As we look at building our online businesses, many of us acknowledge, early-on, that we don't know it all. Those who don’t are almost certain to fail because they often attempt to apply techniques that simply don't work online - to their online businesses. The quickest way to online success is to model those who are already successful at what you want to do. It’s that simple.
Of all of the chores involved in building your business, marketing is usually the most critical. Poor marketing is also the reason so many businesses fail. You need to learn to properly market your business or hire someone else to do it for you. I'll give you a few recommended resources to help jumpstart your education in a minute.
A second extremely important skill that goes hand-in-hand with marketing is generating publicity. You can have the greatest product in the world, but if no one knows about it, it may as well not exist. If no one knows about you, then you won't make any sales!
Let's look at generating publicity first...
Publicity can take many forms, and they often overlaps what many would define as marketing. For today, I want you to focus on the most effective, and often cheapest, publicity. In fact, this great publicity is often free. What we're talking about here is publicity generated by getting the media and others talking about you and your business. We're talking about the publicity typically generated through tools such as press releases and doing media interviews.
Why is the above type of publicity so powerful? It's so powerful because people believe what others say about you MORE than they believe what you say about yourself. So when you can get magazines, newspapers, television and radio personalities, and even online ezines talking about you, those hearing this buzz believe it more and are therefore more likely to go check you out.
A second reason this type of publicity is so powerful is because you can literally generate millions of dollars in free publicity if you know what you are doing. You may not be able to afford a full-page ad in a major magazine or newspaper. However, let the right person know about your story and that same publication will be all too happy to tell the world about you... and give them your website url and/or your toll-free phone number.
Learning to get media attention is not hard. To make it even easier, I've arranged for my friend, Annie Jennings, who runs a top PR agency, to help you a little.
I gave you the above url because it is the page where she tells you of upcoming teleseminars she's hosting on various promotion and sales-related topics. These teleseminars are all free.
While at Annie's site, sign up for other goodies she offers including courses in generating press releases, creating a platform, getting on top radio shows, etc. She'll give you all types of freebies like audiotapes and coffee cups. When I first met her, and she sent me an intro package, it felt like Christmas :-)
So we'll let Annie turn you into a "media darling." Then you can focus on learning marketing. This is where most online business people should probably spend 80% of their time - not on all of the busywork that you can get someone else to do. The highest and best use of your time is probably in marketing your business, not making webpage updates, writing or even creating products. You can get freelancers to do this for you very inexpensively at places like Elance.com
Marketing is nothing more than communicating the benefits of your products or services effectively to your ideal customer. It all hinges upon effective communications, and your communications can be greatly improved if you understand how and why we interact the way we do with each other. To get a firm grasp on that topic I recommend that you read the book, "Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion," by Dr. Robert Cialdini.
You'll never be the same after you've read and digest this book. If you're like me you'll find yourself reading it over and over! You can find this book at online bookstores.
Another solid book on marketing is Jay Abraham's "Mr. X" book. This 376 page book distills several decades of the marketing know-how of Jay Abraham. The full title of the book is "Money-Making Secrets of Marketing Genius Jay Abraham And Other Marketing Wizards - A No-Nonsense Guide To Great Wealth and a Personal Fortune." This book is so good that you could devote six month just to studying the one book, and you'd understand more about marketing than 95% of your competitors.
This book is marketed by the Abraham Marketing Group, but Internet marketers working with the group run specials from time to time. Just watch your email for one of these specials.
A course that I recommend that isn't just on marketing but on developing the proper mindset is by Dr. Robert Anthony. It's called "Know How To Be Rich." In order to run a really successful business, you need to properly train your mind. Many people actually need to give themselves permission to be successful. Dr. Anthony's course was a big "A-ha" for me and many of my clients.
You'll notice that none of the resources just recommended were specifically Internet-marketing-only resources. That's because internet marketing is just an offshoot of marketing, and most of the principles are the same. Most Internet marketers, who are struggling, don't have a good grasp of the over-riding basic marketing principles. That's what the above resources will provide.
Two Internet marketing resources I will recommend are a private membership site I've set up, and a course on how to generate website traffic.
Without website traffic, your website basically has the same results as a billboard on a highway that no one travels. It produces no results because no one sees it. So you do need to learn how to generate traffic. For that I recommend the very in-depth, crash course offered by John Reese's Traffic Secrets. I've personally gone through the 13 CD's and DVD ROM's, and 3 manuals - TWICE.
It's a little expensive, but well worth it if you USE what he teaches. If you aren't going to use it, then you should save your money.
If you work your way through the above resources you'll be well on your way to building a massively successful online business. None of these resources are something you give a quick glance and then the magic happens. They all require effort. Put in the effort now and you'll have a very solid foundation upon which to build your Internet marketing business. By understand basic marketing, and then how the internet differs, you'll possess some very powerful, rarely mastered knowledge.
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