I just finished a great interview with my new friend 
Maren Kate Donovan . She is an up and coming leader in the online marketing and social media industry. Below is the actual interview that we did. Enjoy….
MAREN: How’d you get started in online marketing?
MICHAEL: I started about 7 or 8 years ago doing Autosurfing and “get rich quick schemes.” I made a little money and lost a lot of money. It was a good learning experience for me.
MAREN: What kind of 9 to 5 job did you escape from?
MICHAEL: I have my undergrad in Sociology and my Masters in Health Care Administration. I was in the business side of health care for several years (hospice and long term care) and I got tired of Corporate America so I just quit. I am also a Sign Language Interpreter so after I quit my health care job I started my own business doing Sign Language interpreting. During that time I also started my online business with 5 other guys. We have rolled out 2 online marketing courses already and have some great plans for the rest of 2010.
Our company is called The Empowered Tribe. Our philosophy is that we can’t succeed in this business alone and we need to rely on each other for accountability, traffic generation, and special skill sets that each one of us bring to the table.
Together we have made tens of thousands of dollars in just a few short months and we have never met in person yet. That is the power of the internet! However, we will be meeting for the first time at the end of March in San Diego, CA and we will be doing a live event for people that are interested in learning how to monetize online. This will be a great time to network with industry leaders and we will be co-hosting a charity event with Raven Starre (http://mlmrealityshow.com).
MAREN: Break down the ways you monetize your blog or online business(es) and if you have other streams of passive income that you’d like to share please elaborate on them.
MICHAEL: There are several ways I monetize online. On my blog http://michaelfeil.com you will see tabs up towards the top. Let me discuss some of these tabs and how I monetize through them.
1. The first monetization tab is called “Featured” and this is where I highlight the network marketing company that I am involved with. People can come here and get all the necessary info they need in order to join my organization. The product I have is very unique and there is no other product out there like it. Plus the social media marketing and tribe building education that the person gets when they are in business with me is second to none!
2. The second monetization tab is my “Mentoring” tab. This tab discusses why it’s important to have a mentor and if someone is interesting in my mentoring services then they can purchase it right there on the page.
3. The third monetization tab is my “Live Events” tab. This talks about hiring me to come to your live event and speak on a variety of topics. It also explains how my business partners and I can come to your live event and do a whole social media / tribe building workshop. It’s a very great time and well worth the money! In fact we are doing one in San Diego, CA on March 26 – 28, 2010. You can find all the info at http://tribesyndicationrevolution.com.
4. The fourth monetization tab is my “Resources” tab. This tab lists several of the affiliate programs that I am linked up with. When someone buys from my affiliate link I will make a commission.
5. Right under the “Resources” tab is my “Facebook” tab. For a price I can build people a custom Facebook welcome page for their Fan Pages.
6. Right under the “Facebook” tab is my “Website Building” tab where I show people how they can easily build sales pages themselves through a product called XSite Pro. I have created a video tutorial series that goes along with the XSite Pro software and people can purchase my video tutorial series that will help them get the most of the XSite Pro software.
So those are six ways that I monetize just through my blog. I also monetize through the online marketing courses that I develop and teach. Depending on the time of year it is you can get more information on these courses at http://tribemastermindformula.com. If the class is closed you can opt-in to get information on when the next class is starting up.
MAREN: What would be your 3 top tips for budding internet marketers to take heed of?
MICHAEL: 1. This industry is not a get rich quick industry. I thought it was when I first started 8 years ago and lost a lot of money. Once I learned that I have to actually build a business I started to become successful.
2. Brand yourself, not your company. When you start to brand yourself people will see you as a leader in this industry and then they will start to follow you. Once they start to follow you can then start to take the conversation offline and get to know them on a more personal level and “interview” them to see what they are really looking for. Maybe you can help them by mentoring them, direct them to one of your affiliate products, introduce them to your network marketing company, doing a joint venture with them, etc. The important thing is getting to know them personally and creating that trust. Once the trust has been established the possibilities are endless.
3. Build your business through the Tribe Concept. I can do a whole 2 hour lecture on this but it basically means that you are to go out and find about 5 or 6 peoples that have the same goals and aspirations as you do and you meet a few times a week to syndicate each other’s VALUABLE (that’s the key word) material all over the social media sites to get back links and massive exposure to your website or blog. There are many different principles to this kind of marketing which again is too long to get into now, but believe me, it works!
MAREN: What is the single best action you’ve taken that has positively influenced your biz and life?
MICHAEL: To find and PAY an already successful mentor that helped me get to where I am today. I was struggling before I got help via a mentor, but when I broke down and paid someone that is already successful and did exactly what they told me to do I then started to make money online. Success didn’t come overnight. It was s stepping stone process and like I said, I followed every instruction to the “T” and I started to see results.
The second biggest thing I did was find a good group a guys to go into business with. We talk daily, have become best friends, hold each other accountable, and are actually making money online.
To sum things up I just want to say there is no overnight success. Everything takes time so don’t worry that you’re not making money yet. If you follow the right steps and principles you will start to see success. Get with a mentor to show you the RIGHT ropes, and then seek out a group of people that are like minded and have the same goals as you do. Then start working with them creating projects and joint ventures.
Thank you Maren for this interview and if anyone has any further questions about what I have talked about you can contact me at mike@michaelfeil.com or Skype me at michaelfeil.
Have a great day!
Please leave a comment and tell me what you think about this interview. I would love to hear your thoughts! Also, Please Tweet and Facebook Share while you’re at it!
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Tonto, the Lone Ranger’s sidekick, and the Lone Ranger were inseparable.
The Lone Ranger taught Tonto allof the “Lone Ranger Ways” which was to do everything by yourself and to remain unattached to all people.
Tonto got tired of riding into town, saving people, then riding back out of town and not getting to talk to anyone, establish any relationships, or ask for help when he really needs it.
Tonto came to the Lone Ranger one day and said in his broken English Indian voice, “Tonto used to many people helping out. Tonto want more than Lone Ranger and Tonto. Lone Ranger and Tonto can’t do all alone. Too many people to help, only two not enough.”
Well the Lone Ranger was used to doing everything his way and he has been doing it this way for very long time and he has no intention of changing.
Tonto had it with the Lone Ranger and his “Lone Way” of thinking and Tonto just snapped! Tonto scalped the Lone Ranger and went back to his Tribe where he could really be shine by working with a group of people that look out for each other and take care of each other.
Do you ever feel like you are building your business all alone? You could be a network marketer or an internet marketer and just feel that everything you do is done by you with no support from anyone. There is no one to make you accountable, no one to help you out when you’re stuck, no one to pick up some of your load, no one to bounce new ideas off of, and no one to help you market.
Continue Reading
Please pay close attention because I have some very time sensitive information I want to share with you today.
I want to first start off by saying that the reason why I have this blog up is for my Tribe which are people like you who come to my blog to learn about leadership, and online marketing strategies. These leadership and marketing skills that I teach through my blog posts are to help you become grounded in online marketing strategies so you can use these exact strategies to make money online with your home based business.
Now I along with 4 other Tribe leaders have put together something very special for you. This international team of Tribe leaders will be giving a FREE webinar this coming Monday night, November 23, 2009 at 9:00 PM EST.
Your instructors will be:
- Mike Feil
- Kary Rogney
- Ken Pickard
- Jon Alfredsson
- Nick Logan
Here are some of the things we’ll be covering:
- How to Generate A Significant, Full-Time Income… With Less Time And Fewer Headaches…
- How To Get People Calling You! Wanting To Partner With You In Business… (This Tip Is So Huge, It’ll Blow Your Mind When You Hear It!) A Tenth Of 1% Of The Online Marketers Even Know About This Strategy!
- How To Build A Massive Subscriber List And Turn That Into Your Own Personal ATM…
- How To Stop Selling And Being A Go-Getter And Start Attracting Abundance And Be A “GO-Giver”…
- Why Value Rich Content Pays And How To Guarantee Your Message Will Spread…
- How ONE Tweak Will Create A Massive BUZZ And Attract Raging Fans…
- How to Build A HUGE Tribe Of followers That Will Syndicate Your Content And Create Massive Exposure On The Internet.
Like I said, this is a FREE Webinar and we are doing this because we want to give back to our followers and our readers that come and visit our blogs. I guarantee after you watch this webinar that we will be giving that you will walk away with some good nuggets that will help grow your business. Since this is the week of Thanksgiving we want to give you this as our way of saying thank you for connecting with us and working with us. I hope to see you there!
To register go to www.empoweredtribe.com.
In light of Halloween I thought I’d put together a fun little post on what we can learn from zombies. But first let’s look 
at what zombies are and when they can do.
Zombies are dead people that have come back to life that have an appetite for the human brain. Zombies are determined. They’re not fast, but they’re determined! They will do anything to sink their teeth into the human brain. In the movies you will see zombies with cut off limbs making their way to the living to eat their brains. You will even see zombies with no legs doing a military like crawl to their next meal. And if you notice once a zombie eats a brain their hunger for brains is still there. Zombies never lose their hunger!
You will also notice that zombies travel in packs. If you run into one zombie, sure enough, you will run into more. If they corner you then you’re pretty much done.
So how does this transfer into building Tribes? Well, let’s again understand the meaning of a Tribe. A Tribe is a group of people that have a shared interest and a way to communicate. In Social Media there is never just you! There is usually you and several other people…YOUR TRIBE. In our Social Media Tribes we travel around in packs to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, social bookmarking sites, etc. helping each other promote our content.
Like zombies we are not usually fast at it, but we’re thorough. We chip away little by little to get to our goal. A common trait for us Social Media Tribe members is that we’re determined and we’re going to reach our goal no matter what. Nothing is going to stop us and we will never lose our hunger!
Let’s talk about eating brains for a minute. Just like zombies we love to eat brains, but we’re just not as messy as zombies! When we go to other Social Media Marketer’s blogs and read what they are doing and gaining insight, knowledge, and strategies to better our marketing skills we are in a sense eating brains. We’re taking knowledge (what’s inside another person’s brain) “eating it (learning from it),” and digesting that knowledge so we can grow strong from it.
Then there are the mentally deranged humans that feed zombies. That would be people like me, Kary Rogney, and Ken Pickard. We’re feeding you zombies fresh brains for your enjoyment! Say what?? Let me explain…
On Facebook Kary, Ken, and I have put together business pages that promote other people’s content. If you have a blog then you are pretty much on the ball and have a good idea as to what you’re doing. So this means you probably have good content. You want that content out there, and you want that exposure. So all you have to do is go onto our Facebook business pages and post your link there and bam, you have instant exposure.
So getting back to our zombie analogy Kary, Ken, and I are feeding your brains to zombies so they can go on our business pages, click the link to your blog post, read your knowledge (eat your brain), and digest it so they can grow strong and make it to their goal.
If you want your brain eaten (if you want to post your link to your blog post on our business pages) just click the following links)…
Michael Feil’s Business Page
Kary Rogney’s Business Page
Ken Pickard’s Business Page
Ok you zombies! There’s a lot of great blogs out there! So eat up! Also Tweet this and Comment on it if you like it!
If you are trying to build a Tribe of like minded individuals through social media marketing then you really want to take advantage of social bookmarking.
Social bookmarking is tagging a website and saving it for later. Instead of saving them to your web browser, you are saving them to the web. Also, because your bookmarks are online, you can easily share them with friends.
The Benefits of Social Bookmarking…
1. Instant social traffic. A well written news article or blog post has the potential to drive massive traffic to your site.
2. Hundreds of one-way links to your website in a short amount of time.
3. Backlinks appear very quickly in Search Engines. Most links on regular pages often take weeks or months to be indexed. We have seen a majority of our social backlinks get indexed within a couple days.
As a marketer, you can leverage social bookmarking by setting up accounts at these sites and sharing the links to your sites with others. There are tools that let you submit a single page or site to dozens of social bookmarking sites with one click of the mouse, so you´re not entering them all by hand.
One of those tools is called OnlyWire. This WordPress Plug-in tool is great! Below is a video I made for you to learn how to install and use OnlyWire. Enjoy!
Please comment and Retweet if this has helped you!
Seth Godin, in his book Tribes, talks about how to improve your Tribe. He gives some bullet points but I would like to expound on these thoughts for a minute.
The two requirements of a Tribe:
• A Shared Interest
• A Way to Communicate
There are all different kinds of Tribes out there…Dog Lovers Tribe, Mix Martial Arts Tribe, Habitat For Humanity Tribe, your church could be your Tribe, etc. Heck, I was on a business trip in NC a few years ago and in the hotel I stayed in was the National Taxidermists Society’s yearly convention!! That’s a Tribe if I ever saw one!
Well, since we are all really focused on Social Media I’ll explain how the two bullet points above relate to us. We have a shared interest in home based business and marketing on the internet through social media avenues. Our ways of communicating are through several different avenues such as Facebook, Email, Skype, Phone, YouTube, Twitter, Blogs, etc.
So that makes us a Tribe!
Within the Tribe communication can be done four different ways.
• Leader to Tribe
• Tribe to Leader
• Tribe Member to Tribe Member
• Tribe Member to Outsider
Let’s talk about each one of these and how the communication is done:
Leader to Tribe
It’s important for the leader to stay in constant communication with his / her Tribe. If you lead a Tribe you need to be constantly communicating the Tribe’s vision to the members so everyone stays motivated and educated.
One good way to do this is webinars that the leader may host. Some may be free but some require a fee. If the leader is putting out a solid vision and the content that is being taught is valuable and will empower the members then the fee will be well worth it.
Tribe to Leader
It’s always good for a Tribe members to communicate with their leader, but what’s more important is that the leader communicates back to the members. Here’s an example, the leader writes a blog post on their blog and the members start commenting. A good leader would respond to all the comments that were being made on his / her blog. This shows that the leader cares and wants to be engaged with his / her members. When a leader stops communicating with his / her members the members might find a new leader.
Tribe Member to Tribe Member
Tribe member to Tribe member is great because it helps create relationships and partnerships. One way this can be done is through social networking sites like the Ning Community. With this community established member can talk to each other, share content, and learn from each other. Many times partnerships or joint ventures can establish within the Tribe that would have never happened if the leader didn’t bring the community together and empower the members to communicate with each other.
Tribe Member to Outsider
This is great because it allows the Tribe member to be an advocate for the Tribe and promote the Tribe to other people. If the Tribe member does a good job at this the outsider may be interested in joining the Tribe which will increase the Tribe with another like minded member and that new member can do the same thing…tell another outsider about the Tribe and continue the momentum.
So as you can see there are many ways to communicate but the most important thing is to keep a steady stream of communication going. Great communication allows for a Great Tribe!
Please comment and retweet this if you like it!
Today I want to talk about third party evidence and how it can help you grow your business and following. If I’m trying to sell you something I can say all day that what I have to offer is the best thing in the world, but I want to say that because I want the sale.
Third party evidence is when someone that is not related to your product has something good to say about it. We see this all the time in marketing. For example, Enterprise Rent-A-Car call you for a short survey after you have rented one of their cars to see how your experience was. Through the survey they can compile statistics that show how many customers were satisfied with their service and use that data for marketing purposes.
Another example would be the movie industry. How many times have you heard, “Man, you gotta check this movie out! It was great!” The movie industry relies on your third party evidence (you telling people to go see their movie) to spread the word about their product (the movie).
In social media this can be done one of several ways. Here are just a few:
- Testimonial
- Post on Facebook
- Video on YouTube
- Posting a comment in your comment section of your blog
- Showing the stats of how many hits you received on your blog
- Social bookmarking
- Retweeting
Today I’m going to focus on retweeting your Tribe’s content so they can have massive exposure. And if they are true Tribe members guess what will happen? They will retweet your content and give you massive exposure as well!
So check out the video!
To get your hands on Viral Tweets (free version or pro version) click on the following link…
http://www.michaelfeil.com/retweeting
Since we are talking about retweeting why don’t you try retweeting this post! I will appreciate it…and it’s fun too! 
