Recommend Marketing Resources for Hypnotists & Hypnotherapists

This page is a listing of resources to help you market, advertise, and get publicity for your Hypnosis Business. Every one of these I’ve either used, one of my clients has used, or I have done the research on them by asking people I trust about their experiences with the service.

Internet Marketing

Blogging

Wordpress.com (FREE) – You should have a blog. Wordpress is one of the top 2 blogging tools, and It’s my favorite. In fact… this site uses a special optimized Wordpress version. If you are going to have a blog, it should be part of your web site. But that requires a little bit of technical know how or having someone do it for you. The next best alternative is to get a FREE blog at Wordpress.com. You can be up and blogging in about 10 minutes. Then provide a link from your web site.

Wordpress Tutorials (some FREE) – A series of online video tutorials on how to use blogging for business and profit. The first 15 videos are free, after that you have to join the member site. These tutorials break down blogging into very simple easy to understand chunks at about 5-7 minutes each.

Email Service Provider

Aweber – The ONLY email service I ever recommend. Service starts at $19.95/month for up to 500 email addresses. They have the best deliverability of any service I’ve used. Even some costing ten times as much. They have an easy to use interface, have detailed statistics, and even tools for split testing. And you get a 30-Day free trial to see if you like it.

Pay Per Click (PPC) Research

PPC Web Spy (FREE) – This is a new, free, keyword research tool that will allow you to view any website’s Adwords keyword list. You’ll be able to see the keywords that any Adwords advertiser is bidding on! Plus, you’ll be able to see a ton of other extremely valuable market research information.

Keyword Research

WordTracker Keyword Tool (FREE) – Free keyword research tools are getting much harder to come by now that Overture (bought by Yahoo) has shut their free tool down. This is the only one left I trust to give good results. Otherwise if you want keyword research you’ll have to pay or open a Google advertising account.

Google Keyword Tool (FREE) – Google only recently made this tool available outside of their Adwords advertisers. You now have all of Google’s data at your fingertips. Remember, Google has about 70% of all searches done on their system.

Online Advertising

Google Adwords – Hands down the best and fastest way for a business to get targeted advertising online. In 10 minutes you can have you first ads appear beside the search results in Google. And you can target content sites, run banner ads, and soon you’ll be able to order online classifieds in newspapers. One warning, if you don’t learn about how to run successful ads online, you can end up with a HUGE credit card bill in short order. I very highly recommend Perry Marshall’s Definitive Guide to Google Adwords BEFORE you advertise on Google. Note minimum click bids are at $0.05.

Yahoo Search Marketing – Yahoo’s attempt at what Google has done so masterfully. Their interface is poorly thought out, clunky, and annoying to use. Plus they can take up to 3 days to approve your ad. Meanwhile the same ad on Google will have already been shown dozens of times. I only list them here because they still have about 30% of the search market and it would be dumb to not put successful ads here. Test and refine on Google, then put ads that pull on Yahoo. Minimum click bids are $0.10.

CraigsList.org (FREE) – No, it’s not my list. Interestingly enough, their headquarters is around the corner from me. Almost every major population area around the world has it’s own CraigsList. You can place ads for your services there free. The only catch is they are gone in 2 weeks, so you have to keep putting them back up. Worth testing, but don’t do it for long if it doesn’t bring you clients. It’s a very good place to advertise workshops.

TextLinkAds.com – You can purchase ads placed on their network comprised of numerous web publications. You can target sites by demographics and content. They claim you also get SEO (Search Engine Optimization) links from the ad, so it serves two purposes.

Shopping Cart Services

1ShoppingCart – This is the ONLY Shopping Cart System I recommend for a business making under $150,000 a year. And many $1 Million dollar businesses use this system because it has all the major tools you need for online business.

They offer a shopping cart, CRM database, unlimited auto-responders, email newsletters, digital product delivery system, adtracker system, and a tightly integrated affiliate system.

This was the original and still most widely used shopping cart by small business Entrepreneurs online. And it’s the number one choice of some of the top Internet Marketers.

1ShoppingCart provides a 30 day trial for $3.95. The monthly rate depends on which services you choose and ranges from $29 – $79/month. For most Hypnotherapists, the $49 service level will have everything you need.

Web Hosting

Blue Host – I’ve used them for one of my sites and found them to be a solid provider in their cost range. Bluehost has made its mark in the hosting industry by offering low cost hosting with an emphasis on customer service. You can actually call support on the phone, which is a major criteria for me to use any web host. This site is hosted on Bluehost.

Pair Networks – A slightly more expensive hosting service, but the quality of service shows. And they are one of the few hosting services that provide a mirrored drive with your hosting. And you can have multiple web sites with unique IP addresses. If you don’t know what I just said means… then you probably don’t need this hosting service. Power users will love it.

Domain Name Service

MyDomain – This is the service I use. In my early Internet years used GoDaddy, but they made their interface one of the most obnoxious of any site I’ve used. I moved all my domains to MyDomain a couple years ago.

Pay only $7 for your domain. Click here and use coupon code 7domain

Why use a domain service? So you have full control of a very important asset, the domain name(s) your business uses. DO NOT let your hosting company get your domain for you, because they will own it. This can cause major problems. You have been warned.

Direct Mail & Print Advertising

Market Research

Standard Rate & Data Service (SRDS) – This is the bible of Direct Marketing lists, magazines, and catalogs. They have been providing this service for 85 years. You can read it at any major public library. They also have an online service at srds.com.

Where To Get Direct Mail Lists

• InfoUSA also has some list and mailing services. Order their free catalog and familiarize yourself with mailing lists. Infousa has been around 30 years so they are a reputable firm with lots of experience.
• SalesGenie.com is an online leads service you pay for by the month. They are a division of InfoUSA. They have 2 monthly services, one at $90 and one at $180. This is for a business that will need a lot of access to lists and a lot of leads.
• GoLeads.com. Another source is a service online you can pay for by the month. They offer residential and business listings for 9.95/month. You can choose your criteria (called “selects” in direct mail lingo) such as age range, zip code, etc. and they generate a downloadable list for you. They claim the lists are 93% accurate, meaning they keep them up to date. Your mileage may vary.

Direct Mail – Full Service

Datum Direct – Dave Brady runs Datum Direct, and is one of those people with whom it’s a pleasure to do business. Some of the sharpest entrepreneurs I know use him. Call toll free (800) 676-6584. Or if you are Chicago, you can find them at 1026 W Van Buren St.

Direct Mail – Printers

City Print – They specialize in printing for Direct Mail. They can print anything you can imagine, and fast. Call Toll Free (866) 907-1222

Product Fulfillment Services

Fufillment Central – A print on demand service for notebook type products, compact discs, and DVDs. $25 set up. $2 per CD etc. They carry no inventory. Keep your masters until an order comes in. Good for small batches. Can get cheaper services if shipping large quantities on a regular basis.

This is probably the best choice when you start out to learn how to use a fulfillment company and keep your costs at a minimum. They will get too expensive if you start shipping a lot of merchandise on a daily basis.

Speaker Fulfillment Services – Originally started to help members of the National Speakers Association with the products they sold at the back of the room, they evolved into a full service fulfillment house. They will print, assemble, and ship your products anywhere in the world within 48 hours of receiving the order.

Used by many info marketers, including clients I have worked with. They also handle returns. Based the center of the USA it’s usually only 2-days to ship anywhere in the country or Canada. They do keep inventory, but I think you can specify how much to keep. 812-235-8050

McMannis Duplication & Fulfillment Inc. – Even though the name says ‘duplication’, they do much more than just audio/video duplication. They are a full service fulfillment, and direct mail house too. And if you have special printing needs, they can handle that as well.

If you plan to mix shipping products and doing direct mail marketing, they are a one-stop-shop and your best choice of the three. For specialized Direct Mail, they work closely with City Print as they are located a few minutes away. 620-628-4411

Publicity, Press Releases, & Article Marketing

Publicity & Press Releases

PRweb – A low cost Internet distribution service for press releases. Minimum level is $40 (used to be free). It fairly easy to use, and the best part is, your release will be in Google News and Yahoo News the day it is released. Often used as part of an SEO strategy since bloggers will pick up stories and they become permanent links back to your site.

Expert Click – America’s Favorite Newsroom Resource in print, on the web and via LexisNexis® since 1984. I haven’t used this one yet, but I’m planning on it soon. You pay $799 for a year and get to put out 1 press release a week. They also send it to over 10,000 newsources, and you get to be in their “Yearbook of Experts” which POSITIONS you as The Expert.

Article Marketing

Ezine Articles (FREE) – A free service where you can publish articles. These articles will get picked up by other web sites, ezines, and blogs that need content, and get indexed at Ezine Articles with links back to your site. This is the best-of-breed directory site for putting out articles. There are hundreds of others, some of which are useful. But start here. Note: you can put an article up in about 10 minutes, but it can take 3-4 days for it to show up on their site.

Article Marketing Experts – A fee based service that will optimize your articles and see they get prominent placement in both online and offline publications. It’s not cheap, but you won’t find this quality of service anywhere else. It’s for when you get tired of spending hours submitting your own articles and want to target the more prominent publications like major magazines & newspapers.

Merchant Services & Credit Card Processing

Direct Pay Merchant Account & eCommerce Services – Reputable firm used by many business both online and offline. You can also reach them on their toll free number 877-779-9800

PowerPay.biz – An easy to work with merchant service. As long as you are straight with them they’ll never hurt your business by freezing your money.

Paypal For Businesses – This is the fastest and easiest merchant account to setup. Be sure if you already have a personal PayPal account you do NOT use that one. It’s no problem to open another one, and it’s a bad idea to mix personal and business accounts.

Outsourcing Office Tasks

Shieff Services Inc. – A one-stop shopping business for outsourcing all your daily office tasks. They will answer phones, process orders, work with your vendors, and even chase down overdue bills or credit cards that went bad. They have a very high reputation among even the most demanding entrepreneurs. Call them at 512-353-5037