Everythink Excellent

Everyone has a blog now and its getting even  more popular. The main reason why this is being more popular is creating a blog is very easy, just like you create an email account and its free. There are hundreds of websites which offers free blog hosting.  Wordpress, Blogstop, Vox, Blogsome are some of them. And the second reason is its very helpful in the business as well as the personal use. Only creating a free blog site does not help in business, it need to have good traffics to get something from this. Here I am going to give your some tips on getting more visitors for your site.

1. Be friendly. Put links to other blog on your blogroll and ask them to put your blog on their site. Be very polite and say something good about them if you’re going to do this with someone whom you don’t know. If your friends also run blog then its easy. Just talk to them and you’re done.

2. Trackbacks are another easy way to get traffics. There are some great and big blogs which shows the pingbacks to them. They have great number of readers . This was you can bring those readers to your blog.

3. Comment on other blogs often. Visit some blogs everyday and leave useful comments on all of them. If your comments help other or if they find your comment useful they will surely come to your site.

4. Social bookmarking sites are another source for the visitors. Digg, stumbleupon drives good amount of traffics to you site if you get dugg or stumbled. There are various pluggins available for the blogs which make bookmarking easy.   Once you put those pluggins on your blog, reader will be able to bookmark your article in easy steps.

These are not the only methods to get visitors to your site. A lot of other methods also can generate good number of visitors to you blog. Traffics exchange is also another good way. Some of the good traffic exchange programme is blogexplosion and linkreferral.  You can also get visitors from technorati and other blog search engines by writing on the top tags.

By Andrew Gluck

Nearly everyone uses the Internet to find answers; it’s time for you to use the Web to supply your own.

    David Scott Meerman says the old rules of public relations and marketing are dead. In fact, he’s written a hot-selling book about the topic, The New Rules Of Marketing & PR (John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2007). Since he wrote the book, it’s been published in six other languages, he’s given speeches in 20 countries and the book is the No. 1 seller at Amazon among books about online marketing. Scott has very practical ideas about how you can use the Web to build your business.
    GLUCK: Why are the old rules of PR and marketing ineffective?
    SCOTT: The old rules are that you either have to pay the media to insert your advertising or beg your way in by trying to convince the media to write or broadcast about you. That’s still true for print and broadcast media. Those are the only two ways to get noticed. But the Web allows anybody to be a publisher and get noticed. You don’t have to go through somebody else’s site or media properties. You go direct. With a $300 digital camera and a YouTube account, or with your own blog, or by sending a news release that goes out and gets distributed via Google and Yahoo, you can create your own content to promote your business directly.
    GLUCK: Advisors often prefer static Web sites, brochure-ware. Is anything wrong with that?
    SCOTT: The plain and simple truth is that consumers don’t like to be advertised to. They like to do business with people who start a conversation with them, and the conversation can be started online easily using content. If an individual has $10,000 kicking around or a daughter six years away from college, he wants to know what to do. That’s the kind of thing that should be communicated to people through a great, content-rich site. Good information on a Web site introduces your company to existing customers or potential new customers. But it is very different from just creating a brochure that says, “Here’s what we do.” In any business, you are likely to be more successful by starting a conversation with people and providing information that helps them understand your organization than if you just create slogans and messages in the form of an online brochure.
    GLUCK: You believe in creating what you call personas. Explain that.
    SCOTT: Ultimately the best way to do marketing is to understand the people that you’re trying to attract. The way to do that is through what I call buyer personas. A financial planner might have three buyer personas he or she is trying to attract. One might be a 30-year-old professional, who may or may not be married and who has a pretty high income and wants to begin investing. Another might be a 40-year-old married couple with children, who are worried about funding their kids’ college education. And a third buyer persona might be a 50-year-old married couple whose children have left home and who are worried about retirement. The way that you would market to those three individual buyer personas is different. Having a clear understanding of who your buyers are, their needs and how one buyer’s persona differs from another’s can help you create individualized content and information for each different group. You will use different words and phrases to communicate with each of them. You will use different content and images on your Web site for each of them. This way, when people arrive on your site, they don’t just see, “Hi, we’re financial planners and we’d do a really good job, so give us a call.” They instead see, “Here’s what you need to know if you’re a 40-something-year-old married couple who’s worried about college funding. That’s a really different way of marketing than saying, “We’re a good financial planner. Give us a call.”
    GLUCK: You want to see a site’s content address solving problems of buyer personas. Right?
    SCOTT: Absolutely. I want any company that is doing any kind of online marketing to start first with an understanding of their buyers. What are their problems? Why are those buyers looking for a solution? That’s where you start.
    GLUCK: How do you do that?
    SCOTT: You interview them. You actually go out and talk to people who are representative of your buyer persona groups. So if you are a financial planner, you talk to people who are in that situation, a young couple just getting started and a couple with kids nearing college age. And you ask, “What are your problems?” You want to know how they describe their goals and aspirations for their financial future. You want, literally, to know the phrases that they use to describe what they’re thinking and what they’re going through. Then you want to use those words and that information on your Web site so that the language on your site is representative of those buyers— as opposed to what you think they want to hear, which is often wrong.
    GLUCK: And those phrases are really important, aren’t they?
    SCOTT: Yes, for search engines. Let me give you an example of why it is important to capture the exact phrases used by buyer personas. A financial planner might use a term like “college savings plan” or “529 savings plan” on his Web site, but buyers might use the phrase, “save for college.” Advisors would naturally tend to use gobbledygook phrases that don’t mean anything to a buyer. So a buyer thinks, “I want to save for college,” and the financial planner in his mind uses jargon like “college savings plans.” And there’s a disconnect. The potential customer is going to say, “I’m leaving this Web site because these guys don’t know anything about saving for college. They’re all about this college savings plan stuff, which doesn’t make any sense to me.” The other reason it is critical to know the phrases your buyers use is because they will use search engines using their phrases and not your industry gobbledygook.
    GLUCK: So they get stuck on jargon, but need to get off that.
    SCOTT: Yes, and the only way to get off the jargon is to build a site designed specifically for the people that you’re trying to reach. The way that you can do that is by understanding those people really, really well. And the only way to do that is to literally get into their heads by having conversations with them, and understanding who they are.
    GLUCK: But if you know your clients and you’re an experienced practitioner, you may not even need to do that.
    SCOTT: That can be true, and I don’t dismiss that there are people who do know their potential markets well. But in every single industry and practically every Web site I’ve ever seen, there’s a focus on an egotistical perspective, around what the company does as opposed to what it is that buyers are looking for.
    GLUCK: Talk about news releases—how to write them.
    SCOTT: Literally tens of millions of people every single day are going to Google News and Yahoo News and other news search engines and vertical market sites. If buyers or potential buyers go to Yahoo! or Google and click on the “News” link, they see all the stories that are coming out from all the online sources. So CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Fortune and others all are coming through those services. But the really cool thing is that you can also send a press release directly to those services through one of the press release distribution companies like PRWeb, PR News and Business Wire, and your news release will appear instantly on Google News and Yahoo News and all those other places. You can create your own piece of news that will be seen by anybody going to those sites and your news release can show up when people search using key words and phrases in your news release. So, again, back to the example we were talking about. If I’m looking for information about saving for my daughter’s college education, I might enter the phrase, “save for college” into Google News. I’ll then see a story that came out from the Boston Globe, and another story that came out from CNN. But if there’s a smart financial planner, who just issued a news release with the phrase, “Save For College,” in it, I’ll also see that. And that can very well be someone who will then become a client for that investment planner.
    GLUCK: When you use a service like PR Newswire, what is the charge?
    SCOTT: There are some free services out there, but the one that I usually recommend that people go to is PRWeb. It charges $80 for one release.
    GLUCK: And you mentioned in the book that, as long as you buy the basic service from one of these services, you’ll get picked up by all the search engines.
    SCOTT: Yes, you only have to buy the basic press release distribution package for your specific region. You don’t have to buy all the bells and whistles that they’ll try to sell you. You’ll still get picked up by all the search engines.
    GLUCK: What’s the value of this? Here I am, a financial advisor with a $500,000 or $1 million minimum investment. Will wealthy people actually find a financial planner on the Web—somebody they’re going to trust with their money?
    SCOTT: Just from a press release? No. But if the planner has an intriguing news release and within the news release there’s a URL that goes back to a site, and on the site there’s lots of information designed especially for that type of buyer, the buyer might then say, “OK, the press release and the site are valuable, and I’ve learned something. Maybe I’ll take the next step and subscribe to this advisor’s newsletter. Maybe I’ll even give him a call or send him an e-mail.” And that begins a more traditional sort of dialogue. So it’s not like the news release leads directly to sending a check for $500,000. But it starts that online conversation, where that financial planner is beginning to develop a relationship as a trusted resource online, which can then translate to a trusted resource with my money.
    GLUCK: What you describe is totally different from the traditional use of a press release.
    SCOTT: It used to be that the press release was just to deliver information to the press. But press releases now are available to anybody with an Internet connection. And therefore advisors should be thinking about the news release as a vehicle to actually create news and get it into the marketplace. It works.
    GLUCK: Advisors aren’t writers. So when you talk about things like creating news releases or blogging, is it realistic? Will a small financial advisory firm with three or five or maybe ten employees do it?
    SCOTT: The average advisor will never do it. No matter how much you write in this magazine, the average financial advisor is never going to do this stuff. But there’s going to be a percentage who embraces this approach. And maybe they’re not great writers, but they can pick it up and they can get comfortable with writing. Or maybe, if it’s a ten-person firm, they might decide to hire a freelance writer for three days a month to come in and write for them. What saddens me is when you’ve got companies spending $50,000 or $100,000 or more on traditional marketing and they don’t try to understand how they can market on the Web, which doesn’t require the same amount of investment.
    GLUCK: Your book talks about a blogging lawyer. Tell us that story.
    SCOTT: So Grant Griffith is a family lawyer in Kansas. He used to get all of his business through the Yellow Pages, which is not inexpensive. Grant decided one day he would start a blog, called the Kansas Family Law Blog. Now, literally all of his business comes from his blog. The guy is amazing. There’s also a dentist in the Boston area who started a podcast called Successful Smiles. Every couple of weeks she uploads an audio about root canal, or whatever a dentist talks about. In every single industry, there are examples like this. Let’s say there are 100,000 independent financial advisors and almost all of them are using traditional marketing only. Well, then I know what I want to be doing. I want to be the guy who experiments by blogging, sending news releases and maybe creating a YouTube video. People ask why I don’t do readings at bookstores. My answer: There are too many books in bookstores! I want my book to be where there aren’t other books!
    GLUCK: Just to connect the dots, by writing his blog focusing on Kansas law problems, what happened with Grant?
    SCOTT: He’s a smart guy and writes blog posts about different areas of Kansas family law and each one of the posts—just because it’s such a niche market—has key words that the search engines pick up. If somebody who has a particular problem is looking for a lawyer, Grant’s bound to have a post with the words and phrases that people search with. He is now ranked No. 1 by search engines for most of the phrases that people enter when they need to find a family lawyer in Kansas. You can’t buy that kind of exposure. It can literally be worth millions of dollars to him. So what should a financial planner do? Well, concentrate on a very distinct geographical area and a very distinct buyer persona, like “wealthy retiree in Boston.” Use words and phrases in your content where you can become a micro-niche. This way, if anybody enters the terms describing your niche into search engines, you’re bound to come up near the top.
    GLUCK: What you’re getting at though is that these highly refined niches are perhaps where the greatest opportunity exists for online marketing.
    SCOTT: Yes, because that’s how the best search engine strategies work.
    GLUCK: Like stock option planning for telecommunications executives?
    SCOTT: Thank you for that great example. That’s perfect. That’s an ideal example of what we’re talking about, because you know the average financial planner is not going to be focused on that very small niche.
    GLUCK: You can even name a company in your blog or online brochure, something like, “employees of Autodesk with stock options.” Then, that search term will rank high when an employee of Autodesk searches for help with his stock options.
    SCOTT: Absolutely. Because I don’t know the advisory business well, I’m not able to come up with the examples like you just did. But those are perfect examples of what we’re talking about. So all of a sudden your business can be seen as No. 1 in a very small but lucrative niche. I’d rather be the No. 1 entry in a search engine result in a small but lucrative niche than the No. 500 result of a search in a huge market where I just get lost.
    GLUCK: A lot of financial advisors have tried to use pay-per-click search engine marketing by buying search terms, for instance.
    SCOTT: Financial planning?
    GLUCK: Yes, exactly.
    SCOTT: And you’re competing against everyone else who’s trying to buy that term using Google AdWords or Yahoo! Search Marketing. But “financial planning for employees of Autodesk who have stock options” is an incredibly narrow niche that you can own without having to buy your way in. You just need to create good content addressing that market and then you can get to the top of search engines for free, for people interested in that topic.   
    GLUCK: How about RSS feeds? How can a small financial advisory firm use RSS feeds in their marketing effort?
    SCOTT: RSS, Really Simple Syndication, is great when there is traffic already going to a site and you want people to be able to see new content anytime you update it. If you don’t have any traffic to begin with, however, you’re not going to be able to get people signing up for your RSS feed. But if you have a reasonable amount of people visiting your site or you’re creating a blog, which by definition automatically creates an RSS feed, then your RSS feeds will show up on search engines.
    GLUCK: Forums where clients and others comment on your blog is another idea that you like. But many advisors are scared about letting clients talk to each other, post comments in a forum or post comments on their blog. They’re scared the comments could be less than flattering sometimes. Maybe a client that was unhappy is going to go and comment and then everybody’s going to see it.
    SCOTT: If you have an online forum or a blog on your site that allows comments, then yes, you’re putting yourself out there a little bit. But if you’ve been an active participant in the discussion, even if somebody does say something negative, very often other people will jump to your defense. And that may indeed work ultimately to your advantage. Clients and prospects know you are not perfect and want you to be open and honest with them.
    GLUCK: Are wealthy people going to use the Web this way, and will it bring advisors new clients?
    SCOTT: Yes. It works.
    GLUCK: Advisors like measurable results—like portfolio returns. When you tell them that their Web site and blog and other online efforts won’t bring them clients and only offers indirect help in getting clients, they may feel that is not enough; that it’s too squishy.
    SCOTT: It is a little squishy. Content probably won’t show you a return for a couple of months or maybe even six months, because you have to build that content before the search engines start to index it. And all of these things are not a replacement for running the rest of your business well. It’s not a replacement for word of mouth. It’s not a replacement for referrals. It’s not a replacement for being a smart salesperson, and it’s not a replacement for marketing and PR that you’re already doing. It’s not going to magically replace everything else, unless you’re looking to do what Grant Griffith did. The truth is that everybody is on the Internet now. The last statistics I saw were that three-quarters of the population uses search engines on a regular basis. That means everybody—the rich included—uses the Internet on a regular basis to find answers to their problems. Now, is every rich person out there entering search terms about managing money and planning for financial goals? No. But on any given day there’s hundreds or even thousands of rich people doing so. So understanding the people you’re trying to reach is the way that you’ll be successful, to start the conversation. And understanding what it is people are looking for will be the way to get great content out there. 

Andrew Gluck, a longtime writer and journalist, is CEO of Advisor Products Inc., a Westbury, N.Y., marketing company serving 1,800 advisory firms.

by Jerry Bader

If you’ve been looking high and low for the secret to Web success, today is your lucky day. These "18 Web-Marketing Concepts That Make a Difference" may just give you an edge on your competition—or an edge, period.

So if the same old left-brain thinking that everybody else is using just doesn’t get you where you want to be, try these creative concepts on for size.

1. Think audiences not markets

What’s your market? Hire a consultant to help you with your Web-business problems, and one of the first questions he or she will ask is, What’s your market? How about 18-34-year-old, single male college graduates with a dog named Spot; or maybe 45-59-year-old married women who hate their husbands and can’t get their adult children to move out of the house. Maybe, just maybe, they’re asking the wrong question.

The Web isn’t about markets, it’s about audiences. Audiences need to be entertained, enlightened, and engaged; and if your Web site doesn’t, you’re never going to achieve what you want.

Time to rethink how you’re delivering your marketing message. Start treating Web visitors like an audience, not a market, and you might just find what it takes to be successful on the Web.

2. Think people not customers

You know all those visitors you attract to your Web site with your brilliant search engine optimization schemes? How many actually purchase anything? Stop treating visitors as if they are already customers and start treating them like what they are—people. That’s right, people. You know, the two-legged funny creatures with wants, needs, desires, and maybe even a few bucks to spend.

Customers are always looking for a deal and they’re leery of Web sites that only want to take their hard-earned cash. Treat your Web visitors like people who can satisfy their wants, needs, and desires with your assistance… and guess what? Maybe it will make a difference: one small step for Web credibility, one giant leap for Web success.

3. Think experiences not features

Bought any good features lately? Didn’t think so. You would think the way business pushes them that features are exactly what people are looking for; but nobody buys features, they don’t even buy solutions (doesn’t that whole solution provider nonsense really get to you after a while?).

What people really buy are experiences: hopefully, positives ones. Whether it’s soft ice cream or a new accounting program, what people are paying for is the experience your product or service provides.

Does your Web site offer an experience? Does it explain the experience your product or service delivers? If it doesn’t, then you really haven’t got anything anybody wants.

4. Think emotion not logic

Think you’re a logical person, always making rational decisions based on practical criteria, and bottom-line results? So tell me what was the functional thinking that went into the purchase of those leather pants you bought last year, or that 60-inch plasma television you bought just to watch the big game?

Let’s get real. You make purchasing decisions based on what you want, and then justify them with seemingly sensible rationalizations, just like everybody else. So stop trying to appeal only to the practical, logical aspects of bean-counter sales, and start pushing the feel-good aspects of emotional marketing.

If you’re trying to appeal to an audience that gets its only satisfaction out of acquiring the most features for the least cost, then you’re marketing to the wrong audience.

5. Think memories not promotions

Most animals live in the moment, whereas human beings live in the past. Our here and now and our plans for the future are based on our experiences, our histories, and our memories.

We take pictures of our kids, holidays, and special events; we commemorate birthdays, anniversaries, promotions, and milestones of all kinds. Even the significance of our prized possessions is centered on the fact that those mere objects represent memories of the people, places, and events that shaped our lives.

Real marketing, the kind that creates long-term clients and customer relationships, is not about coupons, sale promotions, or deep discounts; it’s about delivering memories.

6. Think marketing not SEO

Okay, here’s one you’ve heard from us before: Think marketing—not search engine optimization.

Sure you’ve got to drive as many people to your Web site as possible, but if your marketing message is so confused, unfocused, and hard to comprehend because of all the keyword density and SEO tricks, then what have you really accomplished other than wasting people’s time? And people get really upset when you waste their time.

7. Think stickiness not hits

It’s not about how many hits you get on your Web site, it’s about how long people stay. If visitors remain on your site long enough to get your marketing message, then you must have said something worth listening to; and if visitors get the message, your site has done its job.

If your Web site delivers the message, then you can expect the email inquiries and phone calls to start flowing, but it’s still up to you and your sales staff to close the sale: People close sales, not Web sites.

8. Think stories not pitches

Did you hear the one about the farmer’s daughter and the search engine optimizer? Stories, everyone loves stories. In fact, before the invention of the Gutenberg press, oral storytelling was the way knowledge got passed down from one generation to the next, and how news was sent from one region to another.

Now that we have this multimedia Web environment, we can continue the tradition of real people who deliver creative audio and video presentations that capture the imagination and drive home the marketing message so your audience won’t forget who you are.

Nothing informs, engages, and entertains like a good story: Sounds to me like one heck of a way to sell to an audience desperate for meaningful communication.

9. Think focus not confusion

There you go again, telling everyone who will listen all the wonderful things you and your company can do. Trouble is, telling them all those things just confuses them.

What is the product or service that is most important to your company, the one you are determined to sell to your audience? That’s the one you want to talk about. That’s the one you want to devote your marketing effort to promoting. That’s the one you want people to think about when they hear your name or see your logo.

Focus your communication ,else your message will just be a forgettable, incomprehensible blur.

10. Think campaigns not ads

Isolated one-time advertisements are like one-night-stands: exciting for a while, but ultimately unfulfilling and devoid of meaning. Your audience is looking for marriage, not a short-term fling.

Your marketing has to woo your visitors with long-term campaigns that tell your story and deliver your focused message; audiences expect to be courted and counseled with meaningful communication. And that takes time and commitment.

If you’re spending money on just ads, you might as well be throwing that money down the drain. There is a better way. So if you’re looking for a long-term relationship with your audience, think campaigns—not ads.

11. Think message not hype

What message are you delivering to your online visitors? Are you telling them you’ve got the best product, at the best price, with the best staff, and world-class customer service? Is that what you saying? Guess what? Nobody cares, because nobody believes you.

There is only one way to show people you’re the best and that is to prove it; but here’s the catch, you can’t prove it until they become customers. Whoops.

OK, so what’s the solution? How about a real marketing message that speaks to what your audience really wants. It’s not about you, it’s about them.

12. Think personality not banality

Does your Web site just lie there like a lox: you know, that cold, dead fish that often comes with a bagel? No personality, just more of the same tedious, dull, dreary, mind-numbing, tiresome, lackluster, monotonous stuff everybody else has. Boring!

This is the new Web, so if you can’t get with it you’d better get out, because you’re wasting your time and everybody else’s.

You’re so worried about downloading times that you forgot to put anything on your site worth seeing or hearing. Check your logs. If people are jumping ship faster than rats on a burning ship, it’s time to try something new—like some compelling content.

13. Think branding not copyrights

Hey, I love the Beatles. I grew up with them, and I have all their records—yea, records, like vinyl, not CDs. And guess what, I’ve also got a Mac, in fact I’ve got a bunch of them, not to mention iPods and other assorted Apple gizmos and gadgets. And you know something? I’ve never once got John, Paul, George, or Ringo confused with Steve Jobs. Amazing!

Worry just a little less about all that small-print stuff and more on building a memorable brand that people will remember, and that nobody will mistake for some johnny-come-lately imposter.

14. Think positioning not slogan

It’s funny how people have a position on almost everything: You name the issue and people will have a definite opinion on what they think, except when it comes to their businesses. Just because you have a cute slogan that you print under your logo doesn’t mean you own a position in your audience’s minds.

It seems businesses can’t stand to make a definitive statement about who they are and what they do. Why is that? Afraid they’ll lose a customer, I guess; but if people don’t understand exactly what you do, and why they should be doing business with you, then they’re never going to be customers anyway.

No company can be all things to all people, and companies that try… never go anywhere. Tell people who you are and what you do, and forget about all the other stuff; it just gets in the way.

15. Think sensory appeal not cents appeal

Do you want people to sit up and take notice of what you have to say? Do you want people to actually remember what you’re telling them? If so, you’d better appeal to their senses, and we’re talking about sights and sounds.

Deliver all your juicy, got-to-have content in an audio and video presentation that will stick in people’s heads.

If all you’re doing is appealing to their desire to spend less, then maybe they aren’t the customers you’re looking for anyway. Nobody can afford to sell for less all the time, every time.

16. Think identity not logos

Is your company the equivalent of the invisible man? You’re on the Web, but nobody cares because you’re not saying anything worth listening to; and if they do see you, you are instantly forgettable.

You’ve got to have an identity, a personality, an image—and there is no better way to create that identity than with a video of a real person delivering your marketing message in an entertaining, memorable manner.

17. Think entertainment not biz-speak

Speaking of entertaining… you cannot engage, enlighten, or entertain if everything you present sounds and looks like it came from some b-school textbook or one of those self-help courses on direct marketing guaranteed to make you a millionaire in only three weeks.

Every business has a story to tell, and it can be presented in a compelling way with a little imagination and creativity. And yes, even B2B businesses can rise above the mundane and deadly boring if they take the time and make the effort.

18. Think communication not copy

Last but not least, let’s all remember that Web sites are about communication. If you’ve got nothing to say, nothing to offer, or are afraid to say what you can do for your audience, then how do you expect to be successful?

Filling your Web pages with keyword-dense prose and instantly forgettable sales copy is not going to win the day.

Whether you are presenting your case in text, audio, or video, it had better be interesting and enlightening—even text can be entertaining if written with style and attitude.

When Web sites fail, they fail because they do not communicate a realistic, believable, convincing marketing message.

A note to Web site adventurers

If you missed the discovery of the "Lost Brad Tapes," follow the adventures of fellow Web site entrepreneur Brad and how he tried to find the secret to Web site success. It’s time well wasted.

Jerry Bader is senior partner in MRPwebmedia (www.mrpwebmedia.com), a Web site design firm that specializes in Web audio and video. 

by Daryl Logullo

Generating more referred business is on everyone’s wish list. Why, then, are people haphazard about adding action steps to their business that encourages more active client referrals? And what are the best ways to create more consistent referral flow?

Based on my nearly 20 years of experience, I’d like to offer five powerful referral strategies—and precise action steps—that, when used either individually or collectively, can cause a flood of new introductions.

1. Focus on ensuring your colleagues, clients, and customers fully understand all of your products and service offerings

It amazes me how many people the average professional has in his/her active business network, yet how many of those contacts don’t truly don’t understand all of the professional’s product or service offerings.

Don’t believe me? All you need to do is show a client or colleague a new product or service offering, and watch for their typical response, "Jeez, I never knew you did that, also!"

For example, if you’re a public relations expert, your client may understand that you write and distribute press releases. But they might not know the work involved in distributing that release: assembling the media list, planning the email and phone pitch protocol, sending the release, following up with each pitch, sending supporting materials to editors or producers.

And if your client had a need, for example, to hire you only to build a media list, well… this experience with all of the work you do may now open new opportunities to sell additional services!

Action step: Give colleagues, clients, and customers a glimpse into all of the work required for you to execute a certain service you are now providing to them.

2. Block 15 minutes at the end of each prospect or client meeting to "brainstorm" on the subject of referrals, and communicate this ahead of time with a meeting agenda

Here is another task that everyone engages in that can produce excellent referral-generating traction: Meetings.

While most professionals are experts at holding "meetings" with clients or prospects, many are utter disappointments at holding a meeting with an agenda—let alone one that allots time for the discussion of referrals. Why?

Probably because most professionals are uncomfortable bringing up the subject of referrals with their clients or prospects for fear of damaging the relationship. What a ridiculous fear! Overcome it by learning how to segue into this topic by discussing your visions of growth.

Action step: For every meeting you hold, mail a written agenda ahead of time to your clients or prospects. On the agenda, place an item to discuss the subject of referrals and begin the discussion by sharing your desire to grow your business and serve others.

3. Earn referrals by way of personal (in-person or telephone) introductions—never ask for (nor accept) a person’s name or telephone number

It’s happened to us all: A close colleague hands you a business card from someone he/she met during lunch. This is a cold introduction. Your colleagues say you should contact this person, who may be interested in working with you.

You are much better to reply, after thanking your colleague for mentioning you, "That’s great, Sue. But would you mind contacting her again and seeing if the three of us could have lunch together?"

Personal introductions will always trump cold introductions, and you should strive for this level of commitment from others who express an interest in you. That’s not being conceited. It’s being respectful.

Action step: Train your colleagues, clients, and prospects that you want personal introductions to others. Always attempt to enlist their help in introducing you, rather than just having them pass along to you a name and telephone number.

4. Seek value "reinforcement statements" from current clients and associates—think of the "Two-Ps": Phrases and Praises

Why is this so important? Because the Two-Ps indicate whether a person is—or is not—happy with your work and whether they have found value in you. How can you ever expect someone to brag about you and consistently recommend you if you are not certain they truly value your skill set?

I’m always surprised by a poor assumption that the average professional makes today: "Since a person is working with me, they must value my work." Wrong. This is not always true. because people are often trying to be polite and are not always candid. So you need to ask and listen for the Two-Ps.

Action step: Ask every client with whom you are working now some simple questions to confirm value reinforcement, and listen for phrases and praises: "John, on a scale of 1 to 10, how have I been doing for you? What do I need to do to earn a 15 from you!?"

5. Focus on becoming better friends and continue to build a relationship with clients, customers, and colleagues by anticipating needs

I have a saying: "Referrals love speed." Essentially what I mean is that referrals and introductions happen more consistently with the more action you take—and the faster you take that action.

Actively share information that the other person finds useful to his/her own life. Provide value to others in their over-hectic, frantic, and stressed world. Doing so creates TOMA: top-of-mind-awareness.

For example, you may be able to offer a suggestion that enables someone to generate more revenue, or share a current competitor’s marketing approach that you have noticed. The idea is to become a valued, welcomed partner and share information that helps clients, customers, and colleagues to improve their personal or business lives.

Action step: Categorize all clients, prospects, and colleagues by interest level. Subscribe to trade journals and local newspapers, and make a conscious effort to look for news that would interest them. Reach out with this information frequently.

Daryl T. Logullo is the founder of Strategic Impact! and Marketing-Referral-Tools.com (www.marketing-referral-tools.com). He concentrates on referral building strategies for today’s professional.

Author: Chirag Chhita
Website: www.goinglarge.org

So you are after some Affiliate Internet Marketing tips?  We will give you some tips and tricks to help build your Affiliate Marketing website.

We have setup a website to help you learn more about Affiliate Marketing with some helpful Internet tips along the way.

We will give you articles and programs we have personally found useful in helping us build our Marketing Network.  Most sites that you visit claim to have the ONE secret that will make you filthy rich in less than 7 days!

Well, welcome to the real world… in our experience that is not going to happen.  Our site is not going to throw products in your face and tell you to pay thousands of dollars with programs we don’t believe will work for you, just to make us rich!

Our job is to give you the best information we can about Affiliate Internet Marketing Tips.

Right, enough of the talk, and more of the Affiliate Marketing tips you have come here for.

The first thing you should think about is whether you are going to promote your own products, or promote products that other people have already made.

My advice to you is to start learning the ropes by promoting products other people have already developed.  Look what they have done, learn from their  mistakes, and once you build up the confidence, you can venture into developing your own products.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

- Get a Google Adsense Account -  To do this, click on the Google Adsense Button in the left hand menu.  Google has a lot of tutorials on how to use Adsense, so ensure you go through these carefully.

- Get some hosting space - In order to build a website, you will need some hosting space to make your website seem on the World Wide Web.  The    best way to explain Hosting, is like the monthly amount you pay for your phone bill.  The Domain name (eg. www.goinglarge.org) is like your phone number.     For people to get to it, they can look you up in a directory (such as Google, or Yahoo!), or they can enter the name directly into their browser.

The hosting of your site is like the line rental you pay to your phone company every month. If you dont pay this line rental for a month or two, your phone will be disconnected, and no one will be able to dial your number!

There are many hosting companies out there, so choosing the right one can be very difficult.  Check out BlueHost.com.     They have some very cheap hosting plans, and you also get a FREE domain    name with your hosting purchase, plus FREE Yahoo and Google Credit!   You will be using Yahoo and Google a lot later on, so this credit could come in    handy!

- Sign up to Affiliate Programs - If you are to promote products that other people have created, you need to find places to sign up to these affiliates.  Some site owners run their own affiliate programs directly from their own website, but the majority tend to use a third party service such as Click Bank or Commission Junction to handle this for them.

Some others you can sign up to are; Linkshare    and Shareasale

- Learn how these Affiliate Programs work - The best way to learn how affiliate programs work, is to start using them! Just jump right in and learn about how they pay commissions, how you can register for Affiliate Programs, and how to start earning money with these Affiliates.  Another great way to do this is to register to forums, where people discuss their experiences with certain programs.  Here you will get a good idea of what works and what doesn’t work.  But remember, the forums are only people’s opinions, DONT treat this as gospel!.  The best forum we have come across that  has information on all the Affiliate Programs mentioned above is A    Best Web Forum.

If you want to get more of these tips and see Reviews of many Affiliate Marketing Programs, visit http://www.goinglarge.org

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chirag_Chhita
http://EzineArticles.com/?Affiliate-Marketing-Tips&id=433892

Author: Bobette Kyle
Website: http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.com

For many of us, finding the time and commitment to complete a marketing plan for our Web sites is difficult. There are so many other obligations vying for our attention it is tempting to push planning to the back burner. Giving into that temptation, however, means putting your business at a disadvantage. Your marketing plan is the compass by which you navigate. As opportunities arise or your business environment changes, the objective and strategies in your marketing plan will point you toward the best action. Without a marketing plan, you risk becoming unfocused in your marketing and are only guessing what might be best for your business.

To be most effective, your Web site marketing plan should be a part of your business marketing plan. By aligning online marketing with your offline efforts, you can better achieve overall company objectives. Additionally, you will present a consistent style and message across all points of contact with your target audience.

Your Web site marketing plan’s focus will be partially determined by your site’s status. If you already have a site in place, your plan can focus strictly on marketing issues - how to most effectively market using your existing site. If you have a site that needs improvement, your plan should incorporate enhancements into the site’s design in conjunction with marketing activities (While you may not think of these enhancements as "marketing", in this case, they are instrumental to an effective plan.). If you do not yet have a site, you can create one while developing your Web site marketing plan, with your plan focused on launching the site. In any case, remember that your objective, strategies, and tactics will change over time as your situation and focus change.

Parts of a Marketing Plan

The Web site marketing plan is similar to a business marketing plan, but with a narrower focus. Completing a marketing plan includes developing strategies and tactics (also called action plans) that, when implemented, will help you reach your marketing objectives. Objectives, strategies, and tactics are each progressively narrower in scope.

The objective addresses the "big picture". In general terms, your objective answers the question "How will I overcome my main marketing challenge(s)?" If your company’s main site- related challenge is figuring out how to use your Web site to help build client business, for example, an objective for your Web site marketing plan could be "To enhance online client service as well as build site awareness and interest with clients."

Strategies support your objective. Your strategies define the general approaches you will take to meet your objective. For example, strategies to support the above objective could include 1) improve online communication, information, and education, 2) build awareness of and interest in your company on the Internet, and 3) communicate the Web site’s existence and advantages to existing clients.

Tactics are where the action takes place - these are the things you will do to bring your strategies to life. Tactics for strategy 2 in the above example (improve online communication, information, and education) could include 1) sharing experience and observations in your industry through participation in discussion boards, 2) offering an email newsletter, and 3) listing/submitting your site to targeted search engines and directories.

Marketing Planning Tools

The specifics of developing a marketing plan vary according to the source. All can be effective when used correctly. Some sites and software that can help you in developing your marketing plan are below.

Sites

eSOLO’s Marketing Action Plans

(http://www.esolo.com/mapslist.php3) can help you to come up with strategies and action plans (tactics) to support common marketing objectives.

The Web Site Marketing Plan’s Marketing Plan Resources page
(http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/sr3.htm) includes several links and descriptions of sites with marketing plan information.

Software
Each of these software titles takes a slightly different approach to developing a marketing plan.

- Plan Write® for Marketing(http://www.businessplansoftware.org/marketing_plan.asp)
- WebQuest Pro (http://www.webquestpro.com/)
- Marketing Plan Pro (http://www.bplans.com/marketingplans)

By Liane Bate

If you have been hunting around for a good money making opportunity online, then you’ve likely already read a lot about blogs and how they can be very profitable if you set them up right.

You may wonder how true it is that blogs can actually be a great money making opportunity all by themselves, and how something so fun to do can create so much extra income for you.

But when you really think about a blog – as simple as it may seem, not to mention free – and know a bit about internet marketing, then you will see that a blog, in itself, contains all of the necessary elements of internet marketing, all rolled into one.

This has huge implications, because you already know that blogging is completely free, and now I’m telling you that it can also be a goldmine for you if you want a money making opportunity at your fingertips that really works!

Now let’s look at the various ways that one can market a business online. When we look at these methods closely, we can see how easy it is to set up a blog for free, and start earning fairly quickly from it.

One of the best ways to market an online business is by writing articles, or providing quality content that entices readers to want to read more, and visit your blog often.

Writing good quality articles is a way to bring in new, and repeat customers to your business. After all, why would they visit your blog if you have nothing interesting to say on it?

When you offer something of value, your number of blog readers will increase, and you will have a loyal and interested customer base of highly targeted readers wanting something you have to offer.

If you have an online money making opportunity, or want one, you usually have a product or service that you want to sell to make some money. So once you’ve established a good readership by providing quality content, you can start to make offers within your blog posts.

The reason this is so effective is because you are first offering something to your readers for free, and because it is of value, they come to know and trust you as a good source of information. In this way, you have established respect for yourself and your business, and have essentially pre-sold them on whatever product or service you want to offer.

Pre-selling is a highly effective way of doing business online or offline. The wonderful thing about pre-selling on a blog is that on your blog, you also have a built-in section when you set it up that allows readers to make comments on your posts.

By allowing comments and interaction with your readers, you are potentially getting some very good feedback on your information, and if you keep the communication lines open, you can built even more rapport, and come to realize what it really is that your customers want.

Knowing what your customers want in your money making opportunity is a vital piece of information that you cannot live without. So by writing articles, providing something free of value, building a readership, pre-selling them your product or service, and keeping communication lines open, you are doing what internet marketing is all about!

Don’t forget that a blog is very much like a web page – you can do with it as you please, and add whatever you want, such as images, audios, videos, or Google Adsense code.

It’s also super easy to learn a little HTML just so you can put links within your blog posts pointing to your main website or pointing to other deep links within your site, or other blog posts or sites. Linked and highlighted text seems to be picked up by the search engines more quickly than regular text, so don’t underestimate the importance of this!

With a basic knowledge of internet marketing concepts, you can now see how your blog can be a money making opportunity all by itself.

Liane Bate owns a Plug-in Profit Site web business and is author of 100+ articles related to online business and internet marketing. Turn your blog into a Hot Money Making Opportunity! Tags: money making opportunity

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Liane_Bate
 

by Bobette Kyle

Marketing Plan and Promotions site - Tell-A-FriendThere is no single "magic formula” to a successful Website. You can, however, make your own magic with a mix of marketing programs that is right for you. Your choices depend upon your overall goals and strategies.

A laundry list of marketing tactics that have worked for others — and some of the benefits or features of each — is below. They are in no particular order because each Website is unique. The tactics that will help you reach your goals may be completely different than the tactics that are right for another Website.

1. Write and distribute articles available for free republication — Provides a "sample” of your writing or knowledge and creates inbound links to your Website.

2. Write and publish your own ezine — Develops a list of interested prospects and provides a way to communicate directly with subscribers.

3. Distribute Website or newsletter content via RSS (xml) feeds — Provides a way to reach prospects without email and creates more ways for potential prospects to find your Website.

4. Rewrite sales page(s) — Increases conversion rates for your product.

5. Start an ongoing SEO campaign — Improves organic search engine rankings and increases number of visitors.

6. Test different Website configurations — Improves conversion rates and profit.

7. Send postcards or notes to Website customers/visitors via "snail mail” — Additional point of contact improves conversions and recall.

8. Add a signature to your email — Increases exposure to your site and communicates your marketing message.

9. Spend one hour each day on prospecting new customers or visitors — Spreads the word about your product/service/Website and improves awareness.

10. Offer a podcast — Recipients can listen to the mp3 file while away from their computers. A way to verbally communicate with prospects.

11. Blog — You can easily share thoughts and resources up to several times a day.

12. Audio message on Website (With start and stop under visitor control) — An additional way to verbally communicate your message.

13. Online radio show — Attracts visitors to your Website on a regular basis and is a way for visitors/listeners to know the "personality" behind your Website.

14. Survey visitors as a research method — Helps you understand the needs and problems of your visitors.

15. Include a daily (weekly, monthly) interactive survey for visitors — A way to make your Website "stickier” and is a reason for repeat visits.

16. Provide a discount coupon, available only online, and advertise it offline — Pulls new and repeat visitors to your Website.

17. Offer a free ebook that you wrote/developed and allow reprints — Creates a viral marketing effect and provides a sample of your work.

18. Show others’ advertisements on your Website (examples: AdSense or Yahoo! Publisher Network) — Adds a source of revenue for you and more research options for your visitors.

19. Implement a customer loyalty program — Increases repeat purchases and builds a more loyal customer base.

20. Offer a gift with certain orders over a certain amount — Increases average order size.

21. Write press releases to announce important news — Spreads the word about your business and creates additional avenues of contact with those interested in your industry.

22. Hold an online chat — Interactive way to communicate with prospects and draws visitors to the site.

23. Launch a direct-mail campaign, sending 3 to 6 postcards - spaced a week or so apart - to prospects - Draws new visitors to your Website.

24. Partner with other online businesses by mentioning each other’s products/services in your ezine Websites — Opportunity for synergies between businesses.

25. Launch an affiliate program — Creates a sales force for your product.

26. Offer different versions of your product — Provides a "tiered” choice for customers.

27. Participate in others’ affiliate programs — Develops an additional source of revenue and expands your product offerings.

28. Open a merchant or third party processor account — Increases your ability to take payments online and improves customer service.

29. Offer free shipping — Improves customer service.

30. Have a limited-time offer — Encourages customers to buy now rather than later (or never).

31. Conduct a workshop or class — Builds credibility and attracts prospects.

32. Add testimonials to your Website — Helps establish credibility and shows experience.

33. Participate in interviews — Displays your expertise and attracts new customers.

34. Study your competition — Helps you understand what is happening in your industry and better address important issues and needs.

35. Launch a pay per click advertising campaign — Attracts new prospects to the Website pages you want.

36. Hold a teleseminar — Provides a way to attract potential prospects and customers get to know you better.

37. Put a "refer-a-friend” link on every page — Reminds people to tell others about your site and encourages viral marketing.

38. Set up an autoresponder course — Is a value-added service to visitors and increases exposure to your product and Website.

39. Continually split-test your sales page(s). Change a single element (headline color, for example) and test against the current version. Replace anytime you get a page that converts better than the current - Over time, this dramatically improves profit.

40. Develop a mailing list of "hot prospects” and send them a brochure about your Website — Improves awareness and attracts new customers.

41. Communicate your URL and tag line at every point of contact with customers and prospects — Increases awareness and interest; improves recall; and attracts new customers.

42. List your Website in appropriate directories — Provides more points of contact with potential customers, helps search engine rankings.

43. Install a "bookmark this page” script on each page — Encourages repeat visits.

44. Improve a marginal product — Increases sales and provides an additional opportunity to communicate with customers.

45. Provide a "co-branded” product or service — By partnering with another Website to create a new product, improves both businesses .

46. Offer a contest — Provides additional "stickiness” and encourages repeat visits.

47. Become active in online forums and groups — Establishes you as an authority on your subject, improves credibility, and increases points of contact with potential prospects.

48. Move your primary call-to-action "above the fold” and test different page positions — Can dramatically improve Website conversions.

49. Install live customer service on site. Staff with knowledgeable people so potential customers can get immediate answers - Improves customer service and conversion rates.

50. Develop different versions of your products (example: print book, audio book, ebook, etc.) — Meets needs and preferences of customers in more ways.

51. THE MOST IMPORTANT ONLINE MARKETING TECHNIQUE: First, implement to your greatest ability. Then, persist. Improve upon and tweak implementation of each marketing program until it works for you.

Search engines have become an increasingly important part of the online experience of American internet users. The most recent findings from Pew Internet & American Life tracking surveys and consumer behavior trends from the comScore Media Metrix consumer panel show that about 60 million American adults are using search engines on a typical day.

These results from September 2005 represent a sharp increase from mid-2004. Pew Internet Project data from June 2004 show that use of search engines on a typical day has risen from 30% of the internet population to 41%. This means that the number of those using search engines on an average day jumped from roughly 38 million in June 2004 to about 59 million in September 2005 – an increase of about 55%.

comScore data show that from September 2004 to September 2005 the average daily use of search engines jumped from 49.3 million users to 60.7 million users – an increase of 23%.

This means that the use of search engines is edging up on email as a primary internet activity on any given day. The Pew Internet Project data show that on a typical day, email use is still the top internet activity. On any given day, about 52% of American internet users are sending and receiving email.

These findings have considerable consequences for the way people gather and use information online and the way e-commerce is conducted.

“Most people think of the internet as a vast library and they increasingly depend on search engines to help them find everything from information about the people who interest them, to transactions they want to conduct, organizations they need to deal with, and interesting factoids that help them settle bar bets and backyard arguments,” said Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet Project.

“The evolution of search engines as everyday consumer Web tools has made them a vital resource for marketers,” said James Lamberti, vice president of comScore Networks. “Search engines are obviously a critical vehicle in reaching consumers during the buy cycle, but they also offer a rich source for consumer profiling, segmentation, and measurement of product demand. To-date, we have only witnessed the preliminary impact of search engines on e-commerce.”

The latest data from comScore show that Google was the most heavily used search engine in October 2005 with 89.8 million unique visitors, followed by Yahoo! Search (68 million unique visitors), MSN Search (49.7 million unique visitors), Ask Jeeves (43.7 million unique visitors), and AOL Search (36.1 million unique visitors).

The Pew Internet Project findings cited in this report come from a nationally representative telephone survey of 2,251 American adults (age 18 and older), including 1,577 internet users, between September 13-October 14, 2005. The margin of error on the internet user portion of the survey is plus or minus 3%.

The comScore data cited in this report come from comScore Media Metrix, an internet audience measurement service that uses a massive cross-section of more than 1.5 million U.S. consumers who have given comScore explicit permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing.

By: Paul J. Bruemmer

Is Search Engine Marketing cost effective enough to increase profits for B2B marketers? You bet, and here’s why. It’s always been conventional wisdom that the fastest and most efficient way to research products and pricing is on the Web. Now Enquiro has documented survey research on the role of search engines in B2B transactions.

As you know, B2B transactions differ from most consumer transactions because these decisions require coordination between a number of different personnel before the final transaction is made. Therefore, the process requires a period of time between researching the product and placing the order. It’s an ongoing rather than snap decision.

“The Role of Search in Business to Business Buying Decisions” is a well-designed study of approximately 1500 participants responding to a 40-question survey that was validated with pre-testing before implementation. You can download the entire report for free, and here are a few highlights:

• When participants were asked to indicate how they would go about making a B2B purchase, 93.2 percent said they would research the purchase online.
   
• When asked if they would use a search engine at some point in this task, 95.5 percent of participants indicated that they would.
   
• When asked where they would start their search for information, 63.9 percent of participants chose a search engine over consumer review sites, e-commerce sites, manufacturer’s sites, and industry portals.
   
• When taking budget into consideration, manufacturer’s sites and industry portals were the chosen starting place as budgets increased. However, 86.9 percent of participants said they would visit a search engine after visiting those sites.

The study is rich with too many details to cover in this article, but following are some important conclusions:

• Search engines play a dominant role in B2B purchases.
   

• Search engines are used in the early or mid research phase in the buying cycle.
   

• Google is favored over other search engines.
   

• Search engine research takes place at least one to two months before the buying decision.
   

• Good balance between organic and paid search is necessary. Organic SEO gets over 70 percent of the clicks.
   

• Position is a factor, with over 60 percent clicking on the top 3 listings.
   

• Most users decide which listing to click on in seconds upon scanning the page.

With all this qualified traffic originating from search engines, it is more important than ever for B2B marketers, wholesalers, and B2B exchanges to ensure their Web sites are correctly optimized for good positioning in search results. There is also great value in SEO/SEM as a user-friendly marketing tool.

The Uniqueness of Search Engine Marketing

Search engine traffic is highly targeted. That’s because potential buyers who find your B2B offerings through search engines are looking for your products and services on their own, so they are predisposed to hear your marketing message. You can’t find a more qualified prospect than that. Here’s what distinguishes search engine marketing from other types of advertising:

1. Non-Intrusive:  Search marketing is a non-intrusive marketing tool. Most advertising, both online and offline, interrupts consumer behavior. If a user goes to a web site for info, up pops an intrusive ad. Reading a newspaper? Ads dominate and force articles to be continued on another page. With search engine marketing, the user is actively seeking your products, services, and information. They are delighted to be driven to your site.

2.      Voluntary: Search marketing is the result of user-originated behavior. Your visitors from search engines and directories have voluntarily clicked on your listing rather than any competitors, thus they are motivated to explore your offerings.

How good is the ROI? How effective is search engine marketing and optimization for B2B? What are the key-points to consider regarding a B2B search engine optimization and marketing plan? Please join me next month for Part 2 when we examine the answers to these questions.