Category: Market

One big barrier to getting sales is not creating enough of the right content on a consistent basis, to help your target audience understand why they should hire you.

Content marketing has been shown to be one of the most effective methods of growing audience engagement, developing your brand presence, and driving sales.

Why is content marketing important?

When you don’t share content regularly, your audience can either forget about you, or not put their trust in you—or both.

According to Hubspot.com…

“Content marketing is important because it answers your audience’s questions. With content marketing, you can build trust with your audience, improve conversions, connect with your customers, and generate leads. Additionally, in today’s age, customers expect high-quality, consistent content from their favorite brands… Consistent, high-quality, and engaging content impacts audience decision-making more than any other technique.“

Content is how you do that and so many coaches lack the focus necessary to create and plan out content strategically.

Content marketing is absolutely vital, but if you don’t have a system for creating it, you’re wasting your time. So, here’s something that may help—nine steps on how to create content for your business.

Step 1- Commit to Regular Content Creation: You need to commit to creating content regularly. That’s because, if you want to be viewed as an expert, you need to be showing up like clockwork. Also because search engines like to see content produced on a regular basis. So, consistently produced content is key.

But, in order to do that, you will first need to decide what kinds and forms of content you want to create—based on the needs of your target market.

Step 2- List Your Promotions: Decide on what you will be launching and/or promoting in the next 6-12 months, and when you will promote them, so you can plan out the big events first. Space them out so it doesn’t look like you’re promoting too often, or back to back. Then add smaller promos such as existing products/programs, other people’s affiliate products, and lead magnets.

Step 3- Market Research: In order to be found through the search engines, your content always needs to use keywords that pertain to your niche. Find out what your target market is searching for by using common sense. What keywords and phrases would you search for to find you? Then create a list of these keywords and phrases to be used in your content. You can also take those keywords and plug them into a keyword or search tool to find other related keywords and phrases that people are using. Google, for instance, does this at the bottom of its search pages, under the heading “People Also Ask… “.

Other market research to find out what content your audience is engaging with, includes looking at: trends in your industry, popular blog posts, videos, podcasts and best-selling, related books, on your niche topics. You can also visit forums and online groups based on your topic to see what people are discussing regarding your topic, and what words they are using.

Step 4- Create an Idea Bank: From your research, you’ll have a much better sense of which topics will be most interesting and compelling for your audience. You can now collect your ideas into an “idea bank.” This can act as a repository for content ideas that you can pull from well into the future. But, since content creation is ongoing, resupplying your idea bank should also be ongoing. Some of your ideas can come from the topics discussed in forums, questions that people ask, keyword phrases they are using, and excerpts from your own products.

Step 5- Choose a Calendar: Find a calendar that fits your needs (there are many free ones online). Use it to designate which topics you will use for the next 6-12 months. This may seem like the easiest step, but in fact it can be the hardest. That’s because you have to integrate content topics with your projected events, launches, promotions—and, all the while, keeping in mind what will get the best bang for your buck in terms of using your content to build your audience and make sales.

Step 6- Schedule Creation Time: Now that you have your content topics, the next step is to schedule time on your to-do calendar to actually create the content. Designate regular blocks of time to write your content. How often, and how much time per block, will depend on whether you want to do it weekly, monthly, or quarterly.

For example, say you decide to post one piece of content per month, and you want to do the work on it quarterly. You know from experience that it takes about 2 hours to create one piece of (monthly) content. Then every 90 days, you’ll need to schedule out 6 hours of time to create your content for that quarter. You may be the sort that wants to schedule doing it all at once—like a day or weekend—or, maybe, in blocks of two hours, 3 days in a row. Or, you may feel more comfortable spreading it out more. Whatever works for you!

Step 7- Produce Your Content: Use your scheduled time to produce your content for at least the next 30-90 days. By keeping your business goals (and mission) in mind when writing content, you’ll be able to create the content most relevant to your audience and most lucrative to you. Make use of different formats for your content. For example, you may write a blog post for your monthly newsletter, and then turn it into a video or podcast to distribute later in the month.

Step 8- Optimize: Once it’s done, make sure that your content:

· Has the right balance of serving (80%) and selling (20%) – value vs. sales pitch.

· Is optimized with relevant keywords and phrases.

· Balances the various types of content you share, such as, educational, entertaining, inspirational and promotional.

Balance is key to content effectiveness. Perhaps the greatest advantage of your content calendar is that it gives you the big picture. You can see whether you’re following the “80/20 rule” of free versus promotional content, used by most successful marketers. And, because you can see the “what and when” plan for all your content, you can ensure that you have a good balance of various types of content and, thus be able to create a professional impression for visitors to all your online resources.

Optimize each blog post, social media post, and video with pertinent keywords and meta descriptions for blogs.

Step 9- Create a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP): Once you’ve gone through the process of creating your content, now it’s time to write down the steps you went through to do it. Make a separate list of instructions for each content form and platform, even if the steps are largely similar. This list helps you create a coherent look, and it ensures you follow all needed steps every time you post.

And, as your business grows, your SOP will be essential for cutting down the amount of time needed to train a new team member.

So that’s the 9 steps to basic content creation. If these steps are enough, that’s great—go do it! But in case you need more help figuring out how to find the time, come up with the topics, and/ or create a plan for distributing your content, check out “The Ultimate Content Creation Toolkit.”

It’s a comprehensive training package that helps you learn how to plan and create 6-12 months’ worth of core content—such as blog posts, podcasts, videos, and emails—that your audience will find valuable, and that also will increase your search engine rankings.

Just go to: www.ContentCreationToolkit.com

Whether your retail business is large or small, in a shopping mall or on the high street, selling fashion or food, a VIP event can drive excellent business.

A VIP event can also be a good way to say thank you to customers, support suppliers, raise funds for the community or just have a good time.

A good VIP event takes planning and precision execution for it to be successful for the business and for the customers. Here steps which will guide you to a successful VIP event.

Understand why. Your VIP event must have a reason why. This could be to raise funds for a local charity, to thank shoppers, to launch a new line or to give special customers first look at a sale. Once you know why you are hosting the VIP event many other plans will fall into place.

Dress code. Decide on a dress code for the occasion. If the event is for VIPs and is special for its goals then consider having a dress code which matches this.

Stock up. Make sure that you have all the stock necessary to ensure that the event is successful.

Be legal. If you are serving alcohol and or food, ensure that you will not breach any ordinances. A good VIP even uses alcohol and food well to create a very special atmosphere in the shop.

Promote widely. Give yourself plenty of time to promote the event to gain maximum attendance. Use your customer database, consider a window display to promote the event. Also offer a story to the local newspaper to gain promotional coverage for the event.

Dress the store. Make the store look special so that it truly does feel like a VIP event. Consider hiring some red carpet and security to make the entrance look that extra special.

Play music. Use music to also enhance the atmosphere of the store. It is vitally important that regulars have a very different shopping experience.

Have a moment at the event. Gather everyone together for a brief speech about the event and its purpose. If it is to raise funds for a charity, invite the head of the charity to speak. If it is to launch a new supplier, have the supplier speak. If it is to let your VIP customers in on a sale, then promote the items and have a couple of super hot deals to announce.

A VIP event done well can refresh how local shoppers view a business. It can also refresh the business in the eyes of the employees, suppliers and the owner.

The key is to go all out, it is a VIP event after all and this means it is for the best of the best. The more energy you invest the more likely it will reach the goals you have set.

Bringing home baby, and wondering what accessories are essential for your new fids well being? Well, we have got the perfect list to compliment your shopping spree. Straight from the recommendations of caique owners are some tried-and-trues, accessories and must-haves. We’ve got your back (and your fids, too).

Must Haves

The cage- this is the most important aspect of your birds environment and one that needs to the most consideration. Powdercoating or stainless steel finish depends on your budget, but no matter the finish, when looking at a cage consider the various aspects. Cage size is recommended at 24 by 36, with less then one inch bar spacing. Cages that open at the top are not recommended, and look for cages that have parallel bars so your bird can easily navigate. The author of this article prefers flat top cages, but it all boils down to personal preference. Food and water dishes that are extended outside of the cage (giving more room within the inside of the cage) are recommended.

Perches- a minimum of 5 is recommended. Choose different textures, shapes, and sizes, to give your bird a variety of to perch upon. Caiques like to chew and shred, so natural branches that have bark attached are recommended so the bird can take joy in stripping the perch of its bark. Cholla perches, that are made of a natural cactus material, area also enjoyed. Slick perches like manzanita and dragonwood are not encouraged. Rope perches are a favorite among caiques, as they can bounce and play, chew and rub on the soft cotton material.

Food Dishes- stainless steel or ceramic are encouraged. Purchase an extra set so that you can throw the dirty ones in the dishwasher and still have a clean set on hand. Stainless steel dishes are often sold as ‘coop cups’ and can be purchased to fit your already existing food dish holder, or come with their own attachment so the cups can be placed strategically within the cage. Caiques have a tendency to enjoy tipping over their food dish, so consider a dish such as the Quick Loc Crock, which literally locks in place.

Toys- Caiques love playing with toys- that’s a fact. The brighter, the bolder, the nosier- the better. Quick hint- check out the baby section of your local discount store. Hard plastic keys, teething rings, and rattles are bird safe and caique fun. Tried and true bird toys include the shreddable Parrot Pinatas, the mind bending Crazy Leather Box, or the chewable Brainiac block. All of these toys challenge your birds skills and increase activity while elevating boredom. The recommended number of toys is no less then 5 at one time in the birds cage. With a caique, the more, the better, so don’t be stingy when it comes to play items.

Emergency Medical Kit – If your bird breaks a blood feather, bangs a toenail, or injuries himself in any way, you want to be prepared. Accidents to happen, and caiques seem to be especially accident prone. A good basic medical kit will include self adhering gauze (vetwrap is a popular choice), clean gauze, tweezers, hemostats, a pair of sharp scissors, antibacterial cream, and a heat pack. Many different types of medical kits are included, and the more comprehensive ones contain everything from emergency handfeeding formula to forms that include your vets contact information.

Accessories

The Water Bottle- Caiques are bird chef want to-be’s. Their specialty? Parrot stew. Whatever can go in the pot- er, in this cage, water dish- will. It can make providing a clean source of water frustrating at times. Especially when you go to change the water and you wonder why how on earth it turned a bright blue color, and what the heck are those floatie things? Trust me, you don’t want to ask questions. Some caiques, intelligent as they may be, don’t seem to realize that dunking that big chunk of brightly colored wood in the water doesn’t make the wood any easier to chew. There is a solution- water bottles. A water bottle can be hung, providing your pet with a constant source of fresh water, even if he has turned the once clean bowl of water into something less then delightful. When purchasing a water bottle, the recommended ones are made of glass (shy away from think plastic ones) and have stainless steel spouts and outfittings. Lixit brand are highly recommended.

The Snuggle Buddy- while this is the name of an actual product, in this article we refer to snuggle buddy as anything that your bird likes to sleep next/in at night. Most caiques enjoy having a ‘happy hut’ type of tent to sleep in at night. There are a variety of tents and huts available for purchase. Looks for one made of long last material such as fleece, with the hanging attachments made of something similar to plastic chain link. Otherwise the attachments that hold the hut to the cage can be easily chewed through by a bored bird. Other snuggle materials can include fleece swings, large cotton rope toy for the bird to snuggle, and other like materials.

Foraging system- Foraging is an important part of your birds wild, natural behavior. While we highly encourage a foraging model feeding system, because this theory and research is still relatively new and mainstream, we are categorizing a foraging system as an ‘accessory’ rather then an immediately required part of your birds environment. Creative Foraging Systems is a new company that has a fantastic line of feeders and toys that are perfect for caiques. Allowing your bird to work for their food lets them re-create natural behavior that can potentially curb future behavioral issues. You have many options and choices when it comes to foraging, but we most highly recommend a foraging system as a main feeder, and an accessory like the ever popular Crazy Maze as a supplemental item.

In Conclusion

This is just a sampling of items that can be purchased for your bird, and come highly recommended by owners. Look for other articles that include in-depth product reviews, food recommendations, playgym accommodations, and much more.

Household level marketing is a method to narrow your focus to a specific household address that has been determine to offer you the best opportunity to attract a new patient to your brand of chiropractic.

The first step in this process is determining whom your best patients are for your brand of chiropractic. You could have two Chiropreneurs run the same analysis and end up with a different profile… all due to the patients you have served.

In America, all households can be coded for 66 segments. In other words, every household in your marketplace can be assigned a household demographic code. Once you have your patient records coded at the household level, and they have been assigned their specific lifestyle code, you can then reach all the desired segments in your marketplace that has the same code.

Once you have determine your best patient segment, you can then target your marketing only to those household level code that match this desired segment code. If you find that the majority of your patients, current and inactive, are defined with 2-3 of the possible segments out of 66, you can then secure a specific mail list of just the households in your marketplace that match your desired household segment.

Your mail list could go to 100 Main Street, 107, 113, 118, 119…. skipping any households that do not match your desired and targeted segment.

This provides you with the ability to drill down your marketing efforts and reduce your marketing budget because you are only mailing to your desired target, not every household on the block, in the city, etc.

If you are a startup or want to change the type of patients you wish to attract, then you can select one or more of the 66 lifestyle segments and then secure a mailing list of just those household that fit your desired patient.

You can also use this segmentation technology to determine the best location for an office or relocation.

In summary, using this technology called Prizm® you should:

1. Submit an address list of all your patient records, active and inactive for household level coding.

2. Identify the segment(s) that provide you with the best patient.

3. Secure a list of the households in your marketplace that matches your best segment(s), not currently under care.

4. Target your marketing communications to these specific households. Repeat. Repeat…

There are a number of vendors who can provide this type of technology using your current list as your baseline. This technique is used by the world’s most successful marketers and you can tap into it for your practice too. Peak your practice with geo-demographic coding.

Most people, from my experience, write a business plan and then file it away. These are the ones I am talking about here who are most likely not able to “market their way out of a paper bag!” They spend time properly researching the market and their competitors but have no focussed plan as to how to effectively use this information to their advantage. What a waste of time! It may have helped them achieve their objective of obtaining funding but a business plan is far more than that. It is should also be a PLAN OF ACTION. The action part should include marketing, social media and sales strategies.

Notice that here I have included social media. This is because in this day and age it should be included as an integral part of any marketing strategy. Along with any strategy there should be a detailed, schedule of actions with deadlines to help keep you on track as you project manage the implementation the development of business through your strategy.

The reason for having a detailed strategy and action plan is to ensure that all your efforts to promote your business and gain sales are focussed and targeted in the areas that will gain you the highest potential. However, a word of warning:

Marketing Is The Prelude To Selling. A sales strategy is also required even if your business is done totally online (online shops are notably more difficult to get off the ground and gain sales than retail shops)

So what should you include in this Marketing Action Plan?

• Brand image and logo development and design – only one image and logo or you confuse your brand image. Use colour or design to differentiate different parts of the business if required.
• The design and production of marketing material – business cards, brochures etc.
• The design and development of your web site – with potential for interaction and sales/bookings where ever possible and applicable.
• An action plan of events – launch party etc., to promote the business (if required).
• An action plan of publicity – press releases and a list of media contacts you have made to ensure a better chance of getting free publicity.
• A contents schedule and action plan for each of your social media platforms – this should include a plan of how you post, share and comment and how often as well as how you will use analytics to assess the effectiveness of your strategy and make changes to improve it.
• A sales strategy both for online and offline sales – without this all the marketing actions are wasted.

In the same way that you review your business turnover and finances against your cash flow projections, as a means of keeping on course and making necessary adjustments, a month by month analysis of the marketing, social media and sales actions help reduce risk and enhance business growth.

If you are planning a trip to Taiwan for the first time, there are several areas worth visiting to make the most of your trip. While there are multiple beautiful, historic areas, the following are my personal favorites for Taipei travel. Please feel free to use this as a sort of personal Taipei travel guide when planning your Taipei vacation.

• Taipei 101

We start our Taipei tour at Taipei 101. This is a skyscraper located in the Xinyi District. In 2004, it was listed as the world’s tallest building at 1,671 feet. It held that title for 6 years until the Burj Khalifa in Dubai eclipsed Taipei 101 in 2010. The tower boasts 101 stories and features an outdoor observation deck on the 91st floor like the Empire State Building in New York City where you can see beautiful views of the surrounding areas.

The bottom five floors of Taipei 101 feature a luxury shopping mall with upscale shops such as Burberry and Louis Vuitton. On the 88th floor indoor observatory, you can see the 730-ton mass damper, basically a giant ball that acts like a pendulum to counteract the buildings sway during high winds. Without this damper, people on high floors can actually suffer from motion sickness from the constant swaying of the building! Taipei 101 is a city icon that is visible for miles across the city. Every New Year’s, Taipei 101 attracts tens of thousands of visitors to see its spectacular fireworks display.

• Ximending Shopping

If you are into shopping, you can’t go wrong with Ximending. This is the shopping area in the Wanhua district of Taipei and is considered to be the fashion capital of Taiwan. On weekends, Ximending streets are closed to traffic and becomes a pedestrian shopping mall. The area is popular with street performers of all types and, because it is a hotspot, you can catch celebrities hosting small outdoor concerts, album launches, and other events.

Ximending is also famous for its “Theater Street” where there is a concentration of several movie along Wuchang Street. For history buffs, though, the most famous theater in the district is the Red House Theater which was built in 1908 during Japanese occupation and is still an operational theater with regular performances.

• Yangmingshan National Park

If beautiful sights are what you look forward to when travelling, then I can’t recommend Yangmingshan enough. It is the largest natural park in Taipei. Yangmingshan is great for hiking and has numerous trails that can last an entire day or just a couple of hours. Popular trails include Seven Stars Peak which will take you to the highest peak in Taipei at 1120 meters (3600 feet) or see the stunning waterfall of the Juansi Waterfall Trail.

Each February through March, Yangmingshan is the site of the Yangmingshan Flower Festival when several varieties of flowers such as azaleas, camellias, and especially cherry blossoms reach their peak bloom. Every evening of the festival, cherry blossom trees are illuminated for a particularly romantic sight. Visitors can also have lunch and dinner at one of many restaurants such as The Top or Grass Mountain Chateau for spectacular vistas of Taipei below.

Between the beauty of the cherry blossoms and the views of the city, Yangmingshan is a well-known romantic spot for lovers all over Taipei. From April to May, when calla lilies reach full bloom, you can pick your own lily flowers for only a few dollars at one of several flower farms.

Lastly, don’t miss out on Yangming Shuwu, also known as Yangming Villa, the beautiful summer retreat of the late president Chiang Kai-shek. Yangming Villa house and gardens are maintained as they were when occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Chiang. The house is a two-story traditional Chinese home, with reception rooms and offices on the first floor and the Chiang’s personal residence on the second floor where their paintings and personal photographs are still displayed. The gardens are especially beautiful in the Spring when the flowers are in bloom. As a bit of trivia, it’s been noted that several bushes are planted in bunches of five – to symbolize the “5-star” rank of General Chiang.

• National Palace Museum

Next, we find ourselves at the National Palace Museum which opened in 1965. If you love history, this is the place to be! National Palace Museum has a humongous collection of 700,000 permanent exhibits of Chinese Imperial history and artwork that spans over 2000 years plus prehistoric Chinese artifacts and artwork that dates to the Neolithic era, or better known as the “Stone Age”.

The most popular item in its collection is the Jadeite Cabbage. Carved during the 19th century, it is a piece of jadeite that has been shaped to resemble a head of Chinese cabbage and has a locust and a grasshopper camouflaged in its leaves. Legend says the sculpture is a metaphor for female fertility, with the white cabbage stalk representing purity, the green leaves of the cabbage representing fertility, and the insects representing children.

• Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

Another historically significant landmark on our trek to learn about the history of Taiwan is the Chiang Kia-shek Memorial Hall. This is a national monument that was built in honor of former Republic of China President Chiang Kia-shek. The memorial marks the geographic and cultural center of Taipei. It is the most visited attraction by foreign tourists. The pagoda style memorial hall has a presidential library and museum on the ground level.

The main hall features a large, seated statue of Chiang Kai-shek, much like the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The memorial hall and its surrounding Liberty Square plaza encompasses 60 acres and includes many ponds and garden spaces. The plaza also houses two of Taipei’s performance art buildings, the National Theater and the National Concert Hall.

• Beitou Hot Springs and Public Library

My favorite place to visit while in Taiwan is an area called Beitou. Beitou is a mountainous district north of Taipei City and is most known for its hot springs and its magnificent public library. The mineral waters from the many natural geothermal vents in Beitou are famous for their healing and therapeutic properties. An entire industry of hot springs bathhouses and hotels have sprung up in Beitou offering aroma therapy, massages, and hydrotherapy. There are a lot of places where tourists can soak their feet in the hot springs stream. Be sure to visit the Hot Springs Museum. When it was built in 1913, it was the largest public bathhouse in Asia at that time. Today, the museum offers a glimpse at its bathhouse facilities and Beitou’s history.

Next, visit the Beitou public library. Its wooden structure that fits seamlessly into its Beitou Park setting. Through use of eco-friendly features and design, the library is Taiwan’s first “green” building. The library opened in 2006 and was built to reduce the usage of water and electricity. To do this, architects used large windows to allowing in natural light and a solar panel roof to provide the electricity needed for operation. Also, the library collects rain water to be stored and used to flush its toilets.

• Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf

Our final stopping point is Tamsui. Tamsui is located on the western tip of Taipei and our favorite place was the Fisherman’s Wharf. We learned that not only do the restaurants that dot the Fisherman’s Wharf boardwalk provide the freshest seafood available, it also provides breathtaking sunset views. Fisherman’s Wharf still functions as a harbor for local fishermen and they proudly provide harbor for 150 vessels! Our favorite walk is across the “Lover’s Bridge” pedestrian bridge, named as such because it opened on Valentine’s Day 2003.

Its architecture resembles a sailing ship’s masts. It was about a 3-minute walk across the bridge, which at sunset is magnificent. Lover’s Bridge is also a great place to catch the yearly fireworks show and concert that the city hosts each year to celebrate Chinese Valentine’s Day (which occurs in August and not February 14th). Another way to experience Tamsui is to take a ferry from the Tamsui Ferry Pier and disembark at the Fisherman’s Wharf. The ferry is a cheap way to see terrific views of the Tamsui waterfront. A one-way fare costs only $2 USD and takes only about 15 minutes.

Though our Taiwan vacation seems to have been over in the blink of an eye, it was amazing! While there is so much more to see, we feel we made the most of our travels in Taipei. I hope that your trip proves to be just as educational and encompassing as ours.

First visit the section of your favorite sunject Focus on books with attention-grabbing titles, Try guessing what each book is about before taking it off the shelf and examining its duat jacket and table of contents. Is there any new fact or indight? What is the book about? If you have time, read the section or chapter in questionWhat is your take on that fact? Have you related experience on it?

Next visit a section with books on a subject that interests you and repeat the process. Are you interested in computers, science, travel, psychology? Dive in and consider titles that catch your eye. What aspects of a given subject are there? What books are about countries? Computers? Creativity? What aspects of their subjects are featured?

Remember to take notes and interesting book titles and authors, Consider borrowing only one or two books to read at home nut avoid the temptation of borrowing more than one or two.

Visit the magazine and periodicals section. Browse through magazines on a range of topics. Glance at articles that sound interesting. Does a given article confirm or oppose a view you’ve always hrld/ What would be a contrary view and why? You might have stumbled on an idea! Continue browsing. You never know wjat treasure lurks in those pages.

Visit book stack sections that you tend to bypass. Look at the titles. What;s new? Consder subjects as literature, history and biographies. What occurs to you as you browse?

Visit the children;s eoom. You’ll find books featuring easy to understand explanations and pictues. Is there a subject that you always wanted to know more about, but had little time to study? There might be a book on that sunject!

Take stock of your written ideas and insights. They contain a lot of treasure. You have material and ideas to develop or ponder. Time was well spent and potentially profitable..

Remember to pay attention to questions that ovvured to you at the library.Try to answer them on paper, A given question has the potential to become an article or book! What qurdtions seem to be nodt intriguing? How would you answer them? Who else might be asking those same questions abd why?

Organize your notes and ideas at home. Develop your favorite ideas into article outlines. What magazines mifgt be interested and why would you be qualified to write a given article?

In order to better understand the unpublished job market, let’s take a minute to review first the more traditional published job market in order to better understand the difference between both.

The published job marketplace is where we usually go for available published opportunities, you know, the newspapers ads, Job Banks, Staffing or recruiting agencies postings and Job Fairs.

But did you know that the published jobs only represent about 30% of all available jobs at any given time? Some experts in the field even claims that this job marketplace represents only about 10% of all available jobs.

So the logical question is, where are the rest of the available jobs?

The Unpublished Job Market

The unpublished job market, also known as the hidden jobs market, is where job openings are filled without being advertised, or at least, not in the way we are used to as will see in a moment.

The unpublished job marketplace represents about 70% of available jobs at any given time. But there’s more; 85% of the six-figure salary positions are filled via this unpublished jobs market. That means that the executive job listing we see in high end publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s or The Financial Times, to name a few, only represents around 15% of the six-figure salary positions available.

Then the question is why this hidden market exists in the first place?

Why there is not just one place we can go and find all available jobs in the market?

To help ourselves answer these questions, let’s take a quick look at the mechanics of both employment markets.

How the Published Job Market Works

In the case of the more traditional job marketplace, we perform our search on the available job listings to determine what positions we want to pursuit. Then we send our resume to either, the employer, placement agency or headhunter, depending on who post the listing.

Once your resume is received, the recruitment team does the initial screening of the received resumes. The surviving resumes are then sent to the hiring manager to review and the actual interview process begins.

First, HR or the hiring agency do a first round of interviews to see if the candidate fits into the corporate culture and to validate the resume information. Then the hiring manager interviews the screened candidates to select the most suitable one. Once the interviews are performed and the best candidate selected, the job offer process begins.

If the hiring company is performing the process, the HR team will present the offer the HR team will present the offer. In the case of a head hunter, it will serve kind of an intermediary between the hiring company and the candidate, making sure the candidate receives a good offers as its commission if usually a percentage of the final salary.

How the Unpublished Job Market Works

In the case of the hidden jobs marketplace, the process is kind of more streamlined and or even more discrete.

The job fulfillment process on this market is more company driven, sometimes using external resources, but in rather a different way than in the traditional job market. On this market, job referrals are more common as companies looking for good candidates ask business partners, suppliers, contacts in other companies or even their own employees for referrals.

Some companies even have employee referral programs; after all, who better than the employee to know if the referred candidate fits the corporate culture as he or she lives it every day. In one Fortune 500 company I used to work for, the employee referral program actually paid a cash incentive for every referred candidate that got employed and completed their first three months on the job.

When you compare how both markets works, you might be thinking that the unpublished job market is not as easy or convenient as responding to published jobs ads. But when you look at the number of possibilities available, definitively the hidden job market is something that you should consider as part of your overall job hunting strategy.

Not all authors should spend time learning how to market. That may go against conventional wisdom, but it’s true.

In reality, some authors are not willing to put in the time or effort to do what it takes to market their books. Some get downright nasty towards those of us who are making money with our writing, blaming everything but themselves for their lack of success in selling books.

Recently, I was hosted on a webinar by a colleague to share insights on how to market books. The response by 99% of the people was incredibly positive. But there were a few who were upset at the amount of work I said it takes to market books.

I suppose they preferred I lie and say, “Oh yes, you can sell tons of books and put no work into the process at all.” I won’t do that.

What they wrote

Here are a few of the emails I received from authors who are not willing to do much more than write.

“It shouldn’t be that hard. My book is really good. Why won’t people just buy it?” one person wrote.

“I like to write. I want to sell books, but I don’t want to have to market.”

“All of you so-called “experts” make it sound so easy, but the average person has no idea where to start. All you do is sell a load of crap to people who will never be able to make this work.”

Really?!

To authors like this my response is simple… write your books knowing you will likely be in the group that never sells more than a handful of books.

We all started at the same place

I started where every author starts. I had a dream to be a successful author who makes money with my writing while transforming people through my words. To do this, I HAD to learn how to market. No two ways about it.

I’ve spent years, and thousands upon thousands of dollars, countless hours and lots of energy to get really, really good at what I do. It didn’t happen by chance, but rather by design.

I liken authors who want to sell boatloads of books without any work to those who say they want to get in great shape, but don’t want to stop eating junk food, don’t want to exercise and don’t want to replace bad habits with good ones.

You can want it all you want, but you won’t achieve the outcome.

Here’s the deal…

Selling books takes work. Selling books takes vision. Selling books takes strategy. And… if you want to be sustainable as an author, it takes writing good books.

If you’re not willing to put the time in to do the work, learn how to market and be consistent in your efforts, no problem.

But please, don’t blame others for the fact you’re not selling books. Take a look at what you are and are not doing.

If you’re reading this in October and you still haven’t bought your Diwali gifts, there could be a couple of reasons for the delay. The first one is that you could possibly just be lazy like most of us and leave your festival season shopping till the last possible minute. This is not as far-fetched as it sounds because if you visit a shopping mall or even a gift store close to any festival, chances are you will have encountered masses crowds of people who all have the same idea. Our Hundreds of thousands of people flock to their local markets during the festive season every year and almost all of them are desperately in search of last minute gifts because they haven’t done their shopping in time once again.

With a festival like Diwali, this is even more common because unlike say a festival like Christmas, that is on the same date every year, Diwali dates change every year so it can be hard to keep track of how long you have to actually get your shopping done because it’s difficult to remember exactly what the date is for Diwali the year.

With the advent of online shopping however, most of these issues are now sorted out and it is much easier to do all your Diwali gift shopping online. It isn’t just consumers looking to buy Diwali gifts either, companies are looking for corporate Diwali gifts online too. Online Diwali gifts are the answer to all your problems with gifting, starting with great Diwali gifts. Online stores that are tailored towards gifting make the entire process of buying and sending gifts super simple and easy. To start with, most stores have gifts at almost every price point, so whether you are looking for something small and cheap or you want to splash out on a big ticket item, there is probably something that suits your budget. Online stores also have curated collections of gifts that have been carefully selected to appeal to a large number of diverse tastes, so no matter what your tastes are, you’re sure to find something that appeals to both your tastes and sensibilities, as well as those of whoever you’re looking for a gift for.

So ditch the supermarkets and malls when you’re doing your Diwali gift shipping this year and just head online. You’ll avoid the crowds, get a wider selection of gifts and you’ll save a lot of time and hassle to boot!