Offering A Guarantee Without Losing Your Shirt

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2007-2008 Mark Silver


You may be offering a guarantee, but nervously, or perhaps not offering one at all. What if a bunch of your clients ask for their money back?

Sluuurrrrrpppp... there goes your business, down the drain. What makes a guarantee safe for you?

It helps to understand that very few people ever call in a guarantee. Why don't they?

The first and best reason is that you are putting your heart and soul into doing the best you can possibly do for your customers.

And your client is actually rooting for you-- they want your offer to work. They want to believe in you.

This means that your customers are cheerleading your efforts. They paid money, they've committed themselves, so they're actually on your team.

They also don't want to have to face having made a wrong decision. Something has to go pretty badly before they'll call in a guarantee.

Put those reasons together, the whole-hearted efforts on your part coupled with how much your customers are rooting for you, and you can see why guarantees hardly ever get called in.

You're still a little nervous, aren't you?

Well, I'm going to let you in on two secrets that will help you relax.

One secret to the guarantee

A guarantee only works if someone has already said "Yes" in their heart, but has voices of doubt sawing at their confidence. Then the guarantee comes leaping in to shrug off those doubts with, "Well, if it's a complete gash, at least I can get my money back."

This secret is strongly in operation with the first type of guarantee, which is...

The First Type: The unconditional guarantee

No conditions on the guarantee means that once they've received your offer, they can, for any reason, ask for a refund.

Use unconditional guarantees for offers that don't require your presence or input, meaning products, and not classes or one-on-one time.

We offer unconditional guarantees on our books and products for two reasons: one is that there is little risk for us, we merely shipped the product out. The second and more important reason is that I'm not present with them to help guide them. Because they have to be self-guiding in using the product, it seems only fair to let them be self-guiding in determining whether it worked.

The second type: The conditional guarantee (which contains the second secret)

When someone buys from you, they aren't stupid. They know that your offer only works if they follow through with their end of things.

If it's a nutritional supplement, they have to actually swallow the supplement. If it's a class, attending and doing the assignments is what brings results.

But how much is enough? What if you miss three days of taking the supplement? What if you can't make three of the classes?

Here's the second secret

When someone wants to buy a big something, they're wondering, "What do I have to do to get this to work for me?" The conditional guarantee answers this question.

With this question answered, your reader can relax and more easily trust the "Yes, I want to buy" that's in their heart.

You never knew the guarantee was working so hard for you, didja?

If you are ready to learn how to make the conditional guarantee work, and when not to offer a guarantee at all, read on:

Guaranteed Keys to Making a Conditional Guarantee* (*Must read all three keys for guarantee to apply.)

The conditional guarantee.

Ask your heart this question: what's the absolute minimum someone needs to do in order to have a happy experience with your offer?

How many classes can they miss, how much do they have to take, what do they have to do in order to see enough progress that they are going to be satisfied? Whatever that answer is, it will be the core of your conditional guarantee.

Now you have to get them to read it.

What do you do when you see a "100% money-back guarantee?" You say to yourself, "Oh, another guarantee." And you just rush right past it, don't even stop to scan through it.

When you do that, the guarantee doesn't really register in your heart.

The answer? Give your guarantee some personality. Not gimmicky, but authentic. For instance, here is a guarantee we offer for our classes:

"Best Yet- A 78% Total Guarantee (78%?)

"It's very important to me that this class helps you get where you want to go. You can decide, for any reason, up to six months after the end of the class in June, 2007 that the class didn't work for you and you want a refund. But, there are some conditions.

"And the 78%? The class works, but only if you attend and follow-through. If you complete 78% of the class: attend 11 out of the 14 classes, show up for 11 out of the 14 partner exercises, and complete 78% of the assignments, and you are still unhappy with the results, then I'll be happy to refund anything you paid towards this course."

When not to give a guarantee.

The only time you shouldn't offer a guarantee is when, if push came to shove and your customer was really unhappy with what you offered, you still wouldn't give them their money back.

Who would do that? Would you? No, you wouldn't. And neither would I.

Since you'd give someone their money back, don't hide it. Get the most out of it, and offer a guarantee.

The best to you and your business, Mark Silver


About the Author:
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com

Four Obstacles Your Customer Wants You To Hurdle Before Buying From You

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2007-2008 Casey Moher


Hurdles stand in the way of every attempt you'll ever make to get a customer.

Your obstacles are:

1. No TRUST for you on the part of your visitor.
2. No NEED for what you have.
3. No perception that you can HELP them.
4. They are in no HURRY to act.

We can break these down into manageable segments.

When you're selling something online, you are a stranger. You are a stranger trying to meet and persuade somebody who has never met you (and probably never will).

Doubt quickly evaporates from the mind of your visitor if your initial approach is to provide them with something of high perceived-value absolutely free. It's natural for your visitor to have their defensive guard very high at first.

Giving before you try to take (sell) something is a great resistance-buster. A good item to give away would be a report on a popular and good-selling internet-based product or service that you have something about.

A popular product that you would enjoy owning and using yourself is a great one upon which to base your report. You'll find that this approach is the best way to overcome the obstacle of NO TRUST! Obstacle number TWO is the one of NO NEED.

The most straight-forward method of dealing with this no-need obstacle is to choose a product or service that has some great testimonials. Much good will comes from your providing free valuable information. This good will results in a receptive frame of mind on the part of visitors to your site.

Once you begin to elaborate on the virtues of your product, your site visitor starts thinking about the issue of (NO HELP) which is actually obstacle number three.

The mind-set of NO HELP is a stubborn one and hangs in there even though you have built up a good amount of TRUST with your site visitor. Sharing the success that others have found with the product or service remains a powerful persuader for you at this point. It should now start becoming apparent to you just how valuable it truly is for you to start out as an affiliate marketer using a popular product.

There are a huge number of things that are done for you when you are an affiliate. Order taking, shipping, complaints and returns. Moreover, a great and proven sales letter together with testimonials are in place for your use in obstacle-busting.

I am convinved that the absolute best way for you to enter the on-line business arena is as an affiliate using your website to promote a proven and successful product. Also, getting past the obstacles we are discussing is much easier for you when you are working as an affiliate.

You are now in the position of three hurdles down and one to go. So you're now faced with obstacle number four, which is overcoming the natural human tendency to resist buying through the rationale of NO HURRY! The best tools I've found to overcome NO HURRY are to instill a fear of loss that could be suffered if they don't act now. Your customer could very well believe that your product and your offer will 'always' be there available for them at some point in the future. It is your job to dispel this notion. Indeed, it could very likely not be available in the future, even the very near future.

Also, you can cultivate the idea that even if the product is available for the foreseeable future, the price most likely will never be as low as it is today.

You can effectively use both the price and possible future shortage thoughts to encourage your customer to act NOW!

Focus your plans beyond making one or two sales as we've been discussing. If you concentrate, instead on building a large list of loyal subscribers, your passive personal cash-flow will continue to grow. It's fun and financially rewarding (although challenging at first) to build an expanding list of responsive subscribers. When you do, they will be your asset for years and years. You will get better and better all the time at overcoming the four obstacles. As you do, your responsive subscriber list as well as your business and income will grow.


About the Author:
Casey Moher - Caseymoher@comcast.net (801) 941-3334

Mr. Moher is a Registered Pharmacist and Life-Long Marketing and Sales Professional. You Can Get His Free Five-Day Mini-Course on Building Targeted Website Traffic by visiting: http://www.newtrafficmaster.com

New and Improved Or Is It?

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2000-2008 Bill Platt


I have come across articles where he author is celebrating "A New, More Effective Way to Promote Your Business on the Web."

Exuberant, I opened each article expecting to see something new and interesting. On both counts, I was disappointed. Both articles offered nothing new... just the same ol' hash, rehashed.

I guess the wisest man around, knew about the Internet well before it was created. Solomon spoke well when he said, "There is nothing new under the sun."

To some people new to the Internet, or new to promotion on the Internet, these people come across as Internet geniuses who have discovered a great new technique for promotion. Granted, for the reader who has never seen these techniques, they are in fact seeing a new technique.

For the newbie to the world of Internet promotion and marketing, they have discovered a new marketing guru to pay attention to. But, what happens when down the road, this same newbie sees the same author claim "New and Improved" once again --- but this time the newbie isn't a newbie and recognizes the "New and Improved" technique is only a rehash of the same ol' hash?

Don't you think that this person might feel cheated?

I expect that they will, if they ever discover that they were misled in the first place. Most will never make the connection, but those who do will definitely look at this marketing guru from that day forward with distrust in his eyes.

If you have ever been known to use the words "New" and "Improved" to sugar your headlines, ad body or articles, take notice and be aware.

Your reputation is far more valuable to your long-term success than the profits that can reaped through using the words "New" and "Improved" dishonestly to get someone's attention.

"There is nothing new under the sun."


About the Author:
Bill Platt's ebook, "Article Marketing for Traffic, Sales and Profits", teaches people the basics of how to write articles that generate traffic, sales and profits for the author's website. One of the secrets to writing profitable articles is to write Evergreen Content - content that is as useful eight years later as it is now. In case you missed it, this article was originally written in 2000, and continues to provide value to its readers. Get your copy of Bill's Article Writing Tips ebook at: http://thephantomwriters.com/ebooks/article-marketing-traffic.html

The SEO Benefits of Press Releases

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Lee Jenkins


Search engine optimized press releases are still relatively new in the field of SEO (during some research I found an article from 2004 claiming they were the new "secret back door to top search engine ranking"), but they are incredibly beneficial to an SEO campaign.

But why?

Some of the most frequently asked questions I get from clients are "Why does my company need to do press releases? How will press releases benefit my SEO campaign?"

Part of the answer is in the anatomy of an optimized press release. A properly optimized press release will include your top keywords as well as links to your website.

Backlinks:

Once the optimized press release is distributed, it gets picked up on various sites and channels including news search engines such as Google news and Yahoo! news. Every time another website picks up the press release, it reproduces the release along with all of your keywords and links. This has the effect of generating widespread backlinks (links back to your site).

These backlinks are one of the factors Google uses for determining a website's search engine ranking. Google looks at how many backlinks you have, and where they're coming from, so add in the fact that most of the backlinks are coming from news websites which have very high page ranks, and you have a good amount of quality backlinks that will increase the page rank and link popularity of your website.

Increased Keyword Rankings and Visibility:

News stories on the web are considered more time sensitive than regular web pages, so when your press release is distributed, it will be linked very quickly, giving you early visibility in news sites, news searches and standard search engines. Many news web sites also archive stories which can help to deliver long term link value, rankings and visibility.

In addition, online news search queries are generally much more targeted than standard web searches. In other words, people searching for news related to your industry are more likely to search for the terms that are used in your press release, which gives you a better chance at increasing the ranking of your website for popular and competitive search terms.

Credibility and Increased Traffic:

Last but not least, well written content will always add credibility to your website. The more information you show that you know, the more trustworthy you become. When your press releases start appearing in Google news and Yahoo! news for your keywords, potential customers searching for your product or business will see that you are a credible source of information in your industry and that you can be trusted. Those with Google alerts for your keywords will automatically receive your press release in their inbox, which will generate interest and relevant traffic to your site as well.

Bottom Line:

So bottom line, "Why does my company need to do press releases?" Because search engine optimized press releases are one of the quickest and easiest ways to start generating more backlinks, visibility and traffic for your website, and are a beneficial addition to any SEO campaign, no matter what your industry.


About the Author:
Getting your target audience to find you is increasingly challenging, which is why adding the Press Release to your online marketing arsenal is of key importance. Learn more about the SEO Optimized Press Release by visiting us.

Autoresponders Are a Publishers Best Friend

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2001-2008 Bill Platt


How many times have you subscribed to a new ezine (online newsletter), and then when the first issue of the ezine arrived, you were scratching your head as to how your email address ended up on the list? Our lives are often so tedious that little details often slip right from our memory.

The point is this. If it happens to you, you can rest assured that others have the same experience as well.

Sometimes when this happens to us, we just unsubscribe from the list after that first issue. We cannot remember what compelled us to subscribe in the first place, and the first issue of the ezine does little to rekindle our initial enthusiasm for the ezine.

As publishers, autoresponders can serve us well. When used correctly, autoresponders can strike while the iron is hot, cementing the subscription for the new subscriber.

If your ezine has been around for a while, or only for a few issues, seriously consider taking the time to compile a "Best Of" issue.

Be certain to list subscription instructions near the top of your "Best Of" issue, and also ask people to forward it to their friends.

Your "Best Of" issue should be placed into an autoresponder email address, and then given away at every opportunity. The moment the issue is ready, you can notify your subscribers of the existence of the issue. In the ezine information area of each issue, you can also remind subscribers that the "Best Of" is available at such-and-such email address. Ironically, some of your subscribers will download your "Best Of" several times.

The most important reason for building the "Best Of" issue is not for the benefit of your current subscribers, though most of them will appreciate your making it available to them. The best reason to implement the "Best Of" autoresponder is for your new subscribers!

When someone subscribes to your ezine, they will receive their "Welcome to My Ezine" notice. As they are reading the "Welcome" message, their enthusiasm is bubbling over. Waiting for that first issue will be tough unless there is an invitation to receive their first issue NOW.

In your "Welcome" message, you should let them know that if they would like to get started right away reading your ezine, then they should send a blank email to your autoresponder address for the "Best Of" issue.

New subscribers will gorge themselves on your "Best Of" issue, and they will remember your ezine when the first new issue arrives in their mailbox. If the "Best Of" issue was precisely what they were looking for, you can rest assured that they will eagerly open each subsequent issue of your ezine, with delight in their hearts.

If you do not have the ability to set up autoresponders on your own domain, one company that offers a free autoresponder service is: http://sendfree.com/

If you take the time now to implement the "Best Of" autoresponder, the rewards will most certainly be long-lasting. Remember, the best time to get a new subscriber to fall in love with your ezine is when their interest is the highest --- at the very moment they subscribe to your ezine.


About the Author:
Bill Platt has been engaged in article marketing since 1999 and has offered his services to others since 2001 as a article marketing service provider. He offers article ghost writing and article distribution services, to his clients, many of whom have been with him since early 2002: http://www.thephantomwriters.com He has written an ebook to teach people how to be as successful with article marketing as he has been. Bill's Article Marketing ebook has received many excellent reviews.

Home Financing in a Foreclosure-Heavy Market

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Cory Shrader


In today's housing market, foreclosures are at a high that hasn't been seen since 1979. Seven percent, or roughly one of every 11 homes, is currently in foreclosure. According to the Mortgage Bankers' Association, 6.35 percent of homes are in delinquency but not yet in foreclosure.

The housing crisis is happening everywhere -- from Indiana to Texas and Maine to California. Though we most often hear about record foreclosures in California and Florida, a brief internet search will show you it truly is not limited to any particular region or state.

The housing market woes do not just affect potential home buyers. The mortgage brokers themselves are feeling the crunch. In Massachusetts, approximately 80 percent of the brokers who were in business at its peak (about two years ago) have now left or will leave the housing market by the end of June 2008. Those that are left have had to severely cut back and make changes in order to survive (letting go other personnel, working more hours, selling fewer homes).

Qualified buyers are typically seen as those who have credit scores of above 680 (FICO scores range from 350-800), with good, steady jobs and incomes. Today, many banks, feeling the burden of too many loans gone bad, do not want to give loans to anyone with a credit score below 720.

Also gone are the days of easy-to-get adjustable rate mortgages. Banks have learned that market will not always be in an upswing and not everyone can afford a home mortgage.

If you do end up in foreclosure, it will most likely be at least five years before you'll be considered for bank financing again. In addition, you'll need to have a credit score of at least 680 and at least a 10% deposit.

But what if you have a good deposit now and you need a home now, not five years down the line or whenever the housing market picks back up? Do you have any options? In short, yes.

There are actually lots of people who are willing to do owner financing. If you see a For Sale By Owner sign, it's a good idea to check it out and see what kind of a deal they would be willing to make you.

Creative home financing options can help you and your family get into a house sooner, and help the owner get out of their home sooner. After all, with banks so hesitant to give loans, FSBO homes aren't going to have a very good chance of selling, either. Creative financing can help owners and buyers find mutual satisfaction.

In addition to looking for FSBO homes, there are other things potential home buyers can do to increase their chances of getting a home. To start, save up and get as much cash together as you can for a down payment.

When home owners are faced with letting their homes sit on the market for years (because no bank will give a buyer a loan) or taking a nice chunk of money up front and then a steady income from monthly payments for a number of years, they're going to be tempted.

Having that nice down payment also can help the current home owners get into their next house—a point that should be made to them in case they haven't thought of it. There are also experts available who know the ins and outs and strategies of creative home financing.

Another version of creative home financing is a land contract. This is along the lines of what we've already talked about, but with some sellers, they may be willing to accept a much lower down payment, spread your payments out over 40 years instead of the typical 30, and negotiate with you on the interest loan.

Check with your friends and family. Sure, there are reasons to be cautious when lending and borrowing money with relatives and friends. But if you know people who could probably spare the money for a down payment, and you can offer them a higher interest rate than they're getting by having their money sit at the bank, it could be a very attractive option for both of you.

Do you have other property? If you have other property already, you may be able to get a loan from that property to put towards a down payment on new property. It's worth thinking about.

The next idea is one you should think very cautiously about, but it is an option. Particularly if you are dealing with a FSBO situation, perhaps you could put part of your down payment on your credit card. This should really only be contemplated if you're going to be able to pay that amount off on your card very quickly (say, if you're expecting your tax refund or stimulus check) because credit card interest rates, as well all know, are ridiculously high.

As is true any time you are looking to take on debt, you need to be cautious. The banks have learned their lesson, so they're not going to be as easy to finance a home with for some time.

You, too, as the potential home buyer, need to be careful. Think through just how much debt you can take on. But do not let the current market discourage you from moving forward with home ownership plans. You may have to look a little harder, search a little longer, and maybe keep your dream house away for another few years. However, with the right spirit, intentions, planning, and creativity, you will find a home financing option that works for you and the seller.




About the Author:
Cory Shrader writes for the Liberty Home Sellers website. If you are ready to buy a home now, and the bank has tightened its credit policies, putting home ownership out of reach for you now, we might be able to help you. We play matchmaker between potential home buyers and motivated home sellers, who offer "Lease with Option To Buy" and other attractive home ownership deals. Learn more at: http://www.LibertyHomeSellers.com

Where is My Expired Domain? Searching For Good Expired Domains

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 John Khu


Domain name traders are one busy set of people, who are always on the edge of their seats to grab up very good expiring domain names. Finding very good expired domains on time and within your limited budget is a great task and an intelligent act. Domain name traders are always very eager to search for good expiring domain names. They always ask to themselves- Where the hell is my expired domain name? To find very good expired or expiring domain names, you may wish to learn and understand the basic aspects of finding a soon-to-expire domain name much before than others.

Here are some very simple and easy to understand techniques that will help you identify and buy a good expired domain name in a flash and beat your competitors with their hands down:

List down the names of expired domain names that you already own: Right now, you may own a series of domain names. You may wish to buy an expired domain name that does not repeat these names. In fact, it is wastage of money to buy expired domain names that are similar in their name, phonetics and structure. This is quite obvious, but an important fact!

Research, Research, Research: You will need to know, when those soon-to-expire domain names actually expire and become orphan. This seems to be the most precious secret of a successful domain name trader. When you prepare a list of soon-to-expire domain names, you can really get ready to book and grab those domain names. This will be an ongoing process that is continuous and streaming.

Know where the potentially good domains are: Before buying an expired domain, you should know the previous owner of the domain name, the credentials of the domain and its Whois data. This will help you in contacting the owner before the auction of the said domain.

Use Sophisticated Software Applications: An experienced expired domain name trader will own an arsenal highly sophisticated software tools to grab those expired domain names much before other actually do. These tools will not only help you find a good expired domain, but also assist you in bidding your best rate before others suggest theirs.

Dedication and Perseverance: No one can survive domain trading business unless he or she shows utmost dedication and perseverance towards the business. You will need to focus and self motivate to survive in the business by buying the best possible expired domain names.

If you ask where your expired domains are, they are right in front of your own eyes. All you have to do to is to apply your energy, mind and resources towards finding good domain names. Finding money spinning domains expired is also a task that needs your skills and intelligence. These are basic and vital steps recommended finding very good expired domain names. You may wish to follow them in details to grab that eye catching and potentially money making domain.


About the Author:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is the owner of the path breaking web site called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.

The Myth Of Being Successfully Solo In Business

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Mark Silver


There's a breakneck pace that many new solo business owners assume. With an infinite number of things to do, and about a dozen hats to wear, it gets overwhelming, fast.

And, that's nothing compared to what happens once the business actually has some momentum under it. That's why one of my clients with a brand-new business was asking me: "Mark, how do you get it all done? Your business has about 100 times more going on in it than mine does, and I'm overwhelmed just with what I'm trying to get done."

Here's my answer: "I don't get it all done."

Which strikes at the heart of the most dangerous myth in business: the bootstrap myth, known in this particular instance as the myth of the successful solopreneur.

Why this myth is so dangerous.

The myth says that you can do it on your own, you can bootstrap your way to success, and that when you go solo, you don't need anyone else. That's the whole point of being self-employed, or running a personal-sized business, right?

This rugged homage to individualism isn't just in the U.S., as some have claimed. I have seen this myth in action across the globe: Canada, the UK, mainland Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.

It seems as if it's just hard to get it: we can't do it ourselves.

The physical reality.

When you're an employee at a company, you get to do your job. And, unless you think upon it, you might not realize how much other people do just so you can do your job.

Who prints and signs your check? Who makes sure the office building gets cleaned? Who stocks the office supplies closet, or goes out and sells to clients so there is revenue to pay you?

It's humbling, but when you become self-employed, all of those functions fall into your lap. And it is impossible, literally impossible, to do them all. If you're overwhelmed trying to make your business work on your own, there is good reason for it.

Frustrating- but don't despair. It may help to understand why it is this way.

The spiritual reality.

As my Sufi teacher tells me, "Be the earth for your brothers and sisters. If you don't carry them, who will?... When you look into another's eyes, see the reflection of God looking at you."

The depth of this teaching really struck home when I realized that he wasn't talking to me personally- this teaching was for everyone. We're all asked to carry each other. Which means that we also need to allow ourselves to be carried.

When someone offers help, do you say: "Yes!" or do you say: "Nah, I can get it. " If the bootstrap myth is operating in your business, there may be a hundred subtle and not-so-subtle ways that you avoid or turn away from help."

Lord knows I do.

And yet we are meant to both help and be helped by each other. This is one of the ways that we experience the Divine in our lives, is through the actions, support and love of others.

Yes, I mean you. :-) You are supposed to receive the Divine through the actions, support and love of others. You can't do everything yourself. And that's as it was designed to be.

Watch the wing-stretching and contortions you go through as you learn to receive more help. It will do much more than help your business, it will be a real experience of healing and growth for you as well.

Who can afford to hire an entire company of help?

Of course, not all of the help you get will be free, and there's so much of it to get. And you can't hire it all, especially early in your business. So what do you do?

After going through some big transitions ourselves, having grown up in a small retail business, and having worked with hundreds of clients, let me share some insights into how to prioritize.

Keys to Being a Successful Pseudo-Solo.

First, invest in information and learning.

I know, I know- it seems like a lot needs to get done, right now. Remember- millions of people have already done what you've tried to do. So, the best thing to do is to learn from some of them.

Get books from the library, or buy them. Take classes, free or otherwise. Find people you admire who have successfully navigated what you're trying to do and take them to tea or lunch and ask them questions. I've done about a dozen interviews with folks I admire and have them up in our online community for just that reason: The Business Oasis.

Make sure the information resonates with you. As just one example, marketing professionals out there are all saying more or less the same thing, so you can find one that your heart really resonates with and is speaking your language.

Second, get help with the numbers.

I'll say this once: if you're running your own business, you shouldn't be doing your own taxes. There are too many deductions and pitfalls and details. You want to hire it out, even if you think you can't afford it.

Related to that, as soon as you can, hire a bookkeeper to keep your accounting clean from month to month. Not only will it help you at tax time (imagine filing your taxes in the beginning of February!), but it will also help you understand your business better, simply knowing how money flows in and out.

Third, experiment with a virtual assistant.

You may not be able or ready to hire out help. You also may have no idea how or where to start. I suggest finding a virtual assistant you like, who has strengths in areas that you get overwhelmed by easily, and hiring them for a very small project, maybe an hour or two. Then repeat in a month or so.

Over some months, as you both get to know each other, you'll get more comfortable with asking for help, and receiving it. Your business may need to develop before you hire a significant amount of help, but if you start small, it will be a much easier transition. And you'll get there much more quickly.

Getting help in your business is a huge topic. The trick is to face the simple truth that you can't do it all yourself, and that spiritually it's enormously beneficial to receive help.

Then, first get help by learning through books, classes, and other resources, second get help with the numbers with an accountant then a bookkeeper, and finally practice outsourcing to a virtual assistant in small, do-able, bites.

And watch how much more successful you can be as a 'pseudo' solo business owner.

The best to you and your business,

Mark Silver


About the Author:
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com

Maintaining and Troubleshooting Your Laptop Battery

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2000-2008 Bill Platt


The actual life of a laptop battery will vary with computer usage habits. For most users, it is not uncommon to experience differences in battery life, of anywhere from just under one hour to over two hours in each sitting. If you are experiencing shorter battery life cycles, say 10 to 15 minutes, it may not yet be time to order that new battery.

There are several factors to take into consideration when determining if the time has come to replace your battery. This information may also apply to that new battery that you have recently purchased, that has been giving you fits. The two primary things to consider when troubleshooting battery problems is Usage Habits and Battery Memory. We will cover both in their complexities in just a moment, but first, let us take a look at what you should expect from your battery's life cycle.

NiMH batteries usually last 1.5 to 2.5 hours. LiION batteries usually last 2.0 to 3.0 hours.

These are average results and the results will vary greatly depending on your system's conservation settings, the temperature of the room and the climate that you are operating your computer in. As a general rule, your Lithium Ion battery will last much longer than your standard Nickel Metal Hydride battery.

Now let's take a look at the various usage habits to consider when troubleshooting your laptop's battery. These processes are very similar to the way that your portable stereo uses batteries .. just think how much faster your stereo eats batteries when you are playing the CD or the tape deck, as opposed to when you are just playing the radio.

The more you use physical devices --- which require more electricity to operate --- the more of the battery's power you can expect to consume. The devices that create a larger power drain are the hard drive, the floppy drive and the CD-ROM.

When the computer is able to use its physical memory resources to store information, the computer will use less of the battery's power, since the process is mostly electrical in nature. However, when the processes you are using exhaust the physical memory resources available to your system, the system will turn to virtual memory to continue the process at hand. Virtual Memory is designed to extend system memory resources by building a memory swap file on the hard drive, and then transfer needed information between the hard drive and the physical memory as required. Since the hard drive is a electricity hog, the use of virtual memory becomes an electricity hog by proxy.

Two other processes that engage virtual memory on your computer are computational programs and the calculation processes used by spreadsheet applications and database programs. Both of these items engage the processor to a greater degree as well, which in itself is a consumer of electricity. Because they both compute and calculate large quantities of information, they will also increase the amount of electricity that your laptop will consume.

Other physical devices that cannot be left out of this discussion are audio and display devices. As far as audio devices are concerned, speakers require electricity to run and the software that is responsible for producing the sound does so by processing information. The display panel consumes electricity as well. In fact, the brighter the screen appears, the more electricity that it is consuming. You may turn down the brightness on the screen, thereby conserving more electricity than you may have considered possible. And when considering the battery drain caused by video devices, don't forget the effect that graphics programs will have on your system. Video applications can have an intense effect on your electrical needs, due to its usage of computation, calculations and virtual memory.

Battery Memory is an odd little creature. The concept of battery memory is reminiscent of Pavlovian Conditioning. Do you remember the story about Pavlov and his dogs? Pavlov would serve his dogs food and when they realized it was dinner time, he would ring a bell. After some time of conditioning his dogs, all he would have to do to get the dogs to salivate, was to ring the bell. Battery Memory is a lot like that.

Battery memory is where the battery becomes conditioned to run for less time than it is designed to run. Say for example, you run your computer on battery for an hour and then you plug it back in to let it recharge. The battery will become conditioned to run only an hour before it runs out of juice.

To correct Battery Memory problems, you must completely drain the battery and recharge it. To completely drain your battery, you must go into your Windows Control Panel and select Power. Then you must turn Power Management Off. Next, you must go into your BIOS and make sure that if there is a power management setting there, that you turn it off as well. In most cases, once you are inside the BIOS, you will highlight Power Management and press Enter. Then locate the item Hibernation at Critical Battery, and by using the Minus sign, change the setting to Off. Once these steps have been completed, then use your Escape key to return to the top level menu, and select Save Settings and Exit.

Once you have completed turning off the power management in both the BIOS and the Operating System, you must unplug the computer, turn the computer on and let it run until it completely runs out of electricity. Then you should charge the battery for 12 hours. At the end of the charging cycle, then run the computer again until the battery is dead, and then charge the battery for 12 more hours. You should repeat this process four times, before returning the computer to its original power management settings.

As far as battery usage goes, it is recommended that you should use the battery once every two weeks, and keep the battery in the system so that the AC adapter can keep the battery charged at all times. It is also recommended that if you don't use the battery for more than two weeks, you should completely discharge the battery and store it at room temperature.


About the Author:
Research is the lifeblood of article ghost writers, like Bill Platt. Bill is the owner of The Phantom Writers article marketing service. He offers article ghost writing and article distribution services to his customers through his service at: http://www.thephantomwriters.com His recent Article Writing ebook is generating a lot of interest and great reviews. If you are writing articles for the promotion of your business, you owe it to yourself to get a copy of Bill's ebook.

Peak Cycles Are Driven by Timely Content

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2004-2008 Bill Platt


(Revised for 2008) The very first time I had ever experienced this phenomena online was in December of 1996. In those way-back days, I ran a site focused on selling Christian t-shirts. Back then, I had posted Christian-based poetry on my website to draw traffic to the domain. Over the two days leading up to Christmas and the two days following Christmas, I had served as much traffic as I had in the previous nine months of existence!

Fast-forward to April 15th, 2004. I currently have more than one dozen articles on my website dealing with 401k retirement funds and 401k tax issues. These articles are the third most frequented topic on my site as the traffic is generated from the search engines. Beginning on April 12th, my site traffic started to climb beyond its average level. It then peaked on April 15th. Of course, the vast majority of this traffic was visiting my site to find my tax related content.

Although the traffic to these tax resources comes from many sites beyond just the search engines, as many people have linked to these articles, one site in particular is a tax-related site for one of my article distribution clients. My client had decided to leave his articles off of his site, and to link to his articles on my domain. Between April 12th and April 15th, my site received 448 unique visitors from my client's domain alone. (http://www.investsafe.com/articles.html) On the April 15th 2004, my site served 90% more visitors than is average on any given day. Four years later in April of 2008, the tax articles on my website generated another 600 visitors to my website, during the tax-time window.

So the lesson I have learned here is that if I have date targeted materials on my site for several different dates, I can actually draw more people to my site during these peak time periods. While the time-dated traffic may not generate immediate sales, it will allow me to garner more name recognition in the marketplace. Over the long haul, this extra recognition serves to generate more referral traffic that has proven to be the foundation for the longevity of my business model.


About the Author:
Bill Platt has been engaged in article marketing since 1999 and has offered his services to others since 2001 as a article marketing service provider. He offers article ghost writing and article distribution services, to his clients, many of whom have been with him since early 2002: http://www.thephantomwriters.com He has written an ebook to teach people how to be as successful with article marketing as he has been. Bill's Article Marketing ebook has received many excellent reviews.


Find more article marketing tips at: http://www.keywordtext.com/

Why Your Customers Lie To You

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2007-2008 Mark Silver


In 1985 the Coca Cola Corporation spent gobs on the best marketing research money could buy, and asked thousands of people their opinion. Armed with overwhelming statistics, and clear answers from a huge number of people, they launched New Coke. $4,000,000 down the drain.

$20 a person spent on 200,000 people in focus groups, testing, market surveys, and the blind taste test. And the results that came back were totally wrong.

The same thing will happen if you go asking your customers 'what do you want?' If you ask them if they prefer to meet on the phone or in person, or how much they are willing to pay, or what color they want, you'll get the same answer: the wrong one.

Because they will cheerfully give you their best answers to what they want, just like the 200,000 did. And when you offer them what they said they wanted, they will turn their backs on it, leaving you in the dust.

Don't believe me? Ask Coca Cola about the storm of public protest they had to content with, and the fact that a year later, New Coke had less than 3% of the market.

Did 200,000 people lie?

Well, no. They didn't.

Each person gave the best answer they could, sipping at different unmarked cups of a cold cola beverage. But when was the last time you drank a cup of cola blindfolded, while paid consultants sat around with clipboards, measuring your response?

Asking questions of your customers is one of the absolute best ways to get clear guidance for your business. But don't ask them what they want.

Why don't you ask them what they want?

Because you and your customers live in different worlds. You see, you've already travelled through the problem your business solves. Maybe you aren't yet enlightened, maybe you still struggle, but you understand the world of the solution, so to speak.

Your customer, on the other hand, hasn't gotten there yet. That's why they're coming to you. Asking them questions about what they prefer just doesn't work.

You may ask me if I prefer a wool coat or one of those big, bulky ski jackets. And, my preference is completely irrelevant if you're taking me up Mt. Everest. You know what I need, I don't.

So, if your customers have such excellent information and guidance for you, and yet they won't follow their own advice when you offer it back to them... how do you get clear, useful answers from them that you can implement in your business?

The answer requires you to be a little more intimate. It also requires you to be stronger in the captaincy of your business. How does that work?

What, are you asking me? Read on:

Keys to Questioning Your Customers

Ask about problems, not solutions.

Your business solves a problem. Your customers are very familiar with that problem. So, ask them about the problem.

They don't know the solution, yet. So, don't ask them what the solution should look like. Not even what color it should come in. Because whatever answers they give you, won't apply.

What are they struggling with? Where are they stuck? Where are they frustrated? What don't they like? What are they trying to accomplish? What would they like to be different?

These questions are powerful for three reasons: one, it creates an empathetic connection, because they are able to be heard in the midst of their frustrations. Two, it creates more empathy in you as well, because you are reminded of what it was like before you got so good at what you do.

And the third reason: the answers show where your customers have the biggest pain, struggle, or misfortune. If you have something that will help them with that, and it works, they'll come get it.

So ask and ask and ask those questions about the problems. Get as much information as you can. Don't answer, don't fix. Just listen.

O Captain, my Captain.

Armed with clear answers about the struggle, your job is to create and offer strong solutions that really work.

You are the expert in your business. People are coming to you for care, guidance, and help. They want to be able to trust you, to lean into your support and care. So be the captain of your ship, and offer your customers what you know will help.

Here's a prime example: I was getting help from someone around my health, and I asked them for their recommendation. They said: "It's up to you."

Frustration city! It's not up to me. I don't know what's going to help me. I want clear guidance. I may or may not take them up on it, but I want to know what they recommend.

Remember to first ask about the problem and then to take captaincy of the solution. Do that, and your customers will never lie to you.

The best to you and your business, Mark Silver


About the Author:
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com

How to Please Most of Your Customers and Keep Them Happy with Less!

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Acey Gaspard


You want to keep all your customers happy. The problem is that everyone thinks differently and experiences things uniquely. You can't please 100% of your customers. But you can focus on the needs of a smaller amount of customers. Please them, and you'll automatically have a lot more happy customers.

Amy has a jewelry store. She has been in business for a few years and has a lot of experience in this field. One of her business policies is to get feedback from her customers. Although this is an excellent technique for finding out what your customers want, you must use the feedback with discretion.

Amy's problem was that she took each comment too seriously; she tried to please everyone and was constantly changing her business practices and product line. This constant change not only caused her frustration, a lot of extra work, and the extra cost involved with each change, it also made her business unstable.

Customer feedback is an essential part of running a business, but the way you interpret those results is critical. Since you can't please everyone, please those that you can. Find out what your customers want, and then choose products and services along that line. Do less, do a better job, and you'll do better in your business. You'll find that your profits grow, you're more focused on what needs to be done and you're more at ease. Don't go after quantity, but rather focus on quality. You can't please everyone, so please those that you can and you'll end up pleasing more customers. If you try to please everyone, you'll end up pleasing no one. When you combine your strengths and the desires of the majority of your customers, you'll be able to create a better, stronger business.

Let's take the above example of Amy's jewelry shop. Amy has expertise in diamonds, and 60% of her customers come to her shop to purchase diamonds. Amy also has gold rings, gold bracelets, and silver as well as other types of jewelry. Now, if Amy were to focus only on diamonds and build her business in this area instead of spreading herself thin with the other categories of jewelry, she would do much better.

She could take surveys to find out what areas of the diamond trade customers are interested in and determine what services are also needed. She can easily become one of the leading diamond retailers in her area simply by making an adjustment in her focus.

What part of your business do you need to focus on? What are your strengths? Focus on those areas, and eliminate the areas in which you're not doing so well and that are not what your customers want. You'll find that your business will prosper, and you'll move up the ranks with regard to branding, customer service, and quality. Do your best at pleasing the people you can and forget about those you can't. You'll end up with happier customers, and more of them, along with a stronger, stable business! That's the way I see it. To Your Success! Acey Gaspard

Action Steps to Please Your Customers

1. Keep in mind that you can't please everyone, so please those people you can.
2. Find out what your customers want.
3. Eliminate those areas that do not focus on your customers' desires.
4. Build on those areas that cater to your customers desires.

Important Points to Keep When Trying to Please Your Customers

Everyone thinks differently and experiences things uniquely.

Customer feedback is an essential part of running a business, but the way you interpret those results is critical.

You can't please everyone, so please those that you can and you'll end up pleasing more customers.

When you combine your strengths and the desires of the majority of your customers, you'll be able to create a better, stronger business.

About the Author:
Acey Gaspard has over 20 years of business experience. His site, A Touch of Business.com, http://www.atouchofbusiness.com is steadily growing with well over 1,100 original pages to help you run and market your small business. Get Tips you can use today! http://www.atouchofbusiness.com/tips.html

Blast Through These Four Obstacles And Let Your Online Business Soar

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2007-2008 Casey Moher


It's vital that you surmount a series of resistance points on your way to establishing a customer.

Your obstacles are:

1. No TRUST for you on the part of your visitor.
2. No NEED for what you have.
3. No perception that you can HELP them.
4. They are in no HURRY to act.

Let's take these one at a time:

On-line, you are a stranger to everyone. The most difficult part (establishing instantaneous rapport) is also the most important part of your business plan.

Doubt quickly evaporates from the mind of your visitor if your initial approach is to provide them with something of high perceived-value absolutely free. As your site visitor begins their visit, there are more questions than answers going through their mind.

If the first thing you do is to offer something free, it goes a long way towards reducing that sales resistance and that lack of trust they intrinsically feel. A good item to give away would be a report on a popular and good-selling internet-based product or service that you have something about.

Good-selling products and services are a great place to start with your plans to produce a report to use as your free gift. You'll find that this approach is the best way to overcome the obstacle of NO TRUST! Obstacle number TWO is the one of NO NEED.

A great approach to blasting past no-need is to select a product for your review that has some strong testimonials from customers who have purchsed it. The more your visitors appreciate the value of your free information, the more receptive they will be to your sales message.

It is when you begin to present your offer that obstacle number three (NO HELP) starts to nag at the back of your customer's mind.

The mind-set of NO HELP is a stubborn one and hangs in there even though you have built up a good amount of TRUST with your site visitor. Here, too, it is third-party testimonials that are your best tool for cracking through this obstacle. By now you should be getting a feel for how helpful and easy it is for you to establish yourself as an affiliate marketer for a useful product.

There are a huge number of things that are done for you when you are an affiliate. Order taking, shipping, complaints and returns. Moreover, a great and proven sales letter together with testimonials are in place for your use in obstacle-busting.

Also, getting your business started and getting past the obstacles we are talking about today are all much easier when you begin as an affiliate marketer for a useful product.

You are now in the position of three hurdles down and one to go. Getting someone 'off the dime' and settling on a decision is your fourth obstacle. This individual is plagued with inaction and the attitude that there is NO HURRY. To move your customer out of the comfort zone that your product will always be available to them, they need a reason to act right away! Scarcity or limited availability of the product is one good way to do this.

Additionally, you can use the concept that the product may indeed be available for the foreseeable future, but the price could well be quickly climbing very soon. Also, in all reality, the product itself will go away at some point and you won't be promoting it any longer.

Use both the notion of approaching scarcity together with the possibility of loss to effectively contain the obstacle of NO HURRY.

Building an ever-growing list of responsive customers is the key to financial stability and growth for you and your family. You can build a responsive list of loyal subscribers if you apply yourself and follow the concepts outlined in this article. Getting past the four obstacles we've been discussing can help you greatly in cultivating a list of responsive customers.


About the Author:
Casey Moher - Caseymoher@comcast.net (801) 941-3334

Mr. Moher is a Registered Pharmacist and Life-Long Marketing and Sales Professional. You Can Get His Free Five-Day Mini-Course on Building Targeted Website Traffic by visiting: http://www.newtrafficmaster.com

How To Use Systems Without Turning Into A Heartless Zombie

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2006-2008 Mark Silver


How To Use Systems Without Turning Into A Heartless Zombie You can tell as soon as you pick up the phone before the other person has even said anything. That little silence, the clattering in the background, tells you that it's a telemarketer on the other end of the line, and there is nothing they have to say that is worth your precious time.

The business that hired the telemarketing firm is trying to achieve their goals using systems. Many of the systems large companies use that we come into contact with like automated 'help' lines, telemarketing firms, spam-like mortgage offerings that feel completely devoid of heart and personality.

With those experiences, it's easy to have strong opinions about using systems, and to avoid them like the plague in your own business.

Don't let a world full of bad apples keep you from the sweetness, and support, that is possible with systems. Systems help you stand up.

The word 'system' comes from two Latin words: 'syn' and 'histanai' meaning to cause to stand. Merriam-Webster ( www.m-w.com ) defines system like this: "a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole."

Kind of like your bones, muscles and brain all working together to help you stand up. Or your heart, mind, and soul working together to show your family how much you love them.

If you have Thank You cards, address labels, and postage sitting in your desk, and every time you write a card you put it out for the post: that's a system. And whoever the lucky person is who receives the card is grateful, whether they know it's a system or not.

Like the body, systems have conscious and unconscious parts.

Chances are you don't think much about breathing. You breathe in, you breathe out. Your heart pumps, and the blood and oxygen go 'round and 'round, keeping you alive moment to moment.

Thankfully, you don't have to pay conscious attention to that system: "Okay, right and left atriums: pump! Right and left-ventricles: pump! Okay, diaphragm: tighten and flatten!" Try directing all of this, dozens of times a minute.

Wouldn't leave a lot of room to get much else done, would it?

Are you thinking about every breath your business takes?

I'm betting that there are plenty of places in your business that could use a system to help you stand up. How about getting bills paid? How about keeping your office stocked with business supplies?

A system can be as simple as having a stack of blank inventory lists of what your office needs to operate smoothly, a monthly alarm in your calendar that reminds you to take ten minutes and check your inventory, filling out your inventory list of what's needed, and scheduling a trip to Office Depot, or ordering what you need online.

Voila! A system has just handled your office needs, and now you won't ever be stuck at 10pm at night before a big deadline with empty printer ink cartridges.

That's fine for office inventory, but what about the telemarketing call we received in the beginning of this article?

A 'heart-less' system is a zombie.

Systems are, by nature, repetitive. By handling the repetitious aspects of your business, they can leave you time and energy for truly enriching, heart-centered interactions.

The telemarketing company unfortunately thought everything about the call is repetitive, and doesn't allow for real human interaction. As a result, there is no space left for us to engage with the telemarketer as a person- they become a zombie. And who wouldn't hang up on a zombie?

'Zombie' refers to a corpse that has been re-animated by evil powers. If you are going to systematize your marketing, which I highly recommend, you'll want to identify which actions are repetitive, and which are creative and unique. But, to avoid creating a zombie, you'll want to do more than just systematize the repetitive. You'll also want to bring your presence to the unique, and put your heart into both.

Everything in this world has a spiritual presence to it, which means that no system, engine, or machine need truly be 'cold and heartless,' as one client put it. Your veins and arteries aren't just tubes, but they are imbued with life. The same could be said of your autoresponder, accounting software, or email.

Take a moment now in your heart and ask to be shown the presence and life within some part of your business that you consider to be zombie-like: 'cold and heartless.' Once you recognize the life that is present within your business systems, they will function more effectively for you. And your customers may enjoy them more as well.

Sounds simple, but it may not be obvious.

Keys to Heart-Centered Systems

Pick one thing you'd like to happen more often and more easily.

Taking a moment to breathe and check in with your heart, identify some place in your business that you know it would be really helpful if it happened more often or more easily. You may have several ;), but for now, just pick one.

What are all the bite-sized pieces to it?

Even if it's a list of 20 things, break it down into little bite-sized tasks. For each task, identify if it's a repetitive task without much creativity or personal touch needed (applying postage, for instance), a task that needs creativity once, but then can be repetitive (a welcome letter you mail out, that can be copied), or a task that needs creativity every time (responding to a personal request for help from someone).

If it needs creativity every time, you can't systematize it. But, the rest you can put into a system that delivers, does, or reminds you to do the task in question.

A Heart of Business Example.

We decided, for several reasons that have to do with both supporting people and supporting the business, that we wanted people to actually read and use the free workbook we give away:

Getting to the Core of Your Business. We also knew that many people would download it, but forget about it.

There is no way that I could possibly follow up with each subscriber personally to remind them to check out the free download. However, what I did do was go in my heart, and ask for what was one bit in the free workbook that would be very helpful to someone who was relatively new.

When my heart was clear with that, I wrote a -very- short email, and put it in our email autoresponder system. After someone has been subscribed for two weeks, the email goes out automatically, reminding the new subscriber how to get the download, and to look at a specific page, for a specific bit of help.

We get thank you emails all the time from folks who have received that email, and enjoyed what they read there.

Although the email goes out automatically, without me thinking about it (heart- pump! diaphragm- breathe!), the responses that come back fall into the category of needing creativity every time.

So I respond to those emails personally, quite happily. If I had had to think about every step until that point: manually adding someone to the subscriber list, sending them the free workbook, sending them the reminder email- I would be exhausted, cranky, and unable to do much else in my business.

But, because the rest of it is in a system, and Heart of Business is off the respirator and breathing on its own, then I do have spaciousness and creativity available to respond with heart to those who do write to me.

Your next step: What is one heart-centered system you can add to your business this month?

The best to you and your business,

Mark Silver


About the Author:
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com

Why you don't want Michelangelo working on your website

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2006-2008 Mark Silver


Everyone wants to live surrounded by beauty. Beauty soothes the soul, and lifts the spirit. It inspires us and keeps us healthy. We all want beauty.

Can you have beauty in your website? Sure you can, and it's important to have your website be pleasing to the folks you want to help. Unfortunately, this desire to have beauty and to please folks means that you can spend a great deal of time creating a 'unique and beautiful' web design that people actually avoid. How can you spend so much time on beauty, sacrifice so much money with a designer, and still end up with a mess?

Do you do Frescoes?

No one would complain about the beauty of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

Michelangelo spent four years, from July, 1508 through October, 1512, painting over 5,000 square feet of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling.

Unfortunately, Michelangelo was a sculptor, and loved working in marble. Prior to the Sistine Chapel, he had only painted briefly as a student of Domenico Ghirlandaio in Florence. Which means that he got off to a slow start as he learned how to paint frescoes.

Luckily for him, Michelangelo was already an accomplished artist. He wasn't exactly doing the Sistine Chapel as a free promotional effort. Pope Julius II commissioned him for those four years, and didn't seem to mind that it took Michelangelo a while to get in a groove.

History reports that one of the Pope's motivations was to outdo Pope Alexander VI. So, the whole idea was to create an amazingly glorious ceiling that would stun everyone who saw it.

Are you trying to stun your visitors? Remember the purpose of your website: to create a relationship with the right people, connect with their hearts and needs, and to help them take the next step in relationship to what you offer. If you aren't being commissioned to paint the ceiling of your website by a fabulously wealthy Pope, and if you aren't trying to stun your visitors with beauty, I suggest you relax, just a little bit, any attachment you might have to beauty and uniqueness around your website.

Your visitor is waiting for dinner.

Imagine showing up at a friend's house to eat. You've worked all day, you're hungry and you've been looking forward to dinner. Yet, once you arrive, they keep you waiting for three hours while they pull out family home movies, or their wedding album.

It's not that you wouldn't eventually like to see those things. But first, can we have dinner, please?

The Two Functions of Your Design

Absolutely prepare and present the food with love and beauty. But just remember that your visitor is looking for food, not frescoes. It's been shown that when a visitor comes to a website, design plays two primary functions:

(1) to show that the website is solid and professional-looking enough that the business can be trusted, and

(2) to make sure that the visitor can find what she needs really easily without having to guess or hunt.

As long as you are meeting those two needs, your design is going to work.

So, where is it safe to bring forth beauty and inspiration on your site, and where will it keep you stuck to the ceiling for four years?

Keys to Website Design

Things to avoid.

Avoid putting a pattern behind your text, or using a text color that isn't very dark. In fact, I recommend that you stick with black text on a white background. Millions of novels of great variety, beauty and talent are written, all printed black text on a white background.

As a general rule, avoid animation and oversized photos and illustrations- anything that distracts from the food you want your visitor to eat.

Avoid unique design layouts. Many websites look the same structurally- and so do human beings. You don't have to look at the back of someone's knees to find their eyes. People know how to connect with each other more easily in part because of structural similarities.

Your visitor has been trained to expect certain conventions in web design, so they can find what they are looking for. Don't play a guessing game with them by creating some outlandishly creative and confusing design.

Things to do.

Keep your text front and center. Keep your navigation either across the top, or down one side, with clear labels. Don't use more than two columns- one for the navigation or side text, and one for the main content of the page.

Have a clear banner across the top with a simple message about your business.

Things of beauty and inspiration

Make your banner beautiful and inspiring, without being cluttered. Use colors you love.

Use creative bullets rather than just the usual round variety.

Use color highlights around navigation buttons, and in the frame around your page.

Above all, don't agonize over it.

If you don't have a website yet, or your website isn't effective and you are upgrading it, bring in what creativity you have, but don't agonize over the beauty aspects. Your visitors are waiting to be fed! Once you start having a lot of visitors coming to your website, and your business is humming, you can take the time and space to bring out the fine china for them.

My very best to you and your business,

Mark Silver


About the Author:
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com

What To Do When Your Website Does Not Rank Well In Google

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Bill Platt


Online marketers frequently struggle with the question of how to compete when Google fails to look positively upon a particular website. In this article, I will focus on how to build rankings and drive traffic to your website, using Google and the other search engines.

What Motivates Google's Algorithm

Over the years, many have tried to claim, even in court, that Google was unfairly keeping their website out of the top of Google's search results. But, the truth is that Google is not beholden to the needs and desires of the webmasters who want to be on page one of Google's natural search results.

Instead, Google is beholden to its stockholders and its need to earn profits. Google has determined that the best way to keep profits high is to keep Internet users flocking to its websites. Google accomplishes that by giving its users the kind of information they are looking to find, and Google weights its search algorithm towards what Google believes its search audience wants to see in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

It is important for online marketers to understand that it is not always in Google's best interest for our websites to rank well in Google.

How Important Is Google In Search?

Worldwide, Google is currently providing 78% of all searches (http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=4).

But in 2007, Google only provided 52% of my website's total search traffic. Yahoo, Windows Live, Ask, and MSN provided the next 42%. The remaining 6% of my website's search traffic came from another 55 smaller search engines.

On my website, only 48.8% of my 2007 traffic actually came from search engines. The remaining 51.2% of my website's quarter million visitors came directly from article placements on other websites, recommendations from other people, forum posts, and from people who have bookmarks for my website.

Tips For Ranking Well For Specific Keywords

It has been my experience that it is easier to rank in 1) MSN / Windows Live, 2) Yahoo, and then 3) Google, in that order. Quite frankly, I have always ignored the role of Ask in the search market. While MSN is the easiest search engine to rank in, it only delivered 4.6% of my total search traffic in 2007.

I read a question in a forum, where the poster was asking how he could get his website to rank well in Google for the search term, "software".

The truth is that it is nearly impossible in nearly every search engine to rank well in the natural results for such a singular keyword, such as "software". In a nutshell, if you want to rank well in Google, you need to build inbound links (IBLs) to your website with your targeted keywords in the links.

But, you don't want to put all of your links together with one keyword phrase. One of Google's red flags is when they notice a link to a particular website appearing more than 60% of the time with one specific keyword phrase.

Utilizing a variety of long-tail keywords will actually serve you better in the search-engine ranking puzzle, in more ways than one. After all, when I do a search for software, I don't type in the search word, "software". I type in search phrases like: "accounting software", "small business accounting software", "windows software accounting small business", "windows image editing software", "windows software image editor", "windows xp photo album manager", etc.

People searching the keyword "software" have yet to figure out that they are looking for specific kinds of software. Once they do an initial search, they are going to type in more specific search terms to find what they actually want. So, once you start targeting a variety of long-tail keyword phrases, then you will start seeing more success in your search marketing efforts.

How To Start Your Search Engine Optimization Journey

If you are wanting to get into the natural search results of Google and the other search engines, you must know before you dive into the project that getting good rankings in the search engines for your chosen keywords can take a really long time, before you begin seeing results.

While inbound links to your website, targeted to your chosen keywords, will help your website climb in the search results of your favorite search engines, it may be a frustrating journey.

Your competitors want to rank well for the same search terms you do. And since only ten of you can be on page one of the search results, you may have to work really hard to topple those guys already on page one of the results, and you will have to fight to keep your ranking once you get it.

There are some keyword phrases that are nearly impossible to rank for, even if you have really deep pockets. For example, most every keyword phrase for the financial industry will be extremely difficult to rank for in Google. Competition in this industry is fierce, so achieving top search rankings will be tough to say the least.

This is the reason why so many SEO experts encourage marketers to target "low-hanging fruit". It may be fairly easy to rank well for a four- or five-word search phrase, and extremely expensive to target a two- or three-word search phrase.

My personal approach has always been to rotate through a list of more than 100 target keyword phrases, over a longer period of time. In doing so, I capture a lot of low-hanging fruit quickly, and at the end of the loop, I am a bit closer to snagging the fruit in the upper branches of the tree. At the end of my list, I analyze my keywords again to see where I am strong and to see where I am still weak, and then I begin the process again. (According to SEOdigger.com, I have better than 950 keyword phrases in the top twenty results of Google.)

How To Get Links

The challenge most people face when they begin building links to a website is where to get those essential links.

Article marketing is my chosen method for getting inbound links.

Because of Google's news feed strategy, the initial placement of your article might appear immediately in the SERPs, but then it will disappear. During the news cycle phase of the Google algorithm, new materials are given an added boost in ranking. Once the news cycle is done, any new pages will sink back down to where they would be based on the general Google algorithm.

If you are honest with yourself, you know that every page on the Internet started life with a PageRank Zero, but given enough time, many pages will gain in PageRank, as they begin to be linked. For a more detailed look at the process of how reprint articles gain value for a website in Google's search index, see my article about "Fishing for Links in Google".

Utilizing article marketing as a link building method, I have put one website on the map in as little as eight weeks, with only three articles. This website has one #1, one #2, eight results on page one, and twelve results in the top twenty listings of Google. Most of those keywords also rank well in Yahoo and MSN.

On the other hand, on my main website, I started looking at the keyword phrase "article marketing" just eighteen months ago, when my website sat at #79. Today, my website sits at #12 in Google for that keyword phrase.

I believe that given enough time, investment and commitment, I can use article marketing to elevate any web page on the Internet to multiple page-one listings in Google. But, not everyone is willing to make the kind of investment and commitment one needs to get to the top of Google's search results...

What To Do When You Need Results Now

If you simply cannot wait as long as it takes to build top rankings naturally, then you need to look seriously at Pay-Per-Click advertising models, such those offered through Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing.




About the Author:
Bill Platt offers Article Distribution and Article Ghost Writing services through his website at: http://www.thephantomwriters.com He has written an ebook that has been designed to help people create more effective articles. One customer said of his ebook, "I've read almost every ebook out there on article writing and article marketing and this one tops it all." To learn more about Bill's ebook or to get your own copy, please click this link.

8 Steps That Take You from Self-Saboteur to Sales Star

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Pat Pearson, MSSW


Does financial success seem to elude you, no matter how hard you strive? Do you get close to your goals time and time again, only to find yourself repeatedly "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?" According to direct sales expert Pat Pearson, you may have an unconscious agenda that is leading you to self-sabotage your sales.

"I have seen it over and over in working with hundreds of entrepreneurs and salespeople," says Pearson. "Undermining their ambition is at least one hidden belief that holds them back from succeeding."

For instance, Sally consistently finished in the Top 10 of her cosmetics sales company each year. By October she was usually the #1 or 2 sales producer. Yet in the last quarter, her sales would inevitably slide until she finished the year in 5th or 6th place—still excellent, yet clearly below her potential for the top spot.

Similarly, Janice sold clothing through a direct sales organization. Although she was very smart and personable with a great deal of style, she could never seem to make more than $30,000 a year, regardless of how much effort she put out.

If these examples sound frustratingly familiar to you, the reason may be rooted in your unconscious "Deserve Level."

Explains Pearson, "Most people have an amount that they have unconsciously set as what they deserve to make. Whenever their earnings approach this limit, it triggers a host of self-sabotaging mechanisms that counteract their goals—they start to lose sales for no apparent reason, or their motivation drops, or they simply hit a sales ceiling that they can never seem to exceed."

Once you identify your Deserve Level and its underlying causes, you can stop the sabotage and turn around your success.

Sally internalized a childhood message that being number one professionally meant that people wouldn't like you. So she unconsciously sabotaged herself in order to be liked. Since reprogramming this negative belief, Sally has remained the number one or two salesperson in her company ever since.

In Janice's case, she uncovered a fear that her father—a farmer who had never made more than $30,000 a year—would no longer love her if she earned more than that. When she asked him, he replied, "Of course not, I'll love you no matter how much money you make." One year later, Janice grossed $100,000.

Pearson provides in-depth coaching to individuals and organizations who want to increase their Deserve Level through her website (www.PatPearson.com). Here are the basic 8 Steps to Sales Success that she teaches her clients:

1) Find out your Deserve Level. First, write down the lowest monthly figure you can make and still stay in business. Then, write down the highest monthly figure you've ever made. This range is your Deserve Level.

2) Determine your business or personal goals for this year. These can include your desired income, how many people you want in your downline or your wish to have a loving relationship.

3) Ask yourself, "What am I doing to sabotage my goals?" For example, do you avoid public speaking or choke up when it's time to close the sale?

4) Explore what fear(s) might be causing the sabotage behavior. Look at common fears such as fear of rejection, fear of asking, fear of closing, fear of failure or fear of success, or something unique to you.

5) Change your self-talk. More than 75% of our internal communication reinforces negative views about ourselves and the world. By writing out new beliefs, wants and goals as if you already have them (e.g., "I choose to do the work necessary to make $100,000 this year"), 20 times a day for at least 21 days, you can permanently "reprogram" your new Deserve Level.

6) Practice self-release. Accept, express and release negative emotions like anger, jealousy and discouragement. Ignoring these feelings won't make them go away; they simply go "underground" and work against you behind the scenes.

7) Focus on self-nurturing. Be kind and understanding to yourself, especially when you are not perfect. Perfectionism amounts to ignoring the 95% of you that's good and criticizing the 5% that can be improved.

8) Get support. Choose mentors who believe in you and encourage you to go after your dreams the same way they did. Allow yourself to receive praise for your accomplishments on a regular basis, and ask for positive feedback when you are feeling uncertain.

Using these 8 Steps to Sales Success, it is possible to stop sabotaging yourself and reach your goals—whether you want increased sales, better health or closer friendships.


About the Author:
Pat Pearson, MSSW is an internationally known author and motivational speaker with a passion for inspiring individuals to claim their own personal excellence. A clinical therapist for over 30 years, Pat has given more than 6,000 talks and seminars worldwide and has spoken to over 250,000 direct selling professionals and has worked with more than 300 companies in the U.S. More information on Pat Pearson's approach can be found at: http://www.PatPearson.com

How To Get Massive Free Website Traffic

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Willie Crawford


There is only one real secret to getting a lot of visitors to your website. That is merely figuring out where lots of your ideal visitors are, and standing in front of them.

When you think of it in those terms, it's really simple.

There are also only three real ways to get in front of the traffic flow. You can buy traffic, borrow traffic, or create traffic.

You buy traffic using pay-per-click search engines. It's very dependable, and can give you a steady flow of consistent traffic.

The big drawback with using pay-per-clicks to generate traffic is that it can be very risky. Those who use pay-per-clicks to generate 100% of their traffic, and are considered the best of the best, will tell you that as many as 7 out of 10 campaigns that they set up will lose money. The professionals very quickly shut off the losers, and their winners more than make up for the losses, but it's really not a game for someone not properly trained.

You can also buy traffic using an affiliate program. Since you only pay for the traffic when a sale is made, it's a very low-risk method. Since your affiliates are sending you their best customers, you can also think of it as borrowing traffic.

I love the affiliate program model, and have numerous products sold via affiliate programs. I also sell a lot of others' affiliate products. It's win-win.

You can also create traffic by putting things on the Internet that people are attracted to. You can create content by writing articles or blogging for example. I love content creation and have written over 1100 different articles. My articles teach people how to solve pressing problems, and at the same time point them to me (my sites) as a great resource.

When you create content your big challenge is to get it noticed and indexed by the search engines, so that people can follow links from there to your site. It's actually fairly easy - but time and labor intensive.

If your content is "viral" it will be something that others will happily share. Examples include in-depth articles, essays that touch people on a deep emotional level, or humorous videos that you post on YouTube.

Of the three methods of getting traffic (buying, borrowing, and creating it) my favorite has to be borrowing it... with creating it second. I generally only buy traffic when I need a really quick surge to test my website's conversion process.

The key to generating an absolute flood of free traffic is getting noticed, getting backlinks, etc., from high traffic websites such as Google, Craig's List, Yahoo, YouTube, and the various bookmarking and social networking sites.

This can be as simple is searching through Yahoo Answers for questions on your area of expertise, and then posting a great answer - along with an appropriate link to your website or product.

It can be as simple as searching through YouTube for videos on your area of expertise, and then leaving a comment along with a link sharing that they can find more information on the topic at your site.

It can be as simple as using the search engines to locate dozens or even hundreds of blogs and forums in your niche, and then interacting with these communities.

There's only one problem with most of the methods that I just mentioned. They can be time consuming and labor intensive. Just locating active communities in your niche can literally take hours.

I do have a secret. I use automated software to monitor and notify me of active blogs, forums, and communities in my niche. I use automated software to notify me when they are discussing my area of expertise or there is a new video posted pertaining to my area of expertise.

When I discover a new resource, I then analyze it, and if appropriate, I interact with that high traffic site, and leave a link back to my site, which is a perfectly acceptable practice.

So there you have my secret for generating literally hundreds of thousands of free hits to even my newest sites. Of course, your site has to be about something that people are interested it. I do strongly advocate using software to automate many of the mundane processes such as just finding these sites.

Many webmasters really struggle with website traffic generation, and there is absolutely no need to. You merely find the huge pools of traffic interested in your topic, and then you stand underneath the waterfall, and enjoy the cool, refreshing flow of new visitors.


About the Author:
Willie Crawford has been marketing goods and services online since 1996. With very busy websites in dozens of niches, he teaches that the secret is automating the flow of traffic, since without traffic you don't really have a web business. His favorite traffic generation software is at Stealth Traffic Tools: http://IncredibleWebsiteTraffic.com

Loosing Customers and Losing Sales - It Sounds Funny Doesn't It?

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Bill Platt


(Revised, 2008) The number of people who write free-reprint articles, to promote their online business, is increasing with each passing month. I should know --- I have built my own business around free-reprint articles.

As the manager of several article distribution groups and an article distribution service, I see hundreds of articles per month go through my biggest article groups. Hundreds of publishers, webmasters and writers subscribe to article distribution lists such as this one:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Reprint-Articles

Of course, the goal of the group is for writers to get their articles to publishers and webmasters who might want to reprint the work. When publishers and webmasters decide to publish a specific article, the writer hopes that the article will generate volumes of traffic and sales for their own website.

Why Does This Matter?

As I review each article for distribution to the groups, I see one misspelling time after time that really leaps from the page.

Hey, it is not my reputation on the line, so why should it matter?

A writer's reputation can be made or broken by his or her use of the written word. So many people look up to writers as people who have a gift to share ideas with the masses.

The reason we are able to share ideas with others is not because we are special. The truth is that we are able to share ideas because we are not afraid to try to do so, and we are not afraid to work at it.

Being afraid to try and messing up the process are two different things.

Misspellings, Bad Grammar And Bad Formatting Counts

It pains me when I see articles coming through to the groups where there are problems with spelling, grammar or formatting. For some reason, we publishers tend to expect the writer to put forth the time and effort in advance to make sure that the article is ready for copy-and-paste publication.

In the old days, I used to edit articles for publication in my own ezines. Soon, my workload became too much and I had to begin to cut down on my time expenditures. At first, I simply stopped formatting articles for publication. Eventually, I even stopped proofreading articles for publication. When I reached this point, I had made a decision that if an article was not copy-and-paste ready, then I would not publish it in my own ezines.

It should come as no surprise to writers that spelling, grammar and formatting could be as important to the publication decision process, as the message communicated in the article.

But, in watching the articles come through to the groups, I have to wonder what is in the mind of some writers.

Why It Is Important

Writers take the time and effort to write the articles to promote their own businesses. But, if there are misspellings, bad grammar or no formatting, the chances of the article getting published is greatly diminished.

I am not willing to venture how many more people might publish an article if everything was in good shape, but I can guarantee you that some people may opt against publishing an article due to these kinds of problems. Writers, who do not invest sufficient effort in the creation of their articles, make the process of elimination much easier for the publishers who seek to reprint the content.

My Pet Peeve --- Losing Or Loosing?

Losing - To be unsuccessful in retaining possession of; mislay. To be unable to keep control or allegiance of: "is losing supporters by changing his mind."

Loosing - To cast loose; detach: "hikers loosing their packs at camp."

Far too often, I see writers talk about "losing" customers. Yet, when they spell the word, they spell it "loosing".

If you would note, the act of "losing" customers has to do with not being able to hold on to them. "Losing", reflects doing it without intent.

On the other hand, the act of "loosing" customers means to set them free --- voluntarily.

I am not sure that anyone actually "looses" their customers, unless they are closing their businesses. Most businesses simply "lose" their customers, quite by accident and definitely against their will.

In Conclusion

I hope my title now makes sense to you --- "Loosing" Customers and "Losing" Sales.

Take the time to get your spelling, grammar and formatting right. If you write articles and choose not to take the time to get your article right, then I could probably assume that you are --- with intent --- "loosing" customers.

Hey, it is your choice.




About the Author:
Bill Platt operates The Phantom Writers, where he offers article ghost writing services and article distribution services at: http://www.thephantomwriters.com His recent ebook, "Article Marketing for Traffic, Sales and Profit" has received excellent reviews across the board. If you write your own articles, you should seriously consider getting your own copy of his Article Marketing ebook.