Everyone I wanted to get this published before it was to late.  For those that didn’t know this month I entered the best wordpress design 2009 contest.  I think I am in last place as far as votes go but if you ask me I am the real winner.

I didn’t enter this to win I know my free design pretty much sucks but right now I am more worried about content, traffic, learning and connecting with others then design at this point with this site.  I will be switching to a premium theme very soon as I know I need to do an overhaul now that the The Money Cult is developing a regular following.   I entered the contest to meet new people and saw it as an opportunity to drive some traffic to my site not to mention the prizes were worth a chance when the only cost to enter was to do a blog post about it.

So as far as the contest goes I am all ready a winner I have a huge increase in traffic from http://fresheventure.com and I landed awesome interview with the Keller Hawthorne from that site which has received a lot of attention.  I addition to that I have received visits, comments and e-mails from other competitors.  

READERS HELP ME WIN BEST WORDPRESS DESGIN 2009

If you haven’t voted for anyone yet you can still do so here is how.

Step 1 Click Here

Step 2 Scroll Down to The Money Cult

Step 3 Click the radio Button.

Voting Closes Midnight EST October 2nd.

YOU CAN Still Vote for me!

I know my design isn’t the best right now but I am hoping my readers , content and blogger friends would help get me some votes. 

Please take some action and help support The Money Cult

In the 1st part of The Easy Podcasts How to Guideyou learn all about getting ready to record.  Now it time to hit record.  Today we have so many options available to us to record.  Just about any mp3 player,  phone or PDA has a voice recorder.  The key is to make sure you get the best possible quality audio podcast and that you are able to easily transport you audio file to your computer.  Then you can review it and do what you need to get it ready for publishing. 

I going to talk in general about your options for recording podcast.  I will go in to more detail about one super easy podcast option that makes the recording possible for anyone.  Best of all this option is free and can be done from anywhere and setup in a mater of minutes.  Before I get in to that I want to share a couple tips before you hit record.

Tips Before Recording Podcast

• Test Your Equipment
  -Before you begin you want to make sure it works and sound quality is ok other wise your wasting your time
• Hit Record, Make sure mute is off
  -I know doh! I only say it because it happens and when it does it sucks.
• Elimate noise and distractions
  -If your outside beware of wind.  Inside make sure it is as quite as can be elimate any background noise.

Time to Make A Podcast

Here is the easiest way I have found to make a podcast.  This is the service I used for the awesome interview with Keller Hawthorne.  I found a free conference call service that will allow for recording.  http://www.freeconferencecalling.com/ you can learn more about it at the site.  This service is completely free and can handle up to 500 people on a line.  Once you sign up you will be sent a conference line number and host code.  The number they give you is a not toll free but most have skype or free long distance plans now a days. 

With this service all you do is dial the number they give you, enter your passcode, enter your host code then just hit *5 you will here record on.  Thats it see how simple all you do is hit call a phone number and hit *5 to turn on an off recording.  You can also manage the call via the web.  The site has decent FAQ’s and how to guides so now from any phone line you can make a podcast.  Within 60 minutes after the call the mp3 file is available for download.  You can share the link off their server but it will only be available for 30 days.  So if you can talk on a phone you can make a podcast that how easy this option is.  I strongly suggest you give it at try.  So now you can make a podcast in anytime you like as long as you have  a phone.

If you don’t like this option you can alway use other options to record pocast such as an iphone or mp3 player.  Pretty much anything that has a mic will work.  If you have a headset for your PC that will work also.  Another option is your X-Box or WII mic that is lying around, I have used mine before and the qualty was really good.  It’s a Logitech Pro mic yes it will also work on your computer I didn’t even need any addional drivers.  Give it a try you be suprised at the quality.

If your doing a windows podcast for recording software you can download and use Audacity  this is free and very powerful.  Windows does have builting recording program but it is very plain.  I try to make my recording so I don’t have to edit them as it can be a pain and add time to the process but with Audacity you can clean up noise and trim and merge files if necessary.

By now you should understand your options to record podcast.   You have many I say try the phone option everyone can talk on a phone.  Stay tuned for the last part of this serious Easy Podcasts How to Guide Part 3where I going to cover publishing and submittion.  Your learn about wordpress podcast options and plugins.

The hardest part about creating and publishing podcast is getting enough courage to hit that record button and feeling comfortable enough to publish it.  I decided to write this because after last weeks interview I received some comments and e-mails asking if I would share how I did it.  I had planned to do this at some point but was going to wait cause I still don’t like a couple of the things about the publishing process but it does work. 

I encourage others to offer any advice in the comments when it comes to topic as I am still learning.  I am not an expert at this but with a little help from google I was able to find all the answers I needed to create and publish a quality podcast on my wordpress blog with ease.

I going to split this 3 parts as follows.

Part One will Cover Preparation
Part Two will Recording Options
Part Three will be about Publishing…

Preparing for a podcast.

Before you begin I strongly suggest you make an quick little outline or bullet list of the topics you want to cover.  You want to do this for a couple reasons.

• Make sure your cover all your points
• Keeps you going if you lose you mojo (rambling and pauses not good)
• Gives you a little more organization to you podcast
• Create an intro or script to help get you started

Another thing you should do after you listen to yourself it make notes of any bad habits or annoying things you find yourself doing so they are in front of you to help prevent yourself from doing them which will greatly improve the quality of your Podcast. 

Here is a sample of my list.

• Hit Record! (Very Important)
• Don’t Say Umm
• Don’t clear you throat or cough
• Speak Clearly
• Don’t speak to fast
• Focus on your words!!!

Addition Tips if you doing this with another person.

If you doing the podcast with another person you need to spend more time on the preparation process.  For the interview I did with Keller I did the following things to prepare.
• I spend time learning about her and developing question which I sent ahead of time. 
• I put together a script
  -This included a intro and 8 question for her review so she could have time to prepare her answers and really had a good idea of how things were going to flow.  I wanted to make sure interview went at least 16-40 minutes so 8 questions was a good number which gave about 2-5 minutes per question.
• I included clear bold instructions for Keller as to what she need to do. 
  -Call this number and when, in addition I gave her a couple ways to contact me if she had any problems or additional questions. 
• Before we began to record call we talked for about 20-30 minutes.
  -This helped to break the ice and make the both of use feel more comfortable.  We had never spoken other then e-mail.  This set the tone and made for a nice warm and personable interview.

In Conclusion

You can create an easy podcast just shoot right from the hip and hit record but remember you podcast will not be as good.  I did this for my 1st podcast but really my goal was just to see what I sounded like and how my equipment work.  It will take a while till you get comfortable with your voice so you might just want to hit record to so you can actually hear yourself and see what you sound like.

A couple other things I learned from doing my 1st podcast.  The 1st time I hit record I talked for about 5 minutes and realized that at least for me it took a lot of energy to talk nonstop for 5-10 minutes.  I immediately then challenged myself to do a 15 minute recording just to see if I could do it.  Another reason good reason your should have a outline or some sort of script.  If you plan on doing a 15-30 minute podcast you better be organized, focus and in the right frame of mind.

You will be seeing a lot more podcast and interview on this site as I think that add a lot of value and go over very well with my readers. Please stay tuned for the next two parts of my how to podcast guide.

Love him or hate him.  You can learn about building a brand and using social media from TO Terrell Owens.  For those that don’t know this about me I live just outside of Buffalo and my house is only about 10 minutes away from the Buffalo Bills Stadium.  If you think about the NFL is the biggest marketing powerhouse their is.  Look at what marketing has done for them.  They have taken this sport and turned it in to a  billion dollar industry. 

I been wanting to do a post about TO Terrell Owens since he came to the Bills but just couldn’t figure out a way to work it in and wasn’t exactly sure just what to say.  I figured I would do a little post about him on this NFL Sunday. 

Bloggers can learn from Terrell Owens 

Since the announcement was made that TO  would be with the Bill’s.  The media frenzy began.  He has been in the news around here none stop.  From his real estate agent to his TV’s show.  In addition to that you don’t really go more than a couple days without him leaking or saying something that is in the new from his twitter account.  Yes  TO is a regular twitter user seems to be the latest trend with high profile NFL and other sport super starts.

He often leaks news about the team and players via twitter.  He thanks or congratulates other players on contracts or whatever else is going on way before this stuff hits the news.  So TO is stalked on twitter by all the news channels and reported on daily by local talk radio.  I decided to follow TO Terrell Owens myself and wish him the best of luck before game day.  I even offered him free IT support if he would ever need it all he has to do it send me a tweet. I don’t expect it but you never know that would make for a good story.

In addition to being a daily twitter user, he has his own cereal and he was twittering and streaming live to the net when they announced that at a local grocery store.  He landed reality The T O Show on VH1 which is not renewed for a 2nd season I didn’t what it I don’t do much TV since I started this blog but I hope the renew his contract with the Bills to go along with that.  I really don’t care that he is controversial player.  He is good, real good and that is all that matters.  The Bills have had a few ruff years since I moved here and lets just say having him around makes things a lot more interesting.

Believe me if you looking to build your brand which you should be if your a blogger.  You really should take a look at how TO does it.  He has created one of the largest personal Brands out of all the NFL players for himself.  He actively uses social media outlets and has an very well built website. Check out the Terrell Owens Website

Even if you don’t like T O just look at how well his website is and everything he has going on here.  Obviously he has some real pro’s working for him.  He even has his own social network on this site looks like I need to sign up right now for that and link back here.  So this week when your watching the games I want you to.

Study NFL Marketing

Chances are your going to watch the game this week or a game so why not do a little multitasking and take a look all the marketing that is going on through out the game.  The NFL is a huge business and most people watch it and play fantasy football.  It seems that social media and the web it also becoming a larger part of this business so why not see if anything that they are doing makes sense for your business model.

Everyone Enjoy your Sunday and GO BILLS!

Everyone this it probably my biggest accomplishment to date with this blog.  I can’t tell you exactly when I 1st started listening to business interviews, podcast and audio books but I am a huge fan of audio and listening to people teach and tell their story.  You can really learn so much from listening to real people, telling real stories about real experiences. 

One of the things that really appealed to me on Yaro Stark’s site was his podcast and interviews.  I started going thought all of his podcast about 9 months ago I said I to myself I can do that.  So last month I made goal to do to my 1st interview.   Doug Dillard – Making Money Online Interview  After I did that I also made it goal to make this a habit.  So from here on out I will strive to do one quality interview per month. 

Please after you listen to this let me know what you think as I really plan to more of this and could learn a lot from your feedback.

The Money Cult Audio Vault

 

Internet Marketing Success Story

 So here is what I got a for everyone I landed the 1st ever phone interview of Keller Hawthorne of fresheventure.com.  In addition to this being her 1st Interview and Podcast this was also my 1st time doing a real recorded call.  No worries everyone somehow we pulled this off and ended up with almost an hour of quality tips, advice and real stories that EVERYONE can learn something from.  This is a fine example of going out and taking ideas from blogs that you like and then figuring out how to do them on your own blog. 

If you haven’t hear visited her blog before you should I must say I was instantly impressed by the content and just how well everything is organized, laid out and delivered.   Great things are coming for this one no doubt.

I thank Keller for spending the time with me and giving me this opportunity learn something new. I can’t tell you the value that you get when you can get inside the head of someone that has been running business online for over 4 years.  

Here is a few quick things you should know about Keller Hawthorne.

• She is 26
• She works for herself fulltime
• She run’s 2 E-Comm website’s Theme Kitchen & Theme Bathroom
• She run’s a Marketing Firm KBH Web Marketing
• Her blog is fresheventure.com (Great Blog Page Rank 6)
• She got a Page Rank of 3 in 3 weeks!
• She knows SEO

I can already tell you 2 weeks after reading and using tactic’s from her free e-book my organic traffic starting to grow!

What’s in the interview.  A lot. I can’t even begin to tell you all that we covered.  So your going to listen to it but some of the key things are.

• Her turning point yes she struggled for a while.
• The Importance of Keyword and organic traffic
• How to deal with crap and information overload
• Make sure you do your work then move on to learning
• How she connected with John Chow, Yaro Stark, and Gilden Shalwick
• Here experience with Blog Mastermind and Become a Blogger Student,
• The importance of learning so you can grow your business.
• What she would do if she only had 10 hours a week to spend on her business
• What’s going on with fresheventure.com and here Best Wordpress Design 2009 contest

BTW-Vote for THEMONEYCULT if you haven’t voted yet CLICK HERE
HELP me WIN a membership to Yaro’s course

If you enjoyed this please let myself and Keller know by commenting here.  I am pretty sure if I get enough positive feedback I can arrange another one of these calls. 

Also if you could take a minute and bookmark or tweet this I really think this is a story that really needs to be shared!

Here’s the deal I have the GoDaddy Promo Code for this month and it a great one.  Act now through Sept 21th and get 25% off if you spend $75.  So this is your chance to move your blog it own domain or start up a new one.  You can’t beat this one year of hosting is dirt cheap hear without the Promo.  1 year of hosting.  Just click the link below and use the following.

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code. gdr917an

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If you sign up via my link I well offer the following personal bonus for you.

Here’s the deal sign up for Hosting with Godaddy and get 1/2 hour of Free IT Business Consulting. A $50 dollar value.  Look chances are I will help you even more if you truly need it.  I like to help people and the startup phase is really a great time to get to starting to know and help people.  Plus if you ask me installing a Wordpress site on Godaddy is about as easy as it gets.  A couple clicks and and you are ready to go.

If you are interested in this either contact me for more information on how it works.  You can ask questions here or contact me via my contact form.  All you need to do is let me know once you signed up forward me your conformation and I then we can setup a call.

Why I use www.GoDaddy.com Here is the deal.  I use Godaddy as my web host cause I got tired of small no name unreliable companies.  I use them cause the are cheap and have a great support network, are not going to go away.  I use them cause the servers are located in the USA and reliable and fast. If you want to reserve a domain or do some domain purchasing.  Then GoDaddy is a great place to register cheap domain.  I have had a few crappy experiences with others that claim to host top web site but can’t even handle a small site 5 page site and service didn’t respond.  No thanks.

So one more time.  Act now and get click on the godaddy link in this post and use the following godaddy promo code (gdr917an).  If you have questions about them let me know.  I can help with the process.  Then once you sign up forward me the conformation and I will then be in contact with you to setup a call. 

I will assist you in with at least 1/2 of personal support of one on one support.  You can ask me anything you thing you want about your new site or your online business.

As I kid I grew up watching Tony Robbins late at night on TV preaching motivation and self belief.  Probably part of the reason I am how I am today.  Now he has recently began to do some interview with the leaders of internet marketing.  If your looking for a internet marketing how to for internet marketing newbies.  It is alway good to catch a few great stories to get you really thinking.

Here John and Tony talk about the record day he had when he was 100k in debt and then was the 1st to do a million dollar launch while living with his parents.  If you taken any time to see the video’s that Tony Robbins has been doing over the last month with many leading internet marketers but take some time as each one of this is very motivating. 

Here is the latest.

John Reese and Tony Robbins discus 1 million dollars in less then 24 hours

Here is the one with Frank Kern, John Reese, and Anthony Robbins.

The 2nd video is all about following thought again I most say that if you haven’t checked this videos out you must!  Here you have Anthony Robbins talking with the best of the best internet marketing gurus.  He is trying to learn from them.  I am going to keep this post short as I really want you to watch the videos no sell here just great free internet marketing guru content.

Internet Marketing Newbies

If you study internet marketing you must like these types of stories.  Do you like these types of sucess stories?  Have you figured out your own success story in your head yet.

Some day I will tell my own similar story story.   I have a 3 year goal to do a 500k launch which I really think is possible based on so many of these stories.

Any body else have some big dreams and goals like myself I would love to here them.  If you listen to Tony it all starts with a vision!