Banner Ad Blueprint

When I first encountered Banner Ad Blueprint, I thought it was only about banners and ads. Banner Ad Blueprint is actually a guide or blueprint that can be copied by other marketers looking at developing a profitable advertisement campaign. It’ll show you the way how to do your keyword research and the way to boost your internet affiliate marketing campaigns. Banner Ad Blueprint will also give you easy methods on how to get highest CTR and conversion rates for your websites and promotions. Lastly, it will show you steps on how to make ads and banners which will deliver great results.

Me, being the marketer that I am, was intrigued by the claim. If true, banner ads could be a cheap alternative for lots and lots of traffic to my niche sites… So I bought the course.

I followed every step laid out on their module. When I checked my website status the next day, believe it or not, I had a 75% increase in traffic and my sales went up by 50%! Indeed, obtaining the right ad through Banner Ad blueprint will certainly increase the visibility of your website.

Aside from the benefits listed on blueprint demo on the main page, there are still numerous things that the tools and training can do for your Internet marketing endeavors. You can increase your website traffic and affiliate commissions (if you see fit) because blueprint gives aid and guidance in looking the right niche and in increasing your profits.

If you are a newbie on Internet marketing, the blueprint will guide you along the way – from giving the recommended network to the product which you can promote and utilize. One great thing that the Banner Ad Blueprint can do is you can start your online business without spending much of your time and money on creating your own website. Yes! You can have an online business without a website. Instead of allocating thousands of dollars on creating flashy and beautiful website, you can instead focus on the promotion and marketing aspect of your business.

For more information, check out Banner Ad Blueprint here…

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March 29, 2010

March 30, 2010

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Fleece 5.0 Jacket from SCOTTEVEST.

PS. Any piece of clothing with a revision number in it is cool!

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The webinar will be free for everyone who signs up.  If you miss it, I’ll post the replay for 24 hours :0)

The Top 5 Startup Questions Ever Asked.

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Number 1 – I think Creative Commons is an awesome cause.  I’ve got lots of works licensed under it.

Number 2 – The link below contains 50 stunning images on Flickr that are licensed under Creative Commons!

Check it out and let me know which ones you like!  Here’s an example!
via 50 Stunning Images From Flickr Under Creative Commons.

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Today, they’ve relaunched and morphed into this awesome social/idea/professional network that will be sure to have people joining left and right.

Personally, I love ideas.  I love everything about ideas.  And the new BC appears to center around them!

Here’s an excerpt from Penelope Trunk:

Starting today, we are calling Brazen Careerist the career management tool for next-generation professionals. In the online career space where experienced professionals win, we’ve created a network that will help young professionals level the playing field. Instead of just a traditional résumé, at the core of the new Brazen Careerist profile is an idea-based feed that showcases your knowledge, opinions and thoughts. In other words: Your potential. We all know there are pools of new talent coming into the market, but no career site showcases the most critical thing that talent should be sharing: Ideas.

Check out more at Brazen Careerist.

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Well, The Free Sound Project offers the same sorts of thing – only free.  So the next time you’re looking for a canned audio file, make sure you check them out first :0)

For more info, check out freesound :: view tag :: barking.

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I found this post in my bookmarks and thought it might be cool to see what you’re opinion was of it.  Are you looking for a social media expert?  Do you have one that’s any good?

8 Questions to Ask Your Social Media Expert:

1. Can you give me an example of social media work you’ve completed for a client recently?
2. How do you go about pitching bloggers?
3. How do you monitor what people are saying about you?
4. Where can I find you online?
5. Can you ghost write my blog for me?
6. How do you measure results?
7. How would you define social media?
8. Can you just pretend to be me online?

For the full article, visit 8 Questions to Ask Your “Social Media Expert” | davefleet.com.

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I wanted to point you to a link I found on Twitter.  It’s a top 100 entrepreneurs list that I think will prove very valuable to your ‘idea building.’

Perhaps you could make it your personal goal to get in touch with a couple of these entrepreneurs.  After all, that’s how I’ve made all my big gun contacts in the last year!!

Here’s the link:

100 Entrepreneurs You Should Follow and Learn From on Twitter | Associate Degree – Facts and Information.

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I’ve bought and sold lots of stuff on Sitepoint, Flippa’s predecessor.  I have yet to try out Flippa – but it’s highly receommended by a lot of my friends..

Check it out if you feel like instantly getting a targeted audience!

Flippa: The #1 Marketplace for Buying and Selling Web Sites.

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So, what I found was DVDStyler, an awesome cross platform DVD authoring application for the creation of professional-looking DVDs.  It does everything from menus to conversion and is completely open source.

Here’s a quick rundown:

• creation and burning DVD video with interactive menus
• support of AVI, MPEG and other file formats
• support of multi-core processor v1.7.3
• allows using MPEG and VOB files without reencoding
• allows files with different audio/video format on one DVD support of titleset
• user-friendly interface with support of drag & drop
• and a ton more stuff!

For more check out DVDStyler – Free DVD Authoring Application.

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Me, I’m into Twitter for meeting people and building relationships.  Every once in a while if there’s something cool – I’ll promote it.  And if I’m doing a new product or something and think my followers will like it, I’ll tweet about it.  But that’s it!

Actually, I think my followers get way more out of me than anything else!  I’m forever giving away free content :0)

Anyway, click the link below to find out how to Mass Unfollow using the tools Friend Or Follow And TweetKarma!

How to mass unfollow or follow people on Twitter .. and more! | Christopher Kusek, Technology Evangelist.

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NeuroMarketing – Top 7 Insights To Unlocking Your Customer’s Brain For Instant Sales.

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I’m just going to walk you along a little journey, so that you might see where I’ve been, what I’ve realized, and what I’m planning…

4 years ago I started JDsBlog.com because of a white paper I read, “How to become a professional blogger.”  At the time it was unfinished and recommended a Blogger account – but I discovered WordPress the next day.

This blog went from the mandatory, “Hi, so this is blogging” post all the way to being in the top 100,000 (Alexa) for coaching entrepreneurs and business people how to start their own businesses.

Now, somewhere along the way, I discovered my voice – my blogger’s voice actually.

I started to realize that the site I built, JDsBlog, was a great place for entrepreneurs to learn how to start a business, but I felt my hands were tied.

So I went on to start MarketingHackz.com and NetHackz.com – both niche oriented blogs.  That led me down the path of membership training and building my own web design business.  But some things come to and end – unfortunately.

Tech Solution stopped doing web design.  80% of my clients were shitty.  I loved a few of them though.  I started (and am still) branding myself.  And I’m back!

The flavor of the site is going to be a bit different.  In fact, I’m even changing the title.  It’s going to be my scrapbook.  So it’ll be more personal in nature.  I can assure you though – if you like my Twitter feed or my other sites – this one is going to be an extension.

So that’s it.  Over the next couple days, I’m going to be removing a lot of the advertising and change the theme up a bit.  And then we’re ready to rock and roll!

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I thought you might be interested in one I’m planning on launching in the next week or so. It’s called AnalyticsMaster.com.

To make a long story short, I discovered a system that lets you funnel your organic blog traffic into a companion site. The process is pretty easy and I want to share it with you.

I scheduled a webinar to step you through the process tomorrow (Tuesday, July 7th) from 3PM EST to 4PM EST. To get access to the mind-blowing webinar – check it out here.

I shared a ton of tools that’ll get you started.

If you’re still interested in learning more about the course, sign up for the updates below, or head over to the Analytics Master information page to get started.

Believe me when I tell you this system will take your existing traffic and generate real cash out of it. I did it by building Creating Slogans because of a #1, first page rank for the term ‘Best Slogans’ and this site, MarketingHackz.com.

Within 6 days, Creating Slogans sold out at 1000 memberships..

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When you walk into Macy’s, you expect to look at things.  When you walk into Best Buy, you want to feel and touch stuff.  If they have a game console hooked up, that’s all the better.

When you view a webpage, you want to be similarly stimulated.

No pictures – no purchase.

So how to you make your informational product look real?  What can you do to give your prospective buyer that eye-candy that they want.  Oftentimes, it’s a simple graphic that is the distinction between a product that makes hundreds a day or a couple bucks a day.

Thankfully, you don’t need to be a designer to create stunning graphics.  Nor do you need to put out a boatload of cash.

It’s usually as simple as a couple clicks of a mouse button.

The product I am referring to is CoverActionPro.

CoverActionPro is a series of Photoshop Actions that let you style a cover or a DVD template however you like, then it outputs the finished hi-def image for you to put on your site.

Here’s some examples:

I felt some of you cringe when I said Photoshop…  There’s a solution.  CAP has step by step tutorials that make the process of creating your covers painless.  In fact, this is how I learned Photoshop – these tutorials.

CoverActionPro truly is remarkable software.  I have used it to make thousands off of info products.  I have even sold the graphics it produced to other clients.  It more than paid for itself within about 7 days…

Have you used any other cover creation products?  What did you think?

JD

[Caption]

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A lot of times, your audience is going to be what determines the style of the content you create.  If you are doing how-to stuff, video is the way to go.  If you are doing something that has learning sections like a workbook, text is best.

With the emergence of free and cheap tools, it’s easier than ever to record audio and put screencasts together.  No need for a programmer or expensive computer equipment, just pick up a mic at Target and you’re all set.

As with content based products – you still have to type.  There’s nothing I can do about that!

8 Cheap And Low Cost Tools That Make Building Informational Products Easy:

• Audacity

  Audacity is audio recording software.  It will interface with your mic and record anything you say!  You can even use it to record interviews and presentations!  Once you’re done, export it as a .mp3 and upload it to your web server.

• GoView

  GoView is a brand new screen recording software put out by Citrix.  It lets you record your screen and your mic and bundle it together and distribute it on the Internet. 

• Camtasia

  Camtasia is by far the industry standard in screencasting software.  They support HD output and will convert the project into any video format imaginable.  The video editing tools and wizards really make you look like a pro in no time.

• Microsoft Word and Open Office

  As much as I hate adding this, I have to.  Microsoft is the default editor for for anyone writing anything.  Both export directly to PDF too.

• Adobe or Gimp

  Being that we’re human beings and we like to look at stuff rather than just read, you’re going to need to do some graphic work in order to sell much of anything.  If you aren’t familiar with Adobe Photoshop, I suggest you start there.  Gimp is the free, open source version and does a lot of graphic type work very well!

• Articulate

  If you plan on teaching anything, this software is what you want to do it in.  Articulate is by far my favorite e-learning software suite for making dramatic, fluid presentations.  You can teach people anything, voice over and narrate a powerpoint, or build quizzes.

There are other tools and software applications out there that do some of the tasks that these do, but none are more complete.  I would hate to see you buy a screen recording application and realize it didn’t do what you needed it to.

If you know of any others, please feel free to let me know if the comments!  I love trying new tools, especially if they help me make money..

JD

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I don’t mean for it to sound like it’s easy.  It’s not.  You have to pick a niche, be an expert, package it, promote it and support it.  It does take time.  But seriously…. a 9 to 5 desk job or build a product that helps people out with a problem and answer to no one about your status reports again!!

How To Pick The Niche For Your Informational Product

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but if you don’t have a niche, you don’t have a target market.  If you don’t have a target market you’re not going to be selling much of anything.

Before we get to that, I want you to answer one question:

What are you good at?  What do you like to do?  What are you passionate about?

Alright, that was three.

But seriously, what do you do for a living?  Are you a consultant?  An investor?  A marketer?  A graphic designer?  What do people ask you to help them with?  What problems have you helped overcome in the last 3 months at work?

I guarantee if one person has a problem that you helped solve, thousands around the world have the same problem.

Think about it…

Finding A Great Product In Everyday Problems

A client of mine once came to me and asked what they should do in terms of venturing off on there own.  She was a college professor teaching Strategic Planning to kids between the ages of 18 and 23.  She did a fair amount of client type work in our local area.  She had a great following and was extremely professional.  She couldn’t sit down long enough to type a paragraph, but we’ll get to that.

So, I asked her what problems she helped her clients with in the past few months.  Her reply, “I helped two small boutique retailers rearrange their stores.”  Then I asked her what kind of results her clients got?  “They doubled their sales in both cases,” she replied.

After about two weeks, we sat down with a microphone and a laptop and recorded 3 hours of audio – question and answer style.  It really was great stuff.  She had a copy of the questions I was going to ask her and she plotted out her answers on tape.

After that, I sent the recording off to a transcription service and got the whole thing transcribed for around $50!  I zipped it up into a pdf, put some nice graphic treatment on it and built a little site around it!

She averages $108 profit per day with that product!

$108 isn’t going to make you a millionaire by itself.  It will provide some much needed cushion in your daily spending, though.  That’s an extra $3000 a month with something that you don’t have to invest time into ever again!

So what are you good at?  What do you do everyday?  What segment of people can you make a product for?

Let me know your thoughts!  Send me an email or leave a comment and I’ll help you flesh something out… 

The next article is going to cover the delivery method including links to free and low cost software that’ll help you record and save your content!

JD

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In Startup Tools, we cover informational products in detail – complete from the brainstorming process to putting the final touches on the website. 

Here on JDsBlog, I wanted to take the next 5 posts and share some important information with you in regards to the thought process behind the product itself.

The secret is to test before you launch.  Start selling the product before you invest any time in it!

Test your market to figure out how well it’ll sell and see if it’s worth your time to build it!

The next 5 posts are going to be related to informational products that you can sell on your blog our your website…  Make sure you grab the RSS feed to keep up with the content!

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What advice would you give to people trying to get a job in social media?

If you want a job in social media, prove you can utilize social media without a paycheck. I recently was just asked to be a social media marketer for a company because I had spent the month I was unemployed building my own brand online. I didn’t wait for a company to give me a chance to prove I was successful within social media; I took it upon myself to let my actions speak louder than my words. If you can’t build your own brand (your blog or your Twitter, etc), then you can’t be successful in social media. And, companies will hire the person that has proven to understand social media, rather than the person who says they do.

Admittedly, the story of the website is a bit intriguing.  But Jamie Varon, the site’s owner, used her time away from employment to build her brand.  Now she has three job offers on the table!

I am curious…  Have any of you ever found employment or freelance work through social media?  One of my friend’s only marketing stream is Twitter, and he’s doing very, very well!

JD

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If you haven’t already – it’s about time you get started with Twitter.  And this podcast will show you how…

Cozying Up With Twitter Shownotes:

• What is Twitter
• How do you get followers
• How to you promote your twitter account
• How to you use it to market your stuff
• 3 Tools to help you make the most of your Twitter account
  • Shareaholic
  • TwitterFox
  • TweetDeck
• Possible applications of twitter for business

Let me know what you think by either sending me and email or through the comments below!

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This is a similar tale to most of the business owners out there.  Their entire livelihood rests on what kind of money their businesses bring in.  It isn’t like they get a paycheck every week that makes up for time off or lost hours in the day.

So the result is an overworked, stressed out person who never really performs at their peak – but is always performing!

Over the course of about a month, I put myself on a 5 step plan that has worked wonders in my life.  And below, I’m going to outline the process for you:

1. Get a personal cell phone

   Get a cell phone that only your family and friends has access to.  That doesn’t include people you work with.  The fewer people, the better.

2. Set aside time Friday night or Saturday morning to review

   In school, you take tests.  The professor teaches you what you need to know and then quizzes you on the material.  Do you do something similar in your own life?

   I would be the answer is no.  Every day you are learning.  The only way to retain that knowledge is to ponder it and save it in your long term memory.  And the best way to do that is to take an hour or so and review the week.  Think about all the trials and tribulations and write them down.
   
   

3. Take weekends off!

   Learn that weekends are sacred things.  If you go to church, then go to church.  But don’t work.  Do yard work.  Clean the house.  Play with the kids or the dogs.  Learn something or read a book.  Stay away from the stuff you do during the week.

   You’ll end up realizing that when you go back on Monday, you see things in a different light.  Things will be newer; fresher.  You’ll be able to handle situations differently.

The end result is you will be happier.  You’re family will be happier.  And you will learn more and grow more.  Will you make less money by not working weekends or not following up on that lead you got late Saturday evening?  Maybe..

But if your prospective clients doesn’t realize that you need time off to – do you really want to be working with them?

JD

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Personally, I set goals almost everyday.  I write them down, track them, and achieve some sort of action plan for each of them.  The goals themselves are sometimes big and require lots of smaller steps.  Other times, they’re small – like making this phone call or writing that email.

Either way, a goal is a goal.  And here are 11 Tips on Setting Achieving Those Goals from Dumb Little Man.

1. Make the decision that you will achieve the goal.
2. Get your priorities in order.
3. Write it down – very important
4. Think about the goal.  Flesh it out.
5. Put together an action plan.
6. Track the progress toward the goal.. Always do something that moves you toward the end result.
7. Involve others.  Do things in groups.
8. Don’t worry about failing.
9. Don’t give up.
10. Celebrate each and every step towards the goal.
11. Achieve the goal!

This sort of process has helped me quite a lot in the past.  It’s not enough to have the thought and then ‘kind of’ work towards it.  You have to plan it out, take actions toward it and believe in it.

If you do those things, you will be far better off in two months, six months or a year than you are right now.  It can all be done through goal setting!

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I don’t know if you know me, but a i saw (you) graduated from Mercyhurst not long ago, so I thought maybe you can give me some tips on how to find a job in todays market or what should I expect after graduation.

I am sure you’ll agree – these aren’t the best times to graduate college…  Not with student loans due and bills to pay.

So, I’m putting together this little list, which is an expanded version of my comment to my Facebook friend:

• Start with your friends

  Start checking in with the people you went to school with who work in the field you want to be in.  This could be close friends, roommates, or friends of friends.

  These people can get you in the door farther than your resume will.  In fact, they might even be able to get word to the person directly in charge of you, should you get the job.

• Polish your resume

  Your resume should include all kinds of things, not just your previous work history.  It should include projects, skills, awards and accomplishments, and anything else of note.

  A prospective employer isn’t going to care that you worked at Burger King for two years during you sophomore and junior year.  They are going to care that you are a brilliant strategic planner, though.

• Submit to online job boards

  Online job boards, notably Yahoo Hot Jobs, are of particular importance.  Just recently, I had my resume pulled by 3 people, two of which were headhunters looking for more information about what I did for a living and whether I would fit into various projects they were looking to fill.

• Pick Up Some Freelance Work

  This might seem counterintuitive, but look for a couple freelance gigs.  First of all, you need money to survive.  Freelancing will give you a bit of a cushion until you pick up steady work.  And secondly, sometimes, those freelance jobs will lead into steady work.

  There are several times that I hired a person after I was so impressed with their freelancing.  It’s a no risk way for employers to find good people, and it puts money in the your pocket.

• Clean Up Your Social Networking Profile

  Over 60% of potential employers will google an applicants name before they ever sit them down in a chair to interview them.  If you have stuff in your publicly available profiles that would shame your mother, chances are you need to delete it before you even think about submitting an application anywhere!

The bottom line is you need to start with your friends and contacts.  These people will be able to get you much farther in the hiring process than a simple resume or application will.  But please make sure your social networks and your resume are up to snuff.  I would hate to see you embarrass your friends and acquaintances with something terribly subpar…

Do you have any job hunting tips to add?  What has worked for you?

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Two years ago, Google bought a nice little startup called GrandCentral.  GrandCentral did precisely what we just talked about – they synchronized all your phone numbers so when someone called one number, all of them would ring.

Well, Google is relaunching their service, Google Voice.

GrandCentral lets you set up a single phone number that you can give out to anyone. When they call that number, it will ring any phone number you’ve linked to the account. So you can print a single number on your business card, and people will be able to reach you on your home, work, and cellphones. The service also lets you record phone calls, screen calls, create rules for calls coming from specific numbers, and receive email notifications of voicemail messages.

Should be something to keep an eye on…

[via DownloadSquad]

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Aweber is a email marketing service that lets you collect email addresses and names.  Using those email addresses, you can send them weekly newsletter or whatever else you want.

There are all kinds of services and open source apps that do the same thing.  Constant Contact has a great service if you are looking for aesthetics in your email marketing.  PHPlist and Pommo are great open source utilities for setting stuff up on your own server.  None of these options, though, allows you to automatically respond to a new user!

What Aweber does is provide all kinds of tools for helping you collect email addresses.  There are popovers and inline forms.  You can even do popunders and that sort of stuff.

Basically this is how it works:

1. Someone signs up for your email newsletter or campaign.
2. They get an optin in their email.
3. Then the receive an email message immediately after confirmation.
4. In that email message, I like to include a link for a free download.  Something of value that will help them in their lives.

And then it starts…

You can now send them email newsletters or promotional material whenever you like.  It goes without saying – if you send them too much, they’ll unsubscribe.  But the beauty of it is you can write out 5 email messages and schedule them!  So your readers can get one every 2 weeks or once a month or whatever!

I have found that every 7-10 days is usually best.  It’s not long enough for them to forget about you, but it’s not short enough that they get pissed…

Let me know what you think about email newsletter promotion…  Does it work for you?  What are some of you tactics?

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I have seen it in a lot in my endeavors, and it sucks.  As a business owner you are faced with the tough decision of cutting expenses, letting employees go, or totally closing up shop.

Within the last 4 or 5 months, I have had to experience all of these issues.  And with them comes the thoughts of hopelessness and failure.  But more than any of that, it’s the thought of being a disappointment that upsets me the most.

One thing you do is pull some cash together and do a mailing.

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you might remember that I posted something to the effect of stamps being so damn expensive!  Well, what I was doing was a small direct mailing from a list that I had.  The mailing was simple – a 2 page letter that was written as personal communication and hand addressed. 

For those of you doing math in your head, that’s 500 hand addressed envelopes with a letter and my signature on it.  All told, it took close to 40 or so hours to get them in the mail.

Just so you can get a look at the letter and the way I did it, I’ll post a download and pics below..

Basically, the letter just posed a problem, suggested a solution, and introduced myself.  It was meant to be read by a business owner or someone directly related to a company’s website.
After about two weeks, we compiled the results.  Of the 500 letters that were sent:

• 82 came back due to bad mailing addresses.  I know it’s advisable to clean a list with a postcard which is cheaper to mail, but money was tight…
• I got 13 special report downloads.  The special report was ironically about lead generation using your website.
• We received 2 direct phone calls about our services
• We also got 3 direct emails about our stuff

Total, that’s 18 responses out of 418, or 4.8%.  Now, 18 leads might not sound like a lot, but it’s better than none!  And when you are selling a product that costs about $4,000 on average that has potential to equal some significant revenue!

Once one of those deals close, we’re going to dump some of the proceeds back into the same marketing effort and see what kind of results we can get from our total list of over 2700!

Have you had any experience with direct mail?  Good?  Bad?

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This last couple months, I dove into CRM software again.  And I have to admit – all those claims of it producing 3 times more sales is true!

Normailly, in the day to day hustle and bustle, it’s easy to lose track of phone calls and emails.  What’s worse, you might forget about something a client said that you can sell them on!

Customer Relationship Management software aims to fix all that.

Here’s the basic premise of CRM apps:

1. You upload a list of clients and/or prospects.  With those details, you can attach communications such as email messages, phone conversations and notes.
2. You can plan meetings and phone calls by attaching the ‘action’ to the client’s name
3. You can define marketing programs and attach who they’re going to.  For instance, if I am sending a direct mail piece to 1000 people, I can define that list and track results.
4. From the marketing, you define leads.  The leads are formatted so you can follow up on them easily and efficiently.
5. From leads, you can put in projects and affix tasks to those projects.  And those projects each represent a dollar figure.

Think of CRM as more of a progression from prospect to lead to project to close…

Most people don’t get into CRM software because it is difficult to understand unless you are under the correct assumptions as to what it can do.  In fact, I am going to put together a video podcast on how to use SugarCRM, my weapon of choice, which will be available in the next couple posts.  But the basic premise applies to all of them – Salesforce.com, Basecamp, etc.

The beauty of the software is it helps you recognize leads that you wouldn’t look twice at before!

Do you have any experience with CRM applications?  If so, which ones?

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For the past month, I have been Googling odds and ends like, “How to build an Ubuntu mail server,” or “How to install Webmin.”  If you don’t know (or don’t care) about that stuff, then no worries.  But when you type, “How to resurrect a blog” you get almost no good info!

So here’s how we’re going to do it – daily posting on all things business related.  We’re going to talk about starting a business and rehash a lot of the old content that still gets this site quite a bit of traffic…

And the podcasts…  I’ve got some cool stuff coming up for you!

So anyway, I’m back and I couldn’t be happier…  Look forward to some great stuff!

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