EOY 2018

     It’s happened once again!  We are at the end of another year.  A bit difficult to believe but twelve months have come and gone and I am now posting my last blog for 2018.  I would have never thought that almost 365 days ago when I began I would reach 100 blog posts during 2018.  But it has happened with this post!

     Many things have happened during this past year that I would like to take a few moments to speak about.

    “ It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”  Charles Dickens “A Tale of Two Cities”.

     As I look back over the year it seems to me that Mr. Dickens may have had 2018 in mind when he wrote those words so many years ago.  It appears that we sit on the verge of many great and unbelievable discovers and advancements for mankind, however we are unable to control our most basic fears and achieve peace amongst ourselves.

     With the advancement of the internet a real plethora of information is available to the entire world simply for push of a few buttons or clicks of a mouse and yet worldwide we are some of the most foolish people who have lived.

     We go into the beginning of each new year with the greatest of hope for humankind; however, by the years’ end we are faced with many disappointments.  2018 has been no different.  We felt that perhaps during this year we could draw mankind together with a bond of love and peace.  But what we have seen is the constant activities of mass shootings, gang violence, almost a total lack of human compassion, and sadly the devaluation of the value of human life in general.

     Perhaps as Mr. Dickens stated this has only been another year “in a superlative degree of comparison only.”  We are coming to the end for the statistics of 2018.  How will they “stack up” to the numbers of years past?  How will we use what we have learned during this year to in some fashion help us build a better year to come?  Or, have we been able to learn anything at all?

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"There can be no better time to change your future

than the moment in which you currently live."

The Many Facets of Viral Marketing

     In the beginning, e-mail was the one way that viral marketing was started. Since that long ago day, viral marketing has gone from a marketing strategy to an art form and there are many ways to accomplish the objective of creating a successful viral marketing campaign. Seven of those ways are:

1.         E-mail: It was first but it is still around and still used. It is, however, getting a little harder to use as more and more government restrictions are placed on it. Still… it does work and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

2.         Newsletters: This is an extension of e-mail but it a very effective tool. If you include enough timely and valuable information, a good newsletter can drive up the number of visits to your website.  Free, periodical newsletters are enjoyed by many people.

3.         Blogging: Providing the tools on your website to enable bloggers to interact with one another is a terrific way to get the message about your product of service out there and being talked about. Bloggers have their ears to the ground for new products and services.

4.         Chat Rooms: A chat room on your website can and does encourage interaction among your customers and that can’t be a bad thing. Also, you can use the chat room to schedule special events like having an expert available to answer questions on a given day at a given time.

5.         Tell-a-friend Script: If you add this with a statement saying that e-mail addresses supplied will never be shared with third parties, you can increase your potential customer list greatly.

6.         Video Clips: Including cool video clips on your website will keep the interest up and increase traffic.  Everyone knows that we are an extremely “visual” society today.  Most people would rather WATCH information about your product instead of reading about it.

7.         Flash Games: Although they are a little costly to start, they are an extremely effective tool to get your viral marketing campaign going. Once they are launched, they require nothing more from you.

     Try one or more of the above suggestions and see how they affect your bottom line!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"To grasp the minds of your listeners is a joy.

To touch their hearts with your words is a miracle."

Viral Marketing Campaigns Using E-books

     Viral Marketing sounds like something bad but it is actually something very good. It is, also, a powerful way to generate traffic to your website.

     Think about how a virus spreads from one person to another. One person gets sick and just by sneezing they can give the virus to many other people… those people get sick and share their germs with everyone they know and the next thing anybody knows is that there is an epidemic. That is the very concept of viral marketing. The idea is to get everyone to spread your marketing message around because they have had an enjoyable experience with your site or products/services and want their friends and family to have a similar experience.

     Now let’s look at using an E-book to start your viral marketing campaign. First you create an E-book… a really good one that has links to your website, to your sales page and affiliate links to products and services that you recommend… and you give it to three people. In the book you encourage those three people to give it to their friends and family.  For your information it’s not that difficult to prepare an E-book.  Just take a little time and you’ll have prepared before you know it.

     And then your E-book is spreading across the Internet like wild fire. Digital information duplicates easily and quickly so before you know it, thousands of people could be reading your free E-book.  People that you may never have had the opportunity to reach before through your other methods of marketing.

     Make certain that you let people know that they have permission to forward the E-book around the Internet. When you create the E-book, you have the right to give people certain rights. One of those rights could be that you allow them to give the book to other people. Make it clear that this book is free to give away. You’re not wanting to make any money off the E-book itself.  You’re looking for that marketing information to bring new customers to your website and sell them your products or services.

     You can write the E-book yourself, use private label content or you can hire a ghostwriter to prepare the content. There are a lot of ways to create an E-book. Once you have your E-book written, use software to create your E-book.  Just check out sources on the Internet.  You may be surprised to find how easy this is to do.

     Before you know it your web site will begin to be visited by MANY individuals looking at your other products or services.  They will become your PAYING customers in no time and this is the life blood of your business.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Everyone has something to sell,

how do you make your 'something' worth buying?"

Using E-mail for Viral Marketing

     Viral marketing has an array of possibilities and ways to achieve your overall goals. However, just like everything else, preplanning and the right setup to create success are the things you will need to make it work for you and your e-business or for that matter any business!

     The first thing you want to be sure you don’t do is get over-zealous. The one thing you need to avoid at all costs is spamming. Spamming is still used widely, but with the government establishing more restrictions and fines you don’t want this to be a problem for you. The professional image of your site will also suffer if you send mail blatantly. You can easily fall prey to this practice if you are not careful in how you operate your business.

     Spamming requires a database that contains a huge list of e-mail addresses set up so that the message can be delivered with one click. The problem with it (aside from the governmental restrictions and associated fines) is that it irritates the recipients and kills the validity of your campaign, which in turn kills the factors that would motivate someone to visit your site or even refer your site to others.

     You need to personalize e-mail campaign by creating your website with personal appeal. You must see to it that your website makes your customers feel safe, secure and cared for.  E-mail is important, because it is going to be one of the most affordable ways to keep in touch with your customers. And you will absolutely want to do this consistently.

     The proper way to handle e-mail permission is to first let your customer know that you will not transmit their e-mail addresses to third party companies. The next thing to do is to attach the need for their e-mail addresses to benefits they can receive.

     For example: Coupons or discounts that are only available to members who receive e-mail notifications. With each e-mail you send the viral marketing effect takes place.

     You also want to reassure your customers that their contact information WILL NEVER be sold or used for any other purposes other than your specific business needs.  This will add extra feelings of security to your customers.

     When you have happy customers who feel safe and secure on your site they will automatically tell their friends about your products/services thus continuing your viral marketing campaign.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Marketing is like trying to sell 

someone else your dream!"

Get Your "Buzz" On

     Viral marketing has matured a bit over the years. There seems to have been a shift to the web not just being seen by agencies and brands as another tick box for any ad campaign, which is significant enough, but now being the medium where a campaign is launched to create a buzz before it hits TV and print. Even before a movie is released this used to be seen as the pre-launch buzz-generation activity. Big business “gets it”.

     Buzz works! It can work for small and start-up businesses, as well. The planning stage of a viral campaign will set out objectives and develop the viral theme for a buzz. There are three core components to any viral campaign and businesses of any size can use them. They are:

1.         The creative material: The viral agent that embodies the message you want to spread in a digital format (image, video, text, etc). The trick is to put together material that people will be eager to share with their family and friends.  As we know, people are much more eager to share “advertainment” and advertisement.

2.         Seeding: Distributing and placing the agent online in places that provide the greatest potential spread. Direct viral material downloads or links on specialist viral third-party web sites in order to create awareness and spread before users get to the campaign destination site.

3.         Tracking: Measuring the spread of the campaign to provide accountability and prove success. It is absolutely vital that you know what is or is not working. The only way to get that information is to track the results of your seeding.

     Lessons have been learned, trends have been developed and there is definitely some science involved in creating a buzz successfully. The buzz technique is here to stay and, if used strategically, it can make a difference to the success of your e-business.

     Do you have a new product coming out?  Have you written that provocative new E-book?  Whatever the case in your situation, getting the “buzz” out by using viral media may be the way to go for you.

QUOTE TO REMEMBER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"The only thing spreading faster than a wild fire

is a viral message - - - make yours a good one!"

Give It A Chance

     I know - - - I said I wasn’t going to concentrate on all these business ideas for my blog and now I’ve gone back to doing just that.  It seems I might owe you a bit of an explanation for my madness.  Well here goes - - -

     Today many people are having a really hard time financially in making ends meet.  They are trying to find that “something” on the side that is going to be able to help them in just getting by each month.

     I feel and have for a long time that the internet is “hands down” the simplest means to accomplish this.  It can provide a person with the opportunity to start their own business and produce those needed funds with very little capital output when compared to other business start ups.

     The problem is that many people are still a bit afraid of trying to figure out the internet and how they can use it to make the extra income they are looking for.  So I decided to include some of the basic information as to how they may be able to face this seemingly daunting subject.

     These posts cover a varied list of subject matter, but all are intended to help individuals to see if they can more comfortably apply some of the items and start their own internet business.  I’m not making any guarantees that they will be successful.  We all know that there is a lot of work involved in owning and operating a business whether it is online or a brick and mortar store.

    But having the information available to help make those operations somewhat easier is always a plus for the business owner.  We also have to consider that not everyone will want to set up a full blown ecommerce store on the web, but may only want something smaller that they can manage by themselves which is going to provide them with extra funds every month.

     So many of the points that I will be discussing are provided to assist an individual in just that way.  Helpfully some of you will find just the points you need to help you in venturing into a small side business of your own. 

     Now don’t get me wrong.  I will still from time to time let you venture deep within the cobwebs of MY mind and see some of the unpredicted things that I have floating around in there. Besides we can’t always stay on the subject - - - We’re Only Human!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"At times the greatest and strangest journey

is within ones own mind!"

Have Others Do the Work For You

     Some E-books combine very well with an affiliate program. When the affiliate receives some extra benefit from promoting the viral message, like being able to brand your E-book with his affiliate links, the affiliate makes a sale when a reader buys through a branded link. You benefit from increased traffic on your website because the affiliate is willing to promote your E-books for you.

     Be absolutely certain that your message includes a clear call to action. There shouldn’t be any doubt whatsoever about what you intend recipients to do. Make sure that the instructions are perfectly clear so that recipients know HOW to act. The action that you require should be simple and obvious as well. Don’t make things complicated or it will confuse the reader, such as by adding numerous links.

     Remember the K.I.S.S. principle: “Keep It Simple Stupid!” The incentive should be clear to those you want to take action. Readers will look at your offering for about seven seconds before they move on. If it takes longer than that for them to figure out what it is you want them to do, they will move on. Don’t make your message vague or difficult to comprehend. If you do, chances are you will lose them. You must respect your readers enough to express your message clearly.

     Once you are sure you have an E-book that will be of value to an affiliate program, approach them with your idea and be able to show that it will be mutually beneficial. 

     Viral Marketing using E-books is one of many techniques that all together have a cumulative effect in attracting customers and subscribers to your business and in attracting targeted visitors to your website. You will very soon find out that this is an excellent way of increasing sales, subscribers and referrals.

     Having trouble finding the E-book that would work well for your affiliate program?  Then WRITE one and you know it will work well!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"It's a beautiful thing when you

can accomplish something together."

B2B Marketers Do It Too!

     B2B Marketers use viral marketing by e-mail as a marketing tool. Viral marketing can work well for B2B providers, as long as the following is true:

1.         The product or service has to add value for the sender, as well as, the receiver.

2.         The offer has to be deliverable. You don’t want to offer a product that you can’t deliver if demand grows rapidly.  NEVER offer a product that you do not currently have in your possession or if you think you can wait and see the response BEFORE you get it prepared.

3.         The offer has to be easily transferable to others. E-mail and Web pages provide the best medium to facilitate this.  However, make sure you have all the links in place to make the delivery run smoothly.

4.         The best viral marketing campaigns use existing networks to move the message along.

     The basis of viral marketing has been around for a long time. The idea is that you incite your customers or referral sources to pass on something about your business to their network of colleagues and friends. Those that pass on your information get something in return. The “something” might be a gift or service related to your business. Talking about these “bonuses” would be the topic of a completely different blog post.

     Using e-mail makes it incredibly easy to pass information on to a friend or colleague, especially if it involves something fun or free. With millions using the Internet worldwide, the potential for exponential growth is tremendous. The great things about viral marketing are that it is free and works virtually by itself. Once you make an offer and provide the facility for referrals, viral marketing spreads like… well… a virus…but the good kind.

     To implement viral marketing at your business; first, start with your customer base, then incite existing customers to refer new ones. Second, go to your referral sources. Service providers, your outside network and colleagues can be encouraged to provide referrals that lead to business.

     If your customers are stressed business owners, offer a reward that provides relaxation and leisure... like a weekend away to some local “hot” spot (if your budget would allow for such a gift).  Whatever you choose to use make sure you are thinking the best for your customers.  If you always put your customers FIRST they will loyally support your business.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Sometimes we have something to say.

Other times we just need to say something!"