Word Press vs. Blogger, my thoughts!

Technorati Tags: Blogger,Word Press,University of Puerto Rico,Seth Godin,Darren Rowse,Mike Glaspie,John Chow,Blogging,Social Media,SEO,Business Strategy,Marketing,COBOL,Fortran,payroll,entrepreneur

A respected friend, and esteemed entrepreneur ask me why I keep my blog on the Blogger platform and not on Word Press. I have to admit, that I have asked myself the same question, specially after reading so many derogatory articles by fellow bloggers and entrepreneurs.

The common wisdom is that serious entrepreneurs will not give you the time of day if you host your website or your blog on a free platform, because they think that you might not be serious or are small potatoes.

Here are my reasons for using Blogger and MSN Office Live:

1. Well, I am small potatoes when compared to Seth Godin, Darren Rowse, Mike Glaspie, John Chow, and the likes. I am still in the process of making my fist few millions of dollars, so, I cut expenses, while at the same time producing the best product I possibly can.

2. I have always liked to challenge the system. Back in 1977, my old Fortran teacher told us that you could not create a Payroll in Fortran. When asked by my Special Projects teacher at the University of Puerto Rico to program something different, I did just that, I created Payroll in Fortran. It gave me a headache, but, what the heck, I proved my teachers wrong and got an “A” for originality.

3. If at least one person has being able to do something, and succeeded, that means that someone else, with determination and smarts, can do exactly the same thing.

4. Of the five platforms that I tried, three free and two paid, I like Blogger better (call it personal preference). I would like to change a few things on my blog, but right now I am way too busy, so I enjoy the ease of use.

5. I am sharing my experience free of charge. I do not do private consulting (yet), and even though I keep a few ads on my site, I make my living from my other day jobs. So, if someone does not want to read my blog because I am on Blogger, it really does not affect my bottom line.

I have read many really awful blogs in English and Spanish. I’m talking about orthographical, and grammatical mistakes galore. Yes, I still make some of those. And, in some blogs, the writer’s train of thought and logic is hard to follow, but I have found some incredible nuggets of wisdom here and there. Whether it is on SEO, or Business Strategy, or Social Media, or Marketing, or Blogging, I read almost every blog I can find, and learn from all of them. In my opinion, those who refuse to read a blog because it is published on a free platform, are denying hemselves valuable information. So, I will continue to use blogger, and most likely will continue to use MSN Office Live to host my sites. Word Press has more plugins, but I still like Blogger.

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Intellectual Honesty in Marketing and Life

When I spent a few weeks without updating my Face Book Groups, I was expecting to see their membership reduced probably by a few dozen people. I was pleasantly surprised to see that in all actuality, the groups did grow, if not by much, they were alive and thriving.

I have friends who have groups three and four times the size of mine; and I am happy for them. Hopefully, they are making a lot of money, and helping others at the same time. I could have grown my groups by a lot, if I had used the same principles that I used to create them. But in reality, I am more interested in giving freely to the community. My work schedule could be considered backbreaking; so I do not feel bad about not having breached the thousand members yet.

This morning however, when I visited my groups for a second, I saw that three people had signed off. I was in a hurry, since I was running late for my part time job. “Note to self, Blog about my part time job.”

A few hours later, I started my research, and an idea came to mind.

My last post was about Honesty, and credibility… If you have not read it, please do.

I knew when I wrote that post, that it would be controversial; specially, after I posted another bit of news (this time from a newspaper blogger) to my Face Book Profile. It did generated a lot of views, controversy, and comments.

I dislike conflict, that is my nature. You would say, “yeah right, this guy spent 22 years as a professional Soldier, is a martial artist, at 42, earned the 2d Infantry Division Heavy weight Tae Kwon Do Championship for his belt class, and he says that he hates conflict?” Well, believe it or not, I do.

But I ran with the post. I try to be intellectually honest, and as a blogger, I express my ideas. If you have read some of my posts, by now you know that I emphasize honesty and integrity in business and in life. Yet, when you stick by your guns, speak your mind, and make your beliefs known, people will call you controversial.

I do a lot of work in Civil Rights, and unfortunately, I see the good and the bad in mankind, more often than not, I see the bad; and have to confront it face to face. So, when on my last post I started by exposing how the media here in the United States used the comments of a blogger , a fake one at that (the author of the blog was a fictional character created as an idea for a TV show according to Associated Press), to trash a candidate for Vice President of the Nation, I knew that I would be touching some readers sensitive spot. Yet I ran with it anyway.

So, at this point I tell you today, that as a business person or an entrepreneur, there will be times when you will shake your head. And have doubts about what you are about to do. That my friends, is the time to ask yourself some questions:

1. Is it legal? If not, why are you considering it in the first place?

2. Is it morally right?

3. Who will be affected by my decision?

4. What kind of effect will my business suffer, or enjoy, as a consequence of my actions?

5. How will the image of my business or mine be affected?

6. Will I loose revenue? Will I have to lay off personnel?

7. Is there any other way to achieve my goal without harming anyone?

Intellectual honesty brings rewards as well as not so great consequences; but at the end, to me, it is important that I can look at the guy who is looking back at me when I face a mirror and be satisfied.

One of the hardest things that humans do, is becoming aware of themselves, and the reason it is hard, is because sometimes we do not like what we see. Sometimes we see weakness, or selfishness, or ignorance, or evil. Some of these characteristics, can be changed, but is not that easy.

I equate these traits to an addiction. You cannot change anything in yourself, if you are not aware of it. The alcoholic will not stop binge drinking as long as she or he does not realize that they have a problem. The addict will not quit the habit as long as he or she continues to find excuses for their behavior.

Businesses take the identity and some of the traits of their founders and managers. Why am I saying this? A business will be only as successful as their managers or owners. So, if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, I suggest that you start by analyzing yourself. What are your motivations? Making money? There is nothing wrong with that. Is how you go about making your goals a reality that matters.

Remember the list of questions that I suggested you ask yourself when you are about to make a decision and the butterflies start messing around in your gut? Use the same questions when is time to make a business decision as when is time to make a personal one.

Intellectual honesty does not come cheap or easily, it takes guts, but, as you make it a habit of doing the right thing, it will indeed become easy. That uneasy feeling is what is call a cognitive dissonance, in other words, when your values contradict what you are about to do. Understand that your values are yours alone. Some other people might believe the way you do, but some others will believe otherwise, and there is where controversy starts. There is no way to convince everybody all of the time; and the sooner you come to terms with this reality, the sooner you will achieve peace. As long as you remain honest to yourself, your conscience will be ok.

But, as always there is a but somewhere in there… as a good friend of mine suggests every time we teach, look at yourself in the mirror. Be honest with yourself, find something that you cannot quite put your finger on, and that either cause you to doubt, or straight up makes you feel uncomfortable, and you would like to improve on. Understand where that trait, or habit came from, and figure out a way to modify that behavior, habit, or way of thinking. Make it a point to improve yourself, one day at a time.

Being intellectually honest with yourself, makes it easier to be honest with others as well. And as you portray the image of the honest person, you also portray the image of the honest business person. A lot of people might not agree with what you say or do, but eventually, they will learn to respect you and your business. Personally, I don’t like crooks, and can’t care less what they think of me. As long as I am honest with myself, and in all my dealings, my business will be ok, and so will I.

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Intellectual Honesty 101

Intellectual dis honesty

The world in turmoil, the door of opportunity opens

As the world is in turmoil, and hopes and dreams are crushed, the weak will lay down and perish, while the visionary and the strong will just get up, brush off the dust, and keep on going. One of my favorite sayings: “when the going gets tough, the tough gets going”, is as valid as always.

The eyes of the world are fixed in the United States. Will the economy of the most powerful nation in the world recover, or collapse? Will the United States repeat the mistakes of the past and re live the great depression of the 30’s?

Who knows… Seth Godin has a point when he said: “most of us aren't focused on flipping assets. We're building value by creating interactions that work, by writing stories that spread or by designing products and services that actually create something worth paying for.”
We are talking about the bloggers, the marketing experts, the thinkers, those who pride themselves on providing a worthwhile product, and more often than not, they provide value.

There will always be a place for those who refuse to give in, and with hope, and optimism, face the future, thus, making life better, not only for themselves but for others as well.

There is no limits to what the mind can create. Success does not come easy either. It requires discipline, persistence, and intuitiveness. A good does of imagination does not hurt either.

Keep on trucking, keep on writing, the doors of opportunity will always be open for those with the right frame of mind.

What is an affiliate program?

What is an affiliate program? How do I find the one for me?

An affiliate program is any system that allows you to interact, contribute, improve upon, distribute, and or market a particular idea, product, or service.

An affiliate program has many of the benefits of owning your own business, without the hassle of actually having to run it by yourself. Payroll, storage, shipping, handling, delivery, etc, are some of the most gratifying tasks of owning your own business, but like everything in life, too much of a good thing, can be hazardous to your health. At first, you might be having fun, but unless you absolutely love what you do, it will eventually get old, and something will have to give, either your business suffers, or the freedoms, and perks of owning your own business will translate to slavery (working 10-16 hour days, always taking care of problems, and never being able to take a day of).

But how many affiliate programs are there for me to choose? Two words: TOO MANY. So, how do I find out, which are worth my time and hard earned money? Lets do this:

a. Find something that is worthy of receiving your endorsement. Remember, if you are going to advertise it, your name brand, your name, your image, will be associated with it. If you peddle every little junky product out there, you will loose credibility. On the same token, if you always recommend high quality products and or services, people will learn to trust you. So, the best I can tell you is that you make sure to do your research, because in everything that you invest money in, there is always the risk of loosing your shirt. It is a lot easier to maintain an honest image by virtue of being honest, than it is to reinvent yourself every few years.


b. Only you can determine what is too little money for you. You might be very altruistic, but the bottom line is that if you want to continue to be altruistic, you need to make money. The more you make, the more altruistic you can afford to be. So make sure that whatever program you get yourself involved with pays a decent commission. To me, a decent commission is anything over 30%. Some will pay you 50%, and if you are lucky, you might find something paying 60%. Who knows, it is up to you. But remember that if you are investing the time, you need to be paid.

c. Ensure that your affiliate program tracks every possible way to sell a product and service. Unfortunately, with the advent of the Internet, many affiliate programs concentrate only in the online portion of the business. So the fax orders, the mail orders, the phone orders, are fulfilled, but not credited to you. Make sure that whatever affiliate program you go into, can track the old fashion snail mail transactions.

d. Check out how easy it is to make a sale. If five people of every hundred that visit and inquire about the program joins, or purchase it, you will be doing great. The higher the percentage rate, the better.

e. Is your program sink or swim? When you get your affiliates, you should provide them with tools for success, from links, to examples of advertisement. The better the support, the longer they will stay being your affiliates.

f. Read all contracts, agreements, and websites. Also, do a web search for the names of the people affiliated with the management of the program, and try to find anyone who has done a review of the particular program you are contemplating joining. I have found that just five minutes and few well placed key words, can provide you with food for thought, and give you judgment elements that you will need in order to make an intelligent decision.

g. As with everything, only invest money that you can afford to loose.

Do not put all your eggs in one basket. Diversify, change niches, and try several programs. Life is flexible, you be too. Do your homework and you will be successful.

Why do you want to be and entrepreneour?

For the money? Freedom (Braveheart comes to mind), dreams, hated your old boss? Why do you do it? Who knows? For some strange reason we love the challenge, and we insist on putting our necks on the line every day, or at least our wallets.

As an old Army recruiter, we were taught that people joined the military for five reasons: Money, Adventure, Education, Patriotism, or to Travel.

Oh heck there he goes again telling old war stories… LOL

Well, I did spent a lot of time in the Army, I might have learned a thing or two, and might as well share it with you all.

Lets condense review reasons and see what motivates most of us to become entrepreneurs.

Money is probably number one. Many of us would not get out of bed if we were not going to get paid. Money does not buy happiness, but it sure can help us provide for our families, and take us places where we can expand our horizons. In addition, money allows us to expand our business, and make more money. Ok, so it is a vicious cycle. I haven’t heard those who complaint about the rich people state that they ever got a job from someone who was broke, or that they were able to become debt free without making money first.

Adventure is a concept not usually associated with becoming an entrepreneur, but if you think about it, there is the excitement and the anticipation of planning the next business deal, and the adrenaline rush that comes from masterfully presenting your business proposal, and the ecstasy of succeeding where others failed. So the same emotions that we feel when we are entering uncharted territory are felt by the entrepreneur looking to seal the next deal.

Education is needed if you are going to succeed in business, whether formal (college) or informal (someone took you under his or her wing), unless you are willing to learn by failing, you will need to spend time sharpening the proverbial axe. Abraham Lincoln once said that if you had one hour to cut down a tree, you should spend the first 45 minutes sharpening the axe. Translation? Prepare yourself. Learn the art of persuasion, hypnotic selling, study the laws of the State where you will do business, learn about Internet Marketing, the sky is the limit.

Traveling is one of my favorite activities. I love meeting new people, new cultures. Today, the economy of the planet is a global economy, and unless you are just trying to open a street corner grocery store (nothing wrong with that) we have the potential of having a truly international business. So, if you really want to succeed, expand your horizons, learn to appreciate diversity, and get to know other cultures. So what if they speak funny, to them you speak funny too. In all my travels around the world, I found out that most people, in every culture, just want to feed their families, and be happy.

And patriotism; what can be more patriotic than to help stimulate the economy of your Nation by virtue of being a successful merchant or marketer. When the economy of a Nation grows, education follows soon after, jobs are created, health is improved, mortality rates decrease, and in many instances, a sense of National Pride is common among the citizens.

So why again do you work so hard to be an entrepreneur? Who knows, but whatever your reason, the ramifications are far reaching and the good that you achieve and spread makes us all better people.

Leverage, the key to success:

You want to be an extremely successful individual, don’t you?

I dare to bet that you have seeing many would be marketers, with incredible potential come and go, and for a long time, you have asked, how come so and so, with his or her powerful presence, knowledge, and drive, did not achieve the success that was there for the taking.

And you have asked yourself, maybe a few times, if he or she failed, then how can I expect to succeed?

The reality of the situation is that even though those would be successful MLM, or Social Media Stars, had the potential to succeed; sometimes they do not have the right tools to ensure success.

The purpose of any marketing campaign is to put a product or service in front of many sets of eyes, and convince them that such product or service will fill a very important need in their lives. The job of the marketer is to ensure that this happens.

This premise seems simple enough, right?

Well, not really, it so happens that it fails to take into consideration a critical part of the equation, the prospective buyer.

Why would someone not buy this incredible product or service that I am promoting? Maybe:

a. They do not want it.
b. They do not want to buy from you. They do not trust you.
c. They do not have the money.
d. They do not need the product.

Ok, lets look at all of those, I could write a complete chapter on each of those, but lets limit our analysis to the basics.

a. They do not want your product. Most of the things that we buy on a daily basis, we do not really need. You did not need the house you just bought; you already had a roof over your head. And yet, you purchase that house. Once we see the house, the new car, the diamond ring, or someone shows them to us and explains their advantages; we can no longer live without that product or service. Appeal to their emotions, and they will become receptive to your message.

b. Your customer does not want to purchase from you, because they do not trust you. You either remind them of their brother in law, ex husband, ex wife, or they have being burned before, or heard that someone lost their shirt because they bought whatever it is that you are selling. Unless you develop credibility, and act and look professional, your sales record will not impress anyone. Start by becoming a real expert on your product, and while you are at it, make sure that you yourself would purchase that product or service; otherwise, your prospect will see that you do not believe in the product, so they will not buy from you.

c. They do not have the money. Lets face it, the economy is not doing that great and many people live paycheck to paycheck. So, unless you have a way to finance whatever it is you are selling, and you honestly believe that your customer’s life will be better off by purchasing your product or service, find a new customer.

e. I hate pushy salespeople. If they do not need your product or service, don’t sell it to them. They will appreciate your honesty, and you can probably get some referrals from them, and who knows, maybe, in the future, they might call you and get your item.

The bottom line is that not everybody will buy your product; but trust me, it is not personal.

Remember that your prospective customer is a human being, treat them with respect, not just like a prospect, or a future down line, and chances are, your sales stats or your recruiting average will improve.

Five not so secret keys to marketing

A lot of people talk about marketing, they want to develop a marketing business, they talk social media marketing, multi level marketing, and truth be told, many do not have the least idea of what marketing implies. Lets bounce five ideas that might give you a leg up and kick-start your business.

First things first: lets talk about your level of commitment to your product. Are you convinced that it is the best product available? What does that has to do with marketing? I am a firm believer that your integrity has to come first. I cannot advertise a product that I cannot honestly say it works, or has the true potential to work. As so, I am truly passionate about what I do, and the passion can be felt in my writing, in my speeches, and in everything I do. You would be surprised at the difference that commitment makes in an advertising campaign.

Number two: how is your support system? Who is your partner, and what kind of ideas he or she brings to the table? Are they zapping your energy with negativity? They need to be as committed to the product as you are. Their passion should complement yours.
Third: make sure that you give 100% effort to your customer, or whatever it is that you are marketing. A half-baked idea, or a lacking ad campaign will produce just that, mediocre results.

Fourth: do the absolute best job that you can do for every customer. Your fame will multiply, and you will get what others envy: repeat customers, and true referrals. If your product is good, you have the passion, and your firm exemplifies ethics, values, and an emphasis in customer service, you will have no problem later on, since your customers will give you the greatest compliment of them all: referrals.

And fifth: not everybody knows everything. So when you have doubts, talk to your loyal friends. If you are a good friend, the relationships that you have cultivated, will be there for you. Ask, and when your friends ask for suggestions, you be there for them too. In that way, it is a mutual benefit relationship.
Do this, and you will prosper.

So you want to make money online?

I want to make money with my blog.

Blogs, electronic journals, e-zines, e-books, online versions of paper magazines, the options are endless. How can you find the blog that you would like to read? That seems like a stupid question to ask, the stereotypical answer would be: “Google it”. Yeah right. Try it, and when you have pulled every hair on your head, let me know. Search engine categorize blogs by keywords, and there are exponentially, as many ways to find your blog, as there are words in whichever language(s) you are currently using.

The next problem that you will find, is that people tend to start a blog entry, and suddenly, a friend comments on the blog, but instead of adding content, they start a non-related conversation about the immortality of crabs or some nonsensical topic like last night’s dance. Don’t take me wrong, that is totally ok. But it does not serve the purpose if you are limited in time and want an expedite way of research.

The problem is that blogers are human beings, they get bored, they get busy, they become frustrated, and that lends itself to inconsistency. Inconsistency breeds the mess that we find now on the Internet.

The thing is, that this is supposed to be a blog about making money, business opportunities, and social media. So why did I started this post in such a convoluted way? You guessed it, here is the answer: you can make money with a blog if you follow a few very basic rules. Many people have done it. It does not take a rocket scientist. I read about a teenage girl that started designing “wallpaper” for her MySpace account, and gave it away for free on her blog. Suddenly, her popularity skyrocketed (went viral) and at seventeen, someone offered her over $1,000,000.00 for her blog. Yes, that is over one million dollars. She declined, the upped the offer, and the rest is history. John Chow, started a ranting blog, and now he receive tens of thousands of hits (visitors) a week. He makes a killing on advertisements.

How does that benefit you? Simple, start a blog; the experience alone, even if you make no money of the back, is worthy. You will get used to the pace, posting, replying to comments, and placing ads on your blog. You can start a blog for free, get an Adsense account (from Google) and start making modest amounts of money. But if you really want to make money, you need traffic; you need to drive visitors to your blog. Your writing needs to be interesting; your blog should have good content, and need to be updated often to keep people visiting you often.

Tell me again why I should start a blog? Here it goes again: a blog is a diary that others read, get interested on, comment on your postings, and gives you the opportunity to reply to those postings, thus establishing a relationship.

Follow me now... You suddenly get many friends to follow your writings, some will agree with you and some will not, no surprise there, but if you are honest, treat everybody with dignity, they will come back. You have managed to establish a following. You are establishing yourself as an authority.

Keep up now, I’m going fast here… what is marketing? Marketing is the art or science of advertising a product or service so people will purchase it. The marketer should be credible and savvy enough to advertise a product so the viewers, readers, friends, etc. accept his or her word for it, and want to purchase such product or service. But how can you advertise if you have no credibility? And how can you create or develop credibility if people don’t know you? Enter the BLOG… Got it?

Got it. Get your name out there, for the right reasons. Be serious about it. Research your postings before publishing. Treat others with a modicum of respect. Advertise your blog to your Social Media friends; hopefully you will have more than ten. Have your friends recommend your postings to their friends. Have them Digg, or Stumbelupon, or bookmark your articles. Soon enough, not overnight though, your name will be on the search engines. And your blog will have a good following; making you an authority. Oh, remember the adsense and other advertising that you started doing on your blog? With some luck, you will be bringing some revenue as your visitors click on your advertisements.

So, lets summarize:

a. Create a blog.
b. Add fairly good quality articles or postings; make sure that you research the topic.
c. Place some advertisements on it.
d. Tell your friends and ask them to ask your friends to visit your blog, if it is good, some will continue visiting and reading it.

Tell me what you think… leave your comments below.

Get attention

by: Rikki Arundel

We live in a world of noise ? not just auditory noise but total sensory overload. Everywhere we go marketing messages are shouting at us day and night. Hundreds of TV and radio stations, thousands of newspapers, magazines and books, millions of ezines, brochures, and leaflets, billions of emails and web pages. And unfortunately much of it is junk so it's hard to find the important stuff.

You have to cut though the noise and get people to see and hear your message. If people don't see you or hear you then there is no way they are going to buy from you. If people don't visit your web site, read your articles, brochures or sales letters, attend your seminars etc., why even bother to produce them.

Now I know this is going to sound blindingly obvious, but most important ideas are just common sense things that we have stopped doing. The key to Getting Attention is to give people what they are looking for. Find a bunch of people with the same problem keeping them awake at night and offer to take away the problem. People buy for two reasons only:

Desire for Gain or Avoidance of Pain.

The one that motivates us most is avoidance of pain, removing a problem. What problem does your product or service solve? Look for people who have that problem, market to them and you will get their attention because that problem is on their mind, they are thinking about it they are looking for a solution so they are much more likely to see your message. This is what gives pay per click its potential and why it's so important to build tightly targeted mailing and ezine lists.

Write these words on a large poster and stick it up on your notice-board.

Get Attention ? Be Remembered

Now once you have their attention it's a lot easier to keep that attention and even get them telling their friends about you, provided you get them to Remember You. This is so important but so many businesses do nothing to be remembered. The cost of acquiring a new customer is about 10 times the cost of repeat business so it's crucial that you do everything to make sure that customers remember you and get into the habit of doing business with you.

Consider the Lifetime Value of a customer. One purchase may be worth $100, but if that customer comes back to you just 4 times a year for the next 5 years their value is $2000 ? 20 times their first purchase. If every year that customer refers another 2 customers to you who each spend $400 a year, at the end of 5 years that one customer will have introduced 8 customers with a total value to you of $10,000. Now if maths is not your strong suit you will just have to trust me on this, but if each new customer also referred 2 additional customers each year, you would have a total of 121 customers with a 5 year value to you of $48,400. Nearly £50,000 dollars from one $100 customer.

What you are doing to make your customers feel really great about doing business with you. Be creative. It's not what they buy it's who they introduce that makes the difference. How can you overwhelm people with the quality of your service, massively exceed their expectations and give them real value, especially value that doesn't actually cost you much.

One day I was booked in at a small 3 star hotel. As I approached the door, a lady welcomed me and opened the door for me. As I waited at the reception to check in, she brought over a tray offering me a glass of sherry or brandy while I waited. As soon as I had checked in a porter took my bag and escorted me to the room showing me around. 15 minutes later the reception called just to check that everything was OK. This was an inexpensive 3 star hotel yet they delivered the kind of service that even 5 star hotels struggle to match. The result; I became an evangelist selling their hotel to friends and contacts at every opportunity because they massively exceeded my expectations.

So the marketing process is ? Get Attention to acquire new customers by giving people what they want, - Be Remembered by massively exceeding expectations so they do your marketing for you by recommending you to their friends.

About the Author:

Founder and First President of the Professional Speakers Association (PSA), Rikki Arundel is a truly unique International Keynote Speaker, Trainer and Writer. She is openly and proudly transgender and an expert in sales and marketing communications with an impressive track record, and being transgender has provided her with a unique understanding of the differences in the way men and women communicate in business. http://www.RikkiArundel.com

Marketing on a Budget

A successful marketing plan doesn't have to include an athletic superstar, prime-time placement, state-of-the-art computer graphics or a massive budget. Being resourceful and smart can be just as effective.

Business promotion doesn't have to cost a fortune. Often, it's the personal touch that seals the deal. Here are ideas gathered from marketing experts to help you make the most of a slim marketing budget:


Use Press Release Power

You might not realize it, but reporters sometimes need you as much as you need them. The key to getting their attention is coming up with a newsworthy item that is concisely written.

* Peg your release to real events, such as fundraising drives or a new service your business offers. Don't be witty to amuse yourself the idea must have a concrete purpose.

* If you can't figure out why your company might be newsworthy, ask your friends what they find interesting about your company.

* You can also utilize your built-in research tool your customers. If you have an offbeat idea, bounce it off them or have them fill out a short questionnaire. Ask them why they use your business.


Think Differently

Concoct an event to draw media coverage. For instance, a Japanese restaurant could create the world's largest sushi roll and advertise its record-breaking "sushi queue."

Put A Face On It

Placing your photograph on your business card creates a personal relationship, even if they don't know you. Not only will people remember your name, they'll remember your face.


Print The Praise

If someone says, "You do a great job," say, "Thanks, very much, that means an awful lot to me. I would appreciate it if you would write a testimonial letter." Then make the testimonial part of your promotional package.


Borrow A Message

When you see an article on a subject that might interest your clients, send them a photocopy with a note that says, "I thought you might be interested in this." You're making a personal connection with a client and associating yourself with the authority quoted in the article in the process.


Think Outside The Box

You don't have to outspend your competition, you just have to outthink them. Some examples: Buy a billboard ad every other month for a year. Chances are, the billboard won't be replaced on the off months, so you'll get more exposure at no extra cost.

This concept also relates to how you run your business: Always try to figure out how to give your customers something they can't find elsewhere, such as a children's play area at a restaurant.

Try The Old Faithfuls

Don't dismiss time-honored solutions that increase your company's community profile, such as sponsoring a charity event or outfitting a local little league team. You'll get your name out there, and that's what counts.

10 Marketing Tips

1. Print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your targeted market. People read postcards when the message is brief. A small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your web site and generate a flood of sales leads for a very small cost.

2. No single marketing effort works all the time for every business, so rotate several marketing tactics and vary your approach. Your customers tune out after awhile if you toot only one note. Not only that, YOU get bored. Marketing can be fun, so take advantage of the thousands of opportunities available for communicating your value to customers. But don't be arbitrary about your selection of a variety of marketing ploys. Plan carefully. Get feedback from customers and adapt your efforts accordingly.

3. Use buddy marketing or social media marketing to promote your business. For example, if you send out brochures, you could include a leaflet and/or business card of another business, which had agreed to do the same for you. This gives you the chance to reach a whole new pool of potential customers.

4. Answer Your Phone Differently. Try announcing a special offer when you answer the phone. For example you could say, "Good morning, this is Ann Marie with Check It Out; ask me about my special marketing offer." The caller is compelled to ask about the offer. Sure, many companies have recorded messages that play when you're tied up in a queue, but who do you know that has a live message? I certainly haven't heard of anyone. Make sure your offer is aggressive and increase your caller's urgency by including a not-so-distant expiration date.

5. Stick It! Use stickers, stamps and handwritten notes on all of your direct mail efforts and day-to-day business mail. Remember, when you put a sticker or handwritten message on the outside of an envelope, it has the impact of a miniature billboard. People read it first; however, the message should be short and concise so it can be read in less than 10 seconds.

6. Send A Second Offer To Your Customers Immediately After They've Purchased Your customer just purchased a sweater from your clothing shop. Send a handwritten note to your customer thanking them for their business and informing them that upon their return with "this note" they may take advantage of a private offer, such as 20% off their next purchase. To create urgency, remember to include an expiration date.

7. Newsletters. Did you know it costs six times more to make a sale to a new customer than to an existing one? You can use newsletters to focus your marketing on past customers. Keep costs down by sacrificing frequency and high production values. If printed newsletters are too expensive, consider an e-mail newsletter sent to people who subscribe at your Web site.

8. Seminars/ open house. Hosting an event is a great way to gain face time with key customers and prospects as well as get your company name circulating. With the right programming, you'll be rewarded with a nice turnout and media coverage. If it's a seminar, limit the attendance and charge a fee. A fee gives the impression of value. Free often connotes, whether intended or not, that attendees will have to endure a sales pitch.

9. Bartering. This is an excellent tool to promote your business and get others to use your product and services. You can trade your product for advertising space or for another company's product or service. This is especially helpful when two companies on limited budgets can exchange their services.

10. Mail Outs. Enclose your brochure, ad, flyer etc. in all your outgoing mail. It doesn't cost any additional postage and you'll be surprised at who could use what you're offering.