Generating Traffic: Harness The Power of a Signature File

If you’ve been marketing online, you’re probably using a signature file to describe your products or services and it’s found at the end of every email message you send out. But email isn’t the only way a signature file can be put to work for you.

Today I’d like to talk about several other uses for your signature files and what I’d like you to do is choose one or use them all to attract additional targeted traffic to your website.

1. Discussion Forum Signature
2. Inside Your E-book
3. Article Signature
4. Collaborative Venture
5. The Free Tip Sheet

I’d love to hear your comments… please feel free to let me know how you use signature files to generate traffic to your website. Thanks!

Building Relationships: How To Build Trust In Your Community

You can hire a public relations company to organize a marketing campaign to build community awareness about your company or if money is sparse, the following low-cost techniques can be implemented:

1. Sharing with your community
Sharing what you know is an effective way to build your credibility. Your goal is to become the contact choice when people within your community need help. Whether they are in need of finding a good press release service or the best place to consider a mortgage—you’ll be the person who supplies this information to them.

On the Internet: You could offer a database filled with valuable web sites essential for business success or other links similar to your type of industry.

2. Offer free workshops
In this information age, people love to receive advice, especially when it pertains to their needs. If you sell custom gift baskets or own a yarn emporium, why not offer “craft” workshops after normal business hours? If you’re a commercial printer, you could offer a free brochure design workshop or teach business owners how to properly convey a business identity through logo design.

On the Internet: You could offer a weekly teleseminar tailored to your specific community.

3. Give away something valuable
We expressed how to share information in order to build trust, so why not give away an item to help people improve their lives? If you sell lawnmowers, you can give customers a lawn-care or gardening booklet. If we revert back to the commercial printing business, you can give customers a design booklet, a typeface guide or an instruction manual on how to design print newsletters.

On the Internet: You can provide the same valuable information by publishing an e-book and making it available as a free download from your web site. Provide permission for other web masters to place the book on their web pages and watch your credibility rise with each download.

4. Be a good neighbor
You may be able to attract the attention of the media by presenting a special promotional event to raise money for a charitable organization. Plan the event to include the local businesses within your community and offer a golf outing, car wash day, or talent show for your neighbors to enjoy.

Contact food vendors and arrange for them to participate and agree to donate a portion of the proceeds to charity. Consider sending the collected money to Jerry’s kids, the Cancer Society, or the local women’s abuse center.

What local newspaper is in your area? Prepare a press release and send it to the editor. You’ll never know if they’ll pick up the story unless you try!

On the Internet: Attract a crowd by offering a web site hunting spree or contest that involves donating $1 of your proceeds to charity for every click to a certain page on your web site. This allows your community to receive pleasure in participating, as their click means a local charity will receive funds, and it’s a great way to bring awareness to your products, programs, and services.

Successful entrepreneurs put a lot of hard work into building their credibility within the community, and with good reason. Rather than try to build trust with mere words, they let actions speak their loudest voice!

How do you build trust with your customers? Feel free to comment below.

Want To Close 20% On Your Sales Offerings?

Memo From: Bonnie Gean
Memo To: My Community Friends

I’ve been super busy getting my new product ready to launch when this announcement arrived in my mailbox from Marlon Sanders.

There are very few marketers that can get me to sit up and take notice to their e-mails, and even fewer who are successful at getting me to change my plans for the day to attend a last-minute teleseminar or live video broadcast.

However, when Marlon Sanders is the person behind the request, that’s an entirely different story. And since I think highly of you and want you to succeed in your business, I want to bring this event to your attention.

Join me, won’t you?

Today, Marlon is holding a live streaming video broadcast event where he’s going to be telling YOU how doing a live streaming video broadcast of your own can…

• Turn More Prospects Into Buyers
• Increase Your Average Unit of Values
• Have People Stay Longer In Your Memberships Sites
• Find Out What Your Prospects Really Want

The Free LIVE Video Broadcast is today - Thursday, June 26 at 9 A.M. Pacific, 11 A.M. Central, and 12 P.M. Eastern.

URL: http://www.bonniegean.com/recommends/pbc.php

I know you’ll enjoy this live streaming event and will do everything in your power to be there.

See you at the live broadcast!

All good things,
Bonnie Gean
The Community Building Expert

P.S. I almost forgot to tell you — the first time Marlon did this, he closed 20% on his product offering. I’d like to see more high conversion rates myself… so if Marlon is going to teach me this information for FREE today, you can bet your bootie I’m going to be there.

I hope you’ll join me at:
URL: http://www.bonniegean.com/recommends/pbc.php

How Will You Survive The Recession?

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that we’re officially knee-deep in a recession.

Gas prices are steadily climbing, thousands of people are in foreclosure… losing their homes, and there isn’t much to brag about regarding the corporate job market.

I dislike turning on the television as this seems to be the normal topic of conversation on every news channel. I’m sure you can relate.

It can be downright depressing for most.

Yet, we read all kinds of reports about how online marketers who are thriving during our uncertain economic times. Even though we’re thrust in the middle of a recession, plenty of savvy solo-professionals are making a lot of money, hand over first. To put it bluntly, they’re absolutely thriving!

How is this possible?

Well, that’s exactly what this post, WWB’s videos, interviews, and special reports are all about.

http://blog.worldwidebrands.com

Worldwide Brands surveyed their customers, which revealed that over 70% of them were concerned about how the economy would affect their businesses.This made Worldwide Brands create new audio and videos to show their customers how they could thrive in a troubled economy.

Luckily, the rest of us can get access to the FREE training… but only for a limited time. So if you’re interested in accessing content that can show you how to not only survive–but THRIVE during the recession, click here now to get your hands on the first video then sign up for their future video series.

http://blog.worldwidebrands.com

When you want the inside scoop for this type of information, look no more because Worldwide Brands has you covered.

Make it so!

All good things,
Bonnie Gean

P.S. Be sure and tell me what you think of the first video!

News Flash: PayPal Broken For 13 Days

Browsing around the Net today, I stumbled onto a blog post that literally had my head shaking for two reasons: (1) I wasn’t aware the problem existed and (2) the problem still hasn’t been fixed after 13 days!

If you rely on PayPal to accept payments from your customers, chances are… this current PayPal problem is affecting your business and most likely, costing you a fortune.

The Problem

For the last 12 days, PayPal has a reoccurring problem with their drop down box that doesn’t allows a customer to make payment to another PayPal user unless both parties are from the same country. While it’s hard to conclude just how much money is being lost as a result of this bug… rest assured the heavy sellers of the Internet are feeling the pain in their pocketbooks.

Worse yet… PayPal is aware of the problem since May 15, 2008 – but 13 days later, the problem still exists and PayPal customers are anything but happy.

As a business accepting payments through PayPal, I am not very happy either. I didn’t even know the problem existed until I happened to land on another blog post! As a consumer of this payment processor, I should be one of the first people to be brought up to date – and this update should have arrived in my mailbox directly from PayPal!

No email here… still waiting. But chances are, after 13 days already gone – that email will never arrive.

How can PayPal treat this problem as not being important enough to fix immediately?

While I am no programmer, by any means, I do understand HTML. It’s a drop down box on a web page for crying out loud. In my opinion, this problem could be fixed in a matter of minutes! Why then does it take PayPal 12+ days to remedy the problem? How much more money do consumers have to lose as a result of this bug before PayPal agrees enough is enough?

Here’s the original post that got my heart pumping:
Read from Clicky the Blog

The Solution

Frankly, if this is the type of customer service we can expect from the likes of PayPal, I say RUN to find a new payment processor and never look back!

What do you think?

Building Community: Social Networking Success

Belonging to any networking group (including the web 2.0 social networks) is a simple method for any business professional to increase their visibility, credibility, and sales.

Plus, networking groups provide opportunities to exchange talents between contacts. This not only makes a social media group a great choice for the established business but it also opens doors to the new business owners who might be tight on funds. A community of like-minded professionals will often barter talents in order to achieve what money normally would buy.

Establish Your Profile on Several Social Media Sites

This enables you to be WIDELY transparent and accessible through different outlets. While it may seem a daunting task to visit every media network within a week, a schedule could be maintained giving you the ability to visit each one periodically throughout the month.

The idea is to place a profile within each networking group that will work on your behalf during your absence. Since your profile harbors links to your products, programs, and services - increased exposure is a given!

It’s essential that we understand the true purpose of a social media site: Connecting with your audience, building relationships with new contacts, and gaining an opportunity to pull those contacts BACK to your web site to continue the process. Always remember that the social networking groups are a starting point. The transactions that take place on them should never end there.

What do YOU think? Talk to me. >:)

All good things,
Bonnie Gean

Putting The Service Back In Customer Service

By Sean Cohen

The future of customer service is here. Technology has made seeking out support faster and easier than ever. But, has your digital age company sacrificed true service in the name of automation?

Today, finding customer support is as simple as writing an e-mail or picking up the phone. But, even though you’re not face-to-face with your customers, you still leave a lasting impression. Do you come across as caring and competent, or menacing and mechanical?

Offering stand-out service on the Internet isn’t as hard as it is rare. Take these simple steps towards old-style service in the digital age:

Give Each Customer a Personal Response

• Be Clear, But Sincere
• Offer Live Customer Support
• Make Sure Your Support Reps Have All the Answers
• Give Each Customer a Personal Response

When a customer sits down to e-mail your company, it’s because he needs help. He chooses e-mail because it’s quick, but his request still warrants a satisfying and personal response!

Companies eager to save time and money often take automation too far in their customer support. Each customer has a unique question, and deserves a unique answer. Even if you save time by copying and pasting stock replies, change the opening and closing to make the message sound less robotic.

Be Clear, But Sincere

When responding to customers’ e-mail, be sincere and to the point. Before sending a message, try turning the tables. Ask yourself, “Would this answer satisfy me if I were the customer?”

Take that extra moment to give your customer the help he deserves. It might mean the difference between a satisfied customer and a credit card chargeback!

Offer Live Customer Support

E-mail has become an acceptable form of communication. But, live customer support is still necessary. The plethora of information available online can be overwhelming to customers, especially those new to the Internet!

Single your company out from the crowd by providing customers with a real person to talk to. Live phone support is an invaluable way to foster trust. When your customer has reached the end of his Internet rope, and just needs help, your toll free number is the answer he’s looking for.

Make Sure Your Support Reps Have All The Answers

The presence of phone support will do no good if your staff doesn’t know your product! Customer support reps should be warm and friendly, and willing to help with any aspect of your product.

What a good feeling it is to talk to someone who feels confident in his product. It’s even better if he’s knowledgeable enough to solve your problem without transferring you all around the company!

Provide Stand-Out Service; Gain Lifelong Customers

Too many e-businesses skimp on customer service, hiding behind web sites and message boards. Customer support is an integral part of every company, even those operating solely online. Be one of the few to offer stellar service, and gain customers for life!

———-

Customer Service is becoming a lost art, but Sean Cohen wants to make sure that never happens at AWeber Communications! Find out what service is meant to be.

Building Community: Your Personal Touch

My name is Bonnie Gean and I am the gal to call when you’re ready to build a community of clients and prospects.

I’ve been establishing profitable communities, online and offline, since the early 1980’s and my success stories have been published countless times as a result of my ambitions. (Check out my About page.)

While most were just learning about the Internet, I was already building community and profiting from my first web based business. I guess it’s safe to say I was testing the pulse of the Internet before others knew it existed.

By 1993, I was publishing articles, about building communities, way before article writing gained popularity as the infamous BUM marketing method discussed on the Web today. After 15 years, my articles are still posted in Fidonet’s archives.

Now, I’d like to share some of my community building experiences to help you create a place on the Internet… your personal connection place… that drives people to your community site with a fevered hunger to do business with you.

Sounds like a good plan to me. Are you ready to get started?

To your success,
Bonnie Gean