Queensland have done it again. We are the holder’s of the State of Origin trophy!!!!!!

For those of you that have been living under a rock, or if you are from NSW and still in denial!!! (LOL)  Five years straight is an exceptional achievement, and I see in an article the other day the blues have hired some expert to look into why they can’t win.

There is no need for NSW to spend a lot of time and money trying to figure it all out. It isn’t rocket science as to why Queensland are dominating, in fact Mal Meninga (The Queensland Coach) summed it up in two simple words Man Management .

That’s it!!  Mal considers himself not a coach but a Man Manager. That is all well and good Adam I hear you say but how does this benefit my business? Well the exact same principles that Mal uses to get the best out of the Queensland team apply to you getting the best out of your employees.

You see their is no magical pool of super employees somewhere that many small business owner seem to think their may be. Every employee you currently have is good at something. What your job as a business owner and people manager entails is finding out what that something is for each individual you employ, and use it to both of your advantages.

I know what you are thinking now. Who am I to tell you how to manage your employees, and how can I tell you with such confidence that ideas I am about to share with you will actually work?

The reason I am so confident these principles will work, is because I have used them on numerous occasions  to build projects on time and under budget without “the best” gear or so called “best people” working for me. Although I have been lucky to have some exceptional individuals work for me. These projects are built under some exceptionally trying condions such as…

• The projects only usually last 3 to 12 months (So there isn’t much time to build a team)
• These guys are working away from their families (Numerous personal issues come up)
• Schedule priorities change daily (People like consistency)

Now there are a number of ways I work around these issues. Number one is I don’t focus on building the job, my team does that! My job is to build the team, keep them happy, motivated and productive.

Just think about it for a minute. How much time do you spend actually finding about your staff what they do and what their interests are??
You may say to me Adam I  don’t have time do that.  Well I say you don’t have time not to!!  Are you too busy because you are spending too much time trying to build the job instead of building your team??

If you want people to think for themselves and work as a team, then you have to give them the opportunity to do so. And I am not talking about trying it just once, and saying it doesn’t work the very first time something goes wrong!!

People  are going to make mistakes and do thing that you wouldn’t do, but it is all part of the learning and team building process. If you really want your employees to treat your business as if it was their own, then you are going to have to hand over some control of your business to them. Try it I guarantee you will be amazed what lenghts people will go to too make an idea work, when it is their own idea!!!!

Enjoy and Profit

Cheers Beanie

Tweet This Post

Can you believe it??

The end of financial year arrives this week!! So we all know what that means, Christmas won’t be far behind it. There is one great advantage that comes with the middle of the year arriving so quickly though. That is…

It’s Thirty Day Challenge time, (Renamed The Challenge this year) if you have ever talked with me one on one about marketing your business online. You will already know that I am a huge advocate of the Thirty Day Challenge. And before you ask…

No I don’t get paid one cent to promote it, no one does .

There are however some very good reasons I promote the The Challenge being…

• It is completely FREE

• Not only is it completely FREE but it is the best online training education you will get IMHO!!!

Ed Dale and his crew are right at the cutting edge of what is happening in the online marketing world, and  there is no holding back with the quality of the training they provide just because it is free. You will learn everything you need to know to promote your business online!

This blog and any other site that you see my mug plastered all over, is based on the excellent marketing principles taught on The Challenge. Just how do I know that theses guys are on the cutting edge of online marketing?? I know because of a little thing that you may of heard of  called Twitter. You see two years ago (the first year I participated in the challenge) Ed had us join twitter. This was well before Demi or Ashton and the rest of their celebrity friends even knew what Twitter was!!

Don’t believe me? Check the date I  joined Twitter below on my  profile for proof. It will show you that I started my twitter account over two years ago you guessed it. When I participated in the thirty day challenge for the first time!!

Here is where we are going to take the Challenge to a whole new level, and create even more benefit for you. As with anything in business if you have a team to work with, it’s a whole lot easier than flying solo. This year I am going to run a group from my facebook fan page, so that we can work together share the load and our experiences.I will also run some extra training sessions where we will leverage a few extras tool, like ustreamtv webinars and teleseminars.

All you have to do to join in is come and join us at  facebook.com/beaniesmarketingtips post a comment something like…

Hey Beanie I am here and keen to  join the Beanies Challenge Team.

That’s it you are set to go, and we will get to work learning some new strategies to promote your business online.

Project Grow

Being based in Central Queensland this year has meant that I have had the opportunity to get involved in an excellent program up here called Project Grow.

The GAPDL is running a series of information sessions and workshops to help small business owners  equip themselves with the tools necessary to get online, and take advantage of the social media revolution that is currently changing the way small businesses are marketing their products and services.

In my first talk  “Where do you buy a fridge @ 9PM on a Saturday Night” I touched on how my wife purchased a fridge online last Xmas and the spread the word through facebook .

I also talked briefly on blogtalkradio and ustream tv, which are both free online tools that none of the attendees had heard of before.

I will be running this presentation as a webinar in the next week, keep an eye out here or on facebook  for the details.

Hope you have a great week, and I am looking forward to working with you on The Challenge.

Profit and Enjoy

Cheers Beanie

.

Tweet This Post

Would you like more visitor’s to your web site?

The answer to that question of course should be a resounding YES!!! Well what is it on your site that is going to attract these visitor’s?? With the ultimate goal of  converting them into customers that are raving fans and  regular visitor’s  to your site?

Customer’s come to your site with one main thing in common. They are looking for a solution to their problems. So if we offer that solution, then quickly and effectively communicate to them that you can solve their problem. Your chances of capturing this visitor attention and converting them into a paying customer increase dramatically.

That is the first part your problem fixed, now the second part is how do you get them to keep coming back to your site? A static web site with the same old content that is never updated, just isn’t going to cut it!! I mean would you keep revisiting a site like that?

There is no way you would, so why is it that so many business owners persist with a web site that fits this description? And then wonder why they don’t get any traffic or sales?

Your business blog linked up with some social sites that incorporates audio and video is a great way of not only attracting new client’s/customers, it will also have another far more powerful benefit.

Your blog is also a great way to keep in constant contact with existing customers. Now there is a very good reason we want repeat custom, it is very simple and you probable already know the answer. But it is surprising how often simple idea’s are dismissed or overlooked in the quest to find a more complex solution. Being an avid reader I devour many great marketing books, recently I have been reading a book by Mal Emery which had a very interesting statistic. Below is the exact exert from Mal’s book.

“And when you consider that it is six to eight times more expensive to get a new client than it is to sell more to an existing client, this oversight seems almost obscene” Mal Emery

The obscene oversight that Mal is referring to is the fact that time after time he see’s business owners spend countless hours and advertising dollars chasing new customers. All the while ignoring the customers that have already proven that they are willing to spend money with them.

So that brings me back to the title of this post “Do you really need a Business Blog”?

Before we decide yes or no to this question, lets do a quick recap of the advantages of a blog…

• A blog can be regularly updated with content in the form of articles, audio and video.
• You can add an auto-responder to capture contact details.
• You can have have feeder sites that will deliver more traffic back to your blog.
• You can contribute to our local community, by adding their events etc to your blog which again will increase your traffic.

All right enough talk if I haven’t convinced you of the benefits of a blog by now I probable never will, so there is no need for you to read any further. If however alarm bells are ringing for you, and already you can see the huge advantages that I am talking about. You will probable want to keep reading to see exactly how this can be applied to a real bricks and mortar business just like yours. Without taking up any more than a minimal amount of your precious time. In fact when done the right way, the leverage you will gain from your business blog will decrease your marketing workload and advertising costs.

The example I am going to use seeing how we are on the Sunshine Coast is a bait and tackle shop. Let’s call it Davo’s tackle shop, just to be really original!!!!

Now Davo is in the situation that many small business owner are in…

• Davo has a business that has excellent products and services.
• Davo has a wealth of knowledge about fishing, that isn’t being fully utilized.
• Davo currently has a static web site that he has never had updated.
• No one ever visits his website, and it has been nothing but a money pit for Davo.

Fortunately for Davo he is good mates with Beanie over at adamthebean.com, and Beanie is going to  build him an online marketing system, that will generate leads and sales.

So keep a close eye out for the next post in this five part series, where we are going to work with Davo building his online marketing system. A system that will be working for Dave generating leads and sales twenty four hours a day seven days a week.

Profit and Enjoy.

Cheers Adam Bean

Tweet This Post

Recently as part of my ongoing quest to learn and implement the best marketing strategies available, I have been studying Mal Emery’s book…

Zero to a Millionaire in Three Years or Less in Your Own Business and Still Enjoy the journey Along the Way.

When I started reading page 56 alarm bells started ringing inside my head!! I mean  how could I have missed this for so long? The Chapter is titled

“How to clearly and Concisely Communicate Your Core Message”

It’s a fairly short chapter but it is particularly relevant to web design. As always Mal cuts right through all of the hype and bullshit that you come across, and breaks this process down into six simple questions that you need to address. Which are…

• Who are you?
• What you do?
• Who is it you cater to?
• The problem you solve
• What is your UCBA (Unique Customer Buying Advantage)
• Call to Action & Action Step.

So lets put this all together for my site here, so that you know exactly what it is that I can offer you.

Here goes…

My name is Adam Bean, I am the owner of sunshinecoastwebmarketing.com and adamthebean.com. You can also find me on Twitter if you google @beanie72.

I specialize in creating customized online marketing systems, that utilize blogs, twitter and other social media marketing strategies. Particularly for small to medium sized business owners, that are sick and tired of wasting time and money on ineffective marketing that isn’t providing them with leads and sales.

All of my packages include six months of ongoing support. During this time I will update and tweak your system, until it is producing the results you deserve. If at the end of the six months you are unhappy with the results we are achieving, I will happily refund the money you have invested in my systems.

For further information on how I can help you please call me on my personal mobile (0414502809) and leave a detailed message that includes…

• Your name
• Your Business Name
• The most convenient time for me to contact you.
• Your web site address (If you would like me to have a look at it for you before I call you back)

So how did I go? Does that you a better idea of what  I offer and how you can benefit? Please leave any questions or suggestions in the comments section below.

Profit and Enjoy

Cheers Adam Bean

Tweet This Post

Before we even start today I have to give credit to Jodie Thompson as this post was inspired by a post on her blog, and a recent webinar Jodie ran that I attended. The blog post was titled…

“The Recommendation age is here”

I would highly recommend that you read Jodie’s post before you read any further. Then I will introduce you to foodspotting.

Ok glad to see you are back. When you watch the video below  I will walk you through foodspotting, and how this powerful  form of social media  recommendation application could be leveraged by food based businesses.

Even if you aren’t a restaurant/cafe owner the principles will work the same for your business, we just need to find a social media recommendation tool that is applicable to your business. This is the probable the first time you will have seen foodspotting on a Sunshine Coast Web Site, and there is a very good reason for that. I am currently the only person on the Sunshine Coast using foodspotting, but as you will see on this video, I won’t be the only one for very long!!!

Remember to fill in the email form below with any questions for the blog talk radio show on Sunday. I am also offering three businesses the chance to be featured on this Sunday’s show. All you have to do is head over to the Sunshine Coast Web Marketing fan page and comment on the wall under the blog talk radio post. It’s first come first served.

Profit and enjoy

Cheers Adam Bean

Tweet This Post

Today we are looking at Eventful.com which is a free online service that you can use to promote your business events.

Watch the video below where I explain how it all works and how you can leverage this great free service.

Be sure to sign up for your free Eventful.com account on the link below.

Eventful sign up

Adam Bean on Eventful.com

Sunshine Coast Social Media Marketing Eventful.com group

These are the links that you need to get your wordpress blog setup.

Host Gator Web Hosting

Name Cheap Domain Names

WordPress Blog Platform

Watch this video for the full explanation of the benefits to your business, that Eventful.com and wordpress provide.

Profit and Enjoy

Cheers Adam Bean.

If you haven’t already read it this was the first post, Crush it with Ustreamtv

Be sure to register for the blog talk radio Live Q and A at the end of the week on the form below.

Tweet This Post

Welcome to the first stop of my blog tour, first up I am going to share with you a very important online tool for your business.
That tool is Ustreamtv and best of all it is free, all you need is a web-cam and a computer with an internet connection, and you can start your show as soon as you are finished this post!!!

So watch the first broadcast of this week below, to find out exactly what you are going to learn this week on my blog  tour. It is all based around social media on the move!!

Then you might want to watch the Gary Vaynerchuk video below my Ustreamtv broadcast, as I think you might be very interested to hear what he has to say!! Why is that I hear you ask?  Because Gary took a 4 million dollar wine company and turned it into a 45 million dollar company, with a show on ustreamtv Wine Library Tv!!!

Make sure you fill out the email contact form at the bottom of this post, to get details of the blog talk radio show I will hold at the end of the week, where I will do a live  Q and A to help you with any online marketing questions you have for your business.

Be sure to listen to what Gary has to say, it is relevant to you no matter what your business does!!!

Profit and Enjoy
Cheers Adam Bean

[contact-form]

Tweet This Post

If you are new to my site you will quickly learn from reading my posts, that  I am not big on theory and would rather write about what I see that actually happens…

So this is another real life example from facebook. If you are a regular reader on this site then you have probable already read “Where Do You Buy A Fridge @ 9pm On A Saturday Night” which was a real life example of my wife purchasing a  fridge online, and spreading the positive news via facebook.

The fridge story showed you the benefits of a customer singing your praises using a social networking site. This is the flip side a customer with a cockroach in his salad, warning his friends not to let it happen to them!!!

Now as you know from reading my blog posts I often call social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, word of mouth advertising on steroids.

Now this hyped up word of mouth advertising can be working for your business or against it!!! This story falls into the against category.

What makes this story even more powerful is that it has these two other factors working with it….

• A visual representation ie; the picture of the cockroach in the salad

• The person who this happened too is very well known, for the purpose of post we will call him Roy.

Now Roy just happens to be a very well known business man who has built an international brand, and has also written a number of books. So you could say he knows a little bit about customer service. In fact poor customer service is one of his pet peeves.

When I was having a problem with my business early last year, I contacted him through facebook and he told me to ring him personally about my problem, which I did and he sorted it for me.

While talking with  him he told me something very interesting, that I only just truly recognized the profoundness of today. During our chat he said that things were about to change, the balance of power was shifting back to the consumer. Roy said for too long there have been many poorly run businesses that were treating their customer as idiots, and offering them substandard service.

This is not going to last much longer he said, the consumer is not an idiot, and the worm is about to turn. At the time I didn’t fully grasp what he was talking about, but today it dawned on me. The balance of power is going to swing to the consumer via social media.

Within seconds of receiving poor service these days, like a cockroach in your food you can have spread this message around the globe via site like facebook and twitter. So the days of average businesses providing sub standard service are quickly coming to an end just like Roy said.

Social media is here to stay, embrace it and leveage it so that you don’t end up another…

“There Is A Cockroach In My Salad” Story!!!

Profit and Enjoy.

To find out how your business can leverage online marketing tools, like Twitter and Information Products.

Call Adam Bean on 0414502809

Tweet This Post

Beating the Market from Crestock High Quality Images

Sunshine Coast Web Design and Marketing has a new motto for 2010…

• New Year

• New Look

• New Direction

There is a very good reason for these changes…

That  reason is YOU !!!

You have to let me apologize.
All year I have been raving on and on  about how your web design is about your customer not you.
And yet I haven’t been following my own advice, so the rot stops now. 2010 is all about you!

So what is going to be different Adam I hear you ask, exactly how is your site going to be all about me?
Well this where the new direction is going to come into play, your business is going to get the chance to be featured on this blog!!
That’s right you can have your business featured right here in front of potential customers, who are looking for the services you offer.
Not hidden away on some links page that no body ever looks at, but you business will be the main post on my blog for at least a week. When new visitor’s land on my site they are going to see your business.

This is how it will work…

You submit your business to me, either you can or I will write a post about your business and what goods or services it provides. This can be a full blown sales pitch, you don’t have to hold back this is all about promoting your business.

I will add to the post about your business a number of suggestions for promoting it using social media and information products. I will also interview you on blog talk radio again about your business and what you offer. Blog talk radio is going to be a huge part of making this blog more interactive in 2010.

What is the catch I hear you ask there has to be one doesn’t there??
Well yes there is a catch, I can’t work with everyone, so I will be picking the businesses I consider are the most motivated to take their online presence to the next level in 2010. I am sure you will agree that is fair enough?

So pitch away, tell me why I should put your business on here first!! Explain to me why you are so motivated to get your online marketing working for you, the way it should be.
I am more interested in your attitude to improving your business, then I am in what your business actually does.

All I want is business owners like yourself that are interested in the impact social media can have on their business, that would like so real life exposure to see how it all works.

Looking forward to helping you with your online marketing.
Call me on 0414502809 to tell me about your business.
Or catch me on Twitter @beanie72.

Profit and Enjoy.
Cheers Adam Bean

Tweet This Post

Should you automate your Twitter account,?

This can be be a controversial subject and there are all sorts of theories out there, but automating Twitter is not something I recommend. Certainly not for the way I use Twitter at least.

Let me state this very clearly I do not automate my Tweets, (I did toy with it for a very short time) but I will never do it again in the future.

The reason I don’t automate is because of my three core rules for using Twitter or any social media medium…

• Engage
• Interact
• Add Value

It is very hard to do these three things through automation in fact I consider it impossible!
Twitter is a real time communication tool so to use it effectively, people need to know that when your tweets are coming through it is actually you and not some Automatic Tweeting Machine.

The whole automation process isn’t I believe what Twitter was designed for, and pretty much nullifies the effectiveness of Twitter particularly for small business.

This post was supposed to wait for a few days while I finished writing my first series for a guest blog tour that I am currently undertaking. But the response to my first post (Twitter is about Quality) was so good that I brought it forward.

Now this is why I recommended the Tweeps that I did to you, have a look at their reactions, none of them knew that I was going to post about them and the way they use twitter.
And if they had an Automatic Tweeting Machine their tweeting wouldn’t be nearly as effective as it is.

These are the comments that I received very quickly I might add, three are locals to the Sunshine Coast and one from Victoria.
There response and willingness to interact and add value is the reason why they are in the small percentage of Twitter users that actually use Twitter effectively.

“Thanks for including me in your list Adam. I’m very flattered.

Looking forward to reading the rest of the series of your Twitter tips for business.

Have a fun and prosperous new year! Keep tweeting!” @kikirobinson

“Hello Adam. Thanks for the great list. I have enjoyed meeting local Sunshine Coast and Aussie people on Twitter and have connected with them more than anyone else which is cool.

It\’s probably that I don\’t do scheduled tweets so my times often meet with local people.

Thanks for the mention and have a great new year”!  @ecwebsites

“O sweet as! cheers man , looking forward to reading the series ” @jam3rr

“Thanks for including me in this list Adam. I love Twitter and I am amazed at the impact it has had on my business in such a short time.
I look forward to reading your upcoming posts about this topic. There seems to be a lot of confusing information out there. So, it will be great to have some solid guidance for business owners.
Thanks”!  @PpcMom

Do you think that they could create that sort of interaction with automation?
No way in hell!!!
I know what you are going to say next, you don’t have all day to sit there Twittering away.
I realize that as your are a small business owner who is exceptionally busy, time constraints are a huge problem.

Us online marketers like to preach to you that you should be using Twitter and other social media tools.
Who has the time to do that? I think because we spend so much time on the internet us web marketers tend to forget sometimes that there is another world offline, and not everyone spends all day online tapping away at a keyboard like us.

So the key for bricks and mortar business owner like yourself when it comes to twitter is be consistent, if you can only spare 20 minutes a day do it at the same time each day, so that your followers get to know when you are most likely to be online and they can actually interact with you.

I hope that this post has shed some light on the whole automation process, in the next few posts I am going to show you how you can leverage Twitter to actually save you time.

Yes that is written correctly Twitter can actually save you time!! I am going to show you the right way to use Twitter so that you are getting the maximum benefit from it.
This is a little hint… Does word of mouth advertising effect your business??

Profit and Enjoy
Cheers Adam Bean
@beanie72

For any questions about Twitter please leave a comment I do answer them all or feel free to call me on 0414502809

Tweet This Post