Archive for July, 2009

Aggressive Marketing

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

If you get an email with a title like ‘Don’t Ever Trust Me Again!’ and continues along the lines of ‘… then you don’t have to take my advice ever again!’

My advice is – Don’t *

Perhaps it’s because I’m skeptical of the number of “miracle” products, “great deals”, ‘limited time offers’ or ‘incredible packages’ that are advertised online every day. Perhaps it’s because I have bought more products than I can possibly use for now. Perhaps it’s because there are probably more people trying to sell this particular package than the number of packages that are available. Or, perhaps it’s because I received an email with almost identical content from too many different sources. Whatever the reason, don’t make the same mistakes as I have in the past.

* It may be a good deal. It may be exactly what you are looking for. But if you receive emails with exactly the same content from different sources, think carefully before you buy.

There are some good internet marketers that I have every respect for. However, there are an increasing number of ‘marketers’ that show little thought or consideration for others. They will take from you but offer nothing in return. You may disagree with the last statement. If you buy a product from them and you are happy with that product and they are happy with the money earned from selling you that product it’s a win-win situation.

That’s all well and good until you look more closely at the process. To do this, other factors must be taken into account. These include cost, value, convenience, time, and most importantly trust. You’ve probably heard of the phrase. “The money is in the list”. I wouldn’t disagree with that and it’s easy to see why many of the “big list” hitters are successful in the percentage game. But unless they offer you something more than somebody else’s ’sales pitch’ ignore them. Many of these people come and go. Make sure they don’t go with your money.

With regard to the email in question, here is a quote from a ‘trusted’ ezine that I subscribe to “This is only of interest to you, Bryan, if you really need some brand new products to sell. If not, don’t bother.” At least, this is honest and straight to the point. I know who I’d buy from. On occasion, time may be more important than trust. If this is the case, then make sure you have a use for the product before you buy it. We are all guilty of impulse buying. It can be all too easy to buy something that will seldom, if ever, be used.

If you subscribe to an ezine or newsletter, it’s often useful to keep tabs on the sender. By doing this you will learn to recognize if the content is original or simply a copy of someone else’s work. You’ll also quickly discover if the sender is only interested in using you as a means of earning a ‘fast buck’. This is obvious if there is little or no content, excessive affiliate URLs, or emails that are repetitive or delivered more often than necessary.

If you like the newsletter or email subscription, that’s great. If you don’t, you can usually ‘unsubscribe’. If this fails, then try ‘whitelist’ filtering to weed it out. If you think the email is from a spammer, then be careful. Don’t click on any URL or ‘unsubscribe’ option, and unless you are absolutely sure of the originator, never open an attachment.

If you use eBay or PayPal, you will no doubt be aware of the fake or spoof emails that are periodically blasted out. Well, the spin cycle has begun again. A good tutorial on spoof emails and how to recognize them can be found at http://pages.ebay.com/education/spooftutorial/index.html

Tip – If you have your own website, don’t use your default address for your PayPal or eBay account. Use a different address and you will quickly spot the spoof email in the ‘To’ line of the email.

Bryan Quinn
ebook-site.com
Offer a variety of useful resources for creating, reading, and publishing ebooks. A members’ area is provided for ezine subscribers where a selection of ebooks and reports can be freely downloaded.

http://www.ebook-site.com

7 Ways to Advertise Your Business for Free

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

1. Free directories: directories are perfect for customers that are searching for a particular topic. What’s great about them is that you only have to post once and they are good for long periods of time. It saves a lot of your time when you don’t have to resubmit your information every week or every month. The bad news is most of your traffic won’t come from here. I still feel it is worth it to get your link out there. Just take one day and set it aside for posting to free directories. You won’t need to do it again for at least 6 months.

2. Classified Ads: These are great for work from home businesses. Think about it. Where do people go when they are looking for a job? That’s right-the classifieds. The only downside to classified ads is that you have to resubmit them quite frequently. Once you find which classifieds bring you the most traffic you can concentrate on them and weed the others out. So it is really more time consuming in the beginning, and doesn’t have to be later on when you get the hang of things.

3. Free article submissions/ezines: The best way to inform others about your product or service is to write an article about it. In your authors resource box, you can tell readers about yourself and where they can go to check out your product or service. This is also an excellent way to get free links to your site if you have one. There are a lot of webmasters out there who are looking for good articles they can post on their site. If they post yours, that is another site that is doing the advertising for you. All for free.

4. URL Submissions: Probably the quickest and easiest thing to do to advertise your site. Just type “Free URL submission” in your search engine. When you get a list just enter the URL you are promoting and click submit. That’s it. It only takes a few seconds and your done. Just set a day aside once every 3 months and do this.

5. Forum Posts: Put your product or service website in your signature file when you sign up on some forums. It will be displayed every time you make a post. Try to look for topics that you have some knowledge on, and can give a relevant answer too. Do not spam anyone, you will get kicked off the forum and you will get a bad reputation. Get involved asking and answering questions that pertain to your area of business. Forums are great because once you make a post it stays there forever. It will get moved to the archives eventually, but someone could still find it if they were searching the archives. Yes, there are many people who do.

6. Traffic Exchanges: Probably the most time consuming way to advertise for free, but definately the most effective. Most forums I have visited have said in many posts that they received a lot of their profit from traffic exchanges. If you don’t want to spend the time surfing for credits, you do have the option of buying them. I would look into a program that lets you surf multiple websites at once like crazy browser. There are others and they are free to download. That way you can just spend one hour a day and get all your surfing in at once.

7. News-groups: Become involved in a group that has to do with your kind of business. You can usually mail the group once per day, but I would encourage you to find something fresh to talk about each day. People will tune you out if they see the same message all the time. Remember to never Spam anyone. Only join groups with the same interests as yours. In other words, don’t sign up for a recipe swapping group when you are advertising shaving cream.

Alicia Bodine, a work from home specialist, is a stay at home mom and website owner. She has compiled a work at home directory full of online business opportunities that are legitimate and profitable. To get more information about home based businesses visit http://www.homebusinessesthatprofit.com. Alicia also works part time teaching others how to get their own website setup free. Get your own internet business now. Everything you need to make money online is here http://www.homebusinessesthatprofit.com

Financial Planners, Why Advertise When Free Publicity and Marketing Is Better

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

Commit this to memory, please: To get in the media, being good is good enough.

You don’t need to be perfect, or even the best in your profession. There’s no elaborate entrance exam or competition to determine who gets media coverage.

The prize goes to those professionals who are competent or better, and who understand how to play the publicity game.

I have absolutely nothing against advertising as a means of getting exposure and a wider audience. In many cases, it’s just what you need, and deserves a spot in your marketing mix.

But (have you noticed?) it is expensive, isn’t it? And, in the end, it’s still you saying you’re great, which isn’t as good as them saying it. I just think of it this way:

Advertising – buys you visibility
Publicity – earns you credibility

Sure, you’re good. But, let’s face it. So are many of your financial planning peers and competitors. But you can be the one who gets into the media. Because you knew how to get a reporter’s attention.

You understand that getting in the media doesn’t require you to be the best financial planner on Earth.

I am also a big believer in direct mail marketing. It’s a superb tactic to build ongoing relationships with clients, customers, and prospects.

But, unless you’re ready to cough up big bucks to buy mailing lists, it limits you. You can only reach the people you already know – the ones in your database. All those people will get to know you better, and that’s good – but you won’t be meeting any new prospects. To do that, it’s either spend on lists or advertising, or learn how to get yourself some free publicity.

Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele’s MediaImpact, he is the author of 102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice. To learn more visit http://www.MediaImpact.biz or call 212-243-8383.

I’ve Started My Own Online Business…Now What

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

People ask me this question all the time! The “Now What” part is what grabbed my attention. There is so much more than just having an online presence. Just because you have a web site does not mean your work is done. You need to constantly promote, promote, and promote.

Is like that old saying “opportunity will not coming knocking at your door, you need to look for it”. The same thing basically applies to your online presence success. You need to practically advertise your online business every day. It is a well known fact that it will take at least seven visits to your site by the same visitor to perhaps make a sale. Ask yourself these questions:

*What are you doing to keep that visitor coming back?

*Why should someone spend their hard earned money on your product?

- Do you offer great customer service?

- Do you offer discounts and or specials?

*What makes your products unique?

*When you do have an order, do you follow up?

*Do you have a testimonial page on your site?

*Do you offer a money back guarantee?

*Is it safe to order at your site?

*Is your site pleasant to visit? In other words, do the colors compliment each other?

*Is your site easy to navigate?

*Do your images download fast? This makes a big difference on whether your visitors will stay, let alone return!

Answer these questions and you’ll be surprised with the results. If you’ve answered YES to all of them, congratulations you’re on the right track. Keep in mind that you need to constantly advertise both online and off to get the word out about your online business.

Also, having your own EZINE is a great marketing tool. Work on it and see for yourself. If you tackle these small but very important areas of your online business, you should have a better chance to keeping your visitors coming back and turning them into potential customers, which translate into SUCCESS!

Sonia Colon is owner of a successful
online specialty giftstore “Jimson Products”.

Visit: http://www.jimsonproducts.com for a
wonderful display.

Get Your Own FREE Mall:

http://www.telebay.com/shopping1/mall.html