Do you have a blog?  Do you want more traffic to that blog or to your website or online store?

If so, I want to invite you to join me in doing some NO COST marketing for your business over the next 30 days!

You see a blog is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website, eBay store, ecommerce site or anywhere else you sell.

Not only is your blog your home on the internet, blogs are favored by Google, provide inbound links to your website or store, give you a place to sell directly from, help you establish your expertise in a niche, and are very “sticky” (meaning customers will stick around.)

Blogs do all this and more…

IF…

You update them with new posts!

Problem is, most people don’t which renders their blogs USELESS.

All that good, free, traffic going to waste.

30 Day Blog Challenge!

That’s why my good friend and Internet strategist Dr Jeanette Cates is hosting the 5th “30 Day Blog Challenge!”

You’ll find all the info here.

Participation is free.

PS: Think blog marketing isn’t productive?

Last night I checked my traffic stats and found that my BLOG had generated 7 TIMES more traffic than a PAID marketing program that cost me several thousand dollars last year!

Now do you see why I’m doing the 30 Day Blog Challenge.

C’mon with me and let’s get some marketing done in June!

Lisa

William Shakespeare never ran an online store, but if he’d had the opportunity, I have no doubt he could have been successful.

Why?

Because William Shakespeare understood the importance of timing…

He once wrote…

“Timing is everything. There is a tide in the affairs of men  which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.”

The same applies to your online business.

Selling successfully online means paying attention to the change in seasons, the change in what your customers are buying and making the the right changes in your business at the right time to ride the wave of momentum towards  future fortune.

In short, it’s all about timing.

Now when many people think about summer, the word vacation comes to mind. But if you’re an online entrepreneur, don’t plan on taking the entire summer off!

Because… to quote another famous saying “You snooze, you lose.”

The summer is a golden opportunity for you to make some smart moves that will set you up to make more profits the rest of the year.

11 SMART Moves to Make This Summer (to Put Sizzle in Your Sales This Year)!

1. Put the plethora of available talent to work! Throngs of teens, college students, even your own children are looking for a way to make some extra money during the summer. Summer is the perfect time to enlist the help you might otherwise not have access to all year. Your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, the neighbor kids, etc. would be thrilled to have a great summer job a few hours a week working for YOU.

The pool of qualified workers for straightforward home based business tasks mushrooms during the summer. Yet the home based business sector is the least likely to take advantage of this opportunity. And what’s ironic of course, is that home based business owners need reasonably priced labor most of all!

I  already sat down with my own kids and outlined what projects are available this summer in the business and what they’d like to do. And they’re thrilled!

NOTE:  I am not a lawyer or tax adviser. You’ll want to be sure and check the specific laws in your state when contracting children under age 18 to work for you. If you are actually going to hire a son or daughter, check with your accountant first.  And get clear on the number of hours you can bring someone in to work with you before the IRS requires you hire them as an employee.

I recommend bringing people in on a project by project basis.  i.e. photographing inventory, or organizing the office etc. If you do bring someone in to ship products a few times a week or do other tasks on an hourly basis, make sure they fill out a time sheet and that you track their time worked.  Dot every “i’ and cross every “t” but take advantage of this ideal opportunity to grow your business.

2. Snap up the sumptuous samplings of available inventory . If you sell unique one of a kind items online, the summer is your oyster. Yard sales abound, flea markets are in full swing, thrift stores are marking down their inventory.  In fact some of my clients brings in a team during the summer, just  to help them scour the city yard sales, estate sales and thrift stores several times a week.  They do 60% of their product sourcing from May – Sept.  With a team help them, they can cover 10 times the territory that they could cover on their own.

With the sunny summer weather comes the desire to clean out the house and have a yard sale.  This makes for a product sourcing cornucopia.

3. Contact suppliers for sizzling hot deals. End of season merchandise, pre-season specials, you name it!  Now’s the time to call and ask your supplier what summer deals they have available. Or take a trip and do some local product sourcing.  Heading to hot Atlanta? Visit the AmericasMart merchandise mart while you’re there.  Check with your accountant about writing off a part of the trip as a business expense.

4. Last call for holiday importing. Been thinking about importing new merchandise for the holidays? Better get the show on the road – because if you wait past mid-July it will be too late to get it in time for the holiday selling season.

5. Wave the flag and make sure your customers don’t forget you! Keep marketing!  Just because your customers are at the beach, on vacation, or enjoying the great outdoors, doesn’t mean that you should stop marketing to them.  Email marketing is still the best way to connect with your customers on a regular basis.  And people who receive emails from online retailers spend on average 138% more than than those who don’t receive emails.  Keep in mind that between Smartphones, Netbooks and iPads your customer may very well be at the beach while she is reading your email and shopping at your online store.

And make your marketing fun! Tie it to the 4th of July holiday or pick an obscure summer holiday like Bloomsday (June 16th) or Sewing Machine Day (June 13th)  or National Pink Day (June 23rd) and tie a related promotion to that.  Make it fun!  It’s summer!

6. Retail resale is real swell during the summer. Lego sets at 90% off. Wet suits discounted 60%.  Pre- back-to-school sales previews what will be the hot holiday products. It’s all there waiting for you at your local retail store. By July 5th, brick and mortar stores will be transitioning to their back-to-school inventory. You can pick up some GREAT deals in you local store and bring that inventory online for your global customer base.

Which brings me to… yep, dare I say it?   The holiday selling season!

7. Stock up now for the holiday selling season. Even though you’re wearing a bathing suit and sitting by the lake, your need to spend some time thinking, planning and sourcing for the holiday season. If you’ve been tracking the trends for 2010 in your category, you should already have an idea of what will be hot in  your category for Christmas. And for some categories, especially the toy category, NOW is the time to head to your local retail store and stock up on those hot sellers you can’t get from a wholesaler.

8. Sit under a tree, envision and plan. Did you know that envisioning what you want your business to look like, then planning it out on paper will make you money? In fact, without a vision and a plan, I can guarantee you won’t hit your goals. Next time you’re sitting under a tree, don’t just watch the grass grow.  Take a few of those summer days and purposefully get away from you desk, pack a lunch and head to the park to work.

Bring a notebook, a pen and let your mind flow.  Think about your business. What you from it.  What you want your day and your life to look like. Let all the creative business ideas you have in the back of your head come flooding back into your consciousness.  And let them flow onto the paper. By the time you’re done, you’ll have numerous profit generating ideas documented, a mind that’s clean and clear – ready for NEW ideas to grow and the empowering feeling of knowing that you are in charge of your business as the CEO, rather than beinghe business every day.

9. Clean sweep your product line. Throw open the windows, let the sun shine in and dig in to those boxes of inventory that need to be listed an sold! Have anything that will sell on Amazon? Box it up and ship it to Amazon FBA.  Let them handle the packing, shipping, customer service and while you spend your time being the CEO of your company with a focus on growth, marketing and bringing in new inventory.

10. Get organized! There is a direct relationship between the amount of clutter you have and the amount of income you can make. Over the years, I’ve consulted with many types of  clients – those who are neat as a pin and those work work in a “lived in” office.  And I’ve never once have a worked with a client whose income didn’t improve when they cleared out the clutter!

While you’re clean sweeping your product line, it’s a perfect time to clear out the clutter. It’s also a opportunity to hire a  Neat Nellie teen and let them have at it.  (And for those who think such a bird does not exist, I’ve had three of my 13 year old son’s friends beg me to come help with my organizational projects this summer because they “love to organize”.  (PS: So far it’s all been girls who have offered.)

Buy shelves, label your inventory, take inventory! and put it in a spreadsheet. Get your paperwork filed.  If you haven’t filed your tax returns yet, find the forms and finally get that refund.

11. Implement One New Thing In Your Business You’ve Never Done Before. There’s something about the summer sun (maybe all that Vitamin D?) that brings out the adventuresome spirit in us. A vacation spot you’ve never been to before, a taste of an exotic summer fruit, maybe a spin around the lake on a Seadoo or camping out under the summer stars…

Why not apply your adventuresome  summer spirit to your business and challenge yourself to implement something different in your business over the summer.  Maybe it’s a trek into video, testing a new product line, creating a Facebook Fan Page. Maybe it’s sending out your first email marketing campaign!

In fact, I’ll even go one better – I’ll put out a challenge to everyone  – implement something new in your business this summer and then come back to this post and tell me what you did!  The winner will get something cool.

Sales Happen When Preparation Meets Opportunity

There’s a Chinese Proverb that says “Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.”

The same is true of your sales.  If you use the dogs days of summer like one smart puppy and do a little every day to to get ahead of your competition. Come fall, when everyone wakes up out of the summer haze realizing that the biggest selling season of the year is right in front of them, and they’re not prepared… you’ll be sitting in your nice clean office, watching your products sell, calm and relaxed and excited about your sales figures this year…

Now that’s a long cool drink of lemonade!

-Lisa

PS: If you make a plan and do a bit every day, you’ll be able to put the sizzle in your sales and still have plenty of time to enjoy your summer!

In the past two weeks I’ve received no less than 7 emails from “gurus” enticing me to make a purchase of their products by promising to sell  me “the secret to success”.  Normally, I just observe these email subject lines with the critical eye of a copywriter, but today one that I received really pushed my hot button.

It wasn’t the email subject line itself that was really the problem, in fact the subject line really isn’t that important. It was the same old schlock that you probably receive in your inbox on a daily basis. What made me made about this email subject was the tone. It was dripping with condescension. Carrying with it the message of “I’m the guru, I know everything and you don’t.”

I was just about to go into a 2 hour coaching session with my Business Growth Group and I quickly added a slide to my presentation to talk about this topic – a topic that makes many would-be (and established) business owners feel inadequate, hopeless and spend tons of money on products and services for all the wrong reasons.

I wanted to share with you what I shared with my coaching group, because I think it will be helpful and make a difference in the way you approach your business from here on out…

Have you ever looked at someone else’s successful website and wondered what “secret” they know that you don’t?

Well you don’t have to wonder anymore.  Because I’m about to share with you the “secrets” of selling successfully online so you can get down to the business of building a business and not spend one more minute looking for the secret that doesn’t exist.

1. There is no “secret” to success, only information, strategies, and insights you have yet to learn. In eight years online, running a successful business, I have never found a “secret” that unlocked the door to the golden room of success. Oh I’ve bought and paid for “secrets”. Especially in my early years online. I’ve bought enough secrets to fund a brand new car. But did I learn any secrets? No. I’ve learned solid information, gained valuable insights, and implemented sage strategies.  But never once was there a secret in that slick packaged guru product. Not even the wildly popular “The Secret” was really a secret. If you’re going to buy from a guru, buy the technique, strategy or information they are selling, but don’t buy it for the secret.

2. If you are not getting the results in your business that you would like, there is a concrete reason. That reason could be that you aren’t getting enough traffic to your website or store.  It could be that your salespages aren’t converting to sales.  It could be that you aren’t selling products people want. But the answer is right there waiting to be found, if you are willing to look for it. Successful business owners have looked at their business found out what is or isn’t working and increased what is working while changing what isn’t working.

3. Just because a business model works, doesn’t mean it’s right for you. Every week I talk to new business owners who want to start an online retail business by purchasing inventory from wholesale suppliers, but they don’t have cash or credit available to make those inventory purchases. Add to that, many have a need for immediate cash flow. They are pursuing the wrong business model. Can you make a go of an online retail business from wholesale products in 2010?  Sure. Does it require cash or credit to buy inventory and build a product line?  Absolutely.  If you have no money at all to invest in inventory, your first goal should be to focus on a  business model that generates cash flow.  I call them mini-profit machines.  A business model centered around affiliate marketing or selling your expertise as a service (trading time for dollars), or selling everything around your house that’s not nailed down or doing the yard sale circuit for 6 months until you get enough seed money to invest in your long term business model.

4. You have to give up something. Very few people selling “how to make money from home” want to say this to you.  You need to sacrifice things in your daily life in order to make your business a success. Maybe it’s your nightly TV shows.  Maybe it’s a few hours of sleep a week. Maybe it’s bigger.  Vacations with the family. Putting off buying that new car so you can invest in your business.  As a single parent, if I sat down with you and told you the sacrifices I’ve made and that my children have made so that I could grow a successful business, you’d be shocked. In the early days of running my business we missed vacation after vacation, because I had a business to run and at the time there was not enough money to bring in help.  So the kids and I had staycations instead. I’m writing this blog post at 4:21am, because both my kids have sporting events tomorrow and I have several things I need to get done before we head out for the day.  Would I change things?  Not in a heartbeat. My children love having a role model for hard work and reward. Next to having kids, creating a business out of nothing is the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done. It can be the most rewarding thing you’ve ever done. But there will be sacrifices.

5. Learn one new thing and implement it before you move on to learn the next new thing . The other day I got an email from a very nice woman who is a member of my Business Growth Group. She said “Lisa, I’ve read everything you’ve written, watched all the videos and still my sales have not increased.  Can you help me?  I don’t know what I’m doing wrong?” I went to her eBay store and looked at it. She hadn’t implemented one thing that we teach in the Business Growth Center.  I asked her about it.  She said “I know, I’ve been meaning to do it, but I just haven’t had time because I’ve been busy learning.” We now have her on a new Learn 1: Implement 1 program. Each new thing she learns, she implements, then she moves on to the next. After one week on the Learn 1: Implement 1 program, she sold $256 worth of merchandise in one week.  Her previous month’s sales?  Zero.

6. The average conversion rate for online sales is 1-3%. Now this is one secret the gurus don’t want you to know!  This means for every 100 visitors to your website, you will make one to three sales. I remember the first time I heard this number.  My heart sunk to my shoes. But I was determined, so I figured “Ok, I’ll work with it.” Does average mean that you won’t have a higher conversion rate? Absolutely not.  You never want to be “average” in your business.  You always want to strive for above average. It also depends on what you sell.  If you sell physical products on eBay, a 50%, 75% even 90% conversion rate is entirely possible IF you are selling a hot product. But that’s not the average sell-through rate for most products on eBay. If you source one that sells at an 70% success rate, celebrate your good fortune and go source more of it. But I see people everyday who put up a website selling information products or physical products, or create an eBay listing or Amazon store and expect “a flood of visitors with a high conversion rate to happen just because their product is online. It doesn’t work that way.  There are things you can do to increase your conversion rate dramatically – like getting more high quality, targeted traffic and cultivating repeat customers. But that is the process of Kaizen, which means “continual improvement”.  It takes Kaizen to be successful and increase your conversion rates.

7. Time spent on Facebook  with Farmville is not time spent working. I love social media. And I’m not surprised by it’s mammoth success.  Why?  Because we humans are social creatures. We’re pack animals. We love to hang together and communicate. With so much of our lives and time spent on line in the period of time from the mid-nineties to the two-thousands, it was only a matter of time before our socializing moved online too. It’s the rare person who can sit isolated at their computer, not connecting with people.  The same is true of social media marketing and social commerce.  Shopping has always been a social activity.  Now we’re shopping socially online. Word of mouth marketing has always been the most effective marketing offline.  Now we’re doing social media marketing online.  But… just like there’s a difference in corporate America between sitting at your desk and working versus hanging out around the water cooler chatting, there is a difference between spending 30 minutes a day using Facebook or Twitter to do some marketing and playing Farmville or sending people jelly beans on Facebook or tracking Ashton Kutcher on Twitter. As an entrepreneur, you have to be very clear and very defined about when you are working and when you are not.  Can you schedule in a break to connect with your friends on Facebook?  Sure! But when you are in there for the purpose of marketing your business, you have to ignore all the friendly communications that are calling for your attention. Separating your play time from your work time will dramatically increase your success.

8. A true guru makes things easier not more complicated. The inspiration for this post was the gurus who are trying to sell you the secret to success, so I want to get back to that for a moment. Someone who is truly a guru will take a complicated subject and make it as simple as possible to learn and implement. They will empower their students by telling you and showing you that you can do this.  Gurus make things seem more complicated to make themselves look better and make themselves look indispensable. I’ve been online for 8 years now and I’ve never studied an online marketing subject that can’t be learned and applied by just about everyone. Not everyone can solve the Poincare’ conjecture (thought to be the world’s most difficult math problem). Most everyone can achieve success at some form of entrepreneurial online business if they apply what they learned to the right business model.

9. There is more than one way to skin a cat (my apologies to cats everywhere ) Gurus who try and sell you “the secret of success” will also tell you that their way is the right way.  The only way. That everyone else is wrong and that they are the only ones that have the answers you seek. Beware of gurus who tell you how complicated something is and then in the same breath tell you that they are the only ones who understand it and are the only ones who can help you.  After 8 years of running my own successful online business, I can tell you unequivocally that there is always more than one way to do something successfully. It doesn’t matter what you sell or where you sell it. Whether it’s information products, selling on eBay, affiliate marketing or straight up ecommerce, I have seen thousands of people achieve success using different techniques, different methods, contradictory methods and unlikely methods. Does this mean that there aren’t best practices? Not at all! Does this mean that there isn’t a right way and a wrong way to approach building a business?  Absolutely not.  What is does mean is that there is more than one right way to achieve success. And if someone tells you that their way is the only way, you need to learn what you feel is right for you from that guru, but don’t follow blindly. I’m frequently referred to as a “guru” in helping people start, run and expand their online business. But sitting here right now, writing this post, I could give you the names of at least 5 other “gurus” who you could successfully learn how to build an online business with. We each have slightly different approaches, slightly different communication styles, slightly different specialties, different programs and services, but we can all show you a path to success. How do you choose?  You have to choose the mentor/teacher who is right for you at this time. I’ve studied with some of the best on the Internet.  As I change and grow, and my business changes and grows, the people I study with and learn from change too.

10. Thomas Edison was right. “Genius” said Thomas Edison” is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”  And considering the man tried 1000 different times to create the light bulb before he succeeded, I think he’s qualified to speak to the topic of perspiration and hard work. Thomas Edison also said when asked about how he felt about failing 1000 times to invent the light bulb “I didn’t fail 1000 times.  The light bulb was an invention with 1000 steps.”  The same holds true for your online business. I like to say “There is no such thing as failure, only lessons learned.” The path to your successful business will entail a series of steps.  Some that work.  Some that don’t. It all gets back to point #2.  If you are not getting the results you want in your business, there is a concrete reason. The answer is right there waiting to be found, if you are willing to look for it.

As you can see there is a reason I rolled out of bed this morning at 4:00am to write this blog post. I felt this topic was important enough that I needed to share it with you in-depth.

I hope it has accomplished three things:

• Made you feel more confident in your own abilities to learn the ropes
• Stripped away any misleading beliefs that there are secrets only the chosen few know
• Saved you some money by not purchasing “secrets” from the next enticing email that lands in your inbox
• Shown you clearly and specifically ten of the factors that it takes to successfully build an online business.

There are more than just these 10.  And if you are interested in hearing more about them, pop me a note in the comments box below.

PS: Don’t just read this and think “great post” and go on to the next blog. Take this, print it out, post it on your wall. Read it regularly.  It will help you stay clear, focused and motivated. It will also save you time, money and disappointment on your path to success.

- Lisa

8 years ago this month I left my job in corporate America to strike out on my own.

I’d never run my own business.

I was a single parent of a 4 month old and a 4 year old.

I had a limited amount of savings.

And a few zero balance credit cards.

I had no support system.  I knew no other entrepreneurs.

All  my friends said I was crazy to leave the “corporate gravy train”.

I didn’t even tell my dad, because being a traditional European father I knew he would be sick with worry.

***************

What I DID have however, was a lifelong dream.

And a big “WHY”.

I’d wanted to start my own business since the age of 8.

(The same age as my youngest is now.)

And I also wanted to do it for my kids. So I could be home with them and be a part of their daily lives.

*************

Over the past 8 years I’ve sold physical products, information products, and affiliate products online.

I’ve taught thousands of entrepreneurs how to do the same, written a best-selling ecommerce book, presented on stage in front of thousands of people and been at the helm of the oldest ecommerce subscription site on the web, WhatDoISell.com

But lest you think that my life was touched by a magic wand or I was a lucky overnight success – that wasn’t the case.

**************

My first year in business was hell.

I was scared. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.

My efforts were inconsistent. I had nowhere to turn for support.

I was feeling tremendous pressure.

I had to bring in a steady income.  I had to make my business work, make it profitable, and make it happen FAST.

**************

So I went back to the one thing that had always gotten me through difficult times in the past.
The thing that kept me going, successful, and focused on my goals.

The thing that in every single case I had attributed my previous successes to.

Until now, I’ve only shared this with my private coaching students.

But in celebration of my 8 years as an online entrepreneur, I’ve decided it’s time to share it with you.

***************

After 8 years, it’s a new chapter in my life and my business.

Mindset Entrepreneur <<==  It can be a new beginning for you as well.

Your Partner in Online Selling Success,

PS: As soon as I made this change…

• Within a year I’d REPLACED 60% of my corporate income
• Within two years I’d SURPASSED my corporate income and launched
  two more businesses that were immediately profitable
• It’s now been 8 years and I’ve built a solid six-figure business that
  continues to grow every year and has always been the sole support of my
  family.

Click here to find out what I live by daily.