Make Money Easy For You

Many Uses for Custom Printed Promotional Products

Custom printed promotional products can be used in a variety of ways to get a particular message out to the public. Custom printing for promotional purposes is an inexpensive yet highly effective means of letting people know whatever message you have. There is an abundance of ways these items can be used and almost any venue, either personal or business, can use custom printing to help increase traffic. Signs, banners, balloons, vehicle wraps and apparel are just some of the types of customizable items that can be used for an event.

In business promotional items customized with your message have been proven effective time and again. Most businesses use some form or a combination of several types of custom promotional products. This is not an accident. Creating the custom work is not expensive and the results are proven. Businesses that use custom printing on giveaways and marketing materials have shown an increase in their sales and referrals. What business does not want an affordable way to increase their sales and profitability?

Using signs can garner exposure to the brand name and give directions on where the business is located. Banners can call attention to the area so it is easily seen. Banners can also highlight featured merchandise so they are more liable to sell. Vehicle wraps can grant exposure to the general public when employees visit customers and clients. Apparel can be used as thank you gifts to customers or be used to draw in new customers. The business uses for these products are many and only limited by your imagination. You can get creative with your custom designed promotions for business use.

Custom printing is not just for business use, though. There are many sporting, school and church activities that can use these tools to help promote their events. Banners and signs are ideal ways of getting the word out about the awards a school got, the score of a special sporting event, to announce the time and location of an event, to give service information or just for motivational messages. Again, the only limit is your imagination. Wherever you want to broadcast a message, use of signs and banners is a great way to accomplish that.

If you use the signs, you may want to highlight them with the use of custom printed balloons. The balloons will draw even more attention to the signs. Balloons are also great giveaway items for children. Apparel is a great way to generate money for your school, sporting team or church. Getting shirts, caps and jackets in your team or school color and then selling them for a profit is a great way to increase morale and spirit while making money for your organization.

Custom printed promotional products can be used for both business and personal use in a variety of ways. Whenever there is a message to convey, using custom printed promotional products is an affordable, effective way of accomplishing it. Balloons, signs, banners and clothing are just some of the custom printed promotional products that are available to help increase recognition of and exposure to your message.

Read more: Many Uses for Custom Printed Promotional Products

You Would Think This Would Just be Common Sense

About 10 months ago my family and myself moved to Brunswick, Georgia. We informed everybody of our new address including our insurance company. You would think that since we informed the insurance company that we were no longer in Florida that we would now reside in Georgia that they would of then said “Hey, we need to change his policy to a Georgia one at this time”. Did they do this? Hell no, instead I find out when it is time for me to pick up my prescriptions for the month and Walgreens asked if I’d be paying cash for everything.

The cash amount for all the medications that I take on a daily basis would amount to well over $1,000 for the entire month.. With my insurance my Co pay would have only been like $14. Imagine my surprise when I learned from Walgreens that my prescription insurance was no longer valid. I have been paying my premiums each and every month like clockwork so this did not make sense to me at all. Needless to say, my morning and part of my afternoon was spent talking to the insurance company, to Medicare, and to Social Security. After everything is said and done it turns out that I will not be covered for the month of March.

Getting a Georgia address was not just getting a new mailing address. I indeed did move to Georgia. Why the insurance company still kept me in a Florida policy is beyond me. The insurance company isn’t the only one that failed at common sense. I just received this email today from a marketer who said he will give me a free list of all the resources he feels are invaluable. When you click the link in the email it takes you to this page where you see this great site at a cost of like $97 and this marketing book also with a cost of almost a hundred dollars. Then at the end of the email this marketer is trying to sell you all this stuff for less than $200 if you buy from him. Are these really great resources or is he just trying to sell you more crap?

Are there actually a lot of people in this world that believes that everyone else is an idiot? Don’t you love those email that say you can get something or another completely free then after you have entered your email address into a squeeze page so you can get this supposed free info you are taken to a one time offer page trying to sell you something? I think the real idiots are the people at these insurance companies and these supposed smart marketers.

In the town that I live there are pedestrian crossings all over the place but there are no sidewalks. So we are just supposed to walk in the street except for when we come to an intersection. They don’t care about the fact that we can be killed while just walking to the store just as long as we are not killed while crossing an intersection.

In one of the local shopping centers when I am trying to get out of the line of parked cars. The cross traffic in the center could pause for a minute to let me make the turn but no they just keep on going making me wait like 10 minutes just to make that damn turn. What ever happened to politeness. Do people even have values any more. Are we all just trying to take care of number one and the hell with everybody else?

I, too, am sometimes guilty of things which should be common sense to me. My wife and I probably spend between $10 and $15 a day on Cappuccino or an Americano for myself. When you figure out how much we are spending per day and multiply this times 30 we are spending between $300 and $450 per month for this stuff. For this kind of money we could get one of those high end machines for our home and by the second month see our savings.

Read more: You Would Think This Would Just be Common Sense

Here You Will Learn The Secrets Of Writing A Good Press Release

You should be able to find several indispensable facts about press relase, pr in the following paragraphs. If there’s at least one fact you didn’t know before, imagine the difference it might make.

Does the thought of trying to get publicity for your business seem like something that you can’t do yourself, and would have to hire a professional for? Do you think that writing a press release is totally outside your ability to do? Does the thought of talking to the media about your business make your mouth go dry and your stomach clench? If so, take heart, because you’re about to learn how you can take care of your own publicity, simply and easily.

Getting publicity for your business can seem like an impossible task – something that only happens for bigger companies that can afford to hire publicists.

The reality is, getting free publicity for your business isn’t that difficult. Welcome to “Media Training 101 – The Secrets of Writing a Good Press Release”. By the time you finish reading this article, you’ll not only understand the basics, you’ll know what goes into the process, and what you have to do to get started writing your own press release.

First of all, let’s go over some basic terminology you need to be familiar with.

Press Release: A statement with useful and relevant information that is written for distribution to the media.

Hook: The information or larger story that you can use to attach your press release to. Using the right “hook” in the right way can help you to get more publicity for your business.

Spin: Telling your story your way.

The good news about learning to write a Press Release is that there is an established format that you need to follow. And once you’ve learned the basics, writing a press release is a kind of “cookie cutter” process. Here are some basic ideas to keep in mind:

Make your news “newsworthy”. A press release is not a sales advertisement. A good press release answers all of the “W” questions (who, what, where, when and why), and sometimes “how”. Your purpose in writing it is twofold: to provide the media with useful and relevant information about your organization, product, service or event and to get your name out to your target market.

Begin with a strong headline. Your headline and first paragraph need to grab the reader’s attention. Without being flowery or overly dramatic, you have only the first few seconds to grab your reader’s attention and get them to read your story, and decide if it’s worth running. So don’t blow it by being vague or weak. The rest of your press release can give them the nitty-gritty details.

Tailor your story to your Primary audience – the media. Your secondary audience is your target market, but if the media doesn’t decide that your story is newsworthy and runs it, your potential customers will never know about it!

If your press relase, pr facts are out-of-date, how will that affect your actions and decisions? Make certain you don’t let important press relase, pr information slip by you.

Pay attention to your writing. Sometimes, especially in rural areas and online, the media will run your press release in their publications with little or no modification, so make sure you have used your spelling and grammar check before sending it, and keep to the facts. Most of the time, journalists will use your press release as a stepping off place for a larger feature story, especially if you can show larger relevance to other current events. Always develop your story as you want to have it told and put your spin on it. Even if your story is not reprinted verbatim, always remember what your purpose is in writing it to provide exposure for you, and to help brand you as an expert in your field.

Not everything is news. Just because you are excited that you made your first big sale, or started a new product line, or wrote your first article, doesn’t necessarily mean that the press are going to think you have a newsworthy story. From the time you start your first draft, keep your audience in mind. Who will find your story interesting? Why are they going to find it interesting? How is it relevant to something else that’s going on right now?

Identify a problem, and show how you are solving it. Use real life examples about how your company or organization solved or is solving a problem. Give examples of how your service or product fulfills needs or satisfies desires. What benefits can be expected? Use real life examples to powerfully communicate the benefits of using your product or service.

Stick to the facts. Always tell the truth. Avoid fluff, embellishments and exaggerations. It is part of a journalist’s job to be skeptical. If you want to use publicity effectively, then you’re not looking for a one night stand. You want to gain the trust of the media, establish your credibility, and build an on-going relationship with your local media, so that you become a resource for them within your industry.

Find your hook. Try to make your press release timely. Keep informed about what is going on in your community, in your state, region, the country or the world. Is there a local, regional or national news story that somehow ties in to your industry or your business? If you can hook your press release to current events or social issues, you increase your chances of having it picked up. If not, then make sure your story is relevant to the needs, wants or problems of your community or target audience.

Use an active, not passive, voice. Use strong verbs that will bring your press release to life. If there is controversy, describe it. There is an old adage in the news business: If it cries it flies, and if it bleeds, it leads (Not very nice, but it is often true.) So, while you may not be crying or bleeding, make what you are writing about stand out. Use active verbs. Write partnered rather than “entered into a partnership” or engaged rather than interested, etc. Writing in this manner will help guarantee that your press release will be read.

Use only enough words to tell your story. Avoid using unnecessary adjectives, flowery language, or redundant expressions such as “added bonus” or “first time ever”. Paint a strong, vivid picture in the minds of your audience by making each word count.

Use jargon sparingly. There are times that some jargon is required if your goal is to optimize your news release for online search engines, but whenever possible, speak plainly, using everyday language. Avoid words like “capacity planning techniques” and “extrapolate”.

Avoid hype. The exclamation point is your enemy. You will destroy your credibility by using hype. If you must use an exclamation point, use one. Never do this!

Get Permission. Most people and companies are very protective about their reputations. Be sure that you have written permission before including information or quotes from employees or affiliates of other companies or organizations. If there is a hint of a dispute in this area, chances are your press release will be tossed aside, and never used. And you will lose your credibility.

If you follow those simple rules, you’ll be able to put together a newsworthy story that will help you achieve your goals of getting the word out about your business.

Don’t limit yourself by refusing to learn the details about press relase, pr. The more you know, the easier it will be to focus on what’s important.

Read more: Here You Will Learn The Secrets Of Writing A Good Press Release

4 Step Magic Formula to Attract Flow of Leads to Your Website Consistently – Absolutely Free

If you’re sick and tired of increasing your subscriber base and want some permanent no-cost solution, then here’s good news.

Now you can own the magic formula and cash-in on one of the greatest traffic and lead generation tactic at will.

Step 1 – Create a Free Package.

Remove 5% out of your product and create a high quality package for your subscribers.

It can be an ebook, report, ecourse, video, etc. Now give this package to your subscribers absolutely free.

Step 2 – Create a Squeeze Page

Squeeze page is a webpage that collects your visitors name and email address and automatically forwards your free package to your subscribers with the help of autoresponders.

Create a killer squeeze page with eye catching design and graphics and benefit laden copy. You have to convince your visitors to give you their name and email address to grab the package for free.

Step 3 – Write a Killer Article.

Write a quality article that is related to your free package. Provide quality step by step info in this article.

In the resource box stick an ad that offers your article readers your free package and directs them to your squeeze page.

Let us assume that you are giving a free video that shows how to start an internet business. You can write an ad similar to this one…

FREE Video: How to Create Your First Money-Making Website in 4 Simple Steps? – Rush NOW to…

And then include your squeeze page url.

Step 4 – Spread Your Article.

Once you have your article ready, submit your article to article directories like ezinearticles.com

There are hundreds of article directories that exists online. To make your submission process faster make sure you use article distribution service like ‘Article Marketer’.

You can even get a free subscription out there.

Make sure you also distribute your articles to ezine publishers and website owners. Hunt them on google and send them a brief email saying that you regularly write articles in your niche and if they give permission, you can send them your articles on regular basis.

Create a list of ezine publishers and website owners and regularly send them your articles as and when you create them.

Post your article on your website and give free distribution rights to your article only if the user of your article places your resource box under your article.

Once you do this you will soon see that your article spreads all around the web.

Visitors will read your article on different websites and move on to your squeeze page. They will submit their name and email address and get into your list where your autoresponder system will follow up and sell your products and services.

Step 5 – Repetition.

Whenever you want a flow of leads to your website, just repeat steps 3 to 5 and watch your traffic counter and subscriber base explode.

Just apply this simple 4 step blueprint consistently and see your internet business skyrocket within few months of creative efforts, absolutely FREE.

Read more: 4 Step Magic Formula to Attract Flow of Leads to Your Website Consistently – Absolutely Free

Shop Online For What You Want

Modern lifestyles leave everyone with fewer hours to accomplish more work. Many people find it difficult to manage home, office and kids along with shopping and cooking. Though not much can be done about some work, with the help of the internet, it is possible to save time and achieve more in a day if you shop online for what you want.
The internet has numerous online stores offering practically everything and anything that a homemaker needs. It is possible to buy groceries, vegetables, fruits, meat, dairy products, medical supplies, gifts, clothing; in fact, anything that you can think of is available on the internet.
When you shop online for what you want, there is no need of wasting time and more money looking for the various products that you need. You have to just visit few sites like www.merchantland.com where you will find varieties of products from lower range to upper range and can get of your selection and at affordable price. It is advisable to match up cost and products of different sites before purchasing as price list varies of each and every site. But be sure that you get quality product before compromise with price range.
Different sites may have different rates for different products. When buying from an online store, you find that most of the rates are cheaper then traditional stores as these products are offered retail prices. However most sites have shipping charges that will have to be borne by you. So check out on this point before placing an order.
It is better to place an order for the product you need from an online store that is found near your locality as the shipping charges will be lower here. Moreover, if the store is located near you, the product will not take long to reach you. If you need a product to reach you within a stipulated date, you could also ask for this provision when you shop online for what you want. There are many online shopping directories that you can refer to find out which online store offers the product that you need.
It is always better to purchase product through credit card as if any problem occurs then there will be proof that you have purchased some product from site where as if you take it in cash then it would not be possible for canceling payment nor you will have any kind of proof. When you go from credit card if you don’t wish to purchase then you can cancel out your payment.
Check on the return policy of the site before you do your shopping. There are some sites like www.merchantland.com that permits exchanges on faulty products. Sometimes the product which you buy may not be of the right size or have some fault in it. In such situations, you will have to return the product. So confirm that the site entertains the return of products. So it can be seen that with the right research, it is rather safe, cheap and convenient to shop online for what you want.

Read more: Shop Online For What You Want

The Ebay Buyer’s FAQ

So you have a question? Has something gone very wrong and you don’t know what to do? Well, fair enough. Here are the questions that I hear all the time from buyers.

Does eBay have a Customer Service Department I Can Phone?

eBay are notoriously hard to contact, should you ever need to it sometimes seems like they expect the site to run itself. You can email them, as long as you don’t have your heart set on a coherent response or you might have better luck in a live help webchat.

Only eBay Power Sellers (sellers with a very high feedback rating) get to phone customer service. If you really want to try your luck, type ebay [your country] phone number into a search engine and you’ll probably find something. Unfortunately, the chances are you’ll have gone to all that trouble for the privilege of leaving an answerphone message.

It might seem cruel, but imagine the number of people who would call eBay every day with the silliest questions if they gave out their phone number everywhere. Its Wild West nature is, in a way, part of its charm.

eBay Sent Me an Email Saying They’re Going to Close My Account. What Should I Do?

This email asks for your password, right? It’s a scam, an attempt to frighten you, make you give up your details and then steal your account. eBay will never ask for your password or any other account details by email. eBay say that you should only ever enter your password on pages that whose addresses start with signin.ebay.com They even offer a special Account Guard as part of their toolbar, which lets you check that you’re not giving your password to a dodgy fake site.

It Seems Too Good to be True. How Does eBay Make Money?

For you, the buyer, eBay is free. Sellers, though, pay all sorts of fees: a listing fee for each item they list, a final value fee (a percentage of what the item sold for). They can then pay optional fees for extra services, including Buy it Now, extra pictures, reserve prices, highlighting the auction, putting it in bold, listing it first in search results or even putting it on the front page.

It’s obviously worth it to the sellers, though, or they wouldn’t carry on using eBay. The system is quite efficient, and basically forces both eBay and the sellers to keep their profit margins as low as possible otherwise prices will simply go too high and the buyers will stop buying.

How Safe is eBay?

Well, as it happens, that’s the subject of our next email! All of eBay’s safety services for buyers and sellers are in one place, called SafeHarbor. SafeHarbor handles fraud prevention and investigation, helps with dispute resolution and keeps rule-breakers in check. Read all about it next time, and be safe

Read more: The Ebay Buyer’s FAQ

Low Cost Ways to Get Visitors to Your Website

Getting visitors to your website has been the ultimate goal of internet marketers. More traffic equals more money, so they say. But how can you do it without spending a fortune?

Unknown to many there are a few ways of getting visitors to your site without risking a lot of money. But remember, it’s not that easy. It takes more work. So, if you would rather work instead of pay to get visitors to your site, then here are a few things you can do:

1.Submit articles to article directories. This is probably one of the most effective ways of getting traffic to your site. By submitting articles with a link that points to your website, you are assured of long term traffic. As long as your article stays in the directories that you submit to, people can find it and the chances of getting traffic to your website is increased. A few of the article sites where you can submit to are goarticles.com, ezinearticles.com, ideamarketers.com, articlecity.com and articlesfactory.com.

Of course, there are thousands of directories you can submit to, but manual submission will take a considerable amount of time. I found the best way to submit articles is to use an article submission company. A simple search will give you many resources of submission services. Prices will range from a per article fee and monthly subscriptions. I use Article Marketer. You can find them at http://www.articlemarketer.com. I think their price is $34.00 for 3 months and you can submit unlimited number of articles.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It’s not really rocket science. SEO is simply a technique that you implement on your site to rank higher in the search engines. Here are the things you might want to implement right away:

a) Your domain name should have your keyword in it.

b) Title tag of each page of your site should contain your keyword.

c) Your keyword should be on the first paragraph of your page.

d) The image alt tags should contain your keyword.

e) The file names of each page of your site should also have your keyword.

(If you need more information on search engine optimization, click the link in the resource box.)

3.Create a blog then link it to your site. Postings at Blogger are easily indexed by Google. Updating your blog is feeding the search engines. Each time you put fresh content out, the search engines will notice it and come running to eat it all up. Have your blog pinged every time you add new content. Putting your keywords in this fresh content will help you rank higher in the search engines. Your site gets updated a lot if you link your blog to it. Blogging is easy and it adds a lot of pages to your site. You can get free blogs at blogger.com and wordpress.com.

4.Posting in forums related to your topic. By participating in forums you’ll have the opportunity to place your link in the signature line and get traffic from forum members. You can find a forum related to your topic by going to a search engine and typing your keyword + forum. Make sure the signatures you post in forums are catchy to attract readers and make them click on your link and come to your site.

These are simple, cheap and very effective ways of getting visitors to your website. Implementing the above would guarantee a stream of traffic not only for the short term but also for the long haul

Read more: Low Cost Ways to Get Visitors to Your Website

Article Marketing – Cracking the Code to Success!

Article marketing is still one of the most widely used forms of promotion by website owners. There is no doubt that it holds many benefits, but it is important that we understand the right way to approach article marketing and don’t fall for the same mistakes that many seem to make.

The basic concept of article marketing is to submit an article on a chosen topic and to receive exposure and promotion for our business in return for syndicating to article directories. The amount of exposure and promotional benefit our business can receive depends on how well we use article marketing.

In order to benefit from article marketing as much as possible there are a number of things that we should consider. In this article I will touch on several of them.

Spelling and Grammar

For some authors this isn’t a problem. However, for many others it could be one of the reasons why article marketing is a method that they try to avoid. This shouldn’t be the case as a simple spell checker can solve most errors.

Article Title

This is arguably the most important part of the article. The title is what grabs the readers initial attention, and in conjunction with correct keywords holds the key to the amount of traffic that articles can receive.

Keywords

Following on from the point I’ve just made about the title, the correct use of keywords is what influences that amount of constant traffic that we can possibly receive from our article ranking in the search engines. Related keywords are also important with recent search engine algorithm updates.

Knowledge

In order to make the most of the readers that choose to read our article it is important to show our knowledge. By demonstrating how much we know about a certain topic we can gain the trust of the reader before they have even visited our website link. This is highly important as it can affect how the visitor reacts to our website (reading more content, opting in to a newsletter, buying a product).

Resource Box

Having successfully managed to get the reader to read our article it is now time to create a “call to action” in our resource box. This is where we ask the reader to do something by following the website link that we provide. This could be to go and sign up for an eCourse, download an eBook, buy a product, or to simply visit a website to read more articles on the topic.

Read more: Article Marketing – Cracking the Code to Success!

Custom made exhibition stands

Exhibitions and trade shows are a very powerful marketing and promotional tool when done professional. They are a great way for your company to attract potential new customers. Creating the right corporate image for your business is very important and done correctly could seriously increase your business status . When done correctly the use of colour, logos and images can create a breath taking display. You want a display stand that is eye catching enough so it stands out and draws potential customers to you. The wording needs to be clear and large enough for people to read from a far. You want your display to attract people and bring them to your stand; only a smart professional design will do this.

You can get exhibition stands in all shapes and sizes, some can be collapsed and moved around, although some can be permanent displays like the display stands you see in museums and visitor centres. You can also get trailers fitted out so you can take your exhibition all around the country. Road shows are becoming more and more popular and a great way for companies to move around the country promoting their products or services.

A good exhibition designer will build your stand to your exact specification. If you have no specification then a good design company will be able to come up with a good design for you. You may have a logo or company headed paper that can be used as a starting point. The more you tell the designer about your company and the image you are trying to portray the better the overall appearance and design will be. Getting this image right is very important

Some companies will also design professional looking plinths, podiums, kiosks and workstations and lots of other accessories. All of these will help with drawing buyers to your stand and keep their attention for longer. Some stands can be made with the intention of holding computers or laptops. You can also get stands made with the computer integrated into the displays.

Outdoor stands are great for travelling displays or road shows and if designed properly can be used time and time again. Some stands can be designed as flat packs so anyone can move them from show to show and assemble them themselves.

Kiosks are another great type of display. Some kiosks are flat pack designed, so they are easy to move around and construct yourself.

The costs of display and exhibition stands vary considerably, they can be priced anywhere from a few hundred pounds to thousands of pounds. But as long as you get the design right in the first place and they are made to a good quality you should be able to use them year after year.

Read more: Custom made exhibition stands

The Art Of Negotiating: In Today’s World, The Skilled Negotiator Has The Advantage

When we realize that virtually every aspect of our business and personal life requires negotiation, the benefit of being a better, more efficient negotiator is clear.

Negotiating skills are not usually part of our formal education, though we use these skills all day, every day. These skills are at the very core of both our professional and personal lives. It doesn’t matter if we run General Motors or the corner snowball stand or our households, we all have to communicate and convince effectively.

What is negotiation, anyway? Negotiating can be explained as simply as “working side by side with other to achieve some beneficial result.” Luckily, it is a practical skill that can be learned. It is not a genetic trait we’re born with, like blue eyes or black hair. So no matter what our age or our position in life, if we develop a certain attitude about negotiating, pay attention to honing our skills, then our life will run smoother.

Some things to remember when developing a negotiating strategy:

• Act collaboratively, not competitively. It is not “me against you.” When we see the other person as a bargaining partner, we are aware that everyone must come away with a benefit. It is a big mistake to think someone is going to give you something for nothing. So try to determine what it is the other person might want, in exchange for what you want. And then present your case to show them that, if they will help you get what you need, you will help them get what they need. Make “Mutual Benefit” your mantra.

• Personalize the situation; deal as individuals, not as institutions or corporations. You are not talking to “the Tchula bank” but to Charlie Smith, the person sitting in front of you, who represents the bank. Flesh and blood Charlie Smith. Realize that you negotiate on behalf of yourself, representing the company. When you see the other person in this light, you are able to look them in the eye. This eye contact

• Increase your expectations. You usually get what you expect to get. If you don’t think you will get the promotion, you probably won’t. If you don’t think you will land the contract, you probably won’t. There is no way you will put your best effort forward if you think, in the back of your mind, you won’t succeed anyway. So you might as well act as if you expect to get whatever it is you want. You will be pleasantly surprised when you do! You see, when you truly expect to get what it is you are seeking, others see this in you.

• Know what you want. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But surprisingly, there are many times when we go in to a negotiating session saying, “Let’s see what they offer us.” Why let the other person decide what you will get? Nobody knows your business or your life as you do. Being able to state specific proposals gives you strength.

• Stay focused on the real issues. Decide what you absolutely want to come away with; what extra’s it would be nice to come away with; and what you can do without if you need to give them up to reach an agreement. Why do you need to determine these things in advance? Because in the “heat of battle” you won’t be able to focus on these issues so easily, and you could be very surprised at what you didn’t get or at what you gave away.

• Prepare. Do you homework; thoroughly research the person or company with which you’ll be dealing. Is the company an innovative one or a staid one? Is the person with whom you are negotiating known for being creative or for being more traditional? With all the information available on the Internet today, there is virtually nothing we can’t find out beforehand. Whether we are researching a corporation or a person. Just Google-ing someone is likely to bring up something we didn’t know. And of course, there is the old-fashioned way: just ask. Ask industry colleagues (non-competing ones) or acquaintances. It should not surprise you how much people like to talk about what and who and how much they know!

• Make time your ally. Try to know your counterpart’s deadline without giving away yours. Why? Because if I know your deadline to solve a problem or come to an agreement, I can stall any decision up to the point I know you have to make a decision. Most concessionary behavior and settlement action occur close to someone’s deadline; don’t let it be yours.

These are just a few of the many points necessary to knowing more about the negotiating process. Will practicing negotiation skills take time and effort? Of course. But becoming a more efficient, smarter negotiator will bring you many rewards in both your professional and personal life.

Read more: The Art Of Negotiating: In Today’s World, The Skilled Negotiator Has The Advantage

One Of The Most Powerful Self-Marketing Tools A Consultant Can Have, And How To Successfully Use It

I’ve long known that the humble ezine is one of the most powerful tools a business consultant can have. Here’s what you need to know so you can use it for maximum marketing success:

Direct mail is the #1 most important self-marketing tool you can use as a new or struggling consultant.

And why?

Because with direct mail you can create a list of prospects…your own custom list of “cherry picked”

potential clients.

Think about it. In every other form of self-marketing

(networking, article writing, etc.), you attract prospects, but they’re not “cherry-picked.” If you want Microsoft on your client list, then you have to target Microsoft. And the most direct, most accepted way to get in front of your target at Microsoft is to send a letter.

Virtually every other form of marketing ill “attract” your audience, but you can’t control exactly who responds. Only a direct mailing to a hand-picked audience will get you the cream of the crop.

Now while direct mailing may be very effective, it IS time-consuming and expensive.

Therefore you’ll want to use your direct mailings (and all other forms of self-marketing) to do one thing:

Drive your prospect to your web site where not only can they get to know you, but they can also sign up for your…

FREE ezine!

Once you get enough people signed up for your ezine, you can scale back on the direct mailings (or if you wish, cease them altogether).

Your free ezine is your #2 most important self-marketing tool. Now you can market to an interested audience cheaply and easily!

Savvy online marketers know that the ezine is the world’s most effective tool for converting leads. Some individuals and online businesses have made MILLIONS exploiting the power of the ezine to build relationships and convert leads!

So whatever you do…direct mail, public speaking,

articles, whatever…make one thing your goal always:

Get your prospect to your web site so they can sign up for your free ezine!

So, how do you do that without twisting arms?

Well, with bribery of course

The “power tool” for getting people’s names and addresses has always been “something free.” In lead-generation, which is what consultants must do to get clients, a free consultation, free information, or some other enticement is used.

Direct marketers know that the MOST effective free offer involves the solving of a “key pain” of the prospect.

For instance, as a copywriter for software companies, I know that marketing directors are “in pain” over ROI (return on investment). So I might entitle my free ezine the “Software ROI Generator.”

Now that’s a compelling title for a free ezine that

promises to solve a software marketer’s problems… but these days, with so much information available, it’s no longer enough just to have a great ezine title.

What works now is to offer something EXTRA for signing up, such as a free instant download of a free report…with yet another promise to solve a pain.

For the software marketing director who signs up for my free ezine, I might offer a free instant download of the report: “The 7 Hidden Revenue Sources Within Your Database That You Can Tap NOW for Instant Profit.”

You see…once again I prod at the “pain”…the constant concern over ROI.

What’s a hot button for your audience? If you don’t know, call them and find out! Most business people are happy to talk with a consultant who is doing earnest research to find out what their target market’s problems are.

Our job, after all, is to solve problems. That’s how

virtually EVERYBODY gets paid!

Read more: One Of The Most Powerful Self-Marketing Tools A Consultant Can Have, And How To Successfully Use It

Creating The Perfect Marketing Plan

Marketing is one of the most important strategic decisions your company has to make to survive and the plethora of advice on how to market, who you market to and how much effort to put into marketing is overwhelming.

Modern marketing theory dates back to the 70′s when a new data source on consumer demographics opened up: Credit card transactions. Now it was possible to buy data from credit card companies about what consumers in which areas bought what items, along with how old they were, their marital status and their credit ratings.

With this information in hand, marketing switched from a product marketing focus (how do we get our products in the hands of the most consumers) to a consumer marketing focus (what untapped needs and wants in the consumer space are out there and how to we meet them and be first to market in meeting them?).

Consumer-focused marketing and market research pervaded the entire retail tier, even down to super markets with their discount cards, tracking what consumers buy and how frequently, to tighten up their stocking levels on products.

Market research is important to your business and marketing, above and beyond the research is all about converting that research into generating leads for customers who want your services and converting those leads into buyers. Once they’ve bought your services or products, marketing is about maintaining the relationship with your customer, being responsive to their needs, finding out what they want and getting it to them before your competition does.

Most marketing plans can be broken down into three phases.

Phase 1 is defining and narrowing your objectives: Important questions to ask are: Who are our potential customers? What do they want or need that they aren’t getting right now? How do we meet that need in the current market place? Understanding what the strategic landscape is, and knowing who your potential customers are is essential to any marketing plan.

Phase 2 is contingent on phase 1, and the important questions at this phase are: Who are our current customers? What are we doing to make them return to us, rather than look at the competition? Based on what they’ve bought from us before, what new product ideas, packaging or categories can we offer them to increase our perceived values in their eyes? How are we bringing information about our new products to our customer base? What are we doing to ensure brand loyalty? Understanding how your existing customers purchase in aggregate, and spotting trends in their needs is important for remaining nimble in your marketing plan. You don’t want to abandon your current customers while searching for new ones.

Phase 3 is the most nebulous phase of your marketing plan and it requires a firm commitment to phases 1 and 2. As your business grows, you need to constantly look for new trends and product categories you can sell to your existing customer base and use to find new customers to add to them. It requires flexibility and planning and forethought.

Thinking through these three phases will greatly improve your marketing plan and bring success to your business.

Read more: Creating The Perfect Marketing Plan

Search Engine Marketing Optimizing your site for profits

Search engines are the best way to get free targeted visitors to your website. A top ranking on Google can literally mean millions of dollars for highly searched terms. A top rank on MSN or Yahoo can also bring substantial money your way.

Getting to the top of the major search engines is somewhat difficult for the really big terms. But somebody else did it and so can you.

All over this site I recommend building a large interlinked website. Hundreds of pages all linking to and from each other. Each page optimized for a specific search term and containing good content and some well placed Adsense ads and a few affiliate links.

The best way to get at least some good rankings is to put up 500 well optimized pages. To help you, here are some tips about the basics of search engine marketing by optimization.

Getting the Basics Right

META Tags

The most basic of optimization principles are META tags. You can find a lot information all over the place about the mystical META tags. The reality is that most search engines now place very little weight in them.

The only tip you really need about these tags is this: USE META TAGS FOR THEIR INTENDED PURPOSE. Use them to accurately identify the true content of your pages.

These are the things you need to focus on.

Title – The most important of the META tags because its what everyone sees. The title should contain the keyphrase for the page first, then follow it up with a related search term or two. It should make sense to the reader so they want to click it.

Keywords – Many people suggest that you cram several varieties of your key phrase into the keyword section. What you should do is go to the Yahoo Search Marketing tool and type in the main two word key phrase you are targeting.

Cut and paste the list to a document on your desktop for easy access. Go down the list of the top 50 related searches and write down each word that appears other than the main key phrase This is called your related search keyword list.

You will probably come out with about 30 words or so. These, along with the keyphrase, are your keywords. Use them in the META tag and make sure they all appear somewhere in your template so they are on every single page.

Description – Write 50 or so words to accurately describe your sites content. Try to say it in a way that makes the reader want to click the link. You should use the key phrase only once or twice and as many of the words from the keywords list you made as you can fit in while still making sense.

Other than that, folks, the whole issue of META tags has been discussed to the point of further discussion being pointless and time wasting. There are no secret tricks that will take your site to the top by tomorrow afternoon, but my keyword tip should help you get better across the board rankings on the next cycle after you do it. You know what to do with the META tags, so just do it if you haven’t already.

META tags are not to be used to try to trick the search engines. Get your rankings the old fashioned way and earn them.

ALT Tags

All of your images should contain an ALT Tag. These tags are just a few words you can use to describe your picture. The main purpose of these tags was to give those who have their graphics turned off can get an idea of what was there.

In the real world, people load their key phrase into the tags. Sometimes repeatedly.

I suggest you stay away from the key phrase with ALT tags and use words from your related search keyword list.

A Few Final Tips

These basics are the foundation on which you will build your rankings. Don’t take them lightly. And while you are brushing the up, here are some other basics you might want to consider.

Remember, search engine marketing is successful only if you do a bunch of small things right. Even if you don’t do them all right, if you do enough of them correctly your rankings will soar.

Try these other little things that can help lead you to big results.

1) Use headings properly and at their default size.

2) BOLD type your main target phrase one time on the page.

3) Always use text links with the full path, ie., http://www.moneymakingmonkey.com/SEO

4) Include the main keyphrase in your domain name.

5) Keep your copyright date current.

That should give you plenty to do, but the benefits will be worth the effort.

Read more: Search Engine Marketing Optimizing your site for profits

Search Engines

Search engines come in all shapes and sizes. There are specialty search engines for things like porn, lyrics, videos, images and more. There are country and language specific search engines. Looking for a job? There’s one of them too.

As an internet marketer, your main job is to figure out how to get rankings in the major search engines. These are Google, Yahoo, MSN, Alta Vista, Ask Jeeves, and Dogpile. But the big dog is Google, who has over 50% of the entire search market.

It is a no brainer to focus your attention on Google. You will end up with good rankings on all of the engines for some terms if you optimize correctly for Google anyway.

There are also a lot of Pay Per Click search engines you can advertise on, but if your site doesn’t produce big numbers for CTR and affiliate conversion they are a losing proposition. Especially if your site is brand new.

Building a good rank in the search engines requires one thing that most internet marketers don’t seem to think they have. Time. The longer the site has been up, the higher it’s rankings will get. Up to a point at least.

You can’t expect to put up a brand new site, submit it to all the search engines, and get flooded with traffic the next week. It takes up to several weeks before the spiders will even visit your site.

Writing articles is a good way to speed up the process because it allows the search engine spider to find you from the link on the article. Almost all of the search engines frequent the article sites.

You hear a lot about Googles Page Rank and algorithm. I have found it to be a hugh waste of time trying to figure out that stuff. But I have many top rankings in spite of that, and for the most relevant terms.

The algorythm is constantly changing and improving so it can never be figured out. The best anyone can hope for is to figure out what it was in the past. As for page rank, nobody can figure that out for sure either. The best you can do is follow the advice of someone who doesn’t know for sure themselves.

When it comes to search engines and search engine optimization, you are best to focus on the basics and provide a fair amount of good relevant content on each page. You cannot trick the engines long enough to do yourself any good.

If you work on the basics and give it some thought, you might come up with your own secrets.

Read more: Search Engines

Operation Optin List!

Before revealing the secrets of the trades, here are myths and fallacies that need to be cleared before one indulges into building an opt-in list. These marketing misconceptions could pose so much of an obstacle towards your profitting well from your business.

Not a lot of people use email

Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing methods nowadays simply because virtually almost all people use email. Check on those email fields or blanks required to be filled up on various forms needed in processing different transactions. A person without an email address is tantamount to a person without an online home, which is one big shameful truth for this generation.

Email marketing campaigns can offend a lot of people.

The not-so secret way to surmount this dilemma is through permission-based advertising. There’s no harm in trying after asking for permission.

The key to this predicament is to have a very discerning eye on who to email and who to not email. Better look for some metrics on how to know which group of people would give you high ROI or return on investment.

The Real Deal with Building Opt-in List. After clearing the fog regarding email marketing myths, here’s how one can benefit from employing the power of email marketing campaigns – building an opt-in list.

However, building an opt-in list is not a piece of cake particularly for the uninitiated. Here is a roundown of tips on how to succeed in this kind of marketing endeavor.

1. Strategic Collection of Data

Know which information from your audiences will help you in lowering expenses and/or make sales flourish. Devise a tactic to make people voluntarily provide you with the information necessary to create higher conversion.

Overload of data is not good. Ask only for opt-in, with their full name and email addresses. Make sure that the profiles that you gather are updated to aid in improving the relevance, timeliness and satisfaction from each deal you make.

2. Good Implementation

Old adage says it all – ‘action speaks louder than words’. This easily translates to the difficulty one has to undergo during the execution of his or her email marketing efforts. It’s a good thing that various methods, often low-cost, abound to hasten and facilitate the building up of one’s opt-in database.

Tracking your email marketing results can pose great hardship, too. Technology and relevant sources should be employed in making this aspect of your marketing a lot manageable. Your high traffic groups of opt-ins with the greatest result should be taken noted of.

The following are the most widely used methods to leverage channels without overspending:

1. Make use of websites.

It is an excellent tool for data collation and providing you with relevant info regarding your email offers. Use forms that solicit your visitor’s email address and consent.

2. Make use of print ads, brochures, TV, radio and direct mail.

These are the more popular ways of marketing aiming to lead traffic to one’s site. You may want to ask for signups for email services. Make your website more visible through these media. Offering free electronic newsletters and or rewards program can do well in making it easy to win the nod of your audiences, too.

3. Maximize your sales force.

Customer service associates can help a lot in making you benefit more from your email correspondence. Sales people with proper education on how to aid you in this endeavor can very well contribute to higher ROI. Techniques like offering account updates and special programs through email can easily land you those lists of valuable visitors.

4. Don’t make your point of sale pointless.

Forms for signup located at cash registers and other high-traffic and highly visible spots can be very excellent venues for your business to collect email addresses. Notification of upcoming sales through their email addresses and names can coax them to supply you with the information you need.

5. Conferences or trade shows can work, too.

Giveaway offers or entries on sweepstakes are great for opt-in to volunteer their contact details. These tactics should be applied with adequate caution and should focus on earning the trust of your opt-in list instead of simply collating data for your sole own benefit. Always make sure that the forms that you will use and other methods that you will employ will not necessitate too much fuss to subscribe. This is for people to not be annoyed during the process of data supplication.

With that bunch of information, who can ever go wrong with the feat of building an opt-in list?

Read more: Operation Optin List!

Find The Trend..Follow The Trend

This is one of those topics thats easier said than done. Is a trend here to stay or is it just a fad. I’ve seen some of the most ‘important’ breakthroughs concerning Internet marketing turn out to be nothing more than passing fads in the wind.

Link farms, free-for-all link pages, and the list goes on. Some of this is very easy. A new technology that prevents (ha-ha) Mp3′s from being file shared would be far more important than a new eight track with 100 megs of recording space.

My advice is to try to find the pulse or the mentality of a segment or industry. Take a look at the types of movies being made that are box office hits. Are they related to love, comedy, sci-fi etc.?

It probably became a little easier to get publishers interested in a sci-fi book after ‘The Matrix’ became a smashing success. Its all in the timing. Follow the same research strategy in the music field, what’s selling the most. What types of books are topping the New York Times Best Seller List.

If you’re researching online related technologies, a good place to look is on Download.com. They list the most downloaded software in each category, a great indication of what’s hot and growing.

Now, your next task is to relate that trend to your product or service. Or use that info to help guide you in creating a new product or service. Remember that list you created in the first lesson, where you broke your product down into steps and then you identified your features and benefits. Use those features and benefits and associate them to your trend research.

Ex: When the last movie in ‘The Matrix’ trilogy was released I created a news release with the subject of breaking free from the ‘Financial Matrix’. I received a good response from online newsletters and some minor blurbs in small papers. I should have followed up with a national campaign, but I didn’t have the time nor resources at the time.

Looking back, when the second installment was released, I should have prepared for the third and final movie. I could have created an ebook and a website along with a national press release campaign.

There are a few ‘secret’ sites online that lets you see what people are searching for online. This information is good for not only determining trends, but keywords to use when optimizing your website. Look for not only what is hot now, but what has been continually hot in the past also. One good example is ‘DragonBall Z’. This has been a hot trend for at least since ’99 or ’00 (the cartoon has been on longer).

Sites to conduct trend research (I have no affiliations):

http://50.Lycos.com

http://100hot.com

http://Buzz.Yahoo.com

http://Google.com/press/zeitgeist

Read more: Find The Trend..Follow The Trend

Making the Design of Your Postcards

In every postcard making, the stage where errors are usually committed is the design stage. This is among the most fragile stage involved in making postcards. Although finding the proper postcard printing service is vital, it is also important to create the best or most suitable postcard layout.

If you’re asking why is making a design important, you can usually get the answer to this by knowing what the word “design” means. So, here it is; a design is piece of artwork, or a collection of different visual features that can impart a certain message. These visual features include colors, type, images, shapes and etc. Such features must carefully be combined in order for it to be eye-pleasing.

Do you want to see a postcard that looks messy?

Of course you don’t, right? So, for this reason, it is important that you carefully combine all the visual features of your postcards. Each visual feature must be able to harmonize with other features so that they will look more attractive.

But first, you need to think of a good motif. You must think the kind of image you want to use. Creating effects can be done with for images. You can brighten or sharpen images. You can also put or create shadows or glows; you can even adjust their luminosity. You can put noise and other visual effects that will really make your images look interesting.

You must also think what kind of font, the size and color of the font. Creating certain effects for your fonts such as shadows, glow and etc. in order to make them more attractive is also allowed. However, you must make sure that they are easy to read. If they’re not, you will only attract your target audience without imparting any messages, thus, your postcards will still end up being unhelpful.

You must also be able to harmonize you background color with the colors of your font. If not, your fonts or texts will not be easy to read. Your background color must be able to complement the colors of your images and texts, otherwise, they will not be easy to read and your design may look ugly.

Now, what are the necessary tools used for making a design?

First you need design software like adobe or sierra. Software will provide you with the tools or options you will need in order to make designing possible.

But, you will need to have the knowledge on how to operate this design software. At least you must know how to use the tools that design software provides. Most of the design software you will find our there can be user friendly computer application. So, it’s actually nothing that a little practice can’t help you with.

Nevertheless, if you have no time to practice designing, you can always hire a professional to create a design for your postcards, just be sure that the one you hire also offers postcard printing services so that you can save your time, effort and money.

Read more: Making the Design of Your Postcards

The Beginnings of a Quality Patent Search

Hopefully you realize that before you do much of anything, you need to look at the marketability of your invention.

Remember, you don’t want to do anything until you have a good feel for whether or not you can actually make some money from your invention. Of course, you can’t ever determine with 100% accuracy if you will make money or how much, but you can gain an idea by looking at other products available in the marketplace.

So you need to become an expert at products in the marketplace similar to your invention!

Once that’s done, what’s the next step?

Well wouldn’t you know it, it’s actually a little more of the same! That’s right; you need to become even more of an expert at product’s similar to your invention. This time, in the form of a preliminary patent search.

You can’t patent it if it’s not new. Remember that phrase. It absolutely, positively, must be a novel invention. Now yours can be similar to something else, but it should have a feature or even better yet, features that make it stand apart. The novel feature(s) is what you eventually will seek to gain a patent on.

So in addition to searching through what is already sold and marketed, you need to determine if your invention has ever been written about. Whether in a publication, a patent or even in a thesis shelved away in the library, you need to make sure your invention is novel.

Of course, a patent search will be performed by an examiner when your patent application is received by the USPTO. But since filing a patent requires quite a bit of time and a decent amount of money, you should do your own preliminary patent search first. Make sure your idea really is new.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know if all this initial trouble was going to get you somewhere?

Read more: The Beginnings of a Quality Patent Search

The Importance of Google Sitemap Account

Having a Google Sitemap for a site is a must if Search Engine Optimization is one of our priorities. Since Google dominates the search engine industry, it is important for us, as Webmasters, to understand how Google see our sites. It is quite surprised that a majority of site owners do not take advantage of this yet.

The first thing Sitemap account tells us is when did the Google bots visited our sites. Upon logging into the account, the last crawl date by the bots will be shown in the front page. This allow us to check if our latest content is indexed by the bots. We should always check this date because when Google bans a site, the bots will still be visiting the site but never index it. Hence, further rectification will need to be done and a re-inclusion request has to be followed.

Another useful information provided is the Query Statistics. This page will show us the top searches relating to our pages and if we have received any traffic from these keywords. As Google updates this page regularly, Webmasters can monitor their sites ranking easily from here especially after Google’s data refresh.

The next section, Page Analysis, is the only place on the Internet that illustrates how Google sees our sites. This section shows us a list of keywords that are closely related to our pages in Google’s’ perspective. From the data here, we can easily fine tune our internal linking structure or propose new external anchor word(s) to meet our target.

The latest addition to Google Sitemap account is the Links Statistics. This set of data will show us how many incoming links do we have from both external and internal pages. As the linking statistics here is far more updated than the traditional link: operator, this feature is well-liked by many Webmasters recently.

To conclude, Google Sitemap account is certainly very useful to the Webmasters as it provides us with a lot of information from Google’s perspective. By utilizing this account, most web masters should not have a problem in boosting their SERP (Search Engine Result page).

Read more: The Importance of Google Sitemap Account

Research Your Market

Like traditional forms of marketing, to market your online business, you need to assess its potential. It doesn’t have to cost a lot, nor does it have to be a complex process. It might be using a focus group, which is simply getting a survey of opinions about your product or service offerings from a cross section of your consumers. You can conduct such a survey either by mail or by telephone.

Using the telephone can be more challenging because some people feel that this is an intrusion on their privacy and they may not be willing to respond. By mail, the recipient can choose to answer your survey questions at their convenience. Providing a prepaid postage envelope further encourages the respondent to mail in their survey. Some savvy marketers offer an incentive of some kind for returning the survey.

Other techniques include analyzing demographics, such as age, sex, income level, educational level, population growth and so on. You can get groups of people together and use brainstorming techniques to determine market potential, or you can conduct one-to-one interviews with qualified prospects in your market.

No matter what methods you use, your purpose should be to gather enough data to determine who your customers are. You need to be able to identify their needs and expectation. Then you can decide if there is a demand for your product or service. If you are satisfied that a demand exists, you will want to find out what competition you have out there. Market research should provide answers to the following questions:

Who are your potential customers?

Why do they need your product or service?

Where are they located…city or country?

Do your target customers have the buying power to purchase your product or service?

How much are people willing to pay for your products?

Can you offer competitive pricing?

What about quality? Is your quality as good as or better than the competition?

Yes, market research can be costly and time consuming. Your questions can build in bias that may distort your results. However, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. If you aren’t getting the results you expect or want, then perhaps you must consider that your business idea is off base. Perhaps there isn’t a market for your product or service. But, don’t be discouraged. Go back and modify your original plan.

The benefits of market research include:

Determining who you customers are

Finding out what they want

Determining how to reach your potential customers

Determining which is the best way to communicate with your potential customers

Assessing different marketing strategies

Using market research strategies is a means to finding out how viable your business idea is and if there is a market for it. It focuses and organizes marketing information so that you can reduce your business risks and identify opportunities for profit making. With good market research data you are in a better position to make sound business decisions.

Read more: Research Your Market