4 Types of Gurus in the Online Marketing World

4 Types of Gurus in the Online Marketing World

By Dave Sherwin

There are four types of online marketing pros. Guppies, Tuna, Sharks, and Whales. Here are the characteristics of each one, and what it takes for guppies to become whales!

Guppies. Guppies are small and uninspiring fish. Discovery channel doesn't have a single show about guppies. But in the online marketing world, most people start out as a Guppy.

Characteristics of Guppies:

Small. Translation: They have a small or non-existent marketing budget. They want to become a bigger fish, but are just learning the ropes. There are two types of Guppies: Those that truly want to improve their skills and income, and those that are always looking for somebody or some software that will increase their income without requiring more skills. The former will grow, the latter will always remain feeder fish for the Tuna, Sharks, and Whales.

Insignificant. Poor Guppies. They are unknown. They have a very small marketing list. The bigger fish either ignore them or eat them, and even the other Guppies don't care much about Guppies, they want to become Tuna, Sharks, or Whales one day, so they're paying attention to bigger fish.

Advice for Guppies:

- Take responsibility. - Stop being needy. Don't use loser language like, "If I could just find somebody to show me..." - Stop looking for quick fixes and "outside" solutions. - Look in the mirror, what you see is your problem AND your solution. - Stop expecting others to do anything for you. Until you take 100% responsibility you will always be a feeder fish. - A limited budget just means you have to work harder and be more consistent. - Don't let anybody steal your dream. - Find a way to make money outside of marketing. This is a business you have to feed for a while before it feeds you. Stop wishing for it to be otherwise. - Attend all the events you can. - Don't take advice from other Guppies. - Read "Think And Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. If you've already read it, read it again.

Tuna. Tuna are Guppies that have taken responsibility. They have found a way to build their list and make some money, usually on a limited budget.

Characteristics of Tuna:

Tuna understand the basics of online marketing. They often make their money marketing to Guppies and other Tuna. They usually wear all the hats in their business: Director of product development, marketing, content creation, accounting, promotion etc. They have a limited skill set.

Advice for Tuna:

- Don't pretend you're something you're not. - Be humble. - Don't blindly trust Sharks and Whales. Do your own thinking. - Develop your own marketing plan. - Don't let Sharks and Whales product launches dictate your online marketing tool set. - Master the fundamentals: Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click, and Social Marketing. - Don't spend your money, put it back into your business. - Use professionals as often as possible. Find the inexpensive online services that can build your sites and do some marketing for you. - Learn the difference between being a small time marketer and a business owner. - Get a part time Executive Assistant to do your busy work. - Focus on accomplishing at least one core money making activity every day. - Connect with Sharks and Whales. - Attend all the events you can. - Read "The Four Hour Work Week" by Timothy Ferriss

Sharks. Sharks make money. They can quit their job. They control their personal financial world. Sharks organize the events that Guppies, Tunas, and other Sharks attend. They invite Whales and other Sharks to speak. Sometimes, they accidentally invite a Tuna or Guppy to speak, but they are eaten immediately afterwards.

Characteristics of Sharks: They are independent. They are proud. They are successful. They can eat whatever smaller fish they want to. They may decide to remain a shark forever, not realizing that they could be a whale.

Advice for Sharks:

- You can now eat Guppies and Tuna and make a great living, but to become a whale you ought feed them instead. - You probably have a big list full of Guppies and Tuna. Respect them, love them, and provide real value to them, and you will become a Whale through a natural process. - NEVER abuse their trust by offering them something that you haven't tested and proven yourself. - Don't talk down to them. - Focus on giving value. - Build your business team. Surround yourself with achievers. - Outsource everything humanly possible. - Remember, humility is a virtue, not a weakness. You aren't always the smartest person in the room. - Join Stompernet (It's not open all the time, but visit my blog below and search for it to get your name on the list) - Read "Good To Great" by Jim Collins

Whales. Whales cruise slowly through the oceans of the world with no worries about any other fish. They are rich. They are untouchable. They make millions of dollars a year. They can put up a new offer, announce it, and Voila! They get rich again. They are connected. They hang out with sharks and whales, and have almost unlimited Joint Venture possibilities.

Advice for Whales: I have no advice for whales. I'm just trying to become one. Once I do, maybe I'll come back and finish this article. Until then, I'll focus on helping more Guppies and Tuna!

Dave Sherwin is a Network Marketer who won the "Rookie of the Year" award in a large international network marketing company in 2006. He is the co-author of "Lighthouse Marketing", The Art And Science Of Attracting People Into your Network Marketing Organization. Learn the Lighthouse Marketing secrets at: http://escapethematrix.net/?why

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Online Marketing - Get More Clients With an E-Course

Online Marketing - Get More Clients With an E-Course

By Cathy Goodwin

If you want to get more clients, you probably have an ezine with a subscriber list. But what if you are just starting up your ezine and your list is small? Or what if you have alway done face-to-face networking and now you'd like to expand to online marketing?

When you're starting a new website or targeting a new audience, an e-course might make more sense. For example, suppose you are not sure if your market will be responsive enough to invest time in an ezine. And once you promise an ezine, it's hard to cut back and decide not to publish.

Or maybe you want to go on vacation or deal with a personal challenge. Your website will still be attracting visitors. Some of those visitors will be potential clients. There's no need to let all those visitors disappear without a trace. You can capture their names and email addresses with an e-course.

An e-course is a series of emails, each containing a short piece of information. You call each email a lesson. You set up a system to deliver these emails to those who opt-in with a specific request for your e-course.

But you have to follow a few guidelines.

1. Begin by writing a sales letter to promote your e-course. Why will readers want to sign up?

2. Choose a straightforward topic that addresses a specific, painful challenge. "Never be afraid of cold calls again" will probably draw more readers than "Introduction to sales."

3. Keep courses short. Most readers tend to tune out after five to seven days.

Once you are established in your market, your readers will welcome longer courses.

4. Time your message for every day or every other day. Readers have short memories. They'll forget you if you wait too long between messages.

5. Use copywriting strategies to hold reader interest and motivate them to view you as a resource when they're ready to take stronger action.

6. Aim for one take-away and one action step in each message. You'll give readers a taste of what to expect if they sign up to work with you. Most won't actually take these steps but they'll understand where you're coming from.

7. Sign up with a mailing system that hasn't been universally banned for overzealous mailings. There's no way you can manually track who's on which lesson. And you'll want an automated record of subscribers so you can follow up.

And now I invite you to find out more by visiting http://www.HookYourClients.com - Download my free report, 7 secrets of websites that *really* attract clients. From Cathy Goodwin, The Website Makeover Pro.

http://www.copy-cat-copywriting.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cathy_Goodwin http://EzineArticles.com/?Online-Marketing---Get-More-Clients-With-an-E-Course&id=1699057

Video Streaming - A Perfect Tool For Online Marketing

Video Streaming - A Perfect Tool For Online Marketing

By Menno Spijkstra

Video streaming is considered to be one of the best tools in internet marketing these days. It is likened to television commercials. Advertisements on television are considered to be the best advertising media that could really capture a large number of audiences. All television commercials are designed to appeal to its target audience through flashy videos, good music, and easily retainable tag lines. In this way, consumers can easily remember the brand when they do their shopping. As with video streaming, online advertisers also aim to make the same impact on their customers. For newbies in video and audio streaming, you can avail of a comprehensive beginner's guide to streaming media.

It will help you start and create video and audio streaming for your web page. It is undeniable that most people's attention these days can easily be captured through visual media especially a moving one. When people see an interesting video on television, they usually stop to watch or to glance. That is one advantage of video streaming. It can arouse the curiosity of people surfing the net. Online marketers have seen the advantages of using video streaming for their online advertisements. It can capture the attention of many people online than just plain text or still photos. Moving video or animation are still the best advertising tools to arouse people's curiosity.

It is more effective when humor or suspense is integrated in the video advertisement. If you intend to use video streaming as a marketing tool, learn how to do video streaming now by using a manual that will teach you all about video streaming in an easy and proven way. Using video streaming for internet marketing will surely get more attention from your prospective customers. However, you have to know that you also need to make your videos interesting enough to keep your audiences. You have to be creative by continuously knowing what your customers are interested about, what they want to see and hear, and you fuse these ideas in your video advertisement.

If you want to start right in unlocking the potentials of video streaming for your online business, you need to have a jam-packed guide to media streaming. It will help you generate cash for your business. However, getting manuals on streaming media will not promise you to rake in money in an instant. It will teach you the ins and outs of streaming media though. Your technical knowledge must go with creativity and marketing strategies. Video is indeed the most efficient tool when it comes to getting your message to your customers because it can give your customers a better picture of what you are selling.

Remember that people will remain very curious beings. That is why you have to update and continuously improve your videos to satisfy and maintain your customers' curiosity. If your videos are old, you can replace them with newer ones so that your customers would keep looking forward to new advertisements to watch on their screens. When you keep them curious, you also get to keep their attention. And when your product is already embedded in their memory, they will have great possibilities of buying your product in the future.

The author of this article Menno Spijkstra is an Internet Marketing specialist who has been successful with several affiliate programs for many years. Menno finally decided to share his knowledge and experience through his website http://www.AffiliateDistrict.com. You can sign up for his free newsletter and join his coaching program.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Menno_Spijkstra http://EzineArticles.com/?Video-Streaming---A-Perfect-Tool-For-Online-Marketing&id=1726712

Improve Your Internet Marketing With a Virtual Assistant

Improve Your Internet Marketing With a Virtual Assistant By Chuck Jaymes

In today's technologically advanced business world, having a highly visible website is as important as carrying a business card. A well-designed Internet marketing campaign can provide you with an edge on the competition, which in invaluable in these tough economic times.

Using a virtual assistant to perform your Interment marketing can provide a significant boost to your business without spending large sums of money. Controlling overhead costs is especially important in this turbulent economy. One of the great advantages of having an online business is that it usually doesn't require lots of on-site employees. A huge portion of administrative, sales and marketing functions can be performed off-site by virtual assistants.

Internet marketing, also referred to as online marketing, web marketing or e-marketing is the promotion of products and/or services via the Internet. Establishing a viable Internet presence requires building credibility to showcase your products or service. You want the major search engines to view your site as an "authority" site in your given field.

Effective Internet marketing can be both daunting and time consuming. A well-trained virtual assistant can help solve both of these problems. These are some of the vital areas of Internet marketing that can be performed by a skilled virtual assistant:

1. Social networking sites

2. Video & podcast marketing

3. Product launch

4. Blog & forum postings

5. Article/press release distribution

6. Newsletters

7. Banner Ads

8. Custom designed email marketing campaigns

9. E-books

10. Competitor analysis

All of these tasks require certain skill sets and are time consuming. Letting a virtual assistant handle your online marketing frees you up to concentrate on the core necessities of your business. If you have reservations about the quality of work performed by virtual assistants, listen to the pros who know.

Internet marketer Jeff Mills has operated his Internet marketing firm Goldmills Marketing since 2003. Mills has a firm grip on the value of outsourcing Internet marketing tasks to virtual assistants. "I first heard about the concept of using outsourcers from one of my online marketing mentors back in 2004, who was making millions per year. I asked him how he worked so little, launched multiple products per year, and still had enough free time and he told me it was because he "outsourced" all his projects through Internet vendors that he was able to live with sanity, work less and still increase his revenues!" exclaims Mills.

Increasing your online sales while freeing up more time for yourself is a no-brainer. Discover how a virtual assistant can greatly improve your online marketing.

About the Author - Chuck Jaymes writes frequently about Virtual Assistant topics and Virtual Assistant Services for Virtual Assistant.Org

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chuck_Jaymes http://EzineArticles.com/?Improve-Your-Internet-Marketing-With-a-Virtual-Assistant&id=1707879