Get More Clients Online

Source for syndicating articles

Q:  Can you recommend a source for syndicating my articles. I am a run a web design business.

Nicole

A:  Hi Nicole--

I'm happy to!  The service I use to syndicate my articles is www.GetMoreClientsArticles.com, which costs $37/month as of this writing.  This service will get articles out to thousands of article banks and publishers.  I've been using them since 2005 and can say without any reservations that this service is single-handedly responsible for my success.  My articles have appeared in print, in highly trafficked blogs and website, and in ezines with large numbers of subscribers. 

They limit you to 8 articles per month, but I've found that this is all I have needed to get traffic back to my site, and quite frankly, I'd have difficulty writing a larger number of high quality articles.

If you want to offer this to your clients, they'll need to purchase their own account.  You won't be able to run their articles through your account, as each account is limited to one author.

Here's another post I've made about how to successfully write articles that you might find useful:

How to Write Articles That Will Increase Traffic to Your Website

And, if you want to fully understand how I use article marketing to my advantage, check out my teleclass recording, Article Marketing 101: How to Drive Droves of Clients to Your Website Audio Download and Transcript.

Got an Internet Marketing question?  Ask it here: AskDonnaGunter.com. 

Zen Sarcasm

Those of you who know me well probably know that some (much?) of my humor is sarcastic.  Here's some Zen sarcasm to brighten your day:

The Zen of Sarcasm

1. Do not walk behind me,  for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me,  for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either  Just pretty much leave me alone.

2.  It's always darkest before dawn.  So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it.

3. Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.

4. Always remember that you're unique.  Just like everyone else.

5. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

6. If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments.

7. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes

8.  If at first you don't succeed,  skydiving is probably not for you.

9.  Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

10. If  you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably a wise investment.

11.  If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

12.  Some days you're the bug; some days you're the windshield.

13.  Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

14.  The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.

15.   A closed mouth gathers no foot.

16.   There are two theories to arguing with women.  Neither one works.

17.   Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving.

18.   Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

19.   Never miss a good chance to shut up.

20.   Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

Making Money From Your Blog

I'm always getting the question about whether it's really possible to monetize your blog. The answer is "yes," but success is this arena depends upon choosing the right topic for a finely defined target market.

The example I'll give is one I read about in this morning's issue of the online Houston Chronicle, which featured an article about stay-at-home mom, Erin Chase, who needed to cut expenses and looked at her grocery bill to help her accomplish this. It's funny how something old becomes new again -- I remember my mom being the ultimate thrift maven in the 70s who stretched a buck until it bled .. LOL.

After bragging to her husband about creating many of their meals for less than $5, she began to search the Internet to discover if anyone else was writing about this topic. Discovering none, she quickly went out and bought the domain, http://www.5dollardinners.com/, and created her first web site. The site quickly gained traffic and she realized she might have a business on her hands.

She had the site redesigned and then started taking advertising on it, and major media began calling her for interviews. Who knows how she might monetize this business beyond advertising in the future?

Take a look at your hobbies, interests, experiences, or family needs. You just might have a monetizable blog waiting to be born..:)

MindMeister

If you're like most entrepreneurs, you lie awake at night, unable to turn off your mind and all the ideas that come to you at all hours. Or, perhaps you need a place to put all the pieces of a project together.

Now you can record your brainstormed ideas and how they connect to each other with a free online mind mapping tool, Mindmeister.

MindMeister brings the concept of mind mapping to the web, using its facilities for real-time collaboration to allow truly global brainstorming sessions. Users can create, manage and share mind maps online and access them anytime, from anywhere. In brainstorming mode, fellow MindMeisters from around the world (or just in different rooms) can simultaneously work on the same mind map and see each other's changes as they happen.

You can share instantly any mind map with friends and colleagues. Invitees will receive an email with a link and - depending on what access you give them - will be able to contribute or just read. To share your map with the whole world, click the 'Publish' button and integrate the map into your blog or web site.

One of the service's coolest feature is its collaboration feature. When two or more users open the same mind map at the same time, both of you are in brainstorming mode. Every change either of you makes will be replicated instantly to your fellow editors' screens via their server. Through color-coded effects they will see what you did and vice versa, without having to refresh the page.

They also offer fee-based editions with additional features if you decide that you like the tool and want to upgrade.

Start outlining your projects and your brainstorms here.

Email Marketing Tips: 5 Best Strategies to Develop a Responsive Email List

I see the well-known Internet marketing gurus do this all the time -- they begin to try and sell to me when I first opt into their list. This has worked quite well for them over the years, but I think the tide is turning and people are generally becoming more marketing-savvy. Your list members don't mind being sold to, provided that they have a relationship with you and have completed the like, know and trust journey (or are at least on the path of this journey) of getting to know you before they decide to buy something from you.

Whether you have a 500-person list or a 5000-person list, the rate at which they respond to your offers ties directly in with how well they know, like and trust you and see you as the expert providing answers to the problems keeping them awake at night.

Here are the 5 strategies you can employ to develop a responsive email list.

1. Get personal. Discovering the inner workings of people's lives makes reality television shows popular. In the same vein, your readers want to know more about you as a person. Don't be afraid to share what's going on in your life, be that good, bad, or ugly. I receive the greatest number of comments to my ezine and blog when I post articles about very happy or very sad occasions in my life. I was overwhelmed with the responses of sympathy, care and concern I received from around the globe to an article I wrote for my ezine when my mom passed away. As a matter of fact, some folks still check in on me occasionally to see how I'm doing.

2. Talk about your business in first person. Many marketing books and training courses tell you that you need to appear to be a large company to encourage others to do business with you. For many of us, this means referring to ourselves and our companies in third person or by our company name, even though we're really a one-person shop. In reality, people want to do business with other people, not some nameless and faceless corporate entity.

I dread calling my ISP for tech support because invariably I get a nameless, faceless drone who acts as though I'm a bother and that I'm interrupting his productive goofing off during work time. All he wants to do is make me jump through the hoops outlined by his script rather than really listening to what my problem is. Instead, when I need technical assistance, I call a friend who has a tech support business and pay him to solve my problems (instead of using the free tech support provided by my ISP) because I know that my friend will get my problem fixed -- the first time.

3. Show up as the business owner. Part of the process of having your list get to know you is sharing images and audio of yourself. You can do that by using your headshot in your blog or ezine header or by posting an audio or video intro on your web site. Make sure the images that you share are recent and are reflective of how you look today. I was a guest speaker a conference several years ago and had many of the participants tell me with some amount of surprise that I actually looked like my photo in the program guide. I've had the experience of going to someone's workshop and thinking, "Wow, that headshot on his web site must've been taken 10 (or more) years ago! Man, has he aged/gained weight/fill in the blank here...." Be accurate in the images you share online -- that's very important in the relationship-building process.

4. Contact consistently. One of the questions that I'm asked all the time is about the best day of the week to send out ezines or email broadcasts. Usually I can recite the results of a recent survey that some marketing company has conducted and rattle off the stats that support certain days for B2B (business-to-business) broadcasts and other days for B2C (business-to-consumer) broadcasts. Ultimately, for the most part, the day of the week that you send a broadcast doesn't matter. What's more important is training your list to come to expect your ezine to arrive every Thursday morning, for example. Tell your list when you'll be in contact with them, and do what you say you're going to do. It is really that simple.

5. Contact frequently. Most of my clients make the big mistake of not emailing their list often enough. Many are concerned that too many emails will cause list members to unsubscribe. You need to develop a thick skin in this business because reality dictates the following: You will lose subscribers with every email you send. Perhaps you're no longer relevant to them or they're overwhelmed with email or they never really had an interest in what you offer in the first place. Who knows the reason? You need to get used to it. Send them away happily knowing that they would probably have never purchased from you anyway, and their departure makes room for a more perfect list member to join your list through one of your many list-building strategies. (You are practicing good list-building, aren't you?)

For best results, you need to email your list weekly. Any less and it takes a much longer time to build a relationship with your list because they don't hear from you as often. If you're frustrated with not getting the results you want from your list, touch base with them more often.

Email marketing works well when you have a well-established relationship with your contact list. Follow these 5 strategies to strengthen the responsiveness of your list today.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:  Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps baby boomers create profitable online retirement businesses by demystifying the steps needed to successfully market a  baby boomer business online. Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at == > http://www.OnlineBizU.com