Want to increase revenues? Then do this

If you sell online and want to generate revenues here are a few recomendations:

1. Have a 50% off sale of damaged goods such as physical books, specialty items, training manuals, etc.

2. When you do an online promotional campaign, your sales will go up if you do a follow up message with FAQ's - Frequently asked questions that the buyers have regarding the purchase you are asking them to make. This is especially important in higher priced service offerings.

3. Offer a multi payment schedule for higher priced items.

4. Make your offer for a limited time and with a limited quantity.

5. Keep in touch after the purchase. This build trust between you and the buyer.

Blogging for the non blogger

Recently I was asked a question by someone I am coaching on specifics of blogging. The following article is a result of answering those questions. You are welcome to use this article in your ezine, trade journal or on your website provided you keep it as is including the resource box at the end.




Blogging for the Non Blogger
By Kathleen Gage

If you are new to blogging chances are you may be unsure of what the best and most effective approach to gaining maximum benefit from time and effort invested. A primary goal for blogging should be to gain visibility, credibility and market reach for your efforts.

The following are some easy to apply strategies that will get you well on your way to becoming a competent blogger.

Determine Your Purpose
The first thing you need to do is determine what is the purpose of your blog. Are you blogging for fun or is this a viable part of your overall branding and marketing strategy?

Here are some common reasons for having a blog:

· Establish expert status
· Keep in touch with clients
· Reach a global market
· Blow off some steam
· Create your online personality


Blog Consistently
To be effective you need to blog on a fairly regular basis. Your postings can be short, but need to be relative to your purpose. Many bloggers post information from other sites as a way to keep their readers informed on a particular topic. Doing this makes your job pretty easy. Other than doing a few google searches for information and posting the information, there is not a lot for you to do.

The advantage to this is it’s fast and relatively easy. The disadvantage is you are not establishing your own expertise if this is the only type of posting you do.

Why not offer a bit of both?

Driving Visitors
There are a number of effective ways to get people to view your blog. One is to use key words relative to your market and industry. Whenever you post something you want to include those key words.

Next you can announce to your opt-in subscribers you have a blog and give them the blog address.

You can add your blog address to your sig (signature) file that you use at the end of your email messages.

Write articles specific to your market and industry. Add a resource box at the end of your article with a link back to your blog. If you areticle is of value there is a very good chance readers will visit your blog.

Post your articles in various online article directories to optimize exposure and reach. A quick google search with the words “article directory + your topic” will bring up various locations to submit your articles to.

One of the most popular is EzineArticles.com. To access go to www.ezinearticles.com

Subscribers to Your Blog
Make it easy for people to sign up for your blog. You can add in a simple form by visiting www.feedblitz.com and/or www.feedburner.com.

Utilize the power of RSS feeds. People can subscribe to the feed and receive updates as you add new content to your blog.

Keywords
Keywords are a way to improve your search engine ranking. Choosing the right words is extremely important. Keywords are what lead search engines to your blog.

Before you begin blogging think of the keywords you need to include specific to your market and industry. The more targeted your list the more effective your postings.
Analyze your business and your market. Think of any words that your readers might be search on to find you that relate to your company, industry, product or service.
For example my market uses words like:

Making money on the Internet
Internet marketing for authors
Internet marketing for speakers
Internet marketing for consultants
Self Publishing
Writing
Authorship

This is only a partial list. However, it is a very broad and general list. The more targeted I can be the more my ideal client will find me in a search.

The way to narrow your target words down is to use a keyword selector tool. A reliable selector tool will help you to narrow the search by indicating how often people search on specific word combinations.

Two resources you can check are WordTracker and Overture. To learn more go to:

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

and

http://www.wordtracker.com

WordTracker offers a free trial product. This is a great first step. Become familiar with the product before you decide to purchase it.

In Conclusion
Blogging can be a fun experience and it can create great opportunities when done correctly, consistently and conscientiously.


Kathleen Gage is an Internet Marketing Advisor for Speakers, Trainers, Authors, Consultants and Entrepreneurs. Access her eBook The Truth about Making Money on the Internet at http://www.streetsmartsmarketing.com/free-ebook.htm

For Self Published authors

Lots of people want to self publish but don't know where to network with other self published authors.

Here are two yahoo groups that have lots of great folks who willingly share insights into the world of self publishing.


http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Self-Publishing

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/publishingandpromoting/

My best
Kathleen Gage
The Street Smarts Marketer
http://www.streetsmartsmarketing.com/

To Blog or Not to Blog? That is the Question!

Do you have a blog? If you do, are you blogging on a regular basis? If yes, great. If not, I encourage you to do so as soon as possible.

If you need to begin a blog go to www.blogger.com to open an account. It is very, very easy to do and it’s free.

From there, I encourage you to get in the habit of blogging every few days. As you blog be sure to include key words that are specific to your market, industry and reader.

What is blogging? It is the act of writing in one's blog. To blog something is to write about something in one's blog.

Be sure to be very targeted in your blogging. For example, if you specialize in stress management, include words that address stress management challenges, problems and solutions.

If you specialize in wild flower gardens, include words like wild flowers in your blogging.

The more you can use targeted words the more your blog, you and ultimately your website will come up in the search engines.

At the end of a posting in your blog have a hyperlink back to your website. To see what I mean, visit my blog at http://www.kathleengage.blogspot.com Notice at the end of a posting I have a link back to my website or an offer.

Begin now to lay a solid foundation designed to reap you both visibility and monetary benefits.

In Success,

Kathleen


Kathleen Gage
The Street Smarts Marketer
www.streetsmartsmarketing.com

What Are People Saying About You Online?

What Are People Saying About You Online?
By Kathleen Gage

Wonder what is being said about you on the Internet? Or if your articles are gaining visibility? What about any blogs your name might show up in?

It is a great idea to monitor your name and reputation online. You can do this for free by using a simple tool made available by Google. It is called Google Alerts.

It’s Easy
Signing up is very, very easy and takes only a couple minutes. Go to: www.google.com/alerts to begin the process.

What to Get an Alert On
You can get an alert on just about anything. Some uses of alerts are to:

Monitor a specific topic
Find out what is happening with a company you are working with
Keeping current on a competitor
Getting the latest and greatest on a celebrity person or sports team
Keep an eye on your name, book, blog, company or just about anything related to you or your business

Narrow the search
Whatever you are keeping an eye on put the information in quotation marks. For example, if I want to get an alert on my name I would input the request like this.

“kathleen gage”

This will narrow the search criteria. If I don’t narrow the search by adding the quotation marks, as in the case of my name, I will receive notices on alerts that have Kathleen in them and alerts that have Gage in them. Let’s say Kathleen Jones had something show up on the net, I may receive a notice on her. Or maybe Bob Gage has something on the Internet. I may also receive this information. All this does is clog my inbox.

The more narrow you desire the search to be the more you need to put the topic in quotation marks.

Frequency of Notification
Unless you don’t care about receiving lots of email notices it is recommended to set the delivery frequency to once a day or once a week.

Depending on what your search criteria includes and the frequency of how often the topic shows up, if you set the frequency to as-it-happens you may become overwhelmed with all the notices.

Type of notice
Under type you may want to choose comprehensive. This way, whenever something shows up based on your criteria, you get a notice.

If gaining visibility on the Internet is important to you take a few minutes to set up Google alerts for anything that you would like to monitor. This way you can see when and what is showing up that is of importance to you.

Kathleen Gage is an Internet Marketing Advisor for Speakers, Trainers, Authors, Consultants and Entrepreneurs. Access her eBook The Truth about Making Money on the Internet at http://www.streetsmartsmarketing.com/free-ebook.htm

For anyone who is interested in self publishing

I just found a great posting of some resources for new publishers in one of my Yahoo Groups.

Dan Poynter's "The Self-Publishing Manual"

Fern Reiss' "The Publishing Game: Publish a Book in 30 Days"

Tom and Marilyn Ross' "The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing"

Pete Masterson's "Book Design and Production."

Enjoy

Kathleen Gage
The Street Smarts Marketer
http://www.streetsmartsmarketing.com/

5 Must-Knows to Develop Article Titles that Get Read

I just got through writing another article about article writing. If you are not currently using article writing as part of your overall marketing stragegy, now is the time to begin.

Kathleen

5 Must-Knows to Develop Article Titles that Get Read
by Kathleen Gage

Does the title of an article determine whether or not the article gets read? In most cases, yes. Readers are drawn to an article (or not) based on how compelling the title is.

Think about your own reading habits - especially online. It is likely you skim over titles before deciding to spend time reading the entire piece.

Whether you receive something in your inbox, visit an article directory, or get a blog announcement, within seconds you make a decision whether to hit the delete button or read the article.

If you are using article marketing as part of your overall online marketing strategy it is essential your information be written in such a way as to establish your credibility and expert status. An aspect of establishing your credibility is to catch the reader’s attention. To do this you must have an appealing title.
1. Intrigue the Reader Titles need to intrigue the reader and convey some type of benefit. The following words in a title have proven to be very effective.
- Secrets to …
- How to …
- What if…
Think of titles that have caught your attention. What about them did so? Experiment with various types of words to draw readers in.
2. Use SubtitlesAdding a subtitle enhances the power of the title. For example:
How To Train Your Boxer Dog What you need to know to have a well-behaved companion
3. Make it Hot and Timely One of the most effective strategies for developing titles that draw readers in is to write on topics that are hot and timely. Keep current with what is going on with your market and industry in order to be viewed as leading edge. If your titles are outdated, chances are people will view your information as outdated.
4. Time is of the Essence
Writing a catchy article helps to retain the attention of your reader. You only have a few seconds to this. What your readers see first is your article title.

5. Discover What Readers Want A great way to find out what people are interested in is to visit forums and find out what people are inquiring about and talking about. This will help you to craft catchy titles guaranteed to be read.

Regardless of what your article is about your title is what will get people to read it. Take time to develop a title that appeals, entices and intrigues.
Kathleen Gage is an Internet Marketing Advisor for Speakers, Trainers, Authors, Consultants and Entrepreneurs. Access her eBook The Truth about Making Money on the Internet at http://www.streetsmartsmarketing.com/free-ebook.htm

Article Writing to Optimize Your Online Visibility

Article Writing to Optimize Your Online Visibility
By Kathleen Gage

Many people are trying to get in on the “writing and distributing articles online” bandwagon. Although an incredibly effective online marketing strategy, when done incorrectly it can be a complete waste of time.

I have been advocating article writing and distribution for years. I have built incredible online visibility because of it. And….I have made more money than most from my strategic use of articles as part of my overall online marketing strategy.

When I work with clients, whether it be one-on-one or in my group mentoring courses, I teach people about the effectiveness of using articles to reach your market. However, many people think there is only one aspect to the process. Notice I just said process. The reason I use this word is because article marketing is a process. It takes more than simply writing and distributing articles to create a successful outcome for your efforts.

Before you begin you need to consider the following:

Who are you writing for?
What do they want to know?
Why do they want to know this?
How will you help them solve their problem?
What makes your information different than anyone else who claims to be an expert on the topic?

By answering the above questions you are in more of a position to effectively reach those people who are interested in reading your information.

Here’s an example of a good answer for the first question. When I ask myself who I am writing for the answer is simple. Speakers, trainers, authors, consultants and entrepreneurs who want to gain visibility on the Internet by optimizing their marketing dollars.

From there, I must clearly answer the other four questions. By doing this I am more likely to write articles specific to my market; speakers, trainers, authors, consultants and entrepreneurs who want to gain visibility on the Internet by optimizing their marketing dollars.

Take time upfront to think through why you are writing articles, for whom you are writing and what problem you are helping them solve. You will gain a greater result in your online marketing efforts by doing so.

Kathleen Gage is an Internet Marketing Advisor for Speakers, Trainers, Authors, Consultants and Entrepreneurs. Access her eBook The Truth about Making Money on the Internet at http://www.streetsmartsmarketing.com/free-ebook.htm

Great resource for Boomer Women

If you are looking for a great place to network with other boomer age women - both personally and professionally - check out

http://www.nabbw.com/ National Association of Baby Boomer Women and Boomer Women Speak

Founder, Dotsie Bregel, is an incredible resource for just about anything you might be looking for specific to this market.

Join me in the forums at www.boomerwomenspeak.com and learn how wise, warm and witty women are connecting, encouraging and supporting one another every day.

I have been a member of NABBW for quite some time and find it to be an incredible resource.

When you join, tell 'em Kathleen Gage referred you.

Kathleen Gage
The Street Smarts Marketer
http://www.streetsmartsmarketing.com

Women's Writer and Publisher Conference just around the corner

If you are a writer, or an aspiring writer, you are invited tojoin in on a one of a kind event with leading experts from theworld of writing, publishing, literary agencies, and muchmore. Join experts like Dan Poynter, Linda & Allen Anderson, JoCondrill, and more.

To learn more and register go to http://www.streetsmartsmarketing.com/womenwriting.htm

In success,Kathleen GageThe Street Smarts Marketer

Is MySpace (and other social networks) worth while?

There is lots of discussion going on about the value of utilizing social networks in one's marketing. Can you really benefit from connecting with others or is it a waste of time?

Permit me to share my experience. Over the last few months I have connected with web radio hosts, Joint Venture partners and potential affiliates.

I have also found some of the time to be completely wasted by people who are only looking to sell me something before they even create value for their products and services.

The fact remains, anything we do can be a complete waste of time or it can be highly effective. The key is to know why we are doing what we are doing, allocating a specific amount of time to the process, and evaluating the ROI - return on investment of time, money and energy.

If you would like to view my MySpace page and invite me to be in your network, go to myspace.com/kathleengage

In success,

Kathleen Gage
The Street Smarts Marketer
http://www.streetsmartsmarketing.com

Are you stuck on what to write?

If you are looking for topics to write about for your ezine, eBooks, a book, articles, or a blog consider the following:

Your interests
Your passions
Areas of expertise
Topics people come to you about
What would you enjoy learning about?

Another way to develop topics is to create a solution statement. In other words what do your customers want solutions to?

An example for a weekend gardner would be:

What is the best fertilizer to use?
How do I prepare the ground for planting?
What are some hardy plants I can use in my region?

Keep a notepad handy to capture you thoughts.

In success

Kathleen Gage
The Street Smarts Marketer
www.streetsmartsmarketing.com

Word of Mouth Advertising is By Far the Most Powerful

Although Internet Marketing is a great way to get the word out about your products, services and business word of mouth marketing still remains the best marketing tool for countless businessess and industries.

You can have the slickest website, most systemized marketing campaign, great design for your direct mail pieces, yet, if you don't deliver above and beyond your customer's expectations, you can be losing untold amounts of money in lost sales, lost leads and overall "damage control."

Think about your decisions to do business with someone. How often do you at least check out a vendor based on the recommendation of someone else? And how often have you gotten business because someone recommended you? And how often have you told others when you have either had a great experience? On the flip side, how often have you been more than willing to let others know when you have had a bad experience.

Before you invest in all the bells and whistles, make sure your systems are in place to be the best that you can be.


Access my eBook - 101 No Cost and Low Cost Ways to Market A Product, Service or Business - only 99 cents through eBaby. Go to

http://cgi.ebay.com/Internet-marketing-and-marketing-by-Kathleen-Gage_W0QQitemZ190129514035QQihZ009QQcategoryZ47103QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

May need to cut and paste the URL.

Kathleen Gage
The Street Smarts Marketer

Look how one retailer is using the Internet

Just Bears and Stuff is using yet another tool of marketing on (and with) the Internet. eBay.

Owner, Patricia Twitchell, has found this to be a viable option for many of her buyers. eBay buyers are very dedicated to process of utilizing this resource for many of their purchases.

To see how Patricia has set up her store go to http://stores.ebay.com/bearwatch-aka-Just-Bears-and-Stuff

You may want to consider eBay to increase your market reach.

To your continued success,

Kathleen Gage
The Street Smarts Marketer
http://www.streetsmartsmarketing.com

July Street Smarts Ezine is ready

What an amazing month June has been. As we move into July lots of incredible things are happening for virtually everyone I talk with.

The hot topic these days in many circles is The Law of Attraction and The Secret. Find out how one champion who never heard of either is naturally applying both to his life to be the champ he is. What you read may surprise you.

http://www.turningpointpresents.com/newsletters/enewsjuly2007.htm

In this month's issue you will also learn how people like James Ray, Ali Brown aka The Ezine Queen and other top success experts have made themselves available to teach you their powerful strategies for manifesting incredible success.

Want to know how to build a database that makes you money while you sleep? Check out my Marketing Tip in this month's issue.

http://www.turningpointpresents.com/newsletters/enewsjuly2007.htm

Have a great month and live with passion!

Kathleen Gage The Street Smarts Marketer