Today marks yet another “big launch” of yet another internet marketing “must-have” product, Traffic Secrets v2.0 by John Reese. Mr. Reese followed the “classic” internet launch formula by “giving away” free content in the form of three free videos on how to generate traffic to your website. The content was good, but hardly earth-shattering. Most big businesses that market online have used these traffic tactics for years without even realizing that they were secrets. Mr. Reese happened to summarize them in his videos. If you want the full detail on how to implement the traffic “secrets” that he talked about in the videos, well . . . you’re gonna have to shell out $397.

Since my readers are business owners, most will not have been exposed to the onslaught of emails from affiliate partners hawking Traffic Secrets v2.0 where each affiliate tries to outdo the other by bribing their list with a bigger and better bonus if people buy through their link. It’s the same old pushy salesman tactic. What a shame. If Mr. Reese really believes in his traffic secrets, he’d use those tactics rather than relying on pushing his wares through affiliates with big subscriber lists.

But there is a lesson to be learned from this product launch. Do as the guru do rather than what the guru say. In this case, the guru is selling the dream of getting easy traffic to your website. In the online (and offline) world, traffic equals money. So easy traffic means easy money. People are seduced by easy. Another word for easy in the marketer’s dictionary is “secret.” Hence the name, “Traffic Secrets.”

Since we all know that there are no secrets and there is no such thing as easy in a real business, let me summarize for you how to get traffic online.

There are only three methods to getting traffic:  You can buy it. You can borrow it. Or you can get it organically via the search engines and Web 2.0 sites. Each method will cost you in either time, money, or a debt.

Buying traffic involves paying for ads via the search engines, banner ads, or the affiliate network.

Borrowing traffic means swapping lists. “I’ll mail my list your offer if you mail your list my offer.” You exchange debts.

Organic traffic involves SEO in order for your website to be ranked highly in the search engine results for your chosen keyword(s). In addition, you can also get traffic from social sites like MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, eBay, Forums, and other membership sites thanks to Web 2.0. In the case of these Web 2.0 sites, you get ranked according to how popular you are. The downside of this method of traffic generation is that it is unpredictable. It also costs you time. And time is money.

Which leads me to traffic secret 3.0 –> “What to do when Google hates you.”

This is an important point since Google controls 70% of search engine traffic. If Google hates your website, they can simply remove your website from their index. And poof! Just like that, you don’t exist online — at least to 70% of the searchers.

This hurts. I know. I’ve experienced this first hand on a few occasions. Here is what I did.

1. I turned off the website. There is no point adding content to a website that has been de-indexed from Google. Sure, Yahoo Search and MSN may still be showing you love, but is that enough?

2. I moved my domain to Sedo.com and parked it there for free.

3. I wait.

4. I check back after a few weeks or a few months to see if Google has re-indexed my domain.

5. If they have, I transfer my domain back to my web host and I rebuild my website.

Is this method pretty? No.

Is it convenient? No.

Does it work all the time? No. But when it does, you would have saved your domain.

What should I do when it doesn’t work? You move on and buy another domain.

The key point is to be careful with your website and domain name. Don’t fool around with what I call illegal SEO techniques. Download my free report to find out more.

I have been receiving a number of questions from clients and readers about how to generate leads and income from their website. The questions that I get are:

“How come I can’t get my website indexed on Google?”

“How long does it take to get to the first page of the search engine?”

“Why doesn’t all my pages get picked up by the search engine spiders?”

These are all good questions. As a follow-up, people go on to ask:

“I’ve read a lot of the internet marketing material that’s available for free online, but now I’m just confused.”

“Some people say to do this, others say to do that, I just don’t feel like I have enough time to do everything for my website that is needed.”

“Is there really a ‘push-button’ method to get my website noticed in the sea of websites?”

So many questions, so little time. Luckily for all of us, there is one short answer. Are you ready? Here goes:

–> Websites only need two things to survive in the digital wilderness that is the Internet –>

1. Content that is updated regularly.
2. Incoming links.

Forget every other convoluted idea and explanation that you may have run into. Websites grow and thrive in the wild because they get fresh content and new incoming links on a regular basis.

Let’s cover content first. Content is any text, video, audio, images, and/or applications that you add to your website. For human interest, this type of content is perfect. It keeps your website visitors interested in staying longer.

For search engine spiders, this variety of content is not as useful. Here is why. Search engine spiders are not very smart. As I have said in a previous post, the search engine programs are basically a box of rocks. All they can reliable “see” is text. So if you have fancy pictures without proper tagging, the spiders simply don’t see them. And what they don’t see, they won’t register into their database of websites.

My suggestion then is to always include text. Include text in your pictures, your videos, your audios, your flash, and your applications. An easy way to add description is to add your keywords as part of the surrounding description paragraph.

The next popular topic around website content is, “How do I get content for my website?”

Content comes in two flavors.

1. Original content that you or an outsourcer writes.
2. Syndicated content that is available for you to reprint on your website.

Original content is easy to explain. You write the content. You publish the content on your site. Nobody else has that content. Search engines love original content. They eat it up like ice cream on a hot day. This is because the search engines like to show-off fresh content to their searchers.

Syndicated content is a little trickier. A good way to explain syndicated content is newspapers. One newspaper sends a hot story through the news wire and other newspapers pick it up and publish in on their site. The same thing happens on the web. If someone writes something interesting, other sites will pick it up if the owner of the content allows it.

Based on the syndication model, there could potentially be a lot of duplicate content on the web. This is where the tricky part comes into play. The search engines, being resource constrained, will only index the top few pages with duplicate content. They don’t want to store and serve up the same story repeated across a dozen or more web pages.

So how does the search engine decide which web page to show on the search results? This brings us to links.

The second thing that websites need to survive on the wild are links. If a website has a lot of content but no one else links to that website, does it have a lot of content? It’s like the story of the tree in the forest:  If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it fall, did the tree fall?

Of course the tree fell. Of course the website has a lot of content. But does it matter? The answer is no. We write content for other people to consume. The one way that we measure consumption is how many link to our content. If it is indeed good content, other websites will link to the content. The more links that we get, the better our content must be for why else would others want to link to it? This is exactly how search engines measure the relevancy of our website. They count the links.

So there you have it. If you want your website to grow and thrive, keep publishing content and keep building links.

“Build a website and customers will come banging on your digital door 24/7. You’ll make money even while you sleep.”  Have you heard this one?

How many business owners believe that claim or some variation of it? If you raised your hand, you’re right. If you didn’t raise your hand, you’re right too?

So we have two rights. But who is more right? The truth is, websites don’t make you money. If you have operated your own business offline for any amount of time, you would instantly recognize that a website is nothing more than a storefront. And just like a brick and mortar store, the money comes not from the fact that you have a store, but from visitors whom you convert into buyers.

Business 101 tells us that the three best ways to get a lot of visitors are location, location, and location. After all, who wouldn’t want their store to be on a corner lot at a business intersection in a big city? The three criterias are: corner lot location + business intersection location + big city location = a lot of visitors that you can covert into customers.

If this basic business principal works in the offline world, why shouldn’t it work in the real world? The fact is, websites work the same way. Build your website on a digital corner lot at a busy digital intersection in a big digital city and you have got it made. Online, we call visitors “traffic” and customers we call “conversions.” The net effect is the same, we make money when we have traffic that we can convert into buyers.

So where do you find the choice real estate online? The first online location rule is to get a really good domain name. Here’s an example.

www.Wine.com is a whole lot better than www.mybestwineonlinebiz.info.

What does this corner lot cost you? The last time I checked, domains like www.Wine.com goes for a few hundred thousand dollars while www.mybestwineonlinebiz.info was still available for $1.99 at godaddy.com.

The second location rule is to get a really good digital intersection. Now things get a little trickier online versus offline. A busy digital intersection is harder to spot. Here is an example.

www.About.com is what I call a crossroad site. People don’t go to About.com as a final destination, usually. They go to About.com to find out about something before heading to their final destination online. Let’s say you want to learn about the difference between Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot before you purchase a case. You visit About.com, read the wine facts, then you go to Wine.com to buy.

About.com gets a ton of passer-by traffic because they sit at a really good online intersection.

The last location rule that you must follow in order to get traffic is to locate your website in a big digital city. Here is where a lot of business owners trip-up. They create a website out in the middle of digital North Dakota and wonder why their website doesn’t make them any money. The paradox is that the online world is a lonely place with too many websites. What?!

Let me put it this way. There are 271,000,000 websites and counting. With so much competition out there for eyeballs, how will your website ever be found? Hence, the “lonely” part.

Okay, let me cut to the chase. Big cities on the Net are places like social sites and commerce sites. Social sites include Myspace and commerce sites include eBay. Get your site listed in one form or another at one of the big city sites, bookmark your site, and your website will be part of the big city scene.

So go get them. Grab your online real estate before they are all gone. Just remember that websites don’t make money. but the right locations will get you the traffic that you can convert into money.

A couple of years ago, which is a long time by web standards, the way to build a website was to use HTML. A lot of pretty websites were built this way. A lot of ugly ones were built this way too; but that is another blog entry. Although these HTML sites were pretty, they were static websites. Every time someone visited the static website, they would display the same page of information. Hence, the term static website.

Fast forward to one year ago and we saw the emergence of blogs. Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad, and other companies made it relatively easy for most web users to create a private website. The website just happened to be called a blog (or weblog), but they were full fledged websites. The difference being that blog content changed more frequently. Every time a blog owner added an entry or blog, their website landing page would change to show the new entry.

Search engines loved this. Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engine spiders hung around blog websites like paparazzi hang around celebrity hideouts. This was not surprising since search engines would not survive without fresh content. Blogs fed the spiders content food that the spiders were happy to serve up on the search results. Blogs began to rank very high in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page). Now the spiders had another place to index content in addition to the press release sites and the article sites.

For bloggers, this was good news. In a sense, the search engines made many of them online celebrities. But what about the owners of static websites, who comprised of business owners? How would they get a piece of stardom from the SERPs? Good question. . . Many of the static website owners tried to ride the wave by bolting on a “/blog/” directory to their static website. For example,

www.Acme.com/blog/

Eventually, most web consultants advised their clients to add a blog to their HTML website. Now their client would have a static website and a blog. “Wow,” I say, “How clunky.”

A Wordpress blog can do anything that a static website can do. . . and more. The first trick that a Wordpress blog can do is that it can transform itself into a static website. Here’s how:

1. Go into the Wordpress admin panel.
2. Click on “Options” then on “Reading.”
3. Choose which type of website landing page you prefer:  static website or blog style.

You now have a static landing page if you want one.

From this first trick, the Wordpress blog platform pulls away from an HTML website in terms of ease of use. Since Wordpress is built on open source, it has a huge and dedicated community of developers and users. In the last couple of years, there has been a large number of very useful Wordpress plugins that extend the functionality of the basic Wordpress platform. Among them, easy SEO, automatic sitemap creation, widgets so that a nontechie can change many aspects of their web design, and themes. It seems like a new plugin and/or theme is releasted everyday.

In my future articles, I will go into more detail about how business owners can take advantage of Wordpress for more than blogging.

People often lump sales and marketing into one category. The reality is that there is a BIG difference between sales and marketing. Let me tell you a story that will help illustrate the difference.

A game show contestant for the series called “It’s Your Life” makes it to the final round. He is given his choice of two prizes for being so lucky as to make it to the “Life” finale.

The game show host, Bob, first points to door number one. The game show model, Vanna, acts on Bob’s signal and opens door number one. Behind the door was a view to a gorgeous tropical resort, complete with swimming pools, open bars, white sand, palm trees, and beautiful sunbathers. The game show contestant immediately recognizes the fantasy island theme. He wants that prize.

“But before you make your final decision,” interrupted Bob, “you have got to see what is behind door number two.”

Vanna promptly walks over to door number two. She twists the handle, pulls back the door, and viola! The prize behind door number two is revealed.

The game show contestant followed Vanna with this eyes from door number one to door number two, and was utterly. . .dismayed. The prize behind door number two was a trip to Elko, Nevada.

“Yup. You got it!” announced Bob. “The fabulous prize behind door number two is an all accommodations trip to sunny Elko, Nevada. You will be treated like royalty with your own vibrating king bed in the best motel in town. Imagine yourself pampered by maid service everyday. Three full meals at the local hot spot, “le Denny’s.” Wicked entertainment at the old town rodeo.

The “Life” contestant cut Bob off. He wants the prize behind door number one.

“Final answer?” Bob wanted to know.

“Final answer.” the contestant replies.

With that, the crane scoops the contestant into the room behind door number one. The door slams shut. The heat lamps turn on.

The contestant notices right away that it’s hot. There are glowing coals and rocks everywhere. And what’s that smell? Is that sulfur?

Thinking that there is some kind of mistake, the contestant raced back towards the door. Once there, he pounds on the door, screaming, “Hey!!! Let me out! There’s some kind of mistake. I chose the beautiful tropical island vacation. Not this hell hole!”

Bob looks at the contestant through the door’s peephole. His eyes glow red. He grins and answers, “There is no mistake. What you saw was marketing. This is sales.”

. . . So that is the big difference between marketing and sales. The marketer’s job is to draw people towards your offer. The job of sales is to close.

Next time, we’ll talk about the finer points.

The 7 Easy Steps to Start Your Own Consulting Business

Offering consulting services is hot. The best part is that you can start today. To start with your own consulting business, you must be widely knowledgeable about the ins and outs of it. Here are the seven easy steps on how to run your profitable consulting business.

1) The typical way to start any business is to be knowledgeable about it. Start your first day by buying books, cds, videos and other learning material about your target business. You can also seek advice from other consultants who are successful in their fields. Do not be ashamed or fearful of asking for help. Realize that all business startups have gone through this process.

2) Develop harmonious working relationship with your clients. Building good relationships with your clients is the mantra of all businesses since relationships can go beyond the initial sale and can also forge repeat buys. Clarify client’s expectations versus what you can do. Specify your expertise and the benefits they can get from having you as their consultant. More often than not, clients especially those big organizations have high expectations of the consultants. By being realistic of your capabilities, the good relationship can be developed from day one.

3) Make a good proposal with a clear statement of your strategies and objectives. Since you are the consultant, you are expected to solve a portion of the organization’s problems. Clearly state on your proposal the services you will provide and the price you will be asking. Strongly emphasize the advantages that your client will enjoy once they deal with you. You can only do this by presenting the benefits they can reap after getting your services.

4) Create a marketing plan to grab your client’s attention. Your marketing plan should be brief. Here is a way you can devise a seven sentence marketing plan. The first sentence explains the purpose of your project. The second sentence explains the ways on how to achieve the purpose and the benefits that the clients can get. The third sentence describes the target market. The fourth sentence describes the niche. The fifth sentence is about the “secret sauce” you will utilize to get it done. The sixth sentence is about your business identity; and the seventh is all about the budget.

5) Present a refined, professional image. Being in the image business, your clients will perceive you as an ultimate maker of sales. One sure way to draw new clients is to be categorized as an expert in the consulting industry. Project yourself as an expert having marketable skills produced from a combination of education and knowledge you gained from years of experience. Since your skills are rare, many companies will be willing to pay your premium. But they also need to see you as in demand, successful and one of the top quality consultants of all time. Make sure that you have all the necessary materials such as sample videos and business cards. Convey an image of an expert who have all the knowledge clients can benefit from.

6) Offer a free introductory session when needed. Often times, consultants are conscious of the bills and are hesitant to give their services. Being a consultant does not always mean charging per hour for your precious service. If you are just starting with your business, you must first build client’s awareness about your services, so a free short consultation will not hurt you. Ensure that your client will be interested in your services by conducting free information seminars once in a while. This can give you exposure and referrals.

7) Be keen with results. The clearest path to gaining new clients is a referral from those who saw your first successful project. Keep a network of employers and other persons that you know. Always keep in mind that in the consulting business, results are the viable tool to acquire clients. To be successful, you must deliver and offer undisputed value to your clients and all other members of your network.

These seven steps are just some of the many ways that you can follow when starting a new consulting business.

You may not realize it but you might have the potential to become a business consultant. You don’t believe me? Search within yourself. What is the thing you are most passionate about? What is that thing that you do best? Once you have determined what that is, ask whether there are people who might need some assistance in that area.

The next question is, can you help them? Of course, you can! You are an expert on it! So why not do it as a business? Earn money helping others with something you know and do best - and that is business consulting. You can start small. Do it in the comfort of your home as a freelance consultant. There are a lot of organizations and executives out there who are in need of expert consultants. Believe me, with a little fine tuning, you can become a high-paid advisor.

So what do you need to do? Follow these steps:

First, you have to determine your area of expertise first. Are you an accountant? Do you have the required certification to claim that you are an expert in your field? If you don’t, you must secure that first. An expert without credentials is just another person next-door, who has the ambition to be an expert. People believe in the written word, so you have to have that. However, there are also professions or areas of expertise that doesn’t require certificates like fund-raising consultants. Expertise in this area only needs experience. However, you have to have vast experience in the field you are planning to advise on.

Second, your office. Since you are starting small, your first office can be your bedroom, or your study room, if you have one. All you need is a table and chair, an internet connection and a telephone line, and voila! You are almost ready to start your consulting business. Almost, because you have to understand that though you are starting small, of course, you are also looking to becoming big someday. So you have to be organized. Consultants are advising on management and that includes time and things management. You have to practice what you are advising.

Third, set your goals and limitations. Why limitations? You are only starting your business, so don’t shoot stars. Set your goals to a realizable scale or level. Do not target too many clients and end up failing with your commitments. So be realistic. Do not bite off more than you can chew. Maintain your clientele to a manageable number.

Fourth, develop and make a record of your plan. You need to have a tangible reminder of the path you are taking so you would not go astray. It’s easy to get distracted and side-tracked from your goals. So it’s best to have it formally written down and give it a professional feel. This way, you can also have something to show possible clients, proving that you are serious in your business.

Fifth, create your lesson plans. Of course, before you can advise, train, or teach, you have to have a lesson plan. You have to know what you are going to tell your clients. Write it on your own. Think of all the possible weakness people might have in your chosen field. Focus and write about that. If you don’t know how to start it, begin with the definition of your profession and everything else would follow. The field you are going to write about is your forte, so things should flow easily once you have begun.

Done with the five simple steps? Now, you’re ready to call and propose to prospective clients!

Image via WikipediaThe late great copywriter, Gary Halbert, said that his competitive advantage is a “hungry market.” It almost doesn’t matter what type of product or service you market, if you can get your offer in front of the right group of people, you will make sales. This “group of people” was referred to by marketing people as the “herd.” Get in front of a hungry herd and you will be rich.

In the last couple of years, marketing to the herd lost it’s appeal; not because it doesn’t work, but because the term is no longer acceptable given the rise of political correctness. Who wants to be known as a part of a herd? It sounds like rancher talk. The proper term to use in today’s marketing world is “tribe.” Now they say that you should market to the tribe. Whereas “herd” implies livestock, “tribe” implies people.

Aside from the change in terminology, there is something else going on. I think that we as marketers are digging deeper into the hungry market. Consider the auto market as an example. Marketing to people who prefer European cars is a good segment. However, it is still a little too broad to craft a laser target sales message. After all, European cars include Jaguars, Range Rovers, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Volvo, Rolls Royce, Bentley, and so on. The smart marketer would do well to pick a particular European brand to go after. I’ll say, “BMW.”

People who buy BMWs are part of the BMW tribe. They are attracted to the brand because it represents performance and luxury with an emphasis on performance. Compared to people in the Mercedes tribe, the emphasis is on luxury. So when we market to the BMW tribe, we know to emphasize driving experience above niceties.

The other characteristic of a tribe is that its members are loyal to the tribe. They see themselves as belonging to a unique club. They will defend their membership. Smart marketers can also use this mentality of exclusivity.

These are just some of the things to consider as the marketing world moves from herds to tribes.

Apart from size, the number one difference between a big business and a small business are systems. I’m talking about how-to guides that are documented and followed by most employees. More than that, these systems are so ingrained into the big company that it has essentially become intertwined with something known as company culture.

Don’t get me wrong. Small businesses follow systems too. However, many small businesses remain small because they have to reinvent their systems over and over again. In essence, they don’t have a system; at least not one that they can package and sell.

A number of years ago, I was worked for a very small business. My boss at the time asked me to complete a mini-assignment. I went to work on it and turned in my finished project in a flash. I was proud of myself for being speedy. In exchange, the trade-off that I made was that my finished project was not exactly reusable.

Wouldn’t you know it? My boss snapped at me and said, “We are a small business. The last thing we can afford is to rewrite code every time! Make your code reusable and document it in a binder so that you can step away.”

I was in my early twenties at the time, yet his words stuck with me to this day.

If a small business wants to become a big business one day, the small business owner would be wise to start writing down systems. The goal of every small business owner should be the ability to step away from his business and have it still hum along fine.

One more thing, if your business is even smaller than a small business, creating and following systems becomes even more important. This is because you need your systems documented in order to outsource. A really small business can only survive for so long with it’s owner doing everything. Eventually, as in, soon, the owner will crash and burn.

Don’t risk crashing and burning. Create systems, outsource, then grow to the next level.

f you are using the Internet as a marketing channel, then you must understand this allegory: “Paypal and 2Checkout are to Ebay and Amazon like NCR and VeriFone are to Walmart and Target.”

Just as most bricks and mortar merchants understand the cash register as the point of sale machine, most online merchants understand the importance of having a reliable online payment processor. If you are just starting out marketing online, Paypal is the easiest to setup. In addition, opening an account at Paypal is free.

Once you have a Paypal account, you can receive payments and make payments. Paypal allows you to transact via debit cards and via credit cards. Their fees are typically higher than you’d expect from a direct merchant account. However, some individuals and small businesses may not be ready to open a merchant account.

The other choice that you have for online payment processing that includes credit card processing is 2Checkout or 2CO. This company handles both physical and digital goods. 2Checkout handles one time payments and recurring payments. Their fee structure is comparable to Paypal. One main difference between the two companies is that 2Checkout is not as “fidgety” about sudden transaction volume as Paypal. For example, if you normally process 5-15 orders per day on Paypal and experience a surge to 300 orders per day, Paypal will shut your account down without warning. They do this because it is their way of protecting against fraud.

This presents a problem for your online business if Paypal were your only way to accept payments. 2Checkout, on the other hand, has a different fraud prevention system. They check for each transaction against fraud as they come in. As far as I know, they don’t shut you down without warning.

The other difference between Paypal and 2CO is that the later charges a $49.95 sign-up fee per account or website. If you sell your goods on multiple websites, this fee could add up. But there is good news on this front.

This coming Tuesday, May 6th, 2Checkout is allowing you sign-up for an account for free. You will save $49.95. If you have considered trying 2CO in the past but was deterred by their sign-up fee, here is your chance.

Go here to sign-up:

http://www.alextran.com/2checkout

Oh, by the way, 2Checkout also accepts Paypal.