Business Alone

May each of you have a wonderful Christmas Day and a very prosperous new year in 2007!

Now turn off your computer and go spend some time with your family.

It's a nasty name, "swipe files," but it's an idea you should implement immediately if you haven't already gotten yours started!

If you're like me, you run across great little ideas and tidbits on the Internet every day.

But if you don't record that idea, or web site, or reference, or "how to" hint for later recall, you will have forgotten that even existed within a day or two.

If you've been involved in copywriting, direct ad creation, web site development, graphics creation, email headlining, and any number of other online business tasks, you've probably heard the term "swipe files."

That's kind of a nasty or unpleasant term, but the concept is smart and the results of you building such files will be significant as you venture into your new information business.

If you don't know what a "swipe file" is, or you're not convinced you need one (or several), read on.

Let's face it, many folks that start their own solo business are first time entrepreneurs. They have no history, background, or training in small business development or operation.

That presents a great challenge - one that can certainly be overcome - but one that must be recognized and met head-on.

You see, operating a business is like most other professions. You don't just declare that you want to be in business for yourself and all of a sudden possess all the skills and knowledge that you need to be successful.

Some business owners have chosen to ship purchased products to their customers at no additional cost with the idea that such generosity could mean the difference between landing a sale or not, all other considerations being equal.

I would caution that you be very careful in implementing this strategy. If you choose to offer free shipping, that's certainly your prerogative as the business owner; but if your business can't really afford this luxury, it could become an awful drain on your capital.

Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not saying you should never employ this strategy. In fact, some businesses have used the "free shipping" tactic to differentiate and set their company apart from all the other competitors in their niche.

In the previous installment we discussed some of the costs associated with delivering physical products to your customers.

Be careful to study the numbers and understand exactly what it is costing your business on a weekly, monthly, and annual basis to send out your goods.

In most instances, it is best to charge your customers about what it costs you to handle and ship their purchase. The amount can vary a little from your exact cost so that you can standardize and simplify the shipping cost structure you present to your buyers.

The ways an auto responder can be employed to automate your business tasks are many. Here are just a few of the typical business uses of an auto responder:

- if an email address is no longer valid, a message can be sent from the mail server that the email is now "undeliverable,"

- if the business changes its email address or URL, a new forwarding address can be sent to those that send mail to the old address,

- if you go on vacation or are otherwise unavailable for a time, your auto responder can alert customers to your absence and when you'll return,

Having to ship merchandise out to customers reminds me of the hassle of shaving every morning. It's a part of the daily routine, it's something to be tolerated but it's never enjoyed, and the longer you let it go, the more difficult the chore grows for the next day.

In my mind, having to ship merchandise, keep inventory on hand, box and package products, etc, is one of the reasons I feel strongly about solo operators focusing on information based business only. There is no shipping.

If you ship merchandise, you have to keep merchandise. All of a sudden you are in the warehousing and inventory business that presents all kinds of extra manpower costs, worries and hassles.

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 read a news opinion column recently that claimed the great benefit of the Internet to small businesses was that it allowed every business to be built on the same footing - low startup cost and potentially unlimited exposure.

The article went on to say that if a business expected to compete in its niche online it had to give a lot of things away for free as that was the expected standard online these days.

Is the Internet business model really that different from the way business is done in the off-line physical world?

Do solo entrepreneurs really have to give away a lot of their valuable information products in order to attract customers and expect product purchases?

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 very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Take some time off today and enjoy the holiday 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.

You would think most people are rational when spending money on products and services that they find online. After all, the complete information about the product is readily available right on the Internet.

You can also quickly compare prices, shipping, and other factors between two or more sellers to assure you're getting the best deal possible.

I'll admit that I've spent hours online comparison shopping, researching benefits and features, and reviewing the sales pages for just one item I wanted to purchase.

The time I spent online was probably worth way more than the product I was after.

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.

For many years marketers have known the popularity and selling power of contests that are offered to prospects and customers.

On the Internet, a fun and profitable (for the participant) contest can to lead to increased traffic and site popularity, returning customers, and word of mouth advertising among family and friends.

The contest you offer doesn't have to be especially costly, cutting edge, or filled with large cash prizes. Since you are working in a specific niche, the contest and the winnings should be somehow related to that niche.

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.

If you have a business based in the U.S. and you pride yourself on having the lowest prices in town (or in your industry), are you ready to be severely challenged?

One of the most evident changes that the U.S. economy has undergone in the past 15 years or so is the flight of industrial and manufacturing companies away from the U.S. Why?

Well there are a lot of reasons, but the basis of this exodus is the fact that labor in the U.S. is increasingly expensive and hard to find.

One of the true challenges facing every Internet business is the process of turning prospects into paying customers.

Lots of people can be directed to a web site by various means and incentives - but getting those prospects to spend money with your business is a whole different proposition.

How do you optimize your conversion rate - turning lookers into buyers - that certain percentage of surfers that will actually give you a credit card number and deposit their money into your bank account?

We'll save the details and numbered lists of tactics and strategies for another day.

What I wanted to get across as your sole "take away" (bit of wisdom you can use in your business) from this discussion is:

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);

One of the things that small business owners often forget is the fact that customers come to a small business often for the experience, not just for the products or services that are offered.

Yet many small businesses don't capitalize on that fact. Instead, they try to act like large sterile non-personal corporations. Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about.

I was recently in Park City, Utah with my wife and family. We had made the one hour drive from home specifically to walk Main Street. For those of you unfamiliar with the place . . .

Nothing grabs a prospects attention like seeing his own name printed in a hand-written letter from a friend.

When a business customer feels like he is appreciated, singled out by the owner for some personal attention, and given the opportunity to join in the membership of a group of "insiders," he will likely commit to being personally involved in the niche with this business.

Personal involvement invites activity in forums, registration as a member of a community of serious like-minded folks (either free or paid), and status as a preferred customer (one most likely to buy products from the business.)

Over the years I've been watching and participating in small business development, I've noticed that the successful businesses tend to be the ones that are driven by an owner that knows how to execute a plan.

The successful owner may not be overly intelligent, have a cutting edge business idea, or the latest technology infused in his business.

The successful owner doesn't have to be too creative or even a great writer.

Often, this is simply the guy that knows where he wants his business to go and he executes the plan consistently over time without a lot of distraction.

Here are ten not very creative ideas to try in your business if you want to be noticed as standing apart from the crowd.

You've probably noticed the proliferation of "how to" content sites and businesses that have sprung up in every niche across the Internet.

The popularity of this business model is undeniable. Find a niche that has customers craving how to do something that is not generally understood and you might just be swamped with more prospects than you can handle.

The reason for all this commotion in the "how to" circles? It's simple - everyone wants to find good solid information that is readily available that can solve a problem that they are having.

You want to know how to diversify your stock portfolio without paying a securities broker? Go online and do some research.

One of the first and most important tasks of any web site owner is to capture at least the name and email address of every visitor possible.

You want to be able to communicate with your customers and send them follow-up messages. You want to keep your business in front of the prospect, but you must have their permission and blessing to do that.

Often web site owners will offer a premium or freebie to the visitor in hopes that the exchange of the personal information for the freebie will be seen as a "fair trade" by the customer. But too often the freebie has no relation to the business or product of the owner.

Most of the time, I see marketers making the freebie "easy pickins" (i.e. in exchange for the name and email address only) and available whether the main web site ad is seen or not.

We all know that many people set up free web-based email accounts with MSN, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc with the soul purpose in mind of using it to register at web sites and pick up their freebies without ever intending to actually read the marketing that is being sent to these email collection sites.

Copywriting expert Peter Fogel, in his article "Ten Reasons Why People Don't Buy From You," makes this point about reading the ad before getting the freebie:

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.

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.

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.

If you've been doing business on the Internet for any length of time, you've undoubtedly heard the term "sticky" or "stickiness" used to describe the ability of a web site to engage it's audience.

If a site is sticky, it is one that attracts customers and keeps them at the site for unusually long periods of time. Sticky sites are a good thing!

Why? The reasoning goes that the longer you can keep a customer, the more apt that person is to eventually make a purchase and to make additional return visits.

Some of you may have seen this on MSN recently, but I thought I would share my synopsis of it anyway for those interested in the "wants" of Internet users.

CNET's Download.com is a library of free and free-to-try software programs and applications for Windows, Macintosh, and handheld devices. It began 10 years ago with 3,000 titles and today has over 30,000 potential downloads.

Here are the TOP TEN DOWNLOADS over the past 10 years:

Did you know there are ways to see what buyers are looking for at any given time online?

The information is free. Smart marketers and product developers ought to keep an eye on the buying public and their wants. Understanding "demand" is one of the pillars of Internet marketing and product creation.

CNET's Download.com is a library of free and free-to-try software programs and applications for Windows, Macintosh, and handheld devices. It began 10 years ago with 3,000 titles and today has over 30,000 potential downloads.

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.

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!

I thought I'd post a little change of pace today. I ran across an interesting bit of wisdom a couple of days ago that I wanted to share with you.

This bit of information was written by Regina Brett of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio. The focus is not on business.

Ms. Brett, a columnist, writes about the lessons of life that she has learned from her 70 years of life experiences. I thoroughly enjoyed this and hope you find it helpful.

Extract what is meaningful to you. If your life is fulfilling, you will be that much more able to run a successful small business.

Like many of my fellow Internet marketers, there was a time when I was very enamored with the thought of owning and operating a large PLR business.

It seemed like a great way to make money.

Other people did the work of creating products (mostly e-books) and all I had to do was gather them up, feature them on a large "catalog" type e-commerce site, and sell them to a hungry crowd of business owners looking for content.

Or so I thought ...

I purchased my share of digital resale rights products; and to this day, most sit on my hard drive collecting fairy dust because I never did get around to using them.

There are some notable exceptions, mind you, but that is a discussion for another day.

I love the PLR model of selling digital information. Think about how perfect it is . . .