Archive for March, 2008

Three Business Tools Help Entrepreneurs Market Inexpensively

{ March 24, 2008 @ 11:51 pm } · { Blogroll, Business, Fundraising, Industrial Mechanical, Strategic Planning, Web Development }
{ Tags: , , , , , } · { Leave a Comment }

If you are a new business owner, or an entrepreneur, marketing your business can drain your budget. If you are between jobs, you feel drained of time and money. However there are three tools that when used correctly can give you just the boost you need for a very minimal investment of time and money: Your handshake, your business card and your introduction. Your handshake is one of your business tools when networking. A few weeks ago I met an interesting businesswoman who was new in town. When she shook my hand, it felt like she was competing for the strong man award. Her grip was so tight I winced. I’ve always hated a half-committed handshake but this was going a bit too far. When you greet someone, look him or her in the eye and grasp their hand firmly web to web, then give a shake or two then disconnect. Don’t place your other hand on top, or put your free hand on their shoulder unless you are already close acquaintances. Drop the philosophy that says if you want more power make sure you twist your hand to where your counterpart’s hand is facing the floor and yours is on top. Handshaking is not a platform to showcase your strength or play psychological games as to who is more worthy. You are there to build relationships, get acquainted and treat the other person as your equal.

Business Card Many mistakes are made with business cards. The first rule is HAVE ONE. Excuses range from “I’m just out of college” to “I just changed positions” to “I’m unemployed” to “I’ve just started my business so I haven’t had time.” … continue reading this entry.

Internet Business – 7 Ideas to Increase Online Income

{ March 22, 2008 @ 10:55 pm } · { Advertising, Internet Business, Web Development }
{ } · { Leave a Comment }

As traffic to your internet business increases one would expect the online income to do the same. Occasionally this does not appear to be the case. This article discusses ways to ensure sign-ups and sales keep increasing.

1. Establish where you traffic is come from and what keywords your visitors are using to find your site. You can do this by installing a stat counter on your website or installing Google Analytics.

These tools will provide you with invaluable information so that you can make adjustments to your website or keywords in order to increase conversion rates resulting in more online income from your internet business.

2. Take a tour of your own website so you can experience what your visitors do. Can visitors easily find your newsletter signup box? Does the top fold of your website contain attention grabbing information? Does the navigation flow well? Can you get back to the home page easily? What is encouraging you to explore other pages of your website? … continue reading this entry.

Easy Profits with PPC

{ March 22, 2008 @ 10:54 pm } · { Customer Service, Fundraising }
{ } · { Leave a Comment }

Pay Per a Click is one of the four basic types of Search Engines. Pay per a click is also one of the most cost-effective ways of targeted internet advertising. According to Forbes magazine, PPC or Pay Per Click, accounts to 2 billion dollars a year and is expected to increase to around 8 billion dollars by the year 2008.

Let us take a look at how PPC Search Engines work.

These engines create listings and rate them based on a bid amount the website owner is willing to pay for each click from that search engine. Advertisers bid against each other to receive higher ranking for a specific keyword or phrase.

The highest bidder for a certain keyword or phrase will then have the site ranked as number 1 in the PPC Search Engines followed by the second and third highest bidder, up to the last number that have placed a bid on the same keyword or phrase. Your ads then will appear prominently on the results pages based on the dollar amount bid you will agree to pay per click.

How do you make money by using PPC into your affiliate marketing business?

Most affiliate programs only pay when a sale is made or a lead delivered after a visitor has clickthrough your site. Your earnings will not always be the same as they will be dependent on the web site content and the traffic market.

7 Great Ways To Bring Traffic To Your Website For Low-Cost Or Nothing!

{ March 22, 2008 @ 10:53 pm } · { Advertising, Social Networking }
{ } · { Leave a Comment }

Have you ever tried to get free traffic to your website? I’m sure you have!

Getting tons of free traffic sounds like a dream for many webmasters. After all, to get free marketing means any revenue you make is pure profit! That is why many Internet marketers use free traffic sources whenever and wherever they can.

Free traffic is great for one obvious reason – it saves money. If you can milk as much of free traffic, then your business will only become more and more profitable. For example, writing articles for ezines is a great way to get brand recognition for your business and visitors to your site. In fact, article publishing is probably one of the best ways to get free traffic.

However, free traffic comes at a price. The traffic may not be so targeted. And if you use free traffic sources like traffic exchanges, they will take up a lot of your time as you have to surf around the sites to acquire credits that will allow your site to be shown to others. Services like safelists are also very untargeted, as thousands of users are just blasting their ads out to each other.

I do recommend using sources of free traffic in your business. After all, it is free! Combine it with paid traffic strategies like Adwords and ezine advertising. Use it as one of your traffic strategies, not your main one, and you’ll do just fine, creating a flood of traffic that will make your business profitable!

Here are some great ways to drive traffic to your site on a budget:

1. Post on forums. Forum marketing remains one of the best ways to drive traffic. It is free and you only need spend a little time each week or each day to post regularly to forums.

2. Create a blog about your business! Post unique and compelling content to your blog so visitors will come back for more. Some people will even recommend your blog to others, bringing in even more traffic.

3. Link exchange. Find websites related to yours and request to exchange links. This also works well from a search engine optimization perspective. It’s a win-win situation.

4. Post articles to article directories. Article submission is free, and article marketing is certainly a great way to drive lots of traffic to your site.

5. Use a little Pay Per Click advertising. Since you are on a budget, you wouldn’t want to spend to much on pay per click advertising. However they can very effective. Just set a low daily budget and test your campaign. If it is profitable, increase your daily budget.

6. Submit press releases. Press releases are a great tool for branding and traffic purposes, so don’t discount it! It is completely free advertising that can bring in a ton of leads and sales.

7. Use video advertising. You can create a simple video and post it up to a video sharing site like YouTube. This is one of the top methods to get free traffic because sites like YouTube are highly-trafficked.