Let me start off by saying I sincerely hope this blog post finds you, your family, and your business doing well.  We’re well into the year 2010 already and I’m sure for many of you the season is beginning to ramp up very quickly.

I also want to mention that even though I’ve been rather quiet lately, it’s not because I’ve completely forgotten about you.  In fact, I’ve been hard at work putting together some new programs that I’m certain will help you grow your green industry business this year like never before.

I won’t get into it too much today, but believe it or not and in spite of everything you’re hearing on the news, there are still lots of opportunities available to rapidly grow your business.  You just have to know where to look for them.

In the coming days and weeks I’ll be sharing some of these things with you, as well as some opportunities to help me test some new products and ideas.  Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to help at significantly reduced rates.  And when I say significant, I mean SIGNIFICANT!

Anyway, on to the purpose of today’s post.  I have a friend that needs some help.

His name is Emil Motycka and he’s competing to win a Clean Air Lawn Care franchise.  He’s one of several people competing and the winner will be determined by a vote which ends tomorrow.

So, what I’m asking you to do is to help out Emil by voting for him to win this franchise.

Now, just so you’re aware, I get absolutely NOTHING in return for doing this and to be completely honest, he doesn’t even know I’m doing it.  I just think he’s a great guy (young kid to be honest!) and I know he’d take this opportunity and absolutely make the most of it.

You can go vote for Emil right now right here:

http://voteemil.com

He’ll be the one wearing the black shirt.

Also, so you can hear Emil’s story straight from the horse’s mouth, here’s the email he sent me:

* * * * * * * * * * Emil’s Email * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dear Friends, Family, & Colleagues:

If you have a minute, please take a moment to vote for me @ http://voteemil.com

I’m a finalist in a national competition to win my own Clean Air Lawn Care Franchise; the nation’s leading full-service sustainable lawn care company, offering the cleanest & healthiest lawn service available – attached is a copy of a press release explaining the opportunity in detail.

To vote and hear my story, go to http://voteemil.com and then scroll down and choose me from the list of finalists. The order changes each time – I’m wearing a black shirt if you’re looking at the video photos.

Voting ends March 16th @ midnight MST time. Voting takes less than a minute. If you feel like voting twice, the system only allows one vote per computer so you’ll need to use a different computer for each vote.

Please feel free to tell others and forward this email or the press release. I’m closing in on first place (3rd place at the moment behind a tie for first place) so every vote counts!

Thanks in advance for your support and time.

Best,
Emil

* * * * * * * * End Emil’s Email * * * * * * * * * *

Again, I get absolutely NOTHING for doing this. I just really think Emil’s a stand-up guy and I know he’ll run with this opportunity and make the absolute most out of it.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer and hopefully, with everyone’s help we’ll be able to push him over the top!

Again, here’s the link to vote:

http://voteemil.com

Voting ends tomorrow so PLEASE take 2 minutes right now to go vote for Emil!

Creative Ways to Increase Web Site Traffic

Any webmaster or website owner can tell it isn’t easy to increase web site traffic. For one, the competition is intense; your website is merely just one of the hundreds, probably even thousands, in the exact same field. How can you compete with that? Many resource materials have delved on this topic, but very few offer innovative advice. All of them say the same thing: write good content, create good website design, exchange links, advertise, improve search engine rank. But these methods to increase web site traffic are hardly new; every webmaster or website owner knows these by now, so it is expected they will use the same tactics. To increase web site traffic, you need creative and innovative marketing methods.

One of the recently used ways to increase web site traffic is through contests. Many might say that this method to increase web site traffic is no longer innovative since several websites have already done this technique. However, the nature of this strategy is impervious to competition. People tend to get attracted by promos and contests, or anything with the lure of instant money or prizes. So it does not matter if other websites are doing the same strategy to increase web site traffic, as long as your own effort is efficient and done properly. Usually, this type of technique is energized by the visitors themselves. This means the visitors are the ones will inform other online readers, who will in turn visit your website in hopes of winning your contest. The process entails little work and maximum results if done properly. The prize of the contest, and the nature of the contest itself, should be in line with the overall theme or content of the website in order to attract loyal readers.

Content is one of the traditional or well-known ways to increase web site traffic. But in order to be different from the rest, you need to take this tactic up a notch. Invite an expert or a well-known personality to write content for your website in order to increase website traffic. Needless to say, the personality or expert should be in some way involved or related to your website’s theme. If you are maintaining an entertainment website, employ the services of an industry insider, like a production or even just a production assistant. Just make sure the person can dish out exclusive content. Giving out free e-books is also one way of stepping up the notch of the content rule to increase website traffic.

If you have the skills or the resources, you can also create software of programs that will interest your target readers. This type of strategy is self-sustaining; all you need to do is do the initial marketing effort. If you program or software captures the interest of your readers and visitors, they will promote your website on the social media (such as blogs, discussion forums, and social networking sites, among others). Hence, their efforts will help increase website traffic. This is why it is best to use similar tactics to increase website traffic.

Of course, when these methods do not work, or if you do not have enough time or skills to make these methods work, you can get web traffic solutions in increase website traffic. This service will do the marketing effort for you in order to increase website traffic. This way, you can concentrate on the website itself rather than spending time on the marketing side of this endeavor. Of course, this method to increase website traffic would cost you. But if you get the right web traffic solution, you would see you website traffic increase instantly.

Seo Link Building – Relevant Links – Live Article Directory

Last week I made a post about the possibility of using this whole Tiger Woods story to help you market your business.  And as I expected, because it’s a pretty controversial topic, I received numerous responses and comments from both sides of the isle about the idea.

Here’s one particular response I received:

“Stupid idea Chestin.

Why do you think General Motors will never mention themselves in the same sentence with America, ever again?  Because America has failed many people, many sectors.  Things about America can no longer be trusted.  America is no longer looked upon as the best product out there.

I know you have Christian values, Chestin.  And from reading your past article, it’s apparent you have natural talent.  So… taking those two fact into account, why push the Tiger Woods B.S. marketing strategy?  It wrong on many fronts.

Like Tiger and General Motors, you now have some explaining to do — but not to me.”

And while I certainly respect and appreciate this person’s comments, I think this might be one we’ll have to agree to disagree about.  Here’s my response:

“Points well taken and I appreciate you sending your thoughts.

As sad as I may think it is, today’s society is very headline driven.  It’s this mentality that has made shows, magazine and websites like TMZ, Access Hollywood, US Weekly, and People wildly popular. You’re absolutely right that using companies or people like GM or Tiger Woods in your advertising is a risky proposition, but keep in mind that they’re topics that a lot of people are paying attention to, good, bad, or indifferent, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with trying to capitalize on a frenzy that already exists in the marketplace.

You see, the most expensive, difficult, and time consuming step to effective marketing is capturing the attention of your prospects and it’s because of this that many marketers use images, headlines, or ideas that are either outrageous or eye-catching.  Things like sexy ladies, talking animals, or wild stunts do a fantastic job of capturing the attention of a prospect, thus providing an opportunity for a meaningful conversation.

Sadly, once the attention is captured, most don’t know how to transition into a meaningful conversation so the opportunity is lost.

As this all relates to the Tiger Woods conversation, it’s really nothing more than an opportunity to capitalize on the media frenzy to capture the attention of your prospects.  As I mentioned in my previous email, it certainly isn’t for everyone and you’d need to be very careful about how you execute something like that to make sure the transition is made correctly from ‘interrupted to meaningful conversation’, but I absolutely think it’s possible to do so effectively.

Again, you’d absolutely want to avoid comparing Tiger to the company, product, or service being sold, but you could absolutely make comparisons to the problems or challenges being solved.

Also, keep in mind that one of my objectives is to get people to think outside the box when it comes to marketing.  This is most definitely an ‘outside the box’ and controversial and as I said, I wouldn’t fault anyone for avoiding it like the plague. However, if I can cause people to really think about an issue, good, bad, or indifferent than I’ve done my job.

I imagine we’ll probably disagree on this topic and that’s okay.  I just hope you capture the essence of my message, that headlines and current events can be a HUGE asset when marketing your business.  It’s something that almost always requires creativity to execute effectively, but it can be one of the best ways to cut through all the clutter and give yourself an opportunity to engage your prospects.”

Again, this is something that this reader and I will most likely disagree on, but that’s okay.  As I said several times, using a story like this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

However, do firmly believe that any business could capitalize on the frenzy the story’s created to create a marketing campaign that provides an opportunity to engage your prospects.

A perfect example of this is this blog post! A lot of people read it because of the headline or subject matter.  Have I compared myself or my business to Tiger Woods?  Absolutely not.

I have however, managed to engage prospects that I might not otherwise have uncovered.  So as far as I’m concerned, mission accomplished!

So, what are your thoughts? Id’ love to hear what you think about this strategy.  Good?  Horrible?  Possibility?

Go ahead and leave your comments below.

Have you been paying attention at all to this whole Tiger Wood’s saga?  Personally, I hate it for him and his family.  I know there will be many that don’t think he deserves any sympathy at all and they could be right, but it’s my belief that you can’t really judge someone until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes.

I do know that he’s human, is subject to human frailties, and in spite of the fact most of us thought he was squeaky clean, I feel sorry for him because I know he’ll be facing pure hell in the coming weeks and months.  And I’m not even referring to the media firestorm that’s already been stirred up.

So, how does this whole fiasco apply to your business?

To be completely honest, it doesn’t, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of the situation!

You see, people absolutely LOVE current events. We live in a very voyeuristic society and one of the BEST ways to create buzz or interest for your product or service is to put current events like this Tiger Wood’s story to good use.

Now I know there are many that will shy away from this story because of the moral betrayal involved, and I wouldn’t fault them for that.  Just remember that  the super-successful didn’t get where they are by always playing it safe.

If you don’t have a problem using this story, here’s how I’d put it to good use:

• Create a special package or offer you can present to your existing customers or prospects or both.
• Create a marketing campaign to promote this special package or service offering. Could be a special direct mail campaign, an email campaign to your existing list, or any of the methods you use to communicate with your prospects and customers.
• Come up with an attention grabbing headline that references the story, something like:
  • “Tiger Could’ve Saved Himself All Kinds Of Trouble By Simply Calling [YourCompanyName]”
  • “What Do Tiger Woods And [ProblemYouSolve] Have In Common?”
  • “ Unlike Tiger Woods, If You Act Now You Can Enjoy [List a few benefits of your service]”
• Come up with a story that ties in the headline to your special offer

Again, this can be a touchy subject so I wouldn’t dwell too much on the details.  Instead, just use the overall story to capture their attention and lead into your special offer.  Have some fun with it and definitely keep things as positive as possible.

Also, don’t compare your company to Tiger Woods, because people probably have a negative impression of Tiger right now and you don’t want them to associate that bad feeling with your company. You do however want them to associate those feelings with the problems you solve for your customers, which is a perfect transition into your offer.

Anyway, I’ve definitely got my eyes open for some creative uses of this story because know there are some savvy marketers out there that will put it to use.

If you come up with something I’d LOVE to see what you do. And if you have any questions or want to get some feedback on an idea, definitely let me know and I’ll offer my ideas.

Have a website for your lawn care or landscaping business?  If so, congratulations!  If not, what are you waiting for?

I won’t go into all the reasons why you need to have a website because I’ve talked about it many times before, but suffice it to say, if you want to have a successful business in today’s competitive marketplace then you absolutely MUST have a lawn care business website.

Now, while there are lots of key components to a website that generates lawn care leads and customers, I want to share with you 5 ways you can enhance the effectiveness of your website:

1. Track incoming calls. One of the keys to effectively marketing your landscaping business is tracking your marketing. Doing so gives you the ability to know what’s working and what isn’t. Tracking the calls you receive from your prospects vising website helps you know which campaigns are working and which ones aren’t.
2. Optimize your site for the search engines. One of your biggest sources of traffic will be the search engines IF you setup your set properly. This requires identifying the keywords your prospects search for most frequently and then including them in the text of the site, the site’s title tags, and meta tags.
3. Utilize landing pages to capture information. Because the web provides your prospects anonymity, there’s a high probability they’ll want to do a little research before actually contacting you. However, if you allow them to research indefinitely without ever taking the next step they’ll never convert to a paying customer.  Landing pages are a way for them to get the information they need while helping you capture their information in order to build a profitable relationship.
4. Take advantage of local search. The search engines want to deliver the most relevant information and as more people go online to find their service providers, local search has become more and more important. As a result, they’ve made it much easier to submit your information so people can find you and it’s something you should definitely take advantage of.
5. Invest in paid search marketing. As you examine your marketing budget and look for ways to generate new clients cost effectively, paid search is definitely one of those areas you should examine. This involves things like pay per click, banner ads, ezine ads, and other paid methods of online advertising.

So as you look for ways to generate new business for your lawn care or landscaping business, include these 5 elements in your online marketing efforts and watch your business explode!

When you hear the term “internet marketing“, what do you think of?

For many, that term conjures thoughts of websites or spamming or search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. For others, it’s all about graphical design, writing fancy code or even affiliate programs. All of those answers correct, but the essence of internet marketing is much simpler.

At its core, internet marketing is about these things:

* Understanding the target market to which the product/service/cause you’re marketing will appeal
* Determining exactly how your target market interacts with the internet
* Positioning your content on the internet to attract the attention of your target market
* Collecting information about your target market (also known as “leads”) for follow-up and conversion into sales
* Design of offers or incentives to induce the desired actions from your leads

Since there is insufficient space in this article to give all of these topics adequate attention, let’s focus on just one specific topic with the realm of internet marketing: Email Marketing.

My best payoff has always come by focusing on permission-based email marketing. Permission-based email marketing refers to the practice of collecting information (including email addresses) from website visitors and communicating with them via e-mail with their direct consent. The “permission” aspect of permission-based email marketing is what separates legitimate email marketers from the spammers that everyone despises.

My love of email marketing is strong for one reason: It works very well. Email marketing has been much like a never-ending goldmine: It enables us to produce income on demand simply by sending a good offer to our list. When you have thousands of loyal subscribers – as we do – and you put a strong and compatible offer in front of them, income becomes nearly automatic.

However, the key to successful email marketing is the development of a legitimate trust relationship with your subscribers. If you opt to send your subscribers a request for purchases every single day, they will likely tire of your badgering and cease reading your emails altogether.

Alternatively, if you take the time to provide good content to your readers on a regular and frequent basis, you’ll discover that your readers take all of your emails far more seriously, and as a result your emails will be opened, read and acted upon with greater frequency. Essentially, email marketing is really an exercise in trust.

While there are many more aspects to internet marketing than just permission-based email marketing, email has definitely been the cornerstone on which our business is built.

If you’re familiar with Stephen Covey’s best seller ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ then you’re familiar with the idea of ‘important but not urgent’. These are the things we can do that help us reach our goals and aspirations but in most cases, they’re not considered urgent.

As a lawn care business owner, you face lots of issues and challenges on a daily basis, many of which really aren’t all that important. Yes, they’re certainly urgent, but when you really boil it down, they’re just not that important.

If you really want to grow your lawn care business, then you must identify those ‘important but not urgent’ tasks and set aside time to work on them on a consistent basis.

So, what are these ‘important but not urgent’ tasks? While this is certainly not a comprehensive list, here are 5 that should definitely be on your list:

1. Strengthen relationships with your existing customers. As I’ve said before, your customers are your most valuble asset because they’re the ones that are giving you money.  Without them, you don’t have a business so you MUST find ways to make sure they stick with you, buy from you more often, and spend more money when they do.
2. Implement systems in your lawn care business. There are so many things that need to get done every single day and if you try to do them all yourself, you’re in trouble. Systems are powerful tools that allow you to get more done with less effort.  They’re steps, process, or procedures that when implemented produce consistent, predictable results.  Take time to work on designing, implementing, and improving systems in your business!
3. Planning ahead. I know this one seems elementary, but without a map of where you want to go you’ll never be able to get there.  When you have a plan in place your focus and energy are directed towards objectives that push you closer to your goals.  Without such a plan, it’s easy to get distracted, lose focus, and spend time on things that don’t produce the results you’re after.
4. Being an business owner and not just an employee. So many people go into their landscaping business thinking they’ll soon be living the high life.  Sadly, what ends up happening for many is that they end up becoming an employee in their own business.  That means if they step away or leave for any period of time, everything falls apart.  To truly be successful you MUST find time to design your business so you can step away knowing that things will continue growing and progressing.
5. Taking time to get away. Not only must you design your business so you can step away periodically, but you need to actually do it! It can be a hard thing to do for many business owners, but it’s absolutely essential if you want to maintain your interest, focus, and determination to grow a thriving lawn care business!

So as you analzye your business over the past year and begin making plans for the next, take a few minutes to determine where you’re spending your time.

Are you dedicating some of it to these ‘important but not urgent’ tasks? If not, take a few minutes right now to schedule time to do so.

As you look for ways to spread the word about the lawn care or landscaping services you offer, it’s become incredibly difficult to overlook the various marketing opportunities provided online.  The Internet has very quickly become an integral part of how we do business today and even though you don’t provide a product or service online, you should still include the Internet in your toolbox of ways to get new lawn care customers.

You see, a majority of your prospective customers are already turning to the Internet to look for and research the service providers they choose to do business with.  Sites like Google Local, Yahoo! Local, and now Bing Local are quickly replacing the old standard, the yellow pages.  Where the yellow pages used to be the default method for finding a new lawn care or landscaping service provider, the new standard is the home computer.

So, if you’re looking for ways to grow your lawn care or landscaping business quickly, it’s an absolute MUST that you be online so your prospects and customers can find you.  The next question then is, “where online do I need to be?”

Yes, there are countless avenues or marketing opportunities and you don’t have time to focus on all of them. However, if you’ll focus on just a few primary Internet marketing methods, you’ll quickly position your business to gain a lion’s share of the prospects available online.

These are the areas I’d recommend you focus on:

• Optimize your website so it ranks well in the search engines. This means selecting the appropriate keywords and making sure they’re found in the title tags, meta tags, H1 tags, and sprinkled througout the text on your site. These are called the on-pages factors and will go a looooong way towards making sure your website ranks well in the search engines.
• Gather and use your prospects and customer’s email addresses. Email is still the most cost effective method for marketing to your prospects and customers and you should be using it. You don’t want to overwhelm them with sales pitches, but if you’ll use it to provide information and insight you’ll quickly position yourself as ‘the expert’ and people will turn to you for advice and direction about their lawn care needs.
• Use social media to connect with prospects, customers, and potential JV partners. Social media is one of the latest ways people are connecting online and it’s a great way to stay in touch with your target market and allow them to see you as a real person.  Remember, people do business with people, not businesses so it’s important that your customers and prospects can see you as a real person with a life outside of your lawn care business.  Social media allows you to do that.

Remember, growing a business is about getting your message in front of as many people as possible so you can convey the many benefits you offer.  The Internet provides a fantastic opportunity to reach your target market quickly and for a relatively low cost.  The biggest thing is just to get started doing it because those lawn care or landscaping businesses that do it now will reap the rewards.

During times like the difficult economy we find ourselves in the middle of, customers of all types of goods and services become much more demanding of the products and services they spend their money on.  That’s not to say they stop spending money, although many certainly do, but overall consumers as a whole become much more interested in making sure they get maximum value for their money.

As a result, it’s COMPLETELY dependent upon you to make sure you’re providing your lawn care business clients with the maximum value possible.  Don’t give them any reason to doubt the fact that they’re getting their money’s worth anytime they send you a check or you ding their credit card.

Another reason it’s so important to make sure you’re giving your clients the maximum value for their money is because they’re comparing your lawn care service to that of your competitors. They’re trying to find those little ‘extras’ that will make the difference and will ultimately either give you the business or hand it over to your competitor.

So, how can you make sure you’re offering your landscaping business clients maximum value every single time?

First, find out what they expect. What’s the minimum level of service they expect from your lawn care business so at the very least, you can make sure they’re getting that.

Next, once you know what the minimum service level expectation is, go above and beyond. That’s right, give them more than they expect! Don’t be content to simply satisfy the minimum requirements because you make it too easy for a compeitor to come along and show you up.

Finally, once you are providing maximum value, don’t be afraid to let your customers know about it. Tell them you provided an extra service at no charge. Show them where you went above and beyond and gave them that extra attention they want.  Yes, it might cost a little more in terms of time and/or money, but the goodwill it creates, and more importantly, the stories it creates will more than pay for your time.

So, as you continue looking for ways to grow your lawn care or landscaping business in this difficult economy, remember that it’s all right there within your control to win more customers, keep ‘em longer, and create consistent referral streams as a result!

If your business would like to guarantee excellent search engine ranking results, advanced SEO services will do the trick. As we know, a website today is the foundation of any offline or online business. The ability to create an above-average website is only about 1/4 of what’s required to build a profitable online presence. 75% of the success of your business depends on the methods you use to market your website in such a manner gets your site a lot of vital traffic, helping you build a strong customer base.

A professional website designer can help you create a potent and powerful site. It’s also important to get the proper assistance from a good SEO company – whether you hire them out or simply use them for consulting purposes. There are lot of companies which offer ethical and advanced SEO services, helping your company face stiff competition with the help of cutting edge techniques.

The most crucial SEO function is keyword research and optimization – everything else is built with this foundation in place. A good SEO firm provides exceptional keyword analysis and research. The firm will select appropriate keywords, cross referencing them among other tools and gauging competition for the phrases selected. One of the most important functions of these advanced SEO services is in fact analyzing the competition.

Another area that most SEO firms overlook is the website’s usability. They have to watch out for flash, high-memory images and lenghy HTML code which might negatively effect indexing postions from the robots that crawl the site. If the navigation of a site is poorly designed, then the search engine rankings are likely to be affected. It’s in the interest of the website owner to ensure the SEO firm chosen conducts a usability analysis of the site.

Professional SEO services will provide other valuable services such as meta-tag optimization and SEO copywriting. Optimizing meta-tags can improve search engine optimization to a great extent. Writing effective and well written copies with an appropriate density of keywords is very important for page ranking and converting visitors to buyers. Firms that offer advanced SEO services excel at writing the most result-oriented and powerful copy.

Link building through back-links, one way links and reciprocal links is another vital aspect of search engine optimization. Engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing give a lot of value to keyword-rich bank-links to your site – especially when they come from a relevant site.

Tracking the results in the search engines can be healthy and promote your businesses’ long-term growth. This means measuring exactly how far the efforts are bearing fruit.

Advanced SEO services should also include social media marketing services such as video marketing, social media property creation, article directory submission, and classified ads to market client’s website effectively.

Whether it is online or offline business, a good SEO firm providing professional services is an asset which can help your business reach great heights.