Blogging The Web Savvy Dirt Cheap Method To Get the Word Out and Generate Traffic

Google loves blogs.  

Don’t ask me about all of the technical SEO babble that goes along with Internet Marketing, but I've read countless articles about this and the results are in:

Google Loves Blogs.

It’s just that simple.  Or is it?

If you've glanced at my articles for more than five seconds, you’ll see that I’m cheap.  I've mentioned this before, but I don’t like getting a second mortgage to start a business. That’s just the way I am. (Actually, I don't even have a first mortgage ;I paid my little house in the country off years ago, but that’s another story.)

The Upside to Blogging

So, blogging is one of those dirt cheap tools you can use to generate interest in your business and get people to actually go to your site.  There are several reasons for this that you should know about:

1.  As I said before, search engines like Google love blogs.  The reason that they do is because if you write brand new hunks of content every day, they’ll consider you to be an active web page rather than a stale, inactive one. 

2.   It can give you a good reason to stay in contact with your client and customer base.  Every time I finish a post, (which is usually once a day) I post it online and immediately tell everyone I can online about it.  I send out email, tweet, Google +, Facebook, and let everyone I do business with know about it. 

 I also have a physical newsletter that I send out as well and I mention that I just made a post somewhere in the body of the article.  It is very effective that way.

3.  People can feel like they are a part of your business and that they actually know you.  They can leave comments and feel like they are contributing to your cause.  If they follow you on a regular basis, they’ll feel like they really know you.  The evidence is in that people will spend their hard earned cash if they know you and trust you.  So, look at blogging as a trust building experience.

The Downside to Blogging

The problem with this blogging strategy is that it is labor intensive and requires massive amounts of discipline.  There are quite a few reasons for this.

1.  You have to research your posts before you write them.  You can’t just sit down and blather on about nothing.  Even if you're going to write highly personalized accounts about yourself or a particular subject, you need to sit down and think the post through.   

If you just sit down and dash out crap, people can smell it from a mile away.

2.  Keyword research is important too.  You need to find low competition keywords that are somehow related to your niche.  If you have a Google AdSense or AdWords account, you can use their free keyword research tool.  

They’ve changed quite a bit about it over the years, to include the name of it, (they now call it Keyword Planner) but it’s still pretty effective. 

If you don’t want to use that tool you can always pay to use WordTracker or MarketSamurai.  These have been rated pretty well by SEO specialists, but I can’t vouch for them because I’m too cheap.  

I just use the free Google tool.  That’s good enough for me.

3.  Formatting Text and Pictures on a Screen - You’ll need to go back into your blog and make sure that you format the paragraphs so that they are readable to your audience.  This is one of those times you need to put your grammar book away and think about the way people’s eyes work when reading a computer screen.

People see things as blocks of text on a screen much differently than they do when they read a book.  You can use all sorts of word processor conventions to do so.   Bullet statements, headings, underlined areas, highlighted text and paragraphs that are shorter and different length can be used.

Word count is important. Remember the reason why Google likes blogs is because it loves to see well written content as frequent as possible.  I personally like to write every single day.  However, posting every single day is sometimes impossible due to scheduling problems.  

So, post as frequent as you can.

You’ll need to post 500 words every other day to gain favor with the search engine gods.  Be patient with them though, because they might not to notice you for a while and you’ll need keep working at it without a lot of visible success right off the bat.

4. Spreading the Word – Once you get your post written, I would spread the word throughout the social media net as fast as I could, merely highlighting the posts and giving teaser information about it.

Here's a video on how a lovely young lady built her blog.  The rules are pretty much the same no matter what the niche or market is.

5.  Add on Videos and Charts – Not only do the search engine gods like new content frequently, but they also like other relevant information as well.  If you can produce relevant charts and graphs backing up your information, then you’ll find favor in their eyes. 

Relevant video is another area that search engines like if they are relevant to the posts.  If you can find video you can use that helps illustrate a point, then use it. 

If you want to read an excellent article on search engine optimization then I would highly recommend SEO Book’s Guide to Blogging.  It is one of the most extensive and well written posts on the subject.

The Most Important Facet of Your Blog that’s Dirt Cheap

I know I've spent a considerable amount of time talking about the things you should do for the search engine gods.  However, the main focus of your blog is to provide your readers the best information possible on your business niche.  You want to be seen as an authority, a valuable resource site and a place to go to share opinions and ideas. 

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

The One Thing You Absolutely Have to Have to Run a Business - Or You Can Just Hang It Up

Today, I’m going to switch things up a bit.

I’m not going to talk about what web savvy, slick tools you can use to generate traffic to your site.  Instead, I’m gonna tell you about the most important thing you are going to need to survive in business. 

I’m an active participant in the Warrior Forum.  The WF is probably the most active Internet marketing forum on the planet right now.  Probably because the seats are so cheap.  You can get a lifetime membership for $10.00.  Not bad. 

I've written about this forum and others more extensively in the past, and you can read that post here:

Marketing with Forums

The Reason I’m bringing up this venue is because the other day, I noticed there were quite a few people on that forum that were a certain class of people.  These folk show up all over the Internet.  On forums, blogs, and social media sites.

For some weird reason, they are rather shameless in their brazen messages, and they don’t care how much abuse they take from people reacting to them.  They just keep on broadcasting, no matter what.

Of course, the people I’m talking about are the habitual whiners. 

These folks, instead of writing extensive posts on their blogs or websites, spend their valuable time and efforts complaining about how something didn't work.  How Internet marketing doesn't work, or how they’re sick of hearing people give them the same advice over and over again, or how they lost money, yada, yada, yada…

It’s as if they think they’ll actually start succeeding if they keep complaining.

It ain't gonna happen that way.

And the sad fact is that there are a number of people on that site that’ll actually waste their time trying to help them.  My advice to those people is: Don’t waste your time. 

 

I've owned online and offline businesses and the downside to owning a business is that it’s not like a job.

 

With a job, you down have all the responsibilities of running the company.  You’re not the one that has to make payroll for everyone in the company, make sound decisions about which direction the company is going to go, spend money on marketing, and have health insurance for your employees, and all of the other stressful responsibilities that go with running an enterprise.

Usually with a job, you don’t have to do all of those functions.  You have a certain set of things you do for the company and that’s it. 

But if you are an owner, you have a very full plate. 

It’s like Spiderman’s uncle said, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

So, if you are going to whine and cry about the “Internet Gods” not favoring you, go find something else to do.  Because business, (no matter what type it is) is a full-tilt, 10 million pound behemoth that you’ll have to battle with every day.

Failure is Absolutely Necessary

If you are going to be an entrepreneur, you are going to fail and you’ll probably fail a lot. 

I’m sure you’ve heard of Thomas Edison’s most famous quote, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”

I guess it's all how you look at it.

So, failure is essential to learning.  Ask any musician, artist, writer, engineer, or business person.  Especially, when you are new to having your own business, failure is essential.  I’m not saying to go out and deliberately try to be a failure, I’m saying that it’s a part of the process.

If you’re not failing, you’re not trying, plain and simple. 

Why Dirt Cheap is So Cool

If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll notice that I’ve talked an awful lot about using “dirt-cheap” methods of starting businesses and marketing.  There is a method to my madness.  For one thing if you start small, cheap and SMART, you’re reducing your risk dramatically. 

Thanks to the Internet, gone are the days of having to take out huge sums of money to start a business.  You can start a business anywhere from home and actually make a living.  And you can also do business globally.   

You won’t have to worry about having a lot of money or taking out a loan.  That’s the beauty of this method, and it’s low stress.

This makes it extremely easy to start a business. It no longer matters how young or old you are, whether you’re a cripple or Chuck Norris, the door to prosperity is wide open. 

That is, if you have the guts, knowledge and DETERMINATION to keep on truckin’!

But, you will fail.  Any successful entrepreneur will tell you that they've had many more failures than successes.  That is just the nature of any business or endeavor and you’ll have to face that demon on a daily basis. 

So keep swinging that bat, keep playing that horn, keep busting your butt, because that’s the only way you’ll ever learn enough to outlast people that just don’t have the will to stick it out.

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

Webinars - A Mind-Blowing Traffic Generating List Building Tool You Can't Do Without!

This is a list building venue that isn't used by many marketers because usually, it requires planning, knowledge and a little bit of a technical set up.  This is usually enough to put most people off.  Just like video marketing, webinars require a little knowledge of equipment and software and it does take a little time to learn.

However, this shouldn't in any way stop someone from using these tools in marketing.  As a matter of fact, the benefits of using video and webinars should really encourage people to use them.  For one thing, they’ll help you get to the top of the search engines much faster.

 If you’ve ever made a video and posted it, you’ll be stunned at how quickly it can rise through all of the Internet clutter.

The same thing could be said for audio files from webinars.  The reason why videos and audio seem to rank faster, is because there is less competition.  People feel too intimidated to make them, so therefore there’s much less competition. 

There are other bennies that many people don’t think about too.  For one thing, if you are able to have a well done audio or video, it makes people look at you like an authority in your niche.  The other thing, these items can have incoming or outgoing links and can be shared through email and other online file sharing systems.

So, ignoring these methods of marketing online is not too swift.

Basics of a Webinar

If you are going to create your own webinar, you should get a webinar hosting account.  These are typically inexpensive, but well worth the money you put into them.  A good hosting system will give you a fast and easy way to invite people to your event and sign up, by allowing you to send out an email inviting people.

You can easily find good companies to handle this for you.

 For example, there’s an online service called GoToMeeting  that has a lot of great features on it.  You can set up a really pleasing interface for people that you've invited to the event, and you can even share pictures and streaming with them.

Here’s the Shameless Cheaper Way…

Another good company is AnyMeeting. 

The thing I like about this service is that it reminds me of MailChimp.  You don’t pay anything unless you have a certain number of people.  In the case of AnyMeeting, it’s free up to 200 people.

I like that idea, because you all know that my whole marketing ideal is to do everything as dirt cheap as you can, especially if you are trying to start your venture.  I’m sorry, that’s just the way I am. 

I figure once you’ve hit the same financial status as that guy that runs Virgin Records or that other guy that invented Facebook, THEN you can spend Mega-Bucks on advertising.

But until then, you’ll want to save some money in your marketing efforts.  Just sayin’!

Make Sure You Tell Your Audience All about It

Before the webinar, make sure that you’ve really spread the word about the webinar.  Use Facebook, Twitter, Google + and any other social media site that you can.  Also, make sure that your entire email list knows about it as well. 

TIP!  Go offline too!  Get some nice event note cards produced and send them to all of the clients and customers on your mailing list.  Make it like a real nice invitation that is handsomely made.  You can do this dirt cheap with a printer and some clip art or go on a site like Fiverr and hire someone inexpensively.

Considering all of the effort you’re putting into something like this, you may want to call people that you know as well.  

For example, if you do consulting it would be pretty beneficial for you to call them and invite them to your event.

Even if they don’t join you for the webinar, they will be happy to know that you are still thinking of them and that you value them enough to invite them.

Make Sure You Aren't BORING

I know this is kind of common sense, but try to make your webinar interesting.  If you and your guest are not enthusiastic about what you do, then it will come off that way.

Also it would be a good idea to organize and write down your questions before the seminar.  Give your guest a copy of the questions so he or she can think about a response.

Off the cuff comments can be OK as they arise.  You do want to have a logical structure to your webinar, but try to be natural too.  If a question you didn't happen to think about rears its head, go ahead and ask it.  It will sound natural and spontaneous because it is.

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