The Often Neglected But Very Effective Ways To Market Your E-Commerce Business Offline

It is natural to think that raising the profile of your e-commerce business is all about using search engine optimisation, PPC, social media and social bookmarking sites, blogging and going on forums to drive potential customers to your website. What many of us seem to forget is "How did we advertise and get business before any of this came along." the answer of course is that we did many things, but many of those methods are still just as effective today as they were then. It is just that "modern" business finding methods have taken all the limelight.

Consider to begin with advertising in whatever form be it in business directories or a newspaper or periodical. The state of the newspaper industry in terms of lost readers is well known, but ought this not to be an opportunity for the astute marketer. Advertising rates can be negotiated easily at present because of the aforementioned move online. At the end of the day, people still read newspapers, particularly local ones and a good idea is to take a small advertisement to begin with. If the advert contains a link to a blog or website where they can obtain a free e-book in exchange for leaving their name and email address This is a great way to generate leads for the business. If it works well, it can be scaled up very quickly. The important thing here is that you can measure the ROI very quickly.

Another very good way of raising the profile of your business, is to have some unusual business cards printed. One of the best we have seen was a pretend wallet, which was extremely realistic and contained the business owner's card and importantly a sales message on a piece of neatly folded A4. Although this was more expensive than usual the business owner was working on the premise that people don't throw wallets away!

Networking is always a good way to find potential customers. It is extremely effective as it has the advantage of a face to face meeting, often in a social rather than business context. If you are active in this area, join as many groups as possible and rather than offer the standard business card or brochure, have a briefcase of A4 sales pages in your briefcase. The sales message does not have to be overt, just a good description of you, your business and its uniqueness and benefits. If you write in something like 10% introductory discount when you hand it to your new network acquaintance it will have that personal touch and it is also highly unlikely that it will be thrown away.

These are just a few ways in which you can use oft neglected but proven advertising methods to find new customers. And remember it is not the initial sale that is important, it's the long term value of that customer to your business.

Peter Robson is an accountant with over 30 years experience in the small company sector. With his business partner, Debbie Crossley he runs a company helping people set up and run e-commerce businesses. For more information go to http://www.yournichebusiness.co.uk/

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2 Ways To Market Your Google AdSense Based Website

Are you tired of logging into your Google AdSense account, only to see a total earnings of the week of $0.00? If so, then I know how this feels. But if you want to see a real change in your AdSense income, you have to become scientific with things. This means that you will be doing a lot of testing and tweaking just to make your AdSense income increase.

Now getting scientific isn't hard to do. The main thing that you need to focus on is getting traffic to your website or blog - so that your AdSense ads can get as much exposure as possible. It's important to correctly put your ads in the right places on your website, but if you have a ready-to-go website that isn't getting any traffic... then your efforts are worthless.

Today I want to share with you a few ways that you can get traffic to your Adsense site. These traffic tips are simple and easy to do, but it's up to you to get out there and start learning how to put it into action today. Now without further ado, let's take a look at the first way to get traffic to your site that has Google AdSense on it:

1) Forums

This is an excellent and free way to get more traffic to your website. Depending on the forum that you join, some will have average activity while some will have enormous activity. It's in your best interest to join the site that has more activity, since the more people who see's your website or ad in your signature, will click on your link.

And by the way, this is how you want to promote yourself on the forums. Leave your website link in the signature of your posts. Don't start spamming the forums with your website link everywhere.

This is the fastest way to get banned. It will take a while for forum marketing to make a huge impact on your online business, but once you're on a forum and you start posting regularly, you will see that this is a pretty good way to get targeted traffic for free. Here's another tip for getting traffic to your site that has Google AdSense on it:

2) SEO

The 3 major search engines gets millions of traffic each and everyday. The best way to capitalize on all of this traffic and turn it into traffic for you is with something called "search engine optimization", or SEO. With this strategy, you will want to add meta tags to your site so that the search engines know what your site is all about.

Another thing that is important when it comes to SEO is something called "keyword density". It basically describes the number of times your main keyword appears on your webpage. You should aim for a keyword density of around 2% to 3%. So for every 100 words on your site, mention your main keyword 2 to 3 times.

These 2 internet marketing techniques for getting traffic to your website and for helping to boost your AdSense income is something that you will want to review, and start implementing in your business today. The sooner you use these strategies, the sooner you will see your website traffic increase.

Good luck with using these tips to earn more money in your business today.

Randall Magwood is one of the most respected and highly-regarded online marketing experts on the internet. He currently has a free book about internet marketing that helps small business owners market their business online successfully. To learn more and to download this free book, simply visit his website here: http://www.internetmarketing-rules.com/

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Selling Your Home? 4 Tips to Make It Stand Out In A Buyer's Market

Selling a home is challenging these days, especially in certain areas like Florida and the Southwest. Collapsing property values have left many prospective home buyers gun shy about re-entering home ownership. One of the best ways to overcome this challenge is to list your house with a top real estate agent. In addition, you need to take some steps on your own to make the house appealing to buyers. 

Any real estate broker will tell you that a home that stands out from its competitors is a much easier sell than one that is just 'average' compared to its competition. If you take a few simple steps to improve your home, you will likely find that it will not only sell faster, but at a higher price as well. Here are 4 things you can do to make your home more appealing to prospective buyers:

Get Rid of the Clutter

If you're working with a top realtor, they may bring in a stager to help you with this part of it. In fact, even if you don't get one through your real estate broker, it may be worth the investment to hire a professional stager to put their expertise to work arranging the furniture and furnishings inside the home. Still, even without a pro, you can still do some basic, common sense stuff, like removing as much clutter as possible.

The idea is to make the inside of the home look as open and spacious as possible, and this means getting as much stuff out of there as you can. In particular, make sure you remove pictures and other personal knick-knacks. These only get in the way of the buyer's view of what the home may look like with them in it.

Put on a Fresh Coat of Paint

Once you've de-cluttered and arranged the furnishings, it's time to give the inside of the home a paint job. This is truly one of the least expensive ways to enhance the appeal of your home-provided you paint it the right color. Make sure to use a brighter color like eggshell, taupe, or some other off-white color. These kinds of colors have generic appeal to the masses, and will make your house seem fresh, bright and clean.

Make Minor Repairs of All Visible Blemishes

All homes have some 'wear and tear' over time, but there's no need to show that to the buyer. Most of the 'bumps and bruises' a house suffers are minor and can be patched up for just a few hundred dollars. But if you fail to make these repairs, your house could be branded a 'fixer upper.' Don't take chances when it comes to getting your home sold. Go through and identify any and all blemishes and get them fixed before putting the home on the market.

Give the Exterior 'Curb Appeal.'

Curb appeal is a term that is hard to describe with words, but you definitely know it when you see it. Basically, you are trying to achieve the 'wow!' factor with the exterior of your home. Start by making sure the roofing and siding is in good repair. Then move on to the landscaping-lawn, bushes, garden, etc. And after you've done the basics, a top realtor will be able to advise you on other ways you can make the outside of your home look outstanding.

Dowd Homes is established as one of the top Real Estate Agents Berwyn PA. He succeeds as one of the top Berwyn PA Realtors in large part because it's not a job to him. It's his passion

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Why Planning The Market You Want To Sell To Is So Important When Starting A Business Online

In our experience in the online or e-commerce business sector, we have spoken to many people who want to begin to trade online. One of the biggest failings of people wanting to succeed in this area is their failure to work out a detailed plan of how to go about it. Any planning must start with a clear understanding of the market to target.

The first thing to do must always be to start with the market that you wish to target and then "work back" in terms of what needs to be done to put in place the necessary machine to make it work. By machine we mean the means of bringing whatever it is you eventually decide t sell to the means of putting it in front of your potential customers.

What market should you decide to prospect in?

The best advice here is to remember the credo of many big companies in the marketplace. That is to "follow the money" Look for the areas where people are spending money especially in difficult economic times. This does not mean looking only in those areas where people are shopping only for bargains. In reality this can be very counterproductive as these areas are populated by customers who are very price sensitive.

Instead look for areas where people spend their money to make themselves better in recessionary times. Look for areas where people follow a passion or very strong interest. When times are hard, people want to be relieved from the day to day gloom. People will still spend money on their pets. In fact there is a growing trend to own pets in both the U.S. And the U.K. Recent statistics show that people still want to get married. Many people who are unemployed will still pursue their hobbies. A useful exercise is to actually walk down any high street on a Saturday and see what types of shop are busy.

Whilst there, take a look at any shop selling magazines or periodicals. As many people will initially buy a magazine on a topic that interests them or a new hobby they are thinking of taking up. What types of magazine are these shops devoting expensive shelf space to. Ask your local newsagent what types of magazine are popular at the moment. Talk to friends and neighbours and ask them how they have changed their shopping habits. This and other types of research is worth its weight in gold - quite literally.

Peter Robson is an accountant with over 30 years experience in the small company sector. With his business partner, Debbie Crossley he runs a company helping people set up and run e-commerce businesses. For more information go to http://www.yournichebusiness.co.uk/

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