Make Money Faster!

Blogging is a concept that started in late 90s.  It used to be a way to comment an existing webpage, an opportunity for visitors and readers to react or voice out one’s opinion on the said page.  What started as a single-sentence commentary has evolved into pages of personal take on just about anything and everything under the sun.  As it continues to move forward, online advertising has tapped into the blog’s potential.  Here are 5 reasons why you should use blogging as an Internet marketing tool. 

1.Blogging is simple.  The simplest way to get your piece on the net is through blogging.  No skills are necessary… an average adult can read and type, or at least click a mouse.  It’s like having a virtual piece of paper and you just write your ideas, experiences, new products, and hope that the truth behind your articles comes out and entice your reader to also try your product.  If you have a PC and an Internet connection (who doesn’t?) then you can blog and advertise.

2. Blogging is authentic.  In this day and age where advertising saturate our lives, we question the credibility of promoters’ claims.  However, in blogs, real people share their real-life experiences, unscathed by paid advertising.  Reading blogs about first-hand product use is like talking to people about their first-hand experience.  You definitely want to buy a tried and tested product.

3. Blogging is free.  Because blogging is yet to be proven as a mainstream online advertising media, most sites see it as something to augment current marketing tools and thus offer it for free.   Any opportunity for free webtime is definitely a bonus especially to businesses that are starting up.  Needless to say, paid blog pages can generate more income for your seriously growing business.

4. Blogging builds credibility.  As you get more and more into writing your experiences on a particular product or industry, your readers come to realize that they can depend on your posts for their own information needs.  As such, you become an expert on it; as a consequence, more readers visit your site and more bloggers link to your blogs.  As companies and professional organizations notice the growth of your readership base, they may soon get in touch with you for advertising on your blog page, or make you an affiliate, which pays for every referral generated from your blog site.

5. Blogging builds your market.  Unless you are a Hollywood star, chances are, only your Mom reads your posts.  Mom has a lot of friends, so she lets her friends know how interesting your blog site is.  But you need not depend on Mom to increase your readership base.  Look into the following ways to build your market through blogging:

-By using your e-mail.  Today, blogging is overcoming the e-mail’s popularity in quickly and effectively reaching and expanding a market.  In this age of speed and quick access, logging in and downloading e-mail is simply taking longer than clicking into a blog site.  Let them explore your site by using a short e-mail message as teaser to your blog site.  If your e-mail is on an entirely different subject, use your e-mail signature to give a link to the site.

-By using subscription.  An easy way to get your readers e-mail is to give them an opportunity to subscribe to your blogsite.  Keep some exclusive information for your subscribers to entice readers to subscribe and give their e-mail address.  Just be responsible in using their e-mail address, as the last thing you want is a comment on your blog that you are a spammer.

-By understanding your readers.  Conduct a simple survey for your readers to understand their profile and advertising preferences.  Ask consumers to give you feedback on a post, an ad link, or a trial that you shared.  In this way, it is like interviewing your readers without the commitment and intrusion of a face-to-face interview.

-By joining a blog network –A network of blogs maybe a collection of blog sites that share the same industry, interest, readership base, payment mode, etc.  Consumers find credibility and convenience in clicking one link to several real bloggers about a single subject.  Clearly, more bloggers are better than one.

-By using RSS. RSS is the fastest growing technology on the Internet today.  As such, having RSS feeds to your blog is definitely another means of generating awareness for your readership base.  Having a variety of feeds can add interest to your blog site. 

Give your business a boost by effectively using blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

Are you managing a small business of your own and have no accounting background? Have you attended various seminars on accounting for non-accountants but still have no idea what they’re talking about? How will you know if your business is earning or not? Even if you see cash coming in, it doesn’t mean you’re really earning and that you can sustain the growth of your business.

If you have ventured on a small business of your own, then these 3 easy steps to know if your business is earning is definitely for you. By small business, I mean that aside from being its President and CEO, you are also the Vice President, the secretary, the salesman, the accountant, the security officer and even its janitor!

If you have this kind of business, you’ve probably experienced how hard it is to both handle the operations of the business and perform the back-room and monitoring activities at the same time.

Some people are able to pull it off, either by sheer luck or by a good combination of intuition and natural business skills. But many also fail because they are unable to see the true status of their business and thereby gear their efforts based from there.

How do you know if your business is really earning without hiring an expensive accounting service at the start of your business? Following is a simple way to determine whether you are incurring profits or true net losses.

1. Make a total of your earnings for the period.

As an example, add up all your earnings for the last 6 months. By earnings, I mean the money you received from sales or from the services you rendered, such as performing landscape services. We will call this TOTAL A.

2. Make a total of your cash outflows for the same period.

We will call this TOTAL B. Care should however be taken in this step because it is often here where people fail to include many items they are not aware of as having an impact in their business. Include the following:

• Fixed monthly expenses e.g. salary to a personal assistant, monthly rent, internet and phone bills, utilities such as water and electricity consumption. (These are more or less fixed in nature since they are to be incurred from month to month at a rather regular basis)

• Cost of goods or services sold. When you sell decorated lamps for instance, the cost of your goods sold is the combined cost of the materials used in order to build the lamp. This includes the lamp stand, the shade, the bulb, even the plug! It also includes any labor expenses incurred in designing or assembling the lamp.

If on the other hand, you’re not into selling products but services, like interior design services, the cost of your services is the fee you pay for yourself in exchange for the work you performed.

Note that this is different from the salary of assistants first mentioned above. Note also that the fee you receive from the work you performed is not the same as the revenue you made from your business.

Consider this. A business is not a job. When you have a job, you don’t spend anything for the business of your boss. You don’t pay for your office electricity. And you certainly don’t pay for his secretary’s salary!

But when you have a business, even if you’re the one performing the main work at the start, you take care also of all the costs of your business.

Also, if you wished to, you could have just assigned that work to someone else who’ll be working for you. If this happens, what money will you receive from your business then?

• Proportionate expense for your furniture, fixtures, equipment and other big and costly assets that you acquired. Why proportionate? Because assets like these that you buy at the start of your business are not likely to be bought again the week or month after they’ve been bought. They are usually used for many years, hence compute only the relevant proportionate amount for the period (say 6 months to be consistent). How do you compute this?

Total Cost of Asset x Period Used (in years) = Expense

Useful Life (in years)

Example:

$ 5,000 x 0.5 years= $ 500

5 years

3. Finally, deduct Total B from Total A.

Total A – Total B = Profit (Loss)

If it’s a positive figure, CONGRATULATIONS! Your business seems to be doing well and earning. If on the other hand, it results in a negative figure, don’t worry. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you should give up. But you can assess your situation from there and make wiser decisions based on your current business position. Good luck! I wish for you the best.

You can download a PDF Copy of this article HERE for free for your reference or for use of a friend!

How many e-mail messages do you send everyday? You’re probable missing out on a simple, inexpensive marketing tool. Seize the opportunity to promote your business to a highly targeted market without spending a dime by utilizing your e-mail signature line.

If your email signature line only contains your name and contact information, you’re missing out on advertising to e-mail recipients that have opted for communications from you.

These people are key members of your unofficial marketing network. They are your prospects, clients, press contacts and colleagues and your signature line is the perfect, unobtrusive space for a unique promotional pitch.

Try these tactics to turn your “sign-offs” into sales:

• Highlight what your company offers.

• Offer an incentive for recipients taken a specified action.

• Use the associated web address for the incentive, if it’s also on your site.

• Give better visual positioning to the promotion rather than contact info.

• Play with eye-catching fonts and colors.

• Use less than 64 characters/line so that words don’t wrap to a new line.

• Write a “signature” for different categories of recipients.

• Change your signature copy frequently.

• Never miss a chance to get your product or company noticed.

Another thing that many entrepreneurs don’t think about is the letters they send out. They are merely accepted as solving a problem or answering a need, when you can carry the e-mail idea over into every piece of mail you generate.

On the company letterhead simply add a line at the bottom of page 1. It could be a “tag line” of sorts made up of a slogan that “brands” your services or business. Try to come up with something unique so that every time it’s heard the prospect thinks of you.

Examples of this would be, “Good to the last drop,” which of course is Maxwell House Coffee. “Finger-lickin’ good,” which is KFC chicken, and so on. You get the message of what I’m saying. Play around with this until you come up with a pearl that is uniquely you.

If your business/service does not lend itself to this idea, then focus on increasing your credibility by using a “membership” tag line. For instance a funeral home would be less than tasteful using the line, “Our clients are dying to visit us;” but they COULD use the line “Members of Undertakers Assoc. of America” at the foot of their letterhead. This establishes immediate credibility in the mind of the recipient, even if the letter they received was a direct mail advertising letter.

When you’re an entrepreneur in today’s marketplace you have to be inventive and creative to buck the “big boys” on the block. I suggest that every entrepreneur read about the life of P.T. Barnum to get a better understanding of a truly great entrepreneur.

It isn’t always the almighty dollar that gets the best advertising for our business; it’s the best IDEA that makes you stand out in the crowd.

Strange as it may seem, our life is made up of a series of “sales presentations”. Sales may not be your gig, but if you’re the boss you’re making presentations everyday. Be it a pitch to your Board, announcing a policy change to employees, selling an idea to your spouse, or just trying to win others over to your point of view – you need to punch up your people skills for winning pitches.

Like it or not we are all salesmen. Our lives are made up of a series of “sales presentations”, otherwise known as presenting one’s self in the best light possible. Whether we’re out for a job interview, trying for a raise, or just convincing our employees that a job must be accomplished – you are making a presentation.

To become masterful at it can be summed up in the acronym IPRESENT!

• I – involve your audience

Human nature is such that people support solutions that they help create, so involve them by allowing your audience to participate with questions or ideas. It goes without saying that to not involve key people is risky, because messages can be misunderstood. Your plans may be derailed before they begin if sufficient “buy-in” is lacking. Use lots of open-ended questions in your presentation to draw out the silent type.

• P – prepare your audience

Preparation is a key to success. Prepare your listeners to what’s coming during or before your presentation. Try these pre-meeting tactics:

• Make pre-meeting contacts with those invited by email, phone, or in person. You might want to try an informal survey to get people’s position on the issues at hand.

Remember support on key or controversial matters can be established ahead of time by lobbying, if you know where to lobby.

• R – research your arsenal

Do your research! People who make it look easy and are effective presenters have a hidden arsenal. This is an arsenal of up-to-date, organized material that can be accessed quickly in ready-to-use form when needed. They have the stats to back up their ideas, and they have a mental arsenal of stories, examples, jokes, and ice-breakers to use when needed.

Your physical presentation could include tangible items relating to the issue such as recent articles clipped from newspapers or magazines, photographs, reports, and demonstration property. To become masterful in this art learn to maintain resources you can access for just the right thing at the right time.

• E – explain “Why?”

The next thing you must do is to explain “why?” The single most powerful thing you can do to convince your audience of something is to provide a convincing reason why they should do what you suggest or believe what you say. People want and need a clear “WIIFM” – “what’s in it for me?” – to be able to react positively to what you want them to do. It’s extremely important that you deliver a vision of benefits. Hearing the “why” won’t automatically generate a “yes” to your proposition, but it’ll open the door for receptivity to your idea.

Knowing and accepting the “why” satisfies a basic need that we all have – to understand the purpose of our actions. Use the words “because” or “so that” in your presentation and then finish the phrase. When your subject matter is controversial or likely to generate emotions, it is essential that your “why’s” be tested in advance. Ask some people you trust or that are on your “team” to play devil’s advocate to help you with your logic and arguments.

These are just the first four points for making successful presentations. There are eight of them in total, and we’ll look at the other four in my column next week. For now, let me leave you with this thought.

Life is a sales job from beginning to end. From the moment that we discern how to get approval as children, winning friends at school, getting our first beau, getting our first (and subsequent) job, getting engaged and married, achieving our goals, and anything else you can think of in between – we’re selling ourselves or our ideas all along the way. Who said you weren’t a salesperson?

“S” stands for State (mental) Management. The mental state of the successful presenter must be congruent with the message. If you don’t believe that, try giving a pep talk to your sales force when you’re depressed – it won’t work! You must be aware of and manage your own mental state and that of your listeners or communication channels will not be open. I don’t have space to elaborate on methods of doing this, but here are a few key hints. First, “AAI” – act as if. Act the way you want to feel, it’s amazing how this works. Use music to set the mood if necessary, dress the part, and reduce your anxiety by whatever method works for you. Remember that you’re the one in charge, and presentation mastery isn’t about being perfect – it’s about achieving your objective.

“E” is for eliminating the unknowns. Fear of public speaking ranks high on most people’s list of worst fears. You may find you’re unusually nervous, develop poor voice tone or negative body language, and be unable to respond to audience feedback. Managing your anxiety permits you to focus on your audience and their needs. The basic approach to do this is the asking ourselves a list of “what if?” questions. Another way to overcome our fear is to take ownership of the situation. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Double check your notes, and prepare yourself.

“N” is fudging a little by using the second letter of the word “know” – as in kNow Your Audience. Whether it is one person or many that you are presenting to you must do three basic things: Meet their needs, reduce tension, and avoid mistakes. A good knowledge of the listeners will give you a chance to tailor your objectives to meet their needs. This also allows you to reduce the “audience-presenter” tension so they will focus on what you’re saying. With a clear knowledge of your audience’s views you’ll be sensitive to potential “hot buttons”.

“T” stands for “Tailor Your Presentation Throughout”. Boring listeners leads to missed objectives or total failure. You must be flexible and responsive to your audience. To do this you need to use techniques that will give you audience feedback; you must diagnose the cause of the problem you’re addressing, and finally you must choose the solution to act upon.

When you’re presenting watch for non-verbal behavior such as clock-watching, foot-tapping, and cat-napping. When any of these are present get some feedback with, “Is it too warm in here?” or “Should I pick up the pace?” That breaks the attention or lack of, of the audience and brings them back to your talk. One important thing to remember is that the mind can absorb no more than the seat can endure. Sometimes a simple thing like taking a short stretch break will solve the problem.

The techniques for achieving your most desired outcomes are at your fingertips, when you remember that life is a series of presentations.

The opportunities for getting free advertising for your product

or services are limited only by your own imagination and

energies. There are so many proven ways of promoting your

objectives without cost that it literally boggles the mind just

to think of listing them.

One way is to write an article relative to your particular

expertise and submit it to all the publications and media dealing

in the dissemination of related information. In other words,

become your own publicity and sales promotions writer. Get the

word out; establish yourself as an expert in your field, and

“tag-along” everything you write with a quick note listing your

address for a catalog, dealership opportunity, or more

information.

Another really good way is by becoming a guest on as many of the

radio and television talk shows or interview type programs as

possible. Actually, this is much easier to bring about than most

people realize. Write a letter to the producer of these programs,

then follow up with an in-person visit or telephone call. Your initial

contact should emphasize that your product or service would be of

interest to the listeners or viewers of the program–perhaps even

saving them time and money.

Other ways of getting free or very inexpensive exposure include

the posting of advertising circulars on all free bulletin boards

in your area, especially the coin-operated laundries, grocery

stores, and beauty and barber shops. Don’t discount the idea of

handing out circulars to all the shoppers in busy shopping

centers and malls, especially on weekends. You can also enlist the

aid of the middle school students in your area to had out

circulars door-to-door.

Some of the more routine methods include having a promotional ad

relative to your product or service printed on the front or back

of your envelopes at the time you have them printed with your

return address.

Be sure to check all the publications that carry the kind of

advertising you need. Many mail order publications just getting

started offer unusually low rates to first-time advertisers; a

free-of-charge insertion of your ad when you pay for an order to

run three issues or more; or special seasonal ad space at greatly

reduced rates. And there are a number of publications that will

give you Per Inquiry (PI) space–arrangement where all orders

come in to the publication, they take a commission from each

order, and then forward the orders on to you for fulfillment.

Many publications will give you a contract for space. In this

arrangement you send them your ad, and they hold it until they

have unsold space, and then at a price that’s always one third or

less the regular price for the space need, insert your ad. Along

these lines, be sure to check in with the suburban neighborhood

newspapers.

If you send out or publish any kind of catalog or ad sheet, get

in touch will all the other publishers and inquire about the

possibilities of exchange advertising. They run your ad in their

publication in exchange for your running an ad for them of

comparable size in yours.

Finally, there’s nothing in the world that beats the low cost and

tremendous exposure you get when you advertise a free offer.

Simply run an ad offering a free report of interest to most

people— a simple one page report with a “tag-line” inviting the

readers to send money for more information, with a full page

advertisement for your book or other product on the backside. Ask

for a self-addressed stamped envelope, and depending on the

appeal for your report and circulation of the publication in

which your ad appears, you could easily be inundated with

responses!

The trick here, of course, is to convert all these responses, or

a large percentage of them, into sales. This is done via the

“tag-line,” which issues an invitation to the reader to send for

more information, and the full page ad on the back of the report,

and other offers you include with the complete package you send

back to them. As mentioned at the beginning of this report, it’s

just a matter of unleashing your imagination. Do that, and you

have a powerful force working for you that can help you reach

your goals.

Marketing has always started with identifying the needs of your customer, but many companies are now focusing on the product. They focus on what category it falls into, and then what sub-category (for instance pudding and then what flavors). By focusing on the product, companies then focus on who’ll use the product, and those considered “not using” are excluded from the picture. In doing this, you’ve just given your competitor a target market.

You may have captured 75% of your “user market” because you have a USP (unique selling position) i.e.; more flavors, more convenient packaging, longer shelf life, etc. But why can’t YOU also take care of the other 25% instead of your competitor?

To do that, requires a new way of thinking known as “Lateral Marketing”. Stop thinking about how you can keep the 75% in love with your product (Vertical Marketing), think about drawing in the 25% of the market that wasn’t your customer. This is done by innovative thinking. This may be seen as further “segmenting” the market-place, but at the same time it’s making it bigger.

Let’s say you sell soap. You’ve captured 75% of your market because of some formulary development that makes more suds with less product. The 25% that your competition is trying to capture would rather spend less for soap, than use less. Your method of also capturing that 25% is to start thinking “innovation” and not different product.

Lateral Marketing works within the original category of product and complements it, not competes with it. You could come up with a soap with more bleach, with less foam, fragrance free, with more foam. You can innovate by size – selling in large economy packs, selling in individual packs, and do this without ever changing the formula of the product. This type of marketing works best for mature markets with no growth (after all, what new uses can you come up with for soap). It also can create markets from scratch, requires greater resources, and may redefine your company’s mission and business focus.

This innovative method of marketing doesn’t create “new” categories or markets, it always occurs “within” the category where the idea originated. If you’ve done everything right, you’ve garnered the 25% of customers that might have got away and it didn’t require a lot of overhead – you’re still producing soap!

About the Guest Author

At Otcots, we are a community of dreamers, people who believe in positive and progressive change. We appreciate diversity, respect humanity, protect our planet, help others, and try to be the best we can each and every day.

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When you are considering starting an online company, you want to make sure you find the right product. What do you want to sell. What is your passion. What subject or topic do you have a lot of knowledge about. Let me start by telling you that selling an information product online is easier than selling a service. But, selling a service online makes more money with monthly memberships.

Before you spend all your time working on a website and writing up eBooks, you want to be sure that your customers are going to be interested in what you are selling. Do your market research. Start by seeing how many competitors you have -this is a good sign. Read through newsgroups, discussion boards, and chat rooms and learn about your target market customer base. If you already have an email list, send them a survey to see what they are most interested in.

Most internet marketers preach that there are three reasons why a customer will want to buy your product. Your product has solved a problem for your customer. Your product has made life easier or more comfortable for your customer. You are very passionate about your product and it shows in everything you do.

When researching your niche, you may want to use www.Amazon.com and find the current top sellers. Find out what people are reading about. You will want to research keywords with keyword tools such as the one you can find here (keyword research tool).  You need to discover which keywords are being searched for frequently.

Doing a little poking around your competitors sites isn’t a bad idea. This is one way to come up with ideas on what would make your company different or better. Take a look at their traffic rankings and their related links. By analyzing this information, you can see how many visitors they have each day and how profitable their company is.

Once you find your passion, ask yourself does this serve my customers. You want to provide an excellent service to each and every person that spends their money with you. This cuts down on complaints, bad reputations, and, worse of all, chargeback’s.