Start a Side Business

Gobbledygook be gone

Pascal — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 06:33:50 +0000

David Meerman Scott has updated his Gobbledygook Manifesto and it is so worth a read. If you are tired, as I am, of “next generation” this, “robust” that, “flexible” such and such, or “world class” stuff, or even “turnkey” thingy, then be sure to read this manifesto.

This short manifesto exposes the overused, mean nothing, catch phrases lots of marketers love to abuse.

His solution is simple, and should appeal to all marketer (yeah, right, one can only dream):

Whenever you set out to write something, you should be writing specifically for one or more of the buyers that you want to reach.

Surely, to do this, you don’t need any catch word, you don’t need any gobbledygook! Be honest, be direct, and you’ll be more effective. Address your potential customer problem in words she would use, not any kind of “ground breaking user friendly best of breed extensible” nonsense!

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Home Business Carnival #21

Pascal — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 23:12:58 +0000

Welcome to edition 21 of the Home Business Carnival! This carnival includes the most interesting submissions since the last edition.

Dave Prouhet, Editor of businessadvicedaily.com reveals his simply successful secrets :

3) Contribute to Others Success
7) Analyze to Understand, then Act
10) Do the Unexpected

Wanda Grindstaff ( Creating Abundant Lifestyles) in What we can learn from Don Imus explains:

As a student of personal development, I know where I am going and what it will take to get there. My goal is enormous so my integrity must be enormous. My goal is powerful, so my thoughts must be powerful, my dream is vivid so my direction must be vivid. These do not include negative emotion.

Delegation, one of the key point of GTD is not something you want to do lightly. SpiKe has a few tips in How to delegate, it all starts with:

Explain the tasks clearly and precisely. You are the one who knows exactly what the job involves, they don’t. It’s up to you to transfer that information thoroughly.

and ends with:

Give recognition! The key is to be positive and when criticism is required be constructive with it. Let them know where things are going wrong and discuss together how it can be rectified

Need to find ways to advertize for free: try Free Classified ads.

Chris, at Lead Optimize, tells us how tweaking the color of the links on a site more than quadrupled the number of leads a site he had been working on could generate: The sales lead are in the details.

And finally, 3 business lessons. First from ancient Sparta: 4 entrepreunerial lessons from 300, second from Cortez: should you burn your ships, and last, Dane Carlson from business-opportunities.biz provides 20 things not to do before starting a business. My top 3:

Don’t quit your day job (1)
Don’t incorporate. (2)
Don’t buy any equipment. Outsource everything (15)

This concludes this 21st edition of the Home Business Carnival. Thank you everyone for contributing.

Till next time!

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Home business Carnival #20

Pascal — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 05:40:30 +0000

The latest edition of the Home Business Carnival is up at Simplify This. Thank you Sanjay for hosting this edition!

As I mentioned last week, I’ll be taking a break for while. If you want to host the carnival, here’s your chance!

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Home business Carnival #19

Pascal — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 07:18:18 +0000

This week’s edition is about Home business, what’s different, what’s harder.

Working at home, with small children, is challenging. David explains how he learned to blog to the sound of SpongeBob.

Stephanie explains the tactics she uses to balance her work at home vs. life at home, and it is quite a bit of work!

In Mother working at home, Jack relates some of the problems that are becoming all too common:

Martz’s story is becoming increasingly familiar. A growing number of career women are leaving established companies to start their own. Aided by the tools of the Information Revolution — computers, modems and fax machines — many women with young children are becoming entrepreneurs by establishing home-based businesses. For many women this is the best of both worlds.

RachelAPP provides a step by step recipe to start an EBAY business selling personalized coasters.

Finally, Work at Home Mom Revolution describe 2 opportunities: Transcription and Online Tutoring.

Next week, the Carnival travels (again) to SimplifyThis. Submit your articles now. This will be the 20th edition of the Carnival and I thought it was time for a change and I will take a break from the Carnival, at least for a while. But the Carnival will go on, and will keep on traveling from host to host. So if you’d like to host the carnival, please drop me a note.

Finally, don’t miss the latest edition of 5 on the 5th, the most interesting off-topic submissions to the Carnival.

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5 on the 5th: worth a read - April 07

Pascal — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 06:52:11 +0000

Here’s a new edition of 5 on the 5th, a highlight of the best, but off-topic submissions to the HomeBusiness Carnival.

Susan reignites the debate on Full vs. Partial feeds. No questions for me, the debate is settled, unless you have something I can’t live without, then you may get away with partial feeds, otherwise, you won’t last very long in my feed list. 3 strikes and you are out! That is, 3 excerpts that don’t grab my attention, and BAM!, you are out. In fact, I only about 1% of my hundreds of feeds have made the cut.

Need Viral Marketing advice, look no further.

To have something you never had:

Have you ever had the amount of money you want to make? (Not hardly, I had huge goals)

Why do you think you will ever have it, if you keep doing the same things over and over and have never gotten the results you wanted previously? Adding, “at some point, you will have to take action to change your results”.

Read the rest of the story.

You are staying on top of your Books, right? Matt Inglot explains how you can.

I kept the best for last: Attention Mapping: The 10-Point Exercise.

The difficult part about designing for attention isn’t deciding what to talk about—it’s deciding what not to talk about. Because you only get a potential customer’s attention for a few seconds (if you’re lucky enough to get it at all) you don’t have luxury of rambling. You have to cover your key points with both speed and strength.

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Take back the Web

Pascal — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:33:26 +0000

Today was not a good day for the internet. First I read Seth’s post, then Kathy’s sad and upsetting story directly. Then countless others…

This is just plain and simple not acceptable behavior. Period.

Brad nails it when he says:

Kathy’s story sealed it for me – reputation and trust are at a tipping point and are an issue that is going to have to be dealt with in 2007.

I agree.

And before someone mentions it, no, censorship is not the solution here.

Seth once said:

Have you ever noticed that people you know are far less likely to cut you off in traffic, curse at you, or steal your parking space than treal strangers seem to be? There’s a reason: Anonymity is the enemy of civility.

(From Small is the new Big)

Maybe it’s time we bring civility back, don’t you think?

Kathy, hang in there! We are here to help.

(crossed posted from my other blog)

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Home business Carnival #18

Pascal — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 05:27:22 +0000

The 18th edition of the Home Business Carnival is now up at HomeBusinessWiz. Barbra did a great job at putting the best contributions together in an interesting format. Way to go, Barbra!

Next week, the Carnival is back here, at Start a Side Business. The theme for this edition: Downside of working from home, and what to do about it. I look forward to receiving your contributions!

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what it takes to be an entrepreneur - Home Business Carnival #17

Pascal — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:25:12 +0000

Today’s theme is: what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

In Turn your writing int A Blogging Career, Slade tells us that:

No matter what business you’re in, if you plan to be successful, then you’re always a marketer, too.

And he goes on to explain how you can do it.

Juuso has a different take: for him, The Most Efficient Way to Get What you Want is to give, give, give.

Nancy seems to have what it takes, over a year after creating her online store, she reveals what she’s learned starting her online store.

The main thing I’ve learned about starting an online store is that it’s a lot of work. It is constant tweaking and constant reading and learning. Online storeowners don’t stop working until they can’t keep their eyes open anymore and then after a few hours of sleep they start all over again.

For Vahid, however, the main quality for success is tenacity. Are you serious enough about success? To find out what he has to say, read Time is Passing. Are you?

If you want to start a successful business, you should decide and act as soon as possible. Then you should focus and work hard. This is the only way that works.

And this concludes this 17th edition of the Home Business Carnival. The 18th edition of the Home Business Carnival will be hosted at HomeBusinessWiz by Barbra and the theme will be: “Home business contributing to a better world”. Be sure to check it out, it should be interesting! Submit your articles now.

As always, I look forward to read your contributions! Be sure to checkout the thirs edition of 5 on the 5th, where I selected last month best but off topic submissions. Well worth your time!

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5 on the 5th: worth a read - February 07

Pascal — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 06:54:42 +0000

Here’s this past month highlight of the best contributions to the Home Business Carnival that I could not fit in the weekly theme. Here’s the third edition on 5 on the 5th.

How to start a Bulk Candy Vending Business for Passive Income.

12 Points to Consider Before Starting a Home Based Business.

35 tips for creating and maintaining a successful business.

The 6 thinking hats of your blog.

Teaching Your Child About Money.

And as a bonus:

My experience at a Quixtar recruitment meeting

Enjoy!

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Customer Service Do’s and Don’ts - Home Business Carnival #16

Pascal — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 07:59:09 +0000

This week’s edition of the Home business Carnival is about Customer Service.

Only a few worthy on topic contribution for this edition, but I found them excellent and I hope you do too!

First, is Christine, now a Home Business Carnival regular. She has some serious advice for sensitive types and for artists. Number 8 on her list: Grok good customer service:

Go to Nordstrom. Buy something. Watch how you’re treated. Then, go to Macy’s. Do the same thing. Witness the difference. Apply that lesson in whatever way you can to your own customer service.

Then Michelle chimes in with 2 examples of bad customer service, and she wonders why businesses keep making mistakes after mistakes, when it is obviously in their best interest not to.

Wouldn’t you agree that the company should be making every effort to make sure every single encounter a customer has with a representative is genuinely a nice experience? That’s part of running a successful business. Why else would the call be “monitored or recorded for quality assurance.” Clearly that statement is rarely true,

Stephanie approaches customer service by contrasting an almost perfect experience with Cingular with a pretty bad one with her bank. In one case, the company has empowered its employees so they can do something to help the customers, and clearly the other one has not.

Why were these two experiences different? I think it’s because of the amount of power I felt in each case, both my own and the company representative’s. In the first, the customer service rep was authorized immediately to give me a sizeable refund, on the spot, and to request a further review. I felt as though someone was able to do something about it.

And, finally Debra has some general business advice, but you could very well pretend she’s talking about customer service, and most would apply, wouldn’t you think?

Failure to smile and be friendly
Discussing personal problems
Inappropriate Attire/Hygiene
Incorrect grammar
Sexual innuendo
Reprimanding an employee in front of the client
Improper Email Etiquette
Criticizing the competition
Assuming the receptionist has no authority

And this concludes this 16th edition of the Home Business Carnival. The 17th edition of the Home Business Carnival will be hosted here at Start a Side Business and the theme will be about what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Submit your articles now. As always, I look forward to receiving your contributions!Be sure to checkout the second edition of 5 on the 5th, a new monthly series where I selected last month best but off topic submissions. A very good read!

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Upgrade to WordPress 2.1

Pascal — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 09:57:22 +0000

Last night, I upgraded to WordPress 2.1. I was expecting the worst, so I very carefully did a database backup (using an export from phpmyadmin), did 2 backups of the files, and followed the instructions carefully. I must admit I did skip the part about disabling the extensions, and that save some time.

Instead of doing an update in place, I created a copy.

For that I renamed the old site “sidebusiness.biz” to “sidebusiness_2.0.biz”, and very quickly created a symlink so that the web server (still pointing to sidebusiness.biz) would find the files in their current location (now sidebusiness_2.0.biz).

mv sidebusiness.biz sidebusiness_2.0.biz ln -s sidebusiness_2.0.biz sidebusiness.biz

Then I created a copy named sidebusiness_2.1.biz.

cp -arv sidebusiness.biz sidebusiness_2.1.biz

That’s where I proceeded to do the upgrade. Essentially remove the files mentioned in the instructions, copy the new files I had downloaded earlier, checked that everything looked ok, and then it was time to make the switch.

Just remove the symlink to sidebusiness_2.0.biz and create one that points to sidebusiness_2.1.biz

rm sidebusiness.biz ln -s sidebusiness_2.1.biz sidebusiness.biz

And finally, on to the database upgrade by going to http://example.com/wordpress/wp-admin/upgrade.php.

That was really easy. For users, the site was down less that 15s!

Then today, I experimented with the new static home page.

That is also very easy. First I created a Home Page (with the content I wanted) and a Blog Page (left blank). Then under the Options>Reading of the admin, I selected “Front Page Displays a static page”. Then selected my newly created Home Page for the Front page, and my new Blog Page for the Posts Page. That’s it. It worked the first time around. Amazingly well done, WordPress Team!

Now, to make it a bit more interesting, I created a specific template just for the home page as I’m guessing I’ll be doing a few customizations just for that page. Easily enough using K2 as the base, that was surprisingly easy to achieve.

First I duplicated the page.php from the template directory and added the following at the top.

Template Name: Home Page */ ?>

Then edit that template page to suit my needs. Mostly removed the post title for now.

Then in the page I created for the Home Page, you I assigned that new template (”Called Home Page”) using the Page Template Control on the right side on the Edit Page page. And voila!

One last thing I found useful. To test whether your are on the new home page, is_home() does not appear to work, but is_page(’Home’) does (”Home” is the Title of the page I created for the Home Page).

I love the Auto Save and the Static Home Page! I’m not sure I understand how the new Visual editor is supposed to work, but I’m fine with the Code Editor

Let me know what you think of that new home page! May need some more work…

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Marketing ideas - Home Business Carnival #15

Pascal — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 09:24:51 +0000

This week’s edition of the Home business Carnival is about Marketing. For this 15th edition (is that 15 already!), you’ll find a lot of valuable information from contributors all over the blogosphere, so sit back relax and read on…

In the Economic of Self Awareness, Brandon coins the term Authentic Marketing that he defines as:

the result of the consumer’s disdain for contrived branding, inauthenticity, corruption, deceit, lack of vision/sustainability, etc. Only companies who are able to demonstrate total transparency, and unify marketing strategy, business strategy and organizational/human capital strategies are able to authentically market themselves and their wares

Taking a different tack, The New Business World goes on to say that Marketing is about Message, not Sales. More specifically, here’s how he defines Marketing:

There are three principles one can utilize to understand marketing.
1.) Marketing is about letting the world see your message.
2.) Marketing is about letting the right people see your message.
3.) Marketing increases sales which in turn increases the stability of the organization.

Marketing is also about Marketing yourself, and Kirsten, a psychologist with a passion for positive thinking explains how to put together the Best Elevator Pitch:

You want to craft an answer that will spark conversation. Something that sounds so exciting that the person asking the question will certainly ask more questions and want to continue talking with you

Game Producer is defining Marketing versus Marketing Research. For him, Marketing is a Process:

Some people think that marketing is about making some nice banners for a while and then forgetting it. Marketing is a process that involves series of steps to be made: market analysis, market planning, action and control.

He goes on to outline the difference between Marketing Research and Market Research, why do Marketing Research and then lists the steps you should go through:

Formulate the Problem

Determine the type of research you need

Design the data collection methods, and any collateral you need

Design a Sample and collect Data

Analyze and interpret the Data

Prepare a report on your research

And finally, Kumiko presents a good summary on how to bootstrap your site or blog.

This concludes this 15th edition of the Home Business Carnival. The 16th edition of the Home Business Carnival will be hosted here at Start a Side Business and the theme will be about Customer Service. Submit your articles now. As always, I look forward to receiving your contributions!

Be sure to checkout the second edition of 5 on the 5th, a new monthly series where I selected last month best but off topic submissions. A very good read!

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Business Year End Wrap up - Home Business Carnival #14

Pascal — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 09:58:38 +0000

With the start of the New Year, here’s an edition on wrapping up the past year and starting the new year on a good footing.

For a year end review, Frank Ross recommends the following:

Analyze what worked well
Analyze what did not work
Look for what can be improved
Explore new opportunities that may not have existed before
Review your business plan (You do have one, right?) to find out if it is still valid

Read his full post.

Melody Campbell’s has a more customer focused advice: wrap up

Identify your most profitable customers, study their characteristics
Establish or fine tune the marketing message to the prospect
Identify the most effective activity to reach your prospects
Understand your sales cycle, and look for ways to optimize the longest parts

Read what she has to say about wrapping up business at the end of the year.

Also very useful to reassess, at least once a year, are the reasons you got into your Home Business, or started your Side Business. And if you still have what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

Barbra reminds us that it is a very good idea to take a close look at upcoming trends for the new year. She lists the top 5 for food businesses.
And of course, this list would not be complete if it did not include taking a look at your tax situation.

This concludes this 14th edition of the Home Business Carnival. The 15th edition of the Home Business Carnival will be hosted here at Start a Side Business and the theme will be about Marketing (Planning products, pricing, promotion and distribution). Submit your articles now. I look forward to receiving your contributions!

Be sure to checkout the second edition of 5 on the 5th, a new monthly series where I selected last month best but off topic submissions. A very good read!

A new carnival is starting: the Work At Home Entrepreneurs Carnival. I look forward to the first edition!

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Wrapping up Business at Year End

Pascal — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 09:29:09 +0000

If you’re a small independent business owner it could serve you well to take a birds eye view of your entire money making process for your business.

1. Looking at this year’s activity and make sure you’ve identified your most profitable customer - profile the characteristics that help you identify similar customers in the marketplace so that you develop your message specifically to target the customers with the characteristics you’ve identified as those of your most profitable customer.

In my promotional products business I want relational customers vs. transactional customers. All of my marketing and sales efforts are designed to attract the client that is looking for a trustworthy, reliable promotional products distributor with great ideas. The customer that wants a cheap transaction with no loyalty on either side of the table is probably not my customer and I’m not offended when they don’t want to buy from me. As I’ve been doing business over the last 15 years I’ve identified the transactional customer as a time waster for me. I end up doing a lot of research and servicing of an account with very little profit.

2. Establish or fine tune the marketing message to the prospect you’ve identified with your profile as most likely to be your most profitable customer. Look at everything you are doing, saying and printing about and for your business - Is your message clearly spoken to the target customer?

3. Identify the most effective activity to reach your prospects and schedule that activity so that it happens consistently. If you bring customers in by running ads in your local newspaper then schedule them for the entire year. You get a better rate if you contract for a years worth of advertising.

If the activity that brings you business is your weekly email newsletter then sit down and plan your editorial calendar for the year and begin to write the articles now. You can always edit or add to them before you send them out for those written far in advance. By using autoresponders you can schedule the email newsletter well in advance.

If the activity that builds your customer base is face to face selling then you need to be sure that you are calling on customers to schedule appointments. You should identify how many prospects you need to call to get appointments, and how many appointments you need to create sales for your product.

4. Understand your sales cycle. Whether or not you are running ads, sending email or scheduling appointments you need to understand what happens and how long it takes to finally close the sale. The rule of thumb is “the more costly the investment the longer the sales cycle.” No matter what you sales cycle is you need to plan your most productive activity to steadily continue to draw in new prospects while you’re finalizing sales for other customers.

I have a few small business owners who ask if they should take the time to do this kind of review of their business plan every year. YES, in fact, do a mini version of this every week to be sure that you’re on track and making money consistently. Your income will be consistent if you’ve

Identified your customer
Established your most effective message
Identified the most productive activity
Understand your sales cycle

Take the time to do this review before the end of this year and give yourself the gift of more business next year.

Author Bio

Melody Campbell is The Small Business Guru. You can view more Small Business Owner Resources at The Small Business Guru website. Educate yourself for Success in the Core Competencies to becoming a Master Small Business Owner. New monthly membership trial for only $1 for the first 30 days! www.thesmallbusinessguru.com

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5 on the 5th: worth a read - January 07

Pascal — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 08:35:31 +0000

An interesting part of putting together the Home Business Carnival, is that after many editions, I’m receiving a lot of contributions. Many are great, on topic and a great fit for the next edition, some are either off topic, or not quite as good as the other and don’t make it. The observant reader will be quick to point out that this leaves out the great but off-topic submissions and this new series should be the perfect home for these. Every month on the 5th, I’ll be posting the 5 most notable contributions out of these great but off-topic contributions.

So here’s the second edition on 5 on the 5th and Happy New Year everyone!

The Golden Retriever’s Favorite Small Business and Home Office Resources

Is the Home Office Deduction Worth it?

Increasing your hourly rate in order to get rich

11 Effective Ways to become a Keyboard Athlete

Top 10 Things I Had to Learn on the Road to Full-Time Self Employment

Enjoy!

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Bootstrapper’s bible

Pascal — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 06:25:20 +0000

The Bootstrapper’s Bible, by Seth Godin, is free again, till the end of December. Grab it while you can.

This is a fascinating read, and choke full of good ideas for starting a business with no money.

Also worth a read by Seth: Do Less.

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Know your competition - Home Business Carnival #13

Pascal — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 06:14:56 +0000

Today’s theme is about competition, and more specifically about finding out who your competitors are, and what they do, what their edge is, and how you can beat them.

Knowing about your competition is key to your business success. Knowing what they do can help you refine your pricing structure. It can help you hone your differentiators so that you can present yourself and your business in the best possible light.

Jim Hart explains how you can perform a professional Analysis of your competition. His recipe is simple:

Play the role of the customer with money
Call competitors outside your area
Do in-field competition analysis by either telemarketing to prospective customers and asking them if they are familiar with your competition, ever done business with them

An other way to find out about your competition is to look online.

Tim Berry develops some of the same ideas, and a few more in Know your Competition. Namely he suggests:

When competitors are local, take a look at the Yellow Pages of your local phone directory.
Purchase credit and background reports
Do a thorough search of the internet, using your favorite search engines

For an other way to look at this subject, and to sum it up, read Laura’s take: You have no competition! That is, if you are small enough, and specialized enough, you can define your own territory in a way that makes you unique, and the competition disappears…

This concludes this 13th edition of the Home Business Carnival. The 14th edition of the Home Business Carnival will be hosted here at Start a Side Business and the theme will be “Wrapping up the business year”. Submit your articles now. I look forward to receiving your contributions!

Be sure to checkout 5 on the 5th, a new monthly serie where I selected last month best but off topic submissions. A very good read!

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Setting up an online presence - Home Business Carnival #12

Pascal — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 08:10:14 +0000

Today’s edition theme is “Setting up an online presence”.

In fact setting up your online presence is becoming easier and easier so the challenge is more to get people to find you.

Google Adwords has become a very effective way to attract people and Suzanne, from The Get Known Now Blog explains how to be successful with Google Adwords, and she’s not talking about your typical landing page optimization. She points out that

This is no slam-dunk easy sale (which I’d once assumed it was.) These days we have to prove we’re full of info we eagerly share – and that are information is high quality.

and her advice is not go for a sale directly, but just get people to sign up for some freebee, something to start a relationship, which you can in time turn into something profitable. Sound advice…

For James, the best way to advertise your online presense is to submit articles, find out if writing articles is Brain Dead or Not! In fact, he assures us that

your reader will come back to your site and read some of the other content you have written if he is interested in your topic and you write directly to the heart. Humanize your writing and let it flow. You will lose your reader if your article reads like the installation manual for an x-ray machine in your local hospital.

For Barbra of HomeBusinessWiz, a key factor in your online (or offline) presense is a professional bio, and she explains how you write one. At a minimum, you need to answer the “four reader questions”:

1) who you are…
2) your expertise and how it addresses…
3) their problem or goal, and how they can…
4) contact you

Once you have finally established your online presence, you don’t want to forget to issue a press release. For that, be sure to read Campus Grotto 50 tips for writing an effective press release. Personally, I would emphasize more heavily on the quotes.

Azmi, of DesiNotes, explains how to Market on MySpace.com for free.

Setting up an e-commerce site can be daunting, so some tips on putting up an e-commerce web site are welcome!

GreatFX Business Cards has a very comprehensive 4 parts articles on how to start a successful EBay business.

This concludes this 12th edition. The 13th edition of the Home Business Carnival will be hosted here at Start a Side Business and the theme will be “Competitive Analysis: knowing your competitors”. Submit your articles now. I look forward to receiving your contributions!

Be sure to checkout 5 on the 5th, a new monthly serie where I selected last month best but off topic submissions. A very good read!

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5 on the 5th: worth a read

Pascal — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 08:07:39 +0000

An interesting part of putting together the Home Business Carnival, is that after 12 editions, I’m starting to receive quite a few contributions. Many are great, on topic and a great fit for the next edition, some are either off topic, or not quite as good as the other and don’t make it. The observant reader will be quick to point out that this leaves out the great but off-topic submissions and this new series should be the perfect home for these. Every month on the 5th, I’ll be posting the 5 most notable contributions out of these great but off-topic contributions.

So here’s the first edition on 5 on the 5th.

Why basecamp is the niftiest resource ever!

Who controls your voice

You have no competition

How to deal with information overload

Defending your pricing

Bonus post: Top 10 brain teasers

Enjoy!

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Free Advertising Resources - Home Business Carnival #11

Pascal — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 07:34:45 +0000

This week’s theme is about free resources you can use for advertising your home business.

A first suggestion comes from Brian of Genius Type. He urges you to take a second look at Network Marketing. What’s Network Marketing? Here’s Brian’s definition:

Network marketing is a business model that replaces large marketing budgets with a compensation plan for entrepreneurial consumers who choose to assume the advertising role. By avoiding complicated distribution chains, the company can ship directly to the consumer. Without an advertising budget, the company relies on its own customers to spread the word and increase the customer base. The money that is saved without advertising or distribution chains is redirected to the consumer in the form of commissions and bonuses.

Not exactly free, but a lot cheaper than a full fledge advertiging campaign as you compensate as a percentage of sales. Read the full article: Why Corporations fear Network Marketing.

Not happy with just one idea, Juuso comes up with 7 creatives ideas to Advertise you Product. My top 2: use your messenger status line and your own car…

Supermom goes a bit farther and claims you can get paid to promote your business! Sounds too good to be true? Well, maybe not. Check out what she has to say: How to cross promote your business and get paid.

What about using your business cards? Harrison makes a compelling case for handing a lot more of them in Business Skill: The Importance of business card.

Lastly, Jack of Reasoned Audacity, has an interesting take on how you can transform a failed attempt to get elected into more business: Political Campaign as Marketing Campaign. An intriguing way to turn a failed political attempt into a windfall.

Thank you to everyone that sent in an article, you made this edition possible!

The 12th edition of the Home Business Carnival will be hosted here at Start a Side Business and the theme will be “Setting up an online presence”. Submit your articles now. I look forward to receiving your contributions!

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