If you have yet to join Certified Mastermind Consultants, you can do so by clicking here for only $2

If you are already a member, then you can get the meeting link by either:

Logging into your members area
Logging into the forum under ‘Certified Mastermind Consultants Webinar Trainings’

I will be doing the review for this mastermind in the next day or two.

Enjoy,
Mark

PS I will also be posting up the review of the first two The NEW Think And Grow Rich Masterminds in the very near future so look out!!

Watch NOW…

Many newsletters and business offers are never read by Internet users for the simple reason that the e-mail didn’t have an effective subject line. A subject line may only be a few words but these few words are very important.

As more and more e-mails fill our in-boxes it’s more important than ever to have a subject line that catches our attention. The subject line is one of the most important aspects of your e-mail marketing campaign because it’s what creates a first impression for your business. With just a few words you can encourage someone to read your newsletter or you can cause them to delete your e-mail without another glance.

Here are some simple rules for creating a great subject line:

• Keep the subject line direct and short. Subject lines should never be more than ten words long. In fact, five words or less is the perfect length. Most e-mail browsers won’t let users see more than five or six words so a longer subject line will be truncated and not seen by the user. Use strong and descriptive words rather than fluffy adjectives such as “very”.
• Emphasize the benefits to the reader. You want to make it as easy as possible for your customers to know precisely why they will benefit from reading your newsletter. This can be as simple as a “reward” for just opening the e-mail. A reward can be information or a discount coupon. You want to use catch phrases such as “save money” and “save time” to get a reader’s immediate attention. The key is to entice your customers to want to read more and open the e-mail.
• Ask questions. When you ask a question in the subject line you cause a reader to become curious and want to know more. As well, when you ask a question the e-mail sounds more like it’s coming from a colleague rather than just a business and will more likely be opened and read.
• Personal subject lines. One big mistake that screams “spam” is sending your e-mail to “undisclosed recipients”. Make sure to always use your company name or real name as the sender. Try to put the recipients name in the subject line if there is room as well as insert it into the greeting of the e-mail.
• Take advantage of holidays and current events. If there is an upcoming holiday, such as Christmas, you can tie it up with your e-mail subject line. For example, “Save time on your Christmas Shopping”.
• Avoid using the word “free”. Hard sales phrases, such as “free” and “limited offer”, are often filtered out by e-mail services since they are a clear indication of spam. As well, try to avoid using hype which includes explanation marks or all capital letters.

Try using some of these strategies in your next e-mail campaign and you should see great results in your online business

People are busy and time is short. So it’s all the more important to know how to get your marketing message across. The key aspects of good customer communication inclue:

• the ability to read customers
• the ability to understand which communication style your customers are most likely to pay attention to, and
• the ability to adapt your website content for your customers.

When you communicate with your customers through the Internet you have only one shot at communicating your marketing message. You need to keep in mind that those customers, and potential customers, reading your marketing message don’t have a long time to read what you have to say….so you better say it fast, accurately, and in words that they want to hear. Learn how to keep it simple and direct.

There are some basic ideas that you should keep in mind when you’re writing website content that customers want to read:

• Identify and clarify the marketing message that you want to get across to your customers. When you pinpoint your focus you have the ability to zoom in and give your customers content that they can rely on and trust.
• Gather information. Don’t just write website content for the sake of filling up your web space. Find out what customers want to read and then write for them
• Evaluate the information that you’re writing about. Make sure that the information that you’re basing your website content on is precise and reliable. Does the information represent the points of view about your online business that you want to get across? Is the information fact or opinion? Many times a combination of (1) fact, and (2) customer opinion, go hand in hand for writing web content that people want to read.
• Consider the alternatives and implications of what you write. Make sure that you draw the appropriate conclusions from what you write and that your readers will draw the same conclusions about your web content. What are the costs, benefits, and consequences of the content that you have on your website? Take the time to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of moving away from Search Engine Optimization techniques and instead focusing on writing what people want to read.

Remember the importance of communication in your online business and you greatly enhance your chances of having a profitable online business.

Never miss an opportunity at communicating with your customers. It’s vital to your online company that you come into contact with as many customers and potential customers as possible so that you increase your contacts and eventually increase your sales.

There is so much competition on the Internet and this is why it’s important that you stand out for your customers. When your customers know that they can rely on you for dependable service, consistent communication, and quality products or services, they will continue to buy from you time and time again. Your repeat customers will become the mainstay of your business since it’s these repeat customers that refer you to their friends and family, thus bringing you more potential customers.

Opt-in Lists: An opt-in list is list of people who have specifically asked to receive more information from your business in the form of e-mail, newsletters, or other types of communication. These people will voluntarily give you their e-mail address to you so that you can communicate with them in the future. Make sure that you build your list of opt-in e-mail addresses so that you can increase the number of customers that you come into contact with.

Online marketing studies show that opt-in e-mailing lists are more successful than other marketing techniques when it comes to sales. When a potential customers requests more information from your business you know that they already have an interest in the product or service that you’re selling.

So how do you develop your opt-in e-mailing list? One way that you can start building your e-mail list is by having a place on your website where users can leave their e-mail address.

When you have someone’s e-mail address it’s up to you to send them an e-mail that is about the products or services that you’re selling. Some of the e-mail that you might want to send to your e-mail customers include:

• Newsletters with information about the product or service you’re selling, such as information about new products. Newsletters have already been discussed in chapter 5.
• E-zines that have detailed information about what your company sells.
• Discount offers that your send out to only those people on your opt-in list.

The first e-mail that you send out to people on your opt-in list should let them know that they asked to be included on your e-mail list so that they don’t think that they are being spammed. As mentioned before, always give people the option to take themselves off your e-mail list at any time. This way they feel that they are in control of all communication with you.

Importance of Building Lists

One of the most important rules of online marketing is the need to have a list of opt-in e-mail addresses. The larger your e-mal list the more successful your online business will be. The bottom line is, if you want to have a successful online business you need to have an opt-in e-mail list.

Many online businesses overlook the other benefits of an opt-in list besides the bottom line of profit. Each time someone buys something from you, you need to make the effort of obtaining their e-mail address. If you don’t get your customer’s contact information you lose all chance of future communication with them. And this may prevent them from buying from you in the future.

Online marketing studies show that successful online businesses think of their opt-in e-mailing list as their most valuable marketing strategy. Most online businesses keep a back up of their e-mail list so that there is no chance of losing it. Without this e-mail opt-in list your business would lose valuable customer communication which is the backbone of their online success.

The more extensive your e-mail opt-in list is the more advertising you’ll generate for your online business. You’ll have sales opportunities from your e-mail opt-in list that you wouldn’t be able to obtain in any other way. When you regularly stay in touch with your customers you ensure that at least some of them will return to your website for a first purchase or a repeat purchase. E-mail opt-in lists let you communicate with your customers with little or no effort on your part.

Make sure that your online website has opt-in options on every web page. This way people who read your website have every opportunity to give you their e-mail address for future contact with your company.

To your success… Enjoy

Personalizing Your Website
Even if you’re not selling a product or service that is for a specific target audience you need to have a website that is personalized. For example, even though Amazon sells products that appeal to all target audiences they have still managed to create a personalized website that fits every customer. This is the goal of personalization technology.

Try to limit the number of products or services that you’re offering to your customers. “Information overload” is one of the biggest problems on the Internet. If you give your customers too many choices they’ll have a hard time making a decision. The key to avoiding information overload is organization as well as making sure that products and services are directed towards your customers.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that online marketing stop when you generate a sale. Your current customers are the ideal way for you to reach new customers. You want to get leads from your customers by using marketing concepts such as “tell a friend” e-mails.

One mistake that many small online businesses make is to focus only on self-promotion. The bottom line is that customers don’t care about you. They only care about what it is that you’re selling and what you can do for them. When someone visits your website you have about ten seconds to get their attention before they move on to the next website. That means that you have ten seconds to tell this person why it is that they need you. The home page of your website should tell people why your service or product is just right for them. Your home page should include information about your company and/or have a personal bio about who you are.

If you’re not sure about whether your website is reaching the right people, ask them. If you provide something of value to people who visit your website they’ll give you information. Things of value include contests, coupons, and free products. Make sure that you let them know they can trust you by including a privacy policy on your website that states you won’t share any personal information they provide with anyone else. Stick to your policy and never sell the information your customers provide you with. Otherwise you’ll lose and abuse their trust.

Once you know the demographics of your customers you’ll know how to spend your marketing budget. You can focus your online promotions using targeted marketing strategy. Even though you may end up with fewer people visiting your website, targeted online marketing is the way to go.

Using Banner Ads

One mistake that many online businesses make is using banner ads to reach the greatest amount of people. Your focus when it comes to banner ads is to reach the right type of people for the product or service that you’re selling. One thing to keep in mind is that, if you have a limited budget, you should avoid buying banner ads altogether. If you have a big budget, banner ads can be great for branding your company. You’ll be able to negotiate contracts that are long term with affiliated websites in your area of business. However, the results of click-through marketing are usually low and this makes banner ads the least cost effective of all online marketing techniques.

If you decide that you want to purchase banner ads you should focus on buying them on web pages that are very targeted. Ads are cheaper the more targeted a web page is. And the cheaper the ad the more cost effective your banner ads will be.

Another way that you can target the placement of your banner ads is to embed them in web page content. Before you purchase a banner ad find out what content the website administrators will be including on their web page that may be related to your online business. If the website uses a keyword search tool ask that your banner ads appear when key words that are linked to your product or service are typed into the search engine by visitors to the website.

Try to place your banner ads on a web page that is as deep into the website as possible. This way you’ll be reaching people who are truly looking for information that relates to your business. This is a great strategy to use if you want to get the most value for your online budget. Again, if your budget for marketing is quite high, you’ll want to buy banner ads on the home pages of websites so that your brand reaches a lot of people.

Keywords
One of the most cost effective ways to use your online marketing budget is to buy keywords. You can find out the price of keywords that are specific to your industry at www.Overture.com. You want your keywords to be as targeted and specific as possible. Always remember the goal of your business and buy keywords that encourage people to visit your website. Keywords that are general will cost you more and at the same time will attract fewer customers to your website. Before you start buying keywords you need to look at the content of your website. You want to buy keywords that are effective for your business content and that keep people coming back to your website.

So there you have it. Some useful tips I hope to help promote your network marketing business or other online business. Until next time…

To determine what types of customers you are trying to reach you should be asking yourself the following questions:

• What age group are you trying to sell to?
• Are you selling to a specific ethnic group or gender?
• Will most of your customers be married or single?
• How fast will most Internet connections be?
• Will you target customers who have children?
• What level of education will most of your customers have?
• Where will most of your customers live?
• Will your customers have any specific hobbies?

The more you know about your customers the easier it will be to come up with a marketing plan. You’ll also be able to design a website that is the most appealing to these customers. The biggest advantage of marketing on the Internet is that it allows you to become very targeted towards your desired customers.

Targeting Different Types of Customers

Marketing online is the same as marketing anywhere else. There are certain products, colors, themes, and lingo that will appeal more to some customers than to others. When you know what type of customers you’re targeting you can meet their needs so that you grab their attention. When you use certain features that pull customers to your website you have the ability to gain their attention, loyalty, and trust. For example, studies show that most female shoppers like to save money and time. Over 80% of purchases in the home are influenced in some way by women. As well, these same studies show that women like to able to compare costs fast and easily without getting any kind of sales pressure. If you’re trying to target women customers some things that you should keep in mind include (1) giving them a feeling of comfort and community, (2) let your website deal with everyday problems, and (3) focus on education, health, and family.

Get the Word Out

Doing something innovative and creative online, as well as using the latest technology, will always get attention. For example, adding animation, flash, or a photo can create a buzz about the product or service that you’re selling. Just as e-mail, which contains jokes and strange pictures, gets forwarded all around the planet so too can your marketing message make the rounds. Come up with a marketing message and then forward it to family, friends, and anyone else you know.

Any time that you can get someone else to forward your e-mail to others you get the information out there about your website and the product or service you’re selling. One key to great online marketing is remembering that quality, not quantity, counts. Avoid buying e-mail lists and focus instead on building your own with people who are actually interested in what you’re selling. Today online marketing isn’t about how many people you get to your website or how many people are on your e-mail list. Today online marketing is all about how people react to your website and what it is that you’re selling.

Look out for part 2 tomorrow… enjoy

Day 10: Plan to Continue to Grow and Thrive

Over the last nine days you have made a plan for getting some red-hot targeted traffic to your website and doing it for $200. You have executed your plan and even have a single dollar bill left over. Good for you! You should be seeing a lot more traffic today on your website than you were seeing only nine days ago. Just imagine how much more traffic you can generate!

You now see the basic ways in which website traffic is generated. Generating traffic isn’t easy but it is well worth the time and effort (not to mention the money) that it takes. Now…whether you reap the benefits of that traffic is pretty much up to you.

Website Content:

In order to keep people (and people is what traffic is made up of) returning to your website again and again, you are going to need to have continuously changing and updated content on your website. If the same person returns to your website a second time and finds nothing new, you can bet that they won’t make a third visit.

It has been said time and time again that, ‘Content is King!’ It is true…content is the essence of your website. It is the very life blood of your business. It doesn’t matter what you are selling, the people who visit your website and who buy your product or service are looking for information that is related to it.

It is very difficult to write enough articles or reports yourself in order to keep the content of your website updated and constantly changing. You might well consider using ghost writers to help you. The service costs are reasonable and you have control over the content.

List Building:

List building is an ongoing task. It is one that will never be completed as long as you have an Internet business. You need to employ every method that you can think of or find to constantly be adding to your opt-in list. You might consider changing your opt-in enticement from time to time or just up-date the one that you are offering. You might, also, consider starting your own newsletter as a separate opt-in.

You might learn to use viral advertising techniques to enlarge your opt-in list and even learn ways that you can get your list to help build your list… such as offering coupons that they can share with their friends or family or sending a quiz that can be shared with answers posted on your website.

Joint Ventures:

Even well seasoned and well established long-time Internet marketers begin to drool when you mention joint ventures. New Internet marketers, who have been in business for more that a few minutes, know that a joint venture can launch their businesses into the stratosphere over night.

Joint ventures are directly related to list building and list building is directly related to joint ventures. One hand washes the other, so to speak. The longer your opt-in list is, the better your chance is for getting in on a joint venture and the more joint ventures that you can become involved in, the longer your opt-in list gets.

To get your first joint venture under your belt, you may well have to get nothing out of it but a longer opt-in list. That is…you may have to give away 100% of the proceeds of your product in order to gain joint venture partners who already have those coveted long opt-in lists. Don’t let that turn into an obstacle for you. Sometimes you have to give in order to receive.

Monitor and Test, Test and Monitor

You aren’t going to do everything right the first time. You are going to find better, more efficient and more effective ways to do everything.

For example: when you send out a marketing email to your list, try sending two or three different ones to different segments of your list to see which letter is more effective. Use the tools provided by your autoresponder to see how many of your emails are opened, how many times links are clicked on and how much follow through happens (read sales).

When you place your advertisements in E-zines, use different versions in each one. Monitor them to see which is the most effective. Some E-zines will allow you to test ads.

Test and monitor your PPC advertisements as well. If something isn’t working, try something different. Don’t get locked into a mind set. Be willing to change.

Make Good Use of Your Autoresponder:

The people who opt-in to your list are just that…people. They are not names and email addresses. They have given you permission to email them but they didn’t give you permission to bug them to death. Curb your enthusiasm.

Be sure that you format your messages as specified by your autoresponder service. Use only ASCII characters. These are the characters that you see on your keyboard. The easiest way to be sure that you are complying is to write your messages using word pad. Each line should contain no more than 65 characters. You can find software that will assure that your messages are formatted correctly for your autoresponder.

Avoid using all capital letters and too many exclamation points. Both are considered ‘shouting’ in the written word and are considered rude. Just don’t do it.

Be absolutely certain that every word is spelled correctly and that your grammar usage is impeccable. Misspelled words and poor grammar usage makes you look dumb. If you aren’t certain about grammar usage, have someone you know and trust to read your email messages before you send them.

Use bullet points to make it easy for the recipients of your emails to read them and to hone in on the important points.

So there you have it. How to drive red hot targeted traffic to your website in 10 days for less that $200.

Day 1: Business Plan and The Importance of Targeted Traffic

Day 2: Autoresponder (Cost $20) Find Incentive for Opt-In List (Cost $20)

Day 3: Write Articles and Submit Them…Free

Day 4: Write and Place PPC Ads (Cost $80)

Day 5: Register with Clickbank (Cost $49)

Day 6: Find Blogs and Forums and Post…Free

Day 7: Place E-Zine Advertisements (Cost $30)

Day 8: Find Link Exchange Partners….Free

Day 9: Get a Press Release (Cost $0)

Day 10: Plan to Continue to Grow and Thrive

Day 9: Get a Press Release (Cost $0)

It is always amazing how many people overlook the power of the news media. There is all of that beautiful blank space in newspapers before they are printed and all of that dead air in radio and TV until it is filled. Some of it can be yours.

Just filling up all of that blank space day after day is the responsibility of news people. They are looking for news worthy information to use and they are doing so day after day after day. That’s a lot of blank space…blank advertising space…blank traffic generating space!

Contrary to the popular opinion of computer addicts, people really do still read newspapers and magazines. They still listen to the radio and they most certainly still watch television. People get news from many sources but the local newspaper and the local radio station are probably the most underused and most often overlooked vehicles for website traffic generation.

‘Local Man (or Woman) Makes Good!’ is a headline that local newspapers and local radio stations just love. It is a headline that helps them to add to their subscriber list and they really like that.

As you go about building your contact lists (customers, potential customers, suppliers, etc.) be sure that you add a media contact list. The media can help you more than you realize and they can provide free advertising for you, as well as, help you to increase your website traffic.

Curiosity is a human trait that isn’t limited to a particular locality…everybody has some degree of curiosity, including those people who live in your hometown and read the local newspaper and listen to the local radio stations. You will find that many of these people also have home computers that they tend to spend a lot of hours on when they aren’t working or otherwise occupied. Your local newspaper reporters and radio announcers are your contact with these potential customers and website visitors.

First let’s discuss making contact with a media person or two or three. Do NOT phone them. It won’t do you any good to telephone media people. They are busy and they don’t deal in spoken word communication. You need to email them. Make a list of your local news reporters. This information is very easily obtained by calling the newspaper or by just looking at the newspaper to get their names. You can usually email them through the newspaper or radio station that they work for.

You introductory email should simply be used to introduce yourself and ask permission to send press releases to them for their consideration. You do NOT send an attachment in your initial email not in any succeeding email. Attachments will not be opened and the offending email will be deleted unopened and unread so save yourself the effort.

Email exchanges are quick. When you send an introductory email to a media person, they will most likely answer in the affirmative and they will do so very quickly… remember there is all of that blank space that they have to fill.

Media people will be helping you to create targeted traffic for your website and to announce products but you will also be helping them to fill all of that lovely blank space.
Press releases can be fairly long…between 600 and 1500 words.

Remember that when you write a press release, it needs to look much like a newspaper article that you see in your local newspaper. That is…the most important information is given first and the details concerning the most important information is elaborated on in subsequent paragraphs. You do NOT build up a story for a big finish…you start with the punch line.

For your first press release, you might announce the launch of a new product or an improvement to an older one. You might announce an upcoming event that you are sponsoring or a new partner joining your business. Anything that is news is news worthy and if the public in general doesn’t have the information, it is news.

There is a universally excepted format for press releases. The same one is used all over the world. Here is an example:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact Information:
Your Name
Your street address
Your city, State
Your telephone number (with area code)
Your website address
Your email address

Your headline in bold type goes here. This headline need not be a complete sentence but it can be. It should read like a newspaper headline.

Your city, ST –The date—Begin your press release here by restating the headline or adding to it. Continue with pertinent information.

A press release can be between 600 and 1500 words long. The following is the accepted way to end a press release:

For Information: your website address followed by
Your email address

All press releases end with the three number symbols centered at the bottom of the release.

Press releases that are not presented in the correct form have a far smaller chance of ever being published or broadcast.

Remember two important things when you are seeking to have a press release published or broadcast. (1) Media people are busy (Some might say overwhelmed) and (2) they are looking for words and information to fill in the blank spaces.

Using press releases to advertise yourself, your website and your products to the local market is a wise thing to do. Not only is it wise…it’s free. ‘Free’ is good. A short press release to the local news media can mushroom and become national or even international news. The national newspapers and broadcast media have just as much empty space to fill as do the local markets.

A press release to the local news media can result in additional free advertising as well. The local papers often fun long articles with pictures in special Sunday editions about local people and their projects.

Make it your business to get to know your local media people and make use of this free advertising often.

Well, only 1 more day to go so look out for day 10 coming very soon…so until then…

Day 8: Find Link Exchange Partners….Free

Link exchanges have been somewhat maligned of late. There are those who think that anything that sends traffic away from your website is just not a good idea. It is true that link exchanges do create two-way traffic, but the idea here is to get more traffic coming than going… or at least an equal flow… and to let more people know about you, your website and your products or services.

The basic idea of a link exchange is that two companies who market to the same segment of the population but who market complimentary rather that competing products or services can help each other by exchanging links. The link exchange is free to both parties of an agreement. For example; a company that sells dog houses might exchange links with a company that sells dog health products. They are not competing with each other but they are both targeting the same buying segment of the population… dog owners.

There are complimentary but non-competing businesses in just about any niche market that you can think of and there are, without a doubt, companies that would make good link exchange partners for your website and for your products or services, as well.

There is link exchange partner software out there that will automatically submit your link exchange proposals for you without you lifting a finger. However, this software is mostly ineffective. Businesses that receive an automated proposal for a link exchange usually take a dim view of such proposals. You many even have received a few of these automated proposals yourself. They can be considered junk mail or even SPAM. Besides, you don’t have any money in your budget to waste on unhelpful software, anyway. You are going to have to do this the right way because you can’t afford to do it the wrong way.

You will also find link exchange sites on the Internet. Where, for a price, you can list your company as being interested in link exchanges and view lists of other website owners who are interested in link exchanges. The better of these sites can actually be very useful but you just can’t afford to register with them right now. They don’t have any information that you can’t find for yourself with just a little effort, anyway.

Here is how to locate potential link exchange partners. First go to your favorite search engine and type in words that would be related to your product or service. For example and staying with the dog theme; if you were selling dog houses, you might type in ‘dog health products’… or if you were selling an E-book about drawing up your own house plan, you might type in ‘home building products’. You get the idea. You want to find businesses that are targeting the same buying segment of the population but are selling products of services that are complimentary to what you are selling but not competing with what you are selling.

You will need to take the time to visit each website that you locate and consider to be potential link exchange partners. It would be great if you could find link exchange partners that have a PageRank of 7 or better in the search engines, but those that have a less desirable PageRank can still be useful. This isn’t costing you anything, remember?

When you visit each site, you can gather the information about who to contact. Look under their ‘contact’ link. In some cases you will find a name and email address. For these you send a link exchange proposal. This proposal should read something like:

Dear (name),

Your name
Company name
Website address

Simply be brief and get to the point. These other website owners are not interested in your personal information nor your struggles to create an Internet business.

As you are visiting the websites and gathering contact information, you may well come across telephone contact numbers. If you do, use them and do so immediately. The website owners would not have posted telephone numbers unless they hoped they would be used. You might be able to work out a link exchange agreement on the telephone and do it sooner rather than later.

You are not limited by numbers but by space here. You can work out as many link exchange agreements as you are able to and have space on your website for posting reciprocal links. The more times your advertisement appears on the Internet, the better it is for you.

It is a good idea to limit your link exchanges to one per product. That is, if you are selling dog houses, you should only have one exchange with a company that sells dog health products but you could also have one that sells dog toys or dog sweaters. You don’t really want advertisements for companies that compete with each other even if they don’t compete with you.

A link exchange implies a recommendation. Having advertisements for companies that compete with one another makes you look like you couldn’t make up your mind. It also makes the owners of the companies that you are exchanging links with more than a little unhappy.

When you choose link exchange partners, choose the ones that have the highest PageRank for their key words. These are the sites that will have the most traffic and more people will see your advertisements and have the opportunity to click on your link, visit your website and, perhaps, buy your product or service and sign into your opt-in list, as well.

In day 9, I am going to discuss press releases… so until then…