I hate chain letters but had to share this with you!
Pat Sutton | June 16th, 2010 - 4:43 pm“A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with his hair fashionably combed and shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. 
His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready.
As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window. I love it,’ he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.
Mr. Jones, you haven’t seen the room; just wait.’
‘That doesn’t have anything to do with it,’ he replied.
Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time.
Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged … it’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. ‘It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.
Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away.. Just for this time in my life.
Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you’ve put in.
So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories!
Thank you for your part in filling my Memory Bank. I am still depositing.
‘Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.
10 business start up tips.
Pat Sutton | April 6th, 2010 - 4:02 pmBefore we get down to the 10 busines tips, I want to give you some important advice.
Before you start to trade, create a business plan. There are many great business plan templates available on the web, they’re not as difficult as you think.
The plan will tell you from the outset if your business is viable!
It will tell you how much money you will need to earn to make a profit and how much you need to charge for your services. Too many people take the “just think of a figure” approach and then are surprised when they can’t make ends meet.
[...]
Create the desire so people buy from you!
Pat Sutton | March 14th, 2010 - 3:04 pmThe ‘desire’ portion of your profile is where you present the facts of your expertise and success; create and justify your prospect’s conviction and cause him to demand a piece of the action’ for himself. ![MPj04443420000[1]](http://www.theimageattractionsystem.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/MPj044434200001-300x200.jpg "MPj04443420000[1]")
It’s vitally necessary that you present proven facts because survey results show that at least 80% of the people reading your profile – especially those reading it for the first time – will tend to question its truthfullness. So, the more facts you can present, the more credible you will be.
As you write your profile, always remember that the more facts about “you” you present, the more products you’ll sell.
People want facts as reasons, and/or excuses for buying a product – to justify to themselves and others, that they have not been ‘taken’ by a slick copywriter. It’s like the girl who wants to marry the guy her father calls a ‘no good waster’, her heart – her emotions – tell her yes, but she needs to nullify the seed of doubt lingering in her mind – to rationalize her decision to go on with the wedding.
[...]
Just because you have a bad memory…..
Pat Sutton | February 24th, 2010 - 1:25 pm….there’s no reason to be rude!
I have mailing lists going back many years and decided that I would have a clear out. I was afraid to just hit the delete button in case some of the people would still be interested in what I have to say. So I decided to upload them into my mailing program in order to clean them of dead addresses and to give the people who were not on my wavelength the opportunity to un-subscribe.
WHAT A MISTAKE!
The mistake was not putting them into the program to clean the lists – the mistake was allowing people to comment when they un-subscribed.
“What the f… are you spamming me for?” was one comment. “Go f… yourself” was another! (they actually put the real word in)
Can you believe, these are business people…people who make a living from their relationships with their customers!
[...]
Email Marketing using Auto Responders.
Pat Sutton | February 15th, 2010 - 5:49 pmSales letters through your letter box are hated by everyone. It’s unwanted, uninvited and fills your re-cycling bin. But it’s pretty clear that it’s also incredibly popular with advertisers. Why? Because while most potential customers throw away their junk letters with barely a glance, enough take action to make it all worthwhile.
They do buy—and in high enough numbers to more than cover the cost of those who don’t.
Email marketing is pretty similar, but with one important difference: on the Web, you can only send marketing emails to people who have already chosen to receive them. A bit tricky!
On the other hand, because those people have already chosen to receive your emails, you can be confident that they’re going to be interested in them.
So how do you get these valuable e-mail address? [...]
About the Author: Pat Sutton is A Profile Coach and Internet Marketing Specialist. She is Senior Editor of http://www.PatSutton.com Don't forget to sign up for her mailing list to receive the FREE E-Book on how to profit from posting on forums!Email Marketing using Auto Responders.The best affiliates for your blog.
Pat Sutton | February 14th, 2010 - 9:24 amA lot of people ask me to suggest affiliates. They want to know which ones are the most effective at monetising their blog. I suppose it would be safe to say that I have done a hell of a lot of research on this subject as bad choices can make the difference between a profitable blogging business and bad choices can mean no business at all.
It is a difficult one because it all depends on your target audience.
Of-course there are some great generic ones like Chitika which is an online advertising network which works a little like Adsense. For me Chitika far surpasses Adsense because not only can you earn with click throughs you can also earn a residual income for 15 months on your referrals earnings. [...]
How To Plan The Perfect Website!
Pat Sutton | February 9th, 2010 - 1:52 pmAccording 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. [...]
About the Author: Pat Sutton is A Profile Coach and Internet Marketing Specialist. She is Senior Editor of http://www.PatSutton.com Don't forget to sign up for her mailing list to receive the FREE E-Book on how to profit from posting on forums!How To Plan The Perfect Website!How to market your website so that people buy from you!
Pat Sutton | December 7th, 2009 - 9:02 pmIt doesn’t matter what kind of business you have and how benevolent you are, you can give things away for free, you can raise money for great causes, you can hold people’s hands but everyone at sometime needs to make a living.
The baker puts bread on your table, not to feed your family but to feed his own!
I am sure, if you own a bakery or a grocers then online marketing is not so important but if you have a product or service that has a website at it’s heart then you need to know how to drive traffic, create a contact list and to make sales.
Ok, so you have a great website that showcases your products or services or you have signed up for an online, work at home business that has provided you with their propriatory website to promote – what next?
It doesn’t matter what kind of online or offline business you have, if you sell from a website then you need to get it out there to the right target audience.
Not many of us are really clever enough to know, for sure, who will buy from us, I promise you, I have had many surprises! But somehow we need to work out how to get our business in front of buying customers. So a scatter gun approach is not really the way to do it, you need to target the right people.
So how do you recruit people to an online business. How do you get people to come to your website?
Online? Offline? Cold calling? Friends and family?
Let’s look at Friends and Family first.
If you want to lose friends then pitch to them, the same with family members. I don’t know about you but I would hate it if my loved ones avoided me because they felt guilty for not buying into my business! So that is a definite “no no”.
Cold calling? Hey! I’m into this online gig because I want to enjoy it, I want a better quality of life and cold calling just does not do it for me! So, for me, that’s out too.
Offline – now here’s a thing – yes it can work, even for an online business. You could:
1. Get out there to your local business networking events.
2. Build relationships with local business owners to encourage referrals.
3. Take stands at exhibitions.
4. Advertise in the newspapers.
5. Give out flyer’s in shopping malls and markets.
6. Carry business cards for those chance encounters!
Then there’s ONLINE.
Now this is where your marketing can really rock!
Here are my 5 very best online marketing tips.
1. Any good at writing?
You don’t have to be Jeffrey Archer but a good clear blog with all the right keywords can be a fantastic marketing tool.
The article should not be about your business but about something helpful for the reader. Of-course it should be linked to your business, for instance if you are a garden landscaper then an article or blog about growing roses would be good but a blog about baking a chocolate cake may not be.
You need to engage with the reader, they need to see you as a leader and expert.
Once you have constructed your blog or article you then need to add a clear succinct signature at the bottom, this is very important for obvious reasons.
I know what you’re asking….what do I do with my blog once it is finished?
Well if you have a blog section on your website then that is ideal as readers can click to your website to read the blog.
You would open your blog on your website, copy the URL or address and add that link along with a catchy intro like:
An easy way to bake a chocolate cake – if you love chocolate you’ll love this – http://www……
You would add it to places like Facebook, Twitter, Ecademy, LinkedIn etc that’s assuming that you are a member of all these social sites, if not why not???
If you have written your blog on someone else’s website, like Blogger, Ezines or another blogging platform like my site for business women, TheBusinessWoman then you need to make sure that all your website details are in your signature.
2. Twitter!
I know a lot of people think that Twitter is a waste of time well, I promise you that it is not, if you do it right.
A daily tweet containing great advice to followers who are your target audience can really boost your profile. If you have a good profile then people will see you in a good light and are more likely to buy from you. If you read my blog, How to market on Twitter, you will see how you can make Twitter really work for your business.
3. Facebook Fan Pages.
Create a fan page with the same name as your business then set to work making friends and then inviting them to become fans of your page. Once you have a reasonable amount of members you can create a badge to upload onto your website. This creates a sense of community and will give confidence to your website visitors. Of-course you also have your fans to market to as well.
4. Relationships.
Join groups and forums to get to know people, (not to pitch to them), once they get to know you they will eventually ask you what you do and then you can get away with a subtle pitch.
5. LinkedIn groups.
Join the groups on LinkedIn, you are allowed upto 50 group memberships. Of-course you need to find groups of people who would be interested in your sector and will be beneficial to you as well. Then once in a group you can upload your articles or blogs to their discussion pages. These are then sent out by the system to the group members in update e-mails. Some of the groups have memberships of thousands of people each so your one article alone can get you enormous exposure.
Pat Sutton – Internet Marketing Specialist – Official Blog Site http://www.PatSutton.com
Business Mentor with LifePath Unlimited – http://www.ThisBusinessRocks.com
Selling to the taxi driver!
Pat Sutton | November 18th, 2009 - 3:27 pmYou 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
About the Author: Pat Sutton is A Profile Coach and Internet Marketing Specialist. She is Senior Editor of http://www.PatSutton.com Don't forget to sign up for her mailing list to receive the FREE E-Book on how to profit from posting on forums!Selling to the taxi driver!Put a sandwich board out to drive traffic!
Pat Sutton | November 10th, 2009 - 2:48 pmThe content of your website tells your visitors all about you and your business; it is your shop window. The problem is that if your shop is on a back street and you have no passers by then you need to get people to take a detour down your street! It’s easy, you put a sandwich board out with key phrases to grab their attention?
So what can you do to get people to come to you on the web?
Good blogs and articles will lead people to your site if they are written with good content that includes the important relevant key words.
So how does good content and great articles get you traffic? Well, many search engines rely on the keyword and keyword phrases of a site to put it in their results list. If your content contains a good number of keywords and keywords phrases, it may be chosen to be a part of the top listed sites in the search result pages.
But before you think of just plastering your site and articles with all the keywords and keyword phrases you can, remember that the search engine police will notice if you are trying to abuse the system and will most certainly penalise you. You must have good well written articles that incorporate the keywords and keyword phrases properly in their content.
I know it’s difficult as many of you will say that you just don’t have the time to write your own website blogs and articles. But if you can find the time, articles specifically designed for the internet will take some getting used to and a certain amount of expertise to create but it is well worth the effort.
There are writers who have great experience in doing this and charge only a minimal fee for such work. Writers like this can be regarded as experts in this style of writing and can greatly help your website to get that coveted spot in the search engine rankings.
Other than getting your site in the web results page of search engines, they can also provide your site with meaningful articles and content that can impress your website visitors and entice others to view your site. This is the type of thing that makes your website “sticky” and if you set up an RSS feed button on your website they may even subscribe to your articles and the search engines love that!
Of-course, if the mountain won’t come to Mohamed………..I take my website via Articles and Blogs to the mountain.
Articles once written, can be posted across the web to drive traffic back to your website. Sort of like a virtual sandwich board.
Depending on the number of words needed, usually, a two hundred and fifty word article would cost from about $30, (about £20 in English money). This is a small price to pay for having a content rich, well researched and written paper on your website and it is a lot cheaper than a Google Adwords campaign.
It is easy to find a good writer as these days most authors will have blog sites or articles published on websites like EzineArticles.com where you can read some of their work to get an idea of their type of writing. But what is important is that the writer has the knowledge to “write for the search engines” as well.
Pat Sutton, visit her official blogsite: http://www.patsutton.com
About the Author: Pat Sutton is A Profile Coach and Internet Marketing Specialist. She is Senior Editor of http://www.PatSutton.com Don't forget to sign up for her mailing list to receive the FREE E-Book on how to profit from posting on forums!Put a sandwich board out to drive traffic!Subscribe
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