Mobile Search Marketing - Get A Head Start On Your Competitors.

The mobile search market is still in its infancy and many advertisers are taking a 'wait and see' approach. This lack of competition in the mobile search space surely presents an opportunity for businesses to get a head start on their competitors.

While most advertisers are reluctant to commit, it is relatively straightforward to get positioned well in the natural search listings of the mobile search engines, and PPC programme click costs are still comparatively low. So, how do you start to market your business on the mobile web?

The good news is that a mobile search marketing campaign is relatively simple to set up. But before you can promote your website to the mobile search market you need to ensure that it is compatible with mobile screens, or you need a specifically designed site in a mobile ready format such as XHTML, WML, or iMode.

The reality is that most sites will be difficult to adapt to small mobile screens and will not have the simplified functionality that is required by mobile users, so a dedicated mobile site is preferable. Fortunately, mobile sites are relatively cheap and quick to build. You can also register a .mobi domain so that users (and search engines) will know that your site is fully mobile compatible.

Once you have your site established, accessing the mobile search market is now quick, easy and cost effective with both Google and Yahoo offering the ability to place PPC text ads on their mobile web search engines. There are also other 3rd party mobile ad network providers such as Admob (www.admob.com) that allow you to place contextual ads on selected content.

In addition, mobile websites can be optimised for high visibility in the natural search results of the mobile websites using conventional SEO tactics. You can even submit a Google Mobile Sitemap. As few business have mobile ready websites the competition for valuable screen real estate is surprisingly light and it is relatively easy to get well positioned on the mobile search engines.

While the majority of people may not yet be ready to book their holidays on a mobile handset, there is clearly a business for other travel and tourism related suppliers like hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs, golf courses, attractions, tour guides and other local services.

Very few businesses have mobile versions of their websites, so there is an opportunity to get ahead of your competitors through early exposure for your products and services on the mobile web.

Mark Scriven is the M.D of Turismotec Ltd (http://www.turismotec.com), a UK based search marketing agency that specialises in the travel sector. Turismotec publish a bi-monthly search marketing newsletter called etravel.success. Subscribe here - http://www.turismotec.com/news_letter.html.Florry Blog50680
Violetta Blog65830

How to Successfully Retain and Grow Your Customers

Okay, so your marketing has paid off - you have new customers. The key to growing your business is to effectively communicate and leverage these new customers into advocates for your products and services and purchasers of additional services.

This can be done in a variety of ways. However, some basics steps must be followed to ensure retention. Here are a few tips you can use to develop long-term relationships with newly acquired customers.

1. Proactively shape impressions about your business. Whether you're sending a welcome message, making the first contact via phone, or sending a letter, be sure to position you company for the long-term. Often times, individuals buy products without knowing a whole lot about the company their buying from.

A popular tactic is sending a welcome kit or an overview letter that introduces your company, your values, and the additional resources you have available for your customers including a support email address, 1-800 number and so on. This lets you control your company's image among newly acquired customers. Otherwise, your customers are free to form their own opinion without any guidance whatsoever.

2. Categorize your customer. Is your customer a high potential? Are they a transactional buyer that will likely never buy from you again unless you offer the lowest price? By segmenting your buyers based on your existing database or known behaviors, you can develop customized communication plans to retain them for years to come. Some communication plan may be focused on up-sell while others may only be focused on retention. The communication plan you implement should be based on the proper categorization of your customer.

3. Show your thanks. Once you've acquired a customer, don't forget to thank them. This may seem trite, but done properly, this goes a long way. Often a hand-written note or personalized email from a company president can do the trick. The real key is to make the customer feel good about the purchase they've made and the company they've chose.

4. Provide consistency among all touch points. Once you've acquired a new customer, you must make sure that you provide a consistent user experience. For example, if the prospect contacts your technical support rep the first day after they've purchased a product and receive an answer to their question, then call the following day only to receive a different answer, they're going to lose faith in your company's ability to provide consistent and reliable support.

You can benefit greatly by developing procedures that can be documented and delivered consistently - meeting customer expectations. This builds trust in your business and can minimize defections. If the consumer knows they can count on you to give them what they need/want, they'll be willing to forgo a better price or promise of a better deal elsewhere.

5. Share customer testimonials on future marketing pieces. Many marketers believe that testimonials are only for prospects. The truth is that testimonials can help retain customers, especially new ones, when they are exposed to positive experiences of individuals just like them. In addition to sharing testimonials, it is always a best practice to ask newly acquired customers (within 30 days of purchase) for their feedback/testimonials.

The benefit of reaching out to your customers is that if a problem exists, you can react to it and if they have something positive to say about your product or business, it can be used to reinforce your brand. (Note: be sure to get permission to publish a customers testimonial).

These techniques are very effective for maximizing lifetime customer value. By shaping the image of your company, providing a consistent experience, and sharing testimonials for similar customers, you can develop a positive, lasting impression with your marketplace.

Most importantly, keep it simple. Don't overwhelm your new customers with tons of email, or direct mail. Develop a well thought-out communication plan that has a definite purpose. And most importantly, remember to thank your customers for choosing your company, product or service.

Michael Fleischner is a marketing expert with more than 12 years marketing experience. He has appeared on The TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media. For more free marketing articles like this one, visit http://www.marketingscoop.com.Fae Blog35743
Vernice Blog10257

New Evidence Suggests The Window Of Opportunity For New Webmasters Is Closing

It's never been easier to launch your own website - even better your own ecommerce website - but this may be coming to an abrupt end.

Whilst there are more books, courses and tools about succeeding on the Internet than ever before, technology and competition working hand-in-hand are now starting to close the window of opportunity for new businesses trying to establish themselves in cyberspace.

Consider that as few as 5 years ago, the static website was the mainstay of the Internet. Something that most people could learn to create in a few weeks - months at worst.

I self-taught myself everything I know and have never attended any formal education on the subject.

But technology is now moving at such a pace that the learning curve to getting a successful website online is getting steeper and steeper.

One example of this is RSS - standing for Really Simple Syndication - whereby your content can be turned into one of these datafeeds and sent directly to an Internet user's RSS browser. They need never visit your website or check their emails to get the latest news and products from your site - so long as they've subscribed to your RSS feed.

Also consider that you can add other people's RSS feeds to your own site to create a constantly, dynamically-changing site which updates itself regularly with all the latest news and events in your market.

This creates a very user-friendly experience for your visitors, and helps keep the search engines interested in your site.

Consider social bookmarking sites which can send huge volumes of traffic to well-built sites, but are based on users adding your site to their publically-viewable bookmarks list. This too can also have the side benefit of attracting the search engines.

Speaking of search engines, consider that they no longer just search text, like the old days. They now catalogue RSS feeds, images, video, audio and more. Every one of these is an avenue to investigate to further increase your market penetration.

Consider the way you can now submit every page of your site to Google and Yahoo using one simple form (if you know how) to help them catalogue your site, and consider that submitting an RSS feed to the right places can lead to you generating visitors in days, not weeks or months.

Think about how multimedia content in general is growing and podcasts and online video are gaining momentum with specialized technology and search sites designed just for these media types.

Think about the use of mp3s to attract visitors - and think about user-generated content itself.

Large sites like Ebay and Amazon have welcomed user-generated content for years but the rest of the net is just getting started in this field. Allowing customers to add comments, articles, questions, advice and so on thus further making your site unique, attractive to the search engines and useful to your traffic so leading to repeat visits.

Consider database-driven sites that constantly update themselves automatically without you having to completely rebuild your site from scratch.

And so on.

The development of new technology is happening at a truly dizzying pace and unfortunately if you don't have the basic knowledge needed to best utilize these opportunities, by the time new businesses come online, there will simply be too much information, too much they need to learn, too much they need to create and do to be able to effectively penetrate a certain market.

Secondly, consider how websites are increasing their revenues. They're learning more every day about how to turn browsers into buyers.

And the more buyers they have, the more they can afford to spend on advertising.

As their own results keep increasing, so do the budgets spent on advertising and already highly competetive markets and keywords are garnering astonishingly-high a aquisition costs of $10 or more per visitor.

How can a small business compete with that?

Soon enough those with first mover advantage will have so much knowledge on the subject - that the barriers of entry will become nigh on impossible to scale unless you have some major angel investors backing you.

The end result is this - if you have an idea for a website, stop procrastinating. Get online, get building your site, and get building your business.

Because if you wait around too long, I have a feeling the window of opportunity may just have closed for good.

Copyright 2006 Richard Adams

Richard Adams has just released an exciting, brand new course on how to build your own website from scratch in 7 days or less with no technical knowledge. Take a look today at: http://www.easyecommercewebsitedesign.comFeliza Blog60990
Valentia Blog46951

Web Hosting - Are You Getting Your Moneys Worth?

Web hosting. If the term means anything to you at all then you either already have a hosting provider or are looking for one. Either way I hope to educate you on some of the basics to look for in a hosting company. Personal, business, free, ecommerce or discount an educated consumer makes all the difference.

When reviewing hosting providers most people wouldn't put this point first, but I do. Support. Yes, most companies have some type of support, but not all are equal. First and foremost is availability. Support staff should be available 24/7 by phone and email. Response time should also be quick and wait times should be announced and published on the web site. Technicians should be friendly, educated and speak your language.

After support the next most important set of things to look for in a hosting company are features. If the company can't provide what you need then you might as well look elsewhere. Some basics are of course capacity and bandwidth, but more importantly is the ability to do what you need to with your site. Ecommerce, blogging, forums, scripting and databases are much more important anymore then the amount of space you get.

Last but not least is price. When I say price I don't mean to suggest you get the cheapest plan out there. You should find the plan that has the features you need and is affordable. Don't get more than you need simply because you can. There are many hosting companies out there with bargain basement pricing. They can do this because your server is in their basement next to their washer and dryer. Be careful who you do business with and remember you get what you pay for.

In summary I just want to point out that the hosting environment is changing. With blogs and the like becoming more prevalent hosting companies need to adapt to stay in business. You as the consumer need to be educated in what you need and don't be afraid to make a switch if you have to.

D. David Dugan recommends http://hosting.dugancom.com for all of your web hosting, email, domain name and blogging needs.Virginia Blog89042
Vanya Blog26667

Do It Yourself Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization is a technique used to achieve a higher ranking in the search engine, so as to generate a lot of free traffic to your site.

If your website is not ranked in the first couple search result pages, chances are, you are missing out a great number of visitors that could potentially become your customers. This would also deem your website completely useless; after all, what is the use of a published website that is not viewed by visitors and web surfers?

While SEO is an important technique that all webmasters need to employ in their sites, it is definitely not an simple task to do. Some big companies are even going to the extent of paying big amount of money to hire SEO company to optimize their sites.

For individual who do not have the budget and would like to do-it-yourself (DIY) with search engine optimization, here are some simple techniques which are easy to learn:

Provide valuable and informative content on your website

For most web sites, content is the key. When writing the content of your web pages, insert vital keywords which relate to the products and services that your company offers.

Make your content brief and concise, yet informative.

Keep your facts up-to-date so that users will visit your web site more often. Do not forget to include a lot of helpful links, articles and guides that users can forward to another user and add to your customer base.

Make the overall design user friendly

The design of your website should be simple, nice and easy to navigate. Do not design your web site in an overly-complicated way that users will find it too "frightening" to browse through.

Vary the keyword for each individual web page

Think of every possible keywords or phrases that will apply to your products and services.

Each user is different and may not necessarily use the keyword that you expect them to type in the search bar. Search engines offer tools which will guide you through finding the correct keywords for search engine optimization.

Include definitive and visible hyper links in your website

Providing users with hyperlinks which are useful and easy to find is yet another way to optimize your web site.

Build incoming links to your site

Enroll in a link exchange program and start to exchange link with other sites that are related to your industry.

Write articles is also a good way to get free incoming links to your site. It can also help to build your reputation at the same time.

The above listed are only some of the few simple techniques used in Search engine optimization. The 'One Page Search Engine Optimization Checklist' offers more details and easy-to-read guide for serious webmasters who want to master the art of SEO.

Using the proper search engine optimization techniques listed in the checklist, you can definitely optimize your web site and yield very promising results for your business.

Damien Oh is an Internet Strategist who specializes in search engine optimization for corporate. To help webmarketers profitably rank top in the search engine, he offered a "One-Page Checklist For Successful SEO in http://www.internetstrategyblog.com/free-resources/one-page-seo-checklistFabrianne Blog23784
Valida Blog15196

Technology & E-Business Expansion: Website Strategies That Will Take Your Business To The Next Level

Many companies agree that a website is a very strong sales vehicle resulting in increased sales. However, after investing a substantial amount of money in building an elaborate Website, the disappointment settles in when they begin to realize that their website does not produce the results they hoped for, and that it does not match their needs and expectations. What people fail to realize is the fact that having a beautiful Website does not guarantee an increase in sales, and will not improve efficiency or customer relationship management effectiveness. Yes, I will agree you must have an attractive, professional looking website, otherwise you will immediately lose credibility with your prospects. However, your website also needs to be:

1. Informative Your website must speak to your prospects needs, wants, desires, and address their concerns. If your website is not informative, and if it does not sell to your prospects, then you are dramatically reducing your chances of closing the sale.

2. Traffic directive Your website should lead clients easily through the sales funnel. If you do not have an easy navigation system, and if your sales prospects are getting lost they will easily become frustrated. Frustrated prospects do not become happy customers.

3. Marketable Sales are rarely completed upon the first introduction, whether it is in person, over the phone or on the Internet. You have to gain your prospects attention and keep their attention. If you go to http://www.smcdata.com, you will notice that I continually update my site, and add new articles and case studies to entice prospects to visit my website often. You may want to add an e-newsletter, or a special report, or offer a free e-Book, or e-Course as a lead generating strategy to capture your prospects contact information. Once you have their information, you can then email them or snail mail them, or make follow up phone calls that will eventually close the sale.

A Fourth Factor That Is Frequently Overlooked

Not meeting the goals mentioned in the above paragraphs, can lead to not achieving the results anticipated. But a successfully designed and marketed Website that results in a substantial sales increase can also create business disruption when the e-commerce system is not integrated in real time to the back office system.

For example, I recently received an inquiry about our ERP software solution from the president of a small fastening company who had read my previous article how to choose the right software for your company which was published in a popular trade magazine. When speaking with her, she told me that she recently turned off her website despite the fact it was extremely successful in producing a substantial amount of new sales. The reason for turning off the website was that the back office system did not produce the proper inventory status information.

Not having this data resulted in severe business disruptions. Realizing that she would lose customers and her companys high rating on the web, the president decided to turn off the website until she could find suitable new back office software for her company. As a result of the high level of stress created by the business disruptions, many of her staff members decided to leave the company, increasing her business disruptions.

Another Example Of How A So-Called Successful Website Can Create Unnecessary Business Disruptions:

Recently, three presidents of very successful electronics e-commerce companies told me they have excellent e-business retail stores that enabled them to grow their businesses substantially. When I asked them how good their inventory control is in the warehouse, they all admitted that this was one area that required great improvement as:

1. Misplaced inventory was collecting dust and was not found until the next physical count took place in the warehouse. Quite often, when the misplaced inventory when found, it was obsolete. The inventory that could have been sold became excess inventory since new inventory was ordered while it was misplaced.

2. Incorrect shipments resulted in a high rate of returns, and double freight bills.

3. Credit issued for returned inventory resulted in additional workload for the accounting department results in the loss of vendor early payment discounts.

Make Your Website A Success With An Integrated Computer System

While selling on the Web can be a very powerful tool, as you can see, it can also be a double-edged sword resulting in severe business disruptions. With an integrated computer system, the Web, the back office, and the warehouse information will be updated in a real time mode without the danger of data being corrupted or lost. An automated warehouse will insure shipment accuracy, prevent inventory from being misplaced, and the company Website will always reflect an accurate count of the inventory available in the warehouse. This will your companys customer relationship management effectiveness and encourage customers to become recurring clients.

If your website is attractive, informative, marketable, and if it has traffic direction and a integrated computer system in place, it will then enable your company to go to the next level. You will then only be limited by your imagination and your budget. The question is, What is your destination?

Since 1980, Dan Kaplan has worked with corporate executives to improve purchasing, increase warehouse and distribution efficiencies, and implement software solutions that result in substantial savings and productivity improvements. To lower your operating costs, reduce your warehousing and distribution business's quote generation process from 3 weeks to 3 hours and invoice cycle from months to one day, go to http://www.smcdata.com Fallon Blog44071
Freddy Blog82102

Paris Hilton's Mom and Other Article Marketing Ideas

You want to write about the Paris Hilton scandal? That's a hot topic. How about the show her mother put on in the courtroom? Or better still, you're sick of Paris Hilton and the media's celebrity obsession. Write an article on how you wish they would all go away.

As you can see a celebrity jailbird offers a boatload of article marketing ideas. Nothing illustrates this better than the supermarket tabloids. They are covering this story from every nauseating angle they can think of because it's a story people are interested in. Whether it's the shopping habits of pop singers or drunken termites from outer space, tabloids have mastered the art of grabbing attention and providing a constant stream of unique content.

Getting someone's attention and holding it goes double for writing articles on the internet. Access to unlimited information online makes people very impatient, so it is crucial to keep coming up with fresh article ideas. Many would-be writers seem to have trouble in this area. As a result they don't write anything at all.

The good news is there are resources available right now to keep your creative juices flowing.

1. Television

Listen to people at your job, on the elevator or anyplace else people gather. What are they talking about? Odds are it's something they saw on TV. Yes it's been called everything from the idiot box to a vast wasteland but the power of television to connect people and get them talking cannot be overstated.

For instance the Soprano finale (lame) still has people buzzing. There is plenty of mileage you can get out of that subject. This doesn't mean you have to sit in front of the TV hours on end but you should find a way to add it to your article generating toolbox.

2. The Magazine Newsstand

There is a lot of talk that the internet will eventually replace books magazines and newspapers. I don't see it that way, especially since much of what you read online is regurgitated from the offline world.

Even if it does, the newsstands as of this writing are a huge reservoir of article ideas. Start checking them out on a regular basis. Newsstands are also great places to find topics with built in target audiences. You can tap into these markets and learn how to adapt it to your online article writing.

3. Discussion Forum

Chat rooms, message boards and forums are the water coolers of cyberspace. People are talking, asking questions, trading information and sometimes insults. A large and lively online forum is a great place to get article ideas.

According to a recent survey done by Digital Future Project, 43% of internet users who belong to some type of forum identify with their community online just as strongly as they do with their community offline. That's pretty powerful and it's only going to grow. Find a good forum and become an active participant. This will provide you with a constant source of article ideas.

There are of course other techniques you can use including creating surveys, checking out product advertisements or just asking questions. Whatever methods you prefer start using them now. Not only will you create for yourself a pool of article marketing ideas that never runs dry, but you will also make Paris Hilton's mom really happy.

You could live without that last part right? I understand.

Daryl Campbell is your internet marketing guide for more tips, tools, resources, free video coaching and up to the minute information. Make the business of growing your business easy and fun at http://winthemarket.comValentine Blog65372
Vikky Blog51675

Craigslist Holiday Advertising

The holidays are just around the corner. Soon lights will line the roof tops and the hustle and bustle will begin as holiday shoppers search for those perfect gifts. Not only will shopping malls transform but online traffic will increase as this busy season comes to life.

As online shopping becomes more and more popular, its no wonder sites like Craigslist have caught the attention of both buyers and sellers. Each month over 10 million people visit Craigslist.org to buy or sell just about anything.

Craigslist was launched in 1995 and has become the 7th most popular website. Amongst personals, housing and job postings, there are twenty four for sale categories and fourteen service categories to choose from. The beauty of Craigslist is that searching or posting ads is completely free, except for job postings in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. Unlike other classified sites or auction sites like EBay, which charge fees, Craigslist offers a value Marketers can take advantage of; free listings targeted to a specific city or region.

For the online or brick and mortar store, advertising on Craigslist is a great alternative to costly advertising fees from traditional sources. Not only do ads have the potential of reaching a phenomenal number of people, but can be seen by people looking specifically for items or services in that particular category. Posting to Craigslist is easy. Keep in mind, a simple design that matches the down-to-earth feel of the Craigslist community will be most effective. For best results, post ads in the most relevant categories. Creativity in posting to other less logical, but relevant categories can be a great advantage as well. An ad must be legitimate. Content should be concise, accurately portrayed and stand out among other similar listings. Careful attention to proper spelling, grammar and punctuation help to create legitimacy. Familiarizing oneself with Craiglists terms and conditions will contribute to a more positive experience. Besides simply posting ads, answering ads seeking those products or services is also a great way of generating business.

Buyers looking to take advantage of wholesale or discounted prices, will find that Craigslist is a convenient place to shop with an easy to navigate site. Crowded shopping malls can be avoided by searching local listings in a region, with 24/7 access to the World Wide Web. New and used, unusual and unique are the items that can be found when shopping on Craigslist.

Common sense should be used when engaging with online sellers. If the item purchased is being shipped to the buyer, buyer should obtain the contact information of the seller in case the item doesnt arrive. If the transaction will take place in person, a safe, public meeting place should be chosen and never a secluded one.

These tips and recommendations will help buyers and sellers make the most of the holidays by taking advantage of online shopping and free advertising on Craigslist.

Shanon Lewis is a web marketing expert and the author of The Unofficial Craigslist Book the first and only book that features detailed tips, tricks and guidance showing every business how to succeed on Craigslist.org. For more information, visit http://www.craigslist-book.com.Federica Blog38568
Violetta Blog28236

Horse Racing Tips

There are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to betting on the horses. Some people believe that its impossible to profit in horse racing. Some believe that all you need to do is bet the favorites. Still, others believe that the only way to make money is to bet the huge long shots and pray for a miracle. All of these thoughts are false. You can make money betting on horses, and you dont need to pick favorites all the time or bet on miracle finishes often.

Here is a juicy piece of information for you. The favorite wins the race (thoroughbred racing) about 33% of the time. Therefore, if you simply bet the favorite, you will be losing 67% of the time. Since favorites dont always pay too well, you would end up losing over the long run. Still, money can be made betting on favorites. Each race is different. In some races, the favorite might be an even money favorite. In others, the favorite might be a 3-1 favorite.

How you bet is just as important as how much you bet. A common bet is called across the board. When you make this wager, you are betting on the horse to win, place and show. If the horse comes in first, you win all three bets. The show bet is the most conservative wager in horse racing, and it pays like it. Its common to be paid only 20 cents on the dollar for a show bet. Many inexperience bettors place a show bet to be safe, but its a money sink.

Unless the horse is going off at a good price (odds), making a show bet is a losing proposition. The best way to wager on a good horse is win and possibly placenever show. Think about it this way, if I told you I had a proposition that you might win 33% of the time, and it will pay 1-5, which means you bet $5 and win $1, would you jump on it? Of course you wouldnt. This is kind of what its like to make a show bet on a good horse.

At the end of the day, how you wager can up accounting for half or more of your success potential. Bettors that dont figure this out wonder why their bankroll is not larger after their winning day. Place your bets properly and you will be halfway home to being a successful horse racing bettor. Money can be and is, made in horse racing every single day. On busy days, there are more than one hundred betting opportunities to take advantage of. One last piece of advice. If a race is not favorable to youodds wisemove along. There will be plenty more races to bet on.

Sebastien Veilleux is a senior horse wagering editor at http://www.advantagesportsbetting.com/horse-wagering.htm, an online sportsbook review site - http://www.sportsgamblingreview.com. He also writes a daily blog on horse betting with up to the minute odds, news and horse picks - http://www.bettingonhorse.com.Verena Blog29705
Valene Blog48129

Hitting The Mark In Marketing

If you want to hit the mark of success in your marketing efforts, then you have to be sharply focused on what you're selling and to whom. Like a double-edged sword if you like.

Let's use the business opportunity niche as an example.

Business opportunities are a dime a dozen. What sets yours apart from the crowd? Why would anyone or I want to join?

This is called your unique selling point. The question is, do you have one?

This is what you must promote to get the success you desire.

It could be a product feature, a superior level of support service, a product's versatility, an aspect of your guarantee or something that's original about the opportunity. If you're not sure what your unique selling point is, then brainstorm with your mentors and peers to identify it.

If you don't have one, then go back to the drawing board.

Create one if it's your own product. If it's not, then talk to the owner of the product with a suggestion or two.

This in itself is an opportunity. Alternatively you could market it with additional products or services to make it unique.

The other edge to your marketing sword is your target market.

You must drill down to where the buyers are. If you use email marketing then make sure they are optin for business opportunities and not something else. If you advertise in ezines, then make sure the ezine is focused on business opportunities.

If you use adsense then you can get an income by carefully selected keywords. If you are an affiliate marketer then make sure your landing page is optimized with keywords.

This combination can either promote your product's unique selling point to your targeted niche market or it sends targeted traffic to see your product focusing on its unique selling point, depending on which form of marketing you use.

Experiment with all forms of marketing and track the results to find out where you are getting the best results.

Remember if you are buying traffic "hits", they are not necessarily targeted to your niche. 100 targeted visitors to your site may be of much greater than a million hits from all the extremities of the web. So pay close attention to where they originate.

If they're good quality make sure you capture them with an optin offer to your mailing list, then treat them like gold. Give them quality content in your emails and not just continual pressure to buy your products. Don't send too many emails on a regular basis and never give their address to anyone else. Ask yourself would you want to receive the emails you send or would you opt out?

Ray Burton is an internet marketer providing resources for newbies and experienced marketers. Check out his recommendation for a home based business at: http://www.cyberchoices.info.Freddie Blog7095
Faye Blog51724

How to Develop a Thriving Business on the Internet

Most people spend time and money advertising on the Internet without having good results.

They do not know where the hot locations are to advertise and they do not know how to write an ad that creates instant interest and action. They also do not know the key secrets to successful advertising on the Internet.

My experience in marketing has been, (listed in the reasons listed above), that the multitude of individuals that have a true desire to start or grow their business will suffer if these items are not addressed.

Imagine thisWould you like to go from being a person who is struggling to build a home-based business on the Internet, to achieving financial freedom in a few months?

If you haven't been successful at advertising on the Internet, or find the task of embarking on an Internet advertising campaign overwhelming, don't be discouraged. There is a solution.

In this article I will explain how to attract endless new distributors or customers to your business.

Most people don't realize that you can have the best product, company and compensation plan in the world, but it's all completely worthless unless you have an exciting, effective advertising and marketing program that will bring people to you on a silver platter.

The first two questions you must answer are, "Who is your target market?" and, "What locations do they frequent on the Internet?"

Once you can answer these two questions correctly, the next step toward attracting traffic to your website is to write an ad that will capture instant attention and create an enormous amount of interest from your target market. The ability of your ad to do this is one of the key ingredients in attracting the necessary traffic.

The second most important step is to place your ad in locations on the Internet where your target market frequently visits. This takes a tremendous amount of research. Don't worry-- if you're already feeling overwhelmed, remember that there is a solution!

After you have determined the locations where your target market visits, you must learn how to place your ads on those locations and do it repeatedly. This takes time that you should be using to communicate with your prospects and help your downline.

After you have secured the interest of your prospects through advertising, the next step is to send them to a capture page or power ad, not your website. A capture page or power ad should be very professional and create further interest in the opportunity, product or service that you have advertised. A professional capture page or power ad is free of clutter and creates interest in only one thing. A key element for a successful capture page or power ad is to give away something free (e.g., an e-book-- something pertaining to what you are marketing) and thus "capture" the first name and email address of your prospects. We have had the most success with generic capture pages or power ads.

Sometimes it takes 7 contacts with a prospect before they take action.

Therefore, having an auto-responder with a series of 7 emails ready to send to your prospects over a ten-day period is essential-- all designed to get your prospects to your website. Each email should outline a definite plan of action for the prospect and why they should take that action. If you are not experienced in this area, you would benefit by having someone with Internet marketing experience write the email series for you, to insure your success.

When you conduct an email campaign using leads, you should send them to a landing page or power ad, not a capture page, because you already have their name and email address. You should still offer something FREE, however, to attract your leads toward that landing page or power ad. The landing page or power ad should be similar to the capture page, except the capture page will also be asking for ( i.e., capturing) the prospect's name and email address through the free offer. After your leads visit your landing page or power ad, you can then send them directly to your website.

If your prospect visits your website but does not purchase or get involved, keep them on your mailing list (unless they opt-out) because their circumstances may change. In three or four months they may get involved or purchase your product or service, as a result of your continued communications.

A good way to stay in touch with your target audience is through a monthly newsletter. You can develop one yourself or use a generic newsletter.

You can accomplish everything we have described in this article yourself, but it will require specific, quality skills to be successful. You'll need marketing-writing skills to create successful ads and email letters, graphic and marketing-writing skills for developing your capture and landing pages, market-research skills to find out the best places to put your ads, an auto-responder to automatically send out your emails, and the knowledge of how to operate your auto-responder. These tasks also take a lot of time and effort.

It will also take a lot of patience and attention to continually experiment with different strategies, until you develop a marketing plan that will attract massive amounts of traffic to your website.

There is an easy solution, however. You can instantly have an entire experienced advertising team on your staff when you partner with AdSurfDaily, Inc. ASD's Attract Marketing System incorporates all of the above features and is guaranteed to drive an endless stream of new distributors and buyers to your site!

Click Here http://www.homebusiness-instantprofits.com to download a FREE Report titled Discover How to Drive Massive Traffic to Your Website and discover how you can advertise you web site FREE to thousands of Hot Prospects.


T. Andy Bowdoin has over 40 years experience in marketing. He developed a unique marketing system to market cell phones and GPS systems. He modified the marketing system for the internet and attracted over 5,000 members in 120 days and sold over 1,200,000.00 in services. He teaches his members the system to help build their internet businessesVivia Blog18775
Ethyl Blog32762

5 Things To Consider About Debt Consolidation

Debt Consolidation....How could you not think about it? Several times a week you are presented with the "best option" for debt consolidation through either the mail, a telemarketer(we all love them), e-mail, or advertising online, just to name a few. Do you find it strange that so many people are concerned with your well-being and financial stability that they want to help you? Don't be. There are obvious reasons that we all know, that companies want your debt. Huge Profits! They have the statistics and know the trends that most people will only make minimum monthly payments which over the term of the loan pays them back at least 4 times the amount and from the temporary increase in available cash, most people repeat the same spending habits that caused the need for consolidation in the first place. More opportunity for the companies.

But debt consolidation can be a great thing if used correctly. There are varying opinions about this from the many financial "experts" of the world, but my personal belief is that we all make decisions necessary to solve our current problems and give us added peace of mind. Now the decisions do not always give the results we hope for and may not be the best decisions for long term planning, but I do believe people make what they think are the best decisions at the time. It is pretty easy to look back and question some of the financial decisions we made, we all do, but the problem with doing this is only analyzing the decision and not the many other factors that were in play when the decision was made. ex family, job, relationship, sanity, etc. When deciding if debt consolidation is the best thing for you, here are some things that should be considered to help make the best decision possible.

1) How much additional monthly cash will my consolidation make available?

This is based on an assumption on why people consolidate, but I assume it is because the total amount of your monthly bills is more than you can afford or want to pay each month. Whatever the reason, how much cash your consolidation frees up should be a consideration if you do it or not. If the total of your monthly bills is currently $1,000 and after the consolidation your monthly payment will be $975, then the consolidation is probably not the best idea. Now if that payment is going to be $500 after the consolidation, then maybe it is worth it. There is no one number that makes this answer right, totally personal choice. Just make sure that you review all of the terms and that over the long haul you are not paying a whole lot more than you would have before the consolidation.

2) Can I consolidate without consolidating?

Is it possible that you can consolidate your bills and pay them off quicker without the formal consolidation? This requires an analysis of your bills, the amounts owed to each, the minimum monthly payments, and how much longer before they are paid off. It may make more sense to endure the high payments for a few more months, if you can make minimum monthly payments on most bills while overpaying on one to pay it off. And repeating this process until, in theory, you are debt free. This is commonly referred to as the snowball effect, which basically means as you pay off one bill it frees up more cash to increase the payments on another bill. This is done over and over until all of the bills are paid. I am sure there are places online that have calculators that can help you perform this task as well as Microsoft Money and Quicken. I have used both of these programs and they both are helpful in graphically laying out what extra payments can do.

3) What am I prepared to change in my spending habits?

This is probably one of the most important questions to ask yourself, what will I do differently after the consolidation? You must take a long, hard look at your financial situation and determine how you will control your spending habits differently. I hate to make it seem as though consolidation is a bad thing because it truly is not. But I do realize than many people consolidate loans and bills due to being overextended. If you fall into that category, make sure you are doing what is necessary in terms of spending controls to prevent the need for more consolidation in the future. Statistics will easily show that there is little change after the consolidation which leads to further consolidation in the future. Dont be a statistic!

4) How much does my consolidation cost by the end?

This is really a combination of what are the terms of my consolidation loan versus the current terms of my loans. I guess it could be summed up as reading the fine print. These lending companies like nothing more than to get you into long term contracts with low monthly payments that last forever. The first several years of these payments the interest portion is far higher than the principal with statistics showing there will be some other type of consolidation after a few years. To them that is more money, more money, more money. Look at the terms of your loan and try to avoid adjustable rates, extremely long terms, or high closing costs to acquire the loan. The most important is the rate and if it adjusts. Sometimes they are unavoidable, but that makes your payment for the future unpredictable. If may only fluctuate a little at a time, but over the course of a year or two, your payment could be drastically different. The documents that you have to sign to acquire the loan will usually state how much you will pay in total if you make your minimum monthly payments for the duration of the loan. Look at this number and see if you can make it lower and meet you current cash needs. You will thank yourself in the long run.

5) What effect will extra payments have?

Consider extra payments each month, even if it is as little as $25. This makes a significant impact to the length of the loan. Obviously the amount of the loan will make a difference as an extra $25 against a $1 million dollar loan does not have that great of an impact, but extra payments help. Banks calculate payments and interest using compound interest meaning that they do not simply multiply you loan times the finance rate for the year to get your interest. They calculate it daily. So 5% per year is not $100 X 5%, it is ($100 5%/365)* 365. This gives a number much different than $105. By making extra payments you are reducing the amount by which the interest is calculates against. So everyday after you make your extra payment, the amount the interest is calculated against is lower. Makes a difference. Do the math.

Brian May writes articles on a variety of subjects including relationships, real estate, and finances. Please visit my sites http://www.BrianKeithMay.com or http://www.OpenEntrance.com.Vita Blog30612
Vinnie Blog1761

Why Article Marketing is So Effective!

One important part of marketing for the Internet, which holds true for article marketing as well, is the concept of giving something away. This has proven true time and time again. The more you give away, the more you sell.

Consumers expect two things of the Internet free stuff and immediacy. Your article marketing for the Web should deliver both. Don't fear that you give away too much information on your industry or your business products and services.

Don't fear that folks won't need you because you told them how to do it themselves. In most cases, anyone can do it themselves or learn to do it themselves. They call on you because they don't have the time and don't want to spend the resources to do it themselves. They see, in your article writing and marketing materials that you know how to do it and do it well. They will come to you for your paid help.

Whether your article marketing is on your site, or on the site of publications or blogs etc, don't get so caught up in your marketing your product or service's features in the article that you forget to talk about the benefits. Sometimes people don't pick that up from the features. Sometimes your article marketing just has to hit them over the head with it.

As an example, we'll say you're writing an article that is trying to market telecommuting the practice of employees working from home or another location than the company's office. In your marketing article you talk about how telework allows companys to house their staff in a smaller office. That's a feature. But you haven't pointed out what might be obvious to some, but not to everyone. The fact that the firm needs a smaller office means that it can save money on renting or leasing bigger space, or building a larger office, or a bigger parking lot. Those are the benefits. Article marketing must clearly point out the benefits.

Article marketing lets you put your best foot forward, showing yourself as an expert in the industry for which you're trying to lure customers. Reach out to pertinent associations, groups and sites that are visited by those who might need your business services. Offer them your expertise in the form of an article and you'll be marketing your own business at no cost except your time.

Peter Morgan is the founder of JV Members - a new article publishing system, which enables anyone, to easily earn a living online through writing short articles. Click http://www.jvmembers.com to find out more and claim your Free Membership.Ertha Blog35535
Vania Blog60311

Advertising Is Key To Home Business Success

There is no question that advertising is key to the success of any business large or small, new or old. Without advertising and marketing practices a business simply cannot succeed or last long. To ensure long and lasting success, a business must engage in marketing and advertising in some way. If you have heard the old adage that it takes money to make money then you know that advertising does not come for free. A business must consider an advertising campaign budget to keep their numbers up.

It has been said that the best form of advertising is word of mouth advertising. Word of mouth advertising is free and lends an air of credibility to the business. Usually, word of mouth advertising comes from happy and satisfied customers and clients that wish to share their positive experience. Most of the time, they tell their friends, family, and coworkers about a particular product or service and in turn new customers come to the business.

While word of mouth is a wonderful and free way to get the word out about a business, it is not the be all end all of advertising. Advertising with television spots, radio spots, on billboards, and in print are all still very effective ways to get the word out. These methods of advertising are quite expensive and not as realistic for many small businesses.

A more economical yet effective way for a business to advertise is online. The Internet is such an integral part of daily life now that it is hard not to advertise on the World Wide Web. The ways in which a business can advertise online are seemingly endless. There are several types of email marketing campaigns, banner advertising, link advertising, websites, and viral marketing. Usually, to engage in a successful email marketing campaign, a business will send past customers an email to announce new products or specials on their website or in their store.

By large, advertising online is usually very cheap. The key is to find a place online where lots of your customers are going to go. In order to do this, you have to be sure that you know who your demographic is and who is using your business. This might require some work on your part. Once you have identified who the people are that are using your business, you can go to other sites that these people are also going to be using, and you can advertise on these sites, quite easily.

Many business owners engage in strategic networking with other business owners in an effort to advertise their businesses. Strategic networking is a way for business owners to meet each other, get the word out about their company, and even to expand their resources and business prospects.

One of the newest ways to get the word out about your business and successfully advertise is that through social networking. Social networking is much like strategic networking in that it is usually free and occurs through meeting and discussing issues and products. However, social networking is done through modern media such as websites, blogs, and the Internet community. It is highly effective and inexpensive.

Regardless of the method of advertising used, a business must use constant advertising campaigns to keep success on the horizon.

Earl Williams will show you how to build an online business from your own home. He will give you a verity of business to choose from. You can learn more by visiting: http://www.netmarketer.orgVeronike Blog91856
Estel Blog33328

Slash the Amount You Pay Creditors With a Small Increase to Your Minimum Payments

How much would you end up with if you took a penny and doubled it every day for a month? The answer to this question demonstrates quickly why your creditors have the upper hand in your relationship with them.

Taking a mere penny and doubling it every day for 31 days, you end up with $21,474,836.48.

Day 1 the original penny turns into two, Day 2 those two turn into four, and on Day 3 the four turn into eight The amount the original penny is worth accelerates rapidly because not only does the original penny collect interest, all the pennies being added to the original are earning interest as well and so each day the growth of the original penny is being compounded.

This is why banks and credit card companies make so much money at your expense. They dont just earn interest on the amount you spend. They also earn interest on the amount of interest your charged when you only make minimum payments.

There are three key components to the amount youll give to the banks and credit card companies when taking on a debt:

1. How much you owe.
2. Your interest rate.
3. How long you stay in debt based on the payments you make.

The importance of 1 is obvious. If you dont take on debt youll never owe the bank anything.

Most people place to much emphasis on 2. Yes, if you receive a 0% interest rate you wont pay the bank much. And everything being equal a low rate is better than a high one. Were the banks get you however is with 3.

By setting the minimum payment low relative to the balance the banks stretch out your payments for years and sometimes decades. Now they are not only charging you interest on your balance they are charging you interest on the interest you owe them compounding their money and supercharging their profits.

When you hear stories about a consumer spending $15,000 interest on a $5,000 purchase the low minimum payment the bank or credit company set is the reason they ended up spending $20,000 for $5,000 worth of stuff.

The key to keeping money out of the pockets of your creditors is to pay a bit more than the minimum payment each month.

In the example above about the penny compounding over the course of a month. The penny sees most of its gain towards the end of the month. On day 20 its worth $10,458. By day 27 this amount has grown to $1,342,177. And then by Day 31 it hits $21,474,836.48.

Instead of using days like in the penny example lets think in terms of years. If you have a $200,000 30 year mortgage with a 9% interest rate your minimum payment every month would be $1609.

At the end of thirty years youd finally own your home having spent a total of $579,322. The $379,322 of interest youll pay represents 65% of the money youll spend.

However if you were to put an extra $100 towards your mortgage per month youll spend a total of $479,780 purchasing your home and avoid $99,542 of interest charges reducing your interest costs to 58% of your total payment.

Plus youll own your home in 23 years and 5 months instead of 30 years. So by investing $28,100 in extra payments youll avoid $99,542 in interest charges, a return on your money of 354%.

The gains only compound as you increase your additional payment. Increase it to $200 and youll avoid $151,988 in interest charges, own your home in 19 years and 9 months, and earn a 329% return on your money.

Creditors may set the payment terms when offering you money. They can't dictate that you abide by them though. Use the power of a moderate monthly payment increase to avoid padding your creditors bottom line and save the money for yourself.

Steve Miller is co-founder of http://debtmd.com. A web site offering people free debt elimination software to assist them in a creating a personal strategy to eliminate debt and maximize savings.Esmeralda Blog16158
Frannie Blog21309

Search Engine Optimization for Small Business Success

Whether you have an established large-scale business or whether you are a one-person start-up, it is important for your website to rank high in search engine queries for your important keywords and search phrases. If you are not ranked properly you will not get much traffic, and if you depend on Internet traffic, then this can mean failure for your business. One of the best ways to improve your ranking in the search engines is by applying the methods of search engine optimization to your website. Here is a guide to search engine optimization that can help you to get started in this important task:

1. Start with a clear and simple website design

A good website design should be easy for your human visitors to enjoy and understand, and it should also be intelligible for the search engine robots that also visit your site. What looks good to the human eye may not look good to search engines. If your site is 100% flash then it may impress your visitors, but the search engines will not find text and will not be able to properly classify your site. Similarly a site designed with frames is also search engine unfriendly. Check with your web designer and make sure that the design you are getting is user-friendly and search engine friendly as well.

2. Focus each of your web pages around one or two distinct concepts

A well-organized site will help you to get better search engine rankings. Suppose you have ten different products. It may be difficult to get number one rankings for all of these products from one single page of your site. However if you make sub-pages for each different product and optimize those pages to highlight the particular product or service on that page, then those sub-pages stand a good chance of coming up in search engine queries. Remember, people do not enter your website only via the main page; rather they often enter via the "back" and "side-doors." Prepare all the pages of your website properly and you will get more traffic.

3. Put your main keywords in the meta-tags of your web pages

Once you have decided what will go on your web pages, then you have to optimize each page separately. Never use the same meta-tags for all the pages of your site. If your page is about "Riding Lawn Mowers," then put these words in the Title, Description and Keywords meta-tags of your website. The title tag is the most important of the three tags, and your keywords should be right at the front. Resist the temptation to put your company name first! If you are new, then no one knows about you and they are searching for Riding Lawn Mowers and not you. Do your branding elsewhere, not in the meta-tags

4. Put your keywords in the headlines and sub-headlines of your web page

A search engine is trying to find out what your page is all about. If you want to know what a magazine article is all about, without even reading it, the first thing that you would do is scan the headlines. Search engines do the same thing. Put your most important keywords in a headline right at the top of the page. Mark the headline with an H1 tag (ask your web designer to help if you do not know what this is). Make sub-headlines using an H2 or H3 tag. Putting your keywords in headlines is a vital part of search engine optimization.

5. Place your keywords strategically in the text of your web page

Write naturally and logically and you will succeed with your web page optimization. In the first paragraph mention your main concept, and then develop your ideas summarizing in the last paragraph what you have said on that page. Your keywords should appear in the beginning of the document, and they should be repeated at the end. As mentioned in point 4, they should also appear in headlines and sub-headlines. The keyword density should be between 2-5%. If you write 400 words then your keyword can be repeated 12 times without any problem.

6. Include your keywords in link text on your web pages

When you link to other sections of your website you should pay attention to the clickable portion of the links. Instead of making a link that says "Click Here." Make a phrase that says click here for more information about "Riding Lawn Mowers." The clickable portion of the link should be your keywords and not click here!

These are the main points that you need to take care of when optimizing your website. If your small business is Internet-based or in any way dependent on search engine traffic, then it is imperative to apply the best methods of search engine optimization to each and every web page of your site.

Robert Moment is an innovative small business coach , speaker and author. Robert specializes in teaching entrepreneurs how to start a small business that profits and grow. Visit http://www.howtostartyoursmallbusiness.com and sign-up for the FREE Small Business Coaching 7 day e-course.Violette Blog96981
Ventura Blog27779

Learning Success, Increasing Education, Building a Business Entirely Online

Webucation is the next great growth opportunity Peter Drucker

The Internet has transformed the way people get their education. Where once, taking online courses was an exception rather than the rule, it has now become one of the most popular and quickest ways to educate oneself and even start your own business. Traditional online education isnt the only way to educate oneself. Just gathering information about a particular subject that interests you is a form of educating yourself. There are also distance and continuing learning courses which are more formal than simply gathering information, but less formal than a traditional class where accredited grades are given. One online website, http://manthony1.successuniversity.com, allows both education, through personal development courses, and starting your own business to be accomplished at the same time. Courses offered involve personal development and achievement. They teach students about life, relationships, and finances. Thats enough to appeal to almost everyone in some way. Getting your webucation, or education obtained on the world wide web, in specific areas that you want to know about is a reality that many are taking advantage of these days.

The http://manthony1.successuniversity.com website offers visitors a chance to not only get web-educated, and thereby become students of the training materials, but also to start their own business from home by offering the personal development education services to other potential students. These students pay a monthly fee for registering and accessing the many courses available and certificates are even issued upon completion. Courses and presentations in personal achievement are given by the likes of Brian Tracy, Les Brown, Jay Abraham, Cynthia Kersey, Robert Allen, and more. Business minded people may particularly be interested in this as not only do they get to use the site to start their own business online, but they also get the motivational training that many business professionals need to succeed in life and the business world, and will want to network with others about it. The added bonus is that they can also get paid to do it.

The field of webucation is growing and there does seem to be an education demand in this online niche that is growing like wildfire thanks to the proliferation and world wide reach of the Internet. In a Forbes magazine article, Peter Drucker is quoted as saying that, Triggered by the Internet, continuing adult education may well become our greatest growth industry. (see entire article at http://www.epibiz.com/forbes) Because of this fast growing education niche, business savvy people might want to take advantage of an online business opportunity in a growth industry. By extending this form of education themselves, they have a chance to make an exciting profit at the same time as helping others obtain more personal education while increasing satisfaction in the lives of others overall.

Why continue learning online? It is easier than ever, for one. For most busy people who want to continue their education but dont have the time to sit in a classroom, this is a great timesaver. It is also flexible as they can review material whenever they want as many times as they want. It is also much cheaper than paying tuition for traditional education courses which everyone knows goes up every year.

Why start a business online? A lot of people dont even know that they can but many are now just starting to come to this conclusion. More and more people are wanting and needing to supplement their income without having to commute. There are also those business minded people who just want to do something different in their lives. Why not start a business offering others education? Both, online home business and education at home, are super growth industries. Websites such as http://manthony1.successuniversity.com combines the benefits of both.

For additional information, visit http://manthony1.successuniversity.com.

Michael Anthony is Webmaster/Owner of http://www.2Minutes2Riches.com website where ordinary people are making extraordinary income from home! Want your own complete, money-making website setup for you? Go to http://www.2minutes2riches.com/pips. To get your free Home Business Tips and Ideas Newsletter subscription, send email to 2minutes2riches@getresponse.comFernandina Blog31544
Erika Blog56660

You Can Start a Restaurant Business Here's How

You Can Start a Restaurant Business Here's How

Those looking to start a restaurant business need to be properly equipped with the right information. Everywhere you look; there is another magazine or a book that promises to help you along the way. But who can you trust? The good news is that there are some simple steps that anyone can take to make sure that you get started on the right foot. Here are four steps that you can start on today to help start a restaurant business.

The First Step: Plan

You can't successfully start a restaurant business if you don't have a plan in place. Planning is the key to making sure that you have all of the information and resources for your restaurant in place ahead of time. This will allow you to make the best decisions for your business. Here are some things you can ask yourself today:

What kind of customer do I want to serve?
Do I have a concept in mind?
Where will I be setting up my restaurant?
What will make my business unique?

You need to write out the ideas that you have so that you can begin to assemble them into a professional and clear business plan. Here's what you need to do for the plan itself.

The Second Step: Make a Physical Business Plan

Many business owners find it beneficial to have a physical piece of paper with their plans to start a restaurant business. With things like restaurant business software, you can build a business plan that's easy to read and for presenting to a bank or a business partner. This plan should include:

All of the things that you listed in the previous step
Plans for financing
Projected sales
Proposed staffing

This plan is really supposed to be a professional layout of how your business is supposed to run. Banks and other partners will want to see these details clearly laid out in order to decide whether or not you are actually set up for success.

The Third Step: Think about the Money

If you don't have the funds already to start a restaurant business, you need to start looking into options. In order to get the money you need to make your initial investments and orders stock, food, staff payments, bills, etc. Thankfully, there are a number of ways that you can go about making these initial payments before you start making profits:

Bank loans
Private loans from private investors

Of course, you can also dip into your own personal savings if you choose to do so, but many small businesses can take advantage of low interest rates, so they might be a good option for the time being.

Step Four: Hire the Right People

You can't start a restaurant business without the right people to greet your customers and serve them well. Many new restaurant owners hire people that they know or they have job fairs to interview multiple people at the same time. Just make sure you know what you want from your employees and don't settle for anything less.

Those are the steps to start a restaurant business. Now, get started!

Samuel Oliver has a site about the Restaurant Business; http://www.RestaurantBusinessMagic.com Restaurant Business MagicValentina Blog86755
Ethel Blog11728

Generate Traffic, Boost Sales with the Right Trade Show Graphics

After choosing the style for your trade show display, the next most important part of creating your signature space is creating trade show graphics that will make prospects stop in their tracks.

The graphic elements of your trade show display are as essential to getting results as the paint on an artists canvas. There are many creative directions you can go with this idea, and many of your competitors will default to using the company logo for their graphic because its easiest. But this works best when you have firm brand recognition, like Apple Computer or a compelling, attention-grabbing logo like Target Stores, or you have a combination of both, like McDonalds.

But if you dont have that concrete brand recognition yet, there are plenty of alternatives to effectively executing the use of your trade show display graphics. Here are some guidelines you should follow to give you the best chance at getting the results you want.

Do:
Think from the Customers Perspective If a prospect knows nothing about your company, what would you first want them to know or understand about you? And how can you communicate that in your trade show display graphics at first glance? Put yourself in the customers shoes most of us know from Marketing 101 that if you dont get the customers attention in a few seconds, you can forget it. So, dont waste their time make them feel grateful that they stopped to talk to you.

Have a Clear Goal for the Prospect Know the result you want from the prospect before you even get started. Do you want the prospect to associate your product with fun, reliability or strength? Or, maybe you want to encourage the prospect to come to your sales staff for more information? Or do you want to go straight for the sale? Its best to get clear before you even start brainstorming possibilities so that your message will not get buried under other intentions.

Keep Your Marketing Message Concise Attendees have much ground to cover at trade shows and not a lot of time to accomplish the task. The more directly and concisely your message is communicated through your trade show graphics, the easier it will be for prospects to make a decision to stop at your trade show booth or keep going. The message should not require a lot of effort to understand keeping it short, simple and to the point is best.

Test It Run the idea by a handful of people who are not marketing-minded and dont mind hurting your feelings if they dont like or agree with your ideas. You dont need yes-men, rather, you need people who will be brutally honest and clearly express when they like or dont like something, understand or dont understand it. You need honest, gut-reactions to your trade show graphics. Its always a good idea to ask for feedback no matter how informal the testing process before running with it.

Dont:
Clutter the Message with Details Keep in mind that the graphical elements of your trade show display should be designed to get the prospects attention. Any specifics that you want to communicate can be effectively done with brochures, postcards and other marketing materials. Too much text that attempts to explain the graphics is futile and if the graphic makes no sense when you remove the bulk of the text, then you need a new graphic.

Settle for a Concept that Doesnt Work If you find yourself struggling too much to make the trade show display graphics work, or you arent getting the response you intended when sharing the concept with others, dont try to force it. Go back to the drawing board rather than wasting your energy to push something that does not work. Prospects will be turned off by such an attempt, and youll be driving traffic away from you and toward your competitors trade show booth instead.

Trade show display graphics are a crucial element in making your space attractive to prospects. As you plan your presentation for your next trade show, take time with the specific graphical design elements because these are one of the details the prospect will recognize that separates you from your competitors.

Mat Kelly is the president of ExhibitDEAL, the Original Exhibit Wholesaler specializing in trade show displays and accessories. The company works closely with customers to provide high-quality, high-impact trade show display graphics to accompany a wide selection of economy, pop-up, and custom trade show exhibits. For info, visit: http://www.exhibitdeal.com/.Valry Blog68250
Valene Blog10528

Mathew Frank, The Creator Of Intratrakker

Who is this Mathew Frank guy and what the heck is IntraTrakker? Is this guy for real?

Allow me to reveal to you the truth about Mathew and his revolutionary new software IntraTrakker. The rumors that are going around have some truth to them.

Yes, Mathew Frank was an underground hacker that has worked for the Australian government on computer system security issues, hacking for a Canadian company that is currently consulting for the US Federal government, and has recently acted as a security consultant for a company in New Zealand.

I was unable to get Mathew to disclose further details of this work for obvious reasons of secrecy. Of course now he's no longer 'underground', so he'll have to watch his step as to what he reveals and what is best left secret.

Like most hackers, he was self-taught to begin with, and then went on to study engineering and programming to further his skills. He then followed up his interest in Internet marketing and attended one of Jay Abraham and Stephen Pierce's Internet Empire Apprenticeship Programs. That's where he made some valuable contacts which sparked the ideas that led him to start developing covert marketing 'tactical weapons' for an elite group.

So what is IntraTrakker? Well, it's the first of his covert marketing tactical weapons that he's choosing to unleash at this time, and although it's just one small step for a programmer like Mathew, it really is a giant leap for the covert internet marketing operatives that choose to utilise this invaluable tool.

There really has been nothing like IntraTrakker available before, and it certainly does give you inside intelligence about the behaviours of your target market. It's that very information that you need as a marketer to give you the edge on what your customers want.

As for the other tactical weapons that Mathew has up his sleave, well, I do have insider information on their capabilities, but I can't tell you what they are at this time. I've been sworn to secrecy.

What I can tell you is this: That his marketing weapon toolbox is powerful, and could be dangerous if it got into the wrong hands. I can understand completely why he wouldn't want to disclose some of these tools to just anyone. Not only would it jeopardize the effectiveness of the tools if everyone were using them, but it could also be disastrous in the hands of someone who would use them for unethical means.

That being said, I suggest that if you want to excel in internet marketing and gain access to these tools in the future, then keep a close eye on what Mathew Frank is up to, sign up to his list, befriend him now before fame puts him out of reach, and take him up on his offers. He's going to be letting a lot more people have access to IntraTrakker than he will to the other tools in his toolbox, and I wouldn't doubt that he'll give first dibs to the covert internet marketing operatives that purchased IntraTrakker.

Mathew Frank is giving you a small window of opportunity to join his elite group of covert operatives. From what I've seen thus far, from being on the inside, I suggest you take it while it's available.

Jambhala Rinpo - Covert Marketing Inside Intelligence Agent and Joint Venture Broker. If you want to join Mathew's JV for IntraTrakker, you can sign up here: http://AffiliateSuperNetwork.com/jv/intratrakker or visit the JV blog for more info at: http://JointVentureBroker.net/jvblog/intratrakkerErinn Blog1774
Felicdad Blog18677

Internet Marketing on a Low Budget: An Open Letter

Recently I was contacted by a client who was frustrated that her marketing efforts were not producing results like she expected. In an attempt to address her concerns, I realized how many other professionals are in the same boat. What follows is an open letter to professionals everywhere who are struggling to attract new clients and make money online.

Dear Entrepreneur and Professional:

First, let's address the issue of finances. I understand fully what it is like to invest in your own business, work hard, and see little income. Sometimes it seems as if you work for pleasure, and indeed there is much pleasure involved. It's not unusual for entrepreneurs to be passionate about their business and services and many would do what they love for free.

But it can't work that way, and you must see the money or your business will perish. Finally, after a couple of years of trickle income, we are now seeing results in our own online business, and are making a comfortable living solely from information and services sold on the Internet.

It takes time. And it involves having lots of digital information products people can buy and download instantly. In order to sell them, you have to have a powerful web presence and be easily findable to the millions of people who Google for solutions to their problems.

People can't find you with just a web site. You need a blog, and you need to write on it frequently - daily is best; two to three times per week is good. An electronic newsletter, or ezine, is also a great marketing tool, and it needs to be posted on the Web, or on your blog.

You need to write and submit articles to article directories so people can find you better. Your articles need to include contact information and links back to your website and products.

You need the infrastructure in place so you can follow up with automated email messages to people who contact you requesting information, purchase your products and register for your events.

It's a good idea to do teleclasses, some for free, so you build your list, connect with people and get them into your higher priced seminars.

There are other business models, and I am most familiar with what I have done myself, and helped other entrepreneurs to do.

When Denise and I joined Tom Antion's Mentee Program, it was a considerable financial commitment. We send him a check every month out of our earnings, which are steadily increasing thanks to his tutelage. It's worth it to learn and model what works from one who has been there and is a multi-millionaire.

As the saying goes, you can't get to Carnegie Hall without lots of practice, and that takes an investment of time, patience and money.

There are no easy solutions. Continue doing what works and invest in those areas of your business that provide the biggest payoff. Get training. Invest in the infrastructure and tools that allow you to save time and market effortlessly. Avoid overwhelm by implementing tools slowly, getting used to one and observing your results before going to the next step. Building a business on the Internet is not about getting rich quick. It's about hard work and persistent effort that will pay off in the long run.

Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D., The Blog SquadFayre Blog5381
Frank Blog27482

Is Your Advertising Legal?

Internet marketing is crucial to any internet business. There are many different internet marketing strategies, but it is important to pick the internet marketing idea that best fits your business. Internet marketing can end up being the difference between success or failure for your internet business. With the fierce competition between internet businesses, internet marketing is arguably one of the most important facets of your company.

When you are trying to find internet marketing strategies and internet marketing ideas, it is extremely important to remember that your internet marketing needs to be legal. For instance, one fantastic internet marketing idea is internet marketing through the use of email addresses. You can find email addresses all over the internet, and then through internet marketing, advertise your product by mass email. The only problem with this internet marketing technique is that this specific type of internet marketing is called spam. Most people are very familiar with this type of spam internet marketing because this internet marketing takes up half the room in their email inboxes. This type of internet marketing is also illegal, and illegal internet marketing could get your business into trouble. In light of this internet marketing problem, it is important that all of your internet marketing be legal. You can research which internet marketing techniques are allowed and which internet marketing techniques are not. Being armed with a lot of internet marketing information will help your internet marketing to be a success and not an internet marketing nightmare!

After you have found safe and legal internet marketing ideas, always remember that internet marketing is crucial to the success of your business, and employ your internet marketing skills as often as possible. The advantage of an internet business is that you can do your internet marketing yourself without hiring an internet marketing expert if you wish. Knowledge in internet marketing is the best way to ensure that your internet marketing is successful as well as legal internet marketing.

Laurie Raphael operates a website promoting multiple streams of residual income. For online success, visit her site at: http://www.ProcessToSucceed.comVerile Blog13794
Valene Blog35826

How To Find Free and Low Cost Advertising Sites That Work

Early in my home business career I used to follow the advertising recommendations of my Sponsor as to which free or low cost places to advertise on.

You'll find that most advertising sources recommended by top leaders useless. These free sites may have been great sources when the teachers found them, but after thousands of their pupils started advertising on them as well, (often promoting the same opportunity) they're pretty much useless.

The low cost and free site I recommend on how2succeedonline are a little less beat up and used by EDC Gold because of the fact that I add new sites to this list constantly. Today I will teach you a technique that I use to find free sites that haven't been so beat up with overuse. In essence, I'm going to show you how to fish for vehicles that will give you a constant stream of fresh, new advertising venues with less competition.

This is so simple it will blow your mindwhich is, of course, true of many of the most successful techniques. By the way, I found many of my favorite ad sites this way!

Let's start by typing in "Business Opportunity" into Google Search or any search engine you prefer. You should use keywords that you're currently using to promote your business (i.e. "make money online", "Home Based Business", etc.). You can even do a search for the keyword of the opportunity you represent like "EDC Gold" "PWF" or "1Step System", etc.

Now, look at the left side of the page, which is the search results area of the page. As I go down the page, I look for ads that are part of forums or ad sites. You'll find several ads on the top three pages that are ad-posting on third party sites offering advertising vs. company owned or opportunity sites that just talk about their product, service or opportunity. Many of these sites offer free or low cost advertising. And best of all, Google has found these sites and elevated their index (so they appear on pages 1-3 of the search results), even in highly competitive areas where popular keywords are used.

You'll find more quality sites than you know what to do with, just with the use of a few keywords.

Next, place your ads on several of these sites. To maximize your response, make sure your ad is keyword dense (lots of keywords repeated throughout the text of the ad). If you do, not only will you benefit from the traffic that advertising site produces, but you'll also benefit from the very high listing on Google and other search engines, which will boost your traffic by possibly hundred fold.

Another technique you can try is typing the words "Free Advertising Help" into Google. It's not as good as my first recommendation, but still better that joining other team members and advertising on the same pages being used by thousands of direct competitors.

On one of the next articles I'll talk about is how to super charge your ad for search optimizationyou'll be amazed.

Peter Grundner, a top advertising and marketing professional for over 20 years, is now a full time Home Business Entrepreneur and founder of http://www.myedconline.com & http://www.how2succeedonline.netFrankie Blog70603
Faun Blog83079

The Home Business Revolution

Working from home is what's in and it's safe to say it's where millions of folks today are headed. You can find home business opportunities everywhere you look on the internet. Things ranging from making gift baskets or gourmet dog food to being a consultant for whatever industry you left behind. No idea is too small or too weird. One thing is for sure, the hottest home business opportunities stem from working on the internet.

The internet allows freedom that the 9 to 5 work day can't and never will. Starting a business that can run from the internet allows so much. The reasons to go into business for yourself are obvious... You get to ditch the old boss and the old rules Make extra or usually more money if you do it right. More time with family Earn what you decide by working as much as you want Schedule flexibility Tax benefits Savings on the corporate expenses suits, dry cleaners, gas, etc Working from the internet gives you a few more reasons Travel when you want and take work with you. Have your business open around the clock with no additional cost! Advertise all over the country which opens up opportunities you just don't have with a brick and mortar business. This list of reasons why could go on and on.

The challenge for many is staying focused and actually getting the work done. What happens is, all of a sudden your home and you have no one over your shoulder and your focus shifts to the kids or the household projects that you have been wanting to take care of and all of a sudden you can't figure out how you ever went to work and got anything else done because you don't have any time for your business now! That's an easy trap to fall into. There are some real easy ways to avoid it too. By following some of the standard business rules you'll discover you can be as productive at home as you were at the office Create and stick to a basic schedule. Decide what time you want to start work and which days you'll be in your office. Take organized breaks etc. By following a schedule like this you will limit the wandering around the house and getting side tracked by it.

Don't be fooled by your new freedom. Stay in the habit of waking up. If you get up before the kids you will have quiet time which always equals productive time. Take breaks in the late morning and early afternoon when you need to recharge but continue to wake up early. While it may sound good don't work in your pajamas. By getting dressed you'll set a mental tone. If you stay in your pajamas you are doing the same. Clothing as a rule denotes some kind of productivity and pajamas always denote sleep. You don't need to put on a suit and tie or panty hose; but shower and dress so you're ready to go! Remember to have some fun along the way. Working from home allows you to take advantage of some of life's little pleasures; like breakfast out on a Monday or an early day on Wednesday to see your kids little league game. And there's nothing wrong with deciding that you simply aren't working after 2pm on Friday anymore! These are just a few things you need to get you ready for the wave of the future.

Working from home is one of the most rewarding things that you can do. It allows you time and space that an office cannot provide. Working from home adds hours to each day of your life that would otherwise be wasted in the car or on a train struggling to get somewhere along with countless others. Wake up and smell the coffee literally. Join the home business revolution and stake your claim in a world that is only getting bigger, better and more prominent.

Shannon and Kim Jaklic made the move into the lucrative world of the home based business industry. Their passion is to help other parents achieve and enjoy the same level of success professionally and personally. For more information on successful Home Based Business opportunities go to http://www.home-business-parent.comEthyl Blog58487
Valli Blog66795

Unlock The Untapped Commissions In Your Client Database

Right this minute, you are probably sitting on tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of commissions. Most registered reps have a database of current and past clients whose potential referrals are worth several thousand additional commission dollars per month. Yet, this resource goes virtually untapped for most advisors.

Why? Simply because most reps have not learned how to successfully convert their client relationships into referral relationships. Acquiring referrals from clients is not as simple as doing a good job and then asking for referrals. Generating a large number of highly qualified referrals from a client is a process that starts from the moment the prospect is first met, not a one-time act after the sale has been completed. It requires an understanding of what a successful referral is based on, and how to exploit the referral to insure a successful contact with the referee.

Every referral involves the interaction of three people and four relationships among those three individuals. The strength or weakness of each of these interactions will influence the success or failure of the referral for the advisor:

1. The Advisor/Client relationship: In order for the client to be willing to give a quality referral, there must have been built a strong bond of trust between the rep and the client. A client may give a referral to someone they do not trust, but they will not give a referral to someone they know well and respect if they do not trust the salesperson. If there is only a weak bond of trust between the advisor and client, the referral the client is likely to give will be to someone the client either believes will not meet with the advisor or someone the client does not know well or respect.

2. The clients purchasing experience: Clients will not give high quality referrals if their purchasing experience did not meet or exceed both their expectations and their priorities. All clients enter purchasing relationships with certain expectations and priorities. Expectations and priorities are not the same. A client may expect to be kept fully informed during the course of the sale and may have certain product or service functionality requirements as his top priority. In order to receive a large number of high quality referrals, the rep must make sure that they meet or exceed both the clients expectations and priorities. Despite the current parroting of the buzz phrase, exceeding the customers expectations, meeting and exceeding client expectations is seldom accomplished. Few people take the time and effort to discuss with their client what the clients expectations and priorities arerather most reps, and companies, assume they know. At best, all they can knowingly accomplish is meeting or exceeding their expectations of what they think their client should expect.

3. The Client/Prospect relationship: The trust and respect relationship between client and referee are of great importance. The stronger the bond of trust and respect between the client and the prospect, the easier it will be for the advisor to set an appointment with and then sell the prospect. In referral selling, a great deal of the reps credibility, or lack thereof, is built on the trust and respect the prospect has for the client who made the referral. If the client/prospect bond is strong enough, the rep is virtually guaranteed a sale. On the other hand, if the bond is particularly weak, the referral is little better than a cold call. Consequently, it is of utmost importance for the advisor to know as much as possible about the clients relationship, and likely bond of trust, with the prospect.

4. The advisors initial contact with the referee: based on the client/prospect bond, the advisor must determine how best to contact the prospect to produce the greatest opportunity to acquire a meeting. The weaker the relationship between the client and the prospect, the stronger the contact method the rep should seek to employ. If the client/prospect relationship is extremely strong, virtually any contact method, including a phone call from the salesperson mentioning the clients name will suffice, but for a weak relationship, the rep must strive to use the strongest contact method possible. In descending order, from weakest to strongest, possible methods of contact include a phone call to the prospect from the advisor, an email from the client, a client letter, a client phone call, a client/prospect/advisor lunch meeting.

Fortunately, the advisor can control most of the above interactions. Only the client/prospect relationship is completely out of the reps hands. Even then, the rep can compensate for a less than ideal client/prospect relationship through using a stronger initial contact method.

If you understand the foundation of a referral, you can quickly increase your referral-based business and begin to mine that gold mine in your client database.

Paul McCordErtha Blog13235
Fayre Blog97771