Work from Home Base

Growing your home based business is like working with a plant.  You start of small.  All you have is some dirt, a seed, and some water.  Yet eventually, as you continue growing your home based business, you will need business “fertilizer” and a bigger business “pot.” 

During the initial growing of your home based business, you will be doing everything on your own.  Since you probably don’t have a lot of money, you will be giving yourself a number of job titles and stretching your budget as far as it can go.  As long as what needs to be done gets done, you need to watch your budget and don’t jump the gun by hiring employees or paying for expensive advertising.

However, you also need to set limits for yourself when you are in this stage of growing your home based business.  First, you are just starting out and you need to make sure you can meet any deadlines while providing the best possible work.  When growing your home based business, your reputation is imperative to continued growth.  This also means that you should not start overdoing the advertising until you know you can support the amount of work you are going to get from the advertising campaign.

It can also get tempting when growing your home based business to minimize your pricing and skimp on paying yourself.  However, you should include your salary in your pricing along with any overhead costs.  After you pay yourself and pay for your overhead costs, though, you need to put the profits back into your business.  As you continue growing your home based business, you will need finances to expand.

Bargain shopping is also important when growing your home based business.  You don’t have to have the top-of-the-line office equipment right away.  Just get what you need.  You can get away with an accounting program for a while before you will need an actual accountant.  If you do run into a temporary bind with workload, use a temporary agency.  It will be much less expensive than hiring a staff. 

Read the rest of the article here: Taking your Startup and Growing a Home Based Business.

Download the Free Quick Start Workbook (Free $97 Value!) and receive valuable tips, strategies and techniques designed to grow a very successful Home Based Business.

Copyright © Charles Fuchs is an established Six Figure Income earner and one of the top online marketer’s. He specializes in showing people the Best Home Based Business and the Best MLM on the internet.

I grant permission to publish this article, electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included, with a live link, and the article is not changed in any way.

They say the eyes are the window to the soul. Your website then is the window to your business. What would a passerby think of your “window”? Would they want to stop and maybe come inside for a few moments? Or would they just pass by without giving it a second glance?

The goal of any website is to make the visitor stay. The desired visitor response might be that they make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter, enter a competition or simply complete a survey. The end result is the same - you need the web surfer to hang around your website for as long as possible.

There are, however, aspects of your site which can stop visitors from staying. Some of these are:

Sin #1
Slow loading
The ultimate website sin. Your homepage must, must, must load in 30 seconds or less. This is not optional. If a visitor has to wait more than 30 seconds they will stop what they’re doing and move on to the next website. Optimize your website to load quickly by using as few graphics as possible and then only use JPEGS and GIFS.
Your website should be no more than 20% graphics and at least 80% text. Why? Text loads faster and also keeps your visitor reading about your site as it loads up.

Sin #2
Poor layout
A visitor should be able to find what they need on your website in 3 clicks of the mouse or less. Any more than that and you’re losing valuable visitors. Your navigation menu should be easy to use and every single link must work properly. Make use of a sitemap. Do not use fancy cursors. Do not use complicated menu systems. Text should be legible but not too big. Keep it simple. Imagine how a new internet user would react to your website. Would they love it or hate it? Could a new visitor to your website easily find the information they’re looking for?

Sin #3
Awful color schemes
There’s nothing worse than searching for a website for hours only to find what you need and then realize that you cannot read the text on the pages because the owner though yellow text on a light blue background was cool. If you need guidance on how to choose colors for your website look at any magazine for examples. Black or dark blue text on a white background is the simplest and most effective color scheme.

For your menus and other background colours bear the following in mind:

Red is stimulating and agressive.

Blue is peaceful and tranquil.

Gree is calm and refreshing.

Yellow grabs peoples attention.

Purple is wealthy and luxurious.

Brown is solid and reliable.

Orange is bright and optimistic.

Sin #4
Poor spelling and grammar
If you’re selling a product or service online and your website is littered with spelling and grammar mistakes then you’re on a loser immediately. I recently reviewed an ebook that had 4 very bad spelling mistakes including the word business misspelled in the opening paragraph. Inexcusable. We all make mistakes but keep them to a minimum. A visitor may forgive one typo. You may not get a second chance.

Here’s 3 tips for checking your webpages.

1. Use a spell checker. Every word-processor has one.

2. Proofread anything you write from bottom to top. You’ll spot more mistakes that way.

3. Always proof read anything you’ve written 24 hours later. You’ll be amazed at how many mistakes you’ll spot.

Sin #5
Flashing graphics
Banners or logos that flash, spin, fade in and out and/or perform any other gimmick are a no go area. Don’t use them. Flashing banners and logos say “I’ve never put together a website before. Cool, huh?” Any website with this type of graphic element turns me off. A website logo or banner should be a static graphic or text. Online marketing surveys consistently report
that animated icons and graphics on a website are a major turnoff for visitors.

Sin #6
Hit counters
Only used by amateurs. Take them off your website. Please. Any decent webhost can provide you with traffic stats which will provide much more accurate information than a hit counter. Having a hit counter on your website was a good idea 8 years ago. The online world has moved on. You should too.

There’s an old rule of sales:

“If I could see through John Smiths eyes I could sell John Smith what John Smith buys”.

Design your website for your visitor and not for you.

In business, a professional image is everything.  No matter how much we would like to believe that your competence or ability should matter more, many people still hold a prejudiced ideology that you are not professional if you have a home based business. Yet, there are a number of things you can do to gain that professional image to draw in even the skeptics.

First of all, make sure you gain a professional image through a professional business name.  It is worth the small amount of money to go ahead and register your business under a “DBA” or file papers for incorporation.  Plus, use that name in your letterhead and on your business cards.  Most clients don’t really think about how inexpensive or easy it is to register a business name, but they do notice the professional sounding company name itself.

Also, you can get a serviced office address that does not cost a lot and allows you to have a professional sounding address.  If you use a serviced office, it also allows you to meet with clients in a professional setting, preventing them from showing up at your home based business.  These serviced offices often make meeting rooms available for a flat fee, and they give your home based business that professional image you are seeking.

Another area of some concern for home based business owners is the telephone, especially if you have young children or pets whose behavior is often unpredictable.  It is important that your phone calls sound like they are being made or taken from a business in order to maintain that professional image.  One way to handle this situation is to only offer your phone number to existing clients.  Since they already have experienced your professionalism and competence, there should be few issues with you working out of your home.

If you do not want to give out your home business number, you could hire an answering service in order to maintain that professional image.  This way there is a service answering your phone telling the client that you are on another call or with another client and taking a message.  If you have a serviced office, an answering service is usually included.  This way, you will always be prepared when you take a business call, making your phone conversations professional.

Another way to offer your home based business a more professional image is to get a professional domain name based upon the name of your business.  For under $10 per month, you get an e-mail address for your business that sounds much more professional.  Most of the time, you will also have the option of creating a website to go with that domain name, giving your business a much more professional image.

Read the rest of the article here: A Professional Image for Your Home Based Business.

Download the Free Quick Start Workbook (Free $97 Value!) and receive valuable tips, strategies and techniques designed to grow a very successful Home Based Business.

Copyright © Charles Fuchs is an established Six Figure Income earner and one of the top online marketer’s. He specializes in showing people the Best Home Based Business and the Best MLM on the internet.

I grant permission to publish this article, electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included, with a live link, and the article is not changed in any way.

Blogging allows bloggers to share their expertise and knowledge with a very large audience. Building a loyal audience is something that every small business owner would love to accomplish.

1: Building Trust Relationships

Blogging allows bloggers to share their expertise and knowledge with a very large audience. Building a loyal audience is something that every small business owner would love to accomplish and bloggers are able to do this by simply sharing their thoughts using their business blogs. Building a community that trusts you and follows your blog updates on a daily basis is one of the key ingredients that hundreds of bloggers are using in their business.

2: Easy To Publish

Blog software is simple to use. With the push of a few buttons you can post your thoughts, link to resources and publish your blog. Blog software companies provide bloggers with all the tools necessary to get started. Bloggers can update their blogs much quicker than a website which usually requires contacting a web designer or uploading yourself.

3: Search Engine Traffic

One of the greatest benefits that bloggers receive is search engine traffic. Search engines love to spider pages that contain quality content and are updated with fresh content on a regular basis. Smart bloggers optimize their blogs by keeping their content focused on a specific niche.

4: Cost Effective

Blogging is a low cost alternative to having a web presence. Blogging has given small business owners the opportunity to create a web presence without the time to learn html or the income to hire a web designer. Blogging is quickly growing with popularity as an inexpensive method to get the name of your business out on the internet. Gone are the days of having to come up with a large investment to create a web presence.

5 Spam Free

With Spam problems and email filters creating a huge challenge for email marketers to publish their newsletters, bloggers are now using blogs as an additional option to communicate with their subscribers. The advantage of using blogs is that you don’t have to worry about spam and email filters because your message will be delivered by using RSS (Really Simple Syndication). You can use these syndicated RSS “feeds” to display the latest news from major newspapers, for example, on your own web site or read them on other sites collecting these feeds. There are special programs and web-based services called “RSS feed readers” or “RSS aggregators” that, given the URL of an RSS feed will fetch the latest headlines periodically and let you read them comfortably and efficiently.

In Closing…

If you are looking for another source of traffic that is cost effective, spam free, search engine friendly, and perfect for building relationships, start publishing your own blog today. Once you get started, you too will experience the secret benefits that bloggers love and enjoy.

Many entrepreneurs just starting out say that their one biggest fear is selling their business to others.  In today’s relationship marketing focus, much has been said about building the relationship that the sales side of this style of marketing has become a taboo in business owners’ minds.  However, you have a home based business to make money, and so developing a balance between both sides of the relationship marketing style will help you effectively build your business.

In being able to develop your sales approach, you must also know exactly what you are doing with your home based business.  If you cannot articulate your business to others, then relationship marketing will do you know good.  You have to know how your home based business is going to be able to help the consumer meet his or her needs.  It is absolutely imperative that you list “making a profit” as one of your purposes.  Trying to make a profit is not a sin, it is a necessity to stay in business, so no one should fault you for it as long as you are making a profit by honest means.  And in relationship marketing, you promote your business through the relationship to enhance trust, so being honest is important.

Also, you need to be businesslike and professional when building your business through relationship marketing.  The relationship side of this marketing style does not mean that your clients have to be your best friends, just that you need to develop a rapport with them that promotes communication – business communication.  Other relationships could develop, but the relationship must start off as businesslike so that the sales side of relationship marketing is not compromised.

Your actions should always be in accordance with your business’s best interests, too.  Ask yourself that question when making decisions.  In relationship marketing, you may believe that doing something special for a client will enhance your business and building that relationship and future sales.  However, the act could be seen by the client as more of a personal favor.  Always weigh the benefits of the action for your business before making a decision.  Despite your ability to develop the sale through relationship marketing, though, understand that some clients will try to use the relationship to manipulate or take advantage of you.  So always ask yourself the question before making any decisions

Read the rest of the article here: Relationship Marketing and Your Home Based Business.

Download the Free Quick Start Workbook (Free $97 Value!) and receive valuable tips, strategies and techniques designed to grow a very successful Home Based Business.

Copyright © Charles Fuchs is an established online marketer who specializes in helping people start their very own Home Based Business. He specializes in showing people the best way to Make Money at Home.

I grant permission to publish this article, electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included, with a live link, and the article is not changed in any way.

How to write Your Own Article to Grow Your “Expert” Status on the Internet, because writing articles is one of the most effective way to market your website on the Internet.

Guess what my fast-start recommendation is? You got it - write articles for other publishers. Why is this such a common suggestion? Could it be because - it works? This is the fastest and easiest way by far to get a following of people who recognize your name and listen to what you recommend.

When I was newly online and learning about online business, clicking on the links in articles, forums, and discussion groups signatures was my primary method of finding good information.

I reasoned that if the person was published, odds were that they were somewhat of an expert on that subject. And, if they were experts, the products and services they sold or recommended were likely to be good. Those were the people whose products I bought and whose lists I joined.

If you include a signature with each article, including a line or two about your business and your website URL and/or email address, you may be very amazed at the traffic it will generate for you - the best kind of targeted traffic, too!

Are you having trouble just getting started? I understand. And I can’t tell you that writing isn’t hard work. It certainly is for me. But once you write the first article it gets much easier. In fact, you may discover, as I did, that you have a hard time stopping!

Here’s a “jump-start plan” to get you going:

1. Get a notebook and pen, or if you are a “cut and paste” writer like me - a word processor or computer, and just brainstorm ideas for articles. If you are at a total loss, go and read some articles in other’s e-zines or websites. That may spark an idea for a different approach to the same subject or remind you of your own experiences in that area.

Think about what You need or want to know. What have you learned from experience that might help others? Once you get started you will come up with many ideas. Write each one down. If you think of a good title for that article, write that down too. Make it “catchy.”

2. What you should do next depends on you. There are several ways writers’ work, depending on their personalities. You may like to order and organize your points first by making an outline of the information you plan to include or the points you intend to make. Then all you have to do is go back and “flesh out” the points, adding useful facts or links to more information.

Or, you may be a natural teacher, and write just as though you are explaining the subject to the reader in person. Either method is fine, just do what is comfortable for you. One method may work best for one kind of article and the other for another kind.

3. In either case, don’t forget to add “personality” to your writing. Share some of yourself with your readers, make your writing uniquely your own. It’s fine to read e-zines and others’ articles to see what people may be interested in and spark your own ideas, but don’t pattern yourself after someone else. People want to feel that they know You - Your knowledge and personality. This is what builds loyalty.

If it fits with your subject, don’t be afraid to mention your product or service and give the URL or email address, but DON’T write a “glorified ad” and call it an article! That can offend a publisher so that they won’t even consider articles from you in the future.

4. After you’ve finished writing your article, read it through aloud, preferably to someone else who will ask questions if they don’t understand some point. (You may get an idea for a sequel here too!}

5. Run a spell checker! If you own Microsoft Word or something similar, run the grammar checker also. Have someone else proof-read it for you. Even professional proof-readers will tell you that they try to have someone else proof-read their own writing, because it is next to impossible to catch your own mistakes.

6. Once you finish your article and make any necessary changes, you will need to submit it to as many websites and e-zines as you can. Search the web for “article directory” and you will find many places to submit your article for free. There are also, of course, paid services and software that will do the submissions for you, but you may want to wait until you have successfully written a few articles before you choose to pay.

As I said earlier, writing is hard work for me, and I reworked my first article many times before I was satisfied. But if you persevere you may discover that it can be loads of fun as well as a great promotion method and a quick path to “web-guru-ness.”

Article marketing is the latest buzzword for marketers looking to promote their sites and products online. But how do you define article performance? One way to measure article performance is by checking how many times your article has been picked up and reproduced on various sites.

Copyright © 2005 Priya Shah

Article marketing is the latest buzzword for marketers looking to promote their sites and products online. But how do you measure the success of your article marketing campaign?

It probably depends on what you expect your article to achieve for you - better branding, more sales, or more publicity.

One way to measure article performance is to check how many times your article has been picked up and reproduced on various sites.

To do that, just copy and paste the article title in quotes into a search engine like Google, and you’ll see how many sites it’s been reprinted on.

My article “How To Get To The Top Of The Marketing Food Chain” shows 1061 links in Google.

That means Google has indexed 1061 sites on which this article appears.

This gives me about 1061 quality links to each of the sites I included in my resource box.

As you can see, this makes article marketing a very powerful way of building quality links.

So how do you ensure that your article gets picked up and reprinted by as many publishers as possible?

1. Pick A Topic That’s Hot Or Always Fresh

For instance, my article on Neuromarketing got picked up pretty quickly because it was a hot topic.

The problem with hot topics is that they also tend to cool off quickly. So while they may get a lot of reprints over a short time, they may get very few reprints once the craze is over.

There are some articles that are slow starters but eternally fresh, like the one I wrote here.

To Be A Champion, Become A Child (591 links in Google)

These are the ones that will give you reprints over a longer period of time. I think in the long run, these are more valuable.

2. Target A Large Audience

Another way to get a lot of coverage is write an article for a large target audience or one that is very active online - like bloggers.

This article gave me 164 links back, mostly from other blogs, even some for which I had to use a translation service

This shows 248 links back

316 links for this one

But again, it’s the quality of links back that matters - not the quantity.

Another large target audience is the health market. I get a lot of links back from my health articles.

3. Craft A Catchy, Relevant Title

A catchy title ensures that your article gets the attention of publishers - the first step to getting your article published.

Follow the basic rules of copywriting to make your article interesting and readable.

Publishers are more likely to pick up an article if its title includes the keywords that they (and you) want to target.

Use your main keywords in your title, preferable in the first half (like I did in the title of this article), to ensure better rankings for those who reprint it.

4. Offer Publishers A Monetary Incentive

Give people an incentive to publish your article. I have an affiliate program and I allow publishers to use their affiliate link for my ezine in the resource box.

Allow publishers to earn by publishing your article and they will gladly reprint it.

5. Write An Article Series

Break up a long article or report into a series of articles like I did with my “Marketing With Blogs” series here.

Marketing With Blogs - Part 1, 2, 3 and 4

These gave me 5270 links back in all. As you can see, a series of articles can be a very powerful link-building technique.

6. Distribute Your Article Widely

Ensure that your article is distributed to the best and most appropriate article directories and announcement lists online.

Feel free to browse through my own collection of article directories and announcement lists

Not including former clients and customers in your current marketing efforts can be detrimental to your bottom line.  Keep close contact with your previous clients using the practices outlined below and watch your profits grow!

As a home-based business owner, you may feel you have to concentrate all of your marketing efforts on attracting new clients and prospects. 

Once someone has bought from you, you may adopt the mindset that they know who you are and where to find you, so it’s best to focus your attention on attracting new buyers. 

Bringing in new clients and customers takes 16 times the effort it does to resell to a former client.  It is much more costly and time consuming to sell to someone for the first time than it is to create an ongoing relationship with someone who has already bought from you.

This week I received a letter in the mail that was very timely, effective and welcomed.   

In Northern Ontario, we have cold winters with heaps of snow and hazardous road conditions. 

In order to cope with the icy roads, City crews dispense substantial amounts of road salt.  This salt wreaks havoc on our vehicles and if they are not undercoated regularly, rust takes hold and decreases their lifespan dramatically. 

Last week I had a fleeting thought that I should soon get my truck undercoated.  As quickly as it came to mind, the thought vanished, as I was in the midst of yard work at the time. 

This week, I received a letter from the dealer who undercoated my truck last year, offering a friendly reminder it was that time of year again.  I was thrilled to receive this letter and appreciated their concern and effort in helping me keep my vehicle maintained.   

The letter communicated the message that rust prevention would save me tons of money by extending the life of my vehicle and offered me a locked in, reduced price if I booked my appointment by a certain date. 

Now that’s smart marketing!   

By spending only pennies on a letter and 50 cents on a stamp, they brought me back for a second year.  No previous undercoating company had ever done that before! 

Within the letter they appealed to my desire to save money and protect my asset.  They also moved me to action by offering a reduced price within a specific timeline.  

This simple, inexpensive practice has a significant impact on generating continuous revenue. 

Looking at your own business or practice, do you have prior clients or customers who would benefit by purchasing your product or service again? 

As a coach, do you have a former client who achieved desired results and moved forward on her own?  Might a friendly “Hello, how’s it going?” be in order at this time?  Clients are continuously growing, setting new goals and facing new challenges.  Perhaps your support would be welcomed at this time. 

As a provider of nutritional supplements or health care products, have you estimated the amount of time it takes for a customer to exhaust her supply?  Might you have some customers who have not bought for six months or more?  They may be well out of supplies, but procrastination gets the better of them and they never place the next order. 

We all procrastinate over one thing or another and sometimes all we need is a gentle nudge to get us moving again.  More often than not, your communications will be welcomed and your clients and customers will appreciate your concern. 

Over the next few days, take a look at your list of previous buyers and reach out to them with an offer, a reminder, or a letter of appreciation for their patronage (with an announcement of your newest product).    

Local Business Advertising & Google Adwords - How local businesses can effectively use Google Adwords to maximise their advertising spend.

“I don’t need the Internet to advertise - I’m a local business!”

Okay…

If you could spend £0.04 (or $0.05 in the US) and have a new  customer - what would you do with your local business  advertising budget?

I hope you would spend that money again and again! Granted this is the ideal example and you are likely to pay  much more then £0.04 per customer you acquire, BUT - herein  lies the rub for local businesses: An internet presence announces your business to the world.

When you are online, you have little control about where traffic is coming to you from (if you are not actively driving traffic that is), but what if you could  make sure that people who lived in your area, who buy your  goods and would make ideal customers could be targeted! Google Adwords can help you target local people, not people from New Zealand if you live in the UK - but people close to you. Pinpoint geographic targeting of prospects is an optimum  use of your local business advertising budget.

Is it 100% foolproof?

Alas no, but it’s a good start.

How do I do it?

Well the easiest way to do this is as follows:

Create a national campaign with your search terms and your location terms - eg:

If you’re a plumber in Poole then “plumber poole” would be a good keyword.

Create a geo-targeted campaign (this can be done in a couple of ways - I’ll leave the nitty gritty details out for now) which means your ads are served to local people when  they search for your keywords.

So in the plumber example if a local person types in “plumber” and doesn’t mention anything else, your advert will be shown.

So goes the theory anyway.

Does it work all the time?

Like I said - Not always very well. This is because Google uses IP addresses to determine location and this method is somewhat of a cleaver when a scalpel is required.

It all depends how diligent ISP’s are when allocating IP addresses to their customers, the only way you can know is through empirical means.

What if the regional targeting is producing no results?

If this is the case then a national campaign with location terms included (as mentioned above) is your best  bet.

If you were to run a national campaign on the same keywords without the location terms, you will be competing with other players who have a national presence for your particular product/service which could prove very expensive.

Your local business advertising budget spend should at the very least give Adwords and PPC advertising in general a tryout. Remember there are an infinite number of keywords in any target market.

Just because the big boys may have a stranglehold on the ‘obvious’ terms does not mean your market is saturated.

Whether or not you will be extending credit to your customers in your home based business is a decision you will eventually have to make.  Every business owner will have to write off between 3 and 5 percent of debt as bad, as long as debt is managed correctly.  If you have just started your home based business, cashflow is very important, and so you do not want to necessarily turn potential business away just because you think if you go extending credit you will not get paid.  There are ways to help you determine whether or not you should extend credit in your home based business.

Some home based business owners have a strict policy regarding up front payment or even pay upon delivery payments.  However, if you want to keep your business competitive, extending credit is one way of increasing business.  Extending credit, though, does not mean you do it willy-nilly to anybody who wants it.  After all, some services or products are worth a lot of money, and not getting paid can cost your business significantly.

Therefore, you need to take some specific things into account when you are considering extending credit to a client.  First, take a look at the character of your client and their overall willingness to pay debts.  What is their history and your experience with their management?  Is there a history of unpaid debt or litigation?  Taking a close look at the client can help you determine whether extending credit is in your business’s best interest.

While you are taking a closer look at the character of the company when determining whether or not you will be extending credit to that client, you should also take a close look at the financial capacity of the company.  The company’s character tells you if the company will be willing to pay, but looking at the financial capacity will tell you if they are able to pay any debt. 

When you are considering extending credit to a particular client, finding out the character and financial capacity of the client comes easiest from having them fill out a credit application and running a credit check.  Beware of extending credit to those clients that balk at filling out a credit application, as most reputable clients will understand your concern.  Also, double check credit references on the application before you go extending credit to your client.

Your policy on extending credit is important here, as you need to know what to do with the information you get from the credit check.  You need to know how much negative information makes you uncomfortable enough to not extend credit to that client, and if you will be requiring pre-payment in full or just partial payment.  Also, if you do decide on extending credit to the client, then you need to make sure the payment terms are very clear. 

Read the rest of the article here: Extending Credit in Your Home Based Business.

Download the Free Quick Start Workbook (Free $97 Value!) and receive valuable tips, strategies and techniques designed to grow a very successful Home Based Business.

Copyright © Charles Fuchs is an established Six Figure Income earner and one of the top online marketer’s. He specializes in helping people start their very own Work at Home and Home Based Business on the internet.

I grant permission to publish this article, electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included, with a live link, and the article is not changed in any way.