Bring the Internet Home

A funny thing has happened since we discovered the world at our fingertips. Everywhere you look, it's global this, world-wide that, national whatever. It's as if hometowns and cities are small potatoes, not worth fooling with. As online marketers, we're so busy prospecting far and wide that the gold in our own backyards remains untouched.

So here we are, all trying to scratch out a living online by selling e-books, software, etc…to each other. Everyone knows that's where the money is - selling products and services to other aspiring "Internet marketers." It's a vicious - some would say incestuous - circle.

But wait!…there's another HUGE, virtually untapped, pool of potential customers right under your nose. Look around. They're everywhere. Local consumers and small business owners in your neighborhood that don't have a clue about the Internet.

Oh sure, they know about it, the same way we know about outer space. It's a big black hole "out there" somewhere. But really, most regular people have no idea of the power of the Internet

But little by little, the lines between the virtual and the dirt worlds are blurring. "Website" and "email" have been household words. Consumers are regularly going online to do research before purchasing products and services. Online sales are skyrocketing. All signs point to a successful marriage of traditional and online media.

Yet, the vast majority of online marketers are doing the same thing brick-and- mortars are doing -- but in reverse. They're ignoring the offline world the way that most local businesses ignore the Internet.

It's time for us to wake up and see what's right in front of us.

Look at Ralph Wilson and Ken Evoy, unarguably two of the smartest people online today. Ralph created www.netassisted.com - combining traditional and internet marketing to "NetAssist" local businesses and churches.

Ken's Service Sellers Masters Course is "the complete resource for building a client base for your service-oriented business, whether your clients are around the world... or around the block." (For more info: localtsms@sitesell.net)

It's time to bring the Internet home.

How? Use the knowledge and skills you've gained from your online travels to make a living…offline. Help small local businesses in your community see what they're missing. Help local consumers find local businesses so that all of your community's dollars aren't sucked into the global vortex.

Here are some ideas:

Local Email Marketing

Here's a valuable service that small businesses will pay good money for because they don't want to do it themselves. This is a business that's growing like wildfire, especially if you niche yourself. For instance, Fishbowl - http://www.fishbowl.com - specializes in managing email list management services for restaurants.

If this interests you, check out this ebook that tells you how to set up a business to manage small business email marketing: http://www.geolocal.com/localemail Several LBT readers have written to tell me how they started a local email marketing business after getting this book --remember WendyBluEyez from Issue #20?And just this week I got a note from a guy telling me how he started his local email service in February, and now has 32 accounts at $77 a month.

SiteBuildIt!

Here's a golden opportunity for you to help someone get online without having to do the drudge work of creating the site yourself. For mere pennies, a small business owner can get an all-in-one site-building, site-hosting, and site-marketing product that makes it easy for them to build a professional, popular, and profitable business. If they don't want to build it, you can build it for them. Either way, you get a hefty commission when they buy SBI! on your recommendation. Not a SiteSell affiliate yet? http://local.sitesell.com

Local Portals

Create your own local community portal, then use it to cross promote your email marketing service, SBI!. and any other online business or affiliate programs. Sell ads to local businesses who can't afford to pay for print advertising. Build a relationship with them and eventually you'll be able to introduce them to SBI!, email marketing, etc.

But don't just fill it up with ads -- create a real community resource, a place where folks can get useful information along - local events, important phone numbers, website listings for city government, etc. Make it search engine friendly and use both online and offline promotion to drive traffic. Here's the system I'm using to create a local portal for my community: http://www.geolocal.com/localportal

Coffee News

All business owners understand print. If you can afford it, you might want to become a Coffee News publisher. Coffee News is a local restaurant publication that you publish and distribute, earning income by selling ads to local businesses. Of course publishing isn't for everyone. It's a franchise, so you do need a bit of money to get started and keep the papers flowing while you build your client list. And someone has to get out there and pound the pavement. But the cross promotion possibilities are endless.

As you probably know, we became Coffee News publishers a few months ago, and the first thing we did was put up a website that features our advertisers on every page. If they have a website, we link to it. If they don't, we create a page for them on www.coffeenewsfb.com. Distributors are listed as well, along with their address and phone number or URL. And you'd better believe there's an ad for www.geolocal.com and my book in every issue!

And of course in every issue, we give readers a reason to go to the website - for community information, to play the Coffee News Word Search, input local happenings - and more exposure to our advertisers. We're now working on a local portal for Missouri City at www.mocitybusiness.com. It will be cross-linked with www.coffeenewsfb.com, which will generate even more local traffic for both sites…and give our advertisers even more exposure. Plus it's an option for local businesses who can't afford print advertising. If we decide to offer email marketing, we can promote that too. SBI! is a natural fit here too. Once you get that synergy going, there's no stopping it!

The point is, there are plenty of people who need your help and expertise right in your own backyard. You and I both know they cannot afford to ignore the Internet forever. Who better to show them than you?

Become a part of your business community. Join your chamber of commerce and networking organizations such as BNI (www.bni.com) and Le Tip (www.letip.com). Get to know local business owners, form relationships.

I won't lie to you, it's not going to be easy or quick. Small business owners can be hard to reach. They're wary and suspicious. Many were "burned" during the dot-bomb era and won't listen to a word you say. Some of them can make a dollar cry, they squeeze it so tight. Somebody's always trying to sell them something, and more than one snake-oil salesman has tried to "help them get on the Internet."

Like anything worth having, it will take hard work. You'll have to win their trust and truly have their best interests at heart. If you're just trying to make a fast buck, they'll smell it. Get out of the role of salesperson -- you're a consultant, helping them build their business.

Remember, they don't KNOW that they don't know…but you do. If you stay the course, in the long run it will pay off, both for you and for them.

Sharon Fling is the author of "How To Promote Your Local Business On the Internet", and creator of GeoLocal.com, the web's largest resource for using the Internet to promote small local business online. Visit http://www.geolocal.com and subscribe to GeoLocal's free Tip of the Week.