With 2009 just hours away, there’s hope, expectation, and reservation in the air.

A few thoughts: 2009 will be the year of…

The self-employed

There is one key attribute to success that most do not realize.  Everyone is self-employed.  Whether you work for a corporation or have your own freelance company…you are essentially self-employed.

If you work for a company as an employee and get a W2 at the end of the year, you are still in theory a one person company and your product is…you.  Your time, your creativity, and your talent…that’s what you get paid for.

In 2009, I believe we will see people take more responsibility for their own progress and careers.  Instead of leaning on job security - which is a mind game anyway - we will lean towards independently looking towards progressing ourselves.  You are your own boss…even if you have to answer to someone.

Through this realization, we will see people branch out into other areas.  You no longer have 1 job…you may open up a side business selling info products, freelancing, blogging - who knows.

2009 will be the year of the self-employed.

Shifting priorities

As retirement accounts dry up, loans are called, and credit lines are reduced we need to optimize and adapt for the better.  What were priorities in 2007 and 2008 will change this year.

From families and businesses paying off their debt and re-structuring their expenses to save more to real estate investors going crazy over bargains to be had.

From workaholics spending more time with their families to students finding new ways to pay for school so they don’t have to borrow.

From parents taking back control of their retirement by not relying on extremely leveraged institutions for help to college savings accounts being started for new born babies.

2009 will be the year of shifting priorities.

Inbound Marketing

As marketing morphs into consumer interaction and corporate execs become transparent a new way of reaching your audience is taking hold.  Inbound Marketing is the process of building your brand and evoking consumer loyalty through communication, relationships, and an equally satisfying need to make our world a better place.

Utilizing Search Engine Optimization, Brand Marketing, Social Media, and overall Reputation management; start-ups will compete with giants by creating communities for niche markets and taking over market share through quality products/services and Inbound Marketing.  If you build it correctly, they will come.

2009 will be the year of Inbound Marketing.

Personal Branding

In line with being self-employed, the personal brand comes into play.  No longer do consumers only care about the product or service, they now care about the people behind the curtain.  With so many companies faltering in 2008 it becomes increasingly important to put your money towards the leadership behind a cause.

With the transparency that social media networks bring to executives, personal brand will play a big role in consumer confidence.  This is extremely apparent when you look at Apple and Steve Jobs…then the challenge is how do you pass on “your brand” to the company yet still take it with you when the time comes.

2009 will be the year of Personal Branding

Twitter Emergence

Many people are confused by how to monetize or even utilize social media networks.  Whether it’s Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, or twitter, they are confused.  And rightly so…these applications have a feature set but it’s up to the users to determine how that feature set is used.

In 2009, I see twitter emerging to a mass audience.  Whether they know how to use it or not, twitter offers something the other networks are not geared towards..the ability to find and connect with strangers of like mind.  Networking and building, this is where I see twitter exploding.

2009 will be the year of twitter emergence.

On a side note, if you are interested in a really cool twitter showcase coming in January ‘09 - follow me @arifgan - details to come early Jan…seriously, you don’t want to miss this one.

Now, on to you…our readers are clever, creative, and determined so let’s hear it…

2009 will be the year of?

Here’s the deal…we all want to and need to accomplish specific tasks to be successful in what we do.  If you are employed, you better do your “job” or you won’t have one.  And if you are self-employed, well…you know this better than anyone, you have to stay productive.

Successful people are driven and focused.  They may not be caught up on episodes of Survivor, Heroes, How I met your mother, or any other TV shows, but they have their priorities straight.  If you are caught up on your favorite TV shows, maybe you are just much more efficient than me

This post is geared towards freelancers, entrepreneurs, and business people…there is some overlap to those working traditional W2 jobs.

1. Make a list, People like lists!  A list is easier to skim and read if needed.

By making a list, you are creating action items for yourself.  You can look down at that piece of paper and follow it…don’t worry about how big the items are, just make a list of no more than 5 items you MUST get done and prioritize them in order of what is MOST important.  Why limit to 5? To not overwhelm you with a list of the top 182 things you must accomplish this week.

There are different ways of determining what’s most important…that’s for another post Coming soon…

Keep your list handy, it’s funny how our minds forget what’s next and while we try to remember we take a quick peek at Twitter, Facebook, Break, or some other distraction.  Once you are done with item #1, CROS IT OFF.  Seriously, take a marker and feel a sense of accomplishment by marking it complete.

Now, if the project or task is too large for one sitting, you may have to time box it.  Which means, creating a time limit and working on it with determination and focus during that time box and then if needed, creating another time box on a different day to re-visit the project and continue to make progress.

Thoughts from twitter: @acclimedia - When a deadline is looming, I always take a step back and create an action plan of what needs to be done, complete w/an outline.The key is to organize into mini tasks you can ‘check off.’ If it’s a writing assignment, get a shell down on paper you can expand upon.

2. Close your email program, don’t just minimize it.

Close it down, you are less likely to hit the Send/Receive if it’s closed and you have to wait for it to re-open.  In almost every case, email can wait. If something is EXTREMELY important, they will call.  Checking email every few minutes creates distraction that is hard to recover from, do it often enough and you will rob yourself unknowingly.

Suggested by @kristofcreative

3. Get your groove on.

Put on some music. I prefer to zone out, I have a play list in iTunes for working out, for chilling, and for productivity.  You know what gets you going, make a play list, put on some head phones and get cracking in your “productivity zone.”

Suggested by @idesignstudios - Selene actually suggested TOOL specifically.

4. Know your vices.

Turn your blackberry/smart phone off, fill up your water bottle - you know what defeats you. Admit it and then overcome it.

We love to be connected, but studies show that multi-tasking doesn’t help much.  By dividing our attention, we cheat ourselves of valuable productivity.  Know your vices. Let me say that again, KNOW your vices and take control over them.  If you have a bad habit of hitting up Facebook while you are “thinking”, stop it.  Make it a reward…set an alarm, after X number of hours of focused attention on your project, then you can chill on Facebook for Y number of minutes.  If you get up often to get a drink, fill up your water bottle ahead of time.

Suggested by @minjae - turn off your blackberry

5. Turn off twitter, TweetDeck, or whatever you use.

If you aren’t on twitter…you need to be, it’s a GREAT networking tool.  But it’s also the essence of wasted utilization when used incorrectly or at the wrong time.  The Internet NEVER stops.  Twitter NEVER stops, you can not keep up with it all…you may be able to with 500 followers, but you can’t at 60,000 followers.  Don’t worry about it, you will miss something at some point and that’s okay.  Life goes on, when you get back on you can contribute and interact, but feel okay about missing a few things.  The productivity trade-off is immense.

The same goes for Digg, RSS Blog feeds, etc.  Block out time for those; don’t let them steal your time.

Suggested by @andysowards

6. If the van is rocking, don’t come knocking.

Let people know that you are in a “Do Not Disturb” state of mind.  People will respect it and if they have an emergency, they will interrupt you.  The point is to let others know that you wish to not be disturbed so that you can focus.  If you don’t tell them, you can’t blame them for the distraction.

7. Keep it clean.

When your work space is organized, it’s easier to keep your mind organized.  A cluttered environment creates opportunities for distraction, frustration, and excuses.  You’ll stay more organized in your thoughts and you’ll be able to accomplish more if your workspace is organized and geared for productivity.

5 ways to stay de-cluttered by the Container store - more lists

8. Be prone to action.

The longer you delay, the more time you are wasting by thinking about what you need to get done.  This is a tough mental block…aka procrastination.  Just know that those prone to action succeed more often…I’m not saying you should give up if you are a lazy SOB, but if you were that lazy then you probably would not be reading a blog post on how to focus and get sh*t done.

9. Take control of your most valuable resource.

I directed a large tech team at a publicly traded company and the culture of that company was very reactive.  It took me a while to get out of the mindset of sitting there and waiting for a fire to put out.

Take control of your day and decide what you will get done, choose what will bring the highest results and choose what you will focus on.  You can still block out time for those reactive moments because we all know that fires will come, but you don’t have to let them rule how your day will be spent.  After all, that’s what you are doing - spending your most valuable resource - decide ahead of time how you are going to spend your time.

10.  Be present, physically and mentally.

When you are spending time with your family, do you have a hard time letting go of work?  If you spend your work time focusing on being productive with business related tasks then it becomes easier to spend your family or personal time just focusing on things other than business.

The more productive you stay in your business the easier it is to feel accomplished and let go during personal time.  Your family and your friends will appreciate this.  As they fret, you’ll be the one that “has it all figured out.” 

10.5. Keep true to your purpose.

Why do you do what you do?  Are you trying to make a difference in the world? Are you trying to provide for your family?  Are you saving up for an Aston Martin Vanquish?  Whatever your motive, keep it in mind…determination follows passion, what is your passion and purpose?

Focus, stay determined, and most of all - Don’t let it beat you!

I KNOW you have a tactic that I didn’t mention…how do YOU stay focused?

Read this great interview of Supper Solutions’ President Leanne Deister, by Mom Entrepreneur.  Supper Solutions utilizes our Live-Kitchen.com Meal Assembly Software Application to reduce operating expenses, organize client orders, manage inventory, and take payments.

Visit Supper Solutions now.

So, here’s a tip that’s so simple, many of us have forgotten it - I figured most people had already taken this precaution…but I found that not to be the case.

It is SO Simple, yet it may save you a lot of grief and lost sales. Ready?

• Create a 400 Error Redirect (through Apache or whatever web server you are using) if traffic doesn’t reach you in the manner you were expecting it to arrive.

It’s literally a precaution, in case things don’t turn out how you expected them to.  As I was researching a few blogs I clicked on an advertisement, not sure why - I was curious as to what they were selling I guess.

Here is the Ad I clicked on:

After clicking on this Ad that this company is paying for…guess what comes next?

A brilliant Sales page?

A phenomenally written blog post?

A corporate website with logos of their fancy clientelle?

NO! Here’s what I end up with

Not Found

The requested URL /jvsrc=BtoBlonline_Banners was not found on this server.

You’ve got to be kidding me….

You worked SO hard to put together your Internet Marketing campaign, you’ve got Ads rolling, you’ve got landing pages created, and in case someone ends up at a place you didn’t expect - you are going to lose that visitor because the URL got jacked up or a page was moved.

The fix is easy…so easy.  In your Apache settings or whatever Web Server you are using, you can setup a .htaccess redirect - if your web host supports it.

You can just put in a simple line like this into your .htaccess file:

ErrorDocument 404 /notfound.html

and create a notfound.html page for users to see instead of the 404 Not Found message.  At least then you haven’t lost them and you’ve gotten a 2nd chance.  Sometimes a 2nd chance is all you need to capture a lead.

Consider it…prepare for the unknown!  I’d love to hear from others on simple ways to dodge Murphy and make the most of your Web site or blog.

Comments?

Alright, this may be a stretch in some regard but it was quite apparent and clear to me.

We are putting together our Serious Internet Marketing Dashboard and through a lot of research I’m finding that there are a lot of Internet Marketing Consultants out there. They charge anywhere from $75 - $1,000 an hour.  Seriously, $1,000 an hour.  Why would anyone pay this?

I’ll tell you why someone would pay $1,000 an hour. Because it’s an investment.  Warren Buffet did an interview last month with Charlie Rose and talked about our current economic “issues” and why they’ve occurred.  He talks about the stock market, un-real valuations, and why people still bought.

Why do people spend THOUSANDS of dollars on coaching and e-books to help them market on the Internet?  Because it’s easier than marketing in the real world, and there’s the potential for great RETURN on your investment.

But, you have to do it right…for long term growth.  Slow and steady. It’s not about a big bang to profit, it’s about growth, reputation, and building.

Buffet talks about his $3 Billion dollar investment in GE…Cash is King, but only if you use it…but before you use it, you have to earn it!

In essence this video is about not following and charting your own course…with low start up funds and almost no free time, Internet Marketing is yoru best bet to creating new revenue sources.  Think like an Investor, not like an Imitator, or an Idiot!

Social media provides new tools for business to interact directly with their customer base.  This may be a good thing or a bad thing - that depends on your business and how good your product is.

The fear from businesses may be that they receive some bad reviews on their product or services.  This is a fear of all businesses. In most cases you are trying to provide the best product or service possible and even though you care what your customers think, you don’t want your potential customers to view any negative feedback.

This poses a dilema, to have the best product you must solicite feedback.  You can do this privately through e-Survey software such as ratepoint.com. Social Media now provides a tool and people will use it whether or not you decide to listen.  With blogs, Facebook, and other mediums to rate your product or just chat about your product, some may already be providing useful nuggets of information; yet you aren’t listening.

I encourage you to take heed of these networks and watch your brand and your customer base, they are out there and they can provide you with valuable feedback.  Feedback that will ultimately increase the quality of your product, if you choose to listen.

Social Media allows you to interact with your customers as well.  If someone posts a negative comment, use that same medium to post any changes or updates that others reading the post may be interested in.

For example:

If someone posts a message stating that your Support department is taking too long to respond back to email, even though in your auto-responder you qualify that they will hear back within 24 hours (for example).  You could first contact that client and make sure their needs are taken care of - win them back.  And then post a message stating that you have changed the email auto-responder to give a more accurate response time (or you removed the time altogether).  In addition, you have implemented a Forum that will allow customers to post their questions, your support team to respond to their questions, and everything is archived for future users who may have the same answer.

Here is an article in regards to replacing that un-godly plastic clam-shell packaging that is almost impossible to open without scissors, and then once you have it open the edges become fatal weapons.

Listen to your customers, they are talking about your product.  Don’t fear feedback, embrace it and use the Internet to communicate with your clients.

A piece of interesting data so you can see how Search Engines interact with one another.

Search Engine Optimization is the process of gaining higher ranking in the result set of a Search Engine search.  Now for that to make sense, let’s do some defining of terms and processes.

Here’s the quick and dirty…

A Web site is born
You’ve just started a business and need to put your web site up.  Well, the first thing you will do is figure out your focus.  This usually comes from the products or services you sell, or the demographic of the clients you are servicing.

These are your keywords. Keywords define your site.  Now, sometimes keywords are setup in the META tags of a site, but sometimes the keywords are just generated from the content you’ve created.  Mostly likely, it’s the content that defines your site more so than the keywords.  Although, keywords are very important, so don’t neglect them.

A Search Engine finds out you exist
One way or another, A Search Engine will figure out you exist. You either submitted your site directly to an engine or you posted a comment in a blog with your URL…either way, the engine will see that there’s fresh meat out there and they will send their bots and spiders.

Bots and Spiders - no, that’s not my Halloween costume
Bots and Spiders are what Search Engines send through the Internet to scavenge your site.  These “Spiders” will “crawl the net” and index your content, and various other pieces of data.  They are the ones that check to see if content has been updated or not and will check your relevancy, etc.

Weights and Value
Each time a spider indexes your pages, they will rank you and provide a weight as to the value of your content.  This is the secret sauce for most Search Engines.  If you were to figure out what algorithms they use to figure out weights and value, you could trick them into putting you up top on any keyword you wanted.  It’s assumed that no one person at any company (Google, Yahoo, MSN), has that information; different departments share pieces of the algorithm so that it can’t be stolen.  In some cases, the Search Engine will also change this weighting system which may been after a change, that your site will jump up or drop down in rank just based on how they are looking at your site now.

A user is on the prowl
Now, we have a user on a Search Engine who puts in a keyword they are wanting to find a relevant site for. They type in their keywords and hit search, the Search Engine now goes through it’s database of indexed content and displays results for what they think is the most relevant web site to satisfy the users query.

This is based on data and content saved by the Spiders when they visited your site.

Now, the difference between SEO and SEM:

1. SEO is the process of making changes to your site so that the Spiders will give you a better weight and value based on what you’ve done internally. This means you’ll organically move up the Search Engine Results list.  When you think SEO, think slow, steady, and long-term.

2. SEM can sometimes include SEO, but mainly it’s the process of paying for clicks or “Pay Per Click (PPC)”, paid inclusion, or paid placement, where you are buying clicks. If you pay G
oogle, Yahoo, or MSN for a sponsored link…you’ll show up at the top or the right side but you’ll pay each time someone clicks on your link.

In some people’s definition, SEM can also mean Search Engine Marketer, which is a person or group that provides Search Engine Optimization (Organic), Pay Per Click Management, Social Media Optimization, and other Internet Marketing Techniques.

Hopefully you learned something…we’d love to get your comments!

Cheers,

Arif Gangji
Neon Rain Interactive
www.neonrain.com
Web Design - Application Development - SEO SMO SEM - Email Marketing

If you aren’t familiar with Inbound marketing, it’s the notion that instead of going out and trying to grab potential clients, you just make sure you have good exposure, and when that potential client is ready they will come to you.

Well, it works…but why?

The client has already chosen to contact you, they’ve made a determination in their minds stating that you are already one of the candidates even if they haven’t spoken to you yet.

Sharpecopy.com defines a qualified lead as someone who meets the following criteria:

• Need: They need your product or service
• Authority: They have the authority to buy
• Budget: They have the budget to buy
• Readiness: They are ready to buy now

Now lets look at a ‘typical’ direct mail campgaign…again the numbers are from sharpecopy.com:

Here’s how you calculate your Cost Per Qualified Lead.

Number of pieces mailed (for example): 10,000
Response rate: 1%
Number of inquiries: 100
Number that you manage to reach by phone to qualify: 70
Cost of qualifying by phone, per inquiry: $30
Number who turn out to be qualified leads (20%): 14
Total cost of qualifying ($30 X 70): $2,100
Campaign cost of $10,000 + phone qualifying cost = $12,200
Total cost of $12,200 divided by 14 qualified leads = $871.42

In other words, you must spend $871.42 to attract each lead who needs your product or service, can afford it, has authority to buy, and is ready to buy now.

Staggering to say the least…especially if you are just starting out.  And if your product doesn’t sell for $871 or more, you actually lost money.

Now, with Inbound marketing, you are only focusing on the leads that are already fairly qualified, now you are just developing a lead.

Imagine shifting the focus online…integrating online marketing, Internet marketing, INBOUND MARKETING with your other efforts.

You are now building an online reputation - this is killer for those possibly interested in your product, let reviews, posts, and blogs online pre-sell your service or product for you.

You are also catching the lead when they are looking, instead of bugging them 7 times with a postcard to hopefully stick in their minds, they find you when they need you.

Mediapost.com states the following:

Not all leads are created equal.  To illustrate this point, which lead generation program is more appealing? Would you prefer 1,000 anonymous email addresses where you eventually determine only ten to be good prospects? Or would you like one that delivers 100 leads, each of whom is an ideal prospect?

The answer is obvious, but the trick is how to find those 100 prospects without wasting time sorting through thousands of anonymous and irrelevant respondents.

Are you starting to get the point?

Inbound Marketing through Internet Marketing brings customers to you…

Now get out there and build your online presence

Most of us know about Google Analytics, it’s a piece of code you put into your site and then you can use Google’s free tool to track visitors, time on site, where the visitors are coming from, e-commerce funnels, etc.

It’s a great tool, it’s free, and it’s widely used.

Well, it seems like Yahoo! is putting together an offering as well…it’s a rebrand of IndexTools.

Here are a few screenshots, since it’s not publicly available yet: