The Yellow Pages Are Dead…

by KarenM on August 29, 2010

Break­ing News For Local Busi­nesses Owners…

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“The Yel­low Pages Are Dead…”
 
 
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Yellow Pages are Dead
 
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Local Busi­nesses Are Wast­ing Thou­sands Of Dol­lars On HIGH PRICED ADS in The Yel­low Pages That Are Yield­ing Lit­tle To NO RESULTS!!! 
“…Don’t Let The YELLOW PAGES And OLD MEDIA “Steal” From YOU…!” 
Tap Into The Largest (competition-light) Mar­ket (made up of 70% of all Amer­i­can House­holds) And SIPHON OFF HIGHLY QUALIFIED LEADS LIKE GANGBUSTERS!!!!
Dear Local Busi­ness Owner,
 
“Old media” adver­tis­ing avenues are inef­fec­tive and expensive. The Yel­low Pages and news­pa­pers once worked like gang­busters for local busi­nesses, but now are see­ing lit­tle to no return on investment.
 
Why, are busi­nesses see­ing no return on invest­ment with old media? We do every­thing online now.
 
From 2008 to 2009, Amer­i­can news­pa­per read­er­ship dropped 10% with the Herald’s cir­cu­la­tion drop­ping to 162,260, and the Sun Sentinel’s about 150,000. 
 
Mean­while Face­book has sur­passed 500 mil­lion active mem­bers, online news­pa­pers are out­pac­ing their offline coun­ter­parts, and mil­lions are spent adver­tis­ing on Google every day.
You’ve prob­a­bly been on the inter­net today, but when was the last time you really read a news­pa­per or used the yel­low pages? A few days ago? Maybe more?
 
Which do you rely on? For most of the peo­ple, I know it’s the internet.
 
I do have a Yel­low Book, but it is still unopened in its orig­i­nal plas­tic wrap at my front door.
 
“And Why Would You Turn Any­where Else But The Inter­net, When You Can Find Every­thing You Want Online…?”
 
So why would your cus­tomers use the Yel­low Pages, News­pa­pers and old media if you do not?
 
Why would your prospects, clients, patients or future buy­ers look for your ser­vices any­where else, if we all turn to the inter­net for answers?
Why would you adver­tise in offline places with declin­ing read­er­ship and cir­cu­la­tion when the inter­net is grow­ing every day?
 
This is your real­ity now. People are look­ing for you online, not in the news­pa­pers or the Yel­low Pages. It’s where you have to be.
 
The inter­net is the most con­ve­nient, cus­tomer friendly and effec­tive medium on the planet. You can do more in sec­onds on the inter­net than you can offline in days. And in a fast food cul­ture that means everything.
 
“But This Isn’t A Flash In The Pan…”
The on-line rev­o­lu­tion has already proven itself. It’s cre­ated waves of oppor­tu­nity for peo­ple (dot.com boom, inter­net gam­bling, and affil­i­ate mar­ket­ing) and now local busi­ness is next… 
…With Local Search! 
 
Local Search is just what it sounds like…people in your area search­ing for spe­cific local prod­ucts or services. Looking for you…online!
 
But they’re not just win­dow shopping. These searchers are look­ing to buy, offline or on!
There are some tak­ing advan­tage already, but the land­scape is largely empty, and those suc­ceed­ing are doing so by default. It’s primed for smart local busi­ness own­ers to cash in.
And get­ting them to buy from you is easy…
 
When you are at the top of the search rank­ings, when your mes­sage matches the mar­ket, when you con­nect with your mar­ket and when you have the right product.
 
These peo­ple are typ­ing in spe­cific key phrases and key­words that tell you they want to buy, not browse. And if you take the nec­es­sary steps for suc­cess, you have it made.
Local Search is an explo­sive opportunity.
 
“Like Every Oppor­tu­nity, It’s Those Who Get In Early Who Will Reap The Biggest Rewards…”
Over the last 12 months, local search has seen a huge spike in searchers look­ing for local mer­chants and ser­vices online. It’s now the first place peo­ple turn, and you need to be there. 
Some facts about local online search…
  • 73% of activ­ity online is in one way or another “related to local con­tent” (Google 5/07)
  • For every one dol­lar U.S. con­sumers spend online, another five or six are going to offline pur­chases that are influ­enced by online research (MIT Tech­nol­ogy Review, April 2005, “E-Commerce Gets Smarter“)
  • 97% of Inter­net users in the U.S. gather shop­ping infor­ma­tion online, and of those con­sumers 51% explic­itly char­ac­ter­ize their behav­ior as “Shop Online, Pur­chase Offline” (NPD Group)
  • New Research by The Kelsey Group and Con­Stat Indi­cates 70% of U.S. House­holds Now Use the Inter­net When Shop­ping Locally for Prod­ucts and Ser­vices. Find­ings also sug­gest the Inter­net is poised to sur­pass news­pa­pers as a local shop­ping infor­ma­tion resource.
  • 70% of online searchers will use local search to find offline busi­nesses. The TMPDM-comScore study shows 86 per­cent of online users will be search­ing for a local busi­ness at some point in time. Research by Kelsey Group
  • 43% of search engine users are seek­ing a local mer­chant to buy some­thing offline. Source: com­Score Networks
  • 54% of search users have sub­sti­tuted Internet/search for the phone book. Source: com­Score Networks
  • The Kelsey Group reports that 74% of Inter­net users per­form local searches.
  • There are approx­i­mately 300 mil­lion searches per day for infor­ma­tion on the Inter­net (Nielsen/NetRatings 2005)
  • 60% of activ­ity online is one way or another “related to local con­tent” (Google 5/03)- For every one dol­lar U.S. con­sumers spend online, another five or six are going to offline pur­chases that are influ­enced by online research (MIT Tech­nol­ogy Review, April 2005, “E-Commerce Gets Smarter“)
The time to enter this mar­ket is now. 
 
Let your com­peti­tors pay exces­sively to dom­i­nate the “yel­low pages”, bus benches and news­pa­per ads, while you…
 
Begin carv­ing out a large swath of your ever-growing local online mar­ket, and build a pres­ence that will deliver you new prospects every month.
  • Imag­ine get­ting white-hot leads bang­ing down your door every month…
  • Imag­ine being able to grow your busi­ness “out-of-season”…
  • Imag­ine becom­ing the biggest player in your mar­ket within 6–18 months…
  • Imag­ine being the per­son peo­ple always cor­ner and ask about your secrets…
 
 
 
You can be. You can achieve these all within the next 18 months, by becom­ing the dom­i­nate player in your Local search market.
 
Karmic Bliss can help you do just that. 
 
 
 
EMail me   by click­ing here or call me at 561–278-7012
 
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Desiderata — We all need this these days

by KarenM on June 15, 2010

divider line Desider­ata

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remem­ber what peace there may be in silence. As far as pos­si­ble with­out sur­ren­der be on good terms with all per­sons. Speak your truth qui­etly and clearly; and lis­ten to oth­ers, even to the dull and the igno­rant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggres­sive per­sons, they are vex­a­tions to the spirit.

If you com­pare your­self with oth­ers, you may become vain or bit­ter; for always there will be greater and lesser per­sons than your­self. Enjoy your achieve­ments as well as your plans. Keep inter­ested in your own career, how­ever hum­ble; it is a real pos­ses­sion in the chang­ing for­tunes of time.

Exer­cise cau­tion in your busi­ness affairs, for the world is full of trick­ery. But let not this blind you to what virtue there is; many per­sons strive for high ideals, and every­where life is full of hero­ism. Be your­self. Espe­cially do not feign affec­tion. Nei­ther be cyn­i­cal about love; for in the face of all arid­ity and dis­en­chant­ment it is as peren­nial as the grass. Take kindly the coun­sel of the years, grace­fully sur­ren­der­ing the things of youth.

Nur­ture strength of spirit to shield you in sud­den mis­for­tune. But do not dis­tress your­self with dark imag­in­ings. Many fears are born of fatigue and lone­li­ness. Beyond a whole­some dis­ci­pline, be gen­tle with your­self. You are a child of the uni­verse, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the uni­verse is unfold­ing as it should.

There­fore, be at peace with God, what­ever you con­ceive Him to be. And what­ever your labors and aspi­ra­tions in the noisy con­fu­sion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and bro­ken dreams; it is still a beau­ti­ful world. Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy. — Max Ehrmann, 1927

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Keep Track Of Your Reputation Online

by bat97e on June 8, 2010

I recently made this video.  Its about con­trol­ling your rep­u­ta­tion on the inter­net, in this video I give you one tac­tic that will help you immensely.

I’d love to hear what you think, please leave a com­ment and let me know what you think about the video.  Also if you have any­thing you’d love cov­ered in the future, just let me know.

Thanks

Bran­don

PS  Here is the link to our YouTube chan­nel http://www.youtube.com/user/thekarmicbliss

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How Much Should I pay For Web Design

by bat97e on June 4, 2010

Most peaple it would seem, always feel like the answer to this question…is too much.

But what they for­get, and that you have to reme­ber is this is not a purchase…its an invest­ment.  With nearly any good web­site, thats fine tuned you should get the value of your pruchase back over time, a min­i­mum of two to three fold.

With your newly minted web­site you you should have the chance to pro­mote your busi­ness and gen­er­ate fresh new leads consistently.

But you have to be smart, and spend your money wisely.

Big cor­po­ra­tions, like Apple, Best Buy, and Ama­zon they can afford to splurge (spend­ing tens of thou­sands of dol­lars) on an expen­sive, shiny, wiz bang web­site. But you and me don;t have that luxury.

Its vital for us that we don;t get cuaght up with the allure and sex­imi­ness of the expen­sive wiz-bang web­site.  We need the fully opti­mized lead gen­er­at­ing machine websites.

It can look good…but an ugly con­vert­ing web site, is much pret­tier than a pretty site that doesn;t convert.

But a good web site that con­verts doesn’t have to cost a fortune.

In fact you can expect to pay about $1000 for a web­site thats optomize, clean and pro­fes­sion­ally designed.  Now this will depend on the page count, need for con­tent cre­ation and any other inci­den­tal ser­vices.  But you shold be able to get a web site for less than $1000.

You gen­er­ally have two options for pay­ment.  You can either pay by page or a flat fee for the entire site.  This will depend on the web team or designer you work with.

Remem­ber good design­ers are pas­sion­ate about what they do.  They want to build you the best site pos­si­ble and make you happy, so they can fos­ter a longer real­tion­ship with you.

For an exam­ple on pric­ing, I’ll give you our prices.  We charge $700 for a infor­ma­tional site, and a least of $1200 for an ecom­merce site. Once again, these prices are only a base line, and will vary on a project to project basis.  And the same will be true for most design companies.

Things like Search engine opti­miza­tion (vital to your suc­cess), graphic design, and con­tent con­struc­tion can raise the cost of the project.

Search Engine Opti­miza­tion can cost espe­cially, but on the whole design­ers be sup­posed to stay will­ing to pre­pare by the side of small­est amount neg­li­gi­ble SEO incor­po­rated in the field of the cost of your website.

Search Engine Opti­miza­tion can cost extra, but most design­ers should be will­ing to do at least min­i­mal SEO included in the price of your website.

If there not, find some­one else.

Just remem­ber 4 things…

1.) Flashy web­sites cost huge cash…figure out if you really need them or not.

2.) Your web designer will either charge you per page or by project…also many will want half up front and half on completion.

3.) Con­tent writ­ing is extra, and so is SEO unless dis­cussed ahead of time. Make sure you get them to agree to terms before on not just design, but con­tent writ­ing, and SEO as well. With­out SEO, your web­site can have all the flashi­ness but no one will see it.

4.) You are  the boss, treat your designer nicely …but if you don’t feel com­fort­able with them don’t work with them. Remem­ber this should be a long work­ing rela­tion­ship, you don’t want to work with some­one you can’t stand, or you can’t trust. The good ones want to work with you, and get more busi­ness out of you…treat them right and they’ll do great work for you.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

Bran­don

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Review, Re-evaluate, Reduce

by KarenM on May 27, 2010

Hi Every­one

I have a friend that is hik­ing the Appalachian Moun­tain Trail, a some 500 miles  which is awe­some and mind bog­gling to me. The only rea­son I bring this up is because Hik­ers, seri­ous ones are always review­ing their belong­ings, re-evaluating their con­tri­bu­tion to them and then reduc­ing where pos­si­ble. Also they try and find things that serve mul­ti­ple pur­poses or they get a big­ger pay back for their investment.

This made me think how it all applies to busi­ness as well.  We are always hav­ing to review our expen­di­tures and make sure we are get­ting a decent value.  When look­ing at adver­tis­ing we really need to look this square in the eye. So many dol­lars are wasted on too gen­eral advertising!

At Karmic Bliss we spe­cial­ize in pin­point­ing mar­kets and not wast­ing pre­cious cam­paign money.

I think peo­ple are grad­u­ally real­iz­ing that Online is the place to adver­tise and get con­nected. You can focus it locally or nation­ally or inter­na­tion­ally! Your choice now.

If you want infor­ma­tion on how this can be done effi­ciently and effec­tively get in touch with us and we will review your needs and come up with a cus­tom plan for you.

Remem­ber it does not mat­ter how small or large your com­pany is, there is room for all.

Talk later

Karen

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Why it’s Good And Bad To Be Scared Of Sales Copy…

by bat97e on May 21, 2010

I some­times for­get that “nor­mal” peo­ple don’t talk or think like I do.  A Copy­writer is a dif­fer­ent breed, trust me.

Recently I was writ­ing a let­ter for a client of mine.  She is one of the best sales­man I’ve ever had the good for­tune of meet­ing.  She is a genius busi­ness mind.

After years in cor­po­rate Amer­ica, she’s started a new busi­ness and asked me to write a saleslet­ter for it.  The frist thing I did was research.  About her, her new busi­ness, her poten­tial cus­tomers the whole bit.

I then retired to my mod­est bat cave, and furi­ously began writ­ing.   Craft­ing her the best sales copy I could.  I sent her a copy to get some feed­back, and agreed to meet up with her to go over it.

So she reads the sales let­ter, and can’t put it down (always a good sign).  I’m not even sure she breathes.

Then she looks back at me and her face is pail.  I mean Casper white!  I ask her what’s wrong?  She says “We can’t send this! your promis­ing too much, you say­ing things I can’t do, and Yada yada yada…”

She’s prac­ti­cally hys­ter­i­cal.  Long story short I spend the next 10 min­utes talk­ing her off the ledge.

20 min­utes later after leav­ing, I get a phone call well on my way to a friend’s house to watch.  I answer it and its my client.  You know what she says?  She loves the sales let­ter.  She loves it so much in fact, she’s ready to mail it (great news for me).

Now I’ve shared this story for two reasons.

First, because I want you to know that you can’t be afraid to get peo­ple excited about work­ing with you or buy­ing your prod­uct.  This doesn’t mean you lie…this means, in a com­pelling way you tell your cus­tomer how you can help them.  You fig­ure out the biggest and bold­est promise you can deliver on and you promise your customers.

Sec­ondly, if sales copy scares you…your prob­a­bly on the right track.  Sales copy should grab peo­ple by the throat and force them to read on, and leave them begin­ning for more.  If copy scares you, it could be a win­ner!  Great copy makes a buy who’s inter­ested, but a reluc­tant reader…into a reluc­tant pissed off buyer.

The impor­tant lessons to take from this post…

1.)    If your awe­some, don’t be afraid of what you promise…live up to it.  If you can’t make bold promises in your sales mate­ri­als your just part of the crowd and prob­a­bly in the wrong busi­ness.  As soon as you iden­tify the biggest and bold­est claim you can deliver on… the sooner you’ll sell.

2.)    Good copy is scary.  It grabs you and doesn’t let go.  It “makes you an offer” you can’t refuse.  By def­i­n­i­tion, these are not “safe” or “com­fort­able” things.  If you’re uneasy, wor­ried, or scared of the copy…you’re on the right track!

Until the next post,

Thanks

Bran­don

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Interesting Twist on Domains

by KarenM on May 19, 2010

Hi Every­one

While I was cruis­ing the net I dis­cov­ered this video on Domain gath­er­ing which I thought was clever.  They treat them like real estate and col­lect them.

Per­son­ally I only thought of them as sell­able com­modi­ties but they are using them as traf­fic builders with redirects.

It always helps to have another per­spec­tive on things

Hope you enjoy

Karen

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Free Blueprint For Success?

by bat97e on May 11, 2010

Amaz­ingly most mar­keters and adver­tise waste mil­lions on adwords by try­ing tech­niques and strate­gies that Google don’t like. Admit­tedly its some times hard to keep up with Google, as their improv­ing search engine marketing.

But today I wanted to clue you into an advan­tage for most adver­tis­ers that’s “hid­ing in plan site”.

It pro­vides you with…

- The secret for­mu­las Google uses to tab­u­late your costs, so you can tin­ker with what your doing and pro­vid­ing you with “cost relief”..

- Sim­ple strate­gies to max­i­mize your ad budget…

- Updates on the newest changes in Search Engine Marketing…

- Insider info that gives you the keys to success…

What is this resource?

Believe it or not its Google’s Youtube chan­nel.  Its great, no fool­ing.  On there they have tons of videos on nearly ever adver­tis­ing chan­nel Google has.  they tell you exactly waht they want you to do, and what will make you successful.

Sound good?

It does to me.

Here’s the link.…Google Youtube Channel

Talk to you later,

Bran­don

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Best Practices For Web Design…

by bat97e on May 10, 2010

Hey there,

I stum­bled upon this video on Youtube today, and I thought it had some great con­tent.  it leans more toward the web beginner…but it also can be good for the web vet­eran as well.

In the video Dr David Chaf­fey out­lines a few of the best prac­tices for opti­mal web sites.  Check it out when you have a chance.

Till next time,

Thanks

Bran­don

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3 Places To Turn As Traditional Advertising Becomes More Expensive…

by admin on May 3, 2010

Expand­ing media, chang­ing tech­nol­ogy and a gen­eral shift in the way we live our lives is putting tra­di­tional adver­tis­ing medi­ums out to pas­ture for many South Florida businesses.

News­pa­pers use to be a sure fire source of great adver­tis­ing and prospects…but with cir­cu­la­tion down, new gen­er­a­tions being raised with­out the paper its not the strong oppor­tu­nity it once was.  And nei­ther is TV, for the small business.

With so many chan­nels, so many options audi­ences are stretched across the board!  Yet the cost for TV ad time is still grossly high.

Even direct mail, which still offers great oppor­tu­nity for world-class mar­keters, is down­right expensive.

So where do local South Florida busi­nesses turn…where do you turn?  Online.  It’s where you want to be right now as a local busi­ness owner

Even bet­ter, with inter­net mar­ket­ing you can tar­get your cus­tomers.  (But more on this in another post).

3 places to start online…

#1.)  Build a web­site. You’re cre­at­ing a pres­ence on the web.  A place where your cus­tomers can learn more about what you have to offer and what you can pro­vide them.  And when a site is fully-optimized, you’ll have a chance to race to the top of the search engines.  Top billing on search engine boost your free traf­fic and give you a flood of poten­tial cus­tomers to your site.

#2.)  Paid adver­tis­ing with search engines. Use Google to tar­get by your spe­cific city, and key­words that your prospects use.  And with local search, so few local busi­nesses have caught on that some of these key­words are going to be dirt cheap, and offer you a chance for mas­sive ROI!!!

#3.)  Social Media Adver­tis­ing.  Build up your pres­ence on Face­book, Twit­ter, LinkedIn and other social media sites, develop a rela­tion­ship with your cus­tomers and cre­ate a com­mu­nity that relies on you for their needs in your spe­cific field.

There are other avenues to exploit…but these are three great starters for any Local Businesses.

South Florida local busi­ness own­ers stay tuned for more posts where I’ll give you spe­cific tac­tics, strate­gies and things you can do to your busi­ness the mar­ket­ing advan­tage in your local area.

Till next time,

Bran­don

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