The “BIG IDEA” Whose Time Has Come

vsu-logo1Impossibility only defines a task’s degree of difficulty. Do you  believe in that premise? I know I do …

The truth is, I only look for strategic alliance partners who believe that difficult tasks can be done immediately and seemingly impossible tasks take a little longer ;-)

The VSU Story: In the Spring of 2008, a strategic alliance partner of mine, who also shares the impossiblity premise above, chose me to help her execute a BIG IDEA.  It was truly an idea “whose time had come” and one we had both independently thought about many years earlier.

The BIG IDEA was to find and secure a new and sustainable distance learning channel to teach micro- entrepreneurs (0 – 10 employees) how to boost their productivity and profits with practical, duplicable and low-cost tactics that are easy-to-implement regardless of economic conditions.

Deb Shaw is that strategic alliance partner and co-founder of VSU.  For her, the BIG IDEA meant to democratize business intelligence and make marketing  best practices available to all entrepreneurs … without having any bias to their ethnicity, creed or socio-economic status.

For me, the BIG IDEA meant [Read more...]

“Outer Circle Marketing” Target Exposed

bow-and-arrowPicture yourself with a bow and quiver full of arrows.  You aim at one of the five circles or rings on your target that graduate inward from WHITE to BLACK to BLUE to RED and finally, YELLOW.

The biggest outer circle is WHITE and directly surrounds the smaller BLACK ring closer to the middle.  (Please refer to the picture to the left to see the five colored rings).

The BLACK circle surrounds a smaller BLUE circle, which in turn, surrounds an even smaller RED circle.  That RED circle surrounds the fifth circle which is YELLOW and in the center of the target known as the “bull’s-eye.”

Why am I telling you this?

I’m telling you this because it is a useful analogy of how your prospects take aim at your marketing offers, whether they want to become first-time customers or multi-buyers.

The way I see it, the WHITE outermost ring represents your “get-to-know-you” offer such as a free Teleseminar, eBook, audio eCourse or video.

This is your opt-in email offer.  To continue the analogy, it is that defining moment when a new prospect has successfully hit your target by aiming and shooting their imaginary arrow at your outermost WHITE circle.

“Outer Circle Marketing” is Time-Tested: Please realize that what I’m talking about here is not just another clever marketing analogy that’s untested.  It is tested and it is time-proven.

OCM = “Outer Circle Marketing” and that’s also the formal name I’ve given to this new breakthrough strategy.  If you want to experience it first hand, join my AskAlexToday Teleseminars scheduled on the first Thursday of each month.

I’ve utilized OCM for the past 2 years with [Read more...]

History Of The “Entrepreneurial Revolution”

barack-obama1In his February 24th State of the Union Address, Barack Obama publicly declared that “The future of our economy relies on the imagination of our Entrepreneurs.” 

That twelve-word sentence in President Obama’s speech isn’t about politics as much as it is about business.  Your business. My business.  And the dawn of a brighter new future of the ”Entrepreneurial Interdependence” era that’s now upon us.

Quick History Lesson: In the 20th century, Americans traded their Entrepreneurial Independence (which they enjoyed for the previous 200 years), and began a 50-year stint of dependence on the modern-day Corporation.

Think back to that famous scene that happened on September 17th, 1787 during the Signing of the U.S. Constitution.

The central figures who were present included George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and America’s first millionaire, Benjamin Franklin.  These Founding Fathers were opposed by [Read more...]

7 Reasons to Repurpose Twitter Articles

twitter, article marketing, social article marketing, jeff herringIf you are into Article Marketing and are not using Twitter to repurpose your articles, you are missing out on a flood of good stuff.

With that notion in mind, here are the Top 7 Reasons to Repurpose Your Articles on Twitter

1. Extends Your Reach – Extending your reach means to get your marketing message and influence in front of as many eyes as possible. When you publicize your articles on Twitter, you are not only reaching those who are following you, you are also reaching everyone that follows each person who follows you – your reach rapidly multiplies.

2. It’s Helpful – When you are having conversations there and you see a question where one of your articles could help, you are being very helpful to someone when you refer them to you article(s). How’s that for upping the “know, like and trust” factor.

3. Ups Your Expert Status – Mentioning your articles and using them to answer questions increases your [Read more...]

Why “VPV” Reveals More Than Conversions

money-in-airUncovering your website conversion rate is easy to calculate and can transform a good online business into a great online business.

For instance, if 10 out of every 100 of your website visitors submit their email address and/or name in exchange for an ethical bribe, then you have a 10% opt-in rate (100/10 = 10 percent).

That’s not too shabby these days.

And if 2 out of those 10 opt-ins buy your offer, then you have a 2% buy-in rate (100/2 = 2 percent).

But your opt-in and buy-in conversion rates reveal only part of the marketing story.  The other part is how much value to assign each of your visitors, regardless if they decide to opt-in or buy-in.

This simple, yet critical metric is called [Read more...]

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