Erich Stauffer

Category: Marketing

  • Online Local Directory Bookmarks

    We believe that businesses are a vital part of their community and should be listed on as many directories as possible to help the members of those communities have the most information to make the best decisions and find the right company for their needs. We believe that adding your local business to this local directories list is not only to earn your business more exposure, but will help you better understand what your customers are looking for so that if there is something not already listed on your website, that you might add it when editing your web design. Examples of information collected included: hours of operation, pictures and/or video of your business, payment methods accepted, parking information, coupons, services, and products. Some local directory web sites may ask how long you’ve been in business or whether or not you’re licensed. Some are free and others cost a fee.

    Here is the complete list of local business directories we use to market your business online: (more…)

  • Backlink Bookmarks

    This is a list of sites I use to backlink from for myself and my web design, SEO, and social media marketing clients:

    Social Bookmarking Sites

    Social Networking Sites
    • Facebook – necessary socially, but doesn’t help much with SEO
    • Google+ – more effective than Facebook
    • Twitter – can be used to display Facebook posts for SEO reasons
    • YouTube – most effective, but requires the most effort
    Online Classified Ads

  • 7 Tips on How to Sell a Cool Roof with a White Coating

    The best way to sell white roof coatings is by selling the two primary values to the customer: energy savings and the extension of the roof life.

    A roof consultant or salesman with experience and training in this subject can provide a valuable service to a building owner by selecting the right coating for a given roof and ensuring that it is properly installed and maintained, but the first step is to sell the service in the process. Here are seven tips that will help.

    Sell the value – White roof coatings protect roof membranes with a chemical barrier to prevent leaks and reflect sunlight, which both saves money on cooling costs, but also protects the life of the roof by protecting the surface from ultraviolet (UV) damage. Savings will be greatest in states like California and other southwestern states that enjoy more sunny days and more intense sunlight than other regions of the country, but savings can also be realized in northern climates during the summer.

    Show the math – Various models exist for computing energy savings based on various climates.  Use online calculators to estimate the energy savings from reflective roofs have been developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Cool Roof Calculator and Cadmus Group’s Roofing Comparison Calculator.

    Dispel bad information – For those wondering if a reflective roof causes increased heating costs in the winter, studies by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory indicate that in most U.S. climates, summer air-conditioning energy savings significantly exceed any winter penalty, so there is little or no concern that energy costs will increase with a cool roof. Moreover, temperatures can soar in temperate climates as well.

    Save on hardware costs – More than the ongoing energy savings is the up-front savings on air conditioning systems, which are often based on requirements for the hottest days. The total cost of not having a cool roof, including cooling systems and insulation, could be considerably higher than the immediate cost of energy for running the air-conditioning systems.

    Use a metaphor – Lower energy use is not the only benefit that accrues from the use of white surfaces. Just as the main reason for using sunscreen is to prevent burns, white roof coatings not only prevent large energy bills in the summer, but can extend the life expectancy of many different types of commercial roofing systems simply by avoiding the high roof temperatures and associated with exposure to the sun.

    Reduced roof replacement costs – Most people appreciate that white surfaces result in savings on cooling costs, but enhanced roof longevity, especially in northern states, can be another major benefit that results in at least as much savings.

    It can waterproof – Many white coatings are waterproof, but some are not. The property of permeability (perm rating) to liquid water, water vapor, and gases varies greatly, depending on the type of coating. Acrylic coatings are breathable, which means they have a high moisture vapor transmission rate or permeability. Silicone coatings, as well as many urethanes, are also classified as breathable types. Butyl rubbers, Hypalons, and Neoprenes have a very low permeability (i.e., they are highly resistant to moisture transmission). The same applies to asphalt-extended, moisture-cure polyurethanes and SEBSmodified, cut-back, asphalt coatings. The perm rating should not be confused with weatherability or resistance to weathering. A coating with low permeability still may require a protective topcoat to ensure satisfactory weathering resistance

    More Information

    The White Coatings Council of the Roof Coating Manufacturers Association (RCMA) serves the producers and suppliers of acrylic or elastomeric (non-bituminous) coatings. The council has implemented an industry promotional program and is actively planning programs to respond to targeted governmental and regulatory issues, technical matters and activities, and membership services and programs. The White Coatings Council focuses on describing and promoting the benefits of white coatings in terms that directly and positively motivate targeted end users through a plan to increase awareness and product promotion. The council now has 18 members who are committed to promoting to commercial building owners and designers that white coatings are easy to understand, easy to
    apply, and cost-effective. For more information, call RCMA at 202-207-0919.

  • How to Start Your Own Web Design Business

    I recently wrote a blog post on my Indianapolis web design site about how to start your own web design business. I shared a little bit about how I got started, but I wanted to go into more detail here on my own blog, An Entrepreneurial Mind. When I first started, I had just quit my job (much like today, but more on that later) and had started working at a call center for a textbook publisher company (hey, at least I was closer to my dream of being a publisher there than while balancing transactions at the bank). While in training on how to interact with customers over the phone, I became friends with another new employee who had some web design experience. I explained to him how I’d had a couple of people ask me to make web sites with them and asked him if he’d like to help build a new web design company with me. Neither one of us had any experience doing so, but that also meant we weren’t afraid to try. When the call center gig ran out, we both started working on the web design business, Watershawl, full time. It was a blast, but our lack of experience caught up with us and I had to let him go. I was now on my own, sustaining the business by myself. I would meet with clients, pitch them websites, and about half of the time, get turned down. Eventually I branched into computer repair, but over time, moved into more of a consulting role.

    Today, I can safely look back and say that I’m glad that I did it, that I learned alot, but it ultimately was just a stepping stone for what I really liked doing, which was building web sites to promote products for a commission, otherwise known as affiliate marketing. I write all about affiliate marketing success at my eRich Online blog. The things I learned about web design, SEO, marketing, and promotion for my customers I’ve been able to apply for my Internet marketing business where I get paid to promote products. One of the funnest parts for me is discovering profitable micro-niches, which are subsets of a niche, which is a subset of a market. The key is to find a product with high interest and traffic, but low competition. I know you’re probably thinking that all of the niches have been explored and exploited, but there are millions of micro-niches out there and new ones being created every day. For example, Farmville, the flash game on Facebook, wasn’t around 5 years ago, but it’s a huge niche market now. It even has it’s own magazine! You can learn on your own and sometimes that’s the best way, but if you’re like me, you’ll want help in learning how to do Internet marketing.

    Oh, one more thing, I mentioned that I quit my job today. I did, actually, which really scared my wife, but we have been planning for this day for a long time, we know what it takes to be successful, and we trust in God to provide for our needs. Before I start the day or begin to work, I pray for guidance from the Lord. God is the foundation of my life, my family, and my business. Before I started this work session, I searched for a bible verse about work. I came across Collossians 3:23-24 which says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” In other words, Jesus is my boss – whether I work for a major corporation or myself I need to be working as if for the Lord. And just as I have meetings with my earthly bosses to get guidance and feedback, I am having meetings, through prayer and meditation, with the Lord, my boss.

  • How to Survive the Summer Slump

    There’s an old saying, “You can plant a tree any month with an ‘r’ in it,” which means you’ll have the most success during the months with more naturally occurring rainfall. Of course you can plant trees any month of the year (as long as the ground is not frozen), but from May to August you’re going to have to water the trees to keep them alive. The same thing is true for building up an Internet business because if traffic is rain, then it ‘rains’ the least in months without an ‘r’ in them, which may explain why September traditionally sees the most traffic and is the most productive month. The correlation between traffic and productivity is thought to be because people are getting ‘back to work’ and feeling refreshed after the many events and vacations they took over the summer. Taken a step further, the reason for the down-turn in Internet traffic is probably due to those same events and vacations – and generally people are inside less. Yes, people browse the Internet on their phones, but most Internet (non app) purchases are made from a traditional computer browser.

    So what does that mean for Internet marketers?

    The first step is to recognise what is happening. You can’t and won’t change human behavior, but you can do two things to help keep your business from experiencing a summer slump:

    1. Build during the down time.
    2. Build for the down time.

    Build during the summer for fall, winter, and spring sales

    If most to all of your traffic is organic, you’re going to want to build and backlink before you expect the most sales. It doesn’t make sense to build and launch a new web site or product for Christmas in December. There is just not enough time to become a market leader. However, if you had built for Christmas during the summer, you would be poised for success come December.

    Build web sites or products specifically for the summer down times

    You may have heard of the Internet marketing term, “evergreen markets”, which means markets that are always in season. Commodities like food and energy are good examples, but evergreen markets are susceptible to downturns in overall traffic, so building a ‘summer niche’ during the winter months is recommended for riding out the summer slump. Some ideas include travel, outdoor sporting equipment, camping gear, or clothing.

  • Internet Marketing Major Players

    Here are my Internet Marketing heroes:

    • Ed Dale – Australian; started 30 day challenge; convinced Dan Raine to cash out all of his websites for millions
    • Dan Raine – British; runs Immediate Edge with help from Ed Dale; male yeast infection guy
    • Trey Smith – American; Internet marketer who recently started iOS app training business; friends with Ed Dale
    • Matt Carter – the other Australian; not associated with Ed Dale; runs most popular Internet marketing blog; the beta fish guy
    • Carey Bergeron – American; friends with Matt Carter; makes money from Adsense; runs Adsense Guild
    • Ryan Lee – American; known for being a millionaire Internet marketer; starts out promoting other products, then makes his own versions to sell
    • Greg Jacobs – Mage Monster, millionaire
    • Mark Ling – known for Traffic Travis
    • Andrew Hansen – online entrepreneur originally from Queensland, Australia – now living in London, known for his Affiliate Mini Site Strategy
    • Frank Kern – started out creating information products for pets (mostly dogs) and now trains Internet Marketers

    By the way, I just finished reading The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandingo. It’s pretty good.

  • Read Pads Renews Focus on Tablet PC Pads

    Read Pads, our reading pads web site, has changed its focus to covering tablet pc pads. There are many different types of tablet PCs as covered on our tablet comparison web site, but Read Pad PCs focuses on tablet PCs that are specifically called ‘pads’, which include the Android aPad/ePad, Apple iPad, ASUS Eee Pad, Lenovo IdeaPad, and the ViewSonic vPad.  Read Pads covers the pad PCs themselves and their corresponding accessories, cases, and covers which help protect the increasingly popular tablet PC devices.

    Cost Publishing Editor and Watershawl, Inc. CEO, Erich Stauffer had good things to say about the site stating, “I believe this site has the potential to be really helpful for those people who are looking to find tablet PC pads and the accessories to go with them.” He continued by saying, “Sites like Amazon.com are not organized as well as they can be and that’s where we come in. We help organize things you can find at Amazon.com in a way that you as a consumer might browse for them – not how Amazon.com organizes them.”

  • 6 Steps to Making Money Online

    Using proven, repeatable techniques there is little risk and great rewards involved in marketing products for profit.

    When you use keywords that people are searching for, you naturally drive traffic to your site, which in turn makes you money online. But how do you find the right keywords and how do you know what people are searching for?

    There are six key steps to this process which will answer all of these questions:

    1. Find Micro-Niche Keywords – Identify a micro-niche inside a penetrable market that has profitable products that people are already selling. A micro-niche is a subset of a market niche.
    2. Verify Keyword Volume – Using WordTracker and/or the Google External Keyword Tool, make sure searches are over 80 per day and that there are under 30,000 search results overall.
    3. Verify Keyword Competition – Determine whether or not you will be able to penetrate the top 10 results in Google based on the number of top-level domains listed, their age, and number of backlinks.
    4. Produce Keyword-Rich Content – Write content for your primary landing page that also contains your primary keywords and links to sub-pages that contain longer keyword phrases.
    5. Promote Using Keywords – Write articles, blog posts, and lenses for posting on other web sites that link back to your sub-pages with your longer keyword phrases. Post at least two Youtube videos.
    6. Sell Products or the Web Site Itself – At this point, if you followed all of the steps, you should be making money online by selling products.  If not, then consider selling the domain for a profit online at Flippa or Sedo.

    The rate of success with this method is roughly 1 out of 8 and marketing and testing can take anywhere from 1 to 30 days.  Success is defined as more money coming in than is going out each month and that includes all opportunity costs (time that could have been spent making money in other activities).  Tracking is critical not only with the data of the results, but with the finances and time spent.

  • How to Find a Niche (and What to Do with it Once You Find It)

    Profit can be made from almost any niche – the key is knowing how to find it

    This is a simplified method for how to find a niche. Essentially we begin with the end in mind, knowing we’re going to need a product to sell that is currently being sold, but maybe not as well as it could be.  Maybe it’s hard to find or maybe the people who are selling it want help selling it.  That’s where you come in.  Here is an example:

    I like computer games so I use Google to search for “computer games” (without quotes, which is called a ‘broad search’), which gives me back 200 results. I then use the criteria (as mentioned in 6 Steps to Making Money Online and Research and Analysis Metrics) to narrow them down to one ‘keyword’ I’d like to use.  I then find 200 more keywords related to that one keyword and again narrow those down to 4.

    Now I have my micro-niche, which is identified by the keyword, “World of Warcraft Gold”.  I then have to see how much competition there is for that keyword and if it is a penetrable market (one that has low domain age, a small amount of back-links, and no or low directory listings). Only then can I move on to check whether or not there is something to sell.  If there is something to sell, then we ask ourselves if we would want to work for the amount of money it is offering.  If it is, then we build and start promoting.  If I don’t get traffic, I kill it and start over or sell the domain on Flippa or Sedo.

    How to Find a Niche

    Sometimes coming up with ideas for a niche is hard.  One set of advice I heard was to look in the back of magazines to see what people are selling because it means there is already a niche market for it because people are buying it.  You can also use Google Trends or Twitter Search to see what is trending right now.

    Here are some examples from ads in the back of a magazine:

    • Logo Design
    • Web Design
    • Business Plans
    • Botta Solus Watches
    • Timeshares
    • Oranges as Holiday Gifts
    • Exercise Equipment
    • Employee Leasing
    • Business Services

    Here is what is currently trending on Google Trends:

    • tom delay
    • ashley turton
    • eftps
    • bcs championship game
    • liberal smear machine
    • todd graham
    • houston livestock show and rodeo 2011
    • eftps.gov
    • ron rivera
    • www.eftps.gov

    Here is what is currently trending on Twitter Search:

    • Wojtek Wolski
    • Lionel Andres Messi
    • María Elena Walsh
    • Beth Gouveia
    • Fernanda Vasconcelos
    • Sue Sylvester
    • Great Gatsby
    • Toni Ramos
    • CHAD CHAD
    • #palabrasquedanmiedo