SeoBlackhat.co.uk

Ive currently seen old posts regarding Images with adsense cloaked behind, so the image looks very discrete, when in fact is your adsense image. There is a probalem doing this with wordpress, because you need I frame plugins for this to work, unless if you do it on the template directly.

Click the picture below

Now we know this works, we add our own adsense to pages like our main page so it looks as if it is getting clicked correctly

This works UNDER the radar, I share my adsense code with other blogs, and target 1 site with image / adsense so my ctr is always less than 1%

More Info coming soon

This information is killer for your business and well worth the read. Digest the important info in about twelve minutes, as I not only give you the numbers, but more importantly, what to do with the information.

Often when we create sites or focus on a market, we tend to forget to check the trends and how they have evolved. I have taken the numbers so far this year and compared the numbers of 2005 and 2006. The hope here is to see “trends” and the path visitors are headed with technology so you can stay ahead instead of being in constant “chase” mode.

Many people ask me what I feel is one of the things which gives me an edge in the affiliate space. This is one of them. Now, the one thing about web stats is it’s great information, but it can also suck your time dry.

The data below is taken from REAL affiliate sites. Real sites with real visitors. These are US based sites only and do not include any foreign properties. The YTD numbers include the change from the August numbers so you can see the trend from the last three months. To make this data real easy to digest, I marked any key data, which increased in BLUE and decreased in RED.

On to the information… (Note: If you have a text reader for email – you will need to login to the back office in order to view the numbers correctly).

Visitor Return Frequency

Commentary: This refers to the frequency of visits by a user. You want your sites to be “sticky.” The idea of making a site “sticky” has been preached in the Internet community for about a decade now. I know, it is a “yawner” but it is still an issue you MUST consider.

As you can see from the data, visitors coming back everyday is strong, and in showing a strong upward trend over the last two years. My testing shows that Blogging and “email drip” systems are pushing these numbers up. Think about it; if one-third want to come back everyday how would that change your content development schedule?

As stated above, this is where a blog can come in handy. Also, keeping in contact with your visitors via email is a good move … and I have seen no fall out by contacting my lists on my affiliate sites every five days with new information, even if it is to tell them about a new blog post. Just keep the emails short, to the point and make sure there is great content for them to read. Nothing is more disappointing than being taken by an “evening news hook” trick … you “stay tuned” through the commercial only to be served lame content.

If you contact your list via email, don’t give them the information in the email. Instead, give them a link to your site or blog. Get them back to your site whenever possible. Your goal is to get them back to your site over and over again until they buy or buy again. What is really interesting is the consistency of the numbers in the 2, 3, 4 and 5 day returns. What is also good to realize, the numbers are still strong 6-30 days out. This means if you remain in contact with your list, even if it is on a monthly basis, you are likely to get them back to your site.

Fact: I can tell you from my testing if you stack your return visits within a few days of the original visit, your conversions ratios will surge. I have interviewed dozens of buyers who said, “You kept in contact with me and it seemed that the questions/concerns I had with the product were answered in your follow-up emails. It was highly professional and engaging.”

What You Should Do: Do you have new content to show new visitors on a daily basis? A weekly basis? If your answer is “no” then you need to get a plan in place to get new content on your site that will assist in converting those visitors into buyers. Look at your own numbers and see how they compare with the numbers above. If they are a lot lower in return visits within the first five days, you need to revamp your approach so you can get them to come back more often.

1) Make sure you have a Blog (Get “Fantastico” for your web server, which allows basically a one-button install for WordPress).
2) Email your list at least once a month (I use 1AutomationWiz and swear by it).
3) Add new, engaging content at least once a week (Hire a Ghostwriter through eLance, Guru.com, oDesk.com or RentaCoder).

Organic Search Engine Market Share

co.uk – Google United Kingdom

In a recent survey, the following were the top reasons why Internet shoppers abandoned their shopping carts. Note: they could pick more than one reason. I will cover the main issues at the top, and then get into the 20 Tips.

- High shipping prices (72%) – This is a biggie and all shipping charges need to be presented to the buyer before they have to type in their info and see the shipping rates.

- Comparison shopping or browsing (61%) – This is beyond your control, dont worry about it.

- Changed mind (56%) – While this is also beyond your control you can test your cart steps to see if this may be a cause of the mind change.

- Saving items for later purchase (51%) – If you offer this feature, but you dont collect their name and email address to contact them with a reminder drop it. Data shows shoppers who choose this option rarely, if ever, come back to purchase.

- Total cost of items is too high (43%) – How do you rank compared to other similar products in the market? Do you have sufficient Points of Difference to justify the higher cost?

- Checkout process is too long (41%) – Very important to have as few steps in this process.

- Site requires registration before purchase (34%) – I think people didnt understand this option, as it should be at least double this figure. Unless I REALLY want the item, I never buy if I have to register first, and I know Im not the only one who feels this way.

- Site is unstable or unreliable (31%) – If this is your site, then fix it!

- Checkout process is confusing (27%) – How do you know if this is a problem for you? Easy. You are getting calls with people saying, Your site was too confusing so I called. Your staff needs to be giving you this feedback so it can be corrected. They should also be mindful to ask, Would you mind telling me briefly what you found confusing so we can fix it? Ill give you free shipping on your order for helping us. Reward your customer for helping you. It is just good business.

These tips are taken from the book, Call To Action. It is part of our Recommended Books section.

I like to think of sales as the ability to gracefully persuade, not manipulate, a person or persons into a win-win situation. – Bo Bennett

Shopping cart abandonment is a significant problem for any website owner or affiliate. In some market verticals between 65% and 75% of online shoppers abandon their shopping carts before completing the checkout process.

What is amazing is the numbers are basically the same as they were in the late 90s. We have come a long way in terms of technology, but there are still key mistakes being made that lend to that high rate of abandonment.

Here are 20 tips to help you reduce the abandon rate on your online shopping cart.

1. Check how many steps are in your checkout process. This is usually a prime knee jerk target for results, but we have found that whether you have one step or seven steps in the checkout process is not all that critical (which goes against conventional advice by having as few steps as possible from experts).The authors of Call To Action state that they had a client that they were able to bring the checkout process from six steps down to one, but there was no reduction of the abandonment rate. In the testing that I have performed I also found this to be true. There was not a significant reduction in abandonment rate by decreasing the steps to checkout that can be consistently measured. Surveying revealed that once people found what they came to buy, they are going to buy, regardless of the steps involved. In other words, the customer is going to buy the product, regardless of how hard your site works to make it so that they cant!Suggestion: Look at the steps of your check out process. You may consider a group of independent people to look at the process and give honest feedback. Look for consistency in complaint or praise. While my advice is not to reduce the steps right now, if your checkout process is very lengthy, consider a reduction to make it as smooth and painless as possible. As that is just good customer service and that is something we all need to focus on more.
2. Include a Progress Indicator (e.g. Step 2 of 5) on each checkout page. No matter how many steps you have in your checkout process, it is highly advised to keep shoppers oriented by letting them know exactly where they are in the checkout process. This is best done by showing a step number. Be sure to clearly label the task to be completed at each step. Always give them an opportunity to review what they did in the previous steps and a way to return to their current step if they do go back. Make it as easy as possible for them.Suggestion: This is only necessary if you have three or more steps in your checkout process.

Many people ask me on a regular basis what is one of the best methods for taking a domain to a new server without loosing anything. Ive taken the time to develop a list of things you should do, and trust me I figured this out the hard way.

Since you will be moving your domain you will be also getting a new IP address. Dont go ahead and assume that its actually a brand new IP address. It may be new to you, but it could be someones old IP address. Ensure that you do a check to verify that this is a clean IP address. I use the service known as Black List Monitor. This is one thing you will not want to mess around with, spend a few extra dollars and avoid cheap services, you want to ensure its clean or you may run into problems in the future. There are other IP monitors out there, but I prefer to use the Black List Monitor myself.

This will not check to see if the IP address been banned from the search engines, since they dont actually publish a list, but I do know that search engines dont have a permanent ban on IP addresses. Some search engines like Ask tend to be the ones that do long period bans, but the big guys tend to only do a ban for approximately 72 hours, since the bad guys can easily just get another IP address to do what they want to do.

For those that are still a small business dont worry too much as they will check four IP addresses. We actually use Pro Plus to check 25 different IP addresses against the 66 spam lists. Beware though AOL seems to ban just about anyone if they receive a complaint, without even checking things.

I have yet to have an issue with the use of static and dynamic sites, so by going through to following information you should find yourself in good shape throughout your move. I recommend that you attempt to do the move on a weekend if you can have support from your host. If not do it during the time where you can get support from your host. Dont let yourself get stressed out waiting for an email reply, do it when they are available for you. You should try getting a host that does work weekends, just because its a weekend doesnt mean everyone should be off, youre working why arent they.

Step One: This is one of the most important steps and needs to be done. Check the IP address to ensure its clean. You dont want an IP address that has been blacklisted or you will find yourself running into many problems. Make sure you do this step or youll regret it.

Step Two: Get yourself a web host that can meet your technical and financial needs. Avoid companies that make you go through those annoying phone prompts before you reach someone. Setup your account with them. One host provider that I would is pugmarks.com. They happen to be the parent company for our admins.

Step Three: Create a physical backup of your website. You want to avoid any risks of losing your website and by having backup you can rest easy knowing its there.

Important note: Do not rely on the server admin to have backup for you. When you hit this critical moment that last thing you want to hear is that they forgot.

Step Four: Now you will begin creating the domain account in your new server configuring it to match your needs.

Step Five: Now is the time to upload your site onto the new server. Static pages are much easier, all you need to do is click upload and go for some lunch. Now dynamic sites are different, there is database work involved with them. Blogs are even more complicated due to the MySQL components. If you arent familiar with what to do, get someone who is. Dont lose money because your website is down for a few days, pay the extra cash and get things rolling much faster having someone experienced doing it. One of the major pains is ensuring that you have the databases synchronized through the transition.

I shared this recently with a colleague and he suggested I pass it on. Often, when you are looking to get into a market, you get in without doing some quick math in your head and a few searches to determine if you should do that $500.00 ad spend in AdWords as a test. When you find a potential market, spend ten minutes to determine if it can be profitable. If it can be, then turn on the PPC test to see if it can convert well for you. Sometimes, a great market just wont convert well for you it happens and it is best to know as soon as possible if the market is a dud. But make sure you do these steps first:

In this example, I will use ClickBank, which sells mostly eBooks. You can apply these steps to any affiliate program or network.

Step One: Write down the industry, exact eBook name and author.

Step Two: Write down the commission per sale.

Step Three: Based on a conversion ratio of 3%, project revenue. (while I realize that 3% seems high, it is what you should expect with the right targeted keywords, the right product and the right landing page).

Step Four: Write down your break even point in terms of Cost Per Click (CPC).

Step Five: Open the Keyword Tool in Google AdWords

Step Six: Enter the main keyword or the merchants site

Step Seven: Show Estimated CPC, Search Volume Trends and Highest Volume Occurred In (drop down Choose Columns to Display)

Step Eight: Change Match Type to Exact (we dont want non-qualified clicks)

Step Nine: Sort by Estimated CPC (highest first)

Step Ten: Scroll down to the range of the break even point you wrote down in Step Four. You must have at least 300 in Search Volume from the month prior to consider using the keyword phrase. This will give you ten potential searchers per day.

Step Eleven: Verify that at least 100 clicks per day can be had with the keywords which match the above criteria.

Step Twelve: Re-run Traffic Estimator and target the actual product name and the authors name and look for traffic estimates of ten clicks or more.

Lets do an example together:

1. Dog Training. Kingdom of Pets: SitStayFetch by Daniel Stevens

2. $31.23

3. $93.69 ($31.23 x 3) 3 sales is based on 100 visitors at 3% conversion (most will state that this conversion ratio is too high, but because we will focus on the keywords that sell, this is the minimum that you should expect).

4. $0.94 ($93.69/100) Paying $0.94 per click would break even on the campaign.

5. N/A

6. I prefer to target the merchants site, as it often gives me a faster pull of effective keywords. I can also use SpyFu as outlined in yesterdays edition. So I put in: http://www.kingdomofpets.com/

7-9. N/A

10. The first section are keywords related to how to train which is the focus of the site and the keywords we want to focus on to sell the guide. Here are the ones that I selected:

how to train dog ($0.96) 74,000. Yes, this is above the range, but just barely and it is highly focused.
how to train my dog ($.90) 3,600
how to train a puppy ($0.80) 27,100
how to train puppies ($0.56) 3,600

The other sections? You can target them, but you will need to create a new landing page for each because each has a different market and we want to keep our conversions as high as possible.Here are some ideas:

dog training collar – this would be an eCommerce product sale rather than an informational eBook.

dog trainer – with the slumping economy, many could be looking to moonlight to help make ends meet. This could spur you to create your own product on how to make a career out of being a dog trainer. There is plenty of information to pull from on the web and being the merchant often is the ticket you have been looking for.

dog bark – this is a problem. By targeting your landing page to show how the problem can be solved quickly, easily and affordably is what the prospect is seeking.

This is where out of the box thinking comes in. Business opportunities can come anytime and anywhere, but you must seize the opportunity.

11. Verified. On the conservative side, 3,000 searches per day should result in at least 100 clicks.

12. Searching for kingdom of pets, sitstayfetch, sit stay fetch and daniel stevens did not return results which were usable.

With the above, it can be assumed since we can get over 100 clicks per day at around the break even point that this would be a product worth pursuing. A $50-$300.00 PPC test would be worthwhile.

PPC Tip: I learned this one from Dan Thies over at SEOFastStart.com and StomperNet Faculty member. Make your bids half of what the top bid is, so if you do this, then you can target keywords at DOUBLE your break-even point to gain more qualified click throughs.

Have you ever noticed that titles on the cover of magazines sometimes differ from the actual title of the articles themselves? The next time you purchase a magazine, look at the titles and see if they are the same. In the latest copy of Wired magazine on my desk, the headline on the cover is The Rebirth of Music, however, the actual name of the article is Music Reborn.

Why is this?

This is because the objective of the circulation department of the magazine is to sell as many copies as they can. In their effort to do so, they often simplify, modify or reconstruct the titles of the articles to make it more interesting and make people buy their magazines. In effect, the circulation department is working the headlines. They simply try and make a good headline better. To make the title better, they sometimes lengthen the title, as with the example above. Sometimes they shorten it. Other times, they change a word or two. And sometimes the entire title is reworked.

To improve your online campaigns, it is a good idea to review printed marketing material to spur ideas and to get you thinking creatively.

As often is the case, looking at printed marketing material can spur ideas in your head on how to improve your online campaigns.

Here are some more examples taken from the book, Tested Advertising Methods.

These titles were given more impact by being shortened:

[Original Title]: Hot Tips on Heating Your Home
[Revised Title]: How to Cut Fuel Bills

[Original Title]: A Smart Shoppers Guide to Bargains
[Revised Title]: Shoppers Guide to Bargains

[Original Title]: Three Ways to Mothproof a Marriage
[Revised Title]: 3 Ways to Save a Marriage

[Original Title]: How to Understand the Perplexing Teen-Ager
[Revised Title]: How to Understand Your Teen-Ager

[Original Title]: Which Diet Tips Pay Off?
[Revised Title]: Diet Tips That Pay Off

The following are article titles that were given more sales appeal by being lengthened:

[Original Title]: When Your Husbands Affection Cools
[Revised Title]: When Your Husbands Affection Cools – and what to do about it

[Original Title]: Birth Control for Men
[Revised Title]: Now – Safe, Simple Birth Control for Men

[Original Title]: You Can Read Faster
[Revised Title]: Read Faster – a 20-Day Plan

[Original Title]: Key to Fitness at Any Age
[Revised Title]: Key to Fitness at Any Age for Men and Women

Here are article titles that were given greater interest by reconstructing them:

[Original Title]: The Smugglers of Misery
[Revised Title]: Where All the Drugs Come From

[Original Title]: Building on the Positives in Marriage
[Revised Title]: 4 Ways to Keep Your Marriage Young

[Original Title]: High Blood Pressure – New Light on a Hidden Killer
[Revised Title]: New Protection Against Heart Attack

[Original Title]: Backyard Gardeners Are Back in Style
[Revised Title]: How to Start a Backyard Garden

[Original Title]: What You Can Do to Combat Inflation
[Revised Title]: 10 Ways to Beat the High Cost of Living

Look at your Titles, not just in your PPC campaigns, but on your web sites as well. Could your Titles use a rewrite to improve the message?

I once had an idiot webmaster who hijacked my website and passed it off as his design. All in the hope of landing him a good account. Now I know I should be flattered but it really just pisses me off. The way I have caught these people in the past shows how stupid they are. But then again, what can I expect? If they were smart, then they could have just created their own design.

So how did I catch them? Simple. Log files. I know I have previously discussed this but I will say it again. Analyze your log files. You will discover a lot more about your site from this than through any other ranking report. Reviewing your ranking reports without analyzing your log files is like running your business with blinders on. Look at the details of your log files and regularly stress its importance to your best people on a weekly basis.

One of the most important detail on your log files that you should always review are the page views. This indicates which pages have been viewed. If you are going to be stupid enough to hijack someones code, at least be smart enough to strip out the web log code. Those who hijacked my site apparently arent smart enough to do that. They didnt strip it off and it led me right to them.

When reviewing your page views, always look for strange sites. Check out your referral logs too. You can also catch those who hijack your images and references your site that way. It is important to protect your brand on the internet. Now, how would I shut them down? Simple. Call their web host.

However, before I call their web host, I scrutinize their site first and check if I can gain something from them. As the saying goes, Dont get mad, get even. I checked DomainTools.com and found that there are 188 sites on the IP their domain is assigned to. Now, it doesnt matter whether these are all their domains or whether they are virtual hosting. The important thing is to find at least one piece of information that would introduce me to a niche that I didnt know existed. And that is key in this business. Let others do the research for you so you wont have to do the hard work all the time. All you need to do is to connect the dots.

As I have previously said, always protect yourself from prying eyes and have your own IP address assigned to your domains. I will now share something with you that I have never shared before. Like all other information that I give to you, I ask that you do not share this information outside this circle.

If I am researching and I find a power affiliates website, I will use various tools such as DomainTools.com to find out all the domains assigned to it. Now, if I see that there is only one domain assigned to it, then I know that you are hiding domains. Why? Because no one owns just one domain in this market. This will prompt me to search and search until I find them. And you can bet that I will find them. You will be found out and I will know what markets you are in.

So what do you do? How will you protect yourself? Leave a trail. Leave a trail that you dont mind others to find. For example, on one IP, I have my main site, webmarketingnow.com, a sister eCommerce Consulting site, a web design site, and a handful of others. Nothing of significance to me. But, if a competitor looks and they see some good sites, theyll think that is all that I have. They will be content with what they find because they think they have found something and will search no more.

This reminds me of the movie Quick Change starring Bill Murray, Geena Davis and Randy Quaid. They hold up a bank and then, got lost trying to find the freeway in New York during their getaway. They chanced upon a tourist and decided to stop to ask him for directions. The thing is, he isnt a tourist and ends up holding them up at gunpoint. He cleans out their wallets, but misses the bank money strapped around Bill Murrays waist. As the robber drives away, Bill Murray yells, Excuse me sir, you forgot your map, and my million dollars.

Classic.

They pacified the robber with some spare change when the real money was right there, but just out of sight. This holds true on the web. To protect yourself, I would advise that you take your key URL, assign it a unique IP and then grab four to five other domains. Build them out as dummy sites to throw off the dogs. This is what I do and it is very, very effective. You can see my ten domains, but you will never find my 300+ test domains. Protect your assets and protect your business.

Note: Please understand that this information is for Google AdWords Landing Pages – not Landing Pages in general.

Affiliate marketers know that Landing Pages are the best weapon they have. Those who do not use it either do not understand the concept or are just plain lazy. More often than not, it is the latter. Affiliate Marketers see that others do not use it and so, they dont bother with it too. You see, laziness is contagious.

To have an effective Landing Page, we need to understand what the Landing Page is for. A Landing Page is not just a duplicate of your sales page. It is not a page renamed to run a PPC campaign. It is, on the other hand, a page that focuses on selling the product or service. This is why all the elements of effective design are usually stripped out on this page.

When visitors come to your site, your Landing Page should give them only two options: To Buy or To Leave. There shouldnt be any other option aside from that. Do not distract them and make the mistake of giving more options to choose from. If you want them to subscribe for more information, create a name squeeze page. Keep your focus and remember that Landing Pages exists for only one reason to make a sale.

Below is a list of what I do when I create a Landing Page:

Webserver/Configuration – You do have a good host, right? The domain has its down IP address? A clean domain, clean IP address, with no ties with link farms, spamming, etc. is vital to your success.

Headline – This aspect is often greatly misused. The thought of, I must cram as many keywords as possible into my Headline for maximum performance is a thought process hooked on failure. Here is a tip that makes absolute sense, but so many people do not do it. The headline on the page should match (somewhat) to the keyword phrase being targeted.

Example: The keyword discount widgets could have a headline of: This is the Place for Discount Widgets. That alerts the visitor that they are indeed in the right place. Just by changing the headline to one that is relevant to the search causes a drop in CPC and can cause an increase in CTR. Or worse, you can get Google Slapped.

Font Face, Color & Size - Avoid having a distracting and cluttered look on your Landing Page. Having four to five different fonts on your page create a messy look that people would love to hate. While having different fonts for your headlines are fine, having different fonts in your body text is distracting. Do not even think about doing this. Use only one font for your body text.

Test results show that Times New Roman is the best offline print font and because of this, it has become the default font on the internet. This, unfortunately, is a big mistake. It turns out that Times New Roman causes rapid eye fatigue which makes it one of the worst fonts online.

The best fonts for online use are Verdana and Arial. Of the two, I would recommend that you use Verdana as it consistently outperforms every font. It reduces eye strain and increases readability. Remember to use a standard font at all times. Also keep in mind that not all computers may have the font that you use. If you want a standard headline font, it is best to create it as a graphic so it will look constant on every computer. You definitely want your message to have the look that you intend it to have.

You should always aim to make your text readable. The standard size for text is 2 and it is advisable to put dark text on white background. In fact, black text on a white background is preferred. Landing pages arent supposed to show off how cute you can be. Landing pages are supposed to sell. This is serious stuff and requires you to put on your best face.

There is a reason that the top companies choose dark text on a light background. It isnt by accident, it is by design. Follow their lead.

Dont Let Search Engines Crawl Your Landing Pages – Many marketers want as many pages in the search engine indexes as possible. Dont do this as I mentioned above.

Amit Singhal, from Google, did a 50 slide presentation back in 2004, regarding the Challenges in Running a Commercial Web Search Engine.

Why am I covering it now? First, a member sent this to me to comment on, and I think it is rather interesting to see where things were then compared to five years later. Heres a hint: Not much has changed.

Question: How many queries are unique?
Answer: Over half

At first glance, you would look at that and think I have to do a better job of getting more keywords since users search patterns are not consistent.

Wait. After looking at the data from about 60 sites, here is an example from one of my typical sites.

108k visits from 28k keyword queries. Looking at it this way, it looks quite diverse, however, looking at the Top 100 queries, 56,656 visits came through. Which means about 52,000 visits came through the remaining 27,900 queries.

Am I optimizing for 28,000 keywords? Not even close. So how do you improve your chances of coming up for many of the phrases which may never come up on an analytics report or during keyword research.

If I can quote Dan Thies, Use modifiers aggressively.

What are modifiers? You already know them, but probably by a different name.

Examples of common modifiers are:

• best
• buy
• cheap
• discount
• wholesale
• online
• accessories

Modifiers allow you to expand your keyword set. So instead of having just blue widgets, you would have discount blue widgets, blue widget accessories etc. Geo Targeted (San Francisco, bay area, Chicago, etc.) would also be classified as a modifier.

The last I checked, were still in a recession, but despite the recession and the news of all the layoffs, business is pushing ahead. Some analysts state that the news of layoffs is a sign of worse things to come.

Me?

I love hearing about layoffs. Ive been laid off and while it was tough, it was a throw you in the water to see if you will sink or swim experience. People are laid off for two main reasons: poor performance or they make too much.

I have spoken with a lot of people in charge of some big companies, and when you get them in a setting away from their office and the stress, the feedback is nearly the same:

Were going to be just fine. We purged our company of those who didnt want to work for a full day. They felt they were entitled to a paycheck just for showing up. We will still meet production numbers even with 5,000 less on the payroll.

Those are sharp words, but they are true. Back when I was with WordPerfect, we ballooned to nearly 6,000 employees, but due to competition from Microsoft and shrinking margins, there were massive layoffs and three years later we had just over 500 employees.

Why was it with 5,500 fewer people, we were able to sell more packages and release more products than we did before? Seriously, there were 11 buildings to house all those workers and in the end we were in just one, yet we not only met the old production numbers, we out did them.

It all comes down to having the right people, people who want to work and love what they do. Even if you are a consultant, the company who hired you wants the same too.

So what should you do? A Needs Analysis. If you own your own company, you are going to perform one on your company, if you are a consultant, you are going to perform one for them. Might I suggest performing this service for your client free of charge.

Am I crazy?

Maybe. But in these tough times, offering something of value (the needs analysis) to something you value (your customer) is never a bad decision. Plus, your goal is to get more business from your customer, and you cant get new business if your customer goes under.

We all know that you cant help a customer until you know what he or she needs. You cant provide a solution until you actually know what the problem is to solve. Determining what they need to solve this problem is key – and often, the customer doesnt even know what their actual problem is. They might know the symptoms, but they dont know the root.

Doctors diagnose a customer (patient) by asking Where does it hurt and administering tests. Rainmakers diagnose customer problems by asking questions and LISTENING intently to the answers and reading body language (or listening to voice influxion on the phone).

Asking questions randomly is going to solve one thing: wasting everyones time. You must be prepared. Asking general questions such as, What are your goals? or What are your challenges? is also a waste of time. Honestly, what do you expect to get as an answer to What are your goals? If it was me, my reply would be To make more money than I spend.

During tough times and high stress, think like the makers of Tylenol. They are, in a word, brilliant in how they market their product.

Their tag line is a simple, Feel better, Tylenol.

The #1 benefit they have marketed is, Use our product and feel better.

Is there anything more powerful?

Stress, Anxiety, Noise, and life in general all weight heavily on you or your client. If you take those away, what is the outcome?

Exactly. It is the best outcome. Since that is your goal, how do you get there. With one simple question.

What keeps you up at night? or What is your biggest stress right now?

The answer is where you attack with a series of follow-up questions until you know exactly the root of the cause and can formulate an action plan from there.

Here are some questions I have used in the past and make sure you take great notes:

- What have you tried? (remember that just because they tried it doesnt mean it wont work if you try again with a slightly different approach)

- What would you estimate this problem is costing you a week? (never just ask what it is costing them, get it in a time frame everyone can understand)

- If the problem remains unchecked, what will it do to your company in 30 days? (this compounds the seriousness of the issue and gives a timetable every consultant can work in – 30 days)

- What is your timetable? (when do they want a solution?)

- What is their budget for this problem? (this is key, as this is how you get paid. If it is high priority, their budget will reflect this. You also need to compare their budget to fix the problem in comparison to how much it is costing them a week. For example, if the problem is costing them $20k a week and they say their budget is $10k, theres a problem. In 30 days, they will lose $80k. You could propose to fix their problem for half of the loss, or $40k).

- Who else are you talking to? (Find out if you have any competition on this project).

Your meeting needs to be one hour or less. This is why preparation is key and the right questions are asked. Respect their time and you will be rewarded. Spending all day at their offices will just bog down the process. Get in, ask your questions, get out. Formulate a plan of action and win the business.