Your small business does not need a website!

"What?"

What is a blog about websites and making money online doing saying your brick and mortar small business does not need a website?

Perhaps it would be best if I clarify.

You don’t need a website for your business. You need a marketing funnel. You need a web presence that creates a desire for your product or service as well as advertises your existence. The websites of many small businesses often fail at both.

If your a small business owner you probably either have or are constantly offered one of two different types of websites.

1. An online storefront for selling products directly online
2. A "Name, rank, and serial number" type of site that really just states facts about your business to create an "online presence."

Neither of these web presence ideas really helps make your small business more profitable.

The first is fine if you have a product or service that can be shipped to the customer at a financially feasible price. The second is not much different than phone book ad that fails to make you different to the potential customer.

At least once a week, I received calls by web developers for my small business.

Some wanted to create an online store for me. Great, but my business did not have something that could be sold online. The others wanted what I still consider obscene amounts of money to design a fancy looking site that would basically put my phone number online so I could get more useless calls like theirs (I am not saying don’t put your business phone number online, just make sure you will get more than telemarketers calling when you do it). This I could have done myself, I just failed to see the point.

I bet you get these calls too.

I also bet, that, if you have had one of these website developers create a site for you, at least one of the following is true:

• You paid over $1000 to have the site made
• You are paying over $50 a month for hosting
• Your website does not rank first place on Google for your own business name (instead some national site like CitySearch does)
• Your site only gets traffic when you pay for ads
• If someone is really trying, they can find your website if they need your address or phone number
• You cannot update information already on the site easily if you need to
• You cannot add new stuff to the website without paying more
• You have at least one perpetual "Under Construction" page
• Your pages sometimes look funny because the graphics don’t load
• You are wondering where all the money this website is supposed to bring in is

Most likely several of the above statements are true.

Some of them may be true even if you did not get a telemarketer call, but decided to find a website designer yourself. OK, maybe you paid even more.

Too often, businesses get a website designer that creates fancy graphics and a pretty looking.

Fancy graphics will not get you more business. A pretty looking site does not make more people come to it. In fact, some of the most profitable websites are somewhat ugly (Wal-Mart stores for the most part are too, and they make a lot of money).

What do you need from your small business website?

• Reasonable ranking in search engines like Google
• Give basic information about your business to those looking for it
• Be simple and fast for updates or additions by you or your sales and marketing team/person
• Most importantly, your website should share what makes your business unique – why should the potential customer come to you
• Your website should have testimonials from your other customers
• Share benefits of your product or service
• Hopefully, get some information from the potential customer so you can contact them with more information (including a well written sales letter).
• Create a desire for your product or service

Too many small business websites fail to provide a real reason the customer should come to you.

Too often, small business websites share the same trait most phone book ads share-nearly identical and have no unique selling point. You can often just change the company name and a competitor can use the website. Sometimes, even a company in completely different field could use the much of the site. If the customer does end up calling or contacting you they are only left with one question, "How much does (insert product or service here) cost?" Price then becomes the only factor the customer can judge by. All you can hope for is that you have the best price of the places they call. They usually end up going to Wal-Mart.

This is true in most small businesses.

It was true in my profession (photography) and I know that I have been left with the same choice by other small businesses. Unless your website separates you from the other businesses like yours, price becomes the only real factor a customer can judge you by.

You do not need an expensive website to do this.

It can all be handled extremely well by WordPress. No expensive software to buy. Once set up, it is easy to use and update. WordPress also has some advantages that you can use to make your site even more popular.

Over the next few weeks and months I’ll be going over in detail how to set up WordPress for your small business website.

I’ll include everything you need to use and download to do it. I’ll have video on how to set up the site. My goal is to show you how to do it so you can spend your time making money and not fooling with your website. You can do this without spending huge amounts of money and save that money for your family.

Your website can be an effective marketing funnel in bringing in new customers and keeping old customers for your small business.

Jim Kukral is demonstrating some great internet marketing ideas on his blog.

In fact, he has a video on his blog that he could use to market 3 different products effectively in one video.

Take a look at Jim Kukral’s blog and watch the video about Somethingstore

Can you identify the 3 products that he is selling in the video?

Actually, I think he is only promoting 2. The subject of the video, Somethingstore.com, is just being reviewed and I didn’t spot any affiliate to it. I could be wrong, but you could substitute any product and use an affiiate link.

The real products are the Flip camera and Scratchback.

The video is shot using the Flip video camera.

This is a product that Jim used to test the effectiveness of Scratchback for marketing products. A test that was profitable for him also. My only suggestion is that on the page with the video, there is no real link to buy the camera. A shame, since he does such a great job of demonstrating how useful it can be.

The other product Jim is marketing is a link in the Scratchback list next to the video.

Notice how he uses the graphic of the video to point to Scratchback. While no mention of Scratchback is made, you will notice it. This would be a great place for Somethingstore or any business featured in the video to purchase a link on Scratchback. If you are a truly evil internet marketer,  a great place for a link to a direct competitor to Somethingstore. You could also simple take advantage of traffic to the page and place any link there.

This is an excellent example of internet marketing to follow.

I’ve added Jim Kukral’s blog to my reader list. He has many great ideas for marketing that are simple and easy to follow.

Internet marketing is more than just getting traffic.

Once you get someone to your page, you need to monetize the traffic you have. Otherwise, you will be working for free. While it’s nice to enjoy your work, you will enjoy it a lot more if you make money so you can keep enjoying it. Jim is showing how to get traffic and how to monetize effectively. Here we also see an example of using graphics effectively.

I would suggest you subscribe to Jim Kukral’s blog.

If you are a ScratchBack user, the Scratchback blog would also be a good read. ScratchBack is one of Jim Kukral’s ideas and there are some good things to learn about using ScratchBack there. You will not find the attitude you see on many interenet marketing blogs. Just simple, good ideas and how to use them.

Well, almost!

Friday was the last official day in my full time business (the portrait studio).

I am now completely self-employed. Or, to put it another way, unemployed.

This is a big change for me.

I have been in the business for my entire adult life. After well over twenty years, it is a bit sad to see it go. My parents started the business while I was in high school. It has been a real education in retail, sales, marketing, as well as photography.

If everything works out, I will be working completely from home from now on.

There are several things I will be doing.

My Websites.

I will be concentrating on this blog and on my photography site for the most part. I also plan to start a few more sites. I have seen some interesting ideas recently and I want to give a few of them a try. Still, most of my focus in Internet Marketing will be centered around this blog and the photography blog.

I will also be doing another home-based business.

This will probably be the long term focus for income. I just have to make up my mind and do it.

I am planning to see what I can do with photography.

For a few months at least, I am staying well away from portrait photography. I look into doing it again sometime in the future, but for now I will look into other types of photography. Besides, I do not have a studio now and it is not very good weather to do portraits outdoors here in Wisconsin. In particular, I intend to develop my stock portfolio a bit for the next couple months.

We may have kept the studio open if we had the business we have had the last few weeks last year.

Why is it once you decide to close, customers seem to come out of the woodwork? My last week in business was probably the largest single week we have had in several years. I had to turn away many potential clients. There was no time to get them in before our lease was up.

I still have some work to do at the studio over the next few weeks.

Our landlord was very kind and has given us the month of December to clean up. After 20 years, we have a lot of things that either need to be sold or thrown out.

Lessons to learn.

Watch the industry you are in. Take notice of changes and make sure you change with them, when the time is right.

Do not change too early.

Sometimes, the early adopters pay a lethal price. Often, early generations of technology have serious flaws.

Do not change too late.

Failure to change will leave you too far behind to catch up. Our failure was not shutting down our film lab soon enough. It was actually costing us money to keep the equipment running.

Marketing your business is the real business.

Everything else is secondary. Make sure your marketing is designed to bring you business, not just get noticed. You are better off sending 3 letters to 10 clients than 1 letter to 30 clients. Also, always be ready to repeat a last successful marketing campaign. Don’t put all your cards on a new method till you see results.

Finally, and probably most important.

Your list is worth it’s weight in gold.

BACK IT UP!

Courtney Tuttle has published a list of posts reviewing Blogging Zoom.

I have simply copied it here since there would be no point in retyping the list with with same links. I wanted to share a link with those that are helping to promote Blogging Zoom.

*Update – Bogging Zoom is no more. The domain is now being used for something else.*

If you have not taken a look at Blogging Zoom yet, read a few of these reviews.

There are some good reviews here and you will see both the good and bad about Blogging Zoom. Most of the posts I have read have seen some good traffic from using Blogging Zoom.

I think you will find that Blogging Zoom is worth the time it takes to use.

Take some time to read some of the posts there and Zoom a few you like. It is off to a great start and continues to improve.

• CashQuests.com | Blogging Zoom Has Increased My Traffic.
• SuperBloggingTips | Do You Want Your Blog’s Traffic ZOOMING Through The Roof?
• Blograters | BloggingZoom.com
• Jason Clark | The BloggingZoom Backlink Participants 1-10
• Jason Clark | The BloggingZoom Backlink Participants 11-20
• NewsNotion.com | Zoom Your Traffic With BloggingZoom
• LocalRef | Get Your Prospects To Call You Using The BloggingZoom Tool
• MakingSalesMakingMoney | BloggingZoom New Social Network Increases Traffic
• Blendworx | Blogging Zoom for small to medium blogs
• EasyWordPress.com | Courtney Tuttle Launched Blogging Zoom
• Ejcross.com | New Social Networking Site Launched
• Ejcross.com | Pros And Cons of BloggingZoom.com
• JennyLens.com | BloggingZoom Empowers Bloggers Kudos Courtney Tuttle
• The Monetizer | Blogging Zoom – Explode Your Blog Traffic
• YourWebsiteProfit.com | Zoom It: A Blogging Zoom Review
• Ask The Admin | Blogging Zoom finally a social site for self promotion
• Rich Gilcrest | BlogginZoom – Very Cool New Blog Promotion Pligg
• TheNextPost | Is BloggingZoom Headed For Boom Time?
• MakeMoneyForBeginners | Blogging Zoom, A New Traffic Source
• Make Money For Beginngers | Blogging Zoom Stats – It Works
• Howtospoter.com | What Is Rocking Blogosphere?
• Zelixy | BloggingZoom.com-”Digg 2.0″?
• Tatraplan.com | Bloggingzoom – Bloggers Self Promo Paradise
• TheHonestWay | Shiny New Button
• Tellinitlikeitis.net | Blogging Zoom Launches New Social Networking Site For Bloggers
• StevenWilsonMarketing | Blogging Zoom
• Court | Blogging Zoom – The Blogger’s Coup Against The Mainstream Media Monsters
• Court | BloggingZoom Day One Recap
• EricSocia.net | BloggingZoom: Get Zoomed And See The Difference!
• FreedomIdeas | Never Got Dugg? Then Get Blogging Zoomed!
• Localref.com | BloggingZoom – Tool for bloggers
• BloggingNotes.net | BloggingZoom: I’m Going To Keep Using It
• PabloTheHat | BloggingZoom / User / Pablothehat / Submitted
• TheCaymanHost | Blogging Zoom First Submission Goes HOT
• TheConsumersCorner.net | BloggingZoom – A Blogger’s New BFF?
• Jason Clark | BloggingZoom – First Week Review
• Blackysky | A real blogger or a Bloggingzoom spammer
• Digitalkeyto.info | Using Blogging Zoom To Get Traffic To Your Blog
• Mcgrath.ca | Blogging Zoom: Did It Do The Job?
• HowToSpoter | BloggingZoom Sucks More Than BlogRush
• AllTipsAndTricks | How Much Is Your Blogging Zoom?
• Jasonaclark.com | Easiest Way Ever To Get A Backlink From A PR4 Website!
• Zybron | BloggingZoom
• Infektia | Getting More Traffic with BloggingZoom
• YourWebsiteProfit.info | Zoom It: a BloggingZoom Review
• HomeWithHeather | Awesome New Place to Display YOUR Content
• TheNextPost.com | Is BloggingZoom Heading For Boom Time?
• SlyVisions | Blogging Zoom Defines What Self-Promotion Is All About
• Court | Blogging Zoom Zooming
• JennyLens | Bloggingzoom by Courtney Tuttle
• CutieGadget | BloggingZoom : Blogger’s new best friend!
• MDailyDouz | Courtney Tuttle creates BloggingZoom
• Monetize-Your-Blog | Want Free Traffic To Your Blog? Try BloggingZoom
• Monetize-Your-Blog | Blogging Zoom – 5 Tips To Get Your Next Post Zoomed
• Continuing Adventures | A new type of Social Networking – Blogging Zoom
• Ageeksjourney | Blogging Zoom – New Kid On The Blogging Block
• TechnoMoney | How Effective Is Blogging Zoom And StumbleUpon? Take A Look!
• Technomoney | BloggingZoom: A Revolutionary Idea
• OnARidge | Blogging Zoom – A New Social Site
• BetShopBoy | Bloggers Of The World Unite!
• MyExtraBucks | Do you know Blogging zoom?
• Jason Clark | BloggingZoom – Week 2 Review: Traffic Surpasses Google
• BloggingNotes.net | BloggingZoom Sends the Traffic
• Digitalkeyto.info | Why I Am Saying Goodbye To BlogRush And Text Link Ads And Switching To…
• Blackysky | BloggingZoom Problems
• Monetize Your BlogspotBlog | BloggingZoom 5 Tips To Get Your Next Post Zoomed
• CarloSelorio| Want Free Traffic Try BloggingZoom
• SearchForBlogging | See How Easily You Can Increase Traffic
• TheWritersManifesto | BloggingZoom Review

The Ultimate List Of BloggingZoom Reviews | Internet Marketing | Strategy & Services

I think you will enjoy reading some of these reviews. I have really enjoyed using Blogging Zoom and look forward to its continued success.

Many thanks to Courtney Tuttle for the list and to both him and his partner Vic for their incredible work on Blogging Zoom.

Courtney Tuttle’s fantastic idea is a great resource.

It was a challenge to join Courtney Tuttle’s Internet Marketers Group Writing project.

This was a fantastic idea. I believe he has created an excellent resource for anyone interested in making money online. I have not even been to all the articles yet, and I have added many of the blogs to my reader.

If you are new to Internet marketing or blogging, check these articles first.

You will learn nearly everything you need to know. More than you would find in any guru ebook. It is knowledge given to you for free. Many of the contributors spent extra time to make sure they contributed quality articles. Courtney has a very good resource in just his own blog. I suggest you ad his site to your RSS feeds if you don’t have it already.

Court has already organized the articles into groups so I decided to just quote his list.

There is also a link to his site and the original post at the bottom. There are now 45 articles in the project (the page is titled 44). Courtney has a very good resource in just his own blog. I suggest you ad him to your RSS reads.

Getting Traffic To Your Website

• The Smart Way To Get Traffic And Links: Creating A Prospect List For Bloggers by Maki at DoshDosh.com
• Finding Blog Topics That Will Bring You Traffic by Sean at WarriorBlog
• The 25 Best Ways To Increase Traffic To Your Blog by Marco at MarcoRichter.net
• How To Increase Traffic To Your Website by Frederick at SEO.Geekz.us
• How To Get Instant Free Traffic To Your Blog by Bruce at DayJobNuker.com
• How To Stay Visible Inside Of 70 Million Blogs by Ken at Blogs.MySites-Advisor.com
• Blogging In Real Life by Theda at CrayonWriter.com
• Why Back Links Work by Paul at LocalRef.com
• How To Optimize Your Blog Images For Google Image Search by Etienne at EtienneTeo.com

Developing A Website

• How To Choose A Topic For A Blog by Vic at Bu.Bulicio.Us
• Here’s How To Get MORE Subscribers To Your Dazzling Blog! by Mark at ProBloggersMatrix.com
• How To Gain And Lose RSS Subscribers by Simon at Pingable.org
• Blogging Burnout: How To Avoid It To Achieve Blogging Success by YC at InternetMarketingMind.com
• Eight Ways To Write A Successful Newsletter by Carlo at CarloSelorio.com
• How To Decide How Often To Post On Your Blog by Derek at DerekSemmler.com
• Finding Good Keywords For Your Niche by Caroline at Caroline-Middlebrook.com
• The Anatomy Of A Link by Sutoco at Blog.YourWebsiteProfit.info
• How To Use Google Webmaster Tools – And 5 Reasons Why You Should by James at DigitalKeyTo.info
• How To Secure Your WordPress Blog by Fab at FabNetRevenue.com
• Common Internet Marketing Mistakes by Bryan at UtahSEOServices.com
• Ultimate List Of Free Blogging Platforms by Fred at NewestOnTheNet.com
• How Do You Build Relationships With Your Blog Visitors? by Pearl at Fresh-Perspectives.net
• The One Thing To Know When Writing With Keywords by Simonne at AllTipsAndTricks.com
• Upgrading Your Theme For WordPress 2.3 by Karthik at IAmKarthik.com

Making Money With A Website

• Start Making More Money And Sell Your Own Ads by Tay at SuperBloggingTips.com
• Methods To Make Money With A Website by Genesis at AtHomeMomBlog.com
• Balancing Affiliate Marketing And Relationship With Your Readers by Meg at CenterOfMuse.com
• How To Sell Ads On Your Blog Despite Its Size Part 1 by Casey at NewsNotion.com
• How To Sell Ads On Your Blog Despite Its Size Part 2 by Casey at NewsNotion.com
• How To Sell Ads On Your Blog Despite Its Size Part 3 by Casey at NewsNotion.com
• Day One: Affiliate Marketing by Roberta at RobertaFerguson.com
• Throwing Away Visitors For Fun: Wrath Of Advertising by Fabien at SmallFishBigMoney.com
• Why People Don’t Make Money Online by Adebola Oni
• Effective Email Marketing by Matthew at BlogAboutYourBlog

Writing Copy

• How To Write Content That Makes A Difference For People by Bobby at Revellian.com
• How To Become A Better Writer by Pat at PatBDoyle.com
• Why Bloggers Should Be Better Writers by Nate at GrateMedia.com
• 12 Reasons Why Bloggers Need To Become Better Writers by Karen at KarenZara.WordPress.com

Getting Better Website Rankings

• How To Increase Your Alexa Rank And Why You Should by Don at AffiliateWatcher.com
• Case Study: Ajax Edit Comments and Technorati by Ronald at RaProject.com

Improving Yourself

• How To Increase Personal Creativity by Sara at PajamaProfessional.com
• How To Find Answers To Your Marketing Questions by Justin at BlendWorx.com
• Finding The Commitment To Climb Your Private Everest by Nick at BeautifulSummerMorning.com
• How To Increase Productivity While Working From Home by Neena at BlogResourcesOnline.com
• Choose Your Attitude Choose Your Success by Don at MakingSalesMakingMoney.com

44 Internet Marketing Articles That Everyone Should Read: Internet Marketers Group Writing Project | Internet Marketing | Make Money Online | Strategy | Services

I’d like to thank all those that have posted the links on their own sites.

I have gotten many trackbacks to my post and they are appreciated. I feel it is the least I can do to show the posts here also.

I am also adding Courtney Tuttle’s blog to my blogroll. It is a great resource.

I would like to know what articles from the project you found most useful.

No fair saying your own. Although, I hope everyone else learned like I did when making their post.

This is something I have been wondering since the iPhone was released.

Is Apple’s practice of only allowing iPhone use with AT&T against antitrust laws?

I do not own an iPhone. I would like to, but have not been able to justify the cost (at least to my wife). Is the way the iPhone is currently being marketed against antitrust laws? I am no lawyer (thankfully) but I have seen similar situations that would seem to make the current iPhone questionable.

The industry I am familiar with is the photography industry.

There have been some interesting antitrust laws that applied to the photo  industry. Yet, the iPhone and many newer products and industries are far more restrictive to the consumer. I feel that Apple may be currently acting much worse than Microsoft.

I was amazed to find out how antitrust laws applied in the photo industry.

Did you know that a film manufacturer could not include film processing with a roll of film? You could not by a roll of film with an included mailer to have the film processed by Kodak or Fuji. The mailer would have to be sold separately.

Also, manufacturers had to sell the chemicals used to process the film.

Not only could they not include the processing with the film, but they had to make the chemicals to process it available.

Compare that to the iPhone.

I buy the iPhone from Apple. I can only use it with AT&T. In fact, attempts to make it work with other services have been countered by Apple updates.

This is far worse than the typical cell phone being locked to the cell phone carrier you buy it from.

In most cases, you can still get the same phone at another cell phone provider. There is also no problem getting the phone unlocked to use with another mobile phone provider if you want.

A locked cell phone is a bit like a film company including the processing.

But Apple has gone a lot farther than just locking the iPhone. It is very difficult to do. They have made it more difficult.

So, when I read the following article about a lawsuit and antitrust, my thought was "Why has it taken so long?"

In the lawsuit — the second in as many weeks involving the iPhone — Smith alleges that Apple violated several California antitrust statutes when it tied the smart phone to AT&T and prohibited customers from using other carriers. The result, read the lawsuit, was that Smith paid too much for the iPhone.

"Apple forced plaintiff and the class members to pay substantially more for the iPhone and cell phone service than they would have paid in a competitive marketplace either for the iPhone or for AT&T’s cell phone service," read the suit.

Calif. man sues Apple over iPhone ‘bricking’

Unfortunately, Apple and the iPhone are not the only current examples typical of this practice.

Can you think of other products place similar restrictions on consumers?

BTW, I would still like to get an iPhone. I think it would be a very useful business tool. I am really interested in the calendar function as I need an easy way to keep track of appointments and set them while keeping it with me.

As always, I’d love to know how you think and feel about the subject.

You comments on the subject are highly valued.

Or at least make it look like they do.

I was already having "one of those" afternoons.

I was going to make a few call before I left to pick my wife up at work. At that point, the world seemed to start turning backwards.

I could not connect to Gmail.

Still not sure what was up with that. It is fine now. All of a sudden, all my sites seemed to have lost their CSS styling (seems to have been a cache problem in Firefox) and I was having trouble with my Internet connection. It seemed to work like dial up – not the 100 times faster than whatever Time Warner claims.

All this had me leaving late to pick up my wife.

A road near my house I usually take is under construction (totally gone at the moment – this is how they like to "fix roads" in Wisconsin). This meant I would have to take an even longer route to pick up my wife.

For some reason, my cell phone would not work.

I could not call my wife and let her know I was a bit late. I did get it to work after shutting it off for a bit.

Anyway, I did finally pick up my wife.

We had decided to stop for dinner at Milwaukee’s Grand Avenue Mall. Traffic was worse than usual for Milwaukee at 10 after 5pm on a Friday. As we approached Wisconsin Ave. we discovered why.

Some "peace protesters" were slowing up traffic at one of the main intersections with Wisconsin Ave.

Now, these protesters were not protesting the war against terrorists in Iraq. They were not even the "Bush is stupid" variety.

They were protesting against a company that makes bulldozers.

Yes, bulldozers. Somehow, they believed that bulldozers must be the primary means of killing Palestinians. They were protesting the company that made the bulldozers. I have no idea if the company even has in office near where they were protesting.

They had a unique way of slowing the traffic.

Three women were kind of tied together in plastic bags (which had slogans denouncing the bulldozer as the weapons of evil. All they had to do was wait for a walk signal and try to cross legally. Because of the way they were connected, they could not walk fast. They probably were not in a hurry either. It also seemed that their intelligences were not developed to the point that they stopped drooling, which also impeded their speed naturally. They were loosely spaced, so the three of them were equal in size to a large group.

Wisconsin Avenue is one of the main streets in downtown Milwaukee.

Now, Milwaukee is not that big of a city. With the nearly constant construction around, many of the streets are nearly just 2 way streets with parking. At many intersections, you cannot make turns during busy traffic hours because it would hold up traffic too much.

The three women made it nearly impossible for more than one car to make a turn during a green light.

All they did was go around the intersection. They would start to cross on a walk signal. By the time they were across, the light would be red. They got completely around the intersection before I snuck through, making a right turn on red (which fortunately was OK at this intersection.

It was really annoying!

It was rush hour (which is not really an hour in Milwaukee – one of Milwaukee’s strong points). It was Friday night and everyone wanted to get home or at least away from there. They were really tying up traffic. You can’t get around cars that are stuck waiting to make a turn at that intersection.

I do not usually honk the car horn unless it is an emergency.

But I really wanted to beep that horn and let them know I was annoyed! It was then I noticed a few other people standing around holding very small signs.

"Honk for peace"

Yep, I am sure that most of the people honking did not even see the signs. My wife could not even read them properly (not being a native English speaker, she could not guess what all the words were and misread them). There were a lot of people honking horns.

Now, if you were close to the sign and could read it, you might think people were agreeing with them.

Actually, who would not support peace? But bulldozers as the greatest threat to mankind? (This did not appear to be a save the rainforest thing for those environmentalists out there thinking that might be the cause.)

It would look that way on a video also.

A nice close up of the sign for cause in the foreground, horns honking in the background. If you were there, you would know what the horns were for (the three green lights you sat through waiting for the women to get across). Unless you were one of the people there with their mouth open, tongue part way out, drool coming down your chin. You might think that you had a lot of support for the cause you were instructed was so important.

Once in a while, you see a deceptive tactic like this used in business.

Statistics showing popular support for a product or company. Yet, when you really look at the situation, it is something else that really had the attention, and the product or company just happened to be around for the ride.

In those health affiliate ads you will often see the latest medical discoveries proclaiming one of the ingredients advantages.

Never mind that the ingredient is not in the recommended doses or in a form that is of use to the body. Think I am making this up? Not too long ago, it was shown that a popular garlic supplement contained little or no garlic. A lot of horn blowing about garlic, but the product did not have it.

I am sure this analogy is true in many different industries.

I’d bet that more than one paycheck shown for Internet marketing products contained income that did not come primarily from the product being sold. I also believe many of those incomes are gross and not net. They fail to show that 2/3rds of the income was used to pay for the marketing.

The truth of the situation may not be what it seems.

Sometimes, someone may be hiding the true agenda from you and you may be duped into something you are not aware of.

On the other hand, there are a lot of better ways to help peace that honking your horn.

And bulldozers (and the makers of bulldozers) are not the problem. People not respecting their fellow human beings are the problem.

I always honk my horn when I go through a tunnel.

My wife thinks I’m nuts. I just smile at her when I do it. The car in front of me might agree with her though.

Liz Strauss had another great article about sales on her blog.

Basically she pointed out that people like to make their own decisions for themselves. They don’t like to be told or talked to, but listened to.

I suggest a quick look over at the original article at her blog.

We’re hype adverse. Put that together with these natural human responses.

• No one likes to be told what to think.
• No one likes to lose the right to pick their favorite.
• No one likes someone else to decide what they need.

4.6: Simple Sales 101 — How to Get Customers to Sell Themselves – Liz Strauss at Successful Blog – Thinking, writing, business ideas . . . You’re only a stranger once.

Liz points out that you are far better off asking questions and letting the customer or client tell you what they want.

In learning sales in my portrait studio, I learned the magic question.

It is the most important thing you can ask a potential customer. It does not matter what the product the customer is looking at is. It works for everything.

I learned it from photographer Charles Lewis.

If you have plans to make a living from portrait or wedding photography, his sales guides and materials are nearly unparalleled. I not only learned what needs to be done in sales, but why from him.

Anyway – the magic question.

"What is most important to you about…..?"

What is most important to you about making money online? What is most important to you about the blogs you read? What is most important to you about the host for your blog?

I’ll finish this post with the question Liz finished her post with.

What do you need to give this a try?