How is this time spent? Since you are one of these users, you already know or at least guess the answer. Moving beyond guess-work, research shows [http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3455061] that people mostly spend time communicating, gaming, shopping, and simply surfing. Surfing takes up as much as 15% of time spent on Internet or roughly 27 minutes per person per day. 27 minutes of “just browsing” might not sound like much, but it sure beats the amount of time people spend exposed to newspaper ads or TV commercials on any given day.  

Of course, it would’ve been great if the entire 27 minutes of unstructured surfing time were spent on your website learning about your “amazing super-widgets” or whatever else you’re selling. Except of course, there are millions other sites promoting “super-widgets” similar to yours. And even if some or most of them are a lot less amazing than yours, they will still beat you to the top of Google search unless you get serious about Internet Marketing.

Heard of an 80/20 rule lately? Well, guess what?! 80 percent of income on Internet is being earned by 20 percent of the marketers. The problem is having a website is not enough, hasn’t been enough for a long time. Getting your website to the top of search engines’ results pages takes lots of work, knowledge and discipline. Note that I didn’t include “lots of money”. Yes, it doesn’t hurt to have a good marketing budget. But really, you can still get very successful on Internet even on a very tight budget. And that’s another reason Internet Marketing is so popular.

Of course, lots of people dabble in it. Don’t worry about them. Many are confused - they think it’s quick easy money. They will not last. Others get scared by all the terminology, all the geek-speak, all the acronyms. They think it’s rocket science. They will not last either. Yet others view online marketing as a project - with an end in sight. They stick to the program, get their websites off the ground, and then stop learning. They will only last for as long as Google doesn’t change its ranking algorithms.

You don’t have to be one of these people. Again, remember the 80/20 rule. Get your website or blogsite set up and get to work. Set the goals, based on your business model - B2B sales, B2C sales, sales of advertising space, lead-generation, etc. Identify your target market based on your business model. Write your copy focused on your target market.

Now start communicating to your prospective clients. You don’t need to jump on the pay-per-click bandwagon to start bringing traffic to your website. Get the word out about your business and establish some authority by writing and submitting online articles. Get involved in the forums and online communities that relate to your products/services. Social networking sites can be great tools for finding consumer networks.  

Whatever you do, be genuine. Internet users hate spammers. They are tired of blunt sales messages. They are sophisticated and know how to deal with marketers whose attitude and practices are built around making a quick buck at any cost.  Web 2.0 is a community where information and influence flows both ways. Keep this in mind when planning your internet marketing strategy.

 Blogsite saves money

 The only people that make money creating and maintaining websites are web designers. Most business owners lack both time and expertise to build even a simple website. So they go out and hire a web designer. As most entrepreneurs know, a website is a work in progress. There’s always something that needs tweaking, changing, updating, etc.

 Maybe you just landed a big new client. Or maybe an existing client sent you a Thank You e-mail that you would like to use as a testimonial. Or maybe you want to add a new white paper for your prospective clients to download. If you have a traditional website, you will have to contact your web designer and ask to make all these changes for you. And then you have to foot the bill.

 A blogsite eliminates the need for a web designer. The process of posting new content on your blogsite, whether in the blog itself or in the static pages, is very simple. It requires no in-depth technical knowledge. As anyone who tried blogging knows, you don’t even need to know basic HTML to get great results. Now you can publish content in whatever format you want - text, photos, audio, and video with ease.

 Blogsite saves time

 Let’s say you want to advertise a time-sensitive promotion on your website. With a traditional website, you have to coordinate this with your web designer so that she has time to implement and test all the changes.

 With a blogsite, you can go ahead and post your ad and change any other relevant content, such as your rates, whenever you need it. And you don’t have to waste time e-mailing or calling your web designer. You can also react much quicker to any news or changes that affect your niche.

 Besides, it allows you to finally consolidate your efforts in maintaining an online presence. Instead of splitting your time and resources between maintaining a website and a blog, you can now have an all-in-one solution.

 Blogsite gets you to the top of search results faster

 Yes, it is an established fact that search engines LOVE blogs and rank them highly. It happens because blogs by design fulfill a number of criteria used by search engines to rank site relevance. Blogs are usually tightly focused around a theme, have many content-specific external links; feature highly-relevant anchor text for inbound links; have tagged content; and have often-updated content. All this makes blogs search engine darlings.

 If you have a blogsite and its blog ranks high in the keyword search results, your visitors will now have a chance to quickly scan not just through your blog posts, but through the static pages as well.

 You will still want to spend time doing SEO for your blogsite. Except now you will be able to do it yourself and largely for free. There are plenty of easy-to-use free plugins that will take pain and confusion out of the SEO process.

 Blogsite builds loyalty

 Do you know why the same Internet user who visits company’s website only once a month or so will visit the same company’s blog every other day? The answer is simple, really - new content. Toddlers are the only audience that craves reading the same story over and over and over. You can have the greatest content on your site, but if it is not updated regularly, you will find it very difficult to bring visitors back to your site.

 If an Internet user finds your blog and likes its content, he will come back for more as long as you keep posting new stuff. It doesn’t really matter if they visit your blogsite or get the news through RSS feeds, e-mail notifications or Google Reader. What’s important is that they read YOUR stuff and not your competitors’. Chances are, after a while spent reading your content, they will be ready to take the next step whether it is signing up for your e-mail list, download your e-book, or purchase your widgets.

There were many great guest speakers and some of my favourites were Debbie travis, Daryn Kagen, Cynthia Martyn the toronto leader (event planner) for Ladies Who Launch, Stephania Varalli from sweetspot.ca and many other successful business women.

I realize how much Virtual Assistance is needed and so many do not know that it even exists. I wanted to thow my hands up in the air and tell everyone “I can help you take your buisness to great levels of success!” of course I controlled myself and sat down proudly knowing that I am the one that has the answers for everyones online marketing questions and frustrations. I thought to myself I should be one of the wonderful ladies on that stage talking to everyone and giving them tips on online marketing and networking.

I hope that Ladies Who Launch will have another event next year and hopefully I will be one of the speakers on that stage giving advice and helping everyones dream come true!

Question is how do I convince them to have another event and pick me as one of their guest speakers? Anyone have any ideas?

“Jen’s Friends is a weekly teleconference vendor expo show that is held once a week by phone.  Each week we feature a new business.  It’s free and available to the public.  If you are looking to start a business of your own or want to learn more about one.  Maybe interested in purchasing a product or two this call maybe just for  you.”

Shaklee products are natural and safe to use!  There product consists of Nutrition, Weight Management, Beauty, Personal Care, Best Water, Home Care and Air Purification.  Visit Shaklee and contact Jennifer for more information on product and business Opportunities.

I will be focusing my call on the Virtual Assistant Industry and Online Business Industry and what a great career it is.  My goal is to help men and women start their own business working from home and ways to gain success and passive income without having to work 2 or 3 jobs.  With my great business start up packages and Business Consulting we can all live the dream of success!

So mark your calendars for September 17th 10am Eastern Time. 

Call in to 1-712-432-3900
Access Code: 782045#

I look forward to hearing you on the call!

The number one question a new business owner or prospect business start up asks is HOW DO I FIND CLIENTS AND PROMOTE MY BUSINESS?

There are many ways to promote your business which will result in finding prospect clients.  This is not in any particular order.

1. Have a website (reading further will explain why it is so important)
2. Link to other websites and trackbacks to your site.
3. Submit listings on online directories
4. Advertise in the Yellow Pages
5. Having great Business Cards. 
6. Flyers
7. Brochures
8. Post Cards
9. Promotional Marketing (Pens, Hats, T-Shirts, Magnets, Golf Balls, Key chains, Candy Wrappers etc)
10. Blogging
11. Participate in Forums
12. Social Networking such as Face book, Linkedin, Twitter, Biznik, My Space and many more
13. Local Networking such as Chamber of Commerce, Country Club, Golfing, Gyms and attend Events
14. Ask for Referrals (90% of your business will be from referrals)
15. Press Releases
16. Write Articles and submit to Article Submission Sites
17. Write an Ebook
18. Give away Freebies (Free ebook, advice or promotional items)
19. Branding.  Be recognized by having a consistent brand like the Corporate Companies do like Pepsi, Best Buy, and Hp etc.
20. Create Videos and post on sites like You tube
21. Podcast.  Have your own radio show online.

By reading the above list you can see that if you don’t have a website you won’t have all of the opportunities to get your name out there.  You also want something they can go back to in the future.  A prospect can decide to use your services many days, months or years later.  Wouldn’t it be nice if you spoke to someone either online or at an event and they contact you 6 months later?  Better yet they can pass on your info to someone that they know that could use your services.  Spend the first 6 months to 1 year of your business getting your name out there like and then eventually it will payoff.  Make sure to leave them with something to remember you by such as a great website and great conversation!

This evening I was on a great teleclass with Matt Bacak and Connie Ragen Green.  They are both very powerful Internet marketers that I admire very much.  This evenings topic was about writing an eBook.

There was a great deal of fantastic information provided.  Having already researched on publishing last year I was excited to know that I did a great job researching.  There was also so much great information that I didn’t know about for the ebook creation itself.  Listening to this call gave me the security, reassurance and excitement to get started.  Now to determine which eBook I want to start first!

For information on Connie’s mentoring program visit:

From Idea to eBook

• For free business forms and legal forms online  I recommend Docstoc it is a fantastic resource for all businesses.  You will find everything there and you can share your forms that you have on the site.  I have been able to obtain many contracts, business forms and templates. Docstoc

• Another great resource is being able to capture images and videos from your computer to anywhere.  You can record a video of what you are doing or seeing on your computer and send it to people online through IM, email or blogs.  I know that many people use it online.  I myself have not tried it but will be doing it very soon.  JING PROJECT

•  I know I said I would try out Flock and advise how it works.  I have tried it briefly and looks great.  I use it so that I can have all my social networking sites up and running at one time.  I have not used it enough so I am not a pro but will be looking forward to learning how to become a pro at it.  Flock

Does anyone have a resource that they want to share?  Post it in a comment.