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10 Twitter Rules for Business Success

As far as I am concerned, Twitter is a must have for business; whether you are using Twitter to promoting your business or establishing your expertise is a field it is a crucial piece of the puzzle to getting recognized and building relationships. But with all the clutter in the Twitterverse it’s important not to ignore the etiquette of Twitter, otherwise you might find that you are not getting the most of this popular social networking platform.

Top 10 Twitter Etiquette Tips for Business

1. Listen to your mother and Mind Your Manners
This is just good common sense. As someone who is a marketing professional first I always like to say, “New Tools Old Rules.” If someone mentions you or retweets you, if at all possible thank them. Not only do People like to be recognized for their efforts but this is a valuable action so not thanking them would be rude. This is also a great way to begin building a relationship on Twitter. This small gesture may open the lines of communication between you and a potential customer or business partner. Show your appreciation, and people will be more likely to re-tweet your offerings again and again. Even better, return the favor and retweet one of their posts.

2. Use #Hashtags Appropriately
I personally love hashtags, they are a great way to encourage participation not to mention help others track and find information. Having said that it is important not to overuse them. While I like the long hashtag as much as the next person, using it too often or putting a hashtag in front of every word of your post will do nothing more than annoy your followers.

3. Resist the Urge to Tweet Too Much
Time and time again, research has shown that there is a fine line between just enough sharing and too much. Often times business that are new to Twitter, don’t yet understand this principle. Don’t fill your followers’ feeds with spammy Tweets. The best way to engage your audience is to post relevant, interesting, useful, and original content. Before you post, ask yourself: “Would I care about this if I were a follower?”

Tip: If you have a lot of ideas, use a program like Hootsuite to schedule your tweets so that they can be spaced out.

4. Warn Followers if You’re Going to Tweet A Lot
If you want to live-tweet an event at your business or charity gathering, you will need to tweet a lot!. While it’s a good idea, you may lose more followers who feel assaulted by a barrage of tweets. A little fair warning will be much appreciated, and your followers will likely give you a pass for the day.

Tip: Tell them to check out Twalala or Twittblocker

5. Watch What You Tweet
There have been some famous and embarrassing blunders on social media that have gotten both individuals and even entire companies in a lot of trouble. Never use your brand’s Twitter account to discuss controversial topics, send inappropriate photos, or use explicit language. If you’re on a personal account, the sky’s the limit and you can debate anything you like. However, in a business setting, unless it directly pertains to your product or service, it may be best to leave certain incendiary subjects like religion and politics alone it may bring you more trouble than they’re worth.

6. Don’t Get Too Personal
Developing relationships with customers is one the primary goals of Twitter, but you should try to keep your posts about relevant business information. Your followers don’t need to know your personal business. I will concede that there is a benefit to adding a personal touch from time to time, especially in a small business. If you’re getting married or a favorite employee just had a baby, you may want to share the news for your brand loyalists to celebrate with you. Just be careful when considering what is appropriate to share.

7. Write Professionally
Your social media presence is an extension of your business persona. Always use proper grammar and spelling it will help you maintain a professional image. (No one wants to see a law firm or accountant office tweet “OMG! Its not 2 late 4 u to file ur taxes!”).

Tip: Be sure to use proper forms of commonly misused words like there, they’re, and their.

8. Be Aware of Your Audience
Keeping rule #6 in mind, try and tailor your content to fit your audience. If your brand is focusing on tweens and teens, speak their lingo. If you are a B2B company, you will definitely want to use industry jargon. Be sure to post information that is relevant and timely to those following you and those you want to follow you.

Tip: If applicable awards shows and sporting events are great ways to engage customers.

9. Be Timely With Communication
Once you’ve started a conversation with someone on Twitter, it is imperative that you respond to them in a timely manner. Even more importantly, if someone poses a question to you, answer them! Social media is great for giving you an opportunity to engage immediately and directly with your consumer base. Nothing is worse than asking a company a question and not hearing back from them for 3 days.

10. Address Customer Service Issues Privately
Almost any customer who tweets you with a complaint or concern wants to be heard, but not all want to engage in a public dialogue. Directly address consumers through direct message, off the public “floor.”

Tip: you can even ask them for a phone number and call them personally to show them you care about fixing the issue.

BONUS: Don’t buy into personal attacks.
There are always those people who complain and no matter what you say they will never be happy. To make this worse, Twitter is a medium of text communication which means a definite margin of misunderstanding because there’s no way to hear someone’s tone of voice or observe their body language. What may be meant as a joke could escalate into something more negative. if it seems a conversation is deteriorating into something contentious it’s wise to just walk away. Trust me, It’s just not worth it.

Twitter is one of the most effective ways to marketing your business of the last decade. Follow these rules, and you’re sure to have many happy tweets ahead of you.

Build Your Buzz!!

Naming Your Business – Five Rules To Long-Term Success

What’s in a name? Quite a bit if you are starting a business. From cute to clumsy, serious to inane, business names can range from the ridiculous to the sublime. Perhaps starved for opportunities to be creative, some entrepreneurs seem to have the market cornered on how to blunder into what may be the single most important aspect of marketing genius: the name of the business.

It never ceases to amaze me how people arrive at the names for their businesses. Many business people approach me after they have worked with their lawyers and accountants to set up the business, perhaps going the extra mile to incorporate and sometimes having also taken it upon themselves to design their own logo before realizing that it takes a little more talent to create a brand than some amateurish attempt at graphic design. I then have the dubious honor of taking the pooled efforts of these three dedicated professionals some of whom must have slept through business marketing to work with a sometimes problematic name they have agreed upon and create a logo or trademark which addresses the desperate need for a striking, definitive and effective professional image for the duration of its existence.

Many people who start small businesses fail to consider that in the highly competitive arena of local marketing the name should quickly define what the business represents. This results in two problems: The name does not describe what the business offers; or, even if it does, it usually uses too many, or a misguided combination of words, to do so. And to make matters worse, this is usually after a false start with liberal spending to try to promote this new venture, based on an array of inept marketing decisions and the use of deficient marketing tools, a situation which makes it more difficult for me than starting from ground zero.

Case in point: I recently was contacted by a relatively new organization who said they needed a marketing plan. Upon closer analysis, I learned that they had been running an ad in the regional newspaper of their geographic service area on almost a daily basis without reaping any response. In searching their industry via Google, I could not find any mention of their group within the first ten pages of results. Only after searching the name of the gentleman who had contacted me was I able to locate his name on a web page about this organization’s board of directors. Literally entering through the back door, I was able to find a link to their home page which upon observation reminded me of the incompetent ad which had been running in the paper I read every day but like everyone else, had ignored as irrelevant. Understandably, with a nebulous business name, poorly designed logo, non-existent ad message and busy, unprofessional presentation, it’s sad and ironic that this non-profit group offering a valuable service to senior citizens had so miserably wasted their limited funds by trying to do everything themselves to save money. And not one of the members of this in-house marketing group were able to detect any problems with this effort, too close to the forest to see the trees.

Now, with resignation that a do-it-yourself strategy is not always the most cost-effective, the directors were surprisingly receptive to my suggestion that, while I expected resistance, perhaps they could consider a business name change at this early juncture in their organization’s history. Simultaneously, I also proposed that along with the marketing plan and name change, a new professional logo would logically follow in addition to a series of well-conceived ads they could use for promotion on a continual basis. As soon as their signed contract and project deposit arrives, I will undertake this challenge, since they now are anxious to proceed with sudden recognition and appreciation of their failed attempt at self-promotion.

From the perspective of my long career, I assure you that this is a common phenomenon particularly in situations where marketing is done by “committee,” which tragically describes the majority of my clients: law firms, healthcare and dental practices, non-profit organizations, industrial and pharmaceutical companies, etc. And it doesn’t matter whether the business is large or small, or whether it is basically run by a single professional or a group of directors. In most cases, business leaders frequently lack the vision or self-confidence to make marketing decisions on their own, so they engage the opinions of everyone and anyone who surrounds them, regardless of competence to judge the subject. This means that my directives come from such diverse sources as teenage sons of clients, wives of clients, secretaries, summer interns, random customers of clients, anonymous emailed comments from websites, and other miscellaneous “experts,” all of whom emphatically express their views so I am well-apprised of how to do my job effectively.

Of course, I am not so pig-headed that I cannot see the value of such input. On the contrary, I am grateful to know how this diverse universe processes information so I can evaluate every strategy as it is developed to satisfy every possible requirement. Whether anyone realizes that this method of marketing is fairly impossible to achieve is immaterial, since no one can ever measure every single response to marketing efforts anyway. The old axiom, “You can’t please all of the people all of the time” may apply, but you can’t blame a person for trying.

Of the clients I have who do believe that there is one, and only one, way to effectively market their business, that way being their own personal way, based not on advanced study of business marketing, mass psychology, the elements of style or effective strategies of communication, but on nothing more than pure, unadulterated, self-centered ego. I say, hey, more power to them! It is their money they are spending and they certainly have the right to believe what they want to believe. Furthermore, marketing as part art, part science and part luck has as many guarantees as we get at the race track or in the stock market. So who am I to disagree with my clients’ convictions?

Well, just for the record, I do chime in with my own opinions which are backed by 35 years of hands-on marketing experience which includes a successful career in marketing my own as well as my many successful clients’ businesses. If my opinion differs from that of one egotistical client, for example, it is enough that I have advised him of it regardless of his stubborn impulse to dismiss it and proceed with his own strategy despite what I think. He obviously has gotten to this stage of his illustrious career through his own navigational talents and distinctive intelligence so I do respect him and am not offended in any way by his belief in himself, above all.

However, this places an enormous task on my shoulders: To market his business using a name that includes six long words, some of which are esoteric and industry-specific. This means that the logo, in addition to including a striking trademark must also be composed of six words totalling 42 letters. Add to that the need for a tagline, the entire package of which must be large enough to read in such small applications as on checks, on business cards, and in the smaller units the yellow pages offers both online and in print.

Compare this with business names using one short word: eBay®, Google™, Yahoo!®, Microsoft®, Apple®, etc. Granted, some of these names do not describe what the business offers. But all of these are highly successful businesses nonetheless. How have they done this? By assigning ample funds to building their brands so that the name of the business needs no definition, it becomes its own word with its own meaning. Such is the power of successful marketing.

You may say those businesses had the advantage of marketing their brands over the Internet but today, we all have that same advantage. Especially with the help of such brands as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube, all four being excellent examples of short, punchy business names which aptly define their raison d’étre. Most of the businesses that approach my company for marketing help are small businesses, sometimes with geographic limitations. Such businesses usually don’t realize how much time, money and repetition of effort is needed to build a brand.

One of our competitors in the metro-New York market recently began airing a commercial to promote their business and invite response from the same market we serve. While I cannot mention the name of this business for legal reasons, suffice it to say that it is a short 3-word insult directed at the very market they are trying to attract. And, moments ago, I was scolded by a telemarketer who responded to my polite statement that his offer to sell my business did not interest me at this time with: “OK…go down with the rest of them!”

Have I missed something? Are insults the new marketing strategy du jour? In both of these instances, injecting negativity, or worse, personal abuse into normally courteous business protocol, in my opinion, does nothing more than deliver a message of disrespect, insolence and humiliation to the very subject you are trying to endear.

Having been raised by a mother who was 40 years older than I, I often heard old American colloquial expressions, a couple of which occur to me now: “You win more bees with honey than with vinegar” and “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all!” In marketing, both of these sayings are powerful guides to proper business etiquette and by extension, long-term business success. While you may feel this is a milquetoast approach, the muscle is in a sincere and heartfelt delivery.

How does that relate to naming your business? In a few ways which I will list as a random set of rules to follow:

1. The business name can be your biggest marketing tool if it defines what you are offering but is distinctive enough to stand out from the crowd.

2. Keep it short and sweet, but above all, memorable.

3. Accentuate the positive, with emphasis on value to the market you plan to target.

4. Don’t limit yourself too severely if you may need to branch out in the future.

5. Remember, you may want to protect your business name by registering a trademark, incorporating, or filing a dba (an alternate or assumed name registration for your business known as “doing business as”), so engaging a lawyer to conduct a valid search may be necessary, which could require a list of suitable possibilities rather than one lone choice of name.

With all of the above in mind, it is of utmost importance for you to realize that whatever you end up calling your business, it will be one item in a long list of vital components which together will work cumulatively to establish your business as the success you desire. That is the bottom line.

10 Best Home Based Businesses Selected From Top 100 to Have Guaranteed Success Online

Due to the current economic crisis, managing your overall expenses is not as easy as it used to be. Luckily, we can now have extra income from doing business at home. Apart from the hectic schedule, you might wonder how to successfully set up and maintain it without completely losing track of time. Well, the good news is that having some of these 10 best home based businesses selected from top 100 doesn’t require too much time.

1. The best one to start with is an affiliate program opportunity, since you can join free and also earn lifetime commissions. Having the right products to sell can give you an excellent income online.

2. The next one is desktop publishing. This requires minimum setup because all you need are graphic design skills and a good layout program. From invitations to brochures and flyers, you can take on this business on a project basis. This means only accepting orders when you don’t have too much work on your hands. You can still maintain your regular Monday to Friday routine, and work on this during weekends.

3. The third from the 10 best home based businesses selected from top 100 is blogging. Maintaining an online journal is profitable especially once you have a strong reader base. Once you have a regular audience, you can immediately post different articles on exciting topics if you have the time. You can also earn from ad spaces and banners to be placed on your site.

4. Freelancing in photography might also be a good idea. Offer clients with weekend and holidays service. Since these are the days which you don’t have work, you can cater to their needs at once. You’ll need to invest in equipment to start your business.

5. The fifth one is a pet grooming service. Hold grooming sessions on weekends for pet owners that don’t really have time to give their pets a bath. Schedule a number of dogs per week.

6. Selling products online can also become a profitable hobby. This can range from drawing, knitting and painting. The best places you can sell stuff are on eBay and other sites that have a lot of members.

7. Content writing is also becoming an increasingly popular choice for people who have backgrounds on copywriting. These including producing press releases and research writing on a certain number of products to promote a company online.

8. The eighth one of the 10 best home based businesses selected from top 100 is the virtual assistance job. Virtual assistants carry out tasks that cannot be handled by the company due to the volume of jobs their employees have to fulfill. These take up more time because of the regular working hours, depending on the country to be operated at.

9. You can always use web design as your home based business. You’d be surprised at the potential income opportunities for this field.

10. Lastly, consulting jobs are also among the jobs which one can fulfill because it doesn’t take up too much time. Engage in a field that you specialize in.

It is very much necessary that you acquire appropriate knowledge and skills that you need to run some of our best home based businesses selected from top 100 successfully. Although the internet has made it possible to achieve your goals, it takes hard work and determination to fulfill your dreams in life.

Here’s Why User Engagement Is Indispensable for Your Brand’s Success

As an online marketer, you have definitely heard it: if you want to make your brand successful, you should engage with your followers and customers.

There is a perfect formula for online marketing success:

Increase user engagement = More brand’ success

But do you know why audience engagement is crucial for your business. Because Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media channels will give your posts/images/videos more reach if users like, share, comment and tweet your updates. But this is not the only benefit you can get from audience engagement.

How many of you are actually show willingness to engage with ecommerce stores or online brands? Will your marketing efforts be in vain or do you really get a chance to convince them to convert?

Almost 90% of people are willing to engage with an online business, out of which only 9% of users show reluctance to engagement with brands at any cost.

Believe it or not, engagement is a two-way communication, so don’t expect your target audience to do all the sharing and liking, give them something really valuable to talk about.

Here are some amazing benefits that you can avail with engagement with your audience

Get More Social Exposure

The more users are willing to engage with your posts, the more new users will see your posts. After Facebook, Instagram is the social media network that works with engagement metrics. An engaged fan base is much likely to share your updates which will give you more exposure and help your posts to spread. From marketing point view, this is what every brand wants.

When you have more engaged users, you will probably see much more success (conversions) from a much smaller but engaged audience.

Build Trust and Customer Loyalty

The list of benefits your product/app or service offers without any proof is useless for your prospects unless you provide them some endorsements, testimonials or case studies. If you want your audience hit the CTA button and convert, then you need to build trust and prove what you promise.

User engagement can be a most effective tool especially when it comes to developing loyalty and trust. Consumers love to connect to real people – not brands. Show them what your brand offers, how your products/services can solve their problems and what they can expect from you. If you do it smartly, they will surely trust you, and then you have a greater chance of selling your products to them.

Trigger Emotional Response

Many people avoid a healthy discussion, they afraid someone may ask a question or argue their point. Fear kills emotions. Emotions will help you get more out of your consumers. The one emotional response in your fan base that will kill your conversion rate and what you can get out of your audience is apathetic. Low engagement is the true indication of indifference.

Emotions are good, so make sure you keep it positively, no need to get belligerent. Because it’s all about emotions that influence users’ buying decisions.

Get in Touch

Okay, you have gained an audience to your content, then what? Will they come back for more updates? Do you have to work hard to bring them to your website a second time and again and again?

Interactions and conversations can make your brand stand out. People will love to be entertained and connect. Engagement can help your brand get more subscribers and followers on your social media platforms.

Get Attention of New Audience

It is not only the exposure and social reach that increase with engagement. The attentions we all are willing to give any social media post completely depends on the number of comments. Users will think about your updates for longer if they have additional information in the comments. The blog posts with a healthy discussion or information in the comments can help your website get more traffic – and leads.

Give Your Brand a Real Human Face

Obviously, no one likes to talk to robots. People live to talk and connect to people. Make your brand human and personal by actively responding on your blog comment section, fan page, Twitter and social media networks. Giving your brand a human face can help you get more out of your marketing efforts. So, be human, interact and show your personality to the whole world. Make sure you make users feel important and significant.

Make Your Brand Standout

Stats show that consumers are much more likely to purchase a product if they know the brand beforehand and trust the brand most.

It is the matter of psychology that triggers emotions and buying decisions. All you need to build trust and show your personality. This way people will remember you and follow your brand so that you can stay in touch and convince them to convert. So make sure you interact with your audience and they will surely remember you better for it.

Are You Ready For Home Business Success With Your Online Marketing Business?

I’m sure like many others you might be wondering whether or not you’ll be able to develop a six figure income from your MLM or Online marketing opportunity. Whether you’ll be able to make the kind of money that you so richly deserve, that will allow you to do all those things that you have been dreaming about for so long.

You might have tried a number of so called get-rich-quick schemes, and maybe some legitimate ones that have promised so much, yet have delivered so little. Yet you know deep down that there is no such thing as a “free lunch” where you’re being ask to just join a program, you don’t have to do anything for the money to start rolling in. How long are they going to continue insulting your intelligence?

The truth of the matter is that anyone can make money from their online business. Remember, “You can make as much money as you want, if you know how to market effectively.” If you make the commitment to acquire the skills necessary you can make as much money as you want.

That being said, how many of these people going into new businesses, especially on the internet know how to market effectively?

Based on my experience in Internet marketing and with all the hype and misleading information out there, it would seem that every second person online is a success story. There are so many so called teachers and top income earners online that could sometimes make you feel very inadequate, seeing as if you are the only one not making any money. But is this a true picture of what’s going on?

While there are many people making some serious income online – that’s just a small percentage of the millions who are trying to make it.

What I see is that most of the people who start an online business don’t have a clue about marketing. They are given a website and told to get traffic to that website in order to make sales. When they fail to make sales they give up and blame the system.

Online marketing probably offers the most powerful opportunity to make money. You can develop some serious income over time, but you need to get the basics right. Getting into it without a plan could get you frustrated and feeling as if you’re going around in circles.

These are 10 tips and ideas that I’ve found to be very helpful in my quest for online success:

1. Be very sure in your mind that this is something that you want to do. If you’re not sure about this don’t even start.

2. Make a decision to do whatever it takes to get the job done. There are going to be difficult times.

*Although things are getting more easier, because of all the information that you’ll be bombarded with daily you’re going to feel overwhelmed, and if you’re not 100% sure about your decision to do this you might quit.

3. Do your research – find out where your strength lies… whether it be affiliate marketing (easiest way to start), or you would like to get your own website and start developing your own products.

4. Check out the true top income earners who have been around for some time and find out what they’re doing. Get familiar with their programs, especially the ones that resonates with your heart.

5. Find some methods of driving traffic that is effective and learn everything you can about them.

*There are many ways of generating traffic; however, don’t get caught up into trying to do all of them at once. Start with a few and make them work for you – then you can add-on others as you get more proficient.

6 Join a system that has been tried and proven over the years and is still producing success stories.

7. Stay clear of the “charismatic gurus” whose only purpose is to take your money and run.

*Remember the old saying, “Its not all that glitters is gold.” Many of them pretend to have your interest at heart, but they have something else in mind.

8. Stay clear of high ticket programs – until you have mastered the basics of online marketing.

*The heavy hitters in these programs try to make it look so easy; however, don’t get caught napping.

9. Make a concerted effort to learn all you can about this fascinating industry. “Knowledge is power.”

10. Never ever quit. Remember, “Quitters never win and winners never quit.”

Creating home business success from your online marketing business can be a very interesting and challenging experience. It can also be the most rewarding field you’ve ever ventured into… and if done right can provide long term profitability and security for you and your family.

On a final note make a conscious effort to do personal development courses. As Jim Rohn says, “Income seldom exceeds personal development. What you become, directly influences what you get.”

Home Business Success Stories and the Online Advantage

Home business success stories have been flooding the news. You hear of businesses that started out at home and then became so successful that they were forced to hire employees and within a short time reached millionaire status. This is definitely possible with an online business. In fact, an online business offers even more advantages than any other home business. For instance, you will not have the headache of hiring and training employees, you can work from the convenience of your home without ever “outgrowing” your work space, and best of all, an online business can be set up to be automated which means it works for you, 24/7. You can literally be on overnight success and on your way to becoming a millionaire, while you sleep. Here are some similar success stories:

John’s Story

John struggled to make ends meet and even tried some online home business ideas. He found that no matter how hard he worked he couldn’t make “it” happen. He kept imagining that his house was paid for and his son’s college was taken care of. In reality he was struggling and was often using credit to survive each month. Paying the mortgage with a credit line was a last resort as he struggled to keep up with his dream life. Just as he was about to throw it all aside he came across a successful plan to succeed with an online home business. Within a few months he had earned over 40,000.00 in sales. A few key elements had been missing from his online home business ventures. The keys that he learned made all the difference between struggle and success.

Sharon’s Story

Years of struggling in the work place and earning a fixed salary had caused Sharon to grow discouraged. She had dreams of being a business woman who brought in a substantial income through a home business. So, she began to seek out a home business. Many businesses came across her path and she tried quite a few of them. She would carefully weigh the initial investment and would work diligently to get the business off the ground. Several of the businesses were able to support her for a short time but the success was short lived. What was she doing wrong? Online businesses are the wave of the future and she started several but worked hard and didn’t get much for the effort. Success finally came after learning a few key secrets to online wealth by a successful business man who was willing to share his financial increase secrets with others. Now, Sharon and her husband are working together with their online business. They have generated a quick and solid income that is now over six figures and growing.

How is it possible to make money with an online business? That is the question that so many are asking. Success is closer than you realize. Many have already pioneered in the online business arena and are willing to share their secrets with you. Once implemented these key secrets will revolutionize your financial world. Success can be your story.

Start Home Based Business Success Online

There are a few simple steps that need to be followed if one wants to start home based business success online. The most important thing to do is put in the required amount of research for your particular home business model. The quickest route to home business failure is not researching all available information adequately.

Currently in the home business industry we are seeing most home based businesses sport a 90% failure rate, and this is due to a number of reasons. The most common being the ‘jump before you look’ mentality. Unfortunately for the online sector of the home based industry, internet marketing is easily approachable by anyone. It is an affordable way to start a profit generating businesses, and as a result it attracts many unqualified individuals. There is no difference in the amount of work load required whether you are running a internet business, or a brick and mortar. The only difference between the two is the approach.

Many new internet marketers believe that they can simply throw up a quick web page on some cheap hosting and the money will magically materialize in their bank accounts. This is not the way the internet business models work. All businesses on the internet are ranked based on the quality of content that they provide. In order to attract buyers and a potential list of clients, a business owner must first feed the internet the stuff that it was really created for….content and information! Many marketers miss this simple fact, and they pay for it dearly.

What determines a online business owners success is the amount of traffic that they can drive to their websites. Search engine optimization specialists focus almost exclusively on building traffic to existing sites. It is a technical skill that is very hard to learn, but by becoming an SEO specialist you possess a valuable skill that is in heavy demand by the internet marketing industry. By having this skill you also possess the ability to start home based business success with every online project that you take.

Regardless of what the gurus and industry leaders may tell you, there is no secrets to making money online or building a successful website. These things are done through unique content and a lot of hard work. There are no shortcuts, every business owner must carve out their own niche and learn how to successfully market on the ever changing internet landscape if they ever want to successfully promote products and services online.

The Internet Home Business Success Rate is Only 5% – How Can You Improve the Odds?

Did you know that only 1 out of every 20 internet home business seekers fail? I knew that it was bad, but I had no idea that 95% of the millions of people who attempt to make money online never succeed. It is too bad, creating home business income is an incredibly life changing thing to do. A home business can create multiple streams of income for you, passive income that can allow you to become financially free and even develop lasting wealth. But you need to succeed in order too enjoy all the benefits, and so you will want to do things differently than the masses of individuals who never make it very far. Improving the odds for your own home internet home business success is quite possible, there are just a few things that you need to know before getting started.

For starters, you need to be sure that you really want to pursue a home business. There are far too many individuals who for some reason think that the internet is a path to instant riches. While you can grow rich online, as millions have done, and while it is quicker than traditional business ventures, creating a successful and profitable business from home takes time, effort, and consistent work. People who are looking for a way to get rich without working are much more likely to quit when things do not flourish instantly. Success in any areas of life takes time and effort, and working form home is no different. So before you even get started, make sure that you are ready to invest time and energy into your new business.

Another common pitfall of internet business seekers is choosing unreliable opportunities that are either scams or that will not last very long. Most internet business programs fail within their first year, which can be very frustrating for those who invested months of time into them. I have successfully earned money from several internet income programs, all of which have been around for several years or more. Often the people who fall for scams or unreliable programs are those same people who think the internet is a place to get rich without work. Scammers prey on these types of individuals. They create hyped up ads that usually have no real substance, and they make ridiculous promises. People who do not look at the internet as a place to build a real home business and just want to get rich without work are more likely to fall for these novelty “opportunities.”

Simply by realizing that it takes time and effort to create a profitable income online, and taking the time to research possible opportunities to choose the best to work with, you will be improving your odds for success in the home business arena. If you find a reliable program, commit to investing time each day into it, and never give up, you will succeed as a home business owner. If there is one other piece of advice that I can offer that will give you a huge advantage, it is to invest in your knowledge of marketing online. Internet marketing is a crucial component to making money online, and those who can market the best earn the most. There are many books on internet marketing, and by reading a few of them you will be giving yourself the tools of online home business success.

Online Businesses From Home – Five Critical Factors That Will Secure Your Success

The home based business industry is the fastest growing industry on the planet. What you don’t often hear is that while this statistic does include some traditional network marketing business opportunities, the vast majority of these are online businesses from home. The power of the internet is undeniable, and people are starting to realize it. It’s amazing how easy it can be for average people to start up an online business from home and replace and often far exceed their previous income within a relatively short period of time. People are doing it every day. However, many more take the plunge and fail. What makes the difference? This guide will help you to consider a few critical factors in the success of most online businesses from home, and ensure that you’re one of the few who do versus the many who try, and fail.

The five critical factors that will make or break your success in online businesses from home are: Market demand, systems for leverage and duplication, training and mentorship, the integrity of the company and its leaders, and last but not least YOU!

Market Demand

A business can only survive as long as there is a demand for the product or service that is being offered. This seems like common sense, but you’ll want to be sure there will be a long term demand. If you’re looking for a get rich quick scheme, they don’t exist, so stop looking. You’ll also want to be sure that you have a product or service that is UNIQUE and can STAND ALONE apart from any business opportunity that may be associated with it. You’ll want uniqueness so that someone else doesn’t duplicate the same product and simply undercut your price (putting you quickly out of business). The stand alone aspect is important because building a business around the hype or the lifestyle that’s possible for a select few is not a sustainable model. Online businesses from home that rely on that kind of hype will not be around for very long.

Your best bet is to talk to a live person who’s involved with the opportunity you’re looking at. Ask them about the market demand, what makes the product unique, and how the product could stand alone apart from any business opportunity. Get the facts.

Systems for Leverage and Duplication

There are many advantages to running online businesses from home and you’ll want to take advantage of all of them, if possible. The most important benefits are time freedom, income potential, leveraged income potential, and residual income potential.

Time freedom – The internet makes it possible to have your business operating 24/7, 365 days a year. Look for systems that will help you to eventually, if not right away, be working less than 20-30 hours per week. A good goal is to be working less than 20 hours per week.
Income potential – Find out how much you would earn per sale, how many leads it takes on average to generate a sale, and establish how long it would take for you to replace your income and leave your current job, assuming that’s your goal. Good companies can help you do this in as little as 90 days or less.
Leveraged income potential – This goes hand in hand with time freedom. You’ll want to be sure there is a way for you to get paid on efforts that don’t require your time or energy. Look for things like over ride bonuses, where you get paid the same commission when someone on your team makes a sale. This way you could eventually remove yourself from the equation. Rather than having to make 10 sales per month, you train 10 people to make one sale per month, and you’re laughing. So are they, if it’s a good company. They’ll have the same leverage benefits, and everybody wins.
Residual income potential – Look for online businesses from home that require some kind of small monthly membership that gets paid to you when you bring new people onto your team. This way, even if nobody is making sales, you’ve got a residual income cushion that pays you every month.

Training and Mentoring

The number one reason most people fail when starting an online business from home is that the online business opportunity that they choose lacks the necessary support to make them successful. They buy in, and are left to the wolves. Be sure that you will have ongoing training, ideally from a mentor that you can work with directly. Some companies even have training that is put on by the company’s owner.

Integrity

The world of business has no place for snakes. Once upon a time you could be a slick salesman and get away with it. But people now smell that a mile away. Today’s buyer is smarter than ever, and is well aware that they are in control. Be sure that from the top down your company and its people have integrity and strength of character. Connect with a team or a mentor that you like, trust, and respect. All the rest are details, and if you’re willing to learn and be coachable, you can’t help but succeed.

YOU!

When push comes to shove, the only person that can take the actions necessary to build the life of your dreams is YOU. You have to connect to your passion, your drive, your entrepreneurial spirit, and take massive action toward your goals. Use your team to keep you accountable and give you the tools that you need. But you have to light your own fire.

Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire. ~ Arnold H. Glasow

How to Start a Business From Home and Make Money Online – Your Step by Step Guide to Success Part 2

If you’re looking to start a business from home and make money online, you don’t want to go it alone. The home based business industry is the fastest growing industry for a reason, but many people are making the same mistakes over and over again. After all, the online business world can be an intimidating arena to step into with no experience or background. The good news is that you really don’t need any experience. You can avoid a lot of the basic mistakes that most people make by connecting with a mentor and following this simple step by step guide to setting up online businesses from home. If you’ve already read part one, hopefully you’ve followed those first steps, and connected with a mentor who can help guide you through these steps and support you in your success.

Step 1 – Find a Product or Service To Offer

Again, going it alone is not recommended, especially for the beginner. There are some great companies that you can partner with that will give you the opportunity to offer their products, training programs, or services. Creating your own product this early in the game is not recommended. But the skills you learn as you represent someone else’s products can be directly translated as soon as you’re ready to launch your own, if you decide to.

For now, focus on finding something that is UNIQUE and can STAND ALONE apart from any business opportunity. It must be unique; otherwise someone will replicate it and sell it for less. This can happen faster than you could possibly imagine, so be sure you’ve got this element handled. The standalone piece is crucial as well. Some online business opportunities are really only selling their business opportunity, and will paint dazzling pictures for what’s possible for a select few. However, when it comes down to it, companies like this with no standalone product will be shut down, because that is illegal. Find something you can stand behind and believe in, whether it’s a product, training program, service, or even a person.

Step 2 – Set up Your Websites and Landing Pages

These will be where you drive your customers where they can enter their information (so that you can follow up) and have the opportunity to learn more about your product/training/service and make a buying decision. There are companies out there that can set up customized landing pages and websites for you (Marketing Burst), so that you don’t have to go to the trouble of learning all of the complicated ins and outs of search engine optimization (SEO), meta tags, and keyword optimization. For the beginner these are ideal. Then later on you can create your own when you have the skill set. Partnering with the right company can often mean you have several pre-set custom landing pages and websites already optimized for you, ready at the push of a button. This would be another major advantage for the beginner and the person looking to get results fast.

Step 3 – Set Up Your Auto responders

Auto responders are a key tool when you start a business from home to make money online. Basically, they are a set of pre-written emails that get sent automatically to your prospects after they submit their information on your landing page. If you want to get results like the pros, you’re going to need to use the same tools they use. The good news is, there are some great companies that offer free programs that will set up capture forms (to collect your prospect’s name, email, phone, etc.), manage all of your pre-written emails to your prospects, track stats, and act as a contact manager (for example, Get Response, or Aweber). Remember that this is how you’re building a relationship with your new prospect. Focus on helping them find what they’re looking for, and providing them with great value.

Step 4 – Set Up Your Sales Funnel

You’ll want to establish a funnel system that can qualify your prospects for you in a step by step fashion. A funnel system helps them to understand what it is you have to offer, and gives them an opportunity to have their questions answered. This often involves an opt-in or landing page, a website, a webinar or teleseminar presentation, a 3-way call, and ultimately a conversation between with you. The beautiful part about online businesses from home is that the first 3-4 of those steps can be done on autopilot while you sleep, play with your kids, hit the golf course, or travel the world. Once again, partnering with a solid company would likely mean these are already in place for you.

Step 5 – Drive Traffic!

The name of the game in real estate is location, location, location. When you start a business from home to make money online, the name of the game is traffic, traffic, traffic! You probably now understand that with your funnel system in place, being successful online simply becomes a matter of getting as many people through that funnel as possible. If your product is right for them, and the timing is right, they’ll buy. If not, they won’t, and you move on to the next person. It’s very much a numbers game. So long as your system is working, more traffic means more sales.

There are so many ways to learn to drive traffic to your landing pages and websites. Generally speaking there are two approaches – you can work for your traffic, using free methods but putting in your own time and energy (writing articles, producing videos, using social media), or you can pay for your traffic (using piggy backing methods placing banners on high traffic websites, running PPC campaigns, etc.)

Follow these simple steps for setting up online businesses from home and you’ll be well on your way. Why do so few people who start a business from home make money online? Simple. They ignore these simple, time tested, proven steps to success. Take control of your future. Connect with your mentor and start creating the life you deserve today.