January 2, 2010 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Many large and small businesses alike have recently discovered the great advantages of blogging in maintaining good communication relationships with both employees and customers. It is obvious that for some people, blogs have become a means of sharing information and expertise at very advanced levels and this can only mean increased profit for the company. It is a common knowledge by now that small businesses profit the most from blogging. Why? Because a highly specific web page such as a blog, successfully substitutes an extensive online presence. Instead of a static page, you offer a very dynamic blog where feed-back is encouraged and various issues get tackled with.
Many Internet experts consider blogs a very informal, yet popular way of developing business contacts, since, the informational content receives a different approach than in the case of classic promotion sites. Business owners can definitely enjoy great recommendations from users, but there are also dissatisfied customers who could review the products or services unfavorably. You’ll have to be prepared to handle such situations with the utmost diplomacy in order to avoid a worsening of the situation. On the other hand, a business blog provides the opportunity to run market research and avoid hiring employees that don’t fit requirements.
Business blogs also function as the right tool to spread news to all the employees at once; this kind of blog application is usually preferred by larger companies who can reach the staff in a more comfortable way and on a daily basis. Statistics claim that blogging significantly contributes to team building and communication between the departments of the same company; hence, there has been an increased preference for blogging over newsletters. Nevertheless, we also have to mention the more difficult aspects of business blogging as well.
For instance, maintaining an updated blog requires quite a lot of time and work, it may even be necessary to have someone perform all the operations on a regular basis. Then, the e-commerce possibilities are fewer when it comes to using a blog over a regular site; you may find it very advantageous to start blogging when you just initiate your business online, but then, you may choose to use it in parallel with a regular promotion site, once things get to look brighter. If at the beginning you take advantage of the minimal costs required by a business blog, later you need to monitor efficiency first and foremost.
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December 25, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Every corporation today should be creating and maintaining a fresh and engaging blog – and they should be monitoring it, too. Creating your own content is important, but so is monitoring—and responding to—the conversations taking place about your brand on blogs and forums across the Web.
The biggest risk with blogs is a lack of relevant and timely publishing. If you don’t post timely, punchy, informative posts, your blog will not be read or be found by search engines. Your goal is not to obtain momentary awareness but to maintain relevancy over the long term for your target audience. You need to use buzz-monitoring tools to find out what customers are talking about—what interests them right now—and then use your blog to write about these subjects. This quest for prolonged relevancy and a deeper interaction with your customer is what a good business blog is all about.
It is no secret that trusted information sources, offline and online, are given greater credence by decision-makers than paid advertisements. People may be talking about your brand, your clients’ brands and your competitors as well. Are you listening and responding— and thereby demonstrating your commitment to the community that surrounds your business on the Web? Are you using monitoring tools to find and monitor all the blogs where people are talking about your brand, so you can engage in the conversation, post responses, and build relationships with them? Your own blog-publishing efforts and a blog-monitoring and commenting program must offer unique opportunities for a richer connection with key influencers.
Interacting with only the people who fully support your brand isn’t going to win any hearts and minds—nor make a lasting impact on branding and revenue. Use social media monitoring tools to find out who is talking about your brand, what they are saying, and what they like and dislike about your product. Understanding the key positive and negative voices discussing your brand will enable you to even better engage your fans, as well as to reach out to detractors to try to win them over. If you take a blogger’s criticism or suggestion and use it in creating a better product or service, not only will you have won that user over, you will have shown that you are taking your customers’ opinions to heart. Treat all of your blog-based interactions like a true relationship, with both sides giving and taking. You might gain valuable product, marketing, and segment knowledge from the interactions. Offer your key influencers special promotions or give them a say in product design or development. Remember, online interactions are a two-way street.
Use social media monitoring tools to find out which blogs and forums are hosting conversations about your brand. Take the time to know where your brand is being discussed and research the groups that are talking about it. Doing so gives you a better chance of relating to users and creating a relationship, rather than just talking at them in your own blog and when responding to their posts.
Take a close look at your business blog. Is it boring? Are the posts too infrequent? Does it speak to the conversations you’ve uncovered with social-media monitoring tools? Does it invite engagement by making it easy to post responses and to share posts via email and social networks? The person responsible for writing content for your blog should have full access to the social media monitoring data you uncover on a daily or weekly basis—so they can write posts that touch on those subjects. In addition, your social media marketing team should work hand-in-hand with your business blogger to promote posts with all the social-networking platforms, as well as to reach out to external bloggers to invite them to read and comment on your blog.
Many blogging programs fail to be relevant and drive engagement because businesses bite off more than they can chew and then the blogging programs languishes due to lack of time. Start small and then grow the program from there. It doesn’t cost a lot to (a) write posts for your blog; (b) use free or inexpensive monitoring tools to stay abreast of conversations about your brand; and (c) participate in the Web-wide dialogue taking place about your brand. But it does take a lot time. Make sure to map out your objectives based on the available bandwidth of your marketing team.
The pitfalls are many: failing to post regularly on your corporate blog; posting only text and no photos, videos, or links; failing to create a cohesive voice on your corporate blog by allowing several people to post; and neglecting to use all the methods possible to drive traffic to your blog (SEO, SEM, social media networks, email campaigns, etc.). But it’s easy to avoid these pitfalls now that you know what they are. Following these simple rules will result in a blogging program that does what you want it to: drive customer engagement, build your brand and boost sales.
Sofia Sapojnikova
Vesta Digital
IntelBuilder Social Media Platform
http://www.vestadigital.com
December 19, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Caught you with the title, didn’t I? Chances are, you don’t want your business to grow slowly. No, you want fireworks, and a little animated line that shows profits going through the roof.
That’s all well and good, provided this is your third or fourth successful business. If this is your first business, you may need to take it slow. Why? Because there are mistakes that are waiting to bite you. You may not be properly prepared to handle what is coming down the pipe, even if it something grand, like a $100,000 contract.
With this in mind, I’m going to lay out a couple of mistakes to avoid, and a few systems you will need in place.
Common Capital Killers…
The first mistake everyone seems to make, is their need for an office. Unless you are selling a product that requires a fair amount of foot traffic, do not go out and lease, rent, or otherwise procure an office outside of your home.
Multiple friends of mine have done this very thing, and it has eaten into early profits. If you have an office, then you will want a phone system. If you have a phone system, then you will need to purchase internet service. Occupying an office is an easy way to spend $700-$1100 a month for which you will get nothing in return. If you have a spare bedroom, with some decent used office furniture and lighting, it will be more than sufficient. In the beginning, it won’t be a huge inconvenience to meet a client at their office. They would probably prefer that you come to them.
The second mistake I see is a problem along the same line. People immediately feel the need to upgrade their transportation, at the worst possible time. This is especially tempting to people who are in sales. Never spend good money on image maintenance. Your business is young.
If you already have a car payment, buy a magnetic panel that has your business phone number and name, and stick it on. In some cases, that may qualify you to write off some, or all of your car payment as advertising. Check with your accountant on that one, as certain guidelines have to be met for consideration as a legal deduction.
Accounting and Legal considerations…
Speaking of an accountant, you should have a good one, and use him as little as is humanly possible(at least in the beginning). If you can, learn to use a basic invoicing/accounting program, like Quickbooks. That will save you a fair amount of money. If you aren’t great with books, or have more complicated financial transactions, then you may need to hire a part-time bookkeeper to enter transactions, and make sure everything is ship-shape.
Legal issues are another fun area. Whether or not you hire a lawyer will depend a great deal on the industry you are in. I would recommend LegalZoom for standard legal documents. Basic contracts, scope-of-work documentation, and non-disclosure agreements are pretty standard from state-to-state. Do buy a template from someone like LegalZoom. Don’t download the first free one you find, and modify it for your purposes. You never know what you are missing in the fine print. While legal fees can kill you, they can also keep you from unnecessary lawsuits and expenditures. Pay for it now, or pay for it later…with interest.
With regard to keeping legal records, I prefer to converse via email, rather than verbally. In this manner, I can have a written record of the conversation and agreements, rather than a flimsy, verbal contract. In addition, make sure you have purchase order, or a signed contract for any invoice you issue. Properly documented transactions can save you thousands in legal fees, and lost profits. Again, accountants and lawyers are people you don’t want to see in the “expense” column every month.
What about hiring employees?…
This can carry a huge, legal burden, depending upon their legal classification. As a small business, your best bet is to hire a 1099 contractor, rather than a full-time W2 employee. Why? Hiring a W2 employee immediately makes you responsible for paying equal parts of Social Security and Medicare tax. Depending upon the number of employees who are classified as W2, you may be required to pay for workman’s compensation insurance, along with Unemployment insurance premiums. In some cases, it is not legal to classify workers as 1099. There are 20 questions that the department of Labor asks to qualify someone as a contractor. If you have any questions, you should call the US Department of Labor, before hiring for a position.
What about advertising and a website?…
Both of these sections go hand in hand. Start by getting your company listed with Google, Yahoo, and Bing Local. You’ll have the upper hand when someone searches for “rocking chairs in Boston”. Post pictures of your product, company, hours of operation, and services. It’s simple, and easy.
If you want a website, I would recommend a service like Dreamhost(at $10 a month for hosting), and installing Wordpress. For a theme, I would recommend Thesis, which is infinitely customizable. If you aren’t comfortable with setting up something of this nature, then call a local web design firm. It shouldn’t cost you very much for a basic website, and it will be a worthwhile investment.
Stay away from the Yellow Pages. In most cases, it is not worth the investment, either from a web standpoint, or in return on investment spent. If you are going to spend money, spend it on a service like Google Adwords, where you can track your return on investment.
Yes, if you want the most profitability in this area, you will have to learn how to use such systems. There is no path around it. The business will grow faster, if you learn how to use the internet as a marketing system.
With regard to offline advertising, do it in ways that cost you little or nothing. Barter services with a print shop for flyers. Talk to a local pizza company, and see if they will deliver your flyer with their pizza (for a small fee, of course). Be creative, be imaginative, and expand the definition of your business and how it relates to customers.
What About Customers…
Ah, yes. Revenue generation. This is why I call it growing your business slowly. Unless your business is in a huge growth area, the first client is going to be the hardest to get. The second will be a little bit easier. On from there. While you can get leads more quickly through the internet, the easiest way to get a new customer is a referral from an old customer. Do quality work, sell a quality product, provide a quality service.
Oh, Come On…
Yeah, I know,you signed up to hear some buzzword from the business gurus. Some Jedi mind trick that will make everyone pay you good money. Honesty, quality, and thrift will make your business grow. There are no shortcuts. So listen up, take the advice to heart, and prepare to grow…slowly at first, and then exponentially.
December 18, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Operating a home business blog involves effectively completing numerous tasks if you have intentions of successfully marketing on the internet. The root of your success will be in the amount of blog traffic you can attract. Immediately behind this will be the amount of loyalty you can generate with the blog reader to continue to return to your site.Let’s review 5 straight forward and uncomplicated blogging tips you start using today to increase your traffic and keep your readers returning.Leave Comments on Other BlogsYou should already be visiting other blogs in your niche to get new ideas on topics and layout designs so become involve in their discussions. When appropriate leave comments that are useful and/or insightful for the other readers. In doing so leave a signature card that reflects a link back to your site. Over time if your comments are good enough people will visit your link to find out more about you and what you do.Post RegularlyPost to your site on a regular basis so your readers will know what to expect from you. The fresher the content you have on your blog the more often not only will readers visit but also search engines. You now are developing a stronger loyalty with the reader while also increasing your search engine ranking. All this will ultimately add up to more readers which add up to more income if that is of any interest to you!Elicit CommentsWhen blog posting do not be afraid to rattle cages or ruffle feathers with your readers. You want to ’stimulate’ your readers with entries that get them thinking which will compel them to comment. The more they comment the more involved in your blog posting they will become therefore the more likely they will continue to return.Respond to CommentsDo not leave your readers ‘hanging’ if they comment on something and you do not respond. This is not to say you need to respond on every comment but on only those that warrant a reply. The interactivity of a blog is what makes them so popular so do not kill this spirit by neglecting to reply when appropriate.Invite Guest BloggersBe open to inviting an occasional guest blogger to leave a post on your site. This will help to ’spice’ things up on your blog by injecting new ‘blood’ or perspective into it and will serve to increase the interest levels of your readers. It will also give you a new source of content and probably a much needed break from your blogging duties.A home business blog is a great platform for marketing on the internet provided certain tasks are routinely completed. The continual need to generate blog traffic is fundamental to your success as is nurturing the loyalty of the blog reader once they arrive. By implementing the 5 simple blogging tips we discussed above you should have no problem attracting and retaining all the traffic you will need to be successful online.
TJ Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina.
To learn more about successfully maintaining a Home Business Blog and to also receive a free instructional manual that teaches valuable niche research techniques simply visit:http://blogbrawn.com/
December 15, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
The Vemma business can be built fairly efficiently by driving Google search traffic to your site utiilizing article marketing.Though the point of this article is not that of article marketing, there are certain materials I can provide on all the “how-to”s of article marketing if you like.Let’s just keep it super-simple and summarize the concept with this:You can write an article on some subject, say, “Vemma Opportunity”, or “Why Vemma Rule”, having to do with Vemma or anything else for that matter, and you can post that article to various article posting sites. In each article, generally, you are allowed to put two links in your “about this author” section at the bottom. You can link these to your blog or your lead capture page, or wherever else you decide.The more articles you have posted and on more sites, the more links this gives you back to your original content for your Vemma article. This is important for SEO and getting your site seen by thousands of folks. Many links back to your one page with relevant content is a GIGANTIC factor in determining your ranking on the search result. It is by no means the only thing. But it’s very important.Moving on from this you can then use certain software which will post all by itself your one article to all the relevant posting sites all in one blast, saving you huge amounts of time. This quickly provides you many back-links to your webpage. This is the basic concept behind getting you page to come up on the first page of a Google search for the keywords you are aiming at.This process is very involved and I can share more with you about that but for now let’s focus on the 5 most significant mistakes that can be made in trying to get your page to come up high in the search page results..I recently listened to a presentation given by the internet marketing master and SEO guru Kenny Gregg.Kenny has over 17 years of success in direct marketing and is an proven expert on SEO lead generation. He has run several websites that have literally gotten over 5000 hits per minute! He earned over $20K per month for over 10yrs straight in network marketing, doing it the old-fashioned way (without the net) and he understands the basic principles of network marketing. He has been marketing online.So, he’s no novice!Here are the five biggest foul-ups that internet marketers make which cost them SEO, specifically Google search results, according to Kenny Gregg. There are more. But there are the 5 important ones. So pay attention!More folks click on the the top seven results of a Google search by far, than any other positions. Here are the big ones that will cost you those spots:1st Mistake To Fix If You Want to Rank Your Vemma Page in Google Search – KEYWORD STUFFING.Some people think that if they just stuff the body of their article with as many repetitions of their keywords as possible that this will increase their rank. This is totally false. The Google spiders are smarter than this and they will recognize this as invalid content. This won’t help you.Focused keywords are more important.2nd SEO Error To Fix To Grow Your Vemma Business – MISSING KEYWORDS.Obviously a total lack of the keyword you are trying to get ranking for is going to get no result. But understand that Google’s spiders read from left to right and you really need to put your keywords, or keyword phrase in the beginning of the title, within the first two or three words is best. If not you are giving up a lot of optimization.You should also put 5 – 10 similar keywords into your articles. Maybe look to Google’s Keyword Tool and use this to locate some of the more popular similar keywords.And your anchor text should have your keywords in it. Anchor text is that blue text that links to other page. These are important. Anchor text that says “Click Here” tells the search engine that the term “click here” is of importance. You should give it the real keywords to follow as links, so put something like “Vemmabuilder” if that is the keyword phrase that you would like to rank for.3rd Mistake To Fix To Get Your Vemma Business SEO Traffic – NO KEYWORDS IN THE SITE DESCRIPTION.You know, this is that behind-the-scenes stuff that you can put into the “Settings” area of your Wordpress Blog. The visitor to your page doesn’t see it, but the search engine does. Making this description keyword-heavy is one of the most important parts of getting your blog ranked highly.4th Mistake To Fix To Get SEO Traffic For Your Vemma Business – NO SEO RELEVANCY TO YOUR SITEThe trick is to have a massive number of back-links going to the site that you are trying to rank. The links and anchor text in your articles must be relevant, going back to the importance of the anchor text fitting your desired keywords..5th SEO Mistake To Fix TO Grow Your Vemma Business – TITLE TAGS MISSINGThis refers to the actual title of the page as you see in the very top-most strip of the browser window. It’s not the title within the page itsel. It’s the one that comes up on the top bar of the window. These can be changed. Some Wordpress templates allow you to customize them easily. Some require plug ins. These title tags are important to Google’s engine as it’s scanning your pages.Avoid these mistakes and you will find that you will begin to start getting free traffic, forever, for those keywords, as article postings don’t get taken down too quickly once they are up.
Find out more about using article marketing to generate leads. Find the source of this article and all the foundational tools of internet marketing and creating traffic for your Vemma Business, and a full training series on all the basics of internet marketing. Alan Cosens is a semi-irregular, bathroom-mirror rock-star, MLMer, Networker, Internet Marketer, Crime-fighter, over-eater, loving-leader, Guitarist, and Daddy extraordinaire.
December 14, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Online advertising has become a very popular way for both small and large businesses to promote their goods and services. Advertising your business online can help you reach large numbers of potential customers and is usually an effective way for you to increase your sales.
One type of online advertising is Cost Per Action, or CPA advertising. This is also sometimes referred to as Pay Per Action, or PPA, advertising. Your business’s cost for this method of advertising is determined by how many times Web site visitors follow through with a particular action. In other words, your advertising cost is directly related to activities your advertisement viewers complete.
You are the one that will determine the actions that lead to your advertising costs. Depending on your type of business, a required action could be designated as submitting a form for product or service information, registration with your Web site, or purchasing a product or service from your business. You can choose one or more actions that will be the basis for your advertising costs. The various actions carry different advertising charges. You can adjust the required actions to accommodate your advertising needs and budget.
Cost Per Action advertising is the preferred method of online advertising for many businesses. You will only be charged for advertising when Web site visitors click on your online ad, connect to your Web site, and then perform a specific action that indicates they are interested in your product or service. Many times, potential customers will click on an interesting ad, review the business’s Web site, and then decide they are not really interested in what the business has to offer.
With Cost Per Action advertising, you can have an unlimited number of people connect to your Web site through your online ad, but you will only pay advertising costs for the number of people that actually follow through with a desired action, such as placing an order for goods or services.
Another advantage of Cost Per Action advertising is that you will be directed to potential customers that have a genuine interest in your specific product or service.
Most Web site visitors will not take the time to fill out a registration or information request form unless they think it will be to their advantage to do so. Visitors who honestly feel your business can benefit them in some way will fill out your Web site forms, and you will be able to gather a good collection of potential customer names.
You will be able to focus your attention on these visitors, without wasting your time, effort and money on visitors that viewed your site but are not sincerely interested in what your business offers.
Cost Per Action advertising is a bit more costly than other types of online advertising, but it may be easier on your advertising budget in the long run. You will only be paying charges according to the number of visitors that actually complete specific actions instead of according to the total number of visitors that view your advertisement.
It may or may not work for you based on what you’re advertising but it’s definitely worth researching it more.
For more information visit Netlyte | houston web design. You can also request more information to find out how we can help you generate more visitors at houston website design
December 14, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
One very popular choice for a home-based Internet business is to become what is known as a blogger. Blogging involves setting up your own website and then filling it, day by day, with a chronological series of articles, reviews or diary style writings, which can generate cash via allowing companies to place advertisements on your site, or incorporating affiliate marketing on the blog.
Most blogs combine text with images, links to other blogs and web pages, and various other media in some way related to the blog’s topic or topics. Most blogs are interactive, allowing readers to make comments. The most common form of blog is the personal one; which is a form of ongoing diary or commentary by an individual. Some of these blogs can gain quite an extensive following, though it is rare that they will enter the mainstream and become truly popular.
Other kinds of blog are corporate or business blogs (used for the purposes of marketing or public relations) and genre blogs (focused exclusively on one particular topic be it politics, art, music, or some other niche). Blogging has exploded in popularity in recent years, and while anyone and everyone can set up blogs, many mainstream writers and journalists have also created their own blog sites.
There are many ways to make money via your blog, and that money can range from pocket money to a little more spending money per week and for some of the most wildly successful bloggers, a replacement for their full time job. This can happen as a result of advertising and affiliate marketing on your blog, from such sources as Google AdSense, Amazon Associates, various miscellaneous advertising or affiliate programs, and even private advertising sales or sponsorships.
There are even some sites out there that compensate bloggers directly for writing about their products or services or other websites. Of course, all the advertising, affiliate programs or indeed blogging in the world isn’t going to do you much good if no one is reading your blog (and thus clicking on those adverts) in the first place. So how can you get your little blog noticed out there on the World Wide Web?
Making sure your blog is well written and offers quality content is a good start. Ensure that the blog contains lots of links, to other articles, to other related sites, YouTube videos etc. Include pictures in your blog and be sure to add your blog to the lists of free blog directories such as Blog Catalog.
Feed your blog to Feedburner. This allows your readers to get email notifications when you have posted something new. If you write on other sites, including social networking sites, link to your blog at every opportunity. Create an email signature that links to your blog, thus ensuring that every person who receives an email from you has the opportunity to immediately visit your site. Comment on other people’s blogs so that the trackbacks will lead back to your own.
Learning to run a successful blog can seem to like an intimidating and overwhelming feat at first, but if you can master the art, it can be an effective way of generating extra income.
December 14, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
When it comes to the success of your home business, advertising is a key factor. If you do not advertise your home business effectively, no one is going to know about it and you are not going to get any customers. If you think advertising your home business means throwing an ad in the yellow pages and placing a few newspaper ads, you had better think twice. There are many other advertising resources available for your home business and if you are not using them, you are missing out on the advertising jackpot. Post Cards, Business Cards, and Brochures
Every single home business needs to invest in print advertising materials. At the least, you will need a professional business card and many home businesses opt for the benefits of post card and brochure advertising as well.
If you go to a local printing company, you might have to spend hundreds of dollars on printed materials for your home business. Thanks to the Internet, you have much more cost-effective means of getting the advertising materials you need.
After trying numerous online printing services, we found iPrint to offer the best in terms of quality, pricing and service. At iPrint you can get 250 business cards for less than twenty bucks, 100 standard post cards for about twenty-five dollars and five-hundred full-color tri-fold brochures for about three hundred dollars. The website allows you to upload your own custom designs or you can use one of their free templates to create the look and feel you want for your printed materials.
Internet Advertising
Internet advertising is critical to the success of any home business, but not all Internet advertising is equally effective. If you want Internet advertising that really works, you are going to want to invest in cost-per-click advertising.
With cost-per-click advertising, you pay a certain amount of money for each website visitor taken to your site. Because the only people clicking on your ad are people who actually want to see what you have to offer, the conversion ratio for this type of advertising can not be beat.
When utilizing cost-per-click advertising, you put your ad on a high-traffic website and for advertising on that site you pay a certain amount for the average number of clicks you will receive. For example, if your home business sells video games, you would want your text ad to appear on a video game enthusiast website. If you wanted a cost-per-click of ten cents and you wanted to pay a total of one-hundred dollars, you would get about one-thousand visitors to your website.
AdBrite is a company that allows you to place your cost-per-click ad directly on the hottest websites, providing you with a massive amount of leads for your home business. Want your home business ad to appear on the Uploading.com website? Who would not? Uploading.com is the leading provider of secure file upload, transfer and sharing services. It has an Alexa ranking of 517 and receives more than half a million page views each day. With AdBrite, you can have your home business ad on the Uploading.com website for a full seven days for just $523.
The average cost-per-click when you advertise on the Uploading.com site through AdBrite is six cents, so that means for the $523 you pay, you will get more than eight thousand visitors who have made the decision to go to your website through the ad you placed. You could not ask for more cost-effective advertising.
If you can not afford to shell out that much money to start with, AdBrite has literally hundreds of website advertising opportunities to choose from and some start at less than ten bucks a week so you do not have to be left out of the cost-per-click game.
If you want your home business ad shown on the hottest sites on the web, go to Adbrite.com.
In addition to cost per click advertising, you may want to look into pay-per-click advertising. With pay-per-click advertising, you list your text ad with a website or search engine and place a bid to pay a certain amount of money per click you receive. The more you bid, the better your ad placement will be.
When someone performs a search for the keywords you have selected for your website, they will see your ad. If they click on your ad, you pay the amount you agreed to pay for each click. If you agreed to pay twenty cents a click and one-hundred people clicked on your ad, you would pay twenty dollars for one-hundred visitors. This is another highly-effective way to get targeted traffic to your home business website.
At GoGoHub.com, pay-per-click advertising is really affordable because the searches are localized… therefore you don’t waste money on clicks from people who are out of your local area.
Promotional Gifts
Everyone loves getting a gift and while great customer service is first when it comes to customer loyalty, promotional gifts run a close second. Your best customers need to know that you appreciate their business and promotional gifts are a great way to do that. However, promotional gifts serve a dual purpose. Not only do they show valued customers your appreciation, they also advertise your home business and are a constant reminder of the products and services you offer.
For a long time, it was hard for fledgling home businesses to customize and order promotional gifts for their customers. Because most companies would require a home business to place a substantial minimum order, the costs were quite prohibitive. While it may be fine to pay four or five dollars for a customized hat to give away, when you have to order five hundred of those hats, it can wreck havoc on your home business budget.
Thanks to the Internet, this is no longer a problem for home business owners. Websites like CafePress.com allow customers to create customized promotional gifts to give to their customers and they do not have any minimum order requirements. Whether you want to order one promotional gift or one hundred, CafePress.com can serve your needs.
Curt Miller works at home to make residual income online by sharing his local area classified ads site to those who are interested in making money.
December 14, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
So how do you choose your advertising media?
Here are a few salient points that need to be considered while making the choice.
2) What exactly are you aiming for? Do you simply want to sell a product or build a company as well?
3) What exactly is your budget regarding the advertising campaign?
4) Who are your target customers? Look into their income and profiles. 5) Decide how movable your products are.
6) Think of the correct time to air your ad. People usually have varying moods with changing time. Hence it is important to decide upon the time in order to create the desired psychological impact.
Advertisement types generally differ with relevance to consumer profile and group identification, brand recognition and the particularity of product manufactured, etc.
These advertisement statements are applicable to all kinds of products, where the only thing necessary to be done is to replace a given name at the product template with that of the particular product. For products belonging to identical categories, these kind of advertisements that can be used for a multitude of products are used.
These type of advertisements facilitate the gradual formation and consolidation of a
particular brand image. It builds up the tenet of brand recognition and familiarity in public, and due to it’s exclusivity, costs more than a generic ad.
Advertisements that are specific to a particular store are highly regional and localized in their publicity and general awareness, because the characteristics that might prove to be the USP of a particular store in one region might not be as beneficial to any other store in a different region.
These kinds of advertisements deal with the products that are offered for the market, and do not create recognition or awareness about the brand, manufacturing or retailing company, or any subject related to these units. They work best for small business concerns and franchise retailing. Having said that, the franchise business should take heed that the advertisements should ideally not only bring into attention the manufacturer’s business, but also the products retailed on the behalf of the manufacturers.
What Your Advertising Firm Never Told You: It is foolish to think that a very expensive advertisement will reap great benefits. What modern economists have to say is surprising. Recently the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania published their findings.
They said,
Best Advertising Media: Here is a list of the most popular advertising media.
1) Billboards 2) Television 3) Radio 4) Newspapers 5) Mail directed at target customers
So keep these few stated points in mind when you choose the medium for your advertisements. Always remember that good advertisements depend on content and not on costs and that an ad can only be effective if it is created keeping the profile of the customer in mind. Cost effective advertisements will in the long run help you generate more revenues. If you have trouble choosing the right media, you could hire a business advisor who will give your professional counseling that will enable you to make better choice.
Johnny and his son Brandon have been helping local and internet retail businesses reach their target market with advertising at affordable rates for the past year. There website offer’s several ideals and tips. If you would like to learn more visit http://www.monroecountyguide.com
December 10, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Joomla is a powerful framework for delivering Complex web portals. With over 4700 extensions and counting, the largest developer network in the world and the most user friendly interface has made the award winning Joomla CMS the fastest growing open source CMS project perhaps in the world. With millions of users and enthusiasts from all around the globe and a low cost of entry this is quickly becoming the dominant content management system (CMS) for small businesses (SMB’s) and even larger enterprises and institutions. We compared Joomla vs Drupal and Joomla vs Wordpress which are other worthy technologies but Joomla seemed for us to be the best overall platform for recommending to our customers. As Joomla integrators and Joomla Component Developers we deliver complex Joomla configurations for a wide variety of customers. Joomla is a perfect framework for the micro small business owner that needs training and mentoring to work independently on building their web empire as well as the small business enterprise with complex Joomla configuration needs.
There are several layers in deploying a Joomla CMS project. * Planning and content architecture * Template Design and graphics * Components and Configurations * User experience * Customer Programming * Legacy System Integrations * SEO and Marketing * Joomla User Training * Ongoing Technical Support Just to name a few… With any technology there are different points of entry depending on the experience and technical aptitude of the humans interacting with the system, the technical and business process requirements and the overall dynamics of the organization implementing the particular solution. We (our CNP Consultants) try to help folks “Get the most value out of their technology investment”. Yea you will see this in our marketing but this is much more than hype. Value can be the key to success or failure. Among the biggest mistakes we have seen folks make and even made ourselves are:
Common Mistake #1 Just because you can do something with technology does not always make it practical. I have personally implemented many powerful tools that accomplish their intended functionality but they actually never get used to their full potential by the end customers. While these were fun for us to build as developers and to see something cool that works, it did not really serve any of us well since our clients customers do not use them and thus they have a significant investment they are net getting a return on and thus until this first investment is paid for they are not all that excited to engage us to build more stuff. The key here is determining first the business priorities of the project and then making sure everyone is listening to the needs of the end customer or user. Hey sometime folks build web tools just for themselves. I know I often post blog articles with a lot of links I want to not only share but also refer back to and we put plenty of tools online that we want to use ourselves as much as we want to and share with our customers. Just make sure you are clear why you are doing something and assess if it is going to deliver the right return on your investment.
Stay focused on what your customers are saying and what will yield the greatest return. Technology implementation can be a never ending pit you throw money into, something that my father used to say about owning a luxury boat. If you are building your site for the shear ego of having a beautiful site with all kinds of creative features and functionality, have at it and of course we love to work with entrepreneurs with big ideas. However, like any relationship and any good investment a long term strategy is often much more practical. Our consulting customers get good advice about products and services that can grow their business or allow them to continue to get value from their investments. I have seen folks to often go for a quick sell and end up with dysfunctional customer relationships that ultimately cost more than the profit you made in the first place. Ask yourself many questions including “Is what I am doing today going to matter a year from now”? If you ask the right questions up front this can help you get the most out of your initiatives.
Technology is a moving target One of the many reasons we got behind the Joomla CMS project as a core competency was because it was open source which offered freedom and scalable options for solving the greatest amount of business problems. We took the gamble from the trends in the market place that Joomla would continue to grow with features and stability and that the developer community would continue to be attracted to the Joomla framework thus building more confidence in the market place. With a scalable platform that is built on open source code for use was great since we wanted to work with technology that sold itself and that we could support and expand upon it to meet the needs of the types of customers we wanted to attract. Any kind of dynamic web portal project is a moving target and often needs to change course in mid stream. You have to keep good forward momentum yet listen to the trends in the marketplace so you can sail into the wind effectively. An innovative and scalable open source platform like Joomla is a perfect foundation for meeting this challenge.
But wait there is more… A couple years ago, after a good year of working with Joomla we were looking for solutions that could actually help us build an all-in-one web based framework for managing our business in a Virtual Office Environment (everything accessible on the web). This is when after trying and implementing several CRM and project management tools ranging from SugarCRM to MS Project to SharePoint we found Info@hand CRBM. This was the perfect platform since it was open source code base and integrated with the Joomla CMS and QuickBooks. Now after 3 years of connecting the dots we have a powerful web infrastructure with “Complete transaction life cycle management” and “Customer Relationship Business Management”. Very very very cool platform… we love it and so do many of the customers we have introduced to it. Though this system is also wired up with the DimDim.com conferencing and collaboration suite it also fills many gaps in client customer collaboration. These types of regular new innovations continue to add low cost of entry tools and value to the small business.
Sounds complicated but it is also very simple if you have time as your friend What we have learned as “early adopters” is that there is much more to it than the technology if you are going to be successful. Complex Joomla Integrations are getting simpler as this platform evolves. The old carpenters saying get the right tool for the right job is very good advice. Since there are so many tools now in our toolbox and we fully understand how they all can work together I know I can start talking about it and it does not take long to get that “deer in the headlights look” from a prospect. The trick here is making sure we establish a clear roadmap and strategy for implementing technologies that will bring the greatest reward to your business and value to our customers. This takes time and effort to get it right and should be done early on in your process.
Common Mistake #2 Just because you have the technology does not mean you should implement it. The second most challenging aspect of implementing a complicated project is the thought process of “let’s do it all at once”. I have often had clients that want to load up their sites with a ton of components and then they want to throw these new features out to their customers or workforce all at once. Well this is a huge horse pill that never gets swallowed. Hate to say it but until recently I have been guilty of this myself. There is a fine line between “Build it and they will come” and “Here take a bite and let me know if you like it”.
Remember this is all about relationship management I remember back in my days of dating that it only takes one or two words to “turn off” and scare someone away. Essentially this is a similar process we go through for attracting customers. While you want to make sure what you are presenting is honest and has substance you do not want to overload, overwhelm folks with more information than they are particularly interested in at the moment. You also want to put out information and web tools in a way that they want to have them presented. As in listen well and be a good conversationalist. Such is the case even more now with the Social Technology boon. I used to say “it is not hard to fall in love since people are impulsive by nature but the real challenge is falling in love with the right one”. The same is true with technology. It can be easy to get excited about some new features and want to add them right away to your site just because they are cooler than the site next door. However, every time you push something new out it may distract or turn off your customers. In relationships of any kind they are best nurtured over time. Deploying technology is a complex multi dimensional relationship. Moving too fast has greater risk of failure for everyone involved. You actually have several relationships and processes that need careful consideration over time: * Solutions: Customer Needs – Business Process Need – Technology Implementation * Relationships: Vendor Teams – Client Teams – Customers
In Conclusion work smarter with a good plan Plan carefully and gather the right information about your customers and how technology can get you the best results as it relates to your business strategy. Make sure you deploy solutions over time with good the right vendors and the right customers. These systems have enough complexity that you have to really keep your eye on the ball or you can and will often times fail. None of us want to waste time or money and the wrong decision in this economy could cost you business. Before you travel anywhere it is a good idea to get directions, a map or invest in a GPS. Why would you not want to invest in good quality consulting to help guide you along the path of implementing technology? Joomla Roadmap and Planning Guide
Value Builder Methodology We have since built consulting practices to address these two common mistakes folks make with complex technology implementations. Yea sure we have to be geeks and able to wire all this stuff up and yes we do this well but the trick to getting value out of your technology is much more that the groovy tools we can dish out. With a few exceptions, most of the technology these days is all ready built and what that means is there is a greater need for configuration and being able to map the humans with the technology in a way that will allow you to stay focused on your priorities. Just start asking yourself questions like: What actions will give the best long term results? What will put out the fires of tomorrow before they start? How can I make this profitable to my company and add unique benefits to my customers?This should help get you on the right path.
Christopher Nielsen is CRM 2.0 Certified, an award winning multimedia producer and open source technology expert. With rich product knowledge on systems such as Joomla CMS and Info at hand CRM systems. As the founder of CNPintegrations.com he is the principle CRM consultant, software configuration specialist and Social CRM technology evangelist.
Be sure to visit the new http://www.JoomlaDesignServices.com web portal and blog at http://www.cnpintegrations.com/myblog/
