So here's my evil plan.
I'm going to talk to a bunch of my friends, who are either handymen, or restaurant owners, or chiropractors, or computer repairmen, or investment advisers.
And they all have one thing in common.
They are all invisible.
Not in person. They're fairly opaque, in person. Most of 'em. But on the Internet, they are simply invisible, because they have no presence at all.
Now, I've been reasonably successful in developing an Internet presence, and I've gotten great information from folks like Jay Fleischman, Stephen Fairley, and my Findlaw Rep, Alex Morris.
But I need something simple, that will let a little tiny business with zero advertising budget develop an Internet presence, because if my buddies don't market on the Internet, they will work for somebody who does.
So right here and right now, I'm going to list some sites on the Internet that are great free marketing resources, like Blogger and Word Press, along with their little tutorials.
And I'm going to list some sites that a small business simply must use (even if they use the sites poorly), in order to put a big sign on the Internet that says, "We Make Really Good Lemonade Here!"
And I also suggest that you check Jay Fleischman's site, Stephen Fairley's site, and the great blog maintained by Alex Morris. Just because they primarily help lawyers is no reason you shouldn't buy their DVDs, seminars, e-books and other resources.
So here we go in a whirlwind tour of sites that will get business to your small business (unless it doesn't; bear in mind that these sites will only help buyers find you; if the food in your restaurant is lousy, or the service is bad, that won't help. Ditto if you sell buggy whips and most people drive cars, right?).
1) Google Places. I'm cheating a little here because I'm taking you to the Google discussion of Google Places. But if you do nothing else, plug your business information into Google Places, and you won't be entirely transparent on the Internet. You'll need a free Google email account to plug your info into Google Places. But no money! And you may discover the day after you plug in your information that your business doubles. Here's my Google Places site, and it has been useful to me.
No guarantee, of course, about any of this stuff; and none of it is legal advice, of course.
--Note: my discussion today is going to be Google-centric; it is the 800 pound gorilla in Internet Marketing; and if Google ain't happy with you, you ain't gonna be happy. But if Google loves you, you will experience joy in business.
And here is a way to Build a FREE Website, and a Blog. Because a Blog is just a website that you control, rather than a website designer, and you get to build content in your free site! There are two most-used hosting sites for your FREE Blog, and one is
2)Word Press;
3)and here is the Word Press What It Is, and How to Do It Page, to make it really easy for you!
--Blogger, which I used to build this list.
4)and here's the how to do things on Blogger VIDEO SERIES, to make it even easier!
--here's how to add something you don't know exists to something you don't have yet: a discussion of
5) Gadgets that you can add to your Blogger Blog.
Note: Yes, I am telling you to start a Blog. Start today. Build a crummy starter blog, just to get started, and don't worry. Because nobody is going to find your miserable starter blog until you start making your blog visible. Do remember, however, that whatever you put on your blog will never vanish entirely, so do not post crazy, dirty, profane, or other weirdo stuff, unless you're willing to have that identified with you when you run for office or apply for a new job. Seriously.
Now, not only is your small business currently invisible, but your brand-new blog is also pretty invisible because it's new, so it will probably be listed at the tail end of the website lists, which puts it about 26 billion down, or so. Over time, with work, it will drift up in the Blogosphere, and you will have clients who visit you because they like what you put on your blog!
Why will your blog be visible over time? Well, because you will submit it to blog directories, where it will be published, and you will gain a viewership just because they like your stuff.
Wait until you have a buncha entries in your blog to submit it to directories, because some are a little snooty and want your blog to have some, you know, quality information.
A list of popular blog directories includes:
6)Blog Catalog;
7)Technorati;
8)Bloghub;
9)BlogHints
My personal prejudice is that you ought to submit to as many blog directories as seems like a good idea, or until you get tired; don't pay anybody anything to be placed in a directory, at least at first, because the whole point of this exercise is to develop a HUGE web presence for you or your little business with a TINY expenditure of money.
Although, as with most things, you can trade money for time, if you choose to do so.
Here I'm going to let you in on the secret of Internet Presence: Google Loves Content! And here's a 10)nice article that talks about developing the content that Google loves!
That means that if you post more stuff which is interesting, useful, entertaining, or otherwise attractive to viewers, Google will love you, and you will be happy, because Google rewards those it loves.
What is Content?
Well, original text is content. Videos are content. Pictures are content. Music is content. The spoken word, recorded, is content.
It's all content!
And you can put all of those sorts of things into your blog. And you should. In fact, you must.
And then Google will love you and reward you by putting you on Page One of Google for your relevant search terms, which is functionally similar to building a better mousetrap: customers will find you, no matter where you try to hide.
SO HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO BUILD A GREAT BLOG?
A while. So you'll need something to let customers find your restaurant or your clinic or you until your blog drifts to the top of the search engine for the search term "best blackened snapper in Toledo".
AN INTERNET MARKETING DEVICE THAT'S INSTANT-ON!
So what to do until your blog drifts to the top of the hit parade?
You need something that will direct traffic to your tiny business fast and effectively, and also build links to your blog and your website (hey, you can build a second blog to function as your website. A blog is just a website that you control and design. In fact, every single blog entry is a part of your blog, AND A FREESTANDING, SEPARATE WEBSITE!!!!!).
Sorry, I got a little excited there.
In the meantime, you'll want to put all the information about your little business into all the free online business directories that you can track down, and especially into all the free online specialized business directories that you can find.
DO NOT PUT MONEY INTO A DIRECTORY. PUT YOUR BUSINESS INFORMATION INTO THE DIRECTORY. YOU ARE NOT YET SMART ENOUGH TO DECIDE WHICH DIRECTORY YOU NEED TO FEED TO GET GREAT RESULTS, SO DON'T GUESS!
Note that in the past, I did guess about which directories to pay, and I guessed wrong. Which is why I'm trying to save you!
So how many free online directories do you stuff your information into?
Well, how rich do you want to be?
And how do you find the most useful free online business directories on the Internet?
Well, how about if you type this search term into Google?
11) Free Online Business Directory
What do you want to bet that the most beloved-by-Google free online business directories show up at the top, and show up, in order of love-magnitude, all over the next ten pages?
Now, you have a business, not a hypothetical business.
I know that your business is not the business of law, so I'll show you something just so you get the idea.
If you type in a search that looks like this:
12) Free Online Lawyer Directory
You will see a bunch of online lawyer directories. I know them all, and love them all, and use some of them.
Some, you see, are not exactly free. If you're a lawyer! They are generally free to clients.
So if you type in a search term like
13) Free Online Restaurant Directory
You may run into sites that are free as to eaters, but not free as to preparers. So just put your information into the sites that are free for you.
For now. Once you are rich, feel free to evaluate the cost-benefit analysis of whatever you want, but for now, stay with free, okay?
Now the process of submitting the information to online directory sites is somewhat mechanical, so you may want to route that to a subordinate employee, if you have one, or to your teenage kid, if you have one. You may want to do it yourself so you can see the kind of information texture that the directories permit.
14) Padding Before the Bullet Hits; make sure your best customers talk about you. See the example.
I have a buddy who is a great litigator, and I talked to him about his online presence, and he agreed with me that you can't keep everybody happy all the time, and that was inevitable that eventually, even he would have a client who didn't like him, and he wanted to have a lot of good reviews to dilute the bad reviews when they eventually showed up.
And that sounded like wisdom to me.
Another buddy of mine, who is a pretty fair lawyer, has two online reviews at the AVVO site, and they are both bad reviews. The writers just didn't like that lawyer. Neither hired him, but they both trashed him.
And he had no padding.
That is probably a good lesson.
So where else can you market yourself or your business online?
Well, a leading free site which permits you to list your professional qualifications and to interact with other professionals of various sorts is called
15) Linkedin
and the smartest user of Linked-in is a genius of a doctor named
16) Dr. Joel Brill
and you can see that his referral network is roughly the size of the Planet Jupiter. Just see what he did to build his network, and how he structured his profile, and you'll know everything you need to know about Linkedin.
Now, there's another place you can build a free website, and it's not a place I think of in connection with marketing professional services or restaurants or factories. But in that context, I am clearly wrong. It is entirely possible to build a complete, free-standing website using the tools in a contender for most-used site on Planet Earth, and that site is called
17) Facebook
Now, Facebook always seemed a little frivolous to me, because I associate it with games like Vampire Wars and Mafia Wars and free online Poker. Not that I've ever played those silly games. But Facebook is catching up to Google in uses per day, and by some metrics, it has passed Google. One of my buddies at Findlaw earned my undying love by building me a little Facebook Page that was a functional equivalent of my professional website:
18) Me on Facebook, Professional Page.
As you can see, it has everything but my videos, which I'll plug in soon.
And that brings us to
19) YouTube.com, which is a very frequently visited site, and you should have videos here.
As you can see, I finally took my own advice and recorded some educational videos about bankruptcy in Arizona, and the collection of those videos is really a new website for me, and will be for you:
20) Me on YouTube, talking forever.
But there are a substantial number of free video hosting sites on the Internet, and right now it seems to me that it would be a good idea for you to do what I have not yet done, and start to put your videos onto
21) Metacafe, and
22) Yahoo Video, and about twenty more video hosting sites!
But wait! There's more! There is, for instance,
21) Twitter.com
So am I also on Twitter? Well, yes.
22) Me on Twitter, Tweeting.
Now, if you are a tiny business, or if your tiny business filed a bankruptcy and you have to start a new one, you will have the opportunity to announce to the world that there is a grand opening of a new business, or that you have hired a French Chef, or that you business has been awarded an additional star by somebody.
In the old days, you would send a press release to a local newspaper.
But that's ever so yesterday.
So at the point that you want to do a press release, you will probably want to find an online location to publish your press release. Or you may want to find twenty of 'em.
I like to see which sites are on Page One of Google, because I suspect that they may do as good a job of publicizing my announcements as they do in getting highly ranked by Google. At least, that's my theory for today. Here's a highly rated (by Google) press release service, and it's My Favorite Price!
23) Here's one Free Site to distribute your press release online! There are also fifty more. Or more.
Let's recap.
If you are invisible on the Internet, you can do everything right, and you will still have to file a bankruptcy because attrition and the depression will whittle away your old customer base, and new customers won't find you, because you are invisible on the Internet!
So don't be Casper!
Be....somebody opaque. I'll think of somebody.
But whoever you are, be beloved by Google!
p.s. at some point, if you ask me nicely, I'll tell you the secret of...
24) Amazon!
No comments:
Post a Comment