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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

Tags: Advertise, business customers, customers, internet business, online business, promote, website

A big challenge for every small business owner is the need to ‘find time’ for marketing.

I can relate. None of us are full time marketers. We’re all providing services to clients. And when you’re serving clients too, it’s hard to fit in sales calls and marketing activity. It’s hard to maintain momentum.

One thing is for sure, whatever shape our business is in right now, we all have the same 365 days in 2006.

Will you use that time to create a structure that supports you and brings in clients automatically, or will you still be complaining about ‘lack of time’ when 2007 rolls around?

Despite being one of the most disorganised people on the planet, and someone who was earning all my income from selling my time just 18 months ago, I have managed to create an ‘autopilot’ marketing machine, generate passive streams of income, and I now earn more than I ever have, whilst working less hours. I truly believe that you can do the same, so in this article I want to share with you a few ideas that may help if you’ve been having trouble ‘finding time’.

1. If you don’t enjoy it, you’ll never ‘find the time’

If the idea of marketing and selling your services leaves you with a yucky feeling in the pit of your stomach, then let me assure you, you’ll never ‘find time’. As long as you feel like this, there will always be a more attractive activity pulling your attention. Even if your fairy godmother gifted you with two whole weeks, you’d still find ways to avoid marketing and selling. It’s called ‘Creative Avoidance’.
Is your problem is really a ‘lack of time’ or are you creatively avoiding marketing and selling?

2. If your business isn’t structured properly, you’ll never find the time

If meeting your revenue goals is dependent upon you working with clients 4-5 days a week, then it’s going to be really hard to find time for marketing. You may need to take a closer look at your pricing structures and put together a business plan that includes time for marketing, administration, rest, and time to reinvest in yourself. E-Myth author Michael Gerber calls this working ‘on’ the business, not just ‘in’ the business. My own experience was that I had to simultaneously increase my prices whilst slashing overheads to create a situation where I did have time to work on my business.

If you’re working flat out just to keep afloat, then you definitely need to take a closer look at what you are charging.

3. If your only way of generating income is by selling your time, then you’ll never ‘find the time for marketing.’

Somehow you need to break this catch 22, and the way to do that is by ‘productising’ your services. Sharing your expertise through a book, an audio package.

I know, I know! You’re too busy working with clients to have the time to create products. The good news is, there is a way to create revenue producing products that does not have to take hours of your time.

The first product I ever created was simply a recording of a day long seminar that I ran. That product brought in

Tags: Advertise, advertising, entrepreneur, income, market, Marketing, promote, promotion, small business, time man