Ebook Sample Content Preview:

The Viral Marketing Value of Blogging

How to increase the flow of traffic on a website is the recurring dilemma of webmasters. One of the methods that have spawned many success stories in driving traffic into websites is viral marketing.

Viral marketing is simply making use of the tendency of a person to share something they find informative, entertaining of amazing and blogging is one of the ways that viral marketing is facilitated.

These days, everybody is blogging and you can incorporate blogging into your sales marketing and have a lot more success.

It isn't that hard to do. Just have your customers write diary entries about goals they have reached using your product, the good emotions it's given them, the fears and worries your product has taken out of their lives, how bad their lives were before they bought it, how it has helped other people in their lives, how much better their lives are since they began using your product, and on and on.

Customers could update their blog daylily, weekly or monthly. It will depend on how often they use your product. If you are teaching them a skill, they can blog their progress.

You must provide your customers with web space for writing their online diary (blog) or have them e-mail you the blog entries for you to publish.

Your customer's online blogs can be made extra persuasive by including personal profiles, pictures, online video of them using your product, net audio of them talking about your product, and so forth.

An online blog would likely outsell the common testimonial because it is updated on a regular basis and gives more personal information and since a diary (blog) is considered private, it makes people more curious to read it and believe that what is said is true.

In the Days Before Blogs ....

In the early days of online listserv or discussion groups, a company that launched a product or new technology without the proper testing could be literally crippled by these groups.

There were instances where companies would discount the opinions of listservs as they watched their sales decline until they finally realized they couldn't simply ignore it and continue with business as usual.

It took a while, but companies finally understood that they had to go into the groups and communicate and manage customers and customer messaging with facts.

They had to be heard and they had to manage crises. A similar situation could occur today but we have the opportunity to build relationships with bloggers by giving them the facts that tell our story.

The power of communication belongs to bloggers and they lead the way with word-of-mouth (or mouse) marketing. They are serious enough about communication that they sign up for RSS feeds that alert them when one of their favorite blogs has been updated or modified.

It is a 'reminder" to check the blog. I'm sure you recall that listservs or bulletin boards drew many "authorities" who were able to shape consumer confidence of newly released tech products by posting and positioning themselves with their peers.

Bloggers are positioning themselves as experts to their peers. If the value of your company is in the hands of bloggers, shouldn't you know what they are saying about you?

Blogging is communication in, perhaps, its purest form. A big debate is currently underway regarding the usefulness of blogs as advertising vehicles.

The fact is that they are a very important channel through which we can reach our audience and one of the primary new ways we can effectively communicate brand messages in a genuine way to very specific groups of people who have hundreds of online acquaintances with those same specific interest.

The Viral Marketing Value of File Sharing

There are probably ten million people online, looking for downloads at any given time. Of course, a lot of them could be looking for pornography or free software but still, reaching a minimum on a million people on any given day does offer some rather intriguing possibilities.

For example, we'll talk here about music downloads. But don't think for a minute that file sharing applies only to music. Refer back to the section on video and audio files as viral tools.

People like using file services to download music for two simple reasons, they're free, and there is an incredible selection. The fact is Pandora's Box has been opened. In Napster's wake, other quasi-legal services quickly emerged... a lot of them. Even if they are closed, others will succeed them.

Major record companies would like to thing otherwise but they are never going to stop file sharing. Net users are file sharers...plain and simple. Long before the Internet came into being, people made cassette tapes of their favorite music for their friends. CD burners are so much easier and faster.

So how can you use this to help your viral marketing campaign along?

Think about this. Once someone downloads your MP3 files and those files are available on that listener's hard drive, viral marketing begins. After two users start sharing your files, suddenly, your music is on the hard drive of a second computer.then a third...and on and on.

When users are searching and they find your music on a lot of different computers, they are more likely to download the files. It's just a matter of time before you'll find your files showing up in more and more places.

Ebook Sample Content Preview:

CHAPTER 6 - LIFESTYLE CHANGES THAT MAKE THE DIFFERENCE

We've gone over a great deal of the nuts and bolts of how you can and will get fit for the New Year. Will you be able to STAY fit once you put in all the time and hard and smart work?

The answer to that very important question rests on whether you are able to make the positive lifestyle changes that support the fit new you rather than work against you.

Over the years, I have been able to identify some of the most common lifestyle changes that friends and clients have had to master before they were able to set their new levels of fitness in stone and not relapse back into their old ways. You have a HUGE head start knowing what to look out for as you make your New Year's weight loss goals solid and real.

Avoid the Negative Few Who Would See You Fail.

There's an element of person who feels VERY threatened by those who are able to work at positive self change -and especially at something like weight loss. Rather than asking how you were able to cut fat and trying it themselves they'd rather put temptation after temptation in front of you until you fall off track.

Do they do this consciously? Who knows, but it happens and happens frequently. If staying lean, healthy and fit is important to you a vital lifestyle change is to avoid spending too much time around this type of influence. They will only drag you down.

Get Off the Couch and Have Fun.

Your new body shouldn't just be for show. As you get in better and better shape make sure you have fun using it! This will reinforce the idea that the new you is worth the work and sacrifices. Play that old or new sport you love, going dancing or take the kids for an active day at the beach. All these things should be taking the place of television and video games more and more until NOT being fit becomes unthinkable.

Share What You Know.

A self help genius once said that the best way to keep what you have is to teach it to others. Do you have friends and loved ones who could use a bit of motivation or could benefit from the knowledge you have picked up from this Guide and elsewhere? Why not teach or train them? Who knows in the future this could even turn into a new hobby or a part or full time way to make a living. Stranger things have happened that's for sure.

Don't underestimate the power of these three lifestyle shifts. They may seem minor, but they are anything but. In fact they could be the deciding factor on how you look and feel two, five, ten years from now and beyond.

Being lean, attractive and healthy isn't a set of moves and diet choices. It's a way of life. A way of life that's probably one of the most rewarding things that you could ever dedicate your time and effort to. Give it your all!

CHAPTER 7 - KEEPING YOUR MIND RIGHT - THE INNER GAME OF GETTING FIT

Just about every top athlete would tell you, if you asked, that 90% of the physical game is mental.

Our minds command our bodies ultimately and staying on point with our weight loss goals has MUCH more to do with what's going on inside our heads than not. It’s only the rarest situation where our body will fail us in training and leave us with an injury. Taking the time to train safe largely prevents this.

On the other hand situations where a person trying to lose weight sees their minds fail resulting in skipped workouts or junk food eating binges are much, much more common.

Thankfully, there's a few simple things we can do to develop our "Inner Game" of fitness. These tips can make an ally of our minds rather than an enemy!
Use Positive Visualizations.

Our subconscious mind has great difficulty separating what we image from what has actually occurred or is occurring. This trait can be harmful, but when we harness it and use it to our advantage it can also be pure magic. How can we do this? Sit comfortably with eyes shut. In your mind imagine how you will look lean and fit in the New Year.

After around five minutes move on to yourself performing in the gym powerfully and dynamically. After a few minutes more move back to seeing yourself again lean and fit. In total this can be worked on for ten or fifteen minutes a day as many days as you are able. Watch the wonders ensue.
Practice Affirmations to Build Confidence.

Think of affirmations as an approach to the subconscious audibly like visualizations are visually. They pay off just as much. When both these methods are used they compliment each other perfectly. How do affirmations work? Take a short positive set of statements and repeat it to yourself, out loud in the morning and evening. An example: "I am healthy, fit and happy". Always state things in the present terms with "I am" and your goals stated as if already achieved. Never use "I want" or" I am not". The way the mind works these things don't sink in nearly as well.
When Stressed Breathe DEEPLY.

Breathing influences the mind. When you become stressed about your ability to achieve your New Year's fitness goals, or anything else really, breathe deeply. Here's a traditional "calming" breathing technique used in yoga. It's worked for over a thousand years. Inhale for a count of four. Hold your breath for a count of eight. Exhale for a count of twelve while you imagine your bad thoughts leaving with your breath. Repeat twenty times or until you feel yourself relax.

Don't be surprised if you feel yourself developing more mental focus and energy through out the day as you do the calming breath more frequently. These positive side effects come with the territory.

There's an inner and outer game to most things worth doing in life fat loss and fitness included. Now you're armed with the skill to become a champion of your New Year's weight loss inner game will you use it? I hope so, because this is one game that s definitely worth winning.

Ebook Sample Content Preview:

Building A Funnel

Much like a bottleneck, a funnel begins with a wide end and then narrows in a triangular shape to a small opening. Funnels are needed when filtering uncooperative materials, in order to make them cooperate accordingly.

In terms of funneling customers, the goal is often to sort out the unpredictable individuals in order to find those who are searching for your product or type of information.

Essentially, you will want to guide visitors through the site in order for them to end at a signup or checkout point, inviting them into your community.

Imagine the large end of the funnel as the initial goal of “Inviting Visitors.” These may be fans or they may be those who have literally stumbled upon the site by accident for the first time. Either way, the goal is to build a relationship with those who should belong to your group.

With this in mind, the next step would be to "Activate Members,” which consists of building a relationship with a customer or potential customer. The third step would be to “Retain the Customer.”
Three-Step Breakdown

Imagine the three steps as the beginnings of a relationship. The first step (Inviting Visitors) results from a type of activation upon their part. Imagine this is an attractive individual flirting from across the table. Much like a wink, new users must join an email list, create an account, or purchase goods on the site.

The next step (Activate Members) will then require that person to continue to use the product, much like being a romantic relationship where dates are the standard. This could include individuals who read and share emails or continue to purchase products on a regular basis. These users (Retain the Customer) most resemble getting married.

Understanding Successful Rates

It can be discouraging to have a scenario where thousands of individuals are visiting the site while only a handful of customers are actually making purchases.

In this scenario, it’s important to understand which conversation rates signify normal success. Honestly, the deeper into the funnel, the less traffic exists. Mathematically, imagine 100,000 visitors resulting in 1,000 members, which would be a 1 percent conversion.

Of those 1,000, let’s only 600 stick around, which would be a 60 percent conversion. While the numbers are helpful to determining individual growth, they are almost impossible to compare to one another.
Knowing the Variables

The first thing to consider would be whether or not your overall traffic specifically identifies with a product. If the product in question is an ebook about woodworking but the articles are about welding, many visitors will quickly move on to something else.

Much of this depends on the relationship of products available as well as the headlines of feature articles. With that in mind, there are specifics types of traffic sources that can convert members at higher rates than others.

Sometimes, this will be current trending topics or any of other countless examples.

In another scenario, consider your specific activation goal. Trying to get an email is much easier than trying to make a sale. Asking for smaller favors results in larger results. This is also true of high membership fees.

When considering retention rates, it’s also important to consider others within the same market. Certain products will feature more repeat users than others.

For example, high-end hand-crafted pieces of furniture may not have repeat customers while a fruit-of-the-month club will invite shoppers to purchase goods each month.

Determining Success

Once a growth hacker understands the variables, there are additional facts to keep in mind when tracking and expanding growth. The first rule is that numbers should always be improving.

Much like an athlete, there is never a reason to slow down or lose a step in a monthly training regime. In terms of analytics, visitors should grow each month on a steady incline. This has nothing to do with unknowns because growth should happen like clockwork despite any adventures in trial and error.

After setting up steady growth, consider tracking growth with a fellow hacker. Find somewhere with a product in a similar field that doesn’t specifically compete with your product and work together to find the most successful rates of growth.

Check one another’s numbers in order for both of your organizations to succeed. These examples may work better for area-based businesses such as a coffee shop in New York and another in Los Angeles. Another example may be two online companies who sell winter gear, where one sells hats and the other scarves. These methods truly help determine realistic conversion rates.

Finally, make sure that you are reading the data correctly. For example, if number of visitors increase but retention drops, take this into account correctly, rather than only looking at the drop of retention.

The main goal of tracking this data is to create conversion rates in various key points within the funnel. These various stages will work together over time to create a greater impact on the business as a whole.

Ebook Sample Content Preview:

Interior Decorating Services

If your interior design is the talk of all your friends, or you're known for your good taste in decorations, interior decoration might be the right angle for you. It's not easy, but you don't need professional certifications to get started - all you need is a good aesthetic eye, an ability to stay current on fashions and an intuitive sense of style.

Interior decorating is all about attention to detail. Once you've started your business, you'll develop a sixth sense for what "belongs" in a room and what changes need to be made to improve its beauty. You can learn best practices, past designing trends and industry standards by getting a degree at a school like Devry, but this is only a requirement if you want to go to work at a design firm; many interior decorators are completely untrained.

Interior decorating requires almost no startup capital, other than basic organizational and office supplies (and some highly fashionable clothing -you've got to look the part!) However, it can be difficult to build up a portfolio without any experience, so you may need to offer your services at a highly discounted rate to friends and family before you attempt to build a relationship with building contractors.

Jewelry Making

There are as many ways to start a jewelry making business as there are different kinds of jewelry. Whether you make hand woven hemp and bead necklaces to sell at the local market, or open up a metal shop and start working with precious materials like gold and silver, your options are endless. Depending on your own passion and your level of skill, you can make jewelry from glass, plastic, beads, feathers, bone and wood, just to name a few.

There is usually stiff competition at local markets for jewelry sales, so you'll need to work hard to differentiate yourself. It's more than just making sketches of your ideas - you need an in depth knowledge of styles, trends and materials. Most of the really unique, high-value jewelry that comes out of home-based businesses tends to be hybrid jewelry, in which several different materials are combined into a simple, but elegant piece. In order to make designs that wow your customers, you'll need to understand how to solder, shape and cast metal, set gems and other decorative pieces, and how to create jewelry that works with different bodies and body types.

There are degrees and certificates available in jewelry design that will teach you historical methods, such as wax design and casting, and current methods, such as using software to design pieces. Most local community colleges offer entry-level courses that will teach you the basics. This is one of the more cost-intensive home-based businesses to start but as an artistic endeavor, it's also one of the most rewarding.

Landscaping Services

If you were born with a "green thumb" and an overactive imagination, you don't need a college degree to get started with this job (although it certainly can't hurt you.) The bulk of landscaping services come from folks who are looking to have their yards fixed up, their lawns mowed, their leaves cleaned up and more. Many people with gardens also contract landscapers for debris removal and help with planting, cleanup and pest control, and there are business opportunities available in tree care, as well. Outside of plants, you might build retaining walls, irrigation, fencing and more. There is a lot to do in landscaping services!

Landscaping is hard, physical work, and it requires being outside in weather that's often terrible. But it's a rewarding business that can quickly grow once you've got regular customers that trust you and begin recommending you to their friends. To begin, get to know the horticulture of your local area - what kinds of different plants are trees are commonly planted? And remember that landscaping services will be very different depending on where you live. You're going to spend a lot more time maintaining small lawns in California, you'll be working with large trees in the South, and if you're in the Pacific Northwest, you'll be called on to help with gardening and urban farms.

If you want a professional degree, you can also consider becoming a landscape architect. These programs are available at most major four-year universities.

Marketing Copy Services

Copywriting differs greatly from creative writing, in that there is much less art in it and much more craft. Rather than trying to write something beautiful or engaging, a marketing copywriter attempts to get people excited about purchasing a good or service that your client is trying to sell.

Copywriting is one of those elusive skillsets that is easy to be competent at but incredibly difficult to become great at. It takes a lot of experience and education to get going, but it's a rewarding, fun job once you've invested the necessary time in getting it up and going.

If you don't have a Bachelor's Degree in either English or Marketing (it's best to have a major in one and a minor in the other) you'll need to go to a local community college or an online university and take some classes there. Copywriting has very specific formats, and businesses have very specific expectations that you'll need to meet in order to be successful. However, once you know what you're doing, it's relatively easy to find clients who need advertising copy (the Internet has caused a boom in demand for marketing copy) for their web pages, brochures, catalogs, e-mail marketing campaigns, advertisements and more.