Rachel's on TV with "Insight with Ethal"

I was interviewed by Ethel Lover with The Insight TV Show this past week. We discussed the many different ways coaches and business owners can market themselves through the Internet, beyond websites.

You can watch it on Google Videos, or on Free Marketing Videos. If you watch it on Google Videos, be sure to rate it! I'd love to have some feed back, so leave a quick comment after.

There's only one thing I would say differently: if I had a choice between YouTube and Google Videos, I would pick Google Videos. It is much easier to use, there's no restrictions, and it's easier to search, too.

Why I Love the Coaching Industry!

I was at a recent PCMA meeting in Orange County, when I was reminded of why I love working with coaches! I was discussing with several of the business coaches there what our mission was: to help coaches utilize the Internet to better their business. They probed me more to find how I planned on doing that. I told them that I see the Internet as not just a Marketing tool, but as a connection tool for coaches to connect with their clients in more than one way. Through Podcasting, Blogs, Video Casting, and eNewsletters, coaches are able to develop a relationship with their clients that goes beyond the "once-a-week coaching session".

They were intrigued, and helped me, right then and there, with my "tag line": 'I help coaches build coaching relationships with their clients through the Internet'. It was an awesome experience, in which they really listened to me, and I listened to them and we had a real conversation about growth, connection, and business. With all my networking, and attending seminars, I never get this kind of true level of understanding and connection with other business industries-only with coaches. They are an amazing industry to study, learn, and work with.

After the meeting, I've received helpful feed-back on ways to build ISCM, as well as referrals to other coaches and coaching organizations that might be interested in our services. I feel embraced by the coaching community, and I am so grateful.

Indeed, as Maya Angelou says, “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

-Rachel

What is a RSS Feed?

Think of RSS as Microsoft Outlook where all the emails that you need to receive comes pouring in one program (Microsoft Outlook/Outlook Express). RSS system is just like that. If you want to read news or blogs or other things on the web (even listen to podcasts), instead of going to 100's of news websites or blogs, you just receive it in one program. This program is called a "Feed Reader," or "Aggregator." Once you download this program to your computer, you just tell it which news website or blog you want to subscribe to and then the feed reader will go to work. It will put on it's make up and high heels and go out to get those blogs and news articles for you!

Now, you must be wondering how does the feed reader know where to go? Well, the blog or any website or podcast that you want to subscribe to, will have a little button that will look like the above image, or say "RSS." You click on this button and it will give you a link like this: http://rachelindra.audioacrobat.com/rss/indras_voice.xml (this is the RSS link for our podcasts). Give this link to your feedreader to make her happy-this is all she needs to know where to go and who to talk to. The feedreader I prefer is http://www.google.com/reader.

What is a Blog?

A blog is a user-created website where entries are made in an online journal and displayed in a reverse chronological order. Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. For coaches wanting to start a blog, you should focus on your particular expertise: relationships, business, spirituality, or the law of attraction. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of most early blogs. For small businesses using a blog is a great way to generate new and fresh content, which allows visitors to visit often.

When marketing your coaching or motivational speaker website, you need to have a reason for visitors to visit more than once. The idea is to get them to visit often, so that you have more opportunities to market to your potential clients.

A blog can have many different faces: it can be an area that you post articles related to your service or products, it could be where you post news releases, it could be where you post commentaries, and it can even be an online journal of personal thoughts, but it should be related to your expertise if it's attached to your website. A blog is not, however, where you should expect a lot of feed back or visitor communication. Visitor’s can leave comments, but generally a blog is not for that purpose. A forum is a better communication vehicle, which I will discuss in my next blog entry!

Once you start your blog, you can use blog distributors' sites, such as www.technorati.com to promote your blog, and your business!

-Rachel

LinedIn: Online Networking

There are 9 million professionals on LinkedIn. That's a lot of people that you could potentially connect to! But, I'm often asked: "So, how can I utilize Online Networking, such as LinkedIn? Can I really contact people directly?" I like to think of Online Networking, such as LinkedIn, as a very large expo. They're there to make connections! Some big differences between a live expo and an online expo are:

1. Everyone is online, so people can be from all over the country
2. Everyone has an exhibit table in which you can "display" your expertise, your hobbies, your contact information and website, and testimonials
3. People can see who your connected to within the group-and if someone wants to be introduced to someone within your connections, they can ask to be introduced

Some similarities are:

1. If you don't work the room, you wont get much business from it: Don't be shy about asking your connections to introduce you to people you want to meet, but be considerate-don't bombard one contact with lots of introductions at one time.
2. The more connections you have, the more potential business: Think of it as a game to see how many useful connections you can make!

I've made a lot of great connections with LinkedIn, and believe it will soon bring me some great business! One of the most frustrating problems with trying to connect with people in LinkedIn is when a member's profile is not fully developed, and you're not sure what they do. Be sure to take some time and fully develop your profile so that it's easy for people to see what you do. Think of it as your table at an expo - it's your first impression!

Try it out, and get networking with LinkedIn! Be sure to look for my profile and get connected! To Your Success! Rachel Pradhan.