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HOME BUSINESS & MARKETING OPTIONS
Bryan Thorby
Publisher
webmaster@home-business-and-marketing.com
http://www.home-business-and-marketing.com
Date: January 17, 2006
Welcome to This Edition
In This Issue:
Thoughts of the Day
Article 1: Writing a Business Plan for your Home Based Business
By Bryan Thorby
Article 2: The #1 Website Mistake
By Charlie Page
Article 3: Website Resolutions
By Sharon Housley
Resources
Disclaimer & Privacy Statement
I hope all is well with you.
I've just finished editing a new ebook that is available as a
subscriber bonus. In the ebook you will discover 23 common,
ironic, Internet Marketing dogmas that more than 90% of The Net
population subscribe to - that is responsible for denying them
online wealth. As a subscriber your can download the ebook
directly home-business-and-marketing.com/23imbs.zip
If you are a mainly a visual learner like me the resource I
added to the website this week may help - It's a membership
site with video training. Go to
home-business-and-marketing.com/video-training
Recently I started promoting the Auction Tips program.
Now you can "Test-Drive" the EXACT System a Regular Guy
From Nebraska Used to Rake In $8 MILLION eBay...
in Just One Year!
For a limited time only, you can take home the same system
that self-made eBay millionaire Brandon Dupsky used to
generate $20 million in sales on eBay, risk-free for 30 days!
Now anyone can start a profitable eBay business using this
simple system... and be making a profit within 24 hours!
If a regular guy from Nebraska can earn a fortune selling
everyday items on eBay, YOU can too!
Visit: http://www.auctiontips.com/trial-system
This special offer is only available up to January 25.
All the best,
Bryan
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"Energy is the essence of life. Every day you decide how
you're going to use it by knowing what you want and what
it takes to reach that goal, and by maintaining focus."
-- Oprah Winfrey
"Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which,
in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant."
-- Horace
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Writing a Business Plan for your Home Based Business
By Bryan Thorby
Writing a Business Plan.
You're ready to get your home business started in every way
except one. You need money. Either in the form of a loan or
from investors, but where do you start? One thing you will
need before you can get capital for your business is a business
plan.
What is a Business Plan?
A business plan is simply a list of answers to questions that
people might have about your home business. You will not get
outside funding without one, because the people giving you the
funding want to know that you have thought your venture
through completely and that your income forecasts are realistic.
Working through the process of writing your business plan is
an opportunity to be objective about your vision.
A business plan says:
I've considered this from every angle, and I am ready to get
going.
Your business plan needs to include:
- a description of your business. Just what is it that you plan
to do? Which industry are you going to be in, and why you've
chosen it.
- Who are your customers? Once you know what your business will
do, the next thing you need to know is your target market.
- What makes your business different? You need to explain what
makes your business different from other businesses in your
market. How do you plan to make the business succeed?
- List your expenses. Include start up expenses and any
equipment that you need before you can get up and running.
Also include your daily expenses such as staff costs and
supplies.
This has been a brief overview. If you need more help with
your business plan do a quick search on the Internet. There
are plenty of resources available to help you develop your
business plan.
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About the author:
Bryan Thorby is developing an Internet Home Based Business
providing information and resources to assist others in
the development their successful home business.
Publisher of the "Home Business & Marketing Options" ezine.
http://www.home-business-and-marketing.com
And developing a network of niche and resource websites
http://home-business-and-marketing.com/network.html
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The #1 Website Mistake
(c) Charlie Page
www.RealWorldTactics.com
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Sometimes it seems that there is so much to do in order
to make a website successful.
* "Copy is king!" cry the copywriters.
* "Advertise or die!" shout the ad sites.
* "Joint ventures are it!" proclaim the JV "brokers"
So who is right and who is full of hot air?
Truthfully ... no one knows.
What we DO know is this. There are basic tactics that
you MUST use if you want your site to make sales.
Follow these tactics and you will succeed in time.
Avoid using these tactics and your success will be
limited, and you will be trapped, trying to get ever
more visitors.
What are these basic tactics? They include, but are not
limited to ...
* A product people want. (Many people miss this one)
* Copy that is persuasive.
* A price that is appealing.
* A way to create urgency.
* Getting targeted traffic.
And - the topic of today's article - following up with
people who don't buy.
If you were my brother or sister, and I could give you
ONE piece of advice, it would be this.
Create the strongest follow up system you can if you
want to succeed online!
Yes my friend, it is true. NOT using an email follow up
system is THE #1 MISTAKE WEBSITES MAKE TODAY!
The logic on this simply can not be denied. Think about
it for a moment.
If your site is WILDLY successful, it will convert
sales at a rate of about 10%.
That means that only 10 out of every 100 visitors buys
something from the site.
This leads us to the most important question we can
ask.
WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER 90 VISITORS??
I can tell you right now what happens to them.
* They forget your site.
* They get distracted.
* They spend their money on something else.
* They buy a product like yours from someone else.
* Bottom line - they do NOT buy from you.
The fact is this ... on the Internet it is the LAST
site a person visits who gets the sale.
This is why we MUST remind them to come back and visit
again WE must remind them, not hope they will return.
Now if all of this "lost sales" talk is getting you
down let me tell you that you can be of good cheer.
There IS an answer.
The answer is to create an email follow up system.
Email is THE killer application of the Internet. Always
has been, and still is today.
You can talk until you are blue in the face about
alternatives like RSS or desktop readers if you want
to. But while you are doing that, people everywhere are
succeeding using what may be the most low-tech tool
online ... email.
If you are with me so far, and you think that creating
a follow up system might be right for you, read on.
=====> How To Create An Email Follow Up System
To be fair, I wrote a book about this and can't repeat
is all here. There is just too much. If you want the
book, you can have it for HALF PRICE if you are one of
the first 150 to order using this special link.
www.RealWorldTactics.com/cmd.php?ad=187676
NOTE: The discount is applied *after* you click Check
Out.
For those of you who don't want to buy the book, here
is the five step formula you can use to create a follow
up system.
Using this process will help you create a basic follow
up system that WILL increase your sales over time.
There are many ways in my book to create a more
sophisticated system, but this basic process works like
wings, and is 100% better than no follow up system!
Remember, you do NOT need to be a great writer to do
this. Something is much better than nothing. Candidly,
I have seen nothing more than "Thank you for visiting -
I want your business" work very well.
===> Step 1
Make a list of 10 reasons someone should buy your
product. If you have trouble with this, say it out loud
like you were telling your best friend.
If you can't come up with 10 reasons, come up with 5.
If you can't come up with 5, find another product. ;)
===> Step 2
Make each of the 10 reasons into a short message.
Here's how to do that.
Write one paragraph of introduction. It can be as
simple as "Thank you for visiting my site. I hope this
information helps you"
Write one paragraph about the reason to buy you are
covering.
Write one paragraph that summarizes your message, and
asks the reader to take a specific action. Please note
that being specific is the key. Tell them what to do
next. Don't hope they will figure it out.
IMPORTANT: Write your messages in a text editor like
NotePad, not a word processor like Word.
===> Step 3
Now that you have your messages, you need a way to
deliver them and get people to sign up.
Create an account with an autoresponder company or use
the autoresponder feature in your shopping cart for
this.
Any reputable company will help you create a sign up
form, and help you get it on your website as well.
===> Step 4
Set your message to go out every five days. Some argue
for other schedules, but this one works and is a good
starting point when beginning. You can 'fine tune'
later.
===> Step 5
Add a sign up box to every page on your website,
inviting visitors to ask for more information.
Why every page and not just the home page? Because it
takes time for people to get comfortable enough to want
more information. Because they might miss it on the
first page. Because repetition works on the Internet,
and the more you ask, the more you get!
When you have time later, you can add power to this by
offering a gift, or using a "name squeeze" technique,
but for now getting started is what counts.
If you have followed the steps above, you now have a
basic follow up system that WILL help you make more
sales.
As time goes by, you can add more messages, make the
messages stronger, analyze which messages work best
(and more) to make your series work better.
But hear me when I say that NOTHING you can do is more
important than getting this basic system set up today.
When you have a follow up system in place, you have the
chance to make more sales automatically, and get a
greater return on your advertising dollars than ever
before.
You have a chance to make the most of every visitor,
which is called in fancy language "maximizing visitor
value".
Best of all, you make time your ally instead of your
enemy, and have the best possible chance of making more
sales with less effort.
And that is a beautiful thing indeed!
*******************************************************
Charlie Page helps people succeed online. How can he
help you? Find out now at his main site or call his
toll free number. www.RealWorldTactics.com
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Website Resolutions
S. Housley
As all of us view the new year, we determine various ways to
improve ourselves. Whether its eliminating bad habits, or
improving quality of life, January 1st is seen as a new
beginning and starting point. Your website too, can use a
new look. Consider taking the website to task with these
down and dirty quick improvement tips for the new year.
New Year's Resolutions for Your Website
Revamp your website. The Internet is evolving at a rapid
pace, and websites need constant maintenance and occasional
overhauls. As the search engines improve their algorithms,
website copy and designs will need to be updated. Here are
some starting points:
Remove Bad Outgoing Links
It is important that you are not linking to bad neighbors.
Broken links give an unprofessional image and wastes a site
visitor. Be sure that all outgoing site links are still
valid, and even more importantly, go where you had initially
intended. Many popular websites are sold by companies with
questionable content. Remove any changed links so that you
are not associated with content that is not relevant to your
products, service or content.
Unique Titles
Confirm each webpage on your website contains a unique title
tag. Not only do unique titles allow you to optimize
different sections of your site for different keywords and
phrases, but also helps search engines direct traffic to
specific pages on your site when specialized keywords are
used.
Optimize Graphics
Optimize website graphics to decrease the website's load
time. A typical web surfer will only remain on a page for a
few seconds. If you do not grab their attention, you will
lose them. Shaving size off of a websites graphic elements
will mean that their eyes are on your website during those
critical seconds.
Update Copyright Notice
A copyright notice should reflect the year the last updates
were made to the website. A current copyright notice tells
visitors that the content is fresh, not stale and outdated.
Clean up HTML
HTML is a markup language and with constant maintenance it
is easy to have a page with an unclosed tag. While some web
browsers make allowances for poorly formed HTML, not all do.
Therefore, it is important that you take a look at the HTML
behind the web page and make sure that it is properly
formed.
Update Meta Tags
Update and optimize meta tags to avoid excessive use of
keywords. While a once popular search engine optimization
technique, stuffed meta tags generally result in search
engine penalties. Update meta tags to be accurate and
concise without redundancy and recurring words.
Automate
If your site does not currently use templates or server-side
includes, it is time to bite the bullet. Spending time now,
by employing server side includes or templates will mean
easier maintenance and updates later. When you change one
item, it will update on all pages of your site.
Links
Increase the quality and quantity of inbound links. Links
coming into your site should be from websites that contain
related or relevant content. Links from related .edu and
.org domains are considered of a higher value than generic
links. Any outbound links, should be directed to credible
websites that contain related content. The relationship and
relevance of links is becoming increasingly more important
in most of the search engine ranking algorithms.
Wrapped Content
Links that are embedded in a paragraph rather than a free
standing, generally are viewed more favorably by search
engines. Consider wrapping links in content summaries.
Size Matters
A website must contain enough relevant content to stand on
its own. Obviously the more the better. However, its not
just about quantity it is also about quality. While size
matters, relevance is equally important. A website should be
able to stand on its own, once affiliate links, and pay per
click advertising is removed the site should still have
value.
Aged Domains
They say with age comes wisdom. Apparently the Search Engine
Gods feel the same about domains. The older the domain the
better it will typically perform. Give new domains time to
age.
A New Years resolution is just a fancy way of saying that
you are committed to doing something. Resolve to improve
your website this year.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll
http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing,
publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon
manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a
wireless text messaging software company.
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DISCLAIMER & PRIVACY STATEMENT |
I accept no responsibility whatsoever for the content,
profitability or legality of any published articles or
advertisements contained within the
Home Business & Marketing Options ezine.
And, although all of the articles have been selected for
their content, the publishing of such articles within
this newsletter does NOT constitute a recommendation of
the products or services mentioned or advertised within
those articles.
Be responsible! Always do your own Due Diligence before
responding to any offer.
I respect the privacy of my readers.
I will NEVER supply or sell your personal
information to any Third Party!
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