If you believe that your time is better spent in working with clients or networking with prospects, then a few dollars spent with a consultant that saves you hours of searching for answers is well worth it.  I’m also an expert in instruction online in using free and very low cost solutions to manage and market a small business.

There are business owners and managers who can tell you that the information I gave them saved them hundreds or thousands of dollars and a lot of time in getting their business operating efficiently and marketing on the Internet.

Email me now, or call me toll free at 866-289-8267 for help with your technology needs.  I’ll talk to you for 15 minutes at now charge to see if I can help you or steer you in the right direction.

Here’s how I charge for consulting, whether online collaboration or via telephone only.

Garbage in / Garbage out is also very true.  When you enter data into your CRM database, take the extra time to do it completely and accurately, correcting errors as you go.  Using the Google Forms I’ve written about here, you can do an easy import of the information into these databases.  However, if the site visitor has entered errors (likely), then correct them before or after the import.  I like to do it in the Google Spreadsheet before the export to .csv.

• Onsite service
• Sales not requiring a physical showroom
• Real estate
• Mortgage brokerage
• Insurance

There are many more, and it’s getting easier to take an office mobile, with netbook computers and cellular broadband connections.  Using an online intranet and a netbook over cell broadband, virtually every office management function can be accomplished in the mobile environment.

And, we’re talking about an up-front equipment investment for netbook and printer of less than $500, with ongoing costs under $60/month for cell broadband.  Can you rent office space for that, and keep the utilities on?  I’ll be doing an extensive series on Intranets and the mobile office, so subscribe to my feed or newsletter to keep up.  You’ll be glad you did if a mobile office is something you’d like to do.

With the right Intranet service, and I’ll show you which one, you can create custom databases for your business.  Then you can do everything from billing to inventory right from your netbook in the field.  Ain’t technology great?!

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I’ve had a Jawbone bluetooth headset for over a year, and love it.  I tried six others before this one, and couldn’t find one that had the features I wanted:

• Good ear piece fit via multiple replaceable ear buds
• Clear speech transmission and receiving
• Ambient noise suppression was very important

As you can see from the video, the noise suppression is amazing.  And the Jawbone met the other criteria as well.  Check out the rest of the story of Jawbone here.

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• Selection of keywords and phrases that are being used to locate information about your product or service
• Writing ads that will grab the attention of searchers when they are presented
• Developing landing pages that are focused on the key phrases you’ve selected
• Providing what they expected on landing pages, plus what you need for conversion
• Managing and adapting to increase CTR (Click Through Ratio) and relevance to get a higher quality score, better positions, and lower costs per click

It isn’t rocket science, but it is definitely a process that can be done wrong, wasting huge amounts of money with poor results.  Let’s start with the first item, selecting keywords and phrases that actually are being used by searchers to locate information about your product or service.

The Google Keyword Tool is what I use the most, as I’m committed to Google Adwords as the most prevalent key phrase marketing system on the Web.  There is another tool, their search-based keyword tool which is a good one if your product or service isn’t local.  It tends to suggest phrases that would be too broad for say a real estate agent, who must keep their budget tied to those looking for homes in a specific area.

So, using the regular keyword tool, we want to locate keywords, actually mostly phrases, that searchers are using to locate our product, service, and information on them.  Too broad, and we spend too much money, too narrow, and we reduce our results and business.  Here’s a quick introductory video on using the tool for a real estate phrase search (use small rectangle icon bottom right to enlarge to full screen):

[important]There’s more on this topic, plus a video, in the Premium Content below the Related Artciles.[/important]

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The plugin is WP-Invoice, and it’s great.  I installed it and set it up in just 10 minutes on the road.  I mean literally on the road, sitting in the right seat of the car working on my cellular broadband connection.  Setup was a breeze, and I did a sample invoice to check it out.  It emailed the invoice link to me, and I pulled it up, with a button to pay via PayPal.  It even handles recurring payments.

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Basically, I was about to take a trip and found that the hotel where I’d be staying wanted to charge me extra for Internet access.  I had been thinking of checking out using cell service for my Web access for a while, but this forced the issue.  I purchased the broadband modem at a mall kiosk on the way to the airport.  It only took a few minutes to install the software and get online access.

The speed is sufficient for everything I need to do on the road.  And literally, I’m typing this post in the right seat of the Jeep while my wife drives down I25 between Albuquerque and Santa Fe on the way home to Taos, NM.  Be careful though, as the supposedly “unlimited access” isn’t.  The allowance is generous, and probably will not cut you short for all your normal web work.  But, uploading a lot of large files or watching videos incessantly may take you into the overage charges … and you don’t want that.

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As I’m not selling PPC advertising, or even consulting services to set up effective PPC accounts, you can decide if you want to believe what I’m about to say.  “PPC, Pay per click marketing is one of the most effective, focused and measurable advertising venues ever devised!”

While that statement is true in my opinion, there are plenty of dismal failures to go right along with it.  Why?  Well, if a business person can see how sales can be made from their website, then they usually believe that PPC can be the way to get visitors there to buy.  So, they set up a campaign right away.  They buy some keywords and phrases, and they place their ads.

It’s amazing at first, as they begin to get visitors within hours.  The excitement builds, and they see a lot of visitors within the first few days if they worded their ads well and bid high enough for clicks.  As the dollars mount with the clicks, they begin to become concerned, as there aren’t any orders from all of these visits.

Then, after a pretty hefty budget is exhausted the first month, there still aren’t any sales.  They tell themselves that they should have listened to those who told them it is a waste of money to buy clicks, and the account is cancelled forever.  It happens all the time.  So, instead of just telling you that it does happen, let me tell you why.

1. They never should have opened the account and bid for the first click until they had done their research.
2. Their landing pages, the pages where the ads are set to take the visitors, are not set up to be successful and generate business.  Why?
   • The key word or phrase the visitors used to get there isn’t immediately visible on the page, letting them know that they have arrived at the information they wanted.
   • The information they want isn’t on the page.  Unless they entered a phrase like “order a blue widget,” then they probably want some information about blue widgets before they can be convinced to spend some money.  Not having that information quickly available on the landing page will cause them to leave.
   • Worst, you take them to your home page instead of a page created for the ad that brings them to the site.  Using the blue widget example again:  If they did that search, why would you take them to a home page for your company that makes widgets, gadgets, and thig-a-ma-jigs.  Too much of what they don’t want makes it hard for them to locate what they do want.
3. They didn’t research their key phrases, key the ads to each major phrase, and then key the page to the ad and phrase.  It’s a package.  The Internet searcher typing in “blue widgets” may or may not want to purchase today.  The searcher typing in “how blue widgets are made” definitely doesn’t want to buy, but they do want information.  Tie your page content to the search phrase and the ad, and you’ll keep that visitor longer, and perhaps entice them to order.

Notice the title of this post is “Before the First Click.”  This planning needs to be done first, with landing pages created for your major targeted key phrases.  THEN you can bid them and place the ads to get those visitors to the site.  They’ll find what they want, making it far more likely that they’ll convert to a lead or a sale as you desire.

For many years, the average real estate professional has spent huge sums of money for marketing both their business and their listed properties.  This money went toward:

• Newspapers
• Home Magazines
• Mailers of letters and post cards
• Promotional items like refrigerator magnets and ballpoint pens
• Television and radio

There are others, but these are the big money drainers.  Then, along came the Internet, and things have been crazy ever since.  As this is written, newspapers all over the country are failing or looking for revenue sources to replace dwindling advertising revenues.  Real estate and auto dealers are cutting print budgets dramatically.

So, if you’re spending money on websites and/or blogs, are you also paying someone to help with SEO, Search Engine Optimization?  SEO is another long set of posts.  You should be working on it, but PPC can get your site visited right now by focused visitors who want or need your products or services.  Set up an account, and you can have visitors in minutes that used your chosen productive keywords and phrases to locate you.

I have been doing PPC for real estate and other ventures for more than eight years.  I took their exam and qualified as a Google AdWords Certified Individual.  I’ve let that lapse, as I don’t consult on PPC anymore.  However, I will tell you that I don’t believe there is a more effective and targeted marketing method on the planet than a properly constructed PPC campaign.

My Taos Real Estate site gets around 200 targeted visitors every month on an ad budget of only $150.  Think about that a minute in relation to the traditional media we listed above.  What are you spending in newspaper, magazine and other marketing media?  Can you quantify the response rates?  Can you track them right down to their location on a map when they saw your ad?

PPC does all of this for you.  I couple my Google AdWords account with Google Analytics to tell me not only how many people are visiting my site, but where they are located.  But the best part is that these 200 or so visitors every month came to the site on these few key phrases:

• taos real estate
• taos nm real estate
• real estate in taos
• taos homes for sale
• taos land for sale

That’s it!  I don’t need any more, as these are placed as “phrase matches,” meaning they were typed in as you see them.  What can I expect?  I expect a visitor focused on buying or selling real estate in my market.  If I do a good job of getting them to the information and property searches they want when they click to the site, then I’m on my way to the bank with commission checks.

In my series on PPC, I’ll give you lessons on every aspect of setting up a PPC account, selecting keywords, setting budgets, and more.  I’ll show you how my ad is running right alongside of a competitor’s who told me just this week that they were spending more than THREE TIMES what I’m spending per click!  I’m getting the same exposure, but spending a lot less.  There are specific reasons for this that aren’t tricks, but solid methods for PPC marketing that will make it happen for you as well.

Actually, in the premium content below, I’ll give you a look at the current search for my top key phrase in Google, my ad and the competitor’s.  And I’ll give you the numbers they shared with me, as well as mine.

[important]There’s more on this topic, plus a video, in the Premium Content below the Related Artciles.[/important]

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I’ll just give you all the facts in the video. I’m showing you actual ads and cost numbers for Google Adwords for my real estate site.

When you sign up for an Intrante, or online office space, you get several features that are common to most all of them:

• Sharing of tasks
• Share calendars, appointments, meetings
• Document sharing for reading or for editing and updating
• Announcements section, like an online bulletin board
• Depending on Intranet vendor, other sharable features

Keep in mind, this is all online, so there is no software to install on your computer, and no network software to keep updated so all can have access.  You can set up varying levels of permission to users, letting them see or edit only what you want them to.  This gives you the ability to actually maintain files online that are specifically designated only for management, employee groups, or individuals.

In the next post about Intranets, I’ll introduce you to the one I highly recommend, as it also gives you the ability to create custom databases that can accomplish great things for your business.