Tomorrow’s show begins sharp at 10:00am Hawaii Time. You can listen in by phone or on the internet at www.internetpowerradio.com. Also, be sure to join the VIP list to get in on impromptu radio shows with content too good to wait for the next scheduled show.

For more information and call-in number, go to www.internetpowerradio.com.  And remember, it’s totally free. See you on the call!

When someone gives you a business card they are not authorizing you to add them to your email list. Sure, you can add them to your contacts database but not to your mailing list. For someone to join your mailing list, they have to personally enter their name and email address  in a form, either online or on paper, and confirm that they would like to be added to your list. And to be extra sure about it, most email management systems then send a second email to the subscribed person requesting that they confirm again that they want to be on the list (called a double-optin). Getting someone’s business card then forcing that person onto your list is…SPAM, and it can get you in trouble.

How much trouble? First of all, you’re shooting yourself in the foot by sending unsolicited information to someone you hope will be a client of yours. Bridge of trust…. BURNED. I mean, really, what are the chances that you are going to do business with someone who yesterday you gave them your business card and today they are sending you mass emails. It tells me I’m just a number to them. Just another business card to put on the list.

Next, like I said, you could lose all your lists from SPAM complaints and get your email account shut down without warning. And, finally, you could get your website hosting account shut down without warning, which means bye-bye to your website, and you’re out of business.

What CAN you do with a business card to build your list? If you ask me, a one-time personal email to the person on the card inviting them to join your email list with a link to where they can subscribe if they want to is okay. It’s a one-time invitation, the same way you would invite someone if you were talking to them in person. And if they don’t subscribe to your list, don’t take it personally. Either your subscribe (opt-in) page needs to be improved or they are just not interested right now. Hey, you and I both know that we can’t be on everyone’s email list. Furthermore, most email management services charge you based on the number of people on your list. You wouldn’t want to pay to send an email to someone that doesn’t have time or interest to read it anyway would you?

However, when you build your email lists the right way, you’ll have a list of people that want you to contact them, and want to you to send them information about what you do. What’s the right way? That’s a whole other topic.

So, protect your business and build your email lists without SPAMMING.

What email management system do I personally use and recommend?

Everything!

The truth is both you and I would be hard pressed to find a small business owner or entrepreneur with a gut feeling that they really need to step up their online marketing either through website redesign, social media, email marketing, or one of the hundreds of other ways to market a business online. In fact, that person might be you.

So, what’s the hangup? Why don’t you get started?

The Question: What is keeping you from busting into the world of effectively marketing your business online?

The Answer: You don’t know what you want for breakfast?

That’s right, you don’t know what you want for breakfast.

Have you ever woken up in the morning, hungry, walked over to the cupboard, opened it up, stared at a box of cereal, closed the cupboard, and mumbled to yourself, “There’s nothing to eat for breakfast. I’ll wait for lunch,” then went to work hungry convinced what’s there isn’t worth it?

You were just staring at a box of cereal weren’t you? But what was the cereal? Super Duty Bran Flakes

So, why didn’t you eat the Super Duty Bran Flakes? You bought it didn’t you? You put it in your shopping cart and paid for it didn’t you?

In fact, didn’t you stand there staring at the cereals saying to yourself, “Yummy Fruity Pebbles? Super Duty Bran Flakes. Yummy Fruity Pebbles? Super Duty Bran Flakes. Yummy sweet sugary indulgent breakfast bliss? Dry raspy healthy bran breakfast hell?”

The problem was, you didn’t decide and commit to that decision. So you just picked the one on sale and now, a day later, you’re frustrated with yesterday’s attempt to buy cereal. So, that box of Super Duty Bran Flakes sits on the shelf long past its expiration date gathering cob webs in the back of the cupboard.

The same holds true for online marketing.

A business owner knows he or she needs to get a website and start marketing online. Unsure of whether the website should be lively and exciting or clean and simple, the business owner either blindly picks one or “plays it safe” with a boring generic website with the hopes that it will appeal to all audiences.

Well, that generic middle-of-the-road website doesn’t appeal to anyone, and what you’re left with is a website that sits on a virtual cupboard shelf gathering cobwebs while the business owner convinces himself that online marketing doesn’t work and isn’t worth it.

What’s the solution?

DEFINE YOUR TARGET MARKET AND TAKE ACTION!

When you were buying cereal, you didn’t commit and take action what you really wanted, so you just took what was on sale.

When you were starting to market online, you didn’t commit and take action to attract the customers you really wanted, so your generic website and marketing continues to pull in generic non-committed customers.

In the grocery store, had you committed fully to either Fruity Pebbles or Super Duty Bran Flakes, you would have open up the cupboard for breakfast knowing exactly what was in there, and ate a great breakfast.

In your online marketing, had you committed fully to build your website and develop your online marketing plan to attract your most valuable customers, you would open up your email every day knowing exactly what kind of business leads you are going to find in there, and have a great list of pre-qualified leads.

So what’s it going to be? Fruity Pebbles or Super Duty Bran Flakes?

It’s time to commit and give new focus to your online marketing efforts.

It happens to everyone that unrolls an effective online marketing campaign. First, there’s the thrill of new business leads magically appearing in your email box. Then, those leads get lost among your other email, then your mental Rolodex of leads maxes out, and finally all leads mix together and your lead management turns into and endless game of 52 Card Pickup.

Ah, you remember 52 Card Pickup. I remember the first time I was taught how to play that game. I was about 8 years old and I was invited to play a card card came. “What’s it called?” I asked enthusiastically. “It’s called 52 Card Pickup,” was the reply. “How do you play?” I asked. And down went the entire deck of cards all over the floor waiting for us to pick them up.

If you feel like you’re constantly playing 52 Card Pickup with your leads, you need a lead nurturing software to keep all your leads under control in a tight deck.

As soon as the cards, I mean leads, start hitting the floor there are usually two reactions: 1) generate more leads to replace those that you know are falling by the wayside or 2) tighten up the deck and get a follow up system for lead management.

The best solution is to tighten up the deck and manage or nurture your leads effectively.

So, what do I personally use to manage my leads? Well, I’ve tried all kinds of solutions that I won’t go into here and the best solutions I’ve found is a software called Act! It’s fantastic. You can track your leads from the source, through the sales process, and into production. It will even track the money your leads are converting into.

Is it intuitive? Yes. I don’t have time to read instruction manuals, and I use the software just fine.

Can you take it for a FREE Act! Test Drive to try it out? Absolutely.

Now, I don’t own Act! or anything. I bought the software to use for my business, it solved my problem, and I recommend you check it out. Here’s where you can get FREE Act! 2010 test drive, no strings attached. Great company!

What would you pay for a list like that?

You can get one for FREE. How?

I’ll give you 3 words: AWeber, Facebook, Twitter

More at my workshop on Wed, Feb 17th 5:30-7:30pm in Honolulu, HI.
Get info and register online here.

Social Media can be a powerful tool in your marketing bag of tricks, and it’s FREE! What is social media?  Think of yourself sitting at a little table in a café sipping a hot chocolate with . . . hundreds of millions of people! What would you say? How would you say it? How would you get people to listen to you?

In this workshop you will learn the basics of how to use Facebook and Twitter and how to use them to promote your business. This is not an advanced social media workshop.

In this workshop I will start at ground zero with the basics of using Facebook and Twitter, and then demonstrate how to use it to grow your business. You will learn the essential fundamentals of social media for your business.

Here are some of the questions you will get answered:

What is social media, Twitter, and Facebook? *How much time does it take to use social media?

Can I automate my social media marketing? *What privacy issues are there with social networking?

How can I brand my Twitter background for my business? *Can I advertise on Facebook and Twitter?

How can I find customers using Twitter and Facebook? *How do you share photos on Twitter? What are the demographics of most social media users? What’s the difference between a Facebook Group and Fan Page? How do I create a Facebook page for my business?

I am going to pack in as much as possible in two hours! Come learn the lingo and the how-to of promoting your business through social media.

This workshop has been on our most wanted list for months, so please register early.  If there are specific questions you want to make sure get answered at the workshop,  go to www.nateburgoyne.com/hwbcmedia and let me know.

I invite you to come early to network with other business owners and entrepreneurs, and to get your website and online marketing questions answered. Check in begins at 5:00 PM and the workshop begins at 5:30 PM.

Register today online at  hwbc.org.

If online registration is still open, there are still seats available. Get yours quick. We anticipate this workshop to sell out early.

We’ve been growing an email list for about a week now and the results have been fantastic. We’re now moving into the next stage of the pre-launch and expect his list to continue to grow in the coming weeks. For those interested, here’s the squeeze page we built that is pulling about a 50% opt-in rate!

That’s right! Almost 50%…. a full 1/2 of all visitors are opting in to the page! How? And extremely targeted launch with a intricately crafted squeeze page.

We started the pre-launch about a week ago at midnight, and by 8:30 in the morning I got a call from Scott, in awe with the response we got in such a short period of time. He sent me an email that said, “Is this for real!?” I replied, “Yes, it’s for real. . . and we’re just getting started.”

Is a 50% opt-in rate possible? Yes! I’ll keep you posted on the progress of the campaign. And for those who want to see the squeeze page, go to www.racehawaiistandup.com/powerglider.

Here’s the proof. The /powerglider/ page is the squeeze page. The only way to get to the preview page is to enter your name and email address and opt-in. Notice 444 views of the squeeze page and 213 views of the preview page. Almost 50%. . . Sweet!!! And the numbers are excellent for the niche market we’re targeting after the first phase of online marketing. I just rolled out phase 2 today, and we have about 5 more pushes before the pre-launch is completely on autopilot.

Here’s a letter I recently received from Scott of Race Hawaii. . .

“If you have a product that needs to be introduced or brought to the market, and your website brought to the forefront of the search engines, I’d like to recommend Nate Burgoyne or Integrity Online Marketing.

I am aware a lot of people are good at web design and are capable in this generation of electronic expertise. Nate not only stands head and shoulders above computer literate web mastering and design competitors, but brings a special talent with the written word to describe and capture the essence of the product.

This has proven invaluable for me in making a new patent pending product known.

Nate and his business relationships fire on all cylinders because he is smart, he listens, and then he creates what is needed.”
Scott Bucknell
RACE HAWAII

However, I think we all may be forgetting that face-to-face networking is still an important part of lead generating. This morning I was invited to attend a business networking group here locally and I’m excited to be part of it. I met some great like-minded business owners and entrepreneurs that are willing to work together to grow each other’s businesses.

There something special about meeting people in person, especially when you see the same people at different venues and different networking events. You remember their smiles and personalities.

One of the greatest things about being small business owners and entrepreneurs is that, in most cases, we are able to choose who we do business with. In fact, for me, when I meet a new potential business contact and start get to know him or her, I’m really trying to make the decision of whether this person and I will be able to connect and work effectively together toward a common goal.

While, all of this trust can certainly be developed online over several weeks of Facebook updates, the same connection can take place in about 30 seconds or less in a face-to-face meeting.

Happy networking both online and off!

In the past years, John’s pest control business leads were generated mostly through door knocking, yellow page ads, etc. . . Lead generation was extremely labor intensive and actually expensive. In fact, it was costing him about $100 per lead to knock doors.

Well, things have changed. No too long ago, John updated his website and got it search engine optimized. Now he’s on the front page of Google for search terms like “honolulu pest control” and “oahu pest control”.

Now, he gets leads automatically coming to his email box without knocking one single door and business has never been better.

He was telling me how businesses don’t see the picture of what a quality search engine optimized website can do for  a company. Now, I didn’t build his website, but I did look through the html code for it, and it looks like he’s doing things right.

And the great thing is, once the website is online, most internet marketing is free. No more yellow page ads, no more ads in the newspaper, no more flyers and door knocking, and no more cold calling. It’s an automatic lead generating machine that, if done right, can easily return your investment 10 fold.

I couldn’t let the blog post go without a plug and a nice link back to his website. Right now he’s #4 in Google for “Honolulu Pest Control” and I know he’s going for #1 so here’s a sweet link for you: Honolulu Pest Control.

If you are a business owner or entrepreneur and you’re ready to upgrade your website or take your business online let me know, and I’ll make sure you get a killer discount from my Honolulu web design company Integrity Online Marketing.

I just recently attended a webinar (online seminar) by a colleague of mine named Devon Brown where he reveals an insider strategy that he and I both use to get a huge number of Twitter followers for our businesses. The webinar was about an hour and it was phenomenal.

He’s giving another webinar on the same topic and has opened up registration FREE for the first 47 people who register online. This is a $77.00 seminar that he is giving away free admission to for those who register early.

Devon does a great job teaching this insider strategy to make money with Twitter.

If you’re interested, go to http://www.nateburgoyne.com/viraltwittersecret.