Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Just Launched: The Content Marketing Program

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Today, I’m excited to announce the launch of a brand new service, my Content Marketing Program.

The program runs for a whole year.  During our year together, I will show you how to attract high quality clients and inquiries, based on the incredible power of content marketing.  Working with you on a one-to-one basis, I will show you how to use tools like blogging, newsletters, and email marketing etc; to attract targeted inquiries from your ideal profile of client.

It works – Look!

The very fact that you are reading this right now, along with thousands of other business owners, proves how successfully you can reach the right people, with content marketing.  Notice how I knew you were a business owner? That’s because when you use content marketing correctly, as I do here on this blog, you ensure that your messages reach the right people – LOTS of them too!

What kind of tangible results are possible?

In February, I wrote a short blog post, regarding a place that had unexpectedly become available on my Marketing Mentor Program.  In less than 24 hours, that post generated 92 genuine inquiries for the remaining place!

Based on my typical conversion rate, I could have generated at least £90,000 in fees; if I had enough places to fill, just from that single post!

On my Content Marketing Program, I will show you exactly how I did that and how you can put the same super-powerful strategies in place for your business!

I will also show you how I used Content Marketing to generate almost £130,000 in client fees and product sales from this blog last year.

Just imagine what a difference that could make to you and your business.

By the way, if you are the kind of person, who prefers to attract business inquiries, rather than chase people for business, you will find this program especially valuable.

How it works: A quick overview

The program is tailored around your unique needs, resources and goals, so we start off with an initial fact-finding meeting.  This meeting is conducted like all our meetings, via Skype or phone.  We look at exactly where you are right now and then examine what you want to achieve; your goals and business targets etc.

Then, I work with you over the following 12 months, to develop a Content Marketing strategy, to get you from where you are now, to where you want to be.  I will provide you with all the guidance, coaching, support (and clarity) you need; all included in the program’s price.

That’s right: One set fee which covers everything, for the whole year.

Find out more

If you genuinely want to start attracting high quality clients, the way I do here on this blog, I’d love to hear from you.

Simply email me on jim (at) jimsmarketingblog.com (with your contact details) or call me on (+44) 1427 891274, and I will happily answer any questions you have, in complete confidence. Obviously, there are a limited number of places available, so get in touch as soon as you can, to avoid disappointment.  My full contact details are here.

I look forward to hearing from you!

3 reasons why I love helping you and your business!

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As yesterday’s post was all about content marketing, I thought today would be the perfect time to explain why I invest so much of my time, sharing ideas and insights with you, here on the blog.

Here are 3 reasons that came to mind immediately.

1.  As a fellow business owner, I respect you

Only a small minority of people have the courage to start up a business.  Whilst there is no ceiling on what you can earn when you are your own boss, there’s no floor either! It takes guts to leave the regular world of salaried employment, for the uncertainty of working for yourself.  You are my kind of person.  We both started out with no guarantees, yet we did it anyway.

It’s a LOT easier writing for people, when they have earned your respect.

2.  I value you and what you have to say

Successful blogging is all about communication, rather than broadcasting.  It’s about the 2-way or multi-way flow of information between people.  Whilst I give a lot of valuable information away here, I receive a lot too.

Your comments, emails, tweets and Facebook messages etc, are of huge value to me.  Through them, I have met people I would never have known.  I have discovered answers and insights, that have been invaluable.  I have found fantastic websites, which I had never heard of before.  I have discovered products and services, which have been of enormous value to me and my business.

Most importantly, I have made a lot of friends all over the world.  If you are a reader of the blog and have not got in touch with me, please do so.  I reply to every email and phone call.  You can email me at jim (at) jimsmarketingblog.com

3. Blogging is commercially rewarding

Business blogging, when handled correctly, can be extremely rewarding for your business.  For instance, by focusing on providing you with as much useful, valuable information as I can, I attract valuable business inquiries all the time.

A perfect example of this happened yesterday.  Yesterday’s post was all about content marketing and at the very end of the post, I mentioned that I am launching a new, content marketing program.  That post alone, was enough for a reader to call me and get the very first place on the new program!  She loved what she saw, like the idea of attracting clients rather than chasing them, and called to book her place.  Ironically, her inquiry and subsequent decision to work with me for a year, is a perfect example of the power of content marketing!  I will be giving details on the new content marketing program in a few days.  If you can’t wait, get in touch!

If you find the blog useful, rest assured that I will continue to work as hard as I can, to be of as much service as I can, to you and your business!

How to massively improve your online marketing results, the easy way!

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Do you prefer to attract client inquiries and leads, rather than having to sell your services?

If you do, then content marketing is exactly what you and your business need.  Content marketing is where you use blogs (like this one) or newsletters, podcasts or webinars etc, as a way to deliver valuable information, which gains the attention of your prospective clients.  Then, over a period of time, you get to position yourself as an expert in your field, to thousands of prospective clients.

Content marketing is extremely effective, it costs very little and the results can be amazing, life changing even!  Moreover, the results get better and better over time, as your audience and influence increases.

In today’s post, I am going to share one of the secrets behind the world’s most successful content marketing.  To begin, I am going to answer the 2 most common content marketing questions, which people ask me.  Here they are:

  1. How much free information should I give away?
  2. What quality of information is “just too good” for me to blog about or include for free in my newsletter, webinar or podcast?

Here are the short answers to those questions:

  1. You should give away as much free information as you can.
  2. You should give away as much value as you can.

Allow me to explain!

Content marketing and me

Back in 1995, my fellow marketing professionals said I was crazy for giving away so much marketing information for free.  This was before the Internet went mainstream, so I delivered my free content marketing via; radio shows, magazine articles, public speaking and networking groups.  I then established an enormously successful marketing newsletter, before moving on to blogging.

In short: I gave and gave and gave.  Then, I gave some more.

The more I gave away, the more I was accused of committing commercial suicide.

The more I gave away, the more high quality business I generated!

Here’s one thing that has not changed, over my 16 years in content marketing:  Most people only give snippets of information away for free, or information which they believe is not good enough to charge for.  Their belief is that by giving “the good stuff” away for free, it will reduce their income.  This is the exact opposite of what actually happens!

Here’s why.

By putting a diluted version of their content out there for free, they showcase themselves as being less effective than they really are.  The marketplace positions them in their mind as an average provider, because the free information they give away is average.  They are under-marketing themselves and their abilities.  For content marketing to work, your free material needs to be good enough to inspire people to subscribe to you, get in touch with you and link to you.  It also needs to be compelling enough to motivate people to share your blog, newsletter or whatever, with their social network. People will only do that when the information they receive is valuable enough.

I have never held back information from this blog, in case it’s too valuable to give away for free.  You know what though?  I do the opposite all the time.  I often refuse to publish posts here, because they are just not good enough for you.  That’s a fundamental of successful content marketing.  Give away as much high quality information as you can, and attract the attention, interest and respect of your marketplace.  Show them what you know.

Content marketing and your business

If you like the idea of attracting clients (rather than pursuing them) and want to know more about content marketing, I have some GREAT news for you!  I shall be making a very special announcement shortly, regarding an exciting, new content marketing program.  This is NOT the typical; ebook, premium blog content and a few webinars – It’s the chance for you and I to work together, 1-to-1, on the development of the perfect content marketing strategy for you and your business. 

If you want to know more, keep an extra close eye on the blog over the coming days!

Twitter: How I attracted more traffic and more followers by doing less

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As a marketing guy, I am always testing ways to make things more effective.  What follows is my experience, after a simple 5 day Twitter experiment, which was just a bit of fun, yet led to some interesting results and totally changed the way I use Twitter!

Here’s what I did and what the results were:

I elected not to tweet any links to this blog and then see what impact it had on my traffic.

Here is what happened.  By the way, you can join me on Twitter here.

Traffic from Twitter

Before I started, I expected to see a slight drop in traffic from Twitter.  Surely, if I am not Tweeting links here, fewer people would know about my posts – right?

Wrong!

Instead, traffic from Twitter increased by close to 300% over those 5 days.  This is reflected in the diagram later in the post.  Now, on the first few days, I sent a tweet out, which alerted people that I was not tweeting links to new posts here.  Obviously, those tweets had no links in them and didn’t generate additional traffic, as I monitored real-time traffic from Twitter and there was no measurable increase.  The reason was simply to let people know that nothing was wrong .

So, why the increase in traffic?

It seems this blogs readers and my Twitter “followers” picked up the slack!  Knowing I wasn’t tweeting links to my posts here, they did it for me.  Now, I am not sure how this would pan out if I carried the experiment out over 6 months, but certainly over the 5 days, my online network were a lot more active in promoting my posts.  I also saw lots of new faces showing up in my Twitter stream; people sharing my posts, who I had never heard of or seen previously.

Tuesday saw the highest traffic day to this blog in its history.  This was the result of several factors, ranging from some well connected Facebook and Twitter users sharing that days post, (which ironically was how to get more traffic using Twitter) and that post being featured on a number of popular sites, including webpronews. I have looked to see if these events could be traced to the experiment and it’s impossible to say yes or no with 100% certainty.

I am not a big believer in coincidences and I believe it’s entirely possible that with so many new people sharing my posts this week, it brought my blog to the attention of those publishers, Twitter users and Facebook users.

Here’s what happened to traffic as a result, compared to the past 6 months:

Blog subscriber numbers

One of the challenges with using Twitter to inform people of your latest posts, is that you eliminate the need for your followers, to subscribe to your blog.  In essence, you are training them not to subscribe to your primary social hub! If they decide to stop using Twitter or you decide to drop it for the next big thing, you can lose a lot of readers, very quickly.

For me, this alone is a good reason NOT to train people to use Twitter as the way to subscribe to your blog.

Some caveats

This was just a fun experiment, carried out over a very short time-scale; rather than the kind of marketing research I would carry out to get the heavy detail required for a fully-fledged project.  You should NOT use these conclusions as the basis of a change in your own Twitter use!

It is also extremely important to mention that the results would have looked VERY different, if I did not already have lots of great people, who regularly share this blog with their followers.  In addition, Twitter accounts for a tiny amount of my daily visitors here, behind; Google, RSS, Facebook, back links and Stumbleupon.  Once my largest source of traffic, Twitter has grown slower than all my other marketing channels.  In other words, I wasn’t risking much.

As I hope I have made very clear, this brief experiment was intended to see what the short-term results would be, by not using Twitter to share my new posts each day.  I had no idea that the results over such a short period, would be so interesting; which is why I intend to change my Twitter use over the longer term now, as I explain in a moment.

I find it interesting that the past 5 days coincided with my best traffic day ever and a sharp increase in follower numbers, see below.  Note, the numbers were increasing fastest from the 13th, not the 12th, which was the heavy traffic day.

Conclusions

For now, I have decided to only share posts on Twitter, which are related to Twitter (like this one) or posts that I believe have particular relevance to the people I connect with there.  Previously, I shared every post on Twitter twice: Once in the morning and again in the afternoon or evening.

I’m really curious how the numbers will look, over a longer period.  Any marketing professional worth their salt will tell you that you need good data to reach accurate conclusions.  On something like this, you need to be working with a larger set of data.  I will, of course, share my findings with you.

So, for the foreseeable future, I will be using my Twitter time primarily to share YOUR great posts and connect more with you.

IMPORTANT:  If you usually catch up with my latest posts via Twitter and don’t want to miss anything, subscribe to the blog or get new posts delivered direct to your inbox, using the “Free Updates” box at the top right of this page.

Get more traffic from Twitter with these 6 great headline tips

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So, you have all those followers on Twitter and yet when you tweet a link to your latest blog post…..nothing much happens!

Why did so few of those hundreds (or thousands) of your followers click your link; after all, it’s a great post?

Your headline let you down!

People will ONLY click your links and read your content, if the headline or title is compelling enough.  If just a small percentage of your followers are clicking on your links, it’s because the headline isn’t selling that link to your followers.  It’s not compelling them enough, to make them want to click through to your site and find out more.  Unless they do that, they will never know how great your posts are, which is why headlines are easily the most important element of your content.

Your headlines or titles are what open the door to your content.  To succeed, your content has to be effective too, but nothing happens until people actually READ what you have written and your headline is what either encourages them to read the first line of your material – Or not.  Get the headline wrong and you make it very hard for your content to get noticed.

6 headline secrets behind yesterday’s post

To show you what I mean, I will use the example of yesterday’s post, which was extremely successful.  It’s title was: Build a great client list with this 1 simple idea.  Here are six of the secrets behind it.

The headline didn’t try and do everything.  There was enough information in that headline to explain what the post was about and get the reader curious.  To discover what the “1 simple idea” is, the reader has to click through.  The more curious you can make someone, the more likely they are to take action; in this case click a link.

The headline was relevant to my readers. It was a marketing related headline and my friends on social networks connect with me because they are interested in marketing.

The headline made a compelling promise.  Every headline makes a promise to the reader.  The promise of that headline, is that if they click that link, I will give them some valuable information, which will help them with a huge problem; attracting better clients.  The post content delivers on the promise, which is essential if you want people to come back!  A great headline, which points to a post that fails to deliver on the headline’s promise, will cause people to feel cheated and stop them trusting your headlines and links in future.

The headline let people know it was easy. Part of the headline’s promise, is that they will learn this valuable information, quickly and easily.  It’s just 1 simple idea.  This requires little time investment from the reader, with the potential to learn some valuable business information.

The headline didn’t keyword stuff. Some people seem to believe that the only way to attract search engine traffic, is to stuff their headlines with keywords.  This is flawed for 2 reasons.

  1. You can SEO your posts, by making the version of the title which people see, different from the version which search engines see.  If you use WordPress, there are plugins that allow you to do this.  If, like me, you use the Headway WordPress Theme, (affiliate link) you don’t need to mess around with plugins, it’s there out of the box (along with a ton of other great SEO features!)
  2. Your content, including titles, should be written for people, NOT search engines.  If you try and write posts that appeal to search engines rather than people, even if someone does find your site on Google or Bing etc, it will read poorly and therefore fail to convert them into subscribers, clients or customers.

The headline wasn’t clever. Some people write clever headlines, which lack any compelling reason for a busy person to click their link.  They are often abstract or cryptic, rather than interest grabbing and inspiring.

Headlines are important so give them the time they deserve

There are very few things in life, which come with a guarantee, however, I can guarantee that if you make your blog post titles more compelling, you will definitely get more traffic from social networks and feedreaders.

Invest as much time as is required, to get your headlines as attractive as possible and just watch the increase in your blogging results.

Consider the source – ALWAYS consider the source!

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Here’s a quick tip, which can help you avoid wasting your time and your money.  It’s based around just 3 words: Consider the source.

Consider the source

Much of the information out there, particularly business related information, is biased.  As a result, a lot of people have either bought something they don’t need or they are paying for a service they get little if any real value from.  They bought into a sales message, often because they didn’t consider the source or realise how biased it was.

It’s not a case of people deliberately misleading us, pretending their products or services are just what we need when they are not.  In many cases, probably most cases, people genuinely believe that what they are recommending to us is the answer to our problems.  The thing is, they are often wrong and if we act on their recommendations without considering the source, we pay the price.

Consider the source: The problem with hammers

Abraham Maslow said:

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

Maslow’s point, was that people who are incomplete in their knowledge of solutions, propose the same type of answer to every problem they encounter.  So, if they are a keen user of a marketing tool which works for them, they will often believe that it is an essential investment for everyone in business.

An extremely common example of this kind of hammer and nail thinking is the way email marketing software is marketed. Yes, email marketing software, such as auto-responders, do have their place and for some people, they can be great; but unless you consider the source, you’d think you needed it, when you might be far better off using something more akin to your needs.

For instance, I don’t use email marketing software or email auto-responder services and I don’t write an email newsletter – Yet I have a rapidly growing email subscriber list of thousands.  Marketing genius Seth Godin, no longer offers an email newsletter either!  Why?  Because he doesn’t need to and neither do I.

We blog regularly and get emails in front of prospective clients all the time, because (in my case) over 65% of my readers receive this blog via email.  I use a Mailchimp account, which allows me to deliver these blog posts, via email, to anyone who selects it; using that orange box on the top right of my blog.  If I have something I want to promote, I don’t need to send anyone marketing emails.  I simply share it here on the blog and it will arrive, at a set time, in thousands of inboxes.  It works REALLY well and helped me sell almost £130,000 in services and products last year.

I recommend email marketing to many of my clients and my point here is certainly not to bash it.  As some of you may know, I once wrote a very popular marketing newsletter, which was extremely successful.  I’m simply using the way email marketing software and services are marketed as an example.  The exact same point could have been made using; networking groups, newspaper and magazine advertising, mailing lists, blogging, pay-per-click and just about every other form of marketing.

So, before you decide to part with your hard earned money, or act on some free advice, always consider the source.  Is the person being paid to promote a certain marketing tool?  Are they knowledgeable enough about marketing, to be able to give you the right advice?

The bottom line: When you consider the source, you get a fer better insight as to the quality and accuracy of the information.

How to improve all your marketing with this 1 great idea!

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Get noticed

Enthusiasm is contagious.  It spreads like a virus, infecting everyone who comes into contact with it.  In today’s post, I’m going to share some ideas regarding how you can tap into the viral power of enthusiasm, to improve just about every area of your sales and marketing!

Enthusiasm, sales and referrals

One of the finest testimonials I ever heard, regarding the power of enthusiasm in sales, is this:

A successful sale always starts with the transfer of enthusiasm.

As a direct result, by speaking or writing with enthusiasm, we increase the sales potential of every commercial interaction we have.  Of course, this also breeds confidence and when people feel both enthusiastic and confident about us and our services, they not only buy from us; they also feel confident recommending us to their friends too. Think about it, when was the last time you recommended someone or something, which you had a bad feeling about?  Never, right?

Enthusiasm in business

Given the incredible power of enthusiasm, I find it mind blowing that the vast majority of business owners sound so pedestrian, when communicating with the written or spoken word.  For example, we get those marketing emails and letters, telling us; “I have some information you may be interested in regarding our new XYZ service.”  Instead of; “I have a great idea to share with you Bob, which will be of genuine value to you and your business!”  The latter message inspires confidence and is motivating, for former message does nothing.

Some people confuse enthusiasm with cockiness.  They think that by standing firmly behind your products or services, that you somehow sound pushy.  The reality could not be further form the truth.  The reality is that by sounding meek and pedestrian when we speak about our business, we do ourselves a huge disservice.  We show ourselves to be less than we are and our services to be less than they are too.  We give those who see our messages every reason to doubt us.  That’s an insane way to market anything!

The power of enthusiasm in your business

If you genuinely believe that your business offers great value or amazing service, SAY SO!  Spread your enthusiasm all over the marketplace.

Here’s a quick tip.  Review your marketing messages, online and offline, and check to see if you have pumped your enthusiasm and passion into your copy.  Ask yourself:

  • Will people read what you have written and feel inspired?
  • Will people hear your message and feel motivated to call you, email you or visit you?
  • Will they hear what you have to say and feel compelled to learn more about you, your business, products or services?

If not, that message is almost certainly massively under performing.  Either rewrite these messages yourself or (recommended) find a copywriter who can put into words, the passion you feel for your business and your complete confidence in your products or services.

Photo: Kodomut

What’s your plan B?

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How good is your back up plan?

As some of you may have noticed, this site was down for around 25 minutes earlier today.  There was a problem, caused by a plugin that was creating gigabytes and gigabytes of data, which had been installed on one of my test sites.

Part of the problem, was that the database for this blog had became corrupted.  In other words, every post and every comment was unreadable and the sites were inaccessible.

So, I put my blog continuity plan into action

Plan B started with a call to the guys at WebFusion, where my dedicated server is based.  I told them my blogs were down and within minutes, one of their tech support guys, Oliver Burkill, had taken ownership of the problem and started resolving the issue.  He identified what was wrong and was then able to get the blogs back up, using back-up copies, which are generated each day.  What could have been a nightmare, was averted.  Though I lost some comments, the site was live and 100% stable again in minutes.

The 2 ingredients of my blog continuity plan were:

  1. WebFusion: A super-responsive tech support team for my dedicated server.
  2. Reliable, off site back-ups:  I had copy of each site, stored at a different location.

WebFusion:  Although this problem was nothing to do with by hosting provider, it did give me my first opportunity to see how they responded when there was a serious problem.  I want to start by saying that WebFusion sponsor this blog, though I was a happy customer well before that.

Since moving my sites to WebFusion last year, I have enjoyed 100% up-time.  That kind of 100% reliability is extremely important for me.  I want this site to be here, for you, when YOU need it. I want it to respond quickly and for you to have faith in it.  WebFusion’s response to my phone call (around 20 seconds) and their eagerness to take ownership of the problem, justified my faith in them completely. It has made me an even more passionate advocate of their dedicated hosting services.

By the way, I am not an affiliate of WebFusion, so I don’t get paid for you clicking on their links.  I recommend them because I trust them and consider them a key part of my blog’s team.

Is their service cheap?  No, there are cheaper providers.  Is it value for money? ABSOLUTELY!

Reliable backups:  If I had not implemented a back-up strategy for my blogs, there’s a very good chance that I would have lost most, if not all, my blog posts and comments.  The data files had become corrupted and I don’t want to think about how hard it would have been to rebuild almost 3 years worth of data (and that’s just this site!)

I have a service in place, which creates a back-up of my blogs and sends them to a separate server.  There are many services offering that facility, as well as some plugins for wordpress, which offer back-up functionality.  Whatever solution you pick, make sure you get something in place BEFORE you need it.  As they say, you have to back it up, if you want to get it back.  I use a back-up facility that saves my data on a different server, so that if the hard drives on my actual server failed, the off site back-ups would not be impacted.  If you have a commercial blog, I recommend you get the most reliable back-up solution possible.

All in all, the damage was confined to the loss of around 20 comments, which were left here in the period after the last back-up was made.  These were mainly on this post from yesterday.  I also lost around 25 minutes of up time.  When I think about the damage that would have been done had the past 3 years of posts and comments been lost, it blows my mind.  I would also like to publicly thank; Oli Burkill, Richard Winslow and Craig for their help today.

If you have a business blog and you value the content, make sure you have the best tech support, server reliability and back-up systems you can get.  Take action now, before you need it.

Never let a troll steal your dreams!

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I received a call earlier from a friend, who is also a fellow blogger.  After years of giving free information to her blog’s community, she added a relevant advertisement to the sidebar of her blog.

Seems reasonable, right?

Well, it turns out she was emailed by a reader, who is also a blogger.  He called her everything from a sell-out to a hypocrite.  He hated that she now had this small ad on the site.  She has over 7,000 RSS subscribers and his was the only complaint in the 3 weeks since she added the 250 X 250 ad.  I suggested she check his blog out.  It was a poorly-written, amateur looking blog, which hadn’t been updated since June 2010!

Trolls are gonna troll!

In my experience, one of the defining characteristics of people who seem to be going nowhere, is that they waste their time dishing out advice to others, rather than working on their own challenges.  They are happier to piss all over your parade, rather than build something of value themselves.  They choose to get their kicks by throwing stones at those with the attributes they lack, rather than working on their own personal or professional development.

The bottom line: Don’t allow these vocal, yet typically inept, people to get in the way of your goals or dreams.  In fact, their very presence is often a good indicator of your own success!

What everyone needs to know about their website or blog!

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What kind of first impression do you create, when people find you online?

I often follow links from Twitter and Facebook to small business websites and blogs.  A lot of the time, these sites look amateur, dated or both.  No matter how good the actual services offered by these businesses are, their shoddy Internet presence means most people won’t take them seriously!  Prospective clients arrive, see a low quality site and instantly build a negative initial impression of that person or business.

Mixed messages

When we say one thing and then do something else, we create what’s called a mixed message.  Mixed messages create confusion, which is the fastest way to lose business or miss a sale.  One of the oldest sayings in marketing is:

“A confused mind always says NO!”

In other words, if someone is asked to make a buying decision when they are confused, they will typically say “no!” and just keep things as they are.  If you promise people a solid, professional service, your website or blog needs to look solid and professional too.  If they find a site that looks cheap or unprofessional, you are giving your prospective clients a mixed message, which creates confusion and loses you business.

First impressions count

First impressions are extremely important in marketing and business generally.  You need to ensure that when someone arrives at your website, they see something which gives a great account of you and your services and positions you in their mind as a professional.  Your site should confirm your promises.  It should clearly show that you have a professional attitude to business.  If it doesn’t, it will be costing you a fortune in missed business and opportunities.

Depending on which survey you read between 85% and 95% of people, will visit the site of a potential vendor, before deciding to do business with them.  This means it’s extremely important that what they find when they arrive at YOUR site, inspires them to feel confident about you and your services.

How I resolved this problem

I resolved this problem, by building this site using something called Headway.  It allowed me to build a site myself, even though I know nothing about code or web designing.  You can see a video of Headway in action, using this affiliate link.  Since moving this site to Headway, I have been able to improve my online presence and have total control over the look and feel of this site.  It’s one of the best commercial investments I ever made and it cost peanuts (about the same as a game for my son’s xbox!)

Alternatively, you can hire a web designer and commission them to build you a site.  If you take that route, I suggest you find a site you love the look and feel of and find out who designed it.

The bottom line: Anyone can have a professional looking website or blog, regardless of their budget.  There’s just no need to lose all that potential business.  This is really important, if you are serious about your marketing results and the image of your business!

The Robot and The Guinea Pig

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Marketing genius Seth Godin made a great point with the title of his book; “All marketers tell stories.”  He’s right.  As small business owners, we each have many stories to tell, as we seek to connect with, inform and of course engage our marketplace.  Our ability to get the message right, so that our story has the desired impact, is pivotal to this.

A great story

My 5 year old son recently wrote a story, called; “The Robot and The Guinea Pig.”  His storytelling contained a number of elements that really impressed me.  His title was very catchy, which is why I used it here.  The story wasn’t too long and it showed a lot of creative thinking.  It’s wonderful to watch him develop his vocabulary and creativity.

I wrote a while back about Earl Nightingale and how he used to talk about the inoculation theory of education. It’s where young adults study, get qualified and then use their qualifications / graduation as a way to inoculate themselves from having to study any more.  I believe that as business owners, we need to adopt a very different approach.  We need to constantly strive to learn more about the elements of our business that matter, and in the 21st century, this includes the ability to create interesting content.

Over on Internet Marketing Jam, I talk a lot about content marketing.  One of the cornerstones of content marketing, is to produce valuable information, (blog posts, newsletters, videos, articles etc) as a way to inform your target market, build your reputation with them as an expert.  You then need to convert them from being a (passive) reader, to being an (active) participant.  You want them to get active, so they; subscribe to your blog, join your newsletter list, email you for information on your services or buy from you etc.

Building your storytelling muscles

With content playing such a pivotal part in the success of your marketing, it makes sense for you to invest as much time as possible, learning how to share your story and earn people’s interest.  For example, we should always bee seeking to improve how well we:

  • Capture people’s attention with our titles and headlines.
  • Inspire people to share our material with their social networks.
  • Compel people to pick up a phone and call us or email us for more information about our products or services.
  • Motivate people to buy from us or hire us.

I genuinely don’t believe that there are any quick fixes to learning how to be a great copywriter, but I do know how you can massively increase how well you write in the medium and longer term.

Are you ready?

Do it – And do it often!

One of the best ways to improve your ability to produce great content, is to practice.  Get your best written material out there and measure the feedback.  Listen to what the marketplace is telling you, something that is especially easy with online copywriting.  You can see, very clearly, how a page on your website or how a post on your blog is working.

Even basic tools like Google analytics will allow you to see how many people read that page and what they do once they arrive.  You can tell how long they stay on the page, and what exit route they take.  You can literally watch how “traffic” flows through your site and see what’s blocking people from getting in touch with you, subscribing to your newsletter or buying from you.

If your content is NOT getting the results you want, make one change and then measure the impact.  By repeating this process, it’s possible to significantly increase your online results and learn how to write the kind of content you need.

6 ways to quickly improve your profile

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How do you think people feel about you and your business, when they discover you online?

The reason this matters to small business owners, is that feelings are the key factor in whether someone buys from you or not.  We do business with people we feel good about and avoid people we have a bad feeling about.  We buy things that feel just right and avoid buying things that feel wrong.  In fact, it’s often said that the decision to buy a new house, the biggest single purchase most people will ever make, is based on the way they feel about the house in the first 60 seconds!

Online profiles and the feelings they create

In my experience, small business owners tend to have 1 of the following 2 broad approaches to what they share with the world on their blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin etc:

  1. The first group writes in positive terms about their business and the marketplace.  Even if times are challenging for them, we wouldn’t know because they talk about what they want, rather than what they fear.  Of course, their enthusiasm builds confidence in them and their business, which creates a positive circle of events, as people are attracted to them – Giving them even more to be positive about.
  2. The second group write in largely neutral terms about their business and the marketplace.  However, their lack of enthusiasm fails to inspire confidence in them or their business.  Some seem to confuse being confident, with being boastful.  Others fail to share their positive news, for fear that it may make people resent them for what they have achieved.

6 things to think about

I strongly believe you should be confident enough to get your stars out and show the world your brilliant self.  Here are 6 suggestions, to help your prospective clients get a glimpse of the REAL YOU and how amazing you truly are, when they check you out online.   Use your blog and social media accounts to:

  1. Talk (and write) about what you want, not what you fear.  Prospective clients might not want to do business with someone, if they think that person may be about to go out of business, after reading how bad things are.
  2. Share your successes.
  3. Show your gratitude.  Be fast to thank.  Be first to thank.
  4. Show your willingness to contribute.
  5. Share your uniqueness.  It’s hard to get noticed unless you are willing to step out of the crowd.  Don’t be a human RT  / “like” machine for the gurus!
  6. Showcase other great people.

Never confuse confidence with arrogance.  Have the confidence to share your successes, but also the humility to readily celebrate the beauty and uniqueness of others.

WordPress.com for business: Think first!

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WordPress is, in my opinion, the finest blogging software in the world.  Little wonder then, that the vast majority of the world’s top blogs run on Matt Mullenwegg‘s brain child.  It’s the only blogging software I use and the only one I recommend.

WordPress.com offer a free version of WordPress, hosted on their own servers, which has proven extremely successful, and this free version is what today’s post is all about.

You see, although the free WordPress.com service is amazing, it has significant issues for some business users.

WordPress.com, advertising and you

The main issue is the idea of building your blog, knowing that you do not have the freedom to use it the way you want to.  This is a particular problem for those of you, who would like to make money from advertising on your blog or earn affiliate income; 2 of the most popular ways to monetize a commercial blog.

Even this blog, with just 1 affiliate, would fall foul of the terms regarding a free WordPress.com blog and would be suspended!  This can be a lot more severe than it may sound.  Here’s a direct quote explaining what can happen to suspended WordPress.com blogs:

“If a blog has been suspended for violating our terms, its domain/URL and content will not be returned.” From the suspended blogs page on WordPress.com

You will also be suspended, if you decide to run adsense etc on your blog.  Here’s what they say on the advertising page, in the WordPress.com support section.

Adsense, Yahoo, Chitika, TextLinkAds and other ads are not allowed on free WordPress.com blogs. If you would like to run ads on your blog, one of these options may work for you:

We have a feature called Ad Control that lets WordPress.com bloggers with a lot of traffic (generally 25,000 pageviews/month or more) and appropriate content turn on AdSense and Skimlinks for their blog and split the resulting revenues 50/50 with us.

So, you can actually advertise on WordPress.com, but only if you get your blog delivering 25,000 or more page views a month AND you pay WordPress 50% of the money you make!

If you’re OK about working for years to build that kind of readership, and then giving half your income away, it’s an option.  Why any business savvy person would do that is beyond me.  To have that much traffic and give half your earnings away, just for some free hosting, makes no commercial sense whatsoever.

Automattic is right to charge businesses for a business service

Automattic, the company that owns WordPress, is totally right to charge for what they do, when business users want to benefit from their services.  That’s my point.  If you want to monetize your site with ads then WordPress.com is a paid for service, not a free one.  Equally, there’s no option I can see, to allow you to use your affiliate accounts on WordPress.com – free or paid versions. (If you know otherwise, please let me know including links and I will update the post.)

Vague areas

My understanding is that you are allowed to mention your business on a free WordPress blog and even mention special deals you have, but there seems to be a great deal that’s unclear about what WordPress consider appropriate and inappropriate.

For example, in a section on WordPress.com regarding the types of blog you are not allowed to have, they actually mention pyramid selling and MLM in the same sentence, and seem unaware that one is a legitimate business whilst the other is illegal in most countries.  Putting these in the same category is also rather insulting to those working hard and ethically in Multi Level Marketing, and makes it hard to see how an MLM business owner could use the platform and stay within their rules.

In my experience, it makes a lot more sense for you to simply build a blog, like this one, using the excellent WordPress software, and place it on the best hosting you can afford.  It starts from around $5 a month.  This gives you freedom to build your legitimate online business, your way and retain all your income.  You are also free to use whatever plugins you need, giving you and your readers a huge amount of added functionality.

WordPress.com and you

As I said at the beginning, I love the WordPress software, but believe that their limitations may make their free hosting service a poor choice for some business bloggers and entrepreneurs.  It seems WordPress agrees, as one of the suggestions they offer to people who want to make money from their blog, is for them to do exactly as I suggested and get a self-hosted version of WordPress from WordPress.org.  I also have concerns regarding the vague nature of what a WordPress.com moderator may regard as inappropriate, (thus suspending your account.)  Just look at how they categorised MLM and pyramid selling together.

I would like to know your feedback, regarding WordPress.com as a business blogging platform.  Maybe you believe that their free hosting is worth the price (millions of people do)?  Whatever your feedback regarding this amazing platform, I would love to hear from you!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Image: WordPress

Disclosure matters

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I decided to add a disclosure page to this blog.

I assumed that as I seldom link to the only affiliate product I have and the blog’s sponsor is clearly referred to as such, there was little point.

I then saw something that made me reconsider, very quickly!

I was prompted to write that brief page, after reading several disclosure pages on some popular blogs; which had so many caveats that just about anything they wrote could be some kind of paid endorsement.  It was extremely illuminating and I suggest that you check out any disclosure pages on the blogs you read.

My affiliate partner and sponsor

I am an independent blogger, with no cross marketing agreements with anyone.  If I say I think a particular blog or product or service is great, it’s because I believe it.  For example, I was openly recommending my hosting provider, WebFusion, before they started sponsoring the blog.  Five months after going onto one of their dedicated servers, I am still on 100% up time!  It’s easy to recommend something like that, knowing how many people are stuck on unreliable hosting.  I wasted a long time on deadbeat hosts before finding them.  BTW: I get paid nothing if you click their banner, it’s just a link to their site.

With my one and only affiliate, it was a very similar story.  I had been recommending Headway (the WordPress theme this blog’s built on), to people for 6 months, before I decided to become an affiliate.

Even if you have little to disclose, I think it’s a very good idea to put it up there so people can see.

92 reasons to invest in your business blog

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Thursday morning, I checked my email at 7:30, to find that 83 of you had emailed me following Wednesday’s post and a further 9 people had called my office.  The post offered a place on my mentoring program and was not published until 3:45pm Wednesday, making those 92 requests even more amazing.

Your incredible response, both in volume and in speed, confirmed the marketing effectiveness of having a blog.  Yes, like every other form of marketing, blogging only works when handled correctly.  Copying what 99% of sites do, will all but guarantee failure, but for those who decide to learn how to blog effectively, the results can be stunning.  As of Friday morning, I have had a total of 117 genuine inquiries for that single spot on my program.

Based on my fee and typical conversion rate, the small blog post I wrote on Wednesday would have generated at least £90,000 in fee income, if I had an empty client list!

You, blogging, time and money

How different would your client list, income and lifestyle look right now, if you could generate over 100 client inquiries from a post like the one I wrote on Wednesday?  OK, that was a rhetorical question.  Here’s a direct question for you:

“Is that kind of potential inspiring enough to you, for you to commit to invest the time and money needed to make it happen?”

Sadly, very, very few small business owners are willing to resource their blog properly.  Some will invest the time required, but refuse to pay for expert help, even though their blog clearly isn’t generating what they need.  Others will invest in the expert help that’s essential, but refuse to invest the time that’s required.  Many will do neither.

My investment

I’ve invested the time required to write around 800 posts.  That kind of commitment means I wrote for you on days when I was ill and days when I had other deadlines to meet.  But I still turned up.  I have also invested  around £6,000 on this blog so far, though my hosting is now sponsored by WebFusion (that’s not an affiliate link, just a link to their site.)  That’s my commitment so far and I will continue to invest more time and more money.

What next?

If you have a business blog that’s under-performing, get serious about it.  Listen to what your blog is telling you.  If it isn’t generating the results you need, stop!  Invest in some expert help.  There may be one small element you are getting wrong, which when corrected will transform your results.

As Einstein said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results!” Be one of the tiny minority of small business owners, who does the right things, correctly.  Oh, and if you DO pay for expert help -TAKE IT!

If you don’t currently have a business blog and are thinking of starting one, start off with a commitment to do it right.  If you can’t afford to do it right, save some money, do some research and then launch correctly; knowing what to do, so you start off in the right direction.

Give your blog everything it needs and it will give you all the high quality business you can possibly handle.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Join me for a year!

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Have you been thinking about joining my marketing mentor program; where I work with you for a whole year, helping you to grow your business and boost your profits?

Well, if you have, I’ve some very good news for you.

There is a position available in just THREE WEEKS!

You can find out more about the program here, along with how to get in touch.  This really is a great opportunity for us to work together on the marketing and development of your business and for you to benefit from the most powerful strategies I know.

If you are interested, I recommend you get in touch as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Content scraping: Someone built a site from content scraped off my blog

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17th May UPDATE:

The person identified in this post has now been in touch with me and explained that the issue was not caused by them directly, but a web-designer, who was apparently using my content on this person’s site, without the person being aware.  In view of this and the damage it would cause to this person’s reputation (and because I am a very nice guy) I have removed the mentions of this person’s name from the post and the 2 images, which showed how a replica of this blog was made using my content.

I recently had someone build a whole site, from content they scraped from this blog!  So, I thought I would talk a little about content scraping and show you what it looks like, (literally, there are pictures so make sure you have images turned on if you read this post via email!)

Content scraping

Content scraping is what happens when someone takes content from your site, without permission, and uses it to populate their sites; often claiming they wrote it.  Content scrapers are being encouraged to continue, because search engines have still not figured out how to block those sites from their search results.  So, they populate a site filled with other peoples content and then use that content to attract traffic, which they use to sell ads and in some cases, infect visitors with malware.

I have a LOT of sites who use my content every day, without attribution.  The example below, called (name removed), is something different though.  They not only scraped my blog posts, without naming me as the author, they also scraped my pages, including the page that sells my services, my audio program and my “Top Marketing Tips” page, see image below:

Images removed:

Here’s my original. See below:

Before I continue, I would like to point out that I tried to speak with “name removedt” last week but only managed to get through to one of their colleagues.  They are now aware of the site.  I left my contact details, however, name removed has not contacted me back. (see update at head of post!)

It seems that this example is not a regular scraping exercise to sell ads, but rather an attempt to build an entire site with my content, which I assume will then be sold to someone as a business opportunity.  They may decide to keep it and add advertisements later, of course.

Extremely common

In reality, there is not a great deal you can do.  In the above example, I am based in the UK and the site is hosted in The United States.  This means you are dealing with international law.  Other sites using my stuff without attribution are hosted all over the world.

You can contact the company hosting the site and ask them to remove it.  Past experience suggests this is almost always a long-winded waste of time, as the hosting company either refuses to do anything, or the site is simply moved to another host.  Equally, it’s hard to identify who is behind content scraping, as they usually steal someone’s identity, which I think has happened with the example above.  I don’t believe name removed had anything to do with this.

NB: I will update this post if name removed responds!

Content scraping tip: Insert links

The reason I see so many of these scrapers using my work, is that I have at least 1 link in every post I write, which points back to this blog.  As soon as my work is scraped and then published, I get a notification of their link.  I found this to be more immediate and a lot more accurate than setting up Google alerts.

Some scrapers have my posts live on their blogs within 5 minutes of me publishing them.  The reason it’s so fast, is that they usually do the whole thing using software.  As soon as one of my posts reaches their RSS feed, it’s published on their blog as a post.

Attribution

All the content on this site is licensed under creative commons.  In other words, you are VERY WELCOME to use my posts on your site or in your newsletters, so long as you attribute them to me under the terms of that license.  Most sites that use my content do this.  Probably 99%.  In such cases, I actually benefit from them sharing my work.  They allow me to reach new people, whilst being able to share something they found useful with their readers.  Win-win.

Google has recently claimed to be cracking down on scraped content, so that it no longer ranks as highly in their search results.  The hope is that this will make it unattractive for people to scrape content.  It remains to be seen if this will have any positive impact.  Certainly I am seeing no drop in the number of scraper sites that use my work each day.

What are your experiences or opinions?

Do you know of any effective strategies for dealing with content scraping, which you would like to share?  Do sites scrape your content?

Please share your thoughts!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Marketing copywriting: The power of reasons

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Today, I thought I would share a very quick, yet very powerful copywriting idea with you.  It’s all about the power of reasons and it can dramatically improve your copywriting results!

The power of reasons

If you give someone a request, it has been proven time and again that they are massively more likely to comply, if you give them a reason.  By the way, Brian Clark covers this as part of this excellent persuasive writing post on copyblogger.

As you might expect, if you give people a GREAT reason to do something, there’s a good chance they will do it.  However, even if you give them a relatively weak reason, they are still more likely to take action, than if you give a request, with no reason.  In other words, from a conversion perspective, it’s best to explain WHY you want someone to do something, rather than just ask them.

Here’s an example of what I mean.  Imagine you want people to to subscribe to your newsletter.  You would almost certainly get a significantly better response by offering them a reason to subscribe, rather than just asking them to.  Look at the following 2 requests:

Subscribe to our newsletter today.

Or

Subscribe to our newsletter today, for the latest news, information and special offers.

So, whenever you ask your readers to do something, give them a reason.  The better the reason, the more likely they are to proceed.  If you want to show your friends how helpful, wise (and cool) you are, share this post with them!

…see what I did there ;)

The secret to attracting great, FREE media publicity

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In yesterday’s post, I wrote about the importance of getting your stars out; a term I use to describe showcasing any references to you or your work in the media.  One of the people who commented on that post, asked a good question.  He wanted to know how to get that kind of media publicity, where you are referenced as an expert in your field.

That’s what today’s post is about!

The most typical route, is to hire a kick-ass PR agency and get them to use their skills and contacts each time you want to be mentioned.  That’s not how I did it and it’s not what I am going to cover in this post.  I would like to share an alternative approach, based around my concept of combining visibility with being remarkable.  As I have said here many times before, if you want to generate word of mouth publicity, you need to be remarkable in some way.

People remark on that which is remarkable.  The media are no different.

Being remarkable

If you are a designer, coach, accountant, advisor, even a GREAT one, that’s probably not enough for The BBC or a national newspaper to call you.  There needs to be something remarkable about you, before those guys remark on you.  Before the media became interested in me, I had worked hard for years to get a lot of people talking about me.  I had developed a newsletter, with thousands of readers, which contained marketing ideas and advice that was powerful and often very different from the conventional wisdom of that time.  People started seeing amazing sales results from my work, so they spread the word.

I often found myself going against the flow, which was also a great way to capture people’s attention.  For example,in the mid 1990’s, I was telling people to give away as much free advice as they could.  My fellow marketing professionals said I was insane!  Today, we call it content marketing or tutorial marketing and it’s commonplace; thanks to the advent some years later of business blogging.  I got noticed, by doing what I believed was right and saying it with conviction, without seeking permission from anyone.  A few years ago, when lots of marketing people switched to being “social media gurus” I decided to pass.  Today, many of the top social media people are transitioning away from social media, into becoming personal development and self-help gurus.

Remarkable people

One of the people attracted to my different style of marketing, was my good friend, the Grammy Award winner, Bruce Elliott-Smith.  When I saw Bruce picking up his award in Hollywood, it was hard to believe that when we first met in the 1990’s, he ran a great little insurance business.  He was as hard working and dynamic in that business, as he is today.  A great way to get people talking about you is to do remarkable things, with remarkable people.  My long term association with Bruce and his reference to me as “a legend when it comes to results” was a door-opener, when it came to media exposure.

When I coached a BBC presenter live on air, during her first ever radio program, it generated a lot of interest in me.  However, it was the legwork I did in the years before that day, which encouraged them to call me to be the guest on Lara King’s first solo show.  The fact I am media trained and was already a regular BBC contributor, meant they knew who to call.

Showing how remarkable you truly are

In short, whilst there are many tricks you can employ to gain the attention of the media, the real secret is to be visible and remarkable.  You don’t need to do anything earth shattering, I certainly haven’t (yet), but you do need to be prepared to stand up and stand out.

  • It means taking the opposite approach, to what you see every day online, where grown adults follow and quote Internet gurus, like sheep.
  • It means avoiding going with the flow, when you think the flow is flowing toward bullshit.
  • It means developing your own ideas and having faith in them.
  • It means having the courage to risk being wrong.
  • It means being you.  Being proud of who you are and confident in what you believe.

The more you try to blend in, rather than express your unique individuality, the less remarkable, (which in this sense reads newsworthy), you become.

Here are 2 quick tips you can get working on right now, to get the right people talking about, and to, you:

Your visibility – Get yourself a blog and use it as a super-effective platform for people to find you and discover your story.  Pack it with YOUR thoughts.  Update it regularly and watch what happens.  If your message is compelling enough, people will share it across their social networks and they will link to it.  When you get the links, you start getting search traffic.  This makes you easier to find, when the next reporter or journalist is looking for an informed opinion in your field of business.

Your remarkable self –  When they discover you, make it very clear that they have just found someone with something new/fresh to say.  The less your site reads just like all the others, the better.  Why would a reporter or journalist quote me or my site, if I was just repeating what Jay Abraham or Seth Godin say?  There would be no point.  Similarly, if you emulate the style / opinions of those at the top of your industry or profession, you cease being remarkable.  This is why it’s so important for you to be you.  Be your own breaking news.  Be your remarkable self.

Is it easy?  Nope.  That’s why most people don’t do it.  It requires courage, hard work, study and confidence.  That’s quite a challenge for any of us.

Is it possible?  Yes.  That’s why so many people DO do it.

In my experience, very few people know just how incredible they are.  You are almost certainly at least as remarkable as those who are already capturing the attention of the media and the masses.  Please don’t keep it a secret!

The cost of attacking your competitors online

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Have you ever heard the saying, that when you bad-mouth a competitor, it actually makes you look bad and not them?  Well, the same holds true when you decide to invest your time attacking competitors online.

It seems a popular way to gain traffic to YOUR blog, is to attack the top bloggers in your niche.  If you piss them off, they may mention you, putting you on their readers / followers radar.  If your attack is nasty enough, they may even blog about what you said.  This might gain the attacker a short-term traffic spike, but at what cost?  I honestly don’t think these people realise just how bitter it makes them look, to try and destroy a competitors credibility or dent the business, which their victim uses to put a roof over their family’s head, just for traffic.

Yes, if you identify that someone is making what you believe to be a mistake, it’s good to let that person know.  A while back, Yael Rozencwajg from Yopps.com noticed an error with the way my blog’s email RSS was working, so she emailed me to let me know.  She didn’t write a blog post to say what an idiot I was for missing the error or what a smart-ass she was for spotting it.  That’s because her intention was purely to help me, rather than attack me in order to get a response that she could convert into traffic.

The law of return

As a person of faith, I have a great deal of respect for the world’s Holy books.  In each of those I have studied, there is a belief that we tend to reap what we sow.  This is something professional development experts refer to as the law of return.  It works on the sound premise, that we tend to get back whatever we put out there.

Negative seeds (actions) produce a negative harvest (results) and positive seeds produce a positive harvest.  For example, Yael’s kindness in taking the time to offer me some help, has just resulted in her being highlighted to my readership, in an extremely positive way.

Of course, the negative feelings we have about those who bad-mouth their competitors, are formed by that same law of return.  Their attacks tend to damage themselves, rather than their intended victims.

I sometimes see people offering poor or misleading marketing advice.  In each case, I write a blog post to ensure my readers avoid making mistakes by following that kind of bad advice.  However, I do this without calling out the person.  This means my message gets out, is seen in a 100% positive light and is actually more likely to be acted on.  If I ever woke up feeling like I needed to attack Seth Godin or Jay Abraham, in order to gain readers, I would like to think I would recognise it as a sign that I ACTUALLY needed to work harder on MY OWN business.

Yes, you can gain traffic by attacking your more successful or better known competitors, but who needs to attract that kind of reputation?