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"..We have the latest marketing data on
your website
and the board has approved your marketing budget
for the next fiscal year.
Let's have a meeting to decide
when the next staff meeting should be."
Your bedside alarm rings. Wake up! Welcome to the REAL
world. You are short on cash and time, and you need results as soon as possible. You have
one reliable employee - - YOU.
 I have outlined ten
"steps" that you can use to help you be more successful on a shoestring budget.
I have used these ideas every day to build a successful Internet business and perhaps you
can too!!
- Find your niche.
Try to identify something that people need.
Look into your own life and see what you need. Maybe other people might need the same
thing. When I started the Homeschool Zone,
my wife and I needed to find a way to educate our two daughters. In gathering the
information to do this, we found many other people in the same boat. This was a real niche
that was being underserved - an opportunity!
- Know your product
 Whatever product or
service you are selling, know all about it. If you have found your niche properly, you are
probably already an expert in that area and have developed expertise over many years. You
will also have passion about your product. Doing the marketing research for your product
is fun, because you love it anyway!
- Have Content, Not
Just Ads.
 Most
websites have flashing lights saying "new", "buy me", "ain't I
cute", but the bottom line is that they're JUST selling stuff. If someone wants your
product or service, give them a reason to visit you. If you're selling cross stitch kits,
have some cross stitch tips and tricks that might be useful. They might tell their
cross-stitching friends, who may stop by, and perhaps buy some kits.
- Events &
Recurring themes.
 Once you've
persuaded someone to visit your site, give them a reason to come back AGAIN. You'd never
buy a newspaper that always has the same headline everyday. A very successful program on
our website is the Craft-of-
the-Week, where each week people can come by and see a new craft for FREE that they
can try. We do the same thing with Recipe-of-the-Week.
Since this is a constant feature that is always changing, people get in the habit of
dropping by. People also get comfortable in visiting you and will develop trust.
- Know Your
Customers.
 Give your
customers an easy way to give you feedback. When you were in grade school, you always
preferred the "multiple choice" exam to the "essay question". People
haven't changed, since they were kids. If you just provide an e-mail address, they may not
use it. People like to use click boxes and forms to send you information. Use this
information to get a better idea of what your customers want.
- Develop Your
Community.
 Reach out to people who have
already found you. Tell them what you're doing on a regular basis, that is not just a
blatant ad. Newsletters are a great way to get people to read your material and perhaps
re-visit you. They provide for community building. People in your virtual community, may
have good ideas. Your newsletter may provide the vehicle for their ideas to get out and
attract even more people. A newsletter that serves a niche community is a great way to
fuel the passion you have (see idea #3) and to attract the people who feel the same way.
(see our discussion communities, we have here)
- "Help"
Your Way to Success
 Use the
"Power of Serendipity" As you go from place to place on the net, see if there
are people who have a problem that you can solve. "Pull the thorn from their
claw" and perhaps they might become a new customer. Perhaps a newsgroup/lmail-list
onlooker, with a similar problem, might see your solution. They may become another
customer for you. I find that some of my best ideas come from serendipity of interactions
with people. Perhaps you might identify a new way that you can use your core competency to
offer a new service, based on an idea you develop while helping someone. In our HotFlash group, we have a
wonderful service that helps women learn more about their health in a friendly interactive
format.
- Be an expert
 No one
knows more about your business than you. Don't be shy. Expand on idea #7 and write
articles for your own newsletter and/or syndicated articles in other people's newsletters,
just like this one (you're reading this, aren't you?). Go to newsgroups and listserv
discussion groups, but don't just spew ads for your product. That is such a turn-off. If
you are helpful and knowledgeable, your contact info in the tag line (see idea#10) at the
end may provide a route to new business contacts and sales.
- Honesty &
Courtesy
The beauty of the net is the democratization
of information, allowing the little guy to have access to a big audience. This is a double
edged sword, however. The "power of e-mail" could backfire, with the "power
of the CC:", rendering your campaign severely tarnished. The old "Golden
Rule" is very important in any sustainable strategy. Treat people as you would want
then to treat you. Word of mouth is the most powerful marketing weapon in our arsenal,,
and we are actually proud to wield it. Don't throw it away.
- Word of Mouth -
The "Signature File"
Help people find you and tell their friends.
Use a signature file for your e-mail. Most e-mail programs let you create a SMALL text
file with your name, e-mail address and a maybe your website address & motto. Please
keep it small! I am often turned-off with massive and unwieldy signature files, bigger
than the message itself, which are more autobiographical sketch, than signature. For many,
these files have proliferated like the crab grass near your mailbox. It should be no more
than four lines and should give people a short and easy concept to grasp.
I hope that you have enjoyed these ideas. Incorporate them
into your daily marketing activities. They should help you develop more clients.
Oh,
by the way, when people ask you how you became successful....
Tell them Joe Spataro gave you some great ideas that helped you be successful.
 (idea
#7) ;-)
 HomeBiz
How to Get
Your Husband to Back Your Business
by Liz Folger,
Work-at-Home Mom Expert
  "Please -- Pretty Please!! I really, really want to do
this." From the sounds of things you'd think a parent and a child were in "one
of those" arguments. But it's really a wife trying to persuade her husband to let her
work from home. Getting your husband to back your home business can, at times, be as
hazardous as those black diamond ski slopes.
Faces of Home
Education Profile
The Pattern of Success
Homeschooler sews her
way to a successful business
hosted by Joe Spataro
  Homeschooler
Jennie Chancey was able to take advantage of the flexibility offered by homeschooling to
learn how to sew. She has turned this love into a successful
business called Sense & Sensibility. I had the opportunity to interview
Jennie and ask her a few questions about homeschooling, her vintage dressmaking business
and how she is helping other homeschoolers to share in her love of vintage dressmaking. |
 
Creative Cash
Homemade Money
by Brabara Brabec
 
Articles from author Jonni McCoy
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