Smartphones Equal Smart Money for Retailers
February 2, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
According to a recent study from ABI Research, North American sales made via smartphones added up to about $544 million in 2009.
The fastest-growing activity on cellphones is shopping directly from the handset. Retailers in every niche — from Amazon to CVS have launched software applications that enable shoppers to browse many products and buy directly from their iPhones and Blackberrys.
Gartner Market Research reports that retailers are getting the applications right — shoppers are able to place orders and either pick them up, or have them delivered to their home or hotel without ever having to deal with crowds or salespeople directly.
Some apps deliver even more value. At book retailer Barnes & Noble, users can snap a picture of a book with their iPhone, and bring up reviews on the handset’s screen. Stores report they have seen increases in both reservations and purchases in stores, as well as purchases from the iPhone app.
Interested in creating an iPhone app for your business? This self-service solution may be just what you are looking for. For those who may prefer to have someone design an app for you, check out this service.
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January 18, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
In this Issue:
- Popular Stories at ESB Journal
- Cleaning up Twitter Clutter
- Save Face with Wall Backups
- 31 Days to a Better Blog
- See Your Site as Visitors Do
- Google Sidewiki
- Engage & Connect with Sprout Buzz
- Weebiz Business Community
- 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces Competition – Deadline is approaching!
I don’t have a problem with caffeine — I have a problem without it!
Popular Stories at ESB Journal
Here are a few of the most popular stories at Entrepreneur & Self-Employed Business Journal:
- Ten Steps to Create “Ready-to-Buy” Customers
- 5 Small Business Tax Tips for 2010
- Get Off the Perch with New IPEVO USB Camera
- Small Business B2B Marketing Trends for 2010
Cleaning up Twitter Clutter
If you are tired of spammers among your Twitter followers, or are just plain feeling overwhelmed, help is on the way. I recently c ame across a free tool that analyzes your Twitter followers, and creates a report of those who you may wish to consider unfollowing. You can then either remove those folks yourself, or have Twit Cleaner handle it for you for a nominal fee (starts at just $5.00).
- Analyzes all the people you follow
- Finds time wasters, spammers, the boring, bots etc
- Creates a detailed report of everyone you’re following
- Increases the integrity & authenticity of your brand or personal image
- Clears up the ‘background noise’ of Twitter
- Enables you to focus your time & energy
Save Face with Wall Backups
Facebook has over 300 million users currently — there is a very real possibility that information could be lost if their server were ever to crash. Items like user photo albums, friend lists and profile data could potentially be lost. If you are using Facebook for business, you may even have more to lose.
A new tool called SocialSafe allows you to back up your Facebook friends, photos, profile data and wall status updates to your own computer. The process takes literally seconds to do, and the application is currently being offered for just $2.99. Check out the video below to see how it works.
31 Days to a Better Blog
If you have big dreams for your blog but have been putting improving it in the “one day” basket – you’re not alone.
31 Days to Build a Better Blog is a downloadable e-book designed to help you revitalize your blog by giving you 31 tasks that will all help to turn it into the page view powerhouse you’ve always dreamed of.
Each day in the project contains:
1. A Task – something to DO that day.
2. Teaching – each day you’ll be given great instruction on both the WHY and HOW of the task of the day.
This two-pronged approach is designed so that you come away from the challenge having not only learned how to build a dynamic a blog but you’ll have actually DONE something with the knowledge.
Who is this Workbook for?
31 Days to Build a Better Blog is for bloggers at different stages of their blogging including:
- those who have just started a blog but who don’t know what to do next
- those who have had a blog for a while but it’s stalled in its growth
- bloggers with bloggers block and lacking inspiration
This workbook is NOT designed for bloggers yet to start a blog (PreBloggers). It doesn’t cover setting up a blog.
By the end of the 31 Days you’ll have:
- written a variety of different types and styles of posts
- learned techniques for coming up with new post ideas
- promoted your blog in a variety of ways
- built relationships with readers
- reached out to and developed working relationships with other bloggers
- developed an editorial calendar for your blog going forward
- discovered ways to be more connected to your niche/topic
- designed a plan for the next month of your blogging
All in all the daily tasks are 31 steps to transform you blog into a valuable online asset. Download Your Copy of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog for an Investment of $19.95 This 94-page resource (actually it’s 188 pages as there are two pages on each page really) is ready for your download right now.
“In Seattle, you haven’t had enough coffee until you can thread a sewing machine while it’s running.” – Jeff Bezos
See Your Site as Visitors Do
Are you struggling with your home page layout? Ever wonder where the prime real estate is for items such as multimedia or advertisements?
A new study released by The Poynter Institute observed 46 people for one hour as their eyes followed mock news websites and real multimedia content. While the study was limited in scope by typical standards, it does offer insights that webmasters can implement now to begin enjoying higher conversions on special promotions, CPA offers and affiliate links.
Combined with other site metrics already used by news website managers — usability testing, focus groups, log analysis — the Eyetrack III findings could provide some direction for improving news websites. To read more about homepage layout, visit this link.
Google Sidewiki
Google Sidewiki is a new add-on for Firefox and Internet Explorer that enables users to leave comments and information about any webpage. Users can comment about service that they receive on websites via the Sidewiki, and then share their comments via email, Facebook, or Twitter.
With the advent of Sidewiki, you may no longer be able to control the conversations about your brand; in fact, the possibility exists for competitors to utilize Sidewiki to bad mouth you. The tool is very new, and there are likely to be similar tools introduced in the future. In the meantime, downloading Sidewiki and building a strong presence can help to eliminate potential problems, as well as allow you to monitor conversations about your brand.
Engage & Connect with Sprout Buzz
Sarah Prout is the director of Sprout Publishing, an award-winning entrepreneur, author, publisher, business coach, online socialite and mother of 2 little darlings.
Sarah knows more than a thing about creating buzz. At age 14 she was labeled ‘Hallmark’s Youngest Designer Worldwide’ when her vibrant gift wrap designs were available in all major department stores around Australia and New Zealand. At 19, she founded her own greeting card company which is when the SPROUT brand first emerged. At 22, Sarah won a major prize from the SHELL corporation for writing an award-winning business plan that funded the first print run of SPROUT products. Today, Sarah is an author, online socialite, and entrepreneur that has helped many other business owners follow in her very-successful footsteps.
Her Sprout Buzz eCourse has been specifically designed to give you 30 days of publishing tasks that will rapidly improve your level of exposure online. Each day give you an exercise to complete or contemplate that will form the backbone of intense content proliferation for your business and your brand.
Other Topics Covered in Sprout Buzz:
- How to create a press kit
- Affiliate marketing secrets
- Social media tools, tricks and tips
- Writing killer sales page copy
- Blogging ideas and monetization
- eProduct concepts
- Plus much, much more in 75 jam-packed pages of information.
Save $5 at checkout when you enter coupon code “SUCCESS.”
Weebiz Business Community
Think of a business fair and picture it with all the capabilities of an online social network, that’s Weebiz. Register your company and you will instantly have access to an easy and free tool to find business partners or clients, share valuable industry information or promote your products and services.
Instead of simply waiting to intercept a good opportunity by chance, Weebiz places companies at the center of a hub where opportunities converge. Best of all, it’s free to join!
- Create your own community of business relations
- Interact in a free and permanent business expo
- Promote your business
- Sell your products and services and find new ones
- Find business partners and opportunities
- Promote and evaluate your products
- Manage business contacts
- Stay up-to-date on news about your market
2010 Top Small Company Workplaces Competition
The research is clear and compelling. Organizations that build great work environments deliver better business results. Organizations that invest in the success of their people have employees that are invested in and committed to the success of the business.
Winning Workplaces and Inc. Magazine are seeking compelling examples of organizations with outstanding cultures for our 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces competition. The winners will be featured in the June 2010 issue of Inc. Magazine.
The application deadline is January 22, 2010.
Share the Love
As I close out this issue, I’d like to ask you to do me a solid — click on the little green button below, and tweet about the Marketing Espresso to your friends and associates. I sure would appreciate it.
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From bubble-gum popping tweens to silver-haired grannies, a huge majority of households in the United States own at least one computer with Internet access.
The Internet has become an integral part of our daily lives — consumers use it for everything from looking up words on http://www.merriam-webster.com/, to checking email and stock quotes. Plugging in and logging on has become second nature.
As a home business owner, perhaps you convinced yourself that you don’t need to have a web presence. Nothing could be further from the truth. So, if you are one of those folks who are still riding the fence, let me be perfectly clear:
If you aren’t utilizing the tools that the Internet can provide to your business, you are leaving money on the table. Can you really afford to do that?
I didn’t think so.
So, c’mon, Desperado — hop off that fence and get on the program. There’s plenty of good reasons why your business should be on the web — and every day you delay is costing you money.
You Simply Can’t Beat the Exposure
Whether you are selling products you make yourself, reselling other people’s products, or providing a service, you do not have to limit your sales to customers in your area and neighboring towns. With a website, you can start selling your products to customers from out of state or even in other countries. If you offer your writing and editing services, you can expand your client base and reach more customers with a website.
You’re Always Open for Business
Your home business website isn’t only good for posting photos or information about your products or services. It can also include information about you and your home business. A website can be a place where prospective customers can go to learn more about what you do. You can also post the latest news about your business, as well as new product or service offerings and even special offers.
Best of all, your website is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Your website can be generating business for you even while you sleep. This is particularly true if you decide to create an online store and make your products available to online shoppers, no matter where they are located in the world.
Overhead Costs are Low
Advertising and marketing your products or services via traditional methods can be quite expensive. The costs of printing banners, paying for magazine ads, and putting up billboards can quickly rack up and drain your funds. On the other hand, you do not need to spend as much when you put your business online. You will only have pay for a domain name and a website hosting fee that rarely exceeds $75 a year, which is even less than what you have to pay for a month’s worth of running your ad in newspaper. Blogging platforms have made website design and maintenance much more manageable, with many service providers offering startup packages that are well within reach of startup business owners.
Fast & Efficient Communication with Customers
When customers have questions or want to place an order, all they have to do is fill out an online form or leave you a message on your website. You will not have to worry about missing out on customers when your phone line is tied up or you do not have people to entertain their queries. You can even create a Frequently Answered Questions page on your website where customers can go to if they have a question about your business.
Levels the Playing Field
Practically everything these days is on the Internet and there is a huge chance that your competitors will also have a website of their own. If you are not convinced by the other advantages of creating a website for your home business, this one should. Without a website, you will find yourself lagging way behind your competitors. If you want to achieve success in your home business, there is no better time than now to get online and get your home business noticed by more customers.
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October 6, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
From mommy bloggers and affiliate marketers to big brand infomercials on late-night television, the new FTC guidelines governing endorsements and testimonials have widespread implications you need to know about.
The last change to these guidelines came in 1980 — long before the internet had risen to such mainstream prominence among consumers. The 1980 Guides did not explicitly state that endorsers and advertisers could be liable under the FTC Act for statements they make in an endorsement. The revised guides, however, reflect Commission case law, and clearly state that both advertisers and endorsers may be liable for false or unsubstantiated claims made in an endorsement – or for failure to disclose material connections between the advertiser and endorsers. In addition, the revised Guides also make it clear that celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media.
The new guidelines will take effect December 1st, 2009.
Keeping an Eye Out
The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. One such example that I recently noticed was for the prescription eye drops Restasis®. Dr. Allison Tendler, a board-certified ophthalmologist from Sioux Falls, SD, appears in the commercial, and lauds the benefits of using Restasis®, a product she herself uses “twice a day, every day.” Within the first few frames of the commercial, a disclaimer noting that Dr. Tendler was paid for her endorsement is shown.
A Weighty Issue
Weight loss is a perennially popular market, and there are an abundance of programs and products that serve this “hungry” niche. From Marie Osmond touting the taste-tempting menu from NutriSystem®, to Valerie Bertinelli’s new beach bikini bod (courtesy of Jenny Craig), readers have grown accustomed to seeing the fine print in these ads noting “results not typical.” Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. The safe harbor notation of “results not typical” is no longer permitted.
Why this Should Matter to You
If you do any affiliate marketing, you’ve probably already received notices from your advertising partners regarding the new guidelines, and how it will impact their program. Don’t be too quick to hit the “delete” key on these messages — advertisers will no doubt be much more diligent in enforcing these guidelines moving forward. As the guidelines hold both the affiliate marketer, as well as the advertiser responsible, it doesn’t take an MIT grad to deduce that advertisers would sooner drop an affiliate than drop a small fortune fighting a deceptive ad practices case with the FTC.
Taking Lemons, and Making Lemonade
Like many site owners, I do a fair amount of affiliate marketing. At first blush, several of my friends and clients responded quite vehemently that this was just another example of unwanted government intervention — and I was inclined to agree. After giving this additional consideration, however, I changed my mind. Indulge me a moment, and I’ll explain why.
Good-old-fashioned word of mouth advertising has taken on a life of its own. The dawn of social media has given consumers an unprecedented all-access pass to discovering brand data and consumer evaluations with the ease of a mouse click. With so much at stake, is it any wonder that reputation management services are cropping up all over the country?
In all honesty, full disclosure need not be a sour business. In fact, you may be surprised to find that such honesty may be welcomed by your customers, and actually improve your conversions. Of course, how you choose to convey your disclosure is up to you, but make no mistake — it is something that you need to take the time to do. Whether you add fine print to your outbound newsletters, beneath product reviews, or on your policies page (or perhaps in all of these places), taking the time to meet these new guidelines now is sure to save you time, frustration and money down the road.
Oh, and for the record…your affiliate purchases help keep me caffeinated — a fact that my husband is most appreciative of.
UPDATE: 16 October, 2009
In an open letter to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, Randall Rothenberg, CEO of Interactive Advertising Bureau, states that the new FTC guidelines “unfairly and unconstitutionally” impose a set of ethics rules on bloggers and other social media practitioners, while giving traditional media a pass. Read the full story here, from PaidContent.org.
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Growing up in the 70s, I used to love listening to my collection of Disney book and record sets.
My sister and I amassed quite a treasure trove of titles — including all of the most popular princess stories, as well as many of the popular cartoon characters of the day.
Regardless of whether the story centered around a hobbit, a princess or a heroic pair of mouse detectives, one thing they all had in common was the opening instructions.
“You will know it’s time to turn the page when Tinkerbell rings her little bells like this: (sound of ‘chimes’ ringing). Let’s begin now.”
We’d sit for hours in front of a red briefcase-style record player, and anxiously await Tinkerbell to cue us to turn the page.
If you were reading along with the story, you probably didn’t need the little chime reminder to tell you when to turn the page — but for those who weren’t yet able to read, or ones who simply got swept up in the story, it was nice to know that Tinkerbell would be there to remind you.
You see, knowing when to turn the page isn’t always easy, particularly when it involves your business.
Over the last ten years, there have been occasions when I have struggled with turning the page. There was the particularly expensive display advertisement that didn’t perform as well as I’d hoped; or a business idea that just missed the mark. Or, maybe it was a website that I never found the time to fully develop. Each of these examples were costly in their own way — yet, each of them provided me with valuable experience that has strengthened my business, and my resolve.
I wasn’t able to see that until I turned the page.
Some of the greatest minds of our time have long and storied histories of failed attempts before they enjoyed the success for which we now know them. Imagine how different our lives would be today if they had simply decided not to turn the page, and keep on trying!
It’s easy to get caught up in the daily stories of our businesses — what with the deadlines, the technology to learn, and the endless to-do lists. Understand that you will inevitably make mistakes…everyone does.
Magical as she is, I doubt that Tinkerbell can make the rounds and get to all of us when we need her. My advice would be to find your very own “Tinkerbell” — someone you know will tell it like it is (even when it hurts). Sure, it would be easier to find someone who will always sugar-coat it for you — but then your business would be nothing more than a fairytale.
Get mad if you need to. Have a good cry if that helps. Then get over it and turn the page.
The real tragedy would be if you allow the record to get stuck there. You could very well be standing in the way of your own happy ending.
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August 28, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
In this Issue:
- Increase Adsense Revenue & Weed Out the Riff-Raff
- A Little Birdie Told Me
- Identify the Adwords Achilles’ Heel for Your Niche
- Last Call – Cash for My Clunker Sale
Do you remember the perennial essays on “What I Did This Summer” when you were a kid? I do.
As I run down the mental laundry list of my activities of the last few months, one common theme emerges — consolidating.
I have dramatically reduced my activities (at one point I managed over 20 of my own blogs, in addition to clients’), and I have transitioned all of my clients over to WordPress.
In doing just these two things, I have conservatively estimated I’ve extended my lifespan by a couple of years, and reduced my Miss Clairol usage exponentially. YAY!
While I still don’t advocate putting all of your eggs in one basket, I think that there is much to be gained by working smarter. That said, I have focused this issue on a few tools that I think will help you accomplish this.
Let’s get to it, shall we?
Increase Adsense Revenue & Weed Out the Riff-Raff
No, I am not talking about the well-known character of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. When I refer to “riff-raff,” I am talking about those MFA (Made for Adsense) sites whose sole purpose is to steal your lunch money.
Don’t worry, though — help is on the way.
I’ve recently learned of a tool (the basic version is free) called Ads Blacklist. It is a project designed to enable you to dramatically reduce the amount of MFA and LCPC (low cost per click) sites which appear through the use of PPC systems like Adsense, Yahoo Publisher Network, and Chitika.
Here’s How it Works:
You sign up for your free account at Ads Blacklist, and then enter your URL and keywords. Moments later, it will generate a list of sites that are known MFA and LCPC sites within that niche. Simply highlight and copy the list, and then paste it into the Competitive Ad Filter field within your Adsense control panel. Voila! Those sites will now be blocked from displaying on your site.
Four words — how cool is that?
A Little Birdie Told Me
Building on our theme of working smarter, our next resource was featured this week on the ESB Journal.
Many of you are using article marketing as an affordable promotional tool for your business (and if you aren’t, shame on you!). Ezine Articles has added another cool tool for those who use their service — you can now enable your Ezine Articles profile to auto-tweet your recently approved articles to your tweeps!
Why You Should Use This:
- Your tweeps are already interested in what you have to say. This is a way to give them more content, with no added work.
- You can further demonstrate your expertise in your niche.
- Allows ezine and newsletter publishers instant access to the most recent content you’ve created.
- Allows you to provide education about your products/services, and build trust among your tweeps. We all know that folks buy from those they know, like and trust. Use this tool to accomplish that!
For a quick video tutorial on how to set this up, visit the ESB Journal article. Then, go set this up on your profile — before you forget.
Identifying the Achilles’ Heel for Your Niche
Times are tough — and many of our clients have found themselves facing much lower revenues than in years’ past. In fact, many that have never had to do any PPC advertising have now found themselves considering this option. If you are in a similar situation, this may be a helpful tip to consider.
First, accept that you don’t need all the customers in your niche. This is a common mistake that many new PPC advertisers make. They go crazy with their keyword selection — using words that are too broad or too vague — and end up spending too much for little or no results.
I don’t want that to happen to you.
Here’s what I recommend:
- Make a list of targeted phrases that a consumer would use to find your niche. If you sell hypo-allergenic vacuum filters, then you would certainly want to use that phrase. What you should also consider is adding your local geographic area to that phrase (i.e. Kalamazoo Michigan hypo-allergenic vacuum filters).
- One by one, begin entering your list into the Google Adwords Keyword Selection Tool. You may find that after entering the first one or two, you’ll have plenty of other suggestions to work with.
- Sort the list by clicking on the top of the column marked “Global Monthly Search Volume.” Scroll down through this list, and look for those that have search volumes 20K to 50K.
- From this range, determine if there are any keywords or phrases that fit your niche, and write them down.
- Open a new window, and go to Google.com. Type in one of the phrases you identified from the previous step. How many listings does it say appear in Google for this phrase?
The Goal:
The goal of the exercise outlined above is to identify 5-10 keywords or phrases that have a lower search volume per month (meaning, they will not cost as much), and have a low volume of competition in Google (meaning, it will be easier to appear on the first page for this term).
We combine this information to create a list that has a consistent monthly search volume, and we optimize your site or landing page for those terms. Then, you work to convert that traffic into customers. As your business increases, you can then go after some of the more competitive search terms.
The point of this exercise is to keep you in the game without going broke doing so. You may even find — as many do — that this strategy could easily become your secret marketing weapon.
Tips:
- Be sure that when you set up specific search phrases in your Adwords control panel that you set them as “exact match” or “phrase match.” This will help control costs, and send more qualified leads your way.
- Don’t forget to use the Negative Keywords tool. Use this to remove any keyword searches that you want to be excluded from. For instance, if someone were looking for “free hypo-allergenic vacuum filters,” you wouldn’t necessarily want them — especially since you are SELLING them, not giving them away.
I hope that you’ll be encouraged to do a bit of keyword research using this method. If you do, I’d love to hear about your results! Drop me a note and let me know.
Last Call – Cash for My Clunker Sale
Wait a minute — didn’t the news announce yesterday that the Cash for Clunkers Program ended Monday?
Yep, they sure did.
You see, I have a “clunker” of my own — one that I planned to hold on to until next year. And, mine is in need of some repair work that I suspect is going to get a bit pricey.
Much as I’d like to, I’m not some highfalutin guru that can go out and plunk down the cash for a new vehicle right now.
So, here’s the bottom line. I decided that I’d slash the prices on my collection of Squidoo lenses to the bone — in fact, you’ll see that most are slashed between 50-75% off.
The sale ends at midnight tonite (August 28th), and the only place you can find them at this price is on this page. Whatever is left I will just hold on to.
This is a great opportunity to snap up aged and indexed lenses that you can use to leverage for traffic, list promotion and sales. Lots of niches still left, so act fast for best selection!
You’ll find all the details here:
http://plrsavvy.com/squidoo-lenses/
Share the Love
As I close out this issue, I’d like to ask you to do me a solid — click on the little green button below, and tweet about the Marketing Espresso to your tweeple. I sure would appreciate it.
Until Next Time — Stay Focused, Positive and Caffeinated!
Traci
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