Last week, Kristie Mun of Google Grants and Brett Meyer of NTEN (the Nonprofit Technology Network) graciously shared insights into what the program is and best practices for how to take advantage of this free adverting program for non-profits.   If you missed the webinar, watch a recording of it here. Be sure to visit the Google Grants website for additional details and program application form.

Here are a few of the highlights:

• If you’re a qualified non-profit– a 501(c)(3) in good standing that is not religiously or politically oriented, has less than 50 percent of its funding from commercial operations, and a few other reasonable restrictions—then you can get up to $10,000 per month in free Google AdWords budget to use to promote your organization.
• Most non-profits spend only a few hundred dollars a month, as there are perhaps not that many people searching for their particular cause in the area that they serve.  For example, maybe they are a local animal shelter, as opposed to a national cause such as breast cancer awareness.
• The program normally awards grants quarterly—however, there is such high demand that there is a waiting period of several months as Google catches up.
• Once you’re in the program, there is no need to re-apply each year.  You just have to actively manage your campaigns.
• Don’t bid on generic keywords such as “nonprofit” or “donate”—find specific terms that are highly relevant to your organization. Bidding on such broad terms will hurt your campaigns, evidenced by a low Quality Score that you can see at the keyword level.
• Make sure that you include all common variations of your keywords—for example, non-profit can be “nonprofit” (no space) and “non profit” (with a space).  These are separate keywords, as are singulars and plurals.
• BlitzLocal is happy to provide pro bono support to qualified non-profits.  We select a few every month to assist with their Google Grants. Contact dennis@blitzlocal.com to apply.
• This interactive webinar showcased the new ReadyTalk Web Meeting 6 platform—live presentations by multiple presenters, audience polling, chat features, recording & media player functinality—among many other cool features.  Participants received a free 30 day trial of the platform. Contact simone.verhulst@readytalk.com if you missed out.

Next month, stay tuned for our special guests from Facebook as we cover Facebook for Non-Profits– sign up here before it fills up. Registration is free but space is limited.

About the author: Dennis Yu is CEO of BlitzLocal, an ad agency specializing in local online marketing and Google Grants management.

Remember the old days of training?

It seems like a lifetime ago when my role as a training manager was to “get butts in chairs”, as my boss would tell me. It was that simple. Fill the chairs with people and get the training session under way. Filling the chairs used to be easy! People would come from all over the U.S. to attend training programs….it’s not the same anymore. As all businesses and all industries are doing more with less, we find ourselves looking for ways to get the work done at a fraction of the cost. Efficiency is the name of the game now.

If you find yourself needing to train employees who are located across the country or needing to communicate information quickly and consistently, consider using audio and web conferencing technology. You’ll save thousands of dollars! Many people think of this technology to be used just for conference calls or to share slides in a presentation. Yes, it can be used for that, however, audio and web conferencing technology can offer great benefits to your organization. Consider adding webinars to your communication and training mix and watch your return on investment (ROI) grow.

Back to training; modern-day training scenario. Save thousands of dollars by avoiding the costly venue prices, food, beverage, service charges, transportation and airfare. When using conferencing technology to train a group of people, it’s important to apply the same techniques as when training in person. Here are some tips and things to consider to help you get started:

1. The invitation needs to wet the appetite of your audience. Add your logo, a speaker bio and speaker photo to the electronic invitation. Having a customizable invitation is a must when sparking the interest of a participant, regardless if they are employees, colleagues or prospects.
2. Clearly state the WIFFM – What’s In It For Me. The invitation content should focus on the benefit the participant will receive by attending your training program.
3. Make it easy to reply and accept your invitation. With unique registration links built into your invitation, your audience can confirm their seat with simple clicks of the mouse. Having a built-in calendar plug-in (such as Outlook) available, upon a participant registering, will increase your attendance rate. Again, make it easy to say “yes – I’ll be there!” and help them to show up with the option of a calendar plug-in.
4. Customize the registration data you want to collect. Traditionally, asking for name, company and contact information has been the expected information needed when registering for any training program. Consider asking for more strategic information to help you gauge your audience’s interests, such as what they want to get out of the program, future topics of interest, other programs they have attended recently, etc. If you want to know what is of value to your audience – now is the time to ask them. It’s important to keep the registration brief to avoid attrition, so focus on the 2 most important pieces of information you’d like to gather.
5. Registration confirmation. Once someone raises their hand and registers to attend your event, send them a confirmation email and any pre-session materials they might need, by way of attachments. Automated registration confirmations can be set up to trigger at the moment a participant confirms attendance or is approved to attend. What a time saver! Set this up once and this time-saving tool will communicate on your behalf as people sign up for your program.
6. Reminder emails. A simple step, yet, a critical one. With so much going on each day, we all forget about commitments we’ve made. Set up an automated email to remind invitees of your upcoming webinar.
7. Customize the post-meeting survey for feedback on the program and another opportunity to ask your audience what is important to them. Again, keep it short and simple for best results.
8. Create a post-meeting web page with additional resources and/or the recording of the training program. This is a great way to communicate with those who may have missed the original session, yet tried to access the program at a later date. Your messaging can continue long after the event has taken place.
9. Recording your training event is an ideal (and low-cost) way to capture the content and make it available over and over again. Recorded content can be shared via email, social media, web sites, electronic newsletters or CD. Maximize your training efforts by recording and re-purposing the content. It’s a cost-effective and versatile way to get the biggest bang for the buck.
10. How many people will you be training? Do you want to facilitate the event yourself or would you prefer an operator to assist with the event. Would you prefer your audience listen to your presentation by phone or over their computer? Either way, you can achieve profitable results.

If you need help, just call on our ReadyTalk team of experts, who can answer any questions you may have and help you get started. Chat live (on the left-hand navigation) or call 1.800.843.9166. For more helpful “how to” documents and recordings, including a free best practice whitepaper on Training Successfully with Webinars, visit the ReadyTalk Resource Center.

As I sit here and reflect about this experience 2 weeks later a few key things come to mind. The first one is “just do it”. Say it out loud, make that reservation, buy that ticket, climb that mountain. People ask me “how do you do these special things?” I just did them—no magic involved, just go do it.

Secondly, find a workplace that matches who you are as a person. It may sound corny, but I finally found an employer who not only respects who I am as a person but who also wants to see me lead a fulfilling life. I used to feel like a fish out of water at so many places I used to work. The people who make up ReadyTalk exemplify the way I want to live my life—work to live, not live to work. I would like to take this space to truly thank ReadyTalk for letting me accomplish one of my life’s goals – break 20,000 feet.

After six months of preparation, the time finally came to leave. After many well wishes and sad goodbyes to my family (oh, my wife is now 6 months pregnant with boy #2), I’m set for 2.5 days of traveling. I arrive in Kathmandu and meet my teammates, 7 climbers, 1 guide, 4 Sherpas and 5 yaks.

Kathmandu is as real as a city gets – busy, dirty, colorful, full of life. We toured Hindu and Buddhist temples, but I could not keep my mind off of the climbing that I actually came to do. We finally started our adventure on day three. The Nepalese, specifically the Sherpa people, are the most gentle and truly happy people I’ve ever come across. They even out charm the Fijians. If you’ve been there, you know it hard to out-nice Fijians.

Island Peak is roughly 30 miles and 12,000 vertical feet from our starting point, Lukla. But first, we’re going to hike to Everest Base camp (17,400 ft.) and climb a bump called Kala Pattar (18,500 ft) to get the best views of Everest (29,028 ft.) and Nuptse (25,801 ft.). It takes roughly 16 days to hike this circuit, mostly due to the elevation gain and lack of oxygen. By day three, the giant peaks started to show themselves. My personal favorite was Ama Dablam (22,349 ft.). A stunning chunk of rock and snow. We followed the normal route to Everest base camp from Lukla:

• Phadking (9,000 ft.),
• Khumjung (12,100 ft.),
• Tengboche (12,350 ft.),
• Pheriche (14,000 ft.),
• Lobuche (16,100 ft.),
• Gorak Shep (16,900 ft.),
• Kala Pattar (18,500 ft.),
• down to Dingboche (14,100 ft.),
• up to Chukkung (15,000 ft.),
• finishing at Island Peak Base Camp (16,700 ft.).

The one exception to following the normal route was a detour to the small village of Thame. Thame is a special place as it’s home to some of the strongest and most famous Sherpa climbers. There we met Lapka Rita Sherpa, he’s done Everest twelve times. We were honored to have tea with his parents.

Along the way our group became great friends, stepped in yak dung, got sick, sat with chanting Buddhist monks, got a special blessing from the Lama Gieshe, played hacky sack and cards. We visited the hospital and the school built by Sir Edmond Hilary and were continually awed by sights of new peaks around every corner.

Do you have something that you’ve dreamed about most of your life? This journey began when my Mom came across the list of the “10 Things I want to do when I’m older” that I made when I was in junior high. One major unfinished task on my list stood out: Climb Mt. Everest. Considering I’m married, have a 2 year old son, a pregnant wife, a full time job; I decided to scale it down to something that could fit into my busy life. After some deliberation, I decided getting over 20,000 feet was a nice compromise.

One day I came across a guided trip to Island Peak Nepal. The itinerary included a trek to Everest base camp, then an ascent of the 20,305 ft. Island Peak aka Imja Tse. Not only would I get to break the 20,000 feet barrier, I would also get to see Everest base camp and be exposed to the incredible culture of Tibet.

Immediately, my head was spinning with details. I needed a month off of work, money for the trip, I was fat and out of shape and most importantly, I needed permission from my pregnant wife to go on a four week vacation. So I did what any self respecting husband would do, I put a deposit down on the trip – better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.

Now I needed to get in shape, beg for vacation, learn the requisite skills, buy the technical gear and most of all get in shape. Did I mention I was out of shape? And, I had six months to do all of this. In my next post, I will tell you how I accomplished all of the above in six months.