You know, I was sitting here this morning on the 28th of May, 2010 and wondering how on earth I was going to overcome a problem with one of the many businesses that I run online.

I was reading many emails coming in from a project management team and busily replying... "Natter, natter, natter" went the keyboard in response to their emails...

Now I know that this is not your normal internet marketing related post, but it's one that is MUCH more important than any business related topic, this is about being TOUGH in your life...

What happened next was the sound of a "Bing Bong" in my Outlook inbox, and I saw a video from a man who completely "CHANGED" my perspective as I'm sure he will you too.

Just take a look at this video and I want you to take a moment now before you watch it, to think about how you might feel, and then also after you watch it, let me know how it changes your thoughts, feelings and overall being...

Here it is... Enjoy!...

Today I wanted to talk about a topic that is very important to every single business owner. And it's a question I hear about 5 times a day on average “Where Do I Start Online?”…

A lot of business owners are very new to the internet, and therefore they often go and ask this question to web designers and the web deisgners ask them “Well what do you want to achieve online?” or “What would you like to put online?” and quite often a business owner doesn’t know what they want, they “think” they know but they don’t “really” know what is going to work for them.

So What WILL Work For A New Business Owner Going Online?

Here are the steps that you should go through to ensure that your new online marketing launch for your business is a success (notice I said “Internet Marketing Launch” not “Your New Website”?)…

Why whould I say this?…

Becuase websites as we know them are “DEAD” there is no reason why you would just wack up a plain jane 5-page website that has the old style menus of “Home - About Us - Products - Services - Contact Us” any longer… But believe me, this is what the web designers want you to have and if you “don’t know” what you want, this is what they’ll give you!

So the things you need for your internet marketing launch are:

1. 3 niche areas of your industry that you can “without a doubt” offer expert guidance and advice in
2. Market research of all 3 areas, e.g. the words people type in the search engines to find this topic, is there a viable market online for this topic?, what exactly are people looking for around this topic?, what problems are they trying to solve? and what pain are they trying to avoid?
3. Video - You need a video of yourself explaining exactly how you can help them fix their pain and avoid the problems they are facing by engaging you and your business (video is a critical factor to your success online these days, and all savvy business owners are using it (especially the online marketing experts who know of it’s immense power).
4. Strong Sales Copy - If you don’ t have a persuasive message, and no, I don’t mean a message that is full of hype, but a strong, persuasive case that addresses “ALL” the conceiveable angles of why someone would come to you over your competition, then your campaign will most likely not be as strong as it could be. If you can’t do copy yourself then be sure to hire a very successful copywriter to do it for you (DON’T skimp on this step, as that would be like trying to get your car serviced by motorbike mechanic… Not Successful… Get my point?)
5. Last but not least, you need some form of FREE offer to capture a prospective clients details, so you hopefully have them on your marketing and client list for a long time (and as long as you offer them great value you will keep them and they will convert to clients over time).

This is only the very beginning of what is required in any new online marketing campaign, notice how similar they are to the offline world of marketing, the steps are almost identical except it much easier to do this online and gather the information required, as you’re exposed to a much larger global audience instantly by doing it online.

I hope that his helps you understand what to be looking for in a web launch when you next approach your designer to put you online, and if they give you the “what do you want to achieve” line, then you’ll at least have some armoury of points to go over with them.

This is the second part of how to correctly create your online sales and marketing funnel for your website. In this second video, Adam explains the power of using an auto-responder email service (http://www.emailmarketing4u.com) to make the entire process very easy and automated.

He also explains how to create leverage for your business, so you can set it up once and then create immense value for your readers, thus turning them into eventual clients or referrers of your service like a viral marketing campaign.

Innovative ecommerce today is challenging old school retailers to move forward so they can outperform their competition. The restuls of this new approach to online business is quite frankly "explosive" in the growth for those who use the new model.

You're probably beginning to wonder what the top 4 tips are?

1. In the past retailers have tried to identify their "Best Customers" and reward them only. However, the change that is occuring, espescially with online ecommerce is to look at the total life value of a client and not how much they spend one time, in one big hit.

You're much better of these days to identify and align with the top experts and "early adopters" of a niche, invite them to trial the new product or service and then give them the necessary tools to invite their circle of contacts, friends, family so they can easily leverage their natural influence and expertise on them, which in turn will allow the whole thing to grow in a viral manner.

This is particularly well suited to online invite a friend forms, however can be done just as easily with an offline by using a well thought out invite a friend program.

2. You've been taught in the past to only sell stock, knowledge, services that you have "on hand" as selling up coming resources will only frustrate customers.

It sounds logical doesn't it, but if you think this "old school way" then you're leaving out a very, very important strategic angle in your business promotion program.

What if you approached the thin niche of "early adopters" that really enjoy and pride themselves on having the latest and greatest and being first in their market by implementing the newest services?

If you were open to this idea of focussing on the early adopters, you would then only need to pursuade them to endorse your products and if you're product / service is worth it's salt, they will love it, and then go on and endorse it to their network of contacts.

Indeed this will allow you as an ecommerce retailer to secure pre-purchase commitments, be ahead of the curve and adjust from early feedback and discussions with clients (before competitors even cotton on to the new product / service and retaliate), allow them to share the new ideas with highly credible circles of influence that can massively influence viral spread of early sales, and finally, increase your loyalty and following from clients who want the latest and the greatest.

3. Overlooking the main ecommerce buyers in a niche to interact with their customers. Retailers by and large don't have any infrastructure to facilitate interaction between customers and buyers. And because most retailers aren't close to their customers, they don't make their industry expert advisors available to their clients, this is indeed a "BIG" mistake.

This has happened because until only recently, and savvy use of internet surveys it was diffucult to get the information and feedback from end customers in a cost effective and timely way.

But with the invent of the likes of Facebook Groups and many other fan based blogs, twitter, it's become much simpler for ratings, polls and reviews to take place. Therefore retailers can make good use of uncovering opportunities, threats and problems so they can make forecasts with a whole new x-ray type vision.

4. Most ecommerce retailers only have one website or storefront, you need to learn how to leverage multiple presences! As a highly savvy ecommerce operator, you can now leverage the likes of affiliates, Ebay, Amazon and so on and so forth. This in fact enables you to put your products / services, under the nose of "Where the clients are" and not wasting your time trying to lure them to your storefront or website.

This is how it might look, your affiliates enable what they call a "Widget" on their Facebook, blog, review website and this will allow your products to show up on "their website" this in essence "takes the water to the horse" and now it's even possible to allow secure transactions to take place from within the widget installed on an affiliate site, and that my friends is the part "that gets the horse to drink".

So there you have it, 4 old-school ways of thinking and unique twists to help you move forward in your business. I hope they help and give you some "AHA" moments to increase your sales.

While information marketing hasn't been taught for all that long, it doesn't mean that it's presence hasn't been strong with top marketers who wish to use it as a weapon against their competitors. It's the art of strategically sharing information with no expectation of anything in return.

What will this process do for you? What it allows you to do is "GIVE" immense value for free, to a prospect who could really need what you offer (who will thank you for it in many ways you've never thought of before).

Please, don't go and plagiarize articles exactly, but rather take the idea, put your own flavour, ideas, personality and experience to it, that will then be 100% unique, and I guarantee you that you'll never, ever, be without ideas for information marketing this way.

If you can share about yourself with your prospective clients and at the same time display your credibility and trustworthiness (through social proof e.g. testimonials) then you'll created a comfort zone for them during this "information giving" process...

Lets know look more deeply into the concept of information marketing and how you can use it in your local area to help a great amount of prospects buy from you "without" even selling to them.

Magazines and television documentary shows on new products emerging on the market and the reviews they do with industry experts see's us driving to the stores that are recommended at the end of the article or program in the hordes to "buy" with very little interaction with the salespeople required.

A few of the greatest example for online marketing that I'd like to show you and for you to learn from and use, are:
- How-to's
- Checklists
- Directories
- Statistics
- Measuring tools
- Industry-specific reviews
- Calendars
- Addresses
- Phone numbers
- Web links
- Conversion tables
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Glossaries
- Calculations
- Formulas
- Q&A's
- Wikepidia.com
- Blogs
- Step-by-step reports
- YouTube.com
- Facebook.com
- Squidoo.com
- Reviews
- Article Marketing
- White papers
- Online Website-Buildit.com

By using the above ideas, resources and websites you will come across so much information and ideas to "give" to your clients, they're going to recognize you as the industry expert very quickly if you just keep producing and sharing yourself and who you are and what you're about on a deeper level, you're going to be discovered and related to.

Throughout this process of creating information marketing pieces you'll be positioning yourself as the authority and knowledgeable guide who actually "cares" enough to help their target audience. This is so powerful and authentic, that you're going to find people saying to you that they feel like they really know you already, because they could have been following your for months and studying your information (especially if you're online and doing this, that is so very "POWERFUL")!

Something to be aware of is, the online world is full of copied articles done by others, this is called "PLR" which is short for "Private Label Rights".

I've personally found that by using ghost writers and PLR products won't fulfil your authentic image as greatly as implementing your own expertise and knowledge inside your head and putting that into a knowledgeable format. And unless you have a very, very good writer (who will probably cost you a lot) who understands how you think and your own unique writing style, it's best you create this information yourself.

Should you find yourself stumped for ideas, try searching Google and Yahoo Answers for solutions, an excellent ways to do this is by typing in "Ideas" only.

I hope that at least some of the above ideas have helped you to decide to "begin" using information of some sort, to build trust, authenticity and credibility into your business even more than there is now.

Do you hate making cold calls ?... I would like to hazard a guess and say that 99% of people truly hate the cold calling game.

Now WHY would that be?

The true fact of the matter is the way we think about making a call to perfect stranger.

We go in with a mindset of "I hope I get a sale" or an appointment or even one perceived step closer to making a sale.

Why do you think that this is one of the most negatively looked upon activities in the sales persons bag of tricks?

It's because of a little known universal law called "It Matters Not"... I've written exclusively about the universal laws and expanded upon this particular law on my website www.Law-Of-Attraction-And-Success.com.

But in a nutshell, this law teaches us "NOT" to be influenced by external physical outcomes in our lives, and most definitely not to be "Attached" to anything as we're only here non-permanently anyway... It's a very deep law and requires some depth of understanding yourself to truly comprehend it.

Why then do I bring it up for the purpose of natural cold calling?

Let me answer that by taking you on a guided thought process...

Have you ever been interrupted during the day and it's been someone making a cold call?

What was your reaction in the very first few seconds of the call, you know what I mean... Right after the salesperson said "Hi, my name is, I'm from company X and we do..."

I bet your instinctual reaction was what?... Not Interested!... Am I right?

So the real crux of the matter here is the person calling you was either being too pushy, interrupting, selling something you just don't want, or too pitchy for your liking...

What that person would have been hoping for none the less, would have been a "Nice Sale" to take place from calling you...

This brings me to the very next important part of the mindset for anyone using the phone to make sales...

Most salespeople live in hope and there's really nothing wrong with having hope, except that it "attaches" you to an outcome of possibility... And attachment to outcomes in a sales environment causes all sorts of "unbalanced and irrational" behavior and frustration.

The very best phrase I've ever heard about sales people and hope is the term "Hopium" by Ari Galper at www.Unlock-The-Sales-Game.com
When we live in hope of "closing" a sale, we end up being someone we're not, we're more hyped up (some pass this off as being "PROFESSIONAL") on the phone, but in essence we're really being a turn off to the listener all together, that's why they hang up.

This negative connotation of "Slimy, Greasy, Salesperson" has it's own attachment from car or real estate sales of the early years... Now of course theirs training that takes the pressure out of the sales process for every industry, even real estate and car sales.

So the bottom line for effective adoption of this "Non-Attached" mindset so you can make successful connections is this:
1. "Let Go" of any thought of making a sale.2. Allow a conversation to take place, not a sales pitch.3. Take all pressure, hype and salesmanship "out" of play.4. Make cold calling like your talking to an "Old Friend"

Just these few thoughts above will make a massive impact with the results you get when making cold calls.

Try and make your non-attachment to any outcome second nature, not only with your sales training, but with everything in your life and see and feel the difference this new low-pressure lifestyle will reward you with.

Has cold calling ever felt uncomfortable, distressful or even painful for you?

Have you ever had a bout of what the industry guru's call "Cold Call Reluctance", where you want to make the call, you know you should make the call, but rather...

You end up making thirteen trips to the bathroom, have five cups of coffee, sweat like crazy and then finally...

After you've got yourself into a lather you make the call... Only to be confronted by a fast talking gatekeeper who tries to get you off the phone and if you're lucky enough to get through to a decision maker, you get shut down, and or hung up on!

WHY... Does This Happen?

You're about to learn the art of "Natural Cold Calling" and how to take the pressure, rejection, pain, sweaty palms, heavy phone, and nervous tension out of the sales prospecting process forever.

Yes, there is a way to do this and that is what this website and process that I've used for years will teach you...

So if you're caught up in a business where you're "required" to make telemarketing calls by your boss, or the organization that you're with teaches that telesales is the main way to prospect..

Then you're in luck, as learning to use the phone "effectively" in selling, can be one of the most rewarding, fun and productive ways to prospect and put thousands of extra dollars of commissions into your pockets.

However, if you're selling with an "old school" mindset, that a lot of cold call training programs teach, then you're leaving "money-on-the-table" when in reality you don't need to be.

As a personal student of all types of selling over the years from cold prospecting through to consultative and high level sales, I've seen the best (and the worst) programs out there.

I've also been an international senior sales coach for one of the most renowned, unique and life changing mindsets for making sales calls in the world.

I hope you enjoy what you discover at this site and should you wish to connect with me personally, or a qualified coach for free, I'll show you how to do that too!

Your online marketing funnel is one of the most important components you could ever give attention to, but so many business owners overlook this critical element and just construct their website without any tact or strategy whatsoever.

Learn one of the many possible ways to create a sales / marketing funnel that works very well and anyone can work through this, and I highly recommend that you do... Sooner rather than later!



The resources mentioned in this video are:
SynergyBizNet - http://www.synergybiznet.com/index.jsp?promo=MarketingStrategies

Pride Coaching Network - Richie Williams of Pride Coaching Network is the recommended resource for business coaching in this video for business owners who "feel stuck" in their business. The Pride Coaching Network - business coach newcastle web address is: www.pridecoaching.com.au  

Is magic, dragons and high-earning affiliate marketers are myth?

Well... The High-Earning affiliate is certainly alive and well, and here's how to adapt affiliate marketing to your business niche to create an additional layer of income from associated product / service sales online.

The affiliate model of marketing for your existing business is a very safe, low-cost and potentially very "high reward" way of adding layers of profit to your business that don't currently exist.

Take the following ideas for example:

• No creation of products, so you don't waste time
• No investment of capital for inventory
• No hassles about order taking or customer complaints
• No shipping worries or handling issues
• Never answer customer enquiries, it's done for you
• They don't cost a cent to join (but beware of those that do)
• You can start on a shoestring, part time from your home

If you wonder how this amazing concept can actually help your current business... Then follow this link to learn more about how it can be done the "right way" and the "long term" way...

Enjoy!

This is a short post on how local business owners can build a successful "web business" from the knowledge that is in their heads. You see, most local businesses that I consult with have the pre-conceived notion that they need a pretty website that is fancy and has lots of bells and whistles, or... Nothing at all, thinking they'll be somehow exempt from the global online marketing wave.

The sad truth is, if you're one of the above you're going to be left "WAY" behind, when the tide turns and the internet becomes main stream, like the way it is in the US or UK (the UK being about 8 years ahead of us as online consumers and the US is about 5 years ahead).

When the time comes and the internet does become the main stream way of being found for gaining clients, it will be the businesses with an already, very well established and optimized online presence that will win the race. As it will be way too late, for you to build a website in a year or so time and expect to beat your competition that is online NOW!

I hate to be brutal about this but are you SERIOUS about your business, or just treating it as a hobby?

Because there is now, no excuse to not have a web presence, or should I say "multiple" web presences, and that is the key, multiple web presences, as one is just not enough.

Here's how you can have a very successful presence with a tool called "Site Build It" and it has an exclusive way of taking a complete newbie to online marketing and walking them through the entire process (for under $299US) and if you're too technically challenged to do it yourself, you can have it done for you, at sub two thousand dollars which is extremely affordable considering what this platform does for your business.

Here is a video overview of their eLearning Platform, I hope you enjoy it!