Image: First of all, you need to create an image for yourself. Think of it as what your business is going to wear to an important meeting with a client. A crisp and clean, easy to read logo is a must along with a complementing color palette. You want to be memorable as consumers are overrun by hundreds of brands each day. Be appropriate with your selection and take a look around to gain some ideas. The image of your brand is what your clients will base their first impression on.

Exposure: Now that you have created the face of your brand you need to get it out there. Internet marketing makes it possible to expand your outreach to the world markets at any time of the day. Through social networking websites and inexpensive advertising you can release your ideas and business models to a targeted audience in hopes for a return in profits. Another way to gain exposure is to involve yourself in other business professional’s blogs or social networks. Large groups who are intrigued by your knowledge may read comments made in a discussion relating to your services. This technique will expand your network.

Credibility: Another key way to ensure your branding is at its maximum advantage is to solidify your credibility. Find out what your consumers like and what they don’t. Ask for consumer comments or offer a survey for an incentive to retrieve some information on how to make your business the best it can be. A credible business will bring back current customers and allow for the opportunity for them to pass the word of your business to their networks.

With a strong image, brand exposure and the assurance of a credible business you will be able to reach the stars with your business initiatives.

Incentives: If a business has an incentive for their consumers it will give them a reason to purchase.  With the current economic state people want to be able to get the most for their money and if it means referring someone to purchase for a credit buyers will do it.

Personality: Since your buyers are not dealing with you face to face, sometimes they like to see some type of personable approach instead of a robotic-like company website.  Linking your website to your social networks or blogs will open your client base up to the more personal side of your company so they can learn a little more behind the brand.

Do Your Client Research: Investigate what your target clients want.  Send out surveys and ask for feedback to be sure to offer them their needs.  It will be appealing to current or new consumers and keep them returning.

Easy Site Design: Be sure to make your website easy to browse.  There are millions of websites out there and a lot of competition. If a buyer is frustrated with the arrangement and setup of your website they may purchase elsewhere.

Memorable Experience: Try to step outside of the box and offer something to your clients your competitors don’t.  Whether it is an interactive component to your website or surprise discounts, the little additions will make the shopping experience memorable.

International Accessibility: Since your website is available from all corners of the planet you want to make it easy for international buyers to make a purchase.  Offer a currency converter or shipping estimator on your site to promote international purchases.

Assistance: Make sure there is an easily accessible link that answers a lot of FAQ.  Also if a client has a question, it’s helpful to have a 1-800 number so they can receive immediate answers. Buyers do not want to be in the dark and immediacy is key.

The above seven tips will get you on your way to achieve buyers rather than browsers.  It all relates back to the buyer’s experience and these techniques can improve that.

An amazing coincidence happened to me last night.  I always read for about a half hour before falling asleep each night.  I recently went through my books and filled several boxes to take to Half Price Books.  Then I put all of the business and “mind set” books I had purchased but had not yet read on a shelf in my bedroom.  So last night I decided to start a short book, and picked up “Creating Affluence” by Deepak Chopra, M.D. 

I opened the book, and on the first page was a handwritten note.  I was shocked to realize that I had this book since 1997 and that it was a gift from my son Mike.  This was a very special find, since Mike passed away in 2007.  Here is his message:

01/11/97

Dear Mom,

This is my hint to you at how independence from the things that imprison us can be found.  I hope you enjoy as much as I have.  Have a wonderful birthday.

Love, Mike

At that point I could not read through my tears, but I did realize that my mind was not ready for this book in 1997.  In fact my mind was not even ready for it last year.  But now I am on a new journey with a new mindset, one that my son would have definitely approved of.  He is guiding me on my way!

A confidence enhancement will most definitely ensure your business will reach higher levels. A great way to boost your confidence is to secure yourself with your education and knowledge and continue to grow on it.  Online businesses are ever changing and it is important to stay in the know about the industry.  Books, magazines and seminars are ways to expand on your knowledge, which will enhance your confidence in your business.

 Goal setting is another significant way to stay positive.  An ongoing list of goals should be formed so you have something to work towards each day.  These goals will reinforce your business and you will be able to truly see the positive changes in your company based on the achievement of them.

Working towards confidence and goals is very important, but you need to be sure to reward yourself to help uphold the positive mindset.  Anytime you complete a goal do something good for yourself to reward your effort.  These rewards will help you continue to work for the best results.  Life isn’t only about work and you need to treat yourself once in a while.  The balance of work and play will advance your positive outlook.

You should also take a look around to see what is surrounding you.  The people you are affiliated with can be a huge influence on your positivity.  People with goals and dreams are the best ones to involve yourself with to help stay on track and build on your optimism.  They will pass on their energy to help you accomplish your business goals and ambitions.  Your workplace also has to be encouraging so you can work on your business.  Free yourself from the clutter so you can have a clear mindset and feel good about your surroundings.

The positivity you involve yourself with is crucial in assistance to growing your business.  A boost in confidence, a list of goals to achieve, rewarding yourself and a positive surrounding of people and space are all very vital in aiming for the stars with your business.

In addition, the economy actually grew by more than 5% during those same three months.

But while any jobs saved is a good thing, the fact is that the combined unemployment and underemployment rates in the U.S. range from more than 17% to more than 40% in some states.

That’s close to one in five people who can’t find work, can’t find work at a living wage, or who have given up on even trying to look for work.

These are important numbers to remember when the stock market goes up and we receive reports of banking and other executives “earning” multi-million-dollar bonuses.

The fact is that, regardless of what the politicians tell you, they’re mired in a system in which wealth buys way more “speech” and power than it should in a democracy.

The government has been very liberal with it’s money—take that to mean OUR money—doling out bailout funds to huge banks and financial institutions.

But where’s the stimulus for the rest of us?

Answer: there is none. We have to create it for ourselves.

Even if you have a job right now, don’t necessarily count on keeping it. The history of the 1990’s through today is one of complete abandonment of the idea of corporate responsibility and loyalty to customers, communities, and employees.

Your best bet, no matter how secure or well paid you feel now, is to take steps to protect yourself and your family – cut out the credit cards, network with your neighbors, look to the Internet and other freelance opportunities to generate an income that’s independent of your primary employer.

The fact of the matter is that there’s a conspiracy against your money out there, between your very own government, the Federal Reserve (which is NOT a part of the federal government at all), the banking institutions themselves.

And unless you understand what this conspiracy against your money can do to you, you’re at tremendous risk.

Maybe it’s time to find out what all of this means to you.

It seems that the economic plunge has opened a parachute at least. However, growth in the gross domestic product (GDP) is just one indicator of the health or illness of our economy. Credit.com, for example, put out an article at the end of January 2010 reporting that 3 million more homeowners are expected to face foreclosure in 2010 – up from the more than 2 million who endured that nightmare in 2009. 

This problem isn’t helped by the fact that unemployment doesn’t immediately drop when economic activity picks up. According to a Feb. 1, 2010 Detroit News article, “[Economic] growth would have to equal 5% for all of 2010 just to lower the average jobless rate for the year by 1 percentage point. And economists don’t think that’s possible.” 

This begs the question of just who is benefitting from what’s looking like, at least for the moment, a jobless “recovery.” After all, the large banks which U.S. taxpayers saved last year are earning record profits — profits that they’re not plowing back into communities, but paying out to their top executives in the form of huge bonuses. This huge disparity in consequences between the people who make our collective economic decisions and the rest of us is something we’ll definitely want to address as we move forward.

So, yes, the news is at least looking better than it did at this time last year, when many experts were still wondering if the entire economy was going to crash. However, it is hard to be happy when one out of ten Americans can’t find a job, about that many is underemployed, and a total of roughly 5 million of us will lose their homes between last year and this year.

 When looking at our economy today, the best way to sum things up is to say that we’ve finally got a few parachutes slowing down our fall. Now we have to figure out a way to generate a stronger upward draft.

 Answer: Stuyvesant Town, the largest commercial real estate deal in history.

 After roughly three years, problems with raising rents and dealing with the Great Recession, the people who put together the Stuy Town real estate deal have handed the keys back to the bank.

 One wonders if the developers will be getting any calls from collection agents. Not to mention how the development’s tenants are fairing.

 But is the Stuy Town debacle any indication of the overall health of the commercial real estate market in the US?

 Perhaps.

 A Forbes.com article cites the CIO of LPL Financial, Burt White, as saying that, “Stuyvesant was the result of rather over-ambitious assumptions, lack of risk controls, and poor contingency planning.”

 Sounds a lot like the debacle that brought the global banking system to its knees, requiring billions of dollars in government bailout money to try and fix it.

 The problem is that bailing out a bank or declaring bankruptcy in a real estate deal might solve the immediate pressure, but it doesn’t correct the long term problems.

 In order to do that, governments need to step in and regulate. But that in and of itself isn’t a solution either. The last thing a free market economy needs is governmental interference.

 What’s necessary is self regulation through effective and responsible corporate self governance. But boy, talk about a pipe dream.

 While the Stuy Town development is a blatant example of real estate speculation gone wild, much of the real estate market is suffering from the results of the same kind of reckless greed that has also spawned the housing market collapse.

 While there’s no way to know how these developments will ultimately shape US culture, it’s not hard to hope that our economy will see far less of these types of boom and bust cycles and far more stability in the years to come. Hopefully, Gordon-Gekko-like thinking will finally go out of style.

 But until it does, it’s probably going to be a lot more of the same.

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal blog “Real Time Economics,” the country’s gaping 10% unemployment figure is going to take much longer to rebound. 

This is because companies need to see more steady cash in hand before they feel comfortable beginning to hire again. But there’s another dynamic as well.

Companies have learned to do more with less. The reality is that many of the jobs that have been lost will never be recovered. The likelihood is that with this permanent loss of jobs, employment statistics will never be the same. There will simply be fewer jobs to spread around.

This of course in turn has a long lasting effect on the economy, and its ability to recover. With so many former employees sitting on the sidelines, disposable income is clearly less than it had been. Not only are there fewer people available to spend money—particularly on non-essential items—but people are generally spending less. 

A full recovery will be difficult under those conditions. 

Some positive data comes from Reuters, which reported on Feb. 1 that consumer spending was up “slightly” in December 2009 and that incomes had gone up for the “sixth straight month in a row.” This fact, however, is mitigated by the fact that corporate profits are down. 

Why? Many manufacturers cut prices deeply to drive spending, reducing the profit on each unit sold. So even though the strategy worked—spending increased somewhat—the companies actually made less money than they usually do. 

And because corporate spending is a key factor in the overall economic recovery, once again, a full recovery is unlikely at this time. 

What does all of this mean? Unemployment is probably going to lag for quite some time, maybe a year or more, before we can as a country say that we’ve truly “recovered” from The Great Recession. With roughly 3 million people expected to face foreclosure actions in 2010, things aren’t exactly looking easy for homeowners in the near future. It’s a financial cataclysm of epic proportions, the greatest meltdown since the 1930’s. 

On top of this is the fact that the federal stimulus package, combined with two costly and ongoing wars, has driven the federal deficit to record highs. 

In other words, the recession might be over—on paper at least—but it doesn’t really look like the recovery has really begun. 

As we work ourselves into the future, we may want to take a collective look at exactly how the financial class was allowed to get so out of control and take action to stop the boom and bust cycle that we seem to have fallen into.

One of the easiest methods of generating leads online is to post advertisements in the free classifieds offered at numerous sites on the net.  It will not cost you anything, and will create interest in your product and direct traffic to your website.  The ad should be clear about what you are offering and specifically directed at your target audience, who should be able to immediately grasp your message and follow the call to action you outline.  Good ads in free classifieds sections of websites can do a lot to increase your business volumes.

Methods such as Google Adwords and Pay Per Click advertising can prove to be surprisingly effective, and you will see the positive results of this kind of advertising fairly quickly.  Another way to generate leads online is using affiliates to help you promote your website or product.

Take advantage of technology to ensure that the leads you generate are not only substantial as far as quantity is concerned, but are also suitable as far as the quality of the leads generated is concerned.  The latest methods of helping to ensure filtering out of unwanted or useless leads include data verification, fraud detection and advanced address verification systems.  This will help you save time and money wasted in pursuing unproductive leads.

Teaming up with other websites can also be very effective in generating leads online.  Offers of free or discounted products, free newsletters or information related to your products or services can all draw visitors to your website, creating leads to follow up on.

In addition, leads can be created when you write articles that will be of interest to your target audience, or are connected to your product.  Pique your reader’s interest and try to draw them towards a particular action.  Make sure you offer links to your website.

Bearing in mind the above suggestions for generating leads online, you should also remember that while lead generation is important, it is even more important to convert these leads into sales.  So make sure your follow-up is well planned and effective in this regard.