"Attract Perfect Clients " the Online Newsletter from Valiss,
Helping You Attract More Clients With Less Effort
In this week's issue
A note from Ted: Back to school
Workshops & Teleclasses: Search Engine Secrets is full!
Feature Article: What the heck is Web 2.0?
What I'm reading: Selling to Big Companies
Marketplace: Build your referral network with Send Out Cards
A Note From Ted
Summer has come and gone and we're drifting into fall. The days and nights are cooler and what's happening to our daylight? It's dark when we get up in the morning and the sun is disappearing soon after dinner.
The change of season brings lots of changes for everyone. The kids are back in school, summer vacations are over and everyone's putting their nose back to the grindstone. It's a long stretch from now until our next break at Thanksgiving.
This change of season is bringing lots of changes to my family. My daughter Al icia is heading off to her freshman year at college and my son Mike just started high school. In only 4 years, we'll be empty nesters. It's a time of big transition for the Prodromou's!
Workshops & Teleclasses
Search Engine Secrets - Only $297
My first Search Engine Secrets webinar/teleclass series is sold out! All 8 seats are filled so I'm opening up another class. The next class will begin on Thursday September 21st at 5 PM Pacific/8 PM Eastern. The webinar/teleclass will meet online for 4 consecutive weeks and you'll also receive 2 hours of individual coaching from me. Together we'll optimize your website so you can get to the top of the search engines.
For more information and to sign up visit www.valiss.com/searchenginesecrets
Feature Article
What the heck is Web 2.0?
I've been seeing more and more articles and blurbs about Web 2.0 in recent weeks. Web 2.0 is here and spreading like wildfire. What is Web 2.0 you might ask and how do I access it?
Web 1.0 was the internet as we knew it from the mid 1990's until now. Actually the first iteration of the internet started in the 1960's and was used by the military and universities to share information. The internet was hard to use because you had to use very crude, command line tools to upload and download information. When Marc Andreesen created the first internet browser in the mid 90's the internet as we know it today exploded. Information was easily accessible by everyone because of the Netscape browser.
Web 1.0 evolved into a universe of websites that contained information. We browsed the internet and found the information we were looking for. We had to search for and find the information we were looking for hence the mega success of Yahoo and Google's search engines. For the most part Web 1.0 was a one way communication with us doing most of the work.
Read more
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Tips and Tricks delivered to your inbox every other Wednesday
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Past Issues
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Google Strikes Again!
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A few weeks ago, Google made another adjustment to their algorithm, this time changing the lives of many Adsense users. The good news is that I personally benefited from this change because www.valiss.com is now sitting perfectly in position 3 when you search for "personalized website design" in Google.
If you don't know what Adsense is, it's the Google program where you can put ads on your website to earn money. Anytime someone clicks on an Adsense ad on your website you earn money.
Like anything else in life, there are some people that constantly look for ways to manipulate the system to their advantage. Adsense is no different. Many legitmate websites use Adsense to earn money. The problem is that there are thousands of websites using Adsense purely to generate income for the website owner. These "blackhat" websites are usually generated automatically by a program that you purchase. These programs research the most profitable keywords for you and build a content-rich website full of articles containing those keywords. In a matter of minutes you can launch a website with hundreds of articles containing highly profitable keywords.
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Have you ever had one of those days?
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Have you ever had one of those days when you wanted to jump back into bed and pull the covers over your head? I'm having a week like that!
Last weekend while my wife Ellen and I were camping at Lake Tahoe our neighbors were having the weekend from hell. Ed, a retired school administrator, just purchased a new camper that he wanted to try out. Next month Ed is bringing his 3 daughters, their husbands and 5 grandchildren camping so he wanted do a test run with his new camper. So Ed convinced his neighbors Les and Roger to go camping with him. Roger hitched his boat on the back of his pickup and Ed hitched his camper on the back of his pickup and off they went.
When they arrived at Lake Tahoe, Roger tried to leave his boat at the local marina. They said they couldn't let him leave his boat overnight. They only did monthly slip rentals, not daily. After trying a few other marinas and hearing the same story, they left the boat in the parking lot of a ski area and left a note on it saying the they'd be back in the morning. Luckily nothing happened to the boat overnight.
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Commencement overdose!
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It's been a month of graduations for me and my family. First my nephew Kyle graduated from college, followed by my daughter, Alicia, who graduated from high school ending with my son Mike and nephew Tyler graduating from middle school. If I hear Pomp & Circumstance one more time I'm going to scream! Seriously, it's been a great month watching them don their cap and gowns, marching up on stage to receive their diplomas, and moving on to their new endeavors. (I'll tell you about the principal getting shot by a pellet gun during graduation another time!)
So the big question is graduation the end or the beginning? Obviously it's the end of one phase of your life and the beginning of another. For some, once they graduate they think they're done and stop learning. They drift aimlessly through life accomplishing little. Fortunately, most continue to learn throughout their lives, accomplishing their goals.
Commencement is the start of something new. Even if you chose to drift aimlessly, it's a new beginning for you. My children and nephews have successfully completed one phase of their education and are moving on to the next level of school. Except Kyle who's now looking for his first real job now that college has ended!! Talk about reality setting in.
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I'm back!
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It's been a while since I sent my last newsletter. I'm a victim of my own success and I fell back into my workaholic pattern. My business literally went through the roof when I started practicing what I preach and I was overwhelmed with work.
So how did I build up my business to the point of overwhelm? I wrote “how to” articles and posted them on the internet. People found the articles, went to my website for more information then hired me to help them with their website and web marketing. My teleclasses were getting very popular and my newsletter was appearing on many other websites across the internet. Business was booming.
Sounds great doesn't it? At first I thought so but soon I was overwhelmed with work. Instead of working with only my ideal clients, I was saying yes to anyone and everyone that called because my business struggled for years after the dot com bust. Soon, I felt like I wasn't doing an excellent job for my clients and I totally lost focus. I was working between 10 and 12 hours a day and often 7 days a week. I left the corporate world almost 10 years ago because I didn't want a life of all work and no play. And here I was right back in my old pattern of working too much and not enjoying life.
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Keeping In Touch
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This week I'm going to be talking about keeping in touch with your clients and prospects. Lately I've been getting a lot of calls and email from people who've been faithful subscribers to this ezine that want to hire me even though I've never met them. They live in other parts of the country and a couple even live in other countries so I've never had the pleasure of speaking with them or even communicating via email. Out of the blue, they contacted me wanting to hire me to help them with their web site marketing and web site design. They said they feel like they know me because they've been reading my ezine and "how to" articles on the internet. I can't tell you how great it is when complete strangers trust you enough to want to hire you even though there's only been a one-way communication link.
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Piggyback Marketing
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The following is from my blog, on Super Bowl Sunday. It’s a concept I call Piggyback Marketing where you take advantage of the buzz others create for special occasions. Millions and millions of dollars were spent on Super Bowl advertising in just a couple of days. Did you take advantage of the Super Bowl buzz? The game itself is nothing compared to the commercials. In fact, how many of you remember the score of the game? Who played in the game? But I bet you remember the commercials from the game. And I bet you had at least one discussion about the commercials on Monday. That is called viral marketing, the most powerful and most effective marketing method there is.
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Marketing Is Journey Not A Destination
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Last year I spent most of the year learning how to drive traffic to my website. I started the year with absolutely no website visitors in January and finished the year averaging about 4000 unique visitors per month. Through the process of trial and error, I discovered a repeatable process that worked incredibly well in driving traffic to my website. Once I drove visitors to my website I became very good at converting them into paying customers.
So what is my secret? It's the same process that many internet marketers are teaching. It's a simple process but it takes a fair amount of time to implement and it takes a few months before you'll see results. That's probably why most people fail at driving traffic to their website. They're not willing to spend the time each week to do the work it takes and they give up when they don't see instant results.
Read more
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Internet Trends for 2006
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The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) just ended in Las Vegas last week and it's clear what the trends for 2006 are. All of the major internet players are positioning themselves to provide us content in every possible form. Music, video, news, movies, television shows, sporting events, sports scores, stock market data and any other information you can think of will be delivered to our computers, telephones, PDA's, Playstations, X-Boxes, and to the new devices that are being developed to keep us totally connected 24 hours a day. We're truly entering the next phase of the information age.
It's clear that Google and Yahoo are leading the way on this new frontier and Microsoft is working furiously to catch up. They're all trying to create relationships and partnerships with the media networks so they can have exclusive access to television programs and movies. It feels like the beginning of the dot com era all over again the way companies are trying to predict which technology and which wild idea will take off. The venture capitalists are opening their wallets again not wanting to miss out on the next Microsoft (or should I say Google?).
Read more
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Clarifying Your Marketing Message
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Happy holidays to everyone. This will be the last newsletter of 2005 since I'll
be taking some time off to be with my family at the end of the month. Hopefully
we'll get a big snowstorm at Lake Tahoe so I do some snowboarding.
How are you surviving the holiday rush? It's getting dangerous out there! The malls and shopping centers are packed with crazed shoppers buying everything in site. The lines at UPS are longer than ever, probably because they installed computers so the customers can print their own labels. The computers were installed a few weeks ago, just before the holiday rush. Why didn't they install them last summer so the customers could get used to the new process? The UPS employees are now providing tech support to angry customers instead of just ringing up the paper transaction on the cash register. Isn't technology wonderful?
This month's topic is clarifying your marketing message. It's a good time of year
to practice your elevator speech when you're at a boring holiday party. Instead
of just talking about the weather, try some different tag lines when people ask
you what you do. See which lines work best and start using them.
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What are your business goals for 2006?
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Welcome back! The holidays have caught up with us and the mad rush to the malls has begun. Crazed shoppers, driving like maniacs, are racing around town looking for the next big sale. The stores decorated for Christmas in mid-October making the holiday season almost a full quarter of the year! What's wrong with this picture?
With a few modifications to my website I'm now number one at both Yahoo and MSN for "personalized website design" and "personalized website development". I'm still on the 5th page of Google and working hard to move up to number one.
The reason I'm so far down the list in Google is because I'm still building the number of links to my website from other sites on the internet. I have just over 100 links to my website and the number one site in Google has over 6500 links! Check out the Marketing Tool of the Week so see how you can easily add links to your website.
Another important factor in your search engine ranking is the quality of your content. You must provide tons of high quality content on your website that addresses your clients most pressing problems. It's best if you create the content yourself which can be very time consuming but it's the best way to build the trust and credibility with your clients. But...most people hate to write or don't think they have time to write. I used every excuse in the book to avoid writing.
I never considered myself a writer and dreaded the thought of writing content for my website. Until I met Marilyn Schwader. Marilyn is a writing coach that coordinates groups of people that co-author books. With Marilyn's outstanding coaching, my writing skills have improved dramatically and now I love to write. Also I'm going to be a published author very soon so stay tuned for more information about my new co-authored book, A Guide To Getting It: Creative Intelligence. Please visit Marilyn's website at www.clarityofvision.com for more information about her upcoming coaching programs and learn how you can be a published author.
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Did Google's latest update affect your ranking?
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Welcome back! It's been an exciting couple of weeks for me and my website, www.valiss.com. My traffic has been steadily increasing and I've broken through the 100,000 barrier based on the website traffic rankings at www.alexa.com. In July I was ranked around 2,500,000 and now I'm at 96,312 and moving up daily. I've been focusing my efforts on getting people to visit my website to download my free report, sign up for this newsletter, and to read my free articles. I've done very little to try to get listed high in the search engines.
A couple of weeks ago, I was playing around and I made some small changes to my website to see if I could raise my search engine ranking for "personalized website design and development". The changes took less than 5 minutes and I can't believe what happened. Today I did a search on Yahoo, msn.com, and Google for "personalized website design" and "personalized website development". Well, guess what?
I'm NUMBER ONE in Yahoo and NUMBER TWO at msn.com!! Out of millions of webpages on the internet that contain the words "website design" and "website development" I'm at or near the top in 2 out of the top 3 search engines!! My Google ranking is number 67 for both search phrases which I will explain in this month's feature article below. My goal is to be at the top of Google for the same search phrases.
This reinforces the fact to me that I'm learning from the very best internet experts and they really do know what they are talking about. I was skeptical for the longest time, but seeing is believing. I'm a believer!!
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Do I have to be number one in Google to have a successful website?
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Imagine what your business would be like if you were listed number one in Google when someone searched for your product or service. At no cost to you, you'd have hundreds or even thousands of highly targeted potential customers coming to your website every day. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel. If you sell a quality product or service, your profit potential is unlimited.
I hear people all the time bragging that their website is listed number one in Google for a specific search phrase. When I Google their specific keyword phrase, they do come up number one. Then I look at their traffic statistics and they are ranked over 2 million on alexa.com. That means hardly anyone visits their website. Then I check to see how many people actually search those keywords at inventory.overture.com. Maybe 10 or 20 people a month search for that combination of keywords. Does being number one in Google for an obscure search phrase help your business? If 10 people search your keywords each month and you convert 1%, that briugs you a little over 1 new client each year.
I'm not going to kid you, getting to number one in Google is no easy feat. And staying there can be a full time job if you're in a competitive market. There are many tips and tricks I can teach you to raise your search engine ranking but I'll save that for another day. Today I want you to try a different perspective...
Can my website be successful without a high search engine ranking?
Absolutely! Finding your website through the search engines is just one way for potential customers to find you. There are many other ways to drive traffic to your website that are much easier than trying to be listed on the first page of the search engines. You can use a variety of online and offline tactics to attract visitors to your website.
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Domain Name Registration and Webhosting Explained
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As I write this week's newsletter, dark clouds are moving in and our weather is taking a quick turn towards fall (I know officially it's fall but we only have 2 seasons in California, sunny and rainy). We were having a nice, long stretch of warm, sunny days in Northern California and it seemed like summer wasn't going to end. We've been spared the bad weather that's been hammering the rest of the country but it looks like our first storm of the rainy season is coming.
I've been getting a lot of questions lately about domain name registration and web hosting. It can get very confusing because sometimes your domain name is registered with the same company that does your webhosting but it doesn't have to be. With the consolidation of tech companies after dot bomb, your domain could be registered with a company that has long been acquired. I'm going to do my best to explain how things work in this week's article.
If you want to learn more about your website, your webhost, your domain name, your DNS and other 'techeeze', sign up for my new teleclass, The ABC's Of Internet Marketing...How To Use Your Website As A Marketing Tool. I'll be explaining the technical acronyms in plain English so you can actually have a conversation with your web developer and understand what they are saying! The teleclass is going to be on October 26th at 11 AM Pacific and will last one hour. Sign up today at www.valiss.com/teleclass
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6 Steps To A Successful Online Marketing Campaign
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Have you ever gone online to purchase something and your Google search has led you to a web page that totally confuses you?You have no idea what they're selling or trying to convey on the web page. There's no rhyme or reason to the web page and you wonder how Google ever thought this was relevant content. Probably the web page has certain keywords sprinkled throughout the content so Google matched the content with your keyword search. You were looking to purchase something and you were led to a page full of useless content.
When creating an online marketing campaign, there are 6 important steps that you need to follow so you can make sure only targeted customers will end up at your web page. This is especially important if your using pay-per-click advertising to drive customers to your website.
Step 1 - What is your goal or desired outcome for the campaign?
Some online marketing campaigns are designed to sell products. Some campaigns are designed to collect targeted contact information. You need to decide exactly what you're trying to accomplish with your campaign. Create very specific goals for your campaign and focus only on one outcome. If you want to collect contact information, then design the campaign to collect information. Don't try to collect targeted contact information and sell them products in the same sales letter. Create a separate campaign for each desired outcome.
Step 2 - Keyword Selection
Since the internet now revolves around keywords, you need to select the most popular keywords related to your product or service and use them extensively in your campaign. Use Yahoo! Search Marketing (overture.com) or Word Tracker to select your keywords. Make sure the keywords you're using are popular enough for your campaign. If your keywords don't have a lot of hits per day then your chances of success are minimal. Look for keywords with over 3000 searches per day.
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Google AdWords Explained
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Last weekend I attended The Internet Marketing Main Event in Phoenix . The event was 3 days of non-stop Internet Marketing heavyweights sharing their personal secrets to their success. Needless to say my head is still spinning with ideas and excitement. I invite you to check out www.theinternetmarketingmainevent.com to see who was there and what's possible in the world of internet marketing. I'm definitely going back next year and I'll be the first to let you know when and where's it's going to be.
I'm adding a new section to the newsletter, Marketing Tool of the Week. I'll be sharing a review of an automated marketing tool with you each week. If you have a favorite marketing tool you use on a regular basis, please send me your own personal review and I'll feature you in future newsletter.
Don't forget to donate to the Red Cross. As I write this newsletter, Hurricane Ruth is crossing the Florida Keys and heading towards the Gulf Coast . The Red Cross still needs money and volunteers to help the unfortunate people that have lost everything.
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Pay-per-click Advertising Explained
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First of all I want to take a moment to remember the victims of the horrible tragedy caused by Hurricane Katrina. It's events like this that really put things in perspective. Our jobs and businesses are so insignificant when tragedies like this happen. It reminds us that Mother Nature is a force so much bigger and more powerful than us. In a matter of seconds, Hurricane Katrina changed thousands of lives and literally wiped entire towns off the map. We're completely helpless and no match for the power of Mother Nature. I highly encourage everyone to donate as much as you can to the American Red Cross. Give until it hurts and then give a little more. You sacrifice is nothing compared to the suffering of those who've lost everything. Also, think about donating some time to the volunteer effort. The Red Cross needs everyone's help right now. I'm going to be volunteering as much as I can to help out as well as donating 10% of everything I earn until the end of the year.
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Driving Traffic To Your Website
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Everyone wants to know the big secret to driving traffic to their website. Every day I see an article or an ad talking about driving people to your website. Driving traffic to a website has become the “holy grail” on the internet. People are realizing that 'if you
build it, they won't come... unless you give them a reason'. Website traffic just doesn’t happen by itself. Your website is just one of many millions on the web and people rarely just stumble upon your site by accident.
Ted Prodromou
valiss-info@valiss.com
(415) 785-1796
Copyright © 2006 Valiss IT, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
valiss-info@valiss.com