in order to grow.  When you stop growing you die.  That is an actual fact.  Your brain needs to be in constant motion or else it will be bored and wither away.

The reason why you don’t want to be the smartest person is because of the lack challenge in your conversations.  You might even notice that you have different conversations between people in your job vs family vs close friends.  There is a reason for that.   Have you ever noticed if you go back to your hometown that your language and even your accent changes?  Your conversations and how you say it changes according to your environment.

Here is some tips on how to expand your circle of friends:

1.  Get a Mentor:  I can not stress the importance of getting a mentor.  Mentors will tell you like it is.  The problem is that friends and family don’t want to hurt your feelings.  They might white wash and sanitize their negative comments in hoping not to hurt your sensitive feelings.  Thus a real good mentor will tell you like it is.  They might be harsh but their just keeping it real in hoping you will succeed.

2. Follow the leaders:  Who is the leaders in your marketplace?  Follow the on twitter, facebook, or wherever social media platforms they tend to hangout.  Usually they will have their own community of people.  It’s very good to be around people that have common beliefs.

3. Join an Organizational Club:  As an adult it can be difficult to get new “friends”.  Normally if you go to a house party it’s people you know.  So the easiest way is to join an organization with like interests.  Check out your local Chamber of Commerce, Chess Club, Shriners, American Legion, or my favorite Toastmasters.

4. Meetup.com:  This place is wonderful when your looking for a targeted group.  They have a big range of different activities that many people can participate.  I seen meetups for hikers, bowlers, bikers, singles, married, business networking, and even the weirdo stuff.  It’s all there

These are some simple strategies to expand your circle of friends.  The most important thing you want to is always challenge yourself.  Try to stretch yourself out of your comfort zone.  Follow these simple steps an your on the road to success.

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The post If your the Smartest Person in your circle of friends – Get new Friends appeared first on Official Blog of Thomas Wooldridge.

Getting authority doesn’t always happen in an instant.  Sure sometimes a persons mere appearance will grant them authority.  For example Police, Politicians, and Celebs will typically getting instant authority depending on what they are asking for of course.

But how does a Regular person like yourself become the Authority of your particular niche??

Well here is the Top 5 Methods:

1. Study Study Study:  

One of the greatest gifts on earth is knowledge.  Being wise is the most important traits.  These things doesn’t magically happen.  You must embrace it.  You must drink it.  Eat It.  Get real nasty to it.  Gather all your study materials like books, magazines, web sites, etc etc.  Take notes and understand all their is to know about your subject

2. Follow The Leaders:

Every community of people will have a leader. The leader is the one who tells you what is right and why you should listen to him.  Follow him and see what makes him tick.

3. Engagement:

Participate in Forums, Blogs, and Social Media sites.  Use your same name and avatar.  You want to be recognizable.

4. Content Master:

Whats the point of having all that knowledge if you can share it?  Let people know what you think.

5. Write a Book:

Before the internet their was Books!  Get your face on a back cover will make you an instant expert on the topic you wrote about

These are my top 5 ways to become the authority.  Everyone has a voice and they deserve to be heard.

These are some of the steps that I talk about in my book AUTHORITY

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The post Top 5 Ways to become the Authority appeared first on Official Blog of Thomas Wooldridge.

So finally after several months I finally completed my book.  Well actually thanks to some good advice I didn’t launch my full book yet.  I am only releasing the Kindle Version.  Don’t worry all the good content is still there.  Just the book will have more extra things like my history and more personal experiences.  The Kindle book is more of the meat and not a lot sides.  So you can start right away with becoming the Authority of your community.  You can purchase the book for FREE for Kindle owners here

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The post Authority – How to become an EXPERT and Get PAID for it appeared first on Official Blog of Thomas Wooldridge.

Has social media gone wild?  You probably heard plenty of horror stories of how social media ruined people’s lives.  There is always a concern with Privacy these days.   But regarding the Boston Marathon Bombing #watertown #bostonbombing have it done some justice?

Here is the GOOD, the BAD, and The UGLY of what happened so far

There is cameras looking at you everywhere.  Then those images are passed around like gangbusters.

Pictures from PCMAG

 The FBI asked for the public help and Social Media virtually enlisted thousands of volunteers to scan hundreds of images.

Also there is all sides of the fence can chime in as well.  Conspiracy theorist bloggers had their own opinions as well.

Then someone of course got Falsely accused

Then because of Social Media we can get Real Time updates on Blogs and Twitter #watertown

As of right now I understand the police killed one of the suspects and the other brother is on the run.  Apparently they were young teenagers who just moved from Chechnya.   Hopefully the investigators will find out the whole story as to who what or why.

Thoughts and prayers to all the victims.

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The post Boston Marathon Bombing and how Social Media Catches the criminals #watertown appeared first on Official Blog of Thomas Wooldridge.

Google Authorship is really hot right now.   If your a blogger or have any presence online than I urge you to start claiming your Google Authorship Profile.

I stated earlier in my training that Google Plus is Google’s very own social media platform.  They are trying to use the platform to create the social proof on giving your search engine rankings more credibility.

Here is the Top 5 reasons why you need to Claim Google Authorship.

Google Authorship Reason #1 Credibility

By adding your headshot on the SERPS you are giving yourself more credibility vs the faceless contributing authors.  Additionally, if you have high number of circles, it show’s viewers then number of people that follow.  This will create huge impact on your social proof.  In time, Google users will be more comfortable clicking on listings with Authorship, because it has been proven to give much better results.

Google Authorship Reason #2 Higher CTR

It has been proven to give you a much higher CTR (click thru rate).  According to Catalyst Search Marketing

Rich Snippets structured markup code is a way to help publishers provide information about their websites to Google. While Google has admitted that Rich Snippets do not increase or have an effect on search engine rankings, the additional information provided by a Rich Snippet can be the difference between a user clicking to a site or passing it over (possibly for another listing that does provide Rich Snippets?).

Google Authorship Reason #3 Brand Name Recognition

It will improve your Brand Name.  Many social media marketers like myself want to brand our social media presence.   We use the same avatar in all our social media profiles.  The more you show your face the more recognizable you become.  It’s no secret how these folks landed in Forbes Top 50 Social Media Influencers.  They just kept on putting out high quality content and their followers will get “CUSTOM RESULTS”.    That’s right if you follow the Author in your circles than Google will query your circles to see if they wrote something that you are looking for.  They assume that you follow them because you like their content and a big fan.  Why not show you the custom results?

Google Authorship Reason #4 Prevents Plagiarizers and Article Jacking

Well everything isn’t 100% fool proof.  Content thieves are out there that scan the web to scrape the article.  They try to make changes by simply spinning the adjectives to make a little unique.  Duplicate content is just one of those big no no’s, but unfortunately it is very difficult to defeat.  Claiming Authorship will tell Google that you are in fact the original author and separate you from all the fakers.

Google Authorship Reason #5 Author Rank

Author Rank is not an official title the Google states.  We SEO marketers understand that Google does having ranking algorithms built in.  So we assume author rank is something similar to Page rank.    According to Search Engine Land Google has created a Patent.

Google returns results based upon content appearing upon individual pages, or at specific URLs. But that content could come from different authors, who have different levels of control over it. For example, a blog page may have posts written by more than one author, comments penned by others, and advertisements showing ads that even the owner of the site has no direct control over. A forum might have many different authors responding to an initial post, and may also display advertisements.

This tells you the key to getting higher Author Rank is to be engaging.  Post comments and allow comments on your site.  Participate in Google Communities.  You can learn more by joining the Google Authorship Community that is headed by the one and only AJ Kohn

So how do you get Started?

First thing you need to do is create your G+ Profile . Make sure you update your profile and fill in all the information.  Here is a link to my personal profile.  Make it memorable, catchy, and unique

Second thing you need to do is Claim your profile here.

Finally make sure your sites have google authorship plugin.  This will explain how to set it up on your site.

Spend about an hour to do this and Viola!  You are officially in the team of fellow Google Authors!

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The post Top 5 reasons why you need to Claim Google Authorship to Sites you Contribute appeared first on Official Blog of Thomas Wooldridge.

Ever wondered what happens to your emails if God forbid something bad happens to you such as death?  Assuming you never give your password away. Chances are you could have your passwords saved on your computer with your computer browsers.  Unfortunately anything can happen such as your computer could of burned down in a fire.

You have to admit even though you might be gone all your data files will still be available.  There is so much info your google account can hold.  You have pictures, documents, videos, and many other things are stored.  Your children or other family members might be interest in getting access to those.

Well thanks too google who basically thinks of everything, they have an opportunity for you to create a digital last will.

You can set it up so that if your account has been inactive for like a month or two, it will automatically provide access to the “next of Kin” you had setup with.  or You can tell Google to just delete everything, this is for those that a few skeletons in the closet and don’t want to hurt anyone.

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The post Last Will and Testament via Google appeared first on Official Blog of Thomas Wooldridge.

This was my third speech and it was quite entertaining.  I was pleased that I got a very good response to my third speech.  My goal was to entertain and ensure I get their attention the whole time.

The main purpose is to “Get to the Point” Like the guide said you want to make sure that your audience knows what or to do by the end of your speech.  toastmaster speech 3 get to the point

———————————————————-

title:  Curious Life of the Intelligently Stupid

General Purpose : To entertain and point out observations

I use to live in the state of Kansas, and it is the coldest place I ever lived. You see in Kansas they don’t have mountains or trees.  Just gently rolling hills.  This is why tornadoes hit this state all the time . it is completely flat. Also the wind made it brutally cold as well.

Well one of my friends had purchased a brand new car. He was not from Kansas either and the cold weather was really kicking our behinds, so I had asked him does this car have one of those Seat warmers.  He said sure it does, here is the button “Rear Defroster”.

Remember when you was Kid and did Sunday Car ride?  Back when gas was like 85 cents a gallon?  Growing up we had this big giant stationwagon.  Me and brother and sister use to ride in the rear and wave at the truck drivers through the window.  This was back in the day before we had car seats and air bags was our parents arm when we had to stop real hard!

Well I moved to this new city for the first time and decided to take a ride just to get know the area.  This was all before GPS or google maps. You had to literally drive around to get to know the area.

I just happen to get on this street “Electric Ave”.  All of sudden I had this flashback of listening to music video on MTV.  There was this big song in the 80’s called “Electric Ave” by a Jamican singer.  This song had this addictive hook. “We gonna rock down to electric avenue and we gonna take it higher” .  I was just rocking singing the only part of the song I remembered.  Just jamming with the radio turned off! How many of you all can relate to that.  Just had a party all by myself.

So I crossed an intersection just rocking the song.  Then all of a sudden sreeeeeechhhh I hit the breaks. Saw a sign said “No Outlet!”

You’d think they would have a better sign.  Anyone can guess a more appropriate sign?

Back when I was in the Army, I spend 80% of my time in the Motorpool.  The motor pool is where all the vehicles was kept. IT was just a giant parking lot. The major problem go through a lot of hard driving so they require a lot of maintaince.

I always believe that animals are way more in tuned to God and the earth. I remember an amazing story during the big Tsunami in Thailand.  There was tourist riding elephants then all of a sudden the elephants were out of control and starting leaving the trainers and walking without any directions.  Come to find out they was actually trying to walk to high ground to prevent getting hit by the waters. Also earlier Scientist would use Catfish to help predict earthquakes.  Animals seem to be more in tuned

My friend has two very big dogs.  They both weigh well over 100 pounds each.   He complained that one of the dogs had this very bad habit of doing the #2 in the middle of the road.  He is so worried about getting hit by a car and stuff.  Well in my mind I said to myself “What a stupid dog”.  Just when I said I swear the dog turned around and gave me an evil eye.  I was taken back for a second because Have you thought you said something in your mind but actually said it out loud? Well needless to say I didn’t worry about it.

Later that evening I was driving to my parents house with my daughter.  I got out and popped the trunk and I smelled the most awefull smell!  I had actually ran over some crap on the road. It looked really fresh because it was smoking hot.  My daughter got and said ewe whats’ that smell,, I said never mind get back in the car.   I had to drive around the block to remove the stink off my tire.

So conclusion, There is absolutely nothing wrong being stupid. As matter fact I believe you should embrace your stupid side and acknowledge it.  Today I challenge you to out and observe some more intelligently stupid things.  You will be surprised how often you will notice this!

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The post Toastmasters Speech #3 Get to the Point appeared first on Official Blog of Thomas Wooldridge.

 
It’s one of those time honored traditions that have been slowly lost.  Before television or radio, there were story tellers.  The people would talk about great stories of the greatest hero’s of all time.  Before written communication this was the only way to pass down history thru the art of speaking.

Can this tradition still be relavant in todays world?  The current mass media has taken over the old ways to communicate.  Is it still possible to work in these days?  Surely it works for little children.  Tons of little kids out there are begging for their parents read them a book before bed.  You know why? Because kids still love those old Dr Suess books and they still read them for the next generations.

But will it work for Adults? You darn right!  Everyone loves to hear a good story!

I was actually inspired by this blog post by reading Luis Galarza Google+ Posting.  Just to see the comments on the post just proves the whole point of the posting.

Business Story Telling is the key to create audience engagement.  Most of the current advertising is a one way communication.  Just features and benefits.  Repeated hundreds and thousands of time.  Features and Benefits.

But you way how can I create a compelling story about my product or service?  It’s rather simple.  Speak to your customers.  Ask them how they use it.  You might even be surprised when they respond to you in a way that you never even thought off.

Take notes on how politicians do it.  They are masters at telling compelling stories to ensure you vote in a particular way.  It might be because there basically selling themselves.  But you will notice that they always point to a person and share there story and see how it relates to their whole point.

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The post Business Story Telling – Promoting your business in an interesting way appeared first on Official Blog of Thomas Wooldridge.