Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Generate More Internet Traffice to your site

http://www.businessol.com/sem_ppc/default.asp?src=GoogleAdwords

Synopsis of Article:

Grow Your Business With Search Engine MarketingMore Traffic = More Leads and More Business!


Search Engine Marketing Provides The Best ROI For Any Online Marketing Dollar:
Search engines and directories average more than 300 million searches a day (Enbysk, bcentral.com)


More than 75% of web surfers head right for Search Engines to find what they are looking for (Krotz, becentral.com)


77% of purchasers search online first before picking up the phone.
Search engine listings outperform banner ads 2:1

Friday, March 25, 2005

Seven Reasons to Publish an eBook


  1. Ease of Publication: Gone are the days of writing for guidelines, trying to squeeze your writing into a publishers formula, then waiting for an acceptance or rejection. Today you can publish yourself. You can go from editing to publication online in a few minutes. Wow! What a great change.
  2. No Overhead: When you publish an eBook online you automatically cancel out the large overhead of traditional publishing. An eBook is self contained on your hard drive. There are no stocking fees, printing fees or other overhead expenses at all.
  3. Low Distribution costs: Another plus for eBooks is the zero to low distribution costs. Also you are in direct control of these costs. When you go the eBook route you decide which booksellers and publishers you allow to sell your work. In this way you can bring your distribution costs down to zero or very low up front fees from the publishers.
  4. Freedom: eBooks give us a sense of freedom most people are not familiar with yet. We can set our own schedules and even sell the eBook on auto pilot 24/7. We no longer have to design long announcement schedules or promotion days. We can wake up and do our marketing and promotion early in the morning or late in the afternoon. We are in total control, which gives up an incredible freedom.
  5. Self-fulfillment: eBooks exist in a world of self-fulfillment. After the buyer pays for the eBook they are taken to a download page where they can download the eBook instantly onto their hard drives. Once you as the author set up your sales page and download page you are done with fulfillment completely. You can sit back and allow the Internet to work its wonders.
  6. Design your own future: One of the really incredible aspects of selling eBooks is the ability to design your own future. Really! You are no longer tied to a job waiting for retirement age hoping you'll have enough to live on. Once you are through the initial learning curve her on the Internet you can then program your future.
  7. Helping others: This is my favorite reason to create, write and sell eBooks. You can take the knowledge you have, put it into an easy to read and understand written form. Then you can release this capsule of information into the public arena. Knowledge is always sought after and you can answer some of that longing. Your knowledge is out there helping people all over the world. Wow!

Now what? Use that electronic book as an enticement on your website to secure e-mail addresses. A simple form requesting your visitors name and e-mail address, in return for a copy of your e-book (full of valuable information). It's the beginning of an e-mail marketing strategy!

Thursday, March 24, 2005

E-Mail Etiquette

Funny thing happend yesterday. I had sent out an e-mail blast for one of the organizations that I belong to. It was an announcement about a speaker her speaking event. Seems a young man took exception with my playful words. So, he flamed me via e-mail.

Why is it we tend to be so rude to others through e-mails?

Here are The 10 Commandments of Email:


  1. Thou shalt include a clear and specific subject line.
  2. Thou shalt strip quoted text down to the minimum thou needest.
  3. Thou shalt read thine own message thrice before thou sendest it.
  4. Thou shalt ponder how thy recipient might react to thy message.
  5. Thou shalt check thy spelling and thy grammar.
  6. Thou shalt not curse, flame, spam or USE ALL CAPS.
  7. Thou shalt not forward anecdotal chain letters.
  8. Thou shalt change the subject field as the subject changes
  9. When in doubt, save thy message overnight and reread it in the light
    of the dawn.

    And, the 10th and "Golden Rule" of E-Mail:
  10. That which thou findest hateful to receive, sendest thou not unto others.

Remember, if you don't know who you are flaming, maybe you shouldn't flame them. The speaker I wrote about happens to be courting me to speak to my organization. I'm sure she wouldn't appreciate hearing about one of her "fans" abusing the person who makes the decision to book her. Hmmmm....

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Small Business Resources

Every small business owner needs resources to help their business grow. Two local resources I'd like to share with you are Mind Masters and Leads Club International.

Mind Masters is a small business "Think Tank" made up of small business owners. Meeting once a week, through out San Diego County, the members of Mind Masters, facilitated by CEO Barbara Eldridge, set goals and brainstorm with each other to help their businesses grow.

Leads Club International is a referral networking group. Leads Club offers exclusivity to it's members in a designated category. Meeting weekly, Leads Club Members, act as a sales force for each other as they are out and about each week in the business community. They share with their fellow members the structure of their business, it's services, and what type of leads they are looking for at the chapter.

If you want to see your business grow, these are two resources you should investigate.

In Her Spirit Of Entrepreneurship

Score's "In Her Spirit of Her Entrepreneurship" is coming up next Wednesday, March 16th. Register Here This is going to be a great day for networking with women business owners. Rhoberta Shaler, Ph.D., Optimize! Institute, will present the keynote address, "WRESTLING RHINOS AND WINNING - Internal Secrets for External Success".

By the way, if I were a man, I'd be here too. To be highly visible is something a small business owner seeks. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that a man at the women's conference would be highly visible. Think about it!!

Sunday, March 06, 2005

Robert Middleton's Free Marketing Plan

One of the most powerful small business marketing tools on
the planet is a marketing plan. So few small business owners
take advantage of this but those that do, wouldn't be without
it. Go download a fre!e marketing plan workbook from my
friend Robert Middleton.

You can start becoming a better marketer today by getting my free 24 page Marketing Plan Workbook with a detailed outline of all the marketing activities you need to attract more clients. The workbook is bundled with a free chapter of the InfoGuru Marketing Manual.

http://www.actionplan.com/index.html

Website Marketing Strategies For Small Business Owners.

Use the Web to grow your business locally or globally!

Choosing a website marketing strategy that makes sense for your business requires two things - the right information and the right tools.
When I talk to many small business owners about the Internet and ways to use it to grow their business I often encounter this response. "That's just for people trying to sell stuff to people all over the world" or "I tried that and it didn't work for me."Let me say it again. "You can use the World Wide Web even if your market is the Guy Next Door." . . .
http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/website_marketing_strategies.htm

Tom Peters 101 Ways to Make Money

http://www.tompeters.com/blogs/promos/SuccessTips26-50.pdf

Tips 26 through 50

Tom Peters 101 Ways to Make Money

Tom Peters first 25 tips to making money
http://www.tompeters.com/pdfs/TPSuccessTips1-25.pdf

5 easy tips to create landing pages that convert

http://www.wordbiz.com/newsletter/030305.html

***** 5-star review of MarketingSherpa's new Landing Page Handbook
By Debbie Weil

If you're a student of Web site best practices (as I am) this new guide is a must-have for your online marketing library. And yes, landing pages do apply to you. I can't think of a marketer who doesn't use a landing page for something... an e-newsletter sign up, a postcard campaign, a Google ad, etc. If you’re not routinely using a dedicated page to prompt specific visitor actions, as above, then shame on you. You *really* need this guide.Here are five tips I culled from a quick read of the Landing Page Handbook. There are dozens more like them, clearly spelled out, often with an illustrated case study you can steal from. In addition, you get fascinating results of eye-tracking studies.