Reviews: Google ads and ineedhits.com: Worth the money?

Two Brief Reviews of Web Services: Google ads and ineedhits.com

I’ve been working hard to get my sites boosted in the Google rankings (right…who doesn’t, you’re thinking). Doing so led me to try this and that and here’s what I’ve discovered:

Google Ads: When I first posted my sites (years ago) Google ads got me started years ago and they got me traffic. So they do work.

HOWEVER, they are expensive and I feel that spending time doing the work to get organic listings is better. If you’re a new site / new business, tho, don’t negate the ads to get you started and get exposure. Be sure to monitor your ads and spending often or you can find you’ll start breaking the bank. If you’re at all computer savvy, you can do the ads yourself (just be diligent), but if you think it’s over your head, then you can hire services to make it work for you.

Be warned: Services will charge more and there are “hidden” fees for per-click charges on top of the services regular fees, so investigate before proceeding. For instance, if a service charges $259.00 to do the work, set up your ads and get you top billing, you will still be expected to pay for the per-click fees separately (can be hundred more per month!) so be thorough and know exactly what you’re getting up-front.

 Ineedhits.com is one such service. I’ve used them for other things and found them pretty good (basic SEO, search engine submission and G, Y, M Boost services, which I’ve found all helpful and good for my purposes). I also have what they call “Top Up Traffic” which is basically my ad posted on a bunch of sites across the web (the jury is still out on this particular service.)

Back to Google ads: They do work, they can be pricey and lately, with all the new bells and whistles they’ve added to do high-level analytics, etc., they can be confusing and a bit daunting. Start small and grow and you’ll probably find they work for you.

Ineedhits.com: Hunt and peck through the services and packages offered to find what works best for you. I found the Basic SEO was useful for one site and then I took the tips they gave me and applied them to other sites I had. I also think they are good for search engine submission, link building and G, M & Y (Google, MSN and Yahoo) services which can be helpful and time-saving to pay for them to handle this vs. doing it yourself. Some of the services  can be a bit pricey, do be sure you know what you’re getting before you get started. Also, as a side note: For two days I tried to access their site to look at my services, and they were not online! As you can imagine, I was very upset and put off by this. However, since that unexplained absence, I’ve had no problems. Again, caveat emptor.

Much success!
Moehr and Associates Success Systems…30 Days to Success! www.moehr-associates.com

NEW Release: ARTISTS 30 Day Success Program!

Artist Marketing Made Easy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moehr and Associates, creators of the 30 Day Success Programs, are releasing a new, niche program for artists! Called Artists Marketing Made Easy…30 Days to Success!

If you’re an artist looking for a simple and strategic system to market yourself (and let’s face it…successful artists know how to market themselves!), this program is for you. It’s written and developed by marketing specialists WITH a special artist input to address the unique needs of artists. It lays out a simple one month system to build a solid structure for your art business, get leads, get commissions and referrals and build your sales and profits.

Visit www.moehr-associates.com for more details and reserve orders!

Getting Buzz for Your Book: Two Key Points

So you’ve published a book (or are about ready to). Congratulations! Anyone who has done this knows it’s truly a feat: The idea, the writing, the proofing, the editing, the re-writing, the design, the layout, the publishing and now the selling…

As an author you’re likely to want set the world on fire with your newly published tone. And why shouldn’t you? Your words are just as important as anyone elses, right? Your message is necessary, helpful and possibly even downright crucial to spread.

Yet as you enter the vastly overpopulated world of authors, you realize you’re going to have to roll up your sleeves, stick your elbows out and be ready to fight for your own spot. And if you’re ready to do some battle (friendly, of course), you can indeed make a place for yourself and have consistent long-term sales.

How to do this? First, you’ll need a place to actually sell your work. OK, so you have a website or a blog, that’s a start. Maybe you have a publisher whose willing to put in a little time and money promoting you. Are you thinking of book tours and champagne receptions? You can, but honestly these are usually saved for the “names” in publishing. If you want one, go ahead and do it yourself (that’s probably the fastest route).

In the meantime, you need to sell that book! To start, you need to let people know about it. You need buzz. You can plaster yourself all over Twitter and Facebook, you can pay for leads or direct traffic to your site, you can even get a publicist if you have the cash. They are all valid means to getting some attention. But the truth is, unless you have a systematic approach, you’ll find yourself scattered and without the sales to make it all worthwhile.

Here are two key points: As a writer and several-times over self-published author, I’ve learned a few tips and techniques to making my products sell. The first (and best) is to create products (books) that are needed. It may sound trite and typical, but it’s the core of the sales process. If you have something that people want, you’ll be able to sell it.

Do we need it? Does the world need another book on social networking? Internet marketing? Baking bread? Paris Hilton? Probably not. However, if you have a way to break down complicated processes and complex issues into simple terms…bingo! You have something to write and sell! Even if your book is not for the masses or if it’s been done before, if it’s positioned correctly, named well (CRUCIAL!), and marketed to the right people, boom! You have something to offer.

Think about this as you embark on a new writing project or position your current book for marketing and sales. Just having the book isn’t enough. You need to make sure you can get the buzz, create the buzz or piggy-back off of someone’s buzz.

To learn more about how to be your own Mini Media Mogul, visit us at: http://www.moehr-associates.com

Gotta Be Honest… Review of Frey Public Relations Summit

OK, I gotta be honest…

I’ve read and know about David Frey for years. He was one of the first people the suckered me into actually buying an ebook, The Small Business Marketing Bible. You too?

Well, as a marketing person I don’t know why exactly I bought that, but at the time I was so new to websites and online marketing that I thought it would give me the keys to the kingdom. You know…the “secrets” we all want to know to make this stuff click.

So I bit. And after a few poorly formatted  pages of stuff I already knew, I realized I’d either been duped or I was just too savvy for it (I chose to believe the latter).

Well, fast forward to these years later and Karen opens her email to hear about the Publicity Summit. Wouldn’t you know I was just hot-to-trot to start getting some publicity? I’d left my prior experience with a bit of a jaded feeling, but hey, now here was something I could really use (and didn’t know much about)…or so  I thought.

Again I plunk down my money. I get the info to listen to my golden nuggets. After navigating through a terrible layout to actually find my links, etc., I settle in to listen to the “masters” reveal their closely-guarded secrets.

Right. After listening to a female host (who is pleasant, but honestly needs a little more training on leading these programs) I get to hear the speaker. And time and again, speaker after speaker, recording after recording I’m left with a certain empty feeling. These were knowledgable people, but most of their input was scattershot or of a caliber I’d call a “freebie” call. I’ve listened to many of them over the past couple of years so I know one when I hear one.

Where were the promised riches of PR magic? Well, to be fair you could pluck some nuggets out of each one, but I expected something a little more systematic and easy-to-use. I expected each person’s laid-out program of “do this, then do that,” etc. I do think some of them offered this, but I have to tell you, most of it sounded like freebie sales calls where the speaker give a few words of use (some more than others), and then starts to hawk their products.

I expect hawking on freebie calls. That’s the price of admssion. But not on these calls. So just know that up-front. These “Summits” are somewhat helpful, but unless you’re totally clueless about the topic, you’ll probably hear a lot of what you already know…plus some sales spiels (they are kept to a minimum, but hey, I’m paying to NOT hear that!)

Frey does offer these free at specified times and if you can make those calls, try to and save the money. While this paid program is convenient as it lets you access the calls at any time, it’s not exactly what I’d hoped for. It’s not all on him, either. Some of these speakers could use a course in giving an educational talk and not just banter or selling.

Just sayin…

Ready to be your own boss? You sure??

Ready to Be Your Own Boss? 

Still clinging to that day job for security while dreaming of starting your own company? Now is the time! While few of us can afford the luxury of throwing caution to the wind to start a small business, now is the perfect time.

Some of us have the strong desire to become an entrepreneur but have to keep the day job while we give this starting a idea the go-ahead. That’s fine! You’ll be in good company as most small business entrepreneurs start part-time.

Number one (and opt quoted by the mega billionaire Donald Trump) is to do something you have the passion for. Now whatever your particular feelings are for him, he has a point. You must, must, must LOVE what you do. As a matter of fact, I’ve heard it said that passion exceeds skill.

Starting a small business takes effort, focus and lots of time. So maybe your day job is all consuming? You’ll have to carve out a specific schedule (and stick to it!) to make this business work. Don’t just try to “fit it in” when you have time. It won’t work. Trust us on that. You must commit and be very proactive about it.

The most important quality successful entrepreneurs have isn’t skill or the right connections. While those certainly help, the most important thing you can have is passion for your endeavor. Whether it’s baking artisan bread or designing new buildings, you must have a passion for it.

It won’t take a ton of time to start, so start small. Even if your job is all consuming, you can probably still find a few hours in your week just for your business. Write this time on your calendar and stick to it. The easiest way to fail is to do nothing or just give up. Commit to your goals and be active about doing what they require to become a reality.

For instance, if you’re baker working in a restaurant and you dream of starting your own artisan bakery, be patient. Build slowly—especially if you’re career keeps you working crazy hours. You can start by renting a kitchen and making bread to sell to local cafes. You don’t need to jump in with both feel and buy a restaurant. Stay focused and start within your means.  

Keep at it and stay motivated. Listen to motivating tapes, read books, do online research. Work at it and don’t give up. It’s easy to get frustrated if things don’t take off as quickly as you’d planned. If you really want it badly, you’ll find a way to make it work. You may need to take classes or even get a different day job if yours requires so much of you that you’re always too exhausted to work on your business. If you’re serious about it, you’ll make the sacrifices. And there are plenty to be made when running your own business.

You also need to start putting some of that 8^th grade math to work. You’ll need to be your own chief financial officer, so get comfortable with your budget and what you’ll need to succeed. Track what gets you results, and dump what doesn’t. Operate on a shoestring if you must, but stay within your budget. So many new business owners get excited and overspend and literally get themselves in the hole before they begin!

Set yourself up for success from the start. You’ll start holding your head higher and feeling more accomplished. Being your own boss is a tremendous feeling. Good luck!

Self-Publishing? Learn tips from this top-selling author…
www.moehr-associates.com

Writing Content for Sites: Important to Be Good or Just Get By?

http://www.amazines.com/article_detail.cfm/1245289?articleid=1245289&title=content%2Cwriting%2C

Party Plan Profit Booster for Budget-Minded Home Party Sellers

Moehr and Associates, southern Arizona’s leader in direct sales marketing tools and consulting, has released the “Party Plan Profit Booster,” an ebook and audio training program designed to help build a successful and profitable home-based party business.

Direct selling through home parties, a popular revenue maker for many “work at home moms” and others, is the backbone for numerous companies representing various industries.   Tupperware, Mary Kay, Arbonne, Avon, Lia Sophia are just a few of the national companies involved in direct selling through home parties.

Over 15 million people are involved in direct selling, and while most are women, nearly five million are men or two-person teams, such as couples, with 90% of all direct sellers working part-time.  Millions derive their income from home parties.

 “The Party Plan Profit Booster” says Karen Moehr, owner of Moehr and Associates, “shows in detail how to book and build parties faster, and also offers useful, fun and unique marketing ideas and techniques for increasing sales and profits.” 

Other books and audio available from Moehr and Associates include Direct Sales Boot Camp Success Sytem, Direct Sales Guide: GET BOOKED SOLID, Ageless BeautyPro and Publish Your Book in 30 Days.

Moehr and Associates, a 100% woman-owned business, is located in Tucson, Arizona.

More on Moehr and Associates—

For More Information: info@directsalespower.com   www.directsalespower.com

Direct Sales Career: Know What You’re Getting Into…

Direct Sales: A Powerful Career Choice

 Direct sales: It’s perennial industry that has grown even more in recent years. Why is it so popular? The idea of working from home, selling products that you love, building a team and achieving top level salaries, prizes and recognition is a provocative idea and proven career. It sounds marvelous and to see what some of the top earners of the industry make, it can be a lucrative and enjoyable business for years and years.

 However, with so much to offer, with such go-at-your-own-pace directives and with the opportunity to build a business doing something you really love, why do some not make it? Why do hopeful recruits sign on the dotted line to join their company of choice only to drop out a year, or a few months later?

It isn’t lack of support. Direct sales offers one of the most supportive environments of any business venture. With team meetings, corporate events, and a plethora of motivational literature, it should be fairly easy to stay interested. It offers the ability to work your own schedule, grow as little or as much as you like and essentially, write your own ticket.

If you decide to build a team, it offers an opportunity to make a substantial income without even working a traditional full-time schedule. However, as wonderful as the career can be, it can also be rife with disappointment, difficulties and frustration for those who are unprepared or uneducated in the particular skills required to run a business.

Why the Trouble?    

What is it about direct sales that it results in failure for some and prosperity for others? The key to this is something you’ll find, in one shape or form, in every one of our seller’s stories: The desire to succeed by doing what it takes. That’s it. It isn’t that one seller sells well and another recruits well. It isn’t that one seller uses advertising successfully while another thinks it’s a waste of money. It isn’t because one seller carries inventory and another believes inventory isn’t necessary.

 The common threads are determination, persistence, and the ability to get past the daily difficulties to stay motivated and keep moving forward. You’ve heard it before. You know you must persist and work hard. You know you need to stay energized and work your plan. You’ve read the books and listened to the tapes to stay motivated and learn. You’ve heard top sellers say “Just pick up the phone and make 100 phone calls a day for success!” Oh really?

Well, of course in the numbers game of sales that will probably work, but will you actually do it? And if it isn’t something that you will actually do, then how helpful is it? Picking up the phone and calling 100 people may be a ridiculously difficult task for some people while others have no problem with it whatsoever.

Most people who get involved in direct sales understand that it is sales they are signing up to be involved with, but many of them would rather be called just about anything other than salesperson. The term sales is scary to some, which may account for the popular term “sharing” that many direct sales companies urge their consultants to insert in their mental career image. This helps them get past the idea that they are selling. It’s a friendlier term. They are simply sharing what they’ve found with others.

(Stay tuned for Part Two of this article!)

 

4-Letter Word Marketing Boosts Sales

You’re busy, you’re stressed, you’re overwhelmed. Running your own business is tiring and time-consuming unless you learn how to simply streamline certain necessary tasks. One such thing is connecting with your customers and prospects regularly.

Finding the time to sit down and write a long and informative ezine is, well, time-consuming. It can be frustrating to have the best intentions only to not quite live up to them because you’re so focused on just the day-to-day running of your business.

One sime and easy way to connect with your customers regularly is to offer a Quick Tips email. Everyone loves simple and good tips! Just like you, your readers are busy and don’t always have time to sit back with a cup of coffee to digest your carefully prepared manufests on your particular bit of brilliance. I hate getting long, wordy ezine or articles to sift through. I want the meat and potatoes quickly and then if I like what I get, I’ll probably take time to read more carefully and commit more time.

So, to be brief:

Make it a goal to send out a Quick Tips emailer at least twice a month (weekly if you want and can commit to getting the good tips for this). You can set it up in advance to mail out for the month so you’re covered. If you need tips, just pick your topic and surf the web. You can easily find bits of great info to compile into your own Tips email.

Naturally you’ll add your own promotional bits, ads, etc. but keep it brief, concise and laid out in a clean format for the best results! Do this consistently, keep it focused and make it a fun and easy read and you’ll keep subscribers longer, build your lists larger and even help your bottom line.

Build your own profits-driven marketing department in just 30 days: www.successin30.com

Tips for Creating Audios and Teleseminars That Pull…

Tips for Creating Audios and Teleseminars That Pull…

I’m going to start out by saying I’m certainly no audio marketing guru, however I do know that a few key tips will help pull visitors to your audios, and hopefully to your offerings. I’ve done my own and walked the fine line between boring lullabye and interesting and engaging. I’ve tracked a thing or two:

One: Give it a good title. Just like a book, a show, a movie (Shawshank Redemption comes to mind), if it doesn’t have a great, understandable title, then people get confused and pass it up. I waited years to see Shawshank ’cause of that ick title, but now it’s one of my fave films.

Two: Give great content. Of course that goes without saying, but I’m surprised at how many audios I hear (from supposed master marketers) that really get caught up in the sales spiels.

Ali Brown recently hosted an audio in her Silver Mastermind that had pretty decent content from a host she was interviewing, but the sales content overtook the whole thing! It ended up being a love-fest between the host and Ali and a long semi-informational infomercial. For shame–especially since she charges for these calls.

Don’t do that, PLEASE, don’t do that. Give content, give links, tell a little about where we can get more if we want, but don’t provide audios that are thinly disguised infomercials. People will catch on and be a little suspect in the future.

Three: Check your audio levels! I just listened to a hosted interview on blogtalkradio.com. The content and guest was great, upbeat and lively, but the interviewer was literally indiscernable. I could not hear a word she said, no matter how loud I turned up the speakers. Therefore I missed the questions and comments she had. I felt like I got half the story.

Be sure you speak loudly, clearly and conversationally and be sure both parties (in a hosted interview) are at a good level.

Final tips: Before signing up for audio classes, masterminds or any paid training, be sure to get a sample of the audios and recording style of the person. You can really get stuck with some overly sales-y, boring or just downright unusable stuff.

Here’s an example of why:

I was thinking of signing up with a PR ‘guru’ who boasts a literary past and getting numerous clients top-level press. She offered a group training class. After poking around on her site for awhile (it wasn’t easy to find–for good reason I discovered), I found a link to a sample session she held in the past. GOOD THING I DID!

It was beyond boring…I mean seriously a snore-fest. Plus, she was obviously just getting over an illness because she kept coughing and hacking–right into the phone. I’m serious, she didn’t even cover her mouth or turn away or say “Excuse me.” When one of the participants asked her if she was ill, she finally addressed the fact. I stopped listening and terminated my connection. Boring and rude…count me out!

Get free marketing and business growth audio at Success in 30 Power Audio. It’s free!

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Free Multi-Media Course on Blogging…Check it out!

I’m evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they’re letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.

30 Days to Success…Get your Sampler now!