How Inbound Marketing Changes the Way Your Entire Company Operates:

The other day, I visited a company to talk to them about their internet marketing strategy, and whether the HubSpot software could help them.

It was only the 4th HubSpot sales call I've ever made face to face and I've personally signed up 200+ HubSpot customers, and have been involved in probably another 100 more.

I had been speaking to the 2 person marketing team for several months, helping them with their SEO and lead generation strategy.

They ran into some roadblocks implementing the product during the trial, as they didn't have the internal resources to do some typically quick and simple things like installing our javascript tracking code, hooking up the HubSpot lead tracking API to exisitng forms, and configuring the HubSpot & Salesforce integration.

We identified a bunch of challenges that our software and methodology could help them overcome. But, it was hard for them to get internal buy-in, in order to demonstrate the value to their team.

Fast forward to the meeting this week, the following people were in attendance.

• Chief Operating Officer
• VP Sales
• VP Marketing
• Marketing Manager
• Product Manager
• Graphic Designer
• Webmaster/Salesforce.com Administrator.

Most of the meeting was about what they were doing now and what challenges they were having. We also talked about their lead generation goals.

Their biggest and most critical challenge was sales growth. The majority of their sales go through resellers, and until recently almost all of their sales were new seats from existing customers. In other words, they didn't really have any internally coordinated sales activities that helped them acquire net new customers. They relied on their channel for growth, but the channel obviously wasn't doing that by themselves.

The Role of the COO

If you've ever worked at any company, you know that when you put a lot of people in the room, it's smart to have someone who can understand how all of the pieces come together, and who can make some decisions. The COO at this company was a sharp guy who kept the meeting focused on what was most important to the goals of the company. This was a highly functional team, and there were only minor points of disagreement, which would actually be more accurately described as intelligent debate.

Nonetheless, at the end, the COO made the decision to move forward with HubSpot and kept the meeting on track. He'll also, of course, be the one to hold his team members accountable to their goals too.

The Role of Sales

This company actually is generating sales leads through their website already. They generate about 100 qualified leads each month that they passed directly to their resellers. They also have a free tool that helped them generate several hundred more email signups per month. Their inside sales team recently started following up with distributors to check the status of leads. They also started qualifying leads for their resellers up front. This has helped them grow their business.

Very recently, they've set new sales revenue targets, and even had monthly lead generation targets.

The problem, however, was that they didn't have a plan for generating those leads without spending a lot of money.

If they changed nothing, the VP sales would probably have a tough few upcoming quarters.

The Role of the Product Manager

The product manager for their main product was also present. He asked extremely good questions about whether and how social media and blogging could really help them attract the right traffic that would convert into leads.

He realized he would have to rewrite much of their content so that it "wasn't talking about how their products were different", but about how they could help solve their prospects' challenges. He realized that his role in inbound marketing would be doing primary research with customers and sharing stories on the blog. He rattled off several really technical new uses that their product was suited for, and how he'd write content about these new uses.

The Role of the Webmaster

This company is somewhat tied to their current CMS, based on custom development that has been done. However, up until now their 600+ pages had the same page title. During their trial, they actually discovered that they could change page titles and meta data. During the trial, they also realized that it was important. Since it's critical they do a really thorough keyword research evaluation before they start this, and because it's going to take a bunch of time and resources to map the keywords to the right pages, then add the keyworrds in the appropriate places, they needed everyone to understand the importance of this. So, we evaluated their competitors keywords, and I demonstrated how to find keywords they can more easily rank for, which will give them the largest amount of relevant traffic.

The COO understood the importance, and so did the webmaster. They agreed to make this a priority.

Their webmaster is also their salesforce admin. He also built an internal lead system which routes leads to the appropriate reseller. We walked through this entire system, and based on their new salesforce.com account and new sales processes, they decided that they would scrap their internal system in favor of a HubSpot-Salesforce integrated process, which provides superior lead tracking, intelligence and closed loop reporting, helping marketing send lead data to sales to help them prioritize sales calls, and helping sales send data back to marketing about which marketing activities were referring leads that became customers.

The Role of the Graphic Designer

In a HubSpot free trial, it's possible to quickly customize the look and feel of our landing pages and blog templates. When someone purchases, we further customize for them. And if they have design and css skills, they can do this themselves. The designer was present and needed to understand why and how this could be done. He needed to understand the technical skills required and the capabilities of the system.

The Role of the Marketing Team

In the past few months, the marketing team has been experimenting with how to attract more traffic and generate more leads. To their credit, they've done a lot with little resources. They started a blog (albeit on a blogspot.com domain), started a twitter account, learned a lot more about seo, started testing out different email marketing approaches, and started to understand the importance of compelling offers, even building a few landing pages for these new offers.

Now, they have a cohesive plan. They have lead generation goals, and a plan to get there. With HubSpot, they'll also have the systems in place to achieve their lead generation targets, as well as analyze and improve their results, at a very granular level.

When they implement all of these changes and strategies, they'll be driving the growth of the company. They'll be building their reach on social media, building their email database more aggressively with their free tool offer, qualifying more of these leads using their blog and email and more advanced compelling offers to nurture and educate their email opt-ins, filling their sales teams piepeline with more qualified leads with more information and intelligence attached, arming their resellers with sales opportunities and ultimately, growing their revenue.

But, they couldn't be doing it without the cooperation, buy-in and support from their entire team, including their COO.

In order to do inbound marketing right, it involves the whole organization. But, unlike any other advertising or marketing before it, it also has the potential to accelerate and control the growth of the company.

It's exciting times for marketers who embrace inbound marketing. This is an opportunity for marketers to lead the growth of their companies. This is an opportunity to apply discipline to marketing, and turn it from a cost to an investment.

Are you getting a measurable and improve-able ROI from your inbound marketing? If not, maybe it's because you don't have all of the right people involved?

By, Pete Caputa

Are You Micromanaging Yourself?

The term micromanager is now so well known that it crops up in even the most casual of workplace conversations. Its popularity is no surprise, given that it's a word you use to blame the other guy: "He's such a micromanager" is tailor-made for whispered complaints around the water cooler or in the break room.

But micromanagement isn't always inflicted by one person on another. You can easily be the unknowing victim of your own masochism. Self-micromanagement is plain hard to see. There's little incentive to recognize it because, after all, who are you going to complain to? Meanwhile, it impedes your ability to get things done, whether you're working for yourself or with a team.

Here's what I do to keep the micromanager within myself in check and, yes, to recognize when it actually offers some value.

1. Don't lose sight of the big picture, even when doing grunt work. The classic micromanager tends to zero in on details right away so that even the best suggestions seem like nitpicking. If you do that with your own work, you'll feel a generalized sense of frustration and, with no one else to cast aspersions at, your work session will turn into a private drudgery. No matter how minor the task you're doing, don't lose sight of its larger purpose. That'll help you not only avoid frustration, but also get the job done quicker.

2. Avoid midstream self-corrections, especially on a first run-through. As I advised in a previous post, your first session on a project should be your longest. In that session, give yourself the chance to experience the entire arc of the endeavor. Don't start tidying a little corner before you've built the basic structure. Just as it's counterproductive for an impatient manager to prematurely yank work back from an employee to clean up details, you'll undercut your own work if you watch yourself like a hawk and swoop in to seize on minutiae before you've finished with the basics. Your own talons may not hurt as much as someone else's, but they draw just as much blood.

3. When you can't delegate whole tasks, delegate microdecisions. Everyone knows that micromanagers have trouble delegating. Of course, certain tasks simply must be done solo, especially if you work for yourself. But there are times when a quick consult with a trusted colleague, even if by email, can help you make a decision about something that would bog you down if your only sounding board was your own brain. Often you just need another quick set of eyes or ears ("Am I on the right track here?"); sometimes you're stuck on a fine point that someone with more expertise could dispense with in a jiffy. Delegation of microdecisions can save you from self-micromanagement.

4. Recognize that microwork has its place. The quality of a project does depend, in part, on getting the small details right so that they don't become obstacles. If your work bristles with tiny imperfections, the micromanaging tendencies of those who receive it may kick in and cloud their ability to see the point clearly. Although you should never lose sight of the big picture at any stage, you must be fastidious about details when that's appropriate. The bad type of micromanagement is often the result of impatience, but the good type requires patience.

Do you micromanage yourself? If so, please do share the masochistic details. If not, what are your techniques for avoiding this often self-destructive tendency -- and for indulging it when appropriate?

Steven DeMaio - Harvard Business Publishing

Why SMB owners should care about SEO?

Your customers are looking for you. Can they find you?

When potential customers have a problem and need somewhere to go, they search for it. They head to their favorite search engine, type what they want and are presented with a list of results Google promises can help them. If you don’t appear in those results, you don’t exist. You miss out on the sale, the branding opportunity and the ability to convert that targeted searcher into a lifelong customer. And that’s the value that search engine optimization (SEO) brings to small businesses. It puts you in your customers’ line of sight and establishes you as an expert.

A lot of small businesses don’t fully understand SEO. They think it’s dirty, that SEOs are snake oil salesmen, that it’s out of their budget, or that it’s something they don’t need to worry about because they’re not a major brand. The truth is, the Internet has changed the face of business and leveled the playing field for everyone. By investing in SEO, you allow your company to show up for those targeted local searches, while also putting yourself in the position to compete with the big dogs.

Here’s what a lot of small businesses don’t realize about SEO.

It’s affordable: Whether you’re doing it yourself or paying someone to help you, SEO doesn’t have to break your budget. Most of your attention will go towards ensuring that your site is set up correctly, that you’re listed in all the appropriate local indexes (which is free and something you can do on your own), and helping to target your site for very specific, locally-based terms. For most businesses, you’re going to find that this process probably isn’t anywhere near as expensive or difficult as you’d imagine. It’s also one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies out there as you’ll continue to benefit from good optimization for years to come. Quite simply, a site that is properly constructed will rank better than a site that is not. And you don’t have to drain your budget in order to pay attention to fundamental SEO.

It means being creative: Small businesses have a huge leg up over larger brands when it comes to their SEO and marketing campaigns. Unlike them, you have a license to be creative. You can take more chances, try things faster and engage easier. Use all of this to your advantage. Launch that Twitter campaign now, experiment with on-page SEO strategies, test different Title tags to see which convert better, do interesting things for links and to create buzz, etc. One of the great advantages to being a small business is that there’s no legal or PR red tape to step though. It makes you more agile and gives you a lot more freedom to do great things and to quickly test what works and what works even better.

It’s effective: You will make back what you invest in SEO. If you can get your local business to show up in Google’s 10-pack, you’re going to greatly increase the exposure, branding and profitability of your Web site. All of the little things that go into local SEO are designed to attract people who are naturally looking for you, to let them know you exist and to make it easy for them to find you. Launching a Web site without worrying about the fundamentals of SEO is like writing a great novel only to hide it on a shelf in your basement. There’s no sense being great if no one knows it. Search engine optimization puts your Web site in front of your customer base.

It’s creates better Web sites: There’s no black magic here. The core of SEO is simply creating great Web sites. It’s about making them content-rich and useful for searchers, while also taking the time to make them accessible and easy to understand to the search engines. That’s the goal of being on the Web and SEO helps you accomplish that. It ensures that your Web site is set up correctly from the very beginning so that it’s naturally a hit to both users and the search engines. It’s about make usable sites. And that’s something absolutely every business can benefit from.

Your competition already is: More and more small businesses are realizing the impact search engine optimization can have on the success of their company. And they’re investing in it. The longer you wait to make that same investment, the harder it’s going to be for you to match their efforts and stay ahead of the pack. When someone in your area heads to Google because a pipe just burst in their home and it’s now flooding with water, they’re going to grab the name of that plumber listed first in Google Local. They’re going to perform a second search or waste time weighing their options. They have a flood and you need to be there immediately.

SEO is no longer something businesses can ignore, regardless of their size.

By: Lisa Barone

Startups: Plan an Exit Strategy Early

Startups: Plan an Exit Strategy Early

If you startup is your dream, why would you want to think about an exit? It’s going to be so successful and so much fun that you don’t need to think about what comes after. Wrong. There are two very real and practical reasons why you need to plan an exit:

• Outside investors want to collect their return. Remember that equity investments are not like loans with interest. The investor sees no return until he cashes out, or the company is sold. Even three years is a long time to wait for any pay check.
  


• Entrepreneurs love the art of the start. Assuming your startup takes off, you will probably find that the fun is gone by the time you reach 50 employees, or a few million in revenue. The job changes from creating a “work of art” to operating a “cookie cutter.”

In three to five years, you will be more than ready to start again, with new ideas and spinoffs that have built up in your brain, and certainty that you can avoid all those stumbles you made the first time around. If your startup was less than a success, you’ll definitely want to wipe the slate clean.

So here are the most common exit strategies and considerations these days for planning purposes:

1. Merger & Acquisition (M&A). This normally means merging with a similar company, or being bought by a larger company. This is a win-win situation when bordering companies have complementary skills, and can save resources by combining. For bigger companies, it’s a more efficient and quicker way to grow their revenue than creating new products organically.
   


2. Initial Public Offering (IPO). This used to be the preferred mode, and the quick way to riches. But since the Internet bubble burst in the year 2000, the IPO rate has declined every year, and is now at about 13% or less. I don’t recommend that approach to anyone these days. Shareholders are demanding, and liability concerns are high.
   


3. Sell to a friendly buyer. This is not an M&A, since it is not combining two entities into one. Yet it’s a great way to “cash out” so you can pay investors, pay yourself, take some time off, and get ready to have some fun all over again. The ideal buyer is someone who has more skills and interest on the operational side of the business, and can scale it.
   


4. Make it your cash cow. If you are in a stable, secure marketplace, with a business that has a steady revenue stream, find someone you trust to run it for you, while you use the cash to develop your next great idea. You retain ownership and enjoy the annuity. But cash cows seem to need constant feeding to stay healthy.
   


5. Liquidation and close. Even lifetime entrepreneurs can decide that enough is enough. One often-overlooked exit strategy is simply to shutdown, close the business doors, and liquidate. There may be a natural catastrophe, like 9/11, or the market you counted on could implode. Make rules up front so you don’t end up going down with the ship.

To some, an exit strategy sounds negative. Actually, the best reason for an exit strategy is to plan how to optimize a good situation, rather than get out of a bad one. This allows you to run your startup and focus efforts on things that make it more appealing and compelling to the short list of acquirers or buyers you target.

Depending on your goals, the type of business you choose and the way you grow it should be aligned with your end-game objectives. Don’t wait till you are in trouble to think about an exit, rather think of it as a succession plan, or a successful transition.

Marty Zwilling
CEO & Founder of Startup Professionals, Inc.; Managing Partner of Southwest Software Ventures & and Consulting; Advisory Board Member for RelGuard, Re:Think, MiraLinx, BoomerJobs, Procure Networks, Twin Cypress Group, and Healthcents

How Twitter Makes You A Better Writer

by Jennifer Blanchard

By now you’ve most likely joined Twitter (and if you haven’t, you need to, pronto!). Twitter is not only a great place for businesses and marketers, but it’s also a great place to spruce up your writing skills.

Yes. You read that correctly.

Twitter can make you a better writer. Here’s how.

Twitter forces you to be concise

If you’ve ever used Twitter, you know that you have 140 characters to say whatever you want to say. Now keep in mind, I didn’t say 140 words—or even 140 letters—I said 140 characters.

That’s not a lot of room. Letters, numbers, symbols, punctuation and spaces all count as characters on Twitter.

What all of this means is, you have to be concise. You have to know exactly what you want to say, and say it in as few words as possible.

Many writers, however, are “wordy” and often have long, drawn out descriptions and sentences, so it can be pretty difficult to create a message that’s only 140 characters.

Here’s where Twitter comes in again.

Twitter forces you to exercise your vocabulary

Since you only have 140 characters to get your message across, you’re forced to dust off your dictionary and thesaurus and find new words to use—Words that are shorter, words that are more descriptive, and words that get the job done in 140 characters or less.

Crafting a message for Twitter requires you to “pump up” your verbs (replacing adverbs and adjectives with them), and discover a better, clearer and more concise way to say what you want to say.

Now most people won’t hit 140 characters right away. No, they’ll end up with 160 or 148 characters to start out with (Twitter tells you how many characters you need to remove to make your message fit).

This is the final way that Twitter makes you a better writer.

Twitter forces you to improve your editing skills

Every writer needs to be able to edit their work. And by using Twitter, you can really hone your editing skills and make them top-notch.

It’s almost like playing a game; trying to write a 140-character message and still get your point across in a way that inspires your followers to take action, to click on your link or to “retweet” your post.

I like to think of it as a brainteaser, forcing me to think hard and dig deep down into my vocabulary to find a way to shorten my message.

I’ve been using Twitter since January, and my writing skills have not only improved, but I’ve been writing better copy as well.

Yet another reason you should be using Twitter. Not that you needed one.

About the Author: Jennifer Blanchard is a creative and effective copywriter. Her blog, Procrastinating Writers, offers writing advice, motivation and inspiration for writers who procrastinate.

10 Big Differences Between MBAs and Entrepreneurs

Almost everyone has heard the amazing stories of small entrepreneurs who have made it big, but for as many of these high-profile situations, there are many more smaller successes that go unnoticed. Entrepreneurs fill society with their pluck and determination to bring their vision to reality. At the same time, there is also a huge number of people working hard to earn their MBA from business schools around the globe in an effort to make it to the top in the business world. While many entrepreneurs have MBAs and have worked hard to achieve success in both education and business, there are people who believe in basic differences between the two sets. Here are ten big differences seen by many to distinguish between entrepreneurs and MBAs.

1. Born, not made. This old adage explains one of the most commonly-held differences between entrepreneurs and those with an MBA. While entrepreneurs typically have a drive and ambition that may also be present in those with an MBA, they usually are willing to take risks in order to succeed that stands them apart from others, and this risk-taking character trait is typically not something that can be taught.
2. Causal reasoning vs. effectual reasoning. According to Dr. Saras D. Sarasvathy, a leader in the researching and teaching entrepreneurship, the difference between entrepreneurs and MBAs lies within the way they reason. According to Dr. Sarasvathy, MBAs gather information about the environments and markets, then make decisions based on what they can control within a situation. On the other hand, entrepreneurs approach decisions with the idea that they can control the situation, and they invoke creative decisions and problem-solving techniques in order to maintain their control over a situation.
3. Knowing the nuts and bolts. MBAs may gain more knowledge to help them to grow or maintain a business’ success whereas an entrepreneur may excel in how to get the business off the ground, but might benefit from what is learned in school to know about finance, marketing, and strategy.
4. Non-conformist. According to research, entrepreneurs are non-conformists. Not only do they want to forge ahead when told they can’t do something, they even take a certain amount of pride in the fact that they do not meet up with set standards. While there are most certainly non-conformists among the MBA set, most people choosing to earn their MBA are embracing what is not only seen as a socially acceptable method of achieving success, but one held in high esteem.
5. Adaptability. While MBAs learn how to create and implement solid business plans, successful entrepreneurs usually rely on a large amount of adaptability to keep their ideas going in the right direction. Good entrepreneurs learn to recognize when their original ideas may need fine tuning or when they might need to take a completely different path to achieve their goals.
6. Willingness to fail. While no one wants to fail, entrepreneurs who experience failure (and that is usually quite a few), learn from their experiences and keep moving forward. MBAs can and do as well, but the basic structure of school is that you succeed. Failing several classes will certainly result in no longer being a part of the program when working for an MBA, but the same can’t be said of entrepreneurship.
7. Security. For many, the goal of getting an MBA is to secure a good job and achieve success in the business world. Achieving success in this manner is much safer than the goal of many entrepreneurs, which is to obtain the same success in business, but without safety net of security. Entrepreneurs may risk their time, energy, and savings to reach a goal that may or may not materialize. For most graduates with an MBA, especially if it is from a top-tier school, landing a good job after graduation is much less risky.
8. Belief in their dreams. Entrepreneurs are well known for following their dreams even, and maybe especially, in the face of adversity. While MBAs also have goals and aspirations, theirs are usually more down-to-earth, such as graduating and securing a good job or becoming CEO of a company. For entrepreneurs, they may be holding on to a dream that seems crazy to others yet they believe fervently has potential.
9. Learning to learn. The business school experience can teach you how to learn. More than just listening, preparing to learn by having a solid baseline of knowledge from which to start, that can come from business school, will eliminate any wasted time getting up to speed when learning from peers and mentors alike. Additionally, getting to know professors and learning about what impassions them can deepen the amount and quality of what is learned. Entrepreneurs can still gain the ability to learn how to learn, but it may not be synthesized into such a short amount of time.
10. Create the future. According to John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan in their book, The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World, entrepreneurs create the future by developing and communicating a clear vision of the future as they see it based on, sometimes, years’ worth of thinking about that vision. While MBAs frequently have insight to what can make a business successful, the entrepreneur typically relies on a type of insight that isn’t taught in school and is created specifically from the vision within.

Article posted on Selectcourses.com

Mind Management

Expand your comfort zone to increase your wealth.

T. Harv Eker June 1, 2009

If you challenge your mind to expand your comfort zone, you will naturally expand your wealth zone. By striving to grow your comfort zone, you are constantly taking risks and finding more opportunities, ideas, actions and growth than you ever imagined. The bigger your “container,” the more income and wealth you will attract and hold. Challenge yourself to constantly make your container larger, and watch the universe rush to fill the space.

What is the single most important skill you can master to increase your happiness and success? Training your mind.

How do you train your mind? Start by observing your thought process. If you are like most people, your mind continuously produces both empowering thoughts, such as those that lead to success, and disempowering thoughts, including those that don’t support your wealth and happiness. As you identify your thoughts, you need to begin consciously replacing your disempowering thoughts with empowering ones. In doing so, you will begin adopting empowering attitudes as your own. Start by making declarations to yourself, such as “I act in spite of fear,” “I act in spite of doubt” and “I act in spite of inconvenience.”

Believe it or not, you can choose your thoughts and control your mind. You have the natural ability to cancel any thought that does not support you. You can also install self-empowering thoughts at any time by choosing to focus on them.

At one of my seminars, Robert Allen, a close friend and bestselling author, said something quite profound: “No thought lives in your head rent-free.”

What he meant is, you pay for your negative thoughts in money, energy, time, health and happiness. If you want to move to a new level in your life quickly, begin by dividing your thoughts into two categories: empowering and disempowering. Observe them, and determine if they are supporting your happiness and success. Choose to entertain only the empowering thoughts, and refuse to focus on the disempowering ones. When a nonsupportive notion comes to the surface, replace it with a more supportive way of thinking. I call this process “power thinking.” And mark my words, if you practice it, your life will never be the same.

So, what is the difference between power thinking and positive thinking? The distinction is slight, but profound.

People use positive thinking to pretend that everything is rosy when they really believe it is not. With power thinking, though, we understand that something is neutral until we assign it meaning by creating a story.

"You have the natural ability to cancel any thought that is not supporting you."

This is the difference between a positive thinker and a power thinker. A positive thinker believes their thoughts are true. Whereas a power thinker recognizes that their thoughts are not true, but since they are making up a story anyway, they might as well make up a story that supports themselves. Why do we do this? Not because our new thoughts are true in an absolute sense, but because they are more useful to us and feel a heck of a lot better than nonsupportive ones.

Observe yourself and your thought patterns, and entertain only the thoughts that support your happiness and success. Challenge that little voice in your head whenever it tells you, “I can’t” or “I don’t want to” or “I don’t feel like it.” Don’t allow this fear-based, comfort-based voice to get the better of you. Make a pact with yourself that whenever the little voice in your head tries to stop you from doing something to support your success, you will do it anyway to tell it that you are the boss. Not only will you increase your confidence dramatically, but eventually, the voice will get quieter and quieter as it recognizes it has little effect on you.

Particularly during economic downturns like this, it is crucial that we change our pessimistic thoughts into empowering ones and stretch our comfort zones to attain and hold more wealth. We must constantly choose to remain positive and not let disempowering thoughts take hold, regardless of what the media says about the global economy.

Practice getting out of your comfort zone by consciously making decisions that will make you uncomfortable. Talk to someone you would normally avoid, ask for a raise at work or try something that scares you.

Living a mediocre life does not lead to happiness. Constantly wondering what could have been does not lead to happiness. What does lead to happiness is living in our natural state of growth and reaching our full potential.

The next time you are feeling uncomfortable, uncertain or afraid, press forward instead of retreating. Experience the feeling of discomfort and accept it for what it is—a feeling. Recognize that a feeling does not have the power to stop you. Push on, and eventually you will reach your goal.

The point, however, is not whether or not those feelings of discomfort eventually subside. If they do lessen, take it as a sign that you need to increase your objective because the minute you get comfortable, you have stopped growing. Managing your mind to live at the edge of your comfort zone will allow you to grow and reach your fullest potential.

Because humans are creatures of habit, we have to practice. Practice acting in spite of fear, in spite of discomfort, in spite of inconvenience. By doing so, you will quickly move to a higher level, and your wealth will almost certainly increase.

The mind is a powerful tool, but it is also the greatest soap-opera scriptwriter in history. It creates powerful stories based on dramas or disasters that have never happened and likely never will. As Mark Twain said, “I’ve had thousands of problems in my life, most of which never actually happened.”

It is important to remember that you are not your mind—you are much bigger and more powerful than your mind alone. By learning to train it, though, you can conquer your fear, expand your comfort zone and dramatically increase your wealth.

T. Harv Eker is an author, success trainer, and founder and president of Peak Potentials Training. His books include the No. 1 New York Times Best-Seller Secrets of the Millionaire Mind and the international best-seller SpeedWealth. He also offers the Millionaire Mind Intensive, a three-day seminar that helps people take control of their minds and nurture self-empowering thoughts.

9 Ways People Respond to Your Content Online

Blogs and Twitter have almost eliminated any barrier to publishing. You have an idea and in a few minutes your thoughts can be online. Think about it – with every person thinking about more than 50,000 thoughts a day, producing online content can be simple.

Maybe. But simply churning out meaningless content does not guarantee that others will read what you write. Make this mistake and people will read what you write and write you off.

What’s the alternative?

Use your creativity to generate content that will inspire and transform the lives of the audience in a positive way. Remember that it costs time (and indirectly – money) for your audience to read what you write. And, they expect a good return for that investment.

You will know whether you are succeeding in influencing your audience in a positive way because the audience will tell you. No, maybe not directly but by the way they respond to your content.

So, here are the nine ways your audience will respond to your online content:

1. Spam: If your content does not provide a reasonable ROII (return-on-investment for an interaction) for the reader or is self-serving or simply useless, the reader will mark it as spam. Posting something that may be assessed, as “spam” is the fastest way to losing credibility.
2. Skip: The reader makes an assessment that he or she won’t lose much by reading it. In this case, the reader has not written you off yet but if you consistently create content that is worth “skipping,” the reader might write you off.
3. Scan: The reader thinks there are only a few parts that are of relevance and wants to get right to the core of the content and skip the rest.
4. Stop: The reader is touched by the article and stops to think about the article, it’s relevance and what it means to him or her personally and professionally.
5. Save: The content is so good that the reader might want to re-visit this multiple times.
6. Shift: The article is transformational. The reader is so deeply affected (in a positive way) by the article that it shifts some of their values and beliefs. In other words, this piece of writing will transform the reader and make him or her grow.
7. Send: The content is not only useful to the reader but also to one or more people in the reader’s network. The reader simply emails the article or a link to it to people that he or she cares.
8. Spread: The reader finds the article fascinating enough to spread it to anyone and everyone via a blog, twitter or the social networks that he or she belongs.
9. Subscribe: This is the ultimate expression of engagement and a vote of confidence that you will continue to provide great content. When the reader wants to continue listening to your thoughts, he or she will subscribe.

Finally, here are a few things to consider before you post your next online content:

1. Understand Your Audience

Unless you are writing something for your private consumption, your audience should be the center of the focus and not you. The more you know about your audience, the better you can connect with them. Think about:

• Who is your audience?
• Why are they reading what you are writing?
• What are their concerns in general and what are their concerns NOW?

2. Check Your Objective

Some questions to think about:

• What is the purpose of your article?
• What assessment do you want the reader to create by reading your article?

3. Unleash Your Creativity

You know the audience and you know the purpose of the article. Now the next step is to unleash your creativity and create something that will generate the kind of response that you are looking for.

Some questions to think about:

• What would be unique (content, point-of-view etc.) in this article that will make the audience do what I want them to do?
• How can you make this article “extremely relevant” to the current times?
• What can you include that will increase the “longevity” of the article?

4. Learn from Feedback

You already know the nine ways that people respond to your online content. When people act the way they do, they are providing you valuable feedback. Keeping your emotions aside, learn from the feedback and incorporate this learning into your next article.

With social media being the biggest craze, how many of you sit in front of your computer and hit the refresh button on facebook and twitter? You will keep doing this until you find something that cathes your attention. Better yet how do you catch someones attention with so much information for people to chose from. Here is an article I feel will help you grad the attention of your target market.

How to Write Copy for
Short Attention Spans

by Sherice Jacob

No matter how gripping your sales copy is, it’s an unfortunate fact that the majority of people will only read the first few lines of it. Does that mean all the effort you poured into the perfect call to action is wasted? Not at all! But in today’s fast-paced world of communication, less really is more.

Taking into account that many people will be reading your copy from a mobile device or skimming after a quick search, it’s worth breaking up larger thoughts into small, mentally-digestible “chunks” for easy, quick scanning.

Begin With the Action in Mind

Many copywriters go about the process in reverse - filling up the valuable top left space with lofty promises no one really cares about and then spend the rest of the page getting to the product or service that’s going to bring the eventual offer.

While this type of approach is great for harnessing your long-term readers, you don’t want to alienate the visitors who are judging your site’s relevance for the first time. Some people, when they’re confronted with a long sales page, will skip right to the bottom to find out the cost, then jump right back up to the top if they feel it’s worth their time (are you nodding your head, too?)

So how do you attract the quick browser and convince them that your page is worth their time while appealing to the more serious reader who’s in it for the “long haul”?

So What?

One of the best exercises I’ve ever done to help with this process is to continually ask myself “so what?” Whittle down your copy to the raw benefits that directly engage your readers:

“XYZ company can save you up to $500 on your car insurance by helping you get a free quote online” - So what?

“Put an extra $500 in your pocket today” - Now I’m listening!

You don’t have to forego imagination for the sake of clarity either. There are some products where using the right word can make all the difference while still condensing the overall message - like so:

“XYZ chocolate makes a terrific gift. Order now for great savings and fast shipping” - So what?

“Get sinfully delicious chocolate delivered right to your door.” - I’m interested!

Strategic Chunking Retains Readers

Take a closer look at your pages - especially the very first paragraph. How can you condense and filter your message to attract the casual browser and convince them to stay? Are you making good use of headlines, sub-headlines, photos and captions? Does your call to action really call them to act or is it buried under heaps of text?

Try “chunking” your message and test it on your audience. You may be pleasantly surprised at how many more people stick around to keep reading!

For the last couplf of years I have been advocating that blogging is a very important and essential way to market your company. If you don't believe me please read the article below on how and why small business owners should be blogging their way to success.

How to Blog Your Way to Small-Business Success
It seems like everyone has a blog these days—but most business owners don't. They should
By Matthew Bandyk

It might seem like everyone has a Web presence—a blog or a Facebook page—but that certainly isn't true for small-business owners. Only about 41 percent have their own interactive websites, according to a 2008 survey by small-business advisory service Warrillow & Co. So, if folks can't even manage the E-commerce basics, a blog is probably low on their priority list.

To some business owners, blogging can seem less worthwhile than a website because of some bloggers' reputation for being self-absorbed and trivial. "I associated [blogs] with pretentiousness and blowhards," says Justin Kenagy, an Atlanta-based cofounder of Onyx Consulting, a computer services firm with 15 employees.

But Kenagy's tune changed once he actually gave blogging a shot and began updating his own last year. He quickly found it a great way to drive Internet traffic to his business's Web page and get more people to notice Onyx. Blog-generating services like Typepad or Wordpress automatically format blogs in such a way that search engines can pick up on words and phrases. And, of course, the more you update , the better chance you have of turning your blog into a must-read site. For those reasons, "a blog gives a small-business owner the ability to show up much higher in the Google rankings than any kind of static website," says John Jantsch, a blogger since 2002 and author of the Duct Tape Marketing Blog.

Getting Google hits can be a marketing plan in and of itself, simply because so many potential customers turn to Google before anything else when looking for a service. "Small businesses are starting to understand that people don't come to your main Web page. They ask Google," says Chris Brogan, who has blogged since 1999. His blog, about social media and business, is in blog tracker's Technorati top 200 on the Web.

But blogging can be a time sinkhole. Joel Libava, a Cleveland entrepreneur who runs his own franchise consulting business, started the Franchise King blog four years ago. He says that only in the past year has he noticed a big impact from his blog writing. All that typing finally paid off. "As opposed to going out to seek franchise candidates, I found that they seek me now," Libava says.

So how does a busy small-business owner make sure the valuable time or she spends blogging isn't going to waste?

1) Be a reader of blogs. Blogging has its own unique language that is different from other forms of writing. To understand how to speak that language yourself, it helps to regularly follow at least a few other blogs. Find blogs in your areas of interest by searching for them with Technorati or Google Blog Search. Becoming a fan of blogs paid off for Libava because it gave him plenty of places to post comments—which directed people to his blog.

2) Don't stress about it too much. Even though being a successful blogger takes work, trying to do too much can be almost as bad as never updating your blog. "I see a lot of people struggle that they have to write 700-word feature articles," explains Jantsch. "A lot of people who have that mentality never get down to writing the thing." Jantsch recommends short, breezy, and conversational posts. He thinks that posting three to five times a week is adequate.

3) Don't do adspeak. Even if you're blogging to promote your business, you can't seem like you are only interested in promoting yourself. That is a big turnoff in the blogosphere. A better way to approach blogging, Brogan recommends, is to give the readers what they want: useful, specialized information that comes from your own experience. Business owners who deal with practical issues every day are in a unique position of knowledge to write top-10-style "how-to" lists. That format often gets a lot of attention on the Web.

4) Tell a story without ranting. Many blogs on the Internet have a personal diary-like quality to them, where the author keeps a daily track of what's going on in his or her life. It can be good to add a personal touch to your blog about your business topic because it humanizes you and might make the reader more interested in your business. But don't overdo it. Long rants about personal subjects will get in the way of conveying the information that makes you sound like a credible source—which is why most business people start blogging in the first place. "Let people know enough about you to connect," recommends Jantsch.

5) Keep it simple with search engine optimization. That's the term for getting the most out of Google searches for your site. There are countless ways to figure out how to make your blog more search-engine friendly. But trying to know everything about it is almost a second job. "That's probably something that it wouldn't be in the best interests for a small-business owner to know how to do inside out," says Brogan. Just do the few things that matter the most for search engines. A biggie is prominently using phrases that will cater to the potential customers searching for you. "I guarantee that people in town are going online first to find products and services," Jantsch says. So if you're blogging about plumbing and you are based in Buffalo, don't just blog about "drain clogs": Write about "drain clogs" and "Buffalo." Another easy thing to do is to insert links to other pages in your posts, which also makes Google searches more likely to find you.

Internet Marketing Ethics:

There have been long and loud complaints about spamming. As with telemarketing calls, many consumers are frustrated with being forced to deal with so many unwanted messages. Is this an ethical issue or simply a practical matter? Either way, the marketing team must assess the viability of spamming programs.

At a more dramatic level, cookie technology allows a website to look into consumers' computers to see which sites they have visited. Is this ethical? Should an Internet company be allowed to gather this information? Should the company be allowed to sell the information to other companies? Answers fall into two categories: (1) Legal and (2) Moral. While it may still be legal to collect and transfer consumers information in this manner, the ethical issue remains.

What has really surprised me while I was reading some days ago about the numerous ways these companies are using to bluff the consumers in order to make few bucks. One way for instance is that you start getting all these disturbing commercial emails which you do not know anything about to your inbox. Most of these emails will mention in the bottom something like - - If you do not wish to continue receiving further emails from us please click on the following link to unsubscribe - - . Then you proceed and click on the provided link to stop receiving these emails. However, when you go to check your inbox the following day; you see the number of junk or spam emails have been doubled or perhaps triple.

This is one of the several non ethical techniques such companies use to trick Internet users or consumers. In reality when you click on those links to unsubscribe; you will actually confirm to this company that you email address is valid and you are checking it regularly. As a result, your email address will be sold to other companies because it is an active one which means more spam and unwanted emails. In this case, the best thing you can do is to ignore those types of emails and avoid clicking on any links they provide in the content.

Marketing professionals will continue to face the need for quality information. They must balance this need with the ethical ramifications of invading privacy rights and customer sensibilities. Failing to do so may have long term implications for both the company and those who use the Internet to shop for products and services.

Marketing for Less: Cost Efficient Marketing Tactics in Tough Times

For the small business owner, these tough economic times are forcing them to take pause. Are they doing everything they can to reach existing and new customers? Perhaps they think they can’t afford to do more. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are many broad-reaching (and free) marketing tools currently available such as Twitter, community Toolbars, Facebook, Ning social networks, blogs, etc. that enable companies to market to the masses, with a personal touch - and at little to no cost. Gone are the days of massive direct mail - with both its expense and impersonal approach. These new technologies are useful in a genuine, approachable and real way and they make a direct connection between a company and its users.

Included below are several examples of some free social networking tools that any small business can adopt with ease. Read on to learn how some organizations are cross-pollinating their online marketing efforts and connecting with more customers in more meaningful ways.

Community Toolbars

Services such as Conduit’s marketing platform enable anyone to build a community toolbar at no charge. These branded toolbars work in any web browser and can be equipped with pretty much anything you can put on a website: software/applications, RSS Feeds, video, chat, Twitter gadgets, games, radio, and more. Just like the big guys, such as Google and Yahoo, any web publisher can now put their brand right in the browser, creating a very persistent reminder and offering a major convenience for users.

These are different than the iFrame toolbars, such as those deployed by Facebook, Digg and YouTube. Framing (”wrapping” other people’s content) has been criticized for entrapping visitors and hijacking websites. In short, iFraming has some good benefits, such as allowing for easy content sharing, but mostly the benefits are for the framer and they create a lot of pain points for users and other site owners. Community toolbars, however, have been very successful for thousands of publishers and millions of users because they are truly convenient, but not intrusive.

Facebook Groups

By setting up a Facebook Group, organizations can further promote brand presence, share news and events with the group members and also offer a place for discussions. There are now thousands of applications available on Facebook that make it easy to go “viral” with your stuff.

Twitter

Recently, SMBCEO covered Twitter in an article called Free Twitter Buttons and Icons. For some organizations, Twitter is a great opportunity to have one-to-one conversations with followers. It’s also a means to publicize specials or promotions and drive people to a company website or blog or another online presence.

Ning

Ning lets you create social networks. The service is completely free and anyone can create a customized social network of their own. Social networks are perfect for communities that want a lot of interaction. Like Facebook, there are also thousands of applications available on the Ning platform that can help you share content and applications among users.

These are just a few of the many social networking tools available to anyone and everyone. Smart small businesses aren’t doing away with their marketing initiatives, they are just thinking differently about them now. Rather than waiting for customers to come to you, using social networking tools provides a means to go where your customers are and actively engage them. Whether it’s through the creation of your own social networking site using Ning, setting up a Facebook Group, creating a branded community toolbar, using Twitter or a combination of all, you can make a big impact with little to no budget. Get started now!

Can Social Networking Be The Key To Long Term Internet Success?

A plan to continue to purchase Internet traffic for the rest of your life is not a workable plan for the long haul. If you goal is to achieve long term success online then this article on social networking is a must read.

Social networking use to apply mostly to businesses such as multi-level marketing. As a matter of fact it has become known as network marketing because successful business owners were the ones who could network with other people to build their business.

On the Internet today social networking has become a must do activity to achieve long term success. Going to a website to purchase something is not something people want to do. Today people expect to go on a blog and be entertained before they actually open their wallet and pull out their credit card.

The most successful Internet marketers have blogs that entertain their visitors through the use of videos, audios, comment boxes, polls, pictures, graphics, banners, and much more. You yourself probably have landed on a blog that you found extremely interesting and entertaining.

Blogging is one of the most profitable forms of social networking. Professional Internet marketers that learn how to blog successfully are making astronomical sums of money on the Internet today.

However you can still make money in other ways using social networking. For example you can join Facebook and create a profile that includes a website address for products you sell.

The number of people you interact with on Facebook can be increased by becoming active and seeking people out. This can be as simple as inviting them to join your group. This is a very passive way of selling products because people who get to know you will also get to know about what you do to make money online.

Today Twitter is probably the hottest social networking site on the Internet. If you follow people with common interests they will often follow you back. The larger your number of followers increases to the more potential you have to market to that list.

Not selling all of the time in the micro-blog posts you make is the real trick. The trick is to get to know people and build relationships with them. Then when you have something to offer, in the form of a new product or program, a certain number of people will want to check those out because you already have credibility with them.

Over time having a large list of people you associate with online makes social networking a big part of your long term success.

YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUMMER CAMP 2009

In continuation from my last post and just to prove to everyone that it is never too early to start please see the link/post below. I would like to thank Dan Martell for posting this link so I may share with you. This is great opportunity and wish I could have done this when I was younger.

Youth Entrepreneurship Summer Camp is Back!

Youth Entrepreneurship Camp is a 5-day camp that teaches youth about starting their own business by helping them open, operate and close their own company for a day. Campers learn how to develop an idea, plan and organize their thoughts into a business plan, how to make their product and then have the opportunity to sell their products to the public in a marketplace at the end of the week.

Youth Entrepreneurship Camp gives all campers a start up loan (maximum $20 per company) to purchase the materials and supplies they need to make their product. At the end of the marketplace, students will pay back the loan anything beyond that is pure profit for the camper!

To download the Youth Entrepreneurship Summer Camp schedule or a registration form click here

Contact Enterprise Fredericton for more information at 444-4686 or online at Enterprise Fredericton.

Tune in tomorrow for some more great tips and info!!!

All the best,

Josh

Starting a Business, If he can do it, you can do it!!!

Many people as of late have been asking me a lot about how to start a company. "How can I make more money? Where do I start? How do I start a business? I don't know anything about starting a business." There are a few key points I would like to get across...

1) The first thing I ask the person is WHY? Why do they want to start a business? What is the motivation, and where does the passion come from? Anyone can own their own company or business; they just have to have the drive and motivation. When they fail they get back up and try again and again and again.

2) The key to a successful business is to have a group of peers who have done it before to look up to. This is also known as a mentor (or group of mentors). Someone who has failed and learned from his/her mistakes. Have a team, you CANNOT do it yourself.

3) Always be SELLING!!! 60%-80% of your day should be focused on marketing and sales. Don't get lost in administrative work; this does not make you or your business money.

I recently came across an interview of a 15 year old  entrepreneur and I thought to myself, if he can do it why can't anyone do it? It's pretty amazing what you can do with a little bit of motivation and hard work. This 15 year old proves that anyone can run a successful business with a little passion and some fundamental tools. Please see below for the interview.

Interview is courtesy of www.yourhiddenpotential.wordpress.com






Hi Benjamin and welcome to your hidden potential. I would like to thank you for giving us this opportunity of hearing your entrepreneurial insights.

First of all before we get into the real good stuff, tell us a little about yourself?

Hi, thanks for this opportunity. I’m Benjamin Lang, 15 year old sophomore, and I recently returned from a year in Israel. I do eBay and craigslist selling, (ebayben.com) web design (ben-lang.com) and teen entrepreneur consulting (teenbizstarter.com).

I hear you’re running three businesses, right? Tell us about how it all started, from the first business?

last year my grandfather gave me a large amount of camera equipment to sell. It was a hard job but it paid very well. So I decided that maybe I could sell other peoples stuff and make even more

How did you come up with the idea, I mean, there are people who already sell items for people on ebay itself, were you not discouraged by this?

I was not discouraged because I know that it’s only temporary. It’s just the start, I’ll start making innovative companies soon

What are the ups and downs of being 15 and running a business? Do you think a lack of experience plays a part here?

the upside is that I could say that I started a business at 15 whereas most people wouldn’t be thinking of this type of thing for many more years. The downside is that people are less willing to deal with me because I am younger than the average business owner and I am less experienced…

After you got you EBay business up and running, what provoked you to start a business in web design?

I decided to make my own website, while doing so I learned a lot, which gave me the idea of doing web design too.

How do you go about promoting and advertising your businesses? Do you do this across all your businesses?

I use craigslist, twitter, Facebook, flyers and paid local adverting. I find that craigslist is the best because it provides better results plus its free.

So you are also providing help for other teenagers trying to succeed in business, how’s this coming along?

this business isn’t working as well but its enjoyable. I have “new” teen entrepreneurs contact me with questions, and we usually end up chatting on skype. I do it so I could add them to my network.

How important has networking been for you and for business itself?

Very very very important. I was inspired by a friend of mine who recommended a book to me, dig a well before you are thirsty. That’s when I understood how crucial networking is.

I see you are using twitter, how well of a business tool has this been for you?

I joined twitter not long ago and have been very impressed by it. It’s a great tool for driving traffic to a site, for example I once twitted “any feedback on my web 2.0 site ben-lang.com?” the next day I checked Google analytics and I had much more views than usual.

Being young and all, running three businesses must be time consuming, does it take up alot of your time?

Yes it does take up a lot of time. I manage time well though, by doing homework during free time in school and doing business at home so it all works out.

Are you still at school?

Yes I am, I go to a private school in manhattan.

Do you think school has helped you in any way prepare for running a business?

No, no and no. I’ve never learned anything useful in school about starting a business. Its very unfortunate for others who haven’t learnt about this topic.

So what are you future plans? What’s the next level for you?

My plans are “entrepreneurish” I just want to work on random projects that can become successful and hopefully make a name for myself as an entrepreneur.

Ok, so finally, Benjamin what advice would you give for young aspiring entrepreneurs out there like yourself?

NETWORK and NEVER GIVE UP.

Thanks Benjamin it was a pleasure to have you with us and be able to do this interview.

Before we leave you, is there any way people interested in your line of business or seeking advice could contact you?

www.ben-lang.com
www.twitter.com/entrepreneurpro
b@langonline.com

How to Be a Better Writer in the
Next 10 Minutes

by Steve Errey

Wanna be a better writer?

Wanna do it quickly and painlessly?

Here’s how in 4 steps.

1. Step away from the keyboard. Take a walk, put on some music, even do the dishes, whatever. Just get 10 minutes of you time.

2. Look into your head for all the things you’re saying to yourself that are making writing harder than you want it to be.

Are you doubting that your idea is good enough? Are you thinking that you don’t know where you’re going with it? Are you telling yourself that nobody will read or “get” what you’re writing? Are you telling yourself you don’t have what it takes to be a decent writer?

Take a good look and go as far as writing down the things you’re telling yourself.

3. Look at the opposite position, and find real world evidence to support it.

If you doubt that your idea is good enough, put yourself into the position that your idea is plenty good enough – and then find genuine reasons to support that. You’re fired up about the idea, you have a unique insight or you’ve seen people talking about it so know that people will connect with it, for example.

If you’re thinking that you don’t know where you’re going with your writing, take the position that you know where it’s heading or that it’s okay to not know exactly where it’s going. Then look for evidence in your experience to support that, such as:

• You’ve written great pieces before, and this is no different.
• You’ve done your research so you have just what you need to write a coherent piece.
• You know that you start writing knowing 50% of the content, and find that the rest comes to you as part of the writing process.

This isn’t about making things up to make yourself feel better. This is about finding genuine evidence, based on your own experience, that gives more space in your head for the reasons why you can than the reasons why you can’t.

4. Give yourself permission to write how you write.

It’s a safe bet that you’re your own worst critic, but placing your confidence in the things that critic tells you is not going to make you a better writer. Quite the opposite, in fact.

By finding real reasons that support you in writing things your way you can let yourself off the hook, and that frees you up to write some great stuff.

Place your confidence in the reasons you can write great work, and just watch what happens.

About the Author: As a leading confidence coach with clients right around the world, Steve Errey has a reputation for talking sense and getting results. Get more from him at The Confidence Guy.

Welcome,

I would like to welcome everyone to my Blog. It has been a while since I have done anything on here, but stayed tuned as I will be posting some interesting article and links.

Come back soon,
Josh