I’ve made the decision to spend most of the month of May in Sydney.

I’m going there to visit friends, explore some of the cool suburbs, sit at cafes and do my work, and hopefully attend a few events if there are any in May (if you know about startup or blogging or internet/social media events in Sydney in … Read the rest of this entry »

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

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I really wish that I attended, but I had scheduled in the Ultimate Success Summit with Tony Robbins and Sir Richard Branson. Anyway, Chris gives us a good insight into some of the content and value that the speakers presented over the weekend.

Below is a review from: http://www.fastwebformula02.com.au/

The Fast Web Formula Workshop

The first Fast Web Formula Workshop was held in Sydney on March 5-7th 2010. James Schramko along with his team consisting of Peter Parks who provided tips on how to garner free traffic from articles, Dean Hunt who with his invaluable insights provided methods to be applied to create a buzz and generate interest in product and Kerry Finch, an expert on the techniques of creating content and maximizing traffic for websites.

In addition, market researcher Steve Ovens imparted his knowledge on the best research methods prevalent and Kyle Tully enlightened the audience with useful tips on licensing and leveraging their product through local businesses.

The Workshop aimed at providing start-up tips for online businesses through ingenious strategies and tactics helpful in gaining a strong foothold in the online business. The speakers addressed the audience from a couch which helped the discussion to flow in a comfortable direction with views and thoughts expressed back and forth.

Each participant was required to submit a website, salesletter or a marketing campaign for review by an expert panel. Opinions were shared and tips to improve were exchanged by the panel. Events such as these tend to garner the stereotypical audience, but the Fast Web Formula Workshop brought along unique changes in the outlook of the crowd such as- Instead of a usual underwhelming response from the fairer sex, an equal presence of both the genders was on display.

This led to a unified and holistic participation for the speakers and audience alike.Half of the audience was over the age of 35, which highlighted the trend of many successful professionals desiring to switch over to a self-owned business.

James Schramko

James Schramko is a highly successful Australian internet marketer who quit his high paying professional job to apply his knowledge of online marketing strategies. He has achieved remarkable success and has developed strong strategies which have led to him being one of the forerunners of the industry. James has with great effect identified profitable niches and products which cater to those niches.

He has used his strategies and created products and delivers traffic generation services to an exclusive clique of private clients. These products have permitted him to tap into many top internet marketers businesses where his services are in prime demand. James has successfully sold millions of dollars worth of products and services on the internet and has established himself as a leader in providing the most cutting-edge techniques often way before the mainstream market conceptualizes it.

The Fast Web Formula Workshop 2

After the runaway success of the first Fast Web Formula Workshop, James Schramko and his team are back again with a new and improved version this September 10-12th 2010 featuring industry leaders for the first time ever. The new speakers include:

John Carlton- Amongst the World’s leading copyright writers, Carlton’s presence lends a lot of credence to the quality of the program

Ed Dale- Creator of the 30 day challenge and an expert online marketer. Kenny Goodman- nicknamed the ‘domain’ master for his expertise on investing in them will shed light on his experiences.

Brian Johnson- Strategic Profit’s CEO, Johnson will explain high end leveraging systems and its application for businesses.

Leanne King- The ‘WordPress Queen’, King will highlight the effective usage of WordPress strategies in businesses.

Lynne Terry- A full-time online marketer, Terry will elucidate how her career spanning over 13 years has provided her with the ‘dream life’.

The Fast Web Formula Workshop 2 will help businesses keep their marketing staff up to date with the latest techniques and will also assist in promoting a better in-house marketing. Furthermore, online marketers keen on taking their business to the next level will profit with the experience and strategies of the experts and will be in a better position to provide clients with the latest and best service available. Another benefit is for offline marketers who are seeking to establish their presence and hence, bridge the gap of online marketing in their business.

Conclusion Online Business is a relatively new concept and there is much money to make in it. However, not everyone who tries his hand at internet business is successful in terms of profit. An online business if followed with grit, determination and sincerity along the lines of the proposed techniques and strategies, will lead to an assured success.

An instantaneous response and direct feedback is probably one of the best benefits any participant may derive, one may gain from a workshop such as the above. Questions can be posed and quick replies will be received. Brainstorming can be done, not only with the marketing experts present, but also with the other participants, which will create invaluable perspective. With a whole lot of participants from different country’s present, networking is also an inevitable outcome.

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More info about Opium Den Thai Restrauant can be found here: http://www.eatability.com.au/au/sydney/opium-den/

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Before I give you a link, let me tell you a little more about it. Its called
JumpOnIt and the idea behind it is that retail stores can offer HUGE
discounts off their products or services when peopleBuy in bulk.

So for instance, over the past few weeks the kind of deals that have
been available are:

- Premium hair cut valued at $173AUD sold on the JumpOnIt for
$59AUD.
- Three course Dinner for two plus a bottle ofWine valued at $100AUD
sold on JumpOnIt for $49AUD.
- Professional teeth cleaning package, valued at $340AUD sold on
JumpOnIt for $95AUD.

As you can see, there is some INCREDIBLE savings there.

They have these sort of deals and many more all over Australia,
so where ever you are, your going to be saving lots of money!

Some of the deals go on sale for 1/5th of the price, its insaine.

If these type of deals interest you, or you are just wanting to see
what the site is about, click the below link:
=> http://www.themarketingdeviant.com/go/jumponit

I have mentioned just some of the offers they are promoting, I
would recommend JumpingOn the site and registering your email
address so you don’t miss out on any future deals.

In order to qualify for these amazing deals all across Australia,
all you have to do is go here:
=> http://www.themarketingdeviant.com/go/jumponit

I hope you enjoy the savings and fun this site can bring as
much as I do.

Cheers,
Mitch Sanders

P.S. Even if these above examples don’t tickle your fancy,
checkoutJumpOnIt cause there my be something that does:
=> http://www.themarketingdeviant.com/go/jumponit

Find Me On The Internet:
W: http://www.TheMarketingDeviant.com/
FB: http://www.facebook.com/miitchsanders
TW: http://www.twitter.com/mitchsanders

Technorati Tags: Australia, dinner, Group Buy, Groupons, JumpOnIt, sydney

So after some arm twisting and telling him I would show him my cards if he showed me his, he shares with me that the best thing you can do online to get your site really booming is to write a press release. He then proceeds to explain that writing a good press release is hard, but writing a great one is a science and that before he sold Tjoos.com for 7+ figures to a big fortune 500 company, he wrote one of the best press releases he has ever done and submitted it to Mashable.com. Now if you dont know what Mashable.com is, then please take this free cyanide pill we return to you normal life.

Back to my story, so Bart Jellema tells me about how once their site got published on Mashable.com, it was all over (in a good way), there was so much traffic coming to their site day after day after day and they were getting higher and higher commission checks month after month for the product they were moving and he put it down to this one important thing. Writing solid, holeproof press releases and then submitting them to the digital media BIG boys like Mashable.com.

This leads me to the point of this blog post, so when I found this article on inc.com about “How To Write A Press Release” I had to grab it for you as you NEED to read it.

How to Write a Press Release

Craft a news-worthy release that will pique reporters’ interest – and stay far away from the recycle bin.

The trick, professionals say, is knowing how to format a good release, where to send it, and what information to include.

Take it from those of us who know: An easy way to ruin your relationship with the news media is to send a bad press release.

Newsroom fax machines and reporters’ inboxes are flooded on a daily basis with press releases from companies, government agencies, non-profit groups, and even average citizens trying to get their neighborhood plight noticed. If you send in a press release that’s riddled with grammatical errors, buried in a convoluted e-mail, or completely irrelevant to the reporter’s coverage area, you might as well be tossing your press release down a sewer drain. If you deluge a news organization with unprofessional or uninteresting releases, your chances of ever getting favorable news coverage are zero-to-slim.

But when done correctly, a good press release will grab a reporter’s attention and force their curiosity to want to learn more about your announcement.

“I want to be a trusted resource for that media so I’m trying to give the journalist all the information when they need it so they don’t have to go anywhere else,” says Gillian Pommerehn, director of public relations for Crosby Marketing, which is based in Annapolis,Maryland, and whose clients include the U.S. Department of Agriculture and DuPont.

The trick, professionals say, is knowing how to format a good release, where to send it, and what information to include. The release is the face of your company that you’re sending out into the world, so it’s not a task to be taken lightly. Don’t forget: With most press releases now available online through wire services or your company’s website, customers or clients may also be reading them, not just reporters.

“Really good, clean, crisp, grammatically correct writing is so important in creating a positive impression of your company,” says Lauren Selikoff, chief marketing officer for Allison & Partners, which works with Samsung andMichelin and is based in San Francisco. “This is not a task to turn over to the intern.”

Here’s some tips to help you craft your message.

Writing a Press Release: Mind the Message

One thing comes to the mind of any good journalist when they receive a press release: Why would I care? The “news” in your news release has to be obvious, or else your notice will be on a fast route to the recycle bin.  The first step is figuring out exactly what message you are trying to get across, and how it qualifies as news.

“The hardest thing for people who are new to PR to grasp is you really have to take your ego out of it when it comes to finding something the press is going to write about,” Selikoff says. “What’s newsworthy to a publication’s readers is often completely different than what you are trying to get across.”

That means your release needs a good headline. That can be something saying how your new product is going to make life easier, or how it relates to a news event. Your headline should be an attention-grabber, so reporters can see right away how the announcement affects their audience.

Dig Deeper: The Art of the Press Release

Writing a Press Release:  Seek out Examples

If you’ve never written a press release before, you’re in luck: The Internet is chock-loaded with examples and models you can use. More than likely, someone has already composed a press release on the same topic that you can use for inspiration. Don’t copy — but do soak up their style and manner of ordering the content.

PR professionals recommend checking out press release distribution services such as PRWeb and PR Newswire to find a model on which to base your release. SearchingGoogle for announcements related to your business — promotions, new product launches, new branch openings, etc. — is also likely to produce an example you can copy.

Dig Deeper: How to Manage Your Own PR

Writing a Press Release: Mastering the Structure

Experts say press releases should be no longer than one page. Every press release has a basic structure:

Top:
Put the words “For immediate release” at the very top of the page. The headline — the key to grabbing attention — should be centered on the page, and usually written in bold or capital letters. Under that, put a subhead, often in italics, that elaborates on the headline.

The headline and subhead are the prime places to work in keywords that will help search engine optimization and draw traffic to your release once it’s online, says Leyl Master Black, managing director at San Francisco’s SparkPR, whose clients includeBing and Barclays.  For instance, she says, if you’re launching an e-commerce platform, you want the words e-commerce, platform, and software to appear in your headline and opening paragraphs several times.

First paragraph:
Black and others say you should assume no one is going to read beyond the first paragraph, which makes it the most important. Many releases also take up a journalistic style, beginning with a dateline, or the city and state the news is coming from.

“You need to have the theme and anything that is newsworthy summarized very concisely and neatly,” Selikoff says. “The remainder of the press release is kind of fleshing out the story. But the main story has to get across in the first paragraph.”

The old standard is that a release should be similar to a story the journalist would write. Reporters often stick to a structure known as the inverted pyramid, which means the most significant parts or the story should be at the top, with everything getting less important as you go farther down the page. This ensures that even someone who just reads the top of the release will get the most important information, and makes it easier to cut text from the bottom for space.

Quotes:
Experts recommend that your release should also include at least one quote in the body. The quote should come from someone knowledgeable about the announcement being made, such as a product manager if you’re announcing a new invention, or a top executive if announcing company wide changes. The quote can also be used to explain how your announcement makes you stand out from other competitors, even if you don’t mention them by name.

“The quote is where you can add context to your announcement and offer an opinion about it,” Black says. “The quote is where you can talk about why this is important to the industry.”

Selikoff also warns against using a canned quote talking about how great your company is. Use a quote that provides some insight instead. It’s also helpful to know some publications’ standards on using quotes from a release. While blogs and very small publications will often use information directly from a release, and re-use quotes you include in the release in their story, major publications most often will not.

Boilerplate information:
The last paragraph is typically a standard set of information about your company, including your mission, when the company was founded, awards it has received or other achievements. This provides basic background information the journalist or the public can use to put the release in context and understand more about who you are.

Contact information:
You don’t want to pique a journalist’s interest only to have that person scrounging and searching to find who to call for more information. Contact information can either be at the top or bottom of the page and should include the name, e-mail, and title of whomever the media contact for the story is. Usually, it will be your company spokesperson or a dedicated staff person familiar with the topic who can answer reporters’ questions.

“There is a certain format for press releases that media are accustomed to getting, ” Pommerehn says. “It’s Important to kind of keep that format.”

Multi-media:
You’ll most likely be sending out releases through e-mail and posting them on your company’s website, so experts say you should consider including some digital features, such as video and audio. It’s also an opportunity to link back to other company information available online — previous press releases and related matter such as customer testimonials or performance reports — that will give the news media additional context.

Dig Deeper: The Power of  Press Releases for Small Businesses

http://www.inc.com/marla-tabaka/2009/01/the_power_of_press_releases_fo.html

Writing a Press Release: Target Your Distribution

The first rule of sending out a press release to know which reporters you’re trying to reach.

“Not only is the press release itself important, but who you’re communicating with is very important,” Pommerehn says. “It’s a major pet peeve for journalists when the PR person or the person doing the press release does not do their homework.”

If it’s a local news event, find out who in the local media covers your neighborhood or issue. Do some research on bigger news organizations to find out which reporters or producers cover your industry. Some media organizations have designated e-mail addresses or fax numbers to which all releases are directed.

Professionals say to be mindful of what kind of organization you’re reaching out to as well: a reporter at an environmental magazine, for instance, might be turned off by a flood of paper-consuming messages coming from the fax machine.

Most journalists expect press releases to arrive by e-mail these days. Put your document in the body of the message because most reporters won’t open an attachment from someone they don’t know.

If you have a public relations budget, you can also send your release to a wire service for broad geographical distribution. Small companies can distribute through PRWeb.com for as little as $80, Black says. Other services such as Businesswire.comand PRNewswire.com are pricier but will expose your release to a broader audience.

Don’t’ forget that media organizations run on tight deadlines. Pommerehn says the morning is typically the best time to send a release for most publications while late morning or early afternoon is better for television and radio outlets.

Advance notice helps too. If you have an event you are trying to get covered, waiting to send notice until editors are rushing out of the door on Friday evening could lead to a missed opportunity for media exposure. Editors will have to scramble to fit it into their story budgets for the weekend, leaving a bad taste in their mouth about your company.

This article was taken from: http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/09/how-to-write-a-press-release.html

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So unforuntately, we were told that I was unable to drive any of the cars I wanted and sent on my way. I know I wont be dealing with them again.

There is more about this experience in the below video and some other info about an awesome cafe in Randwick. Check it out and be sure to tweet @mitchsanders (http://www.twitter.com/mitchsanders) any questions or comments you may have about it.

Oh and you can see my cute little Goft GTi in the background of the video. I havent said it on video yet, but my golf GTi has more power/torque than a Lotus Exige. Epic fail for Lotus. (it was fun to drive though, like driving a go-kart on the road… hehe)

You can also find me on facebook – http://www.facebook.com/miitchsanders

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