http://va4growth.com/blog A Canadian Virtual Assistant's Internet Marketing Adventures Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:27:59 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 If you are new to the world of social media marketing it is helpful to know where to start networking.  The best places are the social networks that already have a large amount of traffic and members because social media marketing is a time consuming task.  Thus, you want to make sure that you narrow your markets down to the areas where you can have the largest impact which is why you may want to read about the top social media marketing websites.  College craze gone viral: The Facebook The Facebook started with just four schools in Boston and grew into one of the hottest social networks online.  By building a business profile and taking care to friend everyone you know you can quickly spread the word about your business via their profiles attracting people as they read their friends profiles.  Like most social networks, The Facebook can be used like a spider, once it gets going it continues to spread like rapid fire. The Celebrity network: Twitter Twitter is probably one of the most famous social networks due to the fact that celebrities use it on a frequent basis.  In the same way that celebrities keep their names fresh and current by ‘twitting’ so that their fans stay abreast of the activities, you can use Twitter to keep your business name, sales, and promotions fresh in patrons minds. Add in the fact that you can twit for your business and catch people while they are already outside of the home, and you have a slam dunk for getting customers inside your doors on a regular basis with an appealing enough Twit. The professional network: Linked In For those who are looking at social media marketing as a way to strengthen their business or start a joint venture the best social network on the web is LinkedIN.  Here you can find professionals from all walks of the world who you can network with to exchange advice, business ideas, and possibly even financial backing if you align yourself with the correct contact. http://va4growth.com/blog/?p=800 One of the problems that small businesses run into on a frequent basis is how to increase their monthly sales without stepping outside of their marketing budget.  This is due to the fact that most small businesses have either a very small marketing budget or no budget for marketing at all.  If you are in the situation where there is no money for advertising even though you desperately need to spread the word about your company you may want to consider using affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is a win-win marketing tool since it is a great way to spread the word about your business and help show your customers that you care about them and reward them for their efforts. The way that affiliate marketing works is simple and much less complicated than the term may appear to be.  At its core affiliate marketing is simply the task of getting your customers to advertise for your company in whatever way they fit and rewarding them for each sale they make as a result of their efforts. Most of the time affiliate marketing is used online by spreading a link for your website around the web along with recommendations.  It is your affiliate’s job to speak about your business and promote your products, and in return each time that someone makes a purchase from your website using their link you agree to pay them a commission on the sale or offer them a discount or reward certificate.  This is turn will increase your sales and offer you new business that in turn may decide to be affiliates bringing in more long term business. The best part of offering an affiliate service outside of gaining new customers, is that since it works based on the word of mouth principle is the customers that you gain tend to be long lasting.  Since customers trust their friends opinions they will not only make one small purchase, but may in fact purchase several items or services in one go which will make them even more valuable to your company. http://va4growth.com/blog/?p=798 Although article marketing may simple like a simple enough task, there are quite a few particulars once you get into the meat of making your article SEO friendly and highly effective.  This statement however is not meant to frighten you away from using article marketing as a powerful tool, but instead to educate you on how to make sure that your time and efforts truly pay off.  By following a few simple rules you will see a much larger return than if you simply write an article and post it hoping for dramatic results. In fact, if you have published an article, or a few dozen and not seen any positive ranking results from your efforts chances are you have failed to follow a few of the basics that are elementary but important.  For instance, when it comes to successful article marketing proper placement is a vital tool.  A few quick hints about the structural nature of your article construction and you will be well on your way to making a turn around on your time investment or your monetary investment if you outsourced the task to someone else. The best place to start is with the basics, which means taking a good look at your title and the construction of your title key phrase in the introductory paragraph.  First off, your title should always contain your keyword phrase at the beginning instead of the end. While it may be tempting to write something catchy such like The top ten tops for dog training you can bark about, the phrase Dog training: the top ten tips will actually do better for you. The reason why is because you want your title phrase near the beginning of your title so that search engines correctly identify it and see it.  In the same way, you want to place your title phrase within the first hundred characters of your article.  While these tips are simple, they can make all the difference.  Follow the same rules when it comes to the rest of the paragraphs in your piece and your headings and subheadings and you will be much closer to reaching your final goal of excellent rankings simply from article marketing. http://va4growth.com/blog/?p=795 Many people mistakenly think that joint ventures are only effective if you are a large player in the market that your business or product falls under.  However, the truth is actually quite far away from that statement even though they are usually most notable when they involve joint ventures.  For example, most people in the online community already are away of the joint venture effort between PayPal and EBay.  The good news is that you can have the same success with a joint venture if you plan properly and take full use of everything that such a deal can offer. The essence of joint ventures is based around the premise of helping a small less known company get a leg up on the competition by using the customer base or popularity of another business.  They are designed to help out small businesses by joining up with another company to share a customer base and promotions in exchange for either equal advertising and promotion efforts, or a small percent of the commission on sales.  This is reasonable given that the sales would not have happened without the aid of the joint venture. For a company that does not have a large budget or the ability to advertise a joint venture is an easy way to gain access to a new wider customer base or potential target market.  Generally they work out best when you explore businesses that are not your direct competitors, but are closely associated such as a company that sells Quickbooks if you provide accounting services.  Of course, the logical question that most people have is how to find a joint venture partner.  It is highly unlikely that they will come to you, so the best way is to get out there and research potential partners online.  LinkedIn is also an excellent business resource online that provides plenty of social networking opportunities and connections to businesses that may be looking for potential partners.  The more time you spend investigating the opportunities the more you will see them fall into your lap. http://va4growth.com/blog/?p=793 It is a common belief that Article Marketing strategy can be practiced only by those who are talented in writing. It is not so.  Anyone can do it. It is worthwhile to consider the following points to succeed in article marketing: 1. Give an appropriate, interesting title for the article. 2. Contents should be easy to read, but should carry depth. 3. There should be no grammar mistakes or spelling mistakes. Mistake will result in   losing the faith and the readers will underestimate your talent. 4. Give a little information about yourself, preferably at the end. Out of the millions of articles floating in the Net many of them are on article directories. Major Websites, small business owners, and those looking for free content to display on their website visit article directories regularly. With this there is so much competition for article marketers. This calls for efficient market strategy, so that your time and money are not wasted. You have to bear in mind the needs of the reader. The reader will try to know as to how useful is the article for him. How much he can gain out of the article? So your focus should with respect to the reader. Your writing should have the essence to win the heart of the readers. Obviously, you have to take some pains.  You are expected to make a good introduction, body and conclusion. You must have the writing style and skill to attract the readers. Good articles will get high search rankings. Try to write about something new. Take your time to write nicely such that your efforts bear fruit. Find out the keywords needed for the topic. These keywords are necessary for the search engines. Give an impressive title. If your article tops the list with respect to the topic, you will grow. Internet site owners will back you and your articles will establish a permanent place in the website. Try to gab what the audience is interested in. Base your topic on that. Type your ideas for every article. Make your writing style consistent so that the readers recognize you. Remember, though Article marketing is free, it will require your extreme effort to find a place in the net because of stiff competition. The proper strategy comes into play how. The following tips can be useful: Article marketers always meet at forums to discuss about latest developments in marketing. You can post a small piece of your article. Make it a point to post everyday. • Make an e-book with your articles. Your readers should be permitted to distribute the e-book as well. • Write as many articles as possible. Then more and more people can read your article. • They will also try to get an idea on how to write, where to distribute, and so on. • Test it. How good is your article? Ask your friends to read it. Take their true opinion. • Follow their advice if any as your interest may not match with that of the readers. • Present in such a manner that readers enjoy reading it. Put bullets and numbers as required. http://va4growth.com/blog/?p=768 Joint venture is a business where two parties are involved in one business. It could be that such a business is started by both parties from scratch or one joins later. It could also be that the two parties were at one point competing against each other but have decided to merge. Joint ventures are usually small enterprises; but there could be large businesses that are joint ventures. In a joint venture, both parties have the same rights due to the fact that their investments – in terms of capital, time and effort – are equal. There are certain things that those who are considering entering joint ventures should do. These include the following. Screening of potential partners You should make sure that the one you choose as a partner is the best. You can only be sure of this if you screen potential partners according to the goals of your business. One way of doing this is to make a joint business plan. Check the proposals of all potential partners carefully and select the one that will help move your business forward. Background search One thing that is of paramount importance in business is due diligence. This is more crucial if it comes to joint ventures. You must know the background of your partner very well. You must find out whether they have any criminal records or anything that might drag your business in the mud. If you don’t do this, you might find yourself in deep trouble one day. There are many fraudulent people looking for means of legitimizing themselves. Your business should not be an avenue for them. Make rules for your operations There must be clear rules as to how you will operate the business right from the start. You should not enter a joint venture thinking that the other party will act rightly. You must set rules as to how decisions are taken, how purchases are done, and how income is disbursed. In this plan, there should also be clear guidelines as to how you break up if it becomes necessary. There are some benefits that could be derived from joint ventures. Here are a few of them. Larger market With a partner, you can expand and reach out to a larger market. This will mean more sales and more profit for the company. Lower individual risk When you enter into a joint venture, you lower your risks as an individual investor because the risk will be shared between you and your partner. That means, in case of any unpredictable problem, you will not have to lose everything. There will be someone to share your trouble. Expansion It is easier to expand when you have a joint venture than when it is just a one-man business. The other partner will come with more possibilities and resources. It will be easier for two people to raise funds for expansion than just one person doing that. Although there are many advantages to be derived from joint ventures, it should be entered with care. This is because it comes with its own problems. If there is no trust (which takes time to build), conflicts might arise leading to the collapse of the business. http://va4growth.com/blog/?p=766 Blogs have now become an integral part of the internet. They compete very well with websites. A blog is a way of publishing information online. What is peculiar about blogs is that you can post direct and personal information on it. It is easily accessible and there are no difficult procedures to follow in order to put information on a blog. There are a lot of websites that provide you with the opportunity to have your own blogs. Major Websites come with their own blogs attached. Blogs should be well managed properly so that they can benefit the business. Here are a few things that go into blog management. Time is a very important factor in blog management. You must devote a specific amount of time for you blog. Depending on what the blog is intended for, there could be daily, weekly, monthly post in a blog. What is important is that you should keep to your schedules. If it becomes obvious that you can keep the rhythm, you are free to change. Content If your blog is for business purposes, the content of what you post in it should be directly related your business. You should run it as a support for your business. You should therefore post information that will be relevant to your customers. That is the place where you can provide detail and direct answers to frequently emerging problems. Because of that, the language of your post should be good. That is the only way your clients will find your blog useful. If the topic you want to talk about is very vast, you have to break it up into various subtopics. Each topic should be a post on itself. In that way you will not have post that are too long to read. The essence of a blog is to provide fast and relevant information. Use the tools There are many tools that are provided by the blog to enable you manage it properly. Most blogger don’t make use of such tools as RSS feeds. You must use them to make managing your blogs easier. Get assistance If you find out that you have more than you can handle, you must get assistance from others. You can hire a professional blogger who will see to your blog whiles you keep on seeing to your main business. There are many people who are ready to do this on contract basis. You will not have to keep them on your payroll. You pay them according to the number of posts, their length and quality. Choosing people to manage your blog on your behalf involve a few things. The first is that you should be sure you get the right person. You can get a lot of candidates online to make post on your behalf. You must do the necessary check before hiring. The next thing is that you must monitor the blog to find out whether things are being done well and professionally. If not you should feel free to fire and employ new persons. http://va4growth.com/blog/?p=764 Business can now be done online. The coming of the internet has changed the way business is done the world over. However, there are certain businesses that could be referred to as online business. This is because they exist only online. There are many people who are involved in online business. This is because the opportunities for this kind of business are immense. Millions of dollars are made daily on the internet by those involved online business. There are several types of online businesses. Types of online business Affiliate or advertizing business This is the most common type of online business. In this type of business, you don’t have anything to sell, or better still, you don’t do direct sales. You provide the avenue for people to advertize their products and you share the profits. What is involved in this kind of business is that you have to provide a website with content related to a particular product. The one who has the product displays her/his advert alongside the content. Those who visit the website see the adverts and if they follow up on it, depending on the agreement between you and the product owner, you make some money. Retail business This involves selling goods and services directly to customers. There are many things that are sold online. You can buy tangible goods ranging from food to houses and there are services such like banking security. Forum This is a type of online business where an avenue is provided for people to interact. This is just like building a mall and letting it out to others. At the forum, buyers and sellers interact and do business. When any product is sold, the owner of the forum gets a share of the deal. There are very well established forums online. There are a few things to consider when deciding on which online business to choose. Your interest You must choose an online business that you can easily run. That means it should be related to your interest. For example, if you have a passion for writing, you can decide to do the advertising based online business. You provide content in the form of articles that will lure readers to you site. Then, you enter into an affiliate agreement and start earning from there. Related to this is the area you concentrate on. There are some areas that have a lot of players; whiles others are yearning for people. You must choose an area that will not give you too much competition. Your time There are some online businesses that need a lot of time to run. You will have to be online responding to calls and emails. If you don’t have that time, don’t enter such a business. Choose one that will not demand a lot of your time. There are many opportunities in the online business. Many people are taking advantage of these opportunities and are making huge amounts of money. You can also do same. All it takes is a little patience and you will be earning great money. http://va4growth.com/blog/?p=762 Many people read the online ads about how to make millions online and sign up for any offer they can find only to discover later that they have paid into scams that do not pay off and find themselves with substantially less money than they started out with when they first attempted to make millions.  Obviously, this can lead to the general line of thought that there is no ‘real’ way to make money online.  However, nothing can be farther than the truth since there are plenty of legitimate ways to make money online, the only thing is you have to have preservance and dedication in order to make them work for you.  The simple truth of how to start making ‘real’ money online for dummies is that you must be prepared to work hard with a skill that you can finetune and market. Jobs that actually pay online just as they would in the real world have the same set of criteria: day to day tasks that need completed with clients that demand excellent work in return for a suitable paycheck.  The main difference of course is that in the online world you can make your own schedule of working hours and your own investment so what the amount of ‘real’ money that you make is relative to the amount of ‘real’ effort that you want to put into your projects. There are several ways to make money online and they all require that you are willing to dedicate yourself to the tasks at hand.  At the simplest level of tasks are jobs that require you have certain skills such as the ability to keep records, accounting, web design, copywriting, coding, etc.  If any of these sound like skills that you already possess then you are half way there to making money online. The next step is to find a freelancing portal that you can use to bid on projects and start to get some jobs.  Once you start to build up your initial client base you will realize that the internet is filled with entrepreneurs who need your help and are willing to pay well for it.  Thus, you will be well on our way to making some ‘real’ money.  You should keep your expectations reasonable however, as these jobs will never make you a millionaire unless you branch out and use the experience you gain from clients to learn how to build your own online business. For those who enjoy the marketing side of the business world, affiliate marketing is another excellent way to earn money as your job is to collect other consumers on the internet and encourage them to sign up for a product or a service.  For each referral that you make or affiliate that you encourage join a company’s customer list you will get a share of the profits so the more effective at marketing you are the higher you can watch your profits grow! Finally, if your ambitions aim at owning a successful business in the internet you can make the giant leap of faith if you are willing to deal with the fact that it may take some time to see the financial gains.  However, by delegating your tasks and continually working on your business you can make quite a nice sum of money if you find an unexplored niche or product that you can offer a new twist on.  On the bright side, while you are waiting to see your ‘real’ money appear the startup costs of an online business is not as much as an actual business in the ‘real’ world so you can start at a basic level and work your way towards your goal. http://va4growth.com/blog/?p=758 When most people hear the word exploit they automatically think that you are doing something unethical or illegal.  However, exploit actually means to take advantage of a situation or to use or develop something in order to gain a benefit.  Thus, exploit is actually the perfect verb to describe how you should approach the online business because you want to take advantage of the fact that the web offers easy access to millions of potential consumers and you want to develop the recession proof business venue to produce high sales figures.  The only thing you need to know now is how you can exploit the online business world in four easy steps, and believe it or not it’s not that hard! Find your target audience- First off; you need to discover where your target audience is located on the web and what their interests are.  It is much easier to see results from your advertising and marketing campaigns if you start by aiming them directly at the crowd of web browsers who are most likely to purchase your product or service.  You can conduct your own research to find their tastes or simply hire a consultant, but you will see much higher sales profits if you go out and find them instead of waiting for them to come to you. Utilize social media- The largest advertising tool on the internet right now is also conveniently very low cost and easy to use, social media websites.  Social networking is becoming the ‘IT’ thing in pop culture even more so every day since you are not somebody until you have a Facebook and Twitter account.  Take advantage of the easy exposure and free advertising venue via status updates by joining and offering users easy access to your company.  Additionally, this is a great way to collect consumer feedback which can help you improve your business in the future. Develop your website- If you had an actual store you would never let the door way and front side look as if it were ancient, so why would you leave your website looking this way?  Your homepage on your website is the first thing that people see when they head over to take a look at your product or service.  In this increasingly technical age people are highly critical of website design, webpage usability, and overall current information.  If you are lacking any of these elements potential consumers will move on to another website that has them, even if your product is great.  So remember, your sale starts with your homepage, not with the actual product introduction. Delegate!- Finally, this is the key to any group project or large business project, in order to accomplish all of your business objectives you cannot be afraid to delegate.  The truth of the matter is that people who try to handle every aspect of their business on their own are doomed to fail because there is not enough time in one day to handle mundane tasks and still have time left for future development and expansion.  Hire a virtual assistant or outsource some of your smaller tasks and web tasks that are outside your area of expertise and you will be surprised with how much time to put your energy where it really counts, into the future progression of your business! http://va4growth.com/blog/?p=735