I can’t say enough about what webinars (or web conferences) have done for my business in 2010.
My business has grown over 12x since last year, and I’ve had more free time to travel the world and do what I want.
This year I either hosted or was a presenter on over 300 webinars. This may seem like a lot (and it is) but there are a number of reasons why I continue to do them.
1. List Building
When you host free webinars then you are able to build a decent fresh list by promoting it via social media or by hosting it for someone else. Your database is your most valuable asset in business (besides yourself). The larger the database of people who know, like and trust you or are fans of your work the better. It’s pretty simple. If you can get your products and services in front of more people that like you, you will probably sell more and make more.
2. Brand Awareness
Building a list is one thing, but sometimes you may not be the one hosting the webinar, you may just be a speaker. For example, Social Media Examiner hosted a social media business summit (basically a number of webinars) and had roughly 2,000 paid attendees. I was one of the speakers Mike Stelzner asked to be in the summit, but I didn’t get to keep any of the list. I did, however, get to present in front of a couple thousand buyers who were extremely interested in my topic. I’ll speak in front of 2,000 people all day long, and if I can do it from the comfort of my home or office, then even better.
3. New Audience
It’s good to expand your reach to new audiences. I’ve done webinars to various industries outside of the social media world I normally wouldn’t get in front of. Those are sometimes the most profitable as you are able to bring fresh ideas to an audience that needs your guidance the most.
4. Perfect Your Craft
Each time I present, I learn how to make the next one better. Hosting a great webinar takes time to master in order to get more sales or achieve your professional goals. Record each webinar using ScreenFlow or Camtasia so you can go back and listen to how you presented and what you can improve on.
5. Prepare For The Big Game
No one in business is an overnight success. Although it may seem that way for some, most of the time they have spent years of preparation to get ready for big stages and big business opportunities. Webinars can set you up for the big game, and prepare you for that interview on CNN, or your moment on Oprah. It’s all about the journey for the big games.
6. Save Time
I like to make the most out my time. Don’t you? Speaking at live events definitely has its perks, but webinars save you time from traveling, and allow you to be in a more relaxed state without having to stand on stage in front of an audiences. Even the most shy individuals who are terrified of presenting can feel comfortable sharing their knowledge from behind the screen.
7. Increase Sales
Show me the money. Most of us are in business to make more money so we can do what we love. A number of individuals are making multiple six figures a year in extra sales just from webinars. Some companies like HubSpot use them as a primary lead gen source to increase sales along with their great blog content. I’ve seen some that have done more than a million in sales from a weeks worth of webinars. Think they can’t make you money? Think again.
8. Connect With Decision Makers
If you have a product or service that adds great value and converts well during a webinar, then you are setting yourself up to connect with some of the biggest decision makers in business. It’s very common to do a joint venture webinar with industry leaders who can share their information to your network or list and visa versa. If you build up a good reputation with your online presentation and add value to others, then word spreads fast in the world of webinars and be prepared to connect with some major players.
I recently did a show with someone I do nearly all of my webinars with, Sean Malarkey, and we break down a number of other reasons you should be hosting webinars, and some great ways to market and promote your magnetic webinars to increase your list. Check out the video below:
The reason I continue to use webinars as a major part of my marketing is because of one simple reason.
They Work!
Have you had success running your own webinars? Can you see the value they can provide in your business after reading this article? I’d love to hear your thoughts about the success you have had with webinars, or some concerns you may have as well. Please share your thoughts freely in the comments section below, and spread this article with your friends via Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.
Twitter has become the place for sharing content links. If your content catches attention on Twitter and spreads, suddenly you’re getting significant traffic from people who may have never visited your site before.
But don’t forget to share other people’s quality content on Twitter. This helps you build up a Twitter audience that values your editorial judgment, which in turns helps you when you have something of your own to share.
In both cases, what you share on Twitter is not just about the actual value of the content. It’s also about whether the content gets viewed and appreciated in the first place.
Yep… the difference is in the headline. You’ve heard this before, right?
Same as it Ever Was… But Worse
Every time I tell people about the 80/20 Rule of Headlines, they seem shocked. Remember that one?
On average, 8 out of 10 people will read a headline, but only 2 out of 10 will go on to read the content. This is in a typical headline environment, such as a newspaper, magazine, or web page.
In an RSS reader or email inbox, the percentages are likely worse. The battle for attention intensifies due to the nature of the environment.
Now, think about a Twitter stream.
People are scanning more ruthlessly than ever, looking for interesting tidbits. Your content link is competing with conversations, quips, and tantalizing revelations related to this morning’s breakfast cereal.
Time to up your headline game. But first, let’s review the foundational elements of solid headline writing.
What’s the Reward for Reading?
The first thing to keep in mind is that a headline is a promise. It promises some kind of benefit or reward in exchange for attention. That reward could range from an amusing diversion to the solution to a pressing problem.
A good way to make sure your headlines always offer a compelling reward is to use the 4-U approach. This is a copywriting technique taught by AWAI.
Your headlines must:
Be USEFUL to the reader,
Provide him with a sense of URGENCY,
Convey the idea that the main benefit is somehow UNIQUE; and
For a shortcut, revisit the various headline categories that should cover any type of content you’re dealing with.
The Triumphant Return of the Short Headline
Some people will tell you that a good Twitter headline is as short as possible. This is due not only to the 140-character limit that Twitter imposes, but also because in order for your headline to spread, people need room to retweet it. Twitter culture dictates that you give credit to the person who originally exposed you to a tweet when you retweet, so extra space is needed for the hat tip.
Too many people, however, focus on “short” and forget about “as possible.” A better way to think about it is as long as necessary, but no longer. Luckily, history provides us with some strong encouragement in the short headline department.
A quick review of The 100 Greatest Advertisements by Julian Lewis Watkins shows that 95% of the most effective headlines from the early years of magazine advertising were eight words or less. This is because magazine copywriters had to write tight headlines due to space concerns, just like Twitter users.
Studies done from the direct mail industry show that about 50% to 60% of the most effective headlines are eight words or less, leaving ample indication that longer headlines work, too. On a webpage, there are no space concerns, so web copywriters found that longer headlines communicated more benefit right at the top of the page where eye-tracking studies show people focus, and therefore worked better.
So, Twitter brings us back full-circle at a time when content is the new advertising. But it’s clear that a well-written short headline has power, especially when in a level-playing-field environment where everyone has the same constraints.
Rewrite for Retweets
For the most part, you should write your article and blog post headlines pursuant to the same guidelines given above. There are certain cases where I’ll modify my own content headline for Twitter, but it’s rare.
The real value in headline rewriting comes when tweeting other people’s content. Let’s face it, many people write pretty crappy headlines, even when the content is solid. Doing the editorial work can help you build a loyal Twitter following, because you’re finding content that might otherwise be lost in the noise, and then rewriting the headline to better entice people to pay attention.
This can be easier than it sounds. Too many writers love to use obtuse or clever headlines that fail to do justice to their content.
Simply apply the 4 U approach after reading the content and before you tweet. Over time, this will become second nature to you, and your reputation on Twitter will thrive while you send traffic to people who need to learn what you know.
Valuable Content Rules
It’s clear from observation that people will retweet based on the headline alone, before even clicking through to the content. This is the same phenomenon that we saw first hand with Digg.
But unlike the anonymous free-for-all that is Digg, Twitter is a bit different. Your followers may retweet based on a headline alone, but only because they trust you. Your past performance and editorial judgment in selecting (and producing) quality content is what leads to that trust.
Quality content is still the essential ingredient, but make sure people actually appreciate the content you share. Becoming a better headline writer will make that happen for you.
About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Copyblogger Media. Get more from Brian on Twitter.
: I have listened to several webinars you have done with AT&T, Steve. It got me to thinking – how can I incorporate webinars into my business? — DM
A: Like you, I enjoy listening to and watching online webinars. For the uninitiated, a webinar, or web-seminar, is an interactive online speech.
Generally, it works this way:
You learn of a webinar and sign up to attend. At the appointed date and time, you surf over to the website and you will be instructed to click a link that will take you to the virtual “room” where the webinar takes place. You are also given a call-in telephone number. Enter the room and call the number. You will then be placed on a mass conference call where you listen to the lecture while following a visual presentation online.
Some webinars use slides, others use a live video stream, while others have little in the way of an online component, and as such may be better described as a tele-seminar. Either way, the typical webinar lasts about an hour. The ones I do generally consist of a 45-minute presentation and 15 minutes for Q and A.
There are many reasons why you might want to try a webinar:
They are easy: Webinars are easy in two ways:
1. Offering a webinar requires only that you have a great subject, a PowerPoint presentation, and a hosting service for the webinar. A simple Google search will yield a host of hosts who can help you put on and promote the event.
2. From the speaker’s perspective, a webinar is fairly easy because there is no travel involved, and as you are speaking on a phone, you can have as many notes as you like in front of you.
They add value: Offering a webinar, either on your own site or someone else’s, creates value for the participant. I do webinars for many companies and they frequently offer the webinarsfree to their best small business customers. It is an affordable way to create goodwill and customer loyalty, add value, and to stay top-of-mind.
They can be a nice profit center: You can make money two ways with a webinar. First, you can charge people to attend. If your topic is compelling enough, that works. Second, because webinars can be recorded, by recording yours, you are creating a product that you can sell and sell again for a long time.
For instance, at my website we offer a webinar called Marketing on a Shoestring. Although I recorded that webinar a while ago, it remains relevant and popular.
They position you as the go-to expert: If you are the presenter, you must be an expert, right? Another option is to bring in other experts to your site and offer them to your customers.
For example, I have listened to many fantastic teleseminars at SpeakerNet News – a resource for speakers, consultants, authors, etc. They have a cadre of great speakers. Similarly, my pal Tara Reed brings in experts for her Teleseminar series, teaching artists how to make money with via licensing, branding, etc..
You could do the same in your industry.
They capture email: Creating your own e-mail list is important for marketing purposes. People who sign up for your webinar are opting in, giving you their e-mail address, and in the process, helping you grow your list.
They engage your audience: It is not enough these days to have a static website. People expect more. Webinars are a cool Web 2.0 tool that engages your audience and helps you forge a closer connection to your customers.
Finally, if you think you want to put on a webinar, make sure to:
•Promote the heck out of it. Many more people will sign up for the webinar than will actually attend it, so promoting it will ensure that you get enough people to check in on the day of the event. Plug the webinar on your site, tweet it, and use plenty of follow up e-mails.
•Have a great subject: There is no shortage of competing ideas out there, especially online. So a great topic and name is a must.
•Over-prepare. Know your subject cold. Practice the presentation, and then practice some more.
Ask an Expert appears Mondays. You can e-mail Steve Strauss at: sstrauss@mrallbiz.com.And you can click here to see previous columns. Steven D. Strauss is a lawyer, author and speaker who specializes in small business and entrepreneurship. His latest book is The Small Business Bible. You can sign up for his free newsletter, “Small Business Success Secrets!” at his website —www.mrallbiz.com.
The more time visitors stay in your blog the higher the probability they will perform one or more desired actions: e-mail subscription, clicking RSS feed, viewing more pages, clicking advertisements or if you sell something, buying products. This is the conversion rate.
Text formatting
We have already discussed some time a visitor does not usually stop to read the contents of a page. First scans and if you find something that may be interesting then is when begin the reading. Therefore, we must give our posts in a format that is easy to scan as well as reading.
To do this, it might be worth using lists that allow the reader a quick idea of ??what you are reading. Write short paragraphs, trying to divide those longer paragraphs into smaller ones. The white space between paragraphs gives the blog of a sense of clarity and cleanliness.
Readers are impatient and try to find what interests them as quickly as possible, so you can also put in bold those you consider most important points or to help the reader in your search.
Another important factor in text format is the space between lines. Easier to read and gives the blog a better look.
So, try to establish a space between the lines you think may be convenient for your readers. It is no use if other aspects take care when reading the reader is overwhelmed by the lack of separation of the lines.
Other important points are:
Do not use underlined normal texts. Visitors often mistakes them with hyperlinks and click them, resulting in annoyance.
Do not use colored texts without any reason. The subheader can be colored, it looks good; but if you suddenly color a block of text red, that might not look very nice.
Bold words to mean something that the visitor, as a human can understand; to give emphasis for example. Using bold words to get a better chance of increasing keyword’s importance is not very nice idea.
Use left alignment of the (English) text.
Do not use Advertisements in between paragraphs: your pageviews will decrease. Visitors, you will like your blog will click Advertisements knowingly it can give you few cents to run the blog, do not try them to fool. This is one of the cause of short-term monetary gain and long term loss of repeat visitors. If you carefully notice the established blogs for past few years, you will see they have placed advertisements separately from the text.
Keep the blog simple yet elegant
Sometimes less is better. Keeping a blog elegant looking is an art. Do not try to fill your blog with a lot of doubtfully useful things those will distract and confuse the reader. Think about what elements are actually functional, if you need to be there and if they are useful. Placing a clock in the sidebar is a perfect example.
Take care of links
One of the most important elements of a blog are the links it displays. The blue color is normal to display links on a website but it is clear that one would like to adapt their color to the layout of your site, therefore, is important that at least the links look like hyperlinks.
Choose a domain containing the keywords that you want to target. The shorter the domain name it is better. Choose only .com extension, unless you need it for local bussiness.
Post original content which are useful and relevant for users.
Update your blog every day.
Getting quality links is more important than the quantity. Try to get .edu and .gov links (do not “buy”; they will come automatically if you write a better blog.)
Use friendly urls containing keywords so that they are easily readable for search engines. Include keywords in the url of each article.
Use the keywords you have defined for your site in the textual content of your posts but do not abuse them. Suppose if we repeat the keyword SEO tips, SEO tips, SEO Tips,SEO Tips,SEO Tips,SEO Tips,SEO Tips; it will not be an article on SEO Tips! It will be a pain.
Build good internal linking for your each page / post, but not abuse.
Use the Google webmaster tools with special attention to the Duplicate Content. You wrote ago about how to get rid of Duplicate Content issue using robots file.
Use descriptive titles and tags containing keywords.
Use a natural language written for readers thinking about search engines and not vice versa.
Avoid getting a lot of backlinks in a short period of time, the links are to be obtained over time and naturally. Otherwise you could be penalized.
Analyze the statistics of your site to learn which keywords are working and strengthening.
Simulate natural Google searches for your keywords and to see what position you occupy. Focus on keywords that position to see the potential to reach top positions in the search. Do not click your own search result. Google will find you out you are cheating and will penalize. Clicking own result again and again makes Google thinking you are using some Black Hat SEO Tips and Tricks.
Use lightweight xHTML (blogger), PHP (WordPress), CSS, Javascript files. Minify and combine the CSS files & Javascripts
Long Tail is important thing to understand how a blog retains #1 position in Google SERP.
Separate the words with hyphens not underscores for Google. Unfortunately, it seems that Bing understands the reverse better.
Bonus SEO Tips and for positioning your website within the first 20
Use descriptions for both categories and major tags in WordPress.
You can save money buying your sports equipment used, regardless of whether you are you are picking up some sports equipment for your kids or just for yourself! After all, most people keep their sports equipment in great shape, and you can find tremendous deals on barely-used equipment. If you are thinking of shopping for some used sports equipment, you will have to know where to shop for it; here are a handful of great places to look!
Amazon: Perhaps the best place of all for shopping for used sports equipment is Amazon, because you can purchase your sports equipment from a number of reputable sellers who have thousands of seller ratings already, which allows you to buy with confidence. Furthermore, you will be able to compare the prices of used equipment with the price for new equipment easily in a single location.
Ebay: When it comes to shopping for used items, eBay is, of course, the place most people think of, as eBay is one of the most widely-used (and most trusted!) places on the Internet for buying used items from other people just like you. There is, however, one problem with buying things on eBay, and it is this: Because the sellers on eBay are people “just like you,” some of them will be selling you great stuff, while others will be selling you stuff that is really nothing but junk!
Play It Again Sports: One of the problems with buying online is that you cannot try on the equipment or see it for yourself; after all, when you shop online for clothes from a store, you know you can return them if they do not fit, but this is not usually the cased with used sports equipment! Play It Again Sports, however, is a chain store that sells used sports equipment, which allows you to check the fit, and to make sure the equipment is in great shape!
When you shop among these options, you should be able to find one that works for you, and you will be able to save a lot of money on sports equipment!
It certainly looks like a lot of businesses are finally realizing just how important search engine optimization marketing campaigns are ? and they are not hesitant to spend money to make sure that their Web site is not left behind. Studies show that in 2004 alone, spending on Web marketing through search engine optimization doubled ? in fact, businesses spent more than $12 billion in the race to the top ranks.
Big business
Given the booming importance of search engine placement, it only makes sense that Google ? one of the more influential search engines today ? is now worth more than $50 billion, making it more than twice as big as General Motors. Microsoft is not one to be left behind. It is already involving itself in the search engine optimization industry, and experts agree that to businesses, this only means one thing ? even more interest and spending.
Complicated
The success of the search engine optimization business is largely due to the fact that it is an ever-changing industry, so that websites require continuous servicing to stay on the top pages. Experts agree that there will never be a formula ? Google, for example, takes into consideration more than 100 aspects in their page ranking system. So complicated is search engine marketing that firms offering these services need to constantly develop tactics for their clients, and clients need the constant support and know-how of search engine marketing firms.
Here to stay
Search engine optimization marketing may still be the best kind of web marketing ? more effective than banner ads and sponsored links, in fact. With more than 70 percent of Web users depending mainly on search engines to find the products and services they need, businesses will continue to compete for the top spots. The Internet is getting more and more congested. To search engine optimization marketing companies, this means two things ? more clients, and bigger challenges ahead.
Search Engine Marketing provides detailed information on Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Marketing Firms, Search Engine Marketing Services, Search Engine Optimization Marketing and more. Search Engine Marketing is affiliated with Web Site Marketing Consultants [http://www.e-WebSiteMarketing.com].
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