Web Gurus: Reseller Hosting or Affiliate Sales?
by CB on Apr.17, 2010, under Managing Clients
If you are currently working in the Web sphere, you can round out your service capabilities by establishing a reseller hosting account. Reseller Hosting gives you low maintenance access to your own branded hosting services. HostNexus, for example, offers Linux reseller hosting and Windows Reseller Hosting plans, for as low as $24.95 monthly. If you have a base of clients who need hosting, you can cross-sell the service to them and turn your monthly investment into a nice stream of residual income.
Alternatively, you could set up an affiliate account with a reliable, high quality hoster. While this option has the same endpoint as using reseller hosting (your client is referred to your preferred hoster for services), there are some important distinctions to note: (continue reading…)
Tips for Achieving Life/Work Balance
by CB on Apr.15, 2010, under Hiring Freelancers, Managing Your Business
Judging by the reactions I’ve gotten from telling people that I’m self-employed, there’s a common misconception that entrepreneurs have the freedom to work, or not work, whenever they feel like it. Here are a few of my favorites, and I didn’t make these up.
“Well, since you work at home, you can take a nap tomorrow.”
“Hey–you’ll be home tomorrow–can you run an errand for me?”
“Yeah, I work hard too. The other day I was ready to call it a day at 4:50, but I stuck it out ’til 5.”
“If I worked for myself, I’d go to the gym every morning.”
“You’re self-employed? Wow, that’s cool. I’d love to work at home–I’d sleep all day.”
More than once, I’ve found myself explaining that being self-employed is not the same thing as being unemployed (even though the pay is about the same). The truth is, having the ability to set your own hours means nothing when you have 23 hours of work to complete before tomorrow. (continue reading…)
The Opportunities Are Out There, But Should You Take Them?
by CB on Apr.08, 2010, under Marketing Your Business
Back in Feb., SmallBusinessNewz published a short article entitled “Consider These 8 Sources of Web Traffic.” To quote the article, the 8 sources mentioned are:
- StumbleUpon
- MapQuest
- QR Codes
- Blogs
- Pictures
You could also add YouTube, Squidoo, HubPages, Yahoo! Questions (don’t tell Yahoo! I said it though) and others to the list. While it’s great to have a list of resources, it doesn’t get an entrepreneur/small business owner any closer to strengthening sales or profits. Small business owners have the problem of having too many options available; there isn’t enough time or money to participate in every strategy that presents itself.
So how can an entrepreneur efficiently make decisions about where to spend scarce marketing dollars? The process begins with developing a detailed understanding of where the business is currently. By this, I mean knowing things like:
- Your average ticket
- Traffic to your store (if applicable) and your website (if applicable)
- If you have an office or store, what percentage of your customers have seen your website
- Your close rate (once you get them in the store, in the office, on the phone, etc., how many buy from you?)
- Amount and frequency of repeat sales from existing customers
- Demographics of your average customer
Getting a handle on your average ticket along with the close rate can infuse your marketing decisions with a small bit of certainty. For example, say 5 percent of the people who visit your Web site end up buying from you. If you also know those eventual customers will spend an average of $350 (for example) with you over the next year, you can then estimate what each Web visitor is worth to you. (continue reading…)
Web Marketing: Not the All-in Solution
by CB on Apr.05, 2010, under Marketing Your Business
Small business owners and entrepreneurs are increasingly attracted to Web marketing and, in particular, social media marketing. The appeal of online media is their low respective costs. When you own and operate a small, brick-and-mortar business, you face the marketing dilemma constantly: affordable options often lack scale. But the options with sizeable reach aren’t affordable and may be touching consumers who aren’t even viable targets. On top of that, successful ad campaigns these days often take repetition to make an impact. And repetition is expensive.
As an entrepreneur, you may weigh the costs of running print ads in your local newspaper and decide you’d rather take your chances with Twitter and Facebook–options which are free as long you have the available manpower. This decision may make sense from a financial perspective, but don’t make it lightly. Shifting all of your ad dollars to one medium is a mistake, unless you know for certain that that medium can reach all of your existing and target customers. Here’s some food for thought: in 2009, a poll on CNN.com indicated that 94 percent of CNN’s audience wasn’t using Twitter.
Now I know what you’re thinking…if you’ve read some of my previous posts, you know I’m a proponent of Twitter. But I’m not a proponent of putting all your eggs in the Twitter basket, the Facebook basket, or any other ad basket. Even if it may seem like all the world’s gone a-Twitter, there’s still a place for print, for cable, for radio. And actually, one of the most effective ways to use repetition in your advertising is by reaching the same customers through different media.
Of course, these days, you have to be creative with the dollars you direct towards traditional media. Here are some ideas to get you started.
Direct Mail: Find a vendor that does postcard printing and mailing. Print up some loyalty postcards to encourage repeat purchases and send them out. Consider putting a time limit on the card, such as, “make X number of purchases within X number of weeks” or something like that. Use what you know about your customers to set the number and time limit. For example, if you know that your typical customer makes three purchases from you every eight weeks, offer a discount or reward to those who make four purchases within eight weeks. (continue reading…)
Got A Business Problem? Ask Advicely
by CB on Apr.04, 2010, under Managing Your Business
What do you do when you have a business problem that can’t be easily solved? Say you need a new POS system or a Web site that you can update and manage yourself. Maybe you ask your friends and colleagues and you get conflicting advice, plus a few referrals to high-priced consultants. You try searching the Internet for your answer and come away with nothing but a massive headache. And still, after talking, searching and networking, you are without a solution that’s workable for you and your business.
Next time this happens, you might consider using Advicely.com to get the answers you need. Advicely.com brings business owners together with the experts who can solve problems. Unlike Yahoo! Questions and similar sites, Advicely.com is focused specifically on business-related problems–the same kind of stuff we talk about here at the Business Morgue blog.
Here’s how it works. You enter your question and the site searches its database for answers that might match your questions. You can then review those answers. The simplest ones are free to view, while more complex answers must be purchased via PayPal. You do get to see a partial view of the paid answers before you make the purchase. (continue reading…)
How Effective Is Your Website? Take This Short Quiz & Find Out
by CB on Mar.26, 2010, under Marketing Your Business
1. Open your home page. How does your site tell your visitors that they can find the information/service/product they need?
a. An immediately visible, powerful but short statement in big, bold text
b. An image of your logo
c. A picture of your product
d. A paragraph describing your business
e. A link to an “About Us” page
2. How many courses of action can your user take to engage with your site?
a. Unlimited, e.g., she can search, research, buy, leave her email, live chat, meet up with friends, leave a comment, check her pulse, do her laundry (wouldn’t that be nice?)b. Two or three, e.g., she can buy, subscribe or leave her email
3. How does your site lead your users to the desired action?
a. Compelling offer or short call to action
b. Paragraph explaining the supreme quality of your products/services
c. Main navigational bar giving the user quick access to all the options
d. Fancy flash intro that your user must watch or “skip”
e. Contact us button in the footer
4. What color are the links on your page?
a. Black
b. Yellow
c. Red
d. Old-fashioned royal blue
5. How long does your site take to load?
a. I don’t know, seems pretty fast
b. I don’t know, kinda slow
c. I don’t know, does it matter?
Answer Key
Before we get to the specific questions, I have a short disclaimer. The “ideals” for any Web site are dependent on the purpose of the site. This quiz is slanted towards sites that sell product. Although these concepts can be used to improve the user experience on any site, some may be hard to implement on a brochure-type site or a content site.
Question 1: Why am I here? (continue reading…)
Do You Need an MLM Consultant?
by CB on Mar.19, 2010, under Franchise Opportunities, Reviews
Many would-be entrepreneurs find themselves presented with an opportunity to get involved in MLM, or multi-level marketing. The MLM business model, also known as network marketing, tasks you with recruiting a team of motivated entrepreneurs and leading the whole group to success.
Legitimate MLM businesses can be enormously profitable, but there’s a catch: the failure rate is really high. You see, prospective MLM entrepreneurs tend to underestimate the amount of work involved in team-building. While getting involved in a particular MLM business might seem like a no-brainer opportunity to you, your prospective team members (i.e., the targets) probably won’t be as enthusiastic. The unexpected rejection can prompt discouragement, which is the kiss of death for any entrepreneur.
One thing people overlook is that launching an MLM business is like launching any other business. It takes research and planning. You need to research the business model and your personal skill set to determine if the opportunity is even viable. Then you need to create a plan to grow your business, and that plan must include specific strategies and staggered objectives. Building an MLM business is not as easy as talking to your friends and family.
If you aren’t sure where to begin this planning process, you can retain an MLM consultant to help you. An MLM consultant can provide insights that will keep you from getting shot down with unexpected surprises.
One MLM Consultant with pretty extensive experience is LaunchSmart. The company has been working with MLM entrepreneurs for more than 20 years, guiding those business owners to success. What sets LaunchSmart apart is its experience working directly with MLM giants, such as Herbalife, Tupperware, AmeriPlan and Prepaid Legal. You can learn more about LaunchSmart, its client list and its four-step system at www.launchsmart.com.
Are You Losing Business Because You’re Honest?
by CB on Mar.09, 2010, under Marketing Plan, Marketing Your Business
It’s not an uncommon situation for B2B service providers: you spend hours consulting with your prospective customer, get that prospect to put his inked pen to the contract, and then it all goes south. Seemingly, at the very moment your prospect will retain your services, his phone rings. On the other end of the line is a slick salesperson who promises the world and plants the seed of doubt. Next thing you know, your prospect is on the fence between the rosy world of dreams and the real world, where your business operates.
The world of Web marketing seems, at times, like auto repair or psychotherapy: the customer is at the mercy of the service provider. When the service provider says you need a new timing belt or six months of biweekly sessions, you may not have the know-how to doubt the diagnosis or the recommendation. In Web marketing, sales people routinely diagnosis your problem as poor search visibility and recommend expensive and unnecessary solutions to get you “to the top of Google.” (continue reading…)
-
Hi! Welcome to Small Business Blog!
Thanks for dropping by! Feel free to join the discussion by leaving comments, and stay updated by subscribing to the RSS feed. See ya around!
Get This Blog Via Email
Free Download
