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Tag Archive: online business

Planning a Publicity Campaign with Bang

Planning a Publicity Campaign with Bang

Famous is as famous does and the famous get known through publicity. Yes, that’s right, fame doesn’t discover you, you create it through strategic campaigning. What’s more, the techniques for increasing your exposure are not as difficult to attain as you might think. A great publicity campaign starts with courage, then planning, and lastly, it succeeds through persistence. If you’re not sure why you should seek fame, consider fortune because the two go hand in hand.

Fame will bring your business into the forefront of your target audience faster than any advertising campaign can hope to do. It solidifies you as an expert and creates a deep, abiding confidence in the consumer. It makes you a shining star with infinite possibilities. So what are the steps you ask? Well paste a gold star to your forehead and let’s get started.

1. Press Releases:
Increase awareness through a press release. Yes, I know, press releases have become quite the popular little tool around cyberspace with releases being blasted hither and there, but are they working? Probably not. Blasting your press release will bring blasted little results. Instead, thoughtfully put together a very dynamic one-page press release and target publications that would be most interested in you and your business. Don’t drone out the details; make that press release sing your praises. Then send it to a real live editor and follow up with a phone call. In other words, let the press release be the invitation to your follow up phone call. Begin making connections with the media. Be polite, be excited, and be patient.

2. Create A Press Kit:
A Press kit is basically an exaggerated press release turned into a package. It’s more complex, tells more about you and your company, and is all pulled together into a nice neat folder. Of all the questions I receive, first is, what is a press kit? Simply, it is a folder of information about you or your business. It should contain:

A. An Introduction Letter
B. One or Two Press Releases
C. A Fact Sheet
(This contains the facts about you or your business.)
D. Bio Sheet
(Which is a biography of you and your accomplishments.)
E. Copies of Published Articles
F. Company Literature
G. A Business Card

Send your press kit when an editor, publisher, or producer wants to know more about you.

3. Newsletters Offline.
Don’t forget that a whole world exists offline. Locate newsletters or smaller print publications offline and submit articles. This can be a very dynamic way to increase your exposure as well as add to your press kit. You can locate newsletters in your subject area by visiting the local university library reference section. Ask for a directory of trade newsletters and do your research. Once you have been published, it’s easier to step up to the larger publications. Fame starts small and then snowballs onto itself.

4. Speak Up!
Yep, that’s right. Start giving speeches on your area of expertise. Start locally at civic clubs and local educational programs. Then find the local talk radio shows and make your case to the producer. It’s surprising how many talk radio shows are actively looking for new speakers. Once you have achieved Talk Radio, the opportunities will start coming to you.

5. Publicity Pitches:
Put together several dynamic article ideas. Just the ideas, not the actual article. This is called a Publicity Pitch. Take those ideas and then pitch them to editors of targeted publications. This can work very well as it saves Editors time and puts the outline right into their hands. As a past Editor I know how well this works. Editors love ideas, especially ideas that are completely outlined and correct for their readership. This means don’t send pet article ideas to cooking magazines. Send pet articles ideas to pet publications. Seems like a no brainer, huh? But you’d be amazed at what editors see that don’t apply to their own publication.

Fame comes from planning and persistence. It has its rejections, but if you can learn not to take it personally, it will eventually work. Remember, once you start, keep going. Once you stop, you have to start all over.

April 22, 2014 Today's Business, , , , , , 0 Read more >

Why You Should Outsource Your Online Task

Why You Should Outsource Your Online Task
If you’ve been online for a while, either as an internet user searching for information or an online business owner, you might have seen the ups and downs of netpreneurs.

You may also, for some extends, get frustrated by the result of your online activities. Especially if you are an online business owner. You just don’t see any substantial growth of your online business.

What went wrong? You might think. You’ve bought all the manuals. You’ve followed all the how tos. You’ve set up all the necessary softwares.

You start to think about being cheated by those so called ‘experts’. You become afraid of failure in pursuing online business success. You start to think to just quit.

But, don’t quit!

What you might’ve missed was proper strategy you should’ve built to make your online business grow. What you’ve done was just tactics. You checked emails. You searched for resale rights products, you hunted for affiliate programs, you submitted you website urls, you wrote articles, you submitted articles, etc. All those activities consumed your time. You never have the time to rethink your strategy at the first place.

Your strategy is your guided approach and principle toward your goals and vision. If you have not got vision, you’re doomed!

When you’ve set your vision and goals, it’s easier to develop you online strategy and outsource most of you online tasks.

Here are 5 reasons why you should outsource your online tasks:

1. When you set you vision and goals, it is then easier to value your time. By outsourcing you reduce the amount of time you might have wasted.

2. You need to speed up your process to see result. By outsourcing you eliminate the hassle of doing-it-all by yourself that may drag you off.

3. You need to increase your productivity. You only have 24 hours a day. No more. The most productive activities need the most of your time. You’re investing your time by outsourcing the most repetitive time consuming tasks.

4. Sometimes you just need an expert to do your tasks. You don’t have time to learn all the techie things. You just waste your time learning HTML or PHP just to make your site ups and running. Scripting, creating logo, submitting articles are tasks that should be outsourced.

5. Outsourcing clears up your thinking and makes you more concentrate on developing your online business strategy.

The next thing you should consider is where to outsource your tasks. You have to be careful in choosing your outsource partners.

February 2, 2014 Today's Business, , 0 Read more >

An Easy Way to Set up A Online Business

An Easy Way to Set up A Online Business
With so many online ventures failing, you may wonder, is it really worth considering setting up an online business? The answer to this is yes: internet based companies are still on the increasing 25 – 30% year on year. Even the economic slow down in recent years has not hindered this increase.

According to an annual report of internet trends by a top market Research Company, almost two third of Internet users in the United States have by now purchased a product or service online. That’s a dramatic increase from 2000.

While the hype over the new economy is maybe over, one thing is certain the internet has changed the way we do business. Many companies are now starting to grasp that their very survival may be in jeopardy if they are slow in implementing their internet business model.

However the question still remains – is there an efficient way to do business online?

Below I have outlined some components crucial to any online venture. While these might not be the only vital components of web based business, understanding them properly will significantly increase your chance of being successful with your online venture.

The main component you need is a business plan, one that makes sense and has been fully researched.

A recent AT&T report of successful entrepreneurs shows that businesses are more likely to be successful if they have a business plan. With a business plan you get a better picture of your planned venture. So, before starting you online venture, take time and write down what are you are intending to do. Product or Service If you are a brick and mortar company merely attempting to increase your sales of your products or services on the Internet. You at least don’t have to think about what to sell.

You can sell nearly any product or service on the internet; there are even incidents of people buying corporate jets online!

If you are serious about opening an online business, finding a product or service that suits you should not be very difficult.

Knowledge base goods like e-books, how-to-reports and hard to find information do well on the Internet drop-ship items are also plentiful on the net. Thanks to the worldwide customer base of the internet finding a manufacturer for any product that you plan to import to your country or export from your country has become a lot easier. If you have expertise, online services related to web design, travel arrangement etc. are also good areas. Internet gambling is also a very good area to investigate.

The look and feel of your website is important as potential customers will decide whether to do business with you or not based on the first impressions of your website, it is vital to have a professional-looking website with enriched content.

You can decide what type of website you want according to your situation; there are a vast range of choices. Starting from a completely free website you can spend thousands for a more advanced site.

Understand SEO (Search Engine Optimization) this is very important, setting up your site so it is fully optimized for search engines is vital. Many companies will offer their services to optimize your site; however it can be done yourself by researching the subject prior to developing the site.

There are many quality portals that permit you to have products and services displayed on a single page web site for free. Many business to business portals offer this kind of services. However, for real time transactions you will still need e-commerce websites.

For a small monthly fee you can have the facilities necessary to run a full fledged electronic storefront and build it yourselves from easy to use templates.

If you go for this type of services, compare and see who has most of the features for the best price.

Shopping carts form an essential part of e-commerce sites, they allow you to accept purchase orders for many products or services.

The term “Shopping Cart” is taken from real life shopping terminology to help users understand the actions available to them. Like in a supermarket a person can add items to shopping trolley, or remove items from the trolley or adjust the amount of the items as per requirement before checking out and making a payment.

Access to the shopping cart should be clearly evident. There should be numerous entry points to the cart. Add, remove and adjust quantity of the product features should be prominent on the cart page. The article name should have a link to the description of the product. There should be a way of saving items for future purchases. Shipping and other costs should be clearly stated before the payment process starts. Order forms should be simple and clear. All payment options should be explained clearly. Ordering process should be done through a secure server. You know you are on a secure server when the URL of your browser indicates “https:”. The s at the end of http stands for “secure”. Merchant Account 90 percents of all online retail sales take place through credit card transactions.

Even if you already accept credit cards for your offline transactions, that may not be enough. Although, you can take many precautions to reduce online credit card frauds, credit card companies still consider Internet transactions to be riskier than offline transactions.

There are numerous merchant account providers on the internet. Carry out some investigating before you sign up with any of them as their terms and conditions vary significantly.

It is definitely good to have a merchant account however that does not mean you cannot sell products or services without one! There are numerous other payment options available on the internet. Most popular of them are paypal, e-gold, e-bullion, etc.

If you would like to have an efficient online business, remember that old values still count. Proper planning, uncompromising customer service, integrity, hard work and persistence eventually will make your business successful.

January 9, 2014 Today's Business, , 0 Read more >

Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 4

Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 4

People are turning to the Internet in droves looking to create an Online Web Business. It’s easy to see why when you think of the overall concept of working from anywhere and having your business online. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 4

Why would anyone want to own an online business? Two things quickly come to mind. Time and money. You can earn a substantial income, whilst your time requirements decrease on a weekly or monthly basis. Once you get your web site up and running you simply need to tweak it on a weekly basis, thus the time required decreases as time goes by. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 4

Today I’m going to talk about what I call vehicle selection. The vehicle in my example is the web site creation, marketing and maintenance. This is the foundation of your business and I would suggest choosing a very good one. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 4

You can choose either to pay someone else to develop, and maintain your site or learn how to do so yourself. I was amazed to find out that with literally no experience I was able to find a company that would give me the step-by-step guidance necessary to both create, maintain a website and offer continuous support. The cost for this is in my opinion is unbelievably low. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 4

The first thing you need to do is research, then you will need to choose whether you are going to develop your website or pay someone else to do it for you. If you want to keep the cost of your site overall to a minimum then keep reading this article. If you choose the latter than you can move on to Part (2) two of my (5) step process to creating an online business. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 4

Now then, you are probably thinking that you don’t have any idea of where to start. You are probably quite sure that you do not have the skill sets necessary to do this on your own. If that is what you are thinking, join the crowd, because I was quite sure I could not do this on my own. Having hindsight comes in handy in this instance, because I can tell you now that the decisions I made early on saved me a ton of money, but more importantly gave me an understanding of my online business that I would not have had by paying someone else to do it for me. I have total control, yet I have the support necessary when needed to continue my growth. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 4

Okay, now lets go to the next step. What did I look for when researching my vehicle? Here ya go:

* A time Proven System.
* A template web site that could easily be modified.
* Strong 24 hour support
* Minimal cost
* Step-by-step guidance on how to create, modify and maintain my site.
* Total control in the end of my Online Web Based Business.

In my opinion this is the foundation of your business and that is why doing the necessary, up front research, is so important. If you have read any of my other articles you will quickly realize that I always mention how important
research is to your success. I would suggest that you either do the research yourself or use a web site like mine, but not necessarily mine to locate your vehicle. Not doing the research utilizing one of these methods, in my opinion, will cost you time and money.

Please feel free to read more of my articles by visiting my link in the resource box below. I always enjoy getting emails pertaining to my articles or my site. Your feedback is important to me. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 4

 

December 13, 2013 Today's Business, , , , , 1 Read more >

Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 2

Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 1Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 2

Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 2. You are most likely coming here as a follow up to my articles on creating an online business. Today we are going to cover some advanced tips on comparing ads so that can help you get a better conversion rate.

Lets assume for sake of argument that your site is created, published and you are running (PPC) ads. I recommend running these all the time, but especially in the beginning to get your site converting well. In fact when I signed up with my host they gave me advertising credits, which really helped out. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 2

This is very important! If you are running ads and you are not getting clicks then it means your ads are not standing out in the crowd. Believe me there are plenty of people on the Internet and you should be getting clicks. You want think about the products and services you are offering on your site when writing your ads. What type of ads would interest you if you were looking for these items.? Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 2

As I mentioned before specific keywords bring up both your ads and others. You want your ads to spike their interest enough they will want to take a look. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 2

Okay, when writing your ads I want you to write two ads for each campaign. What does this mean? It means for each ad type you are going to be running two similar ads with the same keywords. On most search engines like Yahoo you can create an ad campaign, which then has your ads in it. You simply create your first ad inside the campaign, add your keywords and your finished with ad number 1. Now, I want you to go back into the ad campaign and create another a slightly different ad. It will automatically use the same keywords. In Yahoo, you will need to then go back to the campaign level, click on the ads and then click on optimize ads button. Please select no and submit. What will happen then is each of your two ads will run, each showing (50) fifty percent of the time. After some time has passed you will be able to tell by the conversion rate, which one is performing best. Simply modify the worst one with some new text and check it again after receiving more hits. You are always improving on your ads therefore your conversion rates only get better. You will need to let them run so that you get at least 50 – 100 clicks before changing. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 2

After getting someone to click on your ad, you want to take him or her to the specific landing page that offers exactly what he or she are looking for. Always remember the steps we talked about from beginning to end. It’s very important to tie them all together nicely. A potential customer wants to click on an ad they think will take care of their needs and go to exactly the product or service they the ad referred to. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 2

Please feel free to read both this article or one of my many other articles this topic by visiting my link in the resource box below. I always enjoy getting emails pertaining to my articles or my site. Your feedback is important to me. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 2

Okay, enough for today. See you in Advanced part III. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 2

 

 

December 13, 2013 Today's Business, , , , , 1 Read more >

Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 1

Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 1Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 1

You are most likely coming here as a follow up to my Part 5 of 5 articles on creating an online business. I hope you found part (1) one through part (5) informative and helpful. Today we are going to cover some advanced tips that can help you build a more efficient and profitable web site. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 1

I have gone step-by-step through the process that I used to build my online business. Obviously, I cannot cover every small detail, but you can email me at any time should you have any questions. I will be happy to help you if I can. Especially if you follow the same steps as I have taken. I am very familiar with this particular process. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 1

Now that your site is published and up and running, what do you do next?

This is very important! You must monitor it real time to ensure your site is converting as high as possible. You will have some products and services that will convert better than others. After a decent sampling time, perhaps a couple of hundred click throughs, I would consider putting the highest converters in the hot spots on your site. You may not understand what a click through is. Lets back up a bit. To understand your site, you will need to know when someone comes to your site, how long they stay, what pages they visit and where they exit. You can find many free counters that will give you that type of data. In addition each program normally offers some tracking information as to how many clicks and sales you have gotten. You are going to need a couple hundred clicks on each link to get a fair comparison. Many people are getting about a (1) one percent conversions rate on most programs. I have some that have converted as high as (25) twenty five percent. I’ll bet you can pick which ones are in my hot spots. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 1

After receiving a couple hundred clicks on your links, you can then adjust your site as required. Here are a couple of questions to ask yourself on a regular basis and helpful hints on how to correct:

* How many clicks are you getting from your advertising? If people are clicking on your ads in droves, but are not staying long, not visiting your other pages nor clicking on any affiliate links then you probably do not have a good match up between your keywords and landing pages. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 1
* How many people are staying around longer then 5 seconds on after coming to your site? If less then 2% are staying less then 5 seconds your either have poor traffic, probably free ads, or a poor keyword to landing page match up. I would suggest only using (PPC) Paid Per Click advertising until you get your website fine tuned a bit. Free ads often bring people clicking just because they are curious and not because they are looking for anything.
* How many of your keywords are bring you good traffic. Many times what you are looking for are long tail phrases, which are more often two to three word phrases not just one. Typically the one-word keywords get a lot of clicks, but no results. Your goal is to be as specific as possible i.e., getting yourself the best possible customers as possible. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 1

Okay, enough for today, I can see that we are going to have to break this up into (3) three parts to get it all covered. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 1

See you in Advanced part two.

Please feel free to read both this article or one of my many others by visiting my link in the resource box below. I always enjoy getting emails pertaining to my articles or my site. Your feedback is important to me. Creating a Web Based Business The Works: Part 1

 

December 13, 2013 Today's Business, , , , , , 0 Read more >

Efficient Way To Set Up A Successful Online Business

Efficient Way To Set Up A Successful Online BusinessEfficient Way To Set Up A Successful Online Business

Efficient Way To Set Up A Successful Online Business. With so many online ventures failing, you may wonder, is it really worth considering setting up an online business? The answer to this is yes: internet based companies are still on the increasing 25 – 30% year on year. Even the economic slow down in recent years has not hindered this increase. Successful Online Business

According to an annual report of internet trends by a top market Research Company, almost two third of Internet users in the United States have by now purchased a product or service online. That’s a dramatic increase from 2000.

While the hype over the new economy is maybe over, one thing is certain the internet has changed the way we do business. Many companies are now starting to grasp that their very survival may be in jeopardy if they are slow in implementing their internet business model. 

However the question still remains – is there an efficient way to do business online?

Below I have outlined some components crucial to any online venture. While these might not be the only vital components of web based business, understanding them properly will significantly increase your chance of being successful with your online venture. Successful Online Business

The main component you need is a business plan, one that makes sense and has been fully researched.

A recent AT&T report of successful entrepreneurs shows that businesses are more likely to be successful if they have a business plan. With a business plan you get a better picture of your planned venture. So, before starting you online venture, take time and write down what are you are intending to do. Product or Service If you are a brick and mortar company merely attempting to increase your sales of your products or services on the Internet. You at least don’t have to think about what to sell.

You can sell nearly any product or service on the internet; there are even incidents of people buying corporate jets online!

If you are serious about opening an online business, finding a product or service that suits you should not be very difficult.

Knowledge base goods like e-books, how-to-reports and hard to find information do well on the Internet drop-ship items are also plentiful on the net. Thanks to the worldwide customer base of the internet finding a manufacturer for any product that you plan to import to your country or export from your country has become a lot easier. If you have expertise, online services related to web design, travel arrangement etc. are also good areas. Internet gambling is also a very good area to investigate. Efficient Way To Set Up A Successful Online Business

The look and feel of your website is important as potential customers will decide whether to do business with you or not based on the first impressions of your website, it is vital to have a professional-looking website with enriched content.

You can decide what type of website you want according to your situation; there are a vast range of choices. Starting from a completely free website you can spend thousands for a more advanced site. Efficient Way To Set Up A Successful Online Business

Understand SEO (Search Engine Optimization) this is very important, setting up your site so it is fully optimized for search engines is vital. Many companies will offer their services to optimize your site; however it can be done yourself by researching the subject prior to developing the site.

There are many quality portals that permit you to have products and services displayed on a single page web site for free. Many business to business portals offer this kind of services. However, for real time transactions you will still need e-commerce websites.

For a small monthly fee you can have the facilities necessary to run a full fledged electronic storefront and build it yourselves from easy to use templates.

If you go for this type of services, compare and see who has most of the features for the best price.

Shopping carts form an essential part of e-commerce sites, they allow you to accept purchase orders for many products or services.

The term “Shopping Cart” is taken from real life shopping terminology to help users understand the actions available to them. Like in a supermarket a person can add items to shopping trolley, or remove items from the trolley or adjust the amount of the items as per requirement before checking out and making a payment. Efficient Way To Set Up A Successful Online Business

Access to the shopping cart should be clearly evident. There should be numerous entry points to the cart. Add, remove and adjust quantity of the product features should be prominent on the cart page. The article name should have a link to the description of the product. There should be a way of saving items for future purchases. Shipping and other costs should be clearly stated before the payment process starts. Order forms should be simple and clear. All payment options should be explained clearly. Ordering process should be done through a secure server. You know you are on a secure server when the URL of your browser indicates “https:”. The s at the end of http stands for “secure”. Merchant Account 90 percents of all online retail sales take place through credit card transactions. Efficient Way To Set Up A Successful Online Business

Even if you already accept credit cards for your offline transactions, that may not be enough. Although, you can take many precautions to reduce online credit card frauds, credit card companies still consider Internet transactions to be riskier than offline transactions.

There are numerous merchant account providers on the internet. Carry out some investigating before you sign up with any of them as their terms and conditions vary significantly.

It is definitely good to have a merchant account however that does not mean you cannot sell products or services without one! There are numerous other payment options available on the internet. Most popular of them are paypal, e-gold, e-bullion, etc.

If you would like to have an efficient online business, remember that old values still count. Proper planning, uncompromising customer service, integrity, hard work and persistence eventually will make your business successful. Efficient Way To Set Up A Successful Online Business

This article is brought to you by Apple Capital Group, Inc.

 

November 16, 2013 Today's Business, , , 0 Read more >

9 Ways to Increase Web Traffic by Tim Jacquet

9 Ways to Increase Web Traffic by Tim Jacquet

9 Ways to Increase Web Traffic by Tim Jacquet. There are many ways to increase web traffic; the most valuable of course is
offering some ongoing and dynamic value such as blogs or online discussion
that keep the same people coming back, but a host of other options exist
including:

Search Engine Optimization

We’ve touched on this in previous chapters but “Search Engine
Optimization” or “SEO” as it is often referred to is a huge success for
many sites, and has even spawned a service industry in its own right
where people are getting paid to optimize your site and site
submissions to try and increase how well your site ranks on various
search engines. Ideally you should do this yourself by submitting to
various directories and using the tips and hints I’ve already mentioned but if you are ‘Internet Impaired’ it may be worth paying a consultant
to assist you.

List your site in Directories and Search Engines

There are many search engines and directories out there where you
can list your website for increased exposure. Some charge a fee while
others are free or low-cost but the important thing to remember is to
go through each one IN PERSON and optimize the data you provide
each to ensure the listing provides the best interface to your site as
possible.

Participate in Link Exchanges

A ‘link exchange’ refers to the act of having a URL or ‘hyperlink’ from
another site either on your page or another site pointing to pages on
your site. With Exchanges another webmaster will link to your site in
exchange for you linking to theirs – hopefully complimenting each
others sites.

Advertise your site via AdWords or other resources such as
banner ads

There are many advertising avenues out there to get your website
increased recognition, the simplest of course link exchanges and wordof-
mouth, but paid methods such as using Google’s AdWords program
to pop up a link to your site when certain keywords are entered into
search engines is a very effective way to increase traffic to your sites.
From the vendor side it works like this: you bid (or offer) an amount
that you will pay for a list of keywords used when people query.
Depending on your bid and the maximum daily expenditure settings
you specify (the largest amount of payout you are willing to do on any
given day) your ad shows and you’re charged for each user who “clicks
through” the ad to your site.

Get published on other sites

The Internet is a wide place and a lot of people are out there every
day so try to participate in other sites with a similar interest to yours
and post articles and stories – be sure to include a link or reference to
your web site and viola! Free advertising!

Request Reviews from magazines and online webmasters

Many other sites have a link or ‘rating’ page where you can ask them
to provide feedback and suggestions on your page and its content –
doing so will often not only gather additional interest and visibility but
can help you to tweak your site and improve it to better meet your
needs.

Post in chat rooms and on blogs

Just as with posting articles using chat and blog entries to promote
your site is a good ‘semi-permanent’ way to get your website address
out there before the public.

November 24, 2012 Today's Business, , , , , , , , , , 0 Read more >