Epreneurs - Journal of Online Business Owner

10 Ways to Keep Customers Buying

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:18:00 +0000

It's one thing to get customers to purchase your products and another to have customers continue to buy from you. This article is going share with you the top 10 ways to keep your customers coming back for more.

1. Offer a freebie with each purchase Offering something free with each purchase is a great marketing technique and customers love it. It doesn't have to be something expensive either. It could simply be a small token showing your appreciation for them being a valued patron. Depending on the product you offer it's important to keep the free item somewhat related to what you sell in general. It could also be something with your website name on it such as; a pen, small notepad, calendar, key chain, fridge magnet, etc.

2. Quality is essential Offering quality products is truly the only way to go. Regardless whether you buy products wholesale or make your own products such as crafts, it's important that they be of high quality. Offering products that are not of high quality may earn you a first sale from a customer but rarely a second. Customers will return and purchase more products from you if they can tell they are high quality items.

3. Value Quality and value go hand in hand. Every customer is looking to purchase products that are a good value to them. This doesn't mean they have to be dirt cheap by any means. But it does mean that you need to be competitive and offer them a quality product at a reasonable price. Let's say you sell e-books. An e-book of course is a product that consists of no overhead for you and can be resold an infinite number of times. So instead of pricing that e-book at $39.99, offer the e-book for $9.99. Your jaw may have dropped at this point but let me explain why. It makes much more sense to sell 50 e-books at $9.99 and be ahead with $499.50 verses selling only 3 of the same e-books for $39.99 and only being ahead with $119.97.

4. Uniqueness You probably wouldn't be too happy if you went to a trade show only to realize that half of the vendors sold the exact products you also sell. Customers feel the same way. They want something that is unique. This could simply be a variation on an existing product. For example you sell handmade pet garments. Since there are a large amount of pet garments for potential customers choose from, what is it about yours that make them unique? Perhaps you make yours with a certain type of fabric or make them in a unique style. Be creative and don't be a carbon copy of the next guy.

5. Customer testimonials If your not utilizing past customer testimonials you are really missing out on a powerful selling tool. Everyone wants to know the product they are thinking about buying is going to be a high quality product. Testimonials from past customers can ease their minds and give them that extra nudge to go from thinking about buying your product to actually buying it.

6. Money back guarantee Consider offering a money back guarantee if your customers are not satisfied with your product. Like customer testimonials, having a money back guarantee can give your potential customers confidence in the quality of your product and perhaps that little nudge they need to go ahead and purchase it. If you offer a money back guarantee and a customer is not satisfied you must be prompt and return their money.

7. Sales and time sensitive offers If you utilize a mailing list, announce to your list when you have a sale. Another thing to do is to offer a time sensitive offer. For example tell your list members that they can purchase a certain item at a discounted price until a certain date and/or time. The sense of urgency helps to create impulse buying. Or you can even offer a discount on a product to the first 10 customers that purchase it.

8. Refer a friend campaign A creative way to offer your customers an extra bonus is to set up a refer a friend campaign. You can do this by setting up an affiliate type program where each participating customer would receive an affiliate code which would have your website URL and their affiliate code at the end. Or if you prefer you could simply issue the participating customers an affiliate number. If they have a friend that purchases a product from you, they would simply input that code number into a referrer box upon checkout. The customer participating in the refer a friend campaign would receive the point for the referral. You could set it up where when they reach a certain number of points they get a certain percentage off their order. This could be graduating for example; 10 refer a friend points would equal 10% off their entire order. 20 refer a friend points would equal 20% off their entire purchase and so on.

9. Coupons with purchases When your customers order from you consider adding a coupon to their order that they can use on their next purchase. For tangible products, the coupon could be placed in the package of their order or attached to their receipt. For non-tangible products like e-goods you can set up an autoresponder that will send out an automatic email to the customer after their purchase and contain the coupon. This non-tangible coupon could be a code containing letters and numbers. They would redeem their coupons during the checkout process of their next purchase through your website.

10. Customer loyalty programs Customers love to be rewarded so why not reward them for their loyalty? This can be done by rewarding them with something extra after so many purchases they make. This can work for both tangible and non-tangible purchases. For tangible product purchases you would include the loyalty reward item in with their package. For non-tangible items it could be in the form of sending them an email offering them 20-30% off their next purchase as a part of your customer loyalty rewards program.

© 2008 Kelle Arvay is the owner of Pattern Mart with offers customers access to thousands of craft patterns that they can purchase and download instantly. In addition to running several other online businesses, she is the co-publisher of a online magazine called Creative Times. She utilizes her own advice that she has gained over the years in her businesses.
http://www.PatternMart.com
http://www.eCraftClasses.com
http://www.CreativeTimesMagazine.com

You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author byline above is included. Copy and Paste the article including authors byline to use this article.

Free Business Printable

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:12:00 +0000

Here is a free customer receipt printable that you can use in your business. It's always nice to include a receipt for the customer. Just click on the more info button below to download it.

Price: FREE!

Profiting from Printable Products

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 00:44:00 +0000

Alot of people may not realize just how much society utilizes printable products. I think printable items can be one of those products we take for granted at times. There have been many times I myself have been in need of a chart or record keeping template and have been hard pressed to find a good one among the free ones that are offered online. So I found myself creating my own. I also become interested in designing printable products for crafting.In the crafting industry printable products can take on many forms. With the computer crafting industry booming printable items are in sought out by crafters.

Products such as:

· Altered Art
· Decoupage
· Tags
· Collage
· Gift Tags
· Greeting Cards
· Book Marks
· Printables for fabric printing
· Scrapbook templates and elements
· Templates for gift boxes, envelopes, and various paper crafts.

Just to name a few. Besides the crafting industry there is also a market for other types of printables like business related products such as:

· Charts
· Templates
· Calendars
· Stationery
· Thank you notes
· Organizational printables
· Supply list templates
· Contact list templates

There is also a growing need for home schooling printable products as well as those geared towards children in general in the form of color pages, skill building products and many more. With a market only limited by ones imagination it's easy to see that profits could be achieved from designing and offering printable products.

Some of the benefits of offering printables are:

· The ideas can be limitless and the only limit is your own imagination.
· Once created they can be sold over and over, thus creating a product that has endless resell value.
· There is a growing need for a variety of printable products.
· Printable product sales can be automated on the internet by memberships to such sites as www.InstantPrintables.com
· Automated sales of printable products create less work for the designer.

The price of printable products can vary depending on the printable itself. If it’s a simple business template or single printable image, the price may be between $2-$3 dollars. More complex products such as a pre-made scrapbook page may cost anywhere from $10-$15 dollars. The great thing about designing printable product though is once you have a product designed and ready for sale, the work is done and the product can be resold repeatedly.

So if you have always wanted to expand your current business by designing printables or start a new business now is the time!

© 2007 Kelle Arvay is the owner of Instant Printables which offers customers access to downloadable craft printables. In addition, she is also the owner of eCraft Classes which is a site dedicated to all types of online craft classes. Kelle has been working with customers for over 6 years.

http://www.InstantPrintables
http://www.eCraftClasses.com

You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author byline above is included. Copy and Paste the article including authors byline to use this article.

How to Avoid Business Burn Out

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Wed, 09 May 2007 22:50:00 +0000

At some point or another, anyone who owns their own business will face some degree of burn out. Instead of learning to cope with such burn out it is better to learn how to avoid it in the first place. Below are several ways you can avoid business burn out.

1. Organization
Staying organized is one of the first steps in avoiding burn out. Utilize all the resources at your disposal such as filing systems for tax information, payables, receivables, advertising, marketing, etc. This will help you keep your paperwork in order and easily accessible.Additionally, make sure you have a work place that is also organized. This could be your home office, studio or any other type of work place depending on the type of business you have. Making sure everything is organized and can be easily located will help you tremendously.

2. Time Management
Time management is probably the biggest challenge for most people. When you work from home it can be especially easy to get distracted from your work. While working from home allows you a lot of flexibility which is a good thing, it can also present challenges in regards to remaining focused. To help you, consider setting up a daily schedule for your self. Utilize calendars and tasks list to keep yourself on track. At the beginning of each week write out what you need to accomplish for the week. Keep the list handy in case you need to add to it throughout the week. It is also important to allow for those unexpected interruptions such as last minute doctors appointments or a trip to the office supply store. Additionally, consider setting up your weekly schedule based on what tasks you need to do on particular days. For example, Tuesdays may be a day you set aside as a marketing day. Every Tuesday your focus should be on tasks that have to do with marketing your business.

3. Hire Help
If you find that you are overwhelmed most of the time or getting close to being overwhelmed, it may be time to hire some help. Help can come in the form of a virtual assistant, marketing manager, mailing list manager or simply from setting up a auto responder. Anytime you can automate certain tasks, the better. But for those times you can’t, consider hiring someone to do those tasks for you. You may find that even the small, menial tasks like sending out an email to your mailing list, is a task that you could hire someone else to do. Even all the small tasks that seem relatively simple add up and before you know it, you are spending a great deal of time on these things.

4. Joint Ventures and Partnerships
If you have a large project or new business idea, consider looking into establishing a joint venture with another business owner in a similar niche. The benefits of sharing the work load can be enormous. Also consider partnerships with other similar businesses in the areas of cross promotion and marketing. This could be in the form of exchanging web site links, mailing list advertising or other types of partnerships where the results benefit both of you.

5. Work Ahead
It is so much better to be ahead then to be behind. The pressure you begin to feel when due dates for finished work is upon you can be stress inducers. Avoid this by working ahead if you can. One example of work that can be completed in advance is article writing. When you have completed your daily tasks, consider taking a few moments to work on an article your writing. Another one would be blog posts. The nice thing about blogs is you can write a post in advance and save it for later. This is very true for several of the blog programs out there today. If you host your own blog, you can always save the post as a word document and post it later when your ready. Think of some of the other things you could work on in advance.

6. Take a Break.
One of the best things you can do to avoid burn out, is to take breaks. Don’t wait until your in desperate need of one either. Take breaks regularly. Each day you should take breaks throughout the day. Also you need to set aside breaks that consist of either an actual planned vacation, day trip or a certain day of the week that you set aside for some needed “me” time. During this time, work is not allowed. I know it can be difficult but you have to learn to allow yourself to take these breaks. You will find you are better focused and refreshed when you do return to your work.

© 2007 Kelle Arvay is the owner of Pattern Mart with offers customers access to thousands of craft patterns that they can purchase and download instantly. In addition to running several other online businesses, she is the co-publisher of a online magazine called Creative Times. She utilizes her own advice that she has gained over the years in her businesses.

http://www.PatternMart.com
http://www.eCraftClasses.com
http://www.CreativeTimesMagazine.com

You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author byline above is included. Copy and Paste the article including authors byline to use this article.

5 Reasons To Offer Online Classes

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:11:00 +0000

If you have a online business there may be plenty of opportunities for you to teach others what you know. Online classes can create a huge wave of free marketing for you as well. Take a good look at your business and the niche your in to see if you could benefit from offering classes to others. If your business deals strictly with retail items that you purchase wholesale there likely isn't much need to teach a specific type of class unless it's teaching others how to break into the wholesale business. Explore the idea of offering online classes. You may be suprised to find an abundance of things you can teach others, others that are hungry to learn!

Let me share several reasons why you should consider offering classes.

1. The Demand and Need.
There are many reasons why you should offer classes. The main one would be because there need which you can fill and profit from at the same time. As the Internet continues to grow and more people seek resources, online classes become a natural learning option. Many individuals may find it more difficult to attend a live, in person type of class locally, so taking a class online in the comfort of their own home is a very appealing option.

2. Benefits the Visual Learner.
There are many people in the world that are better visual learners. This means they learn easier by “seeing” than reading instructions alone. Those that struggle with written instructions such as tutorials or eBooks, will benefit greatly from being able to see the steps and read the instructions. This doesn’t mean you have to do away with creating tutorials or eBooks, it just means you could reach a even wider audience by also offering online classes.

3. The Ease of Creating a Class.
Let's say for example your a crafter. You are already creating your finished pieces so creating a class would be one additional step. Creating a class is very easy and simply involves using your digital camera to take step by step photos as you create the item. Since you will be creating a finished item anyway, it makes sense to take the small extra step to take photos as you go along. The other thing you will need to do is type out corresponding instructions that go with each step photograph. Finally, if you plan on offering a pattern template to go with the class, you’ll want to create the PDF for that. Or you can offer the full version of the pattern along with the class. Once your class is ready you would simply upload it to a craft class site. Regardless if you are a crafter or your business niche is something completely different, you likely can create a class for what you specialize in.

4. An Ongoing Revenue Source.
The work involved in creating an online class involves setting it up. Once you take step by step photos, typing out the step by step instructions and make a PDF template (optional), and upload it, your work is done. The class can now produce ongoing revenue for you from new customers purchasing it. If your classes cost $10 for example and over the course of 3 months you sell 60 classes. That is an extra $200 per month in revenue with no additional work involved on your part. Of course this example can vary tremendously based on the number of classes you have available and the actual number of classes you sell each month. It’s very possible to do much better than the example!

5. Additional Business Marketing.
Offering classes can create a great stream of hidden marketing for your business. When people take your class and enjoy it, they are likely to tell other people about it, either directly or indirectly. Directly would be that they seek to tell others. Perhaps they may post about your class on their blog or rave about it on their newsletter. Telling people about it indirectly would be if someone on a forum inquired about learning something and they tell them about your class. Offering free classes from time to time is also a great way to gain some additional marketing for your business. Customers will enjoy the class and be more likely to share the free resource of your class with others. The additional traffic of customers taking your free class can result in those customers also purchasing one of your other classes.

© 2007 Kelle Arvay. Kelle Arvay is the owner of Pattern Mart with offers customers access to thousands of craft patterns that they can purchase and download instantly. In addition, she is also the owner of eCraft Classes which is a site dedicated to all types of online craft classes. In addition she is the co-founder and co-publisher of Creative Times, a downloadable bi-monthly craft magazine. Kelle has been working with customers for over 6 years.

http://www.patternmart.com/
http://www.eCraftClasses.com

You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author byline above is included. Copy and Paste the article including authors byline to use this article.

Your Friend and Fellow E-preneur,
Kelle Arvay

New Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Tue, 01 May 2007 02:03:00 +0000

We have been working hard on our newest project, eCraft Classes.

http://www.ecraftclasses.com/ is pleased to announce of the launch of the new interactive website dedicated to online craft classes.

The classes are in a very easy format which make learning easy and fun. Each class has step by step photos and instructions. Many also include the pattern template for you to download. You can also contact the teacher if you have questions right from within the class.

If you've always wanted to create your own online craft classes your in for a treat. With eCraft Classes easy interface you can have your class uploaded in no time. You can also use the link codes provided for each of your classes, to place your class information on your own website, blog, email, newsletter and even a forum just like the one below. It doesn't get much easier than that!

Free Simple Pinwheel
Class Code: #10042
Make paper or fabric pinwheels
Price: FREE!

For more details visit http://www.ecraftclasses.com/ While your there be sure and check out the free class to get an idea of the layout of the classes and how easy they are to attend.

Be Flexible When Implementing New Things

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:37:00 +0000

In your business, your always going to try new things because if your not then likely your not growing. But it's important to remember that not everything you try will work or be beneficial to your business.

These new things can be small changes or even large ones and some will be successful and some won't. The important thing is to research as much as you before implementing them. Sometimes the idea on paper will work, but once implemented live will prove it needs more tweaking.

Recently, I decided to implement automating the way new items are added to our weekly newsletter that I send out to subscribers. Since I have a large membership base on one of my business sites, I thought it may be beneficial not only to my clients but for me to automate the way their new items are listed on the newsletter. This way avoiding the extra work of them sending me weekly e-mails with their new items each week. Instead the system would search for all the new items added to our site within the last 7 days and add them automatically. By concept this would be a nice little time saver for everyone.

This past Monday was the first test we did in trying out this new beta system. It didn't go off without any hitches unfortunately. But that's ok. It's new and I anticipated I would have to tweak it a time or two before getting it just right. Thankfully, I have understanding clients who trust my judgement and they know I will always do my best to make sure all of their new items get featured even if it means I add them manually again. That's what I mean by remaining flexible when implementing new things. In my particular situation, it could very well turn out that this new automation may not work to suite everyone's needs.

I remain flexible however and will see how it goes over the next newsletter mailing and if it proves it just won't do the job I need it to do efficiently, I'll go back to doing it manually.

Don't be afraid to try new things though. If you have clients like I do, they expect you to continue to improve the services you provide them and likely they will be patient while you try things to do just that. Every improvement you make to your service is beneficial to them as well.

Just remember that in the end, if something does not work to be flexible and be content with the fact that you may have to go back to what was working.

Your Friend and Fellow E-preneur,

Kelle Arvay

Miracle Money

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 19:07:00 +0000

I wanted to share with you a post that I did on one of my other blogs as I feel this could be helpful for any type of business.

The term "Miracle Money" is one I coined for any money I receive that I wasn't counting on, thus making it miracle money. I consider it a unexpected blessing from God. So what does miracle money have to do with being an artist or crafting? Well, I'm sure many of you that are reading my blog may craft as a business. It could be that you are a single parent and crafting is your livelihood. Or maybe you sell your crafts in order to supplement your families income.

Either way, this is where the topic of miracle money comes in. This isn't meant to offend anyone, but I speak from my heart and my faith is part of that. Plus I think this information can be beneficial to all crafters, regardless of their faith.

I know all of us have goals for ourselves. Either on a personal level or business level. We all want to see ourselves in a position of financial security for the future. The first step I believe in doing this is trusting in God. God never gives us more than we can handle and he wants to see us financially secure. That security lies within him.

"Consider the crows. They don't plant or harvest. They don't even have a storeroom or a barn. Yet, God feeds them. You are worth much more than birds." -- Luke 12:24

I've shared with you what my definition of miracle money is, now just what do I consider the form of miracle money to come in? For each of us this will be different. It could be a unexpected check in the mail, a gift from someone, a surprise savings you received on a product you bought at a store, etc. It can really vary. Any miracle money we receive serves two purposes. The first is to give back to God in the form of tithes, sponsoring through programs like http://www.teenchallenge.com/ , and putting the remaining money into savings for the purpose of financing the children's future college expenses, retirement, etc.

My husband and I also started savings account at the beginning of 2007. We sort of made a game out of it and we decided who ever had the most in their savings account by the end of the year gets a dinner and a movie. But truly, the reward is that each of us (with Gods help) will be reaching our goals of saving for the future. Also that night out will be a blessing as we'll be able to spend precious time with one another.

There is a wonderful christian based program that I feel so blessed to have found out about and it's called Crown Financial. I listen to their radio program almost daily and they offer so much sound christian based advice on their program called money matters. They also have a "money map" that you can get that teaches you the steps of obtaining financial freedom from debts, such as mortgages, car payments, student loans, and more. I highly recommend the resources they offer.

As christian artist and crafters (or business owners), it's really important to have a good solid foundation for the financial side of it based on biblical principles as our guide.

Your Friend and Fellow E-preneur,

Kelle Arvay

10 Ways to Keep Customers Buying

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 16:38:00 +0000

It's one thing to get customers to purchase your products and another to have customers continue to buy from you. This article is going share with you the top 10 ways to keep your customers coming back for more.

1. Offer a freebie with each purchase.
Offering something free with each purchase is a great marketing technique and customers love it. It doesn't have to be something expensive either. It could simply be a small token showing your appreciation for them being a valued patron. Depending on the product you offer it's important to keep the free item somewhat related to what you sell in general. It could also be something with your website name on it such as; a pen, small notepad, calendar, key chain, fridge magnet, etc.

2. Quality is essential.
Offering quality products is truly the only way to go. Regardless whether you buy products wholesale or make your own products such as crafts, it's important that they be of high quality. Offering products that are not of high quality may earn you a first sale from a customer but rarely a second. Customers will return and purchase more products from you if they can tell they are high quality items.

3. Value Quality and value go hand in hand.
Every customer is looking to purchase products that are a good value to them. This doesn't mean they have to be dirt cheap by any means. But it does mean that you need to be competitive and offer them a quality product at a reasonable price. Let's say you sell e-books. An e-book of course is a product that consists of no overhead for you and can be resold an infinite number of times. So instead of pricing that e-book at $39.99, offer the e-book for $9.99. Your jaw may have dropped at this point but let me explain why. It makes much more sense to sell 50 e-books at $9.99 and be ahead with $499.50 verses selling only 3 of the same e-books for $39.99 and only being ahead with $119.97.4. Uniqueness You probably wouldn't be too happy if you went to a trade show only to realize that half of the vendors sold the exact products you also sell. Customers feel the same way. They want something that is unique. This could simply be a variation on an existing product. For example you sell handmade pet garments. Since there are a large amount of pet garments for potential customers choose from, what is it about yours that make them unique? Perhaps you make yours with a certain type of fabric or make them in a unique style. Be creative and don't be a carbon copy of the next guy.

5. Customer testimonials.
If your not utilizing past customer testimonials you are really missing out on a powerful selling tool. Everyone wants to know the product they are thinking about buying is going to be a high quality product. Testimonials from past customers can ease their minds and give them that extra nudge to go from thinking about buying your product to actually buying it.

6. Money back guarantee.
Consider offering a money back guarantee if your customers are not satisfied with your product. Like customer testimonials, having a money back guarantee can give your potential customers confidence in the quality of your product and perhaps that little nudge they need to go ahead and purchase it. If you offer a money back guarantee and a customer is not satisfied you must be prompt and return their money.

7. Sales and time sensitive offers.
If you utilize a mailing list, announce to your list when you have a sale. Another thing to do is to offer a time sensitive offer. For example tell your list members that they can purchase a certain item at a discounted price until a certain date and/or time. The sense of urgency helps to create impulse buying. Or you can even offer a discount on a product to the first 10 customers that purchase it.

8. Refer a friend campaign.
A creative way to offer your customers an extra bonus is to set up a refer a friend campaign. You can do this by setting up an affiliate type program where each participating customer would receive an affiliate code which would have your website URL and their affiliate code at the end. Or if you prefer you could simply issue the participating customers an affiliate number. If they have a friend that purchases a product from you, they would simply input that code number into a referrer box upon checkout. The customer participating in the refer a friend campaign would receive the point for the referral. You could set it up where when they reach a certain number of points they get a certain percentage off their order. This could be graduating for example; 10 refer a friend points would equal 10% off their entire order. 20 refer a friend points would equal 20% off their entire purchase and so on.

9. Coupons with purchases.
When your customers order from you consider adding a coupon to their order that they can use on their next purchase. For tangible products, the coupon could be placed in the package of their order or attached to their receipt. For non-tangible products like e-goods you can set up an autoresponder that will send out an automatic email to the customer after their purchase and contain the coupon. This non-tangible coupon could be a code containing letters and numbers. They would redeem their coupons during the checkout process of their next purchase through your website.

10. Customer loyalty programs.
Customers love to be rewarded so why not reward them for their loyalty? This can be done by rewarding them with something extra after so many purchases they make. This can work for both tangible and non-tangible purchases. For tangible product purchases you would include the loyalty reward item in with their package. For non-tangible items it could be in the form of sending them an email offering them 20-30% off their next purchase as a part of your customer loyalty rewards program.

© 2007 Kelle Arvay. Kelle Arvay is an artist, writer and business owner. She has developed several of her own marketing techniques and strives to provide the best services possible to her clients. Additionally she is the founder and Co-publisher of a online craft magazine.

Resourceswww.PatternMart.com - Thousands of downloadable craft patterns.www.CreativeTimesMagazine.com - Free bi-monthly craft magazine.

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You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook or on your web site, free of charge, as long as you include the author byline and resource links above. Copy and Paste the article including authors byline to use this article.

Your Friend and Fellow E-preneur,

Kelle Arvay

How to Deliver the Best Customer Service

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 16:28:00 +0000

It seems in this day and age of exploding online business start ups on the Internet, a lot of effort goes into creating the perfect online presence. Including website design, SEO optimizing, marketing and promoting. But so often, one of the biggest things that can make or break your business is having great customer service. Sure you can have a fantastic website, great products and mass marketing campaigns going on. But if your customers feel your customer service is awful then your business will surely suffer for it.

You have to look at it this way. If you walked into a store you would surely expect the owner or sales person to be courteous and helpful right? Well, so do your customers online. When I say "customers", I'm also referring to businesses that offer intangible services and have clients also. Without customers and clients where would your business be? They are your greatest asset and you should treat them as such. So now that we've established why customer service is so important, what are the techniques for implementing the greatest customer service possible?

Let me offer you an outline to help the bigger picture come together for you.

1. The Golden Rule Method.
We all need to remember the golden rule of "Treat others as you would want to be treated". This definitely applies when it comes to customer service. Give your customers the same treatment and attention that you would expect from a business. A good business that is.

2. The Customer Is Always Right.
NEVER argue with a customer or client, even if they are wrong. Instead respond to their question or complaint in a polite and non-threatening manner. Do your best to explain yourself and offer answers to whatever issue they are having. For example if a customer purchases a product from your website and complains that they thought it would be bigger and are not happy with it. The best thing to do is to in this case would be to respond and tell them that you are sorry they are not happy with the item and offer A). They can return the item for a refund or B). Depending on your policies, offer them a website credit. Both examples of course are based on whatever policies you have in place. If you have a policy that says no refunds or exchanges. Instead, offer them an online voucher of so much off their next purchase if that is all you can give. But don't not do something for this customer or you might as well wave good-bye to them for any possibility that they will order from you again. Not only that but you probably won't gain any of their friends or family as customers either. Of course there are customers out there that can be dishonest and take advantage of situations so you have to use your judgment per individual situations. But for the most part it's always wise to err on the side that the customer is always right and offer what you can to rectify the situation in hopes that they will continue to purchase from you and tell others what a great company your company is.

3. Remember it's email.
While email is a great communication tool, it doesn't have the ability to convey verbal expression. Unlike communicating on the phone where people can hear the expression in your voice. So always be aware of this when sending your responses to your customers and try to write them in such a way that expresses their importance to you and your concern for whatever issue they have.

4. Be Accessible.
There's nothing worse than feeling like the customer service of a business is not very accessible. Always have an area on your website for customer service inquiries. Don't let your customers feel like they can't come ask you a question at anytime. A good idea is to add at the end of your response to your customers something like "If I can answer any more questions or assist you in any way, please don't hesitate to contact me again". This will let them know that they can come ask you anything, anytime. Some customers and clients can tend to not want to "bother" you. But you want them to know they are not bothering you with questions, concerns or comments they may have. Being accessible not only keeps the communication lines open but it builds that so important trust you want your customers and clients to have for you and your company.

5. Don't Make Them Wait.
No one likes to wait for a response from a business. I'm sure many of you have sat on hold while calling a company and it feels like forever. Customers get frustrated with this. Unless your company has a huge customer service response team it may be unrealistic for you to respond to customer service inquiries immediately. But you can at least let them know that you received their customer service inquiry by implementing an autoresponder through your email client. This would be a email they would receive right after contacting customer service telling them that you have received their email, letting them know how important they are to you and giving them a time line as to when they can expect a response from you. For example a autoresponse email might say "Thank you for contacting "Your Company Name Here". Your inquiry is very important to us and we wanted to let you know that we will respond to your inquiry promptly within the next 24 hours. Thank you and we look forward to speaking with you shortly." -Signed by Your name and Your Company.

6. Follow Up.
A nice customer service touch is to follow up with the customer. Say for example you have a customer that has a problem ordering or issue from a client that subscribes to your service. A simple email a day or so later asking them if they've experienced any further difficulty will be very appreciated and allow for an open door that you initiated in case they indeed are having more difficulties. Don't overdue it of course. Just the one follow up is sufficient. Some customers/clients may not respond and that's ok as no response usually means all is well. I hope the previous has been helpful and you all will go out now and perfect your customer service.

Remember customer service is one of the most important aspects of your business. It is one of the big reasons that your customers will keep coming back to your company.

© 2007 Kelle Arvay. Kelle Arvay is an artist, writer and business owner. She has developed several of her own marketing techniques and strives to provide the best services possible to her clients. Additionally she is the founder and Co-publisher of a online craft magazine.

Resources
www.PatternMart.com - Thousands of downloadable craft patterns.
www.CreativeTimesMagazine.com - Free bi-monthly craft magazine.

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You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook or on your web site, free of charge, as long as you include the author byline and resource links above. Copy and Paste the article including authors byline to use this article.

Your Friend and Fellow E-preneur,

Kelle Arvay

Get Writing!

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 19:59:00 +0000

Did you know that writing articles can help your business? If your a expert (or just knowledgeable) in a certain area, why not write about it and help your business at the same time.

Article writing can be a powerful tool for not only branding your expertise in a certain area but it also helps get your business name out there. For example let's say you are a master gardener and have a lot of experience in various types of plants, flowers and gardening in general. You also have a web site that sells seeds and other types of gardening items. You can use that knowledge you have to write short articles on gardening and submit them to article directories.

Whenever you write an article you will always want to include a byline with your author information and a link to your web site. Never include your web site URL within the body of the article. If you do, it will likely be rejected by the article directory. Not only that but it's a turn off to read and article that reads more like an advertisement.

The purpose of writing articles is to have those seeking information read your article, and it gives you the opportunity of having other web publishers place the article on their web site, blog, etc.

There's always a shortage of good quality "content" out there. Content is very important for web publishers. Good content not only keeps their customers interested, it can also help boost their search engine rankings. So a well written article on a topic that coincides with what their web site is about is a valuable resource to web site publishers. This is also true for those that blog. Many business blogs rely heavily on other people to provide the content of their blog. This comes in the form of articles, either freely given or through private label rights articles.

Even if you feel your not the best writer, that's OK. The more you write the better at it you will become. Just remain focused on the topic in which your writing about and use your knowledge on that topic as your guide.

Here are a few places you can submit your articles to if they are related to crafting or craft business related. You can also utilize the articles at either of these places to use on your own site and/or blog. Just be sure and include the authors information and byline.

http://www.patternmart.com/articles.php

http://www.instantprintables.com/articles.php

If your looking for other types of article submission places simply do a search online and you'll find a lot of choices.

Now quit reading and start writing *wink*

Your Friend and Fellow E-preneur,

Kelle Arvay

The Benefits Of Creating Promotional Partnerships

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 14:32:00 +0000

Promotional partnerships can be very powerful tools in the world of online business. When you partner with other businesses with similar target markets you essentially are expanding your potential customer base and reach.

It's important to be selective when establishing such partnerships. Be sure the partnership will be beneficial to both of you. For example, if your business sells crafts and you partner with a business that sells automotive parts, there is no benefit in that because the target audiences are so different. People looking for automotive parts are not likely to be interested in the crafts you offer. So use good business sense when seeking out or accepting partnership offers from other businesses.

Promotional partnerships can come in several forms. This could be simply exchanging web site links with one another. But more often the partnership will involve a little more than just a link exchange. Many partnerships will involve the following:

1. Prominent link exchange
2. Visible banner placement
3. Newsletter advertising exchange
4. Special product announcements or significant partner news

It's important to seek out partnerships with businesses that are established and that already have a good customer base. This could be based on the amount of traffic their web site is receiving or the number of opt in subscribers to their mailing list. It won't do your business a huge amount of good if you partner with a business that had been online for a couple years but has very little traffic or subscribers. So keep that in mind.

I'll share ways on just how to go about finding such partnerships with you in the near future.

Your Friend and Fellow E-preneur,

Kelle Arvay

Jack Of All Trades...Master Of None?

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 22:52:00 +0000

Do you ever feel that you have to have a hand in several business markets to succeed? You know, put your eggs in several baskets instead of one?

Well, if this is you let me tell you that you may be doing your business a disfavor. While it is important to not put all of your eggs in one basket, it's more important to make sure those eggs are in baskets with focused markets.

While many people are multi-talented and may have an expertise in more than one niche market, many times their efforts are rewarded much more if they focus those talents on just one or two niche markets.

Even those individuals that are master jugglers and can bounce from one market to the next, will likely eventually find that they become less focused, more scattered in their thought processes and in the end their business suffers.

Let's pretend for a moment that your a Internet marketer. That is your main niche, what your great at and something you enjoy doing. Your Internet marketing business is going along great. But soon you find that you want to also try selling items on eBay. So you start attending local estate auctions and listing goods on eBay. Next, you find that there is profit in creating e-books for homeschooling parents, so you start a site geared towards that.

The result of the above example is that now your suddenly juggling three completely different markets. Internet Marketing, a eBay business and a Homeschooling e-book business. That's a lot of different focuses! I think I'd even find it hard to switch gears numerous times a day having such a variety of businesses.

Instead of the above scenario it's better to stick with one market and expand on that. For example, let's go back and pretend again that your a Internet marketer and want to expand your business. Several ways you could do this and still keep your business focused would be to create and sell e-books on the topic, create a Internet marketing membership web site, offer consulting to other businesses. Additionally, if you wanted to stay within your market but reach a broader audience, perhaps you could expand by reaching out to wahm (work at home moms) that may need the information and guidance your Internet marketing business offers.

Do you see what I mean? There are ways to expand your business without going outside your market focus. Take some time and brainstorm on this and I bet you'll come up with some ways you can expand your business and yet stay within your focus market.

At the end of the day you'll find that it's better to be a master of one rather than a jack of all.

Your Friend and Fellow E-preneur,

Kelle Arvay

Free Weekly Task List

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 15:26:00 +0000

I'd thought I'd share with you all a simple, yet great tool to keep you on track. It's a weekly task list template. I rely heavily on these and it really keeps my business as well as personal tasks on track.

So download it for free and if you can get into the habit of writing down the task you need to accomplish each week I think you'll find that everything will run much smoother for you and your business.

Just click the download button below to save the PDF. Then print as many as you need. This is copyrighted so it can't be sold in any form. But feel free to share my blog link with anyone who would like to also download it.

Your Friend and Fellow E-preneur,

Kelle Arvay

How Do You Come Up With Ideas?

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 18:27:00 +0000

Have you ever laid in bed at night and all of the sudden an idea hits you and you hop out of bed, grab your pen and paper and jot it down? That happens to me at times and if it happens to you I definitely recommend keeping a pad and paper on your night stand. While were at it, it's also a good idea to keep one in your car, in your purse and anywhere else these ideas may hit you. Especially since they can come at anytime.

Another way to come up with ideas other than them just popping in your head at any given moment would be to brainstorm. Now when I brain storm it usually leads to more than just a nice southern breeze. More often than not it turns into a major event. I find those little national guard guys are quickly called up and running around my brain trying to keep order.

I find to avoid chaos when brainstorming or when an idea hits me, is to write everything down. Simply jotting down ideas and thoughts can present you with a starting map to keep your idea on track. Otherwise it's easy for the "storm" to get out of control and leave you feeling mentally tired and truly unfocused. If that happens you may find you lose the foundation of the initial idea altogether and you don't want that.

A few questions to ask yourself as your jotting down your thoughts and ideas is:

- What is the purpose?
- Who will it benefit?
- Is there a market?
- Is it easy enough to implement?
- Is there any costs involved?
- What type of timeframe will I be working with?
- What is the end result I am after?

Keep those ideas coming and with a bit of focus you can turn those brain storms into great business successes!

Your Friend and E-preneur,

Kelle Arvay

Don't Like Monday's?

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 17:39:00 +0000

Ahhh, Monday's. Don't you just love Monday's? I hear some grumbling out there. Now wait, Monday's can be actually the best day of the week!

No, I'm not delusional and no I didn't have too much caffeine this morning. The fact of the matter is that Monday's, while probably the busiest day of the week for me, actually gets my business engine warmed up. In that I mean that diving into work on Monday sets the precedence for the rest of the week and I find that I'm more productive for the rest of the week. I also find that tackling some of the "must do" things on Monday opens up the rest of the week to tackle projects I'm working on. Besides, getting those Monday tasks done gives me a sense of accomplishment and that's always a good feeling. Wouldn't you agree?

Over the last year I've really found that I've established a good routine when it comes to work tasks. If you feel like your all over the map, try setting certain days for certain tasks and you'll find you'll be more productive, more organized and not feel as scattered.

Have a positive outlook on Monday morning and the rest of your week will follow in a positive manner.

Your Friend and Fellow E-preneur,

Kelle Arvay

SEO, Links and More

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 00:22:00 +0000

Ok, so you find yourself completely lost when it comes to SEO? Maybe your wondering what the heck is SEO anyway? SEO stands for search engine optimization. It's something you should get familiar with if your not already.

When you start a online business, it's important for people to be able to find you. Visualize a needle in a haystack and that is what a new business is like when it is not listed in search engines. Granted, if you have a few links from other sites to your site you may get some hits from those links but you'd really be missing a lot more traffic and possibly sales if you aren't listed in the search engines.

So just how do you get your site listed in search engines? Well, the answer isn't a real simple one. It's a matter of good site content, meta tags, key words, patience and with some search engines and directories, a little luck never hurts.

Instead of me giving you step by step instructions (as what works for one site may not be the best options for another) I'm going to give you some things to research and learn. Go to www.google.com and type in the following subjects. With the results you'll undoubtably find some good reading on just how to get your web site search engine ready and ways to submit your site.

1. Meta Tags
2. Key Words
3. Search Engine Submission
4. SEO
5. How to get my web site listed in search engines
6. Incoming and one way links

Try those and see what you come up with. Watch out for information overload. It's better to take baby steps and concentrate on one of those above terms and once you fully understand it, move on to the next one.

Happy SEO'ing!

Your Friend and Fellow E-preneur,

Kelle Arvay

The feeling of accomplishment

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 00:43:00 +0000

I must say I am quite proud of myself today. Now, I don't want that to come across like I'm patting myself on the back too much, but I did accomplish a lot today.

It's amazing how if you create a list on paper and just start doing the tasks one by one, just how much you can get done. That's what happened today. Let's see...let me share with you some of what I accomplished today.

Got code to my site for Google sitemaps.
Set up and launched a Adwords campaign.
Contacted several other publishers regarding promotion possibilities.
Added buttons from paid advertisers.
Reconciled my books (this is a big one!).
Submitted a new article to a article directory.
Worked on new writing project.
Set up a new group message board at: http://www.cafemom.com/group/craftingforprofit
Did some marketing research.

While that may not sound like a whole lot, it is a good chunk when you work from home and your children have a 3 hour delay from school today. So I'm pleased with all I accomplished and think I deserve to treat myself. So I'm off to go have a couple chocolate chip cookies and milk (and I'm not even going think about how many calories it is (: )

Here's to being productive!

Your Friend and Fellow E-preneur,

Kelle Arvay

Have you created a Squidoo lens yet?

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 15:05:00 +0000

You might be thinking, what in the world is Squidoo? Maybe you have never heard of it, let alone know how to pronounce it. Well, Squidoo is best discribed as a free site where you can create a part blog, part revenue generating, part....well, it's like a web 2.0 all-in-one site really.

On Squidoo you can create what is called lenses. A lense is a page that you add various content to such as links, posts (like blog posts), product recommendations (you get paid a percentage of the purchases), videos, etc. It's actually quite neat overall.

While your not going to pay your mortgage using Squidoo, it certainly is a place where you can continue to promote your business and get the word out. Best of all, it's free!

So check it out if you haven't already and see how quickly you can build a lens, or many lenses on various topics if you like. Visit Squidoo to get started.

If you'd like to peek at my lenses you can see them here:
http://www.squidoo.com/ecrafterarticles/
http://www.squidoo.com/craftersguide/

Your Friend and Fellow Epreneur,

Kelle Arvay

Do you use Affiliate Marketing?

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:33:00 +0000

Affiliate marketing is a great concept two fold really. For those of you that create your own products such as software, eBooks, PLR (Private Label Rights), or other types of e-products, affiliate marketing is something you should be looking into.

Basically from the perspective of the product creator, affiliates can immensely help them in generating new leads and sales. A task in itself that can be daunting for just one person. But imagine if you had several dozen people or more promoting your product either to their mailing list or on their web site. What a bonus that would be for you in helping to offset the work in promoting the product by yourself. More leads usually equals more sales and thus, more revenue for you.

The benefit to the affiliate that promotes other people's products is the income they can generate by promoting someone else's product. They can do this without the work involved of actually creating the product, building a web site to showcase the product or the major marketing involved like SEO. It can be as simple as signing up for a affiliate program and placing your affiliate link in your newsletter and/or web site.

I know quite a few people that are affiliate marketers. They never create their own products, but in fact their entire business is based on promoting the products of others. This is how they generate their income. For each product they sell they receive a percentage of that sale. The percentage can vary from product to product but most of them range in the 20%-50% range.

If you have an established business you may consider promoting affiliate products that are within your niche and items you believe your customers would be interested in. For example, if you own a boating supply business you could promote affiliate products such as a eBook on the best boating vacation spots. The most important thing to remember before you begin promoting the products of others is to make sure they are quality products. Don't even bother with the ones that are full of hype. This will only irritate your customers and honestly do you want to be associated with products like that? Of course not!For the affiliate marketer, offering quality products that are of interest to their current customers can be a very lucrative way to generate another revenue stream.

Your Fellow Epreneur,

Kelle Arvay

Teaching Opportunity

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 18:22:00 +0000

I was recently approached by a non-profit group locally to teach a class to low income woman on how to start their own internet business. The group provides computer access to the woman and some start up resources.

What an honor! While I haven't accepted the position I'm definitely intrigued and very humbled by this opportunity to reach out and help others in my community.

I truly believe that anyone, regardless of their income or status in their community can start their own business online and be successful at it. Many of these woman have some computer skills but they lack guidance and direction on just how to go about starting their own business.

The goal would be to give them the skills and help them determine what their niche is. Many of these women come from extremely poor circumstances. Something that I can relate to on a very personal level. As I too have walked in their shoes and there was a time in my life when I wasn't sure how I would pay my bills or if we would have enough food. However, the experience of that was a huge blessing for me and I will always remain humble because of it.

The more information I find out about this teaching opportunity the more I feel a strong pull to offer whatever guidance I can. While I don't view myself as expert nor a success story. I do know that any of these women are capable of finding their own success. All they need a little guidance. Can you imagine what having their own business could do for these women? Not only would it give them a sense of pride but it would offer them a way to gain their own independance.

What about you? Do you know someone in your life that you could help? Maybe you know someone that has a skill but just doesn't know how to turn that skill into a business? Are there things you have learned that you could share with others?

If you have blessed with any form of success in your business, wouldn't it be wonderful to "give back"? That is what I hope to do and hopefully along the way I can help someone.

Your Friend and Fellow Epreneur,

Kelle Arvay

How you can offset your hosting costs

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 23:54:00 +0000

Depending on the type of hosting your business requires will depend on what your paying in monthly or yearly fees. My businesses require a private server and unlimited bandwidth, which doesn't come cheaply. However, quality and reliability are the number one priority for me. So I'm willing to pay more for that.

However, if your finding that your hosting fees are sucking the economic life right out of your business, there is a couple things you can do depending on the type of business you run and the actual makeup of your website.

One would be to offset or completely pay for your hosting fees by integrating Adsense on your sites. If you go this route keep in mind the visual effect Adsense can have on your web site and how your visitors and customers will view the advertisements.

As long as you integrate the Adsense ads in a way that is not deceptive in order to get visitors to click on them unknowingly and as long as they visually fit into your site template well, this option can work well. Which can generate enough income to pay for your hosting completely and then some or at least help offset the cost of your hosting.

Another option is if your site is highly ranked in search engine results and/or you have a large mailing list subscriber base. You can consider offering advertising on your site to related business sites or advertising on your mailing list.

With either of these just remember that your customers, visitors and mailing list subscribers are your businesses life blood. Do not accept just any advertising. Because you want to be very selective what ads you place in front of your visitors and customers. Do not show them garbage advertising or ads that are totally unrelated to your own business. These type of ads will simply annoy them.

Good luck and consider the options mentioned to help offset the cost of your hosting which in turn will increase your business profits.

Your Friend and Fellow Epreneur,

Kelle Arvay

New web site launch

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 00:31:00 +0000

We recently launched a new web site that I'm very excited about. It's called www.InstantPrintables.com

Instant Printables is a source for all types of digital crafting products that you can print out instantly. It also has business type printable products and other craft related products like altered art, scrapbook, tags, templates, graphics and many more.

We also offer free printable items every other week on the "Freebies" page. Also if you want to gain more links to your web site be sure and submit your link to the "Links" page.

Your Friend and Fellow Epreneur,

Kelle Arvay

Goals for 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 16:36:00 +0000

I've never been one to set New Year's resolutions but rather map out goals for the coming year. 2006 has been just an incredible year for me with so many new things happening and just the goals that I've reached thus far.

As I reflect on this past year I also think about what I want to accomplish in 2007. I think it's important to not only take time out to look back on what you've done in the previous year but think about what things you want to accomplish going forward into the new year.

During the month of December I've really been thinking about what goals I want to focus on reaching in 2007. There's a couple main ones that stand out among the rest after I reflect on 2006. One of those is to become even more organized. I've really learned so much over the past year and am proud to say my organizational skills have improved dramatically. But I'd like to improve them even more going forward.

Since I own more than one business it's very easy for things to get chaotic if organization isn't established. I think the biggest challenge has been to keep track of what each business needs and the tasks that need to be done in the near future for each business. Staying on track has been probably the biggest challenge for me and learning to be talented at multi tasking.

I think with my personality, that of someone who enjoys challenges and multi tasks, that has helped me some. However, even individuals who are multi taskers by nature can get to a point where they reluctantly come to the realization that they simply cannot do it all.

That brings me to my second goal for the coming year. I would like to start outsourcing a few of the tasks for my business. I've talked a bit before in one of my articles about how business owners, especially online business owners can find themselves silently suffering from "Super Woman" (or man) syndrome. Most of us certainly wouldn't admit it however. But it happens and I honestly think recognizing this and doing something about it is the best defense. Otherwise, ones business can actual suffer from trying to do it all by yourself.

So in the coming year I'll be seeking out some outsourcing and hopefully I can find a couple wonderful individuals to work for me. This in itself is not a easy task and may take some time to find just the right individuals.

I have two brand new websites/businesses launching in 2007. So this too prompts me to really look into outsourcing some of the tasks. I think outsourcing will certainly free up some of my time to be able to focus my efforts more on marketing my businesses and also utilize the extra time for implementing new concepts and ideas. Of course as well as spend more time with my family.

I was just reading a great blog post by Kelly McCausey and she also touches on the topic of goals for the coming year. If you'd like to read her latest blog post you can view it here: http://www.wahmtalkradio.com/blog

Your Friend and Fellow E-prenuer,
Kelle Arvay

Will E-mail Eventually Be Something You Have To Pay For?

noreply@blogger.com (Kelle) — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 23:42:00 +0000

I've heard a few rumors about this that in 4-6 years sending a e-mail may no longer be a free luxury. How would that effect you and your business? What type of impact would it have if say for example it cost you .37 cents for every single e-mail you sent?

Now, I have no firm evidence that this would actually become a reality but it sure is something to to think about. Just recently I watched a segment on the news about how a lot of those blue postal boxes you used to see on street corners are dissapearing because of the decline in letters being mailed via snail mail. It would be easy to assume that a lot of this is due to the fact that we can simple send someone a e-mail instead. It's faster and cheaper.

But what if sending e-mails suddenly became something you had to pay for? Imagine if the ISP companies started to charge us for each e-mail we sent out based on the government stepping in and placing fees on sending e-mails. What type of overall impact would that have for us?

Well, my theory is e-mail would become a more valued commodity that is for sure. Business's newsletters that get sent out to thousands of people daily or weekly would become a high priced advertising avenue most certainly. What about companies that offer autoresponder services? That's a scary thought for those subscribers, especially those with mailing lists that use autoresponders to send out daily e-mails automatically. I suppose the autoresponder companies would simply offset the rising cost by raising membership rates.

I could also see a lot more cross promotion happening among companies that have similar target markets. Such practice would probably keep the e-mail cost to more of a minimum if each company promoted their partners in each e-mail they sent out to their lists.

Many of us probably take sending e-mail for granted. But if it ever did go to a paid tool, above what we already pay our ISP, just the thought of that could make us all stop and ponder this for a moment.

Your Friend and Fellow E-preneur,

Kelle Arvay