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The Only SEO Resource I Recommend

By Charlie Cook | May 22, 2008

The number one question I hear from web site owners is, “How can I attract more people to my website?”

You want to know:

– What works to put your site on the first page of Google?
– How to play the search engine game without getting thrown out?
– How to stop wasting time on your search engine positioning and
finally start getting results so you can make money with your site?

If you’re frustrated I can understand it. There are a lot of ideas
floating around about what works with the search engines, which
ones should you use?

I’d be frustrated too. I know I was when I first started marketing
online. All that work to create a site and hardly any visitors or
sales.

So what’s an ambitious person who wants to grow their online
business supposed to do? I know you want to make your business more
profitable so I’m going to give you some options.

Here are three ways to handle this problem of improving your search
engine positioning and making more money with your site. They are:

1. Copy What You See Everyone Else Doing.
Just do what your competitors are doing. Try every idea you can
find and see if they work for you. This process of testing takes a
big investment of time and money – but you could do it.

Given enough time you might stumble on what works. You just might
identify the formula for putting your site at the top of the search
engines. Of course you don’t know which ideas you read about or see
others using are worth copying but you might get lucky. Who knows –
you could get it right.

I have to ask you, is this the fastest way to reach your goals or
wouldn’t it make more sense to get expert advice, which leads me
to…

2. Hire An SEO Expert.
You could seek out and hire a top search engine expert to put
together your search engine optimization campaign, and you’d spend
$12,000 to $20,000 a year. Not to mention, the sorry truth is that
many SEO firms don’t get it right. Remember they only get paid for
working on your search engine positioning, not for results or
increasing your profits.

Even if you can find an expert and their strategy works, once
you’ve paid them to keep your site at the top you’ll need to pay
them again and again.

For a few people hiring an SEO expert to do your search engine
positioning can be the solution, but it’s the most expensive one
and only suited to already successful businesses that have the cash
to invest in it which is why I also suggest…

3. Discover the SEO Solution and Use It Again and Again.
Find out for yourself how to put your site at the top of the search
engines. Recently I had the chance to interview Stephen Mahaney of
Planet Ocean and if you were on the call you heard that he knows
his stuff.

As I mentioned on the call, I discovered Stephen’s advice ten years
ago and it has helped me attract a flood of visitors each month.
month. Want to do the same >>

Ready to discover how to put your site at the top of the search
engines >>

I know you’re serious about building your online business so let me
ask you two questions:

How many people are there in your target market that could use your
products or services?

If you could tap, say 5% of your total target market, how many
sales would that be each month?

If you’re like most businesses there are thousands if not tens of
thousands of people who want and need what you deliver, but most
aren’t buying from you – yet.

Think about it. You have an ENORMOUS potential to profit online. If
you could just get even a small percentage of all these potential
customers and clients to your web site – you’d be making more than
you ever imagined.

Ready to discover the truth about the search engines and the simple
steps to take? Get answers >>

Which solution the right one for you? Let’s review.

1. Copying your competitors – you could but it rarely works.
2. Hiring an expert for top dollars – if you can find one you trust
it’s still expensive and comes with no guarantees.
3. Finding out what works yourself and using these successful SEO
strategies over and over to make more money.

Whatever you decide, it’s up to you to take action today to be more
successful. If you don’t who will?

To your success,

Charlie

P.S. If you sign up with Stephen in the next few days, you not only
get the comprehensive and easy to understand book, ‘The UnFair
Advantage Book on Winning The Search Engine Wars’, you’ll get a
free 6 months subscription to his all important updates so you can
stay abreast of the latest changes and what to do about them. Get
the details here >>

P.S. 2 Stephen guarantees your satisfaction. He calls it his ‘dog
ate it’ guarantee because he doesn’t care why you want a refund. If
you want one, just tell him the dog ate it! …even if it’s the
last day of your 6 month subscription!

Get ‘The UnFair Advantage Book on Winning The Search Engine Wars’
to see your profits soar >>

No-Cost Small Business Marketing Secrets

By Charlie Cook | May 20, 2008

“There’s no free lunch.” Baloney!

Whether you’re just starting out or have a well-established business, the truth is that some of the most powerful ways to grow your business can be had for free! And these work whether you’re netting $50,000 a year business or a $10,000,000 a year business.

Here are two no-cost, high return ideas you can take to the bank:

Use Free Publicity To Increase Sales
Advertising in any medium costs a pretty penny and can quickly bleed you dry, but you can get great publicity for free. You can start by writing articles to establish yourself as an expert in your business. Then get them published where the greatest number of potential clients will read them.

Years ago, before there were good directories of articles online, I collected over 600 online editors’ email addresses and sent my articles to them on a regular basis. While this was a good idea, the next one I’m going to tell you about is even more powerful.

Collaborate to Widen Your Reach
I met Michael Angier at a marketing conference in 2000 and we discovered our target markets overlapped. We both had built lists of five to six hundred editors interested in our small business marketing and sales articles. The synergy was obvious. Michael emailed me his list. I added it to mine, culled the duplicates and sent it back to him. The result?

At the cost of a couple hours of effort, I increased the reach of my list to 900 editors, dramatically increasing the readership of my articles. At almost no cost I was getting tons of publicity.

Tired of wasting money on that gets minimal results? Discover the fastest, least expensive ways to attract all the clients you can handle. Get the details >>

Use Marketing Partnerships
Over the years my business has grown steadily, but there were points when sales jumped to new levels. In many cases the leap in sales was due to a new partnership or collaboration. These have taken time to develop and negotiate but have more than paid off in increased sales and profits.

This past fall I signed on a handful of new super affiliates who promote my products to their mega-lists. As a result, I more than doubled sales in three months with no additional advertising costs.

Of course my marketing partners earn a percentage of my sales through their lists, but each promotional partner helps my business grow.

Find Partners For Profit
How do you find small business marketing partners? Start with your clients and their needs and interests. Businesses that target the same people you serve and provide related products and services are potential marketing partners.

Unless you’re a company like Walmart that provides an enormous scope of products and services, there are going to be many companies selling a product or service to the same target market that complements what you’re marketing.

Let me give you a few examples.

You’re an athletic trainer. You could partner with someone who provides sports massage or nutrition counseling. Even weekend warriors will benefit from this combination of services. You promote each other and all of you could double your clientele at no cost.

Or if you own a web site that sells shoes, you could offer a $25 discount coupon with each sale over $75 that your customers can use on a partner site that sells socks, and vice a versa. You both generate more sales and make more money without actually spending a penny.

Or if you’re a voice coach working with aspiring executives you could partner with a leadership or sales coach. If you each provide your partner with the marketing collateral they need to promote you, your cost is minimal and you both double your marketing reach.

Each time you partner with a business that has a broad customer base, you’ll dramatically increase your sales and profits. And you’ll do so at almost no-cost.

Want to power up your marketing? For small business owners knowing what to do and how to do it is more important than having a huge budget to spend on marketing. Ready to spend less and make more? Use this link to find out how >>

3 Steps to Finding Marketing Partners

1. Identify the key characteristics of your target market. Who are they? Where are they? What do they want and need? The best marketing partners aren’t your competitors, but businesses that provide a related product or service your target market’s needs.

2. List related products and services your customers want. One goal of a marketing partnership is to make more money for both partners at minimal cost. Approach this from your customers’ point of view. Think about what they want and how your marketing partnership can meet more of their needs.

3. Make a list of potential marketing partners and then email them, call them, and explain why they should partner with you. Demonstrate the benefits for them and their customers. Send them samples. Be persistent.

There are dozens of other ways to position and expand your business, strategies that work whether you’re just starting out or you’re growing a well-established business.

Discover no-cost and low-cost ways to leap-frog the competition and double your profits this year. Get the details with this link >>

Charlie
Small Business Marketing Secrets That Make You Money

Prefer to Listen To Small Business Marketing Ideas?

By Charlie Cook | May 13, 2008

A month ago I was approached by someone who wanted to podcast my weekly small business marketing ideas and tips. No charge. He’d do it in return for permission to use them on this site.

We’ve now got 4 small business marketing ideas podcast. Take a listen and let me know what you think.

Listen to my small business marketing ideas >>

– Charlie
Small Business Marketing For Self-Made Millionaires

Should You Ask for the Sale… Small Business Marketing Tips

By Charlie Cook | May 13, 2008

You can use this small business marketing tip to close more sales.

You’ve got a live qualified prospect on the phone and you don’t want to lose this one. What do you do when they hesitate to make a commitment and want to think about it?

You know that if the prospect disconnects without placing an order, the chances are slim that they’ll call back and you’ll get the sale. What do you do?

Last week I got a call from another Internet marketer, who I’ll call Rex Relentless. Rex offered me a commission to promote his services. He wanted me to promote his business in my newsletter, on my Blog and, to top it off, add a flashing banner to my site.

I get dozens of requests like this each week and I wasn’t interested. When I balked, Rex shifted into sales overdrive. He wouldn’t stop talking about how great his product is. He kept pointing me to more and more pages of supporting data and testimonials.

Did he think I would agree to promote him just to shut him up and make him go away? I couldn’t get a word in edgewise and finally had to interrupt him to end the call.

Rex was like a dog with a bone. He just wouldn’t let go, and in the process he chewed up the bone and destroyed it. If you’re a dog that’s basic instinct but if you want to build a sales person who wants to build a positive relationship with a prospect and close the sale it’s a bad idea.

When I was done with the call I never wanted to hear from Rex again, much less work with him. If you’ve ever run into a similar salesperson you know how obnoxious they can be. And I’m sure you don’t want to emulate them with your small business marketing.

What’s the alternative? What’s the best way to close more sales?

Discover how to get your prospects to sell themselves >>

Rex couldn’t stop asking for the sale and in doing so, killed the sale! The irony is that he does have a great product that I might have been willing to promote. But he was so focused on getting the sale that he gave no thought to what I would want out of the deal.

Should you ask for the sale?

You may not be as relentless a salesperson as Rex, but in most cases asking for the sale at all is a mistake. It’s the fastest way to kill the sale and lose a potentially lucrative client.

That’s right; if you have to ask for the sale, that’s a clear indication that you haven’t sold your prospect. You need to do a better job of eliminating the obstacles to the sale.

By now you’re asking yourself, “Is Charlie off his rocker? If I can’t ask for the sale, how do I close more sales?”

3 Rules For Making A Sale

1. Never tell the prospect what they want. Ask them to tell you.
Discover how >>

2. Never try to convince a prospect to buy from you. Make them convince you that your product or service is the right one for them.
Find out what to do >>

3. Eliminate the obstacles to the sale so when you get to the close the client does it for you. You’ll sell more in less time and make more money. Learn how to use this strategy >>

To help you understand who should be doing the selling and why let me ask you a question before you go.

“Whose voice is music to your ears?”

Most of us have to admit we like the sound of our own voices. So put yourself in your prospect’s shoes. Get a prospect talking about what they want and why. They’ll do a better job selling themselves than if they listen on and on to your voice. For the most part, prospects would rather hear themselves talk than hear you lecture them on the benefits and features of your products and services.

Want to double your sales with your small business marketing?

You can do it by using these simple strategies to lead your clients to sell themselves. Get the details here >>

Charlie

Want to listen to this week’s small business marketing podcast?
Use this link >>

Where Are The Good Web Designers for Small Business Owners?

By Charlie Cook | May 8, 2008

Know of any good web designers?

I’m constantly getting requests for qualified web design firms and coming up short on answers. I have a few I regularly funnel work to but they quickly get swamped with the number of requests I get.

If you’re a highly qualified web designer, living here in the U.S. or Canada or know of one you’d like to refer, please use the comment box below to let me know.

Each week I hear horror stories from my clients about web designers they’ve worked with. I had one client that had a site that was trickling in leads so he hired a web designer to redo his site. $35,000 later he had a site that totally killed his lead generation and almost killed his business. It seems they plethora of inexperienced designers and unethical ones are giving the industry a bad rap.

So help me out!

If you’re reading this and are a web designer, you think you’re darn good, (or know someone who is) e.g. can design sites that look a lot better than this one, can take direction, have been at it for 5 years or more, have impeccable references, actually follow up when you get requests and want projects ranging in size from $5k to $25k,

And live and work in U.S or Canada

Leave a comment below with a link to your portfolio.

– Charlie
Small Business Marketing That Gets Results

Why I Don’t Have a Sales Team – Small Business Marketing

By Charlie Cook | April 29, 2008

What, No Sales Team For Your Small Business?

To listen to the podcast of this blog online, use this link >>

Can you grow your business without a sales team?

Do you need a team of aggressive sales people on the phone calling prospects, closing deals and taking orders?

The short answer is NO. You don’t need a sales team to be successful. And if you have one, you could be feeding them a lot more hungry prospects that are ready to buy.

At MarketingForSuccess.com we don’t have a sales team. The web marketing strategy we use works to bring in 300 to 400 orders a month and that number keeps growing. It’s a proven strategy that attracts 45,000 visitors to the site each month, and. our in-house subscriber list keeps growing at an astonishing rate.

Why is this strategy so successful? Get the details >>

It’s based on the simple idea that you attract qualified prospects and buyers, by giving them the information they need and the value they want. Do that, and instead of having to track down prospects, they’ll come looking for you, ready to do business.

We focus on sharing strategies and real solutions. We give you ideas that you can put to use to grow your business and build mutually beneficial relationships one-by-one.

Don’t you wish you had hundreds of orders and requests for your services pouring in each month without having to make a single phone call or pay for a single salesperson?

Discover how to make your web site sell like crazy.

Find out how before you miss another sale >>

You may already be familiar with some parts of the successful web marketing strategy that we use. But do you have them all in place working for you, bringing in orders and requests for your services?

Here’s the proven business-building strategy we use.

1. Make it easy for prospects to find you online.
Put your site at the top of the search engines listings and you could get over twelve thousand visitors a week, as we do.

2. Focus on helping instead of selling.
Your prospects aren’t looking to be sold; they’re looking for information to help them solve business problems. Give them what they want and they’ll buy from you.

3. Give prospects something for free.
Do you want your prospect to give you his or her contact information for free? Then give them something for free in exchange.

4. Build loyalty.
Demonstrate your expertise and show your prospects that you can help them. Remember that it takes time and many points of contact to win their confidence.

5. Offer complete solutions.
Whatever business they’re in, your prospects are looking for ways to solve their problems. Give them a value-packed solution. For example >>

6. Test and fine-tune key parts of the system.
The only way to know how much you weigh is to step on a scale. The same is true of your marketing. Test each component and then look for ways to improve it.

7. Automate everything.
Don’t do manually what software can do for you, whether it’s managing and coordinating calendars, using a phone forwarding service or automatic order placement system.

8. Develop strong relationships with key sales partners.
It can take forever to grow your business when you add clients one by one. Instead, you bring in new clients by the hundreds through referrals from strategically chosen sales partners.

9. Stay on the lookout for ways to improve your sales system.
You’re already pulling in tons of sales? Why not double that number?

10. Leverage your time to the max.
As the owner or director of marketing at your company, you’re the brains. Don’t waste your time on tasks that you could delegate to specialists or to administrative assistants.

Should you fire your sales team?

Why not improve your marketing so they’re swamped with inquiries from qualified prospects questions and keep them busy closing deals? Combine a turbo-charged web marketing strategy with high-touch personal follow-up from your sales team, and you’ll outsell everyone.

To your success,

Charlie Cook

P.S. Ready to make your web site generate dozens of leads and sales each day? Take action and get the solution >>

To listen to the podcast of this blog online, use this link >>

Where To Focus Your Small Business Marketing?

By Charlie Cook | April 24, 2008

Where To Find The Most Clients…

Are you pulling in new clients one by one when you could be bringing them in by the dozens or even hundreds? Most people make the mistake of marketing to bring in new leads individually when they could be bringing many at a time.

If you fished for a living and had the choice of two places to drop your nets, where would you go fishing – in the spot where you’d identified one big whopper, or the place with a school of hundreds of fish?

Obviously you’d seek out locations where you’d catch the most fish with the least effort and cost. Shouldn’t you be doing the same with your marketing?

Every business has at least two sources of profitable prospects.

Individual Prospects
You’ve got loyal clients who may be big spenders. These clients should be treasured, but if you’re like most business owners, you need more than one or two ‘gorilla’ clients to keep your business growing.

Referral Partners
In any business, referral partners are those people who can send you not just one client, but dozens or in my case thousands.

What’s a referral partner? It’s anyone who targets and or influences your target market. In my business the best referral partners are others who have a list of 50,000 or more small business owners and entrepreneurs. For one of my clients who sells hearing aids referral partners include companies that target products to the aging baby boomer market.

The first step to growing your business by leaps and bounds is to identify potential referral partners. Then work out the details to provide them with a share of the profits to motivate them to promote your products and services.

Want to know the secrets to growing your business in leaps and bounds? Use this link to get the answer >>

In the last 12 months I used this simple referral partner strategy to increase my annual sales by 100%. At the beginning of 2007, I created a campaign targeting marketing partners who had the potential to send me huge numbers of new customers.

It was more work to develop a relationship with these partners than to sign up an individual client, but the return can bring in 50 to 100 times as many sales, at least in my business.

What’s the fastest way to grow your business?

Recently Joan, who owns a printing service in Philadelphia, signed up for my marketing mentoring services. Joan told me her sales were stagnant at $5,000,000. She wants to push sales to at least $7,000,000 in the next year.

When I asked her where her present sales were coming from she told me that 60% was from individual clients and the remaining 40%, or $2,000,000, was from one print broker.

As I’m sure you have deduced, the fastest way for Joan to grow her business won’t be in spending all her time bringing in individual clients. Instead the simple solution is to target a few more print brokers. Add one and she’d reach her goal. Add two or three and she’d double her business.

Want to double your business this year? Use this link >>

Marketing is like bowling.

To win you don’t aim to hit each bowling pin, one by one. The winning strategy is to hit strikes and knock down all ten pins with one ball. Of course it’s harder to do but bowlers who hit the most pins with the fewest balls win every time.

So where should you focus your marketing?

Prioritize your time and efforts based on your marketing goals.

Some businesses get 100% of their sales from marketing partners but until you do I wouldn’t recommend abandoning marketing to individual clients. The key is to prioritize your time and efforts based on your marketing goals.

For example, if you’d like to get 50% of your sales from referral partners, allocate 50% of your time and marketing budget to building these super-profitable relationships.

How much time are you spending now on developing referral partnerships?

Don’t be embarrassed if your answer is close to zero. Most businesses neglect their biggest sources of potential profit. Takes the following three steps to change this now.

Step 1 – Set Aside the Time
Joan knew she wasn’t going to make any progress with her marketing until she could carve out the time to work on it. Every time she set foot in her printing plant, she was deluged with questions from her staff. Finally, after months of hearing me insist on it, she took a big step and decided to work from home one morning a week so she could devote time to marketing.

Step 2 – Have a Marketing Plan
Setting aside time to work on marketing won’t pay off unless you know what to do and how to do it. Find out what works to attract both individual clients and marketing partners. Use this link to get the details >>

Step 3 – Take Action
Successful marketers and business owners take action to bring in new clients, including these:
– Developing the tools their marketing partners need to promote them,
– Following up every couple of weeks with their prospects and marketing partners to build and maintain the relationship.

Are you an action-oriented business owner or marketer who is focused on success?

Then you’ll want to take the next step and discover where and how to focus your marketing to maximize your profits. Use this link to get the details >>

Gotta go. I need to call a couple of referral partners and see if I can double sales again this year.

Charlie
Small Business Marketing That Sells

How I Lost a Great Client…

By Charlie Cook | April 16, 2008

Ever have a client you really liked working with quit? You know how upsetting it can be.

This week, one of my favorite clients, wrote me to let me know that he wanted to stop working with me after just two months.

Did I blow it, tick him off or what? You be the judge.

Kris Simmons, of FireEye Productions owns a web and video production company. In 2007 he’d seen a devastating slow down in business and been forced to layoff most of his staff. Kris had signed up as a mentoring client in early February of 2008.

He thought his business was a victim of the slowing economy but believed there were still plenty of clients out there if only he could get their attention and their business. Then 8 weeks after signing up Kris quit!

Why? Why did Kris quit as a mentoring client?

From the start, Kris jumped on each strategy and idea I provided him and put as many of them as he could to use. The result?

Kris sold 30 projects in less than two months, which in his words “Is HUGE!” In fact it was more than he’d ever signed up in any two-month period since he started his business eight years ago and to boot he did it in the midst of a recession.

Kris wrote me to say that he had to stop working with me because even with outsourcing 90% of the new projects, he was working around the clock to keep up with the demand that I’d helped him tap. With all the new clients he’d landed he didn’t have time to keep up with the mentoring program and wanted to stop working together, at least for now.

I’ll miss working with Kris. He was fun to work with and most importantly followed through on the strategies and ideas I shared with him.

Want to benefit from my misfortune?

Fill Kris’s spot.

I now have one new space available in my mentoring program and if you act quickly and apply and you’re accepted you could be the next person to discover how to get more business than you ever imagined.

Use this link to apply >>

To your success,

Charlie
www.marketingforsuccess.com

P.S. Be forewarned! Kris had the same complaint that other clients have mentioned in the past. He told me I should have warned him about the tsunami of business that he could expect.

So consider yourself warned. The marketing strategies and ideas I share with my clients can bring you in more new business than you ever imagined.

P.S. II Want to see what Kris had to say? Use this link to view his video comments online >>

Is It The Economy? – Try Another Excuse!

By Charlie Cook | April 15, 2008

Listen to the podcast of this blog online with this link >>

Were your sales stagnant last year? How was the first quarter of 2008?

What’s the problem? Is it the economy?

With all the news about the mortgage meltdown, sinking real estate values, rising unemployment and warnings of a recession, it’s easy to feel anxious and pessimistic. But don’t assume that your slow sales can be blamed on a faltering economy.

It’s true that banks are tight about lending and your customers are cautious about spending, but that doesn’t mean you can’t continue to grow your business.

There are profits to be made in any almost all economy, even in areas you’d think would be the hardest hit.

During the last week of March I took a vacation with my son in British Columbia to check out Revelstoke, a new Canadian ski resort. At a time when real estate values are sinking, the economy is slumping and the ski industry is stagnating, someone had the audacity to open a new ski resort.

And even crazier, the proposed resort isn’t anywhere near a population center. It’s at least a five-hour drive from the airports in Vancouver or Calgary. For many U.S. and Canadian residents, it’s more or less inaccessible. It took us over 18 hours to get there from Connecticut.

As you drive up the recently graded dirt road to the mountain, you see no condos, no golf course, and no model ski homes. Other than some amazing ski terrain and two new lifts, the place is more mud and vision than reality. (We went cat skiing but here’s a video of heli skiing)

So what happened when they put their first real estate offering on the market?

It sold out in 2 hours!
How? With some great marketing!

What’s the secret to creating a huge demand and successful sales campaigns?

I’d hired a driver to get us home from our return flight in the middle of the night. On the way, our driver told us that his business was down by over 50% from last year. The following day, I talked to another limo service that was growing steadily at 10% each month.

The big question is,

Is the economy to blame, or is it your marketing?

Conventional wisdom has it that your sales will fall off in a down economy, but that will be true only if you let it happen.

One of my clients came to me for coaching after laying off all his employees as a result of sinking sales last year. We retooled his marketing plan and wrote a new marketing message. One month later, he told he he’d never brought in so much new business in such a short period of time in the eight years since he’d opened for business.

Ready to see your sales take off even in a down economy? Use this simple strategy >>

If you’re using the economy as an excuse for not growing your business this year, think again. Sure, it’s easier to grow a business when money is plentiful. But when spending shrinks, the truly successful separate themselves from their peers and keep their businesses growing.

These people are leaders who see even the most challenging situation as a problem to solve. They look for answers and then take action. If you’re a leader, you can make your business more successful in almost any type of economy by getting the knowledge you need to grow your business.

Others look for someone or something else to blame for their problems or misfortune. ‘Blamers’ let themselves get stuck. Blaming others and looking for excuses is a way to avoid fixing something that’s broken.

Are you a Leader or a Blamer?

If you’re leader who wants to put your business on the fast track to success – take action and find out what works >>

Introducing More Business podcasts.
To listen to the podcast online, use this link >>

– Charlie
Marketing Strategies That Get… Results