Mark Blomeley

Ok, what has really prompted me to put this together is that I was chatting to someone the other day and the guy was desperate to get his site to sell products (who isn’tJ), but his comment to me was that he was blowing a lot of cash on Google AdWords and has no leads and no sales to show for it.

Let me tell you right now that this is VERY common and this guy shouldn’t feel bad because I’ve certainly been there and done that too, as have many people before himJ. However, first things first, I wanted to put this together as really a cheat sheet for getting started in Google AdWords before you even contemplate getting things moving.

Ok, so lets start at the obvious, quite often people view the main issue as not getting enough traffic to the website, but if your doing AdWords and your blowing your coin, guess what, you’re getting traffic there. Which means your problem is one of two things, 1. It’s the wrong traffic and/or 2. There’s a problem with the website/sales funnel. In the case above I’m going to suggest it’s probably the website, but also some of the traffic is probably wrong as well.

Let’s break this down!

1. Wrong Traffic

Essentially what this comes down to is that some of the keywords that you are using in Google AdWords are bringing in traffic that are not looking for what you have to offer or are just browsing. If you’ve got products to sell, then you want people that are ready to buy and ready to buy now! You’ll find that when people are ready to buy they will type in certain keywords whereas if they are browsing they’ll select other keywords.

The only way to figure out what keywords work is to test, track and tweak!

2. Website/Sales Funnel Problems

Ok, you’ve managed to get the right traffic to your website, but you have no structure to your sales funnel or your website is not converting traffic to prospects. The main goal of when you first bring traffic to your website is to get someone’s details so you can begin to market to them over and over again. Your business is in your database, without a database you’re stuffed! Don’t worry too much about making sales on your first page, you must get the person’s details and to do that you need to give the prospects a reason to give their details out.

So that’s pretty much where most people go wrong, sure it sounds simple but it can obviously get quite complicated getting the optimal campaign going. It’s very easy to look at Google AdWords and say, oh I’ll just throw money at Google to send me traffic and I’ll make sales there. Wrong! Don’t get lazy with AdWords, it’s not as time consuming as other traffic generation strategies but it does take daily monitoring, tweaking and changes.

To get the cheat sheet just fill in your details below and i’ll rush it to you via e-mail!

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If you’re anything like I was, then social media is something that you’re interested in investigating or using as a traffic source for your internet marketing. If that is the case you’ve probably done a bit of research into “how to” use this media, and you’re probably even coming across plenty of people who are attempting to utilise this media.

One aspect that is not addressed or studied by many people is the art of pre-selling, particularly in terms of social media. Instead a majority of people are over-selling, in other words, they are just coming smack bang at you with their message, their opportunity, product or service and if you’re anything like me then you’re over it big time!

Facebook groups are becoming nothing more than a chain of posts for different opportunities, programs and products and status updates are becoming nothing more than a way to scream your message. I’m not saying to never do this but more than anything you have to earn the right to do this and do it strategically.

The way you really grab someone’s attention isn’t by spamming your message out there it is in the pre-sell. As you’ve heard me say previously, (in fact I’m getting tired of saying it, LOL), is that people do business with people they know, like and trust. Pre-selling is setting up a process to enable your prospects to get to know you and to see you as the expert to go to and therefore purchase from.

It’s very important that you’re spending your time on pre-selling and not selling in social media. In other words you should not be promoting your business but you should be building relationships and within those relationships your primary goal should be to help people, not to prospect them.

It is easy to see how people go wrong, the problem is that people get in social media and simply go like a bull at a gate and sell, sell, sell. The issue there is that your not gaining credibility in fact you are actually gaining a bad reputation. Social media is about not only having a good presence but having the right reputation, because ultimately the better you build the reputation the more valuable you will be.

The science to social media is quite simple, talk to people, ask people questions and provide answers to problems that you find people are encountering. Your presence, value and results won’t be instantaneous; however your growth will be exponential. What do I mean? I mean that you can get some but very limited initial success from overselling on social media, however at the expense of your credibility.

If you concentrate on actually helping people and spending the time to provide value to your followers, you won’t have massive initial success, however the more value you provide and the more valuable you become your success won’t be double, it will increase exponentially.

Social media is really about investing time now, in building your reputation, value and one on one relationships so that you gain more and more credibility, so that the time you spend in the future is a lot less because everything you then do on social media gets exposure and is therefore worth more to you financially.

I have perhaps simplified this quite a bit and try to address quite a few concepts here but I hope that you understand there theme here. I’m more than happy to discuss and assist you more with this. If you want to chat about it feel free to leave a message on my blog. Additionally feel free to check out my 7 step sales system, which goes into this process in more detail.

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Recently I was asked the question, “Who and what should I follow/learn to achieve my financial goals online”. What an incredibly hard question to answer don’t you think? Before I actually answer that question I want to digress slightly and bring up something I said in a previous post.

In my experience, there is such a thing as over learning, which I believe occurs when you learn at the expense of action. Don’t get me wrong, continual learning and personal development is extremely important and ultimately it’s something which I believe you should concentrate on for a fixed amount of time daily, but just like learning is important, action is just as important, actually more important.

You see the problem that a lot of budding internet entrepreneurs experience is they get so caught up in the great stuff that they are learning that they forget or just don’t implement 90% of what they learn. In the early stages of my internet marketing career, this is exactly what I experienced, too much learning, and not enough doing. As a result I do know a lot but my business is not as developed as it should be.

So I challenge you every time you do learn something, to go back and evaluate how much of that you have actually implemented, or better yet, how have you implemented as part of your day to day internet marketing activities. Ultimately if you can do something day in, day out your success is going to be tremendous, because the more action you take the more benefits you will reap.

So then, where do you start? Honestly there are so many different aspects and niches to internet marketing that this is a difficult question to answer. My experience is in the service industry and home based business industry, so I’ll give you my blue print if I were to start again.

1) Copywriting: This is easily the most beneficial skill to learn, whether it’s writing autoresponder messages or website content, this skill is an absolute must. The best course for this hands down is the copywriters’ guild course by Tim Erway. This isn’t just copy writing, this is sales funnels, website tweaking etc. Very handy course to have in your arsenal!

2) Word Press: Make sure your website/central hub is made from wordpress, go to wordpress.org, learn how to install this, how to use this. If you need bits and pieces to be tweaked (i.e. headers etc), you can easily find a cheap outsourcer to do it. The key thing here is that you know how to install it, use it and change it. This skill is a must!

3) Traffic Generation: Once you have your website set up and autoresponders set up, you need traffic; this is something you need to learn and to be honest there are so many people with different traffic generation strategies that you can learn. The key is to learn one or two and perfect them to the point you are generating at least 20 leads per day. Mike Dillard has some great courses in traffic generation definitely for PPC, also Mike Klingler has a really good social media course and there are a bunch of other really good traffic generation courses. If you want specifics feel free to leave a comment on my blog.

I believe that if you focus on learning these 3 areas above that you can launch into your internet marketing business effectively and successfully. Don’t try to branch out too much until you are effective with one or two strategies.

Essentially that’s how you get leads, if you want a system to be able to make sales over the phone or from your websites, then check out my 7 Step Sales System for Explosive Growth (sign up on the right of the page). This has been specifically adapted from a sales system that I use for my traditional business that has been proven to convert at 70 – 90%.

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I just received a question and have gotten this question in the past as well, “How do I get more followers on social media”. To be honest it’s very, very easy to get followers/friends on any form of social media, that’s really the easy part, but I’ll explain that first, then I’ll talk about how you get their attention, because that is ultimately how you are going to monetize your list.

Getting More Followers

Really you should consider your social media accounts as extensions of your “list” at all times. As I said above it’s easy to grow your friend base but your friends need to be specific to your target market, not just a bunch of randoms put together to make you look like a massive friend base. Get rid of the ego, it’s not about how many you have but the quality, in other words the number of people that are listening to you.

Ultimately you can find people you want to market to by going to a leader or a reputable person’s profile within the industry, groups that are specific to the industry or fan pages of gurus of the industry and begin to add the people that are friends/followers/members of these people/groups. The probability of adding someone that is going to be within your target market in these circumstances is very high.

Don’t know who the gurus are? Get creative and start googling, start doing your research, find some blogs/forums etc and begin to submerge yourself within your chosen field and actually speaking and communicating to your target market.

Establishing Rapport with Your List

Recently I had a break from internet marketing to concentrate on building an offline business and I can honestly say I’m better for it. Why? Through the first year and a half of beginning internet marketing I spent A LOT of time studying, doing intensive courses however my own internet marketing had limited success. I’m the typical entrepreneur and believe that the sky is the limit and that’s the way I approached internet marketing.

The problem was that it’s VERY easy to make internet marketing more complicated than it really is.  I was running my internet business previously with 3 staff, 3 blogs and a whole lot of headaches. Now, I’ve taken it the Keep It Simple Stupid approach. That being I don’t care how many people are on my friends list (actually I unfriend people more so than I friend people these days), it’s more about the quality of relationships that I develop. In other words I actually don’t care about my own success as much but I care about the people that I speak with and actually helping them.

If I was writing this article 12 months ago it would have been to get it submitted to 27 different article directories so I could get some back links to my website. From my perspective now, that just isn’t sincere and it’s not about providing value to people who need it. The reason I write this now is because someone asked me a question and I wanted to provide value, and if one person is asking this question then there are likely many more that are thinking the same thing.

 Ok, so I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent, but my point is that social media honestly isn’t a numbers game; it’s about being valuable to people and to potentially reaching more people with your value. Don’t approach internet marketing as a numbers game; approach it with a networking attitude so that you can potentially enrich the lives of others as you would in real life. Just remember these are REAL people you are speaking to online.   

If you can use the two strategies that I have shared with you today then you can’t help but be successful within social media. Be genuine, don’t spam, have fun and be positive and you’ll do well : ).

Suck at Sales and Marketing? Sign up for your Free 7 Step Sales System for Explosive Growth by filling out the form on the right of the page.

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In terms of books, it is hard to deny that the four hour work week has had and is having a major impact on young budding entrepreneurs and why wouldn’t it? Heck I would almost think that the Four Hour Work Week was targeted specifically target to Generation Y. I must admit that it was one book that definitely caught my attention, and I believe that there is a lot that can be taken away from The Four Hour Work Week; however it can also be argued that the four hour work week also has its limitations.

Tim Ferris certainly does provide a unique positive perspective into how you can potentially to live life and how a business can work for you and I certainly believe that this is one of the greatest benefits that the book portrays. Most small business owners definitely spend far too much in their business and not working on their business and this is where the book definitely would assist any small business owner.

Tim also brings up some very important and valid points when it comes to customers, customer management and time management in the book. Actually scheduling what tasks need to get done and allocating the relevant time is incredibly important. So often we work for the sake of working when in reality we can get more done in a shorter space of time, this is what the book is encouraging. Additionally customers that soak up time, energy and almost more importantly morale can hinder your business efforts, so sometimes it’s simply better to set them free and fire them!

It could be argued that the book makes building a business and becoming part of the “New Rich” seem easy, when in reality it can be an incredibly hard and painstaking process. Additionally a lot of businesses will not suit to be geared towards working just four hours per week, or in particular going down the track of outsourcing. One thing that should be remembered here is that when Tim Ferris decided to join the new rich and work 4 hours per week, his business situation was ideal. He had a business that was already turning over $40,000 plus per month and it was an online business.

Whatever your view is regarding the 4-Hour Work Week and how you interpret the information within the book is going to determine how much you get out of it. Obviously the book is not how to create a business it’s about how you can potentially streamline your business life to get the most out of all the other aspects of your life. Which I think is a great concept.

Ultimately I believe the people who can benefit most out of the book are entrepreneurs with existing businesses who ultimately “know their business”. In other words they know and are comfortable with their product/service, have systems in place or at least know what day to day activities need to be carried out and ultimately know what activities grow their business.

There are still aspects of the book that are helpful and inspiring to budding entrepreneurs, but there are many more relevant books you should read and follow prior to aspiring to the four hour work week. Why? Well from my personal experience (and this is obviously entirely different to Tim Ferris) is that in order to remove yourself from a business you a need a very clear direction, have some stability within the business (i.e. critical customer mass) and to know your business operations. Achieving that can take at least 6 to 12 months for traditional businesses to achieve (potentially less for online businesses). Ultimately product businesses are going to be easier for the owner to achieve the four hour work week than service businesses, because a vast majority of the time the owner is the product and it takes time to change that.

I do highly recommend this book to business people and entrepreneurs as the concepts are fantastic but definitely consider your personal situation prior to trying to jump in and achieve the 4 Hour Work Week in the next two months. Ultimately the 4 Hour Work Week is possible, however as with anything plan your work then work your plan.

Suck at Sales and Marketing? Sign up for your Free 7 Step Sales System for Explosive Growth by filling out the form on the right of the page.

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After reading my friend Chauntelle Rakebrandt’s post about the Top 5 Benefits to eNewsletters I wanted to follow up with the top 5 Dos for eNewsletters. This list is by no means complete but if you can follow these 5 key rules you will get more opt ins, get read more and ultimately your eNewsletter will become so much more valuable.

1. Make sure that you are giving value for opting in
I think one of the biggest mistakes when it comes to opting in off a website for a newsletter is making the opt in a simple sign up to a newsletter. Unfortunately so many people get so many eNewsletters these days that if you simply have a sign up for a newsletter opt in form quite a bit of the time you are not giving enough value for that potential lead to put their details in the opt in form. The best way to counteract this is to come up with a free report, free training, free trial etc, which gives the lead enough perceived value that they are happy to part with the information to receive that free product.

2. Set up an auto responder
Chauntelle listed some great eNewsletter management services and depending on which one you choose what you can do with this software is very cool indeed, in other words definitely check these out! One such thing is an autoresponder, which is basically a series of e-mails that go out to your prospect over a period of time which you set, in other words you can have 50 e-mails set up to go to your prospect over the next 12 months. Can you imagine the potential right there? That’s right! Use those e-mails to further develop a strong relationship, add value to the relationship and introduce new products that you have, or maybe affiliate products.

3. Use hardcopy newsletters where possible
What? Newsletters that you have to actually print out and send to people in the mail I hear you ask. Well, yes that’s exactly what I mean! So few companies actually spend the time to send out newsletters to their customers these days, that you have such an advantage over your competitors here. Sure it costs more, but you will certainly reap the rewards because your open rate will be 100% and the number of people that read it will be very high as well.

4. Value, Value, Value
Through your newsletter you need to provide plenty of value, otherwise why would someone read it. Whenever I put together an e-newsletter I always make sure that I have at least one original article about something that interests my target audience. I always make sure that I recognise my top referers, have special deals for new or existing clients. In other words use your newsletter as your place to show your audience how much you know but also how much you care about them.

5. Be consistent
It can be incredibly difficult to quantify the benefits of sending out a newsletter and how that actually relates to your bottom line. The thing to remember is that your newsletter is all about continuing to build and develop the relationship you have with your clients and that takes consistency. Its very easy to put off creating a newsletter from time to time, hey i’ve certainly been there and done that! Make sure you set your newsletter production time line and stick to it. You’ll be amazed how much you can grow your business just from doing that!

Suck at Sales and Marketing? Sign up for your Free 7 Step Sales System for Explosive Growth by filling out the form on the right of the page.

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So I have been on hiatus from internet marketing for a couple of months, but in spite of this I have probably learned one of the biggest lessons when it comes to business in general. Successful business is about delivering true value. Let me explain….

One of my primary businesses has always been in the fitness industry in a more traditional business sense. One thing about the fitness industry and really any service based industry for that matter is its very easy to stop going above and beyond for your clients. The problem is you get too many clients, you don’t have the same sort of time to spend servicing them properly and standards begin to slip. This ultimately means that your business stops growing, and I truly believe that if you’re not growing, you’re dying.

Now, I can’t go into the ins and outs of how I increased a businesses turnover by 103% in the space of two months, but what I can tell you now is that delivering true value was the key!

This concept of delivering value translates into any business no matter if you’re an internet marketer, network marketer or traditional business owner. So the question now is, how exactly do you deliver true value?

When I asked myself this question two months ago, the answer for me was what does my competition do to deliver value and how can I structure my business to deliver more value or deliver value in another way. It is easy to look at the home business industry and look at all the great leaders and business owners out there and be bewildered by their success. However one thing that you can take comfort from is that they are generally no longer in the position to deliver the same sort of value that you are in the position to deliver.

Why? Because ultimately they just don’t have the time to spend delivering the same value to people one on one. Sure they might have employees or people within their business to still deliver value but that will generally be systemised or taught, it’s not the same as one on one attention that they were previously able to deliver.

If you can focus on delivering true unique value to people and you begin to be recognised for delivering value a very important shift begins, you go from just another voice shouting for attention to being VALUABLE!

To find out more why not register your interest in my free business kick start program starting soon!
http://www.markblomeley.com/kickstart.php.

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One of the keys to effectively marketing online or network marketing is understanding and pursing attraction marketing to ensure your success. Attraction marketing is not about cold calling, prospecting or recruiting, attraction marketing is about drawing qualified leads to you, branding you as a leader and displaying the skills and qualities that is going to bring people into your business.

To learn more about attraction marketing go to http://markblomeley.com/struggling-in-mlm/.

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When you’re just starting out online it is very easy to get into the trap of learning more and more things so that ultimaltey you know more and more about internet marketing. However the question remains when have you crossed over to learning for the sake of learning and not for the sake or the best interest of your business?

Well, to quote a previous post you need to keep it simple. One major mistake that newbie internet marketers make is to get star struck and focused on so many different internet marketing programs or leaders and wanting to keep learning more and more. However ultimatley what you need to do is choose a single program, mentor or training and then start implementing straight away. Put all other trainings aside, stop reading other books and stay focused on what you are learning and start putting it into action.

Success is ultimatley the actions that you do day in, day out. If you think about that for a second, its the actions its not your knowledge. Sure knowledge is important, but the smartest people in the world certainly aren’t the most wealthy in a lot of circumstances. Therefore you need to be an action taker and start implementing what you are learning, instead of looking to learn more. Learn something, implement, then look to learn something else.

For more tips on getting your business kick started go to my personal Kick Start Program.

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Well google has struck again and is now slapping online businesses left right and centre. If you are in online business then it is incredibly important that you know and understand why this is happening and what you can do to prevent been slapped.

This is particularly affecting the network marketing industry, so if you are in this industry you need more information about what this is about.

To learn more about google slap and how to avoid it go to http://www.markblomeley.com/kickstart.php .

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