Advertising Sales Tips

In this day and age, it's simply not enough to call on someone and make a presentation. If you don't follow up at least 7 times, you are wasting your time, as well as theirs. The more time you put into getting to know your potential customers, the better your relationship will be.

Because of that, you need to follow up after a presentation, at least 7 times, and sometimes longer. Here you'll find some creative ideas to follow up that will be sure to impress anyone.

1. Your first follow up should be a hand written note, thanking them for their time. Use a nice card, embossed with your logo, if you want, or just a simple "Thank You" card available anywhere.

2. Second, find some "Cheese Straws" at a specialty store, and send it with a note saying: "Grasping at straws to find the perfect solution to...(include a problem you can solve for them)? We can help! This is not only a cleverly worded reminder of your presentation, but something for them to taste and remember you by.

3. Rolodex cards are excellent reminders: include a note that says: "We are always at your fingertips when you need us!" Make sure your rolodex card has the little tab at the top with either your name, or the biggest benefit of using your services: this will make it stand out from the others cards in the file.

4. Next, send a bag of popcorn with a note saying: "Just popping in to remind you that we can.... " (mention one of the benefits of using your services or products).

5. A coffee mug imprinted with your logo, and filled with some coffee packets and even a cookie could be next: this will remind them of your visit every time they enjoy their coffee.

6. A seed packet with this message: "We would love to help you grow your business" is another original idea that will leave a great impression.

7. Chocolate business cards will be a tasty reminder of your services. This one may be a little more expensive, but well worth the cost. You'll need to pay for a plate with your logo, but it's a one time cost that will pay you many times over. The chocolate business cards are a great conversation starter, and something that will separate you from your competition.

These are just a few ideas: there are many more ways to keep your name in front of your potential clientele.

And to keep track of what you did, create a folder for each presentation and set up your follow-ups before you even go to your presentation.

You are now on your way to success: good luck with your next presentation!

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Generating Self-Sustaining Website Traffic

Upon returning from a recent seminar, I had two messages from newspaper reporters on my answering machine. They were both seeking interviews. I also had emails showing that I'd earned several thousand dollars while I was out of town speaking. The orders had all been processed automatically, and the emails were just for my information. It was at that point that I realized my Internet business had truly reached critical mass.

Critical mass is a term that I first heard my friend Jack Humphrey, author of Power Linking, use in reference to generating website traffic and growing a business. Jack used it to define that point at which you could stop actively promoting your online business (for a while) and it would continue to grow and prosper.

I'm sharing this with you because I want you to see the tools that enabled me to reach that point. This article will show you to see why those tools are so powerful.

Let me begin by telling you that it took me eight years to grow my online business to the point where it is largely self-sustaining! I don't want to mislead you there. A big part of success is unwavering persistence.

Now, let's look at the tools I used to reach and maintain critical mass.

1) Search engine marketing. All of my important sites ARE manually submitted to the search engines. I submit and re-submit them "semi-automatically" though. I use a site called SelfPromotion.com. This site allows you to store all relevant data about a site into their database. The software then submits your site to selected search engines and directories.

The beauty of self-promotion.com is that you can then set it so that the software periodically resubmits your sites. Its truly "set it and forget it" website promotion.

SelfPromotion.com is free, but if you make a contribution, to help pay for the upkeep of the site, you get access to more nifty tools. You can get a free account with them at: http://selfpromotion.com/?CF=Willie%20Crawford That URL lets Robert know that I sent you. I've used this tool for over 5 years now - and love it!

2) Article marketing. I've written and distributed over 300 articles. Articles establish you as an expert in the marketplace, build inbound links to your sites, pre-sell your products, and help you rank higher in the search engines for your targeted keywords.

The power of article marketing is that once the articles are in circulation, and on hundreds... or even thousands of websites, they can work for you forever. I still get traffic to some of my websites from articles I wrote in 1998!

Many online marketers now use articles to market their websites, but they don't do it very effectively. Articles have to be written, and deployed, in a way that they both gain you advantages in the search engines and that they convert readers into customers, subscribers, clients, and fans. That means your articles need SOLID content.

In writing articles (or having them ghost written) you must always remember that people surf the Internet looking for information and solutions to their problems. Your articles must actually provide this information or help them to actually solve their problems. Distribute articles that accomplish this, and you'll develop an endless stream of raving fans, all storming your website for more of YOU.

Writing articles is relatively easy. If you don't know how to write articles though, I recommend that you take advantage of the training available at a site called Content Propulsion Lab. Content Propulsion Lab teaches you not only how to use articles to grow your business, but also how to use multi-media content (such as MP3's and online video). You're shown how to deploy multi-media content in a way that causes the search engines to gobble it up.

I mentioned the multi-media content because, while articles work beautifully, website audio and video is growing at an amazing pace. You need to offer your audience information in the formats that they prefer consuming it in. More and more, this format is becoming audio and video. These formats allow your audience to connect with you on a much deeper level since they see or hear a live person. Connecting with your audience on a deeper level means MORE sales.

I now use Content Propulsion Lab's resources to push my content out to an amazing array of places. I also TEACH others how to do this through tele-classes and webinars featured at Content Propulsion Lab. You can check out all of the mind-boggling capabilities Content Propulsion Lab offers at: http://CashThroughContent.com

3) Viral tools. A viral tool is merely something that, once set in motion, continues to grow, and spread, and benefit you, without any additional input being required from you.

Two of my favorite viral tools are online discussion forums and blogs. Online discussion forums allow people interested in a given topic to congregate and and discuss that topic. Over time, your discussion forum will develop a core following who will help to spread the word, and help to maintain the community. Seek volunteer moderators to help police the forum and maintain standards. Many people will volunteer for a link back to their site, or just for the exposure.

The number of blogs is growing exponentially. Blogs are proven traffic magnets. A blog allows you to share information, opinions, etc. with your audience. If your blog engages your audience they will help to spread the word. At the same time, blogs are visited frequently by the search engines. Search engines notice which ones are updated often and become "trained" to spider those blogs often.

Because blogs are spidered so often, it's one of the quickest ways that I know of to get a new site noticed by the search engines. Just post a link to one of your new sites on a blog that's frequently crawled, and the search engine spiders will follow that link and index your new site. This is VERY powerful to be such a simple technique.

Blogging is very simple, but there are lots of tricks and techniques that offer you an amazingly competitive advantage. My favorite blogging platform is WordPress, which I learned all about from my friend Sherman Hu. Sherman has a series of short online videos that explain practically everything you could ever want to know about blogging with WordPress.

You can watch 22 (yes - 22) of Sherman's videos on WordPress blogging absolutely free at: http://ShermanHuOnWordPressBlogging.com

Other viral tools include ebooks, PDF special reports, MP3 audio files, and Camtasia videos. We can't cover all of these here, but any of them could be created, and then offered to the marketplace. If they deliver tremendous value, or even entertainment, they will be passed along. If you create these viral tools properly, they will lead highly qualified traffic right back to your site.

4) Link Building. People find, and then visit, your sites by following trails. Those trails can be mentions of your url in online or offline media, articles, press releases, and links on other sites pointing to you. The more links you have pointing to you, the greater the chance of someone finding one of those links and visiting your site. So, you should set out on an aggressive effort to build quality links pointing to your site.

Since I value quality links over sheer quantity, I have over the years simply emailed webmasters of sites I wanted to exchange links with suggesting the exchange. Now, I hire others to coordinate link exchanges for me. This is a better use of my resources in the long-run than doing it myself, since there are services that do this fairly inexpensively. To locate one of these services, simply type in an appropriate term at the search engines.

You can also set up an affiliate program as a way to reward others for linking to you. Affiliate program management software, such as the one I use at http://ProfitAutomation.com allows you the option of paying people (on a per click basis) just for sending traffic to you. I do this on a few sites, but on most sites where I have affiliate programs, I pay on a per sale basis. This still generates a lot of one-way links but only costs you when those links make you sales.

There are many, many more techniques that you can use to build a steadily increasing flood of traffic to your sites. I use literally DOZENS of different methods. If you're looking for an "encyclopedia" of traffic generation methods, I highly recommend a course by my friend John Reese, called Traffic Secrets. You'll find John Reese's Traffic Secrets Course at: http://TrafficSecretsByJohnReese.com

The most important part of building your websites' traffic up to critical mass is just getting started. Pick ONE of the methods outlined above and get started. As you verify that a particular method works great for you, and your marketplace, keep using that one and then add others. If a particular method doesn't produce for you, stop wasting your time with it!

One final thought... even when you build your website traffic to critical mass, you still should continue to promote.

Yes, you'll continue making sales, but if you completely stop promoting, sales will eventually begin to drop off. Major international corporations such as Coke(tm) have proven this over and over again. That's why you see these major corporations with MAJOR market domination continue to promote their products and services.

Now that your understand the intricacies of generating self-sustaining website traffic, what are you waiting for :-)

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Willie Crawford has taught PROVEN Internet marketing techniques to thousands of successful Internet entrepreneurs since late-1996. Subscribe to his free weekly ezine, which helps you cut through the clutter and time-wasting hype. Subscribe now by visiting:
http://WillieCrawford.com

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Network Marketing Tips for the Newbie

Smile and be happy... it's contagious

Don't quit EVER

Find a reliable mentor and listen to them

Choose your company carefully... it will be a big part of your life

Remember that network marketing is not a sales business, it's a teaching and mentoring business... It's all about the RELATIONSHIP

Watch out for high pressure tactics

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is

Nobody can do everything, so build a team of members who contribute

Stay persistent

Never EVER Give Up

Be Patient

Be focused and Motivated

Stop talking and listen

Teach, Coach, Mentor

Be able to teach what you do to help your team succeed

Use the products and services yourself so you know exactly what you are promoting

Invest as much time and money as you can into your business

Avoid programs that offer commissions only for recruiting additional distributors

Beware of plans that ask distributors to spend money on high priced inventory

Be cautious of plans that claim you'll make money only through continued growth of your downline instead of through the sales you make yourself

Beware of plans that promise enormous earnings very quickly with little or no work

Have a daily method of operation and do not stray from it unless it no longer proves to be successful

Recruiting is a numbers game so be persistent... every "no" is closer to a "yes"

Talk to people every day... you never know who might make make you a millionaire

Attend your company's business meetings, training, etc... or whatever it is they offer for personal and business development

Focus on personal development and helping others to do the same

Find a partner and push each other to succeed

Set high but also achievable goals and a don't stop until you reach them

Track your progress

Have a plan and stick to it

Nothing worth doing is easy... remember that!


Finally, Give the program below a very in-depth look. You will be glad you did...

Wanna Learn the Secrets to Creating Passive Income Online from a man who made $3,244,842.32 from the Internet in Only 27 months?
==> http://www.work-at-home-jobs-iowa.com/su.html

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SEO For The Big Three

Ranking your website highly on one of the “big three” search engines (Google, Yahoo or MSN) is a daunting task let alone ranking your website highly on all three. Three engines, three algorithms, three different sets of rules - and yet there are websites out there that have first page rankings across them all – how do they do it?

While all of the major search engines use different algorithms the end goal of all three is the same: to provide the searcher with the most relevant results available. It is this one common thread that makes it possible for an SEO to rank a website highly across all the major engines. While there are a variety of factors at play and an even wider variation in the weight each of these factors are given – the possible variations that can produce relevant results are limited.

For example, if inbound links are given 0% weight then insignificant sites will rank highly for high-competition phrases. Many reputable companies such as Microsoft could lose rankings for their own names so links must and will always hold value. On the other hand, if links were to hold 100% weight then sp@mming the search engines would be a simple matter and so there are a limited number of possible variables in between these extremes that this factor can have, no matter which engine we are optimizing for.

That said, there are still three main engines with three distinct algorithms despite common requirements. To clarify how to optimize for all of them it's easiest to discuss them individually first. Due to the way their algorithms work one is best to expect rankings on MSN first, followed by Yahoo! and finally Google (I am assuming that the phrase is of at least moderate competition). For this reason we will discuss them individually in that order.

SEO For MSN

Proper SEO for MSN requires that a site be structured well with a distinct theme throughout and many inbound links. The advantage an SEO has while optimizing a site for MSN is that MSN tends to pick up and credit new content and inbound links very quickly. That means that with the right tactics in place one can rank a website relatively quickly on this important engine.

While MSN has the lowest number of searches performed on it, ComScore's report back in July revealed that MSN searchers were also 48% more likely to purchase a product or service online than the average Internet user. A very important statistic for website owners that sell online.

To rank highly on MSN one needs to build a solid sized site (exactly how large will depend on your industry – look at the size of your competitor's sites for an idea), a relevant theme throughout the site that focuses on your primary keywords and a good number of links. MSN doesn't (at this time) employ an aging delay on links such as the one employed by both Google and Yahoo! so the effects of the site and inbound links can be picked up very quickly and with good SEO efforts one can rank well within a few months on MSN for competitive phrases.

SEO For Yahoo!

Until recently Yahoo! acted very much like MSN, now it's leaning a bit more towards Google. Ranking a website well on Yahoo! requires a solid-sized site with unique content and a very good number of links.

While PageRank is a Google factor, Yahoo! does have some type of page value factor at play. Many moons ago Yahoo! was playing with a PageRank-like calculation called WebRank. They even went so far as to put out a beta toolbar testing it. This indicates that there is a factor at play in the Yahoo! algorithm similar to Google's PageRank – they just don't advertise what a specific page's value is.

Yahoo! is placing a large amount of emphasis on the age of links though not in the same way that Google is. We will get to Google shortly however to understand what to expect from Yahoo! one must understand that when you get a link to your website it won't hold it's full value for a number of months. While the exact number of months in unknown it appears to be around 8 before it hold it's full weight though it will hold some from day one and this weight will increase as time passes.

To rank well on Yahoo! you much optimize your site similar to what you would do for MSN and you must build a large number of inbound links and have patience as these links age. You will not see a sudden spike 2 weeks after a large link-building campaign, you will likely have to wait 3-4 months to notice any significant effect.

SEO For Google

Virtually every webmaster and website owner is primarily concerned about attaining Google rankings due to the significantly higher number of searchers using it. Provided that you are building your website following the best practices of SEO (i.e. unique content, a sizable amount of content, and a good number of incoming links) then your rankings are sure to follow, however due to their aging delay it will likely take longer than on MSN or Yahoo! Google considers the age of your links, your domain and even the individual page to be a factor and the longer your page has been online the better.

Essentially, ranking a site on Google requires that you take the same actions as for the other two, continue your link building efforts on an ongoing basis to insure that you end up with more-and-more links, and that you update your content and add content on a fairly regular basis (though the addition of a blog for example).

Tying It Together

The logical process for a new website or one at the first stages of SEO is to first target MSN. At this point you can focus your attention on continuing to build high-quality, relevant links to and content on your site which will continue to increase your value on Yahoo! and Google.

Analysis will be required to determine exactly what weight you will be giving to different areas. For example, if your onsite factors are optimized for MSN then you know that you will need to make up for this in the offsite factors for Yahoo! and Google. If you figured you would need 100 links to rank on Google then you will now need to up that number to account for the fact that you have optimized your site itself for a different engine.

During the analysis process you will likely want to use a tool to speed up the process of keyword density analysis and competitor link analysis. At Beanstalk we use a tool called Total Optimizer Pro though there are others out there (note: I have yet to find one that does what this one does as quickly and easily).

Conclusion

I am hoping that none of you read the title and were expecting to rank on the first page of all three major engines next week. Ranking highly on all three major engines takes time, patience and a good few rounds of tweaking to get the perfect balance of onsite and offsite optimization. Of course, as you can gather, done properly it's well worth the effort.

About The Author:
Dave Davies is the CEO of Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning, Inc.. Dave writes with years of expreience in SEO and optimization tactics. Watch Beanstalk's SEO news blog for details on the publication of a 4-part series on ranking your website highly accross the "big three engines" in January of 2006. Dave would like to thank TopNet Solutions for the development of Total Optimizer Pro - a comprehensive SEO tool that provides a blueprint of how the top 10 got there, so you can too.

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Where Do Your Visitors Come From?

Some people might think it is silly for me to ask you where your visitors are coming from. Folks suppose it is silly because they do not think too much about where there current visitors are coming from. Instead they are more concerned with where the next visitor is coming from.

Well, let me share a little secret with you. To better determine where your next visitor could come from, it is important to know where your current and past visitors came from.

This is the deal. With all of the available advertising resources available to us, some work well and some do not work at all. The resources that have worked for us well in the past will continue to do so.

For example, if you run an ad in an ezine, you might get hundreds or thousands of hits from one ezine. The truth is that since that ezine is of a limited size, you will only get a certain number of visitors from the one ad. Each ezine in and of itself has limited value to you, but there are other ezines of a similar nature out there.

The trick is to find what works and stick with it. If an ad on one website generates substantial traffic, that same website will continue to generate similar traffic over the long-term.

Our greatest advantage in the Internet world of business is that we can use technology to effectively track our advertising methods and locations. By looking to the past, we can put ourselves on a solid footing to build for tomorrow.

Simply placing ads wherever we think might do the trick is a sure-fire way to drain your advertising budget in a hurry to no benefit for you. It is far better to study what works and then to use that information to build on your successes.

About the author:

Bill Platt is the owner of http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com

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Online Home Business Tip

Today's home business tip is one that will help you put collective efforts together to majorly increase traffic to your website which will in turn increase sales and more money for you!!

OK, here is today's online business tip...

Team up with eight to ten other sites to promote the same web site. Just include everyone's products on the web site you are all promoting. You can also do this with free e-books too. Get others to promote the free e-book in exchange for an ad in it.

Doing this will give you up to 10 times the exposure to the website. Imagine if you had 10 times as many hours in a day to spend promoting your website! Where would you be today? Think about that!

Have a great day!

Dedicated to your success,
Trent Brownrigg

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