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As a local business owner you wear many hats and you have countless responsibilities. Consequently you’re not always able to follow-up on opportunities that could advance your business. It is the nature of running a business.

Once an awhile an opportunity comes along that you absolutely should not pass up. In this case it is a business listing on both Google and Yahoo local. Not only can it generate targeted traffic in your area, but the listing is FREE. And here is another reason why you need to jump on this, it doesn’t matter if you have a web site or not, you still qualify for the free listing.

Why would you want a free business listing with Google and Yahoo?

Because they are the two largest search resources online, and account for approximately 78% of the total search results. But even more important is the fact that your customers are searching for local products and services online in greater numbers. In some surveys it is suggest that as much as 25% of all Internet searches are local in nature.

Your customers are turning away from the cumbersome yellow pages. Instead their utilizing the content rich resources of the Internet. You have to ask yourself – if you competitors are listed and you are not, when a prospect searches online which business will most likely end up with a new customer?

How hard is it to list your business?

It can be done in less then an hour. Below are the two locations:

Local Business Center – https://www.google.com/local/add/login?hl=en-US&gl=US

Yahoo Local – http://local.yahoo.com/ (Click on the “Add/Edit a Business ” link at the bottom of the page)

The Benefits of a Local Listing

Besides the excellent exposure, you get to list important details about your business, including:

In addition to company details, Google and Yahoo both provide an interactive map for locating your business. I’m sure most of you have utilized the mapping service of either of these search engines and know how convenient it makes finding a business. Not only can customers find out who you are, but they also can pinpoint where you are.

As I mentioned, neither of these services require a web site, but when you combine your listing with a link to a killer web site you are in position to do so serious customer conversion. For those lacking a web site, Yahoo offers a free 5 page site. It allows you to get a basic web presence until you get the real thing up and running.

At this point few businesses are cashing in on local Internet marketing. For those that are the results show a higher ROI, and an improved customer conversion rate.

The future of your local business will depend on how effective you are in reaching your customers online. Getting a free listing on Google and Yahoo Local is an excellent start.

Fred Waters is co-founder of the Local Online Marketing Association, where you
can get the FREE 54-page e-book, The Indispensable
Guide to Local Online Marketing.

Tags: Advertise, business, engines, Internet, leads, local, Marketing, online, sales, search, small

Teleseminars are a great way to prospect, sell, stay in touch with current customers and clients, build your list, and so much more. Here are just some of the ways you can use teleseminars to boost your business!

Introduce a new product or service:

Product launches are one of the most common ways to use teleseminars. This is a great way to explain all about what your product can do and how it can help your customers. This is especially useful for informational products, because the teleseminar can be mostly high impact content, with only a little bit of selling. There is no way in one hour to tell everything in a book, or even an ebook, so you can give as much as possible to the audience and still leave them wanting more.

If you are in a service industry and have a new service, you can give a teleseminar on it to introduce it to your current and prospective customers. If you are a mortgage broker and there is a new First Time Buyer program, use a teleseminar to explain it to all of your prospects at once. You can even have a question and answer time if you want to get them really excited.

Re-Launch a product or service:

If you have a product or service that hasn’t been getting enough attention lately, re-launch it. Add a bonus or two or limited time offer and do a teleseminar to highlight this month’s special. One of the things you can do with a re-launch is have a couple of happy customers as guest speakers. Since they have already had time to use what you have to offer, they can give your prospects some good information from a customer point of view.

Teach your customers how to use your product or service:

Most products and services are not completely self explanatory. Having a teleseminar to tell all about special features or extra services you provide allows them to get the most out of your product or service. Not only is does this make for great customer relations, but it is unusual enough to get your customers talking to their friends about how wonderful you are. You can even ask for referrals during the teleseminar.

Establish yourself as the Expert:

Have someone interview you about your product or service during the teleseminar. This is a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field. Who gets interviewed? Stars, celebrities, Nobel Prize winners. In other words, Experts. People we want to listen to.

Build Rapport:

People buy from people they know, like, and trust. Tell your audience a little bit about how you came to be a lion tamer, or a teacher, or an insurance agent. Don’t just try to sell them something. Let them get to know you from the comfort of their own living room. Give them something before you ask for something back.

Tell the embarrassing story about when you got your 4X4 stuck in the mud and a Volkswagen Beetle pulled you out. Then when you tell about the towing service you created called “Beetle’s Towing” they will laugh with you, and think about you when they get stuck, too.

Informative Prospecting:

If you are in a service industry, you can help people understand your field of expertise. A real estate agent might hold a teleseminar on buying investment property. You could talk about the tax breaks, appreciation, and having professional management so you don’t have to get up in the middle of the night to deal with tenants. You can also talk about some of the ways deals can go bad if you don’t have a licensed agent involved, like buying a building without checking what other liens might be held against the property. Give as much information as possible, while showing why it is a good idea to have an expert help you at the same time.

You can do the same thing with a product. Don’t just tell how great your product is, though. Tel all about the problems your product is designed to deal with, and some possible solutions. Then tell how your product provides the most solutions at a reasonable price.

Preview calls:

A preview call is a call advertising a later, larger event. It is usually free, thought you can also have a paid preview call. For this type of teleseminar you want to give as much good information as possible, If you are previewing a weekend event, you can’t possibly give everything you are going to cover in one hour. So choose a few topics and give some great information, then tell them about the upcoming event. Don’t make this an infomercial about how great the event will be- show them how great it will be by giving them a great call.

One of my products is the Teleseminar Nuts and Bolts classes, where we teach people how to do al of the back-end, technical side of teleseminars. So my preview teleseminars will be answering the ten biggest questions my listeners have about the problems that can happen while planning and creating a teleseminar. I might tell them three ways out of ten to use autoresponders. I’ll talk for two minutes about the different kinds of websites you might have, then just mention we take an hour in class to go over them in detail. So I give as much as time allows, then let them know there is much more that I go over in class. I don’t need to tell them to take the class. If they have found my 3 out of 10 tips useful, they will want the other 7.

Make an FAQ or whole new product:

One of my mentors said, “If you hear the same question three times, it’s time to make a product for it.” So while you are telling people all about your great products and services, you can be recording them, too. When your teleseminar is done, you can have the recording transcribed, and now you have an FAQ sheet you can use as a bonus to anyone who buys from you. You can put the recording on your website so people can listen to it. Have them give you’re their email and name in order to get access to it and now you have a mailing list.

Mix and Match:

Many teleseminars can use several of these ideas. You can launch a product, build rapport, and have an interviewer asking you all the right questions to make you look good. You can find out what your customers most want to know and tell it to them on a Customer Service call, then tape it and put it on your website. The possibilities are endless.

So think of three ways your might build your business with Teleseminars. Which one are you going to try first?

Tania Baildon is a Personal Coach and Teleseminar Leader. Her coaching specialties are life changes and growth, and small business creation and promotion. One of the most important things Tania brings to her coaching is the ability to break people out of their own thinking habits and brainstorm new possibilities.

Coaching: http://www.extraordinary101.com
Tania also does professional teleseminar interviews and teaches tele-classes. She and her husband Michael are the Teleseminar Techs and creators of The Teleseminar Nuts and Bolts series of tele-classes.

Teleseminars: http://www.teleseminartechs.com

Tags: Advertise, customer service, Marketing, prospecting, rapport, sales, secrets, teleseminar, viral marketing

When you first start promoting Adsense on your site, the potential is obvious. After a few months, however, you need to move to the next level to maximize revenues.

When it comes to Adsense optimization, most will talk about different ad sizes and colors. These can make a difference, but the biggest and best enhancement has everything to do with placement.

Assume you are reading the sports page or some other part of the paper one morning. The page is full of images, text and advertisements. What do you see? Typically, you first read the headlines and look at the images. After that, you either read a story of interest or turn the page.

You will note that I didn’t mention looking at advertisements. This is because you will have developed a filter over time that causes you to ignore the ads on the pages. In practical terms, this is the equivalent of Pavlov’s dogs, but backwards. You know the ads are in certain areas and you just tend to avoid them naturally so you can focus on why your team is losing, you stock bombed or the latest scandal. This concept applies to the web as well.

People inherently avoid advertisements on web pages including Adsense ads. The number one Adsense improvement you can make is to move your ads. Should you place your ads at the top? The bottom? The side columns? The answer to all of these questions is absolutely not. Here comes the secret [drum roll].

The best location for your ads is in the middle of the page. For most sites, this means between the paragraphs of text on a page. Few sites take this approach, so readers are not conditioned to skip over the ads. Since Adsense ads track with the keywords on the page, this position is a gold mine because the ads are read by the visitor as the naturally move down the page. If they naturally read it, a higher percentage of them will click through and that is good news for your revenues.

There are a lot of tips on how to generate more revenue with Adsense. When you cut through the riff raff, however, the placement of your ads is everything. Try it and see.

Halstatt Pires is with MarketingTitan.com – providing internet marketing services.

Tags: ad blindness, ads, adsense, advertisements, click through rates, clicks, google, tips

Product/service publicity is the superhighway to business success everyone dreams. Then imagine having your product/service written on newspapers, trade publications, aired on radio and viewed on television absolutely for free!!! That’s going to skyrocket your profit target only if you know how to use the best method of getting free publicity.

The million-dollar question now is, what’s the best method for a free publicity? It is the PRESS or NEWS RELEASE. The knowledge about how it works is the key to your success. This knowledge depends entirely on how you understand the psychology of the editors and new directors that publish or air your press release. This article will show you how their psychology works and how best to manipulate them for your benefits.

Number one. These editors and news directors are very busy people. Don’t bother them with your trials and tribulations or your plans for the future. They are only interested in something new and profitable to their readers or viewers. So the rule here is to sell him first. Convince him that your business fills a need to his readers, viewers or listeners. Then your press release will be welcomed.

Number two. Editors and news directors move with the trend. They concern themselves more with current issues and events. So timing of your press release with current news events is an important factor. For example a story on job layoff and increased unemployment carried out on newspapers, on TV and radio should prompt you to get a publicity release out to all the media on help and opportunity offered by your product/service.

Another kind of timing to keep in mind is publication. For Articles you’d like to appear in the Sunday paper, you’ll generally have your release in at least nine days prior to the date of publication.

Number three. Media men appreciate polite gestures. When an editor uses your publicity release, always follow-up with a customized “thank you” note. Next time you send out your publicity release with others, his more likely to pick yours. If he doesn’t use your publicity release, never call him demanding to know why he didn’t use it or only gave you a mention. Do this once, that particular media will “round file” my further material received from you, unopened! If your first effort is not used, change the story, perhaps write it form a different angle and try again and again.

Number four. They appreciate a formal press release. Finally you need an actual publicity release that’s well written and expected to be used by the media. It must be typed, double spaced, and short (1/2 page total length). About an inch from the top of the paper, with an inch and half margin on the side of the paper; from the left hand margin, type in capital letters: PRESS RELEASE. Then, underline this word. Immediately following the colon, in small letters put the date. Note to put the date forward, at least one day after you intend to mail the release.

On the same line, but on the right hand side of the page, all in capital letters, FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: underline it, and immediately below type your name, your phone number and your address all in small letters.

Skip a couple of spaces, then in capital letters-centered between the margin type story headline, and underline it skip a couple of spaces, and from the left margin, all in capital letters, type the words, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: from there on, it’s the news or publicity story itself.

Use these four basic psychologies of the media men and enjoy a free publication of your product/service always.

About The Author

Am Emma Okafor,an online market researcher and writer.

http://bizacumen.8k.com

mimionline@zwallet.com

Tags: advertising, free publicity, Marketing, media, publicity