SO YOU WANT TO BE A CONSULTANT?

SO YOU WANT TO BE A CONSULTANT?
Let’s say you have more than 20 years experience in your chosen field. For the sake of this article, let’s say you have been in the nonprofit field for 25 years and are at the very top of your game. And let’s say you’re a bit bored with the hum-drum day-to-day routine of being an executive director. You love nonprofit sector, but you need more of a challenge and you yearn to help people grow and achieve success in their nonprofit careers. Plus, you’d like to earn a little bit more money and are a bit tired of the board of directors overseeing everything you do.

Perhaps it’s time to go into business for yourself. Perhaps it’s time to become a consultant, a coach, a speaker and trainer. The thought is exciting, albeit a little frightening. You’re current salary is certainly respectable for a person with your skills and experience, and the health insurance and retirement plan are comforting benefits that you don’t want to relinquish. But none of these factors have been able to sufficiently scratch that darned itch that keeps telling you it’s time to start your own nonprofit consulting business.

Going into business for yourself as a consultant, coach, or speaker (or all of the above) requires determination, a little self-sacrifice (in the beginning), and a lot of experience. People hire consultants because they need the expertise of someone who has been there and done that…hundreds of times. There are consultants in literally every career field, and once they become accustomed to the process of generating clientele, they can make over double what they were earning as employees. In fact, recent statistics show that successful and established consultants can make anywhere from $1,200 to $5,000 per day.

There is power and prestige in consulting that can rarely be found in management positions, even executive positions. The power comes from calling the shots as a business owner and making sure people know they need you; the prestige comes from being the very best in your field…and making sure people know it.

But there’s not a subtle difference in owning your own business and owning your own consulting firm. Lots of people own businesses. My fiancé owns a deli, my father owns a small publishing business, and my mother owns a bakery. But owning your own consulting firm lets people know that you’re the crème de la crème in your field – and if they want to rise to the top like you have, they’ll hire you to help them.

Consulting firms, like the one you will soon own, can be anything from a one man show to a large agency boasting senior and junior associates. Most consultants make their day to day income from coaching and mentoring individuals in the field – charging anywhere from $300 (for junior level staffers) to $500 (for senior executives) per hour. They also assist clients with organizational development, strategic and financial planning, and a host of other services including workshop facilitation and board and staff retreats. And if they like to speak in front of audiences, many consultants make thousands of dollars simply talking to a crowd for a few hours about their experiences and knowledge.

While it’s not as easy as 1-2-3 to quite your job and start making $5,000 a day as a consultant, it’s certainly not as difficult as it looks – especially if you’re very very good at what you do and have expertise that few can match. Start off as a moonlighter, which is the term used when someone has a “day job” but works on their own business in the evenings. Make a simple business card for yourself and during your lunch hour at work, go to chamber of commerce or rotary meetings where you can network and talk to people about your new consulting practice.

It’s not too difficult to pick up a small client or two this way, and once you do a good job for them and build confidence in yourself you’ll begin to branch out and up. People will hear about you, your phone will start ringing, those simple business cards you handed out at the rotary meetings will change hands and generate bigger clients, and you’ll begin to realize that maybe you really can quit that hum-drum job and make it big on your very own.

Marketing Tips Provided to You by:
Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter
Author of Powerful Promoting Tips

Podcasting Trend

Podcasting Trend

Podcasting has all the ingredients to become a major technology trend. Podcasting has started with little fanfare but has the potential to become a giant wave due to a number of factors going for it. The word Podcast might have been roughly derived from iPod and broadcast (it sure sounds like that to me so don’t hit me if I am wrong! ).

The process works pretty much like radio except that the broadcast is done via mobile devices and the power of content delivery via the internet. This new form of broadcasting of information opens up tremendous opportunities for dispersion of information, entertainment and news.
Podcasting is a fairly new technology and people are building up refined applications to use this medium effectively. Advantages of Podcasting are making the proposition attractive enough for major companies to consider it a serious communication mode. RSS 2.0 is the chosen form for podcasts and newer versions of this feed system are expected soon.
Inherent advantages of podcasts are:

No need to invest in a new piece of hardware : Podcasts are easily available to all users of iPod and similar mobile .The sheer size of the iPod cult if I can call it that, is increasing at a scorching pace. All a user needs to do is choose the subscriptions which he or she would like to subscribe to and download the programs.

New lease of live to radio programs: Radio programs have been revived by the new generation of podcasters. A number of old radio programs which have had a mass following in their hey days are now being evaluated to be cast via podcasts. A huge chunk of high quality content becomes available thanks to this revival.

Can advertisers be far away ? Advertisers have the ability to identify new advertising opportunities at the slightest whiff and Podcasting forums are already working hard to get the advertising industry hand in glove with the Podcasting community. Influx of advertising dollars will lend more credibility to Podcasting and this medium will be taken more seriously as well.
On demand broadcast: Podcasters and listeners rule this medium by offering a high level on-demand listening. You can use this service at the time when you want to, pretty much like video on demand but has greater success due to the low demand of bandwidth. This is probably one of the biggest advantage of Podcasting and might be the core reason for it to success phenomenally.

Your own Podcast studio and very little investment: So who are podcasters? A podcaster can be anyone who has access to the internet, a decent computer and some software knowledge. Podcasting requires very little investment by way of hardware and software. This advantage of Podcasting can thus be done by almost anyone who has an interest in it and has some content to share with the rest of the world,

Creativity is highly rewarded in the podcaster’s world: Content is king and high quality creative content is instantaneously rewarded by the Podcasting community which can be measured by the number of subscribers. Thus it is quite easy to gain overnight success if the content of the broadcast is unique and exciting.

Podcasting thus has number of benefits both the for the community within and without. A unique mass media which does not cost a lot to distribute and develop content for. Like all new technologies, the technology will have some teething issues but the force promoting it should be good enough to get the technology roaring with success in the very near future.

Marketing Tips Provided to You by:
Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter
Author of Powerful Promoting Tips

Podcasting: The “NEXT BIG THING” on the Internet

Podcasting: The “NEXT BIG THING” on the Internet

The word “podcasting” is used often around the internet these days, although many people are still not exactly clear on just what a podcast is! Simply put, a podcast is a blog (web log) that is made available in audio format. The audio portion is a standard MP3 file that contains a program or “show” that can be created by anyone. Think of it as a radio talk show that can be transmitted from a computer.

The podcast transmission uses Real Simple Syndication (RSS) technology. It may seem complicated but, as the name implies, it is actually fairly simple. There are many resources available to help people learn how to record and set up a podcast. The step-by-step instructions are easy to follow. In fact, with just a few easy to learn skills, some low-cost (or free) computer programs, and the basic computer equipment and internet connections that you probably already have, YOU can create a podcast and host your own show.In addition to setting up a podcast, you’ll also want to provide a written blog that offers helpful, supplemental text for your podcast material. For example, you may briefly mention a topic in your podcast and then tell your listeners: “For more information on this topic, please see the web site….” In this way, you can expand the amount of information your subscribers receive from your transmission.

When you have set up a blog and website, anyone with an internet connection can subscribe to your show. Listeners will use an RSS “aggregator,” such as Doppler or Ipodder. Both of these are FREE downloadable program that allow others to subscribe to any podcast of interest. They’re easy to set up and can be pre-configured to check for new podcast updates at set intervals. In this way, a subscriber doesn’t have to be “tuned in” to your podcast at a certain time; he can just receive notice of an update that is automatically downloaded to his computer and then listen to it at his leisure. Subscribers listen to these files just like their music files, using Windows Media Player, iTunes, or any other similar audio program that is compatible with MP3 files.

Needless to say, the topics of a podcast are limitless. For example, maybe you have a special interest (even expertise) in fly fishing. What a great idea to have a podcast devoted to the art and adventures of this great sport! You can share techniques, stories, and even take live calls during pre-set transmission times. Podcasting offers you the opportunity to become a true “internet personality.”

Marketing Tips Provided to You by:
Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter
Author of Powerful Promoting Tips

Make Money Blogging

Make Money Blogging
You have created a blog and your blog is dedicated to a niche industry. Have you ever thought that the blog could make money for you? We would look here in this article, ways and means, to make money blogging. Lets first have a look at what are the prerequisites for a blog needed to make money:
1. Blog needs to be dedicated to a niche market.
2. Updated regularly.
3. Enough back links (Don’t worry for it. Directory submission would be enough to begin with)
4. Good blog host or application (blogger, Xanga or typepad recommended), and
5. High quality articles or news items supported with images. Get the above criteria in place and Hurrah… You are ready to Make Money Blogging.

Top 5 Ways to Make Money Blogging
Lets now take a look at top 5 ways using which you could make money blogging:
1. Google AdsenseGoogle Adsense delivers text and image ads to the authorized websites/blogs depending on the content of the website. Small code is required to be pasted at proper locations on a webpage and Google automatically recognizes the page. Google shares the revenue it gets from the advertisers whenever a visitor clicks on these ads.
Google bills advertisers on price per click basis (PPC). Advertisers are required to pay only when any visitor clicks on their ads. They bid against each other for the keywords in order to receive better placement and thus prices for each keyword differ from one another. It is better to choose keywords for your blog which pays high $ per click.
2. AmazonAmazon Associate program is another important way to make money blogging. The Amazon Associate program gives opportunity to website/blog publishers to promote any product from its inventory by adding a predefined code to their website/blog, which, when clicked by a visitor, takes them to the relevant product page. Once the visitor buys the product, the blog owner will be compensated with a commission.
3. Blogads
You can use Blogads as an effective tool to have a better control over the advertisers in your blogs. You can analyze and compare your profits with any one of your online agencies. Blogads can be simply specified as an advertising service used for the web logs or blogs. From the total money generated by Blogads, it retains 20% of it and the remaining money is paid to you through PayPal or checks.
Al ternative Services :
Crispads is another useful network focused on the blogs. You can put your advertisements in their blogs using Crispads. You can move through their RSS/ATOM feeds that help in generating revenues.
Tagword – It is similar to Blogads. It makes you select the ads and their price.
Users can place their text-based ads in the site within minutes and the ads will be displayed instantly on the website.
4. Affiliate Programs
Your affiliate programs can help you earn a lot of money for selected products and services. Lot of websites offers you to become affiliate members. These affiliate programs can provide a better reach and an in-depth exposure to the products. The commissions for the sales differ according to the quality of the product, sales and marketing strategy involved. You can gather information related to the commissions by looking into the catalogues of Link Share and Commission junctions.
5. Text Links
Text links has emerged out to be the best form of moneymaking source that you can use instead of cluttering or crowding the page with ads. You don’t have to make these text links prominent within your website. This link can act as an extra value to your site and will also help to promote the rankings of other sites. In most of the cases you will find these text links placed in the bottom of the web pages. The best part of this strategy is that the publishers send and accept links as the market continues to grow.

Marketing Tips Provided to You by:
Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter
Author of Powerful Promoting Tips