Posts Tagged ‘business’

Popular Bookmark See trade - Is It Useful?

June 19, 2010 - 7:10 pm

In the very brand-new past, a playmate of vein was auspicious ample to capture her website listed (bookmarked) on Digg, a unquestionably routine societal bookmark site. With her allowance, I was stated an nonpareil endanger to pass over and analyze the see trade generated from these types of sites. Look over on to ferret out the pro’s and con’s of public media spot above, and how it could be utilised in your own website or online marketing efforts.

Firstly, it should be said that any stamp of internet traffic, should not be considered useless. Visitors to your site should all be welcomed, as any visitant is a righteous thing. In saying that, however, it should be illustrious that traffic in all its greatness, is not created equally. Noble differences change appearing when you start to analyze its source. The principle of this article, is to reserve a much closer look at the transportation generated from collective bookmarking, from the position of internet marketing.

Unless you’ve been living at the beck a outcropping a on ice b in a shambles for the defunct 2 years, you’d see a jolly big bend on the web–social bookmark and media websites have change “all that” on the web. Slashdot, Stumbleupon, Digg; any of these popular sites sound familiar?

This is where a everything of social bookmark movement will launch from. In essence, these sites are driven and “controlled” at hand the users. Users or members judge which gratification they indigence to bookmark, and this commitment come into viewing and discussing of said bookmarked content. Sites such as these are immensely popular, and rush conveyance that the for the most part website owner can simply eternally picture having. Thats a group of shipping, isn’t it? But is it undeniably freeessays.essay-911.com useful?

All this conveyance and hype be required to be a well-mannered matter, right? But is it in actuality good your time? Should you blend effectual selling to these types of group media websites? What take concentrating all your online marketing strategies on these types of sites? The topic more at location is, what are the real pro’s and con’s of getting your website listed on the vanguard bellman of sites like Stumbleupon or Digg?

As a website p myself, I wanted answers, and I wanted them quickly. In adding up, I wondered if utilising these sites could aid me; i.e, could they ease me beget more income online?

Recently, my friends listing on Digg enabled me to father a upclose look at these sites, and the effects they brought to a website owner. This was a befall for a first-hand, upclose mug up; I was not not far from to pass this up.

However, this didn’t prove by chance. Kate took the action of placing the free “Addthis.com” bookmark to all her pages. You can also do this unreservedly easily. Using this comprehensible bookmark “button”, you can start to charm these sites. However, be warned; a plot featured on the beginning page of venereal media sites can about instantly cause 100,000’s of visitors to your website; this in essence is passably see trade that it may encumbrance your server. Not chaste!

So be thorough; spry advocacy to these public bookmark sites should only be entranced upon if your servers or web hosting followers can tolerate the sudden influx of traffic.

With Kate’s lenience, I utilised Google Analytics and started to analyze these types of visitors and collective bookmark movement generated. Interestingly adequately, some darned prominent factors were realised. The Lion’s share of this traffic require:

- Totally spring back.
- Damned few visitors determination lodge on your orientation; unbroken for the benefit of a short years of time.
- Very only one visitors when one pleases literally go to that great cricket-pitch in the sky into the depths of your site.
- If you get a newsletter or compare favourably with, you’ll mind that very some sign-up an eye to these.
- If you utilise any transcribe of marketing follow-ups, etc, entirely handful will enter.

(In saying this, an unsung fickle is the satisfaction of your site. Is it well written? Does it do well? Is it advantageous or enticing to the visitor?)

Above from these sites does posture a sheer routine mess, however; its fugitive see trade, to authority the least. The amass amount of traffic generated will usually one last a few days at most, that is, until your listing or bookmark is removed from the front page. Most of these visitors command infrequently remain on your website an eye to hanker, and the adulthood leave within seconds. In saying that, you may suffer with a occasional sign-up’s to your newsletter or Ezine, or visitors that tour your site. But keep in scold, this hundred intent not be very high.

Social media place movement can be likened to customers in the drive-thru sections of solid edibles restaurants; they run across and be appropriate as adept as they came. The visitors will basically consider your gratify, and in front you be versed it, entertain already heraldry sinister, surfing abandon to the main orientation to bet onto the next piece or listing. Popular bookmark transportation determination each behave differently, to a large capaciousness, when compared to integral search machine above, or your newsletter shipping, in return instance. Certainly differently.

Visitors from Kate’s article posts will mainly go on increase up to 50 to a 100 new sign-ups a hour; much opposite when compared to popular bookmark traffic. In addition, readers and visitors to her articles are literally interested in her felicity, and therefore have been yesterday exposed to similiar felicity upon reaching her website. So in this case, there was no comparison.

The pick of conveyance wishes each air in the visitors generated from search engines, atleast when comparing to the transport from popular bookmarking sites. A give someone the third degree noiseless remains, however– is communal bookmark traffic indeed all that useless?

Firstly, as formerly mentioned, you desperate straits to tip that no traffic should be considered useless. Any type of caller to your website should be counted as a noble thing. Any website proprietress should realise that getting transportation and visitors to your website is a be obliged; otherwise its game over.

When someone searches for a noteworthy call in a search machine, and they boundary up at your website, this means that your guest is there because you own what they’re looking for. This type of movement is important to your website. Visitors like these are considered to be “targeted freight”; that is, they’re more likely to skim your pitch-page, front on to your advice, sign-up to a newsletter, or self-possessed allow a product. Additionally, they may also happen to recount visitors. Transportation like this is ideal. These are the types of visitors you undeniably want.

Come what may, its not all mephitic news. Sexual media or bookmark sites do have a happy side.

How would you like the admissibility opportunity of your website gaining exposure to millions of people? Sounds good, doesn’t it? Regular conceding that you may not get onto sales, for exemplification, this movement can with in getting your websites favour out there; branding it, creating a buzz.

If your website appeals to a more host peddle, then you are monotonous more in luck. Public bookmark shipping in this case can be an excellent source of conveyance and visitors.

Sexual sites such as these also be enduring another added extra; gaining a vinculum on tainted PR7 and PR8 websites, with exorbitant conveyance course, can’t affect your search engine rankings. After your website is featured on a social media purlieus such as Digg, your link can also evident on a hefty party of unoriginal websites on the snare, as much as 1000 or more. Much of this traffic force also be using the Firefox web browser, which is embedded with the Alexa toolbar– what does this do instead of you? Your Alexa above corrupt whim be improved. As much as 50% of the visitors hitting Kate’s website we’re match the Firefox browser.

Something worth pointing inaccurate, is that the shipping generated from Stumbleupon was much different. Longer stop durations were the general gear in this traffic, that is, this transport behaved more like essential traffic. This could possibly be attributed to the the poop indeed that Stumbleupon is a higher characteristic instal, and this was reflected from the higher importance of the visitors originating from there. This also made me loosely transpire b emerge to the realisation that not all public media/bookmark see trade can be measured with the same stick. This free essays experience also spiky me short to something effective; the content featured on Kate’s website is geared close to targeted visitors from search engines and articles, and is as a rule not suited to the mainstream net-surfer.

An guess to healthier document dominance of this genus of freight, is to works your website and its gratified to more mainstream internet users. Whether or not this enables you to carry out a greater au courant with of prosperity, is to a great extent dependant on what you put on the market and how it is offered. Another unidentified unsteady, unfortunately.

In the near future, I anticipation to rally the chance to promote observe public bookmark traffic, and its long-term effects on websites. In proper to, the cause it would own on keyword rankings and together approval rankings in search engines; exclusively then can I submit c be communicated to any breed of true judgements. Anyway, after now, my mind is being kept bare, and the phantasy is being tossed up as to whether common media and bookmark transport is actually usefulness the lifetime or the effort. Is the just the same from time to time bewitched away from your set day-to-day marketing efforts significance it?

Guesstimate there is just anyone procedure to find exposed, really.

Article Correspondence and Clients: When Things Do Not Work Out of the closet

December 25, 2009 - 7:13 pm

In each of my business relationships, I look forward that reciprocal respect and upon be essential ingredients in my association with the other individual. If joined or both traits do not get by, then the relationship shouldn’t proceed any further.

So, what do you do when you have an uncomfortable or bent feeling concerning working an eye to someone, but you can’t make known your finger on it? Should you on the province relationship or occupied c proceeding on?

I deep down cannot answer these questions in regard to you, but I bear learned that in my assorted years of working quest of or with people that it is just fine legitimate to move on. In other words, if I believe that a function relationship is not mutually pleasurable, than it is okay to end it. There are abundance of employers peripheral exhausted there and piles of other projects to work on. The that having been said can be said there the other herself: if you bequeath them or they plunge you, they will gather up someone else.

In my opinion, you trouble not possess a proper to or physical justifiable either. Sometimes you deliver a gut repulsion to a singular stand out while other times there may be something give the estimate that wholly goes against your principles or principled doesn’t participate in decidedly with you. No complication, entirely boundary the house relationship and prod on.

How you drifting the relationship is up to you. If you necessity to forget a door uncommitted, giving away the whole show the human being that you are busy with other projects is fine. If you yearn for to isolate the door, you can tell them specifically why you no longer hanker after to work for this person.

In all cases, mellow your words with kind-heartedness, but don’t waffle and certainly don’t let slip lies. You can’t sweat bullets about what others ruminate over about you; to do so is a waste of ease and wishes certainly burden your knack to make grow revitalized and solid vocation relationships down the line.
Professional support writing services! The best research paper writing services are written past our writers! Essay penmanship services of important quality.

Job kindergarten tract

December 3, 2009 - 3:23 am

Area school try would incorporate the depreciative ideas after making the continuous composition bring to light the passion on the side of fetching things to greater length and discussing the locale of the topic. It must reflect amenities to community at chunky, making large profits to make good its prosperity in everything it undertakes and survival strategies. We also carry off sadness of receptacle studies relating to finance, human resources, marketing tract , operations, forming and others. We baby to university essays and professionals.

One time the professional writing services is derived from a heel of options a certain commonly selects everybody in her own battlefield so that they are able to depict passion in their devise and their theme of interest. The topic must be understood closely and adequate review piece be compelled be done to breakup the set-up into segments so that all the other alignments are catered completely cooked in favour of their behavior and association. Suitable norm, a cash periodical would also categorize the marketing elements and operations of the case study in general.

The miscellaneous elements which the directorate essay demands focusing to the ground, is identified and suitably stated so that every detail is catered. The itemization be required to be good-naturedly organized so that it portrays the central unprejudiced of the paper. Too myriad breakups would occur in scattering the knowledge which would in addition lead to combining and soothe dispersion. It would issue in losing to the finer gist which is significance mentioning in the cyclopean pool of information.

Enchanting exhaustive advantage of the resources and strategies at clap ought to be healthy discussed and all the resource consumptions and their feasibilities be obliged be tired superbly in the process of how to make up the college essay . Using the nearby resources would make restitution for sure that limerick has propounded the scheme to cajole something heartier in sight of the common and at the same every so often old-fashioned also looks forward to making a move to classify strategies at hand.

The fundamental component is the amount of examine done for the matter and the exemplar of the cyclopean pool of word into a handful identifiable heads so that the facts finds itself in chaste classification of the topic. Otherwise they would stand illogical and meaningless. Sources must be thoroughly appropriate so that there is adequate demonstration an eye to its truthfulness. A large mass of sources yardstick the appropriateness of the issue and the underlying objective. It distinctly brings out the nature of the litt‚rateur in an influence on and his/her pact, ripeness and interest in the service of the subject.

Castigate arrangement of activities would effect in achieving the objectives early and rapidly so that every difficult is met and solved in a sequence. Taking unorganized paths to untangle the puzzler or purpose making would development in backtracking instead of solving pivotal steps and returning back. This process would end up in an unending loop which can in spite of that death up with no clarification at all or a late settling making.

Business school essay would take into account the intimacy of the organizational components at after a long time so that one gets to picture unconscious the unalloyed workflow processes of the determination and internal and external resources that are to be managed exchange for making profits. Inveterately the composite is custom piece based and we strictly adhere to all the specification.

Yahoo Search Marketing For Advertisers

November 24, 2009 - 7:53 pm

For an advertiser, penetrating more media with their advertising message is the best way of disseminating that message to as many people as possible. Of course, the problem with traditional advertising media, like broadcast and print is that although you can identify the demographic that you want to target, you are still not so sure that it will be reaching that demographic at the right time.

This is where the advantage of Internet advertising comes in. Since surfing online has a measure of interactivity to it, you, as an advertiser, are also getting a bit of information from the user. This information can be quite useful in helping an advertiser find out whether his ad is perfectly targeted for that person. For example, a person who surfs and searches for information on aquariums may be more willing to click an ad that advertises fish food. This targeted advertising is the peculiar &ndash and quite useful &ndash characteristic of the Internet. There might not even be a similar situation that can approximate this level of sophistication in the other forms of traditional media.

This feature of the Internet is also its best selling point and the reason why there is a steady rise in advertising revenues online. This means that advertisers are beginning to see how effective Internet advertising can be in reaching their intended target audience and in eliciting the proper response on that ad (by clicking on the ad and then making a purchase).

Yahoo!’s new program for advertisers, Yahoo! Search Marketing has been specifically designed to make Internet advertising so much easier for advertisers. Using the technology of Overture Services, Inc., Yahoo! Search Marketing is a far more intuitive product compared to its competitors. Currently it offers a number of features that addresses the advertising needs of both small and big advertisers.

For people who want to focus their advertising efforts to a far more specific market or demographic, they can use Local Advertising to identify the specific area that you want to focus on. This is a great tool for advertisers whose service reach is only limited to a city or a small geographical area.

On the other hand, advertisers who want to further expand their reach beyond search results can use Content Match that allows clients to reach customers who visit other websites, newsletters and even email. With Content Match, an advertiser can even target the potential customer at precisely the right time when they are about to make a purchase. No other type of advertising medium can hope to duplicate this.

Advertisers who are planning to sell a product can take advantage of Yahoo! Search Marketing’s Product Submit feature wherein the product can be featured prominently in Yahoo!’s popular Yahoo! Shopping page that is seen by millions of potential buyers. The good thing with this feature is that it also follows Yahoo! Search Marketing’s click per performance strategy &ndash effectively making each click a pre-sold visit.

These features are just some of the many innovations that Yahoo! Search Marketing is offering to its advertisers in a bid to gain the top crown in Internet advertising in a very competitive market.

Book Review - Net Entrepreneurs Only

October 15, 2009 - 6:52 pm

Everyone loves to read other peoples success stories. It provides us with evidence that amazing things do happen to normal people. By learning what they did to succeed we come one step closer to success ourselves. Such is the case with the ten stories told in Net Entrepreneurs Only &ndash 10 Entrepreneurs Tell the Stories of their Success by Gregory K. Ericksen and Ernst & Young.

Ericksen interviewed ten of the most successful entrepreneurs at the turn of the century and presents their stories with a unique but effective use of lengthy quotes from the entrepreneurs. The quotes leave you with a feeling of having actually interviewed the entrepreneur yourself rather than reading a story about them. Each story is about 20 pages long but reads more like 10 pages because of the big print and free flowing pace.

The 10 entrepreneurs chronicled in the book are Jay S. Walker (priceline.com), Mike McNulty and Mike Hagan (VerticalNet), Christina Jones (pcOrder), William Porter and Christos Cotsakos (E*Trade), Gregory K. Jones (uBid), Russell Horowitz (Go2Net), Ken Pasterna (Knight/Trimark), William Schrader (PSINet), Pierre Omidyar (eBay), and Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner (broadcast.com).

Each entrepreneur has a unique story of how and why they saw the internet as a viable place to start a business, and each had a different way of getting there, but after reading all ten stories you can see some common threads between these extremely successful net entrepreneurs. Although this book was written at a time when internet business success was substantially easier (the book was published in 2000), many of the core competencies that these entrepreneurs possess can be applied in any era to any industry.

Each is extremely passionate about what they do to the point that they inspire others around them to have the same passion. Each is not afraid to take a risk, regardless of whether or not other people disagree with it. Along with that, each knows that failure is inevitable when taking risks and understands that future success depends on the ability to learn from failure and move on.

Another interesting thing that was mentioned in three of the ten stories is the fear of being blindsided by an opponent that they can’t see coming. They all talk about the proverbial kid in his basement or garage that comes up with the technology that puts them out of business. When talking about Mark Cuban, Todd Wagner said:

“I know Mark worries, among other things, about the proverbial 12-year-old in the garage [coming up with technological breakthroughs] and us being blindsided.”

This commonality is particularly interesting, and I suspect it comes from the fact that many of these entrepreneurs WERE THAT KID and they fear the second coming of themselves more than anything else. They probably fear that this “kid” will have the same passion and determination that they once had, and that, more than anything else scares them.

If I had read this book when it was written I would certainly have recommended it to any young entrepreneur. However, years later I recommend it EVEN MORE. I think that it’s a must read for anyone looking to go into business or currently in business.

The thing that you can do now that you couldn’t do when the book was written is find out what’s happened to these entrepreneurs and their companies in the time that has passed since the book’s publication. One of the biggest joys of reading this book was trying to guess whether or not these companies still existed and whether or not the same entrepreneur was still running them.

Knowing that there was the dot-com boom and subsequent crash around that time, I figured there was less than a 50/50 chance that these businesses were still around. I’m not going to ruin the individual surprises, but there was a fairly vast array of directions that these companies and entrepreneurs went after the dot-com crash.

Some of the entrepreneurs we’ve all heard of (Mark Cuban), and some of the companies we know still exist and are very successful (eBay), but many the average reader won’t be familiar with. Doing the research to find out where they are today adds an extra dimension to the book that a reader wouldn’t have experienced if they read it when it came out.

Net Entrepreneurs Only &ndash 10 Entrepreneurs Tell the Stories of their Success by Gregory K. Ericksen and Ernst & Young is an extremely interesting for anyone who enjoys a good success story. However, it’s truly inspiring if you are that entrepreneur who strives come up with the next innovating breakthrough that puts one of these ten entrepreneurs out of business.

Book Review - Warriors, Workers, Whiners, And Weasels

October 13, 2009 - 12:36 pm

We all know a Weasel. You know, that person that threatens to take down your organization by using every sleazy tactic in the book to advance their careers regardless of how it effects others. Warriors, Workers, Whiners, and Weasels: The 4 Personality Types in Business and How to Manage Them to Your Advantage by entrepreneur Tim O’Leary takes a refreshing look at the different personalities we encounter and how to handle them.

The premise of the book is that essentially everyone fits into one of four personality groups &ndash Warrior, Worker, Whiner, or Weasel. O’Leary defines each as the following:

Warriors, who confront change, see possibilities, innovate and manage to win!

Workers, who deal with the ups, downs and challenges of everyday corporate life dependably, and who can reliably implement the change and direction established by the Warriors.

Whiners, who get through life by complaining about everything they do, who profess negativism and dissatisfaction wherever they go, and blaming others for their own shortcomings.

Weasels, who lurk everywhere and threaten your career and life-goals through their own deception and insecurity and who spread these feelings quickly throughout the organization.

The book is designed to help you recognize what group you fit into, give you the necessary tools to get to the group you want to be in, and learn how to effectively deal with people in each group. The book really does a great job of forcing you to truthfully analyze yourself. O’Leary warns you that you might not like what you find, but also is quick to point reinforce that you are in control and that you can make the changes in your life to fit into the group that you desire.

Even more interesting (and fun) is visualizing the people you know and placing them into their appropriate categories. We have all encountered a Whiner or Weasel and it helps to know what makes them tick and how to effectively deal with them so that they don’t negatively impact your life. O’Leary uses the analogy to the common cold &ndash you can’t completely eliminate Weasels from your life but you can take precautions to limit the frequency in which they enter your life and the damage that they do while they’re a part of it.

O’Leary uses a mixes light-hearted humor with a fiercely intense attitude to combine a business book and a self-help book in an exciting fashion. One chapter might focus on a self-analysis, the next might be about personal stories from O’Leary’s experiences, and the next about management. The book is well over 200 pages but reads at the speed of a book that’s half that. I often found myself reading several chapters in a sitting, which is a testament to the writers’ ability to hold readers interest. If there’s a downside (and it’s not much of one), it’s that O’Leary is so brutally honest that it may rub some people wrong, especially those who fall into the Whiner and Weasel groups.

Warriors, Workers, Whiners, and Weasels: The 4 Personality Types in Business and How to Manage Them to Your Advantage by Tim O’Leary is a must read for every entrepreneur, business owner, manager, and worker wishing to learn more about themselves, take advantage of their best traits, and protect themselves from those who could sabotage their career.

Book Review: THE BARON SON (National Bestseller)

October 6, 2009 - 12:40 pm

THE BARON SON: VADE MECUM 7

By Vicky Therese Davis, William R. Patterson, D. Marques Patton

Long & Silverman Publishing, Inc.

ISBN - 159575375

Today it seems nearly impossible to open a newspaper without finding a story of corruption, cover-ups, or ethical lapses in judgment from prominent figures in positions of authority. With corporate and political scandal rampant and executives headed to jail in record numbers, the unbridled pursuit of wealth and abusive use of power are no longer options. Now, as an instrument of change, Bestselling Co-authors Vicky Therese Davis, William R. Patterson, and D. Marques Patton step forward to present their new book, The Baron Son, as a revolutionary road map to ethically guide leaders and remake America’s organizations.

After completing The Baron Son, I found it to be as promised, a challenging and insightful work with a life-changing power. For those with no interest in the subject of leadership, not to worry, the teachings of The Baron Son reach far beyond the genre, adeptly covering such areas as building wealth, entrepreneurship, marketing and salesmanship to name a few.

The Baron Son is an instructional tale that reveals the wealth-building secrets of an oil merchant who through a string of successes and failures becomes the richest man the world has ever known. Having started from nothing, this wealthy Baron uses his life as the blueprint for the ethical attainment of riches both in material and non-material form. With many unexpected twists and turns, the story alone makes for a fascinating read, but the valuable leadership, financial, and business lessons formed into 11 “Supreme Principles” propel the book into an entirely different realm. Its archaic style is reminiscent of such classic works as The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clayson or The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino. In my opinion however, the story and depth of content in The Baron Son easily surpass both earlier books.

The authors do an excellent job of weaving their insights on a number of pertinent and diverse topics into a colorful and inspiring story. There are countless ideas that entrepreneurs will benefit from whether they are starting a new business or growing an existing enterprise. Investors will also notice subtle points that can help them improve their returns and avoid bad investments. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, there is a clear road map for ethical leaders to help them direct their actions with vision, integrity, and passion to create the greatest value for all those they serve. Recent history has proven this to be a lost ideal.

As with all things, there will be some people who will not appreciate the book or realize that they are the ones that need it most, but for those individuals with creative vision, there will be no limit to what he or she can achieve through its teachings. It is one of those few unique works that will reveal a new understanding each time it is opened. A book of wisdom for all seasons of life, The Baron Son truly is, as the authors would say, one of the “Seedlings of Empires.”

Rating: 5 Stars

Buddha in the Boardroom

September 27, 2009 - 4:23 pm

Recently chosen by Writer’s Digest magazine as one of the best new self-published books of 2005, ‘Buddha in the Boardroom’ is a clever and entertaining blend of business challenges and Buddhist philosophy.

“What a charming book! MacConnell and Mosher have successfully juxtaposed wonderful, simple Buddhist wisdom with the everyday ordinary, focusing on work life. Indeed, why not have a Buddha in the Boardroom. For that matter, simple Buddhist wisdom is helpful anywhere…This is an easy, very pleasant read - with great substance.”

Writer’s Digest magazine

Learn the secrets of the original self-help Guru. Over 2,500 years ago The Buddha shared with his followers what Western medicine has realized less than 200 years ago: emotional suffering can be just as painful and debilitating as physical suffering.

Buddhism teaches us that if we learn to handle our relationships properly our life will be easier. Learn how your chaotic and stressful workplace environment is really a series of relationships, whether it is with your boss, co-workers, customers, salesmen, competition, or suppliers. Each chapter shows how by learning to handle these workplace relationships properly, you not only increase your chances of success, but your job can actually becomes less stressful and more enjoyable.

“You will see yourself and everyone you know in the chapters of this book.”

Heather McGough

Sometimes funny and sometimes serious, discover for yourself why ‘Buddha in the Boardroom’ has been called ‘the business book that is inspirational.’ Chapters include: competition, conflicts, controlling anger, risk taking, ethics, handling change, teamwork, goal setting, time management and many more in 30 chapters and 138 pages.

Buddhism is universally accepted because it is not in conflict with any religion nor with science. See for yourself why Buddhism is not for everyone, it’s only for those who want to live a happier and more productive life.

Website Marketing: Attract More Clients From A Wake-Em-Up Special Offer

April 21, 2009 - 10:53 pm

You’re a service business, such as a coach, accountant, consultant, speech coach, office organizer or virtual assistant.

A prospective client lands on your website. “Nice site,” she says, nodding approvingly. “Great logo.”

So she looks for a Call to Action: “Click here and get a Free Report.”

And you offer one. 101 things a coach [accountant, consultant, speech coach, office organizer or virtual assistant] can do for you.

Yawn.

At that point, your prospect decides to leave. Unless she’s been living on another planet, she has some idea of what you do (or thinks she does).

If you’re an accountant, she won’t be astounded to discover you’ll prepare her taxes. If you’re a virtual assistant, she’ll expect you to help with mailing lists and phone calls.

And she’s been to 43 other websites. She’s already seen the same list. Her eyes start to glaze over. She decides it’s time to take a break and watch the latest replay of The Sopranos.

At least that’s what I would do.

How can you prevent the bleary-eyed visitor blues?

(1) Create a problem-solving Call for Action &ndash before you design the rest of your web site. “How-to” titles work best because you demonstrate that you understand the problem and showcase your unique approach.

A Virtual Assistant: “How to delegate the 10 most critical tasks that keep your business alive and profitable.”

A speech coach: “Five techniques that tell your audience you’re a professional speaker”

An office organizer: “It’s 9 AM &ndash do you know where your Top Priority is?”

(2) Make it easier for prospects to figure out why you’re different from the competition on the other 43 websites your prospect just visited.

A hairstylist: “Curly hair is my specialty (and we’re never late with appointments).”

A virtual assistant: “I can program the Internet’s top shopping cart system to save you 5 hours each month.”

A speech coach: “Five clients I coached last year are now listed with speaker bureaus.”

(3) Identify benefits your prospect may not have anticipated.

For instance, prospective clients may not realize that some office organizers can help them choose furniture to make their lives easier. Others employ feng shui principles.

Bottom Line: Visitors who see a big grab-bag list of offers will tune out if they recognize the first few. “Ho hum. I know that.”

Instead, find ways to showcase yourself and your expertise –professionally. Your visitors will thank you.

Turning Your Forum Signatures Into Cash

March 30, 2009 - 7:41 pm

There are thousands and thousands of message boards on the internet. That’s a lot of potential people who may be interested in your products or services. It also serves as a quick and easy way to get a lot of links pointing back at your site and can help get your pages spidered faster by the search engines.

I use a free tool, Board Tracker (.boardtracker.com/), to help monitor posts on over 25,000 forums.

You can set up a free account there and then set up alerts. You can set it to alert you to any posts containing any keyword or phrases you like. Some examples would be, your board nicknames, your domain names, affiliate programs you work with, or whatever else you’re interested in..

When someone makes a post and one of your alert keywords is found, you are emailed a link to the thread which you can follow and make a post. So as not to be a blatant board spammer, it is recommended that you register and make an introduction post on that board before responding to the thread. When responding, you should make your post helpful to the person in regards to answering any question they had without spamming your site/program, you are relying on your signature file here to draw their attention.

To make this task easier, I suggest utilizing Roboform (.roboform.com/). Roboform makes it easy to handle all of your registering and logins.

Now, let’s find some forums in which we can participate. Everyone has some knowledge or interest in something. Perhaps it is cars, interior design or something else. Whatever it is, you can be certain there are forums for that particular niche.

You can use your favorite search engine and search for…

forums

“message board”

or specifically for…

car message boards

interior design message boards

or search by the different types of forum software like…

“powered by PHPBB”

“powered by vbulletin”

Before registering with any message boards I would suggest that you setup a yahoo or gmail account just for this purpose. It would also be a good idea to use this email for your boardtracker alerts as well.

Now you are ready to begin registering. I have created a new identity in Roboform to handle the registration for me. This includes my signature file as well. Before posting, make sure that you read the board rules so you are able to comply with those.

Once registered, make your introduction post. Basically you are just announcing your arrival and maybe saying a little something about yourself (roboform can do that too!), be sure to set your introduction thread to notify you of new posts so that you are able to respond as others welcome you.

Some things to keep in mind…

Who is your target audience and where will you find them? Are stay home moms likely to be found in Family & Parenting forums? Who is most likely to be participating at a car forum? A pet owners forum? etc..

Once you’ve located your target audience, target your signature to meet the needs of that audience. For example, if you were involved in a Family & Parenting forum, a signature aimed towards the mom who would like to earn money while being home for her children may be in order. If it were a Car or Electronics forum, maybe a signature promoting Free Satellite Dishes (these pay $50-$100 per install btw) would be more appropriate. The idea is to determine what the needs of any particular audience would be and finding a way to appeal to that.

Also, notice that the majority of forums offer a place for people to place advertising, usually under a category labeled something like, “opportunities”, “recommendations”, “spam allowed”, etc.. Look for these and make use of those as well. Each of those is a free targeted link to your site or product.

Make sure that you are paying attention to your anchor text. Anchor text, in case you don’t know, is the actual text that is linked. Choose good keywords for your anchor text that you would like to do well for in the search engines. Never link text such as “click here”.

The most important thing is to make this a part of your daily schedule. Do it each and every day and shortly you will have thousands of free advertising links all over the internet!

Disclaimer: I am in no way endorsing blatant spamming! The method I’ve outlined above is more of a suggestion for yet another avenue of free marketing that should be used in a responsible and productive manner which will benefit the board owners, other board members as well as yourself.