When your kitchen sink gets busted, what are your options?

For one, you can spend hours and hours working on it on your own. You can get it fixed OR you can make things worse and get more pissed at the end of the day. Another option allows you to just get a plumber – you save a lot of your time, you get that certainty that this guy can get this sink fixed and you spare your sanity from going to oblivion.

Where am I going with this?

Well, pretty much the same applies for Internet marketing. You don’t just need an Internet marketing consultant to fix stuff for you, you need him to fill in that huge gap in harnessing the power of the Internet.

In this article, I’ll tell you the value behind getting an Internet marketing consultant to work for you.

Check it out:

Drive in Traffic, Make more Sales

Internet marketing consultants spend the rest of their lives figuring out the most efficient ways of driving in traffic and turning that traffic into sales. They can literally give you some advice and options on getting the traffic you need for your business and converting the same into some needed cash for your business.

Create a Campaign and Run it

There are several campaigns involved in the beautiful mess that is Internet marketing. These include:

• Blogging
• Search engine optimization or Search engine marketing
• Social Media
• Email marketing
• Pay-per-click marketing

And so much more. These campaigns, have sub-campaigns too. So, yeah, that’s a handful of thing you ought to handle if you want to make your business successful online – you might need a little more help though. That’s where an Internet marketing consultant comes in. He can help you manage and run these campaigns while you sit and wait for the reports to come in.

Keeps track of everything

Marketing online isn’t just about getting out there and making people see your stuff in the Internet. Believe it or not, there’s a science behind it – and Internet marketing consultants are a lot like scientists in that they do studies and experiment. Internet marketing consultants help conduct web analytics so you can monitor and keep track of each campaign. They also take note of what works, what doesn’t work and what could work better. They’re literally able to find out how well a campaign is doing and improve on the next one so your business can be a little better in said campaign.

That said, it seems you have two choices here, when putting your business online:

1. Do it yourself and quit your day job and spend hours and hours to know the ropes of online marketing or;
2. You can hire a professional (who’s quit his day job and spent hours and hours to know the ropes of online marketing) and partner up with him.

That’s about it for why you need an Internet marketing consultant – there’s really nothing wrong with learning things on your own. But there’s nothing wrong either in asking for a little help for the good of the business.
Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

The post What can a Digital Marketing Consultant do for you? appeared first on Ben Francia.

CC Image courtesy of moriza on Flickr

Ever get that feeling where you keep working on tasks but at the end of the day you get left with still a handful? It’s dreadful isn’t it? At some point, the tasks have turned into boulders that keep you from achieving your bottom line. Even the little things (heck, especially the little things) really hurt your productivity and most of all, your business.

We were all programmed for that, the corporate prophet says. We are groomed since day 1 to slave our lives away. No one is safe from the document stash of doom or the EOD report of shame – these are our measures of success.

I call bull.

The sad part is that a lot of people fall victim to these beliefs. As a consequence, they live sad and irrelevant professional (and possibly personal) lives which, ultimately, lead them to failure.

Being a project manager for a couple years, I’ve learned that hiring a virtual assistant is the way to go if I want to get a lot of stuff done and attain goals at a much faster pace. I DON’T have to slave my life away and compromise my personal and professional growth.

Virtual assistants offer a lot of things (save maybe coffee), but the best thing they can give you is TIME.

Ah yes. One of life’s greatest and non-renewable commodity, extra time is given to the person smart enough to hire a VA (let’s call them that so you don’t have to tire yourself).  If you’re a business person, you’ll know very well why it’s so valuable. But if you’re not or if you’re just starting, let me educate you.

Time is used up whenever you try to get a task done. With more tasks, you get to spend more time. And we only have 24 hours in a day. Let’s get to the math then:

Getting ready for work – 2 hours
The daily commute – 2 hours tops
The work period – 9 hours (with lunch, of course)
The overtime (you do this, I know) – 4 hours at most
The commute back home – 2 hours
The take-home work – 2 hours
The family time (plus sleep, maybe?) – 3 hours

Sad, ain’t it? But it’s for real. Most people don’t have any time left for themselves these days. What’s frustrating is if you don’t get one task done because of a personal emergency or an immediate and urgent task from work, you need to go overtime.

Hiring a VA allows you to delegate tasks to other people. Why work on a business that requires 8 hands with only 2, after all?

With enough time, you can get a lot of stuff done. With time, you can make things happen without fear of mediocrity. With time, you can spend a lot of time learning the ropes of owning and managing a business. With time, you can focus on the things that really matter like family or friends.

So in case you need a little more borrowed time to tend to the things that matter both personally and professionaly, hire a VA.

X

The post Why do you need to hire a Virtual Assistant? appeared first on Ben Francia.

For some people who don’t want to spend time studying web development basics or go all OC on a specific web project, outsourcing is a definite must. Besides the fact that they want to focus on more pressing matters like how to manage their business other than working on a website, it’s also pretty low cost – I mean, really. While most experienced in-house web developers can charge you a hundred or more bucks for a web project, outsourcing it overseas can actually save you more than half.

Questions and Answers

Hey, you suddenly opened a can of whoop-ass on your inhibitions and decide to start your own business and put it online. You have decided what industry you want to rank and excel in and you’re pretty certain about the keywords you’ll use. You also decide on getting a few partners in on the project and start hiring people to help in-house.

By then, you’ll probably be asking a few people for website development and if they knew anyone who can make a real mean online machine, erm, website. You suddenly consider outsourcing overseas. A few questions pop into your head.

Can I really trust someone with my online presence?

Will this be for the long term or just the website?

Shouldn’t getting someone who doesn’t naturally speak my language screw up my website?

We’ve all heard about people losing money overseas and how the Internet is filled with scammers. But hey, stuff like that happen and it’s not inherent to overseas outsourcing services. In fact, when you find a trustworthy contractor, you’ll be assured that he’ll do whatever you say – this is because most contractors depend on you for supporting their respective businesses and families. He’ll keep his best foot forward and you’ll be assured of quality services in the long term.

As for the screwing up the website’s content, well, that’s where the challenge lies. It’s not that it’s hard to find a competent writer. The Philippines, being the only country in Asia that speaks the English language well, has loads of excellent Filipino writers. It’s communicating your marketing language that’s the hard part.

The key here is to properly introduce yourself to your contractor and get him to understand what you want to happen. Send him your mind map or your business plan and maybe some samples of copies and videos that you make. Most of all, make him feel that he’s a part of your team and that your success is his too – this creates a common ground with which you can both work with regardless how far you both are from each other.

Exercise Caution

In any case, since getting scammed is the biggest fear for most online entrepreneurs, I guess the best advice I can give you is to play it safe. How? Ask people you know about outsourcing services they trust. It gives you a sense of security and someone to blame when sh*t hits the fan. LOL

Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

The post Why Outsource Web Development appeared first on Ben Francia.

I know that there are a lot of factors that affect such a view of working from home. But it all really boils down to intense focus and efficient time management. Here are 9 tips for work-from-homers that should make the “working” life a little more bearable.

1. Get a work room – It could be a spare room or maybe even the garage, so long as it’s not your bedroom, you’ll be fine. For some reason, working in your bedroom or living room gives you a sense of security. Something in the lines of: “Nah. I can put it off until tomorrow”. So get another room for work.

2. Define and STICK to your schedule – Print a copy of your schedule out and post it near your workplace. If it helps, put in a quote that talks about integrity or hardwork, something that pumps you up to kick some Internet arse.

3. Eat the right stuff at the right time – To avoid health issues and having a figure of a 29-year old WOW addict who lives with his mom, it’s vital to keep yourself fit. You can do that by eating the right things at the right time. This should keep your body and diet in check which in the long run, keeps you away from having to see a doctor.

4. Exercise before working – When you wake up in the morning, you can jog around the neighborhood or work out in your treadmill. Besides the above reasons about eating right, getting yourself busy before work gives you a sense of being all pumped up. Couple that with the right work-out song, and you’ll be ready for work like a boxer is ready for a 12 round beat-up.

5. Do NOT start out with your email – The simple reason behind this is that if you start off with your email, you might end up being on the defensive and respond to all of them all at once. Start off with the original task you were working on last night and get it done. Check your email after.

6. Have occasional breaks – When you feel that you absolutely need a break, get one. Sometimes, when you’ve focused on work to much and it gets hard for your eyes and your head, take a step out or have a nap. Give yourself 15 or maybe an hour’s break and when you feel better, get back at it.

That about wraps it up, fellas. I have had my share of work-from-home blues, so it’s safe to say that these tips should work for you too. Just keep your chin up, work hard and, if possible, keep those pants on.

X

The post 6 Tips for Work-From-Home Peeps appeared first on Ben Francia.

But experience as an outsource expert in the Philippines, and a few heartbroken friends of mine, has taught me that not everyone can get along with each other because everyone’s unique in their own special way. This sort of “chemistry” is apparent in all our relationships and most particularly, when we talk about business.

Without good team chemistry, you’ll have low productivity rates and unhealthy relationships born from insecurity and the bad vibes.
No, you don’t want to have a volatile team that can self-destruct at any moment.

It’s vital to hire someone who you know is reliable and talented but how exactly do you do that? There are a lot of things you can find out about a person without looking at a resume and usually, these things that you see are what contribute to good team chemistry.
Here are a few things you might want to consider when looking for a person you can include in your team:

• Background check – Do a little Facebook-ing and Twitter-ing and look at photos. If you see something a little bit off, proceed with caution when hiring the person. You may want to look at the person’s wall and tweets too and find out if they’re a very expressive person without regard for other people’s feelings or if they’re the happy-go-lucky  type who shares wonderful stories of love and peace to his or her friends.

These things reflect a person’s character and if you notice something that you can’t be happy with. Start looking again.

• Physical attributes and hygiene – Back when I entered the convent (yes, I did that once), there’s this policy regarding the choosing of would-be priests that doesn’t allow obese people to enter the seminary. It’s a little bit discriminating, but such a policy has a reason. You see, being obese is an indication of being undisciplined. Try to consider the same policy for your applicants. Tattoos and excessive piercings are red flags.
• Interview mannerisms – If you’re interviewing someone who repeatedly does something repeatedly and you, at some point, get ticked off, then it’s time to reconsider. This sort of mannerism, unless it’s a health defect, is also a sign of lack of discipline.
• Talent Vs Attitude – There are a lot of talented people but some of them come with an attitude. Arrogant, bossy or just downright unprofessional, you do NOT want this kind of person unless you have someone who’s professional enough (and has the testicular fortitude) to handle him or her.

What do you feel about the individual? This is pretty much the most important question you have to ask yourself before hiring someone. I mean, if you feel at first glance that you two aren’t going to work well together, then it’s best to just get another person – or if we’re going to incorporate a win-win solution here, what you can do is have someone manage the person for you. It could be someone who feels a little more positive about the person or someone you think may jive well with him or her.

In any case, team chemistry is a factor that determines the success or failure of your campaign. So be selective and always have a win-win attitude.

The post 5 Things You Have to Remember When Hiring Someone appeared first on Ben Francia.