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Improve Your Financial Health by Spending Less and Increasing Your Income

Author: Elizabeth Williams

In a tough economic climate such as the one we're living in, there is a lot of advice about how to cut expenses or increase income. Both concepts are good and can improve your financial situation, but combining the two concepts and working together during a specific time period will catapult your results. You'll be amazed at how possible it is to live on less money and actually enjoy it more.

1. Think about shopping in a different way. Instead of mindlessly heading to the grocery store each week, start questioning your purchasing habits. Make a shopping list of necessities, use up what's in your pantry, freezer or cabinets, and shop the sales with coupons to further your savings. You'd be surprised how much you buy each shopping trip that really isn't needed to make your meals. At first it will feel like a major lifestyle change, but after a few weeks it will become habit and you'll have taken great strides for reducing your expenses.

2. Look at your checkbook register carefully. This is a common place that you can see all of your expenses and probably find areas you are overspending, especially if you are a debit card user. It tells so much about who you are and what you do with your money. If you see a number of small purchases with the debit card for coffee and other treats, consider giving yourself a weekly cash allowance and don't dip into the checking account. That will keep you on track and avoid spending money that you aren't even aware of how much it's adding up to at the end of the month.

3. Eliminate anything that isn't a necessity. This takes discipline and a keen eye for what is really legitimate and that which can be trimmed out to help with the budget. Basically, if it isn't a monthly living expense like mortgage or rent, debt repayments or utility or food bills � it's not a necessity. This may seem too strict, but taking a radical approach just might be the thing that forces you to think differently about your lifestyle and how you spend money. Give yourself a 30 day no spending challenge � make sure you've got enough groceries to make it through a month (or set aside a few dollars for dairy products and produce throughout the month) and don't spend anything except for monthly recurring living expenses and your existing debt repayments.

4. Pretend you've lost your job. What would you do if this happened? You would reduce your expenses to the bare minimum right? Pretend you've lost your job, but without the loss of income, you suddenly have more money available. Start an emergency fund in case you really do lose your job with the savings of living more frugally, or pay off credit card debt. Look for 0 apr balance transfer offers to save on interest and expenses for debt you can't pay off immediately.

5. Increase income creatively. Declutter your house and sell things on ebay or in yard sales. Bring items to consignment shops. Consider a temporary part time job or a way to start another income source online or otherwise.

If you just choose lowering expenses over income generation, the synergy between the two is lost. Doing both will maximize your savings and give you additional money to pay off debt and increase the money you have saved.

About the Author:

Elizabeth Williams, Editor-in-Chief for CreditCardFlyers.com

CreditCardFlyers.com makes it easy to compare and apply for a variety of credit card offers featuring low balance transfer rates.  We are the leading source for searching 0 apr balance transfer offers online.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Improve Your Financial Health by Spending Less and Increasing Your Income

Tags: Improve Financial Health Spending Less Increasing Income

Affiliate Tools - What Kind Do You Need For Your Company?

Author: Matthew Henderson

One question that many people are always asking is whether or not there are any shortcuts to affiliate marketing. Many people want to make it big in the world of e-commerce, but so few are willing to work for it. Although infomercials and newspaper ads would have us believe other words, internet marketing isn't always so easy. Still, there are some affiliate tools out there that can be used for cutting down costs and saving time.



There are many different types of affiliate tools found on the internet, some of them are really worthwhile and others are good for nothing and just a waste of time. The only problem is actually determining what affiliate marketing tools will help out the most, and how affiliates can go about getting them.



There are keyword search and tracking tools, visitor and traffic tracking tools, web development tools, customer relations management software, and so forth. Each of these affiliate tools can be used in ways that will help small business owners.



Any affiliate marketing tool that helps out with customers, such as customer relationship management software, is essential. In order to market, one has to KNOW the market. In today's highly competitive world of e-commerce, affiliates and internet companies not only have to fight for customers, they also must fight to keep them. Therefore, any affiliate tools that will help affiliates develop a better understanding of their customers' needs need to be considered.



There are other important tools as well, some of which are more essential than others. Some may not realize it, but having an affiliate website is considered to be a good affiliate tool for anyone who wants to make money on the internet. It's a website, after all, that connects businesses and affiliates with their customers. Therefore affiliate marketers need to design their sites in such a way that is not only pleasing to the eye but user friendly as well.



Ease of navigation is also a must. All the content needs to be placed professionally throughout the pages, and product information needs to be clear and concise. Additionally, pictures of the products need to be clear and detailed. There needs to also be a contact page so that visitors can get a hold of the affiliate with any questions they may have. In fact, the only way a website will truly be an effective affiliate tool is if the webmaster provides potential customers with prompt answers to their questions, and customers with prompt order processing.



Other affiliate marketing tools that can be extremely helpful are incentives and freebies. Yes, the more free samples or discounts affiliates give out, the more they will end up selling in the long run! Some popular promotional items include customized pens, t-shirts, stickers, mouse pads, and more. Any internet company that can afford any kind of promotion or affiliate tool should consider giving out free gifts. They don't have to be expensive, and as studies show that the most generous online businesses are often the most successful.

About the Author:
Matt Henderson, owner of MyOnlineSuccess.com, is an affiliate internet marketing coach. As an affiliate marketing guide and coach for beginners, let Matt show you the same system he uses to make money with affiliate programs when you visit http://www.myonlinesuccess.com

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Affiliate Tools - What Kind Do You Need For Your Company?

Tags: Affiliate Tools WhatKind DoYou Need ForYour Company

Getting the Most Out of Your Search Engine Advertising

Author: Andrew Long

Over the last few years search engine advertising has become an integral part of most online advertising campaigns. The simple format coupled with low test costs have proven to be a popular and attractive format for many businesses. However, there is a lot more to this than just setting up and forgetting.

Search Engine Advertising is a relative newcomer to the field of advertising, but is one which is already an integral part of many campaigns. Businesses of all types are already using search engine advertising, having become aware of the benefits which the medium can offer; and other businesses which have not yet begun to employ this approach are starting to see themselves losing market share to companies who have kept up with new technologies.

While there will likely always be some people who use printed telephone directories, a large number of people have already begin to favor Google and other search engines for the sort of information they once turned to the phone book for. Companies in the know about this trend have begun to engage the services of advertising and marketing firms to help them establish a presence where consumers can readily find them. In our ever more connected age, this is more and more likely to be on the World Wide Web.

Search engine advertising is an incredibly cost effective and highly targeted means of advertising; ads are placed alongside search results according to their relevance to the search term, exactly the way that the results themselves are retrieved by the search engines.

This media demands the skills of experienced search engine advertising professionals who can create pay per click (PPC) advertising campaigns which will get results. The right keywords in and tied to your search engine advertising campaign can spell success or failure for your efforts.

Of course, unlike a traditional advertising campaign, there is not necessarily a lot of money wasted in a failed PPC campaign. Ads cost the advertiser nothing unless they are clicked and they can be fine-tuned at any time to get better results; another advantage of search engine advertising as a means of reaching your target market.

Network advertising is similar to search engine advertising. Like PPC ads, they are contextual; but rather than relying on the user's search terms for this context, they are targeted towards consumers based on their internet behavior and any demographic information which they have given to websites which are part of the network. This is a form of advertising which is used especially to reach the users of social networking services, since they furnish these social networks with a wealth of demographic information of use to advertisers. The network delivers video content, banner ad and other types of new media advertising to users based on a very educated guess about which products and services would appeal the most strongly to them.

The online world is one which is changing and growing daily. Any business which wants to stay ahead of the curve and maximize their potential as a web presence should consult with search engine advertising professionals who know the ins and outs of using the potential marketing avenues of the World Wide Web to reach their target markets.

About the Author:
Andrew Long is an advertising sales consultant and expert in the field of generating revenues from websites and other media. He offers media companies a solution to selling advertising and making money from their websites and other media. This article about Search Engine Advertising can be used on a website as long as this resource box is added http://www.selling-advertising.com/Advertising-Revenue-Centr

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Getting the Most Out of Your Search Engine Advertising

Tags: Getting Most Search Engine Advertising Markets Businesses Advertising Ads E

Conversion Optimization: How to Get More Leads without Spending More Money

Author: Susan Tatum

If you�re like most business owners or marketers, you�re probably working hard to increase your lead generation while at the same time lowering your marketing costs. And chances are good you�re missing the very best ways to do this: Conversion Optimization.

Simply put, �conversion optimization� means converting more website visitors to prospects, and more prospects to sales-ready leads or customers.  It requires paying attention to the points in your marketing process where you want your prospects to take action and tweaking those points to get a greater percentage of visitors to do that.

Sales people are naturally focused on this because they are regularly judged on how well they turn qualified opportunities into sales (the closing ratio). But marketing people tend to focus solely on driving more website traffic or generating more leads, and they miss the tremendous opportunities that come from creating a better process.

Let�s look at the whole picture instead of just the front-end of lead or traffic generation. Between the first visit to your website and the decision to buy your product or service, your prospects actually make a number of decisions to keep moving forward toward a purchase � or not.

Each of these decision points generally involve some type of action and can be tweaked to be more effective at keeping prospects engaged and moving them forward toward the buying decision.

Here are a few common examples:

• Your homepage � does the visitor stick around or leave immediately?
  
• Newsletter and other subscriptions- what percentage subscribe?
  
• Product demos � what could you do to get more visitors to take a look at your demo?
  
• Free trials � how can you get more people to sign up and actually use the free trial?
  
• Trial-to-customer conversions � what happens after they start the trial?
  
• Landing pages, Contact Us forms, Download whitepapers or reports, Event registrations.
  
• You get the point.

Compounding Interest.

Increasing the number of people who take any one of these actions will ultimately increase your sales or sales opportunities. Over time, even the slightest increases compound into big numbers. It�s the same �power of compounding interest� argument the Motley Fools and other investment advisors use to convince us to invest early and often.

Let�s look at product demos as an example.

Suppose that currently 50% of prospects who experience your product demo become customers and suppose that each new customer is worth $2500 a year. By increase your demo-to-customer ratio just 5% a month, you can nearly double your revenue in one year.

Imagine how much your revenue can grow if you optimize multiple conversion points. It�s surprisingly easy and immensely rewarding. And the best part may be that you can get more leads without spending more money on lead generation.

If you�re new to conversion optimization, you�re not alone; and if you act fast you can get a real jump on your competition � especially those who are cutting back on spending and watching their pipelines deteriorate.


� 2009 Tatum Marketing Inc

About the Author:

Susan Pascal Tatum, co-founder and president of Tatum Marketing, is a recognized expert in business-to-business internet marketing.  She has been helping software, information technology and other BtoB firms achieve greater online marketing results for more than two decades.  She is a popular author and speaker, and regularly publishes internet marketing strategies and actionable tips on her Tatum Marketing blog. Visit Tatum Marketing online for a complementary copy of their latest report, Technology Marketing 2008.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Conversion Optimization: How to Get More Leads without Spending More Money

Tags: Conversion Optimization More Leads Without Spending Money

How Can I Take Advantage of Breaking News? Publicity Dilemma 9

Copyright � 2009 Marcia Yudkin




If a news story breaks that relates to the services or products you sell, become alert, find an interesting way to make the connection, and take action as soon as possible. This is one of the fastest and cheapest ways to earn media coverage that captures attention in the marketplace.



The news you use as a hook might be front-page stuff or much more obscure. It could be national, international or local.



Let's say you're a plumber and you learn that the price of copper, which has been sky-high for the last year, suddenly dropped. The connection is that homeowners will soon have an opportunity to undertake kitchen or bath renovations for less because the price of copper pipes will be lower.



Or an earthquake occurs halfway around the world, killing thousands, in a city thought to have a low risk of quakes. You own an insurance company. You now have an opening to offer advice on whether or not those living in your locale should have earthquake coverage.



Or a celebrity's young daughter gets kidnapped, ransomed and returned home unharmed. Your firm manufactures bracelets that also secretly function as location devices. Had the daughter been wearing one of your bracelets, the police would have been able to find her within an hour.



Got the idea?



In the first two of these situations, the business seeking publicity serves local customers only, so they should direct their publicity tie-in efforts to local newspapers, TV and radio. In the third situation, the company should aim at national publicity first, since their customers live anywhere.



The simplest way to jump into action with your breaking news connection is to call a media outlet you have reason to believe would consider your story relevant and track down the reporter or editor who handles the subject matter. This is much easier than it sounds. You see, tips are the lifeblood of news organizations, so that unlike companies that shield employees from the public, they have to have a system of channeling story suggestions to the proper person.



All you have to do is call the main telephone number of the media outlet, ask for the "news desk" and then ask who you should contact about a real estate (for our first example), business (for the second) or child safety (for the third) story. When you reach the person covering your topic, explain your news connection in four sentences or less. If you're leaving a voice mail message, end with your call-back number. If you're talking to someone live, finish your pitch, shut up and wait for their response.



You can make this sort of pitch by email also, if you have a reliable email address for a reporter, tip line or topical editor. Keep it brief and to the point and include a phone number as well as your email address for a reply.



When you're trying to interest national media in your story, pitching media outlets one by one takes too much time. If you have a particular media outlet you think would be a likely match for your publicity angle, contact them as described above. For example, the child safety bracelet story would be perfect for morning TV news shows like "Today" or "CBS This Morning." Otherwise, writing and distributing a press release is the way to go.



A press release presents your news tie-in in a specific journalistic-style format. (Google "sample press release" to find models to follow.) Normally these are 400 words or less - a page or so - in length. Use a press release distribution service such as PR Newswire, PRWeb or Emailwire to get your release in front or media people and the public.



Above all, do not delay. What's hot and exciting today may evoke no interest at all tomorrow or next week. Inform yourself now about all the steps described here so that when news breaks that can launch you into the public eye, you're prepared to jump right into action.






About The Author:



Publicity expert Marcia Yudkin is the author of 6 Steps to Free Publicity, Persuading on Paper, Web Site Marketing Makeover and eight other books.  She has engineered coverage for herself or her company in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Success, Women in Business and dozens of newspapers around the world.  Get free access to a one-hour audio recording in which she answers the most common questions about getting media coverage at http://www.yudkin.com/publicityideas.htm




Article Source: thePhantomWriters Article Submission Service

Tags: The Press Press Release Mass Media Publicity News Media Coverage Broa

Gone are the days when all research was done in the library and with encyclopedias. These days, students can almost avoid the library altogether throughout their education. The Internet is the main reason for this - online libraries, databases, and the World Wide Web have made nearly unlimited information available to its users. Of course, along with any type of good searching and researching practices, users must be cautious with the information they obtain.

It's absolutely true that there is a lot of information on the web, but it's equally true that not all of it is valid, usable, or based on fact. It is also valuable to switch up your search/research tactics from time-to-time, to find the strategy that produces the most desirable results for you.

The so-called "Big Three" search engines are: MSN, Google, and Yahoo. These three engines are popular for a reason. Nearly 72% of searchers use these three sites for results. At this point, all three of these engines are massive and moneyed.

They are able to employ powerful spider programs that can crawl the Internet, looking for and returning search results. Their funding makes them able to afford more computing power, better spiders, and whatever new technology evolves to comb the Internet in an automated fashion.

The downside to these popular engines is that results lists are becoming highly advertising-focused. The big marketing term that online marketers are consumed with is "search engine optimization" or SEO. With a focus on SEO, search results can lead to articles that are heavily laden with "keywords".

These keywords are often specifically implanted to draw better and higher placement on results pages. That doesn't necessarily translate into valuable or desired information for you, the searcher. In addition, the big three search engines incorporate sponsored-placed results in their lists. If searchers don't notice the "sponsored" classification, they may believe these results are part of the desired information, instead of merely advertisements.

An often-overlooked tool for searching the Internet is a Meta search engine. These Meta engines don't have the budget of the big engines, which is one reason they're frequently overlooked or simply ignored.

Another reason I believe they're overlooked is because they compile the results of multiple search engines. There's no benefit, in the eyes of the Big Three, to meta search engines, because their results are combined with their competitors'. Unless they can guarantee that their particular search results would be the highest ranked, they'd rather not deal with meta engines at all.

Meta search engines dampen the brand power of the bigger search engine companies. Plus, bigger search engines don't want you to find out that you prefer a different engine over theirs!

These underused meta search engines offer different perspectives and results than what you've come to expect from other search engines. Some of the best meta search engines currently available are: http://www.dogpile.com, http://www.widow.com, http://www.clusty.com, and http://www.surfwax.com.

Dogpile.com is perhaps the best-known of the meta engines. It complies the top 10 results from various sites, including the Big Three. As a comparison, widow.com uses a different mathematical equation to compile results, eliminating the sponsored results found on dogpile.com and minimizing repetition of content.

Clusty.com also compiles results, but separates out the sponsored results at the top of the page, making it far less confusing for users, as compared to digging through dogpile's mix of sponsored and unsponsored results. Finally, surfwax.com lists one-line results, giving you a large quantity of results at an eye's glance.

For a searcher who needs to find and sort through a great deal of information available online, meta search engines are the way to go. They ultimately save time for the researcher, who doesn't need to type in the same search terms over and over in each individual search engine. It also helps to cut down on repeat results if you use the right meta search engine (widow.com, for example, does a better job of not having repeats than dogpile.com, in my experience).

Niche search engines offer different results than the typical search engines, as well. For many Internet users, these niche engines are not even known to exist. However, hundreds of niche search engines do exist, on a wide-ranging set of topics or niches.

Some popular niche engines you may have heard about (and not realized were niche engines) include: http://www.technorati.com, http://www.healthline.com, and http://www.blog-search.com. Technorati.com focuses on the blogosphere of tech topics. Healthline.com is comprised of all things health and medical related. Blog-search.com focuses on, well, just what it sounds like - blogs!

Finally, human search directories offer yet another perspective for your searches. If you are not familiar with these, you really should give them a try sometime.

Directories like http://www.mahalo.com and http://www.dmoz.com are two examples of human search directories. In these, actual human beings research topics, providing pages with the most relevant results. They can be really interesting and spot-on, but they can also be highly subjective, according to who is assigned to a topic. As always, be cautious with the information you receive, as there is real potential for human error and human opinion to affect the search results.

Finally, when deciding which search engines to use for your searches and research, think of quantity versus quality. Some search engines will give you a high quantity of results, but they can contain a good portion of sponsored results, and a lowered portion of content results.

The purpose of researching a topic online is to learn new information, and if you are relying on the Big Three search engines, you might just find that there is nothing new to be seen under the Google, Yahoo or MSN.

A quality search engine should save time for the searcher, so keep your options open to less traditional search engines to get a more in-depth understanding of your topic!

 

About The Author:

Trey Pennewell is a writer, who writes about online marketing. Learn more about our Pay For Results SEO services at: http://www.linksandtraffic.com/seo-services/search-marketing.html Trey also manages article approvals at the free article directory located at: http://www.techcentralpublishing.com/Category/Computers-and-Technology/92/1

Article Source: thePhantomWriters Article Submission Service

Tags: SEO Online Research Search Engines Search Research Information School

Article Marketing Secret: How To Identify and Write For Your Target Market

Copyright � 2009 Bill Platt




Many people question as to what topic they should choose to write their articles... Fortunately, the short answer is simple... Write articles that appeal to your target market. But what does that mean exactly?



I always pose this set of three questions, when I am talking to clients about what they should write about:



1. What do you sell?



2. Who is most likely to buy what you are selling?



3. How can you "answer a question" or "solve a problem" to help those people who are likely to buy what you are selling?



What Do You Sell?



Maybe you sell widgets, cell phones, car parts, or marketing services... It does not matter what you sell... There will always be a topic that you can write your articles about.



Do keep in mind that the point of article marketing is not to directly sell your products, but rather to educate, inform, or entertain your reading audience. So long as you stick to the idea of educating, informing, or entertaining your readers, you will never have a shortage of people who want to read the articles you write.



However, if you keep your focus on trying to overtly sell your products or services in your "article" copy, then it will be difficult to find publishers who WANT to publish what you have written.



This is important to note, in that publishers NEED content, but publishers tend to be very picky about the content that they want to share with their readers. In order for a publisher to become or remain profitable, he or she must always serve the desires of his or her readers. And readers do not want to be sold to, preached to, or criticized. Instead, readers want to improve their lot in this life and solve the problems that they face.



If you keep the needs of the publisher foremost in your mind, and the wants of the reader, then article marketing is a great tool that can help you to earn thousands of dollars.



If you lose focus of what publishers and readers want, then all you can hope for is a few links from your articles, from a few websites that very few people visit or read.



Who Is Most Likely To Buy What You Are Selling?



Just because you sell cars does not mean that anyone who has a drivers' license is in your target market. Let us put this statement in perspective.

If you sell $2000 cars, most of the people in your target market are the poor - including those in poverty and students.

If you sell $10,000 cars, your market is mostly families in middle-class America. Occasionally, you will find the college kid coming to your store to buy a car for college, and sometimes you will see a bunch of tire kickers who can only pray to get financed.

If you sell brand new cars, your target market will again differ by what kinds of vehicles you sell. A Cadillac-buyer is different from the SUV-buyer and the economy-car buyer.

There is not a car dealership anywhere in the world that tries to target its advertising to everybody with a pulse and a drivers' license. It just does not happen. Either the dealership talks about its available cars and the benefits of owning a specific car, or the dealership points out that they can finance anyone.



Once you understand who is most likely to buy what you are selling, then figuring out what to write about has been made much easier.



Help Your Readers Solve A Problem



Before you start writing your article, you should try to get into the heads of the people most likely to buy what are selling. Those people as a general rule have common problems for which they seek solutions.



One way to get a handle on what those problems might be is to review the email correspondence and phone calls you have taken from your clients. If you read that email all at the same time, certain questions will be asked over and again. In fact, you might even have a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page on your website that you can reference at this point in the brainstorming session.



Your email and phone correspondence and the FAQ page on your website can lead you to a better understanding of the kinds of questions your customers are always needing to be answered for them.



Once you have achieved the understanding of what problems your customers seek to have solved for them, then you have to come to the magic formula for writing articles that find wide publication and a large readership.



In your article, present your readers with the questions that people have, and then present answers to the questions and show people how to solve their problems.



In doing so, publishers who have heard the same questions you have heard will be strongly inclined to publish your articles. And when publishers agree to publish your articles, you will be able to reach the publishers' readers and a huge network of already targeted people who are very likely to buy what you are selling.



Understanding The Mechanics Of Article Marketing



When you write your articles, it is important to remember a few key points while writing the articles. Those key points are:

The title serves to get your article opened, so it needs to be good.

The body of the article answers questions and sells readers on your credibility in the marketplace.

The article should be easy to read, and it should easily carry the reader to your About The Author information at the end of the article.

Once at your Resource Box (About the Author information), the role of the Resource Box is not to sell your products or services, but to get the reader to visit your website, where the real selling will take place.

Using the formula that I have outlined here, you are sure to find success with your article marketing endeavors.



Sure, I know some people might be thinking that the only reason for article marketing is building links, so all this extra effort would be unnecessary. But let me tell you something that I learn from time-to-time...



Did you know that if you write an article that gets published in a large newsletter that you can in fact earn $10,000 plus in sales from that single article? This is a lesson that I have learned more times than I can count. And to be honest, it is a lesson I like to learn.



Consider this... You can spend a few dollars and very little time to create an article that will generate a few back links, hopefully helping you to rank in the search engines for your target keywords. Or, you can spend a few more dollars and a little more time and create an article that could generate back links for the search engines AND find a wider audience for your article in newsletters - newsletters that could potentially deliver thousands of visitors to your website and generate thousands of dollars in sales in the next couple weeks. Which strategy makes more sense to you?



If you are wondering if I practice what I preach, then read this article again and then see my resource box below. I provide article distribution services to my customers, and my customers frequently ask me what they should write about in their articles and how to best construct those articles to reach a wider audience, and more specifically, their target audience. If I have answered these questions to your satisfaction, then visit my website and let me help you to promote your articles too.



This article was originally published here.






About The Author:



Bill Platt has been writing about article marketing and SEO for a number of years. If you have written an article that you feel is good enough to get publication in a major newsletter or website, then you owe it to yourself to use Bill's article distribution service at http://www.thephantomwriters.com/ If you are interested in learning about coop article marketing, then visit Bill's newest website: http://www.sponsorarticles.com/




Article Source: thePhantomWriters Article Submission Service

Tags: Publishers Websites Newsletters Article Marketing Secrets Target Market

How Information Products Help Customers Say Yes Faster

Copyright � 2009 Judy Murdoch




An unfortunate side effect of an economic slowdown like the one we're in currently, is spending slows down.



If you're a small business owner the slowdown in spending shows up in two ways:



1. Some prospects and customers who might have said "yes" in the past are now saying no because they simply don't have the resources to pay you



2. Those who DO have the resources are taking longer to say yes



This means less revenue coming in and if you own a small business, that's a big "ouch" for your bottom line.



=======================================
Oh the Irony of It All!
=======================================



What's funny about this situation in a not-so-funny way is that during economic downturns, your clients and customers need what you offer MORE THAN EVER!



Why? Because we're all in business to solve problems people have, right? Recessions typically multiply problems and amplify the pain we feel from those problems.



But we also become hyper-aware of the downside of our actions and we feel there's no wiggle room for error. We become extremely Risk Averse.



Whether or not their fear is founded in reality, customers step back and become less willing to do anything that is new or risky because they don't feel safe.



If you're having doubts whether you are offering something customers really need because your sales have slowed down, I'm suggesting it isn't that they don't need what you're selling--it's because these scary times are making them unusually risk averse and less willing to take chances.



=======================================
Reducing Perceived Risk Using Information Products
=======================================



To help your prospects and customers feel safer to spend, you need to reduce their perceived risk of working with you. There are many ways to do this including lowering your prices, doing one-day sales, etc. But I'm partial to creating information products because the benefits extend far beyond the immediate revenue streams they provide.



Information products reduce perceived risk for prospects and customers in two important ways:



1. It's easier to say "yes" to buying a $19 how-to guide than a six-month $4,000 consulting engagement.



2. When customers get results using your information products they develop confidence in your ability to deliver what you promise.



This makes it easy for your customers to feel good about buying your more expensive products and services.



=======================================
Two Easy Information Products Small Business Owners Can Create and Sell
=======================================



How-to guides and tip sheets are my favorite low cost information products to offer because it's easy for your prospects to see the value they'll get.

How-to guides teach them how to do something they've always wanted to do; step by step

Tips sheets tell them how to do something better and get better results

The other thing I love about how to guides and tip sheets is they're easy to create because all you're really doing is answering a common question you get from customers.



=======================================
Example: Using a How-to Guide as a Low Cost Information Product
=======================================



Amy is a coach who works with what she called the corporate "walking wounded"; typically high level managers who have successful corporate careers but are tired of the cost to their personal lives.



Amy's core service is one on one coaching; typically clients work with her for six month intervals at $600 per month.



Amy has noticed that even though stress levels are higher than ever, people who once would have said "yes" to becoming one-on-one clients are now saying things like,

"I'm just happy to have a job."

"What if I get laid off, I'll need that $600"

"What if I work with you and you don't help me?"

And they're putting off the possibility of working with her.



Amy asked herself "If there were just one thing I could do to help these folks what would that thing be?"



She realized that for busy, stressed out professionals, taking on something new would require very small, simple steps. Small to the point of being ridiculous.



So she did some brainstorming around small but significant changes her clients made and came up with over 100 small actions. She edited the steps down to 101 and created a booklet: 101 Ways to Have More Fun and Less Stress at Work.



She sells it on her website and brings a dozen hard copies to sell at networking events.



Amy is very clear that this booklet is not a substitute for her coaching services. However people who buy the booklet get some substantive help and a percentage of those who buy the booklet like what Amy has to say enough to eventually become one-on-one clients.



The results:

Amy reduced the perceived risk of her services and has helped 50 prospective customers who otherwise would have put off working with her

In addition, two prospects who otherwise may not have hired her, felt confident enough about what she had to offer that they signed up and became one-on-one coaching clients.

=======================================
Bottom Line
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During challenging times such as our current economic uncertainty, your customers become very sensitive to perceived risk and less willing to commit their time and money -- especially when it comes to buying new products and services.



If you aren't currently selling information products that enable prospects to get a small but significant taste of what you can do for them, you are missing an opportunity to bring more revenue to your business AND to help more customers sooner than later. My best to you and your business.






About The Author:



Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost, effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals, guerrilla marketing activities, and selected strategic alliances. To download a free copy of the workbook, "Where Does it Hurt? Marketing Solutions to the problems that Drive Your Customers Crazy!" go to http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm

You can contact Judy at 303-475-2015 or judy@judymurdoch.com




Article Source: thePhantomWriters Article Submission Service

Tags: Information Economic Slowdown Recession Small Business Info Products

I Was Quoted in the News, Now What? Publicity Dilemma 10

Copyright � 2009 Marcia Yudkin




Whether it was the Wall Street Journal or Hometown News Radio that quoted you last Monday, congratulate yourself. You have achieved a credibility-boosting distinction that many businesses never attain. And now let's figure out how you can derive lasting benefit from your media coverage.



As soon as possible, incorporate your media success into your marketing materials. "As featured in..." is a good all-purpose phrase that impresses people. Even better, there's no reason to ever remove this reference. Once featured on a TV or radio program or in a newspaper or magazine, you can always tout that having happened.



If you were highlighted in a publication or a broadcast that included web coverage, install a link from your site to their page about your company or you. Add a five-star media credential to your next set of business cards or print up labels about it to stick on your envelopes.



For print coverage, make nice-looking copies and mail them with a personal sticky note to current and past clients and folks trying to decide whether or not to do business with you. Include these copies in your media kit, and in any portfolio you use instead of or in addition to a brochure.



If you have an office where customers or clients come, frame clippings and hang them on the wall. If you have a storefront window, hang the clippings so passersby can read and detour in to do business with you. Whenever possible, mount clippings where they won't receive direct sunlight, and keep an eye on how faded your copy becomes. I've seen restaurants undermine the effect of a rave review because their clipping has faded to the color of parchment.



Watch out for a few no-no's. One business owner I interviewed for a Business 2.0 article excerpted long passages from my piece at his web site. When I pointed out that he was welcome to link to the article at Business 2.0's site but not to distort my work by cutting the portions that were not about him, he sheepishly (and wisely) complied.



Likewise, some publications want you to buy glossy reprints of the article in which you appeared from them rather than make your own. To stay on the right side of copyright regulations, you should do just that.



If you have loads of media mentions, create a list of the media entities that quoted or featured you and post that on your web site's About page. Include the list in your media kit, too. I've seen companies create attractive and impressive "Featured in..." displays using the media logos rather than just their names.



And suppose the media said negative things about you? It's okay to quote and attribute the positive phrases sprinkled there amidst criticism, as long as you preserve the meaning. From People Magazine having said, "Excellent dreck!" you cannot extract "'Excellent!' - People Magazine."



Finally, consider whether you can recycle the idea that earned you media coverage with a different news tie-in or an updated angle. Sometimes you can engineer a creative rerun. For instance, in 1990, when fax machines were new, I got quite a lot of media coverage for what I pitched as an "edit by fax" service. Five years later, I successfully repitched the service as "marketing upgrades," a low-cost alternative to the high cost of top-notch copywriters. A few years after that, I reformulated the same service as "copywriting on call," with a rewrite as close and convenient as one's Internet connection.



With at least a few of these steps, your media mentions will bring you long-lasting blessings!






About The Author:



Publicity expert Marcia Yudkin is the author of 6 Steps to Free Publicity, Persuading on Paper, Web Site Marketing Makeover and eight other books.  She has engineered coverage for herself or her company in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Success, Women in Business and dozens of newspapers around the world.  Get free access to a one-hour audio recording in which she answers the most common questions about getting media coverage at http://www.yudkin.com/publicityideas.htm




Article Source: thePhantomWriters Article Submission Service

Tags: Publicity Dilemma Publicity News Media Coverage Media Kit Press Kit Bl

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