But the other problem people have with domains is that never ending quest for the perfect name. Some people will spend weeks or even months coming up with the perfect domain name then they find it's already taken.

In this episode I help you by talking about the thought process of picking a domain. It can be difficult, yes I know but it also shouldn't be as complex as some people make it seem.

Oh, by the way. When you buy a hosting plan from these guys, they give you a domain for free!

The post Driving with Oscar – Episode 6 – Picking a Domain Name appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

You can't afford to ignore this topic. I recently helped someone recover their accounts after he got hacked. It was messy.

The post Driving with Oscar – Episode 5 – Online Account Security & Passwords appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

In this episode I talk about blogging for business. Some tips, and what's the difference between a blogpost and a product listing. Also, why most businesses fail at blogging.

I talk about TV, radio and the internet and how advertising has evolved and how you need to adapt to it in today's social media world.

Blogging helps with your business if you do it properly.

A blog can be a reason for someone to visit your website and give you some mindshare. It's really good to use a blogpost to tell a story but not great to sell a product.

If you need a blog started, then I recommend you take a look at this guide on how to start a blog all by yourself, in about 30 minutes.

The post Driving with Oscar – Episode 4 – Blogging for Business appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

But in any case, I am your host, Oscar Gonzalez and this time I want to talk to you about starting a business online.

Here are the notes from the video. If you find corrections, please leave a comment.

Requirements to start a business online:

• Audience
• Product
• Marketing

Keyword Research

Use Google for keyword research and take a look at the bottom of your results. See video for full explanation. This is a good start before you start marketing your product or service.

What about local? Can you mix online and offline?

Do competitive research and find out if and who is in your same space. What are they doing differently, why do they stand out? What are they missing and can you fill that with your own services to stand out and take the lead?

You need a website

Even if they search for you on Yelp, Bing, Google, anywhere else you still need a website of your own.

You can get your website for free through one of my websites, or just get in touch with me and I can build your website for free. Try this http://realfreewebsite.com (done for you), or http://howtoblogtutorials.com (do it yourself).

If you just want some recommendations, try these guys. They will set up your WordPress website for you too.

What else do you need?

I added the following to these notes. I'm not sure I cover it in the video but I got a little sidetracked while driving so I had to make it up somehow.

Fulfillment & Returns

You need to make sure you can sustain the product you promised and you have all  your channels for delivery in place. If you are shipping a physical product then make sure you have found the best ways to ship your product. Did you negotiate a better rate? Can you outsource the entire thing to a warehouse and shipping service?

Also, if you need to handle a refund or a return, have you prepared yourself and your staff for that and do you know how to handle these?

I hate having to fulfill, I rather have someone else take care of that which is why I love affiliate marketing. I just promote the product and the original vendor of the product fulfills the orders and maintains

Lead management

When someone is interested in your product but doesn't buy right away, they are a special type of lead. When they ask about something specific then they are a different type of lead. And then if they buy something they are no longer a lead but a customer.

You need to find a way to manage these groups of people and the way I do it is with Aweber. You can get it for free here for 30 days.

Customer Management

Once your leads and prospects become customers then you need to take care of them in a very different way. I recommend  you start using custom fields in your Aweber account.

With custom fields, you can enter things about the customer into their profile and then use this to send special announcements to a small segment of people in your list. This should increase conversions and increase loyalty.

The post Driving With Oscar – Episode 2 – Tips on Starting a Business Online appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I talk about list building and how it is similar to dating. I also talk about the infamous "free, just pay shipping and handling" method.

List building is essential to any business, the tactics change over time, but the goal doesn't. You need a list and at least two segments, buyers and leads. You can always segment more beyond that and you should, but you need at least two main groups.

For the lead generation part I use two programs. But at the very basic level, you need just the second one.

#1 Optinmonster, because it integrates with WordPress beautifully. It creates intelligent lead generation boxes and helps you retain more traffic on your WordPress blog. Rumor has it that it will soon be platform agnostic so I highly recommend it. You can get Optinmonster here.

#2 LeadPages is the other app I use. This has entire websites that you can build as landing pages and they are some of the best out there. They are mobile friendly, easy to use, and will work with any website you already have or will host them for you in their blazing fast hosting service (included in the price).

They are the leaders in creating squeeze pages and I highly recommend them. You can check out Leadpages here.

#2.5 ClickFunnels. Since I first wrote this post, I've added ClickFunnels to my daily toolbox and I recommend it as well. This is a more robust platform than most other SAAS. You can create squeeze pages or landing pages, or entire funnels with A/B split testing plus they have Actionetics and Backpack. The closest to an "all-in-one" solution. Watch the webinar here.

And of course, as I have mentioned before, I use Aweber to maintain my list. Both Optinmonster and Leadpages connect with Aweber seamlessly to make my life easier. Aweber is available now with a totally free 30 day trial and you can check that out here in this link.

If you can't afford Optinmonster or Leadpages, you can still use Aweber on its own.

Aweber has built-in lead capture forms and you can even create simple squeeze pages with it. I just prefer to use better tools for that, but if you just need to start somewhere, start with Aweber for free.

The post Driving with Oscar – Episode 3 – List Building Tips appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Primarily you'll find me driving when I'm visiting friends, going out to eat and to review a restaurant,  taking my daughter somewhere or going to run one of the meetups I lead, like Dot Com Lifestyle or Free Lunch Friday. The internet has afforded me the freedom to avoid the long commutes most people have because they have to go to work.

Specifically in this video, I introduce myself and talk about a few things. The main topic is based around a question I received from my friend Loren.  He wanted to know if he should go into a saturated niche. I went a little longer than expected but the next few episodes are less than 10 minutes.

Enjoy, and please give me your feedback and if you have a question you want me to answer, leave it in the comments!

The post Driving with Oscar – Episode 1 – Should I try a Saturated Niche? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.