Pack in your job and make a living online

Posted by admin on May 20, 2013 in Content marketing, social media strategy, social media Training Thailand | 0 comments

Is it too late to start a website now and make money online?

That’s a bit like turning up at Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Gym as a 100 pound teenager and saying:

“I want to be Mr Universe.”

Once the massive square jawed gym heads have picked their massive 200 pound frames off the floor and dried their tears, you walk in the gym and start reps with the cotton buds! Sure anything is possible but you are going to have to be a very special person and have such a strong desire that transcends the pain it will take to get there.

You will always meet ‘Mr Know it all’ who has a programme or a system to beat the penguins and Pandas algorithms and search engine knowledge and get your site up there on first page asap. Sure I don’t doubt it, you can even do it yourself if you have money to burn on pay per click (PPC) advertising at the top of Google.

But like so many businesses the challenge is not starting, it’s getting paid for the work you do. I always see such shocked faces when my pupils of my Internet marketing training course right here in Bangkok when they realise just what it takes to sell things on the internet and get paid online.

There are two types of clients I see; one, who sells a product direct, could be houses, could be T shirts, it could be moulded plastics whatever. Then there are those who sell a consultative sale; as in I want to sell a physical appointment with me. Either way the online marketing strategies of their businesses are more or less the same.

I received an enquiry a couple of days ago from a surfer who has a great idea to sell surfers T shirts online, I advised it’s not so much about the shirts it’s about the feeling when you wear the shirts, he needs to make people think of the freedom and oneness surfers feel when you wear the clothes. Gucci don’t just sell bags they sell prestige and the emotion of buying yourself a gift, think about it like this: a plastic bag does the same job! This gave him much food for thought I also said Starbucks don’t sell coffee they sell an experience, that’s the magic. So you need to give a lot of thought to what it is you are really selling, what’s the emotion?

For me as an example; when I train staff how to blog, the business owners feel that the training is going to benefit their business and they in turn will get more online enquiries and sell more which means…..fill in here what is their real personal dream!!

Again back to the shock factor and un-comfort zone of my clients when I show them ads on certain sites of mine that receive over 5,000 unique visitors a month: I show them a banner add from a high street well branded internationally trusted company on the site, and get them to guess what it earns, well they are usually gobsmacked at how little they make! I tell them it’s just pocket money so I can buy a decent meal for me and the missus every quarter of the commission!

Banner advertising and Google AdSense have really dropped of late, and people that did just about make a living online have gone back to jobs and other things to supplement their income. You need around a minimum of 100,000 unique visitors on a website each month to make a few hundred dollars and you will need to supplement with AdSense or Facebook promoting and consistently updated good content to stay relevant, a full time job indeed!

The vast majority of my Bangkok online workshop clients who learn all I know over a couple of  days are consultative sale clients, as in;  they want more enquiries to make appointments to see them. This can be achieved but again a certain amount of time and effort are needed.

In 2012 I taught 30 clients in the United Kingdom over two day workshops each, how to build a blog, how to write blogs, press releases and how to grow their social media. In my initial appointment I made it very clear that: Ok sure all your social media will be set up live and your separate blog site with all the best SEO plug ins is customised and published  live, but and it’s a big But:

 If you are not going to blog about your business on your blog, publish and share to all social media sites at least once a week  please don’t bother!

Setting it all up is only 10% of the work needed; you are going to need to blog and least once a week for six months to start getting good search engine ranking. All of these clients said:

“Yes Alan no problem let’s get started.”

 Now here is a lesson in common sense, common sense to me now means the majority, and:

 To be successful look at what the majority are doing and do the opposite.

 Q) How many of these 30 established UK businesses have blogged consistently since I taught them in 2012?

A) ONE! Yes One!!

Is it any wonder 5% of the world own 95% of all the wealth?

Regardless; many of my  Netmediauk clients saw massive improvement in their online standing, even though they have blogged so little.

It is still possible to sell directly online and make decent money, but you have to be different and create a unique brand and experience and emotion to be different. I, as an online marketing consultant in Bangkok sell appointments, and through my blogs I get 90% of all my appointments, through 5-8 fresh new leads a month.

Imagine if your business could convert 5-8 fresh new leads a month then contact netmediathailand for a digital marketing training course in Bangkok (see what I did there weaved the keywords in lol)

Read More

Setting up a Word Press blog is not enough

Posted by admin on May 10, 2013 in Content marketing, social media strategy, social media Training Thailand | 0 comments

Sure everything starts with a blog, and you need a good Word Press blog as the focal point of your online marketing strategy. But without a strong social media presence you are really going to struggle with the other 150 million websites out there at present to make any noise on the search engines.

Why Word Press?

Well for starters it has the easiest to use admin panel I have ever seen, you do not need to be a programmer of any sort to make a beautiful looking website for your business for very little money, in fact it’s a lesser known secret now that you can get a word press website up in 15 minutes at a cost of around $15**

** $10 for a month’s hosting and around $5 for a domain

You can then look for Word Press themes and they range from free, up to a few hundred dollars. Installing a theme is as simple as downloading the zip file to your PC and then uploading it into templates in your site admin, even if you have loads of content it simply migrates to the new theme instantly.

 Word Press has thousands of free plug-ins which means you could get a shop installed on your site for free, forums, cookie warnings, captcha codes etc. and my favourite plug in of all; Yoast SEO this plug in is the best and highly recommended and all free!

Adding images and the SEO into images is a doddle now, and you can find amazing images on Istock photos to give your website that professional image and you won’t ever get caught out with image theft by downloading images of Google!

Getting your blog started is really easy but the real challenge comes after you have written and published your blog to get people to read it! I always point out in my online marketing workshops in Bangkok that you could even have an instant cure for cancer, yet without marketing it could take a while before anyone sits up and takes notice.

Along with your blog you should have a Facebook business page, Twitter account, LinkedIn profile and LinkedIn business page at the very least. To start to get Google search ranking you are going to need at least a few hundred followers, likes and contacts on all these social media websites. Twitter especially, as Hub Spot now tells us;

A thousand targeted FOLLOWERS drives on average 800 visits to the Twitter account owners  site each month of people who want to read your stuff!

that’s awesome branding right there, so never neglect your Twitter account.

You write your blog with passion and try to remember to be giving and full of information and tips, and not selling apart from a subtle call to action at the end of your blog where people can contact you, don’t forget to have at least one internal link in your blog.

 Then and this is the vital point, you must share your blog on your  Facebook business page this can only be done by copying the URL of the page and sharing it on your Facebook business page,  your Facebook business page is of course is linked to Twitter so Twitter picks up the link automatically. The next step is to share on LinkedIn and Word Press plug ins have a great plug in called social media counters add this  below and above your posts you will see a LinkedIn share button which will share your post on LinkedIn AND any LinkedIn groups you are in.

The next step is to share to social book marking sites and Image sharing sites, only when you have done this consistently enough will you have people on Search engines  know who you are, and what you do and how to contact you for more info.

For help with how to blog effectively and how to grow your social media reach so that you, like me, can start receiving 5-8 fresh new warm leads a month direct to your business  contact Netmediauk

 

Read More

Social media and Twitter why the majority will fail!

Posted by admin on May 7, 2013 in social media strategy, social media Training Thailand | 0 comments

The reason why 5% of the world own 95% of all the money is because they do the one thing that the majority, the ‘common sense’ do not do which is to speculate beyond the month end!

“To be successful look at what everyone else is doing and do the opposite”

I remember buying my first home in UK in 1994 it was a very modest 2 rooms up and 2 rooms down with an extension at the back where the bathroom was. It was fine when I was first married, yet as I was on a small salary then, I struggled every month with the mortgage, I was sometimes months behind, however my folks gave me the best advice they knew which was to keep open contact with the building society, which I did, and I was able to keep hold of that home and then later rent it out and use that money towards the next home. 2004 I sold both properties for a handsome profit.

During the years 1995-2000 I really felt the pain and many times I thought of just moving back in with my folks to release some spare cash into my pocket to at least go out for a meal or the cinema with the wife, yet I decided to stay and live on the faith that it is a good investment and Thank God the old adage; safe as houses, rang true when I sold and made my first fortune. If you look back at the last 100 years property goes through some very scary dips when it’s not worth buttons, at this time you need to be living in your property as a family and seeing the benefit as a roof over your head and as an emotional purchase rather than an investment, but if you look again at the 100 year chart, property has on average doubled every ten years!

So what does this have to do with social media marketing in Bangkok? Well one of the hardest things to do is show Key performance indications (KPI’s) and Return on Investments (ROI’s) in the short term for your social media strategy.

 In my Online marketing workshops in Bangkok I reiterate and repeat the fact that Social media is the long term, it’s branding of your company, and one of the reasons why I love doing it is; the best companies with the passion for longevity and the belief that a great service will bring them success do well with Digital marketing! Those of you in business for the short term should steer clear it won’t help you.

First off social media is about you personally and what you know, people buy from people not Search engine robots, and social media is a way to show people who you are, what you stand for and how what you know will help them, period! If you are not prepared to put your own real name to it forget it!

You must write about what you know consistently, and you must write a lot, it takes an average 30+ blogs and articles and sharing to over 5,000 people each time on your social media reach to get any recognition for your keywords online! How do you get 5,000 minimum followers and likes? That my friend is the right question!!

The answer is; Provide a great service that people will want to recommend, simple. Your Facebook business page should only be liked by people who know your company I have previously discussed how bribing and buying likes is as useful to you as a cheap umbrella on a fast motorbike! You must ask clients and people who have used your service to like you, but “Alan” you scream

“That will take forever!”

“Yes” I reply, it seems like that, but don’t get hung up on how many like you, concentrate on quality!

Many business mentors will also tell you when you start up business that you should have a database to start calling! Two major wrongs in this day and age and a great waste of time and money!

Cold calling is a waste of time as any great sales person will tell you, you lose the upper ground, you lose control and most of all you lose impetus! With Social Media I am now showing clients how I find 3-5 sales leads a week sat at home with a lap top using social media, my phone bill is less than $20 a month seriously!

Well what’s my database? You may ask, well, Facebook and LinkedIn provide a lot but it’s not as targeted as my Twitter accounts, I know through analytics that my Twitter accounts are driving around 3 of those leads directly through my process of:

 Blog>share to Facebook>this auto-sends to Twitter>Pinterest>LinkedIn and social book marking sites.

Twitter is the most targeted database you will ever have, but only if you know and understand the basis of work today get paid tomorrow, but like the property I bought and sold, it really is a front loaded process and as far as gathering Twitter followers, many will give up after six months, in fact in my experience, the vast majority give up after six months of searching and finding Twitter followers manually, to see how long it actually takes to see a ROI on twitter see my Twitter blog.

When people like my own family, (not you Mum) were telling me money is wrong,  filthy rich, and it’s morally irreprehensible to be wealthy, or my personal favourite “It’s alright for them!” This must hurt people who have got wealthy the hard way 80-100 hours a week in pursuit of the dream sacrificing what others won’t to get what they want or die trying!

We are far too much a ‘have now society’ if it doesn’t yield a harvest this time burn the field and sell it, yet every good farmer will tell you to wait, harvest that field each year, and maybe 3-5 harvests later, that particular field will be ready for the largest most profitable bumper crop you have ever seen!

You need at least 3,000 Targeted Twitter followers at the bare minimum to help in the process of finding leads for your business, anything less is well ‘left wanting’ sorry, and if you are the rest of society, the vast majority, you will not see the benefit right now in finding Twitter followers and in 2 years when your competitors have many thousands of followers and would not sell their twitter following for a very heavy Gold clock because of all the leads Twitter is responsible for, will you be there coming up with all sorts of Cognitive dissonance based reasoning proving to yourself why it was easy for them? And bemoaning:

“Oh it’s all right for them isn’t it?”

To grow your online presence and grow your Twitter account following contact Netmedia or don’t it’s entirely up to you, ……really!

Read More