Recycling Cell Phones for Charity

If you are in the market for a new cell phone or you are answering that irresistible good deal "upgrade" promised by your provider, what are you going to do with your old cell phone? It's composed of precious metals and plastic that doesn't need to end up in landfill. Only about 10% of phones are recycled in the US today - much too low. Here are  some ideas of what you can do with it.

1. Send it to Cell Phone for Soldiers, an organization that collects them. Each cell phone buys one hour of talk time for a soldier calling home.

2. Help domestic violence victims by giving it to either National Coalition Against Domestic Violence or Shelter Alliance. You can mail them your phones.

3. Help kids with serious illnesses  go to camp through NASCAR's Recycle for Victory.

4. Donate to a charity - Flipswap refurbishes your old phone and donates the value of the resale to the charity of your choice. Flipswap as I write this article is being re-organized so check back to find it later.

5. Best suggestion: check with AmericanCellPhoneDrive.org. This organization will provide you with places for donation that are local to your residence.

6. Canadian alternative: RecycleMyCell.ca  This organization not only provides a list of local organizations but also gives you helpful tips such as how to remove your data completely, FAQ section and local drop-off places. Of course there is a French-speaking Twitter account associated with it: @RecycleMonCell

7. David Suzuki has also gotten into the act as he is big on recycling everything. Go to: DavidSuzuki.org to find out more or their fund raising through recycling.

Now you have more than enough alternatives to keep from throwing your phone in the garbage. Actually, my son gave his old phone to his young 3 year-old daughter - disconnected from service, of course. She was thrilled and spent many hours having imaginary conversations with "her" real phone.

In addition, the retail businesses are realizing that they are missing some income and have now started retail take-back programs. Remember, however, that what they give back you as a savings for returning your phone is a small amount compared to what charity groups can obtain from your same phone. It's like the trade-in for your old car. The dealer gives you much less than you could get selling it on through private ads.

Have any experience with recycling cell phones for charity? What did you do with your old phone? Let us know.

How to Create a Media Marketing Video

Hundreds of videos being created here

Media production is changing daily and mostly towards making it easier for the average person to produce entertaining videos and pictures. Now you can get your iPhone or another cell phone to produce quite good videos. However, with a few more pieces of equipment you can produce what looks like a professional production. Want to edit your video? There's a number of good programs and software that are free such as Mashable, Animoto and Jing.

If you are an Apple user and happen to have an iPad, here's a good tutorial about shooting videos: http://youtu.be/m8_i6KY4ZdI

Here's a few tips to get you started on that important video that can make the difference between making lots of sales for media marketing and making very few.

1. Get a plug-in microphone for your cell phone. You can find them at most shops selling mobile devices. It will make your sound clearer, not hollow or distant. You might be able to find a quiet place outside for the better light, but inside it's best to rent, borrow or buy a studio light.  You need to speak loudly and look at the camera of course.

2. Write a script. If you try to just ad-lib you might be able to do it, but most probably there will be too many "ums" or pauses, not to mention mistakes. It's a clear sign of success when you can "say your lines" but not sound canned - like you are just reading them. I few more times practicing will get you there.

3. Just mention 2 or 3 rewards or bonuses. Let the viewers know there will be more later but no need to drag it out too much. People can only take in so much at once. Which bring us to the next tip.

4. According to Kendall Almerico, your video should be short (no more than 3 minutes) and end with a bang. No one wants to listen to someone drone on and on. Make something surprising or exciting at the end if possible.

The video should be short, exciting and get the viewer fired up and wanting to read more about what you are offering. Ideally, the video should be three minutes long or less (although really great videos will hold the audience’s attention even if longer).  For those who have a tendency to ramble on, keep in mind, with a crowdfunding campaign, you have an entire page online to write out more details and to show photos to supplement the video. People have busy lives and short attention spans. Don't lose your viewers before getting to the most important part -- asking for donations and help spreading the word about your campaign.
To read more of this click here.

5. Lastly, don't forget to ask people to opt in to your list or join your organization usually with some "bribe" or free offer as a benefit to them. You need to tell people what you want them to do so that more of them will figure it out.

Need more ideas of what to say? Look at other videos to get some ideas. The internet is full of them today and of course YouTube is a collection of them. Once you have finished, post it everywhere - your blog, social media and of course on YouTube.  It's easy if you have the embed code, given to you by YouTube but other media channels as well. Have any more ideas for media marketing? Leave them below for other viewers. or send them to us in an e-mail.

Next post: Making Your Videos Go Viral

Cell Phone Crashing

It was only a matter of time before the hidden cameras found people talking on their cell phones. Need a good laugh? Then watch this short video at the airport - any airport will do.   Now you know what cell phone crashing is. You can find lots more on YouTube. This couple has been up to these pranks for some time now, but not long enough for their "victims" to know about it. I personally find it rather irritating that people are always talking on cell phones and even more irritating when they ring when I'm asleep on a plane. Would you like to see one more? OK. Here you go.     Well, at least these people in Disneyland had more of a sense of humor than the poor people stuck at the airport. And one guy did know about cell phone crashing. Now you know as well, so enjoy it if you happen to meet up with them. No names mentioned here.

......$1,000, $3,000 and $5,000 Commissions Sold for You?

“Success is a science, if you have the conditions, you get the result.” -Oscar Wilde

http://goo.gl/HSdcvz

Ye' Olde Oscar had it sooooooooo right...

Take your local Weatherman for example.
He can fairly accurately tell you what the weather will be like for the next 7 days or so.

He can even inform you if you're in danger! Whether that be impending doom from Tornado's, Hurricanes, Flooding, Earthquakes or whatever other natural disaster it may be.

How does he know all of this?

Is he a psychic?

Some weatherman 'Guru'?

No, not at all.
Because if you have all of the *conditions*, you get the results

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......$1,000, $3,000 and $5,000 commissions sold for you?

Science helps him see patterns in the weather and so forth to be able to forecast what will result.
Getting success online is very similar too...
It's not about luck, being in the right place at the right time, or some secret KEY others are using that's unbeknownst to you.

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It's science. It's numbers. It's your economics.

Traffic, as I hope you know, is the Lifeblood of this business.

How much money can you afford to spend on traffic to get a $7.00 sale?
$7.00?
Well yea, if you just want to break even!

Can you buy a lot of online traffic with $7.00, or even $100 for that matter?

NOPE.

And then to take this further...

How many sales even at a 100% profit at $7.00 would it take you to make a good income?

You'd have to make 50 sales just to make $350.00. And once you factor in traffic, you've made nothing.

Nada.

Now you can imagine how this whole dynamic changes when you've got the ability to earn $1,000 to $9,000 online commissions right?

Once again, it's not luck, it's science and a numbers
game.

And you've got to have the numbers and economics of this business working in your favor from the very start.

$7.00 is fine for a front-end lead generation sale, but you'd best have some major Top Tier opportunities built into your back-end.

That's exactly what you're enabled to do with the NEW MTTB System:
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And the good news is these Top Tier Commissions of $1,000, $3,000, and $5,000 and sold FOR YOU!

If you don't work all this out, you're doomed. And if you *somehow* make a little profit, realize you're leaving a lot of money on the table, and a lot of people looking for help are being left unserved.

Here's to engineering "The perfect money storm".

Talk soon,
VICKI STARFIRE, MTTB member

http://webbasedopportunities.com

Mobile Marketing Strategies

With the recent Google Hummingbird algorithm update mobile traffic access and strategies have been in the forefront of advanced business planning. How is mobile marketing different from regular SEO and traffic generation methods? Here's a look at the new mobile-friendly content marketing.

In the past the main approach was to make some content and format for the big computer screen and then scale it down somehow for the mobile screen. However, more than half the searches are now done from mobile devices, so the new direction in content is to think mobile first.

Just breaking paragraphs into smaller sentence numbers is only the beginning. Now it is more likely to see single sentences instead of paragraphs (my high school English teacher would not be pleased). There is more than one image and spread out through the article or post, usually Thumbnail size. As you can see the changes are in both content and format. Understandably the post must be shorter. No one except Kindle book readers scroll through long passages these days. The challenge is to shorten the length but to include as much quality content - sort of like writing a clear, understandable poem.

Here are some more observations by Jason DeMers, CEO of AudienceBloom in a recent article published on LinkedIn. He points out that the exception to the short content rule might be a post that is so gripping and interesting that the reader can't put it down throughout the whole ride on the train to work (would it be that everyone has the luxury of train rides instead of boring car commutes). He also points out that it's important to focus on catchy headlines (always important, no matter what the audience) and the first few sentences as well as the summary paragraph if it exists.

Understand your audience’s mobile habits 

It’s amazing how many conversations about mobile strategies and content marketing in general happen in the absence of audience data. Can you answer the following questions about your customers and prospects?

• What percentage of your audience accesses your site on mobile devices?
• Are they using tablets or smartphones?
• What activities are they doing on your site, independently and as compared with your overall traffic?
• What content are they accessing – by topic and by format?
• How much time do they spend on your site? An audience with an average of 10 minutes is different than an audience with an average of 90 seconds. It’s all about attention span.
• Do they consume visual content?
• What other sites, social media platforms, and activities are they doing on mobile?

The greater the depth in terms of your understanding of your audience’s mobile habits, the more compelling your content will be. But specifically, understanding the makeup of their mobile universe will help you create content that feels native – rather than retroactively shoehorned to fit in.

To read more, click on this link.

Being mindful of mobile viewers, this post needs to end now. Want to know more about Mr. DeMers' ideas? You can find his book with this link: The Definitive Guide to Marketing Your Business Online.

You Better be Selling This in Your Business Online

Doing business online (or offline for that matter) without doing "consistent" advertising and marketing is like winking at a girl in the dark...

...You know what you're doing, but nobody else does.

Yes, you can have the greatest product in the WORLD but if enough people aren't seeing it, then you're out of business.

You Better be Selling This in Your Business Online

And a simple fact of economics is this:
The cheaper your product, the more people will need to see it and buy it.
The more expensive the product, the less people you'll have to get to buy.

Obvious but hey, why are so many people just trying to sell cheap products?

Now, thinking back...
I'd practically kill to get my hands on some food I've had at a few different joints in the past.
...I mean amazing food!
But I can't, because they went out of business. Not because they weren't great (they were), but because "not enough people" knew how awesome they were.

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Now online this is super important to realize. There are millions and millions of websites begging for eyeballs.
And no telling how many new products and blogs are launched each day.
You've GOT to get seen! And you do that by marketing and advertising daily, following up and building the relationship daily, and yes, SELLING daily.

You're in business here, no doubt about it. And in business, that's what you do. You sell.
Now what's cool is in My Top Tier Business you're getting some of the top traffic strategies to getting sales on the internet.

This is what's working NOW. Not theory. Real testing and true traffic and advertising methods.
But we ONLY give these tactics away to you after you've learned the true economics of online business and we show you how to get to 6 figures this year and beyond.
That's what's possible when you know how to get traffic and have a converting funnel (we give you that too).

Hey, make a commission in 30 days or these guys will throw you $500 bucks just for going through the 21 Steps and applying them!
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Talk Soon,

Vicki, MTTB member

http://webbasedopportunities.com

Smart Marketing

“The Internet of Things” is a buzzword that came into use in late 2012 and has surged in popularity. The term refers to the process by which everyday appliances become “smart” with the addition of computer components, sensors, and wireless modems that connect them to the Internet. 

Savvy companies large and small are predicting that this change will result in a bold new age of marketing.

These firms envision a world in which ads are ubiquitous and highly targeted. 

Some credit futurist R. Buckminster Fuller with predicting this trend, with his concept of ephemeralization. Ephemeralization refers to the tendency of society to innovate to the point at which they’re able to achieve more than previous generations did with a fraction of the work required.The advent of wireless Internet and any number of sensors will enable engineers to create everything from smart clothes to smart toasters.

Smart Marketing Everyone uses a refrigerator—but in the future, some of us will see ads for weight loss products when we open the refrigerator door. These individuals will have invariably opted into a list or searched for such products on one of the major search engines. While they will be the object of scorn for some, these ads will nevertheless prove highly effective.

The source of their effectiveness lies in the fact that they evoke an emotional reaction. Search engine giant Google has made it clear to the Securities and Exchange Commission that they intend to implement this type of advertising as soon as possible. In an open letter to the organization, Google said, “We expect the definition of “mobile” to continue to evolve as more and more ‘smart’ devices gain traction in the market.” Google intends to display these ads in car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, among other devices. The key to profiting from these ads will lie in the marketer’s ability to write copy that is appropriate for the scenario. Understanding why the ad is appearing where it is—and under what circumstances—will be crucial. As always, poorly targeted ads will aggravate consumers and will result in higher CPC rates.

Adding Value to Products with an App Savvy marketers in the next 10 years will focus on creating apps that allow consumers to directly control their smart devices. These apps will expose consumers to the app creator’s brand while making the consumers’ lives easier. This is a win-win scenario that can easily be monetized with the freemium model. In this model, an app is created that provides basic features for free, yet its most desirable features are hidden behind a paygate. Freemium is a proven effective pricing model in the app space, and going forward, consumers will be willing to pay a premium if they can do more with their smart devices.

Lindsay Corporation, a major player in the agriculture industry, has a headstart on their competitors. Their app, which allows users to control their sprinkler systems in real time from any smartphone, frees their users from the chore of having to adjust their systems manually from the farm itself. This translates into saved time or money, or both. Other potential apps that operate under the same principle include an app that monitors parking spaces in urban settings, apps that give early warning of earthquakes and building instabilities, and apps that monitor noise levels in public establishments. The opportunities, however, are likely limitless. Note that all of these apps will require access to specialized sensors and that these sensors will have to be maintained. This will likely include an additional layer of cost, so it’s essential that your monetization scheme take this into account.

Smart Marketing Using Social Media Anthony Joiner has another approach to Smart Marketing that involves Instagram and social media. His 43-page Kindle book lets you know that keeping up with social media is sound marketing these days. Here's his words.

What happens when a free app for photo sharing reaches the number one status within Apple’s App Store in just twenty-four hours of its initial launch? What happens when, after three months of the same launch, the app accomplishes one million downloads; the fastest ever for an app.

I’ll tell you exactly what happens, the birth of another social media juggernaut. I repeat – juggernaut: A giant that is changing the way we interact with each other and with businesses. Today, almost four years later, there are, brace yourself, fifty-five million photos being uploaded on a daily basis. With numbers and stats like this you should pay attention because those numbers say it loud and clear.

Yes, Instagram means something to your brand. If it doesn’t, it should.But, what does it mean, exactly? There are several giant social media platforms out there that obviously mean something to your business: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and let’s not forget the big business hub LinkedIn.

But, how exactly does Instagram mean anything to your business? Maybe you are a physical fitness trainer, a hotel owner, a beauty salon owner, an artist or restaurant owner.What can Instagram do for you and why should you use it?

Remember the old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words?” There you have it.

To read more click here.

Keeping abreast of these innovations will prove pivotal to your success in the coming decade. If you’d like to have access to even more powerful marketing tips, as well as a means to generate conversion-ready Internet marketing prospects each month, click here to learn about my done-for-you system.