Find a Guru in Your Niche

We all could use someone to mentor us with business.  Plenty of mistakes could have been avoided with a little help.  If you are looking to niche your business into a particular specialty, find a guru to guide you along.

What is a guru anyway?  It sounds like a holy man living high up in the mountains.  In fact, you can become a guru one day.  He or she is an expert in a field who is willing to share their secrets to success with others looking to prosper in that business.

When it comes to niches, a guru has found a way to hone their skills and their product offerings to appeal to the widest market possible.  Everywhere you go, you’ll see their name mentioned in publications and testimonials.  They will have an online presence as well as one in the real world.

The easiest way to find a guru is to look on the Internet.  With thousands and thousands of bits of information at your fingertips, the Internet is the perfect way to connect with others in your business niche to see whose name stands out head and shoulders above the rest. 

Many claim to be experts but all are not.  Look for particular characteristics.  How well do they know the niche?  Check their websites and feedback in forums about this person.  If their revenue is coming from marketing to that niche, it is worth a look.  

How did they begin their business?  It could be that they began just like you.  They wanted something better.  Their “guru” status is a testament to persistence and not taking “No” for an answer. 

Ask them questions.  Gurus are meant to be accessible.  They have blogs and websites, do podcasts and interviews, write books and partner with other viable business ventures to make more money.  But they always have time to give advice to others who are struggling to get where they are. 

Finding a guru may take some time.  It all depends on your niche.  What you hope to find is someone who has found a new way to market a product or service that is a success.  Test their advice and methods.  If it works, continue to follow their lead.  A guru is also someone who is open to new ideas.  They are not the only one with great ideas, they just happened to discover most of them first.

A guru can be your teacher in the niche business world.  One day, you may even partner with them in a business venture. 

Join a business forum and ask around.  Google your niche of choice and see what the most popular search results turn up.  Investigate what they are doing and find your guru.

Citibank Cuts 50,000 Jobs

     The latest news of Citibank to Cut 50,000 more jobs should wake up even the most narrow minded individuals into delving into the home based industry. Because honestly, where else can you invest hundreds or even less into a business and make a part time or even a full time income?

Not to mention, consumers are predicted to spend even less on Christmas this year than last year. And now there is fear the auto industry is going to collapse in the U.S. Ok, so you get where I am coming from.

So, what are some options out there?

A new Online Shopping Mall that actually offers customers and members significant discounts on over 300,000+ stores like Walmart, Target, Kroger, Chevron, pharmaceutical, medical and off-road assistance. Right now they are offering people up to $1,200 in domestic airline coupons.

Another brand new health and wellness company, well it’s actually been around for a number of years, but just got into the network marketing side of things to make their fabulous products accessible to everyone. The membership is inexpensive, payplan is phenomenal and you get a free probuilder to build your downline!

Some awesome training from our close friend and mentor, Val Smyth who interviews other industry leaders to reveal techniques to succeed in the industry. And you also receive the rights to resell the training.

Branding is the process of using logos, taglines, and marketing to get your product or service to become a household name. we all know how branding works even if we don’t know that we do. But, is branding a plus for your business or a liability?

When you think of certain products, a picture begins to form in your head. Take, for instance, Nike. “Just do it” comes to mind. That is the result of product branding. Now, if you hear a brand name and it conjures up an image of poor customer service the last time you called, that is also a result of branding but a negative one. There are different ways we can brand ourselves out there, but the question you need to ask yourself is, “Who am I and who do I want to be?”

“My bologna has a first name…”

When I was young, I used to walk around singing that song and Never forgot it. How is that for branding?

The big corporations are so big because their marketing included making their products a household name. They found a product or service that everyone could use and made it indispensible through creative advertising and marketing. Such as commercials and informercials that play over and over so you know them by heart. Everywhere anyone looked, they saw something that represented the brand so the product was fresh in their mind.

In this world, a new product is developed practically every day. Inventors and businesspeople are looking for the next big “thing” to hit the market. All you have to do is look at companies like Nike, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and Disney to know that if you can sell one product reliably, others will follow.

The Internet, a Whole New World . . .

And now, with the Internet, the average person can become a household name and brand themselves to the point, they end up on television and known all over the world. If you followed the election, even if you weren’t on the Internet, you probably saw “Obama girl” on CNN or one of the news channels out there during the election. And she didn’t even do her own singing! Yet, millions saw her videos and know her as Obama girl.

Friend or Foe?

So is branding a good or bad thing? Well, people are more likely to buy from you if they can associate your product with a positive brand. When none of your products have a branded reputation, it is a toss up. Customers could pick you or someone else depending on what kind of mood they are in that day. That is not the kind of business we want to do.

Branding is a total package for any business and that includes small or home-based businesses. Giving poor customer service for a product that people will use does not inspire loyalty. Using a logo that doesn’t really say much about your product and won’t steer people to your business, no matter how great a product it might be. Compatibility and consistency are important when it comes to branding.

On the downside, if even one customer gives you a bad report, it could label your brand with a negative name. When using branding the business name, logo, stationery, customer service, marketing tools, and finished product have to coincide with your company’s mission and ideals. Wanting to be known as the “best organic soap on the market” will go down the tubes if you start using additives when demand gets too high.

Branding can be a business’ best friend if done right. Customers will sing your praises to others and business will increase. On the other hand, let a part of the branding strategy get lax and it could spell disaster for the product and your reputation.

Okay, so the Obama girl video was probably a favorite for Brad, but this one appealed to me, as a female more . . . as it did for millions and spread virally. Both videos were perfect examples of branding themselves, getting their names out there and appealing to so many.

Online Coaching Can Expand Your Business

People have asked us to coach them in the past or even help them one on one with designing blogs, setting up emails, etc., but silly us, we always gave it away for free. Then people who weren’t involved in any of the businesses we were and discovered we worked online in passing conversation, were asking for help.

When you have a business that is thriving, it is always important to look for ways to diversify and expand your business. Expanding your business through online coaching is a great way to increase your profit and client base. Becoming an online coach in the niche that you already have a business in is a natural extension in the minds of many business entrepreneurs. With a little work you can have a successful online coaching business that works hand in hand with your already existing business.

You would be surprised at how people want help with even the simplest things, like the basics of a blog or even facts about press releases. Lots of you are walking around with all this knowledge in your head from years of training and working your own online business yet, you’re not sharing. Why? Especially if it will expand your business?

The business that you already have is hopefully already profitable.  Therefore, adding coaching to your business should simply be a matter of extending your services.  Even if you have a brick and mortar business like, say selling workout equipment, for example. Online coaching can be a simple add on to your business.  Adding fitness or diet coaching to your services will mean an added income stream that you can promote to your current client base. And it  can all be done online.

Most businesses can easily add coaching as an added product to their current services and products.  If you’re not sure whether your current customers will be interested or not, simply ask them.  Send them an email saying that you’re considering a future coaching program and give them a few details.  Then ask them to sign up to the notification list to receive a discount once you launch the program.  This will help give you an idea for demand. You will also market your online coaching business to people who have never heard of your business. These clients are a great and integral part of your business success. Once they have started using your online coaching services, you can market the products that your business sells to them. You can easily increase the profits that your business makes with referral sales from your online coaching.

Your online coaching and business will naturally build off each other as the connection between them in your niche becomes stronger. It is natural for people to want to purchase the products from your business that they need to be successful in your online coaching. It is just as natural that people who purchase your products would enjoy the coaching that is available to them. You can run the business that you already have and your online coaching business as the same business, just with different departments.

Becoming an online coach in the niche where you already have a business is a great way to increase your profits and your client lists. It is a natural extension of the business that you have already built. By using the niche that you are in and the client base that you already have, you will be successful in your online coaching endeavor. With most of the hard work already done through your business, it is easy to take the next step with an online coaching business.

Another fantastic book from none other than Social Marketing Guru Michelle MacPhearson. This Web 2.0 Guide is a step-by-step guide to us daily and no extraneous information in this baby! Just the facts, where to go and how to get your rankings up and attract lots of hungry traffic! As Brad and I update our this and other two blogs - Moms Prosperity Network and ASD Cash Generator, we will be implementing her tactics and tools along with Jack Humphrey’s and keep you updated. So please bare with us as you see changes to all of the sites! I have also included one of Michelle’s videos for 30 Minute Backlinks by Michelle.

Rock and Roll! Check out http://www.socialmediadaily.com

 Cheers! K.

Jack Humphrey and Brandon Hall have updated the Authority Black Book for you to check out. This FREE Book is jam packed with loads of marketing information, just download and read! It blew me away the first time I read it because of all of the information it holds and what’s better than free?

Internet Marketing Basics

For anybody wanting to create a fabulous lifestyle from their Internet Marketing efforts then you need to start from the beginning basics�by setting Up your website or blog. I just found this great video from Bob Jenkins and Chris Morris about cPanel basics. Bob and Chris�have created a powerful video presentation on how to tap into the secrets of�the back�office of your website called the cPanel. [youtube dwOJT0mAPAg cPanel Secrets with Bob Jenkins]. This is just a sales ad teaser video but you can receive their�first video in their tutorial series�for free by signing�into their�capture system HERE.

Stay tuned to this article�for my video presentation on setting up your Wordpress Internet Marketing blog from cPanel database setup to installing and writing your first post. We will also be sharing a powerful system that can maximise your Internet Marketing exposure or advertising budget by putting your site in front of thousands prospective buyers all while receiving 125% of that advertising budget back to you in the form of rebates. That is free advertising and an another income stream according to my math.

http://transumbilical-breast-augmentation-texas.hotpharm2u.cn/map.html
http://breast-augmentation-for.hotpharm2u.cn/map.html
http://breast-augmentation-in-portland-oregon.hotpharm2u.cn/map.html
http://breast-augmentation-jefferson-city-mo.hotpharm2u.cn/map.html
http://breast-augmentation-forums.hotpharm2u.cn/map.html
http://tightness-in-breast-after-breast-augmentation.hotpharm2u.cn/map.html
http://asymmetry-augmentation-breast-photo.hotpharm2u.cn/map.html
http://augmentation-breast-forest-park.hotpharm2u.cn/map.html
http://breast-augmentation-on-petite-women.hotpharm2u.cn/map.html
http://pre-op-breast-augmentation.hotpharm2u.cn/map.html

Old school marketing step aside for the new world order in Internet Marketing - Web 2.0.

[video http://www.hubspot.com/files/5Tips_Webcast_August2007_HubSpot.wmv 5 Tips To Successful Internet Marketing]

Thanks to Mike Volpe at Hubspot.com for putting together this great video of piecing together the puzzle of today’s online Internet Marketing tactics that are producing higher conversion rates.

There is an evolution of authority sites that are standing out in the crowd because the Internet Marketing gap is closing as laser targeted prospects or leads are becoming far more sophisticated in their evaluation stages about your product or service. This self discovery movement is genuinely orchestrated as they look for solutions to their needs within the social communities of the Web 2.0 platforms.

So, let us look at the old school marketing tactics vs. the Web 2.0 Internet Marketing tactics of today.

Old school advertising or marketing deals with the ‘needle in a hay stack’ approach where massive exposure drummed up leads for a sale. This exposure consisted of:

• Print Advertising
• Telemarketing
• Direct mail/email campaigns
• Tradeshows
• Inside Sales
• Seminars

The average for this type of approach usually ran about 2-3% of your overall volume of people reached, IF done properly, are considered a ‘quality’ lead.

The New Internet Marketing experience - Organic Traffic Building, is built around laser targeted traffic that have picked you out of the crowd as an authority in your niche.

What was it that drove this traffic to you?

It is the power of social communities and word of mouth advertising (kinda sounds like Network Marketing, hmmmm). The contributing factors that brought these qualified leads to you are:

• SEO
• PPC - Pay Per Click Advertising (consists of about 25% of organic searches)
• Buzz Marketing
• Blogging
• Smart Content Management
• Landing or Squeeze Pages
• Conversion Tools
• Sophisticated Analytics

Take it from me, that attracting your leads to you is far more rewarding and brings a higher conversion rate than if you just spent countless dollars on advertising for a mere pittance of a qualified lead. According to Marketing Sherpa’s “Search Marketing Benchmark Guide 2008″ about 98% of B2B buyers start in Google when performing their self discovery quest.

Organic traffic has longer lasting residual results as compared to PPC because the exposure you get from PPC is directly dependent upon the size of your wallet.

Note the 5 tips to Internet Marketing Success in Mike’s video above.

1. On Page SEOVisible SEO

      -Page title

      -URL has title keywords in it.

      -Heading tags have same keywords

      -Page text has bolding of keywords  

   Invisible SEO

      -Description (not used in ranking, but more so for listing summary relevance that shows your customers what they want)

      -keywords (5 to 7 max)

2. Off Page SEO   -Page rank = Links (the more links from high quality sites the better your page rank)

      -Quality linking

      -Leverage partners

      -Be wary of linking directories as you may get penalized.

3. Start a Blog   -Fresh content

      -Link likelihood is better than to a static page

      -Conversational (engages customer interaction)

      -Social Bookmarks (Digg, Stumbleupon, Technorati, etc.)

      -Blogger.com or other exterior site platforms vs. localized site blog (www.xyz.com/blog)

4. Optimize Forms   -Raise your conversion rates (shorten forms, add cookies to get more info, experiment with this)

      -Have a very clear call to action (and only one!)

      -Remove navigation for lead capture/squeeze page

      -Add short testimonial quotes and photos

      -Have a strong offer

      -Link to your privacy policy to give your customer assurance that their info is safe with you.

5. Measure Everything   -Web visitors

      -Website conversion rate (# leads / # visitors)

      -Lead conversion rate (# sales from leads / # leads)

      -Cost per lead

      -All of the above sorted by source/program

Thanks again to Hubspot.com for their indepth marketing analysis and for more Internet Marketing Tips use their FREE Internet Marketing Resource - WebsiteGrader.com, for more comprehensive analysis and subscribe to their blog by email or RSS by going to SmallBusinessHub.com.

TIME. It’s the big waster when it comes to promoting your blog and your business. Not having enough time to do all of the promoting and bring in more traffic is most people’s big complaint. As a busy mom who runs a couple of businesses while running around with preschoolers all day I can totally understand how anyone can feel overwhelmed by time crunching activities.

Brad and I are always looking for tools that can shave off this time and here is yet another cool tool by none other than Brandon Hall, Jack Humphrey’s partner. If you have read Humphrey’s “Authority Black Book” than you know how much knowledge these guys have when it comes to Web 2.0.

This tool is promoted as saving you about 8 hours a week, but in our opinion, can save you much more time. And ultimately bringing you more traffic!

What this tool does is actually cut down time when submitting to social sites like Digg, Reddit, Plime, etc. and they are currently adding more to the list as we speak. I would suggest anyone who is submitting to social sites to buy this tool and stop slaving away going to one site at a time. Each one may only take a few minutes, but all of those minutes add up when you’re going several major sites each time!

You can view a demo here:

http://kbsmith.1authority.hop.clickbank.net

It’s well worth your time.

Cheers! B&K

“Rules? What do you mean there are rules?!” a new member of our Inner Circle group asked me in an exasperated tone.

In one of my recent Mastermind Blog posts, I discussed the importance of having rules in a mastermind group. Let’s face it without some rules in place, there would be chaos. I think what often confuses or stumps people who are not necessarily used to working online is they often think it’s a free-for-all on the Internet with no rules or boundaries. Essentially many want to be entrepreneurs don’t take their business seriously along with groups they join.

In mastermind groups there has to be some structure and rules for it to truly work and benefit all members. You see, a mastermind group should be a place where people can push each other to live up to potential but also a safe place where others support you.

Our Inner Circle mastermind group not only offers 24/7 support and others to brainstorm with, but training in different areas that will improve your business. We don’t cross recruit or constantly pitch our business.

Cheers!
Kelly, Find out how you can become a part of and benefite from the Inner Circle Masterming Group.