So each day you build out/contact your network of people. Since graduation I know I have exploded my network of contacts and people as well as try (when I can) to get 2 people who I have met and look at giving out referrals. These referrals are what business is all about, connecting 2 people who should chat to have that shared connection help them.
I also know that I have leverage this and (funny as it seems) put in contact with a lot of people as well as introductions, from friends who say, you should chat/meet person xyz. Contacts and your network is very important and with the intertubes being the way they are, you should be more connected to them.
Let me give you an idea to help either make some passive income and/or build up your network. So take any skill/talent you have and/or news stuff that you find interesting and create a newsletter. This newsletter could be, (mine will be geek news of the week, launch late next week) any type of broad topic, like business development, personal development, technology, some topic that hits a broad range of people.
Okay so you have this “topic” that you may feel your knowledgeable about, we’ll call you an “expert” of some sorts, brand it. Now start gathering links and/or articles about this topic and create a weekly or monthly newsletter. Now that you are creating this newsletter and sending it out, start to leverage this and promote it. How do you promote it? Simple, each time you meet a new person (contact) tell them you send out a (weekly/monthly) newsletters and ask if them if they mind you sending/signing them up. If you like it, please let me know, if not you can easily unsubscribe.
The business world is so interesting to me, who you know, who they know, how they know you. Now that you have a newsletter you’re promoting who you are by also branding yourself as an expert in the field. Say you are a real estate agent, people are always interested in the market, so you will have people signup/read (maybe even signup their friends) if you deliver great content. Now that you are/have a great network and pushing some content you can leverage this in various ways. One quick way is to push someone else’s product and make a profit. I know I have had a couple of people approach me about making a percentage from the people who signup. You can even self promote your next event/product through this network, its great. This can be a win/win for various people as well as offer a “FREE” service/product/event that can help someone else build up their product/service and build that viral marketing. We are all connected, so much so now in the “digital” world. How many “social networks” are you on, how can you leverage things within them. Notes, Pages, Facebook, you basically broadcast out a message to your friends and tell them, hey check this out. Even if 2% of your friends read/act on it, it might be worth it to look into it. I know this might piss off people and “hey” I understand; who needs more messages/email/whatever, but some might enjoy it. So if you’re that type of person, either unsubscribe, or let them know, we are all not mind readers.
I have started to put together some great tools for building up contact lists/etc. I know there already is software out there as well as newsletter managers that “guarantee” your email to be delivered. So for now, take a look at aweber, but I might have some (easy to use, simple) stuff to offer in the upcoming weeks.
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John
You may want to take a look at a new tool that can help people maintain better contact through conversations right through their desktops. It’s an online video telecom service called ooVoo (http://www.oovoo.com )
It allows for six people to be on a conversation at once and it’s pretty easy to use. Lightweight too.
I’m doing some work for them and I figured I’d give you a heads up.