You probably know that I love doing my Santa thing. I have fun every single day with people who recognize me as Santa. I get waves from passersby in cars, have pictures taken with people in gas stations, grocery stores and restaurants. For me it’s a kick.

I’m in LA this week and yesterday I did a “reading” for the Commercial Division a very prestigious talent agency. The firm is considering representing me as one of their clients. If they take me on I will be submitted for national and regional TV commercials as well as print ads as Santa. I think would love doing that.

Imagine, I’m spending time and money and I’m excited about AUDITIONING in order to become a client of a firm that is going to take a percentage of my future earnings IF THEY EXCEPT me as a client!

I started to think about; why am I doing this? Why am I willing to invest my time and money and “put myself out there” just so I can pay a company a percentage of my income?

Of course the answer is because I VALUE what they bring to the table… they would allow me to do more of one of the things I love to do, they would increase my exposure and ultimately increase my incme.

I then started thinking about my Internet marketing coaching business (my real business)… Using SEO and social media I increase exposure and profits of my clients.

Perhaps I should have potential clients audition for me… have them demonstrate and convince me why I should take them on as a client… hmmm…

If you are not yet one of my coaching clients hire me now while I’m still accepting clients without an audition.

When it comes to using Linkedin to build your business understanding how to create your “Linkedin Profile” is crucial. Below I have linked to several excellent articles and posts that will help you create a Linkedin Profile that will evoke confidence and trust in you and in your business. These are the essential first steps  to successfully using Linkedin as a business development tool.

While I think it’s important that you understand how to get the most out of Linkedin to help you grow your business… that is not the primaryreason I’m writing this blog post. My primary reason is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). A few minutes ago I discovered that many people are actually Googling on- “linkedin linkedin”, they are entering the word Linkedin twice in the Google search. This post is being optimized for that strange but apparently popular keyword- linkedin linkedin.

As an Internet marketing coach I wanted to turn this into another real time SEO experiment. I did a similar SEO experiment a year or so ago on the keyword  ”Construction Internet Marketing” which I now have a top ranking on.

I hope you will use the information below to build your Linkedin profile. I created my profile on Linkedin several years ago and I regularly get new clients and referrals as a result.

To test the effectiveness of my SEO tactics Google on the keyword- “linkedin linkedin” sometime after April 23rd and see where this post is in the rankings. As of today I’m nowhere in the top 500 Google listings on that keyword.

As an Internet marketing coach I help my clients with both their SEO and with their marketing on Linkedin and other social networks like Facebook and Twitter. I also do much more but this post is not about that.

Linkedin Linkedin – 20 Million Searches!!!

Of course “linkedin linkedin” is a strange keyword and most of my SEO efforts are on keywords that are a bit more conventional, such as; “Construction Internet Marketing”, but when I saw “linkedin linkedin” was getting over 20 million searches per month AND the competition was low I just had to give it a try. If I get a first, or even a second page Google ranking on this keyword it will probably add thousands of new visitors to my website and since Linkedin is a resource used by a lot of small business owners I have reason to believe some percentage of these new visitors will hire me to become their Internet Marketing Coach. I think my odds are good that this will be time well spent.

Remember, give Google a few days to spider and index this page and then search on “linkedin linkedin” and see where this page is ranking.

Here are the links I mentioned at the top of this post:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVUDFiLtMM4&feature=BFa&list=PLA05D8073936F8087&lf=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx6FKfR8dWM&feature=BFa&list=PLA05D8073936F8087&lf=plcp

http://www.businessweek.com/management/25-ways-to-make-linkedin-work-for-you-02102012.html

http://learn.linkedin.com/company-pages/

Do you ever wonder why you do what you do… or better: Why you DON’T DO what you don’t do… even when you absolutely know you should?

I lost 110 pounds (see http://thehalomethod.com/) and, as I’m fond of saying, I did it without drugs, surgery or willpower. What I have now discovered is the neuroscience of my weight loss plan can be directly applied to Internet marketing in a way that can effortlessly transform your business.

I have spent the last several years trying to determine why I was able to lose the weight this time, after decades of buying books, going on diets and mustering up willpower and discipline only to fall short of my desires and ultimately slip back into old habits and gain even more weight.

Now, after hundreds of hours of soul searching and mediation; and after reading (actually listening to- I’m a huge fan of audio books) dozens of books on human behavior I have come to some conclusions.

Since I’m a simplifier by nature, I tend to take the complex and boil it down into its most basic and essential elements. Here’s what I have come to believe:

I did 3 very simple things that transformed my body:

1. I found a compelling reason
2. I identified new things to do
3. I changed my habits

Here’s how this relates to you and your business… 

Right now you have a set of behaviors and habits associated to your Internet marketing.

•         You either write content or blog posts every week or you don’t.
•         You post to social media daily or you don’t.
•         You monitor your SEO and rankings or… you don’t.
•         You monitor visitor engagement on your website or you don’t.

Here’s my point, these things you are doing, or not doing, have become habits. Like my old habits around food and exercise, your habits around your Internet marketing may not be taking you in the direction you want to go.  In my case my habits were robbing me of health and vitality. I was setting myself up for catastrophic failure; a heart attack or stroke.

You may be on the same path right now with your business. Your business may be just surviving rather than thriving. The future of your business may be uncertain rather than bright.

So what becomes the catalyst for change, for you?

What can be done to shift your habits and patterns in a way that supports the outcome you want for your business?

For me, my first step was identifying a “bigger purpose” and what I have found in my studies is that this is very common.  Surgeon General’s warnings are not enough to get people to quit smoking (in fact there is evidence that suggests they could actually increase it), the possibility of a heart attack in the distant future is not an effect habit changer and for many small business owners the thought of making more money is just not compelling enough to transform behaviors.

“We started out to get a computer in the hands of everyday people,
and we succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.”-Steve Jobs 

Jobs had a vision that drove his behaviors and having a vision is something that you can do to. It’s exactly what I did before I started losing weight. I had a new vision for myself, a compelling reason to change my eating and exercise habits.  Of course I still had to find new things to do, new things to eat, new ways to move, and you will have to find new things to do related to your Internet marketing (of course I can help with that).

The starting point, the thing you can do right now to start building a better future for your business is to establish a compelling vision, a reason, a WHY you do what you do.

All the best.

One last thing, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg is absolutely fascinating. I highly recommend it.

1 Hour LIVE Online Training Session-

How to Use Your BLOG to SEO Long Tail Keywords

Optimizing your blog for long tail keywords can be an incredibly easy way to add hundreds or even thousands, of highly qualified visitors to your website. By using this one simple, easy to implement, strategy my analytics show that Google alone has delivered 4,493 new visitors to this website.

The date has been changed to Wednesday, April 11th 

“Long Tail” keywords are longer, more specific keywords that are searched on less frequently then “Head” keywords.  ”SEO” is an example of a head keyword and  “seo conversion improvement strategies” is a long-tail keyword.

There are 2 primary reasons you should add Long Tail keywords to your SEO efforts:

1. Higher Conversion Ratios. A Conductor study revealed that conversion rates for long tail terms were 2.5 times greater than head terms.

2. Less Competitive. Long tail keywords are less competitive and therefore relatively little effort can often produce top Google rankings.

In the video below I show the most common mistake I’m seeing small businesses make on Facebook. Go to your personal Facebook page and click on your employer, I’ll bet it’s NOT linking to your Facebook Business Page. This is one of the most common mistakes I see businesses making on Facebook.  In the video below I show you what I’m talking about and I show you how to fix the problem in about 15 seconds!

I first published this post 7 months ago - Facebook Business Page & Your Personal Profile- Avoid this Common Mistake

Now that the Facebook Timeline has rolled out worldwide, the way you access your Employer field has changed. Mari Smith has provided some screen shots on the link below that you may find helpful. http://www.marismith.com/mistake-personal-facebook-profile-employer-link/

If you have not got the phone call yet you will. With some clever wording the caller will have you thinking they work FOR Google and they are calling to help your business  rank better in the Google rankings.

The reality is they don’t work FOR Google at all. They work WITH Google (the way a whittler works with wood), more specifically they work with your website (or with a website they will create for you).

Now I have no idea if the company making these calls is any good or not, and frankly I don’t care. For me, the mere fact that they are being so clever (read deceptive) in their approach is enough for me to NOT do business with them.

When the phone rings don’t get suckerd.

On another note, the search engine ranking reports for 20 of my clients ran today, all told they had gained 927 NEW First Page (top 10) Google rankings. That’s an average of 46 NEW rankings per client!

SEO starts with honesty, not deception. If you would like some help obtaining and maintaining top Google rankings give me a call. I’ll demonstrate our results and be straight with you from day 1-  541-482-4840

Local search has evolved into a SEO subcategory, an SEO specialty, but you don’t have to be overwhelmed by it. Let’s keep this very simple and actionable. Start with a FREE local search analysis generated from the site below.

When evaluating your business and determining where to rank your website relative to your competitors Google is going to take many things into consideration. One of the things Google will look at will be the “citations” that include your business name, address and phone number are mentioned in. Citations are mentions on directory sites like Yelp and CitySearch as well as references to your business in local social networks and Chamber of Commerce websites.

One tactic you can use to obtain higher rankings in local search results is to build your citations.

Bright Local provides a very handy tool (with a FREE Trial) that will evaluate your current citations. Once you have the report you will likely see opportunities for improvement.

If you would like some help determining what to do, or what to do first, let me know. We’ll come up with a simple, easy to implement plan to increase and improve your citations and all of your other local SEO elements. Call 541-482-4840.

1 Hour Online Training Session-
How to Use Your BLOG to SEO for Long Tail Keywords

Optimizing your blog for long tail keywords can be an incredibly easy way to add hundreds or even thousands, of highly qualified visitors to your website. By using this one simple, easy to implement, strategy my analytics show that Google alone has delivered 4,493 new visitors to this website.

The date has been changed to Wednesday, April 11th 

“Long Tail” keywords are longer, more specific keywords that are searched on less frequently then “Head” keywords.  ”SEO” is an example of a head keyword and  “seo conversion improvement strategies” is a long-tail keyword.

There are 2 primary reasons you should add Long Tail keywords to your SEO efforts:

1. Higher Conversion Ratios. A Conductor study revealed that conversion rates for long tail terms were 2.5 times greater than head terms.

2. Less Competitive. Long tail keywords are less competitive and therefore relatively little effort can often produce top Google rankings.

 This will be a 1-hour training session (I will not be selling anything). I will show you how I identify long tail keywords and the precise steps I take when optimizing my blog posts. By the way, my coaching clients who are using these same tactics to generate well over 100,000 top rankings.

Investment- $97 (Free to current coaching clients)

Date/Time- Wednesday, April 11th 11:00AM – 12:00PM Pacific Time. The session will be recorded and available to non-coaching clients for 7 days, coaching clients will have unlimited access.

Q&A- The last 10 minutes of session will be devoted to Q&A. Those who attend live will also be able to e-mail in questions and I will respond after the training session.

Using long tail optimization tactics in your blog posts can produce a HUGE increase in the number  of qualified visitors to your site and in the number of conversions produced. Enroll now- Click Here 

Want practical tips on how to get started and drive value using Facebook for your business? I have discovered the official “Facebook Best Practice Guide” for Business Pages. This is written by Facebook and is available as a FREE 9 page PDF doc.

The Guide includes internal Facebook engagement data, delivers 16 helpful tips and even includes a “Best Practices by Verticals” sections which provides tips for various business categories.

Here’s the link- http://ads.ak.facebook.com/ads/FacebookAds/Best_Practices_Guide_3.01.12.pdf

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model that may change the entire way you market your business.

By starting with your Why, as opposed to your How or What the entire marketing paradigm shifts. I encourage you to watch this video.

Here’s my Why, How and What… 

Why I do what I do
I’m a simplifier. As a child in school learning was often difficult for me, I developed an ability to simplify things so I would better understand them. By taking complex or confusing Internet marketing tactics and making them simple I can now show small business owners how they can easily use Internet marketing to grow their businesses.

Being an Internet marketing coach allows me to use my unique gifts, control my own destiny, exercise the freedom to make my own choices and be fulfilled through service to others. I am blessed and thankful to be fulfilled and inspired by the work I do. I’m simply living true to my vocation.

How  I provide my services
I simplify and prioritize Internet marketing activities for clients on an individual basis.

What I provide
Small business owners receive step-by-step direction to improve their Internet marketing results.

Here is a link to the 20 Most Watched TED Lectures

This is a more personal video of Simon being interviewed.

http://www.startwithwhy.com/ 

Have you watched my FREE e-Course- ”How to Gain a Competitive Marketing Advantage with SEO, Social Media, Mobile Marketing & More”? If not you can watch  it now at- http://imgmembers.com/free-e-course/