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It is the beginning of the year again and with it come hopes of a better year for us all. Despite the pessimists and politicians it really can become a better year for all of us but we are the ones to make it happen.

For all of us with businesses great and small we also have hopes for a better year and we can make it happen. Here are some tips to help you:

1. Go over the previous year of your business: If you have not done this at the end of the year it is not too late to do it now. Look into your previous year’s results for your business in detail. You will see some places where you went wrong and other places where you excelled. Learn from your mistakes and build on your successes.
2. Make a plan with goals for the year ahead: It is important to plan ahead when you look into the next year. When you do this make goals and timelines. After you set your goals prioritize and decide what you will accomplish first.
3. Add another income: In order to make more profit you should not only work on your present business but try to build another income stream. There are a number of ways that you can do this.
1. Affiliate programs: One way is to join some affiliate programs in niches related to your business. This is a great way to earn some passive income.
2. Work another related niche: You can also open up new niche markets with new products or services.
4. Educate yourself: If you are offering a service like writing or web designing try to learn more about your profession and increase your skills. I have personally spent last year doing this as writing is an ongoing learning process. When you do this you will find more job openings and better money. You can then outsource the smaller jobs and really start making a profit. Even if you are selling products you can always learn more about your market and their needs.
5. Decide to stop procrastinating: Many of us spend our lives putting things off. Make this the year that you will take action and motivate yourself to do more today, not next week or next month. Never do today’s work tomorrow because once today is gone you cannot get it back.

Remember these few points and you will probably think of a few more. With these points you will indeed have a prosperous New Year. for more information check out advertise-your business

Internet marketing is always changing and it is important to understand the different methods of selling that are available to you. You can have a great in demand product, but you really will not make many sales if you do not have the selling techniques you need in place. There are in fact many ways to sell to your visitors without them feeling that you are pushing the sale. Here are five methods of selling that you can use today.

1.      Sales page: this is a standard way to sell and if you are a good copywriter you can get a number of sales this way. It is important to apply the 3 P’s of copywriting.

a.       Personal: be sure to empathize with your reader and make your sales copy personal. It should read as if you were writing to a friend or family member about a great new product you found. Do not be too familiar but do be friendly.

b.      Precise: keep your sales letter short and focused. Online people rarely have time to read a lengthy sales letter and will be attracted by a strong focused headline and compelling subtitles.

c.       Persuasive: it is important to write compelling sales copy. You can do this by using a tried and true plan; state the problem, empathize, show that your product offers a solution to the problem, guarantee and call to action. Use of compelling trigger words is important, there are over 200 of them. These give your reader a positive feeling and will encourage them, to buy. Do not write in a hyped up fashion but use the power of persuasion.

2.      Video sales page: many people are using a video of themselves to sell their products. It is short, personal and very effective if you do this right. It also takes less time to prepare than a sales page. Once you make a good sales video you can upload it to YouTube and enjoy a huge boost in sales. Be sure it is taken with a good digital camera and the audio is good. You do not need a studio to do this but it is worth taking a little time to do it right.

3.      Social media:  leverage your social media sites. Do not blatantly advertise but make relevant blog articles and posts with a link to your sales page or video about your product or service. You need to link up all your sites and not put too many links in your blog, 2 are usually best. One for your product or service and one for another of your social sites.

4.      Website: if you have an online business you should have a website. This can be a simple blog on wordpress.com or an actual website promoting your products or services. It is always good to have your own blog site. You can easily do this by purchasing your own domain name and hosting then using a plug in like Fantastico to convert your website into a blog. It will use the wordpress.com interface and be able to choose from many templates. Try to find one that is compatible with mobile phones. Be sure that your website looks professional.

5.      Newsletter: a newsletter is very useful for a business. You can send out your newsletter every two weeks and advertise a couple of your products or services. In this way you will build up a relationship with your subscribers and they will often buy one of your products, when they get to know you. Always offer quality products and be sure that you do not have too many ads in your publication. Also be sure it is a quality, informative newsletter that your subscribers will enjoy.

Put these 5 sales techniques to work for you today and you will see an increase in profits.

We do web design and writing of all sorts. just contact me if you need any further information. or go to our website  http://simplewebdesigning.com

Article written by Cathy Qazalbash Freelance writer. Publisher of the A-Y-B newsletter for all who refuse to fail http://advertise-your-business.com

When you start your online business one of the first things that you must consider is your domain name. You may feel that a domain name is just a catchy name for your business and choosing it should not take much time. If you think like this you will be very wrong and will be leaving a lot of money on the table.

A domain name is in fact one of your most important assets to your online business. It can in fact draw a lot of traffic to your site. Here are 5 ways that this can be done.

1. Make it SEO friendly: Make sure that your domain name is centered on your main keyword. This will make sure that the search engines can pick it up easily and you will increase your search engine ranking. You will get plenty of free traffic when your domain name is search engine friendly.

2. Make it relevant: Be sure that your domain name is relevant to your business. When potential customers read your domain name they should have no doubt about what your business is all about. This will help you to brand your business and also help with viral marketing. if your customer knows what you are selling they will tell others about your products and you will get more customers coming to your website.

If your domain name does not reflect your business your visitors will not know what you are selling and will leave before you have a chance to show them your offers. You will lose a lot of potential customers like this.

3. Make it short and memorable: short memorable domain names will stick in your visitors’ minds and allow them to find your website again. Returning visitors will be much more likely to buy than first time visitors. They can also tell people about your website if they remember the name.

4. Be sure it is a dot com name: despite the fact that there are many domain names that end in “dot biz” or “dot USA” etc. “dot com” is still the best one to use. This is because search engines will look at a “dot com” domain first and this will help your search engine rankings. Visitors are also used to typing in a “dot com” domain and will remember your domain better if it is a “dot com” one.

5. Go local: if you have a local business you can add your city and state to your domain name. This will attract more local visitors to your business. After all that is why you have a website for your local offline business.

With these five points you will be able to choose a great domain name that will draw traffic to your website like a magnet.

If you are running an online business or just want to get a website presence for you bricks and mortar business it is important how you present your website. if you stop and think about it you will realize that your website is like a store front and must impress your visitors. In order to do this you should present it well.

Part of a nicely presented website is the design. I am sure you have browsed through websites and seen the way their websites look and feel. Put yourself in your visitors’ shoes and think of how the design impresses you. If the website looks good you are more inclined to browse through it and might even buy something. However if the website looks kind of tacky then you will not be so inclined to stay around and look at what the site has to offer. Presentation is just one way a good design can help or hinder your business.

A good web design will attract visitors in other ways:

User friendly navigation is another important aspect of your web design. How often have you found an interesting website but just could not quite figure out how to get around on it. Navigation is like a road map; unless visitors can find out how to find the pathways on your site they will not stay and look around. User friendly navigation is very important to your site. if your visitors have clear directions and can navigate your site easily they will be happy to look around and see what you have to offer. Keep it simple visible and easy to use.

Having an SEO friendly website is a must to attract visitors to your site. Do not believe people when they tell you that SEO does not matter anymore. As long as people are searching, SEO will always matter for your website. You do not have to do anything fancy but the design should be friendly to visitors and search engines.

Fast loading is essential. Your site needs to open within 7 seconds. If your website does not load quickly then your visitors will not wait and you will be losing a lot of traffic. Remember the old adage once a visitor leaves they do not come back. This is true because if a website does not load fast I know I do not wait around for it and I suspect you will feel the same way. If you use graphics on your site try to make the files as small as possible. In fact the fewer graphic you have the better. Unless you are in the photography business, Home improvement business or animation business it is best to keep graphics small. If you have a cyber shop you can display thumbnail images of products which have an option to zoom in if the customer needs to take a closer look. In this way the images will not slow down the site when it loads.

Flash introductions can lower your chances of visitors browsing the entire site. It is best to let your visitors get into the site without having to jump through any hoops. Flash will also slow down your site and take time to appear, this will make your visitors impatient and not want to stay around to look through your site.

These are just a few points to keep in mind when you design or have your website designed. Remember a good website design will attract more visitors and yes you will see more sales.

Running a business is not an easy task especially when it comes to gaining and retaining customers. Many entrepreneurs just build a list of leads as quickly as they can and by any method possible. This is really not that responsible, because you will find that you have a large number of leads that may never purchase anything.

The way to avoid having an unresponsive list of leads is to build your business one customer at a time. You can do this in a number of ways.

If you have a service:

• Start with a few customers and work on them: If you have a service decide how many customers you will get in one month. It can be as little as 2 or 3 or as many as 100 but you should start with a goal of just a few to begin with. This will allow you to build up a relationship with them and gain their trust. Once you have done this you will be able to get repeat business from them and build your business one customer at a time.
• Trust and credibility: You can gain their trust by doing a great job for them and if possible adding value, like fast service, quality service a discount etc.
• Excellent customer service: An easy way to gain trust and encourage customers to do business with you is to provide excellent customer service. Communicate with them within 24 hours, if they contact you. Try to answer personally and work on a resolution to their problem as soon as you can. Treat every customer like a VIP, because they are!

Building a business list:

• Always build your list with targeted methods: it is simply no point building a list of business leads with untargeted methods. You will build a list quickly but they will not be responsive. A better way is to build your newsletter list slowly but surely using methods that attract subscribers who are specifically from your targeted or niche market.
• Always try to publish a quality newsletter: You will gain the trust of your subscribers and increase your credibility in this way.
• Advertise less: just put a few ads in your newsletter. if you send too many ads or overload the publication with ads your subscribers will get fed up and unsubscribe quite quickly.

If you have a product:

• Make sure that your product is of high quality:
• Always include a guarantee:
• Always follow up with each customer:

With these points you can easily build your business one customer at a time and grow your enterprise solely but surely with many returning customers.

Have you ever thought how many people have cell or mobile phones? These days most of these devices also have access to the Internet. This means that there area whole lot of people out there who can be reached with mobile marketing. Of course we should also take into consideration the growing number of apps that are becoming available for phones.

The first thing a business needs to think about, is building a list of mobile phone users who want to hear from you. Your business can communicate with your subscribers via SMS. This is similar to building a newsletter list and should always be strictly permission based.

The next thing you should think about is a mobile website. You may be surprised to learn that conventional websites do not always come up properly on mobile devices. This means that as well as your regular website you should also have a mobile one. You have a number of ways that you can do this.

• If you want to have a premium website you can get one custom designed. This may take a little money but you can be sure that you will have everything you need.
• You can find a wordpress theme that is compatible with mobile phones and use this as a website. You will have a standard theme that will not be customized but you will have a nice platform for your blog or newsletter and will reach all those mobile phone users.
• If you are really good you can build your own, by going to Google Adsense and following their tutorial about mobile websites. This is a good vehicle for Adsense sites.

Once your mobile website is set up you should then consider SEO for it. This will get your mobile website into the special mobile search engines. These are still relatively new, but traditional methods will still apply.

• You should be sure that your content is optimized and that you have the correct HTML tags.
• Submit your site to mobile directories, as well as submitting it to the engines.
• Make a mobile site map, which you can do with the help of Google webmasters.
• Make a U-tube video, fun to do and this will bring a lot of traffic.

Of course the usual social media marketing is very important for mobile marketing as most people with phones love social marketing like twitter and facebook. For this reason it is good to make a blog site using wordpress and a theme that is created for mobile users.

These are a few thoughts to tap into the huge mobile market that awaits you.

Internet shoppers have become savvier as the years have gone by. However there are some basic habits that most shoppers will adhere to. It is good to be aware of these so that you can optimize your website for maximum profits. Here are 7 habits of internet shoppers that you should be aware of.

1. They are always in a hurry-your site needs to load quickly. Your site should load quickly do not have a lot of large images or flash on your home page. If your site takes too long to load you will lose customers because they do not want to wait around.
2. They are looking for the best price-be sure that you have done your market research and your prices compare favorably to your competitors’ prices. You should never engage in price wars, this will ruin your business. However you can offer extra value to your product and still charge a little more for it.
3. They need to have an easy way to pay-this is usually by a shopping cart or payment processor like PayPal. Be sure that your payment processor allows credit cards, because this is the preferred method of payment by Internet shoppers. Do not rely on just PayPal, as some people do not like using this payment processor. Always give your buyers a choice of paying by credit card or PayPal.
4. Do not force your customer to register with you to buy-if they like your brand and website they will come back and register as your loyal customer.  
5. You will need to be sure your site is user friendly-be sure all your navigation links work and it is easy for your visitor to use your site to find items. Internet shoppers are looking for convenience and this is something that they will consider when coming to your site.
6. Be sure that your fulfillment and shipping is fast-Internet shoppers expect items to come in a timely manner, not take about a month. Try to offer next day shipping and 3 to 7 days regular shipping, unless it is International. Be specific as to the time the product will take to reach the customer.
7. Advertise specials and offer discounts-this is usually done on the first page so that the customer can get attracted and then look around your store or website. Remember everyone like a bargain!

 With these points you can make your potential customer’s shopping experience more enjoyable and you can also make more profits.

In order to build a relationship with your customers and leads you need to be sure that they are reading your emails. So many emails and newsletters get thrown away without subscribers reading them. In order to prevent this you will need to pay attention to your subject line. This is what will attract your readers and get them to open up the newsletter.

How do you know that you have a winning subject line?

 Check open rates: When you write a newsletter you can see how many of your subscribers are opening your emails. If you see that there are more people opening your emails when you write a certain subject line you will know that you have a winning subject line.

Good responses: you may very likely find that readers will click through on your links and you will get better responses to the email if they like your subject line.

 Tips to make a great subject line:

1. Choose a subject that will interest your readers. You can find this out by doing surveys and checking on open rates for your emails. You should pay attention to your market and know what problems they are facing and what they need to resolve the problem. Sometimes they have specific subjects they need help on and different topics within these subjects.
2. Make an attention grabbing subject line. After you have chosen a good subject or topic you can then think how to phrase your subject line so that it will excite curiosity in your reader and get them to open the email.
3. Always personalize it. Readers like this as they feel that the publisher is addressing them personally rather than thinking of them as just another subscriber. This helps you to get better open rates and better relationships with your subscribers.

Some examples of good subject lines: 

1. Questions make subject lines more intriguing. This excites curiosity in the reader. Examples can be “Have you seen…..?”
2. Make more money… now most of us would like to make more money so may very well open the email to find out what this is all about.
3. How to…as is seen in this article, is always good because your reader will know straight away that they can learn about something. For this article it is quite apparent that a reader will learn about subject lines in email marketing.
4. The secret to…this has been somewhat overused. However a reader may still want to know if there really is a secret to be shared.

 With these few points you can easily raise your open rates and get more people to read your emails, simply by paying attention to your subject line.

List building is one of the keys to building a profitable business. Anyone who really wants to make money with their business should build their client list. Sometimes this is a slow laborious process but there are some methods that you can use to help you quicken up the process. One thing you can do is to use a squeeze page. 

One the easiest ways to increase your client list is to use a squeeze page. It is not too hard to set up and can easily help you bring in more subscribers to your list.

Firstly what is a squeeze page?

 A squeeze page is also referred to as a landing page. It is in fact a mini sales page to encourage visitors to sign up to your list. These pages work well when you are building your list using a free report or e-book or using a free newsletter.

 Simple format for a squeeze page:

 Headline: Make an attention grabbing headline. This will immediately capture your reader’s attention and make them want to know more. The headline should be based on the biggest benefit of joining your list.

 Introduction: this should be a small introduction of the problem that your potential subscribers are facing. This will help you empathize with your reader and gain their trust. 

Product: this should be a free newsletter or free report/e-book. You will go on to make a brief description of what it is about and how it will help the subscriber with a major problem. 

Benefits: this will be the benefits of subscribing to the newsletter or benefits from the free report/e-book. What will the reader gain by subscribing to your list?

 Call to action: subscription form to sign up to receive gift, or join newsletter. This should be decisive and strong. Sign up here to receive your free report, or subscribe to our newsletter

 Tips to make your squeeze page better:

• Add a subscriber bonus. When your subscriber signs up they will receive a thank you gift from you. Examples of what you can give them are a mini course. Like the one you received when signing up for the A-Y-B newsletter, or a small informative e-book.
• Use persuasive friendly language. This will help the visitor to trust you and want to subscribe to your list.
• Use benefits not features. The potential subscriber will want to see the advantages in signing up for your list. (What’s in it for me?)
• Always present your squeeze page well and make it look professional. This will help create trust in you and improve your credibility.

 With these points you will be able to create a persuasive squeeze page that will help you to get many more subscribers to your list.