Catherine Hidalgo asked:




Making money is easy, it’s the marketing that’s hard. Great marketing is an art and breaking into that charmed requires effort, imagination, research and persistence when you have a great product to sell.

Your advertising methods must therefore be widespread and varied. Here are six top tips highlighting under-utilized sources of potential income where you can successfully market your product. Internet marketers, unfortunately, tend to ignore them:

THE PUBLIC

Anywhere that people are gathered is a rich source to be mined. Find a free printshop online, VistaPrint is a good one and order yourself some business cards, drop cards, window decals, flyers, pens, lawn signs, etc. and include your advertising pitch and your URL.

You could also leave flyers, cards and so on at coffee shops, gyms, bookshops, health clubs, airports, bathrooms, malls, car parks, pools, libraries, supermarkets, bars, garages and the list goes on and on. It’s the cheapest form of advertising you can find and your initial outlay is a drop in the bucket compared to possible returns.

COLLEAGUES, NEIGHBOURS, AND FRIENDS

Talk about your new business. That’s your focus and nothing else. Get them interested in knowing more then send out a nice, friendly e-mail, create a Facebook group and ask them to become fans and spread the word. Take note however that when using e-mails, people want to believe they’re special and unique, so mass mailings with a generic “Dear Reader” will push them away instead of pull them in..

Here’s what you do: put one name in the address box and blind copy (bcc) everyone else. This way each person will receive an individual message.

ARTICLE WRITING

Article writing is a major sales tool. Be original, target a minimum of four hundred words, use two sentences per paragraph, write about what you know, when you don’t, do your research to find ideas for your articles, and verify your punctuation, spelling and grammar. With thought and practice, one topic can create ten good articles.

Use eye-catching titles that come up in search engines – Google keyword search is just one of many out there. And remember, it’s three keywords per four hundred-word article. Your resource box is your money maker so use it well to draw in your clientele.

EzineArticles dot com is a significant source of information and training on article writing do’s and don’ts.

CLASSIFIED ADS

Search for sites where ads are free of charge. Review your results to see which titles stand out and model yours along similar lines. You do have to pay to include a link but It’s worth it. Feature ads that include images are excellent earners.

MARKETING FORUMS

Warrior Forum is popular and there are many others as well. Identify those that have the most views but only join forums that have less than one thousand messages per month otherwise a newbie will get lost in the shuffle.

Include a one-line signature in your profile about your business and look for questions that you can answer knowledgeably. It’s a great way to get noticed.

GOOGLE FORUMS

First and foremost, verify the rules of participation to ensure that marketing is allowed otherwise you will be kicked out! This is applicable to all forums, not just this one, particularly where it is not explicitly stated. And only join groups that do not involve money making. There’s less competition.

Post interesting topics from other sites and look for those you can answer. After a few days, try a friendly sales pitch.

Successfully marketing of your product is a skill you will learn with time and through experience. It does not happen overnight despite what the ads say to draw you in. Work at it, develop you intuition, do you homework, network in forums, interact with those you admire and emulate the ethically successful ones. The rewards are worth it.

vistaprint

Kristy Pruitt asked:




A home business is the most economical way to be your own boss. You don’t have to rent office space, there’s no commute, and your expenses are tax deductible. Still, you will have to get the word out about your business if you want customers. Here are some ways to save money.

Business cards are a must, but many people don’t get them right away because of the cost. What they don’t realize is that there are ways to get them very inexpensively! If you have a word processing or desktop publishing program on your computer, you can make your own. Many programs have templates for business cards, and some even have pre-designed ones that you can simply customize with your own information. You can find printable sheets of business cards at your local discount store or specialty paper store. If you aren’t inclined to make your own or want a more professional look, VistaPrint has a low cost introductory offer. You get 250 customized business cards for the price of shipping and handling. Once you have your cards, leave them everywhere!

Offline advertising is another scary budget item, but there are ways to save money. A good, low cost way to advertise offline is in local classified-only publications. Classifieds in this type of paper are usually cheap, and they can be quite effective depending on the type of business you are in. Another inexpensive idea is flyers. If you have a computer they are a cinch to design and print yourself. Then you can put them on bulletin boards or hand them out personally.

Online, there are many places to advertise. The trick is identifying your target market and getting your message to them. If you are advertising to the wrong people, you are just wasting your money. Find sites that do not offer the same product or service as you, but something else that would interest your target market. For example, if you are selling educational toys, you would want to advertise on a site that offers products or resources for parents, but probably not a site about car parts. Shopping around is also a must. Find several possible sites, check their prices and research the site’s popularity. If you have the Google Toolbar, you can simply go to a site and its pagerank will be displayed in your browser. This tells you the “importance” of the page, based on how many other sites have links to it on their site. You should try to stay with sites with a pagerank of at least 3, the higher the better; however, the sites with higher pageranks usually charge more for advertising.

There is also pay-per-click advertising, in which you bid the amount you are willing to pay for visitors to be sent to your site. The best thing about this type of advertising is that you only pay for the traffic you receive. There are many different pay-per-click programs available. Some are presented in search engines, others sign up other sites to display the ads. Just do a search for “pay-per-click” and you will find lots of programs to choose from.

Link exchanges are a good way to get your site seen for free. You simply find other sites that would be of interest to your target audience, and contact the site owner to find out if he or she would be interested in trading links. If so, you place their link on your website, and they do the same for you.

Something you can do online or off is donate prizes to be given away. All sorts of organizations hold raffles, and they usually accept donations to give away as prizes. Your business name and donated prize will be on the website or raffle ticket for all to see. The winner will receive one of your fine products or services, which they will surely tell their friends about. Don’t forget to include a business card, catalog, or brochure with the prize so that they can come back for more!

These are just a few ideas to help you get the word out about your business without spending a fortune. You can also post tidbits about your business on online forums, and of course talk about it every chance you get. And always remember to provide good customer service. The best advertising of all is word of mouth from happy customers, and that doesn’t cost a dime.

Vistaprint Coupons 2011 .

Bill J Lyman asked:




By now, you all have heard the refrain, “The Money is in the List”. If you haven’t, it simply means the more people you have in your list of e-prospects, the more you can email more offers to, and make more money. And the major way to do this online is through a squeeze page, or lead capture page. Grab their name and email before heading to your main website where you do the selling.

But there is another way of accumulating names, or list building. One I’ve been doing for over 10 years, and that’s through print ads. I mean newspapers, magazines, post cards, sales letters, flyers and the like. Yes, it does take a little longer and a few more dollars, but don’t overlook this possibility. You can do this as a supplement to your online list building. I’m going to show you how to do this without spending a fortune. And rather quickly.

You Need A Mailing Address

First thing is to have an address for your prospects to reply to. Do you want hundreds of letters coming to your home? Concerned about nosy neighbors? Concerned about possible violations of zoning laws, home owner associations rules and apartment managers? Better to have an independent address. And if you should move to the other side of town, you can keep the same address. One, rent a PO Box at your post office. Or Two, rent a private mail box such as The UPS Store or similar. Check your yellow pages for mail receiving stores. They also accept packages from UPS and Fedex.

Publish Ads

Publish ads, either display or classified, in local weekly papers, Thrifty nickel, or Pennysavers. Postcards is another way. They can be printed quite cheaply at Vistaprint. Either mail them to people who mail you opportunity jobs or other opportunities; Or if you’re short of funds, place them on vehicles in parking lots. In bad weather, use those multi-story parking lots downtown. Start collecting names into a database to continue your list building. People who participate in these chain letters are looking for a way to make money, but probably don’t realize chain letters are illegal.

Offer a FREE Gift

As with a squeeze page, offer something free, usually a report in your AD, and charge $1 or 3 stamps to cover your postage costs. What to offer? The best is something you have written yourself, an original. That way there is no one else giving away or selling the same report. Don’t have time to write one yourself? I have hundreds of reports, called Private Label Rights, which means you can legally copy and print to give away or sell. Drop me a line, and let me know what niche you are marketing. Is it pets, dating service, financial, real estate, etc. The report you give away should be related to the niche you are marketing. Most of these are either free or very low cost, less than $10.

Another way to create a unique report, if you don’t want to write your own, is putting together several reports from sources, and taking a part from each to make one new one. That way it is still unique and not likely someone has an identical report or article.

Submit Your Article For Publication

Another method to help in your list building is submitting your article to print publications for them to publish. It’s done online by submitting articles to places like EzineArticles.com or Goarticles.com. In print, it’s called a press release sometimes. Submit to weeklies for publication, and if they do print it, will draw you a great deal of leads. And that is the name of the game.

When mailing, always send a self addressed envelope along to make it easy for your prospect to reply. Just don’t put any postage on it, let them pay the postage if they are serious. Also, always ask for their email address, many do have one. Another way to add to your list building system. Vistaprint also prints envelopes.

Do a search on “Mail Order Publications” and you’ll find dozens of publications that cater to mail order enthusiasts. Usually they are monthly publications. One nationwide service is Nationwide Newspapers. They work with weekly and monthly publications nationwide. You can run an ad in one city, or one state or the entire nation. You can reach them here: http://bit.ly/newspaperads Don’t get carried away with advertising, as costs can add up quickly. Best to test different ads to see which works best. I don’t want you to bust the budget with offline list building.

Here is a partial list of publications. Write to them for sample of their pubs. Send a couple of stamps or a buck to speed up your delivery.

• Sales Times KWP Press 3998 Hwy 62-412 Hardy AR 72542
• Liberty Printing POB 326-LWS Gold Hill, OR 97525
• Biz-ness Gazette POB 4225 Elkhart, IN 46514
• Mail Order Opportunities G&B Records POB 10150 Terra Bella, CA 93270
• Shore to Shore CHA Service POB 1980 Rogue River OR 97537
• Ben Frank’s Almanac Kelly Co Box 655 Pinellas Park, FL 34664
• Popular Advertiser J. Kirkman 102 Arrowhead Dr Guyton, GA 31312
• Home Income Publication Group POB 399 Lubec, ME 04652
• Adams Publication HBM POB 71458 Ft Bragg, NC 28307
• The Business Gazette 44207 W Knauss St. Maricopa, AZ 85138

This is only a partial list. Many others will advertise in these publications. You can then get more sources of advertising. All of these will contribute to your list building.

Surveys

Another method of list building is using surveys. Just do a search on “survey software” on any search engine, and you’ll get multiple sites for doing surveys, both online and offline. Some are offering free trials so you can see which one you like best. Surveys can be run of your customers to determine satisfaction and what else they may be interested in. Or run surveys both online and offline to find out what people want, then cater to their wants. Remember, you’ll sell a lot more to what they WANT than to what they NEED!

Make you ads enticing. Offer a freebie. Create a great headline to attract their attention. Buy a copy of National Enquirer or other Tabloid to get ideas for headlines. This is a great way to supplement your list building and start increasing your income in addition to your online business.

In summary, there’s not that much difference between online and off-line marketing. Follow the same basic rules and use common sense. Take the time to place your advertisements and keep a record of what ad is being placed in what publication. Also code your Ads, use a letter for each different ad. Example, PMB 248A and 248B, etc. It takes a little longer for results, but it can be very lucrative. Remember, there are still millions that do not go online, they still spend money.

Kansieo.com

Stefani Partin asked:




Have you got yourself into a home business opportunity but don’t
know where to begin to generate yourself some leads? That happens
among many of us that join a home business opportunity, you are
not alone. Many will join and give up before really putting any effort
into the business. Those who are determined will put forth effort and
succeed with effort.

When you become a home based business owner, you will want to get the word out. First off, tell the people in your warm market, your friends and family and maybe even co-workers. Don’t stop there. Create yourself some business cards on your computer or even order some online. Vistaprint.com offers 250 professional cards FREE of charge, you just pay the small
shipping and handling fee. I have found these FREE cards very useful. What I would do is order some professional cards to hand out to those you come in contact with. Then if you can, create a bunch on your computer that you will use as drop cards. Drop cards are business cards that you leave everywhere you go. Remember, nobody will visit your site if they can’t find you. The more cards you get out to the public, the better chance of getting someone interested in what you have to offer.

You might be thinking that you don’t know anyone to give business cards too, well if you think that you are wrong. Include a card in everything you send out in the mail. If you dine out, leave one with your tip. Always keep a stack in your car as you just never know when you will need one. There are many places you can leave cards, the sky is the limit.

Drive your car a lot? Why not use your vehicle as a method of advertising. I did this last year by buying two magnets for each side of my vehicle’s door. The magnets have a few bright colors on them, therefore catching attention. Be sure you magnet says something catchy and make sure you have ways of contact on your magnet. Be sure to include a phone number
and your website link if you have one. I got mine online and very affordable at http://www.jalapenodesigns.com.

Another great method in generating leads is by online advertising. You got to do your research first before jumping into this one. You will find you can place ads on all sorts of websites and online newsletters. My preference would be placing ads in newsletters. Be sure that the ad is placed in your “niche” market. Don’t place an ad on a site or newsletter that is not similar to your companies market. Also, when placing ads on websites, be sure to ask the webmaster what their unique daily or monthly visitors is, not the hits. Most people, not familiar to webstats will look for the hits which is not an accurate number of the visitors to a website. Remember to do your research first, there is LOTS of places online that you can WASTE your hard earned money.

One of my favorite ways on generating visitors to my sites is through online message forums and discussion groups. There are millions of forums online. The forums range from every kind of topic you can think of. Find a message forum on a topic you can relate to and become an expert in that topic. Most forums will let you put a signature line at the end of your post. You will be surprised the amount of visitors that will come to your site coming from a signature line in a post. I have been very successful with this method and have tracked my website stats to verify it. It won’t bring in millions of visitors, but it’s better then nothing.

And lastly, don’t forget your signature line of your emails. If you send emails all the time and don’t have a signature file that goes out with each email, you are losing out on lots of free advertising opportunities. If you are the type of person that receives lots of say joke emails and forwards them, you are missing out on even more advertising. You just never know who is going to see an email, see your link and click it. Don’t miss out on any free advertising you can get. Every bit of effort counts.

Don’t give up in the beginning like most do. If you believe in your company, stick it out. There are always ups and downs and any real business takes work and effort to build it. Find something you have a passion for and you will fly upwards.

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