3 Types of Affiliate Marketing Explained, And The One I Profit From

By Pat Flynn on December 14, 2009 72

In my latest monthly income report, you may have noticed that my affiliate income had surpassed my direct income from the electronic products that I sell online. I received a lot of comments, asking me to explain more about where my affiliate income comes from and how it works.
Instead of just breaking down where it all came from – how much this, and how much that – I decided to turn this post into something a little bit more useful that would do more than just tell you how much I earned. Again, I’m not here to show you the money I make online, I’m here to show you how I make money online, and what I’ve learned along the way.
When thinking specifically about affiliate income, I determined that I could divide how people earn money as an affiliate into three primary categories: Unattached, Related, and Involved. I’m speaking in terms of how we are associated with the product or products we may be an affiliate for.

Unattached Affiliate Marketing

These are your basic pay-per-click affiliate marketing campaigns where you have no presence and no authority in the niche of the product you’re promoting. There’s no connection between you and the end consumer, and all you’re doing is showing an affiliate link in front of someone’s face via Google Adwords, Facebook ads or whatever, in hopes that they’ll click on your link, buy the product, and you’ll earn a commission.
The reason why this type of affiliate marketing is so attractive to many is because no presence or authority in a niche is needed! It takes time to build up a reputation and trust with certain groups of people online, and many people are just too scared to commit to working on a blog or website, or just don’t have the time. For many, this is their only option.
Personally, I don’t like this business model because to me, this is not a business model. It’s an income generating model – yes, but a business model where I can build relationships with the end user – no. With PPC affiliate marketing, you become a behind the scenes middle man.
Not for me.
If you dabble in PPC affiliate marketing and are in the positive, I applaud you and I wish you continued success. Trust me, it’s a lot more difficult than it sounds, so props to those of you finding success with it.

Related Affiliate Marketing

Another form of affiliate marketing is what I like to call related affiliate marketing. This is where you have some sort of presence online, whether it’s through a blog, a podcast, videos, or whatever – and you have affiliate links to products related to your niche, but they’re for products you don’t actually use.
Back when text link ads were a big deal, I remember seeing every single “make money online” website with a 125 x 125 pixel advertisement for text link ads. Most of these sites did not actually use the text link ad service on their own sites. On many personal finance blogs, you’ll see a lot of different affiliate advertisements for things like ING, Everbank, LendingClub, and numerous other financial institutions. I doubt that every person who places one of those links on their blog actually uses each of those products and services.
And that’s ok.
Placing affiliate links on your site that are related to your niche is a great strategy to earn an extra income. Whether it’s in the sidebar in banner form, or in a text link at the bottom of your blog post, because you have a website and some authority, people will trust you and your decision to place the ad on your site.
I do have a few of these kinds of links scattered throughout this site. In the sidebar, you’ll see (at the moment) an ad for a “How to Make an iPhone App” product. Many of you know I do have a few iPhone apps that generate an income for me each month, but I did not use this product. I do, however, personally know the owner, which is why I trust him and decided to place that ad there.
Related affiliate marketing is great, but I can tell you that 95% of my affiliate marketing comes from the last type of affiliate marketing I’d like to talk about…

Involved Affiliate Marketing

Involved affiliate marketing is where you’ve used a product or service, truly believe in it, and personally recommend it to your audience. Not in a banner ad or somewhere that says “recommended resources”, but within your content, as part of your life and your strategy for whatever it is you’re talking about. The product almost becomes something people “have to have”, because it’s part of the process.
It’s your involvement and experience with the product that makes that offer so attractive.
There is, however, a level of responsibility that you have to uphold while making these kinds of recommendations, especially if you have a lot of authority and influence over your followers. This is something I take very seriously – even more so now that this blog has become so popular in such a short period of time. If it were up to me, this the only way affiliate marketing would be done, because to me it’s the most honest and most helpful.
This is the complete opposite of PPC, where you’re not even seen by the consumer in order for the transaction to take place. Instead, this is you talking directly to those who may need a product that you’re offering, who have their ears and eyes on you. This is not using your money in order to make money, like with PPC. It’s using your reputation, trust and authority in order to get others to take your recommendation, use it, and pay you something in return in the form of a commission.
My Affiliate Income
Last month, I made $5,023.33 in affiliate sales, and like I said, about 95% of that came from offering products that I’ve used and put my word behind.
Most of it comes from my LEED website. I do sell my own study guides, as you know, but I am also an affiliate for a company who sells practice exams as well. I thought about creating practice exams of my own, but this company is so good at what they do, (I used them to help me pass my test back in March of 2008), that it wouldn’t be fair to my customers if I tried to take their money by creating my own practice exams and kept them from this wonderful resource.
So, instead of creating my own, I have a page on my blog that recommends these exams, and within my eBooks, I talk about how I didn’t include practice exams because the best ones are available from this company, which I’ve personally used to help me pass. Of course, I put an affiliate link within the eBook, which is something you can’t do with a hardcopy book (unless you buy a domain that redirects to an affiliate link, which you can mention in that hardcopy, but that’s a whole other blog post).
I even go into tips for taking practice exams within my eBook, but again – I don’t offer include them, but I offer the affiliate link to where you can get them. Taking practice exams is part of the process that many people feel is necessary to achieve a higher score, and I offer my recommendation through an affiliate link to fulfill that need.
On this blog, I’m sure you’ve seen me personally recommend the Internet Business Mastery Academy before, and I do that because they helped my internet business get to that next level when I was starting out, I’m still a member today, and I truly believe in the program.
So, to conclude, I would say that you can choose which kind of affiliate marketing works best for you, unattached, related, or involved, but in my experience, using your authority and presence in a niche to recommend products that you’ve actually used that have actually benefited you in some way is the best way to go. I think people will feel more confortable investing in products recommended in this way because:

1. They have some kind of proof that it works,
2. They have a resource to go to for help; and
3. They know to to blame if it doesn’t work.

Be as involved as you can with the affiliate marketing process and you will see success with your affiliate income.
Thanks everyone! My eBook is finished, and it’s just waiting on a couple videos and you’ll have free access to it very soon. Thanks to all of those on my Facebook Fan Page who have helped me with the name.

Work-at-Home-Moms Selling Teddy Bears

Work-at-Home-Moms Selling Teddy Bears:

Work-at-home-moms from all over the world are realizing that business is booming with teddy bears. Everyone loves teddy bears and they can be given away for just about any occasion. You've got teddies for birthdays, careers, holidays, graduating, sports, designer bears and many others.  So, if you want to start earning a little bit of money you can join one of several different companies, unless you want to venture out and start your own business.

They can become an affiliate to a teddy bear company and sell their teddy bears. Build a Bear has parties that'll allow the consumer to build their own teddy bears. As an affiliate they'll shop up to the party with the supplies needed, from the bodies, stuffing to the outfits that they'll wear. Kids have a blast with this and they can probably make a few extra dollars for those parents that brought over an extra child or want to have one for themselves. They might even be able to convince them to sign up under them as an affiliate. Selling teddy bears at these types of parties are never hard. 

In order to sell teddy bears they'll have to get the word out and the best way to do this is by having a party. Everyone loves parties, especially women and when there is free stuff. Make sure to have one or two prizes to give away and a sign up sheet for who'll have the next party. Keep in mind if you offer a gift for the person that has the next sign party, you'll probably have several want to do it.
If you are a work-at-home mom starting your own business, make sure you have lots of business cards to pass out. You may even be able to get a store to place one of your teddy bears at their checkout if you hold a contest. Make sure your bear is there and try purchasing something from the store, i.e., nail salon would love a Free Set of Nails as a prize and word gets out.
 
Selling teddy bears can be a lot of fun and you get out of the house meeting others. You can use teddy bears for just about everything, decorating a kid's room to having them as gifts at a baby shower. Work-at-home moms won't be having a hard time making money with their teddy bears.

YOU make it happen, no one else

Not only is this a key rule in SFI, but I consider this to be amongst THE most important lessons in life. NO ONE ELSE can make you successful. It's all up to you. YOU are the "master of your destiny" and responsible for your own success. Period.

Conversely, there's not anyone or anything that will make you a failure. It does no good to blame the economy, your education, or whatever bad breaks you've had in your life. Doing so means taking on a victim's mentality. DON'T EVER DO THIS. I can guarantee you that many thousands of people have succeeded despite having it much worse, so don't make excuses and don't convince yourself that you're somehow a victim.

And the grass isn't any greener on the other side either. You have now (or can acquire) everything you need to be successful. Just remember that it's up to you and nobody else. Then go out and do it.

Now, for those who might be thinking, "well, that's easy for you to say, Gery!"…the fact is, I've achieved what most people would say is extraordinary success, but it was not handed to me, not by any stretch. I come from a very small Nebraska town and very humble beginnings. When I started in business I had no business education, no experience, and no money to invest. And it took four long years (the first two moonlighting into the wee hours of the night while holding down a full-time job), before I ever saw a profit. I had no mentors, no great upline leaders or sponsors to guide me, nor any wealthy relatives to come to my aid. But I decided I was going to become successful and I did. And I've put in the work every day for nearly 25 years now to stay successful.

So...it's not your sponsor. It's not your upline. It's not the economy. It's not the government. It's not the compensation plan. It's not any of these things or any other obstacles perceived to be in your way. If you want to become successful, you can go around the obstacles, go over, go under, or go right through them. Success is yours if you want it, but ONLY YOU control this. Always remember: "If it's to be, it's up to me."

"I don't know what my future holds, but I do know who holds my future."

-Unknown

"I found it easier to get rich than I did to make excuses."

-Jim Rohn

"He that is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else."

-Benjamin Franklin

"I used to say, 'things cost too much.' Then my teacher straightened me out on that by saying, 'The problem isn't that things cost too much. The problems is that you can't afford it.' That's when I finally understood that the problem wasn't it-–the problem was me!"

-Jim Rohn

"Don't wait for someone else to make your life terrific. That's your job."

-Unknown

Huge Benefits of Business To Business Marketing

Huge Benefits of Business To Business Marketing:

Business to business marketing has advantages over marketing to consumers that make marketing even easier.  Business to business companies market their products and services to businesses rather than consumers in general. Some of the most successful businesses exclusively supply to other businesses.  This is one of the most lucrative business models possible today, and it has proven to be especially profitable when the business is conducted online. If you're considering going into business providing products or services, then you'll want to look into operating a business to business company.

With online business to business operation and marketing, many of the expenses of running a traditional business are gone or greatly reduced.  This positively affects all the other aspects of running the company.  Less expense means less time spent managing the money going out, and more money for important things like business to business marketing and promotion. No company will succeed without an advertising and promotion budget.  And as many large, worldwide corporations have shown, the more money spent advertising, the more people become familiar with the brand. That breaks down into more customers and more profit.

A company that does its business chiefly online won't need the storefront that a traditional business does. And company that relies on business to business marketing wouldn't benefit from a traditional storefront anyway.  Since traditional customers won't be coming in and out browsing goods or asking about services, the need for a traditional shop area is eliminated.  This drops overhead costs dramatically.  There's no huge warehouse or building to pay heating, cooling and lighting bills on, and no need for insurance to protect customers.

There's also no need to pay a staff to man such a store, which eliminates many of the expenses associated with being an employer.  An online company that chiefly exists through business to business marketing may still have employees and some expense, but the lack of a storefront will greatly reduce the costs associated with managing employees.

Now, money that would have been spent on necessities like payroll and utilities can be better spent business to business marketing and increasing the customer base.  The expense of promotion is also lessened with this business model because it's so much easier to identify a target market.  There's not as much need to figure out exactly which consumer to market to as there would be with most consumer products. 

With business to business marketing, what it is that you're offering to business automatically identifies your target markets for you. If you're selling general business products like paper or office supplies, then your market is large and wide open, and you'd do best finding a particular angle to market your products to each specific industry.  But if you choose a product or service that's very specialized, your marketing research is simplified a great deal. 

The internet is great for b2b marketing because of its word-of-mouth properties. While many of your customers will find you thanks to your business to business marketing and promotion, many more will because of social networking.

MLM and More Blogging For Business Tips

MLM and More Blogging For Business Tips:

You've decided to "go for it" and create a blog about your MLM marketing business.  You're well on your way to becoming a blogger of some expertise, but are running out of ideas to make it fresh and appealing.  Here's a few things you can do to spice things up.

You can add extra facts not found in an article, show your own expertise in the area or invite others to submit their observations.  No matter what way you choose to do it, you win!  Remember, with a blog you need to get to the point fast as there isn't lots of room to write a novel.  Best you don't do the essay route either as these days people don't have enough time to be reading lengthy articles on the Net. What you're really doing for them is pre-screening or filtering sites that would be of interest, quality sites, because you've already checked them out. This brings us to another point, having an audience vs. a public.  An audience is passive.  A public participates, which is what you want with your blog because ultimately, you want leads.

Another angle you can explore with your blog is how you want to write it.  It can be a mixture of links, commentary and personal notes, or a record of your own thoughts (a quick reflection on something you observed or tried at work) Whichever style you choose, remember to make it distinctive to you, written in your own voice, letting your personality come to the fore.  This makes sense, because one of the principle tenets of relationship marketing is getting to know your prospects, and letting them get to know you.

The kinds of blogs you'd likely be the most interested in would be the:

Private blogs - usually the most popular
Business blogs - for businesses
Corporate blogs - used internally for a business (marketing, branding, PR)

Top Blog Directories where to Submit Your Blog

Top Blog Directories where to Submit Your Blog:

If you have a blog, then you can count yourself among the thousands of other people on earth who have a blog, who can sell their products and services online, and who find ways to network through friends, former classmates, relatives, even acquaintances, in order to make more money. There are thousands upon thousands of blogs on the Internet right now, and you will need to shine through the muddle of language, or, at the very least, be known to a few well enough in whatever niche you choose to place yourself.

One way for you to establish your audience is to actually have a niche that you proclaim yourself to be in, and one way for you to do this is to place your blog address in a blog directory. You also have the pick of the litter: you are not limited to placing your blog in a single directory, which is advantageous if you consider how these blog directories have their own audiences whom you might lose if you aren't meticulous enough.

If you are interested in submitting your blog to a blog directory, make sure that your blog is ready for the viewing. Do not simply place your blog address and then expect people to read half-baked essays, poor stories, or no entries at all. Have a lot of good content to welcome your new and current readers. Moreover, be aware of exactly what keywords your blog will have.

This means that you will have to go through your content, and then evaluate what keywords to use, so that you can properly categorize your blog and then provide the right keywords if the blog directory service asks for it.

Here are some blog directories that you may want to consider when you are finally ready to sign your blog up.

1. Blog Catalog (http://www.blogcatalog.com) allows you to not only place your blog into a category. It also shows which categories are the most popular, so that you can be better guided as to what market has the biggest readers. Through blog catalog, you can join discussions and form or join groups.

2. At Blog Hub (http://www.bloghub.com), you can add your blog and chat at a forum, chat with your fellow bloggers, and get news on affordable web hosting services, as well as other articles that might be of interest to you. Blog hub also offers information on how to use services to monetize your blog.

3. You can also add your blog to the directory at Blog Hint (http://www.bloghints.com), where you can view the latest blogs added, the most popular, and the highest rated. Blog Hints will even suggest a category for your blog, and you can access some Wordpress themes if you are using that service. There are many different blogs in this directory that you can search through. The blogs are also arranged in folders that are readily visible on the front page of the site.

4. At Blogging Fusion (http://www.bloggingfusion.com) you can also readily view the available categories, and you can even get your blog featured. There are also available blog ratings systems and popular blogs lists for you to browse.

5. Another directory is Blog Flux (http://dir.blogflux.com) where you can look through an alphabetical directory, see featured blogs, and see the latest updates to blogs listed in the directory.

The Continuing Potential of Internet Income

MOORE'S LAW

Moore's Law describes the falling cost of digital technology. When my daughter was born in 1980, the price of the memory chip for a home PC was $1,000.00 (not the whole PC, mind you, just the memory). When my daughter was one year old, the same amount of memory cost only $500.00. When she was three years old, the price was $250.00. When she started the first grade, the same amount of memory cost only $62.50. When she graduated from high school in 1998, the price of that same amount of memory had fallen to less that $0.25. When she began her junior year in college, the cost for the same amount of memory as in that original PC was just pennies. I assure you that nothing else we have purchased over her lifetime has decreased in cost anything like that!

We, of course, upgraded the amount of memory we used over the years. Each time we upgraded, we spent about the same amount of money but got more and more computing power. So, what really happened was that our computing power increased by four times every three years for the same cost. Gordon Moore, one of the co-founders of Intel Corporation, made mathematical observations in the 1960's of the engineering practices which allowed miniaturization in semiconductor technology. This miniaturization applies to processors and other computer components as well as memory chips. What he observed mathematically is that computers can be made four times more powerful every three years for the same cost. Some argue that this same formula has held true for a full century, if you include the mechanical computers of the early 1900's and the old-fashioned transistors that followed. If you knew that you could get four times more raw materials every three years with no increase in cost in a given business, would you want to get into that business? The overwhelming answer everywhere is, of course, a resounding "yes!"

All businesses, even traditional brick and mortar businesses, must market their goods and services. Because businesses look for the lowest cost to perform their processes, more and more marketing information and marketing processes, even for brick-and-mortar businesses, has become digital. Moore's Law ensures that Internet businesses, especially Internet marketing, will continue to grow and flourish at an astounding rate. Will Moore's Law continue to hold true in the future? Can engineers keep making computer chips cheaper? Intel's engineers assure us that Moore's Law will continue to operate for several more device generations, if not indefinitely.

ACCEPTANCE OF DIGITAL ENVIRONMENTS

The next factor that ensures continued growth for Internet businesses is the acceptance by consumers of digital environments. People have taken to Cyberspace. Despite the many predictions to the contrary, people have warmed up to digital environments with enthusiasm. Many Web communities have been formed and their participants report feeling all warm and cozy in those digital environments. Participants have developed a strong sense of identity with the digital communities such as Twitter, Facebook, and others. As Moore's Law has continued to operate over the years, technology has become more and more capable of producing engrossing digital environments in which most of the world's population enthusiastically participates.

CONVERGENCE

The third factor assuring a prosperous future for Internet entrepreneurs is convergence. Simply defined, convergence is the coming together of separate things. Convergence has occurred at both the industry level and the consumer level. On the industry level; computing, communications, and media companies have merged. On the consumer level, smart phones and smart TVs are commonplace. Consumers have combined their phones, personal computers, and televisions into one integrated media system. Even our money has become digital, as we have automatic bank deposits of our earnings while we buy things with our smart phones or the quick swipe of a debit or credit card. The Internet has so involved itself in our personal lives, there is no turning back. We have converged into a digital world.

THE CONTINUING POTENTIAL

These three factors--Moore's Law, acceptance of digital environments, and convergence--assure us that the potential of the Internet for the home-based entrepreneur continues to be nothing less than incredible. In the digital world, the large corporations have to compete, not just with each other but also with the home-based entrepreneurs. The large conglomerates no longer have the exclusive advantage. Given the low cost of computing power, individual entrepreneurs now have at their disposal the raw materials to develop digital products and processes and make them available to the world. Even more importantly, individual entrepreneurs can ban together in digital environments (such as SFI) to combine their skills and knowledge and use convergence to their advantage in a very efficient way, rivaling the large companies with the results.

HOW TO POSITION YOURSELF

To obtain convergence, you must bring together computing power, media content, and information processing. To obtain the economies of scale, you should position yourself within a digital community where resources can be shared. Despite the low cost of computing, there is still power in numbers with regard to media content and information processing. To position yourself as a marketer for one of the longest lasting and most successful digital communities in existence is without doubt the smartest move you could possibly make right now. Having done that, you can use your individual creativity, skills, and resources in an environment of freedom employing the low cost computing power at your disposal to obtain your financial goals. Due to the three factors discussed in this chapter, there is an unprecedented opportunity available to you right now as an SFI affiliate. You have but to take advantage of it. Just Click Now!

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Differences between Marketing and Advertising

Differences between Marketing and Advertising:

Marketing and Advertising, although they sound similar but in reality they are not. Advertising is only a part of the bigger game called Marketing. Marketing encompasses complete conceptualization of a brand right from research to designing to advertising to sale. Advertising, on the other hand is a component of the marketing process which is nothing but conveying the message through variety of mediums to promote the product.

Advertising is one of the most important component of a marketing strategy and also the most expensive. Advertising constitutes sending the message across the public about your company, product or services. It also constitutes behind the scenes work like the process involving formation of various strategies and coming up with a right one to target the viewers. The strategy consists of planning things like placing ads, deciding what media to use, what time, frequency etc. The advertisements are generally placed via mediums like television, snail mail, newspapers, internet, emails, radio, magazines, mobile messaging, flyers, billboards etc. The most popular one is of course television although advertising on internet is becoming increasingly popular too.

Easiest way to differentiate advertising from marketing is to consider marketing as a cake and if you cut the cake, advertising as one of the pieces of that cake. The other pieces of cake are market research of the product, product designing, media planning, PR, product pricing, customer satisfaction, customer support, sales and many more. All these components or pieces of cake should work independently but collectively in achieving the bigger goal i.e. sell product and build company's reputation in the market. Marketing is a marathon process involving many tasks that involve hours sometimes days of research. The research part of marketing takes the longest duration as it involves thoroughly understanding the behavior of people towards a product. Designing the product and developing advertising strategy is also a time consuming process. Only components that take less time are executing advertisements and sales. Marketing can also be perceived as a medium between consumers and the company.

But many companies often make mistake of confusing advertising with marketing. They try to ape big companies like Coke and Pepsi in advertising but they simply ignore the work that goes behind that. The classical example of this is, take the case of logo for instance. Many business owners are so hysterical about the logo of their company in their advertisements that they think that it will simply bring in the sales. But what makes a logo works is none other than the reputation of the company and the logo must have a feeling to it and should truly reflect company's values. One should also remember that these companies spend fortunes on advertising which a new start up business can't. Rather than spending unnecessary money on branding your product one should invest money and time in communicating to the consumers that they can address their expectations. After building reputation and growing to a big size company one can think of these lavish ideas. Educating the consumers also helps as it will give them an understanding that you know what you do and are best at doing that.

Smart marketers are aggressive in approach rather than passive. They provoke reader's minds by prompting them to do something rather than just making them knowledgeable of the product. Smart marketers also bring home the names, addresses and contact numbers of people who are really interested in hiring your company by employing aggressive marketing. Thus having a good marketing campaign speaks a lot about the company and their products and advertising gives that finishing touch to the hard work done by the marketing people in selling a product.

MLM Lead Generation - Get What You Want

MLM Lead Generation - Get What You Want:

We've recently learned lead generation is the lifeblood of an MLM marketing business, and that without customers, you don't have a business.  We also learned you need to work at lead generation, no matter how you feel about it, because very simply without it, you are dead in the water.  No leads, no team, no business.

Ok, so you're not big on generating leads.  You're shy, you're afraid people will reject you, or you don't like using the phone.  Well, you have to ask yourself some hard questions right about now.  Do you really want your business to grow and generate residual income?  If the answer is YES, then you have to do lead generation.

You'll only get the desired results if you approach it with the right attitude.  You have to want it!  If you don't, it'll show!  That doesn't mean you have to be desperate.  It means you need to be positive and confident.  If you're new to MLM marketing and networking, then fake it till you make it.  The more you do lead generation, the better you'll get at it.

To be positive and confident you have to:

* Be proactive in your lead generation duties
* Learn new skills that stretch beyond your comfort zones
* Be patient and persistent
* Understand who is your client
* Be willing to choose the right type of clients for you
* Make the first move, don't wait
* Be creative in your approach
* Be prepared to listen to find out what your client needs and wants
* Be prepared to follow up with your contacts

If you want a positive team, then you have to be a positive Leader.  If you can't find it within yourself to step up to the plate and take action each day, then your team won't either.

6 Ways to Get Referrals without Asking

Business Referrals - 6 Ways to
Get Referrals without Asking

by David Frey

Do you hate asking your customers for referrals? Most people do. Fortunately, there are many ways to get a continued stream of qualified referrals without having to go through the painful process of asking for them face-to-face.

Yes, I admit it – I hate asking for referrals – don’t you? Be honest. Doesn’t your heart start to pump faster and hands start to sweat even thinking about asking a customer for a referral? If you’re like me, you hate to impose on others. Asking for names of friends or family members almost makes you feel as though you’re selling a multi-level marketing opportunity.

Not to worry. There are many ways to get a continual stream of qualified referrals without having to go through the painful process of asking for referrals face-to-face. The secret to getting referrals without asking for them is to develop referral systems that do the asking for you. Here are six innovative systems for getting referrals without asking.

Referral System # 1 

Make a list of people / businesses that sell complimentary products and services to your own product or service. If you sell athletic shoes your list might include health clubs, running clubs, basketball teams, or podiatrists. Now create a referral program that pays referral fees for people that are sent to you by your referral partners.

To make this system more effective, give your referral partners customized coupons, tickets, or cards that the referral brings with them to your business so that you can correctly track each referral source.

Referral System # 2 

Approach charities in your local area to get a list of donors that already give to the charity. The United Way is a good place to start. Most United Way donors make advanced pledges or set goals to give a specified amount to the United Way.

Now approach the executive sponsor of the United Way donation drive and make a proposal. Propose that for every referral that is sent from their organization to your business, you will take a percentage of your sale and donate it to the United Way (or whatever charity they are affiliated with) in their name.

Referral System # 3 

Local churches are always looking for innovative ways to raise money to sustain the programs they offer to their members. Most churches would be enthusiastic about the opportunity to receive a donation from you or your business.

Simply call up the ecclesiastical leader and ask if you can meet with him/her to talk about a potential fundraising activity. Propose that for every referral they send your way, you will donate a percentage of the sales to the church. In return, the church should agree to promote your business. This same referral tactic can be done with the booster clubs of local sports teams, Boy Scout troops and other organizations looking to raise money.

Referral System # 4 

Most everyone has a barber or hairstylist they use on a frequent basis, especially if you have children. I don’t know about you, but my barber always engages me in conversation during my haircut. And most barbers and hairstylists are very happy when you give them a $2 - $3 tip. Do you see where I’m going with this?

Why not approach the local barbers and hairstylists and offer them $1 for every referral card they pass out to their customers. You might even motivate them to talk up your business by promising them a percentage of each sale that results from their referral.

Referral System # 5 

The last referral system will not only bring you referrals, but will also create a lot of goodwill. I learned this tactic, strangely enough, by Princess Diana and a local real estate agent. When Princess Diana died a close associate of hers was interviewed and revealed that Diana always carried a set of “royal” thank you notes.

Every time she met with someone she would remember their names and as soon as she got in her car she would write a short thank you note to them. The people cherished the thank you notes they received from the Princess. After hearing that, I started to carry around my own box of thank you notes.

But here’s what really will make this referral tactic take off. Not long ago I received an email from a subscriber to my Marketing Best Practices Newsletter that had this phrase under the man’s signature:

By Referral Only

By Referral Only...means: We invest 100% of our time and energy to delivering first-class service to our clients. As a result, our valued clients, suppliers, and friends refer their family, friends and work associates to us for advice on buying or selling real estate. We're interested in building strong life long relationships one person at a time.

You see, its not enough to send a thank you note. People need to know that you want and appreciate their referrals. The phrase, in essence, answers the question, “What can you do for me in return for this nice thank you card?” Immediately, I had this phrase printed on the bottom of my thank you notes and my referrals took off.

Ideas For Making Money With A Cyber Yard Sale On Craigslist.org

Ideas For Making Money With A Cyber Yard Sale On Craigslist.org

You have a lot of items you want to get rid of or sell. The idea of a yard sale or moving sale does not appeal to you because you do not want to give up your weekend to sell your items. Auction sites on the web will not work for some of your items as you would like to sell larger things that are not easily shipped. They can also be expensive if the items do not sell. The ideal place for you would be a free website that has enough traffic to make it worth your while. Craigslist.org is what you are looking for. Chances are you are close to one of the 450 areas that this website covers. Here are some ideas for making money with a cyber yard sale on craiglsist.org.

The first step is to take great photographs of all of your items. A digital camera is the best way, but if you only have a 35mm or APS camera that is ok too. Just have the place where you get the film developed put the images on to a CD for you. Then write your ads. Use a good title with a keyword that will get it noticed. If you are selling vintage dinning room chairs, then in your title say "Vintage Dinning Room Chairs". This way, your ad will attract only the buyers that are looking for vintage chairs; not someone who is looking for a rocking chair. Your final step is to write a really good descriptive ad for your item. Be sure to include any flaws your items may have and if they are new state that. If they are used also state that. The price of the item should be clearly noted. Craigslist.org will protect your privacy. You can have all emails forwarded to you through their system. Your email address is not posted for all to see. Now that you have your ad written, do the same for every item you wish to sell.

Getting your ads posted is easy. All it takes is a valid email address to register. It is always free on craigslist.org. Once your ads are posted, you will have to manage them. Every ad you post is valid for 45 days. What is not told to you though is that as your ad gets older, it drops to the bottom of the listings. In order to keep your ad toward the top of the first page, you must delete and repost every 2-3 days. By doing this your ad will be visible to all. A lot of people searching for items do not search past the first page. If you have many items for sale and do not think you will be able to keep up with deleting and reposting in this time frame, then think about posting fewer items at a time, if you can. This way there is less to manage.

The advantages of selling your items in a cyber yard sale on craigslist.org are numerous. You do not have to depend on the weather. Traditional yard sales, no matter how well planned are at the mercy of the weather, unless you wish to bring it indoors. Another advantage is that you post and manage the ads, and then wait for responses. You do not lose an entire day or two. Finally, there is a greater level of security for you when using craigslist.org. Instead of advertising a yard sale with your address, everything is kept private and only interested individuals are given your contact information. You decide who you are going to sell to. This eliminates those who "browse" yard sales. Some of these browsing individuals may have ulterior motives.

Hopefully these ideas for making money with a cyber yard sale on craigslist.org have helped you. The internet has opened up a whole new way of turning our unwanted items into cash. Craigslist.org is a free way to get your unwanted items for sale in front of millions of visitors from your area. Many people are realizing how valuable an asset like this can be. With time becoming a rare commodity, why not use craigslist.org for your next yard sale. This way you can get to your kids baseball game without a conflict.

Why Your Website Must Be Responsive

Here’s Why Your Website Must Be Responsive

by Tim Parker

If people visit your website on their phone, do they just get a miniaturized version? How about on their tablet? Responsive web design makes sure each visitor has a good experience at your site, regardless of the device they're using. 

Image source: GraphicStock.com

If you’re like many small business owners, you have little knowledge of how websites work. You either hired somebody to do it or you bought a website template and figured out how to make some simple changes to fit your brand.

What is it?But the coding of your sites means nothing to you—You don’t have to be a website program but you do have to understand responsive design.

Unlike most techno terminology, the definition is in the term. Responsive, in web terms, means the same thing as in your own life. If you’re responsive to your customers, you listen and react to what they say or do. The same holds true with your employees and your family.

A responsive website reacts and makes changes based on a host of factors. The most notable is screen size. A responsive webpage changes image and font sizes, as well as moves elements around to fit the screen of the user.

If they’re viewing the site on their phone, the website has a design optimized for a mobile phone screen. On a tablet, the site will look slightly different and on a computer screen, even more different. Pretty cool, isn’t it?

Is it Really That Important?

Yes, but don’t take our word for it—let the stats do the talking.

According to Pew Research, 58% of American adults own a smartphone and of those, 63% use it to browse the Internet. As of August of last year, Facebook said that 78% of its 128 million active daily US users accessed the site on mobile.

There’s very little that “experts” agree on but there’s little doubt that mobile usage will continue to grow and the amount of people accessing your site on a traditional computer will fall.

Still not convinced? If you’re the type that browses the web on your mobile device, you’ve surely found yourself looking at a microscopic rendering of what somebody calls a website. You zoom in but after about 10 seconds of pure, unadulterated annoyance you go somewhere else hoping that your eyes are not permanently crossed. If that website was responsive, that story would have never played out.

As a business owner, you have to make sure that when your customers come to your site, their experience is positive. If your site causes even the smallest bit of stress, they’ll leave.

How about now? Are you convinced? Your website HAS to be responsive.

More Reasons to go Responsive

Google Loves it!

Nobody really knows how Google decides which websites are worthy of its front page but there’s no doubt that Google loves responsive design. Here’s what the company said:

“We recommend webmasters follow the industry best practice of using web design, namely serving the same HTML for all devices using media queries to decide rendering on each device".

That might seem a little to techy but this simply means that your site should be responsive. Yahoo and Bing also prefer it.

It’s Cheaper than the Alternative.

A little over a decade ago, the mobile web was becoming the next big thing. At first, developers were creating two websites—one for traditional computers and one for mobile. If you wanted to view the mobile site, you placed an “m” in front of the site and there it was. (Remember “m.yoursite.com?”) Technology developed allowing websites to automatically know the device accessing it and could automatically switch to the mobile version but now, there’s no need for two sites.

Responsive design is saving companies major bucks because responsive design is built into the site design. Nearly all new website templates have it and developers can easily include the code in most cases. The alternative is to “save money by not upgrading and watch your customers click away without giving you a chance.

Your Customers Want it!

The customer is always right, aren’t they? If more than half of your customers came to your store and said they wanted a certain item, you would get it, right? Your customers are coming to your site from their mobile devices. They might have found a link on Facebook or other social media platform but what if (gulp) you paid for online advertising and they came to your site but couldn’t read it? What an awful waste of marketing dollars.

The Good News

It’s probably not difficult to make your site mobile. If it’s a small, not-so-complicated site, simply buy a new template, install it, and make some tweaks. Platforms like Wordpress make this very easy. If you aren’t a tweaker, hire somebody. You can probably get the bugs worked out for a couple of hundred dollars or less.

If your site is custom made or has a lot of functionality that doesn’t make a simple template change possible, a good coder won’t have much of a problem adding the responsive programming in a short period of time.

The change isn’t likely to exhaust your technology budget but even if it does cost more than you hoped, the money you’re losing because your mobile customers can’t see your website is probably far more of a hit.

Don’t wait—get responsive. You’ll see an increase in your website traffic
.

Keep Customers Buzzing About Your Business

Use Email Marketing To Keep Customers
Buzzing About Your Business

by Tim Knox

Email marketing can be a great tool to keep you in the forefront of your customers' minds. But don't stop at just sending out a weekly or monthly newsletter. Here are some email ideas that will have your customers buzzing about your business.

Email marketing can be used as an effective tool for communicating with customers. Its is an effective medium of communication to boost sales by ensuring that your customers constantly remember you.

Obviously Paul's dentist reads my column because I've been preaching about using email to keep in touch with customers for years. OK, maybe he doesn't read my column and is just a brilliant guy in his own right. Either way, the point is clear: using email - no matter what type of business you're in - is an excellent way to keep the lines of communication buzzing between you and those folks who keep you in business.The other day my radio show cohost, Paul Finley, mentioned that he had received an email from his dentist. The point of the email was to let Paul know that his office would be closed for a week and included instructions on what to do in case of a dental emergency.

You'll notice that I didn't say to keep the lines of communication "open." I said to keep the lines of communication "buzzing," as in active, as in constantly communicating messages that will entice them back into your business.

The difference is huge. "Open" simply means that you're there if and when your customers happen to think about you. "Buzzing" means that you proactively do things to keep your business in the forefront of your customer's mind. Instead of waiting for them to come in only when they need something, you send emails that give them reasons to come in as soon as possible. You don't wait for Mohammed to come to the mountain; you send the mountain to Mohammed via email.

It's called "email marketing" and every business - including yours - should be doing it. Don't confuse email marketing with spamming. The emails you send your customers are never unsolicited or intrusive. You get their permission to send them occasional emails that are of benefit to them. And by benefiting them you increase your business and solidify your relationship with the customer.

Ideally you should collect email addresses from everyone who walks through your door, whether they buy something or not. Offer them the opportunity to sign up for your free email newsletter or announcement list and offer them an incentive to do so, maybe a $10 discount off their first purchase if they sign up today. The allure of saving $10 not only entices them to give you their email address, but to also make that first purchase while they are there to save the $10. See how that works? You got them added to your email list and they made an immediate purchase. You can now use email marketing techniques to turn them from a one time customer into a repeat customer.

Remember the number one rule of sales: it's easier to sell to current customers than to sell to new customers. The first sale is always the hardest. You should concentrate on building a legion of repeat customers and email marketing can help you do that.

Email should be a part of every business's marketing strategy. If you own a hair or nail salon you could email customers on slow days and offer a special discount if they come in by a certain time. If you own a clothing store you could email your customers every time a new clothing line comes in or if you're having a sale. If you're in the furniture business can email your customers about excess inventory and offer them a discount if they come in by a certain date.

Email marketing works for professional service providers, as well. Accountants can email their clients with special bulletins about changes in the tax law or to remind them when it's time to file forms. Stockbrokers can email clients about changes in the stock market or to tell about a hot new IPO that's on the horizon.

Doctors and dentists can use email marketing to notify patients that it's time for their annual checkup, to remind them of impending appointments, to inform them of new office hours, or to let them know about new services. Or perhaps you're in practice building mode and you want to offer a referral bonus for current patients who refer their friends and family to you.

You get the idea. Email marketing can increase your business's revenues, solidify your reputation, and keep you fresh on your customer's mind.

If you have questions about putting email marketing to work for your business just shoot me an email and I'll point you in the right direction. Or if you've successfully used email marketing to increase your business let me know about it and I'll share the news.

I'm sure others would love to hear about how smart you are.

Mobile Marketing

Mobile Marketing:

Mobile marketing can be classified into two types based on the technology involved. The more traditional form involves marketing on the move like moving billboards and road shows. The second type refers to marketing on a mobile phone like cell phone. Since the onset of millennium, mobile marketing though cell phone has become very popular. Short message service popularly known as SMS has made marketing by this method a lot easier.

There were some problems in the beginning as unwanted information was being sent to the people. Most of the SMS that were passed around was spam and it received negative media response in all parts of the world. This was because a sector of the advertisers bought list of mobile users and began sending them unsolicited messages. They were later stopped due to strict security measures and laws passed. Marketing industry recognized the potential of mobile marketing and utilized it to the full extent. The mobile service providers coded guidelines and laws. It then became a legal advertising channel. The Mobile Marketing Association and Interactive Advertising Bureau also have laid down guidelines for the proper functioning of mobile marketing.

Mobile marketing has become popular in Asia and Europe as it is a novel idea and in Europe alone hundreds of millions of pounds have been investing in SMS advertising. Now SMS has become the most famous part of mobile marketing. Because of the popularity of short codes, SMSing has become a lot easier. This has created a new approach to reach out to potential customers. Now mobile short codes are looked upon as mobile domain name, by many of the brands around the world, when the customers message the brand at any occasion.

In America, the first SMS short code campaign was started in 2002. SMS containing short codes are easier to send a message with complete information. Short codes are usually numbers that are assigned to mobile operators of a particular location, which they use for brand campaigning and other purposes. They are very small, like they contain only four to five words. These numbers are always under scrutiny by the service provider and each and every message is monitored to see that they do not go against the original service description.

Like opt-in emails, customers have to opt for SMSes. This is the biggest criterion, which the advertiser has to follow in order to send a promotional SMS. Some of the mobile operators ask for double opt-in form from the receiver. At the same time opting out is made easy for the customer. When the customer wishes to terminate receiving messages, they have to send STOP word by SMS. All these guidelines have been laid by the Mobile Marketing Association consumer best practice guidelines and it's a compulsion to follow those by all the marketers who wish to do mobile marketing in America.

Now, service providers have started to provide the option of sending SMS to email addresses. Other than this, other services provided are mobile games, mobile tones etc., which are used for promotional purposes. This has lead to the invention of MMS or Multi-media Message Service, through which short promotional videos and animations can be send. Bluetooth is another good technology. It started in 2003, and many companies in Europe have found it useful. When a message is send via Bluetooth, the receiver should accept request from the sender. So, sending messages by this method is legitimate. The message transfer speed is high and is also a free service as it is a radio-based technology.

The method of sending SMS advertisement to mobile phone users based on their geographical location is known as Location based service. The customer is tracked via a GPS chip which is built-in the phone. Radiolocation signals from the nearest cell phone towers are used for this purpose.

Mobile marketing follows a very safe marketing strategy, as it is customer opted. The short message sent through this method is known as mobile originated or MO message. If the advertisement is done through a call, the call is known as mobile terminated or MT message. As there is a phenomenal increase in the number of mobile phone users, this kind of marketing is a sure hit.

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a way of making money online by promoting the products of another company for a commission on each sale you generate.
People who promote products in this manner are called "affiliates", or sometimes "partners" or "associates". Most affiliates promote products through their websites or email lists, but you're not restricted to these methods: Basically, anywhere you can put a website address or a hyperlink can be turned into a promotional vehicle -- the only limit is your imagination.
Affiliate marketing isn't a pyramid-selling scheme, and it's not a tool for scammers and spammers. Affiliates are regular people looking to earn some extra cash from their websites, or individuals wanting a serious work-at-home business that they can perform from anywhere in the world, with serious earning potential.
When we say "affiliate marketing" we're actually talking about a bunch of things:

• Finding good products to promote
• Building websites
• Conducting market research
• Search engine optimization (getting your website ranking well in the search engines)
• Creative ways to promote your products
• Social networking and "web 2.0" strategies
• Email marketing
• Pay-per-click marketing
• Creating or sourcing content for your website or newsletter
• Getting motivated, staying motivated, and avoiding potential mishaps
• Earning money by displaying ads on your site (eg, Google AdSense)

... And there's quite a bit more.
Here at Affilorama we teach all aspects of affiliate marketing to take you from complete "newbie" to high-rolling "super affiliate", and we do it for free. No massive joining fee, no subscription charges, no ridiculous hype, no catch.
All you have to do is create your free membership, and you'll gain immediate access to all our resources. Pretty good deal, huh? You can find out more under my "Best BizOps Sites" to the right now and click on Affilorama!

Global Internet Marketing

Global Internet Marketing - Is It Different Than Internet Marketing:

It might be natural to think that internet marketing is actually the same thing as global internet marketing since you can access web content from all over the world. But if you've decided to market your products or services internationally, you will have to do it in a way that offers the best site and most appropriate message to your various audiences. 

Among other things, this involves choosing the right language and interface for your users' locations while taking into account the multitude of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) factors for a global marketing campaign. As many of you are aware, the internet enables less expensive and efficient online international distribution options for media products and informational types of products. Software companies are the most obvious examples of those that can save by distributing their products online all over the world.

When it comes to SEO, one of the most important technical decisions you need to make before getting started with your global Internet marketing campaign is how to manage the many international domains. What you decide doesn't just potentially affect your rankings, but also how well you will be able to manage each of your sites and even how much you end up investing in this marketing endeavor.

There are two options when it comes to launching websites in different countries. First, you can host all of the different language variations on one site and separate the languages by subdomains or subdirectories.  The second option is to create a separate site for each language you are targeting.

If you choose the first option, you will probably have greater centralized control when it comes to the site's management and better SEO because all of the links will be coming in to one singular domain. This method can also be more effective when it comes to suppressing the possibility of duplicate content in the search engines.

If you go with the second option, you will probably spend less. You can start with one site and then add others one by one if you feel it is feasible. Contrary to the first option, by having multiple sites, you will rank better in the country-specific search engines.  Because using this method allows you to set up country specific hosting, you can target your SEO efforts to specific countries. It often makes sense to host your site in the country being targeted.

Another important concept to understand at the onset of your global internet marketing campaign is that you can't do your keyword research in English and just translate to your target markets' languages in order to be successful. You need to do extensive keyword research in the language of the market you are targeting.

The best case scenario would be to have a native speaker supervise or do the keyword research. The very least you should do is to use a foreign language/English dictionary that includes idiomatic expressions and is as local to the target market as possible.

MLM E-Mail Newsletter Campaigns - Do's And Don'ts

MLM E-Mail Newsletter Campaigns - Do's And Don'ts:

MLM (aka Multi Level Marketing) is a very interesting world, competitive, innovative and tricky.  It's not for the faint of heart, nor for those who don't have the time or ambition to constantly keep in touch with their prospects.  An MLM marketer need to be on their toes, be creative and not only willing to find their prospects just about anywhere, but willing to keep in touch with them on a regular basis.  The only way to stay in business is to service your customers.

So, what do you do?  There are a number of ways to successfully handle e-mail newsletters campaigns.  And conversely, there are a number of things to NOT do.  The first thing you MUST NOT do is use names of people who have not specifically asked to receive what you are mailing out.  These are called "opt-ins".  If you do tread on thin ice and try this, don't be surprised if your mail outs get classified as spam and treated as such.

If you want people to respond/subscribe to your newsletters, and be able to target your marketing efforts, then you have to make it really clear how they do that, and where they can do that.  A link to your form or an online form must be on your home page. Having said that, the other pointer is, don't ask too many questions.  Keep it simple and just stick to the basics – ask their name, and perhaps two questions – ie. Demographics and interests.

To be really safe with your registration process, use something called double opt-in, rather than just the single opt-in. This allows sober second thought by the potential subscriber, because the double opt-in for e mail newsletters requires confirmation.  It makes more sense for you as well, since by confirming they DO want to subscribe to your e mail newsletter, you KNOW they're serious, and not just kicking the tires.

How to Learn Blogging Software

How to Learn Blogging Software:

A lot of blogging software is specifically designed to be
simple to use, but even the least intimidating blogging
program can feel very overwhelming to somebody who
has not spent a lot of time learning the ins and outs of
different kinds of software. Particularly for newer
bloggers, learning how to use the interface of blogging
software is the most difficult part of blogging. If you are
somebody who feels comfortable expressing themselves
in another medium, it may prove to be well worth your
time and effort to learn blogging software, but that
doesn't mean that the task will be easy.

The main thing that will help you find success as you
learn how to use a new kind of blogging software is to
try and take things slowly. Many people get so excited
about learning to blog that they try to rush into the thick
of it and start exploring the most complicated features
of a program right away. This can lead to getting
confused and feeling frustrated, and all too many
potential bloggers burn out during this stage of the
process.

If you take your time learning the basics of
your blog software program before you move on to
more advanced techniques, you will be more likely to
retain what you have learned, and to keep feeling
positive about your ability to understand the world of
blogging.

Do You Get Results From Your Web Video?

The Best Software For Web Video:

When you have decided to start making web videos, you may think that you don't need the assistance from various types of software.  However, when you do use software to help with your web video you are able to create videos that are interesting, entertaining and good-looking.  This is because with web video software they will take all of the guesswork out of creating a video, and will allow you to think more about the content you want to make, and not how you're going to make it.  There are some web video software titles that you should definitely own because they will help you immensely with the large task ahead of you.

Perhaps the best web video software available is the Easy Web Video.  After you have used this software, you will understand why its title is the way it is.  This is one of the only types of professional web video software titles available, and it is absolutely perfect for anyone.  It doesn't matter if you have never shot a web video before, or if you have been doing this for years.  You will be able to benefit from this software.  What makes this software so great is how it simplifies the monotonous tasks that all web video filmmakers have to go through.  It's because of its way of streamlining the process of creating a web video that so many people will only use this software to make their videos. 

Once you have a finished copy of your web video, you are able to easily upload and covert their video in a matter of minutes.  Within this particular web video software, you are able to customize the html code as well as even put affiliate links inside of the video, which is extremely important for many Internet Marketers.  This web video software is not to be missed, and if you are serious about creating a presence on the Internet through web videos, than you must have this software.

Another type of web video software is the Webmaster Mediamaker.  This particular software is one of the most put-together software packages available for web video makers.  With this software, you are able to perform many different tasks, all of which will simplify your life as a web video filmmaker.  Whether you want to convert your video to flash or block websites from accessing your video, you can do so through this software.  One of the coolest features about this web video software is its ability to let you change your video player appearance.

Now, with this software, you can have a video player that not only plays your videos with extreme clarity, but also, you can make the actual video player a great aesthetic asset to your website.  When you're searching for web video software, you want to have a program that allows you to customize your web video in all aspects. This is a great web video software title, and if you are looking for a way to create powerful videos, starting from the video player, than you will love this software.

Advertising in Yellow Pages

Advertising in Yellow Pages

Some people believe that yellow pages do not receive response like other advertising methods do and this is true to some extent but not in totality. When talking about traditional yellow pages, there sure is a decline in number of people opting for advertising in it. According to a recent report, even the most attractive advertisement in a particular section is not getting the response from callers like they used to get before. On the contrary, the prices of placing ads in directories are on a rise, which speaks a different, story altogether.

In reality different categories are witnessing different rates of decline. Like the lawyers category is seeing the maximum decline, where as emergency service provider's section has the same call rate. And sections like mobile phones, real estate and furniture are seeing a rise due to the increasing customer demand. Altering the size of the advertisement or changing the look cannot do wonders any more.

Experts suggest that relying on yellow pages to get customers isn't enough. Other options should be considered as well along with it. With the Internet reaching every home, nearly half of the Internet users use the net everyday. They prefer to buy stuff online, from the comfort of their homes. Research should be done on the Internet to get reviews about the product. People, who don't usually shop online, also are also opting to shop online as information is provided at the click of a mouse. It is easier for people to trust as customers who used the product give their feedback about the product after using it.

A relatively newer concept is the yellow pages going online. The good thing about them is that they are updated frequently unlike the printed directories and can be viewed from any part of the world. According to researches conducted, the response increased by twenty five percent every year. So those who are interested to invest in yellow pages advertising can think of going online.  Directories are submitted to search engines, which on typing a keyword or phrase bring the results. Small and local businesses, too, can land on the pages brought by the result. The cost of creating a website can be saved if all the relevant information about the company is included in the online yellow pages. Look out for the date to renew the directory listing, and if there is a need to change the advertisement, it is not a big problem on online yellow pages. Some starter websites offer to place advertisement in their yellow pages for free. Search out for such websites on the Internet.

Larger businesses can start their own websites and place links in the online yellow pages. Articles can be framed about the business and can be submitted to Ezines and websites related to the area of business. Some websites also allow posting articles for free. The purpose of the yellow pages is basically to get potential customers but that doesn't mean that existing customers should be neglected. Steps should be taken to strengthen the relationship with them and to retain their trust by maintaining the standard of the products supplied to them. Once they are completely satisfied, the price-rise won't bother them and they will talk about the company to people they know, which will fetch new customers.

The objective is to work smartly and select the right method of advertising. If a business isn't using any other method for advertising apart from using yellow pages, it can cause problems and the products may not sell. Analyze how much money is spent on placing ads in directories and estimate whether the amount of customers the business gets is desirable. Whenever a call is received from a potential customer, ask them how they got to know about the enterprise. This will help to analyze which advertising method is ideal for the business. It is never late to correct the mistake and go for the right method.