Archive for the ‘Online Marketing’ Category

WordCamp Victoria 2010 is excited to announce the final list of 21 exciting speakers and facilitators for WordCamp Victoria on Saturday, May 15th, 2010. John Overall of Firedragon Hosting is one of the speakers for this event.

WordCamp is a conference that focuses on everything WordPress. There is something for everyone here – whether you are a beginner, a business person using WordPress for your website, an avid blogger, a designer, a social media personality (or wannabe social media personality), or a programming wizard. Participate, share ideas, and get to know each other. WordCamps are open to WordPress.com and WordPress.org users alike.

Date:	Saturday, May 15, 2010
Time:	9:00am – 4:30pm
Location:	Victoria Campus of University Canada West
Street:	950 Kings Road
City/Town:	Victoria, BC

The next class for the Word Press Blog Building Intro class is May 18 and 20 (6:30-9:00 pm) Course code: CO-317-2.  (Please see below for description.)

 The next class for the Word Press Blog Building Advanced class is May 25 and 27 (6:30-9:00 pm) Course code: CO-318-1. (Please see below for description.) 

  You can register by calling the school directly if you’d like (Community Education: For Assistance Call: (250) 386-8367) or if you wish register online at http://www.bookking.ca/bkshorelinepub/courses/index.asp. Once on the course index page scroll down the left column to computers and click the ‘Courses’ link at the end of the paragraph.  The Word Press courses are near the bottom of the right hand column.  You can both view details about the course or register from this area.

Can’t make these classes but are interested in the courses?  Contact John, at dragon@smartbomb.ca or call him directly at 250-885-2888 between 8am and 8pm PST, for other dates he is available. This can be for individuals or a group, all you need is a laptop.

Know someone that might be interested in this course, any other sessions or guest speaking that we do, please feel free to forward this information on.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 4 years, you would know how popular and widely used Facebook is today.

Just a few short years ago, you had to encourage all your family and friends to join this social networking website (just after others convinced you to join). Nowadays, it’s rare to find someone who hasn’t got a Facebook account.

At last count, there were over 350 million users on Facebook and this number is continuing to grow. It overtook MySpace as the number 1 social networking website on the planet last year and is just behind Google when it comes to online traffic. You are then able to understand how important Facebook marketing has become for all websites.

It’s Not A Pitch Zone

The most important thing to remember about social media is that it is not a place to blatantly and endlessly pitch your product or service. If you do this, then you will not get any favours from social media users and will get largely ignored and even bad reviews.

What social media is used for is for building relationships with potential clients. There are a number of ways you can do this: Read the rest of this entry »

By Neil Stafford

Everyone loves the Internet, but not everyone is ready to buy. There can be a level of scepticism you may have to overcome and one way to do that is let them see your face. Use online video and you have an advantage over your competitors when dealing with customers.

Successful marketing is all about establishing a relationship; and that is so much easier when they can see and hear you. You may be very comfortable online, but some people are still sceptical about doing business with you over the Internet and you need to persuade them to trust you before they will buy from you.

These are my top 12 direct marketing principles you can use to make sure your Internet marketing really works for you:

1. History.

People want to know you are not going to disappear overnight so if you’ve been in business for any length of time then this will add credibility to you and your offers.

2. Statistics.

Use genuine statistics to give you more credibility by listing number of customers served, money saved, profits made, and so on.

3. Testimonials

I can’t overestimate the importance of these so get them from your Customers and Clients saying how you and/or your products have helped them. Get experts in your market to validate and endorse your products and services and if appropriate get celebrities who you either ‘rent’ for your marketing, feature at your events or use by association.

4. Demonstrations.

With the use of online video and ‘how To’ DVDs it is very ease to show a demonstration of your product both on and offline. You can even demo an ebook by printing it out and talking through what it contains live on screen. Camtasia is free software that lets you make a screen capture video where you can demonstrate your website talking though the sales letter or giving a demo of how easy it is to download your ebook. If you are in a market that isn’t really familiar with online buying this works really well.

What better proof that your product or service works than by showing an example of before and after. Many markets and products lend themselves to this treatment and it is very effective.

In our own business we use video to show how to confirm emails when signing up to our email lists, when demonstrating how to use our Membership site and examples of results in a number of our ebook markets.

5. Credentials.

What credentials do you have in your market? They don’t have to be academic, but can awards, accomplishments, membership to organisations that are relevant to your market. Both I and Neil Travers my business partner are CIPD qualified which is a training qualification we attained while working at the Bank.

This is ‘proof’ of our ability to run workshops that are designed to aid the learning and intake and retaining of information by attendees and gives us increased credibility in their eyes.

6. Publicity.

Reprints of articles about you in the press, or your articles being published in the media that lend weight to your credibility as the expert or authority in your market are highly valuable to you. Show your market that you are in demand, and have status as an expert.

7. Celebrity Spokesperson.

To be used with caution. It can be effective but can also backfire when the market remembers the celebrity and the advert, but not what it was advertising.

8. Guarantee.

If you can’t guarantee the product you’re selling then find something else to sell that you can guarantee. To really make your potential customers feel safe to buy from you you need to offer an ironclad guarantee.

9. Accessibility.

On your website have your full contact detail if possible as this will give a big boost to your potential customer confidence in you and your company. Using just an email contact is the worst and an email, phone and address the best.

Never give a PO Box as your address as it immediately makes people suspicious.

10. The Personal Touch.

Being visible in the business to your customers is a confidence booster for them. Make it personal so you are a real individual, anecdotes about you and your business, pictures and videos all make your customer more comfortable as if they have already met you.

11. Make A Damaging Admission.

No matter how good your product is it will have a disadvantage somewhere. Admit it up front and honestly comment on this fact.

Answer Questions and objections up front and when a customer asks them via email or the phone. People can call our office throughout the week and email at any time with questions and that makes them feel safe to buy from us.

12. Excess.

Use a combination of as many of the examples above in your marketing! What may seem like overkill to you may not be enough to overcome some people’s scepticism!

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This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

Whether you’re new to the world of running your own business or a seasoned veteran there are traits that all successful entrepreneurs have, or develop, to give them the edge and the best chance of success.

These are what I call the ‘must do’s’ for running a successful business, so keep this list close at hand and review it on a regular basis to keep you on track:

1. Develop the ability to see what others want/need/desire through your own research, findings and searching. As my business partner Neil Travers always says, “keep your head up and eyes open, opportunities are all around.”

2. You don’t have to invent a brand new product to be successful. Look for the gap in the market gap for a new product/service or the development and improvement of an existing product or service. Richard Branson wasn’t the first to have an airline, but he successfully built his businesst on the premise of improving on what was already being offered. Read the rest of this entry »