If you’re having a hard time of it at the moment with the ‘credit crunch’ and all the ‘doom and gloom’ that everyone is predicting, then these two videos are just what you need to get you moving forward again.

I try to watch these videos at least once per month,… and you probably should too. Art Williams really hits the point home that you can do anything if you have the right attitude.

In this fantastic interview, the legendary Napoleon Hill, (author of the all time best selling book “Think & Grow Rich”) talks about his meeting Andrew Carnegie, the man who at the time was the richest man in the world.

This is a fantastic little video from Tony Robbins, who is of course the most well known personal development coach on the planet.

He tells a great short story about an NBA party he was asked to help host…

Take about two minutes and watch this! — Quality!

So finally you know,… it doesn’t matter what profession you’re in,… Tony’s stuff just works! ;0)

Here my friend and mentor Jack Canfield joint founder of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series explains his Success Principles…

As every website owner knows, content is the essential ingredient to raising your rankings in the search engines!

But, there’s also another way to use content to bring even more visitors to your site. It’s called article marketing. You can basically use one article in dozens of venues, to multiply your overall exposure exponentially.

In short, more traffic means more sales!

Let’s look at some strategies you can use in your article marketing campaigns.

As an example, let’s say you sell seeds, gardening supplies and gardening books on your website. This market is highly competitive and you’re faced with some stiff competition due to there being lots of web sites marketing products just like yours.

How are you supposed to get your share of the market and drum up some attention?

The answer is simple,… lots of exposure,… pretty much as much as you can possibly generate! Article marketing is tailor made for this specific purpose. All you need to do is write one article, and use it to effectively advertise your site, over and over again.

You already know your products inside out and all of their USP’s and best associated benefits, so why not write a simple article on how seeds should be planted to achieve optimum results.

Give a detailed account of what people should do offering as much useful and practical information as possible. Talk about the equipment they’ll need, the best temperature, any seasonal concerns and maybe how to transplant existing seeds or buds.

There are clearly hundreds of separate topics you could write about. Make sure your article tells your reader / target audience how to choose an appropriate pair of garden gloves, and the advantages of a leather glove for one task, or a sturdy cotton glove for light work.

Another idea would be to tell your reader how a high quality bulb planter can make short work of a big planting project. I’m sure by now you get the idea, but remember, you’re not trying to write an actual advertisement,… you’re delivering great information!

When you have prepared all of your articles, (or at least your first bunch of articles), your article marketing campaign is just about ready to launch. If you do a search using the term ”article directories gardening” in Google, you’ll find hundreds or even thousands of results.

Then take some time to visit each of these article directories individually and browse the categories that are a good fit for your article topics. It’s sometimes helpful to take a look at the quality of their existing articles to serve as a guage.

Unfortunately, many or even most article directories are stocked with very poorly written articles, so it may be worth being selective as to which directories you want to be associated with.

Although you could also take the stance that your high quality articles will easily stand out from the crowd amongst poorly written articles, so the choice of strategy is yours, the key is to just get on with it.

Here’s how the process works:
- You submit your article to the first directory. (Remember, you’re not paid any money for this - Your reward is the signature bio and link back to your website).
- Each person who reads your article has the opportunity to click your link and visit your site. (You always need to give your readers high quality information, which in turn will increase the number of visitors to your site, because they’ll want to read more information of a similar quality)
- You can then submit the same article to all of the other available directories
- This activity will cause your traffic and sales to grow
- Rinse and Repeat

It’s essential that your article marketing strategy includes contacts with other website owners, especially those with an e-newsletter. You can offer your article as newsletter content in exchange for a link to your site, free report or newsletter.

Sometimes it’s worth negotiating a reciprocal link with the site owner. A few good examples would be a florist, greenhouse or organic gardening site and even direct competitors providing you put the right strategy together beforehand.

The thing to remember, your article marketing campaign’s success is directly related to the amount of exposure you create through following the process shown above. An effective article marketing campaign can also help to establish you as an expert in your industry, which in turn increases your long term results.

In short, you should measure your success is terms of your traffic, leads and sales. The key is to become a prolific article writer and scatter those high quality articles everywhere possible.

The single biggest question I get on a daily basis is…

"Does internet marketing really work?"

And my answer is a resounding,… YES! (Although there are a lot of factors involved!)

Obviously there are too many fads and pitches online to go into detail about each and everyone individually, though the top and bottom is, internet marketing is incredibly effective, providing you’re following an effective and proven marketing system.

So what is a proven and effective marketing system?

One that has been tried and tested by a reputable internet marketer and has results to prove it. I’m going to reveal all to you over the next few weeks in a Free Special Report, so make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed or bookmark this page to find out the inside story…

Many of the largest retailers like Macy’s or Wal-Mart use direct mail marketing to effectively reach and communicate with their customers.

They regularly send out sales / promotional flyers that highlight what items will be included in their in store sale that week, as well as any special promotions or discounts they may have coming up.

If you own or run a small business, you should really consider how effective this type of marketing can be in your local community for very little time or financial outlay.

Direct mail marketing has been around for a long time, but it has fallen out of favour for a lot of businesses since the dawn of the internet and email communication.

The key is that ‘direct mail marketing’ should be used as just one of your marketing methods, and for many is possibly one of the most effective methods possible, in particular if it’s used to an existing customer base.

Statistically it’s supposed to be quite easy to ignore both radio and television advertising, though actual direct mail has become more effective in recent years, due to the fact less businesses are actually making full use of it.

Many people are said to find direct mail less invasive, I presume because you can always put flyers to the side and read them at a time that suits you, instead of being forced to listen or watch them like radio and TV ads.

Anybody who is trying to sell something should definitely be using direct mail marketing, it will definitely give your business the edge in these electronic times that we’re living in right now.

When using direct mail, it’s worthwhile speaking to your local Post Office about bulk rate postage, which could make the expense involved far more affordable. Basically, the more you send out, the more you save.

As well as the postage costs, you’ll need to have a graphic designer mock up a flyer for you and write some compelling copy to translate recipients into prospects and customers, though all of this can be done one time and used again and again for many years to come.

If you’re just a one man band, you could probably knock something together on your home computer and send it to one of the many online printers, though if you’re turning over in excess of $30,000 per annum, it may well be worth speaking to a marketing company and ask them if they have any experience with people in your particular industry / profession.

Should your business be in need of some marketing help, just let me know and I’d be glad to help.

Happy New Year to you and yours!

First of all, thanks so much for all your emails and encouragement to relaunch AskPete.com as a blog.  Losing all the content from my old blog was a pain in the backside,… but whata ya’ gonna’ do? ;0)

I’m going to make a conscious effort to post some great content here this year, but it’s probably going to be a bit sporadic until around the beginning of Quarter 2, because I have a couple of big client projects to finish off first.

Anyway, thanks for visiting here and I look forward to helping you make 2009 your best year yet!

Talk to you soon!

Pete