Get the New Year Started on the Right Foot.

How to leverage social media to the best advantage, what are the hottest apps coming out and how can they help a small business grow and more are just some of the results from Mashable’s Year End Roundup. While time is tight for any businessperson there are some new ways to get the most out of marketing that may surprise the reader.

Skype is in the running for getting more done in less time with less money and right from the business owner’s computer.

Groupon coupons may be a way to gain customers, re-engage existing and inactive customers and naturally to help with the branding.

Networking with other small businessmen and entrepreneurs is an essential and can generate new ideas and enthusiasm on both sides.

Google accounts can generate business for the small business on a budget, it is all in the know-how. Location based Google ads can help the brick and mortar store or even better the chain store seeking to serve a customer better, knowing a customer’s history can help the store overcome complaints and provide even better service.

Seo Friendly blog posts are a necessity for promoting a site, not only must the blog have useful content, but making it attractive to the search engines is essential.

How to hire a designer or developer is a burning question since all too many new businesses fall prey to being burned or choosing the wrong designer. Along with that essential information the business owner may find they need to think out how they communicate their expectations to their designers.

Branded Mobile applications are the rage right now and some get the idea, and others just don’t “get it”. Be one of those who gets the idea without annoying the consumer.

Recruiting using the iPhone and apps can be a time saver for recruiter and even better it is portable.

One of the newest tech rages is that of accepting credit card payments on mobile devices. This can be ideal for the business that goes to the customer and where space is an issue.

This has been a year of change with many new products coming out and a lot of focus on what marketers do and how they do it. Taking a lesson from large companies that did it right, and those who failed can save the small business a lot of time and money.

Business evolves at such speed these days that we sometimes forget the power of common courtesies. Who has time for quaint little customs?

Who has time for niceties when our competitors are rushing forward?

I found this brilliant article at Microsoft.com about using “thank yous” as a way to actually gain an edge in the marketplace!

Author Joanna L. Krotz writes:

Today, extending old-time courtesies helps you stand out. Yes, boys and girls, saying “thank you” has become a competitive advantage. So few people express appreciation — a Lenox etiquette poll found that nearly five out of every 10 people don’t always say thanks — that remembering to do so is a sales point of difference. It also goes a long way toward forging the relationships that can turn into opportunities.

Then she outlines (in good detail) the following 11 tactics that you can sart using right NOW! Remember: Don’t underestimate the power of saying “thank you”.

1. Throw a bash that boosts their business.
2. Be warm and personal.
3. But know that timing counts.
4. Pass along compliments.
5. Send value-added appreciation.
6. Consider when to send for maximum impact.
7. Be quirky.
8. Appreciate employees.
9. Thank your complaining customers.
10. Don’t go over the top.
11. Feel the power.

Read the rest of the article.

4 things to look for when hiring a marketing consultant:

I am constantly surprised (and down right annoyed) at shat some people try to pass of as Internet Marketing skills. Whenever hiring a web designer, “marketing expert” or SEO company, look out for these warning signs. Or don’t and them come to me so I can fix it for you.

1. They insist on Using  a Single Marketing Tactic

Quick – run SCREAMING for the hills! Why do they suggest this? Because it’s all they know.

This reminds me of a story.

A young husband and wife are in the kitchen on Christmas cooking their first Christmas dinner together. Before putting the ham in the pan, the  wife cuts a chunk off the end of the ham. Her husband asks why? She says, “That’s the way my mom did it and that’s how I’ve always done it…”

This makes no sense to the husband so he walks out to the living room and asks his mother in law.

Her answer is the same, “That’s the way my mom did it and that’s how I’ve always done it…” she trails off.

Now the young wife chimes in with, “Let’s call Grandma and find out  why.” So they do and she tells her  story: “We always cut the end off the ham so it would fit in the oven.”

The moral of the story – There may have been a reason for this strategy in the past, but trust me, there are a lot of ways to cook a ham.

2. They Bring No New Ideas to the Table

A marketer or consultant should be able to fluidly relate several marketing tactics to your specific market or niche.

It’s not “one size fits all” here folks – you are looking for custom tailoring.

Secondly, your marketer should be up to date on the newest trends – if they suggest using MySpace as your main marketing push, I may use someone else.

3. They Don’t recommend Upgrading your Website

Every time I take on a new web client, I recommend upgrades to their existing site. The basis of everything you do online is  your site. I am yet to find one that is perfectly built to suit the multi-pronged marketing campaign that I want to unleash… Unless, of course, I built it myself.

No matter how well built your site is, there is always room for improvement.

Most “Web Designers” don’t think like marketers and conversely, most marketers don’t have an aesthetic design bone in their body. You want to have a solid foundation for your online marketing. That’s why I ALWAYS use WordPress when I create a site and/of marketing campaign.

4. They Guarantee Results

Guarantees are cool, right? Yes, but often times, they are very unrealistic. In the online marketing game – rules are always changing, as are strategies. A good marketer will give examples of successful strategies – and will often use several tactics to increase the chances for success. Remember #1 – that’s why you look for multiple strategies from any marketer or consultant.

I preach about blogging (using WordPress) for small business – until I’m blue in the face, really. But there is good reason. Let me explain:

Blogging might  very well be the single most important thing you do for your small business online. It’s not the only thing – but it sets the foundation for everything else you do online. What ever you are doing anywhere else online, your blog is what will ultimately capture your visitors’ interest and as long as you are consistently adding new, engaging content, keep them coming back for more.

Consider your blog as your “Relationship Maker” , “Branding Agent” and your “Expert Creation Assistant”. A well written, informative blog will help you accomplish all three of these  things.

Relationship Maker

Certainly you can begin “relationships” on social networks like Twitter and Facebook, but your business mission on these sites is to create enough interest so that your social media “friends” will go visit your website. This is why it is not only important to have a nicely designed site but a well integrated WordPress blog to keep their interest. If your visitors like what they are reading – it is extremely important to give them value – not only will they continue to come back and possibly buy your products, and services or even walk into your store, they will also become advocates for you and your business to their networks!

Branding Agent

Once you get people to your site, your blog can help mold people’s perceptions of you and your business. Branding as a concept means much more than your logo and colors… What you say on your blog will shape your visitors opinions about you in ways far greater than any logo of service mark. This is why it is important to use your blog consistently, relevantly and on message. And above all else: Give your visitors HUGE VALUE.

Expert Creation Assistant

The more valuable and insightful your blog is the more you leverage yourself as an expert – Period.

One of the major reasons to use your blog to establish yourself as the expert in your field is because your competition probably isn’t… Yet.

All that being said, here are 10 things to do to get your blog started:

1. Install and set-up your self hosted WordPress blog (Or hire someone else to do it. Your blog should be fully and neatly integrated into your site and not hosted somewhere else like blogger or WordPress.com
2. Write a list of 30 topics you can write about – just headlines
3. Set up news alerts from http://www.google.com/alerts. Once Google Alert is set up, you can receive daily digests of articles and blog posts on virtually any topic. This is a great way to discover new topics to write about.
4. Write 1-3 Blog posts per week.
5. Always stay Ahead! Write five to 10 posts and save them as drafts in your blog. Do not publish them yet.
6. Send an email to your friends, family and colleagues and invite them to read you blog and ask them to leave comments.
7. Invite people in your online networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) to read your blog.
8. Find 10 blogs that target similar markets (not competitors) – read them, add comments and make friends with those bloggers. The blogging community always seems ready to help other bloggers spread the word.
9. Make friends with 10-20 people who already have strong social networks and ask them to help you spread the word.
10. Stay consistent with your blog posts – write 1-3 blog posts per week.

Good luck and happy blogging. Above all else… Have fun!

Let’s take a look shall we and see how we can apply this to your business. Inc Magazine offers 5 quotes from Aaron. I’ll dig a little deeper into what he said and give you a few ideas of exactly how these concepts can  apply to you and your business.

Create a product that makes the difficult & boring easy & fun

“What set us apart from 95 percent of other start-ups is that we served a real need,” Patzer says. “Personal finance is so complex and too difficult for most people. I was frustrated with the existing tools and found out that others were frustrated as well.”

Volkswagen is using this idea in an ad campaign to help our environment: http://www.thefuntheory.com

How can you attract new customers/clients by making something fun. Adding a coupon to your website or maybe a game or puzzle to solve for a prize discount. Think about this one and get your creative juices flowing!

Choose a market that’s really, really big. What’s the word? (BIG)

“There are 250 million people worldwide who already use online banking,” Patzer says. “With our 1.5 million users, we’ve barely scratched the surface. Intuit made a billion dollars on its tax business alone and that’s a once-a-year thing. People do online banking every day.”

Or target a niche market the is BIG enough. Of course it would be great to score that $170 million home run – that’s why we think big. But if you target your niche thoughtfully – always delivering your value to the marketplace, you can always target a bigger, wider market at any time!

Develop a business model that actually makes you money.

“Our product is free, but we make our money by helping people save money,” Patzer says. “We understand where people spend their money so we can say, ‘You should refinance’ or ‘You should change your auto insurance.’ The only ads people see on Mint.com are ones that will save them at least $50. Financial institutions then pay us for new customers.”

On the surface, this one seems like a no brainer. That is why we are in business – to make money. But if you are spinning your entrepreneurial wheels, not making money, it’s time to get a better model.

How can you improve your model so that it delivers maximum value to your customers and maximum dollars to you?

Don’t pay for new customers/clients. Ever.

“All of our customer acquisition has been free — through social media, blogs, and the press,” Patzer says. “We don’t pay a dime for advertising. We also use business partnerships with Motley Fool and the credit-report companies. And Apple has given us a lot of free advertising as a featured application.”

This is my favorite! I love FREE stuff! That’s why I am active on the social networks and my blogs giving value away. I follow the Universal Law of Reciprocity. In your life how many times has someone given you a gift that you were anxious to repay? My guess – almost every time you receive a gift. We want to give back, return the favor. It is built in us naturally.

“One of the most potent of the weapons of influence around us is the rule for reciprocation. The rule says that we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us.” ~ Robert B. Cialdini, author of The Psychology of Persuasion

Be a extremely careful about who you hire.

“In the last start-up I worked for, hiring was done haphazardly,” Patzer says. “We have a very rigorous hiring process. For tech people, we might screen 50 people and hire one. For all managers, we use a technique called top grading which reveals patterns in behavior. In the history of Mint, I’ve only fired two people and only one has left voluntarily.”

Bringing people onto your team is a big deal and should be treated such. Don’t hire someone just because they are cheap. This is not a good policy. People who believe in your mission will go the extra mile for you – be on the lookout for those people.

If you found this post helpful, please leave a comment or use the “Tweetmeme” button above to tweet it.

Thanks

Check out the advantages for you and your business:

1. They are interactive: Blogs allow for other people to freely comment on your posts, ask a question, or even contribute a different point of view other than the one that you have shared. And don’t fear the seemingly “negative” comments or someone disagreeing with you. That’s great! You’ve got them talking and noticing YOU and your business! It is also a great way to keep tabs on your target market.
2. Super easy to  manage: Need to make a change? Not so hip with HTML code? Not to worry! You don’t need to open up an HTML editor or even understand what that is! Everything is done from a central control panel. All you need is an Internet connection to get onto the blog and update the page. It is really great if you are new to the website world, but even experienced webmasters appreciate its ease and simplicity.
3. User-Friendly Organization:  With the use of categories, pages, and tags,  it is quite simple to put together your blog into a user-friendly website.
4. Plug-ins: What are plug-ins? They are  “little programs that are designed to enhance the functionality of your blog” (well-put by author Gary Ruplinger). An example of a plug-in function is making it easy for readers to “tweet” or “digg” your most recent post. Another acts as an indispensable bookmarking tool. You name it and you can probably find a plug-in for it! And with just a click you can add it!

So there are the basics of why a blog and blogsites are so great. And as many of you know, WordPress is the creator of hundreds of great blogsite designs and makes creating an on-line presence almost a snap. But if you’re feeling as if you need a bit more instruction click HERE and  take a look at this awesome opportunity!

So it is on that note that I would like to share with you this great article form Small business Labs called: 2009 Top 10 Small Business Trends. The article is very timely considering that some economists estimate that as much as 95% of our economy is driven by small businesses.

However, it is number 10 on the 2009 small business trends list that caught my attention:

10. Small Businesses Will Expand Their Use of Online Marketing Tools: Despite the economic downturn, we expect the small business sector to increase its use of online marketing tools and methods in 2009. Online marketing is cheaper and often more effective than traditional approaches. And although online marketing can be complex, many tools and methods are accessible to DIY small business marketers. With small businesses focused on customer acquisition and re-defining their business methods, we expect their use of online marketing to grow in 2009.

Since those in the know realize that online marketing can be far less costly than traditional forms of marketing. Do newspaper ads really get people into your store? The answer: Yes, but… Of course offline marketing works – but even in a small market a newspaper ad might cost several hundred dollars.

If you take into account that a full 50% of your potential customers are looking for your small business online – What if you could be the first option they see when they are looking for your type of product or service online? Well, you probably can!

Utilizing the vast resources of the internet as well as variations of what savvy Internet Marketers use – yes indeed you can. Internet Marketing is a business and chances are you’re not in the internet marketing business. So, would it make sense for you to become a full time internet marketer? NO! You need time to run, maintain and grow your small business.

That being said, there is a lot you can do to market your small business online and chances are that your competition is not.

By blogging, social networking, social bookmarking, even strategically placed video, you can increase your presence on Google and on the web in general.

Hone your message, create multiple gateways to your web presence online, perform great customer service, and watch your small business grow.

Web design plays an important role in marketing success. With an attractive web site, the success is guaranteed (as long as you have compelling content). Internet marketing is not all about getting as many visitors as possible but also to capture the interest of the visitor once he’s on that specific web site, so what better way to do this if not by web design?

Well, one way is to have compelling content, an authentic message and a strong, congruent marketing message!

This is where the 2 roads meet – Form & Function.

For any website to have success, it must capture a few key components:

1. Nice visual styling – The big boys (Yahoo, Google, Youtube) can get away with plain styles because the offer so much content. You and I, on the other hand, need clean, smart, even elegant design as a frame to display our compelling, rich content.
2. Easy, Intuitive Navigation – Don’t make your visitors guess how to navigate your site. Make it easy. ‘Nuff said…
3. Compelling Content – This would be informative content for site visitors. It should be keyword rich for the search engines too. Remember, stay on topic. Don’t add backpacking content to a site about hamsters…
4. Marketing Message – It doesn’t matter if your site is a personal site or business site… You are always marketing. Whether it’s to friends, family, spouses, business associates, future customers or clients, keep your message clear!
5. New Content – Visitors won’t come back to your site if nothing ever changes. Dammit get yourself a blog. It’s easy to update, there are tons of pre-designed templates (and it you want a custom designed one, we can do that for you) and did I mention that it’s easy to update? The best blog out there? WORDPRESS!
6. Truth – Nobody likes a liar… Stay true, authentic and connected to your message. People are attracted to messages that a consistent with the messenger!

A strong visual presence coupled with a strong message and compelling content will always increase you chance for online success!

Not quite but I’ll tell you what. If you pay attention to any great rock front man or woman, you will notice a couple of very clever tactics.

Dateline Sunday July 20th… So there I was indulging in a guilty pleasure… Let me back up. The first concert that I ever attended was a KISS concert in 1977 when they were at their pinnacle (I have seen them 5 times since, twice on halloween!)

Like I said, guilty pleasure… So sunday I popped in a DVD “Kiss w/ the Melbourne Symphony. Kiss, the garishly made up rock band (with tons of pop hooks) with a symphony… Should be interesting, I thought.

It’s amazing what a different perspective will do. The DVD was tons of fun (guilty pleasure, remember…) but I noticed all the sales, marketing and trainer tricks that lead singer Paul Stanley was using and realized that all the great Rock Bands do this to create the rabid, evangelist seeking following.

Acknowledge!

The first thing any good Rocker will do is acknowledge the fans and thank them: Paul Stanley on the DVD, “We had offers from a lot of Cities to play with a symphony, but we had such a great time here last time, we just had to come back!”

Giving your audience ownership: “You made this song popular, we may have written it but this song is yours!” – Yep, Paul Stanley said this too.

Wow that’s powerful!

Setting the Context

If you’re going to sell, let the audience know and get their permission first.

Never, ever lay into your sales pitch without taking the time to acknowledge your audience and getting to know them first!

This was a Tweet I received (sort of, since I can’t find the tweet or who twittered..)

At a bar-b-que: Me: beautiful day isn’t it? Other guy: Heard of Amway? Never, ever, ever!

“We’re gonna slow this next song down a bit. Is that alright with you?

Permission marketing creates loyalty!

What’s in it for me?

Again any decent trainer or marketer will lay out up front what valuable stuff is coming for the audience. “Over the next hour (or whatever) I’m going to give you/tell you about these things that will rock your world!

Paul Stanley: “We’re gonna rock your asses off!”

Now, if you make this promise, you better deliver!

Involving your Audience – leads to inclusion!

Rockers do this: Sing alongs, clap alongs.

Here’s a great example of involving the audience. In the 80′s I saw Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin fame on tour solo. When it came time to play the Led Zepp classic “Stairway to Heaven” the singer on the tour took a break. On stage a single spotlight stayed on an empty mike. So what happened? A chorus of 15,000 + sang instead. Amazing! At that point, if we hadn’t already, we were all drinking the Koolade. Don’t leave anyone behind.

Leading Questions

“Do you wanna Rock?” – what a clever way to involve/include your audience. How about if you are marketing razors… “Has anyone ever cut themselves shaving?”

Demand a response!

Audience participation part deux: Ever heard this one? “Does anyone wanna ROCK!” then after the first response: “What?! I can’t her you!”. This, as any trainer will tell you is called “Demanding a response!”

Do you want to leave your audience out? Next time you are attending a sales meeting, seminar, teleclass, whatever, pay attention to the speaker for, in my opinion, a fatal mistake. The presenter/speaker asks a question and the audience doesn’t really respond but they move on anyway. Guess what, they just left all those non responders behind.

Go to one of T. Harv Eker’s, Tony Robbins or Alex Mandossian’s events and watch masters at keeping the audience involved at work.

Or just go to a great rock show! And when you do, pay attention, you’ll be surprised at all you can learn from a ROCKSTAR!

And remember, it doesn’t matter how many tricks you employ, if you don’t, in the end, deliver the promised “goods”!

John McCrea: There are a few phases to social networking. The first phase was Friendster, MySpace and clones and it was pretty frivolous. Everyone connected as a friend. Strangers came together online. The second phase was about who you knew, maintaining and enriching your relationships. It was a way not to lose touch with people as you changed jobs or moved. The latest phase is an online representation of real world activity. Small and midsize businesses were always people who spent money on their Rolodexes and then on database software. They survive and thrive based on the power of personal networks.

I’ll point to Plaxo as a network address book and “Pulse” as an online service as examples. Plaxo was a precursor to an Internet-based service and it’s composed of members keeping up their contact information on their “implied profile page.” Even then, many users would share birthdates and would get e-mails about who changed jobs, whose birthday it is, etc. It allowed people to connect and send flowers on a birthday or congratulate someone on a new job. It made networking stuff easier to do and made a smaller businessperson appear well organized and thoughtful. Pulse brings the address book to life. Users can connect up with different services on the Web. They can share postings on Flickr or a blog, where getting an audience can be hard.

Truly it is about starting a relationship first. Nothing is more annoying than the guy (or gal) who upon the first meeting immediately bombards you info about the latest and greatest network marking company etc… Get to know me first is my policy.

Getting to know your customers and/or potential customers is the fiirst step in discovering their needs and how you can best assist them, solve their problem or ease their pain.

The Business Value Of Social Networking – Forbes.com.

As I have been saying online video is so important. We’ve all heard of  YouTube. Most of us have watched movies online. Video is quickly becoming the most important marketing weapon in your arsenal!

While video is important, guess what will happen when everyone is using video… Only the great, well produced videos will get noticed.

Hollywood, CA. — July 1 – Online video is becoming an important part of Internet marketing and is driving word of mouth. A recent study by eMarketer revealed that ‘recommendations from other consumers’ is the most trusted form of advertising online and according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 57% of internet users have watched videos online – and most of them share what they find with others.

The most recent figures for US internet users is just over 150 million, so some 85 million Americans are watching online videos and sharing them with their friends and connections. These findings show that video on your website is no longer just something nice to have – it’s a must.

Although one might think that the audience for online video is very young, and they are watching silly videos made by their friends, in fact content such as product information and travel destinations are much more popular with every age group.

And 62% of online video viewers prefer professionally produced content.

“Companies are beginning to realize that one of the best ways to reach people today is with a well-made video distributed online. It’s no longer just something nice to have – it has become a must.” says AC Christiansen, Executive Producer of Seven Pictures Film & Video Production, an award-winning video production house that has made high-end corporate videos, commercials and PSAs for more than twenty years.

“Your video needs to have excellent content that people would want to share. And although it has become possible for anyone and everyone to make a video and upload it to YouTube, these surveys show that for best results online video should be shot and edited by a professional.”

To meet this new demand for online video Seven Pictures has added a new line of professional video products. “Technically speaking, these short online videos require fewer resources, making a professional digital video very affordable – and very effective,” says Christiansen.

For maximum online exposure and search engine visibility, videos should be syndicated and distributed to social media sites, such as Google, YouTube and Revver.

Part of this new product line is content development, script writing, RSS Feed syndication (so the video gets found by the search engines and is automatically included on sites like iTunes) and video submission and distribution to the top 30 video sharing sites.

To get a pro to do this for you, go here: http://www.SevenPictures.com

Here’s the alternative: Make professional looking video yourself by learning tips from the  pros. Film School by Phone

There is a great article in the new Fast Company Magazine all about the do it yourself social network “”Ning”.

The article begins by letting us in on a little secret:

Here’s something you probably don’t know about the Internet: Simply by designing your product the right way, you can build a billion-dollar business from scratch. No advertising or marketing budget, no need for a sales force, and venture capitalists will kill for the chance to throw money at you.

The secret is what’s called a “viral expansion loop,” a concept little known outside of Silicon Valley (go ahead, Google it — you won’t find much). It’s a type of engineering alchemy that, done right, almost guarantees a self-replicating, borglike growth: One user becomes two, then four, eight, to a million and beyond. It’s not unlike taking a penny and doubling it daily for 30 days. By the end of a week, you’d have 64 cents; within two weeks, $81.92; by day 30, about $5.4 million.

Yeah we all remember that little game, “I’ll give you $1 Million today or one single penny and double everyday for a month, which would you rather have?

Me? I’ll take the “Viral expansion loop” – but I want to call it the “Viral Spiral”.

This article goes on to explain how the viral loops (spirals) work as an accelerant for internet businesses – take Google, PayPal, YouTube, eBay, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Flickr as good examples.

So where does Ning fit in?

Well they use this concept on steroids! What they’ve got going is a “double viral loop”.

Only Ning, Andreessen declares, benefits from a “double viral loop,” which spreads two ways, because every network creator is a user and any user can become a network creator. Say someone sets up an Angelina Jolie net with 10 members, which grows as each person draws in others. Then an adoption site breaks off, a Jon Voight hate group rises up, and a Brad Pitt love club forms. Meanwhile, a Lara Croft nostalgia net launches, spawning a legion of soft-core cyberporn spin-offs. Soon you have 2, 3, 10 networks — all expanding simultaneously. Meanwhile, the original group is attracting even more users. Ning swells like a river fed from an ever-growing number of tributaries.

You can read the rest of the article here

1. Publish free reports to send via your auto responder. The reports should be related to your business or web site & contain info, ads and links to your sites. People love getting freebies

2. Collect vital customer satisfaction information by publishing a survey to send via auto responder to those who sign up on your site in exchange for a free eBook, software or trial period at your membership site.  This type of information will help you understand their needs, likes & dislikes better.

3. Instead of answering each customer question that is e-mailed to you, publish “Frequently Ask Questions” and make them available via auto responder to those who sign up. To save time and support headaches.

4. Instead of publishing all of your customer testimonials or endorsements on your website, publish only a few there. And set up an auto responder form that invites visitors to receive a complete list via your autoresponder. Give them a power-packed list; it’s more effective to include all of them.

Mix and match. Change your auto responder strategy to change your auto responder results!

What would happen if you combined both of these powerful ideas? A nifty and thrifty two-step. Try this two-step tip:

1. Collect leads with your auto responder. Ask for mailing addresses and telephone numbers, too, for additional ways to follow up with each person. When you download the e-mail digest of everyone’s e-mail addresses and other information from those who requested additional information from your auto responder, follow up multiple ways. Send postcards. Call. Mail sales letters and other promotional pieces.

2. Publish a price list of all the products and services that you offer in an insert, direct marketing package and / or .pdf to be made available via auto responder. You could also include order forms, product descriptions, and other sales material. Then send to the people in #1 above with monthly updates, announcements of new sales and products / services, and a request for referrals.

So why not improve your closing ratio and reach out even farther at the same time? Do the two-step!

DIRECTORY

Some webmasters set up link or article directories on their sites. They create a directory on a specific industry topic, placing their own ad or banner along the top. Then they invite others to add their website links via a link exchange program, listing themselves in your directory. Or they invite articles to be submitted that include a resource box at the bottom of each with a link to the authorís website. This results on increased traffic as sites link up across the World Wide Web. Enter “link exchange software” or “article directory software” into a favorite search engine for help with each.

TEACH A COURSE

Some marketers write up a simple step-by-step instructional class in their area of expertise. Then they break it up into smaller portions or messages and set them up in an auto responder as email messages, including short ads within each message to invite sales & website visits. Then they invite website visitors to sign up through on online form or email subscription address offered through the auto responder service. As people sign up, they will learn more about the products and services through the teaching series.

Well, let me spell it out for you. Linkbaiting is a method to get other sites to link to your site. There are a lot of ways to do this including, giving away tools, having contests, being a really compelling blooger among others.

Darren Rowse gives us a pretty good list of linkbaiting techniques on Problogger.com.

In his list he includes some things like controversy and attack (to create controversy). Controversy maybe, but  if you are running a business site, the attack method may not be the best plan.

1. Provide back issues of your eZine archives via your auto responder instead of hosting all your archives online. This will give your subscribers and web site visitors easy access to them and offers a chance to include graphics, audio and video and other components all rolled up in .pdf files for quick, easy download.

2. Help with tech issues and publish your entire web site, save it in a pdf file, and load it into an auto responder. Sometimes visitors don’t have enough time read your entire site or they lose their Internet connection or time online. So this way, they could print it out and read it offline.

3. You could offer your eBook via an auto responder. Often your visitors won’t have to download it or have the software to read it right away, so this way they can take it ìto goî.

4. For a handy – -and nice legal – touch, you could include the terms and conditions to purchase transactions and load them into an auto responder that is triggered with each purchase. This could include return policies, purchases, refunds etc.

EZINE EBOOK

Instead of trying to publish a small daily or weekly eZines, try publishing one large monthly eZine (similar to a monthly magazine) as an e-book format delivered via auto responder, preferably an Adobe .pdf file. You could have it made up of a large number of articles per issue and insert regularly featured areas throughout like inspirational quotes, industry tips, favorite sites and advice from the pros. You could also insert full-color graphics, multimedia components like audio / video file links and ads. Then you can charge a monthly rate, with an annual discounted package purchase, and sell advertising spots to sprinkle in your auto responder announcements for each issue and with an informational series to announce your monthly eZine to new prospects.

In summary, by using customized marketing techniques like an eZine or eBook, tailored to fit your own products and services, you can reach out and increase your website traffic and sales opportunities. Internet marketing can mean more ways to grow your business.

This method is more recognized as a “starting a Give Away venture”.

In a real sense, a Give Away event is much like a big time version of ad swaps. In a nutshell, a group of mailing list owners partner together and pool in their individual gifts in one limited-time event.

Each participating partner contributes a gift to the event. The gift can be a free product, membership pass or a product he is already selling (if he is kind enough to offer into the event).

The participating partner prepares a Lead Capture Page where he gives the gift in exchange for the subscriber’s email address. In other words, in order for a visitor to download the digital gift, he must opt in and subscribe to your mailing list.

When the gifts are pooled together into one event (site), every partner will then endorse the Give Away event to their own mailing lists.

The result: lots of visitors to one event as a collective effort of several participating partners!

With so many visitors downloading gifts from one focused event, it is a true win-win situation. This is because the visitors get to download several free gifts for their own use and every partner gets to build their own mailing list!

You can easily get notified about a Give Away event in the making by communicating with other Internet Marketers often or participating in Internet Marketing discussion and Joint Venture boards.

The following are tips in creating a successful landing page that converts visitors into subscribers on a very huge percentage.

Success Tip 1: Offer a freebie in exchange for your visitor’s firstname and email address. I very much endorse this method of building your mailing list. You can offer a special report or a sample of your paid product to your visitor in exchange for their details such as name and email address.

Success Tip 2: The landing page must be written professionally. When writing your page, treat it as if you are writing a sales letter. While you are not necessarily making a hard sale or try to get someone to buy your product upfront, being able to entice your visitors to give their details to you is just as important as selling.

Success Tip 3: Other than your opt-in form and perhaps important disclaimers and terms, there shouldn’t be any other links on your landing page.

Success Tip 4: Rub in the benefits of the freebie you are offering more than a mere subscription to your newsletter. You should focus most of the attention of the letter on encouraging your prospective visitor to download your free offer. Later, you gently remind your prospect that he or she has nothing to pay but just merely subscribe to your newsletter in exchange for the freebie.

As a final reminder and conclusion, in order to build trust, you can include your hand-written signature or a photo of yourself explaining where you are coming from and how you can help your visitor through your free report on offer.

This is because if you are unable to pre-sell, let alone sell, the products and services featured in your free report, the last ditch effort should be to collect leads. In short, if you cannot convert the reader into a ready buyer, you should then attempt to convert him or her into your subscriber.

In that manner, you can still follow up with your reader on future offers and have a chance at converting him or her into your customer, preferably lifetime.

You can do so by offering a lifetime update to your report or a unique notification list your reader will be interested in subscribing to, which leads to having him or her subscribed to your mailing list.

One of the few success factors in viral marketing of your free report is quality. If your readers find your information worth sharing, and you encourage them to do so by giving them the right to give your report away for free, you will be able to have your name, status and links within the report passed around without any effort on your part ñ simply because others are willing to do so for you!

One of the greatest opportunities you have to market your website online is by using social bookmarking sites to, yes to bookmark your website. There are a lot of choices out there for this and a few rise above the crowd. One of those is Ka-Boom-It.

Ka-Boom-It is a Social Bookmarking site for news and information. They are VERY Internet Marketer Friendly. You can post your News stories, Blog Stories, New Websites, and more. Make Friends (Ka-Boomers) and have fun. Just about the only thing they ask is that you limit your sales page posts but do not discriminate. They don’t allow porn or hardcore adult sites. (They will be deleted, and this is a good thing).

So let me give you a little strategy. You post a compelling article on your blog, full of keyword rich content. (I will talk about this in a later blog post). This blog post (or sales page) gives the now pre-screened reader information about your product or service with a call to action. Now you bookmark this page at Ka-boom-it.com.

Within this bookmark you get the opportunity to add keywords that are relevant, a title (should contain your keywords), a article summary and a link to your website.

This becomes a part of an overall strategy to create relevancy, inbound links, generate traffic and interest as well as ultimately incresing your bottom line.

It is simple, if you know what is really going on. Everybody who is on these lists, also known as safe lists, knows that they will be receiving emails from other members. This is possible because that is one of the conditions of their “safe list” membership.

And those who join these lists are willing to agree to this condition because they themselves would want to send out their own commercial emails to the others on the list.

The result: everyone is sending emails to each other but no one is reading them!

It gets worse when some savvy members sign up for the membership using a free or less-frequently-used account to store the useless emails they will never bother to open and read.

Having said that, it is always wiser to start your own mailing list and build it with opt-in subscribers, no matter how tempting safe lists can be or how many members there are in a safe list.

Sure, having 1,000,000 subscribers is the best thing that could ever happen to any Internet Marketer and often sounds too good to be true. But very often, it always sound too good to be true.

What many beginning marketers do not really know is that these bulk companies harvest the email addresses using robots and other wares on the Internet. That is how the 1,000,000 email addresses come about, whatever the amount is.

Now, the really awful part is that if you purchase the so-called 1,000,000 names even at a low price, not only is it a waste of money, you are risking being accused of spamming. It is no longer a surprise how you often receive spam mails on Viagra, OEM Software and things you do not even need in your inbox.

That is so possible, because of the 1,000,000 names, no one knows you or even ask to be subscribed to your mailing list.

On top of that, not all 1,000,000 email addresses are really in use because a portion of them can either be own by the same owners (one owner can own more than 1 email accounts) or are obsolete.

When you read such ads again, tell yourself that it is a waste of money.

This can be a wise method, but with ifs and buts. For one, the advertisement must be compelling and attention grabbing. Secondly, there is no telling if the eZine’s subscribers constantly practice a buying habit until you put some money to find out.

Investing even a small sum of money can be risky to a number of Internet Marketers who are on tight budgets. But in spite of the risk factors, eZine advertising can still be rewarding, if done right.

Thus the solution: the marketer would be wiser if he or she uses eZine advertising to build his or her mailing list. It makes sense, anyway. Since some eZines display more than one sponsored advertisement, you can grab the subscriber’s attention by giving a free or risk-free product or offer through your ad.

When the subscriber clicks on your ad, he or she can opt into your mailing list in exchange for the free offer, which can be a free report or even a trial service.

While you are not making a hard sell through your advertisement just yet, building your list by getting other eZineís subscribers subscribed to your eZine allows you to follow up with them in the future, as and when you have new offers.

Enjoy, explore, good night, good luck

TECHNOLOGY:

Slashdot
Dzone – Developers
CSS Globe
DNHour – Domain Name News

Pixel Groovy – Web design
Design Float – Web design
Leet Daily
DevelopersNiche

INTERNET MARKETING:

PlugIM
Sphinn

NEWS:

Digg
Netscape
Reddit
Newsvine
News Heat – Politics
Sk*rt
Shoutwire

Wobblog
Content Pop
Blogg-Buzz

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING:

del.icio.us
Ma.gnolia
Furl
AllMyFavorites

Blinklist
Blogmarks
Blummy
BuddyMarks
BookmarkTracker
Chipmark
Connectedy
De.lirio.us
Dogear

Favoritoo
FeedMeLinks
Foxmarks
Fungow
Linkatopia
Livemarks
Mobilicio.us
Mylinkvault
Socializer

SHOPPING:

AgentB
Dealigg
Yub
BiddingBuddies – For Ebay members
ThisNext
Zebo
Judy’s Book

Deal Comet

MUSIC:

Purevolume – Music
Last.fm
Buzznet
MOG
Soundpedia

IM/MOBILE:

Twitter
Pownce
FlickIM
IMified
Radar
Zannel

PHOTO SHARING:

Flickr
Photbucket

Fotolog
Fotki
My Opera
Zoomr
Text America
Picli

VIDEO SHARING:

YouTube
Broadcaster

Panjea
Revver
Viddler
Video Bomb
Video Sift

EDUCATION AND LIBRARIES:

Shelfari
LibraryThing
BookCrossing

Good Reads
Book Tribes
Connect via Books
qoolsqool

ART:

Humble Voice – Art, music, video, photography
Virb – Music, art, fashion, film and more

imeem – Music, videos, photos
deviantART

SOCIAL ACTION:

TakingITGlobal
Care2 – Social Issues/Humanities
Hugg – Environmental

Planet Change – Environmental

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE:

Amina – Chechen Republic
Wamba – Spanish social network
Black Planet – African American

Hyves – Dutch
IRC Galleria – Finland
iWiW – Hungary
LunarStorm – Sweden
Playahead – Sweden

MiGente – Latino
Mixi – Japan
Nexopia – Canada
ClubGh – Ghana
Acelerame – Spanish (cars)

Scoopeo – French
Yigg – German
StudiVZ – German students

LINK/WEBSITE:

StumbleUpon
Blue Dot

Trailfire
Ensiting

CARS:

CarDomain
AutoSpies
Boompa
Motorpulse

TRAVEL:

TravBuddy

WAYN
Gusto
Couch Surfing
Travellerspoint
Woophy
EveryTrail – GPS
Trip Advisor
TripUp

REAL ESTATE:

Trulia
Zillow

FOOD, WINE AND THE GOOD LIFE:

RateItAll
Yelp
Cork’d – Wine reviews
Chowhound – Food

Epinions

PROFESSIONAL:

LinkedIn
MeetIn
Ryze
Xing
Biznik
Cofoundr – Entrepreneurial

Fast Pitch
Konnects
StartupNation – Entrepreneurial
Startupping – Internet entrepreneurs
Tapped In – Educational professionals
Ecademy

DATING:

Flirtomatic
OkCupid
Chemistry

SCHOOL RELATED:

Classmates
Friends Reunited
Dodgeball
Graduates

Meetup
MyYearbook
Reunion
ConnectU

MEDICAL RELATED:

Sermo – Doctors
Disect Medicine
Walker Tracker

Who is Sick?

TEENS:

eCRUSH
eSpintheBottle
Piczo
Profile Heaven
Sconex
Student.com
Stardoll

KIDS:

imbee

PARENTING/FAMILY:

Babbiz
Moxie Moms
GreatSchools – Parents review schools

FAMILY:

Geni

WebBiographies

CHRISTIAN:

MyChurch
Blogs4God
Xianz
GodTube – Video sharing

SPORTS:

Joga – Soccer (Football)

Sportsvite
Ballhype – Sports
ScoreGuru
SportsCast
SportsFlip

GAMES:

Gaia – Games and anime

Game Diggity
GuildCafe
WeeWorld

ANIMALS:

Dogster – Dog lovers
Catster – Cat lovers
Fuzzster

Pikapet

THE BIG ONES:

MySpace
Facebook
Trig
Friendster
Orkut
Bebo
CyWorld

LiveJournal
Grono
Tribe
Hi5
Jaiku
Multiply
Netlog
Passado
Skyrock

Tagged
AIM Pages
Yahoo! 360
Everyone’s Connected
Windows Live Spaces
Zaadz

9rules
Beautiful Society – List and vote for your favorite things

43 Things – Goal sharing
Consumating
Dandelife – A social biography network
DontStayIn – Clubbing
Experience Project – Share Life Experiences

Faceparty – “The biggest party on Earth”
Gather
Recruiting.com
Ning – Create your own network
Searchles
Vampire Freaks
Faqqly – Community of questions and answers

Ficlets – Collaborative writing
Global Voices
Spout – Films
Prosper – People to people lending
DigStock – Financial

Clipmarks
Listible

Quite simply, you write and submit your articles on your topic of expertise or business nature to popular article directories where eZine publishers and readers are looking for the information you provide.

Leveraging your viral marketing efforts on article writing can be rewarding, if done right. In the real sense, you are actually proving your worth and demonstrating your expertise about your business through the articles you write.

So, how can this method in effect build your mailing list? The answer: the resource box you attach to your articles. In your resource box (also known as bio box), you include a brief detail about yourself and your business site together with its URL.

It is strongly suggested that your resource box URL links to your mailing list’s landing page where you can get your visitor’s name and email address, which will in turn help you build your mailing list at no cost.

If your articles are found worth sharing, eZine publishers will republish your articles together with your resource box for their readers and subscribers. The wonderful result: viral marketing without effort on your part!

You can start by writing and submitting your articles to trusted article submitter sites such as http://www.articlemarketer.com/ and begin your article marketing journey today.

This simple list building formula can be summed up in two words: ad swap.

Generally, you trade advertisements with other eZine publishers, preferably of the same mailing list size or bigger. You broadcast the eZine publisher’s advertisement to your mailing list while the eZine publisher endorses your ad to his list. Yes, you are actually cross endorsing or cross promoting each others offer to each of your mailing list.

Your advertisement’s goal should be to get as many subscribers possible from the other eZine publisherís mailing list to sign up for yours.

The result: you grow your mailing list. This method does not require money, which means it can be done for free. And the return of subscribers? Infinite!

You only have to do this with one eZine publisher at least once, because his subscribers who are also your subscribers can now be followed up within the boundaries of your mailing list.

Perform ad swaps with as many eZine publishers as possible and soon, you will have a huge mailing list of your own – built free.

This year saw the emergence of a new buzzword in the digital music space — widgets. Next year, we’ll see if they do any good.

An offshoot of the global social networking trend, widgets are small applications that users can place into their blogs, profiles and Web sites, and thereby extend the functionality of an otherwise separate Web site or service. What’s more, users can simply copy widgets found on friends’ profiles and insert them onto their own, thus enabling a tremendously viral distribution opportunity.

Read the rest of the article:  http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKN2849016520071229?sp=true 

Since visitors can come and leave without remembering your website in the future (which is very likely to happen), you can still follow up with your visitors easily by seeking their permission to opt into your mailing list through your web pages – on autopilot!

You can create a pop up window to appear after your visitor attempts to close the window or leaves your website, asking for your visitor’s name and email address so that you can follow up with him or her in the near future via subscribing to your mailing list for free.

This way, you can convert a big portion of your visitors into subscribers, giving you a chance to follow up with them on other offers you may have in the future.

Alternatively, you can insert an opt-in form within the spaces of your web pages. This method is effective, especially if you are afraid of Internet users who have pop up killers installed in their web browsers, set to block any pop up windows.

In conclusion, turning every webpage you own into subscriber snatching devices with little effort can be responsible for huge subscriber-pulling results.

But the bottom line is that your visitor may not come back to your website again. If 1,000 visitors visit your website, leave and never come back again, you can imagine the amount of potential revenue lost, simply because they do not come back. You could have converted a fraction of the visitors into your customers.

Some may say that creating unique content can keep some of the visitors coming back, but very often, unique content is not the solution. The real, long-term solution lies in converting your visitors into subscribers of your mailing list.

Before your visitor leaves your website, you want to convert him or her into your subscriber via a simple opt-in to your mailing list. You do this by asking for your visitorís name and email address through your opt-in form.

And if your visitor signs up to be on your mailing list, you can still follow up with him via email. You can get your subscriber to consider your offer, or endorse another offer to him or her.

All in all, you want to convert as many visitors into subscribers as possible and obtain the potential revenue you rightfully deserve ñ the easy, wise way.

Content
You can compile weeks of content ahead in advance and slowly dispense them to your subscribers. For example, you can compile 100 short tips in one day and dispense 10 tips once a week. In other words, you can compile 10 weeks worth of content in just one day!

Auto Responder
Your auto responder is your asset. You need an auto responder to send your mails and eZine issues to your subscribers and store your data base of people subscribed to your newsletter. My recommended auto responder include is AutoResponse Plus.

Website
You may be surprised that this is actually an optional component. In short, there are eZine publishers publishing their newsletters without a website! But of course, having your own website can offer you tremendous advantages, such as the ability to bring in more subscribers and having your newsletter indexed in the top Search Engines.

These are the things you need to get started on publishing your own eZine at its bare minimum. Do not underestimate the little you need, though, because several eZine publishers today succeed well with only an auto responder and contents, with or without a website. And you can, too!

Zaadz is an alternative to the usual Social Networking sites. They go so far to have a button on the bottom of every page proclaiming themselves “100% Organic”! You notice the differences immediately between Zaadz and sites like Care2 (another “green” site) and Friendster when you start the process of registering for a Zaadz account.

When you click “you! (join now)” link (there version of register for an account), you must in mind agree to the Zaadz principles. Zaadz principles are: Harmony, Integrity, Peace, Trust, Truth, Unity and Finally, Love. You agree to these principles by clicking each word in a series of circles that resembles a flower.

On this page they explain the reason why. They explain that they are different than most other online communities. They are committed to the principles inside the circles.

They ask tht before you join to take a moment and commit (by clicking the circles), to these principles. Once you do (after all they are all great concepts) you’re in.

So, is there a way to both serve this community and grow your business? You bet there is. Zaadz is the place to take advantage of the emerging green economy. Never has there been a place where so many socially conscious and active individuals meet and hang out in one place. The Green Economy, which I will here officially name Green 2.0, is growing by leaps and bounds. Some experts are predicting that the green economy will overshadow the dot com boom.

Here are 5 things you can do to guide these socially minded people to your business:

1. Create a Meaningful Profile – Just like the other social network sites (Friendster and Myspace for example) you first create a profile. The content you add to this profile is extremely important. Remember this is the first thing other members will see about you and your business. You only get one chance to make a first impression. Make your profile complete. Add a cool title for yourself. Hard to explain but they will give you some examples like (Philosopher or Thinker), just go with it. Add a good description about you and your services in the about me section. Remember be complete.

Add Some Friends – Like the other social networking sites, you can add friends. Click the “Zaadzsters” link and use the search feature to find people with a similar taste in music. By adding friends, you increase your reach. Remember the seven Zaadz principles, you are not here only to benefit yourself, you are here to share. By adding friends on Zaadz, you are connecting with many new people that have like interests, goals and dreams.

3. Add an Event – Debuting your new Service? Build your own events page and invite all your new Zaadz friends. On this page you can add a link to your site and it even add a link to a Google Map. Marketing doesn’t get much easier (or more inexpensive!) than this.

4. Post a Blog – With your Zaadz account, you get a blog. Here is where you get to add really compelling and meaningful content overflowing with brilliant insight for your fellow community members. This doesn’t have to be directly about you or your business but rather about the bigger picture that your business products/services address. For example, if you are a Plummer, don’t write about what you offer, write about the importance of good plumbing and home care.

5. Join a Pod (Zaadz Group) – Browse Pods or use the Pod Tag feature to find a couple of pods that you fit into. Join and share your plans, your goals, your business with the other members. Share consciously, no one wants to be battered with a sales pitch on the first meeting. That’s not the goal here. The goal is to network with a group of like minded individuals, who, once you earn their trust, may very well become some of the best emissaries for you, your message and your products/services.

Since the beginning, Zaadz has been labeled with a “New Age” tag. In my opinion, this is not a bad thing. After all, we are in a New Age of Green and Social Consciousness marketing and business. Go Green 2.0.
———-
Lennie Appelquist is the Owner of FreeMarket Media Group. FreeMarket Media Group is dedicated to helping individuals and small businesses generate leads, convert those leads in customers/clients and build a web presence that works for them. We can show you how to make your online business profitable – IMMEDIATELY. Wanna open a FREE account on Zaadz? Click here to join me on Zaadz!

Ultimately, you can decide which format is the best choice for you, though each winning format has its pros and cons.

The text eZine is the most commonly published. The advantage of this format is that other than writing, you do not require any special skill to use a Word or Notepad program.

While the HTML eZine format requires a certain degree of HTML skills on your part, you can add more sophisticated features to your eZine issues, making them more appealing to your subscriber thus increases your readership value, something that text eZines do not have.

You can decorate your eZine format, change your fonts, include pictures, and more. However, the drawback often faced by HTML eZines is that they often get trapped into spam filters before they reach their subscribersí inboxes.

The third and least used among the 3 formats is the PDF eZine. Publishing your eZine in PDF format can consume a lot of time and effort on your part but often make up in quality readership

Due to the commitment, PDF eZines are usually published on a monthly basis. The great part, though, is that you can put in your affiliate links in your PDF eZine issue and allow your subscribers to pass the eZine issue around.

Given the choices, however, you do not have to necessarily choose strictly one eZine format, as some eZine publishers today do publish in more than one format.

Beginning December 18, 2007, we plan to end support of direct consumer uploads to Brightcove.TV. As a result, you will not be able to upload new videos to Brightcove.TV after December 17, 2007. But videos you have already uploaded to Brightcove.TV will remain available on the site and through your Brightcove.TV channel. Videos you have embedded in other sites and blogs will also continue to play.

The good news is that if you create a business account, you will still be able to upload video to Brightcove.com and have those videos appear on Brightcove.tv. That is good news. With the Brightcove pro service (I use a free version) you can create a great video player to use on your site (see: Tiffany Miller Mosaics as an example).

When asked by Tech Crunch’s,Erick Schonfeld, Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire why he decided to throw in the towel on Brightcove.TV. His response:

We are not throwing in the towel on Brightcove.TV, we are eliminating its use as an end-user sharing service. Note that the vast majority of programming on Brightcove.TV are professional channels published by media businesses that use our overall platform for their websites and syndication. It will continue to operate as a content showcase of pro publishers using the Brightcove Platform.

He he goes on in this blog post that the eight million monthly unique visitors to Brightcove.TV (as reported by comScore) is “dwarfed by the adoption of our Internet TV platform by media businesses around the world.” He counts 4,000 such media publishers, who collectively attract “over 120 million uniques visitors per month across thousands of websites.” Brightcove.TV was always a sideshow.

Even though Brightcove.TV will continue to operate and showcase videos from Brightcove’s partners, it will no longer accept videos from consumers. I am tempted to put it in the deadpool, but will refrain for now. If it disappears completely, or arises Zombie-like in the future, we will let you know.

Usually, I upload my videos o any and every site I can. I will continue to watch Brightcove to see how this develops.

However, regardless of any topic you are publishing on, types of contents can be generally divided into four categories, namely factual content, short tips, mini stories and case studies.

Other than writing your own content, you can get your own unique content the quick and easy way by organizing an interview with an expert or leader in the topic.

Very often, this can be done for free and since the interviewee is writing out most of the content, there is nothing else for you to do other than giving the interviewee something valuable in exchange (maybe a meal!).

Now if you have money to spare, you can hire a ghostwriter to write your content for you without taking any credit. Recommended professional marketplaces where you can seek ghostwriters include http://www.elance.com/ and http://www.rentacoder.com/.

Another little known and underused method in getting your own content is via public domains. If you are not familiar with the term “public domain”, “public domain” simply means anything that is NOT protected under US copyright law.

This includes ALL works published before 1923 and, under certain conditions, works published up to 1978. And in this case, we are referring ìworksî to written materials such as reports, articles and books.

Republishing and repackaging public domain information can help you save time and effort from creating new ideas and content as they are readily available. On top of that, you do not have to pay royalties or copyright fees on that work.

If you fancy the idea of publishing content without any writing on your part, this method is for you.

That’s pretty much what internet marketer and coach James Brown calls out after the following paragraphs:

If you aren’t using video to promote you products then you are completely missing the boat. Video is the best way to promote your products and if you aren’t using it then you are literally allowing money to slip through your hands and into the pockets of someone else who is using video.

Put another way, if you aren’t using video then you are still living in 2001, still trying to sell like it’s 2001, but everyone who’s buying is years beyond that.

He is so right! I have been in the Film Biz for 18+ years and have help sell you all Verizon Phone’s (Can you hear me now?) Budweiser, Pepsi, Hotels, Food, Soap, Apple Computers (and Microsoft. . .). I have also helped introduce you to new music via the music video. Or should I say sell you music by the likes of Aerosmith, Cher, Elton John, Celine Dion, Def Leppard, No Doubt and a whole lot more. How? The power of video. Only then it was over the TV. Nothing has changed, only the delivery method. That is why Hollywood is scrambling. They are trying to figure out how to leverage the power of the internet to unleash their considerable marketing skills. You know why the haven’t figured it out? They are still using an old model that used to work on television. For their old, tired model to work, they need to reach millions (good luck with the fragmented internet audience, with literally millions of choices). You, on the other hand, need only reach hundreds or thousands. The idea here is to keep your costs down.

The low end of cost of a national TV commercial produced for a major advertiser is around $100,000! And that’s for 30 seconds! I know this, because this is my business. You on the other hand can produce your own video virtuallly for free (if you’re clever).

So what are you waiting for? Shoot some video, post it online, and use some good keywords in the description and the title. Remember, you are selling something but keep it fun. The idea here is to use the video to help you improve your search ranking and drive new [potential] customers to your site. . .

So, like James Brown (the internet marketer, not the Godfather of Soul) says, “Stop living in the past”.

You are encouraged to write non-time sensitive contents such as short tips, mini stories and interviews. Doing so enables you to create content in advance so that you can conveniently dispense to your subscribers at a later schedule.

Topic-wise, you will do well to cater to a starving market that will always be on demand for the kind of content you offer. And by this, I mean that you should zero in onto a demand that has been, is and will always be there.

Relationships and dating are niches that have been on Earth long before the World Wide Web came up, for example. The food niche will always be there as long as there are chefs cooking for anyone with a stomach to fill.

Having said that, you also want to have a steady stream of products or services of your own or an affiliate for you can endorse to your mailing list and make even more money.

This is also the reason why the Internet Marketing niche will remain one of the hottest niches there is, as products and services are created almost around the clock. As long as there Internet Businesses cropping out, there will always be needs to be fulfilled.

It goes right along with what I am always telling my clients – You can go broke using paid advertising to drive traffic to your site.  You will be much more successful using a handful of techniques beyond the garden variety SEO to get visitors.

Many small business owners do not have the resources needed to effectively manage online marketing or the experience to implement productive pay-per-click advertising campaigns. This really does take expert level knowledge.  But with a few tips and tricks from the best internet marketers in the world scaled down for the real world you can achieve a level of success that will rise far above the online success of the typical small business.

Inbound links and compelling content are 2 of the factors that will greatly increase the amount of “organic” trafic you receive.  These factores will increase page rank and search engine ranking.

Like Michael says in the article, “A great place to start your off-page optimization effort is through link building. Find other websites who are willing to exchange links with you, place a one-way link on their site to yours, or perhaps provide a link to unique content or tools you offer. By getting other websites to point to your website, you are well on your way towards enhancing organic search results.”

I will add to this the importance of good and riveting content that will get the visitor hooked and coming back for more, thus increasing you chances of conversion. . .

The purpose of this article is not to scare you away with the disadvantages of publishing your own eZine, as the benefits are often more attractive. However, I will also show you how you can easily tackle the cons.

One obvious challenge most beginning eZine publishers face is the creation of eZine content. Creating your own content can be tiresome, especially if you are not a gifted writer and that you run out of ideas every so often that your publishing schedule is threatening you.

A way of taking care of this problem is to create your content in advance. You can compile 30 days worth of content in one day, for example. If you are not blessed with writing skills, you can broker the writing task to capable freelance writers which you can find at places such as http://www.elance.com/ or http://www.rentacoder.com/. While you need to pay for such services, you are at liberty to take the credit for written articles.

Alternatively, you can republish articles from article directories such as http://ezinearticles.com/. This is a free method you can use in making content, provided you include the resource box of the original author and that the article has republishing rights conveyed.

In conclusion, you can easily tackle the content creation challenge using the mentioned methods that do not require writing on your part, free or paid.

The most obvious reason publishing an eZine can be the most ideal business to you is that it is so easy to start that any individual can do. There is no need to invest in starting a brick and mortar business or even staff and heavy machines for that matter.

In fact, you can do this from the comfort of your home as the most important thing you will need is an auto responder equipped with broadcast feature. Auto responders such as GetResponse.com and aWeber.com are highly recommended when it comes to publishing your own eZine.

In spite of the low start up cost and monthly fees, you can make money from several profit centers within the spaces of your eZine issues. You can make money from selling advertising space, just to name one.

Most importantly, you get to build your own personal media and spread your marketing influence, making you more valuable to product and service owners thus do not be surprised if you receive Joint Venture proposals every so often.

Given some of the best reasons in the world of Internet Marketing, publishing your own periodical eZine can one of the best money vehicles you will ever acquire or even build.

Principally, any wise business person puts the importance of hungry demand (and not just any demand) in front of the product. In other words, there is no product if there is no demand! And a mailing list represents the demand or your business if you would like to call it.

If you frequent the Joint Venture forums and membership sites of any kind, you will find that product and service owners need mailing list owners more than the other way round. This is because the mailing list owners have the prospects that the other type of partner is looking for to sell to.

And if you are a mailing list owner, you do not have to necessarily make money from selling your own product. You can sell advertising space or craft a Joint Venture with product owners in return of commissions, recurring or not.

Most of the biggest success web businesses on the Internet today often establish the mailing list (or subscribers) first before the product. One fine example is Facebook.

Facebook, in the nutshell, is a website that connects friends and potential friends from around the world through a free membership access.

While Facebook does not make money from the number of members who join the site, the business makes money from selling advertising space and partnering with other big time merchants and businesses, owing to the established number of members Facebook has recruited.

This business is perfect example that demonstrates why every business should establish a need or demand before the product itself, and why you should do the same, whether you run a friends site or not.

Building your mailing list of hungry prospects can be one of the best investments you will ever make, as it is time and effort worth spending on. When you strike on a Joint Venture and have a new product or service to endorse, you can look no further than your own mailing list.

Granted, that most affiliates, as in more than 90 percent of them, are not making money from affiliate programs, but this often results from the same amount of effort focused on least effective methods.

While having your own mailing list is, by a long mile, not the only effective affiliate marketing method, you can make affiliate sales very quickly even in the next few hours after sending a sales message, provided that your mailing list is huge and responsive.

This is often true, because owning your own mailing list for you to endorse products and services to is one of the fastest-producing results, beating other affiliate marketing methods imaginable.

In a nutshell, the affiliate marketer who gets ahead of the pack is the one who owns a huge and responsive mailing list of prospects.

In addition to the above mention, the publisher has to invest regularly in heavy duty machineries and tons of papers in printing tons of newspapers on a daily basis.

And in order to ensure that the newspapers are delivered on time, the publisher appoints agents at every part of the covered territory.

So, how does the newspaper company make money? It is obvious that selling a copy of the papers at less than a dollar would not even be able to even fund the operations.

The answer? Selling advertising spaces! You have definitely seen lots of advertisements in the newspaper. The publisher simply sells advertising space in the papers to advertisers who want to leverage their advertising efforts on the paperís high readership.

On the same analogy, you can make money the exact way from your newsletter: simply by selling advertising space to prospective advertisers!

If your mailing list size exceeds 1,000 (5,000 is recommended) subscribers and beyond, you can start selling advertising space for say, $10.00 per sponsor ad.

In this manner, you turn every issue you send out to your subscribers into a profit-pulling device. And since there is virtually no end to the stream of advertisers as products, services and businesses are cropping every single day in every industry imaginable, so are your money making opportunities.

In a nutshell, you send out your eZine issues on a periodical basis to your subscribers. The good part is that you have a flexible choice in automating the process of sending out your eZine issues for you or manually sending them on a periodical basis.

As an eZine publisher, not only can you easily achieve the benefits a conventional newsletter publisher enjoys without having to chop down several trees in the process, you can easily and conveniently spread your marketing influence and expertise to your base of subscribers from the shoes of an ordinary individual.

In other words, you do not have to invest in expensive printing equipment, brick and mortar business, and hiring staff just to run your own newsletter publication, resulting in a lot of time, money and effort saved.

Basically, all you need to start your own eZine are an auto responder and broadcast feature to go with, enabling you to reach out to your massive subscribers whom you can regard as your prospects, too.

All in all, if you do not have the commitments of creating your own product for sale, then publishing your own online newsletter can be one of the wisest decisions you will ever make, given the benefits of impressive marketing power and influence it can offer to you.

One of the simplest ways to get your prospects to
focus on your ad is to get them to relax and trigger
their imagination.

You can get them to relax by just suggesting they
do something relaxing. It could be by telling them to
turn on some relaxing music, get comfortable, close
their eyes for a few seconds, etc. The more relaxed
your prospects are the more receptive they will be
to your suggestions or message.

You can trigger your prospect’s imagination by using
imaginative suggestions. An example: Imagine being
totally free from debt. That single suggestion can
create emotions and mental scenes in your prospects
mind. Those emotions and mental scenes then can
persuade your prospect to buy.

There are many ways to trigger their imagination.
You could have them imagine past memories, past
feelings, future experiences, future emotions, present
events, etc. It could be a pleasurable or painful
experience that influences them to buy your product.

In conclusion, the goal of your sales letter is to
change your prospect’s mind or behavior so they
buy your product. Relaxation and imagination are
two powerful tools of persuasion. People relax and
imagine all day long on their own without realizing it.
You’re just simply suggesting it to them in your sales
letter.
—-
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Blogging Improves Web Traffic

Everytime you update your blog, a little shiver runs up Google’s spine. This is really no joke. The search engines love blogs because they are updated frequently. Having a blog is one of the best ways to improve your search engine rankings. Content the King reigns here. Pepper targeted keywords into each post you make, drive traffic from your blog to your Web site, and promote your products and services all in one place. Blogging is a sure fire way to generate more traffic to your site.

Blogging Can Make You Extra Money

You can really put your blog to work for you in many ways that will help you to make extra money. You can promote your affiliate products in your blog and include links to order pages. You can use programs like Google AdSense in your blog and earn commissions when your readers click on those advertisements. You can even join referral programs where you promote the services of other businesses and collect a commission each time someone places an order using the link you use on your blog. But most importantly, you can drive your readers (Read: potential customers) to products and services within your own site.

Blogging Can Build Relationships with Customers

Having a blog is a great way to let your customers get to know you so you’re more than just another online business. Blogging help build relationships. People are more inclined to buy from people they know (or feel like they know), so the more you can build your relationships, the more successful you’ll be in selling your products and services.

The Power of Multiple Blogs

My recommendation is to always have a blog installed on your own site. There are a couple of great blogs that I recommend: WordPress and Textpattern. They install easily and can be heavily modified so the integreate into any site. That being said using free online services like blogger can drive traffic to your site by adding links to your site in the posts. Running multiple blogs can help greatly with the search engine ranking since a major criteria tht they loook for is relevant inbound links. And as an added bonus, readers of your other online blogs are more likely to become customers. Why? If they click the links in these posts, they have already found value in what you are saying, thus more likely to be interested in more. The purpose of multiple blogs is to have several places where you can filter people into your site. Consider it free advertising.

It will be one of the most vital parts of any online business you have. I am not saying “build it and they will come.” Anyone who has been in this business for long enough knows that they must put forth an effort on their own part to make it in the Internet world. Sure you might have some people just happen by the information you have, however it is 10 times more likely that you will not be receiving sales or sign ups without telling people about it. Hey, its the nature of the beast. You want to be in business for yourself, so you have to do some self promoting in order to get where you are going.

Now what we really want to talk about is how this really applies to your business and what you want to accomplish. You have the ability to get all the business that you need to be a success. You know that people say the money is in the list, right? If you haven’t heard the phrase you are relatively new and that’s ok. It means that you must build your own prospect opt-in list. That can be the basis of your sales process.

Yes, there are people who can send an email and have $20,000 dollars within 24 hours or more, but what they don’t tell you is that they have been telling people about the product coming out. They have been setting up the anticipation for the products release. Then when people see the emails saying “here it is” people jump on it immediately. This is one way the Law of Attraction works for you. Through the effort you have placed in “Promoting” the product you are getting money back in return. And guess what, it really wasn’t that hard to send that email out after all was it?

When you have your own subscriber base, they are 10 times more likely to produce sales for you on a repeat basis. Why? Because you are continually giving them good quality information that they can use on a regular basis. When you send out that solo advertisement to them they don’t mind hearing from you about a new product that you are endorsing. Hey, they actually expect it. How does this apply to the Law of Attraction? You have attracted many potential customers through building trust with them.

The Law of Attraction recognizes you as a human being and allows you to be such. As strange as it may sound, customer have been proven to be more receptive to personal information about the the person sending the information than someone who is just sending advertisements to them or “business only” emails. They like to know that you are a real person. They enjoy knowing what is going on inside your life. It makes them feel normal, accepted.

There are many great examples of how you can see the Law of Attraction at work in your life. Have you have been without the money to promote your business? Well there are many solutions to that problem. You can contact website owners and ask them if they would like to create a joint venture with you, exchange advertisements to send to your groups, or even write an article to give to ezine owners to use on their website or to send to their readers. You could even exchange links or ask for a one way link from their site. Do you know what you will get from your efforts? Free traffic and possibley sales too.

I hope that through writing this information to you today that you understand what the Law of Attraction means to you and your business. Just remember to read the blog as it will outline in greater details what the Law of Attraction means in you business life. It will tell you in much more specific detail what you need to do to recognize it and utilize it in your life.

Shawn Casey has helped hundreds of thousands of internet business owners grow their business by growing themselves. He offers a free internet business startup kit and tons of free marketing tips on his Big Dog Internet Marketing Blog (http://www.ShawnCasey.com)

This article describes the sixth golden key to building a multimillion dollar empire and why you should apply it to your business. This information is the nuts and bolts you need to focus on. Take a hard look at your business to make absolutely certain that you are implementing this golden key.

Golden Key #6: “Obtain Customers Online and take them Offline Quickly.” Your Internet business may be primarily run online; however you need to integrate your online and offline efforts to build a multimillion dollar empire. While the Internet can produce profitable results and bring in leads, it is only one medium through which you can promote and grow your Internet business. It is imperative that you create a comprehensive business system that utilizes the strengths of both online and offline ventures to maximize your profit and build a multimillion dollar empire.

What do you mean by obtaining customers online? Obtaining customers online refers to the leads that you generate online for your business. For example, you can obtain leads through auto responders, web marketing, and web articles. Web marketing entails marketing resources such as Google Adwords campaigns. Google Adwords campaigns are not only beneficial ways to obtain customers, but cost significantly less then marketing on television, radio, or in newspapers.

Marketing your product or service through the Internet is the by the far the quickest and cheapest way to reach customers. Plus, a Google Adwords campaign will bring in targeted customers that are actively seeking out your product or service. Marketing on the Internet enables you to obtain customers without extra effort, 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week. The customers that you obtain online also tend to be more educated and will have the money to purchase your product.

Now that you have obtained a customer online, you need to take them offline as soon as possible. This means that you need to contact the customer personally to provide a high touch of service. You should call them on the telephone after they have purchased your product or service. This will set you apart from the crowd and establish a positive relationship with the customer. The customer will be more apt to buy from you in the future because you are very personable. Avoid sending just an email to the customer after the sale. An email is still impersonal and you shouldn’t hide behind your computer.

Essentially you should implement diverse marketing efforts to reel in customers online. Follow up offline with the personal touch of a phone call that can yield to repeat business in the future.

Matt Bacak became “#1 Best Selling Author” in just a few short hours. Recent Entrepreneur Magazine’s e-Biz radio show host is turning Authors, Speakers, and Experts into Overnight Success Stories. Discover The Secrets To Unleash The Powerful Promoter In You! Sign up for Matt Bacak’s Promoting Tips Ezine ($100 value) just visit his website at http://www.promotingtips.com or http://www.powerfulpromoter.com

This article describes the fifth golden key to building a multimillion dollar empire and why you should apply it to your business. This information is the nuts and bolts you need to focus on. Take a hard look at your business to make absolutely certain that you are implementing this golden key.

Golden Key #5: “Focus on Leads, Lead Generation, and Profit Generation.” Leads are the oxygen to your business. Leads bring in new business, profits, and promote repeat business. Leads are the heart and soul of your business operation. Therefore, you need to target in on your lead and profit generation systems to build a multimillion dollar empire.

How should you implement a lead generation system? Lead generation systems are composed of several different sources of leads. For example, you can gain leads from web articles that provide pertinent information to potential customers and prompt them to go to your website. You can advertise directly on the Internet using Google Adwords. This can create leads.

Another option is to participate in a joint venture. A joint venture enables you to partner with a business that has a complementary product or service. You can swap your customer lists thus increasing the number of leads for your business.

Creating a powerful squeeze page for your website can also snag quality leads that you desire. Quality leads are those that more often yield in a purchase and repeat purchases. Repeat business can bring a substantial amount of your profit. Therefore, it is a good idea to maintain a business relationship with customers so you can market to them over and over. In return they will, hopefully, buy your products and services over and over.

Leads can also be generated through referral. Encourage customers to refer your website, product, and service to their friends and colleagues. Offer incentives such as coupons and free bonus reports that will increase the amount of quality leads.

Profit generation is based on your lead generation, business and marketing models. Isn’t profit the major reason why you started your own Internet business in the first place? Therefore, focus on leads, lead generation, and profit generation to bring you one giant step closer to a multimillion dollar empire.

Matt Bacak became “#1 Best Selling Author” in just a few short hours. Recent Entrepreneur Magazine’s e-Biz radio show host is turning Authors, Speakers, and Experts into Overnight Success Stories. Discover The Secrets To Unleash The Powerful Promoter In You! Sign up for Matt Bacak’s Promoting Tips Ezine ($100 value) just visit his website at http://www.promotingtips.com or http://www.powerfulpromoter.com