Google Seminars For Free

Google is really great at helping us all learn how to use their services to grow our businesses.
Go to

http://adwords.blogspot.com/

Using Video To Grow Your Business

Check this link out now if you really want to learn some cool things. It’s a 10 buck product and after watching the video I bought it myself.
Go here now

SmartWay Marketing Goes to Hollywood?

Well, not exactly but sort of. Let me explain. As many of you know, I help companies grab new business, more sales and new customers by developing Google adword campaigns.

Recently I got a call from an excited client who said that the show “My friend Earl” [I think that's the title] called and wanted to buy some products after spotting his store on the internet. We were advertising Amish hats. Well, they not only bought over $300.00′s worth but offered to send pictures when the show airs!

How cool is that? You never know who you are going to reach using PPC [pay per click] advertising…and it’s so inexpensive when done correctly.

So if you watch that show and see them wearing Amish hats, let me know.

In a very short period of time we got 251 new visitors and sold to Hollywood!

Life is fun.

Yanik Silver/34 Rules

Hey team, take a look at these rules and let me know your thoughts. Yanik was visiting with Richard Branson on his private Island and was doing some brain storming. Lots of good stuff. Austin

34 Rules for Maverick Entrepreneurs

1. It’s got to be a BIG idea that you, your team and your customers can “get” in seconds.
2. Strive to create 10x – 100x in value for any price you charge. Your rewards are always proportionate to the value you provide.
3. You must charge a premium price so you have a large margin to provide an extraordinary value & experience.
4. Provide a ‘Reason Why’ customers should do business with you and pay you a premium.
5. Get paid before you deliver your product or service.
6. You get to make the rules for your business. Don’t let industry norms dictate how you’ll work or who you’ll work with.
7. Create your business around your life instead of settling for your life around your business.
8. Consistently and constantly force yourself to focus on the ‘critically few’ proactive activities that produce exponential results. Don’t get caught up in minutia & bullshit.
9. Seek to minimize start-up risk but have maximum upside potential.
10. Get your idea out there as fast as possible even if it’s not quite ready by setting must-hit deadlines. Let the market tell you if you have a winner or not. If not – move on and fail forward fast! If it’s got potential – then you can make it better.
11. Find partners and team members who are strong where you are weak and appreciate being paid on results.
12. Your reputation always counts. Honor your obligations and agreements.
13. Never, ever get paid based on hours worked.
14. Leverage your marketing activities exponentially by using direct response methods and testing.
15. Measure and track your marketing so you know what’s working and what’s not.
16. Bootstrap. Having too much capital leads to incredible waste and doing things using conventional means.
17. Your partners and employees actions are their true core – not what they tell you.
18. Keep asking the right questions to come up with innovative solutions. “How?”, “What?”, “Where?”, “Who Else?” & “Why?” open up possibilities.
19. You’ll never have a perfect business and you’ll never be totally “done”. Deal with it.
20. Focus most of your time on your core strengths and less time working in areas you suck at.
21. Make it easier for customers to buy by taking away the risk of the transaction by guaranteeing what you do in a meaningful way.
22. Always have something else to sell (via upsell, cross-sell, follow-up offer, etc) whenever a transaction takes place. The hottest buyer in the world is one who just gave you money.
23. Always go back to your existing customers with exceptional offers and reasons they should give you more money. It’s 5x less expensive to sell to happy customers than go find new ones.
24. However the flip side is – fire your most annoying customers. They’ll be replaced with the right ones.
25. The marketplace and competitors are always trying to beat you down to a commodity. Don’t let that happen.
26. Develop and build your business’s personality that stands out. People want to buy from people.
27. Create your own category so you can be first in the consumer’s mind.
28. Go the opposite direction competitors are headed – you’ll stand out.
29. Mastermind and collaborate with other smart entrepreneurs if they have futures that are even bigger than their present.
30. Celebrate your victories. It’s too easy to simply move on to your next goal without acknowledging and appreciating the ‘win’.
31. Make your business AND doing business with you FUN!
32. Do the unexpected before and after anything goes wrong so customers are compelled to ‘share your story’.
33. Get a life! Business and making money are important but your life is the sum total of your experiences. Go out and create experiences & adventures so you can come back renewed and inspired for your next big thing.
34. Give back! Commit to taking a % of your company’s sales and make a difference. It this becomes a habit like brushing your teeth pretty soon the big checks with lots of zeros won’t be scary to write. If you think you can’t donate a percentage of your sales simply raise your price.

Welcome to SmartWay Marketing!!

Thanks for stopping over. This is where you will learn how small business owners are finding innovative ways to out smart their competition both online and offline. The tools we will teach you how to use will be simple and straight forward. Let’s get started!!

The 1st step is to have a plan. If you need help with that, give me a call [717-687-5250] and I will get you started at no cost. Your plan should be simple and specific. You should be able to explain it in 30 seconds.

The next thing we will talk about is “accountability”. Too many times we get side tracked and our plans go unfullfilled. Again, I will show you some simple approaches to staying on track.

On the tech. side of things I’ll guide you on easy to use tools that will put you on the speed ramp to success!

Thanks again for visiting and don’t hesitate to call.

Austin Helsel

Surveys- How can your business profit from them?

I just filled out a survey that someone asked me 11 questions. All the questions were about what I was looking for and how they could serve me better?

It’s a great marketing tactic that is rarely used.

In fact, I have other marketing friends that never create any products until the prospects or customers first tell them what it is they really want or need. If they can’t get a good response it tells them that maybe it may not be much of an interest and they move on to other ideas.
If they do get good response, they get great ideas and know better how to sell and service their client base and prospects.

Who better to talk to than your customers? When was the last time you specifically asked them for their help?

Here is a great service you can use for free. www.surveymonkey.com Check it out. If you need some help, let me know.

This is the fastest, easiest and least expensive way to get more business.

Go do it now!!

Autoresponders

Are you using autoresponders? If not you should be. Why? You’ll simply get more business because you will automatically be in front of your customers and prospects all the time, especially when they are ready to buy. Check out this $17.00 product that you canot afford to be without. Go and see exactly what I mean. http://www.autorespondermagic.com/?51868 I will even help you with the easy set up.

What Is Your Website Saying?

Recently a high powered techy website design guy asked me to look at his site. He is one smart dude and I wasn’t
sure of what I could offer him!

Turns out, the website needed a ton of work…. or should I say “un work”. In other words it had WAY TOO much stuff on it and much of the stuff was repeating itself several times.

Less IS more with your website. Keep it very simple, determine exactly what it is you want a visitor to do and then DO NOT give him a bunch or other choices, regardless of how wonderful they may be.

Keep the focus and watch your sales and conversions INCREASE!

Want a Flood of Traffic?

Below is an article that ties in with what I was telling you about relating to Viral marketing. Read this and take Action. This works!
Article Writing to Promote Your Website
Congratulations, you’ve got a web site that you spent hours working on. It’s up and running, you’re proud of it (and of the content or products you sell) and you want to promote it.

Now, I’ll bet your web site has lots of interesting content on it, but by writing brief articles that further promote your web site, you will spread the word about your web site faster and further. Let’s say, for instance, that your web site is all about the virtues of a recipe called the Best Chocolate Pudding Ever. It has the recipe, fan clubs, links to other good (but not best) recipes, and visitors can even purchase the ready-made product on your web site.

Now, it’s a good bet that eventually, search engines will simply pick up on your product’s name, and that people will simply be directed to your site by doing a search for it. However, what if these poor people don’t even think about wanting to do a search for your product? In that case, you would want to direct them to your web site to check out information they didn’t even know they wanted (but you know they do) on your product.

One good way to do this is to place a link to a short article in your sig line (a brief descriptive line about you that appears after your name in e-mails) that describes, for instance, the virtues of your product. In this article is a link to your web site where they can find out more information. Then, presto, readers can go to your web site and find out all about the your product, including how to purchase it, fan clubs and the like.

Another place to submit articles that will promote your web site is to search for e-zines targeted to your web site’s subject area. Let’s say, for instance, that you find an e-zine called Chocoholics Corner. This is a perfect e-zine to promote your web site. It’s also always helpful to give readers of e-zines something for free. So, you write a brief article talking about the health benefits of chocolate pudding, how to incorporate it into a healthy diet or your best recipe for a face masque using it (which, of course, benefits the skin). At the end of the article, include a brief bio about yourself and a link to your site. You can probably find many, many e-zines targeted to your subject area that your web site would benefit and each of these e-zines would likely accept your article. Every subscriber to these e-zines would then see and read the article and, perhaps, click on the link to your site. You’ll have many more visitors to your web site instantly.

You can also join mailing lists for entrepreneurs where you swap tips with other like-minded folks, and in this way you’ll get to promote your web site. While not exactly article writing, it still is geared toward promoting your web site, and you may also discover some unique working relationships and collaborations by doing this.

Another way to do article writing to promote your web site is to swap articles with other similar web sites. This is similar to link swapping that you may have heard about, but, in this case, web sites actually swap content as well. Some informational web sites keep article files for download or e-books, for example. Swapping your content with other web sites in this manner not only promotes your web site, but theirs as well.

Yet another way to do article writing that will promote your web site is to offer to write content for other web sites in exchange for a link to your web site, and/or perhaps an ad posting. This is similar, in some ways, to the article swapping mentioned above, but instead of swapping articles, you simply offer to write an article or content geared specifically for that particular web site (of course, you can ask to have the same done for your web site as well, so this benefits you, too, and can give your content a more diverse flavor and voice than if you write it all yourself).

Again, not only are you further spreading the word about your web site, but you are inviting others to participate in its continual development. This provides you the opportunity to hear others’ objective opinions on how content can be improved. (Of course, keep in mind that all final decisions should remain yours as to what goes on your web site and its layout, etc., and don’t be unduly swayed by others’ opinions. It does help to have extra sets of eyes catching problems you might not – after all, you’re immersed in it daily – but that doesn’t mean you defer to others’ judgment over yours.)

Finally, a great way to do article writing to promote your web site is to start your own free mailing list or e-zine. Sites such as Yahoo.com offer free mailing lists that anyone can set up and it’s a very simple matter to start one. Whether you choose to start a mailing list where subscribers can converse back and forth or simply to start your own e-zine or newsletter, where you write the content of a single newsletter and then distribute it to subscribers every week, your subscribers will be introduced to your web site and continually exposed to it via your article writing. Additionally, distributing such a newsletter gives them the opportunity to pass the newsletter on to friends and family, so that those friends and family will seek out your web site.

All in all, article writing to promote your web site is fast, fun, free advertising that takes a minimum of time and effort on your part, with no ads to buy. Try implementing a few of these article writing tips. You’ll have visitors to your site in no time.

What Is Viral Marketing?

Viral marketing is a way to spread the news about a product or service that drives people to your site to get more of what you have to offer. Here’s an example, let’s say you love table tennis as I do and I video myself teaching a certain type of serve. I then post it on www.youtube.com and tell people they can see more videos by going to www.mytabletennisstore.com Other players see it and tell others to go to the site and it continues to bring traffic to www.mytabletennisstore.com all without spending any money on advertising. pretty cool. It is like a virus, a very good virus. 

One other of the many ways to use viral marketing is to write an article on a subject you enjoy. Submit it to article directories and it very well could get picked up and put on many sites if they believe it to be helpful to their readers. If you Google article directories or submit my article, you will find many places to submit your article. It should be about 500-700 words and be sure to include your link [your website address] so that you have a link for people to get to your site.

If you need any help with getting started with this, just let me know! Good luck!!