Debbie LaChusa

I just found out that Go Daddy (my favorite place for website domain registrations and web hosting) is now offering professional, custom Web site design services at very affordable prices.

So, if you don't want to tackle building your own website using Microsoft Frontpage or Go Daddy's Website Tonight, and you don't want to hire an unknown company via Elance.com, you now have another attractive option.

With Go Daddy's new service, you can start with one of 800 design templates and then Go Daddy's professional design team will create you a custom Web site, complete with your images and copy. And prices start at just $499 for up to 5 pages. And, if you follow my recommendations for a basic starter website, you only need 5 pages!

You can find out more about this new service www.GoDaddy.com

Think of your marketing copy as your sales force, in print. For your marketing efforts to be effective and give you a return on your investment of time and money, your copy needs to effectively engage your audience and persuade them to want to know more, and to buy whatever you are selling. It also needs to clearly communicate what your business, product or services are all about and how they can solve a problem your prospects have.

Done well, it will also serve to attract only your ideal clients, repelling those who are not a good fit for your business. To write effective marketing materials you need to be very clear what your objective is for each piece. What do you want it to achieve? What do you want the reader to do once they've read it? Then write and design the marketing piece to lead your prospect to take that ONE action.

In Step 7 of my 10stepmarketing System we focus on helping you uncover what your Key Marketing Message is - what is the ONE thing you need to say to your prospects to get them to buy from you, and not one of your competitors. Once you know what it is, you can easily create any marketing piece.

There are also other great copywriting resources available. One of my favorite copywriting gurus is Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero of Red Hot Copy. I've even had her personally review and critique some of my sales pages. Lorrie offers a free weekly ezine along with self-study products and live boot camps and is a great resource if you want some focused help with your marketing copy.

Additionally, my Step of the Month Club topic for August is "How to Uncover Your Key Marketing Message and Sales Copy Points." This call is happening on Thursday, August 16th and is free for all Step of the Month Club members.

If you're not currently a member, you can join today and get one month free (new members only please). Click here now to learn more and join today!

Don't worry if you can't make the live call, it will be recorded and made available as an mp3 download.

Some people make the mistake of thinking that their logo mark IS their brand. Well, it's not. Your brand is your entire business and includes every touch point with your prospects and customers. I like to think of your logo mark as the face of your brand. If you market right, your logo mark will come to represent your brand and all it stands for. Consider logos like the Nike "Swoosh" or the Apple "Apple."

You see them and they paint a very clear picture in your mind of what these businesses' personalities are and what they represent.

Your logo should do the same for your business. Granted, you won't be investing millions of dollars to make your logo mark a household icon, but for your ideal clients, over time, your logo should come to represent your business, its personality and what it stands for.

For this reason, when it comes time to hire a logo mark designer, you need to make sure you hire someone who understands marketing and branding. They will ask you questions about your business, the personality you want to portray and what your positioning is. They use this information to develop a strategically sound logo mark to represent your business appropriately. If they don't understand this, they will design you a pretty picture. A pretty picture is not marketing.

One of my favorite, low-cost logo resources is Logoworks. For between $300-$600 you will get a variety of logos to choose from, and they do require you to submit a creative direction worksheet to ensure your logo correctly represents your business and positioning. Logoworks created my 10stepmarketing logo and my Twin Connections logo. And, they've successfully created logos for my clients, too.

One way of knowing whether anyone is visiting your website is looking at your results. Are people signing up for your mailing list? Are they buying your products or services? While this gives you some indication it certainly does not tell the whole story. You need to look at your website statistics to really know if your traffic is increasing over time, holding steady, or declining.

Additionally, you can use your website statistics to calculate your opt-in percentage rates for your mailing list and your sales conversion rates for your sales pages. Once you know your conversion rates, you can then begin work to improve them by making changes to your site, and measuring the results. You can test different headlines, different offers, different pricing, and optimize your site so it is most effective using this tracking information.

On a more basic level, you can see where your website traffic is coming from (are those articles you're posting on that article directory sending any traffic your way?) and you can monitor your traffic over time. Ideally, the longer you market your website, the more your website traffic should increase. You want to track this, so if this is not the case you can take steps to improve.

Your web hosting company should provide website tracking statistics at no extra charge. Some hosting companies provide better stats and reporting than others. The good news is, even if your web hosting company doesn't provide very comprehensive stats reports, there is a great third party option for getting comprehensive website stats.

It's called Google Analytics and it's free! Once you register for your free account, it will provide you with some html code to add to each page of your website. Once you've done that, you can access comprehensive website statistics reports for that website. And, you can register more than one site.

I just started using Google Analytics and so far I like what I see. Have you tried Google Analytics? If so I'd love to hear what you think. Post a comment and share.

So you've decided you want to give Public Relations a try. You like the idea of positioning yourself as an expert, generating awareness of your business, the third party credibility factor that publicity provides, and the fact that for the most part PR is free marketing.

That's great! In fact, I love PR as a small business marketing tool so much, I include steps for getting started using PR in Step 9 of my 10stepmarketing System.

I've been using PR for years and even though I'm not a PR pro by any means, I've had pretty good luck getting my news picked up. For example, a few years ago, my daughter's softball team did very well in the equivalent of the Little League World Series.

However, when we returned home from this big tournament to see the local Little League team plastered all over the news merely for participating in the Little League World Series, I couldn't help but feel the girls deserved equal coverage.

I asked a local PR firm that I used to work for if they'd pitch the story to the media for me, on a pro bono basis (meaning at no charge). Because they were friends they agreed. Unfortunately after two weeks of pitching, they could not get any of the local media to bite on the story.

Determined to get the girls equal coverage to the boys, I gave it a try myself. And within a few days I was able to get coverage of our girl’s team on the 5pm news - a reporter and camera crew even came out to a team practice to film and interview the girls. From that point on I realized that one of the major keys to getting media coverage is being passionate about what you are pitching.

Plus, I used the hook of the Little League World Series to get their attention and tie into a story they were already covering every single day.

Consider how you can use your passion for your business or industry, or a current media story or trend to get your business media coverage. And, if you'd like to educate yourself a bit more about using publicity to market your business, my Step of the Month Club topic for September is "How to Use Public Relations to Market Your Business For Free." This call is happening on Tuesday, September 11th and is free for all Step of the Month Club members.

And if you can't make the live call, it will be recorded and made available as an mp3 download. If you're not currently a member, you can join today and get one month free (new members only please). Click here now to learn more and join today!

The Publicity Hound is another PR resource I recommend. You can get free PR tips every week and register for a free 89-day publicity e-course here.

You can post your press releases online for a fee, or for free. My favorite place to post press releases is PRWeb. For between $80 and $120 per press release, you can get distribution all across the web, to all the major search engines and social media networks.

There are also lots of places to post your press releases online for free. In fact, in my 10stepmarketing Resource Center I share 13 of these free sites.

You can also go direct to the media, and mail, fax or email your press releases to the magazines, newspapers, radio and television stations in the markets you want to target. Media Post is a great, free online resource with listings of media by medium, category or industry, and featuring contact information.

Spend a little time and you can build your own custom press release distribution list using this free service.

Another way to position yourself as an expert is to put yourself in the Yearbook of Experts. I personally have not chosen to do this yet - it is a bit pricey ($995 for a simple reference listing) - however it could be an effective way to establish yourself as an expert and get the media calling YOU.

Unfortunately the 2007 edition has already closed, but you can learn more about The Yearbook of Experts, and decide if you want to budget for it in next year's marketing plan at www.expertclick.com

PR, also referred to as public relations or publicity is one of my favorite small business marketing tools. Not only is it cheap (and very often free), it is also easy to do, and can generate great exposure for your business. And that exposure includes the implied third-party endorsement of the media your press release is picked up in.

But many small business owners and solo-professionals have questions about how to use PR to market their business. What format should their press release be in? Who should they send it to? Should they post it online, or just send it to offline media? Should they follow up, or will that put them in danger of irritating the very media they are trying to woo?

So many questions. And I will be answering all of them, along with any other marketing questions, in my monthly Step of the Month Q&A Call on Thursday, September 27th at 5:00pm Pacific Time (8:00pm Eastern Time).

This call is free for all Step of the Month Club members. If you are not yet a member and you have questions you'd like answered, you can join for 30 days free. To get your one free month membership, please visit www.10stepmarketing.com/SOMCmembership.htm

So you've decided to offer a free special report or Ebook to entice your website visitors to give you their email address. This is a great way to begin creating a following ... to begin building a list of people who are interested in what you do so that you can start building a relationship with them.

But what do you do once you've written the report or ebook? What format should it be in? What about the cover? Does it need a fancy design? What if you're not very creative?

Here are a couple of tips to creating a special report or ebook that will represent your business well and will serve as an effective marketing tool. First, you want to publish your free report or ebook in PDF format. This is the format that users can open and read using free Adobe Acrobat Reader software.

The good news is, there is a free tool you can use to create PDFs, so you don't have to fork over several hundred dollars to purchase the paid version of Adobe software. Just check out PDF995.com to download this free software.

Secondly, you want your special report or ebook to look professional and to have a cover that effectively markets itself on your website (read: makes people want to sign up for it!). I just discovered a great design service that provides affordable, professional-looking e-covers. I encourage you to check out divalish Media for fresh e-cover designs for your ebooks, special reports and other digital products.

Have you ever heard of Dottie Walters? I hadn't. Well let me tell you, she was a working other and an amazing woman. When I learned more about Dottie from my friend Terri Marie, I happily agreed to be a part of a wonderful package Terri was putting together, designed to share Dottie's wisdom and knowledge.

As a result, you now have the opportunity to connect with one of the most incredible women of our era. Her wisdom, her speaking ability, her storytelling and her counsel were sought after worldwide, by some of the biggest names of our time. Icons like Napoleon Hill, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and Earl Nightingale called the late Dottie Walters, their friend.

Top entrepreneurs like Jack Canfield consulted with the great Dottie Walters. In fact, it was Dottie who suggested the follow-up title to the first successful Chicken Soup of the Soul ™ book be called, “A Second Helping.” Dottie’s amazingly clear thinking, told them, “Since it’s soup, why not a second helping?”

Dottie helped people see the obvious next step and made it so easy for them to climb it.

And now you have the opportunity to get the secrets of Dottie's amazing success.

Before she passed away, Dottie Walters spent several years with her friend, author and producer Terri Marie, who worked with Dottie to capture the essence and special knowledge of Dottie’s incredible life. Dottie wanted to pass along her most valuable lessons to those she would not be able to meet while she was with us.

Dottie had a special term, “Friends of the Mind.” They were folks like Ben Franklin, Amelia Earhardt, and Einstein who helped her out of many difficulties. Dottie was the “Never Give Up!” lady.

And now Dottie can become your “Friend of the Mind.”

You can learn more about the amazing Dottie Walters and get your own Solutions Package from Dottie Walters here.
It's a great value and a wonderful investment in yourself and your success.

Dottie was a giver. All her life, she gave her best to the world. In her final legacy, “The Solutions Package” is Dottie’s valuable and enlightening counsel. In both the downloadable ebook and her set of last interviews, Dottie offers fantastic and very practical advice on success, sales, life and solutions. Advice that helped so many reach the top of their field. “The Solutions Package” is Dottie Walters’ template of success. Now it can be yours.

I encourage you to learn more about Dottie Walters today.

I just found out about this very cool, free online testing tool. It's call Split Tester and it will help you predict if your early split test results are reliable. That is, will they hold up over the long run? This is great because it allows you to test for a shorter period of time, which can save you money, yet still get results that are reliable.

You can use this to help you make decisions with your Google Adwords ads, or landing page copy, because it measures conversion rates.

All you need to test your results are your total number of clicks and your clickthrough percentage rate. Google Adwords gives you both. You enter both sets of these numbers for the two different ads you are testing to find out if your split test results are reliable.

I have used this recently to help me make some pricing decisions on a new product and this tool has helped me make those decisions faster than I could have otherwise. And the sooner I finish testing my pricing, the sooner I can start offering this new product for sale to the masses. So in this case, time absolutely is money!

If you're not yet using Google Adwords, and you'd like to learn how, I highly recommend Perry Marshall's book, A Definitive Guide to Google Adwords. It's inexpensive and very comprehensive and easy to read. Plus, Perry Marshall has a free, five-day ecourse that is also very helpful.

Tony Robbins said, "If you want to be successful, find someone who achieved the results you want and copy what they do, and you'll achieve the same results."

What if someone you trusted gave you advice along with step by step instructions you needed to take, in order to become wildly successful in YOUR business? What would that be worth to you?

I am very excited to announce that I have joined together with nine successful entrepreneurs who have pooled their expertise to help you go "From Employee to Entrepreneur." You can learn how I did it, along with these other nine successful entrepreneurs here.

I am so excited to be a part of this project and to be in the company of such an amazing group of entrepreneurs. Almost makes me want to pinch myself!

I encourage you to check this out today. We're even offering special Early Bird Pricing until November 18th. You can get all the details here.

I just created a new Special Report called "Great Brands" and you can download it for free at www.1HourBranding.com. It includes 31 different brands, including people, products and services, that can all be summed up in a word or phrase. I'll bet you know them all!

In fact, you'll get a chance to test your own knowledge of these brands with my Brand Quiz in this Special Report. You can get your free copy at www.1HourBranding.com.

I just signed up for a free e-course that Perry Marshall (The Google Adwords Guru) is offering on using free white papers (i.e. special reports) for lead generation vs. traditional cold calling. This is a recommendation I've been sharing with my clients for years because it's SO much easier than dialing for dollars.

Perry included a quote in his latest email to me that I thought summed up WHY giving leads a free gift is such a powerful marketing strategy, that I just had to share it. It's actually attributed to Steven Covey ... it's from his very popular book '7 Habits of Highly Effective People.'

In the book, Covey talks about the idea of an "emotional bank account" that everyone has.

=> When you do something good for someone, you make a deposit into their emotional bank account.

=> When you ask someone to do something for you, you make a withdrawal.

=> If the account balance is zero, they will ignore your request.

=> And here's the KICKER: Most advertisers and marketers try to make a WITHDRAWAL from a customer before they've made a DEPOSIT.

No wonder making sales is such an uphill battle!

Perry goes on to share that a white paper (aka a special report) is a way to make a deposit before you make a withdrawal -- with useful, problem solving information. People are much more responsive to this type of marketing than they are to traditional advertising.

WHY? Because it builds trust and credibility like no other kind of advertising can.

If you're not currently using this type of lead generation in your business, you need to strongly consider incorporating it into your marketing. Perry's free e-course on white papers is a great way to learn more. And YES, it is an example of exactly what he's talking about - it's a lead generator for his business. So you can see how he does it, while also learning something you can immediately put to work in your business. You can sign up for the free ecourse here.

Thanks to Christopher Knight of EzineArticles.com and Email Universe for alerting me to 4 new rules amended to the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 by the Federal Trade Commission.

These rules go into effect June 30, 2008. If you're an email marketer, you need to know about these rules and abide by them or you're putting yourself and your email list at risk. The last thing you want is to be labeled a spammer and get black-listed.

The 4 New CAN-SPAM Rules:

(1) People must be able to opt-out of a mailing in ONE SINGLE ACTION. This can include replying to the email or clicking through to a single web page.

(2) CAN-SPAM rules apply equally to everyone. That means anyone, including non-companies, can be liable for sending commercial email.

(3) It is acceptable to use a post office box or private mailbox ("PMB") as the physical address in your email messages. This was always a little unclear, so it's nice to know we are in compliance if we use a PMB or PO Box. Especially for those of us who work from home offices and don't want our home address tacked onto every email we send out.

(4) If your e-mailing includes advertisements from third party advertisers, you must also have an advertisement in the email (in which case you become responsible for processing opt-out requests) or all of the advertisers in the e-mailing are responsible for opt-out requests. This is known as the "Designated Sender" rule.

To learn more, I encourage you to read what Christopher Knight wrote on this topic at Email Universe.

My colleague and friend, Erin Blaskie, is hosting the first annual Summer Speaker Series featuring an amazing line-up of speakers including me - Debbie LaChusa, James Roche, Christina Merkley, Sheri McConnell, Alexis Neely, Allana Pratt, Lou Bortone, Viki Viertel, Lynn Scheurell, Kathie Thomas, Wendy Weiss, Terri Z, Donna Gunter, Diana Ennen and so, so, so many more.

Here's the deal... She's featuring TWO speakers PER DAY for the entire month of August (not including weekends because really, who likes working weekends?)

The best part is that this amazing series of speakers is priced VERY affordably. It's going to be one of the hottest events of the summer and you've got an invitation from me!

Simply click through this link and register today. You won't be disappointed and I'll be there to speak as well!

You can purchase a seat in one track, two tracks or get audio downloads included too (along with your live seat) so what are you waiting for! I've heard there is a cap of 200 people due to the bridge line and with the speakers involved, that won't last long!

Register now... 'see' you on the calls!

Debbie LaChusa