However, building backlinks can be a time-consuming, boring process. You can outsource the process to an agency and pay a lot of money OR you can do it yourself with SocialMonkee! SocialMonkee is an instant backlink builder allowing you to build 25 unique backlinks, every day, FREE! All links are on unique C-Class IP addresses and domains. Imagine being able to create 25 unique backlinks every day, with the click of a button, FREE! Well, you can stop imagining…

So, 25 unique backlinks every day… That’s a total of 175 backlinks every week, 750 every month. If you upgrade, you will be able to build 100 unique backlinks, 3 times a day! That’s a total of 2,100 backlinks every week, 9,000 every month! The good news is… you can get a Premium Account, FREE! All you need to do is to refer 12 members, and your account will automatically be upgraded. If you’re not really into referral marketing, you may upgrade right now for a low one-time fee.

Submitting a page to SocialMonkee via the members area takes under two minutes, but there’s an even faster way! They created a Firefox plugin that allows you to submit your page to up to 100 sites in just a few clicks, using nothing else than Firefox! If you have a Premium Account you will also get access to link reports and RSS feeds, which are great to keep track of your backlinks and get them indexed fast. Submitting your RSS feeds to RSS submitters is actually a very important step in link building.

Your turn…

So what are you waiting for? Join SocialMonkee now while it’s still free!

Also, let me know what other backlinking solutions you’ve found useful.

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Well, there are several reasons people use URL shorteners including prettying up links, fixing links, and link tracking.

In addition, the introduction of micro-blogging sites, like Twitter, created the demand for URL shorteners because, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, URLs take up a lot of space and we only have 140 characters!

The most popular choices I see most often include bit.ly, owl.ly, ht.ly, budurl, and tinyurl (my old favorite when I first learned about URL shorteners years ago!).

But because I see the use of Hootsuite’s URL shortener – ht.ly – increasing, I want to warn people that ht.ly isn’t your friend!

Hy.ly doesn’t pass you any link juice (meaning it does not do a 301 permanent redirect to your website) and we’re in this game for link juice, right? Right!

Here’s a brief video showing you the results of using a ht.ly link.

So What Should I Use?

Bit.ly is my favorite shortener! Firstly, it isn’t dependent on a tool or other service. It’s a standalone service and has great tracking flexibility that reveals related link traffic, conversations, and history. It has an easy to use dashboard where you can quickly view analytics. Finally, it has a browser extension or sidebar bookmarklet that makes it easy to shorten URLs on any webpage!

Your turn…

What is your favorite URL shortener and why? Don’t forget to share and provide your feedback in the comments!

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Ever wonder why it feels you’re spinning your wheels? Not moving as fast as you wanted? Not where you want to be in your business by now?

Well, never fear because I will show you the 5 fatal mistakes service professionals make so you won’t have to (or stop making them if you’ve already fell into the trap)!

I like stats so let me show you a few…

In an interview of approximately 1,400 self employed professionals in a nationwide survey to discover the characteristics of the top earners, here’s what was  found:*

• 73% of all self employed professionals earn less than $10,000 their first year
• Only 11% of them make more than $50,000 by their 2nd year
• Less than 60% have 10 paying clients
• And only 9% ultimately earn more than $100,000 a year

*Survey conducted by Suzanne Falter-Barns and team; actual date unknown

Wow, I think this is pretty indicative of business in general – not many make it to the top. I know most people are hoping to not end up a statistic. Well, I’m here to tell you that hoping is the last thing you should be doing. : – )

Mistake 1. Not Properly Identifying Your Ideal Client

Not until I clearly identified who made up my target market was I able to speed up my client acquisition process and gain momentum in my business. First of all, I’m a firm believer that visualization techniques, regardless of industry or occasion used, works wonders. I have vision boards in my office and electronic photos reminding me of my (current and impending) success : – )

There is beaucoup information today about visualization techniques so just do a Google search if you are unfamiliar with what I mean.

Exercise: Close your eyes for 10 seconds and quickly visualize your perfect, ideal client. Go! ……………………………………………………………….

Did you see him/her? Is he smiling and ready to work with you, money in hand (or ready to click submit on your PayPal button)? If you cannot see who your ideal client is in a matter of a few seconds, EVERY other effort and step you take in your business is for naught. You will just be spinning your wheels going nowhere. At Six Flags theme parks, maybe the spinning rides are fun rides, but not for your business! LOL

Mistake 2. Not Having a Marketing Plan or System in Place

So now you have your ideal client permeating throughout your brain.  How do you get them? Where do they hang out? How will you fill that funnel of prospecting?

I know, I know. Sometimes it can be a bit confusing about which marketing tactics are the most effective.  My advice is find a marketing system that resonates with you and just do it. Your system should be comprised of that set of consistent actions that will keep you motivated and moving forward daily. If you find your system isn’t working for you anymore, guess what? Change it! Seek advice from others and revise the system. Be sure to give proper testing before changing it though. You don’t want to do one thing this week and do something completely different the next and back and forth. Consistency is key here.

Find your rhythm and stick with it for at least 3 months (or whatever works best for you and your industry) before revising your strategy. Even then, maybe you only need to tweak one thing which could cause a spiral upward momentum.

Mistake 3. Not Having a Follow Up Strategy

Have you heard these overused yet clearly correct statements before?

• The fortune is in the follow up
• People do business with people they KNOW, LIKE, and TRUST!

I’ve found that so many small businesses do not have a follow up strategy and don’t really understand how to create the “know, like, and trust” feeling with their clients and prospects.

Here are some more stats for you (I told you I like stats!)

• 48% of service professionals give up after the first contact*
• 25% give up after the second contact*
• 12% give up after the third contact*
• 5% give up after the fourth contact*
• Meaning that 9 out of 10 people are never followed up with more 4 times
• Statistics also show that it takes an average of 7 contacts to make a sale or attract a new client

*Survey conducted by Suzanne Falter-Barns and team; actual date unknown

So, what’s the Solution? It’s about creating a system for follow up which will be used with every new client, prospect, or referral source. Fortunately, these days there are automated systems that can help you connect frequently and consistently with your prospects.

For instance, for newsletter and email management, I use Aweber (there are many on the market) and schedule automated messages that your prospects will receive over a period of time. Each new prospect that comes into your system starts at message number 1. So until they opt out, everybody will get the same messages (can you say consistency!).

Of course, the longer they stay in the pipeline, the more they will most likely know, like, and trust you and ultimately become a client!

Mistake 4. Spending Too Much Money Acquiring New Business

We all know it can get very expensive to acquire a new clients. Yes, you will spend money marketing your business and even need to have a budget so you can do so effectively. However, I’ve run my website design business on at least 80% referrals (maybe even as high as 90% if I cared to look back at my numbers to verify) since I started back in 2005, no kidding! I don’t spend much money at all on marketing. I’m too busy with the referral business. That’s a place I love to be in! The more referrals you get, the less resources spent on acquiring new clients. That’s my motto!

I also created a referral program, XD 5 Star Referral Program, as a further incentive to obtain referrals from friends and clients alike.

Check out one of the best books I’ve ever read on referral marketing – The Referral Engine by John Jantsch. You can pretty much get it anywhere. It has soooo many techniques and strategies on obtaining referrals. Just one tip from this book will (yes, I said will) substantially increase your referral base. That’s how confident I am with the principles John has provided : – )

Set the expectation up front by letting clients know that if you provide  excellent service, you expect referrals. I haven’t had a problem to date with this method.

Mistake 5. Not Soliciting Testimonials

Can you say social proof?!! Testimonials, reviews, and positive statements about you are one of the fastest ways to gain new business. Think about it. Do you look for testimonials or reviews when seeking a service professional (plumber, local mechanic, web designer, consultant, etc.)? Customer reviews are essential for any brand doing business these days.

You can even have testimonials on Facebook and LinkedIn, not just your website. Having multiple options available where people can leave you feedback is a huge advantage of social media.

Don’t wait too late to ask for testimonials either. Like referrals, express the expectation up front. If you have really provided a satisfactory experience, they usually won’t have a problem providing.

Okay, your turn…

What service professional lessons have you learned along the way? Share your tips and advice in the comments. Please share!

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Zig Ziglar said it best:

“You will get everything in life that you want if you just help enough other people get what they want.”

That’s it! This is one of those killer best practice marketing strategies that if done genuinely and often enough, can reap you mountainous results.

Okay, so let me get the obvious out of the way: before anybody will promote you, you must have quality products, services, and ultimately have a winning, positive attitude about yourself and what you do.

No one wants to promote crappy products or negative, close-minded, conceited, know-it-alls.

Common sense, right? Well, common sense isn’t evenly distributed so sometimes I have to clarify

Now that we have that disclaimer out of the way, let me give you a few excellent examples.

Online:

• Heather Stephens, creator of Clever Marketer, implemented a blog commenting tribe, which is a great community of bloggers in which you have to comment on other’s posts FIRST before being able to promote your own.
• Dani McGrath encourages people to network with others and promote themselves on her website.
• Both Dani McGrath and Kim Castleberry have implemented #FanPageFriday on Facebook where you first promote another business then promote yourself.
• Faydra Deon, a Washington DC Social Media Examiner on Examiner.com, highlights bloggers on her website. Note: in order to be highlighted in her DC column though, you must be a resident of DC. Otherwise, she’ll promote you on her blogs (yes, she has multiple)!
• Cheryl & Leanne, creators of WAHM Solution, highlight mom entrepreneurs every Monday. What’s more impressive is they started the year off with a bang and featured 31 successful mom entrepreneurs in January alone!
• Ana over at Traffic Generation Cafe invites people to promote themselves on her blog and get link juice back to their websites.
• Likewise, I will be starting a “Get Promoted” interview series soon to highlight small businesses as well so stay tuned for that! If you’d like to be one of my guests, contact me!

Offline:

• A business partner of mine collects business cards and displays them in his office. Therefore, when someone says they need a service or product, he can point them to his contact list on his wall. (He also knows these people personally so can put in a good word – further promoting them!)
• People who do joint ventures have formed strategic alliances and cross-promote each other.
• Arrange a meeting with a key contact when a source tells you there is someone they’d like to get to know or do business with.
• There are lots of award and recognition opportunities around today. Can you nominate someone who is deserving of said award? Sure, you can!
• I invited a friend of mine to attend a local event as I thought it would be a good place for her to promote herself. Guess what? Later on, she introduced me to one of her contacts who needed web design services.

And the list of ideas goes on…

Image Source

Your turn…

Can you think of ways you can promote others? I’m sure you can! Please share how you’ll do so in the comments below and “promote” to your network! ; – )

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So what is a trackback? Susan, from 5MinutesforMom.com said it best, “A Trackback is like a remote comment.”

Well, lo and behold, I’ve learned trackbacks can be extremely useful in a number of ways.

1. For one, trackbacks can extend a conversation from one blog to another. If, for instance, on somebody else’s blog there is a great post with stimulating conversation and you think your followers would benefit from learning and chiming in, you essentially create a blog post about the same topic and link back to that blog post (as a trackback). That blog owner will be notified that you’ve linked back to their site which may prompt him/her to come over to your blog and see how you’ve extended the message and (hopefully) chime in as well.
2. It’s excellent promotion for both bloggers’ posts. Not only can it help your Link Juice (which search engines love by the way), but also the original owner’s Link Juice as well.
3. Just as you cite references to content works, using trackbacks is like “citing” a reference which happens to be a blog post. It’s like having another valuable and useful train of thought on the topic in addition to your own.

So, Kesha, how do I use trackbacks? Okay okay, I’m getting to it.  I found two great tutorials for you. Aren’t I so nice!

Resources:

• How to Use Trackbacks to Promote Your Blog
• How To Use Trackbacks Tutorial (Google Video)

I’m definitely gonna be using this tool more often, when necessary of course, and I urge you to do the same!

It’s so easy, a Caveman can do it! Go ahead and try it. It’s fun!

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