When it comes time to write your next blog post, whatever the topic, don’t forget to include an image with your content. Why? Well, because you can get more traffic with images through Google search, if course!

Never underestimate the potential an image has in bringing high quality traffic to your site. If it’s optimized correctly, at times, you’ll be found more for your images than you will for your actual content. At least this stands true for several of my posts.

However, in order to get more traffic with your images, there are a few things you’ll need to do.

First, your image must be a higher quality image. There’s nothing that annoys me more than an image that has been stretched to fit a specific space. Stretching an image distorts and blurs it, making it look very cheap and unappealing. If you’re using wordpress as your CMS, I would typically upload an image that is at least 600 pixels wide and 400 tall, or vice versa. WordPress has features that can reduce the size of your image if need be. It’s always better to start big and downsize.

NEVER stretch an image. EVER. Please….for my sanity.

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Stories sell, but before I get into a story, let me tell you a quick thing or two about me and how I use stories. As some of you may know, I’m a church man. I’m part of the LDS church and have held various callings within the church which have given me many teaching opportunities. Many of these “teaching opportunities” come unexpectedly, for example, when you show up to church and the instructor you had assigned to teach that day didn’t show up. So naturally, I have to step in and come up with something great to teach about.

So my number one use for stories is to take up some time, or fill the gaps. Life is full of experiences that can be related to just about anything, especially to my religion. Some of the best speakers in my church and in the world are the ones who can relate a story to their topic. It brings things to life, at least it does for me.

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In the home business industry,success is all about generating leads, plugging those leads into a system or prospecting those leads. Without leads, or people to talk to, your business is dead where it stands. We all know that.

However, it’s amazing to me to see so many new people sitting in lead poverty, or the absence of leads! I mean, if you want to see true insanity, watch a failing home based business owner. Chances are, they’re still posting that same ad on Craigslist, in the same city and section as they did when they started their business. And it still isn’t producing any leads, yet, they continue because that’s all they know how to do. They’re hoping for different results by doing the same things over and over. Why, because it’s comfortable. They know how to do it.

Don’t Get Caught Using Marketing that Doesn’t Work!

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Currently, Pinterest is the fastest growing social bookmarking site on the web today. My wife joined Pinterest not long ago because of how quickly she could share and discover her creative decorating and craft ideas. In fact, I think it was a bit too easy because it nearly consumed every second of her day for about two weeks, no exaggeration. She loved it.

In the beginning days of Pinterest, women were and still are the primary users, discovering and sharing their favorite crafts, clothes and styles. Imagine if your business was offering a product or service to the “stay at home Mom” or “work at home Mom” crowd. Pinterest would be and is a gold mine, and for more than just stay at home Mom’s. It’s a great marketing avenue for many types of business, internet based and ‘brick and mortar’ alike.

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As entrepreneurs, we’re always looking for effective and creative ways to promote our businesses. We’re always promoting. At times, it seems as though we aren’t capable of having another thought outside of our business, and that’s completely normal. When you’re passionate about what you’re doing, that’s what you eat, sleep and talk. That’s just the nature of the beast.

So in getting to my point, have you ever gone to a conference but got lost in the hotel trying to find it? And as you wander around you notice one of those standing banners telling you that you’re headed in the right direction? Then, as you start to get closer to the conference entrance, these banners start getting larger and larger. Those things just catch you’re attention! Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve been in business for yourself, whether in a traditional brick and mortar business or network marketing business, you know how important and effective word of mouth advertising is. If your product or service is of true value, word can spread very quickly.  Word of mouth is the most cost effective marketing in existence and can make or break your business. Read the rest of this entry »