Everyone does a “Top blah blah” list at this time of year so I thought I’d give you mine. Here are the top ideas that will change the way I do business in 2008 and accelerate me far ahead of where I currently am…I just know it!

1. Focus on building a business, not chasing opportunities - Rich Schefren

   Last year I had my fingers in a few pies that were just too good to give up. Now I realise my business is my focus and everything else fits around that. And of course, now I’m avoiding new opportunities like the plague!

2. Discover and work to my strengths - Rich Schefren

   He talks about this in one of his free ebooks, The Missing Chapter, but it wasn’t until I took the strength assessment that I made the mental change. In 2 weeks I’ve realigned my business and things are looking a lot brighter.

3. “Increase the freeline” - Eben Pagan since he created the quote, also Rich Schefren

   Giving away your greatest ideas brings in swarms of interested visitors and potential customers. Proven by both Eben’s and Rich’s successful product launches.

4. Don’t help anyone…for FREE - Dean Hunt

   Confused? Dean is simply talking about when you give something away it is psychologically given a zero value. If you want to ensure they use the information, charge them for it…and also have people respect your time. So watch the balance between free and paid.

5. The power of Social Marketing - StomperNet

   Lots of people have been talking about it, some people have been using it, but it wasn’t until StomperNet laid it out so well in this video that I completely ‘got it.’

6. How to use Buzz Marketing - Dean Hunt

   Along similar lines, Dean gave us a great number of tricks for spreading buzz about your business. Sure, he gave it away but I’m still going to put a high value on it!

7. Just get started! - Rich SchefrenI can’t remember the exact quote, but it’s about taking action whenever you can. If you throw up what you’ve got and see if it sticks, you get instant feedback and can move forward from there.

I hope these tips have given you some ideas of how you can improve your business. As always, comments and thoughts are welcome.

Ok, so I kind of trailed off in the middle of my 5 biggest secrets web designers don’t know about making money on the Internet series.

Christmas was one reason, too much work was another.

But the main reason is I wanted to separate it out as an article you must read. So that’s exactly what I’ve done by revamping my website and adding an articles and videos section.

So head on over to check it out, and read in full, The 5 Biggest Secrets your Web Designer doesn’t know about Making Money on the Internet

And when you’re done, come on back to the blog and let me know what you think or ask any questions you may have.

Talk soon.

Do a search for any product or service you like. What do the results return? Pages and pages of people trying to sell you something.

If an encyclopaedia salesperson knocks on your door, do you let them in?

If you walk into a clothing store and a salesperson asks if you need any help, do you say “YES PLEASE!”

Usually…No! So why would you behave any different on the internet? It’s even easier to reject a salesperson here as you never even see their face.

Your website needs to build a relationship with its visitors. It needs to give your customers what they want. First thing they want? Information. They want to find out as much as possible before making a purchase. They want to know if they can trust you. They want to build a relationship so they know you’ll be there if things go wrong.

How do you build a relationship with these lovely people? Content, loads and loads of content. Useful, informative, brilliant content. That’s how you build a relationship online.

 

 The five biggest secrets your web designer doesn't know about making money on the internet: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The internet is full of websites that fail to live up to their potential. The main reason is small business owners don’t understand the potential for their website. However, most web designers don’t either!

Over the next two weeks, you’ll be light years ahead of other businesses on the internet as we discuss the five most important facts your web designer doesn’t know about making money.

We’ll be covering:

1. Why a pretty website does not make you money
2. Why salespeople are a dying breed, especially on the internet
3. How to structure your website to retain your visitors
4. The problem with marketing online, no one knows how to do it!
5. The real story on search engines

I hope you tune in and put this knowledge to good use in your business. As always, let me know your thoughts and comments below.

 

 What is branding?: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

After a long discussion on the UK small business forums about whether branding is important for a small business, I thought I’d talk about it more here. A major problem is the concept of what a ‘brand’ is, so we’ll start there.

First off, a brand is not just a name or logo, or something that Coca Cola has and you don’t. A brand is how a customer or potential customer feels about your business. It is their perceived image of your business. It is created from every point of contact your customer has with your business. From the very first time they hear the name, through to their customer service experience, through to your product quality, and so on. It is everything they think, or more importantly, feel about your business.

Big businesses go as far as using psychological techniques to try and make you feel a particular way about their business and product. They carefully choose colour schemes and language. They make expensive television commercials with just the right music and visuals.

While small businesses usually don’t have access to this high level of expertise, it’s worth starting to at least consider these factors in your business. And the information is out there to find on the internet.

So let’s talk about how this effects your website. Obviously, your website presents a very strong image of your business. It can be their first impression of your business and it can be their main impression of your business. To be honest, being in my industry, I expect great customer service…but a great website really blows me away. You might be able to tell how excited I get by my make it easy for your customers post.

So isn’t it time you spent a little more time on your website? Isn’t it time you started thinking about what customers feel about your business?

Some people will say that branding is for big businesses. The question to ask yourself is ‘do you want to be a big business?’ If you do, maybe you should start thinking like a big business today.

 

 How to get ripped off for web design: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

So you’re looking to get ripped off for the design of your new website? No problem! Here’s my easy guide to help you out:

Step 1. Decide you want a website.

Step 2. Approach a web design company.

And that’s it folks. This is a sure fire method for leaving you poor and with a complete waste of a website.

Oh? So now you want to know how not to get ripped off? Interesting, but ok…I’ll try to help. How about getting involved in the web design process. How about finding a company that actually approaches your website as a marketing tool rather than just a pretty…or not so pretty…brochure? How about reading a little about what makes a website successful? How about getting many opinions on what you need?

Even if your web design company promises everything it should…and most do…it doesn’t mean they will actually deliver on their promises. It’s easy to promise something when the buyer doesn’t know what a good result will look like anyway.

How do you know your web design company is giving you the right advice? See how closely they work with you to provide the result you want. Then maybe, just maybe, we’ll start to see less rip offs in the web design industry. And maybe your website will start making you money, instead of just costing you money.

 

 What do your customers need from your website?: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Working out what customers need from your website should be the first step in the design process. How can your website improve the experience of your customer or potential customer?

When you look at a website from this point of view, you’ll come up with a completely different implementation and the results will show in your sales. Too many business owners decide they need a website, decide what they want on the website, hire a web designer, write a little bit about their business, and then publish the website for all the world to see.

The problem is, no one looks at the website. And definitely, no one purchases or calls because of the website. So this moment is a decision point on how your business does in the future. You can either take a long hard look at your website, or you can ignore this post and continue to be a small business. It’s really up to you.

Convinced? Good. So put yourself in your customers shoes for a while and work out what they’d like from your website. What would compel them to read further? What questions would they like answered? What would get them to actually pick up the phone and call you or make a purchase?

Once you think you’ve improved, test it. If you can’t watch customers use your website (and you can with the right software), then watch your friends. See where they get confused, see where they get bored, and see if they can actually find their way to the objective. And remember, your potential customers have about 0.01% of your friends patience.

So work out what your customers need from your website…and give it to them!

 

 Pareto Principle: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I’d be surprised if you hadn’t heard about the Pareto Principle before. It’s the theory that 20% of the effort achieves 80% of the results. It can be applied from many different angles but I want to talk about work efficiency today. So, 20% of the work you do, achieves 80% of the results.

I constantly see small business people rushing around doing the menial tasks that won’t improve their business. Sure, the floor may need to be swept, but is it really contributing to your sales? Then they ignore the tasks that are more long term, business growing necessities. For some reason it’s in their head that the unimportant daily things need doing now, while the really important tasks like planning and marketing can be put off till tomorrow.

Just because it doesn’t have a deadline, doesn’t mean it isn’t important. And by focusing on these more important tasks, even a little bit each day, you can grow your business at an incredible rate. Plus, you’re the boss, you should be putting deadlines on yourself to get these things sorted.

Now I can hear you saying, “but the floor needs to be swept too!” Yes, fair enough. But does it need to be done right now. If you have a choice of sweeping the floor or sending five emails to potential customers, what is more important? So send the emails (that was the correct answer by the way), then sweep the floor. If it doesn’t get done today, will it kill your business? If you don’t have any more customers, that will kill your business.

So go through your daily task list (please tell me you have one) and work out what are the most important things to do. Prioritise them and carry them out in the correct order.

That’s how you take care of the 20% that will grow your business. Use the Pareto Principle to your advantage, not to your detriment.

 

 Alliance Partners: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Alliance partners are a major untapped resource for small business owners. For some reason we seem to have this ‘do it yourself’ mentality and it really restricts the growth of a business, usually keeping it small forever.

But let’s think about this logically. What’s the absolute, without a doubt, best way to get new customers. Word of mouth in the form of a referral by another current customer. So we should always be giving our customers the best experience possible and encouraging them to tell their friends. But there is another way to maximise this effect and possibly double your customer base overnight.

Yes, a referral from an alliance partner. By teaming up with another quality business that compliments what you do and targets the same customer base, you can massively grow your business. If you give your customers great service, and you rave about someone else that does the same, of course your customers will trust you. From recommendations in person, to promoting your partner to your mailing list, to organising events together, the possibilities are endless.

It gives you an instant increase in targeted customers. The growth can be enormous.

And once you’ve successfully obtained one alliance partner. What’s to stop you from adding other businesses to your partnership to create an alliance network. With this network in place, this is where you have the opportunity to turn a small business into a big business.

 

 Your internet marketing strategy: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Do you have an Internet marketing strategy? Or did you just put up a website and expect traffic and sales to start flowing in. If you’re like most people, you’re in the later category.

The truth of the matter is you need to have a consistent internet marketing strategy to be successful on the internet. Consistent doesn’t mean it doesn’t change. It means you head towards the same objective and don’t get sucked in to every little fad that comes your way.

To get results in anything, you need to be prepared to stick with it for the long haul and actually do some work on the way. The same applies for your internet marketing strategy.

You set your objectives, turn them into quantifiable goals, and then make your action plan. For example:

• Your objective is to increase sales over the website
• Your goal is sales of $30,000 per month
• Your action plan contains all the tasks you will complete to obtain it, e.g. viral marketing campaign, search engine optimisation, etc

To help you in developing your own strategy, download my free internet marketing strategy ebook. No gimmicks, no signups, completely free because I like your style.

In it I talk about:

• How to see things from your customer’s point of view
• Discovering what benefits you’re selling them
• How to set objectives and goals for your website
• What you should be measuring to obtain those goals
• How customers find you
• How to make them buy from you when they do
• A quick and painless One Page Online Marketing Plan template to use
• Why you need to take action and continuously improve

As you read and complete the short exercises, you will step through the process of creating a meaningful, measurable, and effective internet marketing strategy.