Although some less-than-bright business writers have (for more years than I care to remember) advised their readers that there are ...
Two Ways To Get Rich ... Make More Money - or - Spend Less Money. That Is "Wage-Earner" Thinking -- Not "Business" Thinking! Granted, in order for a 40-hour-a-week salary-slave to improve their financial position, they must either make more money ... by getting a pay raise or a better job ... or, they must spend less of the "salary" they are currently earning. Either way, their disposable income increases. In the business community, it just ain't so. You can get rich by making more money - but ... No matter how brilliant you think you are, you will never get rich by spending less money. Think about it! -- If a wage-earner decides to spend less money by reducing their living expenses ... moneys spent for food, clothing, lodging, communication, and transportation ... it doesn't affect their cashflow. Their salary (cashflow) remains the same. -- Every penny they don't spend becomes disposable income to save, invest, or use to pay-off old, outstanding bills. Wage-earners do not spend money to generate income. Their cashflow is generated by selling their time and skills to their employer. Therefore, if a wage-earner reduces their out-of-pocket expenses, the resulting savings go directly to their bottom line because it doesn't change the time and skills they are selling. In the business community, cashflow (revenue) is a result of spending money ... buying equipment, fixtures, signage, inventory, packaging, office supplies ... paying for advertising, shipping, telephones, utilities, building rent or mortgage, postage ... and, in most cases, paying people to facilitate the warehousing or stocking of your wares, and the sale and distribution to your customers. Each cost helps create ... directly or indirectly ... the resulting cashflow. Unfortunately, all too many small business people attempt to "make more money" by "spending less money" in their business without considering what effect it will have on their revenue. -- Why? -- Because, most of them, having come from a wage-earner background, still have a ... Wage-Earner Mentality Since they have been told (frequently and repeatedly) that to "get rich" they either have to make more money, or spend less, they usually opt for spending less; because it looks easier than trying to increase the business' revenues. Looking through their costs, they see some on-going big expenditures, and, determined to "spend less," they decide to cut those costs ... just because those costs are obvious. -- Their wage-earner mentality tells them that, "if we don't spend that money, it will be ours to keep" (after paying Uncle Sam his share, of course). Since they can't cut their on-going fixed overhead costs ... like rent and utilities ... they usually decide to cut such things as inventory and advertising. -- After all, "since people already know where we are and what we sell, why should we spend all that extra money on advertising" - and - "we've got enough inventory, I'll just keep the money in my pocket and reorder when I run-out." But, unlike the wage-earner environment in which they were reared, their income isn't static. The "paychecks" don't just keep coming in ... regardless of the amount spent. With the advertising expenses cut, fewer people come through the doors ... fewer sales are made. Or, worse yet, the people keep coming through the door, but, because the inventory expense has been cut, they can't find what they came to buy and don't come back later to look again. -- Either way, the money that wasn't spent doesn't come back in to be put into the pocket of the business owner ... .unlike the wage-earner's paycheck that just keeps coming as long as they have a job. Spending less money might actually allow a wage-earner to get rich - but - the only way you are going to get rich in a business of your own is by making more money. -- When a business owner tries to grow their business by spending less, they inevitably end up shrinking the business instead ... adding to the business failure statistics. Quit thinking like a wage-earner. Forget about "spending less." Concentrate on learning ... How To Make More Money In Your Business! In accord with the advice of the not-too-bright business writers, wage-earners who want to be better-off financially have an option ... either spend less, or make more. Business owners only have one choice. They must do two things ... Do More Of Whatever Makes The Most Money! - and - Do Less Of Whatever Makes The Least Money! This is not an either/or situation. The business must do both. -- That means evaluating your current cashflow and profit centers to determine which are generating the most cashflow, which are generating the most profits, which may be costing you money without enhancing the viability of your business, which may be costing you money but do enhance the viability of your business, and which are losing money. In order to accomplish your goal of business growth, each primary product or service you sell should be considered as a separate business entity. Then, each should be evaluated independently to determine whether or not the marketing for that product or service should be increased, decreased, or eliminated all together. Did you notice that I said, each "primary" product or service, not "each and every" product or service you sell? Beyond its "primary" products and services, each business (usually) has some "peripheral" products and services that ... although sometimes highly profitable ... cannot generate enough cashflow on their own to justify any separate sales efforts. These are the products or services your customers may want or need in conjunction with your "primary" products or services but wouldn't normally buy as a separate product or service. To best explain the evaluations you must do in order to grow your business, let's pretend that your business has just three "primary" products. Product "A" has annual sales of $25,000. -- Product "B" has annual sales of $10,000. -- Product "C" has annual sales of $5,000. Although, at first blush, it might appear that you need to put more effort into selling product "A" and less effort into selling product "C" ... it ain't necessarily so. Product "A" has a higher cashflow, but let me 'splain something to ya ... Cashflow Allows A Business To Survive Profits Allow A Business To Grow "Cashflow" can be used to pay the bills ... maintain the same level of sales ... but only returns the direct and indirect costs of doing business (i.e., overhead costs, salaries, inventory, advertising, shipping, etc.). "Profits" ... over and above the costs of doing business ... are the only money you can use to increase your inventory and advertising; the two elements necessary to the growth of your business. NO ... I'm not talking about "net" (taxable) profits. I am talking about "gross" profits against sales. -- "Gross" profits spent in the growth of your business never reach your bottom line to become taxable. And, when I talk about "inventory," I am referring to whatever you sell ... whether your cost of inventory is tied-up in tangible goods in a warehouse, stockroom or display area; or just "available" from a drop shipper ... or the intangible services you provide yourself; or employee others to provide. -- Only "profits" allow you to increase the availability of your inventory ... whatever it may be. Going back to our example ... Product "A" ... with gross sales of $25,000 ... has a direct inventory cost of $15,000 and a direct advertising cost of $5,000 (direct advertising cost being the amount of money specifically spent on selling that product). -- That leaves a "gross" profit of $5,000 from the sales of product "A". Product "B" ... with gross sales of $10,000 ... has a direct inventory cost of $5,000 and a direct advertising cost of $2,000; leaving a "gross" profit of $3,000. Product "C" ... with gross sales of $5,000 ... has a direct inventory cost of $2,000 and a direct advertising cost of $1,500; leaving a "gross" profit of $1,500. Although product "A" has the highest cashflow, it only allows a "gross" profit margin of 20%. If you take 100% of the gross profit generated by product "A" and spend it for more of the same advertising, you will increase the sales of that product by 100%. Products "B" and "C" provide much lower cashflows - but - each of them allows a "gross" profit margin of 30%. Like product "A", if you take 100% of the gross profit generated by product "C" and spend it for more of the same advertising, you will increase the sales of that product by 100%. -- BUT ... If you take 100% of the gross profit generated by product "B" and spend it for more of the same advertising, you will increase the sales of that product by 150%. Get the picture? A wage-earner can "spend less" in order to improve their financial position but, in business, the idea is to "spend the same amount but make more usable money." -- The increased "gross" profit can, then, be spent to make even more - or - improve your lifestyle, since a smaller piece (percentage) of a big pie (net profit) will be much bigger than a bigger piece of a small pie. Now is the time to go back over your detailed revenues and costs to determine how you can ... Do More Of Whatever Makes The Most Money! - and - Do Less Of Whatever Makes The Least Money! Quit trying to "spend less" to "make more" and figure out how you can "spend the same amount but make more usable money." Having spent over 50 years in business; doing business successfully, J.F. (Jim) Straw now shares "Practical Instruction in the Arts & Sciences of Making Money" at the Business Lyceum.
With Internet Marketing you need to have an effective sales letter
in order to make a lot of money. Unfortunately it isn't easy to write a great sales letter. But there is a simple way to get it done. To write your sales letters you want to make sure you follow a proven formula. Probably the most popular one is AIDA. The letters stand for attention, interest, desire, and action. Let's break down why this formula works so well. The first part is the headline. The headline is the place where you need to capture the readers' attention. The headline is what will determine whether people begin reading your sales copy or not. So be sure you make your headline as good as it can be. Test different headlines to see which one works the best. A great headline speaks directly to the person who you want to buy from you. The next part of any good sales letter is a subheading. This backs up the headline. The subheading should either expand on the headline or introduce something that compliments the headline. Just like the headline, the subheading should speak directly to your potential customers. The next part you need to include is the body of the letter. This is the main part of your letter. This is where you need to get the reader's interest, make them want what you're selling (desire), and make them think to buy it (take action). It's often a good idea to tell a story in the body of the sales letter too. This will keep the reader's interest and it will also help you connect with people. The last part of every awesome sales letter is the closing. The main goal of your closing has to be to get the reader to take action and buy what you're selling. Actually ask them to buy what you're selling. Usually a closing will also include soothing any fears a reader might have about buying from you. This will help the reader to take action as well. The closing always includes a signature and could even include a couple postscripts. Follow this simple way and you will be able to write better sales letter without as much effort.
We'll dig into this tip in a lot more detail at another time,
but I wanted to give you this quick tip right now. You need to focus on the relationship building part of your list first, and think about the monetary aspect later. Sure, you want to make money, but if all you do is hit up your list for money, you're going to get a lot of unsubscribes and make some people angry. The chances are good that they signed up for your list in order to get something out of it. Whether it was an e-course, a free e-book, information, coupons, notices, an audio, or something else, they expect to receive a lot of value for being a part of your e-mail list. If you'd like some free brandable items that you can give away, check out www.BrandableStuff.com/tools You can enter your affiliate link into these items and make money from the sales that result. If you provide this relationship first, the profits will come.
Viral videos are online videos that get spread from person to
person. People are affected by the video in one way or another so they share it with their friends and other people they know. Those people then share it with other people and so on. Before long the video is all over the internet. Obviously getting a video to go viral is a very powerful thing for internet marketers. Below are 5 ideas to help you create your own viral video. Make it Funny The first idea to create a viral video is to make it funny. People love to laugh and they like to make others laugh too. Make it Shocking Shocking people makes a great impression on them. That impression could very well cause them to share your video with others. Make it Educational Teach people something that they don't already know. Teach it in a unique way. Then people will want to share your video because they'll want to share that knowledge. Make it Cool Create a video that people will love to watch. More importantly, make it be something that most people will want to share with others. Make the video cool. Then people will send it to their friends so that they can be cool too. <big grin> Make it Unique Do something that hasn't been done before. Make a video that's on the cutting edge. This will impress people and cause them to pass your video on. In no time your video will have a great chance of becoming viral. While none of these ideas are guaranteed to work, they will certainly improve your chances of getting a video to go viral. And if your video goes viral then website will be seen by many more people. Just make sure to host the video on your site or blog, or make mention of your site within the video.
You may have heard about the bestseller called The Secret.
It's a book written by Rhonda Byrne about how to succeed in both your personal and your professional life. Some form of this book has been around on the Internet for many years but it's only come out as a physical book and a movie in the past couple of years. It's available at: www.thesecret.tv And while I recommend that you definitely read the book or watch the movie, I'm going to tell you briefly what it's mainly about. And while I recommend that you definitely read the book or watch the movie, I'm going to tell you briefly what it's mainly about. The main point of The Secret is that what you think is what will happen to you. In other words, if you send out positive thoughts then you will have positive things happen to you. On the other hand, if you send out negative thoughts then you'll have negative things happen to you. So we all have the power to influence our futures by controlling what and how we think. Think about this for a moment, how many people who are always being negative about everything actually become successful? Successful people do not have a negative out- look on life and no one with a negative outlook becomes successful. But how can that be? Well, it has to do with The Secret, and it's all about how you and everyone else can influence what happens in your life by simply changing your attitude. For many people this is much easier said than done. It takes a lot of practice to stop how you've been thinking your entire life and to start thinking positive thoughts all the time. But over time, if you really concentrate on it, you will get better and you will learn to think positively. To begin you want to change how you think in two ways. The first way you can change your way of thinking is to wake up each morning thinking that you will have a good day. Don't let your sources of stress and your worries bring you down. Believe that you can make each day as good as possible. Sure, things might go wrong (and sometimes will) but promise yourself that you will make the best of the bad and that you will believe that things will turn out good. The second way to help change your thoughts, is by believing in yourself. Believe that you can succeed in both your personal and professional life. Believe that you are destined for great things, because you are! The truth of the matter is, if you don't believe in yourself, no one else will believe in you either.... and you certainly won't succeed. So that is the main point of the bestselling book, The Secret. Send out positive thoughts about yourself and your life and you will attract good things. Of course, there is much more to it and you should read the book and/or watch the movie to find out more. But know that if you can change the way you think and feel then you will be able to change your life too.
Building an email list is one of the biggest keys to succeed
with Internet Marketing. But most people don't really know how to go about building a list. If you're not really sure how to get started, here are 5 quick tips for you today. Give Away Something One of the best ways to get people to sign-up for your list is to give away something free. It can be just a 5 page report or it can be an entire eBook or something else. The size of the gift doesn't matter. In order to get people to sign-up to your list you just need to give people something of value. You can take the giving away something for free a step further by promising a free gift every month or even 2 or 3 times a year. This will also help keep people signed up. Hold a Contest Another good way to build a list is to hold a contest. While the prize should probably be a lot better than something you'd give away for free, it doesn't have to be anything too great. It just has be valuable to people who you'd want on your list. Run a Forum Another way to build a list is to run a forum. While this isn't the easiest thing to build, it is one of the best ways to create a list (once you have a lot of forum users). The list of names you'll have will convert really well because your forum will think of you as an expert. You want to create niche products and offers that interest your forum members. Give Away PLR Material Another great way to build your list is to give away PLR material. Not only can you give people PLR material for signing up but you can also put your own links in the PLR material and then as the PLR content gets passed around, more people will see your link and sign-up on your list. Put an Opt-in Box on Everything! An often overlooked way to build a list is to put an opt-in box on everything. This includes on every webpage, every blog entry, and on any other content you have on the Internet. This will maximize your chances of getting a lot of new sign-ups. Continuously building your list is one of the best ways to succeed with Internet Marketing, and there are actually 2 parts to getting people to sign-up on your list: First you need to get people to see that they can sign-up for your list and then you need to actually get them to give you their email address. Custom HTML. Click here, then click the "Edit custom HTML" button above to edit.
Blogging is a great way to boost your business and to get more
recognition online. Since search engines automatically rank blogs higher than most other sites because blogs are usually updated frequently, a blog is key for SEO purposes. Here are a few things you can do to make your blog more popular in the search engines. Bookmark It Social bookmarking sites are a great way to get your blog in front of more people. Not only will people see you blog listed on the social bookmarking site, getting all those incoming links to your blog will help your search engine ranking. So, make sure you bookmark every blog post you make. Use Forums Another way to make your blog more popular is by using forums. You should actively participate in forums that are related to the topic of your blog. Make sure you make quality contributions to the forum and then put a link to your blog in the signature of your forum posts. Use Yahoo Answers Yahoo answers (and similar sites) are a great way to make your blog more popular too. Look for questions relating to your blog and then answer those questions. Where it asks for a source put a link back to your blog. Include Pictures Whenever possible include at least one picture with each blog entry you make. There are millions of people who search for pictures online. If they can find your blog this way then it will give another avenue for people to find you and your blog. It will also make your blog look better to your readers and improve their overall experience. Create Videos Another great way to make your blog more popular is to create videos. Post videos on your blog and post videos on YouTube too. If you have a knack for creating dynamic videos or if you're only able to create basic videos, videos in general will help make your blog more popular in the search engines, so start with what you know, or use a video created by someone else on your blog. There are services online that will provide that either by outsourcing or via private label rights sources.
When you get into Internet Marketing, often one of the main
barriers to making money is coming up with winning ideas. You need to get good ideas for which niche to go into and then you need to come up with a good idea for what product or service to sell within that niche. For many people it's difficult to come up with a winning idea, but it doesn't have to be. In fact, a good way to get Internet Marketing ideas is to watch TV. Watch the News One great place to get Internet Marketing ideas is to watch the news. The news keeps up with current events and gives the news stories that people are interested in seeing. So, you can tap into this and create a product or a service based off of what the news is covering. For example, when a major hurricane hits, people get worried about what they would do if they had a hurricane heading straight for them. So, a perfect idea for a product would be to sell an eBook that taught people what to do to prepare for a hurricane. Another great idea might be to simply create a product that helped people prepare for any kind of natural disaster. Watch for Popular Shows Another good way to get Internet Marketing ideas is to watch for popular shows. What do people like to watch? See that's popular and then design a marketing campaign and/or an Internet Marketing product based on a common theme for popular shows. For example, if shows about dieting are popular then going into the dieting niche would be a good idea. This is an obvious example because the dieting niche is very popular. But you could go a step further and see how people are losing weight on a popular show. Then design a dieting product based around that method. Watch Infomercials Finally, another helpful way to get Internet Marketing ideas is to watch infomercials. What are they selling on those late night infomercials? Watch them and then design your own product or service based on what they are selling. If someone is paying for TV time then you can be sure there is a market for that type of product.
Writing a blog is a great way to make some money through AdSense
and it's a great way to build your list too. You can also sell your
own products and sell affiliate products from your blog. However,
for any of these things to actually work, you first need to get
traffic to your blog. Three great ways to drive traffic to your
blog are to write articles, digg your blog, and post on forums.
The best place to submit articles is ezinearticles.com. This site is also the strictest so make sure you follow all their rules. It will take a few days to get your article approved but once you get 10 or more articles live on the site you'll become a platinum member and then your articles should get accepted in about a day or so. What you want to do is write great articles that are related to your blog and then put a link to your blog in the signature box below the article. The next way to get more readers to your blog is to digg it. This means that you submit each blog you write to digg.com. This is a very easy process. It takes you about 30 seconds to sign-up. Then you complete the sign-up process by checking your email and clicking the link that digg sends you. Then all you need to do is click on Submit New at the top of the page. Then plug in the url to the individual blog post and then you're all set. The third way to drive more traffic to your blog is by participating in forums that are related to your blog. Now, there are a couple different ways to promote your blog on these forums. The first way is to put a link to your blog in your signature. That way the link to your blog appears every single time you make a post. The third way to use forums to your blog is to read the posts and find an interesting topic or question. Then go back and write a post about that topic, then return to the forum and post a reply that you covered this exact topic on your blog. Then refer them to the link in your sig. or post the direct link in the reply. There are many great ways to get traffic to your blog, but these three are some of the best ways you can drive targeted traffic to it.
To make money online and offline, being able to market effectively
is vital for success. Business owners often do not understand the exact meaning of marketing, and one of the most common misconceptions is confusing advertising for marketing. Listed below are the differences between marketing and advertising. To begin to explain the difference, we need to begin with the fact that marketing is much larger and broader than advertising. In fact, advertising is a part of marketing. But there is much, much more to marketing than advertising. Obviously advertising is paying to get what you're selling in front of other people. There are many different ways to advertise. Online there are both ways to advertise and ways that cost money to advertise. Some of the free ways to advertise include writing articles, writing blogs, and creating videos on YouTube. Marketing includes everything you do and everything that's a part of your business. So every email you send is part of your marketing campaign. Every forum post you make. Every Website you own, all the content you put on the Web, and anything else you do that's related to your business is part of your marketing. This is especially true of the way you treat your customers. You customer service is a huge part of your marketing. Always remember this. Everything you do is marketing your business. You are either helping your business or hurting your business. So make sure that everything you do is helping you make your business better. When small business people mistakenly think that marketing and advertising is the same thing, the result is a substantial amount of marketing being ignored. Then the business suffers because there are entire segments of marketing that aren't being addressed. Always remember that everything you do that's even remotely related to your business is part of the way other people see you and your business. Therefore it's all part of your marketing and should be treated as such.
| Author
Kim Ward of TNT Marketing....
Traffic And Tools eZine and blog, offering resources and tips to help you earn an income from home. She can be reached via email at: Toll Free: 877.878.4059 Archive
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