<p>Getting leads for contractors has never been more cost-effective and easier than with a total approach to social media marketing. “Leads are the lifeblood of contractors,” notes Scott Siegal, president of Certified Contractors Network (CCN), and a roofing contractor himself.</p> <p>In an interview, Scott Siegal said that when he adopted a social media marketing strategy he found it: “Exponentially increased our visibility as an expert and leader; and second, drastically reduced the average $300/lead marketing costs for contractors—with trusted word-of-mouth referral marketing from social networking friends.”</p> <p>Here are 5 affordable social media marketing steps you, too, can adopt in developing contractor job leads. They are further explained in <a rel="nofollow" onClick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);" href="http://www.surefiresocial.com/contractors" target="_blank" title="SUREFIRE SOCIAL for CONTRACTORS">SUREFIRE SOCIAL for CONTRACTORS</a>:</p> <p>1. <strong>Construction website design that highlights your projects with client testimonials.</strong> It’s easy nowadays to set up a low-cost weblog that looks like a bells-and-whistles traditional website. Moreover, the major advantage with a weblog is—you can up date info and write articles without having to learn computer code nor hire expensive web programmers and graphic designers that traditional websites require!</p> <p>2. <strong>Blog or write articles to showcase your expertise in your niche specialty.</strong> You can write first-hand before and after stories of remodeling projects (like This Old House TV-series and magazine does). For instance, interview clients for before-after scenarios in how your innovative remodeling flooded their home’s dark interiors with lots more natural light. Your articles would show before-and-after photos. Articles are most effective when you write from your heart because it reveals your experiences and expertise in helping customers solve problems while saving them money.</p> <p>3. <strong>Videos highlighting your specialty.</strong> When you megaupload videos on your weblog and YouTube (now the world’s largest search engine because people just love watching videos), thousands will get to know you. On a daily basis, 100 million people all over the world download YouTube videos. Not that you’d need global leads, but this shows how effective and inexpensive social media marketing is for small businesses now.</p> <p>4. <strong>Join social media icebreaker games for large groups. </strong>Joining just three social-site networking icebreaker games for large groups can gift you free access to hundreds and thousands of people who enjoy hanging out together. After becoming a member of say—Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter—research sub-icebreaker games for large groups that you feel good about joining. Then start contributing with ideas and comments. That’s the reason people join—to share inspirations and help each other problem solve.</p> <p>5. <strong>Become a “leader.”</strong> When social group members get to know you, and you offer naturally common sense and affordable solutions to homeowners, for free, *YOU* will be regarded as a leader, with followers, no less. Why? People are excited to learn from you—be it new info and trends or money-saving home projects. And, people buy from people they know and trust.</p> <p>Never in the history of generating qualified and targeted leads has social media marketing made this process so easy and affordable to every contractor and small business owner. These 5 steps are just the tip of the iceberg for those wanting to get ahead with contractor job leads.</p> <p>BIO: Chris Marentis is founder & CEO of GenNext Media, LLC <a rel="nofollow" onClick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);" href="http://www.surefiresocial.com" target="_blank" title="Surefire Social">Surefire Social</a> DIY Guide to
Author Archives: Specialist Online Dictionary
Get off the street!
Get out of the street!
For crying out loud! Didn’t your mother tell you NOT TO PLAY IN THE STREET! Most people may not know this, but the Holiday Season is PRIME TIME for CRIME! Crime can happen anytime, anywhere, but from my experience as a cop in Southwest Florida, the Thanksgiving through Christmas holidays were always exceptionally active for the bad guys.
I am sure all the psycho analyzers will give you all the reasons, from poor socio-economic upbringing to some guys just want things and can’t afford them so they take them. It’s not really their fault, its society’s fault.
Yes, we were swamped with burglaries too, the bad guys doing the “reverse Santa Clause”. We had a lot of Armed Robberies too, mostly Restaurants! More about those next time.
Today I want to talk about Purse snatching. Some days we would work one purse snatch after another. During Christmas week, my department would assign all the juvenile officers to work the malls and shopping centers. Sometimes we would be on foot, sometimes in cars, and several years we were assigned bikes. One year a local Mobility Scooters rental company loaned the sheriff a dozen red Mobility Scooterss! It was better than getting flat feet and we could get around quicker, but boy did we get laughed at! Some of us, not me, looked like big teddy bears dressed in Green riding little red Mobility Scooterss. At least the colors were in the right season!
OK, back to the crime at hand. Most purse snatchings went down like this. The lady would be walking to her car after shopping. She would be pushing a shopping cart full of Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas cheer. Her purse would be slung over one shoulder or WORSE, sitting up in the child seat of the shopping cart! And still worse, she would be walking right down the middle of the parking lot driving lane! The bad guys come cruising through and spot the victim. Mostly they work as a team, rarely by themselves. One drives while the other leans out of the car grabs the purse off the shoulder or from the shopping cart and takes off!
If the victim tries to hold on, and most did, they get a case of parking lot road rash, or worse. Now believe it or not, I am in this case telling you a stun gun will not help you. An AR15 assault rifle outfitted with a grenade launcher would do pretty good, but you might have some collateral damage.
Get OUT of the STREET! We see this in every parking lot! Young and old, rich and poor, they walk right down the middle, slow as possible, not a care in the world except how much they just spent on groceries.
Get OUT of the STREET!
If there is a way to walk between the parked cars, go there. If there is a way to walk as close as possible to the other parked cars go there. KEEP your purse out of sight or away from the potential reach of the bad guys. If you are walking to the right side of the driveway, put your purse on the right shoulder, again, away from the potential reach of the snatcher.
Better yet, wear youR coat OVER the purse. again Out of sight! Lets back up and ask, where was your purse while you were in the store? Was it in shopping cart while you looked around? This is a case of make it harder for the bad guys and they will go after easier pickings.
Think survival! Be prepared. Don’t live in fear! You will not live in fear if you are prepared. Train yourself, work with a partner. Practice, think up scenarios then act them out so you will be prepared if you should ever be confronted.
With practice and preparedness, you will survive and NOT live in fear.
Paul Foreman
Exit
Street For crying out loud! It 't your mother tell not to play in the street! Most people know this, but holiday season is prime time for crime! Crime can happen anytime, anywhere, but from my experience as a police officer in Florida, southwest Thanksgiving with the Christmas holidays were always extremely busy for the wicked. I am all psycho-Analyzer sure you will all socio-economic reasons for education for some poor guys just want things and can 'ta allow so that they take. It 's not defective, the company ' s fault. Yes, we are flooded by storm, also bands of Santa Clause is reversed. “We had a series of armed robberies and, especially in restaurants! More details about this next time. I want to talk about Exchange Snatch. Some days we would work off after a second
7 Tips to Increase Your Newsletter Opt-Ins – plr internet marketing
The number of newsletter opt-ins you get depends on how you market it. If you market it ineffectively, you may be missing out on opt-ins.
Here are 7 tips to increase your newsletter opt-ins:
1. Put the sign-up box in a visible location. There are areas of your Web site that are more visible than others. If you’ve ever signed up for a Google Adsense account, you may know that Google has a heat map that shows which areas of the web page have the most visibility. (You can find the heat map by searching “adsense heat map” on Google.)
Typically, the upper area of the page has more visibility than the bottom of the page. The left sidebar has more visibility than the right sidebar. This is most likely because we read from left to right.
If you choose to have your newsletter sign-up box in a sidebar, try to have it in the left sidebar. Or if you only have a right sidebar, try redesigning your Web site to have a left sidebar instead.
2. Use article plr internet marketing. Article plr internet marketing is where you write articles and distribute them for free. You get to promote your business at the end of your article. This section is called the resource box.
In your resource box, you can promote your newsletter and the URL to sign up for it.
3. Put the sign-up box on every page. If you put the sign-up box on every page, you’ll increase the chance that the visitor will find it. Sometimes, your visitors may not land on your home page. So by putting the sign-up box on every page, they’ll still be able to find it.
4. Give a free report. A free report gives an incentive for the visitor to subscribe to your newsletter. You can also create a small image of your report and put it on your web page. Doing this helps to catch your visitor’s attention.
5. List the benefits of subscribing. Just like when selling products and services, you’ll want to list the benefits of subscribing to your newsletter. Write down what the visitor will get out of subscribing. Show how it will make your visitor smarter, richer, happier, or more attractive.
6. Request as little information as possible. The more information you request from your visitor, the lower the chance you’ll get his subscription. He may be uncomfortable sharing some of his contact information.
Usually, you’ll only need her email address. You could request her first name too if you want to personalize your emails. But any more information than that is usually unnecessary.
7. Include a privacy statement. Be sure to tell your visitors that their email address will never be shared with anyone. Tell them that their email address will only be used for the purpose of sending them the newsletter.
You could also add that you take their privacy very seriously and that they can unsubscribe at any time. This eases their fear of having their personal information shared with others.