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Do you want to learn how to rank high in Google and the other search engines?
I am fascinated by Internet marketing and search engine optimisation brings out my competitive streak because your ranking in Google matters in so many different ways
It attracts traffic to your website.
Intuitively there is a halo effect of ranking high in Google which can be passed on to your viewers that goes along the lines of “If Google thinks this is important then…” and it enhances your credibility as an expert who knows what they are doing.
It can give you immense satisfaction. It does me anyway.
It may infuriate your competitors who may huff and they may puff but they can’t blow down your top ranking in Google.
Of course search engine optimisation / optimization can drive you crazy as well. It can take a long time to see any effects and then at the blink of an eye, Google has reindexed, or even worse changed your algorithm and your ranking has vanished.
It happened to me.
My main blog used to rank really well for the phrase “business coaching” but I think I went too far and I was slapped down. Fortunately my main website still ranks at number one or two for UK searches.
But this is why you need to learn search engine optimisation from the top professionals and not rely on some spammy black hat consultant who makes outrageous promises, creates short term fast results to extract money from you and then your website is banned.
It’s all much too important for that and this is why it is exciting to hear that leading Internet marketing training/coaching firm Stompernet are upgrading and relaunching their “Stomping The Search Engines” product on 3rd September 2008.
Even better they are sending me a free copy to review before the launch.
It’s always interesting to watch Rich in the launch process of his famous (notorious?) free reports.
If you’ve not got his Internet Business Manifesto, The Missing Chapter or The Final Chapter and you are an Internet entrepreneur then break into The Profit Vault. All it takes is an email address and the safe door opens at your command and the contents is golden.
Less Internet based and more for mainstream marketers are his next two free reports:
The Attention Age Doctrine - the problems of short attention spans in the face of an overwhelming amount of promotional material and what to do about it.
The Maven Matrix Manifesto - the report from the joint venture between Jay Abraham and Rich Schefren which explain how you can become the maven of your market to command attention despite the attention age problems.
I also think we should have a sweepstakes about what Doctrine / Manifesto type word he will use.
Protocol? Possibly.
Dogma? Unlikely, too many negative connotations.
Testament? No even Rich wouldn’t go that far, would he?
Mmm not easy being a guru is it? Not only do you have to come up with the groundbreaking ideas but you also have to find the fancy name.
Over to you Rich - less than two weeks to go!
Update 29 August
Yesterday Rich Schefren released more clues about his new report which is changing the rules of Internet marketing with a video of a presentation from his appearance at the recent StomperNet event.
Money back twelve month guarantees are quite common. Not as common as I would like but still quite common.
Money back guarantees that say “give me $79 and if you don’t make $79,000 extra profit I’ll give you your money back” are extraordinary and deserve the attention they get.
Disappointing interview which didn’t live up to the title but I was left with the impression that Bob Burg is definitely worth getting to know better through his books.
Endless Referrals has been added to my wish list.
Generating referrals from both happy customers and marketing partners / associates is such an important topic and as belts tighten it is becoming even more important to make sure that the marketing you do provides value for money.
My vote went to top copywriters Joe Sugarman and Ted Nicholas and let’s just say that I’m fairly confident that I’m right. No promises you understand but worth a punt.
While I am talking about Mark, you have taken the opportunity to grab your free copy of his best selling book “The Irresisitible Offer” in PDF form.
Mark Joyner is one of the few people I pay close attention and I recommend you do the same.
Last month there was a big product launch and much hullabaloo for the release of the upgraded version of John Reese’s legendary Traffic Secrets course, clever titled Traffic Secrets 2.0.
The biggest changes are the advent of the Web 2.0 / social media opportunities for generating traffic but you can read much more at John’s Traffic Secrets 2.0 sales letter.
Traffic Secrets 2.0 is billed as the “step-by-step system for generating a flood of targeted visitors to any web site.”
Sounds good doesn’t it and the launch was a massive success since it was priced much lower than the old Traffic Secrets that has been replaced.
The Problem
Any Internet marketer or any business that has created a website knows that having a website is one thing, getting traffic to it is a different problem altogether.
I think many of us start off innocent.
We build a great website packed with valuable information and then…nothing.
It can’t be found on the search engines, no one seems interested and no one clicks.
End result - the time and effort spent on creating and developing the website is wasted.
Simple Mistakes
Every week I look at websites and they make simple mistakes which can certainly help. When I’m coaching clients one of my first areas to look at is their website and getting it ranked higher up in Google.
Sometimes it is simple. If competition is low you can correct the mistakes, take a few simple steps to promote it and voilà, in a couple of weeks their website can be found for local searches.
Sometimes the keywords are much more competitive and natural SEO steps take many months to build momentum. I know to my own cost that trying to rush Google too fast brings its own problems.
The net result though of getting on the front page of Google is that it attracts traffic but also creates credibility for the business. It’s even better if you can get four or five references to your business on the first page after being in position 71 when we started.
Traffic Secrets 2.0
I wanted to know more about generating traffic both for promoting my own business and helping clients so Traffic Secrets 2.0 was an obvious solution.
I watched some of the promotion videos and actually thought I was going to let it pass me by during the launch because it is on continuing sale. I have too many of these development programs to review but self restraint went when I was tempted in by an offer from Internet marketer Stephen Pierce (launch offers have now lapsed).
My box came a couple of weeks ago with twelve interactive CD-ROMs, a 377 page training guide, a few other bits and pieces in an attractively designed neat package.
Looks good but I haven’t started working my way through yet but I will let you know what I think.
Staying At The Top Of The Game
Possibly even more valuable is the lifetime membership of the Traffic Secrets mastermind community group which promises that you get every update to the course.
As the Internet continues to develop, the content will be upgraded for the new opportunities and tactics that used to work but have been abused will be replaced.
John Reese says “Think of it as possibly the ONLY traffic-generation course you’ll ever need to buy. As practically ANYTHING related to driving traffic on the Internet changes or evolves, you’ll get this cutting-edge information FOR FREE.”
If you want more traffic to your website or blog and are prepared to put in the effort to generate it but just want to know how, take a good hard look at Traffic Secrets 2.0.
I want you to visit this Marketing Coach blog regularly (have you signed up for the RSS feed?) and my main Business Coaching Blog but assuming that you still want more, here are three blogs I find compelling:
Clayton Makepeace Total Packages Blog - Clayton is one of the world’s leading copywriters so you’d expect him to write in a compelling fashion but to make things even better he’s invited a bunch of his friends to also write regular feature articles.
John Jantsch Duct Tape Marketing - while Clayton and his friends write long articles, John writes short, thoughtful items and also brings you the latest developments.
Rich Schefren Strategic Profits - Rich is gearing up to another launch of a report and I think he’s launching his Business Growth Coaching in anew improved version soon so he is promising to provide great content but the archives are well worth investigating.
So much great information, so little time.
It’s the old story of just who do you give your attention to but these are definitely worthy of a good long browse and repeated visits.
This is version 11 of Palo Alto’s proven Marketing Plan Pro and is a major coup for John Jantsch and his Duct Tape Marketing brand.
I feel like applauding and cursing at the same time.
It’s several years since I looked at the Palo Alto products (Market Plan Pro and Business Plan Pro) but I thought that they were both very good and comprehensive for an “out of the box” solution.
One word of warning. Make sure you buy the version for the right country so that it handles the VAT/sales tax issues etc correctly in the numbers section.
It will be interesting to see whether this polarises opinion as the Duct Tape Marketing coaching network expands. Will other marketing coaches and business coaches who use Market Plan Pro as an easy and quick tool jump to another product or will they promote a rival?
If you are an experienced Market Plan Pro user, what difference has the “powered by Duct Tape Marketing” made?
The postman has just dropped off my copy of the new Guerrilla Marketing book “Guerrilla Marketing On The Front Lines: 35 World-Class Strategies To Send Your Profits Soaring” by Jay Conrad Levinson and Mitch Meyerson.
What Makes This Different To All The Other Guerrilla Marketing Books?
Jay Conrad Levinson didn’t write it.
Only the six page introduction it written by Jay Levinson as he explains how Guerrilla Marketing was born, to help people with big dreams and tiny budgets.
But Jay Levinson has certainly inspired the people who did write the individual chapters in the book. It includes a plug for the Guerrilla Marketing Association as comprehensive collection of resources to help small businesses marketing much more effectively. If you are not a member, I recommend that you take advantage of the free thirty day trial. It is packed with great materials.
Guerrilla Marketing Coaching: Taking It To The Streets by Mitch Meyerson
Mitch is the creator of the Guerrilla Marketing Coach Certification Program which was certainly one of the best decisions I’ve made when I took the program in late 2007. Mitch is also a successful author and creator of other development programs.
This chapter includes the Guerrilla Marketing Competences Assessment which I have my clients take during my Guerrilla Marketing Coaching. The simple task of taking the assessment makes you aware of just how much you are not doing and very effectively creates the mindset to put more focus in your marketing.
Guerrilla Intention: Dream It. Declare It. Achieve It. by David Wood
David is a leading life coach and explains that Intention is a cornerstone of Guerrilla Marketing. Deciding what you want, identifying how you can make it happen and then taking the actions necessary to accomplish the goal.
Guerrillas Taking Action: Managing Your Actions to Make the Most of Your Marketing Time by Alex Mandossian
Alex Mandossian has developed into one of the leading direct marketers, originally as a Guerrilla Marketing Trainer and certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach, then as the leading expert in postcard marketing and now the authority in electronic marketing media.
While Guerrilla Marketing says that you can replace the need for a big marketing budget by spending time, energy, imagination and knowledge instead, time is always at a premium.
You never get back time so you have to learn to spend it wisely and this chapter gives you seven action steps. It’s also made me think about my offer of a free marketing consultation.
Guerrillas Don’t Need Silver Bullets: Simplicity and Consistency will turn Prospects into Profit by C.J. Hayden
The author of the book “Get Clients Now”, C.J. Hayden explains that two more core Guerrilla concepts consistency and simplicity which lever the importance of focus. It’s much better to do three things well than ten things badly and you define these in your Guerrilla Marketing Plan.
One niggle on the consistency point about Guerrilla Marketing. The principle is that consistency creates confidence which is the number one reason why people buy.
Guerrilla Marketing is the best selling series of marketing books in the world and I accept that probably every minute of every day, somewhere in the world, the numbers notches up by another one. But for some time we have had some GM pages saying 14 million and some saying 15 million. This book on the front cover says that Jay Levinson as over 14 million books sold while on the back it says more than 20 million. Confused? I am.
Knowledge and Focus: Guerrillas Don’t Leave Home Without Them by Mary Eule Scarborough
Mary has recently co-authored another book with Jay Conrad Levinson and Mitch Meyerson, “Guerrilla Marketing On The Internet”.
I mentioned before the importance of focus, this chapter picks up on the importance of customer focus with a few stories from her life.
Conclusion - Guerrilla Marketing On The Front Lines
Plenty more chapters to go but I will keep updating.
It’s inevitable with a book like this that the different writing styles and approaches will break up the flow and perhaps not fit together as an integrated whole but each chapter stands alone on its own rather than you relying on remembering what you read five chapters ago.
