Business Alone

I saw an obituary in the national news that should be of interest to every solo business owner.

The eulogy was tucked away in an obscure spot where I doubt many took notice.

Please read the full text - it is extremely important and so very appropriate for our times. You will want to keep in mind whom you are reading about!

Execute your business with the memory of this old friend always in your mind.

Do you have the proper mindset for solo business?

As more and more "regular" folks move online to start businesses, it is quite apparent that not all of them think about their businesses in ways that will help them to become successful.

And you really can't blame them for this thinking . . . after all, very few entrepreneurs are involved in some type of formal business education prior to setting up their shop.

Typically, Joe Average (and I'm not using that name as a "slight" or criticism in any way) decides that his fortune lies in being his own boss. He's had it with working for other people and wants to try his hand at self employment.

Joe hears or reads that there is a lot of money to be made on the Internet. And because the barriers to Internet solo business are minimal, he ventures online to make his fortune selling ____________ (whatever.)

I know many would-be business owners are caught up in the dream of solo business.

They envision themselves as enjoying lots of money as the fruit of their efforts.

They see themselves as being the "boss" of their own lives.

They fantasize about working when they want, doing what they want, and being accountable to no one.

They sometimes are so desperate to begin their new life they don't properly prepare for what is ahead of them.

They don't think about the extent of the commitment it is to leave a paying job and begin a new business venture that is untested and untried.

I recently came across some information that should be of interest to all solo Internet business owners.

It was entitled: "Search Engine Marketing: Search Users and Usage"

It was authored by David Hallerman, Senior Analyst at eMarketer. I would encourage you to get the whole report and study it. I hope the link is still live when you read this. Here it is:

http://www.emarketer.com/Products/Products.aspx

I was especially intrigued with the satisfaction survey that was offered as it gives you a feel for how users or consumers view the major search engines as well as the field of Internet marketing and advertising.

You should be able to gain your own "take aways" from what the articles describes.

Think about your experience as a customer in any particular niche where you were seeking information. Do you remember how frustrating it usually was to try to have certain "knowledge-related" questions answered?

Do you remember spending many minutes (sometimes hours) trying to figure something out that could have been shown to you quickly and easily had you only known where or how to ask for an explanation?

Understanding, expertise, and knowledge in any niche comes from learning, training, experience, and paying attention to details.

I believe anyone can become an expert in almost any niche given the right approach. Let me explain what I mean:

It would be a grave mistake on your part to ignore the wants of the women in your niche.

It's easy to get carried away with "male marketing" regardless of what you sell. The Internet is no longer the playground of geeks and male business or entrepreneurial types that we so often associate with solo business.

I have heard the statistic that close to 60% of all online users are women of various ages. I will try to find the reference for you; but regardless of what the exact number is, you need to pay attention to their needs and wants ... especially their wants.

You see, we don't always buy what we need. We typically make purchases of what we want.

A sound marketing plan is very important to the success of any solo online business operation.

Your plan should include areas of focus like niche market research, the customer profiles that you have targeted, an analysis of your competition, your positioning, the products and services
that you are selling, your pricing plan, and your advertising and promotion details.

Do your homework before developing your market and niche plan. Effective marketing, planning and promotion begins with solid data and information about your specific marketplace and the sub-niche you have chosen.

Your business will benefit immensely by the amount of quality information and thoughtful pondering your give your plan.

I'd like to talk about a way to conduct your solo business online that will bring you all the profits and business that you can handle. What I'm speaking about has as much to do with your mindset as it does about your strategy or business system of operating.

If you will adopt an "MO" (a method of operating) that includes what I'm going to describe here, your business will automatically be differentiated from your marketplace competitors. You will have a unique and wholly creative business that your clients will love and clamor for.

What I'm talking about has nothing to do with your chosen business niche, per se. This model can be implemented in any niche market, with any product or any service.

In addition, anyone can adopt this business mindset as it is totally age, gender, culture, education, and experience independent.

Have you guessed yet what I'm talking about? Yes, the title of this post should have given the secret away.

I sincerely believe that a successful business can be created around almost any marketable idea.

I also believe that every person has hidden away in his/her mind, a potentially profitable business idea that can be made marketable in the right hands.

Your task, as I see it, is to identify the idea(s) that has this great potential and test it to the extent that you're comfortable with it becoming the basis of your new business going forward.

So how do you pull this good business idea from your mind? Where do you go to find it?

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.

Most new business owners tend to be great advocates for their product or service as they prepare for their business launch.

They become cheerleaders and proselyters for their product's features, benefits, and usefulness. They want to shout to the whole world that their "baby" is being born and it's the greatest improvement to ___________ of the century!

Do you know what I'm talking about? Have you ever felt this way?

I think new business owners are better served at the outset by playing the role of buyer or consumer of that product. Here's why . . .

I recently came across an article that gave some specific proven advice about launching a new web site. The steps explained were simple and straightforward. I don't remember where I saw the article, but I did make a copy and thought I would summarize it here for you.

The title of the article was: "Launching your Web Site the SEO Way" and it was authored by Paul Fleming.

First of all, you web site needs to be SEO friendly - no flash, no frames, judicious use of images and graphics.

One of the most important things you can do for a new site is to begin building the incoming links to your site from outside, trusted sources. This process takes time and will be something you need to pay attention to always.

Try to get links from sites with a page rank above 3. Here is a directory that offers good links, both paid and free. It's a good place to start.

Other candidates are Wikipedia (Page Rank of 9), Yahoo! (Page Rank of 10), Superpages.com (Page Rank of 8) and Dmoz.org (Page Rank of 9). It may take some time (especially with DMOZ), but a link from any of these sites would be wonderful.

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.

You're asking the wrong person, I'm afraid. I'd like to hear from some of you out there in Internet land that have experience in this arena.

It's not wise to take advice from someone that has never been involved in MLMs or to make an assessment of their value, potential, and advantages or disadvantages.

Let me just set the stage with this short introduction to get you going:

MLM is short for Multi-Level Marketing. It is the type of business opportunity that appeals to many people because the business model and products have already been proven by others who have been successful at it.

Most of the Internet's best marketing minds agree on this philosophy:

"Don't try to create interest and excitement in your prospect for your product. Find an overwhelming desire already in your prospect's mind and fill it."

What does this idea suggest? Simply this . . .

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.

If you are serious about starting a small solo business, there is no greater lesson to learn than how to apply the principle of maximum leverage to everything you do in your business operation.

Your survival, and ultimately your success, will hinge on how well you grasp the concept and make it your slave.

It's a difficult lesson for many, partly because most of us rarely practice applying leverage in our own personal lives. We tend to get complacent and accept low output and/or maintaining the status quo as our daily M.O.

When you get right down to brass tacks, most successful businesses are pretty boring. Really!

How many boring hamburgers does your local McDonalds crank out in a year? How many boring oil changes does Jiffy Lube perform for their customers every day? How often do Amazon employees wrap up a boring package of books to be shipped worldwide?

Many of today's most successful companies are at the top of their niche because they have mastered the execution of very boring business subjects and activities. They understand how to execute their boring routine over and over and over again; usually better and cheaper than anyone else.

Profitable companies develop systems of execution based on testing, modifying, and refining. Once they determine what works best, they simply repeat that formula or system over and over again.

There are actually dozens of smart and effective ways to begin the business creation process that will reduce the risk of a new venture for the owner.

I'll focus on what I call the ten "B"s. These are logical and practical ideas you can follow in your own business startup mode to reduce your risk.

They're not theoretical or academic guesses; but tried and proven ways of protecting your assets, both time and money.

Chances are very good you will rely heavily upon email communications in your new solo business if you use the Internet to conduct your operations.

And contrary to what some folks will tell you, there is no excuse for not understanding what email type you should employ.

Email contact without prior permission, in most instances, is considered SPAM by the majority of today's email experts. It's SPAM (unsolicited and usually unwanted contact) because you are invading someone's personal space and right to privacy.

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!"

If you play the "we guarantee the lowest prices" game, you will usually regret the decision. Of course, only you can be the judge as to your approach to pricing your products and competing in your niche markets.

But I will tell you that unless you are into razor thin margins and moving lots and lots of products, undercutting competitors is a chancy game - at best.

Here's why:

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.

Preparation for business success can come in many ways.

Some follow a regimented career path through college and possibly graduate school to learn the art and science of becoming a business owner.

Others choose to get their education from home study courses, books, tapes, and other media presentations.

Most businesses are started by folks that don't have formal training in business. The school of "hard knocks" is their educational backdrop.

I cant' overemphasize the notion that the most successful business owners are the ones that become "students" of small business and especially, their own business model and niche.

What does it mean to be a student of your business?

Some who go into business become so focused on the daily routines and operations, they never take the time to study and learn about doing business in a more efficient and effective manner.

I've seen a vicious cycle, a treadmill that catches business owners in a kind of "time warp" or trap. The owner starts running on the treadmill and can never seem to jump off.

He finds himself running faster and faster to keep his business afloat as he becomes more successful, but he's never able to slow down, catch up, and he can't jump off.

You've probably noticed over your lifetime that companies dealing in quality products and services tend to remain in business over a long period of time.

Others that prefer to push inferior products - and sometimes just good or average quality offerings - usually have a much shorter life cycle.

Why is it? Wouldn't you logically think that cheaper and more affordable items would outsell more expensive ones if they both performed the same basic functions?

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."

In case you haven't noticed, there is an important trend unfolding in the evolution of modern-day businesses that you need to understand and exploit as a solo Internet business owner.

Years ago, traditional businesses would set up shop in a physical location, stock shelves with the goods the owner expected to be in demand, and lastly open the doors to customers and hope they would buy what was offered.

The solo information business of today is different. No longer does the owner need to make such an expensive commitment to his guess or hunch about which niche is profitable and which products will sell.

I'm not suggesting anything like copying or plagiarizing someone's profitable business model and products to push them out of their own chosen niche.

Although this very practice happens all the time on the Internet with cloned or stolen and copied products and services, you should never consider such a blatant attempt to shortcut your way to success.

What I am suggesting is that you put on your thinking cap, get creative, and look at the solutions that successful businesses in other niches come up with to solve the problems they find in that niche.

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.

What you end up doing with what I am about to tell you could have a great bearing on your ultimate future as a solo Internet business operator.

I can't over emphasize this point. I hope you pay close attention and get the message clearly.

Undertaking a solo business is like placing yourself in the pilot's seat of a commercial airliner. Your customer's pay to climb aboard and have you fly them to wherever it is you've advertised.

One of the things that most business owners look for are ways to add value to their businesses.

The usual thoughts are to add more products to the mix of things sold thereby increasing the profit potential. They reason, "More to sell = more sales!"

If you sell other people's products and if you have a source of additional offerings, this strategy may make sense for your business.

But what if you create your own products and can't readily add new offerings? What if you sell a single item and your business revolves around just that product?

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.

There is a tendency to believe that in order to have a successful business, you must be better than the other businesses in your niche.

You need to understand that it may be impossible to compete against some businesses in some ways. No matter what you do, they will be better at some things than you could ever be.

But that's OK. There is room for many good businesses in most every niche.

Your challenge will be to pick what you want to be good at, let your customers and prospects know what that specialty is, then execute your business and build your products around that strength.

Don't try to compete in things that you can't excel at. Figure skaters are excellent ice skaters, but their talents may not be of much use to a burly hockey player. They become known for their specially developed and honed skills.

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:

I was asked recently by a lady that had decided to operate a home-based business, what it meant to "niche your way" to a business fortune.

I didn't ask her where she picked up that phrase, but I have a good idea it was something said in an ad or a "how to" article somewhere online associated with running a business in today's environment.

It's a pretty trite expression these days, but the concept is still relevant and should be the basis of most every business entrepreneur that's thinking about doing online commerce.

This gal's question took me back a bit - I guess I just assumed that everyone knew what a niche business was and that it was pretty much a "given" for today's highly segmented business market.

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.

In a lot of online business situations, email is the lifeline between you and your customers and suppliers.

You don't have face-to-face contact and you may never converse over the phone.

Since your emails are so important, so critical to your communication with both customers and vendors in the business world, it is very smart to pay particular attention to both the substance and presentation of your emails.

All of us get in the habit of becoming lax in the business "chores" that are commonplace and routine. Email is no different.

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."

Another book that I like to recommend to entrepreneurs and existing small business owners is The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki, a columnist for The New Yorker magazine.

It was published in May 2004 and has 320 pages. The subtitle is: "Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations."

That's quite a mouthful and suggests that there really is wisdom, influence, and, in particular, power in the thinking and opinions of the masses, either to the benefit or detriment of every society, organization, and economy in the world.

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,

As a solo Internet home business owner you are most likely the webmaster of your own web site.

Unless you have turned that function over to someone else (like your girl friend, your 2nd cousin "Harry," or the six year old next door), you will be in charge of optimizing your site for key words, meta tags, and other little HTML goodies that tell the search engines what your site is all about.

Many of us are in business to make money (imagine that . . .) and we certainly don't want to spend time fiddling around with such trivial matters as web site coding and search engine optimization. Right?

In a previous post, we talked about what meta tags are whether they're important to the search engines. We're going to continue that discussion here and add a few other thoughts.

As the Internet has become more crowded with e-commerce sites, the race to attract traffic through the free search engines has greatly intensified.

In fact, today it's all-out war when it comes to competing for top billing: the rush to grab the very highest search engine rankings for competitive key words that drive tons of traffic to the winners.

To tell you the truth, I'm having a hard time coming up with any reasons why you shouldn't absolutely consider having a forum at your site.

In the early Internet days folks would chat back and forth via email only. Some sites placed comment forms in strategic places around the site to encourage visitor input, but that communication was pretty much one way.

If the site owner wanted to answer a comment, it was back to the email station to shoot off a reply.

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.

Most small business owners look for additional sales in increased advertising and marketing.

But there are other strategies to explore and some unique methods of driving more sales in your business without turning up any additional customers.

One of those strategies involves up selling - offering additional products to the sales of your current buying pool. You're not having to locate new first time buyers . . . you're simply selling more to those who buy a product.

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.

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.

Entrepreneur is kind of a funny word. It's obviously of French origin. I've been hunting for years to find its English counterpart, but have not yet come up with a suitable substitute.

Maybe we don't need an English word for entrepreneur - it's used so commonly these days in the English language that most business-minded people, at least, have a pretty good understanding of the term.

My dictionary states the word "entrepreneur" comes from the Old French "entreprendre" which means, "to undertake." An entrepreneur is one who undertakes the creation, organization, operation, and risk of a business venture.

I want to welcome my new friend Chris Elliott to the blog and the amazing world of Internet business. Chris is a high school senior about to make a choice between colleges and is interested in entering the business world after school is completed.

Chris reminds me that there is a legion of potential solo Internet business candidates among us - the future business leaders that will blossom in the coming generation.

Most of the attention I pay to solo business owners goes to those who have a wealth of knowledge and experience under the belt. They are folks that already have some life and business experiences in the work place.

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 right here. (Excuse me if this link is no longer working - John has changed his business model several times in the past couple of years and the link may be down by now.)

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?

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.

It may be something you do as a matter of routine, but I've seen enough sales letters and web site catalogs that don't do this that I'm convinced some sellers just don't know what they are missing.

I've often spoken of the need to do everything within your power to garner the trust and confidence of your prospects in online selling.

Lots of people are still a little skeptical about doing business online.

And even though many have moved beyond the fear that credit card numbers will be stolen and used illegally, they still have a certain natural tendency to not give their full faith and trust to a new Internet company they have never dealt with in the past.

I'm no expert on the subject because I've only been blogging a short time now (since February 2006 on a blog different than Business Alone).

However, I have been a writer for quite some time and many of the same rules apply to blogging as well.

I have taken the time to do some research on the subject.

Specifically I have been reading about "How to Blog" and trying to follow the instructions of some who have been successful bloggers for quite some time now.

I've also spent a fair amount of time visiting popular blogs, watching what other authors are doing, and trying to follow their lead by seeing and incorporating their techniques into my own blog.

One of the great advantages of being a blog writer (author) and a blog reader (viewer) is the fact that there are few hard and fast rules about what a blog has to look like, say, deliver, and accomplish.

Every blog is a little bit different and unique.

Some actually go way out on a limb and try to be extremely different to the point of overstepping the boundaries of good writing.

Nonetheless, blogs are a form of digital expression and learning.

By their very nature they are personal, custom, and a reflection of the blogger's preferences and wishes.

We've been discussing how to write a blog. I've given six suggestions so far that will help you to be successful and attractive to the readers in your niche.

7. As much as possible, include a title that grabs your reader's attention and forces him to stop and read more.

Some have suggested that the title is 80% responsible for the post being read. Some just skim through titles and short blog excerpts to determine if they want to take the time to read the whole post.

If your title is weak or sounds boring, there is a very good chance the viewer will skip on by to something else. Try to fit key words from your niche into the title if you can.

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.

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?

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.

Here are a few additional suggestions of practical things you can do in your business to gain the trust of your prospects by calming their fear of purchasing on the Internet and dealing with an unknown company:

6. Be very clear and precise about what the customer is getting with his purchase. Don't leave anything unclear or in doubt. If anything, be overly specific and descriptive so the customer doesn't wonder what his dollars are actually purchasing.

7. Make the actual buying process as easy, straightforward, and intuitive as possible. Don't ask for more personal information than is necessary. Now is not the time for a customer survey. Explain each step you ask the customer to take. If the buyer is going to be taken away from your web site (for instance, to have a credit card transaction approved), explain to him why he is leaving the site and how he will be returned automatically.

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.

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.

That's a critical question for the solo entrepreneur.

When you are the sole business owner, employee, product creator, customer service rep, and shipping clerk you literally become the business.

You have no one to blame, no one to rely on, no one to pass the buck to.

You stand alone bearing your torch to the world and you either make it or you don't on your own skill and wisdom.

You attitude about yourself and the business you've created will make all the difference in the world when it comes to projecting your business in front of your customers.

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.

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.

It's only been since the late 1990's that marketers are able to look at the phenomenon of Internet purchasing.

It's really too short a time to accurately begin predicting more long-term trends and patterns that will spill over into the future.

Initially, most online prospects were hesitant to give up credit card information and personal data required to make a purchase. But by about 1998 or so attitudes toward security began changing and customers were more at ease in divulging their information.

As I have watched Internet business begin to grow and mature, I have noticed that certain recurring patterns seem to play themselves out over time.

Observing these patterns and keeping a careful eye on emerging trends will help the solo entrepreneur position himself and his business in a way that will benefit his revenue generation.

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.

Many will say that the wealth of resources we have in the United States has allowed this country to step to the forefront of new product development.

They speak of the financial, educational, and natural resources found in the U.S. in abundance as the reason for our world leadership.

When you think about the young age of this country (230 years) compared to other geographically large countries throughout the world, it's quite amazing that the U.S. has taken such a leadership role.

According to a recently released study, over 50 percent of U.S. annual GDP growth (gross domestic product) can be attributed to increases in our innovation.

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:

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.

Big Madison Avenue advertising agencies need to know what customers think about specific companies (their clients) and the products and services they sell.

They create branding messages, images, and positioning for these companies that affect how the business is perceived by the general public.

Such information can be helpful to a small business as well; however, most small businesses are not in a position to be able to afford this level of outsourcing and detail in their marketing.

Still, there is an easy way to check on consumer sentiment about the companies that do business in your niche.

As the title implies, there is a business principle that all great companies adhere to that produces wealth and abundance beyond the infusion of cash into a business.

It is the principle that value can be created in a business in ways other than by direct cash deposits. It's a pretty simple concept, really, but many folks looking at business from the outside (like an entrepreneur deciding that he wants to create a business) don't think about growing a valuable company from within without spending money to do it.

Why is owning a business so profitable? Why is small business such a prized and universal dream for so many people?

Most would tell you that the reason they want to have a business is for the income stream that it can provide.

It seems that when most folks think about starting a new business, they consider what product or service they might sell to the consumer.

Everyone is familiar with consumer goods and most of us relate to them because we use them in our everyday lives.

We see and hear about these products in TV ads, radio spots, in the newspaper, and on signs and billboards.

We naturally begin to think about the products we use and how we might be able to come up with a better version or maybe we think we can sell consumer goods in a more effective way than they are being offered to us.

It might pay for you to change your thinking slightly and begin to contemplate what you might have to offer other businesses.

There are some advantages to avoiding consumers and simply dealing with businesses in your niche.

I believe that every business has the opportunity to "make a difference" in the world today, even if only in a small way.

There are lots of ways of doing that besides merely providing valuable and useful products and services that help people and make their lives better.

By being productive and profitable, a company has the opportunity to contribute to the economic stability of the city and region in which it operates.

Small businesses will also have a number of opportunities to become socially responsible.

Here are a few ideas for the small business owner:

It seems somewhat incredible that many entrepreneurs go into business without knowing exactly their true business purpose.

Have you ever taken the opportunity to boil down your purpose to its very essence?

"What is my business?" Try to find an answer that covers all the bases in just a word or two. Usually that's a very challenging task.

Your company may sell a number of different products and services and it's purpose may be multi-faceted. Here's maybe a different way of defining what it is that you do.

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.

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.

Whether you decide to publish information in a paid newsletter, a "members only" web site, or an email or notification service, the questions you'll have to answer are basically the same. Why do you want to do this?

Is the decision based on your love of the niche and desire to share what you know about it? Is it because you already have the advantage of possessing the knowledge and experience that will be needed?

Are you trying to gain a dedicated group of subscribers so you can offer them niche products? Or is the decision simply one that allows you to start a business and earn a living in a niche of your own choosing?

Whatever the reason, there are business principles that you ought to think about prior to committing much time and money to your new venture.

Keeping your valuable information behind locked doors and only giving access to those that pay you for the privilege is the basis of the membership or subscription web site model.

As the owner of a membership site, you will have to determine how to best handle the security of your information and still make it convenient and easy for your paid members to get access.

Here are the usual approaches that I've seen and dealt with in my Internet experience.

Regardless of the information subscription niche that you choose as the subject of your business, you will need some type of web site software platform.

In another post, we discussed the five usual platform options available to the small business.

Which option is right for your business will depend upon your financial capability, the functions that you want in the site, the type of information presentation you deliver, and your own capability to maintain and operate the software and web site.

But whichever alternative you've narrowed your overall model choices down to, you will still need to choose between many specific company products.

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?

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.

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!

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?

Every business needs to identify something that sets it apart from all other businesses in the same niche.

This principle is called the USP or "unique selling proposition" by some, and others call it a variety of similar things. The principle is simple: you should attempt to capitalize on some characteristic or trait in your business that you can be known for -- some differentiating aspect that only you can claim.

It seems in almost every industry niche there is at least one business that desires to claim it has the lowest prices. It often brands itself with the slogan, "we will not be undersold."

To me, that is exactly the wrong message that a solo business ought to extend. My feeling is that solo businesses will almost always have difficulty trying to compete on the basis of product pricing.

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.

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.

One of the great advantages to operating a solo business is that you, and you alone, control what transpires in the business. You make all the decisions, you set the rules, and you alone reap the business spoils.

Solo business appeals to many people, not because they're anti-social or paranoid about taking on business partners, but because they see distinct advantages in the lifestyle and daily routine of the owner/operator. Many prefer to work at home, work from a laptop, or enjoy the autonomy that a solo business provides compared to the "impersonal" nature of corporate society.

But for all the advantages of the solo business model, there is one distinct disadvantage that surfaces for some operators. It is the fact that some become so engrossed in their business that they never step out of it to check the reality of what they're doing and to look around and see what else is going on within the market.

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 believe in small business! I believe in entrepreneurs!

I believe that anyone can create and operate their own successful small business if they will choose a viable niche and apply sound business strategies and principles (which you can learn here).

My favorite solo Internet business strategy suggests you create an information-based business around your education, training, interests, knowledge and passion.

So what is this "passion" I'm talking about? Does it mean you have to like the subject of your business?

Well, not exactly. You see, passion is much more comprehensive and deep than simply "liking" what you do.

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.

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.

Maybe I should have titled this "Tips from the underground" or "Marketing secrets that few businesses discover."

These are not the kinds of tips you find in textbooks or "how to market your business" courses or articles.

Yet, many of them are common sense based and really pretty logical in their thought and implementation.

So here you have some of the most simple, down-to-earth, practical yet seldom followed ideas that will boost your marketing traffic and success almost immediately.

Just a few years ago, solo business owners took advantage of the fact that they could market their goods and services online all across the continent.

They lauded the fact that a small time business owner could now effectively compete with other businesses around the country because the Internet removed their geographic boundaries.

But in today's economy, such thinking limits the opportunities you have coming at you from all around the world. Because Internet business is still in its infancy, it's not too late to at least start thinking about gearing up for global business, even if you're just a Lone Wolf working from home.

We're discussing the shift of online buyers toward countries and languages outside the United States and the implications this global business trend has on your solo operator small online business.

Here are a few more things you'll want to think about as you contemplate the coming years and the non-U.S. marketplace.

3. Most of the research that has been done regarding online buyers only takes into account those who have already proven themselves as buyers, in other words, they've previously made at least one purchase online.

But what about the millions and millions of potential buyers there are in those that are: (1) new Internet users all over the globe that are just now getting, or will in the near future have, access to the Internet, and (2) not yet online buyers but will become such in the future?

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.

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.

I have seen a smattering of Internet marketers voicing loud and sometimes passionate opinions that blogs are destroying the Internet. Why?

These blog naysayers suggest that blogs are too ubiquitous, they give every Tom, Dick, and Sally a public platform on which they push a certain agenda, try to sell in a saturated market, and criticize and condemn products they don't like even when their reasons are suspect.

One fellow complained that blogs get into the search results too easily and because of the sheer numbers of blogs (he said "tens of millions") the results are not returning what viewers are looking for.

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.

Have you ever noticed how customers like to be given very specific instructions or detailed directions from those they consider to be an expert?

I used to work retail in the sporting goods industry when I was a struggling college student trying to get my education and support my young family.

My great passion and hobby was fly fishing and I took every opportunity I could to help fly fishermen who came into the store to become better at "my sport."

I was an evangelist, a mentor, and an instructor for the sport of fly fishing even though the store was paying me to be a salesman.

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.

Of course you would want to do that. Here's why!

Everyone likes to be stroked. We all enjoy the praises of others and the acknowledgement or validation of our own talents and worth.

Even celebrities gush over fans that sing their praises and idolize their image.

You can use this knowledge to your advantage in the online business world.

Here's how you do it and why it's a good idea.

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.

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:

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's a very interesting phenomenon that often takes place in small business environments that to some extent can be predicted.

Solo businesses that roll along from day to day and week to week, never trying new methods or strategies, never experimenting with radically different systems or marketing, can be pretty much assured that their results will remain steady and predictable.

I have noticed that it's at times of greatest change and upheaval that some businesses make their greatest leap forward.

In essence, the business owner decides to depart from former or traditional ideas and methods and strike out in a new direction, or with a completely different approach.

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.

The manufacturers of the industrial era had at least one thing in common: they found that mass production could cut both product costs and production times by substantial amounts when work was compartmentalized and the flow of assembly was orchestrated to bring all the parts together at the proper time (on the assembly line) and sequence.

The expectation remains today that products can be made and delivered to the customer in record time.

You order a digital camera over the Internet today on your lunch hour, even from a dealer thousands of miles away, and you should be able to have it delivered to your front door by noon tomorrow, if all goes well.

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.

Anyone who is unfamiliar with web site development, search engine optimization, and all the technical terms and usage surrounding HTML and computer language is apt to be very confused by the existence of meta-tags and all the varied opinions about them.

What are they? Why are they important? How do you properly construct, place, and use them?

I am not an expert in this science by any means. In fact, I am one of the people that probably discount meta-tag usage to some extent.

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?

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.

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.

I'll have to be careful with this post because some business owners will think I'm giving some very poor and bad advice about growing a solo business.

Nonetheless, I need to warn you of a temptation that appears before almost every new business owner that gains some traction and realizes some measure of success in his solo business.

Here's the temptation:

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.

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.

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.

Small business is never easy.

I don't care what tales and stories you hear of entrepreneurs coming up with the perfect idea at the perfect time.

Most such tales are just that. Millionaires aren't typically created overnight and they don't automatically or magically appear when an Internet company goes public.

So to suggest that a great piece of entrepreneurial advice and wisdom can be boiled down into three tiny words is really heresy in many ways.

I was asked this simple question in a roundtable discussion of business owners recently, and to my utter surprise, a very lively dialogue carried on into the night as the group of us debated the challenges and opportunities that affect small business today in comparison with "the way it used to be" just 10-15 years ago.

My opinion, and that of several others that specialize in online business, was that indeed, small business has changed dramatically for those that have discovered and subsequently embraced the new technologies that empower the small business owner.

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.

You may or may not know about "pay per click" advertising.

In the world of Internet marketing, it has become one of the mainstays of the Internet marketer's arsenal of advertising alternatives.

The basic idea and concept is simple: As an advertiser, you pay for the number of "clicks" you receive to your website, advertisement, banner, marketing article, etc. The search engines send you traffic (someone who "clicks" their mouse on your ad as they search the Internet) according to the pre-established cost that you will be charged for every visitor or impression your advertising accumulates.

When you think about this concept, it really makes great sense. You pay the search engines to send you a customer looking for what you are offering.

There are, however, some increasingly difficult challenges that make this kind of advertising a very tricky proposition.

You may have know someone, or read about a particular circumstance, where the advertiser wasn't careful and "lost his shirt" on his PPC advertising campaign.

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?"

How many ways are there for a small business to fail?

Don't try to count them . . . life is too short as it is . . .

I want to talk a bit about one of the dangers of solo Internet business.

I have always preached the message of niche specialization for the solo business owner. I say you should dig down deep and become an expert in a very tightly focused market.

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.

Often entrepreneurs and small business owners have a difficult time trying to keep from being "stale" in their businesses.

By that, I mean they struggle to come up with fresh ideas, new and unique products, and creative solutions to the problems and wants of their market niche.

Many feel that they must continue to sell the same old things they've always sold, that they have no way of being able to offer brand new services or goods.

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.

Like most new and innovative things, Internet business for many people seems to be nothing more than a fad, a fancy, a fleeting hot topic that will soon cool off and die in obscurity.

Many computer savvy folks have yet to make a purchase online and some still hold to the notion that the dot com era will soon be over for good.

They reason that e-commerce online is not secure, too much of a passing fantasy, and something that they can easily do without.

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.

The folks over at the Better Business Bureau commissioned a study in 2007 of the adult online shopper's most important issues.

It seems that approximately 60% of those surveyed are primarily concerned about two things: (1) that their personal information could be stolen and sold online or reused by someone else, and (2) that their credit card information could be hijacked by some unscrupulous operator (59%).

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!

One of the most overlooked steps in web site publishing, product creation, and article writing is the "chore" of first doing market research.

It's a chore to most people and therefore it is often neglected or shunned altogether because performing the research takes time, a certain amount of "know how" and definitely some amount of your precious time.

But the consequences of not first doing research are almost always negative and will certainly cost you time and money in the long run.

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!

I was going through some of my Internet business books yesterday and noticed a little red paperback book that I remember reading several years ago. I dusted it off and read it again.

It is a quick read - a little over 100 pages. I remember the conclusion of the book more than anything else . . . probably because I was so frustrated reading the book and waiting for the one bit of information that wasn't revealed until the very end of the text.

The book is titled: The Ultimate Success Secret. The author is Dan Kennedy. Many of you Internet marketers will be familiar with the name, if not the man himself.

Dan is a fairly prolific writer, speaker, and information marketing coach who is recognized in the field for his knowledge and grasp of what it takes to be highly successful at internet business. He commands a very high price for his consulting time - if you're lucky enough to catch him and drag him away from his crazy schedule.

I don't intend to give you a book review in this post. I just wanted to touch upon a few principles that I thought about as I re-read Dan's book.

We all fear the unknown, don't we?

Maybe that's why we tend to shy away from digging into web site analytics.

Many web owners that have been online running a solo business for years have never really bothered to look into their site stats to analyze where their traffic is coming from and what those visitors are actually doing on their web site.

Maybe these owners feel like doing web analytics is akin to filling out your income tax return - it's something to fear ... to put off as long as possible. After all, it seems like a pretty boring and tedious thing to use numbers to analyze something.

The difference between the two, however, is that there are penalties and the law that will come after you if you don't file your taxes.

If you don't look at your analytics, there is no one that is going to force you to "comply" - to make your business stronger and more profitable.

This past week has been an especially difficult one for those of us who subscribe to many of the largest Internet Marketing mailing lists.

Some of you can relate, I'm sure.

It seems that every would-be guru trying to hawk his wares decided to flood the niche this particular week with junk product launches and phony money-making products that are designed for just one thing: sales to unsuspecting and eager consumers that have the misfortune of having their names on someone's email list.

I feel sorry for the masses that are trying to carve out a spot for business online.

Yea, yea, I know that most of us gave up our virginity (innocence) without being forced and we offered our email addresses in exchange for a delectable freebie in a moment of weakness.

Sure, no one is forcing anybody to make a purchase or even read a 30-page direct sales letter.

We subscribe to mailing lists to learn how the big boys build their relationships with prospects, right? We subscribe because we want to keep our finger on the pulse of the IM online world. We are all waiting for that easy, automatic, and fool-proof system that floods our bank account with non-stop Franklins.

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 . . .

Every solo business owner has a set of core principles or values that determine how his/her business is operated.

Some owners are very methodical and precise. Others tend to fly by the seat of their pants, so to speak.

No two businesses are run exactly the same.

But regardless of your methods and strategies, there are some very fundamental execution principles that all successful solo businesses seem to adopt.

Some business owners catch onto these ideas quickly. They learn them early on in their business career and adopt them as a daily method of operation.

Others gradually move toward these ideas through trial and error as they learn in their own business exactly what works and what doesn't.

Many times the experience of a newcomer to Internet selling is not what a business owner expects or wants.

Most often, new owners are surprised at the lack of sales they experience in the beginning of their web business career.

Selling online can be tough, especially for those that have no mentor or coach who can point out the usual pitfalls and obstacles to avoid.

Even then, markets change, demand for a product ebbs and flows, and niches get saturated with too many sellers.

More often than not, however, lack of sales early on is a symptom of one or two things that need to be fixed by the owner before he can expect success. Here is what those two challenges involve:

Often I am asked something like the following:

"Where do you look for answers if your web site and business are not successful?"

It seems that lots of business owners these days are moving to the Internet as a way to make a living. No doubt they've heard all the hype and raves about how much money there is waiting for those who want to extract it from the Internet.

Business is a complex thing and any one trouble spot could be to blame for an under-performing entity. And if many trouble spots are present, the task of identifying them all and fixing them becomes a major undertaking.

If your business isn't performing ... or if it is performing but not at the level you expect, here are the ten areas of your business that I would first analyze in order to remove potential trouble spots:

In the previous post we began discussing where to look (in your business) to find areas that you might grow in your business. What can you do to become more successful?

"Where do you look for answers if your web site and business are not successful as you would want?"

It seems that lots of business owners these days are moving to the Internet as a way to make a living or even a supplemental income. No doubt they've heard all the hype and raves about how much money there is waiting for those who want to extract it from the Internet.

Business is a complex thing and any one trouble spot could be to blame for an under-performing business entity. And if many trouble spots are present, the task of identifying them all and fixing them becomes a major undertaking.

If your business isn't performing ... or if it is performing but not at the level you expect, here are the ten areas of your business that I would first analyze in order to remove potential trouble spots:

Internet marketing for the solo business owner is an interesting study of very unique principles that you won't find in other fields.

On unique topic is that of "keywords."

If you want to be successful, you need to master this arena because on the Internet today, it is absolutely imperative that you focus and target your marketing effort.

If you don't pay attention to this aspect of your business, you'll lose your shirt in advertising costs and you won't attract the audience that will be hungry for your offers.

The phrase "drilling down" refers to the approach in your marketing that suggests you dig deeper and deeper into your niche in order to come up with extremely targeted and focused products, customers, advertising, partners, and keywords that will be used to position your business in a tightly focused manner.

There is so much information online these days ... if you don't tightly target what you're doing ... you will appeal to no one.

One of the "tricks" of search engine optimization has to do with the way images are treated.

It might be a revelation to many site owners that are not familiar with the way the search bots work that images are not "read" like text on the page.

Images are not really "read" and therefore usually contribute nothing to the on-page SEO efforts of the webmaster.

Nevertheless, they can contribute to search engine ranking if they are optimized properly.

It's easy to find great detail on the subject if you simply go to Google and search on the phrase "optimize images."

Often business owners unknowingly leave good potential customers turned away at their front door!

No business person would consciously make this mistake because new prospects who come calling on your business are the whole reason for your marketing and advertising campaigns.

But the way you greet and welcome your prospects could be turning some folks away from your efforts even before you realize it.

Most folks who are in business on the Internet and who own web sites have heard of "squeeze pages" or "landing pages." They are the initial spot where prospects "land" or arrive when they come calling.

These pages are shown to convert prospects into targeted potential customers because they have a sole function: to get the viewer to give his/her contact information so they can be called upon by the business.

We are continuing our discussion of the fear of Internet selling. You see, many would-be entrepreneurs have extreme fear of offering products and services online to potential customers.

Some have expressed their frustration with fears so intense and debilitating that their business has stalled and they have not been able to get past this single obstacle.

In our previous discussion (Part 1 of the same title) we listed the top seven fears that seem to be fairly common among new business owners.

Today's discussion is about how to approach those fears and move past them in order to push a new business idea forward.

Here is a very simple but undisputed fact: only a small percentage of the people that have ideas about making money online ever get to the point of actually doing it!

For many, one or more of their fears have paralyzed their ability to implement their business plan and carry it through for income generation.

When it comes right down to brass tacks, I would say every Internet business owner should consider herself or himself an information publisher.

It seems to me that all business web site owners need to be publishers of:
a) website information;
b) sales letter copy;
c) site content in the chosen niche;
d) products in digital or hard copy form;
e) blog content;
f) email communications;
g) customer service responses;
h) advertising / marketing copy;
i) articles and press releases;
j) probably other things I'm forgetting about ...

My point is, whether you consider yourself to be an info marketer or not, you really need to pay close attention to your publishing (i.e. putting it out on the net or in emails) and how it can affect your overall business.

All small business owners will be faced with the decision to use less than truthful advertising and promotional strategies in their sales letters, email communications, ads, and other promotional material.

How do I know? It seems to be the way business marketing has evolved on the Internet.

Deceptive practices include all those little white lies, half truths, and marketing tactics that many feel are perfectly legal, excusable, and appropriate in this day and medium.

Some, I know, would question why we are even discussing this topic as they feel anything is game as long as you don't cross the line of outright lying in your presentations.

I don't see it that way.

I believe that Internet marketers has a responsibility to their prospects and customers that includes being upfront, honest, and ethical in everything they publish, say, and do.