Absolutely The Very Best Free Internet Marketing Tool
A free and effective Internet Marketing Tool… is there such a thing? Well I can tell you that there are not many free internet marketing tools that are worth a thought – but there is one that is invaluable, and it’s called Social Networking.
Social Networking is hands down the absolute best free internet marketing tool that you will ever use. In fact, it would be the best paid internet marketing tool… if you had to pay for it! But why pay for it when free social networking is so effective?
What makes Social Networking the very best free internet marketing tool? Two things:
- Marketing is All About Relationships (relationships require people)
- Social Networking is Where You Find People Online
Marketing is all about relationships – especially online. If you are not working to develop strong relationships, I would bet dimes to donuts that your business is not doing all that well. As far as any kind of online home business is concerned relationships are essential and are the life blood of your business..
If you are flogging your wares or services online here is an invaluable snippet of insight that I learned long ago: People are most likely to do business with others whom they know, like, and trust. And any social networking environment is the perfect place for just such things to occur.
What other internet marketing tool, paid or free, allows you to develop as many relationships as you can, and so easily? Where else do you have access to an entire database full of users that you can reach out to and befriend at any hour of the day? I can think of nothing that rivals Social Networking. Absolutely nothing!
And there are so many different social networking environments: There are communities like Facebook and MySpace. Twitter offers a different slant on social networking – but it’s extremely effective. Then of course there is Ning, which comes in a zillion different flavors.
And let’s not forget the dinosaurs of social networking like online forums or chat rooms. There are hundreds of online groups at Yahoo and Google, and many other specialized online communities where you can find even more people to connect with and befriend.
Believe me when I say that your online home business will be built between you and people who know, like and trust you – one relationship at a time. The very best internet marketing tool, a tool that opens the door wide for as many possible relationships as you care to build, is Social Networking .
To ensure that you are using Social Networking properly, refer to lesson six of the Smart-Internet-Marketing-Help Free Mini-Course!
Feel welcome to browse the rest of the articles on the site – and remember: it’s one thing to learn something, and it’s quite another to put that knowledge to work.
Warmly,
Product Marketing Online
The Best Practice for Product Marketing Online
Regardless of what your product is, the best and most effective way to market your product online is with a general information web site dedicated to the benefits and the consumer concerns that the product will address. This is a far more effective marketing practice than dedicating a web site or web page to the product itself.
Why? Well, first of all – no one cares about your product… Absolutely no one (except you!). A product based web site is all about the product. Every product based site screams, This is what I can do for you. I do it really well. I am better than anyone else. I am the best! Pick me!!
Consumers are tired of hearing the same claims over and over again. It doesn’t get their attention as well as it used to – especially online!
Another reason a product based web site is a poor choice: Competition.
No matter what your product is, you have competition. Competition makes marketing a challenge in any arena. And competition online is fierce – especially if your product has competition from a major brand. If that’s the case for you, the competition will be far too steep.
A home business can’t compete with brand names because a home business will never have the resources required to win a market that is dominated by a major brand. Therefore, where home business is concerned, a product based website will get absolutely lost in the myriad of name brand web sites.
You need to market your product in a way that will out shine and outsmart the competition.
Is this possible? Yes!
There are a zillion products for sale both off line and online that address every possible consumer desire or need. Consumers are absolutely inundated with advertising and products at every turn. But think about this for a sec: people don’t turn to the Internet to search for a product so much as they go online to search for information.
Given this – why not give people what they are looking for rather than trying to get your product in front of them at every click. Everyone is trying to get their product in front of people. You will want to get off that bus – it’s way too crowded.
Give people what they are actually looking for. Once you have their attention and have established yourself as an authority via the information and insight you provide on your website, you readers will be open to your personal recommendation for a product that offers a solution to their particular problem.
This is a far more effective strategy for product marketing online.
As an example, let’s assume that you market a weight loss product. At the time of writing this article there are just under 12 million web sites indexed on Google that focus on weight loss.
If you set up a web site that focuses on your product you will be competing with almost 12 million existing sites. Your site will be buried somewhere on the bottom of page 1,170,000 of the search results, and no one is going to find your web site because no one is going to look on page 1,170,000 of the search results…
If, however, you can find a nice niche within the weight loss market, and build a content rich site that addresses that niche you will have a great deal of success with product marketing online.
Let’s go back to the weight loss example. I did three minutes worth of initial research and discovered what may be a niche worth pursuing within the weight loss market. My research showed that the keyword flabby thighs is searched on the Internet an average of 1,900 times per month.
I further discovered that there are less than 25,000 existing web sites that address flabby thighs.
1,900 searches per month tells me there is a demand for information on flabby thighs, and there are only 25,000 existing sites, so it looks like this could be a very win-able niche. More research would be required, but it’s looking good so far.
Let’s assume that further research proved that this indeed had the potential to be a very profitable niche. Rather than creating a website that tells people all about my fantastic products for flabby thighs, give people what they are looking for, which is likely information on how to get rid of flabby thighs.
Information, not products.
At this point you would set to work to create a web site and post a few highly relevant, keyword focused, articles about topics that people are searching for in regards to flabby thighs.
You would also want to offer a short complimentary e-course or free report to your visitors which they have to opt-in to receive – this helps you build a contact list. Over time you may wish to add some additional articles that focus on other issues concerning flabby thighs or your own personal experience with successfully dealing with flabby thighs.
You don’t have to build a huge site. You just need a small site and enough relevant, fresh, insightful information that will serve to establish you as an expert in your niche. Then as your visitors get to know, like, and trust you, you will be able to make personal recommendations for products that address their specific concerns. This is were product sales begin.
If you are product marketing online, be it your own product, an affiliate product, or a product you market through a network marketing company, you will find that giving people the information they are looking for far more fruitful than trying to get your product in front of them at every opportunity. Find a niche within your market and give it a try!
For further insight on Niche Marketing, you might also enjoy my niche strategy article.
Feel welcome to browse the rest of the articles on the site – and remember: it’s one thing to learn something, and it’s quite another to put that knowledge to work.
Warmly,
A Sweet Suite
I am going to tell you about a sweet suite and amazing home business resource!
I used to pay $25 a month for an autoresponder and $45 a month for web hosting. Those two marketing resources alone were costing me $70 per month. That was a big chunk of my marketing budget.
I now pay less than $50 per month for a very sweet suite of marketing tools!
Here’s what I have added to my marketing tool box for less than fifty bucks a month:
- Unlimited Autoresponder
- Unlimited Web Hosting
- Complete Video Producer
- Full Audio and Video Online Conference Room
(private – not shared!) - Plus more goodies too!
For $20 less per month than what I was paying for an autoresponder and web hosting I now have an entire suite of extremely fab marketing tools to help me grow my online business! If I were paying separately for each of the items listed above I would be paying more than $600 each and every month!
Ok, let’s be reasonable – I would not lay out $600 a month… I would do without! And now, I don’t have to!
My autoresponder buzzes 24 hours a day, my websites have a great place to call home, AND I now have the capability of adding video to my websites (which I will get to soon!).
Best of all, I have an amazing live online conference room where I meet with clients, give online workshops and classes, provide support, and so much more. My online conference is my live online office where people can find me when they need me – how great do you think that is for my business?? (Pretty darn GREAT! acutally…)
Did I mention that I pay less than $50 per month for all this?? (OMG - have you any idea what this means for my new shoe account..? Hello darlings – come to mama!)
… And did I mention that you can give this sweet suite a try for only a buck?! You absolutely can! For $1 you can give the entire system a try for a full 14 days.
For details on this sweet suite, click here
(If you have sensitive ears, turn your volume down… the intro music is a tad loud. Did I say loud… I think i actually meant annoying ;o)
My Favorite Autoresponder
Why I Love My Favorite Autoresponder:
Ok, the tools and resources that I use for my home business, I use each and every day. Not only do I use them – I love them, and the autoresponder I work to death everyday is no exception.
Why do I love my autoresponder? Well, any tool or resource that I use for my home business must meet certain criteria: it must be affordable, effective and reliable, easy to use, and offer excellent support. My autoresponder meets each point – so it gives me a lot to love.
My autoresponder has all the functionality that I need to help me run my business smoothly, and it’s part of a suite of marketing tools, so it offers exceptional value for my business dollar. Where my business is concerned, I am all on with value. Why spend more than I have to?
I used to pay $25 a month just for an autoresponder, which is half of what I now pay for an entire suite of tools… That’s just silly. Now I bundle my services and save a bundle too! Hey – that’s a few more dollars that I can funnel into the new shoes account every month! (and that’s good money management ;o)
What suite of tools is my autoresponder included with? Find out here.
A Powerful Niche Strategy
A Powerful Niche Strategy for Home Business
Here is a powerful Niche Strategy that you can use for your home business: Find a niche within your market, build a small niche website and focus on providing prospective customers within your niche the information they are looking for.
You may be wondering what a Niche Market is, exactly. It’s a small slice of an existing market. For example the health food industry is a market. A niche within that market could be vitamins, or herbal remedies, or organic produce. Another market is network marketing tools. A few niches within that market would be: autoresponders, website hosting, and video marketing.
Why would you want to focus on just a small segment of your market? Because it’s too competitive to win a large market. Large markets have been dominated by industry giants. As a home business owner you simply will never have the resources required to win your market if you focus on the market as a whole, but focusing on a small slice of the market gives you the opportunity to win that market, and as a result, your business will grow.
So what exactly is a Niche Website? It’s a small to medium sized website that is content rich, focusing on information rather than products. That’s not to say that there are no products – there are, but with a niche site you lead with the info and follow with the product. Before you focus on your product you want to establish yourself as an expert in your niche.
The whole concept is kind of backwards from what most of us have been taught about marketing on the Internet. Most of us were taught to throw together a website that highlighted our product/service, drive traffic to that site, encourage visitors to opt-in to our list, then harass our contacts with a steady stream of ads telling them how absolutely fantastic our product or service is, while we smack them over the head repeatedly with a buy now, buy now, buy now! message.. .
Don’t know how well that worked for you, but it didn’t work well for me – not only that, I hated it…
Fortunately a dear soul had the decency to show me a better way and that better way became a very powerful niche strategy for my home business.
Here is my Niche Strategy:
- do a little research and identify a niche within your market
- put together a small to medium website that will focus on
insightful information relevant to your market - do a little more research to discover what information buyers
in your target market are looking for - based on your findings write 6 to 12 articles that address the
concerns of your target market - put an opt-in form on your site and give away a free report
that focuses on some aspect of your niche
- establish yourself as an authority in your niche by delivering
fresh, quality information that exceeds your subscribers’
expectations - over time, highlight how your product/service addresses
and solves the problems and concerns of your subscribers
That is my simple, yet powerful niche marketing strategy and it works very well for me.
Why does it work? Because I provide for free what buyers in my niche are looking for and in so doing I establish myself as an expert in my niche. Over time my subscribers get to know me, like me, and trust me, and give me the opportunity to develop relationships with them.
Relationships are important because it’s a big Internet out there! Every market is incredibly competitive and there’s a ton of stuff for sale on a zillion websites. People are bombarded with ads at every turn and people don’t like to be sold to. They like to buy… but they hate to be sold.
People like it when buying is their idea, and they like to buy things from people they know, like, and trust. Using my niche strategy on my own niche sites ensures that over time my subscribers do indeed get to know, like, and trust me. The results have been quite incredible for my home business, and I know you would enjoy and appreciate the same for your business.
Feel welcome to browse the rest of the articles on the site – and remember: it’s one thing to learn something, and it’s quite another to put that knowledge to work.
Warmly,
What is an Autoresponder..? Do I need one for my Home Business?
What is an autoresponder and why is it such an important home business resource?
An autoresponder is a wee bit of technology that automates the process of building your contact list and communicating with your contacts. Most online marketers use an autoresponder service, a subscription, that you pay for on a monthly basis. If you are doing business online – you need one!
What the Heck do You do With It… Exactly..?
Basically, what you want to do is take your autoresponder and marry it to your website, thereby creating a glorious, synchronistic partnership, the likes of which you have never before witnessed in your life. Said marriage will result in beautiful music for your business.
You put an opt-in form on your website which is connected to your autoresponder, and you encourage all your visitors to opt-in to your list. Once they do, you are going to use your autoresponder to communicate with your contacts and develop relationships with as many of your contacts as possible.
You need to automate this process because there is no way that you could communicate effectively with 500 to 5000+ contacts manually… Your autoresponder will keep all your contacts and all your communication well organized and in one tidy spot.
Functionality:
Your autoresponder service must give you the ability to create unlimited contact lists with unlimited contacts allowed per list. Your autoresponder system must also be able to create html code that will create an opt-in form for you to place on your website so that people can opt-in to your list from your website.
You must also be able to personalize each message, send a series of followup messages, and have a broadcast option as well.
What You Don’t Need:
Most quality autorespnders have the ability to send high-tech, fancy html messages. Some even offer templates for your messages and newsletters. However, you really don’t need to use html or templates – and here is why: deliverability.
Some ISPs spam filtering is so intense that not much gets through. Emails filled with html or images, or certain spammy verbiage often don’t make it through to your recipients, so it’s actually best to stick with plain text messages – even for newsletters. You will find that plain text messages will have the best chance of making it through any filtering done by the ISPs.
What You Don’t Want:
You don’t want your autoresponder service to cost you a lot of money. You need to be aware of the pricing structure that many autoresponder service providers use. At first glance it seems reasonable, but once your list starts to grow it gets crazy expensive!
As an example of pricing gone mad, one very well known autoresponder system charges about $20/mo for a maximum of 500 subscribers. This seems like a fair and reasonable price – until you exceed 500 subscribers and the price goes up. Then you pay your $20 monthly fee plus from $10 to $150 on top of that as your subscriber base increases from 501 to 25,000 total subscribers.
You want to build several contact lists and you want as many subscribers as possible on each list. Imagine if you had five lists all nearing 25,000 subscribers – you would be paying in excess of $500 per month for your autoresponder service! Why spend that kind of money when you don’t need to?
What About Free?
Free sounds good, doesn’t it? But free autoresponders… not so good. Here’s why: When you send a message from your autoresponder to your contacts you want them to see your message. With any free autoresponder that I have ever seen, your message is piggy-backed under the message of a paid user of the system, and that is not a good situation.
Competition online can be fierce enough without having to worry about competing for a read within your own message!
What You Do Want:
Ultimately you are looking for an autoresponder service that will allow you to create unlimited lists, with unlimited subscribers per list, for a reasonable monthly price that will not increase as your lists grow.
You want a service that provides reliable deliverability and basic functionality: personalization, followup, broadcast, and the ability to create the html code necessary to add an opt-in form for your website – anything more than this is extraneous.
An autoresponder is an absolute necessity and an essential home business resource. It needs to be effective, not fancy – or expensive!
Click here to see what I use and why I like it so much.
Home Business Resource Overview
Home Business Resource Overview
There is just no way that you can start an online home based business without a few essential resources.
Throwing together a quick website just isn’t going to do it. At minimum, you will need a simple but professional personal business website, email, instant messaging of some kind, a web host, an autoresponder, and some means of driving traffic towards your website. As with any business, there are tools of the trade.
The Internet is an excellent place to do business, but the scope of the Internet is incredibly vast and business online is highly competitive. Starting an online home business is not at all like setting up shop on Main Street in your town…
On Main Street, you’ve got a pretty captive audience. If you hang out your shingle and you’re any good at what you do, visibility, word-of-mouth recommendations from happy customers, and a bit of advertising will have you on your way in no time.
Not so with the Internet. You can’t just build a website and then sit around and wait for people to show up. Well – you can, but you’ll be waiting a heck of a long time! Main Street does not exist on the Internet. There are no maps on the Internet. There are no roads. The closest thing to a map that you will find on the Internet is a Search Engine (hmmm – might be worth spending a few minutes learning how search engines work…).
The articles archived in the Home Business Resource section of Smart Internet Marketing Help will highlight some very useful and valuable resources that will help you to make the most of your home business. These are resources that I use personally every single day.
These resources will help you get your work done faster (so you can get the heck away from your computer and do other things!), help you be far more efficient and professional (hey – it’s business – you have to be professional…), allow you to have fun while you work online (who doesn’t what to have fun while they make money?!), and… you can even make a little money with some of them (mmmm… I like money) !
Simply click: Home Business Resource to visit our Home Business Resource Article Directory.
Email Marketing: Best Practices
Email Marketing: Best Practices
The best practices for email marketing are very simple. First – build a contact list, and second, develop as many solid relationships as you can with the people on your list. When you send messages to the contacts on your list remember that the purpose of those messages should be to develop relationships. The sales come later.
Where most marketers go wrong, and they do go very wrong, is they get the first part of the equation right, but they fail miserably with the second part. They build their list, and then they proceed to inundate, overwhelm, and alienate their subscribers with ads, which ultimately results in loss of many subscribers.
What you must realize is that people don’t subscribe to your list because they want to be spammed to death… They subscribe to your list because they believe that some aspect of your website – your products/services, or information that you offer, will solve a problem that they have.
You will never be successful marketing to your list if you inundate them with ads. If it’s your goal to succeed with email marketing, then you’ll really want to focus on mastering the following email marketing best practices.
Email Marketing Best Practice Number 1:
Build Your Contact List
Email Marketing Best Practice Number 2:
Over Deliver Solutions and Build Relationships!
Email Marketing Best Practice Number 3:
Use an Autoresponder – but Keep it Real and Engage Your Contacts
Building your list is easy. Put an opt-in form on your website and offer something of value that encourages your visitor to subscribe.
Building relationships isn’t hard either – but it takes a little know-how and effort. All you really have to do to start building relationships with your contacts is simply ensure that you meet and exceed their expectations by consistently sending them what they are looking for: solutions.
Don’t send ad after mind numbing ad telling them what your product or service will do for them. Instead, be an expert in your field and offer insight and solid information related to your market that will be of value to your readers, and sprinkle in examples of how your product or service fits in to the solution that they seek for their problem.
Write all your information yourself, and let your personality shine through each line. Remember – people buy things from others that they know, like, and trust. In every message you send to your contacts show them that you are a real person. Use your messages as a vehicle that allows your contacts to get to know, like, and trust you.
I’ll bet you’re thinking – OMG – I can’t write to save my life! And you know – you don’t have to be a professional writer to be an engaging writer. You need to be yourself. You need to be honest. You need to be a real human being that others can relate to, and I will bet that you are all of the above.
It’s funny – people are always searching for the secret to successful email marketing – but there are no magical secrets. There are only a few email marketing best practices that you need to follow, and they are incredibly simple:
- Build your list
- Build relationships
- Consistently offer insightful information and solutions
- Use an Autoresponder – but keep it real
It’s so simple… I love simple ;o)
Feel welcome to browse the rest of the articles on the site – and remember: it’s one thing to learn something, and it’s quite another to put that knowledge to work.
Warmly,
Three Simple Methods for Online Success
Three Simple Methods for Online Success
Maybe you’re new to online marketing. Or perhaps you’ve been at it a while and you’re tired of spinning your wheels, getting nowhere, and not making money. Where ever you may be in your online marketing career, here are three simple methods for online success that are sure to help you move forward.
Simple Methods for Online Success: Expectation, Time, and Skill
If you are looking for success online you will need to let go of any unrealistic expectations you may have and focus on things that are far more important – like developing the skills you will need. So for starters, let’s bury the myth of instant online riches via an online business, and shift our attention to where it will do us more good.
There are riches to be had, for certain, but they are never instant. Online business is business – not magic… As with traditional business, business online is going to take a bit of time to grow and find success. If you really want your online business to succeed, focus on learning how to make a success of that business.
You don’t need to learn every single method that has ever been used or every new method that pops up, but what you do want to do is focus on a handful of skills, skills like: effective communication, online marketing, social networking, etc., and master them.
How and where do you learn to master your skills? Simple, either take a few courses (will cost you some money) or find a mentor – someone who is doing what you want to do and doing it extremely well (many successful marketers will mentor you at no cost when you are involved in the same project). Once you have found a suitable mentor, duplicate their system down to the letter. Don’t change or add anything to the mix – simply duplicate.
Once you have mastered a few skills and you have your business up and running profitably – you can play around and personalize things a bit, but in the beginning do exactly what your mentor teaches you to do.
By letting go of unrealistic expectations, focusing on learning and mastering the skills you need to succeed, while giving your business time to grow, you will set the perfect foundation for your online business and it will be sure to thrive.
Simple Methods for Online Success: A Personal Website
Your Web Presence will bring Web Presents…
You need a personal website – period. Why? Because you need to set yourself apart from the crowd. Who/what is the crowd? Other affiliates or marketers who are working the same program(s) or business opportunities as you.
Perhaps you are working with an affiliate program or two, or maybe you are involved with a network marketing company – maybe you do a bit of both. Whatever the case, it’s all good. Affiliate Marketing and Network Marketing are both excellent ways to generate income online. But many online affiliates and business owners rely strictly on their company replicated website for sales and business growth. This is a big mistake, and unfortunately they are missing out on many sales.
Why? Well, consider this: it’s common knowledge that people buy things from other people whom they know, like, and trust. If you direct all prospective customers to your company replicated website you stand a great chance of losing them right then and there because there are hundreds – perhaps thousands of company generated sites just like yours, but more importantly, there’s a big something missing from your company site, and that something is YOU!
Company replicated sites do one thing – they sell, and people don’t like to be sold to. They love to buy things – but they are much happier when buying is their idea.
A personal website, on the other hand, is a place where you have an opportunity to let people get to know, like and trust you. It provides you with a little corner of the web where you can shine as an expert in whatever field your are involved in, and develop many lasting relationships that will become opportunities to do business.
Creating a personal website is extremely easy and super effective. It’s my personal favorite and at the very top of the list where online success is concerned.
Simple Methods for Online Success: A Personal Contact List
Another one of the most simple methods for online success is building a personal contact list. A personal contact list is a list of people who have an interest in some aspect of what you do: your products/service, or information.
People who opt-in to your list eventually become prospective customers or clients for your business. Over time, your personal contact list will prove to be your very best source of clients and customers, and if you learn how to use your contact list properly, many of your contacts will become excellent, life long customers – which is exactly what you want!
There are literally dozens of ways to build your personal contact list: use an opt-in form on your website, email marketing campaigns, social networking and social media, Skype and other instant messaging services. Any way at all that you can think of generating interest in what you do is a great way to build your list.
And you don’t have to limit list building to being a strictly online activity. Take your efforts offline too! There’s far less competition and many, many ways to generate interest: fliers, public notice boards in grocery stores, coffee shops, laundromats, and the like.
The most important thing you will want to do is learn to use your personal contact list effectively. For details on using your personal contact list effectively please refer to lesson 2 in my mini-course. (You are welcome to request my free Smart Internet Marketing Help Mini-Course via the form on the right hand side of this page).
And there you have three very simple methods for online success. By putting your skills to work, utilizing a personal website, and building a personal contact list you will be well on your way down the path of success. Of course, there are many other factors and methods to consider and employ, but these three are an excellent place to start.
Please feel welcome to browse the rest of the articles on the site – and remember: it’s one thing to learn something, and it’s quite another to put that knowledge to work.
Warmly,
