BUILD YOUR VIRTUAL STORE

At some point, every small business must set up shop online.

A website can serve as another sales channel, a place to feature products, or just a resource for more information about your business. But above all, it serves as a communications channel with your customer. Establishing an online presence doesn't have to break the bank or eat up your time.

Here's a guide to help get you on your way.

Register a domain name.
Dozens of online registry sites allow you to secure a domain name. Some of the most popular include Register.com, NetworkSolutions.com, and GoDaddy.com. They're all fairly similar, and which one you choose won't really affect anything else about your site, so the main difference is price. In general you can expect to pay an annual fee of about $15, but if you're inclined to comparison shop you can pay as little as $8 a year. Try to pick a domain name that's as simple and intuitive as possible - complicated URLs just make it harder for customers to find you. Most companies simply drop their name into the middle of www and com, as in: www.JetBlue.com.

Set up an e-mail account to receive customer feedback.
One of the keys to your Web success is making sure your customers can always reach you. Once you have your domain set up, be sure to create an active e-mail address and post it on your site right away. As your site grows, this will become a key contact point for your customers, and it will allow you to get feedback on your business.

Hire a temp.
You probably have better things to do than spend all day entering data for every item you intend to sell online. As you start assembling your site in earnest, hire someone else to help with the setup work.

Sources to turn to for easy solutions
Numerous Internet service providers (ISPs) offer e-commerce solutions that require little work on your part. Some of the most basic handle your Web hosting needs and provide standardized storefront templates. Many are capable of growing with your business, offering additional services and customizable options should you need them down the road. These companies can provide basic design templates and technology to process transactions, too.

Telecommunications company offers an assortment of off-the-shelf set-up packages for individual merchants. Some key components to look for in such packages are shopping-cart software (allowing your customers to drop in items as they go through your site) and assistance with Web design. This last part is extremely important, as deciding how customers will flow your site is the same as directing them to merchandise. You have to get this part right.

You may have to go through your bank or through services like Verisign to set up a secure system to accept online payment for orders. For smaller operations, you can also explore services like PayPal, which make it easy to accept customer payments with an easily downloadable software package.

Think about affiliating with another site
Is it better to go it alone or join an existing online community? If you really need to differentiate your product or brand, particularly through site design, you may be better off building your own site. But if your needs are more basic and you want to keep costs down, it's probably to your benefit to pitch your tent in an existing online marketplace, which can provide more traffic than if you just open a shop and wait for customers to blow by. Sites like Ebay, Yahoo, and Amazon offer prepackaged storefront services with variety of options for individual merchants, often including free registration of your domain name.

Ebay offers your customers the chance to bid on items or buy them outright at a set price. The Ebay package also includes flexible listing options, limited customization tools, monthly sales reports, inventory search options, and the ability to cross-promote other items with ones you are selling. A mid-level Ebay store costs $49.95 per month, but options rage from $9.95 a month for a bare-bones storefront to $499.95 for a full-service store complete with marketing support.

Yahoo offers three basic levels of service, ranging from $39.95 a month to $299.95 a month, plus a $50 setup fee (sometimes the setup fee is waived during promotions) and transaction fees that range from 0.75 percent to 1.5 percent. It, too, offers a selection of services as well as simple step-by-step methods for listing your products online and software for accepting payment.

Depending on what kind of products you're selling, Amazon also offers several online options for third-party sellers. Amazon's Marketplace program charges a 15 percent commission, on top of a $39.99 monthly subscription cost (or $0.99 per item if you prefer), but leaves shipping and customer service to you. As another alternative, you can partner with Amazon and sell its goods on your own site for a commission.

The bottom line:
Always focus on the benefits to your business
Be sure to keep your customers and your business goals in mind as you set up your site. Getting online is the easy part. Creating an online presence that adds value to your core business is what really matters.

SEARCH ENGINE

Imagine trying to hit a pin-sized target in a pitch-black auditorium. Or looking for a quarter-carat diamond hidden someplace in the forest. Or locating a single novel in a giant library that shelves books randomly.

Or trying to find a particular website--for instance, your company's--in a world without search engines.

With precise directions--or, for the website, a URL--searchers in all those scenarios would have a pretty good chance of finding what they sought. Without them, they'd be out of luck.

Fortunately, in your case, the Web is rich with resources for helping people find what they want. Your challenge is making the best possible use of those tools.

The Big Picture
As the Web has grown to millions of sites and billions of pages, demand for ever-more sophisticated search capability skyrocketed right along with it. By most estimates, users worldwide now conduct at least 550 million searches daily--and, of course, that number will keep rising.

Meanwhile, as any Web user knows, individual queries often yield hundreds or thousands of links. Research indicates that few searchers venture beyond the first 30. So with users most likely to click on the highest-ranked results, it's critical to make sure your site rises to the top.

Complicating matters is the sheer variety of available search engines and Web directories. The roll call reads like a Who's Who of the high-tech industry. At this writing, Google, the category's undisputed Goliath, is gearing up for an initial public offering (IPO) of stock that's likely to set new records. Microsoft Corp. is massively upgrading its MSN Search program. Yahoo! has acquired several top competitors; Amazon is quietly developing its own offering. And hundreds of smaller players, including some highly specialized ones, remain in the game as well.

First Obvious Question
So if you're serious about competing, do you have to list your site on all those directories and search engines? Absolutely not, experts say.

"There are only a few worth worrying about," says Web consultant Peter Kent, president of Denver-based iChannel Services and author of Search Engine Optimization for Dummies (John Wiley & Sons, April 2004). Kent's must-have list includes Google, Yahoo!, AlltheWeb, AltaVista, Ask Jeeves, Inktomi, and the lesser-known Open Directory Project. "They're the only ones who matter because they feed everyone else who counts," he says. Directly or indirectly, he adds, those few sites provide data for 99% of all searches. For instance, Inktomi provides data to Microsoft's MSN Search and Yahoo's Overture, while the Open Directory Project feeds at least 300 others, including many specialized ones catering to particular industries or interests.

What about all those companies dangling tempting offers to list your site with 400--or even 4,000--search engines in exchange for what sounds like a reasonable fee? Rarely worth the cost, Kent says: "Sometimes what they're doing is submitting you to just a few sites, knowing that then those sites are feeding hundreds more." Worse, those helpful companies may list your site with bogus "search engines" that do nothing more than compile e-mail addresses for use by spammers, says Chris Sherman, associate editor of the industry information site and newsletter Search Engine Watch. "I would say they're not only not a good deal, they're the best way quadruple e-mail spam you get," Sherman says. A better strategy: Focus on getting listed with a few key search engines and forget about the rest.

Second Obvious Question
When, if ever, should you pay to play?

That is, should you concentrate on getting your site to surface in free--or, as Sherman calls them, organic -- search-engine listings? Or should you invest one of the many pay-for-placement (PFP) options?

"Either will work," says Sherman, who also heads the Searchwise consulting firm in Boulder, Colo. "Organic placement will take more time [to show up on search engines] and last longer." A PFP listing--a small text ad that appears in or near relevant search results--will go online almost immediately, but its longevity is tied to the bottom line: "The minute you stop paying for it, it's gone," Sherman says.

Under the PFP system, marketers bid to have their ads listed in the results for specific searches, with high bidders' ads show up first. Search-engine companies collect fees--anywhere from a few cents to upwards of $10--whenever users click through to marketers' websites.

The decision about whether to stick with free listings, enter the PFP universe, or combine the approaches depends on your budget, your competitors' strategies, and a sense for how your target audience will respond (many users dislike paid placements, especially those that look too much like free search results).

"It's like buying or leasing a car," Sherman says. "It's up to you to decide which option works best."

The Keys to Search-Engine Success
Actually, there are two major ways to "optimize" your site so it's most likely to show up in a potential customer's search.

First, carefully identify the words and phrases your best prospects are most likely to use in searching for whatever you provide. "Each page should contain two or three keywords that you want people to use in finding you," Sherman says. (But don't list those words dozens or hundreds of times in attempt to show up first in search results; that's called "keyword stuffing" and it's considered cheating.) Choose keywords that are simple, coherent, and consistent with your other marketing campaigns, and be sure to list them in meta tags as well.

In addition, get specific. Phrases like "home mortgage" and "low rates" won't set you apart from the pack. But adding your city and state, for instance, might help land your site higher in the results for searchers using those terms. In addition, keywords--not just your company name--should appear in the title bar atop your site's pages, Kent recommends. "Sanders & Son Ltd" doesn't indicate what the company does; "Sanders & Sons Graphic Design and Printing Services" tells users at a glance whether they've found the right site.

Secondly, keep in mind that search engines love links. The more sites linked to yours, the higher it's likely to rank in search results. "Links are essentially the same thing as votes," Sherman says. From a search engine's point of view, he says, " the more votes you have, the greater the indication that there's high-quality content at your site." So keep building your network of relevant links.

Finally, remember that while getting your category's number-one search-engine ranking is dandy--but you certainly haven't failed if a clear, well-targeted message appears a few notches down the page. "Keep your eyes on the result," Kent advises. "The goal is to increase qualified traffic to your Web site, and you can do that without having the very top position."

Sidebar: Glossary
Keyword: Words and phrases included in a Web page matching those users are likely to employ in searching.

Keyword stuffing: Discouraged practice of overloading Web pages with keywords in an effort to obtain higher placement in search results. Also known as "spamdexing."

Local search: Evolving capability to limit search results to particular geographical areas.

Meta search: Search using multiple search engines and directories.

Meta tag: HTML tag that stores information about a Web page, including keywords for search-engine and directory use.

Optimization: See "SEO."

PFI (pay for inclusion): Advertising option in which marketers pay to be included in search results.

PFP (pay for placement): Advertising option in which marketers bid to place short text ads in or near search results, with highest bids appearing first.

Query: Synonym for "search."

Search engine: Program such as Google that searches its indices or databases in response to a user's query, retrieving lists of documents containing specific keywords. See also "Web directory."

Spiders: Software robots that automatically scour the Internet, reporting Web page contents back to a search engine's index or database. Also called "crawlers."

SEM: Search-engine marketing; using search techniques to build brand awareness or generate business.

SEO: Search-engine optimization, or retooling a site so that it's more likely to appear high in search results.

Web directory: Searchable indices such as Yahoo that are compiled by human editors rather than by automation. See also "Search engine."

Sidebar: Major search engines, directories, and related research tools:

All the Web (subsidiary of Overture/Yahoo!)
www.alltheweb.com

AltaVista (subsidiary of Yahoo!)
www.altavista.com

Ask Jeeves
www.askjeeves.com

Google
www.google.com

Inktomi (subsidiary of Yahoo!)
www.inktomi.com

MSN Search
search.msn.com

Overture (subsidiary of Yahoo!)
www.overture.com

Search.com
Conducts searches via several other major search engines
www.search.com

Yahoo!
www.yahoo.com

Yahoo! Directories
dir.yahoo.com/

OTHER USEFULE WEBSITES

All Search Engines
Useful index of search engines
www.allsearchengines.com/

The Open Directory Project
Human-edited directory of the Web, edited by volunteers.
dmoz.org/

Search Engine Bulletin
Companion site to Search Engine Optimization for Dummies, by Peter Kent (John Wiley & Sons, April 2004).
www.searchenginebulletin.com

Search Engine Optimization Tips
MSN's printable list of SEO do's and don'ts.
www.submit-it.com/subopt.htm

Search Engine Strategies
Resource site with articles and links. www.searchenginestrategies.biz

Search Engine Watch
News, advice, reviews, links, information about Search Engine Strategies conferences and free Search Engine Report monthly newsletters.
www.searchenginewatch.com

RESEARCH ON PEOPLE

A good salesperson does research on companies, a great salesperson does research on people.

It’s just like a one-page synopsis on the person with all kinds of information :
His hobbies,
His family,
His most remarkable achievements,
What he's most passionate about.
What about his favorite charity?
What college he went to?
How many kids?

The only criterion for what should be included is that it reflects something about the person as a human being.

Even stuff about the person's company has to be something that affects him personally, in his daily life.

These are the things that matter to him. And trust me, even the most giving, humble people naturally care, above and beyond anything else, about what it is they do.

If you can show that you care, too, and have understanding or even a way to help, you'll feel the appreciation radiate from them and cover you.

The purpose of all this research is to find a point of common ground that is deeper and richer than what can be discovered in a serendipitous encounter.

LOOKING FOR THE SOLUTION

Sometimes, as a salesperson, when talking to customer, the prospect seemed to get bored or, worse yet, to actually become defensive or offensive, as the case may be, every time the salesperson mentioned a product benefit or feature.

The solution to this is to look for the aspects that the client needs most. Finding the solution requires really active listening and calm questioning, not interrogating. And remember, if you want your prospect to get down to the truth, you may need to expose a little of yourself first to establish a deeper trust. And if you take such an approach to your next difficult conversation, you'll successfully achieve two things.

Discover the real problem.

If you're actively looking for the solution, you just might find out what's really a thorn in your client's side. And it's usually not what you'd expect. You've got to find what their internal problems are, and it sometimes aren't what's it look on the surface of their business.

In fact, they are rarely related to the products or services you are selling. Sometimes it's listening to their fears or frustrations about their current job or boss and offering an understanding ear. It could be just asking what their personal aspirations are relative to this project and assuring them that they will be met.

Avoid death by complex sale.

Complex sales are just that -- complex, and we often just don't have the time to execute them. Some people go into a sales call with a very well laid out plan of what they want to sell. You know what happens then ? The buyer very often is inclined to figure out what about the proposal isn't right or needs to change.

You'll be much better served by going into a sales call with a path in mind than without one, sure. But you must also have the willingness to listen and react and find a way to place your value proposition in the context of their immediate needs. Once you begin to listen, sales will no longer be a time to sell but to let your prospect tell you what he wants and you configuring your product or service around those needs.

Remember, if you get resistance, stop even thinking about selling. Think about listening and understanding what the person really needs. Your first goal shouldn't be to sell anyway. You need a foot in the door. You need to build a trusting relationship. You need to get a chance to prove that relationship.

So first look for the solution.

You can always make sales later.

NETWORKING NEVER TAKES A HOLIDAY

You can build relationships with powerful people even when they're out of the office on vacation.

You call someone's office, but you can't reach her because she's on vacation. Let's say that you call a powerful corporate chieftain, and she says, "I don't have much time to talk. I'm going on vacation Friday, and I've got a billion things to do before I leave. If you want an appointment, call me after I get back."

The boss doesn't know it, but she's given you a gift: She's told you her schedule. Ask where she's going. If you're familiar with the place, offer her a tip or two about getting the most from it. If you're not familiar with it, ask her about it; people love to talk about their favorite vacation spots. Listen closely if she mentions surfing, hiking or other activities. You may find that the two of you enjoy the same sports or hobbies.

Before she leaves town, send her a gift to make her vacation more enjoyable and to help her remember you fondly. If you know where she's going, give her a guidebook. If not, try a best selling a "beach book" like Dean Koontz's The Husband, Mary Higgins Clark's Two Little Girls in Blue, James Patterson's The Fifth Horseman, or the new Harry Potter. Or a familiar old friend like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, or On the Road. Or a business book with a streak of fun, like Freakonomics. Whatever you give, remember to jot a personal note on the title page.

In addition, you can send a basket of fruit to her hotel (if you know her well). If you don't, getting something into her room can make you look like a stalker.

What about your own vacation time ?

Picnics, barbecues and other venues for getting to know people ?

When you're talking to someone you want to know better, ask a friendly question like, "Hey, what're you doing for the weekend ?"

If she's going to a nearby resort town, visit the place. Getting to know someone when she's relaxing and having fun is a great way to build a friendship.

Even better, maybe you can help to organize an event. Volunteer to help make them happen. You'll get to know business and political leaders, and you'll probably have a lot of fun.

However, maybe if you can host a picnic or barbecue at your home, so much the better. Letting people into your private space is a terrific way to say, "I'm open and comfortable with you, and I hope you feel the same way about me." Or if you know a great spot for witnessing a fireworks display, host an event there.

Longer vacations provide a way to meet the important people. Every city has a local resort area where the wealthy and powerful people play.

Research the people who visit these places. Find out how they like to take their leisure. For instance, golf. The demographic of business and business associates are often that of a golfer or golf fan. If you genuinely love and get involved in an activity that a super-successful person plays, you'll increase your likelihood of meeting her.

While you're out socializing with the powerful, don't neglect the staff that they've left back at the office. When the boss is gone, her team gets to relax a little. Her gatekeeper -- the secretary or administrative assistant who decides if and when the boss talks to you -- has a little more time for the kind of friendly chatting that can make him your pal.

If you need someone to make a decision that the boss usually makes, ask the gatekeeper : "Since the boss isn't around, who do you recommend I talk to?" This question shows the gatekeeper how much you trust his judgment. It also opens the door to other powerful people within the company. Instead of calling someone cold, you can introduce yourself with "Jack in Mary's office tells me that you're the company's authority on marketing [or finance or whatever]." After the boss gets back, don't forget to tell her about anything praiseworthy that her people did for you. She'll appreciate it, and so will they.

Vacation time doesn't have to be down time. It can be relationship time.

REFERRALS

As entrepreneurs and salespeople, referrals are our lifeblood because they jumpstart the trust-building with potential customers, partners and suppliers.

Naturally, we're always eager to refer a friend whose character and services we know well, but what do we feel when people we just met or we just agreed to buy from asks us to introduce them to our networks ?

Well, it depends. It depends on the level of intimacy we reached during our initial meeting or the sale. It depends on our excitement around the go-forward work our new contact is about to perform.

No need to fear being put in this situation, a relatively new contact asking you for a referral. At the end of the day, you hold all the power! And you should exercise it proactively.

When I have established a basic level of trust with new contacts, I try to go overboard to suggest them to my friends and associates. I always think of this as a win-win, because for any new business my new contact gets with people in my network, I am helping my friends be more successful. So as soon as I trust my PR firm, I go out of my way to introduce them to others.

Of course, you don't ultimately have to make the introduction. It's the responsibility of your new acquaintance to give you a darn good reason why you should.

If there comes a time when you are not comfortable before making a recommendation, just say so. Then explain that you would be happy to begin making recommendations, however, if a few criteria were met in the future.

All that said, I recommend that you reach deep and start finding ways to make more referrals. And if the situation is right, do it even for people you just met or just started working with. Too many people see relationships as pies -- where if you take a piece (in this case, introduce someone new to an existing contact) there won't be as much left over for you.

Relationships and networks are more like muscles. The more you work them, the bigger and stronger they get. Don't mistake your relationships for pies and refuse to make referrals. If you do, you'll miss out on many opportunities to help your friends and to help yourself.

MAKING BUSINESS PERSONAL

One of the most common mistakes people make when building relationships for career success and revenue growth is treating business contacts differently than personal friends.

Just think for a moment about the people you work with on a professional level who are also close personal friends. Aren't they always more forgiving when you slip up and more helpful when you're in need than new acquaintances are? Of course! I guarantee your work will be easier, more joyful, and more successful if you make more of your business relationships personal.

How to do it? The same way you make genuine friends. Build trust through intimacy; show them that besides being professional, you're human. Skip the small talk and go deep into what really matters -- your dreams or fears, your children or the business issues that keep you up at night. Even better, have new clients and contacts spend time with you and your family and friends.

As it turns out, there are also benefits for the bottom line. "Not only has that customer done business with us, they have also influenced other potential customers and helped us in establishing a number of key relationships in the market.

We all have more opportunities than we realize to overlap our personal and professional lives. You can keep up your personal life by including a date, a significant other, or a few good, fun friends. Most important, it makes for a much more robust, personal conversation between everyone.

In this day and age, when our most scarce resource is time, the closest you can come to creating more time is by overlapping agendas. So take more of these opportunities to make business more personal, and please don't think your professional contacts will think less of you. In fact, usually the opposite happens. In most cases, this blurring of personal and professional lives seems to be good for business and good for our families, our friends, and ourselves.

HOBBIES THAT CAN MAKE YOU MONEY

Looking for extra cash to keep your household afloat in this storm-tossed economy?

Maybe it's time to turn your hobby into a business.

Whether you wade in part-time or dive in full-time, there are several advantages to launching your hobby as a business. For starters, you already enjoy it. You also have the knowledge base and skill set upon which to build, and may have a network of fellow enthusiasts to help get you started.

It's likely that you also have a sense for pricing and market dynamics surrounding your hobby.

Finding the time and space to create a new business can be challenging, especially if you're working another job as well. But with a few simple marketing moves and the help of a willing mentor or two, you can turn your pastime into cash time in no time.

Your hobby has to translate into a product or service for which there is an identifiable market. You may love the product you make, but the bottom line is, will anyone actually buy it ? Everybody is scared because they're stepping outside their comfort zone. The only way you can get past this is with some experience and doing it more than once.You have to be able to take some rejection. It's not rejection against you personally; it's the product or service you're offering. It's not you that's being judged."

Ready to take the plunge ?

Here are six lucrative hobbies you can start from home today.

Custom Baking

Skills:
Baking, cake decorating, on-site catering.

Market:
Retail, special events, office parties.

Opportunities for growth:
Custom wedding cakes (growing and lucrative market).

A few years ago, 27-year-old Katie Schwarz, a special education teacher in Austin, Texas, took a cake-decorating class and fell in love with it. Soon, she was decorating cakes and treats for children's birthday parties. In 2007, inspired by the trendy treat of choice in New York City, she started Let Them Eat Cupcakes, a Web and phone-order home business. Let Them Eat Cupcakes specializes in custom-decorated cupcakes in more than a dozen flavors, including margarita and s'mores. The cupcakes are delivered directly to the customers' doors. Schwarz charges $1.25 for plain and $1.50 for theme-decorated cupcakes. There is a six-cake minimum and a $5 delivery charge. Her typical order is two dozen to five dozen. "It was hard at first to figure out how to make a profit, especially because I offer delivery with my cupcakes," she says. "It was hard to figure out how to charge for that with gas prices increasing." Schwarz, who still teaches every other day, estimates she spends 10 hours baking and delivering to three or four events a week. So far, her marketing consists of word of mouth and her Web site. "I would say the money is not significant yet, but I haven't had to advertise at all yet," she says. "I just have a Web site. I'm looking at advertising because I hope to eventually expand and have a storefront."

Professional Organizer

Skills:
Organization, work flow, creative problem solving.

Market:
Home businesses, busy executives, harried stay-at-home moms.

Opportunities for growth:
Business consulting, virtual assistant.

Seven years ago, M. Colleen Klimczak was a Chicago-area health care recruiter when she stumbled upon the National Association of Professional Organizers, or NAPO, Web site.
"I was looking for an organizer to help with a giant garage sale," says the mother of three. "When I found that Web site, I said, 'I don't want to hire one, I want to be one.'" Through NAPO, Klimczak found a mentor who helped her set a fee. She charges $50 per hour, average for her suburban Chicago location, although she admits professional organizers command three times that in San Francisco. She recently earned the "Certified Professional Organizer" designation and may raise her fee slightly. "Out the door, if you have a computer and the know-how, it's not hard to just start up," she says. She deals mostly with residential and home offices. To supplement her professional organizer business, she also works as a virtual assistant and occasional project manager. Her events-planning background and sense for organization and work flow serve her well. Do you have to be organized to become a professional organizer ? "Yes, but it doesn't work the other way though -- just because you're an organized person does not mean you can be a professional organizer," she explains. "I can be as organized as I want, but I can't impose what works in my house onto somebody else's house. Just because my closets are really, really tidy doesn't mean I can do this as a business and translate that to other people. It doesn't work that way." Klimczak says she stresses education, a bit of a double-edged sword because once her clients are organized, she knows she'll lose them. Still, there are plenty more where they came from. "I have a client who says she would rather pay me than a therapist because at least her house looks better when I leave," she says.

Arts and Crafts

Skills:
Ability to produce a saleable art or craft product.

Market:
Retail or wholesale, the sky's the limit.

Opportunities for growth:
License product for mass market production, media spinoffs (cartoons, etc.).

Brabec has sold nearly a half-million books that help fellow crafters turn homemade items into cash. She's also seen the same mistakes over and over -- such as the little old seamstress who made pudgy-faced soft dolls but failed to patent her creation and hence didn't receive a dime when Cabbage Patch Kids exploded. "The concepts are the same, whether you're selling quilting or stitchery or woodwork or steel sculpture or jewelry," she says. "Arts and crafts is a multi-billion-dollar industry all by itself." How can you get your share of that? Start with a computer. Even a technology holdout like Brabec admits you won't get anywhere today without one. Computers are essential, not only to do the necessary market research, but also to sell your products beyond your city limits, she says. Although you'll probably begin at local craft shows and farmer's markets, your ultimate market may be half a state or even half a world away. Next, test market your product any way you can. "One woman who makes jewelry said, 'I just wear my new pieces and if a stranger stops me on the street and says 'I love your pin,' I know I've got a winner,'" she says. "But don't try that with your strawberry preserves!" Many crafters make the mistake of not charging enough, Brabec says. "Build in elements for profit and overhead because if you really take off, if you've set your prices too low and then find you have to hire help, there's not enough profit in your pricing structure to pay for an employee," she says. "It's a lot easier to lower prices than to raise them." Brabec maintains that the ongoing flood of imports only means a brighter future for homemade arts and crafts. "People want the quality and beauty of real handmade products," Brabec says. "They understand that there is a part of that artist within each piece, so they're buying more than just a product. There's always going to be a market for handmade products."

Exotic Birds

Skills:
Knowledge of care, feeding and breeding of exotic birds.

Market:
Wholesale to pet stores, retail to breeders and the public.

Opportunities for growth:
Depend on whether pet store consolidation hampers growth locally.

Kathy Short has always had a thing for birds. "I've had birds all my life," she says. "One leads to two leads to 10, and at some point you start wondering if you can do something with it." She's not wondering anymore. As the owner of Exotics of the World, Short hand-raises between 250 and 400 cockatiels, parrots and other exotic birds annually at her home aviary in Woodinville, Wash. She then sells them wholesale to pet stores and collectors of show birds. Short made the leap from infant day care to raising birds after her husband gave her an umbrella cockatoo. She started in her garage but quickly outgrew it. She now has 250 birds in aviary outbuildings but keeps the hatchlings inside her home. "Birds are extremely messy," she warns. Startup expenses for an exotic bird business can be steep: a pair of Moluccan cockatoos can run you $2,000, African gray parrots cost $1,200 to $2,000 a pair and individual cockatiels will set you back $500 apiece. Short owns 200 cockatiels, but only breeds 22 pairs at a time. In addition to the cost of cages and food, exotic birds come with a range of exotic ailments. Securing the services of a good aviary veterinarian is as critical as it is costly; vaccinating five baby parrots against avian polyoma can run $155. But pedigreed exotic birds also fetch a handsome price, even wholesale. Short says she'll sell a single baby Moluccan cockatoo to a pet store for $1,000, which in turn will sell it to the public for between $2,000 and $2,400. In fact, Short says her biggest business obstacle is the declining number of independent pet stores that serve as her customer base. Building a stable list of wholesale clients and breeding birds that sell are keys to success in the bird world. She advises against buying your breeding stock over the Internet. "People don't tell the truth when you buy birds off the Internet; they're usually selling them for a reason," says Short. "Over the years, I've found it's almost better to start with individual birds and pair them yourself instead of buying what they call 'proven pairs.'"

Personal Shopper

Skills:
Shopping for men, women, children and pets.

Market:
Busy professionals, the elderly, disabled or fashion-challenged.

Opportunities for growth:
Ellen Macklin doesn't even advertise. Need we say more?

Twenty-five years ago on a whim, Ellen Macklin bought a computer and a handful of business cards and became one of Boston's most successful personal shoppers. A former art teacher, Macklin had what it takes to make it in her new field: infallible taste, an outgoing personality, a love of shopping and a fiercely independent spirit. She was one of four personal shoppers listed in the phone book then. The other three weren't in business long. In recent years, the personal shopping field has expanded greatly, or so the get-rich-quick scam artists would have us believe. Macklin receives a flood of resumes sent her way by innocent wannabes who've been led on -- for a fee, of course -- by phony placement specialists. Macklin's business thrives because she delivers. She's proud to say she's never returned a purchase. "I've done many, many different things, but something that has always been a constant is wardrobe consulting," she says. "I have certain clients who keep coming back to me season after season and year after year. It used to be women who were executives who were pregnant two or three times and just wanted to throw everything away and start over again, but now it might be a bunch of outfits for a trip or a wedding trousseau. "One just never knows. Every job is different; that's what so wonderful about it." Macklin charges a flat fee of $45 an hour, door to door. She hasn't changed her fee in years, nor does she advertise or even have a Web site. People find her through word of mouth or her occasional lecture appearances. Her clients are evenly split between men and women. She has purchased everything from cars to Picassos. She knows some of her clients so well that she'll even pick up items for them on pleasure trips to New York or Connecticut. She won't take kickbacks from any store. And although she was a mystery shopper for years, she won't work for a single store because she doesn't want them limiting her shopping options. "If you want to put an outfit together and really do a great job, you might have to go to three or four different stores," she explains. "And I like to do it from head to toe, because to wear a pair of 1970s shoes with a 2008 outfit is so -- ecch!" So, what is the worst thing about being a personal shopper ? "It's unpredictable," Macklin says. "You can't expect a steady income. You can't say Christmas time will be your busiest time; sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't." The best part is a no-brainer, she says. "It feels good," Macklin says. "You're doing something good for people."

Day Lilies

Skills:
Basic gardening, some market research.

Market:
Retail to home gardeners, landscapers (locally to worldwide).

Opportunities for growth:
Develop and patent your own hybrids for optimal return on investment.

Got a green thumb? You might want to sow a money crop like day lilies into your garden this spring. "Most people who sell day lilies get started as a hobby," says Kathy Lamb, owner of Loon Song Gardens in Champlin, Minn. "When you grow day lilies, you become very passionate about them and love to select different varieties. You do this for a few years and fill up your gardens and at some point you make the decision that you must dig these up, divide them and get rid of some of them. That's when some people start selling their day lilies." Day lilies are wonderfully whimsical flowering plants. They are neither true lilies nor bulbs. You harvest them by splitting the part below ground, called a crown, into two or more new plants, called "divisions" or "fans." Here's where it gets economically interesting: U.S.-grown, field-harvested day lilies are more expensive than their imported counterparts. However, U.S. lilies bloom in one to two years and sell better than the tissue-cultured day lily imports available at your local discount stores, which often take three times as long to bloom. Lamb says common varieties like Stella de Oro sell from $3 to $5 a double fan, while new introductions can retail for $300 to $500 for a single fan. Some even sell at auction for up to several thousand dollars. Because all day lilies from a new hybrid (there are some 60,000 registered with the American Hemerocallis Society, or AHS) start as divisions from the original plant, their price can remain in the $100 to $150 price range for 10 years until supply catches up to demand.

The best way to break into the business is through a local day lily club; you can find a listing of these as well as valuable regional symposiums on the AHS Web site. Day lily growers like Lamb prefer to ship them bare-root, wrapped in paper or sawdust. With a sturdy Web site and a few in-demand varieties, you can harvest cash from your day lily garden in no time. If you ship out of state, however, be sure to check with your state department of agriculture to see if a nursery license or certificate is required. Lamb says the wholesale market is probably unrealistic for most hobbyists. "That would require a really sizable production area," she says. "You would be selling to other nurseries and they would want quantities in the thousands. You would need to have some field space to be a wholesaler." Jay MacDonald is a contributing editor based in Texas.

THE SECRETS OF BREAKTHROUGH COMPANIES

Why do some companies "break through" while so many others do not?

How Everyday Companies Become Extraordinary Performers.

Here are some secrets to long-term entrepreneurial growth

The sexiest businesses don't always win.
In fact, the most interesting companies often don't operate in the markets that Wall Street and the business press consider interesting or "cool". Many of the breakthrough companies began in market segments experts considered unattractive at the time. We certainly didn't expect to find a nuts-and-bolts distributor, a snowmobile maker, a payroll processor, or even a niche real estate business on our list of top performing growth companies. But we did.

It's not all about the entrepreneur.
They're the ones that grab the headlines, right? And in fact, in the earliest stages of development, the quality of the entrepreneurial team tends to swamp all the other variables in predicting firm success. But as soon as the business gets on its feet, the best entrepreneurial leaders are too smart to let the company make it "all about them." Breakthrough leaders understand that no one wants to serve a king. These leaders work hard to put the company's vision -- and not their own personality -- at the center of things.

Entrepreneurs aren't always risk takers.
Entrepreneurs are actually distributed evenly across the risk-taking spectrum. Even more important, there is evidence that as they achieve success, some entrepreneurs actually become more risk averse -- "playing tight" (as they say in poker) at the very time when they should be upping the ante.

Founders don't need to let go.
Conventional wisdom holds that entrepreneurial companies fail to reach their full potential because founders just won't "let go." Actually , in eight of nine top-performing companies , founders stayed deeply involved -- usually for decades. It turns out that, rather than letting go, founders and founding teams need to redefine their roles as the business grows.

You don't necessarily have to stick to your knitting.
Sticking to your knitting is fine, as long as your competitors stick to theirs as well. But competitors rarely behave the way you want them to. To achieve breakthrough performance, companies need to be constantly scanning the changing needs of the customer and developments in the industry so they can spot the most important opportunities to advance the business.

You don't need other people's money.
We've all heard the professional investor's pitch: "Sure you can grow your business on your own, but you can grow it faster with our money." Actually, not one of the breakthrough companies were funded by venture capital in their start-up years -- not even several high-tech ventures. The right investor at the right time can be crucial, but outside money is far from a requirement.

It's not all about hiring the right people.
These companies focus more on making the people already in the company productive through intense training and education. In the words of one breakthrough CEO, we have succeeded because we have built a place where ordinary people can do extraordinary things."

It doesn't matter where you went to school.
It's not about where (or even whether) you went to school. One company was run by a PhD in statistics and former college professor; another was run by a person who hit the bricks right out of high school.

You don't have to let the MBAs take over.
Many business people divide the world into two groups -- entrepreneurial firms and "professionally managed" firms. But reality is not that simple. Many small firms are very well managed -- though probably not in a way that most bureaucrats in giant companies would recognize. And in many big companies, it is easy for the "professional management" tail to start wagging the company dog. Companies large and small alike should strive to create an entrepreneurial enterprise that combines the quickness and customer focus of an entrepreneurial firm with the systems and processes of a more mature organization. MBAs are optional.

Strategy isn't just the job of the CEO.
The most successful companies recognize that strategy is a firm's "source code" -- the fundamental set of assumptions upon which everything else in the business is based. So they strive to get people throughout the organization thinking about and debating strategy. They nurture an environment that includes "insultants" -- people willing to take a full swing at the issues, even if it means questioning the fundamental assumptions upon which the firm is based.

UNDERSTAND GOOGLE'S GUIDELINES

Google is popular, and popularity means it may be tough to get in initially. Even if you do everything right, it could take months to see results, at least if you use their URL submission page. However, there is hope! There's a method to get indexed in 24 hours, so don't even bother submitting through the URL page.

But before you get to that, you should know about the guidelines you must follow to ensure that your site not only gets listed, but also doesn't get banned. Plus, you should learn about elements of your website that Google won't look at.

How to Get Google to Read Your Keywords First

Google's bots read web pages from the topmost left corner of your site to the bottom right. However, most sites are designed with all of the links on the left side, and the content on the right. Yet the problem with this design is instead of seeing your content first, Google sees the links first. Your links may not be seen to be as optimized as your content.

One solution is to use three panes rather than two. Keep the normal left and right panes, but add an extra pane at the top left of the layout. Don't put keywords in this extra pane. With this area "blank" when the Google bots read the site, rather than going for the links as they normally would, the bots see that a portion of where the links are is "blank." This then forces it to read the content first, which is more keyword-rich than the links.

Note that not all search engines read sites this way, which is why this guideline was provided in this special section dedicated to optimizing for Google. You could be on the safe side and use the layout anyway, especially if you do plan to submit to Google, which you should. It doesn't take away from the look of the site, and by using it you ensure that your content gets read first. If you don't use it, you aren't giving yourself the best opportunity to rank highly in Google search engine listings. Making tables isn't very hard to do. Most word processors and even WYSIWYG HTML editors provide them, so take advantage of it.

BUSINESS STRATEGY

Are you just starting a business or already doing business for more than a year?

Is your sales increasing or you find it hard to do so ?

Maybe you should do something about it.

Here are some business strategy that you may apply.

Signboard
Your signboard should be easily recognize and visible. Your business name should be clearly identified and related to the type of business you offered. This is very important so that people know what exactly you offered and where you are.

Business Location
Your business location should be conveniently located. This is important in order to facilitate easiness for you customers to find and locate you.

Attractive Business Offer
Attract customers to buy more by attractively pricing a package of two services. Example : a pedicure service is $25, and a manicure and pedicure together cost only $35, so … the chances of your customers pay $35 is bigger.

Manpower
You should have enough staff and flexibility to handle your business. By having adequate staff , this will make your business running smoothly.

Referral
Even though this seem simple or sometimes being neglect by most of us , however if fully used , the impact is promising. For example , in personal care services , hotels are a perfect source of referrals for hair salons, spas, nail boutiques, and other personal care services. There is probability that potential customers will ask at the front desk of a hotel for such services. If the owner of the manicure store regularly dropped off business cards to the major hotels, perhaps even given some of the staff free manicures, they would have known the company's name. Figure out who could send business your way and keep in touch.

Be Visible And Proactive
Make sure that customers know you and let customers find you. Some of the most effective ways to be seen include having a well-trafficked location, good signage, an ad in the Yellow Pages, and a regular ad in the local newspaper.

Develop a mailing list.
Get in touch with your customers. With a mailing list, you could have sent a reminder card to any customers you hadn't seen in a while, let customers know of special promotions, and if you changed locations, tell customers how to find you. One of the biggest mistakes most small companies make is failing to stay in touch with customers.

Give reminders of possible "second sales."
For example : most of the nail salon's customers come in for over an hour a week for manicures. But they don't get reminded of other ways to spend their money. The owners could have easily prompted customers with small signs saying things like "Looking for a gift? We sell gift certificates." "Treat yourself right -- try a pedicure." "Take your color home -- we sell nail polish."

Make your space inviting.
In most businesses, you want to keep your customers around as long as possible. The longer they linger, the more they'll usually spend. (Not always, of course; some companies want to get customers in and out quickly.) In any case, you want customer to enjoy coming to you. For example : ensure your place is always clean, put an attractive decoration and create a situation that will make your customers remember you . Look around at most small establishments; you'll be amazed at how few have bothered to provide a visually interesting or inviting space. But that's also part of merchandising.

The above steps would have cost very little, yet they might result in significant increases in sales. So take an hour, soak your toes in hot water, look around and think about a few ways you too might add to your bottom line.

SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS ..........

What makes them different is the way they respond to stress. They actually enjoy facing adversity , but most of them also manage and mitigate their risk.

They have willingness to sacrifice anything necessary to achieve a goal.

How they see the world ? Process information ? and come up with new ideas and solutions to problems. People high in "awareness" read people and situations and respond based on intuition. People high in "analysis" see the world as problems to be solved, and tend to think strategically. "Action" people focus their attention narrowly on getting things done.

They have the ability to "recruit the world. They have the ability to express support and encouragement. They succeed by helping other people such as their employees, partners, investors and suppliers to become as successful as them.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIP TIPS

Build real personal relationships with your clients ….. so they'll reveal to you what they really want.

Write "honest" advertising copy like ….. Volvo... they're boxy, but they're safe.

The tagline is successful …. because it spoke to what people really wanted -- far beyond what car companies learn from customers in rank-the-features surveys. In this case , customers didn't just want cars that got them from point A to point B. They bought a Volvo for the peace of mind.

That's why we have to build real personal relationships with our clients--so they'll reveal to us what they really want, what could really drive their decision.

Then, and only then, do we get opportunities to offer generous solutions to their problems that convince them to purchase our core products and services.

You have to approach them as people as well as professionals. Show them you're human by letting your guard down. Share your passions and learn about theirs. See yourself as a combination of consultant, life coach, therapist, and friend. Ask insightful questions, actively listening for what really motivates or frustrates them personally. Then, when you have a deep understanding of what they really want, try to bundle a solution that, first and foremost, solves one of their problems and, ideally, includes your product or service.

This method might require you to find outside partners to deliver--yet another reason to develop larger networks of friends. In fact, the first couple things you "sell" to someone may have nothing at all to do with your own product.

Strengthen relationships with clients by aiding their personal career pursuits, entirely separate from what they're procuring from you.

Examples :

One of your clients ultimately wants to be in politics, so … try to get him invited or involved with a political forum or activities.

When another client confided with you his desire to be an actor, so … took him to dinner with an actor or find him someone who may share the same desire.

A third client was struggling with earning the respect of his CEO, so … coached him personally on how to behave in the CEO's staff meetings to build the credibility he needed to become a key player in the executive team.

You, too, can make your business boom if you find and deliver what clients really want before selling your core product.

ADVERTISING TIPS

Does your advertising work as hard as you do?

For most entrepreneurs on fixed marketing budgets, advertising has to pull its weight. Even some of the country's largest advertisers who once ran ads for the sake of branding alone now focus their efforts on advertising that produces a measurable ROI.

As we teeter on the brink of a recession, advertising must be a workhorse not a show pony. And its first duty is to support sales.

Successful marketing campaigns have several essential elements in common.

To turn prospects into customers, your ads must do four vital things:

Stimulate a response
Every ad must direct a customer to do something, such as visit your website or contact you by phone. But it's not enough simply to tell your prospects what to do, you must give them excellent reasons to do it. A great print ad, for example, begins with a benefit-laden headline, supports the benefit in the opening sentence, and explains it with features --specifying how the advertiser will deliver. Along the way, it differentiates the advertiser from other companies offering similar products or services. And it culminates in a strong call-to-action that tells potential customers how to take advantage of the benefit or offer.

Open minds
Scientists have discovered that our brains "alert" to new information. We virtually prick up our ears when something new is presented to us. That explains why, as consumers, we're always looking for the latest and greatest versions of goods and services. What's the latest wrinkle presented by your ad campaign? Good ads provide prospects with small "a-ha" moments, when they realize there's something different -- a unique product bundle, another layer of beneficial services, or a revolutionary new concept -- that you offer and no one else does. Whether triggered by your company's point of differentiation or simply a special offer, this a-ha moment should open minds to the unique benefits of buying from you.

Engage the right people
In this era of enormous advertising clutter and the bombardment with marketing messages in every environment, your ads must have immediate appeal to your targeted prospects. In fact, a prospect who's exposed to your advertising should instantly think, "This is what I need." Like a heat-seeking missile, your ad should single out your best prospects, and "speak" to them in their vernacular--including any buzzwords. And visually, whether in print or on TV, it helps if your prospects can also see themselves represented in your ads. Look beyond their age, gender, economic status and other basic demographic information, and put yourself in their shoes to think as they do. Then create an ad campaign to which your prospects can easily relate. Place it in the right context as well, by advertising in the media your prospects look to for information on what you market.

Ring true
Consumers can spot a phony a mile away. What's more, they're often likely to disbelieve advertising claims, even when they're true. That's why it's essential to make all your marketing claims credible, and substantiate them where necessary. Avoid too much hyperbole in your advertising, as it often fails to ring true. And create a campaign that integrates a combination of media to direct interested prospects to a deeper story. Magazine advertising, for example, is one of the best tools for piquing interest and sending prospects to websites where they can find more in-depth information, from industry affiliations, company background and testimonials to copies of press coverage. Create ads with integrity that are supported by in-depth information, and you'll successfully propel your prospects toward a sale.

LINK BUILDING STRATEGIES

Ever since Google established that Web sites containing a number of links from other quality sites are also likely to contain the most relevant content in their subject matter, the term "link popularity" was born. Today, link building strategies should be part of your search engine marketing campaign.

How Many Links Do You Need ?

Google will find a site as soon as it finds one or two links to the main Web page.
However, the number of reciprocal links needed to get high rankings depends on the number of links shown for your higher-ranking competitors by Google Page Rank. If your competitors display only 20 links to their sites, you can ensure a higher PR score by creating 25 links to yours. But if your competitors have hundreds of links, then you have to beat that number for top rankings.

Be aware that it's not just the number of links that's important, it's the quality of the sites linking to you (popular, respected sites) and the relevance of their content to your audience that counts.

Strategies for Building Link Popularity

Start With Directory Listings
Ensure that your site is listed in ODP (free) and also include Yahoo! Express ($299 yearly). Directory listings boost link popularity because human editors screen for relevancy. Seek listings in industry-specific directories. Search Engine Guide has a Search Engines Directory providing a searchable database of over 3,000 specialty search engines where you can find search engines dedicated to almost any topic.

Request Reciprocal Links
When looking for possible link candidates, start by searching your strategic keywords at major search portals. You'll see a lot of competitors, but look for non-competing, complementary sites. Screen these sites, selecting those likely to be receptive to your link request. Give them a compelling reason to link to your site. Show them where a link might be advantageous. A good strategy is to link to them first, which might help get a link back. Target respected and popular sites of relevance to your target audience.
Also, identify a well-established site with good content that targets the same audience you want to reach. Perform a link analysis from that site, noting the incoming links and soliciting the best non-competing sites.

Promote Linkability Within Your Site
Provide quality resources and appropriate outgoing links, including links to search engines, news hubs, weather reports, industry resources, industry professional groups, etc. Outgoing links are important for two reasons: they provide incentive for other quality sites to link to yours, and they can improve your PR score if internal linkage is done properly.

Publish Articles
Employees with industry expertise can write business articles for your target audience, submitting the articles to appropriate online publications. Include your Web site URL in the bio and request that the article appear with bio and company link. This can generate many links and can also help promote future business.

Create Testimonials
Develop a testimonial page of products and services you recommend. If you admire a marketing or publishing site, contact the publisher explaining why you value the content. You may get a request for permission to display your comments on their Web site. Grant permission provided they agree to link to your site. It can help to post the testimonial on your site, referring them to it.

Supplement Your Campaign With Reciprocal Link Software
Programs like Arelis and Zeus can help locate additional reciprocal links. These robots will search the Web, looking for reciprocal linking partners, ranking potential sites by relevance. You can review the sites, decide which companies to solicit, request a link through a built-in email client with custom templates for requesting a link exchange, track the status of your requests, and check the viability of existing links.
Caution: Avoid link-building programs that query or visit search engines for finding potential link partners because this overloads the search engine servers, and your site can be penalized.

Post to Discussion Forums
This is an easy way to get a link from industry discussion forum sites if you have the time and expertise to participate. Include your URL in your sig file.

Link Multiple Sites
If you have a number of sites with unique content, be sure to link them to your main site. Content must be related, of course.

Awards and Contests
You can create an awards program for related sites, placing winner logo links on an awards page they can link back to. Or you can run a links contest, awarding prizes for linking to your site.

Affiliate Programs
Affiliates can be a source of links, depending on your site goals, budget and time availability. But the affiliate program must be administered from your site to improve link popularity because outsourcing requires linking to a third-party site. Affiliate software should generate static HTML pages for affiliate's links to enable indexing.

Strategies to Avoid

Some strategies hyped in the past should be avoided because they're now worthless or can get you penalized in search engines.

Link Farms
A link farm is a network of sites linking to other sites for the sole purpose of increasing link popularity. Search engines consider this spamming.

Reciprocal Link Exchange Services
Networks consisting of hundreds of webmasters with sites on numerous topics are linked to one another. The service requires linking to all sites in network, making content unrelated. Search engines consider this spamming.

FFA Listings
Free for All listings appear and disappear rather quickly. Few people search through the listings except for spammers collecting email addresses. These sites are not indexed by search engines.

Running a link campaign can take a little time, but is well worth the effort as these links establish relevancy, a top priority for search engines and consumers alike.

GENERATING SALES WITH YOUR WEBSITE

There's never been a better time to take advantage of the expansive opportunities for online business development and growth that the internet affords.

Day by day, the internet shoppers will grow at an average rate of 5 to 10 percent per year through 2010, resulting in more online sales.

These positive growth should be music to the ears of any aspiring e-commerce entrepreneur. But there's more to building a thriving online business than getting your site up.

Here are some very important things you need to know :

Adapt Strategic Marketing for Sustainable Online Success
While online businesses are unique in many ways, your e-commerce site is merely a tool that you will use to help you achieve your personal and professional goals. Therefore, you should develop yours using the same sound, time-tested, and well-thought-out business methodologies that companies have used for generations. Yes, the internet is relatively new, but good business skills have been around for thousands of years.

Design and Navigation
Make your website dynamic and visitor-friendly. Your website's appearance and ease of navigation are a direct reflection of you, your company, and your products and can literally make or break your business. That's why it's vitally important that you do everything in your power to ensure that your website is welcoming and easy to read and use.

Dynamic Web Copy
Get People to Respond. Since you're building an e-commerce site that will offer exceptional products, you must be able to effectively converse with your prospects and customers and talk to them using language that is relevant and comfortable. That's why your first task is to candidly evaluate your own writing skills. Ask yourself where you fit, and be ruthlessly honest. The success of your website depends upon it. Even though your copy should be honest and simple it can still be exciting! Turn on your imagination and spice it up with controversy, anecdotes, colorful figures of speech, power words or phrases and powerful headlines.

Traffic Conversion
Increase sales and list building. Traffic conversion is a committed process for building relationships and rapport with your targeted audience; it helps visitors to know, like, and trust you. When done correctly, it provides the opportunity for online marketers to achieve their ultimate objective of acquiring and retaining loyal and profitable customers.
Since you can't improve what you don't measure you should be asking yourself :
How many visitors come to my website?
How many visitors opt in to my e-mail list?
How many people click on the buy buttons?
What is my visitor value?

In order to optimize your website so your prospects and customers will be compelled to opt in to your mailing list; learn more about your products and/or services and feel comfortable purchasing from you, you need to make your website professional looking, eye-catching and well-written. To improve opt-in conversions, use attention-grabbing graphics, make sure your opt-in box is positioned "above the fold," make an irresistible offer and include a privacy statement.

Automation
Increase e-commerce profits. In addition to being the most effective time-saving tools available, automation programs are an internet marketer's best friend, hands down. These software gems allow you to reap the benefits of work you've already completed, over and over again. Simply said, there are so many benefits to automation programs that if you're serious about growing and sustaining a profitable online business, you'd be foolish to ignore them.

Multimedia
Increase your impact using audio, video and conferencing. The benefits for including customer-centric multimedia elements on your website are so forceful and undeniable that failing to do so is a huge mistake. You'll receive many paybacks when you add audio and/or video elements to your e-commerce site. But before beginning, keep in mind that multimedia content has to be delivered in the way your audience wants it. It must be available 24 hours, on demand and two-way.

Web Audio
There are so many ways to use the web audio effectively. You can use audio to let your visitors hear recorded testimonials from happy customers, greet them warmly and enthusiastically, help alleviate and lingering doubts would-be customers may have by reassuring them that purchasing from you is essentially risk free and enhance e-courses.

Podcasts
Podcasting combines the ease of blogging with the fun of hosting your very own radio or TV show.

Web Video
Web videos afford you--or someone else--the opportunity to combine words, tone, body language, and facial expressions to convey meaningful information about you, your company, and your products and services. Let's face it; some of us should just not be in front of a camera for a variety of reasons. If you choose to avoid the camera, you can still do such things as :
Make someone else the star.
Do a voice-over narration.
Create a slide show.
Demonstrate a product or showcase a service.

Use Video to Increase Revenues : YouTube
Fueled by the Web's 2.0 social interaction concept and technological advances, novices and experts alike are adding their own videos to share ideas, entertain, demonstrate products, connect with others, and much more. And since access to the site is free and uploading a video is simple, it's a wonderful vehicle for practicing and honing your video skills.

Taking Your Video Viral
One of the most affordable (it's free!) and effective ways to materially increase your opt-in conversions is by taking your video viral--in other words, letting others help you spread the word to their friends, family members, associates, mailing lists, and so forth.

Video Blogging
Blogs are wonderful alternatives, or additions to, more traditional websites because they can be up and running quickly, usually in a matter of minutes; anyone can use their professional-looking templates without any prior design and/or navigation experience or expertise; they're inexpensive, dynamic, and fresh, and since new content is added regularly and often, the search engines love them.

Teleconferencing and Web Conferencing
Teleconferences and teleseminars represent wonderful, cost-effective alternatives to in-person meetings and classes. Additionally, they are :
Convenient.
They can be scheduled at the last minute and participants can call in from anywhere.
Efficient.
Important information can be delivered to groups of people effectively, affordably, and quickly.
Profitable.
You can sell your wisdom, knowledge, or advice by creating your own teleseminar,

Traffic Strategies
Get more visitors to your site. With a bit of typing and a simple click of a mouse, millions of people all over the world go to search engines (e.g., Google, MSN, Yahoo!, AOL, AskJeeves, Dogpile, etc.) to hunt for specific products, services, information and/or opportunities. And since the vast majority of online sales begin with search engines, they are an extremely valuable resource for any e-commerce business. People who are searching naturally assume that the sites listed first--particularly those on the first page--are the best, and that's where they click. The closer your site appears to the top of the list, the better.

Optimize Your Website
In order for search engines to find you (and deem you relevant) you'll need to include your most powerful keywords in various places on your website--your copy, headings, anchor and footer text, and alongside photos and graphics. Use unique page titles and meta tags, and focus on your most important keywords one at a time. Use search-friendly design and navigation techniques. Make sure it is easy for search engines (and more importantly, your visitors) to find their way from one of your web pages to any other via internal links. So, in addition to choosing the most relevant keywords you'll also want to make sure that you over deliver valuable content; your prospects will love you for it, and so will the search engines!

Web 2.0
It’s the key to using social media effectively. Web 2.0 is an online movement that encourages users to participate in the fresh, interactive nature of the internet by using widely available, less expensive, and more mature state-of-the-art technologies.
Some of the many ways you can use Web 2.0 technology and its people-oriented culture to enhance your online business include :
1.Getting products to market faster.
2.Reducing risk.
3.Obtain fast, real-time data on prospects and customers, trends, and products that will help you make more informed decisions.
4.Building and maintaining positive relationships.
5.Changing and adding content, test offers, and copy and obtain relevant information. 6.Use RSS syndication feeds to help you stay informed, become more efficient, and conduct testing.
7.Engaging in interactive conversations with the public.
8.Conducting real-time online video meetings.
9.Monitoring your word-of-mouth buzz.
10.Using "mashups" to create, update, or bundle products.
11.Attracting more targeted traffic to your website.
12.Using tags.
13.Getting information (and respond to it) the way you want.

GETTING CUSTOMERS TO BUY MORE

If you're already selling anything online, you're about to discover a quick and easy way to get extra revenue from your site with very little added or in some cases zero expense !

There are three ways to grow your business:

1.Getting more customers

2.Increasing the transaction size (i.e., getting customers to pay more)

3.Increasing the frequency of purchases (i.e., getting customers to buy more often)

For some strange reason, virtually every business focuses solely on the first way. There isn't anything inherently wrong with that approach, but it's the most costly way to increase revenue and it usually means you're leaving the lion's share of the profits on the table.

To get the biggest bang for you buck, you need to incorporate the two other ways, starting with increasing your transaction size. This is the easiest way to boost your revenue.

The Upsell
Car dealers are excellent at using this technique. Once you've agreed to buy a car, you're given several "opportunities" to take advantage of dealer financing, extended warranties, rust coating, a LowJack security system, etc. These additions will normally add as much or more profit to the dealer as the original sale.

The technique is also used every time someone orders something at McDonald's. Who hasn't heard "want fries with that?" or "would you like that super-sized?" It may bump the cost of your meal by mere pennies but multiplied by "over a billion served," you'll see it makes serious dollars for the company.

And of course, anyone who has ever called a late-night infomercial has experienced this technique. When an order gets placed, the consumer will inevitably be offered a special deal on the third bottle of super-grime cleaner if they buy two bottles.

This technique of offering "add-ons" or "bumps" completes the art of the upsell. Without going into the psychological reasons about why this technique is so effective, the important thing to keep in mind is that it can on average boost profits by 20 to 66 percent simply by asking your own version of "want fries with that?"

This works even better and easier online.

Here are three ways to use the power of the upsell online.

1.Put an upsell right on your order page.
This is the easiest way to use upselling. It can be something as simple as putting a checkbox on your order forms and a sentence or two about an add-on like :
"Yes, please add an additional year of in-home repair for only $49" or
"Check here to add a bottle of miracle cleaner for only $17 more."
You can expect to get a 25 percent upsell rate on average. That means one out of every four customers will give you more money just for adding a few words onto your order form.

2. Use an intermediary page.
Once prospects click on the order button, they're taken to a new page. This page tells people about a special offer that is for "today only" and offers them a deluxe or gold version of whatever they intended to buy for "only X dollars more." You can make the upsell a big-dollar amount or a small insignificant little bump. Think of technique as the same thing as going in to buy a 99 cent burger and being offered a "value meal."

3. Recommend a product or service.
Anytime you buy something from Amazon, that's exactly what they do. Up comes a page that says: "Customers who bought X also bought Y," and they show a slew of products to choose from. How difficult would it be for you to look at your records, see if there are any patterns on past purchases, and then on your order form or intermediary page say: "Customers who bought this computer game also bought a special TV adapter and a 12 pack of batteries"?

Now you have to play fair and let people get the original price and package you offered, but there's no reason you shouldn't add a complementary upsell immediately. This method is one of the easiest--and most profitable--techniques you can start implementing right away. You simply need to come up with a couple of more compelling bonuses, packages or add-ons that people will get for the upgrade.

There is no reason you can't use more than one upsell. You can have a package offer on your intermediary page (your value meal) with an add-on on your order form (super-size), and also say something equivalent to: "Customers who bought our super-sized, value meal also bought a hot apple pie and a chocolate sundae."

E-BROCHURES

If your company has ever printed a brochure, you know the time and cost involved as well as the potential waste.

Many businesses spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a brochure, only to have boxes of them cluttering their closets years later.

If this sounds familiar, you'll certainly appreciate the many benefits of e-brochures.

An e-brochure is pretty much what it sounds like a brochure that can be distributed, delivered and viewed via the internet. Like printed brochures, e-brochures feature photos, graphics, copy and your logo. However unlike printed brochures, e-brochures can be sent as e-mail attachments, incorporated on a website or burned onto a self-playing CD. There's no question that e-brochures represent a new and highly cost-effective way of branding.

While traditional, printed brochures remain the industry standard, and many customers still expect them, e-brochures are quickly gaining popularity due to these unique selling points :

Cost effectiveness
No more guessing numbers for your print run, then winding up with too few or too many brochures. The cost of an e-brochure is fixed, whether you send out one or one million of them. Fees are based on the number of pages and any extra "bells and whistles" like video or audio. What's more, digital distribution means you omit postage costs.

Interactivity
This can greatly boost the overall impact of your message by engaging your audience. Viewers can turn the interactive pages, view video or listen to audio with a simple click of their mouse. Better yet, they can immediately place orders or request more information by clicking on embedded links.

Customization options
E-brochures let you to target your messages to specific audiences, increasing the likelihood they'll buy from you. Such market segmentation is much harder with printed collateral.

Easy to update and edit
You can quickly and efficiently customize your message, target your market and adapt to changes in the marketplace without re-printing a single page. Nor do you need to reprint your brochure if your offerings or price points change. Updating your e-brochure "template" is a simple and affordable editing job.

Unlimited distribution
The ability to e-mail your brochure means you can immediately and affordably respond to requests for information from anyone at any time. In fact you can instantly send your brochure to prospects around the globe and create a viral effect--one potential customer can forward it to other potential customers, which in turn can forward it to more customers and so on, at no cost to you.

Access to additional information
Your audience can quickly browse through content, zoom in on items, and print pages, all from the convenience of their home or office. You can also include a homepage link for customers who want to learn more about your business.

Tracking
With traditional printed materials, it is extremely difficult to track your ROI. Not so with e-brochures. You can track how many times your e-brochure is downloaded as well as how many orders you received from its distribution.

Environmentally friendly
Obviously, no trees are involved in the creation of an e-brochure. You won't need any storage boxes to house extra brochures, either.

Makes your company look smart and innovative
Having an e-brochure gives the distinct impression that you're ahead of the curve and well-positioned for the future. Customers like to do business with savvy companies who literally think outside the box.

EMAIL MARKETING - TIPS TO GET STARTED

Choose a reputable e-mail marketing service provider
Features to look for include affordable plans, a variety of easy-to-use templates for different kinds of e-mails, e-mail list management, a commitment to e-mail marketing standards and best practices, and access to support and helpful resources.

Collect e-mail addresses
Even if your mailing list is just a few friends and family members, that's enough to get started. Grow your list by collecting names during your regular course of business, whether it's at a home product party or a chamber of commerce event.

Get permission
Before you send anyone a commercial e-mail marketing communication, remember to get permission. Permission is perishable, so don't wait months to e-mail someone after you get their contact info. And you must offer a way for recipients to unsubscribe or opt out of your mailings.

Make your first mailing count
This could be a simple announcement that you're open for business or an e-mail that welcomes people who recently joined your list. Thank recipients for joining and tell them who you are, what you offer and why you're e-mailing them. Your first e-mail is your opportunity to make a good impression and show the benefits of being on your e-mail list. Include a "forward to a friend" link so people can easily share your correspondence with others who might be interested in what you offer.

Create a schedule
Plan to communicate with customers via e-mail at least six times a year. Once a month is even better. If you plan to e-mail more often--and you may if you run events or weekly specials--make sure you are providing information your contacts value.

Customers and prospects might not need your products or services at the moment they receive your e-mail, but the key is to keep your business on their minds. That way, when they're ready to buy--or when they hear of someone who needs your products or services--they'll think of you.

Even if e-mail marketing is the only marketing activity you do, it can help you connect with customers and encourage referrals and repeat business. You don't even need to have a website to get started. As long as you have a computer in your home office (kitchen or garage), e-mail marketing is a great way to grow your home based business.

PROMOTING HOME BASED BUSINESS

Millions of people are living their entrepreneurial dreams by running a business from home.

Many entrepreneurs start with an idea to sell a product or service, working part-time out of a home office, kitchen or garage. Some leave the corporate world to become independent consultants, offering their skills to companies on a per-project basis.

Whatever your skills or passions, the rewards to owning a home based business are undeniable. Be your own boss, make your own hours, enjoy more time with family, earn income doing something you've always wanted to do; you're free from the constraints of a traditional work environment. The flip side is that there's no marketing or sales department to bring in business and keep it coming. You are it.

If you're running a home based business, chances are your resources are limited. Your challenge is to get business and keep it coming. That's where e-mail marketing can help without breaking the bank.

E-mail marketing is a fast and easy way to do the following :
Reach out to your contacts directly and let them know you are open for business
Encourage repeat and referral sales by reminding customers you're there
Share your expertise so customers turn to you as a trusted resource
Create promotions that boost business and keep your brand alive
Conduct effective DIY marketing on a cost-conscious budget

E-mail marketing works for any kind of home based business, whether you're a jewelry maker or a dog groomer, a freelance accountant or an online seller of collectibles. Let's look at two types of e-mail marketing that can build your home business.

Create an e-newsletter
A simple e-mail newsletter lets you share free advice, insights, and success stories with current (and potential) customers. This sets you up as a trusted expert in the eyes of the people on your list. When they need what you offer, your e-newsletter will help make sure that you come to mind. Come up with a few content ideas for your newsletter, such as design tips, recipes or financial insights, and ask people in your network what they'd like to read about. Customers, associates, friends and family are a great source of topic ideas. Worried about doing a lot of writing? Don't be. Newsletters can be short with just a few paragraphs of useful information.

Send promotional e-mails
Combine your newsletter's informational content with promotions that stimulate demand for your products or services. If you're in a gift-oriented or other retail business, the holidays create natural opportunities for promotions. If you're a consultant offering services, your business may be more cyclical or seasonal depending on clients' needs. You can also plan an event or a sale to create a business booster during otherwise slow times. A 10 percent off coupon, open house, or a free sample or consultation are examples of popular e-mail promotions.

ATTRACTING CUSTOMERS TO YOUR SITE

Now, more than ever, website owners are looking for ways to expand their businesses and are building strategies for more quality content build-outs and added distribution channels.

Their goal is to attract more eyeballs than ever before.

In today's competitive marketplace, how can you find additional ways to grow and build a loyal visitor base online?

If you're planning to launch a small website, you must have found a niche marketplace with much less competition. Otherwise, you may not rank where searchers can find you. You know that adding content and links are important, but if your competition is doing more, how can you keep up? You can't continue to create, modify and copy pages and fiddle with HTML editor programs; you're too busy for that.

Here are some smart ways of doing it …..

Join the blogosphere.
Distribution via blog networks is smart. But, if you have a regular, static website, you may experience technical or HTML page issues in making your site available to search engines. Imagine that you've written a "Top 10 Tips" article on how to grow large, custom red tomatoes in your garden. The text provides excellent and useful information, but it's not optimized well for search engines. If search engines can't spider your site and find you easily, how can you get your information distributed? How can you target and continue to feed a hungry market?

RSS.
As defined by Wikipedia, RSS is a "family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts." You may also see references to Media RSS, designed in 2004 by Yahoo!, but it's not as commonly known. You should use this for video and media.

The technology behind RSS isn't new, but with the rise of social media and social media optimization, failing to leverage this content marketing avenue could leave you behind. You don't need to worry about the technical aspects of RSS feeds, but they're XML representations that custom readers--known as feed readers--can consume for easy scan and reading by your audience. Blogs, RSS and social media will see a huge popularity uptick in 2008. As Stoney DeGeyter, a prolific search marketer, noted, "Content is dead, community is king."

Web Traffic RSS Success Tips

Get a blog and start writing.
Start by posting one or two times a week and increase the frequency from there. Make sure readers can easily bookmark your posts with action clicks, easily installable via plug-ins (WordPress is a favorite here). You don't have to write everything yourself. It can be outsourced, and you can write commentaries on news stories and public domain articles to get started.

Provide a visible RSS icon.
Placing a large RSS icon on your site will let visitors know they can get your content into their readers and can sign up easily and quickly.

Publish feeds.
Big names like The New York Times, BBC, MSNBC and Amazon are already doing it. iTunes has read capability into media streams of audio and video. You're not limited by text anymore. Creating videos for your online marketing is big this year. If you have information to share, any "how to" and "problem solver" videos are always in demand.

Get a reader.
An RSS reader comes in different variations--free or paid, desktop or browser-based. Readers allow you to scan headlines and stay up-to-date on content with a high data freshness rate. The following readers are worth considering :
Bloglines
Google Reader
Yahoo! Web
FeedDemon
Pluck

Set alerts.
Set alerts for your blog name or URL. Use Google.com/alerts and track events as they happen. You can set up weekly and daily alerts. Get a free account at FeedBurner.com and track and set up feeds, and run daily reports, stats and more. It's a very handy tool and contains many useful features and excellent reporting on your subscriptions, including search terms and incoming pages.

If you apply these techniques, you may see a potentially large rise in traffic on your site, including willing customers who are ready to buy what you have to offer. Get involved and let the RSS feeds push content out to your customers and readers, and use compelling headlines to draw the readers in.

MARKETING CREATIVITY

Where creativity came from ?

The answer was revealed by asking the same question to artists, dancers, writers, musicians, poets, engineers, and architects. All gave the same answer to the question. They said that creativity comes from knowledge. The more knowledge you have, the more creative you can be. Applying creativity to the arts has the purpose of human enjoyment. Applying creativity to your business has the primary purpose of generating profits. If it doesn't generate profits, it's not creative.

Don't ever go down the garden path of beauty and creative expression in marketing. Sure, it's a plus if your audio and visual materials look and sound great. But that's not their job. Generating profits is their job. Get your artistic kicks in the concert hall. There's no place for them in the boardroom.

The Knowledge You Need
Direct your creativity towards the accumulation of knowledge you need. The path to that knowledge is illuminated by research, the start-up point for the start-up guerrilla. That training as well as your own adventures as a marketer starts with information you've really got to have. Much of it is published on the internet. Lots of it is yours for free at your local chamber of commerce. Bookstores and libraries are bulging with just the information you need, and professional associations and groups will share it with you.
There's only one thing that accessible information lacks--specific information about your customers. It's laden with data about groups, but as a marketer, you're more interested in data about individuals.

Research Your Consumer
The best way to get that data is to get it yourself. Do your own research. Prepare customer and prospect questionnaires (a different one for each group) that ask a lot of questions. Have a notation at the top of the questionnaire that you're sorry to ask so many questions, but the more you know about them, the better service you can be to them.

Ask Specific Questions
Ask questions with answers that open new doors, such as what is your favorite sport? Favorite rock group? Favorite baseball team? Do you have a hobby? Do you have any pets? The answers to these questions can help you add immense power to your e-mail and website. There is an old proverb: "It is better to know something specific about your spouse than know everything about marriage." The same holds true for buyer-seller relationships. The "something specific" is what you get with research and the way to switch a start-up marketing campaign into a higher gear.

If you want a place to exercise your creativity, it's in your customer questionnaire. Most business owners know most of the right answers. Business owners also know most of the right questions. Knowing the right questions to ask and then asking them is one of the arts of the start-up your marketing campaign.

Examine the Answers
Processing what you learn is what it's all about because that's where the action begins taking place. You notice a great number of customers in three zip codes. That spurs a mailing to those codes. You must be doing or saying something right. What can it be?

Naturally, a marketer view of research begins with research into his own customers. Important as they are, there are still many other areas deserving of further exploration. First on that list are your prospects, those people who for some silly reason haven't yet purchased from you. Hey! Hold on a second. Maybe it wasn't a silly reason. Maybe it was you doing a silly thing or missing an important detail in customer service. Always look at it like this: If your prospects aren't your customers, there's got to be a reason. Find out what that reason it and then correct it. Be relentless. Be pig-headed and single-purposed, but do everything you can do to transform all of your prospects into customers. That may not happen exactly. But your efforts won't go unrewarded.

The best marketing builds confidence and invites a purchase. Best and most unique of all, the best marketing gets through to people. That's why knowing a lot about your prospects will help you stand apart from your competitors and shine in the minds of your prospects and customers.

Once you've learned all you can about your customers and your prospects, what's the next area worth researching? A smart place to focus is your own industry. Research that industry and get a feel for what the winners are doing, the latest trends, and for signs of any competitors you might have.

Look at Industry Winners
One of the secrets to market domination is knocking yourself off. NOT cloning yourself, but creating a new unique selling proposition in the same market.

That's why Toyota created Lexus. It's why McDonalds started Chipotle. It's not just big companies either; it's just as true with "little" guys on the internet. In some of the most competitive markets imaginable, you see 11 real ads on the first page, and most people don't know that two parent companies might be responsible for five or six of them.
Hey, if you've successfully gained a foothold in one market--and you understand that market deeply--and want to grow your business why go to the trouble of learning a brand-new niche? Do something in the one you're already in. Create a new offer that's so appealing, it takes its place along with the other top dogs: New product, new website.

Don't ever forget that on the any search term there's a whole spectrum of tastes and desires that the keyword represents. One website and one ad can only cater to a handful of them. There are still others you're not serving. But you can.

Do Field Research
As lush and fascinating as the internet may be for research, we can't help but point you in the direction of trade shows where you'll not only get a state-of-the-moment feel for your industry but you'll also get a lot of inside information not yet published online. The networking at these shows may be more valuable than anything on the trade show floor.

The product or service you offer also merits abundant research time. The better you know your offering, the better equipped you'll be to talk about it, understand it, market it. Eventually, you'll be called upon to prepare a benefits list, that actual in-writing list of the benefits people gain by buying from you. Put a lot of effort and creativity into this list because it's what you'll be communicating to your prospects and customers. They'll then make their decision to purchase (or not to purchase) based upon the benefits you do (or don't) convey.

Understand Your Competitor
Your next point of research will be your competitor, which you'll already know pretty well because of your forays into studying your industry and your product. Learn what they say and where they say it. Maintain vigil here because they'll tip their hand frequently by how they adjust their message and their media. You don't want to copy them but you do want to be aware of what they're up to. You can be sure that they're checking up on you. You might even buy the product of the leader in your industry. Get to see firsthand its sales presentation, display, packaging, follow-up, and product itself. Learning from leaders is an added strength for you.

Explore Media Opportunities
Don't fail to research life outside your own industry. Get to know the media, online and offline available to you. Get to know the internet on an intimate basis within your industry. Start-up your research by half hour surf through the internet everyday to catch the best that's online--in and out of their industry. The research you put in looking for media opportunities for your company will pay off every time.

Study the Latest Technology
That research should include researching the latest technology that might empower your business. The move in entrepreneurship is toward automation. Happily, automation is not expensive. Your company can give off the vibes of a huge, lavishly funded corporation with a constantly busy staff, when the truth is it's just little old you pushing the right button on your automated customer profitability center. Technology can help you in the areas of marketing, production, finances, distribution, and a whole lot more. Skip it if you don't need it, but don't miss it if it can contribute to your profitability. It probably can. More people earn money while they sleep than ever before.