Against Closed Eyes In Marketing

Here it is in Black and White:

Don’t make the same mistakes many new
marketers do. Don’t give up!

I’ve heard tons of discouraging stories about
affiliate programs. And, quite honestly, I was
one of them some years ago.

It is a common story. You get into the Internet,
surf a bit, find this website about how you can
make money and say: “Baboooom, I can do it too”.
So you start TRYING to sell marketing products,
ebooks and money tree schemes. You try getting a
referral that will get a referral that will get
100 referrals promoting a supposed “marketing tactic”.

The fact is that 95% of these people don’t ever
make a single red cent.

Why?

Fact #1 - Because most of these “gold mines” do not
work and many of the products are junk.

Fact #2 - Because the market is SO saturated, there
is SO much competition it is virtually a pain to peer
in. Plus, newbies don’t have a chance to compete with
the guys that REALLY know Internet marketing. It makes
sense, right?

Fact #3 - With no straight forward “down on the
table money” you are not going to get quick quality
traffic, no matter what they say.

This is the MAIN reason why most Internet Marketing
newbies get discouraged, and just refuse to continue
fighting their way through.

It is SO important to make the right start and to keep
in mind that you CAN succeed!

Look. I will never get tired of repeating this over
and over. Do not just try promoting marketing
products. Find your niche, and explore other markets.
There is so much money to be made with it! I personaly
try a new niche evrey month or two. Once I have one set
up and running I look for another. If one is not
working as well as I want it to, I drop it and move on.
The ones that seem to really interest people I will
stick with and make work.
(It takes real commitment and perserverince)

Pets, umbrellas, golf, kitchen, gardening, horror
movies, piano lessons, wine, cosmetics…the
possibilities are virtually endless. If you do it the
right way, you WILL make a consistent stream of
incoming money. This is the REAL Internet Marketing.

Refrain from the advice of fake gurus that have never
ever made a buck applying their auto proclaimed “hot
secret techniques”.

I don’t make all my income with my marketing
products and services. I’m making
decent money form it but, I also started out, and
still do niche marketing. In fact I am starting a
brand new website for Health and Beauty For Men and Women.
It will sell real, heath products just like your local
health store. No scams or quick fixes. You know what
I’m talking about. We’ve all seen those ads for pills
or a powder for example that claim to help you loose weight and look like a super model in ten days…Yeah, Right!

You could have a Spanish recipe website , a guitar website, a women’s product website, a general topic book website, a general discussion forum website…Like I said, I am always planning to explore new markets.
With these kinds of sites , I make money promoting other
people’s stuff (affiliate marketing).

That is, I sell their products and I get a commission.
I just need to build a website, provide good content
and get the traffic by applying different techniques
(I describe exactly what I do in the Marketing Master
Course) When you do this correctly, you have a real
Money Machine that can work on autopilot.

There is no secrets here…The way I made it
in this business was by researching, studying,
contacting people, asking questions… testing, testing and testing somemore.

You can look at it this way…I see this as if I were playing an exciting game. Not something to drive me crazy or worry about or walk away from.

Do you want it to be an exciting winning game for you
too?

It is really all up to you. You just need to try and avoid mistakes (we all make one every now and again, but learn from it!) and, take it one step at a time and don’t get discouraged.

You can do it! I know because I did.

Richard D. Moore is the President and Founder of IncomeNow! Marketing Masters. We were established to provide information, tips and reviews relevant to all things pertaining to online business. We are quickly growing and becoming one of the most popular internet and home business resource sites available. We give you new and innovative, up to date real and honest information and techniques to start and/or grow your online business. Everything from advertising to marketing to search engine optimization. Free ongoing one on one support for all subscribers to IncomeNow! Can We Help You? You Bet We Can!
http://www.incomenow.9k.com

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Until recently, if a company wanted to implement an intranet, they first had to install an internal network. Next they had to install a web server and set it up to host their internal documents. This created an intranet, which is an internal network that uses web-based technology. The difference between an intranet and a traditional company network is that everything on the intranet is accessed through a web browser.

To secure access to the intranet, the company needs to install special software, set up firewalls, and install a VPN server or switch. The equipment could be very expensive and most companies had to hire or train someone to maintain everything.

As a result, intranets were beyond the reach of smaller companies. However, all of that has changed. There are now a number of service providers that offer hosted intranet solutions, which allows a company to outsource all the hardware, software and maintenance for their intranet. These service providers are sometimes referred to as intranet application service providers (intranet asp).

Why Host Outside Your Company?

For smaller companies, cost may be the determining factor. For larger companies, unless the necessary infrastructure already exists, not having to purchase new equipment and train personnel may make it more cost efficient than doing it themselves.

Advantages of a Hosted Intranet

• Hardware and software do not need to be purchased or installed
• Security measures such as authentication, regular backups and disaster recovery are already in place
• Personnel to maintain the equipment do not need to be hired or trained
• Many applications are already available from the hosting company
• Technical support provided by the hosting company

Disadvantages of a Hosted Intranet

• Data may or may not be more secure than if it was all kept internal to your company
• Possible limitations on the software you use and services you can provide
• For larger companies, it may be more expensive over the long run than hosting internally.

Intranet Guy is an evangelist for hosted intranet asp solutions for document sharing and online collaboration.

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There is an affiliate money making method that thousands of Internet Entrepreneurs use which requires no product, no stock, no Website and no huge investment of time or money.

Quite simply you advertise affiliate programs using Pay Per click (PPC) advertising such as Google Adwords.

On Affiliate merchants such as Clickbank there are thousands of informational products that will pay $25+ per sale to the affiliate who referred the customer.

Quite often Affiliates promote these links by creating a website and/or email distribution list. But these methods take a long time, effort and money to get set up and lack flexibility.

What the smart Affiliate marketers do is create an ad using a PPC ad that costs very little money per click. This ad links directly to the vendor’s sales page with the affiliates unique link (this tells the vendor it was you that sent them). If the visitor purchases the product at this time or shortly afterwards you the affiliate make a referral fee.

Let me give you an example: -

You’re a keen golfer and one day you come across an Ebook, which is the best golfing instructional manual you’ve ever read. It cost $55 but you consider it well worth the money as your golf has improved to a level you never thought possible.

It makes you think there are millions of golfers across the world that all want to improve their game. Many will be looking on the Internet for tips and instruction.

You visit the sales page again and see that at the bottom there is a link for affiliates. You follow the link and see that the author sells his product through the Clickbank network. Each affiliate gets $30 of any sale they refer.

You do a bit of research and see that thousands of people search on the Internet via the search engines for instruction on how to improve their golf swing. You set up a ‘Google Adwords’ account for free and play with some of the golf improvement keywords your search engine research brought up. You find that the keyword phrase ‘golf perfect swing’ although entered by thousands of budding golfers each month doesn’t have that much competition in Adwords and you can purchase a Adword PPC ad that will show up towards the top of the Google result page when someone enters ‘golf perfect swing’. If someone clicks on your ad they will be directly to the Ebook sales page but via your affiliate ID. Therefore if anyone purchases the book after arriving from your ad you stand to make $30.

As you’ve done your research well you’re only charged 10 Cents for each click on your ad. Therefore as long as you get one purchase per 299 people who click on your ad you will make a profit.

The reality is that as Search Engines provide extremely targeted traffic and Sales pages today are very good you will more likely make at least 3-5 sales per 100 people that click your ad. Therefore if 300 people click your ads you could make $450 at a cost to you of just $30. A profit of $420!!

The great thing about doing your affiliate marketing in this way is that it is extremely flexible. Quite often fads will come and go in the space of months. Marketing them in this way allows you to jump on when the fad starts and jump off immediately it stops making you money.

With thousands of affiliate programs out there some with lifetime earnings and tiers the possibilities are endless.

Paul Middleton is a successful Internet entrepreneur. He shares some of his secrets on his website where he shows how anyone can make money online working from home. Included are details of how to make great affiliate money without a website.

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When conducting a training session about customer
service, I always spend a fair amount of time talking
about attitudes. After all, to be of service, you must develop
an attitude of service.

It has recently come to mind that the attitude of service is not
something you put on and take off when at work. It is
something you carry with you throughout each day.
Someone who truly has the attitude of service will always
serve other people, no matter what the circumstances.

Let’s take a look at a few of the more obvious ways of
observing an attitude of service.

Have you ever had the occasion to approach a door at the
same time another person is advancing toward it? I am
frequently amazed that when the other person gets there,
they barge through without any thought to me. I don’t expect
someone to wait five minutes for me to get there, but
certainly, if we are reaching the door within seconds of one
another, holding the door open would be a courteous
gesture.

The reaction I get when I’m the first one to the door and I
wait and hold the door open for the other person, is one of
surprise. It is so rarely done, that they are more than
delighted to have this consideration extended to them. I love
the reaction I get. I notice it puts the other person in a better
mood and they almost always smile at the gesture. Many
times, if it is a double door, they will return the favor by
holding the door open for me.

Other opportunities to practice an attitude of service is when
driving on the road and someone is trying to pull out of a
driveway. Stopping the car so the driver can safely navigate
onto the road is almost always responded to with a honk
and a wave. They always accompany it with a big smile.

Little things like always saying please and thank you show
your respect for the other person. If you aren’t saying this in
everyday interactions, how will you remember to always do
so with the customer?

When someone asks you a question, do you give them your
full attention.

When you see someone struggling with their purchases, do
you offer to help?

I was taking care of my two grandchildren earlier this year.
One of them was 3 months old, the other was 17 months
old. When I had to go shopping for necessities, it became a
juggling act to get two babies into the store, into one
carriage, and also place items in and around them.

The generosity of one woman while I was in line waiting to
be checked out, was incredible. She offered to place my
items on the conveyor belt for me. Then she spent a good
deal of time distracting the older of the babies so I could pay
for my purchase. Her kindness and thoughtfulness was so
appreciated by me. I couldn’t believe that someone who had
nothing to gain was being so kind to a stranger.

It made me wonder what would happen if, those people
whose job it is to do thoughtful things for customers did the
same thing. Imagine how much more business would be
attracted to that store.

Are you practicing your customer service skills, even when
you aren’t waiting on a customer? If not, you might want to
begin. It will make it easier when you are face to face with
the customer.

Margo Chevers, author of the book STOP the BS (bad
service), has been providing sales and customer service
seminars to a diverse cross-section of industries for the
past 19 years. To receive her free 10 top tips for exceptional
customer service, call (800) 858-0797 or email
Margo@MargoChevers.com.

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Running a business is about providing goods and services to human beings. Their experience with you can make the difference between a good day, a terrible day, a nothing-special day, and a “WOW” day for them! Wouldn’t you like to be the reason a client’s day changes from boring to “WOW?”

The benefits of this approach are good for everyone involved. Your client will be satisfied with your service and will therefore come back to you for repeat business. By making a great impression and exceeding expectations, you have a better chance of establishing a long-term relationship with this client, and increasing your sales. Also, you’ll be strategizing your unique positioning in the marketplace by making your business stand out from the rest. If you take the time to do something unusual and special, the client will think of you again next time.

There are many ways you can “WOW” your client, but here are five of them:

1. Remember Diary Dates

Use your database to make note of each client’s birthday, wedding anniversary, their children’s birthdays, religious celebrations and any other important dates in their life. Send a reduced-rate offer or gift voucher (to use next time they need your service) and a card to them on that day. This gesture shows your interest in a long-term relationship, not just a quick sale.

2. Offer Unique Free Extras

Think of something uncommon that is not offered in your industry. Give this to your clients for free. It should be something fun and something that makes them talk about you all over town. For example, if you’re a dentist, you may offer a $300 voucher to your clients on the third anniversary of the day they became your client. This should entitle the client to a free dental service or dental product (up to the value of $300) from you. The client should be able to spend the voucher however they wish.

3. Turn Complaints Around

Your clients won’t always be happy, but you can save their patronage by resolving their problem quickly and to their benefit. For example, if you own a restaurant and a guest is unhappy with their food, offer a free meal before they even asks. If you take care of the situation quickly and effectively, they’ll be back again.

4. Reward Referrals In A Big Way

Most small business owners simply send a thank you card to the client that sends them a referral. That’s okay if you want to be like every other business. To set your business apart from the “thank you card givers,” you can include a gift with the card. Concert tickets are fine, but a gift that enhances the client’s way of life will probably be more appreciated. For example, if your client is an attorney, you may get them a free pass to an educational seminar. Rewarding your clients for a referral will ensure that they repeat the gesture in future.

5. Go The Extra Mile

By this, I’m referring to spontaneous acts of kindness. Demonstrate that you’re willing to extend yourself beyond typical boundaries of time and resources to meet the needs of your clients. Does your client have a request you don’t normally accommodate, but that is easily doable and not time-consuming? Say you’d be happy to do that for them, and pool your abilities and resources to get that service for the client. For example, say you own a single-outlet fashion shop, and a customer asks whether you have a certain garment in red. Let’s assume you never stock that particular garment in red. There are two “WOW” things you can do here. Your customer will certainly appreciate it if you either put in a special order to get the red color in for her, or you direct her to another fashion shop to buy it there. This is a small gesture but you’ll be surprised how many fashion shop reps would say: “Sorry we don’t stock it, is there anything else I can help you with?”

When you pay attention to your clients and demonstrate that you care about their experience with you as much as the bottom line, they will remember you and return. If you treat your clients as faceless numbers and don’t convey your appreciation for their patronage, nothing stops them from trying somewhere else! Countless businesses are waiting to step in your shoes, so make sure you do your best to exceed client expectations. If you add the “WOW Factor” to what you offer your clients, they’ll do business with you repeatedly. They’ll become your raving fans, and will talk about you to their family and friends.

Making a strong impression that you care about your client’s satisfaction will encourage referrals and make your profits soar.

Copyright © 2005 by Habiba Abubakar and Emprez. All rights reserved.

Note: You are welcome to republish this article as long as you do so in its entirety and the “about the author” bit at the end is included fully and unaltered.

Habiba Abubakar, a.k.a. The Profit Diva, specializes in helping small business owners who are struggling to increase their client base and are tired of earning mediocre profits. Her FREE business-building newsletter covers proven, low-cost, and immediately usable marketing strategies. Sign up for your FREE copy at http://www.profitdiva.com

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118 118 Directory Enquiries is currently the market leader directory enquiries service in england and it’s one of the finest as well. 118 118 are more than just a Telephone Directory Enquiry Service, they provide the cinema listing and train time information.

If you yourself look around how notably it has achieved since it was 1 st launched to the UK market you will see that all that is a lot. Over fifty percent of the British market decide to use the 118 118 services well over any other competitor. All that proves that the organisation are trustworthy and that the directory enquiry company provide a service which works rather well & the customers use around a day to day basis. Although you associate the company with only suppliers of business and Great British public telephone numbers, you will see that they now supply loads more than this. You yourself might well rely on the firm to provide one with train times for the arrivals & departures, this is for the bulk of train travels up & down the UK, the company should also be trained to tell you yourself cinema times & film listings for any British movie theatre yourself require, you will appreciate the option to discuss the film time schedules with the directory enquiry firm or the directory enquiry firm should pass you yourself straight to the movie theatre you want to speak to. Really a ton of the british customers just associate the 118 services with the telephone but nevertheless, the firm has now went out noticeably further than this.

The business of course offers a text messaging service, all that supplies the company UK customers to gain access to the most recent baseball scores from all the big sport leagues, pub quiz help where yourself can SMS & ask 118 118 a question & 118118 will text yourself back with the precise quiz answer UK lotto numbers can also be txt to your telephone as well. Although this SMS service is not a low priced service if you are desperate and in real need of any info then the 118 118 MMS services is going to be remarkably useful to you.

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Running a successful business takes a lot of energy and there are so many areas that as a business owner you need to pay attention too.

It’s not enough to spend heaps of time, money and resources into getting buyers for your goods and services and then leaving those clients/customers to their own devices.

If you want to work less, have more time and make more money one very important aspect you have to take care of on an ongoing basis is nurturing those people who are prepared to spend their money with you.

You cannot afford to take their money, sell the goods or perform the services and then hope they will call you when they need too.

The Hairdresser

A couple of weeks ago I visited my hairdresser for my regular appointment. Now I have been loyally going to this hairdresser for at least 2 years, approximately every six weeks.

On this particular occasion there were a couple of clients having their hair coloured and the owner and another assistant were fawning over three kittens which had kindly been supplied by the local vet.

Apparently the vet was looking for a good home for the kittens and John,the owner and another staff member were going to take them home. The kittens were staying the afternoon at the salon for the benefit of their new owners (my hairdresser and his assistant).

So here we were in an upmarket salon, with three kittens running around and the staff paying more attention to them than the clients.

The second incident that occurred happened after I had my hair washed. I was left sitting in a chair waiting whilst John who is my hairdresser casually took his time looking at another client’s holiday photos. That wasted at least 5 minutes. (Some people may not be bothered about having their time wasted, but unfortunately for John, I wasn’t one of them).

When he finally comes over, instead of asking me how am I going, or commenting about the condition of my hair, he proceeds to tell me all the details about his life (as he usually does) and is so focussed on himself he was oblivious to the fact that without people like me (a paying client), he wouldn’t be in business.

It doesn’t end there. The final straw came when his mobile phone rang in the middle of my haircut. With no apology or saying to me “excuse me, I must take this call “, he answers the phone and wanders off for another 5 minutes.

By this time I was ready to explode. Instead, being the cool, calm and collected person that I am (sometimes), I took some deep breaths and vowed I would never go there again.

How Much Money Do You Lose?

As a regular client who had an average spend of $110 every six weeks (that’s for a colour and cut), I would be worth around $900 a year plus any product I would buy.

And that’s another thing, John often complained about not having enough income, yet he never trained his staff how to sell additional products. People (particularly women) would readily purchase shampoos, conditioners, gels etc. if his staff would proactively recommend it.

They only sold product by default, when a client mentioned they had run out or asked questions. I was one of those clients who asked questions about the various products and was ready to buy, except they were always out of stock! (See how being disorganised affects your income!)

Focus on What Counts

Being a great hairdresser, accountant, coach or anything else for that matter doesn’t automatically mean your clients will continue to invest their money with you.

You have to pay attention to them by being proactive in looking after them and not reactive when they complain.

In fact most people will not tell you if they are unhappy with your goods or services, they will just take their business elsewhere. They’ll also spread the word by telling other people about their experiences with you thereby damaging your reputation and potential for future clients.

The Final Word

Look at how your business is run. Survey your clients and find out how they really find your goods/services, customer care, follow up service etc. After all, wouldn’t they know how good you really are? You and your team may think you’re great but it’s what your clients think (and pay for) that counts.

It would also be worthwhile investing in a great book by Keith Abraham entitled “Creating Loyal Profitable Customers’ - 47 ways to turn your customers into passionate purchasers (available from our office for only $24.95 plus $5 postage).

So don’t delay. Get yourself organised so that you have time to focus on what really counts.

About The Author

Lorraine specialises in working with businesspeople showing them how to dramatically boost their productivity, reduce the stress and the mess in their lives and have more time for enjoying their life. www.office-organiser.com.au, lorraine@office-organiser.com.au

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Tens of thousands of people all around the word will continue to make the
same mistake when starting an Internet business. These mistakes include:

1) Paying too much in development costs and fancy designs (wasting
cost)
2) Focusing on the unimportant areas of site developments (wasting time)
3) Choosing an inadequate hosting plan (wasting cost and time)

Most first-time clients consulted by us don’t do their homework and make the
same mistake by getting confused with what they ‘want’ and what their web site
’should’ really have. Literally, we see tens of thousands of hours and dollars
wasted every week because people believe that what they ‘know’ is enough. But
when you look at the big picture, we can’t really blame them because even some
of the so called ‘Internet gurus’ of today are still making the same mistake
despite failing miserably project after project. The difference is, these
‘Internet gurus’ can afford to loose their money, but we know for a fact that
most people don’t have this leisure.

The Internet is a place where you can succeed if you are smart about what you
do. Most importantly, you need to be smart with your planning, testing and
risk-taking. Also, you need to avoid getting carried away with unnecessary
business development activity. This you can learn through your own mistakes or
other people’s mistakes. My best advice is to learn what others have done wrong
which is a much more efficient process of learning.

Hopefully, this wake up call will hit those seriously considering a career on
the Internet. There is no point making mistakes that can be avoidable. Find a
low cost method to test your market before you spend on unnecessary site
developments. Expand your knowledge on search engines, and Internet advertising
and various topics on growing a business online. And lastly, choose a hosting or
technology provider who is a professional and knows exactly what they are doing.
There is no point for you to pay for an amateur or to do-it-yourself without any
proper direction.

To sum up, do your homework before you
start your own web site business
and you will succeed. If you discount this, before you know it, you’ll be out of
pocket, out of time and eventually out of business.

“Believe in the unthinkable to live the achievable.” - Matthew Ng

Matthew Ng is an E-Business Consultant and Managing
Director of IITIS Pty Ltd (an Australian
micro and small business web agency and consultancy).
MyOwnProfitSite.com is an
initiative headed by Matthew Ng to provide people with a minimal risk
opportunity ($0) to choose from 50+ pre-built e-business web sites and start
their Internet career on a smart pathway.

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Every Internet marketer with a website needs to generate traffic
because without traffic it is impossible to sell anything. A
website without traffic is likened to someone having a shop
opened in the middle of no where - desert, jungle, what are the
chances of people bumping into your shop and buying something
from you? It is important that you can drive traffic to your
website, and there are many ways to do it. Some of them: 1.
Start an affiliate program. Starting an affiliate program is one
of the greatest ways to get high quality traffic to your
website. Almost every successful business online has got an
affiliate program. Even for joint ventures, an affiliate program
is important so that your partners can eventually sell your
things and earn higher commissions as well. Having an affiliate
program is crucial to successfully generate high quality traffic
to your website. 2. Build an opt-in list. “The gold is in the
list,” every single top Internet marketer in the world should
know that a subscriber list is more important than anything
else. With an opt-in list you can get massive high-quality
traffic to any website instantly.

Nevertheless, that is not the main point. Having a huge
subscriber list allows you to generate mountainous income by
selling multiple times to the same customers over and over
again. When you need money, all you have to do is find a quality
product and endorse it to your subscribers. 4. Writing articles.
Submitting your own articles to article directories has been
proven time and again to generate steady, long term traffic to
one’s website. Another way to take advantage of your articles is
by collecting a list of e-zine publishers and submit your
articles to them. 5. Reciprocal Linking. Exchanging links with
websites can generate heavy traffic to your website. You can
either request for the exchange of links the traditional way by
e-mailing the owner of a website; or head to
http://www.linkmetro.com and save much more effort and time. 6)
Viral marketing. You can create an e-book, or report in a PDF
file and give it away to marketers with large subscriber lists.
If possible, allow people to brand the e-book with their
affiliate links and sponsor names. However, you still need to
include your website’s link and make sure that people will
notice it, and visit your website. This can bring in steady and
huge traffic to your website for a long term. 7. Participating
in forums. You can generate traffic from forums by including a
signature file while posting. Of course, you need to try and
attract people to your website as much as you can, and offering
a bonus helps boost the response. 8. Write testimonials. Write
testimonials for products that you personally liked and used,
then submit them to the owner/founder. If you’re lucky, it will
be published on a sales letter which pulls tons of visitors
every day and get free traffic through people who are interested
with your testimonial.

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Simply put, business plans can make or break your business. Starting a Drop Ship business online is no different from starting a traditional non-online business. With the strong emphasis individuals place on writing business plans for starting up non-internet-based companies, it is equally crucial to prepare a business plan for your online business.

A business plan serves many important purposes for the online business. First, because the business plan has a detailed list of the tasks to undertake, it is a call to action for you to promote your business actively and not procrastinate on your marketing efforts. Second, it provides a blueprint that describes your company effectively: the market, the products and the steps you need for effective marketing. This serves to guide your business through the months ahead.

Business plans normally comprise of five sections:

1) The Objectives. This section will describe the objectives for the venture, and the mission statement that defines the online business. It states both the financial and strategic objectives and is normally about one page long. There should be a concise description of the Drop Ship business at the start. A brief example:

‘Magical Stores Online is an internet company that provides quality tools and resources for magic tricks. We aim to consistently provide magicians with reliable tools for conducting magic tricks, and also accurate information and guides on how to properly perform the magic tricks with our tools. In our first year online, our target is to have U.S. $400,000 in revenues and $100,000 in profits. This can be achieved by attracting an average of about 5000 visitors to our website every month through effective internet marketing. Our strategy is to attract recurring traffic to our website by continually updating the useful resources and information on our website. Magicians will constantly return for more useful tips on magic tricks. This cuts our marketing costs drastically and adds to our profit margin.’

2) The Executive summary. The executive summary should contain a few important details. It should outline the basic model of the company, how the business functions, the market environment, and also the business opportunity in the market. A continuation from the previous example:

‘Magical Stores Online is a retailer of magic products on the internet. We specialize in card and coin tricks and stage magic, and classify our products according to age group, skill level, features, and the occasion they are used for. Magicians can browse the product catalogue on our website and buy their products with a shopping cart software. They can choose to pay either by credit cards or by checks. We use a third party credit card merchant to process our payments, hence eliminating the need to have a merchant account ourselves. A profit is realized whenever a sale is made, because we obtain our products at a wholesale price and we sell them at a retail price. Since our supplier, Company XYZ, drop ships the products directly to the customers’ address, we do not need to hold any inventory. Our market comprises of magicians of any age group who specialize in card and coin tricks and stage magic. The opportunity lies in the internet as a marketing medium for magic products. Since the rise of the internet in the mid 1990s, we find that the major magic product retailers do not use the internet effectively to market their products. With effective internet marketing skills, we believe that we can reach a wider audience than the other major players, thus claiming a large market share.’

*Note that in a real business plan, the business owner should aim to provide a more detailed version than the examples given above. The examples here only serve to illustrate an overview of what the basic business plan should encompass.

3) Marketing Strategies. In this section, you will describe the steps you intend to take in order to market your business effectively on the internet. There are a few basic marketing methods available on the internet. Mentioned below are three of the most popular methods.

- Email Marketing. Ezines and newsletters are powerful tools. It is simply the most cost-effective form of marketing on the internet. Sending out email promotions or newsletters to your subscriber base costs virtually nothing, except for the time you spend on writing your newsletter. With the web form on your website, you can capture the names and email addresses of the customers who subscribed to your newsletter. I do not recommend that you send your subscribers with product promotions regularly, but you should continually provide them with useful tips and information. In this way, you establish your credibility as an expert and maintain a strong relationship with your customers, instead of appearing as someone just out to make money. Promotions for your products should only be sent out about once or twice a month.

- Search engine optimization. Optimizing your website for high search engine results on google, yahoo and msn, is a powerful way of getting large volumes of traffic at low cost. However, you have to put in a lot of effort for a long period of time, as top rankings do not appear overnight. There are two factors for search engine optimization: On-page or Off-page optimization. On-page optimization involves tweaking the page title, header and meta tags to include the website keywords. It also involves scattering the keywords throughout the page to improve the site relevancy. Off-page optimization, on the other hand, is much more important than on-page. It involves soliciting links from relevant websites. The more the websites that link to your site, and the higher the importance/relevance of the website linking to yours, the higher your website will be ranked on the search engines. Google places a very strong emphasis on this.

- Pay-per-click (PPC) Search Engines. This requires you to pay a sum of money for every visitor that clicks through the search engine to your website. The higher the amount you pay, the higher your website will be ranked on the PPC search engine. The basis for profiting with this marketing tool is by bidding less than the amount that each visitor to your website is worth. Overture is definitely the market leader for pay-per-click search engines.

4) Competitive Analysis. In this section, you have to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, and the factors that will differentiate your products or services from your competitors. You have to analyze your competitors and record what makes them so successful, and also the weaknesses you can capitalize on to get an edge in the market. For example, competitors may not be using email marketing effectively to promote the products to customers. You can capitalize on this by using newsletters more intensively, establishing your credibility as an industry expert. To differentiate an online Drop Ship business, it is more viable to provide a reliable service from your website. This usually means providing a wealth of tips, articles and information for your visitors. This will attract them to continuously return to your website for the latest tips and resources that will benefit them. Fast response to their email queries and also fast shipping are also good services you can provide.

5) The financial projection section. In this section you can project the profit-loss statements and the cash flow statements for your business. The profit-loss statement records the monthly profit/loss realized over the months, while the cash flow statement records the difference between revenue and expenditure over the months. The costs for an online Drop Ship business will include:

- One-time costs for software like shopping cart software, email marketing software, and also search engine optimization software.

- Recurring costs for the wholesale price of the products, web hosting fees, a proportion of revenue paid to your third party credit card merchant to process your payments, and also internet marketing costs.

This section will be useful for you to gauge how your Drop Ship business performs according to your expectations.

In conclusion, business plans do not only apply to real-world businesses, but are equally critical to online businesses as well. They serve as blueprints of the companies and also as strong calls to action for the aspiring internet entrepreneurs to achieve their success in ecommerce.

*You are welcome to reprint this article as long as you include the Author’s resource box with the article.

About the Author: Ray Yee is the founder and president of Dropshipperscentral, a website which provides a wealth of informative articles, tips and resources on everything you’ll ever need to know about setting up a Drop Ship Business and marketing it. Click here for the Wholesale Drop Ship Directory from http://www.dropshipperscentral.com

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