Clint Herman's Internet Marketing Blog http://clintherman.com Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:37:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.2 en Promote Your Business with Teleseminars http://clintherman.com/promote-your-business-with-teleseminars/ http://clintherman.com/promote-your-business-with-teleseminars/#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:37:38 +0000 Clint Herman http://clintherman.com/promote-your-business-with-teleseminars/ Teleseminars are a great way to get people together and work with a team atmosphere. When a group of like-minded people get together a certain build up of energy occurs. Teleseminars tap into this sphere of energy and can really give your business the promotion it needs and deserves. The object of a teleseminar is to begin to lay out a thought process or an idea about your product or service. Right before going into any further details, the teleseminar ends and you are left with the only viable option - to promote your product and offer a follow up at a certain price.
 
During a teleseminar, three things can happen. First, the product or idea can be discussed, the next step is offered, usually in the form of a product or service such as an eBook or coaching session and finally questions can be answered and participation can occur.
 
When the product or idea is discussed, this usually takes up most of the time for the teleseminar. At this point, the excitement is growing; the people on the line are listening intently. The speaker is talking about the product, promoting the ideals behind the service.
 
After the basic promoting has gone on, it is time to let the listeners know exactly what you have to offer them. This is where the promotion rubber meets the payout road. At this point in the teleseminar, the speaker usually gives the deals with an extra special deal only for those participants in the teleseminar. This deal is another promotion to try and catch anyone who is still on the fence about making a decision.
 
During the question and answer time, people get to ask some basic questions about the product and service offered. Here is where the second big push for promotion comes into play. At this point the host of the teleseminar refers back to the product or service to have all of the questions answered. For instance, if the service is business development coaching, the answers to the questions will most likely remain vague and revert back to the coaching service offered.
 
These three things are definitely not the only portions of a teleseminar, but they will give you a general understating of how a teleseminar runs and operates. Before trying to put together your very own teleseminar, call into a few to make sure you understand how it all works and also, don’t be afraid to ask for some help.

If you want to know more simple and cheap ways to get your online marketing started then visit this site for 3 FREE reports:

http://www.CheapMarketingMethods.com

God bless,
Clint

]]> http://clintherman.com/promote-your-business-with-teleseminars/feed/ An eBay Seller’s Checklist http://clintherman.com/an-ebay-seller%e2%80%99s-checklist/ http://clintherman.com/an-ebay-seller%e2%80%99s-checklist/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:52:33 +0000 Clint Herman http://clintherman.com/an-ebay-seller%e2%80%99s-checklist/ Being a seller is a lot of responsibility, and sometimes you might feel like you’re not doing everything you should be. This simple checklist will help you keep on top of things.

Have you found out everything you possibly could about your items? Try typing their names into a search engine – you might find out something you didn’t know. If someone else is selling the same thing as you, then always try to provide more information about it than they do.
 
Do you monitor the competition? Always keep an eye on how much other items the same as or similar to yours are selling, and what prices they’re being offered at. There’s usually little point in starting a fixed price auction for $100 when someone else is selling the item for $90.

Have you got pictures of the items? It’s worth taking the time to photograph your items, especially if you have a digital camera. If you get serious about eBay but don’t have a camera, then you will probably want to invest in one at some point.

Are you emailing your sellers? It’s worth sending a brief email when transactions go through: something like a simple “Thank you for buying my item, please let me know when you have sent the payment”. Follow this up with “Thanks for your payment, I have posted your [item name] today”. You will be surprised how many problems you will avoid just by communicating this way.

Also, are you checking your emails? Remember that potential buyers can send you email about anything at any time, and not answering these emails will just make them go somewhere else instead of buying from you.

Do your item description pages have everything that buyers need to know? If you’re planning to offer international delivery, then it’s good to make a list of the charges to different counties and display it on each auction. If you have any special terms and conditions (for example, if you will give a refund on any item as long as it hasn’t been opened), then you should make sure these are displayed too.

Have you been wrapping your items correctly? Your wrapping should be professional for the best impression: use appropriately sized envelopes or parcels, wrap the item in bubble wrap to stop it from getting damaged, and print labels instead of hand-writing addresses. Oh, and always use first class post – don’t be cheap.

Do you follow up? It is worth sending out an email a few days after you post an item, saying “Is everything alright with your purchase? I hope you received it and it was as you expected.” This might sound like giving the customer an opportunity to complain, but you should be trying to help your customers, not take their money and run.

Being a really good eBay seller, more than anything else, is about providing genuinely good and honest customer service. That’s the only foolproof way to protect your reputation.

If you would like to learn how to sell on eBay then check out this website:

http://www.BeginnersAuctionGuide.com

God bless,
Clint

]]> http://clintherman.com/an-ebay-seller%e2%80%99s-checklist/feed/ Promote Your Business with Podcasting http://clintherman.com/promote-your-business-with-podcasting/ http://clintherman.com/promote-your-business-with-podcasting/#comments Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:30:33 +0000 Clint Herman http://clintherman.com/promote-your-business-with-podcasting/ Podcasting is a new wave of audio formatting and broadcasting. Podcasts can hold a variety of different styles from a single monologue, similar to a documentary, a dialog or conversation among many co-hosts and callers or even interviews. Podcasts are a great way to promote your business, either by hosting a podcast yourself, being interviewed on a podcast, or even buying advertising time on a podcast.
 
Hosting a podcast is a simple way to promote your business because, since you are in charge, you get to plug your product or tie it back in to the discussion whenever you feel like it. If you are the host, you can also interview experts in your field, take questions about your products or find ways to do audio demonstrations of your products.
 
If you are interviewed on a podcast, you have a prime opportunity to talk up your business. Chances are if you are brought in for an interview, you have a new product out that has just hit the market, a review causing all the rage, or a service people can’t stop talking about. Go ahead. It is your time to shine; you are in the lime light, talk it up.
 
Paying for advertising space on a podcast has not really spread too much as of yet, but as certain podcasts grow in listeners and the shows become more iconic, paid advertisements will become just as common as those on the radio. Pay for your spots early before the prices go up and make sure your few seconds convey your message accurately and effectively.
 
Podcasting will replace radio in the future because, like websites and blogs, everyone can have their own channel, everyone can have their own listeners and everyone can have their very own “radio show.” Promoting your business with podcasting is just getting started so you better get a jump on your competition now before they sweep it right out from under your feet.

If you want to know more simple and cheap ways to get your online marketing started then visit this site for 3 FREE reports:

http://www.CheapMarketingMethods.com

God bless,
Clint

]]> http://clintherman.com/promote-your-business-with-podcasting/feed/ A Look at Third Party eBay Tools http://clintherman.com/a-look-at-third-party-ebay-tools/ http://clintherman.com/a-look-at-third-party-ebay-tools/#comments Sun, 20 Sep 2009 18:47:30 +0000 Clint Herman http://clintherman.com/a-look-at-third-party-ebay-tools/ There are plenty of companies out there offering third party eBay tools. Most of them are web-based instead of downloadable, so you pay a monthly fee instead of just buying the software. But do you know what these sites can do for you? It can be hard to get to grips with what’s out there using a search engine, so here’s a quick rundown of the key players.

Andale (www.andale.com).

Andale offer lots of small products instead of one solution that does everything: you can take your pick from a lister, image hosting, counters, analysers, a gallery, a checkout and an email manager. The price plans are a bit of a maze, but quite reasonable as long as you don’t go and use everything.

Andale’s real claim to fame is that they’ve been doing it for so long – they’re not some fly-by-night organisation, and many eBay sellers have been using their free counters for absolutely years. They also have a reputation for being very responsive to customers, and will often talk to you directly on their forums and implement any suggestions you might have for improving their software.

Vendio (www.vendio.com).

Vendio offer two editions of their software, Sales Manager: a Merchandising edition and an Inventory edition. The difference between the two is that the Merchandising edition is designed to make it easier to list individual auctions, while the Inventory edition is for sellers who sell many of the same item. They offer a pay-as-you go price of 10c per auction.

They also offer software called Tickets Manager, special software for people who sell lots of tickets on eBay – an odd product to have, but useful if you happen to sell tickets. Other services offered by Vendio include web and image hosting, fancy Flash galleries of your products for your listings, and stores.

ChannelAdvisor (www.channeladvisor.com).

ChannelAdvisor offer their software in three versions: Enterprise, Merchant and Pro. Enterprise and Merchant are both designed for very big businesses, though, and the chances are that the Pro version does everything you’d want. ChannelAdvisor is popular among sellers who want a solution that they know is used and trusted on a very large scale by enterprise-level customers.

It offers all the standard bulk listing and inventory features, as well as the unique feature of being able to create auctions from an Excel spreadsheet of your inventory. The cost is high, though, at $29.95 per month.

And Many, Many More…

eBay maintain a comprehensive directory of third-party software, which you can browse through anytime you have a few days to kill. You can look either for complete solutions or for each part of what you want individually – the choice is so daunting that there’s bound to be something out there for you. You can look at their directory at http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SolutionsDirectory.

If you would like to learn how to sell on eBay then check out this website:

http://www.BeginnersAuctionGuide.com

God bless,
Clint

]]> http://clintherman.com/a-look-at-third-party-ebay-tools/feed/ Promote Your Business with Blog Carnivals http://clintherman.com/promote-your-business-with-blog-carnivals/ http://clintherman.com/promote-your-business-with-blog-carnivals/#comments Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:29:13 +0000 Clint Herman http://clintherman.com/promote-your-business-with-blog-carnivals/ Blog carnivals are a great way to promote your business and get your blog noticed on the Internet. If you are invited to participate in a blog carnival, get out your dancing shoes and get ready for the fun.

A blog carnival is an event hosted by an individual blog owner. He or she determines the theme and sets out to find as many participants with a good post related to the theme as possible. The links to the posts are then gathered into a single post on the host’s blog. Some blog carnival hosts allow people to submit their own material; others prefer to do the choosing themselves. Either way, blog carnivals can be an excellent way to find numerous blogs on a single theme all in one place. This creates a hotbed of potential visitors to your blog.

Most blog carnivals will present the related posts in a basic list type form, but some bloggers get creative. An exceptional blog carnival will not only contain the links to a large number of blogs, but will find a way to add some creativity to the presentation as well, such as weaving all the links into a storyline about the theme itself.

Occasionally, blog carnivals are a one-time, one-host event. There are other carnivals that move from one participant’s blog to the next, thus continuing the fun for weeks on end. If you can join in a blog carnival, you have a fabulous vehicle to promote your business.

Not only will all the participants in the blog carnival be checking out the links, but all of their individual readers will as well. A healthy blog carnival can easily generate hundreds of links to your blog, thus providing hundreds of opportunities to promote your business.

You can search for blog carnivals through any search engine. There are directories of blog carnivals, which will provide you enough links to keep you busy for a very long time. Join in a few and see what a little carnival could do to promote your business.

If you want to know more simple and cheap ways to get your online marketing started then visit this site for 3 FREE reports:

http://www.CheapMarketingMethods.com

God bless,
Clint

]]> http://clintherman.com/promote-your-business-with-blog-carnivals/feed/ A Beginner’s Guide to the Different eBay Auction Types http://clintherman.com/a-beginner%e2%80%99s-guide-to-the-different-ebay-auction-types/ http://clintherman.com/a-beginner%e2%80%99s-guide-to-the-different-ebay-auction-types/#comments Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:15:29 +0000 Clint Herman http://clintherman.com/a-beginner%e2%80%99s-guide-to-the-different-ebay-auction-types/ Over the years, eBay has introduced all sorts of different auction types, in an effort to give people more options when they buy and sell their things on eBay.

For every seller who doesn’t like the idea that their item might sell for a far lower price than they intend, there’s another who wants to shift hundreds of the same item quickly. eBay tries to cater to all tastes. This email gives you an overview of the different kinds of auctions and their advantages for you.

Normal Auctions.

These are the bread-and-butter of eBay, the auctions everyone knows: buyers bid, others outbid them, they bid again, and the winner gets the item. Simple.

Reserve Auctions.

Reserve auctions are for sellers who don’t want their items to sell for less than a certain price – a concept you’ll know about if you’re familiar with real auctions. They work just like normal auctions on eBay, except that the buyer will be told if their bid does not meet the reserve price you set, and they’ll need to bid again if they want the item. If no-one is willing to meet your price, then the auction is cancelled, and you keep the item.

Fixed Price (‘Buy it Now’) Auctions.

Buy it Now auctions can work in one of two ways. You can add a Buy it Now button to a normal auction, meaning that buyers can choose either to bid normally or to simply pay the asking price and avoid the whole bidding process. Some sellers, though, now cut out the auction process altogether and simply list all their items at fixed price. This lets you avoid all the complications of the auction format and simply list your items for how much you want them to sell for.

Recently, eBay added a twist to fixed price auctions: the ‘best offer’. This means that buyers can contact you to negotiate a price, which could be a good way to get sell some extra stock at a small discount. The only downside to reserve and fixed price auctions is that you pay a small extra fee to use these formats. In general, it is more worth using reserve auctions for higher-priced items and fixed price auctions for lower-priced ones – but remember that you can combine the two formats.

Multiple Item (‘Dutch’) Auctions.

These are auctions where you can sell more than one of a certain item. Dutch auctions can be done by bidding. Buyers bid a price and say how many items they want, and then everyone pays the lowest price that was bid by one of the winning bidders. If you have trouble getting your head around that, then don’t worry – everyone else does too! These auctions are very rare.

What is more common is when a seller has a lot of one item, and lists it using a combination of two auction types: a multiple-item fixed price auction. This just means that you can just say how many of the item you they have, and offer them at a fixed price per unit. Buyers can enter how many they want and then just click Buy it Now to get them. 

If you would like to learn how to sell on eBay then check out this website:

http://www.BeginnersAuctionGuide.com

God bless,
Clint

]]> http://clintherman.com/a-beginner%e2%80%99s-guide-to-the-different-ebay-auction-types/feed/ Market Your Business the Financially Savvy Way http://clintherman.com/market-your-business-the-financially-savvy-way/ http://clintherman.com/market-your-business-the-financially-savvy-way/#comments Sat, 12 Sep 2009 20:18:46 +0000 Clint Herman http://clintherman.com/market-your-business-the-financially-savvy-way/ So you have your own business and what you are providing is fantastic. People need to know about you, but you don’t have a lot of money available for marketing your brand. What do you do? One great way to get some promotion without draining your budget is through word of mouth advertising.

Search out a few people you can provide your service or product to for no charge, with the stipulation they provide you with some references in the form of testimonials or reviews to other potential clients. The great thing about this is it really costs nothing up front from you - aside from providing your service or product for free one time.

While you do lose a small amount of money doing this, the purpose is two-fold. It gets your name out there doing what you love to do and when you finish the freebie project, you wind up with new clients via the referrals. You are building your client list at turbo speed! You now have both the client you provided the gratis work to and their friends and colleagues they refer back to you.

This is a great way to get some long term marketing for a little investment. Unlike traditional styles of marketing, this allows potential clients to speak with current clients and learn about you from the people you are already impressing with your service or product.

This works just as well via the Internet with social networking sites. If you offer your service on a social networking site, it will basically take off just like the word of mouth strategy. Once one person knows about your services, they will in turn pass the information onto others and social networking sites are the perfect place to build this type of clientele at little cost to you. You can leverage social networking sites into creating a viral campaign that basically sells itself as it spreads from one person to the next.

If you want to know more simple and cheap ways to get your online marketing started then visit this site for 3 FREE reports:

http://www.CheapMarketingMethods.com

God bless,
Clint

]]> http://clintherman.com/market-your-business-the-financially-savvy-way/feed/ Free Videocast: Want 1,000 paying members? Watch it happen… http://clintherman.com/free-videocast-want-1000-paying-members-watch-it-happen/ http://clintherman.com/free-videocast-want-1000-paying-members-watch-it-happen/#comments Sat, 05 Sep 2009 00:49:03 +0000 Clint Herman http://clintherman.com/free-videocast-want-1000-paying-members-watch-it-happen/ Hi there! I truly hope all is going well for you in your life and in your marketing endeavors.

I wanted to let you know about free videocast that Jimmy D Brown is putting on next Thursday, September 10th that’s all about membership sites.

What would it mean to your business if you had 1,000 customers sending you MONTHLY payments for your own membership site?

When I hear those kinds of numbers being thrown around on salesletters, I’m always skeptical.  I can’t help it, it just sounds “too good to be true”.

Well, someone has made a believer out of me.  He’s not only broken the 1,000 paying member barrier once … but he’s done it TWICE! (Update:  He’s now done it THREE times!)

And, get this: all three times it took less than two weeks without any “product launch” or “guru partners” lined up to pull this off.

What’s more, he’s prepared a videocast that teaches exactly how he did it … and I’ve got you a FREE pass to watch it with absolutely no strings attached.

   ** Don’t have a membership site?  Don’t worry!  He’s also gonna show you how to have your own original membership site up and  
        running within 48 hours!

Block off some time for this coming *Thursday* night to join me and Jimmy D. Brown for an “exclusive” presentation.

It’s completely free and you can view it all online with no telephone calls or charges of any kind.

Get all the details at http://offto.net/jdbm_aa1b/

During this breakthrough event you’ll discover…

– How to get 1,000 cash-in-hand, paying subscribers for your
    membership site even if you don’t have “guru” friends to
    help you with a “product launch”.

– How to setup your own membership site in just 2 days if
    you don’t already have one of your own.  (His wife, who has
    absolutely ZERO experience setup one by following this
    simple plan … he’ll show you how.)

Again, you can grab all of the details and register for this event at http://offto.net/jdbm_aa1b/

We’re excited about you joining us as Jimmy shares some meaty information with you on Thursday night.

God bless,
Clint Herman

P.S.  Once you register he has a specially prepared PDF for you to download for your videcast “curriculum”.  It’s a fill-in-the-blanks guide to help you make the most of the videocast.

]]> http://clintherman.com/free-videocast-want-1000-paying-members-watch-it-happen/feed/ 10 Tips for Increasing Your eBay Response http://clintherman.com/10-tips-for-increasing-your-ebay-response/ http://clintherman.com/10-tips-for-increasing-your-ebay-response/#comments Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:11:28 +0000 Clint Herman http://clintherman.com/10-tips-for-increasing-your-ebay-response/ So you’ve got the buyer in front of your auction, and they’ve read the description. They’re must be interested, or they wouldn’t be looking… but just how can you push them over that line and make them leave a bid? Read on for some tips.Improve your picture: In all that description writing, you might have missed the vital importance of your item’s picture. A picture with bad lighting or an intrusive background looks amateurish and won’t make anyone want to buy from you.

Add an About Me page: You’ll be surprised how much you can reassure bidders just by creating an About Me page and putting a little bit about yourself on your business on there. You can also have a few special offers there for people who bother to look at the page, and let people subscribe to your mailing list so that you can email them updates.

Use SquareTrade: Signing up at SquareTrade and displaying their logo on your auctions shows that you are committed to have them resolve any disputes that arise. You always see this on PowerSellers auctions – it makes you look more professional.

Write terms and conditions: Have the ‘small print’ clearly visible on all your auctions, giving details of things like shipping times and prices, your refund policy, and any other business practices you might have. This helps build confidence with buyers.

Show off your feedback: Copy and paste a selection of the feedback comments you’re most proud of to each item’s description page, instead of making bidders go and look for it. If you have 100% positive feedback, be sure to write that on every auction too.

Add NR to your titles: If you have extra space in a title, put ‘NR’ (no reserve) on the end. Bidders prefer auctions that don’t have a reserve price, and doing this lets them see that yours don’t.

Benefits not features: Make sure your description focuses on the benefits that your item can give to the customer, not just its features. This is a classic sales technique. If you have trouble with this, remember: ‘cheap’ is a feature, ‘save money’ is a benefit.

List more items: If you want more people to respond to your items, then list more items! You might find you have better like listing items at the same time, instead of one-by-one. There’s no need to use a Dutch auction – you can just keep two or three auctions going at once for an item you have more than one of in stock.

Accept unusual payment methods: To reach those last few buyers, accept payment methods that many sellers don’t, like cheques.

Buy some upgrades: The best upgrade is the most expensive one, which makes your item appear first in search results. In crowded categories, you might find that this is worth the money. 

If you would like to learn how to sell on eBay then check out this website:

http://www.BeginnersAuctionGuide.com

God bless,
Clint

]]> http://clintherman.com/10-tips-for-increasing-your-ebay-response/feed/ Marketing and Promoting with Media Contacts http://clintherman.com/marketing-and-promoting-with-media-contacts/ http://clintherman.com/marketing-and-promoting-with-media-contacts/#comments Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:31:02 +0000 Clint Herman http://clintherman.com/marketing-and-promoting-with-media-contacts/ Just because you are running your business on the Internet, doesn’t mean you don’t have media contacts you can cultivate to market and promote your business. In fact, there are two particular media contacts you should work with as often as you can in order to keep your business on the minds of your prospects.

Most people need to be exposed to an idea or a product an average of seven times before they will reach into their wallet and spend their hard earned cash. If that’s the case, you need to get all the exposure you can. Internet media can help you accomplish just that.

One quick and easy way to keep your business in the eye of the media is through the use of press releases. A press release is a one- or two-page document designed to highlight a specific event pertaining to your business. A grand opening, a big sale, a new hire- these are all excellent topics for a press release. The writing process is pretty straight forward- just the facts, ma’am. You provide a few lines of background information about your business, give the details of the event and wind it up with a recap. The document begins and ends with your contact information

You can also create great contacts through Internet Radio and TV. There are hundreds of Internet radio programs and Internet TV shows available and every single one of them is looking for future guests. You can search out BlogTalk Radio or UStream TV and find all kinds of show hosts who would love to have you on as a guest.

You can even create your own shows on these media sites, as well as upload video to YouTube. In fact, there are hundreds of sites on the Internet you can foster media contacts to help promote your business.

If you want to know more simple and cheap ways to get your online marketing started then visit this site for 3 FREE reports:

http://www.CheapMarketingMethods.com

God bless,
Clint

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