This first of several messages will give you an overview and, maybe like
me, you’ll have an “ah-ha” moment. Mine was dramatic.

You’ve probably heard the term “push marketing” and “pull marketing.”

Here’s how I see it.

Push marketing relates to any action, content, or media you use to actively
get your message in front of your target market. Traditional methods such as
television, radio, direct mail, and outbound email come to mind. In one
sense it’s invasive, but it’s worked for lots of years. In terms of email,
as an aside, it’s not invasive if someone has given you permission to
contact them.

Other push media (which you might not have thought of in this sense)
includes Pay-Per-Click search engine advertising and organic search
engine marketing (call it SEO if you like).

As with the first set of examples, we’re basically “pushing” our message
in front of an audience, albeit one that has actively typed in a keyword
or group of keywords into his or her favorite search engine.

Pull media relates to any message that garners a prospect’s interest (not
an overt “sales push” per se), and through a series of additional touches with
the prospect, bascially pulls him or her to you. They come to you not
necessarily related to how clever you’ve constructed your sales message,
but more because they’ve come to know, like, and trust you…you appear
to be the “real deal” in perhaps being able to solve their particular
problem or concern.

I’ve observed over the last few years that people are naturally more
suspicious than they might once have been. Just because someone says it’s
so doesn’t necessarily make it so. No need to go into real life examples,
but they’re everywhere.

If you agree that this is the current reality, then how do you still
promote your business or idea?

Build a relationship with someone to the point where they know, like, and
trust you. They become convinced in their own mind that you know what you’re
talking about, that you’re an expert in your field.

At that point presenting your idea to a “warm” prospect is much easier.

Not that the traditional “push” concepts go by the wayside. Not at all.

We’ve come to the point in our business where we do both. It’s not one or
the other.

In my next several messages I’ll share some of the “how’s” in terms of
“pulling” people to you.

The obvious first step is to use Google Analytics, the no-cost
alternative from Google. But once you’ve got GA installed (and
are actually using the data it provides), what next?

I had mistakenly thought that most people knew about the following
three cool tools, but in recent conversations I’ve found that not
to be the case.

1. What are people saying online about you, your competitors, your
   industry, certain keywords of interest to you?

   Ever wonder about this? Google Alerts will solve this problem for you.

   A couple of hints in using this “tool.”

   When you set up Google Alerts through your Google account (my
   recommended method), you can choose options in terms of the
   type of content – news, blogs, web, or my choice – comprehensive.

   You can also choose the frequency and several other cool options.

   Check it out at www.Google.com/Alerts

2. What are the trends of your market? Here’s another little known Google tool that will give you a
   snapshot of how many people are searching online for a given term
   (or up to 5 terms) over a period of time.

   What’s also important from a marketing perspective is that Google
   Trends also includes data from regions, subregions, cities, and language.

   We’ve used the tool to intiate Facebook advertising campaigns to target
   people who live in certain cities, for example. Talk about targeted marketing.

   You can access it at www.Google.com/Trends

3. What about a visual reprentation of where people actually click on your web site? It happens a lot. Someone (business owner, web site designer, etc.) decides they
   know how a page should look or be laid out to optimize performance. By this I mean
   where visitors will click so that they ultimately become your customers, clients, or patients.

   My attitude is always, “Test, and let the visitors show you by where they click.”

   CrazyEgg offers a free trial to low cost solution for this very challenge.

   It represents this information in several ways, but my favorite is its heat map alternate.
   When you install the tracking code on a page (one limitation is that you have to install the
   tracking code on each page you want to test), you’ll be able to quickly see where people
   are clicking.

   We’ve used the tool successfully for several years to see in real time what web site visitors
   are doing when they reach the page. We can then change the location, wording, etc. of
   different page elements to see how we can improve things.

   You can get more information at www.CrazyEgg.com

Hope this helps you improve the performance of your online presence.

By the way, if you’ve got any cool tools you use, comment below.

Take a look at these…

1. Enounce – Speed up your online videos to cut your viewing time by 30 to 50%

Online video is quickly becoming pervasive on line. The only problem is that
watching a lot of video takes a lot of time. I found Enounce last fall and have
been using it extensively to reduce the amount of time it takes me to watch videos.

You can get a free trial (that’s what I did), use it, and then decide whether it
makes sense for you. A no-brainer after you’ve used it for awhile.

You can check it out at www.Enounce.com

(NOTE: it might take a little getting used to listening to people talk at faster
than normal speeds)

2. You Send It – An easy way to send large files (audio, video and more)

How many times have you tried to email a large file and have it get bounced back
to you?  YouSendIt is a free service (if you’re a heavy-duty user you might need
to be the paid version – it’s still relatively inexpensive) that allows you to
upload your large files (100 mb limit as I recall) to send to your recipient.

I love this application because I’m a little weak at knowing how to use ftp to
upload large files.

No download required, no muss, no fuss.  Just register and get started.

You can access it at www.SendThisFile.com

3. Jing – “Construct” 5 minute or less videos to teach, share, etc.

Do you ever wish you could talk someone through a spreadsheet or web site when
you’re in one place and they’re in another?

Jing is a light version of Camtasia (made by the same folks at Screencast) that
allows you to record with audio (if you have a microphone) whatever’s on your
screen. Simple to learn, use, and share.

I’ve used it extensively for short presentations, teaching, guiding someone
through a particular web site, etc.

And, the general version is free.

You can access it at www.JingProject.com

4. PrimoPDF – the pdf creator option if you don’t have Adobe Acrobat

Several weeks ago I was having technical issues with my Adobe Acrobat software.
Since it was a weekend, I couldn’t reach Adobe tech support, and I needed to
immediately convert several files to pdf. Then I remembered a friend had
recently told me about PrimoPDF.

Cool, it was a free download and I was able to “get ‘er done.”

If you haven’t invested in Acrobat, this is a good alternative; won’t do
everything that Acrobat does, but it’s enough for most of the projects I do.

You can access it at www.PrimoPDF.com

5. Free Conference Call – a free teleconference alternative

I do a lot of teleconferences or joint calls with more than one party on the
call. I’d used a number of services over the years, but last year I found
Free Conference Call. Once you register you get “your” phone number and
access code that you can use anytime…no scheduling a call or anything like
that.  Plus, you can record the call and subsequently download it.

This is a great alternative if you do teleconferences.

You can access it at www.FreeConferenceCall.com

Hope you’ve enjoyed these ideas for you. I’ll periodically put together this
kind of information for you.

By the way, if you’ve got any cool tools you use, comment below.

Well, we’re over three weeks into the year…how’s it going for you so far?

For me personally, one of the things in 2009 that stood between me and my
achieving my goals last year was intermittent focus, or as Mike Murdock says,
“broken focus.”

It’s so easy to get distracted.  When you think about it, it’s hard to go
through a day without having someone email or call you with an idea or proposal
which, although it may be good, doesn’t fit into your plan.

Your plan?

You do have one (written), don’t you? (if not,it’s not too late, but don’t wait)

To maintain my focus in all the areas of my life where I’ve set goals, I use
a “black book” which has all the information I need to do just that. As I’ve
shared in the past, I take several days (no work, no phone, no email) at the
beginning of the year and critically review the past year and look forward to
the coming year.

Involves a lot of quiet thinking and writing.

And this year, something new for me is a “black book” which I’ve almost always
got with me.

In my “black book” I’ve got my dreams list, my affirmation statements, yearly
business plan (on 1 page), and (something new for me this year) my monthly
map. Don’t remember where I heard about it, but I put together a map of what
I’m going to accomplish in the current month.

Lots of visual stuff, but with my goal of reading through it first thing
every morning, it’s a tool that helps me. And, the map doesn’t lie. Every week
I’m scheduling my time from the monthly map. Because things always come up,
not every hour of every day is scheduled, but I’m finding that as “new
opportunities” or other things come up, I can look to the map to see if they
fit within my priorities for the month.

I’ll continue to talk about and share about this during the year, as much to
help myself as to maybe give you an idea that can help you achieve what you
want to achieve in 2010.

Here’s to a great rest of the year.

Although I’m not much of a cook, I do know that if I want to successfully
prepare something in the kitchen, I follow the recipe…exactly, with no
deviations.

All of us know that when we leave out an ingredient or change something
slightly we’ll get the predicted results, and those results are not what
we thought we’d get when we started.

So it is with success. And, since we’re at the start of 2010, here are 10
“must have” ingredients you’ll want to include for your successful 2010.

And by the way, I’m writing this for me as much as for you.

1. Attitude – It all starts here. Decide now, that no matter what happens,
you will maintain a great attitude this year. I’ve been told that this one
factor is the most important ingredient. Fact is that having a “bad attitude”
puts up barriers for us.

2. Change – Everyone knows that we are in a period of great change. But I’m
not talking external change here. I’m talking about the changes you have to
make, some more important than others, to achieve what you want to achieve
this year.

For me it started over the holidays with asking and answering some tough
questions about my business (and myself) in terms of why I didn’t achieve all
I wanted in 2009. Gives a good perspective on what things to change.

3. Believe – Can’t remember who wrote or said “If you think you can or can’t,
either way you’re right.” To me this is a natural law; it’s true 100% of the
time. When you achieve all you’ve set out for yourself this year, you won’t
be surprised, because you believed it all along.

4. Goals – What are yours? I took 4 days during the holidays thinking and then
writing out my business and personal goals for 2010. Some in great detail. That’s
the first step – if you haven’t done that yet it’s not too late. The second step
is then regularly reviewing (and even speaking) them.

5. Focus On The Money – Dan Kennedy sent a fax recently that stated it this way,
“It’s easy to forget you are in the money-getting business.” I’ve set a goal for
this year to focus at least 75 to 80% of my time on money-producing activities
and either delegating or eliminating non money-producing activities. No cash,
no business.

6. Focus On The Time – Somewhat related to #5, but the fact is we all have 168
hours a week…all of us. The better you can be at focusing on high worth
activities, the better your results will be. My friend Perry Marshall says that
all of us have expertise in $10/hour, $100/hr, and $1,000/hr activities…how
much time are you devoting to the $100/hr and $1,000/hr activities? (NOTE: See
#2 above).

7. Learn More – Make a commitment to know more at the end of this year than you
do now…and then apply your new knowledge. In most cases it will give you a
very sustainable competitive advantage.

8. Model Others’ Success – You can either invent ignorance or copy brilliance.
What already successful people do you know or know of from who you can learn?
No one is a self-made person, period.

9. Ask – Everytime I haven’t asked an important question it’s come back to bite
me. My experience has been that successful people are more than willing (within
limitations, of course) to share. But it starts with your asking.

10. Make Smart Decisions – It starts with deciding to implement these ingredients.
Another smart decision is to surround yourself with information and people that
are also committed to success. Althought the list could go on, a last item is
to commit to yourself that you’ll become a DWIT, a person that will “do whatever
it takes” to make it happen for yourself in 2010.

As a parting comment, I’d be interested in other “recipe ingredients” you have; just
comment below.

The question for you is: “Have you done what you need to do with your web site?”

As I noted before, you can check out the actual regulations at the FTC web site.

Here are several “plain English” considerations. Note I’m not an attorney and I’m
not giving legal advice here – I’m just sharing what we’ve done.

My friend, Jerry West, recently wrote about 5 areas which we’ve checked out and
implemented. We don’t want any $11,000 fines the FTC has written about.

1. Your Privacy Policy

You need to fully explain what you do with any information you gather from your
web site visitors. over and above visitor entered information (name, email, etc.)
I understand this also extends to data sharing practices, how you handle cookies, etc.

2. Your Terms of Use

You need to include this, period. Jerry also recommends including your full contact
information here (as well as in your Privacy Policy).

Feel free to review the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use on my web site. But just
don’t copy it verbatim – check it out with your attorney.

3. Deceptive Advertising

Just say no.

4. Hidden Continuity Programs

Be totally transparent if you have a “forced” continuity program. We’re advising
clients to discontinue this practice for more than just FTC reasons. Given the
fact that your ongoing programs have great content (they should), I don’t believe
you need to use forced continuty programs.

And when and if people unsubscribe, dont’ make it hard for them.

5. Testimonials

The old practice of using your best performance-based testimonials and saying,
“Results not typical” are dead and gone. Starting today, if you use performance
based testimonials you have to state what the “average” person does.

Most of us know that the average person does nothing.

The solution?

We recommend not using performance based testimonials but use statements from your
customers and clients that talk more about what it’s like to do business with you.

As I noted above, you need to get an opinion from your attorney, but this is the
practice we’re doing (actually have been doing for several years). The bottom line:
don’t take legal advice from me.

In my opinion, the FTC will be looking for “targets” for whom they can make
examples…don’t let it be you.

I’ve alluded recently to some of the “issues” I encountered (and in some
cases am still encountering) this year; I also know that you’ve got your
“issues.”  We all have them.

So what.

That’s called life.

But at the end of the day, I still have my health, a great relationship
with Colleen (going on 37 years plus), two outstanding daughters with
loving husbands and grandchildren to boot, a growing spiritual faith,
several different communities of people who accept me for who I am and
put up with my “stuff”, and so on.  That’s not to mention the opportunity
I (and you) have to grow my businesses.

I plan to write the list early Thanksgiving morning. I’d suggest you do
the same.

And along that line, here’s a moving video that David Frey recently put
together. Part of giving thanks is sometimes reaching out to others who
have even less (they believe) to be thankful for than we do. You see, one
of the other things I’m thankful for is the opportunity to serve others.

As it’s related to my businesses, that’s easy. But I’m talking about
taking part of my most valuable commodity, my time, and giving it away.

Think about it…do you have opportunities, like shown in the video, to
reach out?

Have a great Thanksgiving.

What?

You’re not using them?

I’ve not seen a business yet (in any market or niche marketing to any type of
customer – business or consumer) that shouldn’t be using them – remember that
people will believe what others say about you much more than they’ll believe what
you say about you.

Whether offline or online, testimonials and endorsements have long been proven
to help you in your marketing and selling efforts…as long as they’re done
right.

Second question: Are you aware of and in tune with the most recent FTC statements
about what you need to be doing with your testimonials and endorsements.

Let’s just say that the game has dramatically changed, and if you are operating
in violation of the guidelines that take effect December 1, 2009, you’re at risk.

One of my early clients was a young guy from Macon, GA named Frank Kern. He was
one of the early successful internet marketers, but he ran afoul of the FTC. You
can do your own searching online about his history, but let’s just say that they
basically took everything he had.

He’s risen like the Phoenix to now being recognized as, in my opinion, one of the
top online marketers in the world. He no longer lives in Macon (he likes the view
of the Pacific from LaJolla much better.  I do respect his knowledge. Here’s a
recent post from his blog giving his perspective on the new guidelines. You really
need to read this and pay attention.

Here’s another blog post that I found interesting.

And I highly recommend you look at the actual FTC Ruling to get its perspective.
Finally, here’s the actual FTC document.  I suggest you print this off and have your
attorney review it compared to how you’re using testimonials, both offline and online.

Why this subject this week?

While you need to have the right attitude and thoughts about moving your business
forward, you also need to execute with speed and do the right things. Operating
within the legal requirements focuses on the latter.

While many people will run and hide, those business people who understand the FTC’s
position and operate accordingly will, in my opinion, give themselves what might
be a significant competitive advantage.

Which will you do?

Our first project with Dave back in 2004 was to help him with the online
promotion of his No Injury book, which outlined ways parents and all
citizens can reduce the number of kid-related sports injuries (if you want
to check it out, go to www.noinjury.com). Dave has received national acclaim,
including an appearance on the “Oprah” show for his commitment in this area.

He’s taken a real interest in the health care debate over the last year,
and in his (what I consider) subdued approach, has espoused his opinion.
He’s received such publicity for this work that he was invited to be a
guest on the Glenn Beck TV show last week.

As I pointed out (I thought very clearly) in the email, whether one agrees
with Dave on his position or not, having a 5-plus minute segment on what
I understand is the most widely watched cable news network was quite an
accomplishment.

Rankled the feelings of some people on my list. Actually had a couple
people unsubscribe, which was fine with me. I’ve heard it said many times
that if you’re not upsetting someone by noon each day, you’re not doing
enough.

The bigger point is this, however. I used to be a very judgmental person.
If someone didn’t agree with me, I thought there was something wrong with
them.

I had my “rebirth” in this area 4 years ago to the point that today I
look for what I can learn from everyone, even if I don’t agree with their
position on this or that. I can now admit that back then if a particular
Hollywood actor or actress didn’t agree with me politically I wouldn’t see
their movies. Talk about closed minded…and missing out on seeing great
performance art.

Majoring on the Majors refers to focusing on the things that are truly
important…getting exposure on a national TV show, for example.

Too many people Focus On The Minors, those things that, at the end of the
day, really aren’t that important. That keeps all of us where we are, and
as I’ve shared in previous messages, if I think exactly the same way a year
from now as I do now, I’ll be doing exactly the same things I’m doing now.
And I’ll have exactly the same results.

Now that’s a minor league approach to life if there is one.

The question for you to consider this week is the title of this message. If
you have questions about where you are, take a leap of faith and ask those
closest to you.

You’re rolling along, things are going well,your business is
growing, and then “Wham!”  And you get so caught up in getting
things fixed, corrected, or whatever…and then 4 weeks or 8
weeks or more has passed by…

and you ask yourself, “How did that happen?”

Not to go into the details with you, but it happened to me
in early August, and the next thing I knew I hadn’t written
my weekly message for 8 weeks.

Here’s the point and lesson for me (and maybe you).

You have to be ever vigilant, always “on top of things” as
best you can.  And don’t assume…anything.

It hit me from 3 different directions, all at once.  Colleen
told me I even got a little down (but not for long).  There’s
only one way out, and that’s to keep moving forward and, and
it’s a biggie, do it with the right attitude.  I even put a
small mirror next to my computer so that I would remember to
smile.

Wasn’t easy, but now that I’m moving out of all of it, I’m
glad I did smile.  Looking back some of it even seems funny.

And what I also discovered was that, since I was in “active”
mode, 2 new business ideas came about.  One we’ve already begun
implementing, and our projections are totally upside.  I
might have let them pass me by if I’d not been totally aware.

An old “extra” Beatitude I once heard goes, “Blessed are the
flexible, for they shall never be bent out of shape.”  We’ve
definitely had to maintain flexibility.

What’s this mean to you?

Don’t assume.  We’ve all heard it, but it’s real.  Then, if and
when the _____ hits the fan, understand that “this too shall
pass.”  Money and things can be replaced, but maintain your
attitude of thanksgiving for what you do have…your health,
your relationships, and your spiritual foundation (assuming
that’s important to you.

Until next week