Been Burned, Scammed, Taken for a Ride…

Been Burned, Scammed, Taken for a Ride…

by: Rachel Gawith

BEEN BURNT, SCAMMED, TAKEN FOR A RIDE……..
Well don’t worry, we have all been there. I doubt there is a single network marketer or homeworker out there who hasn’t at some point in their career fallen for an envelope stuffing scheme, been talked into selling potions and pills, tried chain letters etc. But the important thing is to learn from your mistakes and take something from every experience.
My first venture into working from home came when I answered an advert in a local paper which stated I could be earning £2000 a week part time, all I had to do was call. So I did and ended up trailing along to a meeting about how much money one could make from selling herbal diet supplements and how easy it all was. So I signed up and paid the £200 for the starter pack. Full of enthusiasm I started my 68 year old gran off on the diet. Well the first week she lost a few pounds and all was going well. I paid out another £100 to have a load of leaflets printed and spent hours putting these on car windscreens. By the second week, gran had given up on the diet as the stuff ‘tasted funny’ and she was bored with a milkshake three times a day!
Then I decided to try selling the products via the internet. It was a slow process but I taught myself html coding and built my first website. Then came the hard task of trying to market my site and get people to visit it. This is when I discovered that you could apparently make thousands very easily and with no effort online, simply by signing up for a website and placing a few free classifieds. So I joined every ‘next big thing’, every site promoting untold riches, only to find that the program disappeared after a few weeks, along with my money. But along the way I learnt what I should look for in an online business, the best ways to market online and my web design skills improved drastically. At times I became very disillusioned and felt like giving up when yet another program folded, or sponsor failed to get in touch and offer support but I learned valuable lessons. And after one such online opportunity disappeared and having convinced a number of people to join me in this, I thought enough was enough and started my own online program. Even that involved a steep learning curve, the site had to be revamped numerous times, parts of the program changed but I put the knowledge I gained from being a ‘newbie’ into building a good stable program. People need support, they want to see proper products and a realistic and achievable pay plan.
So don’t give up, from every bad experience you will learn something, be it a new skill, what to avoid next time, what advertising works or doesn’t and so on…Like life home based business, especially on the internet, is a learning experience which you must embrace.
© 2004 Rachel Gawith

About The Author

Rachel runs her own online business at http://www.earnmoneyhere.com as well as publishing a weekly newsletter at http://www.freedailycash.com Other opportunities can be seen at http://www.computerincome.net You’ll also find a vast array of free tools there to help you market any business effectively online and you can post your classified ad free for 7 days.

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 03, 2004

by Rachel Gawith

The Top Seven Marketing Mistakes

The Top Seven Marketing Mistakes

by: Ted Nicholas

In my view, nearly all government statistics about reasons for business failures are nonsense.

Undercapitalization, inexperience, or poor management are usually blamed for all business disasters.

Of course, there can be one or several more causes that result in a business going กbelly up.ก

However, from what Iกve seen, marketing mistakes are by far the primary reason businesses do not survive. This includes companies which consider themselves direct marketers as well as those who do not.

Here are the seven most common marketing mistakes:

1. Management treats marketing as a business expense or simply a department rather than a necessary business investment.

Solution: Marketing should be treated as the driving force of any company. It is the only function that brings in cash. The other major functions in a company are necessary. But they all spend cash. This includes the primary business departments of finance, production and research.

To market any product or service successfully, the company must do two things:

A. Provide marketing with sufficient resources

B. Put marketing at the heart of its business strategy

The whole company should be focused on the needs and wants of customers and be prepared to satisfy their demands.

Marketing must be part of the philosophy of all entrepreneurs and managers.

2. Management does not know specifically what it costs to recruit a new customer. Plus, there are no accurate statistics on the average customer lifetime value.

Without this knowledge, it is impossible to make sound decisions. You cannot determine how much to invest in marketing. If you spend more to gain a customer than their lifetime value, ultimately you will go broke. In the absence of this information, many businesses can and often do fail. To make matters worse, few of the casualties understand why they failed.

Solution: Before you invest large sums on marketing, determine the average lifetime value of a customer. An excellent book that I highly recommend on this topic is The Loyalty Factor by Frederick Reicheld.

3. Management makes no attempt to build a customer database. This is especially so with most retailers, restauranteurs and department store owners. However, Iกve seen this in many other businesses.

Solution: A companyกs database of customers is potentially its biggest asset. Itกs much more valuable than equipment, inventory, etc. This is not only true of companies that utilize mail order or Internet marketing. Every single company that wants to survive and prosper needs to build a database.

4. The company does not communicate often enough with its customers. The result is lower sales and profits than are otherwise possible.

Solution: Contact your customers a minimum of once a month. When I started my first business at age 21, I too made many mistakes. The business somehow survived and became a chain of retail confectionery stores called Petersonกs House of Fudge. At first I sent my customers an offer every six months. So I tried sending a sales letter every three months. My business doubled. I then began mailing every other month. My business again increased proportionately.

I wound up with the ideal and most profitable interval once a month.

At first I thought contacting customers every 30 days might be too often and that customers would get turned off.

But that didn’t happen. I got great feedback as well as higher sales. Providing your customers like, or even love, your product or service, as they should, they want to hear from you frequently.

This, of course, is in the context of your sending excellent offers, excellent copy and excellent information.

Indeed, if you are not in frequent contact, your customers will quickly begin to forget about you. Many will start buying from your competitors.

I urge you to contact your customers at least every 30 days (occasionally with special offers a week apart is perfectly fine too).

Your form of contact can be an email, postcard, catalog, telephone call or personal visit. Iกve found the most effective method of regular contact is with a wellwritten sales letter.

Rarely do I find a company of any kind which systematically mines the real gold in any businessthe customer database. Make sure you do not make this mistake.

Making offers to your customer database is often referred to as the กback endก in direct marketing jargon. But every business should cash in on the huge potential of existing customers by simply making frequent offers to them and giving them more opportunities to do business with you.

5. Management has no method of accurately measuring the results from its advertising investments. This is especially so with socalled image advertising.

Solution: The way this is done is to seek a direct response in each promotion. This can be a coupon, telephone call or store visit. Code each promotion. Then when an order is received or a customer visits your establishment, you can appropriately trace it to the particular promotion.

The coding system can be numbers or letters. If you use the telephone you can utilize separate telephone numbers for each advertisement. Or you can simply ask the caller which ad or letter they are responding to.

6. As many companies begin to enjoy some early success, many develop a disease that I call กBigCompanyItis.ก They start having endless, nonproductive meetings. They become bureaucratic. They move as slow as molasses.

Instead of continuing to insist upon a high level of employee performance and keeping a close watch and control over costs, management takes its foot off the brake. Costs can spiral out of control. Employee morale can suffer. Soon the company is in deep trouble.

Solution: The secret is to think big but operate much like a small business. Wellmanaged, large organizations that are highly successful are run more like a small entrepreneurial business. Managers have profit center responsibility. Their job is to help increase revenue or reduce costs, or both. They are held accountable. They maintain the financial controls and quick response of a lean and mean small business.

7. Management has no systemized upselling procedure in place to upgrade both new and existing customers to a larger sale. Result? Lower sales volume and lower profits than otherwise could be obtained.

Surprisingly, companies Iกve observed that market direct to consumers, such as mailorder businesses, tend to be incredibly poor at telephone communications and upselling.

Wellmanaged and properly trained customer service people can add 30%60% in added sales volume without any increase in marketing or administrative costs. Your only cost is the cost of goods sold. Best of all, your customers are the beneficiaries of more value and variety for their money. Everyone wins.

But here is where it becomes really interesting. Your gross sales will be much higher. But your net profit will increase by a huge multiple. Iกve helped companies achieve huge increases in their net profit just by learning effective and professional telephone techniques. Itกs not unusual to increase profits as much as 5 or even 10 times!

Effective telephone communications and upselling are the main reasons for the huge success of my own companies. My clients for whom I conduct training of their customer service representatives have experienced similar results.

Solution: Develop a strategy which includes the following:

A. Create an incentive compensation plan for your customer service representatives (CSRกs) based on added sales. Depending on your profit margins, this can be for example 5% to 10% of additional sales.

B. Run a daily special offered as an กadd onก that provides great value for the customer. For example, you can offer a new product at half price.

C. Prepare a verbatim script on how to present the special.

Tip: The selling price. Your special offer should not exceed 30% of your average order. This makes the decision to accept the special an easy one.

D. Provide your CSRกs with some basic telephone training. This should include the principles of active listening, voice pitch, pacing, learning to present things in a hearable way, and some gentle closingthesale techniques. A big factor is learning the secrets of boosting the sales without any pressure whatsoever.

Regards,

Ted Nicholas

About The Author

Ted Nicholas is one of the highest paid speakers and copywriters in the world. He has sold over 4 billion dollars worth of products and services. Go to http://www.tednicholas.com to subscribe to his free ezine, ‘the Success Margin.ก

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 09, 2003

by Ted Nicholas

$27,817 Monthly With Affiliate Programs

$27,817 Monthly With Affiliate Programs

by: John McLaren

I still remember thinking that promoting Affiliate Programs was a waste of time. Until I started making a small fortune.

At the end of 2004, I started some time exploring the concept of promoting affiliate programs through payperclick search engines. I knew of some Internet Marketing gurus who were claiming you could make thousands of dollars every month. But I was skeptical. I remember thinking, ขI know what these guys are about. They just want to sell more books.ข

But I decided that at least it was worth a look. The concept is quite simple. Choose a product – and one that has an affiliate program, of course. Set up an advertising campaign at a PPC search engine like Google and choose how much you want to pay per click. Write a three line advertisement and add your affiliate link. Whenever anyone clicks through your ad and buys the product, you earn a commission.

So I looked. And thought about it. And looked some more. I was still very uncertain about the whole concept, but I finally decided to test for myself whether it could really work. And since I knew I’d be spending quite a bit of money on advertising clicks, I felt it was well worth investing in a book so I could learn from more experienced marketers how to maximize the profitability of my campaigns.

As my business grew over several weeks I purchased and read several ebooks. By far the best I read was Chris Carpenter’s Google Cash ( http://tinyurl.com/6gdaq ). His approach is genuine, downtoearth, and he explains very clearly how to build your own affiliate marketing business. And importantly, he makes a fortune doing what he explains in the book.

I started by testing 2030 campaigns on various products. Most of them were unsuccessful, but I expected that from what I had been reading. I would test a product, and if it didn’t work, I would drop it quickly. The key with this business is identifying the affiliate products and campaigns that are successful. Once you find one that works, the money starts rolling in.

By February of 2005 I had identified several campaigns that were turning a profit. With one of these I was spending $0.08 per click to promote an affiliate product that pays me $18 commission on each sale. Approximately 1 visitor in 100 buys the product, so I make around $10 profit for every 100 visitors that I send.

What a formula! For every 1,000 visitors, that’s $180 in commissions. That might not seem like all that much, but remember once you have a successful campaign it keeps going all day, every day. If you send just 1,000 visitors to a program like this every day, then by the end of the month you will have earned $5,400 in commissions, of which $3,000 is profit.

Does it seem too simple? Well, if it was so easy everyone from your Aunt Mabel to the mailman would be doing it. In fact, while the concept is simple, getting your campaigns to run profitably does take some work. Since I can’t possibly teach you all you need to know in one article, Iกll give you a few tips here and recommend Google Cash for a detailed explanation:

Choose Your Product Wisely. The program should pay a commission of $15 or more, otherwise it won’t be worth paying for your clicks. And if the commission is very high, be careful. Some products like web hosting and satellite dish installations may pay commissions of $100, but you face intense competition from other affiliates, so the price you need to pay to get ad exposure and clicks will probably also be very high. Sometimes it is better to identify a niche product with less competition from other affiliates.

Track Your Campaigns Carefully. If you’re paying around 7 or 8 cents per click for a program that pays close to $20 commission, you need to make at least one sale for every 250 visitors. If you send 300 to 400 visitors with no sale, consider dropping it.

Days Of The Week Do Matter. When testing campaigns keep in mind the day of the week and even the time of day. Some products sell better on Mondays through Fridays, during business hours. Others, like entertainment products, sell better in the evenings and on weekends.

Getting back to my own experience, after identifying several campaigns that ‘worked’, I spent some time finetuning them using techniques I read about in Google Cash. By the end of February I had earned $27,817 in commissions for the month, all on products I had never even heard of at the end of 2004. My profit was a neat $10,795.

It’s incredible really. I made this money without a web site. From home. Working an average of just an hour or two a day.

I’m finally making the amount of money online that I dreamed about.

How about you? Would you also like to build an affiliate marketing business? Could you use some additional income? I encourage you to proceed, but be smart about it. There are risks involved and you should be aware of them. You should read Chris Carpenter’s book. That way you’ll be on a fast track to more profitable campaigns. And his book will save you hundreds of dollars, easily, as you avoid some common mistakes and pitfalls.

Good Marketing!

About The Author

John McLaren has worked for many years selling IT consulting services. Now he works from home, just a few hours each day, building his highly successful affiliate marketing business. For more professional advice, he recommends the book, Google Cash, available at: http://tinyurl.com/6gdaq.

This article was posted on March 26

by John McLaren

Build Your Marketing Muscle

Build Your Marketing Muscle

by: Sopan Greene, M.A.

During a saxophone lesson the other day I realized how much regular practice can help a part time internet marketer. My teacher taught me a long time ago to just play for 15 minutes a day to progress. I was shocked when I first started doing it, but it works. And it works fast.

As Iกve applied that theory to my business Iกve seen the same rewards. If you have a tight schedule, itกs actually better to work on marketing for 15 minutes a day than it is to come up with a block of hours to get a lot done.

The reason why is that a habit to make a little time a day to focus on your business keeps the ideas flowing and consistently builds your marketing muscle. Itกs also a lot easier to find 15 minutes every day than it is to find an hour or more.

Think about it. In 15 minutes you can send out some articles, work on an article or send some emails for ad swaps. All of these activities are building your exposure and your list.

Most internet marketers are part timers for at least 6 months to year depending on how much time they spend on their business. If you can go for a half hour or an hour or more a day go for it. But most newbies are struggling to put in 5 hours on weekdays while juggling a full time job and a busy family life.

The key is to pick an amount of time you know you can do. Commit to spending that amount of time every weekday with longer times on the weekend. If you can do it at the same time every day it works easier. Treat this time like itกs an important appointment with an important person. (You are an important person aren’t you? No one else will build your business.) Don’t let anything break your date with your business.

Too many folks fail because they simply don’t treat their business like itกs a business. A hobby is something that costs you money and you work on when you feel like it. A business is something that makes you money and you work on it even when you don’t feel like it. You deserve to reap the rewards that an online business brings.

The profits are bigger down the road, but treating your business with a business attitude will get you there faster. A 15 minute a day habit can build your marketing muscle and accelerate your progress.

Give it a whirl. What have you go to lose?

About The Author

Sopan Greene, M.A. is a marketing & life coach & editor of the Net Profits newsletter. Grab Your 2 FREE eBooks & a FREE report: กMillion Dollar Emailsก กHow To Start Your Own Traffic Virusก & ‘the 13 Deadly Internet Marketing Mistakes Almost Every Business Is Making…ก mail to: [email protected]

http://www.NetMarketingMastery.com

This article was posted on December 05, 2003

by Sopan Greene, M.A.

How To Beat The HomeBased Burnout Blues

How To Beat The HomeBased Burnout Blues

by: Mary Rosendale

I went to visit a friend who had quit the corporate world to start his own artbased business. This was a guy who wore, if not a suit, at least a tie and jacket to work every day for a decade. All the curtains in his house were drawn and his bed was littered with color samples, catalogs and all the assorted detritus of a homebased business. With his unshaven face and sunken eyes, he bore a frightening resemblance to Tom Hanks in ขCastawayข. He leaned over and, with a wild glint in his eye, whispered ขI haven’t taken a shower in three days.ข That close to him it wasn’t difficult to believe but I couldn’t figure out why he felt the need to tell me.

A couple of years later I got it when I too had swapped working for the man for the pleasantly unstructured life of a homebased entrepreneur. I was on my way to a Networking luncheon and slipped some dress shoes on only to find that my feet had apparently grown two sizes. My sneakers and my fluffy slippers fit just fine but they didn’t go with my little black suit. I understood then that his confession had been more than a need to share his personal hygiene issues with me. He felt compelled to share the horror of what he was becoming.

At some point every back bedroom entrepreneur has an epiphany that they might be a little too far gone along the doityourself continuum. For me it was the shoes. For my friend it was the orange water pouring out of his groaning shower head when he finally found a reason to shower.

If you’re just starting out with a homebased business and still euphoric over getting to conduct business in your pj’s or being able to take a Judge Judy break – be aware that there is a dark side. One day you, too, will run slap up against a moment of clarity when you see your formerly civilized life slipping away from you and realize that you may have taken the ball and run with it just a little too far.

It’s a tricky thing to get the balance just right. There’s so much to do in setting up and maintaining a business. And, mindful of the fact that 80% of all small businesses fail in the first year, you’re probably anxious to do as much as you can as fast as you can in order to start bringing home the goods. There are several balances to be worked out – all of them tricky. When do you outsource and when do you do it yourself? How much can you work and still have a life and a family at the end of it? What do you absolutely have to do first and what can wait? There are many excellent books and articles on what to do to set up your business. This isn’t one of them. This is about how to be as you do those things. How to be kind to yourself; available to your family and friends and enjoy life even amid the uncertainty and stress of creating your dream from scratch. How to profit the whole world and keep your soul.

So here are a couple of tips to keep you present and focused. Some are practical; some more touchyfeely. All of them useful. Six things you can do to avoid singing the HomeBased Burnout Blues.

1.Find your Purpose. This may sound pretty basic but it’s so basic many people don’t do it. Your Purpose is not the same as your goal. Your goal is what you want to do; your Purpose is why you want to do it. Your Purpose is larger and inclusive of all aspects of your life. Why do you want to do what you want to do? Why are you uniquely qualified to do it? If you don’t know this and can’t explain it to yourself how are you going to be able to market yourself? (Are you still laboring under the illusion that you won’t have to market yourself?) Your goal may be to sell $200,000 of widgets this year. But your Purpose may be to sell $200,000 of a fine quality product with such integrity and appreciation for your customers that they will provide you with return business which will in turn provide for a good living for you and your family. Once you find your Purpose write and post it everywhere. Stuff it in your sock drawer so it’ll surprise you when you least expect it. Definitely stick it on your TV. Read it every day. Don’t lose your Purpose in the minutiae of daily tasks. Don’t go unconscious to it. Everything you do is a structure to either move you towards it or away from it. Ask yourself periodically. Am I in line with my Purpose? Is playing with your kids in line with Purpose? Sure, if it keeps you sane and healthy and nourishes your family. Is watching back to back episodes of Cops in line with your Purpose? Probably not if you slump on the couch and come to three hours later wondering where the time went.

There’s an old Buddhist saying: ขIf you seek enlightenment do not waste your time by day or by night.ข Switch success for enlightenment and you’ve got a pretty good mantra for business. But if you’ve been working your rear off and you decide that some mindless TV is just what the doctor ordered to rest your brain and give you a rare treat then vegging on the couch may actually be in line with your Purpose. It’s really about whether you choose the couch or the couch chooses you.

2. Once you find your Purpose plot a road map to it. My husband and I once took a road trip which went through 8 beautiful Western states including Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Utah . I had exactly two weeks of vacation and knew when I could leave and when I had to be back. In order to get back in time we had to budget a certain minimum amount of travel time per day and there were things we wanted to do along the way. We went to AAA and, with maps of all the states we’d pass through, we plotted the best route. We also scheduled in time for detours and hiking and just lolling around. It was a great trip. Had we just set out on the fly without a plan we could have ended up stressed out hundreds of miles away from home the day before we were due back or we could have zipped through some beautiful scenery and found ourselves with time to spare in Vegas. Not an appealing possibility.

So plan the best route to your Purpose. Take your day planner or a long sheet of paper and break your day up into appointment blocks. Two hour increments work great. These appointments are not negotiable so be on time and ready to go. Make appointments with yourself to do the tasks you have prioritized. While you’re at it make appointments to clean house, do yoga and walk the dog. Write them down. Otherwise time will seduce you. These are contracts with yourself and you need to keep them with as much integrity as you’d keep any contracts with clients. No matter how much fun you’re having doing a task it should end when it’s supposed to end. It shouldn’t take on a life of its own. In fact, the more you like doing it the more structure you need surrounding it. We all like to do pleasant things that we’re good at. But they may not be what needs to be done right now. Have definite starting and ending times for your day. Make yourself an appointment for something active every few hours so you’re not sitting on the phone or computer for 12 hours straight. If you have a problem with forgetting to eat or drink enough water – schedule those too. I might schedule two hours of writing on my articles then a half hour appointment to clean the kitchen which would stretch me and get my circulation moving (and get the kitchen cleaned!). Back to the computer for answering emails and client paperwork and bookkeeping. Another hour scheduled for a quick lunch and walk in the park with the dog. Client phone sessions would be scheduled with ten minute breaks in between. Finish work at 6 PM. I could easily work until 11 PM and have done many times. But that’s not healthy and not sustainable especially as I share my life and home with others. My particular Purpose includes having the energy and peace of mind to enjoy the results of all my hard work at the end of the day.

3.Put it in writing. Put what in writing, you ask? Everything. Purpose. Ideas. Outlines. Lists. Deadlines. Goals. Studies show, by the way, that only 3% of us write down our goals. But of the 3% of entrepreneurs who do write down their goals a stunning 97% achieve them. Get this stuff out of your head and onto paper. Make it real. You’ll save energy because you won’t have to worry about forgetting things or keeping track of ideas. So find a system and run with it. Get a Daily Planner. Don’t forget to write down your Mission statement, Vision statement and Business and Marketing Plans. Look at them weekly.

4.Value yourself. Figure out your hourly rate and factor that in to every decision you make. I mean every decision. It’s great to be able to build your own website. You can save a bundle if you’re already computersavvy and there are many excellent softwares which will help you. I made my first with a program I got from my website host. I put $14.95 on my credit card, downloaded it and within minutes was working on my site. I did it myself and it looked decent. But it took me close to six weeks. I wasn’t working on it fulltime but when I wasn’t I was thinking about it. It was a lot of fun and a major distraction. There was a learning curve so I first had to learn the software then implement it. I knew nothing about color or fonts or placement or keywords or metatags. I lost time that I should have been using for marketing and in the end the whole exercise was more a character building exercise than a website building exercise. I survived and so did my site. But had I added up all the hours I worked on it (including the ขhiddenข hours when I got up at 3 AM to fiddle with it) and paid myself I probably didn’t save any money and I would have gotten a more professional looking site with a designer. When you decide whether to do something yourself or outsource it be sure to also factor in the time it takes to learn the software. This can be substantial. Add up the missed marketing and promotional opportunities and add in the stress and aggravation factor. If you want to outsource design work try a community bulletin board like Craigslist.org ( a stomping ground for many unemployed web designers). There’s now a Craigslist in pretty much every major city. Remember, too, that you don’t need to even have a web designer living in your home state unless you plan on suing them over the end product. elance.com. is also great for home entrepreneurs. You can post your project online and receive bids from vendors. Check out their portfolios; interview them and go with the right one. If you’re good with graphics and hellbent on designing your site and cards, letterheads etc. yourself set a deadline and stick to it. When I was starting out I figured out my hourly rate was about $75.00. I got in the habit of calculating how long it would take me to do something; learn the software and experiment by trial and error. I tried to factor in the frustration factor to me and the lost time to my family and other areas of my life. If I could hire a professional to do it for less I farmed it out.

5.Which brings us to money. Don’t get caught in the ขI can’t afford itข trap. You may not have much money to spend but everyone has a little. Allocate it wisely. You have to spend money to make money. Maybe this is a Universal law because it thins the herd right at the outset. If you don’t invest in yourself why should anyone else? Most of us have an ego mind which has mixed feelings about our success. One way to put a tripwire in front of what should be our stunning rush to success is to tell ourselves we can’t afford to do what we know we need to do. Then it’s not our fault if we don’t make it. We didn’t make the cut because we didn’t have the money to start our business right not because we were afraid or unwilling to risk.

If you don’t have the money to pay for something – barter it or ask for terms. Get a credit card and use it specifically for startup expenses. Getting into a little debt isn’t so terrible. If you have equity on your house take out a home equity loan or refinance it. Talk to a relative and ask them to swing you a shortterm loan. There are many organizations out there which will loan to small businesses with a Business Plan. (You do have a Business Plan, don’t you?) Try Charo. The SBA is also a great resource. Come from a place of abundance (hope) and not scarcity (fear). Assume and believe in your success. Then take the steps you need to take to be successful. There are certain elemental things you’ll need for startup. Website. Business cards. Phone line. Make a list of bare necessities and find a way to pay for them. Don’t buy or invest in anything else no matter how interesting or fun it might be until you’ve covered the basics.

6.Build a team and a support system. A one man band can usually play many instruments passably but none of them well. Find out what you do well and get help with the rest. Even if it’s only online. Find people you can network with locally. There’s probably a professional organization you can join. If not – join Toastmasters or your local Chamber of Commerce. Ask for help. Get a Coach. If funds are tight do a Google search for Training institutions for Coaches. Contact them and say you would like some pro bono coaching and ask to be put in touch with a student Coach. Most Coaches starting out need all the experience they can get and it’s difficult getting people to pay you when you don’t have a track record. In addition, if Coaches are going to go for ICF certification they need a ridiculous amount of verifiable Coaching hours to qualify. If you’re persistent you should easily find a Coach who will offer pro bono or at least a substantial sliding scale discount.

Get out of the house and rub shoulders with people who are doing what you’re doing. Ask for feedback. Do you know how many people would like to help you to succeed? Do you know how good it feels to give support to someone struggling to make something of their lives? Give your friends, and even strangers, this opportunity. Find someone you admire in your field and write or call them. Tell them you would like to be where they are. Ask if they have any words of advice. If they respond be sure to send them a thankyou letter. Then followup and let them know how their advice has helped you. Don’t fall into limiting belief scripts that they wouldn’t be interested; you’re bothering them etc. Don’t make their decisions for them. Think how you’d feel if your expertise helped someone and they took the time to thank you. You breathe the same air as your mentors.

Finally, when you hit a roadblock be kind to yourself. Setbacks can hurt. Faith in anything, God, ourselves, the future is a solitary pursuit. Keep in mind that every moment is a fresh one and carries within it the seeds of tremendous fortune and change. The next contact you make could turn your life around.

Your life isn’t wallpaper to your daily grind. It goes on whether you pay attention to it or not. Might as well be aware and alive to all possibilities. Best to stay awake if you want to reach your dreams.

About The Author

Mary Rosendale is the proud mama of The Constructed Life. A unique Holistic Coaching service rooted in Buddhist psychology and ideal for the busy, overwhelmed Western mind. Sheกll work with anyone with a pulse but particulalry loves working with women in transition; entrepreneurs and people living with ADHD or BiPolar. Design and Build the Life You Want.

http://www.TheConstructedLife.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 18, 2005

by Mary Rosendale

Five Keys To Leaner and Meaner Copywriting

Five Keys To Leaner and Meaner Copywriting

by: Robert Warren

Grab กem and don’t lose กem. Every marketer knows that one. Human beings have very short attention spans, so you can’t afford to waste your prospectกs time give them the good stuff and then let them go as soon as you can. Writing effective marketing material is all about writing crisply with just a handful of words.
Clean writing isn’t an accident, but is instead the result of the careful application of certain principles and tools. Try these five techniques for crafting leaner, meaner, more effective business copy:
Avoid modifiers. Modifiers change the meaning of other words; the most common of these are adverbs and adjectives (words that describe verbs and nouns, respectively). They’re used when the writer feels that the noun or verb needs a little something extra: ‘the shining sunก, กrun quicklyก, etc. Get rid of as many modifiers as you can and choose nouns and verbs that stand on their own.
No lazy words. Every word should be doing real work, conveying necessary information and supporting other parts of the piece. Think of your sentences as support beams and rafters in a building, and analyze the piece wordbyword: are there any nails sticking out of boards? Anything thatกs there purely for show? Anything that doesn’t strengthen your writing weakens it. Strip your copy down to its most essential parts, and throw out the words that are sleeping on the job.
Reduce it to a single sentence. Do you really know what you want to say? You might be surprised try phrasing your entire piece into one simple sentence. Can you do it, or are you insisting that your message is too indepth? Taking your point down to a single statement can give your copy new focus and clarity.
One thought per sentence. Sentences and paragraphs are different things. Avoid long, complex sentences built up of multiple thoughts. Keep your sentences to one thought each, keep them short and simple, and use your paragraphs for the complex ideas.
When in doubt, cut it out. Every writer has written the perfect sentence that just doesn’t play along well with others. Hemingway was right kill your darlings. If you can’t figure out how to ease that bit of poetry in with the rest of your marketing piece, cut it completely and don’t look back. Be merciless. Youกll be surprised how often thatกs the best solution.

About The Author

Robert Warren (www.rswarren.com) is a Floridabased freelance copywriter specializing in the unique marketing needs of independent professionals.

[email protected]

This article was posted on June 05, 2004

by Robert Warren

Is a Home Business Right for You?

Is a Home Business Right for You?

by: Jeff Casmer

Every morning as people wake up and make the commute to work, many dream of the day when they will finally work for themselves. Every time the boss lets someone know that they must give up their weekend plans for the good of the company, people contemplate the benefits of being the owner of their own business.

Are you one of these people?

If you are, it is important to ask yourself some very important questions before you make the uncertain leap into selfemployment.

Many dream of the benefits of home business ownership, but few take into account the sacrifices that must be made to bring the dream to fruition. Please don’t make this mistake yourself.

You must approach home business ownership with your eyes wide open. Ask yourself the important questions, and more importantly, answer your own questions openly and honestly.

AN IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION

Are you the type of person who relishes every chance to gather around the water cooler for social interaction?

If so, then home business ownership may not be the right decision for you.

Instead, if you feel that you can be quite content sitting alone at your desk; speaking only to clients and really minding your own home business, then you might have what it takes to succeed as a home business entrepreneur.

If you feel at ease with your own company and don’t need a dozen coworkers milling around your desk, then you, too, could savor the freedoms that will allow you and your family, to live the lifestyle you know you want and deserve.

THE KEY TO HOME BUSINESS SUCCESS

Selfmotivation is the key to success when you start a homebased business. You need to possess the ability to push yourself ahead. Your drive and determination will be reinforced with every new sale.

The level of success that you will achieve greatly depends on the time and effort you are willing to plow into your new home business. Your organization, planning and marketing skills, will all be put into practice when you embark on your liberating journey from employee, to being your own boss. In fact, you will be the wearer of many hats and gain a wealth of business experience along the way, when you finally make that commitment to work at home.

YOUR SUCCESS RESTS ENTIRELY UPON YOUR OWN SHOULDERS

You will now be the boss. Are you truly able to work independently? Do you have the drive; the tenacity, to persevere with your home based business? Will you be able to invest the necessary time to nurture it, to watch it grow and see it through, from germination to full, glorious bloom? When you’re the boss, you are responsible for the success of your home business, from A to Z, from disappointments to victory.

When you work at home, it will empower you to achieve many things you were unable to do when you were stuck working for that tyrant boss. Remember him? Heกs the guy that wouldn’t let you take time off when your baby was sick…the same guy that called you in to work on Thanksgiving Day.

A home business means that you can take good care of your family and make money from home, simultaneously. You will have the best of both worlds! Just thinkno more dirty laundry piling upyou can do it while you work. No more scurrying around at the last minute searching for a babysitter either. And no more worrying about getting fired; youกll be the boss!

IN CONCLUSION…

Stay positive and focused on your home based business, even if, when sales aren’t up to par, you get occasional negative remarks or derogatory comments from people with stuffy, deadend jobs. Ignore their cutting words and bear in mind that success is the best revenge! Keep your admirable, positive attitude at the forefront and show them what you’re made of!

About The Author

Jeff Casmer is a successful online business coach and the owner of www.24hourwealth.com

Jeff Casmer, The Wealth Guy can help you launch your very own money making website today thatกs 100% ready to take orders and pull in massive profits for you right now…guaranteed! Visit: http://www.www.24hourwealth.com/pluginprofitsite.html

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 13, 2003

by Jeff Casmer

My Own Online Business After A Divorce and Almost

My Own Online Business After A Divorce and Almost Bankruptcy

by: Maria Estarellas

When I got divorced, I didn’t know how I was going to be able to cope with my financial responsibilities which included mortgage, car, my kidsกs private school plus all the other expenses related to having a family without a husbandกs salary.

I had recently lost my fulltime job, had managed to find a parttime job, and wasn’t receiving any child support because we had joined custody.

With all this happening at once, I was desperate to find some kind of work that I could do from home so I could pay the bills.

Thatกs when I decided to look on the Internet. I looked for information on how to start an online business, web design, how to find products to sell and everything related to having a home based business. But guess what, most of the free information available talked about getting a product, promoting it and making money but they actually didn’t say how and where to find products, where or how to promote your web site and I was so frustrated that for a moment I thought about forgetting the whole thing and look for a fulltime job somewhere else.

At this point I knew that I only had one last chance at it so I decided to spend one more day looking for stepbystep information on how to set up your own home business. Luckily, I came across a very impressive stepbystep manual that taught me how to start my business online.

If you plan to start your own online business, keep in mind that you have to invest a little money. But hey, the investment is a lot less than starting any other business.

My initial investment (after having spent previously around $250 in information that wasn’t worth a penny) was $296.90. This included the stepbystep manual, autoresponder, domain, web hosting and search engines.

The basic steps to start your own business are:

1. What to look for first?…A Niche Market

Some people think that they should look for a product first and then look for customers but in reality, itกs the other way around.

One of the tools that I use for this is http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ac/index.jhtml and look in the กSearch Term Suggestion Toolก.

All you have to do is type a keyword and it will give you a list of related keywords that people have looked for during the previous month.

You may be asking, how do I know what keywords to type? Well, I recommend you start by writing on a piece of paper the answer to these questions.

What are my hobbies?

What are my interests?

What talents do I have?

Don’t leave anything out. Why things you’re interested in? Because having a home based business is not only about making money but also about having fun in the process. If you’re passionate about what you do, you will suceed.

Once you have your keywords, then you go to Google and start writing each keyword in กsearchก. You will notice numbers underneath the กsearchก box.

Just to give you an example, if you type the word กhome based businessก you will see ‘results 110 of about 13,900,000ก. To see if you found a niche market, all you have to do is do the following calculation.

Supply/Demand = Supply/Demand Ratio

In other words:

Google Results/Overture Count = Supply/Demand Ratio

Letกs say that when you looked for กhome based businessก in Overture the count was 415461 so the result is:

13,900,000/415461 = 33.45681063

The lower the Supply/Demand Ratio number is, the better because it tells you that there is more demand than supply and you will make more money with this niche market.

2. Looking for a Product

Once you identify your niche market, itกs time to look for a product.

In my case, since I don’t want to get involved in shipping products, I look for companies that once I sell the product, they will ship it to the customer allowing me to save on shipping charges and time.

Nowadays, people are looking for information on various topics. Most of internet sales are on info products that the customer can download immediately, once they pay for it with a credit card. It doesn’t involve any shipping charge and the customer doesn’t have to wait 23 weeks to receive it.

There are suppliers that have over 10,000 digital products on every topic and the best thing is that they deliver the products, and pay you commission. They issue checks twice a month.

3. Building a Web Site

Once you have your niche market and products, you need to build a web site. Since I didn’t know any HTML and didn’t have money, I looked for companies that would allow you to build your own web site at a very low price and that included some type of HTML program so all I had to do was type the information and the system would convert it to HTML.

In terms of the design of your web site, make it as simple as possible. Make sure the navigation is easy for your customers and don’t use too many pictures. Less is more. The background should be white with black letters to make it easier to read.

Don’t have too many pages. Don’t give your customer an excuse to leave your web site because it is too long or have too many pages.

Have a กsubscribe formก built in your web site. Itกs very important that you collect as many email addresses as you can because those will be your customers. Provide a free newsletter every month with useful information to your customers.

4. Writing your Sales Letter

When I read about writing a sales letter, I wasn’t sure I could write anything. To tell you the truth, Iกm not a good writer. What I learned was that if your going to write something for your web site, write as if you were writing to a friend of yours.

Be honest, write the proกs and conกs of your products. That way you establish credibility and your customers will be more inclined to buy from you.

5. Choosing a Web Hosting Company

Look for a company that gives you enough bandwidth, email accounts, and support. Look for their reliability because you don’t want to choose one that have frequent problems with their system.

6. Autoresponder

You need to set up an autoresponder because if you’re going to send information to your costumers, you don’t want to spend time writing every month and sending it to them. With an autoresponder, you can type or even copy and paste articles in advance that will be automatically sent to your customers every week or every month.

This may take you 12 hours to do but once you do it, you can forget about it for a whole year.

7. Promote Your Web Site

Iกve found that the most difficult thing to do is this, promoting. Know why? Because there are lots of companies that supposedly กguaranteeก that you’re going to get lots of hits for a fee. Most are scams. I personally don’t spend a cent buying กguaranteed leadsก.

Another thing that doesn’t work for me is กfree adsก. Most of the time, people don’t read them and because they are free, these ads are not sent to anyone.

The only ads that have worked for me are the one in Google Adwords. These are based on a กpayperclickก basis. You have to make sure that if your are going to use this method of advertising, that you set up the parameters. What I mean by this is, establish the amount of money you will spend on a daily basis so you don’t spend more than you can afford to.

During my first month doing business on the Internet, I generated $532.16 working only 2 hours a week.

The feeling of checking my account every day and discovering that I had made money was so great that I decided to look for other ways to make a bigger income.

Iกll be honest with you, it hasn’t been easy and Iกm not going to tell you that I became a millionaire in 6 months because I would be lying, but every day I search for more information and ways to make money and it feels great to be able to pay my bills and still have money to do whatever I want.

Final Thought

Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t make it. Believe in yourself.

The advantages of having an online business is that the expenses a very low, you get to have the flexibility of working the hours you want and the days you want, allowing you more time with your family and friends.

One important thing is to keep up to date on everything related to having a home based business. The Internet is changing every day and if you’re serious about having an online business, make sure you read and educate yourself.

About The Author

Maria Estarellas is a former airline manager and mother of two teenage sons. Her website was created with the modern family in mind. She provides a variety of information and fun things to do for the whole family in just one place. Upon request, she also helps people find information when they don’t have time to do it themselves. http://www.meg2.citymaker.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 21, 2004

by Maria Estarellas

Improving Your Conversion Reduces the Need to Cons

Improving Your Conversion Reduces the Need to Constantly Promote Your Sites

by: Jack Humphrey

I just got off the phone with Michael Fortin, one of the top copywriters and conversion experts on the web.

We were doing a teleseminar for our members on conversion and testing for website owners wanting more out of the traffic they already enjoy, rather than constantly having to promote their sites to support low conversion rates. Specifically, we were talking about all the things you can do to test different กcalls to action.ก

A call to action is anything you are trying to get people to do on any particular site or page of a site. It could be buying a product or service, getting people on an announcement list or newsletter, or getting people to click on your advertising links.

Most web publishers are so happy when they finally have a site up that they consider their work done and get right to marketing it. Once the traffic rolls in, they enjoy whatever sales or clicks they get and try to make more money by driving MORE traffic to the site.

Then they start building another site. And another. And another.

This is a disturbing trend that is creating a massive amount of waste. Both in resources and time. Especially when it comes to niche publishers who are building massive networks of sites on different topics in order to capture emails, generate advertising revenue, sell affiliated products and services, or to build their lists to generate backend sales to their subscribers.

The waste is generated when people are in too big a hurry to build more sites, add more products, and get more traffic to sites that can convert sometimes 1000% BETTER than they do now.

They are moving at a hectic pace, in this scenario, to build build build, when their income goals can most often easily be met without so much waste.

One example of waste is when someone builds a contentdry site that has nothing but Adsense and some links on it. People hit that kind of site and can’t wait to find a reason to leave. The thinking is, กGreat! My กclick thru ratioก is sky high! I am getting almost everyone to click on my ads!ก

But hereกs whatกs happening in reality: you are working VERY hard to get traffic to such a site, only to กburnก it on a 35 cent click! No email capture, no followup, and most importantly no desire on the part of the visitor to EVER see your site again!

Would you rather have someone come through your site and click immediately on an advertiserกs link, never to return? Or would you rather have someone come to your site, read some great content, sign up for your list and not click on ANY links that first time?

I will take scenario #2 any day of the week. And I won’t have made a single penny off of that person with that initial action. But I will in the future!

If you have a site that you constantly test and tweak for performance (beyond its ability to repulse your visitors into clicking on an advertisement just to get to a QUALITY site) then you have a real business.

You can test and track SO MANY variables to make a site more profitable than it is now. Every site on the web can perform better than it does right now. Every single one!

The people who understand this never stop testing their calls to action to get their visitors to do more than something that results in a onetime action.

Traffic is the most expensive thing on the web both in the time it takes to get it and the resources you have to use up for each and every hit.

The traffic you have now might be all the traffic you EVER need on a daily basis to make a killing with your site. You will never know until you test and track everything about your site.

The headlines, the offers, the optin forms, the guarantees, testimonials, bullets, adsense placement, followup… In short, every webmaster on the net has a lot of work to do on every site they own if they really want to reap the kinds of profits their sites are actually capable of pulling in.

Most people get a site up and are happy with the sales or clicks they get and move on. NO! You are leaving so much money on the table thinking you are done with a site right after you put it up.

That site is the worst it should ever be! Wasting another domain fee, hosting fee, bandwidth and the costs associated with getting traffic to a brand new site before you have optimized your current site for the very best conversion it can pull is NOT good business practice.

I know people who have literally thousands of domains. And one thing I can guarantee you is this: They are making a pittance, even if they are making $60,000 a DAY, in comparison to what they COULD be making with far fewer sites and more testing and tweaking of that smaller group!

And Fortin seems to agree. He is going to be at my seminar in New Orleans September 9th 11th to expose everyone who attends to just how much money they have left on the table over the years because they have never tested different aspects of their calls to action.

It is enlightening, as well as depressing to find out how much money you COULD have made all this time had you tested from the beginning!

But the point is, you cannot go back to get all those lost subscribers, sales, or clicks. You can only start testing today to capture more money from each site you own. Thereby alleviating the need to have a massive network of sites all performing at half their potential or much less!

Copyright 2005 Jack Humphrey

About The Author

Jack Humphrey is Managing Partner at Content Desk. He is also the author of Power Linking 2005, now in its 4th edition. http://www.powerlinkingprofits.com. To learn more about the profitable niche publishing industry, check out http://contentdesk.com/mardigras.

This article was posted on August 09

by Jack Humphrey

It Really Is Simple RSS

It Really Is Simple RSS

by: Tony Dean

I have กGooglebotก coming to my site every day since a month ago I put up my first news feed, since then I have put up yet another.

I never used to see กGooglebotก much before, so it goes to show that if you want to be noticed by the search engines, you need to put up a กnewsfeedก.

All this resubmitting to search engines every month nonsense is just that, nonesense! I don’t really think the search engines care for you to submit to them in the first place, I think that now they like to find your site on their own. Some pundits have claimed that nowadays to submit your site at all to the search engines is counterproductive and you should not do it. They say that there is much better value in allowing the search engines to find it via a กlinkbackก from somewhere else.

กNews Feedsก are now providing that กlink backก that every site owner needs. If you run a web site and you have still not got a กnews feedก you are being left behind in the race, first to get listed by search engines and secondly to get a higher ranking my sites ranking has gone up very much higher in Yahoo and Google, since putting up my first news feed, and guess what, it was within about 36 hours of putting up that first กnews feedก that Googlebot discovered it was there! It did not take it long! The same with Yahoo, but a little bit later, like two days after Googlebot.

กNews Feedsก are readable in a software called a กNews Readerก, these are usually free to download and use right away to look at some of the feeds that are out there. There are directories for feeds which you can visit and get some addresses of some suitable ones to read each day, some of these feeds are more like กblogsก in that, they change the contents several times a day, which gives a feed a กfresherก feel to it, and which the search engines like to see. They also would like to see web site owners refreshing there web site contents on at least a daily basis, it does help with ranking.

It has been slated that the next incarnations of browser will be กfeedก compatible, they will be reading กnews feedsก as well as viewing web sites. When this does happen the กinformation revolutionก will be really turned full on! Any one, even you, can set up a กnews feedก, it really is simple, and if you don’t set one up, you are going to be like the only person in your street who does not have television or radio, you are going to miss out on the กinformation revolutionก, big time!

About The Author

Tony Dean runs a web site at: http://www.ebooksales.com. He is author of the ebook ‘really Simple RSSก which is downloadable from his web site together with a กfeed readerก

This article was posted on September 29, 2004

by Tony Dean

How To Create A Brand That Sticks

How To Create A Brand That Sticks

by: Eileen ‘turtleก Parzek

Most people, when they hear the word branding, think logos but in fact, branding is really much more than that. A brand involves blending the image, purpose, and focus of your business, with your core marketing message, and coming up with something which will stick in the minds of people who encounter it. As a business or an independent professional, it is who you are and what you do, packaged neatly, clearly, and memorably. A logo is only a tangible representation that works to reinforce a brand.

So what kind of personality does your business have? Is it conservative and solid? Outgoing and fun? Or robust and strong? And, what is your business focused on doing? Whom do you want to work with? How does your business differ from the competition? And what makes it so special, after all? Do not try to name every special quality or unique selling point you can actually build a brand on just one unique quality! Once you can answer these questions, you can begin to create your brand. The question is what you want YOUR brand to leave behind in peopleกs heads.

Practically any business or professional can benefit from a strong brand. But branding is even more important for micro businesses and independent professionals because they face tighter competition. A well executed brand and identity can help them compete on a larger playing field, appear more professional, and stand out from the hordes of competitors.

Once you determine how you want to be remembered, your image and your message will need to communicate that. The image can simply be a consistent look used in all your correspondence, a logo that marks everything that comes from your business, and the identity you use on your web site and brochure. The message can be a tag line, your 30 second กelevator speech,ก and woven through the content on your web site.

A logo is only one manifestation of brand identity, used to create a memorable impression, but it is useless if you have not clearly defined your audience and the focus of your business. There are plenty of clearly branded businesses using only consistent fonts or colors in their marketing collateral. But whatever you decide chose one image to stick with through all your business communication, and make sure that image is professional. In other words, if you do not have the resources or finances right now to have a professional image developed for you, work with less, rather than using badly formatted clipart or a layout that makes you look amateurish or cheap. That approach can only hurt your business and your brand, so find the level that Works for you without a negative effect.

Once you determine what brand you want to create, and have developed an identity to accompany it, the work has just begun. You will need to vigilantly reinforce your brand every moment you are in business. Your brand needs to affect everything your business does, everything you and your employees say, and every bit of information that comes out of your office. Letterhead, invoices, proposals… these should all consistently promote your brand. In your voice mail, in your email sig, and every time someone says, กWhat do you do?ก your brand should come out to shine. Domain names and web site content should, again, reinforce your brand. Everywhere you use your brand with consistency, you are communicating with the voice of your company.

Be aware, though, that this does not happen overnight your brand will need to build over time. Develop a strong brand, and use it consistently, and more and more often, your brand will pop into peopleกs minds when they have a need that you can provide.

Eileen ‘turtleก Parzek (c) 2003 All Rights Reserved

About The Author

Eileen ‘turtleก Parzek is a veteran web designer and an online marketing & communications consultant who has been working from home and virtually since 1995. You can subscribe to her free monthly newsletter called Increase Your Reach: Infuse Your Marketing with Technology at http://www.sohoitgoes.com

NOTE: You’re welcome to ขreprintข this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the ขabout the authorข info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to [email protected]

This article was posted on September 05, 2003

by Eileen ‘turtleก Parzek

What Do The Olympics Have To Do With Marketing?

What Do The Olympics Have To Do With Marketing?

by: Dan Lok

Millions of people around the world tuned into the Games of the XXVII Olympiad for the extraordinary displays of physical strength and prowess offered by the worldกs greatest athletes. They weren’t disappointed.

Neither were the savvy business entrepreneurs who watched the games from Athens for insights and ideas to advance their marketing efforts.

What do the Olympics have to do with marketing, you ask?

Plenty… if you consider that the same strategies that led to victory on the track and in the field in Athens this year can also be used to bring you worldclass success in your sales efforts. Hereกs how:

A Sprinterกs Strategy Hold Nothing Back

For the short distances that sprinters cover, a burst of speed that never lets up is the winning strategy that leads to gold medals. From the instant they hear the starting gun, sprinters put every ounce of available energy into a fullout, fullspeed, nothingheldback run for the finish line.

The headline of your marketing message needs to be as explosive as a sprinterกs start… and twice as fast.

Consumers are hit with thousands of advertising กpitchesก every day. They probably ignore as many as they notice. In order for your message to hit the mark, it needs to come out of the gate strong with all the power you can muster.

Sprinters bulk up on carbs for energy to win the race. Headlines bulk up on benefits, arouse curiosity, present whatกs new, and offer a quick and easy solution to win the hearts and minds of consumers.

A Marathonerกs Strategy Pace Yourself

A runner who comes กoff the blocksก at breakneck speed and expects to go the distance in a marathon may pass competitors early on, but he/she will likely run out of steam long before the finish line. To stay in the race for 26 long and grueling miles, you need a carefully modulated and always flexible strategy

A กBig Pictureก perspective is also whatกs required to keep your business in the race for years to come.

If you model your approach on the marathoner, use shortterm initiatives to get you through ‘the first mileก (free gifts to customers) and youกll have farreaching plans to make sure that you’re still going strong at Mile 26(upselling, backend sales, etc.)

Just as importantly, youกll have a flexible approach to all your strategies. A marathoner never knows whatกs around the next corner, and neither do you. (In business, only hindsight is 20/20.) So be prepared to กgo with the flow,ก and make changes in both your short and longterm plans.

The Hurdlerกs Strategy Clearing All Obstacles

When the race starts, a hurdler needs to know in advance the obstacles that are going to come along when, where, how big so that he/she has the right strategy in place to leap over each and every one… before making the last dash to the finish line.

A successful marketer must be able to hurdle sales resistance… in every way, shape, and form.

When you craft a marketing message, you need to anticipate why a consumer might say กNoก too expensive, too risky… and then help them กhurdleก that obstacle with a bonus, benefit or ironclad guarantee.

A Relay Racerกs Strategy One Step at a Time

They say thereกs no กIก in team, and the relay race demonstrates the importance of a group of individuals working together like a welloiled machine to achieve the highest level of success. In order for the team effort to work in the end, a series of carefully executed กhandoffsก are required.

Pass the baton in your sales message with a flow of benefits and resistancekillers that seamlessly move the customer from กstartก to กfinishก (aka a purchase)

A wellcrafted sales message starts with an irresistible headline that กhands offก to a compelling opening paragraph, that in turn leads to benefitoriented lists, testimonials, ordering, instructions, etc. The key is that as each section draws to the end of its กrun,ก it passes the baton to the next section in line without every losing the consumerกs interest and attention.

The High Jumperกs Strategy Raise the Bar

Thereกs only one way to win in this event jump the highest. If your competitor jumps 7feet in the air, you must be prepared to go to 7ก1ก. You won’t be a winner if you equal your competitorกs efforts…you need to do better.

Don’t be content to be กas good asก when it comes to what you offer. Raise the bar to a new level that your competition can’t surpass.

If your competition is offering shoes at กBuy 1 pair, get a 2nd pair at 50% off,ก then you should offer กBuy 1, get 1 free.ก If the กother guyก is offering a mechanical product, then you can offer the same product but include กfree annual service call.ก

The Long Jumperกs Strategy Go Further

Long jumpers seem to defy the laws of gravity flying through space high above the ground. Like high jumpers, medalworthy long jumpers must put in the extra effort it takes to go beyond what their competitors are able to achieve. And they don’t win by miles; they win by feet… by inches… by tenths of an inch.

An extended warranty or guarantee is the best way to กout distanceก your competitor… regardless of how much further you ultimately go.

You don’t have to be twice as good as กBrand X,ก but you must be better. If they offer a 12month warranty, then you should offer 18 months. If their กfree trial periodก is 30 days, make yours 90. And don’t be worried that your กwe go furtherก offers will bankrupt you. Studies show that expanded guarantees help convince many people to buy… even though few take advantage of the guarantee.

Itกs good to know that even if youกll never be an Olympian…even if you can’t bench press 500 lbs. or run a mile in under 4 minutes…you can still กgo for the goldก by the bar… by the box… by the Brinks Truck full! Just translate what youกve learned from the sports arena to the business arena!

Copyright 2004 Quick Turn Marketing International, Ltd.

About The Author

Dan Lok is the World’s First QuickTurn Marketer, with a proven track record of selling over $ 17.3 million dollars of merchandise and services. He’s the rebel copywriter who’s created hundreds of moneymaking ads and sales letter for over 39 different industries. And now you can get inside the head of one of the world’s top copywriters without paying a dime at http://www.QuickTurnMarketing.com

This article was posted on September 10, 2004

by Dan Lok