michael low

Did you know that 80% of people now search for products or services using online search engines instead of yellow pages or other printed directories?

They do!

That means out of every 10 people you know, only two use the yellow pages for anything other than a door stop - and according to the trend, that number will diminish to 1 out of 10 in the next 3-5 years.

But here's where the stats get even more shocking for business owners:

A MASSIVE 98% of search engine users NEVER go beyond the first page of search results. If they don't find what they are looking for on the first page they search a new word or phrase.

So if you are not on the first page of the search engines for your key words or phrases (the words people type when looking for a business like yours) you are missing 98% of the searches for your business category.

Of the 2 out of 100 people who do go past the first page of search results, it's estimated only 1% goes beyond page 2. In other words, only 1 person out of every 5000 will check page 3 of search results!

Problem is, the number of searches for most small to medium business niche markets don't go beyond 2,000 to 3,000 searches per month. Many don't exceed 1,000. Still others are under 500.

Which means you may only have 500 opportunities each month to capture the attention of potential customers on the Internet.

So what does this mean to you if you are in business?

It should be obvious. If you want to use the internet as a lead generation source for your offline business (or online business) you MUST be on the first page of search results.

Problem is, with everything you have to do, there's just know way you can get on the first page by yourself.

For starters, you must know HOW to get there. Then you need to take the 12 or so steps to actually get there. Then you need to maintain your ranking.

My company has a track record of getting people on the first page and keeping them there.

If you want my company to put you on the first page you can contact me to find out what service options we offer.

Your conscious mind is like a flashlight. Your subconscious mind - including all the skills and internal resources you've developed since birth - is like a museum at night.

Interestingly, the light from the flashlight only lights those objects in the museum that fall in the range of the light.

The displays outside the light-range are hidden from siight.

So too are many of your internal skills and resources hidden until the light of your conscious mind brings them into focus.

I remember a story about a woman who's husband lay helpless under a crashed motor vehicle.

In that moment, as she saw her husband, the love of her life, laying beneath the wreck, the light of her conscious mind somehow shone on the part of her that governs inner strength. With her bare hands she lifted the wreck from his broken body. Others who stood by pulled him to safety.

Under normal circumstances she could not have lifted the weight of the car. But the horror of the scene shifted the focus of her mental flashlight sufficiently to enable her to tap into almost super-human resources at the very moment she needed access to them most.

Moral of the story: Focus your mind and, like the woman in the story, you too will tap into more of the skills and resources you need most.

Every successful company can trace it's success to it's ability to address 1 to 5 specific human desires.

Successful companies realize it's not the product or service that matters.

What matters is that you have a unique, innovative way to meet the desires that exist in the market.

Take the iphone as an example. It addresses the following universal desires:

1. The ability to stay in touch and communicate with contacts easily
2. Push button access to important data from anywhere in the world
3. The desire to remain 'hip' to the latest trends in technology
4. Value for money

And more.

Is the iphone the only product that addresses these desires? No. There are definitely other players in the market.

And that's my point.

Successful companies don't focus on selling products, they innovate solutions to market desires.

Then they focus their efforts on standing out as the obvious choice for fulfilling the desire.

What desires does your product or service address? And how are you uniquely positioned to address those desires?

More from Michael Low

Education is the number 1 precursor to growth and improvement.

But only if you act on the information you receive.

As self evident as this is, it's surprising how many people don't take the all important step of acting on the information they have available to them.

There are a number of reasons why this is so. The first is a condition of the mind called 'decision paralysis'. Decision paralysis, as any good psychologist will tell you, occurs when you are faced with so many options -- options education presents you with -- that you become confused or overwhelmed and end up taking the path of least resistance. Often the path of least resistance means going back to old habits of procrastination or actions that don't lead to the outcomes you want.

The second is people's inability to make a true decision. We make small choices everyday. But the kind of decisions that move our lives forward in a significant way require more than a choice between a few obvious options.

True decision making means making the hard choices. It means evaluating the path we are on and making a clear decision to take action in a new direction. To do something we haven't done before. Action is key to decision making.

And something else: True decision making demands that you persist long after the emotion that was present at the time you made the decision has faded. Which is why so many fail to follow through. They forget the feeling they had when they made the new decision and as the feelings fade so does their motivation to stay the course. Gradually they fall back into decision paralysis and follow the path or rut of least resistance.

They abandon the very path that could lead to a life of rewards and settle instead for a life of mediocrity.

The answer then, is to create a plan for taking action on the information or education you receive. A plan that will keep you motivated and moving forward as the emotion you felt at the time of making the decision dissipates. A plan that allows you to evaluate your progress as you go along. A plan that requires specific daily actions with accountability built in. The kind of accountability you can get from a coach, peer, mentor or loving spouse.

And the best time to create and act on your plan is NOW. Not when your course of study finishes. NOT when you have all the information. NOW. The moment you recognize an idea worth perusing.

What if you don't have an idea worth pursuing?

Seek education, in all its forms. It's the precursor to growth and improvement, but only when followed up with the twin power of a plan and action

More from Michael Low.

I learned this lesson one year on my birthday.

I had nothing. Was flat broke except for the $247.50 in my pocket which was part of what I owed my landlord for rent.

All my family lived over two thousand miles away.

My wife managed to scrounge together the ingredients needed to bake a birthday cake (a heart shaped chocolate cake covered in smarties, no candles, couldn't afford those).

It was just the two of us. No kids.

We sang happy birthday to me.

Guess who sang the loudest?

Me.

I stood proudly in the kitchen and sang on top note:

"Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear me, happy birthday to me!"

My wife sang along.

Then I shouted "Hip hip!"

And my wife responded "Hooray!"

Again I cried, "Hip hip!"

And again my wife responded "Hooray!"

Then one final time, "Hip hip!"

"Hooray!"

We chuckled together.

And I realized the moment is what you make of it.

More from Michael Low

One thing on many bloggers minds is the question of how to get your message out to more people. How to increase your readership and influence.

"It's pretty simple," Godin says. "I try to post things that people want to tell other people about. The reason I don't want to know my number of subscribers is because I'm not trying to make my numbers go up so I can transform people into numbers I can sell ads to. I am trying to make change."

Pretty good advice.

And here I am wanting to tell you about it.

The guys at fastcompany.com suggest choosing ideas that are emotional, service based, and trigger action.

In other words, write about ideas that evoke a strong emotional reaction, create a feeling of responsibility to pass the information on, and set a trigger that will prompt you to share  - perhaps by listing the consequences to people you love if you don't pass it on, consequences you'll think of when you're in a position to share.

Example: I recently heard about a guy who attacks young women by waiting at the fuel station. He hides until the young, unaccompanied, female driver goes into the pay-station leaving her car unattended and unlocked. He then sneaks into the backseat where he hides and waits till the driver returns and drives off. At an opportune moment he attacks his victim. The solution, of course, is to make sure the young women in your life NEVER leave their car unlocked.

Now, doesn't this thought make you want to warn your female friends about leaving their car unattended and unlocked? Is this an idea you could pass on?

If so, the reason is because the story has an emotional impact, prompts community service (you warning your neighbors), and triggers action if you ever find yourself talking to a young woman who is about to go driving.

You get the point.

There’s a gap between where you are and where you want to be.

If this wasn’t true, you’d already be achieving at the level you desire.

There are three specific challenges or gaps you need to address. They are … 

The technology gap. The Internet is built on technology. Everything that happens online is technology dependent. You need the tools of technology to run your marketing campaigns, to process payments, to promote affiliate products, to deliver your own electronic or physical products, and for communicating with an ever expanding audience. You need to address this need for technology if you want to succeed …

The knowledge gap. No matter how good you are there will always be a strategy or way of doing things that can get you the result you want faster and more efficiently. Most probably you don’t know what these better, higher performing strategies are. Hence it’s a knowledge gap. But you must find the missing pieces because you’ll never climb to the height of success you are capable of without adding to your bank of ideas and ways to move constantly forward …

The skills gap. Once you know the path to pursue, the technology to use, and the strategy to deploy you need to address the challenge of skills needed to use the technology and for successfully implementing the growth strategies. Without the implementation skills you’ll be stuck. Like owning a high performance race car but not knowing how to get out of first gear. The potential is there, but unless you can utilize the potential through action you’re not going anywhere …

I once worked for a man who understood entrepreneurship.

This guy was a genius.

He took a company that was doing about $3,000 a month in sales to over $12 million a month.

And he did it using some basic principles anybody can apply.

1. Sell a product that addresses a universal desire.

2. Advertise widely using every media available.

3. Test and tweak your advertising message until you find one that strikes the loudest chord with your target market.

4. Create a sales driven company and invest heavily in improving sales skills.

5. Keep a minimal staff, hire people on commission or on performance.

6. Turn a percentage of sales back into even more advertising until everybody who can buy knows about you.

Traditional offline businesses outsource their brochure and corporate literature design to graphic artists and professional copywriters.

So why is it that when a business goes online (on the Internet) they suddenly think they have all the expertise they need to set up an electronic version of their marketing material without seeking outside help?

I think it's because the electronic printing press, the world wide web, is so easily accessible, and so cheap to use. You don't have the same printing costs. The margin for error seems, at first glance, to be much greater.

As a result, most businesses (probably about 87%) don't correctly manage that all important first impression their website makes on a new or returning visitor.

Which means they blow their chances of making a sale.

You have 3 to 9 seconds to make a great first impression

Now, depending on which study you believe, you have between 3 and 9 seconds to convince your website visitor they should stick around.

So what should you do, or have your website do, to best manage that crucial 3 to 9 seconds.

First, understand that a visitor to your website is unconsciously asking two general questions:

1. What's in it for me? and ...

2. What do I have to do to benefit from this?

Second, don't disappoint them.

Give them what they want.

Here's how:

1. Capture your reader's attention. You can do this by showing specifically what you can uniquely do for the visitor. Something important and beneficial to them. Something that solves a problem or relieves a fear or brings them a tangible or emotional benefit. Something you have discovered through your research to be perceived as being highly valuable to the type of prospect or site visitor you want to attract.

2. Hold their interest. You can do this by asking them to request a report or gain access to a video or complete a quiz or questionnaire. In other words, give them something to do to put them on the path to gaining the unique benefit or advantage you can extend.

Make this the focus of your home page or landing page (page you direct traffic to) and you'll see people staying longer and taking a greater interest in what you do.

Michael Low is a writer, researcher and successful entrepreneur. You can contact Michael Low here