Marketing Training from Cinnamon Edge

Using Books in the Marketing Mix - Part 2

2012-01-25T04:23:00.000-08:00

One of the things a book can do is help to define you and your business. Writing and publishing a book makes you more "expert" but it also makes it clear to people what you're about. So, if I wrote a book about cycling (which I probably will) that straight away tells anyone who sees it that cycling is my "thing".

An example of this is Jacqui's book about How to Become a Foot Care Professional. Jacqui has given a lot of help and advice over the years to various health professionals, therapists and the like, on marketing and developing their businesses, so working with the Foot Care Centre and the College of Foot Care Practitioners was right up her street. Publication of the book will help to spread the news that Jacqui is an expert in that area and, as a specialist in that particular niche she will command more respect and attention from people looking to grow a business in foot care or something similar. They'll also get a lot of great information from the book, of course!

My (Roy's) book, Really Simple SEO for Business Owners will help to spread the message that I'm expert in fast and effective Search Engine Optimisation. It also says that I specialise in it, to some extent, and a specialist is usually taken more seriously and becomes more sought-after than a generalist.

You can do the same in your business. Become an expert and be in more demand (and maybe higher-paid) as a specialist, by writing a book about your area of expertise.

Roy

Using Books as Part of Our Marketing Mix

2012-01-24T10:32:00.000-08:00

You might remember we ran a workshop last summer all about creating content and using it in your marketing. Content in this context means articles, blogs, web copy and the big daddy of written content, books.

Now, we try to practise what we preach, although we're sometimes too busy doing things for other people to do them for our own business. We do need to keep our hand in, though (as shown by our success with the search engine optimisation of SEO Suffolk) and we finally got our fingers out and completed the four (yes, four) books we have been working on, all within the last couple of days!

So, today you can get the first of them on Kindle. It's called How to Become a Foot Care Professional and it's written by Jacqui, who has been the marketing brains behind the success of The College of Foot Care Practitioners and The Foot Care Centre Kings Lynn. Not surprisingly, effective marketing plays a major role in setting up in any new practice, and it's covered extensively in the new book.

The second Kindle book should be available by tomorrow, and this one is called Simple SEO for Business Owners and reveals just how we managed to get SEO Suffolk onto page one in a few days.

Incidentally you don't need a Kindle to read them! Just download a free reader for your laptop or iPad from the Kindle website and the whole Kindle library is available to you.

Our other two books are now with the publishers Bookboon and will be out in the near future.

Anyway, all this is very exciting for us and provides great publicity for our business, and especially the writing and publishing arm - and that's the marketing message for you. Don't just do as we say, do as we have done and will continue to do, and use books as part of your marketing mix.

Roy

Local SEO in Suffolk

2012-01-16T02:31:00.000-08:00

One of the things we teach and train Suffolk business owners and their employees in is SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, and if there's one thing our new website SEO Suffolk shows you, it's that we know what we're talking about!

The search term "SEO Suffolk" is surprisingly hard-fought, with lots of reputable and skilled marketing and website companies competing for it, usually with a page using that phrase in its title and on-page copy.

So, building a brand new website to compete with all these established sites was either brave or foolish. It can take two or three months to get onto the top pages for a competitive term, and that means a lot of work. Meanwhile, the company's expertise in SEO could be undermined in some people's eyes by the lack of results. Nonetheless, we went ahead and bought the domain name SEO-Suffolk.co.uk last Wednesday, 11th January and started building the site last Friday evening, the 13th (eek!).

The site was ready for Google to index by midnight Friday, had all its current pages by the end of Saturday and had analytics and a few other plug ins added on Sunday. By Saturday afternoon Google had indexed it and by Sunday afternoon it had reached page three on Google...

And it was very gratifying to see our new baby, http://www.SEO-Suffolk.co.uk, only three days old, already at the top of page two this morning, Monday 16 January. Of course, it's early days and there's lots of work to do with design and sharpening up the copy, but with tons of potential for optimising it for other valuable phrases, we have to be happy with progress so far:

So, if you're looking for a Suffolk SEO Company with proven expertise in getting uncannily quick results, you probably need look no further than us, via our SEO Suffolk website.

And yes, we can teach this stuff!

Roy

UPDATE: Not content with page two for 'SEO Suffolk' we went a whole lot better and got top spot for 'local search marketing Suffolk' AND 'local SEO Suffolk' - also in less than three days.

SEO Made Simple

2012-01-06T09:30:00.000-08:00

This is a very simplified explanation of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). It doesn't cover the subject in depth (you would need a few hours at least to do that) but it does give you an idea of the basics.

If you're looking for SEO services, contact Cinnamon Edge at info@cinnamonedge.co.uk

Roy

"My Website Isn't in Google"

2011-11-29T08:31:00.000-08:00

One of the online marketing services we've been asked for occasionally is getting a website to appear in the Google listings. Not on page one, necessarily, but listed at all. Something Google calls 'indexing'.

You see, while you can search for and find any website in the world by typing its address into the address bar in your browser, this doesn't necessarily mean it will appear in a search on Google because Google doesn't always get around to 'indexing' or listing new websites for some time. In fact, your new site could languish for weeks, as happened to one of the people who approached us for help.

You can test this by typing your website's URL (including the .co.uk or .com) into the Google search box. For example, "mywebsite.com". If your website doesn't appear in the results it means Google haven't 'indexed' (listed) it yet. Which means no one will ever find it with a Google search.

It used to be the case that you could submit a new site to Google via their webmaster tools, but with so many sites being created every minute of every day, that service has been withdrawn. So what should you do now?

Well our solution was to build links to the new site from one that we know Google 'spiders' (sends its robots to look at) regularly, like one of our blogs, for example. The next time they (the Google robots) visit, they find the new link, follow it to the new site and, "Hey presto!" the site gets indexed.

That process still works. But now there's a refinement to the process that makes it quicker and it makes use of one of the most active and therefore most spidered websites on the Internet - Twitter. Google visits Twitter every few minutes. In fact, it's probably on there pretty much all the time, and anything that gets tweeted can get indexed on Google within minutes. That includes links to your new site, if you include them in your tweets.

So the answer to the question of "How can I get my site listed on Google" is easy: Tweet it. Just say something like "Look at my new website" followed by the full URL. Mention the exciting content and you should get some human visitors, too, but the objective is to get Google to come calling.

Bear in mind that even the super-powerful computers Google uses still work in the real universe, so it can still take a few hours for your site to appear on all the Google servers, but Twitter is the easiest and fastest way to make that happen.

You can get more online marketing help and training from Cinnamon Edge. We run courses, in-house training, and of course we offer marketing services as well!

Roy

Marketing Training in Bury St Edmunds

2011-11-25T03:48:00.000-08:00

The good news is Cinnamon Edge is busy. The bad news is we've been too busy lately to schedule any marketing workshops or courses for Bury St Edmunds businesses.

But there's one thing that all successful businesses do, especially when they're being successful - they keep on marketing and promoting themselves. It's very easy to be too busy working in your business to even think about finding more customers or promoting more to existing customers. It's easy but it's dangerous, because it's all too easy for those customers to go elsewhere, cut back or just change their buying strategy - leaving you high and dry and with nothing in the pipeline.

So, on that basis, and taking our own advice, we're actively looking for a couple more clients for our marketing services. While we've started work for several new clients in the last few weeks, we still have the capacity for two more, and short-term work or one-off jobs can always be fitted in.

This week we've been building and optimising two websites, running social media campaigns for several clients, designing squeeze pages, making videos, writing articles and blogs and more.

But while you might be happy with business at the moment, or too busy to look for more, we're not too busy to take that job off your hands and help you attract more clients, more sales and a more secure future.

In business, you should always be marketing and selling. And if you can't find time yourself you need to think about hiring someone who can!

Roy

Go to www.cinnamonedge.co.uk and follow us on Facebook and Twitter

This Case Study Shows What YOU Could Do, Too

2011-11-10T03:07:00.000-08:00

We've just uploaded a case study that shows what we've achieved for one of our clients recently.

Basically, she totally dominates her local market and is very competitive nationally, too.

All this for a new business that's less than a year old.

You can see what we've done in the first few pages of the report, and how we did it (most of it, anyway) in the remaining pages. It's a quick read with lots of pictures!

Find our case study of an ultra-successful marketing operation at http://www.cinnamonedge.co.uk/case-study-1 - just click the link to get the pdf.

Then think about what Cinnamon Edge's marketing expertise could do for you...

Roy

We've Moved Offices

2011-10-28T05:29:00.000-07:00

We've just moved house which means that we've also moved office.

Our new address is:

2 Chichester Close
Bury St Edmunds
IP33 2LZ

And our new phone number: 01284 767193.

Now we (that's Cinnamon Edge) are back into the swing of things, we've almost stopped tripping over boxes, and we're ready to help you with your business' marketing just as soon as you want to call the new number!

That's 01284 767 193.

Another Successful String to Our Bow

2011-10-05T05:01:00.000-07:00

Not that we like to boast, but we are a marketing company, after all, so we're very proud to have helped the College of Foot Care Practitioners with their first two week intensive diploma course by writing and presenting the marketing module for the course.

We believe this is a feature unique to TCFCP's courses and so we were even happier to hear that ALL the candidates on the course passed the tough final tests and exams to receive their diplomas on Friday.

The College has just issued a news release to local media which is reproduced on the Foot Care College blog, here.

We'll be continuing our involvement with the college and presenting the marketing module at their next diploma course in January, as well as offering one to one coaching to the college graduates.

Roy

Quick Results Our Speciality!

2011-08-24T07:16:00.000-07:00

One thing we teach our workshop attendees and our clients is that online marketing is about more than your website.

While we would expect to help you get your website well placed, with certain reservations about results not always being what they seem, a major part of any online strategy these days is to make it multi-faceted.

By creating social media accounts as well as a temporary blogger-based website for Flatpack Suffolk, a new local business that assembles flat pack furniture, equipment and garden buildings, we've been able to get the business onto page one in less than a week. In fact, today's search has three mentions on page one, headed by the business' Facebook Page.

The website will be climbing the rankings too, but meanwhile the business has a page one presence that includes details of what it offers and full contact details, visible directly from the results pages.

That's the kind of online marketing we teach, too - not just SEO or website design but effective promotion of your business online.

Roy

Why Google Results Aren't All That They Seem

2011-08-16T03:14:00.000-07:00

If you're in the healthy habit of keeping a close eye on the performance of your website you might well check its position in the search engine results (Google) on a regular basis.

While it's always good to measure and track as much of your marketing as you can, checking the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) regularly can actually be a bad idea.

Why?

Because Google, in trying to serve you the best possible results for your search, actually delivers the results it thinks you want to see - including your own website, and especially if you often click on the listing to make sure everything is working. This means that the more often you look for your own website the more likely it is to come near the top of the results - but only for you.

And this means the results you see are not the same results that anyone else sees, and that can mean that while your website appears on page one for you it might be nowhere to be seen for your potential customers.

That's why it's important to have independent verification of your website's performance and an ongoing 'optimisation' campaign to push it further up your potential customers' results pages too. Optimisation doesn't need to be complicated and it's not a precise science but a small investment (of time or cash) is usually all you need to improve your website's performance.

Needless to say, Cinnamon Edge can help with Search Engine Optimisation for your website.

Call us on 01284 753912 or email info@cinnamonedge.co.uk and let us check your website's performance.

We'll even supply a written website report (value £47) at no cost to you!

Roy

It's Not That Complicated

2011-08-04T12:53:00.000-07:00

If you offer a service or sell a product, you’d better be sure your potential customers know what it is. More importantly, they need to know what it does for them, but almost as important is to keep your offer simple.

One of the problems many new business people (and some long-established ones) suffer from is lack of focus. Not a lack of focus on building their business, but more often a lack of clarity about what that business is. Too many set themselves such a wide remit, scared of missing out on a job they could do, that no one actually knows what they’re best at.

When we talk to people, individually or in a crowd, they will often only remember one or two key things we say. So when we’re promoting our business, we’d better be sure those one or two things are the things our business is based upon: the benefits we can offer our customers. Trying to be all things to all people means too many people won’t have a clue what we offer, and there’s a danger we’ll come across as experts at nothing in particular.

Bigger companies tend to be better at this. Even if the company has a hundred products and services, they often promote each of those as a brand, or divide them into groups under a series of ‘umbrella’ brand names. But look at it this way: consumers buying a Mars bar don’t even care that the Mars Corporation makes Snickers and Bountys as well, and the Mars Corporation rarely bothers to remind us, because it doesn’t matter to a Mars bar buyer.

Likewise, if you’re trying to sell me a specific product, telling me you can also offer something else, even something quite similar, is just a distraction. Telling me about another half dozen products you also offer will just bury your original message under a pile of irrelevance. Things might be different after I’ve bought your first product, but sell me a watch first, for example, then show me the rings…

Most business is simple: we provide a product or a service to someone who wants it. Making the process more complicated just makes it more confusing, and confused customers rarely buy.

Roy

Google Places Update

2011-07-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

At our recent Google Places workshops we emphasised how much (and how rapidly) Google likes to change things in local search, including Places, but that it was still important to include as much information about your business as possible. This helps Google to verify the legitimacy of your business and its location as well as its postition in the marketplace.

Well, they've changed things again since then, and a lot of the data you enter in your Places listing is not currently being displayed. However, it DOES still matter, as Google themselves confirmed this week:

"The following info you provide may not appear on your Place page, but it’s all still used to help us understand more about your business:

• Email address
• Menu
• Reservations
• Optional attributes / Additional details
• Service area toggle “Show service area”

So just because we’re not showing it, doesn’t mean it’s not helpful for us to have — it helps our system ensure that your organic listing appears and ranks appropriately on Google and Google Maps when potential customers perform searches related to your service."

So there you have it, from Google themselves: they still use all this data, even if they don't always display it. Keep adding data, videos, images and more to your Google Places page to keep your business in the forefront of your local market.

And if you need any more help with any aspect of local business marketing you know who to ask.

Roy

PS. Incidentally, Google say that the absence of business descriptions that you might have noticed on some Places pages is a bug that they're working on fixing, not part of their planned changes for Places pages.

Reviews of Cinnamon Edge Training and Workshops

2011-07-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

Our latest workshop was a charity event for St Nicholas Hospice Care, all about content creation, and the reviews we got were, frankly, excellent!

You can read some of those, and some from our previous events, on the special Cinnamon Edge workshop review page.

In case you were in any doubt about the presentation, content or quality of any of our workshops, talks or training, put your mind at ease and then book your place for the next one!

(Note that although we don't have any workshops scheduled at the moment, we are able to arrange them specifically for your business. Our next scheduled events are likely to be in the autumn.)

Roy

Content Creation Workshop Raises Funds for Bury St Edmunds Hospice

2011-07-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

NEWS RELEASE from Cinnamon Edge

As part of their Towergate Accumulator Challenge fundraising activities for St Nicholas Hospice Care, Cinnamon Edge held a successful Content Writing and Marketing workshop on 14th July at the Farmers Club in Bury St Edmunds.

Jacqui Carrel, a writer and marketer, ran the workshop. ‘The whole day was fun: I enjoyed running the proceedings, not least because I had lovely people to work with. The best part was seeing how the group, using the techniques I taught them, produced some great pieces of writing in a very short time.’

Delegates enjoyed the relaxed, information and activity packed day-long session. Said attendee Linda Birnie, ‘Content Marketing was a very enjoyable one day workshop covering many ways of advertising your business. The format was very relaxed and interactive and I came away with several new ideas and constructive techniques for writing advertorials, web pages and general articles.’

Roy Everitt, partner in Cinnamon Edge, helped with the workshop. He says, ‘This is just one of the things we are doing for the Challenge, which we have dubbed ‘The Fifty Quid Challenge’. Cinnamon Edge intends to carry on raising money in a variety of ways. We have even built a site around it: http://www.thefiftyquidchallenge.co.uk

100% of ticket proceeds went directly to the Hospice, helped along by generous donations from other Bury St Edmunds businesses. The Farmers’ Club donated the room and coffee, Bedford’s estate agent donated lunch, and Peatling’s and Munning’s supplied soft drinks and delicious afternoon tea scones respectively.

### ENDS ###

Contact Jacqui Carrel

E: jacqui@cinnamonedge.co.uk

T: 01284 753 912 or M: 07766 011 391

http://www.cinnamonedge.co.uk and http://www.thefiftyquidchallenge.co.uk

Blogger Joins the Mobile Revolution

2011-06-22T12:53:00.000-07:00

Blogger has made it simple to join the mobile revolution with your blog by adding automated mobile templates.

This means you can create a mobile version of any Blogger blog with just a couple of clicks of your mouse.

To create a mobile version of your Blogger blog, go to your blogger dashboard.
Click on 'settings' and you'll see a new tab, 'Email & Mobile'.
Click on this tab and then the button labelled 'Yes. On mobile devices, show the mobile version of my template.'

That's it. You can preview the mobile blog there and then. It's very basic (as most mobile sites should be).

As a bonus, Blogger generates a QR code for your mobile site, too.

Roy

Still Time to Get Our Free Course

2011-06-05T13:26:00.000-07:00

We created a free seven-part course in connection with our Search Engine Domination Workshop. It's deliverd by email and it's still available on its own search engine domination website here.

The course will help you take control of your market by dominating the search engine results and you'll be taken through all the essential parts of the process step by step.

Once you've started reading the free course you might want to learn more, and you can do this at our half-day workshop on June 9th. You can book your place for the workshop at http://onlinedomination.eventbrite.com but please talk to us about special deals for sole traders and multiple tickets.

With the free course or the workshop, you can start your business' search engine domination this week!

Call us on 01284 753912 for information on the workshop.

Roy

Search Engine Domination - Free Course

2011-05-16T14:56:00.000-07:00

As a preparation for our Search Engine Domination Workshop, we've created a free course in seven parts, available on its own search engine domination website here.

The course will help you take control of your market by dominating the search engine results and you'll be taken through the essential parts of the process step by step.

Once you've started getting the free course you may well feel you would like to attend our half-day workshop on June 9th. You can register for that at http://onlinedomination.eventbrite.com but please talk to us about special deals for sole traders and multiple tickets.

With or without the special deal, it's a great price for search engine domination!

Call us on 01284 753912 for information.

Roy

2011-05-10T06:53:00.000-07:00

Here's the sign up form for our Search Engine Marketing Workshop:

Search Engine Marketing

2011-05-04T05:01:00.000-07:00

If you're wondering what 'search engine marketing' actually is, you're not alone!

When we started to put together a list of the topics we wanted to cover in our workshop on 11 May we soon realised we would have absolutely no problem filling an entire day.

But with our teaching and training experience, as well as day to day contact with the real world through running our own business Cinnamon Edge, we're confident we can give everyone who attends the SEM workshop at Bury St Edmunds Farmers Club astonishing value for money.

Frankly, each session we have planned will more than repay you the full price of the day's training. Multiply that by four sessions, plus the Q and A and interactive elements, and your business will be quids in by the end of the day!

We have had to limit the numbers in order to give everyone who attends this workshop our full attention and the best possible value, so tickets are already in short supply.

So, if you want your business to be ahead of the competition by using the most cost-effective marketing medium ever invented, can you afford to miss this one-off workshop?

You can book your place directly through our preferred ticket suppliers, Eventbrite, or call Jacqui on 01284 753912 to discuss multiple tickets and our first come, first served special deals.

Roy

Next Time - Search Engine Marketing

2011-03-30T13:32:00.000-07:00

Our next Bury St Edmunds marketing workshop, on 11th May, is on the subject of Search Engine Marketing.

It's a one day event in which you will discover how to promote your business effectively online, using your website and other web properties to increase your:

Subscribers
Prospects
Customers
Sales
Profits

We'll be adding more details about marketing workshops to our website very soon.

You can book your seat(s) for this all day event on Search Engine Marketing at http://www.learnsearchenginemarketing.eventbrite.com

Roy

Marketing Workshops with Cinnamon Edge and Bury Chamber of Commerce

2011-02-28T04:00:00.000-08:00

Thank you to those of you who took part in our survey at the start of the year, where we asked you what marketing-related workshops you would be interested in attending during 2011.

In your answers, you said one of the subjects you would most like to know more about is the changes Google has recently made to local search and Google Places.

On that front, I have some bad news and some good news:

The bad news is you missed our first workshop of the year, on Google Places Changes (it was on 11 February).
The good news is we’re running it again on 31 March.

We received lots of really positive feedback from the first event, and the re-run will be even better. The price for the workshop is the same as before, and you can still benefit from our early bird discount.

(If you’re one of the first two sole traders to apply you can save even more.)

The new event is on our Eventbrite page, at http://newgoogleplaces.eventbrite.com

We have one before that on Business Writing, at http://bestbusinesswriting.eventbrite.com - that's on 23 March!

And ALL this year’s marketing workshops are at http://marketingworkshops.eventbrite.com

We're also running workshops on Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Domination, Mobile Marketing, Staging Your Own Workshops and even Writing Your Own Book - a great marketing tool for your business!

Have a look at the full list on http://marketingworkshops.eventbrite.com but seats at the first two are very limited - and the discount is still available - so book today.

Roy

Get up to Date with Google's Changes

2011-02-06T10:55:00.000-08:00

We will be running an 'emergency workshop' on the fall-out from the changes Google made to local search in November which are still causing confusion and dismay to local businesses around the world.

By allowing ourselves a couple of months for the dust to settle we have been able to get a firm grip on the implications and the next steps that all local businesses need to make if they are going to profit from the increasing use of local search by customers and clients.

Roughly 80 percent of all searches for local services and products begin online. That means you NEED to be the company your potential customers see when they start that search. We'll show you how.

The workshop - the first of a series we'll be staging in conjuction with the Bury St Edmunds Chamber of Commerce - is this coming Friday at 9.am, at the Active Business Centre (St Andrews Castle), St Andrews Street South, Bury St Edmunds.

Full details and how to book are at http://googlechanges.eventbrite.com/ and the full list of courses is at http://marketingworkshops.eventbrite.com/.

Book now and get ahead of your local competitors!

Roy

What if You DON'T Want to Transform Your Business?

2010-12-11T10:28:00.000-08:00

Nearly all of us would like to do better, but ...

... not everyone wants revolution. Not everyone even wants transformation - in their private lives or their business.

Change can be uncomfortable, alarming, even stressful and it's often unnecessary.

If you're doing okay but would like to to a bit better without having to change the way you do everything and without taking on a bigger burden of work or responsibility, perhaps you just need a few minor tweaks in your business.

Maybe you just need to stop doing something that nibbles away at your profits. Working harder at one end, possibly going through the real trauma of transforming everything you do, might not have the desired effect anyway, if you carry on leaking profits somewhere else.

The problem is, it's often impossible to see what you're doing that might be wrong, especially if it's a habit you never even think about, because you've always done it that way. But other people can see it, especially if they're the kind of people who know where to start looking.

Not all business growth is about doing more, making more or even selling more. Sometimes it can be about wasting less of what you have already ...

... just as not all marketing is about finding an endless stream of new customers - sometimes it's about not wasting the ones you've got.

You see, as well as wasting money, raw materials, time and energy, you can also waste clients and customers, without noticing you're doing it. So should your New Year resolution be to ask someone to take a cool, objective look at where you're wasting what you already have?

Just one little change - not a revolution - might be all you need.

No drama, no trauma - just a nice New Year.

Roy

Google Places - Another Alarming Anomaly?

2010-11-30T05:11:00.000-08:00

Google is still sorting out local search - or at least some local businesses should hope they are.

Here's what happened when I tested Google's idea of 'local' today - bearing in mind that I'm in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Google clearly thinks that local for me (and for local plumbers) includes most of Southeast England:

None of the businesses listed near the top of the page are actually local, despite the fact I've entered my location (on the left) as Bury St Edmunds.

What's more, the map on the right does appear to show one plumber actually in Bury St Edmunds, but it's the one ranked lowest (on the first page) of the Places results (H).

This means that businesses with a more 'effective' Places listing are actually less visible than one with a worse Places page.

Click on that 'H' listing and you do get a 'proper' Bury map with the other local plumbers ranked correctly, but anyone just looking at Google's first page as I did could be forgiven for thinking that there is only one plumber in the town.

Incidentally, you will also see different results if you use the location in the 'search string' - by entering 'plumber bury st edmunds' in this example.

Google's local search updates have had a lot of publicity, not least from ourselves, but they clearly have some way to go before they're a genuinely reliable source of information for UK searchers.

Roy

PS. You can get more help with local search via our Cinnamon Edge website.

Why Leak Link Juice?

2010-11-19T09:57:00.000-08:00

I've written several times on this blog and the Cinnamon Edge blog about the importance of link juice for your websites and blogs.

Getting inbound links from respected and relevant sites is really helpful in boosting your own sites in the search engine results, and you can create some of these yourself by setting up blogs like this one.

There are some SEO 'experts' who say that you shouldn't put outbound links on your websites because they 'leak' the very link juice you've been getting from elsewhere with your inbound links. But it isn't quite that simple.

If it was, authority sites would have no authority, because all their link juice would leak away through all the miriad links to other sites. In fact, outbound links help your website, too, and they do it in two ways:

Google likes websites to be helpful and to give a good experience to their visitors. Links to useful information on other sites is one very easy but effective way of being useful. You don't have to rewrite the useful information on your own site and you can never be accused of plagiarising another site's content.

Your website's visitors will have an enjoyable and helpful experience when they visit your site so they're more likely to come back, suggest it to friends, and so on. They'll probably forget that a lot of what they learned was actually on another site entirely!

There are a couple of things you must do to make outbound links work for you.

Make sure you get any links to open in a new page or new tab so your visitor never actually leaves your site unless they actively decide to. When they close the new website (that you linked to) your website will still be showing.

Use the relevant anchor text in your outbound links, just as you would in your inbound ones. This tells Google that you're giving people a clear path to relevant information.

Finally, another benefit of linking to other people's sites is that they're much more likely to link to yours or find other ways to tell people about your site.

It's not quite clear how powerful outbound links are compared to inbound ones, and Google isn't going to tell us, but there's no doubt they do contribute.

And being a good citizen by giving your visitors the best possible experience can only help your business in the long run.

I'll talk about the myths and mysteries of 'no-follow' and 'do-follow' links and their possible impact on SEO another time!

Roy

Google's Googly

2010-11-02T01:59:00.001-07:00

Google threw everyone a googly last week when they changed the way local search results are displayed. It's fair to say that most people were wrong-footed!

From now on, it seems, local results will be a mixture of Google Places and organic listings, with no clear answer as to which will get priority, although a picture is emerging.

Google's changes have probably made hundreds of 'How-To' info products obsolete overnight, but fortunately our big products - all part of a joint venture that's been over a year in the making - hadn't gone to press yet.

So we've been able to include the very latest advice on how to optimise both Places and your main website (and other web 'properties') in the first new product before it launches.

That's along with all the hundreds of other pages of information, actionable tips and advice and straightforward strategies to grow your business.

In some ways it's a real nuisance for us. But it's pure gain for the people who will get their hands on the very latest on local search almost at the moment it emerges from Google.

Watch this space for the live links to the new product!

Roy

Online Marketing Course Bonus

2010-08-11T01:54:00.000-07:00

Here's a great free tool that I was recently pointed to that helps you find good backlinks for your website.

As you know, creating relevant backlinks to your website is vital to search engine optimisation. Getting links that are at least as good as your competitors means that any extra you can add will give you a real advantage, so a tool that helps you find out who links to them is priceless.

You can do the job manually, but here's a tool that finds those 'citations' for you:

http://www.whitespark.ca/tools/local-citation-finder/

Just sign up (for free) then enter any local search term (eg, 'solicitor bury st edmunds') and you're done.

It works on Google.com or .co.uk (and even Google.ca) and you'll be emailed a list of results, plus a list of your top competitors and another list of potential backlinks (that no one is using), usually within a few minutes.

It's very impressive! Again, it's at http://www.whitespark.ca/tools/local-citation-finder/

Roy

Now Get Your Online Marketing Course Live!

2010-08-01T12:55:00.000-07:00

Here's how to get access to our online marketing expertise ive and in person without paying us a consultancy fee!

Join us at our first Challenge Workshop in the week commencing 16 August, and you'll get three hours' worth of priceless online marketing training in exchange for a modest donation to St Nicholas Hospice Care.

It's all part of our contribution to the Towergate Accumulator Challenge, and you'll get more details right now on the Fifty Quid Challenge blog.

Roy

PS More details about The Fifty Quid Challenge are at http://www.thefiftyquidchallenge.co.uk

Online Marketing Tip

2010-06-23T10:57:00.000-07:00

Hello again

If you've posted any videos on YouTube or maybe watched other people's you'll know you can usually get an 'embed code' to add the video to your own site or blog.

This is a great way to add useful content and a bit more visual interest to a plain website. We use quite a lot of videos on our site http://www.cinnamonedge.co.uk/ as well as on our blogs. You'll see if you decide to embed a video that you have a choice of sizes to fit most websites and uses.

But sometimes even the smallest available size is too wide for your site. Blogs almost always have two or sometimes three collumns and this means limitations on the width of any one collumn.

But you might not know that you can always reduce the size of a YouTube video by editing the embed code. The important thing is to keep the aspect ratio (proportions) of the video the same. So, if you reduce the width by, say, ten percent, you should reduce the height by the same percentage, rather than the same number of pixels. But as long as you're within a few pixels the video will still look okay.

Copy and paste the code in its original dimensions into the html of your site, then you need to edit it to size.

Edit the code in two places, where the code reads something like 'width="640" height=385"', which you'll find in the first line and the last line of the code, and of course the changes have to be the same in both lines. So now these might read 'width="460" height="275"' in both places. As I said, within a few pixels is fine. In the example I've quoted I reduced the video width by just over twenty-five percent and I've rounded the width to the nearest five pixels.

And here's what that looks like:

Roy

Online Marketing in Bury St Edmunds - 13

2010-05-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

I hope no one reading this is supertitious, because this time we're going to be looking at an area of online marketing where 'luck' seems to play a bigger than usual part - Pay Per Click.

In fact, PPC is more of a science than some people would have you believe. Those who tell you otherwise probably just haven't dived deeply enough into the subject to make it work for their business, and there's no doubt that people have spent and wasted a lot of money on Google Adwords and the Bing (MSN) and Yahoo equivalents.

PPC is actually a very good way to quickly check the other components of your online marketing system - your landing page, your offer, your payment process, your sign up mechanism, and so on. Used that way, you just have to look at your PPC budget as an investment in research for your business. But it does mean you can buy traffic to your site and measure what happens when it gets there.

Otherwise, handle PPC with care, control your spending until you can see a positive ROI and above all test, test and test again until that happens.

PPC needs more than an eye-catching ad. You will also need:

A well chosen set of keywords
A campaign and ad group optimised for each of those keywords
A clear idea of what you want to achieve
An optimised landing page for each keyword
A call to action with an irresistible offer
A sign up form and autoresponder sequence or a clear and simple payment process
A system for analysing the results
The ability to deliver on your promise

You will also need a fair bit of patience, persistence and clear thinking to split test and analyse your PPC campaign in real time, as far as possible, to get the maximum benefit from PPC's ability to deliver traffic in minutes from the moment you press 'Go'.

Set yourself a daily budget. When PPC works and starts making you money you can reinvest the profits in more clicks and make even more money. But you will need to keep testing, tweaking and honing every aspect of your campaign, from ads to product delivery, to get the best results from Pay Per Click.

Be careful, be thorough, and PPC can work for your business.

Roy

Find out more about online marketing methods at Cinnamon Edge, the home of online marketing in Bury St Edmunds

Online Marketing Part 12

2010-04-19T11:54:00.000-07:00

So far we've talked mainly about your website in our online marketing course. That makes sense - after all, websites are probably the first thing you think of when someone mentions 'online' or the Internet.

But there are other ways to get your business online and onto page one. Rather than talk about that here, we've brought you a video to show you.

As you can see, there are countless ways to get your business onto page one of Google (and push your competitors off at the same time).

Use a few of these methods, optimised for your keywords as we've already discussed, and you could be all over page one, too.

Roy

Online Marketing Part 11 - Using Consultants

2010-04-12T10:58:00.000-07:00

A slight change of direction this time, as we look at the bigger picture beyond online marketing.

Because marketing is something that should be woven into the fabric of every business, carrying out a full audit of your business will inevitably reveal failures, weaknesses and profit leaks.

Looking at your business from a purely marketing perspective will highlight other problems, too. So it pays to spend some time with a business and marketing specialist who's up to date with latest methods and has the sense and intelligence to listen to you while you explain your unique business, and its strengths and challenges.

If your business isn't making the money it used to, or bringing you the lifestyle you hoped for, getting an outsider's view of things is a great idea.

Some words of warning, though: don't use a consultant or expert who offers you the perfect solution (or any solution) on your first meeting. It takes time to learn about a business and consider the possible options to make it better and you owe it to yourself and your company to find someone who will take that time.

That's why we reckon on spending at least an hour and a half (and usually more than two hours) just asking questions and noting down the answers. We NEVER offer to sell you a service at this first meeting. In fact, we won't even quote you a price or accept a deposit to secure our services.

Instead, we'll come back to you in a few days to a week or so with a list of ideas and suggestions that, if implemented properly, are guaranteed to improve your business' results.

Some of our suggestions are likely to be for online marketing of one sort or another, but not all. Some will almost certainly be minor tweaks or improvements on what you're doing already, or new ways to maximise the resources you have. Others may be 'offline' marketing methods you haven't tried before or haven't been able to make work for you.

It's not 'one size fits all' - we know every business is different, especially yours!

Being part of a very powerful mastermind group, we have access to information and ideas far beyond what any single company could normally offer. Which is a great resource to have available for your business.

But even if you don't hire us, or any other consultant, to help you with your business, it's well worth carrying out an 'audit' of your own, to see where those profit leaks and missed opportunities are. Only then can you do something to fix them.

Roy

PS. You can contact us via our Cinnamon Edge website or email roy@cinnamonedge.co.uk or jacqui@cinnamonedge.co.uk

Online Marketing Part 10

2010-03-25T03:47:00.000-07:00

Last time we looked at creating a list of interested people - potential customers - from those people that visit your website.

More information on how to do that are in our free ebook on email marketing, 'Automated Customer Collector' that you can download from our Cinnamon Edge Website.

But how valuable is that list of names to a business?

Well, if you don't use it to stay in touch it's probably worthless, but if you do - well, anything can happen.

With an active list you can

1. Remind people who you are and what you do

2. Make people offers and announce new products and services

3. Offer them an enhanced service or an 'upsell' on what they've bought from you already

4. Tell them about complementary products and services in exchange for a share of the profits or for a fee

5. Enhance your reputation as an expert in your field or a trusted supplier of your goods or services by giving away useful information

6. Give customers instructions on how to use your product safely or get the best results from it

Etc, etc.

By contacting people regularly you stay in the front of their minds rather than the back. When you use the messages to clarify your marketing message and unique selling proposition (USP) or irresistable offer, it will be you they think of when an opportunity to do business arises.

This means potential customers and clients start contacting you for help, which is a much better position to be in than when you're chasing them.

So even if your email marketing doesn't include 'selling' as such, it is still a valuable part of your marketing.

First step, though, is to start building that list. Second step is to remember to use it!

Roy

Online Marketing in Bury St Edmunds Bonus

2010-03-17T10:53:00.000-07:00

In the previous part of the course we looked at getting visitors to take action when they get to your website.

We concluded that the most valuable thing a visitor can give you is their contact details, because that enables you to begin and continue a relationship with them - which means you can build trust and create more opportunities to promote your goods and services.

We will look at the mechanics of email marketing soon, but I wanted to break in at this point with a look at what is probably the most powerful email subject line I've ever seen.

It will also be a great headline or sub headline on a sales latter, in the right context.

It's powerful because it not only hits an emotional hot button but also pre-qualifies readers, so only those who are really in the market for the product will read on. For anyone else, the headline will probably tell them they needn't read on, although it will still produce a visceral reaction if they used to be in the specific situation it addresses.

So, this headline isn't suitable for every business or every product, but if you can stir anything like this reaction with your services or products, you might like to adapt it.

The heart-stopping headline is:

Re: Your Unpaid Bill

Now, most of us have been in debt at some point. Even if we haven't, most of us have forgotten to pay an important bill at some time or another. But if debt has been a major issue of yours for any length of time, the memory of those unpaid bills will still be all too vivid.

The content of this email isn't important, but of course it was promoting a way to make money fast - the primary concern of anyone in serious debt. And the subject line stopped me in my tracks and it's just four words long.

Notice it uses the singular 'Bill'. This makes it more authentic, since one company wouldn't normally refer to money you owe to anyone else - they just want you to pay their bill, and soon.

Not many situations in life are as stressful as being in serious debt, and I won't offend anyone here by refering to events or situations that are even more traumatic, but whatever matters to your clients, whatever problem you help them overcome, must be an important issue for them, so stating it as starkly as this example could be all you need to do to get their attention.

We'll get back to normal with the next part, Part 10, of the online marketing course very soon.

Roy

Online Marketing, Part 9 - Collecting Customers

2010-03-14T07:30:00.000-07:00

Last time we looked at persuading your website visitors to respond to your site in the way you want.

This could be:

1 - Buying from you now

2 - Contacting you by phone, letter or email

3 - 'Bookmarking' your website to return later

4 - Telling other people about your website, perhaps via a bookmarking or social media site

5 - Leaving their contact details

Number five doesn't sound like the most exciting option, and if you can get people to buy from you and tell other people as well, that's even better - but building a list of interested visitors is a very valuable function for a website.

In Internet marketing, 'list building' is the number one aim of many websites. You can see from Part 8 of the course that a simple web page and an incentive are often all you need to get people to join your list.

But what happens to those details, and doesn't a growing list get unweildy and difficult to organise? Well, the simplest answers are, you use an autoresponder, and no, it doesn't get unwieldy.

Using an autoresponder like Aweber (which we mostly use) means you can collect customer details automatically and contact them by email any time you want. You can have scheduled 'follow up' emails that are sent at fixed intervals after people sign up and you can add 'broadcast' emails that are sent to all or part of your list at a time and date specified by you.

These messages (or newsletters) will contain useful information, which promotes you as a caring sharing business owner, and marketing messages, news of offers, new products, and so on.

Because the system is so automated, it takes no more effort to send these messages to a thousand or ten thousand people than it would to sent them to five or ten people. Because people have opted in to receive these messages from you, there is no danger of 'spamming' anyone. (A subscriber can opt out of receiving them at any time through a link that's included in every message.)

Most autoresponder services are inexpensive, especially in the beginning, and Aweber is less than £20 or $30 a month.

Email marketing, as it's known, is suitable for most businesses, although the details of how to go about it will vary with your business type and market sector.

Feel free to contact Cinnamon Edge for more information about email marketing services.

Roy

PS. We've written a more comprehensive guide on email marketing, called 'Automated Customer Collector', that you can get free of charge at our Cinnamon Edge Website.

You Have Visitors - What Next?

2010-03-02T12:06:00.000-08:00

Part 8 of our online marketing course.

We'll perhaps look at other ways to get traffic to your website in the near future but for now let's look at what results you want from your website.

From that, you can decide what you want your website's visitors to do.

From that decision you can frame a 'call to action'.

A call to action is where you tell your website visitors exactly what you want them to do, but it's not usually quite as simple as that. To get people to do what you want you must give them a reason.

For example, you might want your visitor to join your mailing list. To persuade anyone to give you their name and email address (at the minimum) you will need to offer them an incentive. That could be a free product, a discount or something they can't find elsewhere.

If you want people to buy something you need to offer them a reason to buy now rather than going away to think about it - people who go away to think about hardly ever come back to buy.

That reason to buy now could be a one-time offer or a limited period discount and urgency is a very persuasive factor as long as you're offereing something people want.

If you just want people to stay on your website and learn more about you or your business, you need 'sticky' content - content that they will enjoy staying to read.

But all these incentives and reasons for people to do what you want will be less effective if you don't actually tell them what you want. You must highlight your offer, your special deal or your discount and tell people to act now and exactly how to act.

So you need to tell them to enter their details in the sign up form, click on the link to buy now or even 'read on for more information'.

Tell people what you want them to do, why they should do it and exactly how to do it.

Then test each element of your website in turn to see what improves response, and gradually, step by step, your website will become an effective 'direct reponse' website.

Then you really are making use of online marketing for your business!

Here's an example of a direct response 'squeeze page' that collected the details of almost one hundred percent of the people who visited.

Next time we'll look at what you do with those names and email addresses you've collected.

Roy

Online Marketing 7 - Link Building

2010-02-16T08:55:00.000-08:00

The most important thing for your website is to get it noticed by the search engines. So you certainly won't hurt your cause by submitting your new site to Google, Yahoo and Bing. Most of the smaller search engines take their info from one of those big three, so that will help anyway.

Then there's YouTube and the other video sites like Vimeo and Google Video, which we'll look at another time. YouTube, by the way, is now the second most popular 'search engine' after Google, at least in the UK...

But submitting your site doesn't guarantee that Google will even index it (add it to its list of billions of sites), let alone give it a good ranking and a high position in the search results.

So you need another strategy to make the Google spiders find your site, and that's linking from sites that Google already visits. The more popular and dynamic a site, the more often Google will visit it. That equates pretty closely to the site's PageRank and that gives increased value to any relevant links from that site.

So, build your links from sites that Google already likes and visits often. You can see when a spider last visited a site by clicking on the 'cached' link for that site in the search results. The more recent that cache is, the more often Google probably visits.

But just linking once, even to a very popular and active site isn't enough. Google has now publicly stated that recent links count far more tan older ones. Indeed, very old links are pretty much ignored. Which means you need to keep adding new links and renewing or replacing old ones to show them that your site is highly sought-after and that people are still keen to link to it (even though it's you who actually adds the links).

On that subject, it's likely that links added within the content of another site - ie, by the site owner - will one day count for more than those added by visitors or users, but I haven't seen Google say that yet. It probably isn't easy to discriminate between 'owner added' and 'user added' links but I wouldn't put anything beyond the geeks at Google!

So, it's probably going to be worth actually talking to website owners and negotiating an embedded link, but for now, keep building your links from any relevant site you can.

There is software available to automate much of the link-building process and we'll look at that in the near future. Meanwhile, try to add a few backlinks each week, as a minimum.

Roy

Online Marketing 6 - Some Changes

2010-02-09T01:31:00.000-08:00

The world of Search Engine Optimisation and online marketing in general is constantly changing, although our Bury St Edmunds online customers needn't worry - that's what we're here for...

But if you're following SEO advice from even six months ago you might be doing a few things you needn't bother with and damaging your website's ranking by ignoring some important issues.

For example, metatags. If you're not familiar with these, they're a kind of labelling system that website designers use in the coding of a site. Human readers don't see them but search engine spiders do, and they use them to assess a website's 'relevancy'. One of the most obvious ways to start optimising a site, apart from the web copy itself, is by inserting as many keywords as possible in the 'keyword tags'.

But, back in November 2009, Google confirmed they no longer took any notice of keyword tags in assessing a website's relevance and ranking. They don't count at all any more. That's a pretty big change and one that not all SEO 'experts' have spotted yet.

It won't hurt to add keywords to the keyword tags, and it's not yet clear if Bing and Yahoo spiders still use them, or if Google will start attaching some weight to them in the future, but for now, Google ignores them.

A second example is speed of loading. Google is committed to giving users the best possible experience, and that includes not having to wait too long while a page loads. Now, it's always been a bad idea to keep your prospects waiting and we all know by now that people have even shorter attention spans online than they do with their TV remote, but now Google is taking action , too.

So now, if your web pages are slow to load, Google will punish you by reducing your site's PageRank accordingly. That will mean a lower position in the results if your competitors' sites load more quickly than yours.

This means you won't just lose customers through boredom, you could miss out on them visiting your site at all.

So if your website designer wants to include loads of slow to load features like flash and huge image files, because they 'look good', just say 'No!'

It's important that you keep up to date with SEO and remember to keep building those links - there's some vitally important information now emerging about linking strategies that I'll bring you next time.

Roy

Online Marketing 5 - Optimised Listings

2010-02-01T09:41:00.000-08:00

In our experiment for online marketing in Bury St Edmunds we spent a lot of time researching directories and building links as we went. It paid off, as you probably know.

We found that there are probably hundreds of directories and similar sites where you can list your company or service, so obviously I can't go into detail about exactly what to put in each field on every one of them!

What I can do here is give you some general advice and a few tips on the finer points of using directories to build backlinks to your site.

First of all, a directory that doesn't let you include backlinks is probably a waste of your time. A few of them might have enough traffic to justify listing your company with them, because they might bring some customers to your site, but generally, if you can't include a backlink, move on.

Secondly, a 'deep link' to the optimised page on your site is worth more than a link to your index page, unless they are one and the same. That should really only happen if you have a one-page site (or maybe one content page and some about us info on another page). So if you can add a deep link, always do so. Some directories even allow you several links, and you should definitely take full advantage of those.

Where you can include embedded links in your company description, use anchor text (the actual words highlighted as a link) that includes your target key phrase. Where you can add tags or labels, use your key phrase there as well. Use the key phrase in the rest of your description and heading if there is one.

Link building should be a continuing process. Adding loads of links very quickly is probably worse than adding the same number over a week or two. Worse still is adding plenty of links and then just stopping as though your work is done. This gives the wrong kind of signal to the search engines. In fact it's a sure sign you were trying to work the system, so you need to be consistent and keep adding or getting links to make your list-building look as natural and 'organic' as possible.

There are plenty of sites you can link from, so there's no reason to stop, even if you just add one link a week from now on. Keep at it and you should be able to keep your website where it belongs!

Incidentally, there's some new research just out that shows the relative importance of various factors in optimisation, especially in relation to Google. There are a few surprises and maybe a bit of controversy, too, and I'll look at that next time.

Roy

Online Marketing 4 - More Backlinks

2010-01-21T01:42:00.000-08:00

So far in this online marketing course, we've covered keyword research, on site optimisation for your key phrase and building your first SEO backlinks by starting a blog.

There are lots of other ways of building backlinks, and also increasing your online presence. Ultimately, you could even take over most of page one of Google for your target key phrase, but that looks a lot more impressive if your website is number one. For that you need more backlinks from high ranking websites.

The easiest places to get high ranking links are directories and social media sites. Two directories we've had excellent results with are Free Index and Touch Local. While the easiest social media site yet invented has to be Twitter. We've also had good and very rapid results with free ads posted on Gumtree and Craigslist.

Facebook may not be free for much longer, but it's also worth using for driving traffic to your site and for SEO backlinks.

You can get a free listing on almost all directory websites, and most of those will give you at least one backlink. Some will only allow you to link to your website's front (index) page, but you should link to your optimised page, like this one to our online marketing Bury St Edmunds page if you can.

With some directories it might be worth paying for an enhanced listing, but there are so many free ones that you probably don't need to. Of course, you may get a few calls from directory owners trying to persuade you otherwise!

With social media, you can include a backlink in every post if you want, as well as the link to your website that you'll include in your profile. One of the benefits of posting links on social media sites is that they actually bring you traffic, not just search engine spiders, and traffic itself helps to improve your website's ranking, as well as bringing you potential customers, of course!

You can easily get ten good backlinks leading to your optimised webpage, or at least to your site, just by spending an hour or so adding yourself to directories and social media sites.

With some sites, that will be a very basic listing, but others allow you to optimise your listing quite a lot, too, and we'll look at that next time.

Until then, get linking!

Roy

Cinnamon Edge - Online Marketing and SEO in Bury St Edmunds

Online Marketing Step Three

2010-01-15T08:42:00.001-08:00

We've already looked at choosing your target key phrase (search term) and optimising your website for that phrase, in parts one and two.

Now for the next stage in search engine optimisation, or SEO, which is off-site SEO. This is where you begin to build backlinks to your website. The important thing here is to use your key phrase, and variations of it, for the anchor text of your backlinks.

The anchor text is the words people actually see, but which are a clickable link to your website. For example, we concentrated on the phrase 'online marketing Bury St Edmunds' for our test, which ended with us bagging eleven spots on page one of google for that term. If you click on that link you'll see it goes to the page on our site optimised for that phrase.

Now, the easiest place to put a backlink is on a site you control, like a blog. If you don't have a blog yet, go to Blogger.com, open a Google account if you don't have one already, and create a blog. Ideally, name that blog after your key phrase, but certainly use that phrase for the blog name and for the title of your first post.

Creating a blog takes seconds and costs nothing and it's live straight away.

Add a permanent link to your site (in the links you'll see in the sidebar - just copy the format of one of the existing links) using that phrase as well, and include a text link in your first blog post that uses the same term. Your first post can just be a welcome message and an explanation of what you do, with your key phrase and related words sprinkled in it.

This Marketing Manual blog has been established for some time, but we also have another that uses the phrase 'Online Marketing in Bury St Edmunds' in the title. Naturally, we post keyword rich content on that one, too, with backlinks to our website.

That's it - by starting a blog you've started your link-building strategy. Next time we'll look at where else you can easily add free backlinks and how to start building a brand online.

Roy

PS. I've tried to keep this mini-course simple, but for more help or more detail, just email me roy@cinnamonedge.co.uk or contact me via Twitter http://www.twitter.com/Roy_Everitt

Online Marketing Step Two

2010-01-13T07:35:00.000-08:00

Part two of your online marketing course from Cinnamon Edge, Bury St Edmunds.

In the first lesson I talked about how to choose a target key phrase or search term for your business. I've updated that today with more detail on how to use Google's keyword tool.

You can target as many key phrases as you want, especially if your business has a range of products or services.

For our purposes, though, let's assume you've settled on a particular key phrase or search term to target.

Now you need to use that phrase, and variations on it, in various parts of your online marketing strategy, starting with your website.

If you possibly can, get a domain name that includes your key phrase. Next, create a page on your website that uses your target key phrase in its title and description. Do this whether or not your website's domain includes the phrase. Add the key phrase to the metatags as well.

Don't use the website's front ('index') page for this - always create an extra page and link to it from the other pages on the site, using the key phrase for the link text.

On the new page, use the key phrase in the headline, near the beginning of the web page copy and again near the end. There are a few more things you can do, but essentially you now have a page optimised for your target key phrase, making it much easier to find via the search engines.

Your optimised page will also be a perfect landing page for inbound links, and we'll look at a key aspect of that next time.

Bookmark this page (Ctrl+D) to build a complete 'how-to' tutorial on marketing your business online.

Part three will follow in a couple of days.

Roy

Online Marketing Tips - One

2010-01-11T07:36:00.000-08:00

One thing we've proved beyond doubt is that promoting your business online involves more than just building a website and promoting it once. Our online marketing test for Bury St Edmunds was certainly instructive.

Although it's perfectly possible to dominate your local market with online marketing, it's not just something you can 'set and forget'. You need expertise to set up your online marketing campaign and you will need to devote some time to running it.

That doesn't need to be your expertise, of course, or your time - that's what professionals are for. But just so you know it won't be a one-off effort or expense.

Mind you, when you do online marketing right you can get and keep most of page one to yourself, as we've also shown, so you might want to invest some of your time anyway.

So in future posts I'll look at the specific steps you need to take to get your business all over page one of Google, Yahoo or Bing.

Your first step is to decide what search term your customers are most likely to use when they search online for products or services like those you offer. That's the phrase you'll be targeting from now on. So if you're an emergency plumber, do more people search for 'emergency plumber', or '24 hour plumber'?

I don't know but you can easily find out. Google obligingly offers a free keyword tool for you to find your best search term.

Find Google's tool at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

When you enter a possible keyword into the tool it creates a long list of related terms with numbers of people searching for those specific terms. Don't take these numbers too literally, but use them as a good indication of which phrases are most 'searched for'.

Enter your keyword idea without a local 'qualifier' so the numbers are big enough for Google to measure and you get useful, meaningful results. Pick the most popular and appropriate phrase from Google's results. Then add a local qualifier when you use it - which is what we'll look at next time.

So you might end up with a popular search term like 'emergency plumber', to which you add your local qualifier to get something like 'bury st edmunds emergency plumber' for your target key phrase.

As I say, we'll look at where to use that phrase next time.

Roy

Don't Market Her, Search Me

2009-12-03T03:33:00.000-08:00

Pop on over to RoyEverittDotcom for a little trip around Europe, the origins of names and the difference between search engine, Internet and online marketing.

Oh, and the invasion of a foreign power (well, a tiny bit of it) by the brave folk of Bury St Edmunds, England.

Oh, and Shakespeare's secret place in the world wide web. How he would have wondered!

Roy

Online Marketing in Cambridge

2009-11-19T13:49:00.000-08:00

Cinnamon Edge has extended its online marketing remit beyond Bury St Edmunds by taking on a new client in Cambridgeshire.

The Utopia Centre in Littleport, near Ely offers professional foot care and weightloss coaching for the Cambridge area and we've started raising their profile on Google.

We've already grabbed The Utopia Centre a couple of spots on page one. Let's see what else we can do over the next few weeks.

Roy

Bury St Edmunds Online Marketing

2009-11-13T10:31:00.000-08:00

Astonishing results from our online marketing exercise.

Anyone searching Google for online marketing services in Bury St Edmunds will find eleven of the first twelve places taken by Cinnamon Edge. Even a simple Gumtree ad jumped straight into third spot on page one.

(Here's a tip: use your key phrase and brand in the headline of your Gumtree ad, as that's what is shown in the results.)

Next thing to test is Graigslist, and that's in hand as well.

Now, I don't tell you this to boast (well, maybe just a little), but to point out that you could dominate your local market in the same way. And it's massively powerful when you all but eliminate your competition.

It takes time and effort and a bit of skill, but your business could do this too. I can't promise eleven out of the top twelve spots overnight, but you can make a start.

Whether you're based in Bury St Edmunds or not, online marketing is a 'must do', and anything worth doing is worth doing properly!

Naturally, we'll be happy to help.

Roy

Online Marketing Bury St Edmunds - Latest:

2009-11-10T05:18:00.000-08:00

Our online marketing project is going even better than we could reasonably have hoped.

Now the Cinnamon Edge website has been updated and Google's faithful spiders have found it, it's jumped straight onto page one.

So we once again have five of the top six places. And even this blog, which is about much more than just our online marketing for Bury St Edmunds, appears on page two.

UPDATE: While this blog slipped to page four, our main website leapfrogged to number one. That means we now have seven of the top eight places on Google. Plus, we're on pages two, three and four.

As I said a few days ago, our updated version of the Complete Marketing Manual will include a lot of updated information about online marketing for local businesses and it's pretty clear by now we know a few things about the subject.

Meanwhile you can watch and learn - from this project and from the many articles that you'll find appearing on the Cinnamon Edge website over the next couple of months.

And you can always ask for our advice and help.

Roy

Online Marketing in Bury St Edmunds

2009-11-02T12:41:00.000-08:00

Hello again.

One thing we will cover in more depth in the next edition of The Complete Marketing Manual is online marketing for your local business.

While we've been busy with other projects since the manual was last updated, we've also watched the world of online marketing being revolutionised by offline businesses increasingly using the Internet as a major part of their marketing.

And we've been a part of it, too, as Cinnamon Edge has helped several Bury St Edmunds businesses with their online marketing.

So thank you to those local businesses who have been part of our project to demonstrate online marketing in Bury St Edmunds.

The project will continue as we demonstrate how to get yourself and your business all over page one of Google by doing it ourselves with Cinnamon Edge, for the phrase 'online marketing Bury St Edmunds', although http://cinnamonedge.co.uk/ is not fully optimised for that phrase as I write this.

Watch this space - or page one of Google, anyway.

Roy

PS. I've also posted about the project on another blog 'Bury St Edmunds Online'.

Free Member Fire Software

2009-08-21T07:57:00.000-07:00

Hello again.

Great news if you've had trouble accessing this brilliant free offer
as I know some of you did:

Ian del Carmen has extended it until Monday 24th.

You probably know by now that membership sites are about
the most reliable way to generate a good income online.

And most membership scripts are great value.

This one is even better. For today only, it costs nothing!

Yep, that's MemberFire.

Ian del Carmen is giving it away, for one day only.

And yes, you can upgrade, but you don't have to.
(Although the upgrade's a bargain too.)

We've grabbed our copy - it would be daft not to!

Roy

Cinnamon Edge Website

2009-07-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

For the time being, the Cinnamon Edge website and our online marketing services are to be found at http://www.cinnamonedge.co.uk.

Roy

Multiple Streams of Income

2009-06-10T03:04:00.000-07:00

Hello again

To accompany Ron Holland's Multiple Streams of Income Workshop, I've started a blog, 'Ron Hollands Multiple Streams of Income' .

You'll find regular ideas on there from Ron on business building and cash-generating ideas that you can mostly start for 'under a tenner'.

The new blog is at http://tinyurl.com/rh-streams and the first dead simple income-generating idea is waiting for you.

Roy

Is This a Record?

2009-05-28T03:51:00.000-07:00

Hello again.

Can you get a new website indexed and on page one of Google in under a day?

Yes, you can.

How about less than an hour? How about a minute?

Amazingly, yes - when you know how. And it doesn't have to be a particularly special site, either, although visitors' responses to any website will be better if it is attractive and well-designed.

But yesterday, as a test and because I needed some genuine screen shots, I bought a domain name, pointed it at a new website, performed a bit of top secret hocus-pocus and grabbed positions between 2 and 8, depending on the precise search term used, within a minute.

Now, that test was for my benefit (to get the screenshots), although I think Ron at the excellent Must Go Couriers and Light Haulage will be happy, too.

What I need next are just five small businesses to nominate themselves as case studies, at half the usual price, to get their web presence up there on page one of Google. You could be local to Bury St Edmunds, but it doesn't really matter if you're not. You may have a website already, or I can build a simple site for you.

The point is, top ten of Google is the only place to be for a small to medium sized local business. That kind of exposure is priceless. The good news is, it's almost always possible, and now it's affordable, too.

I can't guarantee you'll be there in under a minute, though!

Roy

How to Really Change the Way You Think

2009-05-18T01:57:00.000-07:00

By Dr Kevin Fleming:

Executive coaching and personal coaching at Grey Matters International

Bury St Edmunds Builder Joins BSE Online

2009-04-24T04:37:00.000-07:00

Another Bury St Edmunds company, Murray Building Services and Maintenance, has joined Bury St Edmunds Online.

This general builder is based in Beck Row, just outside Bury St Edmunds and supplies all building services, from minor repairs to new builds.

Gary Murray, company owner, offers his skills as a general builder in the Bury St Edmunds and Suffolk area.

Gary focuses first of all on customer satisfaction and from his testimonials, it looks like Gary is one the best builders in Suffolk.

Roy

First Businesses Sign Up For BSE Online

2009-04-18T10:41:00.000-07:00

The first business on the new Bury St Edmunds portal, Bury St Edmunds Online is 'Must Go', a courier firm based in Rougham, just outside the town.

Must Go Couriers operate in Suffolk and the whole of the UK.

With a range of vehicles available for loads of all sizes from single packages to pallets, Must Go are especially proud of their promise to deliver individual packets with great care, and if necessary your package will be allocated its own dedicated vehicle and driver for end to end security and safety.

With service like that, we're very proud to have Must Go Couriers as Bury St Edmunds Online's first client.

Roy

Animoto test

2009-04-17T13:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a video by Animoto, via YouTube:

Roy

The Ultimate Supertip

2009-03-24T11:13:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

Harvey Segal spent part of last year advising Clickbank on the subject of marketing. Which suggests he can teach you and me a thing or two.

So when he offers his best marketing advice for nothing, well ... I just had to show you 'The Ultimate Supertip'.

It's probably the cleverest marketing idea ever - and Harvey's actually giving it away!

Hard to believe? I thought so too, but as soon as I read this short report I snapped it up. Naturally, Harvey knows what he's doing, and you'll see how The Ultimate Supertip works when you look for yourself here, at The Ultimate Supertip.

Roy

PS. This is so clever you don't even have to disclose your email address, so you won't be added to anyone's list or get bombarded with unwanted emails!

Have Giveaways Had Their Day?

2009-03-16T06:25:00.000-07:00

Hello again.

Like many information marketers, I've been participating in a lot of giveway events lately, with pretty good results, I must say.

The point of a giveaway, for you as a JV partner, is to add names to your list by contributing a gift (or several gifts, if you upgrade) and requiring people to give you their name and email in exchange for the download.

So, all you need is a product you can give away, a squeeze page and a download page. Then, in exchange for adding your gift, you promote the giveaway to your existing contacts.

So, it's quite easy. And, as I say, results have been pretty good.

But has the giveaway peaked? Recently, I've noticed more and more people willingly signing up for the free gift, only to unsubscribe as soon as they get it. At the moment, that's running at about 20% of signups. Others just use a temporary email which they then delete, so subsequent messages from me are bounced.

So, I imagine this is a widespread phenomenon. Whether the number of people joining giveaways and downloading stuff has plateaud, or whether the word has got around that this is the best way to cash in, I don't know.

But I do know several ways to improve the situation:

Give better gifts. Wow visitors with the quality of what you offer so they're more likely to stick with you.
Always have a link in your product that encourages them to resubscribe. Make a point of asking for their primary email.
Use a double opt-in so people can't just give you a fake email address to start with.
Make your gift a course or other continuity program, so they have to stick with you.

Remember, marketing is a numbers game, but an untargeted list isn't such a great asset as a small, targeted one will be. The ones who stick with you when they see what you really offer will be the ones you can build a profitable relationship with in the longer term.

I'm going to keep using giveaways - and I'm going to be offering better and better gifts to make sure they work!

Roy

Recurring Themes

2009-03-01T14:22:00.000-08:00

There are a few recurring themes in marketing, especially of the Internet persuasion:

'The money's in the list', is one

'Lifetime customer value', is another.

This weekend, one particular theme din't so much recur as beat a tattoo on the heads of those present at Steve Foley's Econfex Entrepreneur Conference.

It was, 'You don't know what you don't know', and boy, is it true!

We hadn't even planned to go to Heathrow this weekend, but when Steve gave us a call and invited us personally, it would have been impolite to say no.

Plus, something told us we should say 'yes' anyway.

With no idea what we might learn that we hadn't heard before, we expected the main benefit to be networking. In a sense, it was, but there's the kind of networking that might lead to something someday (which is still very worthwhile), and there's the kind that gives you such an instant payback you can't help wondering about 'destiny'...

Meanwhile, we learned loads from David Kyte, Simon Coulson, Simon Zutshi, Vanish Patel, Glenn Armstrong, Peter Burnett and others. Mostly things we didn't know we didn't know.

Profiting from networking, like a lot of success-related skills, is largely down to mindset, so we were clearly ready for something, even if we had no idea what it was. 'Something' duly arrived; something else we didn't know we didn't know.

One day I might tell you what!

Networking. Sometimes it's like marketing on steroids.

Roy

Recipe for Success?

2009-02-23T08:26:00.001-08:00

Hello again

A nineteenth-century recipe for jugged hare began with the immortal line:

'First, catch your hare'.

If you've ever seen a hare run, you'll know that's a bit like saying, 'First, get thousands of visitors to your website'.

Next to impossible unless you're already a big player online.

So, in order to eat, we might have to settle for something a bit slower-moving than a hare, at least for now.

How about a seated audience?

Given that most website visitors only linger for a few seconds and most direct mail readers don't actually read... might an hour or so of someone's attention give you a better chance of communicating your benefits to them?

I'd say so. Coaches, trainers and overseas property companies know so. Even Internet marketers know their best audience is one that sits still and listens, with no distraction from the million and one other Internet marketers' emails.

In other words, seminars sell. Why else would Armand Morin, Andrew Reynolds, Sean Roach, Ted Nicholas, Simon Coulson, Mark Anastasi (and a load more) put them on?

If they wanted to be on stage they could join an amateur dramatic group!

No, seminars sell. For seventeen dollars you can find out once and for all how they can sell for you, too.

Go to this special Niche Seminar Secrets Page while you think about it!

Roy

PS. You get my mentorship when you upgrade. As bonuses go, that's a BONUS. I charge hundreds of dollars a day, normally. You get me for nothing just for upgrading to Niche Seminar Secrets.

The Devil IS in the Detail

2009-02-07T09:41:00.000-08:00

Hello again.

The problem with detail is that most of us find it a lot easier to speak in great detail than we do to hear and absorb it.

Which is why some of the most knowledgeable people on a subject - any subject - can also be the least interesting to a lay audience. Detail, of course, is a matter of context. For example, if you're speaking to a room full of fellow experts or in a one-to-one with a peer, detail and in-depth discussion is the order of the day. In those situations, generalities and simplifications won't do.

But if you're trying to get new ideas and facts across to someone, or a group of people, you must take into account their ability to absorb, digest and remember new ideas is a lot less than your ability to tell them.

How does this apply to marketing?

Well, while you may be in love with your product or service and all its wonderful and ingenious features, your prospective customer probably only has room for two or three concepts at most.

Number one will always be 'What's in it for me'?

Numbers two and three might be 'Where's the proof'? and 'How much'?

But explaining exactly how you're going to deliver on your promises is giving too much detail and is usually more interesting to you than it is to them. If they want to know the answer to that one it will be because your 'proof' is unconvincing. So answer the 'How'? question with that in mind.

But start with the number one benefit and how that solves their problem. That's usually the only 'how' most people really care about.

Roy

PS. See The Complete Marketing Manual at http://www.completemarketingmanual.com/

PPS. See how public speaking could bring you a six-figure income at Niche Seminar Secrets

What's in a Name?

2009-01-15T04:37:00.000-08:00

Finding a catchy name for your product or business can make the difference between success or failure, especially if you have limited resources to promote it in the early stages.

So how should you choose a name?

For some people, ideas come easily, but other people need to be more systematic about it. Of course, you can ask around and even seek professional help, but one system is to look carefully at the benefits your product or business brings and reduce that to as few words as possible, even if that means you're reduced to naming features.

As an example: yesterday I heard someone speaking on the radio. The subject is not relevant (and I had to think hard to remember it was the credit crunch). What stuck with me, after hearing it just once, was the name of his company, 'Content and Code'. If that doesn't tell you he's in the website business, I don't know what would.

'Google', on the other hand, tells you nothing, but we all know what Google does, or we think we do. Certainly, we know their public face.

Here's another: 'Betfair'. You know straight away that Betfair is probably in the betting/gaming business. You might also gather that they like to think of themselves as fair, or honest. But fair has several meanings besides 'honest'. A fair might be a fun fair, a market, a carnival, a trade show or a host of places where trading might be done.

And that's what Betfair is: a place where you don't so much place bets, as with a bookie, but where you trade them with fellow gamblers. Fair and square, as it were.

Find out more about Betfair and how it works, here.

Roy

Don't Put Your Daughter on the Stage

2009-01-13T05:52:00.000-08:00

... yes, it's before my time, as well.

But it's probably not the sage bit of advice it used to be. After all, what's a 'proper job' in the city worth right now? And doesn't the stage just soun d like it would be much more fun?

Anyway, to quote another old saying, 'The smell of the greasepaint and the roar of the crowd' (or vice-versa) may have been coined by that great old showman PT Barnum, but they still hold a tremendous attraction now, for actors, singers, comedians, illusionists, Internet marketers...

Most of those people have businesses away from the stage that rely on their stage or screen persona to prosper. Actors need their next role, singers promote their new album, and so on, and Internet marketers promote their latest product or service.

The point is, they promote themselves from the stage (and sometimes from the screen). It makes logical sense but it also makes them feel great and that feeling is one they can share with everyone.

To reach the maximum number of people, the limitations of a theatre or auditorium stage may not seem the most efficient medium. But to reach them directly, credibly and indelibly, a live performance is exactly what's needed. It's also a great way to feel alive!

So, if you're aiming to be the next Billy Connolly or, more likely, the next big shot in Internet marketing, get up there and do your stuff!

Have you ever heard the sound of applause aimed at you? How did it make you feel?

Wealthy, perhaps?

Roy

PS. Get that feeling for yourself when you take the one-dollar trial of Niche Seminar Secrets!

Web Prosperity Launches

2009-01-06T10:05:00.000-08:00

Hello again.

The name says it all. Web Prosperity, which I first told you about last week, launches today, 6 January. If you haven't secured your position yet, it's not too late, although early movers got the best deal, as always.

Still, thousands more people will be joining once the official launch is announced, so you still have time to grab a very advantageous position, at http://wellversed.webprosperity.com/

It's going to be huge, being from the people who brought us GetResponse, and if you act quickly you can still beat the rush and grab the cash!

Roy

PS. Web prosperity can be yours, starting today, at http://wellversed.webprosperity.com/

A Great Opportunity For You

2008-12-30T13:45:00.000-08:00

Here's a very great opportunity to dramatically increase your income in 2009, and to reserve your position right now will cost you nothing.

Do you want to explode your passive income in 2009?

Read on if you do.

I've just secured a great position in a brand new opportunity that's launching on January 6th. What this means to you is that you can also secure a pre-launch position - directly under me - at the very top if you act now.

Right now:

http://wellversed.webprosperity.com

This will be very exciting. My top IM friends are joining today.

Imagine: you enter your name, desired login name and email address into this page:

http://wellversed.webprosperity.com

Then do nothing more - and not spend any money, either!

Then once January 6th arrives, and you wake up and realise that you have a downline of hundreds or even thousands of people, how's that going to make you feel? Just think what that can do for your income.

Here's something else for you to think about: when an opportunity like this launches, those who get in at the beginning can make a fortune with very little effort. Fact!

It's true that just being in the right place at the right time and taking action is really all it takes. So imagine if this is your lucky day. You've got nothing to lose and a LOT to gain, and you can get started for free!

Don't delay, because this early opportunity to get a top position will only be available to you for a very short time. Top marketers are joining already:

http://wellversed.webprosperity.com

Roy

PS. Some additional info: this brand-new program is developed by Implix, the company behind GetResponse. So you can be sure of the quality of the products (which are tools you use for your internet business anyway) and how BIG this business will be, even before the launch on 6th January. I'll be promoting this aggressively in 2009, and I strongly suggest you do the same, starting now:

http://wellversed.webprosperity.com

Instant Affiliate Website

2008-12-19T13:35:00.000-08:00

Mike Filsaime's Instant Affiliate Website is causing quite a stir.

When I received advanced notice of it, no one else was promoting Mike's latest and very possibly best product. By the time I'd grabbed my own Instant Affiliate Site and sent a quick email to my list, all was still eerily quiet...

http://royeveritt.com.instantaffiliatewebsite.com/

...for about 15 minutes...

Then the torrent started. I didn't know I was on that many lists.

Now everyone, and I mean everyone, is promoting it.

I suppose I could boast I got my Instant Affiliate Website first! And my FREE download of the famous Butterfly Marketing Manuscript...

It's at http://royeveritt.com.instantaffiliatewebsite.com/

Go and grab yours.

Roy

PS. 30 pre-loaded affiliate products, free hosting, pre-written reviews, your own blog, the ability to promote anything else you want, Butterfly Marketing Manuscript. All FREE.

http://royeveritt.com.instantaffiliatewebsite.com/

Introducing Mike Filsaime!

2008-12-19T06:44:00.000-08:00

Ok, so you've probably heard of Mike Filsaime already...

Still, like me, you might not have realised quite how many things Mike is involved in. That's probably why he seems to be doing quite well just now!

One project of Mike's, which seems to be a re-launch, is his variation on the 'instant affiliate' site idea. Maybe Mike invented this - I don't honestly know. Anyway, I've signed up for a free affiliate website and you should too.

Go to http://royeveritt.instantaffiliatewebsite.com to see my website and to sign up for yours.

You can instantly add tons of preloaded affiliate banners and reviews, write your own blog, re-design the look of your site, add your own additional affiliate links and even upload your site to your own domain. And it's all free.

Naturally, Mike is hoping you'll sell loads of his products, and you probably will, but you can promote just about anything else on there, too. Did I mention it's free?

Go here http://royeveritt.instantaffiliatewebsite.com to see my site and grab your own.

To your success

Roy

A Great Clickbank Alternative

2008-12-10T09:37:00.000-08:00

Hello again

I doubt if there's a serious marketer in the world who doesn't have an account with Clickbank. I do, and you probably do as well. And Clickbank is very good, in its way. There are thousands of products, all with at least 50% commission, and you can promote your own digital products ther, too.

It does have one drawback, especially if you're based outside the US, in that all commissions are paid by cheque (check), in dollars, not less than two weeks after the sale. Then they take up to a week to arrive and about a week to clear, in the UK. Your bank will probably charge you for the privilege, too.

But most of us carry on using Clickbank because, in most other ways, it's excellent at what it does.

Now there's an alternative. Take a look at this video:

Click Here to Sell Your Products or Become a Super Affiliate

As you can see, Paydotcom.com has most of the features we love about Clickbank, and a generous affiliate scheme of its own. And it pays you through PayPal, which is a major plus for me, I have to say!

Why not have a look at PayDotcom.com now?

Until next time,

Roy

Getting Back at Google?

2008-09-24T08:11:00.000-07:00

If you've used Google Adwords, you probably had the same mixed results that most of us have, especially at first - maybe spending more than you earned back?

No more!

Get Google Adwords for free, here: http://tinyurl.com/5w4k3h

(If the link doesn't work, copy and paste it into your browser.)

One simple idea, tuned to perfection until even Google loved it (and you will too), and your Google Ads are free.

It's really too good to miss, so go here: http://tinyurl.com/5w4k3h

Roy Everitt, Marketing professional

The Complete Marketing Manual from Cinnamon Edge

PS. I actually spoke about this product some months ago and expected Google to have found a way to stop it by now. Google moves in mysterious ways, but why should we care? Get free Google Adwords here: http://tinyurl.com/5w4k3h

Networking

2008-09-05T08:31:00.000-07:00

Hello, again

I’ve spoken before about networking, and how it’s a great way to give yourself the best chance of getting referrals, joint ventures and all kinds of other opportunities.

All that is true, but there’s one thing I probably haven’t mentioned before, and ace marketer (and networker) John Carlton has today reminded me of this:

It’s actually good fun.

In fact, it’s one of the best things about being in business, especially if your business means working from home or in a small office. Getting out and about can keep you sane, keep you more active (how easy is it to sit at your desk for hours without moving?). Just as importantly, of course, it can keep you in business.

A lot of our work comes through networking and referrals. And doing business is a pleasure when you can do so much of it by spending time with real people.

If you’re nervous about the prospect of networking (or anything else), we can even help you with that: read HERE about Thought Field Therapy – weird as it may sound it works in over ninety percent of cases. See: http://www.HelpandIdeas.com/overcoming.html

But the key is to get to events and make yourself and your business known. Show an interest in what other people do, rather than trying to ‘sell’ to everyone else, and you will reap the rewards –and probably have fun, too.

Until next time

Roy

The Complete Marketing Manual at Cinnamon Edge

PS One networking event we rarely miss is our local ABC coffee morning. Advantage Business Club have breakfast meetings, too, and a brilliant online networking system. See http://www.ABCAdvantage.biz for details.

Marketing For Life Coaches

2008-07-17T02:53:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

Not everyone is aware that my wife, Jacqui Carrel is a life coach, as well as being the other half of Cinnamon Edge. And there are a lot of life coaches out there these days - in fact, it's said to be the UK's fastest-growing profession.

So, it follows that to be a successful life coach, you need to be:

1 Very good at coaching

2 Very good at marketing

Luckily, Jacqui is both. But not everyone has the time or the inclination to learn a profession and learn how to promote themselves. Even those who know how, don't always have the time and energy to devote to marketing.

The problems of learning to do both things is amply addressed in Jacqui's new manual, just released, The Life Coaching Manual.

But for those life coaches for whom marketing remains either a problem or a chore, we also have a solution: specialist life coach marketing from yours truly. Apart from contributing chunks of marketing ideas and methods to The Life Coaching Manual and co-authoring The Complete Marketing Manual, I've also helped and advised other life coaches and similar professionals with their marketing and promotion.

So you know, if you're a life coach looking to promote yourself more effectively, or a new or prospective life coach looking to get started, you've come to the right place.

I know you want:

More leads

More referrals

More higher-paying clients

More payable hours and fewer spent promoting yourself

To move closer to YOUR dreams, more quickly

All of which you can get from Cinnamon Edge. If you're a new life coaches or you're business isn't bringing you the rewards you hoped for, you should buy The Life Coaching Manual. All business people who want to do better should take a serious look at The Complete Marketing Manual...

And if you want more personal hands-on help with your marketing, especially if you're a life coach, you should contact me.

Roy Everitt, Specialist Life Coach Marketer.