For those who recognize it, and are flexible enough to take advantage, there truly are opportunities out there and in past economic slumps, many have made their fortunes because of them.

Positioning yourself for success starts with understanding the current opportunities that you can strategically take advantage of, and your discerning prospects’ pressing needs & problems - more than ever before. The lifeblood of your business and its success is likely driven by them.

But the biggest block to winning many potential sales is not pre-empting all concerns and possible objections your prospects might have and answering these directly in your marketing, or sales copy on your webpage or in your presentation.

So how do you find out what these are?

You can start by asking your customers, and brainstorming with your front line staff. Use surveys to ask pertinent questions of each.

Find out everything about your nearest competitor and what they say they can offer. Look at how you can create your own Unique Sales Proposition (USP) around customer service that goes the extra mile, or other advantage that would make you stand above the rest. And listen carefully to everything they say, with thoughtfulness and care.

These are golden opportunities for understanding your customer’s problem, pain, need or want; what you need to address or could develop; or whether there is a service you can add or can excel in that complements what they are buying to increase your USP.

You will find some of your sales staff have valuable feedback too. They listen to potential customers who might just be walking back out of the door.

No-one should bad-mouth their competitors and there is no need to. It is bad form and will lose you respect.  But you can state why your USP and the benefits of buying from you will serve your prospects better.

So use every source of information gathering to meet all known concerns and possible objections so you can craft your proposition.

Here is an example ” The [competitor's] product is a good one, but what we offer goes much further. Not only do we believe our product is more complimentary to yours, we are also totally committed to …  [pre-empting any concerns, emphasizing the benefits and unique USP]. We will also give you unparalleled training and ongoing support, ensuring our product is fully integrated. Your success is ours and we believe we can give you a winning edge in your marketplace. Shall we go ahead with the options we have discussed?”  (or something like that. I think you get the idea).

Pre-empting known possible objections by addressing them in your Sales Proposition will win their confidence in you, your company, your product and/or service. And it shouldn’t feel like a hard sell but more like a co-operation.

You could, if appropriate, also include mentioning that it is a win/win outcome for you both, and how you will be working together as a team towards greater success. By this time you should have the sale in the bag!

If the prospect is still sitting on the fence - what we used to do 25 years ago still works today. Help your prospect write a Pros & Cons balance sheet listing benefits of your product or service on one side against that of the best known competitor that your prospect has been considering. Of course you help them list the benefits of your product, and by the time you have completed this exercise the list will have a longer Pros list for your product/service than that of your competitor - and this will work face to face or on your website’s products review too.

This is the Social Media Daily Blueprint by Michelle McPhearson, and it shows you how you can successfully leverage the power of social media sites & Web 2.0 to market yourself or just about everything.

Click the tab at the top of this on-page document to read or click “More” to do other cool stuff including a PDF download!

Social Media Daily Blueprint Michelle McPhearson

Leaving a website is all too easy and sometimes not thought through by your visitors. I came across Exit Spash because I had seen it at work elsewhere.  I  have started using it and have to say I’m impressed and found it easy to set up myself with Dave Guindon’s step by step video instructions.

I’ve seen it work with both mini websites (long page websites usually for informational products, and for blogs. And there is plenty of proof as to how it can really explode your opt-ins, sales and of course profits. Simply by converting otherwise lost visitors that are leaving your site anyway, this gives you a second chance to interact with them.

You could increase opt-ins, send them to an affiliate offer related to your web content, upsell, downsell, or send them to a brief survey to find out what your customers really want.
*** These three website scripts come as a package and with monetize visitor exits from Blog, Website, or from individual mini-websites.

Watch a video demo: What is Exit Splash and How it can Make You Money Online

The only slight negative I would say, is that there is a choice of several header images for the Pop-Up window (not all with a human on them), but those that do have female images, yet all the short audio messages you have a choice of, are male - so I would be inclined to want a woman’s voice.  But you also have the option to use a recording of your own instead.

But all in all, as usual, Dave Guinden over-delivers on support, training materials and he’s accessible by email and is quick to respond should you have a query (though he supports everything with comprehensive video trainings).  The following is an example of how to set up Exit Splash

This also comes with VIRAL TWITTER BOX which also encourages leaving visitors to enter their Twitter name and follow, in return for say a free gift or report. People are so used to giving out these details now for applications that interact with Twitter and is an effective but friendly and disarming way to increase your followers.

The SUGGESTION BOX script is also part of the package. It’s small, but so many marketers just don’t take advantage of listening to what customers want!

Imagine being able to design and customize, or modify your Wordpress website giving you Absolute Creative Control over how it looks and is set out - with ease. And to top that - it has the strongest SEO features, superior to any other Wordpress theme.

This killer Thesis Theme has a design dashboard with “options galore” that puts you in charge of columns, fonts for headers, body text etc, graphics options, media options; and a multitude of other design factors, all in modular form so every website can look and feel unique. You can upgrade your current website or start a new one with no HTML or CSS knowledge required, and it is supported by video tutorials and a strong support community.

Make full use of its features in the SEO dept as it also allows you to determine exactly how the search engines display your ad in organic search (you know - the listings on the left hand side when you key in some words and let Google, Yahoo, Msn etc come up with listings)

My next website will be a Thesis but there is a reasonable price to pay for this level of fully customizable, flexible possibilities.

To Summarize - The Thesis Theme is a DIY Wordpress Theme that is pretty awesome and so simple to work with, a beginner could handle it with ease. There is another added benefit - technical support and a large support community which offers help and all sorts of creative ideas!

Click here to take a tour - a demo video by its creator Chris Pearson

Tom Leung is the Product Manager of Google Website Optimizer, a tool you can use for optimizing your website for maximum results regardless of whether you advertise with Google or not. You have maybe 5-7 seconds at most to capture the interest of the visitor, or they will click away. The video below will help you understand why you need to optimize your landing page and how you can split test many variations. The end result - the top converting combination of factors that produce the highest possible opt-ins and sales.

Don’t know why your not getting visitors to your website or blog? Don’t know where to start? Or don’t know what to write about that can make you money too?

Here is a plan and action steps to getting ideas around a niche, get supercharged traffic - and fast!

BUT to begin with. keyword research is crucial. If you haven’t been getting traffic you may not have been using keywords that people search for (or you haven’t got the meta information the search engines can “read” - and that’s another separate issue to this post). Even then getting traffic can still be elusive.  What you need is articles and postings - but with a twist!

We’re looking for an expanded list of keywords that will give you new ideas for blog posting, articles, and monetizing with a product. The aim is to make money while also increasing traffic, building a wealth of good backlinks (inbound links), and building your ranking (though Alexa Rank is more important than Google Rank) for your websites.

You need to research either a new niche topic, or get ideas for lots of topics around your niche keywords so you are super targeted.

You can start with those around your current website (or consider whether what you have been pursuing is worth any further time). Just a couple of  sites for ideas are Google Trends, Twitter Trends and news etc. Ideally go for a niche on the up.

If you need to monetize a webpage you might then look for a Clickbank product because it specializes in informational products that are easily down-loadable. And they will take payment, pay you up to 75% commission and no hassle. You can’t beat an automated sale to begin with, and its a great marketplace for new marketers who can get an account immediately.

Pick a product that you want your articles to link to and at the same time perhaps capitalize on a trend you will be blogging about (sending a link from each article or post to the squeeze page or sales page).

Because you need to start with thinking of what your subject should be you need to check if there are enough searches to warrant your time given to it first. No point if no-one is looking for it!

Your keywords or keyword phrases must be chosen with care. Long tail 3 words or more is usual and therefore highly targeted. This must be also be the heading for that post or article, so the article title is made up with the keywords in itself and what you want to rank for.

Use the free tool https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal (there are others, I use a paid for one, but I use this to check the Google search traffic numbers to validate and this does the job).

So to pick keywords that are being searched for and to expand and get more ideas try putting some of the keywords it comes up with to save, then also add some of those in the search box, to drill even deeper to get more keywords if it will help. (this is great for getting niche ideas for your subject.

When you have a list take out the top 1/3rd searched ones and go for lower ones in the middle that still gets say 50,000 to 100,000 searches.

You’re going to write around one, or a handful if you can get busy) keyword or keyword phrase to begin with, tightly focusing the content around each single choice.

Your first project may be to write a HUBPAGE (and become a publisher). Register picking a cool Hubpage Username (pick one that you can live with) as you can write many and link them up to each other. The next thingit will ask you to do  is  register an amazon and/or ebay affiliate a/c if the page is deemed commercial,

NOTE - THE TITLE OF THE HUBPAGE will form the permalink tagged on to the end of the URL and so USE THE KEYWORD PHRASE YOU WANT TO RANK FOR as in:
keyword phrase and Page Title - Cevennes Holiday Gites
HUBPAGE example url: http://hubpages.com/hub/cevennes-holiday-gites
The aim is going to be to get many micro blogs such as these (Hubpages is just one type and style that you can make your own) as quickly as possible all linking back to your webpages, to lift your different website pages linked to into top positions.

After this Hubpage, you could choose to write a Squidoo Lens (you’ll work it out - it’s also modular and easy).

Then go Google or other Search box and type in  “/wp-signup.php” There will be loads of blogs, some in your niche, you can sign up to and place an article and a couple of posts.

Also go to: http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit.php and search for Carnivals in your niche suitable for one (or more) of your keyword-specific, unique articles to submit. (if this number of articles seems overwhelming, don’t worry, see “Outsourcing” below)

Write or outsource (see below) a blog article around one chosen keyword or long-tail keyword of 3 words or more. Also write some shorter blurbs too and post on one of these sub-blogs. One of these as an example might then be www.yourtopicofthemoment.blogspot.com. Make sure you limit to your keywords in the article so it looks and reads naturally.  ( or you may be able to use a signature with anchor text link using your keyword) .

VERY IMPORTANT:  Remember that whatever keywords you choose for your articles/posts wherever they are - ever - that you use one of them as a Hyperlink to your website, and have the identical keyword phrase in the first portion of the target landing page so google can see the relevance connecting the two.

Make sure you link each blog article (and hubpages/squidoo pages too) to another, possibly to external too, as well as back to different relevant web pages on your website other than just your home page, to show a natural linking pattern.

This strategy of using other blogging sites where you can sign up for a sub-blog accounts is huge because many of these are Authority sites and some have good page rank (imagine a little is poured over to your site each time building your rank too) and Alexa traffic rank. I would check and write on the higher traffic or ranked ones first.

This will build you excellent backlinks (inbound links) to your website and will earn you top spots in Google and other search engines quickly if you do this with speed.

Doing this quickly is key - so outsourcing some of it makes sense.

If you don’t want to write the articles yourself you can get them so cheap and well written it is well worth outsourcing.

REF: OUTSOURCING:
We can recommend www.articlez.com and at $2 - $6 per item it’s a nobrainer!

These are written by American writers and I’ve been told they are written well and especially work well for blogs. (I’m about to start using them myself) and cost from $2, $4 & $6 from short 100 word post (blurb), 200 word, and up to 350 word articles.

Another recommended site that specializes in good quality articles is www.exquisitewriting.com

This will get momentum and should start to  rocket speed up your traffic.

At the end of all this I hope that you can:

• Spell out yourself a plan;
• Separate it into tasks;
• Do your keyword research thoroughly;
• Use excel to keep your research organized!
• Test the article or post  outsourcing seriously at least for an early trial;
• (because one person can’t do it all in less than probably three weeks non stop);
• Then you should see the traffic build with momentum and supercharge it.
• Use Social Networking but recognize that it can take time and commitment.

Remember: Use your keyword research you do in the early stages to give you an abundant list of ideas to get different angles for your topics around the niche you have chosen.

GOOD LUCK - and let me know if you think this is good stuff and don’t reprint this without organizing a credit to me as I usually charge  quite a bit for coaching and this is for free to you my friend.

Happy writing or outsourcing!
~ Annette ~

PS: Make sure you have Google Analytics installed on your site so you can track (and count) where your traffic is coming from, and the keywords that are working for you. Every few days type your keywords into search and see what page position you’re achieving for your efforts!!

Article copyright © Taylorfield Marketing 2009   |    Photo: photo credit: -raggle-

I was asked: “I have both a Non-Profit Website and a For-Profit Website. My Partnerships and Corporation prohibit me from devoting a great deal of time to the Non-Profit which is my passion ……….. The Website is www.xxxxxxxxorg. The name is from the ….. and it is a collection of music and short stories to accompany them. Should you get a chance, please glance at it and perhaps you can reconcile some element of it with my [Facebook] Profile”.

MY Suggestions are: I would go to the bottom of your Facebook Profile Page and click on the link that says “Advertising” (trust me here on this one for the moment)

You then click on Facebook PAGES.  These have recently been improved to have the functionality very similar to your Profile page. However you can develop them further,  either to promote yourself, your business, your passions, on both a non-commercial or commercial  level.

The main advantage here is that you can gain fans (friends), and there is no limit to the number of them, whereas Facebook Profiles have a limit of 5,000, and I guess you will reach this limit at some time.

So develop a Page and reference your website of beautiful words and haunting music, in provocative ways, that will send visitors to it.

You then create links between your Facebook Page, your Facebook Profile and to any of the different pages in your website http://www.angelofmusic.com

Visitors will see your Page in your Profile, check your page if you reference to it in various ways with your Boxes & Superwall etc. Add links from here to www.angelofmusic.com and from your website to your Page and your Profile.

Your Facebook Page can  be found by the Search Engines too.

I would also utilize a photo album, that you add to or change fairly frequently. This brings you to the fore with all “friends” and can help remind them of the value you give to the Facebook community. Tag photos that relate to your page, in some meaningful way that can reference to your Page.

There is more but I think is what you are asking for -  Go for it. Your website speaks and sings volumes!

Facebook says “Facebook Pages help you discover new artists, businesses and brands, as well as connect with those you already love”

Annette

There has been an exponential growth in businesses owned by women over the last decade. Many more women could start their own business if they rightfully claimed one of the many Government Grants. available. And so could you. And much sooner than you think. Even within days.

Currently, In the United States for instance, there are over 2,000 different grants available, many for personal and small business grants alone (this may change).  You could even qualify for a substantial sum (it could be for as much as $50,000) and for several reasons. If you were enabled with a seed funding grant to start up your home-based business, or substantially more to expand your current business, what difference would that make to your current economic situation? Wouldn’t it make sense to find out what you qualify for?  It could help end your worries about the future and give you control of it, rather than be a potential victim.

Businesses owned by Women are at least as successful at businesses owned by men. More than half of women in business are said to have superior “right brain” intuitive approaches to problem solving and analysis, with an added flair for creativity also giving them the edge.  The internet is particularly suited to, and has empowered, women to start an online business from scratch. And you can too.

As a woman you are particularly equipped to see opportunities for the taking. But are you hampered by little or no investment right now? And possibly with worries about an uncertain future? You don’t have to be. There are even special grants offered to women (or men) who need to run a business from home while looking after children or aging parents. This makes sense in many respects not least for the nation’s economy.

There are around two thousand types of government grants, and even other grant and loan foundations, to sift through. And trying to do your own research can just take too much critical time. Getting your head around the complicated procedures of finding and applying to all these can be wearysome.

Compare all that with this: For a small cost, you could have a program that will give you every resource you could need. What if it showed you, step by step, what you are eligible for, where and how to apply, even exactly what you should write in your application forms?

They say it’s possible you could get the money in your bank in as little as the next 10 days. So there may be an opportunity for you to claim what is rightfully yours. If so then you should.  Having done some research of my own,  the following resource is a no-brainer. See which grants you qualify for. Get your application in and have that business idea of yours become a reality.

Do a bit of research and make sure that if you do have to pay anything, that it has a satisaction of product guarantee.

If you live in the USA click here and try Grants Funded Now

If you live in the UK the grants available may not match the above description so click here for advice from Business Link

One of the smartest strategies to use for your website it’s Virtual Smart Agent.  You will have seen one on several occasions on other websites, and can be one of several “agents” to choose from.  You’ve probably seen the pretty blond girl appearing in a pop-up window as you try to exit the sales page, who can answer your questions if you type one in the box; Or the female agent in the banner above telling you to wait, there is something you should know about. You can choose how you want your virtual agent interacts.  It truly can turn more of your page visitors into customers and will pay for itself in no time at all.  I think it is an amazing price for a virtual helper that doesn’t need wages!  And you can use it on all your websites.  In fact if you load this on your Primary Domain it can service all your websites from the one installation.

Amongst many well known marketers and companies who use it,  Dave Guindon’s Virtual Smart Agent is the thought to be the best on the market, and I have to agree. And together with its additional features it really does beat the rest hands down.  You can get a video demo - just click on the banner above and see it in action.

Support is equally important and that comes with abundance. It is highly supported by step by step video instructions for every aspect of setting this up. If, for many, you just don’t have the time, or it is daunting for you - it will cost you next to nothing to get a technician to set it up for you.

Either post your project on Scriptlance, elance or ask Dave Guindon of VSA and he will be able to point you to a technician who can.
Virtual Smart Agent is highly recommended!

If you are a publisher, small business, corporate giant or affiliate marketer, wouldn’t you want the advantage of being able to test the marketplace - FAST ?

There is no point making or finding a fantastic product which has taken valuable time and money in the planning and creation of it to find that there isn’t the market you thought there would be after all.

So many make the mistake of trying to educate the market to want their product or service - without properly testing whether there is a market of buyers that will want their product or service. And this is often disappointing, costly, or even fatal for their business.

With PPC, CPA or CPC you can quickly and effectively find out if it is going to be profitable, or a winner, in a matter of days or weeks for a fraction of the budget required with other methods. Where else could you test the market so cheaply and effectively, rather than lay out a fortune over months with focus groups etc, only to find out, too late, you’ve run out of financial runway?

PPC or CPA ?

With both forms of marketing, you could get traffic virtually instantly - and you must be prepared to convert that traffic into leads or sales. A landing page is the target of this activity (see info about Scriptlance, elance, rent-a-coder for cost effective web graphics etc) and it must elicit a specific action by a visitor, made to feel  comfortable about giving you their email or personal information.

But if you don;t know how to go about it don’t worry - you will have resources and support from a campaign team assigned to you, and you can decide how quickly your market test can take place with the vast marketplace that is the Worlds Wide Web. A campaign lasting a couple of days a week, or longer, depending on your daily budget, can tell you whether you have a market for your product. And you could find it a longer term proposition to keep business rolling in.

I don’t know of any other way that can give you virtually instant feedback for such a low expense. ROI (Return On Investment) can be swift when you have a unique sales proposition, great customer service, or price over the competition, to advertise, and get your keyworded sales message right (watch video “How to Write a Killer PPC Ad“)

So - are you familiar with these terms?
PPC is Pay Per Click; CPC is Cost Per Click, CPM is cost per thousand impressions. These relate to Paid Search (Sponsored Advertising as seen on a search page on the right) with such as Google Adwords. CPA is Cost Per Action (or Aquisition) and this can be in several forms, and managed by CPA Networks.

Paid Search is in the form of sponsored adverts (normally on the right hand side of a search page or paid placement on a relevant web page). As an advertiser you only pay for valid click-through’s or if a valid specific action takes place,  so this medium can be very cost effective.

Google Adwords, MSN AdCenter or Yahoo (Overture) are the most used Search platforms for PPC campaigns. There are hundreds of others, a few may be worth a look and would cost you less per campaign but may not get enough traffic to test your product or campaign quickly. I would suggest you stay with the top three in the beginning where you will get many helpful training resources and tools within your account  (See Below for links to the Google Adwords Learning Centre and other Resources).

An advantage of PPC is that you can write your ad and get traffic within minutes. Or if there is a seasonal or economic lull in business from other sources, you can tweak a campaign in advance or short notice.

Once you sign up - You will have resources to help you learn about how to choose keywords, bidding for competing keywords, (or long tail keywords which tend to get you more qualified traffic, especially if you are on a budget). And how you can set the demographics, region etc; and your daily spend, which you can set to  a maximum of as little as a few dollars a day.

CPA Networks are used by countless worldwide big brands and is also an option for the smaller business. As an advertiser your product or service can be campaign managed, across many advertising mediums, by experts.  Affiliate Marketers and webmasters must strictly adhere to the terms set for where and how each offer can be advertised, and can expertly drive traffic to the offer landing page with PPC (or, if allowed, create a better landing page if it would increase conversions).  Social Networks have huge traffic (Facebook is pretty close to that of Google!) and can finely target your campaign.

Check the reputation of each CPA Network and whether they keep a strong check on click fraud, and pay commission in a timely manner.  I have listed a few established ones at the bottom of this post and you can contact them for further advice.

Researching the right Keywords is central to all your (or your campaign manager’s) on-line marketing activities and absolutely crucial here too. And there are several free tools you can use to help build out your keyword lists to find the golden nuggets that will bring in a consistently profitable campaign. You can find these best by thinking as the prospect, not as yourself.

Both the company advertising and the affiliate who may be considering promoting their offer, must scrutinize the landing page very carefully to make sure it has all the characteristics necessary, and appeal to the demographics of the market it seeks, for a successful campaign. And not forgetting a precise clear and strong Call to Action - without this being just right all your hard work will be wasted.

The less you ask the prospect to do i.e. just enter their email, the lower the commission payout can be per action, but likely more clickthroughs. If the landing page asks for name, email, gender, postcode etc the more social proof (i.e. testimonials, well known brand images), relevancy and valuable your offer must be. Some of these are usually high price products or financial services and a very nice affiliate commission if you choose to promote these.

You will find it pretty straight forward to set your campaign to rotate different versions inside such as your Adwords account to see which converts best for you. Check your stats within your account every 7 days, dump the least performing one, keep the best and test a new one against that one over the next 7 days, and so on, until you have the best performing ads that will perform for you on autopilot from then on. See the post “How to Write a Killer PPC Ad“)

Click Fraud can take place, and as an advertiser you need to minimize your risk to it. Check your  log data from your campaigns for unusual changes, such as clicks from a country that you don’t advertise to, or other unusual activities or results etc. Whoever you are advertising with will want to know and you do get refunds.

This is a brief overview, and I haven’t covered Keyword Research here (you would be amazed at the new ideas you get from delving into these and you will find out more in the next post) so if you need help, you can find plenty of free resources or contact your account manager for further help.  You can use FREE keyword tools or buy a recommended market leading one such as Keyword Elite by Bryxen Software - ideally use a mixture of both when compiling and expanding your keyword lists.

To succeed you should master at least one of these methods to make the really big profits online or at least until your SEO efforts and traffic sources have been truly established. But even then, wouldn’t you rather have some control over market forces by giving sales a boost before or during a market downturn?

If you master these, you will quickly know when you have a product that flies. And by tweaking your ads until you have the best combination you could be making substantial profits - at will.

Here is a useful list for getting started with PPC:
Google Adwords Learning Centre
MSN AdCentre
Commercial Intention Tool (excellent tool for Keyword Online commercial probability checking)
Yahoo (Overture)

Keyword Generator Tool  Free Tool
adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal Free tool
Wordpot Free Tool
SEObook.com Keyword Tool Free Tool

PPC Webspy Free Tool, with totally optional choice to upgrade.  (This is a really cool keyword research tool with a twist, and especially for affiliate marketers!) It extracts keywords from other Google Adwords ads, and does other cool things that you have to check out! And don’t take a long time to manually get the same hot keywords information when it need only take moments.

There are many CPA Networks but take a look at:

GlobalDirectMedia - Make Money! an excellent UK based cpa network

www.Maxbounty.com
www.NeverBlueAds.com
www.AzoogleAds.com
www.Copeac.com
www.HydraMedia.com