How a perky housewife from Minnesota gets up to 5,000 responses to her blog each and every day… and how you can do as well, or even better!

Posted on August 25, 2011

How a perky housewife from Minnesota gets up to 5,000 responses to her blog each and every day… and how you can do as well, or even better!

Grygla, Minnesota

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author’s program note. This is the tale of someone who has achieved the kind of astonishing online results and amazing ongoing traffic that you wish you had. Her name is Diane Dohrn and she’s one of the handful of residents from Grygla, Minnesota (population 228)… a place that looks like a suburb of Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon… the town where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.
For this article, therefore, I selected some music by perennial local favorite Lawrence Welk and his Champagne Music Makers. Go to any search engine and find his signature tune “Bubbles in the wine.” Sit back in your recliner and enjoy the effervescence of the lady from Grygla and a success story that’ll make you smile….with all the necessary details so you can match her already great and always growing success.
When I first met Diane…
I first met Diane Dohrn a little over 18 months ago when she came to me seeking my help and advice about how to succeed online. Frankly, she needed all of the assistance I could provide; she was in a bad way just then in her life and fortune. She told me a story so typical on the ‘net as to be endemic… She’d been in this opportunity; she’d been in that. She had paid out thousands and reaped pennies. She had no tools for success… no traffic… she’d never had a moment’s training… and, until my advent, she’d had absolutely no one to assist her. And now she was desperate… with acute family difficulties… and her own disability to contend with. In short, she had nowhere to go but… up.
At bottom, she still had two crucial advantages: 1) me and 2) her own “never say die” determination that I came to know so well — and admire.
She was willing to listen…
People with problems say they want solutions… but in fact what they really want is the opportunity to vent… to bewail their lot in the world, do the “poor little me” thing… then rant and rant some more. In short they don’t really want a solution… they want a willing ear to chew on. But that’s not how money gets made. I told Diane, who came with some of these weepies, that I’d help IF and ONLY if she would focus on a series of online business building steps, including specific traffic building exercises she would need to do daily to grow the all-important traffic.
She agreed… and she kept her bargain, although it was sometimes tough for the lady when I absolutely refused to listen to items from the latest installment of “As Diane’s World Turns…”
She needed traffic… traffic…more traffic… and even more traffic. And that was where I kept our focus, with lessons on the effective use of traffic exchanges, safe lists, forums, and article directories where you develop crucial back links. An avid learner, she did herself the favor of listening to what I said, asking intelligent questions, and doing the tasks. To her surprise (but not mine) she began to generate traffic at once… and more each day. Especially as she began to understand and master one absolutely crucial traffic generating tool, which in due time she was to make her own traffic- generating machine. This marvel was the blog… and right from the start, it proved to be her forte so much so that I quickly saw that Diane Dorhn was not just going to master the blog, develop huge daily traffic from it… but become one of the true blog titans of the ‘net. Now she had my full attention, and we worked together less as teacher and student… but rather as 2 colleagues not just interested in how far the lady could take this…. but obsessed with the desire to raise Diane and her traffic to hitherto unimaginable heights. We were rockin’ and rollin’… Note for the blogless.
If you’re an online entrepreneur of any kind, trying to get huge daily traffic, you MUST have a blog. This is not negotiable. You see, a blog is your personal communications vehicle. It enables you to present and deliver your message. It is 100 percent you, 100 percent of the time. Say what you want, say it just the way you want.
The key to a blog is ensuring that it offers readers the best possible content. “Content is king,” Bill Gates famously said. That’s the kind of content you must have for your blog; content that gets people to read — and respond. Diane was fretful about this point. She worried that she have the time or skills to produce the high level content her blog and readers required daily. What could she do?
That’s where I really entered the picture, as an essential element of her success… for you see, I produce the champagne of blog content, and I produce it in 27 information categories from politics through ecology and just plain good stories; my content is sophisticated, readable, intelligent, timely, well written… and (most significantly) it gets astonishingly high reader response, as Diane came to know at once; right from the start these articles (and I write a new one each day) generated responses… lots and lots of them.
Thus, each day Diane starts by selecting the article of the day, the article that will anchor that blog and be its focus.
Then she follows a daily regime which she has followed, refined and developed over time. It goes like this:
1) Check Kstats first thing. Additionally check it several times each day to see the results on every article she has ever blogged.
2) Prepare today’s article. Select it, copy to Word. Then add all the necessary videos, links, trackbacks, pictures, etc. Diane knows that even great copy is better, more arresting, with such features. (By the way she keeps all this on Wordpad.)
3) She looks up the subject of the designated article in any major search engine. She likes to do this so she can make an intelligent comment on the article.
4) Before she sends her daily blog (first thing each morning), she visits other blogs to get ideas for the improvement of hers. She never assumes she has a monopoly on this subject; she looks for what others can tell her about her blog, the better to improve it. She told me she visits between 35-50 blogs daily, to keep up on developments in the field, get ideas, inspiration, etc. I believe it!
5) She then reads through this daily blog post a couple of times looking for typos and so on. A journalist’s daughter, she is a stickler for mistake-free copy… as a result her blog is clean, without the distracting errors made by other, less careful, blogsters.
6) Her blog always contains a great offer. Diane never forgets that the purpose of a blog is to make money, and so she works hard on her offers… both on the ones she makes in her blog… and the ones she makes when her readers respond. Because of the volume of her responses, she works on this for hours each day… and that really pays off…
One more thing she does…
Diane generously insists on my role in her success. She points to what she calls her “Internet bible” which contains Internet traffic, marketing and business building tips I have given her, live in my online programs and through my huge library of blog articles. She says, “When I need a lift, this is where I go. They are priceless.”
That’s the woman all over…
The truth is, the person who has contributed the most to Diane’s success is… Diane. She’s risen from no traffic at all to getting up to 5,000 responses EACH and EVERY day, without exception. Her own personality and approach to her thousands of blog readers is what makes the critical difference. She’s a small town Iowa girl and has retained the sincerity, empathy and quintessential Midwestern directness and candor of the heartland. Diane is authentic to her fingertips. She likes people; likes to help… and this shines through.
Now thousands of new people will learn about Diane and take heart if, like most online, they have had absolutely no success. That can and should stop now… for the best thing Diane can do is make you understand that the huge results she has already received are fully duplicatable and can be done off the kitchen table. Only one thing is missing from this system… and that is the great heart of the lady herself. That is all her own… and we admire her all the more for what she does with it to help so many for she remembers her roots and the help she got when she needed it most. This is why with her blog, she has not got just readers… but friends.
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About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Jeffrey Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books and considered a home business expert. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com.Check out Income Times Ten ->
http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=yn40IcBV

Home truths from an old hand about what it takes to succeed online. You may not like them but you need them!

Posted on August 8, 2011

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Every day thousands of people worldwide wake up and, hey presto!, have a great idea: I’m going to set up a business for myself online. Tons of people have done that and oodles of money is being made.
Now hear this: you are now and truly entering the twilight zone… and I want to help you get through it with maximum success and minimum frustration.
Who am I? Well, I am an old Internet hand who, since 1994, has made his primary work place the Internet and has reaped over the years a very ample reward. Now it is time for me to share with you some of the lessons of these years of learning, growth, and profits.
I know what you’re thinking: “Yikes, another old geezer from ancient times trying to help me by offering useless advice that never in a million years could possibly apply to me and my situation.” Is that how you feel when those more experienced than you are (and more successful) offer up their nuggets of wisdom? If so, reconsider and feast your eyes on this:
Item: Most home-based Internet businesses fail unless they have certain crucial criteria in place. Without these factors, you will fail, too.
Item: Your online business is most vulnerable if you have never previously been involved in business and have limited Internet experience. The failure rate here is staggering.
Item: You are at severe risk if you are trying to run a one-person online business and have no one else to advise and counsel you. This is very likely the situation in which you find yourself right this minute. You will soon discover why one is the loneliest — and least successful — number.
Now, have I got your attention?
The minute you decided you wanted to make money online, you became a failure waiting to happen. That’s why you must pay close attention to the recommendations that follow. Not only are they the result of many successful years online, they are heartfelt, because online helpful friends are few and far between… and should be listened to with the utmost respect, even if you don’t like what they’re telling you.
Home truth number 1: Life online for most would-be Internet entrepreneurs is nasty, brutish and short. It looks like this: decide to have an online business, get a website, then…. absolutely nothing. No traffic! No customers! No money! You will know this description applies to you very, very soon if you are being at all honest with yourself.
How long have you been trying to make money online?
How much have you made?
How much have you spent to launch this e-enterprise?
How much time have you wasted?
What makes you think tomorrow will be better than yesterday?
These are tough questions… and most online business wannabees never do demand answers from themselves… or at least not before it’s too little too late.
Home truth number 2: You don’t know enough about developing your crucial prospect list.
People who make money online know that the list is the business and the business is the list. Do you know this and are you focusing your expertise, time and money in developing that all important list? Or are you focusing on such inessential factors as the colors used on your website, your domain name, how many business cards you should order, etc? All such questions collectively do not have the importance and significance of this single query: what did you do today, yesterday, the day before yesterday and the day before that to build the list, the list that is the business and from whence all your profits will derive, now and forever?
Home truth number 3: You have no marketing experience or success.
Who succeeds online? People who know what marketing is, have important marketing experience, and know what marketing they must know and do daily. Sadly, the wannabees have absolutely none of these things and their lack is both obvious and fatal. You cannot succeed in business online (or off for that matter) with only rudimentary marketing skills, hoping that that will be enough. It won’t be. A thorough practical knowledge of reality-based marketing is essential. You proceed at your peril without it.
Home truth number 4: Success online means having the ability to write cogent advertising and other copy.
How are your customer-centered writing skills? The truth, please, and nothing but the truth.
Successful Internet entrepreneurs are to a person good customer-centered writers. Or if they’re not they have solved that problem by hiring someone who is. Thus, your question is this: can I write the necessary copy that gets prospects to stop in their tracks, pay attention, peruse the offer and product details, and act? Merely “thinking” you can write such copy is just not good enough. Would you go sailing in a leaky boat? Then don’t deceive yourself here either. Excellent copywriting skills are a must.
Home truth number 5: You’re not selling nearly enough products.
Want success online? Sell lots of products. Want even more success? Sell lots more. Success online directly correlates to how many products you sell and your skill in presenting them.
How many products are you selling today?
How many yesterday? The day before?
If you are not adding new products daily, you are handicapping your ability to make money online.
Every successful online entrepreneur is engaged in a strenuous search and discover mission aimed at finding more products.
Are you? If not, your Internet obsequies are near at hand.
Home truth number 6: You are not skilled in essential traffic generation techniques.
In real estate, it’s location, location, location.
Online, it’s traffic, traffic, traffic.
The sad truth is you traffic generation skills and experience are minimal, certainly inadequate to generate the necessary traffic that ensures success.
Hopefully you’ll admit this is true. Then, assuming you are willing to knuckle down and master traffic essentials, the better to create and grow your list, you at least have a prayer.
However, if you do not have the necessary traffic generation skills… and remain unwilling to say so and do something about it, you’re DOA… 100% certain to fail.
Home truth number 7… but I must cease and desist as my space for today is now at an end. There is, of course, much more I can tell you… and undoubtedly will. For now, promise me this: that you will attend closely to these deeply honest observations. And when you implement them successfully, you’ll let me know. I’d like to know how you’re getting on, with my help.
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About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc. at www.worldprofit.com, providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com. Check out Cash Renegade -> http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=to0kJkVU

In the good, old summertime, prepare for the fall sales season, because that’s where the money’s at.

Posted on July 19, 2011

July 19, 2011 | Author: Jeffrey Lant | Posted in Dr. Jeffrey Lant’s Article Archive

 

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Author’s program note. In 1949, America’s darling, Judy Garland, starred in a big budget MGM musical called “In the Good Old Summertime”. It was all twirling parasols, Sunday at the gazebo in the park with the grandly uniformed band playing Sousa marches, and, of course, innocent romances. The word “tootsie-wootsie” was coined… and we all wanted to know one we could take to the church ice-cream social.
But before you get all gussied up in your best bib and tucker, there’s work to do, very important work… making headway on the most important task of all: preparing for that absolutely crucial fall sales season, relentlessly on its way; the season starting just after Labor Day in early September… and concluding the minute you lock up and go home to celebrate Christmas with your family.
Successfully handling the fall sales season, the highlight of your business, is a must… for, after all, you’re going to need a lot of extra cash this year… “tootsie-wootsie’s” (of either the female or male variety) are never cheap. So, don’t stint on the planning…
To help you get into the mood, go to any search engine. Find Judy Garland’s tune and play it a couple of times. Then, while the lilt of the music washes over you, begin what needs to be done for the most successful fall of your life. And don’t dilly-dally either, or all the lemon sorbet will be gone before you put on your straw boater and head for that social where you, known to be an up-and-coming business wiz, will make. such a good impression…
Here’s a helpful check-list to get you on your way:
1) Start today.
As I write (July 19, 2011) a blistering heat wave is causing large parts of America to swoon. You need to rise above the shimmering heat and FOCUS. He (or she) who hesitates is lost. Remember, you plan in the summer… and implement your plan in the fall. If you don’t plan until fall, you will find yourself in the impossible situation of planning and executing your plan at the same time. And that’s a killer.
2) Conclude all training programs as soon as possible.
Summer is and always has been a superb time to learn new business skills. But learning them means exactly that; not a time for dawdling and procrastinating, which you can easily do if the course is self-paced, as so many are these days. Put yourself on a strict deadline for completion… and stick to it.
3) Set up your blog and begin to stockpile articles for it. Summer’s a great time to bulk-up on articles so that you’re not scrambling for copy, when you need to be circulating it.
You should always have at least half a dozen such articles readily at hand, punchy, well-written articles that will get your customers to stop what they’re doing and read your latest effusion.
4) Work on creating and testing offers that pull the best.
You need offers that pull in maximum business, and the summer is the perfect time to create — and test — them. This testing is a must. The worst thing you can do is amble into the fall without knowing you’ve got offers that sell on hand and ready to go.
Review the top offers you’ve already made this year. Can you reprise any, editing, tweaking, improving for the best possible results? And be sure to check the offers you made last fall. You did keep good statistics on results, didn’t you? That’s crucial, so you invest your always limited ad budget where it’ll do you the most good.
5) Work on increasing your traffic.
For years I have said “The list is the business, the business is the list.” On the Internet, the operative word for list is “traffic”. With it, you’re lord of all you survey; without it, you’re just a schlepper without a prayer.
Every successful Internet entrepreneur I know (and few people in the world know more) has a daily traffic plan, which they are rightly obsessed with creating, improving and implementing. These people know how to create the solid-gold lists that deliver ever improving results and how to present offers so that the people on these lists just cannot resist responding — and buying.
Still more tips!
6) Review your website. Are you happy with the way it looks, or is it time for some refurbishment and remodeling?
The website that looked so good and eye-catching yesterday may well be in need of some overdue improvements today. If you can make them, fine; if you can’t contact your web designer at once. Remember, as the fall approaches these talented folks are very in demand. Book your time as soon as possible.
7) Add new products to your website.
Every business in the world adds new products to its line in time for the fall sales season, and you must do the same.
Now’s the moment to review your product line and add the hot new products you’ve found.
Don’t have any such products? Then you’ve got to shake a leg and get down to the important business of finding them… and making the necessary arrangements with their suppliers. And don’t wait to do this… you should spend a part of every day discovering, reviewing and adding new products to your website.
Check all your business supplies.
Have you got toner and paper aplenty for your printer? What about business cards, stationery, envelopes, checks, pens and file folders? (I am always running out of these).
Review everything you need. You don’t want to be caught short, scrambling to re-up when you should be focusing, always focusing, on SALES.
9) Let your customers know your fall availability is dwindling.
If you provide a specialized service where you can only handle so many customers at a time, notify your prospects and established customers at once that your availability is shrinking and that they need to book time for your service now.
Send a reminder to these folks every other week or so until you have no further appointments left and are in waiting list mode. Always make it clear just how little time remains; scarcity motivates even the worst procrastinators to act.
10) Review your personnel requirements. Remember you can’t do everything yourself… too much to do, way too little time in which to do it. Make sure you have the help you need and that you and they are both clear on what needs to be done and whether your help will be available to assist.
Remember, if you need extra help, advertise early to find and train it, so everything moves smoothly when you need it to do so.
Last words.
Every successful person I know is a planning fanatic. I’m one myself. Planning (and this includes reviewing and updating your plan as necessary) is a must… especially before the crucial fall sales season.
After you’ve advanced your plan today, by all means spruce yourself up, put on that poplin jacket and the eye-catching chapeau and white duck trousers or navy blue skirt and blouse with mutton sleeves. It’s time for you to mix and mingle for you have places to go and people to meet… After all, everyone wants to make the acquaintance of a likely comer like you, always so organized, efficient, and productive. And that’s a very good sign…. in the good old summertime… or any other time!
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About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc. providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell <a http://HomeProfitCoach.com Check out Instant Traffic Robot ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=ep6SGTie

Another look inside the millionaire mind-set… how millionaires look at the Internet… very different from you… and far more lucrative.

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant
The Internet is divided into two quite distinct parts: people who make money every single day… and those who not only do not but can not.
I am firmly in the first category. Sadly, you are most probably in the second. If you are serious about profiting online this candid, detailed report is not only useful; it’s an absolute must. Don’t just read it once, either, and expect to get everything out of it. Study it as if your online life and prosperity depend upon it… for they do. It is part of a series of such articles you can find on my blog, details below. Each article in the series takes up a different, crucial aspect of the Internet millionaire’s mind… resolved to put you in that mind-set as soon as possible, the faster to generate the profits you desire.
Energy
I shall commence today with a problem every person online has who is not a millionaire: sloth, laziness, endless vistas of wealth and prosperity… but torpid, meandering, a poster boy or girl for lassitude, indolence, intolerable sluggishness.
I have been on the Internet profitably now since 1994… and among other things have been teaching the essentials of online business success. The degree of inertia and just plain lack of consistent effort and dogged perseverance is staggering.
Let’s be clear with each other. You cannot succeed online if you exhibit consistently poor and inadequate business habits. Good habits are the foundation for Internet success. Treating your online business differently from your offline business will ensure its complete and total failure.
To establish the best possible habits and make the best possible use of the time at your disposal, you need to understand when your energy is at peek… and when, therefore, to do the essential tasks which require the most energy. I am writing this article at 4:25 a.m. Eastern time. I have learned over time that this is the best time of the day to write the 1,500 words of publishable prose I write each day and post on my website and blog. Millionaires, online and off, are expert at reviewing all their assets and deciding just when they should be used for maximum advantage.
Now, I’ve gotten off my chest something I’ve been meaning to write for some time; success comes to those who understand what they have available… then using these assets to generate other assets, maximum energy being an absolute necessity.
Stop Buying, Start Selling.
One of the Internet’s wisest entrepreneurs, George Kosch, has been reviewing and analyzing online wealth seekers for decades. It is both vocation and avocation and his knowledge of such people is encyclopedic, insightful, and often extremely funny. He has identified one group as online business wannabees with the “Shiny New Package Syndrome”.
These folks are engaged in the never-ending, completely futile, and drainingly expensive task of buying every new thing that appears online, the better to ensure that they have the latest, best, cutting-edge do-dad which, immediately upon purchase, is hastily reviewed, then cast on top of the gigantic, only just balanced, stack of dozens, even hundreds of once “must have” items, enticing, purchased, discarded, forgotten.
This syndrome is a killer for building wealth and misses the essential point for how you can use these glittery products with the breathless descriptions to profit. There is a way, an easy way, but it involves changing your thinking from buyer to seller, for one essential and irrefutable reason: product sellers make money… product buyers do not.
You say you are online to make money, right? This being the case tell me when you last reviewed all the product descriptions and purchase opportunities and offers you receive hour by hour online? If you are reaching for an answer that doesn’t come, let me refresh your memory: you never do this, not today, yesterday, or ever. You do what the overwhelming majority of so-called online entrepreneurs do: you trash these advertisements, irritated that you receive them, fast into the dumpster, so there.
This conclusively proves you are not, just yet, millionaire material, since you are ignoring, overlooking and destroying just what can help you succeed.
Product review never stops… but, sadly, with you has probably never started.
Every company determined to grow, even in times of strenuous economic challenge like ours, sets about reviewing products to augment, extend and make more profitable their line. Day in, day out such entrepreneurs make a point of searching out new products that their all-important customer base and lists can monetize for them. Each day is a day for adding new products. The question before the house is: why aren’t you doing this, you with the big dreams and great desires?
Thanks to the Internet, it has never been easier to discover products worldwide and build worldwide business relationships, all from the comfort of your at-home PC and Internet connection. How Christopher Columbus and all the great European explorers would envy you… for at your fingertips this very minute, you have the means of building one or more huge customer lists and of reviewing and adding new products every single day.
Product review and product selling hints.
First, what I’ve written above obviously necessitates a sea change in how you regard your email. New product details and offers must no longer be considered as “junk”; rather, look upon them as helpful information sent by people who desire you to get as rich as possible as soon as possible. When such materials arise (minute by minute online), either review at once… or transfer to an online file so you can review later. Make it a point to review this file regularly, transferring the data you want to another file, while discarding items which seem unlikely to excite the folks on your lists.
Develop and send a stationery letter to the prime source/developer/owner of each product. Advise them you wish to add their product to your catalog/website/list. Indicate your traffic statistics and how you can sell their products. Then ask for the discount terms, name, email address, telephone number of the person handling this product. Be sure to include all your follow-up details.
Note: if this message is not answered within 48 hours, re-email and place “second attempt” at the top; you’re a serious player and the company you’re contacting needs to know it. Efficiency always helps.
Your desire for success, your ability to achieve it online is determined by how many of these letters you send… and how many new products you email to your lists.
Remember, doing so is not the work of an hour, a day or a week. If you want to do what you say you want to do, namely make money online, you must understand that you will do this until you wrap up your online enterprises for good. In my case, that will only take place when I’m six-feet under… and you should have a similar date.
Just one more thing. The products that you used to pay for, emptying your wallet… you’ll get them free from the companies producing them as soon as you show them just what a crackerjack sales machine you are. That starts now!
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About The Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com Check out Instant Traffic Robot ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=ep6SGTie

Does your dead dog smell? Reflections on marketing myths and realities from one who knows.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
In the days when I taught university level marketing, I set my eager-beaver students a task.
Write a classified or space ad… and report on how it draws and what you did to handle any responses  you received. In short, this project, like my teaching in general, was never merely theoretical, detached from reality. It was real! Vital! Truthful… and often, as a result, jolting. In other words, your class project either made money… or it didn’t. Much more than your grade depended on it.
The scene of the crime…
All my students were adult practitioners, that is people who were already employed in professional positions or worked in home-based businesses or on the Internet. These were people who had a strong and pressing interest in mastering marketing. These students came because they needed to learn the ins and outs of marketing… or else. To such people one had an obligation, a sacred responsibility, to speak honestly, speak candidly, and address their real world concerns.
And I did.
On one occasion, a bright professional woman (I had lots of them in my classes) had the task of presenting her classified ad to the class… explaining why she wrote the ad she wrote, where she ran it, what the results were, how she followed up the respondents, and (and it was the all-important and) how much money this ad generated.
In other words, it was all real-life stuff.
She wrote her ad, as instructed, on the chalk board, the better for us to see the words which would shortly be shown as either golden, or dross.  Then I became the Joe Friday (“facts, ma’am, just the facts”) of the marketing drag-net.
“When did you start running this ad?” (Specific date required.)
“Where do you run this ad?” (Specific publication or venue required.)
“How many responses did you get?” (Specific number required.)
And then the kicker…
“How much money did you make… after deducting all actual costs of running the ad and responding to respondents?” (Exact dollar figures required.)
The lady squirms…
Now the moment of high truth and full disclosure had arrived. What had started as merely a class project had become for the person reporting a matter of life and death. The ad copy, you see, would show whether she had mastered the marketing essentials that either produced bucks… and all that those bucks could buy… or not.
Everything was riding on what she reported.  And she knew it…
Bad, bad, tormentingly bad.
I an inveterate reader of body language, and this student’s was typical of those who wish they were in any other place on earth rather than here, the cynosure of every eye in this most unrelenting of classes. Of course I knew she was squirming, mulling over how to disclose and deliver facts which (from that all important body language) were sure to be uncongenial. So… along with every member of the class…. I waited to see what the lady would say and do.
And we waited….
Then, at last, she admitted the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth… and it wasn’t pretty. She had run her classified ad six times… had not had a single response… and, of course, and worst of all, hadn’t made a single penny.
Now, the lady, this aspiring marketer, stood before her classmates…. abashed, humiliated, at rock bottom, a total marketing failure.
Then I told her the first essential truth of marketing: does your dead dog smell? And does it, day by day, smell worse… until the nauseating stench overpowers everything else?
The ad copy you produce is like a dog. Its job is to go out, your servant, finding and bringing home what it captures; the quarry that sustains you and gives you comfort, even excess.
No dead dogs do this…  neither do ads which fail to produce responses.
The student began to get the picture.
Her ad hadn’t pulled and yet she continued to use it, paying good Yankee dollars  to do so.. despite the fact she KNEW the dog was dead, stinking.
Why had she done this?
First, because she was sure, absolutely sure, Her Ad Was Brilliant, the stuff of legend… she was invested in the words… certain that given a chance they would produce the desirable results; aged to perfection, like a fine vintage.
But that is a huge mistake… and now she was willing, and the entire class with her, to find the essential nubbin of truth, that made everything she had done worthwhile.
1) Marketing copy doesn’t improve with age. It either works at once, immediately, or it never works at all. Dead dogs never become quick and agile again… they just stink the more.
2) ALL marketing copy, at  ALL times  must be evaluated, starkly , by results and nothing but results.
3) You must never, ever re-run marketing copy without knowing its previous results.
4) The entire business of marketing is about writing copy, testing copy, evaluating the results produced by this copy, then tweaking the copy to improve it and your overall results.
Marketing is and always be an action sport… it is not for the slothful, lazy, or unassertive.
More tips
** Never, ever become invested in, beguiled by the marketing copy  you create. It either works (producing responses and money), or it doesn’t. Success isn’t everything here… it’s the ONLY thing.
** Never re-run ANY marketing copy until  you are certain it works; that is, until you have money in hand.
**  Trash your erroneous but deeply felt belief that you can find marketing copy which is so good, so responsive that you never have to change it, never have to do anything else with it than run it and reap perpetual rewards.
Such copy doesn’t exist, never existed, and will never exist.
Marketing is the most active sport in the world. Those who win at this sport, and the rewards can be staggering, are, to a person, people who are bold, active, engaged… not sleepy-heads hoping against hope that they will find and eternally profit from a few magic words artfully strung together. Those words have never been written.
Thus, energize yourself for the marketing you must do today, for if you want the rewards of marketing you must master and remain focused on and dedicated to the unrelenting truths of marketing.
Otherwise you are hunting with a dead dog… a dog that will never produce results. It will simply stink to high heaven. And that will never do.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. He is happy to give all readers, 50,000 free guaranteed visitors for attending his live webcast today.  Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell <a href=”http://HomeProfitCoach.com“>http://HomeProfitCoach.com</a>. Check out Commission Crusher ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=fe2JEfUO

Top 25 Search Engine Optimization Companies

The Internet is filled with so-called marketing experts and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) agencies. It’s a speeding train in a changing marketplace. Some agencies have kept up to the times by integrating social media strategies, others haven’t.
The SEO world has evolved rapidly in recent years with social media quickly gaining a much stronger foothold than most experts originally thought. Social media was once believed to be a waste of time by many, SEO experts now realize the power of social media to reach new markets and generate new revenue opportunities. Paid search and mobile applications cannot be ignored and have changed the SEO landscape.  It’s a relatively new field of expertise constantly in flux. As experts learn more clever ways to improve site ranking, the major search engines react by updating their indexing procedures. Just recently Google announced major changes to how they index sites in direct response to what they call content-farms that create skewed search results.
Here is a compiled a list of 25 Search Engine Optimization Agencies who will create and manage your SEO campaigns.
Spend some time at these sites, you will learn a lot and can make the a comparative analysis.
1. WeBuildPages.com
2. SEO.com
3. fathomseo.com
4. bluegrass.com
5. OrangeSoda.com
6. icrossing.com
7. 360i.com
8. SEOLogic.com
9. Blurbpoint.com
10. SEOInc.com
11. MainStreetHost.com
12. crexendo.com
13. bestrank.com
14. vastvision.com
15. iProspect.com
16. ThinkBigSites.com
17. ThesearchAgency.com
18  BigMouthMedia.com
19  7Strategy.com
20. evisibility.com
21. 97thfloor.com
22. FreshRank.com
23. PrimeVisibility.com
24. 1stonthelist.ca
25. slingshotseo.com
SEO is not a task for the faint of heart. It takes time, money and a lot of patience to build a successful SEO campaign. Large companies hire staff just to create online content for social media sites. For those of you without deep pockets, there are a number of do-it yourself software programs many of which are used by professional SEO companies. If you have the desire and time to learn, you can create and manage your own SEO campaigns.  Training companies like Worldprofit Inc., offer software, guided instruction with live and video training on SEO and other online business strategies. With access to the best resources, you can get really good at it for your business purposes, then offer these services as a consultant.  SEO experts and Social Media Content Managers are and will continue to be a highly paid profession.
About the Author:
Sandi Hunter is the Director of Website Development at Worldprofit Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. The company offers a free Associate membership. http://www.worldprofit.com

Advice on what makes business blogs work by three who know: George Kosch, Sandi Hunter and Dr. Jeffrey Lant.

Does anyone know how to Blog? I try to follow all of the rules of the experts. Here are a few more hints from the pros. Follow the lead and if you want to publish THESE articles, go to www.TheIncomefaucet.com and sign up for 50,000 free visitors.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Today , April 19, 2011, is a special day for the three members of the Worldprofit blog writing team. Today we completed writing 200 business blog articles, a project which began in June, 2010. The response to these articles has been nothing short of spectacular, so we decided to discuss the reasons why this has occurred and what it means  for you and your business blog.
1) Be clear on the objective.
We are focusing this article on blogs created by businesses. Their objective is simple: make money. No business blog should ever be created which has some supposedly “better” purpose. It’s easy to forget this purpose; it doesn’t take much to unfocus a blog. That’s why we suggest posting this message prominently in your office: “It’s the money, silly.” A variation of this message helped Billl Clinton (a notoriously diffuse individual) from going off  theme and was influential in putting him in the Oval Office. This message will also work for you.
2) Designate a good writer to produce your blog’s content.
Business blog copy must be clean, clear, accurate. That means designating a writer with business writing experience. An experienced copywriter is perfect. They know how to write copy that sells… which is just the copy you need.
3) If you cannot find a copywriter,  become that copywriter yourself.
Successful copy is based on just 4 important words:
YOU GET BENEFIT NOW.
The “you” is your reader, the person you need your blog copy to motivate to contact you.
“get” is there to remind you that copy is always about what the reader (your past, present and future customer) gets from you.
“benefit” is the specific thing they get from each article you publish.
“now” is when you want the reader to respond, reminding yourself that there must always be one or more offers in each blog issue, such offers being intended to stimulate the immediate reader response which must always be your objective.
4) Master search engines.
Writing business blogs means finding and using a never ending supply of data, information, research findings, quotations of note, etc. Blogs eat up lots and lots of information.
This means becoming expert at finding pertinent data from search engines. Surprisingly we discovered that many business blog writers do not use and therefore do now know how to ensure best results from search engines.  That problem must be recognized and overcome ASAP.
Successful business writers know how to write articles with data “holes” in them, “holes” they can quickly fill by accessing search engines… without ever leaving the computer. Given the fact that not so many years ago, business writers had to use specialized business libraries, a cumbersome process at best, search engines have made all the difference in getting important data quickly and easily, all at your fingertips.
5) Always have a lead article, the focus of each individual issue.
We have found in practice that each blog issue should be anchored by a major article. The length we recommend is 1,500 words.
This article should be divided into two distinct parts; first, the actual content itself. Second, pertinent follow-up details which advise your reader what is available, its benefits, and how to get it. These follow-up details are crucial and must follow each article. (See below for an example.)
How long does it take for such an article to be researched, written, edited, etc.? Obviously that depends on the amount of research you must do, how quickly you find it, your own skills and speed as a writer, etc. However, we have found that this “anchor” article takes on average 4-8 hours.
6) Always have a “new uses” feature.
You’ve all heard the old adage, “sell the sizzle, not the steak”. That’s why you need a “new uses” feature. Select any of your products and services; then provide at least one detailed blog article on how to get the great results from its use. Remember, people buy products too achieve results; the more practical uses you detail, the more sales you make.
7) Always include customer testimonials, particularly testimonials that provide details on what individual customers did and their positive results.
Customer testimonials work. Thus, make sure you always include one or more in each blog issue. And always make a point in each blog of asking your customers to provide more.
Have a “new product” feature… and, as above, ensure the copy focuses on what it does, that “sizzle” again.
Remember, blog copy is about making money by generating reader inquiries and sales. Your readers are glad to read about new products to the extent that the copy introducing them focuses on what the customer gets.
9) Set and keep a fixed blog publishing schedule.
Your readers should expect to see your blog, like clock work, on a published schedule. They should be trained to look forward to it and respond. But if your publishing schedule is erratic, unpredictable, then your reputation will not be enhanced and your sales will definitely suffer. Ouch!
Once you’ve set the schedule, treat it religiously.
10) Always include a very special offer in every issue.
Make it a truly spectacular offer… one available to blog readers only.
Position this offer prominently. It is, after all, eye-popping.
Last words.
Blogs in general and business blogs in particular are here to stay. Businesses without them are businesses that suffer, having thereby circumscribed sales and growth. Make sure that isn’t you.
One last piece of advice: Make your blog fun read and ALWAYS easy to respond to. If you follow these instructions, your blog will steadily grow in importance as a readily available source of customers and profits. As we can tell you from personal experience, what blogs deliver will truly delight, excite, and enthuse you. A steady stream of new customers and enhanced profits tend to do that…. Get started today and see for yourself.

About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author’s permission by Howard Martell <a href=”http://HomeProfitCoach.com“>http://HomeProfitCoach.com</a>. Check out Mass Traffic Leak ->  http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com/?rd=zv3unWbc