Archive for the Category »Networking Online «

I was planning on writing about how to market yourself online and what you should think about for your target market and ideal customer.  However, this article makes some good points about target market.

How To Market Yourself Online
by SolveYourProblem.com

The internet, just like every other aspect of the business, you need to market yourself, your business and your products. Marketing on the internet is not hard to do and is cost effective as well. Here we will have a look at what you can do to get your internet marketing up and running so you too can have a good amount of traffic on your business website.

One of the first and most important things you should do is think who your target buyers are. You may have already done this in your business plan but if not here are some things you should take into account.

  • Who is your product for, is it gender or age specific?
  • Is your product for a certain type of person or occupation, like home businesses, executives, and students or stay at home parents?
  • Will your target consumer be able to afford your product?

A good way to find out what your target consumer spends on products and services are to get a hold of and have a look at some reports that detail such information like:

  • What your target consumer income is.
  • How much they spend on services and products.
  • How much they can budget for with products like yours.
  • How much they spend on the internet.
  • Once you have worked out who your target consumers are, it will be easier for you to find that group of people through specific marketing routes.

Below are some ways you can market your business effectively online.

Make your website search engine friendly.When a person looks for something on the internet through a search engine, that search engine sends out robot spiders. This robot spider goes through pages to find and index the user’s keywords and places a link to those websites that have those keywords on the search page. You achieve this by having rich keyword content related to the products on your website. Have these keywords in your title, headings and all related content that you can fit them in, and construct Meta tags and descriptions. Once done submit your website to all the search engines that you can find, many host this service for free.

Linking to and from other websites will help you boost your search engine ranking as well as bring in more traffic. You can achieve this in a number of ways; the most popular is by joining directories. The best ones to join are the ones that are closest to your category of product and service. Another way you can link to other pages is to set up a link page on your website; it will contain links to websites who also host a link to your website. You could write articles for online newsletters that will give you a link at the end of the article, or have an article on your website that other sites will have interests in linking to.

Use your email to your advantage. When you write emails it is easy to include a signature, this can display your website link and a little of what it is about, but remember to keep it short. Another thing you can do is compile a newsletter of your own. This is easy to do and is a great way to build trust with potential clients. Consider putting in your newsletter things like new products, information that will benefit both your business and your reader and what is coming up in the future like sales. You can get people to sign up to your list by having a ‘subscribe to newsletter’ form on your website. Remember not to spam. This service is usually free but you can always rent an email list, this is a list of people who agree to receive commercial email and offers.

Other things you can do in marketing your website are banner exchanges, promote in forums, discussion boards or online journaling, and ask visitors to bookmark your website.

You can always step up a notch and go with advertising; you can do this a number of ways like buying text ads in newsletters. Newsletter’s ads are cheap and can be placed in newsletters that suit your target buyer. Affiliate programs, this works by someone having your link on their site and being paid a commission every time someone clicks on your link and buys a product. Pay per click ad programs, these are run by search engines and you only pay when someone clicks on your link. Listing your product with shopping comparison sites or with auction sites is another option you can take. They work by comparing your product and prices with other products.

The above is just some of the ways you can go about marketing your business website, there are others. Remember getting potential buyers to your website is only half the battle, next you got to them to buy a product.

What ideas do you have for how to market yourself online?

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The first year being a new Etsy seller can be fun, frustrating and confusing. Here are a few tips to keep in mind while you start to work at home online.

1 – Limit the amount of time you spend on the forums.

You need to focus your attention on creating new products for your store. If you are on the forum looking for tips, be sure to have a notebook with you and actually write down what you plan on trying. Also, if you are on the forum to promote your business, just spend a limited amount of time. Be considerate, give advice and share your knowledge. Don’t just look at what your going to get out of a conversation.

2 – Consider selling on both Ebay and Etsy.

Look for offline places to sell your products as well. The point of this is that it relaxes your brain a bit. You aren’t all stressed out about making the Etsy store work. Less stress = more creativity and nicer communications with others.

3 – Consider making a few purchases from other Etsy sellers to gain some positive feedback.

This is a great tip if you are new to Etsy and have little or no feedback, but it’s a good idea as a veteran seller too. Many buyers are wary of buying from brand-new sellers especially if they do not have feedback.

4 – Offer free shipping with your products. 

It can make a difference on how fast some items will sell. Be sure to accommodate the shipping in your listing price. Remember, you will also pay a little more in fees with the shipping included so may want to consider adjusting for that too. Consider writing ”free shipping” in your title.

5 – Use Tags because this is how potential customers will find you. Most will do a search on Etsy. Use all the tag spots available.

If you want to sell different things in your shop, then go right ahead! I like that type of store myself. It seems like a fun boutique. I get to dig around and see what I can find.

What tips do you have for the new Etsy seller?

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I don’t know about you, but I’m very impatient when it comes to waiting for new blog visitors. You’re writing your heart out and having a good time. But, it would sure be more fun to see your readership grow each day. Advertising your blog is a key task you should have in your business plan. The good news is it doesn’t have to be hard or expensive.

Advertising Your Blog In Your Email Signature

If you have a blog that you are particularly proud of and that you want to share with other people, there are a lot of free ways that you can get your blog noticed.

One of those ways is something that you do everyday. You may not even consider as a way to share your blog. Put the link to your blog in your email signature.

Chances are that you send out emails more times than you can count during the day. Each time you send out an email, you can advertise your blog by putting the address of your blog in your email’s signature.

Tip 1) It’s always a good idea to write something catchy like ” See what I am up to now”  or “Read my latest chapter of my story here”.  It all depends on what type of blog you have.

Tip 2) The thing to remember about putting an advertisement in your signature for your blog is to make it short, but eye-catching.

Tip 3) You want people to be interested enough to want to click on it, but you also don’t want to scare them off.

Tip 4) Just like it is with any advertisement, you want to give them just enough to be interested and take a closer look at what it is that you are advertising.

Tip 5) Think about what it is that your blog is about. What is really going to interest people about it and want to visit. That is what you should include in your signature, and that is what is going to get people to go to your blog.

We all like to think that our website will be memorable. Of course, those that have stopped by will remember the name of our blog or website and stop by again.  The truth is that most of the time we don’t remember where we have surfed. And, even if we sign up for a newsletter we might not even remember the name of the blog or website it belongs too.

For that reason alone, you should always advertise your blog in your email signature.

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Here are six ideas to help you start your viral marketing campaign:

1. Purchase the branding rights to a viral E-book. Allow people to give away your free E-book to their visitors. Then, their visitors will also give it away. This will just continue to spread your ad all over the Internet.

2. If you have the ability to set up a forum or other bulletin board, you really have a great tool. Allow people to use your online discussion board for their own website. Some people don’t have one. Just include your banner ad at the top of the board.

3. Do you have a knack for web design? Create some templates, graphics, etc. and upload them to your site. Then, allow people to give away your free web design graphics, fonts, templates, etc. Just include your ad on them or require people to link directly to your web site. Make sure that you include a link back to your site in the copyright notice and require them to keep your copyright notice in tact. If you create Etsy shop, set up your blog and start giving away other graphic items to spread your name around the Internet.

4. Write an E-book. Allow people to place an advertisement in your free E-book if, in exchange, they give away the E-book to their web visitors or E-zine subscribers.  Make it match your product. If you make custom jewelry, write a book about how you detect quality craftsmanship when you purchase handmade jewerly. Talk about how to care for the jewelry. Then you can link to your Etsy shop to give examples of quality materials.

5. Write articles that pertain to your product or service. Allow people to reprint your articles on their website, in their E-zine, newsletter, magazine or E-books. Include your resource box and the option for article reprints at the bottom of each article. Brainstorm about your ideal customer. What would they be interested in reading? Write to them and help them solve their problems.

6. You can easily find products on the Internet that will sell you a license allowing you to distribute the product free of charge to other people. Look for those products that provide “branding rights”. That is where you can include your own name, website, and contact information.

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A lot of successful websites depend on returning visitors to account for a major part of their traffic. Returning visitors are easier to convert into paying customers because the more often they return to a site, the more trust they have in that site. The credibility issue just melts away. Hence, keep  visitors coming back to your site with the following methods:

1) Start a forum, chat room or shout box

When you start a forum, chat room or shoutbox, you are providing your visitors a place to voice their opinions and interact with their peers — all of them are visitors of your site. As conversations build up, a sense of community will also follow and your visitors will come back to your site almost religiously every day.

2) Start a web log (blog)

Keep an online journal, or more commonly known as a blog, on your site and keep it updated with latest news about yourself. Human beings are curious creatures and they will keep their eyes glued to the monitor if you post fresh news frequently. You will also build up your credibility as you are proving to them that there is also a real life person behind the website.

3) Carry out polls or surveys

Polls and surveys are other forms of interaction that you should definitely consider adding to your site. They provide a quick way for visitors to voice their opinions and to get involved in your website. Be sure to publish polls or surveys that are strongly relevant to the target market of your website to keep them interested to find out about the results.

4) Hold puzzles, quizzes and games

Just imagine how many office workers procrastinate at work every day, and you will be able to gauge how many people will keep visiting your site if you provide a very interesting or addicting way of entertainment. You can also hold competitions to award the high score winner to keep people trying continuously to earn the prize. This is a really fun way to build a successful website.

5) Update frequently with fresh content

Update your site frequently with fresh content so that every time your visitors come back, they will have something to read on your site. This is the most widely known and most effective method of attracting returning visitors, but this is also the least carried out one because of the laziness of webmasters. No one will want to browse a site that looks the same over ten years, so keep your site updated with fresh bites!

What are your favorite ways to keep visitors coming back to your website?

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Many moms out there have a dream of writing a book. Some start and never finish, and some leave the dream in their head. Not everyone can write the great American novel, but that does not stop people from trying. That’s okay though, as that is what dreams are for. If you want to try something, you should give it a good go before you decide it’s not for you.

Some dream of being a writer and find out that they just don’t like it. Those who love it, and manage to power through, can write something wonderful. If you can do that, you can soon be writing for pay. You do have to protect yourself though, and that means you have to know how to copyright a book.

Copyright is something that is implied when something is written more…

Today I have another fun and easy way to do a joint venture with another mom who also works at home online.

Write a small report together

This can be as simple as the article idea only kicking it up a notch by asking for some more cooperation from the partners. You’ll work together in creating the report; giving both of you credit and links back to your websites. more…