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Release is a post from: Ask Charly Leetham |

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Using RSS To Increase Readers and Backlinks.

Perhaps you have some clients you are coaching right now and you are seeing a steady stream of income.  However, you need to keep in mind that eventually these clients will move on and you will need new ones lined up and ready to go.  It is absolutely essential that you continue to market your coaching business now, while you are busy with current customers, and not wait until they are done.  If you wait, you will likely see a decline in income as you find new clients.How do you get new clients?

When you are already busy, finding new clients can be challenging.  Here are some simple ways you can find new clients.

• Ask your current or previous customers for referrals – without a doubt, word of mouth referrals are a great way to build your business.  Offering a monetary incentive for a new client referral demonstrates how much you appreciate their faith in you and whilst a referral fee is not a new concept, it works for both offline and online coaching.  However, you will find that many of your existing clients will happily provide you with a reference – simply because you do a great job for them.

• Have a website or blog where you can showcase your expertise.  People will go to your site to check you out and see what your coaching program is about.  Ensure that you provide tips that show you know what you’re talking about, but don’t give away everything for free or you won’t get clients.

• Lead generation on your website is incredibly important and having a special giveaway offer in order to collect names and email addresses of people who visit your site.  These leads may be potential customers and by using Follow Up Emails and a regular newsletter, you can stay in contact with them.  In addition, it’s really important to have a way for your prospects and clients to easily contact you, as they may have questions regarding your services.

• Another way to secure new clients is to post helpful information and answer questions on appropriate forums.  This is a great way to build relationships, develop credibility as an expert, and gain trust.  Be helpful on these sites, and you will find that people will come to you but directly and blatantly marketing will most likely alienate your readers.  In fact, blatant marketing of  your business on forums is frowned upon and can even get you banned – so be sure to follow the rules of the forum and see how others are posting and answering.

• Get to know other coaches in your field.  Sometimes an associate will decide to cut back on her client load, or has an emergency where she can’t take on her next batch of clients – simply because of the relationship you have developed with her, she may refer these people to you.

Your coaching business not only needs clients to succeed, it needs good material.  By good material – it should be what the client wants.  Always take note of how coaching sessions are going, and always ask for feedback.  That way you can tailor your program to your clients.  You may think you know what they need, but it might not be what they want.

Are you a coach?  What methods do you find helpful in finding and securing new clients?  What has worked well for you, what hasn’t?  Leave your comments below…

Creating A Successful Coaching Business is a post from: Ask Charly Leetham |

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I was really pleased to see that Aweber has introduced two new features to their offering that makes it possible to start your list before you get a website… if you are an affiliate marketer, this is a perfect way to get started at a relatively low cost.

Introducing Aweber Hosted Forms and Smart Video Thank You Pages.

Hosted Forms are the logical extension to Awebers Customized Optin Forms as you can now host your custom opt-in form on Aweber.  A perfect option for those just starting out.  Aweber also give you some great suggestions on how you can use their hosted optin forms….

Of course, if you want to put audio or video on your hosted opt in form, you still don’t require a website.  For video, you could consider using You Tube, one of the myriad of other video sharing sites or a service Audio Acrobat.  For audio, Audio Acrobat will provide you with the code to embed on your form and have it display a nicely formatted player (I’m sure there’s other ways too!)

The Smart Video Thank You Pages are the perfect match for hosted forms – once your subscriber has submitted their details, you can now redirect them to a page (hosted by Aweber) that will show them exactly what to look for in their email box and how to confirm their request.  Of course, the Video Thank You Pages only work if you have confirmed Opt In turned on.  The video below shows how easy it is to configure a smart video page…

Couple the hosted forms with the new Smart Video Thank You Pages and you have a winning combination.

How Many Ways Can You Use A Hosted Form & / or Smart Video Thank You Page?

I’m interested in how you think you could, or do, use the Aweber Hosted Forms – share your comments and links below for others to see….

Build Your List Without A Website! is a post from: Ask Charly Leetham |

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Be Free is a post from: Ask Charly Leetham |

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Free Wordpress Theme – Designed by Me.

Please connect with me on my Facebook Fanpage as well and join in the discussions….

Facebook FanPage: Adding An OptIn Box To Your is a post from: Ask Charly Leetham |

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This application allows you to post content created on your Blackberry to your Wordpress blog – and that’s a selfhosted or .com Wordpress blog.

Whilst I can’t imagine writing much more than this (the fingers get a bit tired) – I can see how this will allow me to share passing thoughts.

Do you think you can use this type of functionality?

Wordpress For Blackberry is a post from: Ask Charly Leetham |

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These events offer you FREE products… but the truth is that a giveaway is not truly free. In order for you (or your referral) to receive your free gifts, you have to give your email address away to every marketer whose product you download.  Unfortunately, this tends to fill your mailbox with emails promoting one thing or another several times a day, everyday, it can be really inconvenient.  However, handled properly, it can be a small price compared to the new load of ebooks and software you get hold of.
I’m going to discuss how Giveaways work for Contributors and Site Owners.

For Contributors….

A contributor is someone who provides a gift that is included in the Giveaway event.  As a contributor to the event, you will get a new subscriber to your list for every person who downloads your products.

Seasoned contributors often offer multiple products to the Giveaway, which multiplies their opportunities for list building. I have to say that sometimes the reasoning behind this, alludes me…. If you are offering similar products, I feel that getting the same person to opt in to different lists would have little benefit.

For contributors, a targetted giveaway event is a great way to build your list.  OK – a giveaway event in general can be a good way to build your list – but retention of subscribers may be an issue if you contribute to a Giveaway outside your niche.  What I mean is that if you are a Health And Wellness expert, and you contribute to an Internet Marketing giveaway not only would your conversion (or take up) rate for offers be low amongst these subscribers, your unsubscribe rate is likely to be high as well.  However, if you contribute to a giveaway event that is targetted around your niche, your subscribers are likely to be far more interested in your offerings and what you have to say.

Giveaway Owners

Giveaways are also great for the giveaway owner.  In fact, the site owner benefits most from the giveaway event as they get the benefit of your initial signup when you first visit the Giveaway plus all the referrals (people) you send to the site because those referrals have to opt-in with their email address before they can even see the products being offered for free download.

Making Money?

In some Giveaway events, you may make some money as a contributor.  Certainly, building a targetted list is highly likely to bring in a steady income from offers you make through your follow up emails.

Some giveaway events, may offer commissions on any sales that are made during the signup process for your referrals.  When you become a contributor, you are given a link to send your referrals to – this is also known as an affiliate ID or affiliate link.  When someone uses your affiliate link to visit a Giveaway and buys the One Time Offer (OTO), you as the referrer gets the commission for the sale.

Personally, I don’t participate in Giveaway Events for the income opportunity – I want to build a list of people who are interested in what I’m sharing first and foremost.

Why Should You Promote?

Another benefit of using your affiliate link, is that when you refer people to the Giveaway event, your offer is ‘ranked higher’ and is displayed on ‘higher’ or ‘earlier’ pages on the Giveaway event. By having your gift displayed on pages as close to the first page as possible, you increase the number of optins you will receive.

It is also important to understand that as a Contributor to a Giveaway Event – you are expected to promote.  Some Giveaway Events will not allow you to add a product to the Giveaway, or display your product, until you have sent a certain amount of traffic through your affiliate link. Promoting the event in a gracious manner, will not only let you list your product, but will build your credibility among your peers as well.

If you want to find events to join, I list the events that I am supporting and promoting at Current Giveaway Events and in my weekly newsletter.

Now, I know that a lot of my readers have had experiences, good and bad, with Giveaways – share your experiences below….

Using Giveaways To Maximum Effect For Your Business is a post from: Ask Charly Leetham |

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Search Engine Optimization For Small Business.

There are a number of ways we can show our appreciation to our customers – starting with that simple follow up email that says ‘thank you’. Unfortunately, that’s where many businesses finish too and customers can often feel like ‘just another number’ which is often worse than doing nothing.

Now, I’m not saying don’t send that automated email, I am saying that you should consider how you can personalize your thank you further, so that you strengthen the relationship with your customer and be sincere at the same time.

Two wonderful and effective ways of personalizing your thank you to your customer is to send a card or gift, through the mail.

Consider sending a card, or greeting card, with a personal message to your new customer – how would you feel if you have just purchased something and then receive a personalized thank you in the mail? A greeting card may also be sent to existing customers, thanking them again for their patronage, perhaps inviting them to view a new product range or special that is being offered.

Another effective way is to send a gift.  This strategy is more popularly known as as ‘gifting’.  Gifts can be used to express gratitude to your customers and a well thought out gift not only expresses deep gratitude, but may also market your business in a gracious and unassuming manner.

Sending promotional gifts can also be a means of rewarding clients to appreciate their custom through out the years; such simple recognition will ensure that your customers feel that they are valued. Promotional flyers are often discarded the moment they are received, and are seldom read but when a person is gifted with something that they can use, they will not only enjoy it, they will also keep it for sometime – ensuring that your business is remembered.  Of course, to ensure that your business is remembered, you should have the name of the company on the gift – for online businesses, it is also advisable to include your website address.

When considering what type of gift to send, considering something that lasts longer like pens, key chain, coffee mug, calendar, refrigerator magnets, etc. These types of gifts not only last longer, they are also used regularly by your customer which keeps your business top of mind.

Calendars are very popular gifts provided by small companies as they aren’t expensive and are used year round. The drawback of a calendar is that many other small companies use them as gifts as well, and your customer may receive several!  Other popular gifts include office supplies like Stationary tubs, pens, sticky pads and diaries containing the logo of the company.

With the development of print on demand type services, businesses can not only gift Promotional items, they can also gift home gifts like fridge magnets, coffee mugs, thermo-flasks and tote bags which also get noticed many times a day.

Of course, you can also provide T-shirts, caps and other pieces of clothing.  You may find that these are more expensive than other items – but often they are worth the investment as they are usually worn outside and literally function as a walking advertisement for your business.

Some great uses that I found and used myself include:

• Business Greeting Cards – send personalized greeting cards via mail to your customers and prospects.
• Cafepress – print on demand gifts, not only can you send branded promotional items to your customer, you can operate your own gift shop.
• Vistaprint - amazing value print of demand stationary and gifts

As a business, have you added sending business greeting cards or gifts to your marketing mix? You will be amazed at the effectiveness of such a strategy – why not share your experiences below….

Increasing your business using Appreciation Marketing and Promotion Gifts is a post from: Ask Charly Leetham |

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Let’s look at all the different types of content that can be added to your blog – and how you can use it to your benefit.

Posts you write yourself

Writing blog post after blog post can put you in a rut, so consider changing up to different types of posts.

• teach your readers something
• explain a technique you’ve tried
• offer a case study using a particular technique or business model
• offer a personal glimpse at your lifestyle (as a result of your business)
• answer reader’s questions
• do a top 10 list
• list your favorite resources

Outsourced Articles

Hire a ghostwriter to write some of your posts.  If they can write well about your subject, focus on creating an awesome piece that goes viral because it’s so good.

Articles from article directories

If you find an occasional article from a directory such as Ezine Articles, My Article Network or Unique Article Wizard that fits your topic, post it.  Remember, you can’t change these articles, but you can add your own paragraph before the article and even after it.  That way you can give it a personal twist and add an affiliate link if you so choose.

Product Reviews

You can review products in-depth and highlight the product’s plusses and minuses.  Do some of these without adding your affiliate link and boost your credibility by showing you care about your readers.

PLR articles

Rework them a little or a lot, add your keywords and post them as great content.  You can also change the slant and conclusion to point to an affiliate product or your own product that you’d like to promote.

I strongly recommend that you spend some time rewriting PLR content to ensure that you have ‘unique content’ on your site.

Videos

Videos are not only great for Search Engine Optimization, they also give your blog higher perceived value. Some types of videos to consider include:

• show how to do something, such as a Camtasia video on how to FTP or a video on how to teach a dog to sit
• videos from others in your field
• from YouTube and other video sharing directories

Podcasts

This medium also gives your blog higher perceived value.

• interview some experts and post the recordings to your blog
• read your posts out-loud for those who prefer to listen than read

Pictures

Pictures help break up blocks of text as well as catch the reader’s attention.

• humorous/comic clip art that relates to your niche
• stock photos – you can get some great Free Stock Photos from 123rf.com
• screenshots of your AWeber or PayPal account, or of the cool tool you want to talk about

Guest blog posts

If you are networking enough to know others in your field, ask one or two bloggers you respect and that you know will have a lot to offer your readers to write guest posts for your blog.

Planning is Everything!

It’s important to come up with a plan for your blog. Planning ahead for the content on your blig will give you direction.  Decide which days you will add to your blog, and map out which type of content you will add each day.  That way, you’re more likely to give your blog the attention it deserves, and get the traffic you want.

Do you have a plan for your blog or do you kinda stumble from one blog post to another?

What Kind Of Content Is On Your Blog? is a post from: Ask Charly Leetham |

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