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Sell Yourself, Not Your Products or Services
Copyright (c) 2002-2023 Bill Platt
Sell yourself, not your products or services. The point we need to make is that your products and services will change over time as your business adapts to the realities of the marketplace.
If you spend your time promoting Product A and then you discontinue the sale of Product A, you will suddenly find yourself starting over from scratch with nothing to show for all of your previous work!
For as long as you remain on this planet, you will always be. No matter the course of your product or service line, selling yourself first and then your products will give you the leverage to remain flexible in your business journeys.
If your primary products are affiliate programs, you should be able to see this quite well.
How many times have you been involved with an affiliate program that either changed their rules for operation to your disadvantage or simply went out of business? How many times have you seen your hard work go down the drain by no fault of your own?
Selling yourself may seem a challenge, but it really is not that difficult.
In the matter of selling yourself, your goal is to create name recognition in the market place. You need for name recognition for your website, your own name or both.
There are five methods that work very well for promoting your online business. Those five methods are:
1. Submitting your website to Search Engines
2. Developing your own Ezine
3. Ezine Advertising
4. Using Free-Reprint Articles
5. Direct Email
You might note that four of these five methods incorporate email in one fashion or another. That is not by mistake. Of course, direct email is the weakest of the four methods employing email. The reason for this weakness is the fear of spam by the recipient of the email. I generally avoid direct email for this very reason. Better safe than sorry I say.
What I am outlining here is a blueprint that all online business persons should strive to accomplish.
First, we must build our website. Our website should serve as a direct sales letter to the buying public. While the website should exist for anyone looking to do business online, it is not the end all for your online business presence. Once the website is ready for the public, it should be submitted to the search engines. Keep in mind, search engines are interested in the words on your site... pictures don't mean a thing to the search engines.
We should then develop an ezine to accompany our website. We should invite all site visitors to subscribe to our ezine as this enables us to create an ongoing conversation with our potential customers. Do not let the ezine become more than a tool to keep contact with your customers. I publish my ezine only once a month so that I may have more time for growing my businesses.
Many folks agree that ezine advertising is one of, if not the most effective way to build your business. You should never simply put an advertisement out there in the market without testing the effectiveness of that ad first. You should also always be sure of the target audience of the ezines you are looking to are the same as your target market if that is possible.
The truth is that you can burn through thousands of dollars in ezine advertising without ever turning a single sale. To be sure of the effectiveness of your ads before spending money for the advertisement, you might want to consider using an ad tracking service to determine the worth of your ads before plunking down the money for your advertising.
An interesting and effective technique for tapping into the value of ezine advertising without blowing the bank is to use Free-Reprint Articles to open the door to ezines.
The truth is that most publishers do not have the time or energy to create all of their own content. As a result, most of them turn to article lists and sites to find the content they feel would be attractive to their readers. Free-Reprint Rights is the key here. Most online publishers are running on a very tight budget and cannot afford to buy the content they publish.
In the Free-Reprint market, there are a number of large lists that provide an excellent assortment of articles that carry the Free-Reprint rights. One example is called "Free Ezine Content" and can be subscribed to by sending a blank email to: FreeEzineContent-subscribe@topica.com . Another group is "Free Reprint Articles" at YahooGroups. Send an email to: Free-Reprint-Articles-subscribe@yahoogroups.com for your free subscription.
Tapping into the Free-Reprint market is easy. The trick to getting your articles published is being able to teach your readers something of value and being able to do so in an easygoing article style that folks will read and enjoy.
Providing you are successful in teaching the readers something of value in an interesting manner, then you will find your articles getting published regularly, even in the larger ezines.
Through the use of articles to promote your business, you will be selling yourself first and then your business. The resource box that follows every article is like a small classified ad that tells who you are, what you do, and where to be able to reach you or your business. The resource box is best kept to under 6 lines of 65 characters in length.
Your resource box is your advertisement in the ezine. Ironically, readers will read an article and visit the website of an author well before they read an advertisement posted in the same ezine.
As your articles get reprinted again and again, you will begin to see for yourself the promise of Free-Reprint Articles coming to life for you and your business. Your site traffic and sales will continue to grow as you continue to build your all-important name recognition in the market place.
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You can become a better writer, with the right training. If you are looking to improve your writing skills or learn how to better market your writing projects, visit Bill Platt's website to see how he can help you: http://PlattPublishing.com/ If you are looking to buy or sell writing services, check out Bill's Freelance Writer Marketplace at: http://FreelanceWritersReview.com/
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Top-Level Category: Business Online Articles || Related Categories: Business Offline Articles and Writing and Speaking Articles
10 Most Recent Articles Written by Bill Platt
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Distributed: 2013-08-27 |
Word Count: 1669 |
Page Views: 8295
| Votes: 18 |
Rating: 2.50
In article marketing, there are many factors that will
affect your articles' ability to promote your website in
the most effective manner. In this article, we will briefly
discuss a couple those factors, before we dive into how to
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Distributed: 2013-08-24 |
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Some people still believe that all they have to do is build
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site... Once they have built their websites, they wait
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Distributed: 2013-07-31 |
Word Count: 1025 |
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If you've been marketing products online for any length of
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Distributed: 2013-07-29 |
Word Count: 1191 |
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Page Views: 7836
| Votes: 13 |
Rating: 1.85
No matter where you go online, you are bound to find someone
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Written by: Bill Platt |
Distributed: 2013-07-24 |
Word Count: 816 |
Page Views: 26287
| Votes: 34 |
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Every week, I have the opportunity to speak with people about the
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All of Author's Articles on this site: Bill Platt Articles
Most Recent "Business Online" Articles
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Written by: Bill Platt |
Distributed: 2013-08-27 |
Word Count: 1669 |
Page Views: 8295
| Votes: 18 |
Rating: 2.50
In article marketing, there are many factors that will
affect your articles' ability to promote your website in
the most effective manner. In this article, we will briefly
discuss a couple those factors, before we dive into how to
create an effective Authors' Resource Box, also known as
the About The Author Information.
Website Traffic Generation: Winning the Love of the Traffic Fairy
Written by: Bill Platt |
Distributed: 2013-08-24 |
Word Count: 1149 |
Page Views: 9153
| Votes: 14 |
Rating: 1.86
Some people still believe that all they have to do is build
a website and customers will magically appear on their
site... Once they have built their websites, they wait
anxiously for the "Traffic Fairy" to come and sprinkle its
magic dust on their website too, so that they can make lots
of money like other success website owners.
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Written by: Bill Platt |
Distributed: 2013-08-21 |
Word Count: 439 |
Page Views: 10216
| Votes: 23 |
Rating: 2.74
I was in the Warrior Forum, and someone asked what kinds of
Backlinks are worth pursuing. This is my answer to that
query.
Understanding the Mechanics of Effective Article Marketing and Article Syndication
Written by: Bill Platt |
Distributed: 2013-08-01 |
Word Count: 1399 |
Page Views: 6797
| Votes: 10 |
Rating: 1.80
Visit several marketing blogs or marketing forums, and you
will find dozens of people proclaiming the death of article
marketing as an effective marketing tool. Before we start
agreeing with them, consider this...
Top 10 Reasons Why Online Marketers Fail With Article Marketing
Written by: Bill Platt |
Distributed: 2013-07-31 |
Word Count: 1025 |
Page Views: 8090
| Votes: 13 |
Rating: 2.08
If you've been marketing products online for any length of
time, you've likely heard people talk about the power and
promise of article marketing for the promotion of your
online business. Unfortunately, many online marketers have
tried to utilize article marketing to benefit their online
business and failed. In this article, I document the top ten
reasons why people fail to find success with article
marketing... And how to fix your article marketing
campaigns...
Article Marketing Tip: Stop Trying To Sell From Within Your Articles
Written by: Bill Platt |
Distributed: 2013-07-30 |
Word Count: 1229 |
Page Views: 6248
| Votes: 10 |
Rating: 1.40
The basic premise of article marketing is to present people
information that will be important to them, then at the end
of the article, present information "about the author" and
offer to the reader a means to see how the author can help
the reader further. When done well, article marketing
continues to be one of the most effective methods of
promotion that one could employ online.
The Six Degrees of Internet Marketing
Written by: Bill Platt |
Distributed: 2013-07-30 |
Word Count: 991 |
Page Views: 8674
| Votes: 14 |
Rating: 2.43
The theory behind the Six Degrees of Separation is that all
people on earth can be connected together in as little as
six steps. Now, I know what you might be thinking at this
juncture... That sounds fun and interesting, but what does
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Written by: Bruce Lansing |
Distributed: 2013-07-29 |
Word Count: 1373 |
Page Views: 6151
| Votes: 11 |
Rating: 1.45
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can give people what the answers they want, you will be able
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tomorrow.
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Written by: Bill Platt |
Distributed: 2013-07-29 |
Word Count: 1191 |
Page Views: 6179
| Votes: 11 |
Rating: 1.55
Freelance writers fill a very important role in today's
business marketplace. They create the on-demand, customized
content that business owners everywhere need to push their
businesses forward. In this article, the author explains
what freelance writers should do to ensure that employers
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Written by: Bruce Lansing |
Distributed: 2013-07-25 |
Word Count: 677 |
Page Views: 5878
| Votes: 11 |
Rating: 2.00
Many people suggest that you should write articles on the
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Written by: Alastair Hall |
Distributed: 2006-05-18 |
Word Count: 708 |
Page Views: 46682
| Votes: 17 |
Rating: 2.06
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How To Make Visitors Bookmark Your Site
Written by: Cheryl Miller |
Distributed: 2006-10-10 |
Word Count: 536 |
Page Views: 38966
| Votes: 21 |
Rating: 2.19
When visitors bookmark your site it is a sign that you have built
a great website and are pleasing them. Visitors think highly
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about it. You are not only increasing traffic from your existing
clientele you are encouraging new traffic by means of viral
marketing.
Treat Online 'Guests' With Respect
Written by: Rick Sloboda |
Distributed: 2007-07-27 |
Word Count: 472 |
Page Views: 30474
| Votes: 33 |
Rating: 3.33
Does your website show your customers lack of respect? Review the
following checklist to find out.
How I Got 70,000 Useless Visitors To My Site In One Day! (One Internet Marketer's Analysis of Social Bookmark Traffic)
Written by: Titus Hoskins |
Distributed: 2007-11-06 |
Word Count: 1545 |
Page Views: 28520
| Votes: 10 |
Rating: 1.70
Is social bookmark traffic useless? Is it even worth cultivating
for your site? Can it be used from an online marketing
perspective? Read to discover one Internet Marketer's analysis
of social bookmark/media traffic...
Successful Article Marketers Help Readers Solve Problems
Written by: Bill Platt |
Distributed: 2013-07-24 |
Word Count: 816 |
Page Views: 26287
| Votes: 34 |
Rating: 2.79
Every week, I have the opportunity to speak with people about the
benefits and challenges of using article marketing to promote an
online business. Article marketing is about getting your sales
message in front of potential customers and to get links to your
website. Many interpret this to mean that an article should
directly promote a website within the article, but that approach
is wrong and will reduce one's success using this methodology.
Tips For Building Your First Website
Written by: Benny Tsabba |
Distributed: 2007-05-30 |
Word Count: 1511 |
Page Views: 19532
| Votes: 18 |
Rating: 2.11
New people are coming online everyday. And many of those people
desire to turn their spare time into spare cash. So begins their
journey.
The Importance Of Effective Follow-up
Written by: Kate Smalley |
Distributed: 2007-01-15 |
Word Count: 493 |
Page Views: 14489
| Votes: 22 |
Rating: 2.55
Marketing experts say that following up with clients is crucial
to successful selling because most prospects do not buy the first
time, according to Aweber, a leading autoresponder company.
People must encounter a marketing message multiple times before
making a purchasing decision.
Today's Google Bots and What They Do
Written by: Kim Roach |
Distributed: 2006-08-02 |
Word Count: 1061 |
Page Views: 14177
| Votes: 16 |
Rating: 2.63
Google currently indexes over 8 billion web pages. However,
before these pages were placed in the index, they were each
crawled by a special spider known as the GoogleBot. Unfortunately, many web masters do not know about the internal workings of this virtual robot. This article will attempt to
reveal some of the most important Google spiders, their function,
and how they affect you as a web master. We'll start with the
well-known GoogleBot.
Ten Tips For User Friendly Online Registration Forms
Written by: Jim Romanik |
Distributed: 2009-02-24 |
Word Count: 775 |
Page Views: 13382
| Votes: 15 |
Rating: 0.93
Have you ever registered or attempted to register for an event
and spent half an hour trying to figure out what you needed to
do? Or have you used an online registration form that lost your
data or was so complicated that it seemed like more work than
faxing the form?
Successful Forum JVs and How To Get Them
Written by: Diana Barnum |
Distributed: 2006-06-15 |
Word Count: 648 |
Page Views: 13112
| Votes: 19 |
Rating: 2.11
The forming of common alliances, also referred to as a joint
venture (JV), happens nearly every day in the business world.
One of the most popular means of linking people up online of so
that they can work together on their projects is via forums,
where people of all levels of business and expertise post in
common threads.
Highest Ranked "Business Online" Articles
Is Your Business 'Out Of Site'? Employ The Ultimate Marketing Tool
Written by: Rick Sloboda |
Distributed: 2007-01-09 |
Word Count: 445 |
Page Views: 5589
| Votes: 21 |
Rating: 3.76
With the rapid expansion of the digital economy, the web site is
conceivably the most powerful marketing and sales tool you can employ.
Find out what a web site can do for you.
How To Use Your Race To Get Rich
Written by: Herbert Harris |
Distributed: 2009-07-07 |
Word Count: 1407 |
Page Views: 5996
| Votes: 48 |
Rating: 3.71
Amid recent news reports that there continues to be an ongoing
and substantial gap between the net worth of Whites and other
racial groups, it is easy to be distracted and overwhelmed by the
raw data. However, I am immediately reminded of a quote offered
by an economic expert from the past... "There are lies, damned
lies, and statistics!"
Why I'm A 'B-Level Marketer!'
Written by: Willie Crawford |
Distributed: 2007-07-16 |
Word Count: 917 |
Page Views: 6866
| Votes: 26 |
Rating: 3.58
At a recent Internet marketing seminar, I was sitting around the
hotel lobby with approximately 20 other seminar attendees and
speakers. The seminar's host was in attendance, and the
conversation covered a range of internet marketing topics with
extreme frankness. Our proximity to the hotel bar certainly
contributed to our 'conviviality.'
15 fixes for a failing website
Written by: Rick Sloboda |
Distributed: 2007-02-07 |
Word Count: 593 |
Page Views: 3558
| Votes: 25 |
Rating: 3.48
Employ these 15 tactics to improve your search engine rankings,
engage visitors and convert more sales.
The Most Important Ingredient for Info Product Success (is You)
Written by: Judy Murdoch |
Distributed: 2008-04-15 |
Word Count: 981 |
Page Views: 6047
| Votes: 15 |
Rating: 3.47
Last week I was attending a conference and mentioned to someone I
help small business owners create information products. The other
person was very friendly until I said "information products."
Then the temperature in the room dropped about 10-degrees
How to Keep Your Article Content Fresh and Interesting
Written by: Craig Ritsema |
Distributed: 2006-08-29 |
Word Count: 699 |
Page Views: 5568
| Votes: 25 |
Rating: 3.44
Webmasters everywhere are constantly on the lookout for fresh and
interesting content for their website. Along with these content
qualities is the requirement that it be unique. Everyone wants
their website to stand out above the others in the search engine
results. So what is the trick for you to keep a steady supply of
this quality content coming your way?
How To Build A Profitable Twitter Profile
Written by: Harold Hemmings |
Distributed: 2009-08-06 |
Word Count: 1357 |
Page Views: 2749
| Votes: 8 |
Rating: 3.38
Online marketers everywhere are finally starting to tap into
the Twitter Marketplace. Marketers are getting involved in
Twitter at awesome rates, but all seem to have one
unanswered question: How do we actually monetize this
marketplace? It is my goal that by the time you have read
this article, you will have a clear idea of exactly how to
monetize your activities in Twitter.
Increasing Productivity In Your Online Business
Written by: Willie Crawford |
Distributed: 2006-06-14 |
Word Count: 1407 |
Page Views: 7458
| Votes: 40 |
Rating: 3.35
Running an online "empire" of approximately 1600 websites and
blogs, selling a variety of products, services and ideas, I
have to be much more productive than the average person in a
"regular job."
Turn A One-Night-Stand With Google Into A Long-Term Relationship
Written by: Diane Metz |
Distributed: 2007-07-10 |
Word Count: 882 |
Page Views: 2714
| Votes: 6 |
Rating: 3.33
Want to win the favor of Google? Then you've got to build a
long-term relationship with her. Many new SEO strategies are
simply recycled old-tricks. And Google is a smart gal who can see
right through them. Position your website for the future by
understanding what Google really likes â€" and what she
really loathes.
Treat Online 'Guests' With Respect
Written by: Rick Sloboda |
Distributed: 2007-07-27 |
Word Count: 472 |
Page Views: 30474
| Votes: 33 |
Rating: 3.33
Does your website show your customers lack of respect? Review the
following checklist to find out.
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Article Reprint Rights
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This work is
licensed under a
Creative Commons
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You are not required to show the creative commons license notice when you reprint this work.
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Total Views: 8966
Article Rating: 2.00 of 5
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