Friday, July 18, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Online Credibility - the Power of Google Search
"For more information about me, just Google me." When people google you, what will they find?
Someone else's opinion of you or your products will always hold more authority and trust than you bragging about yourself. By having the courage to tell people to Google you, you allow them to read about you from the perspective of other people, and assuming you don't have anything career-ending in your past, this is be a great way to get the trust you need to convince a prospect to give you some of their time. Google search results do build credibility, so if you're experienced and credible online, the search engine results for your name should help tell your story in a very compelling manner.
For my name, Marilyn Swanson, I'm fairly satisfied with the results. I've been an active participant on the web for some time, so that does help. Having a not too common name also is helpful and all the others with the same name as myself appear to be very successful also.
For a very common name, like Jane Smith or John Jones, one has to come up with a creative title...such as Jane 'Surfer' Smith(if she has an internet business) or John 'Junkman' Jones (if he owns a remove-it-yourself auto parts place).
With this in mind, what do YOUR search engine results look like? Are you comfortable pointing your prospects to Google for confirmation?
Someone else's opinion of you or your products will always hold more authority and trust than you bragging about yourself. By having the courage to tell people to Google you, you allow them to read about you from the perspective of other people, and assuming you don't have anything career-ending in your past, this is be a great way to get the trust you need to convince a prospect to give you some of their time. Google search results do build credibility, so if you're experienced and credible online, the search engine results for your name should help tell your story in a very compelling manner.
For my name, Marilyn Swanson, I'm fairly satisfied with the results. I've been an active participant on the web for some time, so that does help. Having a not too common name also is helpful and all the others with the same name as myself appear to be very successful also.
For a very common name, like Jane Smith or John Jones, one has to come up with a creative title...such as Jane 'Surfer' Smith(if she has an internet business) or John 'Junkman' Jones (if he owns a remove-it-yourself auto parts place).
With this in mind, what do YOUR search engine results look like? Are you comfortable pointing your prospects to Google for confirmation?
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Make Personal Branding work for you
Starting a business can not be done on four hours a week. Growing a business can not be done on four hours a week. Start thinking and talking it and pretty soon you’ll start being it. Then you’re already branding yourself.
Personal branding is most conspicuous when celebrities are involved. Take Oprah as a case in point: Oprah's name is a brand that encompasses diverse ventures including the Oprah TV show, O Magazine and several charitable organizations. Personal branding is what you want to achieve. You want to be known in your field as an expert, a meticulous engineer, a respected lawyer, etc.
Personal branding is unavoidable. As others interact with you, they’ll automatically form mental associations that connect you with certain labels, often within the first few seconds. You can’t avoid being labeled, and other people can’t avoid labeling you.
Personal branding is another way to market your business and is easier than corporate
branding. By marketing yourself as an expert in your field, your business becomes more accessible to a consumer by turning it into a human face.
Imagine the sales potential if you are a business consultant who specializes in consulting with large construction firms and you happen to meet a large developer one night at dinner. The developer searches your name later that night and finds articles you’ve authored related to construction and consulting. Imagine in five year's time. We can tell our young children when they ask what branding is that back in the old days people used to say that branding was about marketing or clever packaging or even searing an animal's skin.
Build a great personal brand and you won’t have to follow the crowd. The crowd will follow you. Build your personal brand, stand out from your peers and reach your career goals.
Personal branding is most conspicuous when celebrities are involved. Take Oprah as a case in point: Oprah's name is a brand that encompasses diverse ventures including the Oprah TV show, O Magazine and several charitable organizations. Personal branding is what you want to achieve. You want to be known in your field as an expert, a meticulous engineer, a respected lawyer, etc.
Personal branding is unavoidable. As others interact with you, they’ll automatically form mental associations that connect you with certain labels, often within the first few seconds. You can’t avoid being labeled, and other people can’t avoid labeling you.
Personal branding is another way to market your business and is easier than corporate
branding. By marketing yourself as an expert in your field, your business becomes more accessible to a consumer by turning it into a human face.
Imagine the sales potential if you are a business consultant who specializes in consulting with large construction firms and you happen to meet a large developer one night at dinner. The developer searches your name later that night and finds articles you’ve authored related to construction and consulting. Imagine in five year's time. We can tell our young children when they ask what branding is that back in the old days people used to say that branding was about marketing or clever packaging or even searing an animal's skin.
Build a great personal brand and you won’t have to follow the crowd. The crowd will follow you. Build your personal brand, stand out from your peers and reach your career goals.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Personal Branding for Success
Bloggers can build credibility through the content listed on their
blog. By blogging, social networking, article writing, classified ads,ezine
advertising, publishing a newsletter, traffic exchanges, and so on you
are contributing to your success branding. Blogging is an easy way for
personal branding of yourself.
Personal branding is a technique often practiced by online marketers and is the "youness" that you bring. It is not necessarily what you do, but the particular way you do it. Personal branding is essential if you want to succeed in life, because you need to win people’s attention to succeed. Personal branding is the way to get it . It is an important aspect of ebusiness and affects many areas that we may not have even considered.
Personal Branding is often perceived as self-promotion, when it is much much
more. By branding yourself you are creating an image that your audience
can either buy into or step away from. Personal branding is unavoidable. As
others interact with you, they will automatically form mental associations that connect you with certain labels, often within the first few seconds. You can’t avoid being labeled, and other people can’t avoid labeling you. Personal branding is one of the most important thing you need to concentrate on when preparing for any job interview, whether that job interview is external or internal. Unless you take control of your personal brand, it will take control of you.
blog. By blogging, social networking, article writing, classified ads,ezine
advertising, publishing a newsletter, traffic exchanges, and so on you
are contributing to your success branding. Blogging is an easy way for
personal branding of yourself.
Personal branding is a technique often practiced by online marketers and is the "youness" that you bring. It is not necessarily what you do, but the particular way you do it. Personal branding is essential if you want to succeed in life, because you need to win people’s attention to succeed. Personal branding is the way to get it . It is an important aspect of ebusiness and affects many areas that we may not have even considered.
Personal Branding is often perceived as self-promotion, when it is much much
more. By branding yourself you are creating an image that your audience
can either buy into or step away from. Personal branding is unavoidable. As
others interact with you, they will automatically form mental associations that connect you with certain labels, often within the first few seconds. You can’t avoid being labeled, and other people can’t avoid labeling you. Personal branding is one of the most important thing you need to concentrate on when preparing for any job interview, whether that job interview is external or internal. Unless you take control of your personal brand, it will take control of you.
Monday, May 12, 2008
The Importance of Personal Branding
Branding yourself also ensures that other people are not in control of your brand. If you don't brand yourself, others will - and it may not be the type of brand you want.When you let other people brand you, you let them control your future. Branding yourself can actually have such a dramatic effect that you will become hunted rather than being the hunter for your next job opportunity.
Branding yourself is key to building your network of influence. Branding yourself as one of the first to be knowledgeable in promising new fields might be the quickest way of all to set yourself apart from others. Once it's known that you're an expert, customers may well seek you out rather than the other way around. Branding yourself and networking takes a little time, it is also a long-term strategy, and branding yourself using networking generally takes a little effort and patience. But you'll set yourself up very nicely, not just for short-term payoffs, but also for long-term success and stability.
Branding yourself is key to building your network of influence. Branding yourself as one of the first to be knowledgeable in promising new fields might be the quickest way of all to set yourself apart from others. Once it's known that you're an expert, customers may well seek you out rather than the other way around. Branding yourself and networking takes a little time, it is also a long-term strategy, and branding yourself using networking generally takes a little effort and patience. But you'll set yourself up very nicely, not just for short-term payoffs, but also for long-term success and stability.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Personal Branding to Achieve First Place
Branding yourself is a major part in internet marketing. Branding your name, along with the online business is very important and is the key to being different. A replicated site will get you replicated results. Branding yourself creates opportunities and generally increases cash flow for those that engage in branding. It is one of the most important marketing tools on the books; about being an expert or learning how to be an expert and then telling everyone about your knowledge. Branding yourself is one of the most important tasks you have as a small business marketer. It is a way of making it clear to potential employers or clients what, in particular, you might be able to do for them. When someone asks you what you do for a living, do you answer with your job title?
Image is everything...believe you are who you say you are, and make it your reality. Offer quality over quantity. Imagine getting a universal online identity score. This score could be based on many factors, such as ratio of positive to negative blog entries written about you, track backs to your blog, subscribers, rank of your name in Google search results, amount of people tagging you, density of your name online. Imagine creating a good looking resume that stands out? Imagine personal name cards so interesting that it the keeps you at the top of somebody’s memory tree?
All of this is entirely possible....Google me, Marilyn Swanson, and find out how this can be accomplished.
Image is everything...believe you are who you say you are, and make it your reality. Offer quality over quantity. Imagine getting a universal online identity score. This score could be based on many factors, such as ratio of positive to negative blog entries written about you, track backs to your blog, subscribers, rank of your name in Google search results, amount of people tagging you, density of your name online. Imagine creating a good looking resume that stands out? Imagine personal name cards so interesting that it the keeps you at the top of somebody’s memory tree?
All of this is entirely possible....Google me, Marilyn Swanson, and find out how this can be accomplished.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Success - The Power of YOU
There are various ways to stand out in a crowd of people. You can either do something different, sound different or look different than anyone else. But how do you stand out on the internet? How do you become known from amongst the millions that have an online presence? You do it by branding yourself online? Start this process by being honest. Tell them the truth about yourself and your product or service. Google Me Now is one way of accomplishing that great first e-impression.
Too much hype and outright dishonesty is not in your best interest. Make good use of online services and social networks. They can be invaluable in creating a positive image of you. Social networks such as YouTube and MySpace allow you to display pictures of yourself, as well as videos of yourself and your product or service. People like to put a face on the person they are interested in....it helps to develop that element of trust.
While large companies spend millions of dollars to brand themselves online, you do not have to do that to make yourself known. You do require some good knowledge and the presentation of your techniques has to be unique in order to command the attention that is being demanded by so many. Be very well informed...keep the learning process constantly going. Once you have established that great online presence, your knowledge will continue to generate interest for you for a long time.
When using your name with other key words you are building a brand and guiding traffic to you. Almost everything now is on the internet. People now go to the internet to look things up, before they will go to the phone book.
Most all of your online branding can be done for free. Free methods of advertising can go as far as paid and are sometimes even better, as it reflects the effort you put into it. Free can be effective! When you are presenting your service or product on your website, don't tell them you have the best product! People are already being spammed to death by the BEST product emails! Tell them what you can do for them. Do some press releases and testimonials, but include your product, service or store name. Put a video on YouTube, working your business or a tutorial about how to work with your product. Under the description of your video, you will want to include your email address and your website link. Post ads on Craigslist and other ad sites. Expose the world to who you are....people need to buy into who you are.
With a little work on your part, you can achieve great results with your branding. Very little money needs to be spent on branding....possibly only on a domain name and website. Some domain companies will have templates available to you to build a website or landing page, so there is no need to have someone build it for you. You basically just fill in the information and voila'....you have your website. There is even a good quality autoresponder site that you can access for free. A good autoresponder will respond to people immediately when they inquire about your service. After that, you can get in touch with them personally to find our how you can help them specifically.
With a little research and work, you can brand yourself online. Once you start attracting people, more will come. You need to keep your "face" in front of them. Build relationships. Create an establishment of friendship. Relationships build trust....thus adding to your credibility.
Too much hype and outright dishonesty is not in your best interest. Make good use of online services and social networks. They can be invaluable in creating a positive image of you. Social networks such as YouTube and MySpace allow you to display pictures of yourself, as well as videos of yourself and your product or service. People like to put a face on the person they are interested in....it helps to develop that element of trust.
While large companies spend millions of dollars to brand themselves online, you do not have to do that to make yourself known. You do require some good knowledge and the presentation of your techniques has to be unique in order to command the attention that is being demanded by so many. Be very well informed...keep the learning process constantly going. Once you have established that great online presence, your knowledge will continue to generate interest for you for a long time.
When using your name with other key words you are building a brand and guiding traffic to you. Almost everything now is on the internet. People now go to the internet to look things up, before they will go to the phone book.
Most all of your online branding can be done for free. Free methods of advertising can go as far as paid and are sometimes even better, as it reflects the effort you put into it. Free can be effective! When you are presenting your service or product on your website, don't tell them you have the best product! People are already being spammed to death by the BEST product emails! Tell them what you can do for them. Do some press releases and testimonials, but include your product, service or store name. Put a video on YouTube, working your business or a tutorial about how to work with your product. Under the description of your video, you will want to include your email address and your website link. Post ads on Craigslist and other ad sites. Expose the world to who you are....people need to buy into who you are.
With a little work on your part, you can achieve great results with your branding. Very little money needs to be spent on branding....possibly only on a domain name and website. Some domain companies will have templates available to you to build a website or landing page, so there is no need to have someone build it for you. You basically just fill in the information and voila'....you have your website. There is even a good quality autoresponder site that you can access for free. A good autoresponder will respond to people immediately when they inquire about your service. After that, you can get in touch with them personally to find our how you can help them specifically.
With a little research and work, you can brand yourself online. Once you start attracting people, more will come. You need to keep your "face" in front of them. Build relationships. Create an establishment of friendship. Relationships build trust....thus adding to your credibility.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Checklist for your success
Once you have your name on page one of the search engines, as per previous post on GoogleMeNow, you can continue to promote yourself and your interests via your website(s). While setting up an online business can be real easy, not everyone actually makes money at it. To be successful in the online business marketing, you have to find what works for you the best. Every online business is different. They all use the same tools for the same reasons but which ones that work will depend on you and your business needs. Here are ten things that help you to be successful when beginning your online business.
1. Set goals for yourself.
You cannot have a business by chance, that just does not work. You must have a goal, something to strive for. The long-term goal is to be able to live off the income it generates. This can take some time, so make smaller goals as you go. If you set your sights too high in the beginning, it can be discouraging. Set a standard for each site you build. The goal could be to make approximately $500 a month per site. This is a realistic figure to be able to do in the first few months if you work hard. Build more than one site. This will help broaden your spectrum and generate more interest. The more sites you build and affiliate with the others, the higher you pay check becomes.
2. Make a plan and stick to it.
Having a plan of action will help to keep you organized and get things done appropriately. Setting up a plan that has a site up and running with in a few months is very possible. In the first month, spend time researching keywords; affiliate programs available, and the resources to refer back to for writing content pages. During the second month, write at least one article a day to add to your content page. This will give you several keyword documents that can generate hits.
3. Set a budget that is reasonable.
It is possible to start an online business without investing, but it is a good idea to invest. If you want to make money, you have to spend it first. The investment should go to domain name and web hosting. You can expect to invest to register a domain name, contracting with a host company and other such related things.
4. Check your lifeblood- have great keywords, programs, and content articles.
You want to be sure that you are constantly updating and increasing your keywords and content. You want to have a good program and use the keywords and content articles to generate traffic. You want to be able to convert that information to the program link.
5. Prepare what to say before you write content page.
You want to write articles or ads that will eventually generate business. They should be informative and make people want to have the product. People like to read things that peak their interest and keep them wanting more. Use prime keywords that describe what you are selling, use of the item or the history of the item. Once you know what the merchant you are affiliated with wants sold, pick out your keywords and start writing.
6. Don't forget pre-selling.
One thing you should never do is write a contact article with the obvious intent to sell something. You want to get the customer to buy, but not by slamming it in their face. That is a big turn off for a reader. You want to get the potential customer to fall in love with what you are writing about. Make them desire it on their own and then provide a link to where they can get it. You want to give great information and subtly guide them. Provide suggestions and recommendations to the product. Don’t just tell them to buy this or that... it won’t work.
7. Build targeted traffic to your site.
When you first hit the Internet highway no one is going to know where you are. You must get out there now and promote your site. You can either do this the free way, by paying, or a little of both. The best thing to do is to see what free things you can try first to gain targeted traffic. Then if those don’t work move to a paid service while still trying the others.
8. Be determined to succeed.
Well if it takes about two months just to get the site up it is also going to take a few more months to generate any significant traffic. You have to work at this. Don’t get discouraged and just quit when you only get 10 visitors that first day. Be patient and check your site for improvements all the time. Write more content articles and improve your keywords, to keep people coming back.
9. Time management is a rule of thumb.
Now you have become a web master, writer, manager, and editor. You will have multiple sites and will need to be able to budget your time for each accordingly, writing articles as well as checking the sites with you to see how much traffic is being generated. Make sure you have good time management skills. Set up time to do articles each day, and editing, etc. Work on all sites in a specified area for a period of time and then move to the next area.
10. Stay up to date with the changing markets.
Every day there are new programs emerging and policies changing on search engines. Keep up with what is going on. You can keep yourself in the loop by subscribing to newsletters and SEO news. Join an affiliate forum to hear the latest from those in the business with you. Make sure you know what is going on to stay on top.
1. Set goals for yourself.
You cannot have a business by chance, that just does not work. You must have a goal, something to strive for. The long-term goal is to be able to live off the income it generates. This can take some time, so make smaller goals as you go. If you set your sights too high in the beginning, it can be discouraging. Set a standard for each site you build. The goal could be to make approximately $500 a month per site. This is a realistic figure to be able to do in the first few months if you work hard. Build more than one site. This will help broaden your spectrum and generate more interest. The more sites you build and affiliate with the others, the higher you pay check becomes.
2. Make a plan and stick to it.
Having a plan of action will help to keep you organized and get things done appropriately. Setting up a plan that has a site up and running with in a few months is very possible. In the first month, spend time researching keywords; affiliate programs available, and the resources to refer back to for writing content pages. During the second month, write at least one article a day to add to your content page. This will give you several keyword documents that can generate hits.
3. Set a budget that is reasonable.
It is possible to start an online business without investing, but it is a good idea to invest. If you want to make money, you have to spend it first. The investment should go to domain name and web hosting. You can expect to invest to register a domain name, contracting with a host company and other such related things.
4. Check your lifeblood- have great keywords, programs, and content articles.
You want to be sure that you are constantly updating and increasing your keywords and content. You want to have a good program and use the keywords and content articles to generate traffic. You want to be able to convert that information to the program link.
5. Prepare what to say before you write content page.
You want to write articles or ads that will eventually generate business. They should be informative and make people want to have the product. People like to read things that peak their interest and keep them wanting more. Use prime keywords that describe what you are selling, use of the item or the history of the item. Once you know what the merchant you are affiliated with wants sold, pick out your keywords and start writing.
6. Don't forget pre-selling.
One thing you should never do is write a contact article with the obvious intent to sell something. You want to get the customer to buy, but not by slamming it in their face. That is a big turn off for a reader. You want to get the potential customer to fall in love with what you are writing about. Make them desire it on their own and then provide a link to where they can get it. You want to give great information and subtly guide them. Provide suggestions and recommendations to the product. Don’t just tell them to buy this or that... it won’t work.
7. Build targeted traffic to your site.
When you first hit the Internet highway no one is going to know where you are. You must get out there now and promote your site. You can either do this the free way, by paying, or a little of both. The best thing to do is to see what free things you can try first to gain targeted traffic. Then if those don’t work move to a paid service while still trying the others.
8. Be determined to succeed.
Well if it takes about two months just to get the site up it is also going to take a few more months to generate any significant traffic. You have to work at this. Don’t get discouraged and just quit when you only get 10 visitors that first day. Be patient and check your site for improvements all the time. Write more content articles and improve your keywords, to keep people coming back.
9. Time management is a rule of thumb.
Now you have become a web master, writer, manager, and editor. You will have multiple sites and will need to be able to budget your time for each accordingly, writing articles as well as checking the sites with you to see how much traffic is being generated. Make sure you have good time management skills. Set up time to do articles each day, and editing, etc. Work on all sites in a specified area for a period of time and then move to the next area.
10. Stay up to date with the changing markets.
Every day there are new programs emerging and policies changing on search engines. Keep up with what is going on. You can keep yourself in the loop by subscribing to newsletters and SEO news. Join an affiliate forum to hear the latest from those in the business with you. Make sure you know what is going on to stay on top.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
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