Monetization Magic

Colorado Website Development

What IS an Income Producing Website?

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photo-laptop-moneyQuite simply, an income producing website is a website that produces more money than what it takes to keep it running each month.  Every business person knows that it takes money to have a website and to keep it running.  There are domain names to be purchased and hosting companies to pay to allow your website to be housed on their systems.  Typically this amount is less than $20 each month.  Business owners don’t mind spending money on their business if they know that they are getting a return on their money.  If your website is not producing money for you, it might as well be an unlit billboard on a desolate desert highway in the middle of the night!  Fortunately, there IS something that you can do about it.

Begin by finding out who sees your website.  This will simply tell you about the traffic your website receives today.  Think of this as being point A.  This will tell you the good news and the bad news.  The good news is you’ll know where people are going on your website and how long they stay.  The bad news is you’ll know how small the traffic stream really is.  You can find out who sees your website by installing Google Analytics on your website and allowing it to gather statistics while you work on the other items in this article.

Think about your ideal customer.  If you can identify one customer in particular, an actual person with a pulse and a name, that is best.  What are this customer’s needs in relation to your business?  What do they buy?  If they were to look for something to satisfy their need or problem and they wanted to use Google to search for a solution to their need or problem, what would they type into the search field to find that solution?  What location do you want to service?  Where is your ideal customer located?  These are the items that make up your basic key words for your website:  customer problem, customer need, location, services offered, best selling items.  Your keywords need to be used on your website and in the content that you produce for your website.

Your customers are interested in your products and services and they want to know more about your business.  This gives you an opportunity to create meaningful content to place on your website.  Sell the sizzle of your product!

Your website has the ability to sell your products and services even when your business is closed.  Allow it to do just that by providing a way for your customers to book their own appointments, email you, buy products from you, interact with polls about upcoming products that you’re thinking about offering, finding out about upcoming events and purchasing tickets to those events.  Make it easy for the customer to interact with your site and they will continue to come back. 

Just having a website is a great first step.  Setting up the website to work for your is a wise business move because it begins to work for you and will free up your time and resources so that you can concentrate on your core business. 

Business Processes Create Business Bliss

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Every business has it’s processes.  Sometimes they are something as simple as a tickler file in a cabinet so that you know when to initiate a certain activity.  It can be how you answer your phone, how to process a payment or refund, how you interact with your customers or even how you deliver your service.  The processes can be as complicated as a fully integrated software sequence with checks, balances and validations at every step of the way.  Your business processes may begin looking somewhat like the course shown in this video:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MejbOFk7H6c&feature=player_embedded

What is your business standing on?  Taking the action to begin defining the processes is a great first step.

Business Processes Serve the Business.

The complexity of the business process can enable or constrict a business.  Business processes need to be modified as a business grows.  When the processes are not designed for flexibility from the outset, they can create complexity where none is needed.  This will show up with extended time frames for getting some action done.  It will show up with people who circumvent the process as it was designed which oftentimes causes other things to break.  It can show up as confusion and chaos in the day to day operations.  The business process needs to serve the highest good of the business which is meant to produce the highest profit with the least amount of effort.  When business processes are designed properly, they work fluidly with little stress and a very high amount of efficiency.

Business Processes Ensure Quality Remains Constant.

This can be a double edged sword.  Processes ensure that your quality remains the same.  Growth requires some amount of change.  How do you remain the same while changing?  This can happen in a phased sequence.  You don’t have to change everything at once.  You can create the new process and implement the new process a step at a time knowing that it won’t be perfect from the beginning and giving yourself the latitude to make adjustments along the way to perfection. 

Start small.  Pick something like regular hours or answering the phone or producing your newsletter to start with and create a process around it.  It can be as simple as writing down the steps on a piece of paper and executing the steps on a consistent basis.  Once you’re able to execute the steps without disruption from unknown factors you can move to the next logical step. 

Business Processes Provide Structured Platforms.

You can use the step you just completed as the launch pad to give you the structure necessary to move business upward to the next level.  When you find your self in a place where you’re fighting fires all day long, fight the fire in front of you and fight a second fire proactively.  Over time you will find that you begin to run out of fire and processes begin to work to bring order to your environment.  Once you have order, then you can begin to grow knowing that it will again become a little chaotic until the new process is refined.

 

 

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Monetization Series

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We’re kicking off the year with a series of training events on how to monetize your existing business.  If you’re just starting out, these training events will help you too.  The trainings are 3 hours in length and cover some amazing content.  This is the roll up your sleeves information that you need to actually get into action.  No fluff. No hype.  This is the real deal!

Just as results come from our thoughts which are transformed into our feelings which is typically transformed into action, I want you to get the results.  It’s great to receive great information; however, most folks get all motivated and then somewhere on the way to the action step, something happens…maybe confusion sets in or life happens or something doesn’t work out right and the action step doesn’t quite get put into place.

Well, no more, I say!  I want you to get the awesome results that you’re after so I’m including a Q&A call after the training call so that you’ll have time to put the training into action and if something is not working right, you can ask questions and get back on track!  What?!  You mean I get support for the training?!  Yes!  That’s right!  This is Build It Yourself training; however, you can consider it your “Get It Done” training.  I want you to get the pieces done so that you can move on to the more exciting bits of what you do!

Yes, we’ll be dealing with technology; however, I want to help you through and shield you from as much of the crazy coding as possible.  We’ll be doing some cutting and pasting but that’s about the worst of it.  You don’t need to be intimidated by technology any more!  You can literally look over my shoulder as I do the actual work to get these items done (as in “off your to-do list!”).  As a bonus, you may also get some insider information from me along the way about no cost and easier ways of getting these items done.

The topics for the training events are as follows:

  • Build Your Bodacious List
  • How to Build an Income Producing Website
  • Traffic Creation Made Easy
  • Newsletter Creation Made Easy
  • Time Leveraging for the Already Overwhelmed
  • Social Media for Lead Generation
  • 10 Steps to eBook Creation
  • How to Create Your First Audio Series
  • Membership Programs
  • How to Automate Your Operations (and get your sanity back)
  • Teleseminar Creation
  • No List Marketing:  What to do while you’re building the list
  • How to Use Webinars to Expand Your Circle of Influence
  • How to Create Joint Ventures
  • Proper Pricing Strategies
  • Creating Holiday Cash
  • Creating Workshops
  • Product Creation

Note the exact names for these events will likely change; however, the topics will remain the same.  Most of these events will include live training, webinars and the Q&A call after you’ve had time to implement the material.  The live training and webinar will both be 3 hours in length.  That is 7 very full hours of content!  The training will be held on the weekends.

I’m attempting to accommodate folks from all walks of life which different demands on their time so some of the training is held on Saturday morning, some on Sunday afternoon.  If you are unable to attend the training due to physical or time constraints, it’s no big deal, it’ll be recorded so you can catch up on your schedule.  You can even submit your questions to me for the upcoming call on the AskSoftwareGirl! tab and I’ll do my best to address your question on the recorded Q&A call so even if the Q&A call happens in the middle of your night, you can rest assured that your concerns will be addressed.

Each of these trainings is easily a $397.00 value.  If you register early enough, you will receive significant early bird pricing.  For example, the Build Your Bodacious List class will be this weekend, January 7, 2012 and there is current early bird pricing for registration of $97.00 available on the Monetization Series page at http://monetizationmagic.com/monetization-series/.

 

 

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Create Your Own Groupon – Part 2

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Don’t cut your own throat.

Sometimes it’s ok to give an incredible deal as long as you know it will bring you more business not take money out of your pocket.  This is especially true if you are a small business. You can do many things as a small business to expand your business that doesn’t cause you to lose money as in the case of our example bakery.

Have everyone who responds register for an awesome give-away.

When running the special, offer an even bigger ridiculous special for one lucky person.  Have everyone who is getting the first special register for the 2nd one.  On the registration, collect name, email and phone number.  The name and email you can use to communicate with the customer later and the phone number is to notify the winner.

Use the media to your advantage!

While you’re having the special, take a moment out to have the media interview you on TV.  Create press releases for your business.  Do an exclusive interview on the radio.  Make sure you record both interviews to place on your website and then you can include an “As Seen On” badge for your website.

How to create your own?

Perhaps you’re a little leary of partnering with Groupon for your business expansion but you do still want to do something?  The good news is that you can.  Hold a one day sale.  You can do it online or in your business.  Create 1,000 flyers with your incredible offer.  Hire someone to place the flyers on doors within a certain radius of your business.  Then follow the rest of the tips outlined in this article.  This way you control your exposure and you can start small.

Use your small size to your advantage.

Small businesses are great because you can change direction on a dime!  You don’t need to wait for some board of directors to approve your decision once you have come up with a great idea.  You can execute it as soon as you want.  You could do a one day sale every month.  Consider partnering with a nearby school and offer them a portion of the profits of the sales from your one day sale.  If the first one works out well and you still want to expand your reach, do another sale and hand out more flyers or include another school.  You could also include another business for instance, if you’re a pizzeria and you’re having a sale, you could offer a free skate session from the roller rink down the street.  Get creative, make some money and have fun!

What are some of the sales or Groupons that you have done in the past that have worked well?  Let’s hear about it!  Leave your comment below.

 

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Create Your Own Groupon – Part 1

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Using Groupon can be very exciting for a business.  Sometimes it can be too exciting.  Take for example this bakery in the UK who says they lost $19,500.00 due to having to pay for supplemental labor during the Groupon special.  The bakery owner underestimated how popular the special would be and 8,500 people signed up for the offer.  What was the offer?  12 cupcakes for $10 which were normally priced at $40.  She lost between $2.90 and $4.70 on each dozen.

What can be learned from this?  The bakery owner’s goal was more business.  Obviously Groupon upheld their end of the deal there.  It sounds like in this case, too much of a good thing was…well, too much!

Limit Your Exposure

Groupon does allow you to limit your offer so if you know you’re not willing to bring in extra staff and train them for the rush that Groupon will create, limit the offer to the first X number of orders.  The trick is managing the mind tricks that will inevitably come when the rush is over and you tell yourself, “Gee, I bet we could’ve done 50 more orders”.

Know What Your Normal Staff Can Handle

The worst thing that could happen is that your staff is stressed during the offer and they walk out on you leaving you with an enormous amount of offers that you cannot fill.  Look at your current production.  Are you able to handle any more orders without bringing in help?  Ask your team for their input.  If they don’t think they can handle and extra 2500 orders or whatever your limiter is, then there’s your answer.

Bring in Extra Help and Train Them

Have a meeting with your team based on the questions you asked them about the temporary increase in production.  You did ask them, right?  Our example bakery was only used to making 100 cupcakes a month.  Let your team know that their jobs are secure and that you are bringing in extra help for the Groupon offer only and you’ll be letting the temporary help go after the offer expires.  Also let your team know that you’ll be treating them to something special after the offer expires as a thank you for their assistance during the busy time.

Give a coupon or book of coupons for repeat business.

With each Groupon offer that you fulfill, include a coupon or book of coupons for special offers that you will be having on your own over the course of the next year.  This will cost you very little and the payoff can be huge!  Get creative with the offers such as buy one get one, refer a friend and get half off, buy 2 get 3rd free and so on.  By extending the specials over the course of the year, there are many ways for that customer to return to you.  Most customers will only take you up on one or two coupons through the course of the year.

Check back for more ideas in the second part of this article which will appear in a few days.

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Advertisements that get read

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FACT:  90% of SMS messages are read in the first 5 minutes.

FACT:  95% of 18-24 year olds text.

FACT:  94% of messages are read.

FACT:  292 Million U.S. cell phones

Text messaging is the whisper in the ear of your potential clients.  Even in a crowded room or meeting, they will still get your message.  Text messaging will often work when an actual phone call will not.  If you are a small business owner, this is a MUST HAVE due to it’s effectiveness and affordability.  You could potentially create your own special every day of the week to drive traffic to your business.

Imagine you own a restaurant and it’s a slow day.  You’d really like to pump up your sales but what do you do?  What if you had a way to notify all your customers of a 20% off deal to all your interested customers at 11:15 just in time for the lunch rush?  Do you think that would make a difference?  You bet it would and you can do this just by sending a text!

 display

Display

Display your text-2-join keyword on table tents, menu’s, posted signs and of course your web site if your restaurant has one. If the offer is enticing enough a potential customer will see it and happily join for the incentive of a discount or a free item of food clients anywhere they go.

Collect

Use other alternative means to collect some of your valuable customers information. Raffle off prizes with tickets where customers can fill out their information. Have a line printed on the bottom of the receipt check that allows for a mobile number. Add the web opt-in widget to the sign up page on your web site.

collect

broadcast

Broadcast

When you are having a slow day with sales, send out a mass message to your list of clients and sit back and watch them flow in. Give updates on promotion and sales you’re offering. Keep your regular clients updated with new products you may be adding to your menu.

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Examples

text examples

Reach customers instantly

Use text message marketing to reach your customers when you want to speak to them. Don’t rely on them to wait and think about your business, get their attention and make them think about your services. Send broadcasts out around lunch hour to catch the business rush or broadcast your happy hour specials to get them after they leave work.

Contact your entire staff in seconds!

Ever had a missed shift? Need to bring in some more people to deal with an unexpected crowd? Shoot a text message to all your employees in few seconds and get back to dealing with running your business.

Changing your hours of operation?

Notify all of your customers that you’ll be closing early or staying open later. They will appreciate the advance notice since they wouldn’t have found out until it was too late.

Celebrating a holiday?

Send your customers a happy holiday’s greeting. They will greatly appreciate it and remember the friendly atmosphere that you have in your restaurant. This will help with developing customer referrals and bringing in new business.

 

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World’s Greatest Online Business Intensive

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The World’s Greatest Online Business Intensive is a 5-day seminar of intensive learning where you can literally walk in with no knowledge, no niche, no technical know how and literally walk out with a business in the palm of your hand!  It will be held in beautiful Colorado Springs November 7-11, 2011.

Participants will learn everything from how to turn on a computer to how to create and operate an online website, blog, membership site and affiliate program.  The seminar is being held at the Colorado Springs Mariott and lunches will be catered daily.  There will be a kick-off meet and greet Sunday evening prior to the seminar.

Joan Pounds, a 23 year veteran in the information technology industry will be leading the 5-day intensive.  The class size will be limited to 50 people to ensure a more intimate learning environment.  To learn more, you can visit http://monetizationmagic.com/wgobi/

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