Archive for May, 2011

« Older Entries

Google and Small Business Internet Marketing

May 28th, 2011

Small business Internet marketing requires attention to how well your site ranks with Google. A site that is ignored by Google or ranked very poorly will not get the benefit of any of the millions of people who use Google each day. In other words, those millions use Google every day to find the websites they want to use, and websites that don’t rank well with Google aren’t discovered by those people.

Google Internet Marketing

Google is such an important part of Internet marketing that most online marketing efforts are devoted to ranking well with this search engine king. Though there are other large search engines out there, most of them rank websites similarly to the way Google ranks them. This has made the Google search engine marketing methods the standard among marketers. If you can optimize your site for Google, you will likely build a good ranking with the other search engines as well.

Getting links to your website, including links coming from sites that are well ranked by Google, is an important part of the process. The quality of the links is an important deciding factor in how well Google will rank your website. Links from prestigious sites that have attracted plenty of links are the best kind. Article directories with high ranking are useful, as are more prestigious sites like news sites.

Online Business Opportunity

Because Google is so pervasive online, it presents one of the best online business opportunities. Once you understand how important Google is and how to use it to bring in a high volume of traffic, there is no stopping your website. Capturing a spot on the first page or two of Google can potentially drive millions of people to your website.

No matter what your business idea is, using Google in your plan is the key to low-cost marketing that has the best traffic-driving potential. Every niche is served by Google, and a rise in traffic levels can only enhance your conversion rate. And, Google traffic is automatically targeted traffic because it is led by users who are seeking the keywords that you have on your website. So, the traffic that ends up on your site is made up of people who were searching for exactly what you have to offer.

Making Money From Home

Making money from home is largely an automated process once you have a website in place that is Google friendly. With your online business that is firmly entrenched in search engine results, you have the opportunity to make money from home every day. This money can be brought in through sales made on the website that don’t require any further work from you as the site owner.

Comments Off »

Posted in Uncategorized

Tags:

I Quit My Job – Online Business Ideas

May 27th, 2011

You must have a plan to quit your 9-5 Job

Are you are thinking about becoming an Online Business Guru. If this is you then there is a plan that should be followed. Leaving your regular day job and plunging yourself into the online business world can be a frightening experience for new comers. The best approach is to not quit your job straight away and burn all of your bridges. Look after all of the relationships, both business and personal that you have built up over the past years. These can become one of your best assets while moving forward. Some of these people could end up becoming a valuable of your team in the near future.

I Quit My Job

1. The Product or Service. You will have plenty ideas of what you want to sell onto a market. Most of these will not be profitable but you have to test them out. Make sure that you enter a market that already exists and has a good deal of completion in it. This is a proven market do not try and invent a new product for a new market this will untimely end up as a failure. A plan has to be in place that covers all production costs, overheads, distribution channels factored in. This determines the selling price of your product/service.

2. Remember in this world. We only make money when we sell something to real customers. Selling to friends and relations do not count, it is the people that you sell to that you don’t know that count. Having a product/service that is reusable on an ongoing basis is the ultimate prize. This is the goal that you should be planning and heading towards. We classify a customer as the one-off purchaser and a client as a ongoing that purchases on an ongoing basis.

3. To be profitable in the long-term. It is your responsibility to build up a data base of clients that are repeat buyers. For an online business this can be easily managed by a autoresponder service that collects and records the names of buyers so you are able to build up a long term relationship with these people. These clients end up on a data base we call them subscribers. With this subscriber base we will be able to send them out news snippets, up in coming offers etc within our online business.

4. Forget all the hype you see online how you can make these great streams of money in a matter of months without have to do hardly anything for it. That is all rubbish, a real business does take time and energy to develop. The time frame can be anything from six months if you’re lucky to 1 to 2 to 3 or more years. This is what 97% of people do not want to know about.

5. Funds. Make sure you have sufficient funds to back up your new venture. If you are buying things for your dream out of your grocery money then you are irresponsible to yourself and are not good candidate to be successful with an online business. This way is recognized as an outright gambling approach to business which is fraught with danger. Setting up a business has a calculated gamble risk element which is okay.

6. If you are to leave your fulltime job to pursuer your online dream then make sure you have enough funds stashed away to cover you for at least 12 months if you were to not make a profit from your online adventure.

I Quit My Job

The plan is to get your new offline business to the point that it is generating a minimal profit that you require before thinking about leaving your day job. The best scenario is to leave on good terms so the door is still wide open if you wish to return.

Comments Off »

Posted in Uncategorized

Tags:

5 Great Business Marketing Ideas Hockey Great Wayne Gretzky Can Teach Us In Today’s Tough Market

May 26th, 2011

Hockey Hall of Fame great Wayne Gretzky wasn’t the fastest, the strongest or the biggest. But he was absolutely superb in his execution of the game. When asked what made him so great, he replied, “I didn’t skate to where the puck was–I skated to where it was going.” As a result, he was at the right place at the right time to make the right move.

To succeed in this market, take a tip from Wayne Gretzky–anticipate the market and ‘skate’ there!

1. Adjust to who your ideal customer is:

Successful business owners are not waiting for yesterday’s customer to ‘come around’. Customers will always do what is in their best interest. The definition of insanity is continuing to do something that no longer works expecting yesterday’s results. Top business owners know that they must go where the market dictates. In order to ‘skate’ to where the sales are, they must learn the skills necessary to work with today’s active customer.

2. Customize your message to your market:

Different market segments have different objectives. Rather than limiting themselves to a generic ‘one size fits all’ slogan, top business owners adjust and adopt their message to each of the market segments they are marketing to.

3. Analyze the market and ‘skate’ to where it’s going:

It’s not good enough to ‘go with your gut’–though that can be a great place to start. Top business owners use every tool to intelligently analyze the market and create business marketing ideas so they can ‘skate’ to where the trend is going. They then can ‘talk’ to their customers intelligently.

4. Utilize Social Media to gain maximum exposure at minimum expense:

The old advertising strategies are expensive and evermore ineffective. By familiarizing themselves with free Social Media tools, top business owners share information while it’s still news. Instead of costly and time consuming mailings and phone campaigns, one post on Facebook or Twitter spreads the news about their business while it’s still hot.

5. Manage your attitude and condition your success psychology DAILY:

It’s tough to stay upbeat in a down economy. It is easy to fall prey to the fear and panic swirling all around you. Top business owners counteract this by never stopping their learning and growth. They hone their skills or learn new ones by listening to CD’s and reading self-improvement books. They are not afraid to find new business marketing ideas and implement them.

Take a tip from Wayne Gretzky. To keep your business prospering and growing, you must stay on the top of your game by:

  • Defining your ideal customer,
  • Crafting a message that will attract your ideal customer,
  • Learning to analyze your market and where it is going,
  • Using social media to communicate with your ideal customer,
  • Immunizing yourself against fear and panic and managing your attitude in order to ‘skate’ to the top of your business.

Comments Off »

Posted in Uncategorized

Tags:

9 Small Low Cost Business Ideas to Get Your Brain Juices Flowing

May 25th, 2011

I’m glad you’re looking for low cost ideas and not free business concepts. Thank you for being a reasonable person. You’ll be more likely to succeed than all those people who think the right to earn money should be handed to them at no cost. As if they were food stamps! Oh well, the good news for them is that Pizza Hut and WalMart will always need minimum wage workers.

The best small low cost business ideas will be those that are perfectly suited to you. You see you and this business are going to spend a lot of time together and the last thing you want to do is dread doing your work. If you love what you do then you won’t feel like you’re working at all. That is so important. Not just to your quality of life but it is a key to your success. That enthusiasm will draw a crowd eager to find out what all the excitement is about. Without a crowd your new small business will be doomed.

The actual decisions on what is best for you can only be made by you. Some suggestions might help steer you in the right direction though. Here are a few ideas to get your brainstorming juices flowing.

• Become a virtual assistant for other small business owners.
• Open a bridal rental store. (Something like this will be in big demand in a down economy.)
• Start a custom candy wrapper business for weddings, anniversaries and business events.
• Start a personalized letters from Santa service and branch out into the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy and maybe even other events that big with kids.
• Start a freelance writing service.
• Get into affiliate marketing online.
• Sell retro clothing and jewelry online.
• Sell your arts and crafts online.
• Become a consultant in a field you are highly skilled in already.

Comments Off »

Posted in Uncategorized

Tags:

Finding A Killer Business Idea

May 23rd, 2011

You know you want to start your own business and be your own boss – great news. However, you don’t yet have the perfect business idea – panic not. Here is a method that I use with a variety of clients that helps them create a number of basic business ideas that can be polished and worked into a fantastic business proposition that is their very own.

The method has three basic steps:

1. Idea Generation
2. Confirm & Learn
3. Start Small, Grow Fast

Step 1: Idea Generation – This is about coming up with lots of ideas, writing them down and finding a common thread around which you can start to build an idea. Just remember your business idea doesn’t need to be unique, only the way you deliver it.

I’m a big believer is doing things you enjoy – that way you will put in the long hours and effort required to build your dream business and minimise the agony. Starting your own business really gives you the opportunity to do something you are passionate about.

So here some questions to ask yourself and scribble the answers down:

· What are you good at?
· What do you enjoy doing?
· What are you experienced at?
· What’s your passion in life?
· What have you always wanted to do?
· What are you hopeless at / really dislike doing?

Once you’ve done that you need to start looking for common threads and how existing skills and knowledge can compliment your potential business.

You may find that you are good at organising, love travel and are passionate about wine. Maybe in the back of your mind you’ve always wanted to be a travel agent. Your job so far has been in administration, but your really hate numbers and finance. So looking at this list a possible business idea might be around organising wine tasting tours for high-net-worth individuals. To address the issue with numbers and finance you might have to think about getting someone else involved either as a business partner or advisor.

Step 2: Confirm & Learn – Here we take the raw business idea and start to research its potential. As you start to learn more about the market of the business idea you can start to shape and develop the idea further as well as confirming if it is something that will appeal to you as a long term business.

  • Look to see if there is a good market for this type of business – Google Trends and Google Traffic Estimator are excellent free tools for this research.
  • Examine the competition and see how you could be better, different or cheaper. Also look to see how they differentiate themselves.
  • Do some training or maybe get a basic qualification. This will expose you to the environment of the new market and you can quickly see if you enjoy it before investing further.
  • Talk the idea over with some people you trust. However, you must bear in mind that, certainly in my experience, most people will be negative about taking the ‘risk’ of working for yourself.
  • Get some experience doing some part-time or volunteer work in that sector
  • Go on a highly informative and fun seminar / workshop to kick the idea around!

Step 3: Start Small, Grow Fast – This is about not being bankrupt within a year! You have found an appealing and desirable business idea. You now understand the market better and have gained knowledge and possibly some experience. So how do you put that into action?

I firmly believe you need to test the market for real in a small and part-time way. If this proves successful you can start to build the business and invest more time, effort and money as the business progresses. If your first attempt is not as successful as you wished a) you have learnt some useful lessons, b) adjust the formula and try again.

I would also suggest putting together a very brief ‘twitter’ business plan that lets you shape you business further. This consists of 6 simple headings – each no more than 140 words:

1. Describe your business
2. Describe the market potential and competitive landscape
3. Describe your ideal customer and why they would buy from you
4. Describe how you are going to market and attract your ideal customer
5. Projected earnings and costs for the next 12, 24 & 36 months
6. Goals for the next 12 months with associated actions

If you can sit down and write the above plan in an hour or so, you probably have a fairly well thought out business idea. If you struggle to do this I would suggest you need more time researching and shaping the idea.

Developing a business idea that is suited to you could be the best investment of time you will ever make. It is unlikely that your original idea will be the one that you are operating in two or three years time, but the original idea that gets you started will be worth more than your weight in gold.

Comments Off »

Posted in Uncategorized

Tags:

Cool Business Ideas for Teenagers

May 22nd, 2011

Most people stereotype teenagers as people who are happy go lucky however a good number of them would like to have their own business. According to a survey, 8 to 21 year olds are dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur one day. They think that becoming involved in business is preferable rather than pursuing a career. There are some organizations that are helping young people from low income communities to start their own business. Although young children lack the experience compared to older people, it is best to start early so they can acquire knowledge over a period of time. For teenagers, there are business ideas suitable to them.

They should stick with businesses that require little capital. The good news is that there are business ideas that require little start up cost. The internet is one of the places to do so. Lawn care can start with existing tools found in the home. In venturing in the internet business, it only takes less than $50 to do so. This would include domain registration and hosting charges. There are many affiliate programs that they could join or they could use their talent on writing or web designing. They could utilize amazon.com or ebay.com if they want to sell their own products.

Teenagers should start a business that focuses on their strength. There are some businesses wherein teenagers can be successful compared to adults. This actually includes services related to computer, gadgets and of course the internet. With the knowledge that they have, teenagers can actually think about new products and services. They can also think about things that target people in their age bracket. Because they knew the market very well, the insight is so valuable. The opportunities and the needs of their market are targeted which gives them leverage. Teenagers also have the ability to compete for price.

Since they are living with their parents, they don’t think about expenses. This can able them to charge very low. Still they can still profit from their business. For those young entrepreneurs out there, it is important to do research especially in creating business plan which is so essential. There are specific business ideas that are perfect for teenagers. Website development is something that can be learned by everyone. There are thousands of companies all over the world who are seeking to outsource this kind of work. People can make about hundred dollars an hour creating websites.

For young people who are social networking savvy, online marketing is something that they can venture into. It is easy to learn this kind of job and a lot of companies want their website to be optimized. The pay is good especially when there is a result from the marketing effort. There are adults who don’t know anything about computer. They can start a business that diagnoses computer problems. This is lucrative but with less start up cost. They can sell items ranging from books, clothes and other stuff. Other services like lawn mowing and baby sitting are common as well.

Comments Off »

Posted in Uncategorized

Tags:

Public Relations Ideas For Small Businesses

May 21st, 2011

Infiltrating Local Media for Business Exposure
Developing a relationship with the local media outlets is not easy to do in large cities, but media in smaller towns and cities are typically more apt to work with businesses in their area. No matter what size the city is that one is doing business in, it is important to research local media outlets such as television news channels, radio stations and newspapers. Before approaching them, either in person at a media covered event, or by phone or e-mail, it is always good to note times that are appropriate for requesting a meeting with them. For example, right before or during road traffic time in the morning or evening, during a newscast, newspaper deadline, or a newly breaking story would be times to definitely avoid as it may make one seem unaware and unprofessional. Getting ones business into the local media can be an effective way to increase awareness of their products or services. Before approaching the appropriate members of news stations or newspapers one must make sure that the story regarding their business is indeed “newsworthy.” It must contain something that very obviously shows “what is in it” for the stations viewers or readers.

Sharpening One’s Market Awareness
Public relations is changing so quickly today to keep up with new technologies. Many businesses need to know exactly what is happening with new technologies and rapidly shifting pop culture trends to survive in today’s economy. For maximum public relations efficiency, one should utilize multiple media outlets to stay aware of vital current news. Podcasts from larger newspapers via iTunes, blogs from experts in a particular niche, poking around in social networks, even looking at what is “trending” on Yahoo or Yelp are just a few ways to stay in touch. Yelp is a good source for learning what local customers are looking for in a particular service or product because it allows them to post comments about local businesses. Creating a Yelp profile for ones business is a new and constructive means of building integrity and customer awareness.

Leverage New Technologies to Manage Business Relations
The way that the internet affects business across the world is actually much different in some regions than in others. This is not in reference to businesses that range across different economic climates, it refers instead to how people in different regions spend their time online. Each year that has passed since the advent of the modern internet, the amount of time people spend online and the range of services they trust on the internet increases. The internet was once an information driven tool but has quickly become a vehicle for not just storing and sharing information, but for learning and leisure as well. The number of internet users across the world continues to increase annually as well. The only numbers that seems to decrease in relation to internet use is the age of its operators. Today we start our babies off with digital toys and our toddlers with computers. In the U.S., Americans spend 22.7% of the time they are online on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. So a businesses public relations campaign in the U.S., can benefit greatly from a good presence on these sites.

The Future of Social Media Networks For Public Relations
Facebook has proven to be an immensely powerful communications system. It connects its users in various ways for business and personal gain. In September 2010, rumors surfaced of Facebook possibly doing some business with communications giant Skype. Skype allows users to visually see each other on their computers screens as they talk, meet and send information back and forth in real time. New technologies like this that “may” be on the horizon can and have changed business very quickly. Social media giants like Digg and Youtube are also being used often by PR agencies for their clients. Many public relations activities start with a press release. Press releases are very effective and can now be posted online and shared through Social Media too. Video campaigns, viral marketing and mobile marketing are also closely related to and intertwined with Social Media reaching a wide audience in an efficient and cost effective manner for many businesses.

Comments Off »

Posted in Uncategorized

Tags:

Smartest Small Business Ideas – Starting a Web Design Company

May 17th, 2011

I’m always on the look out for the smartest small business ideas. Often times the best ones are companies who manage to combine several services into one convenient business. I recently met a company who’d taken this concept and applied it to starting their own web design company.

The owner had gotten the idea when he’d worked in corporate America. He’d been a part of the start up development team of one of their new branches. He found that they hired one company to do the graphic design part of their website, one to write the information posted on it and another to host the website and provide ongoing support. This seemed silly to him, and when the left the company to start his own business he decided on starting an all encompassing web design business.

The first thing he did was get together a group of talented individuals. He found one of the best writers out there who was experienced in writing web content and company biographies. A graphic designer also joined the team and a person with a background in the technical aspects of running a website rounded out the company.

Once he had his time together he started advertising and within a few weeks he had several clients. They appreciated his ability to handle all aspects of the company website. It streamlined their hiring process and he was able to have complete creative control over his projects, which worked well for him.

The smartest small business ideas focus on providing comprehensive services to a company or individual. No one wants to deal with several people when just one will do.

If you need money now, like I mean in the next hour, try what I did. I am making more money now than in my old business and you can too, read the amazing, true story, in the link below. When I joined I was skeptical for just ten seconds before I realized what this was. I was smiling from ear to ear and you will too.

Comments Off »

Posted in Uncategorized

Tags:

Small Business Marketing Ideas – Five Low Cost Ways to Get the Word Out Fast

May 15th, 2011

Do you want to get the word out fast? Whether you are planning a special event, a teleseminar, or just want to tell people about your new book or product, you want as many people as possible to find out about it, and as quickly as possible. Read on for some online methods to get the word out — for little or no cost.

1. Send a Online Press Release

Online press releases are the key to fast publicity. Your news does not have to be momentous to qualify for a press release, though you do have to have a news angle. An event is a news angle, but the more it fits in with something else in the current news, the better.

You have the choice between premium online press release sites, like prweb.com and prnewswire.com, and budget priced press release sites. Of the budget priced ones, by far the best is webwire.com where you can get your release published for $19.

As well, you can even send out press releases for free. There are dozens that offer that service, though most of them try to upgrade you to paid status. The free sites work best if you send your press release to at least a dozen of different ones.

2. Tweet Your News (with an incentive)

If you have a lot of Twitter followers, you can also get great results by tweeting your news. This works best if you create a gift that you offer your followers in exchange for checking out your news. Either that, or send them to a compelling article that gives them some real value in addition to your news.

The reason for the incentive is that it will inspire your followers to retweet your tweets, which will help spread the news far beyond the reaches of your own followers.

3. Facebook Fan Pages

Set up a Facebook Fan Page for your business — or your newly launched line of products or services, or big event. Then work at gather friends. This has to be done in advance, just as you have to build up your following on Twitter in advance.

Then, a couple of weeks before your event or launch, start sending out notices about it, with pieces of valuable information, or maybe the same incentive you offered on Twitter.

4. LinkedIn Events

You can also promote your events on LinkedIn. That’s a great way to build your visibility within the LinkedIn community. Especially when you offer services to businesses or professionals, this will help you get qualified visitors to your website and event. When you post an event all your contact will get a notice which makes it easy for them to share the news to their contacts with just one click.

5. Other Social Networks

There are more social networks beyond the top three above. Like Biznik and Ryze. Ryze is a particularly friendly one — focused primarily though not exclusively on women. There are many different networks within Ryze, and you can join as many as you like.

Of course there are even more places where you can get the word out, starting with your own blog, and with publishing articles. There are also a few teleseminar announcement services, plus other places where you can advertise events, including usfreeads.com, craigslist.org, and the online versions of various newspapers.

For best results, start with online press releases, and then work on social media – building up your Twitter followers and Facebook fan base, and get involved in LinkedIn, Biznik and Ryze or other networks of your choice. When you do that, you’ll soon have lots of people you can contact once you’re ready to announce your news.

Comments Off »

Posted in Uncategorized

Tags:

Small Business Ideas on a Low Budget – A Little Short on Cash Building Your Business?

May 12th, 2011

It basically will nickel and dime you to death. You really can’t get ahead in your business if you have to spend a ton on advertising, especially when you are first starting out.

A very useful skill in online network marketing is being able to use your advertising dollars efficiently. This requires you to learn the strategies that enable

you to build your business on a budget.

Wouldn’t it be nice if someone could show you basically step by step how you can build your home business without spending a ton of money while doing it?

Well, there is some good news.

My main problem in building my business was the lack of money. Now, I can build my business without hurting my bank account.

This has taken my business to the next level. I will continue to see growth in the future thanks to these revolutionary new concepts.

I recently came across something that I think will really help your business as it has mine.

The techniques I apply in my business are:

- effectively posting ads on free advertising sites

- setting up and using a blog to get continuous traffic

- using videos effectively to advertise

- creating a capture page that gets visitors to opt in

- submitting a press release to get prospects

- using a funded proposal to get money for advertising

Within two weeks of applying these techniques, I am now getting as many as 50 new qualified prospects per day.

The best part is that I did not spend much money while doing it.

Comments Off »

Posted in Uncategorized

Tags: