Cources, resourses and people that have helped me
Courses
Video Traffic Academy – I’ve learned a ton about how to use YouTube for my teaching business, as well as marketing, web video production, on camera presence and so much more in this course and from the private Facebook group that students hang out in.
Facebook Influence – Start learning how to optimize your Facebook business pages by watching this free webinar. I’m still working through all the content in this jam packed course by Amy Porterfield.
Izzy Video – I’m a member of Izzy Video, and also took Izzy’s free Final Cut Pro X course. Great teacher!
Big Brand System – The best course about design and marketing available online. My site is beautiful and my business is successful because of the things I learned in Pamela Wilson’s in depth course.
Teaching Sells – This is the pivotal course that got me started down this road to my own online courses. I had all this knowledge and I needed to figure out how to get paid for what’s in my head, more than just classroom instruction. I learned a ton about product and course content creation, writing, marketing, and so much more. This is a very intensive program. A big investment, but somehow that forces you to complete it.
Setting up Your Website the Smart and Easy Way – Free e-course by Pamela Wilson and Wendy Cholbi
Or sign up for their free webinar today!
Resources
ruzuku.com – This is where I house my online courses. I’ve been with ruzuku since the Alpha phase and highly recommend this platform, especially if you are not a techy person. It’s super easy to set up courses. All you need to do is add content (text, photos, video, audio) and the rest is taken care of. Support is great. Take a free intro course to see how it works.
aWeber – email list software. Newsletters are sent out via auto-responder. I must say it was a bit complicated in the beginning, but it’s a very robust service that I am happy with. When you signed up for my newsletters you may have noticed you got an e-mail asking you to confirm your subscription. aWeber is set up that way so that spammers can’t just add your name to a list and start sending you crap mail. Don’t get me started on crap mail.
This site is powered by WordPress and hosted by Webcorelabs in Calgary.
I’m using the Thesis theme for my website. If you want a Search Engine Optimized, smart, and fully supported site template that’s easy to set up, and has great design built right in, jump on this. You won’t regret it.
People
Pamela Wilson of Big Brand System created the customized header for this site. Pamela’s got it going on in the world of design and Web 2.0 marketing. She has a fantastic blog and her Design 101 e-course has free lessons for those of us who need help with the look of our marketing materials. Sign up for Pamela’s free e-course today!
The music I use in my videos is composed by Gabriel Zurek. If you’d like music for your brand, contact Gabriel and tell him Marlene sent you!
I belong to the Third Tribe, a community of entrepreneurs who I hang out with every day, online. Benefits of membership include seminars on how to make money online, building a business around a blog, e-mail marketing strategies, plus the networking and support I get from others in the forums. New seminars are added each month and sometimes more than once a month. These aren’t fluff. They are specific and detailed accounts of how people achieved their success (and some failures) with online businesses.
Photos on the site are copyrighted by me, Marlene Hielema, unless otherwise stated. Other images in the posts, for example photo equipment shots, are typically linked to the manufacturers site. Many of my photos are available for licensed usage from my stock photo archive. I have very reasonable rates if you’d like to use any of them for your site or for other purposes. Don’t steal them, please! This is not a hobby, it’s how I make my living.
There are affiliate links on this site
You will occasionally be presented with affiliate products and services that I endorse. Just to be clear, I won’t recommend junk to you!
The things I recommend to you have been used by me personally, or by a trusted source. Several of the links on this page are affiliate links, such as Thesis and aWeber. I also sell amazon.com books for the whopping commission of 4%. I use the amazon earnings to buy photography and Photoshop books.
If you have a recommendation, or something you have created that you want me to try out, review or help you sell, feel free to drop me an email using my contact form. If I think it’s good stuff, and if I think my readers will be interested, I will be happy to recommend your product or service. If it’s not a good fit with me, my morals, my business or my readers, I will have to decline. I want to keep bar raised high and I won’t compromise by diluting my site with junk. There are enough of those types of sites out there already. That goes both ways. If you have any problems with the things I endorse, please let me know what the problem is as soon as possible and I’ll deal with it!