Article Presented by:
Frank Rumbauskas
One of the biggest challenges facing salespeople when prospecting is that few, if any, new contacts become long-term possibilities for sales or networking. This is due to the fact that an initial contact usually ends at just that - an initial contact, and nothing more.
Could you imagine how much more successful you'd be if you could take each and every cold contact you make while prospecting, and transform it into a long-term connection that remains in constant contact with you for the long haul? Think about it. Let's say you currently make four hundred new contacts per month, in the usual manner, meaning you get a few appointments but nothing more. The first month you make your four hundred contacts and that's where it ends. Next month, you make another four hundred contacts and they vaporize into thin air. The third month, you go through the grind again. And so on, and so on.
Now, think of what it would be like if you could capture those four hundred contacts and keep them in constant contact with you. After the first month, you'd have your four hundred contacts done. The second month, you'd have eight hundred in your permanent pipeline. The third month, well over a thousand contacts are yours to own. At the end of a year, you'd have nearly five thousand permanent connections!
Can you see how your sales would absolutely explode if you were able to do this? The good news is that lots of salespeople are already doing it with great success, and you can too.
The key here is to forget about the old method of contacting someone, asking if they'd be interested in meeting with you, and then dropping them forever if they are not. What you need to be doing is asking for that person's permission to receive a free, monthly e-mail newsletter from you that provides the prospect with valuable content that they can use to improve their business.
Getting that content isn't too difficult at all. If you are not inclined to write helpful articles about your industry, or about general business tips - such as time management, or how to increase productivity - then you can obtain content for free on the Internet. Just do a quick search for 'Free Reprint Articles' and you will find thousands upon thousands of articles that you can use in your newsletter. And the newsletter itself is not difficult to manage. Services such as aweber.com that I use personally are very inexpensive, they automate the entire process, and they take care of CAN-SPAM compliance by including an automated unsubscribe link at the end of your newsletters.
What about snail mail? This is effective as well, but the problem is getting your prospects to open and read the newsletter. It's also expensive. Except for the twenty bucks or so a month that you'll shell out for the e-mail service, an e-mail newsletter is free.
The long-term effects of doing this are absolutely astounding. Imagine having thousands of prospects, in your target market, receiving your monthly newsletter. They will appreciate the useful content you will provide, and the best part is that your name will be constantly in their minds as the only person to buy from when the time comes! By publishing a quality newsletter, you are no longer just a salesperson in their eyes - you become a highly qualified expert in your field, they will begin to trust you as a business advisor, and that is what the very top of the top sales pros are to their customers.
About the Author:
Frank J. Rumbauskas Jr. is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Never Cold Call Again: Achieve Sales Greatness Without Cold Calling. (Wiley, 2006). Frank has taught over 15,000 salespeople how to become top producers without cold calling. For Frank's free newsletter, please visit: http://www.nevercoldcall.com
Learn About Video Articles
The Phantom Writers is proud to announce its new Video Articles Service. We have set up a joint venture with a team of professional video editors and voice-over personalities to ensure reliable and professional delivery of our video marketing service.
Watch the videos shown below to get a feel of our production capabilities. (If the videos don't appear below, visit our video marketing YouTube channel to watch our videos.)
Watch the videos shown below to get a feel of our production capabilities. (If the videos don't appear below, visit our video marketing YouTube channel to watch our videos.)
Loading...
Friday, July 28, 2006
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Why You Arent Making The Money You Want To On The Internet And What To Do About It!
Article Presented by:
Dan Lok
Many clients come to me with problems...
The most common problem I hear from people is they aren't making the kind of money they want to make with their Internet business. They don't know what the problem is and they want me to help.
Ill tell you what the problem is. Most of these people are what I like to call "opportunity seekers." These are people that have too many sites and dont spend any time focusing on ONE business. They may have 20 or 30 websites, with each site only breaking even or making a few hundred dollars every month.
Most opportunity seekers are not making the money they want or achieving their financial goals. Why?
They are making a common mistake. They have too many sites, too many interests. This prevents them from focusing their efforts and creating the six figure income they dream of.
Focus Is The Key To Long-Term Success
If you want to succeed on the Internet, you are much better-off staying focused. That means starting off with one site or idea and perfecting it before moving on to the next Internet adventure. Far too many people have a "get rich quick" mind-set. In fact, Id say almost all opportunity seekers have this mind-set. They jump from one program to another hoping one of them will lead to success.
Opportunity seekers are always the first to jump on the next "big" moneymaking bandwagon. It may be one thing one month, another the next month. They may try to concentrate on affiliate marketing then switch dramatically to e-book marketing the next. Whatever seems to be working for others they jump into with wild abandon, without considering their true talents, abilities and interests.
These people are looking for some easy way to make money. They think they can make money with Google AdSense or just a web page, or even with a multilevel marketing program. This is NOT how an entrepreneur thinks! However, this is exactly how an opportunist thinks. They always are looking for shortcuts, and then wonder why it isnt working.
It isnt working because you have no focus. You must have focus. You must think like an entrepreneur. Focus is one of the most vital aspects of your success. My advice to these newbies is shut down 29 of your sites and focus on one site, the one that best represents your interests.
Optimize it. Work on refining it. Refine your sales process and your back end on this single site and make it successful BEFORE you move on to the next site.
Yes, I have many sites. But I am Dan Lok. Youre not there yet. Perfect your one site. THEN you can think about moving on to other moneymaking ventures.
Horizontal Vs. Vertical Business
Many people have what I call a horizontal business. A horizontal business has many sites in many different niches, like hobby niches. People who own horizontal businesses have 20 or more separate business ventures. I recommend having a vertical business instead. A vertical business is a business that has depth and focus.
Having a vertical business means if you have a product in a particular niche, like stock trading, focus on selling products related to that and that only. Put all your eggs in one basket and create a funnel effect. This way youll have one group of customers and you can become a big fish in a small pond. Youll have all your eggs in one place yes... but youll become an expert egg layer and watch all your eggs hatch with great success. Make sense?
What is the problem with a horizontal business? You arent specialized. Its almost impossible to make a six-figure income with this kind of business because you dont spend enough time on any ONE business.
When you have a vertical business, you have fine-tuned your business so well competitors have a hard time keeping up with you. People cant compete. You also build a strong client base with satisfied customers.
Think Like An Entrepreneur
So, the biggest problem people have is they are opportunity seekers. The key is thinking like a true Internet entrepreneur. Dont jump on the trend bandwagon. Dont ask what the shortcuts are. An entrepreneur has a long-term vision. You have to have a one-year, five year and ten year vision. Find out what you want your business to look like in the long-term.
Ask yourself, "What do I want to accomplish ultimately?" Then decide whether your activities fit with your goals. Stop jumping from one program to another. Focus on one program, one site, and one great idea. This is what you have to do if you want to make six figures. It has nothing to do with your knowledge, skill set experience etc. It has to do more with your focus.
Sit down. Think about it. Stop jumping from one program to another and stop getting sucked into false moneymaking schemes. Find out what your goals are, what you want to accomplish. This is a far superior approach. Yes, it takes a lot of energy. But its worth it. In the long-term its much less tiring than diversifying your business.
Once you are an expert in your industry or niche, THEN you can think about diversifying your business.
About the Author:
A former college dropout, Dan Lok transformed himself from a grocery bagger in a local supermarket to a multi-millionaire. Today, Dan is one of the most sought-after business mentors on the Web, as well as a best-selling author. His reputation includes his title as the World's #1 Website Conversion Expert. To find out what Dan is up to now, visit him at: http://www.WebsiteConversionExpert.com
Dan Lok
Many clients come to me with problems...
The most common problem I hear from people is they aren't making the kind of money they want to make with their Internet business. They don't know what the problem is and they want me to help.
Ill tell you what the problem is. Most of these people are what I like to call "opportunity seekers." These are people that have too many sites and dont spend any time focusing on ONE business. They may have 20 or 30 websites, with each site only breaking even or making a few hundred dollars every month.
Most opportunity seekers are not making the money they want or achieving their financial goals. Why?
They are making a common mistake. They have too many sites, too many interests. This prevents them from focusing their efforts and creating the six figure income they dream of.
Focus Is The Key To Long-Term Success
If you want to succeed on the Internet, you are much better-off staying focused. That means starting off with one site or idea and perfecting it before moving on to the next Internet adventure. Far too many people have a "get rich quick" mind-set. In fact, Id say almost all opportunity seekers have this mind-set. They jump from one program to another hoping one of them will lead to success.
Opportunity seekers are always the first to jump on the next "big" moneymaking bandwagon. It may be one thing one month, another the next month. They may try to concentrate on affiliate marketing then switch dramatically to e-book marketing the next. Whatever seems to be working for others they jump into with wild abandon, without considering their true talents, abilities and interests.
These people are looking for some easy way to make money. They think they can make money with Google AdSense or just a web page, or even with a multilevel marketing program. This is NOT how an entrepreneur thinks! However, this is exactly how an opportunist thinks. They always are looking for shortcuts, and then wonder why it isnt working.
It isnt working because you have no focus. You must have focus. You must think like an entrepreneur. Focus is one of the most vital aspects of your success. My advice to these newbies is shut down 29 of your sites and focus on one site, the one that best represents your interests.
Optimize it. Work on refining it. Refine your sales process and your back end on this single site and make it successful BEFORE you move on to the next site.
Yes, I have many sites. But I am Dan Lok. Youre not there yet. Perfect your one site. THEN you can think about moving on to other moneymaking ventures.
Horizontal Vs. Vertical Business
Many people have what I call a horizontal business. A horizontal business has many sites in many different niches, like hobby niches. People who own horizontal businesses have 20 or more separate business ventures. I recommend having a vertical business instead. A vertical business is a business that has depth and focus.
Having a vertical business means if you have a product in a particular niche, like stock trading, focus on selling products related to that and that only. Put all your eggs in one basket and create a funnel effect. This way youll have one group of customers and you can become a big fish in a small pond. Youll have all your eggs in one place yes... but youll become an expert egg layer and watch all your eggs hatch with great success. Make sense?
What is the problem with a horizontal business? You arent specialized. Its almost impossible to make a six-figure income with this kind of business because you dont spend enough time on any ONE business.
When you have a vertical business, you have fine-tuned your business so well competitors have a hard time keeping up with you. People cant compete. You also build a strong client base with satisfied customers.
Think Like An Entrepreneur
So, the biggest problem people have is they are opportunity seekers. The key is thinking like a true Internet entrepreneur. Dont jump on the trend bandwagon. Dont ask what the shortcuts are. An entrepreneur has a long-term vision. You have to have a one-year, five year and ten year vision. Find out what you want your business to look like in the long-term.
Ask yourself, "What do I want to accomplish ultimately?" Then decide whether your activities fit with your goals. Stop jumping from one program to another. Focus on one program, one site, and one great idea. This is what you have to do if you want to make six figures. It has nothing to do with your knowledge, skill set experience etc. It has to do more with your focus.
Sit down. Think about it. Stop jumping from one program to another and stop getting sucked into false moneymaking schemes. Find out what your goals are, what you want to accomplish. This is a far superior approach. Yes, it takes a lot of energy. But its worth it. In the long-term its much less tiring than diversifying your business.
Once you are an expert in your industry or niche, THEN you can think about diversifying your business.
About the Author:
A former college dropout, Dan Lok transformed himself from a grocery bagger in a local supermarket to a multi-millionaire. Today, Dan is one of the most sought-after business mentors on the Web, as well as a best-selling author. His reputation includes his title as the World's #1 Website Conversion Expert. To find out what Dan is up to now, visit him at: http://www.WebsiteConversionExpert.com
Labels:
Dan Lok,
internet marketers,
opportunity seekers
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Make Money Online: 3 Great Ways to Profit from Adsense
Article Presented by:
Joel Teo, All Rights Reserved
Many people who frequent the online money making forums get really sick of all the work at home scams, Nigerian Scams and other online scams that they start despairing and tell themselves that there is no such thing as an internet income. If you fall within this category or are just starting out online, this article is for you.
Google Adsense is a program where anyone can signup with Google and create an account. You then simply select the type of advertisement that you would like to put on your website and then paste the code into your site and you are ready to make money. Your goal now after doing this is to work on increasing the amount of website traffic to your website as you earnings depend on how many people visit your website and click on the Adsense Advertisements on your website or blog.
This article will explain three simple time tested ways on how you can profit from the Google Adsense Advertising program and make money from it.
1. Make Money from a High Traffic Blog
People flock to blogs because they get to read what other people are writing about and if the subject matter is interesting enough, they get to participate in the discussion online. Blogs attract large amounts of website traffic because each time you finish posting on your blog, the major Blog Aggregators will be informed via a ping from your server and if people like the title of your post, they will start coming onto your blog.
One common tactic being used today in blogging is link baiting where you write about a controversial topic and all of a sudden, many blogs start linking to you and sending traffic to your blog. Thus you will start earning more from the increased traffic via Adsense Clickthroughs.
2. Build Small Content Niche Sites
Build a great content site that has good content that people will be willing to link to and give you traffic. The key to building a great website is to target keywords that people are searching for so that you can get large amounts of website traffic from the internet. Then put together a simple website for this. A great free tool that I use for keyword research is http://www.goodkeywords.com to determine keywords that generate huge amounts of website traffic.
I would suggest that if you are new to this, you can start with a blog and see if people are interested in the keywords and topics that you write about and then after that once you establish that you can make money from that topic, spin it off and start a small content website. The key as mentioned above is to get website traffic.
3. Community Based Sites
You might want to consider starting a community portal like Friendster or an Article Directory where people constantly return to the website to submit articles, blogs, comments and this would result in a high amount of website traffic to your website and increased Adsense Revenue.
For example, you might want to brainstorm on all your interests and maybe start out with a forum on your favourite topic and then progress to build a larger portal. This concept is huge and if done well can get you lots of money.
In conclusion, the key to making money online with adsense is generating quality website traffic. All the ebooks on making money with adsense that you see out there online do not mean anything if you do not generate great amounts of website traffic to your website. Start with one of the three money making ideas above and spend your energy and focus on increasing your website traffic and you will start making serious money online with Adsense. Take Massive action today and make strides to reach your online monetary dreams.
About the Author:
Copyright (c) 2006 Joel Teo. All rights reserved. (You may publish this article in its entirety with the following author's information with live links only.)
Joel Teo writes on several financial topics and ways on making money online. His website, http://www.massive-profits-online.com provides a wealth of informative on making money online.
Joel Teo, All Rights Reserved
Many people who frequent the online money making forums get really sick of all the work at home scams, Nigerian Scams and other online scams that they start despairing and tell themselves that there is no such thing as an internet income. If you fall within this category or are just starting out online, this article is for you.
Google Adsense is a program where anyone can signup with Google and create an account. You then simply select the type of advertisement that you would like to put on your website and then paste the code into your site and you are ready to make money. Your goal now after doing this is to work on increasing the amount of website traffic to your website as you earnings depend on how many people visit your website and click on the Adsense Advertisements on your website or blog.
This article will explain three simple time tested ways on how you can profit from the Google Adsense Advertising program and make money from it.
1. Make Money from a High Traffic Blog
People flock to blogs because they get to read what other people are writing about and if the subject matter is interesting enough, they get to participate in the discussion online. Blogs attract large amounts of website traffic because each time you finish posting on your blog, the major Blog Aggregators will be informed via a ping from your server and if people like the title of your post, they will start coming onto your blog.
One common tactic being used today in blogging is link baiting where you write about a controversial topic and all of a sudden, many blogs start linking to you and sending traffic to your blog. Thus you will start earning more from the increased traffic via Adsense Clickthroughs.
2. Build Small Content Niche Sites
Build a great content site that has good content that people will be willing to link to and give you traffic. The key to building a great website is to target keywords that people are searching for so that you can get large amounts of website traffic from the internet. Then put together a simple website for this. A great free tool that I use for keyword research is http://www.goodkeywords.com to determine keywords that generate huge amounts of website traffic.
I would suggest that if you are new to this, you can start with a blog and see if people are interested in the keywords and topics that you write about and then after that once you establish that you can make money from that topic, spin it off and start a small content website. The key as mentioned above is to get website traffic.
3. Community Based Sites
You might want to consider starting a community portal like Friendster or an Article Directory where people constantly return to the website to submit articles, blogs, comments and this would result in a high amount of website traffic to your website and increased Adsense Revenue.
For example, you might want to brainstorm on all your interests and maybe start out with a forum on your favourite topic and then progress to build a larger portal. This concept is huge and if done well can get you lots of money.
In conclusion, the key to making money online with adsense is generating quality website traffic. All the ebooks on making money with adsense that you see out there online do not mean anything if you do not generate great amounts of website traffic to your website. Start with one of the three money making ideas above and spend your energy and focus on increasing your website traffic and you will start making serious money online with Adsense. Take Massive action today and make strides to reach your online monetary dreams.
About the Author:
Copyright (c) 2006 Joel Teo. All rights reserved. (You may publish this article in its entirety with the following author's information with live links only.)
Joel Teo writes on several financial topics and ways on making money online. His website, http://www.massive-profits-online.com provides a wealth of informative on making money online.
Labels:
google adsense,
Joel Teo,
make money online
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Can You Charge More?
Article Presented by:
2006-2009, All Rights Reserved Written by: Kendall SummerHawk
In a word, yes! Under charging is chronic among professional service business owners, particularly women. But how do you know for sure?
Here are five clues (plus a bonus clue) that will tell you, clear as day, if you can comfortably and easily charge more, starting now.
Clue #1 - You have no time to market because you're too busy serving clients
No ifs, ands, or buts, if you're busy then it's time to raise your fees. Be prepared to lose the bottom 10 percent of your clients, which is a good thing!
Why? Because you'll make room for more profitable clients, and the marketing it takes to stake your claim as the expert you are! (I'll write more about this in an upcoming article soon).
Clue #2 - Your prospective clients compare you to someone else
If you're clients are price shopping then you're positioned as a commodity. Yikes! That's the kiss of death for creating more money, time, and freedom in your business.
Do not hesitate-raise your rates right now! Then get busy focusing your almost-client conversations on value, not price.
Clue #3 - You haven't raised your rates in more than six months
Old rates means old thinking. Raise them now, and notice how you instantly step up into the kind of person who knows she's worth it!
Clue #4 - You're hearing 'no' from prospective clients
At first blush, this may sound like a clue to decrease your fees but the opposite is true. Why? If you're hearing 'no' then something is out of whack. You're either marketing to the wrong type of client or focused on features and process instead of results and value.
Clue #5 - You're hearing 'yes' from practically every prospective client
Hearing 'yes' more from more than 80 percent of your almost-clients means you're a bargain and they know it. Now, I don't know about you but I would much prefer to take advantage of a bargain, not be the bargain being taken advantage of!
Unless being a low-priced service fits with your brand, you know what to do-raise 'em!
Bonus Clue: You know in your gut your rates aren't where they should be
Trust your intuition. See those fees you know in your gut are too low? Raise 'em!
You'll never know if your price is to high until you test it. One thing I can guarantee is that when you do, you'll instantly edge yourself into new thinking and believing in yourself!
About the Author:
Kendall SummerHawk, the "Horse Whisperer for Business" delivers smart, savvy ways entrepreneurs can turn their hectic business into a smooth-running, fun, 6-figure money-making dream. To learn more about her book, Brilliance Unbridled, and sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit her site at: http://www.kendallsummerhawk.com
2006-2009, All Rights Reserved Written by: Kendall SummerHawk
In a word, yes! Under charging is chronic among professional service business owners, particularly women. But how do you know for sure?
Here are five clues (plus a bonus clue) that will tell you, clear as day, if you can comfortably and easily charge more, starting now.
Clue #1 - You have no time to market because you're too busy serving clients
No ifs, ands, or buts, if you're busy then it's time to raise your fees. Be prepared to lose the bottom 10 percent of your clients, which is a good thing!
Why? Because you'll make room for more profitable clients, and the marketing it takes to stake your claim as the expert you are! (I'll write more about this in an upcoming article soon).
Clue #2 - Your prospective clients compare you to someone else
If you're clients are price shopping then you're positioned as a commodity. Yikes! That's the kiss of death for creating more money, time, and freedom in your business.
Do not hesitate-raise your rates right now! Then get busy focusing your almost-client conversations on value, not price.
Clue #3 - You haven't raised your rates in more than six months
Old rates means old thinking. Raise them now, and notice how you instantly step up into the kind of person who knows she's worth it!
Clue #4 - You're hearing 'no' from prospective clients
At first blush, this may sound like a clue to decrease your fees but the opposite is true. Why? If you're hearing 'no' then something is out of whack. You're either marketing to the wrong type of client or focused on features and process instead of results and value.
Clue #5 - You're hearing 'yes' from practically every prospective client
Hearing 'yes' more from more than 80 percent of your almost-clients means you're a bargain and they know it. Now, I don't know about you but I would much prefer to take advantage of a bargain, not be the bargain being taken advantage of!
Unless being a low-priced service fits with your brand, you know what to do-raise 'em!
Bonus Clue: You know in your gut your rates aren't where they should be
Trust your intuition. See those fees you know in your gut are too low? Raise 'em!
You'll never know if your price is to high until you test it. One thing I can guarantee is that when you do, you'll instantly edge yourself into new thinking and believing in yourself!
About the Author:
Kendall SummerHawk, the "Horse Whisperer for Business" delivers smart, savvy ways entrepreneurs can turn their hectic business into a smooth-running, fun, 6-figure money-making dream. To learn more about her book, Brilliance Unbridled, and sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit her site at: http://www.kendallsummerhawk.com
Monday, July 17, 2006
Quality Content + RSS Syndication = Increased Exposure
Article Presented by:
Kim Roach, All Rights Reserved
According to DoubleClick, one of the nations largest email marketing companies, the average open rate for an electronic newsletter is 27.5%, while the average click-through rate is 7.2%.
Email is not the dependable content delivery mechanism that it once was. Spam filters, blacklists and content overload have plummeted email delivery rates. Chances are that more than half of your email subscribers aren't reading your messages. In fact, your message may not even make it to their inbox.
What is a web master to do? Well, email is still the primary content delivery standard for most Internet users. However, you can start complementing your email marketing with other content delivery channels to increase your delivery rate. RSS is one such mechanism.
When LockerGnome.com began to promote their own RSS feeds, they began seeing 5 times the number of RSS subscribers against email subscribers. Even more interesting, they also began receiving a 500% better clickthrough ratio with RSS than with traditional email.
You can add RSS to your marketing mix in order to increase your readership, increase the response to your marketing messages, and improve your search engine placement.
What is Possible
There are so many options when it comes to content delivery with RSS. Many web masters online today are limiting themselves merely to what they've seen others do. However, the possibilities extend much further.
One of the basic uses of RSS is to deliver content updates. Your RSS subscribers can receive updates that you have made to your website, including new articles, downloads, coupons, etc. This was not possible with email because most subscribers would go hysterical if they found 5 emails in their inbox one day talking about the different updates to your site.
RSS solves this problem, enabling people to use aggregators to access information at their convenience. You can also use RSS to deliver news updates, quick tips, quotes, new coupons, job listings, classifieds, real estate listings, and new forum posts.
RSS Marketing Techniques - From Basic to Advanced
Once you have created your RSS feed, it's time to start marketing it. Marketing your RSS feed is completely different from marketing an email-based newsletter. However, similar to newsletter promotion, promoting your RSS feed begins on your web site and with your existing audience.
To let people know that you are offering an RSS feed, you will need to display an RSS image on a high-profile space of your web site. Your visitors will be much more likely to see your RSS image if you use one of the well-known buttons to represent your feed. You should place this button towards the top of your page for best exposure.
To see some good examples of web sites that are promoting their RSS feeds, go to http://www.sitepoint.com and http://www.lockergnome.com
Just like your ezine subscription box, your RSS feed should be noticeable and available from every page of your web site.
RSS Presentation Page
You must also have a page on your web site that explains exactly what RSS is. Many of your visitors may not know about this new technology. This is especially true if your website does not pertain to internet marketing or some other tech field.
Take your visitors step-by-step through the process of locating, subscribing and reading an RSS feed. By doing this, you are informing your website visitors and helping to promote the use of your own RSS feed.
To see a really good example of this, go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/help/3223484.stm
If you have different categories of RSS feeds, Provide a link to each of these feeds right next to the content category to which it belongs. For example, you could create a different RSS feed for different categorical topics. Not only does this provide more options for your visitors, but it also provides additional marketing opportunities.
Auto-Discovery
If you have an RSS feed, then you should definitely enable Auto-Discovery aggregation. Some RSS aggregators have the capability of quickly finding an RSS feed on your web site by placing a simple piece of code in the head section of your html.
Here's the code:
<*link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="ENTER-RSS-URL'>
Simply replace the RSS feed URL and place this above code into the head section of your web site on each page.
Submit Your RSS Feed to Search Engines and Directories
Having an RSS feed opens up entirely new marketing possibilities. You can now submit your rss feeds to a variety of specialized search engines and directories. For a complete list, go to http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/
Syndicating Rich Media Content
RSS is not just about text. You can also use it to syndicate audio and video content. For example, you can now submit media RSS feeds to Yahoo. They are using these feeds to make it easier for visitors to find rich media content at Yahoo search. (http://search.yahoo.com/)
To get started, go to the Media RSS feed submission page. (http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/submit)
Exchanging RSS Feeds
As you know, link exchanges have lost much of their ranking power. However, there is an advance form of link exchange that everyone can take advantage of.
This is the RSS feed exchange. By exchanging feeds with other quality sites in your industry, you gain additional content, about 5 incoming links, and some direct traffic as well.
Link directories are not beneficial to either partner. Each partner should put each other's content in a high-traffic area on your site.This allows both partners to increase their web site exposure, which is much more effective than a link exchange that is often buried on unknown pages.
Customized RSS Aggregators
Another advanced RSS marketing strategy is to offer your own customized RSS aggregator to your web site visitors. This will allow you to enforce your brand and provide an additional point of contact with your subscribers.
Hotmail did the same thing with email. Unfortunately, that kind of opportunity is long gone. RSS, on the other hand, is still a fairly new technology that you can use to create an effective viral marketing campaign.
If you have a large enough audience, you could certainly encourage them to start using your RSS aggregator. If executed correctly, your name could soon be branded all over the Internet because of this new communication model.
To start creating your own branded RSS aggregator, go to http://www.deskshare.com/awrc.aspx or http://www.customreader.com
Get Your Blog in the News
If your blog reports on the latest news in your industry, then you may be the perfect candidate for news sites. If your not reporting on the latest news in your industry, then I would strongly suggest that you start. News is one of the hottest topics on the Internet.
By delivering the latest news to your visitors, you can submit your site for inclusion in large online news sites such as NewsNow. Once you have become a publisher in their news network, your articles will be exposed to an audience of more than 750,000 monthly visitors.
If you think your site could make the cut, go to http://www.newsnow.co.uk/publishers/site-submission-intro.html .
One of the most exciting developments among the blogoshpere is the release of a new service for bloggers at BlogBurst.com. BlogBurst is the industry's first blog syndication network, delivering content to several newspaper sites, including SF Gate (http://www.sfgate.com), the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com), and the Houston Chronicle (http://www.chron.com).
To be accepted into the BlogBurst network, you must have a full text syndication feed in RSS or Atom, make weekly posts, and have good writing style.
If you think your web site could benefit from some increased news exposure, check out blogburst.com.
To be truly successful with your marketing campaigns, start combining your contact methods. By using RSS in addition to email marketing, you will reach a much larger audience.
About the Author:
Kim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews (http://www.sitepronews.com) & SEO-News (http://www.seo-news.com) newsletters. You can contact Kim at: kim@seo-news.com
This article may be freely distributed without modification and provided that the copyright notice and author information remain intact.
Kim Roach, All Rights Reserved
According to DoubleClick, one of the nations largest email marketing companies, the average open rate for an electronic newsletter is 27.5%, while the average click-through rate is 7.2%.
Email is not the dependable content delivery mechanism that it once was. Spam filters, blacklists and content overload have plummeted email delivery rates. Chances are that more than half of your email subscribers aren't reading your messages. In fact, your message may not even make it to their inbox.
What is a web master to do? Well, email is still the primary content delivery standard for most Internet users. However, you can start complementing your email marketing with other content delivery channels to increase your delivery rate. RSS is one such mechanism.
When LockerGnome.com began to promote their own RSS feeds, they began seeing 5 times the number of RSS subscribers against email subscribers. Even more interesting, they also began receiving a 500% better clickthrough ratio with RSS than with traditional email.
You can add RSS to your marketing mix in order to increase your readership, increase the response to your marketing messages, and improve your search engine placement.
What is Possible
There are so many options when it comes to content delivery with RSS. Many web masters online today are limiting themselves merely to what they've seen others do. However, the possibilities extend much further.
One of the basic uses of RSS is to deliver content updates. Your RSS subscribers can receive updates that you have made to your website, including new articles, downloads, coupons, etc. This was not possible with email because most subscribers would go hysterical if they found 5 emails in their inbox one day talking about the different updates to your site.
RSS solves this problem, enabling people to use aggregators to access information at their convenience. You can also use RSS to deliver news updates, quick tips, quotes, new coupons, job listings, classifieds, real estate listings, and new forum posts.
RSS Marketing Techniques - From Basic to Advanced
Once you have created your RSS feed, it's time to start marketing it. Marketing your RSS feed is completely different from marketing an email-based newsletter. However, similar to newsletter promotion, promoting your RSS feed begins on your web site and with your existing audience.
To let people know that you are offering an RSS feed, you will need to display an RSS image on a high-profile space of your web site. Your visitors will be much more likely to see your RSS image if you use one of the well-known buttons to represent your feed. You should place this button towards the top of your page for best exposure.
To see some good examples of web sites that are promoting their RSS feeds, go to http://www.sitepoint.com and http://www.lockergnome.com
Just like your ezine subscription box, your RSS feed should be noticeable and available from every page of your web site.
RSS Presentation Page
You must also have a page on your web site that explains exactly what RSS is. Many of your visitors may not know about this new technology. This is especially true if your website does not pertain to internet marketing or some other tech field.
Take your visitors step-by-step through the process of locating, subscribing and reading an RSS feed. By doing this, you are informing your website visitors and helping to promote the use of your own RSS feed.
To see a really good example of this, go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/help/3223484.stm
If you have different categories of RSS feeds, Provide a link to each of these feeds right next to the content category to which it belongs. For example, you could create a different RSS feed for different categorical topics. Not only does this provide more options for your visitors, but it also provides additional marketing opportunities.
Auto-Discovery
If you have an RSS feed, then you should definitely enable Auto-Discovery aggregation. Some RSS aggregators have the capability of quickly finding an RSS feed on your web site by placing a simple piece of code in the head section of your html.
Here's the code:
<*link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="ENTER-RSS-URL'>
Simply replace the RSS feed URL and place this above code into the head section of your web site on each page.
Submit Your RSS Feed to Search Engines and Directories
Having an RSS feed opens up entirely new marketing possibilities. You can now submit your rss feeds to a variety of specialized search engines and directories. For a complete list, go to http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/
Syndicating Rich Media Content
RSS is not just about text. You can also use it to syndicate audio and video content. For example, you can now submit media RSS feeds to Yahoo. They are using these feeds to make it easier for visitors to find rich media content at Yahoo search. (http://search.yahoo.com/)
To get started, go to the Media RSS feed submission page. (http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/submit)
Exchanging RSS Feeds
As you know, link exchanges have lost much of their ranking power. However, there is an advance form of link exchange that everyone can take advantage of.
This is the RSS feed exchange. By exchanging feeds with other quality sites in your industry, you gain additional content, about 5 incoming links, and some direct traffic as well.
Link directories are not beneficial to either partner. Each partner should put each other's content in a high-traffic area on your site.This allows both partners to increase their web site exposure, which is much more effective than a link exchange that is often buried on unknown pages.
Customized RSS Aggregators
Another advanced RSS marketing strategy is to offer your own customized RSS aggregator to your web site visitors. This will allow you to enforce your brand and provide an additional point of contact with your subscribers.
Hotmail did the same thing with email. Unfortunately, that kind of opportunity is long gone. RSS, on the other hand, is still a fairly new technology that you can use to create an effective viral marketing campaign.
If you have a large enough audience, you could certainly encourage them to start using your RSS aggregator. If executed correctly, your name could soon be branded all over the Internet because of this new communication model.
To start creating your own branded RSS aggregator, go to http://www.deskshare.com/awrc.aspx or http://www.customreader.com
Get Your Blog in the News
If your blog reports on the latest news in your industry, then you may be the perfect candidate for news sites. If your not reporting on the latest news in your industry, then I would strongly suggest that you start. News is one of the hottest topics on the Internet.
By delivering the latest news to your visitors, you can submit your site for inclusion in large online news sites such as NewsNow. Once you have become a publisher in their news network, your articles will be exposed to an audience of more than 750,000 monthly visitors.
If you think your site could make the cut, go to http://www.newsnow.co.uk/publishers/site-submission-intro.html .
One of the most exciting developments among the blogoshpere is the release of a new service for bloggers at BlogBurst.com. BlogBurst is the industry's first blog syndication network, delivering content to several newspaper sites, including SF Gate (http://www.sfgate.com), the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com), and the Houston Chronicle (http://www.chron.com).
To be accepted into the BlogBurst network, you must have a full text syndication feed in RSS or Atom, make weekly posts, and have good writing style.
If you think your web site could benefit from some increased news exposure, check out blogburst.com.
To be truly successful with your marketing campaigns, start combining your contact methods. By using RSS in addition to email marketing, you will reach a much larger audience.
About the Author:
Kim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews (http://www.sitepronews.com) & SEO-News (http://www.seo-news.com) newsletters. You can contact Kim at: kim@seo-news.com
This article may be freely distributed without modification and provided that the copyright notice and author information remain intact.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Another Site: Search Hiccup At Google
With my last post, I told you that Google gave the Phantom Writers credit for having 30,000 pages a couple of weeks back using Google's site:thephantomwriters.com Search function. The ironic point being that thePhantomWriters site actually has fewer than 4,000 pages.
Then last week, they gave the Phantom Writers site credit for only 505 pages using that search tool. In fact, the 505 number held through Friday July 14th.
This morning, 3am July 16th, Google is now showing that this website has 10,700 pages on it.
And the saga continues.
Bill Platt
Then last week, they gave the Phantom Writers site credit for only 505 pages using that search tool. In fact, the 505 number held through Friday July 14th.
This morning, 3am July 16th, Google is now showing that this website has 10,700 pages on it.
And the saga continues.
Bill Platt
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Google Fesses Up
In July of 2006, the brains behind the inner-workings of Google have admitted, in so many words that their site: search function is faulty at best. In theory, if this function worked correctly, you could type in site:byte-sized-marketing.blogspot.com at Google, and you would see 54 pages listed. This post is actually the 55th page in this blog website. But instead of 54 listings, Google is only showing 24 pages.
In most cases, Google does not show all of the pages that exist on a website.
One day last week, my site the Phantom Writers showed an amazing 30,000 pages on a site: search. The truly amazing thing about that is that the Phantom Writers website has just under 4,000 total pages!
The same search criteria at Google today showed that the Phantom Writers website supposedly only had 505 pages on it!
Last week it had 26,000 pages too many, and this week it has 3,500 pages too few!
You betcha. The Google site: function is definately buggy. The Google technicians said that we should not trust this function, and with my experience over the last week, I can stand side-by-side with their techs and tell you NOT to trust those numbers from the Google search results.
Hopefully, Google will get to the bottom of this issue and get it fixed soon. Those 3,500 pages that do not exist this week, according to Google, are not showing up when you do a keyword search either. As a result, my Google traffic is down. :-(
Like many people, I am trying to be patient and understand that it is a big engine with a lot of data, and even Google is bound to have the occasional problem.
Bill Platt - Owner
http://thePhantomWriters.com
http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com
In most cases, Google does not show all of the pages that exist on a website.
One day last week, my site the Phantom Writers showed an amazing 30,000 pages on a site: search. The truly amazing thing about that is that the Phantom Writers website has just under 4,000 total pages!
The same search criteria at Google today showed that the Phantom Writers website supposedly only had 505 pages on it!
Last week it had 26,000 pages too many, and this week it has 3,500 pages too few!
You betcha. The Google site: function is definately buggy. The Google technicians said that we should not trust this function, and with my experience over the last week, I can stand side-by-side with their techs and tell you NOT to trust those numbers from the Google search results.
Hopefully, Google will get to the bottom of this issue and get it fixed soon. Those 3,500 pages that do not exist this week, according to Google, are not showing up when you do a keyword search either. As a result, my Google traffic is down. :-(
Like many people, I am trying to be patient and understand that it is a big engine with a lot of data, and even Google is bound to have the occasional problem.
Bill Platt - Owner
http://thePhantomWriters.com
http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Marketing that Takes Your Business to the Next Level
Article Presented by:
Judy Murdoch
During a discussion about small business marketing, one owner asked me "How do you get big?" In other words, what did he need to do with his marketing to take his business to the next level.
Great question because the marketing you do to take your business from $0 to $100,000 is very different from the marketing you do to take your business to $250,000 or $1,000,000 or $5,000,000.
Let me illustrate with a story.
In the early 1970's shampoos and conditioners that smelled like lemon, strawberry, apple, herbs, and so on, became all the rage. As a teenager, I remember spending my hard-earned babysitting money to buy Love's Fresh Lemon shampoo so that my hair would smell like "fresh squeezed lemons". A small, Chicago-based company best known by hairdressers for their line of permanent wave products did something interesting. The company, Helene Curtis, created a line of shampoos and conditioners that duplicated the most popular name brand fragrances but retailed for about half the price. Then they ran very simple, inexpensive television commercials during daytime TV in which a deep, authoritative male voice would say something like: "Their shampoo smells lemon fresh; Suave shampoo smells lemon fresh. Their shampoo costs $2.50, Suave costs only $1.25. Suave does what theirs does for less. It was a simple but brilliant strategy. It launched the billion dollar Suave brand which has since expanded into just about every personal care category including baby products, skin care, and a line of products for men.
It wasn't just the "Suave does what theirs does for less" campaign that made Suave a billion dollar brand. In the 1980's Helene Curtis made a decision to become a major player in the personal care market and staffed their consumer products division with key people from consumer product giants such as Quaker Oats, SC Johnson, and Proctor & Gamble. These individuals had the training, experience, and know-how to create major consumer brands.
Having worked in Helene Curtis' consumer products group for five years, I was actively involved in brand development and marketing. Here are some things I learned about marketing's role in growing a business.
Have An Audacious Vision
The mission at Helene Curtis was to become the premier provider of personal care products on a global scale. This represented an enormous shift for an organization known, primarily, for marketing a small line of permanent wave products to beauty shops.
How big and audacious is your vision for your company? I encourage you to create a vision that is big enough to make you a little nervous but exciting enough so that you want to stretch yourself in order to realize it.
Don't "Just Meet" Your Client's Needs
At the most basic level, people need shampoo to keep their hair clean. And at that level, just about any shampoo will do. Hence, branding. Brands address higher level needs such as self-esteem and social belonging. Even more important, brands reinforce the customer's sense of who they are...their self-identity. For example, people who buy brands like Suave, think of themselves as "smart consumers" because they're buying a product that is identical in quality to the "name brands" but paying less.
Think about your customers. How well do you really understand them? Do you know what problems drive them crazy? Do you know what they aspire to? Do you know what their vision and mission is? How do your products and services help your customers deal with problems or attain their goals? To achieve your growth objectives, help your customers or clients achieve theirs.
Develop Partnerships And Strategic Alliances
My most eye-opening experience while working at Helene Curtis was learning that as important as the consumer was, the real customer, the customer upon whom the most resources, time, and manpower were spent was the RETAILER. Even fifteen years ago, most major consumer products companies were courting mass merchandisers like Wal-Mart as well as warehouse clubs.
Looking upstream and downstream at your supply chain, distributors, customers, and promoters, where are there opportunities to combine resources in ways in which the results are greater than the sum of your efforts? In particular, can you cross-sell one another's products, do joint promotions, combine media buys, and so on to increase your and your partner's marketing power?
Not Everyone Wants To Go To The Level: Be Willing To Part Ways
You also need to be willing to say good-bye to people, products, and activities that don't support your growth.
The Suave brand has been around since the 1930's. It's signature product back then? Men's hairdressing. The hairdressing is long gone but the brand is still there having evolved with the times. During my time at Helene Curtis, brand management was constantly scrutinizing product sales to identify poor performers which were discontinued and replaced with ones that better reflected consumer trends.
As mentioned earlier, when Helene Curtis made the decision to become a major player in the consumer market, they brought in new people, implemented new processes for investigating and introducing new products, and developed new relationships with retailers. Not everyone stayed during this expansion. Not all retailers continued to carry Helene Curtis brands. Products that had once been "stars" were discontinued, reformulated, or sold.
As you develop at your plans, assess your current marketing practices, relationships, and processes to determine which will support your growth objectives and which will not, and discontinue those that will not.
One Last Point
If you take away just one point, remember this: what you did to get today's customers probably will not work with different or "bigger" customers, and what works for your customer today may not work for them tomorrow. You cannot grow your business by doing more of what you did to bring your business to this point. At some point your will have gotten as much return as possible on your current marketing you'll need to upgrade and build capacity with new practices, processes, and ideas.
About the Author:
Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost, effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals, guerrilla marketing activities, and selected strategic alliances. To download a free copy of the workbook, "Where Does it Hurt? Marketing Solutions to the problems that Drive Your Customers Crazy!" go to http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm
You can contact Judy at 303-475-2015 or judy@judymurdoch.com
Judy Murdoch
During a discussion about small business marketing, one owner asked me "How do you get big?" In other words, what did he need to do with his marketing to take his business to the next level.
Great question because the marketing you do to take your business from $0 to $100,000 is very different from the marketing you do to take your business to $250,000 or $1,000,000 or $5,000,000.
Let me illustrate with a story.
In the early 1970's shampoos and conditioners that smelled like lemon, strawberry, apple, herbs, and so on, became all the rage. As a teenager, I remember spending my hard-earned babysitting money to buy Love's Fresh Lemon shampoo so that my hair would smell like "fresh squeezed lemons". A small, Chicago-based company best known by hairdressers for their line of permanent wave products did something interesting. The company, Helene Curtis, created a line of shampoos and conditioners that duplicated the most popular name brand fragrances but retailed for about half the price. Then they ran very simple, inexpensive television commercials during daytime TV in which a deep, authoritative male voice would say something like: "Their shampoo smells lemon fresh; Suave shampoo smells lemon fresh. Their shampoo costs $2.50, Suave costs only $1.25. Suave does what theirs does for less. It was a simple but brilliant strategy. It launched the billion dollar Suave brand which has since expanded into just about every personal care category including baby products, skin care, and a line of products for men.
It wasn't just the "Suave does what theirs does for less" campaign that made Suave a billion dollar brand. In the 1980's Helene Curtis made a decision to become a major player in the personal care market and staffed their consumer products division with key people from consumer product giants such as Quaker Oats, SC Johnson, and Proctor & Gamble. These individuals had the training, experience, and know-how to create major consumer brands.
Having worked in Helene Curtis' consumer products group for five years, I was actively involved in brand development and marketing. Here are some things I learned about marketing's role in growing a business.
Have An Audacious Vision
The mission at Helene Curtis was to become the premier provider of personal care products on a global scale. This represented an enormous shift for an organization known, primarily, for marketing a small line of permanent wave products to beauty shops.
How big and audacious is your vision for your company? I encourage you to create a vision that is big enough to make you a little nervous but exciting enough so that you want to stretch yourself in order to realize it.
Don't "Just Meet" Your Client's Needs
At the most basic level, people need shampoo to keep their hair clean. And at that level, just about any shampoo will do. Hence, branding. Brands address higher level needs such as self-esteem and social belonging. Even more important, brands reinforce the customer's sense of who they are...their self-identity. For example, people who buy brands like Suave, think of themselves as "smart consumers" because they're buying a product that is identical in quality to the "name brands" but paying less.
Think about your customers. How well do you really understand them? Do you know what problems drive them crazy? Do you know what they aspire to? Do you know what their vision and mission is? How do your products and services help your customers deal with problems or attain their goals? To achieve your growth objectives, help your customers or clients achieve theirs.
Develop Partnerships And Strategic Alliances
My most eye-opening experience while working at Helene Curtis was learning that as important as the consumer was, the real customer, the customer upon whom the most resources, time, and manpower were spent was the RETAILER. Even fifteen years ago, most major consumer products companies were courting mass merchandisers like Wal-Mart as well as warehouse clubs.
Looking upstream and downstream at your supply chain, distributors, customers, and promoters, where are there opportunities to combine resources in ways in which the results are greater than the sum of your efforts? In particular, can you cross-sell one another's products, do joint promotions, combine media buys, and so on to increase your and your partner's marketing power?
Not Everyone Wants To Go To The Level: Be Willing To Part Ways
You also need to be willing to say good-bye to people, products, and activities that don't support your growth.
The Suave brand has been around since the 1930's. It's signature product back then? Men's hairdressing. The hairdressing is long gone but the brand is still there having evolved with the times. During my time at Helene Curtis, brand management was constantly scrutinizing product sales to identify poor performers which were discontinued and replaced with ones that better reflected consumer trends.
As mentioned earlier, when Helene Curtis made the decision to become a major player in the consumer market, they brought in new people, implemented new processes for investigating and introducing new products, and developed new relationships with retailers. Not everyone stayed during this expansion. Not all retailers continued to carry Helene Curtis brands. Products that had once been "stars" were discontinued, reformulated, or sold.
As you develop at your plans, assess your current marketing practices, relationships, and processes to determine which will support your growth objectives and which will not, and discontinue those that will not.
One Last Point
If you take away just one point, remember this: what you did to get today's customers probably will not work with different or "bigger" customers, and what works for your customer today may not work for them tomorrow. You cannot grow your business by doing more of what you did to bring your business to this point. At some point your will have gotten as much return as possible on your current marketing you'll need to upgrade and build capacity with new practices, processes, and ideas.
About the Author:
Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost, effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals, guerrilla marketing activities, and selected strategic alliances. To download a free copy of the workbook, "Where Does it Hurt? Marketing Solutions to the problems that Drive Your Customers Crazy!" go to http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm
You can contact Judy at 303-475-2015 or judy@judymurdoch.com
Monday, July 10, 2006
You Killed Your Competition! Now What?
Article Presented by:
New Hampshire Concrete Cutting and Core Drilling, All Rights Reserved Written by: Robert Short
When your competition goes out of business they will obviously lose the relationship that they have with their existing customers. When this happens it will create what I like to call a "customer vacuum." All of their customers will be set free and they will start searching for another company that can service their particular needs. At the same time you and your existing competition will start grabbing for control of these customers. What you need to do is fill that vacuum and there is one very good way I use to maximize the chance of these unaccounted for customers coming right to your door.
The most effective way that I have discovered is to assume control, of a dead business' customers is to take over their phone number when their company dies. This can be very difficult and confusing at first but it gets very simple. You see most phone companies use what is called a "cooling off" period for recently disconnected phone lines. This period usually lasts for one year. This means that you can't just call your phone company and take over a phone line the day it is disconnected. The reasons for this, I assume are because the company may have just forgot to pay its phone bill or it has encountered some difficult times financially and it has to wait a week before getting it reconnected. It would be very unfair for a phone company to allow this type of outright squatting. Other reasons could be that the company may be restructuring and will resurface in six months or so. Whatever the reason this "fail safe" was put in place to protect the existing phone number's owner.
I will discuss with you in the next few paragraphs on how to acquire the phone lines without waiting on the "cooling off" period but for now let's discuss waiting a year. "A year?" You ask. "That's an eternity!" We'll it may seem like it but I actually waited a year for a phone line once and it produced more business than I could handle. I had to put on three more trucks because my business literally exploded. The company that had gone under was an established arm of a major franchise in my industry and they had already signed contracts for massive amounts of yellow page advertising, both online and print. They simply packed up and vanished into thin air one day leaving a foundation that could make your average business owner rich beyond their wildest dreams. Well, I called the phone company and explained to them what my intentions were and they told me the exact day the "cooling off" period would end. I waited my time and I got their phone number and I had it remotely forwarded to my company's main phone line. I saw an instantaneous increase in business and I bled that phone number white for years. To top all that off, the main company's web site kept that locations address and the phone number on its home page for two years after I took over the phone line. My existing competitors were baffled and probably still haven't figured out how my company grew so big so fast during those years. The fact is I got massive amounts of their existing customers, yellow page advertising and web site exposure for the cost of a remote phone line that cost a mere $16.95 per month. Man, I am still amazed!
Now, let's face it, in most cases there is a real good reason why a company goes belly up and most business owners will say something stupid like "if they had any customers in the first place they wouldn't have gone down, I don't want that phone line!" A company can have more than enough customers and still die for a number of reasons. My theory is this, when I spend less than $20 a month for a dead business' phone number, that company had to have at least five good customers. Acquiring one customer with a lifetime value of, let's say, $10,000 is worth far more than the measly 17 bucks you spent acquiring them and based on my experience you will get at least ten new customers even if the company was mismanaged beyond belief and has been gone for over a year. Your new phone bill actually tells you how many calls were remotely forwarded to your main number from your new phone line each month. With this information you can easily decide if it is worth it or not within a couple of months.
If you want the phone line right away there are several techniques I use. The phone company will allow you to take over the dead company's phone line if you can get a letter from the previous owner on that expired companies letterhead. Also, you must satisfy any debt that that company still owes on that number. So basically you need to approach your former adversary and let them know that you want the number, find out how much they owe, and if they are willing to give it to you. If they are not interested you need to spark some interest by pulling a couple of crisp hundred dollar bills out of your pocket. Remember, this person just lost it all along with several years of their life, a couple hundred bucks really matters now. Never act arrogant or give them any indication that you will get the phone line anyway if you just wait a year because they can easily derail your intentions by reinstating the phone line for a while.
I approached an "old timer" that was no longer in business and explained to him what I had in mind. He said he had just got sick of it and that it was a young man's game and he simply decided to retire. He asked how much I was willing to pay for the phone line and I jokingly said $100. He said that was fine but I had to pay $272 to the phone company in order to release the phone line. I excitedly agreed and I literally took over his business that had been established for thirty years and to top that off he went and dug out his customer list (all handwritten) and gave that to me too. I had planned on giving him as much as $5000, if I had to, for the phone line and I was willing to pay an additional $500 a month for two years. I walked away with several hundred thousand dollars a year for $372. It really doesn't get any better than that.
I had one of my competitors approach me and offer to sell me his existing customers for $100,000. I wanted to acquire his customers end the situation immediately but I was not willing to spend $100,000 on customers that were going to be mine in a year anyway. I counter offered at $35,000 and he balked and acted all insulted. Needless to say my competitors couldn't afford or wouldn't pay the $100,000 and his company laid down, put its legs in the air and died. A year later I took over his phone line and many of his long time customers at the same time.
Each customer that you acquire using this method is highly targeted and if cultivated properly will have a substantial lifetime value plus they will continually refer new customers to you. The best part of all of this is that over the years as my competition has died, none of my existing competitors got any of the customers once I took over the phone line. As each of my competitors dies, I take, starving the competition that remains. I will continue to take until I fulfill my ultimate goal, which is to be the last man standing!
About the Author:
(c) 2006 New Hampshire Concrete Cutting and Core Drilling, All Rights Reserved
Written by: Robert Short
New Hampshire Concrete Cutting and Core Drilling provides concrete cutting and core drilling services to the contractor and homeowner in New Hampshire or NH. Visit our website at http://www.affordableconcretecutting.net for more information on concrete cutting and core drilling.
New Hampshire Concrete Cutting and Core Drilling, All Rights Reserved Written by: Robert Short
When your competition goes out of business they will obviously lose the relationship that they have with their existing customers. When this happens it will create what I like to call a "customer vacuum." All of their customers will be set free and they will start searching for another company that can service their particular needs. At the same time you and your existing competition will start grabbing for control of these customers. What you need to do is fill that vacuum and there is one very good way I use to maximize the chance of these unaccounted for customers coming right to your door.
The most effective way that I have discovered is to assume control, of a dead business' customers is to take over their phone number when their company dies. This can be very difficult and confusing at first but it gets very simple. You see most phone companies use what is called a "cooling off" period for recently disconnected phone lines. This period usually lasts for one year. This means that you can't just call your phone company and take over a phone line the day it is disconnected. The reasons for this, I assume are because the company may have just forgot to pay its phone bill or it has encountered some difficult times financially and it has to wait a week before getting it reconnected. It would be very unfair for a phone company to allow this type of outright squatting. Other reasons could be that the company may be restructuring and will resurface in six months or so. Whatever the reason this "fail safe" was put in place to protect the existing phone number's owner.
I will discuss with you in the next few paragraphs on how to acquire the phone lines without waiting on the "cooling off" period but for now let's discuss waiting a year. "A year?" You ask. "That's an eternity!" We'll it may seem like it but I actually waited a year for a phone line once and it produced more business than I could handle. I had to put on three more trucks because my business literally exploded. The company that had gone under was an established arm of a major franchise in my industry and they had already signed contracts for massive amounts of yellow page advertising, both online and print. They simply packed up and vanished into thin air one day leaving a foundation that could make your average business owner rich beyond their wildest dreams. Well, I called the phone company and explained to them what my intentions were and they told me the exact day the "cooling off" period would end. I waited my time and I got their phone number and I had it remotely forwarded to my company's main phone line. I saw an instantaneous increase in business and I bled that phone number white for years. To top all that off, the main company's web site kept that locations address and the phone number on its home page for two years after I took over the phone line. My existing competitors were baffled and probably still haven't figured out how my company grew so big so fast during those years. The fact is I got massive amounts of their existing customers, yellow page advertising and web site exposure for the cost of a remote phone line that cost a mere $16.95 per month. Man, I am still amazed!
Now, let's face it, in most cases there is a real good reason why a company goes belly up and most business owners will say something stupid like "if they had any customers in the first place they wouldn't have gone down, I don't want that phone line!" A company can have more than enough customers and still die for a number of reasons. My theory is this, when I spend less than $20 a month for a dead business' phone number, that company had to have at least five good customers. Acquiring one customer with a lifetime value of, let's say, $10,000 is worth far more than the measly 17 bucks you spent acquiring them and based on my experience you will get at least ten new customers even if the company was mismanaged beyond belief and has been gone for over a year. Your new phone bill actually tells you how many calls were remotely forwarded to your main number from your new phone line each month. With this information you can easily decide if it is worth it or not within a couple of months.
If you want the phone line right away there are several techniques I use. The phone company will allow you to take over the dead company's phone line if you can get a letter from the previous owner on that expired companies letterhead. Also, you must satisfy any debt that that company still owes on that number. So basically you need to approach your former adversary and let them know that you want the number, find out how much they owe, and if they are willing to give it to you. If they are not interested you need to spark some interest by pulling a couple of crisp hundred dollar bills out of your pocket. Remember, this person just lost it all along with several years of their life, a couple hundred bucks really matters now. Never act arrogant or give them any indication that you will get the phone line anyway if you just wait a year because they can easily derail your intentions by reinstating the phone line for a while.
I approached an "old timer" that was no longer in business and explained to him what I had in mind. He said he had just got sick of it and that it was a young man's game and he simply decided to retire. He asked how much I was willing to pay for the phone line and I jokingly said $100. He said that was fine but I had to pay $272 to the phone company in order to release the phone line. I excitedly agreed and I literally took over his business that had been established for thirty years and to top that off he went and dug out his customer list (all handwritten) and gave that to me too. I had planned on giving him as much as $5000, if I had to, for the phone line and I was willing to pay an additional $500 a month for two years. I walked away with several hundred thousand dollars a year for $372. It really doesn't get any better than that.
I had one of my competitors approach me and offer to sell me his existing customers for $100,000. I wanted to acquire his customers end the situation immediately but I was not willing to spend $100,000 on customers that were going to be mine in a year anyway. I counter offered at $35,000 and he balked and acted all insulted. Needless to say my competitors couldn't afford or wouldn't pay the $100,000 and his company laid down, put its legs in the air and died. A year later I took over his phone line and many of his long time customers at the same time.
Each customer that you acquire using this method is highly targeted and if cultivated properly will have a substantial lifetime value plus they will continually refer new customers to you. The best part of all of this is that over the years as my competition has died, none of my existing competitors got any of the customers once I took over the phone line. As each of my competitors dies, I take, starving the competition that remains. I will continue to take until I fulfill my ultimate goal, which is to be the last man standing!
About the Author:
(c) 2006 New Hampshire Concrete Cutting and Core Drilling, All Rights Reserved
Written by: Robert Short
New Hampshire Concrete Cutting and Core Drilling provides concrete cutting and core drilling services to the contractor and homeowner in New Hampshire or NH. Visit our website at http://www.affordableconcretecutting.net for more information on concrete cutting and core drilling.
How to Build an Empire With Business Cards
Article Presented by:
New Hampshire Concrete Cutting and Core Drilling, All Rights Reserved Written by: Robert Short
Today, most business owners don't realize the importance of using a simple business card to generate tons of new customers. It simply does not matter what kind of business you are in, you have to utilize this primitive business technique in order to grow your business fast and to maintain that growth.
The three major mistakes people make when marketing with business cards are:
1. Not having a business card.
2. Being stingy and only giving out one card per person.
3. Not giving a card to every person they come into contact with.
Not having thousands of business cards at your disposal at all times is not only stupid it is a crime against your business. If an employee of yours stole as much money from you as you lose from not utilizing business cards, they would go to prison for a long time. With today's super low cost business card printing prices there is no reason not to have business cards and an abundance of them for that matter.
I started my professional concrete cutting service business with absolutely no capital and grossed almost $400,000 in my first eight months of business. My only means of advertising was business cards. As many of you already know, it can sometimes take up to an entire year to get your ad placed into your local yellow page directory and it can be quite costly to a new business. The following are techniques that I used to generate tons of business from business cards and I believe that these same techniques can benefit any type of business.
1. I started with an eye catching logo and had a design that really said "this guy is a pro." It is worth the modest initial investment to get your cards designed right.
2. I kept my message "short and sweet." I have seen way too many people over do it with tons of bulleted text that cause confusion with the reader. I do concrete cutting and a few other services that relate to it but my business cards say only "Concrete Cutting."
3. I ordered my cards in quantities of 5000 at a time. Too often do I see new business owners print cards off of their computer and literally "ration" them off.
4. I never gave out a single card! I always handed out at least five at a time and sometimes more. I still look at my business cards as "lottery tickets." The first job I get from the batch pays for all of them so the rest can pay off huge. If they get thrown in the trash – Who cares? There are thousands more where those came from.
5. Any time I would meet someone in the construction trades I would hand them a stack of cards. I hand them to people that are standing next to me in line at the Home Depot or that are pumping gas across from me at the fuel pumps. I get questions like "What are these for?" or "What do you want me to do with these?" and I just simply say "You may not need my services now but when you do, you'll know who to call." At the same time, I am thinking, "I don't care what you do with them, they were basically free and the fact of the matter is that I get hundreds of calls from people that say "Remember Me?" "I met you at the Exxon Station or at parent teacher's night." Or "John Smith gave me your card and said I should call you" yet I have never heard of John Smith. Or "I've got your business card on my desk and I don't know where it came from but I need your services." I simply hand tons of my business cards out to people and the calls roll in.
6. I buy a mailing list of contractors from a list broker and I simply put three business cards in an envelope and mail a thousand envelopes at a time. I do not put an expensive brochure or a flyer, I simply put three business cards in and I get hundreds of calls and referrals from the mailing,
I now get hundreds and hundreds of calls from my existing customers and my yellow page ads but I still use business cards more than I ever have. I now have six trucks and eight employees and giving out business cards in the same fashion as I have described above is part of their job description. They have all seen the power of business cards and that business cards ensure each of our survival and actually gives them a good feeling knowing that they got a specific customer. If I contact a new customer and they happen to mention that one of my men did not give them a stack of business cards then I immediately contact the employee, ask them if it is true and explain to them that it is part of their job, then I hand them a big box of business cards and tell them not to let it happen again, ever.
About the Author:
(c) 2006 New Hampshire Concrete Cutting and Core Drilling, All Rights Reserved
Written by: Robert Short
New Hampshire Concrete Cutting and Core Drilling provides concrete cutting and core drilling services to the contractor and homeowner in New Hampshire or NH. Visit our website at http://www.affordableconcretecutting.net for more information on concrete cutting and core drilling.
New Hampshire Concrete Cutting and Core Drilling, All Rights Reserved Written by: Robert Short
Today, most business owners don't realize the importance of using a simple business card to generate tons of new customers. It simply does not matter what kind of business you are in, you have to utilize this primitive business technique in order to grow your business fast and to maintain that growth.
The three major mistakes people make when marketing with business cards are:
1. Not having a business card.
2. Being stingy and only giving out one card per person.
3. Not giving a card to every person they come into contact with.
Not having thousands of business cards at your disposal at all times is not only stupid it is a crime against your business. If an employee of yours stole as much money from you as you lose from not utilizing business cards, they would go to prison for a long time. With today's super low cost business card printing prices there is no reason not to have business cards and an abundance of them for that matter.
I started my professional concrete cutting service business with absolutely no capital and grossed almost $400,000 in my first eight months of business. My only means of advertising was business cards. As many of you already know, it can sometimes take up to an entire year to get your ad placed into your local yellow page directory and it can be quite costly to a new business. The following are techniques that I used to generate tons of business from business cards and I believe that these same techniques can benefit any type of business.
1. I started with an eye catching logo and had a design that really said "this guy is a pro." It is worth the modest initial investment to get your cards designed right.
2. I kept my message "short and sweet." I have seen way too many people over do it with tons of bulleted text that cause confusion with the reader. I do concrete cutting and a few other services that relate to it but my business cards say only "Concrete Cutting."
3. I ordered my cards in quantities of 5000 at a time. Too often do I see new business owners print cards off of their computer and literally "ration" them off.
4. I never gave out a single card! I always handed out at least five at a time and sometimes more. I still look at my business cards as "lottery tickets." The first job I get from the batch pays for all of them so the rest can pay off huge. If they get thrown in the trash – Who cares? There are thousands more where those came from.
5. Any time I would meet someone in the construction trades I would hand them a stack of cards. I hand them to people that are standing next to me in line at the Home Depot or that are pumping gas across from me at the fuel pumps. I get questions like "What are these for?" or "What do you want me to do with these?" and I just simply say "You may not need my services now but when you do, you'll know who to call." At the same time, I am thinking, "I don't care what you do with them, they were basically free and the fact of the matter is that I get hundreds of calls from people that say "Remember Me?" "I met you at the Exxon Station or at parent teacher's night." Or "John Smith gave me your card and said I should call you" yet I have never heard of John Smith. Or "I've got your business card on my desk and I don't know where it came from but I need your services." I simply hand tons of my business cards out to people and the calls roll in.
6. I buy a mailing list of contractors from a list broker and I simply put three business cards in an envelope and mail a thousand envelopes at a time. I do not put an expensive brochure or a flyer, I simply put three business cards in and I get hundreds of calls and referrals from the mailing,
I now get hundreds and hundreds of calls from my existing customers and my yellow page ads but I still use business cards more than I ever have. I now have six trucks and eight employees and giving out business cards in the same fashion as I have described above is part of their job description. They have all seen the power of business cards and that business cards ensure each of our survival and actually gives them a good feeling knowing that they got a specific customer. If I contact a new customer and they happen to mention that one of my men did not give them a stack of business cards then I immediately contact the employee, ask them if it is true and explain to them that it is part of their job, then I hand them a big box of business cards and tell them not to let it happen again, ever.
About the Author:
(c) 2006 New Hampshire Concrete Cutting and Core Drilling, All Rights Reserved
Written by: Robert Short
New Hampshire Concrete Cutting and Core Drilling provides concrete cutting and core drilling services to the contractor and homeowner in New Hampshire or NH. Visit our website at http://www.affordableconcretecutting.net for more information on concrete cutting and core drilling.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Don't Waste Your Money Getting a Website ...
Article Presented by:
Ivana Katz
Some time ago a distressed client (let's call him Charlie) called me "I've distributed over 20,000 flyers about my business and nobody has bought anything from the website". My first question to him was "did you check the spelling of your website address on the flyer?". His response "I didn't put my website address on the flyer - should I have?" ... I didn't know how to respond.
Shortly after, I got another call from Charlie ... but more on that later.
Let's face it, some people are just not ready to have a website. It seems that many first time entrepreneurs' idea of starting a business is getting a website. And that's it! They have no intentions of doing any marketing and if they do have a marketing plan it consists of telling their friends about it and possibly distributing a few brochures in the neighbourhood. Some people go as far as planning to advertise their business/website in the local newspaper. More often than not, they expect that as soon as they have a website, the money will start rolling in. They believe a magic internet fairy will appear and announce the arrival of their website to the world.
The truth is, it doesn't work that way. With millions of websites popping up on the internet every month, you are competing against a lot of businesses ... not only locally, but globally. So please please, before you think about getting a website, decide how you are going to promote it.
If you are about to declare bankrupt in your business and thinking of putting your last few dollars into getting a website designed, hoping that it will bring you instant cash, don't do it! A website will not solve your problems unless you are willing to put in some money (and it doesn't have to be much) or time to promote it.
When I meet potential clients my first two questions are:
"Why do you want a website?" and "How are you going to promote it?"
Depending on their answer I guide them to the best solution. On a few occasions, I've had to tell them they were not ready to get their business on the internet.
In fact one client, who was desperate to make money from her website told me that she didn't have time for marketing, because she needed to start earning money quickly.
On the other hand there have been lots of very successful entrepreneurs who have made their website work for them.
Lisa Pearse-Sargeant of Papper Scissors Rock Kids Group (http://www.paperscissorsrock.net) says "For the first six months of starting Paper Scissors Rock Kids due to a limited start-up budget we only had a basic web page in a newsletter format. This was until we had a better understanding of the business and direction it would take. Through a combined gathering of information at trade shows and print advertising, we felt ready to invest time and money in a proper website. Now our website has proven to be a cost effective way to showcase our product instead of printing costly catalogues. I believe for my business I need to have a crossover marketing approach ie. target trade & public through a mix of web & print advertising, store presentation/merchandising and trade exhibitions"
Josslyn Harrower of Snugzeez (http://www.snugzeez.com.au), found she desperately needed a website to showcase her products. "My business had been up and running for 3 months and most of my orders were from word of mouth. An international sleep expert 'Tizzie Hall' was personally recommending my sleep comforters to her clients, and they kept asking to see what the products looked like and what variety was available. My products were not available in stores so the only option was to have a website. It wasn't long before I was being approached by other websites to link their site to mine. This has definitely helped with marketing my products. I receive more hits on my site from Tizzie Hall's website and a few others than advertising in magazines or newspapers. Winning 'Best Product' at Sydney Kidz Expo last year certainly helped to boost my site's exposure."
If you decide to have a website, it is extremely important you take the time to plan it and work out how it will fit in with the rest of your business. The website needs to be functional, rather than just "pretty". It needs to provide your visitors the information THEY need.
If you don't know where to start, you can download a free Website Plan by going to: http://www.web4business.com.au/WebsitePlanRequest.htm
The last time I heard from Charlie, our conversation went something like this:
Charlie: "Ivana, can you please send an email to everybody telling them about my website".
Me: "Yes of course ... just send me your mailing list"
Charlie: "What do you mean mailing list? I don't have one. I thought you just press a button!"
So please, before you pick up the phone and speak to a website designer, think about how you will market your website. If you have a website already and are not getting the traffic you need, you may wish to read "30 ways to promote your website on a shoestring budget" - http://www.web4business.com.au/ArticlesIK30waystopromote.htm
About the Author:
Ivana Katz is the owner of Websites 4 Small Business, a company specialising in the design and promotion of small and home-based business websites. She believes that every business deserves to have a successful website, no matter what its budget is. For more information visit http://www.web4business.com.au To download your free Website Plan go to: http://www.web4business.com.au/WebsitePlanRequest.htm
Ivana Katz
Some time ago a distressed client (let's call him Charlie) called me "I've distributed over 20,000 flyers about my business and nobody has bought anything from the website". My first question to him was "did you check the spelling of your website address on the flyer?". His response "I didn't put my website address on the flyer - should I have?" ... I didn't know how to respond.
Shortly after, I got another call from Charlie ... but more on that later.
Let's face it, some people are just not ready to have a website. It seems that many first time entrepreneurs' idea of starting a business is getting a website. And that's it! They have no intentions of doing any marketing and if they do have a marketing plan it consists of telling their friends about it and possibly distributing a few brochures in the neighbourhood. Some people go as far as planning to advertise their business/website in the local newspaper. More often than not, they expect that as soon as they have a website, the money will start rolling in. They believe a magic internet fairy will appear and announce the arrival of their website to the world.
The truth is, it doesn't work that way. With millions of websites popping up on the internet every month, you are competing against a lot of businesses ... not only locally, but globally. So please please, before you think about getting a website, decide how you are going to promote it.
If you are about to declare bankrupt in your business and thinking of putting your last few dollars into getting a website designed, hoping that it will bring you instant cash, don't do it! A website will not solve your problems unless you are willing to put in some money (and it doesn't have to be much) or time to promote it.
When I meet potential clients my first two questions are:
"Why do you want a website?" and "How are you going to promote it?"
Depending on their answer I guide them to the best solution. On a few occasions, I've had to tell them they were not ready to get their business on the internet.
In fact one client, who was desperate to make money from her website told me that she didn't have time for marketing, because she needed to start earning money quickly.
On the other hand there have been lots of very successful entrepreneurs who have made their website work for them.
Lisa Pearse-Sargeant of Papper Scissors Rock Kids Group (http://www.paperscissorsrock.net) says "For the first six months of starting Paper Scissors Rock Kids due to a limited start-up budget we only had a basic web page in a newsletter format. This was until we had a better understanding of the business and direction it would take. Through a combined gathering of information at trade shows and print advertising, we felt ready to invest time and money in a proper website. Now our website has proven to be a cost effective way to showcase our product instead of printing costly catalogues. I believe for my business I need to have a crossover marketing approach ie. target trade & public through a mix of web & print advertising, store presentation/merchandising and trade exhibitions"
Josslyn Harrower of Snugzeez (http://www.snugzeez.com.au), found she desperately needed a website to showcase her products. "My business had been up and running for 3 months and most of my orders were from word of mouth. An international sleep expert 'Tizzie Hall' was personally recommending my sleep comforters to her clients, and they kept asking to see what the products looked like and what variety was available. My products were not available in stores so the only option was to have a website. It wasn't long before I was being approached by other websites to link their site to mine. This has definitely helped with marketing my products. I receive more hits on my site from Tizzie Hall's website and a few others than advertising in magazines or newspapers. Winning 'Best Product' at Sydney Kidz Expo last year certainly helped to boost my site's exposure."
If you decide to have a website, it is extremely important you take the time to plan it and work out how it will fit in with the rest of your business. The website needs to be functional, rather than just "pretty". It needs to provide your visitors the information THEY need.
If you don't know where to start, you can download a free Website Plan by going to: http://www.web4business.com.au/WebsitePlanRequest.htm
The last time I heard from Charlie, our conversation went something like this:
Charlie: "Ivana, can you please send an email to everybody telling them about my website".
Me: "Yes of course ... just send me your mailing list"
Charlie: "What do you mean mailing list? I don't have one. I thought you just press a button!"
So please, before you pick up the phone and speak to a website designer, think about how you will market your website. If you have a website already and are not getting the traffic you need, you may wish to read "30 ways to promote your website on a shoestring budget" - http://www.web4business.com.au/ArticlesIK30waystopromote.htm
About the Author:
Ivana Katz is the owner of Websites 4 Small Business, a company specialising in the design and promotion of small and home-based business websites. She believes that every business deserves to have a successful website, no matter what its budget is. For more information visit http://www.web4business.com.au To download your free Website Plan go to: http://www.web4business.com.au/WebsitePlanRequest.htm
Labels:
internet marketing,
Ivana Katz,
online marketing,
success tips,
website
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
