As you plan your website message always keep in mind that people buy benefits, be it a product or a service. Each product or service has a benefit and it is essential that you understand the difference.

I have been reading an excellent book by Bill Good called Hot Prospects and while the book is geared towards prospecting for sales leads and offers a wealth of information about sales letters, scripts, templates, and procedures that form the foundation for any good prospecting system, it is also applicable for your website. And what is your website but a good prospecting system? You want people to find all of the information they need to make the decision to work with you or to purchase from you.

I suggest that you buy the book just for these, if nothing else:

• 31 Letters
• 24 Scripts
• 6 Checklists
• 1 White Paper Template
• 3 Letter Templates
• 4 Sample Direct Mail Letters
• 1 Proposal Guide
• 1 Sales Profile
• 2 Bonus Chapters
• 1 Web Resources Page
• 1 List Resources Page

Mr. Good describes Benefits and Features in this manner.

Benefits: A benefit is the perception of what a product or service will do for the buyer. It saves time. It saves money. It improves quality of living. Features: A feature is some characteristic of a product or service that enables that product or service to deliver benefits to the buyer.

Do you see why this is such important information for your website? Take the time to understand the very important differences and then put them to work in your website and other marketing materials.

You can read more about the book here.

Have questions about your current website or need a new one? Call Your Office On The Web at 888-719-6711 for a free website consultation.

To be successful with a new business today, the most important thing is to identify your specific target market.

• Exactly who are they and what defines them as a unique and discrete group of customers?
• What is their specific unmet need, also called their “pain,” that makes them an attractive group of potential customers?
• How are you planning to take care of that “pain”?

Once you have decided who your target market is it time to:

Identify what YOU want to do 

• What are your interests?
• What are your passions? What fuels your creativity?
• What are your areas of expertise? Be sure to list your soft skills as well as your hard skills! They are just as critical to your success.

Identify what you DON’T want to do

• What are the repetitive, non-income producing tasks that just eat up your working hours and frustrate you by the end of the day?
• What are things and situations that you avoid?

Identify what you are going to sell

You are going into business to make a profit, so please don’t skip this step!

• Physical products.
• Information (digital) products such as e-books, downloadable teleseminars or audios,  PLR – Private Label Rights, etc.
• Virtual Services (Virtual Assistance, Web Development, coaching, consulting, graphics, copy-writing, etc.)
• Physical Services (Lawn care,  housekeeping services, etc.)
• Affiliate products. For instance I HIGHLY recommend the world’s first ALL-ACCESS network for lifestyle entrepreneurs from Ryan Lee, called Founder Fly.  I just joined as I am a total Ryan Lee devotee…. he is a HUGE marketing genius. I am already a member of his “Inner Circle” and trust me, I paid a whole lot more than this membership is costing. I am also an affiliate.
• Drop ship products.
• Resell rights. Many ebooks and pieces of software, especially in the field of online or Internet marketing, are sold with resell rights included.

Once you have a focused business venture, research what people are looking for in that industry, who those people are, the prices they want to pay, and what the overall current availability is for them. If there is no availability, or merely low-quality availability, you have now found yourself a great target market!

I talk a lot about desk-bound fitness as this recent post about stretching like a cat on Denise Griffitts.com shows. We all know that being at a desk and in front of a computer monitor for hours on end is just not healthy and can cause some serious back pain that if not alleviated, can become chronic.

Stretching helps promote flexibility, ease tension, and improve circulation. And, the great thing is that you can do all of this in your office chair.

Try to incorporate these moves into your work day and do them every few hours. You will notice immediate improvement!

Seated Knee Hug

1. Sit with knees bent and left heel on the floor.
2. Grasp right leg just below knee and pull it toward your chest. Hold for 10-20 seconds.
3. Repeat on opposite side.

Seated Spinal Twist

1. Cross right leg over left, knees bent and left foot on floor.
2. Grip right side of chair with right hand and grip right knee with left hand; rotate torso to the right. Hold for 10-20 seconds.
3. Repeat on opposite side.

Seated Chair Boat

1. Sit with knees bent and feet hip-width apart on floor.
2. Place hands on side of seat behind you.
3. Life chest as you arch your back. Hold for 5 seconds; return to starting position. Do 5 reps.

Do you want to work less and earn more? I know, that sounds like a fairly stupid question, but I recently read a book that teaches you exactly how to do that. This book is what I would call ’simple genius’.

Every now and then a book is written which changes the game. And for me, this one does. The author of the book in question, Sam Carpenter, charts the precise journey he took to go from working 80-100 work weeks (for 15 years) down to just 2 hours.

That may be interesting and inspiring but how does it affect YOU?

The breakthrough with this particular book is that it details a step-by-step, universally applicable blueprint which any business owner, running any type of business, can implement.

It sounds like a bold claim and you’d be forgiven for being skeptical. I was!

However, he has amassed literally hundreds of profoundly enticing and eminently credible case studies and testimonials spanning all manner of businesses from real estate management companies to retailers and frommarketing agencies to landscape designers…

In other words, finally, someone appears to have come up with a blueprint which ANY business owner can implement to radically change the way they work (and live).

His solution is elegant and simple, requires a little ‘heavy-lifting’ for a short period of time and is being hailed by business leaders and entrepreneurs from around the world as the ‘holy grail formula for working less and earning more’.

I have teamed up with the author to offer you a complimentary copy of his remarkable book as part of the launch of the 3rd edition. Share it with your friends and you’ll also get the Audiobook gratis.

Get the Work the System book by Sam Carpenter for free today.

The author sent me a hardback copy and when it arrived in the mail, I deliberately took a weekend to read and absorb it. As a self-avowed “high-functioning work-a-holic” this book has become VERY important to me. It is changing how I view my work week, and that of my team and employees.

If you do nothing else this year, read this. It’s a game-changer.

Let me know what you think of it!

Best wishes,

Denise

LinkedIn has updated their blog indicating that there was a breach, and several LastPass staff members who used unique passwords for LinkedIn only, as well as numerous individuals not associated with LastPass, have confirmed that LinkedIn’s database has indeed been hacked.

Was your LinkedIn password hacked?

As LinkedIn is not telling us whether our passwords are at risk, it is incumbent upon us to be proactive, and quickly! First things first. Go immediately to LinkedIn and change your password. And if you are using the same password across multiple sites, stop what you are doing right now and go change them as well. Let’s face it, when it comes to password management, we tend to do what is easiest, and cyber thieves count on that! Even presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been a recent victim.

The same hackers responsible for the theft of over 6.4 million LinkedIn passwords also acquired passwords from the popular dating site eHarmony.

Check to see if your password was hacked

Here is how to check if your LinkedIn password was among the hacked accounts that are already being used to generate phishing attacks. Go to LastPass.com/linkedin and check your current password. Even if it has not been hacked, as you can see mine has not, change it anyway!

How you can secure your passwords

1. Get a password manager like Power LogOn so you don’t have to remember or type passwords.
2. Use very secure , complex, long passwords that can’t be broken using brute force or social engineering methods.
3. Just because a question is asked doesn’t mean you have to give the correct answer. For example, if they ask for your favorite pet, type in your first car. If they ask for your first car, type in your favorite teacher. Remember, computers are stupid and will give back what you gave it. So lie.

Google Webmaster Tools

A Facebook fan page is more than just another way to connect with prospects and customers online. Your Facebook fan page can:

• Drive more traffic to your website.
• Help build your email list.
• Sell more products/services.
• Announce special offers and promotions.
• Announce events.
• Share news.
• Provide value to your prospects and customers.
• Share photos and videos.
• Get feedback from clients and prospects.
• Improve your relationships with your prospects and customers.
• Improve Search Engine Optimization because it is open to the search engines, unlike your personal profile.

Additionally:

• You can communicate directly with your “fans”.
• When a person joins your fan page, it’s published in their News feed – this gives a viral quality to your fan page.
• You have access to more than 500 million active users who log onto Facebook regularly and spend an average of 55 minutes per day on the site.
• Facebook is now the 2nd most visited site in the world after Google
• And Facebook fan (business) pages are free!

Plain and simple, Facebook offers a huge potential to profit and grow your business. This post assumes that you already have a Facebook account. If you do not, you’ll need to register – it’s free and quite simple to build. But with the recent advent of the new Facebook Timeline covers, you will want to create one that competently and professionally conveys to your visitor your value proposition because it is the very first them they will see. And it doesn’t have to be a scary or expensive thing to do. For instance you can have custom FB graphics created for $27 that will enhance your branding (Website, Twitter, YouTube, etc.)

If you have yet to brand yourself online you can have it done professionally for $118 – $188!

Head on over to LogoNerds.com and take a look at their FB graphic package.

For $27 you can have them customize one cover image 851×315 and your logo will be correctly sized to fit the square graphic section in the timeline page to 180×180.

While you are there, be sure to look at their logo packages which range from $27 to $97. Twitter backgrounds cost $47.

And if you still need a great WordPress header design for your website/blog, they do a great job of these for $17.

You can also find other services for online and print collateral at very affordable prices.

Click here or on image to watch video. For PDF click here.

Congratulations on earning your degree. But the truth is that the degree alone isn’t going to be enough to assure your success in the real world.

In the real world employers don’t care much about your degree, your happiness, your income or really much of anything that has to do with you. They care about what you can do for them. And from this point on, that’s how you have to think. Businesses exist to be profitable. It is your job to help make them profitable. If you know how to do that, how to be worth more than you cost, then you have value in the workplace. If you don’t know how to be worth more than you cost, then employers will pass you over and find someone else.

Look at what it really takes to be successful in the real world.

You have to take RESPONSIBILITY. Your life, your results, your success, happiness, health and prosperity are up to you. When it turns out well, you get the credit and when it doesn’t work out the way you wanted it to, you get the blame. It isn’t up to anyone else to make sure you are successful, it’s always up to you, so be responsible.

RESPECT OTHERS. Respect your employer enough to be on time and give them your personal best every day because that is what they are paying for. Respect your boss, even when you think he is an idiot because he is still your boss and deserves your respect. Respect your coworkers so they will respect you and your customers because they pay you.

CLEAR PRIORITIES. Your time, your energy and your money will always go to what is important to you. If looking cute is important to you then you will spend all of your money at the mall. If being financially secure is important to you then you will make sure that you save, invest and live on less than you earn.

It’s about WORK AND EXCELLENCE. Regardless of what others may tell you, it’s not about your passion — as I know people who are passionately incompetent. It’s not loving what you do or being happy every day. You aren’t paid to be happy on the job, you are paid to do your job. Success always comes down to hard work and excellence. And it takes both. Hard work alone won’t cut it. I know people who work really hard yet aren’t any good at what they do so it doesn’t matter. And I know people who are excellent at what they do but they don’t work hard enough at it to make any difference.

So work hard and be excellent at what you do. And remember, if any one can do it then anyone can do it.

===

Larry Winget

The New York Times/Wall Street Journal best selling author and internationally known speaker. Larry is considered a self-help/business/financial guru to hundreds of thousands of people!

A Year of Success

People aren’t as successful as they want to be, rich as they could be or happy as they think they should be. That’s the truth. That’s why Larry Winget teamed up with 3 of the world’s leading success experts to create this new program, A Year Of Success.

People get hooked into systems that are too complicated, don’t work, over-promise and under-deliver and that flat out cost too much darn money. That’s why he is so proud of A Year Of Success. If you aren’t a part of this yet, you should be. If I wasn’t in it, I would not be recommendng it to you. And that is the truth.

The response to this program has already been terrific. People are loving the mix of success experts and the value and very reasonable investment.

PLEASE – just do this: go to A Year of Success.

Watch Larry talk about the program – it will only take a minute. If you are intrigued, then look through the rest of the site, watch some of the other videos and make your decision. At $2.82 per week, you won’t be taken advantage of financially. But you will get 52 video lessons along with an action plan for each one that will allow you create a better year this year than you had last year. Along the way, you will get 4 bonuses that I know you will really enjoy. No upsells, no tricks; just simple, actionable ideas that you can implement to make a real difference in your life.

The Adapt theme caught my eye because it was crafted to work for sites where the focus of your work and recent news is the primary purpose. Additionally, it is 100 percent GPL (General Public License) and free. In short, it looks to me like a great theme for people who need to get a website up quickly and don’t have a big budget to work with. It is very minimal and very easy to setup. It comes with built-in post types for your portfolio, homepage highlights and homepage slider, so adding your content is a breeze. There are page templates for your blog, filterable portfolio, full-width pages and even a landing page template.

The Adapt theme also features:

• Fully responsive layout
• Homepage slider with unlimited heights. (Love this!)
• Portfolio slider
• Filterable portfolio template (This makes it a great choice for freelancers who need a quick way to showcase a portfolio. Adapt’s filterable portfolio page template allows you to easily sort and display portfolio items by category.)
• Full-width and landing page templates
•  Blog page template
• Threaded comments
• Widgetized sidebar and footer.

You already know that I do not bombard you with a ton of “buy now” stuff and I only recommend products that I actually use and benefit from myself. What I want to share with you today is A Year of Success.

If you connect with me on Facebook. LinkedIn or Twitter, you already know that Larry Winget and Bob Burg are friends of mine, and people who I have a VERY high professional and personal opinion of. Larry Winget is known as “The Pitbull of Personal Development” and is a 5 time New York Times / Wall Street Journal bestselling author and somebody you see on TV a lot. Larry is a regular contributor on Cavuto, Fox News, and other news networks. Bob Burg is one of my favorite authors and if you haven’t already done so, you really should read the Go Giver or Go-Giver’s Sell More and his latest book, It’s Not About You: A Little Story About What Matters Most In Business.

Larry and Bob have partnered with Chief Fascination Officer of Fascinate, Inc., Sally Hogshead and leadership development speaker & consultant Mark Sanborn. Mark is the president of Sanborn & Associates, Inc., an idea lab for leadership development. Leadershipgurus.net lists Mark as one of the top 30 leadership experts in the world. Mark is the author of You Don’t Need a Title to Be a Leader which speaks to leaders at every level, both those with and without titles. The book focuses on six things that all leaders do to make a positive difference. If you want to learn how to lead, or you are a leader looking for ways to lead better or teach others to lead, this book is for you.

Fascination is an intense emotional focus. When customers are fascinated by you and your message, they’re more likely to trust, believe, and respect you. As the only keynote speaker and author on this topic, Sally Hogshead has developed a scientifically-based system of influence, based on the brain’s hardwired patterns. For any goal that requires strong communication— from selling insurance to motivating top talent— the Fascinate system outlines the shortcut to persuasion. Sally has taught over 100,000 people how to use their natural strengths to become more persuasive.

I tell you all of this so you know who will be working with you and what they collectively bring to the table. In fact, the four of them have reached over a million people with their messages, all over the globe. In A Year of Success, they will teach you, challenge you, provoke you, (Larry!) and push you outside your comfort zone to the point that you gain with bigger, faster, and smarter results, no matter what you are doing.