Driving Traffic Offline Traffic to Your Online Website the Dirt Cheap Method

On the last blog post, we started down the road of how to generate traffic from offline sources.  I’m going to try to research and place as many ideas as possible and write about them.  Some of these ideas are from personal experience as well as research. 

You can read the last post I did on that subject here: Offline Traffic Generating Strategies

Tell Everyone You Know – How many people do you know?  Chances are, you know a load of people that you aren't even thinking about.  Sit down for a moment, get out a pencil and a pad of paper, your address book and any other log you use to keep names and addresses on and write down every person you can think of.  Not just friends and relatives, but anyone you do business with. 

You can then write them a brief snail-mail letter telling them about your website as well as the irresistible freebie that you have on your site if they get on your email list. 

Hey, double winner, chicken dinner!  Not only will they go to your site, but if the offer is great, chances are they’ll sign up for your shameless newsletter, email series, blog post alerts, etc.

Advertise Your Online Business on Your Vehicle – Have you ever been out driving and see a bumper sticker that had a web address on it?  Of course you have.  Sometimes I think the weirder the web address is the more it makes you remember it and want to go home and plug into the net.  Which brings up the major question of this post: Will people actually look up your business if they see your web address on your vehicle? 

Well, considering how many people are carrying cell phones and tablets around with them they probably will look you up. 

So here’s an idea, the more unique you can make your advertisement on your vehicle look unique or interesting, the more you’ll get the attention.  Use words or phrases that will generate curiosity.   Ask a question they ca answer on your site, or tell them that you have a free product to give them if they visit your site and register with you.

Once again, you’re trying to build that all-important list that you can use to market to the people that follow you and your products and services online. 

Put Your Web Address URL on Your Answering Service – Marketing Master, Dan Kennedy, had a great story about how he called a guy that was supposed to spray his home for bugs.  When he called the home office of the exterminator a lady with a cheerful voice greeted him and after a few seconds asked if he wouldn't mind waiting for a few minutes on hold while she transferred his call.

He was then treated to an awesome advertisement about the services and upgrades he could purchase with the standard service package.  That and all the perks, insurances and everything else you can imagine that you can think of.  Of course he was given the web address where they could get discounts and other freebies. 

Then Mr. Kennedy was treated to another commercial with all sorts of information and ideas on how to clean and take care of pools.  Yep, the web address of the pool maintenance company was on that commercial too and that business was owned by the brother of the bug spray guy.

Put Your Web Address on Al Correspondence- Yep, I know that this is a no brainer, but it bears reminding you to put your web address on all correspondence pieces like letterhead, envelopes, return addresses, etc. 

TIP! You could buy sticky labels and make them for your envelopes with a good call to action on it.  Put pictures on it or anything else that’ll catch the eye of your reader.  Just think of all the hands your letter passes through on its way to the recipient. That way your envelope will have a double purpose to it, carrying the letter and advertising!

 Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Web Savvy Strategy for Using Forums For Traffic Generation

Using forums is a very powerful way of getting free traffic to your website or blog.  One of the reasons I like this method is that if it is done correctly, you can get a load of traffic from it for years to come.   So here are the steps to going to forum in a logical order.

 

Since I am an avid user of the Warrior Forum (WF), I’m going to use that as an example whenever I talk about forums, because I’m so familiar with it.  Just like the stars in the sky there are bazillions of forums on the web, each with their own sets or rules that you’ll have to follow.  Some make it easy for you to join and post, and others can be a stiff pain in the pants to post or comment on. 

Step 1 Do Your Research First – You’ll want to figure out which forums your niche is applicable to before you decide to join and post.  (You do know what niche you’re in, don’t you?)  You sure as heck don’t want to join a forum about “gold panning” when your niche is “cat breeds”.  So, know what types of forums you’ll need to participate in before you join one.

Step 2 Register and Lurk – Make sure you register and look for a section that either welcomes you

or has a help section.  Usually most forums want you to read their rules because if you break their rules there may be repercussions. 

You might get suspended or have your account banned, so make sure you find out what the rules of the forum are.  The next thing you should do is get a feel of the forum.  You need to read what other people are interested on it, what their problems and ambitions are and how you can help them.

Once you get a good idea of what the forum is all about you can move on to the next step which is…

Step 3 Leave Comments and Help Other Members with Their Problems – Once you have a good feel for the forum, you can then participate.  Once again, make sure that you’re following the rules.

NOTE:  Most forums have all sorts of rules concerning posting with your website address.  Usually, to get that privilege you’ll be required to participate in the forum for a certain number of posts or buy your way in, as in the case of the Warrior Forum.  (Very cheap $10 lifetime membership)  So, I wouldn’t even think of posting my web address right away.  On the Warrior Forum you can use a signature if you pay, but more on that in a minute.

Step 4 Create A Signature That Automatically Follows Your Posts  - This is complexly legit, however most forums will only allow this privilege after you’ve made a number of posts or started a bunch of threads.  If you are allowed to create signature file, make sure that it grabs people’s attention, and has all of your contact information on it.  Many forums will allow you to advertise your services on your signature line, but I wouldn’t overdo it.

Step 5 Try To Deliver A Real Good Post At Least Once A Week – This is where you can really gain some solid ground on being an authority in your niche.  You should write about a 500+ post talking about some facet of your niche that’ll actually helps people.  You want to make sure that it is well written, concise, and is aimed at your target market. 

Warning!  Do not, and I repeat, do not jump on a forum and start selling your crap.  That’s just not the way it works, and at best you’ll be seen as another snake oil salesman.  Just like social media, if you haven’t taken the time to nurture relationships and help people out, you’ll be doing nothing more than hurting yourself. This sales process works best over time, but it has great rewards if you work it the right way.

Step 6 Follow And Answer People That Respond To Your Post   Once you’ve written and posted follow your post and see what the response is.  If you’ve pushed the envelope a little bit and ruffled someone feathers, then you’ll definitely get responses.  Respond to these super politely. 

You should never get offended by anything anyone says because there will people on there that are just plain nuts. You don’t want to be seen as a jerk and a bad attitude and foul language can follow you around for a while.

Step 7 Rinse and Repeat – Remember, your goal is to create a great reputation and help people.  Don’t be selfish and always be kind.

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Another 5 Ways to Get Traffic to Come to Your Website or Blog

In my last post I gave you 5 dirt-cheap ways to get traffic to come to your site.  If you’re interested, the link to that article is here: Cheap Marketing Methods 

Now, I have another 5 ways you can promote your website that are very cheap.  However, I’d once again like to point out that these methods do require labor or, at the very least outsourcing. 

5 More Ways To Promote Your Website for Free

Reciprocal Links and Banners - It never hurts to send your readers and visitors to high quality websites.  The emphasis needs to be stressed on quality because you want to become a known and respected source of information.  If people come to your site expecting excellence and you refer them to a shabby website that has poorly written information, their stink will probably rub off on you.

Another thing that’s important to consider is that you don’t want to trade links very much.

The other day, I got a request from someone that wanted to trade links with me.  His site was an insurance review site which was totally outside my niche.  Also, I noticed that his site was an Adsense site wherein his site was merely written to generate clicks for Adsense revenue. 

Upon further inspection, I noticed that he had loads of what appeared to be outsourced articles. 

So, I declined his offer to exchange links. 

If you want to read a very well written article on link exchanging, read this article by Michael Bluejay:  Why Your Link Exchange Request Failed 

Donating Your Services to Charity – If you know of a business or charity that can use your products or services, you can donate your help to them.  Not only will you help others in need but they may also point your business out to others. 

My personal take is to help others in need without expecting anything in return.  That’s just the way I am.  I once got an email from a band director that had a trombone playing student that had cancer.  I was operating a music apparel business online and I wound up making a beautiful embroidered jacket for the kid.  I didn't make a dime or any notoriety for doing it, but it sure did feel good to make that student happy.

Put Your Web Address Everywhere – You can place your website’s URL on your car, shirts, business cards, letterhead, as well as any promotional items that you give out for your business.  Also, make sure that you use it in your email signature, eBooks that you’ve written and any communications you use. If you have a bricks and mortar business, make sure that you put your URL on the door of your business, on your menus, receipts, and any other item you use that has your branding on it.

Use Free Classified Ads – There are literally hundreds of free classified ad sites on the Internet.  Many of them service specific countries, so you’ll have to take a close look at them to see what country or area they service.  The downside of using free online ads is there are time limits on how long your ad will run.  You’ll have to go back and check to see if your ad is still running. 

Not only that, but there are a lot of people “phishing” on them.  Phishing is an online searching activity where nefarious people look around on sites where you would place your contact information, and then call you and try to sell you something.  They will also collect your email address and spam you like crazy. 

Here is a brief list of the best free classified sites to use:

Craigslist 

eBay Classifieds 

USFREEADS 

Back Page

Recycler 

Offer a Free Course on Your Website – This requires some effort and time, but if your visitors can get some excellent training, whether it’s audio, video or even a series of lessons, then you can post them for free on your website. 

Years ago, I created an extensive Photoshop course that you can still access today as well as a series on how to make your own blog using Blogger.   It was well received by people that used it.  So put your thinking cap on and think about a video course that you can come up with that is related to your business.  Not only will people come to your site looking for free information, but you can also embed your URL into your videos on YouTube to get even more traffic to your site.

Mark Ellis’s Photoshop Training Videos:

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

5 Dirt Cheap Marketing Ideas to Generate Traffic to Your Site

If you’re like me, you’re constantly trying to learn how to do your marketing dirt cheap.  One of the most beautiful things about the Internet is that you can do things so much cheaper than ever before. 

Take a look at publishing.  In the good ol’ days, you had to find a publisher to sell any book that you wrote.  Now, you can publish and sell eBooks online without a publisher and there are no setup publishing costs.

You can even have a regular book published and some businesses will print them on demand based on the number you need.  So, the Internet has made almost all forms of traditional marketing easier and more affordable than ever.

Here are 10 dirt cheap marketing methods that you can use to promote your business.  However, it should be noted that there is always a downside to marketing so cheaply. 

For one thing, cheap usually means more labor.  If you buy a house that’s a cheap fix-me-upper, you’ll have to put sweat equity into the house to raise its value.  Cheap marketing methods also require sweat equity, so you are going to have to roll up your sleeves to get things done. (Or find a good way to outsource your work.)  You will have to consider the time and work you do in using these methods.

5 Dirt Cheap Marketing Methods

Use Old Data to Create New Content – If you need data that is relevant to your niche or area of expertise, you can gather data from the Internet and present it in a pleasing format to potential clients and customers.  Many freelance writers use data of this nature to write white papers for clients. 

If you are in a technical field, such as engineering, medical, chemical production, or any other type of information drive field, white papers usually are great for this.  You can also use the data on your blog, in an eBook or website. 

There are loads of websites that carry all sorts of data on just about every industry and subject.  You just have to take the time to find it.

TIP:  If you can collect data that is important to your niche, you can rewrite it, create charts and graphs that helpful to your prospects and hand it out for free.  However, before you give that information away, make sure you brand your eBook with your name, website, email, or whatever else you want your target audience to know about you.  You should include a blurb in the document about yourself and your services.

The great thing about this strategy, is that you won’t have to do a ton of writing for it.  You can just use the data, charts, and graphs with a brief write up about how it relates to your target market and industry.

Reuse Your Older Content – If you’ve been writing for a while, you can take that old content and reanimate it into another format.  For example, you can take an old blog post and use it as a script for a video. If you’ve written an eBook, you can take sections of that material and recycle it into blog posts.  Even if you take older blog posts or website pages and promote them on Facebook or Google +, chances are the people now frequenting those places 

have never seen them.

Apply for Online Awards   ̶ There are many businesses and popular websites that give out awards for a variety of reasons.  Once awarded, you will have the prestigious distinction of placing their seal of approval or badge of honor on your site.  The time consumed filling out whatever forms they require you to fill out may be worth the attention you’ll get.

Tip:  Create your own award!  It’s amazing how a trick like this will not only get attention from other businesses in your niche, but also legitimize and create a sense of authority for your business and website.

Online Contests  ̶  This is a marketing idea I used years ago when I ran a music themed apparel business.  I would periodically run a contest where I would have a comic artist create a one panel music themed comic and visitors to my website would submit their dialog for the characters.  The funniest dialog or caption won. 

You can make up all sorts of ideas for online contests which will usually get visitors to your site involved in your business.  Depending on the complexity of the contest, you can run it as long as you like, building up the suspense.  However, you’ll have to figure how to reward your contest’s winner and how valuable or costly the prize will be.

Answer Questions on Popular Forums or Sites  ̶   If you regularly visit a blog or a forum, you can offer excellent advice to people that are looking for answers to questions that are related to your niche or business.  Many forums or blogs will let you place your website address in a signature file at the end of a post. 

This not only gets people interested in your business, but also helps to establish yourself as an authority in your field.  However, if you don’t really know what you are talking about it will be obvious to people fairly quickly that you don’t know what you are talking about.  So make sure you have a well written piece of advice to offer before you post. 

TIP:  If you regularly visit and contribute advice on a blog, ask the owner if you could actually write a blog post.  If the owner wants to see what your writing is like, you can point to posts on HIS blog that you’ve already written and tell him that you are a regular contributor.  This will at least help you to get your foot in the door.

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Essential Dirt Cheap Newsletter Methods That Will Create a Flood of Traffic to Your Business!

If you are going to use online newsletters to stay in touch with your clients, you’ll need to acquire the proper tools to run an online newsletter. In a previous section, we looked at two companies that were dirt cheap to start out with and you can read that information here:  Newsletters That Will Make Your Business Magnetic to Customers

A List of Autoresponder / Email / Newsletter Services

 Below is a reference list of some of the best email and newsletter businesses on the Internet.  Rather than listing benefits and prices to you, I’m just going to list them so you can go to their actual sites and check them out. 

The reason why I’m not going to review each one of these is because the pricing and features change so often that by the time this is written, one of them will have already changed their information.

Autosenders
Aweber
Constant Contact
Get Response
iContact
Iminiacamail
List Wire Mail Chimp 

Text Versus HTML

Many of these online companies offer two versions of newsletters and email that you can send: HTML and a text version.  I personally like the text version for a number of reasons.  For one thing, if one of the persons I am sending my

HTML Newsletters can look
very professional in color

newsletters to have a slower method of receiving their email, HTML will take more time.  With text, you aren’t relying on faster broadband speeds because text has no colors, borders, pictures, etc.

HTML has all of that stuff, plus the ability to embed pictures, video and use templates that look like websites.  In my opinion, HTML takes longer to format.  You have to make sure your text is lined up right as well as your pictures and other elements that are on the newsletter.

All you have to worry about with text, is that you format it a little to brand the name of your business on it.  However, usually that is a onetime set up.

Offline Newsletters

If you are creating an offline newsletter, use Microsoft Word or Microsoft Publisher.  Both of these pieces of software require some time to learn, but almost everyone knows how to use Word, but if you don’t know how to create a cool looking newsletter with it, there are tons of online tutorials that’ll show you.

TIP: If you don’t want to do all of the formatting involved in producing a cool looking. newsletter, hire someone.  If you’ve already written the material, and want someone to turn it into a cool looking format that’s ready to print, you can always find someone on Fiverr to do that for you.

Fiverr is a site that only allows you to charge or pay $5.00 per job./  So you can easily get someone on there to format your material into a great looking newsletter for a mere $5.00!  Such a deal.  Here is Fiverr’s link: Five Dollar Gigs 

If that doesn’t appeal to you, you can always go to an outsourcing site and hire someone for more money, but then again, that wouldn’t be the Dirt-Cheap method I’m so fond of.

List of Outsourcing Sites:

oDesk 

Freelancer 

Warriors for Hire

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

                                                    

Dirt Cheap Web Savvy Newsletters That Will Make Your Marketing Magnetic!

If you are going to write a newsletter to run your Web-Savvy, Dirt-Cheap Internet business then you’re going to have to think of how to use it effectively ahead of time.  There are three key questions that need to be answered if you’re going to use this strategy:

What are you going to write about?

What is my scheduling frequency going to be like?

When am I going to sit down to write it?

Writing With Your Audience in Mind Using the Magazine Example

Just like blogging, writing eBooks, and all other forms of marketing messages, it’s not all about YOU.  You need to be more concerned about what your readers want to hear than anything else.  A good example of this is your standard magazine.  If you look through most magazines, you’ll see that they are targeted to specific audiences and of course, they serve a specific niche. 

So if you are reading Mother Earth News, you’ll notice that there are homesteading articles, articles about farming, raising domestic animals, etc.  Those are articles that people which are interested in that niche read.  Inside each of those magazines, there are advertisements.  Those ads are related to the niche the magazine is dedicated to.  You won’t see advertisements about model airplanes in a magazine about doll collecting. 

It’s the same with your newsletter. You can advertise your wares there, just make sure that you’re providing articles and ideas that your clients will find value in.  If you’re going to promote your business, just make sure that you don’t over hype it in the newsletter. People usually don’t like to be sold to when you are running your newsletter on the premise of trying to help them with free information.

So, if you are running ads, you want to make sure that you are not sending them an advertisement, but a newsletter that will help them.

How Often Should I Send Out A Newsletter?

There are no rules to this game, therefore you can send out your newsletter as often as you like.  I

think the main thing to worry about is the quality of your newsletter.  If you are sending out a poorly written, unorganized newsletter, then chances are you’ll be wasting your time.  So the frequency isn’t nearly as important as the quality of your publication. 

However, if you have to come up with a time frame, I’d say at least once a month will do it.  If you are sending out newsletters through email, you can send shorter versions of them alerting your readers to blog posts and videos of interest to them.  This way, you can write shorter and more frequent email newsletters. 

Tip:  Here’s a strategy for you.  I subscribe to Seth Godin’s newsletter and he has a clever method of writing his newsletter.  Just about every day, he writes a post for his blog, and that post doubles as his newsletter which arrives in subscriber’s mail boxes each day.  The posts are usually not more than a couple hundred words in length, but it is very well written.  There are never any advertisements, except once he sent a notice letting subscribers know that they could get a book of his on audio for free.

However, that is an excellent strategy.  Let your blog posts double as newsletter material, when you write them. 

But I Don’t Have Time To Write A Newsletter!

Well, if you want to have a monthly newsletter, a good way to do that would be to plan 12 newsletters all at once.  Sit down for a few days, and plan out a table of contents for all of them. 

Then you could do one of several things:

Idea 1 – Use your Table of Contents for each newsletter and record your articles into a digital audio recorder.  Then send them to an online transcriber so that they can type them up and send them to you in a word processor format. 

Idea 2 – Using the table of contents above, use voice recognition software to write your subjects quickly using your voice.  I have used Dragon Naturally Speaking and it is EXCELLENT!

Idea 3 – Hire a ghost writer.  Give them the table of contents and tell them to go to town on it. However, you will have to hire and pay someone to write your newsletters.  This may not be seen as a dirt-cheap method, but when you add up your precious time that you’d have to spend writing your own, the money you may have to fork over to have them written is well worth it.

Putting a Subscription on Your Newsletter

If your newsletter ever gets real popular, you can actually start charging a monthly subscription. Dan Kennedy has a monthly newsletter that’s known world-wide and is world-class!  It will run you pretty close to $30.00 a month, but it is loaded with all sorts of goodies, to include CD’s and marketing tools you can use right out of the box.  But, once again, that is a high-end newsletter.

Yes, you can charge for an online newsletter, but you’ll have to produce excellent material for it.  But, people do make money from their newsletters and get marketing value from them at the same time.

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis
"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"
www.MarkEllisCopy.com
(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

How Are Internet Marketing Strategies Like Fad Diets?

I’m starting to look at marketing plans like diet plans.  Before you tell me that I’m mad, hear me out.  Within the last two days, I have heard another two revolutionary methods of marketing your businesses online that supposedly was a new way to do it.  While I must admit, there are different styles of marketing your business, there pretty much isn't anything new under the sun.

Consider diet plans for a second.  If you watch any daytime TV at all, one of the popular Doctor talk shows that permeate the airwaves have a different diet plan almost on a continual basis.  Of course, this is marketing in itself, because women, which are the target market, are always looking for ways to look younger and thinner.

So, the shows are geared for this.  The products and plans they have on those programs talk about books and equipment dedicated to this industry.  Not only that, these shows are interrupted by obligatory commercials that have all of the low- calorie foods and plans dedicated to this market as well.

And the diet plans are endless:

The Mediterranean Diet
Low Carb Diet
South Beach Diet
Chocolate Diet
The Spartan Diet
The Paleo Diet
The Diet Diet
The funniest one I heard was the Peter Pan Diet.  (I wonder if it involves peanut butter.)


I once had a book given to me that was produced by Men’sHealth magazine.  It was a real interesting book because it had huge, luscious, full-color pictures of food in it that YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO EAT.  I took one look at that book and shouted, “Finally a book that tells me what I want to hear, eat all of this incredible food!” 

The part of the book that stood out the most, was a section at the beginning of the book.  It went through all of the most popular diets, and described what you were supposed to eat or not eat on them and the editors and nutrition experts at Men’s Health dispensed their 2 cents worth on what they thought of each of these diets.  At the end of the day, they said that all of them were not realistic ways to lose weight and that each one of these strategies of losing weight was not sustainable over the long term. 

However, the real kicker came at the end of that particular chapter.  Men’s Health decided to tell you the one and only method of losing weight that would actually work over time. Yup, according to them, there was one diet that worked, and it was so complex and hard to do you just wouldn’t believe it. 

However, because I have worked out an exclusive deal with this top of the line magazine, they have signed a massive 500 page release allowing me (and me alone) to unveil this ultra-secret diet plan.  And now for the first time anywhere, I am going to unleash its awesome power to you so you can use it.

Here, now, for the first time, is the Ultimate Diet Program by Men’s Health Magazine, exactly as appeared in their book:

(Uh-hem…Sorry, I get nervous revealing such incredible information.)

Burn more calories than you take in.

Yep, there’s no arguing the logic or the science behind that plan. 

Marketing Strategies are like Fad Diets

As I mentioned above, I recently heard two new marketing …I guess you’d call them philosophies that I had not really heard before.  However, when I got past the fancy titles, (I think one of them was “Ninja Marketing Tricks for Businesses on Steroids” or something like that.) and the double speak, it was the same marketing ideas I’ve heard a million times before.

One was a sure fire method of making millions on the Web, but when I got deep into the eBook, I looked at the blue print which really wasn’t much different than one I had sketched out for myself years ago.  Although, I’ll have to hand it to the guy that wrote it, it was a pretty massive eBook that the blueprint was in, even though it had quite a few advertisements that tried to upsell you to bigger and more expensive ideas.

The other marketing idea was from a lady that was into “Natural Marketing”.  In other words, her approach was predicated on trying to relate to people, get to know them, and then sell them.  The video that played, as well as the copy that went with it on the page, kept telling you that you were struggling in life and that there was a natural way to market via relating to likeminded people.  Right underneath the skillfully made video was a button telling you to “find yourself” by paying around $10.00.

Just Like Losing Weight 50 Years Ago…

If you study the principals that were used 50 or so years ago, you’d notice that the basics of sales and marketing don’t really change, even though the vehicles they’re delivered from do change, like the Internet.  

However, many marketers and businesses are starting to realize that people are getting savvier to their marketing techniques and are beginning to adjust.  Perhaps in the future new marketers will have to actually get to know their clients and prospects instead of going for the quick and easy. 
It may actually be a breath of fresh air.

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis
"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"
www.MarkEllisCopy.com
(859) 797-9560
elmo033057@gmail.com

Web Savvy Content Creation to Generate FREE Traffic to Your Website

If you are going to use free content to drive traffic to your website, then you need to pay close attention to this one important tip I’m going to throw at you in a second.  Free content online is huge, and there is a lot of competition. 

However, for those of you out there in the vast Internet heartland, reading this message might be just what you need to push you to greater heights of Internet marketing glory.

The Giant Failure-Filter…Don’t Quit Your Day Job

If the statistics are close to accurate, Internet based businesses have a 90%+ rate of failure within the first 120 days.  There are many reasons for this that have been cited:  Lack of business experience, very limited technical skills, poor understanding of starting and running a business, no capital at all, unrealistic expectations. 

Should I go on?

This is why my blog is dedicated to teaching you how to work the Internet as cheaply as possible.  If you've never had a business before, start and learn as cheap as you can.  The most beautiful thing about the Internet is you don’t need to spend a wad of money to get started, and therefore, if you don’t succeed, you’ll financially live to fight another day. 

But don’t quit your day job, no matter what the gurus tell you.  Every stinking’ one of them had failures along the way.  Rarely, (emphasis on rarely) are the ideas, economic conditions, and your personal life so perfectly in sync that you’ll hit a homer on the first swing.

If you are persistent in business, you’ll bounce back from your failures.  You will find, especially on the Internet, that you’ll fail more times than you succeed. 

Writing Content for Free Online Traffic

Writing content in order to get free, organic traffic to your site or blog is

probably the cheapest way to get Internet traffic.

Just think of these benefits:

• If you wrote a post or added a webpage every single day of the year to your site, at the end of the year you’d have 365 pages of content out there on the Internet working hard for you, every day of the week.  Over two years you’d have 730 pages of content over three years that would give you over 1000 pages.  Those pages work 24/7/365 for you and the charge will be almost nothing. 

• If you did keyword research correctly for those pages, they would definitely bring in some traffic.  

• You could also post short notices to social media sites about those posts, generating a flood of traffic, and you can use the same post on social networking sites months later to generate interest in it again.

• If you organized those posts, and put them into a .pdf file, you could also brand it as an eBook and either sell it online or give it away free as an incentive for giving you their email address.

• Not only will you get comments from people visiting your site, but your website or blog will definitely draw attention from Google and other search engines.  People contributing to your blog by commenting on it will help it generate more attention from Google, and therefore, move you further up the search engine results pages.

The Downside to Using Free Content

I present to you now, the downside to this strategy:

• Most of us are lazy, let’s just face it.  In order to pull this off, you are going to have to write and actually enjoy it.   The only way out of this is to hire a ghost writer, but that costs money and the good ones don’t come cheap.

• You’re going to have to set a part of your busy day away to write and post.  This requires discipline as well as commitment.

• Quality is the order of the day.  In order to pull this strategy off, you’re going to have to give people the highest quality content you can muster.  It doesn’t matter what your services or products are, if you aren't producing excellent information and content about them people will ignore you.

• You need to know how to write.  If you write posts or pages that people can’t easily understand, then chances are they will click and go elsewhere.  Yes, this blog is about using the Internet as cheap as you can to make money, but don’t think for a second you can give out used Volkswagen efforts and get Rolls Royce results.  

• This is time consuming.  You’ll need to spend at least an hour or more writing every day.  Anything less is ludicrous.

• You need to know what you are talking about.  If you have no clue about your area of, ahem…”expertise”, then it will definitely stick out like a sore thumb. 

• You’ll need to know how to post to the Internet and do Keyword research.  You can use WordPress, Blogger or a website editor like Dreamweaver.  If you are going to build an actual website, you should learn how to hard code HTML so you can create the pages that you’ll post your writing to. 

  Blogging the “Easier” Solution

If you want my two cents about the easiest way to get content onto the Internet, I’d say Blogging is the way to go.  Both WordPress and Google’s Blogger are very easy to use and you can get free versions of both to cut your teeth on.  I personally use Blogger, both the free version and I also have a .com I pay for on another Blogger blog as well. (www.markelliscopy.com) 

Blogger is the cheapest way to go because even if you get a .com (URL) for that blog, all you have to pay for is the .com.  To have a URL with WordPress, you’ll have to have a hosting package from a company like HostGator and know how to set up the blog through the control panel. 

Here are some resources for you to consider:

Dreamweaver : Web Design Software

Learn HTML and how to build websites online...FREE!

Blogger

WordPress

In my next post, we’re going to explore how to organize your subject matter and research it in order to be able to write blog posts that people are actually going to WANT to read about.

Until then…

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

 (859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Web Savvy List Building Story That's 100% True and SHOCKING!

NOTICE:  I am not, nor will I ever be involved with Network or Multilevel Marketing.  It's just not my thing.  If that's the type of business you're into, then God Bless you and keep on trucking. I'm not going to voice my opinion on it one way or the other.  It's just not for me, and I'm not into it.  I have seen some people make a wad on this type of business and I've seen people lose their shirts on it. In my opinion and experience, you have to be an excellent salesperson with a very thick hide to work it. But that's all I have to say about it.  So, there.

Years ago, I worked for an Internet and information marketer; it was a very interesting experience.  He called me from a number on a bulletin board, where I had placed a flyer advertising my Web Design services.  Turns out he had hundreds of websites and couldn't keep track of them all, so he hired me to help him out.   

To this day, I still scratch my head at how disorganized his operation was, yet he was pulling in well over a million dollars.  One day, I went in to his place of business to work on some things he asked me to take care of while he was out of town. 

As a matter of fact, he was always out of town, because he was constantly doing seminars of one sort or another.  So, I got to this building he had rented, and the thing was left wide open.  I didn’t have a key, I just walked in looked around and nobody was there.  He had left family members in charge while he was gone and apparently they had left it open. 

I called him to let him know that his building was left unsecured all night and that the lights and everything else were running full blast.  Since I had no way of knowing how much equipment he had in there, I didn't know if he had some of his stuff ripped off or not.  He had loads of computers, packing machines, machines for silk screening DVD’s, a lot of high-end video equipment, etc.   

When I got him on the phone, finally, he sheepishly said, “Oh, Dad must have left the building unlocked again.”  Turns out this happened all of the time.  

Since I was left alone in his building, I decided to check out the material he was making money on.  His operation was all handled at his shop, and it looked like he didn’t outsource anything. Every part of his business was right inside the building, and he printed on demand.  In other words he wasn’t publishing his books and pamphlets the traditional way.  He was the publisher.  Whenever an order came in, he’d print it up himself, box it up and send it out.

So, being an information marketer – wannabe, I decided to peruse some of his material to see what an actual full-sledged info-marketer was selling.

I was shocked at what I saw. 

Most of the stuff was... how I can put this delicately….Rubbish!

A lot of what I saw were flimsy pamphlets he had printed by copying stuff he had thrown together from his websites and websites from friends who had given him permission.  He would basically print up the actual webpages, put them into a spiral bound machine and send them out.  And the websites themselves were rubbish.  There really wasn’t any rhyme or reason to the material he was peddling.

But, his phones were ringing off the hook.  People were only too eager to buy what he was selling. (Just imagine if he actually sold a world-class product what kind of business he’d do!)  Turns out that he was an EXCELLENT salesman.  He had gotten into the multilevel marketing business and done very well with it.  Now, he not only was running that operation, but he was selling courses on how to make it big in the world of MLM and networking.

I didn’t stay working for this man very long, even though he and his family were very nice to me.  He was on the road so much, he was never home.  I could never get ahold of him to find out what he wanted me to do with his websites, and he also had other gatekeepers that were running some of those sites, so I just faded out of the picture. 

However, I did get one important lesson from this man.  I asked him what he considered to be the most important aspect of an Internet business or an information marketing business was.

THE LIST.  

That’s what he emphatically told me.  “The list is absolute gold.”

He was an expert at this, because his list was so massive he couldn’t keep track of it all.   However, he had a faster way in than many Internet marketing newbies would have.  Because he had made a major landing in a diet product related MLM business, he would go on the road for this business to their seminars.  He was an excellent salesman, so he’d not only promote his business, but he’d also promote his course. 

So, he was in an enviable position to promote his wares to large, hungry

groups of people that were eager to plunk down their money at the event as well as get on one of his hundreds of sites and order when they got home.  

This concept never left my mind.  When I was still building websites for people, I started noticing that people that were doing lousy in their businesses had no concept of list building or keeping in contact with their past clients.

If you have people that liked your business and liked you, these are the easiest prospects you could ever get?  Why wouldn’t you keep them in your business loop?

So, if you want to build an online business, or an offline bricks and mortar business then keep a good database of your clients and prospects. Always stay in touch with them, and strive to build it, because this is the fuel that’ll drive your business.

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

 (859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com