Josh Anstey’s Blog

Hey there! The internet is vital in marketing and networking yourself. It shows people who you are, what you are all about, and gives them a really good insight into what they are going to get if they go into business with you.

For those marketers, networkers and entrepreneurs out there I would like to give you a great example of how someone used their blog to land their dream job. Remember, your blog promotes you and it is often the first thing a person will look at before meeting you.

As an entrepreneur, a few ways that a blog can assist you are by:

• Attracting business offers
• Bring in business partners – determining if someone wants to go into business with you
• Showing your knowledge, experience and entrepreneurial flair
• Positioning yourself as an industry leader

Here is an example of how you can use your blog to land yourself your dream job or business opportunity.

Matt Coddington is a web designer, and he used his blog as his resume to land himself his dream job. Click here to read his blog about what he did. He also writes the Net Business Blog.

As you can see, your online presence is a great way to position yourself so that you can benefit. So remember, when writing each blog post, the world of opportunity that it can bring to you.

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I am pleased to announce that I was mentioned in a blog carnival on the ‘Business Opportunities and Ideas Blog’. Whilst John, the writer of the blog disagreed with my post mentioned, it did provide some good discussion and through generation.

In any case, you can check out my appearance on the ‘Carnival of Small Business Issues #26’.

There are some interesting posts in this carnival.

Thanks John for adding me to the carnival!

What a great exciting month October has been for blog.joshanstey.com!!! We kicked off the month with ‘Networking with Business Cards’ which is really useful in getting a better idea of how to use your business card to your benefit.

‘UPOD – Pronounced “You Pod” – Under Promise, Over Deliver’ gave entrepreneurs some business insight and ideas for future projects and developments. This is quite an interesting theory.

We are in the middle of what has been coined ‘Web 2.0’ and what better way to explore this than to post ‘Web 2.0 Galore’. A few great Web 2.0 sites and web 2.0 logos are on show here.

The benefits of mobile phones were seen in the article ‘Mobile Phone Opportunity’. This is definitely some food for thought for all you entrepreneurs out there.

‘Advertising Collection’ was a list of advertising websites that are a great resource for advertisers. You can never have too many resources, so this list is guaranteed to give you some very useful information.

Who would have thought there were rugby entrepreneurs? The 2007 Rugby World Cup provided some interesting ideas and insights into the mind of the entrepreneur. I explain this with my post, ‘The Rugby Entrepreneur’.

A quick view of how those that inspire us are living in ‘How to live like a billionaire’. There are some images of where the wealth these guys have created has taken them.

I found an interesting site that made online advertising really simple. Check out my article ‘Online advertising made simple’ to find out more.

My ‘Diary of a Start-up’ series started. This was very exciting, and gave a few tips and tricks from some of my experiences. Keep your eye out for more of these by subscribing to my blog.

‘Second Life Virtual Career Fair’was really interesting and amazing to see where the web has taken us.

No entrepreneur can go without it. It is so important to the success of a business. ‘The art of an elevator pitch’ explains all you need to know and how to master it!

If it’s Web 2.0 why can’t we have Marketing 2.0? ‘Tools for Marketers 2.0’ gives some tips and sites for being a 2.0 marketer.

My post ‘Internet breaks barriers, making US less relevant’ is topical, in the news, and gives every entrepreneur opportunity!

I was lucky enough to attend an ‘ACS Young IT Talk’ and this provided some interesting ideas and posts including ‘A straight line career path doesn’t exist’ and ‘Short term pay, long term gain’. These are really interesting and there is a lot to learn from them.

‘Are entrepreneurs scared of failure?’ was an interesting post that was thought provoking and is a must read.

Finally, we rounded the month up with ‘Marketing and Networking YOU!’ As an entrepreneur, you have to read this article so that you can make the most out of marketing and networking yourself to benefit your business.

What an exciting and developing month October has been. November is shaping up to be even better, with lots more information, tips and tricks for all you entrepreneurs out there. If there is an area or topic of interest that you would like me to blog about, send me a message here.

Remember to subscribe to my blog RSS feed to keep up to date with all the latest updates on blog.joshanstey.com

I was reading an interesting article about word of mouth marketing and getting YOU out there. It is important to remember that you are your businesses most important asset.

Why?

As an entrepreneur, you are marketable, of interest, topical, and the brains and brawn behind your business. Its time to start marketing and networking in the new world, and there are many ways to use yourself to market your business.

Some tips from the article include:

• Make yourself news – make sure that whatever your business does, you turn it into interesting and useful news. It gets you and your business in the public eye and is a great way to position yourself as an industry leader
• Ditch the (traditional) media list – keep it in the marketing mix, but open up to the online world, and the next generation of marketing (this includes blogs and the Web 2.0 world)
• Create an online press center – these days, your website is the first port of call for you or your business. Create a press center, with press releases, testimonials, statements and advertisements. Make sure if people come looking for it, they find it and take something away with them.
• Think big. Target narrow – think big to assess your businesses market, who your target market is and how to get to them. Then target narrow to make sure you communicate and engage effectively with them
• Make yourself easy to find – Don’t play hide and seek. Get out there and make sure that you are easily found at the click of a button. This will really benefit you in the long run with lead generation

These are just a few ideas on marketing and networking YOU and how that will benefit you and your business.

There will be more to come on this topic in the near future.

Click here for the original article.

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Yes, that’s right, you are reading correctly. As Entrepreneurs, and specifically Internet Entrepreneurs, there is often the misconception, that to make an online venture work, and to succeed in this web world of Web 2.0, you need to be in Silicon Valley, USA or somewhere else in the country.

Last week, Mary Meeker, managing Director of Morgan Stanley’s Global Technology Research Team, said that the US was becoming less relevant in this web world.

Meeker’s presentation shows that the fastest growth was outside the US.

• Germany is winning the E-Commerce market
• China is winning the online gaming market
• South Korea is winning in broadband
• Japan in winning mobile payments
• United Kingdom is winning in online advertising
• Brazil and South Korea are winning social networking
• Philippines are winning in micro-transactions via SMS

So for all internet entrepreneurs out there, don’t be de-motivated or disheartened if you are not in the US. You can still succeed. If your country is in this list, there are great opportunities is some markets, and if your country isn’t in this list, challenge yourself to create a technology that will put it there.

If you want to read the original article, click here.

Demo is the launch pad conference for emerging technologies. At this year’s conference in September, some interest technologies were released. Of particular note were technologies that Michael J. Miller of Forward Thinking mentioned in his post: “Demo Aims at Marketing 2.0”.

A brief summary of the sites included:

• FastCall 411
• Shoutlet
• The Pudding
• 360 Desktop
• Myndnet

The one area they do help with is creating widgets. In any case, its always good to have a larger pool to get ideas from and resources to use. For more information on these, check out Michael J. Millers post.

An elevator pitch is carefully planned, concise and brief overview of a product, service or business. It is called an elevator pitch, because it should be no longer than an elevator ride (a 30 second elevator ride, not a ride up 150 floors).

Elevator pitches are especially useful for entrepreneurs, when pitching ideas to potential partners, venture capitalists, or future customers. You need to be able to convey all the relevant information in a way that is likeable, and will entice a person to want to hear more. Elevator pitches need to be well rehearsed, and smooth when presented. After all, you never know when you will have to do your elevator pitch in an actual elevator. Elevator pitches are not sales pitches, but rather a way of marketing yourself, networking yourself, and showing that as an entrepreneur or businessman, you have credibility, an idea, product or service that can solve a need and be beneficial for the person you are talking to.

Some important elements of an elevator pitch include:

• What’s the idea?
• What market does the product address?
• Why it was created?
• What need it satisfies / what does it do for the buyer?
• What is your competitive advantage
• Who you are
• Your revenue model?
• A long term plan

Your elevator pitch needs to contain a ‘hook’ or something that will make people want to hear more and you need to effectively convey your passion for the idea.

Dan Schawbel’s ‘Personal Branding Blog’, has a video on how to construct and deliver an elevator pitch. Click here to watch it.

Remember to have your elevator pitch well prepared, rehearsed and ready to go. After all, mastering the ‘Art of the Elevator Pitch’ can take you to places you never imagined. Always be ready, because you never know when you will have to deliver it.

Good luck elevator pitching!

I was doing a bit of netsurfing, as you do, and came across this site – Clickable.

As the website says, ‘clickable is an online solution that makes creating and managing search advertising simple and effective.’ It has a separate area targeted for advertisers or agencies which is a great way to provide different audiences with information. The product is currently in beta, but it looks like there is a bright future ahead of it. I can see this product going a long way.

Check it out: Clickable

Advertising is one aspect of Marketing, but it is a really interesting and exciting one. Here is a list of some great advertising sites. If you have an interest in advertising, these are sure to keep you entertained and excited. Either way, they are a great source of advertising information. This is just a short list to get you started. Ill update and add to it in the not too far future.

Have fun.

• B&T – Australia’s highest-circulating advertising, marketing and media magazine 
• Advertising Age 
• AdNews 
• Ads of the World – Advertising Archive & Community 
• Best Ads on TV – The best ads on TV 
• Advertising.com 
• The Media Federation of Australia 
• The Advertising Federation of Australia

I am busy reading ‘Permission Marketing‘ by Seth Godin, which focuses on Internet Marketing. There was one quote that caught my eye. “Increasingly, there are only two kinds of companies: brave and dead.”  

What a great way to summarize the entrepreneurial mindset.

That entrepreneurial attitude of going out there and giving it all you got. The attitude of not being afraid to take a chance, take a risk and have a go. The attitude of being a leader and exploring unfamiliar territory. The attitude of not being afraid of the consequences. The attitude of daring to make a difference. The attitude that you can either be brave or dead. 

For those entrepreneurs out there, the feeling of taking that chance, of growing an idea and developing it into a reality and making that dream come true is indescribable, and I would say addictive too. I think a lot of people would look at that quote and agree. 

We live in a world where there are a million different businesses, marketing messages, products and services thrown at us all day and night. The competition is stronger than ever before, and the barriers to entry in most markets are small, and non-existent. The market is only going to get more crowded and competitive. 

The idea that there are only two kinds of companies: brave and dead makes sense. After all, the companies that sit back and let the surf push them along the wave; will just get thrown off and left behind. The companies that really ride the wave and try all its tricks up its sleeve plus more are going to be heard. It is this bravery that will give a company the chance. 

Look at companies like Richard Branson’s Virgin, the fruit drink Nudie, the Boost Juice Bars, and Google. These are perfect examples of companies that went out there to take a chance, and look at the success that they received as a result of being brave! 

There are too many companies that just sit back and do nothing. These companies eventually become dead. I won’t give examples, as we don’t need to dwell in the past. 

So what is the main message we can learn from this? 

As the quote says, ‘increasingly, there are only two kinds of companies: brave and dead’. This hits the nail on the head. Take the chance, be risky and brave, or be dead. This is a call out to everyone in business, and a call that I think entrepreneurs exemplify and try to live by. 

So remember; if you are in the position of deciding whether to give it a shot or not, remember the quote. What do you want to be? Brave or dead? 

Have a very brave day!

Josh