If you run a business that uses your name as your brand, such as a doctor, public speaker, or any kind of life coach, it is important for you to dominate the first page of search engines for your name.

Chances are, as unique as you may be, you are not the only person on the planet with your name.  That being said, unless the other people with the same name as you have been locked in a dungeon, and have never done anything online, you probably have some competition for your name out there. You want to eliminate the competition, if you plan to commercialize your name for business.

There are several ways to go about this and I suggest you pick at least a few of these to get a good start.

The first thing you want to do is establish an online presence.

Here is what you need to do immediately to establish your visibility online.

1) The number one thing you want to do is start a blog.

Creating a blog is as simple as purchasing the domain for your name, such as www.johnsmith.com, hosting the domain, installing a wordpress theme, and customizing it with your style and personality.  If you are not tech savvy, don’t worry,   I will show you how to do this in a separate post.

2) Next, set up some social media sites with your name.

You want to use your name as the title of your profiles, such as John Smith’s Facebook Fan Page, The John Smith channel on YouTube etc.  Stay consistent with the style of your blog across all social media sites. Sticking with a consistent style gives your followers a sense of who you are, and lets them know that you do indeed have a style.  It also allows them to recognize you immediately upon landing on a new site.  Start connecting with people on these sites and get some followers and fans.

Ok, now that you have a foundation for your personal branding, you want to build on that foundation.

Here are some ways to get out there and get noticed.

1) Create Videos for your YouTube Channel

With YouTube being the third most popular site on the planet, creating high quality videos that show people your expertise is a great way to get seen, and get fans.  Make sure to promote your videos across all of your social media sites.  That way, whenever you create a new video, you are giving all of your fans access to new information, and giving them the opportunity spread the word on your behalf.

If you have clients that have already had a good experience with you, ask if they will record a video testimonial about their experience (read the post on creating testimonials).

You can then post those videos on YouTube and on your blog or website.

2) Write valuable articles

Write at least one new article a week and post it to some article directory sites like Ezine Articles, or an article directory that is specific to your niche.  Ideally you want to write a blog post initially, then repurpose that post into a shorter (500 words or less) article.  Post the article and link it back to your blog, then your blog will link to your social sites and the domination process has begun.

3) Create Press Releases About Yourself

A press release tells people that there is something worth knowing about you.  If you are branding yourself, chances are you have done something worth talking about.  Let’s say you just created a new product, or have discovered a brand new way to conquer fear, and you want to get the word out.  A press release is a perfect way to do this.  You are essentially writing a story about you in the third person, letting everyone know that you are an expert in your field, and noting some of your latest accomplishments. I know this may sound a little vain, and if you feel weird about it, then just hire someone to create one for you.  Press releases go viral very fast, and with a catchy headline your news could spread like wild fire.  Some of the press release sites don’t let you put links in your PR, so do your homework.

4) Write a book

This is something you can do to get some good notoriety, and position yourself as an expert.  Obviously, this is going to take some time to do, but it does not have to be as hard as you may think.  There are people who will ghostwrite a book for you, on whatever topic you are an expert in. Publish a digital copy of the book and make it available on Amazon for people to purchase.  Spread the word about your new book through all of your social channels

5) Media Appearances

It used to be that you actually had to be famous in order to be featured on a television or radio show. Well, the tables have turned, and now you can be interviewed for tv and radio, just like you were a celebrity.  This is a little more money than some people are willing to spend, but it can have a viral effect over night. I want to drive home the point that people that are seen as an authority get more business, people that are seen as a celebrity get more business than they can handle.  See the difference!

This is the most powerful way to brand yourself as an expert, and it is a relatively new concept for budding entrepreneurs.  If you want to explode your visibility, this method will do the job.

So to review, set up your foundation correctly, and build on your foundation, incorporating at least the first three methods of creating videos, articles, and press releases.  Do this on a very consistent basis and you will soon be dominating the first page of any search engine for your name, and increasing awareness of your brand.

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Imagine for a moment-

You have a guy who subscribes to your “Local Business Domination” list. He wants info on how to get started in Local Business Domination.  So, you send him a few videos about Local Business Domination and he thinks they rock.

He still doesn’t buy your product, but he really appreciates the valuable videos you sent him.

Next, you send him a PDF that outlines a map for starting a Local Business Dominations career.

He sends you an email thanking you for the PDF, and he really thinks your great for sending him all of this free stuff.

You continue to send him valuable information, month after month, but still can’t get afford anything yet.

Suddenly this guy gets a huge promotion at work, and a nice bonus check.  The first thing he does is goes home and buys your Local Business Domination Platinum Edition.

It’s the most expensive course you sell, but you have been hooking this guy up for months, and he has been waiting for an opportunity to buy your stuff, and is willing to pay top dollar for your stuff.

Why is he willing to pay full price without batting an eye?

Because you gave him a lot of value over a long period of time, without harassing him about buying, and people remember when you treat them well, especially if you stay in constant contact.

Even if you are the best marketer in the world, the percentage of people that will buy from you the first time they visit your site is only about 10%.

There are a few reasons that people may not buy from you right away.

For instance, they might not have the money right now, it might not be the right time, they might think your completely  full of garbage.

For some reason marketers seem to ignore the 90% of people who don’t buy the first time, and that is a total waste of marketing dollars.

Think about it, if someone has opted in to your list, they have obviously shown an interest in your product, and if you are not consistently following up with them, and giving them cool stuff, they will have no reason to come back when they do have the money.

Make it a habit to do the following.

1)Volunteer in your community, do free seminars that will benefit people in your niche

2)Give cool stuff away to your list of subscribers

Just be a good person that is always providing value to everyone around you.

For example, write a blog post every week or so outlining how to solve a problem your market is facing.

Not a big writer?  Find helpful information that will help people in your community and share it with them.

All you really need to do is dig deep within and become a giving person, that provides a lot of value, without asking for anything in return.  Make this your mantra, and you will reap the rewards.

For those of you that don’t think The Golden Rule applies to your business, think again.

Practice being awesome, and see what happens.

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Think about it, what are the three things that everyone takes with them when they walk out of their home – their keys, wallet and cell phone.  All of these things you feel naked without.

Would it surprise you to know that more than 95% of the US population owns a cell phone, and with the unlimited texting plans available people are texting more than talking nowadays.  This would explain why over 90% of people surveyed check incoming text messages within 1 minute of receiving them.

Everyone knows it is important to keep in touch with clients and customers, but there is a problem with the traditional way of marketing.

• Email – not always opened, spam filters are making it increasingly difficult to get emails read
• Regular mail and print ads – rising costs, difficult to measure response
• Newspapers – with most of the major papers having a online options readership is dying.
• Phone Book- uh…what’s that?

There are currently 64 million people in the US with smart phones, and almost everyone in Europe and Asian have a smart phone, they are usually a couple years ahead of us in adopting new technology.

Bango, a mobile analytics specialist, reported a 600% increase in traffic to mobile websites in the past 12 months.

This means that people are using their smart phones, like the i-phone and Droid, to connect to the internet, and browse websites.  With the recent addition of tablets, like the i-pad, and Droid platform tablets, people are even more able to access the web in all its glory.

Here is how this applies to your business:

• If you have cell phone numbers of your clients, you should be communicating with them using text messages.  They already gave you permission when they filled out their name and number on the form. (if they get annoyed of hearing from you, they can always unsubscribe by texting STOP)
• Remember, you only have 160 characters to make an impression, so keep it short, and to the point.
• Your website should be ‘mobile optimized’ since prospects will browse your website from their mobile phones
• You should engage with your prospects and clients on a regular basis, by having them vote on specific topics.  You can also send them reminders of upcoming appointments if you run an offline business, such as a doctors office.  This will decrease the cancellation rates of your practice.
• If your business is online, send them a quick text when a webinar is about to start, or if you are launching a new product, and it is about to go live.

To give you a better understanding of  how mobile marketing works, it’s important to understand a few key terms. Let’s say your business name is “Squeaky Clean Car Wash”.

Now, if you ask a customer to text the word Squeaky to 65289 then it doesn’t matter if they text it in uppercase or lowercase, that is called the ‘mobile keyword’. The number 65289 is called the ‘short code’, which is provided to you by your text messaging provider platform.

Ideally you will want to find a system that allows you to send e-mail, text, and voice broadcast to your clients and prospects.  There are a couple platforms out there that are pretty good, I happen to use a system called Monster Follow Up.

Every business owner should have between 3-5 mobile optimized keywords, to cover different services of your business.  Once a prospect texts the mobile keyword to your short code, you immediately have their number in your data base, and can send them promotional messages, or inspiring texts of the day. This will show your prospect or client that you care, and that you want to stay in touch with them.  Even sending a message that wishes them a good day, will increase your bottom line.

If you already have some of your clients phone numbers in an auto-responder system like A-Weber, you can take those numbers and put them in your texting platform.  This will allow you to stay in touch with clients, and send them all sorts of messages, including greeting cards and customer incentives.

Text messages will allow you to save time and money and get IMMEDIATE responses from clients.

Another good way to get new clients is have a billboard or some kind of signage with your call to action on it.  You want to make sure that you are using scarcity, and urgency in your message.  For example:

“Text DIRTY to 65289 in the next 5 minutes to receive 50% off your car wash today only”

“ “Show a staff member at our facility this text today before 3:00pm to receive 25% off on any massage package”

“Hi Bob, be sure to check in today between 11am – 2pm and I’ll give you a free coffee mug”

Take control of your marketing ROI by using text messaging.

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So, how do you get your business on the first page of Google, and the other search engines, like Bing, Yahoo, and Ask?  The answer is easy, the implementation is not so easy.

In the world on blogs, articles, video, and social media madness you might be wondering which is the most important, and what area you should focus your attention on.  Well, the answer is…..all of them.  I’m sure that is not what you wanted to hear.  You were probably hoping that I would suggest the one you hate the least, but unfortunately I can’t do that because they are equally important.

Before February of this year a lot of people were getting away with just writing a ton of articles that were stuffed with keywords and affiliate links, and blasting them all over the internet to get rankings.  This WAS a very effective method, but now Google wants a little more effort to be made.

Here are some things you can do to get seen on Google’s front page.

1) Create A blog

There are currently over 200 million blogs online today about thousands of different subjects. The reason that Google likes blogs is because their main purpose is to inform, and educate people.  Google is steering away from sites that are just focused on advertising, and giving more credit to sites that are meant to provide quality content to web users.

Chances are if you own a business, you are a professional at something, and have some sort of           knowledge that people can benefit from.  Creating a simple WordPress blog that links back to your website, or you can even use your blog as your website. Whatever you decide to do, make sure to create regular posts, that offer valuable advice to your readers.

2) Post Videos about your Business

As of February 2011, YouTube has 490 million unique users worldwide per month, who rack up an estimated 92 billion page views each month. Making YouTube the #3 most popular site in the world. If you are hesitant or intimidated at the thought of making videos, I would recommend the following:

• Get over it, and face your fears. J
• Have someone make videos for you.

This is something you can implement right away in your business, and it will have a big affect on your rankings.

To turbo charge your results I would suggest using a toll such as Traffic Geyser or Tube Mogul to blast your videos out to several video sharing sites.

Also, make sure to use keywords when naming your videos, and place your website or blog link within your description.

3) Post Articles

Writing articles is still a very important part of the equation, and as long as your articles are not spammy in nature, Google will still find them to be valuable, and will give you credit.  One thing you can do to save time is to turn your longer blog posts into shorter articles of 500 words or less. Make sure to change some of the language, so that Google doesn’t think its duplicate content. Link your article back to your blog or website to get some really powerful link juice.

4) Get Social

Create social media accounts and start interacting with the community on your webpage.  Google is giving a lot of credit to businesses with social proof.  If people are interacting with you regularly on your social media accounts, and are liking and sharing your content and posts.  Google will think that you are someone of authority and give you what you deserve.

Set up some social media accounts and link them together.  Using programs like Hootsuite or Tweet Deck will allow you to update your status across several social media accounts with a push of  a button. If you don’t have time to spend hours a day Tweeting and Facebooking, you can schedule your posts weeks in advance.  You can also download these apps to your smart phone and post on the go.

If you want your website to be seen on the first page of  Google Webandrank.com has compiled a small list of things that a website must do to be accepted as valid by Google and hopefully climb the Google rankings. The list is made up of advice taken from the Google Webmaster Help page and shows they do respect quality.

• The most important factor is originality and authority of the content. Is it genuine original content or is it just a mess of information gathered from other websites?
• Is the website easy to navigate?
• Make sure that each page has a clear topic.
• If you like to place ads on your website it is vital that they don’t obstruct viewers from getting at the actual content.
• The website should be geared towards giving the viewer what they want, and not towards the website owner making money. This must be understood not in terms of online retailing but in websites that make money from ad revenue.
• Google made it clear that a website with only a few quality pages and a bunch of low-quality pages can still suffer. Enough crap content can bring down the whole of a website.

The number one tip I can give you is to go out and create lots of back links for your websites.  Content is king, and if you want to win the race you have to create more content, and get it out to as many sites as possible.

Take the content you create and blast it out to several sites using programs like Traffic Geyser, that will send your content to blogs, video sites, and article sites.  If you don’t want to do this all yourself I would suggest hiring a company to do it for you.  Be consistent and you can win.

I hope that you take all of these tips and put them into action immediately.

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The first thing is they need to be able to trust you.  In order to get someone to give you their hard earned money, they need to feel like they are not going to get ripped off.

The second component is integrity.  You have to keep your word in this business, or you lose the first component, which is trust.  If you are offering bonuses to people, make sure you provide those bonuses.  Don’t just say whatever it takes to get them to buy and then not deliver.  Remember, it is a lot easier and less expensive to sell to an existing customer than it is to go out and get a new one.

Furthermore, if you have a time limit on your bonuses, or limited time pricing.  You have to keep your word on that.  Using scarcity to sell, and then not holding up to it, is a good way to ruin your reputation.

Next is authority.  Nobody is going to buy from someone that doesn’t know what they are talking about. Make sure that you come across as someone that is an authority in your niche.  People want to learn from masters, and are willing to pay a premium to gain their knowledge.

Make sure to incorporate these three things in your marketing and sales letters.  It will keep your customers coming back for more, and will attract new prospects regularly

So, you are probably wondering how to incorporate these three things.

The first thing you need to do is provide prospects with VALUE without asking them to pull out their credit cards first.  Give them as much information as you can for free without giving away the farm.

There is a trick to this though, and it is equally relevant for beginners as it is for veterans in the marketing game.

Beginning marketers will usually give away so much information that the client or prospect can pretty much go out and do everything themselves.  People that are just getting started and hungry for new clients want to PROVE that they know what they are talking about.

This is not the best thing to do.  If you give away all of your strategies, you now have nothing to offer, and are of no value to someone that is willing to go out and do it for themselves.  Just give away enough that will provide some value, and to show that you know what your talking about.  Save the golden nuggets for the people that are willing to pay you for it.

On the other hand, Veterans often think that they don’t need to offer value, because they are already established.  They are of the mentality that if someone wants to work with them, they have to pay whatever price they ask, and they are the best so of course it is going to be a premium.  No freebies!

Also, the wrong way to go about it.  You have to offer value nowadays, especially given the accessibility of gurus and pros via the world wide web.  You are no longer the only person in town.  In fact, people don’t care if the help they get is across town or across the world.  Veterans have to live by the same rules as the rest of us if they want to survive.  A good example is Tony Robbins, people pay him millions of dollars for one on one consults, because he gets results, yet he still offers free consultations and money back guarantees for his services and the services of his company.

As you can see, there is a thin line between giving away too much value, and giving away enough value.  In order to build that trust, integrity, and authority, you have to be willing to prove that you are someone that is worth giving money to, that knows what they are talking about, and someone that will stand behind what they offer.

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The business world is constantly changing an improving.  Looking for new ways to improve your customers experience and streamline your operations, will not only increase your profit margin, but it will also improve the quality of your life.  In order to establish increased profitability for your business, you need to master a new set of skills.

Here are the seven most important habits of a successful business owner.

1.Innovation: Always be open to new ideas, new ways of learning (especially from other industries and experts). Have the right mindset for growth and success, and be willing to adapt to changing times and evolutions in marketing. Always look for opportunities to grow, both personally and professionally. Be an expert at business management and know how to leverage yourself for quick and explosive growth.

2.Identification. Be able to identify EXACTLY what type of client you want to work with and have systems in place to attract the RIGHT client, and weed out the ones that don’t meet your standards.  Create a customer avatar.  Know exactly what your client needs from you, and what got them to arrive at that need.  Be able to deliver your solution with a systematic approach, that makes the client feel as if it were custom tailored to their needs.  Build an ongoing relationship with your clients.  This will be mutually beneficial.

3.Investment. You MUST invest in your marketing education and be able to accurately measure your return on investment. For example, if you  are able to track that an investment of ‘x’ gets a return of ‘y’ and you only continue that particular strategy if ‘y’ is consistently greater than ‘x’. You are able to outspend your competition because you have a predictable, measurable return on investment.

For example, if a new client is worth $1000 for your practice, and you had to spend $400 to acquire that new client (something your competitors would not dream of doing), then you can outspend your competitors because you know your business metrics better than anyone else.

4.Mastermind.  You must surround yourself with people that are smarter than you, and meet with them often to discuss questions you may have, and to come up with great new ideas for your business. Cultivate meaningful relationships with the right people.  These people are usually other successful business owners, experts in marketing and business development, employee productivity and many other areas related to business management.  You must be able to give back and be approachable in other people’s eyes.  Don’t come across as someone who only wants to extract as much information as possible and never contribute back.  You should always be expanding your circle of influence, and be seeking out people that have effective systems in place.  Always be learning, and seeking to be better.

5.Management.  Be a master at time management and people management.  Know how to manage your  day and focus on high value tasks that lead to growth in the business.   This would include relationship building, client acquisition, and proper assignment of tasks.  Don’t be discouraged by the monotony of daily tasks.  Keep your eyes on the long term goal, and be determined to reach it.

6.Metric Analysis.  Be able to define the lifetime value of a client. The lifetime value of a client is the amount of profit you make from them  during the lifetime of your relationship with them.  It is a measure of:

• How much you get paid for the average transaction.
• How often the person buys from you.
• How many of their friends and family they are likely to refer to you
• Your average net income per transaction.

Most clients have a lifetime value of several thousand dollars.  Successful business owners understand this and know that Repetition + Request = Referrals.  You have to ask for referrals if you are going to grow your business rapidly.

7. Problem Solvers. Be willing to tackle difficult questions and seek solutions.   Successful business owners have the ability to answer the tough questions, and are able to answer questions about their business goals, strengths, and weakness.  Questions such as:

• What do I want to be known for / as?
• What is my income goal for this year?
• How many clients do I need to get each week to reach that goal?
• How many additional employees will be required to reach that goal?
• Am I good or bad at employee management?
• How can I put systems in place to manage employees and achieve my goals?
• Which date do I want to reach my goal?
• What additional products and services can I provide so I can increase the lifetime value of each client?

Get good at these skills and you will have a profitable business that runs like clockwork.  Ignore these important skills, and you will get eaten alive by your competition.

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