By subscription only! Welcome to your next issue of "Sound Bites Product News". Sound Bites is a division of MSIncome.com. You are receiving this newsletter because you requested a subscription. Unsubscribe instructions are at the end of the email we sent you. Theme for this month is How to create your own podcast!
2. From the Editors Desk - (Quentin Brown - Train your Brain) 3. Special of the week - (Source Code Sellout ********) 4. Coaching - (How to Podcast) 5. Tips and Tricks - (Automatic Money Machines) 6. Feature article - (Data Bases) 7. What's New - (HiFi Audio Stream)
8. Joke of the week - (Dr Seuss) 9. Back Issues
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
"Our mind is the most valuable possession that we have. The quality of our lives is, and will be, a reflection of how well we develop, train and utilize this precious gift."
Brian Tracy
WELCOME FROM QUENTIN and the STAFF
Welcome to another issue of Sound Bites
I have learnt over the past few years that it is not just a matter of developing your skill base that determines whether you are going to succeed with an Internet business.
The way you think and the thoughts you allow to populate your brain are just as important if not more so. When I started my business I read everything and went to every site I could. I ended up with information overload.
Over the last few years I have learnt to focus my thoughts on what I really want to achieve and this has been of great benefit. I am no longer looking for the next great program to come along to lead me to success. I am looking for specific sites and information, because I’m looking for particular things.
I never thought that training my brain would produce such a great wealth of information or make building a business so easy. You see, once you set down your goals and develop a business plan, you actually free up a lot of your time.
Have you heard that the mind cannot tell the difference between real experience and imagined experience - that it reacts the same to both real and imaginary events?
Well, it's true! And you can use this principle to your enormous advantage.
Back in the fifties, researchers at one college tested the power of imagining by pitting three different groups of students against each other shooting baskets.
They tested a large number of students for their skill at shooting baskets while standing at the free throw line. From this large group of students they formed three smaller groups of equal size and of equal skill, statistically. All three groups shot about the same percentage of baskets at the start.
Group No. 1 was the control, so for the next couple of weeks, they didn't do any practice at all. They were not to even go into the gym.
Group No. 2, meanwhile, went to the gym and practiced doing free throws for 20 minutes every day.
Group No. 3 also practiced for 20 minutes every day, but they didn't touch a basketball. Each one of the students was instructed to practice only in their heads. They were to imagine shooting free throws for that 20 minutes, but to engage in no actual hands-on practice at all.
At the end of that couple of weeks, Group No. 1, which had not done any practice, showed no improvement at all. When re-tested, their scores were identical to their earlier ones.
Group No. 2, which had practiced in the gym with actual balls, shooting real free throws, tested 20% above their earlier scores.
The big surprise, however, was Group No. 3, which tested 19% better.
You can actually learn a skill by practicing it in your head.
Is there anything you're not good at, but you want to be?
Just play it over and over in your mind. See yourself doing the new activity successfully. It WILL stick with you.
I had a friend years ago who told me that when he was in the Air Force, he learned to pilot a jet fighter by getting layout drawings of all the cockpit instruments and practicing flying in his imagination until he felt confident.
Of course he was already well qualified with other aircraft, but as any pilot who has ever taken the controls of a fighter will tell you, this is a different beast altogether. You don't just jump from a transport to a fighter. It takes many, many hours of hands-on training.
But my friend, on his first time up, flew the plane well enough not to disgrace (or endanger) himself.
Boxers imagine fighting their opponents over and over for hours before important matches. This has been called shadow boxing.
Salesmen practice answering questions and objections. The more they practice, the better prepared they are when they're finally with a customer. That's the way to build familiarity with any new situation, and familiarity breeds confidence.
Every world-class athlete, every outstanding salesman, every top executive can tell you that the higher up the ladder they go, the more important the mental, imaginary, part of their preparation becomes.
If it's good enough to help them set world records, earn fortunes and become household names, what can it do for you?
Just imagine!
Quentin Coaching for Success
SPECIAL OF THE WEEK - 10 Resale Packages
P.S. - I just picked up rights & Source Code to 10 great new products today! You need to see this right away, it is the sale of all sales.
You can also buy these great products and add them to your own business or start up your own new business right now. There are only 500 going to be sold.
Hello and welcome to this weeks coaching. A special welcome to all our new members. This is an advanced training session.
Creating a great podcast is very similar to creating good audio that we looked at a couple of months ago. It must have a good introduction, content in the body and then a call to action to finish it off.
In this tutorial I am going to take you through the whole process and explain how to do it.
How to prepare a great Podcast!
"Podcasting" is making audio files (most commonly in MP3 format) available online in a way that allows software to automatically download the files for listening at the user's convenience.
While looking around for a way to do my own podcasting show, the only website I could find about this is this one on engadget. But it assumes you have a Mac. After some playing around on my Windows XP computer I got it to work here too. This is how I did it.
What you need
Windows XP (or maybe an earlier version, haven’t tested)
Audio recording software, I used the open source Audacity. Be sure to also download the lame encoder library there to convert your output to mp3
A microphone
Optionally: Some songs, jingles, whatever and a player to play them (iTunes, Winamp)
First you have to connect your microphone to your computer. Depending on the microphone and how close you sit next to your audio speakers, you might want to route your audio output to your headphones instead.
Then, the hard part. You have to find the correct settings to record both your voice and music at the same time. To do this open up your volume controls. You can do that by clicking on the Volume tray icon or through Start > Control panel > Sound and audio devices > Audio tab > Click one of the volume buttons.
You’ll most likely see a screen looking like this:
You’re now on the Play Control screen. You can switch between the Play Control screen and the Record Control screen through File > Properties:
In this window you can also enable the volume controls you see. Be sure that with the play controls at least the Microphone one is enabled. With the recording one, be sure the Record Master one is enabled.
Go to the record control screen and select the “Record master” volume control as the active one. This will make Windows record all audio being played (including media players, but also MSN logon sounds, so be sure to switch that kind of software off during recording).
If your sound card does not accept the record master function then you may have to do a work around by recording all your different elements separately and then simply mix them together. There is a video later on to show you exactly how to do it. Alternatively go and purchase a better sound card if you are going to produce a lot of audio. They are very cheap these days.
Now switch to the play control screen and uncheck the Mute checkbox on the “Microphone” volume control. If you talk into the microphone you should now hear yourself through the speakers (or headphone, if that’s what you’re using). If not, increase the volume of the microphone using the slide bar.
You should now be set. Start up a media player, play a tune and while it plays start talking, if you hear both through the speakers you’re probably OK. Now, start up your audio recording software. In my case Audacity:
Record a little something and play it back to see if it works. If not, the problem most likely is in your play and record control settings, fiddle around with them a bit until it works. It’s really hard to give settings that work with every soundcard setup, so you’ll just have to test things out.
Click here to watch the full tutorial on how to create your audio file. It will open in a new window.
Now you’re almost ready to record your show. First you have to set the sample rate to something lower, I use 16Khz. This is done in Audacity by going to File > Preferences…
On the “File formats” tab you have to locate your lame encoder installation and set the bitrate for your target MP3 file (I use 48kbit):
After this, you’re ready to record your first show.
When you’re done you can export it to an MP3 using File > Export As MP3.
When that’s done, test your MP3 file in a media player to see if it’s OK. Then, upload it to your webhost and somehow get an enclosure into your RSS feed. Such an enclosure is placed within the <item> tags and looks something like this:
To create an Automatic Money Machine, you will need the following:
A Web Site that sells your product for you
Online payment processing
Instant Digital Delivery of your product
An email capture system, with follow-up for Prospects
Customer follow-up
Affiliate (Reseller) follow-up
Online Affiliate Sign-up
Affiliate Tracking
This may seem like a lot, and it is.But we’re going to walk you through it, so it'll be easy. And once you have it set up, it runs on autopilot. Then all you have to do is market. At that point, you're only job becomes getting people to your Web site, and then System does the rest - automatically! Quick Pay Pro is what we use
FEATURE ARTICLE - Databases
DataBases - Internet Business Strategies. by Quentin Brown
One of the most important strategies of building any business in today’s economy is the ability to network and develop large databases.
The traditional style of doing this is rather tedious, however with the Internet it is a completely automatic process. It is important at this stage to say that not all of your work needs to be automated. Databases, however are one area that the Internet excels in automation.
Whether you are looking at growing a traditional business with an Internet presence or are going completely digital this is something you will want to read and learn about.
What is a database?
Ok. I know this is a fairly obvious question and most people know what a database is, however, previously the ability to develop one was out of the reach of many small businesses because of the expense and resources required to upkeep any reasonable sized database.
A database is a collection of data arranged for ease and speed of search and retrieval. By using a database of customers, prospects, etc. you can divide them up into different categories and ensure that they are receiving the correct information for their particular need.
A database is a tool and because of this it needs to be set up correctly. I have worked with a number of organizations who have excellent databases however because they are not structured properly their usefulness is minimal.
I have worked with other companies who have the same size databases and are structured properly and they generate incredible incomes from just using the structure to follow up and advise their customers of new products or events.
How to set up a database!
There are plenty of ways to set up your database. If You’re just starting out you can use any of the basic programs such as Excel, 123 or Access which will integrate into your Internet programs. However, there are also much more Internet friendly software packages such as MYSQL or text style databases.
Even better are programs that set these up for you such as PHP, ASP or CGI scripts which provide a front end for the database. This means all you have to do is use a web interface to interact with the database and many of them will do all the work for you such as adding and deleting data automatically, backing up the data and also adding information.
A great example is this newsletter which runs solely off a management program linked up to a database. I simply use the software to manage all my newsletters, payments and follow ups by logging in and then entering the desired information. It creates all the links for what ever I am doing. Sales, newsletters, mini courses absolutely everything. It is like my secretary but a lot cheaper.
I can add new fields at any time to gather more specific information such as demographics, personal likes and dislikes and so much more. The database gives the power to my customers if they want to receive the information or not and change their details. This then frees me up to search out content and resources for them.
I can do queries and find people in certain areas etc. All this is done from a web page and so I don’t have to know to much about how it all works to make it a very powerful tool. And because the software uses encryption and passwords I can provide a high level of security.
How to use a database!
Databases are very useful for the gathering of information that can then be used for all sorts of things. For example I have a number of different projects that have different needs. I can sort the information and target the people that want to hear about what I am doing in each area or I can send a newsletter like this to all my contacts.
If I ran a real estate business I could put all my customers who want to buy a house into a database and then add all my clients who have houses to sell. If there is a match the database would automatically send me, my clients and my customers an email advising them, there is a match.
You can use these databases to set up guestbooks, newsletters, affiliate programs, members sites, password management and so much more. You can even use a database system to set up your website so that any changes you make to the database will be applied globally through out your website
Online databases!
Most of the information can be collected through various online forms many of which will interact directly with your database..
Today there are various businesses that will do all the above for you and have sophisticated software that will handle all the ins and outs for you. (Refer to the site of the week).
By continually directing people to some product or service you can enter them in your database. This is good business sense. It can be off-putting for some customers, however, if you manage it correctly and use your common sense they will not feel put out.
Always make sure you give them the opportunity to remove themselves at any time. One last, but very important, thing is do not sell your database for any reason, unless all your customers have given you express permission to do so. This would be financial suicide!
Resources!
If you would like to set up your own database systems then here are some good places for you to start. Most of the software is free and it is an excellent skill to develop. Of course you will need a hosting company that allows you to do this, however, you will find most of these companies today supply the back end functions to allow you to set up some great systems.
Most online databases use MYSQL as it is a stable and very interactive type of database. Many scripts and software programs will interact with MYSQL seamlessly and I have noticed over the last couple of years that many of these programs and scripts will even set up the database links for you.
While many of them are free you will need a little patience as they usually do not have support. If you are an absolute novice choose the supported programs first. Another thing to look at is what version it is. A good programmer should list how many updates it has gone through and the date so this will show you if they are actively developing their program.
Also have a look at the forums that most provide for discussion. See what problems people are having and whether they are being addressed. Most of the posts will be from people wanting to push the program to its limits so just look for those that are asking the basic questions.
The secret with any of the strategies we suggest is to have a go. You can’t do too much wrong. Usually the worst thing that happens is that it simply won’t work. This is where you have to stay patient and go back over the instructions. Most problems arise from very simple errors such as, miss typing a link, etc.
Well that’s it for this week. I know that many of you may find this a bit daunting and that’s why we are here to help you in this area. Just drop us a line and we will do all we can to help you.
Also most good hosting companies have good online help for doing this type of installation. If you take it a step at a time you will have no trouble. Always try and find the installation read me file which most good sites will provide or supply if you ask them. This will show you if they have put it in language you can understand.
Quentin Coaching for Success
WHAT'S New - Hi Fi Audio Stream
ZZ Top - Tush
Streaming Audio For the Professional!
Produce as many streaming files as you like.
Host them on your own server - you're in control.
Create Hi quality stereo or Low Res voice streams.
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Quentin Brown MSIncome.com L P O Box 168 Mansfield, QLD. Australia 4122
