Marketing on a Shoestring

Please do not be insulted, I was talking out-loud to myself. I just have to remember when I start writing an article to remember KISS. We all know that article marketing builds our reputation and trust between us and our readers. It also creates great back-links to our websites but is does you no good if the article does not get published. I have reviewed my previously published articles and found that the articles that get published the most have two common factors that seem to make it easier to get them published.

First, it needs a strong and unique Article Title. Just like when I used to work for newspapers, which had a whole desk of people that did nothing but write article headlines. You must put the same effort into your title (headline) to get people interested enough to at least read the first paragraph.

The second important thing is that the article must not be overly long or short. Newspapers style writing is probably the best approach to article writing. It has the major points in the first paragraph and the following paragraphs provide supporting information. It has been my experience with my articles that my most widely published articles run between 450 and 650 words. Shorter than 450 and you are not giving your reader sufficient content. Then, longer than 650 and the reader gets bored as you have filled the article with too much fluff.

Of course, these are not hard and fast rules, just a guideline as to what seems to work for me. In all honestly, when I look at some of the article available and find that they are 4 or 5 thousand words long, I rarely bother to read them. I am, in fact, on both sides of the fence. Not only do I write articles, but I also use other people’s articles on my websites. In some subject areas, I have found that there are many article writers who have done an excellent job of writing good solid content articles. In addition, if the article writer has achieved status in a given field, using their work can add trust from your readers. On some of my websites, I have found that using an expert author is sometime better that trying to prove that I am the end-all, top expert in the field. I am not and I am glad to give credit where credit is due. This is especially true in some of my niche sites.

As you may know, I am a big believer in Shoestring Marketing. But there are so many things that you can do that you have to make a decision as to how to spend your limited time. Certainly, advertising has it’s place but, Shoestring Marketing has much better long term results.

The problem is that some Shoestring methods produce a ton of traffic but it is not targeted on the other hand, some Shoestring methods produce a lesser traffic volume but it is quality traffic and if they like what they see, you will see much better repeat business.

Tops on my list of producing quality traffic is article writing. The people who read your articles and then click on your link are very likely to join your list and make many repeat visits to your blog.

Second place is shared by making entries to my own blog and also making forum comments. These people tend to also become repeat visitors.

YouTube can produce a lot of visitors of moderate quality. They may or may not become repeat customers but in sheer numbers, this is still an important method of Shoestring Marketing.

At the bottom of my list is Social Networking (Squidoo, MyFace, etc). This method of marketing will produce a ton of hits to your website and or blog but, they are typically one-time visitors. They will take whatever you might be offering for free and then be gone forever. They might even sign-up for your list but when you look at your stats, they have a very low open rate of your newsletter.

If you have your own product and affiliate program, this is one of the best ways of receiving quality traffic. They come to your sales page and the affiliate has already pre-sold them. The only problem with this method is that you must have produced a quality product and that does take time to produce.

All in all, you have to make a decision. You can spend your time on quality traffic or spend your time on creating a ton of poor quality traffic. My choice will always be go for quality and you can’t go wrong. Quality traffic is looking for help in building their business. The other way to go is to do things that produce a ton of traffic but, they are usually just freebie seekers.

To your marketing success

I shot an arrow into the air and where it landed I know not where. The fact of the matter is that, if you do not have a proper target, you are just as likely to shoot the neighbor’s cat or your own butt (even more likely) than achieve any target of consequence.

Of course, what I am talking about is goal setting. Most people are satisfied to go through life without setting down specific written goals for what they want to achieve in life. The may have some vague dream about what they want but, it remains just that-a dream. In the end they end up with an aimless life and will never rise above the level of mediocrity. When they finally lie down on their deathbed, they will only be able to look back on a life of unfulfilled dream and disapointment. If however, they take their dreams and set them down as specific written goals, they will have been open to all of the opportunities available to us and would have set specific strategies to achieve their goals.

These are the people who on their deathbed look back upon a life of fulfillment and the legacy that they have left behind. They will look back at a lifetime with no regrets.

It is easy to dream but it is only the goal setters that will achieve those dreams. One of my heroes is Tiger Woods. At the tender age of 8, he set his goal to break every golf record ever set and to become the world’s number one golfer. It took him 13 years of practice and work but by age 21, he achieved his goal. Most people may dream about being the best at something or being rich or being a rock star but without specific written goals, it remains just that-a dream and nothing more.

Dreams are only the starting point. If you believe in the Law of Attraction, thoughts become things but, only when you take the next step of writing down your dreams in goal form and then setting strategies to achieve those dream goals. It is the dreamers in life that are responsible for every great achievement of mankind but, only those who took the next step of writing down those dreams as goals.

One final note of proof. Just 3 percent of the world’s population have written goals but those 3 percent control 95 percent of the wealth in the world. When you are on you deathbed will you look back at a life of fulfillment or a life of unfulfilled dreams.

For more information on Success and self-fulfillment, please visit my Over the Rainbow website.

To our mutual Success
Stan Pontiere

I know that this is a bit out of the Shoestring Marketing genre but, I have been a self-help geek since high school-more than 40years ago.

There are few people in the world today who would dismiss “The Law of Attraction” as the basis for self-fulfillment in the modern world. There is, however, a missing key in the way that we implement this natural law.

First of all, it might better be called the law of resonance. Like does not attract like, like attracts a resonant reaction. But, that is just semantics. The fact of the matter is that thought becomes reality. What we think is what we get and if our sub-conscious is filled with positive thoughts our life will be filled with positive results and we can literally think wealth in our existence. On the other hand, “The Law of Attraction” is a two-way street. If our sub-conscious is filled with negative thoughts, our life will be filled with negative events.

Much of our sub-conscious is filled with the attitudes that have been forced upon us. From our parents saying no, don’t do that, peers and well meaning teachers telling us work hard, go to school and get a good job to TV commercials pumping us full of mindless banter. They were probably all well meaning but, this constant negative input has destroyed any real chance of being truly self-fulfilled.

Early on (during high school) I read the classic work on the “Law of Attraction”, Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” It put down a very sound case for “The Law” and I did find that it did start to turn my life around. However, I always thought there was more to this than simple visualization to make the necessary changes in my sub-conscious beliefs.

I always found that the simple visualization being taught by Hill and many of today’s top self-help gurus to be missing something. Simple visualization brings up conflicts between the conscious and sub-conscious mind. You may start out visualizing your ultimate goal but within a few minutes, the sub-conscious fights back bringing up all of the negative thoughts that have been ingrained over the years and with simple visualization, many people end up worse off than they were before attempting to institute “The Law of Attraction”.

Some years latter, while attending a meeting of the PPA (Profession Photographers of America) I turned to my friend Jack Haynes and as the lecture was extremely boring, we left for the local coffee shop. During our little sit-down, I mentioned how I was having trouble with “The Law” and visualization. It turned out that Jack was only a part-time press photographer because he loved the excitement of the work. His true calling in life was as a Clinical hypnotherapist. He explained that my problem with simple visualization was very common and that if I really wanted to make changes to my sub-conscious that hypnosis was the missing key.

He sat me down for the next 5 days and I went through a number of hypnosis sessions. Now, all of a sudden I was able to easily visualize my dreams and goals and my whole world was turned upside down (in a good way). The missing key to making “The Law” work for me was hypnosis. Within a week, I had quit my dead-end job with the local newspaper and suddenly found myself getting assignments from the Associated Press, the New York Times and both the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Bulletin. I had suddenly become a hot commodity and often had to turn down work if it created a conflict of interest.

What was missing in visualization was the key of hypnosis. It speaks directly to the sub-conscious and there is no internal mind conflict.

Of course, consulting a clinical hypnotist can be rather expensive but, as an alternative, there are many extremely good hypnosis sessions available on recorded media (CDs, Tapes, and MP3s). Not only do they work very well, they are for the most part rather inexpensive. A note of caution, there are also a ton of subliminal products available and although they also may work very well, you can’t be sure of what you are getting. Many of the most expensive subliminal programs have been discovered to have no message at all. If you choose to try subliminals, try to get some feedback from someone who has had experience with the product you are considering.

Either way, If you really want the “Law of Attraction” to work for you rather than a against you, consider hypnosis as an alternative to simple visualization. It has made a world of difference for me.

For more information on success and self-help, please visit my success website at “Over the Rainbow”

Not only can success be habit forming, in order to become a success, you need to build some new habits.

I know that if you have been reading my articles, that you have a pretty good idea about how effective Shoestring Marketing can be but, if you don’t put this knowledge to use (take action) then you will have no success at all. The best method I know of creating success is by making the action step a habit.

The commonly held belief is that if you can do something for 21 days straight, it will become a habit. While you may have all of the knowledge in the world, if you don’t make taking action a habit, you will be no better off than if you had no knowledge at all.

There are many techniques to Shoestring Marketing. Take just one of them and turn it into a habit. For example, article marketing has been extremely effective for me. So, for the next 21 days, write and publish an article. Before you do anything else in the day, write your article. Don’t read your email, surf the web or anything else, just get right into writing and publishing your article.

At the end of 21 days, look back at the results of your article marketing. How many responsive hits has your website had? Google your name. How many results do you get back? I can tell you right now you will be shocked at the results. Not only that, having done this for 21 days, you have developed a new habit and will look forward to writing your articles.

After that 21 day period, you can then take on one of the other methods of Shoestring Marketing and watch as your success grows. You are not only developing the habit of applying the Shoestring Marketing methods, you are developing the habit of success.

Don’t wait until tomorrow, start your habit of success today. Like anything else in life, success is just a habit that you need to develop and taking action is the primary foundation for all success.

Not only that, I am trying to share my geekiness with all the world to see. So when you get a chance, please visit my new site “Over The Rainbow-where dreams come true”

It doesn’t matter what your dreams are, how much planning you have done or what strategies you have set down, you are not going to make a dime online until you take action and massive action can lead to massive results.

You may spend many hours trying to build the perfect website, perfecting your strategies and setting down a perfect set of goals. In looking for perfection, you may leave out the most important step-putting these things into action. Nothing is perfect and if you are not taking action until you have the perfect website, strategies or goals, you are never going to make a dime on the net.

Nothing in life is perfect but it is this obsession with perfection that will ultimately doom you to failure. You must take action to become successful. Maybe your website isn’t perfect, it is still better to get it online with all of it’s imperfections than you let it collect dust while you try to perfect it. Marketing strategies and goals are the same. Even if they are not perfect, you won’t make any money until you put them into action.

There is no such thing as a perfect website, strategy or goal. It doesn’t matter-just put them into action. Action is the one necessary step to make your fortune. Your entire marketing campaign will never be perfect. It will always be a work in progress. Once you finally put them into action you can always start making adjustments to get better results but you get no results by having these things collecting dust on your hard-drive.

So, dedicate yourself to taking at least one new action step everyday and in the end, this will lead to your success. Remember that massive action gives you massive results.

There has never been a better time to be and Internet Marketing success and make your millions on the net.
But, being an internet millionaire doesn’t mean that your life has become a success. Quite the opposite, you can be a millionaire and your life could still be a total failure.

I have long touted the idea that all you need do is develop a business mindset, use shoestring marketing strategies and take massive action and you can become the next internet millionaire. However, I think that I have been doing you a great disservice.

Just take a look at the Hollywood Movie Stars. How many movie stars have completely wasted personal lives. They are at the top of their game in the movies but, their personal lives are filled with drug abuse, divorce, and forced incarceration in a rehab center. Or, how about the success of becoming a Governor of a major state and then get kicked out of office because you can’t control your penchant for the “ladies of the night”. Highly successful and totally wasted lives.

The same thing can happen to you. You become so involved in becoming the next internet millionaire that your personal life goes to Hell. Your children hate you, divorce is on the horizon and you have no spiritual life at all. Having money is only part of the success scenario.

What I am saying is don’t just build a business mindset, build a success mindset. Set goals for all areas of your life and become a true success. Besides financial goals, you should also set goals for your family life, spiritual life and any other area of your life that will make you a total success. Don’t just be an internet success, become a total success. There is an old cliche that you should remember-Money isn’t everything. It doesn’t make you happy. I admit that it is easier to find happiness if you don’t have to worry about paying the bills but, it is only one measure of success-just a part of the whole.

So when someone teaches you how to become a financial success, don’t forget the rest of the picture and set your goals to become a total success.

For more information on goal-setting and success, you might want to check out the works of Brian Tracy. He offers (at last count) 35 free one-hour CDs-all you pay is a small S&H charge (I think it is about 3 dollars). Brian Tracy Home Page