A Big Internet Marketing Success Secret
By Willie Crawford
On a recent "how to" teleseminar, where I was the guest speaker, I was asked how I manage to do so many different things. You see, I have hundreds of websites in different niches. From these websites I sell dozens of my own products, plus affiliate products. The answer to that question, that the entire panel of experts agreed upon, was that FOCUS is the key!
Far too many Internet marketers try to do too many projects at once. They eventually begin to feel overwhelmed, and then never finish most of them. The feeling of overwhelm actually makes you less efficient...TIRED, and less motivated.
It's critical that you develop the ability to operate almost as if you're wearing "blinders" that don't allow you to see off to the side. You need to not even think about unrelated things while working on a project. I do this well partly because I was trained to "compartmentalize" as a military aviator. At times I had to block everything out of my mind except the task at hand perhaps navigating through very hazardous terrain. There are times when if you're not successful at the task at hand, other things that follow won't matter as much!
Many of us operate in information overload. Everyday we get emails, FedEx packages, and phone calls about some product that we just can't miss. You need to learn to say, "Yes - I can miss it! Until I finish this current project, I simply don't need to take on another."
You need to also acknowledge that if you miss some new course, or tool, that's being really hyped-up, there WILL be another one along tomorrow. As fast as things change in Internet marketing, that tool that's being hyped-up today is somewhat likely to be outdated in a few months anyway.
Focus is a habit anyone can develop through practice. You start a project, and pay little attention to things unrelated to that project until it's done. Now, you get the reward of having finished that project. That reward could be another income stream on autopilot, or it could be just the joy of crossing it off of your "to do" list. Each time you get one of these rewards, it reinforces the habit patterns that made the reward possible. Eventually, you develop the ability to really focus, and really get more done, without it being a struggle.
Back to your "to do" list. If having a LONG list just makes you feel more overwhelmed, work from several lists. Have a master list, and then each day pick one or two "must do items" and focus on those. It will make your task ahead seem much less daunting.
Another habit that will aid you in focusing, is learning to delegate and form partnerships. Since a big part of focusing is getting projects completed, learn to only do those things that your are most suited for. It's often cheaper to hire someone else to do things that you don't know how to do well. Having partners adds an accountability factor. Knowing that someone is depending upon you to finish your part of a project will make you stop procrastinating and get it done!
Just as effective as delegating, and often cheaper, is using software to do routine or repetitive tasks. For your email marketing, use autoresponders for example. Use software that automates some parts of building or updating your websites. An example of a piece of software I use to build webpages for selling Clickbank products can be seen here: http://TheRealSecrets.com/unfair/ This software allows me to set up pages for over 3400 products in the Clickbank Marketplace in minutes. Tools like this free up vital time for YOU to do things that software really can't do... like marketing.
While software can't do everything, and I've never seen a business on full-autopilot, software can allow you to do a repetitive job in 1/100th of the time. Then you can use your remaining work time to really focus on a task you must get done. Do this, and you'll not only find yourself able to get a LOT more done, you'll find yourself with more free time on your hands. Try not to use that free time to take on too many new tasks. Get proper rest and recreation too. It will make you more efficient and make it even easier to focus because your mind will be clearer.
About the Author
Willie Crawford has taught PROVEN Internet marketing techniques to thousands of successful Internet entrepreneurs since late-1996. Subscribe to his free weekly ezine, which helps you cut through the clutter and time-wasting hype.
Subscribe now by visiting: http://WillieCrawford.com
5 Secrets to Building Business Relationships For Your Website
By Donna Gunter
I've tried any number of ways to market my business: attending networking functions, joining professional associations, exhibiting at trade shows, just to name a few of my tactics. However, despite my best intentions, I've gotten little or no business as a result of my efforts. I know that part of the reason for a lack of return on my investment in these items is my poor follow-up with contacts I've made, but I think it goes a bit deeper than than.
I just simply don't enjoy those activities. There now, I've said it, and it's out in the open.
I'm a card carrying introvert (INFP) on the Myers-Briggs scale, and while I can be extroverted when at a meeting or a networking event or a trade show, it takes a great deal of energy and effort for me to do so. I feel as though I'm playing a role (and I am, to some degree -- the role of an extrovert) and am not as authentic as I am when I'm speaking with someone that I know well.
In any business marketing book or course, you'll hear that if you don't toot your own horn about your business, no one else will. So, what's a good introverted girl to do to get the word out about her business?
Instead of continuing to beat my head against the wall and continue to do those things that I dislike in the hopes that something will change, I've made a 180 degree turn in my marketing efforts. It's much more comfortable for me, and I'm much more authentic, since I've decided that I want to get 95% of my clients from online means. So, instead of spending a great deal of time and money out of my office trying to drum up business, I'm refocusing all marketing efforts to building relationships online.
What's even more surprising is that I'm pretty good at it. I've developed close business and personal friendships will people all over the US and Canada, most of whom I've never met face-to-face. However, I know that if I were to show up in their city, I'd be welcomed into their home or at least be invited out to dinner, as we know each other quite well, without having ever met.
What's my secret? I'm a great writer, and have gotten much praise and acclaim throughout the years for my writing efforts. Many introverts love to write, and that skill alone can help you begin to forge great relationships online. Here are my 5 secret strategies to building business relationships as an introvert:
1. Email Newsletter: I've been writing my email newsletter, Work Smarter, Make More Online, for almost 5 years now. For the first 3 years, it was a real hit-or-miss proposition, as I published the newsletter only sporadically. However, about 2 years ago, I decided that I needed to publish on a weekly basis, and in that I needed to write articles that truly reflected me in each issue. I'm now starting to see the results of the writing I do each week. The results include readers calling or emailing me for coaching, to sign up for a program, to sit in on a teleclass, or to form a strategic alliance with them. Just exactly what I'd would happen. You can read more about how I publish my email newsletter at:
2. Writing and Submitting Articles: Once I have written my email newsletter for the week, I now have a usable article to place on my website as well as to submit to article banks, directories, and announcement lists. As a matter of fact, as I was sitting here composing this article, I received this week's email newsletter from Entrepreneurnewz, and the email had an very familiar subject heading -- the title of an article I had submitted to article banks about 3 weeks ago! The service that I use to submit my articles is called SubmitYourArticle.com, found at http://www.submityourarticle.com. I can keep track of the articles that I submit and go in and pull out a plain-text version of the article to send to new sources.
3. Creating Your Own Blog: Blogging is now all the rage, and it seems that every newspaper, magazine and business has its own blog. Blogging is a great way to get noticed online, and it helps both returning and prospective clients get to know you and your business better. I just started a blog in mid-2005 and have experienced greatly increased traffic to my website. You can get started very easily using a free service like Blogger, http://www.blogger.com, or work with a service like the one I use, TypePad, http://www.typepad.com, that permits you to customize the look and feel of your blog.
4. Participating in Online Discussion Lists and Blogs: Many of the people I know today I have gotten to know through my participation in online discussion lists. I belong to a great number of lists, but only really participate in a select few. In order to make this work, you need to participate consistently on the list or blog. When others see your regular posts or entries, more people remember you and it becomes easier for them to refer others to you and your business. Initially, upon joining a list or subscribing to a blog, you need to lurk (read without posting) to see how others respond to posts, and you'll also want to read the rules of the list that you should have received when you joined the list. A great resource for finding groups in which your target market might hang out is Yahoo Groups, http://groups.yahoo.com, and I use BlogLines, http://www.bloglines.com to subscribe to blogs. When you begin to contribute to these lists or blogs on a regular basis, you'll start to become known as an expert in your field.
5. Conducting Teleclasses: I've been told I'm a pretty good speaker, but having to dress up and travel around my local area to speak to various groups isn't the most productive use of my time. Instead, I can reach people from the comfort of my own home through the magic of teleclasses. Teleclasses are conference calls conducted via the telephone in which you can deliver content, answer questions, or hold a brainstorming session. You'll need a telephone bridgeline to conduct the call, and I get mine free of charge at http://www.freeaudioconferencing.com. Both Teleclass.com and TeleclassInternational.com have great resources and training for anyone who wants to create teleclasses as a part of their marketing strategy.
You can sell yourself and your business, even if you're an introvert. Finding a marketing style that's comfortable for you is key, and when you're comfortable and authentic, prospective clients will beat a path to your door!
About the Author
Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed professionals make more profit in less time online. To sign up for more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE ebook, TurboCharge Your Productivity: 50 + Tools To Help You Automate Your Business and Make More Profit in Less Time Online!, visit her site at http://www.OnlineBizCoachingCompany.com
How to Increase Your Sales BEFORE You Launch Your Product or Service
By Alicia Forest
Want to increase your sales BEFORE you launch your product or service? The following are some of the most effective ways to do just that:
1. Use Social Proof
What is "social proof"? Simply put, we are all conditioned to watch what others are doing and follow along (think teenagers). Using social proof in your marketing helps you to influence your customers to purchase your products/services, get new prospects to sign-up for your list, and get people talking about you and your offering - and that's just the start.
So, how do you use this psychological trigger in your marketing?
One way is to use results-based testimonials. Ask your current customers or clients to give you results-based testimonials. They literally say, "I used this product and these are the results I got." Having celebrities give these to you is great, but make sure you have testimonials from REAL people. Those are the ones that are really going to cement the idea in your potential buyer's mind that they can do it, too.
2. Answer your prospects #1 objection
To take "social proof" to a deeper lever, anyone who is buying anything almost always has this #1 objection: "Sure, you can do it, but can I do it?"
In addition to using yourself as an example (if appropriate) as evidence that what you are offering does what you say it will, it's also important to make sure you get "social proof" from people in your client/customer's peer group. Then your potential buyer sees people like themself and understands that "Hey, it worked for them, it can work for me, too."
3. Use a time limit
Creating a sense of urgency around your product or service will make it that much more enticing to potential buyers. For example, Jeff Walker just released his "Product Launch Formula" and has promised to sell it for $997 for one week only. After that he will raise his price. He doesn't even have to tell us by how much. Just knowing that you have one week to buy at a lower price creates that sense of urgency.
4. Use a limited quantity
If you are selling a physical product and you are only having 100 produced, then use that information to create the same sense of urgency you would with a time limit. Use a countdown on your website to further create the feeling that if your potential buyers don't buy now, they may miss out.
5. Use a time or quantity limit on bonuses
Additionally, you could offer bonuses for a certain length of time (first week only) or for a certain number of products sold. For example, the first 30 buyers would get an additional special report (valued at $XX).
The last three strategies also help your buyers feel like they are part of your "club" when they join by purchasing your product or service.
Obviously, you can use these tactics unscrupulously, and I'm sure you've seen it or experienced it yourself. But if you want your business to truly be successful, in all the ways that are important and meaningful to you, then you must only use these strategies with integrity and honesty.
If you really are only going to print 100 copies of a physical product, then only print 100 copies. That doesn't mean that you can't do another print run. It just means that you tell your market that you're only going to print 100 now, and if you do decide to do another run, then they will have to wait another two or three weeks before they can get their copy.
If you really are going to raise your price after a certain date, or after a certain number of items are sold, then you must follow through. You can give your current base a chance to buy at the "original" price before you raise it, but you still must raise your price if you say you will.
Your integrity using these strategies will create more sales for you than ever before. But use them to manipulate your prospects and it will come back to haunt you...guaranteed.
About the Author
Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coach, & Founder of http://www.ClientAbundance.com , teaches coaches, consultants, online entrepreneurs and solo professionals to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve.
For FREE tips on how to create abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com
Top 10 Tools to TurboCharge Your Business Productivity
By Donna Gunter
If I asked my clients about their most valuable commodity, without a doubt they would tell me that it's their time. Many are solopreneurs and are wearing the hats of CEO, CFO, Director of Marketing, Director of Sales, and IT Director, just to name a few. When they discover a product or service that helps them reclaim time, they feel they've hit the mother load, as time is money to them.
I love to find new technology or new services that help automate my business or enhances my productivity and makes the daily chores easier and faster. How many more clients could you follow up with and add to your business if you freed up 30 minutes, 60 minutes, or as much as 2 hours a day? Here are my top 10 tools that I use to turbocharge my productivity:
1. AcqURL: AcqURL makes managing a moderate to massive amount of bookmarks very easy. You create any number of categories in which to file your favorites, and adding a favorite website is as easy as clicking a button. http://www.acqurl.com
2. AddressGrabber Business: Address Grabber Business helps small business owners capture names and addresses from sources like email signatures, web sites or documents into a chosen database (ACT, Excel, Outlook, etc.) in just one click. http://www.addressgrabber.com
3. Argali White and Yellow: Argali White and Yellow searches multiple telephone and email directories so you don't have to. The found listings are combined, formatted in uniform way and displayed as if they came from one integrated metadirectory. You can also do a reverse search for a phone number and search for area codes. And, the program updates itself with any new listings every time you open it. Both a free version and a paid version are available for download. http://www.argali.com
4. Evernote: With EverNote you can easily store and quickly access typed and handwritten memos, webpage excerpts, emails, phone messages, addresses, passwords, brainstorms, sketches, documents and more! A free version or a 30-day trial of the paid version is available for download. http://www.evernote.com/en/downloads/
5. GotoMyPC: Need access to your files but don't want to drag your laptop with you on vacation or on a business trip? A subscription to GotoMyPC.com will enable you to log into your office computer and retrieve whatever you need, just as though you were sitting in front of it. A free 30-day trial is available for download. http://www.gotomypc.com
6. MaxEmail: I bought a fax machine and it sat unopened on the floor of my office for over a month, and I eventually returned it. Why? Because MaxEmail, www.maxemail.com lets me send a receive faxes through the Internet/email and made my need for a fax machine obsolete. The faxes arrive in PDF format, so you can easily share you faxes with others as needed.
7. Practice Pay Solutions Merchant Account: If you're not taking credit cards in your business, you're missing out on sales. The coolest feature that they offer in this service is the ability to do batch uploads of charges, so if you have a number of clients on retainer that you invoice every month, you can simply create a spreadsheet and batch upload the data rather than entering each client's information individually. http://www.profcs.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=127926
8. Roboform: This program is the top-rated password manager and web form filler that completely automates password entering and form filling. You'll never have to remember a password again! I maintain both my passwords and user info and that of my clients in this program. http://www.roboform.com
9. Tidy Start Menu: As time goes by, the list of the programs in the Start Menu becomes too long. As a result, each time you want to launch a program, it takes too much time to find it in the menu. The "Tidy Start Menu" program will help you to put the menu in order and make your work comfortable. Thus, after using the program, you will have a compact menu, which will contain nothing but categories' names and you'll have no trouble finding a necessary program. A freeware version and paid version are available for download. http://www.tidystartmenu.com/index.shtml
10. XDrive: Xdrive is your personal hard drive on the Internet. Whether you are managing files for yourself or your business, Xdrive enables you to store, access, share, and backup your files anytime, anywhere. You can also send others a link to a file that's too large to send through email. http://www.xdrive.com
About the Author
Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed professionals make more profit in less time online. To sign up for more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE ebook, TurboCharge Your Productivity: 50 + Tools To Help You Automate Your Business and Make More Profit in Less Time Online!, visit her site at http://www.OnlineBizCoachingCompany.com.
The four types of mini sites you can create and make money from. By Emmanuel Segui
Mini-sites are growing up all over the web because they are so easy to set up and fast to provide a stream of passive income. You can become a webmaster in a couple of weeks and learn how to create many mini websites for fun or for profit.
A mini-site is a two or three page website that is designed for a specific task: either to sell something, get a subscription or to make money as an affiliate for somebody else.
There are four types of mini-sites you can create, without knowing any code, which can bring you four different streams of internet income.
1. Creating a "1-page" sales letter mini-site. Obviously, this is the first type of website that you will think of. A "1-page" sales letter mini-site's main purpose is to sell your own product, whether it is an ebook, some software or multi-media product. When finished, your mini-site contains your sales letter page and your order page where people can download the product they just purchased. If you already have templates of these two, you can create your mini-site in 10 minutes flat.
2. Creating an "affiliate showcase" mini-site. An "affiliate Showcase" mini-site is an organized page where you offer a list of products people can buy. An affiliate is where you advertise someone's product and when someone buy's it, thanks to your publicity, you get a percentage. The products you recommend to your potential clients need to be related to each other. For example, If you are in the health and fitness industry, you will recommend a weight loss ebook or a good fitness equipment guide. You can include private sites to get a coach and/or a specific program on fitness.
3. Creating a "simple newsletter" mini-site Newsletters serve several purposes. A newsletter will help you position yourself as an expert, help you build credibility and rapport. Setting up a simple newsletter mini-site has one purpose only: get as many subscribers as possible. When you position yourself as an expert through the different issues of your newsletters which you send out every week, two weeks or even every month, you can recommend products or services related to your niche market. That's how you create another stream of income through newsletter or Ezine marketing.
4. Creating an "about me" page mini-site. An "About Me" page mini-site is simply a site where you will tell the world about yourself and your interests. On this page, you will set up links to your products, or newsletters to your affiliate's products. By getting traffic to this kind of site, you can convert people into buyers and make another streams of internet income.
You don't need to know programming. You don't need to be a computer geek, buy expensive software, or pay outrageous fees to a webmaster. With professional-looking templates, you can set up a mini-site with graphics, headlines and a mini sales letter in about 3 hours. If you want to elaborate a more complicated mini-site with a long sales letter, some compelling graphics, powerful headlines and a subscription box that will help you generate leads like crazy, you would spend 2 to 3 days.
About the Author
Create a simple mini-site in 10 minutes flat with Jim Edwards' wildly successful course. With professional-looking templates and all the software you need, you own everything possible to create as many mini-sites as you want, quickly, painlessly and fast.Check out at http://www.minisitecreatorreport.com
|
|
