Archive for Online Marketing – Page 59

Online Success in Do-able Chunks with The Blog Squad’s Blogging and Beyond Mentor Program

If you need help with all or parts of your online marketing, (and who doesn’t?) join Denise and I in our Blogging and Beyond Mentor Program. Until May 8th at midnight ET, you can get the help you need on your blogs, newsletters, shopping cart, web writing tasks, and sales processes for less than $10 for the first month. Access tutorials, videos, audio files, and documents that break down the steps you need to follow for online success, plus monthly coaching calls. Details: visit www.theblogsquad.net/mentor.

Content that Convinces: 4 Tips for Email Marketing

We’ve been reviewing a 6 step formula for online success over on our sister blog, Next Level Biz Tips. If you’ve missed the first parts, you can read them there:

6 Steps for Successful Online Marketing for Your Business
Step 1: Attract the right people
Step 2: Give People Something for Free to Grow Your Database

Step 3: Write Content that Convinces People You Are a Savvy & Trustworthy Person

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Once people opt in to your list, you must stay in touch with them through email. Email marketing is an art and a science because you must be respectful, give plenty of value and still let people know you have products and services for them.

Chris Baggott’s new book Email Marketing By the Num8ers lays it all out for anyone wanting to learn how to market using email. (Shameless plug: I contributed to chapters 2 and 7!)

How do you write content for your email marketing messages? Many marketers focus on getting the results they want: a purchase, a registration, a new client.

If you go about it like a drunken frat boy at a party, you’ll get the door slammed in your face. Both Baggott and Seth Godin (Permission Marketing) say to approach your marketing like you would woo your future spouse.

Here’s a short list to guide you when writing a follow-up email message to people on your list. Make sure you:

1. Focus on the reader
2. Focus on the benefits to the reader of what you are offering
3. Write to inform and educate, not to tell or sell
4. Write to build a long-term relationship not a one-night stand

Why are your email messages so important?

Read More→

Email By the Num8ers: Chris Baggot Connects the Dots

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Chris Baggott’s new book Email Marketing by the Numb8ers is really good. I say that not because I contributed to chapters 2 and 7, but because you could learn a lot about how to use email to take your marketing to the next level.

We all get such narrow perspectives entrenched in our own businesses. It’s natural to not see the obvious. Chris is very knowledgeable about how email works for businesses (he’s a founder of ExactTarget.com).

For his book he invited other email marketing experts to contribute articles. So this gives you perspectives on how other businesses besides your own are using email. Things you might not think of.

I’m still reading it so I’ll save some examples for later, but the point here is that if you struggle with your ezine or email marketing campaigns, hunker down for a weekend and learn from Chris’ book. It’s available here on Amazon.

Failure to Thrive: Why Many Online Businesses Don’t Make It

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I just wrote an article and posted it to our Biz Tips Blog : The Real Reason So Many Online Businesses Fail. Rather than re-post it here, I invite you to go over there to read what I think is the main reason so many Internet entrepreneurs and writers struggle…

After you read the article, please comment and tell me if you think I’m right or out to lunch on this one!

I’ll be posting a series of articles each day this week leading up to Tuesday May 8th. That is the last day you can join The Blog Squad’s mentoring program, Blogging and Beyond, for the low introductory fee of $9.95.

Want to know more about how you can avoid failing online? Visit www.theblogsquad.net/mentor.

Niche Blogs Corner the Long Tail

Join Denise and I this Thursday as we interview Shirley Frazier about niche blogging.

Blogging and Beyond with The Blog Squad, Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D., and Denise Wakeman
With Guest Expert: Shirley Frazier, president Sweet Survival and SoloBusinessMarketing.com

Thursday, May 3rd 2007
3:00 p.m. PT (6 p.m. ET)

ShirleygeorgefrazierHow to Use a Niche Blog to Corner Your Market

Why do some blogs take off right away, and others seem to languish
without traffic? What does the solo business professional need to know
in order to use the power of blogs and online marketing to get found
and get clients?

Blogs have quickly become a smart way to find people interested in a specialized niche,those customers often found way out in the long tail of marketing statistics.

The Blog Squad interviews Shirley Frazier, SoloBusinessMarketing.com and publisher of the wildy successful GiftBasketBusiness.com blog on how to find a niche that works and what you need to do to corner your niche market.

Writng for Money, Spiders, or Ego?

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Words = Money

I just read an email from one of those AdSense traffic guys – you know, the ones that put up multiple web sites with keywords built into the content solely for the purpose of getting traffic and click-throughs on ads?

I think they call them ‘black hat specialists’ for their less than natural ways of trying to game Google.

In any case, these guys are making money using words on a web page. Sometimes it’s $2 or $4/a day, but if you put up enough of these sites, you can generate $2000 to $4000 a month. And, it’s not like ‘real’ work either. So who am I to criticize?

Do you make money with your words? Here’s what I see among the different kinds of people writing on the web: There are those who write for the spiders, write for their egos, and those who write for money.

Read More→

Blog Squad’s Mentoring Program Opens Up

Big Announcement this week for professionals who need help with their online marketing!Megaphone_red

What do 97 savvy professionals have in common?

They all participated in the successful Blogging and Beyond Mentor Program with The Blog Squad.

Now it’s your turn.
Denise and I are opening this program to you at a fantastically reduced introductory fee so you can experience it for yourself.

Yes, for the price of a couple of Starbucks frappaccinos, you can put more boost into your marketing than a shot of caffeine!

The Blogging and Beyond Mentor Program gives you a competitive edge for marketing your business online. Learn what you need to know about blogs, ezines, shopping carts, info products and selling online.

Want to know more? We have an audio note for you. Get the details now.

P.S. The introductory offer ends on May 8. Take action today.

Your Writing Persona: Who Are You?

Lorelle VanFossen asks a good question: Who are you when you blog? Lorelle is author of Lorelle on WordPress and examines your writing persona. This is a long post, but good because it will make you think.

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Who is Your Blogging Persona?

by Lorelle VanFossen, Lorelle on WordPress, guest author

Blogs began as online journals, ways to connect and share our lives with others. While they have come to be so much more than that, they are still "personal".

Readers want to feel a personal connection with their favorite bloggers. They form a relationship with the writer, like they "know them". Writers have been building such relationships with their readers for centuries.

Remember those favorite columnists in newspapers or magazines, the ones readers eagerly anticipated in each issue to see what they have to say today? The writing voice may not be truly representative of who the writer was, but it was indicative of the strong writing character they developed. A character readers came to trust.

Do you know who you are when you are blogging? Who is the character you present to the world through your blog? Does your writing clearly speak for that character?

Many bloggers have more than one blog. On one blog, they may be the expert, sharing their learned wisdom to guide people through the mire of an industry. On another blog, they may take things less seriously, casually expressing their fondest wishes for a gentler world and showing off pictures of their child playing at the beach.

Would they write the same way on both blogs?

Read More→

Writing for the Web: No More Gatekeepers

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Anne Marie Nichols is author of a freelance writing blog about The Write Stuff and contributes this post about the demise of gatekeepers, the web, and some famous self-publishers that will surprise you.

Goodbye to the Gatekeepers?
by Anne Marie Nichols, The Write Stuff, guest author

Thomas Frey in his Denver Post article, "Gatekeepers on info highway disappearing", brings new prospective to blogging and the new media:

Enterprising people have begun to find the keys to unlocking their future, and it’s a future that doesn’t include the barriers provided by gatekeepers. Publishing an article no longer requires the approval of an editor. Articles can easily be published on blogs or Web pages without ever needing someone’s approval. Videos and podcasts can be posted on iTunes or YouTube 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The true impact is far more significant than any of us can imagine.

The no-gatekeeper lifestyle means you can create whatever product you want and sell it to people around the world without ever having to get someone’s blessing.

While he does have a point here, there has been plenty of instances in history when there weren’t gatekeepers. After all, wasn’t Ben Franklin the ultimate self-publisher? Like bloggers, when you’re the editor and the writer, little stands in your way.

Read More→

Podcasting for Business

Blogging and Beyond: Episode 11
"How to Use Podcasts and Webinars to Grow Your Business"
with guest expert Debra Simpson, Magic in Words


MP3 File
Debra had some great ideas for using audio and
podcasting in your business.  With 65 million mp3 players out there,
I’d say there’s a definitely a market for your expertise!  I posted
about the interview and one of Debra’s tips.