You may be wondering if your local yellow pages is going to keep bringing in new customers for you. Please listen up! Yellow pages are losing customers right and left,  and the experts claim that in less than 5 years they will no longer exist.

So what is a small business supposed to do now to advertise and market their business?

A simple answer would be: Your Website!

But most people know that just throwing up a website won’t attract any more business. Many businesses paid a lot of money for a pretty website, and were very disappointed that customers didn’t just start flocking to their front door.

There is an answer, and it includes your website or blog. But the competition is getting tougher all the time, and with the “new” local web marketing, you will either be one of the winners or you will end up closing your doors for good.

I don’t want to be an alarmist, but now is not the time to stick your head in the sand and “hope” everything turns out alright. Take action, and the first thing would be to find out what is available and what will be replacing the yellow pages.

I urge you to read a very interesting article about this very subject – “6 Business Killing Threats To Local Business.”

When you get to the site,  Local Web Science, go to the bottom of the page and click on “The Digital Virus – Part 1″. This will open your eyes to the threat to local business, but will also give you a very worthwhile insight into what we can do to help you be on the winning side.

Stay tuned for more insight into the plight of local business – and what you can do about it.

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• Small Businesses Are Drowning Among Lifeboats. (charlesheflin.com)

Image via Wikipedia

That’s Right! Video is here to stay – for a long while. And if you are not yet using video to promote your website or blog, shame on you. What is holding you back?

There are many ways to “do” video. Use a simple Flip camera on a tripod. Use Power Point slides and then make a video of them using Jing, a free screen-capture video software. Another way is to use a webcam. The one I use, a Microsoft Life Cam is a fantastic webcam, offering many nice options.

Here are some resources for you to get the juices flowing to start doing video. You can submit them to YouTube and then use a free Firefox plugin called PixelPipe to syndicate your video to about 15 other video sites.

» Video marketing case studies with David Meerman Scott and Greg …

Bobby at USA / CanadaVideo marketing case studies with David Meerman Scott and Greg Jarboepost your own offers for free – promote your site for free.

http://usca.bobby.at/tips/tips-online-marketing/video-marketing-case-studies-with-david-meerman-scott-and-greg-jarboe/

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video Marketing To Create Free Website Traffic | Search Engine …

You can use the free social networking and marketing tools on the Internet to increase web site traffic and take your business to the next level and double or triple the number of hits that you get on your website everyday. …

http://sem-platform.com/video-marketing-to-create-free-website-traffic-search-engine/

Viral Video Marketing Your Way To Success

Viral video marketing is a super way to build your online brand, visibility, among a host of other online business benefits. Take some lessons from the big guys about how to use video marketing the right way, it’s about more than just …

http://www.seodiscoveries.com/internet-marketing/viral-video-marketing-your-way-to-success.html

Here are some great tips about how to get more traffic to your blog or to your website. SEO or Search Engine Optimization takes on many forms.

There are on-site or internal SEO strategies, and there are off-site or external SEO strategies. We could write whole books on each one of these. You can start optimizing your blog or website with just a few minutes each day. Here are a few methods to get you going.

10 Must Use SEO Tips for WordPress | Job Hunter: Community and …

Sitemaps are a crucial element of any website’s SEO strategy and blogs are no exception. Creating a sitemap in WordPress is a painless process. Simply install the Google XML Sitemaps plugin, set it up and you’re ready to go. …

http://www.jobhuntpinoy.com/2010/05/10-must-use-seo-tips-for-wordpress.html

Link Building Solution For Your Website | SEO Complete Solution

When the search engine spiders basis your website, they chase the links to get from one webpage to another. It’s important to apperceive that search engines cannot chase ‘dynamic links’.

http://seocompletesolution.com/seo/link-building-solution-for-your-website/

SEO Holds Up to US Economy Recession | Search Engine Optimization …

Otherwise, what is the point of having a company website? SEO is an ongoing effort. It can contribute to your earnings, as long as you work hard, implement white hat practices, and always figure how you can improve. …

Publish Date: 05/15/2010 21:11

http://www.mediaverso.com/seo-holds-up-to-us-economy-recession.html

How about some Twitter SEO juice:

By eperception at 05/15/2010 15:40

Here’s some good SEO tips from YouTube:

5 SEO Website Tips – ECommerce Web Advice

www.gsinc.co.uk Gareth offers 5 website seo tips in this episode of ECommerce Rocks. Covers broken links, duplicate content, keyword stuffing and more. For more info visit www.gsinc.co.uk

Click here to view the embedded video.

One of the quickest ways to get your business listed on Google is to register or sign your business up to Googles new Local Business Center. You get to list what you do, your top main keywords, your products, your hours, your location, website, email, and telephone number. You can also upload a number of photos. This is all free and is a great way to let your customers know how to find you – online.

Search Engine Optimization Secret – Google Local Business Center …

Search Engine Optimization Secret – Google Local Business Center … Related posts: New Google Search Features Under “Show Options” – The Video; Let Google Promote Your Local Business for FREE; 5 Steps to Getting More Free Google Traffic …

Publish Date: 05/09/2010 5:23

http://localmarketingtoday.com/blog/search-engine-optimization-secret-%E2%80%93-google-local-business-center/

For the last 2 years I have been with a company called Social Media Science who is at the forefront of SEO (search engine optimization) and social media marketing. I don’t like using the word “marketing” along with “social media” because you don’t really “market” the same way with social media as you do with regular marketing.

8 months ago, Social Media Science realized that they could really help local businesses get an online presence that would incredibly increase their traffic and customers. Local Web Science was born. In 8 months so much has changed, even in Google’s Local Search. Local search is becoming huge. The experts are saying that next year, 2011, is going to be the BIG YEAR for local search.

What does this have to do with you? I wanted to alert you to a program that could help you tap into this huge market and end up making a good deal of money. There are 26 million businesses just in the USA who don’t even have a website. And those that have one are frustrated, because they paid good money for a pretty site that basically sits there and does nothing to help their business.

Mike Koenigs, the founder of Traffic Geyser, is coming out with a new program to help local businesses get online and kick butt on their competition. The Main Street Marketing Machine coaching program hits the streets tomorrow. It is a complete “turn-key” system with automatic blog building software, video templates, pre-made landing pages for each of about 40 niches. There is even a cell phone texting program that will allow your hair dresser customer send text messages automatically to her customers alerting them of their next hair appointment.

Or a restaurant owner customer of yours can automatically send out a “Thursday lunch special” via text message to all her customers. They will love you for setting all this up for them. There is SO MUCH in this program to help you be a success. And the businesses out there really need you.And guess what? Most of you reading this are already pretty ‘savvy’ when it comes to internet and blogs, video, articles and marketing online. If you have a working knowledge of these things, you will have no problems with this program.

This also will work anywhere in the world. In fact, it will probably work even better outside the USA because of less competition.

There are 5 videos for you to watch. But time is of the essence, because the launch for this product is April 26, Monday, at 12 Noon Pacific. Here is a link to the last video that shows you everything you get in this course. Main Street If you get a chance to watch the video of Mike the Fireman from Albuquerque NM – He made $5000 in his first job helping a painting company – It will blow your mind.

Check it out here:  Main Street Marketing Machine

What does this have to do with Local Web Science? We are thrilled that a course like this is coming out. Any way to help local struggling businesses is a big plus.

Having an online business, or developing your offline business online requires hours and hours of time at a computer. This can have some very negative productivity results if a clear focus is not strictly adhered to.

What I mean, is there are so many distractions online – checking your email, checking your Facebook profile or page, clicking on Skype to see your new messages. Then there are the forums you need to check, and your different messaging accounts – Window, Yahoo, MSN, not to mention the MSN home page or checking on the latest stock quotes or baseball scores.

It’s a wonder we get anything done at all.

Today, right after church, I jumped in our Camry with my wife and 12 yr old son and 16 yr old daughter. We headed for Grand Rapids, about 30 minutes away to see our other daughter play soccer. She is a great soccer player and is in her second year of college.

I grabbed a favorite book of mine so I could read during the halftime and other breaks. The book is “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. It is well worn and I have a lot of underlining and notes.

I was astounded by what I read. I haven’t looked at this book in about 4 months. But what’s interesting is even though I have read this chapter a number of times, it never jumped out at me like it did today. It was like I never read this before!

There’s no way I can share adequately the content of this book. I can share my excitement about what it means to me and you can possibly benefit.What jumped out at me to day is this:

The Power of Focus.

Albert Einstein said “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” I am coming to really believe that. What David Allen points out is the focus we hold in our minds affects what we perceive and how we perform. When you focus on something, your online business, your golf swing, or an article you need to write, that focus instantly creates thought patterns and ideas you wouldn’t have had otherwise. Even your whole body responds to that image in your head, as if it were reality.

Do you see how powerful this is? Something else happens in our brains when we create and focus on a clear picture of what we want. This is called the RAS or Reticular Activating System. This is our brain’s search function, so much more powerful than a computer’s. It is programmed by what we focus on, and more primarily, what we identify with.

For example if you have your focus and passion set on getting a red BMW M6, your head will turn at every red car – just to see if it is a BMW. There have been volumes of books and papers written about the RAS. But what is fantastic is that something automatic and extraordinary happens in your mind when you create and focus on a clear picture of what you want.

Here is what David Allen says in his book about this:

“There is a simple but profound principle that emerges from understanding the way your perceptive filters work: you won’t see how to do it until you see yourself doing it. One of the most powerful skills in the world of knowledge work, and one of the most important to hone and develop, is creating clear outcomes.”

I have heard it so many times from people like Bob Proctor, Jeffrey Combs, Jim Rohn and Anthony Robbins – about picturing vividly in your mind what your success will look like. But David Allen has a unique style that really brings it home for me.

So I encourage you to build those vision boards, collect photos of your dream home, car, vacation, charity, or whatever it is that you are building your business for. Spend quality time each day just “daydreaming” picturing EXACTLY “what” it is going to look like. Picture yourself driving that red M6. Feel the warm sand squishing up between your toes, as you walk on the beach in front of your 5,000 square foot home. Make your vision so real that you can literally “taste” it.

What are you doing to make your dream a reality in your mind?

Do I really need to change to be successful in network marketing? Yes. You probably need to change your thinking most of all. People resist change. It’s a fact. Most companies resist change. Companies expend enormous efforts to maintain the status quo. Why? Primarily because people run the place and people work there and people don’t like to change.

It’s funny to recognize the habit patterns we do every day. I drive the same route to the store, for example. In church I sit in the same general area – usually the same seat. The same people are in front of me. We don’t like change, because we are comfortable where we are.

This article is really about leaving our comfort zone. Until we embrace change and have the courage to step out of our comfortable surroundings, our MLM dream will remain elusive. For most of us, it is not until the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of change that change even becomes a consideration.

Some people are better at responding to a crisis than they are at seeking out opportunity and change. How do you invest your assets and your energy? What circumstances bring out the best in you? Are you “change avoiding” or “change seeking?”

Here are a few of my favorite ‘Change’ quotes:

• ”Things do not change; we change.” – Henry David Thoreau

• ”He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.” – Harold Wilson

• ”You can never change your life until you change something you do daily” – John Maxwell

• ”Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.” – Robert F. Kennedy

• ”We fear not this world of change.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

• ”It’s through curiosity and looking at opportunities in new ways that we’ve always mapped our path at Dell. There’s always an opportunity to make a difference.” – Michael Dell

• ”It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: It would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg.” – C.S. Lewis

• ”The pessimist sees difficulty in ever opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill

Start doing little things to change your set habit patterns. Drive a different route. Eat at a different restaurant. Get gas for your car at a different station. Sit in a different place in church. Brush your teeth with your left hand. Doing little things like this on a consistent basis will make it a lot easier for you to make the bigger changes.

How are you with “change?”

A few years ago, I was listening to a new CD set from Jeffrey Combs called The Money Masters I. This is 8 separate CDs just full of incredible information on having the correct money mindset.

One CD especially grabbed my heart, because it talked about MLM prospecting and it showed me a completely different mindset on approaching prospects. This CD is by Doug Firebaugh. I quickly searched for him on Google and was amazed of the great content that he has on his blog. I encourage you to get to know Doug Firebaugh. He will help your MLM business in a very special way.

So here is an article by Doug Firebaugh about prospecting, rejection, deception and winning. I encourage you to really study this article. It will give you the freedom to not worry at all about what people think of you. When you fully realize that it is not YOU that they are rejecting, you will become unstoppable! Here it is:

Rejection.

You gotta love it.

It is the only thing in Network marketing that will actually
build your Success Muscles in the MLM Business. But many folks
cannot handle it, nor want to go near it.

They just don’t understand it.

Not a problem. This article will teach you how to start
embracing the 2 MLM Secrets of MLM Rejection Proof Prospecting,
in MLM. It is easy. I embraced this truth for years, and it will
help you create a pattern of emotional management and
understanding that will help you succeed massively in the face
of seemingly endless negatives and NOs.

Embracing these 2 MLM Success Secrets of Rejection Free
Prospecting will alone help you move past the negatives in this
business. It truly helped me, and thousands of people in our
business. It is a radical paradigm shift concerning rejection,
but you need to make the shift, if you are going to succeed in
network marketing and mlm.

What are these 2 MLM Success Secrets of Rejection Proof
Prospecting?

• 1) People Never Reject You. They only reject themselves.

The truth is, they are only rejecting themselves from the
possibility of Success in their life. It is NOT about you, or
anything to do with you. It is simply them rejecting Success in
their life as they have been taught to do, with the MLM Success
Message you have.  Period.

Many people will NEVER see themselves as Successful, and because
of that, no matter what you do, say, or think, many folks will
reject themselves and stop that from ever happening in their
life. They are programmed and conditioned early in life to do
that.

They do that with a tiny little word: NO.

They simply do not want to experience the anticipated
disappointment of not succeeding, as they have felt so much
before in their life. It would only validate again what they
grew up hearing, and learning about their inevitable lack of
Success. And they many times deep down inside, do not want you
to succeed either, as they are afraid you would leave them
behind.

Brutal? Yes.

Sad? Yes.

The Truth? Absolutely.

When people start telling you “NO” in this mlm business,
understand that most of them are NOT telling YOU No, but they
are saying NO to themselves, to their potential Success they
could have had, and to the possibility of an Extraordinary
future. And it is NOT just about MLM or network marketing, but
about anything that offers some type of Entreprenurial Success.

The Word “NO” to them simply stands for “Not Open.”

They believe that their life has no other options except what
they are living, no matter how good your network marketing
business sounds, and thusly, they are Not Open to any other
possible life or future. They have closed the door to Success.

The Second MLM Success Secret of Rejection Proof Prospecting you
must understand is:

• 2)There is NO SUCH THING as REJECTION. There is only DECEPTION.

Many people today that you will be talking to about your MLM
Business, have been DECEIVED into believing that Success is for
others but not for them. Success is something that is not a
normal part of their makeup. Success, they believe, is only for
those lucky few. They again, were programmed to believe this,
and what they were taught was taught by people who learned to
expect the same out of life. It is a generational conditioning.

They will listen to your presentation, and many times appear
they are ‘with you.” But they are just going through the
motions. They did not get the message you communicated, nor the
info. They were listening, but did not HEAR. Their “Lack
conditioning” or programming was dominating the moment.

Many folks are deceived into believing that they are powerless
to do anything else, except live a “normal life,” and accept
what life gives them, and not reach for anything more in life.

It is a three step formula they learn:

1) Instruction – 2) Deception – 3) Acceptance.

They are instructed at an early age that Massive Success is for
others, not them, and then end up being deceived from the truth
of what could be in their life. And then they end up accepting
it as their lot in life, and the only life they could ever live.

Then, when you show up, with all your dreams, hopes, desires,
and excitement about your MLM business, and they end up telling
you NO, they in reality, are telling themselves NO. And once
again, walk away from a very possible, could be Successful life.
And this is not the first time they have ever done this, nor
will it be the last.

INFERNO Secret:

It had nothing to do with you, but EVERYTHING to do with them
and how they see life, and themselves living it.

And as a network marketer, you need to pour into their life, and
encourage them. A true MLM professional will always encourage
people who live in the Land of Lack and dwell in the lower State
of Mediocrity.

It really does not matter that they have told you NO. They still
can become a customer.

We always taught our folks to give a lot of the prospects who
tell them NO, a copy of the little book “As a Man Thinketh,” by
James Allen. It really opened up a lot of their eyes and it is a
great gift that can bring you referrals in the future. And there
are also free copies of it you can download on the internet as
well. It will help your negative prospects, and set you above
the crowd.

REMEMBER- Prospects never reject you, only themselves.

And they do that because of one of life’s greatest deceptions,
the deception of Success is for others, but not them. And we all
can struggle with that if we are not careful.

Embrace these 2 MLM Success Secrets of Rejection Proof
Prospecting, and watch your Success enlarge dramatically in
Network Marketing and MLM Recruiting.

blessings…doug (c) 2005/

PassionFire Intl

http://www.passionfire.com

Check out the Network Marketing Training Institute

So many people in Network Marketing are really troubled over what to say to their friends and prospects. They have already stumbled over their words a number of times, and they came across something like this: “Would you please, kindly, please. I mean. I’ve got this new juice drink I know you’re gonna love. It’s a business too, but… well, uh,  you probably aren’t interested in that.”

After a number of rejections, they start wondering if there is a better way to approach people. I covered a different angle of this in “Your Approach To Your Business” in another post. But wouldn’t you know, a number of people have come out with “Script Books” and other aids to help people with this problem.

I have two script books. One by Tim Sales – “Professional Inviting Scripts”  and another one by Todd Falcone “Todd Falcone’s Little Black Book – The Ultimate Go-To Guide.” They are both different and both of them have great tips, scripts and tricks to feel more confident in how you approach your prospects.

Recently Eric Worre  released his new “The Hottest Recruiting Scripts in MLM” and if you are a follower of his blog, you know he is really an expert at what he teaches. So this product is going to help a lot of people. Here is a little taste of what you can get – for FREE!

“People need what we offer in Network Marketing but have been trained to resist opportunity in just about every form. Our job is to professionally help them get past that resistance and to at least help them understand what it is we do.

I’m going to teach you a proven, eight step process for talking to your prospects. That might seem like a lot, but as you will see, I’m going to walk through each of the steps and provide you with the hottest scripts along with way. When we’re finished, you’ll see how easy it is to put this process to work by filling out a customized invitation worksheet for each of your prospects and then following the step-by-step process.

A few things before we get started…
Please note that this program is going to be focused on getting a person to review some sort of 3rd party materials to better understand your opportunity, and by 3rd party materials I mean a DVD, CD, Magazine, Website, etc. It’s not specifically designed to invite to live events. That is a slightly different process. For now, if you focus on getting people to review your opportunity with a 3rd party tool, you’ll find that getting people to attend an event of any kind is much easier and a natural next step.

What I’m going to teach you in this program is designed to be done over the phone or face to face. It’s NOT to be used with texting, email or any other sort of communication tool. On the phone or face to face. That’s how this works. This can work with warm market prospect (people you know) and cold market prospects (people you meet while living your life). You’ll see examples for both throughout the program. For warm market, you can use the worksheet at the end. For cold market, you’re just going to have to practice.

Let’s start by going through the eight steps, then we’ll put them together at the end and show you how it all works.

• Step 1: Be in a Hurry……………………………………………………… Page 4

• Step 2: Compliment the Prospect……………………………………..Page 5

• Step 3: Make the Invitation………………………………………………Page 7

• Step 4: If I____, Would You____?…………………………………… Page 12

• Step 5: Get a Time Commitment……………………………………… Page 13

• Step 6: Confirm………………………………………………………………Page 14

• Step 7: Get a Time and Number……………………………………….Page 15

• Step 8: Get off the Phone……………………………………………….. Page 15

Be sure and get your own copy of this PDF and watch the video too. Eric has an MP3 audio to help teach it too.

You will need to subscribe to his list, but is is well worth it. Even if you already are on his list, he is migrating over to a new platform or blog. Once you subscribe you will get access to the PDF and MP3.  Here is where to go: networkmarketingpro.com/subscribe/

If you were promised $1,000,000, without a shadow of a doubt, that it would be all yours – if you picked up the phone and called 10,000 people in the next year, and told them about a business opportunity – would you do it?

This is equal to calling 28 people per day, every single day, for one year. I think that there are a number of people who would jump at this chance. They would definitely be tested, because calling 28 people is easy to do — But calling another 28 people is easy not to do.

What is interesting to me, and I have no proof, but the business that you would generate after just 6 months of calling 28 people day in and day out – would probably be more than $1 Million dollars. Here’s why:

You would start getting good at talking to people. Your “closing” average would keep rising, as your confidence grew stronger. You would get more and more excited as you saw bigger and bigger results from your efforts. After a while, you might even want to call 50 people per day – or 100!

Network marketing, like any type of sales, is simply a numbers game. The more people you eventually impact with your message and showing you care for them, the more money you will start making. It is really as simple as that.

So why do so many people fail at network marketing? I think part of it is due to the fact that people refuse to leave their comfort zone. If they do leave it temporarily, and they get criticized or suffer rejection, they scurry back to safety in their mediocrity laden comfort zone.

But I think a bigger reason why 95% of people fail, they don’t have a clear-cut plan laid out for them as to how many people they need to contact, or some other clearly defined avenue that they can drive down without getting lost.

There are so many ways to make this a “numbers” game.  Maybe this will make it easier to understand. Here aresome examples:

• Create a blog about Network Marketing and do a new blog post every day. Your new post needs to be relevant and hopefully educational, entertaining or enlightening.
• Build lead generating landing pages with good email Aweber autoresponder follow-up.  Use split testing to optimize your landing page and split test how you are driving traffic to your Landing Page.
• Forum marketing – helping out with great informative posts, and having your signature file point to your landing page URL or your blog.
• Facebook advertising – many different ways to do this. But your end result is getting people inside your “sales funnel”.
• PPC – Pay Per Click Google, Bing, and Yahoo advertising. I wouldn’t attempt this without a very clear understanding of Perry Marshall”s Definitive Guide to Google Adwords.  He teaches Split-Testing as a science.  I have this e-book of his, and he is by far the BEST there is in teaching PPC.
• Video Marketing – shooting a Flip Video each day or doing a Screen Capture video of a “how to” strategy.  You will need to add your video to some written source, like a blog post, or a Squidoo lens. Be sure and submit your video to more than just You-Tube. You can use a free service like PixlePipe to submit your video to about 15 different sites. If you want a full blown video submitter, you might want to check out Traffic Geyser.
• Article Marketing – writing a good compelling article each day and submitting it to the various article directories – especially Ezine Articles.com. If you want to know how to submit your article to 150 article directories at once,  I use Automatic Article Submitter. It does a great job.
• The traditional method of calling people – usually after you run out of your warm market, you end up buying lead lists.

The whole end goal of all of these different “numbers game” methods is to lead all of these prospect into your sales funnel.  The very best sales funnel I know of is My Lead System Pro. This  whole system is already in place with incredible resources and training.  You can learn every single one of these “numbers game” methods and a few more, inside My Lead System Pro.

Getting back to the opening scenario – $1 Million for 10,000 calls – take this same logic and apply it to the methods indicated above. In other words you may not know how many blog posts you need to do to earn a lot of money – but if you did at least one new post every day – I think after a year your blog would be really ROCKING! A new video every day for a year? Wow! A new article every day for a year? I think you get the picture. A year goes by pretty quick.

Just imagine what your network marketing business would be like if you just picked ONE of the methods listed above, and did it faithfully every day for the next year. Is this easy to do every day? Not necessarily. Is this easy not to do? Most definitely. This will take commitment and persistence. But what will the pay-off be like? WOW! You won’t know unless you try.

Are you up for the challenge?