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The process of starting a business, small or large, is the same - business ideas, business registration, financing, product or service development, marketing, sales and customer support. A right business idea is critical to the success of a new venture. The business you are in should be the things you’re passionate about and have enough knowledge, experience and talent to compete. While a business with venture capital or other financial backup has sufficient capital to kick off a thoroughly planned marketing campaign, marketing of a small or home based business is often under budget.
Business Cards
Distributing business cards is one of the most popular and inexpensive ways to market or advertise your service. Though you can do business card printing yourself using many different business card templates, it’s wise to spend a little money to order professional designed business cards. For as little as $20, you can order 500 business cards. Color business cards will cost a little bit more.
Internet Marketing
A professional Web site is next thing you must have to promote your products or service so that the prospects can obtain information about your business 365 days a year and 24 hours a day. Affordable Web hosting costs as little as $25-$50 a year. For another $80, you can have one or two simple Web pages. If your customers are likely looking for the service on the Internet, $50 on PPC will actually bring you a few customers and generate handsome revenues.
Traditional Ads
Needless to say, your business should be listed on Yellow book or local phone directory. Ads on local newspaper and flyers will bring you business from your local community.
Starting a home-based or small business isn’t all that harder. It’s lot of trial and error. It takes a lot of harder work to truly succeed.
Copyright @2005, 4th Media Corporation
You have permission to publish this article electronically free of charge, as long as the bylines and links in the body of the article and the bylines are included.
Natalie Aranda is a freelance writer. She has great experience with using business cards to promote her website that offers Valentine’s gift ideas and anniversary gift ideas. A color business card works even better.
In How to Call Bad Leads Part 1, we talked about the first step, in a three step -process, for successfully opening a recruiting call. The first move causes the prospect to become slightly confused. As they attempt to regroup, we use our second move.
Conversational Recruiter: “Bob, this is a network marketing call. I’m going to ask you one question, and it’s going to take 30 seconds of your time. If the answer is ‘no,’ the call is over. Is it okay if I go ahead and ask you the question?”
So, what did we accomplish with this second move?
First, we told the prospect that this is a network marketing call. Now the prospect probably guessed this already, but we were bold enough to tell the prospect why we are calling. This has never happened before. Networkers are never this up front and honest. We just gained some points with the prospect.
Second, we told the prospect that we are going to only ask him one question, and it will only take 30 seconds of his time. The prospect is thinking that this isn’t going to take long, and I’ll soon be rid of this person. In fact, the prospect might be thinking that in another 30 seconds, I can go back to watching my Three’s Company marathon. And, if I give this person any resistance, this call might take a while. I don’t want to make a mistake like I did a few seconds ago.
Third, we tell the prospect if his answer is ‘no,’ the call is over. The prospect is thinking that this is going to be easy. I say ‘no,’ and Three’s Company, here I come. But did you notice what we didn’t say? That’s right. We didn’t say what would happen if he says anything other than ‘no’. There are no other options to the prospect. This allows the prospect to relax.
The prospect is thinking, what kind of network marketer is this? Networkers never want to hear ‘no,’ right? Haven’t we all been taught that we should get the prospect saying ‘yes’? Build up an army of yes’s, and when you ask the closing question, the prospect will say ‘yes’. Well, that never worked for me. Not once. And I tried it hundreds of time before I decided that it was just bad advice.
Prospects aren’t stupid; they can smell obvious manipulation a mile away. That’s why that tactic doesn’t work. Maybe prospects fell for it back in the 30s, when it was conceived, but it sure doesn’t work now.
Fourth, we ask the prospect if it is okay to ask the one question. Again, the prospect is thinking, ask the question; I say ‘no’; the call is over; I go back to Chrissy, Jack, the other girl, and Mr. Roper. I think I can handle this. Go ahead and ask your question, pal, I’ve got ‘no’ written all over it. Just ask the questions, I’ve got a show to watch.
The prospect has just gotten out of his daze of confusion. He thinks he is back in control. All is right with the world. It truly is a false sense of security because by allowing us to go ahead and ask our one question, the prospect is 2/3 of the way into our recruiting process…and he doesn’t even know it.
We are a couple of moves away from checkmate. I hope he is recording his show.
I know, I know, I said opening the call involved three steps. Well, the next step involves a series of small moves. The best part is, it doesn’t matter what the prospect says. If the prospect says, ‘no’ to our question, the call is far from over. You’ll see why in the next, and last, article in this series.
Ed Forteau & Kevin Paschke are the Creators of http://www.ConversationalRecruiting.net considered by many top MLM income earners to be the Best MLM Training Course ever developed. Sign-up for their Free 15 Advanced Mini-Course.
One of the most effective but seldom used ways to increase your bottom line is with the use of endorsements. By having a respected person or organization, endorse your product or service, you can add tremendous force and credibility to your sales message.
Here is a three step process to get you started in getting endorsements:
1. Write down the names of individuals, organizations, or groups that command respect and influence among people in your core market. The individuals don’t have to be celebrities, but they must be immediately recognizable, and they must be perceived as having integrity.
2. Then, approach the individuals, organizations, or groups directly or through their contact person, and ask them to endorse your product or service. If they want to be paid, offer them a fee, a share of the gross or net sales, or a certain amount per order placed or lead generated. The fact that they accept compensation won’t compromise the integrity or credibility of what they say. (Many times the person who endorses your product or service will ask that their payment go directly to a charity.)
3. Once an agreement has been reached, ask your endorser to make the most compelling, powerful, and specific claim they can possibly make for you and your organization. You don’t want a general or hollow statement, such as “I highly recommend ABC Company.” You want them to say something like, “In just 30 days ABC Company showed me how to boost my sales by 50%. And I’m sure they can do the same thing for you.”
When you approach a prospective individual or organization about endorsing your product or service, be ready to prove your claims. If they don’t know you well and have never tried your product or service they will want some hard facts before agreeing to link their name and reputation to yours in an endorsement.
You will have to sell them on trying the relationship out with no risk on their part. For example you could offer to have them try a couple of small applications first, before you actually expand or roll out your campaign with them. They can see the impact for themselves first hand. They can see how happy people will be. They can watch the way your company performs. They can call your customers and get their feedback about your product or service.
You will have to prove through application that their personal credibility is not being compromised. Tell the endorser that only when they are comfortable, will you expand into the actual campaign. Taking the risk away from the endorser is a powerful way to get endorsement prospects to say “yes, I’ll give it a try.”
It’s important to always highlight the benefit’s, the improved end result that people will derive by buying from you, or by coming to you for advice or treatment. Also, make sure that the endorsement ties directly into the desires, wants, needs, and interests of your target audience. For example, if you find out through your market research that 50% of your target market plays golf, it would be advantageous for you to find a respected golf pro, even a local golf pro, and have him or her appear on TV or sign letters, or even appear in advertisements with you.
You don’t want one of those slice-of-life testimonials, like a satisfied car buyer who appears for just an instant on TV. An endorsement is much more than a testimonial; it’s a loftier presence, a more powerful way of influencing people.
There are many different ways to use endorsements. Depending on the type of business that you’re in, you could have them sign a letter printed on their letterhead, but that you wrote. In other words, you simply write the letter on the endorser’s letterhead, get them to sign it, and then you send it out to your prospects and customers.
Some other ways to effectively use endorsements are, have the person who is endorsing your product or service call people that they know. You could also run ads with their pictures in publications and do the same on your Web site. You could have them lend their names as author or co-author of a special report or publication that you send out to your industry. Or you could produce an informative and educational CD that features both you and the endorser giving valuable information for prospects and customers.
Because of the association with the endorser, you gain for yourself an elevated stature of credibility. Endorsements also give you great leverage. On your own all you have is your own capital. But with a well known and respected endorser you can tap into someone or some organization that has enjoyed prominence for years or even decades. By having them endorse your product or service you tap into their notoriety, distinction, and credibility.
With endorsements you can improve and increase your effectiveness and the impact of what you do dramatically. By putting in place multiple endorsements with all kinds of experts, personalities, and organizations of influence and respect you will greatly improve the results, effect, and impact you can have on your prospective business market.
Copyright© 2006 by Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.
Joe Love draws on his 25 years of experience helping both individuals and companies build their businesses, increase profits, and achieve total success. He is the founder and CEO of JLM & Associates, a consulting and training organization, specializing in personal and business development. Through his seminars and lectures, Joe Love addresses thousands of men and women each year, including the executives and staffs of many of America’s largest corporations, on the subjects of leadership, self-esteem, goals, achievement, and success psychology.
Reach Joe at: joe@jlmandassociates.com
Read more articles and newsletters at: http://www.jlmandassociates.com
Executive summary: for a website to be truly successful, it can’t just be a shopping cart, a page full of advertisements, or a lead capture form. You can keep such sites alive with massive advertising outlays. But to enjoy natural traffic, a website needs to be a destination that people actually want to go to willingly. And that requires some kind of content. Almost every successful website is built on content, as I’ll show with some big-name examples.
If you think about it, there is not a single solitary major successful website that is not based on content. It’s amazing how often businesses on the web forget about this. Partly that’s because we’ve come to think of content so narrowly, usually as static text.
Certainly, most content is text, and text usually presents by far the best return on investment. In no small part because it’s a magic amulet that draws search engine traffic to a website like suitors to an unmarried princess. But there are other kinds of content besides text. These other kinds of content include games, quizzes, and other interactives, but above all, images. In short, no major website has ever gotten along without some kind of content. True, you can advertise your way to the top, but that’s a whole lot of free web traffic, not to mention mindshare, goodwill, and sales opportunities to pass up.
Don’t believe me? Let’s look at some of the web’s most phenomenally successful sites and how they depend on content. For the sake of argument, I’ll leave out the sites everyone would recognize as content sites, such as newspaper sites and online magazines such as cnet.com, bankrate.com and salon.com
Oft-overlooked Content-Based Sites
I’ve deliberately chosen the above sites because they don’t rely exclusively on articles, the most traditional type of web content. Still, for most sites, articles are the way to go. Their natural advantages include the facts that they are magnets for search engine traffic, and have a built-in audience in the still millions-strong group of literate web users, who may not like images or interactive content as much.
In short, while you can throw advertising at a lead capture form or shopping cart and make it successful, for truly natural success, a site needs something that makes people want to come on their own. And that means you need content, whether naughty pictures, unique web-software, or well-written articles.
About the author: Joel Walsh writes extensively about web content and marketing, and owns UpMarket, a service dedicated to writing web content: http://www.UpMarketContent.com
If you have ever submitted articles to gain website popularity, then you know how long the pain-staking process takes. Well, there is a new automatic article submitting software that was just released last week called Article Submitter Pro. This software automatically formats your articles, rotates bio boxes, and converts the articles from text to HTML - whatever the article directory requires.
I submitted an article last week titled “The Truth - Adsense Click Fraud Can Not be Stopped” to less than half of the directories in Article Submitter Pro. The process took me roughly 20-25 minutes. As of right now my article has been picked up 55 times in Google, 32 times in Yahoo!, and 739 times in MSN. MSN updates faster than the other search engines so I am expecting the others to increase soon. These are real results that I have received using the Article Submitter Pro software.
Each of the websites that picked up my article has my bio box at the bottom with my link in it and the anchor text that I requested. As you can see I am targeting the keyword phrase “Auction Fraud Protection”. Not all of the websites let you include HTML formatting, so your link will only appear in this way http://www.stopauctionfraud.com, but this still gives you PageRank.
Article Submitter Pro also has a great feature that grabs your article off of a website. This is useful if you have already submitted your article and you want to go and grab it off of a website that has picked it up already. After grabbing the article, you can easily convert it to text and HTML in a snap.
You may have seen the software package Article Announcer that was released in June. Honestly, Article Announcer and Article Submitter Pro have basically the same features, but Article Submitter Pro is the smarter purchase.
Why is it a smarter purchase?
1. Article Submitter Pro is an instant download so you can get started immediately. With the Article Announcer package you have to wait for the man in the brown truck to arrive with your package. Some people have been seeing delays of 3 weeks for delivery.
2. Article Submitter Pro is adding many of the user-requested features. I just received an update (one week after release) with a new feature that has been requested by a Article Submitter Pro user. You can submit the features that you would like to see in future releases of the software.
3. Article Submitter Pro is less than half of the price of Article Announcer.
I recommend you purchase this software if you write and submit articles to make your website popular (The easiest way unless you want to pay an arm and a leg!)
You will definetly increase your search engine rankings, backlinks, and website traffic overall even if you just use Article Submitter Pro one time. Imagine submitting one article per day? The results are endless.
About the Author
Visit Article Submitter Pro - http://www.article-submitter-pro.com for more information.
Writing articles related to your product or service is an excellent way to boost your sales without costing you a dime. Search Engines are constantly on the look out for freshly written content. So how do you come up with ideas for your next article? Here are ten tips that will certainly help:
1) Hang out in online discussion groups. Watch what people are talking about. Look at the questions they are asking. The topics that are bringing the greatest number of visitors would make for an excellent article.
2) Take a look at what information is being broadcast on TV, radio, newspapers, and online. They can be invaluable sources to help you determine what’s ‘hot’.
3) Read quality blogs. What are people posting about? What kind of comments are they leaving? What questions do they have? Blogs are the internet marketing medium of the moment and you can literally find blogs on any topic. This is an excellent source for your next article idea.
4) Survey your current customers or website visitors. Ask them what kind of article they would like to see in your next ezine or published on your site.
5) Check online and offline bookstores. What are the top sellers? This can be a good way to come up with an article that catches the attention of what people are reading.
6) Be seasonal. Write about what is going on that time of year. Holidays, festivals, sports, graduations, etc. all makes for an article that someone will want to read.
7) Write an article about a current fad. There is always something that is hot at the time and could make for interesting reading from you.
Keep track of what your customers and prospects are asking you. If you get an email or phone call with a question this may make for a good article. Others may have the same question, but are afraid to ask it.
9) Use your intuition. What will everybody be talking about next Christmas? Read books and articles by futurologists about societal trends and then take a hunch on what people will like to read about a year down the line.
10) Start a swipe file on what others are writing about. If it is of interest to you it will probably be of interest to others. Never plagiarize the work of others, but you can certainly get good ideas this way. The biggest benefit of a swipe file is having it handy to refer back to over and over whenever you are ready to write your article and are not sure what you want to write about.
If you still find it hard to write about your idea, you can hire a professional to ghost-write it for you. The costs are not as high as you may think and, considering what’s at stake, it could be the best investment you ever make.
Nadeem Azam writes about make money online. He is an experienced online entrepreneur and now manages a network of over 70 profitable US and UK websites.Learn more at www.azam.biz .
When it comes to marketing your web site, most home business owners use banners, link exchanges, different search engines, newsletters, forums, ezines, free and paid classifieds. However, a good home based business must also consider offline marketing strategies as well and how to use them in order to generate more business. Remember, that simply because your business is online does not mean you are restricted to simply advertising online. There are millions of people that are not online enough to actually see your offer and will respond better to other methods.
First of all, the most important tip for offline promotion of your web page is your URL. You want your URL to be easily remembered, so it is important to be creative when creating your URL. Then, when you have decided on the perfect, catchy URL, it is even more important to make sure that it is distributed in the offline world. There are many ways to do this. One, your URL should be on all stationary, invoices, and all written communication should have your URL, even on the back of envelopes you use to pay bills. This is important because the more people see your URL the more likely they will be to remember it.
Many people create billboards that have a large URL and nothing else, this creates curiosity and people will often times go and check it out just to ease their inquisitiveness. Also, large business magnets for the side of your vehicle is a good idea because they can easily list the web page address, plus any other information, and can easily be changed if there is a change to your business.
Television and radio are also options that can be used to promote your web site offline. Many people are under the impression that advertising on these mediums can be incredibly expensive, and while they can, they can also be inexpensive. Talk to your local cable channels and local radio stations to get the word out that way, especially if your service or product is focused on a particular market. For instance, if your web page hosts real estate listings in Arizona, you will want to advertise on local Arizona channels and radio stations. Advertising this way significantly reduces the price and gets the word out to many individuals.
Also, contact your local newspaper and let the business editor know you have a new business and web site and what you offer. Frequently, local newspapers are interested in featuring local business people and their accomplishments. This is free advertising and should always be employed.
When considering marketing your web site and offline promotion strategies, be creative and constantly thinking of new ways you can get the word out. Often times, the more creatively you advertise the more likely people will check out your site just to see what it is. In this case, you will want to make sure you have a great site that will keep visitors there and influence them to buy. By the way, don’t forget to have lots of business cards. The use of business cards is another useful way to market your online business offline.
Paul Jesse is a retired government worker turned Internet Marketer. For work at home resources visit his website at http://www.sheamarketing.com
When I mention, “flavor”, I mean the appeal of the
products or services, a company offers, to your basic
senses, ( taste, touch, feel, sight, etc.).
But, allow me to extend this even further and talk about company appeal as well, for example company “culture”.
Let’s get less broad and bring this to you and me. What
is our “appeal” to the public? Do we present a good image, (”flavor”) to the public? Are people impressed with the products and services we offer? Are they presented in a professional manner?
This analysis could be applied to email, websites, ads,
for that matter, anything the public “sees” with our name
on it. In previous articles, we discussed BRANDING your company.
Included in this process would be BRANDING your image as
well. So, when I mention Wendy’s, for example I see DAVE,
the friendly guy who cares about selling good products.
When I mention McDonald’s I see RONALD, the clown appealing
to children.
What does this have to do with the product?
Absolutely nothing.
It was a masterful way of BRANDING a company. Since they
both sell basically the same product, what separates one
from the other is their “image”. Dave, the nice guy who
wants to provide quality hamburgers and the Ronald, the
clown, who loves kids, in the other case.
Where am I going with this?
I believe it is important to create a business logo, and slogan, to optimize your branding process. Then, it is really important to create your company “image”. I hope my “image” projects WORK FROM HOME, quality products and services, and a professional image; and, that I have a website you can visit that is reliable and trustworthy.
When you see our logo, that is what I want your vision
and memory to recall. Something like “Dave” or “Ronald”.
Do you want you image to be a high-powered sales company,
or a professional, creative, critical thinker? The “image”
I get in the first case is SPAM, misrepresentation, (tell
anybody anything to get it sold), and worthless products
and services.
Please, I am not trying to offend anyone. We all need to
sell!
But, there is the right way and the wrong way. I prefer
the right way. We stand behind ALL products and services,
and will NEVER spam anyone at any time.
That is the “image” I hope you “see” when our BRANDED name appears anywhere.
Your online friend,
Opportunities Now Internet Marketing Services
For more information about us use KEYWORD:
“opportunities now internet marketing services” in any major
Search Engine.
James A. “Jim” Holish
5250 E. Cortland Blvd. #19
Flagstaff, Arizona 85004
webmaster@mycashforever.com
http://www.mycashforever.com/
James A. Holish is the webmaster for http://www.mycashforever.com and owner of Opportunities Now Internet Marketing Services. He has been a successful online marketer for three years and launched his website February 2005 titled:
Work From Home: The Best Opportunity and Ideas on the internet
In the early days of web development, business owners had learned the very expensive lesson that a Web site with no visitors is of little value. Once the business owner learned that methods could be utilized to increase their visibility through search engine optimization, it then became apparent that the traffic that really benefited them, was “targeted traffic.” It only made sense that if you were selling a solution, the person who will buy the solution are the ones experiencing a problem or challenge. It also became obvious that the best products and services to sell online were niche or specialized markets. Large volumes of “general visitors” (general volume traffic) may have looked nice on a statistics report but only the truly “targeted visitors” (target traffic) were usually the visitors making purchases or doing business at the Web site.
While some search engine marketers were simply offering placement for keywords chosen by their client, other SEO’s realized the value of researching keyword phrases and built strategies that were focused on attracting a specific target market. This is why you would sometimes hear conflicting stories about the effectiveness of search engine marketing. People often had their sites optimized for the wrong phrases. These might be keyword phrases that attracted no traffic all or perhaps even keywords that attracted high traffic but the wrong audience. If targeted traffic was important for success back then, it is absolutely essential that we optimize for targeted traffic now. The reason is that as the web continues to age, peoples behaviour appears to be shifting again.
Plan for the current shift in online visitor behavior
The early online consumer compared to today’s average user was thriving on search engine use most of the time. They’d search out one site then search out another site and literally travel all over the place half of the time, unsure what they were even looking for. Back then people “surfed the net” but todays online consumer is not surfing as much. Today’s online consumer is becoming educated much more quickly and a whole new trend of online branding is becoming more increasingly important according to a recent survey.
Volume traffic of any importance is decreasing.
A California-based research company (Websidestory) that measures Internet audiences, recently stated on Feb. 6 that “nearly 52 percent of Web surfers arrived at sites by direct navigation and bookmarks, compared with about 46 percent during the same period last year.” Even compared to just last year, clearly more people KNOW where they want to go and are directly entering the web address into the browser.
What does this mean ? To me, it is a great indicator that people who have been online for a while, are developing business relationships. People just don’r need to “surf” as much because once customers start doing business online and they like the service, why should they change? If they are happy buying a product from www.barnesandnoble.com, are they not likely to go back and just type in the web address or use a bookmark? As the web continues to mature, watch and see if a whole new wave of branding does not become of major importance on the Web of the future. Businesses who have chosen domain names that are easy to remember and have some branding built in, may see some significant increase.
Advantages for Search Engine Optimizers
The latest trends in Web behavior spell opportunity for some search engine marketers. These will be those SEO’s who realize that targeted traffic are now (and really have always been) the only way to go. Someone recently asked me if I thought a decline in the use of search engines was bad news for the search engine optimization industry. I believe there will always be a need for good search engines. More and more, people will remember their favorite URL but this means that top placement and accurate relevancy will also be needed more than ever before. People searching the net don’t care so much for paid ads, they want relevant search results. This is not to say that bid for placement search engines don’t have some advantages, because they do.
SEOs who are going only after old fashioned, non-targeted general “volume traffic” (just big numbers with no target audience), things are about to become much quieter, as more online consumers KNOW where they want to go.
However, for those SEO professionals who really know their craft, the “targeted traffic strategy” can still render pure gold to the Web site owner and these are the times when top relevancy mixed with a targeted strategy should place those search engine marketers in the know, in even higher demand. High and accurate search engine relevancy for any online business Web site, counts more than it ever has before.
About The Author
John Alexander is the Co-Director of Training of Search Engine Workshops with Robin Nobles. Together, they teach 2-day beginner, 3-day advanced, and 5-day all-inclusive “hands on” search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe. John also teaches online search engine marketing courses through http://www.onlinewebtraining.com, and he’s a member of Wordtracker’s official question support team.
john@searchengineworkshops.com
Launching an ecommerce website with a complete shopping cart and order processing system is only half the battle won. The real challenge lies in executing an Internet marketing plan that will drive targeted traffic to your website to increase online sales. Many online marketing gurus have propounded different strategies to help you win the war of Internet marketing.
Some wax eloquent on how content is king and the only real online marketing technique that works while others cannot stop praising the effects of an email marketing campaign. Target keywords, well-created Meta tags, paid advertising and affiliate program are all great website marketing strategies.
However, if one is to really win the war of Internet marketing then a comprehensive, robust and well-rounded online marketing plan is a must. A well thought out online marketing plan focuses primarily on two aspects.
1. Short term Internet marketing strategies:
These online marketing strategies focus on getting an immediate and immense response from customers. Email campaigns, banner ads and paid advertising are all website marketing strategies that fall into this category. Short term Internet marketing strategies are the best way to gain momentum and give your website a kickstart. They are also especially useful during the holiday season or to create awareness about specific promotions and new product launches.
However, short term Internet marketing strategies can be expensive. It would be pretty harsh on your online marketing budget to run banner ads on popular sites all the time.
2. Long term Internet marketing strategies:
These online marketing strategies focus on getting a steady response from customers over a long period of time. While customers may not flock your website with long term Internet marketing strategies, this is the right way to increase your base sales line.
Creating good content, affiliate programs, link exchanges, search engine optimization and embedding meta tags are all long term Internet marketing strategies. These strategies don’t have an immediate, overwhelming impact on the sales of your site. However, they collectively and steadily increase the number of sales you get on a regular basis.
Additionally, long term Internet marketing strategies are not very expensive to execute. They do require some time and dedicated effort but are easy on the pocket.
Thus, with Internet marketing becoming so competitive any website which hopes to really increase its online sales must create a website marketing strategy that includes both short term and long term online marketing strategies.
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Once You Know the Proven Steps Outlined here! ==> http://www.internetmillionairemind.com