I really should be more diplomatic, but I got into a minor hissing match with one of my clients' web developers the other day.

My client has a really great looking site that is a work of art in every respect. There's just one teensy little problem: It doesn't make any money for my client.

Pretty is nice, but not at the expense of profits.

The problem with most websites is the home page. See if you don't agree with me on this, but most home pages read like a brochure. They talk about the company's "commitment to excellence," tossing in the words, "value-added" at every opportunity and solumnly stating the company is a "full service solutions provider."

Sigh.

So here was my suggestion to my client that got me in such hot water with their web guy:

Clean up the home page and make it an opt in page for an email list.

I wanted my client to clear out all the "commitment to excellence" drivel and give the visitor a compelling reason to subscribe to the company's email newsletter. Have a short video and a few bullet points with an opt in form underneath.

Sure, I allowed, they could keep the tabs at the top to navigate into the site's other content, but put the idea of subscribing front and center on page one.

I supported my stance with two words: "Barrack Obama." Well actually there was a third word, "Google."

In 2008, the Obama Campaign raked in enormous amounts of contributions by doing one thing - creating a home page for their site that forced visitors to decide to either make a contribution or not.

The home page was clean, simple and asked people to make a single decision. Nothing else got in the way until they had made that one decision.

If visitors chose not to give, they could navigate into the site to read his talking points and position papers. Alternatively, if they chose to contribute, they could still get to see all these other goodies after they sent money.

I just checked out barackobama.com today, and it is already gearing up for 2010. Here is a screen shot:


At the risk of beating a dead horse, the site doesn't force the visitor to make a lot of decisions does it? It simply gives them the opportunity to leave an email address before moving into the site further.

Google, if you recall, came into the search engine game far behind Yahoo and MSN. But while Yahoo had a portal page full of options and interesting distractions (want to read an interesting news story or check out your horoscope?), Google just had (and still has) that clean page that puts the query box front and center.


As a result, Google took over the search business leaving the other guys to pick up the crumbs. Bing, by the way is an interesting spin off with its one decision home page combined with beautiful photography. Proving you can have pretty and simplicity at the same time.

So back to my tiff with the web developer.

One of my core beliefs in this business is that a website's main job is to collect leads. It takes a lot of work to get a visitor to land on your site one time. But even after all that, most of these people will not come back unless you have a way of following up with them.

So I preach the gospel of direct response to my clients.

Direct Response Home Pages

In the advertising world there are two camps: The "Image and Awareness" advertising people who see their job as making potential customers aware that the company exists and what they do.

Unless a prospect just happens to be in the market for whatever this advertiser sells at this very moment, chances are the ad will not get a response. But it will raise awareness slightly.

The direct response folks, on the other hand, see their ads as merely tools to build mailing lists of interested prospects. They want to see results now and they do this by giving prospects an incentive to request free information or materials.

These ads used to have coupons to clip out to send in for more information, or a free booklet (nowadays they just direct people to a website to get the free information). A person doesn't have to by interested enough yet to place an order or call for an appointment, just interested enough to ask for the free ebook or CD.

To put it another way, they may not be ready to take action right now, but they might like your information just in case the need arises in the future. From a marketer's point of view, this puts you in line to solve this person's problem while they are still in an information-gathering stage.

Direct response ads have the advantage of being measurable. An advertiser can track the number of inquiries a particular ad generates. Then they can make minor changes like rewording the headline or the graphics or wording in the offer to see if this results in more or less responses.

Direct response ads can constantly be improved scientifically by testing one version of the ad against another to see which one delivers the best results.

Additionally they give the marketer the chance to follow up multiple times. It is a proven fact that people usually don't buy until they have received multiple exposures to an offer. So a series of letters goes out to each person who requested the free information in the ad.

This causes the effectiveness of one ad to go up because the marketer gets multiple bites at the apple or several opportunities to sell to the prospect.

The same rules apply to websites. A site can either be the online version of an "Image and Awareness" ad or it can be a version of a direct response ad. But not both.

The value is to give visitors only one decision to make at a time. Sure not everyone who lands on your site wants to subscribe to your newsletter now. Fine but by making the home page a direct response device, you have gotten that one decision out of the way.

I should also note that no direct response approach works without a valuable free offer. Create a white paper, ebook or CD (or something) that gives helpful information in exchange for opting in. Or you can offer discounts and coupons to subscribers. Just understand that people will not fill out an opt in form without expecting to receive something from you that is of value.

The more enticing you can make this free offer the better.

My client hasn't made up his mind yet. Will he stay with a pretty home page that isn't making money or will he simplify that home page at the expense of "pretty" in order to build a database of email subscribers he can follow up with again and again?

What are your thoughts on home pages? Have you had success with direct response sites and simple home pages? Or are your present results stifled by a "pretty" home page?

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Whenever I hear someone say that social media has no value as a marketing tool, or that Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flikr, etc. are a waste of time, I suspect these are the same people who, ten years ago, were saying there was no reason their business needed a website.

Yeah, this internet thing is just a passing fad.

But when it comes to social media, I have to admit that a lot of people are not getting results, and for them it IS a waste of time ... so far.

The problem is that a lot of people are acting like party crashers on social media. They butt in on conversations and pitch their business, regardless of whether the listener is interested in hearing about it.

Contrast this to the person who gets on Twitter and other sites to make friends, to build name recognition, to add value or to build trust and credibility.

These people understand that they can form relationships that can lead to business down the road, but they aren't out to spam anyone and everyone who comes within "tweet shot" of their messages.

The fact is that social media tools CAN be monetized and can produce business, but it is above all else a form of relationship marketing.

Take a look at the diagram I created at the top of this article. It is a funnel in which social media activities gently lead contacts to Opt-In to an email list.

Forming relationships on social media that then progresses to a form of Permission Marketing is the key to doing business on social media. Once someone opts in to receive your email newsletter, they have given you permission to market to them. They have "raised their hands." as Seth Godin puts it, to indicate that they have at least some level of interest in receiving information about your product or service.

In order for this to work, you must build social capital at every step of the process. You build social capital by adding value, by offering free information that solves problems, by being generous, and by making friends along the way.

And occasionally (very, occasionally) you offer them something of value in exchange for opting into your email autoresponder system. This allows you to build a list of interested people, who trust you and with whom you have a relationship.

From that point on, you continue to build social capital and add value. Become a valued resource to them. I suggest to my clients that their emails come in some sort of "tip of the week" format that offers valuable information each week.

A weekly, informative email contact system adds to subscribers' view that you are someone who knows a great deal about your topic and it builds both trust and credibility.

This last ingredient of this "Permission Marketing Funnel" - offering something of value to induce your contacts to subscribe to your emails - is often in the form of ebooks, white papers, videos or list articles. It can be anything as long as it has a high perceived value. Whenever an email marketing campaign fails, I suggest you look first to your free offer. If it is not attractive enough, it will not pull in subscribers.

Getting back to the party analogy, social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and others are a place to mingle, form new contacts and make friends. But you never want to be the guy who incessantly talks about business at social gatherings.

That said, there is everything right about moving relationships you form at social functions to another location that can result in business. It's done all the time at country clubs, golf courses and social clubs of every sort. Just take care to build social capital at every step, and you will be very pleased with the results.

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I just updated my ebook on email marketing for small businesses called, "How to Increase Your Sales With Email Marketing."

It is full of case studies on how several business owners have used email marketing to grow their businesses. Here are a few of the highlights:

• Drastically cut your advertising costs.
  
• Build a valuable email list entirely of opt-in subscribers.
  
• Turn a higher percentage of your prospects into buyers.
  
• Profit from your email list again and again.
  
• Create dominant positioning in your customers’ minds.
  
• Build relationships of trust and credibility.
  
• Never let your prospects forget you.
  
• Get more repeat business from existing customers.
  
• Master the art of “Permission Marketing.”

To download a free copy, click here.

Also, if you are looking for an excellent autoresponder to manage your email follow up system, I personally use Traffic Wave. Click here for more information.

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In my opinion, the very best permission-based, email marketing campaign I have ever seen is Marcia Yudkin's Marketing Minute.

Every Wednesday, Marcia sends out a short email newsletter that is the best of both worlds - informative AND brief. It lives up to its name because it takes about a minute to read, yet each week she shares valuable tips and insights that anyone in business can learn and benefit from.

Moreover, her strategy is something that anyone can adopt. I've never asked her, but I strongly suspect that her email list is one of her most valuable business assets that produces income for her week after week.

Yet she follows an uncomplicated game plan that could work for any business person if they simply put in the thought and effort to make it work.

Let's take a look at what she does to make her Marketing Minute so successful:

• It is strictly permission based. She doesn't spam, she doesn't cut ethical corners, and she plays by the rules of permission marketing. You must opt in to receive her newsletter and she provides a link on each email for her readers to unsubscribe if they choose.
  
  
• She over-delivers valuable content. Marcia knows who her subscribers are and why they opted in. She keeps her information relevant to her audience and focuses on the marketing problems they wish to solve. It is clear that her motive to add value is stronger than her motive to sell something. There is nothing wrong with selling, but she always gives more value than she asks from her readers.
  
  
• What she sells is also relevant. Yes, Marcia has one or more sales messages at the bottom of her newsletters, but there is a definite tie-in to the people who opted in. She avoids a big mistake I see a lot of other marketers making. They have not taken the time to understand their audience and ask what this audience wants. Their product offerings often bear no correlation to that audience's wants and needs.
  
  
• She is consistent. The Marketing Minute comes out every Wednesday morning without fail. Her subscribers expect it and this boosts her "open rate" (the number of people actually open the email). A big problem with email marketing is the fact that a lot of subscribers don't actually read the emails before deleting them.
  
  
• Perfect frequency. Based on all of my research, I am convinced that most email newsletters should come out once a week. That is not so frequently to cause people to unsubscribe in droves, but it is just often enough to keep Marcia's name and business on people's minds. I advise a lot of my clients to send out "Tip of the Week" newsletters because that conveys value in their subscribers' minds.
  
  
• Focus on benefits. Marcia has a great way of telling her readers "whats in it for them." But she is careful not to overwhelm them with too much information at one time.
  

Permission marketing is, in my opinion, the most effective marketing strategy available. It is easy to implement and it is very inexpensive. But the return on investment can be spectacular.

If you are interested in learning more about email marketing, I suggest that you do two things:

First, subscribe to Marcia Yudkin's Marketing Minute and study what she does and how she does it.

Second, give me a call at 817-501-6892. I would be more than happy to give you some guidance to help you set up an email marketing campaign for your own business.

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Whether we like to think about it or not, all business people are sales people. We have to sell our ideas, our services, our capabilities and our solutions to certain problems.

But let me pose a question: Do you close every person you have a sales presentation with?

Of course not.

No one, not even superstar sales people, can close every qualified prospect. There are many reasons for this:

• Some prospects are just not ready to take action. It could be the money is not in the budget for now, they are still in an information-gathering phase, or the “pain” of their problem is not yet acute enough to make a change.
  
• Sometimes you have just not built up enough trust and credibility with this prospect yet. Trust and credibility takes time and several contacts for people to develop.
  
• In some cases, the key benefit(s) that the prospect is most receptive to are just not clear in the prospect’s mind. Even though you have already given information about these key benefits, they need reinforcement.
  
• You have not yet built a relationship with this prospect. Again, relationships take time and nurturing. My favorite way to build relationships is to give away free information that solves problems and helps prospects reach their goals.

Most Sales Are Not Made Until AFTER
The 7th or 10th Contact

Depending on whose statistics you read, most sales are not made until after the seventh or tenth contact with the prospect. But how many business owners or salespeople have time to make that many follow up contacts?

The answer is 100% - if you use an autoresponder.

An autoresponder is an email follow up program that sends out pre-written, pre-scheduled email messages to opt-in subscribers.

How can an autoresponder work for the typical sales person or business owner?

1. An autoresponder will automatically send information to anyone who requests it from you, and add that person to your email list.
   
2. It can also send out sales letters or newsletters to your list on a pre-determined schedule. If you want prospects to receive one email a day for the first seven days after they request your information package, and then change it to once a week afterwards, the autoresponder can do that for you.
   
3. An autoresponder can track how many of your recipients open their emails and how many click through to any link you put on an email. You can use this data to refine your marketing system.
   
4. An autoresponder can spoon feed your prospects with one benefit at a time, so that they can absorb and understand what your product or service can do for them.
   
5. An autoresponder can get you in the door in the first place. A sequence of emails addressing problems your prospects face and offering viable solutions can go a long way to moving a prospect’s interest level from luke warm to hot.
   
6. An autoresponder can keep you in touch with the people you don’t sell at first. It allows you to stay on their mind while they “think about it” or while they shop around with other providers.
   
7. An autoresponder allows you to keep putting new prospects into your pipeline and do the follow up “grunt work” for you. It can gradually increase their interest level with sequential emails until they are ready to make an appointment with you.
   
8. In addition to giving you the ability to send out pre-scheduled or sequential emails, an autoresponder can also enable you to send out “broadcast” emails to your entire list when you have a special offer, announcement, reduced price, new product, close out or any other information you want to get out.
   
9. An autoresponder helps you avoid even the slightest hint of spam because it documents the fact that your subscribers “opted in” and give them the ability to opt out if they no longer want to receive your messages. While this may not sound like a positive, isn’t your time better spent communicating with people who have at least a modest level of interest in what you offer?
   
10. All buyers have a buying cycle. Most sales people try to jump into a prospect’s awareness right when they are hot and ready to buy. Autoresponders enable you to get on their radar further upstream when they first begin considering a purchase. By the time this prospect is ready to make a decision, you can be miles ahead of your competition because they have received numerous helpful, informative emails. You already have established trust and credibility with her.

I personally use and recommend Traffic Wave (Disclosure: you should know I am also an affiliate of their program). Traffic Wave’s cost is lower than most autoresponders, gives you one price for unlimited campaigns, emails and subscribers.

You can see a price comparison of the top autoresponders by clicking here.

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If you are in business, you know how important quality, targeted leads are to your continued growth.

On August 11, 2009 at 7pm, I will be teaching a workshop in Fort Worth on how to use Twitter to generate qualified leads, for free.

Twitter can help you get visitors to your website, build relationships with your prospects, build a personal or company brand, and create "buzz" online.

The workship will be held at the Fort Worth Business Assistance Center located:

1150 South Freeway, Ste 106
(Corner of Rosedale & I35W)
Fort Worth, TX 76104

The cost will be only $50 (this will be the last workshop at this price) and the class will last two hours.

Bring your laptop if you have one, as there will be free wifi (although it is not necessary to have a computer with you).

Here's what you will learn:

• How to set up and use a Twitter account.
  
• How to build a following strategically by targetting Twitter users by location or by specifics keywords.
  
• How to create a personal brand and use Twitter to become a recognized expert in your field.
  
• Shortcuts and tools that will minimize the time you have to spend in front of your computer.
  
• How to lead your Twitter followers to visit your website and opt-in to your email list.
  
• Why giving free information is the key to success on all social media.
  
• Other business benefits you can gain from using Twitter.
  

How to register for the workshop?

Send me an email at chbrown@webmarketing-coach.com
Be sure to mention "Twitter Workshop" in the subject line of your email.

If you are on Facebook, you can also register at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=106431909927

Seating is limited, so be sure to register as soon as possible.

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The following article is reprinted from Brian Rooney's blog, Email Marketing Strategies, with his permission.

Should You Publish Your Own Newsletter?

Whether you run a large corporation or a small home-based business as a solo-entrepreneur, publishing your own online newsletter can be a great way to grow your business.

Some of the benefits you can expect from publishing your own online newsletter include:

Improved Credibility.
Publishing your own online newsletter keeps your company name in front of your best customers and prospects. This sort of exposure can help build your credibility.

Reduced Marketing Expenses.
The cost of publishing an online newsletter is significantly lower than printing and mailing paper-based newsletters.

Reduce Distribution Time.
Once the design is completed, your online newsletter can be sent out with the click of your mouse. No waiting for printing, sorting, postage, deliveries, etc...

Instant Feedback.
With the speed of the Internet, you can track any feedback or responses to your online newsletter almost instantly, Know how many people opened your newsletter and how many people clicked through to your site or offer page.

How To Get Started

Your market should already be giving you a number of ideas on what to cover in your newsletter. A dentist might send out regular dental hygiene tips. An insurance company might send out tips on insurance policies, options, or financial investment tips. A veterinarian might send out tips on how to care for animals. A business coach might send out tips on personal development or promotion.

One good way to find ideas is to go through your emails and look through the questions your clients and prospects have asked. These emails provide great starting points and could provide ideas for several newsletters.

Decide on how often you will publish your newsletter. Weekly, b-weekly, and monthly are typically the most preferred delivery schedules. Your market and feedback will help you decide on the best schedule for your newsletter. The key is to be consistent and keep your prospects and clients informed with relevant and timely information.

Once you've decided on a schedule, format, and content, the next step is to begin building your list of subscribers.

Start with your existing customers. Ask them to subscribe to your newsletter by filling out a subscription form at your web site. You can use services like the TrafficWave.net AutoResponder System to build and manage your subscriber lists.

You can also invite visitors to your site to subscribe by filling out the same form at your web site.

If you send out direct mail, add a note and invitation to your next mailing.

Be sure to include an invitation to subscribe on any emails you send out, articles you write, forums you belong to, etc...

By using a service like TrafficWave.net, you can easily create templates for your newsletter that incorporate your logo, look like your web site, etc..

You can also track the number of times your newsletter is opened and even track the number of click-throughs to your site. This helps you get a good grasp on how well your newsletter is being received and how productive it is being for your business.

To learn more about the TrafficWave.net AutoResponder system, request our free report by clicking on this link: 30 Day Free Trial.

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Dear Twitter Creators,

First, I want to thank you for creating the most powerful communication and marketing tool ever invented.

I really believe this. Look at what is happening in Iran at this very moment. Protestors of their stolen election are getting the word out - despite the government’s efforts to block them - by using Twitter and other social media platforms.

Also look at the skillful use of social media by the Obama campaign. Love him or hate him, his team used social media masterfully to move a country, one tweet at a time.

However, it is in the area of marketing that your invention really shines. As long as a marketer adopts a content marketing approach in which providing free, quality information is the magnet to attract clients, no other tool comes close.

But my big concern is that Twitter needs to become profitable in order to succeed long term. From what I’ve read, you have not come upon a legitimate way to monetize your creation. Nevertheless, I for one am depending on you to turn a profit.

I want Twitter to succeed and prosper so that it can continue to exist and remain viable on the world’s stage.

So here is my suggestion (and I hasten to add that if someone has already thought of this before me, I will gladly cede credit).

All of us who use Twitter must “pay our way.” This does not mean you should charge a subscription fee to join or use Twitter. Instead, I think you should continue to offer it without charge.

But we users can still “pay our way” by agreeing to receive one commercial tweet per hour.

Change your terms of use agreement to require us to receive a commercial tweet each hour. Give us a checklist of information when we sign up or agree to the new terms of use, that enables us to select what topics we are most interested in receiving tweets about. This would give your advertisers the ability to target us by our areas of interest.

I for one, would gladly receive one commecial tweet per hour if it meant helping Twitter achieve financial viability. This is even more true if these tweets target subjects I have a strong interest in.

Does this does not mean I want to be spammed by Twitter? Not at all. Ideally these tweets would provide links to helpful content.

For some offerings these links could be useful tips and ideas, or “news you can use.” Other offerings could link to white papers, case studies or other educational content. They could take on the form of advertorials or, better yet, blog posts that invite comments and trackback links.

These same blog posts could also offer RSS feeds so that if users find this content valuable, they could opt in to receive daily updates by subscription. This would make the service even more valuable for advertisers. As a single ad could create many blog subscribers.

Will this one-commercial-tweet-per-hour idea work? I don’t see why not. Smart advertisers are constantly looking for ways to get people to read their content anyway. This proposal would expand the reach of their content to every Twitter user in the world.

When integrated with a smart content marketing game plan, these hourly tweets could have a huge impact on any advertiser’s bottom line.

Well there you have it, my own simple solution to one of the most vexing problems of our day, “How to monetize Twitter so that it will continue to serve our needs.”

Does anyone have any comments or suggestions? I am happy to hear them from you. Let me know what you think.

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It's hard to imagine a more effective and efficient business tool than an online, email newsletter. What other marketing tool fits this description:

• An email newsletter is free (no postage, no envelopes, no printing costs),
  
• Because subscribers must opt-in, your newsletter reaches the people who want to hear your content,
  
• A newsletter can be set up on auto pilot so it requires relatively little time and effort,
  
• It builds a strong bond between you and your subscribers,
  
• It keeps you on your prospects' mental radar until they are ready to buy from you,
  
• It educates your subscribers in small, easy to digest "bytes,"
  
• It gradually converts strangers into friends and friends into buyers (to quote Seth Godin, author of Permission Marketing), and
  
• It positions you as an expert in your field.

Since I've already mentioned Seth Godin's book, "Permission Marketing," let me use his own words to explain why this works:

“Interruption Marketing fails because it is unable to get enough attention from consumers. Permission Marketing works by taking advantage of the same problem – there just isn’t enough attention to go around.”

With that said, let me share one of my favorite e-newsletters. Every week, Marcia Yudkin sends out her Marketing Minute, a brief but very informative "morsel" of useful marketing wisdom.

By way of example, here is the Marketing Minute I received last week about why a marketing plan can make such a huge difference for any business:

A Plan Cuts Suffering

Years ago, psychologist Neil Fiore led a support group for graduate students making little or no progress on their dissertations.

To his surprise, these strugglers worked many more hours than those who finished their writing projects on time.

The strugglers put friends, recreation and enjoyment on hold. They suffered, constantly busy without accomplishing much.

The successful students worked, but only up to a point. Then they played. By not waiting to play until they'd finished their years-long project, Fiore points out, they felt better, stayed on track and got more done.

While a 200+ page dissertation can seem endless, marketing has no finish line at all. No wonder so many business people work and work at it without feeling they're getting anywhere.

A marketing plan structures your efforts. It lays out what to do and what not to do, then lets you put your energy elsewhere with a clear conscience.

Feeling overwhelmed? Create a clear, limited list of which tasks to do when. That's really all a marketing plan is.

With a realistic plan, you have less frazzle and less fizzle.

Notice that Marcia does not waste your time. She fulfills her promise to take no more than a minute of your time. If you'd like to subscribe to the Marketing Minute, you can subscribe here: http://www.yudkin.com/markmin.htm

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I've had several people ask me about the services I offer and thought it was about time for me to post a self-serving plug for myself. Hopefully, however, you will still find it oriented toward you, the reader of this blog, and how I might be able to help your business grow.

Sometime back, I was introduced to speak for a business group as "An expert on how to become an expert." I liked that intro quite a bit and have since adopted it as my "elevator pitch" or tag line.

I specialize in helping professionals and professional services organizations market themselves with social media. As a former lawyer myself, I know how difficult it is to market or "brand" oneself.

To this end, I offer several services:

• One-on-one coaching sessions by telephone and email on how to market yourself better by becoming an expert in your field.
  
• One-on-one coaching for professionals who are seeking to make a career change and want to use social media marketing to gain an edge in the job market and become known as an expert.
  
• Training sessions for professional services firms or association groups.
  
• Professional "ghost" blogging services for lawyers and law firms. (This means that if you do not have the time to write your own blog, you can hire me to do it for you).
  
• Speaking engagements and workshops for groups whose members would benefit from becoming recognized authorities in their fields.
  
• Reviews of your current marketing efforts. This means I will analyze your advertising, websites and other marketing materials and give you review with suggested ideas to improve what you are already doing.
  
• Consultation on improving your Google and other search engine rankings and how to get more traffic to your website.
  
• Consultation on how your firm can become a "thought leader" in your industry.
  
• Consultation on how to use non-spam, permission-based email marketing to build your practice.
  

I hope you find this list helpful. I you would like to discuss how I might help you further, please feel free to call me at 817-501-6892 or by email at chbrown/at/webmarketing-coach/dot/com.

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NOT USING NON-SPAM EMAIL MARKETING FOR YOUR BUSINESS YET? Learn why email marketing is the easiest, most effective and most affordable way to get new clients. Download my free ebook and receive tips, ideas and case studies to help you get more new customers at http://www.trafficwave.net/lcp/chbrown/emailmarketing/6604.
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As I start this new blog, the question arises, "why start a new blog?"

The task ahead is daunting, I have been writing my Dynamic Copywriting blog since 2006 and have written over 200 articles online, so the idea of starting all over isn't something I want to take on lightly.

But there are several reasons. First is that over time Dynamic Copywriting has become unfocused. I started with one business model of just being a copywriter for any and every type of work that came my way.

But my business model has changed. I have found that most of my work (and interests) have shifted to helping clients get better results online. In the course of my copywriting I find myself doing at least as much sharing things like:

• How to get more targeted traffic to a website,
  
• How to get higher rankings on Google and other search engines,
  
• How to convert more of those visitors into customers,
  
• "Permission Marketing" strategies to build an email list of opt-in subscribers and cultivate a loyal customer base,
  
• Social networking ideas to use tools like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Digg and MySpace to build a powerful online presence,
  
• How to use the internet to become a recognized autority in one's field,
  
• How to use the power of business blogging to as a marketing tool,
  
• How to create inbound links that point to your site,and
  
• How to create online publicity and the differences between traditional PR techniques and new online PR strategies.
  

And finally, I have come to realize that potential clients tend to put more of a premium on my knowledge than they do my writing. To many, a writer is just a skilled laborer and it has been a constant battle to overcome resistence to what I consider reasonable fees for my work.

And yet these same people will pay more for my knowledge and consulting skills. So why should I fight it?

I would love to hear your feedback. Any comments or suggestions you can give me will be very appreciated.

NOT USING NON-SPAM EMAIL MARKETING FOR YOUR BUSINESS YET? Learn why email marketing is the easiest, most effective and most affordable way to get new clients. Download my free ebook and receive tips, ideas and case studies to help you get more new customers at http://www.trafficwave.net/lcp/chbrown/emailmarketing/6604.

COPYRIGHT © 2009, Charles Brown
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