Insider Tips From 10 Year Marketing Veteran

My Articles on Ehow

2010-01-11T09:20:00.000-08:00

I have published a few new article on Ehow.

You can check them out here

Success takes time

2009-12-15T10:05:00.001-08:00

While relaxing in some new furniture recliners I had just bought, I started to ponder how many new online marketers expect to be successful, within a month or two of getting started!

Sadly, people get these unreal expectation of online marketing, because of the hype surrounding it. People hate to work hard and want instant success, so our industry loves to use hype, to draw in the lazy, get rich quick types.

Too many new marketers buy an ebook or two, then expect that their brand new car buffer product will make money the first week. It simply doesn't happen that way!

The biggest mistake any new marketer can make is to treat their online business as a hobby like a shop making pro skateboards. The only real way to become successful is to invest your time and money wisely, work hard and sacrifice. When you hit roadblocks along the way, you must always find ways around them. All successful people do this. As you move along the road to success, you will find it is lined with quitters along the way, but determination and a never say die attitude is what will save you from a similar fate.

Your new action plan...

2009-12-15T09:48:00.001-08:00

Most people are afraid to fail. Which is why many would be online marketers never truly do anything but read a few ebooks, then give up.

It seems like people feel better about themselves if they never try; then to have tried and failed. So to help you get over that fear and the excuse as to why you can't start an online business, here is my three step plan to help get you started:

Do your research

This is a powerful source to find those hidden niches:. http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends

Here you will find an unlimited amount of ideas by seeing the “hot trends” that people are searching on. You will be surprised at what people are searching on. From a baby doll stroller to the season's hottest camping table, to baby onesies

Get yourself a quality domain name and hosting

Choose a domain name based around the niche you have chosen, and then use TheList.com to find a good host.

Start a blog and be sure to use WordPress

By going to the Wordpress.org forum you will have all the help you need to setup your blog and put Adsense ads on it.

Next, create some useful content or hire a freelance writer to do it for you.

Now keep adding quality content and focus on one or two ways to promote your blog until you have mastered them.

You won’t get rich overnight, or even make any money for a few months. But you will be in the game and you will slowly gain the experience needed to start to dominate your niche and make serious money. Remember, you can’t learn anything by standing on the sidelines. The risks are low, so there really isn’t a good reason why you can’t get started today - the only person stopping you…. is you.

Internet marketers are full of excuses

2009-12-15T09:34:00.001-08:00

People who never start an online marketing business always love to use excuses. Here are a few of my favorites:

I just don't have enough time!

This simply isn't true. Most people just don't want to sacrifice and make the time to get started. Do you really need to go to the mall or go see that movie on weekends? Or could you spend that time in a better manner?

Have you ever watched people at an airport, running along with their backpack with wheels off to some fabulous destination, and felt jealous? Wishing you could have their life and travel to exotic locations. But yet you don't want to work for it. Very few people have ever been successful without hard work and sacrifice.

Starting a new online business is too expensive!

This is yet another poor excuse. Many people can start a profitable online business with a shoestring budget, thanks to many free and low cost advertising methods.

Online marketing is very unique in that it takes a small investment of money to see if it is right for you. So why make an excuse for yourself not to try it?

I really am not an expert on any subject!

You don't have to be a jack of all trades or a multimaster tool to get started There is so much information online, you could become an expert on just about anything imaginable. If you wanted to, you could become the leading expert on boy shoes, if you deemed it suitable.

I have heard almost every excuse in the book why people have told me “I can’t start my home business right now”! Yet, for every excuse they make, I can always come up with a reason why they are full of crap. That is just self doubt telling you that it can’t be done.

Creating an online business

2009-12-15T09:14:00.001-08:00

What kind of business can you create online?

Some people I know have taken their hobbies and created hobby sites based around such topics as finding the best skinning knife, picking out an art easel and even how to find a great hanging lamp

Today, online marketing is no longer seen as a “joke” or not a real business. Almost every reputable bricks and mortar business is now using the Internet to sell their products. Years from now people will look back at our generation as innovators and the people who helped paved the path for e-commerce.

We are lucky enough to be living during such an incredible time that allows anyone with a great idea to launch an online business with such little start up costs, and such a big reward.

How to stir up blogger ideas

2009-12-15T09:05:00.001-08:00

One of the hardest things for any new marketer is coming up with great ideas. It can be intimidating for many of these people, because not everyone can brainstorm hot new ideas. However, you can train yourself to be this way with a little practice and know how.

It is common wisdom to start a business around something you are passionate about. But this isn’t a requirement. Some people are passionate about how to make a crystal lamp, others are into finding the perfect pillow inserts or couch pillows to accent their bedrooms.

There are literally thousands of niches out there you can start a business around, but the ones that can really make you money usually help people solve their problems.

Help people find solutions, and they will gladly give you money to alleviate their problem. Thousands of businesses are built on this premise.

To find problems people are having, simply go read a magazine or watch TV. Observe the problems people have and think about products you can create to solve those problems.

Jot down your ideas and then take action!

Happy customers are essential to good business

2009-12-15T08:57:00.001-08:00

It doesn’t matter if you are pushing physical products such as a cat tower and organic shampoo or doing business online, you will always have to face unhappy customers. I discovered this problem early on and it made me want to quit marketing online altogether, it was that bad in the beginning.

However, I decided I didn’t want to be a quitter and there had to be a way to resolve this problem. So I took a look at my entire business and learned that I simply was avoiding having to communicate with my customers.

One I learned this my profits began to jump higher and higher each month. All because I decided to treat my customers like gold.

By communicating more effectively with my customers, I got to know many of them on a personal level. They trusted me and I felt much better about the entire process. Even if you are selling something such as a ceiling fans with lights there will be problems. Just accept that if you are in business, you must deal with customers.

Customers aren’t to be feared, they are to be treasured. Once you learn to make this distinction, watch and see if your profits don’t skyrocket like mine did!

The proper link structure

2009-12-15T08:25:00.001-08:00

One simple way to hurt your SEO rankings is to use the wrong canonical url. Even if you have a simple little site about your favorite coin purse, you still want to rank well.

Below I have listed several ways you can link back to your site:

www.yoursite.com
yoursite.com
yoursite.com/index.html

Now here is the problem: the search engine spiders see all of these as separate links.

If you are using more than one form of these urls to link to your site, it can have a negative effect on your rankings. If you want people to find your koi pond site, it is important that you link to it properly to gain authority in the search engines.

Now your rankings could fold like a cheap futon futon bed if you aren’t careful about using the same link to promote your site. The good news is that improper linking is easily correctable.

To solve this problem, simply be consistent anytime you are promoting your site and use the same url structure everytime. This is just a good SEO practice you will want to get into the habit of.

Pricing Points Explained

2009-12-15T07:50:00.001-08:00

Did you know that a retailer can raise the price on something such as a double din car stereo or a bamboo cutting board,, and the sales will increase? In fact, this happens on a daily basis, and puts more money in their pockets.

This phenomenon happens because in certain cases, people won’t buy a product at a lower price because they feel it has little value. However, one the price is raised, they view it as more valuable. Eventhough it is the exact same item!

Now we know things such as anold muscle car can rise in value over the years, but most people are shocked to find out new products have varied price cycles.

Of course some products can be priced too high, and must be lowered to boost sales. This is why you want to always test different price points to see which brings the most overall profits.

This is why I would encourage you to start today. Find a product that isn’t selling well and raise the price. You may sell the same number as before, but you will have increased your profits. Do you see how powerful this can be?

3 Small Changes To Boost Conversions

2009-12-09T10:08:00.001-08:00

Do you believe that small changes can make a huge difference? Such as a toy guitar giving to a young child could influence his career? Small changes to your sales letter can do the exact same thing.

Testing is something you should always be doing for each and every sales letter you have. This is a great way to increase conversions and also your profits.

Each sales letter has it’s own dynamic and what works in one niche, may not work quite as well for another. Your beauty tip blog dedicated to the straightening iron or discontinued perfume, may not convert as well as a blog dedicated to stocks. With that said, I have discovered three simple changes that are universal and have always helped to increase my sales:

Always use a white background

I have tried colored backgrounds and ones filled with fancy graphics on all of my sales pages, but a plain old white background has always out pulled those backgrounds by a wide margin.

Always use a credit card graphic with your order buttons

This is a psychological trigger that compels people to buy. It also makes your order button easy to find and tends to set your customers apprehensions about buying from you at ease.

Always use "investment" instead of "buy"

This is another psychological trigger. Don’t tell your prospects they are buying a product from you. Instill in them the confidence that they are making an investment in themselves when they own your product.

Here is an example: Change “Buy for only $29.99!” to “Your investment is $29.99!”

Do you now see the power in this? You are using one word that people associate with a negative emotion (buy), to one that has a positive emotion (investment).

I challenge you to test these three small changes on your current sales letters and see if you don’t get a big boost in sales. But don’t stop there; you should always continue to test one variable against another for each sales letter. You never know what small change you make, can lead to a huge payday!

How To Cash In With Special Offers

2009-12-04T09:47:00.001-08:00

My friend had not had a bath in over three days, there where pizza boxes littered across his apartment, and a funky odor filled the room. As I walked into his apartment, I quickly became disorientated and started to feel myself losing consciousness. I felt my eyes starting to roll back into my head, and staggered to the window to get a breath of fresh air.

"Kevin, what are you doing, man?", I exclaimed to this usual neat freak.

My buddy then got a twinkle in his eye as he lead me over to the TV, where he was watching one of those home shopping channels. In the course of three days, he had become a shopping zombie.

My normal, levelheaded friend had become hypnotized by one of marketing's most powerful techniques: Time sensitive offers. If he didn't order "Peppi the singing fish" within the next 15 minutes, the offer would be gone forever.

The Yoda phone that exclaimed, "May the force be with you" when it rang would disappear into a galaxy far far away if he didn't act now. They only had 100 left in stock. As I sat there watching my zombified friend order useless items he would never use, I decided I would apply this same technique to my own business.

I believe it is vital to be honest with your customers, so I wanted to be sure of two things:

- My offers would only be for useful products and services.

- The offers had to truly be time sensitive.

The results where astounding.

The first time sensitive offer I brought to my customers almost tripled my sales. I was immediately hooked.

Now I never make an offer unless it is time sensitive.

For my offers I use a customized script that keeps track of my orders or counts down the time left until the offer expires. When my product is sold out, or the offer has expired, the script then removes the order page. I rarely make exceptions and extend the offer, unless someone had a problem ordering the product.

So how can you implement this strategy into your business?

To have a successful offer you should generally follow these two simple rules:

- Make the offer truly special (give a discount, extra bonuses, etc.)

- Make sure the offer is pulled when you say it will be.

The best offers I have tested usually last around 2-3 days.

These kinds of offers usually pull much better than if I limit the offer to 20-30 packages. However, each list is different. So don't be afraid to test various offers until you find the right formula for maximum sales.

The kiss of death, and quickest way to lose credibility with your customers, is to make an offer that insults their intelligence. Don't make a 48-hour offer, then run it for a week, just to make extra sales. Your customers will quickly catch on to this, and you will see your response rates fall drastically. Treat your customers with respect, and they will return the favor by making your bank account balloon to new levels.

3 Easy Ways To Pick A Top Home Business

2009-08-11T10:20:00.000-07:00

One of the most difficult tasks any new entreprenuer has is to find a top home business. There are literally thousands of ideas you can choose from in the jungle of business opportunities, so venture with caution and don't forget to bring your common sense along for the ride.

Here are three easy ways I have found to weed out the scams from the legit business opportunities.

Find Busy Forums

In a word, the name of the game when searching for a new business venture you can do entirely from home is FORUM. These are online sites, usually focused on a particular interest, where people get together and discuss all the relevant issues. Sounds like a great place to get a feel for top home businesses, right? Absolutely! You see, in forums the members often develop a sense of camaraderie. They look out for each other. When they come across information their fellow forum members need – good and bad – they share it.

So, find at least a couple of top online home business forums (there are many out there) and do some research. Most forums archive the threads their members post, and you can search them just as you would at Google. When you’re new to a forum, that’s a great first step. Search for phrases like: best home business, top work from home opportunity, etc. Read through a few full threads. Trust me, you will quickly get ideas – not only for home businesses that are considered tops, but also those to avoid at all costs.

Longevity

Once you’ve got a few work from home businesses that others think top the list, it’s time to look into how long each one has been around. It’s a safe bet that any opportunity that’s been around for several years has been vetted and isn’t a scam. That’s not always true, of course, so be sure to look for any bad news associated with that home business. But in general, older equals safer and, more often than not, a top performer.

Who Is Doing It?

Finally, here’s a simple (but often overlooked) question to answer while you’re searching for a top home business to start… Who’s doing it? No matter what kind of rave reviews a home business gets, the best recommendation possible is discovering that some of the biggest names in online marketing are doing it. You’ve probably heard the saying, ‘follow the money,’ right? Well, that’s what you’re doing when you investigate which (if any) top marketers are working a business you’re considering. This can be particularly helpful when you’ve got your choices narrowed to a handful. How do you determine which of those top businesses to go for? This is your answer.

Ultimately, the newer you are to the whole ‘work from home’ scene, the better off you’ll be choosing an established program that lots of people are talking about online and that is being worked by marketers who are well known. Keep these simple guidelines in mind and your chances of picking a top home business will improve significantly.

Stop dreaming about a work at home job and grab a free copy of my hot new ebook "Secret Lives of Internet Marketers". You will discover the successful blueprint seven famous marketers used to become financially independent and how you can easily apply it to your own life!