WebDesign.com » Educational Marketing

Affiliate info for Anniversary Sale

"Professor" Benjamin — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 16:23:33 +0000

UPDATE: THIS PROMOTION HAS OFFICIALLY ENDED!

Hi affiliates!

We are just into the official announcement about the 1 year Anniversary Sale at WebDesign.com. So NOW is the perfect time to start sharing the good news. As an affiliate, you can earn a 25% commission on all sales that come through your affiliate link.

If you are not an affiliate for WebDesign.com yet, you can read about it and sign up here:
affiliates.ithemes.com.

If you’re already on the affiliate team, be sure to check the Affiliate Resource Center for tips and information about promotions. We’ve added some “done for you” tweets you can use.

One more thing…make sure you have the family of domain names added to your safe senders lists. We are having some emails bounce back and recorded as spam…and we want to make sure you get all your tips and information.

The three domains in the family are:
WebDesign.com
iThemes.com
PluginBuddy.com

In the meantime, here are some tweets you can use:
(Feel free to edit – and remember to replace the url with your unique affiliate url – and you may want to use a link shortening service, like tinyurl.com, so that it will fit within the 140 characters).

best WordPress training EVER – half price until Dec. 8. (Includes WP Developer Course!) http://WebDesign.com @webdesigncom

120+ hours of WordPress and webdesign training on sale ½ price (until Dec. 8). http://WebDesign.com @webdesign.com

Learn how 2 make UR WP site ROCK, w/ tips & tricks.120+ hours training, plus new classes weekly. Half-price til Dec.8 http://WebDesign.com

Check it out: Half-price anniversary sale on training at http://webdesign.com @webdesigncom

Just announced! $200 off annual WP training membership – 120+ hrs of training, PLUS you get another whole year! http://webdesign.com @webdesigncom

If U want 2 know the best WP tricks & tips, check out http://webdesign.com 1/2 price anniversary sale–tons of training for 54 cents/day.

More info to come later…

p.s. remember, you may not use your own affiliate link for purchases. Sorry.
In order for a purchase to be credited to your affiliate account, the customer must have come through your link on a cookie-enabled computer. If they use someone else’s link, or clear their cookies, or simply don’t allow cookies, the sale will not be tracked to you.

Need Work or an Income? Consider Web Design.

"Professor" Benjamin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:21:24 +0000

Are you looking for a way to make ends meet? Have you been laid off or need a part-time income to help your financial situation? Maybe you should consider getting involved in web design.

Before I get into this post, I want everyone to know there is no magic bean or secret potion to making money. I’m not trying to get you to go to a “meeting” or sign up for the latest “break through” – there is no pie in the sky dream I am selling, but I am going to share a quick idea on how you can really make a good living if you are willing to work at it.

Web design is a growing field. There are people who are experts to those who are novices making money part-time on the web. This is a fact.

If someone asked me today a sure fire way to create a business that would sustain them and allow for the flexibility that so many entrepreneurs dream of, I would say learn how to install and set-up websites and blogs on WordPress and then learn how to customize premium WordPress themes. There is a huge mass of clients who need this kind of help and with millions of people moving onto WordPress, you have a great opportunity.

Aren’t there already a lot of people doing it?

Yes there are, but quite honestly many are not doing a good job at it. There is room for leaders who can do things better or differently. And again, there are millions of people using WP. If you have an eye for design or can learn the Design Hacks we’ve been teaching, then you will really have an edge on the competition.

How do you get started?

My recommendation is visit the commercial WordPress site to learn a little about it. Then I would set up a free blog to see how WP works and watch some our free tutorials from iThemes. Get comfortable with WordPress first!

The idea is to take small steps. Once you’ve done some homework I would suggest taking a few online courses (free or paid) to learn the basics including learning how to set up a hosting account and installing premium themes. It will take an investment of time and money, but for what you do invest, you will get so much more out of it!

Final Thoughts…

I have spent 20 years in the branding and design industry and I have never seen a time where there is as much opportunity as there is today –even with the economy jacked up as it is. I’ve said this to all of the friends in our WebDesign.com community that if I wasn’t a part of this business today, I would be jumping all over the chance to get an All Access Membership and learn to customize our themes.

PLEASE KNOW that I am not a programmer and failed a class on HTML. You don’t have to be a programmer to do this, I can assure you of that, but you will have to learn some things and realize that you just can’t push a button to make this all work. Any worthy goal requires commitment and hard work, but if you are willing to do that, you could have an awesome side or full-time business in web design.

If you have questions, feel free to contact us for conversation.

Your Website Needs a Business

"Professor" Benjamin — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:57:51 +0000

Your business needs a website. That’s important. But even more importantly, your website needs a business.

You can’t just slap up your name in cyberspace and call it good. You need to have a clear and specific strategy for how you’re going to use your website to help your business.

You need a plan:

Educational Marketing – You could use your website to education potential customers about your industry. You offer insight and knowledge and build trust with potential customers.
Customer Service – You could put your site to work as a 24/7 customer service representative. Pack your site with instructions, FAQs, tips and anything that will answer customer questions. You could pair it with the more immediate response of Twitter or other social networking sites to give it a more relational feel and answer questions that don’t fit the standard mold.
Offering Value – You could offer extra value on your website with special deals, coupons, or incentives your customers can’t get anywhere else. Amazon offers value by being cheaper, easier and having a wider selection than any brick and mortar bookstore. If e-commerce isn’t your thing, maybe you’re offering free resources that give customers value and establish a lasting relationship.

Whatever you do, make sure your website has a strategy. The last thing you want is the digital equivalent of a phone book listing.

Educate Your Customers like Apple

"Professor" Benjamin — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:34:06 +0000

I am a Mac fanboy. I bought my first Mac in 1994. I’ve had at least 4 of them, plus 2 iPhones, an iPod, and even had a Newton. So you could say I’m extremely fond of their brand and their awesome products. In fact, most of the WebDesign.com team works on Apple computer (thanks for lowering prices, Apple!).

In the past couples of years I’ve seen Apple’s popularity increase drastically, just judging from the number of tech conferences I’ve been to where I’ve seen a flood of Apple logo lights everywhere in the audience.

And here’s an even better example …

The other day, I was talking with an older gentlemen who was at our house to fix our air conditioning and he noticed my Mac laptop sitting on the couch and told me how much he loved the one he got.

For the next 10 minutes, he went on and on about how much he loved his Apple and how many awesome things he could do with it.

He said he was old-school and didn’t know how to “work a computer.” But his wife bought him a Mac for Christmas last year … and he began to tell me about Apple’s One on One personal training, which I knew existed, because I see customers getting help at their little workstations every time I walk in an Apple store.

He told me that for around $100 he could go in once a week for an hour at a time for a whole year and ask all his questions.

Here’s the Apple website’s description of the program:

“There’s no better way to get set up, get trained, and get going on your new Mac than with a One to One membership at the Apple Retail Store. We’ll transfer your files from your old computer, teach you the basics in face-to-face training sessions, and guide you through more advanced projects as your skills grow.”

If you do the math, Apple could lose money on that endeavor IF someone took advantage of all 52 hour-long sessions. But you know a minuscule percentage actually do. The others probably use 4-5 hours I’d guess, but they all have the peace of mind that they aren’t on an island not knowing how to use their new computers.

The $100 cost is an insurance program for those customers.

But for Apple, it’s so much more. Apple knows the value educating of their customers.

For training like this, they could theoretically lose money – but ultimately my A/C guy will never buy another brand of computer. He’s hooked, he’s trained. And people love familiarity, especially with computer software.

Apple bought a lifetime customer.

They have made the second sale, and the third, and on and on. He’ll also be telling everybody he knows about great Apple is and how easy their computers are to use. He’ll insist they buy the One on One training.

(And, by the way, I’m sure it also saves Apple a ton in support costs because they are doing it in the store and not through a call center!)

Here are some ideas I had thinking through how we are going to educate our clients here at WebDesign.com that you could put to use in your own business:

Tutorials - this has long been a value of mine, writing articles that inform and teach and also creating step-by-step video tutorials that show our clients how to use our products; we are currently building our tutorial library of tutorials as I type
Live Seminars – we’re working on new office space where we can bring in local clients and prospects to our offices in order to teach them online marketing with websites, social media and more
Webinars – we’re going to do the same online through webinars – where people all over the world can come and learn too
Free Downloads – currently we’re offering our 7 Keys to Successful Websites ebook. Ebooks are extremely effective, affordable to produce, and easy to track, but you can also offer audio and video downloadable resources like podcasts
Blogging - blogs are one of the best online educational marketing tools available – they allow you to build relationships with clients while educating them in your area of expertise; our blog is our primary tool currently for educating our prospective customers and will always be a foundational facet of what we do

How are you educating your customers and clients?

Taking The Risk of Blogging

"Professor" Benjamin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 23:31:11 +0000

I remember the circumstances around starting my first blog. A whole mess of fears flooded my mind about how I wasn’t the best at what I did, or even a big name in my field. I wondered if I had enough experience or good enough ideas to share with the world.

Because of those fears, I almost didn’t get started at all. I almost let them consume me and stop me from taking a chance and putting myself and my ideas out there for the world to see and judge and mock.

But I took a risk.

I bought my domain name and hosting. I made my first blog post. Then I made another. Over 600 posts and several years later, I look back fondly at that first blog and what it did for me and my career.

Here’s some of the benefits I reaped because I took a chance on blogging:

I met a number of awesome people because of it – the number one reason to blog is because of the fabulous people you’ll encounter; some of the ones I met through it have become my best friends in the entire world
I learned a lot - and most of it translated into a profitable freelance consulting business, and ultimately two full-fledged business ventures
It opened many doors – because of my blog and the platform I built around it, I got asked to speak at seminars and conferences and was quoted and featured in our state’s largest newspaper
It made me more marketable - I got name exposure with people in my field who didn’t otherwise know me – I got slightly famous in my career role
It gave me more confidence in myself - there’s no doubt you’ll have naysayers, but the comments and feedback were affirmation that I had some talent and people liked who I was and what I did

So many people stop short because of fear. And their awesome potential and ideas are locked within themselves and their current sphere of influence.

That’s extremely disappointing to me!

I’ve said many, many times that there were better people out there, with bigger names and better experience and skill and ideas than me … but they choose not to take a risk.

Take a chance. Put your ideas out there. No regrets!