One of the things that’s been on my “To Do” list for a long time was to set up with a online backup and recovery service.
Last year I signed up with Mozy, but when I found out that they do not support unlimited backup, I cancelled that. Falling prey to modern advertising, I figured the alternative was Carbonite, so I put that on my infamous “To Do” list and promptly neglected to do it due to the other things that took its place at the top of the list.
Finally I decided, “Today is the day!” I’d had friends who lost their data and I certainly don’t want to go through that. But with the clarity that comes with putting something back to the top of the list, it occurred to me that certainly there were other services. So, before jumping in and downloading Carbonite, I took some time to research. Read more…
“Content creation and keyword research considered most effective SEO tactics”
I love getting the Marketing Sherpa Chart of the Week. Always interesting, visually presented information. This week’s article has a chart showing the result of one of their latest surveys. You can read the full article at the following link, but we have the chart right here.
Marketing Sherpa surveyed 1,500 search marketers about the effectiveness of their top SEO tactics. They reported that “More than half of CMOs report that content creation is a very effective tactic to improve their SEO rankings. Keyword research was close behind, with 43% finding this strategy very effective.”
Why are these two things more important than any of the other “tricks” to drive traffic? Read more…
Click Here for Entrepreneur Magazine Legal Forms & Templates
I just received an email from Ryan Shaw. Ryan found a great directory of free business templates and forms that he plans to be use for his offline clients and partnerships. Looks to me like a great find for any type of business.
Click on any of them that you are interested in and you can download them. You need to pay for the few that are marked “Premium” but the rest are free.
Go to the following link and check around. No registration required.
Once you check out the Legal Forms and Templates, look at the menu on the left. I checked out the Marketing link and found a lot of valuable resources there. Thank you for putting this together, Entrepreneur Magazine!
Ryan also put together a nice list of resources on his blog. He’s always a wealth of information. Just go to RyanShaw.me
The Easy-To-Do Business Finance Kit includes 4 written outlines on how to manage your money better, plus 11 forms and checklists to make it “Fill-in-the-Blanks” simple. All for Only $17! CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.
Do you feel like running from the room screaming when someone says, “Where’s your budget?” Or what about “How much did you budget for that?”
Most people hate the idea of a budget. These are the people who have never had one. They feel that a budget is too confining and that it’s something to avoid. Well, if that’s you and you want to succeed in business – get over it! A budget actually puts you in control of the money you work so hard for and of your financial future.
First, adjust your thinking. Instead of seeing a budget as a restriction as to what you can do, see it as a tool for helping you plan to do as much or even more than you thought possible before. It’s important to remember that a monthly budget isn’t a hard and fast system that you have to follow rigidly. Many people avoid creating a budget because they feel it is too restrictive. The truth is that a budget is liberating. It’s a plan that grows and adapts with you as your needs change.
When it comes to business, your monthly business budget forms the foundation of all of your business finances. Keeping a monthly budget make it easier to plan; stay out of debt; contract with the right people and services; make solid business decisions; and best of all, get and stay profitable.
There are a few simple steps to create your monthly budget plan. Read more…
Guest article by Jimmy D. Brown of iBusiness Owner
Your prospects won’t buy from you unless they trust you.
Read that again, because fully understanding that deceptively simple sentence is crucial to the bottom line of your business. If you can’t establish trust, you can’t make sales. Period.
So, how do you start building trust? Like this:
1. Offer great customer service. Whether you have a prospect contacting you for the first time with a pre-sale question or you have an existing customer needing help, you need to provide prompt, professional service.
2. Start a blog. A blog gives you an opportunity to interact with your prospects and customers. It also gives you an opportunity to show value to your prospective customers. When they see what kind of help you give away for free, they’ll be excited to become a paying customer.
Tip: Don’t yet have a blog? Go to WordPress.org and download the free files.
3. Interact with prospects on social media sites. Yet another way to build relationships (and trust) is by using social media sites, especially Facebook.com and Twitter.com. There you can interact one-on-one, as well as provide good information.
4. Use your prospect’s name. Using someone’s name helps build rapport. Online you can collect your prospect’s first name when he joins your newsletter list. Offline, be sure to ask for his name so that you can use it during your sales talk.
Tip: Don’t overuse someone’s name, as that can backfire and make them feel uncomfortable. Using it once or twice during an initial meeting should be enough.
5. Follow up with your prospects. The vast majority of people who come to your website or store are unlikely to ever return – that’s why you need to get their contact information so that you can follow up with them.
Usually this involves offering your prospects something valuable in exchange for their contact information.
Example: You can offer a free report on your website. Or if you have a bricks and mortar store, you can offer prospects a chance to win something in a contest. Just be sure in all cases that your prospects know you will be following up with them.
6. Show your value now. Don’t make the mistake of promising a lot of value in the future… but only once someone pays you money. Instead, show your value now using newsletters, a blog, social media and good customer service.
7. Be accessible. This one is of particular importance to those who have an online business. The bottom line is not to hide from your prospects. This means offering multiple ways for your prospects and customers to reach you. The more accessible you are, the easier it is for people to trust you.
8. Get personal. If your prospect or client mentions a special event (like an upcoming wedding or birth of a child), write this information down so that you can refer to it again. Then the next time you see this person (either in person or even online, like on Facebook), you can ask the person about the event. He’ll be impressed that you remembered – and your relationship will grow!
9. Give your prospects what they want. Here’s the key: Help your prospects even if it doesn’t directly benefit you.
Example: Recommend a product that doesn’t garner you a commission (maybe the product is even free). When the prospect sees that you really care about him and his problem, his trust in you will grow – and before you know it, he’ll be a loyal customer!
10. Be professional. Finally, maintain a professional appearance, whether through your own grooming, your brick and mortar store, your marketing materials or your website. First impressions count. And continued professionalism helps build trust.
Conclusion
You just learned 10 proven ways to build trust and generate more sales for your business.
To find out still more ways to grow your business, visit iBusinessOwner to discover the iBusiness Owner’s Manuals. Then ask yourself: How many of these strategies are you currently overlooking? And how much more money would you make if you employed them, starting today?
Warnings about Online Profit Masters tops Paul’s list. I’ve not seen this site, but based on the previous review blog post on it, it has many red flags in the advertising. The Utah Better Business Bureau gives them an F rating, not because of complaints, but because they are not responding to requests for information from the BBB. Here’s their explanation for the low rating.
Factors that lowered Online Profit Masters’ rating include:
BBB concerns with the industry in which this business operates.
BBB does not have sufficient information to determine how long this business has been operating. BBB made one or more requests for background information from the business. BBB has not received a response from this business and/or has not been able to verify information received from this business.
BBB does not have sufficient background information on this business. BBB made one or more requests for background information from the business. BBB has not received a response from this business and/or has not been able to verify information received from this business.
Paul’s research shows that Online Profit Masters may have links to The Online Hosting Network. Paul includes 129 sites that may be connected to that. I found another posting from 2009 about this group that has a rather disturbing discussion about it. You can check that one out at Electron Plumber.
If you are serious about creating an internet marketing business, I suggest you check out Paul’s article.
I receive Paul Schlegel’s Work At Home Truth emails and generally find them quite useful. Today’s message is about a particular system that is out, eMarketing Online System. I’ve not reviewed that system personally, so cannot render judgement on it. My purpose in sharing about the review with you is that Paul uses it as a case study to point out the red flags to watch out for in looking at any work from home program.
Do your home work
If you are looking for online business or work opportunities, you need to learn to do some research. Here are a couple of quick tips.
1. Google: The quickest method is to do a search for the name of the system on Google or another search engine. However, when taking this approach, be sure to check to see if the review is actually a sales pitch. There are many review sites that are only providing a supposed review when in reality they are an affiliate site trying to sell you on the system. If the article you are reading includes a link to the sales page for the product, it’s a sales page disguised as a review.
2. IMReportCard: Check to see if the system/product is listed on IMReportCard. This is a site that contains basic info about systems and persons, but each page also includes reviews from readers. You can get some really detailed information quite easily using this site.
Need more info? Go back and check out the WorkAtHome review article for those all important red flags. Here’s the first one, and it’s the one that most people fall for. Don’t believe the “As seen on” claims. It may have been seen on those sites or TV channels as a paid advertisement.
However, finding good graphics to use can sometimes be a problem. If you’ve taken a photo yourself or created some graphics, you can use them with abandon because they are yours. You own the copyright automatically.
Image via Wikipedia
That’s the crux of the issue: copyright. If you are serious about your business, you do not want to have anyone coming after you for copyright violations. So, if you haven’t taken the photos or created the graphics yourself, what do you do? Read more…
I want to introduce you to my friend Tamara Patzer.
Drawing from her years of experience in successfully creating multiple streams of income working online, she established MOM – Mentor Online Magazine. I invite you to click here to sign up for a subscription to her new online magazine. Just watch the video below to see if you feel that Tami might have useful information for you. I believe she does.
MOM’s founder: An adventure from the JOB to Online Entrepreneur
First, I’d like to introduce myself to you. I am a 53-year-old college educated mother who spent the majority of my life as a single mother of three children. I often consider myself a late bloomer, but that is only partly true. I graduated from high school a year early and went to college, but made a life choice that slowed my path to success by about 15 years. I got married at age 19, had a baby at 20 and was divorced at 22. By age 22, I was a high school graduate with a year of college, a 2-year-old and low self-esteem.
After a cold winter in my hometown in Oregon, I took my daughter on a cross-country Greyhound bus trip with less than $50 to in my pocket to join my parents who had moved to the west coast of Florida. There, I found a minimum wage job and worked hard. I liked Florida, but within two years my mother died and my father went back to Oregon. I was alone. No support system. No real friends. After supporting my daughter on my own, I met the father of my two sons and spend a turbulent few years balancing a bad relationship with a teenager and two babies born 17 months apart.
By the time I was in my early 30s, I knew I had to go back to school if I was ever going to make more than $7 an hour. I went to Eckerd College’s Program for Experience Learners and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and Business in 1997. I started working as a newspaper editor and during that time, I also earned a master’s degree in Mass Communications and Instructional Technology. So began my job juggling to earn more to make ends meet. I was a newspaper editor and college professor. At times I worked full-time as an editor, and drove hundreds of miles each week to teach at three different university campuses. One year I drove 65,000 miles. I was tired.
Did I say I was tired? I was exhausted. I started asking myself why? Why am I working so hard? What am I working for? Is it supposed to be this difficult? I needed my mother, but she was gone. I needed a mentor, wise advisor and friend. Over the years, there have been many women and men who stepped up and provided me with support, encouragement and guidance to help me move forward. In future issues, I will share more of my adventures and insights about these remarkable mentors who have helped me and will also help you, too. Recently with the advent of social media, my life has improved because I have a support system I can tap into any time, day or night. It is with this in mind that MentorOnlineMagazine.com was born.
Wouldn’t it be great, if you had MOM giving you some sage advice, a shoulder to lean on and some step-by-step guidance about how to improve your life, how to move from employee to entrepreneur, from exhausted to joyful?
MentorOnlineMagazine.com MOM is that wise friend, mentor and advisor every woman wants in her life. Each week, on Monday and Thursday, MOM is delivered to your email inbox via free subscription.
You can expect Mentor Monday’s MOM to provide motivation, step-by-step action plans, and multi-income stream opportunities, techniques and ideas.
Triple-T Thursday’s MOM brings you trends, tips, and tools to put into action to help you achieve a more balance, wealthy and healthy life.
Not only will I bring you the best advice I can offer, but I have gathered some of the best minds in the world to share their insights with you. MOM is a collection of essays written and videos produced by a panel of expert contributors offering a global community of support for women around the world.
It is my hope that as publisher of MOM to bring you information, opportunities and high quality advice that you can put into action immediately.
First, I’d like to introduce myself to you. I am a 53-year-old college educated mother who spent the majority of my life as a single mother of three children. I often consider myself a late bloomer, but that is only partly true. I graduated from high school a year early and went to college, but made a life choice that slowed my path to success by about 15 years. I got married at age 19, had a baby at 20 and was divorced at 22. By age 22, I was a high school graduate with a year of college, a 2-year-old and low self-esteem.
