Are you interested in selling something? Products, services, ideas, brands, charities, organizations, even yourself are all things that as entrepreneurs we focus on selling. In fact the very essence of being an entrepreneur is selling.  If you want to take something and turn it into a business then at some point you will need to sell. Sales is as old as time and while there are certainly timeless truths and techniques to being successful at making a sale, one thing that has changed over the centuries are the methods and tools. 1995 Seems Like Another Lifetime When I started my business career full time over 15 years ago the tools we had at our disposal for making sales were, TV, the phone, fax machine, direct mail, print media and trade shows.  There really wasn't any Internet to speak of.  Sure it existed but it hadn't made its way into the average household. Fast forward to 2010 and the sea of Internet tools available to small businesses is deep and wide.

Which side of the digital divide are you on?   Are you a Luddite or a mayor on foursquare?  While you may have been able to straddle the divide over the past decade you will not be able to in the next. Soon being on the wrong side will at best lead to a life of complete frustration and at worst leave you powerless to interact affectively with society. Even worse, as an entrepreneur if you're on the wrong side of the divide you stand no chance of success in the coming decades. Here are some things to put in perspective about how far we've come in the last ten years. No one used Google (founded in 1999) No major social networks (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace) No one used online video (YouTube founded in 2005!) Broadband Internet was in .03% of US households (Today its 67%) 15% of US households has mobile phones (Today its 90%) MMS (picture messaging) didn't exist; SMS hardly used No Paypal MP3 portable players hardly existed (today 75%) When you read that list you may think, wow we've come a long way in a short time. However the next decade will have an even greater impact on the digital divide. There is a massive division being established between those whom embrace, manipulate and thrive in the current technological landscape and those that don't. Interestingly enough this division has nothing to do with socio-economic background or even age or gender.  It is strictly an aptitude and attitude.  The pace of technology and the network affects that are created only guarantee that this division will only get wider and wider. As an entrepreneur the greatest thing you could do to prepare yourself for this next decade is to embrace, learn and engage in technology as much as possible.  Don't get left on the wrong side. To help you keep up-to-date on the right side of digital divide I've created this free newsletter.  Sign up today.

Where do most of your customers come from? It's a question you should obviously know and I'm sure you do. However have you ever sat down and looked at all the ways in which customers reach your business?  You should list all the ways, then see which ones come to the top as being the best for providing new customers. If the Internet is not in your top two then something is wrong. Over the next 12 months you need to develop a plan to increase your Internet leads to the point of being your #1 source. I wrote a two part article on Internet marketing for small business that addresses some of the reasons why. Internet Leads Jumped to #1 Recently website inquires surpassed trade shows as our #1 source of leads.  This is a trend that's been 10 years in the making.  Slowly, year after year, our Internet leads increased and its now to the point where our website will provide more leads this year than trade shows.  It's not just an "economy" issue either. How about you what are you top sources of leads? Leave a comment below, I would love to hear about them. Photo Credit

Do you get or earn attention online? There is a big difference. The first one goes after, seizes, takes and captures. It's the essence of spam. It's the method behind those hidden opt in messages. It's the motive behind buying large email lists. It's the idea that someones attention is just there for the taking. The latter one gains, merits, receives and deserves. It's the essence behind online conversations. It's the method of using social networking the right way. It's the motive behind listening on the web. It's the idea that someones attention is valuable and something to be gained. Which one of these does your online business philosophy most align with? Earned attention is something that historically wasn't necessary.  There were only so many TV stations, newspapers and magazines that a consumer could get information from. Today though, with more choices, less time and a faster pace of life using old tactics to try to get someones attention isn't going to work. Unfortunately the only thing they will get is...ignored. photo credit

"Attract more leads to your website today! " "Order now! Guaranteed to increase your website traffic!" " Triple your website traffic in 30 days!" I get so tired of these offers, it reminds me of the "half naked girls" tactic.  Every year I travel all around the world to attend boat shows for my company. Without fail every show I go to has one ingenious company that has figured out the tactic to drawing a crowd - half naked girls. By strategically placing women in bathing suits on the boat the crowds grow. It always amuses me to see the crowds gather around, I can't help but think how someone from that company must be saying "look at the crowds, what a great idea this is". The problem is that while there may be a crowd gathered around a) they aren't there to see the product and b) they couldn't afford it.  The tactic is attracting the wrong crowd.  This same principal holds true when it comes to attracting traffic to your website. The quickest sign to me that you have no idea what you are doing is by making one of these hollow, senseless, traffic increasing claims. Gathering a crowd for a crowds sake is not what your business is looking for. Attracting more website traffic is not your goal.  Attracting more qualified website traffic is. One hundred interested, motivated and qualified leads are much more important than boosting your traffic stats. The reality is most sites already get enough traffic, it's conversion to that next step in the sales process that they need to work on. However that's not to say that you shouldn't continually be working on ways of cultivating more qualified traffic to your site. Magnetize More Qualified Leads To Your Website So how do you go about building qualified traffic?  The tools that you want to focus on are many of the Internet Marketing ideas we cover at this website. Here's a list of 9 specific ways you can increase traffic.