Category: Online Biz Tips

In most forums registered users are allowed to add a signature line underneath their name. Your signature will show up each time you make a post, which works in your favour, because in this way you will be subtlety promoting your business without spamming anyone. It is important that you post to the forum frequently, some forum posters don’t bother to look at the websites of users unless they are regular users of the forum, and then they may eventually get curious. You have to build your reputation at a forum as a trusted reputable source, someone who is in tune with the online business world.

Another thing is if there was a discussion and you just happened to mention that you have a website, some people may decide to check it out just out of curiosity. It doesn’t matter why they chose to do it, the important thing is that you provided enough interest to make someone want to check your website in order to obtain more information. But you must be careful when doing this, some chat forums may consider this to be spamming, your best bet may be to ask the person if you could pm (private message) them the information about your website, this way you won’t run the risk of spamming anyone.

Another way a forum may help you draw traffic to your website is to casually weave your business into conversations as appropriate. For example, if you’re promoting website domains and hosting, and someone posted that they want to create their own website, but they didn’t know where to begin, you can casually mention you know of a place where they can get reasonably priced domains and hosting, you can then just ask the poster to pm you for more information, when they pm you can than give them your website.

Also you don’t always have to promote your product or website. If you show that you are knowledgeable about business, the other chat forum posters will take note which works to your advantage because now the posters are more likely to want to click on the link in your signature.

Posting Blogs and articles are a great way to drive traffic to your website. They create back links to your website. Blogs, articles, and forum posting are all very subtle but powerful forms of marketing. Chat forum posting is a very effective form of marketing, you just have to stick to the rules of the chat forum, especially the main rule NO SPAMMING!

Build your reputation of someone that’s knowledgeable and experienced, keep your marketing approach subtle but informative, let your signature do most of your advertising, make sure you signature line grabs the people’s attention. Just remember subtle yet powerful.

Sometimes skimping on things can save you good money. But skimping is not always the wisest business strategy. For example, I could’ve written this article in the windows program notepad as opposed to Microsoft Word, and saved a good $500 and never had to buy the latest version of Microsoft Office… However, wouldn’t it be worth the $500 if the improved impression of professionalism put forth in all of my writings some how garnered ten times that in profit? Would you have read this far if I had unknowingly published this article with a horribly obvious typo in the title? That’s right – an insignificant error caused by “saving money” can actually COST you money in the long run.

## Impression Is Everything! ##

If you have spent months developing a beautiful ecommerce website to give people the impression that you are the safest choice for whatever product or service you’re trying to sell them, then it’d be pretty stupid to have all of that professionalism dismissed by a simple mistake: assuming you’re going to SAVE money by not getting a toll free number!

The fact is, the sight of a toll free number is something that subconsciously stirs an idea of professionalism – something we’re accustomed to from corporate America. Area codes are for calling your relatives and friends, after all. The phone prefix “800” or “877” or “888” for some reason, as if by magic, stirs in us the image of a phone operator in a tall skyscraper that deals with hundreds of clients a day – someone that doesn’t make their living off of ripping people off. The appearance of professionalism is the embodiment of confidence within the business world.

## Okay, so you’re convinced… now what? ##

Not having a toll free number for your ecommerce business (no matter how small) will cost you more in the long run than the short term savings will save you. The best part is though that toll free numbers are not NEARLY as expensive as one might be inclined to think! In fact, at the moment the prices for toll free numbers are as low as 2.7c/min

## What other services can I benefit from? ##

It just so happens that toll free numbers are not the only affordable telecommunications service that might be useful to the owner of an ecommerce web site. Conference calling (for those teleseminars), low long distance rates, broadband or t1 internet access, and more are all examples of things that can be gotten more cost effectively off the internet via web pages.

There are two things to remember on Twitter that are key:

1. You need a third party Twitter client

2. You have to engage the community with value

If you keep those two things in mind then you will be off to a great start.

The first thing you need to do when new to Twitter is to get a Twitter client – I like to use Hootsuite. I suggest you also use this. The benefits are many.

First off the Hootsuite layout is much easier to use effectively than the actual Twitter set up. It will allow you to do much more than the traditional Twitter dashboard. In fact you will be able to:

Create Custom Search Columns – See every Tweet that mentions a keyword you set, as it happens in real time.

Track your Tweets – Hootsutie has great analytical tools that will track click on your Tweet links, retweets etc…

It Runs in Browser – So no downloads to worry about, you can access it from ANY computer that is connected to the internet.

Manage Multiple Accounts – It lets you manage more than one account and in fact allows more than Twitter. I have my Facebook linked as well.

Scheduling a Tweet – You can set up Tweets to be send out at any time you want. This will allow you to keep a consistent presence on Twitter, and is a time management tool as well.

Hootsuite is also free – so that is a nice addition!

Once you are set up on Hootsuite it is time to start Tweeting. Keep these best practices in mind when Tweeting:

Set up search columns that are based on key terms within your niche. Engage these people.

Don’t spam links – you want to offer value to the Twitter community. For every link of your own you promote, you should have at least 5 nonpromotional @replies to other peoples Tweets.

Retweet others links and interesting Tweets. This will foster a sense of community.

Engage with people on a personal level

Be yourself – it is OK to be different on Twitter

Respond to anyone who Tweets you or about you

Leave 20 spaces in your tweets so people can easily retweet them

Use and learn about hashtags!

Really the most important thing to remember is Twitter is a community. You want to be a valuable part of it and not a spammer. Think of Twitter as a cocktail party – you wouldn’t go up and give random people your business cards, you would chat first, get to know them, find some common ground etc… That is how oyu should use Twitter.

Building your followers might seem like a grind at first, but eventually you will get to the point where your followers start paying off – and then you will realize the grind was well worth it.

E-Books are part of the new frontier of cyberspace. They are an entirely new medium for sharing marketing information, ideas, techniques, and expert knowledge. Each day the number of people accessing the Internet grows, causing the exposure of your E-Book to increase incrementally. It’s obvious why electronic self-publishing has become so popular so quickly.

The publishing industry, I hope, does not intend to forever banish the printed word to the dustbin of history. Books in print have their own special qualities and merits, and the world would be diminished by their disappearance.

Having said that, let’s look at what makes E-Books so important and so unique.

E-Books have certain abilities and qualities that other mediums do not possess. For example, E-Books are fairly easy to produce, and their production cost is inexpensive. Just think about it: you don’t need a publisher, an agent, a printing press, offset film, ink, paper, or even a distributor. You just need a great concept, the ability to write it or to hire a writer, and the right software.

Additionally, E-Books are easily and rapidly distributed online. They are also easily updated; they do not require a second print run. All you need is to go into your original creation and modify the text or graphics. Because of this flexibility, E-Books can change and grow as fast as you can type.

E-Books are also immediately obtainable. You don’t have to go to a bookstore or search through endless titles at an online bookstore. All you have to do is download it from a website, and presto! It’s on your computer, ready to be read.

E-Books are interactive. This is one of the most unique and specific qualities that E-Books offer. You can add surveys that need to be filled out, order forms for customers to purchase your products or goods, sound and video that draw your reader into the virtual world of your E-Book, even direct links to relevant sites that will expand your E-Book outward. The potential is virtually limitless.

E-Books have a particular kind of permanence that other mediums do not possess. Television shows and radio shows air once, and then may rerun a few times. E-Books remain on your computer for as long as your choose, and they can be read and reread whenever you choose to. They can even be printed out and stored on the shelves of your traditional home library.

Another wonderful quality is that E-Books have no barriers in terms of publishing. You don’t need to go through the endless process of submitting your manuscript over and over again, and then once you land an agent, having the agent submit your manuscript over and over again. Nor do you have to shell out thousands of dollars for printing a self-published book. All E-Books require is a writer and appropriate software.

Figure out your market, write your book, post it on your website, and with the right business savvy, your audience will come to you.

Finally, you have creative control over your E-Book. You don’t have to compromise with an editor or the publishing trends of the time. You don’t have to haggle with a designer or wait for copyedited galleys to arrive by snail mail. You are in complete control of the design and the text.

I’ve interviewed a lot of entrepreneurs in the past 6 years and all the successful ones share a common belief. It’s the “Can Do” attitude. It doesn’t matter what’s going on around them, who says it can’t be done, who says it can, they put on the blinders and do it. They make it happen.

Now along the way, we all pick up skills we need to develop to deal with different aspects of our businesses. As you grow and develop and learn more about how to do business and you start experiencing success, you develop your self confidence. You become more comfortable having intelligent conversations with other people in your industry.

You learn to set goals. And then you learn how to achieve them. Just thinking I’d like to make a million dollars this year isn’t going to do it. You need a plan. You need to plan your work and work your plan. I love expressions ?

And you have to learn how to guard your time. You have to be ruthless with your time management. I set a schedule for myself so my day is broken up into blocks.

I answer my email first thing in the morning until 10am. If I’m not done by 10, the rest waits until the next day. I’m in internet marketing not in fire fighting, so there’s no emergency that can’t wait until tomorrow.

Next I spend 2 hours on my marketing. At 12 I stop for lunch for 30 minutes. I read during my lunch and then I read until 1pm

From 1pm-4pm I work on projects

From 8pm – midnight I work more on projects and tie up loose ends

Time is more valuable than money. It’s the only thing all human beings share. None of us has more or less hours in a day. And you can never get back an hour you waste. My biggest pet peeve is to hear someone say “I’m just killing time.” I have nothing to do so I’m just hanging out killing time. What a waste of a life.

What is so special about each holiday season? They all increase the selling of products. There are many reasons why you should consider seasonal marketing to promote your products, including the seven which are listed below:

1. People tend to buy more products during seasonal celebrations than the rest of the year.

2. People are determined to purchase products, so it is easier to persuade them to purchase a product you offer (assuming of course you are doing it the right way).

3. Most purchases concern gifts to others, therefore quality is what matters while price is less significant.

4. The time of celebration is limited and specific. Therefore people cannot leave for tomorrow what they need to buy for the celebration. They must act in a timely manner. This urgency is a huge advantage to marketers trying to sell products.

One other motivating factor for buyers is that seasonal products are limited and something they have in-mind may not be available in the stores at a different time.

5. People connect seasonal celebrations with their childhood. That makes them more emotional and as you might already know emotion is the key factor that makes people buy a product.

6. It is not always necessary to offer a celebration related product to increase your sales. Even a valued Internet product like software or e-books can be a valued gift.

7. Marketers do not have to invent new or never before used methods to create interest in seasonal products.

The old traditional marketing techniques are effective and can still be applied. People want to buy because of the “celebration”. In fact, many people may not see their purchase as buying at all, but as an act of making someone (including themselves) more happy.

Naturally, seasonal marketing may use different strategies to promote products. Instead of offering a product discount try the following:

– Offer a portion of the price of your product to charities and make people feel they contribute to this charity themselves.

– Try a special offer like “purchase one product and get the other at half price” or “purchase one product and get another free to offer as a gift”.

These types of special offers can very easily increase your sales volume.

So, do not hesitate. Start promoting your products (or affiliate products) now. And don’t forget, once a celebration ends, there are many others right around the corner. People are always looking for reasons to purchase gifts for others or for themselves.

Most businesses spend a huge amount of time and money looking for NEW customers. We advertise, make phone calls, even travel cross country for meetings, all in the pursuit of the ever elusive stream of new customers.

What we’re probably forgetting is that up to 80 percent of our sales growth can and should come from PAST customers. People who have bought from you before are pre-sold on you, your products, and services. It often just takes a simple reminder to get them

to buy again and again.

A while back I was talking to a group of realtors. When I asked how many followed up with old customers, only a couple of hands went up. Even though most customers will sell their home and buy another within just a few years, hardly any of the realtors

were considering how MUCH that repeat business could increase their sales.

I don’t mean to single out realtors. Just about ALL of us could increase our business simply by getting in touch with our past customers.

I’ve found the most effective way to say, “I’m here and can help you,” is to send a genuine paper greeting card by regular mail. It’s FAR more effective than sending an email, mailing a sales letter, or even placing a phone call.

Paper greeting cards say “I appreciate you.” Everyone loves them! Send cards to past customers to let them know you miss them, send them to employees for a job well done, send cards to prospects on birthdays. These are just a few tried and true ideas, and I’m sure you can think of many more.

Now I’ll admit choosing, buying, and mailing a greeting card can take a lot of time and a fair amount of expense (figure $3 for the card, $4 for the gas to get to and from the store, and even more for postage).

The time and trouble involved is one reason why greeting cards are so effective. First of all, the recipient doesn’t receive many cards, and secondly, they intuitively know just how much trouble you went to.

But let me share a little secret with you. There are new systems now that let you log onto a web site, choose your card, affix your digitized signature, then the service regular mails your card for you. The cost for the entire package can be as little as $1 per card, and it only takes a few seconds to do.

Can’t remember important dates? These same services will let you enter all your dates for months, then send your cards out automatically.

If you’ve got lots of relatives to keep up with, your customers would appreciate this special gesture, or you know your employees would be motivated by a nice pat on the back — then sending paper greeting cards is a communication tool you shouldn’t be without.

Now you have made the decision that you want to get into the wholesale marketing business, it is now time to start making some money, this is great as it is one of the fastest growing industries on the net, actually it is one of the fastest growing industries period.

So, what have you decided to sell? Have you figured this part out yet?, or are you still up in the air with this one? There are some very important things to consider when going into wholesale Internet marketing, capital is a huge issue, but the biggest issue seems to be the storage and product capacity problems.

Do your research first and gather all the information you can, try to find out what seems to be working for other people who are working in the same kind of business.

Have you ever considered selling a product that people collect?

What about sports cards? This is a very big market, and you could easily find some storage space in even a modest sized home for the product to be shipped in mass quantity. This is a market that is really taking off; there are people in every walk of life that collects these sports cards. From football cards to baseball cards the product is still the same, small and easy to store until it is sold and shipped. You see the problem with choosing a large-scale item such as clothing, or stereo equipment, means that you will need adequate space to store it until you ship it.

If you are just starting out, renting a storage space for the product makes for a certain drop in your profits. Not to mention the insurance you will want to take out to keep you and your wholesalers business safe, in the event of fire or theft.

This is why smaller items that are still popular may be the best bet for positive results and a chance to keep all of your profits. The option is there for the wholesaler to keep the product at their storage facility until the sale is final, and it is even possible for them to ship the item to the customer saving you the trouble.

The major problem with this is, everything that the wholesaler has to do such as storing and shipping the items eats away at your profits. If they store it, they will charge you for the use of space. and if they ship it for you, they will ship it the way they want to regardless if that ends up costing you more, either way it matters not to them.

This is because it will come out of your share in the end. This then takes you from a legitimate business partner to a simple run of the mill salesperson without most of the perks. When starting your wholesale marketing business maybe it really is better to think small.

Let’s take a quick stroll through the world of marketing to see what it was, what it became and what it now is…

Era 1 – newspaper, magazines, radio broadcasts, direct mail, telemarketing, cold calling, television, infomercials…

Era 2 – websites, banner ads, reciprocal links, ezine publishing, search engine optimization, pay-per-click, opt-in email, blogs…

Enter

Era 3 – marketing via podcasts?

Similar to the concept of opt-in email, podcasting takes full advantage of technology in reaching a pre-qualified, self-selected audience that craves the information and expertise a podcaster provides. Podcasting gives the strategy of establishing yourself as an expert a whole new playground.

Podcasting is the ultimate tool for reaching a fully-qualified target audience. A podcast is an audio broadcast published to the internet.

The broadcast is delivered to subscribers via a feed, usually in an MP3 file format.

For years consulting and service companies have realized that the way to a client’s heart is through information sharing. Be it through trade shows, conferences, seminars, newsletters, or free articles, providing useful information on a topic that potential clients are interested in grabs them – hook, line and sinker.

When a prospect first subscribes to a podcast, they likely aren’t ready to buy products or services from the podcaster’s company. Chances are they are just getting their feet wet, searching for information. With useful information delivered via a podcast day after day, weekly or monthly, the receiver will realize the value of the expertise demonstrated. Thus, when they are ready to become buyers rather than browsers, the podcaster has the lead.

As an advertising medium podcasts can be used just like a newsletter or press release. For instance, a tax consulting firm may publish a monthly newsletter giving updates on tax laws, information about tax shelters, tips for tax deductions and notification of available services. The newsletters will likely contain contact information and will encourage readers to contract the services of the tax consulting firm.

A podcast can be used in the same way. The only difference is, the news and information is delivered via an audio broadcast rather than through an electronic or print newsletter.

There are many advantages to podcasting. In comparison to other types of advertising, it is relatively inexpensive. Podcasts are delivered to a targeted audience, leave a lasting impression on subscribers and establish the provider as an expert in the field. Regularly published podcasts keep the provider’s name and contact information fresh in the minds of the recipients and vast amounts of business can be obtained as a result.

In this quick report I will tell you how you can gain link popularity for your website and at the same time your website will be receiving targeted visitors. Increasing your link popularity will increase visitors and you will sale more. For better result promote only one URL and not the entire website. Make sure you have search engine friendly meta tag and URL.

Follow the steps below.

Step 1. Search Engine and Directory Submission

Submit your website to search engines and directories. For best result, it is recommended that you manually submit your website to search engines and directory to the right category. Most search engines and directories offer free submission.

Step 2. Articles Distribution

Create or buy articles with the keyword that you want to advertise. Example, if you have a payday loans website then you should write some articles about it or find someone who can write them for you. I do recommend that you submit about 50 articles related to the keyword that you are advertising. If you do not want to write the articles then for example go to http://www.freelancer.com and post a project asking for articles about the keyword that you are advertising. You must mention that the articles that you are buying are for redistribution. After you get the articles, that you will distribute, at the bottom of every articles you should ad the link of the website that your are promoting. See example below on the bottom of this article.

After all your articles are ready to distribute then go to iSnare.com. They will submit your articles to a network of 1500 niche content sites. There you must buy credit to distribute your articles. 1 = $2 (ezinearticles.com is a free & popular option) You only need one credit per article. Also many websites are looking for articles to add to their own website, so you will getting a link back every time your article is posted to another website.

Step 3. One Way Link Exchange

In this step you will buy a membership at the IndexGuy.com link exchange. Link exchange is not a good practice, but you can buy this account because is like paying to directory to get your website added in certain category.

Click http://www.isnare.com/distribution.php link to go to IndexGuy.com and shop for a membership. I personally recommend the Bronze Membership for $6.95 a month and you will get +3000 inbound links (This number is daily increasing).

That’s it. Now you can wait to get listed at search engines and directories. Some search engine might take up to two months in order to list your website. But your popularity will build up with time. Just be patient.