Organizing Your Business

Having all the latest technology to help further your goals is great, however having every chart and webpage bookmarked is useless unless it is organized. Organization along with the careful choice of your weapons and the knowledge of how to use them effectively is far better than having everything under the sun and no or little ability to use them. Know what your weaknesses are, and if you aren’t able to compensate or change them then the awareness of them can lessen the chance of them popping up unexpectedly and destroying what you’ve worked for. Take the time to analyze yourself, know what it is that you can do and why you can do it better than the other guy and if you can’t do it better than the other guy how you can still take his customers by coming across better than him. If you don’t already view your competition as the enemy then you need to start doing so to truly succeed. Business is cutthroat and dastardly at times actually at most times when it comes to outdoing the competition. This attitude is vital. If your business doesn’t offend at least a few people then it isn’t big enough, and is a mom and pop type of operation which if that is your goal then that’s ok. It’s like the saying “you can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”. The larger and more successful you get the more people you touch one way or another and the better chance of offending some of them there inevitably is. How you choose to proceed with negativity that you encounter will also have a bearing on your success.

Now as to what sort of lead generating website could you create? Take some time to think about what would be useful to your potential clients or an area where you think there is a need for a service that brings together potential clients and professionals willing to do the work. Is there a tool you use that you could share with them? Do they have to go through any repetitive processes, such as finding different quotes? Do they ever complain about how hard something is or that it was difficult to find a service like yours?
The beauty about lead generating websites is that they don’t have to be big. In the case of providing calculators, this is something fairly simple, so you won’t need to outlay large development costs.

Make sure you pick a domain name that represents what you are offering, like www.builderscalculator.com. If your website is providing information you could register a .info domain name, or if you were going to provide quotes you could use something like www.findagoodglazer.com. How are lead generating websites profitable?
You can make profit not just from increasing the number of leads you will convert, but from selling the excess leads. For example, if you only provide services in the Sydney region yet gather leads from across the country, you can find industry partners in other states or regions to sell your leads to.

Using Your Website to Generate Leads

Creating a website whose sole purpose is to generate leads can be a very profitable exercise and a lead generating website provides valuable tools and resources for your potential clients, in the hope that they will then share information with you.
A lead generating website should not include your branding, so I’m not talking about a microsite built along the same framework as your main “seller” site. I am talking about a website having tools your clients actually need, rather than tools you want to sell them. If they find these tools useful, they might be more inclined to share information with you.
Think how your potential clients could engage with a website that’s not trying to sell them anything?

Two examples of lead generating website titles are Free Construction Info and Fee Free Building Quotes. The reason these types of sites are lead generating is that it only makes sense that the visitors to these sites are in the market for the services they provide and therefore you being a builder and having a link exchange with what is technically your site anyway you get the leads form them. These are two very different websites, but both generate leads. The first offers free information and tools which are not available until the user has provided their contact details. The second is offering to do the leg work on behalf of the user and all of the builders who have registered on the website become alerted to the fact that a quote has been requested and up to say three can buy a lead in cases where you are either already working enough or where you just provide leads to service professionals.

Keeping and even embracing a flexible nature and mindset is not only a desirable trait it is something you can not do without. Being able to stop on a dime and not lose your head when everyone else is losing theirs isn’t the only time you need to be flexible, when it comes down to adapting and changing in mid stride. It also applies with the smaller stuff. Adapting your approach with certain people and subtly changing how you deal with each individual also counts. What works for one person may not work best with another. In business one of your main goals is to get the most you can out of each resource to squeeze out every last drop and make it work for you. Having the same way of dealing with everyone won’t have that result. I realize this sounds redundant and obvious however you would be surprised at how little this concept is actually put into practice, and the amount of resources that are squandered because of it with the smaller businesses. Fear, and the “what if?” syndrome are the biggest roadblocks when it comes to this area. Even if the implementation of this concept doesn’t have mind-blowing results the results will still be perceptible and you will be closer to the heartbeats of the people you encounter and need to work for you.

Knowing Yourself

If you don’t know yourself you are left at a serious disadvantage over someone who does. Getting to know who you are and what you’re made of is essential. Taking a step back and looking at yourself from the position of another can give you all sorts of valuable insight and information. Knowing yourself isn’t just the, my name is this, I like this, etc… it’s seeing and accepting your weaknesses too. When you can objectively look at yourself and accept who you are then you can begin to look at ways of improving and changing to become a better person. How can you know what to improve or change if you aren’t even aware of who you are? Write it down all your positive traits and negative alike. Then absorb it, how are these things either enhancing or impinging on your personal and professional life? You may find that something you saw as positive is having a negative effect in one or both of those areas. What can you do to enhance the good and mitigate the bad? There will always be something bad such is the nature of equilibrium but how you go about dealing with and controlling the bad can mean the difference between success and failure. In our world today competition is rife and how you go about building your arsenal will have a direct impact on your ability to perform to the best of your ability and get what you want.

Tweet Deck

Tweet deck is an application that allows you to better manage your Twitter experience by breaking down Twitter feeds into more manageable bite sized pieces. You can also create groups with only certain people in that group. It will break out their posts in another column so they are easy to find, read and respond to. You can use this tool to find key players with lots of followers and put them on a special group list called “Influencers.” You then need to pay more attention to that list of messages than all others and you’ll spend a lot of time trying to interact with those folks. If you can create a relationship with the top, the rest of their followers will follow. You can use it exclusively and like it a lot. You can shorten URLs right in tweet deck and can even shorten your post by making it more text jargon friendly. Tweetlater is an application that allows you to create an automated direct message that goes out to new people who follow you on Twitter. Many people think automated direct messages in Twitter are the lowest of the low. They are fools. It’s a great way to have someone take a next step in a relationship with you if they are into what you talk about. The key here is to not be too overtly promotional. You want to be friendly and helpful. Be a provider of value not your typical used car salesman.

Twitter Bio

Just like with any copywriting project, the more compelling the copy the more results you’ll get. Your Twitter bio is no different. The better your copy, the more followers will find you compelling and follow you. We recommend combining personality and big payoffs in your bio. What is the biggest benefit reading your tweets can provide someone? What makes someone choose you over every other option? What do you do better potentially better than any other person on the planet? Highlight those things. Be brash, be bold. No one ever found success through timidity. Also keep in mind who you are for. Don’t try to be for everyone. If you are using Twitter for business and marketing purposes then you only want people following you that fit your target demo. Sure others can follow if they find you interesting but you want to write your bio and tweets for the group you’re trying to attract and create relationships with. Next we’re going to cover a couple of our favorite tools to make the Twitter experience easier, more effective and a whole lot more fun. If you’ve been to the Twitter site and seen the interface you’ll know that it’s not very conducive to really keeping up with a lot of tweeters and tweets (you almost feel like an asshole saying that. It’s a great example of creating your own terminology and vernacular, a persuasion and retention strategy used by savvy marketers and by cults… and should be adopted by you).

You might have noticed an up swell of interest in blogging and RSS (Real Simple Syndication) as a tool for publishing content and communicating directly with visitors, prospects, customers and publishers of content. As a small business owner who is interested in providing unique content and communicating with your audience blogs is definitely the way to go. Blogging is very new but while you’re reading this short message, advertising and publishing giants like Google and Yahoo are gearing up to take advantage of the benefits offered by weblogs. Even Sony decided to enter the ‘blog trail’ by entering into agreement with Gawker Media to sponsor a new blog on software. Blog and RSS as a marketing tool can offer great benefits for small companies. And a small business owner who is using the Internet as a marketing medium, it’s a low cost medium for generating traffic to your web site, developing a unique identity and building long term relationships with subscribers and customers. Spam emails are the ‘curse of the Internet’ of plague proportions and that’s not being overdramatic. Small business owners spend hours of unproductive time sifting and filtering hundreds and spam emails from their email boxes every day. If it’s not Viagra, it’s some other medication, Internet get rich scam or pornographic content. By using anti-spam software some spam in being blocked but legitimate emails are being mistaken for spam resulting in potential loss of business and reputation.

Basic Ingredients for Successful Marketing

These are the basic ingredients you’ll need to market smarter and make a bold and clear statement that you are not the same and begin to clearly compel your target to believe that you are the obvious choice. Do The Opposite, one great way to get more than your fair share of the market is to take this standpoint advice, “If you want to be successful, look at what everyone else is doing, and do the opposite.” Most of the people in your industry have similar backgrounds and experiences. But the opportunity for success and the attention of your prospects is endless. You must become a risk taker. Status quo thinking and common sense action delivers status quo and common results. If you are seeking more than average results and success you need to do the opposite. Doing what’s comfortable is safe for you, but boring for your customers. And it fails to deliver any kind of preference. Boring is invisible and invisible means no sale. Give Value First at the beginning of every buyer/seller relationship there is a set of emotions like fear, distrust, uncertainty and lack of knowledge that exists and stands between you and the sale. It’s like a wall between you. Most marketers try to do a standing jump over the wall, only to miss it by a mile. It’s foolish to try to jump the wall in a single bound. The smart thing to do is break the wall down from the bottom, brick by brick.

Research
One area to pay special concern to when optimizing your content is to research, research, research. I can’t stress this enough what you may consider relevant material to post may not be all there is to offer. By looking at the competition and analyzing their efforts you can gain fresh new input as to come out on top. Using graphics is a standard for promotion however using the right graphics in the right places isn’t. Take a look at some of the big banks and business firms and the layouts they use. If you can break down their individual elements and the feel they evoke you can mimic those same similarities. I don’t mean plagiarize them I mean use the same type of elements in design structure. I have seen some of the smaller business fish online and the graphics they use in my opinion leave them coming off hokey and make me think of a potential scam. One of the main reason for this is their initial pitch. They are business sites with pictures of smiling families by a pool at some ritzy Bahamian resort or pics of alpine skiers doing the slalom course. I realize what they are trying to promote is if you follow them you too can have five star dining and lifestyles. Yet when you look at a well established business firms site you see pics of efficient looking meetings going on in high end board rooms or pics of execs shaking hands with the atypical foreign investor. They show images of what they do at “worktime” not their personal lives. A lot of the business you want to attract will have had experiences with these sites particularly the bank sites and they trust those institutions to a greater degree than someone they are just meeting online. By using similar layouts etc… you will be able to sort of ride on their coattails. You may be a stranger but, you look familiar, see what I’m getting at?

SEO Techniques

To fully appreciate the need for SEO techniques when putting your website together look at other websites that employ these tactics. Then by seeing their success through using SEO as a factor when they put together their sites you may be convinced to do the same. Take your list of keywords and phrases then go to Google or Yahoo and put in the keywords and key phrases one at a time in separate searches. You will notice that the same few sites keep popping up somewhere in the top 10 over and over again. You can be reasonably assured that this isn’t by accident. These sites that keep popping up are using SEO as a consideration and that is why they appear all the time. As more and more businesses that have web sites use this technique to further traffic to them instead of the other guy there will be an ever increasing need to do the same and by doing it now you will put yourself at the forefront and as time progresses you will have a greater knowledge base on how to do it right and even come up with more streamlined solutions as to how further SEO’s effectiveness. You will have a greater number of hits on your site and more business because of it. When I hitchhiked across Canada in my early twenties I had a way of looking at the cars that passed me they were the ones that brought me closer to the one that picked me up. The more cars or in this case traffic that sees you that doesn’t buy something is one closer to the one that does and the more people the more pickups you get. I realize that sounds a bit obvious and duh! But you need to use every tool out there to get ahead especially in the new world of the web and SEO is fast becoming that way to do it.

If you are reading this then I’m assuming you either want to know more about SEO or have just heard of the term and want to know what it is about. Well some of the other blogs I’ve written have gone into the pro’s and con’s even thought he con’s are more along the lines of the wrong way to go about putting SEO techniques to use for your site I though it worth mentioning some of the free sites and software out there that can help you with SEO. A resources blog of sorts. If you want to check to see if you have the right keyword density in your articles check out http://www.keyworddensity.com/ it’s pretty simple to use and can help you to self analyze accurately the value of your content when it comes to density of words etc… also if you’re not sure if your content is either plagiarized if it comes from another source and passed off as original or if you want to make sure your stuff isn’t too similar to someone else’s then take a look at http://www.copyscape.com/ and follow it’s instructions, however at the present time they aren’t returning their own results they will be back up shortly I’m told and they have put this info on the page. The previous tools are free and if you search about you may find others. Here’s a paid web ranking tool from http://www.agentwebranking.com/ at first it may seem a little pricy for a years subscription however when you factor in the negatives of poor SEO it may be worth revising that price and they do offer a free trial. This next site offers the free download and use of their software and the paid offer of them to use their software for you so there’s no need for you to further busy up your schedule learning new software and implementing it, they will do it for you can find them at http://www.seosurf.com/ . I cannot fully attest to these sites full claims I have only researched them and found them to at least at face value be on the level to what the purport to provide, as with anything check it out yourself too.

Adding a Forum…

When thinking about covering all the bases regarding SEO consider adding a forum to your site where like minded individuals can share advice tips comments feedback as to the products and services you provide and even what the competition provides, you have to have some give and take with this remember the “at one time” big shots of computer yesteryear that aren’t around now because of being to stingy with sharing. By doing this you will draw more traffic to your site and if you’re lucky enough to host the first forum in your field you have the added benefit of creating the first and this will definitely increase your business. If you can set a standard to follow your business can take leaps and bounds by having a forum for users to talk about your site and products. Forums are becoming increasingly popular with web users and provide a pressure free atmosphere and a place where like minded individuals can meet. At first in order to put across the air of a larger than actually exists base of users either hire people with the know how of your products and services to sign up to the site and get a base of topics going and/or sign up multiple accounts yourself so that when users sign up and login they are under the impression there is more than one view point in the forum. This may seem underhanded however once the forum takes off this will become unnecessary to maintain it will maintain itself as far as a wide base of users go. Every forum started somewhere and had a user zero, by giving the impression of more users than there actually is at first you will further entice new members to sign up. Make sure that users know what your forum is about educate them you only have a few seconds to a minute to persuade the average internet user to go in your direction.

More SEO

When taking SEO to the extremes of its capability to do its utmost for your site and business ask yourself this question “why should my site rank at the top of the pile when other sites in the same field use the same words too?” This is where stepping out from the crowd and individuality takes its part. How does your site or business stand out from the rest? What is unique about you and yours that helps you to excel? Knowing these variables and putting them out there will help you to rise closer to the top of the search pile. Using link exchanges with other sites a you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours type of thing needs to be explored and looked at. These Offpage factors carry more weight than you may realize and the short descriptors below or at the side of these links play a part too when it comes to a search engines choice of where to put you in its list of relevant results. There is the need to be friendly to the competition where this is concerned especially with the internet. With a land based enterprise you don’t really have to take this into account as much mainly because people don’t pick a land business based on what other businesses have said about them. With the internet this is different because the search engines use these factors when providing results to the consumers that use them. On most sites there is a direct link for web masters this is where you want to go to swap links etc… on others there isn’t a direct webmaster link and you will want to email them directly through the contact us link. Putting site linking or something to that effect in the subject box should get it to the proper place. Also by asking for a reply regardless of whether or not they do this or want to link with you for whatever reason, you aren’t left wondering if they ever received it or it got lost in the works. If you are successful and they want to do a link exchange ask them what they want you to say about them in the short descriptor that way you can choose what they say about you. Having multiple link exchanges with the same descriptor of say “great people awesome” or other compliment isn’t as effective SEO as having separate slightly different ones.

SEO Tactics

One thing to be especially aware of when employing your tactics to SEO is to not overdo the use of stuffing as many keywords as you can into either your articles and or the hidden bits of code. This is known as a black hat or spamdexing technique which actually degrades the relevance of keyword searching. The search engines are aware of these techniques and employ “bots” to exclude these sites from results. You want to get as much traffic as possible, but by using underhanded means you will actually have the opposite effect you are looking for, that is of course the effect you want is of an upstanding reputable site. In the short term using spamming and other frowned upon and sometimes illegal activities in promoting your business can have profitable results however the risk to your reputation and future business along with possible criminal charges isn’t worth the fast buck these things offer. There is an add-on that you can get for either Firefox or Microsoft’s internet explorer called WOT short for “Web Of Trust” that is gaining popularity. It takes the ratings from users individual experiences of websites and stores those ratings online so that if you stumble across a disreputable site that is a scam or virus propagator it warns the user and gives them info on what it contains. I use this service and whenever I hit a site that displays a warning I stay away. On the flip side when I am searching through Google I pick sites to go to based on the color of the circle at the end of it, green is good through yellow to red for bad and grey if it doesn’t have a rating. Using WOT to your advantage can also help you when considering SEO. It has a stable and for the most part reliable base of users making it easy to know what to avoid and what is safe. And there is nothing wrong with signing up for WOT and rating your own site. If you choose to utilize WOT I would suggest checking periodically to see how others see you. With businesses that can sometimes offend people like gambling or anything that promotes a certain set of values etc… you can become the target of an untrue rating. This doesn’t play a huge part when your site receives multiple ratings from other users as the one bad apple won’t spoil the whole batch however it is good to keep an eye on and it gives you input on how you are seen which can help you in your choices to either change or keep a certain element of your enterprise.

The Needs of Others

Taking into consideration others needs even when those needs may seem unimportant to you is something you need to do. Giving consideration to those needs shows them that you value their presence and input; this only helps to foster a healthy give and take attitude. If you disregard those things then in the future when you need something in return you might find their attitude to be less than favorable and/or their willingness to help less than adequate. I’m not saying to consider others needs because it will help you in the future from a standpoint of utter selfishness on the contrary, you need to come from a place of genuine want to do this. Otherwise you will come off as begrudging and put out and only doing it out of necessity. How do you do that genuinely? Ask yourself, how do I view this person? Are they valuable to me? Do I like them? Is there wellbeing something I value? If the answers to these questions are in the negative then you may want to reevaluate why they are a part of your life in the first place. And if the answers are in the positive then taking their needs into consideration will be something of ease and not hard to do. A healthy attitude toward give and take is a necessary attribute to having a desirable value system.

Stress…

Is your natural tendency to worry and stress about everything large and small? If it is then you need to learn to let some things go and to put a realistic value on what’s left behind. Worrying about every little thing is time consuming, destructive, and among other things totally unnecessary. Being able to realize when you are over doing it takes the ability to self analyze not just your self and your behaviors but being able to put a value on the cause of the worry too. Once you can separate what is worth worrying about and what isn’t, you won’t overburden yourself with unnecessary worry and strife. If you delegate a task to someone you feel is up to completing it well don’t second guess that reasoning let them follow their course. Worrying about it won’t help you at all and in the end is more damaging. However saying this is a heck of a lot easier than putting it into action. If you are a worry wart and want to change start off small. I can’t stress this enough pick something that doesn’t mean the world and let it go, and every time you find yourself worrying about it stop yourself from finishing those sentences of what if? in your head. Only through doing this on a smaller scale with consistent positive outcomes and over time will this become second nature and if the outcome isn’t a good one now and then don’t give up have faith and try, try again. Remember you learned to do this you can unlearn it. Then in the future you will know what needs worrying about and what doesn’t. By choosing what you know to be right in any given situation will go a long way toward fostering a healthier attitude in this area.

Change and Adapt

Being able to change and adapt isn’t the be all and end all of a healthy mindset, being able to repeat the same old same old everyday and not lose focus is also needed. Luckily the basic human condition is able to withstand a bit of repetition and can actually thrive in habit. Where does this come from? It comes from our survival mechanism and if it weren’t there we may decide one day to give up eating because it’s boring even though we will die as a result. Habits keep us alive, sadly the same mechanisms lead us to forming bad habits. Seeing a bad habit and being able to stop it isn’t easy. Think of your mind as a set of highways and roads. As you grow and evolve pathways are generated in our brains, roads well travelled so to speak. These ingrained habits become our roads of choice throughout our lives and can be very hard to break especially the most destructive ones. Creating new roadways and ways of doing things can be some of the greatest challenges we face in our lives. When you try and change you can be left in an uncomfortable unknown state of being. By sticking with it and with self reassurance along with positive reinforcement you can overcome these obstacles. Anyone that has successfully quit smoking can tell you this. If you can burn a pathway you can burn a new one it is possible.

Just Starting with Your Opportunity…..Banners!

The most difficult portion in your new Home Based Business, is the Starting Point!!! Fact, you will hear most often, begin advertising where you found your Opportunity. Couple of Issues with that. First, wonder if you heard or saw it on Radio or Television? That’s Big Money. Maybe you were on Youtube, and you have no clue or equipment to be able to cut such a Promo. Maybe, you did a search on Google or Yahoo for Home Based Business Opportunities…and now you must do PPC….Pay Per Click. Very Daunting at First. Never fear help is here.

There are literally hundreds of ways to begin, and including Free Classified Advertising!! However, the most effective form of advertising still…is Banner Advertising. In fact, Banner Advertising is the simplest way to advertise. Now, contingent on your Home Based Business Opportunity, your System may have already created for your Banner Ads in which to use. If not, you will need to have them designed for you. A good place to do that….we will cover that in a bit.

Let’s assume for a moment that you have premade banners or recently designed banners for you…now what? Where can you go and place this Banners at? Believe it or not, this is the easiest part. Start where you are at this very moment, Blogs. Work at Home, Make Money, Online Marketing, Business, Investing, Entrepreneur, Self-Employed Blogs are the absolute best place to start.

Now that you have the idea where to go…how do you find them? Even easier. Now, in the last posting I spoke and trained on Alexa, and I highly recommend doing so for this. Without reviewing again Alexa,(see past post), there are other ways to find blogs. First, there are several sites out there such as www.blogcatalog.com This is a site where blog owners can submit their blog sites to for networking and advertising purposes. In the case of an Income Opportunist, this is a holy grail to find Hundreds of Thousands of viable high traffic blog sites.

There are a ton of resources out there such as www.blogcatalog.com, utilize Alexa or do a search for sites similar to this. But, you could spend months placing 10 ads online everyday, with highly focused sites that you find on Blogcatalog.com Build and Build and Build your database. Again, these are targeted, because the people who visit or follow these blogs are the very same people looking for opportunities and ways to make money online. It really is that easy!!!

If your looking to get some banner work done in a very cost effective way, check out a
couple of sites: www.guru.com, www.elance.com, www.warriorforum.com Let people begin to bid on your project. Stick with your budget, and have in advance the various sizes you want. Most common size on Blog sites are 125×125. Don’t get caught up in flash or animation…still banners are just as effective!! Test, Test, and Test some more. By the way, once you find a designer that fits your budget, meets deadlines in projects, and produces high quality stuff….YOU KEEP THEM!!!!

Building a starting point and a database is quite simple. You must take action. You must take those first steps. You will never make money or build a business on woulda, coulda, shoulda!!! Or “It’s to Hard” or “No one will help me” or “I don’t Understand” or “I don’t have the Money” You can begin placing Banners Ads for as little as $5.00 a month on Blog Sites…and get results!!!

Practical Advertising Research Tips…..

How do we start the research process in advertising. This training will focus on Research and Banner Placement.

Step 1, let’s get comfortable with http://www.alexa.com/ Alexa is an incredible resource to maximize building your Marketing and Advertising Database. Let’s run through the process:

http://www.alexa.com/ PRINT THE STEPS BELOW FOR FUTURE USE
1. From the Home Page you will see on the right hand side of the Page: Site Info, and a place to put in a web address.
2. For example put in the following website: http://www.shoemoney.com/
3. It will take you to a whole new Page…you will see the following information on http://www.shoemoney.com/: First key component is a Traffic Rank 5,055. What does this mean? In the case of Alexa the lower the number the MORE traffic that the site gets. In the case of number it flip flops between Yahoo and Google. But don’t worry about them.
4. Now is there a certain number cutoff, meaning you shouldn’t advertise on a site higher than “X” number. Well some logic says, only advertise on sites that are Ranked 100,000 or less. To me that is way to black or white. I think the thinking on whether to invest advertising dollars on a site has something more to do with the trends of the site. Scroll down the Alexa page a bit further…..
5. You scroll down the page stop at you will see more statistics on the website specific. Page Views, Number of Pages a user looks at , and overall traffic trends. Shoemoney.com good place to advertise. But these statistics will tell you more of a site than just the Traffic Ranking. Let’s say, you have a website that is relatively new, and the Alexa Ranking is 318,990. Conventional wisdom says don’t advertise there. However, at looking at the trends, are the percentages up through the roof? Is traffic up to 200, 300 or 800%? Is the reach up 10,000 or more? Are the Page views up? If you could say yes, to all of the above….GO FOR IT!!!! You may be hitting an up and coming site, and might be able to get cheap advertising!!!
6. Also, let’s say, you went on to a website and the Traffic Ranking is 55,267 and all the percentages, traffic, and page views are down and down significantly….would you advertise there? Maybe maybe not…..
7. I have driven traffic to my sites that have an Alexa Ranking of 775,944!!! Don’t let the Traffic rank be your sole decision maker…that is for lazy advertisers.
Now here is the really cool thing about the Alexa site, that is the Related Links link. Scroll back up the page you are already on, on the left hand side, you will see related links. Click on that….
Now on the new page, this will show you sites that are related to that of http://www.shoemoney.com/ as an example, as we used above!!! For each and every website your own, after checking its Alexa Ranking you WILL ALWAYS click on related links. You will have some duplication, but it will as bring up fresh sites!! You will keep building, building, and building your database.
Now, let me give you some sites to run through, check its’ Alexa Ranking and get related links on, and just start the building process: shoemoney.com, johnchow.com, johncow.com, gorillasushi.com, youngentrepreneurs.com, moneybites.com, dollarshower.com, dollarsandsense.com, collinlahay.com, ablewise.com, and 24.com If you do this you will start building that database by the hundreds.

Starting Point….

Fact, the most difficult point in starting any Opportunity is the Starting Point in advertising. Here are a few thoughts:

1. Don’t try to be an expert in everything. Focusing on trying to do everything in advertising will result in nothing. You must have focus in one or two areas of advertising.
2. Start with the simplest and still the most effective form of advertising….Banners. If you are fortunate enough to have a System that supplies you with Banners, use them. If not, go out and have them made for you. Elance.com and WarriorForum.com are a great place to get quality work done for free.
3. Once you have Banners, start with Money Making Blog Sites. What do I mean? Well a very easy way to see where to advertise is on a blog site such as this. Go to resources like blogcatalog.com, and go through various blogs. Use Search Terms “Home Based Business”, “Make Money from Home”, “Opportunity Review Sites”
4. Once You have a List of 100 or more sites YOU would frequent, now go to Alexa and get Stat information. Remember the rules we trained on in a previous posting. Then, with you BUDGET begin placing between 7-10 ads a day, with out fail.
5. Now, that you have a Banner strategy, go hit some free stuff. Utilize Free Internet Classified Ads. Work on content writing and driving traffic. I suggest if you have a new business online to utilize http://www.free-press-release.com/ and http://www.prlog.org/ Do some free press releases. Don’t fall in love with spending a bundle of cash promoting your press release. Just drive some traffic. Plus, you can use these press releases in other ads!!!

A big question I get often is what type of banners convert and don’t convert? Easy, the ones that don’t convert are the one that never are placed. When your a newbie, especially when you are a newbie, forget the psychology a Flash vs. a still Banner. Remember in Advertising you can never say the wrong thing to the right person. The wrong thing is the thing that is never said….Marketers, out smart themselves with who is doing what, how, when where, and why. The marketer that wins, does is with CONSISTENT PERSISTENCE. The time to tweak will come later. For now, here is the rule of the Advertising Jungle:
Whoever gets there Splash Page in front of the Most
People…WINS!!!!

Simple? You bet it is. However, it is the one training and technique that is least talked about. You can never fail when you are taking consistent daily action.

BENEFITS…

The process to which is often referred as “institutional” or image-based marketing can be extremely seductive, particularly to the small businessperson since it is intoxicatingly flattering to the ego. Small businesses often attempt to copy their larger corporate nemeses in an effort to create strong brands through relatively smaller marketing budgets. Such a tactic unfortunately requires a long period of time and repetitive advertising in order for it to work.

On the other hand, when a business brags itself as being a better company with a better product at a better price, it usually winds up with very poor, long term results. If a statement is made wherein the author proclaims that his company or product is number one in the marketplace, such a statement will all but make that information more suspect. Even though there is evidence to substantiate that claim, there will no doubt be a clear lack of credibility.

In this day and age where consumers are more educated and more sophisticated than ever before, claims of any kind can never be made without them somehow being criticized or at least questioned. Therefore, a better approach is through positioning — the concept of effectively anchoring a product or service, in the mind of prospects, above the competition.

Implication, Not Specification

Any claim, even if backed up with statistics or surveys, is seldom believable. An old mentor of mine once said, “Implication is remarkably more powerful than specification.” In other words, if you specify that you’re the best, you’ll be questioned. But if your marketing implies that you are, without stating it outright, you will not only get the message across but you will also anchor that message (and position it) more effectively in the minds of your target market.

For instance, when Pepsi doing their famous taste tests in the 80’s, Coke thought that a newer, better-tasting Coke would beat Pepsi — hence, the introduction of the “New Coke.” But where is the New Coke today? Not only did Coke reintroduce the older version under the banner “Classic Coke,” but the New Coke has also disappeared from the grocery store isles.

Specify Benefits to Imply Superiority

Coke wasn’t the only culprit. Pepsi made a similar mistake with its clear brand in the early 90’s. Of course, during the last decade there was a fad with clear consumables. Clear soaps, clear deodorants, clear dishwashing liquids, clear sodas, and of course clear foods were stocking up shelves. At first, they were selling quite well. “But what Pepsi didn’t count on was the ‘curiosity factor’ in its research,” says Jack Trout in his book “The New Positioning.”

In essence, there is no clear benefit in a clear product over its darker version. People are astonishingly attracted to benefits, whether consciously or subconsciously. And clear colas were hip because the initial perception was that “clearer” meant “better,” “safer,” or “healthier.” It was this perception of more benefits that drove their initial success.

However, once the market realized that this was not true in that clear sodas have just as many calories as their darker counterparts, they were dropped. The only clear consumable that stood the test of time was the clear deodorant. Why? The clear deodorant prospered because people can’t stand white, powdery residue on their clothes (and it is terribly inconvenient to wait for the deodorant to dry). Thus, clear deodorant has a clear benefit.

Position with Benefits

Having an impressive portfolio, including a slick ad campaign, a superior product or service, or a number one company, will not work for you in the long run — unless you have a million dollar ad budget with money to invest in repetitious commercials. If you run a business or sell a product or service, make sure that when you position it in the marketplace you do so by marketing its main, core benefit or benefits — not its features, superiority, or image.

A benefit that is clear, practical, and direct will, in your promotional efforts, naturally convey a sense of superiority — without having to state it outright. In short, make your benefits clear.

• First 3 Key Elements to a Headline: Curiosity, Fear, & Urgency. You achieve minimum 2 of 3, in your headline, people WILL click on Your Ad.
• Now for the body or the Content itself. First, always write the ad so it is relatable. Write as if you, yourself would be interested in moving forward.
• AVOID CLICHES Avoid stuff like “Fire Your Boss” or “Are You Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired” or “Finally a Legitimate Home Business” or “Make $10,000 Dollars a Month”…Cliches are Content killers, they are Headline Killers. People are immune to them and they will not click, and they will not read.
• Short and Sweet, not War and Peace. Opportunity Seekers have “ADD”, they seek instant gratification. Your Headline and Content must provide instant gratification.

 

Here is some great brainstorming tips. Go out today and buy every Magazine you can get your hands on: Small Business Opportunities Mag, Opportunity World Mag, Success Mag, Entrepreneur Mag, DuPont Registry Mag, Equities Mag….and the List goes on and on and on. The content you could take and make your own would be so powerful!!!

Content/Ad writing can be intimidating, but also so effective. Become a writer, practice everyday. Do free classified advertising is a great way to gauge the type of ads you can write, and it will yield results in the process!!! Be a Superstar in your Business Today….