Howdy Eric Louviere here.

I’ve got something truly special to share with you in this article. I believe this insight I’m revealing can make a significant difference in your financial life forever.

But first, I want to take you back in time to the year 1999.

The movies Fight Club, The Blair Witch Project and The Matrix hit the silver screen. Some singer named Celine Dion was at the top of the charts (I’m more into Blues, but oh well). The Denver Broncos won the Super Bowl, 48.5 million people tuned in to watch Monica Lewinsky’s first televised interview, John F. Kennedy, Jr. passed away, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake shook Turkey, and Eric Louviere was selling advertising packages business to business!

Yes, I was selling advertising packages to businesses as a small business owner. We sold mostly print advertising opportunities and mixed in some radio, TV, etc. As a small business owner, I always kept my eyes open for new opportunities. Heck, I still do that today. It’s part of me. It’s in my blood. I’m a serial entrepreneur.

Well, I kept my eyes and ears open all the time. The one constant source of new ideas and opportunities were always derived from our customers! Our clients were a constant source of feedback and opportunities.

It would sort of go like this:

Client: Hey Eric, the advertising is working well. Things are good. But listen, I wanted to ask you. Does your firm do websites?

Me: Nope.

Then, after about the 50th time a business asked me the same dang thing, I started saying:

Me: Why yes Mr. Client, we do websites! You betcha.

Even though, at the time, I had no earthly idea how to create websites, or anything about websites in general, I said “Yes!” It was an obvious demand and people needed it. Businesses had no clue about web design and they knew they needed to be online. I think they were tired of customers asking them if they had a website.

So, since they needed sites – and I knew they needed sites – and since none of us knew a thing about the Internet or websites, it was an obvious match made in Heaven! The next thing I did was grab the Yellow Pages (remember those things?). I looked up web design firms. I guess I could have looked online, or if I had an iPhone at the time, used it. But I grabbed the trusty Yellow Pages phone book.

I called up some web design firms and set up some appointments to go strike some deals with them. I figured I could get them to give me a flat rate for their web design services, mark them up, and sell my clients – earning myself a cut!

I showed up at my first appointment and walked into this nasty looking warehouse building that smelled like a cross between rotten eggs and road kill. It had the looks of a horror movie and I think I was about 85% sure I would die a horrible death inside that makeshift torture chamber of an office establishment. But I survived and moved on to the next appointment.

The next appointment was a retail shop on a busy street. They even had a sign. I walked in and found about 20 people playing video games on computers, laughing, smoking, drinking, jamming to rock music and talking serious trash to one another (if only they had PlayStation 3 back then). I asked for the owner, who quickly paused his game, got out from behind the steering wheel attached to his keyboard, and shook my hand. We walked outside so we could hear each other and he gladly agreed to anything I suggested. He wanted business and said he hated talking or dealing with customers. He was not a “people person” (his words exactly).

Anything, any percentage, whatever I wanted. I agreed, shook hands and went back to my office to sell more sites! We popped websites left and right. We handled the customer service, charged $200 per month for hosting and maintenance (can you believe that?) and just sold the living heck out of those website packages! Our customers were not buying sites from web design firms who hated even answering the phone, hated replying to anyone via email and hated any kind of human interaction whatsoever. They were buying sites from a professionally presented advertising agency, which was locked, loaded and ready to upsell to full-blown e-commerce sites at our platinum level.

It was our packages. It was our service. It had our name on it. We were the web design firm. We just outsourced everything except the selling and customer service. There was no way we were going to let those people interact with our star clients. It was a beautiful system and it worked well for several years. Yes, we had to get other web designers because that first one ended up going into the lingerie business and collapsing his web design services. But others gladly took his place.

But it was our services through all those years and all those customers. We were the firm who designed sites. I even ended up hiring our own in-house web designers – even though I still had no idea what they were doing – and they, too, had to be harnessed away from video games. You see, we took advantage of a need in the marketplace (web design) and we private labeled services so that we kept the customer for the long term. We then got passed around to other businesses (referrals) and we got much more advertising business because of it.

Now look, there is one more thing I need to tell you. There is something you should understand about this story. Yes, the private labeling of the web design services worked great, and that is a smart, lucrative move to make.

But it did not stop there.

We also private labeled “specialty products.” You know, cups, koozies, pens, calendars, shot glasses, golf balls, handbags, soap, etc. We private labeled that and sold a ton of those things to banks, car dealerships, etc. And we did not stop there, either. We private labeled a magazine. We combined services from two or more companies, bundled them together, marked up the prices and sold all sorts of different packages to our clients.

Guess what else we private labeled?

High-speed Internet!

That’s right. We had a firm that allowed us the ability to market and sell DSL. We sold it; they serviced it. They had contractors who installed DSL for our clients. As I said, if there was an opportunity, I jumped on it. “More stuff to more customers” was my motto. We did pretty well. I had inside salespeople hammering the phones and outside salespeople visiting businesses face to face. Most of what we sold was not even ours.

Now, what does all this have to do with you? And where are the secret insights, you may ask?

Well, there’s a lot to this story and you can gain many insights from it. First, let me just point this out to you. Online, I run into tons of folks who would love nothing more than to earn a full-time income online, from home. One of the BIGGEST reasons they fail to earn a significant income online, from home, is they simply do not treat this online business as a “real” business. They have the mindset that they can earn money with little effort, little money and little time.

Most of those people out there look for schemes. They are looking for simple, quick, easy, click-a-button gimmicks that would earn them more than their day jobs do. Never do they switch their mindset to creating, running and growing a real business online – one that has longevity and sustainability – one they could even sell for big bucks in the future!

It is this mindset shift away from “ridiculous-short-term-schemes” and towards building and managing real businesses that will make the largest financial difference in one’s life.

That’s so critical to understand, apply and practice on a daily basis.

How can you create a real business online? Well, people still need web design services today. And there are private label web design firms out there practically begging for business. In fact, there are all sorts of service providers out there who will gladly private label their stuff for you. There are local businesses in your town, who will gladly allow you the opportunity to private label their stuff. And there are tons of businesses out there who would love to private label YOUR stuff too.

Another huge insight to this story, besides private labeling, is something most of the population will never, ever understand. Most out there will never, ever actually understand or see what I’m about to explain. You see, being in the “entrepreneur” world is a completely different world than being in the “job” world. They are two different universes. They are not the same. People in the job world will never, ever see this. They will never truly “get it.” It’s an invisible world they’ll never touch, smell, see or feel. It’s beyond their realization.

Unless they decide to enter this new, unfamiliar world. Then, everything changes. But most people out there never decide to fully enter this new “business owner” world. Because you see, when you are a business owner (an entrepreneur), then all you ever see, all day long, every day, day after day, is opportunities! Opportunities come fast and often when you are a business owner.

Opportunities gravitate towards you. Opportunities are abundant. You, as a business owner, are overfilled with opportunities. You even have to say “no” all the time to perfectly good opportunities because you just cannot handle all the overflowing, abundance of opportunities. It’s a beautiful thing. In contrast, “job-world” people never, ever see all these crazy opportunities that appear often and always. They never see them. They do not recognize them. And if one lucky opportunity happens to accidentally present itself to job-world people, they tend to turn their heads at it, poke fun at it and ignore it. Poor opportunity. It now must find some love, somewhere else . . . with someone else . . . who is worthy of its shiny, golden, beautiful treasures . . . that will multiply . . . and sprout . . . even more opportunities!

Opportunities just float on past job-world people, looking for a “business-world” person to take advantage and snatch it up!

Make It Grow!

That is something this story explained here provides. It is magic. It is looking at the world with a different set of eyes – business-world eyes! Because once you are fully entrenched in the business world, your life will never, ever be the same . . . if you recognize and take advantage of ventures and opportunities.

You see, the fact of the matter is, awesome and amazing opportunities are everywhere. They are abundant. They are looking and gravitating towards people like you. All you have to do is be aware, be action oriented and GRAB THEM!

Enter this business world. Think like a businessperson. Be a businessperson. Start, manage and grow a real business – one you could even sell if you wanted to. If need be, find a private label service or product and sell it! Market it! Bundle it with other offers. Build a customer base and service that customer base. Add more offers. And be sure to always:

Sell more stuff to more customers!

Do not think like a job-world person – even if you have a day job.

Before I started that little ad agency, I may have made a grand total of $40,000 in a single year, MAX. I believe we did that much last week. See the difference between the job world and the business world? I know you can do it. You just have to want it and go get it! I hope I have been able to help.

Thank you!

=================
By Eric Louviere
=================
This article first appeared in the September 2008 issue of the MarketingDotCom newsletter. You can get a free copy of the latest issue for the price of shipping at http://the7figuresecrets.com

Warning: This product may cause you to never “Internet market” again.

Mobile marketing is going to be the next big thing… Adam Horwitz is sure of it.  With his new product, Mobile Monopoly, you can learn how to make money with this up and coming way of marketing that is much bigger than the Internet.

Five billion people have cell phones and “only” 1.8 billion people are online.   This fact alone makes it obvious that marketing on a cell phone is a fantastic idea.  With Adam’s 10-module course, you learn everything about mobile marketing including why it’s so great, how to market on a phone using CPA and ClickBank, and even how to make your own apps for cell phones!  He says that most of these things aren’t done much differently than they would be on a computer, except they’re much easier.

You don’t need a website, blog, article, or any technology based skills of any kind to benefit from this type of marketing.  For only $77, you get this whole course that he is sure will make you tons of cash.  He took in over $50,000 in his first six months of marketing this way, has 70,000 people on his lists combined, and multiple testimonials prove that others have benefited as well.

This is a brand new market, and I can’t think of any reason it won’t blow up soon.  So hurry up and buy today before the secret reaches the masses!

Click here to buy!

Yes, you read that right – $100 million.

Have you ever heard of auto blogging?  It’s a popular way of blogging that, you guessed it, is all automated.  Once you set up the site, you don’t have to spend any more time on it; the content is generated automatically.

Auto Blog System X, created by blogging expert Rob Benwell, will show you the loophole Rob found that has helped people make over $100 million.  It made him $221,555 in one month!  All on autopilot!  He is certain that you can make a whole lot of money too if you use his product.

In this 60-page ebook, he explains how to start a blog and come up with the right longtail keywords to automatically find content to add to your blog.  This means virtually no extra work for you (at least when it comes to writing content).  This ebook is important because if you do auto blogging the wrong way, your blog will look spammy and might not generate any traffic.  This ebook will show you how to do this the right way so you can make a very large amount of cash from it.

For only $37 you get the ebook on auto blogging, with a money back guarantee.  Make sure you get it now before it’s all sold out!

Click here to buy!

How does this sound to you: $14 out of pocket, 13 clicks of a mouse, 12 minutes a day, money in 48 hours?  No, this isn’t some complicated math equation; just an easy way to make $300, $400, even $800 a day online.

I know, I know, this seems to good to be true.  Just keep reading.

Auto Traffic Avalanche, created by Kieran Gill and Imran S, is a course plus software that helps generate traffic.  Any Internet Marketer knows that generating traffic is one of the most, if not the most, important key to selling products online.  It’s also one of the hardest to master.

The course helps show you how to advertise on two sites that thousands, if not millions, of people use each day.  One of these sites is very popular and well known, yet still underused for advertising.  The other one is newer and you may not have heard of it, but it is rising in popularity everyday.  Kieran and Imran let you in on their secrets of what these two sites are, and how to spend such little money and time on advertising to make such a big profit!

If you don’t have time to keep up with a blog, don’t have the talent to write articles, and are too afraid to try Google AdWords (as most people are), then this is a product you should try.

Oh, and did I mention that you don’t need a site, a product, or really any experience in Internet marketing to use this software?

So, for just $39, you can learn what all the fuss is about.  If it doesn’t work for you (which is always a possibility) or you simply don’t like it, you have 60 days to return it for a full money back guarantee, plus an extra $100.  That proves enough that these guys really know their product works!

Click here to buy!

Writing articles is one of the best ways to establish yourself as an expert, generate website traffic and get people to buy from you. You can get article ideas everywhere.

Get them from news, current events and concerns voiced in online forums and discussion groups. You can read other articles, and expand on what the authors wrote, or use them as a springboard for offering a different point of view.

Whatever you write, follow these steps for best results:

1) Know What Readers Want
In their book, Turn Words into Traffic, experts Jim and Dallas Edwards list six things readers want:

• Answers to technical problems causing them pain
• Solutions to problems costing them money
• Solutions to save time
• Answers to personal or stress related problems
• Information they can use right away
• Something fun, amusing or entertaining

2) Write a Great Headline
Headlines are critical. If your headline doesn’t grab attention, the reader will stop reading. It must answer the question, “What’s in it for me?”

There are many types of headlines, including:

• The Guarantee
• The Testimonial
• The Frustration/Problem
• The Reason-Why
• The Benefit
• The How-To
• The Question

Within your headline, use these power words for maximum impact:

• Announcing
• How Much
• Advice To
• The Truth About
• Amazing Secrets
• Little-Known Secrets
• Facts
• Life
• New
• Now
• Discover
• At Last
• Free
• You
• Only
• Breakthrough.

3) Know the Do’s and Don’ts

DO keep content relevant and interesting. That way, readers will be engaged and may even share your article with others.

DO deliver on what your headline promises. You can either (a) cover a topic in depth, or (b) cover only part of the topic and drive readers to your website for more information. Either way, don’t disappoint the reader.

DO stay focused on why you’re writing the article. Don’t try to cover too much.

DO write in a conversational tone. Write to one person, not an entire group.

DO be mindful of copyright issues.

If you read something valuable, you can write a brief introduction and link to the original piece. However, if you want to include the article on your web site or newsletter, then get permission to reproduce it.

DON’T make your article all about you. Avoid constant sales pitches. If you’ve written a good article, your resource box at the end is enough.

DON’T write down to the reader. Sometimes a few subtle word changes can make all the difference.

DON’T overuse crutch words. Your article will be easier to read. These are all crutch words:

• am
• are
• is
• was
• were
• be
• been
• have
• has
• had

4) Focus on Word Count
Keep your article at 600-1,000 words. A full typed page is 500 words. If you are writing for your ezine, articles should be even shorter. Expert copywriter Robert Bly says his ezine always contains five to seven short articles, each only a few paragraphs. It takes readers less than a minute to read each article, and less than seven minutes to read his entire ezine.

5) Use an Easy Formula for Writing

Step 1: Grab your reader’s attention with a strong headline.
Step 2: Write your introduction. Use just a few sentences to explain your position on the topic.
Step 3: List your main points; around five of them.
Step 4: Expand on your main points with a few sentences.
Step 5: Write your conclusion. This could be a call to action or an opinion you want the reader to acknowledge or adopt.

6) Vary the Types of Articles You Write
Make it fun for yourself by changing the types of articles you write. Here are a few:

How-To: Include step-by-step instructions. If the information is too long for an article, link it back to your website for further material.

Interview: Select a topic your readers care about, and interview an expert. What trends are on the horizon? What actions, products or services do they recommend? You can write this straight or use a Q&A format. Interview your expert in person, by phone or email.

Profile: Profile a subject matter expert. Feature basic facts about where they work and how they’ve influenced the company or industry.

List: Magazines use these types of articles all the times. For example: 10 Ways to Feel Better Fast.

Seminar/Conference Recap: Attend an industry seminar or conference and write an overview of what you learned (e.g., new products and services or industry trends).

Case Study: If you have a satisfied customer, write about their experience using your product or service.

7) Rid Yourself of Writer’s Block

If you don’t know what to write about, an editorial calendar can help. This is a schedule of writing topics you can plan a month or more in advance. It helps with writer’s block because it gives you the topics. You gather material ahead of time so when you’re ready to write, you’ll have most or all of your content handy.

Whether you write your own articles or use contributing writers, you can ensure your readers eyes will be glued to your article with a catchy headline and relevant, interesting content. Following these simple steps can take your article from ho-hum to WOW!

=================
By Lauren Tyson
=================
This article first appeared in the September 2008 issue of the MarketingDotCom newsletter. You can get a free copy of the latest issue for the price of shipping at http://the7figuresecrets.com

Once you have PLR (private label rights) content in your possession, how do you turn it into cash? This is what separates the serious from the tire kickers. Taking action is the key step to making money. It’s so much better to try something, make a couple hundred dollars and learn from it. Not everything will be a runaway success!

Find out what works and what doesn’t by testing and making adjustments.

If you keep at it, you will find a market that pays you handsomely or a system that works for you over and over again. Typically, the first thing people want to do when they buy the latest PLR package is to simply turn around and resell the same package.

You can do that, but it’s only an advantage for you if:

• You get in early before the market is saturated.
• You already have a large list.

In all of the years I have been “turning around” PLR, I have made so much more money by making it my own.

Here’s what I typically do:

1. Choose a Core PLR eBook
Sometimes we find a PLR eBook that is so well written we don’t want to make any changes to it. It may be perfect for our target market so we want to put it out for sale immediately. Don’t be tempted to do this if you really want to maximize your profits and exposure in your niche. You should, at a minimum, change the title and author, and add some links of your own. But for the sake of being different and more original, you should add more content, as well as change what’s there. If you’re not willing to do even that, then you should really evaluate whether this is for you.

Let’s not forget the nature of PLR – hundreds of others have the exact same eBook, and they will inevitably be competing with you for sales.

2. Bundle Related PLR Products
It is much better to sell a package of products to give the buyer more value and increase the price of the sale. In this case, you would scour the PLR sites, auctions and forums to find several topically related eBooks, software, scripts or articles. This one tactic has increased my sales and profits drastically. When you increase the perceived and actual value, you will increase sales.

3. Sell the Resale Rights
You can always make money by selling the resale rights to the PLR product, assuming you’ve checked the terms of use. There are many people who don’t want to modify the product at all, but they want the ability to sell the product on their Terms, for whatever price they determine, and keep 100% of the profits. Those are the people who would happily pay a premium to buy the resale rights from you. In fact, this makes a very quick and easy upsell without having to add more content.

This takes very little setup time. There are many other things you can do, such as use an eBook as content for your newsletter or blog, create audios and videos to go with your package, sell your package on eBay as a lead generator, create Ad-Sense sites, and so much more. These are the things I do at a minimum. It’s important to be different and offer real value to your customers.
Bottom line? Take action. The profits will follow.

=================
By Mike Ambrosio
=================
This article first appeared in the October 2008 issue of the MarketingDotCom newsletter. You can get a free copy of the latest issue for the price of shipping at http://the7figuresecrets.com

Why did I delete all of my comments for years that I had on my blog?

Well, it is not really deleted. It is deleted off the blog, or no longer showing.

Instead, I have now decided to use a new FACEBOOK comments as my blog comments.

Why did I do this?

DUH….

#1 – Almost all of my site visitors are already logged into Facebook and with their new “Social Graph” API’s like the “Like” button you are now seeing on every page on the Internet (including mine here) they will see their face asking them to post on my blog as comment. If they are NOT logged in the can log in to Facebook without having to leave the page.

#2 – It will get more people posting feedback and leaving comments. People like the fact that it is part of their 1 universal Facebook account. You can see it working at here at CNN.

#3 – It looks better and fall into more of a social media vibe.

#4 – Blog comments are soooooo 2010. (Oh well if you are on the Internet you know anything you do today is outdated.)

#5 – It PRE CHECKS  ”Post comment on my Facebook profile.” as you see here

Post to my Facebook profile

What does that mean?

Well, that means the best form of Viral Marketing called SMVM “coined here” or (Social Media Viram Marketing). Actually Social Media and Viral Marketing are one in the same now days.

But back to the checkbox. Every time someone posts it gets added to their profile and their updates. All people that are connected to this person will get a link to my blog and then learn about my post (and my site) as well as post them selves and there starts a viral storm of interested social traffic.

There you have it.

Why on earth would I use anything else.

Oh.. reason #6 – It just kicks ass!

Resources:

- for WordPress “like Button”
- for “Facebook comments for Wordpress”

Thanks,

Mike Filsaime

PS – leave a comment and lets get new comments on this blog so it does not look like no one cares about me any more :D (and thank in advance)

Make sure to check out all of what the new WordPress 3.0 has to offer. In the past, all upgrades were 2.x etc. Now you have 3.0 meaning it is all new.

They added a new default theme and easy to manage site navigation links.

In the future, I think most people will find that WP is the best way to go to build ANY type of site. It has a long list of plugins that make it easy for designers and developers alike to provide an all in one solution for anyone.

The great video below explains some of the cool new features.

It is really time to say goodbye to building from scratch. Here at our company, we now start with a WordPress blog and a theme and build our site from there. Be on the look out for some cool new makeovers from our company utilizing the new 3.0 engine with plugins and themes to power them.

Thanks,

Mike Filsaime

So you have a great idea for a product you want to create, but where do you start? What are you going to do first? I have been there before and I want to help make your journey a little easier with my experience in creating and designing my first product.

Put Your Ideas On Paper… Sketch It All Out
I will try to keep this relatively short and get to the point. First thing you should do is draw your idea out. Make a rough draft of what your product will look like, then write a description on how it will work. We are not concerned with explaining the benefits or the problem solving solutions our product offers… that’s a part of marketing.

Once you’re comfortable with what you have you can start searching for a graphic artist or manufacturer who can turn that paper dream into your physical product. Wait! Before you do that, I recommend you get yourself PROTECTED!

What Type Of Patent Should I Obtain?
About 12 years ago or so the government created what is called a provisional patent. It was created for the small guys like myself and anyone else who invents a product but doesn’t have the means to obtain an expensive patent. Do your research on provisional patents and find an attorney who can mail you a package. It’s very inexpensive as compared to the 20 year utility patent. A provisional patent usually protects you for up to one year and the cost runs you about $150 – $200 (at least that’s what I was charged a few years ago). So, for $150 you can now go out and talk to people about your idea without having to worry about someone infringing on your smarts.

The provisional patent comes with a written and instructional video that takes you step by step on properly filling it out. It honestly takes only a few hours to get it done. Your drawing is one step that may take you some time, but everything else is pretty straight forward and simple. In a few days (mailing it out) you can be on our way. After the year is up and the provisional is about to expire, then it’s up to you whether or not you want to pursue the utility patent which lasts for twenty years. That ran me about $3500, I wouldn’t pay $5000 – $10,000 some attorneys charge, don’t get ripped off; do your homework and research patent attorneys.

It is very important that you really get a patent attorney who knows how to write a solid patent. I don’t know exactly how to explain it because I’m not a patent attorney, but I know a well written patent is one that really has certain key elements to it that makes your idea really unique and untouchable. A well written patent can really make your idea protected in so many ways and that is what manufactures look for when searching for a product to license. The product is important of course, but a solid patent will ensure the manufacturer that any legal procedures will not hound them in the future.

Got My Provisional Patent…Now What?
So now you’re protected for one year. Go out and find a graphic artist for logo’s, box art, or whatever you need. Go online and search for manufacturers to build your product, or go to your public library and go through the Thomas register and search that way. I would try to stay domestic for your first production and if things go well, you may want to outsource to China or other countries to bring your costs down. Once you start getting things in order you will really start to feel the excitement.

Now you are patent protected and you had your graphic artist do your artwork. You either have your prototype or your product manufactured. Well now it’s all about marketing and this newsletter you are reading can really help you in that department. There is too much for me to explain here and I’m not a marketing expert like our other writers. I can give you some advice on trade shows. That is…. avoid them at all costs.

They are so expensive and the only ones that really sell and make money are the companies that sell you the $1500 booths. If you go, the best thing to do is network. Hand out business cards and brochures, talk with buyers and manufacturers. Do not spend $1500-$2500 on a booth unless you are already a big success. They hype up the shows telling you 1000’s of big buyers from all over the world will be there; half the time they don’t show up and if they do they come for a day and may never even see your booth. Seriously don’t waste your time and money. Going to socialize and network could be a very good idea, and you don’t need a booth to do that.

=================
By Rich Chille
=================
This article first appeared in the September 2008 issue of the MarketingDotCom newsletter. You can get a free copy of the latest issue for the price of shipping at http://the7figuresecrets.com

Making a good impression from the start makes it easier to build a powerful relationship for the future. Once you’ve made the connection, you need to nurture the relationship. Here are some tips for getting those friendships going and growing:

1. Listen
Listen intently and ask questions. The more information you gather, the easier it will be to create a rapport and have something to say. Jeffrey H. Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible, says you should question/talk 25% of the time and listen 75% of the time to be most effective.

He also discusses “power questions.” Power questions will give you information you can use to serve the person in the future. Some examples include: “What do you like about . . . ?” “What have you found . . . ?” and “How do your customers react to . . .?”

2. Smile
Over 50 years ago, Dale Carnegie wrote the hugely successful book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Carnegie listed smiling as one of the key ways to make people like you. If you don’t feel like smiling, smile anyway. The act of smiling will improve your attitude.

3. Maintain Eye Contact
Keeping eye contact goes hand in hand with listening. First, it shows you’re interested and it shows respect. Second, it reflects confidence. Conversely, looking away or not making eye contact shows you don’t care and aren’t confident.

4. Be Truthful
Being truthful is important because it builds trust. Trust is the lifeblood of all relationships. Reveal something about yourself by telling the person a quick personal story, whether it’s funny or even a little embarrassing.

5. Provide Value
The value you give the person, not the facts about yourself, will strengthen the relationship. Be resourceful with information, but remember, timing is everything. If you’re at a conference or seminar, don’t load the person up with pamphlets, books and CD’s. The last thing you want to do is leave the person holding something they have to carry. Ask the person if it’s okay to send the information to review or read at their leisure. Find out where you can send the material. The more you provide the person with value, the more they will be willing to provide value back to you.

Once you’ve established rapport, you’ll find it easier to set up a follow-up meeting and build the relationship further. Take it slow. Seek a friendship with the person. However, it starts with making a favorable first impression. Sometimes you only get one shot, so make it count.

=================
By Joseph Jablonski
=================
This article first appeared in the September 2008 issue of the MarketingDotCom newsletter. You can get a free copy of the latest issue for the price of shipping at http://the7figuresecrets.com