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Browse published articles attributed to Kathleen Gage, with full-archive search.
One of the most important aspects of running a business, any business, is keeping your customer in mind. As obvious as these sounds, not everyone does it. A business cannot sustain itself without keeping the customer/client in the forefront. One way to fully serve your customers is with information products.
Niche Markets Narrow markets are often referred to as Niche Markets – A narrowly defined group of potential customers/clients. A niche market usually evolves based on market demand for a product or services. Niche markets can arise based on changes in society, technology or general environment. Product and service development to a niche market is the process of finding and serving pockets of customers in a profitable way by designing custom made products and services for the specified market. Niche Markets can be very profitable, even though they may be small.
When I moved from Utah to Oregon nearly seven years ago I had the opportunity to experience marketing from a powerful perspective: a consumer in need of numerous products and services. As I settled in, I realized what an incredible opportunity this is for countless businesses to increase revenues by tapping into the relocation market. Sadly, not many companies take full advantage of what could literally be a goldmine to their business.
One of the best ways to sell books (and lots of them) is with live presentations. Selling from the platform is a powerful way to move lots of books. However, it takes more than simply telling audience members to buy your book. Watch any author who does this well and it is truly “poetry in motion”. To an outsider it may look like someone who sells with ease was born with this talent. Nothing could be further from the truth.
"The vast majority of books make less than $100 a year,” according to John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books. Another book marketer says, "50% of the books published don't make even that much. In my experience, at least 90% of books will fail, maybe even 95-99%. Fail means the books earn less than $100 a year." I find this shocking and totally unacceptable. Why? Well for one thing, why would an author spend so much time writing a book that never gets read?
This is the time of year many people start thinking about setting goals for the coming year. Call it what you may, resolutions, intentions, outcomes, goals, it’s all the same. We set an intention to do something and more times than not, within a few days we give in, give up and say it’s just not worth it. Why is that? Why do we end one year, and begin the next with a specific outcome in mind and within a very short period of time go back to our old habit? Whether it be to lose weight, quit smoking, be more loving, increase revenues, or exercise more, it doesn’t take much for us to give up.r
Ask most solo-entrepreneurs why they are in business and they will tell you it’s to make a difference AND make money. Yet, the majority make the road to success much more difficult than it needs to be. In essence, they are sabotaging their success by what they do and by what they don’t do. Let’s begin by defining just what a solo-entrepreneur is. A solo-entrepreneur can be a speaker, author, consultant, coach or business advisor.
As might be expected, this is the time of year many companies set goals and outcomes for the coming year. Most likely these goals include increasing the client base and revenues while increasing profit margins. The sad truth is these are probably the same goals that are set every year and the strategies for achieving the outcomes are probably the same also. Why not use a smarter strategy? Cultivate relationships with your current client base. Make keeping in touch with your current clients a priority rather than always trying to only increase the number of clients.
Looking for a new way to get in front of potential book buyers? Try your hand at publishing a Kindle book. It's one of the easiest ways to get your material published...fast! I couldn't believe how simple the process was from the very first attempt. What's great is you don't need an ISBN to publish your Kindle version book. You can publish just about anything including: • eBooks • Reports • Articles • Blogs • Books • Transcripts The fact is, if you can write it you can publish in Kindle.
One of the primary reasons most entrepreneurs won’t achieve the highest level of success in their business is their lack of effective marketing. One of the most important types of marketing you need to learn is pull marketing. As the name implies, pull marketing is persuading consumers to visit your various online locations to get them to either buy something or subscribe to your opt-in list. It is about generating traffic to your website, blog, and landing pages.
If you’re an expert who has written a book or you are an “authorpreneur”, one of the most important things you can do is secure media interviews. When you’re on radio, television, podcast shows or in print, your credibility shoots up. Interviews are a great way to reach potential readers and ultimately, more clients. It’s important to stay extremely organized in the process. Not only do you want to keep very close track of who you’ve contacted, you want to make sure you don’t double book interviews.r
As one of the most popular social networking sites online, Facebook provides you the opportunity to promote yourself, your site, your business, your events, and your clients. Facebook, due to its social nature, creates a lot of opportunity to promote your products and services. However, this is not its only purpose. Always keep in mind that Social Networks are a place to build relationships. If you don’t spend time nurturing the relationships it is likely you will not gain much benefit from your time invested.
Most people would never guess that authors have some very common and debilitating fears. The three top are: Fear their book won't sell. Fear someone will criticize their writing. Fear they only have one book inside of them. Are these valid fears? Any fear can be a valid fear. This may not be the question one needs to ask themselves. A better question is, "How do I get through the fear?"
If you’re like most experts, you’re looking for ways to reach more of your market in order to build trust, create value and ultimately do business. One of the best ways to do this is to give potential customers and clients a “taste” of what you do by way of samples. Someone who perfected this model is Debbie Fields. As the story goes, when she first came up with the idea for a business Debbie tried to sell her cookies. Not many people were interested. Rather than give up, she put a “sample” plate together, going door to door, offering free cookies to whomever was willing to take some.
How often have you said, “Today’s the day!” regarding something you are committed to changing. Yet, by day’s end you either didn’t do what you said you would do or you did something that directly sabotaged your success? This often happens with experts who swear up and down they are going to write a book. As with anything, whatever you want to happen, it will only occur if it is in the forefront of your thinking and you put actions behind the thoughts.
I belong to several online authors’ groups. I like to stay on top of what other authors are doing, what’s going on in the publishing world and what some of the main areas of conce are for authors. A topic that often comes up has to do with being published by a traditional publisher compared to self publishing. As with anything, both have pros and cons. It's important to know that many of the most famous authors started as self published authors. Whatever your opinion about self publishing compared to traditional publishing there are as many opinions as there are authors.
Last evening, I had the good fortune of having dinner with my sister who is visiting from California. Over sushi we talked about how grateful we each are for our businesses. Lorraine is a fine artist who has built a very successful business over a number of years. I told Lorraine I feel so blessed to make a great living by way of the Internet; yet there is a downside that is not often talked about; people who want "just a minute of your time" but "I have no money to pay you".
As an expert, you likely experience lots of competition. You may be the best. You may have been in your industry the longest. You might have the most expensive education. On some level, none of that matters. What matters is the market’s perception of who you are. rnï Are you the “go to” expert? rnï Are you the expert that can help them solve their problems? rnï Are you the expert who is the “real deal?”
Regardless of what industry you’re in something that can position you as a credible expert is packaging your knowledge into high value content. Whether it be a report, article, MP3 or video, content is something that sets you apart from your competition. Unfortunately, the thought and the creation can be miles apart for many people. Whether it be due to lack of time, not knowing where to start or just needing a nudge to get started, one thing that can be a huge benefit to many experts isrnfinding a way to get an information piece completed in record time.
Ask many people to define the word habit and they give a negative definition. There is plenty of evidence that a habit can be bad; the habit of smoking, overeating, drinking, watching television and on and on. On the flip side, there are beneficial habits. The habit of exercising, eating healthy, meditating, saving money, or anything else that is part of living a life with passion. We were not born with our current habits. We conditioned ourselves to consistently do what are now bad habits and good habits. Often when a person wants to change a bad habit they think in terms of elimination.
You have likely heard, “The Gold is in the List.” This is a very true statement. One of the greatest mistakes I see many professionals make who want to make a great living online is not having a clear focus on building an opt-in subscriber list. It never ceases to amaze me how often people will hear that they need to build their list and yet, they put it off and take little, if any, action to build a highly responsive list. Where to start rnr
Those who are making a living by way of the Internet are always on the lookout for ways to increase their visibility. The more visibility one has that builds market recognition, the more likely an expert's credibility will increase. Gaining visibility is actually quite simple, but not always easy. The difficult part comes when you don't know who your market is and you seem to be spinning your wheels trying to gain visibility in front of the right potential buyers.
If you speak in front of enough audiences, you will have incredibly positive experiences AND you will have a few doozies. You know the kind, you’re in the middle of something and you wonder how you’re going to get through the experience. A huge part of minimizing the risk of something going wrong with your presentation for a specific audience is to find out as much as possible about the group you are presenting to.
Without a clear understanding of your market and what you have to offer you may make some of the common mistakes inherent to running a business You may spend time targeting the wrong market for your overall objectives. You may come across as only interested in the sale rather than someone who is interested in the customer’s needs. You may not be prepared when opportunity presents itself. You might appear desperate by not being willing to let go of a potential or existing client when the fit is incompatible.
“If we do not take urgent action to restore and protect our ocean we will soon face an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.” This is a direct quote from an article on the World Economic Forum blog. Full article here. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/06/if-we-dont-protect-ocean-humanitarian-disaster-world-oceans-day Choosing a whole food, plant based eating protocol goes much deeper than our own health. It directly impacts the health of our oceans and ultimately our environment.
Clean eating… the latest buzz phrase in the world of eating. While the term “clean eating” is one of the hottest buzz phrases in the past few years, it can often be confusing to the end user of exactly what this term means. At its core, clean eating simply means choosing foods that are closest to nature as possible. In other words, minimal processing. In the world of whole food, plant-based eating, the foods are void of any and all animal products including meats, fish, chicken and dairy. This leaves beans, legumes, fruits and vegetables at the core. This is as clean as it gets.
Show Your Subscribers Real Results or Data If you run a business that can offer case studies or data, you will get the best results by sharing these things with your list members. For example, if you are an expert at selling books via Amazon.com, you can show real-life case studies of what you have done. Or if you are an expert at selling low-priced reports, you can show people how you write your copy, price your items, and get the most out of each sale.
Many people hold the belief that sales and marketing has to be pushy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sales and marketing is about making people aware of what you offer and creating the opportunity for people to make a decision based on their wants and needs. If you believe in what you do, you owe it to your market to let them know what you offer. To not do this is a disservice to your market. Primary reasons people won’t succeed at marketing: Fear of the unknown Not knowing what to do Not knowing who their target market is
For years I have had a recurring fantasy; winning hundreds of millions of dollars in the lottery. How would my life change? What could I do where money would not be a concern? Where would I travel that I have yet to visit? What toys would I buy? And on and on. A few days ago I had a shift in my thinking. As I drove by a billboard on the side of the freeway indicating what the jackpot is this week, it occurred to me that many people who win the lottery actually end up with numerous problems that didn't exist prior to winning.
Considered the Holy Grail of online book stores, Amazon is definitely a force to be reckoned with. Most authors dream of watching their book hit #1 on Amazon, but many are not quite sure what they need to do to make this happen. Some leave it to chance. Others mistakenly think sending a message or two to their subscribers along with a few social media posts will do the trick, while others rely on the old model of an Amazon launch; get a ton of experts who give a bonus away and everyone promotes the book on the same day.r
With all the choices of social networks and social media marketing you might wonder where your time is best utilized. The standard locations are: Facebook LinkedIn Twitter YouTube Google+ One social network proving to be incredibly valuable is SlideShare. Although I’ve known about SlideShare for quite some time, it’s been only in the last month I’ve actively utilized this great resource.
If you’ve found your way here, there’s a very strong possibility you’re seeking information on how to make money. Granted, not everyone is interested in this, but many are. The best way to make money online is to have a solid system in place. Yet, many people don’t know where to begin. Here are some things you need to do before you begin: 1. Identify your expertise. What makes you the “go to” person? 2. Identify your ideal customers and clients. Who are they (specifically)?r
A couple days ago I was listening to a CD by one of the most successful speakers in the industry. He has been around for many years and is considered one of the greats. He is also considered to be somewhat off the beaten path. As much as he is admired and respected by many, he is judged by just as many. The segment I found most intriguing was one about how others often say to him, “I would give anything to be a successful speaker and author just like you.” His response is, “No you wouldn’t.
Recently, I held a free teleseminar to teach authors how to become an Amazon.com bestseller. Not only have I achieved bestseller status on Amazon.com, I have helped several clients do the same. I was amazed at how many people registered for my free call. Between this one and another I hosted a few weeks ago, I had over 1,750 people who registered. I held the calls to educate authors and soon to be authors on what it takes to rise on the charts of Amazon. The information comes from my own success as an author and having coordinated numerous campaigns for clients.
Are you looking for cost-effective marketing strategies? Look no further. The following three strategies have proven extremely effective for countless businesses and they can for you. 1) Press Releases Very effective method of gaining visibility and credibility when published. You must have a well written release pertinent to the media source you are sending it to. You can distribute press releases both online and off.
Knowing your market is essential to your business success. Understanding demographics enables you to do incredibly targeted marketing. The demographics of your market are their geographic location, age, gender, family status, income, buying behavior, buying preferences, etc. Analyzing the demographics of your market helps you understand their behavior. Here are some essential questions for gathering demographics: What is their age group? What is their gender? What is their family structure (number of children, extended family, etc.)?r
We've all heard stories of people making boatloads of money online by selling information products. Yet for most people making their first $100 would make them very happy. You see, once you make your first $100 the next $100 is much easier. One of the best ways to develop your first information product is write a report. The best part of all is you can charge anywhere from $5 - $25 for the report! In some cases, even more.
“As human beings we don’t lack for things. We lack an appreciation of things. For instance, how often do we notice, much less appreciate, the natural beauty that is there to be seen in our life – a bird singing high atop a telephone pole, a flower growing through the crack in a concrete sidewalk, or the leaves of a tree glistening in the sunlight as we sit in the gridlock of an overcrowded freeway. “In every moment of every day the Good, True and Beautiful is Present, but we are looking elsewhere – we are looking for something we don’t have rather than appreciating What Is.
One of my favorite shows is – America’s Got Talent. I really enjoy watching raw talent come up from the ranks. There’s great talent and there’s… well, let’s just say, less than great. Week after week acts are eliminated until one stands victorious as the winner. The mere fact that a singer, dancer, magician, or any act makes it to the top ten is against the odds. Even if elimination happens along the way contestants build a fan base due to all the visibility. What I find most amazing is how often the opportunity to build an online fan base is missed due to a few missed steps.
Countless dollars are wasted every day on information products. People may as well flush their money down the toilet. You might be wondering why someone who makes their living selling information products would say this. Here's why. More people than not buy product after product in hopes that the "next one" will be the magic bullet. They may have the best intentions when they hit the "buy now" button, but in quick order they get sidetracked, bored or realize it actually takes time, effort and work to get a result.
What would Maya Angelou do? What would SARK do? They would write. That's what they do. (Well, that's what Maya DID) SARK still writes. Is it luck that SARK is a best-selling author & artist, with over 17 titles in print and well over 2 million books sold? Is it luck that Maya Angelou wrote several works that equaled millions of books being sold? I think not. What I know to be true is this; accomplishing anything takes time, commitment, effort and discipline. What Choice are You Making?
A couple of days ago I read a post on Facebook about a woman who wrote a book on a topic I have great interest in. Being that it was a third party endorsement, I was even more eager to buy the book than if the author had touted the benefits of her own book. Since there was no link in the post for me to read more about the book, I did what the majority of people would be inclined to do… I hopped over to Amazon.com. I have to admit, I was frustrated (and disappointed) I could not find the book. Worse yet, there was no trace of the author on Amazon.
Not long ago I had the distinct pleasure of presenting at the Blog Paws 2015 Conference – the only conference of its type in the world. BlogPaws is the Professional Pet Blogger Network that provides a range of marketing program opportunities, along with growth and development benefits to help animal bloggers define and achieve their goals.r
As an author, you’re likely looking for as much visibility for you and your book(s) as possible. There are countless ways to achieve your outcome. One is with press releases aka media releases. Yet, many authors never consider adding media releases into their marketing mix. If you’re not using the power of media releases in your marketing, you may be missing lots of opportunity. Paid vs FREE There are many ways to get traction for your efforts. There are free services you can distribute to, but their reach may be minimal.
The heart of any online business is a responsive subscriber list. Without this, you are on an uphill climb to success. In the early days of online marketing, it took a lot less effort to build a subscriber list than it does today. It didn’t take much to get someone to say yes to a free offer. With very little competition for someone’s contact information, conversion rates were a lot higher in the mid- to late-nineties than they are today.r
Recently, I hosted a 21 Day Plant Based Eating Challenge. The purpose of the challenge was to eat 100% whole food, plant-based as much as possible over the next 21 days. When you commit to this 100%, you will be amazed at the results. For those new to eating plant based, this is a great way to lay a foundation for success. Be sure to join the Plant Based Eating for Health Facebook Group. This is a very supportive group of plant-based enthusiasts at all ends of the spectrum. There are those who are brand new to this way of eating and those who have been eating plant based for years.
"Money comes to your when you find a solution for your client's problems. The bigger the problem, the more money you will attract. It's as simple as that," Stephen Pierce. Think about the last product or service you purchased because you had a problem. It is likely you were willing to pay more if you believed that the purchase would solve your problem in a timely fashion. A great example for me is with our dog Aries. We have lots of pets and love each and every one of them. Our four legged companions bring great joy to us.
With the end of the year fast approaching, now is a great time to take stock of 2004. It is likely that your company set specific goals at the beginning of the year. As you review the past year, the question that must be asked is, "Have I achieved my goals? Has my company achieved the outcomes we set?" If your answer is yes, congratulations! If not, what stopped you? There are always unplanned occurrences that prevent us from accomplishing all the goals we set. However, our roadblocks are often as simple as getting caught up in the day to day activities of running our business.
It takes work to build an online business. Anyone who tells you otherwise either hasn’t done so or they are blowing smoke up your backside. There will be times when you’ll wonder whether what you are doing is actually working. Sometimes you’ll get immediate results, but that’s often not the case. It’s important to be consistent in getting your message and your name out to your market. Often what you did months or even years ago pays off.
It’s one thing to know our own strengths and weaknesses in business. It is also important to know the same about your competitors. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs don’t take the time to find out about their competitors until it is too late. Knowing your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses puts you in a better position to compete by marketing more effectively, and helps you find potential partnerships.