How to optimize your website for Google's top 10 ranking-more steps

Search engine optimization is the process of choosing targeted keyword phrases related to a website, and ensuring that the website places well when those keyword phrases are part of a Web search.

ON-PAGE OPTIMIZATION FACTORS:

The Major Factors Are:

Meta Tags, Header Tags, Text-body tag and Alt image tags:

1- META TAGS:

Meta Tags are code in your HTML that is invisible to the visitors of your web site but are read by some web spiders and search engines.

Meta tags used by a large percentage of the top search engines as one of the main guidelines on how they will index your site

The Main Meta Tags are:

• Title Tag
• Description Tag
• Keyword Tag

Targeting the right keywords:

Do keyword research- it is very important in building traffic

To do your keyword research visit this website http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Select a short list of 3 to 4 keywords

Title tag:

The page title should include ONLY your main keywords. The least amount of words you can place in the title, the more weight Google will give to each of the keywords and the higher you will rank.

The title is the most important piece of information search engines use to index Web pages. Include the title of your page and 3-5 important keywords. Format your site title as follows:

Site title, keyword1, keyword2, keyword3

You may use your URL, or the name of your company as your site title.

• Make sure it specifically describes your product or service,
• Makes proper use of 3 or 4 keywords,
• Use between 10 and 80 characters long.

Tips:

• Taken out all of the "ands"
• Replaced one of the "ands" with a "|" character
• Always Combine Your Keywords In The Page Title

Description Tag:

The Meta description tag describes your site's content, giving search engines' spiders an accurate summary filled with multiple keywords.

• Use a descriptive paragraph or sentence that is relevant to your page.
• If possible, use a sentence or paragraph that is present in the content of your page
• Use up to 500 characters, including spaces.

Keyword Tag:

Use a list of keywords that are relevant to the content of your web page. Use your url as the first key word and separate the keywords with commas. Format the key words as follows:

www.myURL.com, keyword1, keyword2, keyword3, …..

Add 5-10 Keywords

• For best results a tag sized between 50 and 250 characters.
• Note that keywords should be separated with commas.

Free Meta Tag Analyzer:

This Meta tag analysis tool will help you analyze your web pages and
check for search engine compatibility.
http://www.hypergurl.com/form.html

More Sites for SEO:

http://www.submitnet.net/
http://www.submitexpress.com/

2- HEADER TAGS:

Headers are used to break entries up into logical sections.

Add h1 header tags- (Place your most important keyword) it's best to place your h1 header tag on the top left hand or top/middle portion of your page.

When Google reads a webpage, it views the text from the top left hand side of the page to the bottom right hand side of the page.

Add h2 header tags- (Place your 2nd most important keyword) should be placed somewhere towards the top half of your webpage.

3- TEXT- BODY TAG:

The body element defines the documents' body. It contains all the contents of the document (like text, images, colors, graphics, etc.).

• When writing the content, try to evenly sprinkle your main keywords throughout the copy. Don't overdo it though.
• Try to mention each keyword in a natural way as you are writing
• Include at least one of the keywords per 1-2 paragraphs, depending on how large your page is.
• Make sure to mention your main keyword at the very top left and the very bottom right hand side of the webpage
• Bolding, italicizing and underlining...Once we've finished writing the copy, we should go through and bold, italicize, or underline some of the keywords only 1 time each, maximum.
• Any keyword must be used 4 times or more in your site's HTML body. This is highly recommended for best ranking results.
• Avoid Excessive Keywords- No word to be used more than 30 times throughout the page.

4- ALT IMAGE TAGS:

ALT tags are images' descriptions.

• Place your keyword 1 in the alt image tag of the very top image in your webpage.
• Place your other 2 keywords plus an extra word like "picture" or "image in the alt image tag of 2 more graphics throughout your webpage.

LOAD TIME ANALYSIS:

If your Web site does not load in 12 seconds or less with a 56k connection, statistics show that about 45% of visitors will leave the site.

• Optimized you site for 56k modem users- Load time 12 second or less.
• Try to keep your homepage under 50k and your other pages under 40k.

Here's a great free tool to help you check your website's load time:

http://www.1-hit.com/all-in-one/tool.loading-time-checker.htm

SEARCH ENGINE GUIDELINES:

Always remember this general rule when building your site: "Search engines do not like to be fooled". Do not try to manipulate your listings through sneaky methods. Provide useful, relevant content, and you will never have to worry about search engine guideline violations.

• Hidden Text - you never hide text.
• Excessive Keywords-Use keywords naturally in sentences and paragraphs.
• No word to be used more than 30 times throughout the page.
• Repeated Keywords- No keywords to be repeated multiple times in a row. We recommend using keywords naturally in sentences and paragraphs.
• Doorway Pages- Doorway pages are discouraged by most search engines.
• Harmful Redirects- Redirecting pages have a hard time being indexed by search engines.
• Frame Issues- It is recommended for sites that use frames to implement a descriptive NOFRAMES tag with relevant text content.
• Macromedia Flash Issues- Don't create all-Flash pages for any content you want to get indexed - instead, put that content in the HTML portion of the page.

See more: www.articlealley.com

5 Steps to Optimizing Your Website

The majority of Web site owners have fewer than 10 incoming links to their sites. The search engines view incoming links as verification that your site has quality content. The more related links your site has from other sites (with the underlined clickable text that includes your targeted keywords), the higher your ranking in the search engines will be. Here is a step-by-step overview of this entire SEO process:

1. Select your keywords.

Use tools such as the Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool, Google's Search Term Suggestion Tool, and Word tracker to determine which related keywords or key phrases it would be best to optimize your site for. Once you have a list of potential keywords, go to Google and type in those keywords. Then see how many incoming links the top few sites have. You can determine this number by typing in "link:http://www.competitordomain.com." Take a look at whether the first few sites have the targeted keyword in the domain name or in the title, or whether they appear often on their page. Use this information to estimate what it would take to get your site above the current sites in the rankings.

2. Ensure that your site has those keywords on it.

Make sure that the keywords you are targeting are on your home page at least five times. Having a 5 percent to 15 percent keyword density for your targeted search term on your home page is optimal. Also ensure that your title tag and image alt tags contain your targeted keyword. Add your targeted term to an H1 header tag for added prominence.

3. Build good-quality content on your site.

I call this phase the "content campaign." Either write articles yourself for the site or go through the search engines to find related content. If you find an article on another site that you'd like to publish on your site, send an e-mail to the author, site owner, and/or publisher to request permission to syndicate the article on your site. Present it as a win/win quid pro quo in which you receive good-quality content and the author/publisher receives free exposure and a link to his or her Web site in the byline of the article. I'd suggest having at least 25 quality articles on your site before going forward. Optimize your home page for the two or three most competitive target terms. Optimize your in-site pages for the more unique and less competitive terms. You can also outsource the creation of this content to copywriters, using a service such as elance.com, for about $30 per 400-word article.

4. Build links to your Web site.

Without incoming links to your site, it will never have a chance at being at the top of the search engines for competitive terms. Use the research you did earlier on the number of links the sites at the top of the listings have or your targeted keywords to set a goal for how many related incoming links you want to build to your own site.

To obtain links, go through the search engines and find related Web sites, then contact the owners of those sites and offer to exchange links. Add their links to your Web site and e-mail them to let them know that you've linked to their sites and would appreciate a reciprocal link.

I'd suggest contacting them first via e-mail and then via phone if necessary. In your initial e-mail to site owners, include the URL and description of your site, as well as the location of where their links are and which sites of theirs you are referring to. I'd suggest creating a resources section on your site and placing your link partners in the appropriate category within.

You can also build links naturally through press releases or by having great content, a useful tool, a viral video, or an interesting blog. If you have more money than time, you can also purchase relevant links from quality Web sites through a service called LinkExperts or purchase reviews with links from sites such as PayPerPost, ReviewMe, and Blogvertise. Ensure that whatever links you build to your Web site have your target key phrase in the anchor text, the words that are clickable and underlined. Finally, text links are much more valuable than image links, as the search engines can follow text links and associate the link text with your Web site, but they cannot do this for image links.

5. Continue building your site's reputation.

Once you have built a few related incoming links, the search engines
will find and index your site. If your site is new, it can take up to nine months for Google to allow it to show up for competitive search terms. During this time, continue building good-quality related content and work to build as many incoming links from related Web sites as you can.

Author Ryan P. Allis is CEO of iContact Corp., a venture-backed marketing and online communications firm that has grown from nothing to over $10 million in annual sales and 80 employees. He is also the Chairman of the web marketing firm Virante, Inc. For more information on Ryan Allis and Zero to One Million, visit www.zeromillion.com. See more: www.powerhomebiz.com

12 Ways to Create an Effective Facebook Page

Facebook is one of the most popular web destinations today with 500 million users from around the world. As such, businesses have taken note of how Facebook can be used to reach customers. Facebook presence is now considered an important marketing tool for big and small businesses alike.

Facebook offers the Fan Page where businesses can create a page and interact with Facebook users. The more engaged your fans are on your Facebook Page, the more successful your Facebook presence will be and the more likely future fans will be to join your Page.

But how do you create an effective Facebook page? Here are some tips we’ve compiled on how to create a Facebook page that works for you:

1. Study how your competitors are doing their Facebook page. It is important to know your niche and what makes FB users tick. Study what your competitors are posting. Take time to find the FB pages of businesses in your niche to see what the users are following. Look at the types of posts that get the most comments, the most likes – and consider using those types of content in your FB page to use as bait while you build your fan base. Also look at the tabs your competitors are using as well as the applications on their FB page.

2. Provide interesting content in your FB page. What you post in your FB page must be engaging and informative enough so users will like your page. More importantly, you want your fans to return to your page and even visit your website and the links that you post in your FB page.

3. Run Facebook ads. Big brands and well-known websites and businesses can easily attract thousands of Facebook fans immediately. But not many small businesses. You may need a little help getting the word out about your FB page and an effective way is to run FB ads if you have the budget for it. FB ads allow you to target potential audiences and can provide you with the beginning traffic for your page. Target your competitors FB pages or friends, or other specific demographics) and bring them over to your page. Run one or two ad campaigns until you’ve reached a predetermined number, or your page becomes viral on its own.

Note, though, that you can control what tab users will land on your FB Page. So you can create specific landing tabs for each of the campaigns that you run.

4. Don’t underestimate the power of the page image. This icon will represent your brand on FB. It is important to create an eye grabbing, sharp and clean logo or icon for your FB page. It’s a 200 pixel wide box and make sure that your image fits into that box. It will appear as the icon beside all your posts in your FB page as well as in the newsfeeds of all your fans.

5. Think of ways you can tag users in photos and videos. When you tag a user on FB, their network of friends sees it. If they even check out the photos, which reside in your Page’s album, then you get more users to check out your page. The challenge though, is finding out ways you can ask users to submit photos and videos to you so you can tag them from your page. Tagging is an effective method for spreading the word about your fan page, though not the easiest to implement.

6. Keep your Wall interesting. The “wall” is the first thing users will see when they come to your site. It is the front door to your FB page; and in many cases, the only page users will look at. Keep it full of relevant information and keep it interesting.

7. Experiment on the optimal patterns of posting. Some businesses try to limit their posts a day (some even post only once) as posting too often – and hijacking the news feed of followers – is one of the fastest way of losing fans. Check also what time is best in terms of posting where you get the most interaction to your posting. Some users find 11am – 3pm EDT as the best time period for their postings, but it differs based on your type of business and audiences.

8. Use apps to increase engagement. Your goal in your FB page is to keep the fans coming back and share the content on your page. Oftentimes, posting on the Wall is not enough. You need to use various applications to keep the engagement level high. There are more than 55,000 applications on the Facebook platform, and a huge number of them can be integrated into your fan page. Some of these apps can help you expand the functionality of your FB page, such as Static FBML which allows you to put in interactive elements to your Page, such as clickable images, anchor text and interactive content.

9. Consider separating your business account with your personal account. Just announce to your personal friends your Facebook page and keep a link to it in your personal profile. Your personal friends may be annoyed to constantly see you posting links about your business. They are not your target audiences: remember, they friend you on FB because they want to interact with you, not with your business.

10. Watch out for spammers. There will be Facebook users who will try to spam your FB page and put their business opportunity or other non-relevant postings in your Wall. Have a strategy on what types of postings you will allow in your Wall, what you will consider irrelevant and what types of postings need to be deleted.

11. Constantly review what your audiences look for in your page. Know what interests your audience. Monitor the postings that get the most response on your Facebook wall. Find out the topics that generate the most discussions. Then be sure to provide those content or information to them.

12. Be persistent. Facebook marketing is not a one-day thing, and for most, does not happen overnight. It is important to keep engaging your fans regularly. Continue posting interesting content, constantly looking for ways how your Facebook presence can fit with your overall business goals (e.g. increased sales, more site traffic).

If you’re not yet on board with Facebook, why are you passing up what is, essentially, free advertising?

See more: www.powerhomebiz.com

How to Earn Advertising for Your Small Website or Blog

I attended today an event sponsored by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) for long tail publishers, a fancy ad-speak for small publishers. For all of the participants in the event, the most popular way to earn income from the site is through advertising, with Google Adsense often as the ad network of choice.

Inspired by the discussions during the event, I realized that it is important to constantly ask the following questions when you are trying to earn advertising for your website or blog:

• With the ad networks you are using, are you maximizing the earnings potential of your site?
• Should you use Adsense exclusively, or should you use other ad networks as well?
• What other ad networks can you use with Adsense to maximize your earnings?
• How can you use Adsense together with other ad networks to generate the best income potential of your site?
• Do you know how to skip the middlemen (ad networks) and go straight to the advertisers? Do you plan to sell ads yourself?
• Do you want to win the ad business of big companies — which often work with media agencies? Do you want the hassle and all the requirements (request for proposal, special ad codes, impression audit, etc.) that often comes with working with media agencies?

If you are planning on earning from advertising for your website or blog, here are some items to consider:

• Believe that you can do something to increase your revenues. Do not buy into the notion that you can’t do anything with Adsense (or any other ad network) to increase your income. You control the site, and there’s always a way to increase the income it generates. The answer may be finding ways to increase your traffic. Or changing your site design to make your ads stand out without cheapening the content. Or it can be to find and use other ad networks in conjunction with Adsense. Whatever you do, do not fall into the trap of thinking that there’s nothing you can do to improve your site’s advertising revenues.
• Shop around to find the right ad programs for you. There are a number of ad programs out there that you can check out. Some examples would be Kontera http://www.kontera.com  and Chitika http://www.chitika.com  – and determine how you can make them work together on your site. Study the effective cost per thousand impression (eCPM) that you get for each of the ad networks you are using, and give priority to those that give you better eCPM and revenues.
• Carefully examine the type of visitors your site is attracting. Do they tend to click on ads? Or do they basically ignore your ads? Your Adsense income mostly depends on the responsiveness of your visitors to your ads. If your visitors do not tend to click on the ads, then you may be better off to go with a cost per impression ad monetization model, instead of Adsense’s cost per click model. Try ad networks such as BurstMedia http://www.burstmedia.com  or TribalFusion http://www.tribalfusion.com
• Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. It is hard to rely only on one income source. Imagine the worst case scenario: If Adsense is your only way to earn money from your site, what will you do if Google kicks you out of the program for whatever reason? All of a sudden, you lost the only income source of your website! That is scary; sort of like losing your job especially if your website is your main source of livelihood.
• Study carefully how your ad networks (such as Google Adsense) are performing in your site. Use channels to analyze what pages bring in the most Adsense income: ad format that performs the best, placement of the ads, and pages in your site that does well (or not). You may not want to mess with the pages where Adsense really performs well, but you may want to totally remove or use other ad networks on pages that Adsense is not doing well.
• Test, test and test. Determine the best ad format, the best placement of the ads, and the best ad network to use. If you are daisy chaining your ad network – e.g. 5 ad networks in a medium rectangle rotating – try experimenting and use only one network and see how it affects your ad revenue.
• In preparing to sell ads yourself, get as much data as you can about your website. If you are planning to start approaching advertisers directly, be prepared to show to them data about your site. They will want to know about your traffic and your demographics (don’t confuse the two!). In some cases, work with your advertisers to get data and information on the results of spending ad dollars in your site. You can use this information as testimonials to convince future advertisers, or as a case studies that you can include in your media kit.
• To target big advertisers, bring loads of patience.  Big advertisers will very rarely work with you directly, and instead refer you to their media buying agency. However, working with agencies is not easy. They will demand request for proposals to see if your site is worthy of their client’s advertising dollars. After dedicating precious hours working on the RFP, don’t be surprised to hear that your site didn’t make the cut. In fact, for many small publishers, the hassle of dealing with the demands of big advertiser and their overworked media agencies are simply not worth it.

See more: www.powerhomebiz.com

Managing Time and Stress

Doctors define stress as anything that disturbs your healthy mental or physical well being. Isolation, overwork and poor time management all breed stress. Having trouble getting motivated? Chances are you are stressed out. Or maybe you can’t handle setbacks? That’s stress! It could also be a looming deadline, a demanding client, delayed shipments and deliveries, or even the barrage of emails and phone calls that you receive. As an entrepreneur, the constant need to generate income and maintain the financial health of your business can create more stress than some people can take.

Sustained long-term stress can make you feel anxious and frustrated, resulting in a downslide of your work quality. It can also give you a feeling of a sense of failure, and your health may begin to suffer. You either have to live with stress, or learn to deal with it. Here are some guidelines to make it a little easier on yourself:

Effective time management.  Plan your time and establish priorities on a daily "to do" list. By preparing a daily list of things to do you’re ready to act when the time comes, with no need for further thought or preparation. You’re ready for action. Decide what your "prime time" is and do your most important or difficult tasks.  Get the tasks done the first time. Set "business hours," specific times when you are at work and times when you turn on the answering machine because you are "on duty but off call." You, your customers, and your family will appreciate knowing your set routine, even though you know that for special events or emergencies you can break that schedule.

Focus on the urgency of the task. Make a habit of completing every task you start without having to go back to it.  Efficiency, or doing things with as little waste motion as possible, is important to the success of every business venture.

Eliminate distractions.  Notice what your four or five big time-wasters are and learn techniques to eliminate them or compensate for them. Some common ones are: telephone interruptions, visitors, socializing, excessive paperwork, lack of policies and procedures, procrastination, failure to delegate, unclear objectives, poor scheduling, lack of self-discipline, and lack of skill in a needed area.

Stay in contact with people. Home alone with the job you love – it’s the new American dream. Unfortunately, it’s the alone part many must learn to handle. Even though you prefer to work at home, you should plan work-related or social activities that provide frequent contact with others. This will help your morale if you feel isolated. Even for home-based business owners who like feeling isolated, keeping up with business and professional contacts is a must.

Build a fitness program into your day. Many successful entrepreneurs exercise in order to think creatively. Exercise is a great way to relieve anxiety, stress, frustration, and daily pressure, as well as to recharge emotional batteries. Physical activity sends oxygen to the brain and helps the mind function better. Take time off to exercise or simply relax. Jog, do brisk walking, play with your dog, tinker in your garden, or join a structured program at the gym. Don’t consider the time wasted; it pays HUGE dividends.

Give your home business as much of a separate and distinct physical identity as possible. While a home and office may exist under one roof, remember that an office is not a home, and vice versa. Although you might save a few dollars by using the ironing board as a bookshelf and a cardboard box as a file cabinet, the stress and strain of operating without proper space and supplies will take its toll. Have a separate room or area for your business, with a separate entrance if customers or suppliers visit. Deliberately and consciously entering an area explicitly designated for work separates “being at home” from “being at the office.” One space must not be allowed to invade the other. (In addition to the psychological and physical comfort of having a separate office, the IRS requires it in order for you to make a legitimate claim for tax deductions.)

Take care of your major business asset: YOU. Being the boss can be exciting, fulfilling, and rewarding. It can also be lonely, stressful, and demanding. Learn to balance your professional and personal life. Make yourself a concerted effort to schedule periodic “rewards” into your daily and weekly routines for a job well done: lunches or dinners with friends, regular workouts at the health club, or a weekly massage. Your business
depends on you to be at your best.

See more: www.powerhomebiz.com

Five Successful Marketing Techniques

Here are 5 successful marketing techniques you can use to increase your sales. All of them are simple to use. And they're effective for building any businesses.

1. Keep Adding Something New
Every time you add something new to your business you create an opportunity to get more sales. For example, something as simple as adding new information on your web site creates another selling opportunity when prospects and customers visit your site to see the new information.

Adding a new product or service to the list of those you already offer usually produces a big increase in sales. The added product increases your sales in 3 different ways:

• It attracts new customers who were not interested in your current products and services.
• It generates repeat sales from existing customers who also want to have your new product.
• It enables you to get bigger sales by combining 2 or more items into special package offers.

2. Become a Valuable Resource
Look for ways you can be a resource for your prospects and customers. Supply them with free information. Help them do things faster, easier, less expensively. You get another opportunity to sell something every time they come back to you for help.

3. Separate Yourself from Your Competition
Find or create a reason for customers to do business with you instead of with someone else offering the same or similar products. For example, do you provide faster results, easier procedures, personal attention or a better guarantee?

Determine the unique advantage you offer to customers that your competitors do not offer. Promote that advantage in all of your advertising. Give your prospects a reason to do business with you instead of with your competition and you'll automatically get more sales.

4. Promote the End Result
Your customers don't really want your product or service. They want the benefit produced by using it.

For example, car buyers want convenient transportation with a certain image. Dental patients want healthy and good-looking teeth without suffering any pain. Business opportunity seekers want personal and financial freedom for themselves and their family.

Make sure your web pages, sales letters and other sales messages are promoting the end result your customers want.

5. Anticipate Change
Change is the biggest challenge to your business success. The days are gone when a business could constantly grow by simply repeating what it did successfully in the past ...or even recently. Aggressive, innovative competitors and rapidly changing technology make it impossible.

Expect change and prepare for it. Don't wait until your income declines to take action. Develop the habit of looking for early signs that something is changing. Then confront it before you start to lose business.

Tip: Insulate yourself against the impact of change by increasing the number of products and services you offer and by using a variety of different marketing methods. Only a small portion of your total business will be affected if the sales of one product decline or the response to one marketing method drops.

How many of these 5 proven marketing techniques have you overlooked or ignored? Start using them today and you'll see an immediate increase in your sales.

Copyright 2002 Bob Leduc

See more: www.businessknowhow.com

Money Manager Ex V0.9.6.0

Money Manager Ex is a free, open-source, cross-platform, easy-to-use personal finance software. It primarily helps organize one's finances and keeps track of where, when and how the money goes. It is also a great tool to get a bird's eye view of your financial worth.

Money Manager includes all the basic features that 90% of users would want to see in a personal finance application. The design goals are to concentrate on simplicity and user-friendliness - something one can use everyday.

Money Manager Ex runs on Windows and Linux and Mac OSX.

Main Features

Intuitive. Simple, Fast, Clean
AES Encryption Support
Maintain checking, credit card, savings, stock investment accounts
Budgeting
Maintain and Track Fixed Assets with depreciation
Reminders for recurring Bills and Deposits
Simple one click reporting
Cash Flow Forecasting
Graphs, Piecharts
Does not require an install. Can run from a USB key.
International language support (Available in 24 languages)
Import data from any CSV format, QIF [ Microsoft Money ]
Printing, Exporting to HTML, CSV
Non-Proprietary SQLite Database

System Requirements

Installer and zip for Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista
Binaries available for Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu Linux(.deb), SuSE Linux (.rpm), Slackware
Dmg files for Intel Mac OSX 10.6, 10.5 and PPC Mac OSX 10.4
Can be compiled from source for any other Linux Distro




Visit website | Download

How to Earn Money from Blogging

If you are looking for a way to earn money from the Web and love to write, then consider starting a blog. Blogs have become an important online medium, with some bloggers attaining huge success and earning good money from their online writings.

There are a number of ways you can earn money from a blog. Note though that earning money will not be easy and will not come quick, as you will have to first build an audience, establish your credibility and prove that your blog is worth reading.

The video covers primarily the advertising route to earning money from your blog. You can post ads – whether by impression, per click or per action – in your blog and you get paid accordingly. Some advertisers will compensate you for every 1,000 views of their ad. Some are cost per click, where you earn money when a visitor clicks on an ad. Others will pay you only when you give them a sale or a lead. Watch the video to learn how you can earn money for your blog through advertising and read the articles “How to Earn from Your Blog”  and “How to Make Money from Blogs and Blogging”

However, here are other ways you can earn from your blog:

1. Get paid to write.

One way to earn money by blogging is through pay per post programs, where you write about a company’s products or services and you get paid for the post. For some programs, you can set the price you are willing to accept per post, even set a price per word as well as a price per link. Depending on your traffic and topic, some pay per posts can earn you as little as $10 per post or as high as $1,000.

Examples of pay per post programs include

• PayPerPost http://www.payperpost.com
• Smorty http://www.smorty.com
• Blogitive http://my.blogitive.com/pages/howto
• Loud Launch http://www.loudlaunch.com
• Blogging Ads http://www.bloggingads.com
• SponsoredReviews http://www.sponsoredreviews.com
• Blogvertise http://www.blogsvertise.com

Check the requirements of these pay per post programs. Some will require you to disclose that the blog post is a paid post. Others will allow you to freely write whatever you want as long as you include the advertiser’s link in your post. Others will require you to write a post based on the advertiser’s press release or marketing materials.

Be careful though. While pay per post can be very profitable – it is not uncommon for some bloggers to earn $100 a day — many frown on pay per post programs. Your own visitors may be turned off when you sing praises for a product or service because they paid you to write favorably for them. Search engines also frown on these programs, with the possibility that your blog may be penalized and page rank stripped.

2. Become a Freelance Blogger.
There are companies, including non-profit organizations, which want to start a blog but have limited manpower to maintain the blog, write its content and even market the blog. Hence, they look for freelance bloggers who can write for them.

You will need to prove that you are adept at blogging with a creative writing style and solid grammar. You will be asked to submit samples of your blog posts to see if it matches the style and tone of the blog.

Go to sites such as eLance.com http://www.elance.com  to look for jobs hiring freelance bloggers. On eLance.com, for example, there are about 15,000 jobs listings for a blogger in the last 15 days.

How to Make Money from Blogs

Webopedia defines a blog as “a Web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.”

Blogs have become a popular tool for both businesses and individuals to share their voice, thoughts and musings to the world. Some blogs are created to give a more “humane” face to a business, allow interaction with customers, even as a tool to generate traffic. Others write blogs to share their passions and attract like-minded individuals.

Whatever the reason for creating a blog, the next question is: What can you do to make money from your blog?

Here are steps to starting a blog and earning money from your writings:

1. Set up your blog. You can have the option of using their URL (e.g. http://widgetsblog.blogger.com) or use the blog software in your own domain name (http://www.widgetsblog.com). Some of these are free, while some has monthly/annual subscription

Here are some places that will allow you to create your own blog

• Blogger http://www.blogger.com
• Typepad http://www.typepad.com/
• Moveable Type http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/
• Wordpress http://www.wordpress.org/

However, if you are thinking of using your blog to earn money, you need to check first with the blog platform whether they allow ads to be put on the blogs. Some blog platforms have strict policies and will delete your blog if you put ads on them. Blogger.com, being owned by Google which also runs the contextual advertising program Adsense, is one of the ads-friendly blog platforms around.

2. Create great content. Everything starts with content. With great content, you can attract more traffic and more engaged visitors, which gives you higher likelihood of monetizing your blog.

Why will they want to read your blog? Why will they want to spend their time in your blog? Provide value, useful information and other benefits to the readers. Your blog can contain up-to-the-minute news and analysis; or it could be a witty and amusing look at pop culture. Give a reason why visitors will frequent your blog.

3. Get traffic to your blog.
You can't earn from your blog if the blog does not have traffic. Many make the mistake of believing that once they create a blog, people will immediately flock to it. There are millions out there so why would they visit your blog?

Getting traffic is going to be your biggest challenge. Here is a comprehensive list of places where you can list your blogs and syndicate its content - Resources for Marketing Your Blogs and RSS Feeds

One useful technique for getting traffic to your blog is to use carnivals. Carnivals are a technique for showcasing your blog. Carnivals occur once a week to once a month, and you need to submit your blog post to the carnival moderator. Find blog carnivals that fit your topic at BlogCarnival.com http://blogcarnival.com/bc/

4. Think of how to monetize your blog. One of the most common ways of earning money from blogs is through advertising and donations. Here are some ways you can earn money from your blog:

Contextual advertising programs

• Google Adsense  = Adsense is one of the easiest to join and best way to make money from blogs, and Google’s ownership of Blogger.com makes it easy to start earning from blogs
• Yahoo Publisher Network  = in addition to their contextual advertising program, also offers RSS advertising
• Chitika eMinimalls   = contextual advertising that pays per click and focuses on product-based advertisers

Blog-specific ad networks

• Federated Media Publishing   = ad network that represents high traffic and most influential blogs offering mostly through CPM and flat rate advertising
• AdGridwork   = an advertising network offering text ads; as well as a traffic exchange network

RSS Advertising

• Feedburner   = text link ads in RSS feeds are offered by CPM basis
• Moreover’s Feed Direct   = advertising program which inserts contextual ads in the RSS feeds (in partnership with Kanoodle)
• Pheedo  = RSS ads are both CPM and CPC basis, and appear at the end of each post
• BidVertiser Ads For Feed   = the contextual ad agency now offers an advertising program for RSS feeds
• Feedvertising  = run text link ads in RSS feeds via flat rate pricing (not CPM or CPC)

Other sources of income

• Text link ads - you can sell for fixed price for a fixed period of time
• Donations (yes, you can beg)
• Affiliate programs such as Commission Junction http://www.cj.com  and the Amazon Associates program

 See more: www.powerhomebiz.com

How to Earn from Your Blog

Everyone wants to jump in on the blogging bandwagon.

Blogs are the cheapest and most inexpensive way of getting an online presence. With a number of free and easy to use services available, you can create a blog in minutes. Because the blog creation process is simplier than website creation, blogs enable many individuals and businesses to easily publish a stream of constantly updated journals and commentaries.

More than just a display of their wit and knowledge, bloggers are now taking their blogs to the next step: blogs as a source of revenue. Many even turn their blogs into their main business! However, creating a blog is easy; turning it into a money making machine is a different story.

Business 2.0 Magazine recently had a very interesting article “Blogging for Dollars,”  mainly through advertising. You’d be surprised to know that some of the top bloggers nowadays are raking in huge income from their blogs! Boing Boing, PaidContent.org and Fark.com are among those likely to earn a million dollars in ad revenues this year. TechCrunch, a one-person blog ranked by Technorati as the 6th most popular blog, earns $60,000 a month in ad revenues. Just by posting a few paragraphs everyday, these bloggers are earning big time.

So how do you turn your blog into money making online business? Here are the steps you need to take to earn millions from your blog:

Adopt the Right Strategy. Many bloggers start their blogs to share and talk about their passion. Sometimes their blog catches on and generates huge followers, while some lay in a dusty alley in cyberspace.

If you are thinking of starting a blog or using your existing blog to earn money, you need to be more strategic in your approach. Here are several factors to consider:

• Does this blog -- given its type and subject matter – has the potential to attract a huge audience?
• Is this a blog that advertisers would want to be seen?
• Do I know enough about the subject matter to engage the readers?
• Am I using the right venues to generate income for the blog?

Select the Right Income Generating Approach. There are various ways and avenues to earn advertising income from a blog, and the right partner or approach can spell the difference in earning $100 or $10,000 per month.

In terms of advertising models, consider if you will use cost per impression (CPM) advertising where you earn per thousand-ad impression. Or you can go through the cost per click (CPC) approach where you earn every time someone clicks on the adverts you show. Another approach is cost per action (CPA) where you can get paid every time a visitor follows through with the action desired by the advertiser, such as qualified lead, purchase or subscription. Or you can decide to use all three advertising models in your blog (making sure that your blog is not too cluttered with ads).

There are several ways you can proceed to start earning through advertising:

• Join an advertising network. Advertising networks are organizations that aggregate Web sites that offer advertising space, and sell banner ads (and other advertising options) across them. Traffic requirement is often a minimum of 5,000 monthly impressions and they accept sites hosted on its top-level domain (e.g. no free Blogger or Yahoo 360 hosted blogs). Check if they accept blog sites. Examples are:

          -  Burst Media http://www.burstmedia.com
          -  Fastclick (ValueClick). http://www.fastclick.com
          -  Advertising.com. http://www.advertising.com
          -  Tribal Fusion http://www.tribalfusion.com

• Participate in contextual advertising networks. Contextual adverts are text ads delivered based on the content of the web page using an automated system. They are mostly cost per clicks, but some such as Adsense incorporates both CPM and CPA advertising revenue models

          -  Google Adsense https://www.google.com/adsense/
          -  Yahoo! Publishing Network http://publisher.yahoo.com/
          -  Intellixt http://vibrantmedia.com/site/web_01a5.htm
          -  Quigo Adsonar http://www.quigo.com/adsonarexchange.htm
          -  IndustryBrains http://www.industrybrains.com
          -  Commission Junction Evolution http://www.cj.com
          -  Kanoodle Brightads http://www.kanoodle.com/about/brightads.html
          -  Clicksor http://www.clicksor.com/affiliate_programs.php
          -  Contextweb http://www.contextweb.com/
          -  Bidclix http://www.bidclix.com/

• Use advertising networks that cater specifically to bloggers. This is a very new segment and very few companies are selling ads specifically for blogs. They typically work with high-traffic and high profile blogs. Examples are

     -  An up-and-coming company funded by the New York Times Co. and eBay founder Pierre Omudyar called Federated Media http://fmpub.net is at the forefront of serving as the advertising broker for bloggers. They represent some of the most popular blogs today. Their advertisers include big names such as Absolut, Adobe, Apple, Budget Rental Car, Citibank, Dreamworks, GM, Intel, Microsoft, Sony, among others.
    -  FeedBurner Ad Network (FAN) http://www.feedburner.com is an invitation-only ad network for bloggers. They consider those blogs using FeedBurner services such as feed management, size of your blog’s readership and consistency, and frequency of content publication.
    -  RSS advertising where you can put ads on your RSS feeds. Google Adsense offers the capability to put ads in RSS feeds (provided that the feed has at least 100 subscribers).

• Sponsorships. Sell advertising for your blog directly. This is admittedly a more difficult route for a small business site wanting to earn advertising revenues. But hey, as they say: "no pain, no gain!"

Target the Right Audience. If you are thinking of starting a blog to earn money, you first need to have the “right kind” of blog. The “right” kind of blog is a blog that appeals to advertisers because it attracts the audience they want.

For example, a blog that caters to techies will attract more advertisers compared to a blog for squirrel enthusiasts. Advertisers prefer blogs whose audience includes those who have the penchant to buy high-end products compared to blogs whose main audiences are families and friends of the author. The more attractive the blog is to advertisers, the higher the income of the blog.

Think of the audience you want to read your blog, and whether you can pitch this audience to an advertiser.

Generate Tons of Traffic. Building a larger audience for your blog is the surest way to succeed with an advertising revenue model. It is important to build a strong and wide readership base for your blog. Whether you are running cost per impression or cost per click advertising revenue model, the amount of traffic can significantly affect the level of income. To increase traffic to your blog, here are some steps to take

• Create great content – everything starts with great content.
• Update the content regularly – make your visitors come back again and again to your blog by providing daily updates (even multiple posts per day!)
• Submit your blog to blog directories – use Resources for Marketing Blogs
• Network with other bloggers – comment on their blogs, read and link to other blogs and request them to link back to you
• Email other bloggers – pitch your post to other bloggers and hope that they will link or mention your blog
• Use techniques to showcase your blog – examples include meme games such as the Daily Meme http://thedailymeme.com/ or carnival such as the Carnival of Entrepreneurship hosted by About.com

A Nielsen Buzz Metrics Blog Pulse report that there are 32.9 million blogs on the Internet today with 850,000 new posts a day. It’s high time to think of how you can make money from your blog.


About The Author:

Nach Maravilla is the Publisher and CEO of PowerHomeBiz.com. For information on starting a home business , visit PowerHomeBiz.com

Why Work Online: How to Start an Online Home Business

With the ongoing recession you may have lost the ‘comfort zone’ feeling which you always maintain in relation to your job. ‘Working online’ is perhaps not a phrase included in most past edition dictionaries and it is only until recently that the words have become familiar to us. When searching for work at home opportunities, try searching for the magic keywords “Online based home business” or “work online”.

What if it is your turn to exit next? Downsizing, Re-Sizing, Re-Organizing… whatever they want to call it is happening right now, it’s real, it’s current and it’s coming to a company near you. Perhaps it’s the organization that you work in that has to fold, or merge, or restructure or whatever corporate speak is currently used. What is your plan B? Searching for another job is tough. Really tough. And employers call the shots. Today, people talk a lot about the global crisis and its adverse effects in your economic life. Cybernet has come to the rescue by providing opportunities in easing economic crisis.

What Does Working Online Mean?
Fundamentally nothing more than having a computer… and an internet connection. Working online is a job or employment done at home.

What are the Advantages in Online Employment?

Being a online employee, you are given the choice of working part-time or full-time as with any ‘normal’ job – minus the commuting. Also, you can choose to be paid bi-weekly, monthly or get paid on a per project basis with online job employment.

For those coming from developing countries, working at home payments are tax-free since the dollars you earned are changed into the currency of your country.

The online employment work can be easy and relatively quick if you manage to get a job that matches your skills. If you are efficient and can keep deadlines in submitting your assignments, you are guaranteed continuous work from home.

The advantages of online employment are, you are working from home and therefore there’s no need to commute, you eliminate the everyday hassle of dressing up and the preparation of leaving the house and now you can spend more quality time with your family.

What Online Work is Available?

There are hundreds of jobs you can do online – too numerous to mention all here, but some of the more popular are:

Typing – You will be typing papers for professionals, especially for doctors (medical transcription) and lawyers (legal transcription). Transcriptionists are much on demand and able to earn high income. Professionals have always a bulk of papers to be typed which their office cannot do on time. A good grasp of legal or medical terms are essential.

Network marketing – You will be selling products and services and at the same time. You will also need to organize your own sales force and for every sales of your member, you get extra commission. This is a low risk type of occupation and only need your sales charisma. Telemarketing – Your only activity is to sell a product or service on line. This is an amazing way to earn and it gives you rich potentials.

Online advertising – You will be posting the company’s ads, banners and short texts online. No prior skills are needed as you will be provided with a step-by-step video guide.

Online Tutoring – If you have teaching skills and qualifications, you can work for an internet based training and schooling company. You will be tutoring students of all ages in several subject areas. Working hours are flexible depending upon the student’s schedule.

How Can You Tell if This Home Job is a Scam or Legitimate?
Hang on to your money, do not send any for home directories or start up kits for work at home jobs. Testimonials and photos are not even reliable security of a legitimate any more when searching for online work. Check out the job listing. Do your research. Ask questions via email, and call up the numbers the sites publish. Speak to the people involved and gauge if this is the right company to work with.

Start an Online Business
Learning more information about starting a online business will guarantee your success. Starting an online business can be easy to begin and you can do it even if you have a full time job. Many success stories come from people starting and being successful with an online home based business.

Fast Facts About Running an Online Business:
There is no perfect business and there will always be short comings, learn to live by them. Persistence, consistency, taking the initiative to try new methods, as well as the willingness to give wholehearted efforts is crucial to your success. This is not a quick-rich opportunity and does not promise an immediate large income. A detailed plan for execution and how to go about organizing your business are provided. These positive attitudes are your bridges to success.

What are the Disadvantages of Working Online?

One thing many people find is that can they can feel isolated doing an online home business. After all there is little interaction with others as compared to a typical job such as working in an office or factory. To remedy this problem, change your life style and plan your days with social interaction in place. Your social and outside contacts are limited when working from home but only to the extent you let it.

As you can see, there are many ways to make money on the internet. Here we have outlined only a few of them. As with everything else worth doing, you will need to be persistent, consistent and a never give up attitude to succeed.

About the Author:

George Vlismas is an online business mentor and entrepreneur who specializes in helping you, and other serious-minded entrepreneurs, use internet marketing to start, build, promote and expand your home based online businesses and create multiple, passive income streams. How To Build Your $100,000 a year Online Business – Get My ‘6 Pages to 6 Figures’ Free Report here: http://www.TotalOnlineProfits.com

Elements of a Business Plan

Tell Them All About It 
The business description usually begins with a short description of the industry. When describing the industry, discuss the present outlook as well as future possibilities. You should also provide information on all the various markets within the industry, including any new products or developments that will benefit or adversely affect your business. Base all of your observations on reliable data and be sure to footnote sources of information as appropriate. This is important if you're seeking funding; the investor will want to know just how dependable your information is, and won't risk money on assumptions or conjecture.

When describing your business, the first thing you need to concentrate on is its structure. By structure we mean the type of operation, i.e. wholesale, retail, food service, manufacturing or service-oriented. Also state whether the business is new or already established.

In addition to structure, legal form should be reiterated once again. Detail whether the business is a sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation, who its principals are, and what they will bring to the business.

You should also mention who you will sell to, how the product will be distributed, and the business's support systems. Support may come in the form of advertising, promotions and customer service.

Once you've described the business, you need to describe the products or services you intend to market. The product description statement should be complete enough to give the reader a clear idea of your intentions. You may want to emphasize any unique features or variations from concepts that can typically be found in the industry.

Be specific in showing how you will give your business a competitive edge. For example, your business will be better because you will supply a full line of products; competitor A doesn't have a full line. You're going to provide service after the sale; competitor B doesn't support anything he sells. Your merchandise will be of higher quality. You'll give a money-back guarantee. Competitor C has the reputation for selling the best French fries in town; you're going to sell the best Thousand Island dressing.

How Will I Profit? 
Now you must be a classic capitalist and ask yourself, "How can I turn a buck? And why do I think I can make a profit that way?" Answer that question for yourself, and then convey that answer to others in the business concept section. You don't have to write 25 pages on why your business will be profitable. Just explain the factors you think will make it successful, like the following: it's a well-organized business, it will have state-of-the-art equipment, its location is exceptional, the market is ready for it, and it's a dynamite product at a fair price.

If you're using your business plan as a document for financial purposes, explain why the added equity or debt money is going to make your business more profitable.

Show how you will expand your business or be able to create something by using that money.

Show why your business is going to be profitable. A potential lender is going to want to know how successful you're going to be in this particular business. Factors that support your claims for success can be mentioned briefly; they will be detailed later. Give the reader an idea of the experience of the other key people in the business. They'll want to know what suppliers or experts you've spoken to about your business and their response to your idea. They may even ask you to clarify your choice of location or reasons for selling this particular product.

The business description can be a few paragraphs in length to a few pages, depending on the complexity of your plan. If your plan isn't too complicated, keep your business description short, describing the industry in one paragraph, the product in another, and the business and its success factors in three or four paragraphs that will end the statement.

While you may need to have a lengthy business description in some cases, it's our opinion that a short statement conveys the required information in a much more effective manner. It doesn't attempt to hold the reader's attention for an extended period of time, and this is important if you're presenting to a potential investor who will have other plans he or she will need to read as well. If the business description is long and drawn-out, you'll lose the reader's attention, and possibly any chance of receiving the necessary funding for the project.

See more: www.entrepreneur.com

bluevizia Marketing Manager

bluevizia Marketing Manager is effective marketing strategy software for your company’s marketing management. It is made by marketing experts for developing long-term strategic marketing planning. Even if you’re not a marketing guru, this marketing planning software guides you step-by-step through the entire process of analyzing your business and developing your marketing strategy.
Read more »

Why You Need a Financial Plan for Your Business

“Winging it” is the name of the game for many home business entrepreneurs. More often than not, many decide to start a business without preparation or sufficient information or experience. They just improvise, hoping that their gamble will pay off. Some succeed, but many more fail.

One important planning material they don’t often have is a solid financial plan. They just have the idea of what business to start and a certain amount of capital – and dive right in.

Importance of a Financial Plan

A financial plan gives you a better grasp of the financial requirements and needs of your new business. It forces you to keep track and think through your financial issues, and not just deal with them in your head. Laying out your financial picture can help you develop better strategies, pinpoint trouble spots early on, and plan your business for growth.

More importantly it can help you answer the following questions:

• Is your startup capital sufficient? Will it allow you enough to adequately jump-start and operate the business?
• When will your startup capital run out? At what month?
• What type of resources can you afford now given your startup capital?
• What kinds of expenses can you cover now and what can you forego until your financial picture improves?
• How much revenues should your business bring to keep the business afloat?
• If the business is not bringing in the revenues you need, until when and how long can you put in capital to show up the business?
• What is the amount of shortfall that you need to cover every month? Where will you get the money to cover the shortfall?
• What is the price you need to set that will cover your expenses and ensure profitability?
• If you borrowed money, how much revenue should be coming in order for you to meet your obligations?
• How are you measuring your progress?

Don’t just wing it. Work on writing down your financial plan for your business. It can help you see a clearer picture of what your business really entails in terms of capital and expenses, and what you must need to do to turn the business into success. It will be easier to resolve or minimize problems that you will meet along the way.

If creating a reasonable financial plan is too hard for you, get the help of an accountant or financial expert to help you draw up your financial plan for the business. Even if the numbers are just estimations and projections, operating on an educated guess is still better than “winging it” with nothing.

See more: www.powerhomebiz.com

6 Business Start Up Tips For Ultimate Success

Have a Plan & Work That Plan
The first step toward starting a business is to have a plan in place. Most successful businesses take the time to make sure they have a blueprint to success, a plan. When you have a blueprint and a direction to go, you will be so much more successful. There are many free resources across the Internet that can aid you in structuring and thinking through the writing of your business plan. Once you get the plan in place, follow it!

Don’t Try To Do It All Yourself
A wise business owner knows that they can’t do it alone. Even if you have a small budget to begin with, you can enlist the help of a virtual assistant or possibly volunteers or mentors. Get more on board who have experience that can help you in your business.

Know Your Audience (and why they would be interested in your products or services)
Who are you trying to reach? Who needs your product or information? Take the time to do market research and list out who you are selling to and where you can find them - both online and offline. This will help you both when creating the product/service and in your marketing efforts. Also, make sure you keep in touch with your audience and find out how they feel. You can easily create surveys and find out valuable information about what they really think.

Be Clear On Your Rates
You must be clear not only with potential clients, but you must know for yourself what you need to earn. Be brutally honest with yourself about how much you need to earn to keep your business afloat. Now set realistic goals and figure out how to make that happen. Remember in setting your rates that often times you are selling the value of your services or products, and not necessarily the service or product itself.

You Gotta Want It
Someone asked me once why I thought some entrepreneurs succeeded while others, just as talented, failed. My answer? Those that succeeded wanted it bad enough to do whatever it took to make it happen. Running a business isn’t easy, especially in the beginning. There will be long hours, tough critics and disappointments that can’t be prepared for. The entrepreneur who works through the tough times is the one who succeeds in the end.

Get Busy
Don’t wait until you “have it all together” to take that first step - it will never happen. If you have a great idea and have done enough planning to know where you’re headed, go for it. Be prepared to learn some lessons. Be prepared to make changes along the way. But, if you never take the first step you’ll never know the joy of the journey.

See more: www.businessknowhow.com

8 Keys to a Strong Marketing Strategy

The Building Blocks to Successful Marketing: It’s More than Sales and Advertising

Whether you’re a Fortune 500 company or a one person shop, to be successful, you must have a marketing strategy and you must implement it consistently. However, it doesn’t have to cost a fortune and you don’t have to be a creative genius.

The key is developing a marketing strategy that forms a solid foundation for your promotional efforts. Implementing promotional activities such as advertising, direct mail or even networking and one-to-one sales efforts without a marketing strategy is like buying curtains for a house you are building before you have an architectural plan. How would you even know how many curtains to buy or what size they needed to be?

You can develop a strong marketing foundation by:

1. Defining your product or service: How is your product or service packaged? What is it that your customers are really buying? You may be selling web-based software tools but your clients are buying increased productivity, improved efficiency and cost savings. And if you offer several products or services which ones are the most viable to promote?

2. Identifying your target market: Everyone or anybody might be potential clients for your product. However, you probably don’t have the time or money to market to Everyone or Anybody. Who is your ideal customer? Who does it make sense for you to spend your time and money promoting your service to? You might define your ideal customer in terms of income, age, geographic area, number of employees, revenues, industry, etc. For example a massage therapist might decide her target market is women with household incomes of $75,000 or more who live in the Uptown area.

3. Knowing your competition: Even if there are no direct competitors for your service, there is always competition of some kind. Something besides your product is competing for the potential client’s money. What is it and why should the potential customer spend his or her money with you instead? What is your competitive advantage or unique selling proposition?

4. Finding a niche: Is there a market segment that is not currently being served or is not being served well? A niche strategy allows you to focus your marketing efforts and dominate your market, even if you are a small player.

5. Developing awareness: It is difficult for a potential client to buy your product or service if they don’t even know or remember it exists. Generally a potential customer will have to be exposed to your product 5 to 15 times before they are likely to think of your product when the need arises. Needs often arise unexpectedly. You must stay in front of your clients consistently if they are going to remember your product when that need arises.

6. Building credibility: Not only must clients be aware of your product or service, they also must have a positive disposition toward it. Potential customers must trust that you will deliver what you say you will. Often, especially with large or risky purchases, you need to give them the opportunity to “sample”, “touch”, or “taste” the product in some way. For example, a trainer might gain credibility and allow potential customers to “sample” their product by offering free, hour long presentations on topics related to their area of specialty.

7. Being Consistent: Be consistent in every way and in everything you do. This includes the look of your collateral materials, the message you deliver, the level of customer service, and the quality of the product. Being consistent is more important than having the “best” product. This in part is the reason for the success of chains. Whether you’re going to Little Rock, Arkansas or New York City, if you reserve a room at a Courtyard Marriott you know exactly what you’re going to get.

8. Maintaining Focus: Focus allows for more effective utilization of the scarce resources of time and money. Your promotional budget will bring you greater return if you use it to promote a single product to a narrowly defined target market and if you promote that same product to that same target market over a continuous period of time.

Before you ever consider developing a brochure, running an ad, implementing a direct mail campaign, joining an organization for networking or even conducting a sales call, begin by mapping a path to success through the development of a consistent, focused marketing strategy.

See more:  www.businessknowhow.com

8 Secrets to Marketing Success

Let's discuss the 8 secrets business owners can use to greatly improve their marketing success.

Secret #1: Give marketing top priority. 

The primary reason any customer chooses to buy your products or services is because of effective marketing. The marketing process starts at the very beginning and continues forever! It begins with Product Development, ensuring that the product or service fills a need for potential customers, so they will want to buy it. The next step is Pricing to ensure that the business will achieve profits from sales and that customers will perceive price to be less than their value of the benefits they receive. Effective Positioning allows potential customers easy interaction with the business to evaluate the product or service. The final step is Promotion, where the business communicates with their potential customers about the existence and benefits of the products or services to entice them to contact the business to learn more. Marketing is culminated in Sales, when your customers value of their benefits exceed the price of the product or s! ervice. You generate successful sales only because you complete positive Product Development, Price, Positioning, and Promotion. In fact, you will want your business to be a marketing businesses. You will want to focus on marketing at all times, to succeed.

Secret #2: Do not confuse advertising with marketing.

Advertising is only a part of the last marketing step, Promotion, and it occurs late in the game. You will often think advertising is all there is to marketing, so you overlook the other 3 very important earlier marketing steps. Consequently, you will lose the opportunity to control and develop over 75% of all marketing, which must be well done first, to allow advertising to succeed.

Secret #3: Do not base your marketing solely on your own opinions and desires.

Owners believe their power and freedom of choice, as the boss, means that they don't have to deal with the opinion of others. "I am now my own boss" is only partly true. You are in virtual control of either succeeding or failing to convince - The Customer- to buy your products or services. You want to avoid IMPOSING your opinion on your potential customers. Focus on fulfilling the perceived wants and needs of your customers, from Their Perspective, so you will greatly increase the number of customers that will decide to buy your products and/or services.

Secret #4: Learn all you can about your potential customers.

You want to conduct in depth research of your chosen potential customers. You will want to learn everything possible about Who your potential customers are, What your potential customers THINK want to buy, Why they THINK they buy, How they THINK they buy, and When they THINK they buy.

Secret #5: Learn how to screen out undesirable customers.

You have the right and obligation to determine which potential customers you will agree to serve. You should screen out undesirable customers early so you can focus more attention on customers you want to serve. Sadly, you often may not know how to select desirable customers from the pool of potential customers you encounter. As a result, you often spend too much time, money, and energy trying to deal with a handful of hard-to-please customers who frequently demand lower prices at the expense of better customers, who go elsewhere because they were ignored. You should know the key criteria to help you decide which potential customers are acceptable.

Secret #6: Know and appreciate the value of your existing customers.

You may often become so focused on getting new customers you ignore your existing repeat customers. Your business will probably not survive without repeat business. Repeat customers present a wealth of opportunities to you. They frequently provide you excellent feedback; they provide an excellent reference and referral service (read free advertising
); they are the least expensive and most likely source of additional business, and their unnecessary departure causes substantial damage. Upset customers will complain to at least 5 to 9 others. Stay close to your existing customers and learn as much as you can from them.

Secret #7: Create a positive identity that is distinct from your competitors.

Most customers compare. They need a good reason to choose your product or service over others. You complete more sales when you understand your competitors extremely well and position your products or services for positive customer comparison.

Secret #8: Consider the overwhelming power

Emotion has on the process of deciding to buy. The entire buying process is governed by emotional forces (some say over 80% of the entire process is emotional). Yet, you probably focus your energies on price and avoid the real emotional reasons customers will buy. You should know and feel the emotional connection your potential customers will attach to your business, your products and/or services, and the way customers interact with your business. You will want your entire marketing program to address the emotional issues to attract and keep the right customers.

The normal human thinking process of deciding to buy almost always starts with an emotional need. The emotional need causes the customer to consider buying something to fill it. The search and evaluation of the possible choices of products and or services is also frequently emotional, and additional emotional forces are often added. The price issue comes in near the end and, in reality, the customer wants to know the price to help justify the emotional decision they have already made. In fact, the request for the price from a normal customer is a very strong buying signal (does the cost allow me to buy what I want and is it fair for what I decided to get?). Business owners succeed when they know how to deal with this emotional process and permit the customer to complete this process through final payment.

What a wonderful opportunity! You can take charge of learning, succeed in your goals, and have a ball along the way.

See more: www.powerhomebiz.com

Write a marketing plan #9

Here's how I developed and implemented a marketing plan
Escherman is a digital public relations (PR) and marketing consultancy based in Richmond, Surrey which launched in January 2008. Owner Andrew Smith identified a gap in the market for measurable, integrated digital PR and marketing programmes that combine new techniques such as web analytics and social media with traditional PR content development skills. Here Andrew describes how he devised the company's own marketing plan.

What I did

Research and analyse
"When I first had the idea of starting the company, I had over 20 years experience in PR, primarily promoting technology companies. I had a shrewd idea that there was a gap in the market for the kind of PR service I intended to offer. The proposed business strategy was to bring together innovative online PR solutions under one roof and offer highly accountable results that would have a measurable impact on customer sales. The initial step in writing the marketing plan was research and SWOT/PEST analysis.

"First, I analysed the current position of existing PR agencies against the wider economic, technological and social background. This confirmed that traditional 'non-digital' agencies were in decline, with only one third making a profit.

"I also talked to search marketing agencies (at the time the most advanced area of digital solutions) to get a glimpse of how other new methods I intended to base the agency around might evolve. On top of all that, I talked to potential customers, including ex-clients and industry leaders, to ascertain their current PR and marketing needs.

"Last, but not least, I undertook competitor analysis, looking closely at the operation and cost bases of other PR agencies that styled themselves as digital communications experts."

Define overall strategy

"Because I'd researched thoroughly, the marketing strategy to some extent wrote itself. The perceived value of the business' offering was clear from talking to potential clients. However, I had to be realistic about the volume of business the company could cope with in its first year. I was confident of gaining clients, but didn't want to risk under-servicing because of limited resources. It was therefore clear that the marketing strategy should focus on higher margins and lower volumes.

"I identified a select handful of potential customers and included topline financial objectives based on an analysis of fee income throughout the industry. I also addressed the resourcing issue by planning to outsource certain marketing activities, such as document preparation."

Plan tactics and implement them

"I planned marketing tactics to support the strategy, including detailed pricing and how to publicise the business to the defined target market. Obviously a website and online presence was essential. Because we would be selling ourselves on our ability to reach the media and consumers in innovative ways, we had to practice what we preached. In particular I looked at ways to exploit my LinkedIn profile and the website's blog so as to maximise the possibility of being picked up in internet searches carried out by potential customers.

"Another key tactic was to identify a series of networking events that I would attend to spread the word about the company. We also planned for growth by instigating dialogue with other, non-competitive PR agencies with a view to partnering with them. Marketing our services as a seamless add-on to their own is already proving successful and provides a valuable additional route to market.

"We revisit the marketing plan regularly and monitor our progress against a set of Key Performance Indicators to keep us focussed. The proof of the pudding is that we met our annual target in the first six months of being in business."

What I'd do differently

Set a deadline"While it's crucial to research thoroughly when preparing a marketing plan, I probably spent too long agonising over every possible outcome. Setting a firmer deadline for writing the plan might have speeded up the implementation."

Accept that not everything will work
"When it came to implementing the plan, parts of it didn't work as expected and had to be adapted as we went along. Accepting the element of risk and having confidence in your idea at the planning stage is ultimately more useful than striving to produce the 'perfect' plan."


See more: www.businesslink.gov.uk

Write a marketing plan #8

Tips for writing a marketing plan

It is important for a marketing plan to:

• set clear, realistic and measurable targets - for example, increasing sales by 10 per cent
• include deadlines for meeting targets
• provide a budget for each marketing activity
• specify who is responsible for each activity

Make sure you think through each of your objectives logically. For example, you might set a target for the number of new enquiries. But if you don't provide the resources and training to follow up these enquiries and turn them into sales, you will have increased costs without any benefits.

Link to your strategy

Assess the business environment to identify the opportunities and threats that you face. Look for where you can capitalise on your strengths or where you need to overcome a weakness.

All parts of your business must work together. For example, if you have limited cashflow you should avoid seeking large orders from customers who demand extended credit or that will involve you in heavy, up-front costs.

Remember to focus on your long-term strategy. Reducing customer service might boost short-term profits, but next year you might not have any customers left.

Make it happen

A plan will not happen by itself. You need to make someone responsible for monitoring progress and chasing up overdue activities. Reviewing progress will also help you learn from your mistakes so that you can improve your plans for the future.

Write a marketing plan #7

Implementing your marketing plan

Your marketing plan must do more than just say what you want to happen. It must describe each step required to make sure that it happens.

The plan should therefore include a schedule of key tasks. This sets out what will be done, and by when. Refer to the schedule as often as possible to avoid losing sight of your objectives under the daily workload.

Resources

It should also assess what resources you need. For example, you might need to think about what brochures you need, and whether they need to be available for digital distribution (by email or from your website). You might also need to look at how much time it takes to sell to customers and whether you have enough salespeople.

Cost

The cost of everything in the plan needs to be included in a budget. If your finances are limited, your plan will need to take that into account. Don't spread your marketing activities too thinly - it is better to concentrate your resources to make the most of your budget. You may also want to link your marketing budget to your sales forecast.

Control

As well as setting out the schedule, the plan needs to say how it will be controlled. You need an individual who takes responsibility for pushing things along. A good schedule and budget should make it easy to monitor progress. When things fall behind schedule, or costs overrun, you need to be ready to do something about it and to adapt your plan accordingly.

From time to time, you need to stand back and ask whether the plan is working. What can you learn from your mistakes? How can you use what you know to make a better plan for the future?

Write a marketing plan #6

Plan your marketing tactics
Once you have decided what your marketing objectives are, and your strategy for meeting them, you need to plan how you will make the strategy a reality.

Many businesses find it helpful to think in terms of the four Ps:

• Product - what your product offers that your customers value, and whether/how you should change your product to meet customer needs.
• Pricing - for example, you might aim simply to match the competition, or charge a premium price for a quality product and service. You might have to choose either to make relatively few high margin sales, or sell more but with lower unit profits. Remember that some customers may seek a low price to meet their budgets, while others may view a low price as an indication of quality levels.
• Place - how and where you sell. This may include using different distribution channels. For example, you might sell over the internet or sell through retailers.
• Promotion - how you reach your customers and potential customers. For example, you might use advertising, PR, direct mail and personal selling.

For a more comprehensive approach, you can extend this to seven Ps:

• People - for example, you need to ensure that your employees have the right training.
• Processes - the right processes will ensure that you offer a consistent service that suits your customers.
• Physical evidence - the appearance of your employees and premises can affect how customers see your business. Even the quality of paperwork, such as invoices, makes a difference.

Write a marketing plan #5

Your marketing plan is your marketing strategy in action

Your marketing plan is how you put your marketing strategy into practice. It should therefore be a practical reflection of your strategy.

If you understand the market well, you can probably break it down into different segments - groups of similar customers. For example, you can break the business market down into businesses operating in the same sector and/or of a similar size.

For each segment, you need to look at what customers want, what you can offer and what the competition is like. You want to identify segments where you have a competitive advantage. At the same time, you should assess whether you can expect high enough returns to make the segment worthwhile.

Often, the most promising segments are those where you have existing customers. See what you can do to expand sales to these customers. If you are targeting new customers, you need to be sure that you have the resources to reach them effectively.

Once you have decided what your target market is, you also need to decide how you will position yourself in it. For example, you might offer a high quality product at a premium price or a flexible local service. Some businesses try to build a strong brand and image to help them stand out. Whatever your strategy, you need to differentiate yourself from the competition to encourage customers to choose your business first.

See how to create your marketing strategy.

Write a marketing plan #4

Your marketing objectives

Your marketing objectives should be based on understanding your strengths and weaknesses, and the business environment you operate in. They should also be linked to your overall business strategy.

For example, suppose your business objectives include increasing sales by 10 per cent over the next year. Your marketing objectives might include targeting a promising new market segment to help achieve this growth.

Objectives should always be SMART:

• Specific - for example, you might set an objective of getting ten new customers.
• Measurable - whatever your objective is, you need to be able to check whether you have reached it or not when you review your plan.
• Achievable - you must have the resources you need to achieve the objective. The key resources are usually people and money.
• Realistic - targets should stretch you, not demotivate you because they are unreasonable and seem to be out of reach.
• Time-bound - you should set a deadline for achieving the objective. For example, you might aim to get ten new customers within the next 12 months.

Write a marketing plan #3

External and internal analysis for your marketing plan

Understanding the environment your business operates in is a key part of planning, and will allow you to discern the threats and opportunities associated with your area of business. A PEST analysis helps you to identify the main opportunities and threats in your market:

• Political and legal changes such as new regulations
• Economic factors such as interest rates, exchange rates and consumer confidence
• Social factors such as changing attitudes and lifestyles, and the ageing population
• Technological factors such as new materials and growing use of the internet

You also need to understand your own internal strengths and weaknesses. For example, the main strengths of a new business might be an original product and enthusiastic employees. The main weaknesses might be the lack of an existing customer base and limited financial resources.

A SWOT analysis combines the external and internal analysis to summarise your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. You need to look for opportunities that play to your strengths. You also need to decide what to do about threats to your business and how you can overcome important weaknesses.

For example, your SWOT analysis might help you identify the most promising customers to target. You might decide to look at ways of using the internet to reach customers. And you might start to investigate ways of raising additional investment to overcome your financial weakness.

Write a marketing plan #2

Marketing plan summary and introduction

Your marketing plan should start with an executive summary, which gives a quick overview of the main points of the plan.

However, although the executive summary appears at the beginning of the plan, you should write it last. Writing the summary is a good opportunity to check that your plan makes sense and that you haven't missed any important points.

Business strategy
It's a good idea to introduce the main body of the plan with a reminder of your overall business strategy, including:

• what your business is about (your business mission)
• your key business objectives
• your broad strategy for achieving those objectives

This helps to ensure that your marketing plan, your marketing strategy and your overall business strategy all work together. For example, suppose your business strategy is based on providing premium quality products and service. Your marketing strategy and plan will need to take this into account, targeting customers who appreciate quality, promoting your product in ways that help build the right image and so on.

Write a marketing plan #1

Introduction

Marketing is a key part of business success - and you should use a marketing plan as a basis for executing your marketing strategy.

A marketing plan sets out clear objectives and lists the actions you will take to achieve them. Perhaps most importantly, it looks at how you can ensure that your plan becomes reality.

A marketing plan includes factors such as deciding which customers to target and how to reach them, how to win their business and keep them happy afterwards, as well as continually reviewing and improving everything you do to stay ahead of the competition.

Remember that marketing in itself will not guarantee sales, but a well-researched and coherent marketing plan will give you a much better chance of building long-term, profitable relationships.

This guide outlines the key areas to look at in an effective marketing plan and what you should include in it.