Dedicated to Athena Parthenos, the great Parthenon was
designed by architects Ictinus and Callicrates and built
over the years 447-432 B.C. Basically it is a simple
rectangular building, 237 feet long by 110« feet wide, with
Doric columns around its four sides. A pediment on each end
rises to a slanting roof. With the exception of the roof
frame and parts of the ceiling, the entire temple is
constructed in marble. To this day the Parthenon remains
the masterpiece of consummate proportions.
Do you notice a very important fact about this structure?
It is this: the heavy roof is supported by numerous
pillars. Without those pillars, the roof would collapse. My
personal mentor and friend Jay Abraham calls this The
Parthenon Principle.
The Parthenon Principle, simply explained, is this: Have
multiple pillars generate revenue rather than one or two.
Your business could collapse if it's only supported by one
or two income streams. Too many business owners gamble
everything on a single revenue source. They often get
attached to one type of marketing - and overlook the fact
that there are at least a dozen income streams they could
access!
Most companies in general, generate revenue - through one
or two methods they depend on and use over and over and
over. However, what happens when one of those "pillars"
crashes? If just ONE pillar were to go down in this
scenario, you would risk losing up to 50% of your business.
Ouch!
What happens if one of the pillars goes down? Do the math!
If one of these TEN pillars went down, it wouldn't be
catastrophic - it may even represent up to 10% of your
business.
I submit however, what if your business had 15, or 20, or
even 30 DIFFERENT ways, or "pillars" for generating
revenue? That would make a difference, wouldn't it?
What may not seem obvious is this: the more "pillars" you
have, the larger and heavier the roof that you can support.
The more income-generating methods you have, the larger
revenue roof you will have. I will show you how to have
more pillars by opening your eyes to what the possibilities
are, and what opportunities you might be missing.
In this article I am going to introduce you to a bakers
dozen (yes, 13) different pillars your online business can
use to generate revenue. Is that all there is, 13? No, but
lets start here first and if you're bold enough, I may
follow-up this article with a part 2 or even, part 3. As
you go through these "pillars" think of the ways that you
can apply them for your business. DO NOT, at first glance,
discard them and say they don't apply to you. Think of the
possibilities of how they COULD apply to you.
On to the list:
Keywords
Sit down and brainstorm as many keywords and phrases that
someone might use to find a business like yours on Internet
search engines. Be sure that you not only take into account
not only keywords and phrases you might come up with, but
also get fresh outside perspectives. Once you have the
list, refine it to about 20 keywords and have your
webdesigner insert these at the top of your webpages in the
section in this format:
keyword3, keyword4...">
Include your URL on offline materials
Put your website address onto every piece of marketing
material you have, be it business cards, letterheads,
invoices, brochures, everything. You don't have to include
the http:// just the www.yourcompanydomain.com will do just
fine.
Capture email addresses from site visitors
BIG tip here. Design a box on your website where visitors
can leave you their name and email address, minimally.
Offer them something in exchange (see next tip) and include
a checkbox where the visitor gives you consent to e-mail
them updates about products or services. This gives you
"permission" to market to them and even remind them to
revisit your website again. Keep these in a database for
future and frequent use.
Publish an Ezine
No bones about - producing an ezine (newsletter your email)
on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis, is hard work. But
it is one of the best ways, once you've established a solid
list of email addresses, to keep in touch with those who
have visited your site, build loyalty, develop brand
awareness, and build future business. Don't make it long
and boring, but relevant, easy to read, and something your
reader can make use of. You can distribute it via your
email program or subscribe to a listserver.
Press releases
If you have a newsworthy event, why not consider writing a
brief, one-page release and send it to print periodicals
and other ezines? You can do it by hand or use the services
of Internet News Bureau [www.internetnewsbureau.com], Eric
Ward's URLwire [www.urlwire.com], and the Netrageous PR
Center found at [www.netrageousresults.com/PR/index.html]
E-mail Signature
Every major email program today will allow you to assign a
"signature" to appear at the end of every message you send
or reply to. Suggestion: make it quick and to the point
(your name, company, phone number, website address, your
email, and one sentence of four-to-six words of why you are
the best service offering).
Search Engine Submission
I've written other articles on this, but suffice to say
that you should submit your web pages to search engines. To
do basic no-cost submission, visit each of the top search
engines listed at Search Engine Watch
[www.searchenginewatch.com]and manually submit on each
website. Also visit free submission services at websites
like JimTools Submit [www.jimtools.com/submit.html], and
WebStep Top 100 [www.mmgexpress.com]. Keep in mind that
over 90% of the search engine traffic to most Web sites
comes from 8 to 10 major search engines.
Employ Search Engine Optimization
Simply submitting to the search engine does not guarantee
you'll receive any new visitors. If people cannot find you
in the first 10 to 30 matches of a search, then submitting
was a waste of time. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization,
focuses on optimizing your pages to improve ranking by
creating gateway pages, each tuned for a particular search
phrase and search engine. The process of submission,
monitoring, reporting and resubmitting is a large one,
beware, but effective SEO can drive very targeted traffic
to your website.
Join a banner exchange
Basically, you join a program where you agree to show a
rotating banner on your website for other members, and they
do the same for you. There is a good resource of banner
exchanges at Banner & Link Exchange Networks
[www.bannertips.com/exchangenetworks.shtml]. Smart tips:
when reviewing stats, make sure you look at click-thru, not
impressions, and try to join a network that members serve
the same target customer demographic.
Start an affiliate program
If you sell products on your website, then absolutely,
start an affiliate program. Simply stated, your program
pays a commission to other websites whose links to you
result in an actual sale. The goal is to give people
financial incentive to promote your website and products. I
suggest you read this [www.clickz.com/article/cz.2645.html]
excellent article from Joel Gehman, founder of EchoFactor,
for factors to consider if you decide to outsource your
affiliate program, and a major comparison of the top guns.
I don't suggest you build your own; read this article
[www.clickz.com/cgibin/gt/article.html?article1737] to
find out why.
Autoresponder
Imagine a completely automated system that delivers instant
information to your potential customers and then
personalizes follow up with them automatically over a pre-
assigned schedule? This is what an Autoresponder will do
for you: a prospect visits your website and enters his/her
name and email address in a form/box requesting
information. An Autoresponder will automatically send the
visitor a personalized email reply; some autoresponders
will send follow-up emails at later dates, add this visitor
to a database, and remove prospects that don't convert to
customers. For a sampling of free autoresponders, go here
[www.emailaddresses.com/emailauto.htm].
Contests and Sweepstakes
Properly and tactfully done, contests will draw visitors to
your website. Ask entrants to fill out a small online form
that will give you demographics and most importantly, their
email addresses for later permission marketing. You can
easily find gift sponsors by offering them free advertising
in exchange.
eBooks
The number 1 reason people go online besides sending &
receiving email, is to do research. eBooks are simply
electronic books that can be downloaded to the user's
computer and read when they, the website visitor, is not
online paying internet access fees. Its very inexpensive to
create a compelling eBook that you can sell, and with
today's technology, you can protect your intellectual
property. The author of eBook Car Secrets Revealed sells
his eBook for $29.95 and sells 17000 copies every single
year, generating half-a-million dollars in yearly income.
Use these pillars to generate additional revenue streams
for your business. Each one could effectually stand on
their own, but together, than can generate enormous upside
potential with little or virtually no downside risk.
Want to build a bigger Parthenon?
Then what are you waiting for?
About the Author
Daniel Ramos is the President of Genesislogic Inc., a New
York City based ebusiness that helps companies massively
profit from the Internet. If you
want to learn how to massively profit from the Internet,
vist WWW.GENESISLOGIC.COM and download from an extensive
online library of resources, call us toll-free at
800-590-5155, or send an email to INFO@GENESISLOGIC.COM