Happy 2006! I hope your year is off to a great start! I spent the
last hours of 2005 and a few into 2006 working on my business and
getting things ready for another great year. I’ve learned a lot of
new things in the past few weeks and I’m anxious to share them with
you.
This
week marks a few birthdays…
The
business is turning one, my oldest is turning 9 and I’m
turning…well, let’s just say I’m a year older.
Because I’m not getting any younger, I’ve started doing more and
learning more. I’m going back to school in the spring to begin work
on my Masters Degree and joined a
mastermind group online. I’ve been tinkering with affiliate
marketing here and there for a year now and am ready to start some
content based sites that rely solely on affiliate income, traffic
and the like. Guess how many of those things roll over into my
service based business? Almost all of them. Through the
mastermind group, I’ve already been exposed to some tremendous
resources, all of them free to me simply for being a member.
There’s so much in there. I don’t know when I’ll get to it all!
Now, I will tell you that the mastermind group is now closed, but
you can still partake in some of the learning by enrolling in their
free 9 day eCourse.
To
add to my learning, I subscribed to Jimmy D. Brown’s
List and Traffic Video Newsletter. Whoa! Talk about
information overload! Jimmy’s put together a monthly Video
newsletter complete with the MP3s (if you want to take it with you
on the road), transcripts, checklists and additional bonuses. The
best part about it? It’s only $10. I have to admit, I was
skeptical about it, but for $10, I figured I had nothing to lose. I
was blown away by the information included. I spent a whole day
reviewing the 2 videos (one for the list and one for the traffic)
and implemented some new ideas. I’ve already seen results.
Look
for a few more emails from me throughout the month. I’m not going
to flood your inbox with junk, but I am going to do a better job at
passing information along to you. Last month I introduced the
redesign of Marketing Made Simple and I’ve taken it to a bi-weekly
newsletter. There are so many things I’m learning and
implementing. I want to pass them along to you. If there’s
something that you particularly want to know about, drop me a line
at
info@valleyva.net and I’ll see what I can dig up!
Congratulations to Patti Ciccone for winning the $25
SuperCertificate from
GiftCertificates.com! The next winner will be announced in the
February 6th edition of the newsletter and all
subscribers on January 31st will be eligible.
Until next time…
Article Writing Tips from
SpongeBob SquarePants
By Nicole Dean
Wisdom can be found in the most unexpected places. Today, wisdom
bubbled up from a pineapple under the sea. I suddenly realized that
everything you’d want to know about writing articles for your
website can be taught by SpongeBob SquarePants and his friends.
When you write for your newsletter, blog, or website, which
character are you most like?
Mr. Krabs: This crustacean is focused on one thing and
one thing only, making more and more and more money. Only a cartoon
could actually have dollar signs drawn in his eyes. He thinks of no
one, only how he can benefit. Are your articles focused on you or on
the reader? Are you providing information or do you have blinders
on, thinking only about how you can make money from the article you
are writing? If your article reads like an ad or is self-serving or
full of affiliate links, you might write like Mr. Krabs.
Plankton: The smallest creature in the sea is also the
sneakiest. He’ll do anything and hurt anyone to steal someone else’s
work (the Krabby Pattie secret formula). Write your own material.
Don’t be Plankton. Don’t copy and paste someone else’s work, edit
it, and try to pass it off as your own. You will be caught, and it
just isn’t worth it. Take the same amount of effort and work on your
own thoughts and ideas. Plankton never gets away with his schemes,
either. He’s on Plan “Z” and is still pathetically failing at his
attempts to steal the secret formula.
Patrick: SpongeBob’s best friend, the starfish, has a
good heart, but isn't the brightest creature in the sea. Do your
articles make you sound like an expert? Are you providing valuable
content or just pushing out sloppy articles as fast as you can?
Always double check for typos and grammatical errors. If you're
challenged by spelling and grammar, hire a Virtual Assistant or
Copywriter to proofread and submit your article for you. Or slow
down, set your article aside for a day and then reread it before you
click the “submit” button.
Squidward: Squidward is B-O-R-I-N-G. When writing
articles, are you a Squidward? Do you just get the words down on
paper or are you finding a fun twist to entertain your audience and
keep them coming back for more? Take time to make your articles
stand out from the thousands of other dull articles out there by
including personal stories or just having fun while writing. For
instance, this article could be entitled "How to Write a Good
Article", but would it stand out from the hundreds of other articles
about article writing? Probably not.
SpongeBob: This little guy always tries to do the
right thing, and is a hard worker. He may not always end up getting
the results he hoped for, but he bounces back and tackles his work
with a renewed vigor. SpongeBob works very hard, he's a good friend,
he always thinks of others, and tries to have fun no matter what he
is faced with. Hardworking, friendly SpongeBob is the guy to be when
writing articles.
Although this is a silly lesson in article writing, I hope you'll
remember the important messages our underwater friends have taught
us.
1. Write articles to help others, not with dollar signs in your
eyes.
2. Write your own material. Don’t copy others.
3. Proofread your articles carefully, and provide valuable
information.
4. Be entertaining. Not boring.
5. Be a SpongeBob! Hard work and persistence pay off.
Before you know it, you'll develop a following for having
informative and entertaining articles and you’ll be King or Queen of
the sea.
Nicole Dean doesn’t pay for advertising – ever. She uses Article
Marketing to get free advertising on websites and in newsletters
worldwide. She welcomes you to visit
http://www.easyarticlemarketing.com
to find out how.
Dear Henry: I have a problem. I have two brothers. One brother is in
advertising. The other was put to death in the electric chair for
murder. My mother died from insanity when I was three years old. My
sisters are prostitutes and my father sells drugs to high-school
students. Recently, I met a girl who was just released from a youth
prison where she was serving time for killing her dog with a sledge
hammer, and I want to marry her. My problem is, should I tell her
about my brother who is in advertising?
Signed, Anonymous
Who’d believe chewing gum could be so dangerous?!
Click here!
From: Larry Levit, Ph.D.
Chief Scientist, ION Systems |
We have
our first Winner!!
Thanks to all of you who resubscribed to my newsletter!
We have a winner for the first of many drawings for those who took
time this month to sign up for Marketing Made Simple!
This issues winner is Patti Ciccone who won
the $25
SuperCertificate from
GiftCertificates.com! Patti, please email info@valleyva.com to claim your prize!
This wasn't a one time contest! Every month I'll be giving away a prize and all subscribers are eligible for a $25 SuperCertificate from GiftCertificates.com! The next drawing is January 31st.
Winner to be announced in the
February 6th newsletter! ***Coming Soon!***
Tell-A-Friend referral contests! We're paying cold hard CASH to the subscriber that can refer the most friends!
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Delaney Imaging started out humbly as Delaney
Bookkeeping and Word Processing 3 years ago, offering many
services including bookkeeping, data processing, and custom
computer images. It has recently been refocused and
revitalized and now offers strictly
images.
Delaney Imaging is a Canadian home-based business owned
by Pam Sargant, mother of 4 and stepmother of 1. She brings
with her 4 years of experience with computer graphics, and
offers photo editing,
specialty collages and computer images designed to your
specifications.
Pam
always strives for perfection in her images, her motto is
“I’m not happy until the customer is happy”.
She
also runs a blog called “Active
Ideas”, sharing coloring pages and craft ideas, and now
offers greeting cards showcasing some of her favorite
images.
If you would like to be
a featured business owner in Marketing Made Simple, please
send a 150 word bio, picture and logo to
info@valleyva.net. We will notify you if you are
selected and let you know when your information will run.
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Q:
“Do you have any advice on Marketing Plans?” Sara Lois
Hoos of
YourHomeTownMarketPlace.com asks...
A:
Sure I do…but I have to be honest with you, the best
marketing plan in the world is worthless unless you revisit,
tweak, and implement it. It also depends on how in depth
and detailed you want to get with your plan. It also helps
me to work backwards.
Start with a goal. How
many visitors do you want to your site? How many eBooks do
you want to sell? How many hours do you want to bill? Now
that you’ve determined what you want, how are you going to
do it? I brainstorm all the ways I can market and then go
and whittle through the list determining what I think will
work best. However, guessing can be expensive. Don’t just
market the way you like to be marketed. You may not like
pop-ups, but the fact of the matter is…they work!
List all of the marketing
ideas and put them in order of launch date. You can have
several marketing campaigns going at once, such as
networking, an ezine, a free eCourse. Set dates for when you
want them to launch, and the importance that you want to put
on them. Do you want to run online classifieds for one or
two months?
After you’ve done that,
set goals so you can see how each campaign is working. Make
sure that you’re getting your money’s worth. If it’s not
working then stop doing it, or tweak it and make it better.
This is just how I come up
with my marketing plan. For detailed information on a more
“formal” marketing plan, go to
KnowThis.com.
If you have a marketing
question send it to
info@valleyva.net and we'll answer it in future
publications!
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We want to hear from you!
Do you have a marketing
article that you'd like to share? Are you struggling with
aspects of your marketing plan and just want some advice?
To submit your article,
email me and make sure you include a bio with a link
back to your site. (After all, this is free and simple
marketing!) |
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