If not, my new “Marketing Your Website” page gives them to you.

And if you’ve already been through my course, you’re ahead of the class anyway.

Here are the questions:

1. I have a website, but I don’t think anyone’s visiting it. How do I find out? 
2. How can I market my business online? 
3. How should I market my website offline…in the real world? 
4. What is Twitter and how can it help my business? 
5. I have a Facebook account. Can’t I just post links about my business there? 
6. I have a LinkedIn account. How can I use it to market my business? 
7. I’ve never heard of SlideShare. What is it and how can it help my business? 
8. Should I start a blog? 
9. How do I get people to come back to my website over and over again? 
10. How do I get my site to rank #1 in Google?

Have I left off any? If so, let me know and I’ll add them ASAP!

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Check out the book and start your journey toward better search engine optimization: Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day.

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In my special report, that I hope you’ve had a chance to read, I mentioned 2 ways to spread the word about your website offline:

1. Print the website address on business cards, flyers and coupons.
2. Announce it at meetings and to other organizations.

Here are 6 other ways to market your website offline…

But before I begin the list, I have to remind you to always ask for permission to add someone to your mailing list.

Don’t do what many retailers do and just ask for your customers’ email addresses without telling them what you will do with them. Explicitly ask for their permission to send them emails.

Okay, here’s the list…

1. Place a sign and a sheet of paper near the checkout area of your store.
2. If you are at a speaking event or conference, place a sheet of paper at your booth or table.

Don’t forget…Make sure that anytime you present opportunities for people to sign up for your list that you provide them with an enticing, irresistible offer:

An example of this could be a free gift, raffle entry, discount or a free trial.

…back to the list…

1. Place the link to your website on handouts, emphasizing the irresistible offer.
2. If customers call your business, request their email address when they call. Tell them you would like to send them a survey about your customer service. In the survey, request explicit permission to add them to your email list.
3. Add a field for email address and a checkbox requesting permission to email them–about your great products, services and useful information–on forms, applications, bills, receipts and invoices.
4. Mention your offer on your telephone hold message

So there you go…a total of 8 ways to market your small business website offline. Take advantage of any opportunity you have to engage customers and prospects and encourage them to visit your website to see more of what you have to offer.

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In particular, I spent many hours during the holiday, while driving to Philadelphia and back, listening to business-related podcasts on my iPod.

If you’re not familiar with the term, a podcast is really just an audio file (.mp3) that you can play on an mp3 player (like an iPod) or your computer.

I find podcasts on iTunes and other business websites. I recently realized that I haven’t even listened to music on my iPod in months…how strange is that?

What I want you to know is that podcasting can be an excellent way to connect with people, build your list of subscribers, drive traffic to your website, develop reusable content, generate income, share your knowledge and truly make a difference in people’s lives.

I’m not exaggerating; a podcast can do all of those things.

Some of the podcasts I’ve listened to lately have resulted in a complete paradigm shift and have taken me in a direction I would not have even known existed 6 months ago.

From a personal perspective, what I’ve observed is that great podcasts:

• Have an engaging host or duo (some podcasts feature 2 hosts) who make you feel like they are talking directly to you
• Provide practical information that you can put to use right away
• Leave you waiting for the next episode with a lot of anticipation
• Answer questions from listeners

From a business point of view, great podcasts:

• Take a moment to tell you about a great offer that you can receive by signing up for their list
• Don’t hard sell
• Direct you to their website or blog for downloads related to the episode
• Truly build a community of listeners

Podcasts can be transcribed. These transcriptions can be:

• Reworked into articles for article marketing
• Reworked into multiple blog posts
• Combined to create an eBook
• Sold for $5-$7 along with the audio file
• Bundled with other products
• Included as free bonuses for other products
• Distributed in waiting rooms, trade show booths or at presentations

Here are 2 transcription services that I’ve heard podcasters mention:

• New Media Transcription (offers formatting and branding as well)
• Verbalink

The sky is truly the limit. If you already have regular speaking engagements, you should really consider making digital audio recordings of them.

You may or may not want to post them on iTunes, but you could post them on your website, transcribe them or sell them.

Many people would rather listen than read…and the truth of the matter is that with everyone’s busy lifestyles these days, many times it’s easier to listen to something on the go, rather than make time to read it.

Check out these websites and listen to a few podcasts in your field or areas of interest:

• iTunes
• Quick and Dirty Tips
• Odeo

Here’s another resource if you’re ready to jump right in and start recording:

• Audacity – Free Audio Recording and Editing Software

Let me know if you have audio ready to go and just need it uploaded to your website or iTunes. I’d love to help!

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Why is this bad? Well it’s not really bad depending on your goals and lifestyle needs or desires.

Trading your time for money means:

1. You have to do work/be actively involved in order to make money
2. Where you do your work may be limited
3. Your income relies on you – it’s all active income

If this suits you, then stop reading.

However, if it doesn’t, let’s explore how selling products could change the picture.

Selling products means:

1. You can make money while you’re sleeping or on vacation – creating a passive income stream
2. You can possibly educate your customers – who may later purchase your services
3. Your business is easier and more profitable to scale

These benefits are not exhaustive. There are many more.

Think about what types of products could you sell to accompany your existing services?

• eBooks
• audio/video recordings of lectures, workshops or interviews
• audio/video/online training
• workbooks
• reports
• whitepapers
• checklists
• membership websites

Another benefit to selling products in addition to your services, is that you can develop products that allow potential customers/clients to…

• Get to know you and trust you as an expert
• Enjoy your offerings at a price point that is comfortable
  for them at any point in their life

Get started today and try writing a short eBook. This guide, How to Write and Publish Your Own eBook, will help you get started and take you step by step through the process of
writing and selling your eBook.

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Let’s think about an important question: What does increased traffic do for your business or organization?

You may think that increased traffic equals:

• More people walking through your door.
• More people visiting your church.
• More new clients.
• More donations to your organization.

Well, that’s not necessarily true. Yes, you read correctly. That is not necessarily true. Increased traffic does not automatically equal more visits, more customers, more
clients or more donations.

Let’s explore another question: Are you giving them a reason to visit, buy, test your services or donate money?

To revisit a point made in a recent blog post about the most important copywriting tip you will ever learn, ask yourself:

Are the words on the pages all about you or all about your prospect?

Do you have a compelling offer that not only gets their attention, but also gets them to act?

Are you communicating that you understand what keeps them up at night? Are you speaking directly to how your products, services or organiztion can provide them with relief or solve their problems?

Are you providing them with information that begins to give them that relief or solutions? Does your information say, “Hey, we know how you feel and we have the expertise to help. Try this and if you like it, we have more.”?

So before you say to yourself or your webmaster, “I need to drive more traffic to my website,” give serious though about what your website provides that will make someone hang around and enjoy their visit, even better–walk away with something valuable and relevant to their lives.

Taking it one step further, if they come and hang out for a while, what are you constantly changing on your website to make them come back and get more valuable, relevant information?

Give these questions some thought and objectively evaluate your website to see if you have what it takes to drive traffic to your website.

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Have you ever looked at your website statistics and seen that you’ve had 20, 50 even 100 or more unique visitors for a month? In some cases those visitors may not return. Make the most of their first visit and possibly encourage a second, third or even fourth by providing them with a valuable, irresistible offer in exchange for their name and email address.

This is the key for a successful opt-in form: an enticing offer. When you make the offer, communicate its benefits to your visitors. Don’t just say, “Subscribe to our newsletter.” Say, “Receive tips, tricks, and techniques from experts on how to grow the most beautiful garden in your neighborhood.” Speak to your prospect’s desires. Focus on them, not you.

Other great offers include, but are definitely not limited to:

• Ebooks
• Podcasts
• Book Excerpts
• Workbooks

Aweber makes it really easy to create an opt-in form and put it on your website. They also have a great system to capture the contact information that visitors give you on your website so that you can build a relationship with them over time and offer them more of your services
and products.

Create your enticing offer and sign up for Aweber today to begin turning your visitors into prospects!

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Create a Facebook Contest and you can increase your Fans and their interest in your company or brand.

Check out these 7 examples of companies getting creative and increasing their fans and group members by having contests.

1. Barkings, a blog for Small Dog Electronics, an Apple Specialist, has an ongoing, monthly contest where they choose 2 of their Facebook Fans a month to receive a good bag of fun iPod and Mac accessories.
2. The Environmental Working Group held a one time contest in May. To enter, you had to post “some lovin’” on their wall within a 8 day period and you could win a Foodnews tote and a stainless steel water bottle.
3. Gamedev.net is encouraging their fans to get creative to win a free subscription to their website or a grab bag of goodies and a CD. To enter, you have to become a fan of their page and take a photo of yourself wearing a Gamedev.net t-shirt and upload it to the page’s album. This contest ends on December 13.
4. Mazda held a Mazda Design Challenge and asked Facebook members to submit a 150-word description of their vision of the 2018 Mazda3 and an optional sketch. The winning design sketch was sculpted out of clay at an Auto Show in Los Angeles, CA. The winner also received travel, accommodations, $1,000 spending cash and a new MAZDA3 to drive during their stay as well as an opportunity to take the microphone to introduce the final concept at its unveiling on the final day of the show.
5. Labs Are Vital, an online resource for laboratory professionals and those interested in the profession worldwide, held a scholarship contest using Facebook. Through submission of print advertisements, T-shirt designs, or videos that creatively expressed why a career in lab science is a great career to pursue, students competed to win scholarships provided by the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS), the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), and Blood Systems, Inc.
6. Earlier this year, the Bonnaroo Music Festival entered everyone who became a Fan of their page into a drawing to win tickets to their 2008 music and art festival.
7. The Cloverfield movie Page had a contest, where people who became a fan of their page were entered in a contest to win a camcorder, valued at $1,000.

These examples are just the tip of the iceburg of ways you can leverage your Facebook page and engage your customers.

So if you haven’t already set up a Facebook Page, do it today and start a contest to grow your fanbase.

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