Author Archives: Larry

Do You Need a Consultant?

Posted on by

While there is a LOT of information available on the Internet—some of it really good, some of it really bad—it can be a lot to sift through.  When you are just starting out, you don't know what you don't know.  It can be overly daunting without a roadmap. It's often a good idea to have a guide—a consultant, a mentor, an instructor—to set you on the right path.

New to the Field

If you are brand new to a field—be it Internet marketing, comic book illustrator, computer programming—you need a place to start.  Without any prior knowledge of the field you need someone who has been around the block a time or two and made the mistakes and had some successes show you the ropes and the tools. Having a mentor will shorten the learning curve as you can cut out time looking for information or experimentation.  The mentor will show you skills and techniques that work. Think of it like walking into a room of 100 people.  You need to find and talk to only one specific person, wouldn't it be better and quicker if someone lead you right to her?

Refining Tools / Skillsets

Another reason to seek out a consultant or mentor is to hone in or evolve a skillset.  You may be familiar with WordPress, but do you really KNOW how it works? Often times when we experiment on our own we are able to develop a general working knowledge of the tool.  But in the hands of a master, the tool is capable of amazing things we've never dreamed of.  This is the reason people frequently attend workshops of varying levels or have common industry groups, so that they can continue to refine their craft.

As an example, refining your skill set could take you from repair work, to custom work.  A broader base of knowledge will allow you to handle more problems or issues, including that of creative or customs works.

Don't Stand So Close….

Sometimes, you are too close to the trees to see the forest. Your own perspective can be inhibiting your growth or progress as a business person. You have done certain things a certain way as long as you can remember, but suddenly, it's not working anymore. How do you carry forward?

Consultants offer a fresh perspective and are able to assess details that you might take for granted. What seems like a good idea within the “inner circle” of your business, might have no real world bearings at all.  It might look good on paper and completely fall apart if there is no support structure for it.  A consultant might understand that while you look towards the future of an idea instead of how the idea has to work.

The bottom line is, it's important to remain open to opportunities to educate and evolve.  in some instances this might be a school or educational opportunity.  In others, it might be an expert perspective with fresh eyes.

If you're just getting started, consider the opportunity of studying with IMTC.  Learn the tools and skill sets you need to set yourself apart from your competition and shorten your learning curve so that you don't flounder directionless in the open water.

Where is Your Focal Point?

Posted on by

Is Your Content Working For You?

Local is a big catch phrase recently.  Local grown food. Local search.  Support your community, buy local! The Internet is taking notice.  Most likely because we all live, play and shop locally. While it's incredibly easy to go online, purchase something and have it shipped, there are something you want to see and feel before you buy.  There are something you can't do online, like theater, sports, etc.  It's only logical that local search is going to be more important than regional or global.  (Except in the case of hard to find items or services, in which case, these are special cases and not the norm.)

There are 4 Billion local searches on Google per month and 61% of all local searches result in purchases (according to National Positions).  That's a lot of local activity.  Perhaps

This could be an amazing focal point of your site.  If you start to include LOCAL news and local events in in your articles on your site—in a relevant way of course—this could break you into your local market—or into OTHER local markets.

Are Your Keywords Focused?

Your articles should not include everything—including the kitchen sink.  Articles—and keywords—should be tightly focused on your subject matter. If in a 500 page article you mention “hamburger” once, it's probably not a keyword. Read your article back.  The the keywords and phrases should naturally “pop” out.

Your article should not wander all over the place.  It should have a couple key points and support of those points.  The key points should translate well to “keywords” or “key phrases”.  If you are using WordPress or something else with tagging capabilities, don't forget to use those as tags as well so you can link like articles together on your site.

Does your Site Do TOO Much?

If your site does too much, it can be hard to find any singular value in it, from the point-of-view of the search engine. It's possible that if you niche your products or services a little bit you will have a better response.  Amazon sells everything under the sun, but you don't have the resources or connections to do that.  Stick with what you can control, focus on and excel with.

Are you having trouble with your business?  Unable to generate traffic or sales?  Learn quickly how to get on the right path and focus on the important details to improve your internet marketing.

The Power of the Internet

Posted on by

The Internet has grown quickly.  It's hard for most of us to imagine a world without the Internet.  Christmas shopping, raising money, staying in touch.

Communication

There may be 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, but there are thousands of ways to communicate on the Internet.  We have Email and forums, which are traditionally a slower to “chat” that allows you to sent short typed messages back and forth.  There are also audio “chats” through a variety of services as well as video chatting and conferencing. Games come built in with audio or text chats, you can leave comments on blogs/websites that encourage discussion. You can Tweet, you can “+1”, you can Post on Facebook, you can “share” across all sorts of platforms. There are so many ways to communicate and share information back and forth on the Internet.

Recreation

Video games and casual games have taken on in recent years on the Internet.  The Internet has fallen in love with social gaming as well, playing games with friends, against friends.  Several games give special in game awards for having your friends interact with you (or you with them). We spend time reading online—blogs, ebooks (and ereaders) and news have all taken their place on the Internet. We stay connect on Facebook, Google+ and an endless amount of other little “connection” sites and organizations.  We're meeting friends, we're meeting mates, we're staying in touch with family.

Shopping

Online retail has taken off as well.  Some people do all their Christmas shopping online.  Shipping no longer takes “4-6 weeks”—in some instances we can get things in 2-days without paying anything extra. You can sell your own “junk” on ebay.com or craigslist.com.  You can build your own website and sell things you make yourself!  You can buy things you would never be able to find in a local store.

Politics

The Internet can spread information incredibly fast. When SmartPhones became the majority of phones, people can receive information instantly.  Text messages to notifications of news they find interesting to important political actions.  People can organize and make their voices heard.  Nothing is more indicative of this than the recent SOPA/PIPA action. Congress shelved the vote on this bill indefinitely after action was organized on the Internet and thousands of people let's their representatives know they did not support these bills.

Another indication of how the Internet can mobilize and influence “politics” can be seen in Verizon's attempt to charge a fee for paying your bill online.  When this became news the Internet reacted and Verizon also decided against the fee.

Education

Online learning has become very popular.  It allows people to learn at their own pace while still getting benefits of having a teacher available for help and guidance. Many things that are available in a traditional setting, like lectures, textbooks and teacher feedback are still available.  It's really become an amazing opportunity in some instances that afford people a change to change their lives in ways they would not have been able to otherwise.

It's easy to see that the Internet has changed our daily lives. Why not let it continue to enrich your life by learning how to make it work for you?  Check out the Internet Marketing Training Center to see how you can harness the power of the Internet and start making money.

Do It Yourself? Not Without Some Direction….

Posted on by

When I started doing “web design” by in 1997, you had HTML.  It was fairly easy to learn. If you used any graphics, you were pushing the envelope.  There really was not very much to learn. Since my friend and I had started a web design company—Web Age Services, Inc.—I learned a little bit about HTML/Web Design and learned a bit about running a dedicated web server, web server, and DNS server/Nameserver. We had a few clients, learned a bit about business as well as the Internet, and quietly folded after a year and a half of losing money.  We were young, the Internet was young and no one wanted to do business with “kids”.  My point is, back then, you didn't have to learn very much.

Times have changed.  We're getting ready to move into HTML5—which is a far cry from early versions, heck we even get NATIVE video tags in this one—and it's starting to get tricky. You could feasibly build a website using just HTML, but it's so easy to do so much more with a little bit of guidance these days.  That's where IMTC comes in.  IMTC will let you know what you need to know, what you need to focus on and avoid all the fluff.  Cut to the chase.

A LOT goes into making a website these days.  I mentioned HTML5, but this is just the structure of a webpage.  This is saying, “this is a graphic.”, “this is a paragraph”.  To format and position elements, you should be using styles—Cascading Style Sheets or CSS. Styles interact with elements individually or in groups.  CSS starts to get a little confusing, but not nearly as confusing as a scripting language.  Javascript, PHP, ASP…. these are languages that start to do complex functions. In all likelihood, you won't be working directly with any scripting languages, but you should know how to interact with things that do.

Search Engine Optimization?  When I started, there were a handful of directories. Now, not only has the search game changed completely but there's a whole “science” behind it all. You want your site to be found if people are looking for your product or service. Let IMTC teach you.

IMTC covers basics to get your started, and then focuses on the aspects you will need that will help you create successful websites and bring traffic to those sites. Marketing has always been a challenge, and the Internet is no different. IMTC helps you define the tools to help conquer that challenge.

The Internet is always evolving.  In the past 15 years it's seen some enormous changes.  Don't get left behind and don't try to tackle this monster on your own.  There's lots of places to get lost.  Visit IMTC today and talk to an advisor to see if could take advantage of the Internet.

If you build it, they will come…..to your website.

Posted on by

“If you build it, they will come.”

Unfortunately, these words are SO far from the truth.  You cannot expect to put up a website these days and people will just magically show up.

One thing people may not realize is, a search engine goes through your website, cataloging valuable words, phrases and content. When someone searches for a term in Google, what is actually going on?  Well, the person is saying, “Hey Google, what do you know about XYZ?”

Google, of course, knows very little about xyz, but he's been to LOTS of websites.  Some of them, about XYZ.  In fact, Google has cataloged all the sites it knows of about XYZ and when you ask about it, it tells about the ones it found.  From the most valuable, to the least valuable. Google has it's own artbitrary way of determining value, but they are always striving to make sure it's fair and valuable.  For instance, let's say you wanted to do a site about boats.  Well, let's say you used only one word.  Boats.  Over and over again.  This does not make you the most valuable authority on boats. It makes you a spammer!  The content saturation of the page is such that there is nothing but boats.  That cannot be valuable to anyone.

So, you should start to realize that a small amount of content does not a website make.  You'll have to increase the amount of valuable information you have on the site.

Another thing to consider is to “narrow” your field.  If your topic is too broad, you will run the risk of direct competition with businesses have have more longevity, more resources and brand recognition already set up to work against you. Ingraining yourself to a smaller audience can actually allow you to capture a larger market share than if you had tried to cover a broader topic. I always like to use “running” as a very broad topic, and “barefoot” or “minimalist” running as the niche.

This is a “nice start” but isn't going to have internet traffic bursting down your door.  You have to get out and “drive traffic”. A website is a nice repository of information and a great sales counter and interface, but it is NOT the salesman in your workforce. You need to get your information out to where people are already talking about your topic.  Is your topic barefoot running? At a minimum you need to get into a discussion with runners.  All the better if you can find people already talking about BAREFOOT running.

Even if you get out there and let people know about your website, you still have to entice them to come.  Either you are directly giving away information in your discussion that incites people to see what else you have to say, or you offer something of value they want.  This is a tricky technique—essentially you are bribing people to come to your site. Make sure that it's an appropriate time and forum to offer someone something.  Just popping into a discussion and and saying, “Hey guys!  I'm giving away free marshmallow people at my site!  ‘Kay thanks BYE!” is NOT the right way to make friends. You need to develop relationships in the community, contribute to discussions and then let people know that you have a wealth of resources back at your site.  Typically, this is done either through a signature file in back-and-forth types of discussions, article or comment.

Don't neglect local connections!  They can prove easier to reach than a national audience.

Making money on the Internet is not extremely difficult, but it's not instant and there is some consistent effort involved.  Prevent mistakes by getting certified in Internet Marketing at IMTC.

The Importance of Being Updated

Posted on by

Software technologies are moving fast these days.  Especially internet softwares. Browsers are updated regularly, as is any software that gets a ton of usage.  Wordpress is one of those softwares.

Security

Microsoft has always had software that updates frequently.  People find bugs or vulnerabilities and the software people jump into action to plug the hole.  Wordpress is no different. It has it's own bugs and vulnerabilities and it gets “plugged” pretty quick.  This is important.  Wordpress is a software that by default includes version information in output code.  Code that is visible to anyone.  This can be changed but by default it's out there.  For hackers, this version information is almost like putting a sign on your front door that says, “The key is under the mat, and I'm not home.”

This is why it's important to stay on top of those updates to the operating system, browsers, and WordPress.  You want to limit the opportunity for the villains to get to you.

Fixing Flaws

You also want to update to “fix” any of the broken pieces of the software.  One of the biggest issues we and our students have had lately is a “feature” of WordPress can “break” videos or iframe embedded content. We had the problem locally and then began to notice that students were having the exact same problem.  This was corrected in a future update.

New Features

A third reason to be consistently updating, is that certain versions will bring new or revised features.  For example, when the iPhone was released it didn't have the App Store.  The only apps on the iPhone were the ones that SHIPPED from Apple.  There were no Angry Birds.  The iPhone was a fancy iPod, video player, email and web browsing device.  It was announced January 2007, and there was no App Store until mid-2008.  Through software upgrades, the original iPhone has become closer to what the later generations iPhones could do, limited only by the hardware.  While the original iPhone is not on par with later iPhones, software upgrades allowed it to do a lot more things than it could do at launch.

The point here is that if you can upgrade you probably should.  Some software technologies or features may be phased out, but will probably be making the way for something more secure that works better, with additional features.

Building a Better Website

Posted on by

Let's dive into a little “theory” today.

I'm not talking about websites that sell. There are whole courses on that. I'm talking about the basic concepts you need on a website so that people aren't going to think you're a fly-by-night crook.

“Let's See Some ID please…..”

I'm talking branding. When you do business with people, you don't want to do business from the shadows, or from behind a mask, so put your “business face” forward. If you aren't in the market for a logo, you should at the very least get a designed header on your website. This will be the main graphic at the top of each page as people navigate through your pages. Why? Well, first of all, it let's them know “who” you are or what you are selling—or talking about. And having a header across all your pages allows them to be grouped together and identified as being together. This is important if you use a shopping cart “service”.  A shopping cart that is “linked” to your pages but actually secured on a different site.  (Kickstartcart.com, oneshoppingcart.com) You can customize these pages so that they have a similar look at feel—you don't want anyone to bolt because the look of the site suddenly changed.  They might feel like they have left your site, or something fishy happened. We definitely don't want to scare off a sale.

“Can You Tell Me How to Get…….”

Navigation.  People will be literally LOST on your website without an easily identifiable navigation area.  Try not to re-invent the wheel here.  A basic text menu is great for getting people around.  Try to stick to one or two words.  If you are trying to get a “phrase” up in the navigation menu, you really need to rethink what you are trying to do with the page.  And make sure people can find the important stuff if it's not ALL up in the navigation bar.  It has become customary to find vital information down at the bottom of the site.  Typically, on each page.  Sometimes this is the main navigation bar with some additional navigation to disclaimer information, privacy policies, contact information, refund info, etc.  We as a culture have grown to expect a “disclaim” near the bottom of the page.  Think of any car ad.  Furniture sales.  Electronics. Special sales.  All of them have it.

Your main navigation should consist of “Home”, “Contact”, “Products / Catalog”, “About”.  This is really where you get to structure the site.  Freebies?  You want them at least near the navigation if not IN the navigation. (And it should stand apart…. you want people to notice this section.) Do you have articles?  Members only login?  These need to be accessible in the navigation portion of your site/page.

“Headlines and Subheads”

Make sure page is “skim” friendly.  If you are breaking any sort of information down, it should be structured so that people know exactly when they are hitting a new block of information. Headlines should be large blocks of information subheads should be larger than the body copy and distinctly informative, short, and to the point.  They really shouldn't break on another line.  You can use subheads to break a timeline or to change topics.

“Promotion and Standout Information”

Sidebars serve several functions.  One is to break the ledge of the legible copy.  If the copy were too wide, it would be difficult to focus on making reading difficult. It creates a logical break and some interest in the shape of the site.

It also provides a very strong area to callout information or promote and market your information and products, or someone ELSE'S information and products—ad space.  Typically, you won't be having revenue generating space until you have a decent amount of specific traffic, then you can start to solicit advertisers.  But don't let that stop YOU from using that space.  It is prime real estate.  You can use it to draw attention to specific information.  You can change the information PER PAGE if you want.  This sidebar—near the top—has been an important position for opt-in boxes and freebies.  A perfect way to capture interest and build your potential customer database.

“Keep It Simple, Keep It Clean”

These aren't difficult ideas to put in place.  They will keep your site looking clean and easy to get around.  Image goes a long way in business.  Think about the places you shop.  They are all organized (the mall has a directory), with products neatly and visibly on shelves.  Information is king, but people have to be able to find it.  Now…. to tackle my desk….

Don't know how to build a website? Check out the Internet Marketing Training Center to start a career on the Internet. Build websites, market and promote products all over the Internet.  Create your own products so that you can create your own income!

Our World Is Changing

Posted on by

The world is different today than it was yesterday.  Smartphones have a life expectancy of about 2 years.  They are designed to be disposable as the next better, faster, more amazing version comes out every year. Apple doesn't even allow you to replace the battery.  The smartphone is a supercomputer that is designed to be thrown away.  If not thrown away, then at the very least it's been designed to be retired from the initial owner after a year or two.  Computers are not much different.  The hardware may be designed to last a little longer, but software packages change pretty rapidly.  Internet Explorer already has version 9 out and Microsoft is trying to force people to retire IE 6. Cars aren't designed for a long lifespan.  A car loan is roughly 5 years.  It can almost be expected a car will be traded in after 7.  How long do people stick around in a job?

The point is, that the world changes and pretty quickly.  Smart phones, computers, tablets have made it even easier to be connected.  FaceTime, Skype, any of the handful of messenger/communication softwares capable of audio and video chat.  And with technology, business has changed as well.

Technology has Shrunken Our Borders

With the advent of instant communication, instant streaming, huge data channels on phones and in homes, we can get albums, movies, software packages at the drop of a pin.  We can speak with someone a world away as if they were standing right in front of us.  This changes our business practices.  We have to be “always on” which means we need a presence on the web.  We need to understand how to reach out (market) to potential clients.  We need to have an avenue of response, even while we are sleeping.  Taking orders, answering questions, troubleshooting problems all while we sleep and probably in a dozen different languages.  How do you learn all these things?  How do you create a web of connectivity, a hand of constant outreach to your customers?

Tsunami of Information

Almost everyone has Facebook, Google+, and Twitter in their pocket. We are constantly bombarded with text or SMS messages from friends, family, and loyalty programs.  You may not want to add to the din of voices screaming for attention, but if you don't, subscribe to at least one information stream, you may be completely alienating your customers and how they choose to get information. You need to learn the best way to touch base with them.  Everyone will choose their best method.  I have a preference for RSS, as far as information I want to gather and email for things I want to be informed of.  Your customers will pick their best method that they like, so it's important to offer them some choices.

We Are All Paparazi

The World is truly watching. Everyone wants their fifteen minutes of fame.  Everyone wants to be a celebrity.  Everyone thinks they are on reality TV. We Twitter, we post, we +1, we Share.  There are so many pictures of us floating around, you'd think you were a celebrity. Whether or not this is a result of technology or the very thing that lead to that technology is a tough question to answer. But it has become a valuable tool.  There are places where cell phones are more prevalent than toilets, running water, or even electricity.

The point is, you can't ignore being out there using all these advertising channels to get your message out, your products seen.

Visit the Internet Marketing Training Center to find out how you can learn all this and more!

Customizing Your Blog…

Posted on by

…and by blog I mean WordPress website.

WordPress Themes

There are probably hundreds of thousands of WordPress themes in the wild, and a LOT of them have the standard BLOG format.  “The Blog Format” is slightly difficult to get away from but it's an easy-to-navigate layout.  Header, Content, Sidebar, Footer.  Some themes will pull featured or other specific content.  That is one of the beautiful things about WordPress, it's an excellent content management system (CMS).  It can be as robust as you can imagine, but as you start to really imagine, you have to add modules you may not understand in order to add certain functionality.  There is a way create custom fields on the back end so that WordPress Content actually becomes more of a “plug” form.  Picture here, price here, check this, check that and you have a very versatile website.

That is not really the customization I was wanting to talk about though.

Brand Your Site in the Header

I want to talk about some of the most BASIC ways to customize your site to brand it to your company.  The first and foremost way is to have a header graphic designed.  You can try to do it yourself, but I recommend against it. There are hundreds, probably thousands of people on fiverr.com or craigslist.com that will be more than eager attempt to design a header for you.

I am not adverse to cheap labor, but I believe you get what you pay for.  $5 for a design? It might look better if you let your 5 year old nephew whip something up in crayon. I recommend trying to find a local freelance designer. Agencies will usually be too big and too expensive with their time to actually want to work with you, but a freelancer might be willing to do a few quick designs for $20 or $30 bucks.

Before you head off in search of a designer, you need to think about what you want the header to convey.  Who is your audience?  What do they expect to see as far as how you represent yourself? If you're selling a product, should images of the product be in the header? Is your face/name the brand? Do you have an actual logo?  A slogan or hook can also appear up here.

Another important element to think about is your colors.  Your header and theme colors should work together, not against each other.  For this reason, it's important to either know how to use CSS or get a theme where you can actually adjust some of these options.  Remember, the more options a theme has, the harder it is going to be to use and interact with different plugins.  I have been recommending Weaver 2 lately, since it does give you a good control over colors and such, but don't fall in love with it or take it as gospel, it may not be the easiest to work with if you really want to change layout elements. I have found it difficult to work with on a few projects since it does have so many options, it can take away some of the things you want to do.

That said, if you plan to upgrade the theme when upgrades come along, then DO NOT CUSTOMIZE—or let any web people customize—any of the code of the theme.  That includes html, php, or stylesheet of the theme.  It will break at the upgrade.  That is not to say you can't use the theme options, just do not go and alter the code.

There is an art and a science to web design.  Learn how easy it can be at the Internet Marketing Training Center. Visit our website and download the Free Career Brochure.

Your Own Business : Organized and Efficient!

Posted on by

Many people think that having your own business is a dream come true.  They often forget that businesses work because of specialization.  Each team member has a specific function.  Accounting, marketing, production, engineering, IT, sales…. when you become an entrepreneur you will most likely assume those roles until things get rolling and the money is coming in.

That said, since you will be wearing so many hats, you will need to be as organized and efficient as possible.  With a little planning it shouldn't be all that difficult.

Plan for Failure

I don't mean that you should plan to fail, but this IS one of the best learning tools out there!  Something didn't work?  Try something else.  No, what I mean to say is, plan for your TOOLS to fail.  For instance, that wonderfully LARGE harddrive in your computer?  How OLD is it?  How much STUFF do you have on there?  How much stuff do you have on there that you would HATE to lose?  How much stuff on there would completely DESTROY your business if it disappeared?  Welcome to the world of the “backup” plan. I'm not going to get into what sort of backup software or hardware to use, but you do need a backup plan in place.  You can back up as much or as little as you need to.  Currently, on my Macbook Pro, I've got an external 500GB harddrive that is running Time Machine.  Every hour is runs to make sure all the information on the backup is current.  I have seen some dual drive systems use a RAID system so there is some additional security. It would be terrible to have your backup and your main drive both fail, but that's almost getting a little carried away.

Organize for Efficency

Everything needs a place. So be proactive. Plan to have a digital place for all your files. Organize them in a manner which makes sense.  As web designer, I have a folder for clients.  Inside that folder each client has their own name.  In each client folder are more folder.  One for supplied information, one for working files, one for accounting.  I know where I can find any information I have about a client in these folders.  The structure makes sense for me.  More importantly, if I every hire employees I have a system in place that will be easy to understand.

I also have tools in an easy to find place.  Things that I use regularly  are easily accessible.  For tools that I use rarely, or procedures that I use rarely, I have created “How To” documents that explain the idea, so that if I forget how I did something, I know where to easily find out where to go—my how to library—so I don't have to go searching or wrack my brain to try to recreate something.  Believe me, it seems like a simple silly little thing, but the first time you have to use it you will pat yourself on the back.  AND, it makes training (new employees) a breeze as well.

Right Tool For the Job

Another important aspect of business is to have the right tool for the job.  You don't need a tank when a bicycle will do. Free is great, but it's not always the right tool for the job. Don't be afraid to research a little bit.  Do you need to edit graphics?  Photoshop is the first thing that pops into most people's minds, but Photoshop is NOT cheap.  There are some cheap alternatives, there is even some free alternatives out there—GIMPSHOP, Online Image Editors like Aviary.com—so don't believe that you need “the best, most powerful tool” if you only have one task that you need to accomplish. You don't need a chainsaw to remove a splinter.

All in all, the important concept to remember is planning.  Planning—right—will allow you to setup to succeed and avoid unnecessary failures.  If you are interested in planning to market on the Internet, or create your own digital products to sell on the Internet, you should check out the Internet Marketing Training Center. It's an online school that will help you plan for your future on the Internet.  Pop over and check them out.