The Silent Avatar Speaks

Having a get rich quick mentality is a short cut to failure in network marketing. Unless you have an army of hungry prospects under your mind control who will sign up underneath you at your command then forget it. This is a long term growth business and that’s the way it should be.

But that’s not to say you cannot still build a business quickly. There was a time when 2-5 years was the suggested length it usually would take the average distributor to go from start up to reaching their first major level but the truth is, with the internet in play today, this time has been cut dramatically.

The reason internet network marketing is so powerful is because of it’s ability to target prospects from all over the world and at all hours of the day. The internet is a 24/7 365 day a year broadcast channel and never stops and neither will your marketing efforts.

Network Marketing Failure Rate

In this article, we want to highlight the attrition rate within the industry but also a way to help you avoid being one of the statistics. First thing you need to do is develop the right mindset.

Long term mindset + consistent effort = success…

What the majority do when they join a network marketing business is become blinded by the enormous income potential and yes, it’s definitely available to them. In fact, network marketing is still way and above the best way there is for the average person to create wealth from a standing start.

If you’ve been to an opportunity meeting then it’s only when the presenters start to spin the circles that the interest is really tweaked. That’s fine and will get a prospect interested but reality dictates that there must also be a balance.

In other words, the prospect needs to understand that sort of income level won’t happen overnight but it will happen if you use the equation we highlighted above…

Long term mindset + consistent effort = success…

So the first thing you must do is make a commitment to do more and pay more now. Do more being making that long term commitment and spending time in your business and pay more being investing not only in yourself but more importantly, your prospects.

When things appear like they are not happening early in proceedings don’t react by getting discouraged and doing less. Maintain your effort and even increase it because what you sow now will come back to pay you big time later down the track.

Trust me… Long term mindset + consistent effort = success… is so simple in it’s application that many lose sight of it. But when attacked with ferocity and commitment it’s one of the most powerful ways of creating long lasting wealth with your at home based business.

Sphinn

Tags: Business and Management, Business Tips, Internet Marketing, Traffic Generation by the silent avatar
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Recently there is a huge stir around the phrase “long tail marketing.” It primarily deals with retailing online and makes some real interesting points you should consider. The concept is by Chris Anderson and you can get his book at Amazon.

But what does it all mean? It means get busy with keywords and content to get all the searches possible to your site. People do search differently so you must consider all keywords that relate to you.

An example is a hobby site. Imagine the “length of the tail” in how many keywords that could be. Everything from backyards to zebras. It’s the length of the tail when all of those keywords are connected that can bring you more business. Think about a big tail on a huge animal, it covers a lot of ground and gets your attention when connected to an alligator

So to coin a phrase, “get your tail moving” and leave no rocks unturned. Some search for refrigerators and for some it is an ice box or the fridge. Think about what people name things in other parts of the world that are the same thing in your world.

In keyword research it is easy to spot and grow niches. Low search counts at the top 3 search engines can mean business for you when there is no competition. Use Wordtracker to find out what these less used search engine searches can do for you. So what if there are only 6 searches a month for an item; if you happen to sell that item and no one else does, you want that business.

The long tail of search phrases will build traffic. You can not count on 80% of your traffic coming from 20% of your top used keywords based on readings at Google. Because competition for highly used keywords is so big, long tail marketing makes perfect sense.

If you are an Adsense publisher, imagine how many more relative ads you could display on all of those new low competition keyword pages. It is the total searches from all of those less used words that make using them worthwhile.

Create your content with a broader base of keywords to see the effect. Watch your site stats and be amazed at all of the new search terms you’ll be found with. Many will tell you more content or more products would be easy to market.

With search engines today it is all about content and keywords, and Google flat out says so in their webmaster guidelines. Long tail marketing is real easy with search engines. All you have to do is know the words people use.

I’m the silent avatar… and i have spoken

Tags: SEO, Traffic Generation by the silent avatar
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No doubt taking a business online is a decision which shouldn’t be taken lightly. It’s easy to get caught up in all the hype of the Internet, but the bottom line is “will you see a return on your investment”?

One of the biggest headaches can be getting traffic (aka customers) to your site, and eBay already has that covered.

Here are the traffic statistics from Alexa.com

Of course there is a multitude of ways to drive traffic to your site. Most take time to do, others you can pay money for and get moving straight way. All should be monitored (especially if you are spending advertising dollars to get the customers) as to how effective they are for you.

So here are a couple of scenarios which you may want to consider…

1. Open an online shop and either hold physical stock or drop ship.

2. Sell your products for a competitive price (including postage).

3. Advertise your site using free classified, forum posts, Pay Per Click advertising, etc

or

1. Research your market on Ebay
   Log in and go to “Advanced Search”. Input your product (be specific). Check “Search Title and Description” and Check “Completed Listings Only”, and check “new items only” (if you sell new) – then search. This will return you a listing of SOLD items which have been listed for sale on eBay, which are more than likely products you would offer to sell.

   Note: Search through “all Categories”, then refine down your listings using “Narrow your results” (which is accessed by going to the left of the window)

   Only review the listings highlighted in green (these are sold items).

   Now… Start a spreadsheet or pen/paper and input the data from the sold items.

2. Enter in the following:

· Item Name ( you want to know which items are the biggest sellers)

· Sold price – (because you want to know the lowest/highest price you can sell for

· Date sold – you want to know which day/s things sell more of than other days.

· Time sold – you want to know which time is the best sale time.

· Postage – you want to know what postage is reasonable (though you shouldn’t make money on postage – it should be flat postage fee plus an amount to cover packaging and getting to the post office).

· The seller (the best seller may have tricks you can use)

Armed with the information from Ebay you have a much better idea what people are willing to pay for the item you are going to sell. You also have a good idea what day you should be listing your items, and what time you should be listing them to get them in front of buyers, and how you should be listing them (I’ll go into that next post).

If you have found that the price people are willing to pay is something that you can work with, the next step is to use this information and set up a listings on Ebay of around 30 products (they don’t all have to be individual products) and list them on the day and time that your research has turned up as being the best time to sell. Don’t list the same items one after the other.

Do this for 1 month and see how sales go.

While you are doing your research you can also be checking out other auction sites like oztion.com.au and do the same thing.

You can also check out forums in your selected niche (let’s say you want to sell Xbox 360 video games). You can simply Google search for “Xbox forums”, join up and have a look around the forum for anyone who is talking about where they buy their games. You can also get a pretty good idea about what products they are buying.

While this might sound a little tedious it will pay huge dividends and either confirm to you the project is viable, or scrap it as you can’t compete with what is already out there (and lets face it with imports from china it’s getting harder and harder to compete)

Having said that… all is not lost if the price issue is looking pretty grim.

If you specialise in a “niche” (and I’ll use the video games as an example, you could “specialise” in games for only Xbox or a certain type of game ie; racing car, war games, etc.

If you determine you have a viable product and can sell at a price which is comparable to your competition, you are then good to go…

You can either set up your own website and market traffic directly to the site or set up a full eBay store and run it as a business, or, you can keep listing products (using the research you have done), and just list single items to sell.

Over to you….

As always feel free to post a comment or question for me to answer.

Tags: Business Tips, Internet Marketing, Traffic Generation by the silent avatar
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I’ve realised something..

There must be a gazillion advertisers simply throwing money way using Google AdWords.

I’ve just finished watching Brad Fallon’s and Andy Jenkins video on AdWords Triangulation and it’s jaw dropping!

If you use Google AdWords to advertise your website viewing this video is a must!

The video is a true Stompernet production – I just wish I had the resources to put out videos like the ones these guys do

The video is long… a full 54 minutes, buy it’s jam packed with information you need to know. In fact I would go far as to say that spending money on Google AdWords without viewing this video is as good as throwing money away.

This video gives the low down on everything you need to know about advertising with Google AdWords to drive traffic to your site (well almost everything – they freely admit they keep some of their tools exclusively for their members)

Not only do they show you how to

• set up and split test an advertising campaign
• creating a compelling advertisement
• use Google Webmaster tools

they also include valuable information on

• how to tweak your website Meta tags Title and Description Keyword tips
• how to make your all important Title tag “Ad quality”
• how to think like a consumer when creating your ads
• why each page of your website should have its own title tag and keywords
• why a Site map is important
• the techniques Stompernet uses for its members (well.. not all of them – you have to be a member to get the heavy duty stuff.

I would sincerely suggest you ‘opt in’ to their newsletter to keep up to date with the information these guys give freely to their readers.

I also viewed the Stomper SiteSeer video and took advantage of the free service Stomper SiteSeer generates about your website.  The report has some “fluff” which I guess is there for “newbies”, but well worthwhile for them to read.

The report is a web generated report (without a print option), but cut and paste of the information you need will suffice.

For certain I can say that in my line of work I come across countless websites which have the all important meta tag information missing completely! And the only way anyone is going to find their website is to Stumble upon it, or be given the URL of the site.  Sheesh!! No tags? No way!

So check out  Brad Fallon’s and Andy Jenkins video on AdWords Triangulation before they pull it down, and while you are there check out Stompernet Site Seer.

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Tags: Hot Off The Press, SEO, Traffic Generation, Web Design by the silent avatar
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