10 Free or Cheap Things You Can Do To Market Locally
Sunday, July 31st, 2011What your local small business needs, free or cheap, to improve your marketing and sales considerably (20 min. video):
Ed Dale’s program is now The Challenge.
This video is about 2 years old, so a few things have changed. I’ve mentioned the changes below as I listed the resources.
Help
- A
surlyweb-savvy teenager - Lots of soft drinks teenager likes
- Lots of snacks teenager likes
- Some money ($20 or so) to flip teenager at the end of his/her work for you
Free Resources
- Google Local
- Facebook Pages — can be used as your blog or website
- A Blog — free on Blogger.com or WordPress.com
- YouTube — second largest search engine on Earth
- Google Reader
- Google Alerts
Cheap Resources
- Google PPC (pay per click) also known as AdWords
- Facebook PPC — also known as Facebook Ads; demographic, highly targeted pay-per-click advertising
- Mail list(s) — Email lists with AWeber. Click on the “Order” tab to get started
Here are some extra things I find very useful:
- HostGator private website hosting — private blog/website hosting
- Google News
- Google Blog Search
- The Challenge, free training
- Blog Profits Blueprint (Free Report)
- Blog Mastermind Coaching Program
A really good reason to use AWeber is it is easily integrated with Facebook pages. If you just want your web presence to be on Facebook, you’ll need an email service that works with it.
A blog or website has become optional because of Facebook pages. You can connect with your market using your Facebook page as your website on Google Local, and a Facebook page is very easy to update.
Six of these services require a Google account. If you have a Gmail, YouTube, or Blogger account, etc., you have a Google account, and you can use it on all Google’s services. You can create separate accounts if you want to, but you don’t have to.
Fixed costs in this list AWeber and HostGator. AWeber costs $19.95 per month, and the first month is typically deeply discounted. HostGator costs $9.95/month.
If you choose private web hosting for you website or blog, it shouldn’t cost more than about $10/month, and it costs about $10/year to own your web address (URL). But paying for your blog is optional.
The variable costs on this list are the pay-per-click advertising you may choose to do. Remember, you can do intermittent advertising, weekend-only advertising, or a few days a month. You are not stuck with a long-term advertising contract and bill.
Again, why do you need these tools?
- iPhone
- Blackberry
- iPad
- Android
- Tablet PC
- Smartphone
If you find you need help with setting these services up, seriously, find a web-savvy teenager.
Don’t want to do it yourself? I’ll do it for you for $40 (if you don’t have a surly teenager available:).
A lot of these techniques can be implemented even if your business does not have a website.
Why you need a web presence
Friday, July 22nd, 2011
Everybody knows our economy is in the toilet, and it may get worse before it gets better. This has been going on since 2008, so a plan B is essential to padding your landing, no matter how far you end up falling. Depending on a single income stream is no longer a wise choice.
You need every avenue you can find to put your business further out there so people can find you over your competition.
Whether you have a brick-and-mortar business or an online business, you must be on the web. Why? I have 6 words for you:
- iPhone
- Blackberry
- iPad
- Android
- Tablet PC
- Smartphone
You need the ability to reach the people you market and sell to who want to buy what you offer. You have the ability to do that online while they’re out looking for what you’re selling. If you’re not mobile-accessible, you’re invisible.
Get listed free in Google Local. If you are listed, anyone with a portable web-connected device can search for you and get your name, phone number, address and a map to your location. They can also link to your website or facebook fan page. You do not necessarily even need a website or blog. In many cases you can use your facebook page as your website.
The phone book is beginning to go the way of the buggy whip. In 5-10 years, I doubt there will be telephone books anymore. The size of the phone book we got this year was about half the size of last year’s phone book.
You may want to keep your Yellow Pages ad if you know you get customers from it, but you may be able to reduce it’s size, or simply list your business name and number, and save some money. If you always ask your customers how they found you (and you should and write it down), you’ll know whether you should continue using old-school forms of advertising, and whether you can downsize it.
There are 10 things you can do pretty fast to get a web presence, and 7-8 of them are free. You can reduce your marketing costs substantially, depending on how many online techniques you want to implement. The cost of the 2-3 paid services is dirt cheap compared to the monthly fees the phone company, magazines, and local newspaper charge you.
I’ll post a 20 minute video in the next post walking your through each free or cheap technique step-by-step to get your business noticed. You may even want to have your own mobile app developed.
In another future post, I’ll write about blogging. There will be free videos and a pdf report. You can blog for free or get private hosting. I graduated from Blog Mastermind and it helped me immensely to improve my blogs.
If you want a blog (website) set up for you, please let me know (email me or leave a comment on this post). I charge very reasonable prices to help you set up and get started fast.
I hope these resources will help your business reduce costs and be more successful. Please leave any thoughts or questions you have in the comments.
To your business success,
Sherri
Top 500 Passwords to Avoid
Monday, August 17th, 2009I just read a great article from my PC Pitstop Newsletter, and the article had a link to this site that lists the top 500 passwords to avoid:
Top 500 Worst Passwords of All Time
I can think of several others that should also be avoided:
- Video game system and character names
- Common movie and TV show character names
- Common book character names
- Product brand names (Dell, Sony, JVC, Acer, Nokia, Apple, Whirlpool, etc.)
- Unaltered TV show, book or movie titles
- Unaltered full names of actors and other celebrities
Also, here is the link to the PC Pitstop blog article:
10 Rules to Protect Your Passwords
I can’t say I agree with everything in it, but using a combination of some of the suggestions gives you at least medium strength passwords.
The best passwords are generated randomly by computer using small and capital letters, numbers and symbols; and a minimum of 8 characters. 11-16 characters is better. But, you must be able to remember them. Therein lies the password dilemma.
Some PDA’s have programs that can randomly generate passwords for you, and then you can delete them within the encrypted part of the software. They can’t be hacked unless you have a way of hacking 256 bit or higher encryption and then recovering deleted data from it. One rule for using these programs is don’t connect your PDA to the internet. Key logging software could capture this information as well.
I disagree that passwords shouldn’t be written down on paper and locked in a safe when at home and access is limited. When one dies, someone needs to be able to get into the person’s computer and it makes it a lot easier on your executor to provide the information in some form. The safest place to lock a written list of passwords would be a bank safe deposit box.
Another reason to have some record of passwords other than in your head is what if you have brain surgery or a mild stroke? The brain part that remembers the passwords could be erased and you’re up a creek without a paddle at that point.
It’s a tradeoff. Password strength and security v the human fault to forget things. My advice? Make the best tradeoff you can.
Home Office: Limit Using Facebook During Work
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009A new article was published today on Computerworld in the Knowledge Base area of the website. Check it out.
Title: Study: Facebook use cuts productivity at work
Survey finds 77% of Facebookers use the social networking site while on the job
By: Sharon Gaudin
Summary:
The productivity loss overall in a company where employees use Facebook on the job for no business reason is 1.5%. This may not seem like much, but if your margin is 2%, this could mean the difference between closing and staying in business.
A previous study showed students who use Facebook at college get lower grades than students who don’t use it.
Why is this important to home businesses?
If you are cruising around on Facebook for non-business purposes during your work hours at home and thinking you are accomplishing anything, you may not be. When it is just you or you and an employee or two, you’ve got to make the most of your work so you can make the most of your profits.
The most important things you can do while working in your home office or at your home-based business are tasks specific to increasing your bottom line. If what you are doing is not directly putting more cash on your bottom line, you must start doing those tasks first and foremost every day.
Checking email, reading articles in your RSS feed reader, cruising social networking sites for pleasure (not doing research), and performing any task that doesn’t either make money or lead to making money must wait until after the important tasks are done.
You may need to scan your email for important work messages. You may need to scan your RSS reader for articles specific to your business. You may need to reply to a comment on Facebook from a business colleague. But those tasks need to be strictly limited to business and a tight leash needs to be on so they don’t sap your time. If you don’t focus on performing work tasks that make money, you might as well go to the park or play with your kids. The quality of your time would be much better spent.
Every day, do what makes money first, then you will be free to peruse email and articles, and socialize on social networking sites with friends.
If you don’t know how much time you’re spending on each task you perform, get out the kitchen timer and set it for one hour. In that one hour spend your time doing only money-making work, whatever that is for your business. You will be surprised to find at first you are distracted frequently and it will take at least a few days to be able to focus for just one hour.
Another thing you can do is keep a diary for a few weeks on every activity you perform in your business, notes on what you accomplish, how you will profit from it, and what time you started and stopped each task. If you are busy all the time but don’t seem to be accomplishing anything that is adding money to your bottom line, this technique will help you analyze where your precious time is going and what you need to change to improve.
If you spend a lot of time on the phone and need to block out time away from those interruptions, either turn off your phone ringer and let your voicemail catch messages, or send calls to an answering service. Then schedule time each day when you will return calls. You may need to tell people you will return their call within 24 hours, or leave a specific message that you are in a meeting from x-y and will return to your office at z. You don’t have to leave your office to have a meeting with yourself, but those calling don’t need to know that.
Get a handle on your business. Don’t just work in it, work on it. A helpful book to read to improve your business and increase your productivity is The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber:
Don’t have time to read? Here is the book on CD that you can listen to in your car or load to your mp3 player and take with you:
Sherri Joubert
Getting more productive
Another Chance To Join Become A Blogger Premium
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009Hi Everyone,
This is a little unexpected…
Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick just sent me an
urgent note to let you know they are very briefly
opening up their powerful blogging coaching
program again.
Why?
Well, they said that they got HEAPS of people that
missed out because of the 4th of July Holiday
in the United States last week.
And they wanted to give those folks another chance to
join their fantastic program, along with all the
other 420 students who’ve already signed up this
time around.
So, if you missed out last week for whatever reason, this is your chance to get in!
They’re opening doors on Tuesday, July 7th at 2pm
EDT (U.S. Eastern Daylight Savings Time), and they said they’ll shut the doors again 24 hrs after that, July 8th
at 2pm EDT.
Here is the page where you can sign up:
All my best!
Sherri
PS: Don’t forget that they’re only keeping doors
open 24 hrs this time to give you the opportunity
to sign up in case you missed out last week
because of the holidays. So make sure you don’t
miss out this time, ok?
Come Back Tomorrow at 2 pm EDT (GMT-4)
Monday, July 6th, 2009Tomorrow, July 7, at 2 pm U.S. Eastern Daylight Savings Time, Become-A-Blogger Premium will reopen for 24 hours only.
So come back here tomorrow at 2 EDT to sign up if you missed out last week!
Doors will close again at 2 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, July 8.
Don’t miss out!
Last Chance to Join (Surprise Bonus Added)
Thursday, July 2nd, 200924 hrs to go before you miss out!
Get access NOW or wait another 6 months!
I hope this is not too late…
http://www.becomeablogger.com/signup/
There are two very important things you need to
know right now…
The first thing:
Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick just told me that
they’ve added an extra, unannounced bonus to their
famous blogging coaching program.
It’s a LIVE teleconference call, exclusively for
new members, that will reveal EXACTLY how you can
figure out the right niche/topic for your blog -
one of the hardest things to do when you’re just
starting out.
On this call, you’ll be able to interact
personally with Yaro and Gideon, and finally get
to the bottom of any questions you have related to
the topic of your blog.
http://www.becomeablogger.com/signup/
The second thing (time critical):
There are only about 24 hrs left before the doors
close to the Become A Blogger Premium program.
This is your last chance to get into this world-renowned
course that shows you, step-by-step, with
instructional videos, how to become a successful
blogger.
They’re closing doors at midnight on Friday, July
3rd…11:59 p.m.
So, if you haven’t already, you can still take
advantage of their generous offer and sign up
here:
http://www.becomeablogger.com/signup/
More than 1,000 people have already gone through
the course, me included, and now is your chance to join the new
intake of members so that you too can set up your
very own successful blog.
How much has this blog made? This blog has earned $94.87 in the past 6 months, primarily from advertising. You don’t have to actively sell your own or affiliate products to make some money from your blog.
That may not seem like much money, and it isn’t in the full-time income realm. But this blog alone more than covers all the expenses for all my blogs and websites each year. Anything I earn on other blogs or sites is pure profit.
Is this a get-rich-quick thing? No. But you can start earning extra money from your blog, and the amount will grow over time regardless of where the money comes from, advertising, sales, or both.
Here’s to your blogging success!
Sherri
Blog Mastermind and Become-a-Blogger Premium graduate
Here’s the link again:
open before end of week (or it’s too late)
Monday, June 29th, 2009Dear Readers,
Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick have just given me
permission to tell you that their famous blogging
course is now open…
But they are keeping doors open for ONLY 5 days, until July 3 @ 11:59 p.m., and then they will shut it again for the rest of the year!
Crazy, I know.
They said that they needed to limit the
number of members somehow.
Last time they opened doors, they were bombarded
with a flood of new members signing up, and they
had to close the program to the general public for
a few months to take care of their new members.
I just wanted to make sure you get in this
time.
It’s one of the best, if not THE best, blogging
courses out there at the moment, and is
recommended by dozens of professional bloggers
around the world.
But don’t take my word for it, go see for yourself
over here:
To your blogging adventures and success!
Sherri
PS: Don’t forget that you only have 5 days to get
in on this. When the clock strikes 11.59pm on
Friday, July 3, 2009, they will shut the doors,
and then you won’t be able to get in until next
year!
check out this video… mega traffic from youtube
Friday, June 26th, 20097 Killer YouTube Traffic Tips–The YouTube X-Factor
It’s a video that shows you, step-by-step, how to optimize your YouTube videos to help you drive a lot more traffic back to your blog.
Gideon Shalwick, the guy who created the video, tells me that he tried these exact same strategies on one of his own YouTube channels, and got about 67,400 views in just 8 weeks!
That is a huge number of views for anyone who isn’t already a star. As far as the world is concerned, Gideon is a regular guy with a blog, just like you and me.
At first I thought he was just kidding, but then I saw his channel, and my jaw dropped at the results (he actually shows the same channel inside the video).
So, if you want to get more traffic from YouTube, you’ll like this…
Talk soon!
Sherri
P.S. If you haven’t watched the 10 free Become-a-Blogger videos or downloaded the free Roadmap to Become A Blogger report, do it now!
Which of these powerful traffic tips do you NOT use?
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009You don’t see this kind of thing very often, but Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick from Become A Blogger have just released one of their premium content videos to the general public free of charge and your email address is not required to watch it:
Inside the video, Yaro talks about what he calls “Impact Marketing Techniques” – the kind of tricks he’s used himself to drive hoards of new traffic to his own 6-figure income blog.
Now, what makes this video so special?
Well, normally you’d have to pay for it.
But not today…
You can watch it at no cost right now, without one of those opt-in forms – nice for a change really:
In any case, I just thought I’d let you know about this powerful video, because no matter what you do online, you can never know enough about how to drive crazy amounts of traffic to your blog.
Talk soon!
Sherri
Subscribe by Email
Subscribe by RSS
-
Download Our Toolbar
Featured Programs
