Self Employed Success

Donny Deutsch, host of The Big Idea, has a new book out. And on this video clip, he says that NOW is the time start or own a business. You can’t rely upon an employer to take care of you…or even to be around in six months.

Watch the Today Show interview video here.

I saw a great article today called Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves: Ethical SEOs and Search Engineers Narc Out SEO Fraud. It is sooo wonderful to see real-life examples from experts on what devious tactics are out there in the SEO world.

The funniest one has to be from Matt Cutts, a long-time search engineer at Google. He says, “My favorite is always the one where someone emails Google and asks to exchange links, or email-blasts me and says that they can guarantee a No. 1 ranking or wants to buy links on my site.” Imagine emailing Google to say you can get them high SEO rankings! 

Educate yourself so that you know the real deal in SEO when you see it. (Hint: no one can guarantee you No. 1 ranking.)

One thing I know for sure: your customers are busy people. They see and hear your marketing message, and they may think, “Hey, that’s a great product!” Then a child (or the boss) starts to scream, or an ice storm knocks out power, or they run out of gas on the highway, and POOF! – Instant Distraction.

Placing just one advertising message and expecting miracle sales is a recipe for marketing disaster.  Marketing is a marathon not a sprint. It requires repetition to gain their attention. It requires repetition to RE-gain their attention. It requires repetition to gain their trust and respect. It requires repetition to get them to take action.

There is strength in repetition. Think about doing sit-ups. You don’t do just one…you do them over and over again, because the repetition of the exercise sends messages to your body to build specific muscles.

When planning your marketing campaign, common marketing wisdom tells us you need to get your message out to the customer at least seven times before they’ll really pay attention and act on it. If you have a mailing list of responsive clients, maybe two or three repetitions is enough.

Yes, there is such a thing as annoying people with too much marketing. Daily repetition of the exact same marketing message will cause people to exit quicker than a skunk in a movie theater. But a balanced pacing of marketing messages (say once a week or once every 10 days), plus a focus on what the benefit is to the customer, will reap rewards every time.

Whether you use email marketing, printed postcards, or Google Adwords, repetition of your marketing message is one of the key factors in getting people to really see and hear it. It ensures that, should they become distracted and forget about your message, that you give them another reminder. Plan your marketing campaigns accordingly.

A woman I met at the NSA Internet Marketing Intensive a few weeks ago posted a nice blog post about me!  Awww, shucks, folks!

Annmarie Kelly was the coordinator for the speakers. She did such a great job in keeping us informed about the event, getting information from us in a timely manner, and answering all sorts of questions. It was a joy to work with her.

When creating an email mailing list, there is a feature you should consider using: the double opt-in.

A double opt-in works like this: First, a person who wants to be on your mailing list either fills out a form on your website or gives you their email address in some other way. That’s the “first opt-in.” Second, the mailing list system sends a confirmation email to them, asking them to click a link to confirm their email address and that they really DO want to subscribe to your mailing list. That’s the second or “double opt-in.”

These are my thoughts and feelings on double opt-in:

1. In the end analysis, it’s a good thing.
2. Yes, some people will subscribe, but not click the confirm link in the opt-in email. It’s the risk of doing business online. (Just like some people move to a new house but don’t tell you their forwarding address and all your marketing brochures get sent back to you.)
3. By using the double opt-in feature from your mailing list system provider, your email will be sent from a “proven clean” mail server, which will decrease the number of bounces and spam rejections you get.
4. It stops spammers from signing up to your mailing list in order to swipe your email address from the newsletters you send them. Spammers rarely will click the confirm link.
5. You can see who has not confirmed yet, and if you want, you can email that entire list once a week and ask them if they want to confirm or not.
6. Most people now understand the double opt-in concept and look in their Inbox for the confirmation email they’ll receive. Not everyone knows to look in their spam or junk folder, so you remind them about that as they are subscribing.
7. By having your mailing list in the same database as your shopping cart, you have a huge benefit of sales and leads data that you wouldn’t have if they were in two separate systems. You also have the benefit of upselling to previous customers, thereby increasing your revenue.

Some people focus on what they’ll lose if they ask people to confirm an opt-in. Don’t focus on what you’ll “lose.” Focus on what you’ll gain: a clean list of motivated subscribers that won’t bounce or be marked as spam.
 
And remember:

• Your list size does not determine your loveability or your business success.
• Your list size does not tell you if you are a good person, or if you are worthy of the best things in life.
• People who don’t opt-in in are not rejecting you personally; they’re probably just getting too much email and want to cut back.
• People who DO optin are saying, “Yes, I like what you have to say and would like more of it.”
• Many business owners making over $100K per year have lists under 3,000 people.
• It’s not the size of your list that matters, it’s what you DO with it that counts. 

There are two problems with marketing plans:

1. People feel marketing planning is too overwhelming (so they avoid doing it altogether)
2. People aren’t getting much success out of the ones they do create (and they can’t figure out why)

In this teleseminar, we’ll discover a step-by-step process to craft a successful marketing plan that will take you just 90 minutes to design.

This one-hour teleseminar is scheduled for

February 5, 2009
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM eastern

Class will be recorded, so if you miss the live class, you will be able to download the audio recording and listen to it at your leisure.

To register for this free teleseminar:

http://www.passionforbusiness.com/calendar.htm

What is a Teleseminar?

A teleseminar is a class, workshop or lecture delivered over the telephone. It gives students access to training materials they might not be able to find in their local community, and allows them to learn new material without having to travel.

The teacher is usually called a teleclass leader or teleseminar leader. Their job is to create and foster a learning environment where people feel free to ask questions, share ideas and challenges, and discuss the class materials. While some people have a natural ability to teach via telephone, many people find that attending a teleclass leader training program helps them learn specific techniques for phone-based training.

How do Teleseminars Work?

The teacher and students meet via a teleconference line (also known as a telebridge line). As you can imagine, chaos might reign with so many people on a teleconference line, so generally-accepted teleclass etiquette guidelines have been created to help foster the conversation without people talking over each other.

Teleseminars can be a one-time event, where everyone meets on the phone for one hour, or an ongoing series, where everyone meets once a week for several weeks or even months. The more sophisticated the topic and the more in-depth the training agenda, the longer students meet with the teacher. Often during series-style teleseminars, the teacher will assign homework to be completed between class meetings. This helps the student to apply what they learned that week to a real-world situation or project.

Read the full article, All About Teleseminars – Should You Offer Them…

Designing Effective Workshops and Teleclasses begins January 20.

A good workshop design allows students to learn with ease, and allows us, the presenter and facilitator, to speak with comfort and centeredness.

Teaching gives us an opportunity to build a trusting relationship between ourselves and our students, who may be current or future clients.

In this HANDS-ON 5-week teleclass, you’ll learn how to:

• Construct lesson plans – the “script” of any good class
• Design exercises for optimal student learning and participation
• Create both a live workshop AND a teleclass from the same lesson plan
• Set prices and market your workshop or teleclass

Here is a great opportunity to start — and finish — a class design project in five weeks, AND get feedback from the instructor. Walk away with a class design of your own, and start teaching it immediately!

For more class details and to register:
http://www.passionforbusinesslearning.com/dewt/

This five-week teleclass begins January 20, 2009

• Jan. 20
• Jan. 27
• Feb. 3
• Feb. 10
• Feb. 17

All teleclasses are
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM eastern

Class will be recorded, so if you miss a session, you will be able to download the audio recording of the live class and listen at your leisure.

Registration fee: $185 for the five-week teleclass.

For more class details and to register:
http://www.passionforbusinesslearning.com/dewt/

This weekend, I had the pleasure to speak at the NSA Mid-Atlantic chapter’s full day internet marketing intensive in Philadelphia. What a great way to meet other small business owners, learn new information, and share ideas!

Tom Gray was the keynote speaker, and gave a wonderful overview of Web 2.0 marketing. Other speakers included Rick (“don’t call me Richard”) Simmons, Sally Witt and Steve Coscia. They spoke about how they have promoted their own businesses with techniques ranging from blogging to social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) to selling products on the internet. I gave two presentation on driving traffic to your site through search engine optimization (free search engine ranking techniques) and online ads with Adwords (paid search placement).

During the panel discussion at the end of the day, the audience asked us many questions. One of the most important points to come out during that discussion is that internet marketing (happily) is not a one-size-fits-all marketing tactic. There are so many ways to use internet marketing and social media marketing, you get to choose which ones fit your style and fit your audience. AND you don’t have to be a techie to partiicpate!

Going to one of these full-day events is a great way to meet people! But if there aren’t events like this close to you, remember that you can meet great people online through LinkedIn, Facebook and your blog. In 2009, all business and all marketing is about “making connections” … and internet marketing and social media lets you make them with ease.

I saw a great video a few days ago on a different kind of “bartering for business” system:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27239037#27239037