In case you haven’t been paying attention, there are more events out there then you can shake a stick at. And every time you turn around, even more events pop up.

For the most part, I’m glad there are so many events because there are many good reasons to attend them. The networking, the learning, the “getting out of your rut and exploring new ideas” and more. But the problem is, how do you decide which events are worth you spending your hard-earned money (not to mention your time) attending and which are the ones you should skip?

Well, I’ve put together 3 keys to helping you determine the right event for you.

1. First — ask yourself why you want to attend this event (or any event for that matter) in the first place. What do you hope to get out of it? Are you looking for business? Joint venture opportunities? To learn a new skill or strategy? To brainstorm some new ideas for your business? To just get away from your office and talk to people who “get it?”

Be very clear and very specific on what you want. Don’t be vague — if you’re vague you’re not going to have enough information to actually make the right decision.

2. Now, take a look at the event. If you’re looking for clients or joint venture partners, are those the people who will be attending? Will it be too small (or too big) for you to be able to do they type of networking you enjoy? If you want brainstorming or masterminding, will the right folks be there for that?

If you’re looking for education, is the event promise a good fit? Do you think you’ll actually walk away with the information you’re looking for?

3. Okay, so if you’ve gotten this far and the event appears to be a good fit, now I want you to take one final look to make sure attending this event is absolutely the right way to go.

If you’re looking just for information and have no big interest in the networking (or you don’t much like to network) is there a simulcast option or a home study course you could get instead? (You can also do quite a bit of networking on simulcast as well.) If you are interested in the networking, is this the absolute best event you should attend or if there a better option? And if this is the best option, should you simply be an attendee or would it be worth your while to upgrade your visibility to a sponsor package?

I’m not trying to talk you out of your decision with this third step, but what I AM trying to do is make sure you’ve thought this through so you aren’t disappointed. There’s nothing worse then spending all that time and money to show up at an event and realize either it’s not what you were looking for OR you should have made a different choice (for instance — you should have chosen a sponsorship option or a simulcast option).

So take a few extra minutes and just make sure this is the right decision for you.

And lastly (but probably most importantly) once you DO decide this is the right event for you, go buy your ticket and make your travel arrangements NOW. Don’t wait — get it done and move on to your next decision.

When most entrepreneurs decide to launch a product, they’re mostly thinking about how many products they’re going to sell or how much money they’ll make during the launch.

Now while that’s a great reason to have a product launch, it’s actually not the only reason. In fact, I may go as far to say it’s not even the most important reason. Let’s take a moment and go through the top 5 reasons to have a launch that have nothing to do with selling that particular product.

1. You create visibility for yourself. Even a small product launch will create visibility and get people talking about you. After all, the point of a product launch is to create a buzz and get some of your free content to go viral. The sheer act of doing that builds name and brand recognition, which is key to growing a business.

2. You build your credibility. If your product launches include releasing free content (i.e. videos, special reports) or hosting a free call or webinar, how you present that information can go a long ways towards building your credibility. If you giveaway great content and people can experience for themselves how knowledgeable you are, your credibility will shoot through the roof.

3. You build your list. Offering free content or a free call or webinar is a great way to build your list. Even if you have a small list there are ways to structure your product launch to maximize your list building. (Note — the end result may not be tons of sales but rather a big boost in your credibility and visibility not to mention more names on your list.)

4. You build momentum in your marketing and your business. Product launches take an enormous amount of energy to get off the ground. That energy has to go somewhere (remember the laws of physics — energy is neither created or destroyed, just transformed) and if done right it’s transformed into a huge momentum boost for your business. You’ll likely find marketing your business much easier after a launch — not just because your personal momentum is going but because your prospects are still “talking” about you and are more open to receiving your message.

5. You sell your other products and services. Remember all that visibility and credibility you created with your launch? Well, you likely got the attention of people who may not be interested in the specific product you’re launching but they ARE interested in YOU. Don’t be surprised if sales of your other products and services jump (this typically happens both during and after the launch).

Now, here’s the best part. If you do a product launch for reasons OTHER than a big payday at the end of the day, think about how good it will feel when you DO sell a bunch of products? One of the biggest reasons why product launches are so stressful and so discouraging is entrepreneurs put this big number out there on how many they want to sell and when they don’t hit that number, they’re depressed — EVEN though it may really have been a big success in other ways. So, if you flip it, you can relax during the launch, enjoy it more and be excited and grateful for whatever sales you make.

Food for thought.

Of all the marketing tools out there (and make no mistake about it, product launches are a TOOL — nothing more, nothing less) product launches have got to be the most frustrating, misused and misunderstood tool.

There is nothing that will bring an entrepreneur to their knees faster than a busted launch. Worse, even if the launch ISN’T a failure, it’s still the cause of more worry, anxiety and sleepless nights than any other marketing tactic I’ve ever seen (and trust me, I’ve seen a lot).

However, since launch failure certainly is one of the top concerns (not to mention a bad launch makes everything else look worse) I thought I’d take some time today to discuss the top 3 mistakes entrepreneurs make when launching a product or program.

Mistake 1: They rush into the launch.

Let me explain what I mean by this because it’s not as clear cut as you might think. While I do think giving yourself some time and space to launch something properly (especially when you’re doing it from scratch) is a good thing, if you have a big enough list to meet your sales goals, you can rush your launch as much as you want.

Where I see the biggest problem with rushing your launch (other than just keeping yourself up nights working on all the promotional pieces) is when your list is small and you are dependent on affiliates or joint venture partners to meet your sales goals. If this is the case, you are pretty much guaranteeing your launch will fail.

You see, affiliates and joint venture partners are busy people. They have their own products and services to promote plus they too have agreed to help other people. The less lead time you give them the more likely they will tell you they can’t help you promote.

However, there is another way to look at this, which actually leads into mistake number 2.

Mistake 2: They don’t know the numbers.

Here’s how this mistake plays out. You’ve been hearing about these 6 figure launches, but you’re just starting out — you don’t expect to have a 6 figure launch. You would be happy with 50 people in your program. And with 200 people on your list that should be doable, right?

Well…

You do the launch and end up with 8 people in your program. You’re crushed.

Now the reality is with your list of 200, that’s a 4 percent conversion of your entire list. You should be THRILLED with that conversion.

But, because you don’t know the numbers (specifically the CONVERSION numbers) you’re just looking at the end result — how many people actually bought. And if it’s lower than what you wanted (or expected) you’re going to be disappointed.

But if you know the numbers, then you’ll know going in how many people you can expect to buy. And you’ll ALSO know what to expect regardless if affiliates help you promote or don’t. And that’s a really powerful way to keep yourself from getting too disappointed or frustrated.

Mistake 3: They either give up or decide not to send “one more email.”

This happens if they either get too discouraged from lack of sales or they just start feeling “icky” about the whole launch. At that point, they just stop.

And when you stop, you’ve also just stopped getting any more sales. And even if you’re stopping because you’re feeling sort of icky, you’re probably going to feel even more icky when people stop signing up for your program. (You CAN cut down the number of emails, just as long as you know which emails to cut.)

So you need to know going in you’re probably going to feel like giving up somewhere in the middle. If you know this, you can stand firm when it happens and make sure you still send that “one last email.” (Who knows, that could be the email that turns everything around for you and to think you almost didn’t send it!)

So, you’ve written your ezine article and published it in your ezine – now what? Do you just let it sit there, never to see the light of day again, or do you repurpose it and let it really work for you to grow your list?

I say the latter – repurpose your article and let it build your list!

You know I’m a huge fan of repurposing your material and really leveraging your time, and using your articles in this way is one of the most effective strategies you can implement to build your business and grow your online community, a.k.a. your list.

Today I’d like to share with you 3 easy steps as to how you can take your ONE newsletter article and use it in a variety of different formats to reach more of your ideal clients and customers.

Step 1 – Post it to your blog

After you’ve published your article in your ezine (hint: let your subscribers be the first to read your brand-new articles – one of the perks of signing up to your list!) take your article and post it to your blog. This is a great way to reach a whole new audience to let them know about your ezine, and to reach those people who are subscribed to your RSS feed.

If you also include your Author’s Resource Bio at the end of your blog post you will provide an additional way for your blog readers to sign up to your ezine.

Tip: If you use a blogging platform such as WordPress, this is hosted on your website. Each time you post to your blog you are creating fresh content for your website, which the search engines love!

Step 2 – Link your article to your Social Networking Profile(s)

If you’re active on Facebook and Twitter and other social networking sites, create a link to your newly posted blog article and let your social networks read your article too. Encourage them to also post comments so that you can engage with them on your blog.

If you’re using Facebook, you can set up your profile so that it automatically pulls all blogs posts into your Facebook account each time. This is done via the Notes feature.

And, because you are also driving traffic to your blog via your social networks, this is going to help improve your search engine rankings.

Step 3 – Create a Podcast

Reach those people who prefer to listen rather than to read, and create a podcast episode out of your article. A podcast is simply a digital recording that is made available on the Internet so that people can listen and download the files to their iPod or Mp3 player.
And if you’re using the services of a streaming media company such as BYOAudio creating your podcast becomes a cinch!

The three simple steps that I’ve outlined for you above all work very well on their own to help you repurpose your articles, but if you put them all together into a system then you have the foundations for your online marketing system and these strategies, if implemented regularly, will drive traffic to your website and build your list.

In this brand-new article I’m going to share with you three, often over-looked, but very easy, list building strategies that I use and have helped me grow my subscriber list by a whopping 374% this year.

My clients and regulars to my ezine have heard me say many times that the gold in your business starts with the list. Having a list of interested potential clients, who want to know more about you and your services, will provide you with a long-term, successful, business.

And guess what?

When you have a list in place of potential clients who are interested in you, your services and your products they come to you! You don’t have to go out and find clients – they’re right there!

And to achieve this you need to create a List Building System, so that you can continually add people to your list, and have a ready pool of clients who want to buy your products and services.

There are many different strategies that go towards creating your successful list building system, and today I’d like to share with you three free, and often overlooked, list building strategies. And they’re all easy to implement too!

1. Leverage the power of Amazon. I bet you didn’t realize you could use Amazon as a list building strategy! It’s very easy to do. If you have an account there, simply click on Your Profile along the top, and update your profile. Include as much information as you can about you and your business, and include a link back to your website. Then set about:

* Writing book reviews. If you have favorite books that you’ve read and have found invaluable to you in your business, write a review about them. You don’t need to have purchased your book from Amazon to write the review either. Simply find the listing for that book and write your review. The author will appreciate the positive comments, and your profile will be hyperlinked in the book review – giving readers the opportunity to find out more about you!

* Building a Listmania. A listmania is simply a collection of books/audio products that you have found useful and you’ve pulled them altogether in one place, so that anyone looking for books/products on a particular topic can view your listmania to see what you recommend. It saves them having to trawl through the website researching the information themselves!

2. Trade ‘Thank You’ page space. When someone signs up for your newsletter, what does your Thank You page say? I’ll bet it says something like, ‘Thank you for signing up to my newsletter’ – not very inspiring! Instead, use this space to recommend colleague’s newsletters. You could add, ‘Here’s a list of newsletter I find invaluable and I’d like to recommend them to you too’. And better still, ask those colleagues whose newsletter you’re referring to do the same for you! This is known as co-registration (or trading ‘Thank You’ page space), and is a wonderful way to build your list quickly.

3. Use the power of Email Signatures. This is a very simple way to build your list. At the bottom of every email you send out make sure you include a link to your newsletter sign-up page and a snippet of what your free taste is about. The beauty of this strategy is that you never know who your email will get forwarded to, and who will read your email signature and sign up to your list.
Now that I’ve shared with you three simple list building strategies, pick one of them and implement it TODAY! Don’t waste any more time in building your list.

Lou Bortone is an award-winning writer and video producer with over 20 years experience in marketing, branding and promotion. As an online video expert, Lou helps entrepreneurs create video for the web at www.TheOnlineVideoGuy.com. In addition, Lou works as a freelance writer and professional ghostwriter, with a ghostwriting site at www.GhostwriteForYou.com and a blog at www.GhostwriteGuru.com.