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Cutting Corners Could Cost You Your Reputation

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We’re all pressed for time and energy at times and cutting corners on a product or content seems tempting. Just slap it up there and hope it flies. But that may be a move you eventually regret.

Your reputation is at stake here and one product disaster could ruin it for you. There are so many ways to damage your reputation if you’re not vigilant. After all, your product and your profile is on display 24/7 and you want it to influence others rather than turn them away in disgust.customer service photo

Here are some ways you might choose to cut corners to the detriment of your online business:

1. Focus on yourself. You may think you don’t have time to promote others and yourself but you’re doing yourself a huge disservice if you don’t take the opportunity to mention, promote, join affiliates and connect with other marketers in any way you can.

Promoting others boosts your professional presence and adds to your followers. Some marketers try to get away with the ìme, me, meî mentality but what happens is, those people promoting you realize you don’t reciprocate in any way, and they drop you drying up your income, fast.

2. Opt to create your own design. Some design elements might be easier done by yourself than others, but generally, DIY designs don’t work to create the best first impression.

When you’re designing a blog theme or website, it’s imperative that you present the best first impression possible. Don’t cut corners here. Can you get away with a sloppy DIY job? Maybe. But why would you want to put that out there to represent you?

3. Forgo originality. Everything about your product and your integrity should be unique and give your audience something they didn’t know or don’t have (and want). Your content, especially, should be your own.

You can hire ghostwriters or purchase PLR, but make interesting and unique. Everything out there should have some semblance of personality from you a style all your own.

4. Using untrue or irresponsible posts. The Internet may seem fleeting, but what you say or post is on there forever. So, it’s especially important that you take the time to verify information to make sure you always present the truth.

Unfortunately, you can’t erase what’s been posted. You may have heard the saying, ìyour reputation precedes you.î That’s certainly true when it comes to what you’re putting online.

We all want to cut corners and that can be done but with much caution. With social media and other ways to enhance your reputation, it’s a boon if done correctly and a disaster, if not.

Remember to take the time to cultivate a relationship with your audience and your fellow marketers. The time spent building relationships will be better spent in the long run than focusing on the greed that comes naturally for us as entrepreneurs.

It has to be stifled so that everything can be done with heart ethically, in a way that shows strength and leadership, not desperation and a lack of morals or professionalism in the niche.

Cutting corners can either reap great benefits for you or damage your reputation. Make sure that content, comments and products that you sign off on are representative of your values and business quality.

Manage damage to reputation

Cutting corners without impacting customer experience

Do not Accept Your Own Excuses

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Are you having a pity party with yourself because you just can’t get your online business off the ground? You’ve likely got plenty of excuses to justify watching those television reruns rather than getting off the couch and sitting at your computer to figure it out.

Whatever your excuses are, they’re not legitimate. Anyone can succeed in this business if they just put forth the effort to gain the knowledge and set aside the time they need to make it happen.managing photo

Here are some excuses you may use and why they’re just that excuses:

1. I’m too old. Are you on your death bed? If not, you’re not too old to make a success of your online business. Stop thinking of yourself as ‘old,’ and replace that thought with ‘I’ve got the time and the wisdom to succeed.’

Success has nothing to do with age but has everything to do with determination and faith in yourself. There are plenty of baby boomers and older who are online, cashing in. So don’t lie and say it has anything to do with when you were born.

2. I don’t have time. Remind yourself that everyone has the same amount of time every day and many success stories have happened with people much busier than you. Author Danielle Steele, had three babies (two in diapers) and managed to write five novels before she had one accepted. Now, that’s determination.

3. The market is saturated. That’s likely the biggest excuse people use for not succeeding in Internet marketing. It’s a myth. The market is not saturated and it’s primed for new ideas and new marketing strategies from someone willing to take the time and effort to make it happen.

Set yourself apart from other marketers and stop telling yourself you don’t have a chance. People have different teaching styles and everyone has an audience who wants to learn in the way that you teach.

4. No one will help me. Then help yourself! There’s plenty of help out there if you simply take the time to find it. There are forums and blogs, websites and videos which can bolster your faith in yourself and help you overcome obstacles during the journey to success. Don’t wait for someone to help you. Just do it.

5. I don’t have the money. Perhaps one of the lamest of excuses. There’s plenty of freebies out there for those who are struggling to make ends meet while getting their businesses off the ground.

You don’t have to purchase every shiny new object out there. That’s probably what you’ve been doing, if you’re honest with yourself. Concentrate on what will help you most in your business endeavors and go for it.

6. ‘They’ tell me not to waste my time. You’re wasting time by giving ‘them’ a second thought. If all the successful people in the world had listed to others tell them why ‘it’ couldn’t be done, we’d still be in the Dark Ages.

What is your excuse for not succeeding? Excuses are roadblocks you put in front of yourself to prevent you from achieving success. Analyze your ‘excuses,’ and you’ll find that they really can’t prevent you from reaching your goals only you can.

13 ways to stop making excuses

Stop your excuses and get out of your own way

Do not Be Above Your Customers

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Don’t ever think you’re too ‘big’ to step down to a beginner’s level to answer questions and engage with your customers and other marketers (who are also your customers). The best way to build your business is to build relationships that are going to be pleasing – both mentally and monetarily.

That means being accessible enough to be on hand to answer your customers’ questions and to converse with them on social networks. It shouldn’t be moments you dread ñ but, moments you enjoy.

When you have fun with your customers, you’ll help ensure their loyalty and continuing satisfaction with your service and products. Get to know them ñ not only your present customers, but the future ones.

Know what their wish list contains, what attracts them to certain sites and products and what you can do to make them happy. From the very first interaction with your site, your customers should be delighted and feel they’ve learned something or found a treasure.

There are ways you can please and become closer to your customers and ensure their loyalty. Offer solutions. Don’t simply throw things out there for them to purchase. Offer your clients solutions to problems they may have or teach them a way to achieve a goal.

Even though your customers may not have purchased or signed up for anything yet, you can make huge headway into building a relationship if you attempt to solve their problems. That goodwill will go a long way.

Be enthusiastic. Find things about your promotion, product, sites and ideas to get excited about and find ways to instill that enthusiasm in others. Use warm and personal interaction.

A sense of humor helps, too. Get your messages out and keep your clients satisfied and happy. Keep in mind that your audience likely gets bombarded with tons of information every day. If it’s dry and boring, they probably won’t return.

Let them get to know you. Sometimes (especially true with beginners), a new person may feel that he or she isn’t up on the scale enough to approach a more successful entrepreneur.

That’s why you need to let them get to know who you are. You have schedules you have to meet, kids to take to school and games and other obstacles that make you human and approachable. Be sure to communicate this to others.

Positive interaction with others who may visit or sign up to your site, blog or social media site can only improve your relationships and result in long-term camaraderie – which will be profitable in the end.

customer satisfaction definition

How to exceed customer expectations

Do not Be Afraid to Call Yourself the Best

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Sometimes it’s especially difficult for us to toot our own horns, or tell others how great we are. You don’t want it to come off as arrogant or conceited, but it’s important in the online marketing business for others to know what you have to offer and the experience you have in the niche.

And it may be more important than you think. You may have looked at another marketer’s achievements and thought there’s no way you could ever measure up. Don’t be so hard on yourself.

Chances are, you may already have some accomplishments to brag about in a way that others will take you very seriously. You can brag about yourself and boost your online presence without seeming like a braggart with an inflated ego.

Avoid making self-deprecating brags. That’s when you may share some of your accomplishments and then try to appear humble by making a joke about your incompetence.

For example, you might mention that you were invited to speak at a very important seminar and then humble yourself by saying they must have been desperate to choose you as the speaker. Self-deprecating brags often come off as pathetic rather than humble.

Be excited about your story. Rather than play down your accomplishments, make them into stories which inspire and encourage others. Even if the story about your successes border on the mundane, you can surely find something to be excited about.

For example, meeting another Internet marketer who became your mentor and showed you the ropes just as you were about to give up can encourage others to keep networking.

Bring in a friend. Get another networking friend (preferable with his or her own list of accomplishments) and brag about each other online. You get to boast about the other person’s experience and accomplishments and he or she gets to brag about you.

People are sometimes more receptive to a third party’s information about you and both you and the friend will get some great online recognition. This is better when it happens naturally, rather than planning it out where it may seem stiff. Just look for opportunities to reciprocate kind remarks.

Share your sense of humor. Put some humor behind your stories and you’ll be memorable to others without being perceived as bragging. For example, if you have a humorous story about how you embarrassed yourself online while rising to the top of the barrel, find a way to tell it with humor.

Everyone loves a good story, and it’s important that you use yours to brand yourself and to shore up your business as much as you can. Since Americans hear or read over 100,000 words per day, it’s important that we get our messages across as best we can and let others know that we’re the best in our niches along with why.

7 brilliant ways to brand yourself

Do not Be Stingy with Promo Planning

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One of the worst things you can do in your state of desperation is to rush things. But this happens all the time, and newbie marketers wonder why no one will promote their products for them.

A good promotion plan can mean huge monetary success to your online business. The first rule of promotion planning is ñ start early! Give yourself at least four weeks to plan and prepare ñ more if feasible.

Announce it to your JVs and affiliates so they can schedule, too. Depending on their time and efforts, they can create bonuses which will spur you on to even greater success.

sales promotion photo

And customers can plan for the promotion by setting aside some cash. Even small amounts are hard for some people, but if they want your product, they’ll save up for it over the course of a couple of weeks or a month.

You’ll want to build some enthusiasm for the promotion among everyone. Announce it on social media, blogs and any way you can to create some excitement among those who will likely provide the best results.

A little research of those who might benefit from your promotion is necessary to make sure you have a good idea of how many sales you might reap. Look for blogs and websites that offer similar products to yours.

Spend some time planning the promotion so it will be a huge success. Among the issues you need to remember are things like knowing your target audience. Existing customers (those on your list) are always a must.

They know you and are familiar with your products and are loyal. Other marketers who have similar audiences should also be informed about your promotion so they, too, can build excitement among their own lists.

Know your objectives. Pleasing your audience with a quality offering should be first on your list ñ not seeing how much cash you can rake in with whatever you slap up for sale.

If you do it with quality in mind, then the money and future customer loyalty will come. Offer a great and informative product for a reasonable price. Think about what your strategies will be.

Are you planning to promote on social media, with affiliates, JV partners, website, videos, webinars, podcasts or interviews? Will you have a commission contest? They’re all great ways to create anticipation for your promotion, but you need to assess how much time and effort to put into each or all of these that will be most advantageous to your promotion.

How are you going to put your promotion into action? This part of your promotion planning takes organization. Develop timelines (that should be met at all cost) for each part of your promotion and stick to them.

You can’t tell affiliates and JV partners that you plan to launch one day and then the day before, flake out on them and delay it for a few weeks. People have schedules for when they promote others, and if you’re lucky enough to be on it, you should respect their time.

A promotion plan should be carefully and extravagantly laid out so that you know every aspect of it and when it will launch. You’re offering a vision that you created to your audience and you want to give it every chance of succeeding ñ both for you, others involved in the promotion, and especially for your customers.

Promotion planning

Planning a successful promotional campaign

Do not Pick a Niche Because Someone Told You To

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Choosing a niche doesn’t have to be intimidating and daunting. In fact, it should be a fun project – and one based on several criteria ñ the first being that you have a distinct interest in the niche.

Too many newbies come online and the way they pick a niche is no better than playing pin the tail on the donkey. If they hear a successful marketer mention a topic, they jump on it ñ without ever looking to see if it’s right for them.

marketing photo

You should be excited about delving in to one or more of the things you love best for the business you’re about to create. Never choose a niche because someone told you the money is good and fast.

It will backfire on you if you’re just not interested. Another criterion for choosing a niche is that it has profit potential. You won’t be interested in building a business that doesn’t have any potential for financial success.

Still, you have to look for the niche that interests you ñ and there’s plenty of those out there for everyone. Keep in mind that the niche you choose will be the one you’ll invest thousands of hours and some hard earned money into and you’ll have to learn some strategies along the way.

Research is the only way to choose an interesting and profitable niche and there’s lots of online help you can use. Keyword research (for volume) is one of the best ways to see how many people are interested in your topic and searching for it using search engines.

Compare various topics to better measure their popularity. Wordtracker is a good and easy-to-use tool that can give you all of the information that you need about topic popularity.

Wordtracker also has a program called ìKeyword Universe,î which is a tool designed to search the ënet for keywords related to your main topic. It can show you a list of other words you may want to use and also tell you the count of searches.

You may see other niches you could either use to branch out or to change your original keyword because of popularity. It helps you pick a slant, too ñ where you can dig down a bit deeper in a niche and dominate it.

Besides keyword research, spend some time surfing the ënet and finding out how and what others are doing in similar niches. Don’t be turned off if you find there’s a lot of competition.

That simply means that a ton of people are interested in the niche and the marketers are making money. Make sure you avoid hyped-up sales pitches that promise tons of cash can be made overnight.

If you’re building a business that you want to last and prosper, you’ll want to choose a niche that you can branch out into wider markets and where there’s plenty of potential to narrow the market, also.

This means there are ample amounts of consumers for you to sell to, and a ton of different product slants you can develop. Dieting, for example, is a broad niche, but then you can target men or women, age groups, special circumstances like post pregnancy, and types of diets such as low carb, fasting, or calorie counting.

Whatever you do, don’t worry about making a mistake in picking your niche. Most marketers have gone into and abandoned a few niches before they find the one that makes them satisfied ñ and puts cash in their bank account.

Niche marketing – definition

Examples of niche markets

Do not You Dare Allow Yourself to Become Outdated

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Will you avoid becoming obsolete

Staying ahead of becoming obsolete

One day you’re stuffing keywords into your copy to rank well in Google and the next day, the fickle search engine is turned off by keywords and there’s even a penalty if you have too many!

Squidoo is a good example of a type of technology that many depended on and then it’s closed for business suddenly. Some relied on it 100% to pay their mortgages, support their children, and sustain a living all around.

obsolete photo

technologically challenging being an online entrepreneur because you have to find time to keep up with all of the latest in the industry that can help you succeed. If you love what you do, you’ll likely enjoy keeping up to date with the new stuff that can make your life easier as an Internet entrepreneur or better ensure your future success.

If you aren’t ready to make the commitment to keeping up to date, then you’re not ready to lead others. For example, what if you didn’t know about social networking migrations and you were still trying to spam people on MySpace?

Keeping up to date can be a journey in itself. There are web media such as blogs, podcasts and forums to keep track of – and, of course, the rules and regulations that are always changing for online marketers.

If you’re reading about changes in a blog or forum, make sure you’re not reading an outdated post. That’s just wasted time. There are continual updates on how to promote your products, free apps which can help you save time and make your job easier and technology news sites you can subscribe to that can keep you abreast of what’s happening in the industry.

Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook can also keep you updated on a continual basis. Following such people as Bill Gates and Martin Fowler (Software Development Methodologies) and other marketing gurus who you admire is another good way to get the latest news and updates.

Other methods of finding resources to keep in touch are web-based, online tutorials and web casts. Acquiring professional training is great if you can afford the coaching fees, but there are many sites today which offer wonderful, informative tutorials that will keep you technologically focused.

Podcasts and forums are also wonderful resources for keeping in touch. Set up your own podcasts or get together with other bloggers to talk about specific topics and trends.

Keep searching and you’ll find one or more that suits all of your needs. Books and magazines may also be a good source of Internet marketing information, but check that the print copies contain accurate and up to date technological data on the subject matter you’re researching.

This type of resource can become out of date in no time at all because of the changing nature of the Internet. Knowing it’s a constantly changing technological world, spend some time every day researching new methods and you’ll be ready for the good and the bad.

Field Some Experts to Boost Your Authority

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Create an authority site

Increase your domain authority

Some people get so scared of sharing the spotlight that they insulate themselves from greatness. You feel like sharing the stage with a competitor makes you look weak, like you’re not the only person who knows everything about the niche topic.

When you bring in experts to boost your authority in your niche, you won’t lose customers, but gain them – because it’s establishing you as a viable force in your niche someone who is rubbing elbows with other experts.

authority photo

also shows you’re expanding your knowledge of your particular topic. But more than anything, bringing in experts from other similar niches can bring in future sales conversions.

Think of it as introducing yourself and your product to a whole different audience and bringing them into the fold. Because that other expert’s audience will be looking at your shared content, too, and that will be their first discovery of you.

There are ways to make yourself attractive to other experts and get them to want to work with you. Offer gifts. It may sound like bribery, but other marketers are always looking for informative and valuable gifts in the form of free bonuses, free advertisement of their product, mentions on social media such as Facebook and Twitter and interviews or podcasts to promote their sites.

Establish your profile on social media sites and forums. Set up pages and profiles and then post content that can be useful to other marketers in similar niches. There are free, downloadable apps that can help you with this type of venture.

Arrange online interviews. Nothing attracts an online audience like online interviews with marketers well established in the business. You both profit from the interview process because you’re reaching people you might not hear from otherwise.

Make sure you have fresh, sharable content. No one wants to partner with a dull and boring marketer whose content is out of date or poorly written. Make sure your content is informative and up to date so that others will want to share.

Offer to review their products. Marketers welcome reviews of their products and will often happily review yours in return. Only post a review of the product if you truly believe in it and like it. Otherwise, choose another product or marketer.

Follow and engage other experts. Make sure you follow other marketers who have products similar to yours on all social media sites. It takes some time and effort, but the payoff will be that these other marketers will get to know you especially if you engage in conversations or remarks on their sites.

The payoff for fielding experts in your niche can be huge. Besides boosting your authority in a particular niche, you’ll also be reaching audiences you may never have reached without the added expertise.

In the beginning, it may be intimidating to approach another (especially well established) marketer, but as you begin to establish your own presence, you’ll find that you’re also being sought out. Make the most of every opportunity.

Find Faults with the Competition and Exploit Them

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Competitive analysis definition – entrepreneur.com

How to do competitive analysis in 5 steps

Don’t be mean simply analyze your competitors’ products and authority and be what they’re not! Or, be what they are, only better. You can stay in the white hat marketer category and still learn from the competition in several ways.

You’re not doing all you can for your business if you don’t use the competition to boost your online presence. There are some ways your competition can help. Gather intelligence first.

your competition is successful, you’ll be able to see what works and use the same techniques for your own success. It’s good to see failures, too because you won’t have to waste your time doing something that clearly doesn’t work.

For example, if they work hard on a big launch of a product you’ll be able to see by their success (or not) whether the product was the reason for the success or perhaps the launch day or time was off, resulting in a total flop.

It’s valuable information to have and use. Your competition helps you define yourself. When you know your competition and what they’re all about, you’ll know better what you identify with especially to your audience.

This information helps you discern how to compete in the niche you’ve chosen. For example, if your competition isn’t targeting a certain group in your niche, it becomes a perfect opportunity for you to become a leader for this area of competition.

Convert your competition’s customer base to yours. You won’t be taking them away from the competition (and even if you did, it’s not your fault you’re better at what you do), but only giving the audience a wider spectrum from which to learn information and choose products.

Online customers can tell you a lot about what’s working with the competition and what isn’t. For example, use the social media sites, forums and other sites to see what they’re interested or confused about and then offer solutions that nobody else is addressing.

Tout your expertise in the niche. You may have some advantages the competition doesn’t. Find out how their expertise compares to yours and then flaunt your own accomplishments and knowledge of the niche.

For example, if you’re a financial planner in the ‘outside’ world, tout your credentials if you’re in a niche which requires finances and planning. The best way to outfox those in your niche and soar to the top of the heap is to know your competition.

By watching what others are doing (or in some case, not doing), you learn much about what to do next in your own business. But, best of all you learn where the gaps are in your niche, or where others are failing your audience and you become the go to person for that topic.

Find Marketers Whose Products Complement Your Own

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Find complementary products- Economic definition

Complementary marketing – marketing strategy

Don’t think of other marketers with similar products as competition – think of them instead as a type of partners. Competition is good because it creates excitement about the product.

For example, if you have a niche in herbal health remedies, a person who markets essential oils would be a good match. If stress is your subject, nutrition or exercise products may be topics you can cross promote.

Finding marketers whose products complement your own isn’t difficult. They can be discovered through blogs, websites, advertisements, banners, social media and many other methods on the net.

marketing photo

don’t want to choose just any affiliate to promote your product. Do your research to make sure it’s worth your while for all the time, effort and possibly money that you’re going to spend on a promotion.

You’ll want to find reputable and profitable affiliates who have the same value system as you and who have the reputation of being on time and giving quality partnership advantages.

Don’t be a churn and burn type of marketer. There’s nothing worse than a greedy newbie who advises his or her people to buy any and everything out there just to line their pockets with money ñ quality or not.

There are some online tools you can use to try to find marketers who might offer similar products as your own. One is jvnotifypro.com. On that site, you can find such help as a list of community forums, new launch announcements, job boards, various announcements and more.

It’s a good place to begin to find out what’s going on in the affiliate world. You might also find some websites of similar marketers by entering a search term in google such as product reviews plus the name of your niche topic.

Not all that pop up will be a good match for you, but spending some time in research might yield a few good possibilities. Another way to find marketers for a JV venture is to advertise your own affiliate plan and see what responses you get.

As you become more familiar to other marketers, you’ll get many more inquiries to your promo plans, but in the beginning you may need to dig a bit deeper to find an affiliate that fits your requirements.

When you find affiliates you want to work with, find ways that you can tie the two topics together and the best methods to promote each other. The Internet is full of marketers who will want to promote your product ñ but the best ones probably won’t come beating down your door right at first. You’ll need to build a reputation by doing what you say you’ll do ñ when you say you’ll do it.