eWorld Consulting

Essential Small Business Internet Marketing Tools

2009-03-18T10:58:00.007-02:30

In my last post I referred to supporting your business website with the proper tools to help with your Internet Marketing plan.

Well the next obvious question is what are these tools. Listed here are the essential tools that I recommend all small business owners incorporate into their IM plan.

1. Fresh website - To reiterate what I spoke about in my last post, that does not mean going out and spending a pile of cash on a great looking design. Fresh simply means that if you currently have a website that is more than couple of years old then you should build a new site with a simple and clean design. Remember visitors are looking for info!

2. Web Site Opt-In Form - While you will be working hard to get visitors to your site it is essential to get more for your efforts than just seeing another visit in your website stats. You want to create the opportunity to market to those visitors again and again through your email list. Your email list will be comprised of visitors/customers who have requested to receive more information from you. But how do you get this list in the first place...through your opt-in form. Your opt-in form will be a simple form on your website that visitors can complete to receive more information from your business. This could be a monthly newsletter, or the top ten list of important points they should know before buying your type of service or product. Once they complete this form then the rest is handled through your autoresponder account (see number 3 below).

3. An Autoresponder - Many may ask what is an autoresponder account. This is a tool that is used for email marketing. An autoresponder will allow you to contact your clients via email to notify them of your latest news, upcoming promos, new products/services you are introducing, or just providing them with information related to your business that can help them. Now an autoresponder is different than an email marketing application. With an autoresponder you can create a return email that will be automatically sent to a subscriber. For example you have an opt-in form on your website where visitors can sign up for your monthly mail out on your latest promos. Once a new visitor signs up through your opt-in form they will immediately receive a confirmation email sent by your autoresponder thanking them for signing up as a subscriber. The key is that you create the thank you message once and your autoresponder delvers this automatically without requiring any manual intervention on your part. You can take this a step further and create a series of responses that will be sent out at varying intervals to your subscribers. So they would receive your than you message immediately and then on the second day receive another message, two days after that another, each message building on the previous. This allows you to keep in touch with your client and deliver valuable info without you having to manually send this info each time to every customer. There is much more to an autoresponder than I discussed here but this is one essential tool to have in your IM plan.

If you want more info then visit AWeber who has one of the best autoresponders you will find in the market.

4. Twitter Account - Twitter is a social networking service that allows you to post what you are doing many times a day so that your followers can keep up to date with you. Now if you have never heard of Twitter before, not likely, or at least have never used it then this may seem like a lame thing to be at but Twitter is taking the business world by storm. The cool thing about Twitter is that there is 100% deliverability...if you post it your followers will see it. Just think about having thousands of followers who you know will see every message you post.

Check out Joel Comm's latest book called Twitter Power - It will make you a believer.

5. Google Analytics Account - Google analytics will allow you to see vital stats about the visitors to your website. Basic, necessary information such as the keywords that visitors used to find your site, what pages are visited most often, bounce rate, how long visitors stay on your site and much more. Analytics allow you to measure various parameters and then adjust your marketing campaign accordingly. There is too much to go into in this blog post but web analytics is a vital component of your IM plan.

6. Pay-Per-Click Account - Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, for those who do not know exactly what I am talking about, is a form of Internet advertising where you create an ad that will be posted on the search engine of your choice and the best part is that you only pay for the ad when someone clicks on your ad to go to your website. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is an essential component of your IM plan because it is the cheapest and fastest way to get visitors to your website to see what you are offering. You can have the best offer on the web but if no one can see it then it isn't worth much. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is much talked about when we discuss Internet Marketing and some view it is the pinnacle of your marketing plan but SEO needs to be complimented with a PPC campaign. SEO traffic also referred to as organic traffic doesn't cost you anything but the it takes work to get your site listed in the search engines where searchers can actually find you It isn't much good to be on page 552 of 1,000,000 pages as searchers rarely go beyond the first three pages of their search results. PPC offers business owners an opportunity to get your site listed on the first page of a search engine results within minutes of posting your ad. So while you are waiting for your site to gain ranking within the search engines you still have an opportunity to get visitors to your site.

The number one search engine for B2B is Google but YaHoo and MSN work very well for the B2C model and they are cheaper than Google.

While these are not all the essentials these are the ones I recommend to business owners who do not have a marketing plan in place. I will discuss others in a future post.

Web Design Vs. Internet Marketing

2009-03-18T10:37:00.003-02:30

Having spent the last three years of my life working with small business owners to help get their business online there is a frustrating trend that I constantly run into. Most business owners think that Internet Marketing is all about how good their website looks; if it looks good then I am going to make money. The website is only a piece of the puzzle and I see so many businesses who have spent all of their Internet Marketing budget on the design and then when it comes time to begin marketing they are surprised that they have to spend more money. They either don't have the cash left or aren't willing to spend more money on their "Marketing" plan.

Your website is a tool that you build your marketing plan around.

Ugly (poorly designed) websites that have the proper components built-in and supported by the correct marketing tools will make money whereas great looking sites that have none of the correct tools will rarely add to your bottom line.

This is a critical piece of info to understand because if you don't take the time to learn about Internet Marketing then you will not create the proper budget.

My advice is simple...build a simple site with a clean design that you can afford to market around and then when it starts paying for itself, and only then, should you consider spending more on design to make it look better.

Coming Up Next: The necessary tools to add to your IM arsenal.

PFL 2.0

2008-04-16T01:08:00.002-02:30

As I said before there is no better time to take your business online than now. While there are many free resources out there to help you do this I am slowly discovering that if you really want the juice you have to pay for it. The free stuff tells you the what but not the how. So I have made a decision to start investing a little more in myself and have been spending a little cash to learn from the best in the business. My latest purchase was The Product Launch Formula 2.0 from Jeff Walker. Jeff is recognized as the best in the business when it comes to product launches. For those who may not quite understand what I am talking about, a product launch is a systematic approach to letting the world know about your latest or not so latest product that you are trying to sell. Instead of doing the hope marketing thing whereby you put your product on your website and then drive traffic to it and then hope someone buys, you take the time to build interest in your product before you launch it to the world. This approach can hit several birds with one stone. You build up your list with highly qualified leads, create much greater interest in your product and your business, and you build a community of like minded people who you can share information with. This system has proven to be very successful and most of the biggest Internet marketers in the world are using Jeff's formula.

PLF can be used to launch just about anything including your business which is one part I am interested in learning about. The purchase of this course came at just the right time as I was in the process of creating my very first Internet Business product before the release of PLF 2.0 so when it launched I jumped on the opportunity to get this package. Since buying I have put my product development on hold as Jeff is providing so many ideas about product launching it has made me stop and rethink some of my product strategy. This couldn't of happened at a better time.

What was cool about this purchase is that I bought it through Ed Dale and one of his bonuses included his own course called Dominiche - The Art of Buying and Selling Websites. Buying and selling websites, VRE (Virtual Real Estate) works just like buying and selling real estate, you can buy a site fix it up so it is performing better and then sell it for a profit or keep the site and the profits. Websites can be bought for several reasons but I am hoping to get my hands a bargain that is already bringing in a ton of traffic which I can then tweak for my own products. It can be a lot faster and cheaper to buy an existing site instead of building one from scratch and taking the necessary time to get it to a point where it is generating good traffic that you can convert.

Internet Marketing Online

2008-02-25T21:03:00.001-03:30

How many ways can you ponder to use the World-Wide-Web? It seems when it comes to cyberspace, there are simply no limitations or boundaries. We all take advantage of this technology in a variety of different ways. Whether you're signing up for an online bank account, snagging a free email address, or merely surfing the web, net-land continues to offer more and more. Now days people even take their businesses online. Yep, there are a number of online companies that pull in gargantuan profits. With a PC or Mac at your side you can accomplish virtually anything. From simply creating your own website to Internet marketing online, it's all at your fingertips. It's time to take advantage of cyberspace, folks. This is a contemporary vehicle to cash.

Have you ever considered Internet marketing online for a personal business? If you really sit down and do the math, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the possibilities. While marketing your skills or products in the physical world can get a tad redundant and burdensome these days, taking your spiel to cyberspace makes complete and total sense. Just think, with Internet marketing online you can appeal to a much broader audience. Isn't that what everyone with something to sell is after? Access to the Internet is equal to having access to the world. A close friend of mine uses Internet marketing online for his home-based computer hardware business. Although he is based out of California, his cliental is not limited to that area or state. With Internet marketing online he is able to expose his business and products to the entire planet. Can you fathom the difference in revenue? Six billion potential customers is a lot better that six million. It's all about who you can reach. People are always searching for the best products and best deals.

Are you striving to expand your business? Maybe it's high time you considered Internet marketing online. It's imperative to get your product and/or service seen by all. This is the absolute key to earning capital. Hop online today and learn more about Internet marketing online. Get that personal business on track with the help of your home computer. There truly is a sea of opportunities out there. All it takes is a little effort and surfing down the Internet highway.

Get paid on 100% of your website traffic, no clicks necessary! How is this possible?

2008-01-15T17:26:00.000-03:30

Well you may have heard of PPC (Pay Per Click) Internet Advertising but have you heard about PPP. If not then you will be hearing about it very soon.
PPP or Pay-Per-Play is a new form of Internet advertising that is going to take the web by storm.

PPC (and its publishers cousin - Adsense), CPA, and other forms of Internet advertising are based on website visitors taking particular actions such as clicking on a link or filling out a form, etc. Once this action is taken the website owner gets paid a portion of the ad revenue that is collected from the advertiser. While this can be a very lucrative method of earning money from the Internet the key is getting the visitor to take whatever action is required. This can be easier said than done!

Pay-Per-Play guarantees that the website owner gets paid for every visitor that visits their site because no action is required in order for the site owner to get paid. You get paid for 100% of the traffic that visits your website, without them having to buy anything. You also get paid on the people you refer, and the people they refer.

I know you are wondering how this works well keep reading.

PPP places audio ads on your site that automatically play whenever a visitor enters your site. You get paid everytime the ad plays...simple. This means that you can monetize 100% of your website traffic.

That is why this form of advertising is the web's newest and fastest growing advertising vehicle . You drive traffic to your site and the money rolls in!

This is not a gimmick or crazy plan to get you to spend money but it is an amazing method to help you earn more money from your own sites.

If you are interested, and you should be, then check out NetAudioAds Pay-Per-Play system to sign up and receive all the details and then sign up for your free account. But do it quickly while you can still get a core account.

Data Backup

2007-10-29T00:32:00.000-02:30

Having spent mote than a dozen years consulting with small businesses it still astounds me how many small businesses do not have a backup plan that will enable them to recover data in the event of a critical data loss.

I have heard comments ranging from "I don't have that much data to worry about" to "hardware is so good these days that I do not have anything to worry about".

Well let me tell you if you are in business you do have data to worry about regardless of the amount. I have seen one person shops that do a very small amount of weekly transactions who have lost all data due to a hard drive failure and it took them a week of working nights to recover their accounting data just so they knew who owed them money!

Hardware is very good these days but the adage of 'when' not 'if' when discussing drive failure is still number one. Hard drives in particular probably fail more than they did in the early years. Drives are built with closer tolerances, they spin faster, generate more heat and cram more data in their platters than ever before. In my experience drive failure is the number one cause of data loss.

Failure from single laptop drives to 5 disk server drive arrays have all failed with the same results...no access to data!

Nothing ruins a business owners day more than when they can not access their accounting data.

So what should you do to protect that data. Well below are a few recommendations that will suit all budgets and levels of required redundancy.

Since backing up your data for a small business can range from relatively inexpensive ($50.00 per year) to expensive ($50,000.00 plus) it is important to know how much data loss you could suffer before you would begin to experience serious business interruptions. Now the obvious answer may be none but that is not always the case. For example a business that has a small number of daily transactions that have a paper trail for every transaction may be able to lose a weeks worth of data before it would have serious implication. The reason is that they could recreate the electronic transactions manually from their paper files. Now switch to a business that has many daily transactions and one weeks worth of data could be very difficult to recreate manually while still trying to run your business. Remember that all those invoices to customers who owe you money reside in that data.

It's not very nice to have to call your customers and ask them how much they owe you!

1. You should have at least one copy of all electronic data that resides on all computers in your office (servers and desktops). Preferably each office should have a central data repository where each workstation stores all critical data. One of the biggest mistakes that I see is an office that has a server running configured with an automated backup system but much of their the critical data is sitting out on individual desktop or laptop computers that do not have a backup system. Data should be backed up daily - some argue that you could get by with an less fequent back up such as weekly, or every second day, etc. but given the low cost of storage these days as compared to several years ago I recommend daily backups.

2. This backup should be readily accessible on a daily basis so that data can be accessed quickly to recover single files if necessary. Most daily recovery requirements result from single files that have been lost or overwritten and not from complete data failure.

3. A second copy of this data should be kept off site. Why you may ask. Well what happens if your building burns to the ground...ya your data burns as well. Now many business owners scoff at this and figure they will play the odds that this won't happen and no doubt that it is not a daily occurrence but I have seen it happen. I always use the analogy that your vehicle could stop with only one brake on one wheel but it that one brake fails then the results could be catastrophic. With regards to data loss regardless of how it happens if you are not able to recover it the results could be catastrophic. Keeping a copy of your data off site does not cost much but does require some diligence. I have also known of one company that had a break-in and their server with the backup system was stolen...bye bye data!

4. Back up system testing should be performed on a regular basis. 60% of backup systems fail. Tape drives don't run, software becomes corrupt, and other failures can occur that do not get reported by the system. The worst example I have withnessed was a company that experienced a hard drive failure on a server that was backed up by a tape system but the tape system never ran each night and the software was indicating that the backup was performed correctly each night. That company had to go back six months before they found a tape that had any data...Ouch!!

So periodically you should test your system to ensure that it is backing up properly and can recover data. A simple test is to delete a test file that has been backed up and then attempt to recover that file.

There are many backup systems available but that topic isn't going to be covered here today. My intention was to stress the importance of placing a data backup/recovery system in your business.

Starting An Online Business

2007-10-25T10:02:00.000-02:30

The theory of starting an online business sounds simple but like starting any business there are best practices to follow, pitfalls to avoid and most importantly you need to have an attention to detail. As I stated before getting things about 80% right is just enough to fail in this business.

So where does one start to get your business online. Well if you are the hands on type then you could start by reading through the plethora of books on this subject (take a look at recommended reading section of this blog to see a list of books I have read and recommend), begin subscribing to email lists of many top Internet Marketers, sign up for monthly subscriptions to services such as StomperNet and Immediate Edge.

I have done all of the above and more but the best resource I have come across yet has been "The 7 Figure Code". The 7 Figure Code is the recording of a weekend long marketing event hosted by Mike Filsaime and Tom Beal. Mike is one of the best Internet Marketers in the world and has taken his business from $0.00 to $4.5 million in about 4 years. In this seminar Mike and Tom open up their business and explain exactly how they started, their best practices, which resources they use, what they did wrong and how to avoid doing the same. This event wasn't just about Mike's business but he had other top marketers do presentations on essential information. These included Brad Fallon, Stephen Pierce, Ken McArthur, Rich Schefren, and many others. The course is a series of 16 DVDs and a transcript of the speakers.

For anyone serious about starting an online business this is an excellent resource to go through that will save you time and money!

Now what if you are not the hands on type but you want to take your business online well then align yourself with someone who is willing to sit down and learn about your business and then make solid recommendations that will work for you. It is important for your consultant to take the time to understand your business and know your target. Understanding your target (increasing leads, e-commerce, education) is critical because this will determine the best solution for your business.

Internet Marketing...Selling Via the Web

2007-10-24T12:47:00.000-02:30

As an Internet Consultant I help business owners understand the technology tools that are available to help them achieve their targets (I like targets better than goals because we aim for targets but goals are rarely achievable), whether that is educating customers about the products and services they offer, getting more leads, building a qualified email list to market to, or selling real products through their website.

Selling products through the web is one of my favorites and has been the focus of my attention of late because I believe that much can be learned by business owners who understand this process.

In particular I am interested in helping businesses that currently do not sell anything via the web. The web can take your business to the next level and all busnesses have a next level. This can be an excellent way to boost sales or even mutliply your current sales as you open your business to a whole new audience.

Many business owners say that they do not have anything they could sell over the web but if you look more closely at what you have to offer you may be surprised.

Selling successfully on the Internet is achieved through niche marketing. While your business may sell many products or services locally niche marketing is about picking a particular product and becoming the dominant player in that market. Niche marketing may not work as well when you are selling to a local market but open your business to the eWorld and you have a market of a vastly different scale.

I highly recommend reading "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson. Chris does an excellent job of explaining how we can profit by focusing on niche markets or as he has coined the phrase "the long tail".

There is much to be discussed about niche marketing and way too much to dicsuss here today but I would like you to look closely at your business and see if you have a product that you could develop into a niche market or more correctly service a niche market with. The next step is performing smart market research to determine whether or not there is enough people who would be interested in buying this product.

What A Summer!

2007-10-23T03:27:00.000-02:30

If you are reading this post then you must be wondering what happened to me since May. Well in short...alot!

Once I joined StomperNet Simple I leaped into a world of intense Internet Marketing training that opened the floodgates of knowledge. Wow these people really know their stuff!

At the end of the 30 day trial I couldn't leave so I decided to stay on as a member so that I could continue to reap the rewards of knowledge from some of the most well known Internet Marketers in the world. The information here at Stomper is some of the best and most up to date info you will find anywhere.

Ed Dale, who lead the Simple progam for the Stomper crew, also runs his own training program called the 30 Day Challenge so I also signed up for his training system this summer. Hey it only cost a buck.

While the initial StomperNet Simple 30 day program was geared around affiliate marketing the 30DC was focused on Web 2.0 technology. Web 2.0 uses social networking as a method to get more eyeballs to your blog, website,etc. This training involved learning about Facebook, Technorati, DiggIt, Firefox and other applications as they would be applied to letting the world know about your offering of information. The goal of the program was to have participants earn their first $10 in 30 days without spending a single dollar. Some people managed to earn over $10K!

The training was specifically focused on improving your search engine rankings as they related to your particular topic of conversation and wow did these work. People were getting first page ranking on Google in the organic listing (that is free) within 20 minutes of having thier site go live. This was even a surprise to Ed Dale and Dan Raines, who were providing the training.

Having received a taste of Web 2.0 I decided I needed more so I signed up to Ed and Dan's Immediate Edge Newsletter which is an ongoing education into the world of Internet Marketing with a focus on getting free traffic.

Well it doesn't stop here but I am going to leave the rest for another day and head off to get a little shuteye.

Stomping the Net

2007-05-16T22:20:00.000-02:30

I joined up for a trial run of StomperNet last week. What is StomperNet well to take a quote directly from their own site,

"StomperNet is many things, but it boils down to this. It's THE program that teaches you everything need to know to start, grow, and explode your online business."

StomperNet is owned and run by two guys, Brad Fallon and Andy Jenkins, who are probably the best in the world at Internet Marketing. They each run their own very successful Internet businesses but a few years ago they joined forces to teach others how to create successful Internet based businesses. Their business has grown to a team of over twenty pros who are mentoring business owners on the ins and outs of Internet Marketing. StomperNet operates on a monthly subscription basis which is not very cheap so you have to be serious about your business before joining up but for anyone interested in learning from the best this is the place to be.

A few short years ago it was possible to start an online business with nothing more than a website and a product or two and with some rather basic onpage optimization technics you were off to the races and making money. Move a head a couple of years and the business of Internet Marketing has changed drastically. It has become a very competitive business that requires more than a fair share of skill and technical knowledge if you want to experience serious success. The name of the game is rankings. You need to have a good position on the search engines Google, MSN, or Yahoo, etc. Just do a search for a product on Google and check the number of web sites that Google will return for that particular keyword...typically it is in the millions, so to outrank the other millions of sites and end up on Google's first page takes a little knowhow. But not to dispair as it is not impossible and for those focused enough the business of Internet Marketing can be learned...maybe not mastered but certainly learned.

In the Internet Marketing world there are countless numbers of so called experts who know the latest trick to beat the search engines however there is also a lot of misinformation going around. In this business getting it 80% correct could be all it takes to experience complete failure so in my quest to learn more I decided to go with the best and learn from the real experts. Over the next thirty days I will be completely immersed in StomperNet and gleaming every tidbit of info I can and then using myself as a guinea pig to see if I can put this knowledge to good use.

Once the thirty days are up I will have to decide if I will be staying on with StomperNet so keep posted as I will update my blog with my new adventures.

Persuasion Architecture

2007-05-09T00:40:00.000-02:30

I am in the process of reading a book by Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg called Waiting for Your Cat to Bark. After reading another book by these guys called Call To Action I was intrigued enough to read another. These guys really understand the advertising in a world of such diverse media. No longer are we competing for just radio, TV, or print ad space but there is now a whole new world of Internet Marketing that in many ways complicates the choice process for the business owner but in other ways allows the business owner to tap into a vast market that they could not afford only a few short years ago. Reading these books has broadened my understanding of the potential of what a proper web solution can do and help make some sense of proper design and how to get visitors to do what you want them to do.

Your site is not simply a place to throw in a few words about what your company does or show a few pictures of your products and then hope that this will be enough to make customers want to buy your products. While this is certainly a starting point for many new sites you should be always looking for ways to improve your online marketing and developing your site with a defined strategy.

You need to define what you want your web site to do and then develop a strategy for getting it done. It is possible to funnel customers through your site and direct them to taking that call to action, whether that is just signing up for a your newsletter, registering for product info or actually buying a product from your site for those of you offering ecommerce. Keep in mind that for many business sites the goal of the site is not always to have your visitors immediately buy something. For many businesses their web site is a place to educate their customers and start the buying process.

It is estimated that approximately 70% of purchases are initiated by someone searching the web for more information. With that number in mind you need a solution that will 1. help potential customers find you and 2. convert those visitors into customers.