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!

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!

Novel in a Month Program for Aspiring Writers

Novel in a Month… it can be done! Get your own copy of this unique program … Write a Novel in a Month!

Twitter Tips: How to get GOOD followers

Twitter Tip 

Have you started using Twitter yet? I’ll bet you have (and some of you probably have legions of followers!) I just got hip to this service a few months ago. I’ll admit at first I wondered what all the hype was about (who gave a flying flip if I was eating tacos on my patio?) But then, I actually started using it and I’ve found a couple things that help. I don’t have zillions of followers, but I’ve double my numbers in the last few days. Here’s how:

 

 

To get followers, do two things:

 

1. Relay useful tweets

2. Join and follow others in your interest base

 

First, while it’s OK to sometime relay the fact that you like Creme de Menthe Altoids, it’s not really helpful is it? I hate when I look at someone’s profile and it’s just a bunch of  useless blather about themselves. Always remember WIFM (What’s in it for ME?) when tweeting. Give and share good stuff (quotes, good article links, fun tips, etc.). This will definitely help get good, quality followers (more on this later).

 

Second, to get followers, just simply go to “Find People” link on Twitter and type in who you want to follow (and get followed by). I grew by 100 people in just a couple of days once I did this. Do it weekly or bi-monthly and you’ll grow followers, too.

 

Third, (back to getting good, quality followers) it’s important to some HOW MANY follow them, but not me. I would rather have 500 who care about me and my messages than 5,000 who are just collecting followers. Really, who has time to follow that many (and if you do, then you have other issues…).

This is just something to consider and think about. Build your followers organically (one at a time through your own efforts) and get the best results for this service.

Got good Twitter tips? Let me in on it! info@directsalespower.com

Best 3 Tips for Internet SEO…UAW, Directory Submissions, Alt-Res & Titles!

Unique Article Wizard, Directory Submission Services (Directory Maximizer & Submit Express), Alt-Res Tags, Website Titles!

I struggle with this one, but I’ve learned quite a bit over the last couple of years. A couple of things I hadn’t done consistently I finally realized (thunk!) and once I implemented them, things started to get lots better! They are:

TITLES: Be VERY particular about your site titles. They are the first line of exposure someone sees in the search engines. I used to have full sentences like “The Get Booked Solid system is a fast-track lead tool for booking more parties and sales events!”  WOW…was I off-base. After I changed it to “Party Plan Leads, Home Party Sales, Direct Sales Tips” I got a lot better positioning and better traffic (www.isellmoretoday.com / www.directsalespower.com). So tip #1: Don’t use long, lengthy sentences in your titles. Use simple key word strings separated by commas. Works much better!

GRAPHICS: Next, optimize your photos! I had HUGE photos as top-heavy banners with no alt-res tags. Alt-reg tags (for those of you unsure) are little descriptions of your photo and are handy in case someone cannot view the graphics on your page or if the link is broken (I hate when that happens!) Once I reduced my graphics and gave each of them an alt-res tag, it seemed to really help my load time and make my page more descriptive (thus, more search engine friendly).

Finally, I used a couple of extra tools (directory submissions and article submissions). While I was doing articles before, I used the Unique Article Wizard for awhile. Honestly, I have a love/hate relationship with this one. It works and seemed to really get good reach for my articles, however the software seems really ‘hinky’ (for lack of a better word) and cumbersome. Also, re-writing or ‘adjusting’ each article was a LOT of work. I’m a writer and particular about what I put out there so I didn’t just feel that slap-dashing new versions together was appropriate, but to each his own. As an end note, UAW is pricey ($67/mo) and I only used it for a few months. I didn’t get the best customer service when I had problems–out of two service inquiries, one was met with sarcasm and one was super polite, so 50/50. I may use it again in the future as a booster and to help new sites.

SUBMISSIONS: Directory submissions seem to work well for me. I use Directory Maximizer plus Submit Express. I am extremely pleased with the former and have no negatives toward the latter (but given a choice, I’d probably go with DM–very competitive pricing and good service.) Even though there are lots of schools of thought on using these types of services, they both work for me. I’d rather be writing and creating things than frittering away time doing any SEO, so whatever helps me, I’ll bite! (If you know of good, reliable services that work, let me know — please no spamming of junk, though!)

All in all, they’ve ALL helped me from a buried page rank of 6 or 7 on Google to floating between 1 and 2. Not bad!

More about marketing success…

Toilet Paper Entrepreneur…Why NOW is the best time to start your own business!

http://www.toiletpaperentrepreneur.com/blog/why-you-should-become-an-entrepreneur-now

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