This saying came to mind when reading my Icop newsletter. JL was discussing things that Chuck and I talk about all the time. A couple of weeks ago while listening to Jim Edwards’ audio newsletter he ranted about the “psycho freebie seekers” (love that name). Jim rants almost as well as Dennis Miller.
Anyway these two newsletters and what they had to say have been rolling around in my head for a couple of days now. What came to mind is that people who run Internet businesses from their home are no different than those who ran businesses out of their home in the 80’s…..they don’t want to pay for anything. You would think with all the failed businesses they’ve had it would dawn on them that it is because they have done no research, no business plan, no determination on whether or not there is a market for their business in their vicinity. They don’t do mission statements. I could go on and on.
Unfortunately, too many people still think all they need is a computer, fax, and some business cards. In fact, they don’t even give out the business cards, they leave those in their office in nice little card files. A lot of good that’s doing them.
They will spend money on all the trappings but not on education, mentoring or consulting. As Chuck once said to me when I started my first business, and didn’t do any marketing “You will be the most organized business in bankruptcy court”. It was a wake up call.
As Jim and JL discussed, and Chuck and I run into every day, people want to pick our brains for information and answers. After all, they have been conditioned that IT’S FREE. They feel it is their right to do so.
The Internet especially has made people think that information is FREE. Yes, it is, but those of us who have niches, and have written books all put in a lot of time, effort, and energy in researching, writing and marketing our products. SO NO IT IS NOT FREE. We worked very hard to put together excellent products to the best of our ability and WE EXPECT TO GET PAID FOR THEM.
These individuals also have over inflated egos. “Who me, ask someone for help, and what pay for it. Oh, no I’m sure my way is the right way. People just don’t appreciate my great product (service or fill in the blank). I’m just as good, if not better than he/she is.”
It would never occur to them to pay someone to show them what is wrong. Or take a class, or purchase a book that might help. Nope, they say, it’s not that, it must be something else. It’s always some one else’s’ fault or some things’ fault, never theirs.
Unfortunately, the impetus for this behavior was fostered starting back in the 80’s when home based businesses were just starting to come into their own. Many of the magazines and publications of the 80’s (and now the Internet) fostered the idea that ANYONE can run a home based business. Remember those magazines that had little kits for Word Processing businesses, basket making, medical records, etc. People bought them, followed them. Some did well, but others couldn’t figure out why they didn’t succeed.
They didn’t succeed for several reasons. First, none of them did the basics, the grunt work. Checking first to ascertain whether or not this business was even a viable one in their area. If it was, checking out the competition, making up a business plan, a mission statement. Setting up goals for themselves for daily, weekly, monthly, short and long term. Setting up a publicity campaign, working with the different media, setting up a marketing plan, networking.
All of the things that those of us that have been in business did so that we can stay in business. We were not “penny wise and pound foolish! “ We succeeded, through a great deal of hard work, effort and hard knocks that we plan to get compensated for. We are not going to give it away for “free”.
Kamis, 02 Maret 2017
Online Promotion Beats Traditional Ten
While traditional marketing can work for the book author or publisher, the return is dim for the huge effort it takes. You must promote 90% of the time to even get a milligram of attention. While you may have a success or two, most of your efforts will bring poor book sales. Ask yourself right now, what is working for me? What is not?
The Press Release
Sure, press releases can bring you attention, but it takes a lot of time to gather specific media or radio/TV producers' names. When I wrote "The San Diego Media Resource Directory" that took 50 hours to research, I had to also keep the media list up- to-date, ask editors and radio producers by phone how they wanted their releases. Some prefer fax, others email or snail mail.
You waste your efforts if your release doesn't go the right person. Many authors make the mistake of sending the release to the book editor. He gets hundreds each month, and will pay no attention if you are self-published. Like agents and traditional publishers, only 1-2% are chosen.
Another problem is the sheer numbers of releases you send out. Don't relax after you send one or two releases. Think in terms of at least five a month. Ninety-five percent releases are ignored and tossed into the round file. Why? For many reasons, but check to see if you include a compelling heading, a human- interest story, a list of how-tos, or a present-time news analogy.Ask yourself, " Is it under one page, double-spaced? Did I construct. organize and freely give the solutions that my book or service offer for my readers' problems?
Your news release should not be about your book, but give actual solutions the media readers and radio audiences can use. My first published press release responded to an article on the editorial page about the "Three R's." My headline was "School Need to Teach the Fourth Râ€"Rapid Reading. After discussing the background problems of reading circles, I included the benefits of rapid reading, and gave nine how-to solutions. The publisher not only loved the article, but also came personally to my home to take my picture. I used the piece for marketing to corporations.
Most people don't realize the purpose of the press release is to attract the editor by the collar, so he or she will want to do a feature story on you. Make your headlines sizzle. "Seven Ways to Sell More Books Than You Ever Dreamed Of" got a feature story which attracted 90 people to a seminar by the same name. The coach sold $550 worth of books, gained four new book- coaching clients worth $2000, enrolled 15 in her weekly seminars, yielding 24 clients published within a two-year period.
Giving Talks, Seminars and Presenting at Expos
Creating a talk takes a lot of time. You must practice it at least two times before you deliver it. You must discover resources to find organizations to present to. Many of them don't pay their speakers. You may say that's OK because I will sell books. Yes, you'll sell a dozen or maybe more, but think of the huge effort it took to get there. Consider travel time, traffic, clothing upkeep, and schlepping all those heavy books around.
Like myself, you may present a talk or seminar to a corporation with big hopes of selling your products. When they pay you, though, they may set boundaries on book sales. One positive is that because you have a book, you can negotiate and leverage with meeting planners and top executives for higher paid presentations.
The biggest disadvantage? You must wait for decision makers to accept and schedule you--that could be six months or more. Think of the time invested in marketing materials such as the One-Page, videos, and meetings. I left this venue because the time from presentation to fruition took several in-house meetings before a decision could be made.. I knew there was a better way! But was it expos?
Speaking at Expos or maintaining a booth takes many hours of work. Consider preparing and submitting press releases, creating brochures, hand outs, decorating the booth, presenting a drawing, and bringing in products to sell.
Speaking can bring you a few book sales, but people passing by your booth are usually just looking. Even when I gave free mini seminars every 2 hours, and passed out free tickets ahead of time, not many bought books. Giving out hundreds of flyers with free seminar offers brought few results too.
Yes, I did get on a talk-radio show and eleven people showed up at my Supermemory seminar. No, they didn't buy books or book a coaching session. Yes, I collected names and email addresses from a free drawing. I was able to use them for my free eNewsletter, The Book Coach Says...," but clients did not bang down my door to use my talents.
I figure my prep and floor time was 44 hours for just one expo. With sales under $350, I'd say that was slave labor.
Think of Your Promotion Time and Budget
Most one or two-book authors don't have a large marketing budget. Marketing their speaking leaves them little time to write and promote their books. Marketing experts say do five things a day, six days a week, which sounds pretty doable. But do they bring results?
Aren't sales what we should count? Before the sales roll in however, you need to create a foundation--"a plan"--of what you want to promote, what money you want to make from it monthly, how much time you are willing to give it, and how you will get the word out to your target audience. This takes a little time, but is worth it.
If other marketing and promotion campaigns have brought few book sales, have left your wallet thinner, wasted your valuable time, or left you with a garage full of unsold masterpieces, you may now to ready to set up your book's virtual marketing machine--the Internet.
Online Marketing Can Produces 10 times your Profit in Just Five Months Rather than a shot gun approach, I suggest you use this one favorite and highly successful Online marketing technique. This one approach has increased my own Web site sales more than 10 times in five months, from $75 in August to $2265 in December. In 2002, the sales averaged around $3000 a month. And, this is just the beginning!
Whether you have a Web site or not, you can apply your writing ability to produce short information-packed articles to submit to hundreds on Online ezines, whose readership of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, will read each article you submit..
Since you will include your signature box at the end of each article with your book title, your email address, free offer, and benefit statement, people can get in touch with you and possibly become buyers. After reading seven or so articles , readers will be likely to buy.
The articles, your eReports, and books all help promote your service too.
When you have written a well-constructed article, giving real information and how-tos, you will attract these potential buyers to the site where you books are sold.
Getting Started
First, create five to ten articles from 500-1200 words, possibly excerpted from your book, or how-to's on your subject. Join the Online Revolution by subscribing to several opt-in ezines. As soon as you subscribe, you'll receive one or more articles a day. First, subscribe, then you can submit. Try aabusiness- subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Take time to read other people's articles to see what format and content they use. This Online research is worth gold, because you will now be able to model your articles after others and get what you write published, so thousands can learn from you too.
Invest in Some Promotion Time
While we need promotion, how much time do we actually put into it? I'd say I put around 5-7 hours a week into submitting articles.
Write several articles and submit one or so a week. I started submitting to only five ePublishers of the opt-in ezines. Even in the first week, several publishers used my article "Sell More Books with a Powerful Back Cover." At the end of the article, I put a link to a product "How to Get Testimonials from the Rich and Famous" in my signature box, bringing increased sales.
The usual promotion investment for big results is 90% of your time. With Online, it's far less, and you'll even have time for a long-needed vacation to some Caribbean island.
For Online promotion, you will invest minimal time for huge results. If you are a newbie, but want to know more about this technique, read a book on the subject, investigate a book coaching Web site, get a coach, take a teleclass on this subject, or if you are unable to participant, order teleclass cassettes.
Build a strong foundation, automate sales fulfillment, and your business will run itself!
Online Promoting is Easy, Convenient, and Profitable
Better than press releases, book reviews or book signings, you can create and promote articles conveniently right from your office or home. Give this a method a chance. You'll only be sorry you didn't do it sooner!
The Press Release
Sure, press releases can bring you attention, but it takes a lot of time to gather specific media or radio/TV producers' names. When I wrote "The San Diego Media Resource Directory" that took 50 hours to research, I had to also keep the media list up- to-date, ask editors and radio producers by phone how they wanted their releases. Some prefer fax, others email or snail mail.
You waste your efforts if your release doesn't go the right person. Many authors make the mistake of sending the release to the book editor. He gets hundreds each month, and will pay no attention if you are self-published. Like agents and traditional publishers, only 1-2% are chosen.
Another problem is the sheer numbers of releases you send out. Don't relax after you send one or two releases. Think in terms of at least five a month. Ninety-five percent releases are ignored and tossed into the round file. Why? For many reasons, but check to see if you include a compelling heading, a human- interest story, a list of how-tos, or a present-time news analogy.Ask yourself, " Is it under one page, double-spaced? Did I construct. organize and freely give the solutions that my book or service offer for my readers' problems?
Your news release should not be about your book, but give actual solutions the media readers and radio audiences can use. My first published press release responded to an article on the editorial page about the "Three R's." My headline was "School Need to Teach the Fourth Râ€"Rapid Reading. After discussing the background problems of reading circles, I included the benefits of rapid reading, and gave nine how-to solutions. The publisher not only loved the article, but also came personally to my home to take my picture. I used the piece for marketing to corporations.
Most people don't realize the purpose of the press release is to attract the editor by the collar, so he or she will want to do a feature story on you. Make your headlines sizzle. "Seven Ways to Sell More Books Than You Ever Dreamed Of" got a feature story which attracted 90 people to a seminar by the same name. The coach sold $550 worth of books, gained four new book- coaching clients worth $2000, enrolled 15 in her weekly seminars, yielding 24 clients published within a two-year period.
Giving Talks, Seminars and Presenting at Expos
Creating a talk takes a lot of time. You must practice it at least two times before you deliver it. You must discover resources to find organizations to present to. Many of them don't pay their speakers. You may say that's OK because I will sell books. Yes, you'll sell a dozen or maybe more, but think of the huge effort it took to get there. Consider travel time, traffic, clothing upkeep, and schlepping all those heavy books around.
Like myself, you may present a talk or seminar to a corporation with big hopes of selling your products. When they pay you, though, they may set boundaries on book sales. One positive is that because you have a book, you can negotiate and leverage with meeting planners and top executives for higher paid presentations.
The biggest disadvantage? You must wait for decision makers to accept and schedule you--that could be six months or more. Think of the time invested in marketing materials such as the One-Page, videos, and meetings. I left this venue because the time from presentation to fruition took several in-house meetings before a decision could be made.. I knew there was a better way! But was it expos?
Speaking at Expos or maintaining a booth takes many hours of work. Consider preparing and submitting press releases, creating brochures, hand outs, decorating the booth, presenting a drawing, and bringing in products to sell.
Speaking can bring you a few book sales, but people passing by your booth are usually just looking. Even when I gave free mini seminars every 2 hours, and passed out free tickets ahead of time, not many bought books. Giving out hundreds of flyers with free seminar offers brought few results too.
Yes, I did get on a talk-radio show and eleven people showed up at my Supermemory seminar. No, they didn't buy books or book a coaching session. Yes, I collected names and email addresses from a free drawing. I was able to use them for my free eNewsletter, The Book Coach Says...," but clients did not bang down my door to use my talents.
I figure my prep and floor time was 44 hours for just one expo. With sales under $350, I'd say that was slave labor.
Think of Your Promotion Time and Budget
Most one or two-book authors don't have a large marketing budget. Marketing their speaking leaves them little time to write and promote their books. Marketing experts say do five things a day, six days a week, which sounds pretty doable. But do they bring results?
Aren't sales what we should count? Before the sales roll in however, you need to create a foundation--"a plan"--of what you want to promote, what money you want to make from it monthly, how much time you are willing to give it, and how you will get the word out to your target audience. This takes a little time, but is worth it.
If other marketing and promotion campaigns have brought few book sales, have left your wallet thinner, wasted your valuable time, or left you with a garage full of unsold masterpieces, you may now to ready to set up your book's virtual marketing machine--the Internet.
Online Marketing Can Produces 10 times your Profit in Just Five Months Rather than a shot gun approach, I suggest you use this one favorite and highly successful Online marketing technique. This one approach has increased my own Web site sales more than 10 times in five months, from $75 in August to $2265 in December. In 2002, the sales averaged around $3000 a month. And, this is just the beginning!
Whether you have a Web site or not, you can apply your writing ability to produce short information-packed articles to submit to hundreds on Online ezines, whose readership of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, will read each article you submit..
Since you will include your signature box at the end of each article with your book title, your email address, free offer, and benefit statement, people can get in touch with you and possibly become buyers. After reading seven or so articles , readers will be likely to buy.
The articles, your eReports, and books all help promote your service too.
When you have written a well-constructed article, giving real information and how-tos, you will attract these potential buyers to the site where you books are sold.
Getting Started
First, create five to ten articles from 500-1200 words, possibly excerpted from your book, or how-to's on your subject. Join the Online Revolution by subscribing to several opt-in ezines. As soon as you subscribe, you'll receive one or more articles a day. First, subscribe, then you can submit. Try aabusiness- subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Take time to read other people's articles to see what format and content they use. This Online research is worth gold, because you will now be able to model your articles after others and get what you write published, so thousands can learn from you too.
Invest in Some Promotion Time
While we need promotion, how much time do we actually put into it? I'd say I put around 5-7 hours a week into submitting articles.
Write several articles and submit one or so a week. I started submitting to only five ePublishers of the opt-in ezines. Even in the first week, several publishers used my article "Sell More Books with a Powerful Back Cover." At the end of the article, I put a link to a product "How to Get Testimonials from the Rich and Famous" in my signature box, bringing increased sales.
The usual promotion investment for big results is 90% of your time. With Online, it's far less, and you'll even have time for a long-needed vacation to some Caribbean island.
For Online promotion, you will invest minimal time for huge results. If you are a newbie, but want to know more about this technique, read a book on the subject, investigate a book coaching Web site, get a coach, take a teleclass on this subject, or if you are unable to participant, order teleclass cassettes.
Build a strong foundation, automate sales fulfillment, and your business will run itself!
Online Promoting is Easy, Convenient, and Profitable
Better than press releases, book reviews or book signings, you can create and promote articles conveniently right from your office or home. Give this a method a chance. You'll only be sorry you didn't do it sooner!
How to Get Fast Cash without Breaking the Bank
Many of us rack our brains for the perfect job or business opportunity to bring in extra cash. We think that we need to come up with some brilliant plan to earn the money for a nice vacation, down payment on a car or some extra cash for our kid’s tuition. Sometimes the perfect money maker is right beneath our very noses. Here are some quick tips to receive extra cash with the least amount of effort:
Clean out your closets. Take out every time that you haven’t worn in the last century. Drag out those old comics. Dust off those old records. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, as the saying goes.
Hold a garage sale
Place it on ebay
Bring it to a flea market and agree to split the profits with one of the vendors
Place ads in local papers and the pennysaver
Take ten percent of your income and stick it in a savings account or better yet a high yield cd that you can’t touch for a year. Money market accounts are also a better alternative to standard bank accounts.
Promote affiliate programs online. They have already set up the business for you. All you have to do is promote it and earn commissions.
Form an investment club. If you don’t have a large enough pool of money to invest right now, many of your friends may be in the same boat. Pool your money together and invest in some of the safer investments right now, like bonds or CDs. You will earn together more than the measly percentage a regular account will provide.
If you have recently helped finance a house sale, sell your mortgage note for a lump sum. Instead of having to wait several years to get your money, take the discount and get cash in hand now.
Clean out your closets. Take out every time that you haven’t worn in the last century. Drag out those old comics. Dust off those old records. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, as the saying goes.
Hold a garage sale
Place it on ebay
Bring it to a flea market and agree to split the profits with one of the vendors
Place ads in local papers and the pennysaver
Take ten percent of your income and stick it in a savings account or better yet a high yield cd that you can’t touch for a year. Money market accounts are also a better alternative to standard bank accounts.
Promote affiliate programs online. They have already set up the business for you. All you have to do is promote it and earn commissions.
Form an investment club. If you don’t have a large enough pool of money to invest right now, many of your friends may be in the same boat. Pool your money together and invest in some of the safer investments right now, like bonds or CDs. You will earn together more than the measly percentage a regular account will provide.
If you have recently helped finance a house sale, sell your mortgage note for a lump sum. Instead of having to wait several years to get your money, take the discount and get cash in hand now.
5 Factors of Selling a Home
There are five major factors to consider when selling a home. These factors will greatly influence not only the final price you will get for the property, but also how quickly it will sell and how much grief you will suffer through the sale.
Location
Over history it's been said the three things to look for in buying a property are (1) Location, (2) Location, and (3) Location. There are positive and negative factors to almost every location. Let's pretend your property is right next door to a fire station. You need the kind of marketing professional that can sell the benefits of not having to worry about your new home burning down, or perhaps the savings on fire insurance. Seriously, no matter where your property may be located, there is a ready, willing, and able buyer in the marketplace. The "problems" with the location of a property can be overcome, you just need a Realtor who will work hard to do so.
Your Realtor and his/her Company
Not all Realtors are the same. We each take different approaches to the marketing of your home. These range from as basic as placing the home on the MLS system and hoping it will sell, to Realtors who actively market the home through newspaper advertising and the Internet. You will likely have a positive Real Estate experience if you pick a Realtor who meets the following criteria:
Personality. It's hard to work with an agent you don't like. You won't trust him/her, and the entire experience will be a difficult one. You have enough on your mind without having to argue and bicker with your agent. No matter how good an agent is… if you don't like each other, then it won't be a good experience.
Availability. Having a full time Realtor (or a team of them) is vital to the successful sale of your home. If your Realtor isn't available to sell your house because he/she's "working a day job", then how committed is that Realtor to you?
Work Ethic. Just like any other professional in your life, you need a Realtor who is organized, professional, and hard working. Have you ever seen a lawyer show up for a case in sweat pants and a t-shirt? Or a doctor say; "I'm sorry, I can't deliver your baby because I have a 4:00 t-off time"? How about an accountant who can't manage his own finances? You should be able to expect the same level of professionalism from the agent you choose to represent you.
By having a professional Realtor working on your behalf, your entire experience will be more positive.
Terms
Are you flexible on possession dates? Is your property easy to show? Are you prepared to negotiate on appliances or other chattels? This flexibility makes your home much more attractive to potential buyers. For example, many out-of-town buyers won't even consider a home if the possession is not flexible. First time home buyers often have to purchase the appliances with the home because they have to put all of their savings into the down payment. Where are they going to get $3000 to buy appliances?
Condition
Making a good first impression is important in getting a property sold. Painting the front door and trim, making sure the doorbell works, putting furniture and clothing in storage, and cleaning off counter tops and fridges are just a few of the little things that can be done to make properties more marketable. Just remember, cleanliness and pride of ownership will get you more money than used dirt.
Price
Determining a price is more than just picking a number. It involves careful analysis of the property. Many things come into account when determining a price. In fact, it is often through price where short comings in the other factors are balanced. For instance, if your home has been damaged from bad renters, is difficult to gain access to, is right next door to a "drug-den", and is located between the city dump and the airport, then the home will have to be priced accordingly. But watch out, while the price can fix almost every short coming, it's not always the best solution.
Having a Realtor who will be honest with you about these factors is important, and could save you several thousand dollars.
Source : davincigrouplk.com
Location
Over history it's been said the three things to look for in buying a property are (1) Location, (2) Location, and (3) Location. There are positive and negative factors to almost every location. Let's pretend your property is right next door to a fire station. You need the kind of marketing professional that can sell the benefits of not having to worry about your new home burning down, or perhaps the savings on fire insurance. Seriously, no matter where your property may be located, there is a ready, willing, and able buyer in the marketplace. The "problems" with the location of a property can be overcome, you just need a Realtor who will work hard to do so.
Your Realtor and his/her Company
Not all Realtors are the same. We each take different approaches to the marketing of your home. These range from as basic as placing the home on the MLS system and hoping it will sell, to Realtors who actively market the home through newspaper advertising and the Internet. You will likely have a positive Real Estate experience if you pick a Realtor who meets the following criteria:
Personality. It's hard to work with an agent you don't like. You won't trust him/her, and the entire experience will be a difficult one. You have enough on your mind without having to argue and bicker with your agent. No matter how good an agent is… if you don't like each other, then it won't be a good experience.
Availability. Having a full time Realtor (or a team of them) is vital to the successful sale of your home. If your Realtor isn't available to sell your house because he/she's "working a day job", then how committed is that Realtor to you?
Work Ethic. Just like any other professional in your life, you need a Realtor who is organized, professional, and hard working. Have you ever seen a lawyer show up for a case in sweat pants and a t-shirt? Or a doctor say; "I'm sorry, I can't deliver your baby because I have a 4:00 t-off time"? How about an accountant who can't manage his own finances? You should be able to expect the same level of professionalism from the agent you choose to represent you.
By having a professional Realtor working on your behalf, your entire experience will be more positive.
Terms
Are you flexible on possession dates? Is your property easy to show? Are you prepared to negotiate on appliances or other chattels? This flexibility makes your home much more attractive to potential buyers. For example, many out-of-town buyers won't even consider a home if the possession is not flexible. First time home buyers often have to purchase the appliances with the home because they have to put all of their savings into the down payment. Where are they going to get $3000 to buy appliances?
Condition
Making a good first impression is important in getting a property sold. Painting the front door and trim, making sure the doorbell works, putting furniture and clothing in storage, and cleaning off counter tops and fridges are just a few of the little things that can be done to make properties more marketable. Just remember, cleanliness and pride of ownership will get you more money than used dirt.
Price
Determining a price is more than just picking a number. It involves careful analysis of the property. Many things come into account when determining a price. In fact, it is often through price where short comings in the other factors are balanced. For instance, if your home has been damaged from bad renters, is difficult to gain access to, is right next door to a "drug-den", and is located between the city dump and the airport, then the home will have to be priced accordingly. But watch out, while the price can fix almost every short coming, it's not always the best solution.
Having a Realtor who will be honest with you about these factors is important, and could save you several thousand dollars.
Source : davincigrouplk.com
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