Small Business Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Tools’

When starting a business on the internet, it is natural to turn first to web-based tools for marketing purposes. Asking customers to click on a relevant link is always easier than asking someone to read a site name on a billboard or print ad and remember to visit the site later. Detail how you will use these web-based tools or others in your marketing plan rather than focusing on traditional advertising and marketing methods to show your understanding of the medium you are in.

SEO and SEM
Any internet business worth their salt must know the meaning of and difference between SEO and SEM. Both recognize that search engines, especially Google, are the gateway to the internet for most users. SEO (search engine optimization) refers to gearing your website towards appearing higher and higher in what is called the “organic” results for internet searches on keywords you desire. SEM (search engine marketing), also called PPC (pay-per-click), refers to entering into Google Adwords’ automated auction for keywords, and bidding to appear in sponsored ads for those words. You only pay the bid price if searchers click on your ad, visiting your site. Having a content-rich website with relevant information and a high number of incoming links from other websites will increase your changes of success with both SEO and SEM.

Blogs

The blogosphere increasingly rules information on the internet. Readers go to these websites, which range from professionally-run to homegrown, to find out the news they aren’t hearing through traditional outlets and to get news faster within niches. Search out blogs that focus on your business’s niche and plan a strategy for how to get noticed by these bloggers, whether it starts with commenting on their posts, asking to be a guest writer, or e-mailing the writers directly to ask them to pass on news about your site. Your public relations blog campaign should be taken as seriously as a PR campaign for traditional media for an internet business.

One of the greatest thing on your way to the work at home internet business success is to use effective tools and automation, which save your own work and thus grow the productivity of the business. Thus every action will be more and more profitable one.

The effective tools make a work at home internet business more motivating, because the manual workload decreases and you can master a bigger group of actions with a relatively small amount of work.

An ideal aid is an autoresponder, which communicates with your customers and prospects even when you are sleeping. After the set up work, i.e. writing the many ezines, it will run without any work from your side.

Running a work at home internet business is usually interesting and fun but there are some jobs, which will make me grazy. One job is the link building. Without the automated software from my internet marketing center I could never been able to build the number of links, which I now have.

Or another example is the article distribution to thousands of emails and websites. Think about the workload, if I should do it manually. To be nonest, that would be Mission Impossible. Guess how I enjoy, when I use a good software, like building one way links or distributing articles. I really enjoy that. And when we enjoy something, we are eager to to it again and again.

The work at home internet business tools below form a checklist, which you can save for your regular use. It covers the most necessary tools and you can get more detailed information from the Author Box.

1. AdTracking

2. Affiliate Marketing E-Books

3. Affiliate Partner Programs

4. Articles About Home Business

5. Article Distribution Service

6. Autoresponder

7. A Guide For A Beginner

8. Blogs

9. Digiproducts To Sell Or To Buy

10. eBay Marketing

11. E-Book Writing

12. E-Mail Marketing

13. Free Traffic Exchanges

14. Google AdWords Guide

15. Home Business Books and Magazines

16. Hosting

17. Keyword Selector

18. One Way Link Builder

19. Payment Processors

20. Reciprocal Link Builder

22. Search Engine Optimization, SEO

I have tested the list above and seen it very useful. As a matter of facts, it is my own internet marketing center or internet marketing tool shop.

When I decide which tool I use, the first criteria is that it must fit to my work at home internet business strategy. The second one is that the internet marketing tool selected must give a strong, extra push to my business.

Looking for internet book marketing tools that are practically hands free? Add these three tools to your arsenal and you’ll be certain to sell your book.

Internet Book Marketing Tool # 1 Website Marketing

Possibly the most critical tool for a self published author is your website. A well optimized web site, meaning that people searching for your information can find it quickly and easily via the search engines like Google or Yahoo, means targeted traffic and customers are led directly to your book.

A well written landing page that captures email addresses and sells your information can sell thousands of books. Add a few pages of free content that provide immediate benefit to your reader and credibility to your status as an author and you’re well on your way to becoming a ‘profitable’ self published author.

As a self published author, your website can offer a variety of pages to their visitor including:

• Ezine/newsletter subscription

• Free Articles and/or short stories

• Bio

• Sales page

• Links to stores

• Shopping cart to purchase directly from the website

• List of appearances/promotions

Internet Book Marketing Tool # 2 Ezine Marketing Magic

Ezine marketing is not only a great way to build your opt in list, it is a fantastic tool to sell your book, your information products, and any affiliate products that you choose to endorse. Additionally, it provides you with a constant means of communication to your target market and the ability to provide them with quality information that will benefit their lives. The time saving aspect of this tool is that you don’t have to struggle to come up with content. You’ve already written your book. Pull one or two useful paragraphs from your book, round it out, and you have an ezine article!

In addition to publishing your own ezine you can contribute to other relevant ezines, just make sure that you provide a link back to your own website and product line. You can also purchase inexpensive ad space in relevant ezines to market your book. For example, if your book is a small business book, you can purchase ad space in other small business newsletters and link directly to your website.

Internet Book Marketing Tool # 3 Rave Reviews

Reviews are the proof to others that your book is worth the money it costs. Reviews can be used in your publicity package, in your press release, on your book’s back cover, on your website, and even on your business card. They are a valuable and economic expert marketing tool. Visit our website or click on the following link to learn more about secrets to getting rave reviews.

Internet book marketing doesn’t have to be an all consuming struggle. It’s true that the more time you spend marketing your book, the more you’re going to sell. But why not use a few tried and true marketing tools that drive traffic and sales to your book with little or no work from you?

In building and growing an online business, or one with a strong online component, there are several must-have tools which will allow you to not only have passive revenue, but to enjoy multiple streams of it.

Here’s a quick rundown of the most basic tools (there are other, more advanced tools which will be covered in a separate article):

1. A Shopping Cart.

An online shopping cart allows you to sell digital products, have them automatically delivered to your clients and automate the follow-up so you’re not sending emails all day and night.

I use and highly recommend KickStart Cart as an all-in-one shopping cart and autoresponder service. The Pro Version is $99.00/month (U.S.). If you’re not yet offering products, you can get the Starter ($34/mo) or Basic ($59/mo) versions.

And in order to easily accept MasterCard, VISA, American Express and Discover Card, you’ll want to link your shopping cart with a merchant account using a payment gateway.

2. An Email Marketing System/Service.

An email marketing system allows you to send ezines, solo e-mails and contact your prospect list whenever you wish.

While you can, and many people do, use your shopping cart for this, I prefer to use a separate system (due to deliverability issues) and use Constant Contact.

I continue to test deliverability between Constant Contact and Kickstart Cart (which is one of the 1ShoppingCart brands – they all have the same issues) and, for now, remain with this choice.

3. A Website, Blogsite or Other Opt-in Page.

In any online business, your primary goal is to have ideal prospects sign up to your list so they can receive your ezine and other information.

The way to make this happen is by placing an opt-in box on a website, blogsite or single opt-in page.

The one you choose is completely up to you as all have been proven successful. The nice thing about a blogsite is that you can get it up and running quickly and inexpensively and your hosting is usually included.

If you’re doing it yourself, I recommend TypePad for blogs/blogsites as it’s easy-to-use and has responsive support staff.

4. An Incentive to Sign-up.

People are busy. We all receive too much in our email inboxes these days and will only part with our information if there is something in it for us: a special report that we’re interested in, an audio series which will give us new information, a checklist that would be handy to have.

You need to have some incentive on your website/blogsite/opt-in page in order for people to part with their names and email addresses.

The report/audio/checklist is WHAT you’re giving them. Your ezine? It’s the bonus gift they receive as a result of requesting the report.

5. A Mentor.

If you’re starting out or currently stuck in your online business efforts, you will want to strongly consider partnering with a mentor who can keep you focused and accountable while guiding you through the distractions (and there are MANY!).

You’ll want to chat with a few different people to see who you best resonate with.

The time and money spent with a good mentor will save you hours and thousands of dollars in learning and mistakes, not to mention how much sooner the revenue will start coming in!

The above is by no means a complete listing of everything you’ll need in your business, but these 5 tools will see you WELL on your way to a 6-figure business.

The next item? You’ll have to wait for the next issue for that!

My Request to You

If you’ve read the above and are shaking your head saying “I’ve done/have all of the above and STILL nothing’s happening”, then it’s time to reevaluate:

Is your Incentive something your ideal client is interested in? If you’re getting lots of traffic to your site, but no one’s signing up, the answer is “nope”, or you’re not presenting it correctly.

Is your ezine providing information and content which is relevant to your ideal clients? If you’re seeing a lot of unsubscribes, it’s time to revisit what you’re doing.

Do you have a mentor (or coach) who gives you broad strokes, but doesn’t provide the actual steps of what you need to do when in order to move forward? If so, you need to ask if this is the right person for you at this time.

You, and only you, control your business and your level of success. What do YOU want and how much do you want it? The right tools will get you there so much faster!