My Encounter with a Hippie Jedi Blogger Earning $40k/month

At a recent marketing event Justin Verrengia – the self proclaimed hippie Jedi blogger – gave me some words of advice when it comes business, blogging and internet marketing. Why would one heed the advice of a hippie?

The bigger question is how does a hippie Jedi blogger make $191,847 in 15 months with an online affiliate program??

Below is a photo of Justin with a check that shows his total earnings as of January 2013 with the Empower Network program. [His earnings are significantly more as of the writing of this post.]

 

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How Did He Do It?

Justin Verrengia will be the first to tell you it wasn’t always peaches & cream. He & his wife D now live like jet setters –  with a home in Medellin, Columbia, with frequent visits to locations around the world. But just 3 years ago Justin & D were struggling to pay their $450 rent in Costa Rica. Justin had been in the home based business/network marketing industry for a number of years. He was trying to ‘live the life’ but was really ‘enduring a nightmare.’

He was constantly either a) on the phone closing prospects or b) on the computer trying to figure out how to grow his business online. He admits he would literally work 18 hours per day just to maintain a modest income.

So what changed?

Justin says that a pivotal turning point for him was attending a live internet marketing event called “Don’t Be a Wussy” held by Empower Network early 2012. It was the company’s first event. At that time, he was still stuck in his old habits, but had a goal of using the Empower Network’s blogging & marketing platform to make an extra $5k/month.

 

While attending that event, here’s what shifted for him: BELIEF.

Click Play Below Now to see the Hippie Jedi’s belief in action.

 I want to Learn More

Justin says that before that original event, he was conditioned to believe that it required working 18 hours per day and staying on the phone constantly to earn a good living in this industry. But based on the results he was seeing from other people with this blogging system, his beliefs about what it takes to make money changed.

There was a second shift that happened that weekend. It wasn’t just Justin’s belief in a new way of creating success that changed everything.

It was also the belief in HIMSELF.

Justin frequently attributes his mental shift to conversations with his mentor (Empower Network co-founder) Dave Wood. Wood’s belief in Justin spurred belief in himself. As did the belief from his wife D.

And according to Justin BELIEF is the key to all success; No matter what the objective. No matter what your goal….Here’s why:

Belief creates action. Action creates results.
Results create more belief. And they cycle continues.

When Justin landed in this productive cycle – he went on to blow his goal of $5k/month out of the water.  As of the writing of this article, Justin is earning $40k+/mo with this system.

It was my pleasure to meet Justin. I love being surrounded by people who push boundaries, challenge the status quo, and un-apologetically live their dreams. To learn more about the Empower Network blogging platform Justin & I both use to create extra income, to connect with people across the world, and create a positive impact, click here.

 

alice dymally and justin verregnia

 

Income Disclaimer: Just because Justin achieved these results doesn’t mean others will. Justin closely followed the instructions of his mentor Dave Wood, consistently followed the 8 Core Commitments of the Empower Network business training & as you can see has more belief in his pinkie, then unfortunately most others have in themselves.

The morale of the story from my encounter with a hippie Jedi blogger is to have faith in what you’re doing and belief in yourself. Your belief is more powerful than you can imagine.  Thanks for stopping by!

~ Live Life By Design ~

Alice Dymally

P.S. Justin is not the only one having success. Shalonda Gordon has one heck of a story. Check it out here. Enjoy! :)

 

Top 5 Reasons You Should Be Building a List For Your Small Business

How Much Money Are You Leaving On The Table?

For anyone who has a business, product or service which they promote online – whether through social media, YouTube, paid advertising, etc. – you could be leaving a tremendous amount of money on the table if you’re not “building a list.” You could also be putting your business in jeopardy. This includes those who may have a home business through a conventional network marketing business model and those who market their own products or services.

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What Does It Mean To “Build a List?”

Building a list simply means compiling a database of email addresses of your customers, clients, and/or followers. This is extremely important for any online business, but often overlooked by novices as an inconsequential assignment. It is not. In this article, I will show you not only the risk involved for your business if you don’t build a list, but also how to monetize your list and lucrative it can be.

 

How Big Business Builds a List

When you go to department store, upon checkout, what’s the first thing a clerk typically asks you? For your email address, right? In fact, they may even ask you for your email address at the grocery store, when you get an oil change and certainly it’s requested for any purchase that you make online. Why is that?

Here’s why big business asks for your email address: Having your email address allows them to send you promotions, reminders and to just stay in touch & build a relationship. It also allows them to do so for free.

It could cost millions to pay for a commercial ad spot to promote their latest sale.

But it is FREE to send that same information conveniently & DIRECTLY to your email inbox.

For many, email has become the preferred method of communication. Building a list is just a smarter and more cost effective way to interact with your customers or following.

Think of building your list or database of email addresses in the same manner & for the same reasons a major company would.
There are some other MAJOR reasons – no matter how small or how big your business – you want to start building a list. Let’s review the top reasons and we’ll go into more detail about each.

Top 5 Reasons You Should Be Building a
List For Your Small Business:

1) Free Advertising & Marketing

2) Build Relationships

3) Automate the Follow Up Process

4) Maintain Control Over Your Ability to Communicate

5) Monetizing Your List

 

1) Free Advertising & Marketing

As mentioned above, sending a promotion directly to one’s email inbox is the most cost effective way to communicate (because it’s free!) but is also extremely targeted as the people on your ‘list’  have an existing relationship with you in one way or another.

 

2) Build Relationships

Of course, we know, especially with small business, the relationship between yourself & your customer has evolved to more than just “I sell” and “You buy.” People have options. They have choices. You want to stand out from the crowd. You do so by building a relationship.

This starts by providing value to your customer base. This could be done by emailing them some free valuable, information at times. No sales pitch. Just content that would be of interest to your subscribers. It could be done by interacting. Asking their opinions. Taking polls. There are so many things you can do stand out, as not just a salesperson, but a friend. Having the ability to send emails to your subscribers plays an important role in that process.

 

3) Automate the Follow Up Process

I love automation! When you’re talking about creating real freedom in your life and with a business, you must have automation.

Would you rather follow up with leads one by one or all at once? When you build a list you can automate your follow up process using an email follow up system like Aweber or GVO. (Aweber & GVO both offer an affiliate program. At this time, I have affiliate account with each).

Using either of these tools, allows you to establish a pre-written automatic email follow up series. When someone subscribes or opts in to your list, they will automatically receive your email follows at the specified time. You can also send new broadcast messages to your entire list at any time.

 

4) Maintain Control Over Your Ability To Communicate

You are at risk! When your sole method of communication is through a free site or through social media, like YouTube or Facebook – that company is in complete control over your ability to communicate.

These sites reserve the right to delete content or even remove your entire page or channel. It seems far-fetched but I’ve seen it happen tons of times. In addition, so many changes pop on these sites all the time, you are really not in control.building a list

Lastly, when Facebook becomes obsolete (like the next MySpace) would you rather have to then rebuild your following on a new social media site? Or never miss a beat by maintaining contact with them through email?

 

5) Monetizing Your List

Did someone say “Monetize?” :-) This is the fun part, right?  They say that “The money is in the list…”

It really blew me away when I was introduced to internet marketing, how much money there was!

For a complete breakdown of ways to monetize your list visit the article Make Money Now: 3 Ways To Monetize Your List

For the scope of this article, simply understand when you build a strong, responsive list you can charge others to market to your list.  Does that make sense?

Say you’ve built an email list of 5,000 subscribers. There may be someone who doesn’t have a list that size yet. But they have a promotion they want to get out there. You many be in the same niche or market, so they pay you a certain amount of money for your to send their promotion to your email list.

Based on the size & responsiveness of their list, some people charge as little as $30, while some people charge several thousands of dollars to send an email to their list. And yes, people pay it when they have a profitable offer and it makes sense for their business!

 building a list

How Do I Begin Building a List?

While there are other ways to build a list, the best method for building a high-quality, responsive list is through blogging.

When people subscribe to your email list through your blog it is an indication that they have interest in your content. They want to know about what you have to offer! This is a long term strategy but it’s been proven time & time again to be the most effective – especially for someone new to internet marketing.

For anyone new to internet marketing or even for experienced bloggers – I highly recommend the Empower Network blogging platform. It is professionally designed, ready-to-go, hassle-free and come with 11+ high converting landing pages. I was able to build a list of almost 800 subscribers in less than 6 months through various strategies taught within the Empower Network. They also have a  lucrative affiliate program which means you can earn while you learn.

 

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For additional details on how to build your own list refer to the articles Start Your Internet Marketing Business in 3 Simple Steps and 3 Proven Strategies for Building Your List.

Now matter what, start building your list for the long term success of your business. Feel free to share your questions, comments & experiences below. What value has building a list brought to your business??

Live Life By Design,

Alice Dymally

 

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