Four Characteristics of Successful Goals

If you are truly committed to starting with a blank slate for 2009, and wondering how you will make your mark and what you will achieve, let me offer four goal-setting tips that have worked for me:

1. Be specific about what you want to achieve;
2. Write down your goals;
3. Share your goals with others;
4. And find a way to hold yourself accountable.

The fourth in my mind is the most important. If you take the ubiquitous resolution of weight loss, most fail because there is nobody to keep you accountable for getting into the gym. It’s the same with any goal.

And, since we here at Click for Clients are all about teaching small business web skills, what a better way to document your goals and get people from all over the world reading your goals. It creates a sense of permanence and “putting yourself out there”.

So what I’d like you to do here now is write a comment below with your own personal or business goals for 2009. Just the act of writing it down will have a profound effect.

Are you committed to your goals? Do you have the guts to show the world?

The Numbers

According to a study by ABI Research, more people are watching video on their computers. Although it affects people of all ages, the study shows that growing numbers of younger viewers are seeing movies and TV shows online. The study found that the number of American consumers watching video streamed through a browser had soared over the past year, from 32% in 2007 to 63% today.

Advertising, marketing and media executives will increasingly migrate from a planning and experimentation phase to significantly increase implementation of their online video initiatives in 2009, a recent survey of more than 400 senior-level decision makers, has revealed.

The survey, conducted by PermissionTV, identified online video as the top priority for digital marketing budgets, and also demonstrated a strong preference among marketers for increased sophistication and interactivity in online video capabilities to help promote their brands.

“As corporate and brand marketers look to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of digital marketing initiatives, online video will play an increasingly critical role in all interactive campaigns,” said Matt Kaplan, VP of Solutions and Chief Strategy Officer of PermissionTV. “These survey results demonstrate the strategic importance of online video in the overall marketing mix, as well a growing requirement for more sophisticated video experiences.”

This is an encouraging survey, reflecting the take-up seen in the small medium business world to online video being part of the website communications and marketing mix. Not only the volume of expected take-up but the creativity that appears to be coming through. We think we’ll see brands and businesses deliver incredibly creative video that will make consumers and the market revalute their position, plus also wake-up traditional TV advertisers and their agencies. This is a revolution and its coming to you.

Key Findings

• More than two-thirds of respondents (67 percent) identified online video as a primary focus of their 2009 digital marketing campaigns, versus social media campaigns (41 percent), search (34 percent) and podcasts/webcasts (32 percent).
• In Q2 of 2009, more than half (52 percent) of respondents expect to be implementing or extending an online video project, whereas currently less than one-third (32 percent) are doing so.
• Nearly 60 percent of respondents consider interactive video experiences to be the next evolution for online video. Also, 62 percent believe that non-linear, interactive storytelling will become the most effective medium for marketers.
• Links to other videos is the most widely needed interactive capabilities for respondents, followed by graphic overlays, user comments and user-defined contents paths.
• Respondents expect their 2009 digital marketing efforts (33 percent) to be least affected by budget cuts, followed by traditional marketing (24 percent), tradeshows (21 percent) and guerilla marketing (14 percent).
• A majority of respondents (63 percent) are most likely to invest in a branded content/video destination next year.
• Viral video (39 percent) and interactive experiences (38 percent) follow as the second and third priority, while only 22 percent plan to invest in simple syndication.
• When asked how online video will enhance customer engagement, a vast majority (71 percent) stated it would help build brand awareness.
• Driving lead generation was the second largest objective (47 percent), followed by enhancing loyalty/retention programs (44 percent) and converting customers (41 percent).

What I’ve Seen

As a gadget guy and early technology adopter myself, in early 2008 I purchased an Apple TV. It really transformed my TV viewing habits. I’m not much of a series watcher and really only watch sports from our our cable provider, Cox Communications. I think much of cable TV is “chrome plated crap”. But, with Apple TV connected to our 42″ plasma, I am able to create my own personal viewing line-up with video podcasts directly related to what I am interested in watching.

Online TV networks like Revision3.com produce some really high quality shows related to technology. But, I’ve found that overall video podcasting offerings are sparse. It’s a real opportunity for small business owners that want to reach an ever growing audience of online viewers. And the tools to do it yourself have never been easier to use.

3 Simple and Affordable Steps to Get Started in Online Video

Producing video online can seem like a daunting task. And, for highly polished productions it can be. There is planning, equipment, lighting, editing, streaming and distribution. For most small business people, just getting used to being on camera really freaks people out. But, like any skill, with confidence and practice you can master it in no time. Let’s look at some simple, and affordable, steps you can take right now to dominate online with video in 2009.

Step 1: What is Your Tribe Hungry to Know?

What does your tribe of customers want to know? Don’t have a clue? All you have to do is ask! Create an online survey you can distribute by email. SurveyMonkey.com is great for that. Then take the results and create an editorial calendar with a series of 2 - 8 minute “shows”. The frequency will depend on your market and ability to generate relevant show topics. Some video podcasts are produced every day while others may come out once a month. No matter how often, you need to the voice of the customer in your head. They are always screaming, “what’s in it for me”.

Step: 2: Keep Production Simple

Don’t get bogged down trying to produce something with a green screen to put yourself on a virtual set. It’s really gimmicky and most people don’t pull it off well. Instead, use a simple black curtain behind you. It creates a classy and elegant look while keeping the attention on the subject.

For video cameras, most standard definition camcorders will do the trick. Everything is trending toward widescreen 16:9 format, so if you in the market for a camera look for this format. Video cameras either use tape or a built in hard drive to capture your recordings. While tape is higher quality, the convenience of a hard drive make it easy to download when you are ready to edit. Also, look for a camera with an external microphone port. Most of the built in mics on video cameras don’t work well. You’ll want to plug in an external wired or wireless lavalier style microphone.

I recently got a Flip Mino HD and it’s amazing! It takes 60 minutes of high definition wide-screen video. It’s a very simple camera to operate and leaves little user control, but I think it’s a great way to get going. And, it’s about $200. You can see my Flip Mino HD video sample here.

You can use some simple lighting kits to produce professional results. Invest in a simple two-light umbrella style kit. Put a light on either side of the subject at about a 45 degree angle and 6-10 feet away. This will provide enough flat even light for most shoots. They are many, many lighting techniques to consider, but we’re keeping it simple for now.

Once you are done filming, you can edit very easily on a Mac with iMovie or on a PC with MovieMaker or Sony Vegas Movie Studio.

Step 3: Distribute Far and Wide

Now, that you’re finished production has been edited, you’ve got to distribute it online. Start with submitting your video to the Apple iTunes store. You can easily join and rub digital shoulders with movie stars and recording artists.

Next, go to TubeMogul.com and create a free account. TubeMogul is a free service that provides a single point for deploying uploads to the top video sharing sites, and powerful analytics on who, what, and how videos are being viewed. I love Blip.tv for video hosting and distributing episodes to iTunes and Twitter.

One critical part of video distribution is to write descriptions and tags that use targeted keywords that your prospects are using to search online. Without keyword research, you might be using words or phrases that nobody’s search for online.

Final Thoughts

I’ve painted with broad strokes what small business owners need to get started with online video. You don’t need a million dollar budget or fancy equipment. What you do need is market knowledge, some simple equipment and a schedule of shows to shoot. Then get on with it. The evidence is clear. Video is getting bigger and bigger this year and those that master it will have a competitive advantage.

That should be all the reason you need.

So we dream, and dreams turn to plans. As for plans, they turn into a bunch of stuff that must be done.  And that’s when trouble sets in. It’s too easy to overwhelm ourselves with self-imposed obligations. Somehow, we need a way to keep the dream-stream flowing without drowning in its consequences.

Working on strategic plans with many clients, I’ve come to learn the value of what I call the Phase 2 Bucket. We brainstorm, we get excited, and another super idea comes up. On its heels comes the challenge of time and resources. So what to do with that cool new concept? Do we commit to it or kill it?

More often that not, my answer is neither — “Put that idea in the Phase 2 Bucket”. Honor the thought, store it carefully, but postpone any decision on taking it into action. That way, creativity is kept alive while reality is respected.

This device is so simple it’s almost dumb. But of all my discoveries of the year that’s passing, the one I’ll carry forward with the most enthusiasm is my beloved Phase 2 Bucket.

If you are building your business online and what to emulate the mighty competitors in your marketplace, there is a really great plugin for Firefox called SEO for Firefox. It’s puts a little icon at the bottom of the browser window that give you in-depth search engine optimization information for that page.

Using that data, you can essential “reverse engineer” the SEO strategy for the page.

What do you think? Would love your feedback!

Don’t forget to wrap up YOUR 2008 with the best gift of them all (according to us) - Kiva Gift Certificates! This year we’re all looking for gifts that really can make a difference and are affordable. Giving the Kiva experience shows you care about your loved ones and the millions working their way out of poverty this holiday season.

Click here to finish your holiday shopping early!

Last week, Tom Trush, copywriter extraordinaire from WriteWaySolutions.com, interviewed me about my recent blog post and free online video course, Your Biz Website Might Just Totally Suck.

In this interview, I share the ten things I see most often with ineffective websites. It’s my hope that if you recognize your business website somewhere on the list, it will inspire you to get back on the right track for online success.

Enjoy! And, please let me know what you think below.

In a nutshell, what it does is convert what you write in a blog post to audio. I love this concept because some people prefer to read while other would prefer a audio or video. I’ve experimented with this concept by recording my own podcasts and adding them to the posts. It takes a bit longer because of the time to record and upload. The quality of my self-produced blog post audio is much better. In my mind, it allows users to subscribe, with Apple iTunes for example, and then listen to the blog post at your leisure. I am a HUGE iPhone user and listen, and watch, podcasts when I have idle time.

As you’ll hear, when you click the LISTEN NOW button at the top of this post, you’ll see what I mean. It reminds me of the electronic voice on my grandfathers “voice clock” from the ’70s. I think it’s going to be a little “Robbie the Robot” for most.

The best part of Odiogo’s technology is that is happens fast and automatically.

Whether you are new to online marketing or a grizzled vet, you’ll understand how important that automation is in streamlining your workflow process.

If you have a blog or are considering one, here is what  Odiogo offers:

• Automatic podcast generation
• “Near-human” quality text-to-speech
• Listen Button feature deployed in next to no time for WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, BlogEngine.NET and Terapad platforms
• Detailed download statistics
• Make money from embedded ads

I’d love the know what you think. Please leave your comments below! We’ll either leave it up on the site or nuke it and go back to producing our own high quality recordings.

It’s exciting because this kind of stuff will only get better! Exciting times ahead!

To your online success,

There’s a reason WIIFM is such a well-worn mantra. It is based on sound, simple psychology and you ignore it at your peril.

But there can be a snag and here’s where it happens. When you offer free stuff to people, you can hit them with as many WIIFM messages as you like. They will stay uneasy. Another question is floating around in the back of their heads – “Where’s the catch?”

Business is about serving customers. But it’s also about serving yourself, and everyone knows that. Ideally, there’s a perfect balance of altruism and self-interest — a fair exchange.

People you do business with want to know where you are in the equation. When you give stuff away, they want to know why. So tell them. Make it clear how you make money and what motivates your generosity. “What’s in it for you?” It’s a real question that deserves a straight answer.

Hello! Andy Renk here for Click for Clients. For those of you that don’t know me, I’ve been around Internet marketing and business since the early 90’s. I’ve created numerous online businesses as well as offered consulting services for a select group of clients.

As I work with clients helping them creating ABLE websites - viable, measurable, repeatable and profitable, I’ve come to notice a few things that always seem to be present when troubleshooting what is wrong with their current web presence. The problems seem to be the same no matter what type or size of business or how well financed. They always start well before the sites ever launched.

I am sharing these with you in the hope that you may recognize your business website and perhaps steer you back on the right track for online success.

# 1 No Clear Business Goals
I’ve found that over the years that web site with problems usually start with the people involved. And it is most true with those that act before thinking. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think there is some merit to taking action to avoid paralysis by analysis, but at a very minimum there is strategic foundation that must be laid before the first line of code is written by a web developer.

If you don’t know what your website is supposed to accomplish, it will, and so will your visitors, end up as confused as you are. You must have clear and specific target markets, measurable business goals so you know what success looks like. Your online marketing efforts can’t be something you just tack on as an after thought. There is too much at stake for you and your business to just throw up a website and expect results. It simply doesn’t work that way. Online business these days has a lot of moving parts that must be arranged and conducted just like a Boston Philharmonic.

#2 Abdicating Responsibility
So, you want a website and you want to spend a few grand, you find a web developer and wait for them to come back to present you with online marketing nirvana. NOT!

I’ve seen it so often, site owners think they can just delegate everything to the designer and programmer. They can don’t know your business like you do. YOU are responsible for creating the representation of your brand image, writing and reviewing web copy, obtain photos and then maintain the site.

Here’s a quick example, one of my clients had a budget of a quarter million dollars for here companies website. The development team dove into the project and came up with an amazing story, design and coding for the site. Not once, did the client provide input. She simple said, “you guys are the experts, I am sure what ever you do will be fine.” Well, it wasn’t fine. When the initial site was presented, she exclaimed, “This isn’t right!”. Now, a major overhaul was in the works along with a major budget overhaul.

You as the site owner, must be intimately involved with the site from the get-go. And remember, you’ve always got to consider those things that aren’t digital. What about extra phone lines, toll-free numbers, staff, merchandising and on and on. If you have structural problems with your business offline, you must fix them before you go online.

Despite what you hear from so called marketing gurus, nothing is ever simple and that includes doing business online.

#3 Being Overly Optimistic About Time and Money
One of the great advantages of the Internet is the speed at which things can happen. But its also a curse. I have found that many business people have been conditioned to think that change online can be made with a snap of the the fingers and chanting “Make it so!” That may be true in making a simple text change or uploading a new graphic, but not the strategic parts of doing business online.

For example, if you have a new product that you want to promote online for the Christmas season, you can’t go to a developer in October and expect to make money in December. Besides the time to develop the site, you need to allow time for your site promotion to kick in.

If you need to get something up that is quick and dirty to get keywords percolating for search engine listings, that’s great, but any serious website takes thought about how it will look, how it will function, what information will be on it, and how it will be promoted.

For most sites, you must allow AT LEAST three months, unless you have a lot of money to pay a large team to get it done.

So here’s the rule of thumb, take what you think it will cost and how it will take and double it.

#4 Creating an Un-Friendly Web Site
Optimizing a website for search engines is a fairly straight forward and repeatable process. But, it’s amazing how many companies and developers still create websites that are hostile to search engines. Afterall, unless you are Amazon or Ebay, most people are going to find you with a search term entered into a search engine.
You site must support all of these without exception:

- Non-techie CMS backend
- Search-engine-friendly URLs
- Editable Page Titles
- Site index
- Link page
- Linkable footers
- Contact information on every page
- A way to collect e-mail addresses
- XML feeds of site indexes to Google for large or database-driven sites

#5 We Are The Greatest Company Ever to Exist Online or Off. BEHOLD THE GREATNESS
We’ve all seen them before. The site with the swirling logo animation with the blasting music that screams LOOK AT OUR REALLY COOL SPINNING LOGO! Now after a second you click the skip intro button and are immediately greeted by the company CEO siting confidently on the edge of this desk. He tells you how this company has been in business since the 17th century with locations from Mumbai to Toledo.

From the navigation bar to what’s written on the site, too many business owners tell their own stories rather than what site visitors want to know. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. What do they want to know and how easily can they find it? Your website is not different that any other form of advertising, your visitors want to know “What’s in it for me?”. This will never change and this is the fundamental question that all sites must answer from the opening headline on the home page to the post-order thank-you email.

#6 Not Updating Your Site
In 1996, your site could be a static online brochure, but not anymore. The glory of online business has been the advent of Web 2.0 technology that creates a huge virtual global conversation. If you slap up a couple static web pages with the CEO sitting knowingly on the corner of his desk, as a means to satisfy the addition of you website address on your business cards, you are doing yourself and your company an unspeakable disservice.

If you neglect your site after it’s built, you’re squandering your investment. Update content, add new merchandise, and counter what your competition is doing. Give your customers a reason to come back to your site. You need to reach out to them with your blog and services like Twitter, to give those interested in your company a compelling reason to come and visit you.

Finally, remember, search engines like to see active dynamic sites. Your search engine rankings will slip if you don’t update regularly.

#7 Assuming that “If You Build It, They Will Come”
Ok, so you’ve built the coolest website in your industry with Flash animation, streaming video and a drip marketing system. What? The world’s not blowing up your server with traffic? No matter what you site looks like, you can’t and won’t get traffic unless you actively promote your site. See #2 about planning. Your traffic strategy must be part of your planning process or your site is doomed to fail. Traffic building is a huge topic, but what search engines really to see are site with lots of “in-bound” (links from other sites) links to your site. Preferably from other popular site. Links are the currency of the web. The more you have the more valuable search engines see you site when they do rankings.

On-page, off-page as well as, offline techniques must all be used in an active, continuous, and eternal marketing campaign. Did Coke didn’t stop its marketing after it taught the world to sing?

#8 Not Using the Numbers
A lot of business owners don’t know that their site produces statistics. Of the ones that do, even fewer use them effectively. They couldn’t answer even the simplest question of their traffic. Make sure you monitor your web statistics before you design your site. You’ll need a baseline to measure if a new site is having the desired results. If not, you need to test different elements, offers, graphics, headlines, copy - all aspects of your site design until you are reaching your sites defined goals.

Confirm that your developer or host can provide the data you need. Google Analytics has an amazing, and free, web site analytics system.

#9 Not User Testing Your Site
If you’re a small business owner, you more than likely don’t have a huge budget to conduct formal focus group studies and user testing on your website. Sure you can have friends and family review and give opinions, but are you really getting raw unbiased information? Probably not. You need to get the market looking at your site from many different angles. Here’s a really cheap and amazing way to get you site evaluated by unbiased reviewers. It’s a web site called UserTesting.com. For $19/review you can get a person, selected by gender, age, income level and profession to do an online review of your site complete with audio and video. Even if you invest $100 to do 5 reviews, the information and feedback will surprise you. 9 out 10 times, the reviewers will see things that you never ever thought about.

This step is really non-negotiable for those that are serious about succeeding online!

#10 Being Unwilling to Change
I know, it’s cliche to say this, but the only constant is change. That goes doubly for the online world. Unless you are willing to adapt to the ever changing landscape of online marketing, you will get left behind and leave forgo a huge lead generation and profit opportunity for your business.

At Click for Clients, we are constantly on the look out for new trends, tools and techniques for online marketers like you. We know what works and what doesn’t. The time we save our members from trying to figure this out themselves is worth 1000 times the monthly membership.

If you are small business person, looking to make more of an impact online, I encourage you to have a look at all that Click for Clients offers for just $29.97/month. I guarantee it will impact how you do business online every month.

The unifying message in these wretched emails: “Do Unto Others As I’m Doing To You.” In other words, join the great IM pyramid, selling products on how to sell products on how to sell products online…

It’s amazing how far the legend of Aladdin’s digital lamp has permeated the collective unconscious. I keep getting clients — smart, successful entrepreneurs — effectively asking me to build them an info product next week so they can get rich the week after. What to say?

As it happens I do build online courses, and I love the process because I’m passionate about education. I’m working on one right now for Trump University (no false modesty — it’s going to be cool.) And of course with Andy Renk I’m creating a stream of lessons here at Click for Clients.

What I don’t have is a private mint, stamping out dollar bills in the form of digital trash. And if I did, you honestly think I’d tell you about it? Whatever for? I’d be drifting through the Caribbean in my 700 ft yacht…That’s Seth Godin’s message in this characteristically pointed post.

Online marketing is powerful. It’s cheap. It’s the single smartest focus for any small or medium size business. And that’s the way to use it right. Leverage the Internet for your bakery, law firm, courier service, real estate brokerage, dental practice… Talk to the customers you understand. Promote the business you know. That’s commonsense online marketing and you can learn all you need for just a few bucks.

Don’t drown in the info product hype. You’ll waste thousands on Internet gurus and lose your most precious commodity, time.

According to the Internet Marketing Center’s 2006 survey, online advertisers are capturing contact information from an average of between 5% and 10% of the people who visit their websites, and of those, only 1% to 2% become paying customers.

That SUCKS!

How would you like to uncover a little known way to do 4 to 7 times better… without having to attract a single additional visitor to your website?

Well that’s just one of the profit-boosting secrets you’ll discover at a free teleseminar I’m hosting this coming Wednesday where I’ll be grilling web copywriting and conversion expert Daniel Levis.

Click here now to register now.

Daniel is one of the hottest online copywriting specialists I know. Where most people would be thrilled to turn 1% to 2% of their website visitors into buyers, Daniel’s clients enjoy conversion rates as high as 10%!

His online sales strategies are so good his private clients routinely fork out $17,500 for a single web marketing campaign — plus a cut of the sales.

That’s actually peanuts, when you consider one of his clients rakes in over $5 million a month!

And on this call, Daniel is giving away a complete 5-step strategy for supercharging the selling power of your entire web presence that he says anybody can use to instantly begin growing their online sourced lists up to 7 times faster than just about everybody else!

If you want your website to…

• start making more sales…
• generating more traffic…
• capturing more high quality leads…
• and bringing in more customers like clockwork while you goof off and enjoy the profits…

… You do not want to miss this event!

Plus, if you’re quick, you can erupt your online sales and profits before the call even begins. Be one of the first 250 to register, and you’ll also get free, instant access to over 30 minutes of hard core conversion training on streaming video.

Steal Daniel’s simple, but highly effective 5-Step process for creating websites that sell and put it to work in your business.

Sign up for these exciting training opportunities at the below link.

Click here now to register now.

The best part is, there’s no cost to get in.

By the way, most free teleseminars are thinly disguised sales pitches with crappy information. I refuse to get involved with that kind of junk. This is quality information that will be recorded and sold at a later date, and it can give you a real edge.

See you on the call.

Related posts

• Computer Geek Discovers Speed Copy Secrets? (6)
• Your Reader Wants To Know These 5 Things (11)
• Why Freelance Copywriters Go Hungry (23)
• Why Can’t Johnny Get Conversion? (5)
• What If You’ve Lost Everything? (11)

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FREE AUDIO PODCAST!
Every day thousands of business owners miss out on easy marketing opportunities to attract customers who are eager to spend money – even as banks fail, gas prices soar and consumer confidence dwindles.

“Not marketing when the economy struggles is like waving the white flag and surrendering your company’s future to luck,” said Tom Trush, a copywriter and author of Business Building the ‘Write’ Way: Marketing Tips That Will Have Your Kissing Your Copy. “Unfortunately, many business owners fail to realize you don’t need a big budget to see rapid returns.”

In addition to explaining several no-cost ways for using content to drive new traffic to any Web site, Trush will tell your audience at least 6 other little-known strategies for marketing successfully without a budget, including:

• An easy way to get on the first page of Google in only 90 minutes – without buying ad space, paying for placement or even having a Web site;
• Why you should never advertise your products or services (and what to promote instead so you build credibility and trust with prospects);
• 6 simple methods for boosting believability in your product or service without a face-to-face or phone conversation;
• The $3.29 purchase found in any grocery store checkout lane that can electrify your marketing message and ignite sales;
• A 2-word question that transforms a product or service’s features into benefits prospects crave; and
• How to use a skill learned in first grade to create marketing materials that “test” prospects’ needs, while building desire for any product or service.

To reach Tom, please visit