Archive for the 'Internet Marketing' Category

Privacy Pirates

Privacy Pirates: How The War For Your Personal Identity Will Escalate In 2013 And What You Need To Do Now To Protect Yourself

At my Internet workshops, I give  participants a sneak peek into what the war between Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon mean to you and your business.

It’s one of the key principles I’ve been advocating to my elite VIP and Platinum Program Members for the past 3 to 5 years.

The Internet is undergoing an incredible transformation that has alarmed privacy and personal liberty advocates around the world.

Without delving into conspiracy theories and cynical skepticism, I discuss what you should do to protect yourself, your company and your family.

I share what the experts are saying because this is no longer ‘science fiction’. It’s real and it’s here now. Contact us if you’d like a copy of our Privacy Pirates Report.

Internet Wars, Facebook Fallacy, Google Apple War, Google Facebook War

Social Media Marketing

Social Networks, Social Media Marketing

Link building, it’s not what you think it is

I have a word that defines what today’s blog post is all about. Antimimeticisomorphism. Simply stated, it means doing out-of-the-ordinary things that create extra-ordinary results with the least amount of effort and lowest cost. It necessarily includes doing things that create indirect benefits.

Links, SEO, Link RegistryLet me give you an example. There is a website registry for Australian Blogs. For a nominal sum, you can get a link with a keyword optimised listing. If you don’t understand Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), you’re going to look at how many clicks it produces and if the number isn’t very high you might think the link isn’t worth the investment…

But here’s the think MOST people don’t understand about the value of links: It’s not the number of clicks that it generates that’s important – it’s what it contributes to your SEO indexing. For example, if you have an Australian Blog, then you want the search engines to INDEX it. Which they will… But it will remain at the BOTTOM of the index unless there is a link that raises its SEO status. What better link than anAustralian Blog  registry link?

Even if NO ONE clicks through the link – the BENEFIT can still be huge.

But if you look at the wrong Google Analytics statistics (Click Throughs instead of overall traffic increase), you will make a poor decision.

This is just one example of some of the common mistakes people make when they don’t understand the basics.

If you would like to learn more about legitimate Internet Marketing Strategies, have a look at our online courses and webinars listed below.

They are moderately priced and exceptionally valuable if only to assist you avoid the most common and costly mistakes.

Online Internet Course #1: Internet Sales Lead Generation Toolkit

Online Internet Course #2: Business Blogging Webinar

Online Internet Course #3: How to Turn Website Visitors From Browsers To Buyers

 

Facebook pages for small business removed after unspecified complaint

Facebook Business Pages, Facebook Ransom, Facebook TacticsAs a reader and/or subscriber to this Internet Marketing Blog, you know I am not a fan of social media. Even though this is not a “I told you so” blog post, it is a forewarning.

I cover issues like this with my clients – at events and workshops like the Exponential Internet Marketing Bootcamp where I have the time and tools to explain, in detail, why I have such distinct views and approaches that produce such extra-ordinary results.

Recently, Facebook has been getting quite a bit of press because as small businesses have embraced the use of social media marketing to increase their sales, it turns out what worked before doesn’t always agree with Facebook.

This can lead to complaints to Facebook. By whom or about what is not always clear.

The result can be that your Facebook business page is removed by Facebook with no explanation or discussion.

Sometimes you may have simply overstepped the boundaries of what is acceptable promotion on Facebook. But many are starting to wonder if the reasons aren’t more commercial (financial) in nature. If you’ve seen the latest episode of the TV Drama The Good Wife, you’ll get as sense of what’s at stake and how they are doing this behind-the-scenes.

However what is clear is that Facebook sees an opportunity to charge business for something that was once free.

If you were a client of ours, you would have avoided this issue altogether. Sometimes AVOIDING a costly mistake is as valuable as doing something “right”.

Contact us if you want to improve your online lead generation without the hype, smoke and mirrors that social media and web designers want you to believe.

After all, they NEED you to believe in what they sell – they need to make money FROM you – not FOR you. Give that some thought!

How long does it take for you to get it up?

3 second rule, three seconds. 3 secondsA recent article on the first 3 seconds of a website “load” caught my attention…

There are so many little things that can (and do) make a big difference. The challenge you have (we all have) is to determine which things to focus on.

That’s what I do with my clients – help them figure out what to focus on and what to ignore.

I do that with an established methodology and proven frameworks.

Wondering if your website loading speed is important?

It is and it isn’t.

It depends.

Sorry, I don’t mean to be vague, it’s just some things are best left unsaid to make a point.

Unless you are SURE of the answer for YOUR company, YOUR situation, you should consider becoming a client so we can help you remove the uncertainty.

Otherwise “you’re good to go on your own” and already getting the results you want!

Social Media Losing Shoppers

As you must know by now, I am not a fan of Social Media Marketing. I think it’s a monumental waste of time, money and effort. I haven’t held back on this view and it’s simply because it doesn’t make any financial sense for small business to waste countless hours and in some case thousands of dollars on strategies that don’t work.

The research is just starting to come in that fewer shoppers are flocking to social media websites in search of deals and coupons, according to a study released Thursday by the National Retail Federation in the United States.

The number of consumers who reported following retailers on the likes of Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest fell to 51 percent from 58 percent  last year, according to the 2012 Social and Mobile Commerce Study.

I am not saying social media is dead, all I’m saying is that more and more businesses are realising that the inevitable point of diminishing returns is here.

As a small business, you have limited resources and cash. You want to make the most of it. Social media marketing is not where you should be spending it – that’s all I’m saying.

Want to know where you should invest your hard earned money to get your biggest bang for your buck?

Come invest 3 days with me at the Exponential Internet Marketing Bootcamp and you’ll learn how small businesses – just like yours are dominating their market places, growing when others are contracting and laying off staff.

Google removes sites from Index

Google disapproved 134 million ads and disabled more than 800,000 AdWords Accounts in 2011. A shocking statistic, a 136% rise from the year before.

Like fighting spam and click fraud, finding and nixing bad ads on AdWords is a continually escalating battle. Back in 2008, the company only disapproved 25 million ads.

What does this mean for you as as small business? The goalposts are always changing!

Even if you don’t advertise using Google Adwords, the rules of the online marketing game are constantly changing. Trying to stay ahead of them is hard, and getting harder by the day.

Is it fruitless to try to keep up?

On your own? Yes.

So what can you do instead of capitulating and giving up?

You can join an Exponential Mastermind Group of like-minded business entrepreneurs and executives who get the latest, up-to-date information channeled to them – FOR FREE.

Yep, that’s right. One of our most valuable Platinum Program Membership privileges is knowing that with hundreds of user-generated submissions coming in on a never-ending, on-going basis, we’re always in the know, on top of all the changes and make sure our members know about them AND more importantly how to adapt and leverage them!

In many cases, we have access to information before John Q Public does, which is what I call 20/20 Foresight.

Imagine being 1, 2 or even 3 months ahead of your competitors?

Social Media – it’s all getting too hard

Are you struggling with the time, effort and cost associated with Social Media Marketing? You’re not alone – have a look at this article – Burberry has deep pockets for their social media marketing and you have to ask yourself – can it really be worth it?

If you’re a small business, I can tell you without a doubt – you can’t justify the time or cost.

That doesn’t mean you ignore social media, it just means you LEVERAGE it – exponentially.

How? Great question! Click here ->  to learn how to generate more leads via social media.

Webinar Secret #1

Today’s post is a 27 second YouTube video that reveals a webinar secret.

ALERT: Video Surveillance Goes Mainstream

Privacy, Video Surveillance, Online Privacy, Privacy PiratesA recent Economist Magazine article on video surveillance struck a chord with me – face recognition is becoming mainstream and as such there are virtually no limits to the violations to privacy that will soon be possible by unscrupulous companies and criminals.

As you know, the Privacy Pirates are out there stealing your personal data, but this is one step beyond that – this is potentially LIVE and ADAPTIVE in both the physical and virtual world.

You don’t need to be a conspiracy theorist to get worried. I’m far from being paranoid, but there are tell tale signs that the abuses are increasing at an alarming rate.

Since I am NOT into propagating conspiracy theories, I have put together a report that summarises several issues that you should be aware of.

If you’d like a copy, you’ll need to contact us to get it. It’s not a free giveaway download. The 24 page report took 37 hours of research assembling 67 articles with 126 reference links for you to get quick access to what you need to protect yourself. Contact us – prevention is the only cure for this disease!

Dogs and Computers

Wags Day Out, Paddington Pups, Dogs V ComputersI am an avid dog lover which is why I get along so well with two of my clients: Bree Robbins of Paddington Pups and Cory Andrews of The Dogs Country Club Kennel and Resort in Victoria.

I’m sure they’ll refer to this blog post from their blogs since it’s one of the many Internet Marketing Strategies I covered at the recent Blogging for Business Sales Lead Generation and How To Converts Your Online Browsers To Buyers Workshops – now both available as convenient Webinars.

When Angela Muzyczka sent me this joke, I just had to share it with you, not for SEO reasons, but because it’s funny.

The Difference Between Dogs And Computers

Favorite Food
Dogs: Kibbles
Computers: Bits

Method used to end undesirable behavior
Dogs: Hit with rolled up newspaper
Computers: Hit control-alt-delete

After destruction of personal property
DOGS: Dog not found
COMPUTERS: File not found

Favorite trick
DOGS: Roll over
COMPUTERS: Play dead

Continue reading ‘Dogs and Computers’

Feeling like a hostage to your web design / IT supplier?

Web Design Services, Get Rid Of Your Web DesignerMany small business people treat one of their most precious assets as an afterthought, rather than as one of their most precious assets. It’s not inconceivable for a website to be worth $100,000+ when there is a legitimate brick and mortar business “behind it”.

Put differently, years ago, when you bought a Yellow Pages ad, you’d SPEND thousands of dollars with NO appreciation in the capital asset value of the phone book. With the Internet, every dollar spent on your website should increase its capital value. Think about it this way – if you were assess two identical businesses, one with a website and the other without one, which one would YOU buy?  Enough said.

Most small businesses don’t proactively deal with their website and/or web online presence for a long list of reasons including:

  • “I don’t get all this Interweb stuff”
  • “I don’t like Facebook and don’t understand why people waste so much time ‘talking’ to complete strangers”
  • “My son-in-law, nephew or neighbour seems to understand it and is not charging me much to handle my website…”
  • “Technology is changing too quickly, I can’t keep up.”
  • “I don’t get any web inquiries so it’s not worth worrying about.”
  • “My staff’s taking care of it, in fact, we all kinda pitch in to get stuff done.”*

Whatever your excuses, as a small business person, in this day and age you simply cannot hand over your online presence to just anyone anymore than you would give them the pin code to your bank card. I am totally serious.

Continue reading ‘Feeling like a hostage to your web design / IT supplier?’

Blogging For Small Business Interview

I was interviewed by Ludwina Dautovic for Red Tent Radio yesterday and I have to admit it was one of the most fun interviews I’ve done in a long time. We got started and before we knew it, the 40 minutes were up! We talked about blogging for small business owners. The interview will be released as a podcast in a few weeks, but before it comes out, I thought I’d take this opportunity to remind you that we’re staging a 4-hour Masterclass called “How to convert your online browsers to buyers” in Sydney and Melbourne on April 11th and 18th respectively.

NEWS UPDATE:

CLICK THE HYPERLINK to download the Blogging For Small Business
Interview With Ludwina Dautovic on Red Tent Radio!

If you missed our exceptionally popular workshop “Business Blogging For Sales Lead Generation“, you’re in luck – it’s now available as a 4-hour webinar you can stream to your computer. A webinar is great because you can stop, pause and rewind to make sure you don’t miss any important details.

Ludwina and I discussed WHY small business people need to blog,
what NOT to do and HOW to get started quickly and easily

As you’d expect, I have a very different take on most marketing strategies – one of them is I am not a fan of Social Media… I don’t adhere to the common propaganda that’s proliferating “out there” that you need to be on Facebook and Twitter. If you want to hear an honest viewpoint that will benefit your bottom line and save you from wasting countless hours, make sure you keep an eye out for the interview – I will blog about it when it comes out and you’ll be able to download it for free.

But, by that time, you’ll realise you should have attended my 4-hour Masterclass called “How to convert your online browsers to buyers” in Sydney and Melbourne on April 11th and 18th respectively.

So you know what to do – take the time now to have a look at the event page and keep in mind it comes with a 100% no-questions-asked money back guarantee. If at the end of the 4 hours, you haven’t received at least 2 or 3 times the cost of admission, we’ll refund you and remove you from our mailing list. That’s how confident we are of the immense value we’ll be revealing.

Here’s one of the concepts Ludwina and I touched on during the interview – it’s called the Miser Mentality. With a Miser Mentality, the focus is on the cost of something rather than the value or potential. A prime example is someone who drives 15 to 20 minutes to save a few cents on petrol. They have no appreciation for their TIME VALUE. A Miser can only see the COST (petrol saving) – not the BENEFIT (paying a little more, but saving time).

The strategies I will reveal at the next DIY Internet Marketing Masterclass can increase your website traffic anywhere from 15% to as much as 200%, depending on what you’ve done and how well you’ve done it. But here’s the thing – anyone who has a product or service that is worth at least $300 would get a benefit of $3,000 to $5,000 from the strategies I will reveal as a MINIMUM STARTING POINT.

So if the question was:

Would you pay $300 to get $3,000 in sales
in the next 12 months?

The answer should be YES! but the problem is that with a Miser Mentality there is a filter, a bias, a distortion that comes into play – that PREVENTS the POSSIBILITY from being even considered.

It might be thought, in a fleeting moment, but not seriously assessed or considered at its full (potential) value. Therein lies one of the key differences between the abundantly wealthy people who seek and focus on potential opportunities whereas misers miss those opportunities NOT because they aren’t there, but because they can’t see them.

Miser, Lack, Scotoma, Fear Of Loss, In the psychological literature it’s called a Scotoma. The best example is looking for the salt when the salt shaker is right there in front of you…

I will address some of these inhibitors to success at the upcoming Exponential Extravaganza in May and June, but before that event takes place, the Internet DIY 4 hour Masterclass takes place.

Can you see the dilemma EVERYONE FACES – you know you want the benefits, results and rewards… But you have to consider and BELIEVE it’s possible. Quite the tug of war isn’t it?

I know. I struggled with it more than 30 years ago. I don’t remember what the trigger or catalyst was, but at some point I decided that the Miser Mentality can’t work – so I gave Boundless Opportunity Thinking a try. Once adopted, I transformed it into my own Exponential Mindset Thinking and the rest as they say is history…

So what “history” will you create for yourself in 2012, 2013, 2014 and beyond…?

Prevention is such a hard sell…

It’s hard to get an important PREVENTION message across… The anti-smoking lobby struggles with it. One of our gym owner/client finds it hard to help people prevent the onset of type II Diabetes and I want to protect small business owners from being fleeced by unscrupulous Internet Marketing spuikers, web design companies and now “Social Media Consultants”…

It’s hard to get the message across
without being heavy-handed or sensationalistic

Brendan Rigby of Inspire Fitness and Wellbeing in Melbourne tells me that someone who’s overweight, drinks too much alcohol, smokes and doesn’t exercise is a prime target for Type II Diabetes, but even if all the red flags are there, everyone but the ‘patient’ sees them.

I feel it’s the same thing with the Internet. I see or hear about small business owners  getting fleeced, taken advantage of and otherwise ‘robbed’ by Internet Marketing Spruikers who pitch miracle solutions from stage with manipulative tactics at the get-rich-quick opportunists that many would argue “get what they deserve”.

But isn’t that the same for the smokers or obese, soon-to-be diabetics?

The challenge we all have is how do we get the message across without being fear mongerers and using heavy-handed tactics like the video below?

I can remember meeting a smoker amputee who lost BOTH her legs (above the knee) due to smoking. She was still smoking with the impeding threat of double-arm amputation, which is when she claimed she would “try to quit”. I was in my early twenties at the time, she was in her 40′s. I doubt she made it to her 50th birthday. I am still shocked almost 30 years later recalling that conversation.

There are some people that can’t and don’t want to be helped or saved

But there are those who, given a fair chance,
want to be forewarned – especially if the alternative is better

Leveraging the Internet does not have to be scary, intimidating or costly. In fact, the world has changed to make technology and access ubiquitous via increasingly easier and cheaper tools.

But the bottom line is – there is no point in discussing any of them – UNLESS YOU’RE OPEN to the possibilities.

If you are open to consider alternatives to expensive web designers and social media consultants, we’re staging an eye-opening workshop in Sydney and Melbourne in April.

It comes with a 100% Money-Back Guarantee that simply states that if after the 4-hour DIY Masterclass you didn’t get enough ideas, tips and tools to make or save you at least a multiple of the workshop fee, we’ll refund you the full registration fee – NO QUESTIONS ASKED.

Why? Because we don’t offer Internet web design and Social Media Consulting services – we and our clients don’t like them any more than you do.

AND BELIEVE IT OR NOT, you can grow your business leveraging the Internet doing it yourself AT A FRACTION OF THE COST OF THE SO-CALLED EXPERTS… AND GET BETTER RESULTS !!!

Come find out how at our next workshop called “How To Convert Online Browsers Into Buyers“.

How To Sell More On The Internet

We’re staging an ENCORE presentation of our very popular Business Blogging For Sales Lead Generation Workshop in Sydney next week Wednesday 27 March 2012 and in April we’re following that up with a 4 hour DIY Internet Masterclass called How To Convert Your Online Browsers To Buyers in both Sydney and Melbourne.

Simply put, if you want to get more clients walking in your door or visitors to buy from your website, you have to do things differently.

The short YouTube video below captures one of the key concepts that prevents many businesses from selling more online (and of course offline).

Can you afford NOT to learn this stuff?

Promotional Guidelines

ClickBank, the #1 Information Product Marketplace on the Internet published their vendor promotional guidelines. They are so good that I thought you should have a look at them. If you follow these guidelines, it’s inevitable that your online sales will increase. The #1 obstacle you need to overcome online is TRUST.

This blog is all about giving you the tools you need to be effective in your online lead generation strategies and web marketing.

Make sure you bookmark this page or even better – subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss out on any important information, tips or tools!

Why do farm tractors have large rear wheels?

Have you ever wondered why old farm tractors have super big rear wheels and tiny little ones at the front?

The same can be said about “what’s the point of having a business blog?”

You might not be a farmer and might not care why the rear wheels of an old tractor need to be that big, but in business, you can’t afford not to know why blogging has become so important for lead generation.

That’s why we’re staging a 1/day workshop called Business Blogging For Sales Lead Generation on the Gold Coast, Sydney and Melbourne.

But then again you could go back to the paddock and give plowing a go…

Internet Lead Generation, Business Blogging, Web Leads

Link Optimisation Tip

I recently published this 2-minute link optimisation tip to avoid a common mistake a lot of people make.

Long Tail Marketing Delivers Higher Click Through Rates

I’ve blogged about long tail niche marketing before with a YouTube video that has become a classic amongst the exponential marketing community. Just click on the hyperlink to view it.

Even though as a small business, Internet advertising is not something you’re probably engaged in, a recent report by CONTEXTWEB reveals something that I have known all along, albeit anecdotally -

Average click-through rates (CTRs) for ads placed
on long-tail websites are 24% higher than
those placed on short-tail sites.

Long tail versus short tail marketing refers to specialised niches versus broad mass markets respectively. What’s of particular interest is that the MORE specialised and targeted you are with your web strategies, the greater the returns you’ll produce.

Our clients have known this for years – often out-performing their much larger, national competitors with very deep pockets.

Long tail websites—the millions of smaller websites with niche audiences—offer significant ad performance advantages across a wide number of verticals.

Among all 20 categories studied, long tail ads registered increased CTRs over short-tail ads, led by alcohol beverages (50%), B2B (48%) and charities (48%). The lowest long-tail lift observed was for auto advertisers, but still had (12%) better CTRs.

The trade off remains between quantity and quality of the communication. This is something we cover in depth in our Killer Kopywriting Konversations™ workshops as we help our clients design Killer Kampaigns That Konvert Klients™.

As shown below, among 21 publisher categories, 16 categories registered increased CTRs on long tail sites whereas in five content categories, ads on short tail sites underperformed long tail ads.

Data Source: CONTEXTWEB‘s Intelligence Report: Using Long Tail Sites to Optimize Media Spend was published in March 2011. It analysed digital media performance from roughly 18,000 publisher sites across 1,000 campaigns in the second half of 2010.

Facebook Wall Of Shame Infographic

During my recent Business Blogging For Sales Lead Generation event tour in Adelaide, the Gold Coast, Melbourne and Sydney, participants heard a preview of my rant on Privacy Pirates which I’ve been proselytising about for quite some time. Karen Bonanno, a 2011 Exponential Entrepreneur Of The Year Award Winner, sent me the infographic below that I just had to share with you.

I will expand on this in an upcoming Do It Yourself Google Sales Lead Generation For Small Business series of workshops… But in the meantime have a good read of this infographic. You’ll start to get a sense of where I’m coming from and how I am guiding my clients to avoid being victims of the Privacy Pirates.

Facebook Privacy, Personal Privacy Theft, Identity Theft