Not only do I talk about this tool with students and readers, but also with offline clients of mine when consulting with them, for credibility’s sake. Here’s a example: While some clients have insisted on using PPC without even knowing a thing about it, the majority are either just a bit curious, or downright want nothing to do with it. Although you won’t find yourself approaching too many business owners with the idea of PPC, it is a way to establish extra credibility with the ones who ask about how it works and want to know more. There are some that actually do inquire about that “yellow highlighted area at the top of Google.”

Using the Commercial Intent Tool for your offline consulting business is much like using it for your own article marketing, PPC, and SEO purposes. It is ultimately used to determine the probability of someone looking to either make a purchase or receive information based on what keywords were used in their search query.

So, let’s say you have a client. Your client is a restaurant owner of 4 local Italian restaurants and is interested in your internet marketing services. We’ll call him Frank. Frank knows almost nothing about internet marketing, so you decide to show him a couple things on your laptop during your initial consultation. (which, by the way, is a GREAT way to start establishing quick credibility). One of the ways (out of many) that you establish credibility is by showing him Microsoft’s Commercial Intent Tool. You show him that a user searching for the phrase, “Italian food in XXX city” returns a lower commercial intent probability than “Italian restaurant in XXX city,” revealing that there is between an 80%-90% chance that the user is looking to spend money at a local Italian restaurant. Frank stares at the screen for a moment, then looks over to you, clearly impressed and a bit bewildered (and this is good). Team this up with the other instant credibility building techniques and you’ve landed yourself a few thousand dollars, with some recurring maintenance income on top of that.

This can virtually be used with any offline business, any market or niche - just to prove how important it is to establish effective keyword research when looking to leverage internet marketing for an offline business. It is important to remember that most clients you interact with will know little to nothing about effective internet marketing. It is up to you to show them strategies that are easily implemented so that they identify you as the professional, and put you to work for them right away.

(P.S. If you have any trouble with understanding the commercial intent tool, post your questions in a comment below and I’ll reply as soon as I see it. Otherwise, your comments and thoughts are appreciated.)

Click here to go to the Commercial Intent Tool

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One thing’s for certain, Google has a massive stake in the internet and the way we leverage the web to make money. I couldn’t even possibly begin to explain all of the tools, resources and advantages that Google has made available to us. Google has affected the way everyone uses the internet and so far, it’s been in a good way (aside from the G-slap). If you really start to look at both Twitter and Google, you’ll notice some pretty stark similarities.

A very apparent similarity between both Google and Twitter that I believe can be attributed to their success is they both sold simple. When Google was released, Yahoo was on top of the search engine wars but their page was literally inundated with just… a mess. Google provided a clean, easy to use simple way to search online and has since made searching online popular. Twitter, on the other hand, came along and took micro-blogging by storm, and is growing at an exponential rate because they introduced a simple, organized way of keeping in contact with friends and colleagues and has since made micro-blogging popular.

So then, what’s with all this talk about #Twitter #Search being better than Google? Here’s my take on it: Because of the huge number of people communicating through Twitter daily, hourly and even by the minute - it has allowed anyone to search anything that might be going on in the world right now or in the last 12 hours. It is a better way of keeping tabs on what’s going on around the globe than Google because there’s no waiting ’til tomorrow to find out. When President Obama went on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last Thurday, I found out and was able to watch it because I did a Twitter search for Obama and saw that someone had just posted about the show running. I didn’t have to wait until the next day when someone uploaded it to Youtube. Want to know about anything that just happened with virtually anything that exists? Twitter search it. If not used for social networking, it is used as a real-time search engine - and Google cannot duplicate that.

There will be a new mainstream way of networking, social contact, searching, promoting and possibly even more. Is Twitter better than Google? Only in some ways. Google will obviously keep hold of its powerful stake in the internet, and will probably move towards ways to embrace Twitter. One thing’s for certain: the power of Twitter has yet to be fully embraced by many companies and many people, and therefore can only keep growing. I think in the end, Twitter’s longevity in stability is secure because of it’s search capabilities and the users who contribute to it in real-time. Regardless, it sure will be exciting to see which directions Twitter moves toward.

“In times of change, learners inherit the Earth…
… while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world…
… that no longer exists.”
- Eric Hoffer

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One of the very first steps to take when beginning with this model is to actually talk to business owners. As simple as this seems, it has proven to be a daunting process for many people. If you aren’t used to speaking with people you don’t know or are easily intimidated, then yes - I can see it being somewhat of a challenge. Somewhat. But in order to be successful with this (and most things), you must have a vision and strategy, you have to identify your constraints, tackle them head on and as one of the greatest brands of our time says: Just Do It.

Remember that your potential clients want to make money just as much as you do, so cater to their thought process and convince them that you genuinely do want to help them make mo’ money. I’ll repeat: YOU MUST GENUINELY want to help them ADD to their profits. When you first speak or meet with a client, they will not know you and their lazy skeptic may kick in. A GREAT first question to ask a business owner is, “How do you stay in touch with your current customers?” Most business owners will reply with, “well, I don’t, really.” Make them aware of the apparent value of staying in touch with customers. Explain to them the importance of having an auto responder built into their website and use real world conversions to show them the income potential that they could have by incorporating lead capture mechanisms on their website. Assume whatever number makes sense to the business owners respective market, and explain the auto responder system to your potential client.

For example: There’s a popular restaurant down here in Florida that sees around 600 people a day on average. If the owner prints, “Visit our website and enter your name and email to receive a FREE appetizer! www.OurRestaurantsWebsite.com” on every guest check, then you can expect 60-100 people to sign up per day based on only a 10-17% conversion rate. Run this for only two weeks, and the owner would have around 1,000 customers on his list to keep in contact with, build a stronger relationship with, and to email promotions any time they want to. This is significantly huge, because you now have a highly targeted list who KNOWS what it’s like to buy from the owner, was satisfied enough to enter their name and email, and is ready to visit again and spend more money.

Replicate this example with literally any business model and the owner will see results. You already know how autoresponders, websites, SEO and video’s work, so if they are without these things - then you’re in for a higher paying job.

Want more? Enter your name and email on the right hand side and receive my FREE Offline IM Consulting Success Report. Full of examples, proven strategies and tips on how to get started, maintain, and outsource a REAL business model that you can use NOW to make MORE MONEY using skills you already have. It’s totally FREE.

Remember: Move WITH the money - not away from it.

For those of you interested in offline internet marketing consulting, there is a ton of money to be made out there as brick and mortar businesses genuinely need our help and services. Despite all the economic turmoil, this year so far has been outstanding for me in terms of success with offline internet marketing consulting and I’ll be passing on some advice, tips and general experiences that go along with this market.

Remember - it’s a wide open market, and business owners REALLY do need YOUR help.

Oh, yeah - comments on the new site are welcomed and appreciated.