I came across this video on my colleague, Vincent Wright’s website. Watch and learn. The future is now.
The Bank of Facebook
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Monthly Archives: March 2010
Facebook Trounces Google Ads–Are You Ready to Go Where Your Customers Are?
Facebook began in 2004 as a social networking site for college students, but it has emerged on the social media scene as a giant that is not overturning Google’s reign over Internet advertising and searches. They won a U.S. patent this year for their news feeds helping them to become the most frequented website at 400 million users, and 39 billion page views per month.
The exciting thing about Facebook users, and what makes this such a dynamic audience is that they actively use the site. Of those estimated 400 million users, 50% of them log in at least once a day, and about 35 million of them update their status daily.
If it is your goal to get your offer or ideas in front of as many pre-qualified people as possible, then it’s really time to consider using Facebook as a part of your marketing efforts.
Using Facebook Ads
If you want to get started using Facebook ads, your first step should be to read through their content guidelines:
http://www.facebook.com/advertising/
Facebook is strict about what kinds of ads they will allow on their network. But the good news is, you don’t need to worry about coming up with a huge list of keywords, and there is no quality score to concern yourself with as with other Pay Per Click services.
A good way to get started testing the waters is to do a search for ‘free Facebook Ad coupon codes’ so that you can learn how everything works before you start spending your own money.
Facebook ads can be laser targeted so that only the people who are interested will see your ads, and they are as much as half the price of other PPC ads.
Are you finding success with using Facebook ads? Leave a comment and let us know your experience.
Local Business Networking Capitol Hill Style
Today I attended the CHAMPS Links Lunch, which is a local small business networking group that meets once per month at a local restaurant. They meet to network and discuss the challenges that local small businesses face. As a ‘solopreneur’ writer who spends the majority of her time in the house in front of the laptop, this was a fabulous opportunity to get out and mingle with other small business people.
Washington, D.C. might appear to be a big city from the outside, but you don’t live here very long before you discover that it is a city of several distinct neighborhoods. I live near the Capitol Hill neighborhood. I lived ‘on the Hill,’ when we first moved here, but I have since moved just a few blocks away, and over a bridge that is a dividing line, which in many ways, can be compared to a ‘Berlin Wall’ of sorts in this city.
Washington, D.C. is made up of distinctive neighborhoods, and Capitol Hill is one of the most close-knit, exclusive, ‘clickish’ neighborhoods in the city, and I love it. It is very much like a small town in the shadow of the larger city. I have learned that many of the small businesses in Capitol Hill are very insular and they tend to be a bit leery of outsiders at first. But once you’ve been around for awhile and they get to know you they are wonderful, warm people who are willing to be supportive.
I want to feel more apart of this vibrant community, so I decided that it was time to get out of the house, come from behind my laptop and mingle with some real people for awhile. My typical workday consists of writing and marketing, talking to clients on Skype, emailing other clients and marketing my blogs and my clients’ sites. I would love to be able to offer my services to some of the small local businesses, who are riding out this recession just like the rest of us, and might benefit from getting increased exposure online.
At Today’s CHAMP meeting, I met a health & fitness instructor, two financial planners, a wardrobe stylist, an attorney, a local ISP, an acupuncturist, and an ad executive. We had lively discussions about how one might get their foot in the door in the Capitol Hill business community, the advantages of owning your blog verses starting out on a free platform such as Blogger. We talked about how to leverage Linkedin as a way to make connections and reach the right people, and, of course, we discussed the vagaries of Twitter and how you can use it along with blogging to get your message out and gain exposure.
I plan to join CHAMPS and participate in more of their activities because it’s just a great way to meet other local business people. Another unanticipated bonus was that I got so many article ideas from that meeting my mind is fairly bursting right now.
Bottom line–local networking is a good thing. My recommendation is that you should look up your local small business networking organization and attend a meeting. Join your local Chamber of Commerce and get involved locally. It’s an opportunity for you to contribute your knowledge, meet other local business people and learn a thing or two in the bargain.
Blog Traffic: 5 Tips for Marketing Your Blog
Blog traffic equals money if you have monetized your blog. There’s no use in mincing words about it. If you’re blogging to generate revenue, then getting more traffic and exposure for your blog should be your primary task.
Blogging is a great way to promote ‘Brand You’, and your products and services. It’s a great way to engage with your market and create a dynamic conversation between you and your prospective customers.
But when your blog is one out of millions of other blogs on the Internet, you’ve got to find some creative ways to stand out from the crowd so that your sparkling prose can actually be appreciated by the masses.
Here are five tips for getting more eyeballs on your page:
1. Write excellent content
Content is what blogging is all about, so make it worth reading.
Keep it clear and concise.
Write in short paragraphs.
Edit ruthlessly.
2. Make it easy to share your content
If a visitor really likes one of your posts, make it easy for them to share it with one click. Use a plug-in that allows them to post to several social media sites without any hassle.
3. Participate in social media
Create a profile and a Fan Page on Facebook and be active in groups on the topic of your blog. Join Networked Blogs on Facebook and visit, comment on and rate other blogs.
Create a profile on Twitter and link back to your site. Selectively follow people that have an interest in your blog’s topic or related topics. Share useful information and be a resource.
4. Be a guest blogger on other blogs
Find popular blogs on a similar topic to yours and develop a relationship with the author. Offer to do a guest post on their blog. You’ll get exposure from a new audience and if they like your post they’ll visit your blog.
5. Submit your blog to popular blogging directories
- Technorati
- Blogcatalog
- Blogtoplist
The most important tip of all is to have fun with your blog. Don’t be shy about revealing your passion for your topic. Your genuine enthusiasm will radiate out and attract visitors in droves. Your authenticity is a magnet to those who share the same interest, so let it shine and you’ll see a steady flow of visitors to your blog.
You’re invited to subscribe to my email update list where you’ll get lots of free tips and resources in your mailbox.
What are your most effective ways of getting traffic to your blog? Speak your mind.
Taking Inspired Action: Doing vs. Being
As a spiritually-minded home business woman I am aware that we create our own reality and that everything that we see in the material world had its genesis first in the mind as a thought. I understand that intellectually, but lately I have been going back and forth with a client of mine who is a spiritual teacher about getting things done. She is an intuitive who reads energy with startling accuracy. Her approach to life and business is that she only wants to do those things that are all ease, joy and glory for her.
Conversely, I come from a long line of nose-to-the-grindstone, hard working, high-achieving women. I have so many ideas, I’ve got a ton of energy and enthusiasm and I enjoy my work. Because I work at home, lately the lines between work and home life have become blurred and I admit to have been overdoing it a bit in the work department.
So she and I have been going back and forth essentially about doing verses being. She revels in being the space and channeling source energy and all of that ‘woo woo’ stuff, while I figure if I sit around all day in the lotus position being the space they will come and take my car and my furniture away!
But there is a happy medium, and it’s called taking inspired action. Inspired action flows from an open, receptive mind that is centered and grounded and tuned in to Source energy. Inspired action flows from a mind that is open to all of the infinite possibilities.
When you are taking inspired action you feel good–almost orgasmic and you get into ‘the zone’ or you feel like you’re in ‘the flow’ of life and your true greatness is really able to shine through.
Inspired action is not plowing ahead, to-do list in hand, with a furrowed brow and sleeves rolled up. It’s not doing what you think you should do, have to do, or need to do. Many of those things are simply things that we have been trained into believing that we should do in order to get results. Well, don’t ‘should’ on yourself any longer.
Working hard, plowing ahead and burning the midnight oil puts you in a place of stress and gives you a knot in the pit of your tummy. Success does not come at the price of ulcers and exhaustion.
Now I am learning to lighten up. I have discovered that taking time out to meditate in the middle of the day actually gives me more energy and brings clarity to my day. Being open and remaining in question about all of the infinite possibilities available to me on a given day helps to keep my perspective as broad as possible.
When I see what’s ahead with my ego-centered, finite eyes, my instinct is to attack the obstacles that stand between where I am and where I want to be with an axe. But when I take a moment and open myself up to the infinite possibilities, the Universe, which sees all, can guide me and inspire me to maybe make one phone call or respond to one email that will crumble those obstacles with minimal effort.
I am a control-freak perfectionist, so the thought of not marching forth to “git ‘er done,” each day makes me break out in hives, but I am learning now to slow it down, breathe and be open to the infinite possibilities. You should try it. Inspired action feels absolutely yummy, and you’ll accomplish far more almost effortlessly.
How to Use Your Auto-Responder to Nurture a Relationship with Your Email List
Your opt-in email list is the nerve center of your online business. Whether you are a blogger, an affiliate marketer or a freelance online content producer like me, you must build your own contact list of prospective customers if you have not already done so.
But it’s not enough to just gather up those emails and sit on them like they are going to hatch. Each one of those emails is your direct contact with a person who has visited your website, seen what you had to offer and liked it enough to give up their contact information. They have agreed to continue to receive emails from you, so go ahead and communicate with them.
Your list is only valuable to you when you foster a warm relationship with them. Take off your ‘sales’ hat and put on your, ‘getting to know you’ hat. If you want to be able to send promotional offers you must first create a mutually beneficial relationship with them by providing value.
This afternoon I joined a fabulous webinar put on by Janet Legere, who was talking about, How To Write Auto-Responder Letters. Here are a few tips that I learned from her on this content-rich webinar:
(Don’t write a novel. Keep your emails short and sweet and to the point.)
(Provide links to your email and IM and phone number)
Your goal is to get your opt-in members to begin to know, like and trust you more, so be real, be authentic and engaging with them.
Janet and her husband Don do these free training webinars at noon on Saturdays, so I recommend that you scoot on over to her blog, http://janetlegere.com, right now and sign up for her email list so that you can get a link to sign up for her next webinar.
Successful Online Marketing: It Really IS All About You
An important key to successful online marketing is to keep in mind that, despite what your mother always told you, it really is all about you. In order to rise above the sheer volume, and the noise of the marketplace, you must find an effective way to communicate to the world–or at least to your target market–what valuable solution you provide.
But in order for the world or your market to get how valuable and just plain awesome you are, you’ve got to believe it yourself. You’ve heard it said countless times that everything is energy. You radiate energy that vibrates at a particular level. If you are confident, secure and full of joy you are radiating at a higher level, and as that famous Law of Attraction states, you will attract others to you who are vibrating at a compatible level.
Everything you do, and everyting you create and put out into the world is totally infused with your energy. Therefore, your clients and customers are either drawn to your energy or they are not drawn to it. This is important to keep in mind when you are doing Internet marketing online because if you are not getting the results you desire, you might take a step back and look at your energy and your vibration.
Are you up and eager and excited, or are you feeling down, desperate and frustrated? You can have the most beautiful, visually appealing website with fabulous copy, but if you are not coming from a place of being confident in your value, your contribution and your unique gifts that energy will keep your ideal clients away.
Remember that you are the sparkle that draws traffic, customers and clients to you. What are you doing to make your visitors enjoy their visit to your website or blog? How are you making it fun for your customers and clients to do business with you?
Successful online marketing begins and ends with you. Be radiant. Be passionate, heck, be freaking awesome and take the necessary, consistent, bold action steps and watch your website begin to sizzle.