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Getting A Solid Internet
Marketing Foundation
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by: Willie Crawford
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Copyright
2004 Willie Crawford
As we look at building our online businesses, many of us acknowledge,
early-on, that we don't know it all. Those who don't, are almost
certain to fail because they often attempt to apply techniques that
simply don't work online - to their online businesses. The quickest way
to online success is to model those who are already successful at what
you want to do. It' s that simple.
Of all of the chores involved in building your business, marketing is
usually the most critical. Poor marketing is also the reason so many
businesses fail. You need to learn to properly market your business or
hire someone else to do it for you. I'll give you a few recommended
resources to help jumpstart your education in a minute.
A second extremely important skill that goes hand-in-hand with
marketing is generating publicity. You can have the greatest product in
the world, but if no one knows about it, it may as well not exist. If
no one knows about you, then you won't make any sales!
Let's look at generating publicity first...
Publicity can take many forms, and they often overlaps what many would
define as marketing. For today, I want you to focus on the most
effective, and often cheapest, publicity. In fact, this great publicity
is often free. What we're talking about here is publicity generated by
getting the media and others talking about you and your business. We're
talking about the publicity typically generated through tools such as
press releases and doing media interviews.
Why is the above type of publicity so powerful? It's so powerful
because people believe what others say about you MORE than they believe
what you say about yourself. So when you can get magazines, newspapers,
television and radio personalities, and even online ezines talking
about you, those hearing this buzz believe it more and are therefore
more likely to go check you out.
A second reason this type of publicity is so powerful is because you
can literally generate millions of dollars in free publicity if you
know what you are doing. You may not be able to afford a full-page ad
in a major magazine or newspaper. However, let the right person know
about your story and that same publication will be all to happy to tell
the world about you... and give them your website url and/or your
toll-free phone number.
Learning to get media attention is not hard. To make it even easier,
I've arranged for my friend, Annie Jennings, who runs a top PR agency,
to help you a little. Her site is at:
http://www.anniejenningspr.com/teleseminars.htm
I gave you the above url because it is the page where she tells you of
upcoming telesemianrs she's hosting on various promotion and
sales-related topics. These teleseminars are all free.
While at Annie's site, sign up for other goodies she offers including
courses in generating press releases, creating a platform, getting on
top radio shows, etc. She'll give you all types of freebies like
audiotapes and coffee cups. When I first met her, and she sent me an
intro package, it felt like Christmas :-)
So we'll let Annie turn you into a "media darling." Then you can focus
on learning marketing. This is where most online business people should
probably spend 80% of their time - not on all of the busywork that you
can get someone else to do. The highest and best use of your time is
probably in marketing your business, not making webpage updates,
writing or even creating products. You can get freelancers to do this
for you very inexpensively at places like Elance.com
Marketing is nothing more than communicating the benefits of your
products or services effectively to your ideal customer. It all hinges
upon effective communications, and your communications can be greatly
improved if you understand how and why we interact the way we do with
each other. To get a firm grasp on that topic I recommend that you read
the book, "Influence, The Psychology of Persuassion," by Dr. Robert
Cialdini.
You'll never be the same after you've read and digest this book. If
you're like me you'll find yourself reading it over and over! You can
find this book at online bookstores.
Another solid book on marketing is Jay Abraham's "Mr. X" book. This 376
page book distills several decades of the marketing know-how of Jay
Abraham. The full title of the book is "Money-Making Secrets of
Marketing Genius Jay Abraham And Other Marketing Wizards - A
No-Nonsense Guide To Great Wealth and a Personal Fortune." This book is
so good that you could devote six month just to studying the one book,
and you'd understand more about marketing than 95% of your competitors.
This book is marketed by the Abraham Marketing Group, but Internet
marketers working with the group run specials from time to time. Just
watch your email for one of these specials.
A course that I recommend that isn't just on marketing but on
developing the proper mindset is by Dr. Robert Anthony. It's called
"Know How To Be Rich." In order to run a really successful business,
you need to properly train your mind. Many people actually need to give
themselves permission to be successful. Dr. Anthony's course was a big
"A-ha" for me and many of my clients.
You can find it at: http://TheInternetLifestyle.com
You'll notice that none of the resources just recommended were
specifically Internet-marketing-only resources. That's because internet
marketing is just an offshoot of marketing, and most of the principles
are the same. Most Internet marketers who are struggling, don't have a
good grasp of the over-riding basic marketing principles. That's what
the above resources will provide.
Two Internet marketing resources I will recommend are a private
membership site I've set up, and a course on how to generate website
traffic. You can find my site at:
http://TheRealSecrets.com The webpage does a great job of explaining
why you need to be a member :-)
Without website traffic, your website basically has the same results as
a billboard on a highway that no one travels. It produces no results
because no one sees it. So you do need to learn how to generate
traffic. For that I recommend the very indepth, crash course offered by
John Reese's Traffic Secrets. I've personally gone through the 13 CD's
and DVD ROM's, and 3 manuals - TWICE.
You can check out this course at:
http://TrafficSecretsByJohnReese.com
It's a little expensive, but well worth it if you USE what he teaches.
If you aren't going to use it, then you should save your money.
If you work your way through the above resources you'll be well on your
way to building a massively successful online business. None of these
resources are something you give a quick glance and then the magic
happens. They all require effort. Put in the effort now and you'll have
a very solid foundation upon which to build your Internet marketing
business. By understand basic marketing, and then how the internet
differs, you'll possess some very powerful, rarely mastered knowledge.
About the author:
Willie Crawford is a corporate president, published author, seminar
speaker and host, tele-seminar speaker and host, retired military
officer, karate black belt, master network marketing trainer, and
lifetime student of marketing. He shows people how to actually generate
substantial income on-line using very simple, easily modeled systems.
An example of such a system that you can study and duplicate is at:
http://ProfitMagician.com
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