Charlie Cook's MArketing for Success Insider's Club

 

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

Alexa Site Rankings URL Oddness

By Charlie Cook   |   December 10, 2004

Many web site owners check Alexa to see how their and their competitors site ranks. Until now I thought it provided valid information. Now I’m not so sure.

This past year when I’ve gone to Alexa to check the improving ranking of MarketingForSuccess I’ve noticed the information for my site listed under “todaysinspiration.com” a site I have no affiliation with and which in fact doesn’t even exist yet. After numerous inquires I got the following response from Alexa.

“When Alexa crawls the Web, it merges together sites which we think have the same content. When we merge two or more sites, we combine their traffic to form one ranking and list them under the domain with the most traffic. With tens of millions of domains on the Internet, our automated procedures for determining which hosts are serving the same content may sometimes be incorrect and/or out-of-date due to ownership or content changes. We will separate the sites during our next update of the service. ”

If site rankings represent combined information what’s the validity of Alexa’s rankings?

– Charlie Cook

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Is It Important To Have Your Bio In Your Marketing Materials?

By Charlie Cook   |   December 6, 2004

“I’m starting a new business and would like your opinion.” – Lori Emberland

A – Including a bio in your marketing materials can be helpful or not depending on how it’s written. Most people make the mistake of making their bio about me, me, me. The key is to write your bio in terms of the the problems you’ve solved and the clients you’ve helped. This makes it not only more interesting so prospects read it but helps postion you as someone who can help solve problems. You can learn more about how to assemble and write your marketing materials with The 5 Principles of Highly Effective Marketing. – Charlie Cook

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eBusiness Marketing Programs?

By Charlie Cook   |   December 5, 2004

“I am enrolled in the University of Phoenix, pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Business, with a focus on e-Business. I know of two large marketing associations, the American Marketing Association and the eMarketing Association. Are you a member of either of these? Would you recommend membership in either of these associations? And, do you know of any scholarship programs for marketing, emarketing, or e-Business students?” – Amanda Larson

A – In the small business arena I only know of a small handful of people who understand how to use the internet to attract clients and generate sales successfully. If I was fresh out of college and wanted to learn corporate eBusiness my plan would be to find a way to get hired by Amazon or EBay or even L.L. Bean. Amazon of course has been the trail blazer and much can be learned just by studying their web site.

Joining eMarketing Association and AMA are both good ideas, ways to find out what people are talking about and more importantly to build your network.- Charlie Cook

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How Do I Build My Mailing List?

By Charlie Cook   |   December 4, 2004

“I need direct marketing ideas, a list of RN , LVN, CNA, with addresses so I can send flyers, postcards and market to these individuals and not all and every one because its more costly, I’m sure there is such a list, I just don’t know where to get it.

I am a Nurse myself and I always get mail from hospital or home health agencies with job offers so where did they get my name and address? and how do they know I’m a Nurse?” – Liz

A – I’m sure your town has a couple of printers who specialize in direct marketing mailings or can help you find someone to create a mailing list for you. Start with your yellow pages. I use Betterlists.com here in Stamford, CT. They have access to databases that can provide current listings of nurses, doctors or almost anything. If you can’t find a list provider in your town you can always use google.com. Just type in “mailing lists, nurses” and use the results to find a provider. – Charlie Cook

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How Do I Develop Marketing Survey Questions?

By Charlie Cook   |   December 4, 2004

“Hello Charlie, your articles are excellent. I am in the process of building my market survey questions. I have to see what my defined market thinks of my concept prior to my marketing strategy. Do you have materials on developing market survey questions? I would like to know if I am on the right track and like to double/triple check my work.” – Nicole Bourquin

A – The key marketing questions to ask prospects and clients (relevant to your products and services) are:

– What do you need?

– What do you want?

– What are your biggest concerns?

The objective is get the conversation rolling so you can get them talking and ask follow up questions to learn the specifics. – Charlie Cook

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Isn’t Ezine Announcer Less Expensive than Your Ultimate List?

By Charlie Cook   |   December 4, 2004

“I’m interested in buying your Ulitmate Article Distribution List but Ezine Announcer looks like it does the same thing for less.” – Suzanne Falter-Barns

A – Often you get what you pay for. My ezine announcement list is constantly updated and checked and costs roughly half as much per lead if you used Bacon’s service to create your own list.

You might be interested in the following letter sent to me. I haven’t verified this personally but it suggests checking this resource out carefully before opting for the less expensive ezine announcement solution.” – Charlie cook

“I do use EzineAnnouncer but I don’t recommend it to anyone else anymore. I seem to be the only person who can use it and there is NO technical support. I know people who couldn’t even get it set up after purchasing and had to ask for a refund.

Last summer Jason updated the database but not the software. The software has not help section, no user manual and the new database is all screwed up. He just shoved thousands of new listings in without setting up the software to send to those sites so most of what he added does not work. It took me three entire weekends to fix the mess.

If you can set up software and use it with minimal instruction then you might want to consider EzineAnnouncer. I only continue using it because I spent so much time fixing it!”

How Many Leads Should I Get A Day With My Web Site

By Charlie Cook   |   November 27, 2004

“Charlie – my web site gets over three thousand visitors a week, but only a couple contact me. Is this the best I can do?”

– Bill Morgan

A – If you write and structure your site correctly you should be able to do a lot better. Using the ideas mapped out in ‘Creating Web Sites that Sell’ I’ve shown clients how to prompt 10-40% of all site visitors to contact them. If you’re getting three thousand visitors each week, you should be able to get a between 300 to 1,200 per week to contact you.

– Charlie Cook

Why Don’t You Have An Affiliate Program?

By Charlie Cook   |   November 6, 2004

“I would like to be able to forward your e-zine, ideally with an affiliate link, to various business people that I come into contact with or alternatively recommend them to your site again using an affiliate link. I’m puzzled as to why you don’t have an affiliate program.”

– David Haines

A- You are welcome to sign up as an affiliate using this link.

I don’t actively promote the affiliate program and actually wish fewer people signed up for it. The reality is only a few affiliates do what it takes to make money from the program and I don’t want to lead on the average person who thinks they are going to instantly generate zillions from becoming an affiliate.

It is possible to generate steady income as an affiliate but you will need to do some work too. My successful affiliates:

• Frequently promote my Free Marketing Guide and my eManuals

in their newsletters.

• Send their ezines to a large subscriber base (20-200k).

• Send out endorsement style letters to their subscribers. These are

without doubt the most effective.

When you do two out of these three and you can make good money as an affiliate. Do all three and we’ll both be richer, not to mention that many more people will have access to the marketing tools they need to grow their businesses. – Charlie Cook

What Ezine Broadcast Software Do You Recommend?

By Charlie Cook   |   October 4, 2004

“Charlie – I receive your newsletter and always enjoy it. I am in the process of launching my own e-newsletter. I have a lot of signups already and was wondering whether you use any special software? – Steve Strauss

A- I use a third party ezine broadcast service. Click here for the full list of resources I use and recommend. – Charlie Cook

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