One of the things that I hate about the whole Internet Marketing world is the endless promotion of “must have” tools or resources! You know the sort of thing I mean don’t you? The overpriced tools that claim to do just about everything except make the coffee - if some marketers could get away with it they would probably claim their latest hyped up piece of software could do that too!

So the difference with the following list of tools and resources for the webmaster is that they do what they claim and do it extremely well!

Whether you are looking to generate more traffic to your websites, manage your many web projects, stop serial refunders, make One Time Offers to your visitors of manage all the domains you own - they do it!

Take a look and see what you think - I believe you will be pleasently surprised!

Click through to see the plexo

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I thought I would share a report with you which you can download without having to sign up for anything - that makes a nice change doesn’t it!

You can download Blogging Success by right clicking on the link and saving it to your own computer. Do make sure that you make a note of where you save it so that you can find it - in order to read it!

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The options for connecting with social bookmarkers are exploding. That’s why you need to surf around and see what’s out there, and then set up a series of “regular” social bookmarking accounts to use.

StumbleUpon is one of the leading social bookmarking sites that’s both easy to use and powerful. Once you create an account, you can add the toolbar interface. Then all you do is click the Thumbs Up icon to recommend a site. You can do this for your own sites, or ask your friends to submit a Thumbs Up rating for you. Besides the rating, you can add comments about the site.

Can you Digg it? That’s not just a line from a 70s movie - it’s a widely used social bookmarking site. Digg functions much like Stumble Upon with raters given the chance push the ratings of a site to the front page. Making it to the front page of Digg gets your information in front of thousands of viewers and it helps traffic flood in to read your newsworthy submission.

Clipmarks describes itself as “scissors for web pages.” As with other social bookmarking sites, you can submit items that are sent to the web - including to Facebook or to an iPhone. As a one stop service and huge time saver, sign up with OnlyWire.

You begin by installing a plugin for your browers, and then you only need a single click to submit your item to multiple sites. To make this work, you still need to sign up at bookmarking sites that you plan to use. After that, you can use OnlyWire to handle the multiple submissions.

Make sure your site viewers know how to rate your site. You can’t reward or bribe them for bookmarking your site. That’s the social bookmarking version of stuffing the ballot box at voting time.

You can put links to the bookmarking sites on your sites as a gentle reminder. And don’t be shy about submitting your new information to the networks yourself – just make sure you also submit other sites so that you don’t appear spammy. Let people know what you’ve got and where to find your site and they’ll share that information with others.

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BUT, it doesn’t have to take a whole wad of cash to generate traffic for your site.

Have you ever wondered how some of the big websites drive traffic to their site? The reality is that most of them are spending lots of money to drive the traffic to their sites, investing in many different advertising campaigns and varied forms of marketing schemes and gimmick to attract visitors. This is all worthwhile because, well, they are what they are now, high earning, big hitting websites.

However you don’t have to do this if you don’t have their resources. There are many ways to generate free or low cost website traffic without having to spend what you don’t have or can’t afford. Many people have banked on high cost methods and have ended up losing their shirt over it.

Here are some ways to generate free or low cost website traffic that could help your site. Even if you only get a small percentage of visitors who convert to buyers or clients it is still effective if you can get a higher volume of website traffic than you are currently getting.

Exchange Links

This is a sure and proven method. Rarely would you see a site where there is no link to another site. Many webmasters are willing to exchange links with one another so that they generate more general awareness of their sites. You’ll soon see and feel the sudden upsurge of the traffic coming in to your site from other sites.

A major prerequisite in exchanging links with other sites, in order to generate targeted traffic is being in the same niche or a complimentary niche to the other site. They should share a common subject so that there is continuity in the information provided to both your visitors and theirs.

Exchanging links also boosts your chances of getting a higher ranking in search engine results. It is common knowledge that search engines ranks high sites that have inbound and outbound theme-related links. With a good ranking position in the search engines, you will generate more traffic in your website without the high costs.

Write and Submit Articles

There are many e-zines and online encyclopedias on the internet which provide free opportunities for articles to be submitted. If you want to save costs, you can do the articles yourself. There are many freelance writers who are willing to write for you for a small fee, but to save money, it is wise to do those articles yourself.

Write articles that are themed along with the niche of your site. Write something that you have expertise on so that when they read it, they can sense your obvious knowledge about the subject and will therefore be encouraged to go to your site. Write articles that produce tips and guidelines on the subject or niche your site relates to.

Include a resource box at the end of your article that can link them to your site. Write a little about yourself and your site. If you provide a light, information-laden and interesting article, they will go to your site for more.

Make a Newsletter.

This may sound like hard work because of all the articles you may need to use to build a newsletter but on the contrary, this is not so. There are many writers and sites that are willing to provide free articles as long as they can get their name in on your newsletter. This will also provide free advertising for them as well.

As your newsletter gets passed around, you can widen your public awareness and build an opt-in list that can regularly visit your site.

Join Online Communities and Forums

This only requires your time and nothing else. You can share your knowledge and expertise with many online communities as well as your website. You can get free advertising when you go to forums that have the same subject or niche as your site.

Share your two cents and let them see how knowledgeable you are about the subject. As you build your reputation, you also build the reputation of your site, helping it to become known as a source of knowledge on your subject.

See here to discover more about generating: Free Web Traffic

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Researching Internet marketing online is one method which can be used for learning more about this topic. This type of research can be very informative and can provide the business owner with a great deal of advice and other information. However, it can also provide the business owner with a great deal of misinformation. When researching any subject online it is very important to note that not all of the information available online is accurate.

This may be due to a variety of factors including content which is written by those who do not have a great deal of knowledge about the subject matter as well as content which was written years ago and is outdated. This can be frustrating but fortunately coaches can still learn from the Internet. This just means they should be more cautious about accepting information as being accurate and may wish to verify the information they obtain before implementing an Internet marketing strategy.

Published books are another valuable resource for learning more about Internet marketing. There are a variety of books available which focus on this subject and provide a wealth of useful information. When selecting a book for use as research material it is important to seek out a book which received independent reviews which were positive. It is also important to seek out books which were published recently. This is important because the Internet marketing industry is evolving continuously and a book that was published only a few years ago may be outdated and may lack information on some of the new developments in the industry. The appeal of using published books to learn about Internet marketing is you can keep the books on hand for easy reference when you launch your Internet marketing campaign.

Finally coaches can learn a great deal about Internet marketing simply by studying successful Internet marketing campaigns. Try the Internet marketing blog at www.jeremyburns.com/blog for some great starter tipe. If your business offers products and services in a particular niche consider entering relevant terms in popular search engines and studying the websites of some of the highest ranking businesses. This can provide you with a great deal of insight into what these coaches are doing which may be contributing to their success.

Examining everything from their website design to their search engine optimization strategies and even the content on their website can help you to determine why they are more successful than you. You should also consider how they are marketing their website which may include banner ads, affiliate marketing programs or other types of advertising. Armed with this information you can take the opportunity to implement changes to your own website and marketing strategy which may help you to gain a greater degree of success. Care should be taken to not copy anything directly from your competitors but to rather try to emulate their degree of success in your own way.

To discover more about Internet Marketing for Coaches take a look at Marketing for Coaches and get your free copy of “Get New Clients Now”

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On 1st July 2008 I am launching a membership site at The Coach Today but before we launch I need some Beta Testers to assist with testing the site. This will involve trying out all the functionaility, reviewing the plethora of materials that will be available and giving me feedback. The Beta Testing will need to take place over approximately the period 1st June 2008 to 15th June 2008 and I would imagine will take a couple of hours - this will include completing a short questionnaire before you start testing and then another questionnaire once the testing has been concluded.

In return you will have the opportunity to have your feedback in the form of a testimonial (to include a picture) on the home page of the site at The Coach Today with a live link back to your own Coaching, Consultancy or Counseling website or blog. In addition you will also have the opportunity to continue your membership for 12 months at no cost - which will save you nearly $600 and give you a wealth of materials to help you with developing your Coach, Consultancy or Counselor busienss Internet presence!

If you are interested in participating (and numbers will be limited!) please email me at support @ thecoachtoday.com with the subject line “Beta Testing Opportunity” - please include your full name, your website address and how many years you have been internet marketing for.

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What if I told you there is a way of getting your name, brand and message in front of countless numbers of people without spending inordinate amounts of time, money and effort? No it isn’t some dubious method that you would not want to be associated with! It’s something I have talked about before as a “must have” tool in the Coach, Counselor and Consultant arsenal.

Twitter!

The way Twitter works is incredibly simplisitic and because of how quickly you are able to post updates that showcase your products, services or projects that you are working on, it’s easy to see why so many successful marketers have focused their attention on dominating this social community, while it’s still in its infancy.

Take a look at Twitter Explained to see what you can do with this great resource.

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So having had a quick look at it (you did didn’t you?) you may be wondering why you as a Coach, Counselor or Consultant should grab yourself a place on this tool which at first glance looks confusing!

According to the Twitter FAQ, “Twitter is for staying in touch and keeping up with friends no matter where you are or what you’re doing.” There are an increasing number of people signing up to this method of keeping in touch and communicatiing with others in short 140 maximum character Tweets.

Twitter gives you the opportunity to participate in discussions with potential clients around the world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! It’s like being at a networking conference that never ends. As you become more familiar with Twitter you will find yourself attracting followers who are interested in what you have to say - assuming that you are adding something of value and not just spamming with your links.

Your potential clients, business partners and friends will see you as a human being with something of interest to say. You will be able to present a positive image of your business and if people are interested in what you have to say then they will be more likely to remember you (because they see your name on a regular basis) when they are looking for coaching or other services!

So head over to www.twitter.com and then when you have signed up don’t forget to follow me at www.twitter.com/paulduxbury

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They all agreed with me that it is phenomenal the opportunities that the internet provides. So at that point I asked them what use they were making of the internet and internet based marketing within their business. All of them quickly told me that they had a website which was great to hear and they were all keen to share their website with me! I must admit they all had attractively designed websites which, to a greater or lesser extent, conveyed something of their personality. However, as I looked at them it soon became obvious that they all had a massively underutilised resource. Sure their websites all looked great but were they drawing in clients and what else were they doing online to generate new or potential clients? It was fairly obvious looking at their websites that they had been designed to be attractive to the passing visitor who they hoped might then take a further step and contact them through the email address that was displayed, on the all too often difficult to find, contact page.

I didn’t want to be too hard on this group of Life Coaches, Career Coaches , Business Coaches, Counselors and Consultants! So I started with a simple enough question. How many new clients or potential future clients had their websites generated? The answers? They didn’t know or they thought the answer would be very few. They weren’t even tracking how many visitors their sites were getting! The common response was they simply “didn’t have time for all of that internet based marketing stuff” and needed to be generating new clients by talking to people! At that stage I didn’t think it was worthwhile asking them how well they ranked in the Search Engines for the keywords related to their particular area of expertise or even their locality. I think that was decision was probably re-enforced when one of the Coaches told me that anyone looking for them by name would be able to find their website and my question of “So if someone was looking for a Career Coach in your area would they find you?” was greeted with a “hmmmph well …….okay point taken!”

So instead it was at that point that I referred them back to the start of our conversation - where we had discussed the immense potential that they internet offers for professional services coaches, counselors and consultants to grow and develop their businesses.

I did explore a little further and ask them what they knew about some of the following:

Blogging - great way to generate interest in your business and what you have to offer.
Online Networking through services like Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Hubpages, Squidoo and many others.
Social Bookmarking to get people talking about your business
Email Newsletters - using autoresponders to generate a list of potential clients

The response to those questions was a stunning silence which with the expressions on their faces framed a collective “What???”

So there you have it from a small group it is obvious that so many Coaches, Consultants, Counselors and indeed others are missing out on a great opportunity! The reality is that throwing up a website isn’t internet based marketing! Turning round and saying “I haven’t got time for all of that online stuff” when you are talking about networking, generating new clients, building a reputation for excellence in your field leads me to ask the question posed in the title of this post - are you really serious about your Coaching Business?

Now, if you have got time or are prepared to take the time to really learn how to take advantage of the internet to develop your business - take a look at The Coach Today - and get a head start on your competition!

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I groaned when I saw the mad rush to get the maximum number of “friends” on one of the sites by an Internet Marketer. It was like watching someone trying to play Moses and part the sea before them as the scramble to get to the other side ensued. I had this horrible feeling that the seas would come crashing in around their heads. As I saw my friends bemoaning the fact that unknowns from every corner of the world were sending them, their families and friends invitations to become their “Friends” I started to think that my worst fears were coming true all too quickly!

Then, to continue the theme I had a road to Damascus experience about social networking sites and business networking online. I came across someone who has kept me enthralled with the quality of their work and someone who has a passion for business networking online done properly! What do I mean by “done properly” you might be wondering? Well Mari Smith has shown me how you can engage in social and business networking through the online networks in a professional manner - which can enhance both your social and business network.

If you know me, then you will know that I very rarely rave about a course or product! But with Mari Smith’s programme I am stepping up to the mark and saying if you are serious about harnessing the power of the internet to take your business networking online to a new level then you need to take a look at Business Networking Online now!

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