MLM The Easy Way - FWy Update http://www.blogmoneymiracle.com en-us EasyRSS
By Mikhail Tuknov

The world over, organizations are employing low cost techniques in different business processes. Production work is being outsourced to churn out low cost products. Consultancy is taken from a distant nation to bring in quality and reduce service costs. Educational tutorials are taken through e-learning systems.

The common thread to these is the - INTERNET, which is helping them to connect easily and deliver in time. In this scenario, companies have shown keen interest in their website. They now take them as virtual offices that should look good in design & content and should reach millions and billions of people worldwide. So International marketing has come to the limelight and metamorphosed into Internet Marketing.

Internet Marketing is done in a variety of ways, the most noticeable being Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO has given a new life to websites. It is making their presence felt in a galaxy of websites scattered over the virtual world of Internet. SEO has more to do with rankings that are noticed, than just listings at any page of a search engine result. Here is how SEO can benefit your organization:

Benefits, plentiful!

You can battle with your competitor on a level playing field no matter whether he belongs to a Fortune-500 club or is a small entity. The natural (or organic) listings in Search Engines get more clicks than the paid "Sponsored" links. Only SEO makes this difference. Even if bigger competitors pump in more money to get top listed through paid links, they cannot beat a well-marketed SEO website. It is a truth and it matters!

Rankings bring traffic.

Higher rankings get significant traffic. A website receiving top ranks is known to get business enquiries in abundance, particularly when the keyword is competitive. SEO gets you at the top and maintains it there all the time. It assures you a constant flow of new prospects and new business. All that may be done at a salary of an average single employee. It is worth investing!

Opportunities are on the Internet.

It is often seen that a brand's associates / affiliates rank higher than the brand itself. This is all because they bagged the first opportunity and held to the SEO bandwagon long before the Brand realized SEO's importance. Results; there has been phenomenonal business through the Internet. All thanks to Search Engine Optimization!

Businesses spend on email marketing, online banner advertising, paid search engine listings, and others to reach exponentially growing Internet users. SEO outclasses all of them. It is estimated to be costing 5-6 times lower than banner advertisement ; has best ROI than paid links, when worked for a longer period and highly effective than 'spam' labeled email marketing. No doubt, SEO is effectively better than the best.

Experts like Forrester Research put SEO, one up, than Email marketing. In one of their surveys, they state "search engines reach valuable, motivated, and ready customers. To capitalize on search as a marketing tool, marketers should shift acquisition email and ad dollars to search...." Google earns billions of dollars by selling ads through paid advertisement (sponsored links). The earnings are increasing year-by-year. All these are clear indicators of the importance of search engine importance and the related marketing. Should we say more!

It has been found that search engines, though being the top method to find sites on the Internet, is allocated a marketing budget by only a small percentage of businesses This gap between recognition of the benefits of Search Engine Optimization and actually doing it is anybody's' opportunity. By grabbing it, you can give your business a competitive advantage.

Mikhail Tuknov, search engine marketing specialist is founder of Infatex (Search Engine Marketing Company). With an extensive background in Internet marketing, Mikhail Tuknov offers SEO, PPC, SEM services.
http://www.infatex.com/

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By Michael Cordova

A landing page is a website page created for one purpose - to persuade the site visitor to convert into a customer by making a sale, completing a form (thereby becoming a qualified lead), signing up for a newsletter, etc.

We provide this landing page quick reference so you can pull it out every time you are creating a persuasive landing page; divided into four sections to use as an all-inclusive tip sheet. Most importantly, consider that you have eight seconds or less to convince your visitor to act. If you have not convincingly made your case in this time, then your visitor will move on and will be lost, as the Internet has created the most fickle customer in sales history.

Page Layout

- Place your logo at the top left. Visitors expect it there so display your branding where it counts.

- If the visitor came from a search engine, keyword search, or a PPC ad, then place the keyword terms in bold at the top of the page. This reinforces, to the visitor that they came to the right place.

- Always, keep the Golden Triangle in mind. It is the most important and scanned part of the page. It is the area of the page that starts at the top left, moves to the top right side, then down diagonally to the bottom left of the page just above the fold. The fold is the area of a web page that the visitor sees without scrolling vertically. You should never force a visitor to scroll horizontally. This means your landing pages should be seen completely on an 800 x 600-screen resolution. Place your UVP in the middle of the Golden Triangle.

- Contrast your Calls to Action with respect to the rest of the page - use contrasting colors, round vs. rectangular, straight vs. slanted, warm color vs. cold color, big vs. little. Make sure you can spot the Call to Action from six feet away.

- Place assurances, testimonials, and guarantees in the far-right column

- Place logos to appropriate associations or online companies at the bottom of the page to show credibility - Verisign, BBB Online Reliability, certified by..., Alexa rank (if good), powerseller, live support, credit cards supported, open 24 hours a day, Hacker Safe, as seen in Entrepreneur Magazine, Chamber of Commerce, etc.

- Don't place external links on a landing page. Just allow them the option to proceed into completing the form and converting into a customer.

- Place privacy policies on the landing page. This instills confidence.

- Think of the Amazon.com website. Note their Call to Action is the hotspot at the top-right of all pages - add to cart, one click ordering, etc. This may also apply to you

Writing Style and Content

- Spend time on your Unique Value Proposition (UVP), and place it into the center of the Golden Triangle. A UVP is the core differentiation of a company's product or service from those of competitors. A complete UVP will describe the market and a company's competitors and the key difference between competitors and your own company.

- Ensure that you do not have big paragraphs. Visitors tend to scan pages instead of reading all of the text on them.

- Write using headers above paragraphs that summarize the following text.

- Use bullets where possible as visitors can quickly scan them. Search engines also prioritize bullets instead of long paragraph text.

- If you want, add a picture to ensure that it will reinforce your message. You can easily lose significant sales by having the wrong picture on the landing page.

- If the purpose of the landing page is to provide a white paper or article, then create an image for the paper with enlarged text.

The Form

- Keep the number of fields on the form as small as possible. This is critical in getting them to complete the form.

- Add a Comments textbox asking for the visitor's input. It can be the key to qualifying leads. Those that complete this form with the services they are looking for should be contacted immediately. Here are some requests you can use for this Comments box:

- What is the biggest problem that you need to solve now?

- What is the purpose of your project?

- Please, list your goals for this project.

- How can we help you?

- In case the visitor does not complete the Comments textbox on the first page, add a 2nd page with only a Comments textbox on it requesting the visitor's comments again. Tell them that if they complete the Comments box now, then they will receive an extra free white paper that is relevant to the same visitor. These visitor comments are important.

- Have the visitor check a box that says something like "YES! Send me the free white paper that will change my life." It is the psychological method of coercing them into completing the rest of the form.

- Prominently list the benefits of completing the form. It is a major validation. Make sure to write the benefits in terms of the user's benefits instead of the features of your product or service.

- Ensure you save the form information into a database and send emails out as soon as the form is completed so you can immediately contact the visitor. The lead's effectiveness drops dramatically as time goes by. Contacting a lead within minutes is ideal.


Landing Page Mistakes to Avoid

- Graphics or text unrelated to the offer - limit copy to only the point of the landing page

- Long forms with unneeded fields - limit your form to what is essential

- Difficult to read fonts

- Navigation off the landing page

- Placing important persuasive copy below the fold

Michael A. Cordova is a managing partner at Mercury Leads, Inc. For questions about our Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Internet Marketing, services go to http://www.mercuryleads.com/search-engine-optimization-internet-marketing-seo.asp or call us today at 303-744-2178.

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by Paul Speziale

Take your average super successful sales person, the person that has brought the most sales to your business (usually it is just one). Multiply them by a million, and send them off to visit one qualified prospect each...all at the same time. Do you think that would increase your sales a bit?

If you had answered yes, then you now realize the potential of a well-crafted piece of copy designed to sell your product.

The ability to write a letter to sell your product/service is an even greater skill.

So then, why do so many businesses send out copy, through advertising, mail order, telemarketing, radio or TV ads designed to be flashy, humorous and clever? When was the last time you bought from a person in a store when they were using all sorts of clever tricks on you? Tricks like, play on words, weird images, advanced humor etc... No... chances are you were scared of a salesperson that was so crafty. It raises the question, "Why are they trying so hard?"

We are going to call that flashy sort of copy: "Everyday Copy" because you see it so often...many times a day. In addition, the copy that sells your product, we will call "Copy that sells".

With your everyday copy, you have your English majors, freelance writers, and ad agency employees. Now, these people are brilliant, they can write so nicely, with such advanced command of the English language that they sometimes win prizes in literature, become legendary, and known throughout history as producing beautiful works of art and literature, often win awards, and widely recognized.

They use English devices like play on words, puns, humor, and other things in their copy.

They have not sold your product...

Don't believe me? Key your ads...put in a tracking mechanism to see if people are responding to your ads...you will be furious when you find out exactly how many people respond and buy your product. Try it!

Unfortunately, their advanced work is all but lost on the prospect that is:

1) busy with two kids
2) balancing both a full time and a part time job
3) has a spouse who is not holding up their part of the agreement called "marriage"
4) poor diet habits from lack of time
5) stressed out from work with employees backstabbing them
6) bosses criticizing them in front of their co-workers
7) parents telling them how to run their lives and won't leave them alone
8) aches and pains in their body
9) the stress of keeping up with their next-door neighbor who always seems to have the latest and greatest stuff
10)not to mention being bombarded by sales and marketing mail, signs, commercials, sales people, telemarketers up to 3000 times per day.

Do you think with all that is going on, they have time to figure out the "play on words" that was used in your ad? If they don't understand what you said the first time and figure out how they will benefit from what you offer, they will toss it.

You have 3 seconds to get their attention:

1...2...3... that's it.

On the other hand, copy that sells will most of the time look dull, boring, and mostly full of text. Why does it look this way? Because the effort is made to put in as many benefits and reasons to buy into the ad as possible in a way that isn't pushy and in a way that can be tracked to determine results.

Let's look at some examples shall we?

Examples of Everyday Copy.

Actually, there is no need to put up any. Just open your newspaper and look for them. They are the ones with just a few words, many pictures, and if you feel confused at, a) what they are selling, and b) how it may benefit you, then you have found some Everyday Copy.

Example of Copy That Sold Millions.

The Wall Street Journal Letter, which sells its subscriptions, estimates selling up to a billion dollars for the WSJ. In addition, Gary Halbert's Coat of Arms Letter (a simple one-page letter), has been in circulation for a few decades and sold millions of dollars of coats of arms. The advertisement "They laughed at me..." sold the home piano study course for decades and has made millions. David Ogilvy's Rolls Royce Ad, entitled "At 60 MPH, the only sound the new Rolls Royce Makes is the Electric Clock", that sold out the entire national supply of Rolls Royce's. David Ogilvy used these principles in advertising copy, to which he owes his purchase of a 14th century medieval castle.

Some big publishers like Agora and Philips pay their copywriters up to a million dollars a year because they want to keep them...they know that if they don't pay them well, they will walk.

Another example of copy that sells is the National Enquirer and Cosmopolitan. The National Enquirer is read by more people than the bible and Cosmopolitan is also a big seller...why? Headlines that catch a reader's eye, produced by the copywriters, that's why. Are they trashy? For some, yes, but the fundamental human behaviors that they are aiming for is the same as those SUCCESSFUL copywriters that aim at selling to doctors, dentists, engineers, big business etc.

The good news; translate those fundamental human behaviors to match whatever audience you're selling to.

In conclusion, choosing which type of copy you wish to have is largely dependant on what you want to achieve. If you want to win awards then hire an everyday copywriter, if you want to sell your product, then hire a copywriter that sells.

Watch out for my next article "How to Hire A Copywriter To Guarantee Your Product Will Sell"

Paul Speziale is a direct marketing consultant / entrepreneur based out of Toronto, Ontario. He has served all industries from manufacturers to retailers, from entrepreneurs to professionals. Besides helping clients, he is working on his own projects. He also volunteers his time for several worthy causes both local and global. You can reach him at http://www.AnelloSolutions.com: Growing Your Business Through Low-Risk, Optimized and Results Based Marketing

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By Mario R. Churchill

The world of advertising seems to be a magnet. It attracts those who dream to be in the advertising industry filled with high compensation, a fun and lax environment, and being acquainted with known personalities.

Those are just a small part of being in the advertising industry. The whole part of it entails dedication to work; wherein, you will have endless nights of brainstorming to meet the deadline. You will experience reproach from your superior because you did not meet the quality of work they expect from you. You see, it is not all about fun. It is being responsible with your craft and your attitude as a worker.

Learning is an essential factor for you to get hooked in the advertising industry. You need to gain knowledge. The initial acquisition of knowledge is from your stay in the academe. You need to nurture learning by reading.

Yanik Silver is well known in the advertising industry as a great copywriter and marketing consultant. His books can help you reach your dreams to become good as either a copywriter or marketer.

"Instant Internet Profits"

You can go over this book if you want to learn more about the products or services, which will be appropriate for you to sell. In addition, you will also find tips on how to make effective sales letter in this book. Other add-ons are guidelines on how to relate to your audience by the attitude you convey as well as the materials you utilize.

"Surefire Sales Letter Secrets"

Reading this book will help you be familiar with writing different types of sales letter. A sales letter is not applicable to all people. There is a distinct sales letter depending on your target audience.

Surefire Sales Letter Secrets is a book, which will guide you with the proper letter template and content so you will get that sale you wish to have.

"How to Make Instant Sales and Immediate Profits Using Cheap Fax Advertising"

Yanik helps you out find other means to disseminate advertising materials such as using fax broadcasting. Moreover, the book will also help you reduce the advertising cost you allot for every project you promote.

The book will also help you understand the advantages of fax broadcasting and how it can greatly help you achieve good business.

The above-mentioned books are some of Yanik Silver's work; to help you become familiar with some aspects in the advertising industry. There are still other books to read; all you need to do is research for those. To know more about the written work of Yanik Silver, you can search the internet. The bookstore is another venue to find books written by Yanik Silver.

Do not be magnetized by the reputation of the advertising industry. Being overwhelmed will most likely make you fall. Organize your thoughts first, and ask yourself; if being with the advertising industry is what you want.

After careful assessment, now decide if you are well fitted in the said industry; if yes, then it is high time to learn how to play the game copywriters and marketers play.

Do not stop learning. Apt knowledge is your key to get hooked with the advertising industry. Knowledge is still your best friend if you want to keep your career in the industry.

Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information checkout http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com and http://www.killercopywritingblog.com.

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By Mario R. Churchill

Define product development as the process of conceptualizing and marketing a product. This product can be something new to the market or something new to an individual company, or it could be a product which already exists and has just undergone improvement.

Why is product development important? Well, it is not just important. It is a critical process to retain and maintain customer loyalty and be able to contend in today's financial service situation. With an effective product development, customers and providers gain essential insights from the interaction. This helps the provider realize the desires of its customers better.

All product development undergoes a parallel planning process. Although the process is continuous, it is imperative that companies pause and weigh each step to see whether the product to be developed is worth the effort and investment. The company should have a specific array of criteria from which to base its assessments.

In product development, creativity is a valuable plus point. The company must be imaginative in coming up with ideas for the business. It must be able to develop fresh ways of attacking marketing problems. The company must secure these ideas and assess if they are worth spending more time and energy.

When ideas are already available, the next segment in the process is to define the concept. This is how the company turns the idea into an actual business opportunity with the projection of required investment and estimated return. The company must set a base of specific standards and purpose to decide whether it must pursue the investment. Questions like "Is the idea technically feasible?", "What are its effect to existing products?", "How will it affect the market competition?" must be answered.

The next stage in the product development process is the development of the concept. The initial step of this stage involves the definition of the requirements of the clients. Then, the transformation into some structure of channel or model service follows. The idea is to translate the recognized customer needs into probable response to these needs. In the actual application, the development and design of the product will carry on into subsequent processes, as the product is polished and released to the marketplace.

The testing and finalization of the concept then follows. This stage involves a controlled release of a product for manufacturing; support and sales organizations are then done to test and improve the product. In this process, the company would determine whether the concept was erroneous, the target market is frail, and the product must discontinue considering the anticipated cost of releasing it into the market.

When the product has been approved in the testing stage, it is now ready for its full launch. This is perhaps one of the most arduous and costly stages. This chapter includes the development of the market, the right channels, the support of the product, and the building up of the volume of production.

Finally, management of the life cycle must be worked out. Usually, it is not recommended to handle a product that is waning in the market, or lengthen its life with a "kicker". When this action is not properly planned, the call for the development of new products is frequently prompted by declining sales. If this happens, the company may not have ample time to have new products developed.

Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information checkout http://www.ideacenter.com and http://my-updates.info.

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by George Marshall

Article Writing As A Marketing Tool

Whether you are targeting a niche market or a wider more general audience, one of the most effective tools to reach those interested in what you have to offer is writing and submitting articles concerning your particular craft. Article marketing is a great way for the average person to do some great things with their marketing efforts. One effective reason is that it allows the marketer to project the writer's own business ideas, values, and expectations into the article itself. It gives the reader a 'real sense' of the writer's character, thus establishing an immediate bond or sense of trust. It instills confidence in the reader for the writer, product, and or service. At the same time, it can also reveal character flaws in writers of poorly written articles. The fakes will eventually make themselves known. Anyone who knows something and can write, or even pay someone to write for them, can use articles to their advantage. Here are a few tips in writing an article that will attract the most readers.

1. It will help your sales if you keep your articles short and to the point. As the clich goes, long enough to cover the subject but short enough to keep it interesting; 500 to 750 words is long enough to give your readers information they can use and implement instantly and still be short enough not to bore them.

2. When people read articles, they want information they can put to use immediately. I have found that if you are targeting the Internet Marketing niche, your articles will get a better response and you will make more sales if you give people a plan they can use to make money from your article. If you are writing the article for a niche market you want to sell to, explain the benefits of your items, and explain how the readers can use or apply them to make their lives easier, get things done faster, or explain whatever it is your items do.

3. One of the most important parts to your article is your article title; it can make or break your article. Describe in your article title what the article is about or what information it will disclose. Example, if you are writing about how to prepare good quality and quick 'after work' meals, you might compose a title such as "5 Easy And Delicious 'After Work' Meals You Can Fix This Week." Not perfect but you get the idea.

Article writing works as a very effective online marketing tool because it goes hand in hand with learning to market yourself as your primary product rather than focusing entirely on a particular business or program.

To help you along with your own efforts with articles here's a fewer resources I highly recommend:

*ArticleBuilder.Net A very useful article building tool to help in the formulation and mental stimulation for ideas and the actual creation of the article. It has a very large database of articles to draw from.

*ArticleMarketer.com A very useful service that will submit your article to 30,000 publishers

* EzineArticles.com Hands down the best directory to submit your articles to for maximum exposure. It has a strict "quality" policy too so once you are in; you gain some instant credibility. You have to live up to it with each subsequent submission too...and I am listed as an Expert Author. Sweet!

The Value Of Forums As A Marketing Tool

Another extremely effective online marketing tool is the use of online business or general information forums. Simply put, recognition as an expert in your field leads to acceptance and respect, which in turn leads to Sales! One of the fastest ways to become recognized as an expert is to offer helpful and valuable posts on a regular basis in forums where your target market or audience gather.

A forum is an online community for discussion among Internet users, used by some of the best Internet marketers in the world. It is also a training ground for the up and coming. It is a place to share ideas, find answers, solve problems, make friends, and develop partnerships. It is also a support system or resource for most any business, on or offline.

It is no secret, but takes some longer to learn than others, that to be successful you must market yourself first. Forums are the perfect place to promote yourself and your business. By adding value to discussions, you are promoting yourself as an expert in your field, gaining recognition. There is a legend in most forums that the more posts you have, the more money you make online. By becoming an active contributor to forums, you gain recognition, and people pay more attention to your posts.

Search "forum" plus the topic of your choice using Google or AltaVista to find a whole list of forums available. You may also contact some of the professional organizations in your trade to see if they have a forum.

Posting too many forums can be a little tedious if you have to log in and browse through your previous postings or find new topics where you can respond. I recommend an automated posting package or software to enable multiple thread tracking. This will speed up the task of message posting and an unlimited number of forums while managing multiple conversation threads. You can automatically track all replies and organize them as you continue to respond and post to multiple forums. I am sure there are many to choose from but I use and recommend Forum Fortune as the submitter of choice.

George Marshall
Want More Qualified Traffic?
Get Prospects To Call You - Allows You To Save Valuable Time for the Serious Ones.
http://g-marshall.ws

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By Laurie Raphael

To succeed as a marketer, you must direct meaningful traffic to your website.

No matter how well designed or interesting your site is, it is a waste of time if no one sees it.

In the initial stages of your business, getting traffic is not easy with the steep competition of thousands of web sites all trying to get their message out there. There is hope, though, according to successful marketers. The following seven methods, applied consistently, can mean a great increase in the quality and quantity of traffic to a site:

1.) Utilize Search Engines

Use search engines to your advantage. You need to have your web site appear near the top of the results, ahead of other websites offering similar content to gain the maximum benefit from a search engine. How is this accomplished? See two.

2.) Popularity Linking

Your site must already be attracting a considerable amount of traffic to achieve high search engine results. One method for accomplishing this is by connecting to other relevant sites via links. These "popularity links" help drive traffic, and if targeted to the correct search queries, they can boost your search engine ranking.

Link popularity always starts with finding web sites that are similar but do not compete with your own. You would contact the website owner and request a link to your site. At the same time, you would offer a reciprocal link, which would advertise their website on one of your pages.

3.) Writing Articles

Writing your own rich content articles on topics targeted to your audience helps promote your web site by increasing the number of popularity links coming to your site (see 2) as well as attracting interested readers. Place your articles on other sites, in ezines, or even in newsletters. Always be sure to ad a source box with a link going back to your site.

4.) Joint Venture Marketing

Joint venture marketing, a marketing relationship in which two individuals cooperate to help promote each other, is also an effective way to promote a product or service. Joint venture agreements can also include swapping ads and exchanging links. Both parties benefit as they reach a wider customer base quickly.

5.) Joining Affiliate Programs

By joining an affiliate program as a merchant, you can get others to market your site. You will need your own product to start your own program, but accomplish this with private label content or product development ventures. Even a small-scale affiliate program can help direct significant traffic to your site.

6.) Creating a List of Subscribers

A subscriber list is a valuable asset for any marketer. Using an autoresponder or a personalized newsletter to promote your site will help you to build a repeat visitor base, providing direct marketing opportunities for now and in the future.

7.) Understand Your Market

Different niches need promoted in different ways. Use the techniques described up until this point to reach people who will be interested. You need to figure out who your target market is and how will you treat them once they get to your site? This will affect everything on your site including your ad copy and even the colors you use.

Use as many strategies as possible to generate targeted traffic. Relying on search engines is obviously important but there are numerous other ways to generate traffic. Combining these methods will maximize the traffic you get.

Laurie Raphael operates a website geared toward boosting your marketing results using various means of advertising and marketing strategies. For her private list of recommended affiliate marketing "secret weapons," visit her site at http://theadprocess.com.

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By Anthony Braide

Spammers have done their best to give email marketing a bad name. Email is such an all-pervasive communication tool, and its use as an extremely effective means of building customer relationships and selling products and services remains un-dented. Imagine trying to run your business today without access to email - it would be impossible. In fact, surveys have found that the vast majority of internet user's site email as their primary reason for using the internet, despite the spammers' best efforts.

While we are on the subject of spam, here is a quick word to the wise, do not do it!

It is an effective way of upsetting future clients and associating your company, products and services with dodgy Viagra, porn, and scam artists. Most importantly, spam does not work. It is as simple as that.

However, opt-in email marketing is exploding because it does work. Companies are lured to it by incredibly low costs and high response rates. It is easy to get started, and it puts any organization, large or small, on a level playing field.

There is a right way and a wrong way to do anything and the vast majority of email marketers are getting it wrong. The industry is young. Those who are doing well are not falling over themselves to share the secrets of their email marketing success with competitors. However, there is some good news. Unlike conventional direct marketing pieces, email marketing is both cheap and easy to test, and the results can be comparatively easy to collate and analyze.

If that is the case, then why do so many of the marketing emails I receive get just about everything wrong? Why do not the senders never seem to learn from their mistakes?

Learn from your mistakes

The advantage that email marketing has over any other type of marketing is its tractability. Instant, live results from your marketing campaign were a marketers dream just a few, short years ago. Now they are a reality, but not everyone is taking advantage.

Emailing your database from Outlook or using bulk email sending software is usually a waste of time for both you and the recipient. The main reason being, you get little or no feedback, unless a recipient chooses to email you back. True, you can set up a read receipt in Outlook but that only tells you a very small part of the story. Imagine if you could tell, at a glance, who is not interested in your services and really does not want to hear from you again, (do not waste any more of your valuable time on them). Alternatively, who opened your email and read it repeatedly, (wow, those people must really be interested!) Better still, imagine if they clicked directly through to your website and you knew what link they clicked on (you would know exactly what interested them). Useful stuff like that!

Fortunately, all that information is easy to obtain if you use a good email-marketing tool like www.livewirecampaign.co.uk rather than Outlook. There might be a learning curve of a few days, but it is worth it, to make your emails 100% more effective, right?

With this kind of marketing intelligence you can really start to harness the power of email, because email can give you something special - instant, live, two-way communication from every address you deliver. That is right, every single one. Even emails that bounce back tell you something - it's likely those addresses are dead and you need to update your database. If you are getting 20% opens and only 22% reads, then you know something about your email is not connecting with your recipients. If it was; they would be reopening the email to re-read it or show it to the boss, so you would be getting a much higher percentage of 'reads' to 'opens'.

With this kind of in-depth information, you can begin to learn from what you are getting right and what you are getting wrong. You can begin to mould your campaigns and target your messages. Improve your response rates and follow up on click throughs. In essence, learn from your mistakes and find out what works for you.

To start you on the right track, here are five tried and tested ways of improving the effectiveness of your emails.

1. Keep your subject lines short and to the point. Longer than 40 characters and they will be cut off by many email clients. Do not use words like OFFER or FREE or exclamation marks for emphasis!!! You will be relegated to the spam folder.

2. Keep it simple stupid. Do not make your emails too long or try to cram in to many offers. You have got a second or so to grab your readers' attention so keep it concise.

3. Let your readers know what to do next. Put a clear call to action on your email; use a link to your website or your telephone number, big and bold.

4. Make it time limited. Putting a deadline on your email proves to increase response rates. Make it clear to your recipients that if they snooze they loose!

5. Time it right. Do not send your email at 10'o'clock on a Monday morning when everyone is manic. It is going to get deleted. Timing is everything so choose a time of day when your recipient will be more receptive.

Pay close attention to just these five rules and I guarantee you will improve your response rates. Good luck and remember the power of email marketing; customer knowledge!

Anthony Braide is Managing Director of Gencia Media Ltd, makers of http://LiveWireCampaign.co.uk

LiveWire Campaign is a UK Company that gives you access to free email marketing to you clients and candidates. No need to pay for expensive software, just create your free account and start your first campaign today. Send a campaign to up to 50 recipients per month free. Purchase a unique Pay-as-you-go voucher if you need to send more.

Visit the website at http://www.LiveWireCampaign.co.uk or call 01565 641481 and speak to an Email Marketing Specialist.

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By Mario R. Churchill

Many people today prefer starting up a home business in the Internet to provide extra cash or a way to provide extra income for the household. Aside from their regular jobs, people today are now also starting home businesses. Besides, with the increasing prices of basic commodities, you would want some extra money to keep up with the household expenses.

However, you should consider many online businesses today. The number of online businesses available tends to create confusion as to which online business is the best type of business for your involvement. One good online home business that you can definitely earn money from is through affiliate programs.

Affiliate programs are now one of the things that you will constantly see and hear in the Internet. Because you do not actually need to sell anything, this kind of business is ideal for someone who does not have enough capital to start a home business. This kind of home business is a very good moneymaking venture, recommended for everyone.

You do not even have to have an MBA to start this kind of business. All you need is website with a particular theme. For example, if you are a fitness expert, you can take advantage of this knowledge not only in the gym as a fitness trainer, but you can also use this knowledge for an affiliate program business. Try to build a website that has a fitness-training topic. You can make an article about fitness training and you can post them in your website.

After making a website about fitness, you can now choose an affiliate program that is also about the same niche. It can be about fitness supplements, such as protein powders or pills, or it can also be about fitness equipments. This will be like a banner or advertising in your website. Once someone clicks on that banner or advertising, the visitor directed to your affiliate company's website where all the fitness products are displayed for them to buy. They will enter the website with your name as the person who referred that person to the company's website. If they purchase something, you will automatically earn a commission for every product purchased.

Now that you know how affiliate programs work, you now have to learn how to let people online know that your website exists. You have to advertise your website in order to generate targeted traffic. One way to do this is by publishing articles related to your website's niche in popular article publishing websites. You have to remember that you should include your website's URL in order to let them click on the link included in the article and instantly direct them to your website.

Since your article is related to your website's niche, you can be sure that people who are reading your article is interested in visiting your website. This means that you will be increasing the chances of generating targeted traffic and decreasing spam traffic.

Always remember that the key to affiliate program is laser-targeted traffic. This is why you should advertise your website well and spend a little money on programs that will improve your chances on generating targeted traffic. There are a lot of ways you can generate targeted traffic, and making articles and publishing them on article publishing websites is just one of them.

Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information checkout http://www.turnkeyaffiliateprogram.com and http://www.killeraffiliateprogram.com.

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By Ove Nordkvist

How should you approach affiliate marketing to give yourself the biggest chance of success? Is it possible to make big money as an affiliate marketer? If so, is it difficult?

Well, many people make it difficult by choice. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

As in any business, it is very important to have a solid business plan. Creating and executing a detailed plan can be the difference between a growing bank account and a failure.

It makes no matter if you are going to promote a service or a product. You must be 100% certain, that the company is able to deliver as promised. It has to be a prior issue for the company, to satisfy your customers. You must be convinced that the company will support you in any way to achieve affiliate-marketing success.

A major part of your research and evaluation of companies and products must be for you to try the products or services for yourself. You have to rate them objectively.

Would it be possible for you to recommend them to your friends and family? Be honest, would you recommend them just as a favor? You cannot successfully promote anything of poor quality.

The next important step in your investigation is to find out the success rate of the company. You need to get information from affiliate marketers that already are associated with the company. Did they get all the necessary support? This is essential, if you cannot get full support from the company, you will have a steep hill to climb.

Affiliate marketing is a business where you have to connect with your visitors. Therefore, you must develop your writing skills. You have to get your visitors to trust you. Once they trust you, they will follow your recommendations.

This is what successful affiliate marketing is about; you recommend a product or a service, which you have tested and evaluated. You convince the visitor that he needs the product or service, he click at your affiliate link, and then the merchants do the actual selling.

Now you are set up to begin your new affiliate-marketing career. It is wise to give yourself some more preparation. Read everything there is to read about the company. Learn everything about the products or services.

Get some books and courses on how to start your own business.

Affiliate marketing is a serious business. You have to treat it just as you would a traditional business. That is, if you really want to succeed, and make a serious income from your business.

Take advantage of Ove Nordkvist's knowledge. At http://www.small-biz-ideas.net, you will find free tools, free business courses, and informative articles. Visit http://www.small-biz-ideas.net/affiliate-marketing-ideas.html to find an affiliate marketing ideas tutorial. Get your complimentary copy of an affiliate masters course.

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By V. Michael Santoro

As an author, you possess the true secret to Internet book marketing success - your writing skills. Why? The biggest hurdles that Internet Marketers face is providing original content that is written to satisfy:

• The search engines to obtain good positioning

• Information hungry surfers searching for quality niche content

• The continuous need to provide quality content to maintain search engine positioning and targeted traffic

Becoming an Authorpreneur

An Authorpreneur does not compete using the traditional book-marketing model. Instead, they view their books as products and effectively combine their writing skills with proven Internet Marketing techniques to accomplish better results. This allows them to become an expert within a niche based upon their book's theme.

If you become an Authorpreneur, you can dominate your niche by doing what you love - writing. By understanding the writing process, you will accomplish what other Webmasters fail to either do or pay ghostwriters to accomplish. It is not a matter of well-written material from an editor's viewpoint. Rather, it is well written from an Internet Marketing perspective. For example, Web pages, sales letters, and articles all require different writing techniques to accomplish different Internet marketing goals:

• Theme-based Web pages pre-sell products and convince visitors to continue on to the product's sales page

• Sales pages drive home the product benefits and converts visitors into customers

• Articles provide links back to your Web pages to obtain good search engine positioning and drive targeted traffic to your Website's landing pages. They can also link directly to a Web page that is pre-selling a product, which is a solution to a problem that you discussed in your article.

The Importance of Providing Unique Well-Written Content

Too many Website owners are more concerned about cutting corners and rushing to get their Website online rather than:

• Ensuring that their site addresses the needs of their visitors

• Properly designing their Website's navigation

• Properly writing their Website content to place well in the search engines

• Developing a linking strategy that improves search engine placement and generates targeted traffic

• Developing a list of subscribers that grows into long term customers

By placing well in the search engines, you can increase your chances of making sales and gaining PR exposure by as much as forty-six percent. By knowing how to research your theme-based keywords, and properly optimizing them into your unique and original content, you will achieve what ninety-five percent of authors and Internet Marketers fail to achieve - dominating your niche in the search engines.

Just imagine your book sales, PR accomplishments, and the supplemental income you can acquire by becoming an expert in a niche based upon your book's theme while incorporating an effective Internet book-marketing program.

My prediction is that when we look back, 2007 will be remembered as "The Year of the Authorpreneur" for Internet book marketing. Writers without a solid knowledge of Internet Marketing techniques will not survive online. Internet Marketers without effective writing skills will either fail or have to continue to invest in ghostwriters to survive. By becoming an Authorpreneur, which blends both skill sets, you will be part of the next generation of successful Internet marketers with the added benefit of possessing publishing credentials.

V. Michael Santoro is a published author and successful Authorpreneur. For a free training course on how to become an Authorpreneur, visit his Website at http://www.proauthors.com and sign up for his e-zine. Additionally, you will receive a powerful PDF creation program as a special bonus.

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By Paul Speziale

You can do many things to cut your costs and lower the risks when you market your business. Your marketing does not have to be the bottomless pit of your hard-earned money. Your marketing should give you a return on your investment. Follow these top 10 tips and start increasing your bottom line today.

1. Use Only Direct Marketing

Cost: Cost of Direct Marketing Education, Upside Potential: Unlimited

Direct marketing is marketing that is testable and therefore accountable for your money. Put a code on all your ads, coupons etc. so you know where they come from and can measure the response. Then you can use spreadsheets to calculate exactly what you need to be profitable. It is vital to crunch the numbers to see if a particular marketing idea you have makes business sense.

2. Find a Product That Fits the Market

Cost: Cost of product/service development, Upside Potential: Unlimited

Ninety-five percent of people out there develop the product first then find a market for it. That is a lot of wasted time and effort. Take the road less traveled and look for different ways to market something that is already hot, drastically reducing your risk of failure.

3. Test Everything

Cost: Marginal, Upside Potential: Unlimited

Now that you are using direct marketing, test everything. Test your offers, headlines (of your ads), messages, lists, mediums (newspapers, magazines, internet etc.). Most marketing is a few words away from being profitable and you will never know that unless you test.

4. Use Google Ad-words and the Internet.

Cost: Marginal (with daily budget), Upside Potential: Unlimited

Never before in the history of marketing has there ever been a more low-cost, low-risk and accurate way to test your marketing message. You can test different advertisements, different keywords, different web pages and different locations. You can sit in your office in Iceland and test your advertisement in a four-block radius around Trump World Tower in Manhattan.

5. Change the Way you Speak and Write,

Cost: Free, Upside Potential: Unlimited

Words offer the highest leverage possible. One word, "cost" creates a negative emotion in your prospects mind as they think of their hard-earned money leaving their pocket. Change the word to "invest" and they now think that they can earn more money from the money they give you. Look over the words you use in your business (ads, sales, flyers etc.) to see if they may cause negative emotions in your customers

6. Optimize Your Referral Program

Cost: Marginal, Upside Potential: Unlimited

Referral programs are your highest leverage marketing system out there. Take the time to put in an actual program and not wait until your clients think about it. Of course, that all presupposes that you under promise and over deliver...that always gets them telling their neighbors about you.

7. Up sell and Cross sell

Cost: Free, Upside Potential: Up to 50% more sales

Earn 10%-40% more on average with these handy devices. Some people, when they have made the commitment to buy, will buy more when reminded that they can. Do not be pushy about it. Check out godaddy.com, they are relentless with up sells and cross sells. Try to buy a domain and get your way to the end without spending another dime...just try it...

8. Use Bounce Backs

Cost: Cost of paper and ink, Upside Potential: Up to 50% more sales

With every purchase or order, include an offering for another product/service. You have already spent the money on the shipment or transaction. This is another form of low-pressure upsells /cross sells, but costs you only the cost of the paper and ink you used.

9. Use Sunk Costs More Creatively

Cost: Free, Upside Potential: Limitless

Do you have a voicemail system? Why play music, when you can give educational messages (that are interesting) about your products/services? Do you have invoices? Write some text about referrals or specials of the day. Do you have slow times? Hold a tele-seminar or actual seminar to educate and attract more business.

10. Increase Your Prices

Cost: Free, Upside Potential: Whatever you set your new price to be

Last but not least...The simplest method of them all. Increase your prices! Lots of businesses I talk to are afraid to do this and they will not do it. You do not have to increase them 200% (even though I know a case where a retailer did this and they did actually sell out their entire stock), but just do it 2-5% on select items. No one will notice. In addition, that's all profit for you. You are doing a disservice to your own bottom line by not charging what the market will bear. You would be surprised to learn how much people would value something. If they do not like the increase, try adding some educational information tool with it...now you are justified.

Paul Speziale is a direct marketing consultant / entrepreneur based out of Toronto, Ontario. He has served all industries from manufacturers to retailers, from entrepreneurs to professionals. Besides helping clients, he is working on his own projects. He also volunteers his time for several worthy causes both local and global. You can reach him at http://www.AnelloSolutions.com: Growing Your Business Through Low-Risk, Optimized and Results Based Marketing.

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By John Terry

An interested visitor, strolling through your site finally comes to just what she is looking for and is about to make a purchase. It is a sunny afternoon, and her cat, which happens to be sitting on the moss under the visitor's large fifty-year-old snow-rose bonsai tree, suddenly jumps down, and the priceless tree, topples over.

In the blink of an eye, your visitor exits your site, and your sale is dust - unless you have had the foresight to utilize an autoresponder that has captured her email address. If you have installed an autoresponder, you can then follow-up with her, and in all probability, make the sale when the poor woman has finished repotting her precious bonsai.

Autoresponders are remarkable, versatile programs that do so much more than just automatically answer your email.

Here are a few ideas that will help you to creatively, and productively use your autoresponder to transform the casual visitor into a profitable customer. Use your autoresponder to:

1. Publish a newsletter. Certain quality autoresponders will manage subscriptions and follow-up with interested prospects. Your newsletter can keep your visitors informed about your services or products, while building your reputation as a credible expert in your particular business.

2. Publish a newsletter only for your affiliates. Inform them of current sales you are running and of promotional material that your affiliates can use themselves to increase their commissions. Include tips, advice, and techniques that your affiliates can use to successfully go out and promote your business.

3. Write reviews. Cover books, software, music, e-books, movies, etc., and put each review in an autoresponder.

Review your affiliate programs, using a link to your affiliate's page in your autoresponder.

4. Distribute your articles. Writing and distributing targeted articles is a powerful tool to build your business credibility, bring traffic to your site, and increase your sales potential. If your articles contain valuable information, many editors will print a resource box for you. A resource box contains your bio and a brief description of your service or product. It can also contain your autoresponder address. Let us say you have written fifty articles. Put them on separate autoresponder accounts and create a master list that contains the titles of each article, the autoresponder address, and a brief abstract. Then promote your master list. Additionally, include your publishing guidelines so your affiliates can add their articles to your list, increasing the number of writers who you represent in your article list.

5. Create mailing lists. Inform subscribers to your articles when you have written new ones that they may want to publish in their own newsletter or website.

6. Automate your sales process. Use an ad to insure repeated exposure of your message, which effectively proves to increase sales. In your ad, put your autoresponder address where you can expose a visitor to numerous marketing materials. This multiplies the chances of converting visitors into customers. For example, if you are selling a particular product, put testimonials about how spectacular it is on your autoresponder, as it adds a detailed, enticing description of your product.

7. Distribute advertising. Let us say you sell advertising on your website or in your newsletter or e-zine. Set your autoresponder to send the information about rates and how to place an ad automatically to all prospects' email addresses. Then have your autoresponder follow-up. It can also send notification of any special deals you are currently offering.

8. Distribute an email course. Each day, have your autoresponder send out another lesson. Just be sure that each lesson has quality content - not a sales pitch. Your content will do the selling for you, and will do it much more effectively. You can include tips centered on a different topic for each lesson, illustrating how your product will benefit the reader. Include the tangible benefits the visitor will reap by purchasing your product.

Make sure to include a paragraph or two at the end of each lesson enticing your prospect to consider making a purchase.

9. After a visitor has completed your course, automate a reminder about your service or product. This will increase the possibility of sales from visitors who have taken your course but are dragging their feet about actually making a purchase. You can also use these reminders to promote new products or services, and the products and services of your affiliate programs.

10. Distribute free reports. This gives your visitor an idea of the type of information you can provide and the quality of your product or service. Make sure these reports are not sales letters or you will more than likely lose a potential customer than gain a sale.

11. Create trivia quizzes on your site and place the answers in an autoresponder. Your visitor will then be motivated to request your autoresponder, and you will have a record of the visitors' email addresses who took your quiz. Alternatively, create a contest and have any visitors that enter send their responses to your autoresponder. Your autoresponder can be set-up to send them a confirmation of their entry.

12. Offer a trial version of your product. Give your prospects a sample of your ebook, course, software, membership, etc. People who are exposed to a little taste often end up wanting the whole pie. You can also capture their email addresses when you offer them a free trial from your website. Set up your autoresponder to give instructions on how to obtain their free trial, and then make sure to follow-up to try to close the sale.

13. Link to hidden pages on your autoresponder. For example, a hidden page could be your affiliate page that contains graphics, promotional articles, and text links that interested affiliates can use. Inform visitors that they may have free access to your affiliate page by simply requesting your autoresponder. You will then gather a list of visitors who may be interested in becoming your affiliates.

14. Use an autoresponder on your order page. Post a request form to notify visitors of special offers or discounts in the future. This creates a very effective mailing list that contains the names of people who are already your customers.

15. Put your links page on your autoresponder. It should contain up to fifty links that would be of particular interest to your visitors.

Now that you have proof that autoresponders can be used creatively, see if you can come up with some brilliant ideas of your own using what I consider to be the best startup autoresponder in the business: http://goto-pro.com/go/to.pl?l=tw&cu=1&u=335&f=1

John Terry is a webmaster and networker.

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By Paul McCord

Right this minute, you are probably sitting on tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of commissions. Most registered reps have a database of current and past clients whose potential referrals are worth several thousand additional commission dollars per month. Yet, this resource goes virtually untapped for most advisors.

Why? Simply because most reps have not learned how to successfully convert their client relationships into referral relationships. Acquiring referrals from clients is not as simple as "doing a good job" and then asking for referrals. Generating a large number of highly qualified referrals from a client is a process that starts from the moment the prospect is met, not a one-time act after the sale has been completed. It requires an understanding of what a successful referral is based on, and how to exploit that referral to insure a successful contact with the referee.

Every referral involves the interaction of three people and four relationships among those three individuals. The strength or weakness of each of these interactions will influence the success or failure of the referral for the advisor:

1. The Advisor/Client relationship:
In order for the client to be willing to give a quality referral, build a strong bond of trust between the rep and the client. A client may give a "referral" to someone they do not trust, but they will not give a referral to someone they know well and respect if they do not trust the salesperson. If there is only a weak bond of trust between the advisor and client, the "referral" the client is likely to give will be to someone the client either believes will not meet with the advisor or someone the client does not know well or respect.

2. The client's purchasing experience:
Clients will not give high quality referrals if their purchasing experience did not meet or exceed both their expectations and their priorities. All clients enter purchasing relationships with certain expectations and priorities. Expectations and priorities are not the same. A client may expect to be kept fully informed during the course of the sale and may have certain product or service functionality requirements as his top priority. In order to receive a large number of high quality referrals, the rep must make sure that they meet or exceed both the client's expectations and priorities.

Despite the current parroting of the buzz phrase, "exceeding the customer's expectations," meeting and exceeding client expectations is seldom accomplished. Few people take the time and effort to discuss with their client what the client's expectations and priorities are-rather most reps, and companies, assume they know. At best, all they can knowingly accomplish is meeting or exceeding their expectations of what they think their client should expect.

3. The Client/Prospect relationship:
The trust and respect relationship between client and referee are of great importance. The stronger the bond of trust and respect between the client and the prospect, the easier it will be for the advisor to set an appointment with and then sell the prospect. In referral selling, a great deal of the rep's credibility, or lack thereof, is built on the trust and respect the prospect has for the client who made the referral.

If the client/prospect bond is strong enough, the rep is virtually guaranteed a sale. On the other hand, if the bond is particularly weak, the referral is little better than a cold call. Consequently, it is of utmost importance for the advisor to know as much as possible about the client's relationship, and likely bond of trust, with the prospect.

4. The advisor's initial contact with the referee:
Based on the client/prospect bond, the advisor must determine how best to contact the prospect to produce the greatest opportunity to acquire a meeting. The weaker the relationship between the client and the prospect, the stronger the contact method the rep should seek to employ. If the client/prospect relationship is extremely strong, virtually any contact method, including a phone call from the salesperson mentioning the client's name will suffice, but for a weak relationship, the rep must strive to use the strongest contact method possible. In descending order, from weakest to strongest, possible methods of contact include a phone call to the prospect from the advisor, an email from the client, a client letter, a client phone call, a client/prospect/advisor lunch meeting.

Fortunately, the advisor can control most of the above interactions. Only the client/prospect relationship is completely out of the rep's hands. Even then, the rep can compensate for a less than ideal client/prospect relationship through using a stronger initial contact method.

If you understand the foundation of a referral, you can quickly increase your referral-based business and begin to mine that gold mine in your client database.

Paul McCord
Nationally known author, trainer and leading authority on prospecting, Paul McCord's latest book Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income is available throughout the US and Canada. He also offers a free ebook Understanding Referral Generation: A Primer at http://www.powerreferralselling.com.

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By Duane Norland

Have you always dreamed of sitting at home, doing nothing, and raking in the money? If you think you can daily spend the time on the golf course, instead of sitting behind a desk, you need to check out http://www.getintocash.com/recommends/pif4p and see what you can do about turning your dream into a reality.

The truth is that very few programs out there are designed to make you rich overnight.

They require you to spend a couple of months (a few hours a day) doing the legwork to set up your business. You need to get a web page, get it hosted on the internet, advertise, set up a leads campaign complete with an autoresponder; that stores email addresses of you clients and periodically sends follow-up emails to close the deal, and an online banking system to collect the money and pay you.

I know this may sound a little overwhelming, but if you get involved with the right program, all of your initial work will continue to generate income for you for life.

Some systems help set you up very easily and point you in the right direction for generating leads and sending emails. This makes it very easy for the rookie and levels the playing field by allowing them to make the same income the pros do. Of course, with experience comes expertise and niches, which the rookie may not discover or understand, but the potential exists for all.

I personally discovered two programs, which compliment each other perfectly. Completely automated, the first generates residual income. Once it is set up, it perpetuates itself automatically. The best part is that it is FREE to join. You can imagine, that since it is free, you cannot expect to become a millionaire overnight (otherwise, you would pay excessively to join). However, when combined with the hard-hitting tactics for generating traffic of the second system, you will generate a healthy income in very little time. I personally use these two systems and only spend about 15 minutes a day at my computer. The rest of the day is mine to do with as I please.

You too can set up a healthy, residual, long-term income. Just visit these two sites:

http://www.getintocash.com/recommends/pif4p
http://www.getintocash.com/recommends/butterfly

Duane Norland is Founder of http://getintocash.com

Duane has been operating on the Internet for 4 years and has built up eight flourishing businesses and growing.

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By Michael Senoff

One of the big Internet marketing breakthroughs you may hear people talking about is using direct mail.

In other words, getting the postal addresses of your email list and sending them offline offers. Many of the top Internet marketers in the world do this and swear they double, triple, even quadruple their sales.

I believe this to be true from my own tests and observations as well. What is even more exciting is that many of these experts are renting lists of offline people and driving them to their websites to capture their email addresses. In other words, expanding their email lists using offline lists.

However, if you decide to do this, you must be careful from whom you get your lists. There is an art to finding a good mailing list and most Internet marketers have not really had a chance to learn about it.

This brings me to a recent interview I did with legendary copywriter Bob Bly. Bob gave me a great tip on making the whole list renting issue painless and easy.

He said, "Never, ever rent a list from a list owner." Why, because you are obviously not going to get an unbiased answer when you inquire as to the quality of the list. A list owner can, (and probably will in many cases), tell you whatever you want to hear.

Bob said always go to a good list broker. A list broker is someone who finds lists for you, does all the work, and then delivers you the exact list you are looking for.

The way Bob explained it to me was it costs you nothing to use a list broker since the list owner, not you, pays him. Plus, it is in the broker's best interest to please you and give you what you want since he wants your repeat business. If he messes around and gives you a non-responsive list, or does not actually go the extra mile to make sure you are happy and successful and make money from your mailing, then he knows you probably will not be back.

This may sound like simple advice. But the fact is most Internet marketers have never dealt with offline lists before, and it can be a very different animal than online lists and joint ventures.

And so, if you are going to be expanding your Internet marketing business by going to offline lists and trying to drive them to your online list, make sure you consider the advice Bob gave in the interview.

It could save you a lot of time, money and frustration.

For 117-hour marketing advice from gurus in all aspects of direct mail marketing, go to Michael Senoff's http://www.hardtofindseminars.com/audioclips.htm

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By Donovan Baldwin

One overlooked or misused form of advertising is free advertising. This can be a very important means of growing your business.

There are innumerable free classified advertising sites on the internet. Obviously, some will be better than others will, and the value of any site may be anywhere from good for your business to a total waste of your time.

One immediate, visible advantage of free advertising is the adjective, "free". Many people starting internet businesses simply do not have the funds to buy advertising.

One disadvantage to free advertising is, that since it is free, everybody floods it with all kinds of ads. It is easy for your message to get lost in the flood of advertisements.

Another drawback is, that unlike people who look through newspaper classifieds or advertising papers such as are found at the local convenience store, few people on the Internet actually visit online-classified sites in hopes of finding a car or piece of stereo equipment. Even if they do, they are not likely to see your ad if you are trying to interest someone in an internet income opportunity.

So, how can you turn free advertising to your advantage?

First, some sites will have the potential for improving your business, in one way or another, and some will be worthless. The advertisement itself may or may not be effective, or may or may not be successful at a certain website, testing is necessary. Try different ads, and try them on different sites.

A complexity in determining the value of a given free advertising site is the fact that with the advent of automatic advertising submitters, many sites are hardly ever visited by humans any more. Only the automatic programs drop by and leave off their ads and move on to the next site. Therefore, one of the first criteria to look for might be whether or not ads must be manually posted. At least in that case, humans will visit and may actually see your ad.

By the way, even a site which can be posted to automatically may be of value in the area of linking and search engine optimization. Most of these links will be fleeting or of little value to a search engine spider, but you may be able to build a little stable of sites which will help search engines find your site. I know of several sites where I regularly post ads exactly for this purpose. Ablewise.com (which requires manual submission) for example is regularly visited by search engine spiders, and if I place an ad there, the page I have linked to will soon show up in search engine listings.

Second, free advertising is most effective if it is not used to sell anything. In fact, it will operate best when you use the free advertising to give something of value away in order to establish a condition of trust between yourself and a prospective customer. In the heyday of mail order advertising, this was often referred to as the "two step" method.

It worked, and still works, like this. The seller offers a free report, such as "How to Make Money from Your Kitchen Table". The ad simply makes the offer, and often would request the reader to send a "free, self-addressed, stamped envelope" for the free report. In this way, the seller was able to get his materials in the hands of several interested parties for only the cost of the report and the ad. The seller was saved the postage by the reader who provided the envelope and postage. Enclosed with the report were materials offering other items, often more reports, which were sold by the seller.

If the seller had provided a report of value on the first mailing, it was possible that the reader would purchase one of the items. If not, the name and address was still on the seller's records (mailing list), and the reader would receive more mailings and/or a collection of such names and addresses would be sold to others who had not built their own lists as yet.

The same thing is done on the internet, and many successful advertisements offer free advertising, software, reports, or services in order to entice the online reader to respond, thus placing his or her contact information at the disposal of the advertiser.

This sort of advertising on the internet has spawned two distinct "advertising" methods, which, while free, are not actually advertisements. These two methods are the writing of articles and the creation of lead capture pages.

When someone writes an article of interest or value, you can publish it free at several sites on the internet. They are usually allowed to include a little information about themselves, including a link to their business website. Generally, to be most effective, the article will be on a subject relevant to the topic of their website and product. Since these articles may eventually be placed on hundreds of websites over long periods and are mainly read by those interested in the topic, they are very effective as "advertising". If the author writes well and provides value, the reader may come to respect the writer well enough to accept their advice or guidance, and purchase goods or services from them.

With a lead capture page, the reader cannot get the free gift, which is often information, but sometimes a service or product, without giving the advertiser their name and contact information. The advertiser will then use this information to make offers of their products. It is quite common for an internet surfer to leave his or her name and email address in order to receive a course of some kind, which is delivered, by email to their inbox. The course will be delivered as a series of messages over time, and each will contain the advertiser's sales message. The content of the course will often be relevant to the product being sold. In time, the advertiser assumes the stature of friend and expert in the eyes of the reader, and this will often result in a sale being made.

Free advertising can often be effectively used to lead potential customers to the lead capture pages or even to the articles where they can begin to make the acquaintance of the writer. While the free advertisement seldom is effective in actually spawning a sale, it can be an excellent means of gathering customers.

Donovan Baldwin is a Dallas area writer and network marketing professional. He is a graduate of the University of West Florida, a member of Mensa and is retired from the U. S. Army. Learn how to get free advertising at http://www.donovanbaldwin.com/free_advertising/hits2u.html

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By Paul Tobey

Most web marketers would agree that the number one and most fundamental aspect of any successful websites are; "The more traffic, the better!" In keeping with that strategy, please let me share a few thoughts on how to actually accomplish this.

If you own a car, you can always count on being stuck in traffic. There are those who experience this on a daily basis; and for the rest of us who do not drive to work, hopefully, only occasionally.

Why is this a huge source of frustration and stress for most people? Drivers hate the very thought of being stuck in one place when they want to be in another place. Look at the people around you the next time you are in a traffic jam. Is everyone smiling and having a good time? Probably not...

How many of you want to know how to alleviate the upset and the anxiety associated with being stuck in traffic? Here is the thing, traffic jams are not going to disappear anytime soon! As long as our society relies on cars and trucks to get around, there will always be traffic! However, even though it sounds crazy, I personally have learned to love traffic jams. Here is why....

I have always maintained there are only two things you can do in any stressful situation; you either accept it or you can remove yourself from the situation. Beating yourself up or blaming someone else for the traffic jam only makes it worse. That is what most people do not understand. The traffic jam is not the problem; it is your resistance to it. It is that resistance causing the stress. The amount of energy you put into resisting your situation causes the stress, not the situation itself.

In the case of traffic however, it is obvious that you cannot remove yourself from it if you are already in it. So, the only other thing you can do is accept it, right? Complete 100% of acceptance of the situation is the only way to alleviate 100% of the stress. Now, I can hear your brain malfunctioning right about now and your saying to yourself, "how can I possibly learn to accept traffic?" Ah ha! Therein lays the secret to getting what you really want. Because that is, what life is about, getting what you really want instead of what you do not want, right?

What you really want is more success. Success means various things to many different people. It is still something that most people strive for daily, to achieve big things.

Success? In a traffic jam? You are saying to yourself, "now, I'm really confused!" You see, there is one place where a traffic jam is a beautiful thing...the Internet! That is what we call in the internet marketing business the key to any successful website, "lots and lots of traffic." The more traffic jams we can create on our websites, the better!

If you want more business success, start getting more traffic to your website. There are many things to consider when designing your site to make this happen; but without traffic, a website is useless.

Therefore, know what you truly want - more success. Now you know what to do to get it - generate more traffic to your website. However, the most important part of this 3-part formula is, knowing HOW to do it! Without knowing how to do something, you will never get the success you most certainly deserve. Business is about customers - the more customers you have, the more success you will have. Knowing how to get more customers to your website to create a traffic jam is a science and is definitely a learned skill.

Let's look at the many resources offered to you to generate the traffic you need to run a successful website; search engines, affiliate programs, content submissions, email campaigns, joint venture partners, link exchanges, blogs, pay-per-click advertising, and a whole host of other resources too numerous to mention here. If some of these things sound unfamiliar to you, my highest recommendation is to find out what they are and what you need to do to make them work. For the purposes of this article, we are going to focus on one thing; search engines. Why just search engines? Statistics have shown that 70% of your website traffic will be driven through search engines like, Google, Yahoo, MSN etc. Plus, it is free!

How do you make search engines work for you?

First, optimize your website to get a high search engine ranking. Select relevant targeted keyword phrases. Place those keywords strategically on your web pages. How do you know what keyword phrases to use? That is where many people make huge mistakes. They actually optimize their sites for keyword phrases that nobody is actually searching. HINT! First, find out what people are searching for; then build your web pages around those words. There are tools available to help you chose what search terms are relevant, such as; Google's free service called Overture, and WordTracker, which is a paid service.

After choosing your keywords, it is time to place them on your site. We call this keyword density. My suggestion, place one or two keyword phrases on each page in your; Page Title, Meta Description Tags, Meta Keyword Tags and a few times in the text of your webpage, for optimal results. This alone will significantly increase the ranking of your site for engines like Google and Yahoo. These engines think like people. They look for what is important on your website and how relevant your site is to what key phrases you are optimizing. Do not optimize your site for "free movie downloads" if you are selling cosmetics. Bad idea! You can actually be penalized by search engines for trying to trick them into sending you traffic.

Incoming links are the most significant factor in increasing your search engine optimization. Are you wondering how important this is? That is the million dollar, drop the gates, and release the hounds, key to the universe! Why? If you optimize your site with relevant keywords, which says, are you any good at what you do? Who has to say your products and services are any good? That is the way engines like Google think. They want to know from others if you do what you say, and if you are any good at doing it. How do they do this? By finding links to your website, on other sites, that promote what you are saying on your site. The more links into your website promoting what it is you do; the better!

Are you ready for the kicker? You mean there is more? Yep, there is more! If the last paragraph was a million dollar technique, this is definitely a two million dollar technique. Make sure that the links on other websites, which lead to your website, use your keyword phrases. Therefore, your links in from outside should look like this... Piano Music by Paul Tobey - where the link underneath "piano music" is the url of your site ie: http://www.paultobey.com. An engine like Google searches for the keywords first and then follows the link to see if it is relevant. If it is relevant, which in the case of the preceding example it is, then the ranking for the keyword search "piano music" will go up every time Google or another search engine, finds one of these links.

So, the next time you are sitting in traffic and you are agitated, stressed, and filled with anxiety, think of all the traffic your website will be generating while you are stuck in the car. Take a look at all the angry people around you, give a big smile, and say aloud to yourself, "I Love Traffic Jams."

Paul Tobey:

In addition to writing a number of articles about web design and search engine optimization the author owns a successful web design company in Toronto, Canada.

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By Keith Londrie

Do you ever sense you are short on cash? How would you like to learn how to save what you earn? The average consumer's focus is on spending, and there is no focus on saving. In Money to Be Made Online, you will learn some of the ways you can save money while doing business. If you fit into the category of "not rich," before you can go on that wonderful vacation, or buy a new house, you need to save up some cold hard cash. Nothing is better than money well spent some say. Well I think nothing is better than money well saved. Before you can spend wisely, you have to have good saving strategies.

So what is the secret to saving money? I am going to outline a few simple tricks that if followed, will leave some extra cash each month. Why is it that people are always spending more than they earn? Because they are in the business of helping other people save money. That is right; they are providing the retirement funds for the debt collector, or credit card executive. First, I want to let you know where some of your money goes, besides, when it goes down the drain.

Most people forget completely about their money after it leaves their pocket. Money is not just a piece of paper or numbers on a screen. For the purpose of this article, imagine that money is a type of energy, like electricity. Like electricity, most people do not think or care where it comes from, or where it goes, and how it is transferred from place to place. Each time you use electricity, or transfer it to another place, you lose some of its potential. Most appliances do not use 100% of the potential energy available, maybe in the future but not currently. When you buy something, taxes are taken out, plus the middlemen's fees, and then profit for the top of the pyramid.

The first thing you should do is become aware of WHERE your money goes. By thinking of where money comes from, and ends up, it will open your mind into new avenues of perception. You have to fight your way out of the "consumer" box and create a new box, with a new label, so you are comfortable. It is good to think "outside the box," for people who live in boxes, they did not create themselves. But when you create your own box, when you design your own life, and are finally free from all debt, worry, and create your own experiences, then I suggest you think inside that box instead!

So now, practice thinking this in everyday life. Where is my money going? Imagine all the little middlemen in between, and then maybe you will respect money a little more. You will realize how big and industrious the world actually is. After you have reached this stage of awareness, you should be more motivated, and ready to save some money. By saving money in this state, you might realize how important that one little dollar of profit is. When multiplied by a good product and millions of consumers, you have just made a million dollars.

If you are ready to start saving some money, be ready to follow these simple tasks, and expect some extra cash! First, you need to be organized. Saving money is not just about being cheap, but it is also about management. You must organize well! Most successful people are great at saving because they are natural organizers, and when they make it big, they get a secretary. After a while, these tasks become natural, and do not feel like a bother at all, so keep it up and after a while, you will get the hang of it.

Organizing your cash flow is essential. Everywhere you go, carry a notebook, small note pad, or a PDA if you have one. Most PDA's are compatible with finance software, so buy some or find a free version. DO IT NOW! This is the most important aspect of saving money; you first need to know where it is going! Therefore, for the first week, I want you to do two simple things. Everything you spend money on, write down the date, the cost, where, and how you felt. At the end of the day, create another separate sheet with a total of the amount spent. List all the things you do not need to have. Now try to think of where your money went, and imagine the process it took to make the products you bought. Did you purchase gas? There are many things needed to get gas into the country, so imagine the process and your mind will open!

After one week, take a look at all the data you have collected. Do not do this review until a full week's data has been collected! Determine what was essential and what you can alleviate. Take your daily essentials and total them up. Look where you can eliminate needless expenses! One of the things you can do, are follow the guidelines in Money to Be Made Online. Follow the experience of seasoned veterans, and save money for your business today!

Keith Londrie II is a successful Webmaster and the owner and publisher of moneytobemadeonline.com a website that specializes in providing tips on how to REALLY make money online that you can research on the internet in your pajamas from the comfort of your own home. Visit http://moneytobemadeonline.com/ today!

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By Diana D'Itri

Getting prospects is only one piece of the sales puzzle. Once you have interest, whether it comes from word of mouth, traditional advertising, or the Internet, time is not your friend. You must convince that prospect, as quickly as possible, that you are the best candidate for the job. If you are not expeditious in conveying your credibility and ability to measure up, then you could lose that prospect to your ever-awaiting competition.

With that said, competition is not always a bad thing. Especially if you can prove that, you are better than they are.

How do you prove that you are as good as you say you are? Use authentic customer audio testimonials to say it for you. Your best customers have a compelling story to tell others about their experience with you and their positive word of mouth can convince your prospects to do business with you.

With so much deceit and hype these days in advertising, an actual heartfelt testimonial heard from a happy satisfied customer, can be the tiebreaker that makes your prospect choose your business over your competition.

We have all been there. Desperate for help with a particular need, perhaps our roof is leaking or we need a new doctor, whatever the product or service, a referral is comforting when we are in critical need of a good service provider.

If we do not have a first hand referral from a friend or colleague, would we settle for a second or even third hand referral? Sure, we would.

The human psyche likes to be reassured when dishing out hard-earned cash for a product or service. Almost any referral is better than no referral, when it comes to entrusting our homes and lives to someone.

Have you noticed you are more inclined to go to a movie or a restaurant when someone else said how good it was? It did not matter whether you knew the person giving the referral or not. Their first hand experience transferred to you, boosted your comfort level and propelled you to go see that movie or eat at that restaurant the next time you were in the neighborhood.

I have a friend, who every time he orders from a menu at a restaurant, asks the server for their opinion about what is good on the menu. He likes the reassurance he gets from their recommendation and it affects his decision on what menu item he tries.

While it is true most businesses have written client testimonials displayed on their web sites and office coffee tables, unless those testimonials are from well-known businesses, sometimes written testimonials are often glossed over.

However, there is an amazing thing that happens when a real customer speaks from the heart, and the listener senses the honesty in the person's voice.

If it is a put on, insincere, most people can tell the difference. When it is heartfelt, that is what moves the listener. It is what they hear.

Just think about the radio. Numerous products are sold by a voice coming through a speaker.

With audio testimonials, your business can compete with the big boys. Recently, Mercury Car Insurance used testimonials to sell their services on television. It must have worked because, for months, they featured the testimonials in many commercials. Just listen to the radio or watch television to observe how many successful companies still use testimonials to support their claims.

There are two ways to capture a live audio testimonial from a satisfied customer and there are several places to showcase them once you have them.

With the increase in broadband capabilities on the Internet these past few years, the Web is one place that audio and/or video testimonials can be effective.

If your customer is a truly satisfied one, then he or she is always happy to oblige by recording a positive testimonial about their experience with your business. However, remember, because they are important to you, be extra kind to them by making the experience as painless as possible. Sticking a camera in front of their face and asking them to answer questions will be challenging for you and them, and does not always result in the best testimonial (unless your clients are actors or used to being in front of a camera). Most likely, your customer participant will feel more comfortable giving his or her testimonial over the telephone, which will create a more authentic, and compelling result.

Your business can capture audio testimonials from your satisfied customers in two ways:

1. Hire a professional review company to help facilitate and record your testimonial participants.

a. An interviewer will record your customers for you. This method authenticates your testimonials and saves you the awkwardness of doing it yourself.

2. Set up a dedicated telephone line that will record and prompt your customers to leave a testimonial.

a. There are audio companies that offer this service for a monthly subscription and you ask your customers to call an 800 number where they can leave the testimonial.

Once you have captured several audio testimonials, it makes sense to showcase them everywhere and anywhere you typically advertise.

· Web site pages

* Place your customer reviews on your testimonials page, front page, or next to areas on your site that can be corroborated by a testimonial.

· Email

*Talk to your web master about Imbedding a customer testimonial link on the top, bottom, or side of your email page.

· On Hold

*Incorporate your audio testimonials into your 'on hold' message so callers can hear them while they are waiting.

· Radio Ads

*Write a radio ad that features your customer's testimonials. (If it is good enough for Mercury Insurance, why not you?)

Seeing is believing, but seeing and hearing motivates people to act. You have worked hard to grow your business. Audio testimonials are a priceless reward for a job well done.

Your prospects will be more motivated to do business with you when they hear the voice of your satisfied customer singing your praises.

Diana D'Itri is Co-Owner of RaveBiz, a testimonial-broadcasting agency. Diana has spent the past four years educating small and medium sized business on how word of mouth & referral strategies can grow business and reduce ad spend.

Visit http://www.ravebroadcasting.com or http://www.competitionscoop.com/landscaping.html to listen to audio rave reviews.

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By Tellman H. Knudson

Your goal as a marketer is to monetize your site as quickly and as easily as possible. In the process, build your list along the way.

There are all sorts of different ways to think about doing this.

If you are an AdSense publisher, it may be smarter to have AdSense only after people subscribe to your list. In addition, it may be smarter to only show the AdSense after people have told a friend.

Do you see why?

If these people are not on your list, if they are not telling their friends, then you cannot monetize those people again. They visit your site, and then leave, and go to the AdSense ad site, and forget to join your list. If they are on your list, you can monetize them repeatedly with ways that have more impact than AdSense.

Until they subscribe, do not show the AdSense. It may turn people off and they may not join your list. Alternatively, as I said, there are various ways to think about this. Maybe when they subscribe, the AdSense disappears because you already captured their names and addresses for your list, and then you can follow up and make recommendations on products that they would benefit from. Test these!

Perhaps, do an A/B split test, where one page has AdSense and the other does not. See which one works better, and then go with it. However, keep testing. Test your headline; test your subscribe button. You can test all the elements of your page--one test at a time. For instance, do not change your headline and the opt-in button at the same time. You will not know which prompted the viewer to join your list.

Consider the following. When implementing marketing strategies, do not take too much time before you test them. If they do not work, you took a lot of time to think about something, which did not work.

I would recommend that you send out a press release. Do it today, or at least first thing in the morning to drive traffic to your squeeze page, which should lead to your sales letter or the sales letter of the product you are promoting. A press release about your new site will get some traffic.

You also want to use pay-per-click. The reason you want to use pay-per-click is, you can check your conversions and see how everything works before you find list members and everything else. I would use pay-per-click and get rolling with that right away.

Whatever your budget is $5, $10, $100, or $2,000, spend that. You want to go low. You can spend $5 to $10 a day. Focus on split testing and tweaking the squeeze page and the sales page, until it is making money for you on the $10 a day.

The whole thing is... Do not Wait! Take action immediately! Do not let anything stop you. If your squeeze page sucks, you can make changes to it, until it does not suck anymore. Yet, it is out there the whole time, getting some response. If you had nothing working for you, you would be no further in building your list.

Tellman Knudson is CEO of http://OvercomeEverything.com. Learn how to build a powerful and responsive list quickly through his premiere list-building course, http://MyFirstList.com (http:/myfirstlist.com ).

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By Laurie Brown

You Made a Mistake…But Now I Am Your Biggest Fan

Pearl chose to celebrate her 94th birthday with her family and friends at a local restaurant. Although she had always enjoyed the restaurant, she specifically chose it because she was a member of its frequent diner program and was entitled to free desserts for all her guests on her birthday.

She graciously offered each guest whatever dessert he or she wanted “on the house.” The server overheard Pearl and asked for the card that was sent to her announcing this offer. Pearl had not brought the card with her. The server apologized, but refused to offer the desserts saying, “There’s nothing that I can do. It’s policy.” Pearl was embarrassed, not only for forgetting the card, but also for putting her guests in an uncomfortable position.

One of the guests asked for a manager hoping that someone would do the right thing. No such luck. The manager repeated the same mantra, “Sorry, there’s nothing I can do. It’s policy.” The manager “allowed” the guest to call the corporate headquarters. Two phone calls later, a corporate manager said, “No problem!”

Of course, there was a problem. A big problem! Pearl was humiliated and angry. No one left the restaurant feeling fondly about what had been a great meal celebrating a momentous occasion. It will be a long time before Pearl or any of her guests return to this restaurant, if ever.

What had been accomplished? In an effort to “save money” by not allowing people to take advantage of the dessert offer, the restaurant had lost five good and loyal customers. It does not seem to be a smart business move, does it?

However, it was not just five customers that were lost. This lunch was such a bad experience for Pearl and her guests that they have been telling this story repeatedly and over.

People love to tell stories. They especially love to tell horror stories. Interestingly enough, customers will not tell stories about satisfactory experiences. Too boring… what would be the point? However, they will tell stories about exceptionally bad or exceptionally good service.

Consider these three examples:

You order a new door for your home. The company comes on time and replaces your door. Are you going to share that story with anyone? Doubtful. You are a satisfied customer. End of story.

You order a new door for your home. They come to install it and find that the frame was measured incorrectly. This is the third wrong door delivered. Are you going to share THIS story? You betcha! Every friend and family member will know the name of the company and they will tell their friends and family to stay away!

You order a new door for you home. They come to install it and find that the frame was measured incorrectly. The installer apologizes sincerely, telling you that he understands what a waste of time this has been for you. He promises that he will personally make sure you have the right door in a week. Then he asks, “Would that satisfy you?” When you say “yes”, he sets the day and time.

The installer comes the next week as promised and installs your door. You are now a satisfied customer. However, he wants you to be more than a satisfied customer—he wants you to be thrilled—so he takes 20% off your bill to compensate you for your trouble. The following week the owner gives you a call to see if everything is okay.

Are you going to share this story? Without a doubt! In so doing, you will become the company’s cheapest and most effective form of advertising!

So, how can you turn your disgruntled customer into your biggest fan?

Customers enter into every transaction with a set of basic expectations. When you create a problem for your customers by failing to meet these expectations, you are faced with meeting a new set of even more challenging expectations.

There are simple steps that will work to not only meet these expectations, but also exceed them. Imagine the following scenario: Mr. Jones has arrived at your dealership to pick up his car at the promised time; however, his vehicle is still being worked on. Mr. Jones is becoming irate. What should you do?

Step One: Empathetic apology. It is not sufficient to mumble the word “sorry” and expect it to have a positive effect. Your apology needs to show your customer that YOU understand how YOUR mistake has negatively affected his or her life.

Step Two: Take ownership. You want the customer to understand that you are the person who will fix their problem. Ask the customer what you can do to “make it right”. Often people are afraid to ask their customer this question. They do not want to become obligated to meet an unrealistic demand. You need not be afraid of their answer, because simply asking does not obligate you. Most customers are reasonable—at worst; you have the beginning of a negotiation.

Step Three: Fix the problem immediately. In the case of Mr. Jones, you would want to get his car to him ASAP. Sometimes you cannot fix the problem immediately, in which case you need to show him that you are making a sincere effort to resolve the problem.

Step Four: Get your customer’s buy in. Asking for the customer’s agreement will ensure that he will at least leave satisfied.

Try something like, “I am so sorry Mr. Jones—not having your vehicle ready at the promised time must have really inconvenienced you. I will personally make sure that your vehicle is ready in the next 20 minutes. Will that be satisfactory?”

With small problems, these four steps should satisfy your customer. However, remember—a “satisfied” customer does not talk about his experience. Now, take the opportunity to add value, so that your customers will talk about how great you are. To do this, you need to take two additional steps.

Step Five: Symbolic atonement. You need to go the extra mile to show that you are truly sorry. A small token can go a long way to ease the pain your mistake caused. In the case of Mr. Jones, an offer of a free oil change might be appropriate. This gift shows that you understand that an apology alone cannot fix the problem. Reflect on what you know about this customer and choose something that has meaning and value to him.

Step Six: Follow up. This is where you can really shine! After a short period of time, call, e-mail, or write your customer and make sure they are satisfied with your efforts. This is also an opportunity to ask for more business and referrals.

None of these steps takes an inordinate amount of time or money, but they can really create delighted customers—customers who will tell stories that promote you to their friends and family.

Now, let us go back to Pearl’s birthday lunch. Why was not the permission to provide the free desserts enough to turn it into a “good story?” The weight of the damage that was done was so much more than the effort it would have taken to make it right at the beginning.

What should this restaurant have done? An empathetic apology would have been a start. “Mrs. Grey, we are so sorry that we ruined your birthday. We hope these desserts will make it a little better.” (Steps 1-3 in action) However, they needed to go the extra mile. She should have been sent a letter apologizing again and offering a free meal to compensate her for her discomfort. (Step 5) The final touch that could turn this nightmare into an opportunity to create a loyal customer would be a phone call after she redeemed the free meal to make sure that it was good experience. (Step 6)

People are telling stories about you and your business. What kind of stories are they telling? View every customer problem as an opportunity to produce a cheerleader for your business. Turn your potential nightmare into a great story. Do the right thing.

Laurie Brown is an international speaker, trainer and consultant who work to help people improve their sales, service and presentation skills. She is the author of The Teleprompter Manual, for Executives, Politicians, Broadcasters and Speakers. Laurie can be contacted through http://www.thedifference.net, or 1-877.999.3433, or at lauriebrown@thedifference.net
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By Jennifer Green

Although social bookmarking might be something you've only just come across, it has in fact been around for a few years. It's certainly getting more popular every day. If you're involved in Internet marketing, it's also a great way to help generate traffic and page rank to your site. The sooner you learn about it, the quicker your Internet business can benefit.

Put simply, social bookmarking is a way of saving your favorite URLs online. You probably have a "Favorites" folder on your computer. Social bookmarking is just an online version of that. The main difference is that your social bookmarking favorites are publicly available for anyone to see. The big question is - how can this benefit your business?

If you do a Google search, you'll soon come up with a list of the most popular social bookmarking websites. Look at http://del.icio.us, which is one of the most popular. Once you've joined the social bookmarking site, all you need to do, is to start adding your URLs. With each URL, you also add a list of tags, or keywords, so that people know what that URL is. So if you have bookmarked a site about dogs, for example, then make sure you use the word "dogs" as one of the tags.

You can also choose to make the listing public or private. Use a public listing, if it's a website you want other people to find, such as your own website. A public listing will also show other information, such as who created the bookmark, when, and give an indication of how popular that particular keyword is on the site. You can use the private setting for other URLs that you will want to access while you're traveling around, and do not have access to your home computer.

In some ways, a social bookmarking site is like a search engine, except that it only searches entries on its database. The good part about that is that the only sites other people recommend are listed. It's easy to find a list of sites on any topic that might interest you. Type in dogs, for example, and you will see sites that other people have recommended.

For Internet marketing purposes, you would add your website to you social bookmarking account, pick your main keywords and use them as tags, and potentially generate traffic to your site. Another idea is to have a link to your social bookmarking account from your blog page, so that people can see a frequently updated list of your recommended websites about that topic. You also get a backlink from the social bookmarking site to your website, which helps to boost your popularity in the eyes of the search engines.

For optimal results, you should open as many accounts on different social bookmarking sites as you can. The only problem is that posting your website to these accounts can
become very tedious, especially if you have a large number of websites or if you are adding the bookmark to a large number of accounts.

Recently, a new Wordpress plug-in has been released to eliminate some of this tedious work. It can automatically add bookmarks to all of your bookmarking accounts, hands free. I highly recommend this great time saving tool to anyone who wants to take advantage of social bookmarking without spending hours bookmarking his or her pages manually. Check it out here http://www.autosocialposter.com

Social bookmarking is only in its infancy, and will probably develop in ways no one could even imagine. There is no doubt it is a great way to get traffic to your websites, so what are you waiting for?

Online marketer Jennifer Green has fast become an expert on the benefits of blogging and social bookmarking. If you are looking for an automated bookmarking solution for your blogs, check out http://www.autosocialposter.com.

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By Lisa Packer

You absolutely must trigger an emotional reaction with your copy, if you intend to get response - whether you are looking for a lead or a sale. It does not matter whom you are marketing to, either: Business - to - business sales are still decided by human beings, just like consumer sales. All human beings buy on emotion.

With that in mind, here are seven ways to trigger emotions in your copy:

1. Tell a story. A good story captures attention, and draws the reader in. Right away, his emotions are stirred, and he cares about the outcome. Meanwhile, a lesson or sales message can be conveyed without resistance. That message will be remembered much longer, as good stories are hard to forget.

2. Paint a picture. Be vivid in your descriptions. Let the prospect see himself enjoying life after your product or service has solved his problem.

3. Stimulate all five senses. By merely describing the sight, smell, feel, sound, and taste of something, you make it real to your prospect. You mentally transport him to where you are - or transport your product to him. He will be aware, engaged - and emotionally involved with what you are telling him.

4. Promise benefits. Show him what you are going to do for him. Tell him how his life will be better, how time will be saved - and what he will do with that time - by using your product. Let him know, "What's In It for Me."

5. Use power words. Give your copy punch and excitement by using action words and vivid descriptors. Avoid all forms of the verb "to be." Show your product or service in action, and it will impact his heart.

6. Use a friendly tone of voice. Speak directly to your prospect, and sound like you are talking to a friend. Read your copy aloud and see if it passes the "barstool test." If it sounds like you are talking to the person on the barstool beside you, this is good. If any line or sentence makes you stumble, rewrite it.

7. Be honest. Banish all hype and half-truths. Emotion is conveyed subtly, and so is dishonesty. The same prospect "radar" that will pick up your passion and sincerity will also sound the alarm if you are lying. Your prospect will catch on, and you will lose him.

Use these tips to trigger honest emotion in your prospects. If you combine them with an offer that truly brings value to his life, you and your prospect will both be winners.

Does your marketing forge an emotional connection with your prospects? It can. Lisa Packer, author of "The Power Of Emotion: 6 Triggers That Turn Prospects Into Customers," specializes in copy that does just that. Get a FREE copy and explode your response rates at http://www.lisapacker.com today!

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By Akhil Shahani

A well thought out game plan is a winning strategy in any battle! Your business is no less than a battle. Every moment, your competitors are trying to outsmart you. To win this war, you need a game plan for your business. In other words, you need a marketing plan.

A marketing plan is a highly researched, well-written document, which details all marketing actions necessary to achieve business objectives. It could be for a product, service, brand, or a product line. From time to time, you need to stand back and see if your plan is working, and whether your day-to-day activities line up.

So let us begin with the basics of writing a marketing plan:

1. Title Page - This must include the name of your company and the management team, which is instrumental in developing strategies.

2. Executive Summary - This is a quick overview of the main points in your plan. Although the summary comes first, it is best to write this last. This will ensure that you have not overlooked something and that your plan makes sense.

3. Current Situation - Here, you need to analyze both the macro environment, as well as, the current market situation. The macro environment analysis will give you an insight into the economy, and larger legal and technical aspects that can affect your business. The current market situation will throw light on the potential market segment, competitor landscape, industry structure etc.

4. Consumer Behavior - Present an analysis of your customers' demographic profile and buying habits, talk about key motivators, loyalty segments, and similar issues.

5. Company Analysis - This is your chance to do some 'blah-blah' on your company. Just kidding! Analyze the internal situation of the company in terms of its vision and mission, long-term business objectives, short-term goals, resource position, etc. This is also an appropriate place to do a thorough SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis. This will help you identify the sustainable competitive advantages of your company, and understand the key success factors for your business.

6. Market Research - This chapter describes the process of data collection, method of analysis, and key findings.

7. Marketing Strategy - Step 1 - discuss product mix, product life cycle management, brand name, brand image, etc. Step 2 - analyze market share by products, customer segments, and geography Step 3 - it is all about money, honey! This is where you talk pricing strategy Step 4 - share your advertising and promotion plans Step 5 - put down your ideas about how you will distribute your product.

8. Implementation - discuss the nitty-gritty here. Chart out resource requirements, key deliverables, time frame, and other issues related to implementation.

9. Financial Summaries - include projections of income, break-even analysis, and payback period. List assumptions clearly.

10. Outlook - this contains predictions for the future and plans of action for alternative scenarios, if any.

11. Appendix - include all supporting material, tables and data.

Generally, a basic marketing plan will run into 30 - 40 pages. While you could abridge your report, make sure you do not overlook any important aspects.

Finally, we will leave you with a thought - if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail!

Hi, I am Akhil Shahani, a serial entrepreneur who wants to help you succeed. Over the years, I have run many successful businesses & made many mistakes on the way. I have created http://www.aykya.com to help you benefit from all I have learned on my journey. Please visit us & download our special 'Freebie of the Month' as a thank you for your visit.

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By Susan Friedmann

It is time for a visualization exercise. Are you ready?

Picture this:

You are standing, with your staff, in your exhibit booth at a large tradeshow. This is one of the best shows you regularly participate in. It attracts a sizeable number of your target audience. Your team is prepared. Your display looks terrific. You have interactive demonstrations. You have sponsored a speaker. Your giveaway items convey your marketing message, appealing to your target audience, and are in plentiful supply.

Looks good, right?

There is something in this scene, something I have not mentioned yet, that could make it all even better. Something that will not only boost your ROI, but will create that most vital of marketing tools.

What is it?

It is a secret weapon that is more than come of age. In fact, it has been around since the beginning of time, but only now is it realizing its full potential. This build up and suspense is all about “word of mouth marketing” and how you can use it to your advantage on the tradeshow floor.

I have recently read Seth Godin's “Flipping the Funnel", and it really brought home the concept of how underutilized tradeshow attendees are as a marketing tool. Attendees are more than prospects and contacts: they are a potential sales force, just waiting to tap on your behalf.

According to Godin, we should:

Turn strangers into friends.
Turn friends into customers.
Turn then ... do the most important job
Turn your customers into sales people.

Why?

Why would you want to recruit a whole bunch of