Episode #67 – “Windows: Just Another Pane”

Websites and resources mentioned in the show:

Infusion (Download the free guide from Infusion)

Paid for Life (San Diego Charity Seminar)

Mesh (Easily share files between computers)

NiftyClicks (Discover the very latest web tools and resources)

Get a Private Telephone Consultation with me (to Help YOUR Business)

Buy This Week’s T-Shirt (from National Media Services)

Great news from Disney!  One of their executives phoned me the other day.  They had watched the episode where I told you about the dining disaster at Cinderella’s Royal Table in Magic Kingdom, Florida.  You’ll discover what they told me and I think you’ll be as pleased as I was.

Thanks to Reuven who alerted me to an excellent video by marketing agency 22Squared.  Let me know what you think of it.

Our question comes from Louie Bernstein, who tells me that he’s needs more people to try his software, so it’s an issue of conversion.  I dissect his website and give some suggestions about how to improve the conversion.  You can apply the same principles to your website.

Microsoft Mesh is a relatively new service that’s currently free.  It allows you to easily transfer files between computers, say a desktop PC in the office with a laptop you use when you travel.  I used to use a service called ‘BeInSync’ which worked well until the company went out of business!  At least Microsoft aren’t going anywhere, so I feel good about using their service.  Actually, it’s very impressive.

The BIG marketing lesson is from the restaurant chain TGI Friday’s.  The way they promote their loyalty scheme is very impressive.  There’s 3 key points that I want you to take away to adapt in your business.  See if you can spot them.

Enjoy the show!

Regards,

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Episode #66 – “Global Warming: All the Cool Planets are Doing” It

Websites and resources mentioned in the show:

Infusion (Download the free guide from Infusion)

Lifehacker (Great blog for busy business owners)

TubeMogul (Free video distribution)

Traffic Geyser (Premium service video distribution)

NiftyClicks (Discover the very latest web tools and resources)

Get a Private Telephone Consultation with me (to Help YOUR Business)

Buy This Week’s T-Shirt (from National Media Services)

I start this week’s show with an amusing exchange between one of those Nigerian scammers and an Australian guy, and it all happened on Skype.

Awhile back Business Week had an issue that featured ‘the pet economy’, which, it turns out is not just big, but HUGE business, and maybe that could include you too?

This week’s question is probably on your mind too – how do you promote your site better? See if the tips I give can be applied to your website.

I love Lifehacker. It’s a difficult to describe blog with an amazing array of useful content. At least, I think so. Let me know what YOU think of it.

The BIG marketing lesson is from M&M’s candies, or is that sweets as we say in Britain? It’s a marketing concept that most businesses can adopt.

Enjoy the show!

Regards,

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Episode #58 – “I Don’t Need Your Attitude…I Have One of My Own;)”

Websites and resources mentioned in the show:

MemberGate.com (The online membership site platform – check out the free videos)

Retailmenot.com (Source for coupon codes for most sites)

NiftyClicks (discover the very latest web tools and resources)

Get a Private Telephone Consultation with me (to Help YOUR Business)

Buy This Week’s T-Shirt(from National Media Services)

Some companies just don’t get it, do they? I love hearing your stories about companies that don’t understand what customers want. This week, I share a story submitted by viewer Glen Munro, who’s website service provider offered to charge him for a higher level of support – let me know what you think of the proposal.

This week’s question is essentially a website review – see if you can spot any mistakes that YOU’RE making on YOUR website.

I don’t know about you, but I get a kick out of saving money. That’s why I LOVE RetaiMeNot.com, a site that lets you find coupon codes, fast. Many online retailers invite you to enter a coupon code during checkout, and obviously most visitors have no idea where to find a coupon code, so they ignore it. Well, now you know, you can start saving a lot more money!

This week’s BIG marketing lesson is from Amazon.com. I’ve mentioned them before on the show, but this time the lesson comes from a recent newspaper ad they featured in USA Today. You can learn a useful marketing lesson from their unconventional approach, it’s really clever.

Enjoy the show!

Regards,

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Episode #54 – “The 2 Most Abundant Elements in the Universe are Hydrogen and Stupidity:”

Websites and resources mentioned in the show:

The Promo Dashboard (Great New Resource to Help You Increase Profits Online)

‘How to Auto End AdWords Campaigns (Vital information for AdWords Advertisers)

Apture.com (Insert multimedia elements into your blog posts)

NiftyClicks (discover the very latest web tools and resources)

Get a Private Telephone Consultation with me (to Help YOUR Business)

Buy This Week’s T-Shirt(from National Media Services)

Everything I know I learnt from watching Sesame Street (well, almost), and I’ll prove it to you this week.

This week’s question relates to a website that was popular when it first went live in 1996, but has seen visitors steadily decline over the years. I’ll delve into the website and make some suggestions about how to get the traffic flowing fast.

The resource is for blog owners. One of the challenges with a blog is to find multimedia elements that bring posts to life. Many blogs have no images, photos, or videos to enhance the interest. Now there’s no excuse not to include those elements, because the resource I share is so easy to use.

Finally, the BIG marketing lesson is from the New York, New York Hotel in Las Vegas. They’ve come up with a clever way to promote the in house Cirque du Soleil show.

Let me know (by posting a comment on this blog) your thoughts about the Sesame Street video.

Enjoy!

Regards,

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Episode #54 – “I Wear This Shirt When I’m a Grouch’”

Websites and resources mentioned in the show:

The Promo Dashboard (Great New Resource to Help You Increase Profits Online)

‘Care About Color’ Report (Vital information for Your Business)

JustOneClubCard.com (combine all your store cards onto one)

NiftyClicks (discover the very latest web tools and resources)

Get a Private Telephone Consultation with me (to Help YOUR Business)

Buy This Week’s T-Shirt(from National Media Services)

Considering more people get struck by lightning than are catching swine flu, I’m thinking the frantic news reports are a little bit unnecessary, don’t you? There again, I’m guessing that governments are rejoicing at the chance to distract some attention from the economy!

I was at Chicago O’Hare airport the other day and as I was walking through the food court I glimpsed a hand made sign that made me look, then do a double take. I’ll show you the sign, and let you tell me what you think of the store manager who put it there.

Our question is all about what colors to use for a website design. Good question, because many people don’t think too much about it, they tend to opt simply for personal preference. If you want more on that topic, you can download a special report – there’s a link in the show notes below.

I don’t know about you but I have a lot of store loyalty cards and it’s a pain to carry them around with me, which is why I loved the nifty click resource that I discovered this week, courtesy of Adam Weiss, the podcaster. Let me know if it’s useful to you.

Finally, the BIG marketing lesson is from Coca Cola. They’ve implemented an intriguing twist on the ‘build-a-bear’ concept at their store in Disney’s EPCOT center in Orlando, Florida. Cool idea, and I want you to benefit from an important underlying principle.

Let me know (by posting a comment on this blog) your thoughts about the McDonalds sign.

Enjoy!

Regards,

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Episode #51 – “It’s funny how you think I’m listening”

I hope you’re well. In this episode I start off with some (hopefully) revealing information about how best to use ValPak or a similar coupon service to promote your business in your local area. There’s some common mistakes that you can easily avoid, and I’ll point out the 4 biggest blunders that business owners make in using ValPak.

Next up, there’s a question about whether to reveal your company’s pricing online. Or is it better to have people submit a request for a quote? What do you think? I’ll give you my opinion, and the reasons why I believe it to be the right approach. Let me know if you agree or disagree.

I hate checking voice mails, and now I don’t have to with PhoneTag.com – it’s an inexpensive service that automatically intercepts your voicemail, transcribes the messages to text, and then emails you the response. Very cool, it definitely suits the way I like to work. Actually, it’s also great for when I’m in a meeting because I can READ voice messages on my phone, even while I’m still sitting in the meeting!

The BIG marketing lesson this week is from DirecTV, the well known satellite TV service provider in the U.S. DirecTV know what customers want, and they’ve found a way to avoid lots of unnecessary customer service calls, so the company benefits as well as the customers. I’ll show you how you can apply the principle in your business.

Websites and resources mentioned in the show:

The Continuity Summit (details to join me in Stamford, CT May 15-17th.)

PhoneTag (converts phone calls to emails or SMS messages)

NiftyClicks (discover the very latest web tools and resources)

Get a Private Telephone Consultation with me (to Help YOUR Business)

Microwave Marketing (Your Monthly Business Training System – special low price offer for you)

T-Shirts for the show are supplied by National Media Services (check out their excellent service)

Regards,

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Episode #50 – “I Never Get Tired of Judging People ”

Before I get to the show notes, I just wanted to let you know that in view of the success and popularity of Twitter, all future episodes will be shortened from the current 10 minutes to just 12 seconds long. A recent survey showed that 93.873% of you suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder, so I’m confident that this new format will be much more helpful to you. The new format will be available from today, April 1st.

I’m excited…and I just can’t hide it. For the last 6 months I’ve been working on a new project for YOUR benefit (well sure, I benefit too).

With the success of this show combined with my background in the world of TV production, I’m creating a new WebTV network for entrepreneurs called GotBiz.tv. The theme of the network is ‘business doesn’t have to be boring’ and there’ll be lots of 10 minute, weekly shows on all kinds of subjects that relate to helping you in your business, whatever that might be.

In this episode I’ll give you a tour of the new home of GotBiz.tv, our custom built production studio in Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ve started production on some of the new shows and we plan to launch the network within the next couple of months, so look out for more news on that. Oh, and I’d love to hear about your suggestions for topics for shows. It can be anything you like, just post a comment on the blog and I’ll follow up with you.

The viewer question this time relates to someone who has plenty of visitors to their website, but those visits aren’t translating into sales. This is a problem with conversion, and I explain more about that as well as provide some suggestions on how to improve conversion.

Have you ever had to arrange a meeting for a bunch of people who live in different areas? It’s a pain. I recently discovered a service that makes the process simple and efficient, and I share that with you in this week’s video.

Ah, the ups and downs of eBay. It’s getting to be quite a saga, isn’t it? There’s been more changes in the company in the last year than in the previous 5 years combined, and most of those changes are not good. But eBay is still doing some things right, and the big marketing lesson I feature this time is something that YOU can adapt and benefit from in your business. It relates to how you make customers FEEL about you and your business. Let me know what you think.

Websites and resources mentioned in the show:

EZS3 Service (It’s THE Service I personally use for storing and playing videos on the NiftyClicks.com website)

When Is Good? (Great, free online tool for arranging a mutually agreeable meeting time)

NiftyClicks (discover the very latest web tools and resources)

Get a Private Telephone Consultation with me (to Help YOUR Business)

Microwave Marketing (Your Monthly Business Training System – special low price offer for you)

T-Shirts for the show are supplied by National Media Services (check out their excellent service)

Regards,

Having trouble viewing this video? Try the QuickTime version.

Episode #47 – Not sure if you spotted the news item about Microsoft asking for money back from employees who’d been axed.  Let me know your thoughts about that.  I just heard that Microsoft decided to let them keep the money – was that the right decision in your opinion?

This week’s question is about using humor on your website?  Should you, or shouldn’t you?  You might be surprised by my answer on this one.

I discovered a really cool nifty click resource to share with you this week.  It allows you to research your competitors keywords as used in their pay per click (PPC) campaigns, so it shortcuts the research process for your own PPC campaigns.

The BIG marketing lesson comes from the German airline, Lufthansa.  I didn’t even realize they were persuading me to begin with!  I’ll share the story with you in this episode.

Websites and resources mentioned in the show:

Amazon Kindle (The NEW Kindle Wireless Reading Device is must have for serious entrepreneurs)

KeyCompete (Great keyword research tool to discover competitors keywords in their PPC campaigns)

NiftyClicks (discover the very latest web tools and resources)

Private Consultation for YOUR Business (with me)

Microwave Marketing Training System (special offer for you)

T-Shirts for the show are supplied by National Media Services – check out their excellent service

Regards,

Having trouble viewing this video? Try the QuickTime version.

Episode #15 – First things first.  You can see I’m wearing a nifty t-shirt I had designed for the show.  If you’d like to grab one, they’ll be available soon.

What is going on with web 2.0 company names?  It seems as though the view is ‘the silier the better.’  Well, there’s one rather big snag.  people can’t spell these names, and if they can’t spell ‘em, they’re not going to visit, are they?!

The viewer question this week is about how to promote a new website.  Learn from the principles I suggest, because they can be applied to all kinds of businesses.

This week’s nifty click is a tool that enables you to add audio to a website very easily.  It’s the best way I’ve come across so far, and it’s inexpensive too.

The big marketing lesson comes from Blendtec, a company that makes blenders.  Pretty dull product, but they’ve done an amazing job at making the marketing entertaining and interesting.  As a result their business has been revolutionized.  Smart marketers, and a great product.

I reminded you in this episode that there’s still chance to join me on our magical marketing experience adventure in Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida on August 19th – 21st, 2008.   Just follow the instructions and submit a video to YouTube.  Record 30 to 60 seconds of yourself letting me know what you like best about this show, or even better, how it’s helped your business directly.

Again, as a reminder, post the video to YouTube (it’s very easy), copy the URL of the video page, and send it to me at: comp@helpmybusiness.com.

Resources and websites mentioned in this episode:

BYO Audio (add audio to your website easily)

Will It Blend? (marketing videos from Blendtec)

Regards,

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