This is My Internet Marketing Model
Statement of Fact …
I make more money selling my services online to entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to create an online business.
But, if you think that eliminates me from being a REAL Internet Marketer, think again!
I get most of my clients via my online marketing efforts and NEVER leave my home. Not to market anyway. Frankly, I hate networking meetings, tried the “go by foot” method of visting local shops and, right now, I don’t even have any relevant business cards, flyers or promotional material.
I’m about to fixt that though so don’t copy me! It’s not something I’m proud of … just telling you, I still make money without doing all of this.
If you want to see something that’s similar to my online model, check this out … http://www.mainstreetmarketingmachines.com/cmd.php?af=615360
But in the meatime, let me tell you my story …
It was 2006 and I was sat with hundreds of others Internet Marketers in London at the 2006 World Internet Summit when Brett McFall, Co-Founder, made this statement … he said …
“There’s more money in offering services than products.”
Now, I’m not sure whether his message had such a huge impact because only hours earlier, Brett had dislocated his shoulder and was now standing on stage probably very much in paid, arm in sling and putting on a very brave face or, whether it was because I was already working with a few people but hadn’t seen the real value in what I was doing.
Anyway, whatever the reason, I heard that statement loud and clear and started thinking about how to package what I knew about marketing online and selling my services to others. By this time, I’d spent the best part of £20,000 (UK pounds) learning this stuff and that conference made me realize just how much I knew about marketing online and therefore, how much knowledge I had to share.
About two years ago, John Reese created a video and said that whilst he had advocated that people shy away from the Internet Marketing niche that in fact, there was a way to benefit in that niche … sell your services to local businesses.
I was encouraged that I hadn’t been put off by the nay sayers, but had carved my own niche within the Internet Marketing niche.
Soon after that, it seemed that everyone had some product teaching you how to make money online by selling to offline businesses and, I won’t mention the name of one of the products I purchased, but the sales copy went something like this … go sit with your local restaurant owner, tell him what you do and he or she will pay you thousands of dollars to up their business online.
Now in theory, this was okay, but the traffic method was to “go by foot!”
And yep … I did it!
I Spent days driving to some of the local high streets in Bristol, trying to sell my services to restaurant owners and local retailers but, thank God for my husband who said to me after a few days …
“Trish, you’ve been doing well getting clients online, just do more of what you’ve doing rather than getting despondent walking the high streets.”
Oh I love my husband’s common sense!
So now, I have my model, thought I was doing okay until Mike Koenigs comes along and tells me a) you could be charging more for what you do (I like you Mike!!) and b) you can sell your products to local businesses without having to “go by foot” (I REALLY like you Mike!) and c) you know Trish, I have an entire blueprint that will help you help more businesses without being overwhelmed and, without having to do it all yourself. (Now I’m loving you Mike!!).
If you’ve spent money “inteligencing” yourself in Internet Marketing but as yet, you’ve not seen a return on your investment because you’re having difficult making online as a “traditional” Internet Marketer, what Mike has here is your lifeline.
I’ll say no more, I just highly recommend you go check it out.
http://www.mainstreetmarketingmachines.com/bizbox/cmd.php?af=615360 *
* This blog post includes my affiliate link. If you click on the link and purchase it, I will get paid a commission.
"Your Niche Will Find YOU!"
This is what my coach used to say to me in the early days of building my coaching practice…
“Your niche will find you.”
When you don’t know what your niche is, that can be quite frustrating but in truth, my niche did find me.
When I started in business, my intention was to build my coaching practice around personal development and leadership but I wasn’t going to go around “begging” people to let me coach them as I’d seen so many of my coaching cohorts do … I wanted to follow the principles of attracting clients that both David Frey and Robert Middleton had taught me but then I kept hearing coaches and professional speakers saying “you don’t make money from your website anyway.” So in a way, I set out to prove them wrong which, I did.
In the meantime however, I had to embrace technology and marketing principles I’d never heard of before … “autoresponders,” “blogs,” ”education marketing” to name a few and the more I got into this Internet Marketing thing, the more I loved it and being the natural coach that I am, it wasn’t long before I started coaching others who wanted an Internet business.
That journey was a tough one though because some of these people had an idea of what they wanted to market online but didn’t have a clue about basic business or marketing principles and some had read the grandiose stories of online marketer’s making millions whilst working in their “boxers” and after a month of coaching, they wanted to know why they’d not become millionaires yet. Sad but true.
I still work with people who want to get started on the Internet, but they are entrepreneurs or small business owners who are either new to online marketing or, they want to increase their online presence.
Now, had I listened to the so called wisdom at the time of some online marketer’s, I would never have competed in this niche because many of the gurus discouraged competition within the Internet Marketing space and many would even tell you that it isn’t a niche … it’s too big to be a niche. It’s not that they were protecting their own businesses (at least this wasn’t how I read it), but it was more a protection thing and of course, the smaller the niche, usually there is less competition and therefore in theory, easier to make money.
Anyway, I took the view one day that if people are asking for my advice and acting on it, there are others who will pay me money to share what I know with them and so, I threw logic to one side and followed my heart!
Why am I telling you this and what’s it got to do with you?
I don’t believe in shying away from an oversaturated market. If you’re being constantly called upon to help others in a particular area (which is what happened to me), there is a market out there ready to be served… by you!
There may be better, richer, more respected players within your niche, but I believe we all have a purpose and if it’s your purpose to serve a paricular group of people, then even the best out there won’t do it as well as you, despite all their experience!
I will argue with anyone that if you have passion for something and the willingness to learn, you can compete with anyone on practically any subject and win … the importance is to live on purpose which means, not going after a niche just because there is lots of money in it, but going after a niche or target market because you want to serve the people in it and you have something to offer. This is how my niche found me … as my passion and desire to help people make the most of building their business online, it showed up in my conversations, my writings and in how other people presented me and this passion and desire to help is still serving me well today.
So, if you’re still unclear about which niche you should be serving, your first question has to be in my humble opinion, “what am I passionate about?” It is more involved than this, but if you’re passionate about solving a problem that other people are experiencing and, they are willing and able to pay to help them solve their problem, you have a market and therefore, you have a business.
I recently heard a Church leader say that you can easily tell whether someone is a leader or not by how many others are following them. If you call yourself a leader but have no followers, something is seriously wrong and the same is true for targeting a specific market … if enough people are asking you to help them solve their problems and, they are happy to act on the advice you give them, you may well already have a niche and perhaps not realise it.
Your next step in the process would be to test that theory by using some online tools which, I’ll discuss in more depth in an upcoming blog post.
Until next time,
Blog Marketing Works For Getting More Sales And More Clients
Blog Marketing is about getting more exposure for your business or for what you’re selling and it’s more than just about getting lots of traffic.
What’s the point of traffic if you can’t convert them into sales right?
In terms of blogging and blog marketing, my main focus is helping people who already have an offline business get their business online. So, the initial focus is on attracting more clients and, making more sales whilst we strategize for how to get passive income from information products, based on their service.
For weeks now, I’ve wanted to talk to you about one of the ways a client of mine is approaching blog marketing but, until now, I’ve had to bite my lip ….
Gavin Ingham of www.GavinIngham.com is a sales trainer and motivational speaker and since building his blog in 2007, Gavin has been consistently blogging and making his presence known online and then earlier this year after each show of Sir Alan Sugar’s “The Sales Apprentice,” Gavin sat down and wrote a review of the program for his blog.
In fact, I know that on one occasion, Gavin was so tired, he didn’t do the review and went to bed. He woke the next morning to about 25 emails asking “where’s the review of last night’s show?”
Don’t you just love it when your readers beg you for more content!
Anyway, I digress … As a direct result of Gavin’s reviews, two of the Apprentices have been in touch with him about partnering on a project or two. You can see Gavin’s post, The Return of the Sales Apprentice for more information.
The real point I want to make here though is that blog reviews extend beyond trying to make a quick buck from an affiliate product.
It seems to me that small business owners, entrepreneurs and independent professionals are still a little slow adapting to blogging and blog marketing. It’s not seen as a serious business building tool by some and others just complain that they just don’t have time to blog – these are generally those that don’t have time to build their business either.
Now, don’t get me wrong, if you’re marketing online and doing great with the online strategies you’re implementing, then blogging may not have to be a serious consideration for you right now. I will say however that I personally believe in the long-term, if your competitor is blogging and you’re not, you’ll lose out.
But back to my business of reviews …
I think Gavin’s approach of reviewing The Sales Apprentice program after each show was not only an excellent idea and credibility booster, indirectly, he was making more sales. He’s a professional speaker and he’s selling himself essentially in selling his services.
But, he didn’t need to litter his blog posts with links to products or even his services. He just provided an honest and frank review, gave away some great sales tips and not only do I know he has been booked for speaking gigs as a direct result of these reviews, he’s now been contacted by two of the apprentices theselves.
Dave Taylor of AskDaveTaylor.com told a true story of a lawer who didn’t have a blog but left a comment on Dave’s blog. The comment was read by either a news reporter or authority in a large organization (can’t remember for sure) but the result was that he landed himself in a very high position job.
One comment and no blog but one helluva reward at the end … can’t be bad for a few minutes work.
So, what business are you in and what can you review to get some more exposure for your business?
Is it the last book you read? Maybe the last ad you saw on TV, a seminar you attended or even a company review that would help your readers see you as a potential giant or even giant in your field?
As a service professional, you are seeking authority and credibility because people buy from those they know like and trust and I’ve proved over and over again that blog marketing works for getting clients and making more sales and isn’t just limited to selling $29 eBooks.
In my blog post Easier To Sell A Product Than Your Services Online, I pointed out technically, it’s harder to sell your services online than a product … so many will tell you anyway but most of my consulting clients are acquired as a direct result of my blog and, my services cost way more than the average information product that is launched online.
So, if you’re looking for more clients, if you’re looking to make more sales and if you’re trying to sell products, I highly recommend that you add blogging to your marketing mix sooner, rather than later.
To Your Success,
Blog Marketing Tips and Insights
www.trishjones.com
Easier to Sell a Product than Your Services Online?
I really felt it necessary to answer this question in a blog post because it’s a question I get asked so many times. More specifically though, the question is:
“Do You Make Money From Your Blog or Do You Make Money Mainly From Your Services?”
Before I answer this question, I want to rewind back to 2005 when Derek Gehl and his team at The Internet Marketing Center (IMC) reviewed my website, TrishJones.com for their November edition of their subscription newsletter, Secrets of their Success. This was just before I decided to turn my web site into a blog by the way.
The review was worth $5,000 and included a complete new website with graphics as well as step-by-step instructions on how to monetize my site. But, there was one thing they pointed out to me in their feedback which caused me some concern … They said:
“It’s Harder to Sell Your Services Online, Than it is to Sell a Product”
And, if you’re a member of The Internet Marketing Center’s “Secrets to their Success,” you can go check out the review.
At the time, even though I had already transitioned to consulting with clients who wanted an online business, the IMC build my site around life coaching, something I had no desire going back to, but I took on board the suggestions from the review but focused mainly on one thing …
You got it, selling my consulting services online.
And was it hard? You bet it was initially and it took me a while to uncover the secrets to attracting clients online. I did get clients, then those clients would refer other people to me, but it wasn’t until I turned my website into a blog that I really started building my client base.
So it is no secret really and I’m sure you’ve heard this time and time again when it comes to building an online business …
“Give People Good Quality Content They Can Use!”
Once I turned my website into a blog, I started giving away my best tips on how to market online. I then focused on blog marketing and this was when the tables turned.
I started getting calls from people who had never met me, never heard of me, people who had never even spoken to me before, calling me from Australia, the US, Canada, UK, New Zealand and Japan, asking me to build their blog and consult with them.
How did they find me? Via the search engines.
Why did they contact me? Because they had read the content on my blog, they like what they had seen and wanted to hire me.
Marc Dagenais is one of my clients who found me online and this is what he has to say about me:
Notice, Marc found my blog, liked the look of it, read the content, decided I knew what I was talking about and then hired me.
In fact, Marc and I didn’t even speak for the first time until after he’d paid me!!
People buy from those they know like and trust and as far as I am concerned it makes no difference whether you are selling a product or a service. The principle is the same, you have to build the same kind of trust and you have to give the same level of quality!
Blogging, writing articles and generally getting your message out there beats a one time salesletter every time in my view. I don’t even have a sales letter as such on my blog though I do have a page about my services but people don’t make their decision to hire me on that information alone, they hire me because of the content on my blog.
So, let me answer my question … “Do I make more money from my services or from products?”
I make way more money from my consulting services than I do products because my primary focus is on providing a service to small business owners, entrepreneurs and independent professionals who want to attract more clients online.
But, about 30% of my income is from afiliate products that I sell from my blog and this is without really pushing them. I made a lot more than 30% when I was selling subscriptions to my membership site, which is currently closed until I update the videos thanks to the launch of WordPress 2.5, now 2.7.1. These videos are coming soon and then I will be taking the same principles I use to sell my services, to sell subscriptions to my membership site.
And, I just want to wrap up this post by telling you a little story that I hope will help you understand the power of selling online …
About 8 weeks ago, I purchased a product from a very well known Internet Marketer about selling your consulting services to local business. I thought it was an excellent idea and contacted some local businesses, got in my car and went to visit some of them but I’ll be honest with you, not sure about the attitudes of local businesses in America but I was “cheesed off!” This means fed up by the way! 
I felt I was pulling teeth!
These local businesses didn’t need online marketing, they needed motivating! And, can you understand how hard it is to try and eductate someone who needs motivating? It’s hard! And personally, whilst I used to get paid to do this as a manager, I was adamant that I wasn’t going to be the one to spend my precious time with these local business people trying to get them excited about their own business.
So after another of my miserable unsuccessful days my husband said to me “Trish, you’ve done really well getting clients online. Why are you spending your precious time driving around in your car trying to motivate these people to set up online. Isn’t it better to do more of what you’ve been doing online and attract more clients that way?”
I didn’t even argue with him because I knew he had a valid point.
So, I went to work and put a process in place for attracting qualified, targeted visitors to my blog and the result …
I have just experienced my best 6 months in business which, is 5 years now and, I charge 527% more than I was charging last year but, I have less clients and more time to focus on growing my own online business.
In fact, I’ve just partnered with someone in the US and we are working frantically on a new product in the personal development and leadership arena. So you could say I’m going back to my roots because leadership and development is my background.
So, what changed in my business because I didn’t just increase my price without increasing the value of my service?
The one major change has been in my target market, from people who want a blog to people who want an online business. It took some time to differentiate between the two and, as I explained earlier, my market is small business owners, entrepreneurs and independent professionals who want to market their service online.
This still involves product creation and selling, mainly by way of information products but all of my clients either want to attract more service clients or, they often pick a niche within their existing niche – those who would prefer to buy an information product about the service they provide and market their product to them. In time, they may become service clients too.
But, it all involves a process! And, the process is quite simple …
Give them a reason to leave you thier name and email address.
Alex Mandossian calls this the ethical bribe and then follow up with good quality information they can use either via a newsletter, blog post or an autoresponder series and occasionally (and this really is the operative word), give them a call to action to either purchase one of your products or services or your affilaite products or services.
And remember, it’s not what you sell online that matters, it’s whether what you are selling is a service or a commodity that people are willing and able to pay you money for.
The processes and principles I teach you on this blog can be applied to selling an intangible commodity such as a service, to sell an ebook, which is also and intangible by the way or, to sell physical products.
It took me a long time to appreciate the fact that selling online can be easy but the hard work for many is in the action.
Thanks to the frank talk from my husband, I sat down and cracked the real blog traffic formula. Yes I know how to get traffic to my blog, but what I’m referring to is getting the traffic I want and not just any old traffic and soon, I’ll be giving you the opportunity of working with me so you attract prequalified visitors to your site too!
All the best,
