Traffic Generation Tips and Strategies to Increase Blog Readership
November 9, 2009 by DrDaveHale
Filed under Blog, List Building
This is a very easy and efficient strategy to draw in an avalanche of highly targeted traffic and readers to your blog. I will notify you in the beginning, that it does require a bit of time in order to realize the gain in traffic. Although, after you are completed, you will agree that it was all worth it due to the increase in subscribers and traffic to your blog.
Here we go:
1. To start, you want to find who your competitors are that have blogs with high readership and ranking. These bloggers must be directly related to your niche. Your mission - if you wish to accept it - is to draw all of those readers to your blog.
To find out who they are, use the free tools our friends at Google share and input your main keywords. After the list of blogs come up, check out those on the first three pages that directly relate to your niche and assess the content quality. The key information you want to obtain is how many RSS readers (if available), traffic
regularity and content quality.
Use these tools to help you out:
Blog Juice Calculator (compare and contrast the result with those of your blog. You want to ensure the other blog is equal to or higher in ranking than yours):
Xinureturns (one of the best tools for a blog overview):
You want to develop a list of the top 5-7 blogs as a minimum. You may know who some of the movers and shakers are in your niche. If you do not, you need to real quick. Just make sure the other blogs are authority blogs with high Alexa and Google page rankings.
2. Next, you want to bookmark the blogs and check them out every day for updates. If they have an RSS feed, subscribe to it so you will know when it is updated. Your next mission is to run to that blog as fast as possible to read the update and make a top notch comment. Don’t write a comment for the sake of writing, but make it meaningful. Remember, your mission is to make yourself out to be a mover and shaker too. Make your posting relevant and valuable. Strive to be one of the first 10 comments to get the greatest benefits.
3. Lastly, keep doing this every day and you will eventually see a dramatic growth in your traffic, readership, and hopefully sales. When you see that happening, you know that you have diverted the traffic to your own site. Just make sure that every one of your comments has your name and blog URL. People will not only get to your site this way, but it will also build backlinks to your site.
I routinely do this on 10-15 blogs per day. Make it part of your schedule and you will stick to it. Just keep think of how many backlinks you will have in the end, not to mention the increased traffic.
If you are an internet marketer and are searching for a good ecourse, sign up for my new Internet Marketing Professor Internet Success Program here.
Dr. Dave Hale is the founder and Chief Social Marketer at The Internet Marketing Professor, a business coaching firm dedicated to assisting small to medium sized businesses with integrating Web 2.0 into their marketing mix. He has written over 40 books and how-to course on Internet marketing related topics, is a professional speaker, business coach, and a professor at Webster University, Columbia, SC where he teaches business development and organizational psychology courses.
Article Writing for Increased Website Traffic and Conversion
November 8, 2009 by DrDaveHale
Filed under Blog, List Building
Article writing and later submitting them to article directories is a very easy method to drive almost pre-qualified traffic to your site. The only tough part about it, is pushing yourself to do it every day. I have found this to be true for even myself, as I use article writing as one of my top traffic generation tools, although, I too am like everyone else when it come finding the time to write 5-7 article per day, which equates to 25 - 49 articles every week.
When time is tough to schedule in, I just remind myself of how much traffic will be coming to my web site once I post the articles.
So, is there a magic formula that I have found for writing articles to make them pay off with targeted traffic? What I mean is, what method do I use to develop my articles?
These are the steps I use for every article I write:
1) Determine the niche subject matter that I want to write on. You may already have a niche you currently write on or have a web site for. If so, write on subjects associated to it. The main point to keep in mind is that you must write for the benefit of your audience and what they need for information. Do not just write for the sake of writing and having people come to your site. The key is to build a relationship that results in the traffic buying from you. Again, your articles need to be targeted at your customers, expressly, and pulling new buyers to your site.
2) Write your title with search engine optimization in mind. By that I mean with your keywords as the first couple words in the title. Your keywords for the article should reflect what the article is about. Again, start your title with your keyword(s), then use the rest of the words to let the reader know what they will read about. It should be directed at a benefit of your article.
3) Before actually writing the article out fully, write three core intentions of your article. Three techniques to completing something, three fascinating details, three methods to achieving success. Get the picture? Now, develop the ideas a bit.
4) Compose an introductory section that encapsulates what the three points will teach them.
5) Close article with a paragraph informs the reader how to contact you for more information about what you just taught them.
If you are an internet marketer and are searching for a good ecourse, sign up for my new Internet Marketing Professor Internet Success Program here.
Dr. Dave Hale is the founder and Chief Social Marketer at The Internet Marketing Professor, a business coaching firm dedicated to assisting small to medium sized businesses with integrating Web 2.0 into their marketing mix. He has written over 40 books and how-to course on Internet marketing related topics, is a professional speaker, business coach, and a professor at Webster University, Columbia, SC where he teaches business development and organizational psychology courses.
Quick Strategies To Drive Traffic To Your Website
October 6, 2009 by DrDaveHale
Filed under Archive, Blog, List Building
Most people who are starting out in a business get a website to draw visitors, share information, and increase sales, but they don’t have extra money or sales yet to spend the money on paid advertising such as pay-per-click, banner or text ads, etc. So they look for ways to send people to their website for free- that’s what we internet marketers call driving free traffic.
There are 3 basic ways to drive traffic to your website for free that are the easiest for beginner online business people. These strategies don’t involve a steep learning curve or a writing degree, but they will involve extra time to create content and then release it to as many websites as you can.
1) Article Marketing- writing simple articles that showcase your expertise in your niche area is a powerful way to exhibit what you know to your consumer. It also wets their appetite for more information enough to gently guide them to your website to see what you have to offer. The resource box or bio is the most important part of your article because this is where you get to introduce yourself and give your website for readers to visit.
2) Web 2.0- This is just another term for social media such as MySpace, Facebook, FriendFeed, LinkedIn and all the other networking sites where people connect with friends, family, business colleagues, old classmates, etc. On these types of sites, it is important to make sure your profile is updated to include a photo for personalization, a website URL, e-mail address and a short description of your business. Then, most importantly, be patient and let people come to you as you interact normally within the network. Share valuable content, share photos, share personal ideas or inspirational quotes, but do not constantly thrust your business into the conversation.
3) Video Marketing- anyone with a webcam, a video camera, or a digital camera can produce their own video which can then be uploaded to YouTube, Google Video, Viddler, or other social video sites. The video does not have to be professionally done or flawless and it can still send traffic to your site as people search video sites for specific keywords and come across your video. In fact a video with errors is more likely to lead to visitors who can identify with you more and feel more confident that they can do what you have done. As major search engines love videos and websites use videos to augment their own content and conversations more than any other form of media, video is a must-do in the marketing arsenal of any online marketer.
Once you have created articles and videos, you can share them on social networking sites and place them on the largest media-sharing sites on the internet to get more people to see them. There are hundreds of article directories and video sharing sites to upload your content. Of course, the intent is to make sure you include a call to action in each piece you create to send visitors back to your lead generating website or blog. As your content circulates the net, it could get picked up by other websites, reprinted, re-tweeted, and rewarded for the quality of your work. Constant creation means a constant stream of new visitors, but don’t underestimate the consistency this effort will take. Do it every day or more and soon you’ll be generating leads like the people spending big bucks on pay-per-click.
If you are looking for the insider information on what internet marketer is all about, sign up for my free ecourse, the Internet Marketing Success Program.
How I Built a Successful Automated Online System in 30 Days
October 5, 2009 by DrDaveHale
Filed under Archive, Blog, List Building
The next time you see a product (information or software) that claims to get you thousands of visitors or make millions of dollars without lifting a finger, ask yourself this question…
If it works so well, why are they selling it?
The answer: because they make more money selling it than actually using it!
And there’s nothing wrong with that. The point is, selling information and software is the fastest way to go from zero to making thousands of dollars every month!
In this article, I’m going to show you how I made my first $5k on line and then how I ramped it up to make more money per month selling information products and software.
The basic marketing formula is: Traffic + Conversion = Sales
There are hundreds of ways to get traffic. But only one method allows you to use all of them at once. I’ll talk about that in a minute. But first let’s talk about conversion.
The conversion rate is the percentage of people who visit a web page and take a specific action. That action could be joining your list, purchasing a product from you, or purchasing an affiliate product that you recommend. When you own the list and you sell a product, you have control over the conversion process.
- You can find out what people want and create a freebie to give away in exchange for an email address
- You can follow up, give valuable content, build relationships, and earn the trust of your subscribers
- When it comes time to sell something or promote an affiliate product, your conversion rates will be off the charts
Now let’s talk about traffic…
Everybody says that affiliate marketing is the easiest way to get started online. And that’s true to a point. I mean, how are you going to compete with some guru marketer who spends $20k to have a product created and gets all his JV buddies to promote it? It’s a lot easier to promote a product like that for a cut of the profits than trying to create one yourself.
But the problem is, how do you get the traffic?
Like I said, there are hundreds of ways to get traffic:
- Pay-Per Click Advertising
- Banner Advertising
- Ezine Advertising
- Social Marketing
- Article Marketing
- Video Marketing
- Blogging
- Press Releases
- Viral Marketing
- Webinars
- Teleseminars
Just to name a few…
But are you an expert at all those methods? I’m certainly not. My advice has always been to pick one method and make it work before you move on to the next. And that’s sound advice. But the problem is…
It takes a long time to learn, implement and be successful at any one of those methods. And most people give up before they ever make a sale.
But what is there were a way to get traffic from people who are already experts at those methods? And what if didn’t even have to pay anything up front to get that traffic?
How to Set Up Your Automated Income System
1. Create or buy rights to an info product on a hot topic
2. Build a conversion system (squeeze page, sales page, followups)
3. Get other people to sell it and split the profits
That’s how I made my first $5k online and then it jumped to more than I thought I could ever make a month when I focused on step #3.
That’s the power of an affiliate program!
I run my entire business from home with the help of two part-time, virtual employees in who live in outside the USA. I can do this because most of my day-to-day operations are completely automated.
What I want to talk about right now is creating your own basic info product and getting other people to sell it, so you can build a list and sell high-priced affiliate products to your subscribers.
Step #1: Create a Hot-Topic Product
The easiest way to get attention from affiliates is to create a short, focused report on a hot topic. For example, two years ago people were going nuts over JV Giveaways as a list building tactic.
So here’s what I did:
- I signed up for a new joint venture Giveaway and submitted my gift
- I documented everything I did and took screen shots of the process
- I wrote a 14-page report (including screen shots)
- I bought a graphics package for about $100
- I sold the report for $7, resell rights for $17, and branding rights for $27
- I paid affiliates 100% commission to promote it
That little report did over $10k in sales the first month and it’s still selling today! I also got thousands of new subscribers who bought other products from me and also became my affiliates.
The key to that success was creating a focused report on a hot topic. I didn’t list 50 theoretical tactic for building a list. I documented one proven method for getting hundreds of new subscribers. The 100% commission didn’t hurt either.
A current example it social marketing. Everybody’s crazy about Twitter!
So here’s what I did:
- I created viral software to help people get more followers
- I bought resell rights to some Video Tutorials and set them up as an upsell
- I paid affiliates 100% to promote (customers only)
- I set it up so only customers could get commission, so there was more incentive to upgrade. The videos are great, the software is great, people are making money, everybody wins.
Within 30 days, affiliates were (and still are) sending over 3,000 visitors per DAY to that site and I don’t even promoted it anymore. I sent a few initial emails to my list to get the ball rolling and affiliate inertia, the viral marketing affect, took over from there.
Step #2: Build Your Conversion System
When you’re developing your plan, you need to factor in lead generation before anything else. How are you going to capture leads?
If you’re selling a low-cost report, it doesn’t always make sense to use a squeeze page and even if you’re paying 100%, you affiliate may not like it. But you can use an exit popup to offer a free report on a similar topic, with links back to the report you’re selling.
Personally, I like to use a squeeze page with an upsell. But that’s a little more work. One method I’ve used very successfully, is making the squeeze page appear to be a membership signup page. Affiliates give memberships away to their subscribers who have to create an account to download the freebie.
Once you have people on a list, you can follow up with great content, build relationships and increase conversions.
Once you decide how to capture leads, you need to write a sales page…
I’m not going to get into the art of copy writing here. But I do want to talk about your offer. If you follow step #1 and create a product on a HOT topic, you won’t need to do much convincing to get them to buy.
You just need to tell them:
- What you got
- What they get
- And how they can get it
Some of my shortest sales letters of out-pulled long copy because my potential customers were already aware of the benefits. They were already primed to buy from social buzz and the “follow the heard” mentality. If your product is focused on a specific topic that people are already talking about, you don’t need to list a ton of features and benefits. Just tell ‘em how it works, what it will do for them, and how they can get it.
Step #3: Get People to Promote Your Product
If you have a hot product and the conversions are high, it will be easy to get affiliates to promote. And some of your best affiliates will be your customers. I’ve already talked about paying 100% commission as an incentive for people to both buy and promote your product. In fact, many will buy a product just so they can promote it! But you need to make it easy.
You need to include information about your affiliate program in several places:
- On the sales page
- On the download page
- Inside the report
- In followup emails
Keep reminding your prospects and customers that they can make 100% commission without going through the hassle of setting everything up.
Give your affiliates tools and tell them what to do:
- Write solo ads and tell affiliates to send them to their list
- Write articles and tell affiliates to post them on their blog, Squidoo, and MySpace
- Get banners created and tell affiliates to add them to their blog or in HTML emails
- Create brandable reports and tell affiliates to give them away to subscribers
The more you give your affiliates, the more active they will be. Tell them what to do and show them how to do it.
Other ways to find affiliates:
- Get on the mailing lists of list owners and send Joint Venture proposals
- Join forums and make friends with list owners
- Link to your affiliate program in your signature for articles and emails
- Socialize on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace
What I’ve given you here today, is a step-by-step system for getting your Internet business up and running in the next 30 days. It doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, simple is better. I’ve already proven that point. You just need a product that focuses on a specific topic that people are already talking about and helps people achieve what they’re already trying to do.
The first time is the hardest. But it gets easier every time. The sooner you make the commitment to created your first Automated Income System, the sooner you can enjoy Internet lifestyle that everybody talks about.
Once you have a system in place, it runs almost completely on autopilot.
- Your affiliates drive traffic
- Your sales page converts traffic into buyers
- Your autoresponder follows up to increase conversions
- Sales are processed and affiliates are paid automatically
- Products are delivered automatically
That’s what I call an “Automated Income System!”
Instead of chasing shiny objects and buying into the latest fad, try building a REAL business based on evergreen marketing methods that have worked for decades.
This is the true path to the Internet lifestyle.
If you are an internet marketer and are searching for a good ecourse, sign up for my new Internet Marketing Professor Internet Success Program here.
Dr. Dave Hale is the founder and Chief Social Marketer at The Internet Marketing Professor, a business coaching firm dedicated to assisting small to medium sized businesses with integrating Web 2.0 into their marketing mix. He has written over 40 books and how-to course on Internet marketing related topics, is a professional speaker, business coach, and a professor at Webster University, Columbia, SC where he teaches business development and organizational psychology courses.
4 Top Internet Marketing Strategies to Online Success
August 31, 2009 by DrDaveHale
Filed under Archive, Blog, Free eCourses, Internet Marketing
When you get started online, either you have a budget for advertising and product development or you do not. If you have a budget, you purchase a few online manuals, you learn how to develop a product, you start advertising, and you are in business, hopefully making money in a short period of time.
If you are starting on a shoestring, it may feel like there is just no way at all to get started online and really create a profit. In the next ten minutes, I will show you how to get started online on a shoestring, and how to really make it profitable.
One important thing about starting on a shoestring is that you cannot take any money out of the internet for personal use. Anything that you might earn online should be reinvested right back into your business. I am going to show you a series of steps to take that involve free advertising, free products and tools, and free methods of traffic generation. Although they don’t cost any money, they will cost time, so you will have to be willing to spend a considerable amount of time online at first. Once you begin to develop an income online, you must reinvest that money into paid versions of the services you use. If you do not, you will become burnt out on the time you have to spend online, and you will never really get ahead.
1. The first thing you need to do is determine exactly what kind of an online business you will become involved in. You can develop a product of your own, although if you are just starting out online, I do not recommend it. If you are just starting out, you are much better off promoting someone else’s product while you learn all the other aspects of online business.
2. Next, you need a website. There are several free web site hosting companies that include free site builder software. Just type in “free web hosting” into a search engine and you will have lots of choices. Now, with free, you will usually have limited space, and the site will have advertising on it to support the company. Keep in mind, you are just getting started, so you won’t need a lot of space; once you need it you can upgrade to the paid version. Also, having the advertising is just another price you pay for starting out on a shoestring.
3. The next thing you need is an auto responder, so you can keep in touch with your client list. There are several free versions of paid auto responder services available. Again, they will be limited and have advertising, but again, once you are making money, you can upgrade. Check out Aweber, which is my choice. They offer a great free trial program.
4. Once you have your website and an auto responder service set up, you need to drive traffic to your site. This is where you will spend most of your time. My favorite form of free marketing is article writing and submission.
With article writing and submission, you write articles that are related to the product you are selling or promoting, and submit them to the various article directories. In exchange for the content you allow them to use on their web site, they promote your articles for free. With article marketing, you will get out of it what you put into it. You must write nice quality articles, and write every day. One thing to remember online is that if you want traffic and business everyday, you must work everyday.
If you are an internet marketer and are searching for a good ecourse, sign up for my new Internet Marketing Professor Internet Success Program here.
Dr. Dave Hale is the founder and Chief Social Marketer at The Internet Marketing Professor. He also has written over 40 books and how-to course on internet marketing related topics, is a professional speaker, and a professor at Webster University, Columbia, SC and Northcentral University, Prescott Valley, AZ where he teaches business and organizational psychology courses.
Product Creation: Four Quick Ideas To Develop Easy Products To Promote On Your Website That Will Sell Like CRAZY!
August 28, 2009 by DrDaveHale
Filed under Archive, Blog, Product Creation
By far one of the principal questions that people who are just starting their Internet businesses ask me is: ” What products and services should I sell on my website?!”
And while getting hot-selling products to sell on your site may seem nerve-racking…
… that is only because most “newbies” believe they need to create their OWN products from scratch.
This is a mistake!
By all means, you could produce your own products, but when you are starting out - and you are eager to start making serious profits, as quickly as possible - developing your own product is not your best option.
First, the development cycle in creating a product is often LONG and COMPLICATE if this is not one of your strong suits.
So, instead of starting to generate income on your site within days or weeks, it can actually take you months - sometimes even YEARS - before you begin to earn a single PENNY!
Second, there are a LOT of additional costs involved in creating your own product.
Not only will you have to deal with the expense of manufacturing the product, you will also face the additional costs of fulfillment, delivery, storage, and even customs and duty if you sell by mail internationally.
And finally, when you develop your own product, there can be complex legal issues to resolve, including liability, health and safety, patents, even environmental issues.
Talk about complicated!
For all of these reasons, I actually DO NOT recommend selling your own physical product as the way to get started (unless you have ALREADY developed the product you want to sell).
Fortunately, there are PLENTY of existing products you can start selling right away on your website that are easy to find, quick to set up, and do NOT require a significant upfront investment - if any at all!
Here are FOUR ideas for HOT products you can begin selling from your website RIGHT AWAY (plus one BIG “shortcut” you can use to find the BEST products as quickly as possible).
Hot Product Idea #1: Earn Money Simply By Recommending Someone Else’s Products
Recommending other people’s products as an affiliate is a GREAT way to get started online.
As an affiliate, you enter into a no-risk partnership that allows you to promote another company’s product or service on your website. For every buying customer you send to the company’s site, you get paid a percentage of the profits!
There are a number of good reasons why an affiliate program is one of the BEST ways for someone new to get online and earning profits.
With no product to develop, it is easy. In fact, it is probably the EASIEST way of all to start making an income. And not only is it easy, it’s also FAST! Once you’ve done your research, it only takes seconds to get set up as an affiliate.
Better still, because the marketing material is provided FOR you, you don’t need to spend a lot of time with marketing…
… and you also don’t need to worry about customer service, or even taking payments!
Here are some great places to start looking for programs to join:
Hot Product Idea #2: Sell And Ship Products While Someone ELSE Does All The Work
If you want to sell products without the hassles of tracking inventory, storing products, or worrying about shipping, then drop shipping may be the best option for you.
When you work with a drop shipper, you sell their products on your website as if they were your own. But when a customer places an order, you collect their payment, then simply forward the customer’s details to the drop shipper.
They take care of packing and shipping the item FOR you…
… and then charge you the WHOLESALE price for the item, so your profit is the difference between what you pay the drop shipping, and what you charge the customer!
Because there’s no product to develop or stock to buy, it is affordable for anyone just starting out. At the same time, it’s relatively easy and fast to get started, because there’s no setup necessary.
Finally, drop shipping gives you the ability to sell products on your site that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to stock yourself.
To browse thousands of products you can promote as a drop shipper, check out WorldWideBrands.com
Hot Product Idea #3: Make BIG Profits By Securing The Rights To Sell Other People’s Products
Another great way to get a profitable website up in record time - without developing your own product - is to buy the “reprint” rights to someone else’s product.
When you purchase the rights to someone else’s product - like software or an eBook - you have permission to sell the product to anyone you want, and keep 100% of the profits!
Purchasing reprint rights is an easy way to get online, because you don’t need a sophisticated website to get started. A simple page with targeted sales copy is all you need to start earning profits.
As well, there is very little up-front cost involved, you’ll have low inventory costs, and mark-up is relatively high!
The best way to look for products with reprint rights is to start with a simple web search. Just type the phrase “resell rights” + your area of interest.
Hot Product Idea #4: Take Advantage Of The MOST Profitable Thing You Can Sell Online!
People do not generally come to the Internet looking to buy something. Typically they come looking for information to help them solve a problem.
So selling an information product - like an eBook or report — is one of the BEST product ideas for people just getting started!
When you produce your own information product, your overhead is minimal. There are virtually no development costs if you write it yourself, and there are no costs to deliver it…
… so you get to keep nearly 100% of the proceeds from each sale!
And best of all, you can completely automate the sale of each eBook, so you can make money 24/7, even when you are on vacation (or focusing on making MORE money with other parts of your site!)
Here are some other ideas and resources for making a product:
Related Articles
Product Creation Through Article Writing
Product Creation Through Public Information
Online Product Creation - One Contact at a Time - Part II
BONUS TIP: Find The Perfect Product For Your Market… PLUS Set Up Your Entire Website And Manage It All Automatically!
As you can see, you don’t need to go to all the hassle and expense of creating your own product to get your website up and running, when finding existing products you can promote is quick and easy.
But if you’re unsure about how to get started - or you would like to GUARANTEE you find the HOTTEST products to sell on your website - I can help!
For a limited time, I am making one of my Internet Marketing eCourses available free to my readers to guide you along the road to starting online!
The program will provide you with information on getting started on the topics presented in this article. It will also show you how to find lucrative untapped markets you can sell to, and help you find products that your market will practically BEG you to buy (and are willing to pay TOP dollar for)!
Want to learn more? Just follow this link!
Learn To Drive Traffic To Your Site:
Top 5 low cost website traffic generation tactics
4 Ways to get your op-in subscribers to trust you quickly
List building - 4 top strategies to build a long opt-in list
4 Crucial things you need to do to build your list
List building 101; Top tips to bring an avalanche of subscribers to your site
Dr. Dave Hale is the founder and Chief Social Marketer at The Internet Marketing Professor. He also has written over 40 books and how-to course on internet marketing related topics, is a professional speaker, and a professor at Webster University, Columbia, SC and Northcentral University, Prescott Valley, AZ where he teaches business and organizational psychology courses.
6 Top Internet Marketing Success Tips
August 27, 2009 by DrDaveHale
Filed under Archive, Blog, Internet Marketing
In today’s internet marketing world, it is not unusual to hear of someone who gets started online one day and has his first sale the next day. What is even more common is someone who has been online for awhile, learns what works and what doesn’t, and starts a brand new site, does everything right, and makes a lot of money online in just a few weeks.
So, how do they do it?
Get Your Copy NOW!!!
1) You must have your own web site. Not a free site with advertising and pop-ups and everything else that comes with free. You must have your very own web site, where you control all the content. You must also be able to look at web traffic statistics to know what is working when and how. If you do not know how to program (and most people getting started online today do not) there are plenty of good site builder type programs out there that literally allow you to type in what you want to appear online, click once or twice, and you are online.
2) You must have a lead collection system on your web site. Use an auto responder to send these leads a welcome message and a series of ‘get to know you’ messages in the days following. Treat these leads like they are gold. They are—you will develop a long term relationship with the people on your list, teaching them what you know about your field, sending them useful information, and they in turn, will send you money to purchase your products. Know that this is a give and take area. You must give them information first, then they will order your products. They will not order your products blind. I use Aweber, and most of the big internet marketers do too. They offer a great free trial period, so check them out. Get more tips here.
3) Once you have a lead collection system in place, you must send traffic to your site. Some people like pay per click campaigns like Adwords, Adsense, or Facebook adds. You basically pay a bidded amount each time someone clicks on your site. Others still like to buy banner ads or other targeted ads. The key with those is to send large amounts of traffic to your site and expect low returns. Personally, I like to write articles and submit them to the various article directories. They promote my articles for free, and the readers who click through to my site are already pre-qualified—they like my style or they probably wouldn’t have read through my article!
4) After you begin developing a list, you must develop a relationship with the people on the list. Send them useful information. Do not send sales messages. Simply send them useful information and content with a link to your site. If they like your information they will pay for your products. If they do not get anything from your letters, they will not buy from you. Get more tips here and here.
5) At this point, I am assuming that you have already identified a product to sell. If you do not, consider affiliate marketing. With affiliate marketing, you promote another person’s product and they send you a commission when they sell something to one of your referrals.
6) Get started! If you haven’t already started the process of developing a business online, you must simply start somewhere. Start with the information you already have. Subscribe to my FREE Ecourse and learn more about marketing online. Learn as you go. But get started. Once you get started, it will be easy to rearrange how you do things, or add in new things, or even delete things you don’t like. But you must get started.
Dr. Dave Hale is the founder and Chief Social Marketer at The Internet Marketing Professor. He also has written over 40 books and how-to course on internet marketing related topics, is a professional speaker, and a professor at Webster University, Columbia, SC and Northcentral University, Prescott Valley, AZ where he teaches business and organizational psychology courses.
Top 5 List Building Tactics To Creating An Avalanche Of Clients
August 26, 2009 by DrDaveHale
Filed under Archive, Blog, List Building
Recently, I was asked by a small business coaching client, what the best methods were to attract new clients. I love this type of question because even with the advent of social media, there still exist the tried and true methods for attracting a large number of paying clients to your business. Here are the top five tactics every business owner should have in his or her marketing play book.
1. Identify your niche. To become really successful at attracting clients and converting them into paying clients, it is imperative to identify your niche. Why is this important? In order to properly target your client base, and where to allocate your time, energy and efforts, this can only be accomplished by knowing who your target client is and what their needs are. Attempting to promote your services by using a shot gun approach, not only will be a waste of time, but it is too hard. Get more tips and resources here.
2. Establish your expertise. Clients want to connect with subject matter experts. They want to know they have the best person they can afford working for them. make sure you are using all of your experience, education, skills, knowledge, certifications, etc. to their fullest potential. Experts are people who possess experience, education, published writing, teaching experience and have spoken to groups on their subject. Do your best to obtain experience in each of these areas in order to develop your expert status. Get more tips here.
3. Schedule time to development your business. You must schedule it! Trying to develop a huge array of products to sell does nothing if you are not also spending time to attract clients. When you do spend time on developing your business, turn off your email and phone and go to work. You should attempt to schedule a part of each day on this.
4. Keep your network informed. Broadcast your current activities to your network so they know what you are doing. Harnessing the full capacity of social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, this can easily be done. And do not forget to ask for referrals. Get more tips here.
5. Follow up. You must continually connect with prospective clients who have contacted you. Keep in mind that if they came to you, they are hot prospects and are looking to be served. Studies have shown that it takes seven to thirteen contacts before they will buy. If you do not use an auto responder services, now is a good time in order to keep your name and information in front of potential clients. Once you stop connecting with your contact list of potential clients, you as well send the list to your competitors. Because that is where they are heading. Get more tips here.
No matter what business niche you are in, the above five tactics still apply. These are no different than what I continually use in business development today, but also teach to my university graduate business school students.
If you are looking for a good resource for more indepth strategies, tactics and techniques to brand and design your expertise, check out my ebook, Niche Building Strategies
If you are an internet marketer and are searching for a good ecourse, sign up for my new Internet Marketing Professor Internet Success Program here.
Dr. Dave Hale is the founder and Chief Social Marketer at The Internet Marketing Professor. He also has written over 40 books and how-to course on internet marketing related topics, is a professional speaker, and a professor at Webster University, Columbia, SC and Northcentral University, Prescott Valley, AZ where he teaches business and organizational psychology courses.
Internet Marketing: 5 Top Tips To Build Your List
August 26, 2009 by DrDaveHale
Filed under Archive, Blog, List Building
Where do you start when you get started online? What do you need? Web site, product, sales page, list, right? Sure—but how do you make everything work together?
I am assuming two things here. One, you already have a product or information to sell. Two, you have or are willing to build, buy, or otherwise obtain a web site.
Once you have a product and a web site, how do you get traffic to it? How do you build a list of potential customers that can buy from you in the future? Notice I say build here, not buy. The list you build will be far more valuable than any you could purchase online. Keep this in mind–if they sell it to you, they probably sell it to many others. Do you want to be one of 25 people mailing your list, or do you want your own, personal list, with people on it who specifically remember requesting you send them more information?
1. So the first thing you need is an auto responder so you can effectively build your list. The auto responder will allow you to pre-write letters to send to your list on a pre-determined schedule. This allows you to stay in touch with your list whether you are actively working at the office on your campaign, or you are relaxing on the beach (This particular article was written on my vacation). I use Aweber, and most of the big internet marketers do too. They offer a great free trial period, so check them out. Get more tips here.
2. Once you have your auto responder, set up a page on your web site where people who visit your site can subscribe to your mailing list. Notice I said page, not link. Why? If you just have a sign-up location on your site they may or may not sign up. But imagine that the only way they can enter your site is to subscribe to your list. Wouldn’t your subscription rate go up? To see exactly what I mean, click my link at the end of this article. You will get to an opt-in page, and will go no further in my web site until you have subscribed. For an example, look at the opt-in box on my web site at The Internet Marketing Professor.
3. Next, write an orderly series of letters to your list. These letters must be informative and easy to read. I like to make mine almost chatty—I try to write them the same way I would talk if you and I were having coffee at my dining room table (or in this case, at the beach). For more tips click here
4. Now that your campaign has been set up, and you are ready to mail to it, you need traffic. My favorite sources of traffic are articles that I have written, search engine results (if you write articles, your web site should climb the search engine results rankings), and inexpensive PPC campaigns. A note on PPC–do not spend a ridiculous amount of money—bid on lower - priced words, until you have a proven response rate and rate of return. You may think that these methods will not provide as much traffic as banner ads or guaranteed traffic schemes or even buying huge lists and mailing them. But keep in mind, I am looking for long-term income, not a quick buck. What do you want? A quick buck and your web site shut down for spurious techniques, or long-term income? For more tips click here
5. Lastly, guard this list with your life. Do not share it, give it away, send useless information, sell it, spam it, nothing. Treat these names as though they are your very closest of friends. Only share with them information you would share with your best friend. Do not send them to some affiliate link to a product you don’t know anything about. Respect your list, and they should buy from you. Maybe not today, or tomorrow—but if you treat them right and mail them regularly, they will produce a long term income. For more tips click here
If you are an internet marketer and are searching for a good ecourse, sign up for my new Internet Marketing Professor Internet Success Program here.
Internet Marketing eCourse
August 25, 2009 by DrDaveHale
Filed under Blog, Free eCourses
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