Casual Articles - Internet and Businesses Online

May I Put My Hand In Your Tea-A Lesson In Wilful Ignorance
One day, in the distant future, someone with more money and time than I shall conduct an experiment on waitering staff across the planet.From Rio de Janeiro, where waiters peer over one’s shoulder studying the menu with morbid fascination; to London, where staff glare at you for rudely interrupting their analysis of who was sleeping with whom on Crossroads; to India, where wallahs bring you exactly what you didn’t order, cold and an hour later when you have already succumbed to starvation; to Cape Town, where servers glide effortlessly past you as you wave your arms about like the nearly drowned attracting a life-guard. Each a microcosm of business disregard for their patrons."I wonder if it’s on purpose?" I asked myself as I mopped up the water dammed behind piles of my clothes. The flooding was caused by a plumber who opened the main tap without first emptying the geyser. He built the dams to prevent the water escaping into the rest of my flat. Then he fled.It can’t be that every business owner embarks on a quest to make life unpleasant for their custome

allowed. Also, there is only a small percentage of any Ezine audience that is ready to buy your product at the exact moment they view your ad. Yes, maybe they should be, but most people today live in the moment and if this isn't the time they want to buy then they aren't going to buy, end of story.

But it doesn't have to be the end of the story. If you go for the soft sell approach your target consumer is

eBay Mystery Auctions: A Great Business IF You Proceed With Caution
There’s a dark side to mystery auctions, one you must take on board before entering this business. The truth is the mystery auction business is packed with scamsters, people offering illegal items on eBay in the guise of listings with clues and codes that even a child can crack.Scamsters and rogue sellers and bidders abound in the mystery auction business, and they will make your life hell, but that should not deter you from pursuing the often magnificent profits available for genuine sellers.The bottom line is mystery auctions gain little respect on eBay and most sellers are tarred with the same brush, as scamsters, rogues, vagabonds, cheats.It isn’t true of course, and many very reputable sellers make their living at mystery auctions, including big name companies like Stanley Gibbons, stamp dealers, and there are some sellers specialising in high value items at mystery auction.The reason I tell you this? Simply that few people trust new mystery auctioneers, you need a track record before people will trust you not to send a copy of Yellow Pages in a bo

I don't know everything and if I have learned one thing about doing business on the Internet it is that the more you learn the more you don't know. However, I have been doing business on the Internet since 1999 and I've managed to carve out a successful enterprise for myself with several profit streams. The largest percentage of my marketing and promotional efforts has been conducted through one simple method-Ezine Advertising.

These are the 8 important lessons I've learned regarding Ezine Advertising and Marketing Success:

A common mistake many advertisers make is to attempt to do too much, or rather sell too much, in one ad. Sure you have lots of great products but you can't sell them all in a few lines-at least not individually. Instead focus on the benefit your customer can achieve from all your products and promote that! People are much more likely to click on a link that BENEFITS them than a link that promises to sell them something.

For example, "Help your child reach their maximum potential" instead of "Try our many reading, writing, math, shapes and colors programs"

More importantly, tell the customer "what your product or service is going to do for him."

It is important that you identify your Unique Selling Proposition before you begin your advertising program. This will determine which Ezines (or markets) you target as well as what you should include in your ad copy. Who will be interested in your product and why? What benefits does your product offer them?

Don't go for the sale in your ad! You are at a disadvantage because you can't list all your products' wonderful benefits in the space allowed. Also, there is only a small percentage of any Ezine audience that is ready to buy your product at the exact moment they view your ad. Yes, maybe they should be, but most people today live in the moment and if this isn't the time they want to buy then they aren't going to buy, end of story.

But it doesn't have to be the end of the story. If you go for the soft sell approach your target consumer is m

Business Blogging Benefits - Making the Case for Business Blogs
Why Should Businesses Blog? You hear a lot about business blogging these days. It seems everybody is extolling the virtues of the business blog. But up until now, I haven't seen anyone touch on all of the benefits of business blogging, not in a single article anyway.So with this article, I've offer a comprehensive list of business blogging benefits.1. Search Engine Visibility By default, blogs do many things well that can help them earn search engine ranking. In many cases, business blogs can achieve solid ranking faster than regular websites. A blog is easier to publish than a regular website, so you can post content to it more often. Search engines like websites with frequently updated content. So through business blogging, a company can achieve better online visibility than with a website alone.2. Easy Online Publishing If you can create and send an email, you can post content to a blog. It's a simple matter of entering your content and clicking "Publish." This simplicity makes you more inclined to publish content regularly

ne Advertising.

These are the 8 important lessons I've learned regarding Ezine Advertising and Marketing Success:

For example, "Help your child reach their maximum potential" instead of "Try our many reading, writing, math, shapes and colors programs"

More importantly, tell the customer "what your product or service is going to do for him."

But it doesn't have to be the end of the story. If you go for the soft sell approach your target consumer is

Push or Pulling Too Hard? Don't Use Up All Your Energy Trying to Have Employees Follow Your Rules!
Many small business computer consulting companies share a familiar headache and frustration-- how do you motivate or have employees follow the rules of your company? Employees can be using your firm as a stepping stone to something bigger, a place to get their feet wet. They are not there for the long run or to win the longest serving employee award. It is time to stop dreaming that you will have employees that will be with you forever. It just isn’t going to happen.Many business owners of small business computer shops share the same frustrations around having technicians not return phone calls to clients, not filling out time sheets, not sharing information with their peers in the company, and simply just not showing up on time. You are not running a babysitting service and these types of employees can simply use up all of your energy too quickly.How do you motivate them? First of all you shouldn’t be looking to motivate them. Technicians should be motivated because of the passion that they have for technology, to fixing that hard to fix problem or just having

and promote that! People are much more likely to click on a link that BENEFITS them than a link that promises to sell them something.

For example, "Help your child reach their maximum potential" instead of "Try our many reading, writing, math, shapes and colors programs"

More importantly, tell the customer "what your product or service is going to do for him."

But it doesn't have to be the end of the story. If you go for the soft sell approach your target consumer is

Baking A Difference
Mention "cookies" in this high-tech world, and the first thing that comes to mind might be those small files Web sites add to your hard drive to recognize who you are and personalize your visits. (A quick check just now of the computer I'm writing this on revealed 91 cookies present.) While electronic cookies have an air of mystery about what they really do, another type is definitely better understood...and certainly more delicious.When it comes to the edible version, there is no doubt which cookies are most famous. Since debuting in 1917 - when the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma, sold them straight out of their kitchens - Girl Scout Cookies have become a highly anticipated annual tradition. This year, Brownies and Girl Scouts will deliver more than 200 million boxes of Thin Mints, Samoas, DoSiDos and five other varieties in neighborhoods and workplaces across the country.Girl Scout Cookies are big business, with: preferred vendors (ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers); strategic planning (budgeting by local councils and troops); marketing techniques (a "healt

your Unique Selling Proposition before you begin your advertising program. This will determine which Ezines (or markets) you target as well as what you should include in your ad copy. Who will be interested in your product and why? What benefits does your product offer them?

But it doesn't have to be the end of the story. If you go for the soft sell approach your target consumer is

Business Management Software - Do You Really Need It?
As we all know, not all advances in technology are necessarily for the better. Some people swear that having a computer program to manage a business is a 'must have', but is this really true?I have a friend, Chris, who runs a physiotherapy clinic. For the last ten years, he's used a paper diary and a pen. And it's not a small business either. Two receptionists, five practitioners and hundreds of clients every week. When I ask him why, he says it's totally reliable, never breaks down or crashes, doesn't require updates, no license fees and doesn't need any equipment to run it.I must admit, those reasons sounded quite good to me too!Before finally committing his business to paper, Chris hired a developer who wrote a custom application for him. Unfortunately, the developer disappeared and after a short while Chris was left with software he couldn't use. This ultimately made the decision for Chris to stick with what he could comfortably manage himself.Desperate not to repeat this bad experience, Chris carefully weighed up all the options that wer

But it doesn't have to be the end of the story. If you go for the soft sell approach your target consumer is much more likely to click on your link and then you've got the chance to go for the hard sell-again and again!

Here's an example. I'm selling a product called the Preschool Prep Power Pack. It's an educational CD for preschoolers. Now I could go for the hard sell in my promotion and I would make some sales but a lot of people who really might be interested won't even look at my site and product. However, I've chose to go the soft sell approach. Instead of selling my product in my ads, my ads offer two FREE items. I offer a free newsletter (Preschoolers Learn More) offering tips about preparing preschoolers for kindergarten. This is my target market for my product. The folks who subscribe also receive a free ABC-123 coloring book. Why wouldn't the parent of a preschooler subscribe, right?

But what's in it for me as a business person? A lot! Think about it. I now have the freely offered contact information for my target market. Now I can regularly email them information about my product. I'm confident they will buy eventually because my product provides a solution to something that concerns them-or they wouldn't have subscribed in the first place!

Another common mistake is not giving your ad campaign enough time to work.

Studies show it takes prospects an average of seven exposures to your promotion before they take the bait. Even after they have clicked through to your site visitors may need to visit your site as many as three times before they buy from you. So make sure you keep that offer in front of them. That means it may well pay to take the long-term package versus a one-shot ad.

People run through thei

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You can add value to existing information by turning it into business intelligence, condensing it, or expanding it. All approaches may use the same material, but manage it differently, to satisfy different needs.

I was approached by a client the other day with a question I couldn't immediately answer. He was looking for a partner so he could bid on bigger contracts, and he was wondering how to go about doing that. I thought telling him about partnerships and incorporating would be all I could do, but research showed me I was wrong.

What do Tylenol, New Coke, Jack-in-the-Box, Bag Leaf Spinach, Katrina and the World Trade Center have in common? They were all disasters.

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