I was thinking about the recent changes to Google’s algorithm and its impact  on spammy, content sites. 

Evidently, the new changes affect some high profile article directories such as Ezine Articles, Hubpages and Buzzle, have seen a decline in search queries.

The reason behind Google’s algorithm changes is to clean up spammy, duplicate content. Thus offering more relevance with search results.

On one end, this is great news for online marketers that create quality and relevant content for their sites.

On the other, it’s bad news and perhaps a death sentence, for those that use article directories purely for traffic to their affiliate sites. Or any sites that are notorious for copying or producing “thin” content.

More importantly, this re-affirms for me, the importance of owning your main site i.e. your blog or website. And using your site to create original content that serves your particular target market.

Any other sites you use – whether it’s article directories or Facebook – should  be used to create visibility and drive traffic back to a site you own.

It’s also equally important to diversify your online marketing efforts.

Any business that relies solely on another business will be greatly affected just like we’re seeing the almighty Google weeding out  content farming from major article directories.

Similarly, any direct sellers that rely on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn solely for building their business needs to consider potential fall out.

For example, if you use Facebook Page exclusively to build your business, you have no ownership over your page. Your page is yours as long as your account is in good standing with Facebook. Facebook owns your page and essentially your business.

If you’re going to invest your heart and soul into building your direct sales business online, make sure it’s a piece of online real estate that’s in your name … and that is, your blog or website.

You have no ownership in your company replicated website, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn account. These are just one of the many online marketing methods to promote your business.

Yes, you still need your company replicated website to sign up new reps and sell products. But I wouldn’t count on your company replicated sites to drive organic traffic to grow your business.

If you’re going to blog, you’ll need to do more than copy and paste your company’s content on to your blog. 

Personally, I don’t know why you would because you have a unique voice and blogging is personable, and a great platform to use your voice to connect with your potential customers.

There’s no doubt using social media is one of the best ways to expand and grow your online contacts faster than traditional methods. However, you need to drive traffic  back to a site that you actually own and that is your blog. 

With the recent changes to Google and Facebook, which seems to tweak things, I wouldn’t rely on any one source of marketing to build my business. 

Things can change quickly online and by diversifying your marketing portfolio, your business is not dependent on any one giant to dictate your relevance.

Your thoughts?

’til next time,

Janette Stoll

P.S.  Share your opinion and join the discussion.

photo credit: freedigitalphotos.net

With LinkedIn recently hitting 100 million users and going public, there are  buzzes surrounding the expansion and what to expect.

LinkedIn’s continued growth is hardly surprising even if it’s in the shadow of Facebook and Twitter.

Seems appropriate (and about time) I write another post on how LinkedIn has helped grow Marketing Direct Sales blog. And why you should consider using LinkedIn to boost traffic to your direct sales online business.

There are many reasons why I prefer LinkedIn over Twitter and Facebook. The most obvious is that traffic from LinkedIn outranks Twitter and Facebook based on Google Analytics. This makes it one of my favorite sites. 

The applications such as a Wordpress RSS plug-in, Twitterfeed, and adding a video to your profile, are some of the best features of LinkedIn.

Here are 5 ways to use LinkedIn to boost traffic:

#1 Your Profile. I love the profile on LinkedIn. You can gather enough info about someone and decide whether to connect or not based on this snapshot.

If you want to connect with other professionals- make sure you have a real picture of you and not your company logo, dog, cat, kids … LinkedIn is a professional network.

#2 New Contacts. Once I’m connected with a new contact I can see her/his contacts which gives me an additional view of my new contact’s contacts. 

#3 LinkedIn Groups. Use this feature to find people that share similar interests as you and become a member.

#4 Weekly LinkedIn Updates is a summary of what my contacts have been up to i.e. new groups they’ve joined and new contacts they’ve made. I’ve joined new groups and made new connections based on these updates.

#5 Skills & Expertise, a new feature I recently discovered. This allows you choose the area of expertise that you want more info on - let’s say attraction marketing – and the profiles of members that best fit this category  are displayed.

It’s a great resource to connect with people in your niche market. Or reach out to experts.

Also listed are the groups associated with skills and expertise. This feature zeros in on your specific area of interest so you’re connecting with people in your niche business.

Once you’re a member of the group, you can interact on the group’s discussions, check out the member’s profile, reply privately to a comment they’ve made, or ask to be connected.

Other ways I use LinkedIn …

You can share your latest blog posts on the News tab. Become an expert by answering questions from other members. Or start a dialogue based on the books your contacts are reading.

Unlike Twitter which can be “spammy” with strange auto tweets and robots following you. Or Facebook’s “social” gathering which seems like a big cocktail party at times, and too many updates to keep up with- LinkedIn has always been business-oriented which keeps me focused on business-related activities.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t be focused on other social networks but when you’ve got a combination of friends, family, and casual friends mixed in with business contacts … it’s easy to get distracted on other social networks.

How are you using LinkedIn for your business? Share your tips.

’til next time,

Janette Stoll

P.S. Check out Lewis Howes, one of the best trainers on LinkedIn. His blog offers great tips!

Creating content for my blog and promoting it using social media marketing has been my #1 go-to strategy.

By optimizing title posts and content that are keyword-rich in my target market, it has consistently delivered traffic and converted visitors into hundreds of leads. 

Which makes me wonder … why aren’t more direct sales consultants using content marketing to grow their business online? I’m partially biased because creating fresh content is working brilliantly for Marketing Direct Sales.

If you think about it- content is what makes the internet what it is.

People go online to find content to learn something new, research  before they buy, find business opportunities to start …  it’s where people go to find information.

This is evidenced in my family and probably yours too …

We look up restaurants and read reviews on Yelp. We order pizza online and have it delivered without having to talk to a live person. I read book reviews on Amazon before I buy. I can list more examples on how I use the internet to find content to serve my needs but you get the point.

An optimized, content-rich blog or website is what drives traffic to your business.

It’s the first step in your sales funnel. Traffic is the first point of contact before a visitor turns into a lead. But a visitor isn’t going to opt-in and subscribe to your email list if the content is irrelevant.

This is why content alone isn’t enough but optimized content combined with social media marketing are proven formulas in boosting traffic to your site. Leads are built on targeted traffic.

Without traffic, there are no leads, and no leads = no business.

If you’re in direct sales and think you don’t need a content marketing strategy, you might want to re-think.

The latest news on Google’s official blog is the impact social search results have on how relevant your brand is online. 

What does this mean to you?

In the past, social search results from your network showed up on the bottom of Google. Now, it’s mixed in through out the search results based on relevance. This means the search results could be moved to the top or in the middle.

This latest social search enhancement has significant implications for search engine marketers and website owners alike. Social media marketing as a part of your SEO strategy is more integral than ever. (searchnewz.com)

This is great news for small business owners and direct sales consultants.

With an optimized content-rich blog focusing on your niche market, your site can skyrock to the top of search engines. This is possible if your site’s content is geared to a specific group of people you’re trying to reach (target market).

The keys to your success:

Focus on creating content for your target market. I know “target market” gets thrown around online but some people have no idea to whom they’re trying to reach.

In the new world of content marketing online, focus is vital. That’s true both in terms of defining a niche and making sure that your website reflects that niche. (contentmarketingtoday.com)

Here’s an example from my new blog Janette Stoll: my target market is direct sales and my niche business is helping direct sales consultants generate leads with article writing and internet marketing.

With clarity on whom I’m reaching (direct sellers) and what I’m offering (article writing/marketing services) have helped me to create content for direct sellers on article writing, content, and internet marketing.

The point I’m hoping to drive home for you is that it’s an exciting time to get online, create optimized content, leverage social media and web 2.0 marketing, to build massive leads to grow your business.

Those of you that are already creating content on your blogs know the many benefits and probably can’t imagine not having a blog to build your business (like I do). But for those that haven’t … what are you waiting for?

Your thoughts?

’til next time,

Janette Stoll

P.S. Have you visited my new article writing and marketing blog yet? Love to hear your thoughts, comments, questions. Go say “hi” to me over there .

photo credit: freedigitalphotos

There are two ways to market your direct sales business: traditional marketing methods by placing ads in local magazines, attend local chamber meetings, events, and so forth.

These traditional methods cost money and a good chunk of your time. Not to mention reaching people in your target market isn’t as effective as creating an online content marketing plan.

With an online content strategy, you can define parameters with specific content and delivery methods to reach your target market.

You create the content and promotional methods  specifically designed to attract your target market.

It doesn’t matter what type of products or services you sell. Any business can benefit from content marketing  because there are people in your target market that are looking for information on your products or services right now.

If you’re selling weight loss products, there are thousands of people searching for ways to lose weight, get healthy, eat better, and so forth.

You can easily write tips on how to lose weight, what to look for in weight loss products, and use the content to market your business and get noticed.

What is the alternative to getting the word out about your weight loss products? Tell somebody you meet at the next chamber event? A neighbor? A friend?

Anytime you have to tell somebody what you do, you’re interrupting their time, which puts people on guard that there’s a sales pitch coming.

But when you create content that offers tips on what people are already interested in based on what they’re searching for online, you’re in a position to get noticed rather than trying to be noticed.

If you’re selling weight loss products, you already know more than a lot of folks that don’t. Put this knowledge in writing on your blog. If you don’t have a blog, there are other ways to share your content i.e. Hubpages or Squidoo.

Getting your direct sales business noticed fast is to be visible everywhere online.

Instead of waiting to meet someone and hoping for an opening to talk about your products, create something you already know, write about it, and market it.  

Then promote your content using social marketing which attracts attention  to your business. If it’s online and the content is relevant, somebody will syndicate it.

Can you think of another method of promoting your expertise with the potential of attracting massive leads over and over from packaging what you know and “shipping” it?

Think about how powerful this is as a lead generation tool to attract potential customers and team members to your direct sales business. You’re no longer limited to your locality or relying on people you know to grow your business.

How are you using content marketing to get noticed?

’til next time,

Janette Stoll

P.S. Over 20 people signed up last week for my free 10-Part Mini Course- have you? Learn how to get more traffic to grow your business and get your first lesson delivered right away.

photo credit: freedigitalphotos

The success of  your direct sales online business depends heavily on traffic and the right kind of traffic. You want targeted traffic to your blog.

If you’re not getting the right kind of leads then you don’t have any prospects to work with.

Here are some easy ways to get more traffic to your blog:

#1 Increase your blog posts.  Write at least one new article a week. If you’re going to blog and get serious online, this isn’t an option, just commit to writing.

#2 Write more targeted articles on the topics in your business by using the appropriate keywords/phrases that your potential market is searching for.

Example: if you’re in the personal development business the title of your article should have the long-tail keyphrases of the keywords personal development.

Why is this important?

Unless you have a well established blog – Steve Pavlina, as an example, it’s very hard to rank on the first page of Google with the keywords personal development alone.

In fact, there are about 171,000,000 results with the keywords personal development on Google.

By using the long-tail keywords in the title of your article you’ll see more targeted traffic to your blog.

With that said, focus on writing for your audience instead of over analyzing on keyword density. Write naturally but be mindful to optimize your article for organic searches.

The important thing is to provide an informative article to your target audience.

#3 Article writing is my best method for getting consistent, targeted leads. Use your articles and submit them to multiple directories and social networks.  Then use Google Analytics to see where the traffic is coming from.

Article marketing is very effective depending on how it is been used. I have seen articles with less than 100 views and those with tens of thousands of views after a year of writing them on Ezinearticles.  -Sitesketch101

If you’ve done keyword research before you write and optimize them approriately, you will get traffic to your site. Whether or not someone subscribes to your blog depends on several factors … 

*Do you have an opt-in box?

*Is it positioned where visitors can see it?

*Is there a compelling reason for them to subscribe?

These are just some of the reasons why someone would choose to opt-in or not. You don’t have to be a SEO ninja or pay top dollars to get traffic to your blog because the basics work: create quality content and marketing your content.

There are many ways to get traffic to your blog. Commenting on other blogs, guest posting, participating in social networks, and so forth. The question isn’t whether these strategies work but a better question to ask yourself is: are you doing the work every day?

This is a short list of many, many ways to get more traffic to your blog.

What other methods have worked best for you? Share your tips.

’til next time,

Janette Stoll

P.S. Do you want to learn how to generate targeted-leads from article writing? Sign up for my new FREE 10 part mini-course delivered right to your inbox
photo credit: freedigitalphotos