How different business types change the way we market them

it's been a while since I've posted, been pretty busy this last month or so.

I was thinking about how we market different businesses.  Especially when it comes to internet marketing.  Although most of the techniques are the same, it's interesting the way we do it and the places we focus on when we're marketing businesses of different categories.

For example, I have one I'm starting out with now called ParkLifestyles.com.  This is a local directory of lifestyle information for the Orlando, Florida area.  It's got profiles of restaurants, spas, retailers, golf courses, bars, and events and more for the Central Florida area.  But it focuses on those independent places, not the big chains, but local and established home-grown businesses.

so the interesting thing is, it has a unique marketing requirement.  While this site appeals to pretty much everyone, it's also localized, for now.  So I have to balance working on search rankings and results while at the same time, broadly connecting the site.  It's an interesting challenge and an exciting one.

Then there's my own business, which is essentially or primarily an internet marketing company.  A very competitive field, and as i'm the new kid in town, quite a challenge to push my way up in search results.  Of course, all of this is not counting on paid advertising or link purchases.

I also have a client that specializes in Infor Lawson ERP consulting and training.  He has a great business, but a very small client base.  So the internet marketing challenge there is great.  It's tough to market Lawson services and training to less than 3000 total users in the U.S.

At any rate, different businesses have different requirements and can be quite a challenge to market.  The best thing I've found to do is to analyze each company, who it's customers are, where they focus their attention and attempt to link and post content there.  Optimize for the end user, in other words.

The changing internet marketing landscape

Hello everyone,

yes, it's been a while since I've posted.  Had some time off with family.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how much things change for those of us who are trying to market our own and clients' businesses online.

you can hardly read a blog or a forum post without some mention of Google, panda, penguin and other things that seem to directly effect us all.

Half of the work of internet marketing is trying to keep up with the changes.  How nice it was before Google ruled the world, huh?

I think, though, that there will always be certain things that will work, regardless of what Google says or does.  For one, publishing quality content, both on your websites and other places like your blogs, social media and on others' sites will always be effective.

Content is King online.

Further, I believe that a program of active organic link building will always be effective for several reasons.  Google still counts links and links give human beings the opportunity to visit you.

Taking an active role in your social media and on public forums will doubtless be a good idea for a long time to come.  Again, it promotes content and makes you a source of information.

There's much more to be said here, and if you've got some ideas, please post a comment.  We'd all love to hear your thoughts.

The Money We Make is Equal to the Thoughts We Make

For those of us entrepreneurs out here who are interested in making money, earning more cash, increasing our profits, getting rich, living a lifestyle, and whatever else we want, one of the crucial things to do is study others who have gone before us.  It’s like the old saying goes, “You don’t follow parked cars.”

 

And there are certainly many many books on self-help, wealth building and more out there.  While a lot of them are good, most of them are cimply rewording what’s already been said.  Some of my personal favorites are books by Robert Kiyosaki, Donald Trump, Warren Buffet, and a few other highly successful entrepreneurs.  But what all these people have to say, including the great self help gurus like Tony Robins and Steven Covey and even Dale Carnegie have to say is that it is how we think that really determines the outcome.

 

And we can take it back even further, to the father of all of this, Napoleon Hill.  Most of us have read or at least heard the title, “Think and Grow Rich.”  But perhaps Hill’s best work, his most definitive work, was “The Law of Success.”  Because while “Think and Grow Rich” focuses mainly on making money, “The Law of Success” focuses on money and overall success in other areas.

 

And what does it all boil down to?  Perhaps one key thing: The only true thing in the universe which any of us have full control over is our own thoughts.  We tend to get what we think.  If we think negative failure thoughts, we tend to attract that end.  When we think success thoughts, success finds a way to follow us.  Of course, it’s not just as simple as sitting around and thinking about cash and boats and cars, there’s more to it than that.

 

So if you haven’t read Napoleon Hill, I highly recommend you do so.  Because his studies of successful people led to the first and most accurate formula for success.  A definite aim backed by a burning desire will lead you to the shores of prosperity.

The power of back links

There is always a lot of controversy and disagreement bandied about when it comes to creating back links to your websites and blogs.  Although everyone knows this is important, there seems to be a lot of discord when it comes to exactly how to create them.

So I thought i'd throw a few things out there and see what you all thought.

for one, it's important to get links to your websites from other sites or blogs that have a higher PR (page rank) than yours.  This will help raise your own PR and more often than not, these higher PR sites will have a better alexa rank and traffic numbers.

The one thing to keep in mind about PR is that it doesn't necessarily translate to search results.  Google does not give priority to a website with a higher page rank.  so increasing your own PR just for the sake of getting better organic traffic will have no effect.

Another thing to remember is that you do, in fact, want PR0 back links to your sites.  You see, if your link profile looks natural, this will help push you up in search results.  But if you have 10 back links to your PR1 website that are all from PR6 websites, this will not look natural to Google and you may even be penalized for it.  A good, natural spread of PR from your back links is key.

Finally, although hardly the end of the discussion on linking, try to get links to your site that are relevant.  other websites that are similar to yours or related in some way are the best links.  Also, if your link is part of a larger bit of content, this is more natural as well.  The best back links are those from published content like blog posts, comments, articles and so on.

Organic link building is the key to link success.  A natural progression of links will ensure your websites rise higher and higher for your keywords.

A quick little article link that you will find helpful

hello everyone,

I just wanted to post this quick article we published over the weekend. It's about how your writing makes a strong impression on your customers and employees. I think you'll find it interesting and helpful:

Tips For Effective Writing - Your Written Content Makes The Strongest Impression

The Best Time is Right now

We often wonder when is the right time to do something.  Do we wait until everything is just right, or all the ducks are in a row?  Well, I have a whole bunch of ducks that live and play around my place, and they are never in a row.

The reality is, and any successful person or organization will tell you, is that the right time is right now.  Things will never be just right.  If you want results, and you want them now, then take action.  The only real concern is that you must make sure that you can deliver.

Your product or service does not have to be perfect, it doesn’t have to be the most eye-popping.  But it should at least do the minimum things you say it can do.  You can always tweak it as you go.  But if you wait too long, you end up with perfection paralysis, and then nothing ever happens.

This goes for introducing a new product, or a service, or starting a marketing campaign, either in the “real world” or online.  So let’s think success thoughts and take success action!

The power of writing

I was thinking over the weekend about how much writing really impacts our businesses.  There's probably nothing more important to sales, marketing, research and development and presenting our ideas than the ability to write or hire writing talent.

Think of it, everything we do is tied to writing.  Even your sales and marketing video, your info graphics and even audio programs are written down, or at least outlined first.  Obviously, when it comes to our websites, SEO and strategizing writing is a vital component.

So my little tip to start the week off is this:  how well are you presenting your ideas?  how good is your writing?  Are you a talented writer, or do you have one on staff?  A good evaluation of how effective your writing is can make a world of difference in your business.

Some quick SEO and Website Promotion Tips

hello everyone,

here is a little tips post I'm sure everyone will enjoy.  If there is ever a hot topic, it's SEO and website promotion.  So I thought I'd jot down a couple of quick search engine optimization and traffic generating tips that you can use or pass on.

1. First, check over your website and see that four things are optimized: your page titles which should be unique, your META descriptions, also unique, your META keywords, somewhat useful and that your page content is well-written and keyword rich
2. Write a series of articles with at least 3 variations. Each articles and variation should be hand-written and not spun. Then publish these articles to three of the top article sites, such as ezinearticles, goarticles and articlebase. These will drive traffic and create good back links
3. Try to get yourself some high PR back links. It's okay to exchange links, but if you do this, do so with websites that are related to yours. Also, try to put these links in some kind of content
4. use your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, GooglePlus and other social sites. Provide your connections with strong useful content both from you and from 3rd party sources.

There is certainly much more to do and to learn, but these are core keys to driving traffic, getting better search results and establishing yourself. if you'd like more information, please visit our article library. Have a great weekend!

Content is King - Article writing and blogging are still effective

Hello everyone,

I

Wanted to start the week off with a little thought on creating quality content for the web.

 

No matter what you do, it seems there is a debate for it.  One of the big ones I’ve been seeing lately is on whether or not article marketing or article publishing is still a good idea.  Like link building and SEO and social networking, this seems to be a point of contention for many.

 

Some will say that Google is ignoring content from websites like ezinearticles, amazines or goarticles because of the amount of crap content that is being published.  However, these sites’ Alexa rankings, Google PR and traffic would seem to indicate otherwise.

 

Many complain that their number of visits has decreased over the past few years.  Well, there are several reasons for this.  First, there’s just more content now than there was a few years ago.  And a lot of it is not worth reading.  So there is some saturation.

 

As for the search engines ignoring it… this is just not so.  I’ve seen many of my articles syndicated.  The trick is, as it always is, to create high quality content.  Write for humans first, not for search engines.  And for the love, do not use article spinning.  All this does is create unreadable nonsense that no one respects or will use.

 

Content will always be king.  This is what the internet is for.  And what search engines like Google, yahoo and Bing do is try to present you the user with the most relevant content to answer your query.  So as long as you’re creating high quality content, be it writing, graphics or video, you will get noticed and you will get search results.

 

Just keep in mind, you get what you pay for.  So if you’re not a talented writer, hire one.  And pay them what they’re worth.  If you think that a good writer wants to work for $1 per 100 words, or 1 penny a word, think again.  All you’ll get is low-quality article spinners who probably don’t speak your language.

Marketing Equals Money

No matter what business you’re in, no matter what service you provide or product you sell, the most important thing you can do is market that product or service. In reality, we’re all in the business of marketing. After all, it is marketing that brings in the customers and creates the revenues.

As we say in other parts of our site, a lot of people are confused about what marketing really is. Well, it’s pretty much everything, isn’t it? Advertising is marketing, Sales is marketing, your website is marketing, how you talk to people is marketing and on and on.

So make sure you are spending the majority of your time marketing your business. Literally, more than half of your time spent working should be in marketing, in one form or another. Because that’s what brings in the money. And after all, isn’t that the whole point?

Increasing your Google page rank

I hope everyone is doing well. I have been thinking a lot lately about page rank. Especially increasing it. I'm sure some of you are aware of Google's page rank system, a score from 0 to 10 indicating how highly your website is ranked with Google. And I'm sure some of you are not as familiar with this, or at the very least, are unsure of how it works.

Well, when determining your website's page rank, Google takes several things into Account. Of course, your website's SEO is certainly a deciding factor, as well as the number and quality of your back links. In fact, the links that point to your websites and blogs are one of the largest determining factors.

The best way to move your website up to the next level of PR is to develop high quality back links. These links should be relevant to the content of your websites and be at a PR level at least one higher than yours. This has the double effect of both driving traffic, giving your website authority and pulling you up by association. Yep, that was a triple benefit. Gave you a little bonus there.

one great way to develop links to yourself is to publish content on other sites. This can be done by using blogs, articles, videos on YouTube as well as newsletters. There are many other ways to do this, you just have to put your mind to it and perhaps have your internet marketer create strategies with you. It's also a good idea to place an article resource center on your website as well.

Building up your page rank can be a long term process and is the hardest in the beginning. But with perseverance and planning, it's possible. And higher page rank means more traffic which means more customers.

We just finished a nice website for a client

hello everyone,

I just wanted to post a quick note about a website we just finished for a client.  it's a nice little modern site regarding Infor Lawson and kronos consulting services.  They've been a long-time and valued client.

http://www.forte-corp.com

We've launched a newsletter

Hello all!

Just a quick shameless promotion here :-)

I just wanted to let everyone know we've started a newsletter and are accepting subscriptions at our website now.  It'll be loaded with all kinds of goodies on SEO, internet marketing, article writing, content creation, blogging, business growth and success, wesite design and the like.  you also get a free set of articles when you subscribe.

http://www.advantageadvertisingandmarketing.com

Please visit the site to subscribe today.

Also, as always, we welcome your input.  For those who subscribe and have something relevant to say, we welcome contributors.  We'll have a section for contributions with links and so on.  Details later.  Please join us and let's build a great resource for everyone to share in!

Optimize Your Homepage For The Best First Impression

Did you know that the average attention span of someone visiting your homepage is about 8 seconds? It’s not that they will only stay on your website for 8 seconds. It means that when you drive traffic to your website using articles, blogs, pay per click ads, social media, and SEO they will give your website about 8 seconds to let them know what it’s about. So the real question is: when you built your website did you do so in a way that would immediately let the visitor know who you were and what you were about? This is critical. In my opinion, if you have something to sell me, then sell it to me. If I have to figure it out, I’ll go somewhere else. And the statistics show that we’re all pretty much like that.

So a couple of good little tips you might find useful.

1. Make your logo and tagline clear and highly visible at the top of your page
2. use your welcome text wisely. Make it clear and concise as well as search engine friendly
3. Don’t force feed your visitors with unnecessary content. Nobody wants to have to watch a video or a long slideshow of images. Keep that stuff short and poignant.
4. Make your navigation easy to use and understand. The more they have to figure out, the less patient they’ll be

Just a couple of little tidbits for you to think about. What are your thoughts on this? What have your experiences been? Please let us know.

A great back link exchange website

Happy Saturday, everyone,

I was thinking about back links and how important they are to our websites' success in both traffic and search rankings.  You hear a lot these days about link building, and I thought i'd throw out a helpful hint.

There are many link exchange sites out there.  I have been using one called LinkMarket for a few months now and really like it.  Not only do they offer a wide variety of website categories to search, they also offrer a good and active interface.

one of the best features, it seems, is that the site constantly checks all active member websites to ensure that exchanged links are still active.  if it discoveres that a site that hosts your links is no longer up, or they have taken your links down, Linkmarket will notify you and ask you to remove the other website's link from your link page.  I think that's a great feature.  It ensures you're not hosting a bunch of broken links, or at the very least, not helping someone else out who's not helping you.

So why not go and check them out.  There URL is:
http://www.linkmarket.com

Checking on your website's rank

hello everyone! Have you ever wondered how to check on your website's search rank? We all have, and do often, I'm sure. I myself use several methods to determine how my website is doing. I thought I'd share them with you and see if you all had any suggestions or tips on this. Where we stand and how to improve that is always important. One of the places I go is alexa.com. I check my website's rankings there as well as how many other sites are linked to me. This can be a useful but frustrating tool. Alexa often changes and sometimes your rank will even disappear and return. Also, they may not list every back linked website. Alexa only shows data that has been compiled by those web surfers who use their dashboard. However, it's still a good benchmark. Another thing I do is use analytics. You can use Google's of course. But I also have a very good built-in analytic system provided by my web host. This is where you can get up to the day website traffic information and see how you are doing over time. Arguably, this is the best measure of where you stand because it shows how many people actually went to your website and what pages they viewed, etc. Another good idea is to use Google itself. Go to Google and type in link: www.yourdomain.com and this will show you a long list of sites that have links to yours. This is a bit more accurate than Alexa's list of links, which, BTW, they no longer show the whole list unless you subscribe to their paid program. One final tip, it is worthwhile to do a SEO audit on your website. There are many places to do this and all of them gives slightly different results. But it never hurts to know where improvements can be made. I hope this has been of some use and I look forward to seeing your thoughts on it.

some more food for thought

Hello everyone, here is a great article I think you'll really enjoy. If so, there are many more articles for review at our website.

How to Use Networking to Add Power and Profit to Your Growing Business - Online and Offline Strategy

By David C. Lucas

Metcalfe's law states that the economic power of a business is the square of the number in its network. Not only is this how you can gather new customers, but it also explains how wealth is created. For example, if you have a network of 4 associates, your economic power is 16. If you double your network to 8 individuals or businesses, your economic power is 64. As you can see just by this simple example, building and maintaining a network, or several networks will have a very large and positive impact on your success.

In this article, we will show you why it is so vital to create a network around you and your business, and how to do this effectively. As our opening example of Metcalfe's law shows, just by doubling the number of people or companies with whom you share common interests, you can quadruple the effectiveness of that network. That is a very exciting concept to consider, isn't it?

What is a network?

This is an obvious question, to be sure. In its most basic form, and for this article, a network is a group of people who are associated with one another because of a common interest or goal. They share a mutual interest or understanding as well as a mutual respect. Because of this, the network can and most often does look for ways to help everyone in the network improve their circumstances. It's actually a very basic human desire.

Why build networks?

Aside from our economic example above, there are many good reasons to actively construct and nurture a network, or even multiple networks. For one, you will interact with like-minded people. This has the obvious benefit of providing you opportunities to sell your products and services as well as find trusted resources. Interacting with like-minded people also opens up your mind and helps generate new ideas and creates a sense of excitement in you.

By networking with others, you build a web of trust. You become a trusted member and have access to other trusted members. This gives you credibility both within the network and without. People buy and do business with those they trust.

How to build an online network

In this article, we'll discuss the two broad areas of networking, online and offline. In today's business world, it's necessary to build both. In many cases, in fact, you will have little choice, as these two seemingly disparate forms of networking have become interconnected.

When it comes to online networking, the first things that come to mind are Facebook and LinkedIn. Of course, there are many other social networking websites out there such as Twitter, FourSquare, Pinterest and even YouTube. But of all of the networking websites, Facebook and LinkedIn offer the most powerful and real networking opportunities. They each provide an extensive profile creation system for businesses and the opportunity to share information and associate with groups within the social site's framework.

Social networking online is vital, not only to your ability to associate but for search engine traffic and online marketing as well. Social networking is a very effective means for business people to share information and knowledge. Links and useful content can be passed through a virtual online network at amazing, almost instantaneous speeds. And with the power of computers, tablets and smart phones, these networks can be monitored with ease and efficiency.

As for how to build these, it's very simple. You can upload your email contact lists and the systems will represent you with people you know and people they know. You can search for friends, family and business associates very quickly and you can always trade social media contacts with those you see in person. You'll be amazed at how fast and how large a network can grow. Of course, this doesn't always immediately translate into economic power. It's the opinion of this author that Metcalfe's law does not apply to the virtual social media networking. Does this mean it's not worth doing? Not at all, it's only that the multiplicative effect is much smaller. Is there an exact formula? This is hard to say. But it's a safe bet that to get an economic power of 64, as in our opening example, it would take more than 64 Facebook friends or fans. Perhaps it would take 640. While this might sound daunting, you will be amazed at how fast you can get 640 FB or LinkedIn contacts.

How to build an offline network

This is where Metcalfe's law really comes into play. The very best form of networking is that which is built face to face. This is where real trust, camaraderie and power is created. It's why employees join a union or entrepreneurs join associations.

The best way to build a solid network in this fashion is to find at least one local association or local chapter of a national association that is directly related to you and what you do. A niche group is a great place to start building relationships. You may not have quite the number of sales opportunities here, but if nothing else you will build strong and lasting friendships and business relationships that will pay off one way or another.

The next step is to join a business networking mixer group. This is an organization made up of entrepreneurs and small business people from all genres of business. This is an opportunity to meet new faces and to make contacts that may become customers. Of course, everyone in these groups is trying to do the same, so be prepared to be on the receiving end of the sales pitch.

A final note on this, there are many forms of "real world" networking options. Each one will have its own dynamic and a way to profit from it. Some of the best are groups that form around a central goal. Though the members might be from diverging categories of business, they all come together for a single reason. Perhaps a seminar or educational program or to share similar experiences. These are great because they foster a greater spirit of cooperation than a simple social networking event at a restaurant, for example.

Keep in mind that these offline networking options are also great places to link together online. You make a lot of Facebook and LinkedIn friends here as well. You will also probably find a great number of people to follow on Twitter, as well as followers of your own Twitter account, if applicable.

As a final point on this topic, here is a short list of Do's and Don'ts's to follow when networking, both online and off:

DO - Make yourself a valuable resource. When presenting yourself online or at a meeting, do so in a casual and unassuming way. Let those around you know you have something to say and are willing to share it for their benefit.

DON'T - Be a constant sales person. If your only goal is to sell your products, services, your company or yourself you will turn people off and they will not want to associate with you. Nobody likes a pushy sales person. Even pushy sales people.

DO - Show interest in others. When talking to them, ask about them. Become interested in what they do. You'll be amazed at what you can find out by just listening and asking strategic questions. Often people will tell you what they need and ask you to fill that need.

DON'T - Be a big mouth. Those that go to networking meetings and only want to tell you all about them are boring and annoying. Further, when interacting online, don't just post updates about you and what you offer. Publish information that is generally interesting and useful. Its okay to self-promote, but do so about twenty or thirty percent of the time.

Although this article has only touched on this topic, you can see that by actively building a network, you can virtually ensure your own success. Entrepreneurs and small business people who have built and maintain strong and growing social and business networks will never have to worry about where the next job is coming from or if they will be able to make payroll. Aside from ensuring your economic power, networks can also buffer against economic down times.

David has built a thriving IT consulting firm providing quality Infor Lawson and Kronos consulting and training services. He has done so by a constant sales and networking program as well as online marketing. Come and see his website and how he offers the best affordable services for his current and potential clients.
http://www.forte-corp.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_C._Lucas
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Use-Networking-to-Add-Power-and-Profit-to-Your-Growing-Business---Online-and-Offline-Strategy&id=7870766

A great business article on selling

   

How To Sell - 3 Essentials For An Effective Salesperson
By David C. Lucas

   

Even in this day and age, when the internet has become a powerful and effective marketing tool, the ability to sell yourself and your products and services is still very much a necessary skill. Not only is it vital that you become an effective sales person, you must also know how to spot and hire them as well.

Sales can be a scary topic for some. Many people think that sales, like musical talent or the ability to sculpt is some kind of inborn skill. While there may be some truth to this, you don't have to be a natural to be a good sales person. The real key to sales is repetition and practice. Not unlike music or sculpting, for that matter.

If you are shy, or feel you're not charismatic enough, you can overcome this. You do the uncomfortable until it becomes comfortable. Believe it or not, after a very short time of making cold calls, approaching prospects or networking, you will find that little lump of trepidation in your stomach will vanish. It really doesn't take long. It just takes consistent and persistent effort.

The truth of the matter is, especially for entrepreneurs, you have to be able to sell yourself. In the beginning, when money is tight and you have more time than funs, you must be able to convince others that you are worth their time and money. So in that regard, let's now discuss 3 core essentials for being an effective sales person.

Essential #1: Develop Your prospect List

This is vital in the beginning, but never forget about this. No matter how successful you become, a list of prospects will always be a valuable tool.

There are many ways to create and maintain your prospect lists. In the very beginning, you start with a list of people and companies to whom you already have a connection. And list them all, no matter who. You can always pear down later. The act of thinking of this list and writing down names will jog other names from your memory, so don't' skip anyone, even your family.

From this first list, you will weed out those who will not or cannot be customers. You will then contact the potentials and make your pitch, which we'll go into later. It is from this list that you can often develop a secondary list from referrals of those who hire you or buy from you, as well as from those who are not interested but might know someone who is. Referral lists are very powerful.

Once done, you will now have to seek out potential clients. This is where you can go online and do some research to find companies who are probable customers as well as individuals. There are many ways to do this, and it can be very effective.

At any given moment in time, your list will probably have at least three classifications of prospects. The A list, which are those who are most likely to buy immediately, the B list of those who are somewhat interested but for one reason or another, cannot act now. The final will be the C list. These are cold prospects or those on the fringes. They may even be a No thanks list, but for different reasons, you may want to go back to them later.

Essential #2 - Prospect Farming

This may seem like it belongs in the last tip, but really, this is a separate idea. Because what we're referring to here is how you cultivate your crop of prospects. Once you've gotten that list, your seeds, you must plant them, water them and take care of them.

Sales is not always a one shot deal. In so many cases, especially after you get past the list of your best possibles and their referrals, you have to cold contact people. This means making initial contact with secretaries, receptionists, administrative assistants and so forth.

You may have to do some direct mailing and cold calling. You mail a piece, then call a little while later, perhaps after the second or third time the prospect has received your mail. This creates an awareness in their minds so that when you call, they know who you are and what you represent.

Think of it as peeling an onion. Each layer you remove is one step closer to the sale. This might seem very tedious, but in the process you will build some relationships that can be very helpful. When you finally get to the principle, you may have an advocate in the form of his or her assistant, a fellow employee and so on.

Essential #3 - Offer Value

This one sounds almost too obvious, doesn't it? You might be thinking, 'Well, of course I'm offering something of value." And no doubt your product or service is good, but we need to take it a little further.

Remember that everyone is an individual. And what are individuals concerned with more than anything? Themselves and their prosperity. People buy because they believe it's good for them to. They hire you because you can do them some good.

This is a vital key to sales. When you can show your prospect how working with you will profit them, you will have crossed a huge hurtle. Show them why you, your company, your product or your service is the right choice. Show them how you can make them money, save them money, save them time, and make them look good or feel important. You are what they need and want. If you can demonstrate this, you will be far ahead of the game.

Of course, there are many sales tips. They fill volumes. Tips like make a customer a sales person, mostly by following essential #3. Don't be overly pushy, don't be too passive. Make the prospect feel important. The customer of my customer is my friend. On and on.

With just these three simple tips, you can have a great deal of success in your sales efforts. And use this as a starting point. Go forward and gather as much info as you can. And don't forget to simply ask your prospects or your customers what they think of you and how you sell. Good luck!

In the process of building his Lawson ERP Software consulting firm, David has become a master sales person. He knows how to tune into a potential customer and match solutions to their needs. To see examples of this, please visit his website:
http://www.forte-corp.com

 

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_C._Lucas  
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-To-Sell---3-Essentials-For-An-Effective-Salesperson&id=7832494  
 

 

here is what will shortly become a highly valuable SEO, website traffic and page ranking resource

I just thought I'd throw this link up here today.  I started a post on a terrific internet marketing and promotional forum.  My thread is about people's best practices for SEO, website traffic, etc.  Since a huge number of internet marketers like myself utilize this forum, you will probably find that over the next few weeks, this one link becomes very valuable.  Hope you enjoy it!

https://forums.digitalpoint.com/threads/your-best-tecniques-for-driving-traffic-increasing-page-rank-and-improving-website-performance.2668127/

A great little article writing resource

Hello everyone.  I hope you all had a great weekend.  I do a lot of writing about writing because I think it's one of the most important and effective ways of promoting yourself, your business and creating good SEO content.

I wanted to let you guys in on this thread about writing tips.  I think it's useful and not a bad forum site either, if you're interested.

https://forums.digitalpoint.com/threads/tips-on-writing-an-effective-article.2664305/

This is your financial independance day!

Yesterday was Independence Day for the US. There were lots of cook outs and block parties and fireworks shows. A wonderful summertime celebration of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. it got me thinking about those things. How so many of us don't have near enough of one or all of those three things. for entrepreneurs, there is something of a light at the end of the tunnel. Because as business owners, we do have some control over our own destinies. We can take action to better our lives and those of our friends and families, and even improve the state of our communities if we sho choose. is this easy? Not at all. It's hard, very hard in fact. Probably a lot harder than just going and getting a job and a steady paycheck. But for those with that entrepreneurial spirit, that's not enough. we want more, we need more. We won't rest until we achieve our goals and then make new ones to attain. So in that vein, I'd like to challenge all the entrepreneurs, small business people and anyone else who'd like more from life to make today the their personal and financial independence day. At the very least, make today the day you declared war on the status quo, the day you proclaimed your freedom from the oppression of mediocrity. to put a practical spin on this, sit down and create a plan of action. A marketing plan to get more of what you want and deserve in your business. if you need help, get with a marketer like myself, or sit down with a team, or ask your spouse to brainstorm. But create that plan. Do whatever it takes to end this year with more than you started out with and with a brighter next one to come. if you will forgive this shameless promotion, here is an article I just published on a guide to making money online with your company's website. Give it a read, you might find some great ideas. And if you'd like, visit our resources library for more ideas. Good luck and happy independence day! How To Make Money Online: A Small Business Guide To Improved Traffic, Search Rank And More Cash Flow

how Good Writing Can Create Great Content, high Traffic and Effective SEO

happy Friday!

how many of you out there are engaged in consistent content marketing?  Specifically, creating written content for your website, your blogs, writing articles or your social networks, just to name a few?

It's really amazing how effective good quality writing can be.  But it can also be very tricky.  After all, when it comes to the web, if it can be searched, it can be optimized.  That means that every part of that written content must be crafted not only for the reader, but for the search engines as well.

So remember that when you're posting a blog, writing an article, Tweeting, Facebooking, writing an answer to a question on a discussion forum, or creating quality content for your website, you must optimize all elements.  This means titles, descriptions, summaries, content bodies, resources and links.  Just keep in mind that you want all of this to be created for the reader first and the search engines second.  That's very very important.  They know what you're doing, and what Google, yahoo, Bing and all the others are trying to do is provide the best information to their users, so make sure that your information is the best it can be.

Building or redoing an effective, money-making website

I was thinking over the weekend about websites.  How important they are, and the trouble that a lot of small business people have when they try to make one.  Either they try it themselves or go to hire someone and have a bad experience.

I would have to say that every single website design customer I've ever had has had a bad experience in the past.  there are many reasons for this.  many are because the so-called 'website designer" or 'website developer" didn't know their rear end from a hole in the ground.  However, sad to say, some of the fault lies with the business person.  This mainly comes from ignorance of the field.  Nothing shocking there, most of us are primarily focused on our real business.

A friend of mine has an article on his website design homepage that was written to help business people along the processs of getting  a new or redone website.  it explains what it's all about, the process, and what the business owner can do to not only streamline the development of an effective and profitable website, but how to save money as well.

I urge you to take a look and read over this article, it's quite a handy tool.  After all, our websites are one of the most important marketing tools we have, so they might as well be good ones, right?

http://www.4emedia.com/what-you-need-to-know-before-hiring-a-website-designer/

The Power of Content marketing

hello all,

I have been thinking a lot lately about content.  About how important and effective content marketing is to your online marketing efforts.

So what I wanted to do in this post was list a couple of the most common content marketing areas.  By focusing on these, you can generate a lot of traffic for your websites.  not only traffic, but good quality qualified traffic.  This is because all content marketing is linkable.  So you not only get a flow of visitors, but the search engines will ick up on your content's SEO and link relevance as well.

So here are some top content marketing categories:

1.Articles - great for publishing long-form text
2.Blogs - a great way to publish textual, image-based and video content as well as interact with your reader
3.Video - using sites like youTube, you can say a lot with a short video
4.newsletters and ezines - like articles, these are generally opted into and are not only a great way to publish long-form content, but include offers and ads as well
5.E-books - The best way to say a lot.  Far longer than articles, e-books can be used as a freebee or as a paid product
6.Email - by collecting a voluntary email list over time, you have a great opportunity to market directly to people who have already expressed an interest in your products and services.
7.Guest blogging - another way to utilize the power of the blog.  Write a guest column on someone else's popular blog.  you will not only get a chance to share, but draw in new followers
8.Social media - A biggie, social media marketing is fantastic for promotion, building connections and establishing a cross-network presence.  Definitely helps give you a bigger virtual footprint.
9.Forums - there are millions of user discussion groups online.  So there is bound to be a few related to you and your business.  Get on there and become a resource by answering questions.
10.Your website - The obvious one.  But a great place to constantly ublish new SEO content of all kinds.  Almost everything I've mentioned above can be included alongside your website's standard information.

Just a couple of quick tips to wet your whistle.  As always, come visit us at our site to learn more.  And in the previous post, I included a link to an article i just wrote about some content marketing techniques that I think will be of great value.

Take care!

new Article to help you get more web traffic

Hi eveyone, Scott here,

We just posted a new article and thought you might enjoy it.  It's on writing content for SEO and your customers and how to do this as well as why.  it should be quite helpful and I'd like to invite you to take a look and let me know what you think:

Writing Tutorial - Writing SEO and Customer content online
http://ezinearticles.com/?Writing-Tutorial---Internet-Content-Writing-For-SEO-And-For-Your-Potential-Customers&id=7797744

introduction

Hello everyone,

We have felt for a long time that a better blog was needed than the one at our website.  We've generally used this for inspirational material and some little tips and tricks related to marketing and advertising, with special focus on the internet side.

So we want to invite everyone to comment, post and share these blogs.  We will be providing links to helpful articles on internet marketing, seo, writing, business growth and development website design and other digital production as well as on personal and business success.  We'd love it if you got involved and added your thoughts, feelings and experiences to what we hope will become an invaluable resource.

We also invite you to visit our website and see what we're all about.  you'll find that we have a deep desire for the success of small business.  All business, really, but in particular, we love the entrepreneurial spirit that has made our country great.  to start you off, here are a few links to some articles we've written and our website as well.  We're very excited and and thank you for checking us out.

SEO Tips - What To Do, What Not To Do and Why
http://ezinearticles.com/?SEO-Tips---What-To-Do,-What-Not-To-Do-And-Why&id=7769556
Success Strategies - How to Create a Profitable Marketing Campaign for Your Business
http://ezinearticles.com/?Marketing-Success-Strategies---How-To-Create-A-Profitable-Marketing-Campaign-For-Your-Company&id=7717726
your Own internet Traffic Generating Octopus - The 8 Top Attention Getters
http://ezinearticles.com/?Create-Your-Own-Internet-Traffic-Generating-Octopus---The-8-Top-Attention-Getters&id=7681243
Hire a Professional Freelance Writer - 3 Good Reasons and What You Should Look For and Look Out For
http://www.upublish.info/Article/Hire-a-Professional-Freelance-Writer---3-Good-Reasons-and-What-You-Should-Look-For-and-Look-Out-For/811184
Why You Need Backlinks to Your Website and How to Build Them
http://goarticles.com/article/Why-You-Need-Backlinks-to-Your-Website-and-How-to-Build-Them/7551607/
And of course, please come and check out our website, it's loaded with all sorts of goodies!
http://www.advantageadvertisingandmarketing.com