While the dot-com boom has pretty well subsided, savvy businessmen and women are still making a pretty penny using the internet.  The key to making money is to know what you’re doing and how to market yourself.  One great way to make money is through e-products. Here are five tips on how to achieve it:

1.  Go with what you know - There are certain products online that are going to sell better than others.  You can probably figure out what these are just by looking at the number of available products.  The problem is if you go with a popular topic, you’re going to have to compete with a lot of other products, so you’ll need something to stand out. 

That’s why it's good to at least start with something you know.  An e-book about dogs is going to sell better if it’s written by someone who has been breeding dogs for ten years rather than being written by some guy who thought he could make a lot of money researching and writing about dogs. 

2.  Big technology, little prices - There are all kinds of programs out there to help you make quality products easily and effectively.  Contrary to popular belief, they don’t have to cost you an arm and a leg.  They just require you to do a little research and know what you’re looking for ahead of time. 

For instance, do you want to make instructional videos?  You can now get quality digital video and lighting equipment online.  How about instead of describing how to do something on the computer, just buy a program to record everything on your computer screen as you do it?  This is also a great option for the camera shy.

You can also buy affordable software to record audio conversations through your computer.  This means you can do an interview or conference call and have it practically ready to sell right away.

If you do some product searching and mix in a little creativity, there’s no telling what you can do.

3.  Start small - If you try to create a stellar product right away, you’ll probably fail miserably.  Start on a scale you can handle.  Once you start the money coming in, you can use it to upgrade your equipment while you also improve your skills.

4.  Marketing, Marketing, Marketing - Making a good product is a great way to bring in money.  But if creating that product is all you do, there’s a 99% chance you will make precisely $0 (minus any production costs, of course).  The key to making money is marketing your product.  You can do this by paying someone to do it, or by learning to do it yourself.  Paying an experienced person is going to get you a better start in the beginning, but depending on how much time you can devote, learning to do it yourself may be a better investment in the long run. 

5.  Be creative - When people are purchasing e-products, there are generally tens, if not hundreds or options for them to choose from.  In order to stand out, you have to do something different, something special.  Often, you just need to be a little silly.  When creating your product, take some time to think about what you can do to make it really pop.  It might take a while, but it will be well worth your effort.   

The simple task off adding quality content to a site can mean the difference between generating more sales or driving away prospective customers. Creating something unique and creative enough to grab the attention of the reader is the key to a successful business.

There are a few simple ways you can increase your sales with content. The following are a few examples of ways to bring in the customers and keep them coming back for more.

List Capture – The easiest way to build a list of potential customers if to offer something on your website for free. It could be as simple as a free report detailing more information about your product or a free copy of an eBook you have written.

Enticing the customer to want to sign up for something will allow you to retain a list of customers to use to further in your marketing efforts.

Promotion – Promoting your product throughout the content of your website is the best way to get a customer interested.

Place a graphic of your product and make it clickable so when a customer clicks on the image they will be taken to a sales page about the product.

Once the customer is there, give them the option to either buy the product or receive more information about the product. This again, allows you to develop a list of potential customers who you can then market to.

Keywords – Perhaps the best way to drive traffic to your site and gain customers is by writing content rich content with keywords for greater search engine optimization (SEO). Providing these keywords will help your website reach the top of the search engines and bring more customers to your site.

Knowing which keywords to use requires some research on your part.  There are many sites on the web, which will allow you to plug in a word and display how many people search for it on the web.

Use these tools to plug in some of the keywords from your content and then properly place them throughout your content. The words need to be placed organically so the content remains in a natural, flowing manner and not forced.

Implementing one or all of these strategies will help get sales coming in and keep them coming in the future.

Want to put content marketing to work in YOUR business?    http://tinyurl.com/mavdax

Tomorrow, June 5th at 12 pm, the Midwest Business Academy is offering a free teleclass with Tom Marquardt, “The Profit Repairman®.” In "Unconventional Marketing Strategies for Small Business Owners", you'll learn:

• How to market less (and sell more) by targeting your demographics and differentiating your products and services

• When should you jump on the band wagon to coordinate marketing campaigns with trends and when you shouldn’t

• Creative, practical ways to prospect and generate new revenue which will leave your competition scratching their heads in amazement

• What is the #1 source of business you have at your fingertips to make your revenue soar

• Proven techniques to boost revenue with results you can take to the bank, but where most business owners drop the ball

If you're not already registered, click here! 

Small business owners are struggling now more than ever to grow revenue. Cash flow is limited and return on investment (ROI) dictates where this money is spent. You need to question where to invest marketing dollars…how to measure performance…and what to expect from ROI. Your marketing budget must be invested wisely or you will suffocate your business-- your pipeline will dry-up and your existing client base will disappear.

Tom Marquardt, “The Profit Repairman®,” understands the struggles small business owners have in determining where to invest marketing dollars to get the biggest bang for the buck. With over 20 years experience as a successful small business owner and consultant, Tom shares his knowledge and experiences with you as he teaches how to reach your ultimate goal…Profit!

On Friday, June 5th, at 12 pm, the Midewest Business Academy will feature Tom in "Unconventional Marketing Strategies for Small Business Owners. You will discover:

How to market less (and sell more) by targeting your demographics and differentiating your products and services

When should you jump on the band wagon to coordinate marketing campaigns with trends and when you shouldn’t

Creative, practical ways to prospect and generate new revenue which will leave your competition scratching their heads in amazement

What is the #1 source of business you have at your fingertips to make your revenue soar

Proven techniques to boost revenue with results you can take to the bank, but where most business owners drop the ball

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About the Speaker:

Tom Marquardt, The Profit Repairman® is a Dynamic Speaker, Results Driven Motivator, Educator, Successful Business Owner for over 13 years, Expert Business Analyst and Consultant, Published Author and Columnist, Radio Talk Show Host, a Radical Sales and Marketing Professional and a graduate of Indiana University. Tom’s latest book for increasing success rates is titled MY little BLACK BOOK TO SUCCESS and he is known as “The Profit Repairman®.”

You can learn more about Tom at his website: 
http://www.theprofitrepairman.com 

Content marketing is the best way to get information to your clients or customers. This is also the perfect way to gain the trust of your customers and increase your sales. The problem is choosing the most effective type of content and presenting it in an attention getting manner. Here are some tips on choosing the most effective content for your content marketing.

1. Point out the competition’s mistakes. People, in general, want to avoid painful experiences as much as possible. Pointing out all the ways your competitors fail to make life easier for your potential customers works to your advantage. Top ten lists on this kind of thing such as “10 most common mistakes” or “10 things you don’t want to do” are especially effective in driving people to you, rather than your competitor. I’m not saying you should specify or point fingers at specific competitors here. That’s not professional. Instead, use general statements and point out what makes your company better than others.

2. Give out industry “secrets.” They are not really secrets but if you let people think they are then their trust in you grows. Create content with bulleted lists showing how to do things faster and easier or how to make something work better. People love lists about things because lists are easy to filter through and pick out those points that pertain to them specifically. They also help people retain the information.

3. Organize it for them. One of the biggest hurdles for some people is the organization of certain things. Do the work for them by giving them plans and ways to organize things to make their life simpler. If you can make something straightforward and easy for someone, they will appreciate it and repay you with their business.

4. Answer common questions. When you're discussing a common problem or situation, people tend to have the same questions. By providing the answers before someone even asks the questions, you make them feel more comfortable. It gives them the impression your company truly cares about them and their needs because you’ve taken the time to learn what they want or need.

5. Latest trends reports. This is a way to help your clients and customers keep up to date with the latest information from your company. This type of content lists the newest information or technologies and explains them in an easy to understand fashion.

Effective content marketing is all about continually giving the client or customer whatever information they deem useful. It demonstrates to prospects your company is paying attention to the needs of their clients and responding in an resourceful and expeditious manner. If the frequency and/or quality of information begins to slow down, your client base will begin to find another source of information, taking their sales dollars with them.

Making use of a freelance writing service is a good way to fulfill the needs of consistent and effective content writing. By using writers to help create your content, you can easily continue to provide fresh, new content. Once you have the articles, reports and other documents, offer them to your customers freely through email or a blog. Not only will your customers thank you in replies and comments but, more importantly, with their continued loyalty.

The best content in the world won’t do any good unless there are people who are reading it. Marketing the content written for a website is one of the most important aspects in creating a site of value.

Knowing which form of marketing your content isn’t as tricky as it may seem. The Internet offers tons of effective marketing strategies and most are easily accomplished. The following are 10 ways in which you can market your content and start building your customer database in the process.

1. Create a Blog – A blog allows a marketer to constantly add new information targeted to a particular audience. Many potential customers will use a blog to get a better idea of the company they are dealing with. They also find out what you have to offer, such as product reviews, articles, reports and more.

2. Write an eBook – An eBook about your product or service can be written and distributed to current and potential customers. A fee could be charged, it could be offered as a free gift with a subscription to the site, or as a free gift to get people to your website, also known as viral content. 

3. Create a Forum – Create an online forum where your customers can discuss the topic of your products or services.

4. Write a Newsletter - Create an newsletter detailing the latest happenings within your company and distribute it weekly or monthly.

5. Start a Podcast – Talk about your product or service and record it as a podcast. Require your customers to subscribe to the podcasts in order to capture possible leads or simply use it as a way to generate buzz about your products.

6. Put a Video on YouTube – Create a short but informative video about your website and post it on YouTube. Creating a link in your user information will allow people to go directly to your site after they have watched the video. 

7. Set Up an RSS Feed – If you update your content on a regular basis, offer an RSS feed option on your site so customers can be alerted when you post new information.

8. Utilize Social Media – Social networking is on the rise and is one of the best ways to market your product to the masses - for free. Popular sites include Twitter, Stumble Upon and Facebook.

9. Webinar – Hold a live webinar on a topic that relates to your business. Charge a fee for customers to attend. Offer the webinar for a nominal fee of $1 to generate interest and build your client base.

10. Teleseminars – Record a sales presentation as a teleseminar and charge a fee for listeners to gain access. Yet another great way to capture lead information.

What are your most productive content marketing techniques? What doesn't work for you? I'm always interested in what my readers think! Leave a comment and let me know!

Producing web copy for a site is something, which if done correctly, takes some time to create. Many copywriters know the value of well-written copy and are constantly changing the copy on their websites to keep up with the demand of their targeted audience. The question is, how often should you produce new content?

It all depends on the type of content you are talking about and how well it is or isn’t performing for you. Let’s take a closer look. 

Sales Copy Content

There are a few factors in determining how often you should change or produce new content. If you follow your rankings on any of the popular search engines and you see your rank drop, then you may want to freshen up your content to help move you back up the ranks. Creating keyword rich articles that can be distributed throughout cyberspace will help to increase your rankings and put you back in the spotlight.

If your site offers something for sale, it is wise to change the content up when you have a new offering such as a free or discounted offer. There is no need to completely re-do your entire website as this may confuse dedicated visitors when they come to the site in search of something they had found there before.

Obviously, if your site is doing well in attracting new visitors and subscribers, you probably won’t need to change your copy. However, it wouldn’t hurt to tweak it here and there to keep it fresh and on the search engines radar.

Tweaking the sales copy on your site and performing maintenance is suggested. However, if you’re one of the lucky ones whose copywriting produces quality leads and your sales are through the roof, then leave it and think of the old adage “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.” 

Blogs or Informational Site Content

If your content is in blog form, it is imperative to your readers to have fresh content an either a daily basis or every other day. A blog is something where readers want and wait for new content to be published. You need to keep this content as current as you can so in order to keep and increase your readership. 

As for informational sites and article marketing techniques, the more information you can give visitors and potential customers, the better. Search engines love fresh content and so does your audience. Keep the quality content they’ve come to know and love coming and they’ll keep coming back again and again.

Be sure you are registered for today's free teleclass, "Unlocking the Secrets of LinkedIn" with Raymond Chip Lambert! The class begins at 3 pm today, May 22nd.

If you still need to sign up, click here now!

Once you have decided to populate your website with great information through content marketing, you need to make sure people can find the information. The best way to do this is through Search Engine Optimization. Also known as SEO, this is a way to properly optimize your website for search engines which can bring more hits to your website via your content.

SEO is mainly accomplished using keywords throughout your articles and website. Keywords are specific words picked up by search engines when people are looking for a certain term and the more you use them, the more likely you will be placed near the top of search engine results. There are ways to see how effective your keywords are through specific tools available online.

The first of these is a Google keyword analysis. You can run this program on any site you have. This tool will scan you website’s content and list all of the specific keywords contained on the site. It will appear with a rating showing how competitive the particular search is at the current time. This tool is designed to help you discover what keywords on your site are the most commonly searched to find the type of services you offer.

Another tool is called Wordtracker, and it does a little more in depth searching than the Google tool; however, it’s not free. This software works through inputting either your entire site or the individual keywords you want to use. It will then scour the net and deliver the most commonly used variations of your keywords so you know what words to add to your site to increase traffic.

Using keywords based on your website's content is the key to having SEO be truly effective in bringing more people to you. Using keywords just because they are popular, but are not related to your content won't bring you any traffic interested in your services or products. You can also add keywords in several ways, other than simply adding them to your content. One of the best uses of keywords is within the titles and subtitles of your pages, as well as the meta-tags of your site.

One trick is called keyword bubbles. They are a collection of your keywords, all of them, in one spot. These bubbles can be placed on every page of your content. This opens up the site to more potential search hits, which will list your site higher up on the search results pages. While bubble keywords are visually appealing and will help with your search engine rankings, the most effective way to use keywords is by including them in relevant content on your page. Bubbles of keywords that don't relate to useful content won't keep you in the higher search engine rankings for long.

SEO is important for bringing people to your content because, without traffic, your content does you no good at all. It may take a little time and effort to get the keywords in place, but once you do, the traffic to your content will increase.

LinkedIn can be an extraordinarily powerful part of your overall sales and marketing strategy, but you have to know how to use it.  As a business networking site, it's the optimal place to distribute your content marketing material if you want to target business professionals. There are literally millions of professionals are on LinkedIn.

Learn how to use this powerful resource to get EXACTLY the kinds of clients you desire.

Join the Midwest Business Academy on Friday, May 22 at 3:00 pm for a free teleclass, "Unlocking the Secrets of LinkedIn" by Raymond Chip Lambert. Register here!

In this session you will:

Learn what LinkedIn is and why it can work to your advantage in developing strong referral relationships.

Uncover the networks you already have and powerfully tap into them for anything you need.

Identify where to get started and the dangerous mistakes you may be making if you are already on LinkedIn.

Learn the secrets that the top users employ to leverage the system to make more money.

Understand how to position yourself in your networks so that people are magnetically attracted to you.
Join us as we unlock the secrets of LinkedIn.

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About the Speaker:

Raymond Chip Lambert, CEO, Network 2 Networth

Raymond Chip Lambert is a Business Development expert who works exclusively with seasoned professionals to leverage their existing relationships and catapult them into the business they truly want.  Through his programs, Chip guides professionals to translate complex business development concepts into actions that grow their businesses exponentially.
  
Chip is recognized for immediately establishing rapport with audiences which not only deepens the learning experience for participants in his programs, but also has been a critical function of his success.

A professional speaker, trainer and business coach since 2000, Chip regularly consults professional firms on melding time tested Business Development strategies with online Social Media strategy and unlocking the value of their existing network connections.  Over 10,000 people have been touched by his regularly scheduled webinars and live training events and programs.

The simple task of adding quality content to a site can mean the difference between generating more sales or driving away prospective customers. Creating something unique and creative enough to grab the attention of the reader is the key to a successful business.

There are a few simple ways you can increase your sales with content. The following are a few examples designed to bring in the customers and keep them coming back for more.

List Capture – The easiest way to build a list of potential customers if to offer something on your website for free. It could be as simple as a free report detailing more information about your product or a free copy of an eBook you have written. Enticing the customer to want to sign up for something will allow you to retain a list of customers to use to further in your marketing efforts.

Promotion – Promoting your product throughout the content of your website is the best way to get a customer interested. Place a graphic of your product and make it clickable so when a customer clicks on the image they will be taken to a sales page about the product. Once the customer is there, give them the option to either buy the product or receive more information about the product. This again, allows you to develop a list of potential customers who you can then market to.

Keywords – Perhaps the best way to drive traffic to your site and gain customers is by writing content rich content with keywords for greater search engine optimization (SEO). Providing these keywords will help your website reach the top of the search engines and bring more customers to your site. Knowing which keywords to use requires some research on your part.

There are many sites on the web which allow you to plug in a word and display how many people search for it on the web. Use these tools to plug in some of the keywords from your content and then properly place them throughout your content. It needs to be placed organically so the content remains in a natural, flowing manner and not forced. I'll take more about SEO for your content marketing in my next post. Check back later this week!

In the meantime, tell me how you have found success with these content marketing strategies. I'd love to know what works for you and to share new dieas with my readers!

If you're a small business owner, you'll enjoy adding this audio to your library.  It's a teleclass that I did a while back. 

"How to Make Your Competition Irrelevant" - http://tinyurl.com/ogpkf4

Don't forget! Tonight is another great education session sponsored by Midwest Business Academy.  Registration is quick and easy.

We hope that you'll be able to join us for "Red Hot Internet Publicity 2.0" with Penny Sansevieri! It all starts tonight, May 18th, at 6 pm!

Register here:
http://midwestbusinessacademy.camp7.org/ViewEvent.ashx?eventId=59055

With content marketing, your goal is to increase sales by creating and delivering high-quality information to potential customers as well as current ones. Content marketing goes hand in hand with another type of marketing called network marketing (or social networking) because more people can be reached by using both together.

With the use of network marketing, you can reach out to more people and create more leads. This can also generate more sales over time. By combining the two types of marketing, you reach more people and create more interest in your products or services thus increasing sales.

You can generate ongoing leads using both content and network marketing. You can create your content in almost any form imaginable, using articles, videos, audio, e-books and teleseminars. All of these forms of content can be spread across a massive social networking base using websites such as MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Here are some important things to remember when beginning this form of marketing:

• Set yourself up as an expert in your industry. When people feel more comfortable coming to you for information they are more likely to listen to your suggestions. They will see you as someone who is giving them loads of useful information and content they can use to solve problems, save time and make money. Over time, they will begin to follow you and want to know more about you and your business, which will lead into sales down the line.

• Your prospects or customer base will begin to share what you have taught them. This is called viral marketing. The basic premise involves people becoming so impressed with the information you have shared with them, they then share it with other people. This process goes on repeatedly. In fact, through the Internet, it can go on for years. This is, without a doubt, the best part of content marketing since the information is being shared with no further interaction from you.

• It is very important the content you are sharing is valuable and informative. If you are providing people with useless information, no positioning in the world will matter because they won’t feel as if they are being helped in any way.

• Generating leads with content marketing is not hard to do. The process just takes a little practice to find the right places to place your content for your target market and the right type of information to share. Once you have some ideas and information, get involved on social networking sites. Join like-minded groups and start contributing tips and tidbits to the group. Don’t go in for the immediate sale or use spam as a selling tactic or this will immediately turn people off.

• Start slowly and offer short nuggets of highly informative content and then offer a link to read more. Once people go to your collection of articles, video or audio collections you can really let loose and bring them to you and your products.

The Midwest Business Academy has a fantastic opportunity for you coming up on Mondy, May 18th at 6:00 pm Central time. We will be continuing our conversation with Penny Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc.

During this 60-minute teleclass is Penny will be covering social networking. If you think you have your Internet marketing covered with just a web site, you might be missing out on a bucket of Internet gold. This class is packed with information with everything from understanding social media to monetizing sites like Facebook, Squidoo, and Twitter.

We’ll also talk about what you should never do on your web site and why a blog is a must-have part of any Internet campaign. We’ll also look at some of the hottest online trends too!

• The secret to getting thousands of hits on your web site and then converting them into sales!
• Top internet promotion techniques that won’t cost you a dime!
• The Virtual Author Tour™, how you can “tour” yourself on the net
• How to use site like Facebook and Squidoo to build your customer base
• What is Twitter? We’ll talk about Twitter and how to use it to drive more sales to your web site
• How to create a web site that sells your book
• Simple steps to blogging effectively!

BONUS: We’ll even include some time-saving hints to maximize your online efforts without spending HOURS online!

Penny's company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. Her company researched, developed and implemented the first comprehensive Internet publicity campaign called The Virtual Author Tour™.

Penny began her career in the publicity, book marketing, and literary field over 15 years ago. During that time she has been an author, freelance writer, publicist, and instructor. She has been instrumental in creating several highly successful marketing and publicity campaigns for author events and book launches. Penny is also President and CEO of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. and has developed and implemented countless marketing and publicity strategies.

She has worked with such high profile clients as world renowned psychic and ghost buster, Jane Doherty, Barney Rosenzweig creator of Cagney & Lacey, Fred and Kim Goldman, owners of If I Did It, Jac Flanders (of the original Fantastic Four) and Tammi Menendez, wife of Erik Menendez and the first eBay auction of a Princess Diana gown (lot “9” from Christie’s New York). Her firm has worked with numerous bestsellers including: Happy for No Reason, The Go-Giver, The Laws of Thinking and such high-profile books as: Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul. Her clients have been featured on The View, CBS The Early Show, The Today Show, Entertainment Tonight, CNN, CNN Showbiz Tonight, National Public Radio, Something You Should Know, The Heloise Show and in Publishers Weekly, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Reader’s Digest, Essence Magazine, More Magazine, The Bridal Guide, Entertainment Weekly, MSNBC… and many others.

Penny's diverse background enables her to bring a multitude of talents to the table as well as a myriad of marketing techniques.

Once again, this event is Monday, May 18th at 6:00 pm Central time. Register at Date: 18 May 2009,
http://midwestbusinessacademy.camp7.org/ViewEvent.ashx?eventId=59055.

Can't wait to have you on the call!

I've already talked about the concept of giving your content away for free to help build interest and excitement about the products and services you have to sell. But, you may be wondering how to tell people about your free offer. There are a number of ways to get this accomplished for a price but there are also ways to get your content distributed free. Here are five ways to distribute your content that won’t cost you anything at all.

1. Social Networking - Social networking is the hottest promotional tool available online at this time. There are a lot of sites such as Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Digg and others who have opened up a world of marketing for online businesses. Through these tools you can establish trust, expertise and gain a sold following of people who want to know what you think and can do for them.

2. Article Directories – These sites are comprised of article listings written by just about anyone and on any subject. The articles are placed specifically for use on these types of sites. They rank well on search engines because they rely heavily on SEO and also provide links back to your website. This is another great and free way to show your expertise and knowledge in your chosen field thus bringing more people to you and your site.

3. Blogging - Blogging is probably one of the most useful ways to bring someone to your information and website, specifically, guest blogging on other websites. Doing this can increase your exposure to an increasing number of people as you are able to link your information in your blog posts. The owner of the blog can also promote your site by placing links to your site around their blog. You can also offer to swap posts with other blogs and increase your traffic by bringing their followers to your site.

4. Give it Away on Your Website - One of the easiest ways to distribute your content is to offer it as a free bonus on your website. Everyone loves getting something for nothing, so package your content as a PDF or even an audio download and let your site visitors download it for nothing. Don't even ask for an email address in exchange. Instead, just give it as a gift and you'll generate good will.

5. Using Local Listing Services - This tactic is especially useful if you have an offline business with an online presence. Google and other search engines have local area listings, so when someone does a local search they will find your website. This increases your chances of being closer to the top of the first page in search engine results. This is a great way to increase your online visibility with absolutely no cost to you. When local customers find your website, they will be even more likely to look to you for their information needs, which will in turn lead to more sales.

The biggest tip is to never stop the process of using new content to promote your business. There are always new ways to get your name out there, but providing free content that solves a problem for your customer will never go out of style.

Have you downloaded your free mini-report from me yet? Be sure to go to http://www.crazysimplemarketing.biz/ to get your copy of Content Marketing Explained: Why Your Business Needs Content! 

Social networking is the perfect way to distribute your free marketing content, but the whole concept can be quite intimidating. My Midwest Business Academy partner Jennifer Tobias and I want to help you sort it all out!

Join us for a free teleclass, "Red Hot Internet Basics" presented by Penny Sansevieri. This 60-minute teleclass is Part 1 of a 2 part series, in which Penny will be covering social networking.

If the idea of blogging, social networking, and Twittering has your head spinning, you’ll love this class!

We’ll look at easy ways to start a blog or podcast and tricks for keeping them going. Did you know that most bloggers or podcasters only keep the momentum for a month? This class will show you simple things you can do so you never have to worry about running out of ideas or ways to market yourself!

All your Internet questions answered:

• What the heck is RSS and why you should use it

• Blog, blog, blog – the best and fastest way to get a blog
• What’s “social media”? Understanding what this, and how to navigate it
• What and how to use social bookmarking

Come with ALL of your Internet questions, this class will get them answered! 

To register: http://midwestbusinessacademy.camp7.org/events?eventId=57380&EventViewMode=EventDetails

We look forward to having you on our call!

Did you know that the most successful Internet marketers give their stuff away for free? Yeah, it sounds crazy, but the premise behind it is soooo simple! By giving entrepreneurs a little free help, they get a glimpse of the incredible products and services you have in store for them. And they want more! So, offering 5 tips here and 10 how-tos there can attract attention and build excitement for the products and services that you actually sell.

That's how content marketing works. While you're not outright promoting a product up front, you are giving readers an opportunity to learn more about you and what you can do for them. You give them insight into solving a problem or explain a new strategy or way of thinking, generating interest and possibly sparking ideas. When your content starts working for them, they'll seek out more information from you. And you've just connected with a potential client or customer who sees you as the expert!

I'd love to share more about content marketing with you so you can understand how to make this concept work for your business. I've created a free gift, just for you! Go to http://www.crazysimplemarketing.biz/ to get your free mini-report on why content marketing matters to you. You'll learn why content is crucial to your business, how to save money marketing with content, and much more!

Have a great Friday, and make it a productive one!

Join me tomorrow, May 8 at 12 pm, as I talk with Elizabeth Hagen about speaking! If you're nervous about putting yourself out there and worried that your speaking skills aren't up to par, Elizabeth will put those anxieties to rest and show us how to make it easy! You'll be amazed at the ways you can develop your speaking skills to bring in a steady stream of new clients.   

Register now if you haven't already! I look forward to hearing from you tomorrow!
 

Content marketing is one of the best ways to get your name known throughout your industry. If you want to establish yourself as an expert entrepreneur in your field, providing helpful, up-to-date, and relevant  information is the way to do it. However, one of the questions I always get is, "What should I write about?" I find the entrepreneurs are willing to market and often have tons of potential topics, but they're just not sure how to write content that is unique and interesting.

Here are few to think about when planning the content for your articles, blogs, white papers, reports, and even your Web site:

• Keep it simple for the reader. Write so that readers from your target market can understand and apply the information.

• Try to connect with the reader by telling a story in relation to your product. 
• Think of commonly asked questions about your services or products. Write down your answer, include a few examples, and then format it into a step-by-step article.
• Write a review about a new book, product, or vendor.
• Choose Web sites that you visit often and write about why you like them.
• Think of what you "wouldn't" or "shouldn't do to build your business. Try topics like, "The top 5 mistakes made by..." or "5 Surefire Ways to Drive Customers Away".
• Engage the reader by using humor or an upbeat attitude throughout the website. No one likes a monotone speaker and the same goes for boring, dragging content on a site.
• While writing, use an active tone to call the customer into action.
• Pepper the copy with SEO rich keywords to increase page rankings.

The main goal is to keep the reader interested in what they are reading. The customer wants to feel a connection to what they are reading, so presenting the content in a casual tone and providing valuable content will keep them coming back.

Compelling content doesn’t have to just be in article or sales copy form. There are other ways to create quality content and keep the reader interested in learning more about your product or service.

Non-text options to add to your website: 

• Graphics and Pictures
• Videos
• Podcasts
• An Interactive Forum
• Outside Links
• Online Games
• eBooks for Download
• Testimonials
• Newsletters

The more compelling, quality content you have to offer, the longer amount of time your visitor will spend on your website. The more interactive the site is, the more someone will recommend the site to a friend. Quality content and compelling text and visuals will not only make your site stand out amongst the rest; it will solidify your place in your market.

Happy May Day! How many of you are wondering where April went? It's amazing how fast time flies when you're having to much fun working on new projects and ideas!

With the new month comes a new focus here on the Productive Entrepreneur blog. First, let me say a special thanks to ALL of you who shared your personal success stories about working with virtual assistants. The response was incredible, and I really hope you were inspired to find ways to integrate VA services into your business. Your productivity will soar!

For May, we'll be looking at content marketing. If part of your marketing strategy is to build your Web presence, then you will find this month's articles, tips, and stories very helpful. For starters, let me define content marketing for you....

Content marketing is the technique of creating and distributing valuable and relevant content to attract a defined target audience, with the over all objective being the creation of sales. Basically this is a way to reach out to your customers and potential customers in a way specifically designed to attract them to you and keep them coming back.

Content marketing is accomplished without overtly trying to sell a product; it is intended to educate and inform your customers. With typical marketing, the goal is to make a sale and the product or service is the main point of the approach. Content marketing is very different from this approach. Your main goal with content marketing is to deliver consistent and useful information to the customer. In return, they will reward the company with their business and, over time, their loyalty to the brand. This form of marketing creates a bond between the customer and the company, and this connection is tough to break, resulting in a loyal customer.

Traditional marketing is becoming less and less useful as customers skip commercials or change the channel on the TV. Ads in papers and billboards are not interactive and provide no real help to the customer. Pop-ups on the Internet are another way advertisers try to market their products, but this can be ineffective as more and more people use their pop-up blocking tools to avoid these invasive marketing tactics. 

Content marketing breaks the mold completely. As odd as it may seem, the customer is the one who searches for the information they need. Not only do they remember where they found what they needed, they remember who provided the useful information as well - and this is where the marketing comes in.

Potential customers will buy from a company they trust and perceive to have the same interests as they do. This is why providing helpful advice and information is so very important to this marketing strategy. Most of the time, the people reading information on a web page don’t realize the marketing that happens behind the scenes as they read the content.

Recent studies have shown 70-80% of people who were surveyed, felt more comfortable buying something from a company they trust. Content marketing builds trust, because the customer begins to look forward to your next content installment and may make decisions based on the information given.

In the next few weeks, we'll be offering tips and strategies to help you develop a content marketing plan that will boost your business, attract new clients, and create loyal customers. Have a great weekend!

Don't forget! I'm hosting a teleseminar tomorrow called, "Fearless Start-Up." It's specifically for people who are in the start-up stage of a new business... or those who are launching a new piece of their business.  I'll give out a full 60 minutes of my best advice to anyone who is on the call and has a question.

If you haven't signed up yet, you should now! Go to http://tinyurl.com/c2r9ju to learn more and register for this FREE class!

One of the great things about the virtual assistant industry is the wide variety of services that VAs can provide. While all are administrative professionals that will help your business office run smoothly, many of them have other skills and interests that add to their service offerings.

Some specialize in customer service and can provide professional, personalized receptionist services.  Vince Collura of Gotham Photo Company, used a VA to extend their office hours. "We started using Team Double Click to extend the business hours to cover weekends, which made sense in real estate at the time.  after a few weeks, we were able to train the VAs to be almost as useful to our clients as our own people were.  Once they were up to speed, we started using them to cover lunch breaks for receiptionists and support, as well as extend our weekday hours to cover late night."

If you are looking for help in one particular area, there are likely VAs out there that can help. In fact, VAs typically work with several different types of clients at one time.

"My clients have included life transformation coach, business leadership coach, speaker and author, academic, financial services, non-profit, media products manufacturer, and software reseller," describes Tassey Russo of Virtual Support Solutions. 

Darcy Meinke of DLM Virtual Solutions also supports a variety of entrepreneurs. "I support a business coach, a non-proift association, a business association group, Web designers, a professional photographer, professional organizers, and a special interest organization. While I use many of the same skills, the variety in subject matter and topics keeps my day interesting," she shares.

So, no matter what professiona you're involved in, and no matter what type of support you're looking for, you can typically find a virtual assistant with just the right skills, education, and experience. Need help finding a VA? Review this month's blog posts at The Productive Entrepreneur. We've featured a ton of successful VAs who would love to hear from you! And if they can't help you directly, they are sure to know colleagues that can.

As I've said many times, virtual assistants are experts on the Internet. They know how to research and find credible answers, and most of the time, they already have a book full of resources and know right where to send you. Lucky for you!

One area that VAs know well is how to generate publicity. These days, the Internet allows you to create your own publicity, if you know where to look. And the right virtual assistant will know.

Phyllis Harber-Murphy of More Than 9 2 5 specializes in this task. "I have cued my client, Carla Rieger  of Artistry of Change, into a number of internet talk radio and print/blog opportunities. This increases her media exposure and has the potential to improve her bottom line," Phyllis shares.

Carla agrees. "She is constantly on the lookout for media people who are looking for what I offer, which indirectly lead to income," explains Carla.

And as a member of the International Association of Administrative Professionals, Phyllis uses her network to help Carla find speaking opportunities. "I have put Carla in touch with the people who book speakers for my association’s divisional and international conferences," Phyllis explains.

In addition, Carla appreciates Phyllis' support in other areas as well. "She has located the names of various meeting planners who ended up hiring me. She sent out postcards to bookstores that ended up buying my book. She summarizes my evaluation forms and sends me a list of referrals from those evaluation forms that lead to work.  Because she is doing a lot of the administrative work that I used to do, it now frees me up to do more writing , to improve my presentations, and to make more sales calls."

Why should you, as an entrepreneur, spend hours looking for these opportunities when you can turn to a virtual assistant who already has an established network of resources? Leverage their experience and put it to work for you!

Jennifer Wong, a virtual assistant and owner of Business Solutions Plus, helps her clients and is especially valuable when they travel -- internationally. While her clients may be meeting with their clients half way across the globe, Jennifer is working from her own office to support their efforts to gain new contracts.

"Most of my clients are on the West coast, and I am on the East coast, and one of my clients in particular is a management consultantcy business based in San Francisco.  They frequently travel for their client work to such places as Mozambique, Italy, the Philippines and most recently, Malaysia.  One particular thing I do to help them retain their big contracts is while they conduct meetings offsite, such as their recent  Malasyia trip, they take pictures of their notes (either flip chart notes or on their notebooks) from their sessions and email them to me to transcribe, edit and format.  I then send them back so that the next day, they have a finished product to hand to their clients.  This really helps them be able to demonstrate to their clients that they are ahead of their game and recently won a rather large contract from this global client."

Sure, if you're travelling you can take your laptop with you and do this yourself. Or, you could hand you tasks over to a VA who can complete them while YOU sleep and return a finished product before you even wake up the next morning!

The morale of the story -- don't leave the country without a VA!

Virtual assistants are creative people, and they enjoy doing a variety of tasks. While you may think it's an unusual request, many VAs are happy to expand their skills and showcase their ingenuity.

Bobbie of Your Virtual Parnter helps her client choose gifts.  "One client primarily uses me for gift buying/sending because of my creative imaginations ... from special flower arrangements to a fruit arrangement made into a flag to celebrate the election!" Bobbie shares.

"I've hunted down the perfect vacation rental, taken the dog to the vet and created top-of-the-line executive presentations. I've participated in video shoots and made instant adjustments on-site to a doctor's lab coat that's too long and needs to be shortened with and iron and mending tape while the actor is waiting!" You never know how a VA will be able to help!

Michelle Mangen, owner of Your Virtual Assistant, shows the same creativity. "This year, just three days before Christmas I got a request to find the Wii console for a gentleman who wanted it as a Xmas gift for his nephew. 45 minutes later I had found one (surprisingly) and had it on it's way to his house. 
Another time I had the pleasure of doing research for a group of electrical linemen in Michigan to find them an inexpensive play to stay while they were in Ripon, WI putting in electrical lines for the local utility company. There are so many fun ways that a VA can assist small business owners." Michelle says. 
 

One of the common characteristics I have found with many small business owners is that we spend a lot of time out of our offices and on the road. We use our cells phones, iPhones, and Blackberries to receive client phone calls, return voice mails, and even check our e-mail.Technology certainly makes it easier to be away from the office, but it certainly isn't reliable! You can easily be chatting away with a client and then realize that you've been talking to yourself for the past  minute because you've lost cell signal.

And just as worrisome, we are constantly hoping we have packed our briefcases full of everything we need for the day and just hope that we don't have a client with any urgent needs. There's no one in our office available to fax an important piece of paperwork that we've left behind or take a phone call from a client who needs immediate help.

All of these situations can be handled by a virtual assistant. Kristen Ruiz, owner of Cantate Voice Studio, shares her story:

"I was on my way to the studio when I learned that the road in front of where I work was flooded.  As I was making the u-turn to go back home I called my virtual assistant from Daybreak Virtual Office to cancel my appointments (tedious work that would normally take me over an hour to do).  A few hours after I returned home I checked my messages and all of my appointments were cancelled, rescheduled and even a few lingering follow up questions were answered.  It cost me one call of about 2 minutes to initiate a workload of about 2 hours."

Another example comes from Jeff Mehl of Daybreak Virtual Office. "I know of a client was lost and did not have a GPS.  He called his Virtual Assistant, and she was able to guide him to his destination by phone using Mapquest."
 
How much time do you spend on the road? Who's holding down the fort when you're not there? How could a VA help you travel worry-free? 

Don't miss out! Be sure to register for tomorrow's free teleseminar at 10am with Tim Piccirillo.

"Direct Marketing for All Businesses"

In this teleseminar, Tim will discuss the 3 main components of direct marketing while justifying why ALL businesses should use this form of marketing. Register here!

A virtual assistant can make sure your routine business tasks are completed like clockwork, keeping your business running smoothly. But virtual assistants don't stop there. They can often add another perspective and act as a true team member who makes a genuine effort to help you build your business.

Tammy Neumiller, owner of Staff a'la Carte, considers herself an extention of her client's business. "My clients value my skills as well as my opinions, and together – with a good synergy – it can benefit both sides with brainstorming and information sharing," Tammy shares.  "I have felt sometimes that I should be a bar tender," she jokes, "as I have helped many entrepreneurs gain some insight to troubled situations or light to the end of a tunnel – or even a solution to a problem that seemed out of reach."

This is where the true value of VA becomes evident. It's not just the tasks he or she completes. It's the genuine support that they provide. Tammy has many examples:

"Marlene Chism, owner of Stop Your Drama, is the  author of Success is a Given and creator of the Stop Your Drama method. She finds that using a VA allows her to focus on creating her workshops or programs instead of maintaining a database, getting the weekly ezine out, and managing the shopping cart.  We also have brainstorming sessions to help her round out her offerings and bring out ideas that she may not have thought of.

"Another client of mine, Annabelle Bondar, author of Messages From The Heart: Learning To Love Cancer and founder of It’s Me Annabelle Inc. which is a not-for-profit organization in Calgary, Alberta   is happy she does not need to know all the computer stuff.  She is not technically minded and loves to work directly with people and obtain sponsorship for her events.  Last year she raised over $30,000 in sponsorship for her fall event without worrying about the behind-the-scenes items.  I arrange her book signings, help with the events, and am a sounding board for her when she needs someone to bounce ideas off of or to vent to. 

"I also work with Donna Dahl (www.makoye.com), author of Tradeshows: Building Your Thirty-Second Business and Demystifying Marketing: Bridging the Gap Between You and Your Customer, where I have helped to edit and format her second book for publishing, then physically came to her open house and book launch to work with her to promote her newest publication."

The personal touch that her VA provided resulted in new business for Certified Professional Organizer Porter Knight of Organized By Knight. "Wanting to collect data regarding from past clients regarding the long-term impact of the work we did together, in 2006 I had my VA, Janet Barclay of Organized Assistant, call about 100 former clients from the previous decade to do a survey.  Not only were the results fabulous (meaning I could leverage that data for future marketing) but I got a significant amount of new work because her warm touch to the client motivated them to contact me for additional services."

Consider the difference this could make in your business! Isn't it time to see what a VA can do for you?

Virtual Assistants work through the Internet everyday, and they are intimately familar with marketing techniques and social marketing trends. If you want to boost your online presence and establish a consistant persona across the Web, you can find a virtual assistant to create and implement these strategies just for you.

Tassey Russo of Virtual Support Solutions LLC uses her knowledge of the Interet to support her clients. "For several of my clients,I  was able to provide input to key strategic planning for the 2009 year, including internet marketing strategies, new media or social networking techniques, multimedia presentations, product or program development and publication design or development.  I have also been able to lend assistance in idea development for articles, workshops and teleseminars. Or I have often been able to guide my clients to online tools that will make a significant difference in their working processes and productivity using online collaboration or distribution tools such as WebOffice, Airset, Highrise, Aweber, and InstantTeleseminar."

Patti Wood of The Body Language Expert has a VA to keep her Web site current and find hot new blog topics. "Melinda Janicki of On Demand Virtual Services makes sure my website is at the top of the search engines by posting my articles and teleseminar announcements on various websites and keeping my web content current and by telling me what topics are hot so I can blog about them."

Steve Silberberg, owner of Fatpacking.com, just hired a virtual assistant, who lives in another state, to manage his company’s Facebook presence.  He just started, so no amazing new revenue stream to tell you about yet.  My business takes moderately overweight people on backpacking adventure vacations to get in shape and lose weight. Facebook is a great tool for him to reach out the those interested in creative solutions to losing weight.

Virtual Assistant Diane Coville of Alternative Office Assistance helped one of her clients maximize his profile on LinkedIn, a professional networking site. "I recommended beefing up his presence on LinkedIn.  He already had an account but hadn’t used it. I started providing Social Media Marketing services to him – fleshing out his profile, joining him in groups, making direct connections through his groups with the same target market in mind.  I also sought out “questions” posted on LinkedIn and sent them to him so he could post responses – technical responses that I wouldn’t have been able to answer.  He received responses from those posts and formed some solid connections.  I then sent out a post on each individual group recently.  The post was:  “I am seeking partnering relationships….”.  Within 24 hours, he had received 40+ responses and is now using my services to do the email communication with these connections and has already formed a few solid partnership collaborations in the industry."

With the huge growth of social networking, especially in the business sector, you owe it to yourself and your business to establish your presence on this networks. A virtual assistant can get you online and networking in a hurry!