Trademe adds Services listing

http://www.trademe.co.nz/  adds services as anew category...this is great news for the likes of me. Now I can add a listing with my blurb and links to my site promoting what I do.

This is a significant shift in online marketinbg here in New Zealand.

If you couldn't generate traffic to your site ..now you can. List your service now and promote your services in what I predict will be HUGE change in the marketing of services online.

Oh and by the way I now offer the creation of your site, along with training, support and a one-stop shop for getting online.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Services/Other-services/Other/auction-315694870.htm

Any takers? Any feedback on the advert itself?



Comments care of Mason Parker - Internet Coach

looking for a low-cost job online?

MY mate from http://www.imintegrity.com/ recommended a site called http://fiverr.com/ ...I've used it already.

$5 to do something that would take me hours -  truly. Give it a go.

Web design, logos. articles or just about anyhting else...why not make a request for a random "gig"?



Comments care of Mason Parker - Internet Coach

Wonder why social media is busines media?

The attached video has a great message and a little bit of fatboy slim ...all good really.

In my view social media marketing is a tool to build relationships, social media marketing helps you to communicate with the masses and build strong relationships that convert to business relationships if you are trustworthy and credible.

Have a look and for your own view...



Comments care of Mason Parker - Internet Coach

Claudines Beaded Jewellery is online.

Claudines Beaded Jewellery has been making and selling beaded jewellery for some time now, and has wanted to raise her profile.

A few days ago I got a facebook request to help Claudine  - the result?

http://claudinesbeadedjewellery.com/

This site (still in its infancy) is low cost, very flexible to manage and able to be editted and customised by Claudine. Claudine can add and change anything in the site herself, publish news online, add photos, videos and any other rich content.

As this is very similar to her facebook galleries Claudine has taken to this like a duck to water.

Claudine can also have me setup quicklinks like http://claudinesbeadedjewellery.com/facebook

Pretty cool I thought...so if you are in the need of New, Recycled and/or Repaired Beaded Jewellery then check out http://claudinesbeadedjewellery.com/ ...and if you like what you see why not go to her facebook page and give her a review.

Watch this space as I'm sure the site will evolve and change over time....it will certainly be easier to find as I am setting up a solid web profile for it with suitable directory listings.



Comments care of Mason Parker - Internet Coach

Waynes Auction Action

Every once in a a while I sit back and reflect on acheivements that people make ...today I had phonecall with my friend Wayne Sutton - the Harcourts Paraparaumu Auction Manager... and crikey I look at what Wayne has achieved.

Wayne has gone from having an email newsletter (ezine) that was geeting blocked and receiving low reader response rates to having rates that professional internet marketers would be proud of.

Have a look at http://www.waynesauctionaction.com/ ...pretty slick aye?!

Comments care of Mason Parker - Internet Coach

Flash Video 101

I just added a video to my http://www.masonparker.com/ blog you can see it here www.masonparker.com/videos

Flash Video 101

Flash video is a format of video that delivers high quality images, smoothly and quickly.
The video is compressed or converted to a FLV file, which then can be played almost instantly.


Since the arrival of tube video, web viewers have been demanding video as a part of the web experience. YouTube reported that more than 5 billion videos had been viewed for the month of July 2008. This one example alone tells us there is an importance of a video presence being necessary on websites.


Remember the choppy, grainy streaming video of the late 1990’s? The slow downloading capabilities or viewing that began after a small portion of the file was buffered? That was a major frustration of watching video during that era.


Technology had a major break-through with FLASH (FLV) video. The contributing factor being that more people using high-speed Internet connections with higher-bandwidth. FLV format allows video to load and start quickly because of the compressed video images and speed of broadband.


Flash video has the capabilities to run on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux platforms, meaning it can be viewed by 98% of all Internet-connected computers. Since most computers have a pre-installed Flash Player, the need for downloading additional plug-ins and software to view the videos is eliminated.


Here lies the problem: getting your video into FLV format and uploading to your website rather than using youtube (which allows you have secret videos for paying customers or just build really strong loyalty).


It can be as simple as a 3 step process from start to finish.


Prepare and save your video in avi., mpg., or wvm. format,
1) Locate, meaning where you saved your file on your computer,
2) Convert the video to FLV format and
3) Produce or upload the video to your website. In each step, there are several options that you can pick from. A good program will guide you through this process.


Flash video provides a viewing experience for your website that is seamless, as opposed to a pop-up, or pop-over window, that interrupts the flow of your message.






And now I would like to offer you free instant access to a Free Video Training Course when you go to:


http://masonparker.com/flvproducer - you can immediately get started with publishing full motion streaming video on your Web site.




Comments care of Mason Parker - Internet Coach

Build loyalty through regular news

As I shift into internet coaching for businesses I am researching trends and forming opinions about the gaps in business that can be enhanced with internet.

I had a good example this week - my local mechanic (who is a well known and professional mechanic) sent me a reminder that a service is due for my car. Well done a very professional thing to do. Thats why I use Dakin Auto Services.

Knowing that Dakin took the time to write the reminder and paid to post it to me it made me feel pretty good about having him as my mechnic...my point is Dakin could've done this cheaper, faster and with the same result be sending me an email.

This week I received an advertising flier in my mailbox...which I quite like as it lets me know about deals at local retailers. It was a glossy, four sided flier with full colour printing and its a pretty good flier.
Again the same result can be achieved at much less cost by using a web based email service.

See my newsletter as an example. www.masonparker.co.nz/newsletters  

I use a broadcast mail service to deliver my newsletter to a group of people who have joined my newsletter list...it personalises the message to them and is as easy as sending normal email but it sends individual emails to many people at once in mobile friendly, a text version or in a full blown html graphical version..and users can view past versions in the online archive.

The best part its TOTALLY FREE

What does it do?

1. helps me build my list of email newsletter subscribers
2. sends personalised emaisl to each subscriber
3. allows me to add signup forms on websites
4. adds and unssubcribes people automatically (so I don't even run the lists manually - THIS IS A HUGE TIME SAVER)

It allows me to send my users to free report downloads and resources only they have access to like this one http://masonparker.com/Reports/Marketing-Online.pdf or to get them to check out new or useful  reports like this one http://masonparker.com/googlebusiness

Why would you take the time to setup a mail newsletter?

1. its low cost
2. the return on investment is very high as you can communicate to thousands of users with a one click send to many system.
3. you will build loyalty if you send quality information to your subscribers that adds value to them
4. you can help your website get increased traffic and profile by driving users back to your site

Consider this example my friend Wayne Sutton from Harcourts Paraparuumu had an effective  newsletter that he was sending out with attachments informing auction specific news. The email was working but Wayne wasn't getting as many clicks or information as he wanted. Wayne and I sat down, looked at Waynes prefferred outcomes and tweaked his system by adding a website to complement his emails.

Now as a direct result of that small change - Wayne has grown the traffic on his site and emails from 400-ish a month to 600-700 per week. See what Wayne thinks about that by reading his testimonial http://masonparker.co.nz/testimonials.htm

The formula is simple Wayne communicates regularly to his audience, tracks what they read and what they don't and is using two low-cost but high return internet tools - broadcast emails and blogging.

Comments care of Mason Parker - Internet Coach