Helping companies generate MORE TRAFFIC, MORE LEADS, & MORE SALES!

Have you ever noticed that it’s easier to get people to agree to do something if you mention the idea well ahead of time?

Let me clarify what I mean: you’re looking at taking the kids to your parents place on the weekend so on Tuesday the week before you mention it. You then bring it up again on Thursday. By the time Friday or Saturday roles around, they have the idea firmly planted in their minds that “we’re going to grandma’s on Saturday” plain and simple.

I call this “planting the seed”. It’s a concept that works with kids, with friends, family and last but not least it will work with your customers, prospects and staff as well.

It’s often much, much easier to ask for the sale or take the next step in the sales process (aka relationship) with someone if you’ve been prepping them and planting the idea to do so well ahead of time.

A small percentage of people at any given time will be buying from you. A slightly larger percentage of people will be warming up to the idea and approaching the buying stage. But a much, much larger percentage of your prospects, and even your current customers, will be in that group of people who will buy from you at some point, if only you stay in touch with them long enough.

You need to be “planting seeds” with these groups on an ongoing basis. It’s not just about follow up, but following up with a purpose.

The concept of planting seeds is one that can be used via social media platforms like twitter and facebook or via your blog, and definitely applies to your email list and can even be used in direct mail by use of three part direct  mail sequences. The important point to grasp is that ideas take time to germinate in people’s minds.

Whatever business you are in, whatever lists you own or have access to, what seeds could you be sowing  that will at some point benefit you and your business?

Give it some thought and then take action by putting relevant ideas in front of those you want to do business. And don’t forget to harvest when the time is right!

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Steve Jobs, legendary founder of Apple Computers passed away today.

If you missed Apple’s homage to him, here’s what their home page looked like moments ago:

I’m not one to spend a ton of time mourning for the dead (with the exception of loved ones and family) but I have to say it’s a sad day.

Jobs was and will remain a legend in not only the technology industry but world wide due to his powerful life story and of course the company he built that has impacted soo many of our lives.

Personally I only started using Apple products again this year after many, many years of being away from the fold. I’m hooked again. Despite not being engaged with its products for years, it has been impossible not to follow Apple’s rise and Job’s triumph of taking Apple from the brink to a dominant world player.

R.I.P Steve.

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Or “Why You Shouldn’t Be Naive About Google: It’s a Business People, a Very, Very Large Business.”

You may have heard the saying “He who controls the gold, makes the rules.” Or some such variation. Well for some time the new rule has been “He who controls the traffic, makes the rules.” And in the online world, that means that Google can do pretty much anything it wants.

Case in point:

Earlier today Mashable announced the launch of Google’s new financial advisory site Google Advisor.

After taking a look at the site and the sign up process visitors are encouraged to go through to apply for credit cards and bank accounts and mortgages, I realized this site is simply a competitor to sites like creditcards.com which is a very well known affiliate site. So essentially Google has setup its own affiliate site and has become an affiliate of several credit card companies, banks and mortgage providers.

For those of you who do not know what affiliate marketing is, it refers to an independent marketer who sells a company’s products and services for a commission. Affiliate marketing is a huge business and there are very few well known brand names that don’t have some kind of affiliate program. (Amazon is well known for paying  a commission every time you sell one of their books for example.)

The affiliate marketing game has stirred much controversy over the years as many affiliate sites and affiliate programs have been deemed shady, spammy, and of low quality. Google has, in the past, banned tens of thousands of affiliates from using Google Adwords, removed their sites from its organic listings and basically made it difficult for many of them to do business.

So it’s interesting to see them jumping into the space and going head to head with the very people they seem to vilify.

But that’s what you can do when you control massive amounts of traffic. You can make your own rules.

Main take away: Don’t be naive about Google.

It’s not a good thing or a bad thing that Google has launched an affiliate site in my mind. It just is. But don’t think for a second that your favorite search engine might not come after your industry or even your own website if it sees you are making good money. Using Google Analytics, Google Webmaster tools, Google Adwords, the Google Toolbar, and Google.com among other services , Google amasses huge amounts of data it can then analyse and use any way it pleases. So be aware.

Here’s my reply to Mashables post:

Ben, this is a Google version of credtcard dot com which is an affiliate site. So while this looks like a simple “comparison” site, really Google is in fact earning commission for any account that you sign up for through this site whether it be a mortgage, credit card or other service. Just about anyone can sign up to be an affiliate of a credit card company and Google (who happens to own their own affiliate network for those of you who don’t know) is simply copying a business model that has been highly profitable for some of their own partners. So don’t be fooled people: this is a “make money when our visitors apply” business, an affiliate business. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, it’s a valuable service. I do find it ironic that Google battles with affiliates that use its search engines, banning groups of them and what not, and then they turn around and use the model themselves. But that’s what you can do when you control the traffic! It’s not about gold anymore, it’s “he who controls the traffic makes the rules.”

- AK

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As of today, Google has made a new feature available to Google Adwords account owners called Google Blimps.

The new service allows advertisers to publish text messages on blimps that will circle major events such as the super bowl.

If you have an Adwords account, you should see a notice like this one:

If you follow the link, you’ll be taken to the following page where you can sign up for Blimps:

And if you sign up, you get presented with a screen that says:

It’s been a few minutes since I signed up and still no blimp in site flying over Vancouver like I requested. Perhaps there’s a time delay?

- Adam

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