Use These Three Web Savvy Steps to Get Targeted Traffic to Your Site

I know this blog has been dedicated to the pursuit of showing you a whole variety of different methods to generate traffic to your websites and businesses.  Let’s face it, without any traffic you won’t have much of a business and there really isn't a reason to have a website at all.

Where I Initially Went Wrong In My Business

Without the key element of intimately knowing what your niche is you may be getting people to come to your site, BUT THEY WILL BE THE WRONG PEOPLE!  So, you need to establish this key idea well before you jump on the Internet and start banging out information that you think people will want to read.

Getting the Traffic That You Want

So, step #1 in your traffic generating matrix should be:

1.  Get a niche that you can focus on.  I have written a rather extensive article on this in an earlier blog post, that also has wonderful links to good resources and you can read that here: Finding Your Niche However, this is a most important step that you must consider because this is the direction that your business is going to take. Without a focused subject or core idea, your business is going to go elsewhere. 

Personal story: Years ago, I started an online embroidery business.  I bought my self a $20,000 single head machine, digitizing software, hoops, and a bunch of other stuff I needed, and decided that I would run most of my services on the Internet.  So, I set up a basic E-commerce site, and put myself out there to get business and to make my fortune on the World Wide Web. 

Oh, I got business, alright.  I got people that wanted gardening hats, shirts with children’s pictures on them, jackets for Veterans and a whole slew of other unassociated stuff.  I set up loads of pages of material and pretty soon, my site looked like a one man band trying to spell out the name Mississippi on a parade field.

To make my point short, it was chaos.

It wasn’t until I decided on a niche that every aspect of my business got easier.  I decided to create apparel exclusively for musicians.  Hats, shirts and jackets for trumpet players, trombonists, guitarists, etc.  Because I had picked a focused niche I didn't have to digitize or sew out loads of unrelated garments either.

Which leads me to Step #2…

2.  Promoting your site or business.  Once you have a niche in place, you must have a way to attract the people that you want there.  In my case I started a light-hearted blog about the craziness of musicians and I wrote a lot of parodies about different instruments.  I also used Photoshop to create a bunch of really funny images based on them.

Some of the pictures and content that was shared went viral on the Internet which helped bring in new customers.  As a matter of fact, I have since sold the business and I went online and my pictures are still being circulated, years after I shut down the site.  

Not only do you need to get fresh content related to your site on the Internet, but you will need to know where people in your niche hang out.  In my case, it was easy to figure out where musicians were hanging out at, and how to get my marketing message in front of them. 

What I eventually learned was that musicians that were into my musician’s apparel were mostly kids in school band programs and music hobbyists that were in specific groups and clubs.  For years there was a group of music enthusiasts in Holland that wore my stuff to their weekly musician’s meetings, no lie.  I got a lot of orders from those guys!

3. Selling your wares.  This was where I failed for years.  I did fairly well getting people to come to my music embroidery site, but once they were there I didn’t sell them.  Yeah, it’s great getting new prospects in your door, but what are you going to do once they walk in?  You need to have a method of selling them, which is the reason why I decided to learn how to write advertising copy.

For years, I was intimidated by many of the awesome copywriters that were on the Web.  I thought I’d never be able to even approach the level of copy that I saw on websites and squeeze pages or stuff I got in the mail box.  And it’s true, those guys are real, world class, millionaire advertising copy writers. 

However, in order to play a decent round of golf, you don’t have to play as good as Tiger Woods.  You don’t need to be the next Bill Gates to use a computer or create a program.  You can aspire to be like them, and put your back into your passion.  It will take you a long way.  But to do well, you don’t necessarily have to be THAT good.

So, if you are going to sell any product or service on the Internet, you are going to have to learn to sell using words.   That, or at least hire a copywriter that knows what he or she is doing.

I have briefly touched on three very important facets of grabbing traffic on the Web.  To get a more in –depth idea on how to implement these ideas, please refer to the resources below.  Most of the information you can get from these sites are free but are high quality:

Finding a Niche:

The Warrior Forum.  Just type in “niche” into the forums search function to get a TON of information from seasoned online entrepreneurs.

Here’s an excellent video to get you started on finding a niche:

Promoting Your Site or Business:

10 Ways to Promote Your Website by Forbes Magazine

Copywriting Services: Mark Ellis Copy

Use This Overlooked Article Strategy to Get Traffic to Your Site

 Here’s another great way that you can get traffic to your site without killing yourself.  Like all other aspects of Internet marketing, it requires hard work, patience and perseverance.  Oh, and you also have to know how to write…Yep, that would help.

Which Type of Article Marketing Works?

My technique of guest writing, is different than what a lot of people advocate.  Usually, the advice most Internet marketers divulge is to use services like Ezinearticles.com, ArticlesBase.com or GoArticles.com or some other article posting site to write and post your material to.

I have no idea whether these sites actually work or not.  I’m not saying that they won’t do what they say they will do.  Yes, you can write articles for them and yes they will post them for you…Usually for a subscription rate.  Whether or not this system will actually generate traffic to your site is debatable. 

The theory behind posting to article generating sites is that once you have written your masterpieces, you can post the articles you write on their site so that other people will read them.   Once someone has read your article, if it is written well, they may reuse the material and spread it around like the viral EBooks I told you about earlier. (You can read all about how to use an EBook for traffic generation here: Generate Traffic by writing and giving out an EBook: <blog post URL here>)

However, most article based sites require you to pay a subscription rate if you want to put your websites URL (web address) at the end of the article. 

And that’s where they've got you.  If it costs you almost $30 a month or $360 a year, (watch it, they’ll tell you it’s only $1.00 a day…Hah… Marketers!) then you BETTER get some stinking traffic-traction out of it. However, most of the people I've talked to said this wasn't the way to go.  As a matter of fact, Google is very aware of this kind of content and it pretty much ignores it.  So, if you do article marketing and it works, GREAT.  Keep doing it.

But it has been my experience that this is a difficult path.

Posting To Unusual Places

So, what does work in article marketing?  If you are going to write excellent content that has some thought and time put into it, then I would suggest either posting it to your own blog or website, or posting it to someone else’s blog or website.  Actually you can post articles to prominent forums very easily. 

My favorite forum on the Internet is the Warrior Forum.  Because this forum is probably the most popular marketing forum on the Internet, posts that are made there rise to the top of the search engine results pages pretty quick.

Just to give you a real good, actual example of this, here it is:  Today, I wanted to find out what was the best way to get affiliates to sell my products.  So, I typed in: “get affiliates to sell your product”.  Here is what I found on page 1 of Google:

What this is saying is, if you posted on the Warrior Forum and the post becomes very popular that a fairly decent number of people respond to it on the forum, you could wind up on page 1 of Google, with the rest of them.

TIP:  If you were REALLY smart, you could see what posts are prominent on the forum of your choice and write a real good article and post it as an answer.

All you have to do is take a look at which post is popular first, write your article and post it on there.

Now, I don’t know about you, but that’s a lot better than spending loads of time writing a well-structured article, posting it to some sort of article site and then hope it gets read among the other thousands of articles that are out there.

Most of the forums online are very, very cheap or free.  All you usually have to do is sign up.  The Warrior Forum will run you about $10.00 for a lifetime membership.  Nice. Not only that, but with the lifetime membership, you get to post your web address (URL) to your post as well.  So, if people like what you wrote, they can click on the link to your site.

And this should work well with other subjects like basket weaving, gerbil racing, vacationing in Vancouver or any other subject are besides marketing.  You’ll just have to seek out the forums that specialize in these subjects and find out which are the most prominent ones on Google for your niche.

Posting to Popular Blogs Can Help You Get Noticed Too!

You can also do the same with a comment section in a popular blog.  Usually, you have to somehow give your email address with a blog to be able to post to it and once you've gone through the process of giving them your email, you can usually include your web address as well. 

Once again, I would write a very well written, short article disguised as a comment onto the blog so that it will draw attention to what you are posting.  I have never personally seen a limit on the number of words that can be commented on, so you can write as much as you need to. 

Not only that, but the owner of the blog won’t complain if the content is fresh and relevant to the article you are responding to.

My Step by Step Strategy:

So, here are the steps I would take using this strategy:

1.  Find an locate a blog or forum that is relevant to your niche

2.  Sign up so you can post both your articles and Web address

3.  Cruise the forums and blogs that you’ll want to post at to see if there are any hot topics you can respond to

4.  Write a detailed, intelligent answer or response to the article or post that was put up

5.  Keep an eye on the post to see if anyone responds or reacts to your comment or post

6.  If someone comments on what you wrote, this will give you the opportunity to respond, thus increasing your prominence

Try these out and see if you have any success with them.  I’m always happy to hear from people, so please feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

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 Success Principles That Can Propel Your Internet Venture

Yesterday, I wrote a rather extensive post about gaining traffic by creating EBooks.  If you haven’t noticed, I’m trying to write about all of the free ways that you can generate traffic to your website. That way, if you are new to Internet marketing (IM) you won’t waste a lot of money. 

Even though I can’t quote an exact figure, I read a recent article that stated 90% of the people that start Internet businesses fail within the first 90 days.

Personally, I believe the figure is even bigger than that, so let’s face it, many of you are tire kickers.  You’ll get on the IM bandwagon all wide eyed and enthusiastic, and then over a relatively short period of time, you’ll give it up thinking that this dog won’t hunt.

 

Just get on any good IM forum like the Warrior Forum, and you’ll see posts with headings similar to this:

“Frustrated…Don’t know what to do.”

“I quit my job to pursue IM, now I’m broke…What do I do?”

“I created a product, wrote my sales page, and nobody is buying it…”

You know, stuff like that. 

There’s probably a lot of reasons for this, but I think you have to look at IM just like most other endeavors in life; many shall come but few will be chosen.  Or, as I like to phrase it, “Many shall come but few will be committed.”   That’s probably closer to the truth.

After listening to motivational speakers, reading books on success, and trial and error over the last 25 years, I’ve come to my own personal conclusions.  These may help you or work for you, or perhaps not.  The main factor in the scheme of things is that the ball is in YOUR court, and it doesn’t matter how many success principles I throw at you or anyone else, it’s what YOU do that counts.

Dieting and Success, What’s the Diff?

Which brings me to another point.  I’m writing this post in January, right after the start of the new year.  Being fascinated with marketing of all kinds, I notice things like what kind of magazine articles and books that are published.  Now unless you’re living under a rock, you've no doubt noticed all of the diet and success books that come out this time of the year.

I’m always amazed at the seemingly all of the seemingly new angles that diet plan hawkers come out with.  Just take a look at this “short” list of diets. (I’m saying “short” in jest, because it is rather long, but in the scheme of dieting it merely scratches the surface of the names and types there are.)

DIET TIP:  I can save you a whole ton of money on diet books right now.  Years ago, I got a book from Men’s Health that was about all the great foods you should be eating. It had wonderful full color pictures of all sorts of hamburgers, steaks, huge salads, etc., and the recipes for them.   This book had all the stuff I love to eat, and the pictures were so enticing, I wanted to lick the page. 

I remember thinking, “Now, THIS is ME! This is the type of diet I want to be on. Where men with six pack abs are telling me to eat juicy hamburgers, spaghetti and all the crap I love! Yeah, I can do this!”

Inside the first chapter, Men’s Health went over the top 10 or so fad diets that people dive into.  Their conclusion:  These diets don’t work because they are not sustainable over a long period of time.  They are ineffective, and sometimes dangerous.

Then, Men’s Health gave you THEIR diet plan:

(Drum roll please…ahem…)

Burn more calories than you consume.

That’s it.  That was the whole plan.  And guess what?  I tried it, and it works perfectly! 

So, there ya go.  I already saved you a crap-load of moola on diet books.  You should never have to buy one again. Actually, the Men’s Health book advocated eating the right way, to preserve and optimize your health, so that book is a great buy, and you can get it used on Amazon cheap here:

Men’s Health Diet That Has Guys With Incredible Abs Of SteelTelling You To Eat Spaghetti And Hamburgers

Success Formulas Are Like Diet Plans

Success books and ideas are the same way.  Just another endless parade of books that promise if you follow the plans they have for you, the world will be your oyster.  Many, many people have made loads of money from that scheme, and just like diet plans, theirs will work for you. 

So here’s what works for me, and bear in mind, I’m telling you all this for free. 

#1 You need a passion, business, vocation or direction to pursue like a laser guided missile.  Without any direction, you are just like a ship without a destination.  You won’t go anywhere.  It’s the same thing with Internet marketing, if you don’t have a specific niche in mind, you won’t get very far. 

(Personally, I think it’s crazy to start a full 4 year degree without having a clue as to what you’re going to be doing after college.  If you are going to be a master chef, don’t you think it would be better to work in the restaurant business for a while BEFORE committing massive amounts of time and money in college?)

So, figuring out what you want to do at the onset, is very important.

#2 You need to be committed.  You need to stick with it. You need to be like Rudy Ruettiger.  You don’t want to bounce all over the place, planning and re-planning your destination.  You want to be committed to your passion through thick and thin.  Once again, I’ll bring up a few case studies to remind you of the importance of this:

Colonel Sanders went to 1000 restaurants with his chicken recipe before one of them tried it.

Edison tried over 10,000 experiments to get his light bulb to work.

Commitment is paramount.

#3 You need to take ACTION.  Yeah, you can decide on where you want to go and how much you want to get there, but without taking a ton of action, you’ll never even get close.  The best way to do this is to plan out what you’re going to do and execute it.  Many of the world’s most successful people plan out where they want to be years in advance and how they’re going to get there.  Then they take action based on those plans. 

#4 Your attitude needs to be conducive to the goals you are trying to achieve.  As Zig Zigglar once said, “It doesn’t matter how great of an attitude I have, I can’t run as fast as Roger Bannister or box as good as Joe Louis, but I could do those things a lot better than someone with a BAD attitude!”

Translation:  Having a good attitude may not get you all of the way to your destination (especially if you have an unrealistic one) but you’ll get much closer to achieving your dreams if you have a good attitude.

The Place You Wind Up In May Not Be Kansas

One thing I want to add to this.  If you are pursuing a dream…a really big dream, like becoming an NBA superstar, or a top-drawer studio musician, you more than likely set yourself up for failure.  I’m not telling you to give up on your dream, but I’m saying that you may wind up close to or in a great position that you didn’t imagine.  I’m NOT saying that is bad, as a matter of fact, you may be better off. 

I’ve personally known people that were trying to become NFL players and wound up being athletic coaches at prominent universities.  Did they make it to achieve their lofty dreams?  No, but they wound up doing something they liked in a great job that they love.

So, my advice for anyone with a goal or ambition is to put your back into your vocation or passion, you may be surprised at where you wind up.

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 to Get Loads of Traffic to Your Website by Giving Away A FREE Product

I know for a fact that this technique works, because it worked on me.  Years ago, I had an online embroidery service that I ran almost day and night like

a mad man.  I sometimes look back at the 5 or so years I put into that business and ask myself, “What were you thinking?” 

Not that I didn’t do well in the business, I was doing fine. It’s just that I did everything.  I digitized the designs, sewed them out, created and maintained the ecommerce Web site, packaged up the products and sent them to the customers, handled the messed up orders and communicated with the customers. 

Yeah, you guessed it…I got burned out!

I also did the marketing, which is where I started to learn many new things I never knew before, like the power of viral content.

What happened was this:  I was bouncing around the Internet, looking for ideas on how to sell my products and I got a free E-book from a guy by the name of Dan Kennedy.  It was all about how I could market my products and services easily by following his advice. At the time, the only marketing book that I had read in its entirety was “Guerilla Marketing” byJay Conrad Levinson.  An excellent book, and I would HIGHLY recommend it.   

I found the Kennedy EBook to be MOST enlightening.  So much so, that I remember reading the entire contents in one setting.  Of course, this led me to look for more about the man, which gave me a very fast education; he was all over the Internet and he had quite a following.

I am always impressed by people that can actually do what they say they can do.  Monsieur Kennedy had loads of published books to his credit, a massive website loaded with mouth-watering marketing products, and a world class newsletter which I quickly subscribed to.  All in all, I would say that I spent somewhere in the vicinity of $5000 with the man over a period of 5 years.

And to think that sale all started with a free EBook. 

So, please don’t tell me that this tactic doesn’t work, because I’m living proof (At least from a prospect perspective) that it does. 

What I Have Since Learned About Creating and Using Viral EBooks

There are a few lessons that I have since taken away from this experience that I think would be worth noting:

·         You can spread your marketing message around to whoever you want FOR FREE.  Always keep this in mind, because it is important.  You may think that it is a waste of time because you have to take the time to write the material, but when you compare the time you spent versus the amount of money AND time you would have to spend on an advertising campaign, the price is minimal.

·         The information that you put into your EBook must be as high quality as you can deliver.  If you hand out crap to your potential clients and customers, what will that say to the folks that would consider hiring or purchasing something from you?  So, always put out world class information in your EBook.

·         Make sure you know how to format your material in the EBook, and take a little time to plan out what you are going to say.  A good way to do that would be to create a table of contents before you actually write the material.  Once you have the skeleton (Table of Contents) you’ll be able to write the EBook much quicker and in a logical progression.

·         Make the darn thing interesting.   I can’t remember much about Dan Kennedy’s book specifically, but I do know that his writing was interesting.  If you can write stories that people can remember and add that personal touch to what you are writing, then your document will sing!   People will pass it on to others that will find it interesting and then pass it on to others that will find it interesting and then ….Voila! VIRAL CONTENT!

·         If you can, try to find or create pictures that you can include in your Ebook that will emphasize or make your points and information more interesting. 

·         If you refer people to other resources, try to make the resources as high quality as you can.  You want people to not only read your material, but also you want them to look up to you as a valuable resource.  If you refer someone to a dynamite resource like a book or a course and they loved it, then they’ll look to you as a source of information.  That means that they’ll refer you, come back to you and even use your products and services.  See?

HOT TIP:  If you are wondering where you are going to find the time to write all of this material, there are several things you can do to lighten the load. 

Idea 1: For one thing, if you write your own blog posts and can create a theme out of them, you can take the material from the blog, embellish it, organize it, put relevant images and resources in it and use that as the material for your EBook.   You don’t have to worry about duplicate content issues in a .pdf file online.

Idea 2: The other idea is you could always hire a ghost writer.  Hey, Internet marketers use them all of the time to create online articles and posts, so if you can do it within your budget, why not?

Check Out These Excellent Free EBooks and Use Them as a Model for Your Own

I could go into more detail, but what you need to do now, is take a look at a few Free Ebooks so you can get an idea of what type of books to write and pass out.

Here are a few that I know of that are well done and FREE!

How to Make Millions by T.J Rohleder

63 "Killer Marketer Strategies" by Dan Kennedy

Magnetic Marketing

The Secret 7 EBook by Mark "Elmo" Ellis

Once again I hope you gained a lot of knowledge that you can actually use on your own viral content EBook!

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: How to Use Social Media to Generate Loads of Traffic to Your Site

Social Media is a hot topic, possibly the hottest on the Internet, so I guess I better move my rumpus to show you how to generate traffic with it.  Even though there are web savvy gurus that are specialized in how to get loads of followers almost overnight on Facebook or LinkedIn, I’m just going to show you how I use it to get people over to my blog.

Actually, this the last post in my series of blog posts I started writing awhile back, and then for some odd reason, I decided to just write about traffic generating methods.  This is also a method of generating a load of traffic to your site as well, but if you want the whole treatment on how to decide on a niche,  get a blog or website, make schedule for yourself and get started read these posts first:

Finding a Niche 

Blogging Secret &Getting Started 

Setting Up a Schedule 

Loading Up YourCalendar 

Ok, once you have loaded up on those goodies, you can now proceed on to the next step. You’ll want to join as many of the top drawer social media sites that you can.  You can see the list of some of them in the graphic.  I wouldn't join more than six or seven social media sites for starters because as you’ll see in a minute, this tactic will eat up some of your time. 

The easiest way to explain this is with a graphic:

In the center of your social marketing universe is your blog.  It’s the place where you’ll post high quality content for the niche that you have decided upon.  My recommendation is to write at least 500 word posts, include pictures, charts and graphs as well as relevant YouTube videos.  If you really want to get the low down on how to write really great blog posts here are a couple of awesome references:

Problogger How toWrite Great Blog Content 

Copyblogger Thisreference has 7 free Ebooks on content marketing  

SEOBook   The Blogger's Guide to SEO - by Aaron& Giovanna Wall 

The Hardest Part...

In my humble opinion, this is the hardest part of the whole scheme.  You have got to get your readers engaged in what you have to say.  If you don’t somehow connect with them, they’ll come to your site, poke their heads in the door, and then leave probably never to return. So, you need to write awesome content, or at least enough to be seen as a good resource for your herd.

Once you’ve written your blog post, you can now start to work with the different social media sites.  You aren’t going to write entire posts for them, you are merely going to write a brief notice of your post and then place it into the social media sites.  For example:

How I Made a Huge Mistake and Got Slapped in the Face by a Supermodel --- Read it Here: http://www.blahblahblah.com/HowIMade.html  ß (Blog Post Address – Not the home page of your blog, but the specific post page.)

You can then copy that entire message and begin to post it into the different social networking sites you have joined.  (This is why I told you to join only six or seven of them, because it would take you a considerable amount of time to post on all of these.)

Now, this isn't all there is to this strategy.  Make sure that you use the following steps:

1.       Use relevant, exciting pictures. They will draw attention to your post on the sites because they will pop up next to your post.

2.       Make sure your web address is from the post’s exclusive page.  In other words, when you go to your blog you’ll see a bunch of your previous posts on there.  You don’t want your blogs home page address to post with your announcement.  You want to click on the post title and it will take you to the specific post page.  You then highlight that address to post on social media sites!

3.       You will want to post in different groups too on those social media sites. For example, you are on Facebook, you’ll want to join as many of those groups on there that relate to your niche.  You can post to those places as well.  You can usually do that by joining those groups and posting regularly to them. 

4.       Remember, this is a long term strategy, not overnight.  It takes people awhile to know you and love what you have to say.  If you start getting a lot of traffic right away, don’t get too excited.  There are a TON of people out there that will click on your link and not even read what you have to say, much less respond to any offer you have.

5.       If I were you, I wouldn’t try to sell anyone anything for quite some time.  You are building trust just like any other business.  McDonald’s wasn’t built in a year.  It took decades to get to where it is now.

I’m sure your brain is full now.  Go out there and give it your best shot and remember THIS IS A LONG TERM STRATEGY!!!   Slow and steady wins the race!

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

"When it comes to high response copy, I've got your back!"

 (859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Portfolio Site: http://markelliscopyportfolio.blogspot.com/

Using Offline Web Savvy Tactics to Generate Online Traffic

But First a little encouragement…

Let me tell you a little secret, I’m not a good blog writer.  I know that’s hard for you to believe, but it’s true. (I hope you can detect my genuine sense of humor too.)  I don’t sit down and write an outline and meticulously plan out what I’m going to say.  I usually have a general idea about what I’m going to talk about and then I spit it out.

So, if you’re starting to blog or write pages of content in order to get people to come to your site, take heart; you don’t have to be a blogging or writing genius to get started.  Just make sure you are writing coherently, concisely, and you’re sticking to your subject.  If you’re real bad at writing, then you may want to get a tutor.  You can find all sorts of them online.

The main thing is that you get started, no matter what.

I personally never studied grammar.  All through my eight plus years of college, I did tons of writing and my professors never complained a bit.  Other than my English teachers, I think that most of them didn't know all the rules of grammar and English either.  I still have problems with using commas in all of the correct places, but I can recall only once when someone told me I had used one wrong.

Using Offline Marketing to Get Traffic to Your Site

Once again, this is an easy thing to learn, you just have to implement it.  If you

are a regular, offline bricks and mortar business, then you should consider getting a website.  Today, most people, won’t take your business serious unless you have a website.  Just like the days before the Internet, people wouldn't take you serious unless you had a business card.

Having a website will drive business to your offline business and having an offline business can drive traffic to your website.

The lesson I Learned from A Catering Business

Years ago I used to build websites and show them how to market their businesses off and online.  I had a client that had a catering business and he wanted a website for various reasons.  Since I was designing and setting websites up for people, it was part of my services to help people market their businesses and give them some advice on how they could get more traffic to their site and business.

 

In this case, the owner had a pick up stand that people would come to and pick up their orders as well as a delivery service.  I told the owner common sense marketing stuff like:

·         When people come to your place of business, offer them a free cookie in exchange for filling out their contact information on a form.  Keep a database of clients and send them email newsletters as well as snail mail newsletters where you mention promotions, giveaways and contests that you are having.

• ·         Put your web address on your bags, cups etc. encouraging people to go there and leave their contact info in the opt-in box for a free chicken wing.
• 
  
• ·         Write occasional articles, leave recipes so that people will go to your site and somehow participate.
• 
  
• ·         Use social media sites to create a ravenous crowd of fans that’ll go to your site and refer friends.
• 
  
• ·         Put testimonials, maps etc. on the website to make it more appealing for people to come to and find.

Unfortunately, as common and common sense as these ideas were to a business, the owner did none of them, and has since closed his doors.  I’m not saying he closed because he didn’t use MY marketing ideas, but because he didn't use ANYBODY’S ideas…PERIOD.

The reason why this type of marketing (or any type for that matter) doesn’t work is because clients won’t try it.  Plain and simple.  I don’t think I’ve read a single Dan Kennedy marketing book wherein he hasn't mentioned the fact that people will tell him, “Well, that type of marketing won’t work in my business…” 

This type of marketing does take some money, some commitment and some patience.  You can’t expect overnight success in any type of marketing, ESPECIALLY INTERNET MARKETING!!!!

Speaking of persistence…

On my last blog post I told you how you can get the awesome New York Times bestseller, “Million Dollar Habits -- 10 Steps for Getting Everything You Want in Life” by Robert Ringer for FREE.  I’m only on chapter II right now, but it’s an excellent read so far. 

The best way I can describe the book so far is a very detailed, intellectual and almost metaphysical look at what makes a person successful.  Plus, Ringer’s stories that he uses to relate the ideas and concepts to you are very well written.  Not boring at all.

So if you haven’t gotten a copy of this great book, click on this link: Million Dollar Habits.  I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

"When it comes to high response copy, I've got your back!"

 (859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Portfolio Site: http://markelliscopyportfolio.blogspot.com/

P.S.  If you like what I've written or hate it, please leave a comment so I can tell you how wonderful or half-baked you are.