Tuesday, October 21, 2008

5 Common Joint Venture Mistakes Internet Marketers Make

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Willie Crawford



As a joint venture broker, and mentor to many marketers launching new products, I see a lot of Internet marketers making many of the same mistakes.

Some of these easy-to-correct mistakes can mean the difference between a wildly successful launch, and one that doesn't even sell enough of the product to cover development costs.

Here are five all-to-common mistakes that can kill a joint venture product launch before it even gets out of the staring blocks.

1) Making Joint Venture Partners Jump Through Hoops

Often the super affiliates and busy website owners that you approach won't go through an elaborate sign-up process to register as an affiliate/JV partner. Some will love your product idea and begin to sign-up as an affiliate, but as soon as they see that they need to register (and confirm) in numerous different places, many will NOT complete the registration process.

If they need 20 passwords, and all kinds of secret handshakes just to peek at a review copy of your product, many will not waste their time.

It's your job to make it NO work for your joint venture partners. Sign them up, send them their log-in information, and only ask them to verify their details.

Provide them with a fully-functioning FINAL version of your product for them to review so that they can decide if it's even appropriate for their customers.

2) Not Giving Joint Venture Partners Enough Lead Time

Many busy super affiliates have promotional calendars flowed out over a month in advance. Some have commitments with partners that go out for several months.

If you request a joint venture with less than two weeks lead time, you should EXPECT most affiliates to politely decline to participate... or even not to respond to such an unprofessional request.

3) Not Deconflicting Launch Dates.

There is nothing sadder than planning a "big" launch, putting all of the pieces in place, and then finding out a few days before that "Mr. Big" also has a launch planned for the same day. It's even worse if "Mr. Big" has already recruited your desired JV partners to promote his launch.

The way to avoid this one is to tap into launch databases such as the one maintained by The International Association of Joint Venture Brokers (at http://IAJVB.ORG)

4) Not Answering The "WIIFM" For Potential Joint Venture Partners

Your potential joint venture partners have LOTS of potential products to promote. So they silently wonder why they should promote yours over a competitor's product. It's your job to answer that question and many other "silent questions" in order to recruit the joint venture partners.

In answering the "What's In It For Me" (WIIFM) you need to explain how it's going to help them, help their customers, and you need to frame all of your answers from their perspective. Potential joint venture partners, and their customers, don't care about you and your products. They care about what you can do for them.

5) Having A Product That No One Wants

It doesn't matter how original, clever, cheap, or needed a product is - if the market doesn't want it, you have a flop. If your potential joint venture partners sense that their customers won't buy it, they'll logically decline promoting your product.

Far too many products are created that the market doesn't want, or wants but is unwilling to pay for. You absolutely MUST do your market research first and verify that the market really wants and will buy your proposed product. Better still, they should be already buying a similar product.

Look carefully at your joint venture project plans. If they have any of these glaring mistakes, correct them before approaching potential joint venture partners. You'll have much better results, and you'll be glad that you read this article.


About the Author:
Willie Crawford is a leading joint venture expert and mentor to many of the top Internet marketers. He teaches how to set up absolutely irresistible joint venture offers via his tele-courses. Watch a free video with more joint venture tips or join his tele-class at: http://WillieCrawford.com/JVs/


Sometimes The Best Way to Make Money is to Go Offline

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Lou Gubitosa



Millions of people have bought into the idea that the Internet is a goldmine for people, who desire to achieve the American Dream through self-employment. We have heard the success stories of people who made good with their Internet businesses. Unfortunately, we have also heard the heartbreak stories of those who have lost their pants with their online businesses.

Let's be honest about this subject. Internet riches are a reality that many people may be able to achieve, but it is not a path that everyone should choose. Many people will simply be better off seeking participation in brick-and-mortar opportunities that have been making people wealthy for decades.

Offline Paths To Success

For every millionaire you hear about online, chances are that you will know about more people who have built their wealth with brick-and-mortar businesses.

Think about the person who owns your local McDonald's or Chick-Fillet restaurants. If you did not realize it, most outlets for these companies are franchises, so the owners of those outlets are generally people, just like you, who live in your hometown.

Consider the carpet-cleaning companies in your town. People who live in your city most often own those kinds of businesses.

Think about your local gas station or convenience store. Chances are the owners of those outlets live in your town also.

While franchises and convenience stores are out of the price range of most hopeful business owners, they are not the only brick-and-mortar business opportunities out there.

Service businesses tend to be the more popular choices for people who have smaller nest eggs to invest into their business startups. Home cleaning and car detailing services tend to be good business startups for many people. But these business models also tend to require huge time commitments from their operators.

Those individuals, who desire business ownership, but cherish their private time and a flexible schedule, often turn to vending businesses. According to Automatic Merchandiser Magazine, the vending industry generated 23 billion dollars in revenue during 2007. According to the same report, a full 75% of vending machine operators are in the small business segment, producing less than $1 million in annual sales.

Benefits Of A Vending Machine Route

A vending business has a lot in common with a convenience store, with one major distinction: less labor. In order for a convenience store operation to generate sales 24/7, the store must pay a warm body to man the cash registers for every hour the store is open to the public. With a vending business, the only staffing requirement is to have someone available to refill the vending machines, as needed, yet sales can continue 24 hours per day, so long as the machine continues to have product available.

Depending on the placement location of the vending machines and the sales volume those machines run, vending machines may need daily restocking or weekly restocking. Either way, each vending machine typically only requires 15-30 minutes onsite to restock.

Many vendors only work a few hours each day or each week restocking their machines, yet most will earn a nice secondary or primary income from the process.

Vending Product Types

Some people are surprised at the diverse variety of products that can be sold in vending machines: soft drinks, coffee and other hot drinks, energy drinks, energy foods, sandwiches, microwave meals, ice cream, candy bars, gum, snacks, stuffed dolls in game machines, video games, movie rentals, over-the-counter pain medications, phone cards, pre-paid debit cards, newspapers, stamps, money-changers, ATM cash machines and more.

Payment systems vary from coin slots, paper money slots, and some of the newer designs also have debit-card and credit card capabilities. Of course, the value of the items being sold will play a big role in deciding what payment features to make available to consumers.

Vending Trends

The vending industry has been around since 1926, and it appears to hold a solid foothold on the future.

A Department Of Commerce study revealed that fewer than 5% of new vending companies fail. Compare that to the 65% failure rate for independent, new business start ups, as stated by the Small Business Administration.

According to the Vending Connection website, "70% of vendors start off on a part time basis, keeping a full time job, and checking their machines and servicing them after work or on weekends." They also suggested that 85% of new vendors turn to full-time vending after just two years.

Most small business owners enter the vending industry with one type of vending machine, and then after they have generated some early success, they expand their businesses to include other product placements.

In a poll conducted by Vending Times, it was learned that 72% of vending industry participants buy products in at least two categories. Many of their respondents currently purchase products in several categories, reflecting the results of a poll they did in the 1970's that concluded that their average reader served 4.9 product categories.

In Conclusion

If you have been contemplating a startup business model to serve your own dreams for financial success, you owe it to yourself to seriously consider the opportunities available in the vending industry.

Of those people who have been successful with an online business, the vast majority of those people spent 2-3 years building the foundations of their business, before they started to see real financial success from their enterprise.

But, if you were to invest your money into a vending business instead of an online business, there is no reason that you should not be able to start earning your money back in as little as thirty-days time. If you have what it takes to work for yourself, the vending business could be very profitable for you, and the best part is that there really is not a learning curve to slow your growth to profits.




About the Author:
Lou Gubitosa is the owner of Vending Systems. If you seek to Work At Home and Make Money with a lucrative home business opportunity, then you owe it to yourself to look into a Vending Machines business. Buzz Bites(r) Vending machine routes are available all over the United States, for those interested in getting involved with this proven business model. For a FREE INFORMATION KIT on this HOT NEW business opportunity, visit Lou's website at http://www.VendingSystems.com or call us at: 1-800-779-0025


Monday, October 20, 2008

Understanding the Ultimate Power of Pay Per Click Campaign to Create Expired-Domain Fortunes

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 John Khu



The ultimate power of a Pay per Click program to enhance the power and potential of an expired domain is undisputed and unquestioned. A PPC campaign is a well conceived program that helps you earn small income, apart from guiding a constant stream of expired domain traffic to your expired domain. However, the underlying principle of using a PPC program is still mysterious and suspenseful; it pays you a lot when you make an effort to learn all these secrets and hidden principles. A highly organized PPC campaign provides you a number of benefits and advantages to your expired domain name. Some of these advantages are:

a) It is possible for you to reach the right type of traffic when you use PPC; this program is very innovative in nature with its precise mechanism in reaching the right type of target and to convert them into a highly productive site visitor.

b) When someone conducts a detailed research for your product or service, you can term him or her as highly qualified and targeted; these visitors are the rarest type of surfers, who contribute to develop an excellent pool of traffic to your web site.

c) PPC always ensures that the person who visits your site will purchase some products or services.

d) PPC program is also quite useful in turning your web portal as a money making venture; an expired domain based web portal with an inbuilt capability to earn some money could be a potential money-spinner.

Along with the perceived benefits, PPC program also has many disadvantages like:

i) At times, a PPC campaign may go wrong and you may not get the desired results. Developers are still trying to refine and fine tune this technology and there may be improved versions of the system in the coming years.

ii) If you are not careful enough, the advertizing cost may go out of control. Thus, designing a perfect PPC program by selecting the right type of keywords is of paramount importance.

iii) Though, a PPC campaign is a viable exercise to create expired domain fortunes, it may work out to be very expensive, as bidding on important keywords could be an expensive process.

iv) Bidding on a particular keyword could be highly competitive as well

To save money and to conserve your precious monetary resources, you can create a bidding system on a related keyword with no current bid showing on it. You can stay on top of the search by simply monopolizing the traffic, and in such cases, you just need to pay a small amount per click.

Another thoughtful way to set up a good campaign to create expired domain fortunes is to develop meaningful landing pages that can derive highest rate of returns. Landing pages are mandatory for PPC campaign for visitors referred from other targeted click programs. You can also create a series of similar pages that lie within the main site or they can also be smaller or micro sites specifically designed and perfected for a PPC campaign.

The main goal of integrating landing pages is to convert site visitors into a definite sale. However, maintaining and managing landing pages needs both time and money and hard work to wait for the desired results. The best suggestion for you is to manage advertising and landing pages in a perfect synergy, empower and qualify the design aspects, and to urge the site visitor to take some action and create a targeted traffic link.


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


Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Successful SEO Begins With Keyword Research and Analytics

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Bill Platt



Many webmasters / online marketers make a common mistake when they begin doing business online. Often times, people do the processes necessary for their success - backwards. Rather than starting at the beginning and working forwards, they start at the end and work backwards. As a result, they waste more money and resources, often breaking the back of their business, well before they start to see any real success in their business.

In my years of helping online marketers promote their businesses, I have seen business models that seemed to have all of the elements necessary to ensure great success. And unfortunately, I have seen many of these perfect business models fail miserably, because their owners failed to honor their business with a realistic promotional plan.

Putting The Cart Before The Horse

When people begin to promote their new business, this is where most people begin to err.

Just recently, I spoke with an individual who started a business in a pretty competitive field. I don't view heavy competition as being a bad thing. In fact, I find that there are often enough customers in any niche to support the additional competitors, especially when a new competitor answers a need not served by the current players.

The individual to whom I refer made his mistake by focusing 95% of his advertising budget on Search Engine Optimization (SEO), before he even knew what keywords would help him to be profitable in his business! He has so far blown $9,500 of his $10,000 to optimize his website for the search engines, and he still does not know what keywords will drive traffic to his website, leading to sales conversions for his website.

His "backwards" approach has left him with only $500 in his budget, with little hope for his future. He now emails me 4-5 times a week, always in a state of utter panic for the prospect of his future. All I can tell him is to be patient, since he has to learn how to "bootstrap" his way to success, now that he has no budget left to build strong and fast.

Test Your Copy First

Search Engine Optimization should "never" be a business' first step in the promotion process. Although SEO can bring great rewards, it can also be very expensive to implement. Look at it this way. What good is search optimization if you have optimized for the wrong keywords?

The first step in the promotion of any business should be focused on attracting potential customers to one's website.

The marketer needs to put human eyeballs on the website, so that they can test and tweak their sales copy for greater sales conversion.

Until a website has seen several hundred visitors, the sales copy should not be changed or tweaked. Sales copy should always be tested against a large statistical group of visitors, in order to ensure that the copy is given a fair and realistic test.

If the online marketer has a bit more money to start the process, often the best spent money will be to hire a professional copywriter to write the sales copy for the website. Professional copywriters have a skill, and that skill is to create the words that will drive people to buy what you are selling.

"Test Traffic" Is Important To The Process

Most Internet Marketing newbies are still focused on getting those first few hundred visitors to their websites.

At this point, there are systems like Link Referral, Traffic Swarm and Traffic And Subscribers that can help the new business owner bring in a bit of traffic to their website. In a test with Link Referral, I am seeing 400 visitors per month. The neat thing about systems like these is that other members will review your website and offer good advice on how to improve your website, if necessary. Membership is free for all three systems, with an option for paid upgrades.

The Law Of Attraction

While the traffic exchange systems mentioned above can send some traffic to your website, you are not going to get rich participating in those systems.

Once you have positioned your website to convert visitors to buyers, it is time to start attracting a larger number of visitors (potential customers) to your website.

There are a number of ways to do this, but two of the most effective are: Article Marketing and Pay-Per-Click Advertising.

Article Marketing

Mark Silver recently produced an exceptional home study course about writing articles that will help you be much more successful in your article marketing activities (http://thephantomwriters.com/heartofarticlemarketing).

Just last week, a friend of mine told me that he has not promoted his website in over a year, yet he noticed that his website has a steady stream of traffic to it, from the three-dozen articles that he wrote and distributed in 2006 and 2007. He said that his ebook continues to produce new sales each and every month, and the only thing he can really attribute those continuing sales to is the articles that are available on the Internet that are promoting his website and ebook.

Article marketing, in and of itself, is a promotional tool that will allow a marketer to bring regular visitors to his or her website, and if the website does its job well, then the website will be able to convert those visitors to buyers. This is important, because all businesses need money coming into a website early, to ensure that the business can survive financially, until the long-term "recipe for profit" can be found and duplicated reliably.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is a process where you bid on keywords in the major search engines, through Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, etc. You tell the search engine companies what words you desire to bid on and how much you are willing to pay for a visitor, and the highest bidders for that keyword phrase will be shown above and to the right of the free results in the search engine results pages.

Keyword research, utilizing systems like Word Tracker, or my favorite, NicheBot will enable you to brainstorm keywords and get a good idea of which keywords might be more profitable for your business.

By utilizing Google Analytics or Yahoo's Panama Full Analytics (traffic analysis), an online marketer can follow a visitor from the search engine to the marketer's sales page. Where this is important is it enables an online marketer to uncover the essential business knowledge of which "keywords" will bring people into a website and help convert those visitors into customers.

Essential SEO Knowledge

What one must keep in mind is that some keywords will deliver visitors who will never buy, while other keywords will deliver visitors who are extremely likely to buy. This one paragraph holds within it the secret to a successful SEO strategy. This is the essential knowledge that a marketer should have, before engaging in any Search Engine Optimization campaign.

Like I said previously in this article, "Although SEO can bring great rewards, it can also be very expensive to implement."

If you are going to spend a lot of money to optimize your website for the search engines, doesn't it make much more sense to target the keywords that will actually help you to earn back your investment?

The Backwards Thinking

The backwards thinking I referred to in the beginning of this article was the idea that many people put SEO in front of their keyword research, keyword tracking and keyword conversion statistics.

An industry I like to pick on is the travel industry. In order to rank well for the solitary keyword "travel" in the search engines will require an astronomical SEO budget. But most people seeking travel information are looking for something just a bit more specific, like: Disney vacations, Hawaii vacations, and European travel.

So long as a keyword has been proven to convert visitors and sales, then it makes sense to optimize for that keyword. But you will never truly know which keywords will convert visitors and sales, until you have invested some of your budget into pay-per-click advertising and traffic analysis.

Once the necessary "keyword" knowledge is in hand, then the marketer can make an investment into search engine optimization for those keywords that can actually make them money, and with good SEO deployment, the marketer can find that they can actually capture a lot of the search engine traffic for specific keywords through the search engines' free listings.




About the Author:
Bill Platt has offered article marketing services on the Internet since 2001 at http://www.thePhantomWriters.com - As an extension of his article marketing service, he has developed a process he refers to as "Karma SEO". After two years of testing his Karma SEO philosophy, Bill has reached an understanding of how he can finally offer Pay-For-Performance SEO Services. Learn more at: http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com/seo-services/search-marketing.html
We don't have to pay Google for traffic... They give it to US for FREE!


Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Movie Posters and Entertainment Memorabilia Can Be Money In The Bank

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Ralph Deluca



With rare exceptions, such as some of the Batman movie posters, most new release movie posters can be purchased for as little as $15-$20. With this knowledge in hand, most people look at movie posters with a sense of ho-hum when thinking about entertainment memorabilia and collectibles. But the big picture is much more enticing.

In a recent memorabilia sale, the rare and elusive 1933 Style B "Son of Kong" one sheet movie poster sold for a whopping $69,000! Another vintage movie poster, from the movie "Citizen Kane" by Orson Wells (1941), earned $57,500 at auction in the same year.

Money In The Attic

When was the last time you climbed into the attic to see what is in all of those boxes you have been hoarding for the future? Even the stuff you got from Grandma's house when she passed on - have you opened those boxes to see what treasures may be in those boxes?

The reason I mention the boxes in the attic is because most people do not realize the value of the mementoes they may have in their possession. There may be things you have in your possession that have real value to others and little value to you.

Lessons About The Value Of Collectibles

Every now and again, a story will enter the news about some family who had a rock they used as a doorstop, only to learn many years later that the doorstop was actually a meteorite worth thousands of dollars. A gentleman in Saskatchewan, Canada discovered that his 1.3kg doorstop was actually worth $7,000.

The lesson is that what is one man's doorstop may be another man's treasure, just as one man's $20 movie poster may be another man's priceless piece of memorabilia.

The second lesson is that anything of value is only valuable to the person who is willing to buy that item for the stated price. Not everyone is going to be willing to pay you $69,000 for a movie poster or $7,000 for a meteorite. An item is not valuable, unless and until someone is willing to recognize real value in that item.

Home Improvement Project Surprises

Unbelievably, it is not uncommon for a homeowner to strip the plaster on the wall and discover old movie posters or concert posters on the inside wood structure of the wall. Sometimes the poster will have been covered over for decades, preserving it in essence for the generations.

If this ever happens to you, the first thing you should do is to take a digital snapshot of the poster and then find someone who appraises such finds. The collector who may be interested in purchasing such an item will be able to tell you how to safely remove the poster from the internal structure of the wall. If the poster needs a cleaning, it is often wise to let the collector do the cleaning him or herself, since the cleaning of valuable collectibles often requires very specialized cleaning products.

Hidden "Framed" Treasures

Every now and again, a classic painting or poster will be discovered in a frame, covered over by another print. For example, in 2005, a museum discovered an unknown painting by Norway's Edvard Munch (1863-1944) called, "Girl and Three Men's Heads". It was underneath another classic Munch painting titled, "The Dead Mother". Museum officials said that the newly discovered painting was "absolutely priceless".

In the case of the Munch painting, the first was covered over by the painter himself. In other cases, people will simply cover a print that they find uninteresting with another print that they feel is more aesthetically pleasing to their own tastes.

Some of the greatest finds in history have been uncovered when a frame was opened to clean or do repair work on the frame itself.

Two Factors Determine Value More Than Any Other

When looking at the value of movie and concert posters, or any other entertainment collectibles, there are two factors that determine that value more than any other factors. Those two factors are: supply and demand.

In some cases, such as the aforementioned 1933 Style B "Son of Kong" one sheet movie poster, the poster is very rare and lots of people desire to own it. The "Casablanca" poster on the other hand is an item that is in greater supply, so its recent fetching price was $50,000 less than the "Son of Kong" poster.

After watching a few episodes of Antiques Roadshow, it is easy to recognize the value that an appraiser offers to owners of collectible merchandise. Every appraiser has their own specialty, and the Roadshow displays this in every episode, bringing in appraisers who specialize in the specific items seeking appraisal.

The subtleties in the collectible industry are the kinds of things that individuals would be hard-pressed to know. That is why the Antiques Roadshow has so many appraisers in their Rolodex, and if you have an item to sell, you should be seeking a specialist appraiser for your items.

When it is time for you to get an appraisal on a movie poster, concert poster, or any other entertainment type collectibles and memorabilia, then the only name that you will need to have in your Rolodex is Ralph Deluca. Ralph's website and phone number are shown below, for when you are ready to contact him directly.




About the Author:
My name is Ralph Deluca, and I buy movie posters, concert posters, photographic prints and other entertainment collectibles. To learn more, please visit my website: http://www.ralphdeluca.com or call me at: (800) 392-4050.


Monday, October 13, 2008

Six Steps to Writing an Offer That Inspires Customers to ACT

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Judy Murdoch



Until fairly recently, writing marketing copy was a strange and mysterious undertaking to me.

It's funny because when I was doing advertising research, I often worked closely with copywriters. I would interview customers to learn how they responded to different messages and report back to the creative team. Sometimes the copywriter or art director would have questions they wanted me to ask my focus groups. So I got to know the writers and their work pretty well.

Yet, when they went back to their desk to actually create the message, I had no idea how they came up with the words that moved customers to action.

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Customer-Focused Story to the Rescue!
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Turns out like any professional, copywriters have systems. One such system that has made my writing life infinitely easier is the Customer Focused Story: A six step process that helps you develop a message that inspires action on the part of your readers.

[Note: I am grateful to marketer/copywriter extraordinaire, Mark Silver, who developed the Customer Focused Story process and taught me how to use it. Learn more about Mark at http://www.heartofbusiness.com] The power behind the Customer Focus Story is this: before people are ready to take action, it is absolutely critical that they feel safe to do so. By "safe" I mean your copy addresses two, usually unarticulated questions:

(1.) Do they feel that the business making the offer understands the problem they're struggling with?

(2.) Can the business help THEM?

If your copy helps them answer "yes" to those two questions, chances are very good your customers will take the next step.

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Applying the Customer Focus Story: A Real Example
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My client, Judy Rotunda of Pilates for Life, specializes in helping women who want to get fit but whose physical limitations make it difficult to use standard options such as fitness centers, aerobics classes, etc. Judy offers private and semi-private classes that enable clients to safely progress at their own pace. In this way clients get stronger and fitter without risking further injury.

Here is how we developed the Customer Focused Story for Pilates for Life:

STEP 1. Name the Who and the Problem with which They're Struggling.

The first thing you want to tell readers is "this is who I help and what I help them with." The point is to elicit a strong "Yes, that's me," in your ideal prospect so they will want to keep reading.

In the case of Pilates for Life, the who and what are:

"Women who are suffering from chronic back pain. Oftentimes, the pain is so bad it makes it hard for them to do things most of us take for granted."

STEP 2. Specify the Solutions They've Tried which Didn't Work.

I know when I first began using the Customer Focused Story, I resisted this step. Why wouldn't I immediately launch into my wonderful solution?

Here's why. Two little words: "Yeah, but." No doubt you've experienced this when you've talked to prospects. You tell them about your product or service and they respond to every claim you make with "Yeah, we tried that but it didn't work." This is normal. They don't want to buy something they already know doesn't work.

The best way to deal with "yeah buts" is to simply acknowledge the solutions they've probably already tried--the ones that didn't work.

For example:

"They've tried the usual fitness options: low impact aerobics, yoga, and weight training but often those options just make things worse."

STEP 3. Explain Why Those Solutions Don't Work.

When you not only acknowledge what your prospects probably tried but go on to say in effect, "Hey, what you did was perfectly understandable. That's what most people would have tried. I tried those things and my customers have tried those things." You're demonstrating empathy.

You are also letting them know they don't have to feel embarrassed or ashamed for trying and failing. That they are not the only ones who have struggled to find a solution to their problem.

Pilates for Life example:

"The problem with most mainstream exercise programs is the instructor's lack of experience working with back injuries and chronic pain. An instructor who is unfamiliar with these conditions may push for progress too quickly. Or they may assume persons with chronic back pain can do each movement in the same way as everyone else. Often times, this can strain the back muscles even more, cause more injury, and make the pain even more severe."

STEP 4. Talk About What They Need to Do to Solve the Problem.

Your reader is probably thinking, "Okay, I understand why what I tried didn't work. So what DOES?" Here's where you get to address their question.

Pilates for Life example:

"A successful fitness program for persons with chronic back pain requires three things:

(1.) a fitness trainer familiar with the physiology of back injuries;

(2.) private or semi-private classes so the instructor can make sure the participant is doing the movements properly; and

(3.) a significantly slower pace to allow the muscles to adjust to new movements."

STEP 5. Tell Them Why You're Qualified to Deliver the Solution That Works.

Finally, you get to talk about your solution! Specifically, you are going to write about how you are qualified to deliver a solution that works (which you just wrote about in Step 4).

Qualifications you want to refer to can include your personal experience, formal training and education, success stories about how you've helped your own customers, and testimonials.

Pilates for Life example:

"For over twenty years, Pilates for Life owner, Judy Rotunda, suffered from chronic pain due to a childhood back injury. She looked everywhere to find an exercise program that would improve her strength and flexibility and, she hoped, provide some relief from the constant pain. When a friend suggested she try Pilates, she was skeptical but after just two sessions, she was a fan.

In fact, she was so convinced that Pilates was the answer for persons suffering from back injuries and chronic pain that she decided to become a certified Pilates instructor. Today Judy owns her own fitness service, Pilates for Life, which offers private, closely supervised exercise sessions for persons for whom standard exercise programs just don't work."

STEP 6. Tell the reader Exactly What the Next Step Is and How to Take It.

At this point, a reader who is an ideal customer for you, is probably feeling hopeful and excited about learning more about what you do. So you are going to tell them exactly what the next steps are.

Pilates for Life example:

The ideal customer for Pilates for Life is a woman who is in chronic pain due to a back injury. Because they are in so much pain so much of the time, they are highly motivated to find solutions. There are two actions they could take:

"(1.) Go to the Pilates for Life Web site and complete a short assessment to help them determine whether Pilates is right for them.

(2.) Call Judy to talk about how Pilates might help them."

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Putting It All Together
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Once you complete Steps 1 through 6, you have all the pieces of your marketing message. The very last thing to do is to write it using "you" instead of "the customer" so it speaks to your customer in a personal way.

You may also want to do some light editing to make sure the separate elements flow well as a single written piece.

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Bottom Line
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I see so many small business owners struggle with creating a strong, to the point marketing message that inspires customers to take action. The Customer Focused story, in my experience, is a common sense, straight forward solution to this problem.


About the Author:
Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost, effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals, guerrilla marketing activities, and five-star strategic alliances. To download a free copy of the workbook, "Where Does it Hurt? Marketing Solutions to the problems that Drive Your Customers Crazy!" go to http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm
You can contact Judy at 303-475-2015 or judy@judymurdoch.com


Sunday, October 12, 2008

The Wonderful World of Domain Flipping-Flipping Expired Domains to Your Advantage

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 John Khu



Domain flipping is an exciting and a promising technique of making your expired domain a successful money earner, as well as a stable income generator. There is lot to learn from domain flipping and its wonderful principles. Domain flipping is an art of converting a dead domain into an entity that can make you rich and prosperous. Of late, domain flipping is becoming increasingly popular due to its many sided benefits and advantages. It is also a flexible way of using your expired domains to create meaningful income generating opportunity.

There are several meanings and definitions to domain flipping, what it can offer you and how it can help you use your expired domains. Due to its contrasting definitions, what makes sense and meaning to one person may be entirely different to another. Thus, you will need to learn and understand the description of domain flipping in its broader scope and context. Once you understand the broad meaning of the process, it becomes so easy to apply the principles and logic to give a big fillip to your expired domain business. Here are some simple definitions of domain flipping and what it could mean to you:

Definition Number 1

  • You can buy a good domain name and sell it as soon as possible based on its saleable characters and merits. This is quite easy and straightforward. However, the biggest disadvantage attached with this process, is the low retail prices accrued from selling.

  • Definition Number 2

  • You can purchase a good expired domain name, start a legal business based on it, and later sell it for a premium with the domain name as the business name. This is a smart process of creating a good source of income, because you are providing some thing extra other than the expired domain. However, the downside with this method is that you need a lot of time to develop the site.

  • Definition Number 3

  • This is an extraordinary process of transforming an expired domain name into a fully loaded web portal with relevant contents, and later integrating the site with well known search engine directories, to make it visible on top of the search engines. It is also made commercially more viable by adding a good PPC campaign to enhance the viability of the web portal. Once you feel that the web portal is fully developed, you can sell it off for a very high price to interested parties.

  • Now, you can decide what exactly you need from your expired domain name. However, any of the above three domain flipping methods are good and practical based on what you are looking for and how you want to dispose off the domain. If you choose the last option, it means that you are ready to work hard to create a fully developed web site by pouring some money and time.

    In spite of its numerous advantages and benefits, domain flipping could be quite negative, when inexperienced domain traders attempt to buy and sell domain names. In many cases, they may buy unnecessary and useless domains and later sell them at pathetically low prices. Thus, you will need to learn to analyze and assess expiring domain names to know more about their commercial viability. Domain flipping is a tremendous opportunity to those people who are patient enough to wait for the best time and great selling prices. But, developing a great web site is the only known way, if you want to successfully flip a domain to its fullest possible potential.


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


    Other People's Stuff in Your Info Product

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2008 Mark Silver



    It was 1995 and there we were: me, my girlfriend of one year (who is now my wife), and my parents all snowed in at my parents' home. A blizzard had struck suddenly, and we were stuck in D.C. for an extra two days, unable to fly out. Unable to do anything, really, except be stuck together.

    Luckily, we had a great time together. We shoveled snow, drank tea, and laughed a lot.

    But, can you imagine if that had happened the year before on our very first date, when we didn't know each other at all? A first date snowed in for four days with your date and your parents?

    Don't snow your clients in with your parents.

    Bundling gifts from colleagues and friends

    You're all ready to launch your new, first information product. Maybe you haven't been in business that long, or perhaps you just haven't yet accumulated a lot of materials, written, audio or otherwise, in your business.

    And, your new, shiny product seems a little lonely. A little nekkid. Like it needs some company, or some clothing.

    So, you reach out to friends, colleagues, people you respect, and have them contribute little bonus reports and such to help "beef it up," so-to-speak. But, is that really a good idea?

    It's not about competition

    Some teachers recommend against including OPS (other people's stuff) in your offers, because it draws attention away from you and... maybe those other people will get the client instead of you!

    Uh... nice fodder for a panic attack. But let's not go there, okay? You can trust that people who purchased your product won't be lured away to other offers to your detriment. And if they are lured away, they will be grateful to you- and still be on your customer list.

    But, chances are they won't go away. They purchased from you and very likely want more you!

    And that's the real reason not to include OPS, not because of fear of competition.

    My First Date with Holly

    My first date with my wife was at Chloe's, a cafe in San Francisco's Noe Valley neighborhood. We had brunch. We found out about each other. Later, we took a walk and even got a little kissy-faced.

    Can you imagine if I'd had my parents along? Or even friends?

    There's a time for you and your new love to hang out with friends and family. In my experience, first dates are not one of those times.

    It's a precious time for the two of you to get to know each other, maybe even share a kiss or two.

    Follow me? When a new client buys something from you for the very first time, they are wanting to get to know you. They are entering your world, and they want to be there, in your world, with you.

    Including bonuses from other people is a great thing, but hold back on the first date.

    Still worried your poor infoproduct is looking a little emaciated? Doesn't it need more? Let's take a closer look.

    Keys to Dressing Up Your Info Product Offer

  • You are enough. (Say it yourself: "I am enough.")

  • So you wrote a 20-page workbook? Maybe that's enough. Maybe you don't have to spruce it up with all kinds of extra ribbons and bows to "pad it out." Maybe less is less- and that's a good, digestible thing.

    I once received an eight-page workbook on writing headlines and it was so useful, all by it's lonesome, that I've kept it and referred to it for years.

  • If you must, repeat content in other formats.

  • Wrote a workbook? So, get a microphone, or video camera, and record yourself guiding the reader through the exercises. Bingo, you've now got a multi-media product. If you do that, I recommend having an audience in front of you, rather just solo- even if it's just a handful of friends. They can be silent, but speaking to a real live person can bring out an energy in your voice that makes your recordings much more powerful for the listener.

  • Add OPS to more products, later.

  • Including Other People's Stuff is a great idea when it's not the first product someone would buy. If it's the second, or third, or more advanced offering, then that's a great time to put some OPS in.

    For instance, in our community http://www.TheBusinessOasis.com, I actively promote other people's stuff, through interviews and links. Because members of the Business Oasis are already in our world, those links are resources, more friends hanging out with the gang. They don't disrupt the relationship because the connection isn't so fragile.

    It's a great idea to get an information product out, no matter what kind of business you run. And, if it's the first offering ever, or even just the first in a series, make sure it's just you.

    The best of my business 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


    Saturday, October 11, 2008

    How Information Products Can Convert More Visitors to Paying Customers

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2008 Judy Murdoch



    My friend, Dan owns a small software company that sells subscription services to realtors. For a very reasonable monthly fee Dan will create a website that allows the realtor to upload guided tours of their listed properties. Prospective buyers can browse the listed properties and contact the realtor for more information on properties they're interested in.

    It's a pretty cool service and once realtors start using it, they are very enthusiastic about the results.

    The problem was that although Dan was getting a lot of visitors to his website, very few visitors were taking the next step: a guided tour of how the service worked.

    =====================================
    Problem: Asking for Too Much Too Soon
    =====================================

    Taking a look at their website, I could see what was happening: to take the guided tour the visitor had to provide their name and e mail address. Once the tour was over, prospect was told to call a 1-800 number to schedule a free consultation to discuss how the service would help them show more properties.

    Here's the problem. In this age in which every other message seems to be to buy something, people have become wary of tactics like free consultations.

    The term "free consultation" is a red flag like "trust me." What the prospect really thinks is "they'll just try to talk me into buying something."

    And let's face it, this is quite often the case.

    =====================================
    Solution: Use Information Products as "Stepping Stones"
    =====================================

    Picture a stream. A fairly wide, deep stream. You're on one side and your prospect is on the other. When the only offer you make is "Call me for a free consultation" with the intention to sell them something pricey, you are basically asking prospective customers to leap across the stream.

    Will some prospects do that? Sure, every once in a while someone will be motivated and confident enough to make that big jump.

    Most, however, won't.

    You need to provide them with 2-3 good, sturdy stepping stones they can use to cross the stream.

    The stepping stones are information products that provide increasing levels of support along with higher price points.

    =====================================
    Example: Using Stepping Stone Products
    =====================================

    I suggested to Dan that he add two intermediate offers that would allow prospects who weren't quite ready to buy the full service:

    Product #1 A free, monthly ezine with articles on how customers were using their products and getting results. When prospects read about someone like themselves succeeding, they would begin to feel more confident that they, too, could get good results.

    Product #2. A $79 Assessment. Through an online form, the prospect answers several questions and submits it for analysis.

    They get a 5-page report back on exactly how the service would help them. If the service won't help them the fee is waived. If they decide to go ahead and subscribe the $79 is applied against the cost of their subscription.

    =====================================
    Keys to Creating Stepping Stones for Your Customers
    =====================================

    1.) Make sure you're offering one free product that allows prospects to experience what you do.

    I prefer ezines or blog subscriptions because they provide multiple opportunities to be in touch over a period of time.

    2.) Add one to two intermediate information products.

    The products should:

  • Provide increasing levels of support
  • Priced to reflect the increased level of support

  • 3.) Test the products to make sure they appeal to your ideal customer.

    I'm a big proponent of testing with ideal customers. Let a few of your customers try out your new product. If they are using it and getting good results, you have a winner. If they never touch it, you have some refinements to make.

    =====================================
    Bottom Line
    =====================================

    If you're getting a lot of interest in your product or service but very few are actually buying, you may need to use some information products as stepping stones.

    I recommend offering 1-2 free products and at least 1 product you sell at a price lower than what you're selling as "top of the line." This allows prospective clients to keep in touch with you and to benefit from your products and services even if they're not ready to buy your top of the line offering.


    About the Author:
    Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost, effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals, guerrilla marketing activities, and five-star strategic alliances. To download a free copy of the workbook, "Where Does it Hurt? Marketing Solutions to the problems that Drive Your Customers Crazy!" go to http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm
    You can contact Judy at 303-475-2015 or judy@judymurdoch.com


    Friday, October 10, 2008

    Tips to Grab Expired Domains Through Back Ordering Process- Part I

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2008 John Khu



    In general, domain expiry and deletion cycle is a different process with different registrars and domain name registers. It is a well known fact that a number of registrars enter into partnership with different domain auctioning services. Before a domain name expires, the registrars will keep it in an expired status for 35 days. Under usual circumstances, the domain that expires will not be visible in a WHOIS database, as the registrars will add an extra year to the registration. If you want to check whether the domain in question has expired or not, just make a search in the domain name server's database. In the last stages of expiration, the registrars will place the domain in a pre-release section. On the 36th day, the domain auctioning service firm will start auctioning off the domains, if there are any backorders pending before the service.

    Let us say that there are backordering orders for a domain. Then, the said domain will fall in the normal process of domain expiry cycle. There is a fierce competition among thousands of expired domain traders to catch the most feasible domains. Expired domain name traders use a standard acquisition process by closely following the domain expiry cycle and its selling process. When a domain enters a stage called "Pending Delete", the domain will fall and enters a stage called "drop". Every top level domain will have a predetermined "time duration" when a particular domain will become available for purchase. Here are some examples of top level domains that drop at a particular time slot:

    Dot com and Dot net: Dropping between 1 PM and 1.30 PM CST

    Dot org names : Dropping between 8.30 AM and 9 AM CST

    Dot info names : Dropping between 3.30 AM and 4 AM CST

    Dot biz names : Dropping between 1.30 AM and 2 PM CST

    Dot us names : Dropping between 12 AM and 12.30 AM CST

    Catching a domain is a relatively simple and straightforward process. You will just need to register a domain when it drops or whenever it becomes available for purchase. How you do it, is an intricate and important part of the process. Most of the domains get registered very quickly and thousands of domain names are registered within milliseconds. Under a normal domain dropping and catching process, well known firms like Pool.com, SnapName.com and eNom.com have close contacts with a number of domain registrars. These firms send automatic "Buy Request" commands to the registry right at the dropping stages. These firms create a comprehensive list to find out which one of the names drop each day and later place an order for all dropping names. Catching dropping names is an adventurous game and a thrilling act. As a domain trader, you may wish to focus on buying good domain names at most economical process by using the domain dropping process. Once you learn the process of domain name dropping and its subsequent buying process, you can easily start accumulating good expired domains.


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


    Thursday, October 9, 2008

    How To Add Immense Value To Your Expired Domain By Buying Expired Domain Traffic

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2008 John Khu



    Sensible expired domain traders always realize the immense value of expired domain traffic and they also understand how expired domain traffic can supplement the overall value of the domain in providing a premium value that eventually helps them in getting the best possible monetary gains. You can make your expired domains prosperous, richer and healthier, when you import and supplement additional traffic to your domain; quality links and an organic type of traffic can help your domain automatically add better value and a premium tag. An expired domain with a big list of quality traffic and inbound links could be a big asset to your domain trading business. However, to make your ambitions a big reality, you may wish to find a practical way to pool traffic and links to enrich the expired domain.

    Now, the big question is how you propose to bring quality traffic to your web domain Expired domain traffic will not just come trickling down to your web domain. To make it happen, you will need to create a solid action plan that aims at making people come visiting your web domain. There are several strategies and techniques that help you add traffic and links to your web domain. Here are some of the proven strategies and methods that empower you to import better quality traffic to your expired domain:

    Approach Number 1

  • Buying an expired domain that already has some amount of traffic and inbound links is a viable option. However, finding such a domain is actually a tough task because of the intensive competition surrounding that domain. To ensure that you are buying a good expired domain, you can request for an expired domain appraisal report from the owner. In many cases, an expired domain name may have little amount of traffic attached to it; under such a scenario, you will need to look and examine closely at the uniqueness and specialty of the domain.

  • Approach Number 2

  • This is a roundabout way of developing expired domain traffic that needs some amount of time and money. It is also quite tedious and complicated task to add traffic and links to your expired domain. Domain parking is possibly one of the easiest methods to bring good quality traffic to your expired domain. The most beneficial aspect of this approach is the low cost involved in the exercise. Web portals like Sedo.com offers cheaper domain parking services that also provide a simple web template to make your prospective visitors to click on the page and lead them to another web site.

  • Approach Number 3

  • However, the quality of traffic generated here is quite inferior and many search engines may never rate this type of traffic. To bring high quality expired-domain traffic to your domain, you may also wish to set up a well designed and well conceived web portal. When you promote your web portal in a systematic and organized manner, people will come flocking to visit your web site, by typing the actual URL on the address bar of the web site; this type of traffic is true and real and it is highly organic in its nature. An effective Pay per lead program is another additional and lucrative program that could be a potentially powerful formula to create domain traffic as well as a small amount of income.

  • Approach Number 4

  • If you are short of good quality traffic, you can even buy a pack of quality expired domain traffic from a seller. However, you are never sure of the inherent quality of traffic purchased by you. In many cases, it may not even work to your benefit and expectations.

  • Adding value to your domain by importing high quality expired domain traffic means:

    Creating a premium web domain that carries a top of the class commercial rating.

    Setting up a well coordinated business opportunity that can provide you lucrative gains.

    Learn and understand the insider secrets of using the expired domain traffic to its fullest possible extent.


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


    Wednesday, October 8, 2008

    Competitive Advantage ---- Make Your Strategic Plan Your Launching Pad

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2008 Rick Johnson



    Developing competitive advantage in the market place is not the easiest thing to accomplish.

    According to Wikipedia,

    "Competitive advantage is a position that a company occupies in its competitive landscape. A competitive advantage, sustainable or not, exists when a company makes a profit, that is, their earnings exceed their costs.. That means that normal competitive pressures are not able to drive down the firm's earnings to the point where they cover all costs and just provide minimum sufficient additional return to keep capital invested. Most forms of competitive advantage cannot be sustained for any length of time because the promise of profits invites competitors to duplicate the competitive advantage held by any one firm.

    A firm possesses a sustainable competitive advantage when it has value-creating processes and positions that cannot be duplicated or imitated by other firms that lead to the production of above-normal rents."

    Wow.... That's a mouthful and pretty simplistic. However, to make that happen and create sustainable competitive advantage, which means creating sustainable profitability, I believe it starts with a well thought out strategic plan; a plan that has the potential to substantially improve a company's performance. A strategic plan is a competitive differentiator in today's volatile economy and it can function as a launching pad to create competitive advantage by leveraging your differentiation. What is it that you do that makes you different and defines your value propositions?

    Vision

    Creating a well thought out strategic plan starts with a vision. Most importantly, however, as a leader you must be able to turn this vision into a cause. A vision without a cause is simply a day dream. That means that as the leader you must be able to document this vision into an end game - a destination that you want the company to reach.

    A critical factor and the very first step in developing a strategic plan is turning your vision into a cause by developing your end game. Just exactly what do you want your company to be when it grows up? Ask yourself the following questions from the perspective of looking five to seven years into the future.

    1. What markets should your company be serving five years from now?

    2. What products should you be distributing?

    3. Who are your primary competitors?

    4. What are your strengths?

    5. What are your competitors' strengths?

    6. How has your marketing strategy changed?

    7. What are your core competencies?

    8. What is the size of your revenue stream?

    9. How is your revenue stream segmented?

    10. Do you have a Human Resource Development plan?

    A Creative Process

    Strategic planning is a creative process the starts with the visionary creativity of the owner or CEO. The fresh insight it engenders might very well alter past initiatives. Planning also consumes resources which are precious commodities. It can be an overwhelming and daunting task, but it is a process that eventually defines the direction and activities of the organization.. Despite its overwhelming nature, the benefits of planning can far outweigh the hard work and pain involved in the process. Strategic planning is a key process that adjusts an organization's direction in response to a changing environment. It supports the fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide an organization. A sound strategic plan can help define and focus a distributor's efforts to move the company in the right direction, using the best methods. It can and often does create competitive advantage.

    A well thought out Strategic Plan is essential for a business to be successful. Unfortunately, many businesses fail when it comes time to implement their plans. The result can be wasted time and money as well as numerous missed opportunities.

    Strategic planning creates a team culture that is necessary for success. Working together effectively is not automatic. It takes a specific effort and the development of a culture that is supported by executive management. Shared experiences create unity and value. Knowledge transfer is essential for an organization to grow. Without knowledge transfer and the sharing of the planning experience it is difficult for the group to share the vision and work toward common goals.

    Some "experts" may encourage you to hold a weekend retreat where you all sing the same songs, drink the same kool-aid and come away with a long list of initiatives that never get done. Other experts may tell you, as published in one of our industry's leading newsletters:

    "The strategic planning process itself is simple enough for most firms to do the work on their own. An outside facilitator with the right experience and skills can speed the process and help to assure workable results. An ideal plan can be boiled down to a 'one-page strategic plan,' a simple summary every employee can understand and apply in his or her daily work."

    Not true, not true at all. Oh, it is certainly important for every employee to have a crisp, short explanation of what your strategy is all about but this is simply part of creating ownership and buy-in. We call it the "Core Strategy Statement".

    Implementation is Key

    Absolutely essential but standing on its own with no precise implantation outline, with accountability, goals and timelines makes it nothing more than a slogan or mission statement. And...... Mission Statements do not create success. Actions create success.

    Developing a successful strategic plan that creates competitive advantage is much more than a one page brief. There are a number of important factors that must be considered if a strategic plan is to be successfully implemented. There are a number of ways to insure that company behavior really changes as a result of the strategic planning process.

    A strategic plan that creates competitive advantage must be built upon the following:

  • Specific real-world objectives must be set. These objectives must have goals and be measureable.

  • Objectives and initiatives must be prioritized and compared to resources available to support the initiative. The purpose is the realization that you can't do everything at once. Listing fifty initiatives to be accomplished in year one is delusionary. Consequently, the first 12 to 18 months should be spent focusing on the four to six initiatives that will have the biggest bang for your buck in the shortest period of time. Other initiatives should be deferred for review annually or upon completion of a prioritized initiative.

  • The objectives should be specific so that there is no ambiguity about what is required. Expected timing and personnel accountability should be specified in each objective. Ideally there should be one individual who is accountable to company management for reaching each objective.

  • A monthly strategic review meeting should be held in order to evaluate progress on reaching objectives. These meetings are very powerful tools to ensure that the proper focus is put on achieving the objectives that are part of the strategic planning process.

  • Key performance indicators must be defined for each specific objective. Company performance must be measured. If important performance metrics are not tracked then there is no way that company management can work toward achieving the goals the have been set during the planning process.

  • Strategic planning creates a team culture that is necessary for success. It's necessary to create competitive advantage. Working together effectively is not automatic. It takes a specific effort and the development of a culture that is supported by executive management. Shared experiences create unity and value. Unity and value create competitive advantage. Knowledge transfer is essential for an organization to grow. Without knowledge transfer and the sharing of the planning experience it is difficult for the group to share the vision and work toward common goals. And.... Achieving common goals built into your strategic plan is the "launching pad for competitive advantage."


    About the Author:
    http://www.ceostrategist.com - Sign up to receive "The Howl" a free monthly newsletter that addresses real world industry issues. - Straight talk about today's issues. Rick Johnson, expert speaker, wholesale distribution's "Leadership Strategist", founder of CEO Strategist, LLC a firm that helps clients create and maintain competitive advantage. Need a speaker for your next event, E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com. Don't forget to check out the Lead Wolf Series that can help you put more profit into your business. And check out Rick's new CD and workbook Real World Leadership Kit --- "Learning to Lead So Others Will Follow." http://www.ceostrategist.com/resources-store/real-world-leadership.html


    Tuesday, October 7, 2008

    Work At Home Business Opportunities That Can Be Better Than An Online Business

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2008 Lou Gubitosa



    For obvious reasons, many people strive to develop a home business. The thought of having a more flexible schedule that allows the business owner to spend more quality time with his or her family is a worthwhile goal that many seek to achieve.

    The growth of the Internet has delivered the greatest hope for most people who seek out their own home business. But the truth of the matter is that most people who start an online business will fail. The Small Business Administration suggested the 95% of all online businesses fail. That is a number that makes the potential of creating a successful online business a very remote possibility.

    Contrast that with the SBA numbers for a normal brick-and-mortar small business. The Small Business Administration says that 65% of ordinary small businesses fail within five years.

    There is one industry that is perfect for the small business startup that delivers a much brighter outlook on the business survival front. According to the Department of Commerce, only 5% of vending machine businesses fail.

    Against the 95% of online business failures and the 65% of offline small business failures, the 5% failure rate in the vending machine industry shows that this is one of the safest, if not the safest bet in home-based business opportunities.

    Getting Into The Vending Industry

    Getting started is as simple as buying machines and product, then getting machines placed in locations where people will use them.

    The product range in this industry is phenomenal. This industry got its start in 1926 with cigarette vending machines. Since, the industry has moved into soft drinks, water, milk, energy drinks, snacks, energy foods, sandwiches, newspapers, stamps and more.

    While it might make sense to get started in this industry with pop machines or snack machines, one has to find a place where the machines will be accepted. New apartment complexes and shopping centers make the most sense for getting soft drink vending machines placed, but depending on where one lives, the waiting time might be lengthy.

    For many who are looking to get into this industry, it might make more sense to target product lines that no one else is serving and to get those machines placed where others might already have drink vending or snack vending machines.

    As with any business model, the trick to gaining early success is to find a niche that is being under served and exploit that niche to the fullest extent possible.

    Work-At-Home Explained

    It is true that you will not be setting up your vending machines in your back yard, but for all intent purposes, a vending business can be operated as a home business.

    Vending machines will be placed at various locations, but one can store additional product in the garage or a spare room in the house. All other business processes can be handled from a home office.

    Keeping the books, ordering new product, and processing bank deposits can all be done from a home office. Product storage can be done at home or even in a rented storage unit.

    Either way, most vending machine business operators only leave their home to get new product, deliver products to their machines, and to go to the bank to make bank deposits. On occasion a vendor may also leave the office to meet with property owners to arrange new locations for their vending machines, but frequently, a lot of that process can be handled over the telephone.

    Commitments To The Business

    The time away from home office for business operations will depend entirely upon how many machines the business owner has in the field and how many transactions those machines are doing on a regular basis. For many small business owners in the vending industry, the average time away from home amounts to only a few hours a day.

    Most people who enter into this market find that they can make a decent living working only a few hours per week. As with any other home-based business or otherwise, the amount of money that can be earned from the process is directly proportional to what one puts into the business.

    Getting Started

    Small business owners tend to start their businesses on a part-time basis. In fact, according to the Vending Connection website, 70% of new vending operators work their startup business in the evenings and on the weekends. 85% of those vendors who work their business part-time in the evenings and on the weekend will go full-time within two years.

    Don't worry if you are not getting started in soft drinks and snacks right away. Getting started is the most important thing to do, and then as your business develops cash flow and resources, you can then expand into the more competitive markets such as soft drinks.

    As a new vending business owner, it is important to be able to identify under served niche markets and then to arrange your entrance into those markets.

    One of the newest products that is starting to attract a lot of attention is Buzz Bites(r) Chocolate Energy Chews. The size of a coffee machine, the Buzz Bites(r) vending machines are designed to sit on the counter right next to the coffee machine. But once consumers learn that the Buzz Bites(r) product offers more energy than a cup of coffee, sales of the Buzz Bites(r) grow to the point that nearly half of all coffee-consumers will stop using coffee to get that energy boost.




    About the Author:
    Lou Gubitosa is the owner of Vending Systems. If you seek to Work At Home and Make Money with a lucrative home business opportunity, then you owe it to yourself to look into a Vending Machines business. Buzz Bites(r) Vending machine routes are available all over the United States, for those interested in getting involved with this proven business model. For a FREE INFORMATION KIT on this HOT NEW business opportunity, visit Lou's website at http://www.VendingSystems.com or call us at: 1-800-779-0025


    Monday, October 6, 2008

    Negative Versus Positive Marketing Messages: Which Works Best?

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2008 Judy Murdoch



    Nancy is a small business owner who helps nonprofit groups create fund raising events that can double- even triple- their average donation.

    Until recently, Nancy has gotten her business primarily through in-person meetings: attending networking events, taking people out for coffee, and giving presentations.

    In-person is great for getting local business but Nancy wants to serve a national customer base. So she hired someone to design a website and using emails and postcards to market her services.

    She's been using emails and postcards for the last ten months and the results have been dismal.

    "I haven't gotten a single new client," she told me.

    So I took a look at the emails she was sending out and I immediately saw the problem.



    >> Enthusiasm Can Turn People Off



    Nancy loves her work and really wants her clients to succeed. It's hard to spend time with her and not get excited about what she's doing.

    Her enthusiasm works to her advantage when she meets people in person.

    It seems logical then that enthusiasm would work in all her other marketing. Wrong.



    >> Establishing Trust is the First Step



    There's a saying, "People want to know you care, before they care about what you know."

    As human beings, we have a natural desire to belong and feel valued. It's the reason why people hate to be sold to...we don't feel understood or valued for who we are.

    When you meet someone in person, it's a lot easier to build trust because you can communicate that you care in many ways: in your tone of voice, in the way you look at others, in your gestures.

    For people like Nancy, building trust occurs almost immediately during in person meetings because she communicates that she cares both in what she says and what she doesn't say.

    But when communicating in less personal ways—using email, postcards, and other types of written media, you have only words to work with.

    Which means you must take an extra step and deliberately demonstrate empathy before you enthusiastically share why your products and services are so wonderful.



    >> Establishing Trust Means Starting with the Negative



    So how do you show you care when you use email, web pages, and other mediums that limit your ability to express yourself?

    You start with the problem or pain your customer is likely experiencing.

    When you do this you are saying, in effect to your audience:

    "I understand you have this problem that you're struggling to solve."

    "I, too, have struggled with it"

    "Through my experience, education, research, etc., I have came up with a solution to solve the problem."

    "My solution work for you too."

    Once you say these things, you are free to bubble away about your wonderful solution.



    >> Example: Establishing Trust First



    So let's go back to Nancy.

    Instead of immediately starting her emails off with how she helps her clients double their fund raising results she begins with demonstrating empathy and understanding.

    Before:

    "Non-profits, let me show you how to double- , even triple your donations."

    After:

    "Non-profits, are you struggling to compete for funding in today's difficult economy?"

    Can you feel the difference?

    Nancy's email then went on to describe her own struggles with fund raising and how she developed her solution.

    When Nancy began using this approach, her prospect inquiries immediately increased and she's now in the process of turning some of the prospects into clients.

    But she first needed to demonstrate she understood and cared before they were willing to make the call.



    >> Bottom Line



    The less personal the communication, the more important it becomes to first establish trust with your prospects.

    For emails, blog posts, web pages, etc.:

    1. Start with the Negative: demonstrate you understand their problem and struggle to solve it.

    2. End with the Positive: share why your solution is better and will work.


    About the Author:
    Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost, effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals, guerrilla marketing activities, and selected strategic alliances. To download a free copy of the workbook, "Where Does it Hurt? Marketing Solutions to the problems that Drive Your Customers Crazy!" go to http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm
    You can contact Judy at 303-475-2015 or judy@judymurdoch.com


    Sunday, October 5, 2008

    The Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympics

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2008 Jennifer Adams



    When I watched the Opening Ceremony, I was entranced. It began with giant footprints in the sky made of fireworks, leading the way to the stadium. The stadium was built specifically for the Olympics in the shape of a bird's nest, which is considered a lucky symbol in China. Once at the stadium, fire appeared to race around the top edge of the structure before falling to the ground within like a comet. Two large rectangles full of what turned out to be drummers began performing along with a flickering light show that made patterns from the different drums. It was amazing.

    The Opening Ceremony traced the history of China, featuring a huge LED screen that unrolled like a scroll upon the stadium floor. The idea of an unrolling LED screen that people could dance and march upon was ingenious. The screen had images and symbols going by as dancers painted on yet another floor screen, creating a landscape in the style of Chinese brush painting. Next, there were many people in flowing, costumes. A large amount of blocks were in place on the LED screen, and we were treated to a patterned dance by the blocks, first moving like ripples in a pond, then forming Chinese characters and the Great Wall. After it was over, people popped up from each block. They must have practiced for weeks to get the choreography right.

    One of my favorite parts was the single dancer in the flowing neon costume who danced upon a moving floor carried by many other people in bright green costumes. She had long flowing ribbons that she waved as part of her dance. Many people then came out carrying large oars. They did what looked like the wave while images of ocean waves played on the top scrim in the stadium. The oarsmen eventually formed a boat around the enter LED screen, which showed images of Chinese ships.

    The costumes were amazing. They looked like they were made of silk and other fine fabrics. They say there were 15,000 performers in this Opening Ceremony... and they all had marvelous costumes of vibrant colors. The bright dresses and traditional costumes added to the pageantry. The costumes were so detailed, from the perfect pleats to the tiny gold baubles in the dancers' hair. China has a reputation of being highly populated, and everything they did used masses of people, which helped bring that feeling to mind. The sheer numbers that performed so beautifully is mind-boggling.

    The lighted suits were really cool. It was like watching stars running around. They made the shape of a bird, in honor of the usual pigeons that are traditionally released at the Olympic Games. The lights then formed a bird's nest, echoing the theme of the stadium.

    The history of martial arts was honored with the Tai Chi exhibition, and then images of waterfalls covered the upper scrims while ripples of people made their entrance and got into place. Children sat in the middle of the screen. The masses of practitioners performing were amazing.

    I think my favorite part was the astronaut portion. The lights looked like stars, and the astronauts floating in the air were really great as planets floated by on the upper scrims. The people running and tumbling around the circumference of the large globe was a great effect. The theme song was beautiful and haunting as images of whales floated by on the ceiling. The sea of faces they showed during the theme song brought tears to my eyes, as it brought individuality of all nationalities to the show.

    The fireworks were amazing. So many colors, so many patterns. The usual parade of nations was done according to the number of strokes in the Chinese names for those countries rather than alphabetically, which made if interesting as you didn't know who was coming next. There were over 200 countries there to compete in the Olympic Games. They slowly filled the center of the stadium with all the athletes who were there to compete. The small child who came out with the China team was so cute, waving a little flag as he marched.

    The speeches were nice, but I really preferred the pageantry of the earlier portion of the ceremony. China really set the bar high for anyone hosting future Olympic Games for the Opening Ceremony. I hope we'll see more imaginative and innovative ceremonies in the future. This one was very entertaining, touching and gave a true flavor of China.


    About the Author:
    Jennifer Adams writes for BestShowTickets, where you can buy concert and Broadway tickets as well as all kinds of sports tickets, at: http://www.bestshowticketslasvegas.com


    Saturday, October 4, 2008

    PPC Campaigns-Useful Tools for Promoting Expired Domains

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2008 John Khu



    Domain name registrations, both new and expired domains, are rising slowly in the past few years and total registrations are likely to reach a peak during the end of last quarter of 2009. Domain registrations have reached an all time high of about 75 millions during 2006 with an average of 1.5 millions new registrations. This indicates that there has been an increase of about 35% over the same quarter in the previous year. A recent research suggests that dot com extensions still leads the pack and the future trend for this domain still looks very rosy and promising.

    Of late, pay per click industry (PPC) is showing an astronomical growth because of a number of advantages and benefits. This industry is poised to grow at a rate of 13% and to a volume of almost $6 billion by the end of calendar year 2009. Furthermore, contextual advertising is also cajoling a lot of people from not only domain name traders but also corporations and big firms.

    Several companies and web masters understand the importance of targeted traffic to their web sites to create better sales conversions. PPC is a proven way of helping expired domain traders on realizing very good commercial returns over their investments. PPC advertising market is driving expired domain name industry as the new owners register expired domain names that contain sensitive keywords related to their business or even buying an expired domain that was once a thriving web site for a range of products and services. PPC is also a very good method to make visitors flocking to your domain.

    Most of the leading companies that deal with PPC pay on average 30 cents per click while premium firms can pay as high as $100 per click! No matter whether you are an expired domain newbie or an expert domain trader, you can easily find extra traffic and incoming links to your expired domains, when you use a lucrative PPC program. PPC industry is expected to help all expired domain traders with the promise of incoming traffic as well as immense monetary gains. Now it is the right time to buy as many expired-domains as possible to use the ultimate power of PPC campaigns to create a solid residual, online income base.

    Expert domain name traders buy very good expired domains and convert it into a well designed web site. PPC is an excellent system that can help such web sites to create a considerable amount of traffic as well as incoming links. The ultimate advantage of using PPC campaign is the enhanced income creating opportunity along with inflated traffic and links.

    There are a number of web resources that will help you conduct a PPC campaign. Some of the well known PPC service providers are domain sponsor, fabulous, sedo, afternic, trafficz, domainhop, and dnbidder. Apart from these sites, you can also sign up for a PPC service made available by a number of minor web sites.




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


    Setting Goals For Getting Your Dream Job

    Article Presented by:
    Copyright © 2008 Adrian Loncarovich



    Are you miserable at work? Well, you're not alone. According to a 2007 survey conducted by The Conference Board, less than half of all Americans are happy with their jobs. For young adults below the age of 25, the numbers are even more striking: only two out of five people in this age group are satisfied with their careers.

    Like it or not, you spend 40 hours a week or more at work. Most people see those 40 hours of misery each week as just another fact of life. But what if you could change it? What if you could do something else, something you actually wanted to do? Even though it may seem like you're stuck right now, you're not. By using an organized process of setting goals, identifying what you need to accomplish to meet those goals, and acting on your objectives, you can break free from your current job and land the job of your dreams.

    Things You Like

    First, you need to figure out what you want to be doing instead of your current job. Obviously, your dream job is going to be something that you enjoy. You may think that getting paid to do something you enjoy is impossible, but in reality almost anyone can find a career that they like if they look hard enough. In fact, you're much more likely to be successful if you enjoy your work.

    The easiest way to pinpoint your dream job is to use visual aids, like a list or a mind map (goal mapping software is a great option). It doesn't matter whether you use a pen and paper or a computer program - getting everything written down where you can see it will help you get a clear picture of your job goal and what you need to do to get there. So, start by listing the things you like to do. What interests you? What do you do in your spare time? What is your passion?

    Your Skills

    Next, you need to identify your skills, the things that you're good at. Are you a whiz at math? Are you the person people call when their computer breaks down? Everyone has their own personal skill set. Start thinking about the things you do well and make a list. Don't forget to include skills that you've developed in your current career. However, don't limit yourself only to skills that you have formal training in, either.

    Once you have a list of skills, try to identify which of the skills on the list you are best at. If you'd like, you can assign each skill a number, using "1" for your strongest skill and going from there. Now that you've identified what you like to do and what your strongest skills are, look over the two lists to see if there's any correlation. Then, find a job that involves doing something you like using the skills you are strongest in.

    If you're stuck, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook can help you get a sense of what's out there. A job that you enjoy doing that capitalizes on your natural talents - now doesn't that sound like a dream job to you?

    Specialize

    Now that you've identified your dream job, what do you need to do to get there? It's time to start identifying the objectives you need to accomplish to achieve your goal. Most careers require a specialized skill set.

    Even though you should have the basic skills and aptitudes to be successful in your dream job, chances are that you don't yet have the specialized knowledge that the field requires. So, think about what you need to do to get that knowledge. Do you need to go back to school? Do you need to attend a training seminar and get a certification?

    The first objectives you set will be related to obtaining the training and skills you need to succeed in your dream career. This is where getting your dream job can start getting stressful, because it takes real effort to learn additional skills when you are already working a full-time job. However, if you stick to your guns, you will eventually be rewarded.

    Make a list of what you need to do to get those specialized skills, and start creating objectives and deadlines for yourself. For example, let's say you've decided your dream job is to be a pilot. Here's what a list of objectives might look like:

  • Save money for flight school/investigate financial aid options: within the next six months.

  • Enroll in flight school: within the next year.

  • Apply for pilot's license: within the next year and a half.



  • If you identify what you need to do to become qualified for your dream job, break it down into a number of smaller tasks, set deadlines to complete these tasks, and follow through, then sooner or later you'll be ready to take the next step forward.

    Create a Proven Record

    The next set of objectives involves creating a convincing résumé for yourself, so that employers will feel comfortable hiring you for the job you want. You should start working in your field as early as possible, even if it's only part time or volunteer work. The more experience you have when you actually apply for your dream job, the better off you'll be.

    Depending on the job you're going for, you may be able to start working or volunteering in your field while you are still obtaining the necessary education and training.

    Stand Above the Average

    What else do you need to do to snag your dream job? As soon as you can, you need to start creating a demand for yourself. If you're working part time or volunteering, don't just put in your time and go home. Make yourself stand out from the crowd by doing an above-average job. Whenever you are given an assignment, complete it to the best of your ability, and don't be afraid to take on additional work if you see an area where you can make a difference.

    However, even while you are "wowing" people in the field, try to maintain a cool attitude. Don't try too hard to please - it smacks of desperation and will make people think that you lack confidence in yourself.

    Putting in extra effort early on will pay off when it's actually time for you to go for the gold and start applying for your dream job. You'll be armed with an above-average résumé that demonstrates to potential employers how hiring you will benefit them. After all, that's what companies are interested in when they hire new employees: the benefits that the candidates will bring to the company if they are hired. A good personality helps in an interview, but nobody is going to hire you just because you "seem nice."

    Social Networking

    However, there are times when knowledge and experience can only take you so far. Have you ever heard the saying, "It's not what you know, it's who you know"? Sometimes, that really is the case. Having a strong social network can give you an "in" on your dream job. If you know people with good connections, they can help you get your foot in the door and even help you find out about job opportunities before anyone else.

    To build your social network, you have to build social links, or connections, between yourself and other people. If you have a friend who knows someone in the industry you're trying to break into, have your friend introduce you to that person.

    Another way to meet people is by going to professional conferences in your field or joining professional associations.

    Also, it's important to advertise yourself a little bit when you meet new people. Just make sure you know when to stop talking about yourself - you don't want to seem self-centered! However, you do want to make sure that people know what you are good at and where you're trying to go. That way, if they're ever in a position to help you get your dream job, they'll think of you.

    It's also a smart move to print off some business cards. They are a convenient, professional way to give potential contacts your phone number. Of course, social networking is about more than effective self-promotion.

    In order for it to actually be effective, you have to make people want to help you. The best way to get help is to give it. Why should anybody try to help you if you've never done anything for them? By taking the time out of your life to do something unselfish for someone else, you'll give that person a reason to do something unselfish for you later. As the saying goes, "One good turn deserves another."

    To expand your social network even further, consider the Internet. It's not hard to set up your own Web site, and there are companies that will host your site for free. Knowledge of HTML is helpful, especially if you want to create your own site from the ground up, but don't be intimidated - it's certainly not necessary.

    Many companies have templates you can use and customize when you set up your site. The same is true for blogging. There are plenty of easy-to-use sites, such as Wordpress.com, that will host your blog free of charge. The Internet offers unlimited social networking potential, but it's up to you to take advantage of it.

    Now Get to Work - That You Love!

    The most important thing to remember about getting your dream job is that it won't happen overnight. It won't necessarily be easy, either. You may have to be willing to wait and work hard to get into the career of your dreams. That doesn't mean it's impossible, though.

    Plan for the long term, but don't procrastinate when it comes to getting started. The first steps you take toward your goal are often the hardest, but if you don't start moving, you'll never get anywhere. So, what are you waiting for? GO!


    About the Author:
    Adrian Loncarovich is the co-author of GoalEnforcer, a visual goal tracking software that can be used to break your goals into sub-goals and track your progress. More details about GoalEnforcer can be found at http://www.goalenforcer.com/ A free goal setting software demo version can be obtained from http://www.goalenforcer.com/demodownload.html