[Show Transcript]

I’m Randy Charach from RandyReport.com and THIS is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

Let me ask you a quick question: if you could hire an employee and legally, ethically, and morally pay them pennies to sell you products and services everyday for months and even years to come, would you do it?

The question would be absolutely unheard of for a human employee – that’s just plain wrong. However, I’m talking about technology in this case. The loyal electronic employee, the autoresponder.

Simply put, an autoresponder is a system that lets you create mailing lists to talk to your overall audience with consistency and ease.

Imagine that you wanted to let everyone know of an event going on at your business, like a special sale, or even a new store’s grand opening. Instead of plastering flyers all over the place or spending money on a big newspaper spot, you can use an autoresponder to run the actual launch of your new venture from start to finish AND you don’t have to limit yourself to just one or two messages.

In the case of a grand opening, you may want to send out promotions that would interest your audience even after the grand opening. With the power of autoresponders, you can create a feeling of exclusivity from the beginning…it’s a proven sales booster in just about any business market. People want to feel special, and creating a mailing list just for them may give you access to their attention far more effectively than a general ad.

Compared to a traditional advertisement, autoresponders provide a stronger return on investment. Once you have permission to send e-mail to someone in your target audience, you can send your messages to them until they decide they don’t want to hear from you.

So that means that if you enter the world of autoresponders the right way, your business will have a nice home in your audience’s inboxes for a long time.

As you might have guessed, autoresponders are completely permission based. Your audience gives permission for you to send them automated messages by “opting in”. All that this means is that they enter their name and email address so that they can get on your mailing list.

What you really want to go for is a double opt-in list, which is just like the regular single opt-in I just mentioned, but it adds one more step for verification purposes. Double opt-in lists are the most valuable because the person has honestly taken the time to open their arms and say “Let me in! Let me in!”

It’s a great feeling to check your autoresponder stats for a mailing list and see people opening up their inboxes to you! This is something you definitely want to implement in your business as soon as possible for best results.

So, how do you harvest these juicy benefits for yourself?

What we need to do first is decide how we want to set up the structure. You can find and use software hosted on your company’s web server, or you can go with an email service provider. These guys are pros — they handle every aspect of email deliver you can think of.

I definitely recommend going this route for the best deliverability possible, as well as ease of use. While you can go with your own self-hosted solution, this is just one more item on your to do list. It goes without saying that you already have plenty to do for your business. I know I do — unfortunately, I haven’t been able to use the ol’ magic wand to make it all disappear yet!

The other side of structure is putting the opt-in forms on your website. You’ll want to place these as high as you can on your website without the user having to scroll. The goal here is to get as many subscribers to your mailing list as possible. So it just makes sense to draw attention to the opt-in box as soon as possible.

There are a few tricks to getting your opt-in box to stand out in order to get more people to sign up for your mailing list. You want to have a good headline that pulls them in with a clear call to action. You can even add a few bullet points highlighting why the visitor should sign up immediately. You can also add a freebie to entice the visitor to sign up — it’s called an ‘ethical bribe’ in marketing circles and it works very well. It can be a special coupon, audio or video clip, or even a small digital guide.

As always, these are general tips — every industry is different. If you are going to offer a freebie, make sure it actually will provide value to your audience. No matter what industry your business is in, it’s pretty safe to say that value is the universal business language!

Well, it’s time to tackle the most important part of the autoresponder: filling it with compelling content. These are your follow up messages, broadcasts, and newsletters. Follow up messages are structured on a set sequence and are sent out one after the other, spaced out evenly. You can send them daily, weekly, bi-weekly and even monthly. It’s a system so regular it could make clockwork jealous.

Content really is what separates cold, unresponsive mailing lists from red oven-hot mailing lists filled with people who are developing trust in you and what you have to offer. That’s where the power of autoresponders comes in when it comes to generating a strong income stream for your business. Since they’re on autopilot, all the work is done in the beginning. After the content is loaded in, it runs automatically for your 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Each message does not have to be long. However, each message should focus on interacting with the audience and encouraging them to take action on whatever information you provide. Autoresponders are a perfect way to not just raise the bar in your business, but truly send it sky high! Automating your business in a strategic way is definitely the way to grow your business very quickly.

Speaking of growth, remember…just as your audience can sign up for your mailing list at any time, they can also leave at any time. By law, there has to be a way for your subscribers to unsubscribe from your mailing list. This is usually going to be at the bottom of each message. It’s absolutely critical that you take the time to really show your audience that you have a strong reason to be in their inbox. After all, sending out a lot of messages is rather easy, but getting people interested enough to open your e-mails is another story.

The easiest way to make sure your emails have the highest chance of getting read is to be interesting and give great value.

When I sit down to think about what to share with all of you here on Randy Report, I think about what I would share with a good friend that’s interested in the same topic I’m writing about. Put your audience in the same position and they’ll be sure to consider everything you offer to them. You deserve it!

Of course, the only way to get a feel for your audience and how they’ll respond to an actual mailing list promotion is to go out and create an autoresponder and load it with targeted messages to your audience. Try it out today and see just how far your new electronic salesperson can take your business!

Our question this week comes from Jessica T. from Sacramento, CA who wrote:

Hi Randy! First time watching your show, but I like it already. When you create these messages, what sort of call to action are you referring to? Do I have to sell something on every message?

Thanks so much for joining me, Jessica! To answer your question, you don’t have to sell a product on every single message, but it’s important to get your audience in the habit of doing something on each and every email. This makes it easier in the long run to offer products and services in the future because your audience is already used to taking action from the beginning.

By starting out in this manner, you’ll have a more responsive list than if you were to just give information without asking for some sort of action to be taken. There aren’t any guarantees that each and every person will always open, read, and take action by clicking on a link or taking a poll, but these methods ensure that your chances of success are as high as possible.

So, if you have a video to share or a link to pass on, share it freely with your list – it can only lead to a closer tie to your list!

Well, that wraps up this episode of Randy Report. Since company’s websites, prices and quality of service on the Internet change rapidly, for my up-to-date recommendations on resources and for free tools and training, visit me today at RandyReport.com.

Today you learned

how to unleash the power of autoresponders to automate your promotion and sales efforts on a completely new level. The keys to a successful autoresponder campaign is building the structure of the autoresponder, as well as the specific content that you need to put into follow up messages.

To recap, structure is basically the technical aspects of the autoresponder, most of which can be handled by the autoresponder hosting company you decide to go with.

The rest of the structure process is just copying and pasting a few special lines into your web page to make the opt-in box appear. Remember that a double opt-in list is the most valuable, so make sure that your autoresponder settings are set properly.

The second part is filling the autoresponder with content – the only points to keep in mind is to provide value, and to provide value in a way that encourages the reader to take further action on what you’ve shared with them. Value is what will really keep subscribers saving a space for you in their inboxes for weeks, even months and years to come, so if you keep that in mind you should have no trouble raising the bar in your autoresponder efforts.

[End of Show Transcript]

[Show Transcript]

I’m Randy Charach from RandyReport.com and THIS is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

I gotta tell you — product creation is something very near and dear to my heart. I have developed a number of products that are quietly putting money into my business on autopilot. In fact, some of my products even bring in sales everyday! Now, you might hear what I just said and think ol’ Randy’s fallen into a big pool of bragging, but I’m telling you this because it’s completely possible to do the same thing!

It’s like being on the beach admiring a tall, shiny sandcastle — and then realizing that you can do the same thing with just sand, water and a bucket and shovel.

You have that power in product creation as well. The real point to note here is that the keys to a great product aren’t in sparkly graphics or encyclopedia-length products.

Today we’re going to go over the three major steps to a great product. If you think about product creation like building a sandcastle, then you need the sand, the bucket and shovel, and the water.

Let’s start at the beginning here. You gotta start with sand. The “sand” is a subject with a hungry crowd. The hungry crowd is what will keep your product selling for months, even years to come!

The reason why an in-demand subject is like the sand on the beach is because it’s everywhere. Forget any guide that tells you that profitable topics aren’t plentiful. Think about a time in your own life that you had to overcome an obstacle. I bet if you really think about it, there were some steps that you took to get to the end results you were looking for. The solution — and the steps to get there of course — is what drives audiences wild.

One of the products I created comes directly from my 20 years of experience as a professional magician. The product sells quite well because it’s based on the personal problems and experiences I had while being in that field – direct experience and knowledge makes product creation a lot easier than having to research.

My customers could tell that I had first hand experience with what I was talking about, and I’ve inspired a lot of other magicians to step up their game and become even more successful. Who said helping people couldn’t be profitable?

If you can’t think of a personal struggle, don’t worry. That’s not the only source of sand for your product creation efforts. Friends, family, and even past co-workers can be sources as well. What are they always worrying or complaining about? Is there a problem that’s constantly keeping them up at night? Perhaps they’re even spending a lot of money to solve this problem. Now, if you’ve been watching Randy Report for any length of time, you know how much I enjoy helping you raise the bar in how you build and maintain your online business. Product creation is the fastest way to raise the bar in the eyes of your audience.

Where are we so far? The sand — the in-demand, profitable subjects you’ll need to create the income stream you deserve. Next comes the bucket and shovel, otherwise known as the building stage. You see, a product can be anything as long as your audience gets what they’re looking for.

Newcomers often believe that it has to be a book, but this isn’t the case. When you really think about it, the world would be kind of boring if all of our learning had to come from books! So in the bucket and shovel phase, you get to shape the product creation “sandcastle” anyway you want!

If you want to create audio recordings for your product, that’s fine. Many people like purchasing pure audio products because they can listen to them anywhere — in the car on their way to work, at home while doing the dishes, or even on their morning jog. Sure beats sweatin’ to the oldies, right? You’ll need a good microphone, but prices on microphones are lower than they’ve ever been before.

What’s that? You want to put your face out there too? Got a secret desire to be up there with Barbara Walters or Ryan Seacrest? Well, I can’t tell you that building your own video product will bring you closer to Hollywood, but it can bring you a great income stream over time.

People like video products because they can watch you demonstrate things and listen to you talk at the same time.

Like producing audio, video doesn’t take that much to start out with. You could pick up an old camcorder from a pawn shop, or even use your webcam. There’s no need to be a perfectionist about it — you could start with just a webcam and scale up as you produce more income from the product line you create.

Whatever format you decide on, the point here is to focus on delivering the solution in a step by step manner. Oh, and by the way…the easiest way to avoid a high amount of refunds for your products is to provide complete information at all times. If the solutions you offer has seven steps – don’t try to save time and leave out a step. This only frustrates buyers into taking action against you – and you don’t want that!

Right now, we’re going over the very basics of sand castle building — I mean product creation. Looks like I’m dreaming about the beach again!

Anyway, we’re down to that last key piece of your product creation plan. If you’re following our little sandcastle building example, the last piece is water. Water is pretty important. In the wide world of product creation, this is the traffic and promoting stage.

You can’t build a great sandcastle without water, and it’s also difficult to have a successful product without people finding your product and purchasing. Building traffic is an ongoing process. For best results, you want to build a plan of getting traffic. You can mix free and paid traffic methods to meet this goal, or start out with just free methods to get the ball rolling.

Free methods range from writing guest posts for blogs in your specific subject that include a link back to your site, up to commenting and building a following on forums in your specific category. People buy from product creators they know, like and trust, so the more information you put out there, the more they’ll feel comfortable purchasing from you.

Paid methods revolve around pay-per-click services like Google Adwords or placing banners on websites. This can get expensive, so I recommend getting good at free methods first.

Remember — these are just the basics of product creation – as you get better with the method, you can add in more complex features to your products. The key is to get started – the faster you create a product, the more likely it is for you to make sales from it! You can’t win if you don’t play, so get out there and play!

Our question this week comes from Jessica T. from Sacramento, CA who wrote:

Hi Randy, thanks for spending another week with us on your show! Quick question for you: I’m really excited about all of this product creation stuff, but I was wondering how long you recommend creating for each type. It just seems like a good product would need to be long.

Hi, Jessica, so glad you’re getting a lot out of the show. To answer your question, there’s really no set length your product has to be. If you can explain your topic in 30 pages, there’s no need to put pressure on yourself to build a 300 page course.

In fact, if you can pack a great solution in a small package, that’s even better. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes for a moment. If you’re turning to the Internet for a problem that’s keeping you awake at night and stressing you out, do you really want a 3000 page gorilla of a course, or a 10 hour set of audio CD’s? I don’t really think you would want that – I know I wouldn’t!

You’re naturally going to go for the solution that’s as short as possible without skipping over anything essential. So instead of focusing on a set “rule” of product length, create a product that covers the solution your crowd is looking for – without leaving out the essentials!

Well, that wraps up this episode of Randy Report. Since company’s websites, prices and quality of service on the Internet change rapidly, for my up-to-date recommendations on resources and for free tools and training, visit me today at RandyReport.com.

Today you learned

how to unleash the power of product creation for your online business. The system of product creation is just that: a system you can follow each and every time no matter what subject you want to build your product around. To remember the steps, you can use the sandcastle building analogy: sand, a bucket & shovel, and water.

In plain speak, this means choosing a topic, deciding what type of product it needs to be, creating it, and building traffic to the site with a mixture of free and paid methods. Are these the only action steps you’ll need to take? In a general sense, YES!

Obviously, we couldn’t cover all the specific nuts and bolts today but this show should be enough for you to get up and running with creating your own products – try it out! That’s the only real way you’ll keep moving forward! The more you experiment, the more you will create your own “spin” on the product creation system that’s right for you.

[End of Show Transcript]

[Show Transcript]

I’m Randy Charach from RandyReport.com and THIS is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

In this week’s lesson we’re going to talk about outsourcing. It’s a very hot topic indeed. But before you rush into outsourcing everything from setting up your website to blowing your nose you better listen to what I have to say about this very important and highly misunderstood topic.

Okay, you’re all set right… you have an idea for a product or service to sell online…now all you need is someone to write your sales copy, create your graphics, set up your website, build inbound links and write and submit articles so you can get traffic to your site, set up your shopping cart, so you can take payment, and do whatever else needs to be done in order for you to make money on the Internet.

Piece of cake, right?

After all, you’ve been told that it’s easy to make money on the Internet. That you don’t actually have to do any of the work yourself…just outsource everything and sit back at the beach and watch the money flow in, right?

Wrong!

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s just not that easy. No matter what anyone tells you; mark my words…there’s no magic pill. How do I know for sure? Because I’m one the most resourceful people you’re ever going to meet, and although at first, when I got into this business, I thought I could find or create a magic pill and even thought at times that I had found a magic pill, I was wrong.

And I’m here to tell you from personal experience that the day you start looking for an easy out — – — a way to make money that requires little or no effort on your part — – — is the day you start going on a downhill slope with no way back until you realize that making money requires serious effort on your part.

It’s crucial that you understand this before we start our discussion on outsourcing. Any outsourcing that you do needs to come AFTER you have personally rolled up your sleeves and got involved at some level in the activity that you’re going to outsource. If you don’t understand at least the basic fundamentals of what you’re outsourcing then you greatly increase your odds of wasting a ton of time, money and energy.

You also have to be prepared to manage the people that you’re outsourcing. Especially if you’re hiring cheap labor for North American standards and outsourcing to a place like India or the Philippines. There are language and cultural differences that need to be understood and dealt with in order to effectively outsource to other countries. If you go in blind about the tasks which you’re outsourcing you’re adding an unnecessary layer of complexity on top of the language and cultural challenges.

Commit to understanding and doing the initial work yourself that you’ll ultimately outsource to gain a clearer understanding of what it is that needs to be done… how long it should take…and to establish a standard of work. Without that, you’re going in blind and have nothing to compare the work of the outsourcer with.

Even if you find a diligent, efficient and capable person or company to do work for you, without first-hand experience you’ll be unable to contribute to the process and help raise the bar in the level of work that’s been done for you. You see, it’s your job as the person who’s outsourcing the work, to oversee what’s happening and find ways to improve the overall results. You simply can’t do that, if you don’t know the ins and outs of the task as well as what can and can’t be done.

My message to you about outsourcing is simple; it comes later, once you’ve already established the groundwork. Outsourcing is a great way to leverage your time and funds and does have a place for you in your business. You can outsource work on a piecemeal basis, meaning one job at a time, or even have a part time or a team of full time people working for you effectively and efficiently while saving you from the potential headache and big expense of running and housing your own local staff.

So, what can you outsource? Realistically, once you have your business systems in place you can outsource almost everything in your business. There can be a point where you sit back at the beach and the money flows in, and daily tasks are handled by your outsourced workers. Your job will still be to manage the outsourced workers or your staff person who manages your outsourced workers for you, oversee your entire operation, and make sure your systems are working. This is as close as you’re going to get to THE ultimate business — by any set of standards.

As long as you’re willing to do the initial work to put effective marketing and sales process systems in place then you have the potential to make millions of dollars on the Internet and live your life with the level of freedom that you desire. Just don’t expect some business in a box, a coach, or a seminar to build your business for you. It’s just not going to happen. Sorry! Those are just pieces of a puzzle and only YOU can put those pieces together for YOUR business.

Okay, the first the first quote job description I suggest you outsource is that of a virtual assistant, also known as a VA. This person is going to work directly with you and act as gatekeeper and protector of your time. Have him or her handle your customer support e-mails and other time sucking repetitive tasks that don’t need to be handled directly by you. Of course, by this point, you will have followed my advice and have solid systems in place.

For example, you already have an FAQ online to limit the number of support e-mails that you receive. Your VA is also very familiar with the frequently asked questions and is well-equipped to handle repetitive inquiries and update your FAQ as new inquiries come in. These updates will require your input in many cases and it’s your job to be available to assist your VA in the never ending process of building upon your systems. Building systems is an ongoing process and will require your involvement since you are the one who is ultimately responsible for raising the bar in your business.

Once you have a competent VA, or personal assistant that works with you in your own office if you prefer — that person can then hire and manage your other outsourced workers. It’s crucial that you have a competent and reliable assistant in place before you start having that person be in charge of others.
Otherwise you’ll have the insane running the asylum. Trust me on this, I speak from personal experience.

At one point, I had a business approaching a million dollars a month in sales implode on me because I was delusional and thought the business could continue and thrive without my personal involvement. No one cares about your business more than you. The buck starts and stops with you. If you build your business, slowly and methodically and take personal responsibility for putting systems in place, then you can outsource almost everything AND have a sustainable business like no other.

Another important principle I want to share with you regarding outsourcing is to continually monitor the effectiveness of your outsourcing dollar. If you’re paying three dollars per hour for an overseas webmaster and it takes them 10 times as long to do the work as a $15 local webmaster then you’re paying twice as much money for the same job. And that’s assuming that the quality of the work is the same. Again, I’ve been there before, and those are real numbers from a real experience I had. While it’s not usually the case, it’s something you need to be aware of and monitor in order to outsource effectively.

As you know, I generally don’t recommend specific companies and refer you to websites on the show since companies and links and prices and quality of service from certain companies change rapidly, so for my up-to-date recommendations on places to go for outsourcing be sure to visit FreedomUniversity.com. Speaking of which, one of the students from FreedomUniversity.com sent in a question about outsourcing.

‘QUESTIONS FROM STUDENTS’

Our question today is from Jeff G.

“I have one person who handles everything in my business except the marketing, and I really rely on his person to run my business. It’s been three months, and so far so good, but what if something happens to this person?”

It shouldn’t really matter if anything happens to your support staff because before you hired them you had systems in place. A new person should be able to step in, pick up your training manual, and after a short period of time seamlessly take the other person’s place. If you don’t have the systems in place, Jeff, you spent way too much time training your assistant, I’ll bet you’re micro-managing, and, the bottom line is, you hired to early. Have your current assistant help you compile the notes and procedures that I’m guessing you’ve created together and have it ready before there’s a problem.

Today you learned that like everything else in life you and only you are ultimately responsible for your own success. Until you know exactly what needs to be done and have systems in place to do it you’re not ready to outsource. When you reach that point, do what you do best, what you enjoy, and what’s most important to your business; and outsource the rest. Always ask yourself the question — – is this the highest and best use of my time right now. If not, then systemize and outsource.

[End of Show Transcript]

[Show Transcript]

I’m Randy Charach from RandyReport.com and THIS is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

In this week’s lesson you’re going to learn what elements you must include in the written copy on your website. Even if you decide not to write the copy for your website yourself – it’s important for you to know these basics, so you can increase your chances of successfully persuading visitors to your site to take action.

Writing copy is a huge subject and a very important one when it comes to Internet marketing and all other types of direct marketing. There are a few basic, yet crucial things that you need to know about copy; so today I’m going to summarize and share with you the importance of:

One, the headline.

Two, the salutation.

Three, the overall message.

And four, the PS.

The headline is the most important part of your copy. The main headline is the words at the top of the page that are designed to motivate the reader to continue reading. Without a strong headline, the rest of the copy on the page is pretty much meaningless, since it’s not likely to get read anyway.

The headline needs to be benefit laden and invoke curiosity. The worst headlines, if you can even call them a headline – are written by real estate agents. Bob Smith, realtor – who cares. Your name or company name as your headline is a dead line.

If you’re looking for a realtor, a real estate agent, would you be more likely to respond to a letter which has a photo of a dude with his dog in his lap and big bold letters with his name on the top, or a letter which features words that describe a solution to something that you personally care about?

Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question!

Okay, so your headline needs to get attention and arouse curiosity. Needs to draw your reader in and make them want more. When writing headlines, I suggest you write at least 100 different headlines and test the ones that you think are best against each other until you find the one that most effectively gets the response that you’re looking for. Some solid beginnings for headlines are…

How to – and seven powerful – or five essential –

The words discover, free and secret are also very effective words to use in headlines. The next thing I want to talk to you about is the salutation. Most sales letters, both online and off-line seem to start with Dear Friend. Not a good idea! That’s an old, tired and worn out salutation that turns most readers off. Personally, reminds me of the old carnies trying to sell snake oil –

“Friends, the company I represented doesn’t believe in spending 40 – 50,000 dollars a year advertising over the radio, newspapers, magazines, deadhead walls of the city…we advertise direct to the customers to save you money that we’d have to spend in other ways…say yes or yes.”

Instead, address your reader more specifically; dear spider lover. Or, sometimes it’s better to drop the dear salutation altogether – and start off with something that seems more like a report or editorial. For the immediate attention of spider lovers worldwide.

As for the general body and message of your copy; you want to, basically get into the mind of your prospect and continue a conversation that they’re already having. Address something your prospect wants, reinforce that desire, speak of the roadblocks and challenges the reader is facing, and provide a solution along with a compelling offer for them to take action with your solution immediately.

Next to the headline in importance is the PS. The reason for that is that many people… including me skip straight from the headline to the bottom of the last page, to the PS. If there’s no PS there, then it’s pretty much story over for bottom-line people looking for the summary of the content of the message.

And that’s exactly what you need to do with the PS, summarize your offer. It doesn’t matter whether your offer is to buy something or subscribe to a free newsletter, or call a 1 800 number — whatever it is, you must summarize your call to action in your PS.

PS – is time for us to look at a question from a student.

‘QUESTIONS FROM STUDENTS’

Our question today is from Ted K.

Ted writes, Dear Professor, or is that Dean – Randy? Are there any methods you can recommend to get through writer’s block?

Hmmm, ummmmmm, ahhhhh, gee, I don’t know….I’m kind of stuck…oh I know – don’t over think things. Nothing really happens until you start writing so you want to dig right in – and get at it. The secret here is NOT to edit while you write… you want a free flow of ideas that come out of your head without filtering.

Just as in brainstorming, when writing its best to tuck away judgment, put aside deciding whether something is good or bad… and just let the ideas flow.

Some people find that they can write more effectively going old-school and using pen or pencil on paper. I have several friends who are great copywriters and that’s the only way they do it. No keyboards, just a free flow from their mind down their arm, through the pencil and onto the paper. I’m left handed so it would be like this. But, that doesn’t work for me because my writings illegible, even to me.

I’m not much for typing either, so what I do for any type of writing beyond a quick e-mail, is use voice recognition software. I simply slap on my headset and stand in front of my computer and speak. This has the added benefit of creating content, which is conversational, and that’s really what you want as an end result anyway. I think I would get writer’s block if I were writing, but I never have trouble coming up with things to say when I’m speaking my words.

Whether you use voice recognition software or record your voice for transcription later, type on a keyboard, or go old-school and put pen or pencil to paper…the way to avoid writer’s block is to start with that single word, whatever word that may be. If you relax, and set aside judgment; writer’s block will not be an issue for you.

Today you learned that using your name or your company name as a headline is a dead-line. That your headlines are the most important part of your copy so you should write lots and lots of headlines and test them against each other. Remember, the sole purpose of your headline is to get your prospect to read the next sentence.

You discovered that words like discovered and free and secrets are powerful words which draw your readers in. You realize now that dear friend as a salutation bites – so don’t use it or you’ll come across as an old-time huckster trying to sell something and just end up turning your reader off.

The body, the overall message of your text needs to continue the conversation that your prospect is already having in their mind. You want to relate and connect with your reader, to find common ground, and then provide a solution to their problem with your product or service. You need to present your offer in such a way that it’s irresistible and that compels your prospect to take action NOW.

And finally, PS don’t forget the PS. The PS is often the first thing people read, or second after the headline, so it needs to summarize your offer and invoke action.

[End of Show Transcript]

[Show Transcript]

I’m Randy Charach from RandyReport.com and THIS is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

In this week’s lesson we’ll dig into the topic that is one of the most important topics of all — and that is traffic. Getting traffic, visitors to your website, is like getting customers in the door of an offline business and it’s something you must focus on in order to have a successful Internet business.

Fortunately for you there are many ways that are fast and free or really inexpensive to create a stampede of qualified visitors to your website, and today you’re going to learn some of the best ways to do just that.

I’m Randy Charach, and this is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!
You can have the best product in the world with the best website and the best sales copy and a perfect system to capture and process orders, but without people going to your website all that effort is wasted and will not earn you a single dime.

In the off-line world that would be equivalent to setting up your store in the middle of the desert with no roads leading in or out. There are a few big DON’T’S and lots of options for Do’s when it comes to getting traffic to your site.

So let’s start out with what NOT to do. It’s a good place to start because as someone new online your easy prey for people who will sell you useless traffic and not only waste your time and money but possibly get you into trouble. I’m talking about advertisements that you’ll find that say 10,000 or 100,000 or a million visitors to your website for a hundred bucks or $2000 whatever is. I’m also talking what is known as a safelist, and anything that smells like mass e-mail broadcasting. In other words, if it looks really easy, or worse yet, requires no work on your part and it’s relatively cheap to reach thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of potential prospects — stay away. At best, you’ll be wasting your time and money. You also run the risk of being pegged as a spammer and can be subject to fines and even jail, although that would be unlikely in this case. More likely you’ll end up dealing with a lot of angry people, including search engines who may decide to ban your site altogether from their search engine.

Okay, let’s move on to more positive things and dig into some legitimate and really effective ways you can quickly get qualified visitors to your website for no or low cost. One of the best ways to get traffic to your site, or a website that you’re promoting as an affiliate, is through article submission. The process of submitting articles starts with writing or having an article written that relates directly to the topic of your website and in including a link back to your website in the article.

Once you have the article written there are many places online where you can have it included in a directory of articles. These directories are where other people with websites look for content and will display your article on their site. By providing free content to other websites by way of your article, you gain traffic directly from the sites displaying your articles. On top of that, you also create inbound links from other sites to your website and this alone whether people click on those links or not, help to get your site to show up when people search for your topic on the Internet.

As an alternative to writing articles yourself or even hiring someone to write the articles for you; you can look for public domain material. Public Domain material includes most publications by the government, and anything published before 1923. You can also get content from material that is available to be private labeled. Private Labels works allow you to attach your own name to the content as author….but if you do this I highly suggest you customize it enough so it’s not recognizable as the same material that will appear elsewhere on the Internet otherwise the search engines will likely ignore it as they don’t like to see duplicate content. In addition to that, even if you’re just looking for direct traffic from people clicking the link from the article, you’re going to get more people interested in the material and clicking to your site if you’ve added value to it by customizing it and focusing it more specifically towards your target audience.

I’d have to say that article submission is my number one choice for you to get traffic and improve your search engine rankings for your website. It does take a little bit of time though, and certainly some effort and a small expense so it’s something I definitely suggest you do but in the meantime if you want traffic right away, like the next day, then you probably want to go to a method called PPC or pay per click advertising. This method is relatively cheap and fast to get started and a very effective and targeted way to get targeted traffic to your site. PPC advertising involves setting up an account with a major search engine; Google for example calls their PPC advertising program Adwords. So, in Google’s case, you get an Adwords account and start bidding on keywords related to your topic, then your advertisements with a link to your website show up when people search for your keywords on, in this case…Google.

Another great way to get traffic to your site, and this one’s free and somewhat effortless, is to be available for interviews by credible people or provide testimonials for products that you believe in. Typically when you provide an interview or testimonial your name and website appears along with the posting.

Yet another free and simple way to get traffic to your site is to post comments on blogs related to your topic, post in forums and provide valuable content…for example…answers to a question…basically anytime you go online and have an opportunity to provide a useful comment on someone else’s website, you’ll typically have an opportunity to include a link back to your site and this is how you build credibility, search engine fuel and direct traffic to your website. Make sure when you do this you actually provide real insight and an intelligent response to the topic of which you’re relating to. It may become tempting to not even read what you’re responding to on a blog or in a forum just so you can get your link posted. In many cases, the webmaster will not include your post and if it is included and doesn’t say much or doesn’t make sense, then you’re wasting your time and hurting your brand.

Another way to get traffic to your site is through effective use of social networking. Social networking sites are those where an online community of people share similar interests. These are also known as Web 2.0 sites and some of the most common are FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace and Squidoo. You can get free targeted traffic from the proper use of social networking sites, but as in all forms of effective marketing it’s important that you play by the rules and develop relationships then pull people towards you as opposed to attempting to blatantly push people into doing business with you.

It’s all about starting and joining conversations related to whatever it is that you focus on at your website. When you set up your own social networking page or profile, and join groups of various social networking sites, as well as participate on other individual profiles of which you’ve developed a relationship with then you place yourself in a position to be able to direct traffic to your site. Once you become an authority at your profile on any given social networking site, or a valued contributor to someone else’s page or group…then, and only then will people seek more information from you, and that’s when they will go to your website hungry for more of what you have to offer.

So go set up your profile if you haven’t already in the most popular social networking websites include a link back to your main website and actively contribute content to your profile and engage in conversations related about the topic of your site. This also takes time, but not a lot of time for the type of results you can achieve. It’s a free way for you to get new visitors to your site and new customers for your business.

Remember, people are mostly online because they’re looking for information!
In order for you to get qualified traffic to your site and people interested in buying what it is you have to offer…you really must be a credible source of information with a specific point of view and provide solutions for people seeking out the type of information you’re providing. This is assuming that you’re in the information publishing business online. Most people who are making money online are selling information, and I’m going to assume and even suggested that’s what you do. If you’re the exception to the rule and you’re selling something other than information then everything I’ve said in this lesson and in other lessons still apply to you, because providing information and being a credible person and company is essential to every type of business and service both off and on-line.

There are many more ways for you to get traffic to your website… today I covered the top handful of ways to do it and suggest that before you start looking for more ways to get traffic, dig deeper into what we discussed today and put some of your new knowledge into trackable action.

Our question today is from Mark S. who wrote: “I get quite a bit of traffic to my site but very few sales, what types of things can I do to change this?”

Okay, Mark there are a few things that I would look at, and the first would be to quantify exactly how much traffic you getting and how many sales you’re getting from that traffic. If for example you’re getting 100 unique visitors to your site per day and making one sale per day, then you’re getting a 1% conversion.

This brings us into a whole new topic of converting website visitors to customers and a whole new set of variables that need to be looked at, such as elements of your website, price of your product, and many more things which we will cover in future lesson that focus on this topic.

As your question relates to traffic though, I want you to look at your weblogs, your traffic statistics, and see where that traffic’s coming from and how long the average visitor stays on your page. I don’t know what you consider a lot of traffic, but this will help you at least see where that traffic is coming from and how long they stay on your site. That alone may help you figure out whether the people coming to your site are actually looking for what it is you offer; as opposed to getting to your site and leaving within seconds because they thought they were coming for something else.

Well, that wraps up this episode of Randy Report

Today you learned that submitting articles, using pay per click advertising, and getting involved in social networking are three very important ways for you to get traffic to your website. Learning this will NOT get a single visitor to your website. However, applying this information will bring you all the traffic you’ll ever need to raise the bar in your business and go from Internet zero to business hero.

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[Show Transcript]

In this week’s report:

You’ll learn how to become a coach or consultant, so you can share your expertise and skills with others and make money doing it. You’ll learn how to find the right type of coaching or consulting business to launch, how to attract new clients, and how to keep promoting your business through online and offline marketing.

I’m Randy Charach from RandyReport.com and THIS is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!
We all need some guidance and motivation from time to time, and that’s where consultants and coaches come in. People spend millions of dollars a year hiring consultants and coaches to help show them the way. Imagine helping people achieve their goals step by step…in life, in relationships, and in their careers.

It’s possible…everyone is a resource on something – whether that something is online marketing, business writing, or tropical floral arranging. Put your skills to good use, and you can raise the bar with your very own consulting or coaching business.

Coaching and consulting are two different paths. Coaching is offering a type of guidance…like your Little League baseball coach did… Whether it’s counseling a couple wondering about their romantic relationship or coaching a guy having a mid life crisis…who can’t afford a Porsche…a coach can help give people the courage to make better decisions and move forward.

We hear the term consulting more in business. Consulting is providing expertise and advice in a certain area, like a computer consultant who comes in to evaluate a company’s technical system, or analyze their work flow. Consultants are hired by businesses and individuals for lots of reasons: to motivate people, to teach new skills, to identify problems, and to influence others.

It’s your job as either a consultant or a coach to listen and give unbiased, honest advice to help people come up with their own solutions. People want a friend and counsellor to talk to, not a parent or teacher who lectures them.

One of the best things about starting a consulting business is the low capital investment needed to get it off the ground. It’s not like opening a bakery where you’ve got hundreds of thousands of dollars tied up in property leases, decor and cookie dough.

A lot of your consulting and coaching business can be run smoothly from home, which can make a hefty difference come tax time…some of your rent or mortgage may be deductible, and you can write off expenses like some of your utilities. Also, you can get a tax break on mileage clocked getting to and from client meetings. Know the rules of what you can and can’t deduct. You can’t write off a trip to Disneyland with your family because you took a business call while on the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Some of the most popular consulting businesses these days are in fields like accounting, career counselling, advertising, business and marketing, and writing. However, the possibilities are truly endless –from weight loss to pet behaviour to feng shwey.

Start by examining what you’re good at. Think about the things you do every day. Are you crafty at organizing and maximizing small spaces? You could do well as an organizational consultant, brought in to help clear out serious clutter. If you know the ins and outs of computer software and hardware, there’s an idea…computers are as mysterious as the Bermuda triangle to many people. I bet you could find five, or ten, or twenty things you’re really good at…valuable skills you could sell.

The secret sauce of building a successful business is the passion and drive you bring to the table. Even if you’re really good at something, you can’t teach people if it bores you to death or you count the seconds until the end of each work day rolls around.

Knowledge is power. You won’t be able to help people blossom as gardeners if you don’t know the difference between a tulip and a marigold. People are seeking you out for your knowledge… your credentials, experience, and education. You wouldn’t want to take flying lessons from someone who’d never sat behind the controls of a plane. Would you?

So choose a field you consider yourself an expert in. Make sure you’re up to date with the different industry trends. Products, services, and techniques can change from day to day, and you don’t want to be telling a client to do something that’s become as outdated as the Macaraina.

Speaking of clients, who are your potential clients? You need to decide if you’re targeting mom and pop agencies or huge corporations, non profit agencies, or small startup businesses.

Before you stick an Open sign in your window, promote your business in a way that works with your company. You can promote your consulting or coaching business with offline marketing tactics like direct mail campaigns where you mail brochures or flyers about your new company to targeted leads.

You could take out a print ad in the local paper, or do a short radio ad to drum up business. You may get some clients through cold calling…brrr…and you definitely want to order business cards with a clear message and call to action.

You also need an online presence. Building a website that tells your story is essential in getting the word out to potential clients. Use your website as a tool to give people a reason to use your services. Offer a free consultation, or a special report, maybe a downloadable ebook.

Always have an opt-in form on your website that offers a free newsletter or future updates and info. This will help you build a pipeline of targeted customers who are interested in exactly what you’re selling. If you have a solid offline marketing campaign, you can drive people back to your website, where they can learn more about your business and sign up to get those updates down the road.

Your website may clearly display your rates, or you may want to save that for the consult. It can be hard to know what to charge when you first start out. You don’t want to low ball yourself, but you don’t want to price yourself sky high and right out of the market, either.

A little detective work can be a big help, Sherlock. Call some other consulting firms in your area that provide the same services. While every situation is different…it depends on your experience and education, at least it will give you an idea of where you should move that decimal point.

A consulting or coaching business allows you to make your own schedule, build a profitable business, and enjoy the ultimate perk – no navigating rush hour traffic at 5 o clock every night.

Our question this week comes from Hannah J., from Edmonton, Alberta who wrote:

I launched a writing and editing consulting company. I feel like my written communication skills are excellent, but I need to improve my skills when it comes to dealing with clients. Any idea on how to get better at it?

Your first few meetings with a client are about helping them figure out what they want. Even if customers do know what they want, they may find it hard to communicate that to you. So ask lots of questions: learn more by asking for specific examples, clarifying what they say and gathering info wherever you can. Make notes and stay organized so you can always refer back to a previous meeting.

It’s also important not to make assumptions about what your clients want. Make sure you’re addressing the right issues and listening to what they have to say. Give them a chance to talk and ask lots of questions…and don’t overwhelm them with a string of 300 gigabyte answers loaded with technical terms and jargon.

Aim to become a partner with your client, rather than a service provider.

Well, that wraps up this episode of Randy Report. Since company’s websites, prices and quality of service on the Internet change rapidly, for my up-to-date recommendations on resources and for free tools and training, visit me today at RandyReport.com.

Today you learned

How to use your life experience and talent to start your own consulting or coaching business. You learned how to pick the right field of consulting or coaching to utilize your skills, how to target and attract clients, and how to promote your business through online and offline marketing campaigns.

Thanks so much for watching. Remember, if you’d like more free reports, resources and training then visit RandyReport.com and join me again next week where you’ll discover More great tips on starting a profitable business and growing your business through online and offline marketing techniques. Be sure to check out RandyReport.com for more information on building your business and boosting your profits.

I’m Randy Charach, and this is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

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[Show Transcript]

I’m Randy Charach from RandyReport.com and THIS is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

In this week’s report you’ll learn how to promote your business by using a newsletter, which can help keep your customers connected and increase your profit through targeted offers and ads. You’ll learn how to create a newsletter that people will want to read, how to stay on the right side of the law when sending your newsletters, and how to manage your campaign with an auto responder.

A newsletter is an ongoing way to promote your business and its purpose is to bring in customers who might be interested in what you have to offer. If you send customers regular newsletters with useful content that appeals to your target audience, you up your odds of making additional profit from the extra exposure.

When it comes to sending newsletters, think the turtle and the hare: slow and steady wins the race. Marketing studies show it usually takes about seven newsletters before people will buy from you, so don’t expect to be filling a wheelbarrow with cash after your first mail out. A newsletter is a longer term investment of your time, but it can reap rewards if you’re patient.

You need to walk the tightrope between providing content and selling when it comes it your newsletter. Every newsletter can’t scream “Buy this” but you don’t just want to send out pages and pages of pure content without monetization. The exception to this rule is if you’re independently wealthy and you don’t really care about making money, otherwise, choose a healthy balance.

Maybe every third newsletter you include an offer, or go for a ratio of two thirds content to one third advertising in each one. Some businesses use a 50/50 ratio of ads to content, while others go for 70/30. There’s no right or wrong answer here…no newsletter cheat sheet on the perfect ratio. It’s what works for your company and your customers.

Make yourself useful…that’s what my mom used to tell me…Provide information that your customers will be interested in, so they know they mean more to you than just dollars and cents. Hashing together a short newsletter in a rush that doesn’t offer a unique proposition won’t cut the mustard with your customers. Make sure your newsletters aren’t as boring as dry toast. Be somewhat controversial…take a stand, and give people a reason to keep reading.

Your goal with your newsletter is to spread awareness and drive traffic to your website.

You can entice people to come to your site by dropping breadcrumbs…like Hansel and Gretel…to follow so you can lead them back by putting a little piece of an article in the newsletter, with a link to view the full story on your website.

Whenever you’re providing offers and content, they have to be targeted. People have trigger finger when it comes to their inbox, and are trained to quickly weed out spam and unnecessary emails with the click of a mouse. You don’t want to email an offer for high calorie chocolate almonds if your newsletter offers weight loss and diet tips. Well, on the other hand…that just might work. But that’s just mean…and it won’t speak to your health-conscious customers the way you want it to.

An important note: you have to be careful when building your business with a newsletter. The FTC…FTC stands for Federal Trade Commission…recently updated their rules so that all endorsements must be disclosed.

That means when you send any advertising message: an email review, product demo, statement in a newsletter, note by carrier pigeon…you need to disclose if you’re being compensated.

One exception is if you personally buy the product, love it to pieces and praise it on your blog. That’s just your opinion. But, if you are paid by a third party…we could be talking money, coupons, freebies, whatever…to write about a product, you need to spill the beans. Follow the FTC rules and keep informed of any changing regulations. Look. I’m not a lawyer and I don’t even play one on TV so check this stuff out for yourself, I’m just letting you know that there are rules and they vary from region to region and change all the time.

Speaking of rules, always have an-opt out link on your newsletter so if people don’t want to receive it anymore, they can easily remove themselves from your list.

Email inboxes are fickle. When spam became such a huge issue, email providers started cracking down on what was allowed in emails and what wasn’t. Don’t bog down your newsletter campaign by including huge photos, videos and logos. Most email servers have filters that will put them right in the trash, or make them harder for people to open. Don’t worry about dazzling the crowd with fancy graphics and sparkling fonts. Instead focus on the quality of your content.

Your best option is to send a multi-part newsletter – this means that it arrives in HTML format for people who are able to view it and simple old plain text for those who can’t. This will make your newsletter accessible to everyone you send it to.

Be consistent with mail outs. You need to set up a schedule for sending newsletters and stick to it. Send it on the same day each week so people will expect it. Don’t send newsletters any more than twice a week or you’re being a pest, but don’t leave a lag of three weeks between each one. Find a happy medium…say once a week, and like baby bear’s porridge, it’ll be just right.

You can buy auto responder software that you install on your computer…you’ll just have to manage things like email bounces – that’s when you send email to an incorrect or dead email address, and like a boomerang it comes back to you. Or you can use a hands-free system: a hosted auto responder service that charges a monthly fee and takes on the management of the software and hardware. I highly recommend you go with the managed system…it’s inexpensive and it frees you up to do other things.

An auto responder is a great tool to simplify the process of sending newsletters. Anytime the auto responder receives an online request…in this case to sign up for your newsletter, it automatically responds with whatever info you have set it up to send. Managing an email list manually, updating it, and handling mail outs without one, is no fun. As your customer database grows, the auto responder will also handle new signups and email changes.

Test drive your newsletter campaign by getting someone to proofread your newsletter and give you an honest opinion. There are also spam checkers that you can find online and are built into most autoresponder software programs that’ll give you a spam score so you can see how likely it is your email will end up in the trash. Send your newsletter to yourself and see how it appears when you open it.

You also want to know who received and opened your email, and who clicked through to your site. This will help you target your customers in the future, make adjustments, and learn as you go. Again, most auto responder software will take care of this tracking for you.

Our question this week comes from James C. from Ashford, Washington who wrote:

I just started using a newsletter to update my customers on my self publishing company. How can I increase my email signups and grow my database?

The easiest way to watch your customer database grow is by giving people an Incentive to sign up…a free report, or a free download for joining.

Make sure you clearly post your no spam policy, to promise that you won’t share their email addresses with anyone else or send them unsolicited offers. People will feel safer to give you their info and trust that you won’t share it with someone else.

By offering great content and sending newsletters out regularly, people will be more likely to forward it to friends and tell people about the value of your newsletter.

Also make sure it’s easy to sign up. Always have a prominent sign-up box on your website. Put it on every page, or at least on your homepage AND make it simple for customers to change their info such as their email address.

Well, that wraps up this episode of Randy Report. Since company’s websites, prices and quality of service on the Internet change rapidly, for my up-to-date recommendations on resources and for free tools and training, visit me today at RandyReport.com.

Today you learned

How to use newsletters to build your business, how to bring customers to your site with targeted content and offers, and how often to send out your newsletter. You also learned how important it is to closely follow the FTC and other governing rules to avoid legal troubles, and how to use auto responder software to manage and track your newsletter campaign.

Thanks so much for watching. Remember, if you’d like more free reports, resources and training then visit RandyReport.com and join me again next week where you’ll discover How to grow your own consulting or coaching business, where you’ll help motivate and guide others…and make money for providing your expertise. I’ll show you how to choose the right consulting or coaching business, how to attract clients and how to promote your business through online and offline marketing tactics.

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[Show Transcript]

I’m Randy Charach from RandyReport.com and THIS is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

In this week’s report you’ll learn how to raise the bar by link building to increase your site’s credibility and visibility. You’ll learn about different types of links, and I’ll show you how to attract relevant inbound links, and how to use outbound links and reciprocal links to improve your web rankings and increase traffic to your site.

I’m Randy Charach from RandyReport.com and THIS is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

Link building is a way to increase your site’s visibility and gain traffic in the dense fog of millions of websites that are all clamouring to be number one. You want your site to be popular don’t you? One of the cool kids…on the A list? While link building can be time consuming and tedious it’s still one of the top ways to get highly ranked in search engines.

In your online recipe for success, link building is one of the main ingredients to get your website high up there in the search engines. Think of a link like a vote for your site. If another website links to your site it’s telling the search engines hey, I like this site, I find it valuable. However, not all votes are created equal. If a high ranking site links to you…their vote is worth more than a site that’s just a landing page full of ads.

When it comes to SEO and search engine algorithms, nobody’s exactly sure how all the elements work. It’s like socks that go missing in the dryer…it’s a bit of a mystery.

One thing we do know for sure…You want to attract inbound links to your site. Inbound linking is when another site links to a page on your site. The best way to get inbound links is to provide something of real value to readers…think diamonds not cubic zirconium. If you write a fun, crazy article on monster trucks for your site, someone who likes what you’ve said may link to it. The search engines count this link as a vote.

In terms of content, Top 10 lists work well, and so do unique, personal insights and opinions, quizzes and online tools. Using creative techniques to get links from other sites is called link baiting, so you can lure in those big fish – the reputable, high quality sites out there.

Be a bit controversial or radical to get your content noticed…be rocky road ice cream, not vanilla. Become the top dog in your niche by providing useful content, or expert advice and tips. People will see you as an authority, and your authority site will get links.

Here’s a solid tip…

Posting in forums and on other blogs is a good way to get inbound links, also called back-links. As long as you’re providing good advice or support in forums using this strategy as a link building tactic will serve you well. Same goes for blogs: gain back-links by posting well thought out answers and comments – no “Nice blog” or “Great post.” Most blogs have a field for you to enter your url when you’re leaving your comment, and nice going…you’ve just gained yourself another backlink.

Directory submissions will also get you link juice. You need to find directories out there that deal with your subject matter, and believe me, there are directories on everything from comic books to Chihuahuas in costumes. Submitting to directories can be a bit dull, but this can really help you land links. Oh, and there are free and paid directories, so submit to the free ones first. There are also submission services that will do it all for you.

Another submission tactic is syndicating your content. This means you submit your articles to article sites. There are a few big ones that rank well and can send you highly qualified traffic. Just do a search for article submission sites….the cream of the crop will be at the top of the results…start there.

When it comes to getting links, do what occurs naturally…think organic not deep fried. Do what’s authentic and real, and don’t try to take shortcuts or find loopholes. Think of what you’d want to see when you’re searching – run down, ugly sites with nothing to help you, or informative content that totally fulfills your every need?

Now let’s talk about outbound links, which you put on your site that lead to other people’s pages. Outbound links help you improve your web community by offering people more resources and if you link to someone else, they may return the favour. Just don’t go crazy with outbound linking, as it could tempt people away from your site, and it’s not as valuable as inbound linking for search engine ranking.

Relevance is key in all online aspects – targeting your niche, identifying your customers, writing content…the whole shebang. Relevance is also essential when it comes to outbound link building. If your site offers wedding planning services, linking to a hardware store is not going to do you any good. Stick to wedding related sites…bakeries, floral shops, photographers, marriage counsellors…

Let’s look at trading links…something called reciprocal link building…an I scratch your back, you scratch my back philosophy. The value of trading links does seem to be a bit lower than those non-reciprocal links…or one-way links as they’re also called, but are still worthwhile. You may get emails from other webmasters asking you to trade links, and you can contact relevant site owners and ask them pretty please to link to you. Avoid trading links with those spammy sites as they won’t help you, and keep all links relevant to your site topic.

Here’s another thing…your anchor text needs to be relevant in both inbound and outbound linking. Anchor text is the text that the user clicks on, the link you see in the content that’s usually blue or red, or even green or pink. It needs to be fine tuned so the keywords in the anchor text are highly relevant…say “Bed and breakfast Ohio,” NOT “click here.”

There’s a theory out there…if you have poor quality links pointing to your site, the search engines will penalize you for that. I don’t buy it. If that was the case, people could get devious and vandalize competitors’ sites by linking junky sites to them.

That said it’s a waste of your valuable time and energy to invest in getting these sites to link to you. Some examples of junky sites are spam sites set up just to get links or ones that are overrun with ads, or give nothing relevant or useful to users.

You may be thinking that the more links you can collect the better. Going on a link gathering rampage to grab any old link is not the answer. Quality is much more important than quantity. If you have a page with 30 links on it and a little sprinkling of content, it’s not going to hold water compared to a page with a few relevant links and a helpful article.

A lot of sites have tried to up their inbound links by joining link programs, sometimes referred to as link farms. Link farmers grow nothing but spam and bad reputations. A link farm is a system where the members link to each other through a set of link pages. By joining a link farm, you’ll instantly have access to tons of other sites that point to your site.

Sounds ideal, but the search engines now penalize those sites who were raking in links artificially…and your site if you link to them. Link farms are as artificial as spray cheese. Stay away from them and your site will live long and prosper.

The best SEO strategy is to mix it up and create a tasty cocktail of inbound, outbound and reciprocal links. Don’t just rely on one tactic to get your site links, and remember that times are always changing, so keep informed. What works today may be oh-so-last-year before you know it.

Our question this week comes from Melanie H. from my hometown Vancouver, Canada who wrote:

I’m trying to launch two sites in the next month or so, and I’m wondering if there’s a way to speed up the link building process. Is there an automated way to do this that won’t get me penalized?

You’ll rarely hear me recommend specific products, but here’s one that I use myself and consider a essential tool in my toolbox. It’s great and I know the people behind it, so I feel totally comfortable recommending it.

It’s a traffic increasing software called Comment Kahuna, it’s 100 percent free, and it works by gathering lots of links from authority niche blogs related to your site to help rocket your rankings. It doesn’t use any risky moves that could jeopardize your reputation either, and it’s easy to use. To instantly download this free software, go to RandyReport dot com, backslash dot ck dot html.

Well, that wraps up this episode of Randy Report. Since company’s websites, prices and quality of service on the Internet change rapidly, for my up-to-date recommendations on resources and for free tools and training, visit me today at RandyReport.com.

Today you learned

How to launch a link building campaign so you can be found in the search engines and attract highly targeted traffic. You learned about inbound, outbound and reciprocal links, what types of sites to avoid linking to, and the importance of providing users something of value so they’ll want to link to your content.

Thanks so much for watching. Remember, if you’d like more free reports, resources and training then visit RandyReport.com and join me again next week where you’ll discover How to create a newsletter campaign that entices customers to visit your website by sending targeted messages to your audience and having the perfect ratio of content to offers. You’ll learn the basics of auto responder software to manage your newsletter mail-outs and client base, and how to make sure you follow the laws on newsletter mail outs.

I’m Randy Charach, and this is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

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[Show Transcript]

I’m Randy Charach from RandyReport.com and THIS is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

In this week’s report I’ll show you how to harness the power of an offline marketing campaign which will help you improve your online business. You’ll learn how you can get exposure for your brand and how to make sure your ad campaign gets noticed…and remembered.

If you want to be a marketing superhero…don’t worry, you don’t need to wear tights…you need to learn how to effectively integrate online and offline marketing. Today you’re going to discover many ways to pump up your online business with offline marketing.

Offline marketing needs a crystal clear target and strategy. Define your business goals and target your customers before you do anything else. A radio ad with a murky message will be confusing and won’t grab your customer’s attention. A pamphlet that isn’t targeted towards your customers will belly flop and suck cash right out of your pocket.

Whether your business is strictly online or you have a brick and mortar store, you want to drive people to your website, where your online funnel is waiting to pull them into your vortex of fabulous content and unbelievable offers and discounts. Driving offline customers to your online funnel lets you send targeted emails to your new and expanded customer base.

Offline marketing will be costly if you don’t execute it right, so as they say in carpentry, measure twice and cut once…really grab a hold of your niche and pinpoint customers before you take out a huge display ad in the newspaper or stuff thousands of envelopes with expensive brochures. You need to really get to know your audience…I don’t mean invite them out for dinner and a movie…that would be kind of creepy. I’m talking about researching your market to find out who’ll be interested in buying your brand – and who won’t be.

Business cards are one way to promote yourself and get your name out there. You need to have a unique selling proposition right on your card. The same rules of online marketing apply to offline marketing, so your business card needs a clear call to action and stand out message. Give them a reason to come to your website. Offer them a valuable report or a unique reward for taking the time from their busy day to visit your site.

Depending on your business, it might be a good idea to put your logo and web address on bumper stickers, pens, umbrellas, doggie sweaters, whatever. You could get a magnetic car sign made up and tool around town with your website address on the side of your car…just behave yourself…no cutting off other drivers in your company car. Be unique when it comes to offline marketing, and make it fit with your business. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution.

If you do have a brick and mortar store always have a sign up sheet for your customers to leave their name and email address. You can use this info to send them future offers or relevant content, and create that online funnel I talked about earlier in this report. Give them a reason to check out your online goods, a reward…a Scooby snack for signing up.

Let’s say you just opened a new fine dining restaurant…the kind my wife always wants to go to…and you want to bring people through the doors. So you place a print ad in the local paper that offers people a free entree when they purchase another one. But before they can get their free prime rib…or vegetarian pasta for you herbivores…they have to go online to enter their info and print out the coupon.

Contrary to what you may have heard, print is not dead. Print ads in newspapers or targeted niche mags are alive and kicking. Targeted ads are key if you’re advertising in specialty publications…say a finance or golf magazine…so keep it relevant.

Let me give you the lowdown on radio advertising. Radio can be effective, but only if it’s catchy and memorable. Your domain name is crucial for radio advertising…well for all advertising…but even more so for radio. Most people are familiar with dot com, so if you advertise with a dot net or dot info, by the time the next commercial comes on, the domain name extension is forgotten. If they do go online they’ll probably go right on over to the dot com version. You’ve just paid to send someone else your customer.

There’s an exception to this rule in certain countries, including Canada. We Canadians are used to certain things, like freezing cold winters, strong beer and dot ca extensions. So, if you hail from the true North like I do, your customers will be familiar with dot ca. My domain Income dot ca is a great one for radio, TV and print. It’s catchy and memorable, so think of something that will stick in your customers’ brains. That also means if you have a long, complicated business name, you should register a domain that’s easier to remember.

If you do want to use radio advertising, figure out whether you’re going to be the broadcaster or if you’re going to hire someone else to be your on air personality. Radio ads will also require a script, editing and recording time, and just like Britney’s latest album…a lot of editing and sound mixing.

If you’re an expert in your field, you might even be able to promote your website on the radio for free. Radio shows have experts on all the time – authors, business analysts, animal trainers…who answer calls from listeners who call in. If you can land a spot on a local radio show, you can promote your website.

It’s not all about you, though. Fluff is cute on baby bunnies…not on a radio show. You have to give something of value…share your experiences, or provide advice. Another important tip for radio is to provide info in sound bites. Sounds bites are small chunks of info that stand on their own. If someone flips to the station in the middle of your ad, or is distracted and tunes out before you finish your pitch, your key message will still stick with them.

Tracking your offline campaigns will help you justify your marketing expense and effort. You could post a survey on your website that asks how customers found you and improve your reply rate by offering a reward for filling out the questionnaire. You could use a special promo code on your flyer so you can track the response rate. Many businesses use a unique landing page and put a different url on a coupon or print ad to see how many people actually responded to that offline marketing campaign.

The point is, you don’t need to have a huge advertising budget to spread the word about your company. You don’t have to shell out millions to send a blimp over the Superbowl. There are so many cost effective, creative ways to turn people’s heads that won’t blow your budget, but will bring you maximum exposure for your brand.

Our question this week comes from Dennis L. from Fairhaven, Boston who wrote:

I’m a certified public accountant, and recently went into business for myself. I’ve got some promo notepads and pens I’ve been giving out, but is there any way I can get more attention and get people onto my site? I don’t have the budget yet for very much advertising.

That’s a great question, and one that lots of people face when they’re starting up. I suggest you join some relevant local trade associations. You can find lots of trade directories online that list these associations.

Start with your local Chamber of Commerce. They have all types of business and networking presentations and meetings to help people learn more about business techniques and to network.

Go to one of their meetings, and give out some business cards. Make sure you point people towards your website. Since you’ve now met some prospects in person they’re more likely to trust you and hopefully select you as their CPA, or refer you to people they know.

Well, that wraps up this episode of Randy Report. Since company’s websites, prices and quality of service on the Internet change rapidly, for my up-to-date recommendations on resources and for free tools and training, visit me today at RandyReport.com.

Today you learned

How to improve your online success with offline marketing. You learned how to target your customers, use some cost effective options for advertising your business, and how to get more people to visit you online so you can provide them with targeted offers in the future.

Thanks so much for watching. Remember, if you’d like more free reports, resources and training then visit RandyReport.com and join me again next week where you’ll discover How to get more visitors coming to your site with a successful link building campaign. Link building is at the top of the list when it comes to improving your SEO rankings so you’ll be more visible in the search engines. You’ll learn about inbound and outbound links, link building practices to stay away from, and how to get people to give you lots of link love.

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[Show Transcript]

I’m Randy Charach from RandyReport.com and THIS is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

In this week’s report I’m going to show you how to create a stellar seminar that will build a buzz about your business…. I’ll teach you how to research and plan your seminar, and how to help it go off without a hitch.

Most of my marketing methods are targeted to the online world, where it’s just you and your computer…one on one…Today I’m going to talk to you about getting out into the world and dealing with real humans…eyeball to eyeball, belly to belly…by producing your very own seminar.

Seminar producing is a premium way to bring awareness and attention to your business. Doing it right from the get-go takes planning and research to achieve the results you want. The mistake most people make is trying to throw together a seminar at the last minute. You should start planning your seminar four to six months ahead to make sure you’re prepared and have checked everything over carefully.

You need to pick a hot date for your seminar. Mine is Catherine Zeta Jones…no, a date on the calendar. Make sure you research what’s going on at the time. Don’t plan your seminar during the Christmas holidays…unless it’s on holiday baking and crafts…or offer a presentation for stay at home parents during Spring Break when their kids will be home driving them crazy. Check out community calendars to make sure there’s not a big event or similar function going on at the same time. Also, watch out for major sporting events, such as the Superbowl and NHL playoffs.

Designing your program effectively will make the difference between a dynamic, interactive seminar and one that has people looking longingly towards the exits…thinking about pulling the fire alarm just to get away.

You need to choose your target market, and whittle down your topic so it’ll be the perfect combo for your audience…like peanut butter and chocolate.

Plan each step of your seminar, including your intro, all your presentation notes, interactive portions, and extras like coffee breaks and intermissions. If your presentation includes audiovisual material…and it really should…make sure all setup is done by someone who knows their stuff, who can stick around and help you out if the machines go berserk. You don’t want to be standing at the podium clearing your throat while your audience does shadow puppetry on the projector screen.

Estimate the income and expenses from your seminar before you start sending out promo materials. If your income model is ticket-price driven, then base your projected income on the fee you’re charging, not on future business you expect, or products that you hope to sell. Remember your location expenses will be included in the cost of the ticket, so don’t choose the Waldorf Astoria as a venue unless your target market is the Donald Trump’s of the world.

Consider all the expenses, which will be things like printing flyers, postage for mail outs, advertising online, venue rental, handouts…like workbooks or photocopied information…and refreshments. Your time is also money, so factor in how long it’s taking you to design and market your seminar. If your hourly rate hovers somewhere around burger-flipping wages, it may be a good time to consider other ways to bring in clients.

Another decision you’re going to have to make: is your seminar going to be a do it yourself deal or will you hire an expert to speak? Good news…this do it yourself project is much easier than your unfinished basement renovation…You don’t need to be a sparkling conversationalist at dinner parties or a moonlighting stand-up comic to entertain and engage your audience. As long as you’re a half decent speaker and can provide people with something of value, you’ll succeed.

However, if you stammered through the toast at your sister’s wedding or would rather be trapped in a burning building than give a speech…presenting your seminar will drive your stress level through the roof and your customers far, far away from the message you’re trying to get across. People want to do business with capable, confident people they can trust…so be that guy…or gal…if you’re going to present the seminar yourself.

If picturing your audience in their undies isn’t going to work to calm your nerves, or you don’t have the time or experience to present, you can always hire someone to do it for you. Look to someone who’s an expert in the field you’ve chosen. One thing to consider If you do hire someone…decide if you’re going to let them run free with their material, or if you’ll help design their presentation.

Think location-location-location…just like in real estate…Don’t hold a seminar for earning unlimited wealth at a rundown community centre. Consider your participants when it comes to getting to and from the location. Are they going to have to print out pages of Google maps to find the location, or take a long lonely and expensive cab ride from the airport?

Keeping people’s interest is the number one consideration. There’s nothing worse than a presenter who drones on and on, day after day, hour after hour, minute or minute, second after second…oh, I guess I’m doing that now. Decide if you have enough material for a three hour presentation or a workshop that spans a few days. However long you decide to make your seminar, make it fun and jazz it up, with lots of chances for your audience to participate…they love that.

You can offer your seminar for free to attract business leads and start spreading the news about your company. An example: a mortgage broker may do a free presentation to pick up clients. Make sure you have an email signup sheet at your seminar so people can opt in to receive more information from you after the event.

Some seminar producers don’t walk away from their first seminar with a stack of fifties and hundreds. Some make enough just to cover the venue and bagels, but not much more than that. Offering a seminar is a fantastic way to gain visibility among your target audience, so think in terms of the future…flying cars and robots…no, the future in terms of creating lifelong customers that will do business with you again and again.

Whether you charge for your seminar or give it up for free, a common way to make big profits is through what is known as back-of-the-room selling or a table top expo. Set up a spot in the conference room with your books or videos, or packages of the services you sell. If people like what they hear during the presentation, out come the wallets.

Producing a seminar can make good business sense in terms of building client relationships…or getting you closer to buying your dream convertible if you work hard. If your goal is to do seminars as a full time gig, then you must think of it as a business…like any other. If you do the math…then do the planning and the marketing…seminar producing is an excellent way to make money and grow your client base.

Our question this week comes from Makiko C. from Chiba, Japan who wrote:

I’m wondering about promotional materials for my seminar. I’m doing a presentation on creative management for professionals, and I’m wondering what handouts or worksheets I should give to people?

Think of handouts and workbooks as a support garment for your presentation – there’s a visual for you – –

They give participants the basics you covered in the seminar, along with the main points of each topic. I recommend giving people a take away, but you don’t need to write a novel to get them to interact with your content. Remember to factor in the overall cost…printing out binders with hundreds of pages of material is going to eat away at your profit.

You can also include other articles you’ve written, your bio and some information from your website. This will highlight the memorable parts of your seminar and boost the number of people who visit your site after the fact to get more information about your business.

Well, that wraps up this episode of Randy Report. Since company’s websites, prices and quality of service on the Internet change rapidly, for my up-to-date recommendations on resources and for free tools and training, visit me today at RandyReport.com.

Today you learned

How to take charge of your own seminar producing business by designing an effective program that will appeal to your target audience. You learned how to choose the perfect location and keep people interested in what you have to say. You also learned how to build your client base by directing people back to your website, and boost your income by offering products and services during the seminar.

Thanks so much for watching. Remember, if you’d like more free reports, resources and training then visit RandyReport.com and join me again next week where you’ll discover How to launch a successful offline marketing campaign that brings your customers online by targeting and choosing the right advertising medium for your business. We’ll talk about the offline marketing campaigns that work best, how to create a memorable ad campaign, and how to track it so you can get the best return on your investment.

I’m Randy Charach, and this is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

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