Charlie Cook's MArketing for Success Insider's Club

 

The Top Experts Reveal Small Business Marketing Strategies
That Get Results In This Economy

Is Imitation a Form of Flattery or a Sign of Success in Business?

By Charlie Cook   |   March 1, 2005

If imitation is a form of flattery, I should be unbelievably flattered in addition to being successful. Someone built a site that is almost a duplicate of mine, many of the same page headlines, same page layout and images by the same artists. Similar copy. Articles and books that make the same points, etc. plagiarism probably, copyright infringement possibly.

Unfortunately for my clone wannabe imitating others will only get you so far. If you want to be truly successful you need to learn how to leverage your own passions and knowledge. You can’t just copy what someone else does and expect it to work. Imagine pretending you were a doctor, lawyer or an accountant after a few conversations with one or watching one on TV. You’d fall flat on your face.

The same is true in marketing, you can’t just copy the site of someone else who is successful. And imagine what people will think of you when they see the site you copied. You’ll look foolish and lose the trust you’re working so hard to build.

To be successful in marketing your small business you need to know the strategy and tactics that work and how to implement them to grow your business. These are things that can’t be copied but I can teach you. Learn how to attract prospects and convert them to clients with your web site marketing and the help of a marketing expert. – Charlie Cook

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Spam Filters Are Out of Control

By Charlie Cook   |   February 28, 2005

Each week before I send out my ezine I check it to see which words can get it diverted by a spam filter. This week I found the following words were ones if left in correctly spelled would cause it to be blocked. They included:

– check
– money
– now
– performance
– phone
– sales
– win

Use this link to view a more comprehensive list of words that can get your emails blocked by spam filters. – Charlie Cook

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Why Isn’t My Web Site Coming Up in the Search Engines?

By Charlie Cook   |   February 28, 2005

“Can you tell me why my website isn’t coming up in the Google Search engine?” – Michelle Brown

The search engines, including Google, look for certain key elements on your web page when they spider it. If those pieces of information aren’t present or don’t include the proper text they won’t know how to categorize your site or will prioritize it incorrectly. How and where you use your keywords on your page is critcial to the success of your web site marketing.

Just because your site is relevant doesn’t mean Google will find it or put it at the top of the search findings. To help Google you need to use your keywords in specific places and with a certain number of times. Getting your site listed at the top of the seach engine can happen by accident but usually it requires very carefully planning your pages to ensure they help the search engines find them. I’ve detailed what you need to improve your internet marketing and put your site at the top of the search engines in Creating Web Sites that Sell. This comprehensive manual explains how to structure and write your web site to improve your website marketing plan and sell more with your web site. I also work one-on-one to provde select clients with web site marketing advice. – Charlie Cook

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Problem with Downloading the Free Marketing Plan Guide

By Charlie Cook   |   February 23, 2005

“At the time I received this e-mail I did not download the free marketing plan guide. Now when I tried I get the link the file cannot be found and I’m sent to the home page of the website. Can you tell me how to access the free marketing plan guide?” – Robin E.

In mid-December I replaced the free marketing plan guide with a completely revised and updated version and a new download link. To get it just enter your name and email in one of the sign up forms on the site or use this link to get the free marketing plan guide and my marketing newsletter full of ideas you can use to attract more clients . – Charlie Cook

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

How Can I Get More Customers and Team Members?

By Charlie Cook   |   February 23, 2005

“I’ve signed up at www.a——–.com to sell P—T— products (name withheld at company’s request), how can I get more customers and team members?” – Nadine

I get a lot of requests for help from others like you who have signed up for a “home business opportunity” only to find it wasn’t making them money. The post below is about the same topic.

I’d love to help you succeed but the harsh reality is that online businesses such as the one you’ve joined rarely provide anyone but the initial owners with a profit and are essentially scams to get you to sign up. My advice is to move one and focus on building a business from something you love and know about.

Recently I received a similar request from someone struggling with their online business. John had three different web sites up for four years and only made one sale. I asked him what he really enjoyed doing and he said he loved repairing and debugging computers. I suggested he pursue this as his primary business. There’s a demand and he is already an
expert.

Why not do the same? Pick something you already know about, have an aptitude for and use your passion to become successful. The 5 Principles of Highly Effective Marketing manual shows you how to identify and market your small business. – Charlie Cook

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

How Do I Evaluate An Internet Business Opportunity?

By Charlie Cook   |   February 22, 2005

“What are some of the questions that someone should use to evaluate an online business opportunity? Or should one start with the idea of marketing one’s own expertise, and develop additional services based on what people who want and need one’s expertise, also want and need in addtion?” – Chuck Hartman, Iowa

If you are looking for a way to make money online, and who isn’t, the best place to start is with what you know. Yes, there are too many online businesses that you can sign up for that will are billed as instant profit centers. These run the gamut from selling vitamins, to gifts, to selling phone services. Can you make money by tagging along with someone elses online business?

I’ve been marketing online and helping small business owners with their online marketing strategy for almost a decade and I have yet to hear of a single person who has actually made a profit by signing up for one of these online businesses. Questions to ask in evaluating an online business might include:

– How will I market the business?
– How wil l differentiate my online business from all the other people doing the same thing?
– Do I know enough about marketing this business to make my e-store more frequently visited than all the others combined?
– Given my responses to these questions, what is the true profit or loss potential associated with this business venture?

As a rule, I suggest most people who are looking for an online business idea avoid joining the typical dubious business ventures commonly marketed online. Instead, learn how to market your knowledge or passion and turn it into a profitable small business. I show you how to do this in The 5 Principles of Highly Effective Marketing manual. Order your copy to get your small business marketing plan in gear. – Charlie Cook

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

How Can I Find Which Keywords People Use?

By Charlie Cook   |   February 16, 2005

“Where can I reverse look up the words people are using when they are looking for your products?” – Buck Buckingham

I use the Keyword Suggestion tool at Overture to get a rough idea of how many people have searched for a set of keywords in the last month and related keywords. Once you’ve identified the keywords people use in looking for your products or services you may want to use them in your elevator speech.- Charlie Cook

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Feedback on “Broker Leads” or Any Leads for that Matter?

By Charlie Cook   |   February 16, 2005

“What is your recommendation as to the efficiency and cost effectiveness of buying leads?” – Jim Lauraitis

If you buy leads you are working on the assumption that your role in marketing your business is to search out prospects. Hence, you are looking to buy leads. While you may find an occasional live lead, your can also waste a lot of time and money buying and chasing leads.

Wouldn’t you rather have your prospects searching you out and contacting you?

I don’t buy leads. Instead I use and help others implement an offline and online marketing strategy that generates leads. This marketing strategy results in qualified prospects, contacting me. My problem isn’t having enough leads, but rather, having enough time to follow up with all of them. With my lead generation system all I have to do is take orders and follow up on prospects’ inquiries.

This marketing strategy is mapped out in The 5 Principles of Highly Effective Marketing and I’ve detailed how to implement it online in Creating Web Sites that Sell. – Charlie Cook

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Avoiding Spam

By Charlie Cook   |   February 9, 2005

“My email box is being overwhelmed with spam. Someone is putting “microfish” or “ab123″ in front of my url to create email addresses like microfish@charlie.com as the return address for spam emails they are sending. Yesterday I received over 9,000 returns to my my email box. What do I do?” – Philip

About six years ago when I had my popular site SearchIQ.com, which I sold to CNet, I had the the same problem. A number of spammers had found my email address on the site and started to use it deluging my inbox with thousands of emails. The simple solution is to set your email to only specific email addresses. When you do this, all others such as dasfy09p7@charlie.com will be rejected by your server and you won’t be bothered by them.

The next step you can take is to remove your email address from your site and use forms instead. That way you’ll make it harder for the spammers spiders to find your email address and use it. – Charlie Cook

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

My Biggest Search Engine Positioning Mistake

By Charlie Cook   |   February 8, 2005

It is in the past so I can admit it. I made a huge search engine positioning mistake that was a drag on my site traffic and it took me forever to figure it out. As the author of one of the first books on search engine positioning it was a little embarassing to say the least. Here’s the mistake I made and how to avoid it.

Originally my marketing site could be found at www.charliecook.net. This site benefited from some top search engine placements in Google and other popular search engines thanks to applying the few simple guidelines I detail in Creating Web Sites That Sell . Traffic from Google was growing steadily, that was until I made the following mistake.

About ten months ago I rebuilt my site and moved the content to the current location at www.marketingforsuccess.com Thanks to my strategy of using articles to attract prospects and my huge distribution list of online and offline editors who publish my articles, my website traffic continued to grow, but I noticed I couldn’t find my site in Google. Yikes, what was going on. Preiously I’d been in the top 10-30 spots for every one of my keywords.

During the last six months I’ve worked closely with a search engine postioning firm to try and fix this situation and get listed in Google again. After trying a variety of tactics which worked to boost my listings in every other search engine, we tried removing all the original pages from my www.charliecook.net site. I had left them up under the assumption that since they were originally well placed they’d continue to draw traffic which would be automatically forwarded to my new site. Big mistake!

It turns out that Google didn’t like having similar content pages on both my sites, even though the first had a permanent redirect on it to my current site. About a week ago I removed all the pages from my initial site, resubmitted it and my current site to Google. This week my site is back in the top 10-30 positions in Google for most of my keywords.

Lesson learned. If you create a second site for your content with a new url, after a month or so, delete the original and just have the domain forward to your new domain. Want to learn how to avoid more web marketing mistakes, check out Creating Web Sites That Sell – Charlie Cook

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

« Previous Posts
Newer Posts »