Well, how about if you’re new to using social media?

How are you coming along at understanding how to best leverage each platform?

Are You a Little Stuck?

If you do a bit of searching around you’ll probably find lists of social networks, and you might be overwhelmed by the sheer number out there.

Not to mention knowing which ones to use to best reach your target market.

Do you know the difference between the 4 biggies?

Are you familiar with the demographics of each?

Do you know which business opportunities each one offers?

Do you know where you should focus your efforts?

Do you know how to maximize your efficiency, so you have time to work toward your goals?

Here’s a Little Help

Download your FREE copy of Social Media for Small Business

Get all the answers to these questions and start using these FREE online tools to grow your business!

Social Media for Small Business is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

But first, you need to examine what your business message is, then figure out whether or not your website is conveying that message.

What’s the unique selling point for your business? What determines the effect people get?

What Message do You Want to Send?

Generally website design depends on your brand. A small business needs a different approach than a small business.

A large business might need to try to look extremely professional and not convey a lot of personality for fear of putting off a small group of people.

On the other hand, a small business may be better off not leaving a 100% politically correct perception that is so safe that it doesn’t give people any idea about who you are or what you stand for.

Ask yourself: What do you want to be known for in your industry? Does your website convey that unique positioning?

One Chance is Often All You’ve Got

One mistake many website owners make is that they assume they have their reader’s attention and have time to carefully tell them what their business is about.

The reality is, you really only have about two seconds for a website to capture the attention of a visitor. In those two seconds, your visitor needs to know how you might be able to help them as well as the overall “vibe” of your site.

Then your visitor will decide if she wants to keep browsing or not. This browsing tendency makes it absolutely crucial that you grab your visitors attention quickly.

Probably the most important website design tip is to look at the things that are visible “above the fold”, meaning within the first screen without scrolling.  Do you advertise your newsletter or e-zine “above the fold”?  If you do, great.  If not, try an experiment an move it and see if you get more subscribers.

Is it Easy to Use?

The second most important website design tip is how easy is your website to use? Do users struggle to find navigation buttons? Can someone easily find what they’re looking for, or is it a difficult process for them?

It’s easy to think to yourself that you’re doing great in this area, when really you’re not. The only way to know is to actually observe how your users are using your website.

Ask five friends or five family members to browse the site with you watching. See where they initially put their attention, then what they try to do and any hang-ups they have. Ask them for suggestions.

Your best redesign ideas and improvement ideas often won’t come from you – they’ll come from your users.

What Next?

Ask yourself what do you want your visitors to learn from visiting your website. Then figure out what kind of impact you’re actually leaving by asking and observing users interacting with your website.

Use what you learn to redesign and tweak your website to better target the kind of experience you want your visitor to have.

What are some other website design tips that you have found to be important in building a user friendly website? Please share below.

Website Design Tips for Connecting With Your Customers is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

If you’ve ever been a salesperson, you know how important it is to understand your customers’ wants. The most successful salespeople get in a conversation and ask their prospects what they desire before attempting to sell to them. They are trying to identify whether they have a solution that would meet those needs.

You have to do the same thing. If you just ram your product down their throats, you won’t make money. You first have to identify customers needs, and then tailor your product to meet those needs.

Here are four tips to help you know your customer:

Get in Their Heads

This is actually a method the world’s best copywriters use. All you do is put yourself in your prospects’ shoes, and imagine how they live their lives.

Think about every detail. This will help you speak to them better, because it enables you to know what they want. In order to do this, you have to know your target customer. So figure this out before doing anything.

What are Other Businesses Emphasizing

One of the best ways to determine your customers’ problems is to read other sales letters. Notice what benefits they are emphasizing. If you see multiple sales letters all emphasizing the same points, then you know it’s something important. Then focus on creating a better solution than anyone else.

Do a survey

This is one of the simplest strategies, but it works. Asking your customers what their main problems are and the more conversational you make the conversation the more you’ll learn. Then you have to figure out how to provide the best solution.

Two easy ways to survey your customers on your site is to use Survey Monkey or create a questionnaire in Google Documents using the Forms option.

As long as you ask a reasonable amount of customers, you will have a good idea of the primary problems your target market is facing. As a matter of fact, it’s a great idea to make this a habit.  Customer needs change and to know your customers and to be able to provide the best solutions, you need to learn their “pain”.

Visit Forums

Here you will see the main problems people are talking about. This will also help you to know what to focus on with your product. If you see certain questions coming up again and again, you know this is something you want to emphasize.

The Bottom Line

Identifying your prospects’ problems is very important. Implementing these four tips is how to quickly identify the problem. Then you simply have to come up with a better solution than any other business. If you genuinely want to help people solve their problems, making money is the inevitable result.

What Next

Strike up conversations with your customers and ask them what their frustrations are and different solutions they have tried. Once people feel you are interested in helping them, the conversation starts to flow and you’ll know your customer better than you ever thought possible. Then you can provide them with the best solution.

If you would like a little more guidance in how to know your customer to provide the best solution, we’ve have an entire series (with workbook) to help you put together a Simple Business Plan.  And of course, you can send me an email if you have any questions.

How to Know Your Customer is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Actually, this is one of the more important elements to a company. If you don’t have a USP, you are just a “me too” firm trying to sell the same thing as everyone else.

Without something to make you stand out, you likely aren’t going to stay in business long. This is particularly true if there are a lot of companies you are competing with. And having something that makes you stand out will enable you to charge more money than most companies as well.

However, just having a USP is not enough. It has to be a good one.

Here are three tips for getting the most out of your unique selling proposition:

Your Biggest Promise

You need to put your best foot forward with your unique selling proposition. This is what will make you stand out. Ideally it should revolve around the main benefit of your product. You know your customers are going to care about this. Try to come up with some sort of guarantee that no one else can match.

An example of a good one would be a “double money back guarantee” if your product doesn’t produce the desired benefit. Almost nobody offers this, so it will make you stand out. Just think about what your customers want, and then come up with a USP that meets that need better than anyone else.

Focus on Your Customer

Your USP is not meant to be something about your company. Instead it needs to involve a benefit to your customer.

People aren’t concerned with the length of time your company has existed for. They want to know what you can do for them. So focus on that in your unique selling proposition .

Promote it Heavily

There is no point in having a unique selling proposition if you aren’t going to advertise it. This should be the main point in you advertising messages.

When you think of Geico commercials, you probably think of “15 minutes could save you 15% or more”. That’s because they promote it in every single advertising campaign, from TV ads, to radio, billboards, and so on.

You can do the same. Always mention the USP at least once, ideally in the headline of the ad. This will ensure it has the maximum effect

Take Home

An effective USP will bring you more business. It’s absolutely essential. The last thing the world needs is another business that provides the same solution that hundreds of other companies do.

This will not only get you more business, but also enable you to charge more money. The more value you provide, the more you can charge. Implement these three tips, and you will have an effective unique selling proposition very soon.

If you would like a little more help on figuring out your unique selling proposition, we’ve have an entire series (with workbook) to help you put together a Simple Business Plan.  And of course, you can send me an email if you have any questions.

What’s YOUR Unique Selling Point? is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Like other tools you evaluate before using them in your business the Internet is no different.  Proper planning and understanding is crucial to your success online.  If you think that you’ll just put up a website and start blogging and customers will come running – I got news for you and you’re not going to like it.

When you are starting a small business website, there are a number of things to consider, like goals for your website.

Here are three more questions you’ll need to think about before you jump in:

Should You Design it Yourself?

Outsourcing the design is more expensive. However, it might be smart if you don’t have experience with it. There are plenty of companies that will do it relatively cheaply.

The cost depends on the site. Some can be done for $200 or less, whereas others will run you $5000 or more. It simply depends on how elaborate you want the site to be.

And the third option is to get software that will essentially build it for you. It costs a little, but it doesn’t require a lot of technical skills. Software is great for most simple websites.

How Do You Get Targeted Traffic?

There are a number of strategies that work. SEO is one of the most popular. This is probably the least effective for a local business website, because of the scarcity of “area specific” keywords. However, if there are enough searches it might work.

An “area specific” keyword is one that has a location in it. Examples would be “Newark bunk beds”, “Chicago golf courses”, etc. But this is usually going to be fairly limited, because there will probably only be a few good area specific terms.

To really boost your traffic, do a pay per click campaign with “geo-targeting”. This means you will only show up for a keyword when somebody in your location searches for it.

So if you geo-target Newark for the keyword “bunk beds”, you will only appear when somebody from Newark types this in. If somebody from Chicago searches for”bunk beds”, you won’t show up. Finally, you can use other methods to market your online business offline direct mail campaigns, as well as classifieds to get visitors.

How do You Make Money From Your Site?

That will require good marketing skills. Make sure the site is easy to navigate, and that the prices are competitive. This is particularly important if you are selling a commodity product. If you have specialty goods, you can charge more.

One thing you might want to do is split test different pages in pay per click, and see which page converts the best. Just test different features on the site, and see what works and what doesn’t. This will help your maximize your conversions.

The Bottom Line

It’s better not to restrict yourself to one location. However, if your business is not designed to handle customers around the globe, implementing these three tips is how to target local customers and have a thriving small business website.

If you would like a little more guidance in starting a small business website, we’ve have an entire series (with workbook) to help you put together a Simple Business Plan.  And of course, you can send me an email if you have any questions.

3 Musts When Starting a Small Business Website is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Before you write even one word, answer the following questions:

Why are You Blogging?

To establish yourself as an expert? Attract traffic? Make sales? Share your opinions? Choose one or at most two primary goals to keep in mind, and write each and every post (article) with those goals at the forefront.

How Often are You Willing to Blog?

Not just next week, but next month and next year…it’s common to start out a small business blog with a bang, declaring to everyone that you’re intent on blogging every day for the rest of your natural-born life. You’re all revved up to take the blogging world by storm, and you do it – for a month. Then you start getting distracted by other things. Your posts start dwindling, from every day, to five days a week, to three days a week, until you’re struggling to update once or twice a week. No good! Pick a schedule you can stick with for the long haul. If you’re able to post more than that, “bank” some posts for the future so you have some in the can for when time is tight or you want to take a vacation.

Who is Your Audience?

Are you writing to consumers, prospects, potential partners, other professionals? Each audience will require a different “spin” on your approach. While you can have more than one group reading your small business blog, know who your primary reader is, and direct your posts at him or her.

What do You Want to Write About?

Even within a very slender niche, the possibilities for topics abound. If you write about fitness and weight loss, you could write about news, personal challenges, debunk myths, expert advice, products, or a combination of all of above. If you write about personal finances, you could do budget makeovers, review books, give tax tips, provide personal finance humor, or warn people about scams. Figure out your unique spin based on your business’s unique selling proposition and your blog goals.

So how did you do answering these questions?  Setting up proper expectations is crucial to your success.  If you need some time to think about it, take the time.  The more time and thought invested in the beginning is less stress and frustration later.

If you would like a little more guidance in setting up your small business blog goals, we’ve have an entire series (with workbook) to help you put together a Simple Business Plan.  And of course, you can send me an email if you have any questions.

Business Blogging: Small Business Blog Goals is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

With over 150 million blogs in Cyberspace and thousands more being created every minute, having a blog is no longer an option for  business owners; it’s a must-have. Regardless of your industry, one of the first places your customers and potential clients are going to go is your website, and if all you have is a basic page with contact information, they’re going to be pretty disappointed.

This next series we will cover the basics of setting up and launching your own blog. I’ll also include some tips for choosing topics and promoting your content. By the end of this series, you’ll be primed to join the ranks of millions of people who’ve successfully added a blog to their business website for greater visibility and stronger customer relationships!

Today’s customers want interaction, frequently updated content, and on-demand information, 24/7. Using a blog is an ideal way of delivering this info.

How to Start a Website Successfully

Starting a website is fairly easy, but to do it right you need to plan and prepare all the parts that go into a successful website.

So with this in mind this series will be very comprehensive and we’ll be covering:

Mindset: Purpose and what to expect from you blogging efforts

Small Business Blog Goals

3 Musts When Starting a Small Business Website

What’s YOUR Unique Selling Point?

Getting Started Components: Items needed to prepare and have lined up

Content Preparation: Information to include

Website Design: Options and how to

Website Plugins: Must-have and nice-to-have

Resources & Other Information: Information about services and misc information

What’s the Big Deal about Blogs?

If you’ve turned on the computer in the last three to five years, you know that blogs are online journals on topics from taxidermy to debt eradication, hosted by everyone from Fortune-500 CEOs to the ten-year-old next door. But how this can impact your business may not be completely clear to you.

In sum, your blog may very well be the most powerful marketing tool you can use for branding your company, attracting targeted visitors, educating prospects on your products and services and much more.

First, they are quick to start. The current hosting platforms allow you to get up and running in a matter of minutes. The software itself is easy to learn, easy to customize and a great way to create a dynamic online presence without a lot of technical knowledge.

They are also an inexpensive way to get your business online. You can integrate your blog into your website if you choose, or use one of the many templates available and just link your blog to your website and host it elsewhere. Either way, it won’t break the business bank to set up a company blog, and the benefits will be well worth any cost or effort involved.

A blog gives your targeted audience, customers, potential partners, and even employees, easy access to news and information about your company, products and services. You can share policy changes, product information, new releases, online coupons, behind the scenes insider info, and more.

You can add video, audio, and other custom elements to make your site truly reflect your business’s brand. A blog can do what a newsletter or ezine has done in the past, only better.

One of the biggest benefits of blogging is that Google and other search engines love blogs; the frequently updated content, the links in and out, and the repeat visits make for high search engine rankings. Google will index your posts almost immediately, which isn’t necessarily the case with a traditional, static website. That means you can post sales and ads that you might not be able to promote with another online format.

Regular updates will keep your website visitors returning more frequently and staying longer once they find your site.

Your blog can also help you build a relationship, or strengthen a relationship with your customers, prospects and website visitors through greater interactivity and two-way communication. Visitors will be able to quickly and easily share their comments and suggestions with you, which will help you better understand your customers and respond to their comments.

Business Blogging: How to Start a Website Successfully is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

If you have a business it’s crucial to your success that your customers can find you easily. You wouldn’t set up your bakery shop in an obscure back alley. It’s essential that your customers be able to easily find you.

If you have a Twitter account as one of your business marketing strategies, most likely it’s branded with your, or business, name. It makes it a lot easier to direct customers to your information.

Google has now introduced a new social marketing tool Google+ and it’s a great application to combine your business and personal contacts. Once you set up your account you’ll notice in the browser bar an incredible long sting of numbers that’s associated with your account – your URL.

It’s hard to direct anyone you meet in person straight to your G+ Profile because of this long URL. A fantastic lady and business owner I recently met, Andrea Lyons, shared a way to make it easier to direct your friends and customers to your G+ Profile.

The Little Problem With A Google+ Profile

This is another place, if you set it up correctly, that customers can connect with you.  It can add to your current brand marketing strategy and reach even more clients. There’s only one problem, the URL address is a series of 21 numbers, not to easy to remember. And according to Mashable it’s probably not going to change,

“The reason Google+ doesn’t use vanity URLs is because those could lead to spammers figuring out the email addresses of millions of Google+ users (since many Google Accounts are linked to Gmail accounts).”

So how can you get customers to your G+ Profile easily? Get a vanity URL!

How to Get Your Own Google+ URL

This will take you all of 5 seconds. There’s a new application Gplus.to http://gplus.to/ that takes your name (or however you want to brand your account) and Google+ ID and creates a URL that’s easy to share and a lot more attractive.

 Something to Consider

Most people are going to want their URL to have their name in it. So, if your name is already taken, you’ll need to come up with an easy variation of it. Or, combine it with your business or even use your business name, if you set up your G+ Profile as a business hub.

What To-Do Now…

Go to Gplus.to and get your branded G+ URL, then stop by and say, “Hi” and add me to one of your circles.  You’ll find me at gplus.to/TheresaDelgado.

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How do you plan to use your customized Google+ URL in your brand marketing strategy?  Please share below.

Thanks for reading,

~ Theresa

Brand Marketing: How to Customize Your Google+ URL is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Your workplace is your productivity center. When productivity begins to wane, consider looking at your home office for the cause. A few small changes can make all the difference.

Distractions

Is there a television in your office? If so, consider getting rid of it. It’s a likely distraction. Additionally, while having several monitors and computers may seem like a productivity enhancer, it can also be distracting – particularly if one computer monitor has email or a social networking site up on it. Evaluate what you REALLY need in your home office and pare down if possible.

Of course people can be a distraction too. If you’re constantly bombarded by visitors or the telephone or text messages, consider turning these items off. Hang a “Do not disturb” sign on your door.

How Comfortable Are You?

If you’re uncomfortable in your  office you’re going to be fidgety and distracted. Many things contribute to your comfort level. For example, is your office chair supportive? Do you have a comfortable place to rest your feet? Is your desktop too tall or too short?

What about the temperature? Too hot or too cold and you may spend time feeling sluggish or shivery.

Lighting

Lighting can be a tricky thing in a home office. Natural light is best but it can often cause a glare on your computer screen. Task lighting and overhead lighting can be difficult to get right.

Consider using high quality natural daylight light bulbs. These bulbs are the closest thing to natural light. They make you feel awake and improve your ability to function and increase your productivity.

Eliminate Clutter

Clutter is distracting. It’s also stressful and a waste of time. If you have to spend more than a few seconds looking for something in your  office, it’s too much.

Create systems that keep your office organized and your workspace clutter free. Follow through on those systems by creating habits. For example, when you get the mail each day, don’t just dump it on top of the pile. Sort it and file it immediately.

Color and Design

Your home office doesn’t need to look like it came out of a magazine to be effective. However, it does need to make you feel positive and productive.

Consider the colors on your walls, the layout of your furniture and how comfortable you feel. If you dread going in there then it’s certainly not doing the job.

Look for colors that support your personality and increase productivity. Rearrange the furniture so you’re comfortable. You want your  office to be a place you look forward to going into each day.

Spend some time analyzing what is and isn’t working in your home office. Make changes and evaluate the outcome. Are you more productive? Chances are the answer will be a resounding YES!

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What have you done to your workspace to increase your productivity?  Please share below.

Thanks for reading,

~ Theresa

How to Increase Productivity in Your Workspace is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Marketing your brand, even on a budget is very doable, you just need a few tips to get you going in the right direction.

How do you build a strong brand?

How can you consciously construct how people think of you and your company, without having a corporate advertising budget?

Here are a few smart ways of marketing your brand without breaking the bank.

Negotiate Advertising

Advertising in your local radio or newspaper is just too expensive for the small business. Or is it?

If an ad’s rate card rate is $1,000 a month, there’s a very good chance you could get it down to a more reasonable price with some shrewd negotiating.  With the increase use the internet local papers are more open to working with advertisers.

How?

It’s important to realize that most newspapers struggle to get advertisers. When a newspaper goes to print, any unused ad space is basically money lost. It costs them the same amount of money to print the paper; they’re just not making as much money. So they’ll often be happy to take your money, even if it’s far below what they’d normally want.

Start by asking what their remnant rate is. Remnant is basically the price for unused advertising space. You can often get a 30% discount right off the bat this way.

Then ask if they honor the 15% in-house agency discount. Basically, ad agencies always get a 15% discount, which isn’t passed to the client (they take it as profit). In other words, by not using an ad agency, you can take the discount for yourself.

Now you’ve already saved 45%. Now try asking for their bulk rate for 3 months, 6 months and 12 months.

The rest is up to you. The goal is to try to get the 12-month rate for a one or two month test to see if the medium works out for you. Using a combination of negotiation techniques, you can get as much as 80% off.

Small Businesses Need to Focus on Response First

A large business can afford to put their time and energy into just branding, rather than direct sales efforts. A small business, however, needs to focus their main attentions on building sales today and branding for tomorrow.

If you’re spending money on advertising, your goal is an action taken by your target market. Those can be email sign-ups, sales or phone calls, but branding just isn’t enough for a new small business.

Aim for sales and reap the benefits of marketing your brand as a side benefit.

Use a Variety of Media

Research has shown that people who see an ad again and again through different media are a lot more likely to buy.

Let’s say someone sees your banner ad on a relevant website. Then they see an article you wrote on an industry leader’s blog. Finally, when they’re searching for information on a related topic, they see your Google AdWords ad (because you did your keyword research properly).

By now, you’ve built up so much credibility just by appearing multiple times in different media that they’re likely to click just out of curiosity.

Where are your customers?

If you’re marketing a local business, try mixing local media like radio, newspaper and perhaps even direct mail or postcards.

These are a few smart ways to build your brand effectively. Take care of your bottom line first by generating sales, while being conscious of your brand. Use a variety of media to target the same audience.

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What have you done to market your brand that work very well?  What about something that didn’t turn out like you’d hope? Please share your experience below.

Thanks for reading,

Theresa

3 Effective Ways of Marketing Your Brand on a Budget is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

But, how can you build influence?

How can you turn that influence from an intangible asset into cash?

Most think you have to practice some sort of sleazy sales tactics, but that could not be farther from the truth.  Influence comes from being committed to providing value. It develops over time. You can’t fake it and if you do, it will come across and your business will suffer.

One of the best ways to build influence is by providing a solution to your customer’s problem.

Fix their problem and they look to you as an authority.  Take away their fear and they’ll be grateful.  Which in turn, will result in referrals and positive word-of-mouth advertising for you.

At the end of this article is a great resource to learn more about the psychology behind this marketing strategy.

Here are 3 ways how to wield the power of influence.

Building Your Network of Contacts

Your contacts are everything. Whether you’re a solo entrepreneur or a high-end consultant, a Fortune 500 CEO or a programmer looking for a job, your contacts are everything.

Be active about cultivating your network. Go to minglers, seminars and other such events in your area and get to know the players in the industry.

Seek to build real relationships. It’s not about building acquaintances, but building real friendships with people.

Help Others First and Trust That It’ll Come Back

What good will come of having lunch with someone you met to help them with their business? Quite possibly nothing. But it’s also quite possible that he or she will know someone who can help you in your business, and their glowing testimonial for your character is just what you need to get your foot in the door.

The business community is a cycle of give and take. Those who are generous about sharing their ideas, their time and their contacts often find the same kindness returned.

Be the person who helps others in your community. You might not see the benefits right away, but the goodwill you build up will come back to help you.

Sell without Selling

Many people feel that selling damages their relationships and weakens relationships. When done properly, however, selling can do just the opposite.

If you view selling as trying to force someone into a decision on something they either don’t want or aren’t sure they want, then selling will indeed damage the relationship.

However, if selling is done right, it should be a match of win-win situations. A consultant “sells” a client on being able to help them solve a problem. As a result, they both make more money. Or a headhunter sells his services to a CEO and helps him get his ideal job.

The list goes on and on. If what the seller is offering and what the buyer wants are a match, then the sales process is easy and actually strengthens the relationship.

A good sales process should be more about discovering what the other person wants and creating a tailor-fitted product or service for them, than trying old-fashioned hard-closing techniques.

This is especially true if you want to build your influence and bring in more sales in the future. Build a reputation for helping people, not taking their money. Do this consistently, and your reputation and influence will build accordingly and, as a result, you will increase sales.

To learn more about the fundamentals of the power of influence read Robert B. Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.  In it he discusses how understanding 6 principles can help you build a strong relationship with your customers and increase your sales.

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If you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, please share them below.

Thanks for reading,

~ Theresa

How the Power of Influence Can Increase Sales is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could clone yourself?  You’re probably thinking that would surely help increase your personal productivity, but would it?

Let’s go to the Land of Fantasy and see what this would be like for you.

OK, so you have two of you and all of your to-dos…now what?  How would you sort through assigning all that you have to get done?  Would you divide your list of tasks in half and give the other half to “clone you”?  Would you give “clone you” the stuff you could not get done during the day?  Would you go crazy and give ALL your tasks to “clone you” and you could have the freedom to do what you enjoy?

And then after you get used to “clone you”, do you think you’d eventually need to clone “clone you” because you’d have more to-dos than the both of you could complete?

Sounds like you’d be back at the beginning with the same problem – How do you increase productivity?

What do You Imagine as True Personal Productivity?

So let’s leave the Land of Fantasy and travel to the Land of Reality.  What does increased productivity look like to you?  Is it getting a ton of stuff done? Is it always knowing where your things are?  Is it having a system that will allow you room to grow as your responsibilities change?  Is it being able to access information you need quickly?  It’s probably all of these, right?

Increased productivity starts with an effective organization plan.

If you could have a system that allowed you to know where information was and was easy to access, would you be super productive?  Well luckily, the Land of Reality has technology. Although there isn’t one tool that can meet your every need, there are two free tools that can help you be more productive everyday.

Evernote

Photo Courtesy of Wkipedia

Evernote has so many functions it is amazing and it can be downloaded to a mobile device as well as your computer, so transferring data is effortless.

So, how can Evernote help you?  It is wonderful for collecting all of your ideas – notes, checklist, voice memos, clipping a web page or screenshot, filing pieces of information into Notebooks (folders), and accessing items quickly when you need them.

Let’s walk through an example.

Let’s say you are in charge of organizing an out-of-town business meeting.  You need to secure the hotel, meeting rooms, menus for breakfast and lunch, restaurants for dinners, and travel.  It would be great if all these were in one place.

The first thing you do is start making your outline/checklist of everything that needs to be done.  Since things pop up a lot, you’ll be able to easily modify your list and save audio notes, too.

You know the city, so you start looking for hotels and you take a screenshot of the two you would like to check for availability. After you talk to their Sales/Catering Manager you save the information in Evernote (tagged with the meeting and hotel name – which makes it easy to find later).  Now you need some restaurants for dinner – will talk about this in a second.  You check out travel arrangements for the attendees and file that in the proper Notebook.

As you make your final hotel decision and work through all the rest of the details, everything is nicely saved in Evernote.  It’s all easy to find because you put the information into Notebooks and tagged items.  When you need to share the information, you can easily email right from Evernote. You can even allow your Notebooks to be shared with others.

Now let’s pick some restaurants.  There’s a super tool with a lot of information.

OpenTable

So, you’re planning this meeting and you need some good (I mean) great restaurants for your group.  You’re going to a city you’ve never been to and want to minimize having a bad experience.  Never fear, OpenTable is here.

OpenTable is conveniently accessible on mobile devices and your computer.  Once you pick your location, date, time, and how many in your party, the magic starts.   You can filter the choices by cuisine, price, and neighborhood. (BTW, it lists restaurants in the United Sates, as well as Internationally.)

A list comes back and then you can view the menu, read reviews, and also see the exact location of the restaurant. After you’ve made your decision, you finalize the reservation time and a confirmation is emailed to you. You can then forward this to your Evernote account, tag it and file it into the appropriate Notebook.  (You could even take a screenshot of the menu.)

Using OpenTable myself, I have never had a bad experience. Using this tool to do your homework when you need a good restaurant will get you a lot of kudos from friends and coworkers.

How Does This Work for You?

You might not find yourself planning out-of-town business meetings, maybe you have several projects you’re working on.  Being organized will, without a doubt, increase your personal productivity.  Using Evernote, you’ll have quick and easy access to lists, ideas, and information.  If you need to share your Notebooks, it’s easy to allow others access.

You need to eat, whether out-of-town or close to home. OpenTable can help you make a reservation easily and quickly.  No more endless searching the internet, restaurant by restaurant, making calls to each one individually to find out their availability.  The more efficiently you spend your time, the more productive you’ll be.

So, what are you waiting for?  Start using these free tools today and increase your personal productivity. You’ll have more time to do what you enjoy!

Learn how to build a successful online presence  for your small business.  Reach your target market and grow your business. Sign up for the FREE Newsletter and have all the effective techniques and valuable skills delivered right to your inbox.
Get Online Marketing Strategies today!

If you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, please share them below.

Thanks for reading,

Increase Your Personal Productivity Tremendously with 2 Free Tools! is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Keyword Analysis Part 12 of 12

Hi, glad you’re here! This is the last part in the series that is designed to guide you through finding the best keywords for your small business. If you missed it, here’s the link to start from the beginning and get all the juicy info -  Part 1 Keyword Analysis: How Keywords Work.

By now your should have finished your business plan.

If you are just joining us for the first time, first I’m glad you’re here, and you are probably wondering “What business plan?”. Our first series was dedicated to putting together a Simple Business Plan to market your small business online.  There is a downloadable kit and a series of 7 articles to walk you through step-by-step. So, go check it out Simple Business Plan: Goals for Your Website.

Now that we’re all the same page, let’s move onto part 12…

The Secret to Web Site Never Ending Traffic

Keyword research is not a one-time thing. It’s an ongoing process that requires you to continually be on the lookout for new keywords. Keep an eye on the competition, revisit your favorite keyword discovery tool, and read everything you can about your subject, and you’ll have a never-ending supply of keywords you can use to build content, drive traffic, and make sales.

It’s also worth noting here that while there are many tools – Google Keyword Tool, Wordtracker, Market Samurai – you can use to discover and analyze keywords, you should choose one (and only one) and stick with it.

There is a lot of discussion among webmasters that the Google numbers are inflated, and that other tools may present a more realistic view of actual search volumes, but the truth is, none of that matters. Keyword search volume is only important when you’re comparing it to other keywords you’ve researched in the same manner.

Keywords really are the key to a profitable online business, if you just know where to find them, where to use them, and how to tell the search engines what your keywords are about.

The “Secret Sauce” That Separates the Successes from the Failures

“He who fails to plan, plans to fail.” – Proverb

If you’ve heard the proverb “He who fails to plan, plans to fail,” know that this absolutely applies when it comes to keyword research.

Businesses don’t pop out of the ground overnight. Internet businesses can grow a lot faster than brick and mortar businesses – Which actually makes planning that much more important.

In other businesses, it may be more feasible to correct as you go along. With an internet business, you could lose so much momentum by having to start over again.

Success or failure of a beginning internet marketing business can depend a lot on the keywords you choose.

It’s the foundation for marketing your entire business online.

What are your next steps?

In this keyword analysis series we have reviewed a lot of information about keywords and keyword analysis.

The process of keyword research isn’t difficult, but it does require some specialized knowledge.

For example …

• How do you go about finding out search volume and competition?
• How do you determine if the people coming from your keywords are likely to buy?
• How do you choose keywords that will get you traffic now and also help you build towards a successful larger business later?

And so on and so forth.

Now that you have learn the valuable skill of keyword analysis research, you can properly do your analysis for your business.

Before you finalize your keyword analysis, put your research down for a day or so, then come back to it before making your decision. Remember, this is the foundation that your business is built on. It’s worth spending a little time on it.

Keyword analysis is critical.

Learn the process, do the process and watch your business thrive!

Learn how to build a successful online presence  for your small business.  Reach your target market and grow your small business. Sign up for the FREE Newsletter and Get Online Marketing Strategies and have all the effective techniques and valuable skills delivered right to your inbox!

Do you need help with your keyword analysis?  Let me know if I can help.

Thanks for reading,

Keyword Analysis: The Secret to Web Site Traffic That Never Ends is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Welcome back to our series that is designed to guide you through finding the best keywords for your small business. If you missed it, here’s the link to read Part 1 Keyword Analysis: How Keywords Work.

As we work through this series have your business plan handy, we didn’t just put that together to sound “cool”. I want you to keep it handy and tweak it as you feel the information needs to be updated.  If you haven’t had the opportunity to finish it yet, no worries, just do what you can when you can.

If you are just joining us now, and are wondering “What business plan?”. Our first series was dedicated to putting together a Simple Business Plan to market your small business online.  There is a downloadable kit and a series of 7 articles to walk you through step-by-step. So, go check it out.

So, now that we have all taken care of, let’s carry on…

Using Keywords Offsite

Your website is not the only place to use your keywords. Offsite marketing is a huge part of driving traffic, and it’s important to use keywords wherever you can to help the search engines find and rank your site.

We’ve already talked about how Google “reads” the text on your page to determine what the page is about. But there’s an even more important indicator than what you say you’re about, and that’s what other people say you’re about. The way they do that is by linking to your site.

Search engines look at links as a kind of currency. The more links that point to your site from other sites, the richer your site is, and the higher it will rank in the search results. But the number of links doesn’t tell Google what your site is about. For that it looks at anchor text.

 

Anchor Text Defined

Anchor text is the visible part of a link. It’s the words that appear on the website, usually in blue and with an underline to indicate it’s a link.

In HTML, anchor text is written like this:

<a href=”http://www.google.com”>World’s Best Search Engine</a>

In this example, the phrase “World’s Best Search Engine” is the anchor text for a link to Google.

As we said above, the anchor text used tells the search engines what Site A thinks Site B is all about. So if Site A links to Google using the anchor text “World’s Best Search Engine,” then that must be what Google is – at least as far as search results are concerned. And if enough sites link to Google with that same keyword, pretty soon Google will be listed at the top of the search results whenever someone types that phrase into a search engine. Even if they type it into Yahoo!

In fact, that’s exactly what happened with Adobe and the keyword phrase “click here.” If you Google that phrase, you will find the download page for Adobe Reader in the number one spot, simply because there are millions of pages that say things like “You must have the free Adobe Acrobat to open this file. Click here to download your copy.” And of course, the anchor text is “click here.” Because of that, Google has decided that’s what Adobe’s download page is about.

That’s a pretty funny story, but it’s a great illustration of the power of anchor text and back links. If you want your site to be found on the Internet for a specific topic, using your keywords as anchor text is the most important thing you can do.

Link Building with Anchor Text

We’ve already talked about using keywords on your own site, but now I want to cover some ways you can use keywords on other people’s sites to improve your search rankings.

Very few webmasters will respond well if you shoot them an email saying, “Hey, will you link to my site using this keyword?” If you have a website, you might even be getting some emails that say that very thing, and you probably respond the way most webmasters do – by hitting the spam button.

How then, can you get other sites to pass on a little link love to you? Simple. You offer them something of value in return.

And by value, I don’t mean money. I mean content. You can write a guest post for a favorite (and relevant) blog. You can post useful comments on relevant blogs. You can answer questions on niche forums. You can write articles and distribute them via article directories.

When you offer these things to web owners, you often will get to also include a short paragraph about you and your business, and in that short paragraph you can include a link to your site.

For example, if you write a guest post for a popular fashion blog, your closing paragraph (called an author resource box or bio) might look like this:

 

Mary Marketer is in love with Jimmy Choo, can’t get enough Cosmo, and owns every episode of Sex in the City. Read her rants about the inadequacies in women’s plus size clothing on her blog, Fat Fashionista.

With an author resource box, you get to tell the world a little bit about who you are, what you do, AND you get to use that all important anchor text to link back to your site.

This same tactic works well for article marketing, too. The only difference is, articles are distributed to many directories, and (hopefully) picked up for use on other sites as well.

For blog comments and forum posts, the idea is the same, but the implementation is a little different.

Most forums offer the opportunity to include a “signature” in each of your posts. This is where you’ll write a shorter version of your author resource box, though you’ll still include your keywords as anchor text.

For blog commenting, however, you will generally only be allowed to use your name, or at most, the name of your website. Most bloggers will delete your comment as spam if you try to use keywords here. But that doesn’t mean that blog commenting is useless, just that you don’t get quite as much credit in the search results.

Internal Linking

One final note about link building. Don’t neglect your own site. A page written around one keyword will likely be related to, or mention, another page on your site, so be sure to build links within your own site. And it should go without saying that those links should always be build using keywords as anchor text.

One simple way of keeping track is to maintain a spreadsheet with some basic information for every article or blog post you make, either on your own site or off. For example, make a note of the primary keyword for the post, the title, and the URL. Now, every time you make a new post to your blog, get out your list and use the information to link out to other, older posts and articles. Do this consistently, and it won’t be long until you have a huge network of posts and articles, all connected to each other, and all building on your keyword list.

It’s Homework Time!

If you haven’t finished your Business Plan, now is a good time to wrap it up.  If you have, then your good for today!

When we start building your web site, I’ll show you a two great tools to make internal linking more easier.

The next part of is the last part in the keyword analysis.  WOW, you’ll be ready to build your own website next!

Learn how to build a successful online presence  for your small business.  Reach your target market and grow your small business. Sign up for the FREE Newsletter Online Marketing Strategies and have all the effective strategies and valuable skills delivered right to your inbox!

If you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Thanks for reading,

Keyword Analysis: 3 Ways to Promote Your Site For Free is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Keyword Analysis Part 10 of 12

Hello! This is the part 10 in the series that is designed to guide you through finding the best keywords for your small business. If you missed it, here’s the link to read Part 1 Keyword Analysis: How Keywords Work, so you can get the series from the beginning.

Remember to have your business plan handy, so you can refer to it and make any additional notes to it. As mentioned before, if you haven’t had the opportunity to finish it yet, no worries, just do what you can when you can.

If you are just joining us for the first time, first I’m glad you’re here, and you are probably wondering “What business plan?”. Our first series was dedicated to putting together a Simple Business Plan to market your small business online.  There is a downloadable kit and a series of 7 articles to walk you through step-by-step. So, go check it out here.

Now that we’re all the same page, let’s move onto part 10…

Writing with Keywords

Once you’ve got all the behind the scenes keyword usage worked out, it’s time to tackle the fun stuff: content. This is where you’re really going to put keywords to work for you.

When you write a blog post or article for your site, the first thing you need to decide on is a topic. A lot of new online business owners get hung up on this part, struggling to find something to write about. But you, with your experience in your market and list of keywords, will never face that problem. Simply get out your list and choose from the dozens of topics you already know will find an audience!

You’ll want to pick from the low-level keywords, so that your topic is as narrow as possible. After all, it would be nearly impossible to write a short post or article about “women’s clothing.” Writing about “flattering styles for pear-shaped women,” though, is simple, because it’s a focused topic. That’s what long-tail keywords are all about. A highly focused topic.

As we talked about earlier, you should try to include your keyword in the title of the article. This lets the search engines – and readers – know what your page is about. Subheadings (remember the <h3> tag?) are also good for keywords, but don’t go overboard.

Your keyword should also appear in the first and last paragraphs. If you can make it sound natural, go ahead and use it more often in the body of your article, but don’t force it. Remember, you’re ultimately writing for humans, and they’ll be quick to surf away if they come across something that reads like this:

When choosing flattering styles for pear-shaped women, it’s important to remember that not all flattering styles for pear-shaped women will be acceptable to all pear-shaped women. For some, the flattering styles for pear-shaped women will include bright colors and bold prints, but for other pear-shaped women, they prefer their flattering styles for pear-shaped women to be more subtle.

Yuck. No one will stick around to read that!

Google and the other search engines are smart. As you saw when we researched keywords, they recognize related words and phrases, so you don’t have to worry about stuffing your exact keyword phrase into every nook and cranny of your article.

Use it a few times, but also use other, related terms. The search engines will know what your page is about, and your human visitors will appreciate that they can read it easily.

Some website owners find it easier to write the content first, then go back and add keywords later. It’s a simple thing to rearrange a sentence or two to include a keyword phrase, so if you find yourself stuck when trying to build an article around a particular phrase, just say what you need to say, and go back and add keywords later.

Using Funky Keywords

As competition for good keywords increases, and as searchers get savvier, webmasters are beginning to find themselves in a tough spot. You probably noticed it yourself, and in the last few paragraphs you’ve been thinking, “Well, that’s all find and good. You’ve got good solid keywords that lend themselves to natural language. But you should see MINE!”

If your keyword list includes things like “women’s clothing retail” and “women’s clothing plus size,” you’re not alone. Searchers know they don’t have to enter a phrase into a search engine as it would be used in real life (though some do – we’ll talk about that in a bit). Instead, they enter words that go together, but not always in that order. Like “ladies fashion online shopping.” How are you supposed to write about that without sounding like you put your text in a blender?

The key to the creative use of odd keywords is punctuation.

The first thing you need to know is that Google doesn’t see punctuation. It doesn’t recognize the end of a sentence, a parenthetical aside, or even a paragraph break. To the Google-bot, your page is one long string of text.

That means it’s a simple thing to get those odd-sounding phrases into your content without too much trouble, if you can learn to think outside the sentence. Here’s an example using “ladies fashion online shopping.”

When searching for bargains in ladies fashion, online shopping is often the first choice. The stores are always open, the selection is fantastic, and you never have to search endlessly for a parking space. Christmas buying rush? Not online. A quick Internet search will turn up dozens, maybe hundreds of shops all catering to those looking for the hottest deals in ladies fashion.

Online shopping does have a downside, though. You can’t try anything on first!

You can see where I’ve bolded the keywords in the example above. The text – while not award-winning prose – is readable, doesn’t sound stilted or “spun,” and most of all, points out to the search engines exactly what the page is about.

This trick works with heading tags, too. You can use hyphens or colons to the same effect, like this:

Find the Hottest Deals in Ladies Fashion: Online Shopping Secrets of the Pros

Yes, it takes a little more creativity to write that way, but once you start thinking outside the customary writing constraints, you’ll get the hang of it.

It’s Homework Time

Now, grab a piece of paper and your favorite pen and begin writing down article topics for your business based around the keyword list you decided on in part 9.  This is a brainstorming sessions, don’t erase anything.

For more topic ideas think about conversations you’ve had with clients.  What are some of the questions you hear over and over?  Write them down, these are the foundation for great articles.  What are some other questions you get from clients?  Write those down too.

We’re working on setting you up as an authority in your market and to help establish that you need to share what you know and what your experience has taught you.

Now that you have a list of topics write a few paragraphs in this format:

• tell them what your going to tell them
• tell them
• tell them what you just told them

A nice beginning, middle, and end about the topic.  If you get stuck, pretend the client is right in front of you and have a conversation (don’t worry, no one’s looking ).  Shoot for 300 words. No, 300 words is really not that much.

If you feel comfortable enough, use the computer.   If you can write fast, use a notepad…whatever works best for you.

In the next part of the keyword analysis series we’re going to talk about using your keywords outside of your website. If you haven’t had a chance to read How to Use SEO Like a Superstar, it will be a good foundation to the next part of the keyword analysis series.

Learn how to build a successful online presence  for your small business.  Reach your target market and grow your small business. Sign up for the Free Newsletter and have all the effective strategies and valuable skills delivered right to your inbox!

If you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below, I’d love to hear your ideas.

Thanks for reading,

Theresa

Keyword Analysis: How To Write With Keywords Like A Pro is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Keyword Analysis Part 9 of 12

Hi! This is the part nine in the series that is designed to guide you through finding the best keywords for your small business. We’re almost done with this series so if you need to catch up, here’s the link to read Part 1 Keyword Analysis: How Keywords Work, so you can get the series from the beginning.

Remember, have your business plan handy, so you can refer to it and make any additional notes to it. As mentioned before, if you haven’t had the opportunity to finish it yet, no worries, just do what you can when you can.

If you are here for the first time…I’m glad you’re here! To give you a heads up as to what’s been going on around here; our first series was all about putting together a Simple Business Plan to market your small business online. There is a downloadable kit and a series of 7 articles to walk you through step-by-step. So, go check it out here.

Now that’s all taken care of, let’s dive into part 9…

How To Organize Your Keyword List

As you’re assembling your keyword list, it’s a good idea to keep them in a spreadsheet or other software that allows for easy shuffling and sorting. It’s worth mentioning here that there are paid keyword analysis research tools that will do this part for you, sorting your keywords according to number of searches, buying words versus information words, and relative competition. Google “keyword tools” or visit forums dedicated to search engine optimization to find the best available tools.

If you use a free tool, you’ll need to manually assemble your list. The information you want to include with your list is the keyword itself, the number of searches performed, the relative competition (use a scale of 1 to 10, or whatever makes sense to you), and the intent of the searcher for each phrase (buy versus information).

Next, go through your list and see if you can discern any patterns. You’ll probably spot one or two primary words that will define your entire business. These will be high level, one or two word combinations, like “weight loss” or “dog training.” These keywords will be the number one keyword for your entire site.

You’ll probably also find several secondary phrases. These will be longer, and more specific than the primary phrase. Look for phrases like “dog crate training” and “exercises for weight loss.” These keywords will represent the categories on your site.

For example, if your primary keyword is “plus size clothing” then your categories might include “plus size blouses” and “plus size lingerie.”

Finally, you’ll begin to see the lowest level of keywords – the post or article level phrases. Sticking with our plus size example, you might see phrases like “plus size baby-doll gowns” or “plus size blue silk button-down blouse.” These low-level phrases are the ones you will actually build your content around, whether your content is blog posts, videos, or physical products.

Remember, these low-level keywords will have far fewer searches than the high level phrases, but the conversion rate, or number of buyers versus browsers, improves as your keywords become more specific.

A good example of this is actual product number keywords, like “Olympus E30 12.3MP Digital SLR,” which would tend to convert extremely well. People who are conducting this kind of focused search are very close to a buying decision, so even though there aren’t many searches, the ones who are searching are looking to buy.

Using Keywords Effectively

First, we’ll take a look at the big picture: site organization. We’ve already talked a bit about the difference between high level and low level keywords, now let’s take a look at the actual site structure. You might find it helpful to use a mindmap ( I like MindeNode and there’s free version) or other graphical software to visualize your site.

Start with your primary keyword at the top. This is the page from which all other pages will branch. If you can imagine an organizational chart for a company, with the CEO at the top, the company officers beneath him, then middle managers, and then supervisors, that’s what your keyword chart will look like.

To go back to our plus size store example, you might have something like this:

1. Plus Size Clothing

a. Plus Size Blouses
b. Plus Size Bottoms

i. Plus Size Capris

1. Adi Designs Women’s Plus Size Striped Dress
Capris
2. Women’s Plus Size Merona Brown Cargo Pants

ii. Plus Size Shorts
iii. Plus Size Pants

Using Keywords on your Website

Now that you see how the site is structured around keywords, let’s take a look at where your keywords are used within the site for maximum value. (This information is mostly for background, so you know the the important parts of site structure.  If you use a platform like WordPress for your site this “behind the scenes” stuff is pretty easy – and we’ll be going over it anyway.)

The most important tag on your website is the title tag. That’s where the search engine spiders look when they want a quick overview of what your site is all about. It’s also the clickable part of a site’s listing in Google, and the text that appears across the top of your browser window when you’re looking at a website.

To use your keywords in your title tag, place them in the header portion of your site’s code, like this: <title>Women’s Plus Size Clothing</title>. Depending on the platform your site is built on, you may need to edit the source code directly, or you may be able to use a plugin, such as All in One SEO for WordPress.

It’s important to note here that keyword stuffing in your title tag (or anywhere else) can be detrimental to your search engine optimization plans. Try to avoid writing title tags that say things like “plus size clothing for women, women’s plus size clothing, plus size fashions, women’s clothing retail” because the search engines, and your human readers, will see it for what it is – an attempt to get the most mileage out of the title tag.

Instead, craft a useful, descriptive title tag that makes sense to all your readers – both human and bot.

Heading tags are the next most important use for your keywords, and just like your site structure, they have a hierarchy. Tags are denoted in HTML by the use of the greater-than (>) and less-than (<) symbols, like this: <h1>. The <h1> tag is the top level, and is generally reserved for the site name. The <h2> tag is used for post or article titles, and <h3> and lower are used for subheadings within an article.

You’ll usually notice that the text inside heading tags is larger, bolder, or a different color from the surrounding text. That doesn’t have any bearing on the effectiveness of your keywords, it’s just for human eyes. The important part is what’s going on in the source code, where the tags themselves live.

To use heading tags, you simply surround your keyword with the appropriate opening and closing tag, like this: <h1>top-level keyword</h1>. That tells the search engines that your “top-level keyword” is what your site is all about.

Another important tag is the meta-description tag. This appears in your site’s header, with the title tag, and tells searchers what your page is about. While using keywords here doesn’t have a direct bearing on your search engine placement, it can make the difference between a searcher clicking on your site or the next one in line.

Imagine you’ve searched for “WordPress title tag plugin” to find a way to easily change the title tags on your site. In the search results you see these two site descriptions:

Website Number One
you can create relevant alt and title tags automatically for all images. … http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/img- title-removal/ …

Website Number Two
Using a WordPress title tag plugin can really reduce the amount of time you spend coding your site.

The description for the first site was sucked from the page by Google, and is based on the keyword you searched for. Somewhere on that site Google found the words you looked for, and constructed a description to match. It’s not very descriptive, and of little use when it comes to figuring out what the page is really about.

The description for the second page was hand-crafted by the site owner. It makes sense, is a complete thought, and clearly indicates what the page is about.

Which one would you be more likely to click?

Image tags, specifically the <alt> attribute, are often overlooked as a valuable use of keywords. It’s too bad, too, because the search engines index these tags just like they do the text on the page, so there’s a lot of room for savvy site owners to improve their rankings just by taking a few seconds to include the <alt> attribute whenever they add a picture to a page.

If you’ve ever noticed images showing up in the search results when you look for information in Google, the <alt> attribute is why. While your image might not make sense to a searcher, especially if it’s a picture of your dog that you just added to a blog post for color, sometimes it will. In the case of an e-commerce site, for example, using the <alt> attribute for product pictures is essential.

It’s Homework Time

Okey-dokey, we’re in the home stretch. Yeah!  Get your keyword list and apply the concepts from the How To Organize Your Keyword List and Using Keywords Effectively section above.  If you need to go back and do the initial research it OK, sometimes a keyword or two might not seem quite right.  Download the MindeNode tool to help you or do it in “outline” form – whatever works for you.

In the next part of the keyword analysis series we’re going to talk about writing great articles for your site.

Learn how to successfully market your  business online.

Grow your business by reaching your target market.

Sign up for the Free Newsletter and have all the effective strategies and valuable skills delivered right to your inbox!

If you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Thanks for reading,

Keyword Analysis: Organizing And Using Keywords is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Hello! This is the part 8 in the series that is designed to guide you through finding the best keywords for your small business. If you missed it, here’s the link to read Part 1 Keyword Analysis: How Keywords Work, so you can get the series from the beginning.

Remember to have your business plan handy, so you can refer to it and make any additional notes to it. As mentioned before, if you haven’t had the opportunity to finish it yet, no worries, just do what you can when you can.

If you are just joining us for the first time, first I’m glad you’re here, and you are probably wondering “What business plan?”. Our first series was dedicated to putting together a Simple Business Plan to market your small business online.  There is a downloadable kit and a series of 7 articles to walk you through step-by-step. So, go check it out here.

Now that we’re all the same page, let’s move onto part 8…

Learning from the Competition to Find Great Keywords

So far we’ve talked about analyzing the competition. Now let’s look at how we can learn from the competition.

When you did your initial keyword analysis research, chances are you came across words and phrases you never would have considered. People speak differently, so it’s reasonable to assume they use different words and phrases to search the Internet as well. In the American Midwest, a sandwich built on a large bun is called a sub. On the East Coast, that same sandwich is a hoagie. If you’ve never visited the East Coast, you might not even realize that word exists, but good keyword analysis research will tell you.

Google’s keyword tool will clue you in to lots of variations of your keyword, and if you keep digging deeper with each promising phrase, you’ll find even more useful words. But there’s another way to find out what the best keywords are for your niche.

In Google’s keyword tool, you can enter a website’s URL rather than a keyword, and find out exactly what Google thinks that page is about. You’ll see some familiar choices, but chances are you’ll find a few gems you hadn’t thought of. Do this for your biggest competitors, and you’ll fill out your keyword list nicely.

Another way to check out the competition is by using the Site Information Tool at http://www.wmtips.com/tools/info/. Enter the site’s URL and click “go” and everything you need to know about that site will appear on your screen, including the top ranking keywords in Google – and where the page fits in the search results – and the keywords the site owner or programmer entered into the keyword meta-tag. Now, the keyword meta-tag is just about useless today in terms of gaining traffic (more on that later), but it can help you figure out what keywords are good to use, based on what your competitors are doing.

Spying on Yourself

Spying on your competition is good, but if you already have a site, it pays to spy on yourself, too. And Google is just the tool you need to get the job done.

You’ll need to have Google Analytics set up for your site, and while doing that is outside the scope of this report, it’s pretty easy to do. Once you’ve got a little piece of code installed on your site, Google will begin tracking all kinds of interesting facts and figures about your visitors.

You’ll find out:

• where they come from,
• how long they stay,
• the pages they visit,
• where they click when they’re on the site, and
• what page they exit from.

Most importantly for this discussion, you’ll find out what keyword they typed into Google to find your site.

Now, some of the keywords you find here will be completely useless as anything but funny Twitter quips, but some of them will offer genuine insight into your readers needs. Pick out those gems and add them to your keyword list, because after all, if you’ve been found for that keyword once, you’ll be found again. And next time you’ll be ready.

Types of Keywords

Not all keywords are created equal. In fact, we can break our keyword list into two distinct groups: buying words and information words.

As you might imagine, buying keywords are where you’ll make your money. That’s not saying there’s no use for informational keywords, because providing information for free to your audience is a great way to drive traffic, but buying keywords are where the money is.

Buying keywords look like this:

• Hand dyed sock yarn
• Claudia hand painted yarns
• Knitting yarns online
• Discount sock yarn
• Wholesale knitting yarn
• Knitting yarn shop online

You can see that these phrases clearly indicate an intent to buy. When someone searches for discount, wholesale, retail, or shop, they are looking to buy something. Likewise when they search for a specific brand or model number.

On the other hand, people looking for information are using terms like:

• How to dye sock yarn
• Free sock patterns
• Sweater knitting tips
• Download knitting needle gauge

These terms are all focused on getting something for free, whether it’s information or an actual item (like a sock pattern). While there is value in using these search terms, the people who are finding your site via these keywords are not at the buying stage yet. Treat them well, give them the information they’re seeking, and they may turn into a loyal customer, though, so don’t discount them completely.

Stop Words and Plurals

Unfortunately, Google does see stop words and plurals, so you can’t add words or letters to your keyword without changing it in Google’s eyes. For example, “ladies fashion online shopping” is not the same as “ladies fashions online shopping” or “ladies fashion online shop” or even “shopping online for ladies fashion.”

Those phrases are all related, but still different as far as search goes. You can try it out for yourself by Googling those three phrases. You’ll see that you get three different – though similar – sets of search results.

It’s Homework Time

We’re getting close to the end of our Keyword Analysis series, so it’s time to start getting your keyword list together.  Start by picking the keyword tool you feel comfortable with: Wordtracker, Market Samurai, or Google AdWords Keyword Tool.  Narrow your list to 10 keywords. As a refresher to what terms your list should include, review the second article in this Keyword Analysis series. Take a look at the different related terms that also appear, these might be real good keywords for your business.

Remember, to help you organize the terms and search numbers make a table and enter the terms on the left. Across the top make columns for Board, Phrase, And Exact Match numbers.

In the next part of the keyword analysis series we’re going to talk about organizing your keyword list.

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Keyword Analysis: Learn From Your Competitors is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Hello and here is the seventh part in the series that is designed to guide you through finding the best keywords for your small business. If you missed it, here’s the link to read Part 1 Keyword Analysis: How Keywords Work, so you can catch it from the beginning.

Remember to have your business plan handy, so you can refer to it and make any additional note in it. As I mentioned before, if you haven’t had the opportunity to finish it yet, no worries, just do what you can when you can.

If you are just popping in for the first time, and are wondering “What business plan?”. Our first series was dedicated to putting together a Simple Business Plan to market your small business online. There is a downloadable kit and a series of 7 articles to walk you through step-by-step. So, go check it out here.

So, now let’s dive into part 7…

Pick One, and Stick With It

There are literally dozens of keyword research tools available, from the very simple to the powerfully complex, and from free to extremely expensive (some even have a high monthly fee).

The important thing is to choose one tool and use that one tool exclusively. Otherwise, the different numbers you are presented with combined with the variety of options each has will only result in keyword confusion. You’ll end up targeting keywords which won’t work for your business, and entirely missing others, just because one tool said something that opposed another.

Pick one tool, learn to use it, and use it exclusively. That’s the real key to effective keyword research.

 

What Exactly Are You Looking For?

So now that we know how to look, the question is, what are we looking for? Is there a magic number that makes a keyword analysis worth using?

Is there a secret calculation that will tell you in no uncertain terms that a keyword will be profitable? Unfortunately, no. But there are some general guidelines you can use to make your keyword decisions.

 

How many searches is enough?

The most common question new keyword researchers ask is “how many is enough?” Unfortunately, there’s no clear answer to that question. Obviously, more is better, but a keyword that is searched thousands of times daily is going to have lots and lots of web space devoted to it, so you’ll be facing some serious competition.

There comes a point of diminishing returns, where the number of searches on a particular keyword is so low that, while you won’t have any competition, neither will you have any traffic. Writing pages around a keyword that gets only a handful of searches a day is not a good use of your time, but neither is writing pages around a keyword like “health,” simply because you’re not likely to be anywhere near the top of the search results for that word.

But, there is a way to use those high volume search terms, and we’ll cover that a little later, so stay tuned!

 

How Much Competition is too Much?

Another question you’ll frequently hear about keyword research is “how many competing pages are too many?” The answer might surprise you.

It doesn’t matter.

Let me say that again. It absolutely does not matter how many pages Google lists for a given keyword. Whether it’s ten, ten thousand, or ten million should make no difference to you, and here’s why.

You’re only competing against the first page. That’s where you want your site to be, right? So it shouldn’t matter to you how many pages follow the first page. If you can beat out the top ten contenders, you can beat the millions that fall in behind them. But remember, not all competition is created equal.

If, in those first ten competing sites, you find articles on Wikipedia, About.com, WebMD, or other obvious authority sites, you will have a hard time getting your site to the top of that list. These sites and others like them are so well known, and have so much good Google-food that they’re nearly impossible to compete with.

Instead, focus your keyword choices on those which turn up inside pages of non-authority sites. An inside page is a post or category page, not the home page on the root domain. When the home page of a site shows up in search engine listings, it’s a red flag to would-be competitors to stay away, the competition is fierce here. But when the inside pages show up, that’s like an invitation to join the party. There’s plenty of room for more players in this game.

 

Quotes or No Quotes

When you’re looking at your competition, you may be tempted to follow the advice of those who say to enter your keyword in quotes, like this: “my keyword.”

This is a good idea, because it will only return the pages that contain that exact phrase (remember exact match?), however, that number – and the results themselves – are deceiving.

Aside from the very savvy webmasters of the world who are conducting keyword research, or those who really understand and use search engines to their fullest potential, no one uses quotes in a search. I don’t do it, you don’t do it, and most importantly, your customers don’t do it.

In reality, we all just type random stuff into that search box and click “search.” If you want to see what your true competition is for any given keyword, you need to research it like the average person does, not like a webmaster. And your real competitors are the sites that show up at the top of the page when you enter keywords without quotes.

It’s Homework Time…or Is It?

This was a long one today, so no homework.  Well, maybe review the article, but that’s all for today.

In the next part of the keyword analysis series we’re going to discuss what you can learn from your competition.

Learn how to build a successful online presence for your small business. Reach your target market and grow your small business. Sign up for the Free Newsletter and have all the effective strategies and valuable skills delivered right to your inbox!

If you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Thanks for reading,

Keyword Analysis: How to Pick A Keyword Research Tool is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Keyword Analysis Part 6 of 12

Hi! This is the part six in the series that is designed to guide you through finding the best keywords for your small business. Just in case you did not catch it, here’s the link to read Part 1 Keyword Analysis: How Keywords Work, so you can get the series from the beginning.

Remember, have your business plan handy, so you can refer to it and make any additional notes to it. As mentioned before, if you haven’t had the opportunity to finish it yet, no worries, just do what you can when you can.

If you are here for the first time…I’m glad you’re here! To give you a heads up as to what’s been going on around here; our first series was all about putting together a Simple Business Plan to market your small business online. There is a downloadable kit and a series of 7 articles to walk you through step-by-step. So, go check it out here.

Now that’s all taken care of, let’s dive into part 6…

Market Samurai Overview

Market Samurai is perhaps the most popular of the paid keyword analysis discovery tools. For a one-time fee (currently $149) you can download  and make use of this powerful data discovery tool. You can learn more about it here: http://www.marketsamurai.com/

Market Samurai uses Google’s own keyword API to obtain its data, so  you’ll see the same numbers here as you would if you used Google’s  External Keyword Tool. However, where Market Samurai really shines  is in the way it allows you to manipulate the data.

Rather than keeping a simple spreadsheet or notebook with all your keywords manually entered (we’ll touch on this later), Market Samurai does all the work for you. It allows you to organize keywords by group, eliminating those that obviously don’t fit with your marketing plan. You can also analyze keywords using Market Samurai’s proprietary features that claim to give you insight into the marketability and profitability of certain keywords.

While this information is interesting, two things make Market Samurai a great tool for ongoing research:
Competitive analysis and rank tracking.

In the SEO Competition module, Market Samurai will find and analyze the top ten search results for each of your keywords. You’ll be able to see at a glance how difficult it will be to climb the search results page based on the number of backlinks, the age of the domain, and how effectively keywords are used on the site. In short, you’ll be able to see on one screen whether you should include or exclude a keyword from your list.

Once you’ve decided on your keywords and built your site, Market Samurai helps keep you on track by monitoring your site’s rank for each of your chosen keywords. Not sure where to go next with your marketing campaign? Market Samurai will tell you at a glance that your page about “women’s plus size capris” is falling in the rankings, so you’ll know immediately it’s time to get the word out about that page.

Do those two things make Market Samurai worth the price?
Only you can decide, but they do have a free trial so you can check out all the tools they offer.

It’s Homework Time

If you haven’t finished your Business Plan why not spend some time on it.  If you have finished, then grab a piece of paper and your favorite pen and go back and work on any homework you might not have finished from part 3 that are relevant to your small business. You can also do some more of the keyword research you learned in part 4.

Remember, to help you organize the terms and search numbers make a table and enter the terms on the left. Across the top make columns for Board, Phrase, And Exact Match numbers. Take a look at the different related terms that also appear, these will probably give you even more ideas for possible keywords for your business.

In the next part of the keyword analysis series we’re going to go over what you should look for when picking your keywords.

Learn how to successfully market your  business online.

Grow your business by reaching your target market.

Sign up for the Free Newsletter and have all the effective strategies and valuable skills delivered right to your inbox!

If you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Thanks for reading,

Keyword Analysis: Market Samurai Keyword Tool is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Keyword Analysis Part 5 of 12

Hello! This is the part five in the series that is designed to guide you through finding the best keywords for your small business. If you missed it, here’s the link to read Part 1 Keyword Analysis: How Keywords Work, so you can get the series from the beginning.

Remember to have your business plan handy, so you can refer to it and make any additional notes to it. As mentioned before, if you haven’t had the opportunity to finish it yet, no worries, just do what you can when you can.

If you are just joining us for the first time, first I’m glad you’re here, and you are probably wondering “What business plan?”. Our first series was dedicated to putting together a Simple Business Plan to market your small business online.  There is a downloadable kit and a series of 7 articles to walk you through step-by-step. So, go check it out here.

Now that all the “housekeeping” is out of the way, let’s move onto part 5…

Insights Into Wordtracker

Another tool for keyword analysis research is Wordtracker. Which you can find here: http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

Wordtracker works with a different set of data than Google uses, so you’ll see very different numbers in terms of search volume. Also, Google’s numbers represent the average searches per month for a given term, while Wordtracker reports the number of searches in a year.

It’s also important to note that Wordtracker does not use Google as one of its data sources. Since Google represents about 70% of all searches performed on the Internet, that means Wordtracker’s numbers appear to be far lower than Google’s.

Don’t be surprised when you see, for example, that “women’s clothing” is only searched 1,200 times per year. That’s not an exact number, and is really only useful when used in comparison with other keywords, as we’ll discuss later.

While the search volume reported by Wordtracker might not be spectacular, they do offer one feature that Google lacks – drill down.

Drill down gives you the ability to begin with a very broad keyword, like clothing, and refine it down to the narrowest possible long-tail keyword. Each term you search will return 100 related and more specific keywords.

For example, if we search for clothing, one of the results is “plus size clothing.” Clicking on that phrase brings up a new list, beginning with “Catherine’s plus size clothing.” A click on that gives us “Catherine’s plus size women’s clothing.”

As we’ll see later, this is a very useful way of organizing keywords, and Wordtracker does all the work for you.

It’s Homework Time

I’m not going to have you sign up for Wordtracker’s free tool at this point, if you want to check it out – knock yourself out.  However, after the free trial is over you will be billed, and it’s kind of expensive.

Right now, if you haven’t finished your Business Plan why not spend some time on it.  If you have finished, then grab a piece of paper and your favorite pen and go back and work on any homework you might not have finished from part 3 that are relevant to your small business. You can also do some more of the keyword research you learned in part 4.

Remember, to help you organize the terms and search numbers make a table and enter the terms on the left. Across the top make columns for Board, Phrase, And Exact Match numbers. Take a look at the different related terms that also appear, these will probably give you even more ideas for possible keywords for your business.

In the next part of the keyword analysis series we’re going to talk about another keyword tool called Market Samurai.

Learn how to successfully market your  business online.

Grow your business by reaching your target market.

Sign up for the Free Newsletter and have all the effective strategies and valuable skills delivered right to your inbox!

If you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Thanks for reading,

Keyword Analysis: Wordtracker Keyword Tool is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Hi there! This is the part four in the series that is designed to guide you through finding the best keywords for your small business. If you missed it, here’s the link to read Part 1 Keyword Analysis: How Keywords Work, so you can get the series from the beginning.

If you’ve been following along, remember to have your business plan handy, so you can refer to it and make any additional notes to it. As mentioned before, if you haven’t had the opportunity to finish it yet, no worries, just do what you can when you can.

If you are just getting here for the first time, and are wondering “What business plan?”. Our first series was dedicated to putting together a Simple Business Plan to market your small business online.  There is a downloadable kit and a series of 7 articles to walk you through step-by-step. So, go check it out here.

So, now that everyone is on the same page let’s move onto part 4…

What do all those numbers mean?

We’ve looked at number of searches and relative competition, but Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool gives you lots of other information, too.

You can pick and choose what information is displayed by clicking on the button labeled “columns” on the far right of the page.

Let’s see if we can decipher some of the other numbers you can use in your keyword analysis research.

Local search volume is similar to global search volume, but is limited to the country and language of your choice.

By default, Google uses your country and your language (yes, it knows where you are) but you can change this by clicking “advanced options” and choosing from the drop-down lists.

So if you’re targeting buyers in Japan, (1) choose Japan from the list, (2) choose Japanese under the language category, and (3) click the “-” and that will close the drop-down lists, then  you’ll get numbers specific to that country.

To dig deeper, let’s see how much webmasters are willing to pay for these terms. We have to scoot over to another screen called “Traffic Estimator”. You will find the link on the left below the “Keyword Tool” link.

The Estimated Average CPC is the average cost of an ad click for that term. In other words, if a webmaster is using pay per click advertising (AdWords) to drive traffic, she is paying this amount per click, on average. The higher the number, the more valuable (and more competitive) this keyword is.

This is also a good measure of the potential AdSense earnings for a particular keyword. If you’re monetizing your site with AdSense, keeping an eye on this figure can help you maximize your earnings.

Ad Share is used only for exact match keywords (more on that in a minute) and is an indicator of the percentage of time your pay per click ad will display in an exact match search. If you’re not using AdWords to drive traffic, this column will not matter to you. It has nothing to do with AdSense.

Search Share is also only used with AdWords, and has no bearing on keyword value or AdSense earnings.

Exact, Phrase, or Broad Match?

When keyword analysis is discussed, there’s typically a lot of debate surrounding the use of exact match, phrase match, or broad match terms. For the record, these distinctions are only really important if you’re using PPC for traffic. However, the choice you make here will have a bearing on the number of searches you see, so it’s worth noting the differences.

Choosing broad match (the default choice) will give you search numbers for the actual term, along with other, closely related terms. So the search volume for “women’s clothing” might also include the number of searches for “tall womens clothing” and “women petite clothing” or possibly even “women tall clothing.”

Choosing phrase match will only give you the number of searches that contained the exact phrase. In other words, a search for “women’s clothing” will include the number of searches for “plus size womens clothing” and “tall womens clothing” but not the number of searches for “discount clothing women’s.”

Exact match is just what it says – exact. The search volume represents the number of searches only for that exact keyword in that order, and nothing else.

Again, these only matter if you’re buying traffic. The important thing is that you conduct your research consistently. If you’re going to use broad match numbers, then you should always use broad match numbers. The search volumes and other statistical data Google gives you is only useful when it can be compared to other data using the exact same parameters.

It’s Homework Time

Now, grab a piece of paper and your favorite pen and enter the phrases you came up with in part 2 that are relevant to your small business. To help you organize the term search numbers make a table and enter the terms on the left. Across the top make columns for Board, Phrase, And Exact Match numbers. Take a look at the different related terms that also appear, these will probably give you even more ideas for possible keywords for your business.

In the next part of the keyword analysis series we’re going to talk about another keyword tool called Wordtracker.

Learn how to successfully market your  business online.

Grow your business by reaching your target market.

Sign up for the Free Newsletter and have all the effective strategies and valuable skills delivered right to your inbox!

If you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Thanks for reading,

Keyword Analysis: Deciphering Google AdWords Keyword Tool is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Hello and here is the third part in the series that is designed to guide you through finding the best keywords for your small business. If you missed it, here’s the link to read Part 1 Keyword Analysis: How Keywords Work and Part 2 Keyword Analysis: Spiders Algorithms & Customers.

Remember to have your business plan handy, so you can refer to it and make any additional note in it. As I mentioned before, if you haven’t had the opportunity to finish it yet, no worries, just do what you can when you can.

If you are just popping in for the first time, and are wondering “What business plan?”. Our first series was dedicated to putting together a Simple Business Plan to market your small business online.  There is a downloadable kit and a series of 7 articles to walk you through step-by-step. So, go check it out here.

So, now let’s dive into part 3…

Refining and Sorting Your Keyword List

The next step in your keyword analysis plan is to separate the good keywords from the bad keywords. For our purposes, a good keyword is one that gets lots of searches, and a bad keyword is one so few people search for; it’s useless to try to build a web page around it.

For example, if you have a small business selling women’s clothes in a Chicago suburb, one of your keywords might be “women’s clothing Chicago.” Chicago is a big city, and that term probably has some decent search volume. On the other hand, your store name (unless you own Macy’s or JCPenney) will not be a good keyword. Yes, you can get your site ranked very high in the search results for your own name, but if no one is looking for it, that keyword is all but useless to you.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool

There are lots of tools available to help you determine which keywords are good and which are not so good. Some of the tools are free, and some of them are very expensive, but one of the best is Google’s own External Keyword Tool. You can find it here: http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

This tool was designed to be used with Google’s AdWords program, as a way for advertisers to discover the best keywords to target with their pay per click campaigns (PPC). You don’t have to use PPC to benefit from the keyword tool, but you can gain a lot from looking at the numbers you’ll find here.

When you first get to the site, you’ll have to enter a CAPTCHA code to see the results. That’s to help keep non-humans from wasting bandwidth. Just enter the letters you see and hit enter on your keyboard and the pop-up screen will disappear, allowing you to access the page.

Just enter the letters you see and the pop-up screen will disappear, allowing you to access the page.

For simple keyword research, we’re only concerned with one section of this page. In the upper left corner you’ll see a box that says “Word or phrase.” That’s where you enter your keyword. Go ahead and do that now, then click “Search.”

Enter your keyword, then click "search."

In the main part of the page, you should see a long list of related words and phrases appear, with columns of numbers accompanying them. Going back to our yarn shop example (from part 2), if you entered “hand-dyed yarn” in the search box, you’ll now have a list of 100 potential keywords, including “hand dyed fibers,” “hand painted yarn,” and “hand dyed wool.” You’ll probably see a few you hadn’t even considered, but which might be good matches for your site, so go ahead and add them to your list.

List of 100 potential keywords.

The columns you see represent various kinds of data you can use when making keyword choices. The first column is labeled competition, and it shows you the number of advertisers who bid on that keyword in Google’s AdWords program. Unless you’re going to use PPC to drive traffic to your site, that probably doesn’t mean anything to you. However, it is a good indicator of the usefulness of a particular keyword, because advertisers don’t generally bid on poorly performing search terms.

The Competition column shows you the number of advertisers who bid on that keyword in Google's AdWords program.

The next column is Global Monthly Searches. This is the average number of times a specific term is searched in Google. The numbers are averaged across an entire year, so seasonal terms like Christmas cookie recipes probably don’t get searched much in July, even though the number is high.

Global Monthly Searches is the average number of times a specific term is searched in Google.

The next column, Local Monthly Search, is the average number of times a specific term is searched in Google if you specified a country or language for your search.

Local Monthly Search is the average number of times a specific term is searched in Google.

This is where you specify a country or language for your search.

If you place your cursor over a keyword you’ll notice a magnifying glass, click on it. You will open up a new screen in Google Insights for Search. This allows you to view search trends.

In Google Insights for Search you can easily tell if a keyword’s search numbers are spread throughout the year, or if there are spikes of activity. This will help you determine the best time to target specific keywords. For example, it doesn’t make much sense to fill a gardening blog with posts about planting tulips in May, when the keyword phrase “planting tulip bulbs” is searched most often in the fall. (The example below is set to show search trends from 2004 to present.)

In Google Insights for Search you can easily tell if a keyword's search numbers are spread throughout the year, or if there are spikes of activity.

It’s Homework Time

Now, grab a piece of paper and your favorite pen and enter different terms, maybe even your favorite hobby, and just poke around and make note at the different trends, competition, and searches.  Go crazy and get familiar with the information!

In the next part of the keyword analysis series we’re going to review what all these numbers mean in the Google AdWords Keyword Tool.

Learn how to build a successful online presence  for your small business.  Reach your target market and grow your small business. Sign up for the Free Newsletter and have all the effective strategies and valuable skills delivered right to your inbox!

If you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Thanks for reading,

Keyword Analysis: Refining and Sorting Your Keyword List is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Welcome back to our series that is designed to guide you through finding the best keywords for your small business. If you missed it, here’s the link to read Part 1 Keyword Analysis: How Keywords Work.

As we work through this series have your business plan handy, we didn’t just put that together to sound “cool”. I want you to keep it handy and tweak it as you feel the information needs to be updated.  If you haven’t had the opportunity to finish it yet, no worries, just do what you can when you can.

If you are just joining us now, and are wondering “What business plan?”. Our first series was dedicated to putting together a Simple Business Plan to market your small business online.  There is a downloadable kit and a series of 7 articles to walk you through step-by-step. So, go check it out.

So, now that we have all of that outta the way, let’s carry on…

The King of the Keywords

Every time a new page is posted anywhere on the Internet, Google's spiders crawl the page, recording and indexing every word and phrase they find. They add this information to Google's vast databases.

In order to understand how keyword analysis is supposed to shape up, let’s talk about how keywords can help your business and your profits. For this, we first must understand how search engines work. Open up your favorite web browser and type any phrase into Google,then hit the “Google Search” button.

Instantly, Google presents you with a list of hundreds of thousands of websites that might be what you’re looking for, conveniently sorted according to relevance. Pretty good for a microsecond of time, huh?

But that’s the power of keywords at work. You see, every time a new page is posted anywhere on the Internet, Google’s spiders crawl the page, recording and indexing every word and phrase they find.  They add this information to Google’s vast databases, so whenever someone searches for the words that page contains, Google can point them in the right direction.

Now of course, there’s more to search algorithms than just crawling sites looking for keywords. It’s also important where and how keywords are used, and the context of the site overall. In addition, there are things you have no control over, like the words other people use to point to your site from their site.

We’ll get to those a little later, but for our purposes, the definition of a keyword is this:

A significant word or phrase, relevant to the web page or document in question. Keyword searching is the most common form of text search on the internet.

(Web Analytics Glossary, NetStrategies.com)

Brainstorming Keywords

The best place to begin your keyword research is inside the mind of your ideal customer. Imagine you are looking for your small business or website.

Before you build your first website or pen your first blog post, you need to spend some time researching your keywords. This can’t be stressed enough. Failure to do proper keyword analysis will result in a scattered, unfocused website that, while it may survive, will certainly not thrive. Sound dire? That’s because it is. Keyword analysis is the most important part of your business plan.

So, Where Do You Start Your Keyword Research?

The best place to begin your keyword research is inside the mind of your ideal customer. Imagine you are looking for your small business or website. What word or phrase will you type into Google in hopes of finding what you’re after? For example, if you sell hand-dyed yarn to knitters, someone looking for your site might use the phrase “hand- dyed knitting yarn” to find you. That’s a good search phrase to start with.

It’s Homework Time

Now, grab a piece of paper and your favorite pen and begin writing down all the phrases relevant to your small business that you can think of. If your customers come to you looking for knitting needles or patterns or stitch markers, write those down, too. Write down anything at all you want to be found for online. Don’t worry if your list is growing quite long, that’s a good problem to have!

In the next part of the keyword analysis series we’re going to refine and sort your keyword list.

Learn how to build a successful online presence  for your small business.  Reach your target market and grow your small business. Sign up for the Free Newsletter and have all the effective strategies and valuable skills delivered right to your inbox!

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Thanks for reading,

Keyword Analysis: Spiders Algorithms & Customers – Oh My! is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

By now you’ve probably heard all about search engine optimization, better known as SEO, and you understand that keywords play a key role in your ability to get traffic from the search engines for the content that you write.

But you may be still a little confused about how it really works, and how to do keyword research effectively.

Your New Skill Set

In this 12-part series will learn everything you need to know to find and use keywords effectively for your small business. You’ll learn:

• What tools you can use to research keywords
• What all those numbers mean when you’re trying to decide if a keyword is any good
• How to use the competition to develop your own keyword list
• What makes a good, profitable keyword
• Why even keywords targeted to freebie-seekers are useful
• How to organize your site effectively by using your keywords
• Where to use keywords, both on and off your site
• And what to do with those awful keyword phrases that just don’t sound natural

Keywords have the power to increase your ranking in the search engines, send you a steady stream of traffic.

Keywords play a relatively simple role in the overall scheme of things, but they do have the power to increase your ranking in the search engines, send you a steady stream of traffic, and at the end of the day, make you money.

So here’s a look at how it works:

1. You optimize your website with your keywords – especially in the title of your article or blog post.
2. Your potential customer goes to Google.com and types in that same key word phrase, because she is looking for information.
3. Google lists your website on their page as one of the sites that might be a good fit for them to find more information about that topic.
4. The potential customer clicks through to your website, finds exactly what she was looking for and gladly signs up for your mailing list or purchases something from you.

The Basics of Keyword Analysis

Your marketing strategy should be two-fold, namely to rise to the top of the search engines with original, value-laden content.

When it comes to effective keyword analysis, your goal is twofold.

You need to find a keyword that has:

• High search volume
• Low competition

And, is preferably tied to what you’re offering on your website.

For instance, if I offer dog sweaters, I wouldn’t do research and write articles about bird food. Yes, some of my readers may have both dogs and birds, but we’re trying to get in front of the person who is in need of your products or services at the exact point in time that they are in need.

Your marketing strategy should be two-fold, namely to rise to the top of the search engines with original, value-laden content. But what to write about? That’s where the keyword research comes back into the picture.

When we’re done with this keyword analysis series, you’ll have a complete list of keywords, organized by value and purpose, and you’ll be ready to build your online small business website the right way, from the ground up.

Learn how to build a successful online presence  for your small business.  Reach your target market and grow your business. Sign up for the Free Newsletter and have all the effective strategies and valuable skills delivered right to your inbox!

If you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Thanks for reading,

Keyword Analysis: How Keywords Work is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

What is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is the process of brainstorming, researching and choosing which keywords to target in your business.

Usually keyword research comes in two parts: Selecting your main niche and keywords, then selecting specific low-competition keywords to target and dominate.

The Benefits of Doing Keyword Research

Doing keyword research is critical in many ways. What are the benefits of doing keyword research?

First of all, you’ll save a lot of time by doing the proper keyword research. Instead of building your websites and hoping that it’ll work, you’re figuring out whether or not it will work before you build a single page.

You’re only putting work into building campaigns and web pages that you know are specifically targeted for keywords most likely to bring in traffic and buyers.

You’ll also learn a lot about your market in the keyword research process.

The Dangers of Not Doing Proper Keyword Research

What could happen if you don’t do your keyword research properly?

What’s most likely to happen is that you’ll spend a whole bunch of time creating and promoting your website, only to have very little to no returns.

Imagine putting in all the mental, emotional and physical effort of building a website. All the hopes and dreams of the money you want to make. Only to have all that wash down the drain.

Not doing your keyword research when you’re starting a website is like opening a restaurant without doing research on the location you’re opening the restaurant.

If you’re opening a restaurant, wouldn’t you want to know how many people come by this area every day? How many other restaurants are competing in this area? Wouldn’t you want to do your research to see if there’s another area in town with even more traffic and demand yet has less competition?

Keyword research works very much the same way. Before you build a single page, you should know how much traffic you could reasonably expect, plus how much competition you have.

How it Works: Selecting Your Main Keywords

The first step to any keyword research process is to select your main keyword(s). For example, if you’re starting a website on eating healthy, should you choose “dieting,” “healthy eating,” “weight loss” or “nutrition?”

Each will attract a very different crowd of people, have different traffic statistics and different levels of competition.

The keywords you select should:

• Give you a foot in on what would otherwise be a very competitive market.

• Allow you to start by targeting sub-niches, but then work your way up to ranking for broader and broader keywords.

• Allow you to start getting traffic right now by targeting less competition keywords.

Choosing the right keywords will determine how well your entire business does. It’s not just part of your traffic strategy, its part of your branding strategy.

It’s very hard to change how you brand yourself once you’re known in your industry. Choose your keywords carefully, before you start. That way you won’t have to go through the costly process of changing your brand later on.

Helpful reading:

How Keywords Work

Spiders Algorithms & Customers

Laser Targeting Keywords Designed to Rank

Once you’ve done your research on what broad category of keywords you’re targeting, the next step is to select specific keywords to target. You goal when selecting these keywords is to actually get on the top 1-5 spots on Google.

At first, the keywords you’re going to target are going to be very low traffic and very low competition. As your web presence grows, your PageRank grows and your credibility in Google’s eyes grows, you’ll target higher and higher traffic search phrases.

Every keyword that you choose to target should also contain or be closely related to your main keywords. This allows you to instantly rank for the lower traffic keywords while you simultaneously build towards ranking well for your main keywords.

Helpful reading:

Refining and Sorting Your Keyword List

Build Your Business on Facts – Not Pride, Laziness or Gut Feeling

Very, very few business owners build their business on actual numbers and statistics. This is perhaps one of the reasons why so few business owners succeed.

It’s critical to both your short term and long term success that you build your business based on the facts. It doesn’t matter if you like certain keywords more than others.

If the statistics show you that you’re more likely to be successful by targeting one group of keywords than another, then target that keyword group.

Do your research by using statistics and numbers. Use tools like the Google Keyword Tool that show you actual search statistics.

Successful business owners always know their stats. If you asked an unsuccessful business owner “How much traffic do you get per day?” They probably wouldn’t know. If you asked a successful marketer, they’ll probably something like “About 500 a day on weekdays, 800 a day on weekends.”

A successful marketer is always looking at his stats.

Before a campaign, a great marketer does his research. He makes sure he’s not wasting time and make sure he’s doing everything he can to increase his chances of making money.

During a campaign, he’s watching his traffic come in. He’s monitoring the stats constantly. What’s his traffic like? What’s his conversion rate? A great marketer is looking at these numbers on a daily or even hourly basis.

After a campaign, the successful marketer looks at his numbers again. This time he’s looking back to see what he did right and what he could improve next time. He’s looking to learn.

How much attention do you have on the numbers? Would having more attention on the numbers improve your business? Chances are the answer is yes.

Helpful reading:

Deciphering Google AdWords Keyword Tool

Wordtracker Keyword Tool

Market Samurai Keyword Tool

How to Pick A Keyword Research Tool

Keyword Research is the “Secret Sauce” That Separates the Successes from the Failures

“He who fails to plan, plans to fail.” – Proverb

If you’ve heard the proverb “He who fails to plan, plans to fail,” know that this absolutely applies when it comes to keyword research.

Businesses don’t pop out of the ground overnight. Internet businesses can grow a lot faster than brick and mortar businesses – Which actually makes planning that much more important.

In other businesses, it may be more feasible to correct as you go along. With an internet business, you could lose so much momentum by having to start over again.

Instead, just do your keyword research right the first time.

Helpful reading:

Learn From Your Competitors

Organizing And Using Keywords

How To Write With Keywords Like A Pro

3 Ways to Promote Your Site For Free

The Secret to Web Site Traffic That Never Ends

What Now…

We’ve gone over several important reasons why keyword research matter. We’ve gone over a couple examples of how big of a difference keyword research can make.

By now, it should be pretty clear that the success or failure of a beginning internet marketing business can depend a lot on the keywords you choose. It’s the foundation for your entire business.

Once you learn the keyword research process, spend some time doing your research. Put your research down for a day or so, then come back to it before making your decision. Remember, this is the foundation that your business is built on. It’s worth spending a little time on it.

Keyword research is critical. Learn the process, do the process and watch your business thrive!

Keyword Research: The Complete Guide is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Here are a few tried and true effective  SEO strategies to successfully start and grow your business online:

SEO Strategy #1

Choose keywords that don’t have much competition but do have good demand.

Keywords. Choose primary and secondary keywords and optimize your pages accordingly. Choose keywords that don’t have much competition but do have good demand. It’ll make it easier to optimize your site for those keywords.

How do you pick your keywords? Glad you asked.  There are several ways to go about this and we’ll be covering this in our next series. Picking the ‘right’ keywords is crucial to the success of your website.

SEO Strategy #2

When implementing these SEO strategies don't over do it, you want your content to ultimately be useful to your readers.

On page optimization. This SEO strategy has to do with using your keyword in the structure of your website and content.  Keywords, as mentioned above are so vital, and that’s exactly where on page optimization begins. When implementing these SEO strategies don’t over do it, you want your content to ultimately be useful to your readers.

Places to add your keyword for maximum effect include:

• In your URL, if you can.
• Place your keywords in your headline.
• Place your keywords in your first and last paragraphs.
• Scatter your keywords, and supporting phrases and keywords, throughout the body of your copy naturally.
• And make sure you’re actually tagging your keywords so the search engines recognize their importance.

SEO Strategy #3

Quality content. The more optimized content you have the better. The better the quality of the content on your website, the more people you’ll have linking to your website. Valuable and relevant incoming links boost your search engine ranking.

SEO Strategy #4

The more links you get from other web sites and high ranking web site the better. In the search engine's mind it is a vote of quality.

Off page optimization. Off page optimization SEO strategies have to do with what others says about your web site.  This is all about incoming links.  The more links you get from other web sites and high ranking web site the better.  In the search engine’s mind it is a vote of quality.

You can also generate incoming links from:

• Submitting to article directories.
• Publishing press releases.
• Blogs, chat rooms and forums

SEO Strategy #5

Social media. Social media has to do with a few SEO strategies all lumped together.  This type of website marketing is gaining strength however.  A lot of people think that social media is to have an account on whatever platform and then that’s it.  That’s NOT it.  The whole force behind social media is to interact with others, that is BE social.

It’s best to pick one or two, in addition your web site, and work on building relationships there.

If you are an independent contractor or small business where you are the only one interacting you can’t effectively participate in every platform.  It’s best to pick one or two, in addition your web site, and work on building relationships there.  Building a quality network takes time and if you  focus, you will build quality relationships with people who will be more that happy to help you.

These 5 SEO strategies are crucial for your online success and like other parts of your business some take more time than others. But that’s what I’m here for.  As we continue, we will tackle each of these SEO strategies as you build your own web site!

Next we’re going to begin your keyword research.

Do you want to learning how to build a successful online business to supplement your offline business?  How about reaching more of your target market to grow your business? Then sign up for the Free Newsletter and have all the strategies and skills delivered right to your inbox!

If you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Thanks for reading,

5 SEO Strategies Crucial For Online Success is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Now that you are more familiar with SEO terms let’s dive into search engine optimization. In fact, so much attention is paid to search engine optimization you may think you need a special degree to understand it all. Not to worry. Search engine optimization isn’t as complicated as it sounds.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization, is the process of making sure your website shows up on the search engine results. When you type words into a search engine like Google and hit “Search” you get results.

As a consumer and surfer you probably only look at the first few results. If the results don’t fit what you’re looking for then you change your search terms until you see website results that match what you’re looking for.

Search engine optimization means making sure your website targets specific keywords, so you show up on the results when people are looking for your information.

Your website visitors will do the same thing. They’ll type keywords into their search engine of choice and review the results. Ideally, you want your website to be on the first page of results. It means you’re more likely to get a visit and an opportunity to wow that visitor.

So search engine optimization means making sure your website targets specific keywords so you show up on the results when people are looking for your information.

How to Optimize Your Site

There are two main categories for search engine optimization tactics. Paid and free. You can buy or pay for advertisements that show up on search engine results.

Quality content will be linked to. It will increase your search engine ranking. And it’ll bring visitors back again and again.

You can obtain free search engine results by using:

• Keyword optimized content
• Incoming links
• Internal links

The bottom line for free search engine optimization or what’s also called organic search is to create quality content – content that’s written for your readers and then optimized for the search engines.

Quality content will be linked to. It will increase your search engine ranking. And it’ll bring visitors back again and again.

Search engine optimization can be complicated if you’re trying to figure out the algorithms and outsmart them. However, most online businesses find great success by sticking with the basics.

SEO is an important part of your online business success. As we move along you will learn how to maximize SEO strategies to grow a successful online business.

Do you want to learning how to build a successful online business to supplement your offline business?  How about reaching more of your target market to grow your business? Then sign up for the Free Newsletter and have all the strategies and skills delivered right to your inbox!

Next we’re going to talk about the 5 steps to SEO success.

If you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Thanks for reading,

How to Use SEO Like A Superstar is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

SEO Glossary

Anchor Text – The actual text part of a link (usually underlined). Used by search engines as an important ranking factor. Search engines (Google) pay particular attention to the text used in a hyperlink and associate the keywords contained in the anchor text to the page being linked to.

AdSense – A fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display relevant Google ads on their website’s content pages and earn money.

Alt Tags – Alternate text associated with a web page graphic that gets displayed when the Internet user hovers the mouse over the graphic. Alt tags should convey what the graphic is for or about and contain good relevant. keywords.

Back Links – In bound links pointing to a web page.

Banner Ad – A graphic image, usually a GIF or JPEG, that can be placed anywhere on a web page, most frequently centered across the top.

Blog – An web site with entries made on a regular if not daily basis. Some blogs are maintained by an anonymous author who uses a nickname or handle instead of his or her real name.

Blogroll – Link list on a blog, usually linking to other blogs owned by the same company or friends of that blogger.

Body – The area in the middle of a web page, where the content is located.

Browser – Platform used to view the world wide web. The most popular are Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox, and Apple’s Safari.

Clickthrough Rate (CTR) – The rate at which people click on a link such as a search engine listing or a banner ad.

Cookie – Small data file written to a user’s local machine to track them. Cookies are used to help websites customize your user experience and help affiliate program managers track conversions.

Copyright – The legal rights to publish and reproduce a particular piece of work.

Crawling – Also referred to as robots, bots, crawler, spider. These are programs used by a search engine to explore the World Wide Web in an automated manner and download the HTML content

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) – A protocol for transferring data between computers.

Footer – The area at the bottom of the web page.

HTML – Stands for HyperText Markup Language. The programming language used to mark up web content and display it in a formatted manner.

Header – The area to the top of the web page

Home Page – The main page on your website, which is largely responsible for helping develop your brand and setting up the navigational schemes that will be used to help users and search engines navigate your website

Index – Collection of data used as bank to search through to find a match to a user fed query. The larger search engines have billions of documents in their catalogs.

IP Address (Internet Protocol Address) – Every computer connected to the internet has an IP address. Some websites and servers have unique IP addresses, but most web hosts host multiple websites on a single host.

Keyword – A word that a search engine user might use to find relevant web page(s). If a keyword doesn’t appear anywhere in the text of your web page, it’s highly unlikely your page will appear in the search results (unless of course you have bid on that keyword in a pay-per-click search engine).

Keyword Density – The number of occurrences that a given keyword appears on a web page.

Link – A reference from one web document to another web document or another position in the same document. Links are expressed as URLs.

Meta Description – The meta description tag is typically a sentence or two of content which describes the content of the page.

Meta Keywords – A meta tag hidden in the HTML that lists keywords relevant to the page’s content.

Organic Search Results – Most major search engines have results that consist of paid ads and unpaid listings. The unpaid / algorithmic listings are called the organic search results. Organic search results are organized by relevancy, which is largely determined based on linkage data, page content, usage data, and historical domain and trust related data.

Page Rank (PR) – A logarithmic scale based on link equity which estimates the importance of web documents.

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) – Marketing a website in search engines.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – The art and science of publishing information and marketing it in a manner that helps search engines understand your information is relevant to relevant search queries.

SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) – The page on which the search engines show the results for a search query.

Site Map - Page which can be used to help give search engines a secondary route to navigate through your site.

Target Market – the market in which advertisers wish to sell their product or service to.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) – The unique address of any web document.

WordPress – Popular blogging software platform.

This list of terms and their definitions should give you a good starting point of the most frequently used terms. Please keep in mind that there are a lot more terms to learn, but at least you have a foundation now.  If a term you are looking for is not in the SEO Glossary, then check a good place to look is Wikipedia.

SEO Glossary: What Do All These Terms Mean? is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

In terms of building a house, search engine optimization is the walls, the foundation, and the roof of your structure.  It the fundamental basics and if you don’t get them right in the beginning, you are going to be doing a lot of work on you house to get it right.

SEO is the same, but a lot easier than building a house.  Sure you could pay someone to do it for you, but then you are always going to rely on others to make adjustments for you.

It is the way that websites are visible to search engines.  In other words, it is keywords or phrases that are captured by the “spiders” and they tell the search engine what that page and website is about.  Then when people go and start looking for information on the internet and type in what they are looking for, know as keywords, the search engines have made notes on all the web pages and direct the results to pages that will have the information.

So, to properly optimize your website means to organize it so that the search engines associate it with specific keywords.

SEO might sound very complex to you now, but as you learn more about how the internet works and how to set up a website you will see that it’s not too complicated.  You find the there is a general formula to work with and as the search engines develop you will just need to make periodic tweaks.

Search engine optimization or SEO is a skill that is learned and yes, even the most knowledgeable internet folks are always learning new strategies.

Next in this “What is SEO?” series we will go over some basic internet SEO terms.

If you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Thanks for reading,

What is SEO and What Does It Have To Do With My Online Marketing? is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

How do you approach online marketing to target men and women shoppers without completely boring one group or alienating the other? Well, balance is the key. You must appeal to both genders in order to effectively market to them with a delicate balance and well thought out approach.

“The product page needs to allow depth of product information for men, while allowing women to scan that product information and easily move on,” says Edd Johns, Resource Interactive‘s Executive Director of Strategy. “When we say men dig, what they’re doing is very intense – they’re doing a lot of research, jumping to different sites, comparison shopping, reading reviews – they are out, really, on a focused mission.

“So we’re not saying ‘create a very complex experience.’ Instead, easily allow them within that product page to serve up deeper product information.” Including expert reviews is a good idea, he says. “That’s what men want.”

However, women are much different. They can be persuaded when they are viewing a product page and will continue to search for what else they can find. They are less concerned with details surrounding each particular product, but are more focused on an abundance of options and possibilities, this is typically how women shop.

What is most critical for online marketing, according to Johns and the research conducted at Resource Interactive is to balance product focus with lifestyle focus. Here are some tips offered by the same research:

1) Make sure your website has a cohesive message and theme.

Both men and women will need to determine what you have to offer and whether or not it is for them. Take an approach that will appeal to both men and women in separate elements of your website. For example, include images that may attract female shoppers in conjunction with links that will entice male shoppers to make a purchase.

2) Think of your customers as scenarios, not demographics.

If you think in terms of strictly age, sex and marital status, you will be missing opportunity. Instead, think in terms of more generalities like young v. old, professional v. homemaker, etc. This will help you target a wider range within each market segment rather than narrow your audience too much.

3) Make sure your shopping cart is a multi-purpose, useful tool for consumers.

Don’t make the mistake of using your shopping cart as the point of final sale with little to no additional functionality for your customers. Instead, consider that both men and women want to compare. They want the ability to leave and come back with the option to review what they have in their cart. It will serve you well to allow for this kind of comparison shopping.

So, let’s review.

Men are hunters. Women are gatherers.

Keep this basic stereotype in mind when marketing to the sexes online. You will want to make sure you can easily be found (for men) and have a lot to offer once they find you (for women).

Men hate to shop. Women like to browse.

Be clear with your audience so that men can instantly know that you have what they are looking for, but also remember to offer additional options so that women can continue to “browse” through your offerings.

Men shop differently online than they do in the store, while women tend to have similar shopping practices across the board.

We are clearly seeing a shift in the consumer profile of men when it comes to shopping online. They are doing more of it more often. And at the same time, we don’t expect to see an influx of men at the shopping centers and malls any time soon. Take advantage of this opportunity as you piece together your online marketing strategy.

However, don’t neglect the ever-powerful, always ready-to-shop women of the World Wide Web. They are still the ones making most of the buying decisions whether it’s in the store or online, so they certainly remain to be a very important consumer force to be reckoned with.

And although these generalities seem to be widespread, let’s not forget what is most important in this equation. Your business.

Online marketing is a great way to grow your customer base and increase revenue, but you must approach your target market with thoughtful consideration. Men and women may shop very differently, but what you have to offer is a great product. Let them know, whoever “they” may be, just how useful, important and critical your business is because at the end of the day, you want “them” to buy what you have to sell.

Next we will be talking about search engine optimization in the series “What is SEO?”

How Do You Approach Male and Female Shoppers Online? is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Marketing to Women Online Should be Influenced by How They Use the Internet

When it comes to online shopping, women tend to use the internet to research and gather information on issues like health, wellness, spirituality and religion. We also seek support and to build as well as maintain relationships online. In fact, a study conducted by Burst Media in early 2009 found that nearly 52% of females who use the internet use it as the primary way to stay in touch with their families.

That same study also found that around 62% of females use the internet as their primary source for information on products they were considering purchasing. For women, it’s all about the research. We want to know all about the products as well as what others are saying about them.

According to research conducted by Resource Interactive, an e-commerce consulting firm, in conjunction with the help of comScore Networks, females were responsible for over 58 percent of online spending vs. male’s 42 percent between April of 2004 and March of 2005.

So why are women spending more time actually shopping online than men? Well, while females are more likely to browse online just as they do in the store, they don’t altogether abandon their particular to-do list. They simply add on to it.

Edd Johns, executive director of strategy for Resource Interactive puts it best. “Women… might… say, ‘I’m interested in a digital camera,’ and the next thing you know, they’re looking at clothes for their kids, they’re thinking about what they’re doing that weekend and if they need to pick something up for their husbands.”

What does this mean for online e-tailers? Well, Johns also says that a list of recently viewed items is highly important when marketing to women, less so for men and ease of navigation should also be a top priority.

Johns teaches us that “shopping online for [women] is just like window shopping.” So we return to the “gatherer” analogy. Females browse. We seek solutions as we shop, be it at the store or online. And while men might be ideal shoppers in their ability to make a purchase once they have found what they are looking for, women are ideal in their ability to be sold to.

So how do you market to both male and female shoppers online without boring or alienating either? The key is balance.  In the next article we’ll be bringing all the aspects of marketing to women and men together to help you improve your marketing message!

-Theresa

How Women Use the Internet the Secret is Out! is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

If it’s on sale, they’ll likely buy it! Even if the item was not on their list, women are more likely than men to pick up that extra item (or more likely, items!)

While men are often “purpose-driven” in what they do, including shopping, women like to enjoy the ride. They want to take their time in a store, browse the aisles and peruse the shelves.

Again, consider bounce rate as we discussed in relation to male shoppers. While a store’s bounce rate is likely to increase when men shop, it is just as likely to take a dip when females shop. And that’s a good thing!

Why? Because women like to take their time and enjoy the shopping experience. They want to take in the complete package that the store has to offer, from sales associates, to mannequins, to window dressings and sale racks, females want to be won over.

In fact, according to WomenCertified, a women’s consumer advocacy and retail training organization headquartered in Hollywood, Florida, females spend $4 trillion annually and account for 83% of U.S. consumer spending, which makes up two-thirds of the nation’s gross national product. So you can see how important it is to accurately and effectively target women with marketing efforts. They are proven shoppers!

And as a market segment, females are the ones making the purchasing decisions. According to additional research, “women buy or at least influence the purchase of 80% of all consumer goods including family health care and other major purchases”. This is hugely important information for retailers and marketers alike.

In a clear juxtaposition to males, females were more likely to go shopping when they didn’t have any particular item in mind. Why? Women like to consider possibilities.

Stanford researcher S. Christian Wheeler surveyed males and females and found females were nearly three times more likely to browse. The research found that females browsed until they had seen most of the things in the store – a very different approach than that taken by men. Only 33% of men admit to browsing this extensively.

We like to search for the deal and find that one unique item that we may not have even known existed. We enjoy the journey through the store aisles and envision each item in our possession as we stroll along. This is clearly a different approach than most men.

“Women tend to be more invested in the shopping experience on many dimensions,” says Robert Price, chief marketing officer at CVS Caremark and a member of the Baker advisory board.

And while females tend to be of an obviously different breed of shopper than their male counterparts, they are alike in one thing – they want quality, efficient help from store associates.

For women, “lack of help when needed” is the number one problem they cite as why they would never return to a particular store. In fact, according to an analysis of one study’s data, about 6% of all female shoppers could be lost to stores due to lack of sales help.

Women shoppers want to feel important. They want to know that they are valued customers. When asked what problem would make respondents so angry they would never return to a store, women cited employees who “acted like you were intruding on their time or their own conversations.”

Now, this is a bit different than men in that no where in the study was it mentioned that men cared about an associate’s attitude. They were more interested in timeliness and availability of a product. But as women, we care how we are treated, not just how quickly we can be served.

Research also indicates that females who have to balance many responsibilities prefer stores with limited selections. For instance, the working mother of four is more attracted to stores like Coach and Trader Joe’s. This kind of woman wants a store to appeal to her but not overcrowd the shopping experience with too many options.

Females are more focused on the shopping experience, while males are interested in the result. We want to enjoy our time in the store, get to know associates and fellow shoppers, and discuss the items we are considering taking home. We want to be persuaded, directed and sold, unlike men who often want to avoid conversation all together.

How Women Shop Is There Really A Method To The Madness? is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Perhaps this mindset is the very force that drives men to be such ideal online consumers. If you have what they want, they will most likely buy it. It’s quick. It’s easy. It’s virtually pain free shopping from the comfort of their home. But your job is not quite as easy.

Your job is to make sure they find you first because as we have already learned, males aren’t going to take the time to search you out. Search engine optimization, anyone?

Most men act almost as if they are dealing with an ATM machine. In fact, they want to deal with an ATM machine. They really don’t want to deal with a person at all.

And while one man previously compared shopping to a having a root canal, the same study from Resource Interactive found that “men feel totally empowered online,” according to Edd Johns, executive director of strategy. “They felt like it was a game they could play, it was a game they would win.”

As I mentioned in earlier, men mostly use the internet for entertainment purposes. They do things like read the news, make travel plans and reservations, check sports scores and updates, download music, buy and sell stocks, and make competitive bids in online auctions like on eBay. They aren’t reading about what other guys are up to in their spare time, or what book is recommended this month. They have a purpose and are therefore purpose driven consumers.

In 2007, a Forrester study showed that males tend to stay online longer and devote more time to online entertainment and researching technical gadgets. See, the internet is “easy” for men to control. There are no parking lots to navigate, no lines to wait in and most importantly, no people to deal with.

This is evidenced by the fact that nearly 12.9 million males are estimated to shop online. Compare that with only 10.3 million females. In addition, almost twice as many men than women are shopping online for the first time each year. Research from comScore Networks indicates that males are moving from angst-ridden feelings in offline shopping to feelings of power online.

Roughly 41% of male shoppers plan to do as much of their shopping as possible online in the future and over half (55%) of the men shopping online also expect to expand the range of products and services they buy as well.

Carl Scheible, managing director of PayPal UK, said, “The online revolution has turned men into shopaholics. We love the quick and efficient nature of the internet, especially when it comes to buying technology and gadgets.” And as the internet continues to grow, and more and more products and services are available online, men’s “love affair with online shopping looks set to accelerate.”

What does this mean for you?

It means great things! It means that when targeting your male consumers, be clear, concise and direct. It means you will have to win them over with your accessibility and ease of purchase. It means they are primed and ready for you to make the sale and that means great things for you and your business.

But does it mean the same for women?  That is the question. Now that we’ve explored how men shop and how men use the internet, we’ll now examine how women shop. The trick to selling might not be a trick after all!

- Theresa

How Men Use the Internet…Revealed is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

There are many strategies when it come to marketing and marketing to men is one of them.  Men and women have completely different buying patterns and to be successful in selling it is beneficial to understand these difference.  That way you can adjust you marketing efforts to reach your niche market.

Men are hunters. If there is one thing to keep in mind when marketing to men either online or in the stores, remember this one simple fact. They know what they want and they go out and get it.

Males tend to be “purpose driven” in most of what they do, including shopping. Quick to get in and even quicker to get out. For most males, shopping is a mission. They are out to buy a specific item and flee the store as quickly as possible, according to new Wharton research.

Think of this as their bounce rate. As an online business owner, you know and understand all too well the importance of your bounce rate. Well, when men shop, stores’ bounce rates sky rocket. Why? Because males are not there to browse. They are there to get the job done.

As one man put it, from a study conducted by Resource Interactive, “I would rather have a root canal than go shopping.” Ouch!

In a study titled, “Men Buy, Women Shop,” researchers at Wharton’s Jay H. Baker Retail Initiative and the Verde Group, a Toronto consulting firm, found that males are more likely to respond to more utilitarian aspects of the shopping experience, such as the availability of parking, whether the item they came for is in stock, and the length of the checkout line.

“Men want to go to Sears, buy a specific tool and get out.”

Here’s the fact to prove it – about five percent of all male shoppers result in lost business for stores that are out of the product those men went in to buy. Why? Because if the store doesn’t have what they are looking for, in their minds it’s “Move on, John!”

They are out for the hunt and they will continue searching until they find it. In other words, they aren’t necessarily out for a bargain. They want to find what they are looking for, make the transaction, and get out — simple, short and to the point.

In fact, according to the same study, what’s most important for male shoppers is an associate’s interest in helping them find the item they desire and then the associate’s effort to get them through the checkout line as quickly as possible.

It also seems as though males are most angered by associates who appear “lazy, i.e., would not check for additional stock or take you to the item you were looking for.” This was the response when asked what problem would make male respondents so angry they would never return to a store.

It is obvious that males are on a clear mission when they shop and you are either going to help them reach their goal, or better to get out of their way!

So, now you should have a better understanding of how men shop.  Next we’re going to dive into how men use the internet and how you can use this to your advantage to sell more!

- Theresa

The Secret To How Men Shop is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Perhaps you have a good grasp on your target market, and of course knowing who you’re selling to makes everything a whole lot easier, but if you haven’t yet studied the buying patterns of your market and built your business around what appeals to them, you are ultimately making your job much harder than it needs to be.

Hopefully, the information you are about to read will help!

I’m not saying you won’t make money by simply knowing who you’re selling to, because identifying your target market is extremely important, but if you really want to boost your sales, you will need to look past the “who” element and find out “what” makes them tick… or more importantly, buy!

When it comes to marketing online, you must understand your consumers. You have to learn what they are looking for and how they use the internet. This information can help you grab their attention and get your marketing message in front of the right audience, which is oftentimes half the battle.

And speaking of “battles”, let’s talk battle of the sexes. No, I am not talking men verses women here in an all out brawl. I’m talking about what the differences truly are between male and female shoppers.

Why is this important?

Well, if you really want to get to know and understand your target market, you will have to understand what makes them tick and research shows that men and women “tick” very differently when it comes to making purchases.

What do they look for? What makes them interested? What turns them off? These are all important questions you will need to discover the answers to in order to gain a full understanding of the “consumer blueprint” of both men and women.

Come to find out, men and women don’t only differ when it comes to who gets control of the remote. In fact, when it comes to shopping habits and even online habits of men and women – they differ a great deal.

Big surprise!

Research in Gender, Design and Marketing by Gloria Moss teaches us just how different men and women approach the shopping experience, what appeals to them and what turns them off.

For example, did you know that both men and women alike are drawn to images of their own gender?

Men are drawn to more technical images, whereas women seem to prefer rounded shapes and detailed surfaces.

Women like more colorful, bright images than men.

Men prefer “comparative advertising” whereas women prefer images that depict “harmonious relationships”.

And the differences don’t end there.

History shows us that women were more hesitant than men to jump on the internet bandwagon when it was first introduced to the general public. However, that is no longer the case. The truth is that today, studies show that women under the age of 65 are quicker to use the internet than men. That is quite a shift from the usage patterns of old.

Women love to use the internet for research. We seek answers to questions about our businesses, our health and our families. We are blogging, sharing and even starting businesses all on the World Wide Web. The internet is where we go to, you guessed it, shop!

For men, the internet has become more of a tool for entertainment. They use it to read about news, sports, movies and download music. They spend time playing games, reading about games and finding out what games come out next. And while they hate to shop in “real life”, you will see just how important it is to understand that more and more men are becoming shopaholics online.

So you can see why these two groups of consumers have to be separated and understood as their own, individualized categories and thus, must be marketed to as such.

When we review studies that have been done on the different ways men and women use the internet, we can gain a greater deal of knowledge on how to position our products online.

Now, think about your target market. Is the majority male or female? This information can assist you in not only where, but how you position your product or service. You will learn to consider the buying patterns of men versus women when you are formulating upcoming marketing campaigns and be able to put it to use in order to increase the conversions you gain online.

The Secret to Getting People to Actually Buy What You Are Selling is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Alrighty…this is the last past of building your Business Plan.  Today’s exercise is easy and it should take too much time.  You already made notes on your competition when you put your PI hat on, so keep those notes handy.  You will refer to then as we move along in the project.

Just in case you are visiting fro the first time, this is the final part in the series of creating a Business Plan for marketing your offline business online. To get you all caught up, it would be helpful for you to first read:

Goals for Your Website

Your Budget

Your Time

What is Your Niche Market?

Your Current Numbers?

What’s Your Unique Selling Proposition?

Here’s the workbook, just in case you need it.

Click here to download the >> Simple Business Plan for Successful Online Marketing Kit.

Then save the document to your computer.

Get your favorite pen and let’s bring this “bad-boy” home.

Who’s Your Competition?

We’re working on Page 13 of the workbook today.

We will go into more depth regarding your competition as we move along.  For now let’s just focus on your local competition and their online presence.  If they don’t have a website, then do an internet search for blogs in your market that are close to your geographical area.

Who are your top 3 competitors?  It doesn’t matter if they have a website or not, just list your top 3 competitors.  It is crucial that you know the features and benefits that your competitors advertise.  You need this knowledge to formulate your USP and you need this to sell against them.  Think of it this way if you know the sales strategy of your competitors you will be able to position your features and more importantly your benefits better.

Also, if your competitors have a blog, list 3 items you’d like to incorporate on yours?  If they don’t have a blog, then list 3 items from other blogs you found outside your geography. This may or may not work on your website, but I want you to pick out things that appeal to you.  As we move along this list could change as you learn online marketing strategies.

OK, so go to Page 13 of the workbook and compete today’s exercise and you’re done.  On Pages 14-15 of the workbook you’ll find a Checklist to help you with completing the 7 parts of this series.

The next series is going to cover online selling and how to market to men and women.

What else is important to know about your competition? Please share your ideas below.

Simple Business Plan: Who’s Your Competition? is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

We’re in the home stretch now, just one more part after this and you are all done with your Business Plan! In today’s exercise we are going to be discussing your Unique Selling Proposition or USP.  Your Unique Selling Proposition is what gets your customers to buy your product instead of your competitor’s.

Before we get to far into it, if you are here for the first time this is part 6 in the series of creating a Business Plan for marketing your offline business online. To get you all caught up, it would be helpful for you to first read:

Business Plan: Goals for Your Website

Business Plan: Your Budget

Business Plan: Your Time

Business Plan: What is Your Niche Market?

Business Plan: Your Current Numbers?

Here’s the workbook, just in case you need it.

Click here to download the >> Simple Business Plan for Successful Online Marketing Kit.

Then save the document to your computer.

Okey-dokey, let’s roll…

What’s Your Unique Selling Proposition?

Get out that favorite pen, we’re working on Page 12 of the workbook today.

Sometimes defining your Unique Selling Proposition takes a little time, so if you get stuck, just keep brainstorming and you’ll eventually have this buttoned up.  To get the ball rolling start writing down a list of features and benefits for your service/product.

Let’s be on the same page as to what “Features” mean.  Features are characteristics of your service/product, they are distinctive attributes.  Think of features as the things you can see.  Examples of features are light-weight, easy to use, no experience necessary, step-by-step, etc.

“Benefits” on the other hand are the way the service/product makes your customer feel.  Think of benefits as the things you cannot see. Examples of benefits are taking the stress away, time saving, money saving, provides peace of mind, etc. The benefits are the things you customer really wants, that’s what they are buying.

Get your pad of paper and on the left side list Features of your service/product.  Then, on the right list the corresponding benefit of each Feature.  If you are someone in your market this will be easier, you will know the and understand the “pain” your service/product satisfies.  If you are not you market, all you have to do is do a little research and interview your target market to get an even better idea of how you can help.

Your unique selling proposition is going to accomplish 3 things:

• Differentiate you from your competition
• Get people talking about your service/product
• Grow your business

To build your unique selling proposition you need to take into account 3 basic items that we will develop even further: benefit, differentiation, and the “WOW” factor of your service/product.

Now it’s time to go back to on Page 12 of the workbook and answer these questions:

• What is the benefit of your service/product?
• How is service/product different from your competitors’ offering?
• What makes your service/product something your customers will talk about?

List 3 benefits and then answer the other 2 question as it relates to the benefit.  In other words, you will have benefit #1, 2, & 3.  Then you will answer how you differ from your competitors for each benefit.  And then, you will answer what makes your customers talk for each benefit.  So, you will have 3 potential Unique Selling Propositions.

As before, if you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Next time we are going to your competition.

Thanks for reading,

Simple Business Plan: What’s Your Unique Selling Proposition? is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

In this part of writing your Business Plan we are going to gather data to establish a baseline for you to be able to monitor and track your efforts over time.

There are different ways that you can do this and it will vary depending on your industry.  I will go over some examples and then you can use that along with what you currently use to track sales, customers, leads, etc.

If you are just popping in for the first time this is part 5 in the series of creating a Business Plan for marketing your offline business online. To get you all caught up, it would probably be helpful for you to first read:

Business Plan: Goals for Your Website

Business Plan: Your Budget

Business Plan: Your Time

Business Plan: What is Your Niche Market?

Here’s the workbook, just in case you need it.

Click here to download the >> Simple Business Plan for Successful Online Marketing Kit.

Then save the document to your computer.

OK, so let’s get going…

What Are Your Current Sales per Month and Year?

Get your favorite pen and we’re working on Page 11 of the workbook today.

You need to have a way to measure your website’s contribution to your business. Please keep in mind it will not bring you dozens of new customers overnight or over the first month even. This project is a long-term project, so the return depends on many factors.  If you only work on your website an hour a week it’s going to take a long time.  So, you might be wondering what would be an average time.

Once you learn all the basics and feel comfortable; and you commit to providing useful quality content to your business blog I would say 6-8 months to see interest from your target market.  The process takes time. Success online requires you to be consistent, persistent, and patient.

We’re going to walk through everything you will need to see traffic on you business blog, but it’s up to you.  If you think about it when you started your business you didn’t have a booked calendar the first day, right?  Well a business blog is no different.

So we need to establish some type of tracking record for you.  In the workbook I included a chart that tracks sales for the last year.  If you also track other number then great tweak the chart and customize it to your needs.

For example, if you are a Realtor you will want to track leads, leads that turn into appointments, appointments that turn into sales/closings.  If you are an interior designer it will be very similar.  Let’s say you’re an Interior/exterior painter, you might want to track the number of interior jobs and the number of exterior jobs.  You get the picture. 

You are making note of these numbers, so that you can compare in the future, certain products or services might perform better than others. If this is the case, then maybe you can use this information to make changes on your website.

So, now go fill out Page 11 of the workbook and adjust to customize it to your needs and you’re done with day 5 of your Business Plan for marketing your offline business online.

As before, if you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Next time we are going to discuss why people should buy your product or service, your unique selling proposition.

Thanks for reading,

Simple Business Plan: Your Current Numbers? is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

In this part of writing your Business Plan we are going to examine you industry, market, products all the good stuff.  This section should be fairly easy because this is information you already have researched.  Your offline business wouldn’t be successful if you hadn’t already thoroughly researched your niche market.

If you are just tuning in, this is Part 4 of a 7 part series.  To get you all caught up, it would probably be helpful for you to first read:

Business Plan: Goals for Your Website

Business Plan: Your Budget

Business Plan: Your Time

Then you’ll be up to speed on the project.

Here’s the workbook, just in case you need it.

Click here to download the >> Simple Business Plan for Successful Online Marketing Kit.

Then save the document to your computer.

Okey-dokey, let’s get crackin’…

What is Your Niche Market?

Now that you have your foundation rolling let’s move along.  What is your niche market, you industry? What are your product(s) or service(s)? Also, important where is your location (city)?

These terms are going to be the beginning of your keyword research to build your website and are crucial to getting found online. You will use these phrases when you start doing your keyword research.

Get your favorite pen and let’s go to Pages 9-10 of the workbook.

Some of the following question might seem a little redundant, however it is important that you have a clear idea on paper who you target market is exactly; what you have to offer; what problems your product solves, etc.

For instance, let’s say you’re a lawyer, then your website need to be targeting the clients you want to attract not other lawyers. Right? And this means that the information you have on your website speaks to potential clients, not to other lawyers.

It seems incredibly elementary, however, a lot of people completely miss the boat.  So I want you to have the information on paper, so when you revisit your Business Plan you ‘ll be able to see if you are on track with reaching your niche market.

Questions to Answer

• Who is your target market, whom are you trying to connect with?

• Age, Gender, Income Level – be specific, it can’t be everyone. Who really needs your service?

• What is your industry?

• What are your products or services?

• What problems will your service/product solve?

Since you have an established business already, we’re going under the assumption that people care about getting this problem solved.

• What actions do you want visitors to your site to take?

Not just purchasing from you, do you want them on your email list, will you offer a free tutorial you want them to enroll in, etc.

• What locations do you provide your services?

• How do you find/reach your market, publications, associations, conventions?

All of the answers should come fairly easy to you, so even though this session of building your Business Plan for marketing your offline business online is a little longer than the other 3, you should breeze through it.

What Next

So, get you thoughts together and go to Pages 9-10 of the workbook and jot down the information in the spaces provided.  You’re more than half way done!

As before, if you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Next we are going to discuss “your current sales”.

Simple Business Plan: What is Your Niche Market? is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

In this next part of writing your Business Plan we are going to dive into your time and how building an online presence is going to fit into your schedule.

As with any new project you always have to invest more time at the beginning because you are learning new information, techniques, and strategies.  The thing to remember here is that to build a successful website takes time and you should not get discouraged because it is a process.  Most of all it is important to commit to the process and be consistent (and patience helps too ).

If this is your first visit here, this is the 3rd session in creating a Business Plan for marketing your offline business online. To get you all caught up, it would probably be helpful for you to first read:

Business Plan: Goals for Your Website

Business Plan: Your Budget

Here’s the workbook, just in case you need it.

Click here to download the >> Simple Business Plan for Successful Online Marketing Kit.

Then save the document to your computer.

Your Time

We’re going to be working on Pages 7-8 of the workbook, so get out your favorite pen.

How much time are you willing to spend/can you spend to this project. Think about it as something you are going to do everyday.  If you schedule an hour everyday to building your online presence, you won’t need to do a lot of work at one sitting. And it will become part of your daily routine, like your morning coffee.

As you move along you could also schedule different tasks for your website on different days of the week. This way your energy will be very focused.  A lot of business bloggers find this method very effective.  Each day you can just focus on one type of “To-Do” instead of tackling all sorts of things.

For example, maybe you could you block off an hour in the morning, especially in the beginning of building your website? Maybe, before lunch would be better? Or maybe in the evening?  Whenever it works for you set the time aside and commit to it.

So, before you fill out Pages 7-8 of the workbook, here are some questions to think about:

• Where will you work in the additional time needed?
• How often and how much time are you willing to commit to this project?
• Do you have any partners who can help you with this project?
• How do you initially think tasks can be divided with your partner?

If you do have a partner to help you work on your website tasks don’t worry about who is going to do exactly what here.  As we move along this will be more clearer.  However, write down a few thoughts on how you initially think responsibilities could be divided, assuming you won’t be doing all the work.  Is one person a good writer? Is one person good with computers? And so on.

OK, write down your information and you’re done with day 3 of your Business Plan for marketing your offline business online.

As before, if you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Next we are going to discuss “your target market”.

Thanks for reading,

Simple Business Plan: Your Time is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Today we’re going to get to work on the next part of your Simple Business Plan for marketing your offline business online.  The money.  I know this is never a happy topic, unless we’re talking about money coming into your bank account.  But remember that’s our goal here.

To recap, if you are just tuning in, this is Part 2 of a 7 part series.  To get you caught up in all the activity here, go read Simple Business Plan: Goals for Your Website first, then you’ll be up to speed on the project. :

Here’s the workbook, just in case you need it.

Click here to download the >> Simple Business Plan for Successful Online Marketing Kit.

Then save the document to your computer.

Okey-dokey, let’s get the party started…

Your Budget

When thinking about a budget, let’s start with just the basics.  Building an online presence can range in cost tremendously.   The whole point of you deciding to build your own website is to NOT spend a crazy amount of money, right?  Right.  So as we continue to build your project we will take into account expenses that are “must-have” and expenses that are “not-really-needed”.

We are working on Page 6 of the workbook right now.

To exist online you need 3 basics:

• Website Name – your ‘domain name’ (www.example.com) – about $15.00USD per year

• Website Hosting – the service that provides you the ability to show your website on the internet – about $10.00USD per month

• e-Mailing Service – autoresponder service (the service which keeps all your leads and sends them messages that you create – about $19.00USD per month

These are in the “must-have” category.  Yes, you can get away with using a free website platform, but you are at the mercy of that company.  And if for some reason, and it does happen, they cease to exist or they take down your site – you are left with nothing.  Zilch.  So, all your hard work is gone and you have to start from scratch. Not to mention you have limited ability on free platforms.

Also crucial to your marketing is a reliable autoresponder service.  This is how you will be communicating with your website followers and keeping your name out there.

So, total for these 3 services it will be approximately $363.00USD per year or about $30 per month.  In the grand scheme of things, it’s not that much.  However, I don’t know your finances and maybe you need to examine your expenses to see how $30 is going to work into your budget.

Is this doable? Will you have to cut or reduce your business operating costs in another area?

How will you work in the monthly costs?

Go to Page 6 of the workbook and write down how you will cover these costs.

That’s it for day 2,  you will be done with your Simple Business Plan for marketing your offline business online in no time.

As before, if you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Next time we are going to discuss “your time”.

Simple Business Plan: Your Budget is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Okey-dokey, It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get started on your Simple Business Plan for marketing your offline business online.

If you haven’t already read these articles, you might want to go check them out.  They will give you a foundation for creating your business plan.

Do You Really Need An Online Business Plan?

Basics Of An Online Business Plan

3 Foundations To An Online Business Plan

Your Competition And Your Online Business Plan

It took me a little longer than I had anticipated to finalize the workbook and checklist.  As timing would have it, I came across 3 other business plan formats that were recently published.  I had to take a bit and look at these to see if I should include anything else in the one we’re working on here.

The other plans were not quiet geared toward what we’re doing here, so I only ended making 3 tweaks to the Simple Business Plan.  So it is now complete and we’re ready to rock-n-roll!

Here’s How It’s Going To Work

The whole plan is going to be broken down into 7 segments and each day you will just focus on that part.  If you want to get ahead of the group, that’s cool.  I just figured that with a busy schedule most would appreciate the “one-day-at-a-time” approach.

The Simple Business Plan

Click here to download the >>  Simple Business Plan for Successful Online Marketing Kit.

You will get a “pop-up” window asking you to save the document on your computer.

It is 17 pages total and each day I’ll just refer to the page number(s) we’re working on.  This will be easier than making you download a couple of pages each day.

The beginning pages of the Workbook (pages 2-4) review the homework you have already done (see articles above).

Let’s Get To It

First we’re going to dive into your goals for a website.  Why do you want to have a website? What do you expect from your website?

So, take a little time to think about these questions and go to Page 5 of the workbook and put your answers in the space provided.

• What do you want your website to accomplish?

• What advertising you are currently doing for your “offline” business?

• Do you want it to augment your current advertising?

• Do you want it to be your primary advertising?

• Do you want it to showcase your portfolio?

• Do you want it to provide information to sell your product or service?

• Do you want to create ebooks and guides around your service to sell?

• What other complimentary products or services could your customers benefit from?

You might not have an answer for each question and that’s fine.  Some of these questions might be projects for down the road. Your website could also accomplish multiple goals eventually.

For this exercise write down your primary goal first and then write down the additional goals on Page 5 of the workbook.

Not too bad, huh.  Each day will basically be like this, a little at a time and in 7 days you will be done with your Simple Business Plan for marketing your offline business online.

As before, if you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Next time we are going to discuss the “M” word…money and how your budget ties into your business plan.

Simple Business Plan: Goals for Your Website is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Where’s Your Business Plan?

There’s a saying that goes, “If you don’t know where you’re going you’ll never know when you get there.”  I’m sure you’ve heard it or at least some variation.  This is a perfect advice to follow when you are about to start any new project.  Whether you’re building something, cooking, or growing your business.  You need a plan.

Some people shy away from putting together a business plan because going through the process might seem too overwhelming. But, think of it this way – if writing up a plan seems daunting, then trying to run a business without a plan is just plane nuts

So, don’t put it off any longer, build yourself a road map to success!

Creating your Business Plan is easier than you think and following the steps below will walk you through the entire process.

First Step – Get Your Thoughts Together

So, you get that you need a Business Plan, but what exactly are the benefits?

A Business Plan Helps You:

• Create your company vision
• Identify your target audience and ideal customer
• Create your company mission
• Understand and prepare for your competition
• Create your business goals
• Identify your products and services for your model.
• Outline your marketing strategy, tactics and goals
• Plan how you’re going to achieve your goals including sales and profits.
• Plan how you’re going to grow

Read this article for more benefits of creating this crucial document: Do You Really Need An Online Business Plan?

(all the articles will open up on a separate page, so you won’t lose your place here)

Your Business Plan will also help you focus on 3 crucial areas of your business:

• What is Your Niche Market?
• What is Your Business Revenue?
• What is Your Unique Selling Proposition?

Read this article to get a better understanding of why this step is so important: Basics Of An Online Business Plan.

Building an online presence doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, but you should have an idea of your options when it come to:

• Your Goals for a Website
• Your Budget
• Your Time

Read this article to help you decide what you want your website to accomplish: 3 Foundations To An Online Business Plan.

Who are you up against and how are you going to compete?

Chances are you are in a market with at least some competition. So, it is important to analyze what the market looks like and how you are going to get your piece of the pie.

Read this article to help you get your thoughts on the right track when it comes to your competing in your market: Your Competition And Your Online Business Plan.

Step Two – Create Your Business Plan

Each link below will walk you through getting your thoughts on paper.

Remember that your plan could change here and there as your business grows or you decide to bring new products on board or retire products.  A business plan shouldn’t be a document you put together as an exercise in futility, but rather as a business guide.

Goals for Your Website

Your Budget

Your Time

What is Your Niche Market?

Your Current Numbers?

What’s Your Unique Selling Proposition?

Who’s Your Competition?

Here’s a FREE template you can download to get you started.

Click here >>  Simple Business Plan for Success

After you finish, put it in an easy to access “safe place” and look at it every 6-months or so, to see where you have to make some updates or changes.

A Simple Business Plan for Online Marketing is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

When you are building your business or starting a new campaign their are probably times when you are not sure of how an idea, that sounds great to you, might go-over with your target audience.  The great thing is that with the help of the internet you can see if others in your industry, or maybe even your local competition, are promoting that strategy.

Get Your PI Hat On

You can use your favorite search engine to gather competition information on several topics:

• Domain names chosen (URL’s – http://www.ThisIsTheDomainName.com)
• Keywords websites are targeting
• Ideas on website design
• Content that is getting attention (and not)
• Strategies for marketing
• Social network strategies

The information you gather from seeing what others are doing is a great starting point to creating your own website or campaign.  We are not talking about copying what others have done, we’re talking about capturing the the concept and putting your own spin on it – making it yours!

Think Back…

You have probably shopped for many items on the internet and in that process came across two or more sites that advertised the same exact item in completely different ways.  These differences in approach are great details to make note of for later.

In The Future…

When you find yourself shopping and researching start paying attention to the different layouts, verbiage, colors, etc.

Start thinking about what draws you to an advertisement and also make note of the ads that are ho-hum.

Now Go Do Some Investigating

Go to the website of your major competition and think about what you like and don’t like.  What colors are they using? Is the website easy to read and navigate? What are the articles about and what other content do they have.

Another item to note is, are they involved in any type of social media – Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc.

OK we will stop here, I wanted today’s homework for your online business plan to be more fun and give you a chance to play “Internet PI”.

To recap, get your pad and your favorite pen and start making some general observations on your competition.

Make notes on:

• Domain names – www.WhatDidTheyChooseForTheirName.com
• Is the website easy to read – the type (font) is “easy” on your eyes
• Website design – do they use pictures, is it too busy, does it scare you away
• Can you move through the website easily – go from page to page to find information
• Colors used – does the website use dark colors, lighter colors, what colors, etc.
• Verbiage – do their words make you want to take some action
• Social media associations – Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc.

All of these items will help you build a website that you will be proud of and one that will be a resource for your target market.

As before, if you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Next time, we are going to start putting your online business plan together.

Your Competition And Your Online Business Plan is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

In the last article – Basics Of An Online Business Plan – you had a little homework, so you could start preparing to write your formal plan.  Now let us go over the three basic foundations to your plan:

1. Your Goals for a Website
2. Your Budget
3. Your Time

Your Goals for A Website

Here start thinking about the advertising you are currently doing for your “offline” business.  What do you want your website to accomplish?

• Do  you want it to augment your current advertising?
• Do you want it to be your primary advertising?
• Do you want it to showcase your portfolio?
• Do you want it to provide information to sell your product or service?
• Do you want to create eBooks and guides around your service to sell?

Your website could also accomplish multiple goals.  You don’t need to have this all locked down in your mind, just start thinking of your main goal right now and as you move along you can tweak and add new goals.

Your Budget

When thinking about a budget, you probably want to start with just the basics, you can always grow and add as you learn more.

You could technically go ‘free-tools’ all the way, however this is not really the best strategy.  Why, you ask?  Because you are then at the mercy of whoever owns that media.  So, let say you built your blog on one of the free platforms – great you say, no out-of-pocket. Now let’s say for what ever reason that platform took down your website. No more blog and you have to start from scratch. Huge ARGH!

Another consideration in using a free source is your site’s name (URL). Let’s use the the example of building a blog on the free Worpress.com platform.  (Which is a great platform and we will speak more of it later.)  Instead of having a nice, clean URL like “http://www.example.com” which is easy for your customers to remember.  Your URL would be “http://yoursitename.wordpress.com”.  The longer and more complicated your website’s name is to remember, the less likely your customers will remember.

OK, so back to budget, there are three basics for having a piece of online real estate.

• Website Name – your ‘domain name’ (www.example.com)
• Website Hosting – the service that provides you the ability to show your website on the internet
• An e-Mailing Service – autoresponder service (the service which keeps all your leads and sends them messages that you create

A domain name is about $15.00USD per year; hosting is about $10.00USD per month; and an e-mailing service is about $19.00USD per month.  So, about $363.00USD per year or about $30 per month.

And remember in the Basics Of An Online Business Plan (Point#2) we discussed hiring a consultant could cost $1,000-2,000 per month.  Albeit, it will take some time and patience on your part, but this is some serious savings.

Your Time

This one is very straightforward, how much time are you willing to spend/can you spend to this project.  As with any new project, you will have to devote more time in the beginning, learning the process.  What you need to think about is how much time a day can you work into your already busy schedule.

If you could block off 30 minutes a day and maybe 1 hour on the weekends it would be great.  If this amount of time shocks you, don’t worry.  This project is part (or all) of your advertising and needs to part of that time block.

What Next?

So, now we have reviewed three more factors you should consider in thinking about your online business plan.

1. Your Goals for a Website
2. Your Budget
3. Your Time

Get out that pad and your favorite pen/pencil an start making some notes.  Again, these are ‘free-thinking’ notes, don’t worry about having to commit to anything just yet.

As before, if you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Next time, we are going to go over one more part to an online business plan, then you will start putting the whole thing together.

3 Foundations To An Online Business Plan is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Let’s quickly review three points.

Point #1

This whole exercise, and site for that matter, is based off the premise that you already have an offline business.  You may be an Interior Designer, Accountant, Realtor®, Painter, neighborhood Shop Owner etc. You have current clients/customers and you want to increase your local visibility or maybe national visibility depending on your service or product.

Point #2

You do not have room in your budget for the $1,000-$2,000 a month fee that website consultants charge, so you are open to working on your online piece of real estate yourself.  Let’s face it you have probably done every job related to your current business anyway, so what is one more if it will save you $1,000-$2,000 a month.

Point #3

You agree with the concept that a plan for any project is important and that the results might not show right away, but you know that being persistent and consistent, and patient your efforts will pay off.

All right with the above as our starting point let’s get this party started!

The basics of an online business plan:

What is Your Niche Market?

Think of your niche market as your product, service, and location (city).  We will be using these terms to do keyword research for your website.

Keywords are the words and phrases people use to find products or services, like you’ve probably done thousands of times.  These phrases and words are crucial to your success online.  Ten people will probably search for the same product using 11 different phrases and each of those phrases will have different amounts of competition (ie: the more websites competing for a keyword phrase the harder it will be for a new site to get noticed/ranked for that phrase).

What are Your Current Sales per Month and Year?

Go into your files and see what your past sales have been for each month and year.  The reason we are doing this is so you can have a baseline of your sales without a website.  If you have more than one product or service you want to market then break it down to sales for each product per month and year.

As you move forward you might find that certain products or services might not do as well for you as others.  This will open up several options for you:

• You might chose not to market the low producing product.
• You might need to tweak the marketing of the product.
• You might develop the product to meets the needs of your target market.

What is Your Unique Selling Proposition?

What makes you ‘rock’ at your service or product you are currently marketing?  This is going to help you with your content marketing, ie: what information you are going to be putting on your website. Think about compliments your customers have given you:

• Are you a Landscaper and your clients have referred you because of your great eye to making the front yard ‘pop’?
• Are you a Realtor® and your clients are always inviting you to their housing parties and introducing you as “this is who took the time to explain and made sure we understood all the paperwork”?
• Are you an Interior Decorator who is getting referrals because your clients are so happy that your project was completed on-time and on-budget?

You get the picture, you can build your unique selling proposition from the comments/feedback that your customers have given you?

Okey-dokey, that’s enough for this part.  Next time we will cover a couple other items that are part of the process, but more of a side-note.

So, it’s time for a little homework.

Go back to your notepad and favorite pen and start putting your thoughts on paper, don’t worry about being perfect or if something is slightly duplicating another idea – just write away.

1. What is Your Niche Market?

2. What are Your Current Sales per Month and Year?

3. What is Your Unique Selling Proposition?

In the next article we will discuss the 3 foundations of your online business plan.

If you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits on building your online business plan, please submit them in the comments section below, that way we can all learn from each other.

Basics Of An Online Business Plan is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

Would you have started your business without some ideas of what was involved, how much time you had to invest, or how much it would cost you financially?  My guess to all these questions is “no”.

Think about it would you go on a road trip without a map? Probably not, right? It’s a good way to get lost and end up in a bad neighborhood. It’s also tough to reach your destination without a map.

The same is true for your online business. In order to achieve your goals and build the online presence you want to build, you need a road map.

Your road map is your business plan and an online business is no different. Many people think you only need a plan if you are seeking funding. That’s just not true. You need a online business plan to help structure your business.

An Online Business Plan Helps You:

• Create your company vision
• Identify your target audience and ideal customer
• Create your company mission
• Understand and prepare for your competition
• Create your business goals
• Identify your products and services for your model.
• Outline your marketing strategy, tactics and goals
• Plan how you’re going to achieve your goals including sales and profits.
• Plan how you’re going to grow

Your online business plan doesn’t need to be formal. However, it does need to be easy for you to access and utilize on a regular basis. You can create your business plan on your computer or with good old fashioned pen and paper. I actually use a combination of the two – I write points down and then I keep a folder on my computer for items I find online.  As you move forward you’ll find which method works best for you.

Regardless, here are some items it needs to contain:

• Business vision and mission
• Niche
• Business model
• Target audience
• Supply/demand research – competitive analysis
• Strengths and weaknesses
• Unique Selling Proposition – what makes your business unique and/or different from your competition?
• Marketing strategy, goals and tactics
• Budget
• Organization chart – who is responsible for what tasks or, if you are a solopreneur, this would essentially be a time-line you plan for tasks to be completed

You’ll also want to create a plan to plan your business. Experts recommend spending at least 25% of your time planning your business. You’ll want your business plan handy so you can use it to plan for your future.

So, now that we have reviewed the importance of an online business plan our next step is to create one! In the next article we will start to build your plan so that you will have a solid idea of the entire process of building a successful online presence.

If you have any comments, questions, or good-natured tidbits, share them below.

Do You Really Need An Online Business Plan? is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.

My name is Theresa and I am the owner and editor of Theresa Delgado {dot} com. I have a 20+ year background in Sales and Marketing mostly in the pharmaceutical industry. I have also done training in the pharmaceutical industry. In the last three years I took that offline experience and paired it with online marketing strategies to build various websites.

Now I coach “Solopreneurs” how to market their offline business online. By “Solopreneur” I essentially mean anyone who is an independent contractor – a Realtor is a great example of who my information is meant for.

In the real estate industry most of the work has traditionally been offline. You cold call, do neighborhood canvasing, attend community mixers, etc. If a Realtor wants to have an online presence they have to do it all on their own. You might of heard of blogs, SEO, social networking, etc. but what does all that really mean? And where do you start? And how?

Well, this is where I can come in. I had several conversations with friends and potential clients who need help growing their small business and it’s so nice to see the light bulb go on when the understand even one component of an online business. If you find a good source of information you feel like you can build an online business, and most of all understand the benefits of doing what you are doing.

That’s why I started Theresa Delgado {dot} com. I am taking my sales, marketing, and training experience and applying it to the internet business.

My goal is to share with you online marketing tools; why to use them; and how to use to them maximize the power of the internet and get the attention of your target market.

I don’t claim to be an “internet guru” as a matter of fact, internet strategies change so frequently that no one can give themselves that title (at least honestly). I have finally narrowed down who I follow to provide me with honest strategies that work. This in itself took me about 1 1/2 years because there are a lot of questionable marketers out there promising you huge success without you having to put in the time or effort.

Which brings me to probably the most important point about building an online business presence – it doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time. It is no different than opening a corner neighborhood store.

First, you need to do research on the market you are trying to reach.

Second, your store has to be inviting and designed right.

Third, it has to have items that people are interested in.

Fourth, people need to visit your shop.

Fifth, people need to purchase your service or product.

Don’t be fooled, there are some very specific strategies that need to be in place all along the way. You need to be persistent and consistent. And, the great news is if you really want to take your offline business online, you CAN do it!

If you are new to online marketing strategies and would like to cast a wider net to capture your target market, then maybe the information at Theresa Delgado {dot} com is for you!

Thank you for stopping by!
Theresa

Welcome to Theresa Delgado (dot) com is an article from TheresaDelgado.com.

Stop by today for step-by-step online marketing strategies that work for service providers.