Archive for April, 2009:
Business and The Blog (video)
Yours truly GordonWebbo today wants you to read the following article, courtesy of this site:
Been prepping for my presentation at SOBCon09 Biz School for bloggers. I’m co-presenting with Chris Cree on The business and The blog. We have a lot of latitude with the subject.
Some of the questions we’ll be addressing are: how do you transition from hobby blogger to business blogger; what’s the role of a blog in business; how do you extend your presence on the web. Feel free to add your two cents (or 25 cents!) to the conversation.
I, and probably everyone else will be tweeting from the event so be sure to follow me if you want to get highlights from presentations by Chris Brogan, <a href=”http://www.copyblogger.com” target=”_blank”>Brian Clark, Chris Garrett and many other <a href=”http://www.gordonwebbo.com/go/blogging”>blogging luminaries!
And remember, you can always get tons of great business <a href=”http://www.gordonwebbo.com/go/blogging”>blogging tips at <a href=”http://www.buildabetterblog.com” target=”_blank”>Build a Better blog.
Market Research And Analysis Breakthrough!
Yours truly GordonWebbo today wants you to read the following article, courtesy of Top-Web-Entrepeneurs-Plan-It.com:
There has never been any better time than now to try SBI!
Version “3″ of the research and analysis module of SBI! - Brainstormer V3 or BI! V3 - is about to launch. (Scoop: launch is likely in the first week of May 2009).
BI! V3 will virtually ensure that you cannot fail in identifying the right market for you to build a business upon.
No wonder over 50 colleges and universities around the world are now offering Site Build It! as the most effective way of building a business, from the ground up, on a micro budget … with the highest probability of success!
BI! V3 is nothing short of revolutionary! It is unique. BI! V3’s market research and analysis capabilities are unavailable anywhere else than by using Site Build It!
Site Build It! For people who cannot tolerate failure.
Claude Jollet B.Sc.A.
www.top-web-entrepreneurs-plan-it.com
P.S. Take my word for it. BI! V3 is a huge step forward. Take it!
Email Marketing Solutions Your Must Have Check List
Yours truly GordonWebbo today wants you to read the following article, courtesy of this site:
It’s time to launch your email marketing campaign; what should you know prior to setting your plan into motion?
Well, before you do anything, you should first make certain that your sales staff and all sales departments are prepared to make the transactions generated by your email marketing campaign.
Once your confident your business can handle a potential influx of sales, you should follow a few regimented steps to insure you’re making the most of your email marketing solutions. The below checklist will help you to determine what to do and when to do it.
Determine what day of the week to send your messages. The theories on this choice are numerous. Many experts suggest targeting individual customers over the weekend but business-to-business hopefuls on a Friday.
However, a recent study indicates the best day to issue B2B email marketing messages is Monday or Tuesday. The truth is, there is no hard and fast rule for this factor.
Do your own research to determine what day you think is best. Consider testing several days and determining which one gets the best response.
There are two times of day that are historically best for sending a marketing email, mid-morning and right after lunch. At these two times, people tend to be more receptive to what lands in their inbox.
After you’ve determined when and what time you’ll be sending your marketing email, you should prepare to monitor responses.
Your monitoring efforts should cover everything from replies to unsubscribes. Monitoring your responses early can help you to eliminate and even avoid certain link and spam problems.
Now it’s time to deliver that email and the final step should be creating and email that is attractive, but not too “spam like” that customers will take time to read and find easy to navigate.
An effective interface will enable you to track the results of your email campaign and move ahead as a result of that tracking.
Below you will find a summarized “tip list” derived from various email marketing experts. Take some time to review these tips and then be on your way to email marketing success.
Offer something to your customers!
In exchange for their contact info, offer your customers something in return. (i.e. a free newsletter, or seminar, or more information)
Be economical about the info you gather!
When gathering customer contact information, only ask for the information you need.
Make it easy for them to unsubscribe!
Make absolutely certain you provide a way for customers to unsubscribe from your e-mail marketing solutions campaign.
Profit By Following Internet Marketing Trends
Yours truly GordonWebbo today wants you to read the following article, courtesy of this site:
Just like physical advertising has trends, there are internet marketing trends that can, if taken advantage of, make you hundreds of dollars and really up your customer base.
But just like real world trends, if you don’t jump on these online trends quickly enough, you’ll find yourself left behind.
One of the biggest marketing trends going on right now involved social networks like MySpace, Friendster, and Facebook.
These networks are all fairly similar; users sign up for a free profile and can post information about themselves, their likes, what they do for a living, etc.
Most let users also post pictures and videos. Once they’ve made their profile, they can search for other people and add them as their friends.
The whole point of these networking sites is to get in contact with friends, family, and, sometimes, total strangers. It’s the total stranger’s part that really interests us.
By creating a profile for your business and adding people as your friends, you can get the word out there to millions.
Some of these sites, like MySpace, even include special profiles for bands, authors, and filmmakers. This makes it even easier for people to find your profile and add you as their friend.
It’s great when people add you, but when you invite people to be your friend, beware of looking like spam. There are enough fake spam profiles on these sites that they’ve all cracked down on people sending out mass invites. Be sure the people you invite want to see what you have to offer.
Another of the internet marketing trends is the use of keywords. Search engine optimization, or SEO, is something everyone wants these days.
It involves using keywords, or words that describe your site and your products/services, a certain number of times on your website and in your site’s titles and metadata.
By using these keywords so often, your site will be much more appealing to search engines like Google and Yahoo.
The theory here is that if your site is listed on the first page of search results, you’ll get more views and more business than if your page was listed on the third or fourth page.
Of course, this isn’t always true. If your page doesn’t include what the user is looking for, they aren’t going to buy anything from you. Still, there is merit to the part of the theory that says you’ll get more traffic.
You can optimize your website yourself after studying a bit about SEO, but there are many companies out there ready to do it for you.
Be careful here: you don’t want someone writing text for your page that is nothing but keywords. If your page doesn’t sound natural to a human reader, chances are they will pass it by in favor of one that does.
Taking advantage of both social networks and SEO practices can result in your website getting many more hits. While, as stated earlier, hits don’t always convert over to dollars, it is important to get people to your website.
Following these internet marketing trends is one way to up your hits which, in turn, often does result in more business.
Is your Google Profile Up to Date?
Yours truly GordonWebbo today wants you to read the following article, courtesy of this site:
I may sound like I’m harping on the same things all the time, but it’s because I love you! Nearly everyday I talk to a client or colleague who isn’t aware of the myriad possibilities for maintaining and controlling your online brand and reputation.
An article in the New York Times on <a href=”http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/how-to-manage-your-reputation-online/” target=”_blank”>How to Manage Your Online Reputation gives excellent tips on how to dominate search results for your name by making sure you set up a profile on every social site there is (where have you heard that beore?). You don’t need to be active but make sure you have the minimum amount of bio details, a photo and links back to your blog or site. The bottom line is that you want the first 2-3 pages of search results to be content you WANT people to see, not embarassing stuff.
Of of the main points of the article was to announce that <a href=”http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/search-for-me-on-google.html”>Google is now displaying Google Profile results on name searches! This is huge. Make sure your Google profile is up to date and complete! You can check out my Google profile here. I’ve got a link to my Flickr account so photos I’ve posted show up; I’ve got links to all my social networking sites, my blogs, even a free audio program.
There’s also a link so you can easily and immediately share your profile on Twitter.
Go set up your Google Profile now.
Related Posts:
<a href=”http://www.biztipsblog.com/2009/03/is-your-social-networking-profile-up-to-date.html” target=”_blank”>Is Your Social Networking Profile Up to Date?
<a href=”http://www.biztipsblog.com/2009/03/are-you-managing-your-online-reputation.html” target=”_blank”>Are You Managing Your Online Reputation?
<a href=”http://www.biztipsblog.com/2008/06/consultants-are.html” target=”_blank”>Consultants: Are you ready for a Google search on your name?
Optimizing Your Web Site With SEO Organic Techniques
Yours truly GordonWebbo today wants you to read the following article, courtesy of this site:
SEO organic methods take more work from the individual, but is a safer and, in the end, more effective way to optimize a web site for search engines.
In a way, Organic SEO helps to keep Internet “pollution” to a minimum, so you’re also helping the virtual environment! In the following paragraphs, you’ll find a few easy ways to use this type of search engine optimization.
You’re no doubt familiar with the basic concepts of search engine optimization, but are you familiar with SEO organic methods?
While search engine optimization is a very important aspect to any online business’ marketing plan, it’s become increasingly standardized and mechanized.
Many SEO services and applications simply use the same basic plan to enhance a web site’s search engine rankings.
This has led to a lot of marketers using nasty search engine optimization methods to get results. These types of methods can be great for generating traffic, but in the end they make the Internet an uglier place.
These methods, known as “Black Hat” SEO methods, are just a bad idea. Not only do they frustrate potential users of your web site, they may not even work forever…
You see, Google and other search engines are constantly looking for ways to defeat Black Hat SEO techniques. If their efforts are successful – and really it’s just a matter of time before they are – your time and money may be wasted.
Why spend money on search engine optimization that could be useless in just a few months? Worse yet, search engines aren’t just knocking these sorts of sites down in rank; they’re totally removing them from search results.
Some of these Black Hat methods include using cheap labor or robots to perform a number of tasks. For instance, sometimes these services will sign up to tons of forums and or social networking sites and simply spam the link to a site everywhere possible.
This is a definite annoyance for many webmasters, who end up with sites cluttered in meaningless links.
Link farms are another common type of Black Hat SEO. These sites are knockoffs are legit online directories, and are packed with links, many of which lead to very poor web sites.
Some of them just link back and forth between each other and the link site, causing users to get lost in a sea of useless information. SEO organic techniques can be a great alternative to some of these Black Hat search engine optimization plans.
The main thing that people associate with web sites is their domain names. Domain names that feature the keywords that your website is targeting are a great start to organic SEO.
Another, related, search engine optimization idea is to customize your web site’s title the same way: feature the keywords that your site targets. Both of these elements are factors that search engines use to rank a site.
There are many more ways to optimize a site with an SEO organic plan, but these tips will get you started.
Looking For A Job or The Job?
Yours truly GordonWebbo today wants you to read the following article, courtesy of Top-Web-Entrepeneurs-Plan-It.com:
Tired of sending out your CV? Not getting any feedback?
Build your very own marketing agent with SBI!
Your personal robot agent will promote you and your know-how, relentlessly and very effectively, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year!
Why effectively? Two reasons.
1. SBI! will teach you how to promote yourself, step by step.
2. SBI! will work effectively in the background to ensure that anyone looking for your particular talents and abilities will find you!
In the meantime, SBI! will teach you how to monetize the traffic it attracts to your personal marketing Web site.
Two learning paths are available to you.
1. Learn SBI! by yourself. The SBI! self-study course comes with a complete set of guidance material and the online software tools to put what you learn in practice, as you work through the ten modules of the course.
2. Or, take the SBI! eLearning, the online version of the course, under the direction of a trained instructor. Classes are limited to twelve students. You can pick the time slot and day of the week that you prefer. No commuting!
Let It Pay For Itself
The SBI! proven process will also teach you how to make your automatic marketing agent “pay for itself” … and then some!
How effective is SBI! in building you an enviable reputation?
Look up “Claude Jollet” on Google. Use the quotes to ensure that Google only returns links to pages mentioning me by name. Google will return a first page of links, 1-10 of about … over a thousand on the Web!
You will also find one of my videos on YouTube that has been viewed more than 14,500 times!
It Works!
If you want to be known in thousands of places around the world, at once and permanently, then let SBI! show you how!
Creating Your Own Internet Marketing Plan
Yours truly GordonWebbo today wants you to read the following article, courtesy of this site:
If you have a small business that you are attempting to promote and are having trouble, it may be because you have not first created an internet marketing plan.
Internet marketing is extremely complicated and is much more difficult than simply putting some keywords in the text of your site.
An internet marketing plan consists of 8 basic steps: strategic planning, situation analysis, customer analysis, market and product focus, product positioning, pricing strategy, product distribution, and internet promotion.
Step Number 1: Strategic Planning…
When promoting your business online, you need to keep some things in mind. Ask yourself the question, “what am I good at?”
You need to discover how your business is different from the rest by discovering the advantages that you have over your competitors.
Step Number 2: Situation Analysis…
This is basically learning about the market that you are in. This can be achieved though various studies such as SWOT analysis, conducting an industry analysis, and analyzing your competition.
The more you know about the industry you are in and how you can succeed in it, the better.
Step Number 3: Customer Analysis…
Simply put, this step involves learning about your customers. How you are going to effectively market to someone that you know nothing about?
You need to know their likes, dislikes, hobbies, jobs, family life, etc if you are going to market to them effectively. In fact, some businesses do invent personalities that act as the target customer and develop a plan of marketing to them.
Step Number 4: Market and Product focus…
This step involves segmenting your market and making your company different from your competitors. This is often times referred to as the “Unique Selling Point” or “USP”.
Step Number 5: Product positioning…
Simply put, when a person hears a company name, certain thoughts come to mind. When somebody says your company name, what thoughts should come to mind?
This is something you need to think about. You need to know how to position your business in your customer’s mind.
If you haven’t learned about them yet, acquaint yourself with the 4 Ps of marketing: product, position, promotion, and price.
Step Number 6: Pricing Strategy…
This is also one of the 4 Ps of marketing. You need to know how to effectively price your goods or services. A good way is to take a look at what the competition is charging. If you are new to the business, you will need to undercut their prices.
Step number 7: Product Distribution…
This is the second P in the 4 P’s of marketing, also known as position. This is the physical location where your product or service is offered. And yes, if you have an internet business then you position is the internet.
Step Number 8: Internet Promotion
This is how you are going to advertise your business on the internet. There are plenty of different methods at your disposal including newsletters, search engines, article marketing and pay per click advertising. Experiment with each of them and try to find what best suits your business.
Hopefully, you can make use of this information to create your own internet marketing plan.
Animoto is a Super Easy Video Tool
Yours truly GordonWebbo today wants you to read the following article, courtesy of this site:
Animoto finally got me. It’s been on my list to experiment for some time, like ever since Lou Bortone and I put together our homestudy course, Online Video Made Easy. Lou talked about how easy Animoto is to create high quality video just from your images.
Then yesterday I saw a tweet from a client with a link to an animoto video she had just created. That moved me to give it a test drive.
In a nutshell, you upload some photos, add some text, choose a music track and click a button. Within a few minutes of rendering, you have a really cool video. You can create 30 second videos for free. Longer videos cost $3 or you can spring for an annual pass for $30 which gives you unlimited access. That’s what I did.
After you create your video, there options that allow you to simply upload your video to YouTube, post is on Facebook, your blog or any of 20 other sites. You can download your video and send a link by email. Sharing is easy.
OK, wanna see my video?
I gathered all the photos I took from my retreat on Useppa Island a few weeks ago and created a montage. Though this is a personal video, Animoto can easily be used to create business videos as well with screenshots from products or shots of you presenting or, or, or. You don’t have to have a music soundtrack either. You can upload your own audio file. Why not narrate a series of tips with matching images to illustrate your points? That’s next on my list. Now, with out further ado…
Related Posts:
<a href=”http://www.biztipsblog.com/2009/04/business-<a href=”http://www.gordonwebbo.com/go/blogging”>blogging-video-tips.html”>business <a href=”http://www.gordonwebbo.com/go/blogging”>blogging Video Tips
<a href=”http://www.biztipsblog.com/2009/04/online-video-made-easy-is-now-a-selfstudy-course.html”>Online Video Made Easy is Now a Self-Study Course
<a href=”http://www.biztipsblog.com/2009/04/add-video-to-your-twitter-profile.html”>Add Video to Your Twitter Profile
How to Use Social Media Marketing to Grow Your Business
Yours truly GordonWebbo today wants you to read the following article, courtesy of this site:
The great news is you don’t need to be a techno-geek or twenty-something to use and benefit from social media. Discover precisely how to use social media to grow your business during this economic slump at Social Media Success Summit 2009 -a professional development conference for marketers and business owners.
Leading experts Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine Library TV), Darren Rowse (Problogger), Mari Smith (Facebook guru), Jason Alba (wrote the book on LinkedIn), Ann Handley (MarketingProfs), Brian Clark (Copyblogger), Chris Garrett (Authority blogger) and me have joined forces to share our closely guarded secrets to social media success at this LIVE online summit.
No travel required. This online summit allows you to attend sessions, meet the experts and network with peers, all from the comfort of your home or office. This event is sure to sell out quickly.
Learn how to qualify for a $200 savings (expires May 14th) and lock in your key to success. Visit and get an immediate gift valued at $39 entitled “Achieving Social Media Marketing Success (Secrets From Three Successful Marketers).”
