PPC Management: When To Give Up On A Loser

PPC Management: When To Give Up On A Loser

by: Dave Brown

Pay per click (PPC) advertising can be a dream come true. You can get traffic almost immediately from some PPC search engines. And it can be mighty cheap too. Next to joint ventures, PPC search engines have been responsible for most of my online income. Iกve gotten some great returns on PPC campaigns. And I know other people who have too.

Right now, I have one PPC campaign thatกs making me $56.69 for every $1 I spend. I know, thatกs pretty incredible. And itกs not typical. But I have another thatกs making me $8.84 for every $1 I spend. Yet another makes $7.73 for every $1.

But I have other campaigns that have lost me money. Making money, instead of losing it, with pay per click search engines involves wise management. There are many different factors that decide whether youกll be in the red or in the black. And you need to be aware of what these are.

In fact, there are times that even the best management of your PPC campaign won’t save it. Some of them will be losers and thereกs nothing you can do about it. But you need to know when to decide that you have a loser on your hands. At what point should you bury it and move on?

There are a number of different factors to consider. Thereกs no simple answer. I can’t tell you to simply abandon your PPC campaign after 200 clicks without a sale. Or to quit after youกve lost $50.

First of all, you need to know how much your profit will be on each sale (before advertising costs). For example, if you’re selling your own product for $47 through Clickbank, then youกll make $42.48 on each sale after Clickbank takes their fees.

But if you sell someone elseกs product for $47 through Clickbank, and you get a 50% commission on each sale, then youกd only get $21.24.

But you need to know even more than that. You also need to decide how much of that $42.48 (or $21.24) you’re willing to spend on advertising. In other words, whatกs the least you’re willing to earn on each sale? This will determine how much you can afford to spend on advertising.

Letกs assume you make $42.48 per sale. If you decide that youกd be happy with a $20 profit, then you can spend as much as $22.48 to make each sale.

So now you know what your advertising budget is. Next, estimate what your conversion rate will be. If this is a brand new product you’re promoting, then you may have no idea. In those cases, I tend to use 1% as a rule of thumb. That means that 1 out of every 100 people that visit the site will buy. Letกs use 1% for our example here.

So if you’re willing to spend $22.48 to make each sale, and you expect to make one sale out of every 100 visitors, then you can afford to spend 22 cents to get each visitor to the site. This means that you can afford to bid 22 cents on each keyword on the PPC search engines (max).

At this point, you can go ahead and set up your PPC campaigns. Find your keywords. Place bids. I won’t cover these issues right now because they’re off the topic. The purpose here is to know when to drop your campaign because itกs a loser.

Now, just because you *can* bid 22 cents on each keyword, it doesn’t mean you should. You should bid as low as you can to get good traffic (whatever you consider *good* to be).

In our example, letกs fast forward. Imagine youกve already gotten 150 clicks, and your average bid has been 22 cents a click. So youกve spent $33, and you haven’t made a sale yet. Should you ditch this campaign?

No. *On average* you can spend $22 per sale. But thatกs an average. Which means that sometimes youกll spend more, and sometimes less. And if your conversion rate is 1%, then thatกs also an *average*. So don’t freak out if you haven’t made a sale after 150 clicks.

When you decide to drop a campaign though, make the decision based on how much you’re spending on it. Not the conversion rate.

When I first start a campaign, Iกll often wait until I spend at least double my advertising budget with no sales before I consider dropping it. Maybe even triple my budget if Iกm emotionally attached to it. 😉

But if I haven’t made any sales by then, Iกll usually stop the campaign. However, you may want to wait longer if you’re willing to spend more money to see if it works. I think Iกm probably more of a conservative.

At any rate, I *rarely* end a campaign before I get 300 clicks. 300 is typically the minimum number of clicks before I feel I can judge whether a campaign will pay off. And I will generally only end it then if Iกve had *zero* sales.

Sometimes, though, youกll make a quick sale and get excited. But then you see few or no sales after that. If you find that you’re consistently spending more than your budget for the first few sales, then get ready to end it if you don’t figure out how to make it better.

I want you to realize, too, that when you bid less on your keywords, you can afford to live with a lower conversion rate. But when you bid more, your conversion rate has to be higher to provide you with the profit you want.

Iกve only talked about *starting* a PPC campaign so far. But sometimes, you may have a PPC campaign thatกs paying off, and then it starts choking and gasping for air after a while.

In that case, you need to decide when to pull the plug and retire it. Otherwise, it may eat up all the profits youกve already made.

Iกll usually be more lenient in this case. Since the campaign has made me money in the past, Iกm more likely to give it the benefit of the doubt and keep it running. I don’t know if thatกs a good idea or not. But sometimes, itกs just hard to say goodbye to an old friend. After all, maybe itกs just a temporary downturn.

But you still have to cut it off at some point. If I find myself breaking even (or even losing money) on each sale for any length of time, then Iกll start thinking about ending the campaign.

In our example here, if you notice that youกve been spending $45 per sale lately, then start thinking about the future of this campaign. Try to figure out whatกs changed and see if you can fix it.

How long should you wait before you abandon it? Two weeks? A month? Ten sales? A hundred sales?

Itกs completely dependent on your situation. If you make 20 sales a day, then obviously worrying after only 20 sales is unwarranted. On the other hand, if it takes you 4 months to make 20 sales, then maybe you shouldn’t wait quite that long. Listen to your gut.

In the end, be aware that PPC management is not a rigid science. You have to use a certain amount of judgment. But try not to be emotionally attached. If a little voice in the back of your head is telling you that you’re spending too much for too little, then listen to it.

What Iกve given you here are guidelines based on my own practices. Iกm sure there are other people who do it differently and are also successful. But these strategies work for me. And Iกm sure you can adapt them to work for you.

About The Author

Dave Brown is a selftaught marketer and software developer. He also publishes the uncommon and uniquely original newsletter on making the most of your life A Fresh Perspective. You can learn more at

http://www.davebrown.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 23, 2004

by Dave Brown

Can I Advertise My Site with a $150 Monthly Budget

Can I Advertise My Site with a $150 Monthly Budget?

by: Brian Roe

Assuming all other bills are covered; web hosting, list building, affiliate programs, your own ezine, etc., you only have $150 a month to spend specifically on advertising. What are the best ways to stretch that dollar to its fullest potential? Glad you asked.
You will find article after article endlessly covering six free ways (except for one) to advertise. They include: Submitting articles to directories, submitting your ezine (which you need to have) to directories, exchanging links, posting in forums, announcement lists, and pay per clicks. This is not another one of those articles. To read one, go here http://www.cerebuswebmaster.com/ onsite/newsletter/issue4.html (Scroll down to ขA Crash Course in Website Promotionข).
Some of these ideas listed below are free, while some require an investment. With a limited monthly budget (and even without one), research before you spend anything, to make sure your money will be doing exactly what you want it to. Keep track of all expenses in real time, and when the funds run out, stop until next month.
The best way to compensate for lack of money is a lot of time. Think of time as your reserves. Since you do not a have a lot of money to spend, you need lots of time to research, plan, and execute. Until you have made enough money to use other forms of promotion, time is your greatest asset.
Free Ads
There are numerous websites that have free advertising (of course, they want you to upgrade for a fee, but the free version works just fine), and each has their own way to advertise to others. Most of them use some sort of credit system. Five are listed here.

www.trafficswarm.com
www.BannersgoMLM.com
www.MyViralAds.com
www.donttouchmyads.com
www.webdawg.com

Paid Ads
The problem with the free advertising sites is that they promise visibility, but not necessarily traffic to your site. At www.trafficaccount.com, you pay between $1.99 and $3.99 per one thousand visitors.
Classifieds
If classifieds are more your forte, www.qualitybooks.com/tenad.htm lists the best websites to place your classifieds for free. However, usually they are not as popular as the paid ad sites.
If you are going to spend money at a classified site, do your homework before you pay. Many free foralls are only visited by people placing ads and not seeking them. When researching, find out how many hits it gets, make sure your ad stays on the page and will not be pushed off when other ads come in, and that there is some worth to the site and not just inundated with ads. Visitors quickly leave websites with nothing offer.
You can always post classifieds offline, too. Some newspapers will not charge for the ad if the item you are selling is under $100.
Signatures
Including signatures in everything is an often overlooked tool to promote your website to your network of friends and contacts. On every e mail you send, forum you post in, sheet you fax, or article you write, at the very least always include your business name and website, and maybe a promotional tagline. Giving your address and phone numbers makes you look more legitimate to potential customers. The trust factor between business owners and consumers can make or break your online business.
Writing and Branding eBooks
Depending on your business, this may take some adapting to fit your personal business mold, but many people have made a lot of money by writing an ebook that promotes the heck out of your service, and giving it away to as many people as possible. Befriend other online capitalists that can promote and your book to their list. Submit your ebook to websites with free ebook directories.
You could also find ebooks with subjects or information that is very close to your niche or product. Read them, and if you can find a way that your product would benefit the reader of that book, pitch your product to the author, and if he agrees to include your product in an updated version of the book, split the profits of the traffic that came through the book.
WalkThru Tool
If designing your business model or even promoting your business lacks structure and coherence, the Marketing Dashboard ($59.95) at www.Getitgoing.com organizes everything for you. From your marketing vision to your profit plan, stats tracking and task organizing, it keeps your business plan focused.
Web Toolbar
This is more for the traffic you have already achieved. Give away a web toolbar (which can be made at www.webtoolbars.com) that is tailor made to promote your business. It allows you to inform anyone that downloads the toolbar of updates to your website, new products you have to sell, forum topics, etc. This will keep people from forgetting about your website and makes them much more likely to visit again. The Basic is $5 and the Pro is $45.
Advertising Offline
Many online entrepreneurs forget that advertising offline can be just as powerful as online. Never miss an opportunity to plug your business. You never know who you might bump in to. Definitely invest in some business cards. You can also purchase magnetic signs to place on your car, fliers to pass out at high traffic areas (be it people or cars), rubber stamps for all your letters. The possibilities are endless. You can buy all of these products at www.iprint.com.
As you can see, there are still many avenues to promote your site very cheaply. Most of these are free, and none of the above have residual costs. As your business slowly makes more money, you can eventually start placing welltested ads in extremely hightraffic sites. Until then, use these ways to get your feet off the ground.

About The Author

Brian Roe publishes Profitable Net Marketing, an innovative and informative newsletter full of helpful hints, opportunities, and time saving tools to help support YOUR home business. For a FREE subscription, check out http://www.profitablenetmarketing.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on June 23, 2004

by Brian Roe

How to Win the Advertising and Promotion Game

How to Win the Advertising and Promotion Game

by: Stone Evans

I am certain that, as a business owner, you have often entertained the question as to how much to spend and where to spend your advertising dollars. For most small business owners, these questions can add to the headaches suffered in the course of normal everyday operations of their business.

THERE ARE NO SIMPLE ANSWERS

The how much to spend and where to spend it questions have no easy answers.

Depending on your type of business, many people suggest that the *how much* should be equal to anywhere from 4% to 10% of your gross receipts.

The quandary is that a business cannot survive without a fresh flow of incoming customers. But, a business can seldom generate a fresh stream of customers without spending money to get the word out about their business.

THE CHALLENGE OF DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE ADVERTISING

Have you ever paid for advertising and sat back to await the fresh flow of customers, only to find yourself sitting and sitting and then sitting some more?

Don’t feel bad about that. It has happened to many of us before.

See, knowing where to spend the advertising money is not enough to get the job done.

Where to spend the money only begins to highlight the other issues connected with advertising:

Marketing Plan

Advertising Strategy

Headlines, Ad Copy and Visual Presentation

Tracking the Success of Your Advertising Campaigns

THE MARKETING PLAN

The Marketing Plan is used primarily to identify your own products and services, costs, strengths, weaknesses and the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.

To learn more about constructing your own marketing plan, visit the Small Business Administration website for a comprehensive study of the elements of a Marketing Plan:

http://www.homebusiness.com/nav/articles/links/sba_plan.html

ADVERTISING STRATEGY

It is important to understand what you expect to gain from your advertising.

Do you simply wish to get your name known so that when your customer will need you, they will think of you first? Or, do you wish to get your customers in your front door on Saturday?

Do you want your customers to come in and take a look around to discover the next object that they cannot live without? Or, do you want them to come in and buy a specific widget?

Do you hope that enough people will come in to buy enough products or services to pay for your single ad? Or, do you expect to gain a lifelong customer who will help pay for your advertising over the course of several years?

When you know what you want, then you will better understand just how to do it.

HEADLINES, AD COPY AND VISUAL PRESENTATION

You might be surprised how many business owners put out advertising without regard for the quality of the sales pitch or presentation. The quality of your distribution outlet or the amount of money you spent to get there will do little for you if the advertising vehicle is a junker.

Test all of your advertising materials in smaller markets before blowing your advertising bank roll on it. You must absolutely know the value of your advertising before putting large sums of money behind it.

TRACKING THE SUCCESS OF YOUR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS

Tell your customers to save another 10% when they tell you they heard or saw your ad in suchandsuch location. Suggest that they can register to win a free widget if they fill out a form and have them to tell you how they heard of your business. Advertise a specific widget in your ad and track the sales of that widget.

It does not matter how you track your advertising just make sure you do it!

IN SUMMARY

The ideal way to spend your advertising budget is to buy a rifle with a highpowered scope and to only shoot your targets in the light of day.

If you are not tracking your advertising, then you are shooting a pellet gun without an attached scope, with blinders on, and shooting in the dead darkness of night.

Even with a bigger gun, the blinders in the dark constitute the single largest mistake made by advertisers. If you are unable to track your advertising to learn what is working well, what is working somewhat, and what is a money pit, then you are condemned to repeat your mistakes over and again.

By relying only on gut instinct, you may be choosing to spend more money in the money pit and to lose all of your money in the process.

When you get down to the nuts and bolts of making money from your advertising, you should plan, prepare, track and study your results. You must have factual information on which to base your advertising decisions. When you are making the right advertising decisions, then making money from your business might just come easy.

Copyright 2004 Stone Evans

About The Author

Stone Evans has helped thousands of people all over the world start their own home based business on the Internet. You can now find everything you will ever need to start, run and grow a home business at: http://www.HomeBusiness.com

This article was posted on March 18, 2004

by Stone Evans

Using Your Controllable Advantages

Using Your Controllable Advantages

by: Kevin Bidwell

Good news: You can beat your competition.

You can beat them, even if they were there first, have more money and are king of the hill right now.

How can you beat them? You can beat them by taking charge of your กcontrollable advantages.ก Hereกs how you can do that:

1. Work harder than they do.

People are lazy. One of the reasons your competitors got into web business in the first place was so they could ‘relax.ก

Well, don’t relax. Instead, pour your energy into your business. Spend your time really working, not just goofing around. Most of them are only spending 20 hours actually getting anything accomplishedthe rest of their time is spent chatting, กsurfingก or in other nonproductive activities.

2. Work smarter than they do.

In addition to working harder than the competition, you can also take time to become an expert. Read the best resources on marketing your products.

For example: You have been hearing me talk a lot lately about Brad Fallonกs search engine techniques. Brad is a regular guy who simply applied his knowledge and in just a few months built a store generating over $100,000 per month in sales.

(You can get the full story on Bradกs techniques here: http://www.AllInOneBusiness.com/seresults )

3. Use leverage.

If you want to make $100 an hour, don’t spend time doing everything yourself. Instead, hire someone to answer your phone and sort your emails. Spend your time doing the one thing that actually makes you money: Marketing your site and products.

If you want to make $150,000 per year, you have to be spending 30 hours per week doing $100/hour work. Refuse to do things where you can hire someone to do it for you.

4. Make Weekly Progress.

Most of your competitors have made their week routine: They answer the emails, send out the products, maintain their site.

You need to make sure all these get done (see #3), but you also need to do one more thing: Move ahead. Set a goal to create a new product, explore a new marketing channel, make a new affiliate connection.

And then progress in that area every week.

You can beat your competitionyou just need to do the things they aren’t doing.

For more ideas on how to beat the competition dayin, dayout, see these resources: http://www.AllInOneBusiness.com/recrec

Copyright 2004

by Kevin Bidwell

AllInOneBusiness.com

About The Author

Kevin Bidwell is owner of http://www.allinonebusiness.com

Kevin is offering a FREE BUSINESS STARTUP KIT to everyone who visits his site. If you liked this article, you will want to subscribe to his newsletter. To subscribe visit: http://www.AllInOneBusiness.com/subscribe

This article may be reprinted for use in newsletters and websites provided that this information box is kept intact. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: [email protected]

This article was posted on August 04, 2004

by Kevin Bidwell

In Internet Marketing You Must Have a Strategy

In Internet Marketing You Must Have a Strategy

by: Linda Quinones

When you make the decision to start an Internet business or for that matter any business you must have a plan (strategy). This is essential in order to succeed.

You don’t throw a dart at a list of possible business opportunities and settle for the one where the dart lands.

It must be a well thought out decision and plan on how you are going to make money in the business, if you read all the hype out there that tells you all you have to do is spend a couple of bucks, get a website and lay back and watch the money come in think again.

First don’t spend any money on those fancy internet ads telling how they guarantee you that the money will start rolling in as soon as you buy the software they are peddling.

There is a lot of good software out there, but if you are somewhat technically challenged, spend some time doing research the time spent will save you money and aggravation.

Remember the old saying haste makes waste, so take your time and read as many articles as you can on what exactly it is that you want to do.

The Internet is loaded with information on Internet marketing some very good and some not so good, so spend some time sorting the information out.

If you have expertise in a particular area and there is room for one more then start formulating a plan. Companies without a plan will either fail or develop one in midstream. It’s preferable to have one from the beginning in order to measure your progress and see if everything is going according to plan.

The plan must be flexible and allow you to change directions as you go along, as you gain experience your will want to make adjustments.

BUILD YOUR OWN WEBSITE.

First step should to get a website with your own domain name, many people get involved in MLM’s to avoid doing the work.

That is the lazy men’s way to go, having your own website is a must, it allow to track the traffic and see where your customers are coming from.

If you are paying for business you want to make sure your money is being well spent, you are in business to make money.

SELECT YOUR BUSINESS.

Determine what type of product(s) you want to sell, if you are going to have different type of stores the select a mixture of well know stores and lesser known ones.

The well known names usually pay a smaller commission than the less known counterparts. You need the high paying stores to carry the low paying ones.

This will allow you to offer incentives to Businesses and other customers you want to make regular visitors to your site. KEYWORDS.

Keywords are extremely important to your business plan, after all you want customer to be able to find you when searching by keyword.

So use every conceivable combination possible to allow for different variations and misspelling. When someone types into the search engine a product, you want to be found.

GET LINKS.

Have linking strategy reciprocal linking is an important part of page ranking with search engines, reciprocal linking is another way of getting traffic from other sites that are similar to yours.

Links coming into your site will go a long way in optimizing your site, but don’t pay for links, some of the link farms out there with thousands of links will not do anything for you.

PAY PER CLICK.

Pay per click is the quickest way to generate traffic to your site.

Develop a strategy to have your customer willingly provide their email address so that you can inform them of money saving promotions by the affiliates.

Once you have developed a large enough mailing list this will provide you with a steady source of potential repeat customers.

If you don’t promote your site nobody will come so advertise your site and entice people to come and spend some money.

Visit www.shopshopshop.org

About The Author

Linda Quinones has been active in promoting her own site while trying to help others to succeed in the Internet marketing field. Previously she was involved in the financial sector for several years. Her website is: http://www.shopshopshop.org.

This article was posted on August 05

by Linda Quinones

How to Buy the Right Digital Camera

How to Buy the Right Digital Camera

by: Kathleen Wade

When buying a digital camera there are many things you should consider. First you should understand how a digital camera works. What you are using your digital camera for will help you decide what features to consider and how much you should spend. I am here to educate you and help you decide.

Let’s start with understanding how a digital camera works. A digital camera uses semiconductor chips instead of conventional film. It’s usually a Charged Coupled Device (CCD). When your shutter opens, light strikes the CCD, temporary electronic changes to the CCD and converted into computer language and recorded on either internal or removable memory. After which the images can be viewed on a small screen located on the back of the camera. Later, then of course downloaded to a computer. Did that make sense? It probably didn’t if this is your first time buying a digital camera. Let’s move on.

Today there are endless cameras to choose from. You obviously have a price range in mind. If you are mainly using it to exchange snapshots over the internet or for creating quick and simple advertising, don’t expect to spend more than $500.00. If you want some control over creation and images, expect to spend between $600 and $2000, especially if you want to make prints on a printer capable of ขphoto qualityข reproductions. If only the ‘best will do’ for you than don’t expect to spend anything less than $5000.

You also have to consider what features you would like. The heart of the camera is the CCD. The larger it is, the more pixels it contains. As expected, the more pixels, the more it costs. If you just want to email your mom 500 miles away a snap shot of a 3 x 4 of your first born, a CCD with about 640 x 480 pixels will do. If it’s a 5 x 7, than do not settle for less than 1280 x 1024 pixels. An 8 x 10 demands about 2000 x 1500 pixels. Also important things to consider are memory, types of flashes, and ease of download.

Depending on what you plan to use your digital camera for will depend on how much you will spend. Keep the previous and following advice in mind before you leave to purchase your first camera and maybe it will be your last.

A. Start out with the least expensive camera that will do the job today.

B. Make sure that the camera you are purchasing is compatible.

C. Ask if the camera you are purchasing can accept an external power supply. Digital cameras eat power faster than your car. You don’t want to spend endless amounts of time sitting in line buying batteries for your camera.

D. See if the software that comes with your camera has a photoediting program.

E. Lastly, ask your friends, neighbors, relatives how satisfied they are with their cameras.

Author: Kathleen Wade

www.etechhead.com

[email protected]

About The Author

Kathleen Wade

http://www.etechhead.com an on line computer store that fits all your needs

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 01, 2004

by Kathleen Wade

Good Marketing Pays for Itself

Good Marketing Pays for Itself

by: Joy Gendusa

Most companies ask themselves this question: กHow much will this advertising cost us?ก when they should actually be asking themselves this: กHow much will it cost not to do this advertising?ก

If your company spends $1000 per week on marketing then you could save $1000 per week by not doing any marketing. That is true but it is the simple and shortsighted view of the situation. However, if the revenue generated from that marketing is $1010 you have actually just lost $10 by not doing it.

Most times the margin is not that slim. We generally bring in around 10 times what we spend in any given week. That means for every $1000 we spend on marketing we bring in $10,000. If we decided that we were only going to spend half of what we were normally spending we would automatically save half of our budget. That is great but we would likely lose up to half of our weekly sales income. In trying to save half our budget we actually lost 9 times that amount.

It all comes back to your Return On Investment. That’s the ROI I am always talking about. If you only make what you spend on your marketing it is not doing its job. The money that you spend on your marketing is your investment. The money you bring in on sales is the Return On that Investment. That is why your ROI is the most important statistic to consider when trying to divide up your marketing budget. Putting more money into a marketing strategy that has a higher ROI doesn’t cost you more money, it makes you more money. Saving money by lowering your marketing budget doesn’t sound so enticing when you think about it that way. Unfortunately many businesses cut their marketing budget first when trying to stay afloat during slow periods. They are actually hastening their downfall.

You have heard it time and time again, กIt takes money to make money.ก It is as true today as it ever has been. You have a good product or service, you run your business well, the only thing that you need is good marketing and that will eventually pay for itself.

Perhaps by now you are convinced that you need to spend some money on promoting your business.

Maybe you are still stopped by the big question, กHow?ก What do you really need to know, and how can you actually make it work?

Let’s start with the กBasic Principlesก of promotion.

What is Promotion?

Promotion is making something known and well thought of.

Why do you promote?

The purpose of promotion is to bring in more business and enlarge your customer base. Always try to bring in as much business as you can. It sounds like an obvious thing to say but many people still don’t follow this rule. Don’t assume any number of new customers will be too much for you to handle. If you have that much business you can always bring on temporary or temptopermanent staff to handle the work load.

How do you promote?

There are more ways than you would ever think. Have you ever heard someone say, กI never promote and I am always busyก OR กI don’t have to promote, all my business comes from wordofmouthก? They may not be aware of how they’re doing it, but I promise you they are promoting somewhere. Maybe they just go around telling everyone they talk to, that they don’t promote. (Sound funny? It’s still promoting.) Maybe their canary yellow window ledge with the bright red apples on the shelf behind it attracts so much attention that they don’t need to do anything else. Well here are some ideas you can do กknowinglyก to drive in the business.

Every action that every member of your staff engages in is promotion. Whether good or bad every action is giving someone an impression of how your company is or does business. Here are a few examples.

Greeting your customers with a smile is a great place to start.

Calling your customers after they have had a chance to use your product is a good way to promote that you care about their experience with your organization. It can also create an opportunity to make more sales.

A neatly packaged product, the shipping label on straight, promotes that you take pride in what you do.

Always keep updated brochures or catalogs in your reception area for people to see and take with them.

If you have customers coming into your business, make sure they are greeted pleasantly, professionally, and immediately.

I suggest you sit down and write out all the things that your company actually does to promote using the above definition. Sit down with your staff and do a pow wow. Not only will it bring you all closer together and going for the same goal, it will open your eyes as to all the ways you can make your business well thought of.

Every little detail counts. Thanks for reading and good luck.

About The Author

Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998; her only assets a computer and a phone. In 2004 the company did close to $9 million in sales and employs over 60 persons. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. Now she’s sharing her marketing secrets with others. For more free marketing advice, visit her website at www.postcardmania.com.

This article was posted on March 03

by Joy Gendusa

Time and your Internet Business

Time and your Internet Business

by: John Pryor

How many hours per day should you devote to your internet business? We’ve all seen the ads trying to tell us that we can make millions in no time by doing nothing if we just sign up for XXX. We probably also recognize by now that this is nonsense. If you truly want to build an internetbased business that can improve your life, you will have to invest some time in doing so. It need not be a lot of time. Many of the available online business programs allow you to build a business with truly impressive profits in as little as two hours a day. Of course, you can build the business more quickly if you spend more hours per day—up to a point!

Logically, you should be able to build your business twice as fast at four hours per day as you can at two hours per day. My own experience, like that of others whose opinions I value, does not necessarily support that. I find that after the first two or three hours of sitting in front of my computer, my productivity falls rapidly. Your span may be different, but the bottom line is the same: Two hours of work produces two hours’ worth of results, regardless of how many more hours you spend looking at what you’ve accomplished.

The times of day that you choose to devote to your business may also be important. I personally know at least one man who conducted nearly all his business after his family had gone to bed for the night, between eleven at night and two in the morning. This man currently has an online business making more money each month than I would have ever made in a year as an employee of the company I used to work for. For myself, I have to revisit the thought of efficiency. I just don’t get much done in an hour of working after midnight. I find that the best hours are shortly after dinner, when the daily demands on my attention have been met, and I’m not yet too tired. You may, of course, choose whatever hours work best for you—after all, that’s why you’re building your own business! Whatever times you choose, be consistent! You must choose your time frame, and give your best for that time—every day of every week!

Depending on the daily structure of your life, it might be necessary to divide the hours you spend each day on your business. This is not a problem as long as you’re consistent. Indeed, sometimes it may be helpful to designate segments of your business time to different operations. You may find it useful, for example, to spend an hour in the morning answering email and phone messages and generally dealing with your business contacts. Then in the evening you could spend an hour, or two if you have it and can honestly make use of it, in such things as advertising your business, determining your best business sources, and generally doing whatever it is that causes your business to be better this month than it was last month.

In closing, allow me to restate what is probably the most important single piece of advice I have ever given: you gotta be consistent if you want to be successful. Whether you give one hour per day or eight hours per day to your business, you have to give it that every day, day in and day out. If you honestly do that, you will find that you have a successful business far more quickly than anyone would ever have imagined!

Looking forward to your success,

John Pryor, the Home Biz Advisor—

About The Author

John Pryor is the owner of a successful internet business incorporating a number of affiliate and sales programs under one roof to create multiple income streams. He has, over the years, found by experience many things that work and quite a few that don’t. He takes great pleasure in sharing knowledge of the things that do.

John Pryor publishes Home Business Tips, a fresh and informative newsletter dedicated to supporting people like YOU! If you’re looking for the *best rated* home business opportunities, the latest time saving tools and helpful support from an honest friend in the business, come by and grab a FREE subscription today by email at [email protected], or click on the appropriate icon at http://www.sfiinternet.com

This article was posted on August 29, 2004

by John Pryor

What Is the Most Effective Way to Advertise?

What Is the Most Effective Way to Advertise?

by: Charlie Cook

Bob from Ottawa wrote to ask, กWhat is the most effective way to advertise locally at a friendly price. Thinking of postcards…ก
Bob has an unusual business. He paints murals on the walls of childrenกs bedrooms. While his occupation is unique, his question about the best way to spend advertising dollars is not. I regularly get the same query from realtors, executive recruiters, and other service professionals and small business owners. Whether youกve got $500 or $15,000 dollars allocated for advertising, how should you spend it to attract new clients and customers?
The fact is this is not the right question or, at least, not the first one to ask. Most people spend more time deliberating on where to spend their marketing dollars than they do on the key elements of a successful advertising campaign. The result is that many people tell me, กIกve tried advertising and it doesn’t work.ก
Use the following steps to make advertising work for you and to build a campaign that generates more money than you spend.
1. Identify Your Advertising Goals What role does advertising play in your plans to grow your business?

Is your advertising part of a shortterm marketing effort or one part of your longterm marketing strategy?
Do you want to generate leads?
Do you want to use your advertising as a catalyst to building longterm client relationships?
Do you want to generate onetime sales, for example, to move excess inventory?

2. Clarify Your Marketing Message Whether you are considering print, media (cable, TV or radio) or Internet advertising, the key to success is getting the attention of the people who want your products and services. If your marketing message doesn’t grab your prospectsก attention, youกve wasted a whole lot of money.
3. Prompt Action Once youกve got your prospectsก attention you want them to take action. Depending on your marketing goals, you may be looking for a quick sale or to build your prospect list.
What is the action you want your ad to prompt?

Do you want people to visit your web site?
Do you want them to call you for an estimate or an appointment?
Do you want them to come to your store?
Do you want to get them to give you their contact information so you can market to them again and again?

So what advice did I give to Bob, the muralist? I told him to clarify his marketing message to parents before spending money on his next ad. A oneline explanation of the problem he solves will ensure that his ads are noticed. Then I showed Bob how to prompt prospects to take action by showing samples of his work and offering a free guide to decorating childrenกs bedrooms on his web site. All this described in one or two concise sentences in his ad.
Given Bobกs business goals, marketing strategy, and budget, postcards were an excellent way to deliver his marketing message. With an effective marketing message and strategy they would help him grow his business.
Make your advertising an integral part of your marketing strategy. Use a brilliant marketing message in your advertising. Give your prospects an incentive to take action and youกll attract many more clients and find yourself earning more.
2004 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.

About The Author

The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals and small business owners attract more clients and grow their businesses. Sign up for the Free Marketing Ideas eBook, ก7 Steps to get more clients and grow your businessก, full of practical marketing tips.

[email protected]

This article was posted on June 15, 2004

by Charlie Cook

Basic Marketing Dope

Basic Marketing Dope

by: Joy Gendusa

Sometimes the simplest data is the best. Marketing is not complex if you know the basics – that’s true with anything by the way. Here are some tools that are brilliantly simple and with them you really won’t have to sweat the small stuff.

Hot Dope #1) The more that your potential customers see your name in front of them, the more likely they are to call your number (and not someone else’s) when they need the services you offer.

Many marketing efforts go unrewarded, not because they were off target but simply because they weren’t given enough of an opportunity to work. Showing your TV commercial one time, running an ad in the newspaper once, or doing one mailing of postcards may not be enough to grab and keep the audience’s attention.

Get your name out there, do it on a regular basis and people will remember you when they need someone in your line of business. Actually, this particular ขHot Dopeข cannot be stressed enough – and failure to adhere to it is the #1 reason new businesses fail.

You should also know that taking the time to really see which pieces will generate the response you want will pay off. Don’t just totally give up when a response is low – persistence is vital.

Hot dope # 2) Measure your Return On Investment (ROI) in terms of actual MONEY not response rate. An advertising vehicle is working when the MONEY that it brings in has more value than the MONEY and time that is spent on the marketing.

Don’t fall into the trap of becoming discouraged by a small number of callers responding to a large number of pieces. If you spend several hundred dollars to be in the view of a few thousand possible leads, it may only take a few customers responding for you to make enough of a profit for this type of marketing to be valuable. The usefulness of any vehicle can only be determined after the amount of income generated by the promotion has been calculated. If you spend 1/5 of what you generate or generate 5 times what you spend, your campaign was successful.

Hot dope #3) It is much easier to กsellก a prospect once you get them to call or come in to your store. In 2Step Marketing, step 1 is to get them interested; step 2 is having them speak to a representative to get all the details – and get ขclosedข by that representative.

Your design must be eye catching and informative, but don’t try to close the sale by explaining all of the details in one piece of advertising. The details of a business transaction often take many more words to explain than the main concept of what is being sold. For example, if your company offers great prices depending on the quantity purchased, there is no need to list the prices for every quantity that you sell. Simply give examples of two or three different quantities and state somewhere in the advertisement that other discounts are available for other quantities. This will prompt them to call to get the rest of the details once you have gotten their interest.

Marketing can be as simple as 123 when you know the basics. By no means have I given you all the basics here, but by learning and implementing these 3 marketing fundamentals, you are already on your way to marketing success!

About The Author

Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998; her only assets a computer and a phone. In 2004 the company did close to $9 million in sales and employs over 60 persons. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. Now she’s sharing her marketing secrets to others. For more free marketing advice, visit her website at www.postcardmania.com

This article was posted on February 10

by Joy Gendusa

Taking a Leap of Faith

Taking a Leap of Faith

by: Robert Thompson

Many times each month, I hear from folks on my affiliate team or read posts on different business forums dealing with the subject of spending money. Many of these folks are concerned that they don’t have any extra money to invest in their businesses, and want to do everything for free. You might even say, that investing money in any business requires a leap of faith. For those who are new to the business world, I give the following piece of advice. Whether you are involved in affiliate marketing, or own a brick and mortar operation, the advice applies equally.

There are only three things that you can spend when it comes to generating a profit in any business.

1. Time It may seem free, but if you think about it, it is one of the most expensive things that you can spend on a business. Just consider the amount of time that it takes to produce a newsletter. If I had to send them individually, even cutting and pasting the completed product into an email and sending it. It would take many days of hard work to get it out to every member of my team (about 550 letters). Time is money, so therefore, I use an autoresponder to send the letters out to everybody in just a few minutes. Imagine how much time this would save if there wer several thousand members on my mailing list.

2. Effort As you can see from the above paragraph, I spend quite a bit of effort in order to share information with my team each month. But, lets look at another example of effort.

One of the first marketing methods that I used to build my business was free advertising. If you have looked into this method, or tried it, you are painfully aware of the amount of work that goes into creating a series of ads, finding places to show them, sorting through the tons of junk mail that result from these ads, and trying to track and duplicate your efforts in an ever changing marketplace. This method works, but it is vey labor intensive.

All of this in the name of trying to save a few dollars and do something for free!

3. Money This is something that is probably in short supply for many new folks, but if used wisely, it can save an incredible amount of TIME, a ton of EFFORT, and increase your chances of earning a large PROFIT in a short period. I spend only a few dollars on my autoresponder, but it saves me hundreds of hours each month. Not to mention, it comes with an affiliate program, and pays for itself in commissions each month AND returns a small profit!

There is an old saying in the business world, and it applies to all of us. Ya Gotta Spend Money To Make Money!

In many affiliate programs, there is a strong incentive to spend some money on some of the companyกs products or services. I will use SFI as an example, but many other companys have similar incentive programs. By spending a few dollars with SFI each month, you can become an Executive Affiliate. It only takes about $30.00. By spending this $30.00, you stand to make a few bucks through the TNet Network! You qualify for wholesale pricing on many SFI products! You can qualify for the VIP program, get your vitamin products at a drastically reduced price, and your commissions are doubled on all retail sales! There are also several valuable tools made available, such as a basic autoresponder called the contact manager, a hit tracking system, and a COOP management system.

Sure you have to invest a few bucks each month to be EA qualified, but many of the products that are available through SFI can replace other products that you are paying for now. You can buy things like Long Distance Service, Internet Service, Business Advice Resources, Nutrition Supplements that are better than anything on market and some of the finest and safest cleaning products in the world. By simply replacing products that you use at home already, your costs can actually decrease.

The above strategy can be used in many affiliate opportunities besides SFI, so whichever affiliate program you are part of, take a close look at the incentives that are offered. They aren’t simply gimmicks used to make sales. It is actually to your benefit to use them to build your business. You might just find, that the products that you buy are superior to the ones that you are already using, you can save a few bucks, and you can learn about the products that you are actually marketing to your potential customers.

Go ahead, take that leap of faith, invest a few dollars each month, and watch your business take off!

About The Author

Robert Thompson is retired from the United States Air Force. Since his retirement, he has operated several successful businesses. He is a proud Team Leader with SFI and enjoys helping others to create wealth from the privacy and comfort of their own homes. For information on how you can share in the multibillion dollar home business industry, visit http://www.stayhomeandearn.com He also owns and operates Stay at Home Jobs. For a free copy of the Stay at Home Jobs Newsletter, send a blank Email to [email protected]

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 28, 2004

by Robert Thompson

Two kinds of Advertising for a Marketing Strategy

Two kinds of Advertising for a Marketing Strategy

by: Steven Boaze

Advertising is the lifeblood of any business. If you do not learn how to advertise your products and services both efficiently and effectively, you won’t be in business long. While the Internet has lessened or eliminated many of the costs normally associated with starting and running a small business, and itกs now easier than ever, youกll never realize significant profits if you don’t grow your business through effective marketing.

There are really just two kinds of advertising that which you pay for and that which you get for free. And both should have their place in your overall marketing strategy. The problem arises when one does not understand how or when to use each.

Everywhere we look it seems that someone is claiming you can get rich online by taking advantage of the free advertising the Internet offers.

While itกs a true statement, the misleading part is that itกs almost always followed by something like, กWeกll give you a list of over 984324874984 places to advertise for free!ก They normally go on to explain how anyone can get rich on the Internet because all of the advertising is free, and if you just send them $29.95 … well you know how it goes.

Unfortunately, as anyone who has tried posting zillions of free ads on the Internet will tell you it just doesn’t work that way. What you really need to know about posting free ads online is that for the most part itกs a waste of time unless you’re targeting other marketers because an overwhelming majority of people who visit free ad sites are other online marketers like you who are trying to promote their own business.

Effective กfree advertisingก strategies do exist, but they aren’t what the average online marketer thinks of when hearing this often hypedup phrase.

Are you ready for the one concept that separates the men from the boys, so to speak, online? Here it is:

Free advertising is the laziest way to promote your site!

You don’t really think that Yahoo became the most popular web site on the Internet, getting millions of visitors per day, by using free advertising strategies do you? Heck no. Among other things, they spend millions of dollars per year on things like buying advertising on other big sites and advertising on both radio and television.

Now before you say you don’t have millions per year to spend on advertising, allow me to show you how you can apply these concepts to your business on a smaller scale. The good news is that if you use the right approach you can start with a few dollars. It doesn’t really matter what you’re marketing, but letกs assume that you sell artwork at your web site. How could you utilize paid advertising profitably?

Now before I scare you off with the thought of having to spend lots and lots of money on advertising, thereกs something that you need to realize. And itกs a basic concept you should be able to immediately agree with:

If you spend $50 on advertising and it generates more than $50 in net profits, thatกs a good investment.

Simple right? Well, through the use of proper testing and a กscientificก approach to advertising, thereกs no reason you can’t turn your original $50 ad into millions of dollars in profits. Itกs just a matter of developing a system that creates a profit, and then reinvesting your initial profits back into your business in order to further expand your advertising.

Remember the artwork? Assume that through proper tracking of your website you’re able to determine that 1 out of every 100 visitors to your site buys artwork. Letกs also assume that on the sale of every artwork you make a $50 profit. Do you see that any ad you buy which delivers more than 100 visitors to your site per $50 spent is a profitable investment?

Promoting a site should be approached with this type of a scientific or mathematical attitude. Any advertising you do is either profitable or not, and you need to know which it is so you don’t waste time and money.

Hereกs a somewhat simplistic strategy that you could use to get started:

Use a combination of free or lowcost strategies to promote your web site, generating initial traffic which will serve as a starting point. Through proper tracking of your site, determine the exact กvalueก of a visitor in terms of dollars and sense. This is absolutely critical. Utilize paid advertising that proves to be profitable according to step 2, based on the value of a visitor and the number of visitors generated. Through ongoing testing, tracking, and tweaking, try to increase the value of a web site visitor as well as response to your advertising. Repeat steps 24 as necessary or forever. The power of this scientific or mathematical approach to web site promotion is that once you have completed the steps you will have an almost automated advertising campaign that can literally send you all the traffic you need. Rather than spending hours and hours each day promoting your site, you simply buy more advertising.

The bottom line is that there are only 24 hours in a day and thereกs only so much you can do during that time. Free advertising strategies can be effective, but normally, anything thatกs กfreeก is going to กcostก you time.

On the other hand, if you could spend $1,000 a day on advertising to make $1,000 a day in profits without spending hours doing it why wouldn’t you just do that? Itกs not hard at all. Consider Overture.com for example, where you can buy clickthrus for as little as 125 cents.

That fits the formula quite nicely. Overture alone won’t send you enough traffic to make you rich, but itกs a good example of effectively promoting your site without spending much time doing it. There are lots of others.

Give this 2step scientific approach a try. If you find you just can’t seem to make the formula work, there can only be a few reasons for it either you’re not advertising in the right places, your web site isn’t doing its job, your profit margins are too low, or your product or service itself is the problem. Figure out which it is and you can’t fail.

About The Author

Steven Boaze, Chairman, is The Owner of Boaze.com Corporate Web Solutions Which houses Web Development services. Steven is also the author of two successful Books along with numerous articles on Marketing and Advertising published by Boaze Publishing.

http://www.boazepublishing.biz

Copyright © 19982004 Boaze.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 22, 2004

by Steven Boaze