SiteSell Blog

How To Get to Carnegie Hall

Ken's Blog

As we trudge (it feels that way sometimes) through all the noise that spews forth daily in all the RSS feeds we follow, the sameness of it all, the "more it changes, the more it stays the same." Headlines...

• "The New SEO"
• "Quick and Dirty SEO"
• "10 SEO Tips You Need"
• "12 Fool-Proof Link-Building Strategies"

... pull you in. Can't afford to miss something good, something new.

We check them out, looking for just one idea that's not in the SBI! Action Guide or our HQs and that will actually work (i.e., is not spammy, dumb, etc.). With rare exception (sometimes that makes it actually worthwhile), there's not much there.

Frankly, if you follow many of those types of feeds or Internet Marketing sites/blogs, you'd be much better off following the forums right here. We pick up more good tips to turn into pearls, and then into articles (or add to existing articles or HQs or Search It!, etc.) here, than we do in the entire "Web marketing" industry.

What SBIers write every day, pushing the tools into new areas, coming up with new ideas on how to combine them, constantly amazes. Some days, it's small things, some days really interesting moves.

We also buy e-goods that sound particularly promising. Same bottom line...

Want to learn how to write a sales page? Read MYWS! (free). The rest of copywriting is practice, practice, practice.

Practice, by the way, is the best way, apparently, to get to Carnegie Hall.

That is a good metaphor for your e-business success. DO (i.e., practice). You'll get to your Carnegie Hall.

For more inspirations, read Suzanne's story... http://bit.ly/bseHKJ

All the best,

Facebook "Like" Buttons, Yay or Nay?

Ken's Blog

Is adding a Facebook "like" button to your site a worthwhile strategy?

YAY or NAY?

Well, here are the referrals from Facebook since starting a test on anguilla-beaches.com on May 1...

April -- 35
May -- 229 (start date May 1)
June -- 251
July -- 369

The bottom line is this...

1) Compared to tens of thousands of referrals from Google, this is zero traffic. Heck, Google Zambia alone sends more!  From a pure traffic viewpoint, it has not been worth the time.  

2) However, is this the beginning of something more important, like Facebook selling their social graph to Bing to improve their Search Engine or even Facebook getting into the search game?...

It Is Not Always About the Money

Ken's Blog

While SBI! is generally about business-building, we can measure returns on our investment in so many ways. For some people, it's when you know with a smile on your face that you will leave the planet a bit better than how you found it.

And that is one heck of a way to measure success.

See SBIer Sandy's story about her remarkable reward. I posted it at SiteSell Twitter...

http://twitter.com/SiteSell/status/19081527658

All the best,

Search It! Has Two New Searches

Business Tips

Check out the 2 new searches at Search It!...

Back Links > To SUBDOMAIN from Other Sites (SEOmoz)

Back Links > To Page from Other Sites (SEOmoz)

These two SEOmoz searches are useful ways to check links to your site and to any page on your site. Their results are also a good complement to similar data from Yahoo! (available via Search It!). Use the information to find out what you have to do to get a page to rank (compared to a page that's beating you), or to find sites that link to similar competitor pages so you can approach them for a link.

Successful SBIers take link-building seriously. They realize its importance and "just do it."

Build a diversified portfolio of quality links. And while doing it, keep it real.

There are services out there that will get you 500 crappy links from directories and article-submitting sites that are basically spam havens. They likely do more harm than good. (Google watches for low-value, fast-track stuff like that.) Don't fall for those schemes.

Test SiteSell's Value Exchange, a free tool that locates relevant links from credible sources for a link exchange. SBI! offers much more and ensures you develop a comprehensive, well-rounded inbound links program to generate high rankings and high traffic.

The Two Big Similarities of Golf and SBI!

Ken's Blog

I was reading an SBI! forum thread that got me thinking about how similar SBI! and golf are.

I was reminded of my first year in golf. I was going to Vancouver, Canada on business. My brother-in-law lives there and is a golf freak.  He wanted to play with me.

Great! He brought a friend. And this little old guy joined us to round out the foursome.

Long story short?; My brother-in-law shot 93. I shot 88 (not too shabby on a tough, hilly course in Vancouver). Beat him by 5 strokes, something I never let him live down.

Oh yes, the point of the story...

SBIers From Around the World

Ken's Blog

The other day, I noticed something on SiteSell Facebook and so I started a discussion on Facebook called...

SBIers From Around the World

http://bit.ly/ccr7pw

People are the same the world over. They want to live better and more freely. They want their children to be healthy, be well educated and to, um, leave home before they turn 40! Seriously, people are the same all over the world. SBIers are an subset of that population... the subset with BAM!

A few days, later, I revisited the discussion and was totally amazed. At that time, SBIers had already posted from...

Do Visitors/Customers Understand and Believe Your Message?

Business Tips

Studying the response of a new Web page or an e-zine issue helps you to fine-tune your message to just the right level of understanding and credibility.

Are there any confusing points or assumptions or built-in biases affecting the clarity of your communications? Tracking visitor/customer reaction to your content (in their blogs, e-zine articles, forums, etc.) can pinpoint where key tweaks are required.

How and where can you get visitor/customer feedback about your content so that you can fine-tune it until the right message is being "conveyed and weighed" properly by your target audience?

How and When To Monetize Your Site

Monetization

Building a Theme-Based Content Site is a flexible strategy that anyone can use to create an online income. But do you know the #1 mistake that most small business people commit while starting their online businesses?

They start with Monetization. For example...

Some people want to open an e-store and sell widgets. Great! But it's way too early to work on the M in Content Traffic PREsell Monetize. They need to nail down Content Traffic PREsell first.

Others have decided to start a work-from-home business. They've heard of Google AdSense and want to create a site just to "sell" AdSense ads. Good idea, but wrong mindset.

Others want to earn income by being affiliates, another way of never dealing with a customer. There are several other ways to earn "income without customers."

Or they are already eBayers and want to expand their established "power seller" eBay status, and drive more traffic to their eBay stores.

Perhaps they realize the power of the Web for building a Network Marketing business. What an advantage! MLM online is a disaster area. No one "gets it" yet! Build a C T P L site. What does the "L" stand for? Leads... warm, PREsold leads who call the MLMer!

Maybe they want to boost traffic to an existing e-commerce venture. Or even boost their local, offline retail store or real estate agency.

Or they have plans to write an e-book to sell from a dedicated sales page on their own site, and/or in other locations such as ClickBank's Marketplace.

These are all great ideas, but...

It's too early to have decided upon "the" way to monetize when they start building their online business. And it would be too early for you as well.

Here's another way to look at it...

Think of the M as the finish line, the gold medal, the trophy—after completing a road race or a sports event. It's what we strive for—the glorious reward for our efforts.

The M comes last, yes... But think about it before you build your web site, before you even settle for a site concept.

First, please realize that you most likely won't choose only one monetization model. A diversified portfolio of monetization options will build you a stronger, more profitable, and more stable business. So...

Even if you think you know exactly how you will monetize, don't lock yourself into one monetization model. Be willing to consider other ways to monetize. Why leave money on the table?

There are many more ways to convert C T P into M. A diversified business is a bigger, more prosperous business.

Check this site for examples of business models and how to make them thrive online: find.sitesell.com.

Give Prospects Enough Details To Move Forward

Business Tips

As your prospects move through the PREselling Cycle from "awareness" to "interest" to "ready-to-buy" (or "ready-to-hire" or "ready-to-book," etc.), they often reach a point where they need some details to move forward. They may even be considering other offerings and want to compare features.

This is the critical "we could lose them" stage. A comprehensive well-written overview of your product or service's features will lead your prospective customers safely to your order form (or respond to whatever "call for action" you have on your site). Your overview will also remove the possibility of them wandering off to a competitor's site.

Are you presenting the features of your product (or service) in the most thought-provoking, credibility-building, and action-motivating way possible?

How To Build An Online Business

Online Business-Building

Are you researching the best way how to build an online business? Perhaps you thought it takes magic or luck to be successful online? There's nothing mystical about it.

Simply follow a proven, results-generating process...

Content Traffic PREsell Monetize

It starts with your "pre-customer," the hundreds of millions of people who surf the Web every day...

People use the Web as a searching tool. They search for credible high-value information or solutions, anything that can fulfill a wish that they hold dearly or solve a troublesome problem that they're experiencing.

A Theme-Based Content Site contains information based on a main subject—the information that those people are searching for. Each page focuses on a single topic that's related to that theme. The sum of all the information on all your pages forms the Content of your site.

Your pages rank well with the Search Engines, since what the engines are looking for is quality content that they can send their users to. Your pages' high rankings at the engines attract lots of targeted Traffic. The high-value content "warms up" (i.e., PREsells) visitors by OVERdelivering what they came for... relevant information.

Visitors start to like and trust you, based on what you write about on your site. Your content-rich site builds trust and credibility... "PREselling!" You become a knowledgeable expert in the eyes of your visitors, who quickly become repeat visitors.

This credibility creates an open-to-buy or open-to-hire mindset. You are now a mere click away from Monetizing (converting PREsold traffic into dollars)...

• merchant-partner sites that you represent as an affiliate
• an order page on your site where a prospect can buy your own products (hard or digital goods)
• a contact form which visitors can use to follow-up with you for more details about your professional services or Network marketing business opportunity
• your own online store
• a site that sells a related, non-competitive service or product, in return for a referral fee
• your established sales site (become your own best affiliate!)
• an ad from Google's Adsense program
• any combination of the above or others!

This proven, results-generating process...

Content Traffic PREsell Monetize

... works.

Always keep in mind that you're in the "Content Delivery Business." Build up a solid site that OVERdelivers quality content. Find some inbound links. Then monetize. Follow that plan and you'll succeed!

Learn more about how to build an online business with the Content Traffic PREsell Monetize method.