Today we talk about why free stuff is bad – not just for business people who spend a lot of time and energy on free products, webinars or consultations but for the people who get the free stuff, too.
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Today we talk about how we’ve been brainwashed to think that the way to make money is by giving stuff away for free. And we stop the madness by offering alternatives to a constant stream of free content and offers.
There are two ways that marketing costs you money. One is in the actual costs that you pay out – to vendors and agencies, for tools and subscriptions to support your marketing. And the second is by spending time – or paying other people to spend their time – doing things called “social media marketing” that aren’t contributing in any way to your bottom line.
That thing you’re calling “social media marketing” may just be another line item in the expense column and if you’re ok with that, if you’re using social media just for fun and diversion, then you can skip this article. But if you actually want to make money marketing instead of just spend money doing it, read on.
You can add “expert” to a long list of words that perhaps meant something once but have been appropriated by business folks looking to sound a whole lot more interesting and important than they are. If you hire someone on the grounds that they’re an expert – especially if it’s a self-designated entitlement – you could be setting yourself up for disappointment and loss. You don’t want to hire an expert any more than you want to be one. Here’s why.
Are you married? Paired up? Ever been on a date? Then you know the difference between your “ideal person” and the one you’re with. The truth is, there’s no such thing as “perfect people” yet we’re so often encouraged to imagine them and seek them out. That can lead to disaster in relationships and business alike. Here are some of the problems with trying to identify your ideal client and an alternative that can help you get a much more realistic – and profitable – picture, instead.
We live in a celebrity culture and that extends to every niche and industry well beyond Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. We’ve got celebrity authors, celebrity motivators and yes, even celebrity bloggers – aka “influencers” aka “A-Listers”. We’ve been told to connect with influencers and get noticed by A-Listers. But what if our priorities are in the wrong place? This is a call-to-arms for the rest of us – the B-Z List bloggers – that it’s time to start valuing ourselves instead of just waiting and hoping to catch that big fish.
If you search for blogs or articles on social media you’ll find a lot of information about how to run social campaigns but very little on whether social marketing works. Modern conventional wisdom would have us believe that social marketing is a revolutionary, magical boon for businesses but the reality is much different. Are you stuck in magical thinking, or are you running campaigns with value and goals? Read these common misconceptions, delusions and straight-out lies you’ve been told and start marketing smarter.
Wasting money on your site doesn’t have to come in the form of a huge expenditure or dwindling bank account. Sometimes you can simply lose a little bit at a time in amounts so unnoticeable that it’s like a leaky faucet you forget is there.
To measure the success of your website you must review and act on your analytics reports, which will tell you how many visitors there were to your site, how they got there and what actions they took while visiting, among many other important statistics.
Measuring your conversions and reviewing site analytics can present a more accurate picture of the effectiveness of your search listings. If sales and leads are increasing, it’s a good indication that your search marketing is working.
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