Here is a question submitted by Peter – I am with-holding his URL until he gives me permission to post it – but his general problem is one that I see fairly frequently in the professional set migrating online – they invest in really pretty pages – hire an expensive web-designer ( his has all kinds of nice flashing fancy graphics:-) yet – have absolutely no traffic – no incoming links – and no real hope of generating any sort of buzz other than simply sending sending traffic through adwords or banners or through any other investment oriented enterprise.   Yet – with a little foresight -

Free traffic is very easy to get!

There is no * voodo * or secret sauce to getting buckets of backsides high-tailing it to your fresh and fancy new site.  But – free also has a price – and that means work.  Creating content.  Creativity.  Thinking outside of the box and moving the momentum of YOUR market in your direction.  Articles, Press Releases, Link Baiting that prods, pokes and pisses off your marketplace will give you new eyeballs every day and twice on Sunday – yet – so many otherwise bright minds just draw a big, fat blank after writing the check to the Ukranian Web Design firm that found on Elance.

Anyway – here is a brief exchange with Peter who inquired about generating traffic to his new * Consierge * oriented site that facilitates appointment setting, outbound call centers, and other adminstrative functions for sales call driven business’s – Real Estate, Insurance and otherwise.  As in some of the other questions that have been submitted and posted – a pattern most definetly emerges as to the nature of the problem – and the tone of my recommendation (s ).  This stuff isn’t difficult – there is no genius anywhere to be discovered in what I have to say – but there are almost guaranteed good results to be had in following what has worked for me, has worked for thousands of other small business’s before us – and will continue to work into the foreseeable future for all.

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( slightly edited only to exclude site identifying information – and in my follow up – the rate I would charge to do the work required )

Yes, traffic is where we want to be.  As you can see, my business would come from…businesses that require answering services….maybe real estate agents…travel companies…insurance agents….basically business that needs telemarketing, answering services, appointment setting…..its a big market…What are your rates? and what can you do for me my friend?

Peter.

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Hi There Peter -

You would have to go after each one of those markets in a unique way – an insurance agent who needs outbound telemarketing might not need an answering service per se – or those functions may already be provided by in house staff that doesn’t do telemarketing – much different skill set than answering phones.

Essentially – my recommendation would be you need to start finding the pain points in the online marketplace that would need your services – and exploit that a little bit – yes, that is a huge space.  I would write and submit articles on * how many sales are lost * as a consequence of bad in-house administrative service – ie – "do you know how many of your prospective customers are getting your answering machine – and then calling your competiton?" –

You can get alot of mileage out of the absence of time in today’s small business world – ie – "if you could outsource all your telemarketing, appointment setting and knew 100% that your daily administrative tasks were being handled expertly and effecitently by a top trained, executive adminstrative staff - how much would that be worth to your mental health ( and bottom line) ? "

The way you do most of this stuff online is very simply creating content – creating a blog – writing press releases – ( find an angle that is relevant to the industry and is newsworthy – and then fill the need ) " according to Peter from….."Today’s executives are swimming in a sea of administrative hell due to all of the increased demands on their time and attention due…" writing and producing articles – 6 steps to spectacular sales – ( ie – plug your telemarketing services, etc ).

Plus – your site doesnt’ have any authority – no incoming links – the above gives you that in short order as it points to you and your site as an authority on matters of solving business adminstrative issues – and in doing so – increases your rankings in the search engines for those terms – ( ie – when Google is ranking sites for the phrase " hire an appointment setter los angeles" it needs to see sites that point to yours with those phrases – articles, press releases and blogs will do that and do it fairly quickly.

You can do PPC campaigns too – ( advertising ) but – that can be more expensive depending on your keywords.

The problem I typically see with people who have these very pretty sites is they aren’t quite sure how to get people to them – and even when they do – there needs to be a very clear path to conversion.  The way you do that effectively is to educate people about what it is that they need – before they even arrive at your site.

There are literally 1001 things you can do to build a business using these types of guerilla marketing methods – and they work very well for obvious reasons.

In terms of rates – I do many different things – so I don’t really have any set rates.  If I work with a client brainstorming and executing all of the above – ie – I’m writing the articles, press releases, and just plugging the hell out of your business – I charge ( Redacted )

If I’m setting up a blog and actively engaged in that process as well – it would be more.

Often I find that I’m able to teach people how to do all of this pretty simply – showing them all of the resources I use and how I attack a market as above on a telephone consultation – and then follow up email support as need be – for ( Fee Redacted ) – and have taken people with no previous knowlege of internet marketing and had them pumping out page rank and quality content very quickly therafter.

I’d be more than happy to help you any way that you may need – even if just sending you a few good free ideas!  ( actually – like above..:-)

Ian

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As an afterthought – and in reading my own comments, it  always amazes me how many times people ( myself included) aren’t doing a better job in pointing out the * pain points * in your clients business life – what keeps them up at night – where they feel the most sense of anguish and worry is always a far better place to sell from than just pointing out the features and benefits of your own services.  No matter how successful people become – ( or even arguably - directly proportional to HOW successful they become - remember Biggie Smalls – MO MONEY – MO PROBLEMS..:-) they have those fears, those worries that overwhelm them in the quiet moments when the lights go out and the vacant stare of the ceiling is all your eyes can see – if you can solve that problem, soothe that hurt – fill that need, you will never go hungry again)

As always – if there is anything I can help you with – please don’t hesitate to drop me a note!