So, what did I learn today?

Well, I was watching a recorded webinar with Mari Smith (you know THE top authority when it comes to anything to do with Facebook) and Mari mentioned that having Networked Blogs installed on your Facebook Page is really beneficial for getting more SEO from Facebook.

That’s when my ears perked up. Really?

Well, it totally makes sense as Facebook has an Alexa ranking of 2 and is the second most trafficked website in the world after Google.  It is also ranked #1 in the world for site visits for the length of session time.

So why not piggy-back on Facebook to get some SEO juice?

I had” Networked Blogs” set up for a while, but if you haven’t yet definitely, definitely do install the app on your Facebook Page. You will be glad you did for several reasons as you are about to find out.

How to set up Networked Blogs on
your Facebook Page

Registering your blog at Networked Blogs is very easy. Just go to http://facebook.com/networkedblogs and click on “Go to App.” Then click on “Register a Blog” and follow the prompts.

Next click on “Syndication” and publish your blog posts to Facebook and Twitter.  This is really an excellent feature as it publishes your blog posts automatically* to your different Twitter accounts as well as your Facebook Profile, your Facebook Page (or multiple pages) and Facebook Groups.

When you click on the “Profile” tab you can add a little bio of yourself as well as links to other websites. You also have the option to invite your Facebook friends to follow you blog. Pretty cool, huh?

Last but not least you can add a “Widget” to your blog so people can follow you directly from there. It’s a bit tricky to find the widget on Networked Blogs. The easiest way I have found it is to click on the picture of my blog when I am in my “Profile.”

You can customize your widget any way you want to make it fit in with the layout of your blog. You can see mine in the sidebar to the right. ===>

What are the benefits of installing the Networked Blogs app on your Facebook Page?

Well, the obvious one is you will get more eyeballs to your blog. For one, directly from your Facebook Page as a link will show up in the sidebar underneath your profile picture. And two, directly from your blog if you have the widget installed.

But…as I mentioned above, it’s also fantastic for SEO because Facebook has such great indexing.

*One thing that Mari mentioned and I kind of had heard that before…As far as Facebook is concerned do not set up your Networked Blogs feed to post automatically to your wall. The reason being is that “manual” posts do receive a higher weight…which is great for your EdgeRank.

The way you can change the settings is by going to “Edit Page” (top right on your Facebook Page) and then to “Apps” in the left sidebar. Find Networked Blogs and then click on “Edit Settings” (underneath the description) and then “Additional Permission.” Just uncheck “Publish content to my Wall.”

Now, I personally have it set to publish automatically which publishes my blog posts automatically to my Facebook Page wall but for some reason not to my Profile wall. I don’t really mind though because I would rather publish it there manually anyway. Once I get more fans, I will change my settings to manually publish there as well.

So, I hope this all is not too confusing as I know finding your way around Networked Blogs is not the easiest thing to do. But I hope the screenshots help.

Oh, before I forget it, Mari also mentioned that you can do the same thing with “Notes” at Facebook. Just pull in your blog feed into the Notes app. Mari has a tremendous world of knowledge where Facebook is concerned. No wonder she’s the #1 go to person. By the way, I’m signed up for her “Extreme Facebook Fan Growth” course that starts February 14th. Are you?

As always, please share your feedback in the comments below and if you have any questions I encourage you to share them as well.

To Your Massive Success!

Ilka Flood
The Enlightened Networker

Related posts:

1. Make the New Facebook Ticker Work for Your Business
2. New Directory for DoFollow Blogs Sweeping the Blogoshere
3. Unfriend Finder Lets You Know When Someone Unfriends You on Facebook
4. Where to Get the Coolest Facebook Timeline Cover
5. Don’t Give Your Friends Reason to Use Facebook’s Unsubscribe Option

Personally, I haven’t been too concerned about this, because I rarely use the Facebook unfriend option. But it seems to be a very popular question because it often shows up as a search query on my blog. Just today I had several people ask, …

“Will friend know if I unsubscribe them — unsubscribe facebook find out – does facebook tell friend if you unsubscribe – does someone know if I unsubscribe them”

And I get those queries on a regular basis.

So I went to Facebook and did a search for it in the “Help” section but couldn’t come up with an answer. Guess Facebook isn’t too eager to volunteer answers to questions about how to unfriend someone.

Then the funniest thing happened. As I was updating my Buffer app with more great information for my Twitter Followers the answer popped right up in form of a great article on Mashable.

There is actually a browser extension called “Unfriend Finder.” Wouldn’t you know?

How does “Unfriend Finder” work?

Unfriend Finder will alert you when people you have previously been friends with deactivated their account or have removed you from their friends lists.

But first of course, you need to install the script. You can find it at Userscripts.org. If you are using Google Chrome all you need to do is click the green “Install” button and you are ready to go. If you are using Firefox then you will have to install the Greasemonkey add-on first.

As you can see from the screenshots below I am using Google Chrome.

Step one: Get the “Unfriend Finder” extension and install it on your browser.

Step two: Go to Facebook and check it out.

As you can see from the image below, once you have the script installed your Facebook account will show these two changes immediately.

1) You will see an additional tab in the top right-hand corner called “Unfriends.”

2) You will also see and additional link in your “Favorites” right underneath your profile picture on your home page.

Oh, by the way, if you hover your mouse over the tab you will see more useful info. For example the total number of your friends, how many pending friend requests you have and the number of “Unfriends” the Unfriend Finder extension detected.

You will receive a notification when someone unfriends you and a red number appears above the “Unfriends” tab. (Since I just installed the add-on there are no red numbers yet.)

By the way, you will also be notified trough your main notifications. (You know the ones that appear next to your message notifications and friend requests in the top menu bar on Facebook.)

When you click on the “Unfriends” option in your “Favorites” list you will also be able to see who unfriended you, together with the date and time they decided they didn’t want to be friends with you any longer.

As I mentioned earlier above, not only will this script let you know when someone unfriends you, but it also tells you when someone you were friends with deactivates (or re-activates) their profile. I think that can be very helpful as two of my sons just deactivated and reactivated their profiles recently. (Of course they neglected to tell me about it and I was wondering why we were no longer friends, haha.)

Another Helpful Feature of Unfriend Finder:
Pending Friend Requests

This great feature helps you keep track of your “Pending Friend Requests” on Facebook. I don’t know about you, but I sometimes forget whom I sent a friend request to, because I just get so busy. So, now I can check what friends requests are still pending, who ignored them and who cancelled my friend requests. (Although I can’t think of anyone who would ever do such a thing.)

So, there you have it. Check it out for yourself!

Unfriend Finder is compatible with Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer and translated into 65 languages.

If you already have this great add-on installed on your browser go ahead and share your experience with us in the comments below.

To Your Massive Success!

Ilka Flood
The Enlightened Networker

P.S. Please also read the original article about Unfriend Finder on Mashable. Thanks!

P.P.S For more Facebook Insider Tips I invite you to check out Amy Porterfield’s incredible Facebook Influence Course

Related posts:

1. Make the New Facebook Ticker Work for Your Business
2. Where to Get the Coolest Facebook Timeline Cover
3. How to Add Networked Blogs to Your Facebook Page for More SEO
4. Don’t Give Your Friends Reason to Use Facebook’s Unsubscribe Option
5. Facebook Timeline – Introducing the New Facebook Interface

While I am genuinely flattered that somebody values my opinion about them enough to ask me for a recommendation and I love giving them, sometimes that request leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

Such was the case just this past week and this particular one was a double no-no.

Out of the blue a person I don’t even know send me a “recommendation request”.  Unfortunately, this has happened before and it really makes me very uncomfortable. What made this request even worse was the fact that this person included a shameless promotion for his business.

What was he thinking?

Was he expecting me to just make something up and write a fake recommendation?

Ehm, sorry, but I don’t do that. I don’t make things up. If I don’t know you I won’t recommend you.  I have too much to lose. I am not going to put my credibility and my good name on the line just to make you look good. Uhuh!

Yes, recommendations are extremely powerful because they add credibility and social proof and they give you a lot more validity in what you do. So the more you have the better, right?

Well yes probably. But wouldn’t you rather have someone recommending you who really knows you and can give their honest opinion about you than getting a bunch of generic recommendations that could fit just about anybody?

Before you ask for a recommendation on LinkedIn (or any other place) consider this…

• Use the system within LinkedIn to send your recommendation request rather than sending your own email.
• Only ask people who know you well enough to recommend you. Maybe you’ve done some work for them, been to company events together or helped them out in some way. You don’t want to make someone feel uncomfortable. Or, and that may be just as bad or worse, receive a recommendation that totally misrepresents you.
• If you have never worked together and only know each other online, make sure the person you ask to recommend you knows your personality, your character, your work ethics, what makes you different and stand out. You want to have had some kind of interaction with them where they remember you from so they can genuinely endorse you.
• The best way to get a recommendation is to give one first. Lewis Howes recommends doing just that in his Linked Influence course.  But be genuine and sincere. People can “smell” if your intentions are honorable or if you “just want something in return.”
• Apropos, talking about “return.” Be kind, return the favor and reciprocate!

You kind of get my drift, don’t you? What I am getting at is….

Don’t ask a complete stranger out of the blue…
”Can You Recommend Me?”

That makes that person very uncomfortable and quite frankly, doesn’t say very much about you either.

By the way, getting a recommendation request from a complete stranger really makes me think twice about adding just anyone who sends me a request to join their network on LinkedIn. I will be much more selective in the future as to whom I will add to my network and whom I’m just going to ignore.

Especially on a professional social network like LinkedIn it is more about quality than quantity. With more than 101 million members LinkedIn is the 3^rd largest social network and growing at a steady pace. You want to make sure you conduct yourself in a professional manner.

So, what has been your experience with getting a recommendation request? I always love your feedback so make sure you share it in the comment section below.

To Your Massive Success!

Ilka Flood
The Enlightened Networker

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So now that you have all that space available  just what in the world are you going to choose as your Facebook Timeline Cover?

Well, by default, Facebook will choose a photo you have already uploaded.  But if you don’t want that, you can get really creative and make your own.

For example, I love quotes, so I created a cover sharing one of my favorites. (That was before I knew of the places I will share with you below.) I also created some others that I had a blast making and I probably continue just for fun and giggles. If you want to make your own using PhotoShop or Gimp the specs are 840 wide by 310 high.

But, if you have better things to do with your time (unlike some people on this planet, haha) then you can get really cool looking Facebook Timeline Covers from these places….

Creating your own Killer “Facebook Timeline Cover”
is as easy as 1-2-3…

…using these great resources…

1. Pic Scatter
2. Timeline Cover Banner
3. Face It Pages
4. Cover Canvas
5. FirstCovers
   
6. Cover Junction

This last one is my favorite. So when the day comes and I get tired of making my own Facebook Timeline Cover that’s probably what I will use.

So, there you have them 5 incredible easy to use resources to get creative with your Facebook Timeline image.

Please also read the original article on this:
“Facebook Timeline Customization: 5 Tools for Killer Cover Photos”

The possibilities are endless. You can be as creative as you want to be. Just take a look at these jaw-dropping designs from very talented people: “10 Facebook Timeline Designs That Will Blow You Away.”

Let your imagination go wild, make sure your Facebook Timeline Cover reflects your personality,  but most of all…have fun!

To Your Massive Success!

Ilka Flood
The Enlightened Networker

Related posts:

1. Facebook Timeline – Introducing the New Facebook Interface
2. How to Add Networked Blogs to Your Facebook Page for More SEO
3. Unfriend Finder Lets You Know When Someone Unfriends You on Facebook
4. Don’t Give Your Friends Reason to Use Facebook’s Unsubscribe Option
5. Make the New Facebook Ticker Work for Your Business

It would have been nice if we had a couple of extra days to spread the job out a bit more, but unfortunately that wasn’t an option because the deck had to be finished before our first major snow stormed arrived. It started snowing last night and it’s still going strong.

So we were putting in eight hour days, getting up and down that ladder, standing on footstools or just crouching down. Oh our achy bones! This morning, admiring the fine work we had done, my husband and I looked at each other and agreed, “We will never do this again.”

Why did we not hire someone else
to do the job for us?

Good question! Well, a couple of things, 1) we thought we probably could do a more thorough job if we did it ourselves and 2) contracting it out would have cost us about $1,000 dollars.

In hindsight, which is always 20/20 we are asking ourselves  if spending 4 days painting our deck ourselves was really a good use of our time.

Truth be told, no, not really! Yes, we did save a lot of money, but at what cost? We both walk around the house like we are 80 years old, achy and sore, and we basically lost 4 days of work.  I’m behind in everything. Since I had not even turned on my computer while we were painting – and I must say, enjoying beautiful Colorado weather and temperatures in the high 70s and 80s – I came back to a mountain of emails which I’m slowly getting a handle on.

Why am I telling you this story?

Because outsourcing is sometimes the better option and not only for home improvements. Internet/Network Marketing has a lot of different parts to it. Yes, we can take care of a lot of them ourselves, but sometimes it is just not good use of our time. Or maybe we are lacking the skills to do something.  So outsourcing is a great solution.

Here are 3 fantastic resources for outsourcing.

1)  Odesk – it’s free to post a job and hire contractors. Pay only for the time worked. Contractors log in when they are working and work is verified by screenshots.

2)  Elance – Over 500,000 rated and tested professionals to choose from.  Sign up for a free account to post your job, or to sign up for work. Have some great skills? Set up a portfolio and get paid for your talents.

3)  Guru – Hire top quality Freelancers with confidence.  Check profiles, locations, reviews, work history or portfolios to find the right person for your job.

While doing my research on these outsourcing sites I found a variety of jobs offered, like link building, article writing, writing blog posts, programming, creating videos for marketing or graphics for your site and much more.

There’s no need to do it all yourself. As a matter of fact trying to be a “Jack of all Trades” might be contradictory and very frustrating. Besides outsourcing some of the tasks you need to do to build your business frees up time for the more important stuff….like spending time with your family.

By the way, I came across this fantastic video by Kim Klaver where she talks more in detail about the sites above. Enjoy!

I am seriously considering outsourcing some of the tasks I need to do on a regular basis. (Especially painting jobs, haha.)

Have you outsourced jobs before or been using the sites mentioned above? I would love to hear your feedback so please make sure you leave your comments below. Thanks!

To Your Success,

Ilka Flood
The Enlightened Networker

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FreeArtisticPhotos.com

Finding free images for blogs is not as simple as performi­­­ng a Google Image Search. As a matter of fact, doing that might land you in hot water because you could be violating copyright laws.

Many of the images that will show up in your browser when you do a simple image search on Google are actually copyrighted and belong to whoever upladed them to their website or blog.

See, when you upload an image to your blog, it will be indexed by the Google search bots.

For example, if you do a search for anti “spam plugin” you will find that an image I created for a previous blog post will show up in the search results.

Now it’s not okay to just download that image an use it as your own because it belongs to me. It’s copyrighted. But many people don’t know that.

So to be on the safe site, make sure you check the “Usage Rights” under “Advanced Image Search” when you do an image search on Google.

Hey, there’s absolutely no reason risking getting into trouble when there are great resources for free images or low-cost images available.

Here are some terrific ones I’d like to share with you….

Free to Use Images

Everystockphoto.com is a license-specific photo search engine that indexes millions of photos. Most of them are free under specific conditions.(Everystockphoto.com)

Stockvault.net is another great source of free images online.(Make sure you read the Terms of Use.) You can also find some very interesting and fun PhotoShop tutorials there.

Finding the right free images for your blog might be a snap at www.sxc.hu. With over 394,286 images online you’ll be sure to find just what you’re looking for.

Looking for some really amazing artistic photos? Then FreeArtisticPhotos.com is your place. This site has some beautiful high res photos that you can download for free as long as you obey the Terms of Use. So make sure to check them.

Very Low-Cost Images

Two of my favorites for very reasonably priced images are Dreamstime.com and iStockphoto.com. They both also have free image downloads. While you can find free to use images right on the website at Dreamstime.com (just click on the “Free Images” link, iStockphoto offers free downloads when you are signed up for their newsletter.

Looking For Some Really Cool Free Icons?

Need some cool free social icons? You can find a ton of them at FreeIconsWeb.com. On over 50 pages you can find any icon you’d ever want. From credit card icons, to social media icons, gosh even Santa Claus, Angry Birds and Matreshka Dolls. Knock yourself out!

FreeIconsWeb.com

For even more free social icons visit Iconfinder.com. You can even find icons there that you can usefor commercial use with no link required. Just use the filter on the site to filter your needs.

So, there you have them. I know, some of us are on a very limited budget and buying images to put on our blog or website may not be an option.

Now, just so you know, some of these sites may ask you to register for an account. Don’t worry, signing up doesn’t cost anything. It’s totally free.

Have you been using free to use images in the past? Do you know of any additional sites that are of great value? If so, it would be awesome if you could share your feedback below.

Thanks and I hope these resources are helpful.

To You Success,

Ilka Flood
The Enlightened Networker

P.S. Update to the list of free image sites above. My friends Marcus Baker, Stella Anokam and Jym Tarrant were so kind and add these sites to it in the comments below. Make sure you ALWAYS read the “Terms of Use” on every site.  Enjoy!

http://www.freepixels.com/
http://www.bigfoto.com/
http://pdphoto.org/index.php
http://www.morguefile.com/
http://pixabay.com/
http://FreeDigitalPhotos.net
http://flickr.com

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I couldn’t really recall when it started, but I was amazed to find out that the first email was sent 40 years ago. Can you imagine it’s been FORTY years?

Wow, that totally blew my mind.

Now there are rumors that email will be a thing of the past pretty soon.

Really? C’mon.

But think about it, everyone is texting now on their iPhones and smart phones. How many people are still sending out emails to communicate? Texting is so much quicker and the response can be immediate.

I often find my son watching a movie on his big screen TV, following sports on his laptop and texting his friends on his smart phone… all at the same time. Who said men can’t multi task?

Social Media is going to change how we do EVERYTHING!

There’s a social media revolution going on and it is gaining momentum and it will be changing the way we do anything and everything forever.

I don’t watch much TV but lately I have noticed that many companies have the line “Visit us on Facebook and YouTube” attached to their commercials.

Dr. Denis Waitley said it best…“You’re either online or in the bread line.”

Where would you rather be?

That goes for us network marketers too. If you want to stay in business you better be online. You better include social media as part of your business strategies.

Now, I understand with the constant changes, and they seem to happen faster and faster, it really can get overwhelming .

Social Media: How do you keep up?

You don’t have to join every social network that pops up or you get an invite too. But I would strongly recommend being at least part of the top 3. …Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn…and probably the new Google+. And I’m saying this, because you never want to underestimate Google. Google wanted to become part of the social media scene for a long time and after some flops may just have found its vehicle with the new Google+ and Google +1.

Here are some of the reasons you want to include social media into your business strategies.

• Facebook – launched in February 2004 and at the time of this writing (July 2011) has more than 750 million users. Everybody and their grandma is on Facebook.  Founder Mark Zuckerberg, who together with his college roommates and fellow computer science students created this social networking platform to keep in touch with each other, probably could not in his wildest dreams have envisioned where his journey would take him as Facebook quickly took on a life of its own. It is still a social network where people stay in touch with friends and family, but more and more businesses join to get information out to their customers and keep in touch.Just to give you one example of how social media will be changing the way business is done. When Netflix recently announced its rate hike customers went onto their Facebook page to express their outrage. News, especially bad news, goes viral very quickly online.
• Twitter – a social networking and micro-blogging service which launched in March of 2006 has long since evolved from a place where people tweet about what they had for lunch to a place where businesses stay in contact with and get feedback from their customers. More and more online marketers as well as traditional companies are using twitter for business. As of this writing the 200+ million users are generating over 200 million tweets a day.
• LinkedIn –launched in May of 2003 and often called “the forgotten social network” quietly snuck up on Facebook and Twitter and now has more than 100 million users in over 200 countries. LinkedIn is more of a business social network. 95% of companies who are using social media for recruitment are using LinkedIn. It’s a network of professionals where the average income of LinkedIn members is around $110,000 dollars a year.

Is Social Media part of YOUR Business Strategies?

“We don’t have a choice on whether we DO social media,
the question is how well we DO it.”
_Eric Qualman.

I happen to agree. How about you?

I believe any business that is brushing off social media as part of their business strategies is missing the boat. You need to go where your customers, clients and prospects are, and that’s online.

What are your thoughts? Are you including social media in your business? I always love to read your feedback so please make some noise in the comment section below. Thanks!

To Your Success,

Ilka Flood
The Enlightened Networker

P.S. Sharing is caring! I would really appreciate it if you could share this post with your friends and followers. You can do that easily by using the buttons in the sharebar to the left or the TweetMeme and Facebook buttons on top of this post. Thank YOU!

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2. Make the New Facebook Ticker Work for Your Business
3. Facebook Influence – Why I Highly Recommend FBinfluence
4. Cool Little Twitter Trick to Help Get You More Business
5. Where to Get the Coolest Facebook Timeline Cover

Up to that point I had been totally overwhelmed by LinkedIn and kind of had discarded it as a tool to build my business.

BIG mistake!

LinkedIn quietly grew to 100 million strong in the shadow of Twitter and Facebook and is now the 3rd largest social network. If you take into consideration that it is also a network of professional business people with an average household income of around $110,000 then it’s a no brainer that if you want to connect with professionals you really should be on LinkedIn.

Yeah, I know, it’s not as easy to set up your profile like it is with Facebook or Twitter. It’s also not as easy to connect with people and build those all-important relationships. I hear you. I felt the same way.

What is Linked Influence?

Linked Influence is a four module training course that teaches you everything you need to know about LinkedIn. Lewis Howes wrote two books about LinkedIn so he knows what he’s talking about.

I like the step-by-step, take me by the hand and show me kind of training modules. I’m a visual person and I like to see how something is done. I also like to learn at my own pace. So this video course is perfect for me.

What You Will Discover inside of Linked Influence

• How to navigate LinkedIn and find your way around.
• How to set up your profile using targeted keywords so people can actually find you and how to optimize it for massive exposure.
• How to create a compelling headline. (First impression is the most important. This is a network of professionals.)
• How to tell people who you are, who you help and how you help them.
• How to get recommendations.
• How to make the best of LinkedIn Groups. Connect, share and build your database!
• How to connect with investors, high-level decision makers and desired business partners.
• How to drive floods of targeted traffic to your website or blog.
• Strategies on how to use LinkedIn for maximum profit.
• …And so much more!

“Linked Influence” also includes some awesome additional bonuses you don’t want to miss.

Oh, did I tell you that Lewis Howes wrote two books about LinkedIn? They’re included in the bonuses. So is Twixplode by Sean Malarkey. Isn’t that awesome?

Who can benefit from Linked Influence?

Everyone who wants to attract high quality clients, drive targeted traffic to their site, build a network of professionals or land the career opportunity of his or her dreams.

If you want to take the mystery out of LinkedIn and start using this powerful network to build your business then I highly recommend you take a look at this value-packed training course.

Especially at that low, low price Lewis is offering it right now. (We paid a heck of a lot more for it. But I won’t complain. It’s worth every penny.)

Watch this short video about Linked Influence now and start using LinkedIn the right way!

You really can’t afford not to invest in this course! Don’t you think you owe it to yourself to move on this incredible opportunity?

To Your Success,

Ilka Flood
The Enlightened Networker

P.S. As always, if you found value in this post please share it with your friends and followers. Thank You!

Related posts:

1. Facebook Influence – Why I Highly Recommend FBinfluence
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Well now there’s a solution. A little software called MySpeed.

MySpeed basically lets you view any flash video as slow as 3 times slower than the original speed. This is great for watching tutorial videos and following along without having to stop the video altogether. It also lets you speed up to 5 times faster than the original speed.  This way you can zip through a lengthy webinar replay without missing any of the information like you would if you were to fast forward. Oh, and there’s no audio distortion or annoying chipmunk voices either.

So slow down video or speed up video as you please.

I love it! As a matter of fact, since I downloaded it to my desktop I find myself using it all of the time now. Quite frankly, I don’t know what I did before I found MySpeed.

Well, actually I do know. I just used the fast-forward or pause buttons a lot. But this is so much easier. I watch a lot of recorded webinars so this has been a great time-saver.  By the way, it works on downloaded videos also, so you can work offline.

It’s really a cool little gadget and available for both Windows and Mac!

There’s a FREE Trial, so check it out and let me know what you think. (Although there is an affiliate program, I am not an affiliate. This is just the regular company link.)

Enjoy!

To Your Success,

Ilka Flood
The Enlightened Networker

P.S. And as always I would really appreciate it if you could share this article with your friends and followers….And…Don’t forget to give it your vote of approval by clicking the Google +1 button in the Sharebar. Thank You! I truly appreciate you!

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The next step was to call our internet provider. My husband usually does that, because he’s the techie in the family. After the usual recorded instructions we finally got a live voice. But as it turns out even the nice customer service lady couldn’t help us out. Just shooting back the signal did not work this time. Somebody had to come out and check things out on location. The earliest appointment we could get was the next morning.

Wonderful, 24 hours without my beloved internet.  How will I ever survive?

Can you imagine what it feels like not to have internet access for one whole day? I bet you can. Painful, isn’t it? Especially if your professional life depends on it. Both my husband and I rely on the internet to earn an income. He’s a mortgage broker and I am an Internet marketer.

Later that night I thought I could enjoy watching some TV without feeling guilty. You know the saying …”There’s no PV in TV.”

Surprise! There was nothing than a grey screen. No picture at all.

“Honey, did you pay the cable bill?” I got an affirmative answer. Honey did.

What’s wrong then I wondered. No internet. No TV. Gosh, we are so used to technology we don’t know what to do with ourselves without it anymore.

Well, matters could have been much worse. We could have had no power either. At least we had that.

Fast forward, 24 hours. The nice cable guy arrived right when he was supposed to. Between 9:00AM and 11:00AM. Of course make that as close to 11:00AM as possible.

So what was the problem?

Disconnect. Literally! Our service was totally disconnected. Someone from the cable company had come to our backyard at about 10:30AM the day before and physically disconnected our cable service. Only, whoever did that disconnected the WRONG address. OUCH! (It would have been nice if that person would have at least rung our doorbell to let us know he was going into our backyard to disconnect our cable. That whole mess could have been total prevented.)

So why did I tell you this story and what, if anything, has this got to do with business?

Have you ever heard of “The Pain of Disconnect?”

When we find value in something and get used to having it, because it either entertains us, helps us grow our business, educates us, etc., then we really hate to give it up. In fact we do everything possible to keep it.

My husband and I depend on the internet we absolutely need it. It makes our professional lives a lot easier. So even if we have to put up with waiting 24 hours to get reconnected, we do that because the pain of having no internet at all is much greater. And of course we’d pay whatever the cost, to have internet access.

As long as the “Pain of Disconnect” is greater, we would do whatever it takes.

Another example: My husband subscribes to a couple of mortgage training programs. They are quite expensive, but chuck-full of value and they help him grow his business. So he would do anything in his power to keep the subscriptions because the pain of disconnect is greater than the few hundred dollars a month he has to pay for the programs.

Well, let me give you yet another example:

I am a member of MLSP. My Lead System Pro provides excellent training for network marketers. I have been in the industry for over 10 years and you would think I’d know it all by now. Not so, because technology and the internet are constantly changing. And changing very fast!

I pick up new techniques and strategies from top income earners in the industry through MLSP all the time. I don’t want to be without all of this top-notch training. To me, the small monthly fee pales in comparison to the pain of disconnect.

You can check out MLSP here for under $10 for a Risk-Free Two Week Trial.

Takeaway:

Give your customer great value and he will stay with you for as long as the pain of disconnect is greater than what he has to do to keep your service.

To Your Success,

Ilka Flood
The Enlightened Networker

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