Why Tweeting Your Blog Is Not Enough For Big Traffic by Graham Jones

If you use a URL shortening script, such as Yourls, you can see “live” the people clicking on anything you add to Twitter. The statistical information reveals that within a second of posting your Tweet you get almost all of the click throughs from what you post on Twitter. A minute or so later, almost all of the clicks have dried up. You can measure the life of a Tweet in seconds; it doesn’t last very long at all.

Getting people to follow your blog takes effort

So why all the fuss about Twitter? A Tweet is clearly a single blast of a blunderbuss – you get loads of impact all over the place, but the effect doesn’t last long. Yet you can find all sorts of advice from so-called “gurus” telling you that Twitter gets you tons of traffic. If you want to get more readers to your blog, you need to Tweet, they say.

And these experts are right – and wrong…! True enough, you can get increased traffic from Tweeting your blog. But it’s not smooth traffic; you’ll get the occasional peak in traffic. Now that’s not to be sniffed at, of course, but it’s not going to achieve all you want for your blog.

Here’s the problem: along comes another piece of technology (Twitter) which appears to solve the problem of getting more traffic to a blog. Whoopee everyone shouts and before you know it there is ebook after ebook explaining how you can get shedloads of traffic to your blog if you use Twitter. The result is millions of people go “Hurray, here’s the answer” and off they trot to learn everything they can about Twitter and see those traffic numbers rise. Not.

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Internet Marketing Workshop | Selling The Sausage Not The Sizzle?

Are we selling the sausage but not the sizzle of our Internet Marketing Workshop this Saturday 10th October?   When we first came up with the plan for “The Really Useful Internet Day” we wanted to avoid all the hype and over-excitement that you get at the bigger events.

http://www.themoneygym.com/internetday/booking.htm

We wanted to put on a down to earth day, that would do three things:

1. Give you some simple step by step actions that you can take, to start making a second (passive) income online

2. If you are a business owner, give you some ideas for creating extra profits, and the knowledge to put those ideas into action.

3. Give you some insights into the mindset of the most successful people who make money online, and what really made the difference for them.

So far, so good, you might think.

However, I’m wondering if we are wrong to be selling the sausage and not the sizzle. Because we all know that people don’t want the sausage but always buy the sizzle!

So…………..what is the sizzle of an internet marketing workshop?

The sizzle is the promise that by attending this workshop you will be able to leave your job, close your business and spend the rest of your days travelling the world with your laptop, checking your bank balance occasionally.

Well, to be honest, if I sent the kids to live with their dad, I could actually do that now, but I love the little blighters and will have to wait for them to go to college, before I up sticks and go live somewhere much cheaper and just commute back and forward to the UK.

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Why Internet Marketing Is A Really Big Issue By Judith Morgan

At The Money Gym, one of the issues which always brings forth the most controversy, the most heated debate, is Internet Marketing.

Why is it such a Big Issue?

I am grateful to The Money Gym for teaching me a lot about marketing and about internet marketing specifically and latterly also about social networking.   Where would we be in this day and age without understanding how to use to world wide web to our advantage?

When I think back to my early days in business the choices were direct mail, still effective by the way if you know how to do it well, or expensive advertising which can be a bit hit and miss for my money.

And both of those took a very long time to achieve results and both were also costly; you lay out your cash before you know whether or not it will bring you the clients and customers you so desperately need and want.   Not much of a model for success, that.

The web offers us the chance to get almost instant feedback from our market, whether or not they like and will pay for our latest offering.   And you can find that our for free (if you dont count your time into the equation).

That’s why I love and appreciate what I have learned.   And why I use it almost every day in my businesses and in my life, both online and off, because some of the marketing lessons apply equally well offline too.

But my bugbear, if you will, and where I take issue with the multi-millionaires who teach us how to do this, is that they sell a dream. And the dream is that you can make passive income from a hotel balcony in the sunshine with just your laptop.

And you get to spend all day counting your money.

Just this week a client asked if it were possible to make £1,000 pcm within six months……

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Neil Asher Gets Nicola’s Parts Out In Public

I was lying relaxing on the table at the local Shoreham beauty parlor (called Beachcomber which I always find quite funny for some reason) being tended to by the lovely Laura, when someone tweeted me to say I was being exposed in public in more ways than one!  That naughty Neil Asher (who organises the Financial Freedom Bootcamp that I spoke for recently) has analysed our marketing and taken apart our info page for the “Really Useful Internet Day” and he doesn’t pull his punches here!

New Business? Who Is Your Ideal Customer & What Will You Sell Them?

When you first go into business, either on- or off-line, in order to make successful sales, you need to ask yourself some crucial questions:

** Who is your IDEAL customer?

By which we mean the person who has a burning pain or problem, that your product or service solves or soothes.  They must also be able to afford your product or service.  What do they look like, how do they make their money, how do they live their lives, what do they do in their spare time?

** Where are you going to find your customers?

If you have answered the question about the ideal customer fully, you should have a pretty good idea of where you will be able to find them, but I want you to think specifically where they hang out online.  You can reach a great number of people online, whereas if you limit your customer base to your home town….well, it’s not going to be so profitable.

If you think that your ideal customer will be hanging on on Google, looking for a solution to their problem or pain, that’s the first place for you to look too.

A couple of weeks ago, I shared the Google KeyWord Tool with you, but here it is again for your convenience

https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/KeywordToolExternal

People either search by the problem or pain, or their perceived solution to the problem or pain.

For example:  I’ve got bad spots (keyword “spots” or “bad spots”) or “how can I get rid of my spots” or “fast spot relief” (new keyword “spot relief” or “fast spot relief”)

Google will tell you how many of your ideal customers are searching for you right now and what words they are using, specifically, to search with.  You might find that quite motivating!

** What product will you sell them first?

So, by looking at the phrases that are getting the most searches per month, globally or nationally, you will be able to think of things to sell them – and the first one of those is your lead product.

You might have a few free products to give away first, but the important one is the first paid product.

Michael Masterson, in his superb business book “Ready Fire Aim” says that “until you have a lead product that you can sell profitably, to your ideal customer, you don’t have a business.

** How much will you charge them for it?

This is an easy one to answer – you test three different price points, and you do that using a simple bit of code, that fires one third of your customers at one sales page, with a price at X, the second third at a secon page with a price at Y, and the final third at a third page with a price point of Z.

** How will you convince them to buy it?

Now, this is getting a little more complex, but once you know the elements of a sale, you will do very well.

First up, you will need a long-form sales page – and before you groan and say you hate them….we have all tested them and they sell the most so GET OVER IT.

I use Armand Morin’s Sales Letter Generator to write mine, then I give it to Steve to pretty it up and get it online, then we link to it from emails, from our website, in our ezine.

The sections of the long-form sales page are covered, in logical step by step sequence, in the Sales Letter Generator tool, but the most important elements are:

Social Proof – this means testimonials from happy customers – video and pictures prove that they are real people and if some of them are well known…so much the better!

Proof - this means specific proof that your product or services does what you say it does

Reciprocity – If you do something for someone else, like give them lots of great free stuff, they tend to want to do something for you. It’s human nature to want to return the favor.

Risk Reversal – this is your crucially important guarantee and it needs to take all the risk away from the customer and put it onto you

Urgency – people need a reason to buy now or they will never make a decision.

So, perhaps you are sitting there, with a business that is either not doing so well (and looking at the above, you can see why!) or it’s doing pretty well in spite of the current market conditions, but you want it to do better, or you are sick of working quite so hard in it.

Well, what you need is ……………

1. To come along to our Really Useful Internet Day

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/internetday/booking.htm

2. Then To Find Yourself A Dream Team or a Board Of Directors!

Many successful business people get to the point where, in order to catapult their business success, they take on a “Board of Directors” to fill the gaps in their skills or knowledge.

Those directors meet with the founder of the business quarterly, review sales, expenditure, business development progress in the last quarter, agree strategic direction and objectives, and set goals for the founder to achieve during the next quarter.

This Board brings experience, skills and a vast network of contacts to the table as well as all of the above.

They are often successful in the very field that the business is heading and know all the pitfalls and perils to avoid, along the way. They help save money, but more importantly they help save time and accelerate success.

Tell me…..Would YOU Like To Be Part Of A Top Notch Team Of Professional Business, Internet And Property Investors, All Focussed On YOUR Success….?

And how would it be if that Dream Team Board Of Directors included me, Nicola Cairncross, and successful serial entrepreneur and top notch financial strategist Judith Morgan, along with 18 of our most successful private clients?

Sounding good already…………………?

Well, on the Money Gym “Really Useful Internet Day” we will be sharing with you, how you can access a Dream Team just like this…

So you really don’t want to miss it!

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/internetday/booking.htm

See you there!

Nicola

p.s. Tickets are still flying out – we only have 99 left now, so that’s only 50 couples or business partners who will secure their seats for this great event.

Business Profits & Success | You Need A Website!

I believe that the ability to create an effective online presence is absolutely crucial for any business.  If you are in business and not online, then you are leaving so much money on the table it’s unreal.

Every business needs a website, and not all websites are created equal sadly.

I’ll go further, there is NO real world business that can not benefit from having a coherent online presence.

I have one for The Money Gym (this one!), for my speaking/writing activities at NicolaCairncross.com, one for my Greek Property business, and made one for my friends Rona & Adrian, who lent me their gorgeous holiday home for rent, in Casares, Spain.  In fact, have a business idea, I make a website for it.  It helps me think through the offer and test the market, via quick free traffic.

Just think about it, for a second.

If you were out and about, and met two interesting people who both had a product or service that solved a problem you had, but only one of them had a website URL on their card, which one are you more likely to check out online and then use?  The one with the website of course!

Especially if that website was simple, colourful, professional looking, let you know about the people behind the business, and outlined the product or service, along with giving you some useful information on the topic of interest AND gave you the contact details.  Or a free gift of some kind, in return for your name and email, if you are not ready to call or email them yet.

So why don’t more businesses do it?

Because they think it’s complicated and expensive – but of course it’s not.

So, today I want to talk to you about how easy it is to do just that, and which elements you need to concentrate on first.

Nicola’s Quick 15 Point Step By Step Plan To Get Your Business Online & Making Your Money

1.  Visit https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and put in the key phrase you imagine your visitor would use to find your product or service

2.  It will show the results for the country you are in and the Global Search Results – click the column headers to sort by biggest numbers first on local or global.  Make a note of the top 10-20 relevent key phrases.

3.  Remember that these results are per month – this is the size of your potential market and customer base (even if you are usually very local, you can sell them SOMETHING surely!)

4.  Talking of local, while you are there, Add your business to Google Local www.google.com/local/add

5.  Buy a domain name which includes one of the most searched terms in your niche

6.  Get some decent, cheap hosting at someone like FunkyDomainNames.com or Hostgator.com

7.  Look for the link in your Control Panel to install a Wordpress blog on your hosting (it usually takes just one click – you will be amazed)

8.  Choose a theme you like and start adding information of interest to your ideal customer

9.  Find out how to enhance your blog website for customers and search engines alike with plugins

10.  Create a Facebook Page with the same name as your blog website and hook them up so that your Page shows on your blog/website and your site updates your Page

11.  Create a Twitter account in the same name as your blog website & Facebook page and hook them up with the TwitterTools plugin so they update each other

12.  Go create a profile and list your site at Technorati, StumbleUpon, Digg and any others you can be bothered with

13.  Create a YouTube channel in the name of your business and start “Favouriting” videos that would be of interest to your ideal customer and hook it up to your main site with a URL in the channel description.

14.  Hook up your blog/website to some sort of List Manager, we recommend Total Business Cart if you want to sell things or aWeber or GetResponse if you want to just recommend other people’s product or services

15.  Start selling stuff or recommending stuff and put yourself in REAL DANGER of making some money online!

Then just keep adding useful information to your blog website, which will update your Twitter and Facebook page, the search engines and blog directories.

As soon as you start making some money, invest a certain % of it into hiring the professionals to take your brilliant foundations you have built and take your business stratospheric.

How simple was that?

So why are you not doing it then?

If you did just those 15 Steps, you would be way ahead of MOST if not ALL of your competitors, I can guarantee you that!

HOWEVER!

If you STILL feel you need help and encouragement on getting going with making your business work online, then come along to our “Really Useful Internet Day” on Saturday 10th October 2009.

One day, just three experts, no bull, no hype, just down to earth practical stuff that you can put to work for you, making you more money from your business, or creating a second income for you, right now!

Seats are already flying out to our Silver, Silver Elite, Membership Club Magic and Gold clients, and the only way to make sure you get notified before the info page goes live at 12 noon on Friday, is to get on the VIP Priority Mailing list here

http://www.themoneygym.com/internetday

See you there!

Nicola

p.s. Tickets are only £25, it’s all going to the Big Issue and they are tax deductible if you have a business.  Don’t muck about, this is a day that could change your business life.

http://www.themoneygym.com/internetday

Gary Vaynerchuk | Book Signing Update

You are not going to believe this, but Gary Vaynerchuk’s book signing yesterday was so succesful they sold out of the signed, first edition editions in SECONDS.

Which just proves the power of building a global brand that inspires loyalty, and makes sales!

However I have two bits of good news for you!

1.  I secured 50 signed first edition copies for The Money Gym and (after I have mine!) we are going to be using some as prizes at our “Really Useful Internet Day” on Saturday 10th October and we will be selling the rest.

2.  If you can’t make it on the 10th, or you are not bothered about a signed version, you can pre-order yours here http://bit.ly/mgcrushit

Otherwise, get yourself on our VIP Priority mailing list for our “Really Useful Internet Day” here

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/internetday

We will be opening ticket bookings next Friday at 12 noon but you can make sure you are front of the queue!

£25 for a whole day of great content from Brett McFall, Martin Avis and myself plus competitions, opportunities to promote your business on our DVD and much, much more.

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/internetday

See you soon!

Nicola

Business Success | Are You Ready To Crush It?

Isn’t life weird? Weird and wonderful all at the same time.   A couple of years ago I signed up for Rich Schefren’s BGS (Business Growth System) live coaching programme and one of the included audios had an interview with a guy called Gary Vaynerchuk.

Man, he was LOUD!

I loved the interview though, and so I’ve been following Gary ever since, online, as he walked the talk, building his mum and dad’s wine store to a multi-million business, using 10-minute wine tasting videos on YouTube.  I watched as he created WineLibrary.tv and became more famous, almost accidentally, sought after for his passionate talks at seminars and big corporate keynote speeches.  As he almost accidentally built …

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Money Gym Interviews | Martin Avis

As we prepare for the Money Gym “Really Useful Internet Day”, here’s another in the series of interviews with Internet succeess stories – real people making real money (and big but not ridiculous money too!) online.

I’m delighted to introduce Martin Avis, who is one of our speakers on the day, and my first choice too!  I came across Martin several times before I got to know him, but as you will hear, he’s so unassuming it’s easy to miss him AT FIRST if there are louder people around!  But sooner or later, Martin comes into your radar as a real live bone fide success online.  He’s helpful to newbies, generous with his time and I like him a lot.  His “London Lunches” are great fun and you never know who you are going to meet there.

You can see/hear the rest of Martin’s interview – where he reveals the three biggest mistakes that aspiring internet marketers make, when trying to make money online – when you book your place on The Money Gym “Really Useful Internet Day” at http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/internetday

Money Gym Interviews | Brett McFall

As we prepare for the Money Gym “Really Useful Internet Day”, here’s another in the series of interviews with Internet succeess stories – real people making real money (and big money!) online. I first heard of Brett McFall as he interviewed Ed Dale and Frank Kern, who invented the famous “Underachiever” method for making money online, and ironically, I now live opposite the very beach I was walking along when I listened to that audio.  The audio had been to promote the first UK World Internet Summit, which I attended, and I’ve never missed one since.  Brett kindly allowed me to speak at the 2nd WIS, and that set me off on my speaking career and I’m proud to say, we have become friends since.

Professional copywriter, internet marketer, co-founder of the World Internet Summit and now author and TV celebrity in Oz, Brett wowed our Money Gym crowd last year at our “Make Money While You Sleep” co-branded internet day and by popular demand, he’s back this year for us, on 10th October.

You can see Part 2 of Brett’s interview when you put your name and email in the VIP Priority list at http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/internetday and when we launch the bookings at the end of this week, and you confirm your attendance at the day and donate £25 to the Big Issue, you’ll get to enjoy the rest of Brett’s interview, Jennie’s interview and Martin Avis’ too.

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