Hi All!

I came across this extremely helpful article written by Melinda Emerson, The Small Biz Lady. Melinda always provides great content and info so you should follower her on Twitter @SmallBizLady and read her blog posts.

Many clients come to me either confused about Facebook Advertising, or have never even considered running Facebook Ads. And I typically find most of them think Facebook Ads are probably really expensive. But, that’s NOT true!

Not only can you choose the exact audience you want your ad to appear on the pages of, BUT you can also control how long it runs and how much you spend. Also, ads are great for promoting your events! You can run a Facebook Ad campaign leading up to your event and then stop the campaign once it’s over. Cool stuff! Again, you’re in total control of your campaigns and budget.

For more info on all the general stuff about “how” to run ads, visit the Facebook Ads page.

Okay…back to the purpose of this article! I’d like to share 5 tips Melinda offers once you’ve decided to run ads.

“5 Areas to Focus on When Setting Up Facebook Ads” by Melinda Emerson. Please note this is just an excerpt from the entire article she wrote, so click here to read the whole thing!

User Destination: Figure out where you want to send the users that click on your ad. There is a strong benefit to sending people to a Facebook Business Page, as well as sending them to a company website. It all depends on the marketing goal you are hoping to achieve. Costs per click will also vary based on where you direct people to go. A CPC landing page can make or break an ad campaign, but the landing page doesn’t necessarily need to be offsite. Facebook Business Pages allow for creative opportunities for landing pages including a contact form or a Facebook store among other options.

Ad Type: Determining which ad type to choose can directly impact the success of a campaign. Facebook Ads are a common ad type that is structured most similarly to traditional CPC ads. Sponsored stories, event, post, and application ads can also be successful for brands but focus on more specific content. There is a strong social advantage for running ads that highlight a brand’s status update or event because they show “likes” and shares associated with that post. These ad types often see increased click through rates because of the social association.

Targeting: You not only have the opportunity to target your current demographic, but can also connect with an audience that you would like to target as customers. Facebook allows you to target users based on every profile feature that they enter. Likes and interests are a feature that businesses need to take advantage of. If a business sells fitness products they have the opportunity to show their ads to anyone that “likes” fitness, health, working out, yoga, etc. The specific targeting allows for leads from a very qualified user group, which makes the Facebook Ad conversion rates much higher than traditional CPC campaigns.

Reporting: In addition to the basic reporting that Facebook offers, there are other ways to track your user’s activity after they click on your ad. You can setup goals and conversion tracking in Google Analytics that can assist in determining the success of the ad campaign.

Optimization: Continuously managing your ad campaign is vital to its success but knowing how to optimize it is what can really drive results. Knowing which ads are performing and why is what you’ll need to know to carry that success to the other ad campaigns.

I hope her tips take some of the mystery out of Facebook Ad campaigns for you! Regardless of whether you’re a small business owner, coach, consultant, entertainer, book author or speaker, Facebook Ads are a great way to generate traffic to your Fan Page (Business Page), website, events, products and BRAND…and it’s highly targeted and cost-effective for lead generation!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

Hi All!

The following article is a guest blog post courtesy of Kelly Marsh, a freelance writer and blogger. You’ll see that she provides great strategies to improve your search engine rankings on Google, so if you want to get on page one of a Google search, keep reading!

Here is the blog post Kelly provided:

If you are a small business owner, or own an online business, you know the importance of first page ranking in the Google search engine. Some believe that well done SEO can bring the desired result. However, this is not the only thing that helps one to get the top ranking. Moreover, Google maintains a top-secret and complex algorithm to decide on the websites to be displayed on top. No one has the exact information about the ways in which search engines give priority to websites. Still, it can be said that the well optimized and highly relevant web pages would get good ranking. Find out the easiest ways to get top page ranking in Google below:

Keyword Research

Start with keyword research. Find out the keywords relevant to your webpage that have the highest number of searches. You can do keyword research in the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Choosing the right set of keywords is half work done.

Proper Optimization of Meta Tags

Use the keywords in your description tag, title tag and keywords tag. You can also use the keyword phrase in the image ALT tags. In this way, Google shall be redirecting traffic to your website. However, ensure that the webpage is relevant to the keywords searched.

Keyword Density

Always maintain the keyword density of 1-5%. If you exceed this limit, it would be considered as spam as per the rules of search engines. Hence, keyword stuffing should be avoided at all cost.

Domain Name

The domain names that have the keyword phrase have more chance to get a higher ranking than those without the same. However, this can only happen if your website is properly optimized and possesses high number of quality backlinks.

Backlinks

Create as many backlinks as possible to redirect traffic to your website. Video marketing, article marketing, social media and social bookmarking are some of the ways to create backlinks to your website.

Anchor Text

Use of anchor text is also another way to get backlinks to your website and high page ranking in Google.

Video Marketing

This is also a great way to redirect traffic to your website. You would have to make small videos about your business or products and upload in several video sharing websites. Google would surely put your website in the top rank if it has a video. However, ensure that the video is relevantto the item searched.

Social Media

This is the fastest growing way to get traffic to your website. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc. are some of the social platforms from where you can expect traffic to your website. This is because once you share your url on your profile, your fan and followers would re-share the same with their friends. In this way, you would get traffic to your website.

Article Marketing

Article marketing is also a great way to attract traffic to your website through search engines. You need to submit articles relevant to your business to several article directories with a brief bio about your company at the end of the article and backlink the same to your website. The work is as simple as that.

Google Map Listing

This is the best way to get visible on the first page of Google. Google would surely keep you at the top spot if you use Google Map Listing. Moreover, this favors you from your customers’ base as well. They get to know about your location in an instance that helps both of you in several ways.

These are some of the ways to increase your page ranking. The more techniques you use, the more your chances to get top position in Google search engine. Using all of these would make you dominate the first page leaving your competitors perplexed.

About the author: Kelly is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology and luxury. Beside this she is fond of gadgets. Recently an article on trek bicycle attracted her attention. These days she is busy in writing an article on landscape architecture.

Hi All!

I have 2 rituals that I perform prior to boarding a plane if it’s a morning flight: Buy a Vitamin Water and a USA Today newspaper. No matter what city I’m flying out of, if my flight is before noon local time, you can find me doing this in an airport store close to my departing gate.

There is absolutely no point in my telling you that, other than recently I was on a flight, reading my USA Today, and came across an interesting article about a new book that I thought was very interesting and inspiring. But, before I jump into telling you about it, let me take a minute to explain why the article about the author’s journey and his new book grabbed my interest:

Back in October of 2011, I published my third book, “Boomers into Business: How Anyone Over 50 Can Turn What They Know into Dough Before and After Retirement”. Basically, there are startling stats about how ill-prepared more than 47% of Boomers are to have enough money to retire (or to even cover their basic bills later in life!). So I wrote my latest book to provide career options that Boomers can consider to make more money now, on-the-side of their current job, if they’re employed, as well as what they can do after they “retire” from their current job or career to generate income past 65 years old. Again, almost 50% of Boomers are at risk of outliving their retirement savings so this is a serious issue…and will cause many Boomers to have to generate income, somehow, well into their later years.

Okay, now back to the book I read about on the plane. It’s called, “Diary of a Company Man: Losing a Job, FInding a Life”, written by James. S. Kunen (Lyons Press). In a nutshell, at 59 years old Kunen was fired from a corporate job at Time Warner, and found himself in what he, along with many other Boomers, describe as a place of: Too young to retire and too old to hire.

According to the article about his journey, 100 employees out of 500 were let go, and of those 100, 4-out-of-the-5 people let go in corporate communications were over 40 years old. He being one of the “oldest” at 59. So, there Kunen was, caught in that weird vortex many Boomers find themselves in where they find it hard to find a job, yet they’re too young to “stop” working because they don’t have enough retirement savings.

Now, I don’t want to give away the ending and how he survived this, so you’ll either have to read his book or read the article I read online in USA Today back on February 27, 2012 to get more details. But I will offer you this brief book description to wet your appetite:

The funny, insightful, and inspiring story of a 1960s campus radical turned corporate PR man who finds himself, along with his fellow baby boomers, in a place called “Too Young to Retire and Too Old to Hire”.

James S. Kunen—author of “The Strawberry Statement“, an account of the 1968 student uprising at Columbia University—chronicles his adventures on the road to finding meaning in work and life.

He traces his evolution from a rebellious youth who sees working as a kind of death, to a laid-off corporate executive who experiences not working as a kind of death, to a reinvented and reinvigorated individual who discovers something important and meaningful to do.

The experience of falling victim to America’s recession-ravaged economy (and the people who run it) leads him along a career path far different from anything he had planned. After years of making a living, Kunen finally learns how to make a life. “Diary of a Company Man” will be a revelation not only to baby boomers but to young people trying to figure out what to do with their lives.

Aside from publishing a book, what did he do to make a living? How did he reinvent himself? Did he become self-employed? Did he find another corporate job? If you’re a Boomer and find yourself in a similar situation as Kunen, let-go from a job close to 60, what can you do? Or if you still have a job but need to make more money for your retirement account, what can you do? Or if you’re looking for something you can do to generate income past 65 years old, what can you do?

For starters, on Amazon you can pick up a copy of Kunen’s book, or my new book (mine is available in both Print and Kindle versions), for some ideas! Sadly, all of this is a reality for over 35 million Baby Boomers, and the time to start thinking about financial security in your golden years is now!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

Hi All!

As you know, I’m constantly doing research for tips, trends and strategies that pertain the branding, business, marketing, social media, sales, PR, etc…basically anything that can help people build their small businesses and achieve success!

And today I came across this great blog post written by Marcus Sheridan, The Sales Lion, entitled: 50 Qualities of the Best Business Blogs in the World.

I wanted to share several of the tips on his list here because SO many clients and people in my workshop audiences constantly ask,”What can I do to make my blog better?” Or, “I want to start a blog but don’t know what to do!”

And after reading Marcus’s post, I felt many of you could benefit from the info. So, here are 15 of the 50 qualities he shared:

1. They answer the basic consumer questions first and foremost.

2. They don’t suffer from the curse of knowledge.

3. They don’t try to impress readers because they know that happens naturally with great teaching.

4. They don’t brag about themselves, their company, and why they’re so awesome.

5. They are willing to have a conversation below the post (in the comments section) or behind the scenes via email.

6. They don’t waste words, and if they can state it shorter, they do.

7. The owner/CEO of the company is involved and also is a blog contributor.

8. They include at least one image on every post.

9. They make it readable by using short paragraphs, bullets, headers, etc.

10. They include video as much as possible.

11. They address subjects no one else in their industry is willing to address.

12. If they see something wrong in their industry, they tactfully call-out the action, person, or company doing it.

13. They leverage as many employees as they can in the content curation process, and see every member of their staff as a “blog contributor.”

14. They don’t have a bunch of frivolous red tape, filters, and stupid management teams holding up every blog article that’s written.

15. They have thick skin and don’t back down as soon as someone doesn’t like what they have to say.

To read the other 35 qualities he shared, simply click here!

I hope that all you small business owners, speakers, authors, coaches, entertainers and consultants find this info helpful for improving your blogging efforts. If you’re going to take the time to have a blog, you should at least do your best to make your efforts effective!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

Hi All!

By writing and distributing Press Releases for myself, I have been interviewed by well-known media such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, and many others. And when you give them a great interview or sound bite, they come back to you. I have one reporter who has contacted me 3 different times in the past 6 months for 3 different articles she was writing. That is FREE publicity to the world!

Press Releases can also prompt the media to ask you to write an article for them. Why? They perceive you as an “expert”! In a short period of time I was asked by BNET.com, WomenEntrepreneur.com, and PersonalBrandingBlog.com to write articles for them – all because they received a Press Release from me and it put me on their radar as a “go to” expert in my niche.

But once you’ve crafted a newsworthy Press Release, and deployed it through a distribution service like PRWeb.com, what else can you do as a small business owner on a budget to get media interviews? Here are 2 strategies to consider:

Spoon Feeding the Media Segment Ideas

In addition to sending out “mass news” Press Releases, there is another strategy for getting publicity. I call it “spoon feeding” the media. The media loves it when you approach them with specific story ideas. This can be along the lines of topics like: “Is Your Career Suffering? 5 Unique Tips for Success”, or “Do You Struggle With Money? 3 Surefire Tips for Finding Financial Bliss”, or “Is Stress Ruining Your Life? 4 Proven Ways to Overcome It”.

The key here is you’re doing the “thinking” for the Reporters, Editors, Producers, etc. They are always looking for ideas, and appreciate when they get some! So focus on topics that fit within your niche as a Coach, develop compelling topics that would be great interview topics for print, online, radio or TV, find several media outlets that cover stories related to your expertise and that reach your target audience, and pitch them your idea(s). This strategy has worked very well for me, personally, and my clients!

And you can approach the media contacts via phone or email. But, and here’s a key point, whether you send them a Press Release or contact them with a specific topic idea, you need to follow-up. Sending them one email or leaving one voicemail message is typically not enough. Try 3-5 follow up attempts before you give up. Most members of the media are approached with many news stories and topic ideas daily, so being the “squeaky wheel” is often necessary. And even if they don’t jump on the first one you present, continue to the send them new ones. Eventually you will get their attention!

Sharing Your News Through Social Media

Once you have uploaded and deployed your Press Release through PRWeb.com or another online distribution service, the services create a web page for it with a unique url. So not only post your Press Release on your website but also be sure share the link to it with all of your Social Media channels: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc. You can also use the Press Release as a post for your blog.

And, when you start to get media interviews, be sure to add the links to the articles or appearances on your website. Plus, share links to those, too, with your Social Media communities. Please note, it’s not only totally acceptable to toot your own horn by sharing these things, it is necessary for building your business and brand!

OKAY! There is your crash course in how implementing effective PR strategies can benefit your business. Again, this is a key marketing tool for building brand awareness, positioning yourself as an expert (ie: personal branding), generating sales for events and products, attracting new clients, and landing speaking engagements.

Being persistent and consistent with your PR efforts can bring you substantial returns…and prospects will be impressed by the media coverage you post on your website. It really will build your credibility as an expert in your field!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

Hi All!

Back in 2012  I wrote a blog post entitled “Do You Suffer from Social ‘Me’dia Syndrome?”. It was picked up by tons of other blogs and also led to my being asked to write variations of it for several online business communities and magazines. I bring this up because yesterday I spoke to a good friend of mine who was asking me about Social Media tips. After my chat with her I realized that it was a good time to revisit this topic in 2012. Why? Because MANY people are still clueless about proper Social Media etiquette!

Here’s the deal…you have to participate to make it work for you. If you make it all “about you”, you’ve lost the entire essence of what Social Media is about! I find that many new clients who come to me are not getting much out of their Social Media and online marketing efforts because they’ve forgotten ONE little detail…they forgot about the word “social” in their Social Media strategy.

Here are a few tips that will quickly illustrate my point:

1. Comment on other peoples’ blog posts. If you have a blog and want people to comment on your posts, you have to comment on OTHER peoples’ blog posts to start generating traffic to yours. It’s simple: If you read a blog post you like or have an opinion on, don’t just “keep it to yourself”. POST A COMMENT!

2. Retweet other peoples’ tweets: If you like a tweet from someone else, take a split second to click on the retweet button to share it with your followers. That’s why the retweet icon exists! To SHARE info with everyone and help cross-promote each other to help increase awareness for other people. It’s amazing how much more tweet-love and traffic you’ll get if you retweet, reply and comment on other peoples’ tweets. AGAIN…it’s part of being “social” in tweet-ville…and it’s part of Social Media etiquette!

3. Comment or Like other peoples’ posts on Facebook or in LinkedIn Groups: If you want more people to comment and/or click on the “like” button on your Fan Page or Profile posts, then do it more for other people! It takes less than one second to click “like” under someone’s post and sometimes just a couple of seconds to write a comment. Again, if you see a post that you like or find interesting, rather than just THINK to yourself, “That’s funny!” or “That’s cool!” or “That’s interesting!” or “That’s really helpful info!”, move your cursor up to the word “like” under it and simply click. Or type a short comment to acknowledge what that person posted!

This may all sounds like common sense BUT it’s NOT common practice…which is why millions of social media hobbyists and small business owners are involved in Social Media but frustrated with it. They constantly just focus on posting stuff about THEM, their businesses, their products or events, their books, their families, their vacations, their kids, the songs they like, food they like to eat, etc., but they rarely take the time to acknowledge what other people post and share online.

So…here’s my challenge to YOU: If any of this describes how YOU participate in the world of Social Media, make “improve my Social Media etiquette in 2012″ one of YOUR resolutions in the new year! You’ll be pleased with the results and will truly be participating the way the world of Social Media was intended!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

Hi All!

Many of my clients are authors, or aspiring authors, who self publish their books or who have gotten traditional publishing deals. But regardless of how they published, they come to me for help with book marketing. And, as the author of 3 books myself, I can tell you first hand that just because your book is on Amazon (or available elsewhere) it doesn’t matter if no one knows it exists!

That said, I came across an interesting article published by The Wall Street Journal, written by Alexandra Alter, about how one self published author took matters into her own hands and ended up with a best-seller that has now sold over 400,000 copies!

I wanted to share this great story with you because it’s not only inspirational for any of you who are authors or planning to become one, but it also explains HOW she made this happen. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Article: “How I Became a Best-Selling Author”:

This summer, Darcie Chan’s debut novel became an unexpected hit. It  has sold more than 400,000 copies and landed on the best-seller lists  alongside brand-name authors like Michael Connelly, James Patterson and  Kathryn Stockett.

It’s been a success by any measure, save one. Ms. Chan still hasn’t found a publisher.

Five years ago, Ms. Chan’s novel, “The Mill River Recluse,” which  tells the story of a wealthy Vermont widow who bestows her fortune on  town residents who barely knew her, would have languished in a drawer. A dozen publishers and more than 100 literary agents rejected it.

“Nobody was willing to take a chance,” says Ms. Chan, a 37-year-old lawyer who drafts environmental  legislation. “It was too much of a publishing risk.”

This past May, Ms. Chan decided to digitally publish it herself,  hoping to gain a few readers and some feedback. She bought some ads on  Web sites targeting e-book readers, paid for a review from Kirkus  Reviews, and strategically priced her book at 99 cents to encourage  readers to try it. She’s now attracting bids from foreign imprints,  movie studios and audio-book publishers, without selling a single copy  in print.

The story of how Ms. Chan joined the  ranks of best sellers is as much a tale of digital marketing savvy and  strategic pricing as one of artistic triumph. Her breakout signals a  monumental shift in the way books are packaged, priced and sold in the  digital era. Just as music executives have been sidestepped by YouTube  sensations and indie iTunes hits, book publishers are losing ground to  independent authors and watching their powerful status as literary  gatekeepers wither.

Self-publishing has long been derided as a last resort for authors  who lack the talent or savvy to hack it in the publishing business. But  it has gained a patina of legitimacy as a growing number of  self-published authors land on best-seller lists. Last year, 133,036  self-published titles were released, up from 51,237 in 2006, according to Bowker, a company that tracks publishing trends.

To read the rest of this info-packed article and learn more about Ms. Chan’s amazing story, CLICK HERE!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

As small business owners, entrepreneurs or solo-practitioners, it’s critical for you (us!) to be smart with our finances…not only for security now, but for our retirement futures.

Because of my new book on Amazon, Boomers into Business: How Anyone Over 50 Can Turn What They Know into Dough Before and After Retirement, I’ve been sharing a lot of shocking stats lately pertaining to the dire financial situation Boomers are facing.

Here’s one worth repeating: 47.2% of Boomers are at risk of outliving their retirement savings!

Based on shocking facts like that, I was very interested in Jonathan Chevreau’s book, Findependence Day. It’s an interesting twist on a typical financial tips books. Why? Because it’s actually a novel, based on a love story, and throughout the book Jonathan shares financial tips, advice and strategies!

So, if you’re looking for a book to help you get a grip on your finances, but are bored with the standard “dry” financial advice non-fiction books out there, this is a terrific alternative to check out!

But why is Jonathan qualified to provide us with financial advice? Here’s a brief snapshot:

Jonathan Chevreau has been the personal finance columnist for the Financial Post since 1996 and for the National Post since its debut in 1998. Previously, he has authored or co-authored seven non-fiction financial books, including The Wealthy Boomer.

In September 2011, Jonathan was named by the OSC’s Investor Education Fund as one of five “Masters of Money,” where he contributes a weekly blog.

Also, here is a fun interview with Jonathan that will provide you with more info about his book and how he came up with the interesting concept:

Back in 2008, when Findependence Day was originally launched, I conducted an “Interview with Myself” posted on the Wealthy Boomer blog. This is a little trick I learned from British writer Malcolm Muggeridge when he was the writer in residence at Western’s Journalism School in 1978-1979.

I’d planned simply to repost that interview here but couldn’t find it on the web. Then I thought it was probably time for a followup interview anyway. So here goes:

Interviewer Jon [IJ henceforth]. So, Jon, isn’t it a bit late to launch a web site three years after the book was originally published?

Author Jon [AJ henceforth]. Always with the muckraking, aren’t you journalists?

IJ: It seems a logical question.

AJ: There was a web site associated with the then-publisher, Power Publishers, which was also available as part of FinancialPost.com. But it was a static site and not much changed from month to month. This one is much more dynamic and of course you can buy books from it directly via PayPal, which means most major credit cards.

IJ: That’s about the only way you can get it now?

AJ: Almost. It used to be in Chapters, its web site and Amazon.com. You may still be able to get used copies via those sites but not new ones like this site is making available. The other way is a special offer from the Financial Post, which is giving the book to new and lapsed subscribers if they sign up for a certain period of time.

IJ: What happened to Power Publishers?

AJ: They withdrew from book publishing around February of this year. That’s when I bought the remaining inventory.

IJ: How many?

AJ: Enough to make a decent dent in the financial literacy of our children and young adults if they were all sold and distributed across the country. Want to buy a case?

IJ: I was about to ask you the same thing! I notice on the back cover of David Chilton’s The Wealthy Barber Returns that you say it’s the kind of book the Task Force on Financial Literacy should distribute. Did you mean his book specifically, or yours?

AJ: Well, both. I don’t view sales of competing financial books as a zero-sum game. Take a look at the Reviews elsewhere on this site and you’ll see several comparisons to The Wealthy Barber.

IJ: Except his sequel is non-fiction.

AJ: Right, but he really started something with the financial fiction format of the original. It’s been widely imitated.

IJ: Including by you.

AJ: I don’t consider Findependence Day yet another Barber knockoff. I tried to advance the art in a way that’s never really been done before, to my knowledge.

IJ: How so?

AJ: Take a look at Jim Daw’s review flagged in the review section or in the book itself. He talked about the “twig of literature” of the personal finance novel.

IJ: Twig, as opposed to branch?

AJ: Right, that was very witty on Jim’s part and almost went over my head the first time I read it. But his point was that all those Chilton knock0ffs had what he termed “an aggravating sameness” to them. Most were “financial dumps” with a thin storyline and characterization. I agree with Jim: those kind of books are still coming out and I really had no intention of adding to them.

IJ: But you did.

AJ: With a significant new twist. I’d come up with the title and for a year was considering making it non-fiction. But like many journalists, there’s part of me that always wanted to try what I’d call a “real novel.” I’d written a practice novel right to the end and know more or less how it works: protagonists and villains, constant setbacks along the path to an overarching goal, setting, description, all of that. So I tried to weave the financial information into what I call “classic fictional structure.”

IJ: So you’d term Findependence Day

a “real” novel?

AJ: I wouldn’t go that far. It’s a hybrid of a real novel and a financial primer. In effect, it’s a financial love story. There’s conflict between the saver, Jamie, and his spender wife, Sheena. They disagree about having a monster home in the burbs or an affordable one downtown. Sheena wants investment real estate, Jamie wants to build a business. Eventually Sheena serves Jamie with divorce papers and he’s challenged with trying to reconcile these conflicting goals and desperately trying to save their marriage.

IJ: Does he?

AJ: If I told you, I’d have to kill us.

IJ: You feel that financial conflict is a major cause of marital breakups?

AJ: Sadly, yes, as Patricia Lovett Reid writes in the foreword.

IJ: It must have been challenging mixing genres.

AJ: Yes, which is why most traditional publishers avoid it. In fact, David Chilton himself told me he thought my story was “too good” in the sense that it took away from the financial content. But he’s been very supportive, as he generally is with other authors.

IJ: What do you mean by “classic fiction structure?”

AJ: Conflict is what keeps readers reading a regular novel. You have a protagonist, in this case Jamie, who has a long-range goal: his Findependence Day which is 22 years away when the book begins.

IJ: That’s a long time horizon for a novel.

AJ: Yes, which is why one reviewer called it a “Financial Pilgrim’s Progress.” But instead of being weighed down by sin like Bunyan’s character, Christian, Jamie and Sheena are weighed down by debt.

IJ: And you have a bad guy, Al Peters.

AJ: That too is demanded by traditional fiction structure. Because the hero can’t just get what he wants every time a scene opens or the reader would stop reading. So Al frequently thwarts Jamie, especially when they become business partners. When you break down the book, you’ll find maybe 60 sections. In each one, someone has to have a goal and — here’s the key — he or she must FAIL to achieve that mini-goal by the end of the section. Then they have to have a new goal in the next section.

IJ: Give us an example.

AJ: Sure. Early in the book, right after the TV show where the host badgers Sheena into tearing up her credit cards, there’s a scene where Jamie goes down the elevator with the financial advisor he met during the show, Theo. Jamie’s goal in that scene is to convince Theo to help him by becoming their financial advisor. But the fiction format demands that Theo refuse his request, which is what he does. He says “come back in a few years when you’ve eliminated your debt.”

IJ: And so his next goal is to find someone else who will be his advisor while he’s still in debt.

AJ: Right, which is how he comes upon the old hippie in the vinyl record store, which ultimately sets the plot moving in a new direction.

IJ: All this while trying to insert financial tips.

AJ: Yes, which is why the financial bits are always short: the moment I feel the reader may get bored, or myself as the writer, it’s time to move away from the financial instruction and on to the next aspect of the story. The result is that even if you’re already pretty financially literate, you may keep reading. Check the review from financial blogger Michael James, who could probably write all the financial bits himself in his blog. But even he admits the story got him “hooked” after the first third, and then he read the last two thirds all at one sitting some lazy Sunday morning.

IJ: There’s room for a sequel?

AJ: Maybe. I’d thought of following the daughter, Michaela, by doing a “next generation” followup. But I won’t attempt it while I’m still working full time.

IJ: So when you reach your own Findependence Day?

AJ: Precisely.

IJ: Guess that’s all the time and space we have, Jon.

AJ: I know the drill, JC. Always a pleasure.

Jim Palmer: The Newsletter Guru

Hi All!

The following guest blog post is courtesy of Jim Palmer who is internationally known as The Newsletter Guru. Jim is the premier go-to resource for maximizing the profitability of customer relationships.

So without further delay, let’s jump into his informative article, “Reverse the Risk and Explode Profits”:

I have a question for you. Why don’t more of your customers or prospects buy from you? If your answer is “because of price,” you’re probably wrong. I coach a lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners, and when our discussion turns to reasons for not buying, invariably the excuse is price. “My customers don’t say ‘yes’ more often because of price.”

In reality, customers don’t say “yes” more often because of skepticism, or lack of trust or perceived value. It’s what Zig Ziglar emphasizes as one of the five obstacles to a sale: no trust. Lack of trust is probably the biggest obstacle between your company and a sale. It’s rarely price. The reason more of your customers or prospects don’t buy from you is that you haven’t done enough to build your customers’ trust in your products or services.

Why the 30- or 60- or 90-Day Warranty Is Not Enough!

You’ve heard of Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, usually at the worst possible moment. Well, there’s another variation of that, and it goes like this: The product will cease working exactly one day after the warranty expires. Enough of us have had that exact experience that it lends credence to the veracity of the law. We all take those 30- or 60- or 90-day warranties with a grain of salt. It makes us skeptical consumers.

Your customers are no different. They’re wondering, “What if it doesn’t work? What happens when it fails? What if I don’t get the result I was expecting?” They may be on the fence about buying from you. You’ve done a lot to move them to consider buying from you, but they’re thinking, “Yeah, I kind of like it. It sounds like it will solve my problem. I think the price is fair, but what if . . . ?”

Get rid of the “what if,” and you can close the deal. It’s easy to do. Easy? Yup. All you have to do is reverse the risk. Risk reversal means that you, the business owner, assume all the risks associated with purchasing the product (or service), so it’s going to work to your customers’ satisfaction. If they’re on the decision fence and have nothing to lose, they’re going to buy.

Let’s be clear—square one is that you must offer a high-quality product or service. That’s a given. It’s a no-brainer. Some of my coaching clients assure me that they do (and I believe them), and then they go on to tell me about their 30- or 60- or 90-day guarantee. That sort of offer simply makes people skeptical because we’ve all been burned by that warranty version of Murphy’s Law. What happens after 30 days? What happens after 60 or 90 days? When prospects wonder about that, they’re going to be hesitant to buy. You haven’t gotten them over the trust hurdle.

The L.L. Bean Approach:

“Our products are guaranteed to give 100% satisfaction in every way. Return anything purchased from us at any time if it proves otherwise. We do not want you to have anything from L.L. Bean that is not completely satisfactory.”

As the story goes, a woman returned a pair of boots after fifteen years because the sole had worn out. She thought they should have lasted longer. They were replaced, no questions asked. That’s a rocksolid, stand-behind-your-product guarantee.

A super strong guarantee shows that you are supremely confident in your belief that your products and services do what you say they are going to do. It should be paramount in whatever you sell in the first place. So if that’s true, and if you are supremely confident, then give an ironclad guarantee. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain—sales and higher profits. Your ironclad guarantee is just what your customers need to increase their trust and lose their fear of risk. When they have nothing to fear and nothing to lose, they have no reason not to buy.

Your super strong guarantee needs a few things to really make it work. First, it has to have a specific name, and when possible, the name of your guarantee should be associated with the benefit of your product and the degree to which you back it up. Second, it needs a specific logo. A lot of entrepreneurs use a seal in conjunction with their guarantees, and that image resonates with customers. It’s like the Good Housekeeping “Seal of Approval.” That seal, and the guarantee behind it, have been around for more than one hundred years. The Good Housekeeping Research Institute tests products and only offers the seal on those that pass its strict standards. It’s an ironclad, rock-solid guarantee. Consumers know they can rely on the product if it has the seal. They can trust it!

Jim Palmer is internationally known as The Newsletter Guru, the go-to resource for maximizing the profitability of customer relationships. Jim is also the acclaimed author of The Magic of Newsletter Marketing – The Secret to More Profits and Customers for Life and also Stick Like Glue – How to Create an Everlasting Bond with Your Customers So They Stay Longer, Spend More, and Refer More, and The Fastest Way to Higher Profits – 19 Immediate Profit-Enhancing Strategies You Can Use Today. Learn more about Jim and all his programs at: www.NewsletterGuru.TV.

Hi All!

Read these statistics carrefully. They are fightening:

According to this 2010 report, The EBRI Retirement Readiness Rating^TM: Retirement Income Preparation and Future Prospects, by Jack VanDerhei and Craig Copeland of EBRI.org: 47.2% of older Boomers (56-62) are at risk of outliving their retirement savings. And 43.7% of younger Boomers (46-55) are at risk of not having enough money for basic monthly expenses when they retire.

These sobering statistics have millions of Boomers currently wondering, “What can I do to generate income, full-time or part-time, that is flexible, interesting, fun, possible to start on a tight budget, and do way into my golden years?”

I wrote my newest book, “Boomers into Business: How Anyone Over 50 Can Turn What They Know into Dough Before and After Retirement”, to answer those questions. I explain how to take what you know, from your career experience or hobbies, to develop a “topic expert” platform that can lead to consulting others, conducting training seminars online and offline, developing many strategies for on-going passive income, and much more.

And it doesn’t matter whether you’ve been an employee your whole career or whether you are currently self-employed. Nor do a person’s education level, career background, or business experience matter. The book was written to take a lot of guesswork out of the process.

Basically, most everyone knows something, from their career background, life experiences or from a hobby that other people will pay to learn about. Whether you’ve been an HR professional your whole career, or a construction worker, homemaker, lawyer, Life Coach,  housepainter, or a lover of growing roses, my book teaches Boomers how to monetize what they know to create a good income, in a wide variety of ways, as a topic expert.

And the book not only teaches how to determine a topic focus and how to create a unique brand platform, but it also outlines the tools needed to launch. Plus, I asked 15 other business experts to provide chapters on PR, marketing, and social media strategies, plus many more business-building and revenue generating ideas.

The reviews on Amazon have been great so far, and here are 2 examples of how my new book is helping those who read it:

“I’m now 50, a single mom with a teenage son, and I’ve worked at Title Insurance companies for over 20 years. I currently don’t have enough money to retire comfortably in my 60’s and have been trying to figure out what I can do make money on-the-side of my day job,” says Kathy F. in San Jose, CA. “ ‘Boomers into Business’ was a godsend! It opened my mind to possibilities I had never thought of before and I’m now developing ideas for an expert platform and consulting business that will provide me with the additional income I need to be more comfortable now and later in my life.”

“This book was so helpful, easy to follow and really fun to read! It’s loaded with
ideas that I can refer to again and again,” shares Marilyn F., a 62-year old Boomer in Santa Cruz, CA. “I’m already self-employed but learned how I can expand my services to be much better off financially. Plus, I learned tons of new marketing strategies that are really effective. I highly recommend this book to any Boomers wanting to improve their financial futures or who are seeking ways to change their career path.”

So, if you can relate to anything you’ve read in the blog post, check out my book on Amazon. It’s available in both Print and Kindle versions, and for a small investment it could bring you a serious return that can help your retirement picture!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa