If you are a business website owner who would like more traffic to the website, and growth for the business, you will want to target the world of search engine marketing. That’s because the search engines like Google are where many people go to look for information that leads them to your website.

What is a disappointment to many business owners is the fact that increasing business online is not as easy as having a website. With millions of websites currently registered, how will your potential customer find you?

It is estimated 80% of customers now look online before they make a purchase. If that’s not enough of a reason for managed search engine marketing, I am not sure what numbers would impress. These people searching online are looking for something beyond what the yellow pages provide. They are looking for more information about your business because their choices have opened up with how much content there is available online.

We first need to understand that the search engines are centered around the words that people type into them. It is important to think about the mindset of the person who would buy your product or service, and what terms they may be searching. Keyword research is not to be underestimated. As you will see here in a little while, securing the right keywords can make all the difference in whether your website will get any traffic at all.

Some website owners spend hours of work on keyword research and still target terms that are either popular, or that they like or have a desire to use. They don’t place enough importance on determining the stats behind the keywords that are used on the internet. It is not wise to form an attachment to a word or phrase. The numbers behind the keywords should speak for the choice to implement them on the website. If there are already tens of thousands of websites using the same key words or phrases, the words will be very hard to rank for in the search engines. If you don’t rank high in the search engines, you won’t get much traffic from them.

How do we find a profitable keyword, in terms of your ability to drive traffic to your website with the term, that a website can target AND get more buyers? First, let’s think about why people search online in the first place. Looking for information about a product or service or something that they want to know more about is one area. Using this information, and as part of your keyword research, you use various tools to gather stats and get even more ideas for specific words.

When you dig down into a keyword category (or outsource it and have someone do it for you), you can find what is called `money keywords’ or `profitable keywords’ that are associated with a balance between the amount of searches the keyword actually gets in the search engines and the amount of websites that are already targeting the specific word or phrase. There are statistics that support the data that you get as you research these money keywords.

Doing this keyword research in a very thorough way will uncover key terms that are excellent in terms of ranking high in the search engines, in the top spots of the first page. This does not take long to do if you implement a strategy around these money keywords. It is very exciting to secure these keywords and then track the results you can obtain with them.

A profitable keyword can help your website when it earns a high Google rank, in the top search results on the first page. More people will find your website and that means you have the opportunity to show your product or service to more potential buyers.

About the Author

Vicki Zerbee is the owner of http://www.yourwebsitemarketingservice.com where you can order a free Key Word Report or secure the key word service offered there.

It’s no secret that the fastest growing web properties are the social networking sites. Sites like Twitter, FaceBook, and Sokule are all the rave.

Part of the reason that these sites are so popular is that the Internet can be such a lonely place. People who run online businesses from home-based offices, as I do, sometimes want to just reach out to others who understand their world. So they drop by social networking sites “just to visit.”

Marketers like me look at these sites with millions of users and wonder if they can’t be used for something more than just socializing. We wonder if they can’t have a business application as well.

Social networking purist will scream “NO.” They will insist that you definitely should not sell on these sites. Others teach that you use these sites to build your brand, but lure people off these sites to your marketing site and into your sales funnel.

To those who wonder, “Can’t I market while still being social?” my answer is “yes.” The key is to do it in ways that feel natural (inoffensive) and in places where it’s expected.

Let me give you two quick examples:

1) Many people on sites like Twitter and Facebook are constantly pointing out online videos to their friends. They notice videos on video-sharing sites such as YouTube that are inspirational, touching, or thought provoking, and they want to share them with their friends. They see music videos of their favorite songs, or maybe really sexy videos, and it’s natural to share these with online friends that they know have similar interests.

What most people don’t know is that there are many ways that they can get paid just by pointing out videos to their friends. I personally do this using the system at: http://GetPaidToShareVideos.com This system pay Google AdSense revenue, plus pays you in other ways just for doing something that you already do.

2) Jane Mark and Phil Basten noticed how popular Twitter was becoming, but also that Twitter wasn’t designed for marketing. So they created a site very similar to Twitter, only it’s set up to encourage you to market.

Key differences include that it allows members to add up to five links to their favorite sites, it allows members to add their Clickbank ID and display ads for Clickbank product on which they passively earn commission, and it allows members to earn a commission when free members upgrade to membership levels that make more tools available.

This site is called Sokule (pronounced “so cool”), and it is also set up to make it easier to gather a lot of followers. I have often told my students that they should not think of their Twitter following as a list – because they are not “a list.” However, on Sokule, you can think of them as a list. Sokule is actually configured so that some levels of membership actually allow you to send a direct message to ALL of your followers.

You are only allowed to send a direct message to all of your followers once every three days, but that does make building a following much like building a mailing list on the platform. When you set up your Sokule account, you enter three areas of interest. Those following you can find you by searching the database for others interested in the same topics that they are interested in.

Presumably, those following you are interested in the same topics and would therefore welcome direct messages from you periodically. If not, they can always stop following you, just as they can on Twitter.

You can see how I’ve set up my Sokule profile page at: http://Sokule.com/postit/williec

These are just two quick example of how you can get paid for doing thing that you are already doing on the social networking sites. As you can see though, the key is knowing which sites to use.

It is possible to earn more than many “Internet marketers” earn selling affiliate products, just by “being social.”

Check out the two sites above today, and I’ll share other with you in future articles.

About the Author

Willie Crawford is one of the world’s leading Internet marketing authorities, and an in-demand joint venture broker. Most of his mentoring is done in a group setting on the member-only discussion forum at: http://TheInternetMarkeingInnerCircle.com Join that discussion to experience phenomenal business growth.

A couple years ago, I was talking with someone who was, for me, a very challenging client. I’m all about cultivating relationships that result in opportunities to sell.

This particular client seemed allergic to cultivating relationships for reasons I never really understood.

I remember one such meeting, I was trying to explain to my client the wisdom of first creating trust and credibility before trying to get a sale. And my client was blocking me at every turn with reasons why relationship development would not work for their business.

It was maddening.

Finally, I cried with exasperation, “Well, why the heck do you want to keep working with me since my approach doesn’t work for you?”

“Because you’re sincere,” the client replied.

“Who cares” I thought to myself since it didn’t seem to be to helping my client grow their business.

Since that time I’ve changed me mind about the quality of sincerity. I think it’s impossible to have sustainably effective marketing without sincerity.

The Importance of Being Sincere

The word, “sincere” is derived from the Latin word, “sincerus,” meaning whole, pure, genuine.

When you think about today’s business climate, sincerity isn’t a quality that comes to mind. But it’s a quality human beings need to perceive to be willing and able to buy.

The Place of Sincerity in Your Marketing

First, it’s important to remember the real role of marketing in your business.

Marketing is NOT about making a sale. Marketing is about creating a relationship based in trust and safety so that a sale can occur.

Regardless of public sentiment towards business, people and companies still have problems that need to be solved and stuff that has to get done. Your prospective customers still need to buy stuff.

They want to be able to trust you because they need to buy what you sell.

The marketing you do is all about establishing visibility and credibility so that there’s enough trust for the purchase to happen.

For example, if you regularly keep in touch with prospects via an ezine, you’re not doing it to “bug” your customers. You’re sending out that ezine because:

• You can remind them that “Hey, I help people just like you solve these kinds of problems.”
• You can offer examples and helpful information about the kind of problems you solve (”Here’s an example of how I helped a customer”)
• Or you provide helpful information for your prospects to better understand what they need to do to improve their situation.

Once prospective customers feel accepted for where they’re at and trust you can actually help, they can then take the next step.

It’s About Sustainable, Effective Marketing

Now there are also some relatively good-hearted entrepreneurs out there who use hard-sell tactics in their marketing. You subscribe to their ezine and get barraged with multiple emails every day telling you about some amazing program you “just gotta check out.”

Here’s what’s important: there is no rest with this kind of marketing. You must work very, very hard to generate this level of noise.

And if you’re spending so much time and energy with your own marketing, it’s tough to put much time or effort into where–in my opinion–we should be making the difference: helping clients and customers get results.

That, to me, is why hype-centered marketing with or without a good heart fails. If you want to market your business in a way that brings in a steady stream of ideal customers without burning yourself into a crispy critter, sincere, heart-centered marketing is the way to go.

Keys to Developing Sincere, Effective, Sustainable Marketing

#1. Ask yourself, “what’s my highest intention for my business?”

What’s the best possible outcome for you, for your business, and for your customer?

Example: the highest intention for Highly Contagious Marketing is when we help clients create marketing that grows their client base and their bottom line.

When that happens, satisfied clients send us referrals which helps Highly Contagious Marketing succeed financially and there are more successful businesses in the world making a positive difference.

#2. Look at how your intention is reflected in your marketing?

Thinking of the many different ways you market your business, how is your intention showing up?

Example: In all the activities to promote Highly Contagious Marketing, I want to:

(1.) Provide information, a how-to, or a resource that gives the person who gets the marketing a little added value

(2.) Provide an offer and a clear call to action for anyone wanting to take the next step and get more help from us.

(3.) Ask what one change can you make to your marketing to express your sincere desire to serve customers and make a difference?

Some specific actions you can take to show more sincerity in your marketing include:

(1.) Make your marketing message truly focused on your customer and their current problem. The first half of your message should be about your customer and their situation. If you’re talking about yourself–your solutions and qualifications, your marketing is not focused on the customer.

(2.) Look for ways to leave anyone who encounters your marketing a little better off than they were before the encounter. Marketing that informs, coaches, inspires, even entertains all leave recipients a little better off.

(3.) Make sure your marketing reflects your values and if not, make changes. If you loathe hype in other marketing but use hype because “that’s what everyone says I have to do,” stop using hype. Create marketing that gets results without making you feel like you sold your soul.

Bottom Line

Remember, marketing is all about cultivating trust-based relationships so prospects can buy. And sincerity is a critical factor which enables trust to grow.

Can you market your products and services without sincerity? Sure. But you will have to work a lot harder to sustain sales because you won’t be creating the quality relationships that give your marketing real momentum.

To create marketing in which sincerity shines through, take some time to remember what your business is in service for and take action so that your marketing better reflects what matters to you.

About the Author

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

The other day I opened up a post office box at my local Canada Post depot. A young girl in training was assisting me. Because of her inexperience, it took about 15 minutes to process the information. During this time, a lineup of 10 customers accumulated behind me. Feeling sorry for her, I walked away hoping she was not going to get yelled at by all the waiting customers. I saw her a couple of days later and asked if she had any irate customers after I left. Surprised, she said no and smiling she said….’I was totally focused on you and what I had to do, because if I looked at the line behind you, I would have freaked out!’

My dad had a Ricoh camera, the hottest and newest model at the time (25 years ago), that had a red dot in the middle of the lens. If your eye focused on the dot, and you fiddled with the lens until the dot came into focus, then you were ready to shoot your picture. If the dot was out of focus, subsequently the picture was out of focus. I am sure this was quite revolutionary at the time.

Focusing allows you to have ’short optics’! Your eye is your lens and is the focal point of your attention. Focus on the task at hand for the moment and exclude what is accumulating behind you. Focusing is a learned skill, easily trainable and accessible. Through practice, you can focus automatically, unconsciously bringing your body and mind into alignment. Focusing produces calmness and keeps you grounded. When your focus is centralized on something, it may exclude sounds and it may heighten body awareness such as your breathing or heart-beat. Focusing helps eliminate fear, anxiety and paralysis.

Focus on the solution, not the problem.

Walter Anderson

About the Author

Nominated for Canada 100 Most Powerful Women, Canada’s Diamond Coach Adele Alfano www.adelealfano.com is an award-winning professional speaker, author and co-publisher who has helped thousands of people capitalize on their unique abilities to maximize their potential through her specially designed systems. Adele is also the co-author, co-editor and publisher for a series of collaborative books titled Experts Speak Out books and is also the founder of the sold-out fundraising events in Southwestern Ontario called Kiss my Tiara www.kissmytiara.ca

Stressed out? Check out the effect that clutter can have on your life. Remove the clutter, and you’ll immediately notice the difference!

Stress is a major contributing factor to poor health. Physical clutter adds to that stress, often without your knowledge, because clutter is what you no longer see. You walk around the piles of magazines, and you really don’t see them. But I can guarantee that your head and stomach “feel” them; you get a wave of guilt from ignoring the problem. Perhaps you fear throwing things away because you might miss something.

A way to test this stress theory is to remove the clutter and feel the difference. If you are having a difficult time seeing the clutter in question, take a look around your space through a stranger’s eyes, as if company were coming. This is a surefire way to bring into awareness all of the items that you have been ignoring for a long time.

Clutter has no conscience.

Clutter can:

• Make you sick
• Make you feel tired
• Affect your body weight
• Keep you living in the past
• Cause or worsen depression
• Make you put your life on hold
• Induce a feeling of shame and guilt
• Be the main cause of procrastination
• Add unnecessary confusion to your life
• Make you feel that there is no alternative
• Affect how people treat and/or respect you
• Cause disharmony among family, friends, or co-workers

Clutter is nothing more than unmade decisions.

The existence of physical clutter should come as no surprise since we live in such a prosperous country. The problem is that we want everything and we want it NOW. Since we live in a climate of instant gratification, we can have most things whenever we want them. But we don’t need most of what we have in our lives. The “stuff” accumulates and is never given a proper home. Thus, clutter is born.

If you’re able to get your physical clutter under control, the mental clutter is likely to follow without much effort, since one usually causes the other. Have you noticed that when you go into a cluttered room or office, you immediately tense up? If you go into that same room or office after you have decluttered it, you feel liberated. Your time becomes yours again, your priorities fall back into place, and best of all, your health may improve.

About the Author

Patty Kreamer, Certified Professional Organizer® and owner of Kreamer Connect, Inc., provides speaking, coaching and consulting services to businesses and organizations who value effective practices that will leave their people being more efficient, empowered and proud of their accomplishments.

Do you want to be a much more organized person? Patty’s groundbreaking books, “…But I Might Need It Someday!” and The Power of Simplicity are available for purchase at www.ByeByeClutter.com. Or if you prefer a “baby-steps” online/workbook-based course, check out the Clutter Rescue Course, which will transform a life of clutter, wasted time, frustration and overwhelm to one of power, simplicity and organization.

If you’re looking for a fun, dynamic, and effective speaker, or if your company would benefit from a productivity coach or consultant, Patty is available in person, by teleconference, webinar and phone. Email her directly at patty@ByeByeClutter.com or call her at 412-344-3252.

Patty can also be contacted via Twitter, LinkedIn, FaceBook, Plaxo/Pulse, or her blog. For useful tips, sign up for her free monthly e-newsletter at www.ByeByeClutter.com.

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

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

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

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

1) Relax the Back

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

2) Anytime Fitness

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

3) American Leak Detection

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

4) Computer Troubleshooters

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

5) Home Instead Senior Care

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

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

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

About the Author

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

If your business website doesn’t have a blog, get one. A blog, if done right, can act as a direct and indirect mechanism that brings large amounts of qualified visitors to your site, many of whom may become customers.

This is mostly related to the way blogs interact with search engines and the traffic I am speaking of will come from search engines, mostly Google.

Before I explain how you can do this to help your website, let me first give some background on how search engines work, Google in particular.

When it comes to optimizing your website (or blog for that matter) for search engines you must always keep in mind two things: on-page optimization and off-page optimization.

On-page optimization is the elements of a Web page that better optimizes it to be found and ranked well in the search engines. These elements can include on-page content such as the actual sentences and paragraphs on the page, the headlines (or headers or Hx tags), the links, the links’ text, the title tag and much more.

Off-page optimization means the things that are done on sites besides your own, namely link-building. Off-page optimization is the process of creating links (or causing others to create links) on other websites that point to your site. Inbound links as these are often called have a major impact on how well you rank in search engines. Generally speaking, the more inbound links, the better. But the quality of the sites with these inbound links, or the way the search engines perceive the sites, is even more important.

To rank on the first couple of pages on the search engines requires work on both on-page and off-page optimization. Two additional and important pieces of information that you’ll need to understand are related to site content and internal links.

Search engines also very much love new, original and quality content, and they like to see your website regularly adding this kind of new content. You don’t need to add pages every day, just add pages at the same rate over time. So if you add a page a week to your site, keep it at around that same pace, or increase or decrease gradually.

A website can be considered a living entity in a sense. It certainly shouldn’t be static. It should grow over time. And the fantastic thing about content is that the more of it there is on your site, the more chances you have getting found in the search engines.

The idea that inbound links help your search engine rankings that I explained above can be extended to your own internal pages as well. In other words, the more links to a particular page coming from other pages within the same site will boost that page’s rank as well.

Think of it this way. If you had a ten-page site, including a product page and every page on the site contained a link to your product page. If all other things were equal, your product page would rank higher than the rest of your site’s pages (besides the home page which is given a little extra weight).

Now let’s consider what would happen if there were only you and your competitor in your industry (only if that could be true!) and your site still had those ten pages while your competitor’s site contained one hundred pages. Furthermore, your competitor set it up the same way as you where he added a link to every page on his site that pointed to his product page. If all other things were equal his product page would outrank your product page every time. Why? Because he had 100 internal links pointing to his product page and you only had 10.

If you put all these pieces together now, on-page optimization, off-page optimization or link building, content creation and internal linking, can you begin to see why a blog may be a good thing? A blog helps with all of these.

A blog that is regularly updated is providing a mechanism for adding fresh content on a regular basis. Plus, it’s so easy to use a blog that anyone can use them, so even if you or your employees don’t know a thing about Web pages and HTML, you’ll still be able to add new content to your site.

Consider this. If you add fresh, quality content to your blog on a regular basis by writing posts, something the search engines love, and within each post you link to an important page within your site, let’s say your product page for instance, you’re now building links to help your rankings using your blog. With this additional link your product page gets that much more boost in the search engines.

Remember how I explained that links from within your own site help your rankings? Adding links within your blog posts pointing back to your other important pages of yours that you want to rank well is a great way to help your rankings.

And every time you publish a new post, you’re giving the search engines one more entry point into your site. Your site will quickly get bigger, and with each new page your site gets more visible.

Keep in mind that the links you make within your blog posts should be relevant. Only link to your product page from a post that has to do with your products. And also, blog posts ought to be useful to your site visitors. The less you talk about your products and instead offer useful, free information that people can use, the more traffic and repeat visitors you’ll get.

Remember that people really don’t care about you, your website or your products, they only care about how you can help them. If you sell furniture, a blog post about how to find the best deals on furniture would be far better than a post about how your chairs are the best in the world.

One important thing to remember is that if you plan on creating a new blog for your business as a way to augment your website be sure you put the blog on your actual domain. This means that you would not use a remote service like Blogger.com. Instead, you must have the blog on your business website’s address (or domain). For example, if your website address is http://www.yoursite.com/ then your blog should be located at http://www.yoursite.com/blog or http://blog.yoursite.com/

By adding a blog to your business website you are creating a way to get more traffic. You’ll get direct traffic from your posts, which get indexed by the search engines and drive traffic to your site from searches. And you’ll get indirect traffic from your other site’s pages ranking well in the search engines because they have links pointing to them from your blog posts.

You’ll be regularly adding fresh content to your site, which search engines love, thereby creating more ways to be found in the search engines at the same time. And each post provides a new opportunity to create a link or two to other pages and blog posts on your site, thereby boosting those pages’ rankings.

Like I suggested at the beginning, if your business website doesn’t have a blog, go get one.

Copyright 2009 TheNetGazette.

About the Author

Jason O’Connor is a Web business and marketing professional who produces The Net Gazette, a free online Web business and marketing periodical. The Net Gazette covers topics that range from (http://www.thenetgazette.net/sept-09/BlogsSEO.htm) blogging for business to Twitter. Read the September edition here: (http://www.thenetgazette.net/sept-09/sept-issue-09.htm) or visit the main website here: http://www.thenetgazette.net/

When I first started coaching my mentor coach warned me that August and December tended to be slow months while January, April and September were the busiest months in terms of clients seeking coaches.  Armed with this information, I was able to build a realistic income forecast for my business as well as plan personal downtime.

Planning around my business cycles is one key way I have been able to stay in business for 12 years.

Unfortunately, too many people believe that the amount they make one month will translate to all months and then they’re in trouble when that’s not the case.  I have seen it too many times.  A business owner will have a big party and overspend after having a great month then they are short when a lean month comes along.

Most businesses have an annual cycle and it’s imperative to know what that cycle is for your business.

Determining The Cycle

If you have been in business for a year or more, go back in your records and chart the amount of business each month.  Is it steady?  Are some months much higher while others much lower?  Use this information to define your business cycle.

If you are just starting out, do some informational interviews with other people in your industry.  Ask what the busiest times of the year are and what the slowest are.  Ask what affects people’s decisions in buying.

It’s important to make the distinction that the business cycle I’m speaking of in this article is not dictated by the economy but rather by the buying habits of your clients and the seasonality of your market.  Slow periods created by a down economy require additional measures be taken to generate business.

Making The Most Of Your Business Cycle

Once you determine your business cycle, brainstorm ways to leverage or minimize the slow times.  Here are some ideas:

* Do side work – For example, I teach classes at a virtual university.  During slow client months I keep my calendar full by teaching more classes and replace the client cash flow with teaching cash flow.  This minimizes the impact of client’s taking vacations and breaks that month.

I would recommend that the side work either relates to your main business, compliment your main business or feed a passion in you.  The point is to stay engaged, not to start something completely new and different.

* Catch-up.  Although it’s great to think we get everything done we need and would like to, the reality is we often don’t.  Make a list of unfinished projects such as scanning business cards, calling old contacts, updating addresses, hiring a new CPA and plan to knock out the list during a slow month.

* Create. Design new products, set-up partnerships or create a marketing campaign that will roll out following the slow cycle.

* Plan. It seems easier to take time to think, plan and strategize when there are fewer day-to-day activities happening.

* Update systems.  When fewer people are using the systems you have in place it’s easier to transition to newer, better ones.  Some systems to review:  credit card processing, database, newsletter provider and communications among your team.

* Schedule doctor’s appointments. I book all my annual doctor’s appointments during my slow months.  Doing so keeps appointments from conflicting with my client call schedules and gives me more wriggle room around the appointment so I don’t feel rushed to get back to the office.

* Connect. Meeting friends for coffee or taking the time to have lunch with your spouse can be a luxury during a busy month, so plan some outings when you can.

* Rejuvenate. Slow months can be the perfect time for you to get away because fewer clients will miss you.  I take two to three weeks off in December to spend quality time with my family in Colorado.  I find that during this time I can turn off my computer completely and enjoy really quality downtime to refresh my creative juices.

To offset the weeks without work, I offer clients the opportunity to pay upfront for the following year’s sessions if they need more tax write-offs in the current year. Typically, two to three clients take advantage of this offer that helps to keep my December income balanced with other months.

No matter how you choose to use the extra time during slower months, make sure you do use it efficiently.  Time is a commodity for small business owners.

(c) 2009 Leah Grant Enterprises LLC.

About the Author

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR ON YOUR WEB SITE?  You may, as long as you include this entire blurb with it: New Business Mentor Leah Grant publishes Startup Success, a weekly enewsletter.  If you’re thinking about starting a new business or are in the early phases of entrepreneurship, get your FR.EE New Business Startup Kit including the Secrets of Successful Business Owners audio at www.leahgrant.com.

The typical form of newsletter is a one-way communication where you provide information to customers, such as product updates and announcements. Creating a successful newsletter can be extremely rewarding. Subscribers and customers respond with glowing feedback, online sales jump and your customer relationships and brand loyalty deepens. Here are some useful tips that might help in creating a successful newsletter.

Define Success

Ask yourself “What is the purpose of your newsletter?” A newsletter is a substantial investment of company resources in terms of time and energy, and you need to define in as tangible terms as possible the purpose of your Newsletter.

Voice and Personality

Establish a voice or editorial personality—whether newsy, serious, gossipy or funny—that is synergistic with the image you want to portray and connects with your audience. Remember that e-mail newsletters aren’t e-mail promotions designed to stimulate immediate action. Sales and promotional copy don’t suit e-newsletters. Nor does the traditional tone of broadcast corporate communications. Think of your newsletter as a one-on-one conversation. Just imagine sitting in a coffee shop talking informally with a customer. That’s the starting point for your approach—a more personable and appropriate “human” voice will come naturally. Drop the jargon, drop the sales pitch, be as honest as you can, and talk like a human being. You can have as much or as little personality as is appropriate. Consider adding a brief editorial, a comment or two, an editor’s note, a couple of lines of commentary, a touch of opinion; adding a little human element here and there. Sign editorials, give authors a byline, or list some names down in the administrative section of each issue to which your readers can relate to.

“From” Line

Whether it’s a person’s name, name of the newsletter or company name, determine what will resonate best with your readers and stay with it.

“Subject” Line

“Vol. 1, Issue #8″ or “Company News” are not enticing subject lines. They are certainly consistent and simple, but they don’t tell your readers anything that will motivate them to open your e-mail. Your subject line is your calling card—entice your readers with the most interesting or intriguing information in your Newsletter. Use attractive headlines as a means to summarize a section of content.

Style/Format

Establish a format and layout of your Newsletter that is clean and simple, with elements of the Newsletter (table of contents, “Tips”, subscription information, etc. located in the same spot each issue).

Content and Relevancy

Figure out what your readers want and give it to them. Seek continuous improvement by obtaining reader feedback and monitoring click-through rates to determine what types of articles are most popular. Another dilemma that we all confront is too much information and too little time. The newsletter’s job is to keep readers on top of trends and the latest developments in the industry. Aim for articles and feature stories to meet one of the following criteria by including either: major industry occurrences, forward thinking industry ideas, education on issues or new techniques, or business opportunities.

Whether your customers work out of a corporate or home office, or employees need answers to questions and tips for improving business activities, e-newsletters provide you with an opportunity to point out work inefficiencies, and share relevant best practice. When you create a newsletter, try changing your focus from selling products and services to solving your customers’ problems. Think about what they need and give options they don’t know exist.

The greatest thing about the electronic medium is that you can quickly add new hyperlinks and include updates on old material should new information surface without incurring another round of cost for a new issue (that happens in the real world).

Don’t Wait Till the Last Minute

Begin compiling newsletter information in advance. Ask fellow marketers to contribute articles. One great source of information is none other than your inbox where you can quickly search for worthy nuggets from the past week and relay the same essence in your own words.

Quality Sources

Where can you get quality content for your newsletter?

1. Article directories like ezinearticles.

com or findarticles.com. Also get articles from yahoogroups. The downside to this is that you need to include the author’s signature or resource box.

2. Forums. One of the most dynamic and updated places on the Internet is where people write off the cuff and in real-time. Thread after thread, reply after reply of the latest information comes off the minds of forum participants. Combine interesting topics and reword them into an original article.

3. Again, your own inbox right under your nose. Whatever other marketers are writing or selling about, use them to your own advantage and recreate them as your own.

4. Your own insights are really your best resources. When you have passion, you will never stop talking about what you know. Be consistent at no. 4 and soon enough you will find a way to mold yourself into an expert. Continue to expand your knowledge database and add value to it.

Graphics

Use graphics that print well on your printer. Using a good mix of photographs and art work makes for interesting copy. Too many graphics can leave the newsletter looking cluttered.

Frequency

Determine how frequently your readers want to hear from you/receive your newsletter—and what you can commit to. As a rule, a weekly newsletter is ideal. However, don’t launch a weekly newsletter if you are not absolutely certain that you can distribute a quality Newsletter every week. A fortnightly newsletter is a good option too.

Length

A newsletter should be a quick read. Readers expect to finish reading it in 4 to 5 minutes. Short articles increase the probability that your reader will find something of interest to them.

Timing

Test and pick a day and time that works best…and stick to it. Readers should almost be able to set their watches by the receipt time of your Newsletter.

Penetration

You have the option of formatting your e-mail by including colorized text and a variety of fonts, but not all e-mail software supports HTML mail. Consider writing your newsletter in plain text or offer two mailing lists—one for plain text mailings and the other for HTML e-mail.

Make it Viral

Provide information readers can act on or that stimulates reaction—forwarding it to friends and peers, stimulating purchases or requests for additional information. Make it easy for readers to forward articles and information to peers and friends. Provide a “Tell a Friend” link that enables readers to forward the Newsletter with a personalized note.

Search

Make it easy to find articles of interest and back issues. Provide a table of contents and links to articles within the newsletter and to resources and past articles on your site.

Printability

If you want to give readers an option to print, consider providing “printer-friendly formats” on your website. Make sure your newsletter is physically readable. Avoid anything less than 12 point fonts for the article text. Fancy fonts may look good but can be hard to read when printed. Heading and text fonts should be consistent throughout the newsletter.

If you lack experience in print media, seek out assistance if you know someone in the field. If not, don’t worry—the abovementioned basic principles apply. Plan to research your material thoroughly and avoid factual or editing errors, as they will make you seem less credible.

Personalize

At the very least, address the reader by name. The most successful newsletters have a human being associated with them…and a personality. If possible, your Newsletter should be “written by a person” at your company…not the company.

Language

Not everyone has the range and depth of vocabulary as teachers and linguists do. Use words that are easy to understand, and if you do use technical terms, provide a definition that people can relate to. There is nothing more frustrating then a definition that makes less sense than the word itself. Just write in layman terms and keep it short, simple and straightforward.

Spelling and Grammar Check

Sending out copy with numerous errors creates a negative image to your readers. Aside from using a spell checker, have an outsider edit your final copy for readability, grammar and content.

Test and Track

Test the Newsletter on few e-mail addresses to check for errors and other issues before sending to the entire distribution list. Keep track of results and reactions to your newsletter to come to an understanding for further tweaks and corrections.

Lastly, to summarize the key fundamental features of an e-newsletter, make sure you include:

• Table of Contents
• Hyperlinks for customers who want more information for a featured topic
• Exciting secrets or tips related to your product or service
• Contact information

E-newsletters can take up a good amount of time if not managed correctly. The use of a list server (a piece of software that runs on your Internet provider’s computer or on your own web server) is a good option. It will automatically manage a list of e-mail addresses. Once you send your newsletter to the list server, it distributes the letter to the stored addresses. For more information on list servers, contact your Internet service provider. If you opt to use another method, make sure you have a plan for handling incoming and outgoing mail when your customer base increases.

In conclusion, your newsletter can serve as an extension of your business that will reach out to your customers. It will allow you to maintain regular contact with them and serve as an effective and rewarding addition to your marketing arsenal. These tips should help you put it all together and help you create an exceptional newsletter.

About the Author

Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com

It’s sad, but true.

Most internet entrepreneurs are struggling with poor response, and have no idea how to go about increasing the effectiveness of their marketing beyond increasing the size of their advertising budget. This foolishness never ends.

The truth is, most internet marketers don’t have a problem getting traffic. They have problems converting browsers into buyers, and more often than not, the problem lies with their web copy.

It’s brutal, but bad copy is bad copy, long and short.

It costs nothing to tweak your web copy, and yet you can get measurable, marked improvements in response!

Here are 4 little known ways which cost nothing to implement to, radically improve your internet profits.

Response Booster #1: Add DRAMA!

Fact #1: It’s hard to get anybody’s attention

Fact #2: It’s hard to keep their attention

Read this:

“Bill was shocked. He had never seen so much blood in his life… it was almost nauseating. It wasn’t his fault. He buried his face in his hands and wept… she was such a lovely child….”

I bet you really want to know what happened next, don’t you?

Well, I don’t know what happened next either cause I just made that up. But I think this proves how powerful a device drama can be.

The key is to keep your reader hooked!

If your reader doesn’t read your copy, your copy has no chance of selling anything!

Here’s one of my favorite quotes from the famous mystery writer Dashiell Hammet, who gave other budding writers this advice:

“When in doubt, have someone come crashing through the door with a gun.”

Response Booster #2: Give Them The Facts

Do you know what’s the #1 trend online?

Skepticism.

There are way too many scandals in the political, economic, educational, religious and financial arena.

People just don’t know who to trust anymore, do you?

On the web, almost every mother’s son is THE GURU.

Who do you trust?

Does your sales letter answer the questions: Who are you, why should I pay attention to you and why should I buy from you?

You have to back up what you say with the cold, hard unadulterated FACTS.

Response Booster #3: Empathize

Here’s a direct quote from Robert Collier from his legendary out of print book, “The Robert Collier Letter book”:

“The reader of this letter wants certain things. The desire for them, is consciously or unconsciously, the dominant idea in his mind all the time. You want him to do a certain definite thing for you. How can you tie this up to the thing he wants, in such a way that the doing of it will bring him a step nearer to his goal?”

You must get out of your own ego and get into theirs!

When you truly know your prospect inside out, you’ll be able to display empathy in your sales copy, and be able to push their emotional buttons, and hit them in the “sweet spot” to make them say, “I really want to buy this.”

Response Booster #4: Dress Up

It’s really important that you know why your website looks the way it does.

While many will argue that it’s not always true… people DO judge a book by its cover, and for that matter, your website from how it looks.

You can radically increase the chance of your prospect doing business with you, by conveying credibility through your font and color section. It’s easy to tell an amateurish website from a professional.

If you don’t convey credibility, you’ll lose the sale as people are wary about credit card fraud, and there’s no way they will gamble with fate and give their credit card number to a website that looks like crap.

Ask yourself, “Do the graphics enhance readership and credibility, or are they there simply for the sake for being there?

This is the vest best “litmus test” for using graphics in your web copy.

There’s one more thing that stands between your web copy and the results you should be getting from it.

YOU.

Go for it!

Dan “The Man” Lok

About the Author

A former college dropout, Dan The Man Lok transformed himself from a grocery bagger in a local supermarket to an internet multi-millionaire. Dan came to North America with little knowledge of the English language and few contacts. Dan just created a 4-part video explaining exactly how he makes millions online, watch them here >> http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com