The latest incarnation of the ‘star-search’ format, The Voice, introduces a new concept called ‘Blind Auditions’ that bears similarities to how a potential customer interacts with a business online.

In these ‘Blind Auditions’ the judges are facing away from the artists and each contestant is judged purely on their voice alone. Not how they are dressed, not how they look, young or old, fat or skinny, nerdy or cool; it doesn’t matter.

Even the song they are singing doesn’t play a great role in determining their success. It is one thing and one thing alone, the quality of their singing and all the elements that contribute to this (range, pitch control, timbre, power, microphone skills etc).

And I guess this is what I love about running an online business myself. Who you are, what you look like, where you went to school or where you live has very little effect on online success.

The internet is the great business leveller and in this space you are judged purely on your online presence alone. That is, the look and feel of your website, the language and tone of your text and the level of engagement you have with your target audience (both on and off your own website).

Even the quality of the product or service, in the first instance, doesn’t count for much. However to make it through to the ‘Battle Round’ with other competitors, what you deliver in the end better hold up.

So if you are thinking about a website redesign or are about to write a new blog article, it may help to picture your ideal customer sitting in a big red chair with a button in front of them deciding whether to buy or not. Just pray it isn’t that little bloke with the tattoos!

The truth of the matter is, us professionals don’t actually spend a lot of time in social media. My friends and family are always saying, “Man, you work in social media for a living and I can never get hold of you in Facebook.”

And there’s a reason for that… it’s too distracting.

So we use tools like HootSuite or Sprout Social (my favourite) to get the most out of our social media efforts without losing hours of our lives watching videos of stoned cats water skiing on YouTube (yes that’s Mr McFly from Back to the Future having a bad trip).

Anyway – now that you’ve lost half an afternoon on YouTube and responding to friends birthday invites in Facebook, perhaps you should try some of the pro tools available to keep you on track.

Below are some videos on how to use HootSuite to get you started – sooooo easy there is no excuse not to.

And here are some links to try out Hootsuite and Sprout Social.

Hootsuite

Sign up to Hootsuite for free.

Sprout Social

Sign up for a free 30 day trial of Sprout Social.

HootSuite Videos

You’ve just spent 4 hours writing (and re-writing) your Linkedin profile to perfection which is great for the odd ex-work colleague who decides to check you out. But what you really should be doing is using keywords in your profile to make you more visible for people searching in your area of expertise. Here’s how:

1. Come up with a list of Keywords that represents what you do. For example if you are an Accountant, your list might include ‘Tax accountant’, ‘Property accountant’, ‘Accountant St Kilda’ etc depending on your speciality or location.

2. Now compare your list with the keywords that people actually use. You can find out which keywords are most commonly used to describe your area of expertise by using a keyword tool like Google’s free one. Sometimes the results of this research can be surprising.

3. When you have a list of 3 or 4 most common keywords, use the Linkedin search tool to see who ranks highly for those keywords. Linkedin has a preference to display those in your network at the top, so initially you might find a whole lot of work colleagues listed. Try to gauge who has done a great job at owning a set of keywords and look for opportunities to use keywords in your profile for popular terms that haven’t been covered off yet.

4. Re-write your profile with your selected keywords in 4 main areas:

Profile Headline

The important thing to realize about the Profile Headline is that it appears in your search listings along with your name so although it is an effective area to place your keywords, make sure it is readable and clear what you do here.

Profile Summary

There is a lot more space in this section so you can add your keywords more liberally whilst providing extra details about yourself and your background. But make sure you weave these keywords into the text so that your copy remains readable. There is no bigger turn-off than a profile that appears like ‘Spam’.

Experience

This area is designed for you to list current and previously held positions and the opportunity here is to add your selected keywords to your job title and description. If your job involves wearing a number of different hats, it can be advantageous to break out these different roles into separate ‘Current Job’ descriptions, ensuring your keywords are present in each. As for past experiences even if you lead several lives with completely different career paths with a little bit of creative license it’s still possible to weave your newly found keywords through the description of these jobs as well.

Skills and Expertise

This relatively new addition to Linkedin profiles allows you to select from a variety of skills. These act a little like ‘tags’ and are displayed in a number of places like Groups, Companies and Jobs.

Other factors

Linkedin will give preference to people who are active in the same groups as the person conducting the search. So think about the type of person you would like to be found by (ie, potential customers) and join the sort of groups that they are likely to be a member of.

The interesting thing about increasing your visibility on Linkedin is that it can often provide you with some unexpected opportunities. You might find yourself being approached by a business in a similar vertical looking to do a joint venture, or an association looking for a guest speaker on your area of expertise. The thing is when you are regularly coming at the top of search results for a particular keyword in Linkedin then that automatically positions you as the expert in that niche and all sorts of opportunities will land at your feet.

Just in case you (or anyone you know – like your boss) still think social media is a waste of time, here is a real life case study of how we use it at Tonto Digital.

A blog post went up this month on the importance of having a social media plan before you start blasting away trying to get everyone’s attention on Facebook or Twitter.

I turned this blog post into a video (actually I shot the video first and then transcribed it into a blog post). I then shared the video on YouTube and Facebook as well as scheduled a weeks worth of status updates and tweets linking back to the video and blog post. The audio file was also shared on AudioBoo.

The blog post offers a free eBook in exchange for an email address.

As a result we have received 24 new subscribers in 5 days and have been asked to quote on developing social media strategies for 2 brand new customers as well as SEO campaigns for a boutique hotel company in NSW.

We also sold an online video course to a customer in the UK who listened to the podcast on AudioBoo.

Now I admit these numbers are not huge. But then neither are we. However, these leads are warm and they want what it is we offer so they are much easier to convert.

And I didn’t need to pick up the phone or cold call anyone on email.

Oh, if you want the eBook that sparked the interest just put your email address in the box  below so I know where to send it.

When it comes to online marketing it’s easy to be dazzled by the next new thing. New kid on the block Pinterest is garnering lots of hype but is it a source of a whole new audience for your business or should we let this one through to the keeper?

Pinterest combines many of the things people love about Facebook and Twitter but presented in a heavily visual form. Users are invited to ‘Pin’ images that appeal to them both on the site and as they are surfing the net. The social aspect comes with the ability to view and share other peoples pins.

The success of Pinterest has come from requiring users to sign in with their Facebook account with the application then inviting their friends to join in as well. As a result Pinterest has attained in excess of 10 million unique monthly visitors making it the fastest growing site ever to launch in the US.

With such a big audience it begs the questions; should your business have a presence on this new social network.

As always my advice is to first think about your ‘perfect customer’ and only put efforts into areas where you know they are active and would be willing to engage with your brand.

I recommend getting a feel for Pinterest by starting an account having a play around. When you sign-up through your Facebook account, take a note of how many of your customers from your Facebook Page are already members. This one action alone will indicate whether Pinterest is the potential source of valuable connections for your business.

Now take the opportunity to register your business name and write a few paragraphs about your business with a link to your website (don’t forget to include your keywords).

Search for content that might be of interest to your ‘perfect customer’ and get an understanding of their use of this application and the opportunities for your business.

You can even pin the content from your own website including images, video and even blog articles (success here will be greatly increased by having awesome images on your blog posts).

If one of your business colleagues are also on Pinterest then start a board that you can both contribute content to. Also look for opportunities to ‘repin’ (a bit like a retweet on Twitter) the content of other people who have similar interests as it’s a great way to exposure your business to new people.

Although it is early days for this social media platform it has already proven as a great way to access a new audience. This blogger generated more than 46k visitors to his blog from Pinterest alone: http://unskinnyboppy.blogspot.com.au/2011/11/power-of-pinterest.html

How Pinterest fits into your online marketing strategy depends on what percentage of this community represent your ‘perfect customer’ (if at all). So jump on the site and have a look around, this ‘shiny new thing’ might just be the perfect place to connect with a new audience and drive visits to your own site.

Let me share a story with you about the social media plan I used to make $10K in 4 days on the internet.

I don’t say that to brag, but I do want to get your attention because I have something very valuable for you and it won’t cost you a cent.

So why am I sharing this information with you? If I know how to make $10K in 4 days why don’t I just keep all the knowledge to myself?

Well, two reasons. First of all, when I have the kind of success that makes me $10K in 4 days I naturally get excited and want to share that excitement with as many people as possible.

Secondly, and more importantly, I’m tired of all the bullshit you’re being fed about how to make money on the internet. I know because I’ve consumed most of that bullshit myself. You don’t need another widget for Facebook, you don’t need another plugin for your WordPress website and you don’t need another video training course that teaches you how to use Facebook. None of this stuff is going to make a lick of difference if you don’t have the fundamentals in place.

I got to a point where I banned myself from buying any training or widgets or plugins until I worked out a way to recoup that money back. I drew a line in the sand and said “I’m not spending any more money on the internet until I can guarantee that I can recoup it back – therefore it becomes an investment.”

See I still think it’s incredibly valuable to buy education, training and technology products online IF you have the fundamentals in place so those things can help you grow your online business.

So once I thought about everything I’d learned, the hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars I’d spent, I realised I didn’t have the fundamentals of what it takes to build a successful business.

The Fundamentals of a Social Media Plan

So the fundamentals I know you need to have in place to build a successful online business are:

1. You need to have a PLAN – which essentially is finding out who your target audience is, what their big problem is and how you can solve that problem
2. You need to CREATE something of value that you can sell them and a whole bunch of other related items you can give them for free to build trust
3. Then you need to PROMOTE your solution to their big problem throughout the internet using social media and search engines to get their attention and communicate with them
4. Then you need to NURTURE your audience once you have their attention to continue to build trust
5. And you need to ANALYSE everything you’re doing to make sure you improve over time

See I know how many people are watching this video and how far through the video they get. So hopefully my next video will get a better result, be more engaging and provide more valuable content because I’m analysing everything I’m doing. It’s all part of my social media plan.

Now these five fundamentals of a social media plan work together. So if you don’t have one of them in place the whole thing falls over. If you don’t have a plan then you don’t know what you’re doing. If you don’t create anything of value then you have nothing to sell. If you don’t promote your thing of value then nobody will know about it. If you’re not nurturing your leads, they’re not going to trust you and buy from you. Finally, if you’re not analysing what you’re doing, you will be outsmarted by your competition and you won’t be able to get better.

The biggest mistake people make, whether they are individuals, entrepreneurs, veterans or multinationals is not having a planned that can be executed and improved over time. If you have a plan, then you have a way forward and a direction that you can follow, measure and improve over time.

So my hope for you now is that you draw a line in the sand and stop spending money on technology and training products until you have the fundamentals in place. To give you a head start I have a free e-book I’d like to give you called “the 5 steps to Internet success” that details the exact process you need to follow in order to build the kind of online business that can make $10,000 in 4 days.

Grab your free copy right now and start building your social media plan the right way.

Many businesses are finding new customers by advertising on Google. However what you might not realise is that only a very small amount of people actually click on these paid ads and the smart business owners are getting most of these clicks for FREE!

The image above shows the typical search result page on Google. On the right side is where the Pay-per-Click ads appear. These are the ads that business owners have paid for and each time someone clicks on one of these ads the business owner pays a small amount to Google.

Then in the middle are the ‘organic’ search listings, these listings cannot be purchased by advertisers and are the result of Google serving up what it deems to be the best result.

The truth is that most people click on the organic search results. As you can see the first listing gets over 42% of all clicks alone, with the next 3 taking up another 26%. As you go down the page the percentages get less and less until you get to the last one. This last percentage of 10% of clicks is a bit of an anomaly as people often click this result rather than clicking through to a new page.

But the thing is the paid ads over on the right run from just 8% to .02% with the top ten average being 3.16%. That is in line with the worst of the organic listings.

If we take a look at the heat map below we get an even more dramatic view of how dominate the first few organic listings are when it comes to search results.

Now let’s consider this in dollar terms with a search term that has 15,000 searches a month. If you had the number the one Pay-per-Click position for this term then you might receive 2% of that traffic which is 300 clicks. Now let’s presume these clicks were a $1.70 then your cost for this traffic is: $510

Now that doesn’t sound too bad until you realise if you ranked number 1 for the same keyword in the organic listing, then you would receive 6,300 visitors at virtually no cost.

If we ran the Pay-per-Click ad to achieve the same amount of visitors then we would have to fork out $10,710!

So why do business owners choose to use Pay-per-Click advertising at all? Well Pay-per-Click is often attractive to business owners because it will instantly bring potential new customers to their website as soon as they start running the ads. Which is fine for those business owners who have the spare money. But for me I prefer to spend the time optimising my website and developing great content and links with the aim of ranking highly in the organic listings.

When it comes to getting traffic to your website from Google, a little bit of work goes a long way.

It doesn’t take a lot of effort, costs almost nothing and you don’t need any prior experience.

Here’s the rub:

1. Write an engaging article on your website or blog that helps your client in some way. It could be explaining something technical in simple terms or giving a free piece of advice around a particular topic. For tips on writing engaging content see my article at Flying Solo.

2. Place a form under your article or next to it encouraging your reader to enter their email address and sign up for your monthly, or fortnightly newsletter for more free advice and tips.

3. Once your reader enters their email address, send them a regular newsletter via email with tips and advice for free. This will solidify our relationship with them and effectively place a brick wall around them, keeping them in you circle of influence and your competition out.

The process of collecting email addresses and sending regular newsletters can be automated by using an online email marketing tool. There are dozens available. Just Google “email marketing software” or you can sign up for a free account at tontomail.com

The most common reason clients leave for your competitors is because they are in some way dissatisfied with the service they are receiving. Of course, most of them will not say anything just as most people don’t complain about a bad meal, they just don’t go back to the restaurant. Nurturing your existing clients with regular tips and free advice is a sure fire way to keep them happy.

So make some notes of the kind of tips and hints you can give them and start building brick walls now!

Sending email newsletters as a PDF or Word attachment may seem like a great way of sending your newsletters to your database. You create your PDF, make it look all nice, attach it to an email and send it to your entire address book. Easy right? Well no. Sending your newsletters this way can cause a few problems and you have no way of tracking the effectiveness of this method of marketing. Here are a few reasons why sending newsletters as an attachment is a bad idea…

You might end up in the Spam bin

Everyone has a level of credibility with their Internet Service Provider or ISP (kind of like your credit rating with your bank) and each time someone marks your email as spam, you credibility is lowered. Sending mass emails from your personal server through your email program that get marked as spam could result in your ISP blocking emails being sent from your domain name.

Fear of viruses

A lot of people tend to delete emails from email addresses they don’t really know that have attachments due to a fear of setting a virus free on their computer. Most email programs, like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo etc. automatically block emails that may contain a virus.

Lost in translation

Some mail server platforms tend to modify emails as they are sent through various systems, which can result in a corrupted file that nobody can read.

No tracking

One of the best things about email newsletter programs is that you can track everything! You can see how many people in your database open your newsletter, what links they click on, if they forward it to a friend, who marks it as spam and how many don’t get opened. This information really helps when you go to write your next newsletter. You might need to try a catchier subject line to entice your readers or you may have found that there is a particular topic that they all love reading and others that they don’t. The reports your mail program generates helps you give your readers what they want.

It is so easy to sign up to an email newsletter program and not as expensive as you might think! There are plenty around and I promise you, once you start using one, you will never go back to sending PDFs.

I had a conversation with a client this morning about pricing and the client was a little shocked about pricing around a particular service. She kind of hinted at how easy it is to do what we do so therefore we shouldn’t charge so much. So obviously she had been Googling around and researching about how to set up Facebook like buttons and Twitter buttons on her website. This had been a client who was trying to set up her own website for about three months now and still hasn’t got there. And as much as this is very tempting for me to go on a rant about you now if it’s that easy why don’t you go out and do it yourself, why are you talking to us, why haven’t you done it and why after three months you still haven’t got it up.

What I really want to talk about is how just because you can Google around and realize there is more than one way to skin a cat doesn’t necessarily mean that you should try and skin that cat. The example I am going to give you is my car. I could Google around and learn how to service my car but it doesn’t mean I’m going to do it. If I did do that I would probably get half way through it and it would go pear shaped and have to take it to a professional and it would cost me more to get it fixed.

The point I am really trying to make here is that as a small business owner you need to understand the value that you add to your business. Where are you most valuable in your business? I am sure that you are not most valuable in your business spending time Googling around trying to work out how your accountant does his job so you can save some money and lodge your own tax returns. Or how your lawyer does his job so you can save some money and write your own contracts. I just don’t think that that’s the best use of your time. You have obviously got something to offer the business, whether you’re an entrepreneur or a technician or whether you’re a great manager. You should work out where you offer the most value to your business and just do that.

Successful business people know how important it is to find other people to work with who are really good at what they do. Work with them and collaborate with them but ultimately just get out of their way and let them do their job and you concentrate on adding the most value you can to your business.