The Alternative Broadcasting Online News Station

Learn the easy method I use to reveal marketing secrets. Details of my findings using this method are also disclosed.

Two years ago, I began using ezine advertising as the cornerstone of my online marketing efforts. From the need to determine the most productive and cost effective ezines to advertise in, I stumbled upon a method that revealed the secrets of successful online marketers.

The Method
My method is easy to follow. There’s 3 basic steps:

1.Examine several communication tools the experts use such as an email or sales page.
2.Compare these tools and search for similarties.
3.Collect the common points and implement those findings.

For example, suppose I want to find out how to construct or improve a sales page for a product I own or have resell rights to. The first thing I do is to get online and do a search. In this example, I search using the phrase “internet marketing experts index”. Second, I open every sales web page the search produces in a multi tab browser (Mozilla). Third, I compare the pages looking for similarities. I note these down in Windows notepad, taking care not to overlook details such as fonts, colors, graphics, etc. Finally, I incorporate the information I collected into my own sales pages.

Now you know my method. Next, I reveal the secrets my system has uncovered. The following sections disclose the common factors of various communication tools.

Web Sales-Copy Page
I’ve looked at, and studied countless web sales pages. (I estimate at least 50) Most of them have:

Red verdana headline in quotations
Testimonials (usually near the top)
Time or quantity limitations
A guarantee symbol graphic
Photo scan of their signature
Professional photograph
Background logo images
An audio or video
Free bonuses
Prices ending in the number 7

Most Cost Effective and Productive Ezines to Advertise In
I’m currently subscribed to about 30 ezines that I advertise in. My experience has shown that the most cost effective and productive ezines to advertise in usually have:

A testimonial page
Contact info including phone number and address
Solo ads running regularly (If they sell solo ads and you never see any, it’s a bad sign)
A form for submitting ads
Require subscribers to double opt-in
Have a long waiting period for running my ad (indicates a very popular ezine for advertising)

Email Advertising
About 15 of the newsletters I’m subscibed to are from online experts like Yanik Silver, David Vallieres, Mike Filsaime, Russell Brunson, Len Thurmond, and others. When they send an advertisement in the email I note the common points are:

An irresistible headline that poses an open-ended question or statement
It’s personalize
Short double spaced paragraphs
Bulleted benefits statements
Limited time of offer or quantity available
Special price or bonus for limited number of responders (i.e. the first 50 customers get half off)
Guarantee
P.S. that states a major benefit

Note: I save the most persuasive ads in a separate folder for study.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
I learn a lot about my competitors’ SEO techniques by examining their linking campaign. I initially do a search for keywords related to my website. Next I get the url’s of my competition. Finally, I use an online tool at http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop to reveal the following:

How many links my competition has
Who links to them
Ideas for who to approach for link exchanges
Other related websites

I also use SEO Elite, a free tool to compare:
Keywords used
Keyword Density
Meta tags
Meta Description

That’s just some of the specifics. More can be revealed by examining the benefits statements listed on the expert’s sales page or in their emails. You can get clues to the info. you need to study. For example, one benefit statement for a sales page info. product might say “The 3 Things Every Sales Copy Page Must Have to be Successful.” So, now you know you’re looking for 3 things they ALL have in common.

Remember to get the big picture, look for similiarities, then study the details. That’s the key to reveal the marketing secrets of the masters.
About the Author

Greg Root started using ezine advertising almost exclusively since 2003 and owns and maintains ‘The Ezine Ad Tester’ at http://www.maxprofitpro.com/ . See the results of his ezine advertising campaigns to find the best ezine advertising resources on the internet.

1. Focus your fax marketing on one objective

Fax is a flexible medium, and is being used by Adestra clients to sell off-the-page, to conduct research, for broadcasting newsletters, for generating prospects and for database cleaning. Avoid diluting your message by keeping it simple and being clear about what you are trying to achieve.

2. Collect clean fax contact data

When collecting fax numbers, split out the international and regional code from the main number to encourage accuracy of collection. The strongest offer will not get a response if it never reaches your target due to bad data!

3. Keep compliant within the fax preference service

Within the UK, all fax recipient databases must be run against the fax preference service to suppress those who have opted out. Many fax broadcast agencies provide this as part of the service, but failure to do this can result in a significant fines. See www.fpsonline.org.uk for more information.

4. Broadcast fax communications effectively

Use specialist fax providers to broadcasting simultaneously to both the UK and internationally in bulk, quickly and easily.

5. From the fax machine to the contact

Address your communication to your contact using mail merge fields or if they are not known, use ‘title-slugs’ (e.g. FAO Marketing Director) to get your message to the most appropriate person within an organisation.

6. Design your fax messages for delivery

Your message will be delivered in black and white and your images will be reproduced with varying quality. You should design your message like an effective DM cover letter- make USPs stand out and ensure the key messages are communicated at a glance. Keep images large and simple enough to be legible on delivery.

7. Spend wisely on fax promotions

Fax marketing is priced per sheet with different costs based upon where the recipient lives. Faxing a contact within the UK is much cheaper than using direct mail or telemarketing. These budget savings can now be invested in increasing the number of faxes you send or by repeating the campaign based upon ROI.

8. Resource call to actions

Fax marketing is delivered minutes after being sent meaning your responses begin almost immediately. Ensuring the back office is resourced and ready to deal with these replies are essential in meeting customer expectations

9. Make your fax marketing pay

Measure the performance of the campaign to improve and refine. Personalise each fax with a unique number, use a unique web address (e.g. www.adestra.com/mediaweek) or ensure that reply vehicles are easily identifiable to track performance

10. Mix it in

Many Adestra clients integrate fax within their media plans. When integrated amongst a variety of media, fax works most effectively and in one recent client test led to an up lift in sales of over 5%.

Adestra’s fax marketing tools

Many marketing professionals are using Adestra’s fax broadcast capabilities to reach conference attendees, report buyers, theatre attendees and more. Working with our in house fax marketing specialist, your campaign receives the benefit of an expert eye optimising your creative. For more information, please contact us on http://www.adestra.co.uk/fax or browse our fax marketing best practice centre at http://www.adestra.co.uk/best_practice_fax_marketing

Paul Crabtree is presently Marketing Director of Adestra (http://www.adestra.com), a UK based digital marketing agency that specialise in inbound and outbound email, fax and SMS broadcast solutions. Adestra’s client portfolio includes many UK based publishers including Janes Information Group, Informa, Lexis Nexis, OUP, Blackwells and others.

Copyright 2005 Ronald Gibson

You would like to create your own information product, but you are stuck. What the heck should you write about? This could be the hardest step involved in this entire process. The reason I say that is because when you begin anything for the first time it ALWAYS seems that much more difficult due to it being the very first time.

Add to that the fact that for some people, writing is an almost impossible task. But let me just tell you that writing up an article, special report, or a 340 page ebook isn’t any different than learning to roller blade. Except that you’ll get a lot less bumps and bruises! At least physically anyway

But it doesn’t have to be this way. The best advice for what to write is write about WHAT YOU KNOW. That makes everything SO much easier. And, don’t think you don’t know anything, because everyone knows something.

Before you begin writing, be sure you have the proper tool to write with.

Of course you can start out with the simple Notepad or WordPad tool that came with your computer when you purchased it. However, to cut through some additional formatting steps, i.e. - copying and pasting, etc., it’s best to start out with a tool with a bit more function like Microsoft Word, or the better, and FREE alternative, Open Office.

You can download a copy from http://www.openoffice.org . You’ll want to pick up the Open Office Suite so you’re sure to get EVERYTHING. This is SO helpful to those of you who don’t have, or can’t afford expensive programs like Microsoft Office or PDF Maker programs.

Now that you have just the right writing tool, let’s start writing! Make a list of the things that you do, or like to do. Whether it’s your job, a hobby you enjoy, or caring for children or pets. Even the smallest thing that you might not think is important, like an easier way to clean up after family get together. A good thing to remember is that things we often take for granted or overlook because we do them on a constant or consistent basis someone else might have an interest in learning and have NEVER done before. Then, look over the list you just created and choose a subject from it. But, keep a hold of this list somewhere as you may want to return to it to invent a NEW product, or even several new products.

Here are a few example topics that might give you a better idea of what to strive for:

** Organic Gardening
** Japanese Bonsai Tree Growing and Care
** Low-Fat Dessert Recipes
** Working with Leather
** Buying a Car with No Credit or Bad Credit
** Fly Fishing for Beginners
** Pit Bulls as Pets: A Positive Experience
** Home-Made Cat Treat Recipes
** Having an Iguana as a Family Pet
** Being a Better Parent
** Making the Most Out Of Every Day
** Hot Air Ballooning
** Bird Watching For the Family
** Model Airplane Construction
** Coin and Currency Collecting
** Proper Car Tune Up Instructions
** Knitting, Crocheting, Sewing

You get the idea here. The more you narrow down your topic, the more specific the niche category will be and the less competition you’ll have when moving further along in the process.

Pretty much any topic or subject can be turned into a profitable information product if you put the effort into it.

You don’t have to have ANY knowledge about one particular subject, as you could always do research on the topic, by having prior experience or working knowledge of the material you plan to cover will make the project go that much easier and quicker.

Once you have your first topic picked out that you will be writing about, it’s time to begin really writing it up. Now don’t be afraid. This is easier than you might think. The way to write up an information product is to write as if you are explaining the subject to someone who has no previous knowledge of it or has never heard of what you are talking about.

Go from beginning to end. Leave out nothing, no matter how small the detail. Remember, most of the people that purchase your information product will be new to the whole process of your subject matter.

You have just jumped the first hurdle in the process of creating your own information product.

Ronald Gibson is a Web Designer and Internet Marketer. He is the Webmaster of AffiliateUtopia.com, which offers information about some of the best money making opportunities on the Web. For more information, visit:
http://www.affiliateutopia.com/ and http://www.affiliateutopia.com/blog/

Defining Top-Line versus Bottom-Line

An Internet business improves their “top line” by increasing the number of unique visitors to their website or their “bottom line” by increasing their “visitor-to-sale” or “visitor-to-lead” conversion rates.

Let me illustrate.

After an online business establishes their performance metrics, it is able to predict with confidence the expected results from their visitor traffic. For example, a business’ performance metrics may show that for every 1,000 visitors received, 15 sales are completed - a sales conversion rate of 1.5%.

With this understanding, the business can increase its “top line” growth by driving more visitors to its website. For example, if the business invests money in traffic generation efforts to increase their visitor traffic from 1,000 to 10,000, 150 sales will be achieved from the 1.5% sales conversion rate - a ten times growth rate.

Top-Line Improvements Focuses on Traffic Generation

What are “traffic generation efforts”?

In brief, traffic generation efforts are ways a business attracts visitors to their website. They may include online efforts such as search engine optimization, pay-per-click search engines, affiliate marketing, email campaigns, and media or offline ones like direct mail, television, radio, and public relations.

On the other hand, the business may decide to spend their money on improving their “bottom line” by concentrating efforts on website conversion strategies.

For example, if the above business invests money in website conversion strategies to increase their sales conversion rate from 1.5% to 2%, then for the same 1,000 visitors, sales will increase from 15 to 20 - a 25% increase.

Bottom-Line Increases Focus on Website Conversion Strategies

So what are website conversion strategies?

Website conversion strategies are website design changes that connect with your visitor’s wants and persuades them to take action to achieve your goals as well as theirs. There are endless strategies to increase your bottom line although some have greater significance than others.

Depending on your type of online business, different strategies may achieve greater results for your website and offer greater relevancy for your visitors.

If you manage a consumer or business product website than website conversion strategies that focus on reducing shopping cart abandonment may provide the greatest conversion improvement. While a service business’ lead generation website will find improvement from website conversion strategies focused on “contact us” form completion.

Implement These Website Conversion Strategies

There are website conversion strategies that will improve conversion rates for all online businesses regardless of their individual objectives. These strategies include improvements to…

• Website’s sales copy including writing headlines and sub-heads with stronger visitor appeal, defining stronger calls-to-action, using more visitor-relevant and benefit-oriented words and positioning popular visitor keywords in prominent areas connect with visitors and persuade action.

• Graphics and layout design to generate visual relevancy and message consistency for your visitors.

• Guarantees, returns, shipping, privacy, customer support and security policies you present to gain confidence and trust from your visitors.

• Navigational structures to make it easier and more convenient for your visitors to locate the products and services they desire to purchase.

• Buying or contact options to increase the ways in which a visitor can purchase or receive contact from you including alternatives to a shopping cart or online form like phone, mail, fax, online chat, and email.

How to Decide Between Top-Line or Bottom-Line Improvements

Your decision to pursue “top-line” or “bottom-line” improvements should be evaluated by (1) the objectives you plan to achieve, (2) the amount of money you have to spend, (3) the time-line established to meet your goals, (4) the amount of visitor traffic your website currently receives and (5) the conversion rate your website currently achieves for your calls-to-action.

Establishing a plan before you make any decisions is critical. As the old joke goes, “I’m making progress climbing the ladder of success–I just don’t know if it’s leaning against the right wall.” The plan should include measurable goals based on your current performance metrics.

Knowing your budget is essential in the selection process. Why, because certain conversion enhancement strategies can be implemented for a small investment of your time and effort. While traffic generation efforts may require greater investments of time, effort or both. Figuring your budget enables you to also forecast the potential return you may receive from improving your top-line versus your bottom-line. Obviously the areas that provide the biggest bang for your buck are the ones to start one first.

Understanding your time-line is also essential since many conversion enhancement strategies will offer quick improvement to your conversion rates while traffic generation efforts like search engine optimization have long lag times before delivering ample visitor traffic.

Identifying your current visitor traffic volume and conversion rates, especially for new Internet businesses, is also very important when determining top-line or bottom-line improvement. If you currently have low visitor traffic then you will have difficulty in determining if a conversion enhancement strategy had a real effect on improving your conversion rates.

For example, if your website receives 100 visitors a month it will take you at least a month or two before any real measurable changes occur to your conversion rates. In this case, you would be better off focusing on top-line (traffic generation efforts) first and then returning to bottom-line improvements for increasing your conversion rates.

Likewise, if your website currently has strong visitor traffic, like 15,000 visitors per month yet your current conversion rate produces only 5 sales then obviously you need to improve your bottom-line and focus on conversion enhancement strategies.

Take time to review your “top line” versus “bottom line” opportunities and to decide which one offers you the best return for your dollars spent. If you concentrate on improving one of the two areas over the next month you can be confident that measurable sales growth is achievable for your Internet business.

Kevin Gold is a Founder of Enhanced Concepts and a published author. If you’re interested in increasing your leads or sales, get a free copy of “Understanding Your Conversion Rate” and “12 Surefire Ways to Increase Your Website Conversion” by visiting http://www.enhancedconcepts.com.

Did you know that there are seven psychological techniques that literary persuade people to buy?

When I first used them in my sales letter I increased the response rate by 257% overnight! You can use them not only in your sales letter but also in your ads, headlines, and even newsletter.

Trigger #1: Reason Why

Tell people WHY you’re doing something. Don’t be a mystery for your customers. People are more likely to buy from an ordinary person they know something about.

Are you giving 25% discount on your product? Give the people honest reason why. Are you limiting the number of products you want to sell? Tell people why.

If you tell your visitors about the reasons of doing something they will be more likely to trust you and to buy from you.

Trigger #2: Specifics

Tell the specifics. “How I made $1,057 in a week” sounds more believable than “How I made $1,000 in a week”.

People are sceptic. If you include specifics people will be more likely to believe you.

If you state a fact, make it specific. General numbers never sounded plausible.

Trigger #3: Curiosity

We all are extremely curious. We want to know answers to our questions. Tell people not to open this email and they will open it. Because they want to know what’s inside.

Headlines like “Discover the hidden secret of free ezine advertising” are always producing great results. You immediately want to know “What secret?”.

Curiosity trigger is a great way to get your email opened. It also works great in ads and in articles. Like the title of this article: “What Are 7 Psychological Triggers That Make People Buy?”

Trigger #4: Fear to Lose Something

People are most likely to buy from you if they are motivated by fear to lose something than if they are motivated by desire to gain something. That’s why deadlines and limited production numbers works well.

Use deadlines in your copy. Run 3 days specials or limit the number of products you want to sell. Make people act now by letting them know that it is a limited time offer.

Trigger #5: Questions

Ask questions. By asking questions you get people involved, they automatically start to think to answer your question and become more responsive to your message.

What headline would grab your attention:

“You are wasting money on ezine advertising” or “Are you wasting money on ezine advertising?”

Trigger #6: Stories

Nothing can be better than a good story. It’s easy to influence people just by telling them a good story.

A lot of famous copywriters used this method in their sales letters. You can tell a true story about your customer. Or about yourself.

A real life story about something the product has done to improve someone’s life will build your credibility and motivate people to buy.

Trigger #7: Facing a Problem

Every product is a solution to particular problem. Don’t rush into presenting the solution you have, make sure you first make your visitors to face the problem.

Present the problem and agitate it so people would feel the pain of situation. Spell out the problem, tell them how it feels. Only after you’ve got readers interest present your product that provides the solution.

Apply these seven psychological techniques to maximize your sales and increase the response rate of your ads.

About The Author

Arina Nikitina is the author of exclusive report “The Guru’s Secret Formula To Creating Massive Online Cash Flow”. For a limited time the report is available absolutely free of charge here: http://www.online-internet-marketing-strategy.com

arina@online-internet-marketing-strategy.com

1. Increase the number of visitors that revisit your web site by publishing a free course right on your site. Just release a new lesson once a week or once a month.

2. Make sure your graphics load correctly. Broken graphics or the x box will make your business look very unprofessional.

3. Avoid using scrolling marquees on your web site. They take the attention away from your ad copy and make your web page load much slower. Those were great in the 90’s, but obsolete today.

4. Make your web site writing exciting to read. You can use emotional words, descriptive wording, highlight keywords with color, etc.

5. You must allow your visitors to sign up for your services. When your visitors give you offline contact information, if you have the funds, send direct mail when possible.

6. Guest books are old. Take them off of your site. Use forms instead. The shorter the form, the better off you are. Allow them to add comments.

7. Submit your url to Google. To find it, just go to Google and type in ADD URL. This will bring you to the right page.

8. Our hosting is $50.00 a year. Structure your price over a period of time to make it sound less. Offer a payment plan or show the per day price. For example, “Only 14 cents per day!”

9. If you have a tangible product, make sure you include pictures, functions, and the benefits of the product. There are millions of websites out there. Keep there attention.

10. Update the content on your web site regularly. You’ll want to add new content and update the old content. If your content is obsolete, remove it.

E. L. Strauch is the marketing director for 10000mb.com

Website Hosting

It has now comes to my attention that many internet marketing newbies are proclaiming themselves as internet marketing ‘guru’, by only having a few newly built websites that are less than a week old, these gurus are claiming if you sign up for their newletters, they will teach you all sorts of guarenteed-way to gain traffic to your website immediately!

WAKE UP! The next thing you know is having your inbox full of junk mails. Good to hear that some of my subscribers have email filter that can filter emails that they marked as ’spam’ mails before they hit their inbox, I’m glad my emails are not among them.

One of the super hyped up website I’ve stumble today put up a headline that reads “Discover How to Instantly Get Multiple Streams of Targeted Traffic to Your Website!”, now I don’t know where did he copied this line from, but I do remember a REAL guru has this headline earned him half a million dollars within 3 months time! This guy ripped the same headline down and added 2 words behind the original, “Starting Today!”. Many of these ‘gurus’ offer the same old-school topic - How to increase traffic to your websites.

I have a question for them:

If what you’re teaching is so effective, and why the hell do you need visitors to subscribe to your lame-o-newsletter so that you can spam your visitors hoping for some low-life income? (I have to appologize for the used of the words just now, I’m just against scammers)

My Thought:

If they are really the ‘Guru’ of traffic maker, just post in a blog or write an article for it. Thereare just so much to write about it in this topic. Not just go around telling people, “Sign up my newsletter now and I’ll show you how to increase your traffic.” The truth is, after you’ve signed up the newsletter, you’re only making him to increase the traffic.

Therefore, I do not claim such offer to increase my subscribers, I give away ebooks for free (but not free ebooks). Ebook that are really selling at a price out there now! So, would you rather being bribed for my subscription email list, or rather believe in those hyped up occult marketers?

Copyright (c) Edwin Lim
About the author:
Edwin Lim is a freelance copywriter living in Malaysia. For more article writing and marketing insights, visit his Website at http://www.webblogerz.com

Don’t put the cart before the horse.

You can’t do SEO (optimize your web site for search engines) until you’ve researched keywords. You can’t research keywords without a clear view of your target market, your prospect types, and how your offerings fill their needs.

Affordable Small Business SEO

Affordable small business SEO not only uses the same old business and marketing basics, but also leverages the depth of accessible metrics for creating increased online traffic and better web site ROI.

When small business people ask me how their web site could be improved by SEO, I give them some version of the following list of questions. When you know the answers to these questions, you’re much less likely to waste money on SEO efforts, and more likely to succeed online. You might even pull off some of this stuff yourself- and that’ll save you big in consultant fees!

To find the right keywords to target with SEO and/or PPC, consider the following…

Goals: How much monthly traffic and sales do you get now? Where would you like these numbers to be? What are your most wanted responses- what do you want your ideal prospects to do on your site? (e.g. buy something, sign up for your ezine, etc.)

Market Segmentation: Who’s your ideal customer or target market? If there is more than one group, characterize each.

Keywords that work: How do people find your site? What search phrases show up in your web logs?

PPC Metrics: Do you already use pay per click (PPC) advertising? What are your conversion rates? Are your bids profiting, or at least breaking even?

Getting more traffic is pointless if your site isn’t an efficient sales machine.

Profit Margin: What is your online profit margin for each offering?

Conversion Rate: What percentage of your offline prospects make the purchase? (to gauge expected conversion rate for your services and find disparity in online results)

Customer Loyalty: How many people are on your ezine list? How often do you email them? What do you send them?

5 Common Critical Website Errors and How to Fix Them

About 75% of the web sites I’ve seen make all of these mistakes. As a result, their rankings and traffic suffer, and they lose potential sales revenues.

No Sitemap. No matter how well your pages are designed and no matter how nice the graphics are, every site need a good ’sitemap’ page for search engines to index it more easily. This is a simple page of links- no frills except perhaps a bulleted outline structure. Even better, you can use the new Google sitemap xml template, and upload it to Google to increase the chances they’ll index your whole site.

Insufficient Search Engine and Directory Submission. In the ideal cyberworld, you wouldn’t have to submit your site anywhere- it would just get indexed and put where your prospects could find you. The reality is we still have to meet these services halfway. There are only a half dozen super-big sources of traffic (e.g. Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.), but you have a better chance of showing up in them if you’ve submitted your site to the 100-200 minor directories and search engines. Also, there are niche directories that will help you rank on your best keywords and attract more prospects directly. Submit your site to these places with a free tool like WebCEO.

Mysterious Website Owners. Your visitors want to know, “who are the people behind this website? Can I trust them?” Unless you have a particularly snobby target market, put your picture and brief bio on the very first page of your site (if not every page). Let them know who you are. This might be taboo in offline marketing (not really- look at Ben & Jerry, Steve Jobs, Donald Trump, etc.), but online, genuine personality is a competitive advantage. It fosters trust, creates credibility and emotional bonds, and bridges the cold gap of cyberspace. You can do it appropriately for most target markets. The real question is: are you ready for the prime time?

Confusing Site Structure. Does your site confuse people? Do you know where they want to go, what they’re really looking for? Where do you want them to go? Good site structure both guides your various prospect types to the places you want them to go and satisfies their needs. Get some of your target market to sit in front of you and use your website- watch what they do- it’ll surprise you. And put a search engine on your website that gives you reports on what people search for- you’ll get clues about what else to put online.

Ezine Neglect. The ezine signup form isn’t prominent on some sites - make it obvious and ’sell’ your visitors on signing up. Tantalize them into ezine subscription with a free bonus. Why? Not everyone will become your customer the first time they reach your site. They may like your offerings but not trust you enough yet or be ready to buy. They may have questions. Once you have them on your list, you can sell them on you and your stuff (by helping them with tips) every week or two until they buy.

Not only do they need a free bonus to stimulate them to sign up, they also need to know what kind of thing you’ll be sending them, that you’ll keep their email address private, and that they can unsubscribe anytime. And I’d suggest using double opt-in to avoid spam- that means they sign up (you don’t add them), and they confirm via email before they ever get an email from you.

About the Author

Since 1999, San Diego SEO Consultant Brian B. Carter, MS, has reached more than 2 million readers online. His most popular site ranks in the top 1% of all major websites. Brian’s second book, “How I Made $78,024.44 in Six Months Using the Newest Secrets of AdSense and Overlooked Keywords” will be available in September, 2005.

At a recent networking meeting Jana asked for a recommendation for a public speaking coach. She was starting to speak in front of audiences, and wanted to polish her presentation skills a bit. Before anyone else got a chance to reply, Elise jumped in to recommend her coach, Kelly. “I have been working with Kelly for two months, and I have already seen results from working with her. I am much more confident during my presentations, and I see that my audience is more engaged and more responsive. She is great; I will e-mail you her contact information later today.”

Later that day I spoke with Elise about Kelly. Elise has always been interested in public speaking, so when she heard about Kelly about a year ago, she put herself on Kelly’s mailing list. She enjoyed what Kelly had to say, learned more about her practice, but didn’t take action to actually buy anything from Kelly until an opportunity came up for Elise to conduct a few workshops with another colleague. Once she started working with Kelly, she confirmed that she was as knowledgeable and professional as she appeared in her newsletter. Kelly, with his professionalism, knowledge and proven marketing techniques turned Elise from being a random business owner into a raving customer. How did she do this?

- She knows and uses effective marketing techniques. Kelly has a web site that describes when she does. She publishes a newsletter, in which she shares useful information on public speaking, as well as keeps the readers informed about her expertise.

- She is consistent. Marketing is not a one time event; rather, it is a process. Kelly markets consistently - she publishes his newsletter on a regular basis, she uses her own web site, branding, articles, and many other techniques in order to get results.

- She is a professional who delivers results. When clients work with Kelly, she delivers the services and products she has promised.

So how can your business benefit from knowing about Kelly’s marketing techniques? Over to you - let’s take action:

- Learn about online customers and how they behave. It takes a few marketing techniques to turn a random web surfer into a raving customer. This week’s lesson at MarketingSalad.com is all about turning your web site visitors into customers. Join us at MarketingSalad.com for immediate access to the lesson, as well as additional discussion on getting more online customers.

- Run your marketing campaigns on a consistent basis. One time advertising or marketing campaign is likely to bring in more web site visitors, but not very likely to bring in many long term customers. Whether you are publishing newsletter, refining search engine traffic or giving workshops to promote your business, it takes time for the campaigns to start bringing in a consistent stream of qualified buyers. Continue your marketing campaigns for a long enough time to see the results.

- Underpromise and overdeliver. Your marketing materials make promises to your customers. Whether it is fast results for people in your classes, a product at no charge with any coaching package purchased or a press release critique for new customers, make sure that you deliver MORE than your marketing materials promise. Doing this will result in customers who not only are happy with your services, but who will also promote your services to others.

Knowing who your customers are and delivering them what they want will help you fill up your practice with happy customers.

Biana Babinsky is the online business consultant, expert and author who teaches business owners how to make more money online. You too can make more money online - start learning by getting Biana’s FREE special report, “Top 5 Ways to Increase your Online Sales” at http://internationalpractice.com/free_newsletter.html

Before you send out your first advertisement, it’s wise to have a concise marketing plan. This is best accomplished by taking the time to write down your goals. Then follow a proven marketing strategies to achieve a successful business strategy.

Action creates results

Writing your goals will effectively enable you to put them into action. These goals coupled with an effective marketing strategy will allow you to achieve success.

Surefire Ways to Make it Happen

1. Schedule a Meeting to Map Your Way

Stay with me here. You wouldn’t drive anywhere without knowing the way. Why would you feel any different for something as important as your success?

Ask yourself some important questions:

“How is my marketing unique?”

“What methods will I use to advertise?”

“Who am I advertising to?”

“How focused will my advertising content be?”

“How frequently will it go out?”

Write down your responses. This will give you a clear indication of the direction you need to go.

2. Have a Planning System

We know from above it would be just plain wrong to drive somewhere without knowing the way. It’s just as important to know why you’re going there. Create a plan and stick to it.

Determine your marketing objectives

What do you want to achieve from your marketing? Write down your motives on a regular basis as you work toward your objectives. This effectively proves their worth to you. You’ll then have the incentive to start driving toward them.

3. Define Your Key results

Key results provide an indication of your progress toward your goals. These will be milestones or signs that you’re heading in the right direction.

Maybe it’s your first 100 newsletter subscribers, or a certain number of sales from your ezine. What ever it is, it’s important to determine your key results, and write them down. This way you know you’re on track.

4. Take Action

Action creates results. Now is the time to take everything you know about your desired goals, and prioritize your activities to achieve results. You can do this by selecting the most productive actions to reach your key results.

The important thing is that you take the actions that will give you the best chance of reaching your marketing objectives. Remember to write these down so you have a concise roadmap to success.

Matt Sherborne is the Author of Get Rich Trading E-Currency and Explode Your Ad. You can visit his advertising blog here: Best Advertising Advice For information on the best Myspace tools visit: http://www.myspacereviews.com