A few of our films

Promote thyself

Over the years, I have received some negative feedback at times from people who do not understand what self marketing is. They are offended by it. Those people are always people who don’t self market. Also, I have an opinion too about the self marketing haters…

… like my daughter says: “Love your haters, they are your biggest fans”

In the beginning while I was still growing my nice thick, double-plated-independent-filmmakers skin, I actually was so botherd and hurt by some of the public being downright mean to me about this topic. lol. I laugh about it now, because it really is silly.

See it went like this: I was this woman looking to lose 50 lbs after my fifth child was born. So I did this amazing resistant training program, the Kennedy System.

I lost the 50 lbs and got toned, and I was excited! So excited that's all I would talk about. Now it was easy because most everyone else wanted to talk about it too because they did not understand how I could lose all this weight. So my husband and I took on the actual DVD series and helped package and...promote it. Why? That's how we make our living. I found it to be very easy to promote and talk about. The internet was booming with social sites, health blogs, etc. I

opened blogs and talked to women about this great product. Fantastic, yes? No. I was kicked off of most of the sites, called spammer, and all sorts of other names. Didn't women want to know a great way to lose weight? I was such a success story. I wanted to share my story and help women. I wanted to sell the DVD set to them. It backfired. I did get some sales later, but it was after I self published my articles I wrote on how I did it.

I copied how other health & fitness DVD's set up their sites, and advertising.

And that is how I really started to understand how the internet works. People want to know upfront if you are trying to sell them something. They do not want to be 'snookered'. That was happening all over the web too. And at a ridiculously alarming rate. So, everyone (including me) became a defensive web surfer. Until I started getting great virus scanners like Norton, and the such, I was being harassed like everyone else by spammers.

Well, as the law and many great sites are controlling these pests, I could be considered one because I am a 'marketing vendor'. I have something to sell. I have films, and products. My hard work at designing t shirts and gifts for fun (because I am an artist), I thought it would be such a joy to share all these great things with the public. This also became something I was 'selling'. Now, I was a spammer?

The rules are still foggy in this area. I have found a happy medium, and it goes something like this.

Set up your own blog. A real blog about your interests, or who you are. Be very clear to the target audience is (mom bloggers, working moms, film buffs, Cuba activism, etc). Then start talk about what is going on with you or in the industry. You can show case your wares, like I do here, or create a quiet link that links to another page with products after you have generated the readers interests.

Now, we could not support ourselves on this process alone. The hours does not make sense, but making three films a year does and then doing this in between-now that makes sense. And that is how I tie the whole 'self promotion-self marketing' machine together.

And don't forget TAGS. Tags or labels are a self marketers best friend. The spiders will pick up on these key words and you will watch your site go up the Google ladder.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

My husband's latests marketing attempt (it worked) with real truth behind it:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Barack Obama considers Award winning filmmaker
Luis Moro for Vice-President

Luis Moro makes Brack Obama Vice-President Short List.

WASHINGTON, DC – August 4th, 2008 –
Barack Obama announced today he’s moved
Award winning filmmaker Luis Moro to the top of his
Vice-President running mate short list.

The decision was made during Obama’s Foreign Policy tour
when millions of global citizen kept thanking and praising
Obama for speaking out against the 47 year old failed
policies against Cuba.

Millions of people continue to get educated on Cuba politics
by visiting and joining the number one Cuba Blog at:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/cuba

Moro and Obama first met in Los Angeles, CA. when Obama
personally took a copy of history making film Cuba’s
Love & Suicide, the movie from Moro.
A few weeks later Moro was invited to lobby in Washington, DC
against the embargo on Cuba.
Luis met with Obama Senate staff,
which took another fifteen copies of the film for review.

History was made a few weeks later when Barack Obama had
the courage, dignity and character to speak out publicly
against the embargo while still campaigning for
the Democratic presidential nomination.

A bold move that continues to pay off with millions of dollars in
donations and global fans everywhere acknowledging Obama’s Cuba
policy is a clear demonstration of a person who is not influenced
by hate, vintage policies or self absorbed interest groups that
continue to support a Cuba policy that does not work.

“America and the world is sick and tired of senseless political
insanity and outright abuse by a select few U.S. Politicians who
sell their congressional and senatorial votes for money and favors
to maintain abusive policies against Cuba, America
and global citizens.”
Moro said when told of his
rise to the top of the Vice-president list.

For continued updates visit
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/cuba
and add yourself as a friend of Luis Moro.

Of coarse,

he had lovers and haters & people who simply understand.

http://leonardzelig.blogs.com/guerrilla_filmmaking/2008/08/in-2004-luis-mo.html