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To get clients, you either reach out to them directly, or have them find you. Here are a few ways to help clients find you.

BLOGS ‘Everyone’ has a blog. So simple to set up. So simple to maintain. Use a template or hire a designer. Get WordPress. But do it. Just do it. Start writing a few times a week. Even if it’s 300 words. Write about what you know, what you think, what you’re annoyed with.

Because my selling model is so unique, my challenge is to find visionary thinkers – hence the need to write interesting material that will help them find me. I write two unique 750 word articles a week to broaden my range of readers and trial new ideas. My blog is my free playground.

One day I was truly annoyed with a vendor and decided to vent my annoyance on my blog. I named it Cranky Tuesday, and now I have a separate readership for Tuesdays (that brings more eyeballs to my Buying Facilitation® material), PLUS I get to be heard. A couple of weeks ago I was angry that Les Mills exercise group was using a song that promoted violence to women and my angry blog got the song changed. One little post changed the world.

You have a voice. You have ideas. Get provocative – we don’t want to read the same-old/same-old. Give us fresh ideas. Be all you can be. What a perfect venue to show off!

SYNDICATIONS Ezines seek content. Whether it’s one of the big aggregators such as iMedia or Alltop, or a focused market such as BizyMoms, go to your favorite article aggregators and get your writing accepted. It’s simple. Just ask, and send a copy of one of your favorite posts. But get your name/brand/ideas out there via articles.

LINKS Find clients/colleagues/competitors you like. Write a post about them and what they are doing. Link to their site. Call them in advance and tell them you’re writing about them and ask if they’d like to recommend a link they’d prefer you linked to. They will be appreciative. They will link to you. They will announce your post on their site. You will have access to their friends and visitors. You will increase your audience.

Or, if you have no blog yet, Tweet about these folks. They will then retweet you.

Start a revolution! Get your brand aligned with others who are where you want to be: make sure you offer to help them, and they’ll be delighted to help you.

RSS For my blog, folks sign up for an RSS feed. All of my sales related articles go out to friends, subscribers, press, and syndications with the push of a button. Sometimes an article gets picked up. Sometimes it gets ignored. But make sure it’s possible for folks to get whatever they need, in the way they need it.

TWITTER My favorite technology is HootSuite. My audience trippled overnight after I began using it. Set up HootSuite to run every, say, 3 hours, and plug in the tweet and tiny URL for the article/idea you want promoted. Magically, your tweet gets posted all by itself!

INDUSTRY ARTICLES Take a favorite idea that your brand represents. Contact the industry magazines and blogs and ezines. Get them to agree to an article you’d like to write. Then send the link to the article out to everyone as soon as it’s posted. I wrote an article for a marketing automation service provider. I got so many responses from it that I now have several new business partners, had an interview on me published by a very prestigeous ezine, and am developing a new piece of software that will be ready for trial in about 3 weeks. All from responses to this one thought piece.

WEBINARS, PODCASTS Go to sites/groups that are in the vacinity of your ideas. Approach them with 3 or 4 ideas about a joint webinar that will incorporate your best thinking with theirs. They need fresh material. Let them promote you.

INTERVIEWS Spend an hour on Google. Find interviews some industry leaders have given – on radio shows, or in print or blogs. Call the same interviewers and let them know they need to interview you. They are always seeking new ideas. Another reason to always publish/discuss your most provocative thinking.

FACEBOOK/LINKEDIN I use these two to 1. link to my blog posts; 2. check out backgrounds; 3. seek buddies when I’m going to travel; 4. join groups with folks who think like me or to whom I want to promote new ideas. I’ve gotten clients, readers, friends, and dates from LinkedIn. (I bet I could get in trouble on Facebook but I don’t have time in my day to be personal.)

People are looking for ideas on the net. Lend your ideas, your brain, your brand. People are hungry for new voices. And if you don’t like your writing style, either make it simple, joke about it in the article, or have someone ghost write it for you. But do it.