Archive for November, 2007

What Goes Around Comes Around…In Business, Too

Published by Heather on November 18, 2007 in Articles, Entreprenuers and General Marketing. 0 Comments

I have a confession to make. I am notorious for meeting people, liking them, and then when they realize what I do and that I could help them, I end up giving away my services…for free. I have this uncontrollable urge to help people, especially when I know it’s something that I am good at and enjoy doing.

Now I don’t do this all the time, but occasionally I will, and I will tell you why. It comes back to me tenfold.

For example, we just adopted a Great Dane. In my search for information on this mini-horse breed, I came across a Yahoo! Group for local Great Dane owners. I joined, sent my welcome message introducing myself and Napoleon, and the owner of the group noticed my signature line and contacted me for possible help with my services. We were on the phone for at least two hours. I liked her.

So when we finally got around to talking business and she told me she needed a sales letter written to send out locally, I told her I would do it for free.

I didn’t think twice about it.

We have chatted a few times on the phone, and we have met at our Great Dane get-togethers, and I did her sales letter. It was pretty good if I do say so myself. But here is what happened that I was not expecting.

She’s telling people about me.

That’s right. I’ve gotten new clients by referral from her, and all I did was spend two hours on her sales letter. Not a bad trade, eh?

I didn’t do this letter for her with the expectation of something in return. I honestly didn’t. My boyfriend, my coach, and my colleagues love to get on me about giving my services away, and I can see where they are coming from. However, I’m a firm believer that what goes around comes around.

This is just one example. I also had a colleague that wanted her blog template to look just like her website. I was almost sure that I could do it, and before I knew it, she sent me the information and hired me to do it.

So I did it. It was a lot of trial and error, since I was dealing with a programming code that I was not an expert in writing. I worked with it until it was just right. When it came time to bill her, I simply dropped her a note and said, “It’s on me. I’m just tickled that I could actually do it.” And I was. I didn’t expect anything from her.

Yesterday, the FedEx man came, and I now have 12 brownies from Fairytale Brownies. (Well, I HAD 12…there are only 9 now!) But again, I wasn’t expecting anything. I was just pleasantly surprised when I got a package in the mail and it wasn’t my birthday or Christmas.

And I’m sure when the conversation comes up and people ask her how she got her blog to look like her website she’ll say, “Heather at Valley Virtual Assistants did that for me.” Even if she doesn’t, that’s okay with me. I felt good helping someone out, the brownies are delicious (and hidden where no one can find them), and I’m content with how I do business.

Let’s be honest. We’re not non-profit organizations, and many of us rely on our customers and clients to put food on the table, a roof over our heads, and clothes on our backs. We cannot afford to give the farm away, but we can give a few bales of hay away, and we can choose who should get them.

About the Author:

Heather Jacobson doesn’t pay for marketing if she doesn’t have to. Discover how she does it and claim 10 free marketing tips at http://www.10freetips.com

The Way To Your Customer’s Wallet Is Through Articles

Published by Heather on November 18, 2007 in Article Marketing and Articles. 0 Comments

One of the best ways to promote your website and knowledge is free. That’s right, I said free. The bonus? This “free” method can elevate your website traffic, increase your sales, and double, even triple your income.

And what is this free method? Articles.

Articles? Exactly how does this work?

Take the main topic or topics of your website and write relevant articles that you can submit to free content sites. These are also known as article directories. It’s easy to write the articles, takes very little time and provides one way links back to your site. This increases your search engine rankings, traffic to your site, and in turn your sales and income.

How can article writing boost traffic and income?

When you submit your articles to the article directories, you’ll include a resource box or an about the author box. You need to make sure that the link to your website is in that box. If your reader likes what they read they may just click on the link in your resource box and pay you a visit. Because they are listed in the article directories, they are also available for other webmasters to publish on their sites increasing your exposure.

When someone takes an article from the directory, they are required to include the full article, unedited, with the resource box included. Therefore, you’ll have another link back to your site. Yet another opportunity for someone to click on your link.

My rule of thumb is one article a week per site. Does this always happen? No. However, I want to get these articles out because as my list of published articles grows, the total number of links back to my site grows. Most major search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and MSN are placing a lot of significance on incoming, one way links to websites. This is one way that they determine the importance of the site and in turn, boosts your search engine rankings.

The more articles you have the more one way inbound links you have and the greater search engine results. This makes it easier for people to find your site. Buying on the internet grows more and more popular as time goes on and you want to be infront of them.

Is Article Marketing Really Free?

I say that it is, and in essence, it is. The actual writing of the articles is free if you do it yourself. If you hire a ghostwriter because you just don’t want to write, can’t write, or don’t have time to write, then that will cost money. There are private label sites that will sell you articles that you can do with what you want, but you’ll still need to make significant changes to them before you can submit them on your own.

To submit the articles can be free as well if you do it manually. If you hire a Virtual Assistant or use a distribution service to distribute that can cost money as well. There are some distribution sites that charges as little as $2 per article. Others charge a monthly fee or per article.

Give it the old college try. You’re not going to hurt anything by hashing out a few ideas. If you’re curious to see how it works, add a link in your resource box that’s not accessible from your home page and that you don’t promote anywhere else. See how much comes to it.

Just last week I submitted a new article for a new website I started. I started getting subscribers that same day. I can tell you that it works.
About the Author:

Heather Jacobson doesn’t pay for marketing if she doesn’t have to and uses the power of article marketing to elevate her business. Sign up for the free 5 day eCourse on article marketing at http://www.valleyva.net/article-ecourse.html and discover how you too can market your business with articles!

Is There Too Much “Noise” In Your Message?

Published by Heather on November 18, 2007 in Articles and General Marketing. 0 Comments

I am all for advertising. It’s a way of life, and it is needed. I know that without advertising, my local broadcast channels would not be free. I know the power of advertising. I have used advertising in various methods, and I place other people’s ads on my blogs, websites, and in my newsletters.

However, there comes a time when it’s too much.

I subscribe to two paid print newsletters every month. They are both put out by well-known marketers, both men I believe are at the “genius” level when it comes to marketing. I admire them, and I aspire to be like them, so I jumped at the chance to subscribe.

In order to avoid publicly bad-mouthing anyone, I’ll call them Marketer A and Marketer B.

Marketer A’s came first – a 16 page newsletter in a booklet format that was nicely formatted. I gobbled up the information in the newsletter, as well as in the CD that accompanied it.

Marketer B’s came later – the envelope was huge and I assumed that it was packed with information. While it did include some great content, the majority of it was information promoting his other products. It took me some time to weed through everything to find the newsletter, and when I finally did, I couldn’t differentiate between the information and the advertisements! I put it away, thinking I would come back later to read it. It’s still sitting there.

This month, Marketer A sent his newsletter, and again I dove right into the information and walked away from it thinking he’s a genius. Marketer B’s newsletter arrived the next day, again filled with advertisements.

I’m confused, and a confused mind says no. I’m sure there must be some wonderful information within those 16 pages, but I can’t get past all the ads. When the CD came, it was only a recording of a free teleclass promoting someone else’s $1200 course!

When I sign up for a free teleclass I expect sales and hype. There’s a reason that it’s free. I can get past it. But when I pay for it, I’m not expecting to pay for another ad.

Not only that, but because I’m a “valued subscriber” I receive at least one fax a week asking me to join something else that costs $197 a month. Even as I wrote this article, I received an email mirroring what the fax said.

This is just my personal opinion. However, I wonder how many others get distracted by all the “noise” in various newsletters. This man is greatly respected in the marketing community, and it bothers me that I’m not able to digest the information.

If the newsletter was free or low cost, I don’t think I would mind as much. However, I pay $40 each month for this information, and right now it is a wasted $40. I have not been able to find anything in this newsletter to apply to my business.

So here are a few guidelines for including ads in your publications:

  1. Have a good balance of ads and information. If your ads outweigh the information, people probably are not reading what you have to say. If you offer a paid subscription, your ads should be no more than 20% of your information. They are paying for your knowledge, not your ads.
  2. Place your ads where they are seen, but don’t let them distract from your information. Don’t hide the content that your readers are interested in.
  3. Make sure your ads compliment the information that you are conveying. If you’re discussing how to build a website, then an ad about a domain name sale or web hosting would be acceptable; a Viagra ad, on the other hand, would not.

The fact is ads are part of our society. For many of us, it’s how we keep our publications or services free. However, when the information gets lost in the ads, the message we are trying to convey gets lost, t. Our credibility has the potential to be diminished, and we may lose readers in the end. So what is the rule of thumb for using ads in a publication? Keep the noise low so you can hear your subscribers sing your praises!

About the Author:

Heather Jacobson doesn’t pay for marketing if she doesn’t have to. Discover how she does it and claim 10 free marketing tips at http://www.10freetips.com

What Do You Mean You Don’t Have Anything To Write About?

Published by Heather on November 18, 2007 in Article Marketing and Articles. 0 Comments

One of the questions I’m repeatedly asked is how to use article marketing when you’re not a writer and don’t have anything to write about. If you say you have nothing to write about, I think you’re wrong. I’m willing to bet you have more topics to write about than you have time. But, here are a few suggestions to help you get over that writers block.

First, don’t stare at a blank computer screen waiting for an idea to come to you. You’re probably putting too much pressure on yourself. What I want you to do is first think of your target market. What do they want to know? Take a blank piece of paper or that blank Word document and just start brainstorming. List topics that you think your target market wants to know about. Just keep writing them down.

Here are some examples for you:

If you are a dog trainer, you’re going to want to talk about how to housebreak a dog, how to teach a dog to sit, stay, fetch, etc. There are at least four article topics.

If you’re a virtual assistant, your target market probably wants to know how a VA will benefit them, the cost savings of a virtual assistant or the various tasks that a business owner can delegate to a VA. There are at least three topics for a virtual assistant.

Next, I want you to think of business related books that you’ve read, services you’ve subscribed to, or informational products you’ve bought. Were they beneficial to you? Yes? Write a review! Do you use Stamps.com? How does it work for you? What are the benefits? Is it worth the monthly fees?

On a separate sheet of paper I want you to list all of the products that have helped you succeed in business, either by increasing your knowledge or helping you to run an effective and efficient business. Keep writing until you’re all out of ideas, but keep the sheet handy, because I guarantee you that you’re going to think of another one while you’re trying to fall asleep tonight.

Do you still feel like you need some more ideas to write articles?

Ok, here we go.

Visit every forum and message board that you are a member of. Yes, every single one of them. Look at the posts that you’ve written. Have you taken time to post a lengthy response to someone else’s question? Great! You now have the start of an article. Flesh it out and use it to market your knowledge and expertise.

Here’s the last idea for you and it’s by far one of my favorites. Interview someone. That’s right, I said interview someone. If you’re a virtual assistant, ask your clients if they would mind taking 15 minutes out of their day so that you can interview them. Ask them about how they use a VA. Ask them how a VA benefits their business. Come up with some additional questions to ask. When you’re done, draft it in to an article and use it!

If you have 10 clients, you’ve got 10 articles! (Even better, you could put it together for potential clients to download from your site as a bonus for signing up for your newsletter.)

There are many more ideas on how to come up with article content and then how to recycle your content so that you get the most out of it!

For the record, this article started out as a response to one of my subscribers. Before you knew it, I had an article. See how simple that was?

About the Author:

Heather Jacobson doesn’t pay for marketing if she doesn’t have to and uses the power of article marketing to elevate her business. Sign up for the free 5 day eCourse on article marketing at http://www.valleyva.net/article-ecourse.html and discover how you too can market your business with articles!

Properly Planning a Product Launch

Published by Heather on November 18, 2007 in Articles, Info Products and Passive Income. 0 Comments

It’s no secret…I think big. I have more ideas than I have time to implement. And often, it’s easy to get caught up in them.

There are many things in my business that I have thought up and run with only to find out that I didn’t put enough thought into them and that they weren’t planned properly. They didn’t go over well because I was too excited to focus on their proper implementation.

I’ve also been subjected to the hype of new product launches and have fallen for the hype. It’s okay. I know its good marketing when I get suckered into the marketing ploy; when I get to the end of the sales letter and I’ve already got my credit card out and ready to pay.

However, in the past two months, there have been three product launches that I have really looked forward to and when it came time to pay, they weren’t planned very well. I’m a pretty easy going person but here are a few things that happened and how I felt and reacted.

The first was a new membership site by someone whose advice I highly admire. I think he’s a brilliant man and I have learned a great deal from him. In fact, I pay for his newsletter every month. So when he announced his new site, I was there within minutes, credit card in hand ready to get in.

I gave him my information (basically my credit card information and my name) and then I was taken to a login page. They never asked me to create a user name and password and I had no way to get in. I wanted it. They sold me. I wanted the information and I wanted it right then and there. It took me two days to finally get the information. I was so frustrated by then that I canceled my membership and asked for my money back.

A few weeks later I learned of a new product that was coming to the market. I was hooked by the sales letter, the hype, the follow up emails, the sneak peeks; oh I was all over it. I was on the site, counting down to 10am with my credit card in hand. At 10am, nothing happened. There was no where for me to pay. I finally got in at 10:30am and what was promised to me (the bonuses, primarily) weren’t there. A slew of emails came from the owner with incorrect links to get bonuses and to log in and I was frustrated. I cancelled my account shortly there after.

And then this last time just a few weeks ago. I was offered a “pre-launch membership fee” and that the site would go live in just 3 days, March 15th. It’s been pushed back 4 times now, there have been many other emails pushing other people’s products and there is nothing in the membership area. Today, I get an email stating that she is pushing it back to the 31st. She wasn’t ready, and to be quite honest, I’m not impressed with it at all. I’ve cancelled that membership as well.

My point is this. Hype is wonderful. Get people excited about what you have to offer, but make sure that you deliver. If you’re going to launch a product or service, make sure that the site is ready to go and all the major kinks worked out. Check your payment processor, your gateway and that all your links on the inside are correct. It’s okay to have a glitch or two; it wouldn’t be a true launch if there wasn’t something, but make sure all the major issues are resolved.

About the Author:

Heather Jacobson doesn’t pay for marketing if she doesn’t have to. Discover how she does it and claim 10 free marketing tips at http://www.10freetips.com