Are you looking for a solution for effective business follow-up that doesn’t involve pushy, intrusive and time-consuming methods such as phone calls and personal visits?

You’ve tried all the conventional follow-up strategies: email, direct mail, phone call, greeting card and personal visits. Some worked but you didn’t get your return on time and money invested.

Let’s examine the conventional follow-up methods and how the new business trend has emerged.

Email

The most common business follow-up method is to send an email “Thank you for …” or “It was nice meeting you”. It’s easy and personal and bypasses any possible gatekeeper. The downside, your email can be overlooked or quickly forgotten when competing in an overflowing inbox.

Phone Call

With the common usage of mobile (or cell) phones, you reach people directly but not necessarily at a convenient time for them. Your friendly call becomes intrusive and unwelcome. What are the chances you catch a businessperson at an opportune time without interrupting their work?

Unannounced Personal Visits

Impromptu personal visits “I was just passing by, thought I’d say ‘hello’” are time consuming for callers but what’s more, annoying for busy business people called on. This follow-up method is disrespectful of people’s time and can be interpreted as “Your time is not important, I can interrupt your work when it pleases me”.

Greeting card

Of all the business follow-up methods, the greeting card is the best received. Just imagine getting a greeting card. What happens then? The distinctive format sticks out from a pile of letters and you open it first “Who sent me a card? Why for?” A carefully selected follow-up card puts people in a positive frame of mind, therefore receptive to your message.

It’s probably the best follow-up solution for the recipient but … not for the sender.

Have you ever thought of sending a card but didn’t follow through? Sending a card is a chore. You have to go to the shops, choose a card, buy a stamp, write the card and find a post box.  Too much hassle!

Direct Mail

Direct mail can take the effort away from sending greeting cards. Choose one design, write one message and the mail house will take care of printing and mailing thousands of business greeting cards.

It’s a convenient method for sending cards on special occasions e.g. invitations or seasonal wishes but this bulk mailing method doesn’t work for sending an individual card with a personal message such as ‘Let’s do lunch’.

Yes, greeting cards offer many advantages:

• You can write a personal and meaningful message.
• Your card will stand out in a pile of bills and other business correspondence.
• You’ll impress people with your thoughtfulness.
• Your special card may go viral, circulating among colleagues and friends.
• An appealing card usually remains on display in a prominent position, keeping you fresh on their mind.

But nowadays, people don’t find time to send greeting cards. How many cards other than for Christmas wishes did you receive this month or this year? Probably very few, if any.

Is sending cards out of fashion or a golden opportunity to having someone’s undivided attention?

This is a marketing dream, no competing messages and people happy to be contacted.

I can hear you say…”but I can’t afford the time and money for sending cards!”

What if you could send a greeting card with the convenience and ease of use of email and direct mail?

The new trend is to systemize sending ‘real’ greeting cards (not e-cards) using internet technology.

From your desktop, you can choose one card from thousands of designs or even create your own with a user-friendly software, type your personal message as you would write an email and, send your personal card to a specialised company that takes care of the printing and posting, affixing a real local stamp.

To my knowledge, SendoutCards is the only company that provides this unique system of sending cards.

Remember, to maximise your marketing effort, choose an irresistible card that someone will proudly display and share with colleagues and friends.

This article is blatantly biased! I was sold on SendoutCards the first time I reviewed their system. Since then, I’ve become a distributor of SendoutCards to help my clients automate their follow-up process and grow their business.

If you want to understand why I’m promoting a service that I’ve not even started myself (wish I had!) and discover an effective shortcut to develop strong customer relationships, I invite you to send a card to someone you’ve neglected (it can even be your spouse!). Send a card for free using my account.

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The greatest problem that prevents business owners to promote their website with Article Marketing is procrastination. Most business owners will tell you “Writing articles has been on my to-do list for a long time” or “Yes, I know I should put my articles online to get more traffic”.

But how do you get started?

As you find it easy to talk yourself OUT of writing, why don’t you play devil’s advocate and talk yourself back INTO writing.

Learn The Anti-procrastination Self-talk Language for Article Writing. Here are some examples:

PROCRASTINATOR – “I’m waiting for inspiration.”

SELF-TALK – “Look at your writer’s notebook.” Each time an idea pops to your mind, record it in a notebook that you carry with you. This way, you’ll never be short of ideas to get started.

PROCRASTINATOR – “I’ll start later.”

SELF-TALK – “Why don’t you work on it for 10 minutes? Only 10 minutes!”

PROCRASTINATOR – “I’m not in the mood.”

SELF-TALK – “If you wait to be in the mood, you might never get started. Start and get the momentum.” Work 10 minutes on it…then another 10 minutes…till you have the hang of it.

PROCRASTINATOR – “I have to check my email.”

SELF-TALK – “Honestly, you’re looking for a legitimate excuse not to get started, aren’t you? Are people more important than your goal?”

PROCRASTINATOR - “I need to clean my desk.”

SELF-TALK – “It’s not the right time. If it really bothers you, clear your desk. Put everything on the floor without cleaning it and get started.”

PROCRASTINATOR - “I need to get over my cold, problem, issue…”

SELF-TALK – “Once you’re over… what will be next? You know you’ll find another excuse. Do it now!”

PROCRASTINATOR - “I need to wash the dishes and go the shops.”

SELF-TALK – “Yes, the dishes need to be washed and you need to go to the shops. But you don’t need to do that now. The dishes can wait and the shops don’t close till late. Write for 30 minutes then wash the dishes during your break. And at the end of the day, go to the shops when your task is done. You can even reward yourself with a treat.”

PROCRASTINATOR - “I’ll never get it done.”

SELF-TALK – “I agree. If you don’t start, you’ll never finish. Give it a try for 10 minutes.”

PROCRASTINATOR – “I work better under pressure.”

SELF-TALK – “It’s true that deadline pressure usually jolts you into action but what will happen if someone comes along with a free concert ticket for tonight and you can’t go because you’ve not finished your work?”

Excuses, excuses, excuses.

‘Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.’ (Unknown)

Don’t listen to your excuses. Write your articles and promote your business with Article Marketing.

DO IT NOW!

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Professional writers have no choice than being efficient if they want to make a living out of writing. Here’s what I learned about efficiency and productivity from them…

1. Set a goal and timeframe and stick to it. Any task can drag longer than necessary if you don’t have a deadline. Without it, time will fly away and you’ll wonder where the day went. Why do today what you could do tomorrow?
    
2. Don’t wait until you’re in the perfect frame for writing. Write anything, blah, blah, blah. Shift from inertia and build momentum. Sensible words and thoughts will catch up with you. Professional writers agree that you must start writing come what may.
    
3. Keep a pad and pen handy to record ideas. Don’t waste your creative ideas. Resort to your ideas file and systems in place to prevent writer’s block.
    
4. Write for one (imaginary) friend sitting across you. Your style will become conversational and it’s much easier than addressing a crowd. This way, your productivity will increase as words will effortless pour out.
    
5. Write as fast as you can or dictate your words (we speak faster than we write) to prevent sabotaging the steady flow of ideas with self-critiques and distractions. Don’t edit your work as you write. If you feel compelled to edit while you write, try writing in the dark or typing with a blank screen (turn off monitor).
    
6. Keep the momentum and energy high. If need be, use a timer or music for rhythm. Alternate writing projects to level your energy. This prevents you from being tired and slowing down when working on one project for too long.
    
7. Don’t try to be perfect and write the best articles on the web. The plan is to share information and promote your business expertise, not to write a Shakespearian masterpiece. Produce and publish articles as fast as you can.

Consider ‘writing articles’ like a pro. Time is money. Learn to become efficient to make your article marketing efforts worthwhile.

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The purpose of Article Marketing is to pave the way to your website for people and search engines. To do so, you exchange free content for promotion.

Successful Article Marketing is all about making the right strategic choices.

1- Choice of Target Market

When choosing your target market, consider:

Size: How big is your target market? Will you stand out from a crowd of established competitors?

Web literacy: Does your target market shop online?

Spending power: Is your target market hungry for information AND willing to spend money?

Buying preference: Is your target market more likely to buy your product or service online or in a retail outlet? Don’t confuse buying and researching. Many do their research online and buy offline.

2- Choice of Keywords

You may be ranking #1 on Google but who is reading your article?

Your choice of keywords will determine whether your target market finds your article. So, listen to their language. By using their vocabulary, you’ll appear on their web search engine results, where it matters to you.

3- Choice of Article Topic

Give your target market what they want. Identify the problems and issues that preoccupy them. On the Web, people decide what they want to read. What YOU want to write about is irrelevant unless your target market wants it too.

4- Choice of Article Content

How much information should you provide before you become dispensable?

It’s a balancing act.

If you give the solution, why would someone buy your product or hire your services? If you give too little information, you hardly can establish your credibility and whet their appetite for more?

Don’t fall in the trap of giving it all. Give only one key element of the solution to impress them and sell the rest. Or, present the ‘Why’ and sell the ‘How’.

Ultimately, you want the reader to click on your link in the Resource Box.

5- Choice of Article Title

Think outside the box. Develop a compelling attention-grabbing title to arouse curiosity. Make it an irresistible entry point for your article.

You can model your titles on sales letter headlines. View these compelling headlines.

6- Choice of Resource Box Content

As you’ve giving away our free content, you now want your reward… people clicking on the links in your Resource Box.

To avoid losing the thread of the article with your self-promotion, integrate your Resource Box to your article with ‘Do you want to know how I did it?’ and link to the solution, instead of ‘(YourName) is…’

7- Choice of Landing Page

The landing page must be relevant to your article, a continuation. Article Marketing drives hot leads to your site. Don’t cool them down by introducing out-of-context offers.

Article Marketing is a matter of choices. Take the wrong turn, you’ll waste countless hours. Move strategically and you’ll be delighted with your Article Marketing results.

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Article Marketing is rewarding but it requires preparation and commitment to stay on track.

Prepare your article marketing roadmap as you would plan a business trip. With a solid framework, you’ll get a clear sense of direction and purpose. Your time will be productive, reaching your target market and achieving your business goals.

Your article marketing roadmap is not set in concrete. As with any other maps, you have flexibility. At any time, you can venture in other directions and take advantage of opportunities too good to miss but refer regularly to your roadmap and come be back to the main road.

Here’s what to include in your article marketing roadmap:
 

Planning Ahead

Objectives

Identify the reasons why you want to write articles to promote your business e.g. drive traffic to your website, build your credibility, sell your products, etc…

Goal setting

Write down your timeframe and desired outcome e.g. “By (date)….I’ll have written (x number of) articles”.

Target market

Know your market:

• Who are they?
• What do they read?
• What are their needs, wants and desires?
• Where do they read information on the internet?
• What’s their preferred reading style? (academic or conversational style)
• What type of articles do they prefer? (format, check our templates)

Preparation

• Start your swipe file: collect snippets of headlines, phrases or whole articles.
• Keep an ideas log.
• Gather sources of information to keep up with trends.

On the Road: Production & Promotion

 Article Submission

• Where will you promote your articles? (e.g. article directories, blogs, professional associations’ websites, social networks, etc.)
• Article Submission aids: How will you promote your article? Will you use submission software or an online article submission service?
   

 Looking Back: Evaluation

Statistics

 Statistics from your site and from article directories provides objective feedback to improve your article marketing results. Study them.

• What are your most read articles?
• Are people clicking on the links in your Resource Box?

As you become an expert article marketer, remember to keep an eye on your article marketing roadmap. And yes, you can revise your plans from time to time because you found a shorter route to reach your destination. Bon voyage!

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Would you like to reproduce a colour that you like on another website?

Simply point to the colour and Pixie, a colour spy, will tell you the RGB, hex, HTML, CMYK and HSV values of the colour.

You can then use these values to reproduce the colour in your favourite programs (however, be careful not to infringe copyrights).

A dream tool for creating your colour scheme.

Pixie is free to download.

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Have you been looking forward to open a new or a bookmarked web page just to find out that “The Page cannot be found”? How frustrating this is!

The good news is that 150 billion web pages have been archived since 1996 and you can access those archives with the WayBack Machine.

And it’s easy to use.

Just enter the web address of a site or a page and the search results will display archived pages, if available.

Not all web pages are archived. But you may be lucky and find the one you’re looking for!

WayBack Machine is free to use.

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Articles can be likened to people. Some articles…

• Don’t pass the 10-second test. You’re simply not interested to read them.

• Give a first good impression but after a few lines, you have enough of them.

• Resonate with you. The connection is instant and you want to read more and more.

Articles mirror your personality and professionalism. What impression do you make on people?

Fortunately, you can improve your articles easily. Here’s how:

1.  Engage the reader with ‘YOU’.

Use sparingly ‘I’ and ‘Us’. Only refer to you when it makes a difference to the understanding of the article.

2.  Be concise.

Cut redundant expressions. Demonstrate that you respect your reader’s time by going straight to the point.

3.  Liven up your articles.

Add stories or quotes that carry authority. Chances are, readers will remember your message because of your analogies and quotes.

4.  Demonstrate with examples, facts and figures.

For example, how big is big? Big as an elephant or a bear? Does it weight 100 kg or 1,000 kg? Is the ratio 90% or 10%? Adding examples will help the reader visualise and retain information.

5.  Be personal.

Connect with your readers by sharing something about yourself. Admit your flaws; people relate to the not-so-perfect writer e.g. “I’m a procrastinator in remission”.

6.  Create a friendly rapport.

Use a conversational writing style with short sentences and short paragraphs with no more than 5 lines. Chat with your reader as you would with a friend sitting across from you.

7.  Cover topics relevant to your target market’s needs, not yours.

It can be tempting to write about what you’re passionate about but article marketing is about business, not indulgence.

8.  Proofread to avoid typos and obvious grammar mistakes.

Bear in mind that spelling checks do not pick words out of context e.g. ‘write track’ or ‘right track’. Some mistakes can confuse and slow down the reading flow.

9.  Be consistent.

Avoid calling a product by different names. For example, you’re writing about a ‘course’ and then introduce words such as ‘workshop’, ‘training’ or ‘e-course’. The reader now questions if you’re always referring to the same ‘course’ or these are all different products.

10. Give always your best.

Don’t hold back and save your best ideas. First impressions count. You might never have a second chance.

What type of articles do you write? Will you pass the 10-second test and develop a long-term relationship with your reader?

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Writer’s Block is crippling. All your best writing intentions can disappear when facing a blank page. If you’re struggling to come up with ideas, here are sources of inspiration.

As you research, jot down notes so you’ll never need to start from scratch and face the dreaded blank page again.

1. Repurpose your existing material. Convert your promotional brochures, workbooks, audios, DVD into interesting articles to promote your business. Give it a new lease of life with a different twist, approach or angle e.g. local versus global.
    
2. Dig in your knowledge and experience. You can explain a step-by-step technique or write about a solution to a common problem your clients have experienced.
    
3. Keep a log of all the questions that pop to your mind and remain unanswered. Chances are, other people would like those answers too. Share your information in an article when you find the answer. For example, “How can I write articles faster?” could produce an article ‘Three Strategies to Write Articles Faster’?
    
4. Browse shelves of libraries and bookstores. They are a source of topics that publishers have researched for you. They publish only books they believe will sell. Don’t they?
    
5. View TV and videos to get your creative juices flowing.
    
6. Check your inbox for feedback and queries from potential or existing clients. Their unsolicited input will guide you on your choice of articles to write. Give them what they want.
    
7. Survey clients, colleagues or social media group members to gather information about their areas of interest and concerns.
    
8. Observe people. Real life examples will liven up your articles with material that resonate with readers. What a good excuse to justify ‘people watching’ next time you’re sipping a cup of coffee at Gloria Jean’s or Starbucks.
    
9. Search blogs, forums, discussion boards, LinkedIn Q&A, Google groups to identify issues, problems and solutions that people in your target market are discussing.
    
10. Review books and products. You can also review the reviews.
     
11. Interview top people in your field. Readers will welcome valuable professional insights.
     
12. Check Amazon’s best sellers list. Study readers’ reviews to find their likes and dislikes. Armed with this knowledge, you can create popular articles.
     
13. Check eBay Pulse http://pulse.ebay.com for a daily snapshot of current trends and hot picks. It also shows popular eBay searches, stores and products.
     
14. Look at the affiliate marketplaces such as Clickbank.com http://www.clickbank.com and CommissionJunction.com http://www.cj.com for products to review and earn an affiliate commission with any sale generated from your review.
     
15. Read Yahoo answers and ‘Ask the Expert’ columns. Great material for ‘how to’ articles.
     
16. Read actuality e.g. popular magazines, newspapers and media releases for topical information that will prompt new ideas.
     
17. Follow conversations on social network sites e.g. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for trendy topics.

Read, read, read… online and offline, from junk publication to more serious books to trigger new ideas and get your creative juices flowing.

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I flirted with the idea of hiring a ghostwriter to write articles. As many internet marketers employ writers to boost their productivity, I couldn’t resist trying their prolific source of cheap articles. What if I could save time and effort?

Hiring a Ghostwriter Process

So, I went to Elance.com, a marketplace for ghostwriters, and posted my project:

“I’m looking for a ghostwriter to write 5 articles of around 500 words or more + short version of the same article of 100 words or less (short version needs to stand alone).”

The full project description contained specifications about the target market, the purpose of the articles, terms and conditions and samples of my writing style to match.

I received 5 proposals ranging from $60 to $600. I chose a $60 proposal not just because of price but because of the ghostwriter’s highest number of repeat clients and feedback score, 4.6 out 5, based on 24 reviews.

The Ghostwriter’s Proposal

Four days after granting the contract, I received the five articles as per the agreement.

Here’s the first paragraph of the article titled ‘Testing: It’s Importance’.

“It is very important to test the new ideas you have for your business, especially when it comes to assessing the market for the new ideas and appropriating price points for the same. There are suitable online testing tools for the effectiveness of your business website, which help to ascertain how successful your service delivery methods over the internet are, as well as help you test new approaches to your market.“

The rest of the article was very much repeating this introduction.
 

Was the article worth $12?

Yes, if the sole purpose of the article is to be published on article directories?

No, if the purpose of the article is to draw potential clients to your website and get reputable web publishers reproduce your article on their website, blog or email newsletters.

Definitely No, if you want to build an online profile as THE expert in your field.
 

But, what’s wrong about the quality of this article?

1. Wishy washy: The Ghostwriter is jumping from an idea to another. Is this article about market research, website or internet marketing? This usually happen when people submit their first draft without editing their thoughts. The article reflects an unclear mind who hastily string words together.
    
2. Nothing new: The Ghostwriter rambles about the obvious. There’s no reason or incentive to read further than this weak introduction.
    
3. Lack of editing:

• Wordy: Less is best e.g. ’ideas you have for your business’ can be replaced by ‘business ideas’.

• Jargon: What does ‘appropriating price points for the same’ means?

• Redundancy: Why use ‘suitable’ in ‘suitable online testing tools’? Would anyone want to use an unsuitable tool?

Overall, this article would waste busy internet readers’ time and to associate your name with it could only damage your reputation.

Needless to say, I couldn’t put my name to those gibberish articles.

Conclusion

Ghostwriters’ pay is based on word count and many unscrupulous internet ghostwriters are taking advantage of the article marketing frenzy to offer wordy articles.

Nonetheless, there are highly paid professional ghostwriters writing for well-regarded community members and speakers.

Hiring a ghostwriter is pot luck. Will you save time and money? I didn’t but I enjoyed the process that I can share with you.

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