martharichardson.com

Archive for October, 2009

 

Last Friday while cleaning up my late husband’s laptop I stumbled upon some email accounts that I wasn’t aware of.  Boy was I surprised at what he had been doing online since 2004!   I won’t go into details here since it is of a very personal matter but let me just say it has sure changed how I think of him.

 

Can you really know someone?  We were married 9 years but I hardly knew him.  Though I did try to get him to talk to me and do stuff with me, he was more interested in working and being  on his computer…now I understand why.  Which to me it is very sad and hurtful.

 

Now on to other things, please look at this because it is something very important for anyone that does business online and off.

http://www.easytoolbox.com/mws.shtml

How to Use Internet Marketing to Build Your Business

No matter what business in you’re in, you can put the Internet to use for you and use it to help you build your business and rake in more sales.

The statistics on how many people are online now are mind-blowing.  As of November of last year, there are over One Billion people online.  This gives all of us an incredible opportunity to grow our businesses – to global proportions, if that’s what we want.

However, the Internet is not without pitfalls and obstacles.  In fact, if you make the wrong move, you can find yourself in very real danger of losing everything you’ve worked so hard to build.

Here are some things to keep in mind when it comes to using the Internet to market your business:

Create a professional-looking Web presence.  These days with all the readily available Website templates, blogs and highly affordable Website designers who can be hired to design a custom Website, there just isn’t any excuse for amateurish or poorly built Websites these days.  Even when you add the cost of Internet access, hosting, buying the right domain name and the cost of having a Website built, starting an online business is affordable to almost anyone – and so even if you run your business from your home, it doesn’t have to look that way!

Make sure that you’ve done your research.  Find a hungry market that is already buying in your chosen niche.  Choose a product that your target market wants to buy – the best way to do this is to choose a product or service that meets a need, takes away a pain or solves a problem.  Competition is good – but make sure you choose something where you’ve got a good chance of getting close to the top.

Write a business plan.  Even if your business is completely online, a business plan is your roadmap that helps guide you from where you are right now to where you want to end up.  Business plans aren’t just for people who are looking for venture capital or business loans. Include your plans for marketing and selling on the Internet in your plan.  Be flexible and willing to adjust those plans as needed.

Start with the end in mind.  Do you know where you want to end up?  What are you going into business for?  To make a little extra money? To build a business that you can later sell and live on the proceeds?  Whatever your reason for going into business for yourself, decide what your ultimate goal is.  That way you’ll be able to direct your actions towards achieving it.  Brainstorm as many different ways as possible that the Internet can help you to achieve your goals.

Create a vision board.  Although some people call them hokey or old fashioned, having a vision for your business can help you to stay focused and moving towards what you want.  Whether you believe in them or not, a vision board can keep you excited and motivated.  If you do a Google Search, you’ll find several companies that let you build a vision board online – and will even let you send it to your team, your mentors or other people who matter to you.

Have an action plan.  Once you know your long-term plan for your business, it’s easier to chunk it down and create shorter, medium and long term goals that will help you to achieve them.  Write down your plan for marketing on the Internet and make sure that you take at least one or two actions towards those goals every single day. 

Surround yourself with positive, supportive people who will hold you accountable when you need it, give you encouragement and keep you on your toes and stretching beyond where you think you can go.  Thanks to the Internet, the people on your team no longer have to live in your town, your region or even your country!

Test, test, test.  Whatever you’re doing – whether it’s banner advertising, using a newsletter, trying an AdWords campaign – or any other form of Internet marketing or advertising – keep testing your results.  (But here’s a hint – when it comes to your copy, don’t waste your time on unimportant elements – only test the ones that are going to give you the biggest return on your investment.)

Spend your time where it’s going to do the most good – making money.  There’s so much information available – and so much to do online, that it’s easy to get sidetracked and involved in activities that waste your time.  If you find yourself with lots of plans for what you’re going to accomplish in the morning, but suddenly the entire day’s gone by – and you wonder what happened – then chances are you’re wasting too much time online.  You can find some great time-tracking programs online – monitor yourself for a few weeks and you’ll be amazed at all the ways you can find to turn things around and become more productive.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.  Develop a marketing plan where you’re using offline as well as online marketing methods to grow your business.

Follow these simple rules for being online and marketing your business, and you’ll end up exactly where you want to go.

 

Want To Make Passive Income While You Sleep?
Discover How You Can Now Quickly Create Your Own
Branded Cash Producing Viral Ebooks With Just A Few
Clicks That Spread All Over The Web

http://tinyurl.com/lglltf

 

 

I started writing this about a month after Barry died as a way to help
others before they find themselves in the same position I found myself
in.

At times I didn’t want to continue to write because it was very hard but I felt that this was something that really needed to be said and I have yet to see anyone
else write about this particular subject.

http://www.easytoolbox.com/mws.shtml

I set up an affiliate signup, if you would like to promote this.  The link
is at the bottom of the page.

 

Have You Got the “Internet Marketing Blues”?  Here’s How to Get on the Fast Track

Did you know that according to the World Internet Usage and Population Data that as of there were approximately 1,262,032,697 online as of November 2007?

Stop and think about those numbers for a minute!  There are more than 2 billion people online right now…that’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?

Now think about this for a minute…of those more than two billion people, how many of them have stopped at your Website and/or purchased one of your products or services?

Pretty depressing, right?

But don’t let it get you down – because if you take the time to put together an Internet Marketing campaign, you’ll stand a much better chance of making connections with a few more of them!

Let’s start by looking at the four different stages visitors to your Website go through when they’re online.  Although they’ve been classified in different ways, the four basic stages can be described as:

Just looking

Thinking about buying

Ready to buy

Let’s start with the first one: Just Looking

People who are in this stage have something on their minds.  They want something – usually information – and they’re probably not thinking about systematic keywords, or features of a particular product or service.  They’re probably using very general one or two word searches to get more information about the niche or topic.

The best way to reach a visitor to your Website at this point in the game is simply to provide them with lots and lots of general information.  Some ways of doing that would be:

* Writing articles about the topic

* Reviewing different products or services and posting them to your Blog

* Offering a free, informative newsletter about the niche topic

* Doing weekly or monthly Podcasts

* Doing free teleseminars and interviewing experts in the industry, or arranging to be interviewed.

The main thing to remember is to provide lots of broad information.  The more questions you can answer for your visitor right now – the more they’re going to remember you as they move through the buying cycle – and the more they’re gong to perceive YOU as the expert in your industry or niche.

The Second Stage: Thinking about Buying

People who are in this stage of the buying cycle have the information they were looking for.  They understand the basics, and now they’re starting to look for reasons to justify their purchase – they want to be convinced that they need it!

Something to keep in mind is that the larger and more expensive the purchase is, the more logical reasons you’ll need to be able to give them.

So to engage visitors who are thinking about buying, you’ll want to provide easy access to all the features of your product or service.  If you’re selling cameras for example, this is where you’ll want to have lots of customer reviews, descriptions of the different benefits and features of the product and answer all the “how to” information.

For example, you’ll want to make it easy for someone to find out how they can buy your product or service, how you ship it, how much shipping costs and what your guarantee and return policy is.

You’ll want to give them the logical reasons for justifying the purchase at this point.  (But don’t forget that you need to keep showing them what your product or service is going to do for them at the same time – so be subtle, but push the benefits here too.)

By answering their “how” questions, you’ll not only continue moving them through the buying cycle, you’ll also help to guarantee that you’re the one they’re going to want to do business with, because you’ve shown them how easy – and secure – you’ve made the buying process.

The Third Stage: Ready to Buy

If you’ve done your job right, the people who are ready to buy will move quickly and smoothly through your sales process – and come out on the other end as something completely new – your customer!

Here’s how to attract visitors who are ready to pull out their credit cards:

You’ve answered their “what” and “how” questions and they’re feeling safe about making an informed decision.  So now you want to appeal to your visitor’s “emotional” side.

Here’s where you start piling on all the benefits and goodies and feelings of urgency!

Make sure you’re giving visitors “future pictures” to get them thinking about what your product or service is going to do for them, and how it’s going to make them feel.

Here are a couple of concrete examples:  If you’re selling lawn services, for example, you’re not really selling a greener lawn.  You’re selling pride in yourself, in your home.  Becoming the envy of all your neighbors because of your beautiful yard!
Or if you’re selling tooth whitener, you’re really not selling whiter teeth.  You’re selling sex appeal, and beauty and being instantly more attractive to the opposite sex.  You’re appealing to the person’s needs to look nice and to have people think that they care about the way they look and feel.

See how easy that is?

When you’re piling on the benefits, don’t forget to take all the risk off the buyer’s shoulders.  Offer a rock-solid guarantee – and be very clear about exactly what your guarantee is.

You’ll want to add a sense of urgency to the offer – something needs to be time – or quantity-limited.  (People hate thinking that they’re going to miss out on a bargain.)  And add enough – relevant – benefits that your visitor feels like they’d be a complete idiot to miss out on your deal.
That’s really all there is to it.  By following these simple steps, you’ll be able to turn those low-down, internet marketing blues into a “Happy Happy Joy Joy!” song as you watch visitors to your Website – and your sales – hit the high notes!

 

Want To Make Passive Income While You Sleep?
Discover How You Can Now Quickly Create Your Own
Branded Cash Producing Viral Ebooks With Just A Few
Clicks That Spread All Over The Web

http://tinyurl.com/lglltf

 

 

Well last week I was sick  which usually happens with the change of seasons.  But since I work from home I didn’t need to “call in sick”, I worked when I could and took breaks as I needed them.

Also I think I had a “mini” breakdown.  I think with being sick and then I received a letter from a lawyers office saying that my mortgage company has decided to start foreclosure proceedings just sent me over the edge.   Since I’ve already “lost” the car, loosing the house will really be hard.  But I just haven’t been able to bring in enough money to make my house payments and this situation that I have found myself in really makes me very mad at Barry for putting me in this position by not making sure things were in order for me to survive his loss.

I have talked to a bankruptcy lawyer a couple of months ago and even though it is only going to cost me 1000.00 for him to file bankruptcy for me, I have not been able to come up it, even if I tried to put a little aside because I’m making just enough to pay my bills and keep food in the house.  So part of my weekend was spent stressing and crying.

I’ve been working on a very special project, at least it is for me.  If fact I started working on this about a 2 – 3 months after Barry died.  I’ve been putting the finishing touches on it so that hopefully next week I will be ready to go.  So stay tuned, I will also be looking for affiliates for this project.

 I’ve been spending a lot of time in the AdSwap channel in Skype and getting to know the marketers that hang out there.  I’ve also been working on a new squeeze page, which is “done” but I’m not totally happy with the way it looks so I will be working on that more later.

A friend of Barry’s set up a Donation page if anyone is interested, the link is located under Recommended Links.  He said if you would like to purchase Barry’s last product that shows on that page,  use the retweet box and then it will take you to the purchase page.

 

I just updated my monthly Adsense membership site with New content.  Check it out at http://vresitesmonthly.com/

members sign in here;

 http://vresitesmonthly.com/members/

 

I just finished uploading 13 more products, ebooks, nichesites to easytoolbox.com membership.  That make almost 9 1/2 pages of downloads, which 50 downloads on each page!  Check it out at http://easytoolbox.com

If you are member sign in here;

http://easytoolbox.com/members

 

I recently signed up for the NakedPLR.com membership site created by Jeremy Burns the undisputed King of PLR.
 
This review is going to break down exactly what the site is all about and what you might expect when you check out the inside (if you decide to do so).

http://tinyurl.com/yl2zdf2

First off, we’ll start with a description of exactly what the NakedPLR.com site really is.  It’s tagged as a site that gives you 4-5 new private label rights products each and every month.  These are eBooks on niches that have been researched and are hot topics.

One thing I found that was ridiculous was the price.  In a time where “quality” private label rights products cost $50-$70 EACH on the low end, NakedPLR.com comes in at a stunningly low $47 a month for ALL 5 products which is refreshing!

(you get all past 75 PLR products for a limited time when you join now)

Here’s what in the site with a more specific break down of each section…

NakedPLR’s

This is the section that you’ll go to in order to get access to the current months private label rights products. Each product comes with two documents called the Product Analysis and Fast Action Ideas documents.

These documents contain copy starters to help you create an awesome sales letter for your new eBook as well as keywords and competitive pay per click analysis so that you can start bidding on keywords to get traffic to your website quickly.

You’ll also find market research, potential titles for your product and much more.

Also included are 25 articles for each of the products that you can use to further customize your book, use for article marketing or use for creating reports or other traffic generating materials.

PLR Training

This section is definitely the price of the website.  Most membership sites that say that they are going to offer training fall so short of delivering on the promise that it isn’t even funny.

Believe me, I’m a member of several monthly websites and the offering as far as fresh training is sparse.

So far, there have been incredible amounts of training resources and tools added to the member’s area of NakedPLR that are of extremely high value.  There are over a half dozen manuals and quick start guides that show you everything from how to customize your books each month all the way to making more money from them, multiplying profits and getting cheaper pay per click traffic.

The information included in this training section easily could have been sold as a multiple hundred dollar physical course but Jeremy has included it all in the members area.

I honestly feel that this one section alone is worth every  penny of the membership fee each month.

Site Builder

This section gives you everything that you need to build a hot selling website that you can use to start selling your products.

You get a complete course that takes you through the entire process of using the two documents that come with each product to craft your own sales letter step by step, without writing anything from scratch!

This course is around 100 meaty pages long and could easily be a $97 sales letter customization course all by itself.

Best of all, you also get a sales letter template that aids you in the process with more guidance and the formatting already done for you!

You see people selling sales letter software that doesn’t offer the results this template does for upwards of $200 or more but it’s included in your NakedPLR.com membership.

Bonus PLR’s

This section is loaded with over a dozen products with rights that you can use to start selling right away for immediate profits.

Most of these products come complete with sales letters and graphics and are ready to roll.

The cool thing is that you can use some of the tactics that you’ve learned in the training material provided in the training section and further customize these existing products.

This allows you to create a product fast that’s totally unique to you!

Chances are, you’ve probably seen some vendors selling these products that you’re going to get for free *with* rights.

Download them, use the information in them to profit from and also use them to sell for a profit.

Affiliate Cash

Obviously this section gives you information on promoting NakedPLR.com through the affiliate program.

This section is 100% different from any of the other affiliate programs that you may have been exposed to online.

In addition to information on how to get your affiliate links, you actually get a course on how to start promoting your link and generating traffic to it.

The marketing lesson given here is great even if you do not use your new knowledge to promote NakedPLR.

There are even web 2.0 tactics covered that you’ve seen in many paid courses as well as tools such as press releases, articles and review for your blogs.

Best of all, even if you don’t have a website you can use this information to start generating traffic to your NakedPLR.com affiliate URL and start generating recurring income for yourself using completely free methods!

You could even use the tactics that you learn in the affiliate marketing training to apply to all of your NakedPLR.com products you get every month for fast (and free) traffic.

As you can probably tell, I am very happy with all of the goodies that I receive as a NakedPLR.com member.

Of course, the star is the 4-5 products you get every month with private label rights enabling you to start 4-5 new niche businesses each month but the training, bonus products, tools and affiliate training are also awesome.

Overall, I give the NakedPLR.com membership two thumbs up and I recommend that you take a look at grabbing your own membership.  You definitely won’t regret it.

If you are lucky you will still find there are still memberships left at Jeremy’s NakedPLR site.  I know they are close to filling all the spots..

Have a super day-

http://tinyurl.com/yl2zdf2

 

Viral Marketing Basics

Viral Marketing is one of the best ways for you to sell a product or service – in fact, it’s one of the best ways to make a lot of sales.

How?  Because thanks to the way that viral marketing works, you don’t need to have a big list, or a lot of money to put into an advertising campaign – but you can still have a huge impact.

First of all, let’s go over exactly what viral marketing is.  (According to Wikipedia, “Viral Marketing refers to marketing techniques that use preexisting social networks to produce increases in brand awareness, through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily. Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, images, or even text messages.”)

But that sounds a little complicated, don’t you think?  To break it down into plain English, basically Viral Marketing is just a way of getting a bunch of people to tell other people about something you’ve created to build a buzz about your product or service.  And by passing it around to other people, it builds social proof – (because there’s a kind of implied endorsement when you send something to someone else.)  Sometimes you get lucky and the more it’s passed around the more it takes on a life of its own.

A perfect example is the “Free Hugs” video on YouTube.  It has been viewed by millions of people, and the music – a song written by a group called the “Sick Puppies.”  That video was responsible for launching their singing career – even though that was not the original intention.  That video – and the story behind it went viral and caught the attention – and the hearts – of people all over the world.  It even spawned a movement that is still going on.

Although you might not be able to pull off a viral marketing campaign that does as well as the “Free Hugs” video, if you are willing to spend a little time researching your market and your target audience, and can think outside the box, you can create a very successful viral marketing campaign of your own.

What kind of things can go viral?  Obviously videos.  (In fact, if you look at most of the “gurus” in the Internet Marketing field right now, you’ll see they’re all heavily using videos to promote their launches and create marketing  campaigns that go viral.  However, if you don’t have the desire to do videos, you can go with that old standby – the “Special Report.”   Podcasts, white papers, even case studies all have the ability to “go viral” and get a lot of people very interested in what you have to say – and sell.

To create a successful viral marketing campaign, it’s very important that you find the right mix of media, marketing and audience.  Make sure that your target audience is going to be interested in what you have to say, the way you’re saying it and how you’re bringing it to their attention.  If you get these three things right, chances are, you’ll have a winner on your hands, and your next marketing campaign will go viral too.

 

Want To Make Passive Income While You Sleep?
Discover How You Can Now Quickly Create Your Own
Branded Cash Producing Viral Ebooks With Just A Few
Clicks That Spread All Over The Web

http://tinyurl.com/lglltf

 

 

Who’s Visiting Your Website and What are They Doing There?

(How to Get the Information You Need to Build a Stronger Internet Marketing Campaign)

Have you ever wondered who is visiting your Website and What they’re doing there?

Although it’s never a good idea to speak in generalities when it comes to people (after all, we’re all as unique individuals), there are a few basic personality types – and certain common behaviors or characteristics that you can use to your advantage when it comes to creating your next Internet Marketing Campaign.

Let’s start with the personality types.  Based on the “Social Styles” type of personality classification, you’ll find:

Analytical. People in this classification are logical, detail and task-oriented.  They want facts.

Expressive. People in this classification are supportive of others, expressive and outgoing.  They tend to go with their guts.

Amiable. People in this classification are loyal, dependable, consistent and hardworking.  They like to dig until they ferret out all the available information.

Achiever. People in this classification are go-getters, driven, forceful and practical.  They make decisions quickly and don’t want to waste time.

So how do you design your marketing campaign to meet the needs of all these different personality types – especially when you’re just starting out and money is tight?

The best way is to come up with a plan ahead of time, and provide information in the ways that it will be best received by the different personality types.

Still confused?  Here are some things to keep in mind that will help:

Remember your marketing campaign goals.  What do you want your visitors, prospects or customers to do? (Give you their contact information? Make a purchase?)  Make sure that whatever tactics you’re using will help you achieve your goals.  And from there, use tactics that will do one of these three things:

Attract visitors to your site.  Attraction methods can be anything from articles to videos to blogs to Podcasts.  It can be using social media sites to your advantage or creating a following among readers of your Blog.

Convert visitors on your site.  This means get your visitors to take whatever action you want them to take.  It could mean signing up for your newsletter (giving you their contact information), buying a product or attending a Teleseminar.

Retain their loyalty.  Once you’ve converted them, you want to keep them happy and coming back for more.  You retain customers by offering an ongoing newsletter, providing some type of customer loyalty program or even keeping them involved and engaged through social networking sites.

 

The more you know about who’s visiting your site and what they’re doing there, the easier this becomes.

There are plenty of ways you can “spy” on your visitors.  For example, if you have a Google account (and if you don’t you should – they’re free and they offer lots of goodies), you can sign up for Google Analytics.  It’s free, and it will give you lots of very valuable intel about visitors to your Website – such as how people are finding your Website (search engines, direct search and referred from other sites.)  It will tell you what keywords visitors used to find you, what pages they visited, how long they stayed – even what page they were on when they left.  By knowing this information you can increase your ROI (Return On Investment) for any Internet Marketing Campaign.

 

Want To Make Passive Income While You Sleep?
Discover How You Can Now Quickly Create Your Own
Branded Cash Producing Viral Ebooks With Just A Few
Clicks That Spread All Over The Web

http://tinyurl.com/lglltf