Articles
Secret Guide To Help You Succeed In Your Home Based Business
by Rick Tanzo
As a beginning home based business entrepreneur, you wanted to
discover the basic strategies that catapulted to the top today's
leaders in the business world. But before you could embark on
a successful Internet venture, you must prepare yourself for
the task ahead. Why? Because the road ahead is laced with
victory and defeat.
You need to inspire yourself at all times in order to stand on
your own two feet as you manage and watch your business grow.
You could manage the advanced learning on Internet marketing
later, either through enrolling in an advanced program, getting
a mentor, or attending seminars.
A person who does not have an inspired mind will eventually
succumb to pressure. A beginning entrepreneur is vulnerable
to big stresses in his new Internet career that can break his
or her resolve to succeed.
Your goal is to reduce the possiblity of failure in your
business venture. Or if it occurs nonetheless, for you to
take stock of yourself and resolve to move head on.
To meet the difficulties and challenges ahead I have a few
inspirational tips to give you, as follows:
1. Set a goal.
Know what you want and you can have it. If you will just
allow me, I have my favorite biblical passage to support
this:
"When you pray and ask for something, believe that you have
received it, and you will be given whatever you ask for." - Mk11:24.
2. Never entertain doubts.
The good book has this passage for each of us:
"Have faith in God. I assure you that whoever tells this
hill to get up and throw itself in the sea and does not
doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will
happen, it will be done for him." - Mk11:22
3. Know that you'll get it.
I will quote below what I recently read from a newspaper
feed:
"If you really want to have something in the future, you
really have to work hard for it, pray for it, visualize it,
and focus on it."
To train your mind for success, the following steps are
further recommended:
a. Read the book "The Power of Concentration."
This is the 1918 classic by Theron Q. Dumont. This book
changed the lives of many people. Read it. Give some time
to yourself and practice some exercises recommended by
Mr. Dumont. You will get a good grounding on how to properly
train your mind.
Below are a few quotes from the book:
"The first essential quality for success is the desire to
do--to be something."
"So the man that wants to be successful must be liberal; he
must acquire all the knowledge that he can; he must be well
posted not only in one branch of his business but in every
part of it. Such a man achieves success."
The secret of success is to try always to improve yourself
no matter where you are or what your position is. Learn all
you can.
This 1918 book by Theron Q. Dumont, by the way, has been the
rage in the U.S., together with another book "The Science of
Getting Rich."
b. Read the book "The Science of Getting Rich."
This 1910 book by Wallace D. Wattles is an outstanding
how-to-get-rich scheme, minus the hype. Some gems of thought
from the book of Mr. Wallace:
"Studying the people who have got rich, we find that they are
an average lot in all respects, having no greater talents and
abilities than other men. It is evident that they do not get
rich because they possess talents and abilities that other men
have not, but because they happen to do things in a Certain Way."
"Never speak of the times as being hard, or of business
conditions as being doubtful. Times may be hard and business
doubtful for those who are on the competitive plane, but they
can never be so for you; you can create what you want, and
you are above fear."
"If you have no capital, you can get capital; if you are in
the wrong business, you can get into the right business; if
you are in the wrong location, you can go to the right location;
and you can do so by beginning in your present business and
in your present location to do things in the Certain Way which
causes success."
c. Read the book "Millionaire Mindset Secrets."
This book contains summary insights into the millionaire mindset
and his/her lifestyle.
You can get further information on all three books described
above by visiting my web site at
http://www.internetmarketinglearningcenter.com.
d. Read the free article "How do you stay inspired?" by
visiting my website at http://www.internetmarketinglearningcenter.com.
P.S. I have created a compilation of three great inspirational
books of the 20th century. I have copyright to this compilation
and no copyright law is violated. Visit my web site to learn more
about this.
About the Author:
Rick Tanzo is the webmaster of the InternetMarketingLearningCenter.com.
The site offers simple, fast and easy way to learn Internet marketing
and home based business, free downloads and guide to some of the
best deals online. Discover some of the best home based business
opportunities today.
Visit http://www.internetmarketinglearningcenter.com.
Add Online Surveys to Your Site
Easy and affordable, an online survey is an excellent
way to learn more about your customers.
Your customers will enjoy taking surveys when they feel
that their opinions are valued, and you can provide an
added incentive to encourage them too, perhaps a prize
draw or discount.
Up to date survey results can be displayed on your site,
so your customers can find out what others are saying. A
successful survey can generate a lot of interest in your
site and may get you free publicity.
Planning Your Online Survey
Start by deciding what your survey will be about and what
you want to achieve. You can create surveys to learn what
your customers like or don't like about your site, services
or products, or research the wider interests of your customers,
how they spend their spare time, their buying habits, how
they feel about the Internet or your industry. Decide what
information is most valuable to you, your customers' time
is important and your survey must be concise.
Work out whom you want to target with your survey and how
you will reach them. If it is visitors to your site how
will you attract them to your survey? Is it a specific
audience, such as people who have ordered from you already?
If you are trying to cover a wider area, perhaps an industry
insight, could you advertise your survey on other sites or
partner with similar businesses and work together? Remember
the all important incentive, something free or a prize will
always encourage interest, if you are on a tight budget try
and find a sponsor.
How long the survey will run and how many people do you want
to reach? This will depend on how statistically accurate,
valid, and reliable the survey results need to be and how
many people you feel you could reach. Most surveys only run
for a couple of weeks or a month, if you let them run too
long, people lose interest.
Think about the information you are seeking and who you are
targeting, for example if you asked 100 of Ireland's Top
1000 Companies if they used WAP phones and 90% said yes it
would be reasonably fair to say that Ireland's Top 1000
Companies are embracing WAP technology, but to say that
Irish businesses are embracing WAP technology would be
quite unfounded.
Finally, you will have to decide what you'll do with the
information that you gather. Whilst it is common to publish
survey results online and can often generate interest, you
may not wish to share all the information and instead publish
a summary statement at the end of the survey with details
of what you have learnt or changes you are making as a result
of the survey.
Asking Online Survey Questions
Assuming you have already decided what information you want
to collect, you will now need to set out your questions. User
friendliness is central to a good survey so take your time
and have others review the survey before you actually use it.
Your survey should be as short as possible, decide what is
essential to know, what would be useful to know and what
would be unnecessary, retain the former, keep the useful
to a minimum and discard the rest.
Give the survey a good title, a clearly understood name
or enticing phrase. Provide an introduction to the survey,
which can be easily skipped by those ready to take the
survey but motivational for those less eager. A good
introduction should be concise and include the purpose of
the survey, why it is important for the reader to take
part, what may be done with the results, what incentive
is on offer, the timeframe and of course a thank you.
Choose the Right Question Formats
You can use questions with rating scales, checklists,
multiple choices, yes/no answers, or questions that
require a written-in answer. Approach every question
individually and decide which type is most appropriate.
For example "Do you own a mobile phone?" is a yes/no
question, whereas "Do you think you will buy a mobile
phone within the next year?" could also be treated as
a yes/no question but would be more accurately dealt
with by a likeliness rating scale.
A question like "How could we improve our service to
you?" could be treated as a written-in answer and give
you excellent feedback, on the other hand it is more
effort for the user and statistically harder to interpret
for you. You must look at all the questions that would
benefit from a written-in answer and choose which ones
if any really need it and which could be dealt with in
other ways.
Pose Your Questions With Data Analysis in Mind
If you need to statistically analyze the responses,
you must bear this in mind when writing your questions.
For example a question that allows a response, like a
written answer, cannot be analyzed numerically and ratings
that only offer a choice between one and four force an
answer that cannot be in the middle and must lean for or
against.
Use simple, non-formal language that can be easily
understood by all Do not use terms, words or abbreviations
or assume a common understanding of facts or a common basis
of knowledge. Make sure the questions are precise and not
open to multiple interpretations.
Avoid asking two questions in one
For example, a question such as "Do you like fish and
chips?" presents a conflict for a person who likes one
but not the other.
Don't write leading questions
For example: the question "What is the best day of the
week to call you?" leads respondents to pick a date
without first determining if they even want you to
telephone them.
Avoid double negatives
Respondents can easily be confused deciphering the
meaning of a question that uses two negative words.
Avoid difficult recall questions
You will get far more accurate information from people
if you ask, "How many times they purchased something in
the last month?" rather than, "How many times they
purchased something in the last year?"
Put your questions in a logical order
The issues raised in one question can influence how
people think about subsequent questions. It is good
to ask a general question and then ask more specific
questions. Decide if you are going to ask different
questions based on different responses.
Online Survey Software and Solutions
There are lots of online survey solutions available,
both free and paid for, hard and easy, some are better
than offers but once you have worked out what kind of
online survey you want, finding a solution should not
be too difficult.
Remotely Hosted Surveys
Probably the easiest way to create a simple online
survey is to use a remotely hosted application.
SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang offer both free and
professional services and Survey-Web and HostedSurvey
offer professional services.
Online Survey Applications & Software
A web search for "web survey software" will find lots
of professional web survey solutions and you will find
reviews of most of the major products at ZDNet.
HotScripts provides details of lots of free and paid for
survey applications in ASP, Perl and PHP. You may still
need programming knowledge to set up some of these
applications on your server.
Online Survey Tutorials
If you are feeling confident enough to want to have a
go at building your own survey from scratch, there are
tutorials online that will get you started.
ResearchInfo, Web Survey using HTML forms and CGI.
Planet Source Code, ASP/ Access Survey.
NetDynamics, Survey using Java and Access.
SiteExperts.com, XML-Based Survey Server.
Author: Alis Marsden is a staff writer for Purple Pages.
10 Killer Ways To Multiply Your Sales
Martin Boyd, Your Home-Biz-Success Partner
http://www.theworkathomesuccessbusiness.com
1. When you make your first sale, follow-up with the
customer. You could follow-up with a "thank you"
email and include an advertisement for other products
you sell. You could follow-up every few months.
2. You could upsell to your customers. When they're
at your order page, tell them about a few extra related
products you have for sale. They could just add it to
their original order.
3. Tell your customers if they refer four customers to
your web site, they will receive a full rebate of their
purchase price. This will turn one sale into three sales.
4. When you sell a product, give your customers the
option of joining an affiliate program so they can make
commissions selling your product. This will multiply
the sale you just made.
5. Sell the reprint/reproduction rights to your products.
You could include an ad on or with the product for
other products you sell. You could make sales for the
reproduction rights and sales on the back end product.
6. You could cross promote your product with other
businesses' products in a package deal. You can
include an ad or flyer for other products you sell and
have other businesses selling for you.
7. When you ship out or deliver your product, include
a coupon for other related products you sell in the
package. This will attract them to buy more products
from you.
8. Send your customers a catalog of add-on products
for the original product they purchased. This could be
upgrades, special services, attachments, etc. If they
enjoy your product they will buy the extra add-ons.
9. Sell gift certificates for your products. You'll make
sales from the purchase of the gift certificate, when
the recipient cashes it in. They could also buy other
items from your web site.
10. Send your customers free products with their
product package. The freebies should have your ad
printed on them. It could be bumper stickers, ball
caps, t-shirts etc. This will allow other people to see
your ad and order.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Martin Boyd, Publishes HBT News, a bi-weekly informative
newsletter dedicated to supporting online Home Businesses. If
you're looking for the #1 rated home business opportunity,
the latest resources and helpful support from an honest friend
in the business, come by and grab a F-R-E-E subscription,
http://www.theworkathomesuccessbusiness.com
Specialize For Greater Profits
by John Colanzi
If you're familiar with the works of
Napoleon Hill, you know that one of
his Laws Of Success is the Law of
Specialized Knowledge.
By specializing you can save yourself:
** Time
** Money
** Aggravation
There are three main areas of special
-ization to consider when making out
your business plan.
1. The types of products and services
you're going to promote.
2. Your target market.
Your target market will help determine
which products and services you'll promote.
3. Your method of marketing and promotion.
Many new marketers, fall into the same
trap I fell into when I came online.
They make the mistake of trying to spread
their selves too thin. They mistakenly
believe that the more products they promote,
the greater their chances for success.
The problem with that approach is when
you try to be all things to everyone,
you usually end up confusing your customers.
It makes it much harder for them to
identify you as an expert.
Become known in one area of your market
first and then if you decide to diversify,
make sure the product or services you add
compliment your main market.
Once you've determined your target market
and the products and services you're going
to promote, the next step is to determine
how you're going to promote your business.
The first step is to eliminate the newbie
traps. There are many methods that may
produce some results, but they're either
extremely time intensive, or the return
on investment is too low to justify the
expenditure of funds.
There are a few core methods that produce
results that justify the time spent and,
or have an excellent return on investment.
* Ezine Advertising
* Joint Ventures
* eCourses
* Brandable eBooks
* Writing Articles
* Search Engines
* Pay Per Click Search Engines
* Strategic Linking
As you can see there are enough
profitable methods to choose from
without getting caught wasting time
and money on the methods that are
only of value to the owner of the
program.
By acquiring specialized knowledge
in the use of any of the above methods,
you should begin to notice:
* Your profits rising
* Less time wasted
* Your marketing will become stress
free
Once you've developed your expertise
in one of the core methods of promotion,
you can add to your arsenal.
The method you choose will depend on
your temperament and how much study
you're willing to do.
Some methods are easier to master
then others.
You have to decide for yourself which
method gets you excited enough to do
the work necessary to make it succeed.
Begin to apply the Law of Specialized
Knowledge and you'll be head and shoulders
above your competition.
Wishing You Success,
John Colanzi
http://www.getresponse.com/t/93463/
****************************************
Copyright (c) John Colanzi.
John Colanzi uses the Plug-In Profit Site
to earn multiple streams of income from
home on the Internet. What about you?...
http://www.getresponse.com/t/93462/
