Are you utilizing YouTube to share your expertise through video marketing? (Nearly 34 billion online videos were viewed in May of 2010 in the US!)
If you are taking the time to create a video, leverage it to it’s fullest. Tubemogul is a paid service that will submit your video to numerous video directories for you. You submit it once and the system submits it multiple times, including to YouTube.
Do you see all those little icons at the bottom of this post? I’ve added these “buttons” so my blog readers can quickly and easily share the content I provide with their friends/contacts/followers. This not only makes it easy for my readers to share information they’ve found useful, but is a really simple way to grow my reach.
All you need to do is add the WordPress plug-in “WP Socializer”. You have many different options for which social media links you want to provide and how you want them to appear. If you like my set up, here are the steps I took:
Do you ever wonder how people get their image to appear when they make a comment on someone else’s blog instead of the “mystery gray man”?
It’s really quite simple, although I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone explain how. Those images are called “Avatars” and you can set up a “Globally Recognized Avatar” at http://gravatar.com.
Did you read “Increase Your Income Online: How to Sell Your Health Services Virtually”?
There is a reason I set the steps up in a certain order and I know if may be confusing to some of you why I recommend establishing your list management system before getting a webhost. Let me explain the reason.
If you do not have a way to collect the names and emails of your website visitors from day 1 of making your website “live” you are missing out on prospective clients.
To collect names and contact information (at a minimum email address) for your prospects you need to select and purchase (usually pay a monthly fee) for a list management service. A list management service allows you to manage and automate communication with prospective clients.
For example, you can set up an autoresponder that you write once and goes out in the same sequence to anyone who signs up. You can send broadcast messages that you schedule to go to your entire contact database on a certain day/time (i.e. weekly newsletter).
Two services that strictly provide list management services are:
Deciding which blog forum is right for your business is an important decision you’ll have to make. There are many options other than wordpress, such as blogger or typepad. WordPress is what I use and recommend.
With WordPress you have the option of a paid or free blog. WordPress.COM is free and WordPress.ORG requires a webhost.
Let’s just cover some of the pros and cons of each.
Deciding how to accept payments online can be confusing. Should you use PayPal? Do you need a shopping cart? How does a merchant account fit into the mix?
If you are just starting out and not generating a high volume of income online I recommend you stick with PayPal. It’s low cost, easy to use, and most buyers online are comfortable with PayPal.
Once you are generating regular income or if you want to offer payment options or charge recurring payments for monthly memberships then you’ll want to explore shopping cart and merchant account options.
Shopping Carts and Merchant Accounts
There are many, many options to choose from. I just want to discuss a couple.
WordPress is a great blog tool because there are so many plugins available that allow you to customize and improve your blog performance. Here’s a quick and easy plugin I recommend you install and activate right now.
Google XML Sitemap
Having a sitemap makes your site easy for google to index. Sitemaps are just that – a map for search engines. They provide the text “map” of your site setup so your pages are more likely to get indexed by Google and other search engines. If search engine “spiders” cannot follow or read a link they do not index a webpage.
Facebook is a simple (and free) tool you can use to get in front of potential customers. It may seem most time efficient to simply tie you business blog into your personal Facebook page and post some updates related to your business on Facebook.
I strongly recommend you keep your business separate from your personal Facebook pages.
Don’t make your web copy about you, but about the problem your potential client is trying to solve!
If your website home page starts with “Welcome to my site” it’s time for a website overhaul. Go back and research what your potential clients are searching for. Use this in your headline and within website copy on your home page. This reassures your potential client they have come to the right place when they land on your webpage.