Memorial Day was a turning point for me this year. As I was working on some home improvement projects in my backyard, I was thinking about my beloved state of Mississippi and the current condition it was in for small business owners. Throughout the state there has been much devastation due to severe tornados. In the small down of Smithville, just a few miles away, most of their businesses were completely destroyed. In East Webster county their school, where my husband used to be the head football coach, was destroyed. Before that, Hurricane Katrina destroyed the beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast.

The citizens of Mississippi, even in the face of adversity, have a good attitude. They bounce back. New businesses will spring up or be re-built where old ones were destroyed. Because of pride in their communities, strangers will come and help their neighbors in need. That is the spirit here and it makes the hope and dream of re-building easier.
These thoughts lead to the question, what can I do to help small businesses in Mississippi? What do these busineses really need? What can I offer that can help them turnaround?

In 1982, I received my Business Administration Degree in Marketing from Miss State University. For the past decade, I have studied Internet Marketing and watched small businesses marketing evolve. Basically there are 2 types of businesses:

(1) small businesses with a website (that ranks in Google and other search engines) and
(2) small businesses that do not have a web site and rely on traditional (old school marketing)

What has changed so drastically over the past decade? It is the habits of your potential prospect, customer and how they search for your products, goods, services and information. A decade ago, most people used the phone book or maybe a personal recommendation when looking for a new dentist, doctor, lawyer, plumber, electrician, accountant and etc. Today fewer people have land lines in their homes and rely on cell phone technology. As the price of the personal computer has dropped with the advancement of technology most households have internet packaged in with their other utilities like cable television.

Although it would be foolish to say everyone has a mobile phone and internet in Mississippi, you may ask the question:

"Does my potential prospect most likely have a mobile phone and internet?"
"If not, would they be planning to purchase these things in the future?"
"How would I need to change the current way I am spending my marketing dollars to reach potential consumers (with cell phones and internet) locally?"

Good questions? What is your answer? What is the solution?

I recommend that you seek the answers to these and other questions you may about marketing your business locally by getting in touch with, Internet Consulting Now. Whether you have a website or not, sign up for their free 30 minute consultation to find out how to increase your marketing reach and expand your business growth in 2011 and beyond. Marketing on the Internet is the solution for small businesses in Mississippi and it is not going away.

Some of you reading this know me personally, so you know my children are my joy. Yeah right, so this post is going to involve considerable bragging about my daughter and how awesome she is, however, I will try to incorporate a lesson here for those of you that have kids and wish to help them find their destiny, their dream career.
My daughter's name is Mandy Brister and ever since I can remember she has loved animals. She has a magical way of connecting with them, training them and even caring for them when they are sick and nursing them back to health. Over the years we have had many pets, horses, rabbits, cats, dogs. Her dad and i noticed her special gift early on and in elementary school she wanted to be a veterinarian when she grew up. As she grew older and began college, she had some challenges choosing a major and decided against becoming an veterinarian. She looked at Accounting, Business and Marketing as a possible career field and now she is a little less than a year away of completing her Business Administration degree.
She is very ready to graduate and has already started her own business, called My Rascal Puppies. During the first quarter of the year she did research and came up with a plan. She worked to build a store to sell her English Bulldog puppies and then added a Word Press blog. About a year ago, she had purchased a English Bulldog puppy (Darla) and with that experience fresh on her mind, she worked hard to have all of the elements on her site so that it would be user friendly for anyone to visit that was interested in acquiring an English Bulldog puppy for a pet. At My Rascal Puppies you can find plenty of pictures of each English Bulldog puppy she has for sale (adoption), as well as videos. The videos are especially nice because you can tell more about their confirmation as you see then run and play with other puppies in their litter.
Other important features of the business include the warranty, guarantee, purchase process and shipping arrangements. It is all spelled out, because she understood that when you are purchasing a high quality purebred English Bulldog you are going to have questions.
In a perfect world, everyone would be honest however she has already learned horror stories of scammers (posing as breeders) on the internet, posting puppy pictures and offering English Bulldog puppies and accepting deposits via wire transfers and never delivering the dog. Isn't that horrible? She wanted to make sure that when someone visited her site that her contact information, both email and phone number would be there so that prospective puppy buyers can speak with her in person. She is also verified by Next Day Pets so that visitors to her site can see she has an established, credible business.
English Bulldogs are a special breed of dog, they sometimes get lonely when left alone for long periods of time so she developed an application process to find out about the lifestyle of the prospective buyer so that her puppies will only be placed in homes where they will receive the highest degree of love, care and attention. Yes, was developed from her passion and understanding of the needs of an English Bulldog. She also has continuing education and training materials available for proud Bulldog owners to raise the puppies to healthy and happy adult dogs.
She is very serious about the early care of each litter of puppies such as: hygiene, diet, exercise, play time, socialization, health, vaccinations and regular veterinarian visits. All of this is very time consuming and laborious for most people, for her it is a joy. She keeps a journal of each puppy and charts their growth and other vital information to share with the new owners.
For most young people it can be a struggle to start their own business and especially one they will be passionate about for a lifetime (something they look forward to each day.) As a parent, it is so rewarding when you know they have found "it", the dream that has become the reality, the job that they were born to do. It is really a happiness and peace of mind that is difficult to explain.
In closing, I would like to say, be patient with your children as they evolve to adulthood and discover the many opportunities that life has to offer in the way of careers. More often than not, they may change their minds many times and when they find their destiny, their will be a joy on their face, a spring in their step and a song in their heart like you have never seen before.
As a parent you may think, what more is left for me to do? Is my job done here? Of course not, just do like I do and start bragging to everyone about their accomplishments. And so, this post would not be complete, if I don't share with you the beauty and championship of some of Mandy's English Bulldog puppies…enjoy and wishing you the best for your business, and your children(s) businesses too!
Meet the pups, Samantha, Judson, Lexi, Alexia, Carlos and last but certainly not least Julie.

For those of you that I have privately coached, consulted with, mentored or maybe we have even been co-workers or friends through a business connection with StomperNet, an internet marketing membership site, I wanted to announce publicly that I am no longer employed by Stompernet. For the past three years I have literally come in contact with hundreds, possibly thousands of fantastic internet marketers via my role with StomperNet, as a business coach and internet marketing consultant.

In fact, I really wanted to send each and every one of you a personal message to let you know and when I started to do that, I became overwhelmed with all of the clients that I have worked with over the past three years. Wow, and what a privilege it has been to work personally with all of you… and to watch you set and achieve goals, implement new business strategies, discuss keyword research, link building article marketing, Facebook, Twitter and that is not even the half of it.

So I hope you will forgive me for not writing each and everyone of you (that have had a profound impact on my own personal and business growth) and saying my brief goodbyes here on my own public blog…

I will still be a part of Stompernet, as an apprentice, a member, and I think that will be pretty cool, kinda like the old days. I will shooting off at the mouth here on the blog, from time to time…and so I hope that you will subscribe to my blog and that way we can still remain "connected" in a very Web 2.0 way.

I have updated my contact information on my blog in case someone needs to reach me privately, as well. I would like that very much because I really hate goodbyes.

I have "some things" in the works that I am collaborating on with the great and wonderful, Freddie Brister, my article marketing guy and husband. And so please stay tuned for Joyce Brister 2.0

Kind Regards,

Joyce Brister

http://www.MyArticleMarketingGuy.com

myarticlemarketingguy@gmail.com

P.S. Thanks again for what you have meant to me and "Don't let anyone steal your dreams."
P.S.S. I would also like to thank those those that mentored me, it meant alot. Here's my list (in no particular order):
Andy Jenkins, Brad Fallon, Dan Thies, Leslie Rhode, Jerry West, Andy Edmonds, Sherman Hu, Dave Taylor, David Bullock, Don Crowther, Bill Crowther, Eric Shannon, Chris Watson, Vin Montello, Jayne Hallock and many other Faculty, Moderators and Staff.

If you search this question, "What is link building?" you will find there are a number of definitions out there from many different sources. If you own a web site and don't know what link building is, I suggest you stop right this moment and do that before you read another word on this page.

Ok, so by now you may realize that there are many different levels of link building and many different perspectives of link building. Understanding all of this can be daunting, especially if you are new to link building concepts.

Many website owners dig in and do their own link building before they even understand which keywords will bring them the most revenue if they were ranking on the first page of the search engines. After 3 years of working one-on-one with internet marketers, I have seen this to be the most common mistake, as well as, the most costly mistake that any marketer can make.

So understand if you get this wrong, you are going to waste a lot of time, money and other resources from here on out. It all starts with keyword research and getting that right before you even have a linking campaign. I recommend you work with an internet marketing consultant for relevant keyword discovery.

There are many different ways to gather this keyword information. On my next post, I will share some of those tips from the service I use, to do my own link building campaign .

I have a million reasons why I use them and they are all backlinks

You may ask, what does the BCS Championship football game have to do with internet marketing? Well, I am glad you DID ask! It is the one time a year that the family gathers around the tv to watch the big game. My family consists of internet marketers and we are all football fans. It is both of those things, football first, then internet marketing, that are our shared passion.

This blog post is a tribute to football and all the many principles we have taken from that wonderful game and used them over and over in our own businesses, that have sustained them and allowed them to grow.

Before internet marketing, my husband was a football coach for 25 years and being the coaches wife, we learned many valuable lessons together.

We have learned to word hard, practice the basics, develop strategies for different situations, have a winning attitude, keep others on the team motivated, and be thankful for those that helped you along the way.

Having a passion,  a dream, something larger than you can do on your own,  is really what teamwork is all about.

Tonight, my family will join together to watch the 2011 BCS National Championship to watch Auburn and Oregon fight to the bitter end.  There will only be one champion.  That is how it should be.  I am reminded of and old saying my mom used to always repeat, "There's only room at the top for one."

That is what makes the preparation so demanding, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. It is the same with internet marketing or any other business model you are involved.

So, I am going to sign off for now, I have listed all of the latest Auburn BCS  National Championship t-shirt and all of the Oregon BCS Championship gear at my e-commerce store and there is only one thing left to do…log out of the computer and watch the game.

Good luck to football fans and internet marketers everywhere. I hope you win!

Go Tigers!

Go Ducks!

Hey Joyce,

Hope you arrived home safe (if you are home yet).  I just wanted to thank you for looking out for me at Live 10.  It was really great to meet you, Freddie and everyone else.

Thank you again for everything and I look forward to talking soon.
Tom

Every marketer I know is always looking for the newest and best way to get their content published online. Fact: video is hot. U-Tube has tons of traffic and views. So do alot of other video networks online. The question is , how can you leverage this strategy. The answer is simple. Turning your text articles into video has never been simpler.

What's more you can also turn customer testimonials into video and provide further social proof that your business or services are legitimate and recommended.

Another powerful way for "business to business" or "business to consumer" companies to get their message out is using LinkedIn. With LinkedIn you can connect with associates and develop joint venture partnerships easily. Perhaps you already have tons of LinkedIn recommendations. A LinkedIn recommendation gives you or your company credibility in the eyes of your potential customers. How can you take those recommendations and leverage them? Turn them into to video testimonials. The power of a video testimonial is more effective than text. If you don't believe me, try it yourself.

You can get more information on these new video marketing services for turning articles, testimonials and LinkedIn recommendations into video at TRCB.com.

FYI, this is NOT an affiliate link, it's a personal recommendation:) OK, Mr. FTC.

Expand your marketing reach today with video.

Keeping moving forward and upward in the SERPS!

Joyce Brister

It is smoking hot in Mississippi now, some days we have had 100 degree weather and the heat index along with the humidity makes it difficult to even think about Christmas. But hey, I am an entrepreneur and have multiple e-commerce stores and I have to start preparing now so that I can maximize the time I have now to be prepared in November and December.

I wanted to share my to do list so that it might help other E-commerce marketers get ready as well.

We usually go to some specialty gift markets and do our buying for Christmas around June or July. After the market, I take the orders and start building the spreadsheets to upload the new products, pictures and descriptions. By August 1 to August 15th, I will have those products live. Many people do shop early for Christmas.

Currently, I have an ad posted is 2 places, one at the career center at Mississippi State for an intern for the fall semester and another from the STEPS program with the WIN Job Center. So far, I have gotten a number of people to apply for part-time positions for the holidays. Around August 1-15, I will start interviewing.

The next and most important thing, is planning my email marketing strategy for the holidays. I have a number of holiday graphics saved somewhere on my computer, lol. I will find those and start developing my email templates for holiday promotions starting in October.

I will update you soon of my progress and steps to get ready for Christmas shopping season in August.

Until then, stay cool.

~Joyce~

If you own an e commerce or mail order store, your customers are going to have questions. These days customers appreciate fast, quick responses, not emails or returned phone calls the next day…by that time they have packed their bags and purchased from another online store.

Because I have always been a firm believer that great customer service has a huge ROI for my own business, I am always trying to improve the shopping experience.

I like instant gratification too, you know. That is why I signed up for the Free Trial and I am now a monthly customer of Provide Support. What is Provide Support? Live Chat software for live support.

Here is what I love about Live Support:
1. Easy Integration with Your Web Site
2. No Software Installation Required
3. Manage Multiple Chats Simultaneously
4. Call Transfer
5. Operator to Operator Chats
6. Proactive Chats

and finally, I can monitor what my employees are saying to the customers as I get a transcript of every chat sent to my email.

So I can leave the office and never worry that my customers are being taken care of.

What would having a professional SEO certification mean for your credentials? Do you think it would allow you to find and retain higher quality clients? Clients that are willing to pay a premium price for your expertise and knowledge?

Well, I speak with internet marketing and SEO consultants every day regarding their business, their clients and their processes and systems. They all ask the same questions:

How can I find new clients?
How can I retain my existing clients?
How can I do a better job of making more money for my client?
How can I develop a long term relationship with my clients?
How can I get more referrals from satisfied clients?
How to form a joint venture?

You get the idea. And these questions are just the tip of the iceberg, there are hundreds of questions that SEO consultants are searching for answers too.

That's why I am so keen on sharing this pre-recorded online training with David Preston.
David is also going to be one of the hand-picked presenters in a couple weeks for SEO Pro. Initially, it was only for the eyes of Stompernet members BUT with the SEO Pro Certification weekend only a few days away…they are letting me post a link to the training and information…as least for a few days.

Brad and David talk about how to put together Joint Ventures
really FAST, and David shares some methods he's never revealed
before that have made him some serious money! You really need to check this out…

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Keep Moving Forward,

Joyce Brister
Internet Marketing Coach