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() For Website Marketing: Back-Door Strategies to Stand Out From The Crowd PDF Print E-mail
Written by Webmaster   
Thursday, 22 November 2007
By Cathy Goodwin

  As a web site marketer these days, in the 21st century, you have to work harder than ever to stand out from the pack. Everybody's sending out ezines. Nearly all of us hold teleseminars.

Add your ezine and teleseminar and you're joining a parade down Main Street. Sometimes you can generate leads even more effectively if you also run through the alleys and knock on back doors.

Often these back-door "sneaky" strategies seem too easy to be effective. But simplicity can be deceptive. You need to plan carefully to avoid wasting time. Used incorrectly, the back-door approach can backfire. You have to play by rules that change overnight and that aren't easy to figure out.

Strategy #1: Contribute to a discussion list related to your topic.

For lead generation, join a group whose membership matches your target market as closely as possible. Choosing the right group can be challenging. For example, you may be eligible to join a forum after attending a workshop or purchasing a manual. Or you may pay to join a mentoring group. These groups create forums and discussion lists directly related to your interests, but moderators tend to be extremely cautious about self-promotion.

You can also search through yahoo or google for groups. For example, you can search on "professional women discussion list" or "work at home dads discussion list." Some websites feature lists of discussion groups, often arranged by topic. Searching through listings takes time but, with patience, can produce some good results.

Tips:

Once you join a forum or discussion lists, it's a good idea to "lurk" for awhile. Get a sense of the group's mood and style. Introduce yourself. Evaluate your responses. If you sense a lack of interest (and occasionally even hostility), consider withdrawing from the group.

The challenge is to draw a fine line between contributing proactively and becoming a nuisance. Success depends on finding just the right blend of asking questions and providing expertise.

Example 2: Write reviews for online bookstores.

As an avid and eclectic reader, I began writing reviews for one of the online bookstores. Originally, I was just having fun and actually felt guilty for taking time from my "real" work. I wrote about everything: mysteries, business books, nonfiction.

To my surprise, these book reviews began to attract subscribers, clients and invitations to be interviewed by professional reporters and writers. Recently one of my reviews was quoted in a blog, giving me valuable (and totally unexpected) publicity.

When these readers came, they were highly motivated. Unlike readers of ezines, they were prepared to pay or resources. After all, bookstores don't give away books! I suspect many hold a credit card in one hand as they surf with the other.

Tips:

Choose best-selling books related to your topic -but not exclusively.

Write carefully, using correct grammar and style. I've found that I get the most response by being edgy but thoughtful, and not too long or too short.

Follow the guidelines concerning what you can disclose about your business. Your review can be edited or removed entirely if you appear to be selling or if you use inappropriate words.

Bottom Line: Often we find our most successful back-door strategies by accident. But applying those strategies callsapplyin for planning, flexibility and responsiveness to change.

FREE 7 Best-Kept Secrets of Websites That Really Attract Clients: My Special Report gives you insider tips to convert tire-kickers to buyers and earn money while you sleep. From Cathy Goodwin, The Content Strategist, at Website Marketing Strategies

"Love, Mommy: Writing Love Letters to Your Baby" Book Review
By Susie Cortright

  "What was I like as a baby?"

All moms know how their kids' eyes light up when they hear stories about themselves as babies and young children.

All moms also know that when a mother takes the time to record these precious stories in written form, she preserves a mystery and a magic that is impossible to recapture any other way.

Still, even the most well-intentioned of us (myself included) have a hard time following through when we have something we wish to write down, particularly those everyday details that make up our lives. Sometimes we are swept away by the daily tasks of motherhood and sometimes we are simply too deep in the enjoyment of the experience itself to take the time out to write about it just then. Sometimes it all seems too much to do, but more often it is a gentle ebbing away of the time.

In Love, Mommy: Writing Love Letters to Your Baby, Judy Siblin-Librach leads us on a journey that helps us capture the major milestones (the birth story, the first day at school) as well as those that may not immediately come to mind (the first time your child caught a baseball, the way her hugs felt, the first time she went through a car wash).

Siblin-Librach's writing style is elegant, perfectly capturing the depth of emotion that all mothers feel at one point or another. We are in good hands with a natural-born poet and mother who will lead us into creating and recording the lyrics of our own lives.

Part of the beauty of this book is the way Siblin-Librach makes it simple to write these life stories, whether or not you have ever enjoyed the process of writing in the past. The book is equally helpful in bringing back memories you may have thought were gone, just in case your baby has grown.

Siblin-Librach opens each chapter with incisive questions to prompt your writing, followed by sample letters from her own family. These examples can really help you to get an idea of all the different ways you can take a particular letter. The author includes notes to parents about how to write the letter, as well as tips and ideas to keep you inspired in this grand task. This book helps us to record the specific stories and memories, as well as the deeper story: the wisdom, the life lessons and the wishes you have for your child.

Judy Siblin-Librach has written a beautiful and heartfelt book that simplifies the process and that reminds us that it need not be a big deal to record these memories and to give ourselves and our children the greatest gift. In doing so, she has given a gift to all mothers and all those who will be mothers.

Susie Cortright is the founder of several popular websites, including Susies-Coupons.com, BestSelfHelp.com and Momscape.com, where you can register to win gift cards from top online merchants.

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Last Updated ( Thursday, 22 November 2007 )
 
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