There are over 200 million people worldwide connected to the Internet, with over 64 million regular users in America. It's no wonder that such a vast audience has made online marketing one of the fastest growing industries in the world. However, half the trick of conducing successful ecommerce is finding a way to get people to your site in the first place

In two previous columns, we talked about how quality management attracts Publicity, or PR. Nearly every company is constantly trying to attract the attention of the media. What brings the media to a company's door? That's what every public relations man or woman would love to know. For this is what PR people get paid to obtain for their clients.

Quality management is certainly a key motivation in attracting a reporter's attention. This helps persuade the reporter or a radio/TV producer that the proposed interview isn't going to be with someone who has "nothing to say" or just rehashing a cliché or tired, old story. The higher the title and the better known a company, the greater the "impingement" a PR pitch (that's what publicity people use to sell a reporter) impacts upon a member of the media. If someone from the publicity department at Microsoft calls Fortune magazine to ask about profiling Bill Gates, the pitch will have major impingement value. Few names have this kind of clout, either personally or corporately.

In any event, the senior editor of the major magazine will still inquire about the story angle. The editor will want to know, "What are we going to talk about?" Ultimately, it is the outstanding story that sells magazines or newspapers, not just the big name. Not all such stories involve a big name speaking or spouting his thoughts for the day. Often, better stories evolve when there is a strong newsworthy angle. Let's look at two recent stories - one which involves a uranium company and another one about a coalbed methane (CBM) company, which we've covered in this column.

On Thursday, Pacific Asia China Energy (PACE) was featured in the Financing section of Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper. Headlined "High-Energy Performer," the opening sentences told us why the reporter was interested: "PACE holds contracts to help China explore for and develop its coalbed methane (CBM) resources - fuel China needs to help satisfy its energy demands."

The big story, which drew the newspaper to Pacific Asia China Energy, was China. PACE piggybacked that story because the company may be helping to offer a legitimate solution to the country's energy mix. Part of the big story is the possible size of the recoverable gas, estimated in a technical report by Sproule International to be as large as 11.2 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Those two items enhanced the reporter's interest in PACE. China needs alternative energy sources, such as CBM, to improve their energy mix - from a near total dependence upon coal. And, PACE has a potentially huge resource, which could last a good number of years. Such a gas resource could be sufficiently large to make an impact on China. After all, China has proven reserves of a little more than 30 trillion cubic feet. Another 11 trillion cubic feet, should the potential be proven up, would represent a significant increase of available gas in a very large country. By itself, this could later develop into a major international energy story, reported upon by a great number of news media. Another impingement about the reporter is having the satisfaction of reporting upon a good story, well before others write the story.

Chatter in the newsroom: Editor Joe says, "Did you hear about PACE's gas discovery in China, Bob?" Bob replies, "Oh that one. Yeah, I wrote about it eight months ago!"

Therefore, there are multiple impingement points in this story. Each "draw," or a reason to attract eyeballs to the story, is another point the story must score, for the reporter and his editor, to overcome the hurdles of being featured in a major publication. China is a draw. The size of the PACE coalbed methane gas resource is a draw. The potential impact upon China's energy mix is a draw. Writing about it before the rest of the pack jumps on the bandwagon? That's a draw, too. In this case, four draws sufficiently attracted media coverage for this small CBM development company.

Sometimes, the timing is just perfect, and the overpowering "big story" accidentally introduces a lucky guy onto the world's stage. On the same Thursday, the PACE story was carried in the Globe and Mail, the Chief Executive of a tiny Canadian uranium company impinged on a Russian news service reporter in Hong Kong. Such was the good fortune for Craig Lindsay, a Certified Financial Analyst, who has spent more than 16 years in corporate finance, investment banking and business development, according to the website of Magnum Uranium, for which he now serves as Chief Executive.

While Magnum has a market capitalization of about $15 million, and Lindsay is neither a geologist nor engineer, RIA Novosti news agency touted him as a "well-known energy expert." Admittedly, Lindsay gave a great speech at the Hong Kong Club for foreign correspondents. Cleverly, he announced, "Uranium may be the next oil," during his speech. As many other industry experts have predicted, Lindsay also forecast uranium "may hit $50/pound by the end of the year." So many are now announcing this it is likely to become a self-fulfilling prophesy.

What elevated Lindsay's publicity was not what he said in his speech. Most of his commentary has been already been reported in numerous publications, including in our columns. (What reporters really hate is rehashing old news to give someone publicity!) It was to whom Lindsay was speaking, and especially the "timing" as to when it was said. Here is how Craig Lindsay got his "15 minutes of fame."

About six hours earlier, the very same Russian news agency reported that Russia and Kazakhstan had signed a uranium deal worth $1 billion. The photos of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev appeared as the photo op which goes with such really big stories. This was a major event involving two very big names, and among the biggest names and countries in the uranium sector. This was also Russia's first contract to import uranium; Kazakhstan is the world's third largest uranium producer. All of this is "big news."

The clever Russian freelance reporter, who attended the Lindsay speech in Hong Kong, probably text-messaged or emailed his editor by Blackberry, tried to piggyback the Russian-Kazak story with his own story. Yes, that is how timing works. As soon as a major event takes place, other journalists rush to piggyback the event with "their" story. The Russian reporter scored points with his editor and got his story filed (slang for published).

Two cunning gentlemen, the Russian stringer (slang for freelance reporter), and Craig Lindsay (whose name was spelled Kreig Lindsay in the article), both accomplished their purposes. Mr. Lindsay got his company into the world's spotlight. The Russian stringer got a great story. The reporter threw up a softball question, for which Mr. Lindsay supplied the desired answer.

What was the question the reporter asked Lindsay? That's pretty obvious from what the reporter published in his article. Here is a clip from the Moscow News article:

Foreign investors are ready to invest in Russia's uranium industry, if Moscow wants this to happen and establishes a necessary legal base," Lindsay said. "I believe that Russia is one of the most promising directions for this kind of investments, it is an undeveloped market, full of opportunities. My company will be the first to come to Russia, if the necessary conditions are created," he added.

Nowhere in Lindsay's speech did Magnum Uranium's Chief Executive discuss investing in Russia. However, the reporter NEEDED a good quote. It had to tie-in with "investing in Russia for uranium development." Lindsay accommodated. He didn't commit to investing in Russia, but he kept the door open. Magnum Uranium recently announced the acquisition of a 1,080-acre land package in Converse County, Wyoming. The company is also exploring for uranium in both Wyoming and the Athabasca Basin. Its finances are probably already stretched from both exploration and acquisition activities. Magnum's market capitalization would probably be insufficient to launch investments into Russia, at this time.

However, Lindsay did a great job getting his company this caliber of publicity. And he got the uranium sector excellent publicity. He capitalized upon an impinging story - a story that did show up on the world's radar - by correctly supplying an answer the Russian journalist was trying to prod out of him.

This is the essence of how journalists and publicity-seekers work together. If the PR person gives the journalist the story angle he is looking for within the bigger story, chances are it will appear in print. Piggybacking a "main event" is the most common way to increase one's impingement value to a reporter. And by being a cunning interviewee for his Russian reporter, Craig Lindsay just got Magnum Uranium into this column as well!

A brochure can be a great promotional tool, whether it is for is a real estate listing, a trade show handout, a data sheet, or some other application, but sometimes it's hard to know where to start. Brochure printing companies can provide their expertise as well as a wide range of printing and marketing services.

Most brochure printing companies do other types of printing as well. The range of services available within a company that prints brochures is quite broad. The process of finding the right company that meets the requirements of your job is an easy step-by-step process.

First, carefully consider your budget. Then assess the job you have in mind, whether you prefer full color or a single color, whether you prefer offset printing or digital printing, print run, type of fold, paper and shipping. Following these basic guidelines should help make finding the right brochure printing company a simple and painless task.

Before you enlist the aid of a customer service representative at a printing company, you can look at online templates or fill out a questionnaire that will help assess the cost of a job and the services that brochure printing company provide. This makes it easier to shop around and get the best deal without feeling obligated to go with a particular company.

Most brochure printing companies will provide an experienced estimator who will help you to determine the proper paper, inks, coatings, bindery and distribution for your brochure project. It is worth it to check to see if this service is offered, as it will save you time and trouble. It also usually produces an accurate quote, thereby insuring the best quality at the best possible price.

The services offered at brochure printing companies will usually exceed your brochure printing needs; most brochure printing companies will also offer other printing, bindery and mailing services. Beyond that, there are brochure printing companies that will also assist you in your brochure design, recommend marketing strategies, write brochure content for you, and offer other marketing tools. Finding and learning about brochure printing companies and their services is an educational endeavor no matter how small or complicated the brochure, and the rewards can be substantial.

Customers encounter your brand in numerous ways: products, packaging, price, marketing, sales personnel, etc. Each of these contacts or touchpoints molds the customer's impression of the brand. Some of these touchpoints are obvious, like product performance, and 1-on-1 customer interactions. Other touchpoints like the product manual, monthly statements or post-sales support, may be subtler in their brand affects.

Your brand image creates expectations. It defines who you are, how you operate, and how you're different from your competitors. In essence, your brand image is a promise

I wrote the phrase, "Irusha likes cake" on my brand new whiteboard and left it there for a couple of weeks. I was consulting a large financial company, and Irusha was the name of the guy that sat next to me - and a good friend of mine. The company had a brand new office space - and I thought a clean whiteboard is a sin, so I wrote the phrase as a joke.

In the two or three weeks it was up many people stopped by and looked at the whiteboard and puzzled at it. It had a bit of a poetic meter and people would walk away muttering, "Irusha likes cake?"

What happened next was truly astounding. Irusha would be introduced to people at meetings and they would say, "I hear you like cake?" If someone in the building had a birthday they would always save a piece a cake for Irusha. Many times these are people who didn't know Irusha and had never seen what I wrote on the whiteboard. For the next few years this guy got a lot of cake. I may have a strange sense of humor, but sometimes it pays off.

"Irusha likes cake" is a meme. A what? A meme, pronounced MEEM, is a concept introduced in Richard Dawkins' 1967 book The Selfish Gene. It is basically a self-propagating unit of social imitation. It's something that people repeat and pass along. Concepts and behaviors can be memes.

Some more famous memes you might remember are advertising catch-phrases like "where's the beef?" and "plop plop fizz fizz". They are memes because their use spread way beyond their uses in commercials. How about "is that your final answer" from Who Wants to be a Millionaire? People imitate Donald Trump doing the cobra thing with his hand and saying, "you're fired."

Have you ever 'Googled' something, used a Kleenex, or made a Xerox. These are examples where brand names become the product. You don't actually use a Styrofoam cup, you use a Styrofoam brand styrene cup. Marketers love this phenomenon - but the legal department hates it. Sometimes when trademarks become generic they lose their legal standing - but I'm not a lawyer so I won't get into that here.

Memes can also be behaviors - like jogging with headphones. At one point people just ran; along came the Sony Walkman and everything changed. Emailing people is a meme. Back in 1995 I spoke with the person in charge of technology for state department of education and he couldn't fathom why people would want to email each other. Using cellphones, text messaging, almost any new set of behaviors that people adopt and pass on are memes.

Accepted ideas - or beliefs are also memes. When people thought the world was flat and that the sun revolved around the earth - those were memes. Any belief held by, enforced by, or passed on within a group is a meme. A belief is simply anything that is held to be true (even if it is true). Religious, social, cultural, and political groups pass lots of belief-memes.

So what does this have to do with your small business marketing? You might create a meme that lives on beyond your advertising and marketing. Maybe you come up with a catchy slogan, a jingle, or a new behavior that people pass on. It might become part of your word of mouth marketing campaign.

What makes a good meme?

It should be short and easy to pass on. If it's a phrase or word it should be easy to pronounce. It needs to be a complete idea or behavior. It should be easy to use. If you find yourself with a good meme - you might find a huge bump in new business. Why? Think about Irusha and that cake. You get your message passed around with minimal marketing reinforcement. Isn't that the point of a word of mouth campaign?

Look for the memes around you, and look to how you might make your own marketing meme-worthy.

Postcard Marketing Technique #1 Get Their Attention With a Powerful Headline

Don't try to close your sale with postcards. There isn't enough room to provide all the information needed to close get the listing. Instead, briefly state the major benefit(s) you offer to attract your prospect's attention. Then motivate them to get more detailed information. For example, send them to your web site or give them a phone number to call.

Postcard Marketing Technique #2: Design Your Postcard to Look Like Personal Message to Your Prospect

Your prospect's attention is fleeting and you only have seconds to attract their attention. Design your postcard to stand out from the crowd. It might be the color, or shape or size. Whatever attracts attention and lures prospects into reading your postcard.

Postcard Marketing Technique #3: Make the Right Offer to the Right Group of People

Do not assume that by "offer", I mean you're your real estate services or experience. This is a major marketing mistake made by numerous real estate agents and it severely limits the amounts of leads they generate. At the core of your success or failure as a marketer of your services is your ability to match up your list of potential buyers with your offers.

<ul><li>Contact the WRONG prospect with the WRONG offer and you will generate little or no leads.</li><li>Contact the WRONG prospects with the RIGHT offer and you will generate little or no leads.</li><li>Contact the RIGHT prospects with the WRONG offer and you will generate little or no leads.</li><li>Contact the RIGHT prospects with the RIGHT offer and you will generate the right amount of leads to make you successful.</li></ul>The next time you want to generate a flood of traffic to your web site or a flood of new sales leads …send postcards. But remember to apply these postcard marketing techniques and you'll produce a big response without spending a lot of time or money.

There are many ways to market your website and text ads on related websites offer you a great way to get targeted traffic at minimal cost.

Here we will look at the advantages of text ads over other forms of advertising.

Text Ads

A text ad has the advantage of being cheap

Job search seems to have many hurdles to overcome

Teleseminars are a great way to prospect, sell, stay in touch with current customers and clients, build your list, and so much more. Here are just some of the ways you can use teleseminars to boost your business!

Introduce a new product or service:

Product launches are one of the most common ways to use teleseminars. This is a great way to explain all about what your product can do and how it can help your customers. This is especially useful for informational products, because the teleseminar can be mostly high impact content, with only a little bit of selling. There is no way in one hour to tell everything in a book, or even an ebook, so you can give as much as possible to the audience and still leave them wanting more.

If you are in a service industry and have a new service, you can give a teleseminar on it to introduce it to your current and prospective customers. If you are a mortgage broker and there is a new First Time Buyer program, use a teleseminar to explain it to all of your prospects at once. You can even have a question and answer time if you want to get them really excited.

Re-Launch a product or service:

If you have a product or service that hasn't been getting enough attention lately, re-launch it. Add a bonus or two or limited time offer and do a teleseminar to highlight this month's special. One of the things you can do with a re-launch is have a couple of happy customers as guest speakers. Since they have already had time to use what you have to offer, they can give your prospects some good information from a customer point of view.

Teach your customers how to use your product or service:

Most products and services are not completely self explanatory. Having a teleseminar to tell all about special features or extra services you provide allows them to get the most out of your product or service. Not only is does this make for great customer relations, but it is unusual enough to get your customers talking to their friends about how wonderful you are. You can even ask for referrals during the teleseminar.

Establish yourself as the Expert:

Have someone interview you about your product or service during the teleseminar. This is a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field. Who gets interviewed? Stars, celebrities, Nobel Prize winners. In other words, Experts. People we want to listen to.

Build Rapport:

People buy from people they know, like, and trust. Tell your audience a little bit about how you came to be a lion tamer, or a teacher, or an insurance agent. Don't just try to sell them something. Let them get to know you from the comfort of their own living room. Give them something before you ask for something back.

Tell the embarrassing story about when you got your 4X4 stuck in the mud and a Volkswagen Beetle pulled you out. Then when you tell about the towing service you created called "Beetle's Towing" they will laugh with you, and think about you when they get stuck, too.

Informative Prospecting:

If you are in a service industry, you can help people understand your field of expertise. A real estate agent might hold a teleseminar on buying investment property. You could talk about the tax breaks, appreciation, and having professional management so you don't have to get up in the middle of the night to deal with tenants. You can also talk about some of the ways deals can go bad if you don't have a licensed agent involved, like buying a building without checking what other liens might be held against the property. Give as much information as possible, while showing why it is a good idea to have an expert help you at the same time.

You can do the same thing with a product. Don't just tell how great your product is, though. Tel all about the problems your product is designed to deal with, and some possible solutions. Then tell how your product provides the most solutions at a reasonable price.

Preview calls:

A preview call is a call advertising a later, larger event. It is usually free, thought you can also have a paid preview call. For this type of teleseminar you want to give as much good information as possible, If you are previewing a weekend event, you can't possibly give everything you are going to cover in one hour. So choose a few topics and give some great information, then tell them about the upcoming event. Don't make this an infomercial about how great the event will be- show them how great it will be by giving them a great call.

One of my products is the Teleseminar Nuts and Bolts classes, where we teach people how to do al of the back-end, technical side of teleseminars. So my preview teleseminars will be answering the ten biggest questions my listeners have about the problems that can happen while planning and creating a teleseminar. I might tell them three ways out of ten to use autoresponders. I'll talk for two minutes about the different kinds of websites you might have, then just mention we take an hour in class to go over them in detail. So I give as much as time allows, then let them know there is much more that I go over in class. I don't need to tell them to take the class. If they have found my 3 out of 10 tips useful, they will want the other 7.

Make an FAQ or whole new product:

One of my mentors said, "If you hear the same question three times, it's time to make a product for it." So while you are telling people all about your great products and services, you can be recording them, too. When your teleseminar is done, you can have the recording transcribed, and now you have an FAQ sheet you can use as a bonus to anyone who buys from you. You can put the recording on your website so people can listen to it. Have them give you're their email and name in order to get access to it and now you have a mailing list.

Mix and Match:

Many teleseminars can use several of these ideas. You can launch a product, build rapport, and have an interviewer asking you all the right questions to make you look good. You can find out what your customers most want to know and tell it to them on a Customer Service call, then tape it and put it on your website. The possibilities are endless.

So think of three ways your might build your business with Teleseminars. Which one are you going to try first?

Do you have books sitting in your garage that you haven't sold yet and looking for ways to move them? Then you will want to know about these five outrageous ideas that aren't difficult and can be just plain out fun.

Dede Hall, author of The Starving Student's Cookbook had very poor sales for her books. Then one day an outrageously light bulb moment appeared. She added an inexpensive skillet with the book and shrink-wrapped them. Then she took 150 of them to two stores that she thought wouldn't sell them. Yes, to her surprise, all 150 sold in two days. Dede stumbled on an outrageous idea and it worked out big time. She sold over 100,000 copies in a few months. Where did she sell them? Thought you would never ask. Price Clubs and K-marts.

Do you have a book that could be packaged with something else and create outrageous sales for yourself? It's Christmas time and no it isn't too late. But before you dart off to come up with an outrageous idea for your book, continue reading so that you can get all the facts.

Another cookbook was repackaged with a scarlet ribbon and some imported cinnamon sticks and then sold at department stores in the housewares and gift sections. The book couldn't sell at $5.95 but flew off the shelves at $10 and went into second printing in 30 days.

Would your book sell well in a three-ring shrink-wrapped binder? Why not create and audio or CD version of the material. Just read directly from the material. You do not have to be fancy. Add "read by the author" language to the outside in big letters. Or maybe "F-R__E-E Bonus, Limited Time Offer, Free Audio read by the author" in big letters.

Another key is to look for an item that makes the package larger than the book. This requires a larger space and then bigger visibility.

What about a book on money? Add a mug labeled, "Millionaire" and watch it fly off the shelf. Do not forget the second part of the formula — the place you are going to sell it. When you add the mug, it is now considered a gift item. This opens the doors to more stores and places.

Try all the independent gift shops, especially at the airport. They are always looking for these type of unique combinations.

Have an exercise book? Add a "walking meter" with it. The one that measures how many miles you are walking. Have no clue what they call those things but I have bought three over the past few years. Again, now it is a gift item. How about contacting a sports equipment vendor and selling them copies of your book that would be a freebie for a limited period with a purchase.

Get the store to add a sign, "limited quality" and watch them go even faster. What is great about this angle is that gift stores, department stores and similar stores are much more open to add things to their shelf. They will work with you much better than a bookstore.

Now that you brain is going a mile a minute with ideas, best wishes for selling many more books!