Dealing with Facebook time line

 For most people Facebook is a major part of their Social Media Marketing Plan.  However the recent change to the timeline format on March 30, 2012 has many business owners mystified.  Hopefully this post will shed some light on how to utilize the new timeline.

One of the first things you will notice is the cover Photo. This is the large space that appears at the top of your page. You will want to use this space to engage your audience.   However you must follow certain rules for your cover photo. The maximum space for this image is 851 x 315.  You must not include arrows, prices, or calls to action such as telling them to like your page. Also do not include contact information, websites or any other information that should go into the "About" section

Your profile picture is placed just below your cover photo, in fact it slightly overlaps the cover photo and many savvy artists have used it as part of the cover photo.  This is a great spot to place your brand or logo.  The space requirements for your profile picture is 180 X 180.

Although this change may seem to be a major inconvenience there are some great things you can do with it.

Remember  social media marketing is all about building relationships and the new timeline format allows users to tell a story. Your stories will be posted in chronological order therefore your fans will be able to see the history, growth, and achievements of your company.

There are some stories that you may feel are more important than others and therefore may want to highlight them. By hovering over the story and clicking  the star in the upper right hand corner of that post you can expand it to the full width of the page.

Some posts you may want to keep at the top. By clicking on the pencil icon next to the highlight star on your post you can edit that post. You can change the date, delete posts or pin them to the top.  This is great if you have contests, or calls to action.

By using milestones your fans will have a chance to take the journey of growth along with you. Just click the book icon in the status update box and enter a headline, location, date, photos, and any information about your achievement.

You are still able to use tabs with this new format however now they are called apps.  They will be located next to the "about" section right under your cover photo.  To see all or to add a new app just click the arrow at the end of your apps.

Another new feature added is a new message box that allows fans to have a private conversation with you.

Facebook is in no way done with this new change. Soon they will be rolling out Facebook offers and you will be able to use this feature to send offers to fans

So make the most out of this new and exciting change in Facebook and remember to download your free copy of "Success in 10 Steps" by Michael Dlouhy. Just click the book on the left

 "Change is inevitable you can either roll with it or get rolled over by it" Sevauhn

Internet Marketing Strategies #3: Online Video Marketing

None of the other Internet marketing strategies have the ability to produce a message as clear and concise as online video marketing.  YouTube, which is owned by Google is the second largest search engine online.  Keep in mind YouTube is a Social Network so remember your Social Media Marketing Plan.  Articles are limited in truly conveying the emotion of the message, so people are turning to online video marketing to relay the messages needed for success.

However, before you go flocking to your webcam for that "Award Winning Presentation" there are a few things you should be aware of.  Since YouTube is owned by Google and gets over 800 million unique users each month it makes sense to use their services.  But keep in mind that there are many other  video sharing websites out there to get your message across. Remember, viral marketing is all about getting your message in front of as many eyes as possible.

When creating your video keep your audience in mind.  Try to make your message clear, concise, and to the point without being pushy or commercial.  Many of your audience will be mobile users therefore you want to make sure your video can be viewed on any format as well as mobile devices.

      Make sure you do your Organic Search Engine Optimization. Videos are now searchable just like any article or website, so make sure you have your relevant keywords.  Make sure the keyword you want to be ranked for is first in your title. YouTube only shows the first few lines of your description before you have to click the "show more" button.  Therefore, when filling out the description make sure the URL linking back to your website is the first thing to appear.  Use the full amount for your description because search engine spiders can crawl it so make sure you fill it with keyword rich content.

The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra. -- Jimmy Johnson

Top 5 Internet Marketing strategies #2: Blogging

One of the great internet marketing strategies is Blogging.    Most internet gurus tend to leave out blogging in their internet marketing strategies.  It could be because there is a little work behind it.  But blogging is definitely something you should do when trying to grow your eBusiness.  It does take a bit of time but the rewards are priceless.

When starting a blog you will want to take into consideration the design of your blog.  What type of experience will your readers have?  If you are using a free blog site such as Blogger, templates are provided for you.  Just choose one that is professional and that matches the theme of your blog.  There are many plug-ins available for better functionality but keep in mind having  too many "extras" will create longer than normal load times.  Most of your readers will simply not read your blog if it takes too long to load.

Before creating content for your blog you will want to find the right keywords for your niche.  If you are unsure about keyword research take a look at my post organic search engine optimization.   Choosing keywords that are most frequently searched, relevant to your post, and have low competition is a great way to optimize your blog.

Now that you have found your keywords, it is time to pick your title.  You will want to pick the keyword you have the best chance of Ranking for.  Your title should be two part.  The first part should be your keyword and the second part is to intrigue the reader.

Now that you have a title that will pull in your reader and keywords sure to get you locked in on the first page of Google it's time for some killer content.  Think of what your target audience might need to know and might interest them.  Never post just to post.  Always make sure your content is of  high quality.  Remember, you are branding yourself as a leader in your field and if you start posting garbage you will soon find your following thinning out.

 Your readers come to you because you are giving away free information that they need.  They in turn will want to "pay it forward" by sharing it with their friends, who share it with their friends who... you get the point. This is called Viral Marketing.  You will want to make it as easy as possible for your readers to share your content by adding share widgets.   There are many different widgets available  I like using "add this" I have no particular reason I just do. Using share widgets makes it easy for your readers to share your great content on a number of social networks such as Facebook, twitter, Delicious, Digg and many others.

You definitely want to set  your blog up for Content syndication by setting up Your RSS feeds.  RSS stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication.  Once your RSS feed is placed, it automatically syndicates your content for you.  Which brings me to my next point.  Update your blog on a regular basis. Give your readers a reason to continue coming back.

  In this post I have given you # 2 of my Internet marketing Strategies, I have also talked about Viral Marketing and content syndication but you must understand the most important aspect of this is Trust.  Give your readers a reason to trust you and they will have a reason to check out what you have.

 

"You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want" Zig Ziglar

visualization techniques: What is your focus?

If you focus on "lack" your life will be filled with lack.  It is not your "lack of" that is the problem.  It is your dwelling and focus on the lack which creates the problem.  What ever you place your focus on your subconscious will try to fulfill.  If you dwell on lack of money your subconscious will repel money from you because it feels as if that is something that you do not want.  The same goes for relationships and success.  However if you dwell on abundance, that is what your subconscious will strive for.  That is why I use "visualization techniques"  to help propel me towards success.  It consists of thinking of positive things such as my dream house and my dream cars, the schools I want to open and the checks that I will write for recreation centers and other things that my business will afford me.  I also have a vision board which contains images of those things so that I have a constant reminder of where my focus should be. 

Now many of you may call me materialistic for wanting such things and say that you only want the simple things in life.  If all you want out of life is to get out of debt and maybe have a few dollars left over after you pay your bills then great for you.  Only you can decide where your focus lies.  I can't call you selfish for not wanting to make enough money to where you can open up homeless shelters or write a check for the full amount to open  a center for battered woman.  No it is not my place to say that because those are my goals.  Those are the things that help me to continue working when my friends want me to come out and party.  You have to crate your own focus and visualization techniques.  I have someone that I mentor whose dream is to take his wife on a 2 week vacation and to make up for lost time with his children.  So I instructed him to place those things on his Vision board.  He has images of cars on his board as well because those help him to focus on making his business better so that he can afford to buy them for his children.

That is what he needed for his life.  You have to decide what will motivate you to continuously strive to make your business better.  Think of the man riding the donkey with the carrot.  No I am not calling you a donkey but the image of it works as one of my visualization techniques.  The man needs to get to a destination and he knows that the donkey likes carrots so he places it just out of reach so that the donkey will keep striving forward towards the destination. When the destination is reached the donkey gets the carrot.  Such as when you reach your goals in business you should reward yourself with those things placed on your vision board.  Does it make sense?

I understand that this may be a lot harder than I make it seem that is why I extend my helping hand to you.  I will give you a free copy of Michael Dlouhy's book "Success in 10 steps"  Its over in the column to the left.  Just click on the image and let me know where to send it.  Then after you read it I can help you get on the "30 day mental cleanse" .   There are a lot of things that will distract you from your goals such as the news, gossup, and tv in general.  But if you are networking with like minded individuals and learning "how to think"  you can dispel those distracting thoughts so that you can achieve success.  To quote Jackie Chan in "The Karate Kid" "Your focus needs more focus". So now that you are finished reading this post I thank you for your time, I hope it helped and don't forget to get your free copy of success in 10 steps today.

Obstacles are those frightful things you notice when you take your eyes off your goal. ~ Henry Ford

organic search engine optimization

I know many, if not most of you have heard the term Search Engine Optimization.  But, how many of you have ever heard of Organic Search Engine Optimization?  If you read my last post entitled "Top 5 Internet Marketing Strategies"  you may have looked for this post to be titled "Basic Search engine optimization" or simply SEO.  Well I wanted you to truly understand why using this technique can ultimately help your home based business.

Search engine optimization is basically the process of optimizing your website or blog so that it ranks highly in the search engines.  So when someone searches "Google"  you want to show up on the first page.  The reason for this is simple.  When you do a search, do you ever look past the first page?  Okay well maybe you do, however the majority of people do not.  So you want to rank on the first page where all the traffic is. 

This process consists of 3 main factors

•  Keywords
•  Quality and Relevant Content.
•  Back-links

 I want you to look at the word organic which basically means natural.  You want your SEO work to appear "natural" on your page.  But more importantly it refers to the fact that it is unpaid advertisement which is good for your business because it is duplicate-able .  This means that you can teach it to your down line and they can teach it to theirs and you can create a better business without worrying  if someone will be able to afford your marketing techniques

This is a quote taken directly from a Pay-for-Performance SEO company's website on a particular keyword phrase

    Top 3 positions USD 200/mo.
    Top 5 positions USD 150/mo.
    Top 10 positions USD 100/mo.


This is a quote for a keyword I chose when first starting out.  Now although there are other keywords that are much more costly, paying this type of money can really hurt your bank and it is not duplicate-able. Meaning others in your company may not be able to afford it.  Using Organic Search Engine Optimization I hold the top 2 spots of Google for this particular  key word and I did it all for free.   Sounds good huh?  Hooray for me right?   Unfortunately, no one is searching for this Keyword which means I am getting no traffic for this keyword.  It seems I had my search settings set to Broad when choosing this keyword when I should have had them set to exact.  Luckily this mistake only cost me my time in building back links not the $200 a month this company charges.


Once you have chosen your keywords and done your research you need to write quality and relevant content.  This is the part of SEO work that I love the most.  It allows you to brand yourself by giving away quality content that can help your target audience.  Most people love getting things for free and your readers start to trust you because you are creating articles that help them.  Your readers in turn start to want to "pay-it-forward"  because you have created such great content, that they want to share it with their friends who share it with their friends and thus begins the process of content syndication.

Back-links are basically a way of telling Google that your website is worth taking a look at.  These are links from other websites that point to your website.  The more inbound links your website has the higher rank Google will give you.  There are different classes of links and it helps when the links are coming from sites that rank high in Google and have to do with what your website is about.  I'll help you out.  I have a free tool that can jump start your back linking.  You can create, as a free member 25 high quality back links every day.  It comes out to be about 175 a week and 750 a month.  That's as a free member, an upgraded member can create 300 links a day. Just think of how fast you can climb Google.   Just click the image and start building back links today.  

  

Organic search engine optimization is highly specialized and complex and can literally produce success or failure in your business.  However, it is not difficult if you can just place yourself into the mindset of your audience.  If you can see life through John Doe's eyes you can sell John Doe what John Doe buys.   This means thinking like your target audience.  How would they search for what you have to offer?  What type of thing would they need help with?  Zig Ziglar once said "You can have everything you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want"

I hope that this post has lessened some of your fears about SEO.  You do not have to pay a company thousands of dollars a month to do your SEO work.  With a little bit of initiative you can dominate your niche using Organic Search Engine Optimization.

Top 5 Internet Marketing strategies

In yesterdays blog post I spoke of the proper use of Social media marketing and how it can help your business however there are many people out there that sill believe Facebook and the other social networks should be left for today's youth.  I believe that you would be elated if you truly understood what social media could do for your company.  However if you still refuse to jump on the band wagon I have  5  Internet Marketing strategies that will drastically change your business


Top 5 Internet Marketing strategies

1. Basic Search engine optimization
2. Blogging
3. Online video
4. Free reports
5. Auto-responders, creating an e-mail list and following up

Internet Marketing Strategy #1 SEO. 
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of optimizing your blog or website to rank highly in the search engines. It consists of using keywords, back-links, quality and relevant content. A lot of people believe that once they create their website they can just sit back and wait for the traffic to roll in.  This is simply not true.  Using pay per click can get you traffic if you have the budget but using proper SEO can help you get to that coveted 1 page of Google where all the traffic is.



Internet Marketing Strategy #2 Blogging
I cannot begin to tell you how much blogging has helped my business grow. Once I actually got into blogging I found it to be extremely fun for me.  It opened the doors for a wealth of information for me to share and read as well.  It's like ongoing training. Blogging also helps to create an on-line presence for you. You may have the best product in the world but many people may be reluctant to buy from you because they don't know you. Blogging can help establish you as the professional that you are. By providing your niche market the quality information they are looking for you are building a trust factor. This builds up a following of people that are looking for what you have and since they now trust you they are less reluctant to buy your products. If you have optimized you blog for the Search Engines using strategy #1 you can find yourself quickly moving up the ranks of Google.  Did I forget to mention that this is a great way to meet awesome people that can help your business grow.



Internet Marketing Strategy #3 video
Ever heard the term Viral Video?  This happens when individuals see a video online and share it with their friends who share it with their friends who share it with...Okay you get the point.  Think about the power your message could have if every one wanted to share it with everyone else.  You could produce a video blog where you speak in front of the camera as opposed to writing it down. Or maybe a good how-to video. You-tube has become the premier source for videos on the net. People flock to this free service in the millions for everything from learning business, to their favorite music video, to funny animal videos, learning how to play the guitar, and anything else you can think of. Not to mention the traffic those videos can bring to your website.


Internet Marketing Strategy #4 Free Reports
This is similar to the concept of blogging in the respect that you are giving people something for free to build up your online presence, reputation, and following.  People love getting stuff for free.  I mean hey who doesn't.  But the key is to give them something of value.  If your niche is dog lovers it makes no sense to give them coupons for  50% of cans of cat food.  Therefore you give information relevant to the field you are in.  That way when they give you their contact information you know it is someone searching for what you have.




Internet Marketing Strategy #5 Auto Responders
Ever heard the expression "the money is in the list"?  Well they are right,  your list is your client base.  The Auto Responder got it's name from the way it operates.  You create a series of emails and when someone opt's in by giving  you their email address the auto-responder automatically responds to them with the series of emails you have created. This is an invaluable tool that saves countless hours and also makes sure that you stay involved with your client base.  The key with auto responders is to make them sound very personal don't make your client seem as if they are just an email to you.



Understand for maximum results these internet marketing strategies should be used in conjunction with each other.  Take your time and learn each method and how it can help your business.  To help you I will create a series of posts over the next few days going over each one in detail.  Thank you for your time and don't forget to pick up your free copy of "Success in 10 steps" over in the left hand column



“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
Abraham Lincoln

Don't let your Social media marketing plan ruin your business

                                                   

Social media marketing has become one of the most important tools used in both small businesses and corporate America.  It is extremely useful because it gives you access to a high number of people that may be interested in your product.  It gives you the ability to meet and greet people while at the same time compiling an extensive contact list.

Sites like Facebook and twitter have proved to be massive tools in the industry.  They both provide detailed information about their members.  This is very helpful to marketers in finding new prospects because it allows you to search for the particular type of client they are looking for in their business.

However most marketers fail to use the social aspect of social media marketing by Spamming their lists.  The key is to come up with valuable content and use it as your voice.  You may have great information that could be the breaking point in someones life but they look at you as someone that doesn't know what they are doing because all they get from you is spam, not quality content.  It is for this reason that you should interact with those members that you consider prospects.  STOP TREATING THEM LIKE PROSPECTS (so for now on we shall call them new friends)!  let your "new friends" know what you do. BUT DON'T PITCH! let them know that you are here for them if they need you.  Get to know them by asking them what they are into.  Try to avoid using questions that can easily be answered by a yes or a no.  But avoid making it seem as if you are drilling them.


Once you find that you have a good following you should update your content on a regular basis.  A blog is a great place to accomplish this as it gives your readers value and therefore more of a reason to trust you because you've added value to their lives not just a sales pitch.

It is very easy to get wrapped up in the social aspect of your social media marketing campaign and forget that you are running a business.  It may be beneficial to you to keep a business account separate from your personal account.  It would pain you greatly to know that you've ruined your business because you said something to one of your Facebook friends that was never meant to be displayed to your "New Friends".  Also realize that even if you are able to keep all of your business sense in order, being tagged in a pic of one of your friends doing drugs or something is very bad and remember the old adage  "you are guilty by association".

Coming up with the right social media marketing strategy may take some trial and error but don't give up. With the right method you can reap great rewards in your business.  If you need to know where to start you can download the free eBook in the column to the left entitled  "Success in 10 steps"

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude".

Thomas Jefferson