So I haven’t blogged in 3 days! After blogging every day for a while it is weird and not a good feeling. It reminds me of when I forget to feed my cat or water a plant and in reality that is what it does when you don’t blog consistently, every day if possible… your blog starves, your plant dies and you get arrested for animal cruelty (not necessarily in that order). But I am back and I am determined to be better than ever ladies & gents… Momma got uber motivated in a recent trip to San Fran (see I had a good excuse) and I am more into my business and blogging than every before.

Today I am unveiling the 7 super secret networking tips you WANT to know. Trust me these work online and off. Networking is one of the most important things in your life to learn, it helps you build relationships (both business and personal), it brings you more business when your booming & can be a life saver when times are tough. As the old saying goes, it’s not what you know but who you know.

1. Comment your way into someone’s heart.

   This one works, that is literally all I can say. A perfect example is of a recent blog post I did on my craziest idea ever, it was one I put the least thought into but got a record amount of comments on because right after publishing it I spent hours on other people’s blogs commenting. What happens usually is that if you comment on enough blogs, with enough relevant, helpful or funny quips people will begin to follow your comment link back to your blog. So truly, this works wonders, if you don’t know where to start… COMMENT ON THIS POST

2. Promote their brand.

   That is right, a key to networking is promoting other people’s brand. Whether it be their personal brand (“Jane’s a hell of a gal”) or their business brand (“I used X and it was awesome!) people will love you if you show love for them. Now this only works with worthwhile brands, both personal and professional. Don’t hype every brand you come in contact with only the ones you think are truly extraordinary. Also online promoting another person’s blog and brand goes over big time because they can actually see it (remember to always send a trackback when you mention another’s blog or website in yours). For example some of my favorite websites to read as of late are the following: smartpassiveincome.com (a great blog on earning a stream of income passively online) iwillteachyoutoberich.com (which literally does just that) exilelifestyle.com (this guy has really escaped the 9 to 5 and is killing it making money & traveling!) pluginID.com (another site about a young entrepreneur who travels and lives life on his own terms) and many more that I’ll be listing in an upcoming post.

3. Listen!

   That is right, shut your yapper and listen! This is VERY beneficial in human interactions and is also helpful online. People tend to pump out content about themselves all the time, problem is, no one is listening. Everyone is worried about their own tweets, FB updates and blog posts instead of paying attention to what others are saying. I do this ALL the time. But I’ve been getting better, in social situations I try to talk 1/3 of the time and listen the other 2/3rds… I have noticed this works miracles. People actually like me more, contact me more often and follow up with helpful tips, business opportunities etc. when all I’ve done the whole night is listen to them talk. Online this works wonders, tweet out questions instead of updates about you. Share information that will help others that you listen to, craft your content to fit your market by spending hours researching them and listening to them. (P.S. I want to listen to you too! please email me at marenkate@gmail.com OR call me at 702-245-2423 with any questions or ideas on entrepreneurial stuff or escaping the 9 to 5!)

4. Do nice things with no thought of recompense.

   That is right. Be nice just because it is the right thing to do! Shocking thought huh? You may or may not be religious or believe in Karma (i don’t) BUT you still should abide by one of the most basic rules ever to come down from God Love your neighbor as yourself. This is the single best piece of business advice anyone can use, because if you abide by it you really will be kind and loving to people without thoughts of recompense and you’ll WIN IN LIFE! People love nice people, businesses love to work with other nice businesses, customers love being treated nice, employees will stay with a boss for little or no pay if they are simply the nicest boss around. Chew this one over… you may disagree but I dare you to follow that simple rule for a week and see how much better your life and outlook is afterwards.
   

5. Be cat like!

   I went to a ritzy-ish networking function a few weeks back and met a smoked salmon magnate. He was awesome, totally unrelated to my field but gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever heard. This gentlemen told me that those who succeed in networking are cat like not dog like. Which at first boggled me, but then he explained it like this. Cats aren’t desperate or needy, if a prince or a poor man came up to a cat they would treat them both the same. A dog will love anyone who gives him attention and are desperate to be petted, praised and played with, when a person is like this it turns others off instantly. But cats, cats will walk up to you, sniff you (the introduction) and then wander off waiting for you to pursue them. Cats are mysterious, intriguing and people spend more time trying to make a cat like them then a dog. When a cat likes you, you feel special… because cats don’t like everyone. This is how I use this in my networking, I go up to someone, introduce myself, hand them a card and make a short comment. I listen to them for a minute, then when they finish speaking say something like “It was lovely meeting you, I’ll see you around” and go… before i have time to pitch them, before I have time to even find out what they do. 9 times out of 10 that same person will come over to me later at the event and ask me questions, thus striking up a conversation with me. It helps a lot when you are selling something, because you come off as confident and cool. So once they open the door and come back a 2nd time you can easily sell them without seeming spammy, because heck, they approached you. So next time you are out ANYWHERE and you are thinking darn I really need a sale or gosh I want to date that hot model girl in the corner be cat like and then email me when it works.

6. Interview them.

   The single BEST way to not only draw more views to your site but to get to know powerful people is by interviewing them. Some say its because it strokes egos, others say its because people like to talk, whatever the reason you will get 100 times more responses from emailing someone to ask for an interview than if you say approached them with “I want to work with you”. I have interviewed Penelope Trunk, Craig of Craigslist.com and Timothy Sykes (a stock investing whiz who brings in 70k a month from his website AND made his first million in college!) all because I found their email address and asked them if they’d mind doing an interview with me. If you think you can’t do this because you are some no name, don’t worry, it works regardless. People rarely do background checks on you and instead are just happy to share their insights, or think maybe you’ll bring them more business or maybe are just really nice. I play up the ‘I would be so honored’ card in my emails (which i truly mean) and that often makes people rethink saying no. Best part is, an interview brings in new traffic to your site, helps your readers AND gives you a reason to continue to contact the interviewee from time to time and build a rapport with them for future occasions.

7. 6 degrees of separation in reverse.

   Now take ALL of these things on networking in the best way possible and use them to get to the truly ‘big fish’. I’ll explain how, its something I call (probably not uniquely) the 6 degrees of separation in reverse. Here is an example to clear it up: Say you want to work with <insert name of your idol> and you are just starting out. You first go on their blog or website and comment, read it, memorize it etc. But you also check all the other people who are commenting on it and follow through to their websites where you commenting, interact, engage with them. We’ll call your idol a level 10 blogger/businessperson/whatever for clarity’s sake, but you are just a level 1. So what you must do is through commenting, interacting with on social media and networking in person work your way up the ranks with people who are vaguely connected to your idol. So you see that Problogger.net has a loyal following of level 3 bloggers who always comment, you befriend them and then from there meet some level 5’s who you also befriend, comment, maybe do some cross guest posting on their sites, etc. From 5’s you hop to 6, 7 and even 8… by the time you get to 8 it won’t be hard to get the attention of the 10 because firstly you REALLY know them in and out and secondly you ARE everywhere they look so you are important. When I see someone who posts in every blog I post in and then they ping me on Twitter or comment on my blog they become a person of great interest to me because the logic goes “we must have a lot in common”. 9 times out of 10 I am right and they become friends or at least online connections.

Okay, this was a long one. My fingers hurt and unfortunately because I am still in the process of a start up I have another like 10 hours to work in front of me. So comment if you like (I’ll love you if you do) and let me know what you think about these networking tips.