...penetrating the confusion of the marketplace

Google Places: Overview and Set Up

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Google Places is a great deal for local businesses and for customers.  The fact that most businesses have not even claimed their Google Places page gives smart business owners a huge advantage.  Claiming a Google Places page is super easy to do, and business owners that have claimed their page often find out that they end up on page 1 of Google with just their “Places” page.

Just claiming a Google Places page is not all you need to do.  Optimizing your Places page will help you get to the top of the Google listings.  You can optimize your places page by making sure that you put as much information as you can on your page and then by getting as many citations and reviews as you can.  If you can get more reviews and citations than your competition, you have a good chance at ranking higher on the Google Places listings than they do.

It is still very important to have a great website for your business.  Your website will be listed on Google Places and traffic will come to your website from Google Places.  This means that you still want to have your primary website be very search engine friendly and optimized to show up in the organic (free) listings on a search engine results page.  You also want to build your website so that it converts into customers.  To many business owners create beautiful websites that are little more than fancy online brochures.  Your website needs to engage with your customers and result in them taking action while they are on your site.

But this post is about Google Places, so below is a video on how you can set up Google Places for your business.

Google Places Optimization

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Google Places Optimization

So you have set up your Google Places page and you have put as much information on your Google Places page as possible.  Hopefully, you have also made some videos and put them on Youtube and then included them on your Google Places page.  You also have a coupon set up for your potential customers.

Now you want to optimize your Google Places page so that you can rank higher than your competition.  The best way to do this is to simply get more Citations and Reviews than your competitors.  Your rankings are determined by how much solid info you have on your Place page and how many reviews, links and Citations you have. Look at your competitors pages to see how much work you have to get done.  You may need to incentivize your customers to do reviews on your business.

The following video is designed to show you how to optimize your Google Places page.

Coincidence or Divine Judgment?

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On nine occasions in just the past 20 years, the United States government has attempted to pressure Israel into decisions detrimental to her survival as a nation  Her leaders have been rudely treated by US Presidents during these times. On each occasion, disasters immediately fell upon the United States.

10/30/ 1991: VP George Bush opened the Madrid Conference aimed at
forcing Israel to give up more land. Near the same time, a storm
formed in the Atlantic. It traveled in an unusual direction and sent
35 ft waves into Bush’s New England home.

8/23/1992: Madrid Conference moved to Washington, D.C. That same
day, Hurricane Andrew, the worst natural disaster in US history at
that time, caused over $30 billion in damage and left 180,000
homeless.

1/16/1994: President Clinton met with Syria’s President for talks on
forcing Israel to give up the Golan Heights. Less than 24 hours
later, a 6.9 earthquake shook Southern California. It was the second
most destructive natural disaster to hit the US.

3/1/1997: Yassar Arafat, head of the Palestine Liberation
Organization, toured America. He was in the US for one month,
leaving the first part of April. On the day he landed in the US,
powerful tornadoes devastated huge sections of Texas, Arkansas,
Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and the Dakotas. These storms led
to the worst flooding in the 20th Century. On the day he left, the storms ceased.

1/21/1998: Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu met with President
Clinton. The Prime Minister was coldly received by Mr. Clinton
because he flatly refused to give up more of Israel’s land. Clinton
and Secretary of State Madeline Albright refused to have lunch with
him. A few hours later, the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke over
Clinton’s head.

9/28/1998: Yassar Arafat addressed the United Nations in New York
and stated that he would declare a Palestinian state by May 1999. As
he said these words, Hurricane George pounded the Gulf Coast and
caused $1 billion in damages. At the exact time Arafat left
the US, the storm faded.

8/29/2005: President George W. Bush pressured Israel to evacuate
from the Gaza Strip. 8,000 Israeli settlers were forced to leave
their homes and villages. Exactly one week later, Hurricane Katrina
smashed Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. 80% of the city of New
Orleans was under water. The percentage of the Israeli population
that was made homeless by the forced evacuations was almost exactly
equal to the same percentage of the American population left homeless
by Katrina.

3/23/2010: Prime Minister Netanyahu arrived at the White House to
meet with Obama. Instead of being taken through the front door, he was
taken through a side door, an apparent act of humiliation. No press
corps was invited and no friendly photos taken. Instead, he was
harshly addressed by Obama and then was left to sit alone while
Obama had lunch with his family. Obama’s parting remarks were, “If you come up
with anything new, call me.” The Prime Minister flew home. In 48
hours, huge storms caused massive flooding in the US, the worst in
200 years.

4/19/2010: Before the United Nations, Obama stated that the United
States will no longer automatically side with Israel at the UN. This
was the first time that any US President had made such a statement.
On April 19, Israel was celebrating her rebirth as a nation, since
the Jewish Calendar is a lunar calendar, unlike our solar calendar,
which would have had that birthday in May. Within 24 hours of
the Obama statement, the British Petroleum oil well exploded killing 11 in the
Gulf of Mexico. This was the worst natural disaster in American history.

4/19/2011: Obama embraced the Palestinian demand for Israel to return
to the 1967 borders, which Israel has declared would be asking her to
commit national suicide. This was a radical departure for the
government of the United States. Three days later on Sunday, May
22, 2011, the deadliest single tornado since 1953 tore through Joplin,
Missouri, destroying almost half the city and killing 138. A tornado
hit Minneapolis also.

Coincidence or Divine Judgment? Genesis 12:31 warns, “And I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you: and in you shall
all families of the earth be blessed.”

It would be nice if our leaders could at least study recent history before they do things that might have divine consequences……….

The Royal Wedding Thru The Eyes Of An Ugly American

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I watched the Royal wedding and loved it.

As a marketer, I tend to multi-task……..so I watched it while
working online.  I was amazed at all of the sarcastic comments
that the “Guru” marketers made about how wasteful the royal wedding was.

The funny thing about these “Guru” posts was that they were
said with the same confidence and certainty that they used to
say things like “Bush Lied” or how they praise our “American King”
Barrack Obama.

So because they are big time guru marketers with lots of Facebook friends,
I am supposed to care about their opinion of a royal English Wedding?
I think not.

Well, here is my take on the wedding……………………..

I speak English.  I write in English.  I think in English.

I am also a rabidly patriotic American, the son
of a Polish immigrant and I treasure the history of my country
of birth.

Some might call me an ugly American (I am sure the French would
which is why I have only been to France once and to England many
times), and I would not be embarrassed.  I am so proud of my
country that I honestly care not what other country’s think of mine.

Don’t worry, I WILL tie this together…………..

I am also a Christian.  A Christian believes that he is a child of the
King of Kings.  That makes me a prince.  That makes me a nobleman.

I know it sounds crazy, but I have always thought of myself as a nobleman.

I am NOT kidding.  In fact, when I married Nancy, I actually had herald trumpets complete with my family flag…………..just like William and Kate did.

I have jokingly told my kids to call me “me lord”.

As a student of history, I am very glad that the colonies threw off the
yoke of the king of England.  My country’s founders created a nation
unlike any that has existed since the Garden Of Eden.  They founded
my great nation while seeking God’s divine guidance and built it on
timeless Christian beliefs and biblical truths.

Basically, they took all that is good from England and built something
better and got rid of the King by forming a republic.

God blessed England through the centuries so much that the sun still
never sets on the British empire.

God has blessed my country even more than England.  I believe that
His blessings on my country were because we originally were a Christian
nation.

Unfortunately, much of what WAS good about my country has been
wasted.  We have a new President that thinks he is a king.  I am ashamed
of him.  I know that is politically incorrect, but he is a bad man with bad
ideas. He is “ignoble”.

I didn’t really think about this until I thought about looking up the
English lyrics for “My Country Tis Of Thee”…………you know………the
song they sang at the wedding.

Brits know it as “God Save The Queen”

God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen:
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us:
God save the Queen.

Those lyrics  are moving for a patriot that has a “king” that is not
gracious, noble, victorious, happy or glorious.

As a fellow nobleman, I am very grateful that Prince William and
Kate Middleton did not invite Obama to their wedding.

(We nobles have to support each other after all)

I am so glad that traditions of nobility that were largely built
on Christian principals were emphasized during the royal wedding.

It made me proud, moved me and made me hope that soon my country
will make me proud once again, but we are going to have to dethrone our
king…………..

What does all of this have to do with online marketing?

Not a bloody thing.

Internet Marketing Mentoring and Coaching Center – IMMACC

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IMMACC

-  launched in August 201 when CEO Gerald Van Yerxa (my IMMACC sponsor) pulled the trigger with the name release during  a members only webinar.  Since then, the business has exploded.  Changing the name for what is arguably the internet’s best mentoring and coaching site from Big Ticket To Wealth to IMMACC has turned out to be a very great idea.

Big Ticket To Wealth, the predecessor to IMMACC, was first placed online in the fall of  2007.  The company was officially launched in January 2008, and it has grown exponentially ever since.

When the company first started out, it provided its members with a huge library of flash videos, e-books and other internet marketing resources.  Early members had access to weekly trainings that were usually archived for viewing 24/7.

By the summer of 2009, the archives of weekly trainings became so substantial, that it became the most valued asset of the company and the branding of Big Ticket To Wealth was changed to that of a mentoring and coaching business.

This change in branding resulted in even more growth, and by the summer of 2010, there was over 700 hours of original proprietary training available for members.  These trainings reside in over 170 different training theatres and cover 51 different types of marketing.

Internet Marketing Mentoring and Coaching Center Name Change

With the new name, Internet Marketing Mentoring and Coaching Center, IMMACC is how it will be marketed, the company is poised to explode even faster.  The new name should attract more brick and mortar businesses that are now beginning to realize that they have neglected to focus on branding online.

IMMACC members also receive an incredible affiliate program.  This program pays a minimum of $1000 for every sale.  When a member makes a sale, their sponsor also receives a minimum of a $1000 override.  This “matching override” results in amazing team work and has created some insanely huge incomes for successful IMMACC affiliates.

The focus in IMMACC is on marketing online with there being an emphasis of the free organic methods of marketing.  These techniques work for any business.  There are many members in IMMACC that have decided to not market the affiliate program and that use the education to enhance the marketing presence of their brick and mortar business or other home business.  There are also many IMMACC members that market the affiliate program but also run other online businesses using the skills that they learned from IMMACC.

Bury The Competition – My New Product For Small & Home Business Owners

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In May, 2010, I launched a course called Bury The Competition.  This course is designed to teach small, home and local business owners how to capitalize on the power of the search engines.  I really believe that most business owners have no clue how to get their products, services and opportunities in front of the millions of people that are likely looking for them.

Look for more in this blog about “Bury” in the future.  Till then, you can check it out here:

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Local Marketing Seems To Be The Hot New Area For Search Engine Specialists

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I have watched as virtually all of the big-time gurus have pushed the whole “internet marketing for local businesses” deals.  Howie Schwartz, Andy Jenkins, Frank Kern and many other big named marketers have been constantly talking about the lucrative field of consulting small businesses.

Last week, Mike Koenigs of Traffic Geyser launched “Main Street Marketing”.  That program will probably end up being the largest launch of the year.  As a Traffic Geyser affiliate, I received all of the notices about the launch and was amazed that that program generated nearly 1.4 million dollars in the hour BEFORE the public launch.

I have been consulting with small businesses for a while now, and I can tell you that it is a fruitful business.  Traditional brick and mortar businesses really have no idea how to market on the internet.  Most of them have websites, but they use them as glorified online brochures.  They do not generate traffic to their websites because they don’t know how.

Some of the more astute local businesses might hire a web consulting firm, but many of those businesses really don’t know how to market on the internet.  Web development companies and people that know how to build websites are technicians and artists.  They are NOT marketers.  Many of them don’t have a clue on how to build a website that will make a sale.  They also don’t know how to build a website that will create a lead.

It is rare that I see any call to action in local business websites, and lead generation is the most important part of marketing online for most internet marketing experts.

Helping local businesses with their online presence can be a very lucrative market, but it takes real work and most businesses and wannabee consultants do not understand what is involved.  Finding businesses with an open mind that are willing to invest some of their resources and time in  online marketing is really the key to consulting success.  The customers that have worked closely with me have gotten the most dramatic results from my services.

After all, if you are a landscaper, dentist, lawyer, accountant, floral shop owner, personal trainer, contractor or any other type of business person, you should know much more about your business than I do and should therefore be better able to help brand your business online.

Unfortunately, there are a limited number of people that I can help, so I will be coming out with a product in May 2010 that will guide business owners through the whole online marketing minefield.  Hopefully, they will be willing to go through a 24 week tutorial that will help them put their businesses on the front page of the search engines.

More to follow.

Proof That Longtail Keywords In Videos Rank High On Google

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Thought I would show people how well longtail keywords can rank in Google. I took some keyword research that my friend Gerald Van Yerxa did for his company Big Ticket To Wealth, and I made a video about those words and used the words in the title of the video.

Here are the results!

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Surfing Other Opportunities For Your Own Marketing Success

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Importance Of Surfing Other Opportunities For Your Own Marketing Success

I get emails all of the time from people that are “reverse marketing” me for their opportunities. This is a shrewd and effective practice because many people are so used to failing at their home business efforts that they will often jump from program to program. It is not that hard to get people to think that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. [click to continue…]

Mentorship Program Exploding: Is It The Season Or Economy?

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In early 2006, I started looking at online marketing as a possible way to provide for my family and simplify my life. I was tired of employees and all of the usual struggles of traditional business. I spent a great deal of time surfing the net. I checked out companies like EDC Gold, Liberty League, Jay Kubassek (pre carbon copy pro) and others.

I ended up joining a company called Big Ticket To Wealth. I did very well with Big Ticket and learned a lot about online marketing. My experience with Big Ticket has enabled me to branch out into many other areas of online marketing…………….and I have been successful with every nearly everything that I have gotten involved with.

An interesting thing started to happen this past summer. My Big Ticket traffic started to pick up. At the same time, Gerald Van Yerxa changed his approach to marketing Big Ticket and loaded up his system with tons of new trainings. This confluence of events has turned his mentorship program into a system that truly converts. It is exploding on a daily basis and I am back promoting it with all of my heart. Here is a copy of the simple video that I did that has been converting so well. Let me know what you think about it. Comment, rate, stumble and digg it………………………and if you are interested in having some 5 figure weeks……………perhaps you should check it out. It is doing well for me!

I created a new landing page just to see what would happen and could not believe the traffic. The video I put on it was very basic, but people obviously are attracted to the whole concept of learning how to effectively market online.

All online marketers know that there is a traditional increase in activity online in the fall, but I believe that the bad economy is also encouraging people to look for alternatives to make money.

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