How to use iStadia
Making Money Using iStadia #1: Social Media is a Business Tool

Does the title surprise you?

Well, it shouldn’t. We’ve created the site to help sport & exercise businesses and professionals win more business and ultimately make more money.  If your 'business' isn't about making money, for example in the non-profit or educational sector, you can substitute 'making money' for another goal.

But money isn’t and shouldn’t be a dirty word. We all, with the exception of a lucky few, have to work. If you are a sport & exercise professional, the chances are that you love what you do, but the reality still is that you have to make money doing it.

Think about what making more money might mean for you. It might secure the future of your business. It might mean that you can give up the day job. It might mean that you go on holiday this year when otherwise you might not. Or it might mean expanding into a new office; bringing more staff on board; or creating new capital to invest.

Whatever your reasons for being in business (yes, that’s what you are if you are ‘only’ self-employed), we want to help you to make more money using iStadia. You see, iStadia isn’t a ‘social networking’ website, but about professional networking and marketing. We hope that you meet nice people along the way, but that’s not why we set it up.

This series of articles, or our downloadable guide to making money on iStadia will help you to do just this. Step by step. You don’t have to do every step, but the more you do, the more likely you are to see results. Results such as:
- More views to your profile and website
- Greater credibility and trust - a stronger ‘brand’
- A more productive network of contacts
- More opportunities to explore
- More qualified (warm) leads to exploit
- Ultimately, more sales (but we can’t go to sales meetings for you!)

Don’t expect instant results. It can take a good few months but keep at it and you will see the benefits.

How does it work?

Ultimately, by taking part in, and sharing with, the community on iStadia you will create bridges with other members of the community and members of the public.

What can you share? Share opinions, advice, knowledge and opportunities (after all, you will know about opportunities that you are either not interested in or equipped to exploit).

Sharing starts by creating content. This is your way of reaching out. Why is content - or high quality content - so important?

Quality content - People view it, search engines crawl it

- builds trust in your ability to meet their needs
- makes you a credible source of knowledge of advice
- creates the first steps to building new business relationships

This is what online marketing is all about.

Why Network?

You’ve heard of the six degrees of separation, haven’t you?

The chances are that you know someone that knows someone that can help you achieve your business goals. If they don’t, they’ll know someone who knows someone who can!

The more new - and genuine - connections that you make, the closer you are bringing the resources, tools and people that you need to make your business a success to you.

Quality and quantity in networking

Many people consider real relationships to take place offline - in the “real” world. We’d tend to agree that the ultimate aim is to build offline relationships and business, although we are actively working with and for people that we predominantly deal with online.

Genuine relationships, however, wherever they take place, require time and effort. Having a huge network gives you a large audience to put your ideas, services or products in front of, but having a smaller network gives you a great deal more in terms of really putting it to work.

BNI International, the highly successful breakfast networking organization, has the motto “Givers Gain”. That’s not a bad starting point.

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Over a series of articles will be exploring all of the steps outlined in the downloadable document Using iStadia to Make Money: Networking and Marketing your Business.

#2: Goals, Target Market and Keywords
#3: Optimising Your Profile




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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com