1) Converting those who visit your website or interact with you somewhere else on the web to taking action with you

2) Enabling yourself to be not just “found” or “stumbled upon” but ever present

3) Maximizing your sales potential by either making or creating something to sell on your own or promoting someone else’s product.

Stay tuned for Thursday’s launch, which will be ONLY between the hours of 10am and 3pm. Sign-up for the Tuesday Triplet where we’re describing the product launch process one step at a time while we’re actually doing it.

I chose the words in a design format that I wanted my designer to use when she created my business cards. So, sure, I took things to a little higher level by first creating my design and then sending it to my designer. But, you don’t have to. There are a number of free business card creation tools on the web. Just search Google for “free online business card maker” and you’ll find a bunch of them. Or, just drop your text into an MS Word template.

The important thing to know about this card is that every time I go to a networking event or conference, 5 of 10 I give this card to will visit that domain name 101TrafficMethods.com and sign-up for my free whitepaper. The actual design doesn’t matter nearly as much as the offer I give to people.

So, let’s take a look at this more closely.  This business card has 5 important elements:

1. Create an Offer that Appeals to a Wide Audience – Almost everyone in my industry cares more about getting traffic to their website above all things business. And, most people think the only way to get traffic is to be #1 on Google.  So, it’s a pretty easy slam dunk that if I was to create an offer that would help someone to get more traffic to their website, that I’d have a winner on my hands. Think about your industry. What “topic” in your industry is so important that it appeals to practically everyone in your target market?

2. Make a Sexy Headline that Asks a Question – People love to answer questions in their minds. Start your headline with “Want to Know the Hottest…” and fill in the blank ending with a question mark.

3. Encourage a Visit to Your Website – I registered a domain name to take the reader directly to a specific page on the HereNextYear website where they can sign-up to get the ecourse and whitepaper for 101 traffic methods. This just makes the process faster than if I was to suggest the visitor visits HereNextYear.com, then look on the left column for 101 Traffic Methods and click the link and then sign-up. Ug! Too much work. A good business card design also factors in speed for the card reader to get to your offer.

4. Urgency – “Go there now because you may be eligible…” is a great way to suggest urgency in your offer because it might go away soon.

5. Name and a Benefit – You really have to be specific as to the main benefit of why the person you gave the card to should go get your offer. It should be obvious why anyone would want more traffic to a website, but I really spelled it out by saying “time proven tips to double your traffic-building productivity.”

Put all these things together and you really will be able to design your own business card. But, you will also have a business card that actually pays for itself. So many people will tell you that business cards are wastes of money and they all get thrown into the garbage can. That’s true for most business cards. But not this one. My business card is a proven tool for building my list and has staying power.

Go ahead and copy it. I did. This technique is not a “Marty special.” I got it from Alex Mandossian years ago and copied his format. So you are welcome to copy mine. Just don’t get the idea of stealing my 101 doc and using it as your own, that’s just not cool.

Come up with your own resource from your own brain and offer it to the world. That’s what will show your originality and knowledge of your business. Remember that design of your business card is not the most important thing. It’s the words and the offer that you put onto it that matters.

The post says the recall is in 23 states and 19 people have already been impacted by E. coli. Can you even imagine the dollars lost in all the lettuce that has to be thrown out now? Lettuce is almost (not quite but almost) as popular as potatoes in usage. Lettuce is everywhere!

There’s nothing funny at all about the lettuce recall and for me being someone that east salad daily for lunch I have to wonder if I should settle for a burger today. But, I do find it somewhat curious why Amazon came to mind immediately when I heard about the 2010 lettuce recall.

I guess maybe I feel kind of “recalled” when Amazon decided to stop paying its Colorado associates because of the new tax law that hit Colorado a few months ago. Overnight, I had to sort of recall about 30 websites where I was promoting Amazon product and I can assure you I lost money with their overnight decision to recall their associates program for our state.

The difference that came to mind is that after the recall of lettuce is cleaned up, there will be lettuce again. In my eyes, Amazon has lost me completely as a customer and recommender and I have found other sources for products I promote online.

The other difference is that surely you will hear about some sort of recourse taken by businesses impacted by the lettuce incident. They’ll find the source of the problem and take them out financially.

But, nothing will happen to Amazon. They’ll just keep selling their products state by state until they can take out all their former associates that help them build up. Sure wish we could put a recall in on all those people we sent their way.

How has the Amazon decision effected your Internet marketing process? Or how has the lettuce recall effected your business or lunch plans today?

Before deciding to call it a night, you can’t resist checking your e-mail one last time to see how many orders have come in over the last few hours.

When you click on your e-mail “Inbox” link, you’re met with a long pause….

The message, “Can’t Connect to Server” finally appears.

A slight tingling begins in your fingers. You wonder how many important e-mails have been lost. You then wonder if the problem is with your connection, the e-mail server, or worse yet, your web site.

Sure enough. The web site is down.

You call your web site hosting company. The voice mail message tells you that office hours will begin Monday morning. As suggested on the voice message, you submit an emergency support request by e-mail.

Suddenly, a feeling of complete helplessness comes over you. Suddenly, you realize that you are no longer in control of your own website.

This situation happens to many people around the world each week and always at the worst possible time such as a Friday night or right after a big promotion hits the streets.

One of my most eye-opening experiences to this was back in 1996. I discovered two weeks later that my hosting company was acquired by a larger, national ISP. Upon changing servers, they had mistakenly wiped out my account.

There I was completely dead in the water for 14 days. I had no one to call and no one to send an e-mail to (e-mail support wasn’t even popular then). The only action I could take was to wait.

I had always wondered what the most important component was about a website. Was it the graphic appeal? The functionality? The copywriting? The search engine rankings? No!

I learned that day that the most critical element of a website is accessibility. If your website can’t be viewed by people, it’s useless. If your web server is down, your business doesn’t exist in peoples’ eyes. If people can’t see your products to order them, they won’t. If they’re visiting you for the first time and can’t, they won’t come back. If your web site goes down, time is critical.

It took another two years of trial and error with various web hosting companies; but I finally figured out the secrets to choosing a web hosting company so that problems can be minimized if not avoided all together. Here are my findings and I hope they help you to choose a web site host wisely, the first time around:

Step 1 – Understand that cheapest is not always best
Hosting prices can range from being free to several thousands of dollars a month. Unless you have huge files, unusually high visitation or require database connectivity (such as PHP with MySQL), there are few reasons that would justify your need to pay more than $20 a month for hosting of your web site.

However, there are definitely reasons why you should not try to scrape the bottom of the pricing barrel either. The remaining steps are usually where the cheaper alternatives cut their corners and how to make sure you’re getting the most for your money.

Step 2 – Make sure YOU own your domain name
Some hosting companies will offer a “Free Domain Name” of your choosing if you sign-up with their hosting plan. If you want to pursue hosting with such a company, be very clear about exactly who owns the domain name once it’s registered. More specifically, ask them exactly who is listed as the Registrant. If it’s not you, you will not be the owner of the domain name. This could cause big problems in the event that you ever need to change hosting companies. My suggestion is always to register your domain name first at BestDomainPlace.com (my personal pick these days), and then select a web site hosting company.

Step 3 – Make sure the hosting company offers *AT LEAST* phone support or live chat
Many people who conduct business on the web love to make contact with their clients by e-mail. This is because responses to problems can be made at leisure. In the event that you have real trouble with your web site, you will want help immediately…not at someone’s leisure! Sending e-mails and waiting for support tickets to be responded to can sometimes take a week or more before the problem is solved. If getting problems solved quickly is important to you, demand a web site host that offers support by phone or at least live chat with a support tech.

Step 4 – Choose Linux/Unix hosting
As popular as the alternative might be, I’ve found that web sites with the highest percentage of up-time and lowest probability of being hacked are hosted on Linux/Unix. The operating system just seems to be more stable, pages deliver more quickly to the browser, and web-based functionality processes more smoothly in this environment.

Step 5 – Be sure you can update your site day or night
Whether you design or maintain your own web site or pay someone else to do it for you, it is critical that additions and changes can be made whenever they need to be made. Basic site changes are commonly made through some sort of software program like Dreamweaver, Contribute or FrontPage. Be sure that access to your site files will not be denied on weekends or after business hours.

Step 6 – Know what features you need and why you need them
When you talk to a web site hosting company (and PLEASE talk to them rather than just conversing by e-mail!), they’re going to (or should) ask several questions about your intentions so that they help you choose the right hosting plan for your situation.

Will you be managing a forum or a searchable database within your site? Or, will your site be simple with just 4 or 5 pages of information for visitors? How many e-mail accounts will you need? Do you have any additional domain names that you’d like to point to this site? Will you require a shopping cart with online transactions?

Have a solid plan for your site before you buy-in to a web site hosting plan.

Step 7 – Be sure you are provided with detailed visitation statistics
It is so simple for a web hosting company to offer detailed statistics these days and knowing where your visitors are coming from is so important.

Many web hosting companies do not offer any type of visitation statistics. Some tell you they do, but they’re so limited or indecipherable that they’re really of no help. Others offer statistics for a small monthly fee.

Occasionally, you’ll find someone (like one of my web site hosts) that provides detailed and graphical statistics down to the page level–for no additional charge. Here is just a basic list of what you should be able to track from your web site visitation statistics utility:

- Number of unique visitors per month
- Did they type in your domain name or enter a key word in a search engine?
- What keyword(s) did they use to find you?
- What search engines are people finding your site listed on?
- What page are they entering and leaving your site?
- Is there a day or time of day that most people visit your site?

Step 8 – Know if there are any e-mail limitations or violations
When you host a web site that includes use of a company domain name, it’s important to have your e-mail address associated with that domain name. If you have a hotmail account listed on your web site, it’s just not as professional. If your web site address is www.yourcompany.com, then your personal e-mail address should be yourname@yourcompany.com.

For this reason, most hosting companies will include a certain number of e-mail accounts that will include your domain name so that you can have some more generic accounts such as info@yourcompany.com, questions@yourcompany.com and sales@yourcompany.com for example. What you name them should be up to you.

There are two important priorities with company e-mail accounts: 1) You should be able to access your e-mail from any computer and ALSO have the ability to pull those e-mails to your computer using Outlook Express or Firefox or whichever web browser you’re currently using, and 2) There should be no limitation (within reason) to the size of an attachment that you can send or receive.

Step 9 – Make sure they’re not on the “bad list”
Most web site hosting companies will not take the time to give you references. Even if they do, the references are usually hand-picked so you’re likely to not get a good representative sample of clients hosted by a particular company. But, a web site hosting company really has to tick someone off to get listed on a bad list. So, before you choose a host, check a few complaint sites and see if they’re listed. Here are a few that I use most commonly:

- The Complaint Station
- PlanetFeedback.com

Step 10 – Listen to referrals made by others
I’ve used web hosting companies from the U.S. to Australia and I can assure you that the best host I’ve ever used is “our own” web hosting servers. That’s right, HereNextYear has offered website hosting and email hosting since 2007.

My recommendation to you is this. If your web site has complexities of any kind, host your website with a local company where you can walk in the door to talk to the owner if you need to.

Meet everyone you can on the support staff so that the next time you call or e-mail with a question or problem, you’re not just another complaining customer.

Your website host must be responsive to you. If your website has a problem, it’s your business and your reputation that is at stake and they must genuinely care with you about your success or it’s just a matter of time before a damaging problem results.

In Summary…
To use the Internet to its fullest potential for your business begins with finding a web site host that will partner with you in your venture. You want a company that will be committed to your success and will not just see you as another account taking up space on a server.

Most importantly, you don’t want to have to worry whether your web site will be “up” for people to see and use from day to day. You should be spending your time building your business.

1. Update the copyright date on every page of your website and blog.Few things will be as quick to tell your website visitors that your content is outdated than having a copyright date from a previous year.




2. Proofread content you haven’t looked at in a while. A prospect was reviewing my site when she pointed out that I had a sentence half-written on one of my pages. How embarrassing. Proofread and then proofread again and then have someone else proofread.




3. Run your pages through a spell checker. Many HTML editor programs have this built-in or use this free web-based spell checker. Even if a bunch of people proofread for you, spelling errors will get through.




4. Run your pages through a link-checker. This will assure that all of your pages are linked together. Search engines hate when pages have broken links. Here’s a free link checker for you to try:
   free web-based link checker tool.




5. Look at your website as if you were a first-time visitor.Does your website look real? Does it look like there is a real company and a real person behind it? Does the logo and tag line mesh with the content on your pages?




6. Test anything that has a function.Send a test through your contact form. Buy something through your own shopping cart. Sign-up for your own newsletter. You would be amazed how many programmers do not test their work after they’ve performed setup functions. Always test all functional aspects of your website and use multiple browsers and multiple versions of those browsers to make sure everyone will be able to use those features.




7. Check to see how many inbound links (also called backlinks) you have.These are listings on other websites pointing to yours and is one of the most critical elements of gaining top search engine positioning. Hopefully you have more inbound links than this time last year. Document your progress so that you can measure throughout the year. Sites that offer free web-based inbound link checkers seem to disappear quickly these days. So, I can’t give any specific recommendation. Just search Google for “free backlink checker” and you’ll find something I’m sure. We installed our own into our membership area so
   Level 2 HereNextYear members have use of this search tool as part of their paid membership.




8. Review every page of your website for quality page titles and headlines.Each page title of your website should focus on a specific keyword phrase. If you don’t know where the page title is found or what to do with it, or went cross-eyed when I brought up #7 above, order my Google SEO book called Getting Brutal With Google book immediately!




9. Enable or verify statistics tracking.Install Google Analytics tracking code on every page of your website so that you can monitor your visitors activity throughout your site. What pages are people landing on to enter your website? What keyword phrases are they using to get there? What search engines are those visitors coming from? What is the last page they look at before exiting your website? These are all questions you should be able to answer before spending a dime on promotion. And, you need to monitor those same stats throughout the promotional process.




10. Make sure every page of your website gets people to take some kind of action.Maybe you want people to buy something right then. Maybe you want them to sign-up for your newsletter. Maybe you want them to call you on the phone or send an email with more questions. Maybe you want them to visit another page of your website for more details before they call you. Whatever the case, this is the single most important thing you can do this week to assure your website is setup for your upcoming promotion. Tell your website visitors exactly what you want them to do next.

These are all basics to follow before you even engage an Internet marketing company to perform promotional services for you. By performing this checklist on your own, you will save time and money upfront that the service provider would have to do before the promotion process could begin.

Every day, thousands of starving entrepreneurs fork over their $4500+ payments to capture the precious few 15-minute time blocks offered by Internet marketing coaches. Then, they wonder why their Internet marketing coaching doesn’t work.

On the other hand, I have not ever met someone that made any real headway on the web without some type of guidance.

We all have our mentors. We all have those people who taught us how to market and sell online. We all have had projects that bring images of a toilet flushing into our minds. Eventually, if we stick with it, a few things work too.

When you hire a consultant or coach to help with your Internet project, you need to have a realistic mindset. No success will be achieved without time and effort.

People who tell you otherwise should be avoided at all costs. Or, it will cost you!

In this article, I’d like to feature a unique set of questions for you to ask when you’re looking for an Internet marketing company to help with your next project. These questions are not your typical “ask for references” types of questions but a practical, real-world list that will help you smell a thief as well as recognize a true expert that can make a difference.

Please note that before you launch any promotional program for your website that you should make sure your website is ready to be promoted! Here is a simple and easy-to-implement web site checklist for you to use.

The first set of questions can give you a good idea within 30 seconds if the service provider is a potential fit for your project:

1) Would you implement the project or would I do the work myself?
This is the most important question you will need to have answered up-front. There is no right or wrong answer here. It just weeds out the consultants who are not inline with your intention. Do YOU want to do the work or are you looking for someone to just make the project happen?

Coaches and consultants typically will not do the work for you unless you pay for “implementation” services. In my ten years as someone who consults, coaches, and implements, I can tell you that implementation services take many more hours out of my day and clients expect to pay premium dollar for that dedication of time.

2) What are you really good at?
Most people, if they’re lucky, are really really good at only one or two aspects of marketing on the Internet. This question will really catch them off guard in most cases and it will be a good insight for you as to their honesty. Look out for the person that claims they’re highly skilled at every aspect of conducting business online.

3) What do you really like to do on the Internet?
The last thing you want to do is hire a starving consultant that doesn’t enjoy working in an area of Internet marketing that you will need for your project. When service people are hungry, they’ll take any job. Then, they realize how much they hate what they’re doing and your project takes forever to get completed if it ever actually does get completed.

Writing content pages, for example, is a highly successful way to get more website traffic these days. But, it’s a time-consuming process. Ask your promoter if they will be implementing this strategy for you or just assisting you with the process.

The second section includes questions you should ask of yourself:

4) Do we think alike?
Never hire a consultant or implementation service provider that has a different business philosophy than you do. If you want to be involved with the planning of the project, don’t choose a marketer that doesn’t want you around. Conversely, don’t hire someone to write copy for you if you’re just going to edit and change every word–and expect the same result.

5) Is this a person I would enjoy working with long-term?
Who wants to work with a grump? Energetic, fun-loving, happy people are much more inspiring to work with. Try to find out how the consultant spends their free time.

For example, when a prospective client calls me for a free evaluation consult, I’m quick to use examples that include my family because most people like to work with family-oriented people. And, I’m always in a good mood when I start talking about my 7-year-old olympic hopeful ski buddy.  Prospects see that enjoyment of life in my and people like to be around people that enjoy life.

6) Is this person interested in my project?
I don’t accept every project that comes along. I’m very selective. If you were to call me about my services, I would be evaluating whether or not HereNextYear is a good fit for you just as you would be checking me out too.

The first thing I look for in a project is whether it has potential. Then, I consider the person I’ll be working with. Next in line is whether I will enjoy the time I spend on the project.

Make sure your coach, consultant or implementation company is truly interested and excited about your project before you cut the check. You’ll get far better results from their service.

Four more questions to ask that can greatly help you to evaluate the potential success of your project and working together include:

7) What are your success stories?
Everyone in the Internet marketing business should have success stories. Otherwise, they’d better not be trying to create a success story for you! I’m not big on asking for references as they are typically hand-picked and given incentive to give favorable testimonials. But, if you ask for some general success stories, you’re probably going to get the

Have you helped someone in my industry before or something close to it?
This is sort of a trick question. The consultant may attempt to sidestep the answer if he has not performed services for your industry. So, it’s a good test to see if the person is honest by asking.

Yes or no is not as important as you might think it is. There are literally thousands of Internet strategies out there. And, many of them can be applied no matter what industry you’re in. A good Internet marketer needs to be capable of learning your industry quickly and adapting those strategies to your project. That’s the skill you’re looking for with this question.

9) What’s your payback goal and how do you measure those results?
All of my consulting and mentoring, and Internet strategy implementation services are paid for in advance. So, my clients are looking for a quick return on their investment. My personal goal is to, at minimu, get their money back to them in new sales within three months. Whatever I recommend as a solution or project scope carries with it a payback goal of three months . . . or less of course.

This progress needs to be tracked carefully and your service provider should have a mechanism in place to keep close tabs on progress. If a consultant does not have a payback goal in mind, be weary of their excitement for your project.

10) What is your process for doing business?
An established Internet marketing service provider has dealt with many different projects before. There should be a standard procedure in place for beginning a project. Do you meet in-person? Do you send a payment? Is research performed first?

I use what I call a “Web site pre-flight,” which is a document the new client completes for me. The client has to put in some time to complete the preflight but it assures both of us that we’re, well, on the same page for what needs to be accomplished with the project.

If someone does not have a clear process in performing a project, they probably don’t have much experience either.

11) How involved will you be with my project?

We’re in the Glory Days of what I call the epidemic of “Coaching Farms” where one person convinces you to pay big-bucks for high-end services (picture the image of a Budweiser horse–strong, powerful, reliable workhorse). But, then the person that is assigned to your account is an underpaid hourly project donkey.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for “helpers” on projects. I use assistants and specialists to help me with various components of projects all the time. This allows me to be most helpful in the areas that I’m really good at and let those more productive and effective in other areas to do their stuff.

Coaching farms, however, seem to thrive on project quantity rather than getting true results. They prey on the fact that most people don’t make it through their 4th coaching session because the coach assigns too much homework without clear directions as to how to perform the task.

Convesely, if you hire an implementation service provider who is the only person on the team, you run the risk of that person being inexperienced in certain areas and overwhelmed by taking on only two or three projects.

Strive for that perfect mix when you choose your service provider. You want the expert involved in the project calling the shots. But, you also want that person to have helpers to get the job done quickly and thoroughly.

In Summary

Hiring an Internet marketing professional to help with your project can put you on one of the fastest highways to success or lead you to a dismal dead-end drain on your financial and mental resources.

Avoid the temptation to choose the first service provider that comes along and above all go with someone you will enjoy working with. Launching a successful project on the Internet is a journey that requires patience and direction. Enjoy every moment in the process.

HereNextYear recognizes that not everyone has high-end consulting and coaching budgets. So, we’ve assembled multiple levels of ways we can help you with your project. From low-cost Internet marketing books to implementation help and ongoing mentoring.

Include HereNextYear in your mix as you consider a service provider to help you get the results you’re looking for. After all, we’ve been “Taking Web Sites to New Heights” for more than 13 years now. And, we’d love to help you with the process too.

1. Determine where your website “is,” meaning, number of sales, visitation rates, search engine positioning, links, design, usability, and a list of other checkup items. The first step is kind of like getting a physical at the doctor’s office. You don’t really try to fix anything but more find out what kind of hand we’ve been dealt.
2. Identify the areas that need to have the bleeding stopped. I like to look at exit pages, for example, and find the top 5 or 10 pages where visitors are leaving. Sometimes, a bleeding wound needs a bit more attention than just a few word changes. Web design is a good example. So, we might recommend an immediate re-design of the site to stop major loss of visitation.
3. Next is what we call Phase I where the core problem areas are enhanced.
4. The next logical step is to begin traffic building to see if the changes we’ve made or suggested have made any difference in leads or sales.
5. When new business pays for itself and the work we’ve done so far, Phase II begins, which is a more long-term 1-2 year plan of continued traffic building, copy testing, building out the site, and monitoring sales.

It’s a pretty simple process really. Of course, there’s a ton of work that goes into each of those five steps. But, when you have a pattern to follow, the day-to-day tasks become much simpler.

So, that’s the Here Next Year method. If you would like to chat about how Here Next Year can help you through this process, please contact me immediately for a free consult by calling 303-743-0832 or completing our contact form.

Today I need to deviate from that and tell you what someone else did to get herself on CNN.

First, click this link or copy and paste this link to your browser: http://tinyurl.com/na7adu to see the video that was shown on CNN last Wednesday morning, made by someone who identifies herself only as Adriana.

Here are three reasons why I believe she got featured:

1) Her Video is About a HOT and STEAMY SEXY Topic: Health Care Reform – She “attended” a town meeting where the health care plan was discussed. CNN is looking for town meeting attendees right now to hear their “real people” opinions.

2) She Looks Like a “Regular” Person – I don’t mean that as an insult. It’s just what CNN is looking for right now; people who represent the people. Adriana is articulate, but not a polished and rehearsed professional speaker. She could be a professional speaker for all we know, but she just doesn’t come off as being one on the video. But, she’s certainly good enough with words to the point where CNN thought she wouldn’t fall to pieces on national television. So, the producers are getting ahold of her as I write this to invite her LIVE on CNN.

3) Her Video is Self-Produced and Casual – This video is NOT made in a studio or with professional grade equipment. She probably didn’t even have someone recording the video for her. It’s unedited, has no music intro or outro, no fancy graphics. It’s just plain conversation. And, that’s what CNN is looking for too right now…common conversations on video.

So, you have an interesting opportunity right now. You too could plop yourself down in front of a video camera and start speaking your mind. When you do, create an account at IReport.com and submit your 5-minute-or-less video. Who knows, you might find yourself getting a phone call from CNN!

I plan to do just that over the coming month and will be applying the health care debates to how they will impact my business. Just about any product or service you offer will be impacted by the health care bill positively or negatively. Share what you know and let’s all get on CNN!