Starting an Online Store Called givitup

New Photo Gifts

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 23:47:00 +0000

I recently added another section to my online store of photo gifts using pictures I’ve taken in various places. Since Café Press has a ton of new products it was especially fun to see how the photos looked on all the new items.

Check it out Here

Stock Photography Resource

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:25:00 +0000

Stock Photography Resource

Below is a list of site where you can get web art and photos for your sites. Enjoy!

http://www.istockphoto.com/

http://www.freefoto.com/index.jsp

http://www.gettyimages.com/Creative/Frontdoor/theimagebank

http://photo.net/

http://www.webshots.com/homepage.html

http://www.gograph.com/

http://www.freestockphotos.com/

http://www.freeimages.co.uk/

Ten Things That Make A Successful Entrepreneur

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 01:47:00 +0000

This is a very good article by Theodora Cochrane

Some people say entrepreneurs are born, not made. That’s only partly true. Some people seem to be entrepreneurs from birth. Sometimes the entrepreneurial gene doesn’t kick in until later in life.

Whenever it happens there are ten golden rules any prospective entrepreneur should obey. So get a sheet of paper and let’s get to work. Fill in your qualifications under each heading and see if there are areas that need working on.

1. Motivation. You must be clear about what you want and why you want it. For example, it isn’t enough to say ‘I want to make a lot of money’. What do you want it for? How much do you want? How soon do you want it? How determined to get it are you?

2. Control. You must be prepared to take control of your life. You
decide when you work. You decide where you work. (Work at home, or in the car, or on the beach, etc.) You decide how many hours, days, weeks you work. You decide how much money you make.

3. Prepared to take risks. The life of the entrepreneur is not risk
free. Things can go wrong – BUT – nothing ventured, nothing gained. Learn when to quit and change direction and when to hang in there and weather the storm. If one path isn’t the right one you can always take another. The secret is to keep your eyes open for new opportunities.

4. Resilient. This is very much linked to the previous point. I want
you to think of a tall tree in a high wind. It might thrash about and bend a bit in the gale but only rarely does it break. Why do tall buildings like the Empire State building have a built in factor that allows it to sway in the wind? Both these things can survive intact because they are resilient. They can react to the surrounding conditions and more or less escape serious damage. If they were absolutely rigid they would break under the pressure. The entrepreneur has to be flexible to deal with changes in the marketplace.

5. Enjoy a challenge. Being an entrepreneur is a challenge. It has no place for the ‘what ifs’. (What if it all goes wrong? What if I don’t make any money? What if I’m a failure? What if the sky falls on my head?’) If you’re a ‘what if’ forget about being an entrepreneur and get yourself a nice steady job.

6. Prepared to take the plunge. It’s like standing at the edge of the swimming pool when you can’t swim. Until you take the plunge you will never learn. But every time you do it you become more skilful and the easier it gets. Keep at it and before long you will be diving in from the highest board and coming up smiling.

7. Mix with the right people. There are always people prepared to put you down. Unfortunately these are often family or friends. This isn’t done out of malice, it’s more from a subconscious fear that somehow they’ll be ‘losing’ you – that you are moving onto a different plane. As far as you can you should keep company with fellow entrepreneurs. Take your family and friends with you if you can but never neglect to have regular contact with positive thinkers or you will be dragged back into the daily drudge. Once you’ve shown that you haven’t evolved into some sort of snooty conceited bighead your family and friends might admit that they were wrong!

8. Open to new ideas. Entrepreneurs never consider that they have
reached the highest peak. As soon as they have reached the top of one project mountain they will look for another one to climb. It’s exactly the same adrenalin surge that keeps mountaineers trying for ever more difficult ways of climbing Everest. Others might follow but the prize is to the people who got there first.

9. Willing to learn from others. Be prepared to learn about the skills you will need from other successful entrepreneurs. Attend some of the
bootcamps that are organised. There is one caveat here – don’t become a bootcamp junkie! There are some would-be entrepreneurs who go from one bootcamp to another but never take the plunge and try to put what they have learnt into practice. In other words they keep going to the swimming pool but never actually get into the water.

10. Not content with one success. The true entrepreneur never stops.
Success isn’t the be-all and end-all. As I said before, when he/she has reached the top of one mountain they look for the next one to climb. It’s enervating, it’s fun – and the view from the top is fantastic.

Here’s to your success!

About the Author:
Visit http://www.darkhorsereserch.com or http://www.percydale.com for
more info.

What's most important when starting a new business?

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 01:19:00 +0000

I love to read forums. Most of the people offer really good and thoughtful advice. The following was in response to the question, what's most important when starting a new business?

Network, Network, and Network Some More
When I started my own firm, an old hand told me that initially (because of no or few customers) there would be a good deal of down time and that time should be used to meet others and network. Later, he said, there would be no time. I wish I had listened. Join the clubs, meet your colleagues, offer free seminars at libraries, join a networking group, take on a teaching job about your profession, offer to write an article for the local paper, join a sports club, go next door and meet your neighbor, and network all of the time! Always have a flyer, card or brochure handy. Have a good contact application on your mobile phone and plug in everyone you meet and what you discussed -- build a contact database. Ask customers for referrals. If you sell widgets, figure out where the widget buyers hang out and get there. One young business woman I know had a neat little tool for needlepoint she sold at her craft store. By word of mouth at her PTA it came to the attention of a big buyer. Network!

Sherpa Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 00:50:00 +0000

I wanted to share a site that has been extremely useful to me in marketing online.

Founded in January of 2002, Sherpa Marketing, Inc. is a consulting firm that provides useful news, case studies, and best practices data about internet and integrated marketing.

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/

Top 11 Free Photo Editors for Windows

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:42:00 +0000

Susan Chastain over at About.com has a great list for those needing free photos for their sites. Check it out Here

Identify your competitors

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:21:00 +0000

You may know some of your competitors, but remember; you are working online. There are most likely lots! And they come and go all the time.

Often a company in an adjacent area will change its positioning to try and address your market, or a new startup may emerge in a related area. You need to create a master list of your key competitors and make sure you keep this up to date.

To do this, Google the terms which describe your industry, your products and services. You can also use a little known feature in Google. In the search box, type in "related:www.yourcompanyname.com" and Google will display a list of companies that it considers related to yours. Look for new companies that show up and see if any of these pose a threat.

Mistakes people make with Adwords

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:26:00 +0000

Ben Stevens wrote the following article on some mistakes people make with Adwords.

8 common mistakes most people make with google adwords

Tips on Adwords

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 01:27:00 +0000

I was cleaning out folders and emails over the Christmas break and came across these tips for using Adwords. I tried to follow the link to credit the author, but it was no longer live.

1. Headline, Headline!!

Yes, the headline is by far the most important part of your ad. To make an ad that captures attention, make your headlines as catchy and attractive as possible. Choose relevant keywords that are more likely to be searched for. Usually, a good headline does most of the work!

2. Be Precise And To The Point

Make sure your ads are precise and to the point. Nobody has the time to go through long-drawn-out ads. Include a keyword here and there, and underline it or make it bold, to grab the viewer’s attention.

3. Invest Wisely

Do not invest too much money in these campaigns. Staying within a pre-set budget is essential. It would be wiser to invest around 10$-$15 in the beginning, and then increase the amount as you get returns. Caution is the best precaution, as you stand a risk of losing the entire money you invested in your ads. So, go by the adage ‘thrifty is nifty’, and take it easy with the money.

4. Pre-Advertise

Before you actually launch your product, conduct a small survey, which will identify the people who are actually interested in your product. To do so, release a few ad details in the beginning, so that customers know what they can expect. Evaluate ad performance, and make necessary changes.

5. Track Your Account

Analyze the way your account is performing. Check statistics and create reports. This way, you will know where you are headed, and can adopt changes to your account, according to the situation.

When you use Google Adwords the right way, you can definitely boost your sales. But you do have to be careful to set your budget right, because with Google, it’s easy to overspend if you don’t watch it!

Pay-Per-Click

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:18:00 +0000

I personally don’t use pay per click. But as an online store owner you will of course at least consider it. I had saved an article about how to use pay-per-click (PPC) from 2005 and was going to link to it on site, but it is no longer there. So I will credit Marketing Experiments.com and print the entire article for you. It’s long, but hopefully helpful to you. Plus I recommend their site for lots of useful information. http://www.marketingexperiments.com/

How to use pay-per-click (PPC) search campaigns to boost website traffic and maximize profits from day one: a 90-day plan.

Whether you are launching a new site or simply want to generate a large traffic spike to an existing site, we have found the best way to do this is with PPC advertising.

However, if you don't know exactly what you're doing with PPC, here's what can happen:

1. In your efforts to dramatically grow the number of visitors to your site, you can find yourself over-spending on keywords.

2. If you're paying too much for PPC traffic, your ROI drops and your campaigns become unprofitable.

There is a key point to recognize here.
Some companies will view PPC advertising as an expense, and will not expect to see an immediate, positive ROI, particularly during the early weeks of the campaign.
This needn't be the case.
In this brief we will show you two things:

1. We will show you how we drove 1,644,732 visitors to a new site over a 90-Day period, AND MADE MONEY FROM DAY ONE.

2. We will share with you a 90-Day Plan that will enable you to design and implement the best possible PPC program for your business.

For our testing, we selected a recently launched site that provided useful information using a paid-subscription model. Traffic to the site without pay-per-click was substantial but not spectacular:

Test Site A – Natural Search Traffic
Search Engine May - July 2005
MSN 9,728
Yahoo! 5,371
Google 6,826
Other 1,563
TOTAL 23,488

What You Need To UNDERSTAND: In three months of testing, natural (non-PPC) search traffic amounted to 23,488 unique visitors.

Test Site A – Other Traffic Sources
Search Engine May - July 2005
Other Websites (Links) 17,875
Email and Banner Ads 25,430
TOTAL 43,305

What You Need To UNDERSTAND: In three months of testing, traffic from non-search sources (website links and email) amounted to 43,305 unique visitors.

KEY POINT: Without PPC traffic, we would have generated only 66,793 visitors to our test site. With PPC traffic, we were able to generate closer to 1.7 MILLION visitors.
Here are the results of our test site's PPC campaign over three months:
Test Site A – PPC Traffic

May 2005 June 2005 July 2005
Cost Per Click $0.09 $0.09 $0.09
Total Clicks 549,565 416,785 678,382
Cost $48,731.45 $36,833.87 $61,647.57

What You Need To UNDERSTAND: In a three-month period, we generated 1,644,732 visitors using PPC search marketing. In addition, we were able to optimize our campaign to create an additional 128,817 in July versus May. This is an increase of 23.4%, WITHOUT INCREASING OUR AVERAGE COST PER CLICK.

The strategy for this site was to capture as much of the market share as possible while remaining profitable. It's certainly not difficult to spend a lot of money on PPC traffic, but to do so while maintaining a positive ROI can be a daunting task.
There are a number ways to increase the profitability of a PPC campaign. These include:

1. Buy more traffic that converts at a defined minimum rate. (This minimum rate will depend upon your average order size, profit margin, and other factors unique to your business.)

2. Eliminate unprofitable keywords that drain your marketing budget.

3. Reduce bids on keywords with a negative return on investment (ROI). However, this may also substantially reduce the amount of traffic to the site.

4. Increase the conversion rate of PPC traffic once it has reached your site.

5. Increase the order size of converting traffic.

If you PPC campaigns become unprofitable, keep these points in mind as ways to recover.

The following section describes the protocol used to generate 1,644,732 profitable PPC visits to the test site in 90 days.

90-Day PPC Protocol:

1. Focus. Focus. Focus.
Focus your efforts on one major search engine to start. Google AdWords may offer the greatest potential for most businesses, followed by Overture. You should not completely neglect the smaller PPC engines, but launching and optimizing a PPC campaign is very time consuming and you should focus your efforts on that which will yield the most fruit for the time invested.

Focus on your unique value proposition. Decide what you are selling and what makes you stand out from your competitors. For example, if your price is lower than your competitors', experiment with ads that contain actual pricing information.
Focus on the most relevant keywords. These terms will convert better than words or phrases that are not as appropriate for your offer.

Consider both PPC and natural search, but if you are trying to generate the greatest amount of traffic with the least effort, PPC will create more immediate results. But do not neglect building a spider-friendly site as well.

2. Reap the benefits of a fresh start.

If you are launching a PPC campaign for a new site, you don't have to correct past mistakes and can begin with a well-structured search approach right away. Remember to use:

1. Well-designed landing pages;
2. Optimized ads with relevant keywords;
3. Negative keywords to reduce less relevant traffic;
4. Smart bids (not round numbers);
5. A free, valuable email newsletter to capture the addresses of potential customers so you don't have to pay to reach them again; and
6. A well-organized campaign structure (see below).

3. Build a list of keywords.

Build a list of the keyword "themes," phrases, and single words you plan to target. Build this "map" outside of the constraints of the PPC interface. This will allow you to focus your thoughts and more easily implement the keyword bids over multiple PPC platforms.

4. Stay organized.

The more thoughtful and organized your approach to PPC campaign management, the better your campaigns will perform and the better you will be able to navigate through testing and optimization. Be sure to plan for campaign expansion from the start.

5. Use smart initial bids.

When creating a new Google AdWords campaign, consider bidding higher than you normally would for some important terms. This is an approach unique to Google because it rewards a higher click-through rate (CTR). In a simpler world, CTR would depend solely on the quality of the ad copy. However, your CTR will be higher if your ads appear higher in the search results.

KEY POINT: By bidding slightly higher during initial launch and then gradually lowering your bids, you can achieve and maintain better placement at lower cost per click.

Currently, our test site is one of 16 sites bidding on its most popular word. We hold one of the topmost positions, yet have been paying less than 8.5 cents average CPC (over the last ten days) because of the high historical CTR it built up during initial launch, from which it still benefits.

6. Test your ads.

Set up split-testing to optimize your PPC ads. Optimize for click-through rate, which will help you achieve higher placement at lower cost, especially for Google AdWords.

You can now choose to allow Google to automatically manage your campaigns based on the CTR of your ad creatives. Google will serve the highest CTR ads more often. Note, however, that the ad with the highest CTR may not necessarily be the ad that drives the most relevant traffic with the highest conversion rate.

7. Test your landing pages.

Split-test your landing pages as well. Here, you will be optimizing for conversion.
8. Refine and optimize your campaign.

After 30-60 days, you should be able to evaluate the initial success of your PPC campaign. Have you been able to tap the full potential of this PPC engine, or is there more potential for improvement? Can your ads be better? Have you experimented with keywords in the title copy? Have you utilized the right negative keywords to avoid accidental clicks from unsuitable traffic?

If a desired keyword is too expensive, try to break it down and go after phrases that are more specific. Identify words and phrases that may not receive as much traffic but can be purchased at a lower bid.

Consider creating customized landing pages for specific keywords. Certain types of pages will convert better for some terms than for others.

9. Expand your campaign.

Most companies set up a PPC campaign for terms they know their customers are looking for. But take a step back for a moment. Ask yourself what led your customers to search for those terms. This will often help you find targeted phrases that your competition hasn't thought of.

There are also some online tools that will help you brainstorm keyword phrases. Overture, Google and Teoma will help you identify more relevant keywords with their keyword suggestion tools.

Do not be afraid to go after highly specialized terms. The most specialized terms, while they may see much less traffic, often also yield the highest conversion rates.
KEY POINT: Think BROAD instead of (or in addition to) thinking DEEP. Rather than focusing on getting the number-one position for a few keywords, purchase as many (relevant) keywords as possible. 200 terms at $0.10 per click will usually perform much better than 15 terms at $0.50 per click.

10. Analyze profitability at the keyword level.

Certain keywords will yield a higher ROI than others. To optimize your PPC campaign, analyze the return at the keyword level.

Some words you will eliminate while others may deserve higher bids. But keep in mind that ROI is not the most important metric for your overall business. Your true success indicator should be total net profit, so it may be worthwhile to keep all terms that have a positive ROI, even if they are quite low. Your marketing budget and cash position will be the determining factors here.

Our report on Avoiding Unprofitable PPC Campaigns further clarifies the distinctions and importance of ROI vs. profit.

11. Replicate your successes.

Now expand your campaigns to other PPC search engines.

12. Continually revisit steps 6 and 7. Your ad-copy and landing-page optimization efforts should be recurring, periodic processes as the markets evolve.

This protocol has proven itself over time with hundreds of millions of profitable clicks. Using it will help you launch your own profitable PPC campaigns and achieve a high level of profitable traffic in a short amount of time. As always, however, no formulaic approach to Internet marketing can substitute for your own testing.

Here is Your Great Free Traffic Resource

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:41:00 +0000

Many wonder how people get Facebook to work for their online business. Melissa Ingold gives you an idea:

As social media continues to explode and online communities grow exponentially each and every day, it is becoming more and more important for internet marketers to take advantage of this growing outlet.

Facebook is arguably the most popular social media site available today. Started as a way for college students to keep in touch, Facebook now has millions of users who are using it for new and innovative purposes with every single friend request. So what does this have to do with your internet marketing business? Everything. (note: don’t include “Everything” in the summary please.)

A Facebook page for your online business is a great way to gain exposure, build relationships and ultimately, grow your business. In fact, you may want to consider a personal Facebook page as an additional way to promote your online business as well, maximizing your ability to appeal to a larger group of people and increase connections for both personal and professional purposes.

You can get the ball rolling by becoming a fan of your internet marketing business page and sharing it with others as well. This is a great way to inadvertently advertise your business without coming across sales-y or pushy. The last thing you want to do is alienate your Facebook friends or any members of the social media community for that matter. You will find that it is absolutely critical to gain the trust of those you make connections with because if one friend feels you are trying to “sell” to them, you will immediately gain an irreparable reputation on Facebook that will spread like wildfire. However, handle yourself correctly and you will quickly reap the benefits of Facebook’s network of millions, allowing you to promote your internet marketing business without offending or assaulting people with unwanted advertisements, offers or spam.

So how do you handle yourself correctly? It’s easy really. You will want to send and accept as many new friend requests as you can in order to grow your circle. For your Facebook business page, these friends should also become “fans”. In addition, make sure that you update your status consistently, and that doesn’t mean once a week. It means once, possibly even twice or more a day, depending on how much time and effort you are both willing and can realistically put in. And finally, perpetuate conversation. If someone writes on your wall or sends you a message, be sure to write them back in a timely fashion. Unfortunately, timely in the Facebook world is real-time, so you will want to respond as close to immediately as possible. It will be expected. Wait too long (no more than 5 hours) and you may end up with one less friend.

If it sounds demanding, it is. But remember, it is a free service that when managed correctly can prove to be extremely lucrative for your business and ultimately help to establish you as a qualified, trustworthy online business owner who is on the path to even greater success.

Remember, strangers are only friends you haven’t met yet and Facebook is full of friends who are destined to become customers!

Melissa Ingold is a full-time online business owner who thrives on helping others say good-bye to their J-O-Bs forever. For more action-oriented, quick & easy-to-follow Internet marketing guidance to help you create a low-maintenance, high-profit venture go to Internet Marketing Sweetie

Great American Smoke Out

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:29:00 +0000

The American Cancer Society (ACS) has again announced its annual Great American Smoke Out. This year the event will be Thursday, November 19th. ACS says that a smoker who quits smoking at 35 years old will add 8 years to their life. A smoker who quits at 55 will add 5 years.

http://www.cafepress.com/givitup/1077004

Why Simple Landing Pages Work

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:32:00 +0000

By Bruce Alan

Are you just getting started in Internet Marketing and you want to sell something? Not having your own product, you decide to try affiliate marketing (selling someone else’s product). OK, great…but how do you do it?

You can buy hundreds of ebooks all with different “systems” or strategies and you can find lots of free information as well. Eventually though, you are going to realize that you will need to make some landing pages.

What are landing pages? Landing pages are where you want your visitor to ”land” and once there, you hope they click on your link to go to the sellers website where they will then buy the product.

Why not just link directly to the seller’s website? Why do you need a landing page at all? Well, it depends on how you are going to get your visitor to the seller’s site. A popular way is by writing articles, having them published, and having readers find those articles and click on the links inside them. The problem is that many article sites do not allow direct affiliate marketing links. They will allow links to your website or landing page but not directly to the seller.

You can learn a lot about landing pages by typing in “What are landing pages” in Google. You will find lots of useful information and tips galore on how to make great landing pages. But just like everything else on the Internet, after reading 10 or so different articles, you may be no closer to making one and confused about exactly what you should do.

I believe the best way to get started is by making simple landing pages that pretty much say to the viewer ‘here is the product and here is where you get it“. I don’t do a lot of “pre-selling” on my landing pages and many Internet marketers would disagree with that. The common consensus is that you should warm your visitor up to the sale by reviewing the item and/or telling them how great it is.

The problem with that is that it is difficult to write convincingly about something you know little about. Another problem for beginners is that their writing skills may not be up to par…at least not yet. That is why I recommend setting up something simple at first.

My opinion is that it is my job (or you might say the landing page’s job) to get the visitor to the seller’s website. It is the seller’s job from there to convert the sale. I sort of just open the door for customers to walk through and let the product and shopkeeper do the rest. If they can’t do their job, then I have to at some time move to another product.

I suggest opening a blogger.com account or Wordpress.com account (which are both free) and use those as your landing pages. Make your site as pretty and color coordinated as you can (some people will obviously be better at this than others) and do a lot of copying and pasting graphics and words from your sellers website.

Only use one link to the seller’s website though, as using free blogs for marketing is frowned on and if you overdo it they could suspend you. Ideally you should get your own domain and hosting but that can be done once you start making money. If you have a Wordpress blog you can even go to YouTube and perhaps find a video about the product you are selling and put that in your blog. Looks great and I’ve done it.

Basically you are making a big advertisement that says “This is where you get so and so product”. If the people you drive to your blog want that product, then they will click on the link to find out more. Once they do that, you have done your job. Making a landing page is the easy part…..getting targeted traffic to your website or blog is much harder.

Love at First Sight, Baby Clothes and Gifts

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 17:14:00 +0000

Anyone who says they don't believe in love at first sight has never had a baby. Our delightful "Love at First Sight" baby tees, bibs and gifts make perfect baby shower gifts.

Shop for your baby gifts here

Vegetarian T-shirts and Gifts

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:38:00 +0000

I’m starting to go more and more toward the Vegetarian lifestyle and have added some fun Veg Out t-shirts and gifts to my online store. Check them out here:

Veg Out T-shirts and Gifts

T-shirts, Buttons and Magnets Show What You Think About What the Government is Doing

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:46:00 +0000

I don’t know about you, but what’s going on in the government right now really annoys me. If you think it’s unfair and maybe even insane, here are some buttons, magnets and stickers you can pass out to like minded friends. Or t-shirts you can wear yourself.

Shop Here

31 Days to Build a Better Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:02:00 +0000

Anyone in business today can benefit from a blog. If you don't have one, you should because most likely your competitor does. Blogs allow you to update your site in minutes - so Google loves them. When you link them to your website it's like driving fresh content there every time you add a post.

Blogs also give the human voice to a business and allow your customers to interact with you.

I just finished taking the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog course. Designed by Darren Rowse of Problogger it is packed with helpful information. Hundreds of thousands of us took the course online and let me tell you, it was tough keeping up! Luckily for future students he's come out with a workbook so if you're overloaded with life, you can take your time with the course and get even more out of it.

Here's the link to get the workbook. He's got a 100% return guarantee, so try it!

Click here to view more details

This Recession is Killing My Buzz

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:04:00 +0000

Is the recession getting old for you? I've added some fun t-shirts and buttons to at least deal with it with humor!

http://www.cafepress.com/givitup/6556667

New Inspirational Rectangular Magnets

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 02:01:00 +0000

I've always written positive quotes and Bible verses down and stuck them everywhere: inside my daytimer, inside the cabinet door where my vitamins are, on the side of the file cabinet next to my desk. In fact that is one reason I started my What I Learned Teaching Sunday School blog - it's a place to not only keep the lessons I've written and taught, thoughts I've had about Christian books, concerts, etc. but to keep all the great quotes and things I've been collecting.

Then that spilled over to my print on demand store and I've got positive and Christian t-shirts and gifts and just started a section of rectangular magnets with uplifting quotes on them. It's a little overboard, but it really helps me to be surrounded by them, so if I start to get down I don't have far to look to read something that will lift me up.

http://www.cafepress.com/givitup/6371093

Free Links to Help Your Business

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:10:00 +0000

Short and sweet today!

http://www.freelinks.com/

Facebook Applications to Promote Your Business

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:43:00 +0000

Facebook is growing rapidly and it’s becoming a destination for businesses and business professionals alike to establish a presence. Author Josh Peters shares over 30 Facebook applications to help promote, network, communicate, collaborate and accomplish more with your business.

Read article here

How To Create Offers People Act On

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:07:00 +0000

A marketing issue that baffles and frustrates many small business owners is when they make an offer to sample a product or service they sell and there are no takers.
Example: Why isn't the Phone Ringing?

Diane wants to build her real estate business by attracting more first time home buyers. On her web site's home page, along with the usual listings, she has an offer which reads, Are you buying your first home? Call me for free consultation at 1-800-NEW-HOME.

The offer has been up for six weeks and although people are visiting her website, the phone isn't ringing. Diane is discouraged and wondering if "this Internet marketing stuff really works?"

Has this happened to you? You create an offer--maybe a very generous offer--and no one takes you up on it.

It's really discouraging. I know. It's happened to me more than once.

So what's going on here? Bottom line: your offer may be a good one but you're making it at the wrong time for most of the people visiting your website.
What do I mean by "wrong time"? Here's an example:

Dan and Lisa are married couple looking for their first home. They're great prospective clients for Diane. Lisa is on the Internet checking out homes for sale in the neighborhoods in which they're interested and one of the websites she looks at is Diane's.

Now, let's assume that Lisa sees Diane's offer. Why doesn't she pick up the phone and call?

For the same reason most of us don't pick up the phone and call: we're concerned we're going to get a sales pitch and be pressured to do something we're not ready to do.

Solution: Small Steps Over Time

The way to create offers that people act on is to set up a series of small steps you ask prospects to take over a period of time.

For example, let's say that instead of offering a free consultation, Diane's offer is this:

"Click here to get my free report, The Ten Biggest Mistakes First Time Home Buyers Make."

When a prospect clicks the link they are asked for their email address so Diane can send them the report.

She will get a lot of takers on this offer.

Now that Diane has collected some emails what are the next offers she might make?
She sends those who downloaded the report two emails in the next 30 days that focus on specific points in her report. These emails also include an invitation to subscribe to her weekly ezine.

Those who subscribe receive a weekly ezine with information that's useful to first time home buyers.

In each ezine, Diane includes her original offer for the free 30-minute consultation.
Diane's free consultation offer is still there but prospects see the offer after taking two intermediate steps: (1.) Getting the free report; (2.) subscribing to her weekly ezine.

How Long Does It Take?

Some people will point out, "Yes, but won't it take longer to get prospects to the phone...what she wanted to begin with?" These folks worry that they're wasting time with little intermediate steps instead of just cutting to the chase.

It does take longer. Depending on the service your business provides, it can take anywhere from 8 weeks to several months. And there will be people who read your free reports and ezines for quite a while before they buy something.

But here's why offering small steps is so important. Why several small steps over time work so much better than asking for a giant step right away:

Effective marketing and sales are all about building trust and credibility. As human beings, we develop trust when we experience repeated demonstrations of trustworthiness over time. No matter how persuasive the sales pitch, no matter how many testimonials are in the copy, very few people will make a large financial or emotional commitment at first sight.

They will, however, make small, low cost commitments at first sight. And they will be willing to make larger commitments over time as you demonstrate value again and again.

Final Word

If you are making a generous offer to prospects but very few if any are responding, you may be asking them to do too much too soon. Consider adding at least one low cost, low commitment intermediate offer that gives you the opportunity to build trust over time.

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

Basic Things All Affiliate Marketers Need To Survive Online

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:54:00 +0000

Every affiliate marketer is always looking for the successful market that gives the biggest paycheck. Sometimes they think it is a magic formula that is readily available for them. Actually, it is just good marketing practices that have been proven over years of hard work and dedication. There are tactics that have worked before with online marketing and are continuing to work in the online affiliate marketing world of today. With these top three marketing tips, you will be able to increase your sales.

1. Using unique web pages to promote each separate product you are marketing. Do not lump all of it together just to save some money on web hosting. It is best to have a site focusing on each and every product and nothing more.

Always include product reviews on the website so visitors will have an initial understanding on what the product can do for those who buy them. Also include testimonials from users who have already tried the product. Be sure that these customers are willing to allow you to use their names and photos on the site of the specific product you are marketing.

You can also write articles highlighting the uses of the product and include them on the website as an additional page. Make the pages attractive, compelling and include calls to act on the information. Each headline should attract the readers to read more and contact you. Highlight your special points. This will help your readers learn what the page is about and make them want to find out more.

2. Offer free reports to your readers. If possible position them at the very topside of your page so they cannot be missed. Try to create auto responder messages that will be mailed to those who put their personal information into your sign up box. According to research, a sale is closed usually on the seventh contact with a prospect.

Only two things can possibly happen with the web page alone: closed sale or the prospect leaving the page and never return again. By placing useful information into their inboxes at certain specified periods, you will remind them of the product again. Be sure that the content is directed toward specific reasons to buy the product. Do not make it sound like a sales pitch.

Focus on important points like how your product can make life easier and more enjoyable. Include compelling subject lines in the email. As much as possible, avoid using the word “free” because there are still older spam filters that dump emails with free in them. Convince those who signed up for your free reports that they will be missing something big if they do not avail themselves of your products and services.

3. Get the kind of traffic that is targeted to your product. Just think, if the person who visited your website has no interest whatsoever in what you are offering, they will be among those who move on and never come back. Write articles for publication in e-zines and e-reports. This way you can locate publications that are focusing on your target customers.

Try to write a minimum of 2 articles per week, with at least 300-600 words in length. By continuously writing and maintaining these articles you can generate as many as 100-targeted readers to your site in a day.

Always remember that only 1 out of 100 people are likely to buy your product or get your services. If you can generate as much as 1,000 targeted hits to your website in a day, that means you have a chance at making 10 sales.

About the Author:
Eugenijus Sakalauskas
E-Ezine - Free marketing recourses,
website promotion tips
http://ezine.pluginnetproefit.com/
Get FREE info: plugin@freefollowup.com

Internet Marketing - Affordable Efficiency

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 22:13:00 +0000

Bonnie Jo Davis wrote very solid article on affordable Internet Marketing. These are all good steps to take whether you are just starting out or have been online for a while.

Click here to read the article

No Dream Too Big T-shirts and Gifts

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:10:00 +0000

I just added a new design to my Dream line in my store. “No Dream Too Big”. I especially like how the no and too are in light yellow, so that at first glance it looks like Dream Big!

Click here to see all No Dream Too Big items