On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, we talk all about creating a brand new podcast. My special guest is a recent Best of 2013 iTunes award winner, John Dumas of Entrepreneur on Fire. His show is unique in that he broadcasts seven days per week, which takes a crazy commitment!

John has interviewed over 425 people to date and his interviews tell the stories of entrepreneurs who have “made it” in their niche. The stories of his guests are inspiring to say the least and help others out there who are looking to take their own entrepreneurial leap.

I wanted to create this episode at this specific time because at the time of this recording, I’ve been podcasting for almost a full year, and it’s been an extremely rewarding experience.

I LOVE podcasting. It’s opened so many doors for me, introduced me to an entirely new audience, and has allowed me to expand my brand beyond my Facebook trainings.

It’s also given me more confidence in my business and has created opportunities for me that I would not have been given had I not created this show. I highly recommend podcasting to anyone that is looking to expand their brand and take things beyond their blog and website.

This episode is extremely valuable. There are tips for those just thinking about starting a podcast, or just starting out, AND there are some great ideas in there for those that have been podcasting awhile and want to take their show to the next level. So we have something for everyone here!

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• How to get started with podcasting

• How John went from having zero online presence to building a six-figure monthly income

• Tips for those questioning whether or not they have what it takes to podcast

• The minimal equipment needed to start a podcast

• Steps needed to produce a podcast

• How podcasts are found in podcast directories

• The importance of great show notes and how to best utilize them

• How to monetize a podcast

• The importance of intros and outros, and how to get them done well

• What aspects of podcasts you can outsource

• And so much more!

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, the focus is how to streamline the planning phase of your business so that you get all your goals set so that you’ll be ready for the New Year. If you do so, you can hit the ground running and get your year off to a great start!

As I was planning this episode, I started to wonder how other people -- specifically the people I admire who are getting big results in their online marketing businesses -- actually get things done and how they plan and set their goals. Instead of just wonder, I reached out and asked them! Specifically, I asked Michael Hyatt, Pat Flynn, Melanie Duncan, Chris Ducker and Michael Stelzner how they plan for the New Year.

Take the Time to Focus on Your Business

During this episode, I want you to take this time to really focus on your business. My hope for you is that you actually take these tips and strategies and put them to action right away.

Goal Setting Tip #1: Get Very Specific

Before I get into the specifics of getting very specific, I want you to do a quick exercise.

First, grab a piece of paper and fold it in half.

What Worked in Your Business?

On one half of the paper, write what was great or what worked well for you this year. What got you excited? What did you love doing? What did your customers love? What made you money?

Get really clear on what worked, what didn’t, and what you really enjoyed. This is important because the emotions behind the work you do play a big part in your success.

Before you even you even think about writing down goals for new things you want to do, first focus on enhancing, improving, and optimizing what already worked for you this year.

What I personally realized when I did this exercise is that I need to focus more on what is already working. For example, I already have three successful programs, so instead of creating more programs, I’m going to focus on making the programs I already have even better.

What Didn’t Work in Your Business?

On the other half of the paper, write what needs to improve or what didn’t work. What were the failures? (We all have them!) What frustrated you or stopped you from moving forward? What should you stop doing?

It can be just as important to think about what you need to stop doing as it is to plan for what you want to accomplish.

As an example, I plan to travel and speak less in 2014 than I did in 2013, because I ended up being away from my family more than I wanted to this year and also found it hard to accomplish some of my more important goals since I was on the go so much.

Set Your Goals

Once you’ve done the above exercise, it’s time to set your goals!

Here’s an important goal-setting tip for you: fit all of your goals onto one page. If you write pages and pages of goals, you’ll be overwhelmed, and you won’t likely focus on all of them anyway, so keep your goals simple and concise.

Here’s what to include on one-page goal setting sheet

1. Revenue projections

The first thing on my list is all of my revenue projects, specifically how much money I’m going to make, and where that money is coming from.

While it may seem like revenue shouldn’t be the top goal, my good friend, Stu McLaren helped change my perspective on making money. He says, “Money is a leverage tool for impacting more lives than we could ever reach on a personal level.” I love that, because not only is it important to make money to provide for my own family, this perspective gives me a higher purpose for making money.

Since this is a top priority for a business, it’s important to not only list how much money you plan to make, but to also project how you plan to accomplish that goal.

As an example, for myself personally, I’ve planned out income funnels such as what I’ll make through my programs, through affiliate partnerships, etc. and I have funnels set up inside of Infusionsoft that sends information about my programs in a strategic way to the people on my email list. Being strategic in this way helps me know how most of my income will be generated.

If your business is newer, you may not be able to project the source of your income as well. I couldn’t have done it myself two years ago. But at the very least you can set some revenue goals for different programs, products and services you have.

2. Contributions

In addition to setting revenue goals, it’s important to set goals for the contributions you want to make. For instance, you may set a goal to contribute a certain amount to charity. That’s something I was able to do in a big way for the first time this year. It felt really good to do it and I definitely want to do it in an even bigger way next year.

Another way I want to contribute is to connect more with my customers, prospects, past customers, and peers -- people that I connect with on a regular basis but don’t typically see in real life.

So one thing my team is doing is starting a thank-you card a day campaign. We’re also going to be focused on doing things to wow our customers in unexpected ways. For instance, we may send flowers, or I may on occasion pick up the phone and call someone.

And of course I plan to give a lot in terms of the free content I put out on a regular basis.

So be sure to take the time to think about contributions you want to make, whether that be in a financial sense, or through giving in other ways.

3. My Special Focus

It’s easy to run so many different directions in your business that you fail to accomplish the most important things. Because of this, I actually put, “Podcast Perfection” on my one-page goal sheet.

The reason I chose this is because I’ve completed a full year of podcasting and I LOVE it, but I haven’t focused on it as much as I’d like, so I’m going to make it a big focus in the New Year.

Having a separate section for my podcast on my goal planning sheet helps me to focus on planning goals that are specific to my podcast and figuring out how I’m going to reach those goals.

So think about the big area you want to focus on it and include a section on your goal planning sheet for that specific thing.

4. Focused Foundation Strategies

This is where I’m most specific. For instance, one thing on the Focused Foundation Strategies section of my goal planning sheet is to send out an email to my list every Thursday, and I’ve even blocked out time on my calendar for writing all of the emails for each month.

I’ve also planned out the rest of my content, including everything from blog posts to program updates in a similar way, again blocking out time on my calendar to make sure it happens.

Now here’s a goal planning tip from one of our special guests, Pat Flynn

Write it down, break it down, take it down.

Pat’s goal planning tip consists of three simple sentences:

1. Write it down.

Write down your goals. When you write them down, your goals become clearer and you have something specific to work toward. In addition to this, when you write your goals down, you have something you can visibly see.

2. Break it down.

Take each big goal you’ve written down and break them into mini-goals. Big goals can be intimidating which leads to procrastination. But when you break them into mini-goals, they are much easier to accomplish.

3. Take it down.

Take those mini-goals you’ve written and crush them. Take them down, one by one!

Goal Setting Tip #2: Stack Your Goals

What I mean by stacking your goals is to create your big picture goals and then create a stack of mini goals that will get you to your big goals.

What I need to do from there, there's a little bit more work that needs to be done, I need to stack my goals, make those mini-goals so they'll lead up to the big goals.

For example, if I have a big goal of growing my email list by 50,000 in a year, I need to have some mini-goals such as webinars for list building to reach that goal.

I have some more help with this tip, because the idea of these mini goals seem to be a hot topic with my special guests.

Now a goal-planning tip from another one of my special guests, Chris Ducker.

Focus on one goal at a time.

Chris’ tip is shared in story form and is all about his own experience as someone who went from working 12-14 hours per day in 2009 to becoming a virtual CEO. He did this through focusing on one big thing that he wanted to let go of at a time, with a different focus each month

For instance, the in January 2010, he focused on getting his email under control, and handled by someone other than himself. In February he started hiring people to replace himself in various areas. In March he worked on getting himself off the training floor, and so on.

In his own words, Chris states, “My tip here, really, above and beyond everything else is to set that big goal up for the whole year. What it is, it doesn't really matter. It could be starting a new business, it could be launching a speaking career, it could be producing a new product for a new service for your following online. It doesn't really matter.

But create that one big goal and start breaking it down into mini-goals that you then achieve on a regular basis as the year goes by. It will make you feel good, it will make you feel as if you're achieving something every month, every quarter, whatever the case may be, and ultimately you should go ahead and achieve that main goal over the year as well.”

While Chris didn’t use the word, “stacking,” he’s definitely a fan of the stacking effect where you stack mini-goals to reach the big picture goal.

You might want to try coming up with one epic goal for the year and then creating 12 mini-goals to reach the big goal, and focus on one of the smaller goals each month.

Bonus Tip: Be Very Protective of Your Time!

I want you to get very deliberate on how you spend your time. Everyone I know that's highly successful, including all of these special guests I have on the show today, are very deliberate about how they spend their time. I can promise you that many of them say no more often than they say "yes."

Being protective of your time will help you reach the big scary goals you’ve set.

My next guest, Melanie Duncan provides great insight on the topic of setting big scary goals, and the three types of goals everyone should set.

Melanie starts off by stating that most goal setting books and audios will tell you to set super ambitious goals, and the problem with that is that when you wake up the next morning and look at them, it’s very intimidating.

Because of this, it’s better to set smaller goals and you’ll feel motivated to tackle them. Melanie has learned that when she accomplishes the smaller goals, she feels fantastic and motivated to then tackle bigger things.

A mutual friend of both me and Melanie, James Wedmore says you should set a goal that you’ll hit no matter what, a more challenging, but very doable goal, and a “hairy scary” goal that is way out there. You’re bound to accomplish at least one of the goals, and feel good about it, even if you don’t manage to accomplish the most difficult one.

An important thing that Melanie touched on is the emotions behind the goal. You have to consider how your goals make you feel, because your emotions impact your ability to accomplish the goal.

One thing I personally love doing is picking a word or theme for the year. Mari Smith does this every year. This year, instead of picking a single word, I picked a phrase, “Work less, contribute more.” This is actually a goal of my entire team. We’re going to accomplish this by working smarter and more efficiently.

Speaking of a word or a theme for the new year, Mike Stelzner and his personal planning tip for this episode, takes this to a new level.

His tip has to do with coming up with a company vision statement. Your vision statement can include things that aren’t yet true, but that you are working toward. That was the case for Mike’s company, Social Media Examiner, when they wrote the vision statement a year ago, but today, he can say with confidence that they’ve grown into their vision statement.

Mike has the vision statement taped on the wall in his office, so he sees it every time he sits at his desk. He advises that you keep your vision statement simple and just a couple of sentences long.

I love the way that Mike created a vision statement that pushed him beyond his comfort zone.

Since we’re on the topic of comfort zone, I thought I would end this episode with Michael Hyatt's strategy for goal setting and his thoughts about moving out of your comfort zone.

This one will really push you in ways that will make you uncomfortable, but will set you up to win. Michael states that you should set your goals outside of your comfort zone because that is where real growth begins, where solutions are, and where fulfillment resides.

The trick is to make sure your goals are set high enough, but not too high. Michael suggests taking note of these three indicators to help you know that you’re on the right track:

1. Uncertainty. It’s good to be a little uncertain about how you’re going to accomplish the goal. Embrace that uncertainty, rather than running from it.

2. Fear. Most people avoid fear, and that was the case for Michael as well for a great deal of his life. But fear is an indicator that you’re getting close, and let’s you know you’re heading in the right direction.

3. A sense of inadequacy. In most cases when Michael pursues a goal that he just knows he has to achieve, he feels inadequate. This is going to be the case for anyone who is out to accomplish anything of significance.

After hearing Michael’s tip, I actually had to rework some of my goals because I was playing it a little too safe.

Thank you!

A big thank you to all of my special guests for contributing to this episode. This episode just wouldn't have been the same without him, so big shout out to all of you. Thank you so much for taking the time to send in your goal setting and planning tips.

My Gift to You

The number one thing that I want to accomplish through this podcast episode is for you to be motivated to take action and set goals for the coming year. To help with this, I created a Goal Planning Worksheet just for you. Click here to download the worksheet!

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I interviewed Natalie Sisson, also known as the Suitcase Enterpreneur.

In 2006, Natalie left her home country of New Zealand and since then has been traveling the world and living out of a suitcase -- all while building a successful online business.

On her blog, Natalie teaches creative ways to run a business from anywhere in the world, using outsourcing, along with online tools and social media.

She's also written a new book about how to create freedom in business and adventure in life.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• How Natalie started with nothing but an idea and created a successful and profitable Facebook app

• What caused Natalie to cry herself to sleep at night and how she overcame it

• What it takes to make significant changes in your life business

• How to avoid undermining your progress

• How to know your special sauce and how to use it to your advantage

• How to get good feedback from those who know you well

• The two big things Natalie did to launch her book

• Natalie's 30-day blog challenge

• And so much more!

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, my guest is one of my very favorite people - Pat Flynn.

I know most of you already know Pat, but if you don't, he is a well-known and highly successful online entrepreneur. He is a podcaster, blogger and author and is best known for his transparent leadership style and smart business strategies. He blogs at smartpassiveincome.com and has a
podcast by the same name.

Now there are a dozen topics Pat and I could discuss that would be highly valuable if you are growing an online business - but I am going to do something a bit different with this interview.

About a week ago I saw a Facebook post from Pat where he talked about all the hard work and dedication he put into one keynote presentation he recently did for a financial bloggers’ conference called FinCon. The post is inspirational and demonstrates the mindset needed to succeed, and after reading it I had so many questions for him, I decided to invite him onto the show.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• The importance of focusing on one thing at a time

• What Pat told himself in his head in order for his FinCon speech to be successful

• How speaking can help you in other parts of your life and business

• What Pat does to make sure he stays the course

• How Pat sets big goals and priorities

• What Pat told himself to keep from procrastinating

• What you have to do to make goals real

• How fear is a disservice to your audience

• How to grow your confidence

• Tips for finding a mastermind that's right for you

• And so much more!

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I pull back the curtain and give you a peek into the inner workings of my business. I give you the scoop on my team, my favorite tools for building my business, and lessons I've learned as I've built my business.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• Why I had to fire my clients

• The cost of doing what I always wanted to do

• The reasons webinars have been so essential in the success of my business

• Where almost 100% of my income comes from

• How to figure out which opportunities to pursue

• The make up of my team, what they do and the number of hours they work

• The tools I use for my business on a daily basis

• Why moving to better systems results in a mindshift

• The importance of mindset and accountability

• And so much more!

Facebook gives me plenty of opportunity to create content because they are notorious for making updates to their platform!

There have been a lot of pretty significant Facebook changes in the past few months, so on this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I’m going to cover seven specific changes Facebook has recently made.

It’s important to understand these changes because they can have a big impact on your business and how you market online.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• Overall news feed algorithm changes

• Algorithm updates including story bumping and last actor

• The ins and outs of promoting a contest on your Facebook timeline

• How Facebook hashtags work and why and how you should use them

• My thoughts on Facebook embedded posts

• Facebook ads Lookalike Audiences and how I've used this new feature

• How you can get FREE access to millions of Shutterstock images for Facebook ads

• And so much more!

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, we're diving into outsourcing and I've invited my very good friend, Chris Ducker, to come on the show and share with us some tips that will help all of us streamline our businesses a little bit more and allow us to break away from that crazy addiction many of us suffer from regularly, which is trying to do it all ourselves.

At one point or another, if you're an entrepreneur starting a business, whether you have a local business, an online small business, or whatever it might be, you probably have suffered from this crazy addiction once or twice in your life, and Chris is going to help us with some very specific actionable tips to outsource more and get the support that we need.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• How Chris went from working 14 hours per day, 6 days a week to being a "virtual CEO"

• What you should NEVER outsource

• The types of tasks that you can outsource and when it makes sense to outsource them

• The right mindset to have when it comes to spending money on outsourcing

• The one easy thing Chris had his VA do that increased his YouTube views by 25 to 30 percent

• Common excuses business owners make for not outsourcing -- and why they're not valid reasons to do everything yourself

• The myth of the "Super VA"

• The difference between a role and a task, and why you should always hire for the role, not the task

• And so much more!

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I interviewed Melanie Duncan, the creator of the extremely popular online training program, Power of Pinning. Melanie is also the owner of Luxury Monograms and CustomGreekThreads, both online businesses for physical products.

So she has a great mix of experience and knowledge using Pinterest to promote an online training program, like many of you have listening now, as well as using Pinterest to promote physical products.

For this show I asked Melanie to focus on how to use Pinterest for lead generation in addition to using it to increase web traffic.

If you are a coach, consultant, author, speaker, or a service professional (such as a local marketer or social media manager), then this episode will be extremely valuable to you.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• The secret to the success of Melanie's program, The Power Of Pinning

• How to best use multiple Pinterest accounts

• The advantages that service providers have on Pinterest over those who sell physical products

• The importance of the first two rows on your Pinterest page and how to use them effectively

• How to use "teaser images" to increase traffic and build your list

• Why using tall images is important and how to bring even more attention to them

• How to change a personal Pinterest page to a business page and the advantages of doing so

• The biggest mistakes that online marketers make on Pinterest and how to overcome them

• What ONE action you should take in the next 24 hours in order to increase your effectiveness on Pinterest

• And so much more!

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I interviewed Rick Mulready. Rick has a really interesting background that includes working for companies such as AOL and Yahoo, but most recently he's been on a journey to share his conversations with the heads of social media from the biggest and most successful brands in the world including Nike, JetBlue, Gary Vaynerchuk, Ford Motors, and many others.

Most recently, Rick interviewed the Boston Police Department's Public Information Chief about the massive role social media played after the recent Boston Marathon bombings.

I invited Rick on the show to talk about what he's learned from these big brands and how we can apply those strategies and techniques to small business budgets. We cover a lot of great tips that run the gamut from content creation to how to promote on social media sites.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• The importance of going deep with social media.

• How to avoid social media overwhelm

• How your business objectives and goals determine where to focus your social media efforts

• How to find out where your customers are online

• Why you shouldn't chase shiny new objects when they first come out and what you should do instead.

• How to generate leads and sales using social media

• And so much more!

This episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, is brought to you as a direct response to your feedback. Some of you may have seen me post an image on my Facebook Page of two soda bottles. One soda bottle said "Facebook Advertising" and the other one said "Webinars that Convert." I asked, "What do you want to learn about most?" (The soda bottle images were just a fun way to grab your attention!)

A few hundred people responded, and the winner was Facebook advertising, so that's the focus of today's podcast. If you have never experimented with Facebook ads, or if you've tried them but want to see bigger results, this is the session for you.

By the way, if you voted for "Webinars that Convert," that was a close second, and since webinars are truly the #1 way I've built my business, in the very near future I'll record a podcast all about webinars and how you can use them in your business.

But for today I'm going to focus on the questions that I hear over and over again about Facebook ads.

In this episode, I'll give you the scoop on the upcoming changes with Facebook ads and also answer the following questions:

• My ads are constantly getting disapproved by Facebook. What can I do to ensure they get approved?
• How do I know if my ad is working?
• How much do Facebook ads cost?
• How do I find my ideal audience with Facebook ads?
• How can I get bigger conversions with my Facebook ads?
• What's the best type of ad to run for my business?
• And so much more!

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I interview Greg Hickman, one of the leading mobile marketing experts. Greg and I discuss how to get started with mobile marketing.

If you're anything like me, you know that mobile marketing is important, so it's been on your mind, but hasn't made it to the top of your priority list. My guess is that after you hear what Greg has to say on the staggering stats on mobile usage, you'll want to make it a higher priority.

The great thing is, after talking with Greg, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy -- and inexpensive -- it is to get started with mobile.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• What it means to be mobile friendly, and why that's important.

• How mobile marketing goes beyond optimizing your website.

• The meaning of "responsive design."

• The hierarchy of mobile users' needs

• The percentage of people who access Facebook, Twitter and YouTube on their mobile devices.

• Easy and inexpensive ways to get started with mobile marketing and how to determine which is the best option for you.

• How to make lead pages more mobile friendly

• Important things to keep in mind regarding mobile when sending email to your list

• How to create the best possible experience for people who visit your website.

• And so much more!

In this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast I interviewed David Siteman Garland. We talked about how you can turn your online platform such as your blog, web show, or podcast into revenue by creating your own online course.

David is the host of the popular show, The Rise to The Top. On his show he interviews the best "fluff-free experts and doers" and gets them to share their insights and strategies that help people just like you build their platform, grow their audience and subscribers, and make money.

I recently spent a weekend masterminding with David and I can confirm that he's the real deal. The crazy, high energy, wicked-smart guy you see in his videos and on his blog is the exact guy he is in person - which is rare at times.

I've been following David for a few years now, so I am honored to have him on my show.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• The pitfalls of being a serial learner.
• How to make a good income without burning out
• The best ways to come up with ideas for products and programs
• No-cost ways to test what will or will not sell
• The step-by-step process that David follows each time he wants to promote something
• How to use surveys to build your prospect list
• The perfect time to launch your online course
• And so much more!

Today's episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, is all about selling with social media, and today's special guest is Laura Roeder, founder of LKR Social Media.

I invited Laura on the show because she is a master at selling with social media. She does it in a way that's incredibly inviting and her raving fans and customers are proof that's she's doing many things right.

In addition to that, an inspiring conversation that I had with Laura while I was still working for Tony Robbins was a springboard for me to start my own social media consulting business. About six months after that call with Laura, I started to put all of the wheels in motion to start this business, which has been one of the most incredible experiences of my life.

Laura's journey to creating LKR Social Media is a one you'll want to hear. She shares her story and some action-packed, strategic social media tips in this interview.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• How Chicago weather contributed to Laura's journey into social media.
• How to use leveraged, scalable tools to make sales for your business.
• The reason for the disconnect between social media and selling.
• How you can use "under the radar" selling on social media.
• How to create a "Golden Page" to sell more (this one tip is WORTH every minute of this episode!)
• An easy way to measure social media ROI.
• And so much more!

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I cover part three of a three-part Facebook marketing mini-training.

When it comes to marketing on Facebook, consider building a plan around these three phases:

• Phase 1: Attraction
• Phase 2: Promotion
• Phase 3: Selling

In my last podcast episode, I talked about the promotion phase, where it's all about attracting quality leads through opt-ins, contests and promotions. If you missed that, or if you'd like to listen to it again, you can find it at amyporterfield.com/8.

Today's episode is all about the selling phase. The focus during this phase is turning a prospect into a loyal customer, but I have a different take on the whole selling process when it comes to Facebook - so I want you to keep an open mind because I think you can learn some valuable strategies here.

In this episode I show you how to incorporate easy email marketing strategies with your Facebook efforts to see bigger results (aka profits!).

To really drive home the importance of creating a solid email campaign for your new Facebook leads, I wanted to give you some invaluable tips, so I invited my friend and email marketing expert, DJ Waldow to come on the show. DJ has a popular website called SocialButterflyGuy.com and he's the co-author of the book The Rebel's Guide to Email Marketing. DJ is my go-to guy for all things email marketing.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• How to create email campaigns that are specifically geared to your new Facebook leads.

• How to put more of your Facebook marketing on autopilot.

• How to deploy an autoresponder sequence once you get a new Facebook lead (and if you don't know what that is, I'll tell you!)

• A formula to ensure that you are getting the most out of the efforts you're putting into getting leads.

• A common misconception about Facebook marketing.

• How the right perspective will reduce the stress of selling on Facebook.

• And so much more!

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I cover part two of a three-part strategy that I use with my customers to teach them how to look at Facebook marketing.

When it comes to marketing on Facebook, consider building a plan around these three phases:

• Phase 1: Attraction
• Phase 2: Promotion
• Phase 3: Selling

In my last podcast episode, I talked about the attraction phase, where it's all about growing your community on Facebook. If you missed that, or if you'd like to listen to it again, you can find it at amyporterfield.com/7.

Today's episode is all about the promotion phase. The focus during this phase is growing your email list, where you put out great, valuable content in exchange for a name and email. I cover how to use Facebook to get a genuinely interested fan to become part of your email list.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• How to grow your email list on Facebook

• How you should think of Facebook when it comes to the part it plays in growing your business

• How my business has grown as a result of using Facebook (with specific numbers given)

• Two Facebook lead-generating strategies (hint: one tip is how to run a contest on Facebook!)

• How a business owner in a small town with no list created a thriving business using Facebook

• And so much more!

This session is Part 1 of a 3 Part mini-training all about Facebook marketing.  On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, we are diving into Facebook Marketing.  Specially, I'm going to give you three strategies that are working RIGHT NOW to attract more quality Facebook fans.

Why are Facebook fans important?  Well there are a few reasons.  First, when you grow a big community of loyal fans on Facebook, your chances of getting seen and heard inside Facebook increase.  It's really just a numbers game.

The more fans you have talking about you, liking your posts and sharing your content, the more often people on Facebook will see your content. You want an army of raving fans talking about you - and Facebook can do just that!

Also, your Facebook fan count acts as social proof.  That means when someone comes to your Facebook page and sees you have a few thousand fans (or more!) they think, "Ok, this company is legit."  Crazy, I know.  But true!  We want to become fans of pages our friends and peers like.  The more fans you have, the more new fans you can get.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

In this episode, I share with you three super simple, but highly valuable, Facebook fan attracting tips.  Implement these and start seeing more fans overnight. Simple as that!

Strategy #1: The Facebook Like Box

A Like Box helps you attract Facebook fans that are genuinely interested in you and your business.

Here's why you should add a Like Box to your website:

• Your website audience is a warm audience and are very likely to follow you on Facebook too.
• It's easy to implement (takes less than 5 minutes!) and is one of the more effective ways to grow a quality fan community.
• The Like Box will  get you more fans, but NOT move your existing website traffic over to Facebook.

Strategy #2: Target Friends of Fans with Facebook "Like Ads"

A Like Ad can be shown to the friends of your fans and does not require any special copy or images. It's easy to set up, inexpensive and extremely effective!

Here's why "Like Ads" work like gangbusters:

• These ads are the simplest ads to set up, and the cheapest too.
• When you attract fans who are friends with your existing fans, you are more likely to attract a "quality" fan.
• When you run Like Ads, your exposure, reach and impact on Facebook increases quickly.

Strategy 3: Increase Your Engagement

Here's how engagement will help you attract more fans:

• One of the most common reasons why people on Facebook struggle to get more fans is that they don't have any engagement on their Facebook page. When you don't have engagement you won't be seen in the news feed and the news feed is where all the action is on Facebook.
• When you get people talking about you on Facebook (liking your posts, commenting and sharing your content) your exposure organically increases (meaning you don't have to pay for the engagement, it just happens natuarally).  When your exposure increases, your fan base increases.
• I will show you how to make sure you never have another moment where you say, "I can't think of anything to post on my Facebook page today!"

Remember!  This episode is Part 1 of a 3 Part Mini Facebook Training.  In episode 8 I will show you how to promote your programs, products and services on Facebook and in episode 9 I'll show you the smartest strategies to use when selling on Facebook.  So make sure you don't miss those upcoming sessions!

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I interview Anne Samoilov, on the topic of online launches. I consider Anne to be an online launch expert, and while that's not a title she would likely give herself, it's very fitting.

Anne has worked on several big online launches including Marie Forleo's B-School launch that you have may heard me talk about in episode 3.

It's a strategic and smart strategy to think about the promotion of your business in terms of launches, and I wanted to interview Anne because she has a unique, holistic look at launching anything online that I know you'll find helpful.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• How Anne defines launching (it's not what you think!)
• A common misconception regarding launches
• How to set a foundation for a successful launch
• How having the right systems in place can free you up to be creative
• How to make sure you're targeting the right people
• And so much more!

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, I interview Mike Volpe, the Chief Marketing Officer of HubSpot.

Today’s episode is a special one because it’s something many of you actually asked for in response to a survey I sent out a few months ago. In that survey, many of you indicated that HubSpot is a site that you frequent often, and it was clear that many of you feel that Mike Volpe and HubSpot is the place to go when it comes to list building, content creation, content marketing, and overall social media.

For those of you who aren't familiar with HubSpot, they offer inbound marketing software that allows you to blog, tweet, capture leads, optimize your SEO, view analytics, basically everything you need to do to market your business and HubSpot puts it all in one spot. Hence the name.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• How inbound marketing can be defined
• How SEO is interwoven with inbound marketing
• The most important lead generation strategy
• How to make calls to action more effective
• What caused HubSpot's conversion rates to increase significantly
• What led to an 82% revenue growth for HubSpot
• Advantages that small companies have over big companies
• How to streamline content creation
• The most important tips to keep in mind when it comes to SlideShare presentations
• The biggest content marketing mistakes companies make

On this episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast, we talk about a topic that I have a love/hate relationship with, and that's video marketing. I love video, because it has been one of the most important ways I've built my brand, but I hate it at times because it doesn't come naturally to me.

Since I'm not a video marketing expert, and because I believe that video is essential for anyone building a brand online, I asked a good friend of mine, James Wedmore, who is a YouTube and Video Marketing Expert to come on the show and share his tips and proven video marketing strategies that you can implement today, even if your budget and experience with video up to this point is limited.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• How James created a wildly successful video around a list-building strategy -- a strategy that you can model for your own business.

• Why videos James created in college to promote an entirely different business are still paying dividends today. 

• How James plans his video marketing efforts to make the whole video making process much easier.

• How to create great videos without being on camera.

• What you have to do first before you can raise the bar on the quality of your videos.

• How to get around using a teleprompter without memorizing an entire video script.

• The list-building with video strategy that James personally uses. 

• The simple 6-step process that James uses for all of his videos, that you can easily copy, regardless of your level of experience with videos.

Today I’m beyond excited to introduce you to a mentor of mine and a great friend, Marie Forleo! Marie is not only a bestselling author, entrepreneur, and online marketer, she is also the founder of an award-winning weekly online show, Marie TV.

With nothing more than a dream, a laptop, and passion, Marie has created a multi-million dollar empire from scratch. She’s even been interviewed by Oprah on Super Soul Sunday, where Oprah referred to her "as a thought leader for the next generation."

I can trace my own online success directly to Marie, who had a huge impact on me as I transitioned from working with Tony Robbins into venturing out and starting my own business.

In this episode of The Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, Marie shares her own inspiring success story with us, and also provides some tips and strategies which will help take your own business to the next level.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• How Marie got her start and what she does in her business.
• How she made a living while she pursued her passions.
• The conventional wisdom she chose to ignore.
• How to quiet self-doubt while building your business.
• Advice for those struggling to find their own voice.
• A simple brain exercise that is a great creative workout.
• How to figure out who your ideal audience is.
• How to streamline content creation so it's not so overwhelming or painful.
• Marie's signature program, B-School.

The focus of today's podcast episode is content marketing, and specifically how to do it on a shoestring budget. Let's face it; we all need to create content consistently but we all love to save money, right?

Because we're all so busy, consistently creating content is a challenge and is often an afterthought -- something we'll do when we "have more time." However, in the same way that paying bills and answering email is a priority in order to keep your business alive, so is content marketing. Few people survive in today's fierce online world if they don't continually produce unique content!

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• The answer to the question, "What is content?" I provide a quick list to remind you of how many opportunities you have to create content.

• The most important question you need to ask yourself regarding your content. The answer to this question will help you create content that engages and interests your audience. I also talk about the importance of solving problems and providing information that will enable your audience to take action and implement what they learn.

• How to brainstorm ideas for content.  I cover 3 tips for coming up with stellar content ideas that fit your ideal audience.

• How to repurpose your best content. Brainstorming is important, but you may have already created a lot of content that you can repurpose. In this segment of the podcast I give you ideas for ways you can repurpose your existing content and provide examples of how I use this strategy myself.

• How to get inspired by mixing things up. I share one of my best sources of inspiration; it drives my husband crazy, but it's one of my favorite ways to get fresh content ideas!

• How to become a ninja outsourcer. I cover 3 main roles you need to have in place when it comes to content creation. I provide tips for finding great people who will treat your business as if it's their own; content marketing is a direct reflection of your brand, so it's worth investing in the relationships you have with your contractors.  I also talk about the importance of staying involved in the process and how to communicate your needs and expectations  without micromanaging.

• How to optimize your content calendar. To get the most from your calendar, it needs to be extremely easy to use and easy to access. I explain how and why I use Google calendar for my content calendar.

• The importance of creating content with the big picture in mind. My tip here is something that most people don't teach. (Hint: less just might mean more for you!)

• I share some tactical content creation tips including how to capture and keep track of ideas for future content. I talk about mistakes I made early on and what I did to improve my process for organizing my content creation ideas so that I can find them when I'm ready to use them.

• The importance of responsive design.

• I wrap up this episode by sharing my motto, "Give more than you ever expect to receive." Tony Robbins put it perfectly: "If you can make it your goal to always find a way to add more value to people's lives than anyone else, then you'll never have to worry about success."

Welcome to the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast.

I am seriously thrilled to jump into this podcast! I know it sounds a bit silly, but I could talk about online marketing all day long - I just can't get enough of it. (But I must admit, sometimes it drives my husband crazy!)

About this podcast:

As you might already know, for the past few years, I’ve been focused on Facebook marketing, and while I’m obviously a big fan of Facebook marketing, I've also found great success in other social media platforms and online marketing strategies outside of social media marketing.

So this podcast is going to go beyond Facebook marketing and dive into smart, proven strategies worth implementing when it comes to marketing a business online.

In this first episode of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast, we dive into social media list building strategies to help you attract your ideal audience, strengthen your relationships beyond your social media platforms, and of course grow your email list.

In this episode, here's what we'll cover:

• The 3 big reasons why some emails always get opened and most are ignored

• Learn the very specific, big questions you want to ask before you create a free giveaway offers

• The most successful valuable giveaway offers are those made up of premium content. I'll give you a list of the most popular giveaway offer formats that work great on social media sites.

• There are two types of social media list building strategies: Indirect and Direct.  Get examples of each to make sure you're maximizing your social media activity to ensure your list is growing daily with quality leads.

I'll  also cover specific list building strategies for Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and Twitter. To help you better understand each strategy, I've included image examples below:

Experiment with Facebook Offers

Facebook Offers are a FANTASTIC list building strategy.  Offers are highly valuable because they get out into the news feeds of fans, friends of fans and non-fans, depending on your targeting focus.

Step 1: Create Your Facebook Offer and Promote it with a Facebook Ad

Step 2: An Email is Sent to the Facebook User's Personal Email

Step 3: Drive Traffic from the Email to Your Opt-In Opportunity

YouTube List Building Strategies

It’s important to strategically leverage your videos to drive traffic to your opt-in opportunities. When people watch your videos all the way through, they are likely interested in what you have to say, so you want to make sure not to lose them after the video ends.

Pinterest: Optimizing Your Images

Recent data shows that Pinterest drives more referral traffic than LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube combined. Facebook is the only social media site that drives more traffic than Pinterest. And that is precisely why Pinterest can be a solid list building platform for you when you get strategic with your images.

When list building on Pinterest, create images that are relevant to your giveaway offer and then pin them to Pinterest.  Make sure to include the link to your opt-in page in the description field when pinning your image.

Optimize your profile by adding a link to your opt-in page via your Pinterest profile. Plus, make sure to add your website to your Pinterest profile; it doesn’t have to be a link to your homepage, but can instead include a link to your opt-in page to drive more traffic to your giveaway offer.

Twitter Strategies

List Building Tip: Embed your opt-in link in your Twitter bio.  This will allow two different links in just one profile.

List Building Tip: Use the free tool, Click to Tweet, to create an automated tweet you can use all over the web. It's easy to use and works like a champ to help you promote your content on Twitter.