How to work on the internet

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How to work on the internet

I wanted to explain to you just how internet marketing can work plus how you can make money.

I know you believe it is just a waste of time and only a handful of people ever achieve an income.

You believe it is sort of like Multilevel marketing where you work you’re butt off so someone else earns the income. All the promises of big income never work. We all know someone who has tried and failed.

The Internet is different. Huge opportunities still exist and you are not up-streaming your efforts to someone’s gain like a pyramid of people where only a few make it.

I know I have wasted a heap of time on the net but really it has been an investment in learning so that I can take the next step. Much of my learning has gone into my other websites and used for my business betterment. Certainly not wasted.

Like all new things you need to mess up a few times before you find out what works best.

I have tried a coaching site, a shop site, written a couple of books, promoted web backup and a few new business sites as well.
Having launched a site on Rescue cats to help in my learning and we did a great calendar that no one bought the site has a great following but is not monetised, YET.

My time has involved learning a bit about Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus, Linked In, Instagram among a few others to learn about the latest trends in Social Media. These are changing so fast it is hard to keep up unless you are constantly evolving.

All of that is great you will say but where is the money?

Yes, I do earn commissions but more on that a bit further on.

I searched for a long time for somewhere that the training was cheap and all inclusive so that it covered everything you need to know. The Internet is massive not just in size but in what you can gain from it. More

I started building WordPress websites just to understand what was involved.

The story of Keywords is really necessary before you do anything. This is how you are found on the internet when someone types a search on Google. If you use the wrong words you are doomed to failure lost in a world of a billion searches. This is an early mistake we all make as we charge on into a new adventure of web building. I like most others did not do this early lesson.

Next came Plug-ins, whoa you say this sounds difficult and it is and it’s not. Plugins are a bit like gears in a car they help you drive the car by doing all the behind the scene work. There are free ones and paid for ones and you start by including as many as you can because they are all helpful and do their bit so you don’t have to. Wrong! They now start slowing down your website and cross conflicting creating minor problems all around.

What is it about plugins

I will give you a great example of just one plugin Called Yoast SEO.

When building a website there are things you must do and rules you should follow to achieve maximum search value. What Yoast does is provide a list of good and bad in your writing plus good and bad in your SEO (That’s next topic) so you don’t mess up completely.

There are ones that limit Spam and protect the site and commercial ones that provide value. Thousands of them in an easy to search list.
You need to know, however, what the plugins do to your site and how to manage them and no one really tells you because they want to promote their own products.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization ( SEO) is how you set up your site to be found with a Google search.
This is a degree subject and contains so many elements that without a fundamental understanding you have no chance.

I did all sorts of courses until I joined a group that hosted your website and told you what to do. Good hosting and it was free to start so let’s give it a go. I then did start building a half dozen sites that were going to change the world and make me money. I knew the basics so the rest was easy.

Now on this site called Wealthy Affiliate (WA), there are many people making big money and I am not talking about the site owners who are probably doing all right turning over $100 mill or so.

These people are just ordinary people who are tutored from start to finish on what to do.
Take for instance one I follow whose name is Grace or self-titled Little Mamma. Mother to two girls and a husband. Joined WA late 2016 and the first real sign ups started in Jan 2018 where she had 7 sign as a paid WA user. At the end of August Grace had over 300 current signups.

Value of this is about us$7000 a month and a free trip to Vegas, not bad earnings.

To get to this point Grace posted about 500 posts to her site at about 10 a week. What is a post?

What is a post?

This is a post on my site with about 100 other posts so 20% of the way.

Now, this is a good living for anyone particularly as it will grow over the coming years to double or triple this. But what is special is that this was done with 100% SEO as taught at WA. No bought traffic.

What is even more special is that now Grace wants to share her whole episode so that anyone can follow, free, nothing to gain for Grace except the goodwill from helping others.

I cite this story of Grace because she is your normal stay at home mum that took about 16 months to get a sign on, she worked hard and consistent and never gave up. Everything was achieved by following the training available at WA.

Take for example Gerry H a 21-year-old Taiwan boy residing in Singapore.
Jerry just posted 93 paid signups in a month with a cheque for US$3,926. His site has only 200 posts and he posted
24 in August, great effort Jerry H

Or another Eddy S, an African American that fell foul with Google in 2014 and had his sites squashed. August 2018 Eddy
lifted his earnings to us$10650 with WA contributing $3577 of that. A wonderful story of recovery and Eddy thanks WA

With well over 200,000 WA members this is just a few of many more stories.

How hard is it to write 500 posts on to a website.

A 1300 word post is about 2 hours of writing depending on your typing skill. Add a few pictures, some links, connect to Google, Yahoo and Bing say 2.5 hours every day.

Is this investment worth the final outcome?

Grace can go on holidays for 6 months and the income continues every month a cheque into the bank. In fact, it could continue for years to come meaning that her year of input should return over us$500.000.

This is just one example, some have a base of 2500 paying clients-putting them in the Million dollar a year club. Top 10% but they got there in the same way.

Can you achieve this sort of income without effort?

No! It takes a period of learning before you even start to look like making money.

The initial on-line training manual is 5 courses and 50 lessons plus homework to get started on your online venture.

Have I done the WA training?

Surprisingly the answer is yes twice. The first time I skipped through and missed too much and found out I did not know enough so I went through the course again, one at a time.

The second unit is The Boot camp of 7 units and 70 hours of training.

Then there is weekly Training of about an hour on a selected idea.

Plus homework and site-building.

Are you exhausted yet?

An interesting aside is the speed listening choice. My attention needs to be fully turned on and I get bored with rambling so I switch the audio to 1.5 times normal. Now you need to concentrate but you cut the period down and achieve more, well I do anyway.

Ok, what can you sell after all of this training?

You can use it for your own niche or product, an Amazon product, recruiting WA affiliates, recruiting people for other products. I am a Jaxxy affiliate (a WA company) Aweber, Noble Samurai, and a couple of others as well. These are all top-tier companies that have a proven record.

So you don’t know what to sell?

That is what the training is for. They tell you how to find your ideal and proceed with your choice.
Only you can make that choice but they do guide you to make a selection.

So what is the cost of all this?

The initial entry is absolute without charge. This includes a hosted website also free.

A full fee is $60 a month but you can have up to 50 websites and you get a few other advantages as well. I upgraded some time ago as I host about 10 sites at WA and use the free Keyword calculator worth money on its own.
Your package is so value loaded that it really is cheap by all standards.

One of the best support service available anywhere.

The online chat group will answer questions all day. Even your basic ones, they are well used to starters asking the same things.

Type in a topic and a course will be shown covering the issue.

Or go to site support for 24-7 answers.

Members post Blogs about all sorts of subjects and you are invited to join in. This is a real family atmosphere where you can follow the lives, successes and failures of other members. I have chosen a half dozen of the top performers to follow and a few other randoms because I enjoy their writing.

This community activity can take over your life as you follow a journey that may just be personal.

Just today one member posted about losing his father and the effect on him and another apologizing that her contributions were slow but her Husband has been sick. This alongside an achievement or two and a few problems that have been solved.

A new lifestyle

If you are so inclined this part of the site may be all you need in life and believe me when I say it is addictive

As you learn it is good to share and you are encouraged to use the blog forum to gain a following in WA.

The greater the following more benefits flow your way but we are not in it for benefits.

Warning It may take over your life.

It has mine as I am determined to hit that 300 affiliate sale mark if not this year by the end of 2019.

I will do the work and the training to make sure of success. I shall not give in and I shall shout the results loudly, just like Gracie, when I make it to the top. The Wealthy affiliate

Peter Hanley

For the record I am over 70 years old, working and
producing material for and on the internet. If I can you can.

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The fear of rejection

This is a real problem for some and one that is difficult to overcome.

I understand; we all get hurt by rejection and I am not immune from the
levels of anxiety that can be heaped upon us.

Do we admire the thick skinned types that shrug their collective shoulders
and just move on to the next task? Or, do we believe, they are just not caring
about other people?

It is important to understand that we look at rejection in context.

If we are selling, marketing or promoting a product we know that only a small percentage will buy.

The greater percentage will reject us because of reasons mostly out of our control.

I have stood in front of customers premises saying the mantra they don’t want to buy
I just know it. I have picked up the phone and thought they won’t talk to me and I have gone into a meeting thinking I failed before I even presented.

Why do we fear rejection?

Other than deep-rooted issues carried forward from days past it is also the fear of personal failure
built on our own expectations.

What we believe to be true to others may not be so.

I am reminded that the two who looked at the number Nine from opposite views, One swears it is a
9 whilst the other is sure it is a 6, you can never convince them otherwise they Know what they see is correct.

Other than going into the physiology of why because we know it is so we just want to fix the problem.

First of all, another rejection example that may help.

Donald Trump won the presidency with fewer votes than Hillary Clinton but more states or Colleges something like that.

Now the Trump voters all love him to pieces but the other 55% dislike him intensely and very few will ever change no matter what. The important thing he is the president, he won.

My point is that everyone is not going to like you or what you believe and you have to live with that.

It is a fact of life. What is important is the percentages. A game you can play.

We teach this in telemarketing. Make 10 calls to get one appointment, make 10 appointments to get one sale. The challenge then is to change the numbers.

I have picked up a sheet and made 3 appointments in three calls. Wow on a roll. Then it turns bad.

So my challenge is one to improve the numbers by getting an extra appointment. That is eight knockbacks instead of nine.

So what if you get ten? Just adjust the script and keep rolling the dice, it will even out.

What I have done is just to change my perception of success until it suits and then I try and improve on my new level. Yes, it’s a mind game but it does work.

How I overcame appointment failure.

Now those that are doing one on one sale have the same problem. It also comes back to numbers

but somehow it is a little more personal because you invest more in the interview.

My recovery from this is to dissect the sale.

Was the product correct for the buyer? If there is any doubt at all then-No.

Did you ask enough questions to find the hurdle over which you must jump?

Was the person in a position to say yes? Did they need to or Have to speak to a partner, wife, friend the pope etc
Sometimes this is a valid excuse sometimes not and should have been attended before the meeting.

Were you fluid and coherent in your delivery or all over the place?

Did you control the appointment or did the customer.

This point is pertinent because you do not fulfil your full prepared presentation.

Just recently I visited a Gym of all places to present an idea to the owners; husband and wife team.

The Husband was a veritable jack in the box and asking questions all over the place thus destroying my well-prepared plan. This is really like finishing before you start.
In some cases, you can use “ I will come to that,” sometimes not. In this case, I just kept going back and rejoining my presentation until we had it all covered.
We covered Questions with questions and tried to keep control but it was a rollercoaster ride. Did I get the deal, perhaps yes if I can fix an industry problem, so it is ongoing at this stage?

Analyse each and every sale.

The Idea behind all this is to analyze each and every sale to discover where it went wrong or even what you did right.

In your breakdown, you take the personalities out of the equation and concentrate on the technicalities.

In this way, it becomes far less personal to you and it is not a rejection just a technical error that can be fixed next time.

Donald Trump is arguably the most powerful person in the world but half the world really does not like him let alone respect him. I believe it is interesting that Donald needs to fight with his haters. He tweets them and brings out the false news because he does not like rejection, he wants to be loved.

For many, rejection is not so bad but for those of us that suffer from it, we must work it to meet our needs.

An interesting observation is when you enter into a legal battle over something that goes to court.
It might be a family matter or any other undertaking but it gets very personal and you get attacked your character slammed and your integrity questioned. What can you do?

How to pretend it is not you?

Look at the whole as a business decision, what you want to achieve and the fall back considerations.
Then work to the end result and not the daily small bits that make or justify the end.

Avoid the emotions and embrace the overall plan like it actually belongs to someone else.

De-personalize the whole thing so it does not hurt or destroy you.

You will often see this occur after a tragedy affects a family or group. Someone takes up a campaign to prevent this from happening to anyone else thus minimizing their pain for the good of the result

In closing take steps to protect your well being and help overcome the many hurdles of life not by avoiding them but by managing them to assist you.

This is a part of many small business articles designed to help.

Peter Hanley

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Recurring income program

There is no better way to make money than recurring income program but how do you get it?

You will often see comments like making money while you are sleeping, or wandering on holidays
but could it all be true?

First of all, what is recurring income

Wikipedia is also very vague on this with only a very brief explanation;

Recurring means occurring repeatedly and can refer to several different things:

This is often associated with a regular income where a customer is billed monthly for a product, service or even a maintenance contract for a term either fixed or unlimited.

In this case, you still have an obligation to supply a service.

When we look at a recurring income we generally tend to view it in terms of a lifetime value.
As an example, I sell a service that averages about $60 a month income. Most customers stay for over 4 years so my total income will be $2880 over the lifetime on average per customer.

Now I have several hundred customers I bill monthly but each on its own is a small customer but when added up a sizeable chunk.

In this case, though, I am obligated to supply a service, raise an invoice and process a payment so it is not all income straight to my pocket.

It still beats the pants off chasing new customers every month as you process invoices.

So where do you get a business like this?

Coaching or mentoring services are a good example where a monthly amount is levied and time is given when and if needed?

Maintenance services are also a good example where you enter a maintenance contract over a period. Repairs are then mostly free if and only if you use them. This, in fact, is a good money builder because in most cases repairs are never required; it’s sort of like insurance.

The list like this is long and we can find examples for just about any service provided but the one important point is that they all require your input on a regular basis. Either just doing the billing or the physical effort is required.

So what other recurring income is available?

This is the best income you can possibly gather. You don’t have to bill the service or do the work your only activity is to bank the money.

Affiliate income is a great example; this is where you sell someone else’s service and get a share of the revenue.

If this sounds like a pipe dream read on because this is the best game in town.

Many premium products sold on the internet have a monthly payment cost. Examples are web hosting

Cloud backup, some web pages and sales funnels all come with a monthly charge.
When you become an affiliate marketer of these products you get to share a percentage of the invoice.

Not once but every month that the customer is charged.

With Amazon, you have a one time sale, a quick in and out and a small percentage of the sale.
You might continue to sell products so this is not to be underestimated but it does have downsides.

Products go out of style or out of date and sales dip.

I do my web hosting at The wealthy affiliate where I am also an Affiliate, strangely enough.
If I can get you to a paid account at Wealthy affiliate I earn from a part of your monthly amount.

They also have a competition for a trip to Las Vegas and all you need to do is have 300 members sign under you. Is that possible? To be perfectly honest I am not going to Las Vegas this year but a friend of mine, Grace a mother of three based in the USA passed the 300 just this week.

What is important about this is that 300 would provide you a monthly income of about US$6600
and that is every month for years to come, yes there will be some drop offs but there will be some gains because of past work. So this will last for many more years. It is really a great retirement fund.

I also use Aweber for my Autoresponders and they have a similar plan. Lifelike I use Noble Samurai for doing my videos and I also earn affiliate income from them.

These three companies have a very high reputation for honesty and delivering a great product.

Many companies are not so honest and I have been burned along the way.

You get nothing for doing nothing.

Yes it takes some time at the start and you need some training to achieve all this and that is where we start you on this massive wealth building exercise.

Pay no money to learn.

Sounds too good to be true and a bit of a gimmick but in this case, you are the winner.

Wealthy affiliate allows access to most training completely free. Just log in and train away, no credit card no grand promises and even a free website thrown in.

They do this because they want you to succeed which means they do as well and in turn, I do so the world is a better place for us all.

I just know you will go off and research all sorts of online referral programs and so you should but first of all, save yourself a lot of time.
The ones I have chosen provide complete training and are recognised brand leaders in the market.

They are easy to promote and all give you a free entry so you are not handing over money to have a look.

The other catch is Up-sells. When you buy into a cheap product you are then provided compelling reasons to spend more money. I am talking big money in some cases to achieve what you can get for nothing.

Upsells are a trap to be aware of and once you are in the loop it is difficult to get out.

What you should have is a good clean organization that everyone can use and you can gain a recurring income from. In fact, you can even use the product yourself to make money.

Take for example Noble Samurai; Here you can make videos for local businesses and charge them a fee

or send emails through AWeber and set up an Autoresponder. So many opportunities but you must get a bit of training first.

That is why I always recommend The Wealthy Affiliate as a starting or end point because it has everything for you to launch or continue a career in internet income.

Peter Hanley

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Noble Samurai link to free products

How can I start my own business with no money?

You think you have the ability, some computer skills, a bit of spare time and want to make some money
but you are dead broke.

Join the club, my friend, it’s a big club with lots of members and millions looking for a cheap buck.

First of all, let me say there is no easy way, no instant wealth even Lotto you need to buy a ticket.

Wishing for money fails every time and I think it’s not in your God’s mind to single you out for instant wealth.

Yes, you can suck up to rich relatives then see them leave a fortune to an African orphanage, all that time being kind and nice wasted without a comeback.

So what can be done to start a business?

First of all, let’s eliminate some of those very Manual jobs.
You can pay a few bills delivering Uber eats or driving an Uber taxi.
Let’s face it there are not enough hours to make you rich.
What you earn in a day others spend on a meal, it does not seem fair but that is your world, it’s not fair so you need to turn the tables.

Now it has been said that Multi-Level marketing is the way to riches, Million Dollar a year earners from doing very little.

This is true, it does happen and happens often for a minuscule number of people.
Getting to the top is going to take years and then a 90% chance you still won’t make it.
Not impossible I say but you want to bet it is highly improbable.

The Multilevel marketing dream, true or false?

Amway, Tupperware, Insurance all sorts of foods and ideas that get you excited but there are some big stumbling blocks.
You have to talk to a lot of people one-on-one and be a super salesperson taking up a lot of your time and costing you money.

I know it may look exciting but it needs to be a day job to make any money, you would be better off working for the man.

A select few have made it big time with a new trend or fad. Most of us, and myself included, missed the BitCoin rush. Let’s remember though you needed funds and money you were prepared to lose to buy into the scheme.

I am not trying to be negative here just laying out a few of the PotHoles along the way and things not to waste your valuable time on.

The Internet for small business.

There is no doubt that the Internet is the holder of all things possible.
Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs are just a couple of names that come to mind.
All their businesses started from a very small under-capitalized home business, Now wouldn’t that be great.
Beyond the dreams of most but it is only an idea away.

The old fable about trading up takes our imagination, you buy something cheap and sell higher.
Now re-invest the funds to do it, again and again, each time to buy something more expensive.
The idea is sound, it works but takes a lot of horse trading.

Getting something for free and selling it up.

A good example is plant cuttings, scour the neighbourhood for popular plants and ask for some cuttings.
You can now pot them for sale. Succulents a great example, people pay dearly for these and they are easy to poach and cheap to pot.

Writing books and e-books and how to guides.
To become a famous author takes a lot of skill, talent and training a set that most of us don’t come near. E-books and Guides are mostly given away free or in exchange for an email or phone number
so you might struggle a bit with these.

Don’t give up, stay with me here we might be getting close.

You need a computer, you can borrow the internet from a shopping centre or neighbour but you must at least have a basic working computer.
I have never bought a new machine.
You can go to the local seconds’ dealer and bargain for the best available at a price that meets your pocket.
There is no need for high performance because your time is too important to waste playing games.

Furthermore, my typing speed is not all that good so a three-year-old model at about $150 does everything you need.
Too much you say, well what about the mobile you are holding? Cost more than that I bet. Just saying.

The big model is Amazon

Amazon has affiliates selling its products where they make a commission.
Now there are many just like Amazon but Amazon is the best known so it is easy to start.
You can sell just about anything with a free website and just pick up a commission in your sleep.
Sound too good to be true? Well, it’s actually not.
People are making money with this every day and you could be one of them with a proviso.

Go back to a small business school.

Only with some background or learning is everything possible
Example; If you were selling succulents you would need to first know what they are, basic stuff, then research the different types.
This can be done on Google off course and how best to pot them.
Do they grow in soil or water and what time of the year is best?
Then who is selling them near you and a range of pricing being given to the public?
Where is best to market them so people will want to buy your nice potted succulent.
Return buyers are valuable so you need to Brand yourself and have a phone number.
As the business grows perhaps you need a website or Facebook page or even Instagram as you post great pics.
So from potting one succulent we now have a career blossoming because you have done the work.

Move on from Succulents

The Internet is the same. In fact, Amazon has its own university to teach you to sell things for them.
It was only a few short years ago that you had to make all this up on the run. Now, it is all laid out for you to make it easy.

I learned everything on the Internet at The Wealthy Affiliate. I started for free and built my first website without paying a single dime.
My need was to learn about the internet to help my real business to get new clients.

Social media and business

We wanted to use Facebook and other social media so that we were not left behind.
The internet is changing the world and if you are not with it you are left behind.
This is seen every day with people in small business complaining about how bad things are. When I ask what are they doing about it they say we don’t want to spend any money because we need to do x with it.

Facebook costs nothing to do a post, I have friends that promote their business using only Instagram, in Fact, I often tell the story of Kayla Iteness who became a millionaire promoting her Workout on Instagram, only Instagram.

These stories are everywhere but you must have the basics to even consider starting out. You can learn everything for free these days or pay a king’s ransom from some slick Dude who gets you to shell out on a get rich promise.

Do not go paying money for anything until you know what you are paying for. Most get rich schemes only make one person rich and that is not you my friend.

Go to the Wealthy affiliate by clicking here and do some free training, no credit card, no pressure just good free advise to help you start on any venture that has internet involvement.

Take the time to Liaise with some of the people online and join like-minded souls in searching for a starting point to your new history.
Follow a couple of the high achievers and see what they do to make money and how much they make. Don’t believe the seller make your own decision based on your research and what you want to achieve.

You will Do something, doing nothing is not an option.

I am a Wealthy affiliate user and promoter but I can supply you an endless list of paid courses that I tried before entering this world. I use Wealthy Affiliate to further my daily business as well as join a great community of people sharing many of the same problems and Goals.

As I said, put your Credit card behind you and your internet future in front of you and start a Journey.

You can thank me later.

Peter Hanley,

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small business marketing advice

Small business marketing advice

The best advice that I can provide is actually pretty simple.

Sometimes I have to remind myself to follow the rules and maintain the necessary inputs to make sure that I achieve the results I want.

Business starts with a PLAN

Ad-hoc marketing rarely, if ever works and if it does it is only for a short time.

So the simple answer is to have a plan and even to plan what you put into it.

I am not trying to be complicated or cute here but your plan should be laid out in full and then each element of the plan needs to be dissected with important strategies.

First of all what goes into a plan.

Look at what you want to achieve as a target and then take the steps to support your effort to tangible and measurable results.

You may want to find more customers, achieve greater revenue, increase turn over or even reduce operating costs.

Then you need to know how much you are willing to spend and what return on your investment is expected.

Importantly you need to look at who does the inputs, who monitors the results and who makes the changes.

Remember a plan is a plan, it is not a Blueprint, it is malleable and manageable to enhance your results.

Let’s look at an example of a plan

Part of your plan is to use social media to grow your business.

Now social media covers a lot of entries like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Youtube etc etc.

Yes, you can be in all of them and you should be in several but the problem is your time input.

The first rule of social media is to be consistent, regular posting retains front of mind and gets results. This, however, takes time and effort.

It is fortunate that you can now post in advance on all media so you can do a week or month at a time but it must be done.

Wasting time with no plan

Without a plan, you will spend/waste hours working out what to do and when to do it.

As an aside, I do a blog on rescue cats, It was set up as a test and now become an obsession or a living thing Facebook

I spend probably 30 minutes a week on this and a few minutes during a week answering comments. I think up a theme, find some Pictures, do a week’s worth of posts and all done. I set aside a time for the weekend to complete the work. If I tried to do this every day the time involved would be about 7 fold my weekly effort. The longer-term plan includes monetising the site but that is another story.

A good website needs consistent blogging to get free SEO and Co-Schedule

recently posted that;

“Websites with blog content get 434% more pages indexed in search engines.

Businesses that publish 16+ blog posts every month get 3.5x more traffic than businesses that publish zero to four posts.

So.

Writing down how you’ll publish content will help you boost traffic.”

You must have a plan and set either time aside or get someone else to do your scripting.

I do all my own but I have a plan, I search for my subjects to create a theme that will cover the Keywords I want to include. I research my keywords using the Jaaxy keyword tool for traffic and then expand the keywords using longer tails.

My writing is usually templated where I use my header and then list out a bundle of subtitles about the subject and then fill in the script of the subtitles. This way you are writing a series of small articles, not one big long one as you strive for a thousand words.

Your daily business should run to a plan

I want new customers to build my list so I must take consistent steps every day to get them. I have a local business so I know that I must contact 50 people to do 10 presentations to achieve 2 sales.

Your numbers may vary depending on the product or the approach but the maths are consistent.

Therefore the answer is if you do nothing you achieve about the same.

Contacting people is part of my plan.

Every day I do emails to past and new clients.
We have templated several suitable emails to suit a niche market.
I then search allowed email addresses through a tool I use and download a group of contacts.
If I did say, Builders, then I would follow with
Carpet sales, tiles, cabinets, removals, landscaping, window cleaning etc.
This process is also very quick while I listen to some talk chat on the radio.

Cut a few emails, put them into an autoresponder, attach my templated messages and send. Now the good part of this is that those that follow the emails go to my next day/week call list as warm clients.

The point of all this is that it is all part of the master plan and a concentrated effort that takes minimal time to produce maximum results.

Without a daily plan, you will achieve little.

Often the daily grind gets in the way and those pesky customers take up all your time and you just can’t get around all to the other activities and nothing gets done.
My plan includes getting up an hour early and doing my designated chores before the working day starts. Some are night owls and find evenings better but being a morning person works for me.

In conclusion, a plan is needed for every part of your business and it must include;

It must be in writing
Able to be shared with all participants
The plan must be achievable and measurable
and it must have an ROI (return on investment)
Regular checking and adjusting
Plus be easy to use on a daily basis

Finally, throughout this blog, you will find many small business tips and even Free training on all things Internet at
The Wealthy Affiliate

Peter Hanley

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Marketing ideas small business

When business is slow, you are just starting out or you want to grow what marketing ideas for small business are available?

First of all, we need to determine paid and unpaid marketing and what is equally important is a return on investment.

We can all flash the cash and hope for a return but the real world in small business is not quite like that.

You won’t have a lot of cash so what can you do?

Social media

It’s free, it’s easy and it can return business your way. The problem is you have to be consistent and you have to post regularly.

I was in a seminar the other day and the presenter, a very eminent lady said to the crowd, ” if you have not posted for a month take the site down”

This is not all that silly. I look at business facebooks often and the first thing I do is look at the date of the last post.

This tells me about the business and if they just have a Facebook because it sounded like a good idea.

Instagram, twitter Facebook all one rule, post to them or get out of the park.

Do up a three-month plan with subjects and dates and importantly who will do it and stick with it.

Don’t discount to get business.

I should say use selective discounting to get business. It is fine to have a loss leader or a bargain bin as tools to drag in customers. With constant price reductions, you change the shopper habits. They shop only when the price is right.

My local PetBarn is a great example, or in fact two of them. Every now and then they will give a discount voucher usually worth $20 to shop within the week. Now my cat food is worth about $40 so a 50% discount is a good deal. I now just wait until one offers an incentive, worked for many months for me.

My local Fruit and veggie shop is in a cluster of people who sell coffee, take away stuff. Six outlets within a short distance vying for the same customers. Average price $4.00 a small coffee up to about $5.50 for a large with extra for fancy milk etc.

This is not his main business, only a drawcard line so he dropped the price to $3.00 a coffee any size any time. What do you think the result was?

A bloody line of buyers all day making my wait time longer than I would like. Losers on the coffee but has more than made up with other products. The two specific coffee only shops are hurting but what can they do.more ….

Loyalty rewards in small business

This is not new but it is important. Bring them in and keep them by making them special. You have seen Coffee cards and chain store plastic they are used because they work.

Banners and flags for small business

OK, a bit of cost here but attention seeking material will get people looking and hope to draw them in, Your local sign co will have lots of ideas for you and bargain well.

Presentation days for special products

Get a presenter to do a How-To on something you wish to sell. Invite people in and draw them into the web of intrigue where they must end up buying the product and some others as well.

Don’t spend a ton of money, they don’t want fancy they want to be informed entertained and sold to. So forget the free drinks and Canapes give them excitement, fulfil their dreams, solve a problem they have and they are all yours forever.

Email newsletters

Cost next to nothing but like Social Media you need to be consistent. You need to entertain and inform and leave them to want to buy. How often? minimum once a month. Working on your list provides lots of opportunities for proving many customer benefits.

Enthusiasm shows in the small business

We love to be around people that are happy and enthusiastic, it makes us feel good and open our wallets instead of finding the closest exit.

Leave your troubles behind the door and project positive vibes and a winning
presentation of all that cross the door.

Don’t stand around worrying

The only one you affect is you. Do something constructive, make a plan, brainstorm some ideas be active, write a blog post, change your website, send an email, post on Facebook, do some training to learn new things about a product or idea that you can share with customers.

In conclusion, you must remember that you are not alone, many businesses out there are suffering just like you just don’t be one of the complainers be one of the achievers.

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Peter Hanley

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Email newsletters how to set up

Email newsletters

Your Email newsletters can be the same content but they can also be addressed quite differently.

Newsletters by email are a way to keep a great form of customer contact over time.

They are designed with your brand in mind and to keep your customers or potential customers up to date with the latest products, ideas and even staff news.

Newsletters have been around for a long time but unfortunately, in most cases, they have no chance of success.

What is the purpose of a Newsletter?

Most players use them randomly, usually when looking for something to do and try to sell a product or service to an unsupported crowd. Your newsletter should be entertaining and informative delivering information to the reader.

Do newsletters need to be consistent

Even I find it hard to remember the newsletter sending on a regular basis. That is why you need a plan and a template. Work out in advance what you are going to send and then fill in the blanks along the way. So be regular in your sending so that the clients expect them

A customer of mine is a Sign-writer. He posts pictures of his best job every month and just tells the story. What they set out to achieve and a result. Gets me in every time.

Not everyone is going to rush in to buy today but guess how you will feel when someone calls and says something along the lines of “you know that building on Main Street you did, well I want something like that” Pow, a $10 grand job at such a small cost.

Will newsletters make me money

Properly managed newsletters are a wonderful resource that will generate great returns for little outgoing or even time commitment. You can even outsource the demands for a small payment.

For you, the hardest part is constructing a list and maintaining it in a current manner.

Emails can be obtained from sales sources, billing lists, enquirer forms, staff requests, web pages, lead pages, referrals. In fact just about anywhere you have obtained the details legally in the course of your business.

Is Branding in newsletters important

Now, this gets interesting, it can be done as an email message or a template message that is constructed around your branding.
I use templates almost exclusively because I believe they typify a business newsletter and can be recognized quickly.

I know the ones I open are the ones I recognize and expect.
The exception is in email marketing where a standard email format can be employed.

How are Emails and newsletters different

Emails tend to be direct in your face focus whilst Newsletters have an informative view and term commitment.

They both have a from address and a subject line to entice a good open and read rate.

Both these conditions can be a course on there own since they have a really important role.
In fact, do as I just did, have a look at your daily emails and see what ones promote you to open the page, ask your self why and then think how you can copy the idea.

Do newsletters need to have clickable links?

Email newsletters need to have clickable links so you can gauge readers interest and act on that interest. If I posted, for instance, the best deals on I-phones and Android phones I would probably get a 50/50 split. You can then segregate your audience into two separate streams for those products.

With a product like general Mobile products, you remain with the full list.

Do you need an Autoresponder with a newsletter?

This is also where an Autoresponder comes in. Your audience seeking Android ( don’t know why you would but that’s just me ) products you can specifically target with an email campaign.

Who do I use?

I use A-weber. Why? I have tried many others without the same success in overall features and training and at a reasonable price.

Price is not really important because only a few dollars separate them all and what you need is performance with good analytics.

Peter Hanley

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Discounts and you

Discounts and you, here we discuss discount pricing strategies

Discount pricing strategies

Be you a seller or a buyer discounts are part of our life.

As a buyer it is your duty to buy as well as you can but
we must always leave something on the table for the seller.

I am unsure how things are around your way but in many places suppliers are struggling.

Some of it is their fault because of the discount trap.

When sales are slow the seemingly obvious solution is a sale. Offer discounts for buyers to flock in.

Over the years the sales have become more plentiful and offering better discounts across the board.

We as shoppers now wait until the discount season to do our shopping, therefore, exaggerating the problem.

Yes, some stores buy in a bundle of cheap products to sell on special or try to quit last season stock so that you are buying winter gear coming into summer.

On-Line shopping has changed that. The seasons vary with sellers and it is far easier to price shop online than tramp through stores.

Here in Australia, we have witnessed about a dozen Chain stores going to the wall, international brands that could not survive the changes in the marketing methods

To top this off customer service has dropped as shops save on staffing levels so the traditional advantage of service has also eroded the sales.

As a small business, how can you hope to compete?

First off all let’s look at some of the more radical changes that will impact you.

The Amazon monster is a force to be reckoned with. No stores, cheap products, worldwide delivery. Hold that thought.

Uber eats, Fresh food home deliveries, prepackaged meals delivered to your door.

Let’s not forget Aldi and Ikea or similar ventures that operate on pricing that you cannot meet.

Ok, online shopping also has an impact because of convenience.

Loyalty programs that offer customer opportunities to buy more to save more and the new Annuity shopping concept by Shop.com, you earn from others shopping.

After Pay has seen to be a necessity in sales

Discounts, discounts and more discounts

So you drop your prices by 15% how much more do you need to sell to break even

Checking the effect of discounts on the gross margin
If you cut your prices by…	and your present gross margin (%) is…
If you cut your prices by…	0%	15%	20%	25%	30%	35%	40%
5%		50.0%	33.3%	25.0%	20.0%	16.7%	14.3%
6%	150.0%	66.7%	42.9%	31.6%	25.0%	20.7%	17.6%
8%	400.0%	114.3%	66.7%	47.1%	36.4%	29.6%	25.0%
10%		200.0%	100.0%	66.7%	50.0%	40.0%	33.3%
12%		400.0%	150.0%	92.3%	66.7%	52.2%	42.9%
15%			300.0%	150.0%	100.0%	75.0%	60.0%

What this tells you is that if you discount by 15% with a 30% margin you have to sell double the sales to make the same money, frightening is it not?

Be selective in discounting

Old stock, slow movers, damaged, out of style anything to roll over the loss makers.

Online shopping.

Nearly anyone can do it. It is not easy but the latest software products increase your chances greatly.
You need to market the heck out of it to be noticed and put up with returns and questionable faults.

Customer service

This is the KEY

If you can solve a problem, fulfil a dream, allay their fears or fix a failure you are in front of the game.

This is where you can excel and hold your own against even the biggest. like Amazon, no service just cheap products.

Concentrate on the buyer and find the currency that will promote a sale.

Discounts

Why not bundle products, value-add a product, make it exclusive, bulk sale, accessorize a product

Do something different but discount only for the correct reasons.

A drawcard product can work. You slash your price on a good sort after product so they come into the store. A local fruit and Veggie store discounted Coffee to a new low level to bring in customers. This worked really well although many only came for the coffee. You still need to try the market

Seasonal

The slow and dead stock needs to be turned over

Stock turn over

A change in your methods of moving stock can result in more sales.

Look at all the new marketing ideas and see where it can be changed to benefit you.

Free delivery, after pay, loyalty, online, exclusive range, novelty, incentive, Limited release, seasonal events.

Bundled, packaged, marked, bulk, accessorised up To name just a few.

Discount your good stock as the last resort because it costs you money, time and effort.

Discounts and you

I hoped this helps you

Review of Wealthy Affiliate blog forum

Review of Wealthy Affiliate blog forum and what will the wealthy affiliate blog forum do for you?

Listen up here, this is one of the most important blogs I have done in some time.

All the training that WA supply, all the material means nothing without support.

Support at WA is really good, it is 24/7 and they manage the calls well.

The purpose of support, however, is to fix things that are broke. They are not just there to answer your problems that are probably hidden somewhere in the training.

As we go through the never-ending details to grow a business on the net we will encounter many stumbling blocks. These are issues that we search for answers.

Being a bit dogmatic I would spend a lot of time trying to solve my own problem.

It might be a header fault, or a misplaced widget, perhaps something missing that needed to be included. This list goes on.

If you have someone local who is more experienced that is great but you can only ask so many times.

You will get the old “ I have told you that already” response for which there is a little comeback.

The WA blog forum is a place to ask those questions, They don’t get narky they continue to go out of there way to help.

In fact, one such Guy who titles himself OMOT ( Mel) spends several hours every day on live chat with the sole purpose of helping people overcome problems.

When you have an issue you just post the issue and wait for the results.

Now some responses will be better than others but you have the ability to ask questions endlessly until you get a result.

Many of the top 200 WA members really have a wealth of experience. Most are making good money but all will help.

I follow about a dozen of the top people as they post their own little training snippets of issues that regularly appear.

I have often searched for an answer to a problem before posting a query. When the answer comes back there is this realisation that you knew it somewhere in the back of the brain, it was just moving it forward.

Just some of today’s queries listed on The WA post

Where do I get access to my domain emails?

What does <10 mean in jaaxxy search?

I have like six themes loaded up on one website right now that I never deleted it doesn't hurt anything keeping them their (sic)

 Am I right in thinking that if I pick a theme with say 5 pictures on it that I would have to put in 5 pictures or could some be deleted to show say 3 pictures

How do I add links to my website that sell my niche item

I just finished level 2...I have a rather silly question. We were to create a new user and then go back and put that on our post. How important is this? I did it...except for changing it on the post...because I can't see how we put a picture in the profile of the new user...my admin (the first one) has my picture and post as my name. Is the new user thing important?

That is a small sample of requests taken from the last three hours and all have resulted in solutions from the other members.

Other training listed today

Choosing Your Direction - It Starts With a Niche

Creating Brilliant Capture Pages

How secure are no padlock no ssl websites?

And then there are the motivators

Two Kinds of Bad Advice (Rant)

Hello everyone, I just became a premium member. I just opened up a whole NEW world to myself. Today is the first day of my Success. GO ME! I can't wait to get started on all the new things to learn and implement them as soon as possible.

Yea, made even more progress. As you can see from my site feedback request, my site is really coming along. I am very proud of my work thus far, and looking forward to joining programs and making some cash!

I got my first Amazon check yesterday on over $1000

I do a little each day. That is how my wealthy affiliate experience has been so far. Some days I do more and some days I do less. It depends on my work schedule. The freedom that I am working toward is a driving force. Freedom of time is huge today. It has always been a top priority of mine and the…

So you get answers to questions you ask, you get questions you wished you had asked and you get encouragement along the way. Sounds like a good deal to me.

I have gone into training in another blog WA training so cut across if you want to talk about that,

The best way is to just log into the Wealthy Affiliate and have a look around. Yep it’s free and no real pressure to sign up, but I think you will.

Want to know more about Wealthy Affiliate cut across here

Peter Hanley

Review of Wealthy Affiliate blog forum log in

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Review of Wealthy Affiliate Keyword tool

What keywords will drive customers to you?

Keywords with regard to internet search are the backbone of the internet. They are your address, what people search for so their importance is really high.

An understanding of how they work is necessary for any online marketer regardless of what they are trying to achieve.

Wiki describes them as “Keyword (Internet search), It is a word or phrase typically used by bloggers or online content creator to rank a web page on a particular topic.

A Funnel, a web page, a Blog, an article all come under this heading.

There have been some important changes in recent times regarding Keywords and if you get it wrong you get penalized but more on that later.

What you should look for when determining your Keywords.

Monthly average searches

The total of the monthly average searches across the internet. It is no good if no one searches for you and likewise, too many searches also spoil the party

Visits to page one

The number of monthly visitors to page one. Even this is broken down into top 5spots where most searches stop

QSR

The number of competing websites for the Keyword. From one to millions

SEO

A figure based on your ability to achieve page One

Domains

How many domains in the keyword are available. You may have a .com.net.org etc

Having the keyword in your domain is half the battle to achieve a top listing.

So what does it all mean and how do you know when you want a Keyword.

First of all Wealthy Affiliate has a free Keyword generating tool that you can use to find the answer to all the above. This makes life a lot easier.

Next the use of Keywords. It was always voiced that you should stuff Keywords randomly throughout your article for better Google acceptance.

Google has a habit of changing its mind on all things and this is one.

You can put your keyword In the Domain, in the title and in the first paragraph of the Blog. Then no more or Google will bite you. Yoast SEO does go a bit further and sets a limit at about 1.7 % of all word being a Keyword. So a 1000 word article can have up to 17 times in different forms. This is however dependent on natural writing. Furthermore, I believe overuse will temp the Google dragon and should be contained to less than half that at less than 1.0 % in natural writing.

Keyword stuffing hurts, you should err on the lesser side for better SEO

You must have traffic.

If your Keyword was Pineapple fritters in Oregon there is no competition and no traffic. Real Estate in Oregon, wineries or hiking all have traffic but no one wants your Fritters. You could promote all day and no one will come.

You must aim for page one

It is said that 97% of all searches are made on page one of the search with 67% in the first five listing.

This makes it pretty hard to rank unless you do it correctly from the start.

Tools to use

I am promoting the free one at Wealthy affiliate but you can go premium for the Jaaxy at $19 a month or the pro at $49 then to Enterprise at $99. Start free and learn the way before spending any money

Or perhaps go to MOZ and pay $197 a month as an example but you get a couple of months free.

You will also read about long tail Keywords. A long tail keyword simple defines the word more precisely.

Dunlop is a well-known brand and Keyword. They sell a myriad of products so we need to thrash it out a bit. What about Dunlop tennis shoes for men. You will understand that this long tail keyword might find a result?

Managing traffic.

Alexia is a good guide as with the free Google analytic tool and Google adds planner.

Whatever you do you simply must do your Keyword research before you go to print.

The Wealthy affiliate Keyword tool is the ideal starter model that can take you to any level you desire.

It comes with free training and support as you build your confidence.

Review Wealthy Affiliate Keyword tool is part of a series in the benefits of the Wealthy Affiliate.

Peter Hanley

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