Yes, yes, we’ve heard it all before… loads of life coaches, consultants and therapists are struggling to make a decent living but still stick at it because they love their job.

Want to know why nearly every coach or consultant out there will always struggle?

…if you’re one of them then you’re not going to like this one little bit…

It’s a lack of CREDIBILITY

BUT before you hit the DELETE key just bear with me…

This lack of CREDIBILITY has a cause…

lack of FOCUS.

If I have a particular thing I’d like to improve in my life or business, wrongly or rightly, I will seek out and trust the advice of a SPECIALIST over a GENERALIST any day of the week.

And that’s the problem - LIFE, MARKETING and BUSINESS - is just too general.

If you want to become truly attractive and have CREDIBILITY you need to stand for something. If you’re a generic life coach then know this. People want to be able to turn to someone for a specific area of LIFE - this could be relationships, health, wealth etc.

The same is true if you’re a generic business or marketing consultant. People want to find the person who can help them with a specific BUSINESS challenge unique to them. You could choose a situation - say Legalised Tax Dodging, Setting Up Automated Business Systems, Getting People Working, Cutting Marketing Costs etc. or you could focus on a particular business-type such as - Solo Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, Manufacturing Companies, Coaches, Speakers etc.

So ditch the shopping list right now - you can’t be the best at everything - and even if you are no-one will believe you. Choose to be the best (or look the best at one thing). Because as soon as you focus, your CREDIBILITY will skyrocket. You’ll have instant ATTRACTION just by getting clear about who you are and what you do.

Let me introduce Mollie McDonald

She has a fun, rewarding job and makes all the money she needs. She gets to add value and improve people’s lives every day. She loves her job and I’d hazard a guess that she gets as much, if not more, satisfaction than any Life Coach does from her work.

And yes… she gets to coach, cajole, support and work with inspired clients who want to make a change in exactly the same manner.

Is she doing anything drastically different to all the Life Coaches who are struggling? I know she’s not!

But she has done ONE thing differently. She’s tapped into a profitable, niche and provided a solution to a genuine gap into a considerably HUGE marketplace. In fact 90% of New Year’s Resolutions lead into this one niche perfectly.

Read Mollie’s book to learn you she does it…

Finally, some hints and tips while finding your niche…

* “Me Too” businesses are never in as high demand as unique specialists

* Would you trust your GP (General Doctor) to do brain surgery or would you prefer to be in the hands of a brain specialist?

* People don’t buy coaching/consulting etc. - they buy the solution. What’s their big challenge and what’s your solution?

* When you get VERY focused on solutions to problems - you’ll be able to make a strong “Targeted Promise”. The result? People will seek you out!

‘Dangerous’ Debbie Jenkins
debs@debbiejenkins.com

(c) Copyright 2005 www.BookShaker.com

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If you own a web-based business, you’re probably aware of the need for things like link exchanges, lead-purchasing, SEO copy, banner ads and all of the “traditional” ways to get exposure on the World Wide Web.

But did you know that article marketing is by far the best way to build your brand while at the same time increasing your exposure?

Web articles. They’re hot. Why? Because people have realized that when you submit an article for distribution on the web, you’re dangling your URL in front of an endless stream of prospects, all of whom are already interested in what you have to offer. Why is this? It’s due to the categorical nature of web article marketing itself.

Article distribution sites are arranged by category. So, if you write an article about sea rays, your article is going to get picked up and placed on other websites that are related to aquatic life. It’s highly likely that the people who visit that site will be interested in your subjectmatter and want to read what you have to say. So the potential interest is there even before your article hits the page.

When you write web articles, you soft-sell your brand to your potential customer by giving away something they need before they even know your name. How so? Within the body of your article, you’re including a chunk of valuable information for your reader to absorb, learn from and remember you by!

Let’s say you’re a “marketing mom” who wants to sell mail-order hand-painted gifts on the web. How will you go about branding your name? First, isolate your key customer. That would be MOM. Where does she live and reign on the web? In bazillions of online mommy groups and forums! So start writing articles about gifts that speak to your number one prospect, Mom. If you’re a mom too, you’ll likely have lots in common, so get those articles going and start talking Mom to Mom. In your articles, offer your prospect a few ideas she can use in her business and her life, then gently introduce her to your hand-painted gifts. Roll out article after article, and submit to every place you can find on the web that might be a hot spot for the work-at-home web mommy.

Your full-out article marketing campaign will take careful strategizing, time and effort, but the end result, brand recognizability, is worth the extra energy you put in. Right now, there’s no better way to build your brand on the web and do it quickly. Saturate your market with articles that position you as an expert in your field, and the leads will follow. Soon you’ll be pulling in orders for your hand-painted collectibles faster than the little Korean ladies you hired can paint them!

Branding is establishing trust and faith in your company name. Branding cements relationships. Branding keeps your customers coming back year after year! What better way to let your future clients get a better idea of who you are and what you can do for them, than talking to them in well-written articles that help to brand your good name?

If you haven’t already, start thinking about an article marketing campaign. Target your key customer, and then lay the foundation for your brand… one article at a time.

Copyright 2005. Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

Dina Giolitto is the author of ARTICLE POWER: Create Dynamite Web Articles and Watch Your Sales Explode… a 49-page manual covering every aspect of article marketing on the web. Learn about article marketing, copywriting and more at http://www.wordfeeder.com

I was chatting with a couple of friends, all of us are either copy writers or graphic designers…or both….in the advertising industry, so, naturally, our conversations leaned towards the topic. This one particular friend who works in an American advertising firm is now an Art Director, so, needless to say, he considers himself a notch higher than us mere freelancers and employees. After all, he is the one person who decides on the direction of a whole advertising campaign. He is also in-charge of a couple of large International brands of products. And during this conversation, he told me about this story that inspired me. He says that branding is so important to a product that it can either make or break a product…or even the company.

For instance, he was trying to come up with something unique for a particular brand of body wash (he thought the smell was awful because it smelt like mud…wet and totally disgusting). Guess what he did? He went the NATURAL WAY……

Obviously, it worked wonders for the product! He came up with headlines like

“So natural, you’d roll around in it”

“Just like a second skin”

“Aroma-therapeutic”

“Go back to nature”

…and the likes.

I was impressed. So happens that he brings back a lot of samples of products each time he comes back to Malaysia and this time he had the said product handy to show us - to although I didn’t think it was disgusting (he has a way with words, shall I say?”), it wasn’t your conventional bath wash. It sure didn’t smell like anything else I can get here in supermarkets.

Joe, my friend from America, said that he steered the product in the realm of conservation of the environment, going natural, using natural products, natural cleansing properties….etc and it worked wonderfully. When combined with a superb design and ad, the product sold like nothing else he had known! This was the product he thought smelt like mud, remember? And with good direction, copy and design, the product is as good as sold.

The theory is that, people’s mind accepts what they want to accept. Let me give you some examples of beautiful copy work for International brands.

“milk bath” - Johnson and Johnson. Sounds simple enough? But accordingly, many people bought the products, not because it was superb or any better than all the other Johnson and Johnson products or bath gels, it was because the ‘milk bath’ copy suggested that whenever you use the product, you’d be bathing in milk, pampering yourself, making your skin whiter and smoother. Asians will buy anything that you say can turn their skin white.

“Not perfumed, Not coloured. Just kind” - Simple.

This is a very unique stance taken by a skincare company because Simple is the first brand that suggested that you don’t need anything extra have superb skin. Simple is….well, simple, but it gives you good skin because it doesn’t make your skin look worse.

“Against animal testing” - The Body Shop.

The products being sold by The Body Shop, without a doubt, is produced without being tested on animals. This, they claim, is because the properties used to produce their products is very natural. I think placing the words “AGAINST ANIMAL TESTING” in bolded letters in all of their labels is a good idea. Anyone who loves natural products and are animal lovers will definitely stay true to The Body Shop.

“The beer only a true man knows how to appreciate”

This is a tagline being used by a well-known beer company. I am not certain of the exact words being used, therefore, I decline to name the brand and beer type. Anyway, this tagline suggests that if you’re a man at all, you’ll like this beer…..and if you don’t, you’re not a TRUE man. I am a woman and I like the beer because of its richness in taste but I absolutely object to their tagline. I suppose they have their reasons. Their target market were mostly men and if they were women who drink, they will let the tagline slide because they like the beer so much.

So, you see, the kind of branding, the kind of tagline and headlines that you use determines the direction of your product. If you use a tagline like ‘lustrous long hair”….don’t expect a lot of male customers who takes you up on your offer. So, decide on a tagline once and for all for each and every one of your products, take them very seriously and if you can’t think of anything, hire someone to do the thinking for you. Branding and copy writing is SO IMPORTANT that you’d rather pay for it than be stuck with one that gives out mixed messages.

Marsha Maung is a freelance graphic designer and writer who has been working from her home in Selangor, Malaysia the past 6 years. She is also the author of “Raising Little Magicians”, “No products to sell” and the popular “The Lance in Freelancing” and other books. For more information, please visit http://www.marshamaung.com and for more info on her books, please visit http://www.lulu.com/marshamaung

Operating as a subsidiary of Affinion Group, Trilegiant Corporation offers membership based shopping, travel, entertainment, dental, health and consumer protection services for financial service and retail companies. Based in Norwalk, Connecticut, the company provides programs such as Buyers Advantage, AutoVantage, and Complete Home.

Buyers Advantage gives members protection against unfair pricing. It also offers them the opportunity to enjoy repair rebates along with long-term warranties and a return policy.

AutoVantage allows members to enjoy hotel discounts while also taking advantage emergency roadside assistance. This program also offers useful information about new and used cars as well as provide members with trip routing guides and maintenance discounts.

The third program, Complete Home, gives members the chance to save on home products and services.

Additionally, Trilegiant’s programs also include computer security software services provider PC SafetyPlus, the online education and entertainment alternative for children called Clever Clubhouse, HealthSaver, the ATM card response center called Hot-Line, and the discount program known as Great Fun.

Trilegiant addresses the threat of identity fraud through IdentitySecure. The company also has Netmarket.com, an online catalog shopping service; Shoppers Advantage, Pet Privileges, Travelers Advantage, Privacy Guard, and Small Business Central, a program that offers business-to-business services discounts along with financial and moneymaking services.

You want to know how these guru’s are making money??

They spend a lot of time and effort to achieve good product and name recognition.

People may forget your site, they may forget the name of your ezine, but they won’t forget your name if you know some good way to gain name recognition.

Email

When sending out email, make sure your name appears in the Senders area. Not an email address but your full name.

When you are sending out your ezine, depending on what type of software or list host you use, make sure your name or at least your ezine name appears in the Sender’s area.

Online

Take part in message boards and discussion lists. Become active in these communities and offer any help you may have to give.

Take part in joint ventures

Exchange ad swaps and links with other webmasters

Write testimonials for other publishers and webmasters. We all love testimonials. You can never have enough testimonials!

Submit your site and ezines to directories. People will see your name, they will see your product and what you have to offer.

Give feedback on a product or an ezine.

For those of you who have unique sounding names, just as mine, then rejoice. People will always remember the unusual names first.

Aren’t You glad now that your mother gave you such a unique name!!

Copyright (c) KDM Publishing

Donesia Muhammad has been doing business online since 2001. Sign up For her Newsletter My IBiz Weekly ==>http://myibizweekly.com The Business
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