Tag: Business

Affordable & Effective Marketing Tips to Promote Your Business Online

There are many ways that you can market your business without having to spend a lot of money and if you know what they are, then you can get started. You can do this simply by creating some stunning content and having it posted on your blog or even by writing for an industry-related magazine. These are just a few of the many options that you can pick and choose from, so make sure that you are considering what options are going to be ideal for you.

Affordable Marketing Tips

Make sure that you are looking at the budget that you have for marketing and that you are thinking of how you can get the most for your money. Here are some great tips that can help you to save money or get marketing done at affordable prices, including:

• Creating some of the best and most unique content that is found on the internet and posting it on your blog

• Create your own My Business Google account to ensure the visibility on various sites like Google Maps

• Build an email list of interested customers and make sure that you are letting them now when new services or added or when you have a sale

• Write an informative article for one of your industry related magazines

• Attend some of the functions for local networking

• Sponsor or even co-sponsor a giveaway or contest

• Build an affiliate program for your loyal customers

• Write guest posts for some of the popular niche sites

• Comment on various blog posts

• Create a group and profile page on Facebook for your business

• Offer some free introductory products on your page

• Create some stunning infographics that you can use

• Create business cards that will catch the eye

• Host some classes locally

• Post free information on your social media pages

• Interact with customers on social media through comments, messages and more

• Buy advertisements on Facebook and other social media platforms

• Consider PPC as an option

• Offer discounts to people who subscribe to your mailing list

Think about these various ways that you can save money when it comes to advertising since most of them would be affordable and can fit into any budget that you might have. Find the ones that work for you and that would cover the needs that you might have, so start looking now.

There are plenty of ways that you can get effective and affordable marketing without blowing up your current budget. Think about creating some great content and posting it on your site along with writing guest posts for other industry sites. Also, you should make sure that your business is claimed on all of the Google Business tools and that you are updating the information as it changes, if it does. You also want to make sure that you are finding the right marketing technique that would work for you, including giveaways and much more.

How Do I Market My Small Business – Article Marketing Is What I Advise All My Clients To Do

I work in the business of helping small businesses get noticed on the internet. Daily I am asked questions by small business owners about how I do so well in getting my clients ranked highly by the search engines. I have lots of tools in my bag of tricks, but if I had to say what is the main thing I use every single day it would be article marketing.

What is article marketing? Article marketing is a form of advertising in which businesses write short articles on topics relevant to their industry. These articles have what is called a resource box at the bottom of the article in which the author can link to their website or a website they are promoting. These articles are submitted to directories for publication. Many times if the content is well written the article will be syndicated to other sites all across the internet.

Article marketing is obviously good because of the traffic that it can bring you. If a person reads your article and thinks it was informative they are likely to click the link and read more on your website. They might join your list or buy a product from your site at this point. If your site is well done they may subscribe to your RSS feed or join your newsletter. If they do then you will have a consistent way to market to them provided that you continue to give them relevant, quality content.

One key that is often overlooked in article marketing is the fact that your articles provide your main website with lots of backlinks. Backlinks are when another site links to your site. When this happens you are seen by the search engines as more relevant and this you are ranked higher in the searches. The more popular the page is that has linked to you, the more weight the search engine gives it.

Another key that most businesses miss is that the article directories are often ranked very highly by Google and other search engines. When your articles are published you are seen as the industry expert because every time someone searches for information on your topic they see your articles. Wouldn’t you like it if every time a person did a search on Google they were inundated with articles written by you about that topic? If they saw all that and then found out they could have you to do the work for them they would not only let you do it, they would be excited to have you do it. That is where you want to be as a business owner.

How to Create a Profitable Home Based Business Online – Home Business Opportunity

I am going to give you the steps I used to begin my online, home based business and it will take you less than an hour (being realistic). It’s so easy!

1. Find a niche market you are interested in which you know has hungry buyers. Use Google AdWords Keyword Tool to find top keywords that you can base your site content on.

2. Buy a domain name and hosting for less than $20 – I find the best value for a domain name is GoDaddy (coupons are available if you Google them) and Hostgator as a hosting provider (I recommend their ‘Baby’ package) for new home based businesses.

3. The hosting provider will email you nameservers which you will need to change in your domain account settings. This means your blog will appear when you type in your domain to the browser.

4. Create a WordPress blog which will be uploaded to your server. The reason I use WordPress is that it is incredibly flexible for getting top ranks in search engines and easy to update. They are also a great trust builder, so make sure you add some affiliate products for you to gain healthy commissions from buyers.

5. Change the nameservers in your domain account for your home based business domain.

6. For the topic which your blog relates to, you want to write articles or have them written. This really isn’t as hard as you may think as there is so much material out there already (just don’t duplicate other peoples content).

7. Submit these first to EzineArticles (EZA) as they always rank best. Once approved, you can then create variations of the articles and submit to other article directories but in the resource box, always create an anchor text link pointing back (backlinks) to your main site. As you create more articles and backlinks, your site will rank higher and traffic should flood in.

8. By now you should be making nice commissions from your home based business and people should be loving your blog, as you are feeding them with valuable information. Take advantage of this and offer a free report in exchange for their email address. You can do this by signing up to Aweber for an autoresponder. If people want your report they will opt in, submitting their name and email address. Once you build a list, you can promote other affiliate products and make even MORE money.

9. Promotion is the key to any business success but the great thing about home based businesses is that you should only need to work at most 3 hours per day! It sure does beat 9 – 5! At your own will just keep submitting articles, bookmark your content at social media sites and promote in related niche blogs and forums.

10. It really is that easy to start a home based business. Create a blog that sells affiliate products, promote the main blog page using articles and social bookmarking, then once the traffic starts to flood in, the blog will rank higher and higher, meaning more money!

The most commissions come from being extremely targeted in the market you want to approach. So if you enter the body building niche, stick with that and do not sell products on how to spice up a relationship. People search online for specific things, so keep your blog specific to what you are trying to promote.

Home Based Business Made EAsy

Everyone wants to start their own business and become their own boss, but many do not know how to do it. There are several types of home-based businesses. Service companies, product sales, and web-based home-based businesses, to name a few.

In this article, I will walk you through the process of starting your own online home business. I will try to eliminate some of the mystery of the process. By following this guideline, you’ll be up and running in no time without making a huge investment.

First, you need to know what your business is going to do. Will he provide a service? Do you intend to sell products? These are the two general types of home-based online businesses I will discuss in this article.

If you plan to provide a service, what kind of service will you provide? Will it be provided to people who own websites? Will it be a service that everyone can use or will it be confined to your area?

Ask similar questions if you plan to sell a product. Will it be a product that you sell and deliver locally, nationally or internationally? If you choose around the world, do you know anything about shipping your product abroad? The same applies to national delivery. Do you know the costs associated with delivering your product anywhere in the country where you live?

Once you have answered these questions, you will have more of an idea on how your home web business will eventually be shaped.

Then you will need a domain name. Most people think that the name of their business is the best way to get a domain name, however, a generic domain name with keywords associated with your product or service will serve you a lot better. You can also register your company name as a domain name and direct it to your website, but it is not necessary.

The generic domain name can help you with search engine traffic and can be more memorable. This is just one of many factors that will help you with search engine optimization, but it’s a step you should take at startup. Example: Cars.com is a better domain name than Ford.com, even though Ford has spent millions advertising and branding itself. Even cheapusedcars.com is better because people will look for that.

You have to find a good domain name registrar, not a cheap domain registrar. Cheap means cheap in the field of domain names. Your domain name is important. Spending $ 25 a year on a registrar who offers more services and quality VS spending $ 10 or less at a cheap registrar is what we are talking about here. If this extra $ 15 a year will make or break your home business, then maybe you should not start one.

Then you will need a web hosting service. Again, cheaper is not better. There are good hosting services for $ 100 a year or even a little less. Anyone who offers you hosting for less than that should trigger a red flag. Choose and pay for at least a year, just as you have registered your domain name. If you are going with a monthly plan, you are probably not fully engaged in your new home business.

Now you have your domain name and hosting your new website, but where is the website and how can I get it? You have several options. You can learn HTML and build your own. You can use a WYSIWYG editor like FrontPage to create your own website. You can hire someone to build your website for you.

First, let’s talk about learning HTML to build your own website for your home business. There is a learning curve here. This is the best option of the three that I mentioned above, but it takes time to learn. You will probably not be operational in a few days with this option. In the long run, it will save you a lot of money to learn HTML and build your own websites. The more websites you have in your wallet, the more you will have at least one who will be a big winner. Writing your own code means that you can create a new site as often as you want.

Then build your own home-based business website with a WYSIWYG publisher. (What you see is what you get). These editors are similar to creating a document. Everything is visual and you do not need to

Code a piece.

Then hiring a web designer to build your home business website is another option. A professional website designer knows how to give your website the look and feel you need. However, be careful when choosing a web designer. I will add a few things that you need to be aware of here;

1. If they say they will register the domain name for you, say no. Registering a domain name is not technically difficult. Do it yourself. Many web designers register the domain name at the cheapest place they can find, then charge you $ 100 or more per year for the domain name. Then, many of them record it in their own name! This will cause you huge problems if you decide to stop using their services. The domain name should always be in your name.

2. Ask them which program they use to build your website. If they will be using FrontPage or Dreamweaver or another WYSIWYG publisher, you may as well build your own home business website. If they do not write HTML from scratch, then they should not be in the web design business.

3. If they want to bill you monthly to run your website for you, be careful. Do not sign annual contracts. Their job is to build you a home business website. Let them stick to that. Most designers are just designers. They are not search engine gurus, business leaders, or anything else. Hire a designer to design and others to do what they are good at.

4. Do not let them talk about features you do not need. Just like used car salesmen, they will try to make you add a lot of bells and whistles you do not need.

5. A brochure website is one that is basically designed to just let people know what products or services you are providing and to contact you for more information. Usually it’s a main page, a page about, and a contact page. It should not cost you more than $ 500.

6. If you are going to add the ability to purchase your product or service by paying for it through your home-based business website, then it becomes an ecommerce website. Again, pay attention to the bells and whistles that the used website seller is trying to sell you. PayPal is a good option when you are starting out. You can get a PayPal account easily. You can create your own purchase buttons and insert them into your website with the code they provide without being an HTML guru. You can even set the shipping costs and everything else via PayPal for free. They charge small percentages per sale, but the services they provide are worth it. In addition, they have no setup fees or monthly fees like other e-commerce solutions. When your sales volume reaches thousands of dollars a month, you can look for a better solution, but until then, use PayPal.

7. An old adage among those who make money on the web is “You build the first for the show and the rest for the dough”. What does this mean? You will probably be very concerned about the appearance of your website at first, but the design is the least important aspect of your home web business. Many will disagree, but who cares? Let me repeat, design is the least important aspect of your home business. A beautiful website without traffic becomes uglier every day. An ugly website with the traffic that makes money becomes more beautiful by the dollar. Create a total budget for your home web business. Do not spend more than 30% of this budget on design. Spend the rest of your website promotion, advertising and other actions that bring you customers. Do not let a designer tell you that his design is more important than the success of your home-based business.

Now that your domain name, hosting and website are up and running, you now need customers. Where do you find them? I have my website, will not they find me now? NO, they will not do it.

There are many things you can do to get traffic. You can buy AdWords from Google, MSN (coming soon), or Yahoo. This sends you traffic from people who are looking for specific keywords. Pay attention to bidding and set your spending limits until you see what keywords will earn you.

Why Does My Business Need to Be On the Internet?

I hope you don’t have to ask the question, “Why does my business need to be on the internet?” If you sincerely don’t know why it is important to have an internet presence, I’ll ask you to do an easy experiment. Ask ten to twenty people, from different age groups, how often they use the yellow pages to find a business versus how often they use the internet. For those that say they use the internet, ask where do they look. I think you will find that the majority use the internet much more and nearly all of those use Google to try to find the information they are seeking. Yet if you look in the yellow pages you will still find many, many businesses that are spending hundreds a month, if not thousands to try to attract new customers.

So, hopefully, now you know why you need to have your business on the internet. But how do you go about getting your business there. Most likely if you are not on the internet, you don’t know how to do it yourself. Before you try to hire someone to build a web site and get you on the internet, you need to ask them a few questions. Of course you will want to see some examples of their work. A warning here, a pretty web site is not always the best one. More importantly than what their web sites look like, ask them to show you where they are on the internet. I don’t mean just type in the URL (your internet address). Ask how does the web site rank for their main keyword. If they don’t know what you mean, you don’t want to hire them. This is getting into SEO, search engine optimization. This is more important than what the web site looks like.

You need your site to rank on the first page of Google for your main keywords. Your main keywords will be a group of words that you think a prospective customer would type into Google to find a business like yours. If you were a painting contractor in Memphis, it might be something like “painting contractor Memphis” or “Memphis painting contractor.” Yes, these are different keyword phrases and you might want to try to rank for both. Before I go any further, a person can’t guarantee that you will rank on first page of Google. The more competitive your keyword phrase is the harder it is to rank. For example, “LA injury lawyer” is nearly impossible to rank on the first page of Google. On the other hand I was able to get my antique mall in Dallas to have four listings on page one of Google for my main keyword phrase. So you want to make sure whoever is doing your site knows SEO and can get your web site seen by the people looking for a business or service like yours.

How to Get a Domain Name for an Internet Business Newbie?

Getting a domain name is an important criterion to start an online business. In this article, I’m going to teach you: what is a domain name, how to get one and why do we need it.

First of all,

What is a domain name?

Whenever we visit a website like Google, the address “Google.com” is actually their domain name.

Can we get it for free?

Apparently not, if you are lucky, you might only need around $9 to $12 to register your own domain name for one year. You just have to find out where to get it. There are some websites which sell domain name. You can try to search for it on Google or Yahoo.

Why do we need it?

Your will need it to publish your own website, sales page or blog to sell your own product or affiliates product. NEVER use free sources for example, Blogspot.com or WordPress.com as your business website. The owner of these websites might close down your website anytime without any notice. All your effort will be wash down the drain.

How do I name it?

You can name your domain name anyway you want, but it is better that you name it relevant to the field you are going into and it is better that your domain ends with a .com . For example, if you want to start an online business about losing weight, your keyword should be “lose weight”. Therefore, you can name your domain name like howtoloseweight.com or loseweight.com or any other names which are similar.

Someone had bought the domain name that I have in mind, what to do now?

If you want the domain name that someone else had bought, you can actually buy from them, but at a more expensive price. Most people are not willing to pay for the price. So, you can change the keyword sequence or to some other related keywords like “slim down” or “burn fat”. If you cannot think of any words, you can check the thesaurus for more alternative words.

Now, I got my domain name, what to do now?

Now, you will have to find a web hosting to host your website. The cost can be quite high depending on the package you take. But what is web hosting? Web hosting is similar to a shop lot rental in real life. For example, when you are opening a McDonald franchise, you will need to buy a shop lot to open your McDonald. Same to opening a website, you need a web host to put your domain name on.

Now you got your domain name and web hosting now, the last step will be putting up HTML on your website. Finally, you can start your online business.

5 Steps For Finding the Right Business Online

Simple and honest advice as to how not to be taken in on an Internet business scam. Follow these simple 5 steps and you will save yourself a lot of wasted time, energy and money.

Number 1. Do your diligent research above all else, do not act on your emotions. This would include, making sure you Google a. name of the person that is trying to bring you into the business. b. name of the company. c. name of the product. This will give you a dearth of information you can use, when making your decision to join or not to join this business.

Number 2. Make sure that the business you will be joining has a high profit margin and high cash flow. Too often people join a multi-level marketing company, and push pills, vitamins, lotions, and potions, insurance, vacations, health and energy drinks, etc. They have to put in hundreds of hours on the phones, and try to make a small profit on hundreds of items. Simply, does not leverage your time.

Number 3. Marketing will be the key to your business success. So make sure you have have a market for the products your promoting, and for sure target that market. You should have high technology internet tools, such as, an automated auto responders, emails, templates, lead capture pages, just to name a few.

Number 4. Training and mentoring. Without a doubt, make sure there is support and training provided and that your never left alone in the new business venture. There should be a training site, live conference calls and the person that brought you in, should also be a good coach and trainer.

Number 5. This is the most important point. Who ever is trying to bring you into this new business, simply do the following. Ask that person for at least 2 references with phone numbers of people that are making at least 50K per year on a part time basis. If the person, refuses to give you the names and phone numbers, and says something like that information is “confidential”, avoid that business. When you do get the references, call those references up and interview them about the business.

So, if you follow the above, will it assure your success in an internet business. Naturally, there are no guarantees, but it will go a long way to finding a legitimate business on the Internet.

Naming a Business – Ideas to Be Creative

Naming a business is more than just a title or description of your business, it is the initial representation of what you produce/supply/offer. So, with this in mind, you’ll want to name your business something memorable / catchy / funny / unusual.

What are your options when naming a business?

Your first and easiest option would be to pay a specialist branding company to come up with a name for you. This may or may not be the perfect name for your business, but I can tell you it will certainly be expensive!

Second option would be to throw some names around between friends and family and pick the one that seems to stand out the most. This is a very hit and miss option and you are relying on people who may not be the most objective.

The third option (and in my opinion the best) would be to do some serious targeted research on the internet and find out exactly what people on the internet search for. If people are searching for specific words/terms, then surely it would make sense to adopt those words when naming a business.

I use a free tool from Google called the ‘Keyword Selector Tool’. It allows you to put in your main keyword or phrase, and it will then generate a list of keywords that are directly related.

The best way to use the tool is to try and look for synonyms (similar words that mean the same) for your keyword. e.g. ‘Dog’/’Canine’.

Make a list of as many words as you can and put them into a text document. You can then add/mix/sort all the keywords until you come up with a great business name.

The keyword selector tool will also tell you how many times per month that word or phrase has been searched for (a great indicator of popularity). It’s obvious that the more times the keyword is searched for, the public must relate more to that keyword than others.

Now is the time to ask family and friends their opinion. Now the real research has been done and naming a business is not just a stab in the dark.

Once you have decided on a few names, then you need to go and see if they have already been taken. If not, get it registered as soon as possible and then get yourself a domain name. Even if you have no intention of using the internet for promotion just yet, don’t dismiss it out of hand, the way things are going, the internet will be an important part of many businesses in the future.

So You Want to Start Your Own Real Estate Business, Huh?

First, allow me to say congratulations on deciding to be your own boss. It is one of the toughest and scariest, yet rewarding decisions an individual can make. You are about to venture on an incredible, life-long journey filled with limitless possibilities. However, make sure you are properly prepared, or else the outcome may be devastating.

The main purpose of this article is to serve as a detailed checklist for preparing, creating and structuring your own real estate business. I will also explain the advantages of detailed planning and management, and the pitfalls for failure to do so. First things first: what’s the name of your new company? What type of business entity will you form? A sole proprietorship is the quickest and easiest; however, it may lack the necessary asset and liability protection warranted by your business model. My personal favorite has always been the Limited Liability Company (LLC). It’s quick, inexpensive, and provides individual shelter.

In addition, in which state will you register to do business? Are there any state and/or local licensing requirements? All of these questions should already be answered in your business plan. Some of you may be thinking, “I am going to buy foreclosed properties, rehab them, and sell them for a profit. What further explanation or planning do I need?” Well, if this is your mindset, stick to your full-time job. I recommend going online (Google it) and downloading a business plan template to assist you with development.

In addition to your business plan, you better have projected financial statements, including a cash flow forecast, projected income statement, and anticipated balance sheet. There are numerous advantages of generating these statements. Clearly depicting your yearly operating expenses allows you to recognize the number of real estate transactions you need to successfully complete in order to break even and/or realize a profit. Taking the time and effort to implement these tasks will help you overcome some of the major impediments when starting your real estate business.

The biggest recurring mistake I’ve seen amateur entrepreneurs make is quitting their full-time job even before completing their very first real estate deal! Undercapitalization is one of the biggest oversights when starting a new business. If you do decide to quit your full-time job, make sure you have enough of a monetary cushion to cover your living expenses for twelve months. Ideally, you want to have a surplus in your bank account in order to fund your business (i.e. – entity formation fees, licensing, marketing expenses).

Finally, will you be self-employed or a business owner? No, they are not the same thing! Being self-employed means when you stop working, your business stops working. If you are not marketing for leads or answering phones, then no one is. Being a business owner (hiring and maintaining employees) allows the freedom and independence that entice people to start their own businesses in the first place. Most amateurs quit their full-time job expecting to start and sustain their own business profitably, while playing golf or going to the beach four days a week. WRONG! The transition from self-employment to business ownership is the hardest obstacle to overcome. It took me almost a year of interviewing hundreds of job applicants, working fourteen hour days, pulling all-nighters, and sacrificing my personal and social life to successfully build and develop each of my businesses to the point where they could all run on “Auto-Pilot.”Remember, a business is only as strong as its weakest link.

I hope that what I have shared with you has been of great value. These observations and opinions are my own and stem from what I have learned and experienced over the last five years by way of educational literature, private entrepreneurship meet-up groups, numerous real networking events, and, by far the most crucial and valuable means, trial and error. Still there is so much to discuss and write considering that this topic, in itself, serves as the basis for three hundred page bibles! At the very least, herein lies the grounds and basic framework for preparing to start your own real estate business including obstacles to anticipate.

Choosing the Right Name for Your Small Business

Choosing a Business name is as important as making a business plan for your company. In choosing the right one, you must know that there are a lot of factors that you need to consider before deciding to launch it to the public. First, it is very important that the name you will choose must be legally obtainable meaning that there are no other businesses using your name. Your Business name should symbolize the product or services that do you and you will do for the years to come. You must consider business entities as trademarks, registration and effect of name branding. We have gathered some few tips to help you get started.

It is very important that your Business name should have your products and service. It also needs to convey something meaningful and positive about your business to your target customers. It could tell the key product feature, something that your customer can benefit from it. If you’re unsure of your business try to make a couple of name and rum them by your potential customer or can be your family member, and ask them what they think of your Business name. you may also want to consider the pronunciation of you Business name, make sure that people can easily say and read it because eventually people will start to talk about your business. Next is you have to make it a point that your customer can remember your Business name, when choosing a Business name think of something that is going to be memorable, a name that your costumer can easily think of and connect to your business. It can also help if your business name in not too long or it can even rhyme. Flexibility is another thing that you want to consider. The best example for this is amazon.com. Amazon doesn’t have any direct connection with books and so it was able to expand into music, gadgets and many other kinds of products, under on one name. Lastly, your business name should standout from the rest, your name should get people’s attention or interest so much so that they want to pull out their smart phone and Google your business just to see what it is all about. Also, pick something that will look good aesthetically on business card, in print, signage’s or even on T-shirts.

Now that you have a few suggestions for creating your business name you can institute your brainstorming session. Play around with various words and create a list of suitable candidates which you may come across. Repeat the words to yourself to hear how they sound aloud. Watch your friends’ and family to see how they respond to the name.

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