212 The Extra Degree

Sneaky little Internet Marketing Tricks: My personal gripe!

Sneaky little Internet Marketing Tricks: My personal gripe!
We all hate that 7pm unsolicited call from someone trying to earn his or her commission by selling us something we don’t really want. A lot of us have quite funny ways of dealing with it (my husband would put our 2y/o at the time on the phone and say ‘talk to grandpa’ …They would generally hang up the phone before we did!)
And then there are the companies that send their salespeople door to door, often at dinnertime, to deal with the same disgruntled customer that just hung up the phone.
We all know about this, we all hate it and lately I have come across what I think is the equivalent in Internet marketing.
So the first one, which I must say I was guilty of when I first started (but no more) is the unsolicited advertisement in your inbox from a new ‘friend’ or ‘follower’ in Social Media. Sounds a bit like “Hi, would you like to buy something?” Harmless enough but a few lessons in social media etiquette are definitely required! I guess it’s easy to just hit delete and even block them if we want to.
The second is just as harmless, and I think a little more annoying, and that is people responding to my classified add with adds for their own business opportunity. Even though I have ticked the box saying it is NOT OK to contact me for commercial purposes, these advertisements still land in my inbox. There is no face, no proper name and the classifieds site masks the email address. As if I would join someone who behaves like this.
Number three is twitter specific and that is Retweet Hijacking. That is someone retweets you and then adds their URL at the end. I now check the link when someone retweets me. It’s only happened once and I sent an @ reply (public) saying something like “it seems a bit dodgy that you added your own link to my tweet”. I don’t know whether they got the message but it hasn’t happened to me again.
The fourth is the one that really stands out as sneaky and underhanded to me, and that is using my landing page forms as a way to advertise to me. This has happened twice to me in slightly different ways. Most recently someone filled out their email address, requesting more information, so I emailed them as requested, and the response I got was something like “your opportunity looks interesting… have you thought about this one http://www.imstupidurl.com” What the …?
And the most annoying one of all for me was someone clicking on my PPC add, accessing my landing page and writing “it looks like you’re paying too much for your PPC advertising….blah blah http://www.imevenmorestupidurl.com” right there in the ‘any questions’ line. In short, these people made me pay so they could advertise to me!! That deserves a wrist slap I think. Luckily and ironically I had started my education in Google Adwords and so it hardly cost a thing
I reiterate, as if I would join someone who behaves in any of these ways, with whom I have no relationship, and who holds zero credibility in my eyes.
What do you think?

Getting Started in Online Marketing:

Getting Started in Online Marketing:

While it is important to have a well balanced marketing campaign including both free and paid advertising methods, we often start a new home business in response to a lack of funds.
So how do you ‘hit the ground running’ when you have more time than money?
The short answer is social media marketing, but in our haste to get our ‘message’ or ‘pitch’ across we often miss some important steps required for business longevity.
1) Create YOUR brand.
Establish an image that is an honest portrayal of you and a picture of how you want your business to look. (Check out MikesLife for some excellent methods in self-branding)
2) Create a blog reflecting your brand.
Spend some time on this. Remember, on the Internet, your blog is your house. You want people to get a ‘feel’ for you, so as well as relevant articles, add ‘your story’, personal thoughts and some photos. Build your blog off line if you can and publish it when completed.
Free blog hosts include
WordPress.com
Blogger.com
Yola.com
3) Social Networking
Set up accounts in social networking sites basing the look and feel of these sites around your brand. (Do this while you are setting up your blog.) Start building followers at a steady pace and regularly add valuable content to these sites, share yourself and encourage others to do the same.
Social Media Sites include
Facebook.
Twitter
Myspace
There are many of these, have as many as you can maintain.

4) Launch your Blog
This is where it all comes together. Use your social media sites to attract traffic to your blog, put a link to it in your email signature, write a press release send tweets about your valuable content. Do whatever it takes to invite everyone over!
5) Market It
Your Blog is your platform from which to market yourself and your business, so you need to attract visitors. Regularly use your social networking sites to invite people over (remember to have excellent content so they will want to keep coming back!) You can also place free classifieds and submit your articles to other places such as Ezine Articles or GoArticles (there are many of these).

6) Maintain it
Now you have your platform from which you can market yourself and your business, you want people coming back, so add new and valuable content regularly. From now on all your marketing campaigns should point to your blog.
These are the first few steps involved in creating a solid online business on a tight budget.
More information can be found in my free resources section on my blog.
You can also try Building on a Budget by Mike Dillard

Wondering why your online business opportunity is not working for you?

Let me first set the scene…..
You have just joined a business opportunity, excited at the prospect of finally finding financial freedom (all the testimonials tell you so).

You follow all the ‘step by step’ instructions, order your inventory, make a list, and practice your scripts, blah blah. You print off tonnes of flyers (or pay to have them printed) and walk for miles handing them around your local area.
You attend meetings, calls and feel inspired by other people’s stories and how ‘easily’ they sell your products and sponsor new distributors.
But there is a niggling feeling
“I’m doing the actions they told me, why is it not working for me?”

There are a number of reasons why this could be happening.
Firstly, your leaders are probably not telling you the whole truth about two major things.
1) They probably struggled at the start as well.
All the success stories can make you feel behind the ’8 ball’, like you should have had over night success. Remember this is your business and your success lies completely in your hands. Keep your eye fixed on your goal and do what it takes to get the job done. Of course you will have challenges, embrace them, learn from them and move on.

2) They are probably taking different ‘action’.
True leaders will be thinking ‘outside the box’ on lead generation, and marketing techniques and they possibly have a few secrets! There are some excellent free lead generation websites and affiliate programs available. you can join to not only generate free leads but also potentially profit from them.
3) You are probably one of us many who jumped into MLM or even ‘internet marketing’ with little or no marketing or copywriting skills and the marketing training in your business opportunity is probably scarce and outdated. (The marketing world has changed)
The key to overcoming this one is simple. READ. There is a world of information on the World Wide Web, go forth and educate yourself. Read Adds and sales pages, do an Internet marketing course, whatever it takes.
4) And finally, are you feeling the love? Do you have confidence in your industry? In your product? In your self? If you said yes to all three then you probably won’t be reading this article!
Attitude is everything, if you truly believe in your product/bizop and can’t wait to talk to everybody about it (there’s a whole other story there) then keep your eye on that goal, be positive and you will make it.
If you’re feeling shy, embarrassed, or just unable to talk to people about your business then you need to take an honest look at yourself. Are you in the right business for you? Do you truly believe in the products?
If you do then GREAT
You will need to work out a way to talk to people though. Fully automated’ online businesses/ lead generation systems will create a ‘warm’ market for you but you will still have to talk to people.
Don’t worry if you find you’re in the wrong business, do some research and change. Find a business model and product you can be proud of and a system and team that provide open and honest training.
And finally, believe in yourself, visualize massive goals and remind yourself of them every day.

Make this your best day ever
Oh and Have Fun
All the best
Emma

PS Magnetic Sponsoring is one example of a ‘free lead’ generation system.
Details through the link in my Blogroll

Personal Responsibility: Happiness

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Personal Responsibility: Happiness
Happiness is just something we feel isn’t it? …And we can’t help how we feel… can we? Well this might not sit well with everyone, but happiness is actually a choice.
In fact, how we feel everyday is a choice.
Taking full responsibility for our feelings is some of the hardest work we will ever do.
Challenges will continue to face us.
People will always do things we don’t like, or don’t agree with.
We may even be hurt.
It is not what happens, but how we see it that counts.
There is no point in blaming the table when you stub your toe on it. We probably put the table where it is, and chose to walk past it in bare feet.
This is not a case of painting on a fake smile and pretending the challenges are not there, rather riding through them, learning the lesson, taking the appropriate action and moving on.
So why would we hang on to our hurt or anger?
Firstly I believe it’s a way of trying to control someone and holding, them accountable for what “they’ve done to us”.
Holding on to grudges like this hurts us far more than anyone else.
Secondly I think we believe there is some kind of ‘payoff’, an emotional need we may not even be aware of. We often get more attention for being sad, angry, or aggressive or even telling sad stories. (Just look at the news)
A large part of peoples’ identity can be tied up with anger (do you have any aggressive friends) disappointment (we’ve all experienced the complainer) and sad feelings in general. To let this all go and move into happiness is a mighty shift in consciousness.
So what steps can we take to live a happier life everyday?

1 Choose to recognize and receive your good.
Good things happen everyday, we just have to see them and accept them (just as I’m writing this my baby boy comes and gives me the best cuddle…. now that is good)
Someone smiles at you… do you smile back?
A friend offers to buy you coffee… do you accept?
This will be cumulative. The more you see, the more you WILL see!

2 Be Thankful – Start your day in a space of gratitude.
Do you look the Shopkeeper in the eye and say a heart felt Thank You for providing a service to you?
If you are struggling, and finding it hard to be thankful, feel the sun on your face, listen to children’s laughter. The more you are thankful for happy moments in your life, the more happy moments the universe will bring to you.

3 Talk the Talk
When someone asks how you are, what do you say?
Try this BEST DAY OF MY LIFE (thanks JJ)
What are you saying in your everyday conversation? If you find you are complaining, even just sometimes, check yourself and find something positive to talk about.

4 Thought for the day
What are you saying to yourself? Check in regularly to see if your self-talk is lifting you up or bringing you down. What you think about, you attract into your life, so think happy thoughts and create a happy life!

5 Random acts of kindness
Enter your day with a generous heart. Helping others will inevitably make you feel good about yourself.
As my good friend always says ‘Do something good for someone in the knowing they can never repay you, this will start to change this world.

6 Who is your Influence?
What do your friends, family or work colleagues have you doing, watching and talking about? Do they bring you up or down? Decrease the influence you allow them to have on you and become the positive influence in their lives. It is essential to surround yourself with happy, positive people.

7 Never Feel Guilty
Live with integrity, speak from your heart and run an honest business. Realize that everyone else’s thoughts feelings and circumstances are the result of their own choices.

8 Never Fear-This Too Shall Pass
In the face of all your challenges realize this.

Change your mind and change your life …. Today.