Atricle Dump - Internet and Businesses Online

From Desperate Housewife to PR Diva in 9 Life Altering Steps - Tips for Business Owner Hopefuls
Starting my own business in February of 2001 at age 39 was among the most optimistic things I have done in my life.Before electing to stay home for a year with my infant son in 1997, I held a variety of corporate marketing management positions. I was accustomed to making big decisions and influencing big outcomes That is why I grew weary of managing the expense side of the household equation only to find that the generic brand of discount wheat crackers didn’t taste nearly as good as Nabisco® brand Wheat Thins.Restless with my professional skills on the shelf, I applied my talent and passion to influence the revenue side of the household money equation. I wanted to earn money to buy better groceries. Today my agency is a corporation of three employees and a dog, and I am too busy to cook. Our intention is to do the best work of our lives and pack a punch for each client’s investment in our services.On my path from desperate housewife to diva of publicity, I’ve learned powerful lessons that might prove helpful to those thinking of launching businesses of their own.1. Recognize the power in this most concise advice: Happy wife, happy life. Some women are happy as stay-at-home moms. Not me. Finding a way to use my writing and influence skills for profit was my path toward the “happy wife, happy life” ideal.2. Figure out a way to spend 80% or more of your time doing work you are passionate about. Storytelling has always captured my interest, and that is the foundation of my efforts every day.3. Price your services right. Believe in the value and have courage to charge market appropriate fees.4. Oprah Winfrey once said, “Surround yo

BR>have worked with web designers and/or marketers. And trust
me, the clean up is more time consuming than starting all
over.

14. Don't make your buyer feel stupid while they are in the
process of buying from you -- in the "cart" process.
Internet service providers (ISPs and web site hosts) do this
frequently. Just one example of this is when they ask their
nontechnie buyers the question, "Choose your server."

The majority of their buyers have no idea what this means.
They do not understand you are asking if they want a Unix or
Windows based system. Moreover, even these same buyers are
asked in this manner, they still do not have any clue what
are the advantages or disadvantages or either one.

So, they feel stupid. You will lose more buyers with
questions like this. The buyer feels frustrated and 99% of
the time leaves without buying. Look on your site, are you
asking any questions that make the buyer or visitor feel
stupid?

15. The most common place to click on any web page is the
top left-hand corner. Put the choice to go to the next page
or to pick the most popular page or product in this
location. If the purpose of the page/site is different, you
may want to put the back and forward buttons there.

Don't put graphics, especially your logo, in the upper left
hand corner. This is prime real estate for your website.
If you have a retail site, place your top-selling item in
this space or a drop down menu of three of the top selling
items.

16. Answer the visitors' main questions in one easy-to-find
and readable paragraph. Don't make the font too small to
read and do not make it go across the page requiring the
reader to scroll. I've seen young web site designers use
small fonts who want to attract a market that’s in their 40s
and 50s. Fact, the older you get the bigger the font.

17. Don't talk down to your visitors. They are intelligent
people who will not stand for it. They will leave and never
come back. There is a difference in talking d

Starting a Business - Getting Your Head Ready
This is an exciting journey you’re about to undertake. Before you can make it in a business of your own however you need to think about your own “way of being”. I won’t get too deep here, but you need to know who you are not, so you can find a business that’s right for you. I’ve never known anyone that in a search for themselves, found themselves – you’ve been there all along. What they did instead was find out who they weren’t. Whether this is a new business or the expansion of an existing business you need to be aware of what makes you tick so you choose the right business for you. Below I have some tips that will add light years to your understanding of what may be holding you or others you know back from realizing your full potential in business and many other areas as well. These are the things I find most business owners and those wanting to start a business of their own, have a hard time with.1) There is no missing piece to your puzzle except for your own action to go out and make a change. There is no hidden message or kernel of truth you’re missing to succeed in starting your own business. This feeling of thinking your missing some special knowledge or attribute is the same feeling multi-billionaires feel everyday. Humans never stop analyzing and judging everything. It’s as if we’re all programmed to feel that we’re faking the current moment. This self-doubt is part of the human condition. Get used to it, it won’t go away. Learn instead to be aware of it. Have faith that in time and with some success your current fears will diminish and you’ll be faced with new ones as life challenges you to grow.2) All entrepreneurs make blunders, mistakes and poor decisions

"Learn from other’s mistakes," my Mom always advised me.
Learn from mine, save three precious marketing years, tons
of frustration, energy, and come out way ahead of the game.
Best of all, you probably didn't lose thousands of dollars
like I did.

1. If you use a shopping cart, check if the zip code request
appears before the city and state on the order form. Most
carts don't to this. Why is this important? Because if
ordering is not easy, I mean real easy, for your buyers,
they drop out in the process. Ordering should be as
effortless as possible for the purchaser.

If the zip code is before the city and state and is set to
drop their city and state into the next two fields
automatically, it saves the purchaser's time. Believe it or
not, this one "little" item leaves a memory chip and they
will remember the experience in the future. Did you know
that 60% of buyers opt-out and don't complete the
transaction because of the little things.

2. Do you have boxes or radial buttons that they need to
check off in the ordering process? Yes, then go ahead and
fill-in the checkmark in for them. Let them uncheck it if
they do not want the choice you are gave them. Again,
making it easier to buy from you and reduce the chance of
them leaving before completing the transaction.

If you have a questionnaire or survey form, check all the
"yes" categories or one of the radial buttons for them so
they don't have to do the work. They will remember the
experience as "easy" and it will imprint in their minds for
the next purchase or experience with you.

3. Many people forget to set up their "error page" on their
web site. Do not leave that to chance. Ask them questions
on the error page so that you know what occurred. Example:
"Tell me how you saw this page please." Add your e-mail
address. Hyperlink the address and spell out the full
address for those with different browsers. Make it easy for
people to identify any errors on your web site so you can
fix them quickly.

If you think that will never happen to you and that you have
checked your links repeatedly, it can still happen.
Software has glitches and it happens to the best of the
best. In addition, an error page is a great place to add
other hyperlinked navigational bar (a list of the main areas
of your web site). Also, offer an opportunity for them to
enroll in your ezine here as well.

4. Omit the metaphors. Most adults do not have the time or
the patience to play games on the Internet. If your market
is teens, this is a different story. Teenagers will enjoy
the entertainment.

If you offer an entertaining feature on your site, you will
need to carryout the theme throughout your site, otherwise
they will leave as soon as it stops. This has occurred
quite often lately as professionals add video to their site
(considered entertainment) and then the rest of the site is
flat. They get a lot of hits to the video and then no
response on the call to action they set it up to give them.

5. Please do not activate "under construction" pages. Wait
until the page is ready and then upload it. If you are
using FrontPage, you can remove it from the Navigational
system by right clicking on the page and turning it off.

6. Don't beat around the bush with your visitors. Make your
message so clear that even a ten year old will understand
it. Make the language conversational -- easy English.

7. Make your "buy me" buttons "Amazon" blue. Backed by good
research, Amazon has trained millions of their visitors in
this color and in their design style. Use their success to
your advantage. Visit http://www.amazon.com to see what
"Amazon" blue looks like.

8. Do you offer a search form on your site? You need to.
Once again -- make it easy for your visitors to find the
information they want quickly. Here is a tip that I learned
only a few months ago that has paid big since. After all I
have read and learned over the past 10 years, nothing was
every mentioned about this. When someone searches for
something and it is not found, set up a default-selling
page.

Here are a few ideas on how to use the default page when
their search comes up empty. Offer them a 10% coupon for
something else, or for anything on your site. Tell them
this is a one-time offer (they will not know otherwise). On
the other hand, you could provide a list of available
discounts or offer them a choice of sections to proceed to.
Do not let them get the "Can't find a match" message at any
time.

9. When collecting visitor information for your database, do
it one step at a time. Do not try to do everything at once.
If you offer an ezine, the first step is to ask for their e-
mail address only. After they type that in, take them to
another page to answer questions.

Alternatively, you can send them an auto responder asking
them questions. Better yet, send them to a survey page
after they have subscribed to your newsletter. You will
enjoy an increase in subscribers and survey submissions.

10. If you use drop down menus for your states or countries,
remove them. "Techies" like drop down menus, but visitors
don't. Let the visitor type in their state and country. It
is ten times faster and much easier than looking through a
long list searching for the state and country. Even if the
United States is at the top, it is still makes the buyer
search.

11. The best way to give your visitors what they want is to
keep it simple. This is especially true for the landing
page of your web site. The landing page is your main or
index page.

What do you want your visitor to do when they reach your
site? If they are there to subscribe to your ezine
(electronic newsletter), send them to that page by giving
them that immediate option. Then send them to a page that
focuses them on subscribing. Give them all the information
they need to make a choice and to subscribe. If they are a
first-time visitor, where do they click first?

For example, if you are a coach, ask them if they want to
know more about coaching. If you are a virtual assistant
(VA), send them to a page or two about what a VA does and
how you help your clients. After they get to the next page,
give them choice of different areas where you can help them
as a virtual assistant or a coach.

Walk them through the process in steps, "hold their hand" as
you lead them through all the things that you can do for
them. Create a walk-through easy-to-follow effect. It will
pay off in profits.

12. Do not add any pages to the site that do not pertain
to the visitors' reasons for coming to your site. People do
not have time for irrelevant information.

13. You do not need an engineer or web site designer to
design your website. In fact, while they would not like to
hear this, you do not need them. They may do everything
right technically, but they do not know how to get people to
stay at your site or buy from you.

Marketers know how to do that. While 98% of engineers and
web site designer claim they are marketers, less than 1%
know anything about marketing. The truly rare commodity is
a fantastic marketer who is savvy about web site design.

Building your site is just like building a house: without an
architect who knows about layout, structure air flow, etc.,
all you have is a construction company building the house
from their sense of style, direction and beliefs.

Know where the advice is coming from and hire them only for
their expertise. If you are reading an article on marketing
on the Internet that was written by someone who is a web
site designer, a red flag should go up.

If you are talking with a marketer who does not have web
site design experience and you are looking for help in
building your web site, raise that flag again. The rare
person with the unique combination may be hard to find, but
we exist -- I designed my learning to be one of those rare
ones.

I have helped many people clean up their web site after they
have worked with web designers and/or marketers. And trust
me, the clean up is more time consuming than starting all
over.

17. Don't talk down to your visitors. They are intelligent
people who will not stand for it. They will leave and never
come back. There is a difference in talking do

Follow-Up: Diligence and Persistence Pay off
Follow up is a critical activity for maximizing your lead potential. Whenever you meet anyone you should immediately send a follow up letter, postcard, phone call – anything to keep your name in their mind.You go to meetings and business networking events to make contacts. The contacts you make might not be interested right away but if you do a good job of follow-up, when they are ready they know who to call. Good follow up activities include:Postcards Emails Phone Calls Letters Flyers Seminar invitesYou don't want your follow up to be overwhelming. Typically sending your contacts something every few months is sufficient. You should aim to provide some sort of follow up four to five times per year.Follow up will lead to business. That is why you must follow up with everyone. Do not discount any lead. Perhaps you lose out to a competitor the first time. The person who hired your competitor may leave, the competitor him or her self may move on; you never know what will happen. By continuing your follow up, you are in a position to step in should the opportunity arise.The Bottom Line on Follow UpFollow up is extremely important. You need to keep your business name in the forefront of people's mind. This way, if/when they need your services they will be more inclined to call you than a random number from the phone book. The cost to follow up with your leads is minimal and the rewards can be huge.Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consultants Secrets. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}

4. Omit the metaphors. Most adults do not have the time or
the patience to play games on the Internet. If your market
is teens, this is a different story. Teenagers will enjoy
the entertainment.

6. Don't beat around the bush with your visitors. Make your
message so clear that even a ten year old will understand
it. Make the language conversational -- easy English.

11. The best way to give your visitors what they want is to
keep it simple. This is especially true for the landing
page of your web site. The landing page is your main or
index page.

Walk them through the process in steps, "hold their hand" as
you lead them through all the things that you can do for
them. Create a walk-through easy-to-follow effect. It will
pay off in profits.

12. Do not add any pages to the site that do not pertain
to the visitors' reasons for coming to your site. People do
not have time for irrelevant information.

I have helped many people clean up their web site after they
have worked with web designers and/or marketers. And trust
me, the clean up is more time consuming than starting all
over.

17. Don't talk down to your visitors. They are intelligent
people who will not stand for it. They will leave and never
come back. There is a difference in talking d

Curbing Low Morale
Q: I am the office manager of a small insurance firm. I have been here nine months and have noticed that our work environment seems pretty poor. Some of our employees do not seem very motivated, don’t care about their jobs or have bad attitudes. This is not the case for all of us but for many. What can be done about this situation?A: How do you motivate employees? How do you keep them engaged in their jobs? There are thousands of books and management theories written on this topic. This is a serious, perplexing issue for many managers and there can be a tendency to look for quick fixes and short term responses, which seldom work.Work cultures characterized by low morale and unmotivated, disengaged employees result in serious waste, inefficiencies, low productivity and turnover. Unfortunately, there is much to suggest that many employees are “often checked out” while on the job.The Gallup Management Journal’s semi-annual Employee Engagement Index puts the current percentage of truly “engaged” employees at 29 percent. A slim majority, 54 percent, falls into the “not engaged” category, while 17 percent of employees are “actively disengaged.”Gallup reports that losses in productivity from actively disengaged employees cost the U.S. economy roughly $300 billion.So how do you keep employees engaged in their jobs and caring about their own performance and the overall health of the organization? We have always found useful a concept put forth by the management guru Frederick Herzberg over 40 years ago. It has held the test of time and is believed by many to still hold great relevance today for leaders and managers committed

every mentioned about this. When someone searches for
something and it is not found, set up a default-selling
page.

11. The best way to give your visitors what they want is to
keep it simple. This is especially true for the landing
page of your web site. The landing page is your main or
index page.

Walk them through the process in steps, "hold their hand" as
you lead them through all the things that you can do for
them. Create a walk-through easy-to-follow effect. It will
pay off in profits.

12. Do not add any pages to the site that do not pertain
to the visitors' reasons for coming to your site. People do
not have time for irrelevant information.

I have helped many people clean up their web site after they
have worked with web designers and/or marketers. And trust
me, the clean up is more time consuming than starting all
over.

17. Don't talk down to your visitors. They are intelligent
people who will not stand for it. They will leave and never
come back. There is a difference in talking d

Top Ten Publishing Picks for Entrepreneurs
The Real QuestionAre you trying to find ways to better promote your product or service? Would you like to publish a book for credibility but lack the time and knowledge? Today, I will show you an effective method for gaining this desired expertise.Publishing portals are a non-traditional method for publishing. In the traditional publishing process, a writer must find a literary agent and pitch his book to a major publisher. This is not an easy process and filled with many disappointments.The whole process can take over a year, if a writer is fortunate. As a business owner, you don’t have time to deal with bureaucracy. Time is money. Publishing portals allow for faster publishing. They are distinguished by their self-publishing characteristics, their similarity to the vanity press, and a heavy reliance on emerging technologies.The Inside ScoopAt the heart of this technology is print-on-demand (POD) technology. POD allows authors to print books one at a time or in smaller quantities than at a traditional press. It is a cost effective approach to testing a market and growing a base of followers. With this approach, individuals can expect to get royalties between 20-50%; however, some such companies do not provide royalties at all.This is better than a traditional publisher but your profit is limited. Most POD writers sell less than 200 books on average. Pay close attention to the contract. To get the best deal, you must still do your homework. There are always individuals that take advantage of people in business. Therefore, beware of publishing scams. Here are my top picks for publishing portals for entrepreneurs in

e, if you are a coach, ask them if they want to
know more about coaching. If you are a virtual assistant
(VA), send them to a page or two about what a VA does and
how you help your clients. After they get to the next page,
give them choice of different areas where you can help them
as a virtual assistant or a coach.

Walk them through the process in steps, "hold their hand" as
you lead them through all the things that you can do for
them. Create a walk-through easy-to-follow effect. It will
pay off in profits.

12. Do not add any pages to the site that do not pertain
to the visitors' reasons for coming to your site. People do
not have time for irrelevant information.

I have helped many people clean up their web site after they
have worked with web designers and/or marketers. And trust
me, the clean up is more time consuming than starting all
over.

17. Don't talk down to your visitors. They are intelligent
people who will not stand for it. They will leave and never
come back. There is a difference in talking d

Keep Up The Pace or Fall Out Of The Race!
Don’t you just wish you could coast for a while on your success what you already know? You want to get everything done and handled successfully and then just lay back and relax for a while.Well, you know how success happened in the tortoise and hare fable. The tortoise kept plugging along consistently moving forward while the hare figured he was far enough ahead in the race to success he could take a break and nap a little. The tortoise attitude wins in life.Maybe ten years ago you heard all the hoopla, you thought, about internet marketing. The gurus were saying if you don’t have a website you don’t have a business. They encouraged us to go around to businesses and get them started with a web presence.Maybe you believed the information and maybe you didn’t do anything about it.But look around you. Almost every business you find today will have a website. Many have a full web presence with automated systems and products to buy online. Do you ever wish you had taken action on the internet information you heard?What else are you hearing right now that you may not be taking advantage of? What are the boomers’ concerns? What changes need to happen and are in fact happening?Continuing education and success coaching are essential no matter what your field of expertise. Maybe continuing education is required of you in certain professions like medicine, insurance, financial planning, real estate and education. Even where the law does not require your continuing education, it is still an absolute must.Parenting styles are changing, business development is changing, internet marketing is changing. If you don’t step up to the plate for continuing

BR>have worked with web designers and/or marketers. And trust
me, the clean up is more time consuming than starting all
over.

17. Don't talk down to your visitors. They are intelligent
people who will not stand for it. They will leave and never
come back. There is a difference in talking down and
presenting a conversational style. Talking down is like
explaining it to your child; the other is like talking to
another adult. Technical people have a big tendency to talk
down to nontechnical people.

18. Make it easy for them to share their comments with you.
Whether it is about a hyperlink that does not work or other
errors they have found. They may want to tell how much they
appreciated your information. Create a place on every page
where they can feel comfortable about submitting their
comments. Comfortable also means that they have a choice on
sending their contact information or not.

19. Organize your site from the visitors' point of view.
If you are not sure, ask some typical visitors. "What
questions did they have when they landed on the first page?"
is a great question to start. Get them to walk you through
their thinking. You will pick up some patterns after the
first three or four. This is the best research you can do
and it will save you years of revisions.

Do not ask family members or friends. Ask clients who have
just finished visiting your site. They are familiar visitors
and they will want something different from a new visitor.
You need to set up your landing page to handle both familiar
and new visitors without being confusing.

20. One of the most valuable pages in a web site that is
sadly overlooked is the "thank you" page. If someone signs
up for your ezine or places an orders include a popup saying
"thank you for visiting." Use whatever way you can think
says it best, but don't leave it out. The other half of this
equation is not to loose the opportunities to cross sell or
up sell on the thank you page.

First, say thank you and then give them an offer they cannot
refuse. On the thank you page, you can provide a coupon for
10 percent off anything in the store or 10 percent off any
overstocked or limited stock item.

Now that you have these tips on what mistakes not to make,
you need to put them into practice. Choose three and start
completing them. Then move on to the next three and keep
moving through the list. You will be excited by the
results.

Bonus Tip 1: 60% of the buyers opt out of purchasing a
product on the Internet in between the first cart processing
page and the last page. It is usually because it took to
many clicks to complete the transaction or it took too much
time to think about it or to make choices. Check your web
site and eliminate any obstacles or places so you can reduce
this percentage on your web site.

Bonus Tip 2: If you have questions on your page, divide
them into categories and don't put them all on one page.
Spread them out between pages. It looks easier and faster
to the person answering the questions. Give them an
incentive to move from one page to the next and give them
encouragement between the incentives.

HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.articledump.net/article/51245/articledump-20-Website-Mistakes-That-Cost-Me-Three-Years-and-22000.html">20 Website Mistakes That Cost Me Three Years and $22,000</a>

BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.articledump.net/article/51245/articledump-20-Website-Mistakes-That-Cost-Me-Three-Years-and-22000.html]20 Website Mistakes That Cost Me Three Years and $22,000[/url]

Branding gives your prospects a “shortcut” that helps them decide to select you. Want to become a recognizable name within your target market (the folks that need what you’re good at)? Building a strong brand can accelerate that process many times over.

This article addresses how a company should develop an effective marketing campaign that is used both in marketing materials and sales presentations. If you know why your current customers bought your product, you'll know how to develop the message that will resonate with future prospects.

Tags

Links

Atricle Dump - 20 Website Mistakes That Cost Me Three Years and $22,000

Related Articles: