Pain Free Learning

How many times has bad advice gotten you into trouble? Yeah, everybody’s saying and doing it, so you jump on the band wagon… and guess what… you get the same results as they get. Maybe it’s a comfort to know that you’re not the only one who played the part of the fool, but when it comes to marketing…you may not have enough leeway to count the loss and go on.

Yeah, there sure are a LOT of ideas out there about what will and what won’t skyrocket sales numbers and profit margins! And to be truthful, a lot of those ideas are just a bunch of bunk. Yep, you’ve got to be on your toes and know the truth about marketing tales. Here are a few of the lines of misinformation that you’ve probably heard before…

You’ve Got To Have The Cheapest Prices In Town To Be Competitive

Let me ask you this…Do you always buy the cheapest product on the shelf, or always shop at the store that has the lowest prices? No, I don’t either. What you and I know that these people don’t is, that value counts for a lot. Oh yeah, sure… there are a few people out there who only buy the cheapest things in town, but most of us understand that the cheapest isn’t always the best buy for our buck.

How does this apply to you? Here’s something you can try…make it a little test to see just how true this myth is. Find a low-cost way to enhance the perceived value of your product or service, then raise the cost a little. See what happens! Don’t be surprised if your sales and profits shoot up!

Advertisements Need To Be Changed To Keep The Public From Becoming Bored

This one reminds me of one of my cousins. He’s famous for breaking things that are fixed. Yeah, he’ll go out and buy a perfectly good running car, but every time you see him, he’s under the hood tinkering with something. Before long…you guessed it…the car won’t run and has to go to the garage for repairs.

It makes no sense to run a business like Cousin Jim and his cars. Hey, if it’s working why try to fix it? Think about it…what’s the goal for advertising? Yeah, to attract new customers. Once the new customer comes through the door, the advertisement has effectively done its job. Does that customer need to be affected by the same ad? No, so let the ad do its job for the rest of the people out there who haven’t seen it yet.

Now, I’m not saying that you should never change your advertisement… just never abandon a winner midstream. A good rule of thumb is to spend 80 percent of your advertising money on proven methods, and to risk 20 percent on experimental advertisements. Keep the tried and proven working for you, while you test the waters for new ideas that might work even better.

The More Choices A Customer Has, The More Likely He Is To Buy

Yeah, yeah…they say variety is the spice of life and all that, but too many choices can lead to procrastination. We all know what happens when we procrastinate. Yep, we never get back to it!

Do you know what happens when a customer can’t decide?… you lose a sale that you already had in your pocket. Yep he came in to get it, saw more options, stopped to make up his mind, then walked out still thinking about it…maybe to never return.

A tip for the wise marketer - limit your customer’s decisions to either yes or no. Let them decide either yes I’ll buy or no, I won’t buy. Don’t risk confusing them and losing the sale.

Everybody Needs My Product/Service So I Don’t Need To Advertise

Hey, building a business is a lot of hard work! There aren’t many free rides along the way. Chances are, your potential customers need to be convinced that they NEED to choose your service/product. Yep, finding the customer, convincing him to use your service/product, then closing the deal is a process that can’t be easily bypassed. Don’t be fooled into thinking you’re any different! It could be hazardous to your profits.

A friend of mine owned the only dog grooming shop in her town. Hey, no competition means you don’t need to advertise…right? After an initial anouncement of her grand opening, this lady did no advertising. Business slowly trickled in and barely covered the overhead. Finally in a desperate attempt to get business off the ground she began putting flyers in all of the local veterinarian clinics and ads in the local newspaper. Bingo! Business began pouring in… and most of the people said, “I didn’t even know you were here!” or “Fifi’s been needing groomed for quite some time. When I saw your ad, I decided to go ahead and get it done.”

Let’s face it, people are often….well, lazy. They don’t always go out of their way to find the phone number to contact you, even when in the back of their mind they know they need to do something. Yeah, advertisements are often the little prod they need to get motivated. Don’t shortchange yourself by neglecting to advertise.

How about you? Have you ever driven by a business for a long time without even noticing it? Yep, we all get too busy to pay attention sometimes.

Hey, you’ve learned a few of the misguided marketing myths that many people are fooled by…now you can apply the REAL marketing concepts to your own advertising campaign and watch the results!

Who is Allyn Cutts, and why should you care?
Allyn has spent over 24 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales to current customers. Allyn is a marketing and sales fanatic, providing measurable marketing solutions that drive huge results for small-to mid-size business clients. Allyn is the owner of AllynCutts.com www.AllynCutts.com and works personally with clients to design and deliver off-line and on-line direct marketing.

Although submitting your blog to the search engines is very similar to submitting your website, there are several differences that you should be aware of. Knowing these differences can help you get your blog indexed more quickly because you have submitted your blog correctly.

Regardless of whether you are submitting a blog or a website, if you are submitting to Google, you should create a sitemap. Although you should check your sitemap periodically to make sure Google isn’t encountering any errors with your sitemap, once you submit it, you don’t have to submit to Google again. All you have to do is keep your sitemap up to date.

If you use a blog like Wordpress, you can install the sitemap plugin. This plugin updates your sitemap automatically and notifies Google that your site has changed.

If you don’t use a blogging software that generates sitemaps, you can create your own. Google offers plenty of free tools for creating sitemaps.

Even if you don’t have a sitemap, you can still add your site to Google. You just won’t get detailed statistics.

You can submit to Google here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login

Since Google doesn’t allow direct submission to its blog search, you will need to make sure that you submit your site to blog directories Google pulls results from for its blog search, and then make sure you ping these sites when you update your blog.

You can use sites like Feed Shot, http://www.feedshot.com, to submit your site to some of the major blog directories. Then you only need to ping your blog to update it at these directories.When submitting to Yahoo, you need to submit your site feed instead of a sitemap. You can submit your blog to Yahoo here: . Instead of submitting your site, you will use the first block and submit your feed.You should also add your blog feed to your My Yahoo page. This can get your blog added faster and will get your blog included in Yahoo’s version of blog search.

You will need an account to submit to both Yahoo and Google. It’s free.

MSN, the third of the big three search engines is completely different in the way that you need to submit to get your blog included.

You can submit directly to MSN to be included. You don’t need an account, but you will need to submit manually because you will need to enter the characters on the page to make sure your submission request goes through.

You can submit here: http://beta.search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx

MSN also offers an alternative that will help you get your entire blog included in its site results. Submit your blog to Moreover, http://www.moreover.com. If your site is included in Moreover, it should be included in MSN as MSN draws a lot of results from this news site.

Once you’ve submitted your blog to the top three search engines, forget about it. Your next step should be to ping your blog each time that you post to it.

Before you ping your blog for the first time though, make sure that you glance through the list of blog directories. You want to make sure you have submitted your blog to each of the directories listed. Also, some of the ping sites listed may not relate to your blog. Make sure you uncheck these before you ping.

Ping Services
http://www.pingomatic.com
http://www.pingtheempire.com
http://www.pingoat.com

Ping your blog each time you update.

These techniques will help you get about 80 percent coverage in the search engines. Once you’ve taken this step in your promotion, move on. Write press releases and articles and submit them to press release and article directories. Build links.

Successfully promoting your blog or website depends on consistent promotion. Promote regularly, and you will see results.

Jinger Jarrett will show you how to get more traffic and sales with free marketing. Get her book, “1001 High Traffic Sites Where You Can Market for Free”, at www.askjinger.com/bookstore/

Just wanted to take a minute and share an excellent blog article I stumbled on today. While the content deals directly with AdWords optimization and testing, there are some excellent lessons to be learn’t about site optimization and creating content that is targetted to your audience.

Its the old adage “Content is King” yet again.

10 Ways to increase Adwords Quality Score by Dave Davis.

The downside of video content

I have a big secret to confess. I’ve been stuck on dial up for the last 13 years, only recently having been able to get high speed in my area. So during this time the video content phase has passed me by as I quickly left pages that tried to auto-load video content. I just couldn’t load it. Now I’m hitting the video content scene with gusto.

That gusto is quickly coming to an end however, and I’m becoming more and more annoyed with the way many people have tried to transfer over textual content to audio and video formats. Video and audio are exclusive to textual content.

Instead of my normal long winded rants I’ve boiled down my thoughts into a few key tips on what to do and what to avoid when creating audio or video content for your sites…

Reinforce

Video is intended as a way of reinforcing content. If you plan on standing in front of a camera and reading your text out loud, and then using that video you’ve created in place of the text, you’re setting yourself up for failure. If what you are going to say can be written as text and I as a reader can quickly read it, then use text. Video can be used to show visuals, or to reinforce some of your key points, but not as a replacement for your textual content. The only exception being a video taped real-world presentation.

Please don’t waste my time making me have to spend 10 minutes listening to what you have to say, when I can speed read that same content in less than a minute.

Captivate

Video on the net is still a new medium, in its infancy for many publishers and thus still fairly crude. However it has a big competitor - television which has many years experience. If you want some lessons on how to captivate your audience watch 10 minutes of MTV. They know how to keep their target audiences attention. Start with some basic visuals, other than yourself, or just your screen shots.

Edit

Go on YouTube, or Google Video and you’ll find many content type videos that start with the person walking from the camera (where they pressed record) to the wall as their background, ending with them walking to the camera and reaching over as the video ends. Take the 10 minutes it takes to import your video into an editor (use Windows Movie Maker if you need to!), cut those end and starting fumbles out and add a good fade to black at the end. You’ll immediately be above the majority of your competition out there with your simple but clean video.

Quality

If this text was hard to rad, hed bad spling etc, u’d probably skip over it right? Same goes for low quality choppy video. Choose a bitrate that doesn’t distract from you or your message, while still allowing for a speedy load time.

Moderation

It seems that my life motto is “everything in in moderation”, but it really does seem to apply in all areas. If video and audio is going to help - use it to its full advantage! If its just the latest and greatest cool idea, don’t.

Thoughts?

- Ed Loveless

I was just searching online for some information on the movie “8 heads in a duffel bag”, after hearing part of the score on an internet radio station.

I couldn’t resist taking a screen shot of the ebay ad that showed up when I Googled the movie.

You can see other ones I’ve found on an older article I wrote on online advertising.

Just browsing one of my favourite blog writers. They linked to a study that was completed that I just had to pass on.

Over 200 people were shown various pages, and an eye tracking device was used to track how they looked at the page. We’ve speculated about this for a long time, and only now have finally have some easy to understand reasons to work with.

How the human eye actually reads your website

An excerpt from the book “IT AIN’T OKAY TO FAIL”
By Brian Strachan

I first learned of this particular concept of strengths and excesses in the context of annual performance appraisals. Periodic performance feedback, coupled with an annual performance appraisal, is an integral part of a well-run business. Honest appraisals which inform the employee of his or her development needs are critical to helping the employee improve. They also help the business improve because its employees are improving their performance. It’s a “win-win” proposition.

Unfortunately, not all appraisals are honest. The one for the outstanding employee is easy to conduct and is a pleasure. The one for the marginal employee can be difficult because the discussion can become argumentative and contentious. I have seen too many managers avoid the tough performance appraisal by simply deeming an employee’s performance to be satisfactory and avoiding any discussion of development needs.

This is unacceptable because it is unfair to the marginal employee. Sooner or later the true assessment will come to light and it will be a shock to the employee. Perhaps it will come in the form of a layoff notice. Perhaps it will come with a new manager who believes in giving honest performance assessments. Whatever the form, the day will come and it won’t be pretty.

I never understood why many managers don’t give honest appraisals. Again, the employee deserves honest feedback. If a manager can’t conduct an honest discussion, he should not accept a position as a manager.

In one particular staff discussion this subject was being discussed. The general manager stated that he expected his managers to conduct honest performance appraisals with their people. He further stated that there is no need for the discussions with marginal employees to be contentious if the discussion is in terms of strengths and excesses.

The theory he was discussing is that no one inherently has any weaknesses. We develop weaknesses when we carry strengths to an excess.

Self-confidence is a trait we admire, we strive to have, and we count as a strength. If we carry the strength of self-confidence to an excess, it becomes arrogance, and a weakness.

Consider one’s ability to trust others. This is a strength and one which you need to develop as you need to delegate more to others. If you carry trust to an excess it becomes gullibility.

Being strong and forceful are strengths.
Carry them to an excess and you become a bully.

Being cautious is a strength. Carry it an excess and you become indecisive.

Being cooperative is a strength. Carry it to an excess and you become a pushover.

Taking risks is a strength and a necessary ingredient to being an entrepreneur. If you carry risk-taking to an excess you can become reckless.

Having ambition is a strength. In this case I’m thinking of the person with the desire and ambition to get ahead. You’ve recognized that in some people and you admire their drive. However, I have seen some people carry their ambition to an excess. They become obsessed with getting ahead and start doing some pretty dumb things which have hurt their chances. They carried their strength right into a weakness.

Again, this was presented in the context of having performance discussions with marginal people in a positive manner.

Like many of the lessons I’ve learned I have thought about them long after and have extrapolated them beyond their original context. In this case I have tried to self-assess my weaknesses to see if they are indeed strengths carried to an excess. Not surprisingly, the theory fits the case.

I feel one of my strengths is the capacity to speak out when I don’t agree with something being said. In other words, I am not a “yes-person.” I think of this as a strength which adds value to the organization.

In my later years I came to the realization that this strength was of value to me if I utilized it in moderation. If I carry my outspokenness to an excess I become argumentative. I have learned to speak out more sparingly and with more caution. I will speak out when I think something is wrong or if I think something can be done in a better way. However, I don’t play devil’s advocate as much as I used to and I’ve learned to pick my fights.

I think it is a very healthy exercise for everyone to periodically make a list of his or her strengths. You should know yourself pretty well and should be able to easily list your strengths. Which of your characteristics make you proud? What do you do well and which characteristics contribute to your doing that well?

Once you have your list spend some time thinking about what those characteristics would become if they were carried to an excess. Then ask yourself, “is there any characteristic on the list that I might be carrying to an excess? Are any of these strengths becoming weaknesses?” If there are, you need to consider what you are going to do about them.

From time to time you must ask yourself, “are my strengths under control?”

Visit http://www.brianstrachan.com for more information about “IT AIN’T OKAY TO FAIL”

When starting out online, or even in business in general. There comes a point where we have to start designing our own advertising copy and writing or designing in order to bring in the sales. Some people are naturals at this, however most of us need some instruction, a few hard knocks and some further lessons until we truly grasp whats required.Today, I’d like to feature some content from an article that John Obono wrote. He has covered what I beleive are 10 good things to double check before you send out an ad. Yet another great lesson from anothers class of hard knocks…

You’re ready to launch that new product or promotion, & you’re really counting on a piece of advertising copy to come through for you.

You’re looking for stellar results! And, you’re determined to do everything in your power to get them. Which means surveys, thorough testing, and ongoing refinement of your ad copy.

Advertising Screw Up’s

Have you ever done an advertising campaign to have it simply flop? Not a single reply, maybe even a negative response or two?

Sometimes in our haste to get the cheapest ad, or be the first to have an ad in place, we forget to look at some of the important points in ad placement and relevance.

Lesson One: The Where and With lesson

It’s an honest mistake, not taking the time to check where you ad is going to be displayed, and who else is being displayed on the same page. If you’re going neck to neck with your top competitor, is that going to make you shine or put you down? It’s not very unlikely people are going to contact both of you (unless it’s the yellow pages). So make sure you’re not next to your worst enemy unless your ad is ready to put them to shame.

Brilliant isn’t it?

It’s such an easy mistake to make, and if someone had just taken a minute to ask what else was being advertised, this image wouldn’t be making its rounds on the ‘net.

Tip: Never Assume

Lesson Two: The What

In the age of online advertising where it only takes a few minutes to fire up an AdWords campaign with Google using thousands of different ads targeted at niche markets and search engine results. Make sure you do due diligence before setting it live.

The first time I saw this, a friend sent me a Google search for “cavador”. Top of the list was an E-Bay ad promising a wide selection of human remains and cavador’s for sale. New and used!

Tip: Don’t be an idiot, read it over, then click

Lesson Three: Know your market

Due diligence can save a lot of grief when you are working with a market or potential audience that you can’t personally relate to 100%.

One of the more famous mistranslations had Coors, an American brewer losing its edge in Spain when their hip phrase “Turn It Loose” came out as “Get Diarrhea”.