Your Top 10 Tips for Offline Gold Businesses Wanted!

[Nightengale]

Hi Warriors!

Ok, I've got an idea. There are many people on this forum who are (or will be) pursuing their offline gold businesses. As acknowledged in the Offline Gold Cash Cow thread (which is still going strong), some people have more experience in different online marketing areas than others. Some have SEO expertise, others have copywriting expertise, some have traffic generation expertise, etc.

For the benefit of those here starting their offline old businesses, would you be willing to post your top 10 list in your area of expertise (or 5 or 15 or 20, whatever fits your area of expertise) here for the benefit of all? I know almost all of this info can be found here somewhere, but I think it would be beneficial to keep it simple and organized (with a list) and keep it one place (here). This forum is huge and I know we've all had the experience of losing info in a valuable thread because we didn't bookmark it and couldn't find it when we came back. (I had that experience just tonight.)

I'm willing post to copywriting tips here for those who need help in that area. Give me a bit to collect my thoughts and I'll back back. (I'm recovering from a nervous breakdown over my design problems. :P -- And WHAT is the code for the guy sticking out his tongue icon and the guy with the bugged out eyes icon? I can't find it!)

This could be helpful for those who need this help for their own sites and for those first few projects from clients.

At the moment, I'm looking for SEO tips for my site, including meta tags.

Topics that could be covered here:

1. Copwriting
2. SEO
3. Traffic generation
4. Getting backlinks

Etc....

Well? What'cha waitin' for? Post your tips here!

Michelle

[GoGetta]

My offline tips:

1. Social Bookmarking is the way to go for backlinks and is usually enough to place a new or exisiting site top page of Google for the majority of localized keywords.

2. When optimizing for local maps etc. Try and get the business owner to have a few existing customers to write a review or 2 for the business you are promoting as this seems to place the sites higher in those listing. Backlinks also help this as well as keyword rich domains!

3. Do not underestimate the power of Classifieds! Classifieds can help you get new clients in 2 different ways:

a) Advertising your web services on the likes of Craigslist will gain you new clients looking for web design. I have secured various clients using this method.

b) Gather targeted data. If a business owner has just posted an advert on a classified site today! The guess what? They are proactively looking for business and new clients online. Perfect opportunity to get in touch and explain what we do!

4. I posted this a few days ago and got no interest. But do not overlook picking the phone up. It does wonders for your bank account and client building. Don't knock it until you have tried it! It is a lot easier than you think and can have new clients on your lap within hours!

Here is the thread I posted, some tips on opening up a call:

Phone Cold Calling Tips

5. Plan and Set Goals - Dont Wing It! If you set goals, maybe 10 clients by March or, or quit my 9-5 by February. Guess what - You Will Achieve It!

6. Overcome Rejection - You will get rejected by business owners in this niche but do not let it knowck your confidence as not everyone is going to buy from you!

7. Outsource - Visit guru, elance etc. and set up an putsorcer. This again is fairly easy. Post a typical job that you may need doing like design and talk to the people that bid about your plans. I have picked up an unbelievable outsourcer by doing this from the get go whom has delivered on so many projects for cheap!

8. Take Action And Keep Momentum - If you take action and get a client. Keep momentum going and get another and another. As soon as you step back and think, WOW, got a client, now I can chill out, is when you get stuck in a rut and find it doubly hard to get the next client!

9. Focus on what you know - To begin with focus on a niche you know a little about. Maybe you have worked as a tradesmen before or a car mechanic or a dentist assisstant. Whatever, stick to that niche to get your first clients. Its easier as you can talk in there language and form better rapport in my oppinion and experience. After you gain a few clients you will have confidence to hit more and more in different niches.

10. ENJOY IT - Enjoy what you are doing. You love IM (I Hope! lol ) So when talking to business owners in 2009 let that come across in your voice. People buy people!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope that helps someone.

Any questions, just ask and I will do my best to answer them. Or visit my blog in my sig for more information and tips!

Have a great 09 people!

GoGetta