Joe Apfelbaum

The Startup Guys

Joe Apfelbaum — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:17:14 +0000

Everytime I watch this video I laugh… Its really something you should watch.

Email Marketing The Right Way

Joe Apfelbaum — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:20:52 +0000

Sending emails regularly to a list is a great way to allow people to keep you in mind. After all out of sight out of mind right? Does that mean that the more emails that you send out the better off you are? I find it more effective to send a few hundred emails to people that I actually know than a few hundred thousand to people that I dont know. Thats right, I get more opens and clicks and people take action because they know me. They also like me and trust me.. Thats why they are still on my list even though they have an opportunity to opt-out. Think about all the people that you know. All the people that know you. How often do you reach out to them to remind them that you exist. Its immpossible to call them all each month. The average person knows a max of 150 people at any one time. Business owners that have successful people meet hundreds of a people a month in many industries. Why not stay in touch with them via email and social media. Its really easy to send them all an email at one time. All you need to do is add them to a email service provider like Constant Contact or Mail Chimp. Keep in mind that there are many others too. You can test many out for free before you pay anything. Many people ask me, what should I send out? How do I come up with things that would interest my contacts? What I usually answer is that it depends on who your contacts are. If you are a stamp collector dealer. It might mean that you meet many stamp collectors each month. It will pay off big time if you send them an email each month with the greatest stamps you have come across or the best articles you found online. If you service general small businesses with a good service. Talk about how you saved other people money or how you helped someone. Tell a story. People love to hear stories and learn. You can also consider sending a video of something interesting or funny. I like to split my audience into a few segments and send emails to different people depending on their interest.

Businesses are build on good email marketing. So start building your list today and offer value. Remember that its how many people get your email.. Its about how many people take an intended action.

Please let me know your thoughts on email marketing in the comments.

Business Networking Lessons…

Joe Apfelbaum — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 10:05:43 +0000

Until about a year ago business networking was very new to me. I knew it existed but I didnt know what it was all about. I knew that to become successful one needs to meet people. People that can help them expand their circle. The first thing I did was look up the events by the chamber of commerce’s. I picked the Manhattan Chamber of commerce first. I went to an event they had in the city which might of been my first taste of networking. I walked into a bar and there I was… All alone but with so many people. Standing around chatting… Trying to speak over the music. I know exactly what people feel the first time they to a business networking event. The reason I know what they feel is because I was right there! I went to this networking event to promote our Google seminars. We had started giving seminars and I was looking for ways to let more people know about them. I wore a Google cap and walked around to each person and handed out invitations to the google seminar. I didnt really make an effort to find out about what each person did. I was smart enough to collect cards from each person because I read in a book that its not about giving but its more about taking contact info. But it was so much easier to give my card and hope that they call me. I made a few connections at that event and I am still friends with those people in cyber space… I remember having that feeling of “LET ME GET OUT OF HERE…” I left the place feeling good and thinking that all the people will come to the seminar… None of them came. Why? Looking back now I know why they didnt come. Because I didnt follow up properly with each one of them. I didnt email them with a personal email and call them to remind them to come. I was just hoping that they would come because they had an interest. I learnt quickly that if you want someone to take action you need to remind them and remind them often. Fast forward 8 months or so… Its March 2012… I went to a few dozen networking events in the past 8 months… I met over 500 business owners and professionals… I learnt alot! Here are three things that I learnt.

1. Make a connection with people you want to follow up with. Connect on some level with a detail. Mention why you want to connect with them and tell them you will be following up regarding that specific item.

2. Get their contact info. Make sure that includes a email and phone number to reach the person and ask for permission to connect on social media. If you plan on connecting on facebook ASK them if they are open to that. Some people keep facebook for family and close friends only.

3. Follow up when you say you will be following up. Add it to your calendar at the event so you dont forget. There is nothing worse than going to an event meeting good contacts and not following up.

So if you plan on networking for business make sure you identify who you want to meet. Get their contact info and most importantly FOLLOWup!

Good luck networking…

Why you should come to a Google Seminar in NY

Joe Apfelbaum — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:10:51 +0000

Here is a video we created with testimonial about the Google Seminars that Ajax Union gave in Feb 2012

Clearing Your DNS Cache

Joe Apfelbaum — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:07:31 +0000

Your DNS cache stores the locations (IP addresses) of pages you have recently viewed. If the location of the page changes before the entry in your DNS cache is updated, you will be unable to access the page.
If you are encountering a high number of HTML 404 error codes, you may need to flush your DNS cache. Once you clear your DNS cache, your computer will query nameservers for the new DNS information you require.

The methods detailed below allow you to remove old and inaccurate DNS information that may result in 404 errors.

Windows® XP, 2000, or Vista®
Open the Start menu.
Go to Run.
If you do not see the Run command in Vista, search for “run” in the Search bar.
In the Run text box, type: ipconfig /flushdns
Press Enter or Return, and your cache will be flushed.

MacOS®
Go to Applications.
Go to Utilities.
Open the Terminal application.
Type: dscacheutil -flushcache
Press Enter or Return, and your cache will be flushed.

New SEO Starter Guide from Google 2011

Joe Apfelbaum — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:56:41 +0000

Want to learn the basics of SEO? Why not learn it from Google directly. Google came out with a new SEO starter guide as part of their webmaster tools Get the guide here

How To Export Email Addresses From Facebook

Joe Apfelbaum — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:50:44 +0000

Facebook does not allow you to message all your contact one by one. If you try and do more than 20 they tell you to slow down or the block you. So the only way to email them all one by one with a program like constant contact or mail chimp is to get all the email addresses first.

Here is the easiest way to get all the names and email addresses out of facebook. All you need is a yahoo account. Go to address.yahoo.com to access the yahoo contact manager. and click on the facebook icon. It will connect to your facebook account and import all your contacts to yahoo. Once thats done you can click on tools and export to export them all into a csv file that you can import into anywhere.

Top 10 Sales Tips From the Pros

Joe Apfelbaum — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 08:36:57 +0000

I was recently looking for sales tips. Something I do all the time because sales is not about selling, its more of a way of living.

Read these tips and see what a mean.

“My biggest sales lesson came from a good friend who is now our head of Canadian business development (a fancy term for sales), Robin Tator. Robin taught me that sales is not about what you are selling, but about making friends and about getting someone to see the world the way you do. If you do that, everything else will take care of itself.

Sales can be a melancholy job. On one hand, many people (especially nonsales people) feel that it’s sleazy and lowbrow. On the other hand, it can be the most important function of a business. Until there’s a sale, there is no business. Personally, I’ve gone from thinking the former to believing the latter and honing my skills over a decade to where today I am effectively the chief sales officer of TerraCycle. I don’t know exactly when this transition happened, but it took me a few years to embrace the power of sales the way I do today.

I recently wrote a friend who is starting a nonprofit and suggested that the role of a company leader is to become the chief convincing officer. In the end these two titles are synonymous, because selling is really the art of convincing someone to believe and buy into your concept, whether by buying your product or service or by investing in your company or by working for your company.

Here are my top 10 sales tips, all of which have served me and our staff — including Jo Opot, pictured above — for years:

You can sell only if you yourself are convinced: If you are not sold on the product or service, it will be an uphill battle to sell someone on else. Your lack of conviction will scream through.
Be clear and direct: When pitching do not use complicated diction. Pride yourself instead on being able to explain the concept as quickly, clearly and simply as possible. This is important because the biggest problem in sales is client confusion. Confusion does not lead to a Yes.
Pressure is an art: Creating FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) in your client’s mind can be a good thing because it will lead to serious consideration of your concept. In the TerraCycle world, we award brand exclusivity by country and by category. I often need to tell potential clients that their competition is also talking with us. The trick is to mention this once and to NOT rub it in, which is likely to anger them. No one who is angered into saying Yes.
Know your client: Make sure to research your potential clients, know their challenges and their needs. One size hardly ever fits all, and you look much stronger if you care about the business enough to invest in the research. I can’t tell you how many times I get cold calls from sales people who don’t even know what TerraCycle does.
It’s all about the presentation: Building an amazing deck is critical to the sales process. Practice it, memorize it and be prepared to shift your emphasis based on how the energy changes when you give the presentation. Internally, we always ask ourselves: “Is the flow of this deck right? Will it convince?”
Be passionate and exciting: Most presentations are BORING! So create a show and make it exciting. Excitement is contagious – just like a yawn.
If you don’t know the answer, do not guess: People will ask you tough questions, and you may not always know the answer. The person asking you may be testing you, knowing the answer full well. And if you fumble, it’s very hard to rebuild credibility. Do not guess.

Answer questions directly and clearly: If you are asked a question and you give a “politician’s answer” – in other words, if you don’t answer the question – your credibility will decline, and you will hurt your chances of making the sale.
Humor is a great lubricator: Funny stories always break the ice. Instead of using business cards, everyone in our company uses stamps (see right) to leave our contact info. It’s eco-friendly, it never runs out and it makes for a nice ice-breaker at the beginning of every meeting.
You can always be better: Sales is an art, not a science. Which means it’s never perfect and can always improve. TerraCycle has a standard sales deck most of our associates use. We’ve gone through 94 versions in the last three years and version 95 is around the corner.
Bottom line: sales is a critical function that is more art than science, so hone your art. And please share any of the sales tips you’ve learned.”

You can read more about these sales tips here

Converting GoToWebinar to WMV for Youtube

Joe Apfelbaum — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:04:25 +0000

There is a solution! Use an application from GoToMeeting called “g2mtranscoder” which allows you to convert the file from GTM format to standard WMV.

Here’s how I did it in Windows 7:

Navigate to your GoToMeeting program files folder. Typically this will be in C:\Program Files\Citrix\GoToMeeting\320.
Copy your GoToMeeting recording to this directory.
Open the command line. On Vista / Windows 7, click the Start button and in the search box type: cmd and press Enter; in Windows XP, click the Start button, select Run, and type: cmd and press Enter.
Type: cd C:\Program Files\Citrix\GoToMeeting\320\ and press Enter. This should take you to the GTM directory.
Type: g2mtranscoder source=GoToMeetingRecording.wmv (replace with the name of your GTM video).
Hint: you can copy and paste into the command line window by clicking the C:\ icon from the command line window and selecting Edit > Paste.

Once the conversion has completed, simply open the file in Camtasia using File > Import Media, or use your favorite video editing software.

Fox News Live Features Ajax Union with Tracy Byrnes

Joe Apfelbaum — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 08:29:06 +0000

Joe Apfelbaum and Zevi Friedman discuss with Fox News how we help small businesses with SEO, Social Media, PPC and more. We help businesses use the internet to make more money. We have packages and plans that help all types of businesses. http://www.ajaxunion.com

Biggest mistake that small business make is not having a website.