I am easily inspired… that’s right, easily inspired by great ideas and strategies that will help me grow my business by helping others become successful. Yesterday, I interview one of my dearest online friends and business associates Tatyana Gann aka “Russian Diva” on the topic of Social Media 2.0 – listen to the reply here: Public Relations 2.0 Featuring Tatyana Gann

The interview was filled with great information and several resources to help you utilize public relations regardless of the size of your business or level of experience. I encourage you to listen to the show and take lots of notes, it was a content packed interview.

I would like to share a few thoughts of my own on the topic of how to leverage public relations and social media to drive traffic and build your list.

First, what is public relations?

Public Relations (or PR) is a field concerned with maintaining public image for high-profile people, commercial businesses and organizations, non-profit associations or programs. - wikipedia.org

Public Relations (PR) a promotion intended to create goodwill for a person or institution. – wordnetweb.princeton.edu

Second, what is social media?

Social Media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media use web-based technologies to transform and broadcast media monologues into social media dialogues. - wikipedia.org

Social Media are primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings. [1] The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, telecommunications and social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. - creativemediafarm.com

Methods to Leverage Social Media

1. Use “Third Party Endorsements” and “Social Proof” to Influence Your Audience

2. Use Traditional Media to Build Preeminence in Your Market

3. Use Public Relations to Drive Content to Your Social Media Networks

4. Use Social Media to Target Your Audience for News Releases

5. Use Social Media to Manage and Support Your Public Relations Campaigns and Manage Your Brand

Ways Which Public Relations Supports Your Brand

1. Provides a Proactive Method to Control Messages About You and Your Business

2. Provides You with a Platform to Establish One Way Communication with Your Online Audience

3. Provides a Funnel for You to Direct New Readers and Established Followers ANYWHERE on the Internet that You Desire

4. Provides a Platform to Manage What Others are Saying About You

5. Provides Your Brand Notoriety and Familiarity in Your Marketplace

In the coming days I will be posting a video presentation that will explain these strategies in much greater detail along with a list of resources that will allow you to effectively execute your own leveraged public relations and social media strategy.

Here are a few resources you may want to review as I will share some tips on these time saving results producing resources in the tools:

1. Hostgator – Website Hosting Discount Coupon Code: askjamesholmes

2. Scribe – SEO Plug in to optimize your content

3. SpyFu – To conduct keyword research in your niche

4. Tatyan Gann’s PR Traffic Secrets 2.0 Video Course

Please be sure to post a comment and let me know how you are using public relations or social media in your business. Be sure to view my free video training on this important topic in the next few days.

I am here to help you succeed in your business and life!

(c) Copyright 2008-2010 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

Note: I am a Affiliate Marketer and it should be assumed that links provided within the content of this blog and individual blog post are affiliate links from which I may be compensated for sales made at the recommended sites. All products and service recommendations are made as a result of my personal experience with the product or service provider.

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Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

My friend Colin Klinkert (Co-Founder of Viral URL and Viral Host) has just introduced an amazing new membership site designed to provide hundreds of one-way links for it’s members from hundreds of REAL PEOPLE leveraging the most important bookmarking sites such as Twitter, Digg, Delicious, MisterWong and Reddit among others. The site is called “Viral Bookmarking” and it easy to use, highly leveraged, and the results are guaranteed.

It cannot be disputed, back-links are the key to growing your page rank and driving traffic to your sites. Social bookmarking when done correctly can ensure your success at achieving these goals. Unfortunately many link wheel strategies, link exchanges and content syndication networks are ineffective because the links are either two-way or they come from the same small group of IP Addresses and the search engines discount them. Viral Bookmarking solves this problem by providing links from a wide range of members with unique IP Addresses from around the world.

Members also have the option to promote the site as an affiliate and earn 50% commissions on all credit purchases and 30% in bookmarking credits made by their direct referrals to the site. So, not only are you going to improve your SEO and Page Rank, you also will be creating a semi-passive income stream and earn free bookmarking credits as an affiliate.

This short introduction video explaining the idea behind Viral Bookmarking

I am personally adding Viral Bookmarking as part of the link building strategy for all of my sites and I strongly encourage you to take a serious look as well and consider if this new community can help you achieve your business objectives. The other sites that Colin Klinkert has helped to create have proven to be of extreme value for Internet marketers worldwide and I predict Viral Bookmarking will soon set the standard for reliable one-way links with relative ease and guaranteed reliability.

To view the Site Visit: Viral Bookmarking

I invite you to watch the short video on the home page that explains exactly how Viral Bookmarking works along with all of the details on how to sign up and take advantage of this brand new site. Please feel free to post your comments here and let me know other methods you are using to create critical back links for your sites.

I have developed some really great friendships among my Internet Marketing peers, some I have met in person and an even larger number I have gotten to know through telephone conversations, Skype chats, email exchanges and live streams. All of these relationships have added value to my business and my  life and every now and then they produce some pretty cool experiences – just like friendships in the offline world.

Last Wednesday was one such occasion as I had a chance to jump onto “TE Live” hosted by Jon Olson and Tim Linden – the show airs weekdays on UStream TV.

My TE pal Lynn McCutcheon owner of Traffic Pro-X and all around awesome person, summed up my appearance on her blog as follows:

• James shared a lot of good input and insight on the discussion we were all having about the negativity in TE Land in general and some other great stuff (always great coming from James), and after we all talked about it all at length a little more, the mood changed a little bit and some of us talked about how those of us who still support what we know traffic exchanges can do probably need to work a little harder at trying to keep a more positive outlook on things TE-wise and keeping on trying to help teach people the right way to do things to get results (a la Affiliate Funnel, TE Live, etc.).
• We also found out James has a daughter who’s in college. I am still suspicious that he can’t possibly be old enough to have a daughter in college looking so young himself!
• James’ daughter was asking him about TE Live when she was there recently, and we had some discussion about the kids of TE Live. Tim and Jon were talking about going to get coffee and we all wondered why, when they both have kids there (as Jon’s son is visiting this week), they haven’t trained any of those kids to bring them their coffee.
• Tim went to get coffee with his headset on, so we could still hear him but couldn’t see him. Then we heard his coffee maker.
• Then when Tim got back, Jon went to get his coffee.
• James didn’t go get any coffee.
• I really don’t know what Jon’s doing here:

Lynn pretty accurately described the free for all… part serious and part totally random… just the way we like it!

If you haven’t yet experience the “water cooler” conversation that is TE Live, I personally invite you to stop by and spend some time with us. When I first started participating in TE Live a few months ago, I was always waiting for the “presentation” to start… it never did and what has evolved is something far more valuable to the participants… the people who tune in every day. It is a community of people who are getting to know each other, who can safely share their rants, best ideas, tips, promotions, and a good laugh everyday!

Be sure to check out TE Live and my friends blogs – be sure to say hello when you stop by!

TE Live: http://www.TELive.com

Jon Olson: http://www.HitExchangeNews.com

Tim Linden: http://www.TimLinden.com

Lynn McCutcheon: http://www.LynnM.net

Hats off to Jon and Tim for allowing TE Live to take on a life all it’s own and not trying to micro manage and mold this into just another training platform. We need the training broadcast too, but I love having a virtual water cooler to hangout at in the middle of my work day.

I am here to help you succeed online and achieve your ideal Internet lifestyle!

Be Sure to Visit My Virtual Office: http://www.ViralWebcast.com

(c) Copyright 2008-2010 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

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Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

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I love innovative new social media sites that provide marketers and social media types – like me… the opportunity to leverage to my work and build value for my brand. My friends Tim Linden and Jon Olson showed me this cool site that just launched and I signed up and created a profile right away.

The site is called IM faceplate and it is a very simple site to set-up and create your profile. IM Faceplate allows you to leverage all of your social media properties, RSS feeds, videos, podcast, and personal links. The site has a very clean interface and is monetized to earn commissions for you by adding your ClickBank user ID.

Let me tell you why I like IM faceplate. First, I like the focus as it allows you to quickly build a social network of marketers and develop professional relationships. From there the sky is the limit, strategic partners, JV opportunities, new clients and more!

In addition to the pure opportunity for business, I love the way in which you can utilize this site and community of marketers to brand yourself. As I begin to explore this site and develop creative strategies for marketing with the site – I will let you know.

To Join IM faceplate go here: IM faceplate Free Account

I am here to help you succeed online and achieve your ideal Internet lifestyle!

Be Sure to Visit My Profile: http://www.imfaceplate.com/JamesHolmes

(c) Copyright 2008-2010 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

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Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

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Social Bookmarking is a powerful method for driving traffic to your blog and sales pages to create opt ins and build your list. This really IS NOT rocket science, but there are a few tips to share as well as a few quality sites to recommend and get you started.

So what is social bookmarking? Social Bookmarking is the act of recommending or reviewing blog post, articles, videos, podcast and other content by “marking” the chosen entries on one or more book marketing websites like those recommended in this post. Typically you will sign-up for a free account at one or more sites and recommend content as you surf he Internet or stumble across content you deem to be worthy of comment.

Social bookmarking is also a powerful SEO tool and you should always bookmark your own content or encourage others to do so on your behalf. Be sure that your bookmarking efforts are universal and that you are not limiting your activity to marking your own sites. Be sure to actively bookmark the sites of others and find a balance in the proportion of sites you mark.

Here are a few basic tips to help you maximize your list building activities using Social Bookmarking sites:

• Use your blog as the hub for all of your content, traffic and social networking activities – everything should flow from and return to your blog!
• By using the Internet you are marketing to a expanding global marketplace. As a result you will want to post in English and if you have skills in other languages have a little fun and experiment a little. There also are a number of free plug-ins that will allow you to add a translation feature to your site.
• Always be mindful of SEO best practices and use keyword driven anchor text when adding a link to your blog post.
• Utilize audio and video to make your blog post more engaging – this will also make you site very sticky!
• Make it easy for your readers to bookmark your blog post by providing Social Media and Bookmarking icons prominently on your site and at the bottom of every page and post.
• Create a compelling opt in in exchange for your visitors name and email address and add them to your list.

Here are the top five Social Bookmarking websites based on Alexa rankings are:

1 | twitter
28 – eBizMBA Rank | 80,500,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 42 – Compete Rank| 31 – Quantcast Rank | 12 – Alexa Rank.
Source: Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 6/09/2010 | eBizMBA

2 | digg

52 – eBizMBA Rank | 45,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 20 – Compete Rank| 32 – Quantcast Rank | 103 – Alexa Rank.
Source: Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 6/09/2010 | eBizMBA

3 | reddit
258 – eBizMBA Rank | 16,500,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 262 – Compete Rank | 211 – Quantcast Rank | 302 – Alexa Rank.
Source: Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 6/09/2010 | eBizMBA

4 | StumbleUpon
262 – eBizMBA Rank | 16,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 269 – Compete Rank | 315 – Quantcast Rank | 204 – Alexa Rank.
Source: Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 6/09/2010 | eBizMBA

5 | Yahoo! Buzz
310 – eBizMBA Rank | 14,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 220 – Compete Rank | *400* – Quantcast Rank | N/A – Alexa Rank. ** Yahoo.com has an Alexa Rank of 3
Source: Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 6/09/2010 | eBizMBA

If done correctly and consistently using social bookmarking sites is a very powerful method for driving massive amounts of targeted traffic to your website. I would recommend implementing this strategy and pay close attention to the tips shared in this post. If you create content consistently and integrate a service like Ping.fm to automate your book marketing submissions, you will be well on your way to creating automated daily traffic.

Be sure to post a comment share your favorite social booking sites.

I am here to help you succeed in your business and life!

(c) Copyright 2008-2010 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

Note: I am a Affiliate Marketer and it should be assumed that links provided within the content of this blog and individual blog post are affiliate links from which I may be compensated for sales made at the recommended sites. All products and service recommendations are made as a result of my personal experience with the product or service provider.

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Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

The questions have been asked time and again for more than a year; “Does Twitter have a business model?” and “How will Twitter monetize their business?” It appears that those questions will be answered today in part as Twitter announces “Promoted Tweets,” a new service that has been in beta and will allow advertisers ads to appear in relevant search results.

Twitter users post more than 55 million tweets everyday and many of those tweets will be leveraged by companies like Virgin America, Best Buy and Starbucks all of whom are already on board. Promoted Tweets provides an interesting new option for Internet marketers who have suffered the sting of advertsing slaps from Google in the past year.

Many savvy marketers have shifted their advertising dollars for search campaigns to Facebook in recent months and Promoted Tweets offers another option to reach a targeted audience in any niche.

This is great news for small business owners and solo-entrepreneurs who can now attract and gather followers in their niche through participation in the Promoted Tweets program, which then allows them to further leverage their advertising dollars with future tweets to those followers with no additional cost.

CNBC reported yesterday that Twitter may value post and pricing based on how much a “Promoted Tweet” is passed around — its “resonance.”

Here is an overview from CNBC’s Julia Boorstin.

We will learn more today and this may also spell the end to the wide open frontier for independent applications developers who have created more than 70 million applications as Twitter begins to focus on drawing profit from it’s platform.

Read and See More:

CNBC Does Twitter Mean Business? CNBC Reporter, Julia Boorstin

Mashable Twitter’s Ad Platform to Launch Tuesday Contributor, Ben Parr

PC World Twitter’s Promoted Tweets: What You Need To Know Contributor, Ian Paul

Advertising Age Twitter Has a Business Model: ‘Promoted Tweets’ Contributor, Michael Learmonth

I would love to read your thoughts and comments on this dynamic new option for marketing your business. Be sure to leave your comments here and share this post by Tweeting it or bookmarking the post to your favorite service.

I wish for you every blessing on your success journey!

(c) Copyright 2008-2010 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

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Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

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Today, I was working on a new product that I will be releasing shortly to help offline businesses understand the power of social media. I noted a figure that I had referenced on my sales page that just didn’t look right to me, so I thought I had better do a little more research.

The number I had referenced siting active Facebook users was a little over 200 million, I knew that was no longer correct so I went to the source and was a little blown away.

I thought I would share what I discovered with you courtesy of Facebook.

Company Figures

More than 400 million active users
50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
More than 35 million users update their status each day
More than 60 million status updates posted each day
More than 3 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
More than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week
More than 3.5 million events created each month
More than 3 million active Pages on Facebook
More than 1.5 million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day
Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans

Average User Figures

Average user has 130 friends on the site
Average user sends 8 friend requests per month
Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook
Average user clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month
Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month
Average user becomes a fan of 4 Pages each month
Average user is invited to 3 events per month
Average user is a member of 13 groups

International Growth

More than 70 translations available on the site
About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States
Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application

Platform

More than one million developers and entrepreneurs from more than 180 countries
Every month, more than 70% of Facebook users engage with Platform applications
More than 500,000 active applications currently on Facebook Platform
More than 250 applications have more than one million monthly active users
More than 80,000 websites have implemented Facebook Connect since its general availability in December 2008
More than 60 million Facebook users engage with Facebook Connect on external websites every month
Two-thirds of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites have implemented Facebook Connect

Mobile

There are more than 100 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice more active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
There are more than 200 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products

Source: Facebook Statistics

Clearly Facebook is a force to be respected and leveraged by every marketer with a desire to reach a global marketplace, build community, or participate in global domination… your choice!

I wish for you every blessing on your success journey!

P.S. If you chose the global domination option, just be sure that you do it for the betterment of mankind!

(c) Copyright 2008-2010 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

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Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

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Press Release & Blogging Expert Tatyana Gann will be my guest on the Internet Business Blueprint podcast on Friday March 26, 2010 at 1:00 PM EST

Tatyana Gann is a homeschooling mom of two beautiful boys and owner of SmokinHotPR E-Zine for small business owners and solo entrepreneurs. She teaches how to create the Smokin’ hot PR with new PR 2.0 strategies to attract solid clients and partnerships for your business. Tatyana has been a professional blogger for the over 2 years. Press release maven and inspirational writer! Radio host of weekly blog radio show. Awesome pastry Chef, French Cheese and French Wine Gourmand! Holistic Health Advocate.

Tatyana will be covering 5 steps to creating a social media releases PLUS more cool content such as

1. Why you need social media release

2. Social media release and your brand

3. Social media release as a traffic generation method

4. Difference between traditional press release and social media release

5. The shift in social media and public relations

The information that we will discuss will be valuable to you regardless if you are promoting an offline business, online business, niche site or business opportunity program. I will be taking live questions from the audience and the chat room will also be open.

Here is a link to the show page:

http://www.JamesHolmesRadio.com

To learn additional PR and Article tips from Tatyana Gann visit her blog at SmokinHot PR

Join us for a lively conversation, feel free to call in with your questions, and the chat room will be open for your participation. This will be a very informative episode and will gain knowledge of a powerful tool and a system that actually works.

I am here to help you succeed!

(c) Copyright 2008-2010 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

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Note: If you’d like to reprint this article on your blog or in your newsletter you have permission to do so as long as the copyright information and the resource box above remains with the article.

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I had the privilege today to interview author and Ecademy founder Penny Power on the Internet Business Blueprint podcast. In 2010 Ecademy will celebrate their 12th year anniversary as a premium business and social network. To learn more about Ecademy sign up for a free account and see if this community can help you accomplish your objectives: Join Ecademy

I wanted to share a few of my notes from our conversation as Penny Provided some really great insights concerning the social web.

I. The distinction between institutions and networks using two acronyms

1. C.S.C. for Institutions: C = Closed S = Selective C = Controling

2. O.R.S. for Networks: O = Open R = Random S = Supportive

I found this idea very enlightening and as Penny explained the concept in greater detail, it became apparent to me why so many mainstream businesses and organizational institutions such as governments and academic institutions have struggled to bridge onto the social web.

II. Credibility+ Credibility = Profitability

The social web provides a unique opportunity for you to provide your network and potential customers, associates, and friends transparency that empowers them to get to know you, like you, and trust you which is essential in building relationships. Penny provided several key insights on this topic and share the story behind her website KnowMeLikeMeFollowMe.com

III. The guiding idea behind Ecademy is to establish a community of support for business owners and solo-prenuers around the world, a place where people actually develop true friendships and a dynamic support network.

IV. Ecademy is  integrating a number of enhancements in the month of February and have actually lowered the entry price of their ‘Power Networker’ membership and for those who are ‘Black Star’ members there are several new benefits on the drawing board.

As always, you can register for Ecademy as a free member and upgrade your membership based on the value you see in the community along with your personal goals.

V. The last point I wanted to share here relates to a bonus that I announced on the show for anyone who signs up as a free or paid member at Ecademy using the link provided on the broadcast and in this post. I am launching my first membership site in March 2010 and I have an extensive social media training series of videos and special reports that will be made available to the membership.

For those of you who join Ecademy using my link, I will provide you with a couple of the key modules from the series as my gift to you for being an action taker! This package is a valued at one hundred dollar and it is yours free.

Here is the link: Join Ecademy

Once you have joined Ecademy please be sure to send me a personal email message so that I can welcome you and send you the details on how you will access your social media training videos and reports. The email that you will want to use is james@AskJamesHolmes.com

If you would like to better understand how to leverage Ecademy to grow your online business around the world contact me and I will share several strategies that will produce results for you with consistency.

I am here to help you succeed!

P.S. To listen to a recording of the complete interview go here: Internet Business Blueprint Podcast

(c) Copyright 2008-2009 James A. Holmes. All Rights Reserved.

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James Holmes, Global Team Builder, Coach and Trainer, combining online and offline techniques to help you grow your business. To request a free 30 minute consultation contact James by phone at 303-523-9503 or email at james@AskJamesHolmes.com

Note: I am a Affiliate Marketer and it should be assumed that links provided within the content of this blog and individual blog post are affiliate links from which I may be compensated for sales made at the recommended sites. All products and service recommendations are made as a result of my personal experience with the product or service provider.

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