Business/Product Publicity: P.R. Does Not Stand For Press Release

Theres no denying that the Internet is allowing more and more entrepreneurs to start their own businesses and effectively market their new products. However, there seems to be an increasingly common misconception when these businesses try to generate media attention and publicity for their products or businesses. Over the past several years, I have had more than a few clients come to me seeking a PR to get people interested in their products/businesses. Thats right a "PR". Contrary to what some people think, PR is NOT an acronym for Press Release it stands for Public Relations. PR is much more than just a press release and that distinction is very important to understand.

I often cringe when I see articles from well-intentioned marketing experts that say, in effect: simply write a press releases, pitch it to the media and just sit back and reap the benefits. Unfortunately, it is far from being that simple. That statement pre-supposes that the media release/pitch is written well containing all the right elements and newspegs to catch the media eye and that it is pitched and maintained in the correct media market, which is often the downfall of many amateur PR campaigns. By all means, a press release is an integral part of a PR campaign. But a press release alone does not a PR campaign make. A successful PR/publicity campaign for your business or product should include many, if not all of the following:

An interesting, quality, newsworthy product/service that the media (and its audience) will find merit in;

A concise, articulate media release or story pitch not a glorified ad detailing the benefits of your product/business/website and what effect it will have for its users;

A supply of media supportives product photos (digital & hard copy), possible review samples, etc.;

An extensively researched media list detailing all applicable media outlets whose editorial profiles match your product/business profile. Heres an important detail -- the targets of your pitch should be name-specific not just title-specific media contacts. By that I mean the media market research you compile should give you particulars like Sally Jones-Cooking Editor not just Tribune Newsroom or Managing Editor;

A solid, trustworthy media contact vehicle that gets your release/media kit directly into the hands of the appropriate reporter/editor/producer and allows them to respond easily to your pitch. (As always, beware of press release distribution services that often times indiscriminately spew your release to hundreds of untargeted media outlets with little or no results.) Research to find out the preferred method of receipt of your media targets dont just assume an email will suffice. Whether its by snail mail, email, fax or phone calls, the media cant run your story if they dont hear about it. For one reason or another, some media may decide not to include your product/business in a placement -- but dont let them say the reason is because they werent made aware of it;

Meticulous media relations to immediately fulfill media requests (photos/interviews/product samples) and extensive media contact follow-ups over several months to generate as many placements as possible. Many times, media members cant immediately respond to an initial pitch due to tight editorial deadlines and the time it takes to wade through a multitude of similar media pitches. I have found, without question, that the media interest continues to increase as you re-introduce the pitch and gently rattle the media cage over the course of the next several weeks/months;

Some sort of media tracking capabilities -- whether its your own media follow-ups, Internet research, or a professional broadcast/print clipping service. Having hard copies of the placements generated by your PR campaign can be invaluable in the further marketing of your business/product. Media placements are a unique validation of the market acceptance for your business/product and can help you convince new customers of that fact.

Think of launching a PR/publicity campaign like flying a kite. The press release (which aptly details your product/business) is the kite. But if your kite doesnt have the proper amount of string, a good tail, a strong wind and the expert manipulation of the kite flier it has very little chance of getting off the ground. But if all theses elements are in place a PR/publicity campaign can send your business soaring like a kite on a breezy Spring afternoon.

Todd Brabender is the President of Spread The News Public Relations, Inc. His business specializes in generating media exposure and publicity for innovative products, businesses, experts and ventures. http://www.spreadthenewspr.com todd@spreadthenewspr.com (785) 842-8909Felice Blog87720
Filia Blog13951

What You Need To Know About SEO: Basic Facts

Exposure could mean a lot for different firms, organizations or groups seeking a wider venue to make their views heard, accepted, and patronized. The main term used for this web-positioning method is the seo, or the Search Engine Optimization.

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What exactly is Search Engine Optimization?

The Internet age has spawned a phenomenon of new terms, new jobs, and new career paths. The growth of the Worldwide Web is creating a new realm, where new types of internet-savvy folks engage in careers that require the skills of an intrepid explorer, searching for new worlds to discover. Among these new tasks are those that require the faster, more strategic placement or positioning of company adverts, documents, products or issues, in order for these entities to have the most maximum level of exposure in the web.

Exposure could mean a lot for different firms, organizations or groups seeking a wider venue to make their views heard, accepted, and patronized. The main term used for this web-positioning method is the seo, or the Search Engine Optimization.

Search Engine Optimization is the terminology used to define, or describe the action of gaining a better position within a search engine or internet directory system based upon a selected key word or a group of key words. With well over 4 billion documents already on the internet, the prominent search engines are all flaunting that they can locate most of them and show you a link from within their systems, and each of the search engines or directory providers have different guidelines by which a listing within their system is accomplished.

* Achieving Maximum exposure

As web-updated consumers, we are constantly on the lookout for sites that address our specific interests, goals, or products at a specified time and day. Most of us do not always know the URL (Universal Resource Locator) for all the types of businesses that can fulfill that interest, so we use a search engine or directory service to find them for us.

For example, I plan to go out and take my girlfriend with me to a bar, but I havent got an idea of which place to go to that I havent already been to yet. The next most probable step for me would be to go to a search engine and type in something like: bars and restaurants pasadena ca"; I put in the quotation marks to make the search more specific, to get me closer to what I am looking for. The phrase I wrote, "bars and restaurants pasadena ca" will be used represent my main key word phrase.

Once I write those key words, I am, hopefully, going to get back a list of the restaurants within the greater Pasadena area, and I indeed got well over 500 or so choices too. What makes it more helpful is that I could find those assorted choices in the local phonebook listings. However, if I wish to make my list of choices much shorter, I would type in, or enter a new search maybe like: "jazz bar pasadena ca.

Once the search engine has done its job, then I probably will get a shorter list with these new, more precise characteristics. However, the list created will be made in an order that is determined by the search engine. The first one may or may not be starting with the letter A or a number like the one on the phone directory.

From the bar and restaurant viewpoint, if they could be in the top 10 or 20 and get a lot of hits or visits by web users, they will have a chance of being seen by the searcher. This is what Search Engine Optimization is all about: gaining a position as close to #1 as possible and then staying there on top, and to achieve maximum exposure.

* Its all about location

For those who own businesses, then the primary name of the game is profits. Revenue of course, comes from people who spend their incomes with you. The more people spend their money with you, the richer and more successful you become.

In todays business environment, it is all about LOCATION, and the next important word that comes is ADVERTISE.

The way the worldwide web works is the same as in the world of advertising or the directories: Its about location in the search engines and directory systems, and advertising. If your listing is something less than the top 100, you stand an excellent chance of never being seen, or viewed. Most people are notoriously impatient, and they do not wish to wade through tons of listings. This simply means that you really need to be near, or on the top of the lists for the key words that you feel your prospective customers are, or will be using to find you.

* How Search Engine Optimizers Do This

Improving your position on the web could be done through a wide variety of methods. An easy way for this is to hire a professional Search Engine Optimization firm that can do the job for you. You could check their fees and price ranges on the web or the phone book. The process is definitely a labor-intensive one, and definitely doesnt come cheap.

But anyway, you too can do it yourself. All you need to do is to get the rules for listing within each of the engines and directory systems where you wish to be listed, the register with them. If they allow you to point to secondary pages that also discuss specific topics, then be sure to do that by pointing to the pages within your site that cover that topic. You may also need to check on your position every month within each of the engines and directories to see how you are stacking up, and sometimes you may need to modify your site to improve your position, as well as your exposure.

Vanessa Arellano DoctorVeda Blog50160
Fawne Blog78427

3 Tops Reasons Why You Must Have Your Own Affiliate Marketing Website

Budding entrepreneurs entering the affiliate marketing business invariably struggle with many questions on the setup, methods and strategies of their new business.

In dealing with prospects on a daily basis the same question arises time and time again:

Should I get your own website? Do I need one? Will it make a difference to my affiliate sales?

If you have ever joined any affiliate programs at all then you will know that every affiliate program provides you with your own version of the merchants sales page - coded with your affiliate link, in order to track sales.

Technically it is possible to make money promoting this turnkey site that the merchant has provided. In my professional opinion and from my own experience though, this is NOT the way to go if you are serious about making your affiliate business a full-time enterprise.

Let me explain why - giving the most important points against using the affiliate website:

1. By far the most important factor is that the affiliate program can go out of business at anytime leaving any promotions that you have done for your affiliate site useless. If you have links on the www pointing to an affiliate page and the company is no longer in existence then those links will fail to work.

If you have your own website then YOU are in control. You can simply point the link on your end to a new company and thus give you a chance of building a new income stream.

2. It is undoubtedly of massive importance that you build your reputation online. If you only promote another persons website, even though it will bring you commissions, it will usually have the name of the product owner on this site. So, in this case, you are building the merchants' reputation and web presence instead of your own. Branding your name and business online will lead to further success so it's better to get YOUR name out there right from the very start.

3. Point 3 is, that with an affiliate page you don't have the ability to make changes to your webpage. Again, this is a business, so you MUST add your own uniqueness and some personality to the aspect of this business that you are presenting to the public. You CANNOT do this with the affiliate site that the merchant provides - ONLY with your own website and domain name.

So by now you may be asking for the solution. The only answer is to get a website and build YOUR own web presence and brand rather than someone elses. This way you can promote any affiliate programs you like from your new site AND you can change the links, content etc. as often as you require.

This is how I personally do it. If you visit my own sites you will see that I have added loads of my own content BUT each of the links from within that site point to affiliate product from which I will get a commission for evey sale that is made.

Do you see how this works? Do you see how it is a much better strategy than promoting an affiliate page that will NEVER belong to me?

Now, at this stage you may be terrified as to how you where you would even start to acquire your own business domain name and website.

The process is actually quite simple, once you actually begin to push through the fear and take action.

If you don't see the importance of having your own website now then believe me, it WILL become clear as you get a better understanding of online business.

For a few dollars per year for a domain name and hosting you are much better to have an affiliate website than be without one.

Checkout Mal Keenans' Top Rated Affiliate Marketing Secret Resource Site: http://www.malkeenan.comVerina Blog35614
Vera Blog27062

There's Money In Your Site Stats

Are you missing out on important sales because you are not paying attention to your site statistics? There's a wealth of information here that can boost your sales.

Some years ago, I had a conversation with a friend who had developed a very successful offline business. When I asked him what accounted for his success, the very first thing he said was, "I made it a practise to be in the right place at the right time. And it was never an accident."

He went on to explain that he purposely made an effort to "accidentally" bump into his prospects at lunch, or run into them at social functions. "I often learned were they were, he said, "and I learned when they were receptive. I was always amazed at how few of my competitors bothered with this".

The exact same thing holds true on the internet. Do you know where your prospects are? And do you know when they are most receptive to act on your offer?

The goal is to send your offer when it is most likely to be read and acted upon. You certainly don't want your latest newsletter sitting unopened in someone's inbox, collecting both dust AND more and more email competition.

You want to maximize the possibility that your prospects are at their computers (or soon will be) when you send out your offer or newsletter. But how in the world could you possibly know this?

LOOK AT YOUR TRAFFIC STATS

The truth is, you can't know for sure. But you can put the odds further in your favor by analyzing the traffic history in your site logs.

Do you see a pattern? You will likely find that there are certain days where you consistently get more traffic than others. In other words, your particular prospects may well be more active on certain days and at certain times.

If, for example, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays are weaker in traffic, these sure wouldn't be the best days to send out your newsletter or offers. They would likely end up competing more fiercely for attention because fewer of your prospects are online. This increases the possibility of a "quick scan" or even a "delete" when your prospects get to their fuller mailboxes later.

How about time of day? Are your leads visiting more heavily around lunch (11 am to 2 pm) and dinner (5 pm to 8 pm), for example? Is there a fairly consistent pattern? If so, you certainly don't want to send your offer outside of these key time ranges. Again, to do otherwise would be to unnecessarily increase your mailbox competition.

LOOK AT YOUR SALES STATS TOO

Now, take a look at the days and times of your actual sales. Do you see a pattern here as well? If you do, it can be quite a valuable lesson.

When are your prospects in the buying mood? What days? And what times during the day? Clearly, you want to make contact at their most receptive times.

So, be ready when your prospects are. Be in the right place at the right time, "accidentally on purpose", to increase your response rates. Study your site stats and coordinate those marketing efforts within your control (particularly when you send out your newsletter) to coincide with "peak prospect receptiveness" for your particular business.

Joshua Rose shares affiliate marketing and internet marketing tips at http://www.internetprofitwizards.com. An example of where he puts his tips into practice, can be seen at http://www.auto-broker-magic.com/carbuying.html.Fatima Blog39792
Virginia Blog89042

Advanta Platinum Business Credit Card - A Single Account To Handle All Your Business Credit Needs

The Advanta Platinum Business Card is designed for you if you are a business owner looking to consolidate business expenses onto one credit card account. You don't have to pay any annual fee and the introductory APR is set at 0% on purchases and balance transfers for the first 12 months. After the expiry of the introductory APR, the APR for purchases and balance transfers is 14.24% variable which is Prime plus 5.99%. The APR is calculated on the maximum Prime Rate during a 90 day period. The APR for cash advances will vary according to your credit history and will be 5.99% or 11.74% + Prime Rate.

Through the reward program, you earn one point for every dollar spent on all purchases made with the Advanta Platinum Business Card and these points can be redeemed for various travel rewards or pre-paid bonus cards. Though there is no yearly limits to the number of points that you can earn yet the points expire in three years. If you prefer cash rebates instead of travel rewards, there is a rebate program available for you that gives cash back for purchases. Whether you choose the rebate program or cash back one, both are free. Many common Platinum Business features are found with this card, including auto rental insurance, extended warranty coverage, itemized expense reports and online account access. You can also take advantage of the discounts that are offered on various products and services from participating retailers and merchants.

With the Advanta Platinum Business Card you get a grace period of 20days and an exceptional business credit line of up to $50000, you also get $0 dollar fraud liability making life easy for you. If you are late in paying the bill you have to pay a late fee of $19 if your balance is less than $250 and if it is $250 or more then you have to pay $39 as the late fee. The over limit fee of the Advanta Platinum Business Card is $15 on balances under $501 and $29 if the balance crosses the $501 mark. The cash advance fee is set at 3%, a minimum of $5 and for convenience checks a maximum of $50. the same is set as the balance transfer fee as it is with the introductory offer.

To apply for the Advanta Platinum Business Card you only require very good credit and you can enjoy special savings on business products and services like discounts of up to 25% or more through the preferred arrangements with companies like Penny-Wise Office Products, IBM, Palo Alto Software and Ramada Inn.

The Advanta Platinum Business Card provides you with various internet account related services as well as online statements and management reports. The online account access helps you manage your account like requesting credit line increases; adding cardholders; requesting balance transfers and updating account information. You can pay your bills online and that too is free of cost, thus you not only save you time but money as well.

You also get a personalised business design, personalised business checks and a personalised billing date; hence with the Advanta Platinum Business Card you are the boss. The Advanta Platinum Business Card is accepted at over 28 million locations worldwide and with it you can access cash instantly from any ATM displaying the MasterCard, Cirrus or Maestro logos, so now you don't have to worry about carrying cash whenever you are on a trip, the whole world is your home. To top it all, the Advanta Platinum Business Card protects you automatically against theft and damage.

This article was brought to you courtesy of Anthony Samuel, the webmaster of http://www.apply-for-a-credit-card-now.com . A credit card directory where you can search, compare and apply for credit cards from leading credit card companies.Fidelity Blog94348
Felice Blog1455

Your Ebook Internet Marketing Strategy - 7 Vital Components

Do not underestimate the importance of having a good ebook internet marketing strategy. It will make or break your success in terms of the number of copies your ebook sells, and the revenue and profit you ultimately receive from sales of your ebook.

With that in mind, here are eight vital components for your ebook internet marketing strategy.

1. Set up a Web Site

The first and most important weapon in your ebook marketing arsenal must be a web site containing a sales page for the ebook. This needs to be a page dedicated to information about your ebook only. It is even better if you set up a dedicated domain name and site for the ebook. Now that web hosting packages are available for just a few dollars a month, and you can get a package allowing unlimited sites in one package, I strongly recommend giving your ebook its very own site.

Your sales page should be well-designed and contain plenty of information about your ebook. This information should include features and benefits to the readers, and of course, testimonials from your satisfied customers. And if you expect to have credibility with potential customers, your sales page needs to be free of little errors.

2. Build Your Own Mailing List

If you dont already have a mailing list and your own newsletter, start one. You may already have heard that, on average, people need to see a marketing message seven times before they will take action and place an order. A newsletter is a great way to keep your message in front of your audience on a regular basis, and at the same time you will be building up their trust in you as they get to know you and the quality of your information.

You might send out a regular newsletter - for example monthly or weekly - or you can set up autoresponders to automatically send messages at specific intervals. An autoresponder can send a given message at a specified number of days after the subscriber signed up to your mailing list.

3. Sell Your Ebook Through ClickBank

Why use ClickBank? There are several reasons why I recommend that you consider selling your ebook through ClickBank.

First, ClickBank is a very experienced partner to have when selling an ebook. Thats what they specialize in. There are already 10,000 publishers and authors selling information products using their system. But there is something even more important than the number of publishers. Its the number of affiliates. ClickBank have an army of 100,000 affiliates ready to jump on your bandwagon and start promoting your hot new ebook.

Second, ClickBank has a neat payment processing system. If you use ClickBank you will not need to set up an expensive merchant account with your bank in order to accept credit cards online. Setting up a publisher account with ClickBank costs just $50 or so.

Finally, ClickBank works neatly in conjunction with your own web site and newsletter. You simply add the special links given to you by ClickBank into your newsletter and web site, and whenever anyone clicks through your order link, they will be taken to a professional order form where they can pay using their credit card or PayPal.

Whenever one of ClickBanks affiliates refers a visitor who goes on to make a purchase, ClickBank automatically tracks which affiliate referred the visitor and pays their commission.

4. Article Marketing

Article marketing involves writing articles and making them available for webmasters and editors to publish. The greatest exposure usually comes from listing the articles at article directories such as EzineArticles and IdeaMarketers. This allows anyone to publish the article without any fee to you, the author, provided they include your 'Author Resource Box' at the end of the article.

To promote an ebook successfully using article marketing you should write articles on topics closely related your ebook. Your author's resource box should be a small paragraph or two about you including a direct link to the web page for your ebook.

Besides being a good way to generate traffic, article marketing is a great technique for increasing your brand awareness. As people read your articles at various web sites they will begin to recognize you as an expert in your topic.

5. Pay Per Click Advertising

Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is one of the quickest ways to drive traffic to your ebooks sales page. It is certainly not the cheapest source of traffic, but it is probably the most effective technique to guarantee a large quantity of traffic, fast.

With Pay Per Click advertising you bid the maximum price that you are willing to pay for each visitor that clicks on your listing and comes through to your site. The more you bid, the more likely your listing will show. Many webmasters obtain traffic for $0.05 to $0.15 per click.

One good thing about PPC advertising is that unlike other forms of advertising, you only pay for visitors who actually click through your link and visit your site. Compare that to traditional advertising where you pay a set price for the ad regardless of whether you receive any response.

6. Regular Advertising

Regular classified advertising is a form of advertising which is particularly common in newspapers and magazines. Many online ezines and email newsletters offer classified advertising spots. Advertising in these can be one of the best sources of targeted traffic, since you have the ability to select those newsletters with an audience that most closely resembles your own target audience.

If you know the email newsletter or mailing list is a very good match, consider sending a solo mailing. A solo mailing is a special mailing sent to all the subscribers containing only your message promoting your ebook. It will cost more than regular advertising within a newsletter, but youll get a much higher response rate.

And don't dismiss offline classified advertising. It is possible to run a classified advertisement in an offline publication such as a newspaper or carefully targeted magazine and get an excellent response of people checking out your ebook.

7. Profit Sharing

Consider approaching other web site owners and offering to allow them to sell your ebook directly from their web site. You should arrange in advance how the profit will be shared. I usually ask the other web site owner to pay me fifty percent of the revenue from my ebook sales. The web site owner usually loves it because they will have a new ebook to promote, and after they pay their own payment processing fees, they should still be able to keep 40 to 50 percent of the revenue.

There you have it. Seven proven ebook marketing techniques for promoting your ebook. You might not choose to use all seven, but you should be using at least five or six of these. Some of these techniques involve using third-party tools or resources. If you are interested in learning which resources are my favorites, I have some additional details on my web site. If you employ these seven techniques carefully they will make an enormous impact on the sales of your ebook.


Daniel Moro has been successfully building online businesses for ten years. Download your free report on '10 Remarkably Effective Traffic Building Techniques' at http://www.DanielMoro.comFarrah Blog80922
Fleur Blog77978

Building An Audience For Your Internet Marketing Business

Im willing to bet many of the things you have purchased or signed-up for are products and services that have been endorsed by people you know, admire, and trust. And a majority of these endorsements have probably come through email communication.

But you dont follow the recommendations of just anyone who sends you an email, do you? Of course you dont.

You are probably in the habit of deleting several emails each day from people you have never met who want to sell you prescription drugs, discount software, and search engine submission services. But there are other emails you look forward to getting, and probably open as soon as you see them in your inbox.

Perhaps there are a couple of weekly newsletters you really enjoy. And maybe you are subscribed to a special announcement list that always delivers very exciting information.

You may respect the person who sends these emails because of their achievements as a marketer. Or it could be that you just plain like their personality and get a kick out of their writing style.

Either way, you are quite likely to at least have a look at something recommended in an email from someone whose work you appreciate. Whats more, if its something that peaks your interest, the endorsement from an individual you have grown to like and trust is often enough to encourage you to go ahead and buy.

This is human nature. We love to buy, but dont much care for the idea of being sold. A friendly suggestion made by a person we like carries tenfold the power of the worlds slickest sales pitch.

Once you begin the process of building your own opt-in list, you cant just start blasting away with cheesy sales copy and expect positive results. Granted, there are people out there who will buy anything with a price tag, but you cant be certain those people will be on your list right away. You have to give your readers some quality information, and let them have the chance to get to know a little about who you are.

A big part of Internet marketing is building mutually beneficial relationships. If you have some valuable knowledge, share this with your readers and ask for nothing in return. If you have a way with words and funny antic dotes, make them laugh. The retail transactions take a back seat to personal interaction and honest communication. You want the people on your list to regard you as a friend, and you want them to see you as a leader.

It doesnt matter whether your list is built on the premise of a ten day automated training series, or weekly updates that you send manually. The relevant issue is how personal you make each message that you compose.

Provide your contact information in every email you send, and encourage people to use it. Let your subscribers know on a regular basis that you would be happy to hear from them.

Always respond as quickly as possible to any correspondence you receive from a member of your personal list. A subscriber who takes the time to contact you should be treated as your top priority.

Ultimately, you want to create more than just a list of people who are willing to receive your emails. You should be striving to build a dedicated audience who reads your messages as soon as they find them and looks forward to your next communication.

Every leader has a following, and by this token every successful Internet marketer has an audience. The way to achieve this is by giving your opt-in prospects more information than they need, and always taking the time to help them, or even just chat with them, when they ask for it. Become the person your readers go to when they have a question and your road to profit will become a lot shorter and much less bumpy.

Successful Internet marketing is not about blasting your ads to 1 million random email addresses or posting your text links on every site that will accept them. Its about stepping out of the crowd and being viewed as someone who has a purpose and a message.

You cant fake it. But you can do it if you are willing to put yourself out there.

Tim Whiston is a full-time entrepreneur and Internet marketer. He provides design and marketing services, and has published a number of popular e-books. Check out his Internet Marketing Course to learn more. http://www.timwhiston.com/course.phpErtha Blog35535
Veradis Blog70746

Affiliate Marketing - the very basics.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

It is a very popular business model to follow because it is probably the lowest cost method of starting an Internet Business.

The concept called Affiliate Marketing is very simple in that you sell or promote someone else's service or product in return for a commission or fee.

This business model exists in many forms, and are commonly called Affiliate Programs. You join the Affiliate Program that the Merchant is operating that is selling the particular product you are interested in promoting. The most common types of programs are as follows:

1. Pay per click - commission will be paid by the merchant for each visitor to his website.

2. Pay per lead - you are paid for each lead delivered to the merchant's website.

3. Pay per sale - you are paid for each sale completed at the merchant's website.

Each one of the above returns a certain payment for delivering the click, lead, or sale. By far the largest number of businesses online work on the Pay per Sale system.

Many Internet Marketers will guide the beginner into Affiliate Marketing because it is considered to be the simplest business model to get started as well as develop. It is also considered to be the cheapest method of starting your Internet Business.

Your prime costs will be in the promotion of the product or service. All the costs associated with the product, sales page, delivery, after sales service, as well as the merchant services set up and costs, will be to the merchant's account.

When starting your internet business through affiliate marketing there are five steps to follow to ensure success:

1. A niche market is your first target - one that preferably interests you and is large enough for you to expand your business within it.

2. Find what is deficient in the current market, a product or service, or possibly a problem that needs resolving.

3. Research the available affiliate products and services for something that will rectify the deficiency or solve the problem.

4. You must promote the product or service.

5. It helps if you have a website of your own which allows you to pre-sell the product before redirecting the visitor to the merchant's sales page. Your own website can also start generating your own opt-in list.

The requirement for your own website is something that needs careful attention as it will be the way to develop and grow your own targeted list to which you can promote other affiliate products and grow your business.

The one objective that you will need is to create a trusting relationship with your customers as well as your partners. Whether it is Affiliate Marketing, or any other business model that you base your business on, it is of paramount importance to create this trust. Honesty is the key word to be remembered when dealing with potential customers because after a short time they will come to rely on your judgment will start, then continue to buy upon your recommendation.

Derek Jones - helping online businesses get started as well as growing existing businesses into successful entities. For more information why not sign up for our free weekly newsletter at: http://www.newbieshelp.com/Adtrakz/go.php?c=adaffmar1Fania Blog96714
Evanne Blog84022

How To Start On Your Road To Riches With Google AdWords Today!

How to start on your road to riches with Google AdWords today! Follow these simple steps and be inspired by this article that shows you how to make money online today.

First, find a product you want to promote, something you feel passionate about and that you know people will want it. Start with simple products such as software or ebook, a good place to start is to go to ClickBank.com and do a bit of research on the products you are looking for.

Second, perform a simple keyword research to identify potential target market, you can go to inventory.overture.com to find out what are the more popular keywords people are searching for.

Third, go and register an account at google.com/adwords and follow the simple instruction to put an AdWords advertisement with popular keywords to drive targeted visitors to your landing page or merchant website.

Fourth, it is important to have a landing page or opt in page to build your email list. It is vital to get an autoresponder as soon as possible to build your list.

Fifth, you will get paid whenever a visitor you refer makes a purchase or completes a required "call-to-action".

Before you go through these five steps, you must visualize success and see yourself making money online. You also need to be willing to invest in yourself, to learn as much as possible. You must be teachable and believe that you can do it. You also must identify a team you can work with or find a mentor who is willing to guide you. And most important of all you must enjoy what you are doing and that is why I ask you to find a product you are passionate about or believe wholeheartedly it will help people who need a solution to their problem. And, of course, you must take action and have enough discipline to commit to daily action to work on your computer and start making money online!

I've attended a world-famous personal development program called Money & YOU and one of the popular teachings is "The highest form of leverage is...EDUCATION" How much have you invested in educating yourself on personal development and business? Jay Abraham, the world renowned marketing genius, and my marketing guru, has constantly taught his students that marketing can give you great leverage and returns of thousands of percent!

It is obvious that if you want to be rich, you must do what the rich people are doing! Successful people are willing to share how they achieve their wealth and there are no secrets. There are lots of books written on creating wealth and lots of information is freely available from the Internet. This year I invested over $10,000 to learn more about internet marketing, you must be willing to invest before you can create wealth.

There are no short cuts, you must invest time, money and effort if you are serious about making money online! I happily invested $3,995 to learn from Jay Abraham about marketing at his 3-day billion dollar marketing weekend. And there were over 500 people from China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Singapore attending this special marketing seminar. And many of the participants were millionaires, CEOs, and top executives. This clearly shows that successful people are constantly investing in themselves.

Here's a great marketing tip for you, it is not how much you put into your business, it is how much your return on investment that you should focus on! If every $100 worth of advertisement gives you a $200 profit can you afford to keep on advertising it again and again? Of course, you will want to do it again and again because you have created a positive cashflow of $100 each time you place an advertisement!

There are literally thousands of people worldwide making decent part-time income through AdWords on the Internet, and it is a good start to generate your seed money for creating wealth! Do you believe you can make money from a 25 cent advertisment? Yes, you can if you have the knowledge on how to do it! Again, do not expect to achieve riches in a very short time, it does take time and for a few special ones it may take months and for most people it probably take years! It all depends on your burning desire and your commitment to creating wealth so that you can enjoy a better lifestyle!

For more information on how you can start on your road to riches with Google AdWords, go to:

http://www.AdwordsMarketingTips.com

Feel free to use this article on your website or ezine as long as the following information about author/website is included.

Bruce Seah is a Marketing Consultant and has been in internet marketing since 1999. Visit my website: http://www.BusinessAtAClick.comValry Blog42580
Esther Blog84372

What Is So Different About The Berry Tree?

The Berry Tree offers a new and unique form of marketing, with a patent pending system that enables you to participate in a business where your advertising is included and managed by world-class marketers. Unlike typical Internet or Network Marketing, where the only way to make money is to sell products or sponsor people, The Berry Tree's fully automated system handles the sales and prospecting for you.

The Berry Tree is one of the most hands off opportunities ever put together. Passive members can just pay their memberships and then watch their business grow.

How is this possible? The creators have set up a system that guarantees success by doing the advertising for their members. So, if you join and do not quit you will have the opportunity to share on the money earned by every member, even those that joined before you!

This system is so unique that it is actually patent pending. It may just revolutionize the network marketing industry. How many programs do you know of that can provide an additional revenue stream without additional work?

Your membership includes corporate managed advertising which is used to bring in new members and customers. They buy in bulk and work with some of the top ad agencies in the world to get more of every dollar.

Even though you do not have to actually do anything to build your Berry business there are two ways to make more money, faster:

1. The advertising that is included in all memberships builds your business.

This guaranteed advertising brings in new members that are distributed evenly all through the existing members downline. New members are placed under existing members depending on their enrollment date. Since your membership actually includes advertising to help build your business your success does not depend on your marketing experience only.

The more members that join, the more advertising dollars there are to grow your business.

2. Advertise on your own to build your Berry business.

If you would like to make more money, faster you can also sponsor others. This will allow you to get into profit faster and you also get to earn on everyone in the program. Even those who joined before you!

There is no other program like this one.

* You will be placed in the highest position based on enroll date.

* Your branches are filled by the company and members who joined before you.

* You automatically get multiple profit centers.

* You have the ability to earn on EVERYONE in the company.

* You have the option of a Powerline Income with the Passive Income Bonus.

* The Sr. Certificate gives enables you to earn at a higher level than you have achieved.

Another unique feature of the program is that as your business grows and you move up you can participate in Bonus Pools. What this means is that you can begin to earn extra money on all the Berry Tree members, no matter who sponsored them or when they joined.

There are six ways to earn:

1. The Tree will be Filled by enroll date.

2. Multiple Profit Centers - Automatically allows you to double or triple your check!

3. Fast Start Bonus. Earn $27.00 on personal referrals.

4. Leadership Bonuses. Allows you to earn on every member in the company.

5. Passive Income Bonus. Even more ways to earn.

6. Customer Orders. Earn 30% on Customers.

The Berry Tree may just be the program you are looking for, especially if you do not like to personally refer others.

They are currently in the pre launch phase so now is the time to get in on this great opportunity.

It is unlike anything found on the internet today.

The higher positions are the most valuable due to the way the members will be placed from the guaranteed advertising.

So take action now and start your online business today!

Copyright 2007 Joe Rispoli

Joe Rispoli has been involved with Network Marketing for over 10 years. Get the absolute best postion available in the BerryTree right now, right here: http://www.TheBerryTreeTour.comEsmeralda Blog59115
Vita Blog30612

Internet Scams - Work At Home Scams

It makes no difference if you are thinking about starting a business, shopping or just looking for a new job online, you can protect yourself from some of the cleverest scams online if you just follow the simple steps below.

(1) You can always find out information on a company or person by doing a quick search online. Go to Goggle or Yahoo and type in the company or person name and then type in the word scam after. Follow all leads. If no leads show up, then that is a good thing. It means there are no complaints on them online.

(2) Check with the state's Attorney General's Office to see if the company or person have received a series of complaints.

(3) Check with the National Fraud Information Center at: www.fraud.org to see if the company or person is listed. They provide a lot of information about telephone, mail, and online scams.

(4) Make sure the company or person you plan to do business with have a phone number and physical address. Call the company or person to see if the phone number actually belongs to them.

(5) Always make sure that you get a guarantee. Ask the company what will happen if you want to return the product or what do you need to do if you want a refund.

(6) Be cautious of companies who ask for your bank account info, or ask permission to deposit money into your bank account.

(7) Try to use your credit card instead of cash if you buy a product or invest in a business opportunity. That way if you do get ripped off, it may be easier to dispute the charges with your credit card company.

(8) Never do business with anyone in the country of Nigeria. If you do, you are fair game. The Nigerian Government is in on most of the scams from that country. This is just too large a business for Nigeria to crack down on. It would be like Nevada trying to close the casinos in Las Vegas. There have been numerous reports of high-level officials of the Nigerian government and the Central Bank of Nigeria personally participating in some scams.

(9) Don't reply to bulk email. You don't wont to do business with someone who likes to spam people. Why? If they are bold enough to spam you, then they are bold enough to ripping you off!

(10) Never buy a product or business opportunity with out getting a receipt or confirmation number. If you don't get one or the other, then it's your word against theirs. With out proof, you will loose every time.

(11) Use common sense! If it sound too good to be true! Guess what? Its a scam!

Don't Become Their Next Victim.

© Copy right 2005-06 by Table Top Cash Inc. Randy McClurkin is the owner and founder of http://www.tabletopcash.com which is a website devoted to information regarding scams.Ertha Blog13235
Violetta Blog65830

Paid Search Campaigns: What Makes The Heavy Lifting So Heavy?

IT IS A CRITICAL COMPONENT of the day-to-day tasks that occur behind the scenes of any paid search marketing campaign. It's commonly experienced by those on the frontlines. It is a necessary evil. It is something that does not need to be so complex and cumbersome--but often is.

Simply put, it is customer service. But in this case it is the engine's service of its customer--the agency.

It's only keywords and textlinks

On the surface, our clients are presented with only the end product--neat, detailed, executive-level campaign summaries and charts that indicate efficient search marketing performance tied with strategic recommendations. Often these summaries validate the need for an ongoing search marketing presence. Clients also understand such top-level tactics as expanded keyword lists and lowered bids for non-performing terms.

What remains hidden is the time-consuming back and forth with each engine in order to ensure a perfect launch or retrieve ongoing campaign updates. As much as we try to streamline our interactions with the engines, there will always be a need for constant conversations and confirmations. If you haven't already today, please go thank your campaign managers for what they frequently have to endure.

As mentioned by Gord Hotchkiss in a previous "Search Insider" article, those not connected to our industry tend to simplify what we do as nothing more than "typ[ing] phrases to drive ad traffic." If only it were that simple.

The customer (agency) is always right...sometimes

Each engine has its own methodologies, terms and conditions, processes and policies. During the course of a paid search marketing campaign, you may very well experience one or some of the following issues that contribute to the "heavy lifting," such as:

Regardless of client pedigree and potential, you're required to invest a monthly minimum spend threshold. Last time I checked, there was more than one engine in the marketplace.

The text creative that you initially submitted, following several stakeholders' approval, has mysteriously been altered based on what the engine "felt would perform better."

When they were asked for explanations on what the effect of certain engine guidelines (such as cosmetic changes in the way a result would be listed) would mean for existing campaigns, engine staffers simply stated that they "don't know" and they "were not privy to that information from upper management." How can we set our client expectations when the engines themselves are unable to provide guidance?

Without prior notification, your set daily spend caps are exceeded above a normal percentage. The engine claims there was an unforeseen "system error," and kindly apologizes for burning through a large percent of your monthly budget.

Somehow another advertiser is securing sponsored listings against your client's brand name. You're aware of the engine's policy and have taken action, yet the advertiser's listings links to a page that is not compliant with the engine's existing list of guidelines. Poor result relevancy is more important than trademark infringement?

Depending on your client's business, setting up a new campaign requires coordination with several engine representatives that in some way serve the same purpose or do not effectively communicate. Remember the days of ONE engine representative handling ALL of your paid search campaigns, regardless of vertical?

While these issues have not affected our client's campaign performances, because experience allows all of us to set realistic turnaround times and expectations, they have cost us all additional hours in dealing with the engines behind the scenes. Maybe no one side is to blame. Maybe these are just outcomes of our industry's tremendous growth spurt in the past few years. Is there a fix?

Industry standards?

While all engines do their best to fix any unforeseen system glitches, editorial oversights or overall lapses in customer service, one question still remains--can standardization minimize pain points and improve engine-to-agency customer service?

Are these issues isolated incidents, or industry-wide? At a recent conference, this was a recurring topic of discussion among a few SEM enthusiasts. Feedback among the group was mixed. There was no unanimous engine winner or loser. For every account of an engine that did something great, there was a horror story worse than any in the aforementioned list.

Thankfully, it appears that the engines are heading in a direction of standardizing some of their offerings, including text creative character limitations, soon-to-be-special algorithms for determining a sponsored ad's rank, and dayparting capabilities. This will at least allow for a common level of expectations around process and procedures. How long before standardized back-end financial systems, electronic insertion orders, trademark policies and agency relationship models follow?

Will things get worse before they get better?

We're in this together

Every day brings another announcement about an engine's new technology, acquisition or ad management component. So, nothing indicates that our jobs will get easier. I'm sure we can all say that the various engines' customer service has improved over the past few years, but it is not ideal. Agencies will continue to offer solutions on how this can be improved. Engines will continue to make minor improvements here and there. Our industry will continue to evolve.

At the end of the day, our interests should be aligned with delivering value to our clients and making the heavy lifting a little lighter.

Erik Harbison writes about SEO, SEM and search engine optimization, You can contact him through http://www.albaengine.com.Ethyl Blog58487
Ethyl Blog58487

How To Find A Good Internet Marketing Affiliate Program

You would think that finding a good internet marketing affiliate program wouldn't be that big of a deal, however, there are definitely good affiliate programs and bad affiliate programs online, so it's very important that you get a "heads up" so you don't get ripped off.

The first thing that you should be on the lookout for is if a company wants to charge you a fee for becoming a member. Most of these types of companies are Network Marketing or "pyramid schemes". I have nothing personal against "some" Network Marketing companies, as some of them do provide a good service or product. Actually, the Network Marketing business model is fantastic, if the rest of the world would just grasp it. Anyway, I'm getting off topic, but my point is that there are many companies that have given Network Marketing or "Multi-Level" Marketing a bad name so be very careful. That's not what you're looking for.

A legitimate affiliate program won't try to charge you a fee. They'll actually do pretty much everything they can to help you succeed because they realize that your success is their success too. This makes complete sense. Here are a couple reputable affiliate networks you can join that are excellent.

Commission Junction - http://www.cj.com

These guys are probably one of the most popular affiliate networks and are very reputable. They specialize in hard goods/physical products, but also offer service related merchants and business to business. The CJ interface can be challenging to navigate at first, but once you figure it out it's a breeze. Highly recommended.

Linkshare - http://www.linkshare.com

Also highly recommended. These guys have really taken off over the past few years and are giving CJ a run for their money. They sold out to a Japanese firm for over $400 million dollars several months ago and have since attracted many new major vendors.

There are several more like these two, but this should get you on the right track. Make certain to take advantage of CJU (Commission Junction University) as it's another great place to learn the basics of affiliate marketing. After studying a bit more, finding a good internet marketing affiliate program will be a breeze for you. I hope this helps you out.

Don't make these Affiliate mistakes or you may be throwing your time and money out the window. Grab your free copy of "Top 10 Affiliate Mistakes" right now at http://www.MakeAffiliateCash.com. Joe Stewart is an Internet Marketer and successful small business owner offline.Valentia Blog21624
Vanya Blog61217

Selling Guaranteed Sales Strategy to BIG Money

Good salespeople are aggressive, dynamic types. Everybody knows that.

There are plenty of good salespeople out there. They have good product knowledge. They have good selling skills. And they are likable.

The more competition you have, the more products that can do the same or similar things as yours, the more you need to help and advise your customers, not just sell to them.

Great salespeople are an extremely valuable commodity because they are in such short supply. So, what are the bottom line differences between good salespeople and great?

Great salespeople are continually trying to better themselves. They are always layering on new skills while honing the skills they already have.

Dont just be GOOD. Many of your competitors are good and theyre doing everything that they can to be better. Become dissatisfied with good. If you are good want to be excellent. Then become dissatisfied with excellent. When you are excellent, want to be outstanding. Continue along this path as far as you can.

Great salespeople also have a higher level of ambition than ordinary

salespeople. Sure, they want all of the things that money can buy, such as bigger houses bigger cars and more interesting vacations. They also want the non tangible things that money can buy such as respect, admiration and more freedom.

Another big difference between good and great is that great salespeople have a love for selling.

Now, you and I both know that its possible to make a great deal of money selling without having any love for it. So, whats the big deal?

The big deal is that at the end of a long career in sales, you have been competing against people who do love it. This means that for your entire career you have been competing against people who are willing to invest more time, and more energy in what they do for a living because they love what theyre doing.

Putting more time and energy into any endeavor will almost always lead to greater success. This is as true for selling as it is for playing chess, playing piano or playing baseball.

Imagine working for thirty years competing against people like that. For most of your career, you will feel like the salmon swimming upstream. You will have had a very long, very tiring journey, and, at the end of this long journey you will be completely worn out.

But, most importantly, great salespeople are great because they want to get the most out of themselves. The big money is a byproduct of being great. Its just another way of keeping score.

Winner Take All

Selling is a winner take all competition. The customer rewards the winner at the expense of everybody else. If you are even just slightly better than your competition, you will earn much, much more money.

Lets say you and I are competing salesmen, going after the same big account. If you are only 2 percent better than I am - follow-up, service, closing ability, etc. and you make the sale, do you get only 2 percent more commission than I do? Of course not. You get it all. You get 100 percent and I get nothing.

That's why a very small increase in your ability or effectiveness can lead to a very large increase in your income.

Here is the one thing that you can do to give yourself that extra advantage over your competition. This is the one strategy that can catapult you from good to great. By adding this one weapon to your arsenal you can guarantee yourself that you will dramatically increase your income.

The solution is to study and understand how your customer is going to use your goods or services in depth. The best salespeople see things through their customers' eyes. You must not only profile your customer, you must profile their customer too.

Thats it. The fastest way to dramatically increase your sales is to understand and help your customers customers.

CONCLUSION

Each and every single day, we are being tested as salespeople because clients and prospects vote with the dollars they spend.

Show the buyer how they will make or save money by using your goods or services. It is even better if you can translate that into dollars and cents.

Do these things and I can assure you that you will have all of the great successes that your heart desires.

Gary Wollin is a Warren Buffet style investment advisor with 45+ years of Wall Street experience. He has been regularly featured in The Wall Street Journal and New York Times. He writes and speaks on sales, customer loyalty, and the stock market. http://www.garywollin.comValida Blog15196
Vicky Blog68376

Website Builder: What Are Your Options?

Building a website is an undertaking similar to how you first started your business. You planned what you wanted and went for it. You put in the time and still do, to ensure that your business functions smoothly.

Its no different with a website. You have to maintain the website because if you dont the content (words and phrases) become obsolete and the information hungry website visitor wont visit because there isnt anything to keep them on your website. Nothing of interest translates into nothing of value.

When undertaking your website building, you need to ask yourself these questions:

1) What do I want my website to accomplish?

It is very important to know before hand what you wish your website to accomplish. For example, if you have a website that provides information for a specific disease, you may want your website to be the place where professionals meet to give their opinions and write articles.

Other website business owners may wish their website to sell products and services. Research into what the numbers and other statistics will help you determine whether there is enough interest in order to justify owning a website.

2) How much am I willing to spend?

The cost of your website is also another important consideration. Obviously, you dont want to spend an outrageous amount, although you dont want to initially spend so little that in the long run, it costs you more to operate the cheaper website.

3) Do I want to learn HTML?

Learning HTML is important to any website building, even if you choose not to build it yourself. Why? You wont be held hostage and be paying for regular maintenance (that you can do) cheaper and with a sense of satisfaction. Learning HTML will also allow you to negotiate better in the long run because you will know what it takes to build, maintain, and create content for your website.

4) How much time can I devote to my website?

The time that you put into your website is important. Your website business success hinges on regular maintenance. Just like your vehicle, your health and anything else that has value, regularly devoting a specific amount of time will prevent major issues in the long run.

5) Are my expectations equal to what my website goals?

Sometimes we have expectations that do not seem in line with our goals. For example, if you wish to have your website ranked #1 within the 2nd day of having your website up and running, well that may be an unreasonable expectation considering that your website has only been on-line for 2 days. Ensure that your expectations are reasonable and you will be able to satisfy those expectations.

6) Are my website goals attainable?

Your website goals need to be attainable. This step goes hand-in-hand with question 5. Without attainable goals, youre setting yourself and your website business for failure even before your website goes on-line. Attainable goals may be modified after each is attained. For example, you may wish to increase your website rankings by 5 places by the end of the year by following a specific marketing plan. The key is to plan out how these goals are to be obtained and if they are indeed attainable.

These 6 questions are important when asking whether a website building experience will help you and your website business goals. By planning and mapping out what you want, you will ensure that your website building goals are on track to attaining the success you desire.

Mark Gerrard is the Development Manager of the Freestart Website Builder Platform. See our website builder in action at http://www.freestart.com Esma Blog62881
Frankie Blog70603

DIY Public Relations

Ever felt aggrieved that other entrepreneurs make the headlines but you dont? Louise Third, founder of Integra Communications, the enterprise PR specialists, says its not as tough as it looks; it just requires planning and the application of some basic rules.

Kevin and Dawn Hartley, the owners of Mozarts Restaurant in Nottingham have tangible evidence that a planned use of PR can significantly improve sales. The couple, who opened the 40-seat restaurant in November 2002, decided to take every opportunity to contact their local press and radio with news and comment. Their opening was marked on Radio Trent FM with champagne and canaps and was followed a month later by a 2 hour Christmas Show broadcast live from the restaurant. BBC Radio Nottingham carried a Valentines recipe on the website and 50,000 listeners enjoyed a live cooking session in association with the Nottingham Restaurant Awards.

Our biggest media coverage success came on National No-Smoking Day in 2004 when we took the decision to announce that Mozarts had become Nottinghams first totally non-smoking restaurant, says Head Chef Kevin. Not only did BBC Radio Nottingham interview us then, but when the government White Paper on smoking was published last November, we were bombarded with requests for interviews. Kevin and Dawn found themselves on several local radio stations, and in front of regional TV cameras. Although the media requests were quite demanding, the couple made themselves available for interview, thus helping the journalists complete their work and gaining a profile for the restaurant. As a direct result of their PR efforts, the Hartleys have enjoyed a 15% rise in trade.

Inside every small business is a story bursting to get out. Start with that positive attitude and you will get thinking creatively about possible media coverage. A clever use of public relations will help people to understand what you offer, will gradually build your reputation and keep you at the forefront of peoples minds ahead of the competition!

Basic rules

The fact that Kevin and Dawn planned a media campaign as part of their overall sales strategy brings us to the first rule of sound public relations:

1. Use PR as an integral part of your marketing plan: once you have decided the level of sales you need to breakeven and then to make a profit, identify those who need to know about you and what you offer. If you have opened a new shop, customers may be very local but if you specialise they may travel from much further away. Perhaps you coach senior executives to cope in stressful conditions: then your potential clients may be the UKs FTSE 100 companies or large public corporations. You may decide to use a combination of direct mail, networking so you get referrals/recommendations and publicity.

2. Identify what your target customers read, watch and listen to. This is likely to be a mixture of local, regional and national papers, trade or professional magazines, local and national radio stations and TV, not to mention all the New Media options. If it is practical, ask them; if you are visiting their premises, what publications can you see in reception? Make a list, find the name of the most relevant editor or feature writer and call them to see how they would like to receive your news. The fax machine used to be widely used to issue press releases; this was then overtaken by email, but ironically many PR firms are reverting to fax; it cant be erased or ignored and is still cheaper than post. Then theres the direct call to the journalist or news desk.if you have a very strong story. However, be realistic. Dont set your sights on regular television coverage, but equally dont rule it out (at least regionally).

3. Find the news. Be ruthless and think like a journalist, otherwise your release will get tossed in the bin. The journalist will be looking for things their readers will find interesting, amusing or useful. Here are a few ideas, but there are as many permutations as there are businesses:

a significant new contract
launch of a survey / report
a new appointment
sponsorship of a local charity / event
welcome or condemn new policy/proposals
claim first/last/biggest/latest (but avoid best!)
launch a campaign / involve a celebrity
letters to the Editor

During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I helped a client, Linda Russell, to launch a new shop in north-Nottinghamshire. Not that newsworthy you may think, but this was no ordinary shop and Linda is no ordinary lady. Having recovered from breast cancer and reconstructive surgery at the age of 31, Linda launched Perfect Fit, an online service selling the latest designs and styles of lingerie for women with post-operative needs. The shop would allow Linda to display her stock, provide a professional fitting service and offer a sanctuary for women to meet and talk. We issued a pre-opening media release with the headline, Lindas Perfect Fit helps Breast Cancer blues and linked the launch to Breast Cancer Awareness month by including a quote and useful statistics from the regional Cancer Research UK representative. This small campaign had all the necessary hooks for media coverage and gave the journalists what they needed. As a result Linda received full page and editorial coverage in the main regional press, feature and interview slots on local radio and a phone-in on BBC Radio Nottingham. Timing, planning and sensitive delivery was all it took.

4. Write the media release. Although you want to encourage the journalists to use your story, this is not a sales pitch, so avoid gushing praise of yourself and your product. Here are some basic guidelines:

Cover the facts in the first paragraph including who, what, why, when, where and how as clearly as you can.

The second paragraph should build on the first and carry any significant facts

Include a quote; this adds personality and endorsement to the story

Use Notes at the end to carry background information which reporters can use for research. Remember to include a contact name and number.

Choose a simple, attention-grabbing headline which re-enforces the overall message

Type MEDIA RELEASE at the top, date it and indicate when the information can be published.

Use A4 paper, 1.5 line-spacing, wide margins and type

ENDS to indicate you have finished.

Limit your release to one page if possible, two at the most. Short, informative and interesting goes down well with busy reporters.

A well constructed, high resolution (300 dpi) photo can turn a mediocre story into the one that gets coverage.

Proof-read the release before it goes out. Then get someone else to do it again. Its amazzing what you can misss

5. The follow-up. So far so good, but now comes the tricky bit: you need to check that the right person has got your release and if so, talk to them about the chances of it being used. Always assume the journalist or editor is busy and ask if they are free to talk. Be prepared as they may have additional questions and may need convincing of the strength of your story. Dont say anything you wouldnt want reported if it sounds as though they are interviewing you. Radio stations will either pre-record an interview in person or over the phone, or ask you into the studio, again to pre-record or go live. Check that you know exactly what to expect; it is not unreasonable to ask what the questions might be.

Kevin Hartley of Mozarts Restaurant has learned a great deal from the experience and has no doubt that working with the media is good for business. You need to make yourself media-friendly; that means being very flexible so they can meet their deadlines. You need to build a list of contacts at the local radio, press and TV offices and be bold enough to pick up the phone when you have some news. We now seem to be in their database, so journalists wanting a restaurateur to comment on something seem to ring me. It just goes to show how even the smallest business can make headlines .

Finally, as media relations is a commercial activity you should try to measure the effect any exposure has had. It can be as simple as monitoring phones calls and website hits in the period immediately following the coverage. If you convert these into sales, all the better. If people are more aware of you, introductions become that much easier. Stick at it and you will be amazed how a little effort can go along way.

Mozarts Restaurant: http://www.mozarts.co.uk
Perfect Fit: http://www.perfectfit-online.co.uk

Louise Third is a Partner in Integra Communications http://www.integracommunications.co.uk Alongside the agency, Louise provides a coaching service, giving PR guidance to smaller businesses who might not be able to afford an agency but are prepared to do the legwork themselves.Viola Blog12750
Fidela Blog6545

Commit A Revolutionary Act

"During times of deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." George Orwell.

This is a chapter heading in the wonderful new book, Naked Conversations, an eye opening discussion on how blogs (=web logs like this one) continue to change lives - business and personal.

A central theme of Naked is how blogs are forcing businesses to be more transparent in the way they market and advertise. This is a good thing, because I for one never know what to believe anymore when a marketer starts talking. And it's not just me.

"Whatever happened to honesty in business?" they ask on the back cover.

There are countless examples of companies who have hidden the truth in their advertising and promotion, and some of those deceptions were discovered and made known to the unsuspecting public by bloggers.

Many people who are in a deception mode when they try to sell an idea, product or program, use descriptions like "white lies" or "tell her on a need-to-know basis," or they focus on an exaggerated fear of loss. (See "You are Pre-Approved" for the low-down on the cheap trick Chase Bank played on me.)

Be transparent. That's what authors Scoble and Israel advise all marketers and advertisers. That includes us promoting our business and products.

Transparent means not hiding things that someone will eventually discover later, which they will not like. Rememeber the yummie-looking fat red strawberries at the top of the basket, but then after you get home and unseal the plastic cover, you find the mildewy small ones at the bottom?

NOT a transparent transaction. You didn't get what they made you think you were getting, did you? And of course you found out later, AFTER you got home and had already made the purchase. I know I look extra hard at the sides and bottoms of these fresh fruit containers now, except when I shop at places where I know they would NEVER knowingly do that.

Now cut to our business. How was the business presented to you? Did they tell you the yummie good stuff, and kind of wait until later to tell you the maybe not so yummie stuff? Or maybe they never told you at all and make you feel like it's somehow YOUR fault? Like how much work it really takes to make a go of the business? Or how hard it is to find a good business builder?

I've offered a short list of things, that people often "forget" to mention when they're promoting the business. In case.

Lack of transparency. That's one BIG reason people don't trust marketers, advertisers and promoters. Including network marketer recruiters. We're perceived as less than transparent for reasons we all know and maybe have been guilty of ourselves.

Assignment:

What would you tell a prospective recruit today about your business, so that you'd feel like your presentation is transparent?

Go ahead. Commit a a revolutionary act.

Kim Klaver is Harvard & Stanford educated. Her 20 years experience in network marketing have resulted in a popular blog, http://KimKlaverBlogs.com, a podcast, http://YourGreatThing.com and a giant resource site, http://BananaMarketing.com.Etty Blog61201
Fatima Blog79579

Professional Keyword Research Strategies

Keyword research is an integral part of any SEM initiative, whether it may be PPC or SEO, so its important to do it right. Its also important to do it right from the start, Google spiders (the bots that indexes web pages) can takes up to months before they cycle to your site, so if you target the wrong keywords initially, it could take months to fix.

Weve briefly listed the top 5 things to consider before you begin your fun journey of keyword researching.

1. Define your targeted pages

You should recognize what goals you want to achieve. If you are looking to sell cars, you want to optimize the pages containing information on a specific type of car or pages containing content that will lead them to buy a car. Pages such as the About Us page, History page probably wont need optimization since no one is specifically searching for those pages. Make a list of the pages you feel would provide a lead for your business, and target the keywords on those pages.

2. Speak the way your audiences speak

While the correct term to describe your product may seem obvious to you, you need to speak your audiences language in order to show up for their searches. For example, if you are selling GPS navigation systems, a person may have searched for GPS systems. It may not be the most politically correct term (Global Positioning System Systems), but if thats what everyone is using to find the item you are selling, you may need to consider it as a keyword to target.

3. Know your competition

Sure, ranking number one for cars would drive up your web traffic exponentially. But what are your chances of obtaining that ranking? Typically, one word keywords are extremely difficult to optimize for because millions of pages on the web are already well optimized for it without even knowing it (unless you want to optimize for kukukabo)

If you are in a very competitive industry (in the internet world) such as gaming, gambling, insurance and such, you may find it helpful to pin down your keywords to a more niche and targeted level. For example, if you are selling cars in Toronto, you may want to combine Toronto with cars, or if you are targeting a specific demographic, you may want to include that it in keyword. You may find that the competition for that term drops significantly, thereby, increasing your chances of success.

By increasing your presence for these targeted key terms, you are in a better position to optimize for more ambitious keywords in the future.

4. Using the right tools

By no means are the following the only tools you should use, but they are some popular free keyword research tools that are simple, straightforward and ideal to help you get started in keyword researching.

Overture Keyword Selector Tool

- Type in your keyword and it will show you some popular related searches and its search volume during a one month period

- Be cautioned however that the words within each keyphrase are rearranged in alphabetical order. For example, if you search for New York Horse Racing, it would show up as Horse New Racing York

Google AdWords Keywords Tool

- Type in your keyword and it will show you the search volume, competition levels, synonyms and display some useful data for budgeting when setting up your PPC campaign in Google

NLC Keyword Competition Index

While this is currently in development, we are providing a tool that shows you the competition you face for each keyword. This index will help you determine your chances of success at optimizing for each term. The NLC folks here are using it internally and its one of the best things for Search Engine Marketers since sliced cheese. We will provide more details to this tool in our blog in the future, so stay tuned!

5. Snoop on your competitors

After having a good set of keywords, go ahead and search for them in Google. Take note of the top results, if they are selling or promoting what you are, these are competitors. Browse through their site and keep an eye out for keywords they are using. It may help to view their Meta tags and description by going into the page source code (View > Source).

6. Smooth Integration with page content

PPC

While in PPC, you have the freedom to target more broad terms and loosely related terms, you must also consider that people who have clicked on your ad are expecting to see what they searched for. If your site has no relevance to what they keyword was, you probably just wasted $0.50.

SEO

When choosing keywords for SEO, you need to be much more selective. Remember, you will need to put these keywords on your page, and if you want to do SEO well, these terms are probably going to be in very prominent areas on your page. Make sure these terms make sense and can fit well into the context of your content.

Remember, when doing keyword research for SEO initiatives; do not ONLY aim for the terms with highest search volume and lowest competition. While that is generally a good rule of thumb, you must not forget the main point of search engine optimization, you are delivering more web users to your site, but you will ultimately need your web content to speak to your potential customers, so using keywords that make sense, and are related to your content is just as important as choosing obtainable keywords.

Jason Lam is a member of the Search Engine Marketing group at non-linear creations, Jason has a wealth of experience in everything SEO, PPC and SEM while working with many clients from varying industries.Freddy Blog56853
Fiann Blog56824

Marketing Without Selling

I remember back in the mid 90s when I was "in between" jobs, in debt and broke. My "in between" job status at that time for a period of about one year was a car salesman. Now, I know what your thinking. Why? My answer.....hmmmmmmmm. Anyhow, it happened and as it turned out, it became quite a learning experience. What I experienced as a car salesman in my very brief career by choice, was rather disturbing. This is by no means an article on selling cars. This is what salesmanship is and is not.

So I was in the car business, and was virtually taught the wrong way to be a salesman or salesperson. When it comes to shopping for a car, overall it becomes somewhat a rather unpleasant experience for all parties involved. Here is a typical day in the car business: You wake up in the morning to put on the shirt and tie for the day in the middle of July in Florida. Its about one hundred degrees with humidity. You get in the car and drive to work asking yourself, why......why..... because you know there is going to be an unpleasant experience waiting somewhere around the corner.You arrive at work and find yourself getting ready for the morning "meeting abuse" which always ends up that we are terrible salesman and we need to sell cars! Really? We need to sell cars? Ok. So, after the meeting we all leave the room with bruises and bumps and we are ready to practice the art of being a salesman.

For those of you who do not know, when a person arrives on the lot to car shop, he is referred to as an "up" in the car business. Usually, all of the salespeople are lined up outside like vultures waiting for an "up" so we can swoop in and turn on the really lame salesman charm. Now, at this point, you meet the customer. "Hi, my name is Dave" (smile). Then, the customer replies, "Were just looking". Of course they are just looking. Not by the time I get through with you. By the time we get through with you, you might be running out the door and never look back.

So, Im following the "We are just looking" people around the lot because if I don't, I will get yelled at by the powers that be. The potential customers that I am with do not want me near them at all at this point.And with good reason. Car shopping and or buying is the equivalent of going to the dentist. It can be a painful experience.

Now I am asking the nice folks on the lot all types of questions, trying to create trust and learning something about them that will help me sell to them. This is an ok method for the car business, because this is the way it has been taught. Now the problem from the "get go", is that most customers back then were the old school. To them, car buying was rolling up your sleeves and get ready to do battle. That's really not the way I want to make a living, but that's what it was.

So, what do you really have from this? You have uninformed people at all angles. First of all, customers come onto the lot thinking their "trade-in" is worth a fortune. And to there surprise, it's not. They did not do their own research on their "trade-in". Second, they don't know what they want. They want to spend no money on a car they can not afford to begin with. Again, they did not do their research.

Now, another problem. As a salesman, if you are going to make it in the business of selling anything, you have to rise above everyone else and figure out a strategy that is going to attract people to you automatically without being annoying and pushy from the start. I noticed that most of the salesman on the lot were not doing anything but waiting for something to happen, and unfortunately I was one of them. Because I didn't know either.

Now, when I could not close someone, here comes the sales manager thinking he's the be all to end all and that the "hammer them" into the car technique is going to work. You see the philosophy behind most selling in the car business, as an example ,is if they leave here without buying from us, they will never buy from us.Well, maybe your right. But let's not forget. In the world of sales, let the salespeople do their job by giving there potential customers all of the information they need to make a well informed decision. And if they don't buy today, let them remember you and your salesmanship and whatever great strategy you came up with for them to make the buying process easier. Believe me, after they have been everywhere else, they will remember you.The "in your face" approach does not work anymore.

David Weeks writes articles on marketing, personal finance, and network marketing. He also has a free course on network marketing "The 5 Phases Of Network Marketing" located at http://www.the5phasesofnetworkmarketing.com.Evanne Blog84022
Valerye Blog36931

The Fortune Is In The Follow Up In Marketing

One of the biggest mistakes marketers make is failure to follow up with potential prospects or customers. One reason could be that the importance of follow up is not usually taught in typical network training. They may tell their downline to follow up once and sit back and let the money come rolling in. If youre reading this, chances are the money isnt rolling into your bank account and you arent really sure why.

Follow up is key in your business. Most home business owners today operate their businesses both offline and online. Did you know the average website only contacts its visitors one time? Statistics show if you only make one contact you will lose 54% of sales! Thats 54% too many.

Remember what they say. The money is in the List. You want to nurture a list by developing a relationship with them. You can actually do this before ever contacting them. How would you like to have people actually calling you before you call them? All of this is tied to follow up.

Its important to follow up with your list several times because:

They could have accidentally deleted your offer

Life got in the way and they completely forgot

Skepticism. Its human nature to feel somewhat leery about giving your hard-earned money to a stranger!

They dont have enough trust in you yet

Its not the same as a physical store where the person can walk in and use the senses to physically, touch, smell and feel how the product works. When you are appealing to people through cyberspace you have to learn how to appeal to their senses in another way.

Marketing is the art and science of empowering, communicating and developing a relationship with another human being based upon their needs and not yours. The reason follow up works so well is because it is creating the relationship.

Follow Ups----

A Phone call Part of a follow up can be a call to introduce yourself. This is one way to define yourself among the other people who market online and never make that call.

Follow up Emails using an Autoresponder We combine a phone call with some type of follow up system like an autoresponder or mailing system. Autoresponders are great for follow ups because they are automated and you are not making more daily work for yourself. You can send out info about your products such as testimonials for a health product, discounts and updates regarding your service.

Another question is how many times do you need to follow up? Many experts believe 7 is the magic number, but lets say at least more than 6. A study done by the Association of Sales Executives revealed that 81% of all sales happens on or after the fifth contact.

There are some free mailers out there but loading your arsenal with a good autoresponder can make it a bit easier. There are some fantastic autoresponders out there with various price points according to your budget. Obviously the more you pay, the more robust program you may receive, but most people are operating within a budget.

Look for an autoresponder that allows you to personalize your emails with the persons name, has unlimited autoresponders, excellent email deliverability and easy to use.

Dont forget, the follow up is just as important after the sale as before. This is also a major mistake business owners make. They dont follow up with customers after the purchase which could keep them coming back for more.

Brad & Kelly Smith are students and mentors of Mentors in Motion, Master Key System and Amigo Health. Sharing their passion and knowledge with others in success. http://www.mentoringinmotion.org/Discover_What_Val_Smyth_is_Giving.htmEugenia Blog74381
Fabrianne Blog3814

An Online Business - A Great Second Income For Those In Ministry

You have recognized Gods call on your life and you know that you are called to serve Him. Perhaps youve been called to be a pastor. Perhaps youve been called to be a missionary or an evangelist. No matter what your calling may be, you may still have to have a tent making occupation, a second income to support yourself while your ministry develops. Until you develop support for your ministry you may have to rely on a second income to make ends meet in your life and for your ministry.

The ideal second income would be a job that offers flexibility. You need to be able to do what God wants you to do when He wants you to do it. If you are called to go to Guam on a three month missions trip your job needs to be able to accommodate that.

The ideal second income would also allow you to earn a fulltime income working part time hours. There are only twenty-four hours in a day. The more time that you spend making tents the less time that you have for ministry.

My wife and I are getting ready to step out into ministry so Id been searching for that ideal second income that would allow me to provide for my family while having the flexibility to serve God. I had some experience with internet marketing and knew that if it was done right it would provide flexibility and a good income. However, I had never been able to do it right. I had tried different methods but none seemed to work as I had hoped.

One day I happened across a free resource called The Affiliate Masters Course. (I think that it was by divine guidance because Im not sure how I found it. You can check it out at www.therockmarketinggroup.com) I downloaded this free course and it was an answer to prayer.

I followed the instructions in this book and developed a website based upon a passion of mine Southern Gospel Music. (Building a website around a passion or hobby was a suggestion from the course). Im not a genius when it comes to building a website but the Affiliate Masters Course recommended some resources that made it very easy to do. I dont know a lot about HTML or Java but my site looks good. Check it out at http://www.southern-gospel-music-lyrics.com Not only did I learn how to build a website based upon my passion, I learned how to do it right. I learned how to get free traffic to my site and traffic is the lifeblood of an internet business.

I use my website to promote products from different companies. This is affiliate marketing. When a visitor to my site purchases something I get a percent of the sales. I dont have to keep stock on hand or ship anything, the company that I send my visitors to does all of that. I send them customers and they send me a check. I also allow Google to place relevant advertisements on my site. These are just two ways of monetizing my website that I learned from the free Affiliate Masters Course.

A web business provides the ideal second income for those stepping out into ministry. It provides the flexibility that you need. My site earns whether I am in front of my computer screen or not. It also provides a way of making decent money with a minimal investment of time and funds. I spend about five hours a week working on my site. I enjoy it and it is allowing me and my wife the freedom to answer the call God has placed on our lives. A web based business is definitely worth looking into as you get ready to step out into ministry.

Tim Eutin is the host of a four hour daily Christian radio show on the He's Alive Radio Network. He is also the host of the popular http://www.southern-gospel-music-lyrics.com A site born of his passion for Christian Music. Perhaps you have a passion that your would enjoy writing about. See how to turn it into a profitable online business like Tim's at http://www.therockmarketing.com Fae Blog35743
Vivi Blog87545

4 Reasons To Get Involved In A Network Marketing Business

Forget franchises and brick and mortar businesses. The cheapest and quickest way to start your own business these days is to jump into a network marketing, home based business opportunity. This is especially true since the internet has opened up national and international markets to even the most amateur of network marketing newbies.

There are many positive factors attached to starting a home based business with a network marketing company.

1. The upfront costs are relatively minimal. An aspiring network marketing entrepreneur can get set up with an honest, well-established company for less than $500.00. I know of at least one national company that costs $50.00 to get started with, and they include benefits for the network marketer.

Why do these companies charge to join? For some, it is a means of weeding out tire kickers. Usually, it takes some capital outlay for the company to even set the new member up in their system, and, since a large number of people never DO anything with their new network marketing business, the company is left with an out-of-pocket expense with nothing to show for it. Many companies also have employees dedicated to assisting new members and most provide some sort of beginning packet of supplies for new members.

Since a network marketer by definition works his or her business through a network of personal acquaintances or personal acquaintances of that first level, there is little to buy in the way of advertising. I don't want to go into getting a network marketing business started, but the best way for a total newbie to proceed is to select a product or service they know something about and believe in, select an honest company with a good track record, and begin their careers in network marketing by concentrating on building their network.

2. The new network marketing business can be run without large outlays of time or money. Most network marketing home based businesses do not require an office, furniture, or even a new phone line. Many a network marketing professional has literally begun working from their kitchen table.

By the way, I am NOT saying that you should never advertise, or buy a fax machine, or hire a secretary. I am simply saying that it is possible to effectively start a home based business without any of those.

3. No drastic lifestyle changes are required. Most people who opt to try the network marketing way of life have jobs already. They often have benefits, seniority, are possibly expecting a raise, and have some idea what each day is going to bring. This is called stability. People starting a new business, whether it is a network marketing business or not, have no clue what to expect from day-to-day, receive no benefits from their new business, and are totally in the dark about how much income they can expect and when it will start to show up! Fortunately, they can hold on to their day jobs and build their new entrepreneurial enterprise at the speed they can keep up with.

On the other hand, if you start most franchises or brick-and-mortar businesses forget about having a life. You will almost certainly have to give up your job, paycheck, and benefits, or learn to work 100 hours a week...or more, since a new storefront may require you to be present 100% of the time.

WAIT! I CAN HEAR THE QUESTIONS NOW:

Q. Can you REALLY start a home based network marketing business part time?

A. Yes. I and a few thousand other people have done this. I worked as a truck driver and instructor while I was building my business.

Q. Can I REALLY eventually quit my REAL job and do this as my only job?

A. I have, and so have a few thousand other people. If you see me in a truck stop these days, it's because I am on my way to or from some fun place. Just got back from the beach at Corpus Christi today, as a matter of fact. I was there on business...wink, wink, nod, nod. Actually, I did talk to a guy named Brian who's really interested....what was I talking about?

Q. HONESTLY now, if I get good at this network marketing thing, can I make a lot of money? How much?

A. I guess I'm not very good, as I only make a few measly thousand a week at what I do. (Of course, I'm lazy and don't work very hard at it...witness the recent trip to Corpus Christi.) My friends, Ed and Phil, on the other hand, were making over $100,000.00 A MONTH the last time I talked to them.

How much WILL you make? I don't know, and neither does anybody else. Anyone who tries to recruit you into a network marketing company with promises of specific amounts of income is, in my humble opinion, lying or grossly insincere (I'm trying to be diplomatic here.)

How much CAN you make? Okay, that's different. I still can't give you an answer in dollars, but if you are signed up with an honest company and work the business the way you are supposed to, you can make a helluva lot more than most wage slaves and many professionals...doctors, lawyers, accountants (I was one once), etc.

AND THAT BRINGS US TO OUR FINAL POINT:

4. In an honest network marketing business opportunity, your income is determined by your personal ability and output. You sell a lot of product; you make a lot of money. Don't sell much product, you don't make much money. You build a good sized downline; they increase your income exponentially. Don't build a good downline and your paycheck suffers. Train your downline and help them to succeed, and they will put money in your pocket. Ignore them and let them succeed or fail on their own, and you may find a keeper who puts money in your pocket anyway...but not as much.

Hey! I didn't even get to the part about being your own boss, spending time with the kids, being able to afford luxuries, and building a network of friends that may extend around the globe!

Copyright 2006 Donovan Baldwin

Donovan Baldwin is a Dallas area writer and network marketing consultant and trainer. Find more network marketing resources at http://www.donovanbaldwin.com/cbmall/networkmarketing.html or sign up for free internet marketing tips by sending an email to donovan@getresponse.com.Fannie Blog87258
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