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Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Internet Advertising OptionsCopyright © Adam Terebeckij http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.comYour online business will likely require more advertising than a contemporary business downtown, yet some new to the world of online business do not spend the time and money to advertise their business appropriately and are, in turn, loosing money. Your online business is crammed into the world wide web along with thousands of others selling the same product or service as yourself. Consider this scenario: In your hometown you want to open an art supply store. In that same town there are thousands of art supply stores. In order for your business to be successful, it will have to stand out in some way from the others. This is exactly what is happening when a business is opened online. There is so much competition, that you must take drastic measures to ensure that you are getting noticed. Advertising can be done in so many ways online. These are some of the most successful ways that you can promote your online business. Advertising in e-zines is a popular way to promote your online business. Ezines are the magazines of the internet; they written on a particular subject and read by those interested in that subject. Therefore, ezine readers are already potential customers and advertising your site in ezines that are related to your business is almost guaranteed to help drive traffic to your site and increase sales for your product. You should be sure when advertising in ezines that you are not advertising along side competitors. Ask the ezine producer if there is a policy concerning posting competing ads. It is also a good idea to subscribe to the ezine before making a decision about whether or not to advertise in it. An ezine that runs fewer ads is a better choice than one that runs many ads. You can look at the online Directory of Ezines to find publications that are relevant to your company. Pay-per-click programs are an excellent way to advertise your business without taking a risk that you have advertised in the wrong place. With pay-per-click, you can advertise you site and only pay for those who click the link and go to your site. Another popular pay-per program is the pay-per-lead program that allows you to only pay for leads. Usually this means that you pay for only those who download a trail, fill out a form or enter a sweepstakes; whatever you choose. Lastly you can display pay-per-click banner ads in which your company would be allowed to place a banner on their site and you will be charged for every click that your banner receives. Opt-In email is a great way to advertise your business, however it is expensive and it can be misused very easily. Using opt-in emails, you would submit your sales copy to the company that will in turn email it to those on their mailing list. You should be very careful since some of the companies that advertise their mailing lists as opt-in email service is sometimes really SPAM. It is essential that you have a perfect and effective sales letter when using opt-in mailing lists. Without and effective sales copy your money and time have been wasted. About The Author:----------------------------------------------------------------- Not long ago, I didn't know ANYTHING about Internet marketing... However, within just 2 weeks, I launched my own website AND learned how to profit from an opt-in list, pull in sales with ezines, make money with Google Adwords and setup my own BLOG! Here's how: http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.com/pips.html----------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
Cross Promoting Techniques that WorkCopyright © Adam Terebeckij http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.comCross promotions are not a new idea. They have been used by businesses for a very long time. For example, a real-estate company may promote a certain lawyer to close a sale, as the lawyer will promote that agency in his firm. The system is somewhat similar to the primitive barter system, where people traded items rather than using money. How can anything primitive fit into the online world of Internet marketing? Very easily. Cross promotions are, simply stated, a trade of advertising space. Instead of paying for advertising space on a site, you would place their ad on your page and yours on theirs. There are many ways to use cross promotions in your internet business that can be an effective and cost efficient way to advertise. One way is to use link exchanges. This is very effective when doing cross promotions with a company that is similar to yours, however you should be sure and never link to a page that is in direct competition with yours. One of the best things about link exchanges is that some search engines are factoring in hits from the sites that are linked to your page to when determining the ranking. Therefore linking to a more popular site, can not only increase your advertising, and traffic, but also increase your search engine ranking. When customers or potential customers subscribe to your ezine you can use this as an opportunity to use cross promotions. On the same page that the customer subscribes to your ezine, make available the opportunity to subscribe to another company’s ezine. You can even exchange ad space in ezines, and provide recommendations for those whom you cross promote with. You might even want to exchange column space in one another’s ezines. Writing free articles that inform customers or potential customers with information that is useful and accurate can create a reputation for you and your business. Soon readers will come to know you as an expert on the subject. In these articles the author uses a byline to help promote his site. Bylines can be a way to use cross promotions as well. You can use part of the space in your byline to recommend another’s product. If you have been considering writing an ebook, a joint venture could mean increased profits for you and the person you are partnering with. Cross promotions through ebooks are an excellent way to allow for a wider topic and to promote both your business and your partner’s business. The ebook should contain information that will benefit both businesses and still be helpful to the reader. A good example of using cross promotions through an ebook is to a site selling used video games partnering with a site selling gaming devices. These are two subjects that would interest the same reader and most likely lead the reader to both sites. You should keep in mind that the recommendations that you make are a direct reflection of you, so choose your cross promotional businesses carefully. Also keep in mind that it would be nice as a shopper to be able to link from one site to another as a way to “shop around.“ Since this is usually not beneficial to you, never link or recommend a site that is in direct competition with you. Instead, recommend those who are similar, such as health and life insurance. About The Author:----------------------------------------------------------------- Not long ago, I didn't know ANYTHING about Internet marketing... However, within just 2 weeks, I launched my own website AND learned how to profit from an opt-in list, pull in sales with ezines, make money with Google Adwords and setup my own BLOG! Here's how: http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.com/pips.html----------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
Designing A Website That SellsCopyright © Adam Terebeckij http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.comWould you buy meat from a grocery store that left the bad meat in with the good meat or wasn’t clean? Would you buy a car from a sales lot that had totaled automobiles on the front lot? I wouldn’t and neither would you. Your website is your grocery store; your car lot. You must have an atmosphere that is pleasing to buyers. One that tells that buyer that you are not an amateur, but instead a trained, seasoned professional. Your site is a direct reflection of your product and that is why that having a well designed website can make or break your sales. The first thing to keep in mind when designing your website, is “surfability”. Take a few minutes a look around at several web pages. What makes them appealing? Were there some that you closed out of immediately? Why? Take notes and do your research. Keep in mind that when a person visits your site they have a goal in mind. They are either seeking information or shopping for a product. Give the person what they want without having to search for it. Be sure that all the information on your site is relevant to your product. Make the buyer think that they need your product to solve their problem. Your main page serves a very specific purpose. It should be an avenue by which the customer can shop your site. It should be easy to view and load very quickly. This is your first impression and we all know that first impressions can either close the deal or loose the deal. Make it simple. It is best to have links that are easily viewable by the reader that will navigate them to where they want to be. Tables are often a great choice when deciding on a way to design the main page of your site. Your main page should load very quickly, chances are if it takes the page more than ten seconds to load even on a 56k modem, the customer will click away to save time, hoping to find the information or product elsewhere. To increase the loading speed of your main page you should avoid large graphics or excessive graphics. To many banners or special effects can cause a page to load slowly as well. To make your web site more appealing to the eyes, you should stick to mild colors. If your site is a content site where the user will be doing a lot of reading, it is best to stick to black and white. Color can be added when using tables, as a way to brighten up the page, but remember to keep the overall look of the page professional and appealing to the audience that will be visiting most often. Since screen resolutions vary among monitors, it is a good idea to set the pixels to a standard 800x600. You may also choose to set the tables in your web page to span a percentage of the page rather than a set number of inches. This will be sure to accommodate all screen sizes. You should remember that a lot of Internet users will not use the same browser as you, and therefore you should be sure that your site looks as good on other browsers as it does your own. You can do this by downloading several browsers through which to look at your page. Be aware of the fact that the overall look of your website is a way to make money. The appearance of the site, if designed properly, can be an excellent marketing strategy for your product or service. About The Author:----------------------------------------------------------------- Not long ago, I didn't know ANYTHING about Internet marketing... However, within just 2 weeks, I launched my own website AND learned how to profit from an opt-in list, pull in sales with ezines, make money with Google Adwords and setup my own BLOG! Here's how: http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.com/pips.html----------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
Multiply Your Sales Through Affiliate ProgramsCopyright © Adam Terebeckij http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.comWhat could be better than exceeding your personal sales goals for a given month or year? How about doubling, tripling or even more of you sales goal for the month? This is exactly what affiliates can do for you. The amount of growth potential through affiliates is unlimited; the more affiliates you have the more money you can make, after all, if Sam Walton tried to run every Wal-Mart store, he obviously wouldn’t be very successful. You must realize that for maximum growth you cannot do it alone. Think of the success of companies such as Avon or Home Interiors. Their success is based on two things; a great product and excellent affiliate programs. To attract affiliates to your company you should make it worth their time. Offering one percent of sales, is not an attractive offer, the higher the commission that you are able to offer your affiliates the more affiliates will be tempted to join your team. You should also provide your affiliates with the tools that they will need to successfully market your product such as banner ads, articles, and anything else that will help them to better market the product. You should provide the affiliates with updated product information through newsletters, new promotional campaigns and other things to motivate and inform the affiliates. You can choose to run your affiliate program in a few different ways, both of which are beneficial to your business. A one-tier affiliate program allows you to generally offer a larger commission and pays on one level. The affiliate will receive a predetermined amount for each sale. Using a two-tier affiliate program, affiliates are paid on two different levels. This is done by allowing the affiliates to recruit others to sell under them. In this situation, the top level affiliate would receive a slightly larger commission than the recruit or second level affiliate. For example if the top level seller makes 20% of the sale, then she/he would make 15% giving the second level affiliate the 5%. Setting up the affiliate program can also be done in two different ways. One way is to do it yourself through an affiliate tracking software. This software will provide you with a way to track affiliate sales as well as allow the affiliates to view their progress. The downside to this option is that you are responsible for making payments. You can also choose to hire an affiliate tracking company to do all the work for you. These companies will allow the use of credit cards and completely run the affiliate program from billing customers, paying affiliates, and also pay you. This is a great option for the busy business owner or the beginning business owner and it is affordable as most affiliate tracking companies charge a small one time fee. However you choose to run your affiliate program it is sure to increase profits for your business. About The Author:----------------------------------------------------------------- Not long ago, I didn't know ANYTHING about Internet marketing... However, within just 2 weeks, I launched my own website AND learned how to profit from an opt-in list, pull in sales with ezines, make money with Google Adwords and setup my own BLOG! Here's how: http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.com/pips.html----------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
Implementing an Opt-In List to Optimize Your Internet Marketing SuccessCopyright © Adam Terebeckij http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.comIn order to make a success of your website or online business, it is obvious that you will need customers. Although everyone who visits your page will not become a customer, they must have some interest in your product or service that brought them there in the first place and therefore they are a potential customer. Potential customers are much more likely to become actual customers if you make an effort to keep in touch with them. This essential marketing tool is called and opt-in list. An opt-in list will allow you to keep track of your potential customers by obtaining their email address in order to keep them informed about the latest updates for your product or service. You can create your own opt-in list or you can use an opt-in list creator that is available online from several sources. The benefits of creating your own opt-in list is that you will be able to send personal messages to the potential customers and they will not need to do anything, whereas with commercial opt-in lists, the customer will receive a generated message and will be required to verify their acceptance of the message. An important part of creating a successful opt-in list is to keep in mind that potential customer will visit your site from many places and may not see your homepage. Therefore it is imperative to have the ability to subscribe to the mailing list from all pages of your site. You should not, however, make the subscription information a focus point of every page. It is a good idea to put it at the bottom or top of the page where it is visible but not distracting. It is also a good idea to promote your mailing list by using a give-away. You could offer a service, a discount, or an ebook. You can also drive potential subscriber to join your mailing list by writing articles that will benefit the reader and at the same time, build your credibly as an expert. You can include the subscription information in the byline of the articles. You could also write an ebook with your subscription information on each page, which will allow the customer to easily access the information and join the list with ease. Once you have created the mailing list and now have your potential customers within your grasp it is your responsibility to keep them updated and interested. Provide them with quality information that is up-to-date and of interest to them. Offer discounts or a newsletter, something that the reader can use. This will keep them interested and will drive them to your site over and over, eventually they may make a purchase and if not, they will be informed enough to use word of mouth advertising for your site. About The Author:----------------------------------------------------------------- Not long ago, I didn't know ANYTHING about Internet marketing... However, within just 2 weeks, I launched my own website AND learned how to profit from an opt-in list, pull in sales with ezines, make money with Google Adwords and setup my own BLOG! Here's how: http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.com/pips.html----------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
Golden Rules For the Use of AutorespondersCopyright © Adam Terebeckij http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.comAutoresponders are a perfect way to increase traffic to your site. They can save many valuable hours by automatically answering emails concerning frequently asked questions about a service or product or by sending a welcome letter to new members of your program. There are many ways that autoresponders can help your business. One of the most important is their ability to track the effectiveness of your promotions. Since autoresponders are one of the most popular marketing tools available today, they are being used by a lot of different kinds of business and websites. Some of these take advantage of the system to use the autoresponders in a negative manner. You should be aware of some of the “Golden Rules” when using autoresponders. Thou Shalt Not Use an Autoresponder Address When Submitting to Search Engines. Since you will most likely submit your site to search engines such as Google or Yahoo!, directories, classifieds, and free for all sites, you should be made aware of the fact that these sites commonly use an autoresponder as well. If you were to use your autoresponder to contact these companies, their autoresponder will reply to yours and so on and so on. Thus creating a cycle of autoresponses that will flood your email box and theirs as well. Thou Shalt Not Use an Autoresponder to Subscribe to Ezines or Discussion Forums. Since most of the time an Ezine will send you updates and new information regularly, your auto responder will send them a message each time. In a discussion forum, every person in the discussion forum will receive your auto response. This can be irritating and most of the time you will be unsubscribed. It is often hard for the administrators of the forum or ezine to determine who is using the autoresponse and therefore it is simply common courtesy to never use an autoresponer in this manner. Thou Shalt Not Use an Autoresponder to Take Advantage Of Unsuspecting Individuals. Some very unprofessional companies will use autoresponders to respond to an automated message when this is done the address in the “from” field will be automatically subscribed to their mailing list. This is a extremely un ethical use of autoresponders and those who do it are in jeopardy of creating a very negative image of themselves and their company. Rather than promote their service or business, this usually leads to people becoming very upset and spreading a negative word about your company rather than a good one. The Internet can be a great place to do business and autoresponders can be an excellent way to save time, however when used in an unprofessional way, they can lead to frustration and aggravation for others. Your company will suffer the loss of much business if you choose to participate in these abusive practices. The appropriate use of auto responders can generate a large amount of business, while inappropriate use can drive away that business. About The Author:----------------------------------------------------------------- Not long ago, I didn't know ANYTHING about Internet marketing... However, within just 2 weeks, I launched my own website AND learned how to profit from an opt-in list, pull in sales with ezines, make money with Google Adwords and setup my own BLOG! Here's how: http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.com/pips.html----------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
Five Proven Methods for Internet Marketing SuccessCopyright © Adam Terebeckij http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.comThere are hundreds of ways that you can promote your online business or website, some more effective than others. These five proven methods will help you to generate traffic to your site and also to generate income into your wallet. 1. One thing that appeals to everyone is “free.” If it is free people will take it. Think of the samples of cheese given away at grocery stores. Do you really want a small piece of cheese? Of course not! But you take it simply because it is free and someone is nice enough to offer it to you. The same principle applies with information or services offered from your website. You can send out free newsletters or offer a free trail period. One popular thing that is being given away now are free credit reports or free PC scans. These freebies are what we in the marketing field like to call teasers. After running the free credit report or PC scan we alert the customer if there is something found on their credit record or PC and then offer to show them what it is or repair the problem for a price. This can be an effective way to get information to your potential customers, create sales or to generate traffic to your site. 2. Your website contains information about a service or product that you are very knowledgeable about. You can use this knowledge to generate traffic to your site by writing articles in your area of expertise and having them published in an ezine or an article information site. The most effective way to use these articles is to write them for free and ask in return that the publisher allow you to include a byline. A byline is a very short summary of the author, their credentials and their website. Your byline is a way that readers will come to know you as an expert on the topic and will in turn come to trust your site as a source of credible information. 3. Some search engines will allow a website to purchase their ranking. This is an excellent Internet marketing technique in that it is effective and inexpensive. In the pay-per-click programs, website are only billed for those who actually visit the page, unlike banner ads which may be seen by millions but only used by a few. When using the pay-per-click program you are asked to choose keywords and when those are entered your site will appear and if the surfer chooses to view your site, you are billed for that click. Many pay-per-click programs will offer other benefits as well, such as updated lists of commonly used keywords. 4. You should remember that others are in the same boat as you. You can choose to network with those who have similar marketing ideas. When networking you will be able to share links and refer customers to each other. You should always be very cautious when choosing a networking partner as everything that you recommend is a reflection of yourself or your product and therefore, you should be certain that your networking partner is a reputable source of information. 5. Simply because your website is online, doesn’t mean that all your advertising should be. Advertise in newspapers, TV, the radio or you can even send out a press release to get your information to thousands of people all over the country. About The Author:----------------------------------------------------------------- Not long ago, I didn't know ANYTHING about Internet marketing... However, within just 2 weeks, I launched my own website AND learned how to profit from an opt-in list, pull in sales with ezines, make money with Google Adwords and setup my own BLOG! Here's how: http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.com/pips.html----------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
Autoresponders = Automatic Internet Marketing SuccessCopyright © Adam Terebeckij http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.comWhat if you could send out all the information that your potential customers have requested without checking your email or answering a phone? While this may seem impossible, it is becoming more and more popular among the most successful Internet marketing gurus. This is all due to what is called an autoresponder. An autoresponder is an automatic method of responding to emails sent by existing or potential customers and is an must for any Internet business. Time is money and answering emails personally take a lot of valuable time for both you and the customer. Not only do autorespnders allow you to spend the time elsewhere in your business, but it gives the customer access to the information almost immediately. Since there are so many different uses for autoresponders, they can be of value to virtually any type of business. Some choose to use the autoresponders to answer frequently asked questions about a product or service. Others use them to provide information about pricing or product information. Autoresponders are also a nice way to welcome new members to a website or group as well as thank them after a visit. One might ask what would be the advantage of using autoresponders as opposed to simply listing the information on the site. An important feature of autoresponders is that they send you an email notification each time a response is sent out. This allows you to track the success of your promotions as well as have the email addresses of potential customers at your fingertips so that you can easily send out updated and new information to them. It is of the utmost importance to choose an effective autoresponder. An autoresponder should be as personal as possible and send out follow-ups to potential customers since it has been proven that persistence pays off. It could take up to seven contacts before a final sale is conducted. Generally speaking an advertisement should be short and to the point. However, in this case, the customer has asked to see this specific information and therefore an effective autoresponder should allow you to place as much text on the page as you desire. The autoresponder that you choose should provide automatic updates to customers free of charge. The autoresponder is one Internet marketing tool that will not cost you an arm and a leg. You can get free autoresponders online from several sources. The automatic responses will be a welcome addition to your marketing strategy and will help to automatically increase traffic to your site all while you do nothing. Be sure that the one you choose includes all the extras that will send you site to the top and your profits through the roof. About The Author:----------------------------------------------------------------- Not long ago, I didn't know ANYTHING about Internet marketing... However, within just 2 weeks, I launched my own website AND learned how to profit from an opt-in list, pull in sales with ezines, make money with Google Adwords and setup my own BLOG! Here's how: http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.com/pips.html----------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
Effective or Irritating: The Use of Pop Windows in Internet MarketingCopyright © Adam Terebeckij http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.comA few years ago, pop-up windows were all the rage in Internet marketing. It seemed that every time one opened a web page they would be bombarded with offers for this or that. It had gotten to the point where surfing the Internet was almost like playing a video game; when the ads would pop-up one would try and close them out before another one came. This is precisely why we have seen the decline in the use of pop-up windows on the Internet today; surfers simply do not even look at the pop-ups anymore. They close the windows out before even reading the ad. Very often, a surfer will even leave your site if there are too many pop-up ads. They simply do not want the hassle of closing those windows while trying to obtain the information that your site has to offer. This information, while valuable, is not as valuable as the surfers time. Studies have shown however, that even with these set backs, pop-up windows are still an effective method of Internet marketing. Is there some way that pop-up windows can be less irritating and still be effective? Yes! What if the pop ad were seen upon exiting your site instead of entering? This would allow the surfer to obtain the information that they need from your site, feeling that they were able to come and go quickly without being hassled by other ads and offers all the while making the surfer happy. You have left the surfer with a positive attitude and therefore are more likely to respond to the pop advertisement. This is being accomplished more and more by using what is being called pop-under windows. When the surfer comes to your site, the ad is opened discretely behind the your web page. Then, upon leaving your site, after obtaining all the information that they need , will see the ad and therefore be more likely to respond. Since the surfer has the information, he has achieved his objective and is now open to do other things; ideally respond to the pop under advertisement. Not all pop-windows are created equally. There are some things that you can do to make your pop-windows, whether pop-up or pop-under more effective. The pop-window should be easy to “escape” from. If the surfer does not want to see the add, but has a hard time closing it out, they will likely become frustrated and could leave your site all together. You should either use a button to that will allow the surfer to close the window or be sure that the “x” is easily visible. Another good idea is to use a script that utilizes cookies. Cookie will prevent pop-windows from overloading the surfer since you can decide the frequency of the pop-windows, rather than each time a page is opened. Also be sure that there is no more than one pop-window per page. When creating a pop-window, you will be asked to fill out a short information form, select the length of cookies, and choose the layout of the pop-window. When choosing the design of the pop-window, you can increase the effectiveness by creating a large headline that includes benefits that will be most appealing to the customer. You should also consider using incentives and lastly do not ask the customer to read a long and drawn out advertisement. Keep the message simple yet powerful and your pop-ads will be sure to generate profits for your site. About The Author:----------------------------------------------------------------- Not long ago, I didn't know ANYTHING about Internet marketing... However, within just 2 weeks, I launched my own website AND learned how to profit from an opt-in list, pull in sales with ezines, make money with Google Adwords and setup my own BLOG! Here's how: http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.com/pips.html----------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
Getting Started: Creating a Business PlanCopyright © Adam Terebeckij http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.comYou're excited. You have a great idea for a profitable online business. Maybe it is an original idea that has not been marketed online before. Maybe you have come up with a new spin on the ordinary. Whatever it is that has influenced you to start your online business, be sure that you have a plan before you begin. This is not the time to “pick it up as you go”. These are some basic things that should be included in your business plan. The business summary should give a brief description of the entire business and is an integral part of the overall business plan. After you have completed the business summary you should begin to list the objectives or the goals that you want to accomplish through the business. Next and perhaps most importantly, you should develop your marketing plan. The marketing plan will address all the specifics of the business. When developing the marketing strategy you should consider the following: The target market. The target market is the customers that you expect to see visiting your site. For example will your product be more appealing to college students or those who are in retirement? Consider the competition for your product when determining the marketing strategy. Choose a product that will be seen as unique and useful. Visit sites that are offering the same or similar products. Find out the cost, and how they are marketing their product. Finds out the pros and cons of their business and try to improve your product based on their flaws. Research the various methods for advertising online. You should become educated about search engines and how they work since each one is different. Also be sure that you know how to submit your site to search engines. You should be prepared to spend a small amount of money on advertising, but the profits that you will gain from the advertisements will prove to be money well spent. Think about pricing. Again, look at the competition and see what similar products are selling for. Pricing can play a big role in the success of your product since selling a product well below the average price may lead customer to think that there is a problem with the product or that it is not of the best quality. However, pricing items too high could also detour customers. Determine the shipping method. Be sure that you know how products will be shipped so that you can have shipping details clearly posted on your site. If you are shipping things of great value, you should consider providing shipping insurance. Also think about shipping outside the country that you live in. Think about the different methods of payment that you will accept. If your business does not accept credit cards, you should be ready to give up half if not more of your sales. If you decide to accept credit cards will you use a merchant account or will you use a third party credit card processing center? Both will help you get started and the third party processing center will handle all of the business so you don’’t have to. You should decide which you will use and also if you will accept checks or money orders. It is essential to have a secure server when taking credit cards. These few things will help your online business to become a great success and also provide you with peace of mind knowing that you have thoroughly thought about and planned for the opening of your online business. About The Author:----------------------------------------------------------------- Not long ago, I didn't know ANYTHING about Internet marketing... However, within just 2 weeks, I launched my own website AND learned how to profit from an opt-in list, pull in sales with ezines, make money with Google Adwords and setup my own BLOG! Here's how: http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.com/pips.html----------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Your Home Business: Turning Pennies into DollarsCopyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-10454Henry Ford taught us that to simplify the manufacture of automobiles, that the best way to do so was to install the assembly line. That one change revolutionized the auto manufacturing industry permitting the industry to build cars at a cost whereas the average person could afford to buy one. The lesson we should take from this is that having the ability to improve the process of getting the job quicker and cheaper, without compromising the quality of the job being done, will help catapult the person who simplified the process to the top of his/her field. Pennies saved in your home business can turn into dollars at the end of the day, and dollars can quickly multiply into hundreds or thousands of dollars over time. Doubt me if you will, but let me ask you a question. Do you think a saving of two fifths of a penny could make any real difference in the profit margin of a home business? Of course the right answer is "it depends on how many transactions are done in a year, utilizing the savings of the two fifths of one penny." You only have to think back a couple of decades to really appreciate this question. Do you remember the nut that lived and died in a Las Vegas hotel room? You know the one who was a billionaire, and was so worried about germs that he died of starvation? If you guessed Howard Hughes (1905-76), pat yourself on the back. Now Howard did not make all of his money on his two fifths of one penny. He did however make a ton of money from his two fifths of one penny. It seems Howard owned a can manufacturing company. And one day, Howard's team figured out how they could make one minor change in the design of their food can to reduce the amount of tin necessary to make a single can. As the story goes --- if my memory serves me correctly --- the reduction in tin usage equaled a saving of two fifths of one penny per can. Howard --- being the really smart businessman that he was --- decided that he would not be so greedy as to keep all of the savings for himself. What Mr. Hughes did do was to keep half of the savings for himself, and give the other half to his customers. The incredible thing about Mr. Hughes decision is that by saving his customers an extra one fifths of one cent per can, he managed to take more market share away from his competition --- netting his company an additional and substantial portion of the total market share in the canning industry. Let us return our thoughts to your home business. Have you ever gotten the feeling of excitement --- when you read something or thought of something --- that you could not wait to implement this new idea? This could be one of those moments... In every home business, there are certain processes that we do over and again. Sometimes it may be possible to trim the time or expense of a process which in turn will add pennies or dollars to your bottom line. If it is a process that you do hundreds or thousands of times per month, then your savings will multiply into hundreds or thousands of dollars in monthly savings. Imagine what running a home business was like BEFORE the computer... Before the personal computer, we had to hand type all letters and invoices. Now, we can setup a letter or invoice that we send out quite often, and we can save it in our word processor so that when we need to use it again, we can print it quickly and efficiently. There is no longer a need to type the document again from scratch. The computer has simplified our business communications and has provided us the opportunity to reduce our costs of doing business. Think about all of the other processes that the computer has enabled us to do for far less expense than what we could in the past. In this case, the computer is a tool that permits us to save time and money. So, my challenge to you is to begin examining the processes in your own home business and look for ways in which you can save yourself time and money. It is far better for you to contemplate on this matter than it is for me to do so for you. Simply put, you know your business better than anyone on the planet does. Therefore, you are in a better position than anyone to find those extra dollars that will decrease your costs and increase your profits. The extra pennies and dollars you could extract from your business could spell the difference between success and failure for your home business enterprise. About The Author:-------------------------------------------------- Stone Evans Will Personally Build A Money Making Website Just For You That's 100% Ready To Take Orders And Pull In Massive Residual Profits Today! Get All The Exciting Details And Signup Now At: http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-10454-------------------------------------------------- NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
Understanding the Different Methods of Online PromotionCopyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-10454Did you realize there are only three types of online promotion?... This statement may seem odd and even untrue in your mind, but I am speaking in more general terms than you might be thinking. Let me explain. The three types of promotion are Junk, Active and Passive promotions. JUNK PROMOTIONS ARE MONEY PITS Junk promotions are those that seem to produce results, but by their very nature are really only illusionary promotions. For example, let me begin with FFA (Free For All) pages. You might find yourself subscribing to a submission program that tricks you into believing you are submitting your links to tens of thousands search engines. Yes, you can submit your URL to a FFA page, but FFA’s usually only permit 100 or 1000 links on their page at any one time. So, if ten thousand people are submitting a link to an FFA page on a daily basis, then the average life of your link is between seven minutes and 144 minutes. I suspect the actual number of submitters is much higher and the results are much worse. Given that few people surf FFA pages, the chances of your submission being of any real value is practically nothing! Most of the people telling you that you can submit your site to tens of thousands of search engines are truly only submitting your site to FFA pages! Beware of the false promises. Another junk promotion method is Safe Lists. A safe list is a mailing group that is signed up to be received by people who want to submit their own ads. Now, most safe lists have thousands of subscribers who are able to submit their ads daily or weekly. The person signed up to receive the list will receive anywhere from twenty to 140+ messages a day from the list. These messages will be received by people only interested in promoting their own thing who do not have the right motivation to open, let alone read Your Advertising. As a result, thousands of messages go out daily or weekly that will never be seen by anyone but the sender of the ad. Where is the value in that? There is none. ACTIVE PROMOTIONS Active promotions are the type that require you to go out on a daily basis or a weekly basis and put out your advertisements. With active promotions, you will either place your advertising or you will not sell your products or services. Your choice is simple --- work or starve. Examples of active promotions include Pay Per Click Search Engines (PPCSE’s), Direct Email, Ezine Advertising, Solo Ezine Ads, Newsletter Publishing, Ezine Ad Swaps, Classified Ads, Auctions, Site Sponsorship and Banner Ads. Some people are able to utilize these methods very productively, while others are destined to drop their money into the bottomless pit of failed Internet promotions. PASSIVE PROMOTIONS Passive promotions are those promotions that can continue to provide results for you long after you have invested the work to make them available to the Internet community. Examples of passive promotions include: Link Exchanges, Articles, Ebooks, Content Exchanges and Writing Testimonials for others. Let’s look at articles as a solid example of my point. You are reading an article that I have written to promote my own business. This article is timeless and therefore could have been written five years ago and still have been as valuable as it is today. Due to the fact that the article is timeless, it can and will be placed in newsletters/ezines and their accompanying online archives, on websites and in ebooks for many more years to come. As a result, this article will continue to serve me well beyond the time in which I wrote it and submitted it to publishers and webmasters for public consumption and publication. This is the best example I can give you of an excellent passive promotional method. AVOID THE MONEY PITS Many try and even fewer succeed to conquer the Internet and to produce their dreams of online wealth. My hope is that you will be one of the people who conquer the challenges before you and to make a nice living while working online. It will take drive, determination, study plus trial and error, but you can make it work for you. Please continue to educate yourself so that you can avoid the money pits - instead, strive to find the money barrels. It can be done. I am living proof. About The Author:-------------------------------------------------- Stone Evans Will Personally Build A Money Making Website Just For You That's 100% Ready To Take Orders And Pull In Massive Residual Profits Today! Get All The Exciting Details And Signup Now At: http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-10454-------------------------------------------------- NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
Understanding the Different Methods of Offline PromotionCopyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-10454No business can survive the long run without some form of consistent advertising. As a result, most business owners will eventually consider using advertising to promote their business. The toughest part of the advertising equation is in determining where and how to spend your advertising dollars. If you do it wrong, you could plunk down your entire advertising budget and receive absolutely no return on your investment. But, if you do it right, your advertising could continue to bring a nice return for years to come. HOW DO I MAKE THE RIGHT ADVERTISING DECISIONS In order to make good decisions concerning how to spend your advertising budget, you must first have a good understanding of the different types of advertising and promotion available and what can be expected to be achieved by each. · You must understand which markets the different media's can reach. · You must understand the demographics of the media's consumers. · You must understand the buying habits of the consumers reached through the media. WHAT OFFLINE ADVERTISING & PROMOTION MEDIA'S SHOULD BE CONSIDERED The media's that people think of most often are television, radio, newspaper and magazine advertising. Of course, these are the big boys that big businesses use regularly. Other methods of promotion include trade shows, press releases, direct sales, telemarketing, word of mouth, branding and billboard advertising. CONSIDERING THE BIG MEDIA OUTLETS The big boys of advertising media's generally cost big bucks. Given certain circumstances, the big media's can be bought for very little money. Take for example, television, radio and newspapers cost big bucks during their prime times, but can be bought for pennies on the dollar during non-primetime hours. Television primetime is between 7pm and 10pm. Radio primetime is between 7am and 6pm. With newspapers, the primetime is Wednesdays and Sundays. If you intend to hit a media during prime time, get ready to drop some bucks. Primetime means that you will be able to hit more consumers during these times. So, in most cases, a primetime buy will enable you to reach more people with your advertising. Non-primetime hours can still deliver a lot of eyes and ears to your message, and sometimes, these off-hours can be bought for a bargain basement price. GETTING MILEAGE FROM EVENTS Trade shows and press releases are more event-driven. The trade show is the event, while the press release generally exploits an event. Trade shows are an exceptional tool when you deal directly with potential sellers of your products or services. Other shows are directed at the consumer, and those can be very valuable avenues for sales as well. The press release is aimed towards gaining attention for a business by distributing newsworthy information about the business. Sometimes the appearance of a business at a trade show or other show can provide the necessary angle for a press release. But most often, a successful press release will actually require more noteworthy information than the appearance of a business at a show. Yet, even the most mundane of information could be spiced up to give the real air of importance necessary to get your press release read and printed. The great thing about a press release is that might permit you to get relatively inexpensive promotion on television, radio, newspapers and magazines; for far less than what it would cost you to buy advertising in those same outlets. UTILIZING A SALES TEAM Depending on what type of business you run and the consumers you are trying to reach, you might find direct sales and telemarketing to be very lucrative ways to drive sales to your business. Both are very similar in nature. Direct sales can be very expensive, as it requires a great investment of time to accomodate. Telemarketing seeks to minimize the time expenditure, but it often leads to a smaller degree of respect and attention. Depending on your product or service --- and always depending upon the people you employ to the task --- each method will be more suited to each business on an individual basis. BRANDING YOUR BUSINESS I grouped branding and billboard advertising together in my original list for a reason. I did this because billboard advertising serves most businesses best by helping to support the process of branding. Branding is the process of establishing your business as the supplier of a certain product or service, or in emphasizing a certain USP (Unique Selling Proposition) as it pertains to your business. If branding and USP seems to be a confusing concept, think about Wal-Mart and their tag line: "Always Low Prices, Always." Think about Ford Motors, "Quality is Job One." Think about the Visa Card, "It's Everywhere You Want To Be." You see, these top corporations have managed to make their USP part of their branding. Even if you are only competing in a local marketplace, your USP can and should fit snugly into your branding strategy. NO MATTER THE MEDIA OR METHOD Whichever method or media you should choose to employ in your advertising and promotion, you should become knowledgable about your market, and the consumers reached by each media. It is important to understand which consumers can be reached by a certain media, and in what quantities. However you choose to spend your advertising dollars, you should always track the results of your promotional efforts. Failing to track successes and failures will ultimately lead to the failure of a business. When you know whom you are trying to reach and how you think you might be able to reach them, you will begin to learn how to use advertising and promotion to make your business successful. That is a good thing --- after all, that is why you got into the business in the first place, isn't it? About The Author:-------------------------------------------------- Stone Evans Will Personally Build A Money Making Website Just For You That's 100% Ready To Take Orders And Pull In Massive Residual Profits Today! Get All The Exciting Details And Signup Now At: http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-10454-------------------------------------------------- NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
Understanding the Difference Between Marketing and PromotionCopyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-10454Are you an online marketer? Or do you simply promote affiliate programs? Marketing is truly the most misunderstood word in use today on the Internet. Let me see if I can clarify this issue just a bit. In Marketing 101 at your local university, marketing is actually the process of Product, Place, Price and Promotion. PRODUCT No business can exist without a product or service to sell. In a nutshell, entrepreneurs are the people who believe in a product, service or idea, so much that they are willing to invest their lives into the development of their dream. Historically, every major corporation in the world was started by an entrepreneur with a dream and the drive to make it a reality. However, there comes a time in the life of every corporation when those who fear the gambling nature of their founder, squash the entrepreneurial drive that made the company a viable concern in the first place. The entrepreneur will either submit to the careful nature of the stockholders, or he will be forced to leave the company he created. The only entrepreneurs who withstand the pressure to move more carefully are those who have maintained majority control over their companies. PLACE In the offline world, place is defined by location. On the Internet, place is defined by domain name and the web hosting service chosen. Both online and offline, place can make or break a company without respect to the quality and value of the product, service or idea. PRICE Selecting a price is determined first on a basis of whether the company wants to be seen as a discount or a value company. Take for example Wal-Mart and Staples. Wal-Mart is the lead discounter in the marketplace. Staples on the other hand is the specialist in office supplies. Both sell a significant number of office supplies despite the fact that the lowest price can usually be found at Wal-Mart. As a value dealer, Staples can afford to charge more for their products than Wal-Mart. So the question for you is whether you want to position your company as a discount or value company. Testing has shown that products and services can be sold at any number of prices and still reach a significant number of people. The challenge of selecting the best price for your product or service will require a certain amount of testing. UNDERSTANDING THE PRICING EQUATION Let's assume we are selling a product. Let us also assume that we know that the product can be sold for $10 or $50. Let us also assume that if the price dips below $10 or rises above $50, then the product sales fall off significantly. Our challenge is to determine the best rate at which to sell our product. Testing has shown us that we can sell 1000 items a week at $10. Testing has also shown that we can sell 500 items per week at $50. And testing has shown that we can sell 650 items per week at $45. At $10, our projected weekly earnings are $10,000. When we sell the product at $50, we know that we can earn $25,000 per week. Most importantly, we know that we can earn $29,250 when our product is priced at $45. With the imaginary testing we have done on our imaginary product, we can easily see that selling our product at $45 per item will earn us more money over the long haul. Thus, when we make the decision for a national rollout of our product, then we will price our product at $45. Of course, this is a very simplistic analysis of the point I am trying to make. Though simple, I believe this analogy will help you understand the methods of developing a product's prices. PROMOTION Promotion, on the other hand, is the process of notifying the consumers for your product or service of your availability to serve them. Methods of promotion vary distinctly and should be arranged to meet very specific goals. As with product, place and price, promotion should not be left to chance. You should test every ad, every media, and every price point to determine the best bang for your promotional dollars. HEADS UP! If you are an online promoter or marketer, please factor in the most important element concerning the cost of your promotions. What element is that? Your time! Value your time at a certain dollar amount, and figure in your time into the cost of your promotional accounting. I say this because too many online promoters lose sight of this concept and spend 20 hours to generate one sale while using free advertising. Even if you rate your time at the federal minimum wage, then you will have invested $105 of your time for one sale that might only net you a gross sale of $45! ARE YOU TRULY A MARKETER OR ARE YOU JUST A PROMOTER? Most people who run a business on the Internet call themselves marketers. Yet, most of these same people are really just promoters wrapped in the label of a marketer. True marketers do not promote without a lot of advance work. They spend time planning, testing and measuring their actions and results to get the most out of every dollar spent and earned. Entrepreneurs finesse the art of marketing as they build their company into a major enterprise. If you are a promoter who does not keep an eye on the total marketing equation, then you are bound to fail. If you do call yourself a marketer, then do what a professional marketer does. Make sure that every dollar spent is spent well. Make sure that every dollar earned is put to good use. Market well so that when the people of the next generation look at your life, they will see a fine example of a successful entrepreneur that they will strive to emulate. About The Author:-------------------------------------------------- Stone Evans Will Personally Build A Money Making Website Just For You That's 100% Ready To Take Orders And Pull In Massive Residual Profits Today! Get All The Exciting Details And Signup Now At: http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-10454-------------------------------------------------- NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
Tracking Offline Advertising Success by Measuring ROICopyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-10454The great promise of online advertising has always been that advertisers will now be able to effectively track the successes and failures of their online advertising efforts. This promise has been met. Yet, for those of us who still employ offline promotions and advertising methods, we must consider the various ways in which we can effectively track our results in the old-world media. TRACKING RESULTS BEFORE THE INTERNET AGE How long has it been? Ten Years? Believe it or not, it has been less than ten years since the Internet went mainstream. Companies still utilize the same methods to track results as they did before we laid our hopes on the Digital Superhighway. TV advertisers ask you to call extension X. Radio advertisers offer you additional savings if you tell them you heard it on XYZ radio station. In newspapers and magazines, advertisers suggest you clip the attached coupons. Why do you think advertisers employ these tactics? Simple. They need to know what advertising is bringing customers in the front door and to their cash register. By understanding what advertisers are bringing them customers and dollars, they have a better understanding of where to spend their next wave of advertising dollars. Additionally, they can do a side-by-side comparison of their Advertising Return on Investment (ROI) to determine which method brings them the most percentage of return per dollar spent. UNDERSTANDING HOW WE SHOULD MEASURE The truth is that we really do need to know how people are deciding to visit and buy from our business establishment. Some consider this idea silly or even a waste of their valuable time. Far too many people, who think of tracking in this fashion, end up searching for a job at some point in their future. Unless pure dumb luck is on the side of the business owner, a business simply cannot survive if it does not track the effectiveness of its advertising. Somehow, some way, a business owner or his marketing staff must look at their advertising and promotion budgets, and look at their advertising mediums and find a way to know which is doing the job for them and which is not. DISCOVERING WHAT MOTIVATES OUR CUSTOMERS Somehow, we must get our customers to tell us how they found us and what ad motivated them to come in and purchase our product or service. Everyday, businesses motivate their customers to tell them how they learned of them by having the customer call a certain extension, offer them an additional discount to tell them which advertisement they had heard, or to offer them a coupon to use. Others motivate their customers to tell them how they had learned of their business by offering a very specific product in their advertising. They know that if someone shows up at their business to buy a certain product, then they will know how the person had heard of their business. This is why you should make your radio advertising focus on a different promotion than your newspaper advertising. Different mediums should focus on different leader pieces so that you can see which medium provides the best results. UNDERSTANDING WHY WE SHOULD MEASURE RESULTS We measure advertising results so that we can learn how to not waste our money and to learn how to get the most bang for our advertising dollar. Return On Investment or ROI is the key measurement utilized to determine the value of our advertising. It is best to show in an example how ROI is measured. Cost of Newspaper Advertising: $150 Number of Items Sold As a Result: 60 Retail Price of Individual Item: $ 10 Profit on Individual Item: $ 3 Gross Income on Items Sold: $600 Gross Profit on Items Sold: $180 In this example, you have spent $150 to make $180. Your ROI is 120%. Cost of Radio Advertising: $ 300 Number of Items Sold As a Result: 50 Retail Price of Individual Item: $ 20 Profit on Individual Item: $ 6 Gross Income on Items Sold: $1000 Gross Profit on Items Sold: $ 300 In this example, you have spent $300 to make $300. Your ROI is 100%. Utilizing these two examples, you can quickly discern why and how we are calculating ROI. Now, some people would consider both to be good investments of their advertising dollars. In fact, many believe that so long as their advertising generates enough sales to break even as the radio example did, then they consider the investment to have been in their future rather than their present. So long as you do not lose money on the transaction, then you should at least be willing to continue with the advertising medium that was used. However, over time, you might find that the newspaper advertising will continue to provide the 120% ROI. If that is the case, then your newspaper advertising should take more of a center stage in your advertising efforts so that you can develop more profits which can be used to increase your dollar investment into your advertising. WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF TRACKING YOUR OFFLINE PROMOTIONS With this introduction, you should now have available to you the knowledge necessary to introduce tracking into your marketing efforts. Those who take the time and effort to advertise and track their results will benefit more than you can imagine. Truth be known, a single person with a dream today started every big corporation in the world many years ago. Each of these corporations grew from a fledgling operation to a economic powerhouse by tracking and tweaking their Advertising ROI. Every corporation and small business who will remain in business through the long term will be tracking their advertising and promotional efforts today. It is an investment into their future success. If you make the same kind of investment of time and cash resources, you too will be making an investment in your future success. About The Author:-------------------------------------------------- Stone Evans Will Personally Build A Money Making Website Just For You That's 100% Ready To Take Orders And Pull In Massive Residual Profits Today! Get All The Exciting Details And Signup Now At: http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-10454-------------------------------------------------- NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-) Terms Disclaimer Privacy
Starting Your Home Based Business on a Shoestring BudgetCopyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-10454Whether seeking a supplemental income or a full-time income, many folks have undertaken the task to discover a viable home based business solution to meet their personal needs. For most folks who contemplate a home business, a low-cost or no-cost solution is not only nice, but also very necessary. Many also seek to find a home business that will permit them to maintain their regular day job in order to protect their base income. Taking the cautious approach to a home based business and keeping one's job during the start-up period is often a very good decision. By maintaining one's job, one can maintain the health of their personal finances while permitting their home business grow healthy and strong. Fortunately, most home based businesses can be started with little or no cash, can be maintained on a shoestring budget, and can be operated successfully with only a part-time investment. One day, the business will be strong enough to support itself and its owner. When that time comes, it will make good sense for the business owner to leave his or her outside job to dedicate more time to growing and maintaining their new thriving home based business. You will know when that time has finally arrived. The nature of a home based business makes it easy and very realistic for most folks to take the plunge into home business ownership. Yet, many folks put off starting their own home based business, because they have the misconception that they will have to risk thousands of their own hard-earned dollars at start-up. Then later, if their business fails, they fear they may be forced to take out a second mortgage on their house just to stay out of bankruptcy. Are you one of these folks? Do you let your fears of failure keep you from reaching for your dreams? If so, then allow me to introduce you to a few home business ideas that you can start for less than $100 and can be started and operated very profitably as a part-time business. THE LIFEBLOOD OF ALL SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES First of all, let me advise you to search out a business model that will deliver steady and repeat business. It is the one thing --- above all others --- that will assure that your company can survive the test of time. HOME-BASED MAIL ORDER: Home-based mail order is a good example of how one can quickly grow a home business income. Mail order is a low cost start-up business that can be launched for around $100 USD. With proper planning, your home-based mail order business will not require up-front inventory purchases. In the mail order business, it is not uncommon to rely upon drop-shippers for product fulfillment services. By utilizing drop-shippers, we can sell the products, collect the money and then purchase the products from the wholesale outlet. The wholesale outlet will then put a return address for your company on the product packaging and deliver the product directly to your customer. Your primary expense in the mail-order business is advertising. Classified advertising tends to be a relatively inexpensive form of advertising with thousands of outlets available to the small business owner. WHOLESALE BUSINESS: Buy low --- sell high. You can acquire high quality, top-of-the-line merchandise for a fraction of the retail cost. Starting a wholesale business would require a Wholesale Dealers Directory as your source for merchandise. You can find a Wholesale Deales Directory by using any search engine to look up the term. AUCTIONS: Auctions can be an excellent source for buying cheap and selling high. Both government auctions and Internet auctions can lead to some excellent profit opportunities. Auctions are an excellent tool for both acquiring and selling merchandise. MAKE AND SELL YOUR CRAFTS: Crafts are a hot seller at country fairs, swap meets or anyplace where people gather. Make your own crafts and sell them for a tidy profit! SELLING INFORMATION: Selling information by mail is another good example of an inexpensive home based business start-up. One can gain the resale rights to information for usually about $50 USD. Other costs will include printer cartridges, paper and postage. There are plenty of free classifieds sites on the Internet, in which to successfully advertise your information. WRITE INFORMATIONAL BOOKLETS: Write and publish your own informational booklets; sell them at a high price! All you need is a little know-how, a printer, paper and stamps. This is a GREAT home business idea! You can also sell the resale rights to others, for extra profits. In this age of the Internet, you may also take advantage of the fact that selling information is one of the most profitable endeavors one can pursue online. OFFICE SERVICES: Offer office services for hire in your local paper. You'll be surprised at the amount of regular office business that can be gleaned from one little classified ad. Word processing, typing, accounting, data entry, proofreading, transcription, promotional letters and newsletters. All these tasks can be accomplished right from your own home office. AVON REPRESENTATIVE: Yes, Avon's been around for eternity, hasn't it? Then it's not such a bad prospect as a home based business, is it? I once knew a woman who did so much business as an Avon rep. that she had people calling her and knocking at her door wanting to order products at all hours of the day and night! Once you are an established Avon representative, you, too, will turn a good profit. CONCLUSION: On your search for the ideal home based business, try not to get caught up in any scams that will run off with your money. There are thousands of scam artists out there just waiting for the next sucker to come along. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Just use your good judgement and invest wisely in proven methods of earning extra income. About The Author:-------------------------------------------------- Stone Evans Will Personally Build A Money Making Website Just For You That's 100% Ready To Take Orders And Pull In Massive Residual Profits Today! Get All The Exciting Details And Signup Now At: http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-10454-------------------------------------------------- NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
Promoting Your Business with Copper Wire? Think Again!Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-10454So many people launch their first or second business with the misconception that they can survive without advertising. It is their fear of failure that almost single-handedly assures their failure. They fear spending the money that they need to get and keep their business running during those early years of their operation. Let’s face it, when you start in business, money is usually pretty darn tight. So, you must figure out how to get off the ground without throwing your money down the drain. Every single red cent is important enough to hang onto with a tight fist. NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO REINVENT COPPER WIRE I am reminded of an old joke a friend used to tell about himself. My friend had always told me that both he and his brother were the inventers of copper wire. He insisted that the two of them were fighting over a penny one day and managed to stretch it out into the first strand of copper wire known to mankind. Indeed, now is not the time to try to reinvent copper wire. ADVERTISING IS A NECESSARY COMPONENT OF A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS The point of advertising is to notify your customers of the existence of your business. It is necessary to tell people that you are in business and to tell them what products and services you are offering. Unless people know that you are offering a certain product or service at a certain price, no one will knock upon your door to buy your wares. If you fail to attract customers and dollars, your business will die. Therefore, advertising is a must for the success of your business. Sure, word of mouth can take you places, but it can only take you so far. Advertising is designed to pick up where word of mouth leaves off. ATTRITION IS A DEFINITE FACTOR TO CONSIDER Attrition is a factor in all businesses. A business is able to pick up so many customers and dollars on every advertising or promotion venture. Yet, a certain portion of your old and new customers and dollars will drop off over time. You simply cannot rest on your laurels. You must continue to generate new business and new dollars or your business will die. EZINE PUBLISHING DELIVERS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF COMMERCIAL ATTRITION If you have ever published an online ezine, then you will have seen attrition first hand. You can spend all week advertising your ezine and note that your efforts have generated for example 500 new subscribers. Yet, by the end of the week, your subscriber base has only climbed by 250 subscribers. What went wrong? Well, this is how it works. Keep in mind this is only an example to make my point, but if you have ever published an ezine, then you will know I am right on the money with this observation. In one week: · 500 people sign up for the first time. · 40 of those people unsubscribe after the very first issue because they do not like the content. · 30 people quit after the first issue because their only purpose in subscribing in the first place was to get the freebie you had offered to new subscribers. · 30 of those people unsubscribe because they do not remember subscribing to the ezine in the first place. · 80 email addresses bounce due to ISP email filters. · 20 people bounce because they did not pay their Internet bill. · 35 people have simply changed their email addresses without submitting a change of address to you. · 15 people have quit the Internet altogether. In the final analysis, 100 of your new subscribers, or 20% of your newco |