Business Alone

Who says Internet business can't be adapted and put to profitable use by a youngster?

Here's an example of a young boy in my neighborhood that has chosen the Internet as his business contact and delivery mechanism.

You may have heard the slightly cynical phrase - "If you can't figure out how to do something on your computer, just find a six-year-old." There's a whole heap of truth to that observation. Anyway . . .

I learned about this kid in my neighborhood, who shall remain anonymous in case the child labor law spies are lurking about, that decided to run his business online.

Anyone can choose a name. Anything will get you by. But the way I see it . . . why not find the very best name you can that will give value and meaning to your business?

Sure it will take a little bit of effort and some time to come up with the perfect name, but I can tell you that finding it will pay you great dividends over time.

Especially on the Internet, your business name sets you apart, defines your niche, and is the address that customers will be hunting for if your marketing reaches them.

So what's in a name? What considerations are important as you mull over the choices that you have? How do you find the best alternative available?

One of the first considerations in choosing a name for your new online solo enterprise should be to find out if someone else has already reserved and registered the same (or a similar) name.

You can hire this chore out to a professional firm if you have lots of money for such things or if you don't trust your own research capability.

Handing this chore off would probably be a good idea if you were treading on thin ice with your preferred name. For example, if you planned to register a name that is very close to a protected name, something like Amazon Jungle for your new book service, you may want to put the burden of proof on a company that will guarantee their results and have the legal muscle to steer the process through to conclusion.

Does the headline of your sales ad or marketing piece really deserve 80% of the time you spend on writing the ad copy?

That's the suggestion of author Ted Nicholas, one of the all time greats in direct marketing.

He figures that between 50 and 80% of the sales generated in direct advertising are attributable to the ad's headline.

That's a pretty amazing statistic, but maybe not totally surprising given the way readers skim copy and jump from heading to heading.

One of the ways solo business was conducted for many years in this country (U.S.) was by what I call "the one man band" business model.

An entrepreneur would create or find a product and proceed to sell that product to as many buyers as he could find. Sometimes the owner would develop a full line of products offering the consumer many styles, sizes and other choices.

The one man band was many business employees rolled into one. He did the research and development on the product, the manufacturing and/or purchasing, he was the salesman, the secretary, the customer service representative and the business owner all at the same time.

There should be a number of considerations that you look at before you set a pricing structure to your products.

But many entrepreneurs don't think much about an overall strategy. They believe they are limited in their ability to set prices beyond a certain range.

Let's say you decide to sell a DVD, for instance, that you produced yourself called "The Ups and Downs of Exploring the Grand Canyon on a Pogo Stick!"

Was it tennis star Andre Agassi that proclaimed, "Image is everything!" in his popular commercials?

Your business image is an important tool for your success because it can either add to the overall perception your customers have about you or it can leave prospects wondering if they really want to take a chance on dealing with such an amateurish or careless business.

Image results from a lot of characteristics and visual clues about your business, but we're going to mention just two of the more important things you can do to portray your desired message in this post.

Have you ever noticed an advertisement in a magazine, a brochure, a newspaper, or online that looked like it was produced on an old typewriter?

Chances are pretty good that the owner of the ad produced it himself using non-professional graphics tools. He sent the ad in "camera ready" to save a few bucks, and it gets published looking like child's play.

Is that the type of material you want associated with your business?

Occasionally you will find announcements, brochures, and web sites with frequent misspellings, incorrect grammar, and other structural problems that can only be construed as a lackadaisical attitude on the part of the owner.

More than anything else, marketing your business and your products effectively will make or break your company. Read that again.

If you are not able to attract prospects to your offerings, whatever they are, you won't be able to generate income and your business will die.

Too often I hear online business owners saying something like, "I don't like to sell, I just want to develop my products" or "My products are great and they will sell themselves."

Nowhere has the Internet made a more dramatic change in the existing power structure than in the business world.

It used to be that companies wielding the most power and influence were those that operated from a position of strong cash reserves and seemingly unlimited access to professional service muscle like Wall Street financial advisers, Big Five accounting expertise, and legions of powerful corporate attorneys.

The "Big Boys" could buy their way into business advertising that dwarfed their competitors.

One of my favorite mentors (even though I have not personally met him) is a gentleman by the name of Seth Godin. He was formerly the Direct Marketing Vice President at Yahoo!

I call him a mentor because I feel his direction and guidance have helped me immensely in my business career. He keeps in contact with his readers through his popular blog found HERE .

Seth is also a prolific writer and a creative genius when it comes to understanding human behavior in the context of online marketing psychology and how companies can be successful as they develop relationships with their customers.

Many businesses are simply little fish in a big ocean, swimming and scurrying about hoping to be noticed or "chosen" by those customers that want what they have to offer.

That is no way to run a business.

Getting noticed involves a lot of positive, pro-active, and planned steps that lead to incremental wins or successes. Typically, the process of being noticed and spreading the word about your products is an expensive and drawn out affair.

But there are things you can do every day in your business to create "buzz." And according to author Richard Laermer, in his great little book Full Frontal PR, this one characteristic of your marketing (creating buzz) is often the difference between success and failure in your total effort.

Can you imagine the satisfaction, pride, and profitability you could enjoy if your solo business was something very extraordinary?

Most businesses online these days are comparatively bland. They sell products and services that are accepted by customers and the companies for the most part operate as mirror images of one another.

But once in a great while, a business elevates itself to the apex of its niche because it is so radically different and remarkable as to be incomparable and considered in a league of its own.

There is a huge amount of talk and banter these days about niche business and the necessity to focus your efforts in very targeted segments of your market sector.

There is a lot less open talk about what it means to position your business in a certain way or stance and how to do it within your specialized niche.

"Positioning" very simply refers to the choices you will be making about how you desire your business to be viewed by others. You will be determining your positioning either consciously by the actions you take, or automatically if you don't do anything to influence your position.

You business positioning differentiates your company and brand from others in the same niche, your competitors, by:

If so, you need to do everything possible to increase the amount of traffic, the click-through response rate to your affiliate page links, and the relevance of your content to the product(s) you're promoting.

Typically, affiliates slap up a web page, add a few links, some cut-and-paste content, and forget about the site for a few weeks or months waiting for it to get spidered and included in the search engines.

There is a better way to accomplish affiliate sales. If you pay close attention to the details of your site, like you would if you were selling your own direct marketing product, your affiliate sales can soar.

Malcolm Gladwell, a talented and observant staff writer for "The New Yorker," has written a little book that you, the entrepreneur, should read as part of your basic small business education.

Here are the details:

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
by Malcolm Gladwell, Feb. 2000, 288pp.

Gladwell understands human behavior and social trends that have shaped the American economy and influenced the business world so profoundly.

If you're a businessman, an advertiser, customer relations specialist, product developer, or web site owner, The Tipping Point holds many nuggets and gems that will influence the way you view your job and execute your mission.

Late in 2005 (December), several PR experts gave presentations at the Utah Information Technology Association's (UITA) gathering that was labeled: "PR Tips from the Trenches."

I was quite interested in the event because of my belief that public relations strategies are:

(1) often ignored by small solo businesses,

(2) assumed to be too expensive or too complicated and out of reach of the "little guy,"

(3) seen by small businesses as exclusively the tools or resources of the large and well-connected companies,

In 2005 I purchased and read Seth Godin's latest contribution to new age business thinking and culture and immediately was struck by it's logic, practicality and seemingly correct vision of how we must sell our products and services now and in the future.

Seth Godin's book, called All Marketers Are Liars - The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World, is a fun read and certainly challenges traditional thinking about marketing products and services.

According to Godin, successful companies will be those that invent good products worth talking about and then come up with good, believable stories about what they've invented.

Godin writes, "Make your story bigger and bigger until it's important enough to believe."

Today's solo business owners have an amazing array of tools at their disposal to share their story and their wares with customers compared to days bygone.

Now I'm not an expert in the use of this strategy by any means, but I'd like to mention to you one tool that is easy to put your hands on, and learn how to use, that will open the door to greater customer loyalty and put your web business in front of a growing audience.

I've always believed that business owners should stay on the leading edge of technology available to businesses in order to profit from new advances and efficiencies.

Linking strategies for commercial web sites seem to be grabbing a lot of attention these days from marketing experts that claim in-bound links are critical to the search engine rankings.

There is a lot of on-going debate about just how important your links are to top rankings. I'm sure each of the top search engines has its own view of the subject. No doubt they give varying importance to this criterion.

Some claim also that the "page rank" (Google) or the importance of the site linking to your site also affects your search engine position.

But there are other reasons why you need links.

You will hear me very often say, "You are the business." The solo Internet business operator is often an individualist that would rather be creative, adventurous, and find his own way over joining the pack.

If you want to become such, you should execute your business as though it is an extension of yourself. Your company is built around the skills, knowledge, education and passion that make up your life.

So in terms of both subject matter, and executing the daily business operations, you are the business. Without you, the company is nothing.

Often, new business owners figure the only way to increase sales is to put your product or service in front of more people.

Such a strategy usually means that you spend increasing amounts of money on advertising so you can extend your reach in to more and more markets.

Increasing sales by ramping up advertising is one way to pump up the bottom line. But there may be other more effective uses of your business operating budget.

There are more ways to increase your sales than to just try to entice more and more customers to purchase your product by increasing your advertising budget.

Have you ever considered establishing an affiliate sales program?

Such an effort may seem overwhelming or too complex for a small solo business. But the truth is, with the tools currently available online, there is no reason why the solo owner can't leverage his/her own effort quite inexpensively.

Creating an affiliate sales program is much like recruiting a large group of independent contract salesmen. These folks go out on their own and sell your products or service for a sales commission or portion of the profit on each and every sale they make.

When you think about it, there is no better place to find new prospects that may have an interest in your particular niche than to ask your satisfied customers to recommend their friends and acquaintances that have similar interests and passion for the subject.

Some of your customers may not legitimately know other people in your niche, but those instances will be the exception.

If you are dealing in any kind of business subject or niche like a hobby, or a recreational pursuit, or a leisurely pastime, there's a very good chance that your customer will have friends and maybe even family members that also participate in the same activity.

A joint venture is simply a partnership created to take advantage of non-competing products or services that are extended to the customers of the partner's business(es).

There are many different ways to set up a joint venture and a lot of variations to the theme, but this is basically how it is structured:

One business will make contact with a non-competing business owner to offer his services or products to the non-competing businesses customers and will offer that owner a portion of the profits of all sales (in return for the privilege of contacting his customer base).

I spoke with a young gentleman today about his dream to start a business. That's not a rare occurrence as I deal in such discussions quite a few times every week.

As we began talking, it was obvious to me that he was passionate about his idea and his plan to take that idea to market.

His reason for contacting me was to find out where he might begin looking for funding to finance his project. It was the next item on his "to do" list.

Over the short history of the Internet, there have been many creative and unusual strategies attempted by entrepreneurs to generate income, both as a means to make a living and also to simply add additional streams of income to the owner's business.

The popularity of the blogging craze has given some blog authors an additional stage or venue for their money-making tactics. It was only a matter of time before smart folks realized that anywhere there's traffic on the Internet, there's the opportunity for monetization of those visits.

If you own and operate a blog, you have a number of avenues open to you to pull some income from your effort. As is usually the case, the greater your exposure and traffic, the larger the opportunity will be to make substantial money from the blog.

I recently viewed a video clip produced by John Reese that showed his amazing VRE strategy that added over $500,000 to his business the first year it was implemented (beginning in February 2005.) You can view the video for yourself: http:files1.reesereport.com/vrevideo.html

John says he spent about 120 hours initially setting up this project which includes a network of small web sites that carry Google Adsense ads along with specifically targeted content related to high-paying keyword niches.

John is the same fellow that made some huge waves in the Internet marketing circles when he sold over $1 million of his Traffic Secrets course in a 24-hour period.

The premier search engine Google has come up with several programs that may be of interest to the solo small business owner. But there seems to be some matter of conflicting opinion about whether a web site owner should do anything to send his traffic away to someone else.

Here's the deal: Google allows web site owners to advertise products and services on their web site in exchange for a small referral fee each time a viewer clicks on one of the Google ads.

This is not an affiliate program since Google pays for each click rather than for a product that is actually purchased. In a sense, the web site owner is sharing in a PPC (pay per click) program. Google serves the ads and keeps track of the clicks. The web site owner puts Google's html code on his pages and provides relevant content for Google to match to its advertisers.

If you are a solo business operator and choose to increase the revenue generated at your web site, you have the option of employing Google Adsense advertising. I believe Yahoo and MSN also (or will soon) offer similar programs that allow the web owner to monetize his content.

There are several factors that determine how much revenue a web owner can generate for each of the particular content pages on his site that serve Adsense advertising.

First, the traffic to a site is important as most Internet advertising is, in part at lease, a numbers game. Your viewers will only click on an Adsense ad a certain proportion of the time.

Let's use the example of 1 click every 200 visitors. Given that type of click-through rate, a site with 200 visitors/page/day will generate 1/10 the income that a site with 2,000 visitors/page/day will get, all other things being equal.

Anyone that has searched online for information type products, and even physical products in some cases, has been offered one or more "bonuses" along with the purchase of the main product.

The question you may be asking is this, "Does a bonus offer increase the sale of a particular product?"

You may think that bonuses should naturally increase sales; but that is not always the case.

In this day of increasingly complex e-commerce systems, it seems that there are many strategies that product sellers have at their disposal to increase product sales. The strategy of offering a bonus product is so common now that it may seem like a necessity to follow suit if you want to make sales.

Most profitable Internet business owners will tell you that a consistent, fresh, value-packed email newsletter is one of their key ingredients to success.

But you would be surprised at the number of businesses that don't have one.

Popular excuses for the lack of a newsletter include lack of time to write and mail one, the owner has nothing to say, customers won't read it, the business doesn't want to be confused with a spammer, and the cost of writing and mailing it.

Of course you will never know if a newsletter will be of value to your specific business until you try it, but for many it has proven to be the difference that has allowed the business to thrive.

Why?

Successful Internet business owners know that a consistent, fresh, value-packed email newsletter is one of the best marketing tools at their disposal in terms of both cost effectiveness and customer satisfaction.

Here are some tips that will help a solo business operator create and develop a valuable and profitable newsletter.

1) Before you begin publishing, answer these four questions:
- Who is my perfect customer? (My targeted prospect)
- What do I intend to accomplish? (My purpose)
- How can I be different and unique? (My specialty)
- What do I have to offer? (My personality, experience, skills, etc)

Some solo business owners have experienced great success by marketing their company and products off-line.

That may sound weird, counter-productive, or just plain wrong. You've got to figure that online marketing is the cheapest and most widely reaching form of advertising there is.

Well, I'm certainly not advocating that you abandon your online marketing strategy - that needs to remain intact.

What I would suggest, however, is that you think about all the ways to spread the word about your web site, brand, products, and your business in general - off-line in the physical environment as well.

I have not tried this strategy but I read about it and I think it would work extremely well in a solo home business application.

It's relatively inexpensive and easy to do, yet it brands your business in ways that you determine and it will make your direct mail stand out from the crowd.

I read about a lady that uses an inexpensive digital camera to snap photos of everything from her own portrait, to images of her products, to places she likes to visit that relate to her business.

The idea is to get pictures she can use legally in her advertising that relate to her products.

If you have visited some of the large stock photo stores on the Internet, you know that buying the rights to just one small image for use in a mail campaign can cost up to several hundred dollars.

One of the greatest secrets to successful solo small business seems to escape many entrepreneurs.

If you are one that can't see the handwriting on the wall, I hope you'll take a lesson from this post.

Here is the secret: women drive most of the purchasing decisions these days, both online and off-line.

Now if you're a small business owner and are paying attention to the profiles of your buying customers, you will have recognized this trend a few years ago.

But it's still surprising to me that so many web site owners never seem to cater to ladies in their business or at their web site.

It's really an important question because every one of us are placed in daily situations where we need to sift the buying decisions thrown in our faces into separate piles labeled "Hype" and "Fact."

Well, our decisions really aren't that simple.

We probably also have piles of offers and advertising we've labeled "Maybe," "Not today," "When I have the money," and "I know my spouse will kill me, but..."

There two problems with "hype."

I've noticed over the years that I've been online (since the mid-90s) a change that's taking place in the way Internet users are visiting web sites.

In the very early days of the Internet, when it was a brand new and very exciting place to visit, most people that surfed liked to move about randomly and quite excessively.

It seems they wanted to go exploring to not only see what kinds of things were available online, but to survey niches and see all the players in them just in case they had a need to return sometime in the future.

It was kind of the same experience as you might have when exploring a new shopping mall or an amusement park for the first time.

You dash from store to store or ride to ride making sure you experience everything you can so you'll know what you like and what is not worth coming back to a second time.

Before we get to today's post, I want to wish each of our readers a happy 4th of July! Take some time off today and enjoy the celebration with your family - I'm going to do just that since I wrote this post yesterday!

When the Internet was new and online business owners were jumping on the ship right and left, there was often the feeling that all a business owner needed to do to have a business was put up a web site, add a product or two, and the sales would begin to flow.

Yes, I'll remind you once again of that worn out phrase that everyone else quotes to describe this erroneous thinking: "if you build it, they will come."

Online business owners now understand that phrase is a lie.

I did a little experiment myself that proved the point to me in very real terms. Two years ago I set up a little web site with it's own domain name, some content, keywords, etc.

I asked visitors to register at the web site (for free) to get my newsletter with lots of great benefits. I even offered a bonus worth a legitimate $300 merely for signing up and there were no other strings attached.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I thought press releases were one of the most effective yet misunderstood tools the business owner had at his disposal to market his business and drive targeted traffic to his products.

No one ever taught us how to write a good press release!

The single most important rule to remember is to focus on the wants of the reader. Write what the viewer wants, what will make him happy, save him time, or solve a problem he has.

Forget what you (the business owner) want. It's not about you.

In addition, here are some simple suggestions to boost your copywriting effectiveness and increase your chances of having the release published:

Press releases are one of the most effective yet misunderstood tools the business owner has at his disposal to market his business and drive targeted traffic to his products.

Here are a few simple suggestions to boost your copywriting effectiveness and increase your chances of having the release published:

6. Leave 'em hanging. One technique that is effective in getting press release viewers to head to your web site is to offer part of a story or a list but tell the reader he can find the remainder at your web site, at such and such address.

You build some curiosity and maybe a little suspense in not giving all the good details right then and there.

The solo business owner has many tools and resources at his disposal that can leverage his time and automate his business so that he can accomplish much more by himself than would ever have been possible prior to the Internet.

Most business owners that utilize email will tell you that its low cost and "free" fast delivery are the main advantages of using it. But in my mind, at least, there are some other very important reasons why email is the communication medium of choice for the solo business owner.

If you are not using of these email advantages, why not give them a try? They may even be more important resources for your business than the low cost of contacting your customers and prospects.

If you were to ask me that question face to face, I'd probably do a double take and say something stupid like, "You have an advertising budget?"

You see, most small solo operators that I know begin business on a shoestring and a prayer. They spend as little as possible on their business in the hope that they can begin to grow revenues and extract operating income from that stream.

It usually makes more sense than maxing out a credit card with the hope that the new business revenue will service the monthly debt until the card is paid off.

Often, a business owner will have no specific marketing plan in mind. In fact, he may simply try to get the largest bang for the buck that he can buy.

I've often spoken and written of the accelerated pace of business on the Internet. Online, everything moves quickly and changes happen almost overnight.

It seems products, businesses and the strategies used to reach customers are here today and gone tomorrow.

Press releases and the way businesses keep in the public eye have also changed significantly with the speed and open access of the Internet.

Just a few years ago, press releases were confined to a very predictable format and were used to relay certain kinds of company highlights and events to the mass media.

Today, things have changed and press releases are nothing like they used to be. Here are some of the changes:

Did you know there are cheap places to display your small classified ads all over the Internet?

How successful you are will depend upon a number of factors, but doing your homework in advance will increase your chances greatly of having a profitable campaign.

There is a lot of psychology that goes into developing a winning classified ad - much more than can be discussed here. But you may want to try a few inexpensive ads while you're learning about the subject so that you understand the process of finding good sources and writing tantalizing copy.

If, indeed, the Internet is a great information highway with traffic, data, digital goods and services, and communications whizzing back and forth at the speed of light, it would be worth the effort for every business owner to create as many links to that highway as possible.

Think of these links as little roads that feed a tiny portion of this traffic back and forth between your small business and the super highway.

Every business connects itself (or should) to the highway traffic. Some do a great job of it and others don't. Each owner determines for his business, both the number roads leading in and out and the ease with which those roads are found by passers-by that have an interest in this side trip.

Regardless of the size of your marketing budget, there are some business principles that should guide what you do, when you do it, and how you bring together the various elements of your business marketing.

The tendency for many new small businesses is simply to strike out and begin spreading the word about your product or service in a random hodge-podge manner, jumping from this to that depending upon where you think you'll get the most bang for your effort.

Your marketing "plan" has no real thinking behind it . . . you just figure the best you can do is to spread the word as quickly as you can to as many sources as you can and hope for the best.

Now that game plan certainly beats doing no marketing at all, but it lacks the leveraging power of a unified and comprehensive approach that ties all your different marketing efforts together and cements your brand in the minds of your customers.

In the previous installment, we discussed some basic business principles that should guide your Internet marketing campaign.

They will help you to know what you should do, when you do it, and how you bring together these various elements or activities to accomplish some solid and powerful small business marketing.

The first two "Rs" were recognition and recount. Here's the third . . .

Of course the Internet small business has many formats to choose from when advertising its products and services.

I believe using a variety of methods is generally preferable to always relying upon one format. Your customers may tire from the same looking message received repeatedly.

One of the most effective selling formats is the personal letter from you (the small business owner) to the customer. It's a proven strategy that often works better than any other because it's:

(1) personal - most of us are much more likely to buy a product that is personally recommended than one we have no human tie to;

(2) intimate - we feel that a personal letter is not something that would be shared with lots of other people, hence we view it as tailored to our own needs or geared to our own circumstance (even though that may not be the case since the same "personal" letter might be sent to thousands of prospects);

What I am about to say may strike a chord of discontent among many of you . . . but that's okay.

It will bring to light a strategy that many of the Internet's most successful and profitable business persons have adopted on the road to increased business and nice incomes.

I will ask the question again, "Who gives out points for creativity and innovation?"

Most entrepreneurs and new small business owners feel that in order to be successful at Internet business, they must create or invent the next unique and valuable product - something different from all others in the same niche market. I beg to differ.

Now I am certainly not opposed to being creative or innovative, all of the other things being equal, it's a real blessing to have these personal characteristics manifest in your business. . . but . . .

Most often though, success is found in other ways. Here are some examples:

Affiliate programs have proven to be an important additional stream of income for many small Internet business owners.

It is not a "cure all" for lack of sales at your own web site as some self-proclaimed gurus have stated.

You must first determine if adding affiliate sales to your overall marketing strategy is a positive step or one that will detract from your web site's mission.

There are some types of business, and certain niches, where selling other's goods will not help your own cause.

This may seem obvious, but I see this mistake being made all over the Internet - don't sell competing products or unrelated (to your niche) products in your affiliate program.

I like to quiz solo business owners about how they spend their time in a typical week.

That's about the right length of time (seven days) to measure both simple and complex tasks that the owner completes.

I find that most do very little active marketing. I believe that's a big mistake for a small business. But here's an even bigger one:

The tendency for most solo business owners is to focus on extending "reach," the breadth of the company's range of customers. They try to market to prospects that are new to the company.

Most of us have been taught to value "more" over "less." The more we have, the better off we are.

If two of something is good, then surely three of that same thing is better!

In the Internet world, quantity often means little because it is so relative depending upon the context in which it us used. Here's an example.

Most business owners would think that being able to contact 5,000 prospects in a single sales pitch campaign would be a big deal. In the offline world that is certainly the case.

But if your message is being broadcast via email, and you're trying to choose between two options (say, for instance, sending your message to 45,000 prospects compared to 50,000) that extra 5,000 may not be a very significant amount.

I wanted to mention the case for quality over quantity related to renting lists of prospects from a list broker.

If you were to hear this complaint (which by the way, I hear very often) what would you guess the business owner was really saying?

Was he saying that he had a great product, but his targeted customers were just too dumb to recognize it and hence they weren't buying?

Or was he lamenting the fact that he was not selling to the right customer niche market?

Or maybe he was charging too much for his awesome product and nobody wanted to buy at that price?

Or could it be that no one was hearing his sales message and seeing his ads and therefore he was not making sales?

One-on-one advertising, that is direct response advertising, is designed to solicit some type of action from the viewer. It may also have the side benefits of building a companies brand or attaching credibility to a product, but the main desired outcome is still related to getting the customer to take action.

One step response selling is pretty simple: the prospect sees the ad, reads the copy, is prompted to click on the "Buy Now" button, and leaves with a digital file of some type that will help him solve a problem or enjoy a passion.

In a two step direct response ad, the customer is prompted to take some action (not purchase initially) like register a name and address, download a free e-book, or watch a short video clip.

This first action is generally designed to provide some type of partial benefit to the prospect, or create a sense of urgency or scarcity, or build a swelling desire for the latest model, or to educate the buyer on the benefits of ordering the widget now because there are only 13 left!

The other day I spent some time at Borders, the giant bookseller franchise that I often frequent when I'm searching for some Internet selling tips and advice that I can't find in the books on my own bookshelf.

Borders is a cool place, much like a mini library where the atmosphere is pretty laid back and browsers are free to pull a book from the shelf and sit down to read a chapter or two.

I must admit that Borders' intentions are obviously to sell books rather than play the role of a library for the cheapskates (like myself) who usually purchase books online at Amazon. But still, they don't seem to mind too much if I'm there and generally walk out empty-handed.

Anyway, I was in Borders checking out the latest books on marketing and advertising on the Internet. I was a little surprised at what I found.

No one knows the exact number, of course, but professional marketers generally agree that a strong and powerful headline accounts for 70-80% of the effectiveness of every advertisement.

That's a pretty remarkable statistic when you think about it. A few words at the top of the ad can either make or break the selling power of the entire remaining ad copy.

Why is that true? Well, if you consider that most readers sprint from one headline to the next when they "read" a newspaper you'll understand that the viewer is randomly (or maybe methodically) sorting each entry to find clues that tell him "this might be the type of content I want read more thoroughly."

Headlines are usually bold, easy to locate, and often they are summaries of the content of the ad or article. At a quick glance, it's pretty easy to decide if you want to stay and dig deeper or jump to the next headline.

Before we get to today's post, let's take a minute to remember the victims of the September 11th tradgedy of 2001. It's hard to believe that it's been six years since we endured that nightmare.

Let's remember what has made our country strong and each do our individual part to continue that heritage of courage, hard work, and a never say die attitude - each an important trait for small business owners.

Okay, we'll move on.

I've been thinking a lot about Internet real estate and branding, and whether they are important undertakings of solo business. I've been asking myself questions like:

- Is it worth the effort and expense for a small business owner to try to establish a brand of some kind for his business?

- In the Internet world of big corporations, net real estate has increasing value. But does that same concept apply to small businesses as well?

- Is there a way for a solo business owner to add value to his property beyond the value of the information he publishes at his web site?

I know of no other activity required of business operators that can be so frustrating, expensive, and fickle as the advertising game.

Sure, it would be nice to have the viral engine stoked up enough that you never had to do another ad spend. But for most small businesses, advertising, in one form or another, is the "necessary evil."

I don't know too many business operators that get the kind of traffic to their web site they want without playing the ad game.

It is a game, you know. You prepare and publish your ad and wait to see the outcome. Sometimes you win; often you lose.

One thing is for sure: advertising can be a huge black hole for a small business if you're not disciplined and selective. You can dump all the cash down the hole that you like - yet there is no guarantee that one product will be sold as a result.

A friend of mine that worked radio and even a little television, but now owns a very successful Internet marketing business, once confided in me, "The trouble with business marketing is there's just too much of it!"

Oh, how true it is. The reason we all have to work so hard at our marketing is the fact that all of our competitors are working hard at theirs.

If you want to be heard, you must speak up! But exactly how you do that depends upon your business, your skill, and your customers. Let me explain.

Typical mass marketing where fast food restaurants, brewing companies, and auto sellers spend their gargantuan media budgets, is a continuous barrage of one ad message after another, each one intentionally shouted louder than the first in hopes of catching our attention.

I'm convinced that press releases are one of the most misunderstood tools a small business has available to tell its story and drive targeted traffic to its web site and products.

But industry surveys show that the vast majority of all press releases (some estimate the number to conservatively range between 90 and 98%) from small businesses never get past the desk of the editor. Why is that? Don't editors want good releases?

Of course they do. There are a variety of reasons why a release isn't accepted and subsequently published, but the main reason given most often by the editors questioned has to do with the copy that the author submits.

You see, authors write in an effort to put the best light or spin possible on their business or product. In other words, they write from the business point of view, usually with a marketing slant or focus.

I visited a web site last night related to Internet marketing that touted all the methods the large corporations were using to build trust in the company - thereby reducing the fears of customers with the end result of making them more apt to make an online purchase.

There were something like thirty methods of building trust listed, but I was very surprised to notice the lack of mention of using testimonials from satisfied buyers.

In my mind, there are few things you can do that are more important than using testimonials.

So why did this marketing "authority" leave this method out? Who knows? Maybe it was a large corporation "thing," an acknowledgement that the site was too important to place one person's comment in the showroom of this company.

One of the foundations of any successful marketing program is repeated and systematic contact of the prospect.

One initial encounter is rarely sufficient to brand your company in the mind of the customer.

We all are bombarded with literally thousands of marketing messages every day no matter what we do or where we go.

Radio, television, the Internet, newspapers, magazines, billboards, and other venues attempt to grab our attention long enough to flash a message to our brains that the advertiser hopes will "stick" sooner or later.

Most of us learn to subconsciously "tune out" or tone down this constant barrage of advertising. That means there are natural challenges awaiting every business that tries to communicate with their prospects.

Most marketing experts will tell you that they go to great lengths to try to draw the prospect into a sales pitch.

If he remains on the "outside," so to speak, he will not be affected by or overcome with the emotion, motivation and sense of urgency that marketers try to build into their sales presentation.

One of the many and best ways marketers draw prospects into the sales dialogue is to use the word "You" often in their content so the reader begins to feel like the message is directed right squarely at him. The dialogue is personal and engaging.

"You will receive these benefits when you buy the product..."

As we all know, the Internet has spawned a huge new industry of journalists known as "bloggers" who daily write and publish opinions and news in every imaginable niche.

Web logs, or simply "blogs," give the author a public soapbox or microphone from which he/she can express, educate, instruct, inform, sell, comment, advertise, or do just about anything else that can be done on a regular web site.

Some authors of blogs have gathered quite an audience and engaged large crowds of daily viewers. Anytime a captive audience is involved, shrewd business minds come up with ways to monetize the experience.

Entrepreneurs are always thinking and scheming about ways to make a buck. That's what they do, isn't it?

Here's my favorite definition of an entrepreneur: he's a guy that has a one-in-a-million idea, a business plan that shows profitability in year 3, and no money!

Now we are seeing the rise of "blogpreneurs," the authors that are attempting to monetize their daily blogs.

Some are succeeding, to at least a certain degree, and others are finding the road a bit bumpy.

The owner of a solo digital information business is the perfect candidate for a targeted niche blog authored by the business owner and directed to support and advertise the business and the product.

Remember that the solo business owner is generally an independent, a free spirited thinker, one who prefers to do business alone without the constraints of employees, physical overhead, or management induced policies and rules.

This is exactly the profile of a successful blogger: one that is not shy about forming his own biases and opinions based on his life experiences and then publishing and sharing his knowledge and ideas with other like-minded nichers that hunger for the same type of information.

Writing enticing sales copy for ads, web sites, newsletters, etc. can often be a daunting task because so many different approaches seem to work equally well at a given time depending upon the target audience, the product being sold, the venue, etc.

At other times, nothing seems to work well. You scratch your head wondering if there is any way possible to make your copy stand out and seem appealing.

It's like trying to sell sand to a nomad in the desert.

Here's a little "trick" to try the next time you get stumped and are not sure how to approach the task.

Actually, it's not really a trick but just a different way of thinking about your ad layout.

When business owners develop a service or product that is designed for a highly targeted audience, they often struggle to find enough prospects gathered in one place to design a marketing strategy for the group.

Typically the marketer turns to pay-per-click ads on the Internet because he can use his keyword lists and target his message to the surfers that are looking for web sites or products that are in the search engine results pages.

Another popular approach is to identify targeted ezines or newsletters that offer advertising.

The readers of these publications will have some common desires, passions, or tastes that the advertiser can appeal to.

One of the keys to selling products online is to somehow personalize your approach to the prospect.

Impersonal, sterile, boring sales letters and advertisements aren't attractive and convincing.

They tend to put the prospect to sleep. Unless the prospect is already sold and anxious to buy one particular product, he will not pay much attention to generic and faceless advertising.

On the other hand, have you ever noticed how friendly people attract a crowd?

Their demeanor and friendliness are compelling! They act like magnets for most of us because we like being around upbeat and happy, gregarious people.

I saw this question in a marketing magazine recently and it got me to thinking about the importance of defining what you expect your ad to accomplish.

Well there are lots of different types of ads and so there are multiple outcomes that could be targeted for your specific ad depending upon its purpose.

My guess is, most small business ads are pretty ineffective. Let's be truthful here - how many times has your ad pulled the type of response that you had hoped for?

Usually, ads under-perform our goals and sales never seem to overwhelm us on the positive side.

Online business in today's marketplace has many advantages that the small business has never had in the past.

The challenge for the business owner is to take advantage of these advances and use them to grow his business in ways that direct competitors either don't know about or are too lazy to set up.

The advances are only an advantage if they're put to good use. That's why they are so powerful to you - because you know the strategies and can implement them into your business and others in your niche won't.

Often small business owners have little or no formal training or skill in advertising and marketing their products.

Whenever they write copy, whether it be advertising, a press release, narrative at the web site, or in answer to client's questions, they tend to be driven by the facts.

Business minds just naturally are tuned in to think in terms of facts, numbers, dates, deadlines, instructions, policies, etc.

These are the details that a solo operator has churning around in his mind every waking moment it seems.

Here's the problem, in terms of marketing at least, with this mindset.

Grab any piece of junk mail and take a quick look at it.

You will probably notice one of two things: either the copywriter hits you right between the eyes with his offer up front, or he forces you to read through the ad to locate the offer which will invariably be hidden at the tail end.

The first strategy is employed to qualify the potential buyers from the "just looking" crowd.

The sales copy is very straightforward and pushes the prospect early to decide if this offer is for him or not.

If the viewer has a genuine interest, he will continue reading the ad.

Do you remember that line from radio and TV advertising of yesteryear?

You don't hear it so much anymore, but sponsors remain an important part of many companies today, both private for-profit and non-profit.

Have you ever stopped to think that your little solo business may have the opportunity to reach a lot of potential customers by becoming a sponsor?

Here's what I'm suggesting:

Don't mistakenly believe that corporate press kits are something reserved for the "big boys" of the business world!

Press kits can be prepared and distributed by any company and they are a great way to get some positive publicity for your solo business.

The idea behind a press kit is to present the media with information and facts about your business in a way that will make it easy for them to publish your story.

You're trying to give them exactly what they would want to see if they were coming to you on their own looking for details about your business.

You know what I'm talking about.

How many times have you seen an Internet marketer use the "impending deadline scare" as a reason to hurry and purchase a product or sign up for this or that before the deadline.

Of course they're trying to incorporate the sense of urgency into their marketing.

Many smart advertisers know that one of the greatest fears most people have is the fear of losing out or of being left behind.

So the ads of these smart people nearly always include some kind of deadline coming up in the near future designed to make the reader take some immediate action.

As the name implies, an advertorial is a cross between an advertisement and an editorial.

So why should you use this strategy in your sales process?

Some marketers claim that advertorials pull up to 5 times better than regular sales ads.

They say that the public is fed up with most regular advertisements penned by over-zealous copywriters that exaggerate claims and specialize in making products and services seem to be something way more than they really are.

There is a simple and very straightforward way to engage your prospect in the conversation, or in your advertising, or your web site, or your email.

Savvy marketers have used this technique to grab the attention of casual on-lookers and passers-by when other copy and narrative tactics simply fail to produce the results that the owner expects.

Here's the simple technique: State your title or headline in terms of a thought-provoking question and include the word "you" so that it grabs the viewer and demands a response.

If you have targeted your customers properly, there will be few better or more productive business lead generating tools than to publish a "Tip of the Day" related to the education of your audience in your chosen niche.

Why? Simply because people want to be educated.

They come to the Internet for information in their niche. You can provide what they will consider to be very valuable bits of information learning and assistance.

Most folks are followers. They're like sheep in some respects - they wait in line to get behind a leader, a pace setter, or a spokesperson.

Many of these people could be the leader themselves, except they would prefer to stay out of the limelight, the public eye, or the position of attention.

Some people prefer not to lead out because they fear others will think they're fanatical, or after attention, or that they have a big ego.

Still others don't want to expend the energy, commit the time, or put their reputation on the line for a cause.

The popularity of survey results in a specialized niche is undeniable. Customers and prospects alike love to be part of a survey and then look at the results.

Often they compare their own responses with those of the survey to see if they have similar or differing opinions than the "group."

Surveys that are not targeted, i.e. those that ask very generic and general questions, are often ignored or disregarded.

Most people feel they are a waste of time because the respondent is not interested in the subject and could care less how the masses feel.

If you're a blog author, you've probably contemplated what, why, and how you write.

It seems to me there are several different purposes for publishing a blog and depending upon the purpose you choose, the format and content of your blog will differ significantly from other blogs, even in the same specialized niche.

First, let me say that some blogs I've read seem to have no real purpose. The author might have decided, on the spur of the moment, to start blogging because he wanted to express his opinions to the world. But for what purpose?

Wouldn't it be great if you (and your solo business) were on the Rolodex of all the local and regional newspaper editors?

Would you like to have the Chamber of Commerce and the local Small Business Development Center calling you whenever they needed material for a story?

Most small business owners don't have the luxury (and the serious advantage) of being a household word around local community business circles.

In fact, many owners disregard the media altogether thinking that they will never be contacted or receive publicity because no one cares about their business.

If you've read any of the material I suggest about marketing a small solo business, you know that I am a firm believer of very targeted marketing to customers that have shown an interest in your business or products.

I don't like the "shotgun" approach where you blast away at any live body hoping that a certain percentage will have some further interest in your message.

It just doesn't make sense to do that and in an age where spam and interruptive advertising is so common. You (your business) are likely to be labeled something that you don't want to be.

Once you leave the corporate world (or any kind of job where you're an employee for someone else) for the adventure of solo business, it only takes a day or two before you realize that you're standing naked in front of the world hoping that somehow others are going to notice your business.

You're naked because all of the props, network ties, and support infrastructure that typically come with a large organization or business are suddenly gone.

It's like standing on a street corner with nothing more than your naked self to give the world.

Yes, you can replace your props over time and focus the attention away from your own nothingness and exposure . . . but it will take time and a fair amount of effort.

In our previous discussion, we talked about the fact that a new business owner cannot rely upon "the corporation" to provide him with contacts, invitations to events and groups, company resources, credibility, etc.

When you strike out on your own, you're basically naked!

Here are some ideas to help you, as a solo business owner just getting started, develop your own business network and support system.

Here are some additional suggestions on ways to begin a business network of contacts and support if you are creating a solo business:

4. Leverage the resources and networks of others as much as possible. Whenever you locate a new contact person be sure to ask if they have other contacts that might be of interest to you and your new business.

Because your contact will most likely have been in business in this niche longer than you, he may know of additional networking contacts that he will share with you that could be a great resource for your business.

I'm going to tell you about some marketing tactics that every solo business owner can use to reach a broader market and ramp up online sales.

In fact, these marketing methods are so important and profitable that I'm going to do several posts in this series to give you some further ideas and examples of how to implement this strategy and hopefully I can get your creative juices flowing to think of your own promotions related to the niche your business works in.

But before we get into specific strategies, let me tell you exactly what "piggyback marketing" is and why it can be such a powerful sales tool.

In the previous article, we began our discussion of some marketing tactics that fall under the title of "piggyback marketing."

With this strategy, you have the opportunity to "piggyback" your marketing message with other products, sales messages, a service, or a bill.

Your marketing "piggybacks" with something else that is going to be delivered anyway and can be thought of as a "bonus" or gift by the prospect.

Free coupons are a perfect example of the piggyback marketing strategy.

You come up with an idea for a free coupon to something in your business and offer it as an "include" in the mailing being done by your partner.

In the previous two articles, we have been discussing some marketing tactics that fall under the strategy of "piggyback marketing."

With this method, you have the opportunity to "piggyback" your marketing message with other products, sales messages, a service, or a bill.

Your marketing "piggybacks" with something else that is going to be delivered anyway and can be thought of as a "bonus" or gift by the prospect.

/>We are continuing our discussion of some marketing tactics that fall under the strategy called "piggyback marketing."

With this method, you take the opportunity to "piggyback" your marketing message along with other products, sales messages, a service, or a billing.

In essence, your marketing "piggybacks" with something else that is going to be delivered anyway and will be thought of as a "bonus" or gift by the prospect.

We are continuing our discussion of some marketing tactics that fall under the strategy called "piggyback marketing."

With this method, you take the opportunity to "piggyback" your marketing message along with other products, sales messages, a service, or a billing.

Your marketing "piggybacks" with something else that is going to be delivered anyway and will be thought of as a "bonus" or gift by the prospect.

Here's a quick tip that I've used on several occasions to get me over the direct marketing hurdles of creating a winning headline, effective ad copy, layout questions, developing a good offer, finding the best sizes, etc.

As a solo business owner, it will be up to you to perform the direct selling and marketing tasks that larger companies usually hire professional agencies to handle for them - at a usually high cost.

You will have the choice of accomplishing your advertising campaigns either in-house (meaning you will do it yourself) or by out sourcing the job.

Both online and offline small businesses can create and distribute product and service offerings very cost effectively with coupons that are designed to do all of the following things:

1- Collect the name and contact information of the respondent,

2- Provide an incentive for the user to contact your business,

3- Brand your company and it's products (services) with your unique tag line, logo, and web site URL,

Both online and offline small businesses can create and distribute product and service offerings very cost effectively through the use of coupons distributed to their niche market.

Coupons are generally seen as having great value, are welcomed over advertising that merely asks for a visit to the business during a sale, and are considered as a scarse commodity - there are only so many coupons printed and distributed at a time.

They also typically include a purchase deadline of some type which motivates buyers to make a purchase now rather than later.

Here are the layout and form ideas that others have used most successfully in coupon campaigns for small businesses:

Marketing your solo business with coupons can be a very effective selling strategy if you incorporate some of the time-proven and tested principles that other marketers have learned about this special kind of advertising.

Coupons can the open the door to better customer relations, more back door sales, and greater communication with your valued customers.

Here are a few more tips that will help any small business owner make his coupon campaign a success regardless of the product or niche he's in:

A friend of mine inherited a small gas station from his father.

The mechanic's blood (oil?) ran through the family genes I suppose as he and two of his younger brothers all worked for either car dealerships (in the service department) or garages in the area.

At the passing of his Dad, Trent decided to quit his job, take over the ownership and management of the business his father ran for many years, and see if he could make a go of being his own boss.

That was the response I got when I suggested this as one way a solo small business owner might spread the word about his company without spending a fortune on advertising.

The owner had a small consulting business (principally conducted over the Internet) in the human resource management field - he specialized in coaching mid-level managers and other mid-career white-collar employees in making job changes.

He was always looking for new ideas on ways to expand his clientele.

What I'm about to describe to you is an actual example of the creativity and ingenuity of a small business owner.

I am changing the names of both the owner and his niche because I am quite sure the owner wouldn't want me divulging this information about him or his business.

Nevertheless, this is a true story and one that you may or may not want to use as the basis of your own similar effort to get your business known and to drive more traffic to your web site.

Those that have followed this blog know that I am a huge proponent of doing whatever possible to spread the word about your business and products via public relations activities and press releases.

I've blogged on the subject a number of times. Why? Because a small business desparately lives and dies on other people's advertising.

By that, I mean that your business can languish in obscurity or rise to great heights simply by the press and acknowledgement you receive from high traffic and "trusted" online sites.

Marketing a small business can be a daunting task for the owner that has no previous marketing experience.

I was in that position many years ago and I remember having a constant struggle to come up with ideas or ways to market my business on a shoestring budget.

Yet, around a holiday it was usually easy to dream up a promotion of one sort or another based on that holiday's theme.

It's pretty easy and natural to promote a New Year's Kickoff, a 4th of July Firecracker Deal, or a Halloween Spooky Special.

Every small business owner wrestles with understanding how to increase his business.

The bottom line is this: "How do I bring additional revenue into the company?"

Well friends, you have just two choices: sell more or charge more.

Regardless of how complicated you try to make this puzzle, these are the only two things you can do to increase your business.

Everything else you do supports your ability to make additional sales or charge more for the products and services you sell.

Now comes the critical question: "What can the business owner do to increase sales?"

Times are changing and every solo business owner needs to design his little company in a way that it can be globally competitive.

Before the Internet, it was often sufficient that a small business only worried about the competition in the local community.

You owned a gift shop and your customer pool was everyone within walking distance, or at least easy driving distance, probably within the radius of your community and maybe a few other small towns within 25 miles.

Here's a very powerful marketing strategy for every small business owner that has ever wanted to "force" his clientele to identify with him.

You realize by now the popularity and effectiveness of including stories in your ads.

Human stories, that is, where the personal emotions of pain, hurt, love, greed, jealousy, sorrow, joy, etc are particularly strong and aroused in the customer.

Gripping stories tend to break down barriers, engage customers, and humanize the sometimes sterile world of Internet business.

Of all the tricks and strategies that direct marketing professionals have devised over the years to increase sales and push prospects to take action at crunch time, maybe the ultimate trick is employing the "scarcity" factor to a product or service.

When a product is limited (scarce) in availability, it's value skyrockets dramatically.

Most of us understand the reasoning behind using this tactic and I can guarantee you that at least 90% of the online product offers and "launches" that you'll encounter will use one or more scarcity tactics in the sales message to get you to buy.

Buyer beware! Many a novice business owner has charged into the pay per click advertising world (PPC, for short) with high expectations of mega targeted traffic at small cost and come away with an empty wallet, few or no sales, and a vow never to waste money again in that arena!

One of the keys to solving the PPC dilemma remains hidden from many folks view. Usually the campaign owner focuses on keyword strategies and maximizing ad placement.

Yes, bumper stickers have been in use for a very long time. In fact, they continue to be an excellent strategy for small business because the cost of employ this strategy is minimal but the exposure it can give your business can be great!

Who doesn't notice and read unique bumper stickers?

Yes, there are many boring, ugly, and hard-to-read bumper stickers. The impact that these stickers have can be minimal.

But circulate some fresh, eye-catching, humorous, and outrageous bumper stickers for your business and you may just unleash a wonderful branding and marketing campaign!

Who hasn't received a mailer that included an offer to purchase a product or try a service with the stipulation that all you have to do in order to activate the offer is peel off a pre-printed label and stick it in the box marked "I ACCEPT" and then send it off in the mail?

Direct marketers send millions of these post cards or printed coupons everyday and have been doing so for many, many years. Why?

Simply because they get response!