Author Archive
Successful-Marketing-Campaigns – Getting Their Attention
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These days there seems to be just a ton of “noise” when it comes to successful marketers vying for the attention of prospects.
Old school media, such as television, radio and newspapers are fighting to stay alive and the “long tail” has opened up a whole new perspective on reaching prospects. Our goal is no longer to reach the masses, it’s to make a connection with just a few individuals in a specific niche.
What can progressive marketers do to succeed in this type of environment?
There’s one simple principle that we all need to keep in mind.
This is no longer the “Information” age. It’s the “Attention” age.
You absolutely MUST capture and KEEP your prospect’s attention.
How do you do that?
Simple – Figure out exactly what he’s looking for and then give it to him.
Make your communications all about the prospect, and not about you, your product or service, or selling in general.
Your goal should be to attain the position of “trusted advisor.” You want to develop a following, people asking you for advice and “how you did it.”
That’s the time to start recommending products and offering your services.
How do you know when you’ve reached “successful adviser” status with your clients? Simple. They’re paying attention.
Just like in the movies – “The Audience Is Listening.”
Proven Marketing Campaigns
Home Based Business Idea
Posted by: | CommentsHave you been searching for the right home based business idea for you?
The truth is, there are a lot of legitimate ways to make money from home, but there are also some scams and rip-off artists so you have to be careful.
When you’re looking for the right home based business idea, remember that there’s no such thing as get-rich-quick, and most business plans that you’ll want to consider implementing will take some real work to get them off the ground. Many people who are not successful have trouble because they are unable to get themselves to take consistent action when they are not being disciplined by a boss.
Well, I am a stay-at-home-mom, and I have been making good money online for years. I don’t have a boss, but I do have a 2-year old son and he certainly is a task-master when it comes to my schedule.
In fact, I am only able to work while he is sleeping (about 2 hours/day and 2/hours at night – then I go to bed!).
However, I have found that if I apply myself consistently during these blocks of time, I am able to make progress on my home based business and increase my monthly revenues.
If you want to know how I’m doing it, I encourage you to download my free report on how I made over $900 last month working from home part time.
What Is The Difference Between A Work-From-Home-Job and A Home-Based Business Idea?
Now, if you want a part time job, that is something else. Usually an employer will pay you by the hour or by the task. You can get work as a virtual assistant, call center representative, medical transcriptionist or typist online, but your income will be limited by how many hours a day you have to put into your work… because you get paid by the hour.
How To Be Successful With Your Home Based Business Idea
When you create your own business, you are basically creating an asset that will pay you for months or years to come without your having to do any additional work.
For example, I sell an ebook online in a TINY obscure niche based on a hobby. I sell it for $15, and I don’t know a thing about the hobby. I hired my Grandmother to write the book. I just wrote up a sales page and put up a shopping cart, and that thing has been making money for me for YEARS without my having to touch it!
If you have a few of those going, you could do very well!
You can find out more about my own home based business ideas (what I’m doing that has worked and a few ideas that have flopped!) and more when you download my personal case study.
I look forward to sharing more with you about what I am doing!
Please download your copy of this time-sensitive report now.
Proven Marketing Campaigns
Home Internet Based Business Opportunity
Posted by: | CommentsFinding The Right Home Internet-Based Business Opportunity For You.
If you’ve been researching online for the right home Internet based business opportunity for you, you’re right where I was not too long ago. I was working a corporate job and researching how to get more business to come through our website. I found a plethora of information out there, little of which my firm was willing to implement, but things which I found to be helpful right off the bat.
I took what I had learned through my research, and started my own first website at home. This home internet-based business opportunity was perfect for me. It was about a subject I was passionate about. It was easy to implement during the time I had available for it, and it was profitable within its first year! That certainly beat the odds when it came to the normal US statistics for new businesses.
One of the reasons I was able to do well in my home based interent business is that it had a very low startup cost (about $30/month) and I could learn as I go. There weren’t a lot of fixed over head costs like paying rent on a building or buying merchandise to sell. There were just a few simple tools to master (with complete training available worth thousands of dollars, probably!) and my own brains and motivation – and I was on my way!
Now, I’m not going to say that the business was “easy”… it took a lot of time in the beginning to learn what I was doing and then actually sit down and implement it. That’s one of the funny things about having your own home internet based business – you don’t really have a boss or a time clock – you have to be the one who sets aside time in your schedule to do the work of getting the business going.
However, the good thing is that most of the work that I was doing was fun, since it was on a topic I was passionate about. I could also take a break when I needed it, although I often worked late into the night getting on a roll!
I want to tell you all about it. I actually wrote up this 38-page case study explaining what I did and how I did it. You can get it here: My Personal Home Internet Based Business Opportunity Case Study.
Now, with this business, I have branched out into more websites and I am working on expanding those to be profitable like the first one. The cool thing is that my site now works pretty much on autopilot (imagine making $300/month without DOING anything, for months on end…). When I create new websites, I can outsource the tasks I don’t want to do – for about $1-3/hour. Isn’t that amazing?
You can do it, too. I’m basically giving away my business plan in this special case study I wrote up. Check it out and I think you’ll be impressed by the different styles of home internet based business opportunities I have tried, and the ones that are actually working well!
To your success!
Emily
Proven Marketing Campaigns
Best Home Based Businesses
Posted by: | CommentsFinding the best home based businesses for you…
Are you trying to find the right home based business idea?
There are a lot out there to choose from. I’ve tried many of them… some have worked and some haven’t. (To find out what’s worked best for me, download my case study here, where I spell out exactly what I have found to be the best home based businesses that are actually making me money online.)
When you are evaluating home based businesses, here are some things to look out for. Make sure you find a business that suits not just your current lifestyle, but the lifestyle you would *like* to have after you become successful. Also take into account “realstic” assumptions about the time and money you have available to invest in your business and other practical considerations like future your short term and future living arrangements caused by your children, spouse, job, etc.
What To Look For When Evaluating Home Based Businesses:
- What skills does the business demand? Will you have to use the telephone, do in-person selling, or go door-to-door? Will there be sales calls, or customer service calls on the telephone? Can you do everything online or will you need to lave your house to go to networking meetings or send out packages? Does the business play to your strengths or an area where you are already knowledgeable, interested and passionate?
- What is the time requirement? How many hours per week do you need to put into your business to make it successful?
- How flexible are the hours? Can you work nights and weekends (after your day job – or in my case after my 2-year-old is asleep…) or do you need to be available during business hours?
- What locations can you work in? Can you work from home 100% or do you need to go out? For example, doing a vending machine re-stocking run, sending eBay products at the post office, or going to networking meetings or doing face-to-face selling? Some people, like retired snow-birds, live in different regions at different times of year or may relocate frequently due to other obligations, like being in the military. How much flexibility will you have with your new role?
- How much money does it take to get involved in the business (or stay involved…)? Is there a franchise fee? Do you need to buy merchandise? How are you going to market the business? Are there professional associations to join? For many businesses there are ongoing costs associated with getting the business up and running. In the long run, these can cut into your profits. In the short run, they can pull you under if they are more than you can afford.
- Do you like the business? This is where you do a gut check and say, “Is this really me?” Would it be fun? Is this something I could get excited about doing every day?
- How do you make money? Are you getting paid by the hour (guaranteed income) or getting paid for results (often with the potential of earning more or having passive income in the future…)? Depending on whether you need money in the short term or the long term, either situation may be better for you. If you just need money now, often a job or independent contractor position is the right way to go. (Sign up at Odesk.com if you want to be a virtual assistant and get paid by the hour – it’s where I hire all my staff!) However, if you want a true business that you can leverage and use to create the type of “passive income” lifestyle you are looking for, then I would encourage you to build yourself a business.
- Are you following a proven business system? Remember – success leaves clues. You are much more likely to be successful doing something that other people have done to be successful than you are in starting from scratch inventing an entirely new business system.
- Support and Mentorship – Do you have any kind of support network or mentor that can help guide you in the right direction? There are inevitably going to be hard times in any business that you get into. Some people meet up with mastermind groups, have a mentor at their church, or join a rotary or the chamber of commerce to meet other people who are in business and who can advise them. What kind of resources do you have who can help you be successful with what you’re doing?
This list may seem like a pretty steep list of requirements. Can you really “have it all”?
Well, that depends on what you mean, I suppose, but if you’re willing to stay focused and put in real work on your business (not just “learning” about the business, but actually “doing” it – then, yes, you can be successful.
Here's My Son: The reason why I recommend home based businesses!
Personally, I have tried lots of different home based businesses that I have implemented with various levels of success. What I am doing now, I like the best and have found it to be a better source of stable, reliable passive income for me and my family.
I have been implementing this business for the past several years. I really enjoy it… It mostly involves things I find really fun, like strategic business planning and writing. (I write a lot of product reviews for things I own… I am a Stay-At-Home-Mom, so my websites target other shoppers like me…)
I would love to tell you more about what I am doing to make money from home. Last month I made over $900. I’m not some rich fancy guru, but I am able to fit in my home based business into my lifestyle of taking care of my son. I am having another baby soon, and I know that I can take off several months after she’s born and the money will still continue to come in without my day-to-day involvement. That’s the type of passive income that helps you create the lifestyle you’re going for.
Anyway, I know you’re probably curious by now and want the actual “details” of what I’m doing, and not just the bullet points of what to think about. So you can download my case study (for free) right here: Legitimate Home Based Businesses
Proven Marketing Campaigns
SEO Google Strategies To Get Your Site Top Rankings
Posted by: | CommentsSEO Google Tips
If you have an interest in getting more visitors to your site through the use of SEO Google Strategies – go for it! Search Engine Optimization can be a profitable endeavor if you meet a couple of important criteria:
First, you have to do good keyword research so you know there are plenty of people looking for you on the web, and they’ll be able to find you without having too many other websites to compete with for top SERP’s.
Second, you’ll want to make sure that your keywords attract targeted visitors who are likely to buy your product. It does no good to get top rankings for the term, “lady bug spots” if you are selling refrigerators online.
Third, you’ll want to do your best to optimize pages visitors are landing on so that you get both good search engine performance, and the pages actually convert visitors well into buying customers.
Fourth, be willing to be patient. Google doesn’t like to see a lot of crazy links coming to your site all of a sudden… You want everything to look natural.
Fifth, take all this Google SEO information with a grain of salt. Google doesn’t reveal their algorithms, and the algorithms are changing all the time, so do your best, but diversify and don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Performing SEO “Google Style” with Help From Free Google Tools
If you are trying to optimize your website for Google, or better still, hiring an expert to do it for you, isn’t there a simple way that you can check to see if the said SEO efforts are actually pushing all the right buttons at Google? Well actually, now that you mention it, Google Analytics does help out people who are trying to rearrange their website to the rules of SEO Google style. In principle, SEO is simple enough: you keep working until Google can easily recognize your content, and connect discrete content with the right addresses. And Google Analytics comes in to kind of point you in the right direction when you make a mistake.
Consider for example the information you can get on Google Analytics in a report on your websitethey provide you with, called Hostnames. This report gives you all the possible addresses that can be used by people to arrive at your website. The aim is to have as short a list as possible – ideally just one address that refers to your website, like www.xyz.com. If you have a bunch of alternative website names and IP addresses pointing to the same site, some, say, with capital letters, and others with small letters (www.XYZ.com, and www.xyz.com for instance), this is going against doing SEO Google style. You will need to do extra work to 301 interpret all the alternative Web addresses you have to direct to one name. Look over your Google Analytics Hostnames report to see if there are any mirrors or staging servers listed. Try directly accessing them from the Internet; those are not supposed to be on the list at all. If you can directly access them, that’s not good; your competitors or the search engines might spy on your content before it is ready.
If your website showcases products with parameter-driven webpages, and publishes articles to stay on top, it is a big problem if Google finds that you are given to publishing content that appears elsewhere on the Internet. To do SEO Google style, you have to know if Google sees duplication – and not so simple that is to do either using Google Analytics. Well here’s an idea: head for the Content section in Google Analytics. Look for the Content by Title report, and pick out a few of your pages. Here you will see under each title, the domain-free URLs for each title tag. You need to see just one per title tag. More than one, is to be taken as a sign of duplication. Just make sure than that you 301 reroute everything to the mother page, and you should be fine. Actually you could get the same information on the Top Content report on Google Analytics, but it would not give you such specific information.
Of course, Google Analytics reports can sometimes be mistaken, or misleading. Some of these efforts of yours to curry favor with SEO Google standard (that’s a take on Gold Standard), can still come up against a wall. The problem is that sometimes all the redirecting you do can be undone automatically by Google – a kind of bug if you will. Just keep reading up, and watching Google closely.
Proven Marketing Campaigns
Social Media Marketing Consultants, Seattle, WA