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“I want to see the entire marketing team in Conference Room A at 10 AM this morning. No exceptions.”

As voice mail from the Executive Vice President Scott McDermott cascaded through the key teams, each VPs’ forwarding message raised the stakes and anxiety for each recipient in the food chain.

There were no stragglers to this meeting, their first with the Big Name Business Leader Media Star, freshly recruited from outside the industry. Across the assembled teams, managers quietly speculated and shared rumors on this latest fire. As the EVP commanded the room, his body language broadcast worry and anger:

“I’ve just received market research and analysis on our industry’s Direct Mail performance for latest quarter. [Competitor A] did a mailing that got an exceptional response rate. Far higher than has ever been reported!!! On the other hand, this department is barely beating the industry average-you’re 3% compared to 1% to 2%. Too much time is being spent sitting around congratulating yourselves, when quarter after quarter you’ve only won each race by a nose.”

“Well, this time you’re not. [Competitor A] is crushing us. And I’m being asked why we’re doing so poorly in comparison. Hell, some of you came from over there. Why can’t you figure out how to get push the envelope?! I don’t want to hear excuses; I want results. Get moving; get busy. I want to see our numbers climbing and I want it fast. I’ve instructed each of my direct reports to make this top priority. Now get me some answers!”

And he left.

The room burst into multiple conversations.

The meeting’s tone transformed from Executive Suite to a gym, with each speaker hoping to demonstrate insight and commitment by trying to “out-macho” all preceding comments.

Close to me sat a frustrated product manager and list development manager.

“Not possible. I don’t believe it,” the product manager began, shaking his head.

“Doesn’t matter,” answered his colleague. “Scott is obviously pissed about this and BS flows downhill. We’ve got to come up with something.”

“But what idiots! No one, simply no one ever gets such an outrageous response rate. It’s just BS! And they believe it and expect us to do better. Can’t be done.”

Turning to me, the Product Manager asked, “Well, Dr. Market Research, if it’s not a breakthrough, what is going on? It’s your damn report.”

“First, it’s not our report. Some other department is buying a syndicated report from a research company. So not only is the company paying twice for the same report, but someone is cherry picking the data. I can’t speculate on their motivations, good or bad, but I investigated when I first read the report – because that number was so totally off-the-wall.”

“So what gives?”

“The research company claims they are just reporting what they found, which, of course, is bogus. In this case, the published table combined results from combined multiple reports. Whoever sent this up the line might not have explained that, or they may have deleted all the footnoted caveats regarding unique sampling size issues, which make the competitor’s number totally unreliable. ”

“Because they didn’t want any technical issues detracting from the point they wanted to make with the EVP?”

“Or it could be that some junior staffer here may have stripped the number out of the report and had no idea what it means or what trouble it might cause, especially taken out of context.”

“Who would create a fire storm so they can sell their solution to the new fire chief?”

“Well, there already is a fire drill. Just look around. But to get anywhere, our conversation needs to move away from a Blame-Game blind alley and focus on the real issues.”

“Which are….?”

“Doing strategic market research that produces customer insights and competitive advantage and improving the information flow process. I’ve raised that issue before. Marketing must assign a single source to acquire, vet and disseminate all syndicated research reports.”

“Senior leaders don’t have time to spend learning technical research issues. They need to be focused on pertinent, high quality results for decision-making. And if they’re not, as today, chaos reigns. No one wins when competitive intelligence becomes the wild west.”

“Well it’s all total BS!,” the list manager whined. “What kind of a fool would believe a number like that and what kind of a charlatan operation would report that as valid?!”

“Okay,” the product manager said. “So obviously something else must be going on here. I doubt Scott believes it either. Then why the fire drill? Maybe the anger and frustration could have been handled better, but clearly Scott’s rear is getting chewed from higher up and something’s obviously got to change. And it appears that that is our problem. How do we respond in ways that satisfy the thirst for blood and also up our game. Maybe we can do better than we’re doing…”

“Well,” I picked up, “we’ve been talking about doing a segmentation study of our potential customers so that we can align the offers more tightly with actual perceived needs.”

“We’ve been over that ground,” the product manager interjected. “It’s much cheaper to send out the mail to do the tests than to take six months to do segmentation.”

“Yes,” I agreed, “Market Segmentation research is long and laborious…..but in a highly competitive environment, it can give us a real edge. Consider this: if we identify the main drivers that cause response-what offers appeal most to which potential customers, we can up the response rates by better targeting. And we’ll have a much better understanding of how to position the offers.”

“The products were so hot for a while and we were so far ahead of our competitors that we didn’t really need to understand them more than we did. But now, competition is closing the gap; maybe we need to think in that direction.”

More and more people today are looking for a second income. Whether it is to fund a vacation, the college tuition, or just to “make ends meet”; today’s economic times are pushing more people to find additional cash flow. Internet Marketing is one of the fastest growing and profitable businesses today and a source through which many people see as an avenue to gain financial freedom. This freedom, they hope, will allow them more time with family, the opportunity to travel the world and pay their bills before the dreaded call by the creditors.

Trying to find a legitimate online business opportunity can be a frustrating experience, especially if you are a newbie to the world of internet marketing. The main challenge is that there are so many well presented packages available that look great and promises to make you rich overnight. You have seen them all too many times- the mansion on the beach-side-maybe somewhere in the Caribbean possibly, a man or woman standing beside the latest model Audi A6 Sedan and a snap shot of an account showing a seven figure income. Are these legitimate claims? Maybe, but it is not very difficult to set up these pictures in photo-shop. Hello? This is the era of advanced technology, so it is highly possible to create those impressions.

If you are to conduct any research on the internet about making money online and the terms that are associated to that keyword, you will read many reports that 95% of people in Direct Sales or Network Marketing are failing to achieve the intention they first decided to start a career in internet marketing. This is a two part article which seeks to note possible reasons for the success of the 5% who have managed to set themselves above the alarming failing majority. These may not be the most common of the reasons, but they are worth some amount of consideration.

Reason # 1: Top Internet Marketers are Serious

Which successful person can you point to, who did not demonstrate an attitude of seriousness towards accomplishing his/her goals? None, right? I thought so. Believe it or not, the success you have achieved or the lack of it can be linked to the level of your determination to turn off the television, surfing the net idly or socializing with your friends when you know you have a business to build. The top internet marketers, if you have had any conversations with any of them, will tell you to stay with your nine to five job if you do not intend to be focused and exert the work needed to fulfill your dreams. It’s those who take action and do not make excuses that will live the abundant life.

Reason # 2: Top Internet Marketers are Goal Oriented

Can you honestly say that you are a person that sets goals to accomplish your dreams? If not, then that puts a great gulf between you and the 3-4% of people you make it big on the internet. You can have a wonderful business model or idea that in your estimation will be successful, but chances are, if you do not have calculated goals then you will not make it online. Without having to go through any scholarly definition of what a goal is, it would be remiss of me if I did not mention that goal clarity is the beginning of most successful accomplishments. When thinking about what you want to fulfill in this life, always remember that that goals should be clear, specific and written descriptions of your future endeavors. It begins with a clear focus of:

1. Where you want to go
2. When you want to arrive
3. How you are going to get there

Reason # 3: Top Internet Marketers Know How to Market

Would you give raw meat to a vegetarian? Yeah, if you are not in your right mind! This reason is one of the most important of them all. Successful internet marketers are aware of the skills and strategies being used to roll in the big bucks. They do not use out-dated marketing strategies that make them broke before they earn their first dollar. Unfortunately, too many newbie marketers and those who have been using the internet from “dinosaurs” years ago are many times being fed misleading and inaccurate information. Have you ever said to yourself, ‘There has to be a better way?’

Reason # 4: Top Internet Marketers Do Not Fear Rejection

Many people are leaving a lot of money on the table and one of the main reasons for this is, they procrastinate in connecting with their prospects, for fear of rejection. Top internet marketers do not experience rejection. You see, your prospects will respond to your offer by either making a prejudgment or an objection. If you perceive an objection as a rejection, then your longevity in direct sales will be short. The five main objections that you will most likely receive are:

1. I do not have the money
2. Let me think about it
3. I really do not have the time
4. Let me talk about it with my partner or relative (third party approval)
5. I have to do my research first (15% actually conduct their research, the reaming 85% are emotionally driven)

If you understand why people do the things they do, chances are you will be better able to take the focus off yourself and carry your prospects through the objections you will likely meet in your network marketing business.

Reason #5: Top Internet Marketers Welcome Failure

There are too many people who believe that after writing their first article or uploading their videos to YouTube about their business opportunity, then they can retire from their job. Top internet marketers do not share this sentiment. Rarely is the case, when someone who starts an online business opportunity will fire their boss the next day. There is no such thing as overnight success. Being at the top of your game requires that you will accept the fact, that there will be hurdles in your path before you actually see the results you are hoping to achieve. Your duration in the game will be dependent on your will to succeed. Time will not permit me to go through all the names of people in history who failed many times before they became established. If you decide to shut the door on internet marketing because you failed a couple of times, just remember that it is a decision you have made regarding your abilities and perseverance- NOT that internet marketing does not work, which so many who have left the game end up touting.

Of course the first question must be, “What is a Self Directed IRA?” The difference between a regular IRA and a Self Directed IRA is that you have control over how your money is invested. Many brokers claim they let you decide where your money is invested, but to truly be a Self Directed IRA, you must be able to invest your money where you want to.

The next question is often, “Is this legal?” In 1975 Congress passed ERISA in the Securities Act. This brought about brokerage houses and banks marketing IRA and 401K plans. They encouraged you to buy what they wanted to sell: stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

Nothing in the IRS code said you could only invest with banks or brokerage houses, or that you could only invest in stocks, bonds and mutual funds. People came to believe that, because that is what their bankers and brokers told them to invest in, since that is how they make their money.

Since the stock market drop, and with corporate scandals and corruption, many investors have become frustrated and began looking for alternative ways to invest their money. They wanted to control their own investments. Some wanted to invest in more tangible assets like real estate.

When they asked about other options, they were often told it couldn’t be done. Although this isn’t true, since their brokers can’t make these other investments, they wouldn’t allow it. Brokers would suffer financial losses if their clients made such a move.

The next question is, “What can my IRA invest in?” An easier question would be, “What can’t my IRA invest in?” There are very strict regulations on an IRA that must be followed. The IRS doesn’t give a list of what you can invest in, they tell you what you cannot invest in: life insurance contracts and collectibles.

Here are some examples of things you can invest in: residential or commercial real estate, raw land, trust deeds, mortgages, private notes and loans. You could also invest in private stocks, Limited Liability companies (LLC), Limited Partnerships (LPs), and tax certificates. You can still invest in stocks, bonds and mutual funds; along with annuities, currency, futures, options, receivables, and commercial paper.

Our final question for today, “What is ERISA?” The Employee Retirement Income Security Act has come to be called ERISA for short. This act moved the responsibility for an employee’s retirement plan from the employer to the employee. The two investments it prohibits are life insurance contracts and collectibles. To summarize to truly be a Self Directed IRA, you must be able to invest your money where you want to.

Network Marketing is a great way to supplement your income and even build it into an MLM empire and your main income stream. Old school network marketing still works and can be very effective if done right. Back in the 80′s there were people raking in piles of money selling vitamins.

The problem is that professionals monthly income. Enter internet network marketing.

Here are two ways to market your direct sales business online and turn it into a turn-key internet network marketing business.

Get a blog. Whether you know it or not, blogs are not just for young social media addicts. In fact, most media and news sites are actually in blog formats. Blogs let you add content on a daily basis and create valuable content on the internet. This can create a ton of fresh traffic and leads for your network marketing business.

The key here is to learn search engine optimization and write content for both the search engines and your target audience. There are also other things you can do to help your blog’s traffic such as blog syndication and social media such as Twitter and Facebook. These social media sites can also help you build your brand and build relationships with your readers.

Use an online internet marketing system. There are systems in place that let you generate leads online by selling affiliate products that focus on personal development and training. I think the most popular systems, Carbon Copy PRO that is intended to be marketed to professionals seeking an income generating business and My Lead System PRO that is marketed to current MLM or direct sales professionals are great to use and when combined with an MLM or direct sales company, they can be considered turn-key online businesses.

These are great systems but remember that you still have a human component in internet network marketing so don’t let the system do all the work. Build a relationship with your leads. Get on the phone or send a personal email.

The one thing I will end this with is that the internet is a marketing tool just like anything else so don’t rely on it for everything. You can certainly use both online and offline methods for building your business. Just remember that it is a business and should be treated as one. Think like an Entrepreneur.

Businesses need to have a marketing plan that will allow them to make the most use of different ways to market their ideas and products. There are a number of different ways that a business can effectively market in order to increase their exposure and their revenue. It is highly recommended that companies create a diversified marketing plan to ensure that they have different ways to reach the public concerning their items and goods. Having a marketing plan that consists of different ways to attract customers is one of the best ways to ensure that there is always an effective method to obtain interest in a product or service.

When considering a marketing plan businesses should think about the different ways that they would like to reach people. There are various ways in which a company can market itself however some are better than others. There are direct mail campaigns which involve sending flyers or other types of informative information through the mail in order to solicit a response from people. There are also email marketing plans which in many ways are similar to the direct mail campaign. The main difference is that everything is distributed by email as opposed to postal mail. Some companies that have the revenue may even obtain radio or television spots in order to market their products.

These “spots” can be commercials on the radio or paid infomercials on television. These types of marketing plans are a bit more expensive and are commonly used by those that have the funds to do so such as a larger company that is sure such a marketing investment is worthwhile. Internet marketing is one of the most popular types of marketing available today. It encompasses a variety of ways that a business or individual can promote items. Many businesses do prefer internet marketing because the internet offers the ability to reach a large amount of people in so many different ways. A business that wants to be very successful should incorporate at least two of these methods in their marketing plan.

Having a diversified marketing plan is very advantageous for a number of reasons. First, it will allow businesses to know which type of marketing plan is most effective for their products. Perhaps when comparing sales that were derived from a direct mail and an internet article marketing campaign the business owner discovers that the internet articles produced more traffic to their website and also produced more sales.

Second, a company can try different ways of reaching the public when there is more diversification. The internet is one of the few ways that allows companies to use one form of marketing in different ways. For example, there are many companies which utilize articles in order to attract people to their websites for promotion of a product or service. These articles can be placed literally anywhere through the internet. Some people use them in article directories while others may share them via social networking sites. In any regard, using articles as a marketing method is a very multi-faceted way to promote services. Finally, having more than one marketing method ensures that a business will never have to worry about totally slack returns. In many ways multiple marketing plans is a safety net for businesses that are concerned about gaining exposure and revenue.

These are the five most vital elements necessary to create a prosperous home dependent enterprise. These elements represent the collective knowledge of affiliate marketing experts. This is the tiny exclusive clique of world wide web engineers who innovated the planet wide net. Specifically in this era of e-commerce, these ground breaking revolutionary net dependent marketing and advertising programs are generating large profits to your new breed of entrepreneur. They’re a select handful of geniuses who have made millions with e-commerce about the planet wide net.

A extremely essential elements can be to understand your target customer base. You ought to direct your advertising efforts at the demographic who will probably be interested in merchandise. Understanding your intended audience will assist you optimize your marketing mechanism to maximize results. Your campaigns needs to be design to appeal and attract your selected audience.

Partner with an established internet advertising and promoting system exactly where the net dependent promoting functions are all set up for you. Pick a program that has the stability and encounter to provide you with right assistance and training. Your on the web marketing functions is going to be provided by your advertising plan whilst it can be achievable to concentrate within your core house dependent business. Recruiting, advertising, lead generation, income organization building, bookkeeping and tax accounting and reporting are basically implemented with these powerful state-of-the-art world wide web tools.

Research engine optimization (SEO) methods will increase traffic to your website. By utilizing HTML coding tricks which will attract the primary lookup engines. Your total product sales will increase as improved lookup engine rankings will drive visitors for the e-commerce website. Your advertising partners will take care with the complex net programming and hardware. You merely focus on selling your services and goods.

Your search engine outcomes ranking could be improved by choosing successful keyword phrases. Keyword phrases are the typical phrases that persons enter when doing internet searches. The more prosperous your use of keywords the much much more visitors lookup engines will direct for your web pages. You will discover many problems you’re ready to do to enhance your lookup engine rankings. Select a net marketing and advertising consulting program or join a net based affiliate marketing and advertising program that may possibly supply first-rate net centered advertising.

Partner with professional international web engineers who are masters of internet dependent advertising. This web advertising and advertising framework will promote income and increase profits. Your advertising and promoting program will utilize the latest tools and advancements in net centered on the web advertising and e-commerce models

Why waste time obtaining an expert in all these new net technologies? Instead, join with an already established enterprise which will take care of these internet promoting company functions. You may most likely be capable to focus on core residence centered organization. Following all, your job is often to marketplace your goods and solutions. You ought to let the net promoting professionals handle the net engineering fact.

Now that you totally realize the precise particulars from the five most essential elements needed to build a productive residence centered company, you’re ready for that subsequent step. The following step will be to align yourself with an established and experienced web marketing and marketing strategy. Absolutely nothing will create your enterprise than an affiliate marketing and advertising system. These encounter web professionals will supply the guidance to help you be considered a success about the net.

House Dependent Business – Four Major Interpersonal Media Applications

Print advertising and promoting which used to be the normal technique of advertising is rapidly turning into undesirable not only for that home dependent company, but for business in general. For instance, when was the last time you opened the phone book to retrieve details regarding a business, assistance or item? Probably a lengthy time ago. Replacing this archaic form of marketing is social media marketing and promoting, the practice of advertising more than interpersonal networking programs.

The practice of promoting a brand, company, merchandise, help, or organization over interpersonal media applications is referred to as interpersonal media marketing and advertising and marketing. You can find numerous different platforms accessible for interpersonal media advertising and advertising, all of which vary in terms of use, functionality, engagement and privacy. Among the most commonly utilized interpersonal media networks for the objective of interpersonal media advertising and marketing is is Twitter. Utilizing SMS, or short message service, “tweets” are limited to 140 characters and are usually not all that private. Twitter’s principal benefit is its effectiveness at virally spreading messages.

Above 400 million individuals actively use this following large interpersonal network. Really, if it were a country, it can be the fourth most populated spot inside the planet. You guessed it, Facebook is this mega sociable media marketing and marketing network which I am referring to. The majority of Facebook users establish their really personal individual profile page for the purpose of connecting with buddies, sharing photos, videos and life updates. Nevertheless, Facebook goes far and beyond private profiles, by allowing firms, causes, brands, organizations and providers to make their private Facebook pages. Person users can then “like” or “become a fan” of these goods, which is then shared with their friends across the interpersonal network. This form of interpersonal media advertising and promoting serves as word of mouth marketing and advertising above the internet.

The two other primary interpersonal media advertising platforms are YouTube and Flickr. YouTube receives more than 2 billion views per day and is really a video sharing web site. Any person can make a video and upload it to YouTube and share it making use of the planet. Numerous organizations are harnessing the power of YouTube, recognizing its capability to virally spread low-budget (or free of charge!) videos. Similarly, Flickr is really a photo sharing web site which enables users to create photo galleries, tag their photos and share them although using globe. Both YouTube and Flickr permit for videos and photo galleries to become embedded directly on external websites.

Interpersonal media marketing has increasingly turn out to become adopted by organizations, more than the four aforementioned platforms in particular. Nevertheless, several organizations have come to recognize that the efficient promotion of a residence dependent enterprise above the net can be a considerable time commitment. Luckily, Stikky Media exists as a location for businesses to turn to outsource their interpersonal media marketing and advertising and marketing efforts. Contact Sticky Media for additional info on what they are able to do to spread the word about your residence centered business.

Home Dependent Company – Suggestions for a Complete Newcomer

It can be a well-liked belief which you can get started using a house centered company and make funds correct away. In fact producing cash on the web could be extremely difficult. Web marketing and advertising just isn’t as easy as several people believe it may be. This way of thinking comes from the web marketers who portray it as being an simple way of making tons of money. On the web marketing requires a unique skill-set and also the self-discipline it takes to function for yourself: most folks quit when they discover this out. It may be actually easy to excel at affiliate advertising – discover something that works and then operate tough at it. You ought to stay productive so that you simply can reap the reward. Making funds on the internet may be achieved in a handful of fundamental steps.

Flipping web web sites has grow to be quite well-liked, nowadays. Easy adaptation of home flipping within the offline world of real estate. Ok, you should have a domain name for it, and then you’ll have to possess a spot to host it. You will will need content material for your internet site, and in situation you want it can be achievable to sell ad space following you get some targeted traffic. Proper right after you’ve been receiving visitors for numerous months, and hopefully generating some income, then that’s the time you’ll sell it off. Yes – it will need some effort and operate on your end, but it operates and plenty of on the net marketers do this.

Should you are great at writing, you could start writing articles for websites like Associated Content material or Helium. Should you write on a topic they may possibly be seeking, they will spend you up front for an post, though the costs they pay are fairly low. These post web sites also enable you to earn long term commissions on your content material posts, when other websites funded by advertising use your content articles and you are paid a particular amount depending on how very much marketing income your post brings in. You may even try submitting content articles to online magazines. You’ll discover many techniques to have started out like a freelance writer on the internet if you’ve any desire to do this.

Do you might have encounter in sales or developing profitable goods? You may think about turning into a promoting consultant or coach for individuals who will require help in their personal lives or residence centered business. Coaching or mentoring has develop to be a well-liked field, as persons who will will need assist in some area will pay somebody who has the correct expertise. Consultants may possibly be paid thousands of dollars per hour, specifically if they industry their solutions offline in addition to on the net. In circumstance you were a whiz at marketing in your offline job, you is going to be exceptional at marketing your providers on the web at the same time.

There’s no reason why anyone can’t succeed in online advertising if they apply themselves. You are able to locate millions of individuals on the internet each and every day, and many of them have needs and wants that they’re willing to spend for. To become capable to succeed at online marketing and advertising, you only have to apply some effort and use your mind creatively. You might possibly even achieve the about the web marketer’s dream of an automated home dependent business, exactly where money flows in without you having to attend to the details. Do not be afraid to try a few distinct cash creating methods to figure out what operates for you personally and what does not. Maintain trying distinct issues and never give up, and you may a single day be a effective about the net marketer.

House Centered Business – Don’t Sweat The Tiny Stuff

In case you’re considering of opening a residence dependent business, you may find numerous fundamental suggestions you must consider.

Will not sweat the little stuff.

When obtaining a new organization off the ground, it is effortless to possess bogged down inside the facts. Maintain your residence centered company as effortless as possible inside the early stages although using thought that you simply merely can generally make changes as your business grows.

Two isn’t generally better than 1.

Be careful when forming partnerships. Whilst four hands may possibly seem much better than two once you’re just getting began, they are able to turn out to be a burden above time ought to you aren’t cautious. Make sure any partner you chose brings value towards the table.

Do not function for free of charge of charge.

Late payments are among the fastest strategies to sink a residence based company. It can be crucial to remember you aren’t a bank so you ought to not act like 1. There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking for cash prior to a product or service is provided. One more useful tool is offering a discount if payment is received up front. Set a deadline for special discounts becoming efficient.

Becoming frugal is a superb thing.

Breaking the spending budget is truly a key erroneous practice of several company owners running a business from house. When buying office furniture, go for second hand merchandise. That will save money which may be utilized to replenish your capital investment and cut down potential losses should the business fail.

Leave time for sales.

Usually do not use prime business hours filling out forms that can be done during a slower time from the day. Your primary concentrate needs to be income merely due to the fact that’s the company you are in– learn to use your energy wisely.

Won’t produce as well quick.

Growing too big as nicely fast is also not advantageous once you are running a home centered organization from house unless it is achievable to handle the expansion meticulously. Do not develop into a business empire which will provide you having a headache.

“Mother may have warned you that being easy was a bad thing, but I am telling you that being easy is not only a good thing, it can make you a lot of money, too.” – Sydney Biddle Barrows
This may seem an odd way to open an article about sales strategies – using a quote from the Mayflower Madam. And yet, this is the crux of the “new economy” so many direct sales professionals face today. Simply put, we don’t make it easy for our customers to do business with us. In Direct Sales 104: Advanced Sales Strategies, we’ll be taking a closer look at how to not only draw in more customers, but also, how to make each transaction with a customer more profitable. It’s true that it’s easier to sell more to an existing customer than it is to attract new ones. Here are a few ideas on how to increase sales to your existing customer base:
Regular and frequent contact. With email, text messaging, direct mail and telephones, there’s no good reason to not be top of mind with your customers. If you are not your customer’s first choice, someone else will be.
Pay attention. Take a look at what other companies are doing – specifically the ones that you frequent. Chances are good that you can tweak their processes and promotions to your direct sales business and create a unique shopping experience for your customers.
Understand what business you’re really in. Your job is not to sell stuff. As a direct seller, your job is to provide a solution that helps your customer improve their life. When you create an experience that helps your customer, you become their hero, not their sales person. You become their friend and trusted advisor – the person they turn to first.
Make an offer. Realize that you can’t sell to everyone all of the time, but clients rarely come to you looking for help. You must go to them and offer your solutions to their issues. Know your client’s needs and offer to meet them through your direct sales business. With a constant barrage of sales messages, it’s even more important that you reach out to your clients to meet them where they are, cut through the marketing noise, and present an offer that will improve their lives.
Make it irresistible. Who can turn down a great deal? When you’ve presented an irresistible offer to your target market, it becomes difficult, if not impossible for them to turn you down. Be creative in ways that you can add value to the sale without adding cost to your bottom line.
The easier you make it for your clients to do business with you, the more likely they are to keep coming back for more.

Every day thousands of people decide to enter the world of internet marketing. They have heard the stories of others earning fortunes online and hope they might be able to get a piece of that pie themselves. Most have no previous background in sales or marketing. Some will succeed but many will fail. In this article I will expose the main reason people fail and then I’ll reveal to you the single most important thing you must do before promoting any product or service online.

Here’s the most important thing you must know about internet marketing…it is all about the MARKETING. Forgive me for stating the obvious but most people really don’t know what marketing really is or what it involves. So what is it exactly? Marketing is the process of promoting a product from a producer or supplier to a prospective customer in a manner that persuades the prospect to buy. It’s about matching products and services with people who want, and will pay for them. The marketing process requires study of the product itself, researching the potential market, testing, presentation, and promotion. Most people who want to make money on the internet know nothing of the process of marketing, fail to do proper research and are unwilling (or too broke) to do testing. It has been said over 95% of people who try doing internet marketing fail. Now you can understand why. You wouldn’t try flying an airplane without proper knowledge and hands-on training but yet hundreds try to start a home business in marketing without having a clue as to what to do. They are destined to crash and burn.

Making money on the internet comes from making sales, nothing more. This is done by advertising. The NUMBER ONE REASON why people fail as internet affiliate marketers is that they have insufficient knowledge and experience in selling and advertising. The cause for their lack of success isn’t the product they represent or the companies they choose to affiliate with, the problem is with the prospective marketers themselves. If you want to succeed online you need to understand the sales process and need to be willing to always be learning sales and copy writing techniques. While there may or may not be such a thing as a ‘born salesman’ (or copywriter) there most certainly are personality differences that allow the concepts of selling to come easier to some than others. However these concepts can be learned and applied by anyone desiring to do so. I urge you to seek out good books and courses about selling and copy writing. This knowledge will be extremely helpful to you when writing the content for your advertisements, capture pages and sales pages. Fortunately, most publishers or network marketing companies will provide you with a professionally written affiliate sales page and advertisements. However….

A frequent temptation newbies fall into is taking the shortcut of using a publisher provided affiliate sales page as the landing point for their visitors. A sales page is the main website page for a product that contains the advertising copy (aka: sales pitch). This is a grave error that will cost them untold wasted hours and advertising dollars. Never link directly to a ‘stock’ sales page. Did you get that? This is an important key to success: DO NOT link directly to an affiliate sales page. Why not? Because that sales page is the exact same sales page that everyone else is using. You offer no more than anyone else advertising the same page so customers have no reason to buy from you over someone else. This is the most important thing you must do before you try to market anything online. Fail to do this and you will sabotage your chance to succeed. The same goes for ads and for the same reason. Never use company provided ads exactly as written, but rather reword or rebuild them while keeping the main points emphasized. So what should you do? Here are some options…

1. Make a Capture Page. On you capture page offer a free report series or e-book about a topic closely related to the product you wish to sell. The idea here is to give away some useful information, not a sales pitch. Deliver it via autoresponder in a series with each installment having a recommendation at the end (with a clickable link) for the customer to purchase the item you wish to sell. That link can be to your company provided sales page (embedded with your affiliate id). This approach works the same way for network marketing. Give first, sell second.

NOTE: Sometimes a product you might sell might be from an online store with multiple products. Always link to the sales or catalog page specifically for that product. If you are promoting a business opportunity such as MLM, link directly to the recruiting presentation page.

2. Build Your Own Sales Page. If you are savvy at website creation you can create your own sales page. Sometimes companies will allow you to copy and paste, or even provide you with images of their product or components of their sales page for the purposes of building your own sales page. Sometimes publishers of digital products will offer a Resale Rights package you can buy that contains all the essential graphics and ad copy for creating your own pages. If you do create your own sales pages reword the advertising copy and somehow personalize your pages so they are ‘branded’ to you. Finally, make sure the finalized page is in compliance with the publisher’s rules for such pages.

3. Create a Review Page. This has become a popular way to promote products. You simply write a review (or do an audio or video review) of the product you are selling from your own perspective and then link that page to your sales page. This can be done as a stand alone website or even a a blog. Just a caution here the FTC is really cracking down on sites like these because of their covert approach. You need to make it clear to the reader that you are an affiliate and will profit from the sale of the products reviewed at your site. Be sure to visit the FTC website for the details and play by the rules. Don’t turn your ‘review’ into a sales pitch. The only reason people will read your review is to get an honest opinion and some further detail about the product. While you want to be careful not to give a detailed description of every facet of the product, you do want to give the reader enough information so they will know whether this is the type of product they are looking for and would like to see the sales page on. By the way, it never hurts to also put a link for your autoresponder capture page on your review site, perhaps you could send them review alerts when you’ve done a new review or listings of other products you’ve reviewed, etc.

4. Use Lead Capture Drop-ins. Drop-ins are nifty little tools that allow you to turn any web page into a capture page. You simply use this tool to create an opt-in form that ‘drops in’ on top of the web page you are promoting. You then link the request form an autoresponder for follow up emails. You can use these much as you would a capture page, offering a free report, eBook or just ‘further information’. These are much faster to create than capture pages and work great with company provided sales pages as they allow you to offer something personally that others aren’t while also helping you build your contact list, just like the gurus do. They are the closest thing to a short-cut.

Having read this article you now know why so many fail online and exactly what you must do to set yourself apart from everyone else. Start putting this information into practice today and you will be positioning yourself for internet marketing success.

Why Should the Real Estate Market Use Signs?

The use of signs is prominent from little companies to big companies. Nevertheless, several players in the real estate market rely mainly on testimonials and referrals to grow their business as a substitute for making use of signage. Instead, numerous condo management businesses should use testimonials and referrals in addition to making use of signage. Referrals and signage aren’t mutually exclusive, and the pairing of them both can yield wonderful results.

Use Directional Signs To Pull In Prospective Buyers

Some apartment seekers elect to locate a suitable apartment for themselves without the use of a real estate agent. When this occurs, having visible directional signs could be very helpful to lead prospects to your condo complex. Just think about when folks have yard sales up and use signs to direct folks to their house; the same technique applies towards the real estate industry. You should make it as simple as possible for your potential renters to find your condo. The more people that come to your condo, the greater the chance of filling up your openings. Yard signs as well as vinyl banners are good types of signs to use for your directional signage. Invest in the signage you are most comfortable with; you are able to always change your mind and purchase another kind of signage later down the road. The most difficult part about applying signage into your strategy is really doing it. Too often I see condo management businesses recognize the importance of signage yet not taking action. Please don’t fall into this trap of inaction and laziness. One of the worst things you are able to do is give off a bad subconscious initial impression of your condo to your prospective renters. Being unable to locate your condo complex can certainly leave a sour taste in your prospect’s mouth.

Market Move-In Deals With Your Signage

Aside from using signs to lure prospective renters to check out your condo complex, you are able to also use signs to promote your move-in specials. I’ve seen management companies do everything from use signage that just states that they’re offering a move-in special without details of what it precisely is to management firms that advertise exactly what the move-in special is on the sign. It is truly up to you and what your intent is. Despite which method you use, you need to make certain that the message on your sign is clear and that you’re not trying to hide anything.

Signage Is An Inexpensive Means Of Advertising

Even though advertising with signage is seen as more old-school than say the use of digital signage, it is still a wide source of advertising due to its inherent low cost and high value. Signs stay current, are durable, and don’t require lots of upkeep once you’ve first created them. Should you look at signs these days, you would have quite a bit of difficulty determining how old the sign is. This plays nicely for the long-term effectiveness of signage. Signs are durable and with correct maintenance can last an extremely extended time. Even though the longevity of the sign will hinge on weather conditions if you have an outdoor sign, storing your sign as opposed to always having it out can aid a ton. Signage is employed in several various settings – hotels, restaurants, and malls – and it should be employed to an even larger extent in the real estate business.

This short guide will discuss ten proven steps to become an affiliate marketer. There are literally thousands of affiliate marketing programs, products and sources to choose from. The overwhelming amount of information and misinformation can become disorientating and lead to a start heading in the direction of failure. These ten steps will be used as affiliate marketing guide to a successful start in the process of internet marketing.

Step 1: Finding your niche?

The general definition of a niche is a specific target/area in any given market. Your job is to write down a list of things you have preferably have knowledge in. A example could be fitness and fitness products. Such as exercise equipment or some type of herbal supplement. The idea is to find your personal interest and what you have good knowledge in. Something that you could think, read, talk and write about all day. With the endless amount of products and services out in the world today the list endless. Write down five niches on a piece of paper.

Step 2: Obtaining the right affiliate marketing programs.

Affiliate programs are all over the internet. Companies start affiliate programs so that you can bring in business. In turn for bringing in buying customers you earn a percentage of the purchase. Plus the major advantage of the companies getting large amount of product promotions and advertising. Take each one of your niches and type them in a search engine such as Google or Yahoo. Then start checking out the different websites/companies dealing with your niches. When you are on a website look for as “affiliate” link on the website. Make sure to read through the terms, conditions and the amount you are being paid for the product. A great tip and rule of thumb to follow look for companies offering 40-50% payout. This was you insure your work and through out the process is worth your while.

Step 3: Advertising methods and publication of products

Each affiliate program will most likely offer your promotional materials and guides. From pre-built websites, new letters and even freebies to offer the customer to help aid with their decision of their purchase. The next part of applying these materials given is only part of the process. We will discuss this later throughout the steps given.

Step 4: Quality of your content

Quality of the content you build to help your customers decide. From blogs, forums and websites you will be writing, designing and promotion quality content. People have not care for someone only trying to advertise to them. They are research, seeking and making a decision on buying a product. Your job is to promote/design quality written articles/websites. No worries if you are not a website/html guru because you do not need to be. There a ton websites allowing you to sign up for free. Giving you access to blogs, forums and website template/designs which take you through a step by step process. The whole idea is to take your time when writing up descriptions of what you are marketing.

Step 5: Your affiliate links plus content

When you design your websites, blogs, forums and articles on the internet you will need to implement advertising of the products. This comes from banners and links. Each company will give you your own personal id. This id will be listed in your affiliate link which insures for you to get a sale. Through out your articles you will post/publish your affiliate links and banners on your sites. Do not over do this process! Your are simply offering the buyer a solution and resolution in their decision process to buy. Posting links through out your pages will end up becoming spam. Plus the search engines will pick up on this and give you a poor rank and most likely stamp you with the label of a spam site. Be professional and tasteful with your links and banners. Remember this is about quality not quantity. Quantity of quality will lead to your success.