A couple weeks ago, I was answering some interview questions for a joint venture project I am a part of and one of the questions got me thinking… The questions was “What was the tipping point in your business? What happened or what did you create that really pushed you over the fence so to speak?

If you’ve been connected with me for any length of time, you know that live networking is what helped me jump to multiple six figures. You may also know that hiring Brian allowed me to cut my work hours in half and still increase our profits year to year.

But what I haven’t shared with you yet are the opportunities for collaboration and joint ventures that are seriously taking my business and brand to a whole new level! Teleclasses and webinars have been solid avenues for collaboration and list building for me in the past and I believe the will be in the future too, but …

READ MORE

If you’re selling a product, program, or your services online and you’re using a shopping cart to do so, you need your website to convert prospects into leads, and leads into customers. And, If you’re like other entrepreneurs, you need your small business website to increase online sales and help you create multiple streams of income.

But the big questions is, “How do you do that?”

READ MORE

I can pretty much guarantee that if you own a business or do any business online, you have heard about how successful small business blogging can be for your business and how blogging for business can help you attract more clients, make more sales, produce more leads, create more opportunities, and generate more profits.

WordPress is the preferred platform that we at Bourn Creative build all of our custom small business websites and business blogsites on. WordPress allows us to design and build completely custom, branded, unique websites from scratch, with a complete content management system and blogging platform integrated right into the back end for ease of use.

If you want to leverage the positive results blogging for business can create for your small business, there are four things you need to take into consideration (other than using WordPress) when building a small business blog:

READ MORE

Content marketing is a hot topic among entrepreneurs who are looking to expand brand visibility, establish expert status, build backlinks, and increase website traffic.

Content marketing is a form of education marketing that refers to using content that you create to market yourself and your business. Content marketing can come in the form of blog posts, articles, videos, reports, ebooks, audio CDs, video DVDs, teleseminars, webinars, and more.

But let’s be honest. At some point it is inevitable that you will run out of new, fresh, never been published before content, and then what? What happens when you have nothing new to say or write about?

READ MORE

One of the primary goals of many websites, and ours too, is to build a quality list of prospective future clients and to continue to stay in the conversation with our current clients.

A very common strategy to build a database of names and email addresses is to include an email marketing opt-in form or subscribe form on every page of a website, and experts will often tell you the upper right-hand corner of a web page is the most effective pace to place it. Now it doesn’t have to be in the exact top right-hand corner, but in that general area is preferred.

To entice website visitors more, many website owners will offer an Irresistible Free Offer such as a special report, free CD, e-book, video, or audio recording. But these offers aren’t really free because visitors are required to give their name and email address to receive the gift.

READ MORE

Let me share a quick story with you…

You just got back from an absolutely amazing workshop or conference. You are pumped because the $3,000 you spent to attend was totally worth all the great networking and fantastic content you received.

You experienced a couple breakthroughs and ah-ha moments at the event and you feel great. You’ve got a lot of ideas that you want to implement, like new services, products, continuity programs. You also learned about some cool new tools you want to add to your business toolbox.

READ MORE

This is a difficult question and it is one that I tend to spend a lot of time on with my clients.

When it comes to Internet marketing implementation and choosing the tools and strategies you are going to use, the key is to do your homework. Research the different tools you are thinking about using, ask current users what they think about the tool and ask people who have switched to another tool why they did so. They key is to ask a lot of questions and think about how you want to use it in the future and if it can grow with your business as it grows.

Here are just some of the questions that you need to ask before committing to adding another Internet marketing strategy or online marketing tool to your business marketing mix:

READ MORE

No! In fact trying to do and implement every Internet marketing strategy as once is not just difficult, it is a recipe for overwhelm, frustration, and disaster!

Like the well-known phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none,” if you try to add too many new marketing methods and strategies to your business all at the same time, you risk not doing any of the as well as they need to be done and you risk confusing your audience.

Instead, you need to make a list of everything you want to implement in your business. Then you need to prioritize them in three different ways: difficulty, profit, and value.

READ MORE

Implementation is the GET IT DONE part of the marketing equation.

Simply put, Internet marketing implementation is taking action on your big ideas and using the tools available on the Internet to bring those ideas to life and market them to your audience. It is deciding which tools and strategies are the best fit for you and your business, creating an online marketing plan outlining how they will be used, and then putting your marketing plan into play and getting it done.

As the expert, you need to focus your time and effort on:

READ MORE

What is Internet Marketing?

The Internet isn’t magic. It may seem magical sometimes, but ultimately it is just a tool.

• It is a place to put your marketing materials – Your domain name houses your website or blog files.
• It is a place to communicate with other people – Email and instant messaging allows you to talk electronically with anyone in the world.
• It is a place to exchange material – Shopping carts and e-commerce allow you to buy, sell, or trade information, services, products, and ideas.
• It is a place to interact with other people – Social networking sites and blogs create communities and groups of like-minded people who engage in conversation.
• It is a place to share, learn, and teach – Free information shared in reports, ebooks, audios, videos, blogs, ezines, and websites to help other people.

READ MORE