I love Martha Stewart’s recipes! I also like the soothing sound of her voice. I guess that may be weird but that’s cool. What I didn’t think I would ever get from her were Social Marketing Tips. I recently read and article on Smartblog by Social Media 4 social-marketing tips from Martha Stewart

and the four tips that Marth gave were really good so I thought I would share. I hope you enjoy and please leave your tips or questions about social media in the comments section.

Tip # 1 – Don’t let anyone tell you what to do! – You have to be yourself. If you let someone tell you what to right or how to write or what will be useful then you will lose your authenticity. It is important that your remain who you are. In a world full of copycats, being your self could be the best thing you ever did.

Tip # 2 – Find yourself a good co-pilot. Does it ever fell like you are alone? Maybe your technology skills and saavy are limited. Martha has an assistant and you should too! Whether you just need help navigating wordpress or increasing the number of followers on twitter, if you have someone that can help you out it will help with your business and your sanity.

Tip # 3 – Go where your customers are – and remember that everyone is a customer – There are so many different social sites! What you may start to notice is that different segments of your customers on on different platforms. Pay attention to what your customers talk about. Make the information you provide and the approach you take relevant. Don’t be shy about asking. Sometimes we get so focused on what we think we should say that we don’t take advantage of the most important advice we could ever get…..OUR CUSTOMERS!

TIP # 4 – Let the tail wag the dog – This one has really been on my mind lately. As I talk with different entrepreneurs I notice that a lot of folks are running in overdrive…what do I do next? How do I drive traffic to my blog? How do I monetize my blog? What should I write about? What should I tweet about? ( And these are just the questions I have running through my head right now) Let the tail wag the do! Take some chances and have fun and experiment in what you do!

Always balancing,

Rafael

As always, thanks for visiting my blog. I love to share tips and training on all things related to sales and marketing (the stuff that makes the world go around). Please share with your friends and business partners. Don’t be shy, leave your tips and suggestions as well. See you at the top! RC

Master Search Engine Optimization To Generate Traffic

There are two ways to measure the success of your business website.  You can check the page ranking within the internet search engines as well as the search engine result page.  If you own a blog (and you should) or a small business you should use search engine optimization while benefiting social media, social bookmarking and the other many tools and resources the internet has to offer your business.

One of the challenges of  being a business website owner is figuring out how to ensure that internet traffic can actually find your business website.  How will internet users know your website even exists if they can’t find it? If you don’t take the necessary steps to ensure your business website is ranked accordingly within the major search engines; they can’t?

Search engine optimization WILL aid your business.  I know that you have a great product or service to offer. SEO can place your site possibly within the top ten results on the search engine results. This help from SEO will not only aid with increasing sales for your site but also increase your flow of internet traffic. SEO can also aid with your products visibility while improving business relations with your current customers.

The first that a lot of people make when becoming a business  owner, is to disregard how important the internet search engines can be to your business website.  Internet search engines drive the majority of internet traffic.  Internet users click on links found within the search engine result pages.  If you can get a decent ranking with your  site within the major search engines, you will stand a great chance of success!

One often overlooked factor is making your site appealing to visitors.  You are wasting your time drawing visitors into your website, if you do not have relevant content or a website which internet users find appealing.  It does not take a long period for visitors to decide if they like or dislike your website (less than 3 seconds on average).  Your focus must be to grab their attention when they stumble upon or find your business website through the search engine.

If you are not an SEO expert then you might want to consider hiring one.  SEO experts can improve the traffic to website, while aiding your business to be competitive with other online businesses.  SEO’s offer many services which your business could greatly benefit from.  Website reporting, search engine submissions, link popularity building, as well as monthly maintenance are a few of the things, which SEO’s can offer your business website.

SEO’s allow companies no matter the size to advertise their products and services with the power of the internet.  If you are uncomfortable, hiring an individual SEO expert, then a search engine optimization company might be right up your alley.

SEO companies or individual SEO experts can be a great help, with maintaining your website, as well as your page rankings.  If you choose the right company for your business site, you will eventually see the results in not only the growth of the internet traffic to your website; but also profits.

Don’t forget to subscribe for more information on how to sell and market online.

Always driving traffic,

Rafael

Content, Content, Content – When creating your blog the first thing you want to focus on is content because that is what is going to build a relationship with you and your prospects. It’s not really rocket science. If you write about interesting things that help people make more money and increase their knowledge, they will appreciate it. They will subscribe, and that opens up the mutually beneficial relationship that we all are looking for online.

The big question is what do you do when you are sitting in front of you computer and your mind is blank? You have writer’s block and you want to bang your head into the wall with the hopes that something falls out. Please don’t try that In this post I am going to give you a quick tip on where to find content.

Shortcut: PLR Articles…  if you go to google and type in PLR articles you will find a huge amount of these types of articles. Just in case you don’t know what these are, they are articles that someone else writes and they give you the right to use them as content. Please be sure to add your own insight and flavor to the articles. This is a great way to get new ideas for content.

Tip: The key to using articles is adding catchy title, body and a call to action.

So if you are not already using PLR…your mission should you choose to accept it is to go do some research. I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts and experiences on using PLR. Please feel free to share this. Especially if you know other folks that are struggling to find content.

As always I am always available to help. Just go to the contact me tab or place your question in the comments.

Always balancing,

Rafael

Hello everyone! I hope this Friday is treating you well! I am partially relieved. I work from home so I don’t have the typical TGIF but I still have to balance my life with my home based business. It has been a good week in business but pretty hectic with the family. It’s all about the balance right? Moving forward Fridays are going to be my RANT and RAVE day so please bare with me as spew my innermost thoughts.

I am always learning, and as I go through the different products that are being sold online today, I notice a lot of get rich quick, don’t worry about what you say approaches. “We have the best product in the world!” Oh that phrase is so frustrating to me. The reason is that not only is is cliche and cheesy. It doesn’t work. Although most of us reading this post are home based business entrepreneurs, and marketing specialists, it is amazing how often we forget to go back to the basics of selling. You remember…..when you were a kid and you started that lemonade stand or held a car wash. You sold benefits, and that is what we are going to talk about today.

I happen to be a salesman by profession. But for a lot of us, we really have never given a lot of thought  on why we buy and why others will want to buy from us. Let’s talk about some of these things.

The Difference Between Features And Benefits

Features consist of….

*The actual components that make up the product

*Descriptive paragraphs about the qualities of the product

*Pricing for a product

Benefits consist of…

* An explanation of how the product improves the customer’s life

WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?!!!!!!

That is the question I ask when I’m buying something. Don’t fool yourself! No matter what these get rich sales letters tell you, if you don’t present the benefits of your product, service or business, you will be standing out in the cold. And instead of wishing that you you didn’t HAVE to sell, you will be wishing that you knew how!

I mean, that’s is one of the major problems, right? People don’t like to sell or be sold…..Yeah right! I love to sale and I love to be sold. It truly is an exhilarating event. The reason is because I know how to sell. I look for people that have a need and then I sell them a solution. It’s awesome!

I’m running long and I usually don’t like to have long posts because I know you won’t read the whole thing. Unless of course you understand how much additional income you can make with your business. BAM! There is a benefit! I know what you need. I know because I go through the same things.

Let’s conclude by giving you some universal areas to stress benefits. Please comment with additional ideas and don’t forget to subscribe to my blog because I give all of my free stuff to my subscribers.

Universal Needs

*Convenience

*Profitability

*Beauty/Attraction

*Status

*Exclusivity
Now go out there and sell some benefits. It will make you a TON of money!

Always balancing,

Rafael

Excellence…..We all chase it. I chase it excellently…:) There are millions of people looking for jobs. They keep extending the unemployment pay and I think that is such a blessing. One of the things that I have always done in my professional life is prepare for a job hunt. My resume is ready and if there was a position open today I would be ready to answer the questions. Now that I help people start businesses and learn how to market them while balancing their family life. I still find it helpful to understand what people are thinking and doing. So….I receive emails from theladders.com it is a job search site. I came across the article that really hit home. 4 habits of Excellence

Below are some of the ideas that I have always used and it was great to be reminded of them. And since I have no desire to be a perpetual job hunter…They are useful for building your business as well.

Habit #1 – Be ready for your moment – When you have an opportunity to present your business or opportunity, are you ready? Do you stumble over your words? Do you shy away from talking about the money that you make? If you are not prepared to discuss what you are in business for and what you can do to help the individual or group….you are definitely missing out.

Habit # 2 – Schedule thinking time – If you don’t think….you don’t grow. I know a lot of people focus on building up your attitude but if you do not have the skills and knowledge to succeed then you are DOOMED. (Sorry, didn’t mean to mess with your attitude…:)

Habit # 3 – Schedule non-thinking time – If you have a family you probably already know the benefits of sitting by the pool or some comfortable place and not doing anything. (My kids call it chllaxin) Please schedule your chillaxin!

Habit # 4 – Don’t let anyone talk you out of achieving your dreams – Dreaming is magnificent. Even the bad dreams seem to have something in them that nudges you to action. When someone tries this (and they will) Just tell them…how awful it will be not having them around when you achieve your dreams! (With a smile of course)

Feel free to leave comments about the ones you like and some others that you use to be excellent.

Always balancing,

Rafael

Isn’t awesome to work from home? I know for me it has been great! I was thinking…(Can you smell the smoke?) I wander if you asked my wife and kids if they would have the same enthusiasm about my home office as I do. You see, if you are like most entrepreneurs….YOU LOVE TO WORK ON YOUR BUSINESS! I know I do. I think I could spend 16 hours a day and really enjoy every minute of it….BUT WAIT! Wasn’t one of the reasons I started my own business to free up more time? It is important to balance your work from home life just like any other business venture. Sometimes I have to put that in perspective. Below are some of the areas that I feel are important for BALANCE in your home workplace.

1. Set Hours Of Operation – AND STICK TO THEM! If my wife hears me say 5 more minutes one more time…..I think she will kill me…(figuratively speaking of course…..I hope)

2. Set Aside Your Home Office Space – How many people do you know that hang around at their workplace for hours after quitting time?

3. Get Away…Get Away! – I go stir crazy alot! You need to get out of your home and get a change of scenery! I am going to San Diego this weekend….It was around 117 degrees here in Phoenix today!

Remember your goals and why you are in business. If you have a family I would bet that one of your goals is to have the freedom to spend more time with your family. Don’t ruin it by losing your balance!

I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on how you balance your work at home life!

Always balancing,

Rafael

Ahhhhh….to be a kid again. I have five children and sometimes when I watch them play or do other activities. I wonder what ever happened to that playful spirit. I came across this blog post: Be a Kid Again and Make Your Blog Stand Out and it reminded me that we all have that inner kid inside trying to get out.  So here is a tip when creating your blog. LET LOOSE! Have some fun! Remember your blog is the place where people will get to know you. Let me ask you a question…Do you want them to know the boring, stuffy, “business entrepreneur” or the open, sincere fun loving person that I know you are. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.

What are some of the things you do to express your inner child?

Always balancing,

Rafael

Well, awesome is very subjective! You will always be fine tuning and tweaking your blog. Don’t obsess about it but pay attention to the details. It is always about balance. Assuming you have read my “Blogging Profit Formula” like every good marketer should…(If not fill out the form on the right, I’ll forgive you this time) then you have covered the essentials. The next natural question is “Now what do I do?” The next step is to share your little piece of internet real estate with the world.

So here are three areas for you to explore to get your blog out there:

1. Social Media – You are probably on Facebook and twitter anyways. Make sure people know where they can find more information about you. (Hint..Hint Your Blog)

2. Syndication – These Folks are GREAT! Tribal Syndication Association

3. Articles – Right about things that you blog about and link it to your blog.

These are just a couple of free ideas. I’ll be doing training on each of them soon. Subscribe to my RSS feed for updates to the training HERE.

Keep reading and learning and sharing and loving. After all, without love does any thing else matter?

Always balancing,

Rafael

Generate 200 people in your downline in a week!

Let me show you how I made $50,000 in 48 hours!

Do these things sound familiar? One thing that never ceases to amaze is how many folks want something for nothing. (I was a a victim of this too!) No matter what our intuition or experience tell us. There is something about “get rich quick” that appeals to all of us. May I ask you something? Is there any work that you think deserves to make $50,000 in 48 hours? If someone tells you this and you don’t make that much money, who do you get mad at? Do you blame them for lying and taking your money or do you blame your self for not using your common sense?

I am concerned that this is all too common in our niche (Internet Marketing). This strategy must work because there are so many people employing it but that doesn’t make it right. Can we agree on something? Let’s keep it real! There are a lot of people making substantial incomes on the internet. However all of the ones that I have spoken with tell me it is hard work. Their consistent message is to work hard and don’t give up. Now this is motivating because the reality is that most will not work hard and will give up. Focus on these two things and I’ll see you at the top. Take it one step at a time. You will be sweaty and tired but at the top no less.

I understand that this message may not get across to everyone reading it so if you are one of them. I have some prime ocean front property in Arizona that I would love to sell you…:)

Always balancing,

Rafael

Hopefully by now you have determined that using Facebook is a must to build your business. Whether you are building relationships, promoting a new product or just having fun! Facebook has so many helpful features it is hard to keep up with  the different strategies. In my daily reading (Reading is a must) I came across this article. 5 ways I’m using Facebook to Drive Traffic, Build Brand and Increase Reader Engagement

It contained some really interesting tips. I especially like the idea of involving your fans by asking questions and using technology (tab app) to help get your message out. Check it out and let me know what you think?

I will also ask the same question the author posed. What are you doing on Facebook that is working? (And what’s not…:-D)

Always balancing,

Rafael