How to Generate Leads Creating Articles Like Magic

Laugh at Google's Duplicate Content Ban when You Discover...

From the Desk of Alexander Krulik
Wednesday, 11:11am
Dear Friend,
There are tons of ways to generate traffic and build your business or practice online. There are new slick marketing ideas popping up all the time, one after another, claiming to be the next best thing.
However, one of the easiest, proven, most time-tested ways to attract new business and more traffic to your site is to become a sought after authority and gain expert status in your field. 
One of the biggest secrets that the top marketers don't talk a lot about is the fact that they ALL have built their credibility, visibility, and their lists of gold by writing articles.
In fact, multi-million dollar online entrepreneur Ali Brown says that:

"This is a tried-and-true method that will NEVER stop working, unlike the latest and greatest gimmicks to spoof the search engines.

(Try one of those and see how quickly your traffic halts once the bottom drops out.)

Search engines love real content and will always love real content."
Ali Brown,
http://AliBrown.com

And this is only scratching the surface...

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Ten marketing phrases you need to stop using now~By David Petherick

It's time for a little rant. Words are powerful, until they start to become abused, by being lazily thrown in parrot-like as part of loathsome marketingspeak and managementspeak. Here are the current Top Ten words and phrases that annoy the hell out of me.

1: Game-changing

Here's how to change the game of cricket: replace the cricket ball with a shuttlecock. It certainly changes the game, but it doesn't make it a better game, or one that's going to be enjoyed by players or spectators. There are very few things that really change the game. It's more realistic to focus on improving your game, or to realise you're playing a different game.

2: Groundbreaking

In similar vein to game-changing, this has become a cliche, and is lazily and incorrectly used as a synonym for 'new'. Are you digging the foundations for a grand new building that defies architectural precedent? Are you trying to suggest that digging a hole is something amazing? It's not, so shut up.

3: Engagement

Did you give her a ring and ask her to marry you? Then it's not engagement. This word is especially popular when talking about social media: "this offers the opportunity for engagement with customers". It's also combined very often with another choice phrase, so that you end up "driving engagement".

4: Thinking outside the box

Dear God, I thought this was gone, but it's still there, and keeps reappearing like a stubborn case of athlete's foot. What, and where is, the box you are talking about? Use this phrase, and I'll assume you are referring to the tiny little cardboard receptacle in which your feeble brain is rattling around. Forget the box.

5: Go viral

It's not 2005 any more kids. So if you still think you can create content designed to "go viral" then I think it's time for you to open an envelope containing your P45 or pink slip. This phrase was dead almost before it first started to be abused in Powerpoint and chocolate biscuit sessions.

6: Driving / Driver

"This is driving up engagement across social channels." No it's not. "This will act as the driver for this interaction" No it won't. Do you think you're like Fernando Alonso? Or are you a chauffeur? No, gracias.

7: Unique

A cliche again, and the worst type, because usually, this now means the opposite. "A unique opportunity" is best translated as "the same opportunity again, perhaps in a thin disguise". Avoid.

8: Impact

This is an incredibly flexible little word, and is used as a verb and a noun. "This will impact impressions favourably." And "This had a significant impact". It's such a nice satisfying sounding word, but it's simply abused too often. Impact describes a collision, or the effect of one thing on another. Use affect or effect, and people will stop tuning out, because they might just understand what the hell you're rabbiting on about. This word has become jargon.

9: Front-of-mind

The human brain does not work like a conveyor belt, and even brain surgeons admit they know only a small fraction of what there is to learn about the workings of the human brain, so this phrase is entirely ridiculous. Quite aside from anything else, assuming that people have even more than a passing interest in your products or services is highly delusional.

10: Implementation

Just shut up. This means 'doing stuff' or putting something into effect. "The key stage will be in effectively implementing this strategy." Ugh. I often hear the gleeful substitution of 'execution' for this word, which is just as feeble-minded. "We need to execute on this plan". Nah. You need to fire the next person who uses that phrase.

11: What about you?

What words or phrases do you have to add to this list? I look forward to hearing your gems...

 

 

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Five top tips to starting a successful business~By Richard Branson

As LinkedIn is a business that started in a living room, much like Virgin began in a basement, I thought my first blog on the site should be about how to simply start a successful business. Here are five top tips I’ve picked up over the years.

1. Listen more than you talk

We have two ears and one mouth, using them in proportion is not a bad idea! To be a good leader you have to be a great listener. Brilliant ideas can spring from the most unlikely places, so you should always keep your ears open for some shrewd advice. This can mean following online comments as closely as board meeting notes, or asking the frontline staff for their opinions as often as the CEOs. Get out there, listen to people, draw people out and learn from them.

2. Keep it simple

You have to do something radically different to stand out in business. But nobody ever said different has to be complex. There are thousands of simple business solutions to problems out there, just waiting to be solved by the next big thing in business. Maintain a focus upon innovation, but don’t try to reinvent the wheel. A simple change for the better is far more effective than five complicated changes for the worse.

3. Take pride in your work

Last week I enjoyed my favourite night of the year, the Virgin Stars of the Year Awards, where we celebrated some of those people who have gone the extra mile for us around the Virgin world. With so many different companies, nationalities and personalities represented under one roof, it was interesting to see what qualities they all have in common. One was pride in their work, and in the company they represent. Remember your staff are your biggest brand advocates, and focusing on helping them take pride will shine through in how they treat your customers.

4. Have fun, success will follow

If you aren’t having fun, you are doing it wrong. If you feel like getting up in the morning to work on your business is a chore, then it's time to try something else. If you are having a good time, there is a far greater chance a positive, innovative atmosphere will be nurtured and your business will fluorish. A smile and a joke can go a long way, so be quick to see the lighter side of life.

5. Rip it up and start again

If you are an entrepreneur and your first venture isn’t a success, welcome to the club! Every successful businessperson has experienced a few failures along the way – the important thing is how you learn from them. Don’t allow yourself to get disheartened by a setback or two, instead dust yourself off and work out what went wrong. Then you can find the positives, analyse where you can improve, rip it up and start again.

 

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Google finally gives you a way to escape Negative SEO~By Mike Moran

Image via CrunchBase

Some of you might have a high opinion of SEO people. (C’mon, aren’t there a couple of you out there?) If you have that high opinion, then don’t read this story, because there a few people who are less than ethical out there. Google had an announcement this week that has been a long time coming–you can now disavow links to your site. Some of you might be asking, why would you ever want to do that? Links to your site are good, right? Well, mostly, yes. But if you had a few ethical lapses, you might want to erase those problems.
So, if you paid for links, or you engaged in some spammy blog comments with links back to your site, this gives you a chance to wipe the slate clean. Because when Google figures out that you are cooking the links, it penalizes your site, assuming that some other links are faked, too.
And that’s how Google is announcing this disavowal capability–if you screwed up and you can’t get rid of those links, then this tool helps you by telling Google not to count them and your penalty magically goes away.
But I am excited about this tool not so that spammers can clean up their act, but so that victims of spammers have an escape route. The folks that I have felt most sorry for over the years are those ethical search marketers that have been attacked by so-called negative SEO (also known as Google bowling), where unethical SEOs create spammy links to your site to intentionally get you penalized.
If you’re not perverse enough to think up such an ugly scheme, congratulations on having a conscience. I know several poor schlubs who have been attacked this way and I first begged Google to introduce this disavowal tool over four years ago. I’m not really sure why it took this long for Google to take this step–what they announced is almost uncanny in its similarity to what I outlined for them to do in March of 2008.
But better late than never. For years, the bad guys could attack innocent marketers and there wasn’t a blessed thing to be done about it. Disavowing links is a boatload of work and it should not even be attempted by anyone less than an expert. But at least there is something that can be done. Thanks, Google, for standing up for the good guys as well as giving folks who faked their own links a chance at redemption.

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Mike Moran

Author of the acclaimed book on Internet marketing, Do It Wrong Quickly, on the heels of the best-selling Search Engine Marketing, Inc., Mike Moran led many initiatives on IBM's Web site for eight years, including IBM's original search marketing strategy. Mike holds an Advanced Certificate in Market Management Practice from the Royal UK Charter Institute of Marketing, is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, and regularly teaches at Rutgers, UC Irvine, and UCLA.
In addition to his contributions to Biznology, Mike is a regular columnist for Search Engine Guide. He also frequently keynotes conferences worldwide on digital marketing for marketers, public relations specialists, market researchers, and technologists, and serves as Chief Strategist for Converseon, a leading digital media marketing agency. Prior to joining Converseon, Mike worked for IBM for 30 years, rising to the level of Distinguished Engineer. Mike can be reached through his Web site (mikemoran.com).

 

5 Things You Must Do Every Day to Build Your Business~By Joshua Black

If you are an entrepreneur there are a few critical tasks that you need to turn into a daily habit in order for your business to keep moving in a positive direction and to make you money. Read on to find out those key items and how you can add them to your daily routine.

Entrepreneurs have to wear many hats when a business is just starting. Many things need to be delegated to others in order for the business to run smoothly and there are a few things that you must do yourself. If you can create a habit of performing these 5 things every day, some for just a few minutes, then you will see your business grow right alongside your dreams:

1. Plan for the future a few minutes each day. Assume that your product has stopped selling all of a sudden. What direction will you take your company next? What new income stream can you add? This is a time for day dreaming and recording notes in preparation for the future. You don't necessarily have to take action on these items, but you need to think about them daily in order to bring out the golden ideas.

2. Work on your marketing in some aspect every day to get new customers. If your prospective customers don't know about you they won't buy from you. Work on getting your message out every day even if it is just for a few minutes.

3. Work on closing a sale every single day. whether you are doing this on-line, on the phone, through the mail, or face-to-face you need to be selling every day. Without the close of a sale there is no business. This is not something that you can delegate all the way. even if you have a sales force you need to be out there looking for deals.

4. Develop or strengthen your business network. You need to join or create a business network where you can help others and they can help you back. This is a great place to get free customers through referrals and an excellent mentoring opportunity using the mastermind principle.

5. Contact your current customers. Don't ever forget about the people that have already purchased from you. These are your best customers. They already like what you have to sell and they don't cost anything to acquire. Contact your current customers frequently, even if you are just saying hello. They need to know what you have to offer and they need to know you are still breathing. They won't seek you out. You must go to them.

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About the Author: Joshua Black is an on-line infopreneur, marketing consultant, small business owner and copywriter dedicated to helping the bootstrapping small business owner succeed. Visit his flagship resource site for entrepreneurs at http://www.UnderdogMillionaire.com for the free Underdog Millionaire Wealth Pack: including 5 FREE e-books and daily wealth building tips for the bootstrapping small business owner- in the areas of sales, marketing, motivation, product creation and more.