How To Plan The Perfect Website!
According to Wikipedia – The Internet actually started in 1969, (yes, only 1969!), as the ARPANET, a Defense Department system designed to let survivors share files after a nuclear attack. From being available on just a handful of top secret computers, it’s grown to millions and millions of users.
And it’s still growing. According to a recent survey, the volume of Internet traffic is expected to double annually over the next five years. Consumers are expected to account for 70 percent of all Internet traffic over that period with the rest of the market made up of business users.
What does that mean for you?
It means customers—millions of them.
No other business tool can put the products you sell in front of so many people so easily. Nothing even comes close. Read more
Don’t wait for Business Opportunities to knock – you’ll wait forever!
If you’re sitting at home on the sofa watching Law and Order and you hear a rat-a-tat-tat on your door! Don’t get excited, it’s not a business opportunity knocking!
If you’re comfy in front of your computer chatting to someone on Facebook then your attention is in the wrong direction to notice a fleeting business opportunity flying by.
I know it’s a cliché, but you need to get out of your comfort zone and rattle some cages!
Here are my five tips for opportunity ambushing.
1. Join referral networking clubs – people buy from people so you need to get out there and talk about yourself and your business. Be prepared to refer members and they will in return refer you, that’s how these clubs work. There’s only one downfall to these type of clubs – they are usually at an ungodly hour of the morning so make sure you make the most of them – not my best time!
2. Join LinkedIn groups – for instance, if you’re a widget training business, it’s pointless joining a group of widget trainers, unless it’s to get a few pointers. You need to look for groups of people who are likely to want your service. Interact with the right people, listen to their story, answer their questions and comment on their articles. Get known and seen! An opportunity will come out of it, I promise.
3. Give something away for free. Something that will show your potential customer just how good you are. They may not buy from you straight away but they will remember you when they are in need of a service such as yours.
4. Send “snail mail” – a postcard to a business up your street is a very inexpensive way of marketing but it can be effective. I use Vistaprint for the cheapest postcards and business cards.
You see, regardless of the long arm of the World Wide Web, many of us still like to work with people from our own local area. Let’s say you are looking for some widget training. You’ve found two companies that can do it for £250 a day. One is located the other side of the country and the other is just around the corner, which would you choose?
Keep a record of your mailing list and what has gone to them because once is never enough, you need to get in front of them as many times as you can so they will think of you when the time comes. If you’re worried that you’re wasting your time and money then give them a call and politely ask them if they would like to continue to receive correspondence from you – you never know, it could spark up a relationship at least!
5. Join small online social networks – I’m not talking about drowning in the Facebook pool. I’m talking about small free networks like my women’s peer network where you can get to know people and join their groups and actually interact. You can make connections and even learn something new.
Just one health warning – An opportunity that may well come knocking is the sheep in wolf’s clothing with a, never to be missed, get rich quick scheme. If it sounds too good to be true, then it usually is!
Selling to the taxi driver!
You know, one of the easiest things to do on the internet is to assume that people are not being honest and that they are only talking to you because they have something to sell. Who do you think is to blame for that? We are of-course!
Have you noticed on the social networks how many people make a connection and then immediately try to sell you something. I am the first one to admit that that was my tactic when I first started social marketing on the web.
It’s like getting into a Taxi and saying hello to the driver and in your next breath introducing your product to him. If you were that taxi driver, what would you think?
If, however, you have a long drive with him and you allow him to tell you about his family and his gripes and likes. You could chat to him about how busy he has been and you could comment on how clever he is to remember all the obscure places, he will eventually feel connected to you. He will then, more than likely, ask you what it is that you do. You will then have the opportunity to tell him about your business or product. Remember though, it is still not the best time to sell to him until you have told him about yourself. You need him to see you as a normal, kind, human person who he can trust and that he can see as the type of person he would want to buy from. I am not saying that taxi drivers are likely customers but I am sure you know what I mean?
If you really want to find people to buy into your product or business, you must first help them to buy into you. Your online profile should be the best you can possible make it and your picture should show you smiling and looking approachable. It’s important that you do not come over too professional, you should seem to your prospective customer like someone who could be living next door to him.
Your resume is important but remember not all of us have a great academic education, many of us are self taught, as am I, do not be ashamed of that. Many of your prospective customers will, themselves, not have traditional training but some of the best entrepreneurs have started just like that.
Jim Rohn, the founder of Herbalife, as an example, started selling and made a fortune out of health products because of his mother’s enthusiasm for healthy foods not because he had a fantastic academic career.
Pat is an Authorised Representative of Lifepath Unlimited. Take a look at her website: http://www.ThisBusinessRocks.co.uk.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pat_Sutton
6 steps closer to monetising your blog!
I’m often asked how to make money from Blogging.
Not wanting to dampen enthusiasm, it’s not a get rich quick scheme.
But it’s not impossible.
To get you there you need to have these six crucial skills:
1. Patience
2. Resilience.
3. A great imagination.
4. Knowledge.
5. The discipline to learn.
6. Multiple Income streams?
Why patience you say?
If you do everything right.
Join blogging forums, create networks of friends and acquaintances, got seen on social media websites and actively collaborate on other blog websites.
Then it can still take months, even years before your have any kind of recognition.
With a legible writing style and perseverance you will make it in the end!
Resilience?
By resilience, I mean being able to take it on the chin!
Being able to fail without labelling yourself a failure.
Being successful at something doesn’t make you a success. When that publisher or editor rejects you, pick yourself up and start all over again with even more resiliance!
A Great Imagination is imperative!
You need to be able to see outside the box.
Knowledge and information is widely available on the web but you need to have the imagination to create a useful blog from that information. When you compose your next blog you need to know who your target audience is going to be, then you need to work out ways of getting in front of them.
Your title, (absolutely essential if you want your blog to be read), needs to grab them and say, “READ ME!”.
Knowledge.
It is all too easy for someone to claim to be an expert.
There’s no Internet police checking your credentials but I believe “what goes around comes around” so don’t copy, don’t pinch other’s stuff and don’t claim to be what you are not!
A lot of people will read other blogs and articles and do a good job of copying them by not copying them. But it is easy to recognise the fakers. Take a look at their other work. If the writing style is different every time then they are probably seasoned fake artists.
Don’t get me wrong, we all do our research, that’s what the web is for, but there’s a lot of difference between learning and passing that knowledge on and copying someone elses articles and changing a few phrases.
If I see something that excites me, then I print the article and read it and then do my report on it. This is a great lesson as not having it sitting there on your computer you are not tempted to copy and paste – you have to use your own words.
One more point on KNOWLEDGE. As is normal with a business, you must be prepared to invest financially – you could do worse than taking up a few subscriptions for products and courses on good blogger’s websites, you will be amazed how much you’ll learn.
The Discipline to Learn.
If you want to keep up with the times you need to be ever evolving. The Internet and Social Media changes on a daily basis.
What was a great strategy yesterday could be a waste of time today.
When I first started to market my blogs on Twitter, I was in-undated with visits to my website even though my followers were under a thousand. Now I have many thousand followers yet the response has not gone up that much in relation. I am afraid that we are victims of our own actions.
We know that most people who ask us to pop over to their website for some great stuff are almost certainly going to have a hidden agenda and alteria motives. But that’s Ok if what you get from then is of value!
If you are like me and you are always inquisitive to see if there are any snippets of information that you can pass on to your readers then you may well profit from these opportunities but many of you are probably far too busy, so the offerings are ignored.
The lesson here is, don’t be too hasty, if there is one thing that has come out of all this, it is that people know that if they give something of value then people will be attracted to them or their business so it is rare that the info is worthless.
Mutliple income streams!
Google AdSense on your website? You’re not going to get rich but you can make enough to pay for the odd evening out. Good affiliates? They may bring in a little more than AdSense, but you have to have a mighty busy website to make any real money from affiliates.
The most efficient way of getting closer to monetising your blog is to create a subscriber list. As they say, “The Money Is In The List!”.
Create a subscribe box on your website where they can get something worthwhile for free then once you have your subscribers you can start to work on the relationship. When they see you as a leader and as an expert in your field then you can start to market to them. The format is: give them good stuff, give them more good stuff, give them more good stuff then, when you have their attention, do the pitch then follow that with more good stuff. Be careful, gently does it! You don’t want them to un-subscribe.
Watch this space for my next article, “How to make big money from Blogging”.
Pat Sutton – Official Blog http://www.PatSutton.com
6 steps closer to monetising your blog!-
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