The One and Only Purpose of Advertising

I migrated to New Zealand around four years back and because of my interest in real estate investing I decided to become a commercial real estate agent to learn insider secrets of investing in my new
adopted country. It was a very brave step considering my background of a retired naval officer. I had zero experience in making any kind of sale.

I started advertising in the newspapers and slowly my customer list began to grow. I soon discovered that it was impossible for me to contact my clients on telephone or through postal mail when a
new property came up on the market because it was simply too time consuming. I then hit upon the idea of creating e-mail mailing lists on outlook express. I divided my clients into various investment categories and sent them details of properties that were of interest to them. I also sent them regular news letters. I did not realize that I had accidentally
hit upon the idea of e-mail marketing. Whenever I sent details of a property to my clients invariably I received 5 to 10 inquires which resulted in one or two offers. Soon other agents in the company realized I
was getting so many offers that they started approaching me with their properties to sell and my business grew. Within a very short period of time I became one of the top selling agent in my
company. Whenever a new customer responded to my newspaper or a web advertisement, I request them for their e-mail address before asking for their telephone number. I knew that my sales came from repeated offers made through e-mails to my list. That in a nut
shell was the true secret of my success.

The tragedy is that when I started marketing on the internet I missed this basic point of inherent strength of the e-mail lists and got carried away by the hype of short cut and lazy methods such as ad blasting, buying guaranteed sign ups etc and in doing so parted with lot of my hard earned money to the so called Internet gurus.

Fortunately I realized my mistake and got back to the basic success formula of generating qualified opt in lists to succeed online.

I will be brutally blunt with you. If you do not have a responsive list of subscribers who have
agreed to receive your offers then You simply Do Not Have An Online Business!

It sounds a bit harsh (I know), but from personal experience I can assure you that the good old myth is 100% true. The Money Is In The List!

But please do not perceive it as a myth, face the facts and drill it in your head that you NEED to build a list.

You see, many marketers report making $1 per month - per subscriber. This means that if you grow a responsive list of 5,000 subscribers, you can realistically expect to gross $5,000
in sales each and every month!

'When I Had No list, I Made No Money!'

It is true, I made zip, nada, zilch when I did not have a list. And although I kept hearing time after time that 'The Money Is In The List'. For some strange reason I just never built one for my internet business.

I always felt that there had to be another (easier) way to profit online, so I kept searching for a solution for 12 entire months, and guess what? It was a complete waste of time & money.

But then one day, after 12 months of grueling failure, I finally decided to devote all my time & effort to build my own cash-pulling opt-in list (that has truly been the wisest decision I've ever made)!

Today I make a very rewarding income from email marketing alone,and I'm about to reveal EXACTLY how you, too, can do the same.So keep reading!

The three basic tools you will need to start making very targeted opt-in lists for your various campaigns are:

A) Lead Capture web pages
B) A cheap hosting account for your web-sites
C) A reliable auto responder service

These are the basic tools of your trade. You simply can not build a list without these tools.

The one and only purpose of advertising is to capture the e-mail address of the visitor/ customer otherwise you are simply throwing away your advertising dollars. To achieve this your website has to be designed around a lead capture page.

Once you create your lead capture page for a program you must only advertise this page. This will give you the best bang for your advertising dollar. The name, e-mail address & other details you capture through your page are now your property. This has two advantage. Firstly you can send follow
up messages through an auto responder. It normally takes anywhere from 5 to 7 messages to establish a relationship with a potential customer and explain him the details and benefits of your product before a sale is made. Secondly, you now have the ability to make new offers and maintain an ongoing relationship.
Over a period of time you can refine this list to service your most prized clients for repeated business. Earlier you were wasting your dollar on one time advertising or acting as an agent of a program that was collecting your client list in their data pool to grow their business. Over a period of time you will build a list of highly responsive clients and your business will explode with advertising costs dramatically
being reduce.

One of the best software products for generating lead pages has been created by Gabriel Aguinaga. This lead page generator is one of the best and easiest to use.

For the hosting account I recommend Hostgator. It is very cheap at $9.95 per month and you can host multiple sites. Hostgator has multiple features.Please study their programme by visiting their website.

Aweber and Getresponse are the two most popular auto responder services. I use Getresponse because it is simple to operate & allows me to create multiple campaigns & send attachments so that I can send free e-books and offers to my clients. You can check out the services by visiting:

There are some costs involved in setting up your systems but there is no escape if you are serious about building your online business. You can not do internet business without having your own website or building your client base. Auto responders once set up correctly make this task very easy. Follow up messages go automatically without your intervention.
They put your business on auto pilot.

To succeed in business you have to assume leadership role sooner than later & create systems that leverage your time.

The money is in your List. You will need to organize
your systems and your business will not only
multiply but explode.

Praveen Kumar is a success coach who has a passion for real estate investing for capital growth and internet marketing for cash flow. He has been helping others, who share the same vision, to start their home businesses and become financially free. Please click here To find the best home based business ideas and training.

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Things that Do Not Work on Internet

Internet is an ever evolving medium. What worked yesterday necessarily does not work today. There are many advertising methods that are a total waste of time and money. If you do not know what some of these things are, do not worry about them. But some of the items on the list below will probably surprise you. I have tried all these and have spoken to various internet marketers for their experience. The list below gives in a nutshell the advertising that no longer works on the net so please do not waste your time effort and money in chasing a ghost that no longer exisits.

free classifieds
free for all link sites (FFAs)
viral generators
banner exchanges
link exchanges
search engine posting
multiple search engine posting
multiple search engine and FFA posting
safelist contact name blasters
literally anything with the word 'blaster' in it
guaranteed sign ups
paid guaranteed click thrus
practically anything you have to pay for
just about anything with the word 'viral' in it
purchased leads or free leads, it does not matter if they are 'double opt-in'
auto-surf exchanges
paid surf exchanges

This is a simple word of advise from someone who has wasted a lot of time, effort and money on the net. Please do not re-invent the wheel of folly.

THINGS THAT WORK A LITTLE BIT

In the world of free advertising there are things that work a little bit. I would not say that really anything works well. The truth is that if you want to pick up about one new recruit every one to three days, that you can do it if you use the techniques I am about to show you. But it will require about two hours or more of your time on a daily basis. And you will have to be consistent to profit from it.

There are really only two methods of free online advertising that work at all - safelists and click exchanges. But having said this, you must realize that 99% of both are no good. You have to choose the right ones. Further, you have to use them the way I tell you. By themselves they will not work.

SAFELISTS
You can spend about ten minutes daily posting to safelists. You should pick up one recruit every other day if you use the top twenty list at Traffic Hoopla. And you may pick up as many as one recruit per day if you use all of the lists given at SafeList Boyz combined, although this is a nightmare to set up. I do not want to sell these to you by offering you my affiliate number for these programs. Look them up on Google. Traffic Hoopla will lead you to the most effective lists. SafeList Boyz will lead you to the most popular ones and give you an automated method for posting to about a thousand different lists every day. The response rate is much lower than with the lists on Traffic Hoopla. But you post much more quickly using the SafeList Boyz manager, which is sold through PayPal for about $5/month. Do NOT use the SafeLists listed on SafeList Boyz by themselves. Allow two to three weeks for set up.

Now all of these lists are free but offer upgrade options. If you get results will it be worth it to upgrade? That depends on how much you value recruits. In every case you are targeting recruits. You use them to find opportunity seekers. That is because opportunity seekers are the people who use these lists. Or more accurately, people with opportunities and an appreciation for MLM. Between the SafeList Boyz subscription and upgrading your membership on ten safelists or more you can easily spend $100/month. The figures I gave you in the paragraph above assume you are remaining as a free member. Suffice it to say you could multiply your results if you upgrade. To me, time is money. So if you see you are getting results, you should consider upgrades.

CLICK EXCHANGES
Traffic Hoopla rates both safelists and click exchanges. A click exchange is a network of people who agree to view each others web sites. This is arranged through a program. The program is a server you log into. To move from one members web site to another you click - hence the name click exchange. Many exchanges will cheat you so that you do a lot of clicking but you do not have other people looking at your site. Traffic Hoopla serves as a watch dog group among click exchange users by rating the reliability of the exchanges, as well as response rates.

SIMULTANEOUS USAGE
The problem with click exchanges and safelists is that everybody is interested in having their own advertisements seen. Nobody is really interested in seeing anybody elses advertisements. For one thing, there would n0t be time to do so if they tried. As a result, response rates tend to be very low. On the other hand, a good safelist or exchange will offer safeguards, to be sure people really do look. Hence the ratings. But good is still really not very good.

SO WHAT EXACTLY IS A CLICK EXCHANGE?
A click exchange, hit exchange, surf4hits program or whatever you want to name it usually has an offer that looks like this:

A) You agree to visit web sites of other members who have joined the exchange
B) You agree to look at their web sites for a specific period of time before moving on to the next member's web site in the exchange, usually 10-30 seconds.
C) Other members of the exchange make the same agreement and agree to visit your web site in exchange for you visiting their web site.
D) Most exchanges give you a two to one offer. In other words you will get one visit to your web site for every two visits you make to web sites of other members in the exchange.
E) If you do the math you will see that this leaves them with a lot of spare visits. The administrators of the exchanges usually sell these extra visits to you and the other members. That is how they make their money.
F) Some exchanges offer credits to you if you refer other members to the exchange. Most of these will give you one visit to your web site for every ten web sites your referrals visit
G) Some exchanges offer indirect referral credits too, in a multi-level marketing fashion, except they're not splitting up commissions among several marketers, they are splitting up visit credits among several marketers.
H) Often this is referred to as 'viral' marketing. But don't let this word scare you. You will not get a disease. You are not spreading a virus. The word 'viral' is a description of the way your free advertising can multiply. It multiplies as fast as a virus does, from person to person.

Or, at least, that is what the administrators of these exchanges would like you to think. The reality is a little bit different. The truth is that very few people continue to use click exchanges for very long because they soon encounter some harsh realities.
1. Nobody is using just one exchange at a time staring at any screen for 10-30 seconds except for the most naive kind of person
2. Everybody is deliberately clicking past every site they see on the exchange.
3. Nobody has any money to spend. They are out there trying to earn money.
4. They have fierce competition. Their own products or services are rarely unique and compelling to this ad-weary group of non-buyers.
5. The 'I-give-up' factor kicks in for their downline and for them. They conclude that click exchanges don't work.

But they are wrong. Click exchanges work quite well. The percentages may be very low but the people who are using the exchanges are the people who are actively involved in internet business. They are the right target audience. Even if you get one serious click out of 600 the effort is worth it. By multi tasking and surfing several sites simultaneously you can reduce your effort substantially.
Praveen Kumar is a success coach who has a passion for real estate investing for capital growth and internet marketing for cash flow. He has been helping others, who share the same vision, to start their home businesses and become financially free. Please click here To find the best home based business ideas and training.

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How to Calculate ROI (Return on Investment)

Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-14581 ROI (Return on Investment) is probably the most important calculation one needs to make to ensure the long-term viability of their business. It is not enough to build in a profit margin on the product or service being offered. One must track with proficiency the amount of dollars being invested into attracting sales and how much ROI those dollars put back into the business. If the investment meets too little return, a product line is doomed to fail in the long-term. THE BASIC ROI PERCENTAGE CALCULATION Many experts seem to agree, “calculating an accurate return on investment (ROI) is not an easy thing to do.” I do not intend to give you a thorough analysis of the ROI calculation process. Calculating an accurate ROI is hard to do, but explaining the full scope of ROI calculations in less than 1000 words is far more difficult. As such, this article is only intended to introduce you to the basic concepts behind ROI calculations. Here is a very basic equation for calculating the ROI: ROI = [(Payback - Investment)/Investment)]*100 Your payback is actually the total amount of money earned from your investment in your company. Investment relates to the amount of resources put into generating the given payback. You should run ROI calculations on both monthly and yearly timelines. IMPROPER CALCULATIONS BY MANY SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS The actual amount of investment into a business is often misunderstood by the business owner. As a result, true ROI calculations for most small businesses are skewed. Most small business owners make their mistake in this most necessary calculation, because they do not properly value their own time. Please note that when I previously defined “investment”, I stated that it relates to the “amount of resources put into generating the payback.” Indeed, “resources” includes cash money. But, it also includes “human resources” or “time”. If most small business owners would value their hours at the minimum wage, and calculate their time into the investment equation, they would soon realize that their small business is running in the red! Some small business owners will finally run ROI calculations including the human resources, and suddenly realize that they could make more money working a job. If the small business owner has been running their business for a really long time, struggling to make ends meet, they might see this calculation and close their doors once and for all. PLEASE DON’T LET ME DISCOURAGE YOU I do not share this revelation with you so that you will close your business down. Quite to the contrary. I share this with you so that you can see the big picture and start running your business in a way that will actually generate a real profit for you and your business. If you are within the first two years or five years of the start of your business, then running in the red should not be thought of as a bad thing. However, if you are ten years into your business and earning less than minimum wage from your business, there is a serious problem afoot that needs to be addressed immediately. STARTING OUT When you are just beginning your own business, you have plenty of time on your hands. This is the reason why most small business owners do not properly count their time in the ROI equation. They just look at cash expenditures and incoming monies, and they are satisfied with that calculation. It is often said that people generate the kind of results that they believe they can achieve or the kind that they want to achieve. Seeing the goal is the first step to achieving the goal. Expectations will always bring results equal to the expectation. Having been down the business startup path before myself, I too understand the desire to calculate ROI without consideration to the time invested in the enterprise. However, I also understand the importance of placing a value on my time and working that into my final numbers. In the beginning, I ran two types of ROI calculations: all resources exempting my time, AND all resources including my time. Of course, I actually set a higher expectation for my own income level. First, I had decided on ten dollars an hour for my time. Later, I adjusted that amount upward. Starting out, even though I ran two versions of my ROI calculations, I relied first on my resource excluding my own time. Once I had achieved this goal, then I refocused my attention to reaching the ROI which took into account my own time. Now, that time has passed, I can go back and look at my yearly ROI and see that I have earned enough cash to pay for those early days of famine. THE SECRET OF TURNING ROI CALCULATIONS INTO SUCCESS Every step in your business startup is a calculated guess as to what you believe you can achieve. Measuring your results is essential to making your business profitable. ROI measurements are imperative to measuring and understanding the results you are achieving with your new or existing business. Take into account all factors relating to the profitability of your business and don’t smudge on the facts to make it seem more profitable than it really is. It is important to approach your business and your business results with absolute honesty. Be honest with yourself and face the facts of your task. An honest examination of your business at regular intervals will help you get on and stay on track to keep the doors of your business open. You will thank yourself later. To Your Success! Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy P.S. If you want to short-cut your path to online success, I encourage you to sign up for the Plug-In Profit Site service and get your first website setup within the next 24 hours. Visit this site to get the details: http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-14581

Praveen Kumar is a success coach who has a passion for real estate investing for capital growth and internet marketing for cash flow. He has been helping others, who share the same vision, to start their home businesses and become financially free. Please click here To find the best home based business ideas and training.

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How to Win the Advertising and Promotion Game

Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-14581

I am certain that, as a business owner, you have often
entertained the question as to how much to spend and where to
spend your advertising dollars. For most small business owners,
these questions can add to the headaches suffered in the course
of normal everyday operations of their business.

THERE ARE NO SIMPLE ANSWERS

The how much to spend and where to spend it questions have no
easy answers.

Depending on your type of business, many people suggest that the
*how much* should be equal to anywhere from 4% to 10% of your
gross receipts.

The quandary is that a business cannot survive without a fresh
flow of incoming customers. But, a business can seldom generate
a fresh stream of customers without spending money to get the
word out about their business.

THE CHALLENGE OF DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE ADVERTISING

Have you ever paid for advertising and sat back to await the
fresh flow of customers, only to find yourself sitting and
sitting and then sitting some more?

Don’t feel bad about that. It has happened to many of us before.

See, knowing where to spend the advertising money is not enough
to get the job done.

Where to spend the money only begins to highlight the other
issues connected with advertising:

· Marketing Plan
· Advertising Strategy
· Headlines, Ad Copy and Visual Presentation
· Tracking the Success of Your Advertising Campaigns

THE MARKETING PLAN

The Marketing Plan is used primarily to identify your own
products and services, costs, strengths, weaknesses and the
strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.

ADVERTISING STRATEGY

It is important to understand what you expect to gain from your
advertising.

Do you simply wish to get your name known so that when your
customer will need you, they will think of you first? Or, do you
wish to get your customers in your front door on Saturday?

Do you want your customers to come in and take a look around to
discover the next object that they cannot live without? Or, do
you want them to come in and buy a specific widget?

Do you hope that enough people will come in to buy enough
products or services to pay for your single ad? Or, do you
expect to gain a lifelong customer who will help pay for your
advertising over the course of several years?

When you know what you want, then you will better understand
just how to do it.

HEADLINES, AD COPY AND VISUAL PRESENTATION

You might be surprised how many business owners put out
advertising without regard for the quality of the sales pitch or
presentation. The quality of your distribution outlet or the
amount of money you spent to get there will do little for you if
the advertising vehicle is a junker.

Test all of your advertising materials in smaller markets before
blowing your advertising bank roll on it. You must absolutely
know the value of your advertising before putting large sums of
money behind it.

TRACKING THE SUCCESS OF YOUR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS

Tell your customers to save another 10% when they tell you they
heard or saw your ad in such-and-such location. Suggest that
they can register to win a free widget if they fill out a form
and have them to tell you how they heard of your business.
Advertise a specific widget in your ad and track the sales of
that widget.

It does not matter how you track your advertising --- just make
sure you do it!

IN SUMMARY

The ideal way to spend your advertising budget is to buy a rifle
with a high-powered scope and to only shoot your targets in the
light of day.

If you are not tracking your advertising, then you are shooting
a pellet gun without an attached scope, with blinders on, and
shooting in the dead darkness of night.

Even with a bigger gun, the blinders in the dark constitute the
single largest mistake made by advertisers. If you are unable to
track your advertising to learn what is working well, what is
working somewhat, and what is a money pit, then you are
condemned to repeat your mistakes over and again.

By relying only on gut instinct, you may be choosing to spend
more money in the money pit and to lose all of your money in the
process.

When you get down to the nuts and bolts of making money from
your advertising, you should plan, prepare, track and study your
results. You must have factual information on which to base your
advertising decisions. When you are making the right advertising
decisions, then making money from your business might just come
easy.

To Your Success!

Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

P.S. If you want to short-cut your path to online success, I
encourage you to sign up for the Plug-In Profit Site service and
get your first website setup within the next 24 hours. Visit
this site to get the details:
http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-14581

Praveen Kumar is a success coach who has a passion for real estate investing for capital growth and internet marketing for cash flow. He has been helping others, who share the same vision, to start their home businesses and become financially free. Please click here To find the best home based business ideas and training.

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Promoting Your Business with Copper Wire? Think Again.

Promoting Your Business with Copper Wire? Think Again.

Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy
http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-14581

So many people launch their first or second business with the
misconception that they can survive without advertising. It is
their fear of failure that almost single-handedly assures their
failure. They fear spending the money that they need to get and
keep their business running during those early years of their
operation.

Let’s face it, when you start in business, money is usually
pretty darn tight. So, you must figure out how to get off the
ground without throwing your money down the drain. Every single
red cent is important enough to hang onto with a tight fist.

NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO REINVENT COPPER WIRE

I am reminded of an old joke a friend used to tell about himself.

My friend had always told me that both he and his brother were
the inventers of copper wire. He insisted that the two of them
were fighting over a penny one day and managed to stretch it out
into the first strand of copper wire known to mankind.

Indeed, now is not the time to try to reinvent copper wire.

ADVERTISING IS A NECESSARY COMPONENT OF A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS

The point of advertising is to notify your customers of the
existence of your business. It is necessary to tell people that
you are in business and to tell them what products and services
you are offering.

Unless people know that you are offering a certain product or
service at a certain price, no one will knock upon your door to
buy your wares.

If you fail to attract customers and dollars, your business will
die. Therefore, advertising is a must for the success of your
business. Sure, word of mouth can take you places, but it can
only take you so far. Advertising is designed to pick up where
word of mouth leaves off.

ATTRITION IS A DEFINITE FACTOR TO CONSIDER

Attrition is a factor in all businesses. A business is able to
pick up so many customers and dollars on every advertising or
promotion venture. Yet, a certain portion of your old and new
customers and dollars will drop off over time.

You simply cannot rest on your laurels. You must continue to
generate new business and new dollars or your business will die.

EZINE PUBLISHING DELIVERS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF COMMERCIAL ATTRITION

If you have ever published an online ezine, then you will have
seen attrition first hand.

You can spend all week advertising your ezine and note that your
efforts have generated for example 500 new subscribers. Yet, by
the end of the week, your subscriber base has only climbed by
250 subscribers. What went wrong?

Well, this is how it works. Keep in mind this is only an example
to make my point, but if you have ever published an ezine, then
you will know I am right on the money with this observation.

In one week:

· 500 people sign up for the first time.
· 40 of those people unsubscribe after the very first
issue because they do not like the content.
· 30 people quit after the first issue because their
only purpose in subscribing in the first place was to get the
freebie you had offered to new subscribers.
· 30 of those people unsubscribe because they do not
remember subscribing to the ezine in the first place.
· 80 email addresses bounce due to ISP email filters.
· 20 people bounce because they did not pay their
Internet bill.
· 35 people have simply changed their email addresses
without submitting a change of address to you.
· 15 people have quit the Internet altogether.

In the final analysis, 100 of your new subscribers, or 20% of
your newcomers are gone after one week. Another 150 subscribers
were long-time subscribers who are gone for other reasons.

If you make the mistake of stopping your advertising, your ezine
list will eventually wind down to one subscriber --- you. In our
example, 150 long-time subscribers disappear every week, and
there is nothing you can do to stop it. You must absolutely keep
a fresh flow of new subscribers coming into the ezine in order
to stay ahead of the attrition curve.

STAYING AHEAD OF THE ATTRITION CURVE

An ezine or a business, what is the difference? Not much. Your
business will suffer the same fate as the ezine if you do not
advertise. I don’t know how to make it any more clear than this.

Yes, you must be careful not to throw your money away on
advertising that does not generate results. But you cannot
afford to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Carefully, pick your advertising, study your results, and put
your money back into what is working for you.

In conclusion, you must decide. Do you want to advertise your
business, or do you want to watch your business die? The
decision is yours and yours alone. Well, what are you going to
do?

To Your Success!

Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

P.S. If you want to short-cut your path to online success, I
encourage you to sign up for the Plug-In Profit Site service and
get your first website setup within the next 24 hours. Visit
this site to get the details:
http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-14581

Praveen Kumar is a success coach who has a passion for real estate investing for capital growth and internet marketing for cash flow. He has been helping others, who share the same vision, to start their home businesses and become financially free. Please click here To find the best home based business ideas and training.

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Understanding the Different Methods of Offline Promotion

Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

http://www.wealthonline-profitmachine.com/pips.html

No business can survive the long run without some form of
consistent advertising. As a result, most business owners will
eventually consider using advertising to promote their business.

The toughest part of the advertising equation is in determining
where and how to spend your advertising dollars. If you do it
wrong, you could plunk down your entire advertising budget and
receive absolutely no return on your investment. But, if you do
it right, your advertising could continue to bring a nice return
for years to come.

HOW DO I MAKE THE RIGHT ADVERTISING DECISIONS

In order to make good decisions concerning how to spend your
advertising budget, you must first have a good understanding of
the different types of advertising and promotion available and
what can be expected to be achieved by each.

· You must understand which markets the different media's can
reach.
· You must understand the demographics of the media's
consumers.
· You must understand the buying habits of the consumers
reached through the media.

WHAT OFFLINE ADVERTISING & PROMOTION MEDIA'S SHOULD BE CONSIDERED

The media's that people think of most often are television,
radio, newspaper and magazine advertising. Of course, these are
the big boys that big businesses use regularly.

Other methods of promotion include trade shows, press releases,
direct sales, telemarketing, word of mouth, branding and
billboard advertising.

CONSIDERING THE BIG MEDIA OUTLETS

The big boys of advertising media's generally cost big bucks.
Given certain circumstances, the big media's can be bought for
very little money.

Take for example, television, radio and newspapers cost big
bucks during their prime times, but can be bought for pennies on
the dollar during non-primetime hours.

Television primetime is between 7pm and 10pm. Radio primetime is
between 7am and 6pm. With newspapers, the primetime is
Wednesdays and Sundays.

If you intend to hit a media during prime time, get ready to
drop some bucks. Primetime means that you will be able to hit
more consumers during these times. So, in most cases, a
primetime buy will enable you to reach more people with your
advertising.

Non-primetime hours can still deliver a lot of eyes and ears to
your message, and sometimes, these off-hours can be bought for a
bargain basement price.

GETTING MILEAGE FROM EVENTS

Trade shows and press releases are more event-driven. The trade
show is the event, while the press release generally exploits an
event.

Trade shows are an exceptional tool when you deal directly with
potential sellers of your products or services. Other shows are
directed at the consumer, and those can be very valuable avenues
for sales as well.

The press release is aimed towards gaining attention for a
business by distributing newsworthy information about the
business.

Sometimes the appearance of a business at a trade show or other
show can provide the necessary angle for a press release. But
most often, a successful press release will actually require
more noteworthy information than the appearance of a business at
a show.

Yet, even the most mundane of information could be spiced up to
give the real air of importance necessary to get your press
release read and printed.

The great thing about a press release is that might permit you
to get relatively inexpensive promotion on television, radio,
newspapers and magazines; for far less than what it would cost
you to buy advertising in those same outlets.

UTILIZING A SALES TEAM

Depending on what type of business you run and the consumers you
are trying to reach, you might find direct sales and
telemarketing to be very lucrative ways to drive sales to your
business.

Both are very similar in nature. Direct sales can be very
expensive, as it requires a great investment of time to
accomodate. Telemarketing seeks to minimize the time
expenditure, but it often leads to a smaller degree of respect
and attention.

Depending on your product or service --- and always depending
upon the people you employ to the task --- each method will be
more suited to each business on an individual basis.

BRANDING YOUR BUSINESS

I grouped branding and billboard advertising together in my
original list for a reason. I did this because billboard
advertising serves most businesses best by helping to support
the process of branding.

Branding is the process of establishing your business as the
supplier of a certain product or service, or in emphasizing a
certain USP (Unique Selling Proposition) as it pertains to your
business.

If branding and USP seems to be a confusing concept, think about
Wal-Mart and their tag line: "Always Low Prices, Always."

Think about Ford Motors, "Quality is Job One."

Think about the Visa Card, "It's Everywhere You Want To Be."

You see, these top corporations have managed to make their USP
part of their branding.

Even if you are only competing in a local marketplace, your USP
can and should fit snugly into your branding strategy.

NO MATTER THE MEDIA OR METHOD

Whichever method or media you should choose to employ in your
advertising and promotion, you should become knowledgable about
your market, and the consumers reached by each media. It is
important to understand which consumers can be reached by a
certain media, and in what quantities.

However you choose to spend your advertising dollars, you should
always track the results of your promotional efforts. Failing to
track successes and failures will ultimately lead to the failure
of a business.

When you know whom you are trying to reach and how you think you
might be able to reach them, you will begin to learn how to use
advertising and promotion to make your business successful. That
is a good thing --- after all, that is why you got into the
business in the first place, isn't it?

To Your Success!

Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

P.S. If you want to short-cut your path to online success, I
encourage you to sign up for the Plug-In Profit Site service and
get your first website setup within the next 24 hours. Visit
this site to get the details:
http://www.wealthonline-profitmachine.com/pips.html

Praveen Kumar is a success coach who has a passion for real estate investing for capital growth and internet marketing for cash flow. He has been helping others, who share the same vision, to start their home businesses and become financially free. Please click here To find the best home based business ideas and training.

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Understanding the Difference Between Marketing and Promotion

Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

http://www.wealthonline-profitmachine.com/pips.html

Are you an online marketer? Or do you simply promote affiliate
programs? Marketing is truly the most misunderstood word in use
today on the Internet. Let me see if I can clarify this issue
just a bit.

In Marketing 101 at your local university, marketing is actually
the process of Product, Place, Price and Promotion.

PRODUCT

No business can exist without a product or service to sell.

In a nutshell, entrepreneurs are the people who believe in a
product, service or idea, so much that they are willing to
invest their lives into the development of their dream.

Historically, every major corporation in the world was started
by an entrepreneur with a dream and the drive to make it a
reality.

However, there comes a time in the life of every corporation
when those who fear the gambling nature of their founder, squash
the entrepreneurial drive that made the company a viable concern
in the first place. The entrepreneur will either submit to the
careful nature of the stockholders, or he will be forced to
leave the company he created.

The only entrepreneurs who withstand the pressure to move more
carefully are those who have maintained majority control over
their companies.

PLACE

In the offline world, place is defined by location. On the
Internet, place is defined by domain name and the web hosting
service chosen.

Both online and offline, place can make or break a company
without respect to the quality and value of the product, service
or idea.

PRICE

Selecting a price is determined first on a basis of whether the
company wants to be seen as a discount or a value company.

Take for example Wal-Mart and Staples.

Wal-Mart is the lead discounter in the marketplace. Staples on
the other hand is the specialist in office supplies.

Both sell a significant number of office supplies despite the
fact that the lowest price can usually be found at Wal-Mart. As
a value dealer, Staples can afford to charge more for their
products than Wal-Mart.

So the question for you is whether you want to position your
company as a discount or value company.

Testing has shown that products and services can be sold at any
number of prices and still reach a significant number of people.

The challenge of selecting the best price for your product or
service will require a certain amount of testing.

UNDERSTANDING THE PRICING EQUATION

Let's assume we are selling a product. Let us also assume that
we know that the product can be sold for $10 or $50. Let us also
assume that if the price dips below $10 or rises above $50, then
the product sales fall off significantly.

Our challenge is to determine the best rate at which to sell our
product.

Testing has shown us that we can sell 1000 items a week at $10.
Testing has also shown that we can sell 500 items per week at
$50. And testing has shown that we can sell 650 items per week
at $45.

At $10, our projected weekly earnings are $10,000. When we sell
the product at $50, we know that we can earn $25,000 per week.
Most importantly, we know that we can earn $29,250 when our
product is priced at $45.

With the imaginary testing we have done on our imaginary
product, we can easily see that selling our product at $45 per
item will earn us more money over the long haul.

Thus, when we make the decision for a national rollout of our
product, then we will price our product at $45.

Of course, this is a very simplistic analysis of the point I am
trying to make. Though simple, I believe this analogy will help
you understand the methods of developing a product's prices.

PROMOTION

Promotion, on the other hand, is the process of notifying the
consumers for your product or service of your availability to
serve them.

Methods of promotion vary distinctly and should be arranged to
meet very specific goals.

As with product, place and price, promotion should not be left
to chance. You should test every ad, every media, and every
price point to determine the best bang for your promotional
dollars.

HEADS UP!

If you are an online promoter or marketer, please factor in the
most important element concerning the cost of your promotions.

What element is that? Your time!

Value your time at a certain dollar amount, and figure in your
time into the cost of your promotional accounting.

I say this because too many online promoters lose sight of this
concept and spend 20 hours to generate one sale while using free
advertising. Even if you rate your time at the federal minimum
wage, then you will have invested $105 of your time for one sale
that might only net you a gross sale of $45!

ARE YOU TRULY A MARKETER OR ARE YOU JUST A PROMOTER?

Most people who run a business on the Internet call themselves
marketers. Yet, most of these same people are really just
promoters wrapped in the label of a marketer.

True marketers do not promote without a lot of advance work.
They spend time planning, testing and measuring their actions
and results to get the most out of every dollar spent and earned.

Entrepreneurs finesse the art of marketing as they build their
company into a major enterprise.

If you are a promoter who does not keep an eye on the total
marketing equation, then you are bound to fail.

If you do call yourself a marketer, then do what a professional
marketer does. Make sure that every dollar spent is spent well.
Make sure that every dollar earned is put to good use. Market
well so that when the people of the next generation look at your
life, they will see a fine example of a successful entrepreneur
that they will strive to emulate.

To Your Success!

Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

P.S. If you want to short-cut your path to online success, I
encourage you to sign up for the Plug-In Profit Site service and
get your first website setup within the next 24 hours. Visit
this site to get the details:
http://www.wealthonline-profitmachine.com/pips.html

Praveen Kumar is a success coach who has a passion for real estate investing for capital growth and internet marketing for cash flow. He has been helping others, who share the same vision, to start their home businesses and become financially free. Please click here To find the best home based business ideas and training.

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Networking Your Home Business within Circles of Influence

Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-14581 When you need an auto mechanic or an air conditioning repairman, where do you turn for help? Sure, some people turn to the yellow pages. But most will turn to friends and family and ask if they know of anyone who can do the work. The best place for your business to be positioned is to be the business on the tips of the tongues of the people asked to make the referral. THE 300 RULE Preachers, funeral directors and people in a few other professions have learned "the 300 rule" through their own personal experience. "The 300 rule" states that the average person knows 300 people on a friendly level. Wedding planners tend to make reservations for 300 guests. Funeral directors tend to need to make room for 300 mourners. You get the idea. DOODLING WITH CIRCLES OF INFLUENCE Imagine your circle of friends, family and acquaintances, a.k.a. your circle of influence. Now, draw your circle of influence as a circle on a blank piece of paper. Next, contemplate the people in your parents' circle of influence. Some people who know your parents also know you. Therefore, you will share some influence with the people your folks know. Now draw your parents' circle of influence on your piece of paper. Your circle and your parents' circle will intersect in one area, although the larger majority of the two circles will not intersect. If you are like most people, the two circles on your page at this point looks very similar to the MasterCard logo. Now imagine drawing a page full of intersecting circles, each circle representing the circle of influence of the people who are within your own circle of influence. Imagine trying to encapsulate an accurate rendering of where your circle and the circle of your friends will actually intersect. Some circles will share a large area of space, while others will barely cover one another. Actually, you can only imagine at this point what your piece of paper will look like. The actual layout of the circles imagined in this analogy is simply too overwhelming for the mind to comprehend. THE BIG PICTURE 300 multiplied by 300 equals 90,000. By using the analogy of doodles in the previous section, the average person can actually network with up to 90,000 people! Even factoring in the overlap, one can still probably network with 50,000 people through their own circle of influence! Simply amazing, isn't it? HERE IS THE SECRET TO YOUR SUCCESS There are 300 people on this planet whom you have a reasonable amount of influence. Take advantage of this fact. Make darn sure that every person within your own circle of influence KNOWS that you are in business for yourself, and make sure they understand what your business offers. When your friend is asked to make a referral, they will recommend you. PASSIVE VERSUS ACTIVE REFERRAL NETWORKING When people ask your friends for a referral and your friend mentions your business, that is passive referral networking. Active referral networking is when you can get your friends go directly to their friends and say "Hey, I have a friend who just started a business. If you are in need of what he offers or you know someone who will need his services, would you please give my friend a call or make the referral to his business?" If you can get even a portion of the people in your own circle of influence to actively refer your business, then you have built the foundation to build an advertising campaign even more effective than the average local television advertising campaign. Think about that for a moment. Most people only dream of reaching 50,000 potential customers with their television advertising dollars. You now have the knowledge to reach 50,000 people without spending a single penny. To Your Success! Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy P.S. If you want to short-cut your path to online success, I encourage you to sign up for the Plug-In Profit Site service and get your first website setup within the next 24 hours. Visit this site to get the details: http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-14581

Praveen Kumar is a success coach who has a passion for real estate investing for capital growth and internet marketing for cash flow. He has been helping others, who share the same vision, to start their home businesses and become financially free. Please click here To find the best home based business ideas and training.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Get A Free Money Making Website Just For You That's 100%
Ready To Take Orders And Pull In Massive Residual
Profits Today!
http://www.wealthonline-profitmachine.com/pips.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------