If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or you can leave me a message HERE. Don't forget to leave a comment. I allow Do Follow so you get a link back. Thanks for visiting!

This is the third day of a 30-day trial. Follow the link to Marketing Ideas En Masse to find out more.

Cell phones are a huge business to be in, and as technology improves the business will only get bigger and bigger. I am surprised some industrious people in big marketing companies haven’t figured out a way to give cell phones away for free. I mean all you would have to do is enable advertising on them so anytime they sent a text, surfed the web or received incoming calls there would be an ad attached to it. I am sure enough people would accept a phone under those conditions, and you could be cramming ads into everyone’s pocket. We would each have our very own mobile billboards. Webvideomarketing.tv talks about the bright future for cell phone videos and why you should get involved early.

In March, more than 91 million people — or 36 percent of all mobile phone subscribers — had video-capable phones. Subscriptions to mobile video plans grew to 13.9 million people this year, a growth of more than 5.5 million in just one year.

Additionally, 95 million mobile subscribers have Internet as part of their plans.

Mobile video subscribers averaged three hours and 15 minutes per month using their third screen in addition to more than 127 hours spent watching television.

As business owners develop marketing plans for 2009, don’t leave mobile marketing out of your advertising options — especially if your product appeals to consumers under age 25.

While mobile and Internet cannot be your only communication media, you cannot ignore the growing importance of digital and alternative delivery of advertising messages.

If someone creates a Hulu.com for cell phones they will be filthly rich in no time. Now if only I could get cell phone coverage while backpacking in the mountains. Then I could watch The Edge with ads starring Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin while sitting in my tent.

This is the third and final in a series about Nido Qubein and his book, Stairway to Success.

Developing a plan for success involves three things:

1. Setting Goals
2. Setting Priorities
3. Developing Strategies

“Good personal planning involves no more than determining how you will get from your present circumstances to the future you have created through your vision.” - Nido Qubein

I tend to set pretty ambitious goals for myself, and I do so by writing or printing them out and hanging them around my office. Up until last week I listed goals on my blog for page views and other meaningless stats. I have since pulled those off because I personally think those are the wrong goals to have because of their small measurable impact. I am instead working on a new set of goals that I might not publicly post for this blog and its growth. Goals are a must and should be taken vary seriously.

“Wisdom ofttimes consists of knowing what to do next.” - Herbert Hoover

Setting priorities gives you a place of reference when you come to a situation in which you are unsure of where to go. Knowing your goals and making them your priority makes day to day decisions easier. Suppose your goal is to save $2,000 and you are buying Christmas gifts for your family and extended family. It is easy to want to splurge on the people you love even if it goes against your goal of saving money. Is there a way to save money and still buy / create gifts for your family? Of course there is. It might take a little more imagination than cruising the isles of Best Buy, but it can be done.

More important, the issue of saving money vs. buying Christmas presents for your family shouldn’t even be an issue. Nido talks about the different levels of planning and problems. Most problems like the one above can be addressed early and then shouldn’t ever be an issue down the road at Christmas time. If you plan ahead with your goals and set priorities you should be able to navigate your way through most problems fairly easily.

“There usually are half a dozen right answers to “What needs to be done?” Yet unless a [person] makes the risky and controversial choice of only one, he will achieve nothing.” - Peter F. Drucker

Developing your strategies for success in any area of your life is like having a playbook in sports. Could you imagine if a professional sports team just said: “Aw…this week, let’s just wing it and see what happens”? My guess and I am sure yours as well would say they are guaranteed to lose.

Your strategies should meet these criteria:

• They must specify actions to be taken.
• They must specify the person or persons who is to take the actions.
• They must establish a time for beginning the actions.
• They must establish a deadline for completing the actions.
• They must establish criteria for determining when the actions have been satisfactorily completed.

This can be addressed pretty easily by stating what the problem or goal is that you are trying to achieve or overcome. Then developing a plan of action to tackle that issues in a systematic and bit sized way. You need to set an “end game” for that issue when you get to your defined goal or conclusion.

I have brought you through roughly half of the book Stairway to Success by Nido Qubein. If you would like to learn more, I would highly suggest buying it or checking it out of your local library. Although I did not read this book before I started out on my own quest for success in business and life, I have been using many of the same techniques learned by other teachers and writings. I think this book has the plan well laid out and is a solid package of advice for building upon your success in any facet of your life.

Here are the first two parts, Nido Qubein Part 1 and Nido Qubein Part 2

This is the first in a series on Nido Qubein’s book, Stairway to Success.

Most of you have probably never heard the name Nido Qubein, but this is one name you want to remember. About a month ago I had the pleasure of listening to him speak at a local Learning Club (a group of dentists that gather for the purpose of growing personally and growing their businesses). I am going to be condensing Nido Qubein’s book, Stairway to Success for the next couple of posts. This book is full of great insight and life experiences that can help you determine your success in life and business. Here is Nido Qubein’s introduction:

Nido Qubein came to the United States as a teenager with little knowledge of English, no contacts and only $50 in his pocket (sounds a lot like Scratch Beginnings). His life has been an amazing success story. He has been the recipient of many, many honors (I can list them or you can go to his website HERE).

He is the president of High Point University, which enrolls 3,000 undergraduates and graduate students from 50 countries. He has authored more than two dozen books and audio programs (which I have most of currently).

Nido Qubein serves on numerous boards including BB&T, a financial institution with over $115 billion in assets, La-Z-Boy, and is the chairman of Great Harvest Bread Company with 218 stores.

Nido has also been the recipient of the Toastmasters International Top Business and Commerce Speaker award along with the Golden Gavel Medal.

Of course this was the condensed version of Nido Qubein’s awards and successes, but it still shows what things can be accomplished by one person. If you ever choose to read one of his books you will quickly realize that great success is more of a mindset than set of circumstances.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

This question we are faced with at a very young age and for most of us we choose to skip over it until we are well into our 20s or 30s. Nido explains that the quicker you can determine the answer to the question, the quicker you can set out on your path to success.

“You are talented!” - Nido Qubein.

Everybody is talented at something. It is a matter of growing that talent to be the best you can possibly make it that partially determines success. You have to know, learn, love and enjoy the things you are doing in order to achieve great success.

Make a commitment

Making a commitment is like signing a contract on a house or a car, it is a here in now choice that determines a part of your future. When you sign a home loan you normally commit to 30 years of payments. When you make a commitment to yourself that you want to do or be someone in the future, it is the same thing. These questions are important to ask yourself: “How do you picture yourself in 3 years if everything went perfectly as planned in business, life, spiritually or physically? A commitment is a commitment no matter what it pertains to.

“The past is over… Your focus should be on the future.” - Nido Qubein

So many times I find myself worrying about the future or the past as if there is something that I can magically do to change any of it. The truth is I only live here and now and can only change this moment to either better or lessen my future in whatever facet. Who you become in the future is determined by what you do today. That is why it is important to have a clear goal of who, what or where you want to be in the future.

That goal can always change and it does all of the time. If you were to ask yourself the same question two years ago or two years from now the answer would be different. But when you choose not to ask yourself those questions is when you find time slowly passing by without any rhyme or reason.

I will continue with parts 2 and 3 on Nido Qubein’s Stairway to Success.

One of the coolest things about being a blogger and having an audience is the wiliness of others to offer free things for reviews and exposure. I like books and try and read them whenever I get a chance. If anyone knew me when I was a kid they would probably laugh as I never used to read. One of the most recent books I received was Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepard.

I probably finished Scratch Beginnings in about 3-4 sit down sessions of reading, so it was a quick and very enjoyable read. Adam set out shortly after graduating college on a social experiment to achieve the “American Dream.” The intro informs us that he was to ride a train to a southern city with $25 in his pocket, the clothes on his back and a duffel bag. In one year time his goal was to have $2,500 saved, a furnished apartment, running car and be in a position to continue his upward movement.

Being roughly the same age as Adam and battling some of the same life choices in the pursuit of a career, lifestyle and calling, I can relate to him a lot. I believe that his experience throughout the book can be just about anyone’s experience. To make the experiment more convincing Adam chose not to use his personal credit, college education or contacts to his benefit.

The first 60 days he admits were the hardest and yet the most rewarding. Most of that time was spent in a homeless shelter looking for steady work while trying to stay fed and in good health and spirits. I would say 1/3 of the book was just about his first few days of his quest for the American Dream and really shows what the process is like to start all over with nothing. This could ultimately be a situation anybody could find themselves in due to any variety of circumstances.With a goal, determination and some support it really shows how far and how quickly someone can pull themselves back up again.

I would recommend purchasing the book and it can be found on Amazon for about $14, more than reasonable. If you want to find out even more about Adam Shepard and Scratch Beginnings head over to his site scratchbeginnings.com.I had a chance to ask Adam some more questions about his time during and since his experiment. Here they are:

Josh: On pg. 188 you talk about the journey, process, setting goals, finding passion and giving it your all. How much do you believe surrounding yourself with successful people helped you in your journey like Derrick (someone who helped you)?

Adam: More than “helped”, I think it defined the success of my journey. Maybe I could have succeeded on my own, maybe not. But in the end, that wasn’t the point. The point is that WE made it, together. And by choosing to surround myself with positive people that have my same focus, made this so much easier. I was so much more inspired that I wasn’t the only one fighting for the American Dream.

Josh: You also mention having a long-term, 5-year plan and the importance of having a goal even if it changes. I love goals and find them extremely valuable. How has your goal changed since embarking on your experiment, where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Adam: Certainly, my goals — more specifically — have changed since this book came out simply because I see that there is a market for me to talk about the issues surrounding the American Dream, but the fundamentals for my 5 year plan are the same. There still isn’t a quick fix to what I want to do…I still have to build a little bit every year. Actually, to be quite honest, achieving my goals is more difficult now, because now there are more opportunities for me to lose focus. It’s easy to shoot for the top when you’re broke…hell, there’s nowhere to go but up. But, when you’ve got a little money, a little success, it’s easy to steer off course and buy things you don’t need or do things that aren’t productive.

So, my goals have gotten bigger and more profound, but so have the obstacles, so it’s even more important to stay focused and grounded as I enjoy more success.

Josh: In the country with the highest rate of consumption and desire for “things” you resisted splurging on the non-essentials but rarely. Have the changes you made in your spending and thriftiness continued even through the present? Do you still shop at discount stores and supermarkets?

Adam: Oh, absolutely. And that’s what’s so important. Now, I’ve got a little bit of money in the bank and I could go out and buy “things” or I can be smart and I can really set some things up (investment-wise, for example) for myself. When you’re broke, it’s easy to be thrifty. Hell, you’re broke! But when you have money to spend, keeping it in your pocket is a challenge.

If you go to Amazon.com, you can watch a two-minute clip (or it’s on youtube; search my name) and you can see the car I drive now (cost me $400) that I’m doing pretty well.
I definitely still shop at discount stores and supermarkets. I just made a trip to Target for clothes (first in 5 years, actually, where I stocked up my wardrobe) and I splurged big time. I spent $300 and I’m not sure when I’ll have to go back.

Josh: It seems that once you have gone from something to nothing and back again possessions take on a new meaning. Having starting from scratch, did the “things” you acquire seem to not matter as much as you once believed, could you lose it all again and not really care?

Adam: Of course, and I think that’s the irony in this entire project. I was aspiring for “things” ($2500, a car, an apartment), but in the end, I discovered that the foundation of the American Spirit is built on character: integrity, work ethic, friendship, compassion for others. Things are things. And absolutely, I could lose it all today and start over again, because it’s an attitude. So, things aren’t as important as how I treat others, for example. (Now, don’t get me wrong. I would love to drive around in a BMW, and perhaps one day I will. But, that’s only after I’ve built a happy life on top of a strong character.)

This guest post is from Salwa, a 21 years old digital artist, designer and blogger from U.K. If you enjoy this post, be sure to check out her out at BlogRiffic.com or subscribe to her RSS Here. If you would like to guest post on the Unconventional Marketing Blog go to the guest post page to learn more.

As every novice internet marketer and those who are apprentices and greenhorns in any online business would ask, how can you possibly make money through PPC or pay per click advertising? If you are going to throw this question to me, I will make it a point that you will leave this page with a new knowledge to keep you through.

What is PPC Advertising?

Pay per click advertising is the latest form of online marketing and promotion that allows an advertiser to pay only those ads that have been clicked by online visitors redirecting such users to an advertiser’s website. This way, an advertiser can keep track of his online visibility and performance and likewise make way for improvement as loads of feedbacks are also been taken in consideration. Whenever I would go for this kind of marketing, I would often bid for certain keywords and phrases that I perceive as the most frequently used words by online users in their searches. This way, I can easily narrow down my target audience and be able to devise excellent marketing strategies to advertise and promote my products and services.

How will I know my advertisement is being read and published through PPC Advertising?

That is precisely my query when I was just starting on this online marketing business. I used to ask how people can possibly see my ads when they made their search. The answer is plain and simple, as your target demographic start with their search, they will be keying in keywords or key phrases, once these words match with the content you have, your page will be shown together with other germane results. We call this sponsored links and you can generally find this on either top or on the side of fundamental results.

Where can I place my PPC text advertising?

You can position your pay per click advertising on network sites such as the likes of MSN adCenter, Google Adwords and Yahoo Publisher. As you will be bidding with the price of keywords and key phrases, you have to keep in mind that the popularity of each word you bid somehow affects the pricing. Therefore, ensure that what you got is a well planned and designed campaign just in case unforeseen cases might transpire in the course of your online business.

How can I make money and succeed in PPC advertising?

Some words from the wise to make your pay per click advertising a big success is to predominantly study the market behavior as well as your demographics’ analytics. You have to see through which keyword lists are sterile and inefficient and which ones are productive and fruitful. If you are able to determine the best performing keywords make certain that you make every way possible to improve and attain its best performance. In my case, I also created a powerful capture page and send in the pay per click traffic there which has immensely boost my sales and online performance in just a short period of time. You can make yours too and watch as everything unfolds to your advantage.