Forest and ClientAbundance.com
Would you like to bring targeted traffic to your website in as little as 15 minutes? Then you should learn about pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, especially if you are starting to optimize your website for the search engines.
There are four advantages to pay-per-click advertising.
1. You only pay for the advertising that works because you only pay for your ad when someone actually clicks on it to visit your website.
2. You can get your website in the search results within just a few minutes. With search engine optimization, it can take several weeks to get listed in the seach engines, but with PPC, you can literally jump to the front of the line.
3. You can be listed in prime advertising space by simply outbidding the other advertisers. There's a bit of science + art to this, but it's still a much more simple process than trying to figure out the secret formula to the organic (free) search engine rankings.
4. You can have a very small budget and still make pay-per-click advertising work for your business. In fact, my own ads are in the best positions on the first pages for several of my targeted keywords, and I've only spent about $50 to get there over the past 6 months.
And it's not hard to do what I've done!
Just open a free account with Google Adwords, follow the easy steps to setting up your own advertising campaign, decide on a handful of keywords you want to bid on (the words that people in your market are searching for online), put in a few dollars as a daily budget, choose the amount you're willing to pay-per-click, and then watch what happens.
Some people are skittish to do a PPC campaign because they are afraid that it will run away with their money. But you can eliminate that fear because you have total control over how much you spend. Once you reach whatever limit you've decided upon for the day, your ads are no longer shown until the next day, so you'll never spend any more money on your PPC than you decide. You can also pause or delete your campaign if you need to at anytime as well.
If you choose good keywords, write an effective ad, and track your results, PPC advertising can be an excellent way to drive targeted traffic to your website, which ultimately will lead to more sales for you, in the form of new clients and customers.
Just remember that PPCs should be just one part of your overall marketing strategy. In fact, a balance of search engine optimization as well as running a PPC campaign is usually the most effective strategy for bringing your website the most targeted traffic overall.
Why You Should Consider Pay-Per-Click Advertising for Your Business
5 questions to consider, before starting your home based business
For many people, having a home business would be something really attractive. To be your own boss, to not having to commute, to choose the working hours freely and to be able to plan the work-day entirely on your own.
If you are considering starting your own home based business, then you could start with thinking it through, by asking yourself some initial questions, such as:
1. If I'm going to keep my current job, at least as a starter, when will I find the time to build my home based business? How many hours each day can I put aside and use to my business endeavours? Can I work early in the morning or at the late evenings? Maybe at the weekends?
2. Do I have a suitable room or place for my home business? Can I work uninterrupted? And, would my neighbours also feel uninterrupted?
3. How much energy and determination am I willing to put into learning something new, if required? Even if the basic direction of my home based business is something that I already know of and master, then: How about the management of the home business itself? Should I delegate some or any chores, like the book-keeping?
4. Do I know how to market my home based business, in order to get people aware of that they can buy something from me? Should I use online- or offline marketing, or both maybe? How much money and or time do I need to put aside for marketing efforts alone? What is the most effective way for me to market my home business, within my particular economical frames? If I plan to do this myself, could I learn something that would make it easier and more effective?
5. And, last but not least, how about the money? How do I plan to finance the start? How much money is needed? Do I have most of the equipment already or do I have to buy or rent something? If I do need to buy equipment, then what does it cost?
This is a few questions to start with, that's very good to have the answers to, before starting up your own home based business. It would make your upstart smoother and safer, to have some answers for yourself, about the home business of yours to be.
Home Business: What to Consider
If you are looking to start a home business chances are that you have done a lot of research into this venture. Starting a home business can be very profitable in more ways than one. A lot of people believe that they have thought about everything that goes into a home business, only to find out that they have forgotten some very important aspects. Below are a few things that you may have forgotten that you will definitely need to address before you get started.
1. Working at home is completely different than working in an office. Many people forget that there are a lot of distractions that go along with working from home. When you are running a home business you will have to contend with distractions such as the television and radio. You will also have to be able to deal with any other family members that are going to be home with you. Your kids may not be able to tell the difference between work time and play time. This presents a lot of problems to people that run a home business.
2. If you run a home business you are going to need to have a lot of self discipline. You are going to be your only boss, which means that there will be nobody looking over your shoulder telling you what to do. Without this sort of supervision many people end up slacking off. If you want to run a successful home business you need to be able to stay on track day in and day out.
3. When you run a home business you are responsible for all of your supplies. Many people forget to budget for this. Remember, if your computer crashes it is your responsibility to get it fixed. You know longer have an IT team that you can call to help out. You will also be responsible for buying your own supplies when you need them.
4. As a home business owner you are in charge of every facet of your business. This means that you will not only have to make sales and take care of marketing, but you will also be in charge of accounts payable and accounts receivable.
5. Home business owners are in charge of their own taxes. When you run a home business there are no taxes being deducted from your paycheck every month. This means that if don’t want to go to jail you are going to have to pay your own taxes throughout the year. This is usually too much for a home business owner to handle alone, so you will have to hire a professional to assist you. A home business can be very profitable, but make sure that you know exactly what you are getting into before you start.
Consider This Before Starting A Home Business
If you prefer to start a home business working as a representative for an existing company, there are plenty out there to choose from. There are things you should think about beforehand, however. Too many people make the mistake of jumping into the first opportunity they see. Do your homework before signing on the dotted line! Here are some things to consider about your prospective opportunity:
Are you passionate about the products/services? - Be honest with yourself on this, it's the most important question. Don't sign up with a company because others are doing well with them, or because your neighbor says it's the wave of the future. Can you really get excited about what you're selling? If yes, you will have a much better shot at success.
Is the company legitimate? - How long have they been in business? Are they a member of the Better Business Bureau or the Direct Selling Association? This doesn't necessarily guarantee the company is "good", but it's a good starting place. Also do a search for the company name along with the word "scam." Do a lot of complaints come up? Most companies will probably have a few, but if there are many, you might want to think twice.
Start-up Cost - How much does it cost to become a representative, and what is included in your start-up kit? Most business opportunities have a start-up cost that can range from a few dollars up to hundreds of dollars. However, you should actually receive something for this money being spent.
Product or Service - Is there an actual product or service being sold to customers? If there is no product or service, run far, far away! That is called a pyramid scheme, and it is illegal.
Training - Do you receive any training and support from the company? Ask how this training is presented. Is it online training? Telephone conference calls? One on one mentoring? Audio files? Printed booklets? Make sure you clearly understand what support and training materials will be provided for you.
Ongoing Costs - Are there any ongoing costs to running your business with this company? Some companies require that you purchase a certain amount of products each month, or they charge monthly webhosting fees or administrative fees.
Marketing Materials - Will you need to purchase your own marketing materials like brochures, catalogs, order forms, business cards, advertising or prospecting leads? Find out if the company offers any of these to you for free, or if they have low cost alternatives.
Quotas - Will you have any sales quotas you need to meet each month or year? Any other requirements you must meet to keep your business active?
Online or Off - Would you prefer to run your business mostly online, or off? Would you enjoy doing home parties? Some companies offer the option of both, and some do not. Find out exactly how you will need to run your business and make sure it's something you won't mind doing.
Website - Does the company give you a free website, or one that you pay for? Can you sign up customers and representatives at the website, or do you have to do it manually by phone or fax? Some websites are given for marketing and lead generation purposes, but you still have to sign up the prospects yourself. Others have more automated systems set up.
Product Delivery - Who delivers the products your customers order? Does the company ship them out for you, or will you have to do that?
Realistic income - What can you expect to earn, and how is the bulk of your income earned? Do you need to recruit other representatives in order to earn? Or can you sell product to earn a commission. Some companies offer both options. Don't fall for the hyped-up ads that claim you can earn $20,000 in a month. It may be possible, but be clear on exactly what would be required of you to earn that much money. Will you need to recruit a certain number of representatives per month, or sell a certain amount of products per month? Are you willing to do that?
When you finally choose a company to partner with, be prepared to work hard and be committed. So many ads out there make it sound so easy -- you just sign up and the money starts rolling in. Nothing could be further from the truth. You will need to show up each day and do the work, just like a job. You will need to stretch yourself outside your comfort zones and work on improving yourself, personally and professionally.
The good news is that YOU are responsible for your own success. There are no limits if you truly believe in yourself and the company you represent.
How To Start Your Own Home Business: Basics To Consider
You’ve been sitting in a cold cubicle dreaming of having your own home business for months, maybe even years. So what’s stopping you?
If you’re like most people, you may have a lot of qualms about owning your own home business, but the main thing that keeps you from making the leap is that you don’t have any idea where to begin!
The first step in how to start your own home business is to know what type of home business you want. This is the most important decision you will have to make when it comes to starting your own home business.
Some questions you want to ask yourself when making this all-important decision are:
• What skills do I have?
• Do I have the education and experience I need?
• What do I enjoy doing?
• Do I want to be out and about or working from a home office?
• What need can I fill in my community?
• What do I love?
The final question is ultimately the most important one of all. To have a successful home business, to be able to meet the challenges and overcome the obstacles to making your business a success, it is imperative that you love what you do. If you don’t love what you’re doing when it comes to a home business, it is far less likely that you will have the enthusiasm and energy that it takes to make it successful.
After you’ve decided what home business you want, you will need to do some research. Even if you love the business you’ve chosen, if there’s no need for it, you won’t be successful. Research will show you whether you have a viable idea or not. Usually, some slight tweaking of the idea you have for starting your own home business will help you find a need that you can fill by doing what you love.
You will also want to take time to write up at least an informal business plan. Things that should go into your home business plan is what is your ultimate goal, do you have the finances you need for now, how about in six months? You want to look at both short- and long-term goals for your home business.
After all you can’t build a house without a blueprint and the knowledge of what you want to house to be like not just today but in three years. So take the time to write out a business plan. You won’t regret it, and your home business is certain to benefit greatly from the thought and care you put into it from the day you seriously begin to consider the idea of how to start your own home business.
Once your planning is out of the way, you’re ready to start thinking about the realities of having your own home business. Realities such as setting up your home office, marketing your home business, setting your hours, purchasing needed equipment and supplies, and any hiring or subcontracting you need to do.
And remember that how you run your home business is every bit as important as how you start your own home business is. There are many misleading scams and images that portray home business owners as living a life of luxury and ease. For a rare few home business owners this may be true, but for the rest of us, it takes a great deal of effort and energy to make a home business a success.
However, because you’ve chosen a home business you love and have taken the time to do some upfront planning, the realities of running a successful home business are well worth the effort. Just be sure you add being aware there will be obstacles and challenges that you will have to face as a home business owner, along with the fact that you will actually have to do some work, and you’ll be way ahead in the home business game.
Consider The Pros And Cons Of A Home Based Business
When you talk with people who have had experience with home based businesses you will typically get two types of answers. Some will say working from home is the best thing that every happened to them while others will say that they would rather go out to work every day. Having a home based business is really up to each individuals own preference. There are some that work better at a traditional job while others work better with the freedom of a home based business.
If you have young kids you may prefer to work from home since you can then spend a lot of time around your kids and have a part in their upbringing. Other people may prefer to go to work at a traditional job to have some free time away from the kids and family. These individuals may be overwhelmed if they are at home all day with kids running around the house, which can also cause distractions while trying to work at home.
Another benefit of working from home is the fact that you don’t have to report to a boss, you can be your own boss. This allows you to set up a schedule that works for you and your family. You don’t have to commute long hours every morning to get to work which not only saves time, but also money. You don’t have to deal with the weather and you have more free time to spend doing the activities you want to do. You will find you have more hours in the day and aren’t spending your time rushing to get things done before the end of the day.
However, there are some disadvantages you should consider with home based businesses before deciding if it is something you want to start. If you find you are easily distracted while working then a home based business may not be right for you since there are many distractions such as kids and household events. It is best to either have a home based job that only requires work at night or one that doesn’t require your full attention.
If you aren’t easily motivated then a home based business can also be difficult to do. With no deadlines and boss to report to it can be very easy to put off working until it is too late. You can’t expect to make a profit from your home based business by slacking off, so you need to make sure you have the right mindset to focus on your work and complete it.
If you are going to have a home based business it is best to make sure you have an individual office set aside where you can work in quiet and that family understands not to disturb you while you work. Although if you prefer human interactions while you work then it can be difficult to get used to doing a home based business at first since you will often be working on your own with no one else around the entire day.
Tips For Marketing Your Home Business
Anyone who starts a home based business has high hopes for success. Many feel that with just a few simple ads the business will boom and take off into a major business. However, many find that customers are actually few and far between when it comes to a home based business. With the following tips you can help to market your home based business and turn it into a success.
While family and friends can be helpful when it comes to a home based business you should also look to expand your network. To do this consider the places where you can find good customer. Some ideas include local civic associations, regional trade shows, professional conferences and chamber of commerce meetings. If you have an online business then you may want to consider checking message boards to help build your online mailing list.
Whenever you find someone and the situation calls for it, talk to them. Everyone has the potential of being a customer if you just talk to them. The possibilities are endless and it gives you something to do instead of just waiting around for a bus or airplane. Just striking up a conversation can bring you in a lot of additional business.
Even if you don’t have an online business, one of the best advertising methods is online. Whether you are selling a local product or not, online is a way to get in contact with millions of potential customers from the comfort and convenience of your home computer.
When discussing you business it may be a good idea to leave out the fact that you have a home based business. Although a great many companies are starting up home based aspects of their companies many people still view these businesses as unprofessional. Rather focus on the product or service you are selling since this is what is important and this is what the customer wants.
Depending on the service you are offering consider doing a few local demonstrations. This can help increase the publicity for your business. Or you can offer to do a local service featuring your talents for free such as decorating a local restaurant. This way you can increase your popularity and possibly gain further sales later.
For the top marketing techniques consider attending meetings that focus on your business industry and talking with people about their successes and problems. This can help you learn what to do and what to avoid for your business. Another option is to read any trade publications for your business industry. Getting into the industry allows you to find someone that you can go to with a specific question or problem that you may encounter with your business. Just always remember to follow up with the individual and thank them for their help so they know you appreciate it.
Business Post Cards: Five Factors To Consider
Creating and mailing business post cards is a logical choice when your small business has a small advertising budget.
Here are five factors to consider:
1. Your data base list of customers might well be under 500 names.
• You can manage this list yourself on your computer and print out mailing labels. And since there are so few names, you won't have to hire a mailing company to affix the labels, sort by zip code and take it to the post office for you.
2. Our advantage as small businesses is in cultivating a personal relationship with our customers. This holds true whether your business is entirely local or operates in a special business niche market on the national or international level.
• A post card is intimate. Emotionally, who can resist reading a colorful post card? Especially those with a nice glossy front side with a compelling message. It's like a personal message from someone you know.
3. Postcards are a private communication between you and your client so your competition has no idea of what you are doing.
• There is no "waste" circulation since only those on your mailing list are included. This will produce better results for the post card, especially when compared to those you get from the "mass media" of newspapers, magazines, etc.
4. We are all receive flyers, circulars and advertising mail whose print runs are measured in the millions. By default, they set creative standards that we feel we should equal or exceed in our own efforts.
• Since you have so few names to spread across paying for high-level creative services and long-run printing, these services become prohibitive on a cost per address basis. But thanks to digital technology, the creative, printing and mailing costs have been reduced to where they are well within reach of almost anyone.
5. Postcards are a wonderfully fast and efficient way of getting specific messages delivered in a permanent format to your own mailing list and other specific mailing lists you have purchased.
• Your postcard can generate immediate response or can be easily set side as a reminder for future action.
These are just five of many factors you will want to consider as part of placing business post card mailings on your list of advertising tactics for your small business.
© 2006 Jon Sinish
This article may be reprinted and distributed as long as the resource information remains intact.
10 Questions To Consider When Growing Your Business
Here's a provocation for the coming year, decade, century or millennium.
By now, you've set a working direction for the year, established clear-cut objectives. Your first-iteration plan to reach them should be in place. This now seems like an ideal time to rethink the whole thing, doesn't it? After all, one of the effects of internet time is that plans are subject to change just as soon as - or perhaps even before - they are written.
Along these lines of thinking, perhaps there are some items you missed. Maybe there are issues you didn't have time to consider, or even things your mind touched on, but quickly passed over to deal with more urgent and pressing events. If you are off-cycle, and on the verge of a new period, you can use this exercise ex ante, rather than ex post. To help you stimulate your neural pathways and hopefully create an idea or two, I offer the following thoughts for your consideration. These "considerations" are not sequenced in order of importance. I think they are important.
1. How far in the distance is your planning horizon? Most companies today plan 12-24 months out, calling anything beyond that "vision." Internet time implies a shortened time frame for activities, but does that time-collapse extend to a shortened vision as well? How much have you thought about what you will accomplish this decade? What will be your company's impact on the millennium? (OK - perhaps millennium is too far out. What about the century?) You may say you have more pressing fish to fry. Your investors would like to see increased returns sooner than that. While this might be true enough, taking the long view can inform the short view, leading to greater returns for years to come. What do you see when you take the long view?
2. How are your prospects' needs going to change? How is their world affected by the dramatic increases in connectivity and the compression of time? What are you doing to understand their changing environment - their changing business issues? What are you doing to improve your customer's business under these slippery conditions? To take it one step further, what do your customers' customers want? While you are at it, you might stop to consider how your suppliers' needs are changing? Could those changes open up new opportunities for you, or darkly portend changes downstream totally derailing your business model? What about your distributors? Is their world shifting? Can you both benefit?
3. Who in your organization simply isn't contributing? As they say, your mileage may vary from individual to individual but everyone has the responsibility to go some distance, to make something valuable happen. Not everyone will make good on that implied promise. The often observed 80-20 rule applies to your staff as well: 20% of your people will produce 80% of the value.
That leaves 80% producing only 20%. Do the math: the bottom 10% of your organization produces almost nothing.
Who isn't making the cut? Should you be doing something about it? You may think it beneficent to provide that bottom percent with a paying job - don't. It isn't. The non-performers know who they are, but they won't cut the cord on their own. Do what you can to help them reach the bar, but if after a while they don't make it, set them free to find an environment in which they can succeed. Free up your own resources for people who make a difference.
4. Are you creating solutions to today's problems? What about next week's, next year's, or the problems of several years from now? How are you figuring out what those problems are going to be, way out there on the time horizon? Because the solution you sell today should certainly address today's problems, but the solutions on today's drawing board better not. Who in your organization is responsible for trend-tracking and forecasting?
Are you building scenarios for the future? What about prospect focus groups, or some other market-based feedback mechanism? Who is your resident futurist?
5. What do you believe about the business you are in? For most people this is a strange question - we rarely spend time thinking about our own beliefs. The collection of beliefs you hold about your business - what the Germans call Weltanschauung - is decisive in most of the choices you make. How much risk to take. What's risky and what isn't. What projects and initiatives to undertake. What kind of resources you need and whom to hire.
Whom to partner with, or should you have partners at all?
Cooperate or compete. How to treat your team. What your customers should expect from you. How hard do you expect people to work?
All these decisions stem from your beliefs, and it will help you to make them explicit. Once you surface those beliefs, you can start to distinguish which are useful beliefs and which are not.
What is the benefit of a particular belief? Is this belief relevant to your current world, or is it a holdover from some past part of life? Then, when you are ready, you can experiment with new beliefs.
6. What are the obstacles to proceeding along your current path? Yes - you've set a plan in motion, and you are taking steps toward its achievement. But what roadblocks may rise up to stop you? What things could get in your way - foreseen and unforeseen? (I know, if it's unforeseen how are you going to see it? Use your imagination, that's the point of this exercise.)
Rank these obstacles in terms of likelihood, then rank them in terms of severity. Consider how you might deal with them if they come up. The value of this is a) like the Boy Scouts, you are better prepared; b) you may illuminate issues you have been trying to sweep under the rug; and c) you just may invent a whole new approach to get where you are going, and it just might be better than what you are doing now.
7. What, if you only knew how, would you be doing? What would you do now if you had additional resources - and should the lack of resources be stopping you? What, if you were sure it would be successful, would you jump on right away? What would you begin immediately, if your resources were limitless? (Yes, limitless can be relative.) What are you betting the future of your company on? What would you be willing to bet the future of your company on?
8. What are the most important issues, right now? Make separate lists for issues in your market and issues in your company.
Which of these issues are you dealing with, which ones are on the backburner, and which ones aren't even in the kitchen? What are the processes you use to deal with these issues? Which issues are you ignoring, or hoping will go away?
What breakthroughs might be possible by addressing or resolving issues in the latter category? Where are you "resolving" issues by compromising? What possibilities are available by refusing to compromise, or by breaking your compromises? What old stories or old ways of looking at things make these compromises seem inevitable? Where could new technologies (either material, virtual, or societal) be applied to break these compromises?
9. What are you sacrificing to accomplish your current objectives? The definition of sacrifice is giving up something of value for something of even greater value. Did you intend to give up that thing of value, or is it a thoughtless byproduct of your other choices? Do not dismiss this lightly.
In your business there are a number of priority-conflicting critical success factors. These include profitability, product development, new sales, customer satisfaction, recruiting and retention, revenue growth, sufficient capital - which one gets the most attention? And in this operating cycle - will each area get the attention it needs? Even in a lower position of priority, these areas cannot be neglected. What isn't getting done that needs to be done and how are you going to do it?
10. What is the purpose of your organization? I don't just mean increasing shareholder wealth that simply won't inspire your people to greatness. What besides that - a given - is the purpose of your company. Purpose is not something you invent, it is there already - you have to uncover it. Why do you come to work each day? What do you hope to accomplish in the long run?
What about your executive team? Your individual employees - why do they come? What do they think they are doing each day? Do you know? Have you bothered to find out? You've just completed a planning cycle, and I'm asking what your purpose is! If you can't answer this question easily, now would be a great time to start.
Bonus question for consideration: Are there any questions I've listed above that you do not have easy answers to, but wish you did?
Every so often I do an exercise called the "One-Hundred Questions." Download a copy of a recent 100 questions at http://www.paullemberg.com/tipsandtools.html, along with how to use this simple thought-provoker.
(c) Copyright Paul Lemberg. All rights reserved