Information Products For Profit

It is no secret that the internet has created the new generation of millionaires in only a few short years. Every few seconds a person starts a home business somewhere around the world, and the amazing thing is that the market does not seem to be getting saturated anytime soon! Business is booming, and for quick easy cash people are turning to the internet.
However faced with the fact that many of us do not have a product to sell, nor do we have the infrastructure set up or the manpower necessary to distribute products. Nevertheless a growing group of people are selling products right out of their home office or their kitchen table; how? Information products! Now regular bookstores and music stores are getting serious competition from our very own neighbors. The technology available to all of us makes it extremely easy to create your very own information product; whether that is a book, a music CD, a course, you name it! All you need is a computer and an internet connection, some time and virtually no investment!

Here are some products that you can create right now!

E-books
E-books are electronic books; it is like a regular book but they can be read on your computer, or printed out with a regular printer. Because you do not produce a “physical” product you also do not have any printing costs! So therefore, you can already guess, you will keep 100% of the profits you make. Even more powerful however is the fact that you can sell unlimited numbers of your book, and do not need any inventory. Nor will you be stuck with piled of unsold books. You create something now, and you can profit from it forever! You can write about anything you are knowledgeable about, or anything you would like to research further. If you do not feel comfortable with this you can easily hire a ghostwriter who will do it for you.

CD’s
The only thing you need is a CD burner and the sky is the limit; you can publish your e-book on CD, or a collection of books. You can also record you own music CD or publish a course. If you know how to write simple programs you can even make your own software. Or again; all you need is a good idea because you will easily find a professional willing to develop your product for you!

Audio Cassettes
These go along the same lines as CD’s; you can sell a product people can listen to in their car, on their way to work. You can even publish an e-book and a cassette version of the same product to maximize profits! Generally all you need is a tape recorder that can produce good quality tapes, and preferably one with two tape decks so you can easily reproduce the initial tape you made. Audio Cassettes are a bit more labour intensive than CD’s, but if you truly want to reach your entire target market, they are a must.

Special Reports
These are relatively short “books”, or just a collection of pages on a particular topic. Remember those reports you wrote back in school? Think a few of those bunched together, on a topic people want to learn more about.

Self Help Products
All the products above can be used in this category; people are always hungry for information, regardless of the state of the economy. In fact; when there is an economic downturn sellers who specialize in books on how to save money or make money see their profits grow faster than normal! Knowledge is profit; and you are unique like anyone else.

How to Create a Product
You more than likely possess enough knowledge to create hundreds of information products; however because you are unaware of the fact that there are people out there who do not know what you know, you are more likely to think you do not know anything special or worth selling. Think again! Have your friends ever asked you for advice or help on something? Whether in a hobby, at work, or a relationship? Are you good at your job? Or extremely involved in a special hobby? This little brainstorming session should already give you plenty of ideas that you can put to work right now!

The next step is to think of topics you want to know more about. It’s likely that if you are interested in something, other people are too. Now all you need to do is some research and then develop the product of your choice; you will be doing all those other people a favor by presenting them with a solution to their “problem” without having to do any research themselves.

Marketing Tips Provided to You by:
Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter
Author of Powerful Promoting Tips

Tips for the Self-Proclaimed Guru

You have an inspiring message, a wonderful solution, or a great product. You have something people need. Now, you have to let them know about it. You want to teach people to think of you as a guru in your subject of expertise. Fortunately, that’s not as hard to accomplish as you might think. The hard part is to convince yourself.

Who me? A guru? An expert?

Yes, you. Absolutely. A guru is simply an acknowledged leader or teacher. An expert is just anyone who has mastery of a particular subject. Neither of these words means that you know everything there is to know. They DO mean that a particular subject is your specialty. If you have delved so far into a subject that you have created new ideas or product around it, you have already exhibited mastery in your specialty.

But you’ll need more than intellectual understanding to give you the motivation to get the word out. So take a few minutes to do an inventory. Think back to your beginnings in your area of expertise. Remember your first published writings in the school newsletter. Relive your glory days as the class clown that held your audience in the palm of your hand. In the years since then, how many hours have you spent working, reading, talking, writing, and thinking about your subject? Add them up as best you can. You didn’t realize it, but you were a guru in training!

Word Power
The more you give voice to your identity as an expert, the more you’ll become recognized as one, both by people you know and people you’ll never meet. Create a memorable tagline that stamps your unique perspective on every promotional item you send out into the world. You don’t have to say, “Jane Doe…Parenting Guru,” but you might say, “Jane Doe…Connecting Parents and Kids.”

When taking on a new identity, it’s human nature to feel a bit like an imposter at first. But when you are comfortable with your role, other will be, too. Give yourself a job title. The more you own the fact that you are a parenting coach, a speaker, a writer, or an executive consultant, the more other people think of you that way. Introduce yourself as a speaker, even if you do it “only on the side.” Sign your email and business cards as a consultant, and people will begin to say to their friends, “I know of somebody who does that…”

When that happens, it creates a powerful upward spiral. You believe in yourself, you convey that in your presence and promotions, your prospective clients and audiences believe in you, and you believe in yourself even more, which starts the cycle all over again at a higher level.

Marketing Tips Provided to You by:
Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter
Author of Powerful Promoting Tips

How to Effectively Hire a Ghost Writer

How to Effectively Hire a Ghost Writer
In today’s busy world, whether your business is large or small, it is easy to become over whelmed with day-to-day tasks. Suddenly you realize that you need to update your web presence content or you need to have a processes and procedures manual on-hand in case of key personnel being out. It just becomes too much to handle! Or perhaps you need to produce articles to promote your business, but writing simply isn’t your forte. What do you do? It’s simple; hire a ghost writer to assist you in performing your writing tasks.
Professional, well-qualified ghost writers can be contacted via any number of freelance project posting sites such as http://www.guru.com/ or http://www.elance.com/, and others. These freelance project posting sites permit a buyer who needs writing projects completed, while maintaining all rights to the material upon payment, to post a project description and allow “Work for Hire” freelance writers to bid on your project. You can set the time length during which bidding is permitted and even request samples of the writers’ work for review.
When posting a freelance writing project for bid on any project posting site, you should strive to communicate facts clearly so that service providers can bid accurately on your project.
ü Establish exactly what length, in number of words or pages, you are requesting to be written for you.
ü Define exactly the content and purpose of your requested project. Some examples of content types are web content, search engine optimized web content, magazine article, resume, processes and procedures manual, how-to report, ebook, or white paper. The type of writer that will bid on one type of job may not be well suited to another type of project.
ü Define format requirement. These requirements include exactly what format you want the data should be delivered to you as a final product such as MS Word, plain text, or rich text format.
ü Determine precisely the deadline for delivery of your final products. If you have an exact need date for your material, state that date in your project description. Those writers who can not meet your deadline will simply not waste your time reading their bids.
ü Communicate any other requirements. You may want content to have bulleted points, or to have margins of 1.5 inches on every side. Any requirements that you desire in your final product should be stated in your project description. Most freelance writers, upon accepting your project award, copy your exact project description into their information files to ensure they are working to your specifications.
The online freelance project posting systems allow you to review the portfolios of the writers who are members of that system. You can select based on criteria such as previous feedback, length of time on the system and other factors to view a selection of service providers’ information. You can then select a few service providers which appear to fit your needs and invite them to bid on your project, if you wish.

Keep in mind when reviewing service providers’ feedback reports that no one makes everyone happy all of the time. If a 5.0 is a perfect rating, and a writer has over 20 projects on which they have received feedback, you can expect at least one client to have not given even an exceptional writer a perfect score. Be realistic and look for service providers with a feedback rating near the top as well as those at the top of the ratings.
Once bids have been placed on your project, review those bids. It is wise to identify which service providers bidding on the project included in their response your exact project requirements. If you stated that you desire 30 articles written and the bid stated the provider will write 15 articles for you, it is clear that they did not read the project description. That kind of inattention to detail when bidding can indicate a general lack of attention and your project deserves to be treated with care. A good service provider will tell you in their bid exactly what services they will provide for how much money and within what timeframe. If those key items are not contained in the bid, move on and review the ones that have clearly responded to your request.
If you request samples of work from the service providers bidding on your project, you can expect to receive anywhere from one to two articles per bid to as many as ten articles attached to bids. Read at least one sample from each bid to learn about that writer’s style and tone. If the sample style fits with what you have in mind and their bid reflected care and precision in bidding, you should add that writer to your “short list”.
As soon as you have honed the respondents down to three or four bids that are from reliable providers, choose based on price and turnaround time that best suits your personal needs. There are many, many wonderful freelance writers working in the global marketplace of the Internet today. Let them relieve you from some of your job stress by writing documentation and content for you!

Marketing Tips Provided to You by:
Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter
Author of Powerful Promoting Tips

How To Pick a Hosting Company
If you are seeking a new hosting company let me give you some words of wisdom because I have been through a few. One company even went belly up in the middle of the night giving me no notice. That was disastrous for me as well as my customers. If you are tired of hosting companies with poor service and excessive downtime then get ready to print this page out.
First thing first, you might take a step back from your website or E-business and think about what you want it to look like in the future. Then start making decisions about the hosting. Think about things like: How much traffic are you expecting? How many more sites will you build or could possibly build in the future? Are you going to load software to the server? Some of the best programs that smart marketers use need to be loaded: such as; affiliate programs and autoresponders and require a dedicated IP address. If you intend on growing then make sure these things are an option.
If you realized that you will want to have more sites in the future or currently are moving a lot of sites from one account to another. One thing you can do is get a dedicated server or keep your money in your pocket and find a hosting company that’ll allow you to have add-on domains. Did you realize that you could have one account for around $25 a month and all your domains on it? You, for the cost of $25 a month could host 2, 10, 15, 26, 45 domains. There ar e accounts out there that will let you do this. But here’s what you should know about these types of accounts, you are not limited in domains, but limited in the amount of space you have. So if you need more space, just ask and they’ll be happy to give it to you for a price.
If you want to market your website you should get your own IP address with your accounts. This will play a big part when it comes to search engines finding you, as well as increasing the utilization of your autoresponders.
One big thing to watch out for:Make sure that you find out what type of control panel the hosting company is using. If they don’t tell you I would be scared. I believe that the best hosting companies out there will use cPanel. If the hosting company is using cPanel then they will probably be bragging about it since it is designed very well.
Now here’s a quick checklist:
ü Step back and think about what you want
ü Check to see if they allow you to have add-on domains. If so, then what will it cost in additional fees? (Some companies have a one time fee for this).
ü Make sure you own your own IP address, not a shared IP. Most companies call this a dedicated IP address.
ü Look at the control panel, is it cPanel?
Now for the biggest question I always get: What hosting company do you highly recommend? I recommend a company called Frontier Power Hosting because of their specialized knowledge, excellent customer support reputation, and they meet these criteria. You can find them at http://www.frontierpowerhosting.com

Marketing Tips Provided to You by:
Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter
Author of Powerful Promoting Tips

Best-Selling Book Secrets

Everyone says, “Some day I’m going to write a book,” but few actually do. So congratulations on a noteworthy achievement! Now that you’re holding your book in your hands, after years of research, writing, editing and rewriting, the last words you’ll want to hear are, “That was the easy part.” Well, unfortunately, that was the easy part. Unless you don’t mind your only fans being family and close friends, or unless you’re already a celebrity with a big publishing house behind you, your new challenge will be letting the world know about your book so someone will actually read (a.k.a. buy) what you’ve so laboriously created. And the hard reality is that, in the madness of today’s publishing environment, the onus for successful book promotion lies almost exclusively with the author. Whether you fought your way through to a mainstream channel or decided to self-publish—whether you’ve written a self-help tool or a novel—odds are good that a publicist won’t be calling you tomorrow morning with a jam-packed itinerary of book signings and television interviews. Some of you may have a little help if you’re mainstream, but all of you will carry the lion’s share. So, where do you begin?
First of all, your book is no longer “your baby,” but a business—and as with any business, you must have a Marketing Plan. Number One in your plan should be creating a website that will help facilitate everything else we’ll cover in this article. If you already have a website (business or otherwise), add a banner headline announcing publication on your Home page. If you don’t have a website and/or don’t know how to create one, Google how to create a website, and plenty of user-friendly links will come up. The point is that your website should showcase your book as the feature, and you should offer the book for sale right there. Sign up for a Pay Pal account, if you don’t already have one (http://www.paypal.com/). This is an easy, affordable way for you to offer buyers a means to pay with a credit card, and that feature alone will help drive more books out the door.

Next you’ll need to develop a Sell Sheet consisting of: a) a summary of your book in 50 words or less; b) an author biography in one paragraph; and c) your field of expertise and how that relates to your book (not always relevant with fiction). Then identify your Target Audience—the “who” you had in mind while you were writing. If you’ve written a novel, will interested readers be male or female, young, middle-aged or seniors, action or romance devotees? If your book is non-fiction, are you targeting a certain business or profession? Do you already have a client or seminar base that will be a built-in market? If you don’t have a built-in base, what media outlets (radio, television, print) will help you build one, and which will be relevant and feasible? How do you get to Book Reviewers? (Reviews are golden, even if they’re not glowing—and reviews are mandatory for success. Without them, you don’t get interviews, and the good ones become marketing tools.) Each category and media market, by the way, can be easily researched via the Internet, and each will have to receive a Review Copy of your book. Once your target audience is clear, identify your book’s Position with a single sentence that explains why someone would want to buy your book over others in the same category. This is an extremely important element because, with every Review Copy you send out, you’ll have between 5 and 15 seconds to catch someone’s attention. Finally (and you’ve probably figured this out already), you need to decide how much money you’re able and willing to spend on your book promotion. Guess who buys all those Review Copies, for example? You’ll also need business cards (focused solely on your book), bookmarks, “Just Published” posters, announcement post cards, travel expenses and so forth.
But before you send out for oxygen, this new challenge isn’t as daunting as you may think, because the majority of Best-Sellers begin their successes locally. Your first contact won’t be to the New York Times, but rather your local newspaper. Send a copy of your Press Release (similar to your Sell Sheet but a more familiar format to the media). If you Google how to write a press release, you’ll find a wealth of tutorials. Then use a “local author” angle to approach the Manager or Event Coordinator in nearby book stores (small independent book sellers and big chains like Barnes & Noble), first about scheduling a book signing, and second about stocking your book on their shelves. (The former will be easier than the latter.) Check each store’s Event Calendar and attend several book signings to see how they’re done. When you have a signing scheduled, send invitations! Include everyone you’ve ever known, if you can afford the stamps. Although you’ll want to do a broadcast email to announce your book’s publication, signing events require old-fashioned invitations to bolster turnout. The book store(s) will also do a little advertising (usually very little, i.e., a flyer by the cash register), but your best hope for a large crowd resides in the people you already know.
Use your successes with local papers and book stores to secure interviews with other media outlets. Google to seek out venues in your area such as noon television news broadcasts and radio talk shows that are willing to feature new authors. Remember, every contact you make—through media, book stores, book reviewers, libraries, everyone—will need to receive a Review Copy of your book. Be sure to write REVIEW COPY in big, black magic marker letters on the inside front cover to minimize bootleg sales of all the books you’re sending out. Distribute widely and generously all of your other promotional materials, as well (Sell Sheets, Press Release, Business Cards…), and never travel without two copies of your book. Take a handful on your vacation. You just never know when a future fan will be standing in front of you.
This local focus will not only build success from the inside out, but will also help minimize cash outlays for airfare and hotels in the beginning. At the same time, however, expand your base by listing your book for sale on sites like Amazon and eBay (both sites have links that walk you through the process), and by entering your book in contests (have four or five on-going at any given time). Google again for those contests germane to your book, but research the sponsoring organization(s) before entering. Some are less reputable than others. Contests offer tremendous publicity potential, though, and many judges return valuable comments whether you win anything or not. Lastly, set up an automatically inserted tag line promoting your book at the bottom of every email you generate. That’s free advertising that could circle the globe.
Obviously, the how-to’s of book promotion could fill volumes—but the short version begins and ends with you. If you believe with a passion that your book can be a Best-Seller, then others will believe, too. Just keep in mind that, as with any project or craft, the devil is in the details. Orchestrating a book promotion can be a little like managing a goat rodeo, if all the basics aren’t in place. Make your plan, have your props, and then start calling on your local segment of the world. Every success will breed another, and the boundaries of “local” will continue to expand as far as you wish to push them. Of course, none of this happens overnight, and wisdom suggests putting your plans in motion while the book is still in the production cycle. Then allow yourself a few captivating moments when you first hold the “real thing” in your hands. Celebrate and feel that well-deserved pride. Okay. Time’s up.
The window of marketing opportunity is the first year after publication, which doesn’t leave room for many wasted days. Even though writing your book was the easy part, selling your book is the fruitful part—and nothing compares to the sound of someone saying, “I bought your book, loved it, and recommended it to my friends.” May those words ring familiar time and again along your personal path to your own Best-Seller!

Marketing Tips Provided to You by:
Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter
Author of Powerful Promoting Tips

Marketing Tips Provided to You by:
Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter
Author of Powerful Promoting Tips

Seminar Business Marketing and Promotion

When you feel like you’re always busy working on your business, but not getting where you want to go, it can be frustrating trying to figure out how to get your marketing on track. It can easily become a “not seeing the forest for the trees” feeling.

Here are three big barriers I regularly come across with business owners and how you can avoid them.

1. No Clear Definition of Success For some, the word Success brings thoughts of fame and fortune to mind. But for small businesses, I’d caution against this definition being your guiding light. When clarifying your own definition of success, I suggest starting with success from your client’s point of view.

What is it that you are trying to do for your clients? What is it that they’ll have or be able to do as a result of buying your service from you? Match this up with what you are passionate about. What is it that you love doing for your clients? I’ll know I’m successful when my clients no longer have to struggle with how to consistently attract more business.

2. Not Clarifying Who Your Ideal Clients Are When you can clarify who your ideal clients are, you are better prepared to know where to find them and how to market to them. You can develop messages that will appeal directly to them.

What do you know about your best clients? Spend some time to put together as complete of a profile as you can on the clients you enjoy working with the most. What are the demographics and characteristics? How would you describe them to someone who has never met them?

Without clarity of your ideal clients, you’re likely to waste time, effort, and money marketing to the wrong crowd(s) and/or not getting your message across.

3. Not Spelling Out Your Unique Value You must be able to clearly define what differentiates you from your competitors. If your prospects can’t differentiate you from all the competitive alternatives in the marketplace, then why would they come to buy from you?

Often for small businesses it’s not that they’re not unique, it’s just that they haven’t spent the time to evaluate and clearly describe how and why. What is it that you do better, faster, cheaper, or more effectively – whatever? Maybe it’s a unique model you’ve developed or the unique niche of clients you serve. Maybe it’s your satisfaction guarantee offered to clients.

Most important here is to spell out why your uniqueness is so important to your clients and prospects. Why should they care? What is it that they’ll get by coming to you for services?

Spend some time critically looking at these items for your business. It will be time very well spent. If you find you can’t see the forest for the trees, don’t hesitate to get some outside help.

Over the years that I’ve been involved with web marketing and ecommerce, I’ve had the pleasure of communicating with many of the real small business “movers and shakers” – the guys and gals earning 6 figures plus annually from their ecommerce ventures. I’ve learned much from the good and bad that online business strategy has to offer; especially regarding the mindset of people who claw their way to the top.

I’ve mentioned before that success in web marketing, or any marketing for that matter, is applied basic psychology, responding to the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) motivator of your target market. The more involved psychological strategies come into play when convincing a person who doesn’t want or need a particular product or service that they actually do. Successful marketers would probably also make very good (or very evil) psychologists :).

Often I’m asked questions like, “how do I succeed in online business” or “How did X make so much money?” or “how do I promote my sites effectively, for next to no capital outlay, while working only 2 hours a day in my underwear?”

No doubt you’ve also come across many products and services touting that you can generate a six figure income by using them – and in many instances, you can. We’ve all seen the “Make $x In Just 2 Months While You Sleep” type blurbs. What isn’t mentioned on many of these sales pages is one very important element in order to make the tool successful – you.

Regardless of the amount of money you invest in tools and the number of people you employ, if your head isn’t in the right space or you don’t have the personality traits that accompany success; your ecommerce venture will more than likely fail.

The following are some tips I’ve jotted down based on the common traits and strategies that I believe have been the major reasons for some marketers and site owners achieving massive success in online small business.

Determination

If you’re a person that’s easily discouraged, shy, or someone who retreats when told something can’t be done; then the online world is not for you. You must have total faith in yourself and your goals.

If you’re not prepared to forego a lot of “normal” pleasures in life while pursuing your goals, it’s better to stick to a salaried position – although bear in mind that at the end of your days, you may be left feeling unfulfilled and bitter.

The 2nd job

Almost everyone I know who has a successful home based online business started out working two full time jobs – one being their salaried employment, the other their biz. The salaried employment provides a source of funding and security, and sometimes experience, until the online business is generating real revenue.

Sure it’s tiring, but it’s better to spend a couple of years like this than to lose everything you have and then have nothing to fall back on. Those couple of years can set you up for life.

My business was funded through cleaning toilets in a club early in the morning, 7 days a week for a couple of years, plus a job in administration where I could hone some of my computer skills. The toilet cleaning wasn’t a particularly pleasant job as you can imagine, but it was humbling and strengthened my resolve to make things work.

So many times I’ve come across people who dream of having an online business but just can’t make this sort of time commitment or aren’t prepared to do “menial” labor to get kick-started. Due to their tertiary qualifications, or self perceived competence, they expect success to come served up on a silver platter and try to take all sorts of shortcuts to get there. It usually backfires.

Passion for success

Being passionate about your products and services surely helps in creating a positive vibe with your prospective clients. Being passionate about customer support is a fine thing too. Equally important is the passion to succeed, for *yourself* – not so much as a “head” thing (determination), but in your heart. It must be a burning desire.

Endurance/discipline

Very important – most of the marketers who say that they earned 6k in 6 days selling X product fail to tell you something – they may have spent hundreds of hours in prepping the product and promotion *before* it was released. The most successful marketers I know get “in the zone” and then keep going until the product has been released, which cuts down the duration of the ramp up stage.

For example, you should only sleep as much you really need to. Sleep is beneficial and necessary of course, but a great robber of time when you are building a business. Think about it – the average person spends 1/3 of their life in an unconscious state. Some people need 8 hours I guess, but imagine what you could achieve with 365 extra hours of productivity each year.
In the words of the great philosopher, Jon Bon Jovi – “gonna live while I’m alive and sleep when I’m dead” :).

Get yourself into good working habits and stay in them – routine is essential, especially when your business revolves around you. It’s so easy to let things slide for a couple of days because you’re tired or you’ve been kicked around a bit – and then so hard to get back into routine again. Lighten up the pace a little if you need to, but never totally ignore your business, even for a single day, unless it’s absolutely necessary.

Focus

There will be many time-burglars along the way. Recognize them and drop them quickly. Examples of time burglars include too much time spent on hobbies or recreational pursuits (although some R & R is essential); people who suck up your time without giving anything back, and as mentioned, excess sleep.

Sometimes tasks in your online biz are better farmed out to others – outsource where you can, which will leave you to focus on your core strengths; but do endeavor to gain some experience in each area of your business. No-one will give the level of attention to your business that you can.
Leadership

You may not have many staff, or any at all to start out with, but you will have service providers to deal with and yourself to lead. Be a good leader; listen and act on solid counsel, give clear instructions, and draw the line when someone you are dealing with oversteps their mark or fails to deliver.

Research

Many people fail in online business simply because they’ve had a really good idea, but no-one else, especially their target market, has shared their optimism. Just because you think something’s great and should sell, it doesn’t mean that will translate to sales.
The only people who can take a product that addresses a yet to be existent need and sell it successfully are the well established marketers, often using what I call “The Inner Circle” strategy.

For everyone else, solid researching skills must be in place before launching into ecommerce – the ability to gauge actual need, pricing points, required features, associated costs and target market demographics.

Family co-operation/planning

Family issues have killed so many potentially successful business. Before you embark on your journey, ensure that your family is there with you; supporting you, or at least tolerating you while you strive for success. Have a timeline that you can relay to them – i.e. “I will be working this way until X date, please hang in there with me until then”.

Don’t just have a plan in your head – write it down, broken down into milestones. By putting a dates on your milestones, it will let your family know that the ridiculous hours you may be working has a definite end date – to leave it open ended causes a great deal of stress on all.
Explain to them what it will be like during that time, don’t try to deceive them, but at the same time relay to them the benefits that will come as a result.

By having a written plan it can also help you to stay on track and pat yourself on the back as milestones are achieved.

Realism balance

Be optimistic, in fact, be very optimistic about your venture – but season your optimism with a dose of realism. Sure, the guy selling you a marketing tool or service says you can make 6k in 6 days – but he’s a pro; realistically you’ll take a lot longer than that. Set *achievable* goals, not pie in the sky targets – you’ll feel more fulfilled along the journey that way.

Dollars and sense

Treat your venture a little like responsible gambling – only spend what you are prepared to lose – if that’s everything, that’s probably a little over the top, but a personal decision.

Also bear in mind that as the revenue does start coming in, given the nature of the Internet, it can also dry up literally overnight. Put a decent percentage away for emergency use; ideally maintain 3 – 6 months living and business expenses in reserve at all times. Wherever possible, do not get into debt to finance your online business, get an extra job if you’re short on funds.

Action

There’s millions of people with millions of good ideas, but only a very small percentage have the drive to be able to execute them and see them through to the end. Procrastination in the online world is very dangerous as things move so quickly and trends appear/disappear every other day. Do your research and once you are satisfied that a particular strategy or tool will work – implement it immediately.

If you engage the services of ecommerce or marketing consultants, follow their instructions and counsel closely. Remember that consultancy is a two way street – if you’re not providing your consultants with the information they require in a timely manner and then acting upon their recommendations; you’ll run into major problems.

A good analogy to illustrate this is when a doctor prescribes you antibiotics, he tells you that you must take them all within a certain amount of time and in the proper way. Failing to do so can mean the infection flairs up again.

Promote, promote, promote

At every available opportunity, promote your business to others, even to the grocery store checkout person you are on semi-familiar terms with. Don’t be shy – you’ll be surprised in where you can generate interest. Even if the person you are talking to you about your business isn’t really interested, they may know of someone who will be. Sow seeds wherever you can, without being overbearing of course – try to talk about other things with people too ;).

Networking

The ability to network is a very important skill.

Networking is essentially about communicating with clients, suppliers and others within your industry with a view to personal gain. But it isn’t all about taking – don’t bleed your contacts dry for any information of benefit to you; ensure you give something back.
Firstly, network with your clients through regular contacts, requesting and acting on their feedback. Remember that word-of-mouth is still one of the most powerful forms of referral. Get clients to network for you by implementing affiliate/referral software and compensating them for their efforts. Many good quality shopping carts also contain affiliate functions. Once your affiliate program is in place, then lead by example by providing your clients with the tools and advice they need to refer others, plus relay the strategies you used to attract them to you in the first place.

Sometimes small business owners tend to get very paranoid about what the competition is doing, but will also shun communicating with competitor merchants. This can be quite counterproductive. There’s a whole swag of profits to be made through what I term “co-competition” and the “Inner Circle Strategy”.

I hope these points have given you some insight into what makes some of the well known online small biz entrepreneurs so successful. Good luck to you in your ecommerce venture – “have a dream, then make it real”

Marketing Tips Provided to You by:
Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter
Author of Powerful Promoting Tips

Become a Recognized Authority in Your Field – in 60 Days or Less!

You don’t have to be rock-star famous before you are recognized as an authority in your field. You just have to begin to get the word out. Your goal is to be the person that people think of when your field is mentioned. At first, that may happen only locally, but take heart. Start where you are, with what you have, and you’ll light a spark that could eventually become a firestorm of publicity.

Maybe you offer a workshop at your office, church, or community center. Get it in the community calendars, from newspapers to cable television. Call up your local news stations, and offer yourself as the subject of an interview. One listing or call at a time, you’ll begin to make a name for yourself.

When you have an event coming up, call your local news stations and offer to interview on their early morning or noontime talk shows. Prepare for your interview by identifying two or three main points you want to make about your subject. Take a blank videocassette to record the show. Then, you can send the recording as an audition tape to a station with a wider audience.

Contribute to public discussions. Write letters to the editors of newspapers and magazines whenever they cover stories in your field. You may offer an alternate viewpoint or simply compliment them on a well-written article. The more people see your name in connection with your subject, the more they’ll recognize you as an authority in your field.

You can take this strategy to the Web, too. Do you have a blog that allows you to share your thoughts and expertise on a daily basis? If not, that’s one place to begin. It’s quick, fun, and makes you available on the Web. If you already have a Web page, make it a habit to visit message boards in your field and post your link, along with your opinions.

Begin today to put these strategies into practice, and before the next 60 days are through, you’ll have a steadily growing number of people who recognize you as the authority in your field.

Marketing Tips Provided to You by:
Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter
Author of Powerful Promoting Tips

How To Get Free Publicity For Your Business

You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on advertising to build an effective campaign. In fact, you can get great publicity that will drive customers to do your door absolutely free of charge!
One of the best ways to do this is to attract press coverage. You don’t have to pay for advertising space to get written about in a newspaper or magazine, or on a website. All you have to do is interest the editor or webmaster in your story. Today’s media is huge – and it’s hungry for news. If you present a publication with a ready-made story that will interest their target audience they will snap it up.
The way to do this is to write a press release, sometimes called a “news release”. Release writing isn’t rocket science, but there are a few important tips and tricks to remember:
Make sure the release is dated, and has a contact name, address, phone number and email address. The contact should be a single, named individual.
Start off with an attention-grabbing headline that announces a piece of specific news. “Atlanta Motorbike Store Launches New Line of Helmets” is a good headline; “Atlanta Motorbike Store Has Another Good Year” is not. Your release should announce something specific and out of the ordinary.
Always include a quote. Store owner Mike Smith, 44, says, “we’re really pleased to be stocking X-Brand Helmets….” Quotes bring news stories to life and give them a human touch – you’ll look a long time before you find a professional media story without one.
Make sure your spelling, grammar and punctuation are one hundred percent accurate. If they’re not, the professionals in your target media will lose respect for you and trash your release. If you didn’t get top grades in English, get a friend to check it over.
Once you’ve written your release you need to distribute it. There are plenty of free newswires that will do this for you – http://www.internetnewsbureau.com/ is a good example. Remember that to be successful a press release needs to be targeted at a precise market. If you’re releasing on the topic of your new range of motorbike helmets in Atlanta, you’d better make sure every bike magazine and local newspaper in Georgia gets a copy.
It’s quite acceptable to email press releases. Just make sure that the text is included in the body of the mail – most sensible internet users are a little suspicious of mail attachments received from strangers.

So your release is out, and it’s getting you some coverage. Why other cost-free means can you use to build your business’s profile? Well, the obvious place is the internet. Here are some suggestions:
Build web links. It’s a tactic as old as the internet and it takes time – but it’s still worth it. Make sure your business’s name is on every relevant free directory on the web. This can be pretty backbreaking work, but it will pull in the customers. Crucially, it will also improve your website’s rank on Google and other search engines.
Post to message boards. If you can find a web discussion forum related to your business topic, join in and post regularly. Don’t simply push your product – get involved in the online community. This is a great way to establish contacts. Make sure that your username is the same as your business name and that your forum profile contains a link to your site
One rule of advertising hasn’t changed since prehistoric times: nothing beats word-of-mouth. Ultimately the secret of getting free publicity is having a great product that people will talk about. If you can get folks talking about you and your business, you’ve beaten every single Fortune 1000 company – they’ve spent millions on advertising and branding campaigns. If you’re smart, and if you’re persistent, you can achieve the same results without spending a single cent!

Marketing Tips Provided to You by:
Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter
Author of Powerful Promoting Tips

How to Create Your Own Blog Using Blogger
by Matt Bacak

It takes only a few minutes and is easy to setup your own weblog using the Blogger weblog system. By completing only three simple steps, creating an account, naming your blog and choosing a template, you too can join the thousands of people now blogging on the web. Here’s a detailed step-by-step guide to help to get you started using Blogger.

• Go to Blogger.com and click on the arrow that says “Create Your Blog Now.” You’ll be asked to create a username and choose a password that you’ll use to access your Blogger account; choose a display name that will be used to sign your posts (e.g., moody mom, bloggerx, etc.) and provide an email address. You’ll also be asked to check a box indicating that you accept Blogger’s Terms of Service . Then click on “Continue” to go the next screen.

• On the next screen to name your blog (e.g., The Blog Report, Myrah’s Insanity Report, etc.) You can choose any name you wish. After you choose your blog title, you need to choose your URL address. This is the web address that people can click to access your blog. Again, as long as it’s not taken, you can choose any address you want. Remember, the shorter and easier to spell the better it will be for people to remember. Also remember, that many thousands of people use Blogger to host their weblog and it may take you a while to find a web address that hasn’t already been taken. Finally, for security purposes, you’ll need to provide word verification by typing in the box the word that is displayed above the box on the screen. Then, click “Continue” to move to next screen.

• On the next screen, you’ll need to choose a template for your blog. This is the design of your blog, what your blog will look like to visitors. Blogger provides 12 different templates to choose from. Pick your favorite. You can change the look of your blog at a later time by choosing a different Blogger template or using of the hundreds of free templates that are available across the Internet. After you choose your template, click “Continue.” Blogger will begin creating your blog.

• Once it’s created, click on “Start Posting” and write your first post for the world to see. Click on “Publish Post” and Blogger will tell you it is publishing your post. Then click on the “View Blog” tab and you’ll find that you’re officially a member of the blogging world.

Marketing Tips Provided to You by:
Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter
Author of Powerful Promoting Tips