Tips for being included in the Lead Optimize Blog Carnival

Outbound Links: I am usually hesitant to accept articles that do not have any outbound links - it often indicates the writer is a newbie to blogging. This is not to say I will not accept blogs without links…just that I prefer links in blogs. They show confidence.

Repetitive/Overdone Topics: If the article is about a topic I have seen 1 million times, I will assume my readers have seen it at least 1,000 times and do not want to see it again.

Completely Off-Topic AND No Special Content: Will not be included and should not even be on your blog.

Let’s Move on to the Carnival…

General Business

Mike Harmon presents Strategic Application of Offshoring in a CPA Practice posted at Basic Accounting, saying, “Can a small Accounting practice outsource accounting? I talk about it my article. Thanks for hosting the carnival.”

edithyeung presents 7 Phrases Successful People Would Never Say posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act..

Stacey Derbinshire presents Kids and Entrepreneurship posted at Starting a Small Home Business, saying, “You do not need to be 18 years old to start your own business or start your on-the-job entrepreneurial training. This is something that kids need to understand and it is a good idea to tell them.”

Marketing

Jason Koeppe presents Get More Web Site Traffic, Increase Web Site Conversion & Strategic Customer Acquisition by StrategicSiteMarketing.com posted at Jason Koeppe’s Strategic Internet Marketing Blog, saying, “Helping businesses use search to increase their business.”

Chris Tackett presents How to Write a Headline and Grab Your Prospect by the Eyeballs! posted at Direct Marketing News, saying, “The art of writing headlines is important for direct marketing. I will cover how to come up with some great headlines just like the one I use in this article.”

Oliver Muoto presents Widgets, Blogs and Online Sellers posted at vFlyer Blog, saying, “Using blogs and widgets to meet your business objectives. This post talks about how different categories of widgets can be used to achieve business goals.”

Randy Nichols presents Matt’s Creative Advertising Blog » Blog Archive » Advertising Jingles and Commercials - Radio & TV posted at Matt’s Creative Advertising Blog, saying, “I offer some great tips to stop you from getting ripped off by advertising companies. It can happen if you don’t follow these simple rules. Thanks for providing the carnival.”

Ant presents 10 Offline Ways to Promote Your Blog Site posted at The Beef Jerky Blog.

Sales

This is the Charles H. Green Section this month.

Charles H. Green presents FUD - Why Sell Is Still a Four Letter Word posted at Trust Matters, saying, “Sales is still a four letter word - here’s why, and what you can do about it.”

Charles H. Green presents Don’t Believe What They Say About Listening and Sales posted at Trust Matters, saying, “We listen for the prospect’s needs, when we should be listening for the prospect’s wants.”

Charles H. Green presents Trusted Professions posted at Trust Matters, saying, “Salesmen and politicans vie for bottom place in surveys on trustworthy professions all over the world.”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of lead optimize! using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: lead optimize!, blog carnival.

Thank you to EVERYONE who submitted an article for this blog carnival. To those of you who submitted but are not included in this carnival, please submit next time. I welcome your submissions, enjoy reading them, and consider all of them. I will include all articles that add value to the current carnival.

ATTENTION - Like I said last month, this month’s Lead Optimize Blog Carnival posts will be considered for bonus chapters in the Lead Optimize book, which is scheduled to come out later this year.

Contributors whose work is included in the book (with your permission) will not be financially compensated but will, of course, get full credit for the content of the respective chapter and a complimentary copy of the book.

On with the carnival…

General Business

Here’s a topic you don’t see often - factoring. Factoring is selling your accounts receivables at a discount in order to “correct” cash flow problems or just get rid of a headache. Thomas Humes of Wealth Building World writes about factoring in “Cash Flow - Life Blood for Every Business.”

J. Mark Walker of Keyboard Culture asks, “What do your best people do that you wish everyone would do?” in Building Relationships as You Are Selling.

Jason at Good Customer Service Blog discusses a J.D. Power & Associates study about customer service. “According to the study, customers who are approached within 30 seconds of entering the store provide a satisfaction score 86 points higher (on a 1,000-point scale) than customers not greeted within 30 seconds.”

Lead Generation & Nurturing

Aaron Pollock of vduglued (web design for the business mind) has an excellent article about Why You Must Publish Prices on Your Website and how doing so will help pre-qualify leads. This article will spur more articles on the topic.

10 Ways You Can Improve Your Conversion Rate on vFlyer. This is a good list on the vFlyer blog.

Marketing

Jason at Strategic Site Marketing posted this analysis of organic versus paid heatmap and clickthrough stats summarizing it with “There seems to be a “F” shaped scan pattern, where the eye tends to travel vertically along the far left side of the results looking for visual cues (relevant words, brands, etc) and then scanning to the right if something caught the participant’s attention.” This is a very good study.

Matt Hanson wrote “Is Traditional Publishing Dead?” a short discussion of the complexity of today’s marketing and ads some simple suggestions to clarify your marketing message.

Cade at Write to Right suggests outsourcing your email lists to save yourself time while offering better service and quality to your readers.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of lead optimize! using our carnival submission form.Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: lead optimize!, blog carnival, sales leads, conversion rate, lead generation, online marketing.

ATTENTION - Like I said last month, this month’s Lead Optimize Blog Carnival posts will be considered for bonus chapters in the Lead Optimize book, which is scheduled to come out later this year.

Contributors whose work is included in the book (with your permission) will not be financially compensated but will, of course, get full credit for the content of the respective chapter and a complimentary copy of the book.

The same will apply to next month’s carnival as well since there should still be time to add to it then.

On with the carnival…

General Business

Charles H. Green presents Hostage Negotiation - Lessons for Selling, Customer Service and Business Relationships posted at Trust Matters, saying, “Hostage negotiators deal with the angriest and most stressed people around - and have a 95% success rate. Perhaps there’s something we can learn from them about how to connect to people.”

Lead Generation & Nurturing

Cade Krueger presents Consistency with E-mail Campaigns posted at Write To Right. Cade presents some great ideas throughout his blog so you might want to read beyond just this article.

Barbra Sundquist presents Creating a Stable Email Address - No Matter What Google Does posted at HomeBusinessWiz.

Charles H. Green presents Trusted Advisor Associates > Trust Matters posted at Trust Matters, saying, “If you want potential customers to trust your website enough to make a purchase, don’t make this trust-killing mistake.”

Marketing

Charles H. Green presents How Marketing Can Destroy Sales Trust posted at Trust Matters, saying, “If your marketing is subverting your sales, you may be damaging your brand. Take a lesson from the bad example of Politicans, PR, and Big Pharma to improve your sales instead.”

I really like Charles’ message in this article, especially this:

Marketing is, by its nature, a monologue—it tells things people want to hear to the people who want to hear them.
Sales is, by its nature, an infinitely customized dialogue.

Nothing wrong with either one. Each has its place. But they are different.

Edithyeung presents How to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog - Part 1 posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act.. This is a list of sites and tools that will help you drive traffic to your site. If you do not use them, you should. Thanks, Edith.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of lead optimize! using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: lead optimize!, blog carnival.

Welcome to the February 15, 2007 edition of lead optimize!.

Marketing

Jon Miller presents Lead nurturing 101 posted at Modern B2B Marketing, saying, “95% of all leads on your website are not ready to speak with a sales person. How can you build a relationship with them so they don’t buy from a competitor?”

Millennium Mommy presents Quality vs. Quantity posted at Priscilla Ortiz - Journal to Prosperity, Path to Freedom Inc., saying, “A lead is a lead, but a quality lead means money in your pocket.”

General Business

David Maister presents The Psychology of Waiting Lines posted at Passion, People and Principles, saying, “The lesson of the psychology of waiting lines for web-based business is: your turnaround times are critical for closing sales and satisfying customers.”

lecentre presents Top 10 Reasons Google Sucks My Chia Pets posted at Bookworm SEO, saying, “Google sucks. Here’s some critical analysis of Google’s algorithms, double standards, and business practices.”

General Tips

Craig Harper presents 35 tips for creating and maintaining a successful startup posted at Renovate your life with Craig, saying, “At some stage, every successful business was simply an idea floating around in someone’s head. Nothing more. And then one day someone took that idea, wrapped it in an action plan, made some decisions, got off their butt and turned a theoretical concept into a practical, living, breathing reality. How…”

Vahid Chaychi presents Your Website Has More Capacity. Just Discover it! posted at Internet and Search Engine Marketing, saying, “Most webmasters make money through selling their own or others products and also through some other resources like Google Adsense. This is good but your website can make much more than this with the current traffic and condition it has.”

Vahid Chaychi presents Get Inspired by the Success Stories and Interviews posted at Internet and Search Engine Marketing, saying, “You may get disappointed while you have started a new business and it has not given any good result yet. Most people give up at this point and stop working. One of the best things that prevents you to give up, is reading the success stories and interviews of successful people in your niche. Learn how to find and read them every week.”

Helpful Services

Charles H. Green presents Why Trust Matters posted at Trust Matters, saying, “Want to maximize your online sales? Inspire trust in your customers.”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of lead optimize! using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: lead optimize!, blog carnival, lead generation, Sales Leads