Vernacular

So you have a business idea that you believe will solve pressing issues for your business clients. Maybe it will even end world hunger and rid the world of AIDS? Congratulations are in order! Now what?

How can you find out if the idea you dreamed up will make it in the real world? You can follow the conventional route of hiring consultants to do market research if you have enough money to bankroll a project and are confident the risk is worth the possible payoff. But are there other options? Thankfully, the path to exploratory market research has been shortened by the advent of pay-per-click advertising tools like Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google Adwords.

You can get started with exploratory market research online in 5 easy steps!

1. Digest your business idea and the benefits it will offer your target market for a few days. Do conventional research in your area of specialty by reading industry periodicals and blogs from industry leaders. Then write a short article or white paper that offers some key tidbits of information about the benefits of your new business idea or product without compromising any of your intellectual property.

2. Use keyword research tools like Google Adwords Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) and Yahoo's Keyword Selector Tool (http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/) along with search engines like Google and Ask. The latter has a useful "Narrow Your Search" prompt in the right hand sidebar that will speed up your task considerably. If you want to get serious, subscribe to Wordtracker and do some research based on the past behavior of search engine users - this is an effective way to find key phrases that will work.

3. Learn the editorial rules for Yahoo! Search Marketing (http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/htgla_con.php) and Google Adwords (https://adwords.google.com/select/guidelines.html) and write your first Ads using the keywords you discovered during step 2. These ads should accurately reflect the content your article or white paper will provide.

4. Either learn enough HTML to create a basic HTML landing page with your selling points picking up the thread from your pay-per-click ads, or hire a designer to set up a simple landing page for you.

The landing page should require a minimum of customer information, such as name and email address. Remember, you can start a dialog and learn more from your site visitors once they decide to trust you with their email address. Include a brief privacy policy that states your intention to protect the security of your site visitors' information.

When submitted, the form should send you an email notifying you of the name and email address of the site visitor who wants to read your valuable article or white paper. If the site takes off, you'll want to automate this step, but this simple form will be enough to get you started.

5. Set up accounts and campaigns with Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google Adwords keeping your cost-per-click as low as possible. If your keyword research was effective, you should be able to get traffic for a free product like your article for between .15 and .25/click. Once you have traffic coming to your site, you will want to learn about conversion rates - (the number of visitors who sign up for your article)/(the number of total visitors to your site or page) - and tweak your landing page to improve your conversion rate as much as possible.

Conclusion There you have it, my 5 easy steps to testing your business idea. Of course, this is only the beginning. Once you have your campaign set up, you will probably want to develop surveys and have conversations with your subscribers regarding your idea. However, you will have qualified potential clients with whom to examine the effect of your ideas in the real world.

Harvey A. Ramer is a well-known New York State Internet specialist, Web designer, graphic designer and owner of Web design consultancy, Design Delineations. He has a degree in Visual Communications and has worked for several years as a Web designer for corporate, non-profit and private clients. He listens actively to client requests and meets or exceeds client expectations. If this article left you wanting more, Harvey Ramer has also written a short e-Book called A No-Nonsense Guide to Creating Your Web Site Design Plan that you may find helpful and maintains a blog.

# posted by phoenix-pets80546 : 11:20 PM  0 comments

The question that every marketer must ask is "why should THIS customer buy THIS product from ME?" What special opportunity do you provide the customer, compared to your competitors? This question is easy to answer when you are the ONLY one offering a particular product or solution. And the way to be the only one in a market is to be the first in a market.
As an on-line marketer, you are constantly looking for the opportunity to offer solutions to your customers. You keep an eye on trends, you gather feedback from your customers, you network with other marketers to find out what's working and what's needed. The best products or services to offer your customers - the ones with the highest likelihood of sales - are the ones that help them solve a problem or introduce a better way of doing something. And the marketer who is ahead of the curve and can get a product to market first has a decided advantage in reaching customers and making sales.

But if you have to take days or weeks to identify a problem, find a solution, develop or improve a product, craft a marketing campaign, and finally roll out your offer - you may find yourself chasing the market instead of leading it. You need to have a system that is flexible enough to adapt to different products and markets, but one that provides the outline and skeleton of producing a product and presenting it the the market in a comprehensive hard-hitting way.

You can develop this system in two ways. The first is to track and record everything you do on all of your programs until you identify the steps involved in the one or two that are successful. This may take years, and - since none of them are successful yet - you aren't making any money.
The other way is to model the success of the top Internet marketers, but not necessarily copy ever little thing they did. Find a marketer whose products you like or whose methods are compatible with your own, and then purchase their system (if they offer one). Lay out their method, and find the steps or areas that you feel you can do well. Identify the steps or areas that you think you might have to change or even enhance with other methods you know. And then roll out your product!

Always track your ads, use variations in your ad campaign, and read your traffic reports. Use these and other metrics to fine-tune your campaign, which means also fine-tuning the system. But using a model may save you years of effort and thousands of dollars, and get you known to customers as a marketer who can offer solutions first.

ERIK CARTER has written "Don't Just Build A List - Build A COMMUNITY!" (http://startyourlifenow.bravehost.com), a manual that REVOLUTIONIZES online marketing. ERIK also maintains the FITNESS PORTAL (http://fitnessportal.bravehost.com) - to make you healthy to enjoy your life - and "Your Business Sales" (http://yourbusinesssales.bravehost.com) - to make your online business healthy, duplicatable, and automated.

# posted by phoenix-pets80546 : 7:35 PM  0 comments

Outsourcing can be a potential gold mine for an online marketing business nowadays. Outsourcing is when one company contracts with another company to help with certain aspects of the businesses duties. The reason outsourcing is so popular is because the same work is carried out at a fraction of the cost. The companies that are hired from overseas already have their shop set up. As a result there is no need for the contracting company to create a new plant for services, buy expensive technology, and pay employees. With outsourcing everything is already in place.

The outsourcing companies are able to charge a lower rate than would be required to perform the task internally. As a result you will be able to offer your services for a lower rate to your costumers as well. For example, website development is crucial to the success of every online marketing business. Yet it takes special skills to be done right. Many companies are outsourcing their website development to gain access to profession website developers. This ultimately benefits both the company and the outsource company.

There are pros and cons to using outsourcing for website development. Outsourcing has been a bit controversial since outsourcing is based on a contract. Yet there is the risk that the outsourcing company can leave when it wants to. However the advantages of outsourcing greatly outweigh this disadvantage. As previously mentioned, the client companies do not need to pay for new buildings, equipment and employees as they are generally already in place. It saves on these costs and is able to offer their products for a more economically sound cost.

Website development can be outsourced because there are various website developers around the world that are capable of doing the same or even better job for less. Website development is necessary for almost every online marketing business because it can draw the interest of clients. It is the fastest way for them to research a company's specs and products.

Why consider using outsourcing for this purpose? Outsourcing website development can be more beneficial than having it done locally. Many use outsourcing for this purpose because highly qualified specialists can do these jobs and they make that job their number one priority. Companies receive their work faster and they pay less. They also receive advanced technological knowledge on these website developments that they might not be able to afford otherwise. There is a relief of responsibility on the contracting party's behalf and they receive a great finished product.

Outsourcing allows an online marketing business the freedom to keep up their current work efforts while also being able to use the outsource company to develop their website. Now that a company has resourced its website development, the company can use the time to improve internal matters and create better products for the client.

To Your Online Marketing Success!

Interesting in learning more about this topic? Download my free ebook on internet marketing.

Bob Hamilton is an entrepreneur, author, writer, business consultant and trainer. http://www.OpeningADollarStore.com

# posted by phoenix-pets80546 : 3:49 PM  1 comments

Any single woman living alone will tell you that to be safe it makes sense to have some protection, and you might be surprised just how many women take self-defense classes, own fire-arms or have tasers in their purses. It makes sense to protect your self. Perhaps this is why Taser Home Parties are becoming so popular. In fact, they are as popular or even more so than Tupperware Parties, but how can this be?

Its simple really, because nearly everyone who goes to a Taser Party buys one, and they are huge money makers. Perhaps you might have heard about these in your area. A small group comes to a home where lots of guests are invited and explains the basics of self-defense, the law and then puts on a really cool demo. Generally a retired police officer will be part of the group and they will have a mock demonstration where an attacker attacks a victim.

The victim using a couple of simple techniques defeats the predator with the taser. A Policing speech is given and then a personal safety instructor speaks and answers questions. Next, the taser sellers bring out the hardware for sale. This is a good opportunity for realtors who might come and explain the crime stats of the area and join the team of sellers, as a consultant. By giving free speeches to groups of ladies or concerned citizens, the Real Estate Agent will be doing a great service and meeting potential buyers and getting referrals as well.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/ Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

# posted by phoenix-pets80546 : 12:04 PM  0 comments

I said it earlier, you must create a high ticket product funnel. For some of you, you may not believe that. So I'm going to do the same thing with this as I just did with that little grid that we did on the subscribers. Okay, I'm going to show you why if you're going to make big money online you have to have a high ticket product funnel. Now, the first thing I want to do, is I'm going to take the number 15000.

I'm using that number because that's the number that I believe I can take anybody on this phone call to, in 90 to a hundred and twenty days, okay? Some of you are already starting at say 10 grand, I can probably help you get to 20 or 25 in 90 or a 120 days. Some of you that don't even know how to turn the computer on, you're going to have a little bit of a ramp up, so instead of 90 to a 120 days, maybe it's 120 to 150 days because you're going to have to learn how to upload a sales page, okay? So there is some things that are going to slow you down, but for the average person in this phone call I really believe you can get to fifteen grand.

I think if you know, so that's the number I'm going to use right here. Now, I want to imagine that you want to do that with a ten dollar product, so take 15000 and divide it by ten. Lets have somebody give me the answer.

Sean: 1500, okay how likely is it, that you're, that anybody is going to get to selling 1500 units of anything, even if you're giving it away for 5 dollars, what is the odds that anybody on this phone call is going to get to 1500 units a month in the next 90 to a 120 days?

Unknown: Small.

Sean: Pretty low. Pretty low?

Unknown: Yeah.

Sean: Small, okay. Very small, okay. Lets move that up to a hundred dollars. So, 15000 divided by a hundred dollars, how many would we need? How many sales would we need?

Unknown: 150.
Sean: We'd need 150. Is that a more realistic number?

Unknown: Yeah.

Sean: Okay, certainly a more realistic number, so 150 at 100. What if we had a five hundred dollar product? 15000 at 500 dollars, how many would we need to sell?

Unknown:30

Sean: There's got to be a mathematician on the phone!

Unknown: 30.

Sean: Thirty, you need to sell thirty, okay, would that be easier than a hundred and fifty units?

Would that be easier than a hundred and fifty?

Unknown: Probably.

Do you want to discover the secret to generating over $180,356 per year online?

Download this: How to Make 6 Figures Online

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Sean Mize is an internet marketing strategist who teaches internet marketers how to increase their income by creating high ticket classes and coaching programs.

# posted by phoenix-pets80546 : 8:20 AM  0 comments

My students are learning how to write and market articles and sell their ebook online. Many of them have not owned a business previously, so learning all of what goes into working on the internet is very new to them.

I received an email yesterday from a woman who was in one of my ebook and article writing classes last summer. I had not heard from her since the class ended, which was in July of 2007. She told me that she had been writing articles regularly and had even written an outline for her ebook. Her biggest concern was that she did not have a list and was not making any money. Before emailing her back, I did some research to see what she had been doing.

I Googled her name, using two different variations, and found almost nothing. When I did find her name connected to a blog, it was related to a topic that was not her field of expertise. This lady has written more than 100 articles in the past year, yet she is virtually invisible on the internet!

After doing even more digging on the web, I realized that her story was not unique. She had failed to make a name for herself and position herself as an expert. Do not let this happen to you. Here are 7 suggestions I have made to her that will also work for you.

• Choose a niche market that will be your main focus. Even if you have one or two smaller niches, devote the majority of your time and effort on your area of expertise.
• Write and submit articles regularly in your niche.
• Use the same name for everything you write in that niche. If your name has a common spelling, like mine does, add a middle name to distinguish yourself from others.
• Start a blog when you are first getting started. A blog will help you to find your voice and your niche and to get your name known on the internet. Use a domain name that brands you and includes one or two of your keywords.
• Read and comment on other blogs that deal with your topic. This will get your name out there and help others to find you and your writing.
• Work with a mentor to help you stay focused on your goals.
• Stay with your niche for at least one year, and keep track of your progress.

Follow these 7 suggestions and you will be well on your way to making profit from your own online business.

And now I invite you to join me for free weekly teleseminars that will teach you how to write, market, and sell your articles and ebook to increase your visibility, credibility and passive income by visiting http://www.EbookWritingandMarketingSecrets.com

# posted by phoenix-pets80546 : 4:37 AM  0 comments