One Of My Favorite Lead Generation Techniques (and it’s SUPER EASY!)

One of my favorite lead generation techniques is a concept I call “keyword sniping”.

It’s easy to implement, it’s dirt cheap (the price of a domain name) and it’s highly scalable.

Here’s how it works…

1. Go to google.com and type in “google free keyword tool”.  This will pull up the Google Keyword Tool (it’s completely free).

2. In the keyword generator box I’ll type in a handful of keyword phrases that relate to my niche market. For example, If I’m working on getting leads for a weight loss campaign I’ll type in words like; how to lose weight, safe way to lose weight, fast way to lose weight, etc.

You get the idea.

They’ll give you dozens or often hundreds of keyword phrases for your market.

3. Sort the “Monthly Global Searches” column from smallest to largest. This will tell you how many times that phrase is searched every month. Ideally, you’re looking for phrases here with at least 500 monthly searches (caution: the more searches the more intense the competition will be).

4. Take several of the keywords that have at least 500 monthly searches and do a search for the actual keyword at google.com, but put the keyword phrase in quotations. This will tell you the number of competing sites that you’re up against. You want this number to be less than 40,000. We’re going after the low hanging fruit.

5. Once you have a few keyword phrases that meet your criteria, then you’ll head over to godaddy or hostgator and register the domain of that exact keyword phrase. Always try to get a “.com”.

6. Build out a data capture page using the free site builder at your registrar or use a free site builder like the one at blinkweb.com. It’s quick and easy to use. And it’s free.

7. Optimize the page for 2-3% keyword density. If you have 300 words on the page, have your exact keyword phrase in the message 6-9 times and make sure it’s in the title tag, description tag and in a headline on the page as well.

Here’s some examples of this process in action…

Go to google.com and search for “how to recruit mlm ” (without the quotations). This is a domain for a niche that I operate in. You’ll see the domain www.howtorecruitmlm.com on #6 (of organic results) of page 1 on google. . This domain alone gets me 5-7 leads a month. My only cost is the domain which is about $10.00 a year. So, yearly I get about 70 leads from this one domain and it cost me 10 bucks. You can do the math….it’s dirt cheap on a per lead basis. For this domain I’m spending less than .15 cents per lead!

You can check out the same process for another phrase “how to build downline” (without quotes). This phrase is the number 1 search result in Google.

Another example of this process in action is do a search for “mlm training material”. This is #7 on page 1 in Google.

You can do the same with just a couple hours of “work”!

I use this same process in the handful of niche markets that I operate in. There’s always low hanging fruit just waiting for you.

8. Here’s where we put the process on steroids.

Just registering the domain name as the keyword phrase will get you some traffic…but that’s not enough. Now we want to get 3-5 articles and submit them to ezinearticles.com, goarticles.com and articlesbase.com.

Have a link in the article and one more in the resource box that points to your new data capture page. If you prefer, you can also write press releases and submit them to the free online directories…you’re looking for incoming links here.

That’s it!

Remember you’re going after the low hanging fruit here – don’t over-complicate this process. If every domain you generated made you just 5 leads a month…what would happen if you had 20 domains doing the same thing?

If you enjoyed this quick lead generation tip, hit the like or share button below and don’t forget to post a comment and let me know your thoughts!

All the best,

Terry Duff

If you’re like most you love leads…and you really, really love FREE leads.

In this short video I’m going to show you exactly how to generate more leads WITHOUT having any more traffic than you currently do and show you a simple  tip that can throw your conversion rate numbers through the roof.

There’s 2 things I REALLY enjoyed about this.

1.  It’s truly “set and forget” set it up once and walk away.  Literally.

2.  It allows your prospects to find what’s important to them FASTER – which, in turn, also puts money into your pocket faster.

I’m in the process of “kicking-off” my newest report and to say I’m STOKED would be a huge understatement. This is something I’ve been quietly working on for the past 3 weeks or so.

What makes me giddy is not because of how much I love it, but what I know it’s going to do for you. 20 pages of meat and potatoes…REAL STUFF you can begin using right now to build your empire.

Click on the image (it’s completely f-r-e-e!)

Click Here For Your FREE Report!

Here’s just a couple of things you’ll learn…

1. What we can learn from pro (or even amateur) fisherman (this simple concept will give you a complete paradigm shift as to how you look at your business.

2. Why “traditional” techniques taught to network marketers don’t work for the average distributor.

3. Why opportunity seeker leads are an absolute waste of money – and what you should be looking for.

4. The future of the home-based business industry (hint: these past 3 years or so has been a WILE ride – the next 3 are going to be even WILDER and there’s a killing to be made for those who understand this “shift” that’s just starting to take place).

Here’s the MUST READ report.

5. The only 3 things you need to make it and make it BIG in this industry (and it has nothing to do with goal setting, “dream-boarding” or positive thinking).

6. The single, biggest mistake that most networkers make (and how to avoid it).

7. The IMMENSE power of social media and why you should be making this one of your TOP PRIORITIES…RIGHT NOW.

8. And SO MUCH MORE.

This is a GAME CHANGER.

Oh, and you need to read it from top to bottom.

I have done the UNTHINKABLE and included MY REAL CELL PHONE NUMBER NEAR THE END OF THE REPORT.

I’m not sure what I was thinking, but I do know it’s a great read and you’re going to get a lot out of it.

All the best,

Terry Duff

P.S. I’m REALLY proud of this piece. There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears that went into this thing. Let me know your feedback too after you’ve read it from top to bottom.

It’s about 20 pages long and will take about 25 minutes to really get at the underlying message it contains. Close your office door, shut down your cell phone, turn off your IM and let’s do this!

If you’re looking to build a massive organization, the name of the game is having leads…and LOTS of them. In the late 90′s when I first started marketing online it was SUPER easy to generate leads organically…almost too easy.

Then, Google came along 8 years ago and drastically changed the game. At that time, you could literally have your own monopoly owning both paid and organic search. So, when someone typed in a keyword phrase, nearly any result they clicked on would lead to one of your websites.

Ahhh…and then 2006 came. The first “smacks” took place. Competition got pretty intense…everyone and their brother began bidding on keywords with all the big platforms and organic traffic intensified too.

Those who sharpened their pencil made the cut…those who didn’t – well, they’re floundering right now trying to play “catch up” with all the changes that have taken place (and will continue).

Those who understood the relevance of “always wanting more traffic” THRIVED during these times because they knew that having only 1 source of traffic wasn’t in their best interest.

Here’s a screen shot of one of my Google campaigns for a month’s worth of traffic earlier this year on the content network.

Screen Shot Of Google Content Network

672 leads at $2.39 a piece. Not shabby…

Then came “Google Knockout” around August of this year. They changed the game again. More marketers, that didn’t keep their pencil sharp, were once again scrambling for sources to generate leads.

The savvy marketers had already been using FaceBook, article marketing, solo ads, ezines, other PPC networks, etc for months or even years prior to the big Google KO. Not because they’re any more “gifted” or intelligent than you, but because they know it’s MISSION CRITICAL to be well rounded and have multiple streams of traffic.

Traffic is the lifeline of your business. Without it, the Internet becomes a hobby to play on FB, twitter and check email.

If you’re serious about using the Internet as your personal ATM machine, don’t just get proficient at understanding how traffic works, let it be one of your PASSIONS.

Get REALLY good at understanding the “traffic game”. Your business, family and checking account will thank you for years to come.

This is the single, biggest variable that separates the “DOERS” from the audience members.

Here are some of my top traffic sources that I’m currently using. This is like having a “sneak peak” into my business. Understand that without traffic, you don’t have a business – don’t just read them, USE THEM:

1. Article marketing

2. Video marketing (hint: record your articles using camstudio.org and don’t be surprised when they get indexed by Google within a couple of hours).

3. Bing/Yahoo PPC

4. FB Advertising

5. Solo Ads/Ezine Marketing

6. Organic/SEO traffic

Those 6 traffic sources drive about 85% of my total traffic. The reality is that without visitors, one really doesn’t have an online business.

Remember, not all traffic is created equally. Some sources of your traffic will convert prospects into leads at a much higher percentage. Same with converting leads into buyers – all traffic will convert differently depending on how it was generated and the variables that are associated with that specific source.

For example, articles typically convert from a % standpoint by about a 2 to 1 ratio compared to PPC, but PPC drives a lot more traffic.

This is about balance. Take the good with the bad. There is NO perfect source of traffic or the “Holy Grail”. Traffic is traffic is traffic is traffic…and it’s REQUIRED for your business.

Get really good at one source of traffic…get it dialed in, run some tests – then expand your “octopus” and add an additional “tentacle” to your traffic stream. Rinse and repeat this process.

Some sources are certainly better than others, but the important thing is to CONSTANTLY be tweaking, refining and improving it. ALWAYS look for more traffic.

If it sounds too good to be true, it is. Simple as that. Don’t use guaranteed traffic services, spam or any type of traffic that won’t drive TARGETED visitors to your site.

If you’re looking for the ins and outs on how to systematically build your business you need to get this. It breaks down the most important aspects of your business and shows you how to MAKE MONEY and get yourself moving in the right direction as quickly as possible.

If you’re not in business to have a hobby and your committed to understanding what marketing is all about this is MUST KNOW information for you to have.

All the best,

Terry Duff

One of the most underground techniques for how to market an MLM business, that practically no one discusses in this industry, is the power of using the media to build your business.

To put things in the appropriate context before we dive into this topic, it’s essential that you know and understand a couple of things.

First, you must understand that when people come into your business, they are buying YOU . . . more than the product, the company or the opportunity. They could have joined any number of people’s businesses who were promoting the same products, but they chose to join yours. So when you are thinking about how to market your MLM business, this is something you should always keep in mind.

It is also important to know that people will always rather buy from experts than from trainees. So with that said, you need to get that it is essential to become an expert in whatever niche you’re marketing. All of these things must be the basis for how to market your MLM business.

One of the best ways to accomplish and include these objectives in your marketing, is to incorporate and use the media to distribute your message.

Why?

Incorporating the media accomplishes two major things: (1) It positions you as the expert; and (2) It instantly establishes your credibility. The value of these two things cannot be underestimated.

Whether it’s in the form of being published in a newspaper or magazine, or being featured on radio or television, having the media help to promote your business is a very simple yet overlooked technique by many network marketers.

Here is how simple the process is to incorporate the media into your plan for how to market your MLM business.

You write a press release and submit it to the major directories. Be sure to include a telephone number and an email address, so that people can contact you after they’ve read it. When this is done properly, you will produce two key results: (1) you will generate leads/prospects; and (2) you can have media outlets contacting you wanting to do a story based on one of your press releases.

The latter is golden . . . and really what you’re trying to accomplish by using press releases as a way to market your MLM business. Yes, you will most certainly get leads from doing this. More importantly, though, you’ll get a far greater reach when the media contacts you and gives your press release attention.

Now it is important to understand that there often is not immediate success when someone first starts doing press releases. You may write five press releases before any media outlet even contacts you.

Here’s the key though. You never know how big a distribution from one media outlet will be or to what it might lead. It could be more than worth the wait . . . and then some.

Playing the media game is very much an “insider’s game,” and using press releases is a good way to get “in” with this group and to get access to their contacts . . . all without spending a dime!

If you’re struggling to get targeted MLM leads, and want to start getting a flood of them daily, then I want you to pay very close attention to this blog. In this blog, I am going to tell you how to get very targeted MLM leads in a way that is simple and won’t empty your bank account.

There are several ways of generating targeted MLM leads, but here I am going to focus on one of the simplest — yet most overlooked — ways to get them. Even better, this is a way to get those leads at a very small cost.

One of the best ways to generate leads is to take advantage of someone else’s asset that they’ve already spent countless hours, days and even years to create: their list. I call this using “OPL” (Other People’s List).

Using OPL can be easily done through, and by placing, solo ads. Solo ads essentially are where you write an email that goes out to someone else’s list of opportunity seekers. You are putting your message in front of a targeted audience — hence all the leads you generate from that email will be very targeted MLM leads.

How do you know this? When you’re shopping for solo ads, they will offer you several different categories of leads/lists, one of which will be MLM opportunity seeker leads. If these people weren’t interested in an MLM business, they wouldn’t be on that list, so you will get really ONLY targeted MLM leads from running a solo ad in this way.

So now that we know this is a great way to get targeted MLM leads, how do you do it . . . and how much will it cost you?

The #1 rule to focus on when taking advantage of OPL, is to take all traffic you get (i.e., who click on a link in your ad) to a data capture page (or squeeze page). At this point, all you are looking to do is to create the lead — nothing more, nothing less. Never take prospects who click on your ad to a content-rich website or the website for your primary business.

One of the best ways to find locations to run these solo ads is by locating blogs online that relate to your niche market. Many times they will allow you to email their list (via a solo ad). You can also search online by typing into the search engine things like “solo ads,” “solo ad directory,” “best place to run solo ads,” or “solo ad list.”

When you are first starting to run solo ads, I would recommend this strategy (to maximize the number of targeted MLM leads you get, while minimizing your out-of-pocket cost). First, come up with a list of 4-5 places where you can run solo ads. Start off by placing one ad with the site you believe to be the best fit for what your data capture page is giving away.

Many times you can run solo ads for as little as $20.00 – $25.00. Remember that you are getting to send an email that contains nothing else but your ad and nothing to distract the prospects, and your ad can be going out to as many as 30,000 people at one time.

So let’s do the math on this. If you spend $25.00 to run a solo ad that generates ten leads, then you have spent $2.50 per lead. After you’ve ran a few solo ads, and you have enough traffic to know which location is working best for you, then you want to work on tweaking your data capture page in order to up your conversion rate. Say that you do that and then generate 13 leads from that same $25.00 investment on the next ad you run. You’ve just brought your lead costs down by more than 20%. Now your very targeted MLM leads also become much less expensive (but still targeted) MLM leads.

Once you’ve gone through an adequate testing process and you feel that you’ve maximized the conversion rate on your data capture page, now it’s time to ramp things up. Run you ad more frequently on the sites that are converting best for you, stop running your ads on the sites that aren’t converting well, and continue to look for new locations to run ads. This is a great way to get 20-30 targeted MLM leads per day without breaking the bank.

3 critical things that you need to know about bringing targeted traffic to your website…

Think all traffic is created equal?

1. Your conversion rates from both prospect to lead and from lead to buyer will be significantly different based upon how someone found your lead capture page.

Here’s what I mean…

Someone who finds your lead capture page as a result of seeing an article you have out there is more than 200% likely to optin to your site compared to say someone finding your site on Yahoo PPC.

In this case, not only are they more likely to become a lead, but the likelihood to spend money with you is substantially higher as well.

Sounds weird, but remember that every form of traffic you can surmise will have a different footprint and “genetic makeup”.

2. At the end of the day, there’s really only 2 forms of traffic.

A. Free

B. Paid

And there really is no such thing as “free” traffic – most free traffic comes at a cost….your time. It’s also true that some of the best traffic you’ll ever get is the free stuff.

Think joint ventures and list sharing…

If you’re marketing a product that helps people suffering from weight related issues and you contact another marketer in your niche and offer to send an email promoting him/her to your list and he/she agrees to do the same for you…that traffic rocks.

They’re already on a list that pertains to what they’re looking for…they’re also continuing to look for solutions. Doing a list exchange like this isn’t difficult and it’s a great way to generate leads quickly…and lots of them – without costing a dime.

Look for people in your niche market…create relationships with them. You never know what will come from it.

3. Don’t forget some of the most targeted, yet underlooked sources of traffic.

Think banner ads are dead? They’re alive and well…better now than ever before (not that they were ever “dead” – they just had a bad wrap for a while).

This is another simple and dangerously effective way to generate consistent leads…without breaking the bank.

If you’re marketing funnel leads around the primary benefit of weight loss. Go to google.com and type in “weight loss blog”, “weight loss information”, “weight loss forum”, etc – anything that would likely pull up a content rich website that discusses information about losing weight.

Click on every link in the search results for page 1 and 2 (no need to click on sponsored listings). What you’re looking for is popular websites that allow you to buy ad space on their site.

There are sites with tens of thousands of visitors every month (some had hundreds of thousands of visitors every month) that will allow you to run an ad(s) there.

Simple yet dangerously effective.

I just placed an ad at carlocab.com a couple weeks ago. It cost me $77/mo and that site has around 700 visitors a day. Not a bad value proposition.

If there’s one thing that every home based business owner should strive to get really, really good at it’s about getting targeted visitors to a site.

It’s one of the most valuable skills one can ever learn to master. It’s right up there with the importance of copy writing and the power of trading written words for dollars.

If you’re looking to drive more traffic in a week than most drive all month, you need to check this out.

This is the exact same information I use to drive, on average, 700 visitors a day to one single website…

It’s Not About Me Though – It’s About You…

Click Here To Learn How To Do The Same For Your Website(s)!

All the best,

Terry Duff

P.S. In all honesty, I’m absolutely nuts for giving away the information that I have at this price point. It’s less than a mediocre dinner for two. Grab it now before reality sets in and I double the price.

Be sure to read this from top to bottom…and be sure to leave a comment and share your thoughts!

It’s true…there’s been more changes online for network marketers this year than in the past 5 years combined!

One of the single, biggest obstacles people are now encountering is traffic. Not just “run of mill” traffic…but the good stuff. People searching for solutions to a problem and then adequately finding it. People with the intention of purchasing something or taking an action!

Let’s take a step back and reminisce some big events of this year, shall we?

1. Google took the final steps to essentially shut down those marketing in the MLM/home biz niche (among SEVERAL other niche markets too).

2. MSN/Yahoo inked a 10 year ad display deal as they each are fighting vehemently to avoid losing more market share to Google and social media sites (Facebook).

3. MSN appears to be “dancing” with disabling user ads & keywords. Very similar process to how Adwords began this back in the summer of 2006. If this continues taking place (only makes sense that it will) advertisers will soon be without Yahoo as well as Bing traffic…at least with using traditional squeeze pages.

4. Facebook finally took over Google to lead the pack in terms of how much time one spends on a particular site. This leads to what I believe the biggest change that’s currently taking place…search, as we know it, is becoming less and less meaningful for most people.

This phenomenon is substantial. Currently, “search” only accounts for about 15% of all Internet traffic – Facebook is living proof that one company, one business model can drastically change the landscape for other companies operating in that niche market. Google is clearly concerned about this and their CEO, Eric Schmidt, openly discussed some of their concerns early this year.

As marketers we need to keep some things in perceptive. Most importantly is understanding that just because the days of advertising on Google are likely over (at least for the foreseeable future), those prospects are still out there. We need to keep our bait in front of them…fish where the fish are at.

They haven’t left the net…they’re still around. We must now use different platforms to expose our message to them. That’s all.

I believe the days of setting up an Adwords account (or at bing/yahoo) and taking 10 minutes to write a few ads, add some keywords and hit the “go” button are behind us. PERMANENTLY.

Touching on number 3 above, over the past week, Bing has been actively shutting down ads and keywords. Facebook has taken similar actions over the past several months, shutting down affiliate campaigns, and approving 70% less ads today than they did in January of this year…and Google…well, I don’t need to go there.

Great obstacles are conquered by accomplishing great milestones. While the “traffic” world may be in a state of turmoil currently, I can also tell you there’s a GREAT opportunity to be in front of the “curve” going forward (and there’s A LOT of cool ways to get traffic RIGHT NOW…more on that in just a second).

This is where the greatest opportunities present themselves. It’s those with the foresight…the ability to “see ahead” that will make an absolute killing while others are left scratchin’ their heads wondering what just happened to ‘em.

With that said, it’s not all doom and gloom. Not at all…not only are there several “old school” ways of driving traffic that you should be using, but the trend is JUST STARTING to merge between the offline and offline worlds (this is where it GETS REALLY EXCITING!).

A lot of you have noticed over the past year or so that I’ve been ramping up with several “old school” ways of driving traffic like video distribution, article marketing, CPA networks and even some of the smaller portals like pulse360.

Bottom line…your traffic needs to be well rounded. Those who are putting all of their eggs with Facebook Advertising or just PPV or any other single source of traffic will be part of the crowd scratching their head when something happens.

The next BIG WAVE…

What really gets me excited though is a form of marketing that’s been a round LONG before the Internet was even conceived…

Direct mail.

Yup.

Specifically, sending out little postcards for under .50 cents a piece and THEN driving the prospect to the capture page. This allows YOU to be in full control of your message from top to bottom…including (and especially) the data capture page.

No longer do you have to worry about getting slapped or having your ads paused out of the blue. Just doesn’t happen.

Using files of network marketers (genealogy files) or even aged opportunity seekers (not fresh…you want ‘em a few months old).

Yes, I believe the offline world is merging online and vice versa. This is a trend that’s been “seeping” slowly for the past couple of years…the timing now is PERFECT for this to come to fruition.

It’s more important now than ever before to keep your pencil sharp and focus on “out of the box” ideas to take your business to the next level.

Your business and especially, the lead generation aspect of your business, should be treated like an octopus. The objective is to drive targeted visitors to your site from multiple locations…does it matter if it’s online or offline? It shouldn’t make a difference to you.

As long as the traffic’s converting to new signups. Traffic isn’t meaningful if one can’t convert them to a buyer.

Let me know your thoughts below!

Terry Duff

The short answer is “no”, but let’s dive in just a bit, shall we?

Direct response marketing = where you place an ad/message in front of your audience designed to get them to take one very specific action. The action could be filling out a survey, buying something, filling out a form (ie; capture page, etc).

If one is looking to build their “community”, create relationships with those prospects and then provide solutions to them, based upon their needs, there is NO substitute or alternative to direct response marketing. It’s objective. It provides a “trail” so when it’s done properly you know what worked and what didn’t work. You can look at your data, analyze it and objectively know what did well and what needs to be eliminated or tweaked.

Here’s a 30 day screen shot of my Adwords campaign in April…this is a direct response marketer’s dream because with “data”, you’re armed. Your data is your guide. I can take this data, analyze it, tear it upside down…remove what isn’t working and improve what is working.

A smiggin’ over 100 leads per day for a cost of $3.53 per lead. Direct response marketing is very specific and “numbers driven”. Take a look at “institutional advertising” – if you watch a commercial on Travelocity the direction is completely different. They’re looking for branding…a totally different purpose in their marketing dollars compared to a direct response marketer. Branding is not a bad thing…it’s a “different” thing – most of us aren’t sitting with tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in our back pocket so “branding” wouldn’t be relevant for us.

With all of that said, there’s some pretty relevant developments taking place in the online marketing world right now that we should all be paying VERY CLOSE ATTENTION TO.

On August 13, 2010, my primary Google Adwords account received it’s “final warning” email. This has been a slow, but inevitable “coming” since June of 2006, when the first “Google Slap” shook the world. There message has been clear….if you’re not providing meaningful information to our searchers and a pleasurable search experience, we don’t want you.

As advertisers, whether we agree with what they’re looking to do (or their cloak of “secrecy” behind it) isn’t relevant. Either we choose to be in compliance or we can tell Google to take a hike. It’s our marketing dollars and our choice.

I chose to be in compliance and advertise with them – I thoroughly believe in what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. My hat goes off to them for being THE “trend setter” in the search world. I’m not really fond of how they’re going about things, however, but that’s a topic for another day…

So…in January, even before my “final warning” email from seeing what was taking place with others who operate in my same niche, I’ve been ramping up content at terryduff.com, making it more “user friendly”, incorporating a touch of social media, etc – all with the intentions of making this site become the “core” of my Google lead generation efforts.

Last week I sent them an email asking if they’d like any changes at terryduff.com before I started driving traffic to it…

Here’s what they said:

I’ll keep you posted from my findings and how this turns out…

I may need to either remove the capture box all together or place it “deeper” in the site.

Marketing is about compromise and balance…hang with me here.

I’m hoping at this point, you’ve seen 2 VERY different marketing styles.

1. Squeeze pages that I typically ran on Adwords – I was in total control over the creative side, traffic to the site, the message they were exposed to, etc.

2. A content rich site like terryduff.com – on a site like this I can use analytics, conversion tracking code, etc but at the end of the day, It would be an uphill battle to track how much each visitor was really worth (in an exact fashion)…they may follow me on twitter.com or facebook.com before leaving the page. This has value to me and it may not be worth something immediately, but I’m allowing myself to establish and create a relationship with someone WITHOUT them “optin” into my site…but remember, they’re still becoming part of my community, which is my big focal point. The relationship can still be created – whether one “opts in” in the traditional sense or they follow me in other areas, to me, isn’t all that relevant. It’s another relationship.

Notice the MAJOR shifts that are taking place right now. Transparency is more important now than ever before, providing meaningful information to your audience is no longer optional and being open to the idea that marketing is not stagnant and constantly evolving must be understood.

I believe that we’re heading down a direction that is ultimately good for everyone involved. You’ll soon see more and more product launches that aren’t “list driven”…they’re “socially driven”. As transparency becomes more and more relevant to the people looking for the solutions you can provide, their ability (and desire) to “look under the hood” before they subscribe to your list, buy from you, etc should become an INCREASING PRIORITY TO YOUR MARKETING AND SYSTEMS YOU’RE CREATING.

Notice with the 2nd direction from above, there’s a bit of a “blur” taking place between “institutional advertising” and direct response marketing. Think about this for a second…

Marketing is about compromise and sometimes getting a bit less than what you’d really like in a “perfect” world. In a perfect world, I’d want to place ads on google for any keyword phrase of my liking, have my reports tell me what’s relevant and what isn’t, in the mind of my prospects and their Quality Score formula would be a thing of the past…now, knowing that’s not an option for me, I need to switch gears and think in a different direction…

Here it is. I know I want that traffic…roughly 2/3 of all search traffic takes place on the Google network. I WANT THAT TRAFFIC.

I also know I will likely need to make some sacrifices…

Eventually, whatever page the prospect lands on that I can get approval from Adwords with, I will need to look at my data in a much broader perspective…

In a traditional sense, most direct response marketers look at bottom line numbers and say, “OK, I’m spending $5.50 on average to generate a lead, and on average, each lead is worth $13.00 to my company”. We say, OK, we’re more than doubling our money for each dollar we spend on advertising.

Well, with driving traffic to something like terryduff.com the old rules of the game don’t completely apply. There’s a really good chance that my cost per lead from a traditional perspective will double…maybe even triple. I’ll need to view my data in a much broader fashion and ask myself how much is a Facebook friend worth to me…how much should I be willing to spend for a follower on Twitter? You get the idea.

There’s 3 critical takeaways that I really hope you get from this message today…

1. Marketing is a game of compromise…it’s about give and take. Sometimes in marketing and in life, we may not get exactly what we’re striving for, but we do the best we can with what we’re working with.

2. With major advertising platforms like Google Adwords and Facebook Advertising changing the game so frequently it’s now more important than EVER to treat the lead generation aspect of your business like an octopus…have multiple tentacles that are bringing you quality prospects every day so you can build relationships with them.

3. Understand that the Internet is nothing more than a platform to communicate our message to the masses. Don’t forget about direct mail! It’s targeted, competition is minimal (how many times have you opened up your mail and found 4 postcards or letters from competing companies?), it’s highly effective and extremely objective. Too often, in my opinion, we get so tied up online and think that’s the only way to generate leads…or it’s an “easier” way to generate leads – BOTH of those beliefs are false. They each have their own “nuances”. The Internet as well as direct mail are nothing more than platforms to communicate your message and engage the masses. Use them both. If I knew how to communicate via smoke signals…I would.

You get the message here.

Don’t read this just once…read it top to bottom 2 or 3 times. It’s just that important.

In conclusion, direct response marketing is far from dead…what is dying, however, is how we traditionally view our marketing and the basic assumptions being made about how to “best” structure marketing campaigns. Take a look at every aspect of your marketing…and SECOND GUESS IT. Question it extensively. Ask yourself, “With the new rules of the game, am I setting myself up for success?”

Let the others in our community and myself know your thoughts on this…

I’m committed to your success if you are,

Terry Duff

There’s no doubt about it…the money’s in the list – or more accurately, it’s in the relationship that you establish with those on the list.

The reality is without a list an offer can’t be made (well, you can make an offer, but you wouldn’t have an audience)

List + Relationship = money in the bank.

This is where a lot of networkers struggle…and I personally believe this is the most important aspect of any business.

Lead generation…there are a lot of ways of generating leads, but today I’m going to break down a few effective ways to generate more leads while keeping the investment low…or even not spending a dime.

Warning: Even though there are several ways of getting traffic without spending a dime, there is NO free lunch. Your time…your most valuable asset is being used – so while technically it doesn’t cost you anything out of your wallet…there is a cost associated with “free” traffic.

1. Video Distribution: Doing short videos are a GREAT and free way of getting targeted visitors to your website. Realistically you can do a video (with powerpoint and camstudio.org -or Camtasia, which has a lot of cool features) in less about 20 minutes from top to bottom. Sprinkle a keyword phrase in the title and description and submit the videos to YouTube.

Videos are really a gift that keep on givin’…

In a blog post I did a while back, I break it down into a 7 step process – click here for more specific instruction on video marketing.

2. Article Marketing: This is hands down, bar none, my MOST favorite form of traffic. I’ll explain why in just a second…

Article marketing is nothing more than picking a topic that you have knowledge of (or you’re passionate about) and writing 300-400 words about that topic…then make sure you’ve got the keyword phrase in the article about 2% of the time and make sure it’s in the subject line.

For example…let’s say you were writing an article about “how to lose weight” – well, that topic’s too broad and way competitive…so, here’s an alternative. Either identify a subset of that niche or choose a keyword phrase that’s less competitive…say, “cannot lose weight”. Just taking a quick glance at the Google External Keyword tool (excellent free tool), I can see it has about 5400 monthly searches…and it only has 33,400 competing websites.

Here’s what I mean…

When you find a keyword phrase that you think is a good fit for an article, before you start writing about it, take that keyword phrase and put it in parenthesis at google.com – the number of results it comes back with will tell you how many other sites are competing with that keyword phrase.

I like to see less than 40,000 competing sites. You can go higher, but low hanging fruit is ALL OVER THE PLACE. This isn’t a game of working harder…pick up the low hanging fruit and get page one search results on Google (and the other search engines too).

One of my ezinearticles.com accounts…

2248 FREE URL clicks. I didn’t pay a dime for them. And I’ve only got 41 articles in this account!

Here’s why article marketing is tough to beat from a bottom line results stand point…

Look at the process one goes through before they’ve become a lead.

They do a search online…looking for a solution to a problem they have.

They come across your article and click on it.

They then continue to read/scan 300+ words.

They click on the link inside your resource box which takes them to your squeeze page.

They then decide to either submit their details or leave the page empty handed.

They already have a vested interest…they’ve already spent at least 5 minutes on YOUR STUFF!

2 things take place with good article marketing…

1. Your conversion numbers from prospects to leads is SUPER HIGH…typically above 50% because by the time they get to your capture page, they’ve already invested a fair amount of time/energy. The likelihood of them leaving empty handed is pretty slim.

2. Even more important than number one…a greater percentage of leads become BUYERS – also as a result of what they’ve gone through. My products line ranges from about $30…up to $2500.00 – the greatest % (by a long shot) of the buyers (especially for the high end coaching) comes from article marketing.

A little elbow grease goes a long way.

I wrote an 11 page report that covers all the ins and outs on article marketing – if this is a source of traffic that you’re considering (and I would HIGHLY recommend), check it out right here…

Just remember…article marketing is about being consistent. It’s not about shooting a handful of articles out there and watching the leads pour in. Try to write 3 a week…every week. It won’t take but a couple of months and you’ll consistently be generating leads daily from those articles.

As with any source of traffic…ONLY focus on that source of traffic until you get proficient at it. Ramp it up, then either outsource or do it yourself and add another stream of traffic.

Far too often, I’ll see one tackle a form of traffic only to throw in the towel 2 days later saying, “it didn’t work”. I probably sound like a broken record, but your ability to generate leads and create an audience IS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF YOUR BUSINESS.

No audience = no revenue. Doesn’t matter how good you are as a presenter, your ability to write good copy doesn’t mean anything…you get the idea.

Site traffic should resemble an octopus…

Multiple Streams Of Traffic...Tentacles

Oh, and don’t don’t forget to share your thoughts and submit a comment!

All the best,

Terry