Article Contributed By Eric Gruber
Article marketing is one of the best ways to gain instant credibility, increase website traffic, build your list and get more sales. But, the only way you’ll experience these results is if you stop doing article marketing the traditional way!
Here’s why most of what you have been told by other so-called article marketing experts and gurus is dead wrong when it comes to writing and submitting articles online.
1. Traditional article marketing rarely results in any new traffic to your site.
Links from hundreds or thousands of unimportant article directories and sites are only going to build an army of low-quality links that do nothing for your page rank in the search engines. And it certainly will NOT bring you any more traffic. This is a mistake that tons of people are still making everyday on the web, and most of them don’t even know it. They just assume what they are doing will eventually work – because that’s what other experts are telling them.
2. Traditional article marketing does not establish you as an authority in your niche.
One of the biggest advantages of article marketing is that as soon as you publish your first article, you become a published writer in your marketplace. You will soon be considered an authority in your niche, which is great – but only if you are published at reputable sources. For example, my articles can be found on top websites like About.com, SiteProNews.com, MarketingProfs.com, Microsoft Community Dynamics and many more. Blasting out articles to a lot of low-quality sites makes you appear to be an amateur and not an expert, something that traditional article marketers tend to do.
3. Traditional article marketing promotes going for the quick-fix.
There are a lot of marketing “gurus” out there who claim to have the magical solution for helping you obtain thousands of links back to your site just by the push of a button. There are others who claim to have a solution for the duplicate content problem – and promote something called spinning software, which will produce several variations of an article. The problem with these “old-school” quick fixes is that article submission software results in the low-quality link. And spinning software creates articles that read unnatural. This is Not an effective way to create REAL traffic. It’s a waste of your time and money not to do article marketing the right way.
4. Traditional article marketing doesn’t result in dollars earned.
Traditional article marketing is all about producing content for the sake of quantity and not quality. Mediocrity is not the way to attract new business. Article marketing done right will grow into a powerful viral machine that will continuously bring you fresh new targeted traffic and qualified leads day after day. Especially, once you learn what your market wants to learn. Writing quality articles to meet those needs is like money in the bank!
5. Traditional article marketing doesn’t give you a system for maximizing your article marketing efforts!
You spent time writing the article. Even if you used my article templates at http://www.StartWritingArticlesFaster.com to write your articles in 30 minutes – That’s 30 minutes that you could have been doing something else. So why not get the most use from your articles. Getting your articles published on top websites will give you the ability to…
* Mix your social media efforts with your article marketing efforts. You can Tweet about your new article placement. You can link to the article placement on Facebook and LinkedIn. You can answer people’s questions on forums and send prospects to your article for even more information.
* Get in front of your prospects face again. Send the high authority site’s link with your article to your list. That’s how Kevin Berchelmann received a new, mid 5-figure client!
* Enhance your credibility on your blog. You can link to your article placements from your blog and show that you are the expert. Show how you’re different by getting published on a top website or online publications and not just sites like EzineArticles.com where everyone can get published as long as you follow the editorial guidelines.
* You can mention these placements in an auto-responder series. You can take the main take away lessons from your articles and turn it into an e-course. And than at the end of the day’s message, link to your articles so people can get even more information from you.
* Turn your articles into videos. And, within these videos show how you’re published on top websites as this will build instant credibility.
Now, if you’re ready to writing and submitting articles the traditional way – then check out my Online Article Marketing Course at http://www.onlinearticlemarketingcourse.com
About the Author
Article Marketing Expert Eric Gruber uses the power of articles to create online opportunities for Internet marketers, small business owners, authors and speakers who want more publicity, prospects and profits. Now, with his new article marketing course, Eric is opening up the curtains and revealing how he has built a 6 figure income business just by using articles. Check it out now at: http://www.onlinearticlemarketingcourse.com
Author: Pamela Swift
Article Contributed By David Gruttadaurio
You spend a considerable amount of time and money producing your monthly client print newsletter. Having it tossed in the trash along with the ‘B’ pile (junk) mail is the last thing you want.
Yet this happens every day to small business owners just like you. In fact, it’s probably happening to you right now.
Why? Because most monthly client print newsletters are not put together in a way that screams out “READ ME!”
Having Great Content is Just the Beginning
Ignoring your newsletter’s ‘packaging’ or formatting is like giving your clients a lovely gift… and then wrapping it with duct tape and plain brown paper. The fascinating articles and interesting content in your newsletter must be presented in an appealing way to capture the eye’s attention.
By following seven basic newsletter design rules you will ensure that your client print newsletter does not wind up in the trash.
7 Tips to Get Your Newsletter Opened and Read
1. Color attracts the eye. The only people who tell you color isn’t important are the ones who refuse to use it. USA Today is one of the most popular newspapers in the world is – primarily because of its extensive use of color. Why? Because color animates everything! It livens up and attracts attention.
2. Use interesting formatting. Put your copy in a tinted text box. Use reverse text (white text on a black background) somewhere in your newsletter. Also use a multi-column format. With the proper use of shading, reverse text borders and bold fonts, you can design a professional newsletter template that grabs attention.
3. Don’t go crazy with fonts. Stick to a maximum of three font types throughout your newsletter.
4. Headlines get noticed. Decades of newspaper reading have taught us to look for headlines. We look for them to get an idea of what to read. We scan the subheads to pick up on the key points. Powerful, punchy headlines get noticed and read.
5. Make your lead article interesting. This is critical. If the main article is boring (or sounds boring)… you can forget it. You’ve lost their attention and you won’t get it back. Your customer or patient will simply stop reading your newsletter.
6. Position draws the eye. Without anything else to draw it, the eye comes to rest about two thirds of the way up the page and slightly to the left. That’s a good place to put something interesting. Think picture or graphic.
7. Use pictures and graphics liberally. Everyone loves pictures. And they really are worth a thousand words because they capture our attention. That’s why the captions on photographs are the most-read parts of ANY publication.
Hint: Use the “dollar bill” test. You shouldn’t be able to lay a dollar bill down on your page without it touching a graphical element.
The Bottom Line
A successful client or patient newsletter is controlled by more than just good content. Your newsletter template design must be pleasing and attractive to the eye.
You can learn more about effective print newsletter design by going to our website at www.newslettersmadeforyou.com to see how the Exceptional Living newsletter uses each of these formatting steps in its template design.
Remember: A client newsletter is a powerful relationship marketing tool. When you follow a successful template, your newsletters will be well received. It will provide your customer with an interesting and fun experience. And, it will ensure that your monthly client print newsletters get opened and read every time.
About the Author:
When Print Newsletter Marketing Expert David Gruttadaurio discovered the power of publishing and distributing a monthly print newsletter to attract and retain clients, he instantly tripled the sales of his service business. Now, he is revealing his bullet-proof plan to survive the new, emerging economy at his Profit Exploding Newsletter Secrets Website: http://www.NewslettersMadeForYou.com
Article Contributed by Michele DeKinder-Smith
As a business becomes increasingly successful, an entrepreneur must examine her business’ changing needs and implement a system for meeting them. Booming success often means hiring a team of people to see to the details so the entrepreneur has time to run the business. Creating a winning team is a bit more complicated than just asking a bunch of people for help – is there a right way to do it? Is there a way to go about it that will leave members of the team, as well as the owner, feeling fulfilled while the business thrives?
A new study from Jane Out of the Box, an authority on women entrepreneurs, recently revealed there are five distinct types of women in business. Each of these five types has unique approach to running a business—and as a consequence, each of them has a unique combination of characteristics and factors. This article profiles three of the Jane “types” and the different ways they may handle hiring a team.
Jane Dough is an entrepreneur who enjoys running her business and makes good money. She is comfortable and determined in buying and selling, which may be why she’s five times more likely than the average female business owner to hit the million dollar mark. Jane Dough is clear in her priorities and may be intentionally and actively growing an asset-based or legacy business. It is estimated that 18% of women fall in the category of Jane Dough.
To Jane Dough, business is business. In her world, systems and efficiency share the throne. When hiring a team, she is likely to choose members based on their specific skill sets and how those skill sets and their exacting implementation will affect the system she plans on using.
Pros and cons:
Pro: Because Jane Dough is a pragmatic business owner, she’ll choose team members who know what they’re doing, and do it well.
Con: Because Jane Dough is so focused on pragmatism, she may hire team members who don’t get along well with each other – personalities aren’t as important to her as efficiency and a job well done. But down the road, conflicting personalities may negatively impact the system she loves.
Pro: Jane Dough’s fast pace means she gets a lot done and doesn’t waste too much time waffling on decisions about whether to hire someone.
Con: That fast pace is enough to make anyone’s head spin, and if Jane Dough isn’t careful she may overlook a candidate with better long-term potential in favor of someone who fits the bill right now – putting her future self at a disadvantage.
Merry Jane. This entrepreneur is usually building a part-time or “flexible time” business that gives her a creative outlet (whether she’s an ad agency consultant or she makes beautiful artwork) that she can manage within specific constraints around her schedule. She may have a day-job, or need to be fully present for family or other pursuits. She realizes she could make more money by working longer hours, but she’s happy with the tradeoff she has made because her business gives her tremendous freedom to work how and when she wants, around her other commitments.
Because Merry Jane is “freedom-focused,” she’ll need a team that allows her to continue working as many or as few hours as she wants to, which means that she’ll have to be flexible with their schedules, too.
Pros and cons:
Pro: Merry Jane loves her freedom, so she’ll hire dependable people who can do their jobs without a ton of direction.
Con: Loving her freedom can come at a price – Because her business may not be her first priority, communication may slip from time-to-time. If her team is unclear in what they need to do or if they take too much accountability, this can create problems for Merry Jane.
Pro: Hiring people means that Merry Jane can delegate some of her work and therefore have even greater flexibility.
Con: Creating a team also adds responsibility, of which Merry Jane already has plenty – she’ll need to face payroll, meetings, e-mails and phone calls that she didn’t deal with before – and this may mean more administrative work than she anticipated.
Tenacity Jane is an entrepreneur with an undeniable passion for her business, but who is struggling (a little or a lot) with the business’ financial performance. As a result, she’s working longer hours and making less money than she’d like. Nevertheless, Tenacity Jane is bound and determined to make her business a success. At 31% of women in business, Tenacity Janes are the largest single group of female entrepreneur.
Tenacity Jane’s greatest asset is her attitude. She may feel overwhelmed at times but she keeps on keeping on because she truly believes in the business she’s building and she wants to make it work. As she seeks to hire a team, Tenacity Jane will seek people with great attitudes like her own.
Pros and cons:
Pro: Tenacity Jane feels like she can make this work, despite having faced many business challenges – she has a positive, “keep chugging” attitude.
Con: When hiring a team, attitude isn’t enough. Tenacity Jane may be drawn to people who are also enthused about her business, but does she take the time to (and does she know exactly how to) evaluate their skills, experience, and preparedness to do the work at hand?
Pro: Tenacity Jane loves her business concept and can see the big vision of what it can someday be, which may include a large team sometime down the road.
Con: Because she is focused on the “ultimate” vision, Tenacity Jane may not map out the path to get there step-by-step. If this happens, she runs the risk of hiring too many people too soon (and then not being able to retain them) or hiring them in the wrong order to maximize business growth.
Whether hiring a team is strictly business, or it’s a small part of a grand scheme, it’s a big deal. Women entrepreneurs shouldn’t go into it without a solid idea about who to hire, what they’ll do and how they’ll do it – and how all of that will affect the business in the short- and long-term. From Jane Dough to Merry Jane to Tenacity Jane, business owners must get a plan in place before hiring to ensure the step from one-woman-band to marching band sounds great.
About the Author
Michele DeKinder-Smith is the founder of Jane out of the Box, an online resource dedicated to the women entrepreneur community. Discover more incredibly useful information for running a small business by taking the FREE Jane Types Assessment at Jane out of the Box. Offering networking and marketing opportunities, key resources and mentorship from successful women in business, Jane Out of the Box is online at www.janeoutofthebox.com
Article Contributed Kendall SummerHawk
Hiring a virtual assistant or VA is like any relationship. At first, you’re both feeling the love and everyone is happy. But after a few months you may start noticing tasks slipping through the cracks or that you have to spend as much time tracking your assistant’s tasks as you used to spend doing them yourself. This is something no busy entrepreneur should have to worry about.
Nobody likes to be disappointed, especially when you’re investing in someone who is supposed to make your life easier.
And no one likes to feel like a meanie. So, what do you do when you’re no longer feeling the love but still footing the bills for your virtual support team?
Here are three respectful, yet powerful tips on how you can nip an assistant problem in the bud, without losing sleep or feeling like you’ve suddenly turned into a raging diva.
Tip #1 Stop Making or Accepting Excuses for Your Assistant’s Performance
Sure, anyone can have a bad day but if you find yourself saying, “Well, I know she’s…busy/not feeling well/taking care of family issues/etc.” more than once in a short period of time then you’re making excuses for your assistant’s poor performance. Excuses create cracks in your sense of self-worth and personal power. Instead of excuses you’ll need to…
Tip #2 Have A Courageous Conversation
Let’s say your VA failed to get a task done when promised, despite having plenty of notice. Give her (or him!) a call and simply ask, “I noticed this wasn’t done on time, what happened?”
What follows next is critical! Does your VA own up and take responsibility for missing the mark or does she make an excuse or try to shift responsibility to someone else? What you’re looking for here is a sense of accountability and a valid reason for the missed deadline, one that isn’t likely to take her off track again.
Follow up by asking, “What needs to be done so this doesn’t happen again?” Listen for specific actions and commitments, not conciliatory promises.
Tip #3 Making a Request Doesn’t Make You a Diva
Complete your conversation by making a clear request that you need to have your time table for tasks met, without fail. Let your assistant know that it’s better to under promise than to under deliver. Make sure she’s connected to the fact that what may seem like a small task slipping through the cracks actually has a bigger impact on you, making it more difficult for you to focus on growing your business.
But Should You Really Have Such High Expectations? Yes! Here’s Why…
Listen ladies, as a business owner you’re in an amazing position to not only make a big difference for your clients but for all of the people your clients impact as well. Add to this the impact your business success has for your family and your loved ones and you start to see that if you allow anything (or anyone!) but the best into your life, it’s not just you that will be impacted.
So please, give yourself permission to set high standards. Believe me, there are plenty of assistants who will love and champion you by providing extraordinary service. Besides, when you expect the best, you often get it!
About the Author
Kendall SummerHawk, the Million Dollar Marketing Coach, is an expert at helping women entrepreneurs at all levels design a business they love and charge what they’re worth and get it. Kendall delivers simple ways entrepreneurs can design and price their services to quickly move away from ‘dollars-for-hours work’ and create more money, time, and freedom in their business. For free articles, free resources and to sign up for a free subscription to Kendall’s Money, Marketing and Soul weekly articles visit www.kendallsummerhawk.com.
Article Contributed by Michele DeKinder-Smith
Every female entrepreneur dreams of the day her preparation meets opportunity and her own good luck is born. In her dreams, she knows exactly what she’ll do when presented with an opportunity, and exactly how the cards will fall when she takes it. But in real life, opportunity often seems to come out of nowhere and all the confidence she felt in those dreams disappears as she’s faced with the very real question: how do successful women decide what to do with new opportunity?
A new study from Jane Out of the Box, an authority on women entrepreneurs, recently revealed five distinct types of women in business. Each of these five types – each Jane – has a unique approach to running a business. As a consequence, each of them has a unique combination of characteristics and factors.
This article profiles two of those Jane “types” and the ways they may respond to a new opportunity.
Go Jane Go is passionate about her work, and has no problem marketing and selling herself, so she has plenty of clients—but she’s struggling to keep up with demand. She may be a classic overachiever, taking on volunteer opportunities as well, because she’s eager to make an impact on the world and may really struggle saying “no”. Because she wants to “say yes” to so many opportunities, she may even be in denial about how many hours she actually works during the course of a week. During the worst of times, Go Jane Go may tend to run herself ragged or feeling guilty about all the things on her “to do list” that aren’t getting done quickly enough to satisfy her exacting demands.
Although, as a Go Jane Go, you might be tempted to take on any new opportunity because you know you’re good at multitasking and you feel obligated to make it work, wait! Think about whether you really want to get into a new venture and all that comes with it.
Because you’re so good at what you do and you know all the fine details of your business and how it runs, you have a hard time delegating sometimes. If you know you’re going to take on this new opportunity and then feel overwhelmed because you won’t feel comfortable assigning any of your workload to someone else, maybe this isn’t the time to do it.
Because you’re such a hard worker and demand perfection from yourself, you work long hours. Do you have the time to deal with any new activities this opportunity will undoubtedly create? Before you accept this challenge, use some of your valuable time to determine whether the new opportunity is realistically feasible, given your time constraints. Especially, consider the cost to yourself in accepting the new assignment – will you push yourself to your breaking point? If so, it’s OK to let the opportunity gracefully pass you by – because of who you are, there’s undoubtedly another right around the corner.
If it turns out that the new opportunity will work with your calendar, commit to delegating wherever possible – and make sure you’re also taking care of yourself in the process.
Accidental Jane is a successful, confident business owner who never actually set out to start a business. Instead, she may have decided to start a business due to frustration with her job or a layoff and decided to use her business and personal contacts to strike out on her own. Or, she may have started making something that served her own unmet needs and found other customers with the same need, giving birth to a business. Accidental Jane enjoys what she does and is creating a satisfactory level of income.
Taking on a new opportunity as an Accidental Jane may mean transitioning into a different Jane type (often Jane Dough or Go Jane Go). That means making your business more of a focus in your life. Before saying “yes,” determine if that’s what you really want.
A new opportunity may mean putting more time into your business. As an Accidental Jane, your lifestyle is very important to you.
If the opportunity is very appealing to you, ask the question: How can you make it work on your terms? How can you structure the work so that it doesn’t impinge much on your time? Can you let go of something else or can you delegate part of this work?
Further, ask yourself: Am I charging as much as I could? Accidental Jane may sometimes be a little out of touch with her industry’s going rates. As workload and opportunities creep up, she should continually think about increasing rates to make the work more profitable.
Finally, if new opportunities get you excited, start building your company for the long-term vision so you can maintain your lifestyle while also taking on more work. Envision how your company might look in 3 years if you say yes to the kinds of opportunity you are facing right now. If what you see in your vision excites you, begin building a plan that will help you manage that future business without letting it take over your life. If what you see doesn’t excite you, because you are simply happy and content with your business as it stands today, then be prepared to say no to an opportunity at least occasionally.
Whether you’re a Go Jane Go or an Accidental Jane, it’s important to know what you’ll do when you’re presented with an opportunity. Explore all the implications and possibilities – then decide whether you want to take this opportunity and deal with the outcomes.
About the Author
Michele DeKinder-Smith is the founder of Jane out of the Box, an online resource dedicated to the women entrepreneur community. Discover more incredibly useful information for running a small business by taking the FREE Jane Types Assessment at Jane out of the Box. Offering networking and marketing opportunities, key resources and mentorship from successful women in business, Jane Out of the Box is online at www.janeoutofthebox.com