Online visibility rules

“Business is slow. The economy makes it hard to generate revenue. There’s too much competition.”

Comments like these are made each and every day. And yet, there are those who will tell you it has never been easier to build a successful business than today.

So what’s the distinction? Perception, focus and visibility. Yes. Visibility.

The easiest way to build your business is to build your visibility. It makes little difference what industry you are in – visibility reigns.

Those who are making a living by way of the internet are always on the lookout for how to increase their visibility. The more visibility you have that builds market recognition, the more your credibility as an expert in your field increases.

Gaining visibility is actually quite simple, but not always easy. If you don't know who your market is, you can spin your wheels trying to gain visibility in front of the right potential buyers. Before investing time and money in gaining visibility, first identify your tribe. To not do so is counterproductive.

Here’s a simple fact: Visibility creates ample opportunities. Because of the internet there are now countless ways to position your expertise and product. The more visible you are, the more opportunities seem to come out of the woodwork. You can never know the long-term impacts of creating an effective presence on the internet.

There are many experts who have done lots of marketing including interviews, articles, and teleseminars. As a result, it is not uncommon for them to receive requests to participate in anthology books, telesummits, and joint-venture book launches.

To get the most out of opportunities that come your way it is important to have a list of criteria you use before saying yes. Here’s mine: the person requesting my participation is very well positioned, the opportunity will generate business, I will be able to share the platform with other top experts, or all of the above.

A couple of years ago I got a call from a gentleman named Steve Olsher. Although I had never heard of Steve, he shared his plan for his book Internet Prophets: The World’s Leading Experts Reveal How to Profit Online. His vision sounded exciting. Agreeing to be interviewed for a chapter, I asked Steve how he came to find out about me and why he selected me to be in his book. “You have a great reputation online. I asked several people if they knew any women online marketers, and your name came up from almost every person.”

What this told me was that the years of effort I put into gaining visibility had paid off. Not giving the book much thought after the interview, Steve contacted me a few months later to tell me he was hosting an event by the same name, Internet Prophets, in Chicago. He wanted me to be one of the featured speakers along with the likes of Larry Winget, Armand Morin, Mike Filsaime, Mike Koenigs, Janet Bray Attwood, Marc Ostrofsky, John Kremer, Dan Hollings, and dozens of other experts.

Agreeing to join in on the festivities, I looked forward to personally meeting many of the experts I had admired for years, in particular Janet Bray Attwood, New York Times bestselling co-author of The Passion Test: The Effortless Path to Discovering Your Life Purpose. The event was beyond compare. By far it was one of the best events I had attended or spoken at. I made sure to be in the main ballroom for Janet Bray Attwood’s presentation.

The event was the catalyst for Janet and me to meet face to face. Not only did we meet, we both felt like we had known each other for years. An immediate friendship developed, as did discussions on collaborating on future projects.

The point of sharing this with you is to emphasize the importance of continually getting your name out to your market. Had I not done all I had over the years, I never would have gotten the call from Steve. Had I not accepted Steve’s invitation, I would not have been a contributing author for Internet Prophets, nor would I have met Janet. And who knows where our friendship and professional relationship will take us?

If this doesn’t convince you that you need to take daily action in gaining visibility, I don’t know what will.