No matter what niche you enter when you start your
internet business, its success or failure depends on
one thing…traffic.
The gurus all preach many different ways to generate
traffic - according to their newest course or coaching
they’re selling this week.
I’ve been a student of Willie Crawford for several years
now, and I’ve discovered the main method he uses to
generate traffic and top ten Google positions is nothing
more than articles posted to a few key article directories.
Willie is one of the most prolific article writers I know. He
writes as many as 15-20 articles a day sometimes, and
“drip feeds” them to the directories.
At the end of each article is his “resource box” that points
to whichever site he’s trying to drive traffic to.
“That’s all well and good” you say. “I’m not a fast writer
like Willie, and most of the time I can’t think of what to write!”
There’s a way around that, too.
You can pay someone to write articles for you for $2-$5
each, or you can buy articles already written as in PLR, or
Private Label Rights articles where you can put your own
name on them as the author and use them any way you
choose.
If you can find well written articles, this is the way to go.
The problem with this method is that directories such as
ezinearticles.com won’t accept “duplicate content”, or
the same article that somebody else has already submitted.
Here’s how you get around that.
You can take a PLR article and do a little tweaking, or
re-writing, add your own resource box to the end of it,
and have a unique article to submit to the directories that
points back to your site with very little work.
One way I’ve seen and used is to write a short intro to
the article telling people what they’re going to be reading,
then at the end of the article, give your own thoughts about
what they’ve just read. Put your resource box at the end
and you’re good to go.
Until Sunday night June 7, 2009 at midnight CDT, you can
pick up a package of 2000 quality niche articles for less
than half a cent each.
Just go to http://guru-secrets.com/articlepak
After midnight, CDT the price is going up, though, so
get on over there now!
Are you where you want to be?
Filed Under Main Content | Leave a Comment
I know I said last time we would take a look at how to get
you started toward your goals, but I feel the need to say
one more thing first.
I had my youngest grandson for company today so needless
to say, I didn’t get a lot of work done, but it sure was a lot of
fun watching the little feller play.
It made me remember when my daughters were little and they
begged me to play with them when I came home from work.
Back then I was too busy trying to make a living to spend a lot
of time with them, and too tired usually to play when I came
home.
For the first 5 years or so of their lives, I drove a truck all
over the US, and was constantly gone sometimes as much
as 4 weeks at a time.
After I finally got a fill of that, I went back into construction
but that wasn’t much better. I still had to work out of town
all week, and by the time I got home on the weekend, I didn’t
have a lot of energy to spend with them.
You can imagine what happened next.
It’s like I left one day and they were babies, and when I came
home, they were all grown up…like I completely missed their
childhood.
Oh, I try to make up for it now, and I’m determined that I’m not
going to miss my grandchildren growing up, but the damage is
done. There’s no going back, no matter how much you would
love to be able to.
So…while it’s too late for me and a lot of others out there like me,
what about you?
Are you following the same path? Are your children growing up
without you?
Are you so busy trying to earn a living that you don’t have time to live?
Maybe you don’t have children, so what about your spouse or
girl/boyfriend?
Do you have time to spend with them and do the things you’d
really like to do?
The reason behind this post is to impress upon you the importance
of having the freedom to do what you want, when you want and
to not be tied to a boss that doesn’t care about you or your family.
This by itself is enough to warrant starting your own business
even without the current economic downturn.
I want you to think about what I’ve written and ask yourself; “Am I
where I want to be?”.
If the answer is No, once again, what will it take to get you there?
If you like these snippetts, how about leaving me a comment?
If you don’t like them, how about leaving me a comment? (Just
don’t be too cruel, please)
I’ll be back soon, and I promise we’ll look at some ways to get
you started on your way to a better situation.
Michael
Have you made a plan for 2009?
Filed Under General Marketing | Leave a Comment
I’ve been marketing online since 2002, and one of
the biggest things I have learned in that time is
You’ve got to have a plan, and you’ve got to work
your plan if you want to succeed.
Yes, I know…that can be a daunting task especially
if you don’t have a clear idea of what you want out
of both your life and your business.
I’ve heard it said many times; “If you don’t know where
you’re going, what road will you take to get there?”
So, it seems to me the first thing anybody needs to do
is take a few minutes to examine your current situation
and decide if you like where you’re at right now.
If not, what are you going to do about it? What changes
do you need to make to get where you want to be?
Until you answer that question in clear concise terms,
all your efforts are pretty much shooting in the dark.
My challenge to you is to make this first step right now.
Take stock of where you are in terms of income, family
life, time to enjoy the fruits of your labors, etc., and
ask yourself “Am I comfortable with my situation?”
If you’re not, then make a list of what it would take to
make it so.
Work on that right now, and I’ll be back later and we’ll
talk about how to get where you want to be.
Michael
Get Started Right in 2009!
Filed Under Free Traffic, General Marketing | Comments Off
Hi and Happy New Year to everybody!
Here’s hoping 2009 will be the best year ever for you
and that you accomplish all your resolutions and
dreams.
As 2008 winds to a close, I’m thinking back over the
year and all the emails I’ve received from people asking
“How do I get started online?”, and “How do I find a
product to sell?”, just to name a few.
The first thing I always tell them is “Products are easy
to find. Don’t worry about finding a product until you
find a crowd of people that want to buy something.
Whether you’re doing business online or off, there are
three things you’ve absolutely got to have before you
see any kind of success.
First, you’ve got to have a market - a hungry crowd of
people that want to buy something.
Second, they’ve got to have money.
And third, you have to have a way to reach them…
either through ezines, magazines, blogs, forums,
mailing lists, or social networking sites like Twitter,
Digg, Facebook, MySpace, etc..
Once you have these three things in place, finding
the product is merely a matter of going to Clickbank
or PayDotCom, or one of the other affiliate sites
and search through their database for products
that fit the bill.
The biggest reason for failure both online and offline
is because most people find the product first, then
try to get people to buy it.
They try to sell something people don’t want to buy.
Yeah, I know you’ve heard all this before a hundred
times, but until it really sinks in, you need to hear it
another hundred times or more!
Marlon Sanders says “A dead duck don’t quack, and
if it don’t quack, people ain’t gonna buy it!”
People are only going to buy something they want, and
that’s the hardest job especially starting out…
discovering exactly what it is people want.
Once you do that, though, it’s simply a matter of getting
your message in front of them and let them know you have
what they want.
Willie Crawford is a master at this, and makes more money
selling other people’s products than the people who actually
own them sometimes.
Check out this amazing interview with Willie detailing how
he took a resale rights product and sold $8891 worth @ $17
each in just 3 days!
This just proves how easy it is make money once you know
your target audience and what they want to buy.
So, for 2009, I urge you to concentrate on doing your research
to find out what people want to buy, then see if they have the
money to buy.
After that, all you have to do is let them know you’ve got it, and
there’s your business in a nutshell!
Now, let’s go make some money!
Michael
The Cherry Bomb Secret
Filed Under Free Traffic | Leave a Comment
The “Cherry Bomb” Secret For Catapulting Your Sales
I’ve been a serious student of marketing and sales for over
40 years now, and one of the most important things I’ve
learned in that time is…and you may want to write this down;
“Selling is simple unless you complicate it!”
I don’t remember right off where I read that, but I’ve found
it to be true time and time again.
That’s one of the first things my good friend Willie Crawford
teaches in his coaching.
Keep it simple.
Selling doesn’t require a lot of “Whiz Bang” complicated
voodoo, just basic, proven methods that have worked since
time immortal.
First, the easiest way to sell anything is to find out where
your customers hang out, and let them know you’ve got what
they’re looking for.
Next, use what the masters call the “Rifle” approach instead
of a “shotgun” method.
A shotgun scatters the shot in a wide pattern that can go
anwhere, which is good for duck hunting, but sucks when you’re
trying to sell a specific product.
No matter how good it is, there doesn’t exist a product that
everybody wants.
You have to take the “Rifle” approach and target the people that
are looking for your product.
Let me give you an example.
A few years ago a friend of mine owned an auto parts store and
his advertising wasn’t bringing in the sales he thought he should
be getting so he wanted me to help him out.
The first thing I saw when I looked at his ads in the newspaper
was “Jerry’s Auto Parts for all your automotive needs” with a
picture of Jerry below.
Well, let’s not be too harsh on him because after all, he’s a
parts man, not an advertising man, and the newspaper is in the
business of selling ad space, not editing their customers ads.
Still, every time I see an ad like that I can’t help but think
whoever runs the advertising medium should be horsewhipped for
letting a client waste their money that way!
So, what did we do?
I asked Jerry what was his biggest seller for the last month
among his current customers.
He told me it was Cherry Bomb mufflers. A lot of teenagers were
buying loud mufflers for their cars and Cherry Bomb seemed to
be the one they were looking for.
So…we completely re-vamped his ad campaign using several
different ads instead of one bland, “me to” spot and targeted
customers looking for specific items.
The new ad read “Jerry’s Auto Parts–The Number One Dealer in town
For Cherry Bombs” Then we did another ad for the next best seller
for the month and ran them in different newspapers. We continued
to do this with five of his best selling products.
His sales improved by over 300% in the first week. People coming in
to the store to buy Cherry Bomb mufflers also ended up buying
other related parts and accessories, plus when they saw his amazing
stock of practically everything you could possibly need for
hot-rodding and customizing, they became repeat customers.
Online, you want to do the same thing…target a specific prospect.
Instead of advertising “mufflers” which brings up 11,700,000
results, target the people who are looking for “Cherry Bomb Mufflers”.
That may not be the best example, but you should get my meaning.
Narrow your sights to a specific product or brand and you’ll have
a lot easier time selling them because you’ll be offering exactly
what the searcher is looking for when they’re looking for it!
Instead of advertising “Digital Cameras”, advertise “Canon XSi
Digital Cameras”. You’ll narrow your field of prospects down
to the ones that are specifically looking for your product and
boost your sales considerably!
Once you sell them on what they’re looking for, you can then continue
to offer them related products for years to come.
The key is to advertise narrow and deep. Put up a highly specialized
website that focuses on one specific product, and do that for every
product you sell.
The next thing is to find out where your traffic is so you can stand
in front of it.
To start with, you can go to Google and type in “forum + ‘your product’
without the quotes. If you’re selling Cherry Bomb mufflers, car forums
would be a good place to look for traffic.
If you’re selling Canon XSi digital cameras, then a photography forum
might be a great starting place. You could even search for “digital
camera forum” without the quotes.
Set up a blog related to your product. If you’re selling digital
cameras, a review site can do well. The same with big screen TVs or
anything else. Be specific.
Don’t forget the social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Digg,
and others.
These are priceless resources for finding your traffic stream and
directing it to your website or blog.
However you advertise, remember the “Cherry Bomb” secret and watch
your sales zoom off the charts!
For more information on how to target your market and explode your sales,
go here: Nine Grand In Three Days
That’s it for this time, now go sell something!
Michael
