Leading Forward

The first step in building your presence in direct sales and social media begins with designing your personal artistry and message.  Then, embracing professional tools to broadcast and highlight who you are and the value you offer.

Here is a collection of various resources and services that I use and feel are valuable for building your network or “tribe” and developing relationships within your direct sales business and social media.

Please note, some of these are affiliate links (which basically means you’re buying me a song to download to my IPod if you sign up using the links below).  

Enjoy your journey of being Online By Design!
Personal Artistry and Social Media Tools

Blog By Design!A blog is designed to build relationships with people through your authenticity, value centered content, and service; the very same elements that create a dynamic direct sales business.  Your blog will be the foundation for shaping your personal brand, communicating your message, and developing your content marketing platform.   Your blog will be the hub of your stunning online presence.

Wordpress is one of the most professional and popular blogging platforms available to begin building your personal and social meida artistry.  Here are 5 simple steps to ‘blog it big” and set up a self hosted WordPress blog. 

1.  Decide on a domain name for your blog.  I encourage you to grab your personal name as your domain such as debrawarren.com.  This begins your personal branding journey and creates consistent visibility of your name.  I use godaddy.com for registering my domain names.

2.  After you have selected and registered your domain name, set up your hosting for a Wordpress blog.    I recommend and use Hostgator to host my WordPress blog.  They make it easy to install your blog, and they have excellent customer care!  They are also very inexpensive at less than $10/month for unlimited domains, websites and/or blogs on that one account. 

3.   Update your Nameservers. Huh?  This will tell your domain registrar where your new domain will be hosted.   Simply check your inbox for an email from HostGator with the account details for your new hosting account.   Inside this email you’ll find 2 nameservers.   Keep the email open and go back to GoDaddy.com.   Log in to your account, find your new domain name, and edit the nameservers to the two shown in your HostGator email.   It can take up to 72 hours for your domain name to point to your new hosting account, so you want to do these steps right away.

4. Install your WordPress blog.  It’s easier than you think!  Trust me!  When using Hostgator, you don’t have to download anything or  manually install it yourself .   Instead, go back to your HostGator welcome email and find the link to your “Control Panel”.   Log in to your control panel with the username and password in that same email.

Once you are logged in, scroll down and look for the “Fantastico” button.  It’s towards the bottom, under Software/Services.  Under the navigation menu on the left of screen, choose “WordPress” and follow the simple instructions to install your WordPress blog.  It’s really just a click of your mouse!

5.  Choose a blog theme to expresses your personality and brand.  You can search for “free themes” right within your WordPress Dashboard.  I recommend getting an upgraded, paid theme.   These are easier to use, typically come with effective support, and offer high end style.   An excellent resource for stylish, professional, and customizable Wordpress themes is StudioPress. 

Personal Website By DesignA personal website is your “online brochure” of who you are and what you offer in a partnership within your opportunity and product line.  Unlike your company website, a personal website highlights you and instantly begins the relationship building process in sponsoring. 

As you engage with your community through authenticity and value centered contributions on your blog and social media sites, your personal website is the ultimate destination for those possiblity thinkers who decide to learn more and take the initiative to move towards you.

My favorite site builder service is designed to take you from a blank online canvas to a full colored online brochure quickly – with absolutely no experience necessary.  If you know how to create a Word document, you can build your own website.  This service offers templates that are completely customizable to create a seamless flow of your personal brand and style.  Plus, they have the leading edge gadgets and design tools to feature you as a professional.

List Building By Design!

As you begin to build your community of followers, you’ll want to invest in an absolutely brilliant autoresponder program  for nuturing relationships through the art of conversation marketing. 

If you’d like  to schedule regularly spaced follow-up email messages to customers, possibility thinkers, and new team members, this is must. You can also send a spontaneous email broadcast, create customized opt in forms and enewsletters.  This program is the best I’ve used in my 6 years online!