What Is The Single Worst Mistake Most People Make

What Is The Single Worst Mistake Most People Make When Writing Classified Ads?

by: Kim Thomas

All sales begin with some form of advertising whether it’s word of mouth or printed media or even electronic. To build sales, this advertising must be seen or heard by potential buyers. It must cause them to also react to the advertising in a positive some way. Your success or failure reverts back to the ad itself. Generally, you want your classified ad to do one of the following:

Persuade the person reading your classified ad to immediately go to your website or store with the intention of buying your product or service.

Persuade the person reading your classified ad to write or send for more information about your product or service thus leaning to a future sale.

However, the bottom line in any ad is quite simple:

Do not try to sell anything when you write a classified ad.

Do not try to sell anything when you write a classified ad.

Do not try to sell anything when you write a classified ad.

Why? In the 3 or 4 little lines classified ads allowed you to write, you don’t have enough time or space to actually sell your products or services sufficiently.

What you need is to write a cliff hanger or encripted messages to entice your prospects to call or to click on so they can be sent to somewhere else where you will do the proper selling later on.

Usually an offer of free report works best.

Any ad that causes the reader to only pause in their thinking, and does not persuade the reader to act immediately, is not a highly successful ad.

The กad writerก must know exactly what he/she wants the reader to do, and if the ad does not elicit an immediate action, it is an absolute waste of time and money.

Respond to the readers subconsious mind by using strong emotional words in your headlines such as;

Discover Secret Private Sex Money Love Breakthrough Home New Free Power Revealed Magic Fear

Research reveals that these types of words in a headline instantly attract the attention because they are strongly connected to our emotions. I have tested many of those above with astounding success. A personกs unconscious mind can *SEE* and *RESPOND* to these keywords passing by fast on a screen or in a newsletter.

The secret is to target your classified ad to the audience interested in your product or service. You will be wasting your time and money if you don’t know who your target audience is.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of classified ad sites and ezine directories which are categorized by subjects and/or interests. Define your target audience and then submit your classified ad.

How fast do you scan a list of links? Watch closely and youกll see the same thing happening within yourself. Our minds somehow magically see what we are most interested in and weกll back up and say ก I thought I saw that ก and we proceed to click on that link! Our inner minds are tuned to instantly spot what we desire most at the time.

Using emotional words along with targeted keywords will make your headlines and ads pull the maximum response possible!.

Here are some more of the emotional trigger phrases for you to use in your classified ads

STOP Act now!

Send your name

All sent free to introduce

Amazing literature

FREE

Ask for free folder

Bargain lists sent free

Be first to qualify

Booklet free!

Catalog included free

Complete details free

Current list free

Dealers write for prices

Description sent free

Details free!

Extra for promptness

Act now! Don’t hesitate to discover how you too can make your sales skyrocket by exposing yourself to our high quality free or low cost advertising resources on the Internet and at the same time get your hands on this amazing formula for writing classified ads by going to http://www.salaciads.com.

About The Author

Kim Thomas is the site owner and webmaster for http://www.advertisingexposure.com. Here youกll find free or low cost advertising resources.

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 21, 2003

by Kim Thomas

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

Tips and Tricks To Getting Top Money for your Doma

Tips and Tricks To Getting Top Money for your Domain Names

by: Dayne Herren

Would you like to be that lucky person who sells their domain for thousands or even a million dollars? It IS possible to find quality domains and resell them for huge amounts of money. The time is ripe for acquiring top domains and selling them. Now that the Internet Boom is behind us, valuable names expire everyday. The best way to find these domains is to use services on the Internet such as DomainsBot to weed out the bad names. Or just check out Hot Lists on sites like Namewinner or Pool.
So what makes a กgoodก domain name? Usually short, single word domains and 23 letter .coms, .nets, and .orgs are the best. The more specific the better. These can be hard to come by but when you find them, you can almost guarantee that you can make good money from them. Once you have purchased a nice domain name, get a good appraisal of the name to get an idea of the possible worth (see AppraisalBlast.com). In order to sell your newly appraised name, you have to find a buyer. Here are your basic options for selling your domain name in a nutshell:
1. Sell it on Ebay
This is the easiest and quickest way to sell your domain name. There are several tricks to landing a good sale at Ebay. One is, start your price low. People want a bargain. Once you have received an initial bid, it will draw peoples attention to your name and create more bids. You may want to set a reserve price if you want to make sure you get X amount of dollars. When selling your domain on Ebay, make sure your domain name is in the title of the description. Also, include an appraisal to show to possible buyers the value of the domain. Keep your description short, clean, and really emphasize how important and rare your domain is. For example, if your domain is 3 letters and ends in กIก, stress how most 3 letter domains that are highly valuable end in กIก because it usually stands for กIncorporatedก. If it ends in กEก it could stand for กEnterpriseก. A little bit of marketing saavy can go a long way. I once sold the domain 0pp.com for over $200. It even has a number in it making it worth very little. But I emphasize its possible uses and potential. Also, spend the extra $1 for the Bold Listing and make sure your auction ends on a Sunday afternoon or evening. This is when most people are browsing Ebay. It will make a big difference.
2. Sell it on Domain Sites
The only sites you should even consider putting your name up for sale is on ebay.com, Afternic, or Sedo. These are the most popular and where some huge sales have taken place. The only downside is that there are high numbers of domains already for sale and usually the site will get a commission of something around 10%. There also may be a small fee to join. Appraisal Blast charges a minimal fee but no commission. Your domain will get more exposure there just because there aren’t hundreds of domains for sale. You may also have luck selling it on forums such as DomainState. The prices of sales there seem to be lower.
3. Contact Large Businesses with Deep Pockets
This approach takes some time and patience. Letกs say you have acquired a great domain name that would work great for any business in the field of the stock market. You may want to locate some of the bigger sites or businesses and make an offer to sell your domain name. Make sure the name you own doens’t have any elements that are already trademarked because you may be forced to give up the name. You may want to go on the Internet and look up current websites that deal with stocks and find ones that don’t have the greatest domain names. Make offers to these sites stating how your domain is much better and will HELP them. If you get a company to bite, the rewards are usually very generous!
In summary, selling domains for high amounts of cash depends on two key elements. First you must have a quality domain, one that doesn’t have numbers or isn’t too long. It must be clear and easily recognizable. ก.comก is the best, but even domains such as the ก.usก are gaining popularity. The second key is Marketing, Marketing, Marketing! I can’t stress that enough. You have to create a good reason for someone to buy your domain. How can THEY benefit from it. When these two steps are fulfilled, a sale is almost guaranteed!

About The Author

Dayne Herren is a domain seller and buyer, web developer, and artist.
Professional Domain Name Appraisals http://www.appraisalblast.com

This article was posted on May 14, 2004

by Dayne Herren

Market Research Means Money

Market Research Means Money

by: Jason Carr

I recently made a critical mistake in my progression towards business success: I forgot about market research. I had decided that I was going to make some money with an online store. I thought to myself, where should I start? What can I sell? After a bit of brainstorming, I picked a few things that I thought might be good to sell online. I then proceeded to start looking for suppliers. This may seem like a reasonable course of action, but it is not. It is missing a key component of any business plan.

A basic assumption for the purpose of this article is that there is competition involved with any business. Even if you make your own, unique product, similar products will compete against yours. However, the existence of competition is not necessarily bad. The fact that online retailers are selling items similar or identical to your own means that there is demand for your product. Competition is only bad for you, as a retailer, when the market is becoming saturated (or is already at that point).

Check the electronics market for a good example of this principle. Electronics go for rockbottom prices online because there are so many different stores that sell them. The difference in prices between stores usually comes down to the cost of shipping. The competition in this area is extreme. If retailers cut their prices any lower they won’t make enough to survive.

The first person who had the idea to sell VCRs online probably made a killing. Nowadays, nobody makes anything more than a buck or two per unit. For a homebased business, that’s not good enough. Today’s electronics dealers depend on volume, and very good supply sources, in order to make their money. Generally speaking, small retailers cannot sell at those prices and turn a profit.

In order to be successful it is essential that you know what you’re up against, and that means market research.

If you are selecting your products, then you need to know which stores already sell those products. You also need to know how many stores there are, how much they are charging and, if you can find out, how well they are doing. Could you sell for less (if only a little)? What are other ways you could differentiate your store from the rest?

If you already have your product, then you need to know where and how your competitors are advertising. Are they concentrated in one location? Are there good places that they have overlooked? How much is it going to cost to compete with them for prime ad space?

So, you may ask, where do I begin? The answer is Overture. Owned by Yahoo, Overture is one of the largest and most reliable payperclick advertising services. Their program can be an extremely effective, but that is something for another day.

What you need for research requires no signup and belongs to no program. There are two web tools in the Overture Advertiser Center that can be amazingly useful. The first is the Search Term Suggestion Tool. This tool allows you to look up a keyword, like ขdigital cameraข, and find out how many people searched for that term last month. Not only that, but the tool will suggest a list of related terms, like ขdigital camera reviewข, for your consideration.

The number of searches per term comes from Overture’s partners like Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista, CNN, etc. This is critical information because it tells you whether or not people are looking for your product online and, at the same time, shows you how they are searching for it. This indicates a certain demand for your product.

You may be able to judge the size of the demand, to a certain degree, by the number of searches for your terms. For example (numbers taken at time of writing and may not reflect current rates):

Digital Camera – 1,337,422 (high interest)

Used Car – 890,346

Mountain Bike – 133,553

Blender – 26,648

Bubble Gum Machine – 1,502

Chapstick Raspberry Vanilla – 25 (very low interest)

Keep in mind that users searching for ‘digital camera’ are not necessarily shopping for one. They may just want information such as reviews or feature lists. It is also good to remember that if people are searching on Yahoo and MSN, as in the case of digital cameras, then you can safely assume that even more people are searching for the same things on Google.

The second tool Overture provides is the View Bids Tool. This tool allows you to take the keywords that you found with the term suggestion tool and see how many ads there are for each term and how high the bids are (in order to be listed on top of your competition you must place a higher bid for the term you want). This tool can help you judge your competition.

For example, at the time of this writing there are 131 ads associated with the term digital camera. The top bid is 79 cents per click. Bubble gum machine has 13 ads with a top bid of 49 cents. Chapstick Raspberry Vanilla, not surprisingly, has no bids on the term which means that the top spot could be purchased for the minimum price of 10 cents per click.

After you have your information from Overture, Google is your likely next step. To my knowledge, Google does not provide any analysis tools to the general public, though information is available to registered advertisers. Despite this limitation, it is easy to find your competition on Google. Simply enter your search term and check the right side of the results screen. The first page should show the top advertisers. Checking subsequent pages will reveal the entire list of advertisers for that term.

Tip: Sometimes advertisers may be targeting your term, but not selling your product. Read through the ads and visit the sites to get a more accurate idea of your direct competitors.

The natural results (the normal, nonad results) of your search are important as well. Check those to see the top ranked sites in your market. Those sites are probably there because they employ search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. Users are much more likely to click on the natural results than they are the ads. The stores at the top of the list are likely to be well established and may represent some solid competition.

Visit your competitor’s web sites and see what they are selling. Check for site quality, organization, ease of use and amount of products sold. Perhaps they sell your product, but it is lost in a vast sea of other related merchandise. That means better chances for your niche store. Maybe their site is ugly or hard to navigate. These are points at which you could gain an advantage over your rivals. Checking other sites will also give you ideas about how to run your own store.

The third step in this process is to check out Yahoo! Shopping. Yahoo! hosts what is known as an online mall. That is, retailers setup stores with Yahoo!’s services and are then included in Yahoo! Shopping’s listings. This can be a good way to get fast traffic. For market research, it means easy access to competitor sites. On the Yahoo! Shopping main page, do a search for your product (Braun blenders for example). The results will show sponsored ads and normal listings. The sponsored ads come from Overture, so you should already be familiar with those.

The normal listings come from a combination of Yahoo! Product Submit results and Yahoo!’s webcrawler search database. What is important in this list is actually displayed just below the top sponsor listings and just above the normal listings. There should be two numbers: the number of products found and the number of stores they were found in. For ‘Braun blenders’ there were 989 matches from 76 stores (at time of writing). Those numbers give you an indication of how many stores you’re up against.

Note: If there are too many matches, the number of stores will not be displayed (ex. ‘sony dvd player’ yields 3,660 matches). Of course, numbers that high shout, ขbig competition,ข even without store numbers.

Here again you have the opportunity to scope out competing stores. The thorough researcher would get their names and site locations. This may seem time consuming, and it is, but it will help with future research.

Our final recommendation is to visit eBay. Once there, find the eBay Stores area (located in the Specialty Sites box on the homepage at time of writing). Enter your search term to see how many eBay stores are selling your product. ‘Braun blenders’ shows ten items in eBay stores (not bad compared to Yahoo!). In addition, the search may show regular listings below the store results. These results should give you some idea of the popularity of your product as well as the feasibility of selling it on eBay.

Quick Recap:

Overture (free analysis tools)

Google (ads and natural results)

Yahoo! Shopping (number of stores)

eBay Stores (same deal)

Remember, some competition is good because it shows that there is an interest in your product. Too much competition is bad because it means low profitability. The spot where you can make good money is somewhere in between (most likely on the low end of the competition scale). Unfortunately, I know of no exact way to calculate your chances of success. For those who can afford it, hiring a market research professional might help considerably with that calculation. In any case, a solid business plan built on thorough market research will certainly boost your chances significantly.

About The Author

Jason Carr is a small business owner, dedicated student of ecommerce strategy, and producer of BeginBiz, an online resource for those looking to start an internet business.

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 15, 2004

by Jason Carr

Getting Started & Making Money on eBay!

Getting Started & Making Money on eBay!

by: Lynn Terry

Click Here to hear this topic LIVE on the Entrepreneur Magazine Home Biz Show, with Guest Lynn Terry of Web Service Network: http://media1.select.net/wsradioarchive/sho_hbbiz5021903.wma (opens in Windows Media Player)

eBay receives over 1.5 billion page views per month! Over 9,000 new users register with eBay every day! This makes eBay one of the greatest moneymaking opportunities on the internet! Below youกll find Selling Tips & resources that will help you cash in on the eBay market!

Sure, I want to make money on eBay… but what would I sell??

You can sell virtually anything on eBay! From household items you would normally sell in a yard sale for pennies on the dollar, to informational products (advertising space, ebooks, books, publications, reports, etc) that don’t even require shipping!

Do some research! Choose an item (clothing, a book, electronics something specific), and see how well it has done on eBay in the past by searching similar completed auctions.

The same item may bring much higher bids in one auction than it does another… Pay close attention to the differences in their ads: Starting/Ending Time, Title or Headline, Description & Photos.

Some items, such as computers & electronics, tend to bring the highest bid when they end on Saturday night. Keep in mind the time zone differences, and try not to set auctions to end during church time or business hours on either the east coast or the west coast. Internet advertising, and informational products (which target the office worker or home business owner) might do best on a weekday in the afternoon hours. Get the idea?

Next you will want to line up the products you have chosen to sell…

Make that item SELL!

You must add good, clear pictures of your product to your auction listing! Using either a digital camera or scanner, make sure you take clear pictures that show detail.

Gain attention to your auction by making the most of the 45Character Title! For example, lets say you were selling a piece of unused software:

QUICKBOOKS PRO 2002 5 USER NEW/SEALED

Accounting Software Program for sale

Obviously, the first title would get more clicks!

Next is your description… Include everything about your product size, dimensions, brand name, etc… any pertinent details. Add extra pictures without extra cost by using a free image hosting service and simple html tags.

If you don’t know HTML, you can use a program to create it for you… You can learn some basic commands at www.HTMLGoodies.com .

Tip: If you create your description in Frontpage, Dreamweaver, or any other web design program, you can simply copy the code and then paste it into the description field on the eBay form.

Your About Me Page

Once you sign up for your free eBay account, and get ready to sell, be sure to set up your About Me page! This is the one place that you can tell all of your potential bidders about yourself, your website, and your product line. What you aren’t allowed to include in your auction description… you CAN include here! A colorful กmeก image shows up beside your eBay user name on all pages & transactions, allowing viewers to click for more information.

See these examples:

http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/hostmary/

http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/lynn%40webservicenetwork.com/

Followup & Backend Sales

Be sure that you use a signature file in all email communication with bidders & auction winners. Include information about your website, your contact information, and include a PS if you would like to bring their attention to something else they may be interested in.

Follow up with your auction winners via email and make sure that they received the item and are happy with it. Encourage them to leave you feedback, and do the same for them. This promotes confidence in future potential bidders that you are a legitimate seller.

Questions? Join us at the Vision Possible Forum!

Join Lynn Terry, owner of Web Service Network, in the eBay & Other Online Auctions Forum: What to sell, how to sell, tips and tricks to increase bids. eBay as a fulltime biz? at www.MaryGoulet.net/forum

About The Author

Lynn Terry, owner of Web Service Network, brings you the full report online at http://www.WebServiceNetwork.com/ebay.htm . Like Lynnกs Tips? Get them by email every week! Self Starters Weekly Tips will put you ahead of the game in Online Business: http://www.WebServiceNetwork.com/sswt_archives.htm

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 23, 2003

by Lynn Terry

Become An Affiliate Champion: 10 Tips

Become An Affiliate Champion: 10 Tips

by: Henry Ochoa

Affiliates programs are one of the easiest ways to make money in the internet. Small fortunes have been made for smart people who have taken advantage of this powerful marketing technique.

This tips intend to help you on your way to become a highearning affiliate champion, use it as a guideline to your success. Feel free to contact me if you need further information.

First thing first: Target your market. If you try to sell everything to everyone, you will sell nothing.

Choose the right program. Everyday you would find hundreds of new กgetrichquickก programs on the net. Avoid them! Before joining any program, do some research. Trust only programs that have been consistently paying their affiliates

Join one program at a time, stick to it. Avoid distractions joining several programs at the same time. Stay focused on the best program chosen.

Promote, promote, promote!. I cant empathize enough. Promotion is the lifeblood of your programกs success. Focus on marketing and nothing else. One easy way to promote is by joining a traffic exchange program, like traffic swarm.

Write your own classifieds ads, headlines, text links. BE CREATIVE. How many times have you seen the same old add given for an affiliate program! Stay away from the crowd.

Create a content website with a review of your affiliate program. Don’t try to sell the program, instead, give your visitors the best review you can write of the program. Make a bulleted list of benefits YOU have found on that program.

Refer to your programกs web site with a TEXT LINK. Avoid using banners. People tend to look banners as a sales pitch and doesn’t like it. People in your site are looking for information, not to buy. So give them some information. Make them want more information, then give them your text link.

Compile your own mailing list. Offer your visitor a freebie, a newsletter, a free ebook, a report… In exchange, ask for their contact info. The key here is to get their address.

Follow up with this list. Contact them at least once a week. Build trust. Make them know you and trust you.

Track your advertising results and make corrections as necessary. If the program is good, you can profit from it. Do whatever it needs to be done to achieve you goals.

About The Author

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Henry Ochoa is the owner of Super Affiliate Master Pages. The website devoted to give you Free ebooks, articles and expert advice to make YOU profit from your online business. Click here to gain advantage now http://www.freewebs.com/1dream

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This article was posted on July 08, 2003

by Henry Ochoa

Hey, Client, This Is Me! Sell With Your Writing Vo

Hey, Client, This Is Me! Sell With Your Writing Voice.

by: Cathy Goodwin

In a crowded market, clients will be seeking personality as they read what youกve written theyกll click right past pages that feel กbeen there, read that.ก They’re looking for a voice that says, กHey, client, this is me!ก

They want to know not just what you deliver but how. Will you be funny or serious? A perky cheerleader or a sardonic commentator? Will your view of life be based on กbelieve and it happensก or กwhat you see is what you get?ก

Here are some tips to add your own voice to your writing.

1. Write from the heart.

Too excited, passionate or angry to sit still? Best time to connect with your voice. Grab a pencil and scribble ideas as you jump around the room.

2. Say something new.

After forty articles on time management, your readers know about cutting projects into manageable chunks and setting priorities. Ho hum. Try กbetter than zeroก or ‘turn your life into a time warp.ก

3. Tape yourself talking to a good friend about a product.

Do your words sound different when you speak than when you write? Transcribe the tape into an article for easy reading.

4. Picture your ideal client (you do have one, don’t you?). Imagine that she is gushing about your service to a friend highly recommending you. What words does she use to describe your services? What emotions come through?

5. Cut. Then cut again. When you have to trim your piece to meet a word count requirement, notice that you’re left with the most essential words all yours.

6. Write fast. Get the words down before your inner critic has a chance to participate. Edit later.

7. Reveal yourself: family, mistakes, secret dreams. When you feel just a bit embarrassed, or feel your private persona has become more public, youกve probably just touched your audienceกs heart.

8. Be concrete not abstract.

As writing guru Natalie Goldberg would say, กItกs a geranium, not a flower.ก

9. If youกve had voice training, be especially alert to creating the bland and the blah.

Julia Roberts could hold an audience while she reads the telephone directory. Your copy has to stand alone, without dramatic oratory. Exercise 3 may not work for you.

10. Don’t be afraid to break the rules: use slang and contractions. And itกs okay to begin a sentence with กandก or กbut.ก

Just tread carefully on the rules of grammar and spelling. กYour about to head off for you’re great adventureก can be a credibilitybuster.

About The Author

Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., is an author, speaker, editor, and consultant. She helps clients who want to use writing to sell and sell what they write.

Visit http://www.makewritingpay.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 31, 2003

by Cathy Goodwin

10 Killer Ways To Multiply Your Sales

10 Killer Ways To Multiply Your Sales

by: Frank Bauer

Would you like to multiply your web site sales? Or course you would, who wouldn’t? 🙂 Then take a close look at the following 10 killer ways to multiply your sales…

1. When you make a sale, always followup with the customer. First you should followup with a ‘thank youก email.

Then, a few days later, you can followup up and as them if they are satisfied with their purchase or if they have any questions.

After a certain time, you should followup and ask them for their feedback, good or bad and possibly for a testimonial.

All your followup messages can include a small advertisement for other products you sell.

If you use a fn automated system to do this, it will not even take a minute of your time to do all the followups.

2. You could upsell to your customers. When they’re at your order page, tell them about a few extra related products you have for sale. They could just add it to their original order.

Or you can upsell your visitors from a standard version to a professional version of your product or service.

3. Tell your customers if they refer four customers to your web site, they will receive a full rebate of their purchase price. This will turn one sale into four sales.

This can be easily done placing a referafriend form on your order ‘thank youก page.

4. When you sell a product, give your customers the option of joining an affiliate program so they can make commissions selling your product. This will multiply the sale you just made.

For example… do that in one of your followup messages mentioned in the first point above.

5. Sell the reprint/reproduction rights to your products. You could include an ad on or with the product for other products you sell. You could make sales for the reproduction rights and sales on the back end product.

You could also product licenses in bulk at a discounted rate to resellers. Then they can sell it at retail price and keep to profit.

6. You could cross promote your product with other businessesก products in a package deal. You can include an ad or flyer for other products you sell and have other businesses selling for you.

This is a great way to joint venture with other businesses as it is mutual beneficial for both sides.

7. When you ship out or deliver your product, include a coupon for other related products you sell in the package. This will attract them to buy more products from you.

Of course you can also include coupon codes in one of your followup emails.

8. Send your customers a catalog of addon products for the original product they purchased. This could be upgrades, special services, attachments, etc. If they enjoy your product they will buy the extra addons.

If you create an online catalog for delivery by email (again, this is good for another followup email), I recommend to use Adobe Acrobat to create a PDF catalog.

This way your customers will be able to read it, no matter what operating system they use on their computer.

9. Sell gift certificates for your products. Youกll make sales from the purchase of the gift certificate, when the recipient cashes it in. They could also buy other items from your web site.

To do that online, you could simply send the customer a personal coupon code, that they can on to the lucky person.

10. Send your customers free products with their product package. The freebies should have your ad printed on them. It could be bumper stickers, ball caps, tshirts etc. This will allow other people to see your ad and order.

Online you could give them free versions or trial copies of your other products, together with their paid product.

Copyright 2004 Frank Bauer

About The Author

Resources:

Followup autoresponder system: Add2it AutoRespond Pro

http://www.add2it.com/scripts/autorespondpro.shtml

ReferAFriend system: Add2it ReferThem Pro

http://www.add2it.com/scripts/referthempro.shtml

Frank Bauer is the owner of Add2it.com Scripts & Services for your Web Business at http://www.add2it.com and the publisher of the More4you Newsletter at: http://www.more4you.ws

To see how he can help you, visit: http://www.frankbauer.name

Reprint rights to this article are granted, as long as it is not modified and the resources plus this signature remain unchanged.

This article was posted on September 25, 2004

by Frank Bauer

Take Your Radio Ads to the Next Level

Take Your Radio Ads to the Next Level

by: BIG Mike McDaniel

Most small businesses do not have a high powered advertising agency to produce awardwinning radio commercials for them. Most awardwinning radio commercials win for the wrong reasons anyway.

Radio commercials should sell the benefits (not features)of your business/product and should be on the same page with print, TV and billboard. A major problem in business advertising today is the lack of coordination of a campaign where all media are targeting the same message. The newspaper ad says one thing and the radio commercial doesn’t seem to fit anywhere. Wasted money. Hit ‘em with the same message across the board and you increase your reach.

Radio commercials at smaller radio stations are typically created by the radio salespeople or the announcers. In most cases, neither are trained at selling benefits. It’s your money and you shouldn’t spend it on amateurish and/or totally ineffective commercials.

The biggest mistake many business people make is letting the station staff come up with the commercial copy and finished product. When they play it for you, you can tell they really love it. They wrote it, maybe they voiced it. It’s me, me, me. They love all the fun they had making it. They don’t know squat about selling benefits.

Effective radio commercials

Remember Tom Bodett for Motel six? A great campaign, it was Tom delivering the benefit for staying at the motel with a little music in the background. Award winning. And Motel Six business shot off the charts. Benefits sell. Yet few local radio people would be comfortable with a straight voice Tom Bodett style ad. They want you to feel like you are really getting something for your money. so they produce a grand scale dud.

Here are BIG Mike’s tips for better commercials

Don’t Do It Yourself

You may be able to write it, after a little practice, but don’t get fooled into thinking you can do it better than a professional announcer. The radio people will want you to voice it because some of your fiends will tell you they heard you on the radio and you will be convinced radio works. Phooey. That’s an old way to sell ads. The high powered ad agency worked with David Orreck for several days to get those vacuum cleaner commercials to sound like onetakes.

Avoid twovoice กsliceoflifeก ads

Many are made by dragging the receptionist into the studio to play the wife or mother and the result is something that sounds like the junior high school drama class made it.

Steer clear of characterizations

The last of the great character actors on radio was Mel Blanc and he died 20 years ago. An 18 year old kid trying to sound like a crusty ol’ sea captain doesn’t get it.

Don’t try humor it ain’t funny

Remember the main reason to advertise, WIIFM, What’s In It for Me, that’s what they want to know. Sell benefits. Take a poll, no one cares about a cutesy commercial, they care about what’s in it for them. Yet, every radio station in the country has at least one wouldbe Bob Hope who thinks he can outfunny the pros. It doesn’t work. Consider how you feel when you hear one on the radio. It sure doesn’t explain why you should visit the store, unless it is to punch out the owner for being so stupid. Ditch the lame humor for real substance

90 Seconds into 30 Won’t Go.

The power of the pause is important in radio commercials. Too many radio people take you literally when you tell them what you want in your commercial and try to get it all in one ad. Instead, ask them to create several that will rotate on the air. Take your time to explain the benefits.

Don’t buy anything longer than 30 seconds

Some station price 60s double what they charge for 30 seconds, other plus up the 30 rate by 20 or 25 percent. Either way, you don’t need a 60. Make two 30s and get more exposure and save more money. Heck, if you can say the entire Lord’s Prayer in 20 seconds, you can sure sell your benefits in 30.

Ask for an outofmarket voice

These days with email audio attachments, many radio stations share voices around the country. You can get a voice thousands of miles away that will do ads only for you. In turn the station announcer who would have done your ads, does one for that station, an even trade. The exchange takes only seconds, no one does any more work and the cost to the advertiser is zero.

Be sure your radio ads sell the same benefits at the same time as your newspaper, shopper and other print and billboard ads. Plan your advertising well in advance, just like the other parts of your business.

For more about advertising, get my article กCable Ads 5 Bucks!ก Send a blank eMail to MailTo:[email protected]

About The Author

© 2005 BIG Mike McDaniel All Rights Reserved

[email protected]

BIG Mike is a Professional Speaker and Small Business Consultant with over 30 years experience,

http://BIGIdeasGroup.com

Subscribe to กBIG Mikeกs BIG Ideasก Newsletter

MailTo:[email protected]

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 05

by BIG Mike McDaniel

A Simple Ebay Money Making Trick Revealed!

A Simple Ebay Money Making Trick Revealed!

by: Dayne Herren

Let me guess, you hear of all these people making thousands if not millions on eBay and you are just completely baffled as to how they do it. Well, most of these people either sell high ticket items or sell hundreds and hundreds of specific กhotก items.

As you may know, finding items to sell on eBay can be tough and most of all, it takes time. You have to search through junk at garage sales and even thrift stores.

But what Iกm about to reveal to you will be an easy way for you to make some extra cash on eBay. It may even be enough to pay your mortgage or car payment. And best of all, it is very simple. You don’t even have to search your local garage sale or flea market for that hidden treasure to sell on eBay.

So here is what you do. First of all, you have to find a market on eBay that is buying. Take a look at expired auctions or current hot auctions. Once you find a hot subject, write up a 35 page report that gives solid content on that subject. If it solves a type of problem or explains กhow toก do something, even better. Sell your report on eBay for something around $2.99 to $5.99. Be sure to make your listing keyword rich so it gets viewed but the right audience.

Now, here is the part that may earn you even MORE money AFTER the sale of your report. If you haven’t heard of กaffiliate marketingก, then you are missing out! In a nutshell, affiliate marketing means that you sell someone elses product, and you get a percentage of the sale. There are multiple places you can sign up to start promoting other peoples products. A couple big ones that come to mind are cj.com, Linkshare.com, Clickbank.com and even Amazon.com. When you sign up, you find a product you want to promote, and then you you can pick either text links or banner ads to promote the product. When someone buy from that link or ad, you get paid. Plain and simple.

If you really want to make SERIOUS money on affiliate products, I would highly recommend you pick up your own copy of Rosalind Gardnerกs Super Affiliate Handbook. She makes over $400,000 a year just by selling other peoples products! She will show you exactly what to do to make great money. Go to http://dayne.us/affiliatehandbook.html and grab your copy.

The key to making more money off your report is to make sure you put in affiliate links within your report. I wouldn’t use more than two. I would advise using text links, that way you can blend them within the report text. Once you create your text links, they will be long, so go to www.tinyurl.com. This is a great site that can shorten the link for you.

Once you have your affiliate links shortened, blend them in within your report and hype them up a bit to promote the sale. But don’t overdue it. If you push it too much, people will realize that you are just trying to make a sale.

Lastly, when your report is complete with content and links, make sure you put in PDF format. If you don’t want to write the report yourself, just go to Elance.com and find someone who will write it for you. For a small report, it should only cost you around $20$40. Remeber, you can sell this report over and over again on eBay and you have exclusive rights to it!

Thatกs it! Now, you have the opportunity to make $5.99 from one sale on eBay and maybe even MORE with your affiliate links…and you didn’t even have to go hunting for items to sell! Just think if you get 10 reports selling on eBay. The profit potential can be huge!

About The Author

Learn how you can make THOUSANDS of dollars a month by selling other peoples products at http://dayne.us/affiliatehandbook.html.

Dayne Herren is a freelance artist, writer, and online marketer.

This article was posted on April 20

by Dayne Herren

Making Money On eBay Can Be So Simple, Just Let So

Making Money On eBay Can Be So Simple, Just Let Somebody Else Do All The Hard Work For You

by: Ian David Major

OK, so youกve been bitten by the eBay bug!

Youกve ransacked the attic, the basement and every other room in your home to find things to sell on eBay.

When friends and neighbors ask you where everything has gone, you tell them that you’re going for the กMinimalist Lookก.

Youกve attended every Yard Sale in the area and some a lot further away.

Now your garage is so full of junk your thinking of having a yard sale of your own, but whats the point, youกd only buy it all yourself to sell on eBay.

You love eBay and you’re determined to make a good living from it.

So things will have to change.

Youกve sold all of your unwanted belongings.

Visiting Yard Sales is taking up all of your spare time and your income from eBay does not match the effort you’re putting in.

What you really need is someone who will:

Give you access to a product that has a good profit margin.

Stock that product for you.

Mail the product to your customer when you make a sale.

Sounds like a tall order doesn’t it?

Yet this exactly what you get when you use a wholesaler who also dropships.

Dropshipping

So what exactly is Dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a way of selling and distributing products whereby the supplier of the product (the dropshipper)sends the goods directly to the end user (your customer) on the retailers behalf (thats you).

OK. So instead of constantly trying to find items from yard sales etc you simply study a list of Dropshippers and decide what product or products you would like to sell on eBay.

Quite often the Dropshipper will supply you with all the sales material you need to create your eBay Gallery Picture and eBay Sales Page.

The dropshipper stocks the product so you don’t have to.

You put your chosen product up for sale on eBay, somebody buys it and eBay provides you with the buyers name and address. Now you simply contact your dropshipper and give them the name and address of your customer and the details of the product they have bought and the dropshipper will deliver it to them.

At this point you pay the dropshipper for the product.

The great thing here is that you got payed by your customer before you had to pay the dropshipper.

So your customer pays you the retail price for your product, you pay the dropshipper the wholesale price and you keep the difference as your profit in addition to saving time and effort.

Dropship Directories

Go to your favourite search engine and type in Dropship Directories and you will find that there are dozens and dozens of them to choose from.

A word of warning here. Most of these directories are a waste of time, a waste of money or both.

Quite often what you will receive, should you buy one these directories, is a list of กMiddlemenก not true wholesalers.

I don’t need to emphasise that you will make more money if you by direct from the wholesaler.

My first recommendation is to thoroughly check out any Dropshipping source that you might be interested in.

For example.

Can you find the product cheaper via another Dropshipper?

Are their postage and packing charges reasonable?

Do they carry ample stock of your particular choice of product/s?

(Thereกs nothing worse than selling an item only to find that your Dropshipper is out of stock and you are unable to provide your customer with the product they have paid for).

My second recommendation would be to check out the Dropshipping Companies at:

http://www.worldwidebrands.com

To sum up.

Don’t Stock It.

Don’t Mail It.

Don’t Pay For It, Untill You Have Been Paid.

Leave it to the Dropshippers to do that for you!

So the next time you’re looking for something to sell on eBay, give some thought to using Dropshipping as a way of making you’re eBay experience a whole lot easier and a whole lot more profitable.

About The Author

For 12 Killer Dropshipping SECRETS for eBay Sellers visit: http://www.ebayarticles.com/12KillerDropshippingSecrets.html

Ian D Major is the creator of www.eBayArticles.com, the one stop resource for information, reports and articles about all things eBay.

To subscribe for free to eBayArticles and get Articles, Reports and Bonuses delivered to your inbox weekly, just send a blank email to: [email protected]

CopyRight 2005 Ian D.Major

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 05

by Ian David Major

DropShipping – A Great Way Of Making Money Online

DropShipping – A Great Way Of Making Money Online

by: Nowshade Kabir

Using the Internet to sell products and services to ever increasing number of net users is a good way to start your own business. If you are not taking advantage of this great opportunity you are just missing the boat! Consider this: ecommerce, contrary to popular believe, is thriving and increasing at a double digit growth rate. According to Jupiter Research, Online sales during this holiday season in United States are expected to reach $21.6 billion, a 19 percent increase over the same period last year. Jupiter also predicts in the report that 86 million U.S. residents will make holiday purchases online this year compared to 73 million last year, which is an 18 percent increase.

No doubt that this is the right time to get into online business. Building a website for selling products or services is no longer that difficult. You can make your own website by using available sophisticated but easytolearnanduse programs like Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft Frontpage, Adobe Go live, etc. There also exist various online web store builders similar to Rusbiz.com, which allow you to create powerful web stores using simple editors and numerous templates. You can also setup a store with Ebay and sell products through it. Finally, you can hire professional web designers to develop your website. So, the important question isnot how to get online, but what to sell on the Internet?

In one of my articles – What to sell on the Internet? (http://ezine.rusbiz.com/archivenews.html?nl_oid=19) – I wrote about selling information products. Although this is an interesting concept, you might think that this is not your cup of tea; and you still prefer to work with some tangible products. In ideal scenario, probably, you want to sell a product of your choice but don’t want to carry your own stock and don’t want to handle the shipping. Is there a way of doing this? Yes, there is! It’s called ขDropshippingข.

What is dropshipping?

When a manufacturer, wholesaler, distributor or importer, after receiving an order from their retailers, individually pack and deliver the product to the customer of the retailer with retailers address as shipper, this selling technique is called dropshipping.

The advantages of dropshipping include:

You do not have any inventory. So, there is no stock carrying expense involved.

You pay for the item only when it is sold and you got paid from your customer. You don’t need to invest money in buying the product.

You can sell just one item at a time. No minimum quantity required.

Your dropshipper will supply you with necessary product image and specification. You don’t have to spend money on creating your own.

You fix your own selling price of the product. Convenient, when you know your niche market well.

You can offer various products on your web store from multiple suppliers.

Select a product to sell

Once you decided to go with dropshipping you need to find products to sell and find dropshipping suppliers for those products. According to the same report from Jupiter following are the most favorite categories for online shoppers: Books – by far the most popular category, after that comes clothing and shoes, music, toys, video tapes and DVDs, gift certificates, consumer electronics, accessories, videogames, bed and related items, and bath items. You should also consider that this year, total Internet sales of consumer electronics are expected to rise 32 percent to $7.5 billion, making it the fastest growing group among all retail sales categories online.

The market research wizard developed by Worldwide Brand Inc. is a great tool, which shows in a probability scale whether it is worthy trying to sell your selected product online or not. You can find it over here. (http://www.worldwidebrands.com/?8188)

Locate dropshipping companies

After selecting the product the next step is to find a reliable dropshipper for it. This might not be an easy task! The things that you should look into a dropshipper are the followings:

A reputable supplier with dropshipping experience

Ready to ship one item at a time

Do not ask for any membership payment

Will use your name as shipper

Will enclose blank invoice or invoice from you

On the packaging there will be no indication that they are the supplier.

You might think that the easiest way of finding a dropshipper is just to buy one of the numerous lists on the Internet for sale. I won’t recommend you to use them for number of reasons. Often, these lists are outdated or carry wrong information. Even if you find the companies through the lists, since many people use these lists, you get into fierce competition for market share not even starting to sell.

Use the following approach instead:

Online search

The first step is, naturally, to use the search engines. Using various combinations of the keywords of your product with words: manufacturer, wholesaler, dropshipper, dealer, see if you can find the original source of the product.

If several online retailers are already selling this product, do some detective works! Check out the sites thoroughly. May be, you can find a clue, which will help you track down the supplier.

If it is an imported product go to the sites like Alibaba, ecplaza, Rusbiz, tradeindia. Locate the manufacturer and get in touch with them to find who you should contact in your country to retail sell their products. If the product is manufactured in North America, the best source to find them is Thomas register.

Trade exhibitions

You should definitely attend the trade shows related to your category of products. This is an easy way to find a number of suppliers, who might be willing to work with you.

Trade magazines

Trade journals and publications are also a good resource for finding suppliers of your products. Although, you might have to go through a sizable quantity of them before you stumble on the right supplier.

Conclusion

Dropshipping has some inherent drawbacks too. The biggest of them is you have to totally rely on the dropshipper to fulfill your order and get the product to your customer on time. The others are: you don’t have any control over the price or availability of the product. However, a good dropshipper cares for his reputation since his business depends on retailers like you. That’s why you have to be very careful in choosing the right dropshipper.

About The Author

Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present CEO of Rusbiz.com. A Ph. D. in Information Technology, he has wide experience in Business Consulting, International Trade and Web Marketing. Rusbiz is a Global B2B Emarketplace with solutions to start and run online business. You can contact him at mailto:nowshade[at]rusbiz.com, http://ezine.rusbiz.com/archivenews.html?nl_oid=47.

This article was posted on November 15, 2004

by Nowshade Kabir