Amazing Websites $399+

I have searched high and low for a CRM that suits my needs. A simple client relationship manager for $10/mo or less. I don’t want to enter them as a prospect, then transition the to a client, then transition them to …. you probably know what I mean. In taking the time to organize my clients and prospects it takes me away from selling or fullfiling the sale.

I searched in hopes that Google, the giant in free applications had a CRM only to find out that I need to have Salesforce. Which is in my opinion hands down the best CRM for the money on the market today. Accept I don’t want to use Salesforce, it’s more money per month (even at it’s $25) than I want to pay.

Then I discovered the magical world of Gmail Clients. I have the CRM I’ve always wanted, and it’s completely free. If you have a gmail account then you already have a great CRM at your disposal. And the best part is, that it’s directly linked to my gmail account.

Here’s how I uses gmail as Google’s CRM in 3 easy steps:

Step1

Step 2

On the left hand side it says “Mail, Contacts, Tasks” – Click on “Contacts”

Step 3

Add a new contact. And here is where you get to transform gmail into a CRM

At the top of the new scrren it says “Groups” click on that and you can add your “Contact” to whatever group you want. I have set up simple groups: Clients, Prospects, Creation(this is the phase the client is in), and Networking

Everyone who comes in is automatically added as a “Contact”, so I add them to the group Prospect or Networking depending on which they fall into, sometimes both.

I can quickly see howmany people I need to follow up with, and what stage of the sales process they are in. I can tell you immediately how many clients I have, and if I want to send that whole group an email I simply click on “Mail” then compse new mail. I then click on “To:” and select the group. I hit select all and viola a mass email to the entire group.

This is a super simplified CRM that does exactly what I was hoping it would do. I can also add custom fields simply be clicking on “Add” at the bottom of the contact and typing what ever I need it to say.

Thanks Google for your amazingly simple CRM.

The Top 10 For The Top 10

admin — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:51:18 +0000

How can every company that does SEO (Search Engine Optimization) guarantee that you can be in the top 10? Out of the thousands of businesses that do what I do, how they promise me I’ll be in the top 10? That and there are thousands of companies with this same promise…. that makes no math sense. The reality is if you pay them enough money, you can stay on top for awhile. Here’s some tips for keeping yourself in the top 10, and they are all about commitment….commitment to your ranking.

First thing you should know is that Google, Bing, Ask, Yahoo, etc…. are changing their criteria all the time, so currently this is how to stay in the top 10 doing your own SEO.

The top 10 for being in the top 10

Search Engine Friendly: The key is to make your site as easy for search engines as you possibly can. This means using technology that is “light” on programing and “heavy” on content. WordPress falls in the middle in this category for being “light” but it weighs in at the top for “heavy content.
Pages, pages, pages: Make your site deep. Have a lot of sub pages that talk about your industry, not just your company. They don’t have to be prevelent especially for the simplistic minded sites, but they should be there somewhere.
Updating Content: One of the keys right now is having content being updated constantly and consistently. There are several ways of accomplishing this but the best are blogging, twitter/facebook status updates embedded into your site, and people posting comments on your blog.
Video: video is the big buzz right now for SEO, you have to have video on your site and hosting the video on Vimeo, youTube, or another like it will get you even more rankings than hosting it yourself. One of the new things is video blogging, you will rack up the rankings with video blogging.
External links: Having links to other websites than your own shos that you are friendly, and should be placed high on the rankings. (this is dwindleing in popularity for SEO)
Meta Tags: Meta tags are simply key words placed on each site or post behind the scenes. These days, you can put tags on every blog post, and even display them in a design friendly “Tag Cloud” which helps the search engines. If the tags are behind and in front, it’s double the effectiveness.
Testimonials: Testimonials are great, because you will get key words that you couldn’t think of on your own. People may use words to describe your business that will help you in the rankings. Also they fall under updating content which made it higher up in the list.
Link Exchange: Having links from your site to other sites is good, but having links from other sites to your own is much better. If you have someone with a lot of web traffic linked to your site, it will boost your SEO optimization. Sometimes you will have to pay for link exchange, but it may be worth it.
Key words: Using key words in your content is a great way to get the Google bots to sniff you out. You don’t have to sound like a robot to be noticed, but strategicly placing key words in your content is a great idea.
Just Wait: Once you have your website SEO Optimized, it’s all about waiting and staying consistent with the above 9. If you can keep this up you will find your self climbing the search engine rankings organicly.

Technology and the Bottom Line

admin — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:46:40 +0000

Technology moves so fast these days that by the time you are all up to speed on the latest and greatest, you have already missed the boat. Fortunately if you don’t have G.A.S. (Gear Accquisition Syndrome) then the speed of technology can be a great thing.

I have developed this company Ryan8Media because the old way of doing things just costs businesses too much money. I was on the other side of the fence, looking to do a simple website and it was going to cost me $1,700 on the cheap side.

The more I looked into things, I found that I could not only build my own sites at a fraction of the cost, I could sell these same sites to other business owners and they would love me for it. So the Ryan8Media empire was born. Born from new technology eliminating how an antiquated business was done.

But building websites is not the only way to take advantage of new technology. Think about this Social Media craze….Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo, MySpace, MeetUp, Yelp etc…. the list keeps growing day by day. These new technologies have allowed the average business owner to effectively market their businesses to the people they network with for a fraction of the cost and time that it used to take.

Don’t get me wrong, I own a print magazine company as well and I am not saying that we should abandon classic advertising sources. But, what I am saying is that new technology allows us to take full advantage of the potential customers that we get infront of.

Here are 3 examples of utilizing social media along with conventional marketing.

1 Advertising and Social Media

I suggest to all of my current clients that they integrate their facebook, twitter, linkedIn, etc… accounts with thier current advertising. And I encourage them to use incentives to do it.

Example: A dentist advertises with us, and in their ad they have a link to their Facebook Company site. They tell people that anyone who follows them on Facebook will get a free exam and 50% off their initial cleaning.

This is smart on a couple of marketing levels. One, it will definately bring them clients from the discount. Two, it will show to potential new clients that they have hundreds or thousands of followers…. for a dentist that’s incredible, that would make anyone take a second look at the practice.

2 Client Referrals

Let’s take it a step further: Once the person comes in for their free exam, and 50% off their initial cleaning, the dentist offers them an additional 10% off for posting about their wonderful experience at his office on the new client’s Facebook account.

3 The Fortune is in the Follow-up

Now it’s been a month, and the dentist has 100 new followers on his Facebook page bringing his total to 1160. Out of those 1160 followers only 9 took him up on his deal, so he decides to send out a personal message to all of his followers.

The Message: Subject “Thank You!” “Hi this is Dr. Andrews, and I wanted to thank you for helping my business to be a success. We have had several happy new clients, and it is because of your efforts. We are so greatfull, that if you are a new client, we can extend the same offer (Free exam and 50% off initial cleaning) and if you are an existing client, and you have been putting off that 6 month check up, we can offer you a free exam with your cleaning. We just wanted to say thank you!”

Now the Dr. has not spent any more money on advertising, and utilized the new technology at his disposal to bring in new clients, and bring back clients that have been puting off their teeth cleaning.

Technology can cost us a lot of money if we buy into the new stuff, and don’t use it the way we should. My suggestion is learn all you can about new technology and find out a way to use it to benefit your business, then jump on it!

Word-Of-Mouth Networking?

admin — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 23:56:43 +0000

Marketing didn’t even exist as a term about a centry back. Now we have niche termanology for marketing niche’s. They key is and has always been to stay in front of the marketing curve.

It’s easy to get stuck doing what you’ve alwasy been doing. Let’s face it, if it aint broke don’t fix it…right? I resisted the social media thing for as long as I could. I mean why would I care at all about what Joe is doing for lunch. Or, why would I even waste my time to see weather or not Suzie got tickets to see whatever it is.

Then it hit me…like a ton of bricks. My gosh, these people have a following of several hundred people, and in some cases several thousand people. What a benefit to the people I network with to tell the world that I’m having a coffee meeting with XYZ Company and we are meeting at Specialty Coffee. Now I have a reason to create a following of people who have a following of people, who have a following of people, who have…… you get it.

I have 170 connections in my LinkedIn Network. Not bad, could be better. I check my connections based on that number and as of today it is 1,281,260 people in my immediate network. That is only 3 people deep. WOW!!!! You mean that at any given moment I could potentially be communicating my brand recognition with over 1 million people.

Yeah, that’s the power of social media. Otherwise known as Word-Of-Mouth Networking. You see we do it, becasue it will help other people’s business. In the process of that, our business will grow!

A Lesson Learned

admin — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 23:23:47 +0000

It’s hard to imagine, but at some point in american history there were no Starbuck’s Coffee shops on every corner. Some how this magical brew has brought together hundreds of business owners worldwide to a centralized meeting place. All for the cost of a cup of joe.

Now imagine that you can accomplish this same following of individuals from all over the country or even the world and localize them and their comments into one common meeting place and viola you have social media.

We have created the Starbucks craze all over again, but this time it’s with free information sharing. I’m not sure who gets credit for the first social media gathering, but I can tell you that Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have revolutionized the blooming industry.

What it boils down to is creating the buzz about you and your company. You need to give people the “Why” and it has to be stronger than dark french roast espresso. But if you get your message and agenda clear and into the hearts of your loyal customers. You will find your self being overwhelmed with business from this magical place called Facebook.

Okay that’s a little far fetched, but I think you get the point. Major companies are spending millions of dollars to capture this market, and it’s time for you to get you share. You have the local edge and you can be one of the pioneers in your indsutry tapping into the social media keg.

$ocial Media $elling

admin — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 21:34:10 +0000

Every time a new media is introduced to the world, people flock to it and get their information from it. When Radio came into being, people found the value in immediate response advertising. Then came the TV monster and we now captivated audiences for hours telling them where to buy and what they should need.

Despite all the various forms of advertising, there was still one common objection. Nothing beats word of mouth advertising.” And that is right, there is nothing that can top someone giving you a suggestion of where to eat or shop. You then decide that you like that person and they wouldn’t steer you wrong so I’ll go try it out.

So this is why Social Media Marketing is becoming such a huge buzzword right now. You gain the benefits of instant marketing to hundreds or even thousands of one person’s immediate friends and family in the blink of an eye. And even better than radio, if they weren’t listening there is a reminder that your friend just recommended something to you. Now you have combined the power of instant with constant.

Social media is re-defining how we do word of mouth advertising. We will tell someone to just Facebook or tweet the link to us, and we’ll check it out when we have time. It is creating a new industry for programmers and designers.

So the big question is how do I tap into this market, and help my business make more sales. There are several ways to do it, but it boils down to 2 things. Incentive or Motivation.

What incentive am I going to offer that person to post my info to their friends and family; giveaway’s, profit sharing, a digital button(huh?).

Or what am I doing that will motivate people to share my info with out me offering them anything. This is great for causes, and things like that. Have you ever seen a hair studio with a cult following? Well give it a little time and social media know how and you will start to see things exactly like this.

I just friended the Mayor today, and they accepted my request! What an amazing time we live in.

The question is are you going to tap into the goldmine.

Un-Punishable

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:44:46 +0000

“For he who has died is freed from sin.” – Paul Rom 6:7

There is a law in the US that you cannot be convicted of the same crime twice. This is called Double Jeopardy, and in fact there was a good movie made a little while back about this very thing called “Double Jeopardy”. Their example is that a woman was convicted of killing her husband and went to prison and paid her time. She hadn’t killed anyone, but they set her up. So when she got out of prison she found her husband and killed him in plain site of everyone. She could not be convicted of murder because she had already paid the time for this crime which had not yet happened.

Doesn’t this sound like what Jesus did for us? He paid the price for us, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23.

You ever wonder why he didn’t say anything in response to their accusations? It is because he was guilty, and he couldn’t lie. He was not guilty of their accusations or his own sin, but he was guilty of all of our sin because “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” – 2Cor 5:21

He died for all of our sins, once and for all. That means that I cannot be punished for the sins that he paid for.

My questions (kind of toung-in-cheek):

Which sins of mine did he die for? Is it all the ones that I committed before I became Christian?
Did he pay for all of my sins for the rest of my life? When does his sacrifice end for me?
Is my righteousness dependent then on my actions if all of my sins were covered by Jesus on the cross?

I think you get my point. The word “All” really means “All”. Romans 6 & 7 talk specifically about the Law and sin. And this one really sheds some light on the subject:

¹Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? ²For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.

³So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.

⁴Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

-Romans 7:1-4

Let’s break this down a bit. So the woman is only subject to the Law in regards to marriage while her husband is alive. Once he is dead, she is free from the law of marriage and is free to marry again without committing adultery.

Paul’s point is that we are dead to the law once we are joined with Jesus. That means that we are no longer subject to the punishment of the law, (ie. death, the original curse, and the consequences of each particular law). WAIT!!!! Are you saying that there is no such thing as sin! Of course not, under the law there is sin but I am no longer subject to the law because I am dead to it. It no longer applies to me.

Question:

Did the thief on the cross (the first convert) repent of his sins? He only asked for Jesus to remember him.
Did Jesus ask Peter if he was sorry for denying him? No, he asked him if he loved him
Why did Jesus connect physical healing and forgiveness of sin? Matthew 9:2-7 It’s because they both require the same thing FREEDOM FROM LAW. Physical afflictions fall under the “Laws of Nature” of which we die to when we become one with Jesus. Salvation then is the same thing, freedom from the “Laws of Man” that were set up to overcome separation from God.

In Jesus we are no longer separated from God, and therefore have no need for the Law. And because we have no need for the law, sin no longer hold punishment for us…which Jesus did for us once and for all.

Therefore there is nothing I can do (actions) to earn my salvation. Meaning I cannot be good enough to overcome the law, the only way to overcome it is by death. Also there is nothing I can do loose my salvation because once I have died to the law and am no longer subject to it and it’s punishment (death – remember I already died in Christ) there is no action that I do which is considered sin. How can there be if there is nothing to tell me what sin is?

Romans 7: 7-8 “What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? ^(N)May it never be! On the contrary, ^(O)I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “^(P)YOU SHALL NOT COVET.” ⁸But sin, ^(Q)taking opportunity ^(R)through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for ^(S)apart from the Law sin is dead.”

!!! YIKES!!! here’s where the heretic pitchforks come out. Before you start throwing stones remember this is not my words, Romans 6,7,8. Romans 8:1 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

I put that part in bold because I don’t want to loose anyone at this point. Here are the questions that come up in my mind when I make a statement like the one above.

So does that mean that I am free to do whatever I want? NO!!! Our actions still have consequence, they are just no longer eternal death. If you drink too much alcohol you will pass out and could eventually have kidney failure. If you kill someone, the police will take you to prison and possibly kill you. - - Actions still have consequence, just not into eternity.
So do you believe in once saved always saved? It doesn’t matter what I believe, the truth is if you are in Christ there is no sin.
So what does it mean to be “in Christ”? I can tell you that it has nothing to do with sin. I’ve heard the argument well it means “habitual sin”. Remember if you cannot sin, there is no such thing as habitual sin. Jesus commanded us – Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. And love your neighbor as your self. — David was considered a man after God’s heart. He loved like this, and yet sinned plenty of times that we know of (he was subject to the law). In fact all the “Hero’s of the faith” sinned, but they are still our examples of righteousness and faith. (see Hebrews 11, then go to Hebrews 12 “Jesus is the example”)

(ready for the biggest runon sentance of all time) If we are unpunishable, and there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and there is no sin to those who are made alive in Christ, and it was for Freedom we were set Free (for no other reason but just for the sake of freedom), then we have been given the secret to be full of Hope, Joy, Peace, Love, Health, Prosperity, etc….

I could go on, but I think at this point you are either really excited and want to go read some scriptures or you are already typing a seething comment. Either way what I believe is meaningless and I don’t care if anyone else believes this way. What does make me upset is when churches preach that we need to be “good” to avoid the curse/penalty of sin….HELLOOOOOO Should we ask God to have Jesus come back to earth and die for us again!

The prayer “God please forgive me for…” is an old testament prayer. The “New Covenant” prayer is “God help me be obedient to your calling and give me the grace to change the things that hinder my fulfilment of your call on my life.” Remember actions still have consequences, just not into eternity (when we are living on the resurrected side of the cross).

I could continue on, but I encourage you to let the Holy Spirit guide you through Romans 6-8. Paul is specifically talking about this very thing.