Prepare yourself…sit down…take a few breaths…and read on…
I am sorry that it has come to this but I realize people are trapped. Every time I tweet I receive 100+ visitors to my site. This is great and I thank you for coming, but why do you stop there? Every page of this site has my email and phone #. Several thousand visitors only a few emails and even less calls. I know that the picture of my massive 120 pound physique is totally intimidating, but really what’s the problem? I don’t bite (only nibble). I’m not trying to sell you anything (though very willing to accept large checks if you feel so inclined). So I ask you to free yourself from the bounds of paranoia and distrust reach out and contact me. My goal has been to build business relationships; build conversations where we can both learn better ways to promote ourselves and our businesses, and hopefully bring world peace (I still want my Noble prize for my world peace efforts). Thing is none of these things can happen unless people reach out a tweet someone.
I think web users (like you) are becoming wary of the thousands bogus offers and junk that appears on the web. I tried creating such an offer myself Twitter Secret Revealed. Though it is not a bogus offer, I admit it sounds like another get rich scheme. So please ignore my very weak attempt to entice you to spend money on my little secret. Instead let’s learn about ways we can help build each other’s businesses. So with this thought in mind I’m going to tell 7 ways to build your business and to come out of your Internet shell?
- Join the conversation
- Don’t buy…contact
- Invite people to contact you
- Give something for free and more for contact
- Ask questions
- Don’t sell…make relationships that sell
- Don’t be afraid of your own weaknesses
Join the conversation
There are plenty of ways on the web to make friends. Forums are great. Webmasterworld and Webpronews are one I frequent a lot. They are excellent places for people discuss issues and share business ideas. Make sure to post comments and quote what other people have said. Then if you see someone doing the same about what you have said and try contacting them direct. In Twitter use # and @ to join conversations. For example #balloonboy allows those who are interested in the subject and monitoring it to see your tweet. Using @username you can contact the people directly about their tweets. Don’t pitch people but share in the conversation.
Don’t buy…contact
Sometimes when I explore the web I see an offer that is really enticing. So much so I just want to forget all reason and buy. Well don’t! Contact the people about the offer. Tell them how it sounds too good to be true and ask questions about how it can help you or your business. Sometimes this intro can become the basis for a business relationship in other cases you can learn if the company’s offer is legit. An automated response is a dead give-a-way. Of course, sometimes a fast response or lengthy ones is a give-a-way that the company is smaller than it claims to be. If you write me, I would probably do both of these things because I’m just too eager. So what does that say about me? LoL
Invite people to contact you
The biggest mistake people make is they don’t make it easy for people to contact them. Your site should have both a phone# and email in the top right hand corner to allow people to quickly contact you. Personally, I like the sites that go even further and have a click to call service. The idea is to make it easy for your visitors to contact you. The easier it is to reach you the higher probability that you can address any concerns they may have and convert them into a client.
Give something for free and more for contact
One of the most popular ways people encourage contact is to give some good free advice then tell the visitors to sign-up to download their free eBook for tips and secrets. This is done purely to make contacts. Usually, when people sign up, they get put on an automated mailing list that sends templated newsletters on an ongoing basis. (Personally, I find that annoying. So even I am getting jaded and going to a shell. Fortunately for me I have lots of email addresses so I use some purely to for signing up for things where I know it will get spammed later.) However, the point is that this trick can be used to encourage contact but it’s up to you how you manage those contacts. I must say that I used this trick in my personal business and wrote 3 eBooks. Each eBook has been requested several hundred times. It was one way I found to get people to reach out to me.
Ask questions
A question by its very nature demands a response. Ask questions on forums, on Twitter, when people sign up from an offer ask them for feedback or ask about their business. One thing I have learned in life that everyone’s favourite conversation is to talk about themselves. Showing interest by asking questions about the person is one of the best practices when building business relationships.
Don’t sell…make relationships that sell
Nothing is more annoying then having someone pitch to you. Possibly if I was any good at pitching to people I would do more of it but even those who are the best at it can turn people off. One approach successful marketers use is the panel of experts model. The way this works is you get a group 2-3 people who are or consider themselves as experts in a particular niche. Those experts never claim to be experts but they allow the others in the group to brag about how great they are. The idea is if you pitch yourself people will tend to feel that you are filled with air hot or are an ego-manic. Having others who are “experts” say that you are great provides instant credibility. These kinds of relationships sell because they build trust.
Don’t be afraid of your own weaknesses
Since you are visiting my site, you might be very aware of my weakness. I’m not a web designer. My site is a perfect example that I’m graphically challenged. However, this weakness is my greatest strength. Often I team up with web design companies where we help each other to better service our combined clients. I focus on my strengths which are web marketing and they focus on their strengths which is web design. We not only compliment each other but we don’t compete with each other. The biggest mistake people make is to try to do everything and they do a mediocre job at the array of tasks instead focusing on their strengths. Generally the clients will appreciate work done by a group of experts rather than someone who know a little about everything. So don’t be afraid of your weaknesses find partnerships compliment your skills and where you can compliment theirs. These types of partnerships everyone wins because you can share clients and provide those clients with the best services. To forge these types of partnerships know what your weaknesses are and look for companies that can provide the services you need. Once you find the rights businesses call them, email me, and even visit their office…point is to make that contact…
So reach out and tweet someone…and why not start with me 
Any questions about the reverse Googling, please feel free to contact me at 905-417-9470 or by email at allanp73@gmail.com
