Steve Reports

As a reminder the popular definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting the different  results”. Most companies continue to do business the same way and blame the economy and high gas prices on their declining business results when they should be looking in the mirror. There seems to be a strong undercurrent of “I am waiting for somebody to do something vs. I am responsible.”

The operative word here is most. There are sectors of the economy that have been hit by current conditions. I will leave that analysis to economist and academics. They have a lot more expertise in such matters and enjoy the intellectual debates of cause and effect. I have a laser beam focus on what individual companies can and should be doing to achieve their potential.

I am excluding from this article any company who is in serious cash flow difficulty. When a business gets to that point, crisis management… turnaround expertise is needed. MY firm International Resources does that work and we are very good at it. I always advise if you are in that situation, call me or a firm like mine right now as time is of the essence. My direct line is 727-587-7871.

What are “The 5 Steps To Stop Insane Management From Driving Business Into The Ground?”

1. Have a very clear profit plan at each line item of business performance. Measure actual performance against plan and have clear accountability for achieving the plan line item by line item. To implement this you must have timely, accurate and relevant information. No excuses…must have.

2. When people who are accountable for line item performance consistently fail to meet the stated goals, replace them. Period!

3. The number one function in a business that will be the subject of most of the excuses is sales. These excuses come from people who do not understand how to market to a consumer who places ever increasing importance on relationships. Why do you think the community building sites like YouTube, MySpace and Facebook are in the top ten most highly visited sites globally? According to Alexa, YouTube is 3 , MySpace is 6 and Facebook is 8 ) Every business must have a relationship driven marketing strategy and then implement it. See Relationship Marketing below.

4. Always be evaluating the market including on line competitors. I wonder if Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL in retrospect would have done anything different when Google first came to market?  No company is immune from being seriously weekend by competition. I look at the drugstore landscape. I live in Florida where competition is very active particularly for pharmacy prescriptions. A new format of drugstores was introduced not that long ago by Walgreens, CVS, and others with positioning of buildings with 24 hour drive through pharmacies on high cost real estate. Two things have happened with those changes. Prices skyrocketed to pay for real estate and relationships with the pharmacy customer has almost become extinct. Within this landscape I am aware of several privately held drugstores doing very well because of their attention to customer relationships.

5. Don’t push a boulder up hill. Some companies were never meant to be. People start companies or buy existing companies because they think it is a good idea. The only opinion that matter is the market. If your business was not all that strong in the past and you are basically doing everything right, the best action to stopping the profit leaks may mean closing the doors. If you are not sure Contact Me.

Reality Business: The following examples are taken from just one day’s experiences - today.

1. I was talking with a former client who is now a good friend, who told me they have exposure on a large receivable as it looks like the customer is going out of business. After asking two questions I understood that procedures installed during the consulting project were ignored. Insane management. This happens all the time where people make exceptions to sound business practices and then wonder what went wrong. Follow well founded established policies and procedures without exception. Does that mean nothing will ever go wrong? No, but the surprises will be fewer and far between.

2. During a meeting with a very successful fund manager I asked him if there was any one or two things that he attributes to his success. We were specifically talking about clients who transfer portfolios of $250,000 and higher to him from other firms. He said: “just two things: first I have a “high touch” approach which cements the relationship. The markets have been unforgiving lately. I increase my meetings with clients when competitors are shying away from making calls to people whose portfolios have been hit. Second I have marketing funnel to my target audience that has consistently worked very well.” I am not writing the details as this is proprietary but I will tell you this - you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out.

3. I was invited to lunch at a very nice restaurant in Tampa. It has a fairly steep price tag for most of the selections. There were many tables available. Like nearly every other restaurant I have ever dined, regardless of price point, when I left they have no idea who I am and have no way of inviting me back. Insane management.

All in one day!!

Relationship Marketing:

I love talking about how easy it is for retail business to install a relationship marketing program. This is actually easy for every company, but most readers can relate to experiences with restaurants, grocery stores, dry cleaners, specialty shops and other retail stores. Just ask yourself when was the last time you received a thank you note, an incentive to come in for a special on a particularly slow day or a brief questionnaire asking you how they can serve you better? It happens. I listened to a story the other night about a business getting a fax every time it rains near the lunch hour from a nearby restaurant saying “It is raining. Our business will be slow today. Come in for a free Taco.”" Of course, nearly everyone will be buying more than one taco. But isn’t that cool and how hard is that to do?

Visit http://www.localretailmarketing.com for an idea on how you can begin strengthening your customer relationships. The information is free. My firm is not if you want us to do it for you. We get it done now which can be very valuable for you.

Accept The Responsibility and Take Action Starting Now!!

Sending all my readers the energy of wellness, happiness and peace.

Steve Pohlit
http://www.stevereports.com

Don’t Miss These Free Reports from my new business consulting site:

The Top 10 Action Stops That Will Make Your Business At Least 50% More Money in 90 Days or Less While You Spending Less Time Working Click Here For The Free Report

The Key Issues That Must Be Addressed Before You Buy Any Business of Any Size. Click Here For The Free Report

Steve is the President of International Business Consulting Resources. His firm specializes in guiding companies to rapid increases in revenue and profits with a sustainable growth rate. Don’t miss my FREE Report: How To Make More Money With Your Business Now and Long Term I am building my practice and welcome new client inquiries. Call me for a fee consultation at 727-587-7871 Remember many of my business building articles can be found at Steve Reports and my prosperity building tool (best tool ever for helping you manifest your goals and dreams) is The Prosperity Tool Chest and guiding articles posted very often at Prosperity Tip

Does 200 million page views a month catch your attention? How about knowing 41% of the members between the ages of 34 and 55 and all groups are divided nearly evenly between male and female? If that isn’t enough to get your attention consider these:

1. Members look for content by areas of interest.
2. All content is video and each video can be described using text that is rich with targeted keywords for your product or service.

Just a Couple More Things

1. The information above is about YouTube.. the 6th highest volume site on the Internet. The demographic data is for the US only and yet YouTube is International. The real number are larger but not quantified.
2. There are more than 150 social media sites on line and growing. Each one is attempting to carve out a niche of the huge general market. Of the 150, approximately one third are video sites. Once a person masters YouTube alll the skills are generally transferable to other niche market video sites.

The Action Plan Tracker

I have a business consulting firm. I teach companies how to build revenues and profits using proven principles and processes. Part of the business consulting work plan is to help the client implement an improved and more effective marketing strategy. Social media is now a required component of my updated business marketing strategy model. The numbers of people joining social media sites and becoming very active are very significant and should not be ignored.

There are a huge number of businesses that do not have websites, use blogs, test on line promotion campaigns, execute effective email campaign which are all very proven and effective marketing tools. Social media sites generally completely ignored by most companies. The exceptions are wisely building brand and loyalty.

Very recently I developed the groups YouTube Mastery on Facebook and MySpace as well as the the site www.youtubemastery.net These resources are just being developed and the website is very underdeveloped. However, I have a very clear plan and once I reach that point I take action and sacrifice some perfection. People need to know about these opportunities now and begin using all the Internet tools plus traditional marketing tools in their business now. I currently advise business owners that they need to be devoting nearly 80% of their time on marketing. Part of that 80% includes working with staff and others accountable for marketing. Marketing and developing people are the two most important areas where a business owner needs to spend their time. All other responsibilities should be delegated. What if your are an entrepreneur of one. The point is still the same.

Right Now Action Steps:

1. Join the group YouTube Mastery on Facebook
2. Visit and register at www.youtubemastery.net

These two actions will result in you getting up to speed on using social media and social media video to market your business.

Sending all my readers the energy of wellness, happiness and peace.

Steve Pohlit
http://www.stevereports.com

Don’t Miss These Free Reports from my new business consulting site:

The Top 10 Action Stops That Will Make Your Business At Least 50% More Money in 90 Days or Less While You Spending Less Time Working

The Key Issues That Must Be Addressed Before You Buy Any Business of Any Size.

Click Here For The Free Report

Steve is the President of International Business Consulting Resources. His firm specializes in guiding companies to rapid increases in revenue and profits with a sustainable growth rate. Don’t miss my FREE Report: How To Make More Money With Your Business Now and Long Term I am building my practice and welcome new client inquiries. Call me for a fee consultation at 727-587-7871 Remember many of my business building articles can be found at Steve Reports and my prosperity building tool (best tool ever for helping you manifest your goals and dreams) is The Prosperity Tool Chest and guiding articles posted very often at Prosperity Tip

All of my work with helping companies achieve their potential includes enhancing their marketing programs. Everything I use in that part of my consulting and coaching practice is a result of what I learned from: Dan Kennedy, Ken McCarthy, John Reese and more.

Yesterday, John Reese sent an email updating his list about the status of his latest project. Part of that email is repeated below. Be sure to read my comments after John’s remarks for very valuable free resources.

From John Reese……..

If you haven’t yet signed up for Twitter.com you
really need to do it ASAP. As you’ll soon discover,
it’s becoming a very powerful traffic-generation and
relationship-building communications tool.

I believe it’s only a matter of time before every
serious Internet marketer, blogger, affiliate,
and business owner has a Twitter account and
is using it to grow their traffic and grow their
business.

It’s completely FREE to create a Twitter account.
So go right now and create an account and
SECURE YOUR NAME (or company name)
before someone takes it first.

After you create your account (or if you already
have one) be sure to “follow” me by going to
my Twitter page and clicking “follow” under
my photo:

http://twitter.com/johnreese

* I’m announcing some important news in the
next few days… follow me on Twitter to get
the *live* updates.

Yours For Online Profits,

John Reese

—————————–

Valuable information you can use when you set up your Twitter account

1 Follow me at http://twitter.com/stevepohlit

2. Larry Chase published a great list of Twitter tools - I learned about this from a “Tweet” by a person I am following. You won’t believe the tips you get when you start following some of the people on Twitter.

Don’t Miss These Free Reports from my new business consulting site:

The Top 10 Action Stops That Will Make Your Business At Least 50% More Money in 90 Days or Less While You Spending Less Time Working

The Key Issues That Must Be Addressed Before You Buy Any Business of Any Size. Click Here For The Free Report

Steve Pohlit
http://www.stevereports.com

Steve is the President of International Business Consulting Resources. His firm specializes in guiding companies to rapid increases in revenue and profits with a sustainable growth rate. Don’t miss my FREE Report: How To Make More Money With Your Business Now and Long Term I am building my practice and welcome new client inquiries. Call me for a fee consultation at 727-587-7871 Remember many of my business building articles can be found at Steve Reports and my prosperity building tool (best tool ever for helping you manifest your goals and dreams) is The Prosperity Tool Chest and guiding articles posted very often at Prosperity Tip

This morning The Wall Street Journal asked if the recently announced iPhone to be released July 11 would be accepted by business.  The answer influences the volume of iPhone sales and of course Apple’s earnings. This is my response which may give insight as to how business owners should consider many options that are presented:

I instantly wanted to study the placement, the presentation and the copy. So the follow on question is did this presentation sell beds?

The company is not a client so there is no way for me to know for sure. My guess is that it is a very successful campaign even thought the copy is not very good and the graphics are just OK. So what makes me think the ad was very successful?

A two page foldout in a magazine published to appeal to wealthy people with the catch that $64,950 is for one bed is in itself intriguing. I am guessing those who have $100,000 in petty cash become very interested in this bed.

This article is not about a bed. The lesson is to appeal to your target audience. The company handcrafting this bed is not running the ad in ValPak. The placement is in a prestigious publication consistent with the quality and pricing of the product.

Valuable lesson. Pay close attention to ads and junk mail.

Sending all my readers the energy of vibrant health, happiness and prosperity.

Steve
http://irconsultinginc.com

Steve is the President of International Business Consulting Resources. His firm specializes in guiding companies to rapid increases in revenue and profits with a sustainable growth rate. Many of Steve’s business building articles can be found at Steve Reports and his prosperity building tool is The Prosperity Tool Chest

Email Steve or call him directly at 727-587-7871

Celebrity is defined by Mirriam-Webster as a famous and celebrated person. When I think of a celebrity, I feel that person is known by many people with diverse interests. Celebrities I am aware of generally fall into a perceived niche. Oprah for example promotes many different themes. She is a talk show host. Tony Robbins is a self development guide.

What happens when a celebrity who is well known in a specific area decides they are going to make a huge difference on a related but very distinct area of interest? For example, you are probably aware of several actresses who have increased the awareness in society of orphaned children by their posture and by personally adopting one or more of these children. Now they become well known for their personal interests and beliefs.

I have studied in general what several famous people have done outside of the area for which they became famous. I asked the question: by being famous did these people automatically gain acceptance in another area of personal interest? The answer is no. Even though celebrities have a following, when they move out of their arena of fame for them to be successful with their message they and their message needs to be marketed.

As I have worked through the development of a marketing strategy with a celebrity, I quickly realized that my primary mission was to present a plan that most people could understand. The focal point was the same one that I use with all my business clients. That focal point is simply “what is the goal?”. For business development projects the goal is usually defined as a targeted increase in revenue and profits in first 90 days and the establishment of new processes and procedures to sustain that growth rate. For my celebrity client we agreed on a twelve month measurement of success which is a bit of stretch.

Once there is “buy in” on the goal statement that includes a defined time frame for achievement the steps to achieve that goal can be identified and sequenced. This is no different than my advice to business owners which is the goal that you want to achieve three months or twelve months from now is achieved by what you do each day and each week. We set the goal, we define the steps, we measure actual vs. plan and act on the variances. That’s it.

When you do this kind of work, you learn a lot about the person and their support structure. This is true for a business and for a celebrity. It is natural to want to share this information with others and particularly those close to you. You cannot. The two attributes that are most important when working with anyone are credibility and trust. Your credibility comes from the value you are adding now and not from anything you have done prior. Trust is gained by respecting those areas of the lives of the people you are working with that need to remain private. If they choose to become more transparent with anything that is their call. So it is with my celebrity client. If ever my role is disclosed, it won’t be coming from me.

Sending all my readers the energy of vibrant health, happiness and prosperity.

Steve
http://irconsultinginc.com

Steve is the President of International Business Consulting Resources. His firm specializes in guiding companies and their employees to achieve their highest potential. Many of Steve’s business building articles can be found at Steve Reports and his prosperity building tool is The Prosperity Tool Chest

Email Steve or call him directly at 727-587-7871

Watch the video very closely and you will understand why I am “off the charts” with ideas and possibilities.

Here is my post to Stephen’s blog today:

I really appreciate this information. Gary Halbert taught the principle of marketing to people what they already are looking looking to buy. What better way than to identify solutions that people in the forums are seeking.

The resource you gave us is tremendous. It may be free but until we become aware, it is of no use. Now it is up to us to use this gift.

I am very excited to get started with this. There are no coincidences and based on what I am working on right now the timing of this arriving is perfect.

Steve Pohlit
http://www.stevereports.com
http://www.prosperitytip.com

PS Click Here For Stephen’s Blog

I have no intention of making this blog a rant. Nearly everything published here is based on a lesson learned from first hand experience. I have learned my best teachers are those people and those situations that have attempted to cause me the most pain. The most recent example follows.

“Major Email Marketing Support Company Does It’s Best To Fire A Terrific Excellent Paying Client For No Reason”

The number of third party applications developed to support sending messages to large mailing lists is quite large. However at the really large volume level there are not that many companies that are rally in the game. However, landing a high volume, high profile account is time consuming and expensive. When a new account is added to the portfolio that is a moment that should be celebrated.

I work with a high profile company with a very large list of customers that are sent graphical promotions multiple times a month. A significant sum of money is spent for the third party solution that was selected last year. This number is growing as the list builds. The company does not mind because the campaigns I developed have exceeded the most optimistic projections.

For the past several week we have been building the structure for a new campaign and today was finally launch day. Launch day is really exciting because at the push of a button, we literally watch the traffic increase rapidly and the on line cash register ring ka-ching at a rapid fire rate. No matter how many times we have that experience it is always exciting.

At 4:30 PM we were ready. The time was perfect for our target audience. Several gathered in the control room and I was holding the launch button. Go - log into our account and ….hold on. Mission control we seem to have a problem. There seems to be a minute glitch with a very minor amount of fees that had not cleared our account. Not a big deal as I have access to several of the corporate credit cards that have, well let’s say plenty of room. Enter some data and bam - declined. Enter another card ..bam declined and account locked.

So now I call the company. The lady answering the phone had a very pleasant southern accent and almost cried on queue when I explained the situation. She asked me to hold while she frantically attempted to find someone in “billing”. A few minutes later she explained it was 4:46 PM on the East Coast where their offices were and everyone had left for the day.

I then had a brilliant idea. I will call sales since that is the department always aggressive for new business. I had a couple of cards I was prepared to play. Their voice mail said they worked until 6PM. But nobody was available meaning nobody was in and it was 4:48PM. I was out of options. Campaign on hold. From past experience I knew how much an overnight delay would cost in lost revenue and the picture is not pretty. Leave it go - deal with it in the morning.

Shift gears with me for a minute. I have built companies from nothing to reasonably good volume. The business I am working with now started from scratch. We understand the foundation business principles. We know all about the importance of serving customers. I feel very confident the owner of the email delivery sevice company whose employees were nearly all gone by 5PM would be able to give a long speech on taking care of the customer. So how does this all unravel?

I am glad you asked. First I will answer that question and next I will give you the solution to the problem.

What Happened:

We waited until the next morning then called. A lady in billing cleared the minor problem and said our account should never have been blocked. We agree. The mailing went out and we still had a successful campaign, but there was a substantial level of ill will. I asked to be contacted by the owner of the email marketing company. I asked to be contacted by customer service. I asked to be called by sales. The only response was about a week later a customer satisfaction form was sent to me and I never was called. Will the company select another email marketing service provider? We are evaluating alternatives

The Solution:

In every business I ever owned, worked in as an employee or worked with as a consultant, there was an “A List” Sure the goal is to treat every customer and prospect with respect and with a sincere attitude they are important. The art of the practical is the A List customers spend a lot of money and require a process in place to recognize when they need assistance. The best process I have found is have well defined accountability for these accounts. One point of contact that has the knowledge and experience to make a decision on the spot and knows when to obtain advice if necessary. There are other solutions but this one is absolutely the best.

I welcome your comments.

Are you a business owner with revenue in excess of $5 million annually wondering if you are on the right track? Email Me to schedule a FREE 30-60 minute Consultation

Be well and prosper
Steve Pohlit

PS This is not an isolated incident. I could write a completely different set of facts about a company that has a trouble ticket system we are looking to buy and another company that has a technology solution we did buy. Customer support is pathetic and represents a great opportunity for those dedicated to “walking the talk” of outstanding customer service.

Are you a business owner, entrepreneur, direct marketer, internet marketer, network marketer or a person looking for the keys to success? If so this is must read information. Of course you don’t have to and you may not even “buy into” what I am presenting. I repeat: this is must read and must follow information.
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Something has been missing. While I developed, implemented and proven the effectiveness of my 10 Minute MBA program, I knew that in a number of cases the success was not sustained. I rationalized this as a natural process of business owners slipping into to their previously established comfort zone.

In a way I used this seemingly natural regression as an opportunity to promote follow-on business consulting services. Now I understand that while ongoing services are valuable, the real reason for business performance to slip went deeper than the obvious failure to follow the established game plan that had been proven to work.

I also could see that in many instances that even when my Profit System was actively implemented and the business was hitting or even exceeding established milestones, something was missing.

When you are faced with a question where you don’t have the answer with confidence, what do you do? Well there is research of course and I did research this issue. Hundreds of hours of research. I also looked very carefully at those situations where people were hitting and exceeding the numbers consistently. I studied the contrasts.

I didn’t discover what I now feel is the answer until I examined my own experiences. I have been taught and influenced by my parents, my daughter, teachers, billionaires, priests, ministers, authors and very by all outward measures, successful internet and direct response marketers. There have been many other influencers but you get the idea. With all of this experience being taught and implementing a lot of what I was taught I found myself experiencing significant negative life situations. So I went to work to find out why. I went to work on myself.

This is not the forum for a description of the extent of that work. However, what I discovered literally transformed my life. This is an introductory article. I am suggesting you consider that if you are not on purpose there is no way for your business or you job to be satisfying - no way. Alternatively if you are on purpose and you use all the tools available to you, then not only will you be achieving your professional goals but more importantly you will be healthy, happy and at peace.

I suggest to you that being on purpose is more important than all the money you believe you want to make. Don’t misunderstand me. I want me and you to have all the abundance available for us while we are on this physical plane. I firmly believe there is unlimited abundance and I like that idea as much as anyone. At the same time, I remember the story about Andrew Carnegie in the book The Five Wishes. He was asked if his life was a success. He said he would give up all his money to have a truly happy marriage.

What is it that you wish for when asked if your life has been a success?

In this series of articles I will explore with you how personally being on purpose will make a dramatic difference in your life and your business. We will review a number of typical real life business examples and look at various outcomes as determined by the mindset of the person in the example. You will learn how to turn your business into a profitable cash producing machine.

Until the next time:

“If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around.”

Be well and prosper,

Steve Pohlit
Business Development Consulting
Steve Pohlit has more than 20 years experience running very large and medium sized companies. Steve now consults with clients to design and implement processes that will deliver improved business performance for the long term. Most projects are self-funding within 90 days. The client then experiences a very high return on investment. Learn more about the process of Increasing Profits by 30% or More In 90 Days or Less by visiting http://www.stevepohlit.com or you can call 727-587-7871 and speak with Steve directly. Have a question? Click Here To Visit Ask The Consultant

A company I work with is clearly on track to achieve a 20% increase in sales and profits. This business sells physical products on line - a traditional eCommerce business model. I noticed a slowdown in the rate of improvement in sales and profits earlier this year and a plan was developed to stabilize and then increase the rate of sales improvement.

A pay per click promotion was being used the three major engines. The campaigns needed a tune-up to improve return on investment and help improve the sales and profits trend line. Pay per click was the immediate focus since the projection was that it would have the fastest and most measurable influence on sales and profits in the near term.

Over the subsequent 3-4 months, a significant improvement in sales and conversion from pay per click advertising was recorded. The return on investment on net profits (revenue less cost of goods divided by pay per click costs) was very impressive for each primary keyword and ultimately for every secondary keyword. After about 4 months of working the campaigns, the performance, while very good, seemed to be nearly optimal and we went into maintenance mode. The improved ROI was not sufficient to ensure the Company’s sales targets for the year would be achieved. We implemented the next step of our marketing plan.

Marketing is about using appropriate channels for developing and maintaining customers. Direct mail and email are the “hands down” best ways in most instances to develop relationships with customers and targeted buyers. When done right, the business benefits tremendously because the customers know they are valuable. They respond by buying what you are offering. With a meaningful email database, marketing with email campaigns was viewed as the fastest way to further improve sales and profits.

Let me short cut the story to tell you that the email campaign is enormously successful. In total, the results exceeded projections. Here are the key points:

Every promotion needs to be evaluated on its own. We had pay per click campaigns and email marketing promotions fall flat. None of those were mistakes. The only mistake companies make is not marketing, not measuring what they market and not learning from campaigns that didn’t meet the mark.

In order to evaluate any marketing initiative, it must be set up so you can measure results. If this is the first time you are reading about testing, tracking and measuring ROI, congratulations. You now know the fundamentals of successful marketing. If you have read this before and are not implementing your marketing strategy using these principles then guess what - look in the mirror when you say your business is not performing or your marketing program is not delivering.

BONUS: I learned the value of having a technical person who understands the marketing objectives on the team. Setting up the tracking codes that allowed us to measure ROI for each keyword and email campaign was invaluable and work I prefer to have done by a person with those skills. In this case the company has qualified in-house resources. This is not always the case. If you are not confident you have or have access to the skill set required to set up the tracking codes then find those skills. There are independent consultants who have these skills at reasonable rates.

The Only Mistake In Marketing:

The only mistake in marketing is not setting up measurable campaigns. Dan Kennedy pounds on the importance of direct response marketing. Dan is absolutely right. John Reese is the master of testing. John is absolutely right. Learning from the masters is useless unless you act upon the lessons you learn.

Be well and prosper,

Steve Pohlit
Business Development Consulting
Steve Pohlit has more than 20 years experience running very large and medium sized companies. Steve now consults with clients to design and implement processes that will deliver improved business performance for the long term. Most projects are self-funding within 90 days. The client then experiences a very high return on investment. Learn more about the process of Increasing Profits by 30% or More In 90 Days or Less by visiting http://www.stevepohlit.com or you can call 727-587-7871 and speak with Steve directly. Have a question? Click Here To Visit Ask The Consultant

Why is Sterling Valentine hyping the link to the Power of Focus from Rich Shefren? Why is Rich Shefren moving to a Las Vegas style image with his promotions? I know Sterling and I don’t know Rich. Right up front I think both are terrific talent. Sterling is very bright and driven. He is, or at least he has been “on purpose”. Rich is a former Arthur Andersen consultant and an excellent marketer. I have read some of Rich Shefren’s material and feel his advice is very good.

Now you should ask: ” why do I care what Steve Pohlit thinks of Sterling or Rich Shefren or anyone else for that matter?” Good question and here is the answer. I am a very experienced businessman and not only have I bought, sold, started from scratch and consulted with companies large and small, I have a terrific track record doing so. All the details don’t matter but this does: my work continues to confirm that we as business people, marketers, Internet Marketers and more have a responsibility to share our talent and do so in a way that larger numbers of people can duplicate the principles we demonstrate.

For the past two months I have led a small group once a week in an in-depth study of some live principles. Make no mistake about this: I did this for me. What those people got out of this process was entirely up to them. I worked harder than I did for my best paying clients and I worked for no pay. I used all the talents I didn’t even know I had and more. All of this material was posted on a special web site. There is audio and wonderful material for the participants to use whenever they want. Soon there will be another series and there will be video.

“Givers Gain” is the theme of a national business networking group. I gotta tell you that after 7 weeks, I feel better than ever and I just celebrated my _ _ birthday. (The age does not matter because I have learned it is possible to become younger and I am working on that.) I gave all of my talents and in the process what happened? Members of this group are now my friends and they have asked me to expand the leadership to another topic. I will do this and we are now working on having more people benefit from this process.

I remember like it was yesterday - the first JV Alert. It was organized by Ken McArthur in Philadelphia and there were 20 people there. There was no fee - or maybe a small one that I don’t remember. We paid for our transportation to Philly, our room and meals. By the way that room was the most marvelous room I experienced in a long time. And I stay in a lot of rooms. I digress. The idea that launched Sterling incubated that weekend. Ken says he was very grateful for how without asking Sterling kept asking “how best may I help” since Ken was doing all of the heavy lifting. I rember saying to Ken - ” I don’t feel good coming to a meeting about how we can be more successful with the host driving back and forth from home because you don’t want to spend the money on a room.” Ken ultimately worked with Sterling on a historic program which as of today I don’t thing anyone has challenged. Ken also went on to further develop JV Alert and he no longer drives back and forth from home.

So you ask what is my point? I submit to you that doing business is easy. I submit to you that many people create smoke and make it seem like business is hard. When I go to Vegas I want a show - I want to be immersed in the magic. Business is not magic. It is easy to understand what works. You think I am kidding? Do you think a double cheeseburger with king sized fries is healthier than steamed vegetables with some grilled wild salmon? You know what works. If you are in business or starting a business you already know. Does this mean that Rich, Sterling, Frank, Ed, Jason, Ken, Ken. Dan, John and others should be ignored. No- do you ignore God even though you know the difference between right and wrong? I hope not.

I am saying stop all the hype. Stop the smoke and mirrors. Keep it simple. I remember one of the first System seminars organized by Ken McCarthy. I learned it is all about traffic and conversion. Many years earlier at a shareholders meeting led by Les Wexner, Chairman of The Limited who I am grateful for allowing me to work with his company, Les said “nothing ever happens in our business until a customer says: I’ll take it”

Ladies and gentlemen business is simple: whether it is on line or off line give the customer what they want. How do you know? Ask them! Right now I am working with a very successful eCommerce based company and do you know we just sent out the first marketing newsletter to a small test group and we don’t even have the survey finished. We are still guessing as to what they want and this is a hugely successful business that just happens to do a great job of selling a lot of products on line.

We don’t need David Copperfield to magically demonstrate an image that few can duplicate. We need to take our wisdom and simplify, simplify, simplify and help more people realize their potential.

May you and yours experience permanent prosperity in all areas of you life - Sterling and Rich included.

Steve Pohlit

Steve Pohlit has more than 20 years experience successfully running companies large and small. Steve now develops and implements processes that will deliver improved business performance for the long term. Learn more about the process of Increasing Profits by 30% or More In 90 Days or Less by visiting http://stevepohlit.com or you can call 727-587-7871 and speak with Steve directly. Have a question? Click Here To Visit Ask The Consultant If you want to learn how to use a blog to build your business then register for the the free mini-course “Blogging for Profits” at Steve Reports and Blogging For Profits. Did you know you can make a ton of money by referring a business that converts to consulting project? Just thought I’d mention that.

Just one more thing…did you know I am now working with Randy Gage? No! Who is Randy Gage? Visit International Success

Every time I immersed myself into learning and developing new skills the most fun was not being paid but in seeing the results of my work. Yes I was helping my company or another company make more money. Yes I was developing a new marketing strategy that included the use of effective web sites, blogs, articles, email campaigns and more. Yes I was getting paid for that work but the biggest payment of all came from the satisfaction of increasing my own expertise. Why? Because anytime I was able to take something that interested me, develop that into marketable expertise then I was first helping myself. Once that happened then I was in a position to help my business and help others.

Deepak Chopra asks us to examine those activities we become involved with where we are not even aware of the passage of time. Those activities usually comprise what we should be doing while we are on this planet or our purpose. Having said that, when I recently lost a few weekends to a project I was working on, I did not have all the skills or the interest for that project even one month ago. I do now.

One skill in the following list did not exist for me at all 36 months ago. Another I had no interest in even 30 days ago. Now I am using every business skill I developed during my entire career and have added a few more to that toolbox. Here is a partial list of what I am talking about:

Team Building
Effective Presentations
Web Site Development
Project Management
Research and Development
Developing Agendas and Running Meetings
Reconciling Very Diverse Age Groups and Backgrounds

My educational background, work experience and self taught skills have positioned me to be effective in this work. Smiles and compliments are my pay for this project My reward is what I learn from the people I am working with. That by the way has always been the case. I have always gained from learned the most from the people I work with.

I feel that I am on purpose more time than I am not. I am sharing this with you because I know if you are reading this report, then you are likely a person to be interested in growing your business, being in business, marketing, internet marketing, doing business using the tools of the Internet and making money online.

Some of those interests for me started before the Internet was born. Others developed since then. What I didn’t really think about much at all were the following questions:

Do I really like what I do?
What are the reasons for my work and efforts?
When things work why is that?
When they don’t why is that?

Without having a mission of asking myself these questions I think I have done a pretty good job. I have developed along the lines of what I should be doing given my interests and skills. How about you? How are you doing? How happy are you with how you spend your time?

It Is Not About The Money!!

I know people and you probably do to who have made and who are making a ton of money. Some of those people are not healthy and happy. At the next seminar you go to really look at the people - the presenters the attendees. Many are not happy. Many (and I have spent more time than I like to admit on this one also) say “if I only had this or when I am finished with that I will be happy.” Here is a big point: if you are not happy now while you are pursuing painting a new picture for your life or just touching it up a bit, you will not be happy with the new picture when you get it.

Why am I writing this? Because I continue to see the same headlines, the same marketing messages and the same shallow promises related to “things”. Do not think I have something against things. Not at all! Randy Gage has taught me all the riches of this planet are here for me to enjoy and I am delighted to enjoy any that come my way.

I focus, on new goals, business and personal all the time and I encourage you to do the same. I am more open to alternative ways of achieving these goals rather than following an exact step by step process within a defined time frame that some other person defines.

Randy Gage pulls this together very well in his book “Why You’re Dumb, Sick & Broke …And How To Get Smart, Healthy & Rich.” In the 10th chapter he writes

“I’ll take my cue from Thoreau …

To be happy you must have a purpose
To have a purpose requires having personal values
Your values create a congruent philosophy to live by
Your philosophy is congruent only if you live by the principles that support that philosophy”

Try this philosophy on for size: “You Have The Right To Do Anything You Want, Provided You Do Not Infringe Upon The Rights of Others”

Well that statement could be the topic of a completely separate series or more. For purposes of this article, I encourage you to think deep. When you say I need my business to be better, or I want more money or I want to meet this person or I want to be in a relationship or I want to be out of this relationship, what you are saying is you want the feelings associated with a tangible product or event. The goal is the feelings. Feelings result from the way you think and you can be marvelous every day. Am I? Nope- but I am getting closer.

Here is a shameless plug: if you want the feelings associated with your business doing better then there are some fundamental steps you can take right now. I detail those at 10 Minute MBA

Bonus Offer

If you have any trouble setting up a web site with a blog automatically linked to the content you are publishing, this offer is for you. I have been quietly testing this service and have several clients I am working with who really like the results. I can reasonably handle 10 more.

For the first 10 people with a small business (can include: brick and mortar, affiliate marketing, information marketing, MLM, more) you will receive a domain name, hosting for one year, a fully functional website with two blogs linked to your site. Your blogs will have the blog widget for your own account. Relevant articles will be added to your site and automatically linked to your blogs. This set-up alone is worth well in excess of $500. Plus you will automatically be enrolled in my teleconference training sessions. There will be at least four sessions lasting about 45 minutes and the focus of these sessions is on teaching you the foundation principles of successfully developing your business. These are the same tools and techniques I have successfully used with companies who have paid hundreds of dollars per hour for my work.

All of this for a one time fee of $299.00 plus your testimonial. 10 people only. Hurry.. Email Me Now before it is too late.

May you and yours experience permanent prosperity in all areas of you life.

Steve Pohlit

Steve Pohlit has more than 20 years experience successfully running companies large and small. Steve now develops and implements processes that will deliver improved business performance for the long term. Learn more about the process of Increasing Profits by 30% or More In 90 Days or Less by visiting http://stevepohlit.com or you can call 727-587-7871 and speak with Steve directly. Have a question? Click Here To Visit Ask The Consultant If you want to learn how to use a blog to build your business then register for the the free mini-course “Blogging for Profits” at Steve Reports and Blogging For Profits. Did you know you can make a ton of money by referring a business that converts to consulting project? Just thought I’d mention that.

Just one more thing…did you know I am now working with Randy Gage? No! Who is Randy Gage? Visit International Success

Last week I received an email from a lady inquiring about an order that she had placed. Her order was for a popular product but one whose spelling I wanted to double check. So I “Googled” the product name …and I about feel off my chair. A site that I created in 1996 and is one of the more “visual dysfunctional sites” designed by current standards, was number 2 on Google for this search term.

There is very little I do with the site and yet the orders role in for a quite a few products. They do because the descriptions are accurate and the products are available. Most importantly, in my view, the site has been live and active for 10 years - never down.

Six weeks ago I received a call from a lady who was searching for a consultant to help her business in Miami. I asked her how she found me and she said from a site that I created three years ago. If you are like me I often get an idea, set up a site and instead of working the site like I should, I forget about it. This is one of those sites. After reviewing the scope of this project I referrd this work to friend of mine who lives closer to the client. The proposal we submitted was accepted and right now this project is generating a lot of money each week for my friend. This all started with a “stale” site.

Update it, don’t update it or sell it but never delete it. There are links from nearly all the sites I have linking back to a primary site. Now, as I write more articles and develop content for programs like The 10 Minute MBA and Blogging For Profits there are even more links. This content is out there forever once published. Yes the written word may be picked up by article directories and published on other web sites. However, it is has been my experience people are more likely to find you from a site that is live with relevant content even when the site is almost as old as the html browser technology itself.

Project Update:

I normally post articles to my sites and Steve Reports several times a week. Recently I have been researching how to use tools that I have access to as a result of several memberships. Tools specifically designed to help companies market their business on line. As a result, my publication activity has gone down. I am back. Not that my research is done. It never is.

What did I learn? As an example, I have developed the skills to add relevant content to blogs automatically. Steve Reports is not one of the blogs where I use this technique. Here is an example of one that is: Ask The Consultant. This is my site and is one of the five I have worked on in the past month. If you visit that site and click on the blog link, you might notice the postings are related to the articles that automatically drip to this site.

Updating my site and blog automatically with relevant content every day or two has been aa goal of mine since February 2006. Now it is happening and I can turn my attention more to the quality of content.

I learned the basics of Camtasia and developed an on line presentation marketing a new service being offered by a company to Corporations. We are early in the process but it looks like this is going to be extremely successful. I am using Camtasia to develop an entire training program at The 10 Minute MBA

The church I attend records every service and CD’s can be purchased for $5.00. Just this past week I uploaded one of my favorite messages to a website I developed. This site is increasing the visibility of the church on line and the visibility of the minister. I am delighted to use internet marketing talents to increase the membership of this church.

The tools I am using are having a positive impact on all the sites I am working on. The Alexa rankings are moving up fast. My PR is improving as well. I don’t have any PR 5’s yet but I am confident I will this year. I rank 21 on Google for a highly competitive search term for my main business and I am confident I will be on the first page for that one in 60 days. When that happens the phone with companies requesting consulting services will be ringing off the hook. My goal is for the customer to find me. That way I can be even more selective on who I work with.

What’s the message? I have developed the skills to manage my sites. I have developed the skills to add video and mp3 recordings. Three years ago, I could do none of this. Are all of these skills necessary? They are if you have a passion for helping companies improve their business performance and absolutely know using the Internet as a key tool for growing business revenue and profits is critical. Are you continuing to develop your skills in an area you are passionate about?

So that is a thumbnail sketch of just a few of the projects I have been involved with. What about you? What are you learning? How do you plan to become better at what you do? “Do what you love and love what you do” is my goal. I suggest to you that is a great mission for everything in your life.

In about four months I’ll give you an end of the year update. Between now and then look for a lot more very valuable insight on achieving business goals and enjoying your life while doing it.

May you and yours experience permanent prosperity in all areas of you life.

Steve Pohlit

Steve Pohlit has more than 20 years experience successfully running companies large and small. Steve now develops and implements processes that will deliver improved business performance for the long term. Learn more about the process of Increasing Profits by 30% or More In 90 Days or Less by visiting http://stevepohlit.com or you can call 727-587-7871 and speak with Steve directly. Have a question? Click Here To Visit Ask The Consultant If you want to learn how to use a blog to build your business then register for the the free mini-course “Blogging for Profits” at Steve Reports and Blogging For Profits. Did you know you can make a ton of money by referring a business that converts to consulting project? Just thought I’d mention that.

Just one more thing…did you know I am now working with Randy Gage? No! Who is Randy Gage? Visit International Success

I dial into Dan’s programs and attend them in person whenever possible. There are five people who I have learned the most from in my career and Dan is one of them.

A FEE 70-minute FREE tele-seminar is being held on Thursday, August 16th and is entitled: “THE EASIEST WAY TO ACQUIRE A MILLION DOLLARS BY LEVERAGING WHAT YOU KNOW.”

Join me and Dan Kennedy for a free telephone seminar on Thursday, August 16th at 2:00 PM EST or 8:00 PM EST. SIMPLY CHOOSE WHICH TIME WORKS BEST FOR YOU.

I will be on the 8PM call. Join me and Dan by CLICKING HERE

I look forward to ’seeing’ you on the call!

Steve Pohlit

PS: Please accept my strongest recommendation to Register for this call now. ClickHere To Register

PSS: It is FREE

May you and yours experience permanent prosperity in all areas of you life.

Steve Pohlit

Steve Pohlit has more than 20 years experience successfully running companies large and small. Steve now develops and implements processes that will deliver improved business performance for the long term. Learn more about the process of Increasing Profits by 30% or More In 90 Days or Less by visiting http://stevepohlit.com or you can call 727-587-7871 and speak with Steve directly. Have a question? Click Here To Visit Ask The Consultant If you want to learn how to use a blog to build your business then register for the the free mini-course “Blogging for Profits” at Steve Reports and Blogging For Profits. Did you know you can make a ton of money by referring a business that converts to consulting project? Just thought I’d mention that.

Just one more thing…did you know I am now working with Randy Gage? No! Who is Randy Gage? Visit International Success

I am a business development consultant. I use adword campaigns to develop and convert traffic. I manage about a third of the renenue Kirt is managing. My click through rates on primary key words are in excess of 20% and the return on investment averages 88%. However, when Kirt writes I pay close attention and so should you. He is right on and I am taking the liberty of reprinting his personal message to me just for you.

Steve Pohlit
Dear steve,

Today’s article is action-packed, read it and apply it to
your Adwords account right away!

Have feedback on it? Email us, I love to hear from my
readers!

Warmly,

Kirt Christensen
webmaster@scientificmarketing.com
==========

Every day I get emails from marketers using Adwords to
promote their business, and it’s not working out nearly the
way that they had hoped… Dismal click through rates
(CTR), barely workable click costs, and no matter what
they do, they can’t “figure out” the Adwords system.

While Adwords is a phenomenal way to get laser-targeted
traffic to your site, it does have a steep learning curve…
And that’s pretty daunting when it’s your own time and money
on the line!

I’ve boiled Adwords down to the following seven step
checklist. Although it’s not intended to be a cure-all for
every Adwords problem, these seven steps are the first to
take to make serious headway on your account!

1) Are you split-testing both your Adwords ads and your
sales letter or landing page?

This is the biggest error of them all! When I say “split-
testing” does your blood curl, or do horrific memories of
high school algebra class flash into your head? It doesn’t
have to be that way!

Testing is, in essence, simple. By “simple” I mean that all
you want to do is figure out whether ad “A” is better than
ad “B”. The definition of “better” being more clicks or
sales. That’s it!

Begin split-testing by making sure that every adgroup in
every campaign has two ads in it. Depending on the size
of your account, this could take a while, but trust me, it’s
well worth it.

After a while, each ad will have a different number of
clicks and a different CTR.

Now use the free tool at http://www.splittester.com. Plug in
your CTR and number of clicks, and it will run a statistical
test telling you how confident you can be in the results.
(In advertising, we usually use the 95% confidence level.)

After you’ve determined which ad is better, you’ve got your
“control” ad. Now, write a new ad, and attempt to beat your
control.

For split-testing your sales page or landing page, there are
tons of available scripts, both free and paid. In some
cases, your shopping cart system or ad tracker will have
this feature built in.

Continue to repeat this process on both your Adwords ads and
your sales pages or landing pages and you’ll quickly notice
an enormous cumulative effect.

2) Are you using all the potential keywords in your market,
not just the obvious ones?

If you don’t have at least 500 to 1,000 keywords, you’re
leaving highly targeted traffic on the table! Don’t be
content to only use the 10 to 20 major keywords and phrases.
For example, I have a campaign that has 2,015 keywords –
all to sell an ebook on how to get rid of bronchitis! I
recommend you do your keyword research with
http://www.keywordtopia.com, my personal favorite.

Keyword phrases that are two to five words long are called
“long tail” keywords. Individually, each one may only
account for a few clicks a month, but together represent a
massive amount of traffic.

(In next month’s article I’ll reveal a super-slick way to
spy on your competitors and find out exactly what keywords
they’re already using on Adwords!)

3) Do you use the three match types and negative keywords?

Do you know what brackets and quotation marks have to do
with Adwords? Many advertisers lose targeted clicks by
only using what is called “broad match”.

If you’re not tripling your keyword list by using phrase
match (putting the keyword in quotes) and exact match
(putting the keyword in brackets) you’re losing out on
traffic that is much more targeted and relevant than just
using broad match!

In fact, some savvy advertisers delete their broad match
keywords and solely use phrase and exact match to increase
their ROI.

Negative keywords are words and phrases used to prevent your
ad from showing on unrelated or untargeted searches.

Say, for example, you’re selling Condos in Costa Rica and
one of your keyword phrases is “Costa Rica”. You’ll save
yourself tons on your Adwords bill by using negative
keywords like, -surfing, -travel, and -tourism.

This will prevent your ad from showing if someone searches
for “Costa Rica Surfing” or “Costa Rica Travel”, and that’s
good because those searchers probably aren’t interested in
what you have to offer.

4) Do you have your keywords and adgroups organized
correctly?

Do you have only a couple of adgroups per campaign, stuffed
with hundreds (or thousands) of keywords? If so, this is
hampering your results!

Relevance is key on Adwords. And since it’s impossible to
write ads that are targeted and specific for hundreds of
different keywords, you need to “break out” keywords into
their own adgroups. For high traffic keywords, this could
mean one keyword, with the three different match types, per
adgroup. For lower traffic keywords, have no more than 15
to 21 keywords per adgroup.

After you “break out” the keywords into new adgroups, write
more focused ads, using the keywords as much as possible in
the ads. Your CTRs will raise across the board.

5) Are you using the content network effectively?

A common fallacies that you hear is that you should only
have the “search network” turned on and the “content
network” turned off. It’s true that the traffic from the
content network in some markets doesn’t convert into sales
as well, but that’s not always so. I have several clients
where the content network converts better than search. How
will you know? You won’t, until you test! Adjust your bids
for the content network up or down until it reaches your
desired cost to make a sale or get a lead, but to get those
numbers you’ll need to read the next step…

6) Do you have conversion tracking turned on?

Not all keywords are created equal! Some keywords convert
into sales at 3 to 9 times as often as others. Setting up
“conversion tracking” inside your account will tell you
exactly which keyword is responsible for a sale. If you
don’t have either conversion tracking, Google Analytics or
some third-party tool in place, you’ll never know. Pareto’s
principle, or the 80/20 rule, applies to Adwords as well. A
small portion of your keywords are bringing in most of your
sales. Wouldn’t you like to know which keywords to nurture
and grow, and which ones to delete?

7) Do you adjust your bids by keyword?

Again, not all keywords are created equal! Every keyword
will convert into a sale or lead at a different rate.
Adjust your keyword bids up or down until you hit an average
cost per sale that works for your business. You’ll find
that some keywords won’t work, even if you get the click for
only 1 cent! Delete ‘em, and move on. Continue to monitor
and adjust the keywords that are left.

I hope this article has turned you on to some quick and
dirty ways to get the most out of your Adwords efforts! Day
by day, work on your account and apply these steps, and
you’ll soon see real progress.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Kirt Christensen delivers aggressive maintenance of Adwords
accounts, managing over $612,000 of yearly spending for
clients. http://ManageMyPayPerClick.com

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
May you and yours experience permanent prosperity in all areas of you life.

Steve Pohlit

Steve Pohlit has more than 20 years experience successfully running companies large and small. Steve now develops and implements processes that will deliver improved business performance for the long term. Learn more about the process of Increasing Profits by 30% or More In 90 Days or Less by visiting http://stevepohlit.com or you can call 727-587-7871 and speak with Steve directly. Have a question? Click Here To Visit Ask The Consultant If you want to learn how to use a blog to build your business then register for the the free mini-course “Blogging for Profits” at Steve Reports and Blogging For Profits. Did you know you can make a ton of money by referring a business that converts to consulting project? Just thought I’d mention that.

Just one more thing…did you know I am now working with Randy Gage? No! Who is Randy Gage? Visit International Success

Business is simple. The principles of operating your business for optimal profits are proven and easy to understand. People bring complexity to the process. A properly defined and executed management syst