Helping Small Businesses Grow. Prosper. Succeed.

I get this question A LOT! Usually after someone has just told me that they could not possibly have a blog because they do not have time to “mess around” on the computer all day like I do!!! Well I don’t mess around on the computer all day either, I am teaching 3 (count them 3) hour and a half long marketing training classes for realtors today, I have client work to do AND I have a blog post to write for my Thrive Blog…:)

So now you think I am cheating writing about what I am supposed to be doing BUT let me just say it is really easy to find things to write about when you have your ears up and eyes open for topics!!!

As I wrote earlier this week, I use my google reader to check out all kinds of blog posts. A lot of times I will read something that sparks a new blog topic for me. OR I will find something that makes me wicked mad and then blog about that (after letting it season a bit so that it doesn’t sound too snarky).

I also have set up Google Alerts for “client contact”. That gives me even more things that I could write about! I read today about a guy who is using Outlook for his client contact management system. I was VERY excited to see if he had something that I could use to link to. Unfortunately it was pretty sparse so I put it on my list of things to blog about, in way more depth in order to help my readers.

There are a million things to talk about! Keep a list! Then don’t beat yourself up about what you should be writing about. Don’t spend hours agonizing over a post, making sure it is perfect. Don’t worry that your topic is stupid. There is always someone that doesn’t know what you know and who can benefit from your insights.

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They say if you read 3 books on something you are an expert. They say that if you study something for a year you are an expert. They say that you should tell people about it on the internet.

First, who the heck are they? And second, they are right about telling other people!

This week I went on a crusade to get my Mega Chick mastermind group to do some Web 2.0 things (adding their profiles to LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. One fabulous realtor (Lori Crawford) was game but did not know how to do it. She was frustrated and so I wrote a post over on Marketing Artfully on how to do it. It took me a little while BUT it will work for lots of my readers.

I also sat down last week with a great company called Ragged Edge which sells bags made of sailcloth. They were focusing on the fact that their products were made of sailcloth, instead of focusing on the fact that their stuff is wicked cool and practical. If you were looking for a gift, would you search for “cool stocking stuffers” or would would you be searching for “sailcloth wallets”? The hour or so that I spent talking to the owners may have changed their business – they just didn’t know HOW TO do something that I knew.

So how does this apply to your business? And if you tell people how to do stuff, won’t they do it themselves and not buy your product?

First off – tell them how to do things that are RELATED to your product or service! I tell people how to post blogs because I don’t do it for anyone else. My business partner Mary Dado over at Business Writing, Ink tells people how to do marketing. BUT she writes blogs for people and if anyone asks me, I just refer them to her and visa-versa.

Second off – tell them EXACTLY how to do it! I love reading how tos and frequently feel that I can do ANYTHING myself – tra la! Then I try it and realize that it is not as easy as it looks! I also find that I can purchase the product, service or the person’s expertise for MUCH less than I can produce it myself. That is called a SALE!

So, if you know how to do something TELL PEOPLE! Don’t hoard your knowledge or hide your light under a bushel (Mary will be SO happy I have two cheesy metaphors in one sentence!)

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So you want to make a splash with your new product? Or have you fallen out of touch with your database and need to get back in front of them? You do NOT have to spend a fortune to make a big splash!

I am going to go over the things you can do to get in front of your customers. The VERY first thing you need to do is know WHO your customers are and get them in a database! My database is my lifeline to my clients and prospects. I do not look up their phone numbers there, I am terrible about making notes in the database (I am blessed to have someone to do that for me), but almost everyone who I come in contact with goes in there.

Standard Fare

I use my database to contact my clients all at once. I send emails to everybody every month. I separate whether they are current Thrive clients or not. The non-Thrive clients get an informational sales pitch (more information than sales pitch) and the clients get great info and extra tips and tricks.

To let you know how non-salesy they are, many people thank me for sending out my newsletter – it is that full of information that I think is interesting and marketing related – PLUS my sales pitch. (If you are not currently on my “newsletter” list and would like to receive it, please send me a message on the Sign Up Now page!)

I also send my sphere, target clients and prospects a piece by mail each month. It is generally related to whatever email I sent out. If you do not know what to send, you might want to consider using the Thrive System!!!

Online Ideas

If you are looking for a bang online, you can’t do better than a blog! The search engines love the HTML pages that blogs develop. They are full of words that search engines can reference and are continually updated. They are also affordable. I pay $10.20 a YEAR for this blog as I have most of my websites under the umbrella of one hosting plan. If you would like to find out how it is doing over the first month, please visit Marketing Artfully, my main site.

Another way to get great coverage online is write Ezine articles. I am getting ready to blast out some really good content on Small Business Marketing over there. The nice thing about Ezines is that the company spends LOTS of time and money on the back end to get them referenced in the search engines (especially google).

The final online way to get traffic to you site or blog is to make comments on another site! I get LOTS of traffic from a comment on the high cost of “Rogue” beer. The key was that the rogue beer site owner is a marketing aware guy. This means that his readers are probably marketing aware. Try to find a site that is similar to you but does NOT compete with your site.

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So I have long been fascinated with the concept of Arbitrage! According to Wikipedia, arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of a price differential between two or more markets.

I first became aware of arbitrage with Google. I am sure you have all come upon a website that uses the arbitrage model – they are the ones with nothing but adsense links on them. Basically with this model if you pay $1 to get a click through on Google and you can sell that click through to someone who will pay $1.10 your arbitrage amount is $.10. Money for nothing and the clicks are free!!!!

Well a while ago Google said that they would not allow that kind of advertising anymore so the scammers started adding fake articles to their adsense sales sites…and then playing the arbitrage game. 

What if all the people who were spending all this time to scam the system used their powers for good rather than evil? Could we solve the economic crisis with a click through process, cure cancer or even end world hunger?

When I think about arbitrage (which I do with somewhat of a frequency), I also think about how to get free money or leads. Since I am a licensed Realtor in the state of Florida, I can make money for nothing. If I give a referral of a buyer or seller to another Realtor they will pay me a referral fee for bringing them a client. 

I can also get free money for referring products or services I believe in. Some of you may have noticed the new banner about email newsletters, I recommend AWeber to anyone who asks about an email service, if you click on the banner and buy I get a little money. I will NEVER have stray and random ads on my website BUT if there is a service I use and recommend and I can get money for sending them leads – more power to me!

The way to get this kind of money is to sign up for a company’s affiliate program. This means that they will track the sales that come through your link and then pay you a small amount based either on the sale price or just for sending them a lead, these things vary.

You can even benefit from free bennies like the points program on Active Rain (a real estate bloggers website). If you go to my site Marketing Artfully and look on the right hand bar, there is a place to sign up for Active Rain. I get 10% of the points that anyone who signs up through there receives. Zoinks that is nice!

Does your business have any natural friends? Can you add to your users experience by recommending great products (and gaining a little income?) Do you have any way of cross selling your products to someone who may have a complimentary database?

All these things are easy to set up and do – afterwards you just wait for the checks to roll in!

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