Archive for May, 2007

Q: Do you have any tips for increasing my circle of influence online?

A: If you seeking business growth, you definitely need to consider expanding your circle of influence online. I know you have heard how important “word of moth” marketing is. The reason for this is, almost half of all Americans will ask their family or friends for advice when shopping for services or thinking about trying a new product.

Establishing relationships with people you meet online can certainly help your business growth. Online networks are very powerful resources.

Here are some simple tips that will help you in this process:

1. Begin by doing market research and think about what type of business you are in and where your target market will congregate online. You may choose to explore business-to-business networking by joining a site such as www.linkedin.com. This site would be the business equivalent to MySpace and if people like John Kerry and Bill Gates both belong to this site, you can too! This site allows you to network with other business people and have the opportunity of sharing clients or forming partnerships.

2. Use a direct approach with people that you want to do business with. Send them an email and let them know you have visited their site. Inform them of your intentions such as teaming up together on a joint project, sharing leads, referrals or whatever it is you have in mind.

3. An alternative to that would be to go directly to your target market. If your website is focused on pet care, then find websites with a similar theme. Some may have a message board or forum. Participate in the forum posts and get familiar with other pet lovers who may form an interest in products or services you offer.

4. When visiting a message board, go there with the intentions of helping other people not yourself. If someone posts a question, and you have feedback to offer, then by all means, you should post a reply. If people begin to see that you are sharing useful information, they just might click on your signature link to learn more about your business. Do not spam boards with ads about your business, this will not help in gaining any client contacts for your business and will only put a damper on your reputation as a business owner.

5. Start a blog; it will also help expand your circle of influence online. It will help establish trust between yourself and your visitors. They will get to know you and will begin to view you as an expert. When they or someone they know are in need of your service, they will turn to you. You might want to ask questions and have readers respond. This will give them a chance to interact and enjoy some feedback as well.

As your circle of influence begins to grow, you will notice people coming to you, asking if they can hire you. You will then be able to maintain a growing client base and will save money on advertising as well.

Read more with this Online Partnerships Report.

Q: How can I turn my home office into an inspiring workspace? Read the rest of this entry »

Q: Everyone talks about using WordTracker for SEO but I’m confused. Can you explain how to use it? Read the rest of this entry »

Q: Is there a way I can use reports to generate income?

A: A great way to break into creating information products is using small reports to generate income.

Some benefits to creating them are:

* It is relatively easy to start.
* There isn’t much up front cost needed.
* You don’t need special skills or training.

Here are some tips and benefits to help get you started and some to help you as you go along:

* You simply create the product once and a copy is downloaded by each customer.
* You do not have to pay printers’ fees.
* No shipping fees.
* No repetitive production costs.
* Small reports allow you to create passive income from home and you can do so around your busy schedule.
* Unlike a traditional job, you can earn money over and over again for the work you put into the creation of the report.
* When you create the small report, you put the effort into it once but it can be sold over and over gain.
* You will have to promote your report.
* You can wake up in the mornings to find that you made money while sleeping.
* Unlike an e-book, the small report only needs 10 or 15 pages. Those can easily be written within a few days.
* No prior writing experience is needed and as long as you can type and have good grammar and language skills, you are all set! If writing is not something you want to do, you can hire a ghostwriter to create the report for you.

Remember, you will need to have a computer with a word processing program in order to type the report. You might want to consider converting the finished product into a PDF file to insure customers will be able to read it. Free PDF converters can be found on the web; Google docs is a great place to start!

Other tools you will need include a domain name with website hosting in order to promote and sell your report. A shopping cart system such as www.wahmcart.com will make uploading and selling your reports easy. You may also want to consider establishing an affiliate program in order to sell even more reports.

Learn more about profiting from reports with Jimmy D. Brown’s highly-recommend Small Reports Fortunes.

Q: How can I promote my affiliate links offline?

A: While most people promote their affiliate links online; depending on your target market you may be in for some stiff competition. Don’t stop your online promotion efforts and you can always add offline promotion to increase your commissions.

When promoting offline, you will need to redirect your affiliate links. This process is very simple. You can create a page on your domain that includes some HTML code that will automatically send your visitor your affiliate link. If you are promoting an auto responder, you may name the page www.yourdomain.com/autoreponder. All you have to do is add the following code:

It’s that simple.

Here are some suggestions that will help in your efforts in promoting your affiliate links offline:

* Try designing some flyers from home, and depending on the price of your printer’s ink cartridges it might be cheaper to print one at home, and then use a copy shop for the actual copying services. Take the flyers out with you wherever you go. Post them anywhere you see a bulletin board, whether it be at the local grocery store, the mall, post office, library or anywhere else. *Hint*- Using brightly colored paper will work best in grabbing the attention of people. Create a catchy headline and make sure the font is clear and legible.

* Get some car magnets made to stick to the side of you care. This will look as if a message has been painted on your car, and you can place them there when you are out and about running errands. This is a great form of advertisement and as your car is sitting in the parking lot at the local Wal-Mart, it will be generating traffic for you.

* Try doing a “free drawing” by taking a small cardboard box and decorating it with brightly colored wrapping paper. Put a sign on it that says, free drawing and offer some type of prize. You don’t have to offer anything of too much value. You can have some entry forms made at your local copy shop for a small price. Make sure they include a place for the registrant’s email address. Place a box in a variety of places such as convenience stores, grocery stores, salons and anywhere else you can think of. Let it sit for a week, and when you return, take the entry forms and email the contestants. Let the winner know they have won, and let the others people know they didn’t win, but always show your appreciation for their entry. In these emails, include links to your site and newsletter.

Depending on what you offer, you might also want to try a direct mail campaign. Mailing lists are available for purchases from companies that specialize in collecting and obtaining demographic information. Postcards may be purchased at a reasonable price from Vistaprint (www.vistaprint.com).

Affiliate Marketing Sweetie teaches you how to make the most of your affiliate marketing efforts.

Q: Can you tell me how to submit my press release to online media sites?

Read the rest of this entry »

Q: How can I write an HTML Newsletter? Read the rest of this entry »

Q: How can I set up a Bulletin Board on my Website? Read the rest of this entry »