Business Strategy - An Online Empire by Vasrue

How to Recognize a Bad SEO Company

2009-07-11T05:00:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is about getting potential customers to visit your website. It is also about building a quality website full of great content. It uses keywords appropriately and gets links "naturally" because people love what you have on your site. SEO companies can provide very useful services including keyword research, site review, providing technical advice on your website development and also management of online business marketing campaigns. They can also help with content development, article marketing and article distribution. Although it's not brain surgery, it is hard to do and usually requires a lot of thought and real work.

Some unethical SEO firms attempt to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways. These practices could get your website ranked lower or even banned. When looking at SEO - either to optimize it on your own or if you are looking to hire a company, here are some things to take into account.

Be Cautious Of SEO Firms That Say They Will Get Thousands Of Links To Your Site.

It' is not the number of sites that make the difference - it's the quality of the sites. When firms promise huge numbers of links, or say that you' will become part of their "network of sites", it usually means a link farm is involved. A link farm is any group of websites that all hyperlink to every other site in the group. Search engines don't like this and it can lead to penalties. Instead, practice reciprocal linking with legitimate and related websites for better search engine ranking.

Be Wary Of SEO Firms That Guarantee A High Ranking On Google.

No one can guarantee a high ranking on Google. Some SEO companies offer a guarantee on their services. This is fine. What's not fine is guaranteeing high ranking in an incredibly short period of time. When these unrealistic results fail to happen, the company will balk at giving a refund, offer you other services instead, start to become unreachable or disappear.

Be Cautious Of SEO Firms That Send "Spammy" Emails.

These emails are unsolicited and usually begin with "We've noticed that you are not listed in some search engines..." You should be searching for a high-ranking SEO company; they will not be searching for you. Spam means scam. You don't buy your medications from spammers so why buy SEO services from them?

Be Wary Of SEO Firms That Are Secretive Or Don't Clearly Explain What They Are Going To Do.

Most reputable SEO firms are upfront with their clients and like to share their knowledge. They are confident that even if their clients understand their process, they won't leave them. If the SEO firm claims it's too complicated for you to understand, or if they say they have trade secrets and proprietary technology, it's a sign that they may not be ethical in dealing with your website.

Be Wary Of SEO Firms That Say They Will Submit Your Site To Thousands Of Top Search Engines And Directories.

Besides the small fact that there aren't that many search engines, consider that the guidelines of the search engines themselves tell you that it doesn't do any good anymore. Search Engines are good at what they do - searching for sites - and you don't need to pay someone to submit your site to a search engine. If they make this claim, they will probably use Free For All (FFA) junk sites that might damage your site's standings.

Be Cautious Of SEO Firms That Say They Can Optimize And Promote Your Site For A Low, Low Monthly Fee.

Not all monthly SEO or SEM (Search Engine Management) service contracts or monthly fees are a scam. There are real reasons to pay a monthly fee to an SEO expert. These would include conditions when you would require SEO management: when you or someone else is constantly generating new content or new features for your site; implementing link-building campaigns; implementing PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns; or starting a brandcasting campaign. Press release distribution, email campaigns and article marketing campaigns could also require a legitimate monthly fee.

Not-so-legitimate fees could include monthly re-submitting of your site to search engines, "tweaking" your code to keep up with changes and regularly submitting your site to hundreds of useless free-for-all directories. The worthwhile companies that charge a monthly fee will usually be able to tell you exactly how much it is per month to generate blog entries or generate and distribute articles or press releases. And it won't be for the low, low price of $79.95.

Choose Your SEO Company And Services Carefully.

Do your research and don't make the decision lightly. If you were hiring a contractor to remodel your kitchen you would want to see other kitchen projects they've done and speak with the owners about the company's business practices. You should do the same thing when hiring an SEO company. Get referrals and really speak with them.

There are many online tips about choosing and hiring SEO firms that you can check out as well. Remember, SEO is a long-term strategy and you should take the time to do your research before buying or you'll probably be buying again.

About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat, the only online marketing and advertising company employing Brandcasting, the most effective way to brand your company on the web. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. The approach is simple, highly effective and affordable. Learn more at: http://www.Brandsplat.com/

Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

Need a New Business Name? Try an Extended Metaphor

2009-07-11T01:00:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

Sometimes a business name functions simply as a name, like Constant Contact, the email service that delivers newsletters. Look at their web site and you won't easily find any images or wordplay that take off from the words "constant" or "contact."

On the other hand, Named At Last, my company, uses the idea of storks bringing clients a new name both in the images of storks flying and in phrases like "Head Stork," my title, and "Storklets," for the company's freelance namers. When images and words work together to develop one concept in several different ways, that's an extended metaphor.

Extended metaphors give readers pleasure, make a company more memorable and have unlimited creative potential to help a company stand head and shoulders above the competition.

To understand just how unlimited that potential can be, consider a tech support company, Geek Squad. On 19 pages scattered through a 44-page supplement glued into the August 2006 issue of Wired magazine, this company brilliantly riffed both verbally and pictorially on the theme of its name. You can get a sense of how they do this also at their web site, GeekSquad.com.

In the Wired supplement, extended metaphor techniques that they used to develop the Geek Squad as a techie version of the 1950s FBI include:

Consistent color scheme (burnt orange, black and white) and retro visual style in fonts, lighting, badges, people's hairdos and uniforms

Explanation of how the logo harks back to the days when "service stations" gave you a lot more than just gas

Terminology like "agents" and "force" instead of "staff" or "associates" and "team"

Sense of humor that's as geeky as the name ("...provide computer support 24/7/365. 366 in leap years.")

Timelines illustrating not only the company's development but also technical milestones in general, always humorously presented

Accessories that fit the image: ramen noodles, breath mints and wristwatches accurate to within 10 seconds

A Latin motto (Latin being a geeky language), "Cura et Celeritas" (roughly, "Care and Speed")

Games, including "official slug-bug rules" and a crossword puzzle with geeky clues like "Comes after zettabyte"

Recipes, like one for "Black Hole Upside-Down Cake," and self-rating questionnaires, like "Are you a smasher?" (Have you attempted to reboot your computer with your wingtips?")

Hobbies of the "agents," such as sci-fi, and an employee motto: "I swear I will always come to your aid even if there's a sci-fi marathon in town and they're playing the episode with the super-creegy alien vampire girl."

Tech tips, like how to retrieve data by putting a hard drive in the freezer for a certain length of time, and therapeutic advice, like how to calm yourself if you experience a computer catastrophe

Case studies, such as how Agent #41 keeps the rock group U2 technically going while on the road

Prices - well, no humor there, although the style and look remain consistent with all the rest

A group of creative aces obviously had a blast generating all these spinoffs of the central metaphor of a squad of geeks. I certainly had great fun consuming their inventiveness, and I don't think I'll soon confuse them with competitor Rent-a-Nerd.

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more of Marcia Yudkin's articles.

How To Reverse Engineer My #1 Google Rankings

2009-07-11T00:48:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Willie Crawford

To many online marketers, getting a #1 listing on Google for your target keyword phrases is "heaven." It does lead to many times more traffic than being even #2 or #3. If you're not on the first page of Google, you may as well forget getting any significant traffic in many niches. At least you should plan on generating your traffic via other channels since few searchers look past the first page of search engine results.

Google the terms "joint venture expert" or "land for $100" and you'll see that I rank #1 for both terms and have for a VERY long time.

Yes, people do search on those terms, regardless of what you might think, and they both generate substantial incomes for me, but they are not my most profitable keywords. They are just keywords that I will use to prove to you that I have a clue about how to get top Google listings. You really shouldn't listen to "experts" who can't back up with they teach with proof.

Next, I invite you to try to reverse engineer what I did. Actually, I'll share much of my secret process with you. Not all of what I do is very obvious.

Here are the things that I do:

1) I target specific, long-tail, buying keywords. It's easier to rank for 3-5 word phrases, and people entering those phrases into the search engines are looking for something very specific. This is the traffic that you want to attract.

2) I use article marketing extensively to generate massive backlinks. All things being equal, the one with the most backlinks from relevant quality sites WINS.

3) I use video marketing, submitting to top video sharing sites using titles and descriptions optimized for my keywords.

4) I use pod casting, submitting my audios to numerous podcast directories, as well as offering them from numerous websites. People who hear your audio message, and click through to your site, arrive pre-sold on your and ready to follow your recommendations.

My pod cast submissions are also keyword optimized!

5) I use my keywords in anchor text on my blogs, and in article directories where allowed.

6) I generate a LOT of content, and repurpose that content regularly. I publicize that content on social networking sites, on other resource sites that allow me to publicize my content, and even in press releases.

For example, I post announcements of my updated content often to http://www.IMNewsWatch.com, http://www.TeleseminarNation.com and leading industry forums.

7) I use automation. If I had to hand submit all of my content I would only be able to distribute 1/10th as much. All things being equal, he who submits the most quality content wins.

8) I adhere to the rules and terms of service at the article, video, podcasts, and press release sharing sites. It does no good to get great rankings, only to be banned a few weeks or months later (having all of your content removed, and your work go to waste). I use 100% whitehat tactics.

9) I generate quality content. I does no good to throw garbage at the search engines. You'll only attract non-responsive traffic (wasting bandwidth and giving you useless website traffic conversion statistics), and you'll also eventually experience backlash. Write primarily for humans, but keeping good SEO in mind. The simplest way to do that is to use your primary keywords in your titles and descriptions, when creating and uploading content. Also be sure to use your primary keywords throughout your content.

10) I create external links to some of my content posted on sites OTHER THAN my primary sites. Linking to content that then links to your primary sites increases the relevance of external links from that content pointing to your primary sites. That helps the content on your primary sites rank higher longer. SEO experts call that "adding link juice!" If you don't do this, you'll often rank high for given keywords only for a few days, and then quickly drop in ranking. Adding "link juice" helps the ranking "stick."

There you have it - how I get and maintain #1 Google rankings for tons of keywords that my buying customers search on regularly at Google. Model what I do, and you'll get similar results.

About the Author:
Willie Crawford has been teaching people to build a legitimate online business since 1996. He is one of the world's leading website traffic generation experts. His favorite tool is an automated article, video, podcast and press release submission service that you can use too at: http://EasyPushButtonTraffic.com/ Visit them now.

Read more Articles written by Willie Crawford.

Free and Easy Link Building Tips

2009-07-10T20:00:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

Okay, you're the proud mama or papa to your brand new website. Now what? This isn't like the movies - just because you built it doesn't mean they'll come. The Internet is a huge limitless space with ever-growing numbers of websites. You are just one small website among millions. How will anybody ever find you? How do you become visible? Right now, you just exist out in the web, untethered. You need to become visible when someone searches for you and one way to become visible to people is to become visible to search engines. And one way to become visible to search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN is for your site to be tethered, or linked to other sites.

If you've spent any time reading Internet marketing blogs you know that link building is a huge part of a marketing campaign. Backlinks - links that point to your website - are a major factor in determining your popularity or ranking with the search engines. And of course, just like in high school, you want to be popular.

You can buy your way into links, but here we're talking about a few free and easy ways. An obvious and natural way to build links is through content. When you start a link-building campaign for your new website, focus on attracting links that will add value for your website visitors and best represent your most important keywords too. It is invaluable to have visitors go to your site and share your content.

Here are a few easy and mostly free ways to build links for your website.

Blog-Based Link Building

One way to get natural links back to your website is by setting up a blog for your company. Make sure you network online with other blogs that complement yours. If you share industry news and have useful and relevant content, you'll attract links. Reference other bloggers in your content and link to other blogs in your industry.

For blogs, content is extremely important. Every time you add words to your blog or website, you are presenting yourself to a potentially huge audience. How does your blog's content reflect your company? This content could be the page that carries your company's name around the Internet world. Cheap content is just that - cheap. Create content that people want to read and that will make them come back again and again.

Reviewing products and services and posting those reviews on other sites is another way to build links. Your honest evaluations and smart opinions can also build your reputation as an expert in your field.

Link Building with Social Media

Another way to build natural links to your website is through social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter. These sites allow you to set up a user profile where you can add information about you and your company including a link to your website.

Some sites, Facebook for example, also have a way to promote your business with a page, ad or group. Just keep in mind that there are good ways and bad ways to promote your business on social sites and you should observe proper etiquette when you do.

Link Building with Organizations and Directories

If your industry has professional organizations or associations that you belong to, check with them and see if they have an online directory with links to member sites. They may or may not charge a fee for this. If they do, it shouldn't be much.

Check with your local Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau. Links from sites like these can be very helpful. Check with other local businesses and organizations that have lists of businesses and request links from them, too.

Online directories are another opportunity to look into. Yahoo! Directory is a good one. If your business is in a specific geographical area, you might also find some local directories to submit to that will boost your local visibility.

Links from Charities or Non-profits

If your company makes charitable donations to organizations and non-profits, see if they have a "donors" list on their website and ask if they will link to your website.

Links from Press Releases

Has your business just started or have you just launched a new product? A press release is a great idea to announce your news. There are quite a few press release distribution services available and some have a free first time offer.

Links from Partners

If your website offers information about other partner websites like business directories, you should make sure to use all your linking potential. You could have a badge that your partner could put on their site linking to you and one for your site that links to theirs.

If you have an RSS feed or a widget on your site that has good value to visitors, those can be taken from your website and displayed on another person's website, linking back to your site.

The Internet is constantly evolving and there are thousands of ways to build links. Look around at other websites and see what they have and how they work. Look at your business, think outside the box and you might come up with other ways to develop links. If it all seems like too much, there are many online consulting companies that can help with link building, SEO optimization and brandcasting.

About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat, the only online marketing and advertising company employing Brandcasting, the most effective way to brand your company on the web. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. The approach is simple, highly effective and affordable. Learn more at: http://www.Brandsplat.com/

Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

Small Business Owners Who Manage Cash Flow Well Profit Tremendously

2009-07-10T08:12:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2007-2009 Braxton Heitz

Starting a business is always a tremendous undertaking. It is the most stressful undertaking a person could ever attempt to do. Most new business owners fail to understand that running a business is a complex operation, which will require the business owner/manager to pull many hat tricks to stay afloat.

As the stress of the business grows, many new small business owners find themselves completely overwhelmed by all of the work required to keep their new business afloat.

Much of the strain of establishing and running a business is centered on successfully juggling the finances. When working as the head of a corporation or as a sole proprietor, every decision made will affect the future of the business. Having a means of relief in place in the event that a wrong decision is made can often mean the difference between success and failure of the business. When a bad financial decision creates a situation where payroll cannot be met on time, a business can quickly find itself without staff to continue operations.

Business Credit Cards For New Businesses

In many cases, start-up companies seek out a loan at the beginning of their business. For business owners who are not comfortable taking out a large loan, there are other options that can be considered as an alternative.

A credit card designed specifically for business is an option many companies will choose to pursue. This is just like a traditional credit card, but it also provides a variety of business directed incentives.

Credit card companies generally offer low interest rates to attract new business enterprises. While the credit history of the owner of a small business is going to be considered in factoring how much credit a company can receive, other factors are considered to carry greater significance.

The business plan and financial projections of a new company are going to be the most important categories available for banks to examine. Lenders and credit givers are fundamentally interested in learning about your projected financial expectations.

For companies that have been around for awhile, an in-depth look at its financial history and business projections are going to be the most vital pieces of information a credit card company will want to know.

A business credit card provider is going to be most concerned with the stability of the company. Some banks are so concerned about the stability of a business that they will not risk the investment of offering any type of credit to a start-up company, even if that company has a checking account at their bank, until the company has maintained their business checking account for at least one year.

This is by no means meant to discourage a business owner from pursuing business financing. Instead, it is simply an observation of the difficulties that many business owners face when trying to establish business credit. Each bank has their own policies on business credit cards, and some banks will prefer to be more cautious than other banks.

The Pitfalls and Advantages of Business Credit Cards

As with any credit card, the most common pitfall of owning a credit card is the potential to overspend. It is always best to limit the amount of money that is charged on a credit card, whether in personal finances or business finances. Business start-up costs can be astronomical. There are also times when a company needs a few extra dollars to keep their utilities from being disconnected. If someone is not careful, they can easily charge their way into a deep pit of debt that could ultimately destroy their business.

The truth is that cash flow is always a problem for new businesses. Small business credit cards can make it possible for a business owner to pay all of their bills on time. The danger, of using credit cards to maintain a business' cash flow, is when the owner is in a state of denial about the true health of his or her company. Unfortunately, some business owners become dependant on their line of credit and use it to prop up a business cycle that cannot sustain itself, ultimately leading to financial disaster.

On the other hand, acquiring a business credit card could also be one of the best decisions an owner could make towards the long-term stability of his or her business. When a business owner has access to additional funds to float his or her business during a short window of cash flow problems, that extra money could be just enough to keep the business alive to continue operations. An example of such a situation could be when the company's bank intends to hold a deposited check until after the next payroll date. It is one thing for an owner to decide they can wait a few more days to be paid, but it is quite another thing altogether to ask a company's employees to wait five days to be paid their wages.

Being able to access the financial means to keep a business steady and on sure footing can provide a terrific sense of security to the business owner.

The time when a credit card becomes especially handy to the business owner is when tax time comes; a business credit card can be a true asset. No one is better at finding accounting flaws than our federal government, and almost every new business is going to be audited in their first year.

If a company's transactions are all done with a business credit card, then the company will have a permanent record of all of their business transactions. Having documentation of all of your expenses is vital, when dealing with the IRS.

The most important thing that a small business credit card can do is to provide you with the means to establish a reputable credit history with banks and lending institutions, so the business can gain access to higher credit lines than what the typical start-up company is afforded.

Inspiring Examples

One of the most successful cases of a small business succeeding by the use of a business credit card can be found with Google. Some would argue that Google is the most successful search engine on the Internet. It has become such a phenomenon that the company name has morphed in to a verb for all online searches.

It is amazing to think that it all began in a dorm room. Its next home was in a garage. Eventually the founders of Google, Brin and Page, realized they needed larger equipment. They bought all of their new equipment on credit cards, because banks were not interested in lending money to a small dot-com company.

Over 380 million people in over 35 different languages regularly use Google to enhance their online experience. All of this success was made possible by the start-up funds provided to the Google founders by credit cards.

In Conclusion

Business credit cards can mean salvation for a fledgling company. Having the resources to maintain your companies financial stability can make any business owner more confident with in their decision.

A good line of credit for your business can also lead to countless openings for future growth. Establishing a strong and steady financial history can be the perfect asset in finding interested investors and development opportunities, when it is time to reach out for a bigger line of credit.

For those small business owners who know how to utilize the credit system to grow their business, the future may be greatly enhanced. For those business owners who start their journey with credit cards, the climb to greater credit availability is made that much easier.

About the Author:
Braxton Heitz writes about family finances and the struggles of the job search. If you are looking to find a job or looking to change careers in the current troubled economy, then visit the Jobs And Paychecks website at: http://www.jobsandpaychecks.com/

Read more Articles written by Braxton Heitz.

Mailers Your Powerful Message For Success

2009-07-09T12:30:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Cathy Q

Auto responders are a powerful marketing tool, saving you time and bringing you money. Mailers are one of the ways you can use this tool to its fullest potential. Firstly choose a reliable auto responder and know that not all auto responders are the same.

What is a mailer? It is a sequence of messages set up to sell a product or service. They are a series of messages sent to your list at timed intervals. A good timed interval for information about a product or opportunity is about 7-10 days on a daily basis. This would be to leads/prospects that need more information.

Another mailer can be set up for your newsletter list (subscribers) This should be information on a certain product/service that will be useful to them. Remember your newsletter list is your most valuable one. Always make sure that you offer them information on products and services that they can really use. Treat your subscribers like the loyal readers they are. Another way of timing for this type of information is to send 1 then another 2-3 days later another after a week.

Mailers to your customer list can be very profitable. This is called backend selling. It is most important when you sell a product to follow up with your customer. Your first mailer will be your thank you note, within 24 hours of purchase. It would be thanking your customer for their purchase and asking them to contact you should they have any help. You can also refer to them to your FAQ page, for further assistance. In 1 week you can check up with your customer and this time you can include a flyer or note about a useful related product. You can also offer a special discounted price.

Who are you sending these messages to? You will be sending them to prospective clients/leads/customers. A word of caution, never send messages to anyone on a random basis. This is Spam and can get you into more trouble than you can ever imagine. Always send to your opt in list, those who have specifically asked to get information and emails from you, or your established customers.

Mailers are very effective tools for closing the sale, and getting repeat sales. They are simple to set up; save you time and can make you a lot of extra sales when set up correctly. With these points you have the means to utilize a powerful tool, which will continue to make you money.

About the Author:
Cathy Q is a professional writer and publisher of the A-Y-B Internet marketing newsletter. For more information on this tactic and many others please visit http://a-y-b.com/

You have the right to reprint this article, but please keep the byline intact and reprint in its entirety.

Read more of Cathy Q's articles.

Is a Tag Line Absolutely Necessary Along With Your Company Name?

2009-07-09T07:24:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

In looking through Entrepreneur Magazine's most recent Franchise 500 issue, I noticed - and cut out - a number of ads for franchises that struck me as exceptionally well named. So clear and meaningful were these company names that they instantly conveyed exactly what the company did in an appealing way.

If you saw the company name flash by on a van or embroidered on an employee jacket, you'd understand the business and maybe even want to chase down the van or person and learn more. From that standpoint alone, imagine the immense advantage such a well-named company has over competitors named, say, Rayne and McFlynn or Standard Specialists.

Normally a tag line - the little phrase that follows a company name on business cards, stationery and web site headers - helps to clarify what line of business the firm is in and how it differs from competitors, as well as to lend a dash of pizzazz. In most cases, a business name and tag line belong together like salt and ___, or like cup and ___. (I'll bet you couldn't help filling in those blanks with "pepper" and "saucer.")

Yet here are five companies whose advertisements caught my eye as being able to get by without a tag line. I give them high points. See whether or not you agree.

1)Relax the Back

This store sells ergonomic products that help prevent back problems, support the back and neck, and relieve pain. Although the ad had a tag line, "The best of everything for your back," neither that nor the silhouette-style logo of a reclining figure were needed to understand what this retail store sells.

2)Anytime Fitness

Again, you don't need any brainwork to guess that this company provides you with a place to work out any time of the day or night. As a member, you gain access to the club with a keycard valid 24/7. There wasn't a tag line on the ad, and the stick figure breaking into a run beside the company name added energy but wasn't needed for comprehension.

3)American Leak Detection

Here too there is no mistaking what this company does. The tag line, "The Original Leak Specialists," doesn't really add anything helpful.

4)Computer Troubleshooters

Another self-explanatory company name. The tag line "Technology Solved" adds some psychological satisfaction to the presentation, letting us know that they don't merely try to solve computer problems, they succeed.

5)Home Instead Senior Care

My favorite of the bunch. I'm not sure anyone needs the answer to the question "instead of what?" I didn't see a tag line for this company, either in the ad or on the web site.

So many factors go into choosing a company name that I'm not proposing all companies seek names like the five above. History, the type of business, the competitive landscape, domain availability and other circumstances figure into whether or not such names make sense and are attainable.

Still, when the stars align, a perfect name can get the message across on its own. That's good to know!

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.

Making Money With Clickbank - Stop Getting Only Half The Story

2009-07-09T01:36:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Brandon Weavers

Even if you've got the simplest job on the planet...

I don't care if you're washing dishes or flipping burgers.

Heck, even if you're a roadside fruit seller...

All of those jobs are much more complicated than making money from Clickbank.

I know that for a fact...

Let me tell you a story about how I found that out...

About 8 weeks ago, I decided to take the plunge into Clickbank.

I'd always heard that it was easy to get started, and I had some free time so I thought I'd finally give it a shot. I mean, I'd had some success online in the past, and I thought I was finally ready.

So I just sat down one day at my kitchen table, fired up the old laptop, and started searching the Clickbank Marketplace for products to promote...

I went through the same basic number crunching I always go through with new stuff - I mean real basic - I'm talking kindergarten math...

And after about an hour I'd found a few products with good commissions, so I decided to pull the trigger and start promoting them...

But I didn't take it seriously. I just grabbed a couple of free templates for landing pages, and fired up a couple of Adwords campaigns...

Boy, they were some ugly templates...and right then I figured I'd already blown it.

So I sat back and waited...I figured I'd put a couple hours in, may as well give it a fair shot...

It was incredible.

Everytime I hit the "refresh" button, I had another 2 or 3 sales...

I couldn't believe it...I'd heard Clickbank had some decent products ... but it's not like they were converting at 15-20% or anything...

So I tried again. Found new products. Put together new landing pages.

And guess what happened?

You got it - The money kept coming in. Floods of it. Clickbank was spraying cash like a broken fire hydrant...

So I tried again...new products, new landing page, new keywords, the whole 9 yards...

But the commissions just continued to mount up...

After a few days of watching my stats spin like a slot machine, I decided to look into things a little further.

So I began analysing my competition. The guys promoting the same products as me, the ones using the same keywords...

And man, was that an eye opener...

I found that most Clickbank affiliates are making huge mistakes...errors that drastically reduce the conversions of the vendor's site!

But That's Not Even The Worst Part...

The worst part is that almost every Clickbank affiliate is dropping the ball with their landing pages.

And they're doing it so badly that it's pushing their cost per click through the roof...

If you're using Adwords to promote Clickbank products, chances are you're paying at least double what you should be. Even right now, as you read this page.

Scary huh?

And that's what got me thinking - seeing all those guys wasting money while I massacre their ads and shut down their businesses made me realise something:

Almost everyone has the wrong idea about affiliate marketing. Think about it...

..Just about everyone gets their marketing skills from Internet Marketing (IM) products. I'll bet you've bought a few of them yourself, haven't you?

I know I have.

You've probably also realised that a lot of the time these products - especially ones put out by the so-called gurus - don't quite give you the whole story.

Sure, they'll give you some hints and a rough framework. But after that, you're on your own.

The training wheels come off, and suddenly your "business" sucks money out of your wallet like an industrial vacuum cleaner.

And man, that hurts. You'll probably need to take on a day job just to finance the business!

Really, when you think about it, everyone learning from the same gurus is the main problem.

Learn more at my website shown below...

About the Author:
Written by: Brandon Weavers. Wanna know more? Check out: http://www.ClickBankMoneyMaking.com/

Read more Articles written by Brandon Weavers.

Advertisers and Online Advertising Agencies

2009-07-09T00:12:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Karin Gamble, All Rights Reserved

Ten years ago I founded NetMediaReps, Inc., an advertising agency for online companies, specifically online newsletter publishers trying to find advertisers for their publications. My decision to found my own company grew out of my frustration in trying to obtain agency representation for my husband's company.

After calling more than 25 ad agencies, I discovered that most agencies charged exorbitant commissions and were only interested in representing large companies with deep pockets. As a new startup, my husband's company fell under their radar and follow up was minimal to nil.

Back then, the internet was just emerging as the new frontier of business and it was apparent that small and medium-sized businessses needed effective marketing representation to compete in this new marketplace, to receive the broadest possible exposure and to find other companies which could help facilitate their growth.

My thought was that these companies had an even greater need for a marketing platform than larger companies to be competitive in the growing online commercial market. I decided to fill that niche and started by signing contracts with several online publishers who needed assistance in selling their ad inventory. The rest is history - NetMediaReps.com was born.

Knowledge of how to do business, and advertise, on the internet has grown significantly over the years and data tracking of take rates, website conversion rates and ROI have become increasingly sophisticated, helping online businesses to better target their advertising dollars in a successful and productive way.

Despite these advances in knowledge and technique, there are still a surprising number of individuals who display a remarkable naivety regarding advertising and who ask questions that indicate the lack of a well thought out marketing plan or a basic understanding of the advertising mediums available to them online. Below are some examples of not so uncommon questions we receive and our responses to them:

Question: Your publisher mails to a list of 500,000 subscribers so I should get 500,000 responses - right ?

Answer: An online publication using a mailing list is like a newspaper. Recipients don't always feel like reading or looking at the publication on a given day. They may be busy, on vacation, disinterested in the topic, or otherwise indisposed. And, like a newspaper - just because they see your ad doesn't mean they want to buy from you - at least not at that given moment. It is, however, a good idea to advertise in publications that archive past issues or editions providing advertisers with permanent or semi-permanent back links and the opportunity of receiving trickle through clicks and sales at no additional cost.

Other factors that can affect response rate are:

The number of links in a publication. Newsletters typically run 1 to 2 web pages in length and are comprised of several sections all of which contain a few to numerous links. As a result reader interest and click activity is diffused across the newsletter rather than focused on a particular ad or link.

Ad clarity. A concise, definitive statement describing what your company is selling and how it benefits buyers is essential as is an unequivocal call to action.

Ad Uniqueness. An ad that stands out generally performs better.

Spam triggers. Generally, words and phrases that are the most effective in evoking reader response are also the ones that trigger spam filters both at the ISP level and the reader's Inbox. Blatant commercial message subjects and ad copy rarely do well.

Message Subject. Shorter subject lines are usually more effective than longer ones. More imortantly, large web-based mail services like Yahoo! Mail, MSN/Hotmail and AOL truncate message subjects that are greater than 38 - 47 characters.

Question: (After receiving ad specs, including dimensions and file sizes.) Will my 700 x 300 pixel ad be accepted?

Answer: Most publishers will strive to assist you in placing your ads but are restricted by their newsletter templates from accepting ads that don't conform to the specs provided. Submitting an incorrectly sized ad simply delays the start of your ad campaign.

Question: Why should I advertise when we are obviously in a recession? Does that make any sense?

Answer: McGraw-Hill Research analyzed 600 companies and their marketing spending from 1980 to 1985. After 1985, the facts showed that the firms which had kept or increased their advertising budgets during the recession in '81-'82 boasted an average sales growth of 275% over the next five years. The companies who cut their advertising? They experienced paltry sales growth over the next five years of just 19%.

So, when is the right time to market your business? All the time.

Question: I noticed my competitor in your publications - can you tell me how they did, so I can decide if we want to use you?

Sorry. You wouldn't want the details of your campaign provided to your competitors. Our advertisers have an expectation of privacy and confidentiality in regards to performance criteria such as click-through rates, sales and ROI. Ad agencies and publishers have an ethical obligation to keep campaign results confidential.

Even if such information was made available, it would not be that useful. Campaign results can vary significantly depending on the product/service offered, price point, message subject, ad copy and numerous other variables.

Any questions?... e-me ! :)

About the Author:
Karin Gamble is the CEO of NetMediaReps, Inc. (http://www.netmediareps.com), an online advertising agency specializing in ad sales for newsletter publications and web sites targeting a webmaster audience. Karin can be reached by email at info@netmediareps.com or by telephone at (204)254-1750.

Read more Articles written by Karin Gamble.

Finding More About A Potential Expired Domain Buyer

2009-07-08T20:36:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu

Selling your expired domains to a potential buyer could be a very tricky issue. Segregating a serious buyer from a casual one is very difficult as you may deal and interact with hundreds of them. Some of them may be very dedicated expired domain traders who are looking for very good domains expired while a number of others are not too serious in their buying intentions. In fact, non-serious expired domain traders keep looking for their domain names but never buy one. Finding a potential buyer is very difficult when someone does not learn and master the techniques of domain trading. Here are five important things that you must remember before selling your stock of domain names:

1. Finding the location where your buyer lives could be a tough task. Most of them are almost anonymous when they quote their price. Most of them also send their messages through their email ID's. Hence, you will need to know from which location your prospective buyer is sending his or her e-mail. Make sure that you are checking for clues about the origin of e-mails you receive from the buyers. To find out the location from where you are getting e-mails from, you can use tracking software to check the origin of the mails. However, the sender can send e-mail from a location that is entirely different from his or her place of actual residence.

2. Most of the newbie or minor domain traders bid or buy domains on their own. However, some traders solicit the professional help of a broker or a lawyer while buying domain names. You will need to know whether the buyer who is showing an interest in your domain is using professional help. Such buyers could be very choosy and methodic as they look for every detail about the domain name, its origin, previous history, legal status and registrar details.

3. Some expired domain traders make it a point to call their buyer to talk to them about the domain and its price. When you interact with a buyer through a telephone, you can make out if they are really showing an interest in your domain. Their voice and the confidence with which they talk can provide many clues.

4. Does the potential buyer ask for precise details about your expired domains? If yes, he or she is sending a clear signal that your expired domains are good enough for buying.

Whatever the case, never sell your domain names for a price that you feel is very low for its perceived quality. If you are happy with the price offer, you can definitely sell your domains almost immediately. If possible request your buyer to chat with you about the purchase; video chatting is possibly the best and the safest way to sell your domain names. Once you strike a deal, you can ask your buyer to deposit the money in an escrow account; an escrow account can safeguard the deal for both of you with mutual guarantees.

About the Author:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is also the owner of the path breaking web sites called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com and http://www.expireddomaingains.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.

Read more Articles written by John Khu.

Changing Your Company Name: The Good, The Bad and The Unnecessary

2009-07-08T19:12:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

Wondering whether or not to change your company name? Several reasons for doing this are legitimate. Other reasons should make you stop and reconsider.

Most of the time, companies that come to my naming company frantic to find a new name for their firm or for a product do so because of legal problems. They've received a case-and-desist letter, and it's cheaper and wiser to switch than to fight.

Even those who follow corporate name games probably don't realize that Kentucky Fried Chicken falls into this category. In 1991, the company told the public that they were changing their name to KFC because health-conscious consumers were shying away from the word "fried." Since the name change coincided with the introduction of several purportedly healthier menu items, this seemed plausible.

In fact, however, in 1990 the state of Kentucky had trademarked its name and created the requirement that any business using the word Kentucky for business purposes would have to obtain permission and pay licensing fees. Kentucky Fried Chicken took umbrage at the idea of paying for a name they'd used since 1952. Their negotiations with the state broke down, and they adopted KFC as their new name.

The second most common impetus for an organizational name change is a word in the name that's gone out of favor with the industry or with the general public. For instance, the Massachusetts State House is considering legislation to rename the Department of Mental Retardation the Department of Developmental Disabilities, in keeping with altered notions of appropriate labeling.

The same goes for company names that sound old-fashioned and out of date. In 2009, a shop called Fotos and Film raises the issue of whether or not they're in step with today's digital photography.

The third good reason for changing your company name is that the name no longer fits the services you perform and the goods you sell. If you launched as Westfield Wire and now you make mainly cables, renaming is indeed in order.

Likewise, geographical growth or relocations can render a business name obsolete. If Gerard County Savings Bank expands beyond Gerard County, it should put itself in line for a name change.

Got a name that people just can't remember or that they confuse with your competitor? One company came to us for renaming because even people who'd previously bought from them couldn't remember whether they were, let's say, MyGrandPhotos.com (correct) or YourGrandPhotos.com (the competitor). Renaming makes sense for that situation, too.

If you're just plain tired of your name, however, forget about a name change. It involves a lot of expense and effort to convince the public to get on board with the new name. Don't go there for frivolous, unnecessary reasons.

The final situation, mergers and acquisitions, which often prompt renaming, depends on the situation. Restaurants that take over from a disreputable or failing establishment do well to signal their fresh start with both a name change and redecoration. However, a company that was humming along fine before the change of ownership should usually continue with the name they had before. In business, longevity and consistency inspire confidence.

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.

Create Information Products - Step by Step On Using Ghostwriting Services

2009-07-08T07:36:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Alan Cheng

Successful online marketers create information products that are in-demand and sell them online. It's one of the most popular and effective ways to make money on the internet. An information product, or an ebook requires no inventory and the profit margins are huge.

In this article, I'll summarize the crucial steps you need follow to create your own information product by outsourcing to respectable ghostwriting services...

The reasons you would want to outsource your information product creation are:

1. You have a phobia with writing, or you just don't like the task

2. You don't have enough time

3. You don't have the expertise to create information products

If any of the above applies to you, then you can consider using special ghostwriting services to create the information product for you. This is a fast and easy way to create a quality product to sell, while you can fully concentrate on just marketing the product.

Here are 5 steps on how to create information products by hiring a professional writer.

1. Choose Your Niche

To decide the topic for your ebook, you need to do some thorough online research. You should choose a niche which many people have an interest in, and who are willing to buy the information. It will be even better, if the niche is something which you're knowledgeable in.

Go to forums that are related to the niche, and view the posts. See if there is a lot of interest on certain problems which people want to know about.

Next you can search for magazines whether online or offline, and see if there's a magazine for the niche. This is proof that there is demand for the topic. Otherwise, people would not run a magazine on it.

Never, try to create an ebook on a topic which has never been done before. Chances are that it won't sell. Try to look for similar ebooks that are already selling well and create an information product which is better.

2. List Out The Problems

Once you've decided what your information product is about, you need to list out certain problems which the market is interested in. If the subject is about PC repair, then you need to list out the common problems people would want to know about repairing PCs.

Get this information from forums and from search engines. Consolidate the list of problems and choose the best ones which you think your prospects will be interested in.

3. Hire A Ghost Writer

Your next step is to hire a ghost writer, or ghostwriting company to write your information product. There are many professional writers which you can find online, but don't choose one based on the lowest price.

You need to hire a professional writer who has experience in creating information products for their clients. This includes the ebook, website, sales copy to sell the ebook, squeeze page to capture prospects' emails and a thank you page.

Some companies offer these ghostwriting services as a whole package, but there aren't many of them. An example of such a company is 'Best Instant Sites' which offers a complete solution for creating information products.

4. Discuss The Terms

With your chosen ghostwriter, you need to discuss the terms before giving payment. Tell them your idea of the information product you want and list the subjects you want written about, from what you gathered in your research.

Ask the professional writer to research the topic in more detail when writing the ebook. Then ask when the delivery date is. Never push the writer for an earlier deadline. You want the ebook to be written professionally. Rushing a writing project seldom creates quality.

For the design of your website, tell the ghostwriter what kind of look you're looking for and the words you want shown. Give examples of website designs that you like so that the professional writer knows your preference.

5. Following Up With The Progress

A few days before the deadline of your information product, contact the ghostwriter and ask him or her for the progress. He would either tell you everything is as planned or he would tell you that there is a possible delay.

The point of following up is to tell the writer that you care and it gives him a chance to ask you any questions he can think of. You can even ask for a draft of the website design to see if it matches what you want.

Good professional writers will always contact you a few days beforehand if there's a possible delay, but just in case you hired a not-so-professional writer, it will be wise if you followed up a few times before the deadline.

Following these steps, you can create an information product of your own and start making money online like the experts. The key to success is hiring the right professional writer. You need a writer that has experience in creating information products. And of course, you also need good marketing skills to sell your product online. Some ghostwriters offer advice on marketing online. You need to ask.

About the Author:
Download the report "Build Your Own Business Using Information Products" at create information products. Alan Cheng is a professional writer at http://www.bestinstantsites.com/ If you want to outsource your information product creation, visit professional writer at Best Instant Sites.

Read more Articles written by Alan Cheng.

Managing Your Company's Wireless Assets

2009-07-08T03:12:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Nermine Shaker

Although the use of wireless phones has become more and more prevalent over the last several years, the business world is just catching on to the many benefits of going wireless beyond telephone service. Today's wireless features offer much more than just a telephone connection by providing on-line applications, mobile-to-mobile two-way radio type features, messaging and calendar options.

With all these features, employees can work from any location and this seems to be a growing trend. However, problems arise in keeping track of devices, users, plans and managing costs. Research shows that if you are not continuously managing your wireless spending, you could be overspending by more than 25%.

Managing your business's wireless telephone service, including all the newest features, can be complicated however, so this article will explore some of the basics of managing your company's wireless telephone service.

Whether you choose to manage your wireless spending yourself or outsource to a telecom management company, the first step to taking control of your wireless spending is to know your current usage. This includes number of users, location of the users, types of devices used, and the patterns of users. Armed with this information, you can start to optimize your wireless assets.

Some areas of optimization include getting discounts on service options, pooling phone minutes, early termination clauses, and commitment levels.

Many companies let their employees choose their own device and service plan and then reimburse them individually for their costs. This usually results in the company paying the highest rates offered and they have no control over the employee's choices. Other companies give company phones to their employees, and the company is billed under one corporate rate. And usually, there are multiple vendors because of geographic demands, the need for specific devices, or inherited accounts.

You want to make sure that the wireless contracts you negotiate are advantageous for your company and will hold up over time. You have to have a partnership with your provider, especially since you don't want to be switching providers every year. Flexibility without penalties is something to strive for. You don't want to be stuck in a rate plan that won't fit after your company's needs change over time. Adding or decreasing pool plan minutes without penalty is one example of this flexibility.

Reviewing your bills each month is critical, particularly in the first few months after you have signed up for new service. Make sure you understand every single line item, and if you don't, get your provider to explain what doesn't make sense. Make sure you are not getting hit with any hidden charges, or that the level of use is not more than you anticipated, making it necessary to bump your plan up to a little higher level of service.

Monthly wireless expense management will also allow you to find services and devices that aren't being used, or aren't being used to their fullest potential, adding certain plan features like text messaging to accounts that need it, or adding or reducing minutes to accounts that go over or under the monthly allowance.

Track your wireless telephone expenditures for at least the first year to identify trends in usage. Do your employees use the phone more during certain seasons or busy times of the year? Are there periods where your company experiences a lot of down time and when you don't need quite so much service? If so, get your sales rep on the phone and see what he or she can do to reduce services (and the cost to you) during such slow periods.

Finally, educate your employees as to how you expect them to use their company phones. If you have unlimited minutes, and don't mind your staff using their phones for personal use, then let them know that. If, however, you are charged by the minute, you will want to firmly instill in your personnel how their company-issued telephone is to be used. Providing your staff with an overview of your business's telecom expense management system, and a simple list of dos and don'ts when issuing them their phone (and maybe even having them sign a statement that they understand), can go a long way towards preventing misuse and added charges.

If you would rather concentrate on your business, you can hire a Telecom Expense Management (TEM) firm to manage your wireless spending. These TEM providers can offer assistance in crafting your company's wireless policies and overseeing your provider's charges. Qualified TEM experts can check that your carrier is charging the correct rates, giving equipment discounts, correcting taxes, fees and surcharges and making sure you are only paying for services you are using.

Companies spend a large potion of their telecom budget on wireless devices and services. With the growing trend of employees working from anywhere but the office, these costs can only increase. Arduous management of these assets is an important part of a company's operation. And in some cases, outsourcing the management of wireless assets will provide a significant return on investment.

About the Author:
With more than twenty-five years of experience in planning, implementing, managing and consulting on telecommunications projects, Nermine Shaker has generated tens of millions of dollars worth of savings for her clients. She is a Partner at The Sygnal Group, a Telecommunications Management Company that offers unbiased reporting, analysis and implementation of telecom strategies to businesses of all sizes. http://www.SygnalGroup.com

Nermine Shaker has generated tens of millions of dollars worth of savings for her clients. She is a Partner at THE SYGNAL GROUP, a Telecoms Management Company that offers unbiased reporting, analysis and implementation of telecom strategies to businesses of all sizes. http://www.SygnalGroup.com

Read more Articles written by Nermine Shaker.

Article Marketing: A Great Strategy To Promote Your Business

2009-07-07T19:36:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

Promotion is an important part of any business; you need to let potential customers know about you and your product. Article marketing is a strategy that will increase your exposure to the people who will want to buy your product or service. Articles written about your industry will help to establish you, the author, as an expert in your field, and can be published in print media and online.

Customers have a preference for doing business with someone they are familiar with, and article marketing is an ideal way of getting your name out there. The content of your articles needs to be useful and relevant to your target market. Articles that are informative, interesting and provide solutions to your readers are tremendously helpful.

If writing is your thing, then do your own articles. If not, there are several sites online where you can connect with writers, eager for work. Choose someone who uses good grammar and spelling skills, and who can write in an informal and conversational style that is easy to read. Your name will appear as the author on these outsourced articles, promoting you as the expert.

These articles are meant to inform and add value to you and your product; they are not blatant sales letters. Online publishing sites wouldn't publish sales letters anyway, and print media would avoid them as well. To establish your credibility, you need to give something to your readers, not blast them with sales talk. Don't ever forget, the reason they are reading your articles is for the information.

Web and ezine writing is very different than writing for other off-line publications. Brief is better. Be concise and write in short paragraphs. Your main purpose is to capture their attention and to get them to visit your website. If your article is long with every piece of information, they won't see the value in clicking the link to your site.

You should always check for spelling and grammatical errors before submitting your articles to directories. These kinds of errors will reflect badly on your reputation and credibility as a quality information provider. Try to avoid technical language, but provide an explanation of terms if they need to be included.

Put the major benefit to the reader in your title. The title will determine whether or not the reader will click to read the article and possibly click to visit your site. If they aren't compelled to read the article, they will never get to see your link, or see your website.

Article directories are the sites where you submit articles for online publication. They check your articles to make sure they comply with their guidelines before they publish them. And though we won't go into it here, print media, like newspapers and magazines, are also always looking for fresh copy, so you can also submit your interesting articles to them for publication.

Make good use of the resource box under the article; this is where you can promote your product and supply contact information. What you include here should encourage readers to click to your website. The best resource box describes your website or yourself in a short sentence and includes at least one link that points back to your website or blog. When the reader clicks on the link to your site, your website visibility will increase.

Remember, a brilliant article with a bad resource box is a waste of time and money. Carefully review the rules for resource box information for each directory you submit to and try to get in as much information about yourself as you can.

If you can, place links to other articles you've written in a new article you're writing. Sometimes, if the advice is helpful, the ezines will let you do this. This cross-referencing will get you more bang for your buck. Before publishing them elsewhere, you should always add your articles to your website or your newsletter. This helps to identify you as the source of the information and is another good way to get your name out there to build relationships with potential customers.

Articles for online publication need to be written with search engines in mind. You need to use the most popular keywords that online users type into their search engine when looking for information about your topic. Use the keywords in your article, but do not saturate it with them. This ruins the readability of the article and will not add to your credibility at all.

Set up a blog to keep in contact with customers and interested contacts. You can upload your articles to your blog to give your readers a continual supply of interesting, informative articles about your area of expertise. Add new content frequently to keep the search engines interested in your articles. Use your blog as another means of promoting your product and yourself as trustworthy and interested in your customers.

Article marketing is probably one of the easiest and most effective ways of driving targeted traffic to your website and boosting your exposure on the Internet. These guidelines will help you get started in article marketing. Use them to promote your product or service and to establish yourself as an expert in your field, then watch your sales increase.

About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat, the only online marketing and advertising company employing Brandcasting, the most effective way to brand your company on the web. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. The approach is simple, highly effective and affordable. Learn more at: http://www.Brandsplat.com/

Read more Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.

Why You Don't Have a Business if You Don't Have Products

2009-07-07T05:42:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Judy Murdoch

I hope the article heading got your attention.

When a mentor said this to me a couple years ago he got my attention: I felt angry and insulted!

Actually what he said was this: "Until you have products you what I consider a have a successful practice...nothing wrong with a successful practice...but you do not have a business."

I argued, "Look at everything I've accomplished. Look at everything I've learned. I actually made a profit last year. The IRS certainly thinks I have a business!"

"Those are all amazing accomplishments," my mentor said "but if, God forbid, you got hit by a bus and couldn't do any work for six months or longer what would happen to your business?"

"I'm the business," I replied, "If I can't work there is no business."

Exactly

=======================================
A Practice Begins and Ends with You
=======================================

Even if you have an amazing assistant. Even if you have clients who LOVE you and sing your praises: no you, no business.

One year later, two years later, there isn't even a vapor trail.

Now for a lot of people, this is completely cool. You may be reading this article and thinking "Hey its enough that I take good care of my clients and my business pays the bills for me and my family."

You have a successful practice and that is something to be very proud of.

And the success of your practice depends entirely on your ability to show up and be present. If you can't show up, there is no business.

My dad was a dentist for over 40 years. He was a very good at his work and his patients adored him. When he retired he sold his practice to another dentist.

When my dad is at the grocery store or running errands people still come up to him and tell him how much they appreciated him and that they miss having him as their dentist.

I'm always impressed by the warm feelings my dad's former patients still express to him. You can't buy that kind of good will.

But the practice itself winked out of existence when my dad took his name off the door. Any special processes my dad knew, the things he said to calm nervous patients, the skills and knowledge he honed over the years; that's all gone.

=======================================
It's About Influence and Making a Difference
=======================================

This is not to belittle my dad's accomplishments. He taught me a lot about working hard and with integrity. I'm proud of my dad.

At the same time, when I close shop for my business, in addition to having contributed to my clients success, I want to have products: books, classes, software, and tools that hundreds of thousands of people can use and benefit from my skills and knowledge.

When you create products, your business no longer depends on you because in a sense, you have replicated yourself. You've duplicated what made your business yours. The reason you got customers to begin with.

With products you can influence thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people. That's a LOT bigger than what any practice can do.

=======================================
Not that the Money isn't Nice too
=======================================

Most small business owners are attracted to creating information products because they love the idea of earning passive income from multiple sources.

It's a great reason to sell products. Not such a great reason for creating products.

Seriously. If you're into products primarily because you want multiple streams of revenue, I've got one word for you: Affiliates. Sell other people's products and make commission.

It's easy. Most of the e-commerce products I use: my web host, my email and list management, and my shopping cart all pay me a percentage when people find them through me.

And I'm an affiliate for several businesses whose programs I've used and gotten good results from including Amazon.com.

=======================================
Bottom Line
=======================================

Having a successful practice is huge accomplishment and you can make a huge difference--as long as you're around.

If you want a profitable BUSINESS whose influence goes well beyond the clients and customers you serve: then you want to create and sell information products.

It's the best way I know to take what you know and make money making a difference in the world.

About the Author:
Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost, effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals, guerrilla marketing activities, and selected strategic alliances. To download a free copy of the workbook, "Where Does it Hurt? Marketing Solutions to the problems that Drive Your Customers Crazy!" go to http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm
You can contact Judy at 303-475-2015 or judy@judymurdoch.com

Read more Articles written by Judy Murdoch.

For a Better New Product Name or New Company Name, Create a Scorecard

2009-07-06T16:54:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

Imagine being asked to judge a martial arts competition while never having studied karate, tai chi, judo or the like. You might latch on to a favorite whose moves you admire only to learn from people in the know that this competitor's form was actually embarrassingly and even dangerously bad. Or you might feel completely frozen in your ignorance, unable to recognize a competitor whose power and style were clearly head and shoulders above the rest.

You'd do better with a list of judging criteria, such as "posture," "balance," "presence," "power," and so on. By knowing what you're looking for, you more easily see it when it's in front of you.

This analogy applies neatly to business naming, whether for companies or products. I've seen organizations pass over a strong, winning name in favor of a weaker one when they go on nothing other than their feelings. And I've seen companies struggle to finalize a perfect name because they can't feel confident that it truly fits the bill. They have no firm criteria with which to assess competing possibilities.

For brainstorming a list of names, you don't need guidelines on what the final name must be like. Indeed, it's often best to generate possible names wildly, profusely and without censoring, and only later to winnow them.

Before attempting to narrow down your list of candidates, create a list of criteria or a scorecard. To name a new sporting goods product, for instance, the criteria might include:

Must make sense at first hearing to both basketball and soccer players.

Should be easy to say out loud and relatively easy to spell.

Must convey that the product has something to do with safety.

Needs to be trademarkable and have a matching domain name available.

Should have a fun sound and positive connotation, without being corny.

Using such a list, you'd go through the name candidates and eliminate all the ones that didn't fit the criteria.

A company in the same line of business but with a different history, goals and corporate personality might generate quite a different list of criteria.

A scorecard would be a bit more complicated than a list of criteria. Not only would you write down the qualities your ideal name should have, you would also give each quality a numerical weight so that some items on the list have more impact in determining the suitability of a name than others. Using this system, a name might turn out to be acceptable even though it didn't meet every qualification if it met the most important points.

A freelance namer for my company, in looking at the memo I created for a product naming assignment, quoted to me this saying by Charles F. Kettering: "A problem well stated is a problem half solved." I agree wholeheartedly. The scorecard enables you to know whether you've come up with a winner, you need to keep at the task longer or you should really scrap the efforts so far and make a fresh start.

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more of Marcia Yudkin's articles.

Growing Your Business with Online Marketing

2009-07-05T18:36:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

As a business owner, you know that one of the keys to a successful year is promoting your business. No matter what size your business is, marketing and promotion need to be addressed. Marketing has become a daunting task with the increasing number of online start-up businesses.

And now, along with the traditional offline marketing methods, there are many online marketing tools and methods available.

Online Marketing is also known as Internet Advertising, web marketing, web advertising or e-marketing.

There are many benefits to marketing your business online. Here are a few.

Lowering Your Costs

A recent eMarketer article (http://www.emarketer.com/Article/aspx?R=1007064) sites that "in the wake of the global economic downturn, marketers worldwide are shifting more of their budgets into cheaper, more-measurable categories. In most cases, that means online."

Your marketing budget is only so big and online marketing can stretch it even farther for you. TV and radio spots are expensive, printing costs for corporate and product brochures are expensive and traditional mailings cost not only in materials and postage, but deplete the environment as well. Why not direct potential customers to your website for information on products and services? Your website is your brochure, a marketing tool available 24 hours a day to prospective customers. Your revenue potential will increase while your costs diminish.

Offline marketing ads for newspapers, TV and radio are for a limited time and you pay for the time slot and space. In online marketing, your ads potentially can stay up longer and over time you end up paying less. Using article marketing, you could either write an article yourself or pay someone else to write it. When that article is distributed online, it stays on the Internet for many years. For a small cost, you've placed a marketing proposition that stays around indefinitely, pointing potential customers to your website and your products and services.

Compared to traditional marketing or telemarketing, email marketing costs very little. These targeted messages go directly into the homes and offices of your potential or existing customers.

Reaching a Larger Market and a Targeted Market

The Internet allows people from all over the world to do business with each other.

From another recent eMarketer article, (http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1006988) in 2009, more than 65% of Americans are Internet users. They're not only checking e-mail and Twittering, they are shopping for products and services.

With traditional media, your ads are restricted to a specific location for a limited time. When you promote your business online, you reach a larger audience than you would ever be able to reach otherwise since your marketing activity is not restricted by location. More potential customers always equal more sales opportunities.

Online marketing allows you to target specific demographics such as age, location, gender and income levels and in many cases allows you to track the behaviors of these groups as they interact with your online marketing.

It can also bring a branding campaign to life in a new way. This unique consumer interaction with your brand can leverage emotional links to your brand. Instead of a brand talking to a customer, your customer can interact with and experience your brand. This is intelligent brand marketing. You can influence people at the perfect time - their time, right when they are looking for information, comparison shopping and possibly buying.

Flexibility and Tangible Tracking

Online marketing can include email, newsletters, blogs, microblogs, podcasts, video and social media sites. All of these outlets have the ability to be flexible. An ad placed in a magazine or newspaper can't be changed until the next submission. With online marketing you'll know very quickly if a campaign is working and you can change wording or graphics and adapt product information to match changing market conditions.

The Internet also removes any guesswork from measuring campaign results. Using web analytics, you can measure the number of visitors that a campaign brings to your website, how long they stay and the average number of pages they visit. This important information along with the flexibility, allows you to improve the conversion of your campaign and to increase your return on investment.

Instant Conversion Ability

Online marketing allows you to convert a shopper to a customer instantly. A potential customer reading a traditional newspaper ad does not have the ability to click a mouse and buy your product or service immediately. Offline marketing involves more time and money to convert a shopper into a sale.

Online ads allow direct response. Consumers can click to learn more about a product, sign up for a newsletter or RSS feed, or buy right then and there. This will in turn create a database for you, which, with email marketing, will allow you to reach people who have already expressed an interest in your product or service. And online marketing allows you to sell to anyone, anywhere and at any time. You're not restricted by time, geography and location considerations.

Internet marketing includes strategies such as search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click marketing (PPC), article marketing, blog marketing, online brandcasting, social media marketing and many more interactive marketing services.

While these strategies may seem daunting at first, with a little research, you can use some of these tools to help you optimize your website and increase web traffic. Or, if you have it in your budget, there are companies that specialize in many SEO services.

There are many benefits to both online and offline marketing. A mix of the two might be just what your business needs to grow.

About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat, the only online marketing and advertising company employing Brandcasting, the most effective way to brand your company on the web. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. The approach is simple, highly effective and affordable. Learn more at: http://www.Brandsplat.com/

Read more Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.

Lessons in Business Naming from Newspaper Headlines

2009-07-04T18:06:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

Two headlines in the "Home" section of my local newspaper caught my eye the other day: "Natural floors can be knotty and nice" and "Serving cheese with ease." Both headlines involve enjoyable wordplay of the sort that could easily figure in business names or tag lines. I can imagine "KnottyandNice.com" as the domain name for a wooden items crafts shop, and "Cheese with ease" as the tag line for a cheese lovers' online community.

So I went looking for some tips on writing news headlines, thinking they might offer valuable insights for naming, too. After all, news editors need to come up with informative, catchy headers numerous times every workday.

Even more challenging, their headers need to fit the available space. They need to be able to condense or stretch an idea's expression, depending on how many columns an article spreads across.

My Google search didn't quickly turn up any such tips, though. Maybe headline writing is an art passed on in secret by grizzled, ink-stained veterans during the midnight shift.

Nevertheless, by pondering a couple of dozen headlines, I was able to observe several key points.

1. Newspaper headline writers collect short, vivid verbs, such as "mines" ("Obama mines small, red states"), "stirs," "pushes," "clings," "set," "edges," "sparks," "tosses," "sees," "OKs" and much more. Not only can headlines with verbs tell a complete story, they convey energy.

Because verbs are frequently overlooked as an element in naming, these punchy little words can help you come up with a trademarkable name or a free domain in a competitive industry.

2. Long, vivid words can also come in handy. In the headline "Super Bowl party can be gastronomical success," the word "gastronomical" rescues the line from dullness. It's a wonderful word that could be tweaked in a zillion creative ways for a company name or tag line.

The lesson: long, vivid words can help you convey a complicated idea concisely, as long as your average customer has an inkling of their meaning.

3. Short, vivid words come in useful, too. Take a look at the word "ire" in the headline "Delay in polar bear decision draws ire of Senate." This is another kind of word that most people understand yet probably wouldn't think to use.

4. Combined cleverly, ordinary words can please inordinately. Besides the rhyme in "cheese with ease" and the homonym in "knotty and nice," I also found "Hoops and hollers" atop a photo of kids cheering at a basketball game, which illustrates alliteration - the repetition of initial letters or sounds.

Another headline, "Bush comes clean with former addicts," used an expression with two meanings that both tie in with the subject matter - George W. Bush talking openly about his former drinking problem.

All in all, your newspaper can serve as a source of instruction and inspiration for naming. Just make sure you screen out bloopers like these, which have actually appeared in newspapers:

Blind Woman Gets New Kidney from Dad she Hasn't Seen in Years

Grandmother of Eight Makes Hole in One

Quarter of a Million Chinese Live on Water

Stolen Painting Found by Tree

Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim

Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges

Iraqi Head Seeks Arms

Kids Make Nutritious Snacks

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.

LOA: The Secret and The Law of Attraction Doesn't Work! 3 Reasons Why

2009-07-03T21:42:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Andrew Brinkworth

Okay, we've all heard the reviews from friends and family.

"Oh, The Secret, my friend read it and said it was a joke so I didn't bother," says Mom.

"It worked for a while and then I gave up because I didn't get the car I wanted," says Uncle Larry

"It's just a lot of metaphysical hokum," says Steve your best friend.

Let's be quite honest, each and every one of those statements is absolutely true. Look at the search results there are just as many con articles as there are pro articles written about The Law of Attraction and The Secret. So we must say that the statements are true. FOR THEM!

Yes for them. They got out of it exactly what they put into it, and I am sure that what they put into it was exactly what most people put into it. "I've read the book, now where's my Ferrari."

The fact of the matter is, there is a Secret to the Secret and The Law of Attraction, in fact, make that 3 Secrets. The first will leave most people kicking themselves. The second is perhaps something that most people fail to recognize. The third, well the third takes some work but there are two professionals who are ready to help you!

Let's start with the first Secret. What does the Secret warn you about straight away in the book? The Universe manifests our thoughts and it cautions us to focus on our thoughts and remain positive. It's kind of a scare tactic. Think bad thoughts and bad things will happen to you; think good thoughts and you'll get good things (The Ferrari).

There is a better way to explain this because of the simple fact that in many ways, we do what most children will do when faced with this dilemma. We'll act good until we get what we want and then go back to normal after we get it. Think I'm wrong? Ask yourself why all the little terrors in your neighborhood become angels around Christmastime!

The same goes for us if we don't get what we want. We're good positive people and we think about the new house or money and after a while we don't get what we want and feel foolish and cheated and revert back to the glass is half-empty realists we were. We are ignoring a singular fact here that eludes all of us. When I read that book, I was a tremendously positive person. Everything was possible and I was going to get it. But it seemed to take a while and then I got discouraged and reverted. What did I miss?

I was happy! My friends said so, my wife said so, my parents thought so. I was a positive person for a change and people liked to have me around. And then I woke up one day and forgot. It happens. I forgot that nothing happens to me unless I act. If I don't do anything how can I ever get what I want?

Let me give you an example. A while back I worried about losing my job so I started staying up late at night working on side projects. Then I overslept and the boss fired me. You can say that it's my fault because it was, but you can also say that by thinking negatively about my job I put myself in the position where my boss had the excuse he needed to let me go! Every time I had trouble at work, it's because I was worried about my job or needed an excuse to leave. I got my wish every single time!

The moral here is that if I had just remained positive that something better was going to happen and remained a joyful person I might have enjoyed my job more or at least been someone that another company would kill to have work for them! So be positive for the only reason that I can think of. IT FEELS BETTER. Don't do it for the car do it for yourself to feel better.

The second Secret is something that most people fail to realize. If you look at the DVD and the book you notice that it's extremely basic. Why, was it so simple? So that everyone could get the basic understanding of what The Law of Attraction was all about!

The Secret is, AN EASY READER. It's only the beginning of a much larger course of study that delves both into our connection with the world around us and entreats us to look deeper into ourselves to become better people. The answer here is that for the Law of Attraction to work, it must become a lifestyle and not a phase.

The third Secret does take some work. I've been hinting at it throughout this article, I wonder if you've picked up on it yet. The reason why the Secret didn't work for you is YOU! Yes with all our hang-ups and pre-conceived notions we stopped the Universe from working for us and turned it against us. How?

Let me ask you if this sounds familiar. You've had a great day, you've said all the right things, and you've thought all the positive thoughts but its taking a little while to manifest. So, late at night as you sit in the dark you do what countless people do. You quietly sabotage yourself back to what you think is reality.

You know that thoughts I'm speaking of: "This can't possible work." "There's no such thing as free." You can't help it but you did it didn't you? Come on be honest for a second and admit it. You did set yourself up to fail. Don't worry I did too. That's why I decided that the positive feeling I had was something I needed to have or I couldn't survive and decided to invest in my own well being.

I sought out help from two of the experts who helped write The Secret, Dr. Joe Vitale, and Bob Procter. These to gentlemen have forgotten more about The Law of Attraction than most people know. Their programs are designed to help us get past the barriers we erect inside our minds and help us do what the The Law of Attraction was meant to do. Help us be happier and more content with our lives! There programs are in depth and include methods that are designed to combat all of the negative emotions we carry around with us. I do not have room to go into more detail about their programs; however you can read more about them by reading about The Law of Attraction on my website, shown below.

Remember, it's never too late to feel better about your life and to act in ways that WILL make it something you'll want to live. Don't give up hope when help is just a click away!

Good Luck.

About the Author:
Andrew Brinkworth is an Internet Marketing Expert and "The Law of Attraction" Evangelist who believes the you can improve your life today! He publishes http://www.andrianmarketing.com/the-secret.html

Read more Articles written by Andrew Brinkworth.

Why Most Affiliate Marketers Fail

2009-07-03T14:36:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Willie Crawford

Many people coming online and deciding to sell affiliate products never sell a single product. The reason is glaringly obvious, and it's not the unfortunate affiliate marketer's fault.

Think about any job that you've ever held in the offline world. What happened? You were hired and told when to report for work.

When you showed up for work you were entered into training. Depending upon the job, you spent weeks, sometimes even months, with a trainer guiding you and looking over your shoulder.

Compare that with your typical affiliate program that the complete newbie can join.

You fill out an affiliate registration form and are handed an affiliate link. With some affiliate programs you are also directed to an affiliate resource center.

With a few of the better affiliate programs, you are also directed to some affiliate training videos. The affiliate training videos are the exception rather than the rule.

Affiliate marketers are basically left to figure out what works all on their own.

It's really not much better for new people coming online who decide to launch their own product.

They come online and read over and over again that you really need you own product. So they decide to create one, perhaps putting it on Clickbank, or a somewhat better option - decide to use the Rapid Action Profits script.

These new product owners understand that they need affiliates, so they put a link to an affiliate signup page somewhere on their site. They often stick this affiliate program signup link in the worse possible place - right on their salespage where it distracts buying customers.

As a side-note, a better place to put your affiliate signup invitation is on your download page, or you can tell your new customers about your affiliate program in a follow-up email. What better person to recruit as an affiliate than a satisfied customer who actually knows your product?

These new product owners sign up affiliates, give them their affiliate links (and a few tools) and then wait for the orders to come flooding in.

When the orders don't come surging in, the new product own wonders what he did wrong, and concludes that affiliate programs really don't work.

The problem in both of the above cases is simply a lack of adequate training for affiliates in what works in promoting affiliate products.

The sad part is that there is lots of information available on what has proven to work for top producing affiliates. I, as a super affiliate, have written over 1300 article on the topic of ecommerce. Many of those articles outline techniques that work flawlessly for me.

For the product owner or affiliate program operator, there are entire affiliate training programs in a box. One that I looked at recently included 52 weekly autoresponder training sessions. It even included video lessons to SHOW the struggling affiliate how to do many things.

Each of the weekly lessons in that "affiliate training program in a box" taught a skill that the aspiring affiliate marketer needs to understand.

If you are an affiliate program owner and wants to check out that "affiliate training program in a box" it's at: http://WillieCrawford.com/TrainYourAffiliates/

Seasoned marketers and copywriters understand that marketing is not guessing. It's testing until you discover what works, and then USING those things proven to work.

Seasoned marketers and copywriters understand that they are often WRONG as far as what they think will work. Only the market decides what will work. That's why they don't experiment, but instead stick with the "tried and true."

If you are a new (or unsuccessful) affiliate marketer, your solution is simple - learn and stick with what's already proven to work.

If you are a product owner with an affiliate program that's NOT producing, your solution is simple - train your affiliates.

When you train your affiliate, they will experience success selling your products, and having finally figured it out, will double their efforts in promoting your products.

Like any other paying job in the world, affiliate marketing does require training. Make sure that you're not overlooking this critical element of the online marketing puzzle!

About the Author:
Willie Crawford is a leading Internet marketing and traffic generation expert. His favorite method for generating free website traffic is distributing videos, audios, articles and press releases using the automated distribution service at http://EasyPushButtonTraffic.com/

Read more Articles written by Willie Crawford.

Write a Book and Catapult Your Company to New Heights by Branding Yourself As an Expert

2009-07-02T18:30:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Charles Jacobs

Taming the recessionary tiger is not as difficult as you think. Forget the old patterns of spending big bucks to buy advertising or blast postal mailings to thousands of possible buyers. The dollars aren't there to spend in a broken economy. Today every penny has to count, and that happens only when you define your market exactingly and tailor a message that is meaningful to it.

We are in a world of specialization. People in every niche seek information both on and off line. You can be the person to whom they turn to find that information. There is a way to brand yourself as an expert and to make your business or professional office the place customers or clients think of first. When reporters need a quote or perhaps some background material for a story they're working on, make sure they turn to you, not to one of your competitors.

Raising Your Reputation

It is almost axiomatic that your reputation rises to new heights when you write and publish a book. And in today's world, for the first time it is easy, fast and inexpensive to turn your words into print.

New printing technology has give birth to a new generation of publishers. Publishing on Demand (POD) has swept through the industry, churning out thousands of books and boosting the reputations of their authors. With this process, books can be printed in any quantity you need to use as promotional tools. They can be rapid-reading booklets of 30 or 40 pages or they can be full blown books of anywhere from 75 to 200 or more pages.

Journalism today has moved strongly into specialization. You can send the book to members of the press and to broadcast journalists who write about topics related to your product. They may review your book or simply write a blurb about it, sending hundreds of readers to your web site, office or store.

Once recognized as a leader in your field, you may well be asked to speak at various functions, adding further to your reputation. All of these possibilities are part of the program of branding yourself...identifying yourself as an expert.

Getting Assistance

Perhaps you have a talented staff member who can write the book with you. Or even for you. You certainly have the option of turning to a professional writer to ghost write the book. It is done frequently. If you don't require that degree of assistance, contact a Book Coach to help you over the occasional bumps.

It is highly likely that your business is already represented by a web site on the Internet. Add a page to the site about yourself and about your book. What a wonderful opportunity to sell your book from the site and not have to pay commissions.

You may want to piggy back on the book and write articles for distribution throughout the Web. Hundreds of thousands of people will see your piece and hopefully a percentage will respond. You can distribute these articles at no cost by using online article distributors.

Once your book has been written, you can take portions of it and either rewrite them or run them as excerpts. In either case, your workload is minimal because you are drawing on something you have already written.

Writing for Trade Journals

You undoubtedly read some of the trade journals published in your field. Editors of these publications are hungry for informative, meaningful articles. They care far less about your writing style or ability than they do about the content you can provide. Their staffs can polish what you write and turn it into quality pieces, but they must first rely on you to supply the content.

Every article you write offers a perfect opportunity to attract business. The article itself must be informative. It can't be a press release or a selling tool for you or your product. But at the end, as you have seen so many times when you read, the bio box about the author becomes a free advertisement for you.

Fill the box with information that invites your reader to visit your web site or buy your product. Provide enough information to allow the reader to trust you because of your credentials. Never forget that trust is a major factor in attracting a potential and closing a sale.

By following this approach you quickly build confidence in your expertise and as a result in your product. Print and broadcast journalists today search the Web for likely stories and for experts who can be used in those stories. A few references to you or your business in print or on the air will raise your rate of sale to unexpected heights.

If you are running a practice or a business, you are a knowledgeable professional or an informed businessperson. Harness that unique background and turn it into one of the most inexpensive, but most effective methods of branding yourself as an expert and promoting your company as one of the leaders in its field. It is an ideal way to offset the depression blues.

About the Author:
If you need help writing your book, contact award winning author and book coach Charles Jacobs at coaching(at)wisewriter.net for a free consultation. His latest book, The Writer Within You, has been named one of the Best Books of the Year by seven organizations. Axiom awarded it a gold medal in the business category. It is available at all bookstores or on the Web at http://www.retireandwrite.com/

Read more Articles written by Charles Jacobs.

For Word of Mouth Marketing, Make Sure Your New Company Name is Sayable

2009-07-02T14:54:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

Take it from someone who often has to rescue someone from mispronunciation or suffer silently when someone reads my last name out loud for the first time: There is huge value in having a name that people can look at and have no doubt about how to pronounce.

That's why I shook my head sadly when I saw the following line in a magazine ad:

"Vovici [vo-vee-see] - the future of online surveys"

For English speakers, pronouncing the company name "Vovici" is totally unintuitive. One uncertainty would be bad enough, but it actually has four trouble spots for someone seeing the name and trying to pronounce it. The "o" could be long or short, the first "i" could be long or short, the emphasis could belong on either the first or the second syllable, and the "c" could be pronounced either like an "s" or like "ch," as in Latin.

But if you instruct people how to pronounce it, as in this magazine ad, isn't that OK? No, not unless you have the budget to make that pronunciation famous through radio or television ads. You'll constantly be fighting several handicaps.

1. With a name that's hard to pronounce, fewer people will say it. Most people hate making mistakes, dislike being corrected and therefore would feel embarrassed to be tripping over pronouncing a six-letter company name. So, many will simply avoid saying it. That means fewer people will recommend the company to others in conversation. People might even go so far as to avoid situations in which they need to confront their uncertainty about the name's pronunciation - like avoiding the company's sales reps.

2. A name that's hard to pronounce is also often harder to remember. That means less impact from many of the dollars spent on marketing. It will cost more to get the same results than with a name that's easy to pronounce.

3. You need to spend considerable time and energy on the issue of pronunciation rather than on what the company does. Very often you also need to explain the derivation or meaning of the name, not just how to say it. For instance, Cuil, the name of the search engine, looks like a nonsensical and unpronounceable combination of letters to most Americans. "Cuil is an old Irish word for knowledge," says the company on its About page. Strangely, they do not say there that it should be pronounced "cool," though they do so in their press releases.

4. People won't know how to spell an unpronounceable name. And on the web, that is disastrous. If someone overhears buzz about a new search engine called "cool," they are going to look it up at cool.com or maybe at kool.com. Not one in a billion would look for it at cuil.com unless they were previously clued in.

Saddling your company with a name that you need to instruct people how to pronounce means putting it at a distinct disadvantage. Spend a little more time and selectivity in naming to give your organization the comfortable boost it deserves.

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more of Marcia Yudkin's articles.

When (and When NOT) to Charge for Your Info Products

2009-07-02T08:36:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Judy Murdoch

One of my clients recently asked me whether she should charge for a series of tip sheets she created for families traveling with young children. Great question.

There's quite a bit of confusion around whether you should sell or give away your information products. About half the advice I hear favors giving information away for free. The other half favors charging.

The truth is, sometimes you should give information and resources away and sometimes you should sell them. The real question is WHEN to charge and when not to.

In this article, I'll give you some guidelines around when to charge and when to give information away.

=======================================
Start with What Your Business Needs Now
=======================================

Asking where your business is at and what you need to be successful is a great place to begin.

Every business needs customers, right? So let's look at how strangers become customers. They go through three stages:

~ Stage One: Visibility (V)

To become a customer a person first needs to know your product exists. You become visible by getting your product and marketing message in front of people who fit your ideal customer description.

~ Stage Two: Credibility (C)

Knowing that your product exists is usually not enough to get someone to pay cold hard cash for it. Nope, they're thinking "well, that sounds good but how do I know it will really work?"

During the Credibility stage you need to give them information that demonstrates your product will deliver as promised.

~ Stage Three: Profitability (P)

Once your prospect is convinced that your product will, indeed, deliver the promised value, they will pay you and become a customer.

=======================================
V to C to P = Marketing Funnel
=======================================

Picture a funnel with lots of people coming in the widest part (visibility), a percentage sticking around to learn more (credibility), and a percentage of those who stick around becoming customers (profitability).

At any given time in the life of your business, there are people at different stages of becoming customers. Some are learning about you for the first time, some are checking you out to decide whether they will buy, and some are deciding to buy and paying you.

Ideally, you have a steady stream of people constantly entering and moving through the funnel. If they don't enter or don't continue through, you have a problem and it shows up in your bottom line: You don't have enough paying customers.

=======================================
When to Give Away and When to Charge
=======================================

To decide whether or not to charge for an information product, I suggest you take a look at how many people are at each of the three stages.

Your goal is to use information products as an incentive for prospects and customers to take the next step.

~ When You Need More Visibility

If you're just starting your business or you want to enter a new market, you probably need more visibility. You need people to know your product exists.

When visibility is your goal, I recommend you give something away that provides value and introduces people to your product or service.

Why? The goal for visibility is to answer the following questions:

1. What is it ("it" being your product or service)

2. Does it help someone like me?

You want to give something away that will answer these questions while asking for something minimal from the prospect.

A common example is offering a free Ezine subscription or a free report your prospects can download in exchange for their E-mail address or phone number.

~ When You Need More Credibility

Credibility is an issue when you're getting a lot of first time visitors and inquiries but not enough are coming back.

For most products and services, people need repeated demonstrations of what you can do for them. They need to trust you.

When you are building credibility, I suggest you have two information products: one that is free and one that you sell.

1. A free product that allows you to build a relationship with your prospects. Products like Ezines are great because you get a chance to connect with customers once a month or more.

2. Product you charge for which offers a higher level of customer value.

Ideally, this is a "no brainer" purchase. Something for which the value is so obvious for what you're charging that most people don't need to think too long or hard about whether to buy.

Although you will be making some money, the real purpose is to demonstrate credibility and build trust.

Warning: The biggest complaint I hear is when someone offers a free report or one-hour teleclass that turns out to be little more than a sales pitch.

Again, you are creating value and building trust. Doing both will enable you to convert more prospects to paying customers when the opportunity presents itself.

A sneaky sales pitch will undermine the trust you are trying to build.

~ If You Need More Profitability

If you have a large, loyal base of readers, subscribers, or members who have been hanging out with you for several months and like what they're getting, some of them will want to invest some serious time and money for your focused time and attention.

For example, a consultant I know sends out a free monthly Ezine to her mailing list and sells low cost Tip Sheets, Checklists, and so on.

Each month 3-5 of her subscribers contact her to learn more about her workshops and seminars costing $500+. She usually books 6 to 8 engagements this way each year.

She explained it to me like this, "I try to provide something useful that my readers can apply right away. For example, I sell a $5.00 meeting organizer they can use to have more productive meetings. Sometimes this is all they need."

"But sometimes they're in a situation that goes way beyond the DIY stage. They need someone from outside the company to step in and help them set up a new system or to help them hire a new executive."

Allowing your prospects to upgrade (or escalate) and get a higher level of support is not only profitable, it's how you can really serve your clients.

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Bottom Line
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Whether or not to charge for your information products depends on what your business needs in terms of developing customer relationships.

The less known you are to people fitting your ideal customer profile, the more important it is to offer free or low cost information products which provide something of value.

As you build trust and as your prospects learn how you can help them, you can offer more expensive, higher commitment products for those who want (and can afford) them.

About the Author:
Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost, effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals, guerrilla marketing activities, and selected strategic alliances. To download a free copy of the workbook, "Where Does it Hurt? Marketing Solutions to the problems that Drive Your Customers Crazy!" go to http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm
You can contact Judy at 303-475-2015 or judy@judymurdoch.com

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How To Use Your Race To Get Rich

2009-07-02T01:18:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Herbert Harris

Amid recent news reports that there continues to be an ongoing and substantial gap between the net worth of Whites and other racial groups, it is easy to be distracted and overwhelmed by the raw data.

However, I am immediately reminded of a quote offered by an economic expert from the past... "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics!"

Despite the real fact that the same set of stats can be skewed to represent almost any point of view (consider elected officials, talk show hosts, those who steal in the name of God, et al), knowing this does not prevent many of us from being swayed in our thinking - and actions - by the masters of sophistry.

The ability of an individual to look at twin newborn gorillas and deem one a cover girl (cover gorilla?) and the other a repulsively ugly thing is indeed a most interesting truism concerning human behavior.

This tendency, better known as hypocrisy, is possibly the most pivotal factor leading to interpersonal, and sadly, inter-racial strife. As a student of history I always attempt to place things in historical perspective.

In the book, "The Richest Man In Babylon", the author provides economic advice that would enable any person of any color or ethnicity to acquire, maintain and indeed increase wealth by following a few time-proven principles. Bill Bennett provided similar advice with his three core admonitions... "...Graduate from high school, avoid out of wedlock childbirth and live within your means."

The most interesting thing about the advice given by these two authors, widely separated by time and culture, is the universal applicability of these basic economic principles to all individuals; in all times and all places with few exceptions.

So the bottom line becomes not what someone has done to you, but how you respond to it. Question. To the countless people who have lost jobs, homes, hopes, insurance, dreams, 401Ks, the ability to send kids to college, their dignity, and in some cases their very lives, does it matter who or what caused or created the conditions for their current situation?

Faced with foreclosure, mounting credit card debt, other financial obligations of all kinds, do you seek to place blame for your situation on someone or something that caused it all?

For sure it's prudent to understand the factors that created this now pandemic pecuniary pain. And candidates for blame are many and varied. There's the Federal Reserve, the sub-prime loans, the credit default swaps, the Wall Street greed-mongers, the naked(?) credit default swaps, the people buying houses they could not afford, the lenders who sold them the houses, self-serving politicians and the lobbyists who pimp them, the Anti-Christ and countless others who can be singled out for scorn.

Certainly there's more than enough blame to go around.

Another question. Would it help those who are jobless and possibly hopeless to know who to blame and also be able to inflict the deserved punishment upon them? Put another way, does the fact that Bernie Madoff is in prison materially help those whose fortunes and futures he stole?

I fully agree that it is paramount to expose the Bernie Madoffs of the world and erect legal barriers to the future efforts of those with similar agendas. And believe it, there will be plenty more.

The answers to the two above questions are yes and no. For those living with fear and despair due to job loss, yes it is indeed important to understand how their current situation arose and to take action to prevent it in the future. But it is no real solace that big-time CEOs get derided in the press for their golden parachutes. And "Behind Bars Bernie" still hasn't accounted for tens of billions in lucre with which he "Made-off" that will cause multi-generational financial woes.

There is a certain satisfaction in knowing that a murderer is behind bars or (preferably) pushing up daisies, but it doesn't bring his or her victim(s) back to life. Survivors must live with that fact.

At this point I'm reminded of another old saying provided by an obviously observant individual, "It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."

If you're one of the many suffering financial displacement and possibly feeling desperate and hopeless please take a minute and watch this short video. I triple-dog challenge you to do so with dry eyes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MslbhDZoniY&feature=player_embedded

There's not too much to add to the message of that video. I'm minus a kidney as a cancer survivor. (Read my Stage -4 story at: http://whosafraidofcancer.blogspot.com/)

But I much prefer that to being armless and legless. I'd rather be a person of any color or race and in any financial condition than be totally limbless.

And whether you're Black, White, Asian, Hispanic or Native American, being jobless and hopeless feels the same. But the beauty of it all is that just like we all can suffer individually or en masse, we can all also prosper the same.

Trust me; despite the mind-boggling amount of money that's being created out of thin air by the Federal Reserve, and the relatively few well enough-connected people who will grow wealthy and wealthier when it's doled out, there is no government bail-out for you and me.

If you desire to change your current financial situation and establish a solid wall of protection against the global market forces that simultaneously render millions jobless and a relative few wealthy beyond imagination, then you must take action.

If a man with no limbs can become a worldwide inspiration for those with two arms and two legs, surely you and I can ride the coattails of a man like Lee Green, founder of the National Black Business Trade Association, the Black Business Space social network and creator of the Black Business Builders Club.

I compare this opportunity to reading a book. The author has done all the hard work of researching, writing and having it edited and published. How hard is it for me to just pick it up and read it?

If you're one who desires to prosper, I invite you to look at an excellent way to do so. But there is one irrevocable requirement. You must be a member of a particular racial group. There are no exceptions to this requirement.

Over a more than 30 year period Lee Green has learned how to fine-tune his online marketing techniques and has developed, after paying his dues to become an expert, what is in my opinion the most comprehensive program for taking the willing of any skill level and leading them to economic freedom.

Mr. Green's techniques, presented in his newly released "The Black Folks Guide To Making Big Money On The Internet", provide the opportunity to finally experience the "Holy Grail" that all home-based entrepreneurs seek - RESIDUAL INCOME!

Finally someone has created a program that actually provides the real training and resources needed for anyone willing to work a little to experience the success that many desire but never achieve. When you compare what you get to what the monthly membership costs, you will realize that almost all of the other so-called opportunities have only been over-promising and under- or never delivering. Lots of out of pocket with little or no results.

I know it sounds somewhat cliché, but the old saying is still true... If you don't already have a "Plan B" you're either already wealthy or extremely naive. Which group are you in?

So if your candle is out, let the Black Business Builders Club provide the training and tools to help you re-light it so that you can see your way to financial freedom at last. Members of the BBBC get the "Black Folks Guide" at no cost. So light your candle and get out of the rat race. And really it's not so much the race as it is the rats. Get away from them now!

If you're a member of the right racial group and are ready for your very own Economic Stimulus Plan and financial freedom, then take a look at the tremendous opportunity that Lee Green has created and provided for you to be able to do just that; at a price you won't believe!

PS: To be eligible for membership you must belong to one (or more) of the following racial groups:

1. A group that requires food

2. A group that requires clothing

3. A group that requires shelter

About the Author:
Herbert Harris is a retired (read down-sized) IT worker who now works (literally) in his pajamas. Thanks to The Black Business Builders Club. http://www.blackbusinessbuilders.com/bbb7.htm?4414 Get your copy of the red hot "Black Folks Guide To Making Big Money On The Internet": http://profitbuildersystem.com/mybfg

Read more Articles written by Herbert Harris.

5 Reasons Why Most Internet Marketers Fail

2009-07-01T20:42:00.001-05:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Titus Hoskins

When it comes to starting any endeavor, whether it be learning a new hobby or starting an online business, we all have to start at ground zero. We all have to start at the very beginning from the very same place. Granted, we each bring different skills and backgrounds into the mix, but for the most part we are all on equal footing at the starting line.

If this is the case, then we really have to ponder why is it only a choice few go on to succeed, while most people don't. Just what are the reasons why most online marketers fail? This is the core question that has to be answered if you want to fully understand Internet marketing and how it works.

What are these basic reasons?

What are the causes or stumbling blocks that hold many marketers and webmasters from reaching their full online potential? If we know these factors, we can learn how to avoid them and even overcome them in our own online marketing. These reasons can be a solid reference point or even a source of inspiration for any online marketer just starting out.

Speaking from the viewpoint of someone who has started from the very beginning with little to no knowledge of computers or even marketing for that matter, I can honestly relate to the beginning marketer. I even had to learn HTML from scratch in order to construct my own webpages. Probably my only advantage, I did have a background in art but designing webpages was completely different from anything I had done previously to starting in online marketing.

Nor did I have any formal training in business or marketing, just an art teaching background which really doesn't help with the day to day running of an online business. I had to learn as I went; struggling with hundreds of marketing decisions before my sites became profitable. Don't get the wrong impression, I have probably made hundreds of mistakes along the way and I am still making them!

But from my own experiences I have drawn some general conclusions about Internet marketing and why some people succeed while most people fail. So here in my honest opinion, are some of the main reasons why many online marketers fail:

1. Overwhelmed With Information

Perhaps, one of the biggest obstacles I faced when I first started my website - I was bombarded with so much information on how to proceed I didn't have a clue which direction to take or who to believe. Thousands of different info products telling you to do this, not to do that... so much marketing information to absorb that you end up scratching your head and looking like someone auditioning for a zombie movie.

Completely overwhelmed with so much information, many marketers or webmasters enter a state of paralysis where nothing gets done. You go from one course to another or from one method to another, without any real understanding of how to proceed or how to get a detailed blueprint to follow.

Been there, done that!

Information overflow can effectively crush all that novice enthusiasm and literally kill even the most eager of entrepreneurs. Anyone starting out must be aware of this obvious but insidious pitfall you have to avoid at all costs. One of the best remedies, simply try concentrating on just one or two marketing plans/marketers for all your information. Try to eliminate the clutter by just working on one marketing system. Just have a few key marketing resources you go to for information, not a hundred! And do your homework, only pick marketers who can back up their claims with observable results on the web. One obvious checkmark - just see if those marketers have top rankings for their sites for popular profitable keywords associated with their sites or products.

2. Lack Of Key Marketing Basics

There are some key marketing basics or fundamentals you must learn about marketing online. Internet marketing has some key elements you must get right or you will have a difficult task in succeeding on the web. Just simple factors you must get right or it's game over before you even get started.

Most marketers fail to realize the web is "information driven" and you must supply quality information or content in order to truly succeed. You must provide a valuable service or function to your visitors. You must help solve their problem. You must give them a solid reason to use your site or product. Quality content is and always will be King on the web.

You must also understand much of the web is "keyword driven" and you must construct your webpages to take full advantage of these keywords. You must have at least a rudimentary understanding of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and how you can use it to get top rankings for your keyword phrases.

3. Lack Of Time And Resources

Another major reason why many marketers fail is because they simply can't afford the time to learn and build their online business. Most people just can't stop everything and work full time online because they have bills to pay and families to support. It may take months, probably years, before you can build up a successful online business that gives you a comfortable living. The average person just doesn't have the time or the resources to spend months learning how all this works.

Keep in mind, getting a business or website going is probably the most inexpensive way to start your own business. Domains are cheap. Web hosting is cheap. Web design is cheap if you can do it yourself... compared to starting a business in the "real" world, creating an online business will only cost a faction of the normal expenses connected with starting a business. But the main problem is having the resources to pay your living expenses until your online business is profitable. Many beginning online marketers don't have these resources and the main complaint from these marketers: "I Simply can't afford the time to work at this online stuff."

One solution is to work at your online marketing in your spare time and gradually build up your business until you can afford to do it full time. It will obviously take longer but you can still get to the same end goal.

4. Lack Of Necessary Skills

Actually, you don't need many skills to succeed online. However, one of the major skills you must have or you must learn is communication. You must learn how to communicate. The web is all about communicating your points to your visitors or viewers so you must acquire good communication skills.

It really helps your marketing if you are a good writer because you can easily get your points across with written text or copy on your site. Writing skills can be learned but many beginning marketers don't fully understand how important their writing skills will be to their success. You must be able to communicate on your site, in your newsletters, with your customers... might sound a bit obvious but you would be surprised at how many marketers lack this simple, yet necessary skill.

But don't fret, because once upon a time, the written word was king online - but not any more. Videos are rapidly taking the place of the printed word so anyone with a camera can now be a success online. Of course, you still need good communication skills even using videos, but many marketers have found this is a much easier way to communicate information about their site or product.

5. Lack Of Persistence

For me, one the most significant reasons most online marketers/webmasters fail, is because of a lack of persistence. They simply give up too soon. They try something for a few weeks, even for a few months and then they conclude this is not working and they give up.

Building a solid online business or viable website takes time, a lot of time. Just because your business is online, doesn't mean everything will fall into place overnight, it takes time to establish a customer base. It takes time to build your business relationships and partnerships with others in your field.

Sometimes, it may take years before you see some solid returns. It was three years before I saw any significant revenue coming from my online ventures, and another year before I could summon enough courage to do this online marketing full time. If I had given up and not persisted at this web stuff, I would not be writing this article right now.

Building top rankings for your keywords in the search engines (especially Google) can take months, even years before you see any results. The real key is to be persistent and keep at it, day after day, until you get those top rankings. You simply must be persistent or you will fail.

In conclusion, having said all that, you must also realize there are plenty of exceptions to all of the above. There have been countless success stories on the web where someone has come up with a novel idea or product and become successful overnight. The web can offer immediate success for some but for most of us, it will take some time and hard effort on our part to build a successful online business. Just try to avoid many of the pitfalls or reasons listed above and you will have a better chance of placing yourself in the success column.

About the Author:
The author is a full-time online marketer who has numerous websites. For the latest web marketing tools try: Marketing Tools If you liked the article above, why not try this Free 7 Day Marketing Course here: Internet Marketing Tools

Copyright (c) 2009 Titus Hoskins. http://www.bizwaremagic.com This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

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