You know you need to get the word out about your solopreneur business if you want to grow and thrive. You know that in most cases growing your presence on the Internet is your best bet mixed in with some offline marketing. And as a solopreneur, you know you must focus on those activities that leverage your personal strengths and produce the biggest results. You decide that you’re going to outsource your marketing to a consultant. You simply don’t have the time. You set a budget. How much of your marketing budget do you allocate to organic activities versus sponsored advertising?

This is a difficult question for many solopreneurs, especially if you have little experience with Internet marketing. Hopefully, you’ve chosen wisely whom to hire as your marketing consultant. If you have, they should be able to provide you with an educated recommendation.

Before we go further, let’s get into some examples of what are sponsored and organic activities.
Sponsored

• PPC ads through Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter
• Banner ads

Organic

• Blogging
• Articles and article submissions
• Press Releases and submissions
• Social media on major networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter

While paid-for campaigns can be a great way to get quick traffic to a site quickly if properly implemented, it usually results in lower CTR (click thru rates) than organic links on the first page of a search where everyone wants to be. Why? Because people trust organic links more than they trust advertising. And page 1 gets more click thru success than the following pages. Don’t believe me?

The following is a breakdown of the percentage of clicks the various sections of a search page receive on page 1:

Top Paid Results (those ads that appear under the search bar and above the top organic listings) receive 2% – 3% of page clicks.

Side Paid Results (those ads that appear on the right side of the page) receive 1% – 2% of page clicks.

Organic Result #1 (the first organic return) receives 41% – 45% of page clicks.

Organic Results #2 receives 11% – 18% of page clicks.

Organic Result #3 receives 7% – 15% of page clicks.

Organic Results #4 – #9 receive 2% of page clicks each.

Organic Result #10 receives 3% – 4% of page clicks.

If you’re PPC campaigns get 1% – 3% of the clicks on page 1 (and that’s IF your ads get to page 1), you’re still far behind the number of click thrus you will get if you have top organic link ranking. The average even falls below the number of clicks you will get if you have the organic link on the bottom of page 1. Plus, statistically the clicks you receive from organic listings have a higher conversion into buying customers than those that click on paid ads.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that you don’t consider sponsored Internet marketing. There are some great, targeted opportunities for gaining visibility, building a list of prospects, and converting customers using paid-for marketing. However, I wouldn’t suggest that you only use this method. You need to balance your sponsored Internet advertising with organic SEO tactics.

So when you are considering how you are going to spend your time and / or money to attract customers online, if you don’t get started with organic SEO tactics now, then when?

If you need help with your SEO, get started with SmallBizMedia.TV.

All the Best,

Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

Today’s post was inspired by an article I recently read by Business2Community, a site dedicated to creating an “open community where professionals and businesses can connect with one another and the consumers of their products and services.”

The author, Nick Stamoulis, penned the piece titled, “4 Types of SEO Clients to Avoid” to appeal to companies that provide SEO services to other businesses. However, in reading it, it struck me how it is a great read for solopreneurs and small businesses struggling with SEO. Whether you are doing your own SEO or you’ve invested in an outsourcing agency to succeed with it for you, if you aren’t seeing the results you’re hoping for, it may not be the tools you’re using or the agency you’ve hired, but you may be the root of the problem.

As a small business owner of a social media service company, SmallBizMedia.TV, I can appreciate what Nick is suggesting. Here are his four types of clients to avoid (or avoid being):

1. Clients that are impatient
2. Clients that only rely on SEO
3. Clients that will be more of a pain than they are worth
4. Clients that have a bad web site

While I could rehash what is already in the original piece and put my own spin on it, I think it’s best that you click on the link above and read the article. From experience, I agree with the points that the author makes. When reading it, stop and honestly assess your own beliefs about SEO and your overall marketing strategies. Does it sound like this article is telling SEO consultants and agencies to avoid you?

All the Best,

Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

While many solopreneurs and small business owners already have their hot idea dialed in, many struggle with how to market it. When you think about successful Internet marketing, which is mightier … original content or links and “Like”s?

Let’s quickly define what successful internet marketing is. It’s researching your market. It’s connecting with your target market. It’s building a list of leads. It’s building relationships with those leads to get them to know, like and trust you so ultimately they will buy from you. And it is about keeping the post-sales relationship healthy so they continue to buy from you, and give you positive testimonials and referrals.

So with this definition, if you didn’t have either to begin with, which would you pay money for … great original content on a regular basis or incoming links and likes? Most people who aren’t familiar with Internet marketing say they’ll take the links and likes. But if you didn’t have to choose between the two, would you? What’s really needed is a balanced approach.

Think of it this way … if you’re trying to get a number of people to “Like” your page (after you’ve run through your list of family and friends like a focused Amway salesperson), think about who is going to like your page and why. If you don’t try to connect with the people that would gain the biggest benefit from what you are offering and give them something of value, why should they do you the favor of clicking a “Like” button, tagging you, or sharing your links and videos?

Creating great content without making it readily accessible to the people that want it the most won’t work. And putting money into automated programs or PPC campaigns just to drive people to a site without anything beyond “Buy from me right now” can capture some opportunities, but it isn’t a recommended method for building a long-term business.

So many solopreneurs and small businesses have trouble with this concept because they are thinking about them and how great their business is, the value that they can give to the market and the money they can make from it. If this is you, stop for a minute and try to think about how you react when you encounter a business with great call-to-action links that take you to a site with a weak offer and no credibility.

One without the other creates an ineffective marketing campaign. It may be that you need to distribute your time / your money more effectively.

Still not sure how to create an effective Internet marketing campaign? SmallBizMedia.TV is here to help.

Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

For most marketing savvy solopreneurs, this blog post title isn’t breaking news. What is surprising though is the number of solopreneurs and small businesses who are still considering if social networking and social media content are the real deal or just a fad.

Let’s start by looking at some recent numbers stated in the American Express OPEN “Small Business Monitor” spring 2011 edition (change in percentage from Fall 2009 to Spring 2011):

Companies with a website … up from 49% to 65%
SEO … up from 20% to 36%
Mass email … up from 13% to 24%
Online social networking … up from 15% to 35%
PPC advertising … up from 9% to 17%
Banner ads / pop-up ads … up from 5% to 11%
Blogging … up from 3% to 12%

Which social networking sites were small businesses the most active on?

1. Facebook
2. LinkedIn
3. Twitter
4. Blogs
5. YouTube

The most amazing stat was that 56% of small businesses that American Express survey stated they were not actively using social media.

So where are you in this competitive mix? Which of these social media activities are a part of your campaigns? Are you one of the active 44%ers in social media or are you one of those 56%er solopreneurs and small business owners sitting on the sideline waiting to see how this all plays out?

A bit of advice: Start building a buzz for your business online now.

All the Best,

Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

Sounds like a bold title, doesn’t it? Is this just catchy copy or is it truly possible that there are just seven essential actions solopreneurs master for breakthrough success?


The truth is many of these top small business pros worked very hard to get where they are today. Their success didn’t happen overnight. The honest ones will tell you that they struggled and made mistakes along the way. Some big mistakes. Costly mistakes. I sure have. More than once … and in multiple industries.


These are all talented people that have the entrepreneurial DNA, but before they achieved their breakthrough success, they had certain patterns or habits that kept them just on the other side of success. They fought through frustration, confusion, procrastination, small results and some degree of self-doubt … all at a cost of tremendous effort, personal pride, loss of money and cashing in a few favors with the people that supported them most.


Does this sound like your current situation?


If so, we want to help you.


My Small Biz Break partner, Maria, and I are hosting a live webinar on Tuesday March 1^st at 2:00 PM EST / 11:00 AM PST titled, “Discover the 7 Essentials for Going from Cruise Control to Crushing It in Your Business”. In this no-cost webinar, we’ll talk about the seven key actions that successful entrepreneurs mastered for breakthrough success.


You’ll discover the primary secrets of:

1. How to change your thinking to achieve bigger results

2. How to avoid procrastination, a lack of confidence and burn out while keeping focused on specific actions to achieve your desired success

3. How to attract more of the right customers

4. How to avoid multiple false starts

5. How to replace your busy work with results producing action

6. How to rally others to your cause to achieve greater success faster

… and …

7. How you can capitalize on your current achievements for greater future success


We don’t believe in taking up your time with fluff and only talking about theories. We are committed to introducing you to new ideas so you can see new possibilities. We will discuss why they’re important and we back that with practical, how-to steps so you can start taking action right away.


The first action you need to take is to register for this event. At the bottom of our Small Biz Break Events page, you will see a registration form. When you sign in your name and email address, not only will you reserve one of the limited spots to:


1. Our live 60-minute free webinar on Tuesday, March 1^st

… but for a limited number of take-action entrepreneurs who register early, we will give a complementary bonus  …

2. A one-on-one 30-minute private strategy session. We are only offering this for a limited number of people, so take action now before the other action-oriented entrepreneurs beat you to it!


We’re excited to get the opportunity to help your business reach its full potential!


All the Best,


Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide