Internet Marketing For Solopreneurs

There are many social networking web sites online. I am sure you have heard of LinkedIn, Ryze, Facebook, MySpace and many other social networking sites.

I am a member of a few of them, and we also do a lot of networking at my online business mentoring web site, http://www.MarketingSalad.com. I also run my own social networking events for business owners.

Lately I have been getting lots of questions about social media and online networking from coaches, consultants and other solopreneurs. It seems that social networking is becoming more popular and more business owners want to take advantage of social networking to get more clients for their businesses.

You have to remember that just like regular networking, using social media does take time. You are looking for results for your business and it takes time to get those results.

Some of the things i do when I use social media are: I run groups and networking events for people I meet on social networking sites, I keep in touch and network, I write and optimize my blog, etc.

Two main things to remember if you want to get results from social media are:

- Correctly define your goals for social networking. You have to know know exactly what you want to happen from your involvement in social media and how to follow up and build on that involvement.

- You need to find ways (and time!) to do social media marketing on a regular basis.

More tips on using social media:

- Use Web 2.0 And Online Networking To Promote A Coaching Business

- How To Get Results From Online Networking

- Are You Wasting Time Or Networking?

Biana Babinsky

Many coaches have asked me if they should join a local networking group. Here is what I recommend.

It is really all about your goals for your membership and what you want to get out of it. Since your goal is to get referrals of potential clients, I would look at the group and see if members there are in position to send you referrals, if they have access to people who can make great referrals for you.

For example, if you are a business coach, your potential clients are business owners. If there are many members in the group who work with business owners and can refer them to you, this should be a big consideration for you joining the group.

On the other hand, if you are a life coach, you will need to have people in different professions in group, so that they can refer leads to you.

My recommendation is to set goals for what you want to get from the group, and see if the group will help reach those goals.

Want to network online? Network with your colleagues at www.MarketingSalad.com

Biana Babinsky

In the winter it looks like soup is everywhere! I have been reading magazine articles on how to cook soup. I keep seeing lots of soup commercials. Many restaurants are offering hearty soups on their winter menus.

While I like soup just fine, it’s not my favorite food. I do like soups in the winter; they do make you feel warmer, but the reason I am not that crazy about soups is because the majority of soups I have had are just blah. They are fine, but nothing special.

But every once in a while I come across very tasty soups, soups whose taste makes them much more memorable. After I eat them, I remember these soups for a while. And if someone I know made that particular soup, you can be sure that I had asked for a recipe.

What if the articles that you write are just like these two types of soups? You do not want your article to be fine but forgettable like the first type of soup. You want it to be like the second type of soup. You want those who have read your article to remember it and to ask for
more of your products and services.

Tomorrow I will be teaching How To Create Article Resource Boxes That Get You More Attention And More Clients Teleseminar. During this teleseminar you will learn how to get more leads and clients from your articles by creating effective and memorable resource boxes. I will also show you examples of Resource Boxes that have brought results.

The teleseminar is only for members of my online marketing mentoring program, MarketingSalad.com. Find out how to become a member and attend the teleseminar at

http://www.marketingsalad.com/articles.html

Biana Babinsky

Recently someone asked me what I think is the most annoying thing that people do online and that prevents them from getting more sales.

This was an interesting question, and here is my take on it.

One of the most annoying thing that happens to me online is when people don’t link directly to the product they are talking about in their message. Some time ago I was reading someone’s newsletter, and there was an ad for an e-book for coaches. It sounded interesting, so I clicked on the link, only to be taken to the main page on the newsletter publisher’s web site.

The main page did not have any information about the e-book. After clicking on a few links, and not finding any e-book information, I got discouraged and left the web site. The newsletter publisher lost a customer.

This newsletter publisher lost many customers who wanted to learn about the e-book, but were taken to the main page of the web site instead.

Remember, linking directly to the product you are marketing can dramatically increase your sales. This is just one of the tips I have discussed on the Article Marketing for Profits Audio Recording that you can get at http://www.marketingsalad.com/article_marketing.html

Biana Babinsky

Can you get more newsletter subscribers by using pay per click search engines?

Pay per click advertising can help you build your list, but it can also help you spend a lot of money fast :)

If you are just starting with a pay per click campaign, here is what I recommend:

- Learn about pay per click advertising and how it works before actually starting to use it. If you are not sure what you are doing, it gets expensive really fast. So learn before you jump in with your money.

- Spend time on finding good keywords that your target customers would use searching for what you have to offer. Good keywords are key to reaching your target market and
getting them on your list.

- Write effective ads. If your ad doesn’t speak to your target customers they will not click on your ad and you will not get them on your list.

- Test! Compare different keywords, different ads and see which ones produce the best results for you.

Also, I would not rely just on pay per click to get subscribers. There are lots of other techniques that do not cost anything to apply, such as article marketing, search engine optimization, blogging and more. I recommend using pay per click as one of your list building techniques, but definitely not as the only one.

I will be discussing how to use pay per click advertising during the Grow Your List Teleseminar Series. There is just one more seat left, so register now at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znews

Biana Babinsky

In order to build your list you need to:

1) Have a great offer on your web site for new subscribers

2) Drive your target market to your web site in large numbers in order for it to take advantage of your offer and subscribe to your newsletter

You can achieve #1 by promoting your free report all over your web site. I recommend having your free offer front and center on each and every page of your web site.

And to achieve #2 you need to start working on using online marketing techniques to drive targeted traffic to your web site every single day.

There are many different marketing techniques you can use - search engine optimization, article marketing, blogging, networking, etc. The idea is to drive your target market to your web site, so that they can see your free gift offer and subscribe to your newsletter.

It is also a numbers game - the more traffic you can drive to your web site, the more people are going to subscribe to your newsletter.

Discover how to build your list faster during the Grow Your List Teleseminar Series. There are just a few seats left, so register quickly at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znews

Biana Babinsky

It is not enough to have many newsletter subscribers. In order to have a successful business you need your subscribers to actually buy what you have to offer.

So the question becomes, how to make your newsletter subscribers more responsive to what you have to offer?

Here are some questions to ask yourself to help you make your newsletter convert better:

Are people on your list in your target market? If they aren’t, they are not interested in buying what you have to offer.

Do you offer your subscribers what they want? Your target market has to want, need and be able to afford your products and services in order to buy them.

Do you contact your subscribers too much/too little? Sometimes when my clients tell me that they can’t get sales from their newsletter, it is because they e-mail them too many times or too few. Much more often it is too few - if you send out your newsletter once every three months, your subscribers may just forget who you are.

Do you ask your subscribers to buy? In order to get people to buy, you have to ask them for the sale.

Is your list large enough? The more subscribers you have, the more sales you are going to be able to get from your list.

Discover how to get more newsletter subscribers and convert them into buyers with the Grow Your List Home Study Guide. You can find out more about it at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znews

Biana Babinsky

Do you have a marketing plan? If you run your own coaching, consulting or any other service business, having a marketing plan is very important. Your marketing plan will tell you what your goals are and how to take action to reach those goals.

What To Include In Your Marketing Plan?

I recommend that your marketing plan includes a list of your goals, a list of things that you are
going to accomplish and a list of actions that will help you get there. A marketing plan helps you go from where you are now to where you want to be.

Let’s say you are looking to get 200 more newsletter subscribers and 10 more clients in the next 3 months. Your 3 Month Marketing Plan needs to outline a list of actions you need to take and the dates for when you will take them in order to reach your goals.

For example, a marketing plan that I have all of my clients fill out includes a section on their goals/vision, a research section and a section on specific actions they need to take in order to achieve their goals.

Last week I taught members of my mentoring group how to create a marketing plan. You can get my marketing plan template and an audio on how to create your marketing plan (and online marketing mentoring with me) at http://www.marketingsalad.com/marketing-plan.html

Biana Babinsky

Why are you applying a marketing technique?

Many times I see coaches and consultants use a marketing technique because they heard that other coaches and consultants use it to get clients or because someone they know recommended it to them.

When you are applying a marketing technique (and this goes for any technique - creating a web site, joining local networking groups, doing article marketing, blogging, teleseminars, etc), you need to know the outcome you are looking for and you need to tailor your actions to get that outcome.

Don’t use article marketing or local networking or blogging or teleseminars or any other techniques because others are using them. Use them because they help you do something very specific, such as build your list.

And in order to accomplish that, look at every aspect of a marketing technique you are applying and optimize it for accomplish your specific goal. For example, when using article marketing, you need to pick article topics that appeal to your target market, create a Resource Box that will get people to subscribe to your newsletter, etc.

Or if you are optimizing your web site to get more newsletter subscribers, you want to optimize each page on the web site to get subscribers, etc.

When you decide to use a marketing technique, do some research, find out if it fits into your overall marketing strategy. If it does, spend some time and learn how to apply this technique effectively, so that you can get results.

My Complete Step by Step Online Marketing Course teaches you, step-by-step, how to apply different online marketing techniques to your business.

Biana Babinsky

Many coaches, consultants and other service business owners have asked me how to sell more copies of their e-books

Just like with any product, in order to sell your ebooks, you need to bring a stream of interested people to your sales page.

In order to sell your ebook you will need:

- An effective sales letter that can convert your target market into buyers. It is very important to have a good sales letter for an information product. Even if you can get good traffic to your web site you will not be able to convert traffic into sales without a good sales letter.

- A good price/value offer that your sales letter presents to your web site visitors. Can you convince them that they need your product and not someone else’s?

- An effective marketing strategy that brings targeted traffic to your ebook page, every single day.

There are many different marketing techniques you can use to do that. Your own newsletter, article marketing, blogging, search engine optimization and more.

In the Make Thousands Of Dollars With E-books Home Study Guide I discuss how to sell many copies of your ebook. You can see it at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/zebookt

Read more on selling ebooks and sales letters:

- Longer Sales Letters Produce Better Results

- Show that you are providing value

- How To Create Effective Web Site Copy

Biana Babinsky