GROW YOUR SMALL BUSINESS HOW To RAPIDLY ON-LINE Some other titles from How To Books How To Start and Run a B & B All you need to know to build a successful enterprise How To Run a Successful Pub A comprehensive guide to acquiring and running your own licensed premises The Small Business Start-up Workbook A step-by-step guide to starting the business you've dreamed of The Kitchen Table Entrepreneur An inspirational guide to turning your hobby into a profitable business howtobooks Send for a free copy of the latest catalogue to: How To Books Spring Hill House, Spring Hill Road, Begbroke, Oxford OX5 1RX, United Kingdom email: info@howtobooks.co.uk http://www.howtobooks.co.uk HOW To GROW YOUR SMALL BUSINESS RAPIDLY ON-LINE Cost-effective ways of making the internet really work for your business JIM GREEN howtobooks Published by How To Content, A division of How To Books Ltd, Spring Hill House, Spring Hill Road Begbroke, Oxford OX5 1RX United Kingdom Tel: (01865) 375794 Fax: (01865) 379162 email: info@howtobooks.co.uk http://www.howtobooks.co.uk All rights reserved No part of this work may be reproduced or stored in an information retrieval system (other than for purposes of review), without the express permission of the publisher in writing The right of Jim Green to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Text © Jim Green 2007 First published in paperback 2007 First published in electronic form 2007 ISBN: 978 84803 181 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Produced for How To Books by Deer Park Productions, Tavistock Typeset by specialist publishing services ltd, Montgomery Cover design by Baseline Arts Ltd, Oxford Notes: The material contained in this book is set out in good faith for general guidance and no liability can be accepted for loss or expense incurred as a result of relying in particular circumstances on statements made in the book The websites listed in this book were active at the time of writing, however, because of the fast moving nature of the internet, some may no longer be active at the time of reading Contents Preface xvii Using the internet for the purpose for which it was devised Can you imagine a worse case scenario than this? What possible use is the internet in these circumstances? Use the Web for the purpose it was devised Making the internet work for your small business So, how you make online marketing work for you? Doing it this way provides you with two valuable operational devices The value of a good website to the small business owner How it all pans out in the creation of the site What you get with the Third Sphere local enterprise hosting service Keeping pace with the internet opportunity Local offline businesses grow rapidly online You need just two things to make online marketing work for you Why even the most unlikely small enterprises can prosper online Using self-help to alleviate dire circumstances Getting rid of the negatives before tackling the positives Going online: first to survive, then to grow Ossie's internet challenge Ossie's online activity Ossie's core objective What Ossie does offline to promote his online marketing Real life case study v 10 10 11 12 12 12 13 13 15 Vi / HOW TO GROW YOUR SMALL BUSINESS RAPIDLY ONLINE Why the internet is tailor-made for small business 16 21 good reasons to grow your small enterprise with online marketing Why you still need a website even if you all your business offline Why the internet is such a dynamic marketing tool 20 20 How to convert your local business into a global concern 23 16 Benefiting from the global dual knock-on effect Here's how to determine whether you qualify Evaluating intellectual properties for online adaptation Confirming what you think you know about your intellectual property Using online research to add to your knowledge Converting intellectual properties into digital products Promoting digital produce Accepting credit card payments online 25 25 26 26 27 The power of recognition as an expert in your niche 28 Imparting information that provides solutions Why expert status is more attainable online than offline The tools you will need to mark yourself as an expert in your niche Powering up the tools with your expertise Providing solutions to problems 28 30 How to become famous online as a small business owner Online fame promotes your produce and its 'secrecy' keeps you secure How to capitalise on the amazing power of your own name How to write articles that sizzle, trigger sales, and increase your online fame How to swamp the Web with your articles How to turn your articles into top grade press releases How to increase your fame through the power of linking How to snare the 'spiders' and generate top ten rankings on demand How to produce a newsletter that stands out a mile How to get prospects queuing up in droves to subscribe 23 24 24 30 31 32 33 33 34 34 35 35 35 36 36 37 CONTENTS / vii How to give stuff away for free and galvanise your online fame How to channel your online fame into offline activity Revealing the hidden power of online fame 37 38 38 Creating your plan of action for the internet 40 Words of caution before you start on your plan Stick with the plan; don't chop and change Questions you will want to ask of yourself Mission statement Staying local or going global Your website Your domain name Promoting your website online and offline Start-up costs Budgeting time for servicing the site Delivering superior customer service online Fostering loyalty among your existing clientele Monitoring the competition Sourcing new merchandise Sourcing new suppliers Tracking market trends online Delivering an online ordering service Setting up your newsletter 40 41 41 42 42 43 43 43 43 43 44 44 44 44 45 45 45 45 Why marketing online is fast, easy and stress-free 10 inbuilt advantages to marketing small business online Cutting your start up costs to the bone Choose your own hours Around the clock order-taking The internet ignores public holidays and never takes a holiday How your local virtual store reaches out internationally You will be managing your online affairs on a level playing field The choices open to potential online customers Virtual transactions get the cash in fast Online it's win-win all round Customer satisfaction results in additional sales Why virtual customer interfacing cuts down on stress 46 46 47 47 47 48 48 49 49 50 50 50 51 Viii / HOW TO GROW YOUR SMALL BUSINESS RAPIDLY ONLINE Why niche marketing works best for small business What you must before you start Do n't try to sell everything to everyone Don't risk failure before you start Information outstrips all other e-commerce niche purchasing options The secret of success People buy what they want, not what they need How niche nous sustained a 50-year career for a famous bandleader How to spot your own easy-to-target niche market Developing a product or service that provides a solution Testing the potential for your niche market Free software that supplies the answers How can you tell if you've struck it niche? Developing the sales process for your niche marketing Secrets to unlocking core niche factors 52 52 52 53 10 Why your domain name must reflect your enterprise The catalyst that drives the engine Fitness to purpose No finesse required Exception to the rule Do's and don'ts for choosing your own domain name 61 61 62 63 63 64 11 Building a website tailored to your precise needs Mini- v maxi-websites The perfect vehicle for small business online marketing Sales letters styled in the advertorial format The approach isn't new; it has been worked successfully for over 200 years How to create the components for your virtual sales letter The all-in-one solution for devising mini-sites The perfect web hosting service for mini-sites When you need to use the multi-page approach The cutting-edge tool that does it all automatically The way to create and manage a multi-page website What you get for your investment 68 68 68 69 53 54 54 54 55 57 58 58 59 59 60 69 70 71 71 72 72 73 73 CONTENTS / ix 12 Creating content-rich pages to lure the 'spiders' So you reckon all this is beyond you? You are an experienced writer but you don't give yourself credit for it Techniques that work offline work equally well online Vital factors that point the way to good web writing Encouraging interaction with your website visitors How to lace your text with keywords that entice the spiders Try this exercise in keyword spotting Did you spot the key words? 13 How to write sales copy that sizzles Follow the guidelines to produce your own sizzling sales letters Imagine you are a market trader addressing your audience You can develop dozens of products using this concept 75 75 76 76 77 79 79 80 85 86 87 89 89 14 Why power keywords are central to successful promotion 92 Watch your traffic skyrocket when you target the right keywords What people when they a search online Think as you think your customers would What are people searching for? Why homing in on niche keywords produces instant results How keyword power impacts on sales Free software to assist you in detecting power keywords 15 How to avoid search engine positioning mistakes Optimising the website for inappropriate keywords Overloading the Meta tag with keywords Replicating the same keywords over and over again Using the hidden text technique Creating pages with an over-abundance of graphics and marginal text Incorporating keyword rich text in the 'no frames' tag Using page cloaking Over-reliance on automatic submission tools Over-submitting pages on a daily basis Over-concentration on search engine submission 92 93 93 94 94 95 96 97 97 97 98 98 99 99 100 100 101 101 X / HOW TO GROW YOUR SMALL BUSINESS RAPIDLY ONLINE 16 Snaring the spiders to generate top ten rankings on demand It works for me and it will work for you The technique - yours to copy - yours to keep How it works in practice Follow this tried and tested technique and you will hit the high spots Overcoming search engine paralysis 103 103 105 105 109 110 17 Creating site maps to feed the spiders Your site map: spider food or just a light snack? Give spiders a tasty treat Does every site need a site map? 114 114 115 116 18 Flooding your site with low- and no-cost traffic Investing in the pay-per-click search engines Participating in newsgroups, forums, mailing lists Exchanging links with other websites Creating articles for newsletters and magazines Using CGI traffic plug-ins on your website Triggering interest with free press releases 117 117 118 118 119 120 120 19 Converting your expertise into digital produce How to create your own digital information produce Choice of formatting systems Compiler options for EXE production Compiler options for PDF production How to create virtual book covers automatically Why it is important to have a cover for your information product Creating your strategy for sales and distribution Why it will pay you to give some of your ebooks away for free How to create your own software programs 122 123 123 123 124 124 124 125 125 126 20 Using the amazing authority of zero cost articles to lure visitors Why all successful e-entrepreneurs use articles to attract visitors How to make a start Writing your first article for general distribution The worst thing that can happen with every article you publish 127 127 128 128 132 RESOURCES / 253 www.ebookgenerator.com www.adobe.com www.deskPDF.com DOMAIN NAMES w w w.OpenForS ale com w w w whois com EBOOK COVER GENERATORS www.virtualcovercreator.com EZINE ANNOUNCEMENT LISTS List_Builder- subscribe @ topica com http://groups yahoo com EZINE DIRECTORIES www.bestezines com www.ezineaction com ww w.ezineadvertising com www.ezine-dir.corn www.ezinelibrary.com www.ezinelocater.com w w w.ezine-marketing com w w w.ezinesearch com www.ezinestoday.com 254/ HOW TO GROW YOUR SMALL BUSINESS RAPIDLY ONLINE www.ezme-swap com www.ezine-universe com E-SERVICE w ww.rightnowtechnologies com FORUMS www.forumone com KEYWORD EFFECTIVENESS TOOL http://mikes-rnarketing-tools com KEYWORD RESEARCH REPORTS www.seoresearchlabs com KEYWORD SELECTION TOOLS www.goodkey words com http://inventory.overture.eom/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ www.wordtracker.com www.adwordanalyzer.com LINK BUILDING INSTRUCTION www.linkinglOl com ww w.linkingmatters com RESOURCES / 255 ONLINE CREDIT CARD PROCESSORS ww w.clickbank com www.paypal com ONLINE PRESS RELEASE TOOLS http://www.prweb com www.free-press-release com ONLINE DISCUSSION GROUPS www.deja.com www.talkcity.com ww w.insidetheweb com w w w.forumone com w w w.searchengineforums com/bin/Ultimate cgi MAILING LISTS www.liszt.com NEWSGROUPS http://groups google com SPAM FILTERS http://spamcheck.sitesell.com 256/ HOW TO GROW YOUR SMALL BUSINESS RAPIDLY ONLINE WEB HOSTING www.sitesell.com/interactive html http://thirdspherehosting.com/plus/?xstcreat&id=xstcreat&pkg= ww w.hosting com Virtual bookmarks This is a selection of 'golden' virtual bookmarks you won't find anywhere else - try as you may to locate them They come with the compliments of my good friend Ewan Chia, Founder, www.midastouchmarketing com MARKET RESEARCH Here are some places for researching hot niche markets and getting ideas for products ClickBank Marketplace www.clickbank.com/marketplace com Amazon w w w.amazon com Barnes and Noble www.barnesandnoble com Magazines.com www.magazines com eBay www.ebay.com 257 258/ HOW TO GROW YOUR SMALL BUSINESS RAPIDLY ONLINE eBay Hot Items Report http://pages ebay.com/sellercenter/hotitems pdf eBay Research Tools ww w.terapeak com Yahoo! Shopping www.shopping yahoo com/ Yahoo! Buzz http://buzz yahoo com/buzz_log Lycos Top 50 Daily Report http://50.lycos.com The Ever Essential Google ww w.google com Midas Touch Marketing Niche Keyword Suggestion Tool w w w.midastouchmarketing com/cgi-bin/key/nichekey words cgi Overture Keyword Selector Tool http: //inventory overture com/d/searchinventory/suggestion Overture Keyword Bid Tool http://uv.bidtool overture com/d/USm/search/tools/bidtool VIRTUAL BOOKMARKS / 259 Google Adword Traffic Estimator Sandbox https://adwords.google.com/select/Login3 Digital Point Keyword Tracker www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords MARKET NEWS Where you can go to get updates on what's happening in the marketing Clickz Network: Solution for Marketers www.clickz.com Jupiter Research Business Intelligence for Business Results www.jupiterresearch.com Starting Your Own Business http://entrepreneurs about.com lnc.com - Resource for Growing Companies w w w.inc com/home/ DM News - Online Newspaper for Direct Marketers www.dmnews com Topix Direct Marketing News www.topix.net/business/direct-marketing 260 / HOW TO GROW YOUR SMALL BUSINESS RAPIDLY ONLINE Direct Marketing Association w w w.the-dma org/ COPYWRITING Copy writing is one of the most crucial and profitable skills a marketer can have These websites provide some of the best resources to better your own copy writing ability Essential Swipe File no * w w w.OHPDirect com Essential Swipe File no * ww w.TRSDirect com Essential Swipe File no * w w w.OTS Direct com * Look under the 'products' section of the sales letter for these files Rare Swipe Files from the Legends of Advertising ww w.hardtofindads com Marketing Notebooks of a Master Wordsmith http://masterwordsmith.blogspot.com The Gary Halbert Letter www.thegaryhalbertletter.com VIRTUAL BOOKMARKS / Copywriters Board Forum www.copywritersboard.com Search for copies of your own web pages to spot plagiarism www.copy scape com RESOURCES Free easy website page builder www.easy-web-page-creator.com Free software video tutorials www.graburl com/videos htm Free online courses www.coursesuseek.com Summarise the content from any website www.copernic com/en/products/summarizer/index html Direct-to-desktop content www.charlwood.com/tristana/download Manage your Google Adsense Adwords www.googedit com/free ware/g_edit.exe 261 262/ HOW TO GROW YOUR SMALL BUSINESS RAPIDLY ONLINE Sitemap generator - online www.xml-sitemaps com Free Sitemap generator - desktop http://gsitecrawler.com/f/downloadstart.asp?p=GSiteCrawler&tw=full Create your own dynamic tutorials for free www.wintotal.de/server/winkl5-l.zip Free DVD creator software www.download-software-free com/software/sdvdc exe Cpanel tutorial videos www.digitallyjustified.com/howto.php Photoshop + website design videos and tutorials ww w.designsby mark com/freetips/index html Content management system http ://clevercopy.bestdirectbuy.com/downloads php Open source scripts www.maguma.com/Studio_Overview.506.0 html Handwritten fonts www.vLetter.com VIRTUAL BOOKMARKS / 263 Online text formatter w ww.fwointl com/FWOFormatter.html Free press release software www.ducttapemarketing com/Instant-Press-Release htm Free Google Adword Landing Page Creator www.landingpagebuilder.com Cute PDF creator www.cutepdf.com/index htm Free PDF 995 creator www.pdf995 com Jaws PDF creator www.jawspdf.com Photoplus - free alternative to PhotoShop www.freeserif software com GMIP - free alternative to PhotoShop www.gimp.org Free spam checker http: //spamcheck sitesell com 264 / HOW TO GROW YOUR SMALL BUSINESS RAPIDLY ONLINE Free privacy policy generator www.easyriver.com/myprivacy.htm Free disclaimer generator http://209.204.219.152/free_disclaimer.htm MISCELLANEOUS URL shortening service ww w.grabURL com Deleted domain gold mine www.justdropped.com Cheap domain names www.namecheap com Online Google page rank check http://rankwhere.com/google-page-rank.php Outsourcing services www workaholics4hire com Affiliate programmes directory www.associateprograms com Lifetime commissions www.lifetimecommissions com VIRTUAL BOOKMARKS / 265 Bulk domain search www 101 domain com/domain htm Free marketing interview audios w w w.hardtofindseminars com/AudioclipsG htm The E-Code Secret Internet Marketing Forum www.The-E-Code com/forum Index alert box 170 articles 31,34,119,127 automatic order taking 125 automatic payment processing 47 FTP (File Transfer Protocol) blog 173 bulk email 150 information product 48,54,123, 128 intellectual property 24 Google.com 183,240 Google AdSense 180 checklist for getting it all together 223 commercial nous 54 content-rich webpage 75 converting prospects into customers 184 credit card payments 27,189 keyword 36,55,58,75,92 keyword phrases 94 link popularity 112,141,143 list building 168 mini- v maxi-websites 68 multi-page website 72, 73 multiple income streams 58 digital produce 49, 122 digitised books 53 directory listing 145 discussion board 239 domain name 43, 61 niche 7,28,52,54,55,58 niche marketing 52, 59 ebook 169 e-commerce 53 e-service 211 email marketing 150 EXE 123 ezine 161 offline 60,61,69 online research 25 online survey 214 page cloaking 100 pay-per-click 117 PDF (Portable Document Format) 123 266 INDEX / 267 RSS 177 spider 114 search engine positioning 97 secure space 243 sitemap 114 spam blockers test marketing 197 trading name 59, 61 virtual footfall 204 ... http://www.howtobooks.co.uk HOW To GROW YOUR SMALL BUSINESS RAPIDLY ON-LINE Cost-effective ways of making the internet really work for your business JIM GREEN howtobooks Published by How To Content,... / HOW TO GROW YOUR SMALL BUSINESS RAPIDLY ONLINE 35 Channeling your online fame into offline activity Guesting at seminars Guesting in broadcast media 36 Getting it all together to grow your small. .. 12 12 13 13 15 Vi / HOW TO GROW YOUR SMALL BUSINESS RAPIDLY ONLINE Why the internet is tailor-made for small business 16 21 good reasons to grow your small enterprise with online marketing Why