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How to Get Leads from Contacts

Chris Darling — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:00:51 +0000

Your website is a great way to market your skills or products, but how do you turn visitors into potential customers? Hint: your best leads are people who contact you. By increasing the number of contacts you receive, you earn leads who you can potentially convert into customers.

Khoa Bui wrote a great article for Entrepreneur titled Making the Most of ‘Contact Us’ to Gather Leads that explains why businesses need to do more than just list their contact information if they want to truly generate leads. Bui offers invaluable information on where to include your contact information on your website and how you can use a call to action or incentive to get more people to supply you with their contact information. The article also has good advice for how to keep people on your website as long as possible and why it is important to thank them after they contact you.

Making the Most of ‘Contact Us’ to Gather Leads provides readers with advice that’s easy to implement. Bui’s advice is simple and direct. If you are not getting enough leads from your website, read this article to learn techniques that will produce results.

How Review Sites Can Help or Hurt Your Business

Chris Darling — Tue, 17 May 2011 13:00:42 +0000

A great website for your local business is a great starting point, but it is only part of what will help you generate sales online. In 20 User Review Websites Critical to Small Business, the author states, “According to an internal analysis of small business search results, Marchex – a provider of small business marketing products – found that more than 80 percent of results did not point to the websites of those businesses. Instead, they pointed to social network results and consumer reviews.”

What does this mean for your business’s website? It means that people are more likely to see reviews and social media comments before they actually visit your website. It is important to manage your company’s reputation and know what people are saying online about your business.

How your website is built is only 20% of your SEO, the other 80% is the off-page optimization that affects how potential customers view your business. 20 User Review Websites Critical to Small Business is the list of important websites you should be monitoring. If you want your website to truly shine on search engine result pages, you need to routinely check for blemishes.

Get More Leads Now!

Chris Darling — Tue, 03 May 2011 13:00:36 +0000

Is your website not generating a great visitor to customer conversion ratio? Do you need a website that works for your business? Well, Dianna Huff’s Blog has some easy improvements you can make in a recent article titled, 57 Things You Can Do Right Now to Improve Your Website.

Dianna Huff has compiled tips from industry leaders such as, Rachel Cunliffe, Derek Edmond, Chris Jaeger, Stephanie Tilton and Jill Whalen as well as some of her own advice to get new business from your website. Many of the tips presented in the article are easy to implement and will produce results in a relatively short amount of time. Huff breaks the tips down into four main categories: Design, Navigation, SEO and Content. Each section is equally important for painting a complete portrait of success for your business’s website.

57 Things You Can Do Right Now to Improve Your Website is a list of business boosting advice that many novices don’t know and some things even SEO experts may forget to implement. Whether you are managing your own site, or you have someone do it for you, this article has good advice for making sure your website appeals to customers.

How to Lead by Being a Follower

Chris Darling — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 13:00:33 +0000

AppreciateLife.com recently posted a great video about how a lone shirtless man dancing by himself starts a movement at an outdoor rock concert. Standing alone make is possible for him to become a leader. The video is called How To Start a Movement (A Fascinating Look at Leadership) and it presents a less traditional perspective on leadership and starting a movement. The video is based on a very simple event, but it shows fascinating insight into what makes a leader and how leaders are created.

It’s not just the person that stands out from the crowd (the leader) that creates a movement, but what’s more important is who follows that person and how momentum builds. Whether you are trying to be a leader in your field, social media or any other endeavor in life, how you treat your followers is crucial to starting a movement. If you really want to be a leader, watch How To Start a Movement (A Fascinating Look at Leadership).

How Hard Do You Have to Work to Be Successful?

Chris Darling — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 13:00:57 +0000

Do you spend a lot of time checking your email? Does it seem like your blog consumes your life? Daily Blog Tips recently posted an article, Interview: 12 Top Online Entrepreneurs Share How Hard They Work, which shares some insights about how online entrepreneurs spend their days.

Just as there is no one route to success, they do not all approach things the same way. Some of them check their email all day long, others block out a couple hours of a day to address emails. The same goes for scheduling too. Some entrepreneurs have a fixed routine; others handle things as they happen.

The author assembled a fantastic group of interviewees such as Darren Rowse, Rand Fishkin, Aaron Wall and more. These men are at the top of the online marketing field and the interview is worth reading for their diverse – and interesting – responses. If you want to learn from some of the world’s top online entrepreneurs, this article is mandatory reading.

Free Ways to Promote Your Local Business

Chris Darling — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:00:58 +0000

Michael Gray, of Graywolf’s SEO Blog, wrote about great post about 13 Ways to Promote your Local Business for Free. Gray’s tips are solid, proven techniques that many online marketers would consider a routine part of good SEO. However, Gray does tailor his advice specifically for the needs of local businesses.

The post is a treasure trove of links and resources such as where to submit free press releases, sites that accept syndicated content, free directories and more. Gray does a great job consolidating a lot of valuable information in a relatively short post. The post is more than just simple tips; it is a reference guide for local marketing.

If you are struggling to promote your local business online, read 13 Ways to Promote your Local Business for Free. After you are done reading, make sure you bookmark the post. You may want to refer back to this post repeatedly until you are satisfied with your business’s online marketing results.

Common Myths About Entrepreneurs Debunked

Chris Darling — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 14:00:28 +0000

Many people have a list of reasons why they should not pursue their entrepreneurial dream. However, what most people don’t know is that many of these reasons are based on common misconceptions. In 9 Common Myths About Entrepreneurs author Gary G. offers hope for those who might be afraid they’re not cut out to be an entrepreneur.

Whether you are worried about not having enough money, timing, or not knowing the right people, the author tackles all these subjects and more. There is no perfect combination for success. Just because popular entrepreneurs may have had similar things in common, it doesn’t mean that these things are a prerequisite for success. For example, having a large start-up fund is helpful, but many people have started with nothing and built their business up to the point where they became profitable.

Starting a new business in an intimidating venture, but it is even scarier if you approach it with a “can’t do” attitude. Gary G. offers solid reasons why you can be an entrepreneur. Not everyone who starts a business succeeds, but the ones who never get started don’t have a chance at all.

Is It Time for You to Transform?

Chris Darling — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:47:19 +0000

David Meerman Scott, a renowned speaker and author of the #1 bestselling book The New Rules of Marketing & PR, recently posted an inspiring article titled Transforming your business and yourself in 2011 at Web Ink Now.

Very few us of have just one skill or talent that is marketable. Just because you have branded yourself as an expert in a certain field or you’ve tailored your business to a key market, there is always room for expansion. The most successful entrepreneurs in the world all share one common trait; they don’t limit themselves to just one venture.

The article not only encourages readers to try their other talents, but also provides real life examples of people who have done it. From the designer who became a comedy writer to the lawyer who became a full time blogger, Scott’s examples encourage readers to start 2011 by adding new bullet points to their curriculum vitae.

The best example in this article is country music star Billy Dean who has built several different businesses using skills he acquired as a singer/performer. If you want to turn you passion into profits, read David Meerman Scott’s article to help supercharge your ideas.

Got Skill? Get Cash!

Chris Darling — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 15:20:35 +0000

You have an idea. You have the skills to make it happen. But, where are you going to get the startup funds to pay for it?

DzineBlog.com has a great article, 10 Tips to Fund Your Start Up Freelance or Internet Business, which is necessary reading for aspiring entrepreneurs. If you are looking for practical advice on how to get money to start your new business, this article gives you ten different ways to make your ambition a reality.

Some people start their new ventures with nothing more than their own savings account. Other aspiring business owners seek out investors who have greater financial means. Whether your goal is a small freelance business or to start your own corporation, the author provides suggestions for finding the right funding as well as tips about the pros and cons of each method.

Money should not be an obstacle to your dreams. The old adage, “Where there’s a will there’s a way” is still true. If you have the talent, the commitment and the ambition, you can find a way to make your goals happen. Read the article for yourself to see how easy bringing your dreams to life can be.

What is Reputation Monitoring?

Chris Darling — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 14:46:26 +0000

Your online brand is important. You need to keep track of what people are saying about you online. Reputation monitoring is crucial to your success. Reputation monitoring involves keeping track of not only what appears in search engines, but what people say about you on social media and other networking sites as well.

Why Reputation Monitoring is Important

In the early days of the World Wide Web, businesses only had to contend with direct feedback on their website. Blogs and other user-input sites were not as prominent, so the results generated by search engines were normally positive. Most results simply pointed to the businesses in question.

As the popularity of interactive and personal sites grew, the ability to manage what internet users see after conducting a search became more difficult. The growth of personal blogs and websites encouraging user participation now gives consumers a broader medium to express their opinions.

What Sites Do I Need to Monitor?

The easiest way to start managing the reputation of your site is to set up Google Alerts with your business name, blog name, and personal name. You will receive daily emails letting you know if anything referring to you has been published. You’ll receive information about traditional websites, Wiki updates, blog posts, directory submissions and more.

Knowing what is being said about you and your website will not only show how you are perceived in public, but it allows you to take swift action if you need to engage in public relations to defend your reputation.

If someone is posting about you on a forum, you’ll have the opportunity to publicly address that person’s complaints. If people are bashing you on high-ranking blogs, you need to create a lot of positive new content and promote it heavily to help push the negative search results off the critical first two search result pages.

Reputation monitoring gives you the capability to improve your relationships while learning more about your potential market and the products and services they are looking for. It is a proactive approach that will help prevent major headaches in the future.