Coach Virtual Assistant Blog - View from The Edge

Watch on You Tube: Design Coding - The Poetic Prophet (AKA the SEO Rapper)

I stumbled this You Tube video today. What an excellent learning tool! Do you remember singing time-tables as a kid? This is the web development SEO version of that. Very smart!

I sent it to the best SEO guy I know thinking he could use a laugh and he replied,

Pretty funny…

Now… Look at his video views (327,715) and he has over (1,500)
ratings… that is NOT something to laugh about.

It works

Good point Brett!

Life Coach Mary Allen with Special Guest Dave Pelzer

New York Times Best-Selling Author of
A Boy Called ‘It‘, The Lost Boy, The Man Named Dave,
Help Yourself, The Privelege of Youth and Help Yourself for Teens,
Recipient of The National Jefferson Award

*NEW DATE*

Monday, September 8th, 2008 10AM PST

Use this link to register >>

Great Business Week article on international outsourcing and how now even the smallest companies can be “multi-nationals”. Click on the image to read the full article on BusinessWeek.com.

You launch a new small business blog, and then writer’s block kicks in. What to do? Here are some tips to help you with ideas for new posts to your blog. Your blog writing style does not have to be textbook perfect, so informal writing is suitable as long as you check grammar and spelling. It’s okay to entertain as you provide information, too. Visitors will not expect literary works suitable for a Nobel prize when you create blog posts, so relax.

Write short paragraphs and cover one aspect of what you present in each. Visitors want information quickly; so long paragraphs should be avoided. Short posts of 1-2 paragraphs are fine, too. Most website content is quickly scanned, so headlines and the first few words of each paragraph may be all that most visitors view before deciding to read details, or exit.

Include key words relative to your subject, and place some near the beginning of sentences for each paragraph, so your visitors get the general feel as they scan your post. Search engines will visit and index your blog content, too, so key words are important for attracting the search engine crawlers.

Google Alerts and blog labels are two techniques to help you generate new blog post ideas. Each will be presented in the report Blog Your Way to Fresh Content from my series of free PDF SEO Reports about do-it-yourself small business website promotion that I began to release during 2007. Some of my clients could not wait, so this article is a preview of how to use these two techniques to come up with post ideas for your blog:

1. Google Alerts is a free service that delivers links to content by email. Once set up, you automatically receive a collection of current news stories or related content by email with summaries and links to the information.

2. Your blog labels are the filing system for your blog that cross references your posts by subject category, so visitors may click a label and view all posts about that subject on one page. Use them to brainstorm ideas for posts.

Google Alerts
Search for Google Alerts to find the main page, and then sign up for a Google account if you don’t have one. You don’t need an account to use alerts, but managing your choices is more convenient from one page, and creating, editing, or deleting alerts will be easier.

To begin you create individual alerts for search words or phrases relative to your business, and then your options are type and how often. Type means the source, and the selections are from news, the web, blogs, groups, and comprehensive (all). The how often is the frequency of emails you receive from Google and include once a day, as it happens, and once a week.

Once you create the alert, emails arrive automatically with lists of sources for content related to your selected subject, and a summary of each. Follow the links of interest, and perhaps you will decide to write about the same subject with a different slant. Never copy another author’s content verbatim or claim it as your original writing. That would be plagiarism. However, quoting other sources is acceptable, and snippets or excerpts are often all you need.

Write an introduction about the piece you will quote, and then give credit to the author including a hyperlink to the source. Next, make sure you are in HTML mode and begin the excerpt with blockquote and italics tags, insert their content using copy and paste, and finally add the closing blockquote and italics tags. View your help files if the [blockquote] or [i] and then [/blockquote] and [/i] are unfamiliar (Note: The [ and ] square brackets must be replaced with < and >, so don’t take my example literally). This formatting will indent their snippet in your post and display the text in italics to make everything stand out as content quoted from another source.

Finally, write a closing paragraph with your take or opinion on the subject matter, and you’re done. Again, your posts do not have to be lengthy, so the opening introduction and closing comments or opinion can each be one paragraph. Busy visitors are more likely to read your content and bookmark your site for return visits if your style is interesting and brief.

Blog Labels
The labels you assign to your posts allow cross referencing of information, and they are another source for brainstorming new post ideas. After all, your labels provide a snapshot of the overall theme of your blog. A review of your list of labels may uncover subjects that are overdue for a new post while alerts make you aware of topical subjects. Reviewing the labels that define your blog allows you to enhance emphasis by writing about what your small business is really all about.

Bonus Tip: Visit technorati.com and near the upper right is a “tag cloud” which displays key words and phrases that represent what the majority of people worldwide have written recently. The most popular tags are displayed in very large text, with others decreasing in size based on total posts tagged with that word or phrase. If you find words that relate to your business, click the tag to see what others are writing, or just start your post and run with it.

Compare physical exercise to writing posts for your small business blog, and each requires discipline. Both are easy to avoid without feeling guilty, yet the benefits are certainly important to your health, personal and business. A large percentage near 25% of all new blogs go offline in less than 90 days. One reason is the lack of fresh content. Use these tips for keeping your posts short and to the point, utilize Google Alerts, and do a review of your blog labels to easily come up with new ideas for posting to your blog.

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Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com

Jim Degerstrom offers small business advice based on 30 years in management, sales, and marketing, including President or General Manager of small companies in 5 states. He is proficient in website and graphic art design, and runs his online Small Business Resource Center and web design and matching artwork advice blog from Kissimmee, Florida USA.

Reputation is the most important part of Blog Marketing. Whether the reputation is positive or negative, it works towards popularizing it. Yes, many blogs have become notoriously famous. How do you build reputation? By doing what you’ve set out for - BLOGGING!

Reputation here is nothing but the identity or the image one creates of one’s self in the blog world. The kind of reputation or identity that you create can to take you to amazing heights. In fact there are so many websites that have some sort of identity to them that make them famous. The identity one creates, sticks to the viewer’s/customer’s mind in no time.

What sort of image/identity do you build? It depends on your judgment. If your product is serious and requires you to be very accurate, provide dependable and tangible value to the customer etc (eg. Financial product) then you must build a positive trust worthy image. Create the most appropriate identity for the product that you are trying to sell.

If your product is creative, one of a kind and needs the attention of your customers, you could also build a slight notorious image to your blog. This pulls in the customers to see what the controversy is all about. Sometimes this sort of identity catapults them to newer heights. Some bloggers topple existing top bloggers by openly disagreeing with them and challenging them by providing new, creative content that pushes down the existing product.

A blog is one place where you can openly disagree and let people around know about it. What you should be careful is that in such circumstances you must be able to convince people about your product dominating the existing one. If that doesn’t happen, then the negative identity can ruin your reputation for good. Many unknown bloggers have got overnight success with this strategy; however all depends on the product itself performing well in tandem with the strategy.

A still more negative image or the bad boy of bloggers can mean a fortune. You create this obnoxious, ‘don’t care’ identity amongst your blogger buddies and customers that they start believing in you for being open. You’re the sort of person on blogs who arrogantly contradicts other bloggers. Customers play down your arrogance, since you provide them with something that’s accurate and different from others. Your arrogance here is your confidence in the product.

Sometimes this sort of strategy can be a killer and get you to the number one spot. Point to note here is that arrogance with a mediocre product can be a huge dent on your image. So if you decide on adopting this identity then make sure your product rocks! Choose the sort of identity you want to create carefully. This can make or break your product.

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Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com

J.D. Carr is co-founder of GotWebMojo.com, a free community, training, and online solutions company specializing in assisting artists, musicians, writers, and entrepreneurs. To join for free, visit GotWebMojo.com.

A personal online journal related to your business, a blog is a great, informal way of updating customers. Blogging can make your customers relate better to you on a personal level and is a great way to set yourself apart from the group of small and home based businesses crowding the Internet marketing scene. Tracked by search engines, your blogging information can be accessed not only by your current customers, but also by consumers browsing the web for the services or products they need.  Like email newsletters, you can use blogging to keep your customers up to date on special sales, promotions, new products or services, major changes within a business, or general news about the industry your business is a part of.

Business owners who use blogging to update information about their company more than double their visibility on large search engines, such as Yahoo and Google. Each word you type in a blog is tracked by the search engine so the more blogs you post, the more traffic your website will get. To make sure you’re getting the most value and customer response from your blog, follow these five blogging tips:

1. Be Informative
Showing your customers how much you know about your business and the niche market you’re targeting will put them at ease and make them more likely to purchase your products or services. Make sure your blogs are written in a knowledgeable, expert way and double check all of your facts, spelling and grammar. Include detailed and informative information about your business. Initial posts can include information about what your business offers and who could benefit from your service and, further down the line, you could blog about new products or services available. As long as the information is useful to consumers, you can write about it.

2. Keywords
Use keywords wisely and select words you think consumers would use when searching for a company like yours that offers the same products and services. The more common keywords you select, the higher you’ll rank on search engine pages and the more traffic your site will generate.

3. Quantity
A simple headline or single sentence will not attract a potential customers attention, so make sure you beef up your blogs with a lot of informative content. The more substance to your post, the more you’ll attract the attention of search engines and interest consumers who click on your link.

4. Frequency
Its important to update your blog frequently, adding new and important information. This will keep your customers interested and search engines will begin indexing your page at regular intervals.

5. Grammar & Spelling
In only takes one or two spelling errors to turn a customer off to your services, so take the extra time to review your post and correct any grammar or spelling mistakes. Try creating your blog in a writing program that offers spell check, such as Microsoft Word, and then copying and pasting it into the blog once you’re sure everything is perfect.

James Copper is a writer for http://www.marketinglinx.com where you can find out about small business marketing
Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com

Teleseminars, or workshops conducted over a teleconference line, are one of the easiest ways to grow a business and leverage your expertise online. However, when I speak to clients about using this marketing strategy, many believe that they don’t have enough content to create a powerful 45-60 minute teleseminar. Do you share that same belief? If you’ve ever written an article, you’ve got enough information to create a teleseminar.

I love to repurpose content, i.e., create something once and use it again and again for multiple purposes. I’ve found the articles I write weekly to be the easiest to repurpose. The type of article that works best to launch a teleseminar is a tips article, or one that is written with numbered points as the body of the article, i.e., 6 Secrets to, How to Do … in 10 Easy Steps, etc.

Here’s how you can create a teleseminar from one of your articles:

1. Craft your description and learning bullet points. Write a one paragraph overview of your teleclass based on the content of your article and include 3-7 bullet points (very short descriptions of the bullet points in your article) outlining what the participants will learn as a result of participating in your teleseminar. This is the description you’ll use to help you promote your teleseminar.

2. Expand your article bullet points. Participants like concrete examples, so in your planning process come up with stories or examples you can share about each point, point out mistakes people make with this point, and discuss better strategies to use instead.

3. Craft your introduction. The easiest way to create an introduction to a teleclass is to tell your participants what caused you to create it, and then give a synopsis of what you’re going to cover during the teleseminar.

4. Determine your call to action. Typically teleseminars are part of a larger marketing strategy for an online business owner: to sell a product or program, to grow a list, or to create content for an information product. Determine what you want your call to action to be for your listeners, and make plans to insert it into to your teleclass script. Share this call to action with your participants at the beginning, middle, and end of the call.

5. Format your conclusion. Here’s where you again summarize what your said during the teleseminar, remind participants of your call to action, and ask for any questions before closing the call.

6. Develop your script. Now, you have all of the pieces developed, and it’s time to put them together in an outline or script for yourself. Note your introduction, expanded bullet points with examples, insert your call to action several times when appropriate, and end with your conclusion.

7. Draft a handout. Help your participants remember you and your presentation. A handout with your contact info is the best way for them to refer to the material presented. You can create a study guide which permits them to fill in the blanks during the course of the teleseminar, a handout that you send with notes from the teleseminar, or a PDF of a PowerPoint presentation that you provide before the seminar. Remember to include your contact information in your handout as well as your call to action from the teleseminar.

Now, you have a complete teleseminar that you can use again and again with different target markets to help you grow your list, sell your products and services, and establish yourself as an expert in your chosen field. Take a look at your article bank and determine what you can repurpose into powerful teleseminars for your business.

Copyright (c) 2008 Donna Gunter

Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.OnlineBizU.com. Ask Donna an Internet Marketing question at http://www.AskDonnaGunter.com.

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com

Teleseminars are a great way to make some quick cash, or give one of your current offerings a boost in sales. Of course, in order for that to happen, you need to fill them!

Here are 6 ways to fill your teleseminars, each and every time you hold them, even if it’s on the same topic.

1. Your list

The best place from which to fill your teleseminars is your own email list of potential clients and customers.

And just a tip here: People buy when it’s the right time for them, so just because you’ve offered a teleseminar before doesn’t mean that you can’t offer it again - as your list grows, you’ll have a constant flow of new people to offer it to.

2. Use teleseminar listing services

Use whatever listing services are available to you to promote your teleseminars. This is something you can have your virtual assistant do for you as part of your standard marketing procedures for your teleseminars.

Here are some of the ones that are the most effective at filling classes for teleseminars:

a. teleclass.com An offshoot of Coachville, this listing service is mainly focused on the coaches/consultants/personal development market. It’s $39 to list a single class (with one or two sessions) and you must be a certified teleclass leader to do so.

b. seminarannouncer.com This listing service hosts a mix of both personal and professional offerings. It’s free to list a free class. If you want to list a paid class, they will take a small percentage of the fee.

c. niche announcement services Google for announcement services specific to your niche to find other locations where you can list your teleseminar.

d. solo-e.com Directly targeted at solo professionals, your teleseminar must be of value to that market. As a highly targeted listing service, if you are servicing solo professionals, I highly recommend this service (and please tell Terri Z I sent you :)).

e. planetteleclass.com Based on Coachville’s model at teleclass.com, this listing service is free. You can have a featured listing (which means you can have a longer description of your class, a photo, and some other features added) for a small fee.

f. cculearning.com Conference call University hosts this listing service, which has some heavy-hitters in the online world listing their teleseminars, and it’s free.

3. Joint venture with a person of note

To implement this strategy, you’ll want to find someone who already has a following in your niche and who has a specialty that complements your niche, and offer to interview them.

You’ll do all the work (set up the bridge line and recording, write the interview questions, etc.) and they get free exposure. You’ll want to ask them to promote the teleseminar to their list and networks as well, which will help you fill it.

Once the teleseminar is over, they can do whatever they want with their copy of the recording. For example, they can use it as another lead-generating tool or create a paid product from it.

4. Offer teleseminars through associations, organizations, and agencies for free

Contact those groups that are comprised of your target market and offer to hold a free teleseminar as a valuable benefit for their members. They help you fill it by promoting it as one of their member benefits. This is a great win-win strategy to use.

5. Post to discussion lists within your niche, with permission and on the appropriate day

Seek out those forums made up of your target market, join, listen in to the conversation and add valuable comments when you can. If the forum allows a short signature line for your posts, point people to your teleseminar there. And if the forum invites promotions on a certain day, take advantage of that by advertising your teleseminar.

6. Google Adwords - for fresh traffic

Running a Google Adwords campaign will bring fresh traffic to your teleseminars. Create a single page website where the only choice your visitor has is to sign up for your teleseminar, and point your Google ad to that page. This is a very effective way to fill teleseminars.

Now you have 6 very effective ways to fill your teleseminar. Put them into action for each class you hold, and you’ll increase the number of registrants for sure.

Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coach T, founder of ClientAbundance.com and creator of 21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success SystemT, teaches professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com .

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com

I love being a guest on other people’s teleseminars. What I love best is the fact that all I have to do is show up and talk when someone else is sponsoring them. I’m responsible for none of the marketing and promotion and registration involved with sponsoring a teleseminar. Best of all is that I don’t have to schlep all over town to do these guest speaking gigs. I’m presenting my expertise to my target market from the comfort of my own home office.

How can you add a signature teleseminar to your marketing mix? Here’s my 10-step process for creating and profiting from your own signature teleseminar:

1. Create 3 info-packed 50 minute teleseminars. Have at your disposal at least 3 information-packed signature teleseminars that you can present at a moment’s notice. So many of the teleseminars and webinars that I have attended recently are nothing but thinly disguised sales pitches for a very expensive live event, product, or mentoring/coaching program. I don’t object to being sold to — after all, I’m a business owner and I realize that others can’t simply give away their time at no charge solely for the joy of doing a presentation. However, what I do resent is wasting my time listening to 45 minutes of sales pitch and 5 minutes of questionably valuable information. Ensure your listeners great value each and every time that you present a teleclass, and provide information that they use today in their businesses.

2. Craft your description and learning bullet points. Write a one paragraph overview of your teleclass and include 3-7 bullet points outlining what the participants will learn as a result of participating in your teleseminar. Your host will love you, as you’ve just provided the bulk of the text she’ll need to market your teleseminar.

3. Write your bio and have your headshot available. Teleseminar hosts like to begin with a short introduction of the guest and often post the guest bio to their websites or send it out as a part of the teleseminar promotion to their lists. In this version of your bio, craft a succinct description of who you are and what you do that includes any certifications you may hold, authorship of books, and your unique selling proposition. Then provide a very short overview of your background and your current company. The goal is to have a short, compelling bio (around 150 words) that takes the host about 20 seconds to read to introduce you. Include a small version of your headshot and logo to help your host add graphical interest to the teleseminar promotions.

4. Determine your call to action/sales pitch. Prior to the call, determine your most desired action from the participants. Is it to buy a particular product? Sign up for a complimentary consultation? Send for your free gift and be added to your newsletter list? Ideally, you should offer participants the ability to buy into your business at 3 levels: free, low-cost, more expensive. You’ll then have a wider appeal to the audience to capture them at wherever they are in terms of price point. Include your call to action in the promotional emails as appropriate, in your handout, and within your PowerPoint slides. In order to create a sense of urgency, you should set a deadline that falls 24-48 hours after your presentation that serves as the cutoff point for your special pricing offer. If participants are encouraged to register even if they can’t participate on the live call (i.e. all registrants can access a recording of the call), create a special offer available only to those on the live class to increase live participation numbers.

5. Create a landing page on your website for participants. If your call to action involves special pricing on your product or service, create a landing page on your website that greets the participants by name, i.e. Welcome XYZ Conference Participants. Customize your page several more times to refer to the participants by name, and be sure to include the deadline for the special pricing offer in the text of the page as well as in the PS of your sales page. I simply take my traditional sales page and customize it for the group for which I’ll be speaking and update the deadlines for special pricing. In order to make this most effective, you have to remember to remove the sales page on your designated deadline and replace it with a page that indicates the visitor has returned after the deadline but can still purchase your product or service at its regular price.

6. Design a PPT and handouts. Even if I’m doing a teleseminar with no visual component, I still put together a PowerPoint file of my presentation. I provide that to the host if I’m doing a webinar or presenting in an audio conference room. For teleseminars, I turn my PowerPoint file into a PDF that serves as a handout for the participants. I add a first page that contains my contact information as well as resources mentioned during the call and my call to action. Talk to your host to determine if she will be distributing the handout via email or on her website prior to the call or if you need to have it available for download from your website.

7. Determine your guesting requirements. When I’m a guest presenter, at a minimum I request a recording of the teleseminar that I can use in whatever way I want in my business. I may place it on my site as a free download, send it out as a podcast, make it a members-only benefit, or sell it or include it as a part of another product available on my site. If the host is providing a transcript of the session, request a copy of that as well to use in your business. Lastly, inquire if the host is sending out a followup email to participants after the teleseminar. If so, ask to have your contact info and special offer sent to them again.

8. Research venues offering teleclasses and request to be a guest. Most of the invitations I’ve received to be a teleseminar guest have resulted from articles I’ve written in professional and trade publications, from someone visiting the speaking page of my website, or from having been heard speaking to another group. However, don’t wait for people to contact you. Start to research companies sponsoring teleclasses or workshops for your target market and ask to be a guest. In your request, be sure and provide detailed info about the topic on which you’ll be speaking, as well as a copy of your handout. You want to make it as easy as possible for the host to pick you as the next teleseminar guest.

9. Repackage your teleseminar for different markets. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you speak to a different target market. With a few changes in your materials, you can usually change the focus of your presentation and make it appear customized for the target market to whom you’ll be speaking. Many times just changing the title and inserting the name of your target market is all you have to do to create a seemingly customized presentation.

10. Ask for a testimonial to add to your website. Once you’ve completed your presentation, don’t forget to ask for a testimonial from your host that you can place on your website. In order to be valuable to you, the testimonial should include info about how much value you provided in the presentation, sample of positive feedback from participants, or how your presentation enabled some type of change or ability to take action from the participants.

Spend a few hours designing your signature teleseminar and begin to offer to present it to various groups. You’ll see your both your list and sales numbers grow from this easy-to-implement marketing strategy.

Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at OnlineBizU.com . Ask Donna an Internet Marketing question at AskDonnaGunter.com.

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com

- A Strategy for Exploding Your Internet Marketing Results

Teleclasses also called Teleseminars are one of the most powerful ways to build rapport with your target market, establish expert credibility and make your bank account grow!

Combined with Internet marketing methods, teleclasses will allow you to build a list of loyal subscribers who become your life-long customers. Think about how effective you are when you are talking with your clients - it is your warmth, helpfulness, knowledge and interest in helping them that makes them sing your praises and keep coming back for your products and services. Now multiply that response by 100 people or more on a call. You can make money by charging a fee for your teleclass or offer it for free.

Consider recording your teleclass and using it as a bonus gift with other products or services that you sell. Most bridgeline companies offer recording services. Consider having your recorded audio class transcribed into a written document. This can serve as articles for your e-zine or your free report that you give away when someone joins your list.

Teleclasses for Lead Generation

A free teleclass can be extremely effective for building your subscriber list. The free information you provide is not going to send someone shopping for your competitor’s services. Quite the contrary. The fact that you took your time to prepare and present an informational call impresses the heck out of them. They figure out really fast that you know what you are talking about and most importantly, that you really care about them. Just like you want to do business with people you know and trust, they do too. Be sure to give your callers some incentive to join your mailing list. A free report or another call can be a great enticement. Once they join, you have a hot market to get in front of again and again.

Teleclasses for a Fee

Teleclasses can be a product that you sell. You might offer a single class or a series of teleclasses that provide information on a topic of great interest and demand. For example, if you are a financial planner and have hot tips for a plan that allows anyone to retire in 5 years, you are not going to have a bit of trouble getting people on your call. Teleclassses can also be used for motivation or coaching purposes. You can also use them to promote a front end product that allows you to market a more expensive back end product, seminar or service later on.

Free and Low Cost Bridge Lines

At http://www.webpuzzlemaster.com/links-resources.htm you will find companies that provide free and low-cost bridge line services.

Start including teleclasses in your Internet marketing tool kit and watch your sales go through the roof. Don’t be afraid to set yourself apart from others - that is what attracts customers and the media to you. It is what gets you recognized as a leader, an expert in your field and known as the best choice to do business with. Your success on the Internet is all about the marketing.

Online design and marketing specialist, Ruth Kuttler, “the Web PuzzleMaster,” is the creator of “Winning Marketing Secrets” E-zine. Get my FREE SPECIAL REPORT, “10 Simple Secrets for Making your Website into a Selling Machine!” at http://www.WebPuzzleMaster.com/newsletter.htm