Finding Your 1 Up!

American Marketing Association: Upcoming Events

2009-06-08T20:38:00.000-07:00

The American Marketing Association has its lineup in place for the rest of the summer, so if you're looking for the perfect exercise for your marketing team now is the time to check your calendar and start making your reservations! You don't want to miss out on the opportunity to work with some of the greatest minds in marketing because you sent your paperwork in too late, do you?

June 24: Online Marketing: Convergence in the Cloud

Los Angeles, CA-Discover the infrastructure shift that's building "the cloud" and the reaching implications it's going to have for the way we market online. This presentation is going to be led by social media blogger Robert Scoble, who will discuss what the Cloud means for online marketing and how we, as marketers, can successfully incorporate it into our own marketing campaigns.

July 15-July 17: The 2009 Nonprofit Marketing Conference

Chicago, IL-This year's Nonprofit Marketing Conference centers around the idea of change and how the challenge we face in the current economy and the shifting demographics of donors can work to our advantage, as well as new ways to reach and engage donors and volunteers.

"You will leave NPMC armed with the latest research insights, proven strategies and ready-to-use tools to broaden your reach, deepen your relationships and motivate your donors/volunteers to action even with the reduced resources that are a reality in the current economic environment. "

Since I know I mentioned these events already in a previous blog let me take a moment to add that the AMA's next scheduled event is not due to take place until October, and that these symposiums, conferences and workshops fill up fast. Most of them have an early bird registration that begins almost a month before the event, so don't wait to get your group in until the last minute or it might be too late!

Are Today's Investments Tomorrow's Profits, Or Just Another Drain on Our Pockets?

2009-06-08T20:25:00.000-07:00

In today's times of economic uncertainty it's hard to believe that anything we do right now is going to accomplish anything more than basic survival. Most of us are paring back on our investments at the moment in an effort to have more cash in our pockets on a day to day basis and enough to provide us with a financial cushion if we find ourselves stuck in the unemployment line.

And yet it seems like every time we turn around there's someone else there urging us to sink our hard earned (and much hoarded) cash into yet another investment scheme. Whether it's an IRA, a 401K, real estate or your stock portfolio, the potential gain that may or may not come from investing in investments that may or may not survive the recession intact doesn't seem nearly as important as putting an extra 10% of your income into your savings account.

That 10% is important, make no mistake about it, but money was never meant to just sit and stagnate. Money was born to grow and replicate, and today's economic recession can't last forever. Despite the negative (and rather frantic) press it's been receiving, this recession is actually very much a part of the natural order of things in the business world. What goes up must come down, and then go up again. Today's investments are going to be tomorrow's goldmines, so even though it may pain you to part with that extra cash right now it's going to pay off in profits down the road.

Sometimes you have to take a chance on short term loss to enjoy a long term gain, which is one of the first things every businessman and woman should learn before stepping out into the bullpen. Don't be afraid to invest in today's market. As long as your portfolio can stand a few ups and downs the long term gains are going to more than make up for the short term loss.

What is "The Cloud"?

2009-06-08T19:42:00.000-07:00

In a recent blog post I mentioned that the American Marketing Association was hosting a seminar that focused on the various aspects of marketing in "the cloud"-the amorphous Internet being that's coming to monopolize the modern view on Internet marketing. Since that day it's come to my attention how many people really have no idea what "the cloud" is, even though they spend half their lives buried in it.

In fact, if trends keep continuing the way they have "The Cloud" may become a life force of its own. But what is "The Cloud"?

When I was digging around on the web for a simple way to explain what is, to be perfectly honest, an unexplainable but easily understood concept I realized that if you didn't "get" the Cloud, you weren't going to GET the Cloud! This definition, as proposed by Phil Whainewright, came as close as I've ever seen a definition come to being clear and comprehensible:

"Once your software becomes a service in the cloud, it opens up the potential to link it up with other services that are out there. For many vendors and users this is still a barely dawning realization, but it's of fundamental importance. In many ways, the Internet cloud is one great global SOA — still very rudimentary in many ways, but flexible enough to accommodate different levels of sophistication, and evolving fast." - Phil Whainewright

In other words, "The Cloud" represents a global joining of all of the data, software and other service you're ever going to need. The ultimate global network. A living, breathing entity that's slowly going to reshape the way we think of (and do) business-and, in time, the way we as marketers view the marketing profession and commerce as a whole.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you're not riding the Cloud when the time comes you're going to be left behind.

Can Your Distribution Channel Help You Save Money on Marketing?

2009-06-07T11:20:00.000-07:00

When evaluating the benefits of using particular types of distribution channels there are a number of issues that pop up along the way. You talk about speed and the effectiveness of getting your products to your customers. You discuss the wisdom of tying yourself with a particular company. Most importantly, however, you want to consider what value your distribution channel is going to add or take away from your products and services.

The good news is, if you've chosen your distribution channels and partners correctly you should be able to find that even your marketing campaign flows more smoothly and cost effectively than ever before. Retailers carrying your products often run specials that will serve to let their customers know about what your company has to offer. Coupons and sales can be your greatest ally! You're also going to have a more cost efficient method of reaching your target audience than you would have had using marketing directly, because they already have your target market visiting them on a daily basis.

Does this mean all you have to do to ensure your company's success is find the right distribution partners? Absolutely not. You still want to put as much thought and effort into your marketing campaign as you would have if you were single-handedly managing your own direct distribution. (Take a moment and pretend you're Michael Dell, the man who built his entire company on the foundation of marketing directly and aggressively to his consumers.) While the cost of your campaign will dip slightly due to extended exposure, the relative cost (your marketing cost to sale ratio) should zoom as your well-chosen partnerships help send sales soaring.

Sometimes Your Distribution Channel Really Is Your Secret of Success

2009-06-07T11:18:00.003-07:00

When you start talking to some of today's biggest businesses you're going to hear a lot about their secret of success. Some companies will attribute it to clever management. Others will point toward innovative employees and prime, previously unseen opportunities in the market. If you were to take a look at Dell, Amazon.com and WalMart, three of today's most well known retailers, however, you'd hear a slightly different story. Yes, these companies can attribute their success to previously unseen market opportunities, but first and foremost they trace their success back to their highly efficient distribution channels.

Distribution channels are the routes your products take to get from point A (creation) to point Z (the consumer). Whether you're dealing directly with the consumer or you prefer B to B associations, your distribution channels are going to play a key role in your success.

Because your distribution channels provide the most direct and efficient link possible with your consumers it's important to make sure that you have them plotted out accordingly, with an eye toward both cost effectiveness and efficiency and quality and control. Why? Think of it this way. While at the beginning it may make sense for a company to handle its own distribution channels, over time that can become both expensive and inefficient. WalMart and Amazon are as successful as they are because they have developed an efficient way to get their products (through major manufacturers such as Sealy and HP) and to deliver their products (directly through their retail outlets and with major shipping providers UPS and FedEx).

It's important to choose companies whose image and vision jive with your own when you're establishing your distribution channels. Why? Imagine being able to buy a cost-effective Rolex at WalMart. The product would undoubtedly be popular, but it is equally as likely to lose a great deal of value in the eyes of your consumers-and once your products become devalued there is no going back.

So when choosing your distribution channels be sure to do your homework, evaluate the company's reputation and vision for the future, their concern for quality and their image before incorporating them into your distribution channel. Once you do you should be able to watch your profits fly and leave you wondering why you didn't think about handing control of your personal distribution off years ago.

Tiny Ways to Save a Dollar a Day

2009-06-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

Despite predictions that today's economy is rapidly heading for an upturn (something that is good news to all of you start-up businesses out there that took advantage of the boom in Internet commerce but have still been feeling the pinch) Americans are still looking for ways to make their dollars stretch even farther. Ladies and gentlemen, if you're trying to build your business you know exactly what I'm talking about! When your marketing budget is still coming out of your pocket it's easy to see why so many small companies go down in flames in the first five years.

There are hundreds of books out there that offer hints on easy ways you can save money. You already know the big ones-stop spending, start putting away a certain percentage of your paycheck, stick to your budget. All those helpful tips don't take into account the fact that saving money is hard, especially if you're not used to doing it!

When I was surfing around online the other day I came across a great site to help everyone, business owners and everyday consumers alike, get started saving money. These fun little steps are things we can all do every day, and before long you're going to notice a huge difference in the amount of money you have in your savings account!

Tiny Ways to Save a Dollar a Day

1) Stop watching T.V.-your electric bill will thank you, and you'll minimize your exposure to the commercials that are draining your bank account dry!

2) Start making your gifts rather than buying them. Most people are just as happy with a plate full of brownies or homemade candles as they are with an expensive tie they're never going to wear, and you'll be able to save hundreds when Christmas rolls around.

3) Sign up for free customer rewards programs. You probably don't realize how much you spend at the grocery store or your local bookstore-but they do. These rewards can add up over time, and you'll be able to enjoy the things you love without having to worry about how they're impacting your checkbook.

4) Don't spend money on your kids. Seriously. They'll have just as much fun with old newspapers and paint, or an old cardboard box, as they will with a $3,000 playhouse.

5) Cut back on fast and frozen foods. Yes, they're more convenient at the end of the day, but they also cost considerably more.

6) Start walking the straight and narrow. Alcohol, cigarettes, drugs and weekends at the local pub can really add up over time. Dropping those habits can add hundreds to your budget, helping you save money and paving the way to a successful financial future.

Developing a Marketing Plan That Will Crush Your Competition

2009-06-03T12:19:00.000-07:00

When you're playing in the field of big business there are two groups of people you have to worry about: The people who are buying from you (your customers) and the people who would like them to stop buying from you (your competition). Since marketing involves not only emphasizing the value proposition of your products and services but also differentiating what your company has to offer from similar prospects laid forward by your competition, it pays to develop a marketing plan that's designed to do both as efficiently as possible.

The major mistake most marketers make, especially ones that are new to the game, is looking too closely at the marketing techniques used by their competition. If the competition has launched a TV ad, they think they should do it too. If their competitors have a price war going, they think they need to take part. Your competition is only one piece of a very big puzzle, however, and shouldn't be used as the framework on which your entire marketing plan is based.

If you really want to crush your competition, take time to find out what, exactly, your customers want. The competition focused approach doesn't take into account the fact that your competition could be spending too much money or targeting the wrong group of consumers-and really, do you want your profits to pay for their mistakes? Consumer needs change more slowly than your competition, allowing you to get your feet under you before making major changes to your marketing approach, and by listening to your consumers you know you're taking the right approach to helping your business grow.

Take, for example, the case of Amazon.com. Believing that the best way to jump ahead of their competition was to advertise on TV, Amazon's CEO launched a wide marketing campaign only to pull it off shortly after when he realized it wasn't working. Instead, the company started offering free shipping. They weren't campaigning the same way their competition was, but by giving their consumers what they wanted this "dark horse" managed to continue to dominate the E-tail industry.

It pays to listen to your consumers instead of trying to keep up with the Joneses.

Microsoft is Putting the "Bing" Back in Big Business

2009-06-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

Hold the press, ladies and gentlemen: Microsoft's newest attempt to monopolize the digital industry has hit the airwaves with the quiet unveiling of Bing.com, Microsoft's own new search engine. Featuring scenic atmospheres, easy to read links and, most importantly, a search query box designed to help surfers quickly locate the web resources they're looking for.

For consumers this forces a moment of decision: Do they abandon search engine favorite Google, currently outranking every other search engine on the web by leaps and bounds, in favor of Microsoft Corp.'s new brainchild? While Bing.com doesn't feature the same fun gadgets (such as the ever popular joke of the day and ready access to the day's news headlines and weather) that Google does via iGoogle Bing does offer an easy to surf menu of images, videos, shopping, news, maps and travel sites designed to help them take a bite out of Google's market share.

May the best corporate giant win. In the meantime, the launch of Bing.com signifies new opportunity for savvy netrepreneurs.

Like Google, Bing.com features a sponsored list of pay-per-click ads designed to help businesses rapidly catch the eye of websurfers who might be interested in their business. Microsoft being what it is businesses can expect curiosity seekers to swing by and pay Bing.com a visit. Since Bing is a fairly new service its marketing attraction hasn't yet spawned its own collection of webinars, books and multi-media features, which means now is the time for small businesses to get their foot in the door and take advantage of lighter competition.

Will Bing replace Google? That remains to be seen. In the meantime, this new creature feature from one of the industry's most well known names is opening new doors to marketers that haven't been available before and may not be again. Since you're working on a pay per click basis you always retain the option to pull out of the game if you find that Bing isn't yielding the results you'd like to see for your marketing budget, which means there's no reason for savvy marketers not to take advantage of what may be the new next big thing in Internet marketing.

Don't Let the Recession Beat Your Fundraising!

2009-06-02T18:45:00.000-07:00

Regardless of what anyone wants to say, even with an economic upturn being predicted in the near future our economy is still filled with doubt, peril-and an economic uncertainty that is leaving many nonprofit organizations' most dedicated donors clinging to their pocketbooks just a little tighter. Understandable, when one never knows what dip and turn in the economy will set fortune on her ear THIS time; however, since fundraising efforts have to continue, here are some great tips to help non-profit organizations continue to pull in the funds they so desperately need to keep their organizations going:

1) Learn more about your donors. If you're able to answer their questions they're going to be able and willing to do more to further your cause.

2) When planning special events, keep the economy in mind. Fundraising dinners at $1000 a plate are almost guaranteed to be a social faux pas! Instead, feel out your target market (as you would any consumer) and include your donors and volunteers in the planning process.

3) Encourage regular giving rather than a one time donation. It's amazing how much more comfortable most middle class donors are with the prospect of donating $20-30 a month to your cause rather than cutting a $360 check on the spot-and you're guaranteed a more reliable income.

4) Make sure you have your numbers and a thorough explanation of where their money is going to go before you even approach your donors. In these uncertain times the scandals that have plagued non-profit organizations in recent years are going to rise up to haunt you. Most people aren't going to be willing to give if they don't know where their money's going but when presented with a clear, dollar-to-dollar chart showing exactly how their donation will be used are more than willing to be a part.

American Marketing Association Upcoming Events

2009-06-02T18:33:00.000-07:00

I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating. The American Marketing Association has a great deal to offer your business's marketing department, whether you have a staff full of experienced marketing professionals under your thumb or have been doing your own marketing from the comfort of your kitchen table. Whichever your circumstances may be, take a minute to check out the AMA's upcoming events:

June 14-June 17: The 2009 ART (Advanced Research Techniques) Forum

Whistler, BC-This year marks the 20th anniversary of the ART Forum, a "unique conference that provides an opportunity for academics, practitioners and research clients to exchange ideas and solutions." If you're looking for ways to move your marketing research forward, take the time to attend this forum and swap ideas with some of marketing's greatest masterminds.

June 24: Online Marketing: Convergence in the Cloud

Los Angeles, CA-Discover the infrastructure shift that's building "the cloud" and the reaching implications it's going to have for the way we market online. This presentation is going to be led by social media blogger Robert Scoble, who will discuss what the Cloud means for online marketing and how we, as marketers, can successfully incorporate it into our own marketing campaigns.

July 15-July 17: The 2009 Nonprofit Marketing Conference

Chicago, IL-This year's Nonprofit Marketing Conference centers around the idea of change and how the challenge we face in the current economy and the shifting demographics of donors can work to our advantage, as well as new ways to reach and engage donors and volunteers.

"You will leave NPMC armed with the latest research insights, proven strategies and ready-to-use tools to broaden your reach, deepen your relationships and motivate your donors/volunteers to action even with the reduced resources that are a reality in the current economic environment. "

The Importance of Multi-Lingual Employees

2009-06-02T18:18:00.000-07:00

It's not something that many companies have focused on in the past; however, with the rapid growth of global enterprise the need to have bi-lingual and multi-lingual employees as a regular part of your staff has become more apparent than ever. If you were to take a moment to review the employment needs of many businesses in and around Los Angeles, San Antonio and Washington, D.C. you'll find that most employers are giving preference to employees who are capable of speaking Spanish due to the large, primarily Spanish speaking population in and around these major cities.

And Spanish isn't the only language they want you to know.

As English has become the universal language of business many companies have gotten excessively comfortable, relying on their associates' grasp of the English language and the occasional services of a professional interpreter to do business when dealing with firms overseas. There's only one problem; where a language gap exists there are bound to misunderstandings, and while interpreters are very, very good at what they do they'll never be able to embellish their points in a way that manages to succinctly explain the point they're trying to make while simultaneous bridging the gap between two cultures the way a native born or extremely fluent speaker can.

It's the culture gap, more often than a language barrier, that presents a problem when doing business on a global basis. The practice of bringing in native managers and employees rather than importing their own has become a common practice in the business world, and whether you're choosing to establish your own foreign office or simply doing business across the blue you want to have your fingers on the pulse of those cultural differences-and if that pulse happens to be sitting in your office day in and day out you'll probably find that you have no problem bridging the cultural gap the next time you decide to do business.

The Dangers of Over-Branding

2009-06-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

When you're thinking about developing your brand it seems impossible to think that there's such a thing as over-doing it, but guess what? It's possible. And hundreds of companies are doing it every day, from coast to coast and around the world.

Over-branding occurs when you take your brand, target your niche market and become so specific and narrow in your description of what your product or service can do and, more importantly, who it's meant for that you essentially isolate yourself from a huge potential market. People see only what you want them to see in your product and miss the possibilities-and as a result, you miss a potential sale.

Yes, granted, the purpose of marketing is to display the potential use of your product and target your target market to maximize your sales quotient. That shouldn't be all you do. For example, let's say you have a digital camera that can also be used as a digital video recorder. In hyping the potential uses of your video recorder are you also remembering to advertise that this is a digital camera as well? It's possible that there's a huge market out there that would be interested in the diverse possibilities presented by your digital camera that have no interest whatsoever in a digital camcorder (right now).

In over-branding you're going to completely destroy your chances of being able to make a profit off that part of your target audience that's only interested in a digital camera.

Are you beginning to get the picture? When you're developing your brand you want to encourage your customers to see your products the way you do, but you also want to introduce them to its other potential uses as well. Only then can you truly maximize your potential profit.

What's the American Marketing Association Doing Now? (A Guide to Upcoming Events)

2009-05-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! The American Marketing Association has published its schedule of upcoming events on its website, and while I realize everyone could just as easily log on to the site and dig up their calendar I also realize that many of you are going to be too busy to do so. With summer right around the corner your marketing team is probably far too busy to actively search for seminars and conventions that are going to make them even busier! That's why I wanted to include their upcoming events here.

If you and your team have the opportunity to take advantage of any or all of these you'll find that they're a tremendous addition to your marketing repertoire. You'll have the chance to hear from and speak with some of the best marketing professionals in the world, and the advice these marketing gurus have to pass on could prove to be indispensible to the future success of your business.

June 1 & 2, 2009 Social Media Marketing. Located in Chicago, IL, the Social Media Marketing Workshop will allow marketers to work with social media guru Dave Evans, author of "Social media Marketing: An Hour a Day"…coincidentally among the top ranking titles on Amazon. Here you'll learn how to use social media to maximize your business's marketing efforts.

June 3 & 4, 2009. Strategic Brand Development. Travel to Toronto to work with Fortune 500 consultant Robert Kincaide to discover why strategic brand development is a must for all of today's companies, and why the old methods of brand development simply won't do in today's fast paced digital economy.

June 4 & 5. Marketing Boot Camp: Los Angeles. Travel to L.A. for an intense two day seminar that delves into the depths of today's marketing environment with one of AMA's experienced marketing instructors.

I'll try to keep all of you updated weekly on what events the AMA has coming up in the near future. To check out their complete calendar, visit them on the web at MarketingPower.com.

AMA Guidelines for Trimming Your Budget

2009-05-22T11:30:00.000-07:00

When it comes to marketing nobody does it better than the members of the AMA (American Marketing Association). Every member is an expert in their field, and in an economy where getting maximum results with minimum damage to your marketing budget is becoming increasingly important it's vital for marketing teams to learn where they can stretch their efforts and where they need to cut back. Click here to see what the American Marketing Association has to say about trimming your budget.

I know, you weren't expecting to be sent to another article. I started to trim this down to make the key points fit in this blog, then realized it was impossible. To omit any of these guidelines would leave marketing managers floundering when they tried to use the advice I passed along, because they wouldn't have all of the information. Which is the key guideline when it comes to cutting your budgets in the first place-have all the information.

Know where you can afford to cut costs and where you're going to be digging yourself an early grave. The problem many companies run into when it comes to their budget cuts is the fact that they don't take the time to gather all the information they need and weigh the consequences appropriately. They're essentially operating blind while severing the support strings of their internal framework, which is going to leave your marketing budget trembling on the edge of failure before you've even really had a chance to begin.

My best advice to marketing teams and private entrepreneurs looking for ways to cut their marketing budgets is to get all the information. Weigh the potential benefits and consequences. Then go for the one that's going to do what's best for your business, not the one that's going to step on the least amount of toes. Toes heal, but the damage poor budget cutting can do to your profits can leave your business floundering for years.

Audio Files: A Necessary Evil or an Unnecessary Annoyance?

2009-05-22T11:27:00.000-07:00

When the capability to automatically attach an audio file to a website was first presented it sounded like a great idea. After all, the most difficult part of any Internet marketing endeavor is the fact that you're not able to personally interact with your consumers. Unfortunately it was a little too good an idea. Now companies all over the world are attaching audio files to their websites, including a personalized speaking presentation to introduce their services and products, and consumers are getting so annoyed that the minute they enter a site and it starts speaking to them they log out again just as quickly.

What's a good businessman to do?

There are some things that just aren't the same in print, so including an audio file with a spoken presentation can be a tremendous benefit to your site. The important thing to remember is to give your viewers a choice. Put the audio file in a spot where it's readily apparent and they can find the "play" button with ease, along with a quick summary of the content inside. That way, if they don't want to hear you speak it's their own fault!

Of course, the quality of your audio presentation is going to play a major role in how it's received. From a technical end you want to use a good software program to record, and speak slowly. Audio files that are blurry and difficult to understand are going to be rejected almost immediately. Resist the urge to launch into your "used car salesman" persona. Consumers visit these files looking for information. Your pitch should be on your site. Audio files should be used for supporting details.

So are audio files a necessary evil? Yes-and no. If you don't want to incorporate an audio file into your website you are in no way, shape or form obligated to. When done correctly, however, an audio file can be a very valuable addition to your website.

Choosing a Host for Your Website

2009-05-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

One of the most valuable assets to any business is their ability to launch a reliable, effective website out on the web. The problem is, if your website isn't up and running half the time you're not going to be able to attract and keep your customers. That's why it's important to choose your website host with care.

If you're an experienced website administrator you probably don't have any trouble identifying an effective web hosting solution. When you're first beginning, however, and a majority of your decision making criteria involves how big a bite it's going to take out of your budget, it can be tempting to sign on the dotted line with the first web hosting solution that's willing to offer you a decent deal.

Don't let yourself get sucked in by cheap hosting solutions. An ineffective host can cost you much more in lost business than you're going to pay to work with a well established and dependable organization. Regardless of the amount of SEO work you do, blogs you start or bookmarking you do, you're going to be completely lost if your site isn't there for your customers to find.

Check the reputation of any company you work with, and ask them about what kind of compensation they'll offer you when your site is down more than a few hours. A good host will offer their clients discounts on their coverage for extended unscheduled downtime not related to standard maintenance; technical glitches are inevitable, but if you're constantly paying for a hosting solution that leaves your site offline more than it's on you can be left hanging out to dry with huge chunks of profits lost.

A good hosting solution is probably the single most important part of any web based business, so make sure you choose yours with care. There are hundreds of companies around the country that will offer you a dedicated business hosting solution for less than $50 a month. You should never have to sacrifice quality just to keep your hosting solution within the parameters of your budget.

Profitable Suggestions for Adding Video to Your Website

2009-05-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

Audio files can be a valuable addition to your website, but if you want to go for the big money solution it's time to consider adding streaming video to your website. Businesses around the world are discovering the value of including a video presentation of one form or another to their website. A personalized video presentation allows you to:

1) Reach out and make a personal connection with your audience.
2) Give them a front seat view of the product or service you're offering.
3) Legitimize your campaign. The negative press most Internet businesses have received in the past have been spawned by con artists taking advantage of the anonymity offered through the web. By giving your clientele the opportunity to "speak" with you personally (even if you're the one doing all the speaking) you can dramatically decrease the amount of fear that your site visitors will associate with your business and build trust with your clientele.
4) Add some pizzazz to your website!

The ability to jazz up a website with the addition of live video is a big part of what makes this an appealing option for Internet marketers. Most consumers view millions of websites over the course of their lifetime. Remember, many of today's consumers barely remember life before the Internet, and they spend hours a day on it looking for news, products, etc. When you consider the fact that most websites are almost a carbon copy of each other you understand the true challenge faced by today's online business.

Their websites are utterly forgettable.

Since no one wants to be forgettable every site developer is looking for a way to distinguish their website and stand out in the eyes of their visitors to keep them coming back. Adding video to your site is a great way to do precisely that.

What a Jump Page Can Do for Your Affiliate Marketing Campaign

2009-05-22T11:20:00.000-07:00

Amazon.com. Ebay.com. CDC.gov. These are all well known addresses to most Americans, not necessarily because they are exceptional or unique but because the company is well known and their URL is simple enough that they're easy to remember. They reflect the business name. They're short. They're simple.

They're a lot easier to work with than your average affiliate URL.

The fact that most affiliate URLs are plagued with extended addresses and numerous symbols (many of which aren't accepted by today's distribution services) and often have no relation at all to the affiliate business they're supposed to be associated with make them difficult to work with. Consumers can't remember them, which means they'll often jump straight to the homepage of the company you're affiliated with instead of visiting yours. That's why many affiliates are choosing to use a jump page to boost their affiliate marketing campaign.

A jump page is a digital redirect that can send people from one place to another; in this case, from an ordinary, short, simple URL to your affiliate URL. Many businesses use this to direct their consumers around their site for multiple reasons; however, jump pages have a special distinction for affiliates. It allows them to legitimize their campaign with a short, simple URL (rather than one that looks like it could be anything) that keeps clients coming back rather than driving them away.

There are a few words of caution associated with a jump page, however. Some distribution services will flag this for fear that you're a chronic SPAMMER instead of an affiliate just trying to do your job. Some customers may be wary of jumping from one site to another in the blink of an eye, believing they've landed in the wrong place. As a general rule, however, a jump page is a fantastic addition to your affiliate marketing campaign.

What Your Competition Has To Do With Your Pricing Practices

2009-05-19T13:43:00.000-07:00

When it comes to your company's success almost nothing figures more predominantly than your pricing practices. Why? Because if you're pricing your goods and services way over your competition and your consumers find out about it the piper's going to be asking for more than his due. That's why it's important to keep your competition in mind when you're choosing your pricing.

When a new product hits the market many uneducated companies think they have carte blanche when it comes to pricing-after all, they don't have any competition. They can start out with a bang and then lower their prices when a pricing war begins. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. Regardless of what product or service you're releasing you're always going to have competition of one type of another. Forgetting that is almost always the first nail in your coffin.

Is it really fair to do that to your business before you've even had a chance to get started?

What you have to remember is that not all competition is direct. Apple may have been the first to offer the iPod, but that doesn't mean they weren't competing with laptops, Walkman and CDs for their fair share of the music industry. If their iPods had been ludicrously priced they wouldn't have even had the chance to get out of the starting gate, much less dominate the digital music industry the way they do today despite the attempts of their competition. They took into account what people were already paying and kept that in the back of their mind during their production process.

The result? The iPod was a little more expensive than the average music player, but not so much that people weren't willing to pay for the novelty. That's the kind of ideal you want to keep in mind when establishing your own pricing practices.

How to Write a Strong Press Release

2009-05-19T13:41:00.000-07:00

When you're running a business you're going to learn two things rather quickly. One, the media can do many wonderful things for you. Two, they're a pain in the neck. But a necessary pain in the neck! It's through the media that your company's clients and consumers are going to stay up to date on what you've been doing, so it's important to keep them in the loop! To do that you're going to have to learn to write a strong press release.

If you're running a major corporation you've probably got a team of marketing professionals that spent an entire semester in college learning how to effectively write for the media; however, if you happen to BE your company's marketing department you may be left feeling like you're in way over your head! Here are some helpful hints to help you write an effective press release that's guaranteed to make its way out onto the newswire:

1) Make sure your news is newsworthy. The press isn't (usually) going to waste valuable space writing up an article on an issue no one cares about, so it's important to make sure your news really is newsworthy.

2) Create a short yet stunning headline. Your headline should do three things. First, it should identify your company or industry. Second, it should give the reader some idea of what you're talking about, and third, it should catch the attention of the reader! If you're having a hard time evaluating the success of your press release headlines, visit the Advanced Marketing Institute's online heading analyzer and use the tools and tips available.

3) Make sure your press release answers the who, what, why, when, where and how of your news item. You don't have to go on and on (most press releases should be 400-600 words or less unless there's simply too much information to include).

4) Close with your contact information.

Writing an effective press release may feel difficult at first, but if you know what you're talking about, who you're talking to and why you're talking to them it won't be long before effective PR is as easy as breathing.

What Every Business Owner Should Know About Microblogging

2009-05-19T13:40:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time mass marketing was the hottest thing in advertising. There aren't enough ways or days to say it-the times, they are a' changin'. Today's consumers are more educated than ever, and target markets are slowly sliding into specialized niches. This shift in markets also means that there's a newfound necessity for specialized marketing techniques…and with social networking and word of mouth marketing booming courtesy of the Internet microblogging may be the wave of the future.

If you're unfamiliar with a microblog, take a look at Twitter. Or Django. Or Microblogs.org. Each of these sites hosts microblogs from individuals and businesses all around the world. Microblogs serve two very important purposes. First and foremost, it gives you the chance to build up your target market. Pepole come to your microblog. They read. They comment. And they come back.

Secondly, a microblog offers you the chance to keep this community updated on your business's actions, new products and services in a casual, comfortable way that doesn't require you to spend hours trying to draft out a press release. You can casually say, "My company is opening a new division specifically for gamers" and gamers will come see. Yes, you're probably going to want to be more specific than that, but you get the idea.

And because it's casual, because it's open to the community, your consumers can get a feel for what their fellow consumers have to say about a product or service before they sign on the dotted line and hand over their credit card number. It's word of mouth marketing in the kind of casual environment that makes consumers feel comfortable about making a purchase.

And when you get right down to it, influencing your consumers' decision making process is what it's all about.

Humor in Advertising

2009-05-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

Everyone loves to laugh at the Budweiser frogs and the Geico gecko, but these well known spokespeople ( Spokes-animals?) bring to light an important issue that every well versed advertiser should be aware of-the impact of humor in advertising.

There isn't a person on earth who doesn't love to be entertained. Yes, even your hard-nosed boss had a sense of humor. Royals who could order the execution of a member of their court with a wave of their hand (and nary a tear of remorse to be found) kept court jesters whose sole purpose was to keep them and their court in stitches. Humor is fun. Humor is enjoyable. Most importantly, humor is memorable.

Regardless of who (or what) your consumer market happens to be, humor in advertising can go a long way toward promoting your brand and increasing your potential consumer group. The important question as an advertiser isn't whether your ads should include humor, but what type of humor it should contain. There are many organizations (Nickelodeon, for example) whose graphic and slightly off-color advertisements appeal to their viewers but would raise a great deal of controversy in many other industries.

So it's important to ensure that your particular brand of humor reflects the image you're seeking to promote with your brand. Humorous campaigns are an excellent time to begin working with a test audience to evaluate the image and idea promoted by your ads, to avoid stepping on any toes. Avoid racial slurs and stereotypes at all costs, and take the time to look into the cultural beliefs of your target group (as mentioned in the post on marketing to minorities).

Humor is a great way to make sure your business is remembered, but you don't want it to be the straw that sends your ship plunging to the bottom of the ocean. Make sure you choose your humor with the same care you choose your image and you'll have the start of a very successful advertising campaign.

Does Your Company Need a Spokesperson?

2009-05-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

There probably isn't a person in the continental United States that doesn't know the familiar face of Geico's Gecko…or Smokey the Bear…or Spud McKenzie. These "spokespeople" have done a lot to bump up their brand, promote their image and put their company's name on everyone's tongue. The question is, does your company need a spokesperson?

Establishing a spokesperson for your company has a number of benefits, whether you choose to employ a celebrity spokesperson like William Shatner (Priceline.com) or Bill Cosby (JELL-O), bring in someone unknown or create your own like the examples above did. Spokespeople are often easier to remember than a product. Their familiar faces stick in the minds of your consumers, influencing their purchasing decisions because of the brand image they convey. They also go a long way toward endearing your product to your consumers-much loved characters=much loved products.

If bringing in a spokesperson was all roses, however, every company in the world would do it. Remember, your spokesperson must convey your company's desired image. Spokespeople that are too playful may not sell products designed for serious consumers (especially if they have a childish tone to their actions). Many companies have found, to their detriment, that their spokesperson has done them more harm than good-or, as in the case of one notable pet goods dealer, created an entity loved by the public but not suitable to their brand. (Consumers bought tee-shirts with the spokesdog's image on it but failed to buy the company's mainstream products.)

Bringing in a celebrity also carries its own risks. Your celebrity spokesperson's reputation will be your reputation, so it's good to keep that in mind. Human beings will be human beings, but when their face hits the tabloids it's going to be the beginning of the end for your company. For that reason it's important that you make your choices wisely. Spokespeople aren't necessary for the success of your business. A good relationship with your consumers is.

Easy Ways to Motivate Employees

2009-05-19T13:29:00.000-07:00

Nothing keeps a good business running like happy employees. Yes, efficiency is important. Yes, it helps if they know how to do their job. But none of that is going to do you any good if your employees aren't happy. Why? Because unhappy employees give 20%.

And everyone knows that 20% isn't enough to get the job done.

The question is, how can you motivate employees without giving out pay raises that will drive your company into the red before the year is out? Here are some suggestions from America's top CEOs that are motivating their employees and keeping their businesses running at the speed of success:

1) Motivate yourself. Have you ever noticed that your employees are willing to put as much of themselves into the business as you do? If you're not motivated, your employees aren't going to be either. Enthusiasm is contagious. Give it a try sometime.

2) Align the goals of your organization with the goals of your employees-and let them see that they matter. If you're constantly telling your key players that they're expendable they're going to hold back on giving you their all-after all, it doesn't matter anyway. On the other hand, if your employees see daily how their actions are contributing to the success of your company they're going to be more likely to give you the 100% you need for success.

3) Get to know your employees. No, you don't have to know their entire family history, but do you know which of your employees has children? Grandchildren? Which want to be promoted to management? Which work well in teams and which turn out better results working alone? Which plan on being long-term employees versus those who are going to school with greater ambitions? Once you understand your employees you'll understand what motivates them, and you'll be able to plan accordingly.

4) Debunk the myths of motivating employees. Fear and money don't solve everything. Employers that use fear and money to try and grow happy employees almost always end up with unsatisfied ones that are just marking time until they get a better offer.

A strong business is made by a strong team, not just a strong boss. That's why motivating your employees may be the single most important thing you ever do to ensure the success of your business.

Do You Need a College Degree to Succeed?

2009-05-15T12:10:00.002-07:00

With the number of high school drop-outs continuing to climb and Internet entrepreneurs making money hand over fist without receiving any kind of special training the issue of a college education has become a difficult one for many. Do you really need a college degree to succeed? Or are you perfectly capable of getting ahead in life without spending another four to eight years going back to school when you didn't enjoy it the first time around?

The answer is simple. If obtaining a college degree is an option for you, take it. There are many reasons for this, most of which have absolutely nothing to do with getting rich quick! When you step out into the professional environment to find a job you're going to be going head to head with other job seekers that have years of experience under their belt in their prospective field. Your college degree may be the only thing you've got going for you when you're going head to head with a 20 veteran who learned at the school of hard knocks-many employers like the thought of bringing in a recent graduate who is familiar with new technologies that they can mold to their company image.

Even if you decide to walk the road of the entrepreneur there's a lot to be said for going to school and picking up a business degree. First and foremost, you'll learn valuable marketing and accounting skills that will help your business succeed. A business degree also earns you greater respect when you're appealing to potential clients or suppliers, inspiring their confidence in the fact that you do, in fact, know what you're doing!

Do you need a college degree to succeed? No, probably not. Can it help you? Absolutely.

Find more tools for success at www.1uptoyou.com.

Targeting A Minority Market

2009-05-15T12:10:00.001-07:00

With the days of mass media far behind us and the minority population in the United States growing daily marketers are scrambling to focus their company's marketing powers to take advantage of new minority buying power. Minorities are no longer viewed as insignificant in the American marketing pool; over 1 in 8 of all Americans are of Hispanic origin (surpassing even the African-American consumer market), and 5% of Americans claim Asian ethnicity.

With ethnic pride and a return to our multi-cultural roots booming, it's time for marketers to sit up and take notice. Failing to target these minority groups will result in a huge loss to companies that do.

The question is, how do you target minority markets without stepping on any toes? First and foremost, avoid ethnic stereotypes while still considering cultural mores. Much like today's woman, who has no desire to find herself shown in the kitchen when she actually spends most of her day in the courtroom, minority groups have no desire to be displayed filling blue collar jobs or working against the grain of American cultural society.

Breaking free of the stereotypes will allow you and your marketing team to recognize these target markets for what they are-a group of newly empowered buyers.

Focus your marketing efforts on ethnic publications; for example, don't forget to advertise in Spanish language publications in areas with a high Hispanic population. These publications are often very affordable, since few of them have gone national, allowing you to maximize the frequency of your advertising.

Devise a culturally relevant campaign. Every culture has its own mores and values, and it's easy to offend. Take Mattel; when they started marketing Barbie in the Middle East she was banned because she didn't conform to society's views of how a woman should cover herself in public. Keep your marketing team ethnically diverse and open minded to make it easy for you to move past the stereotypes that have held minority marketing back in the past and find success in this rapidly growing consumer group.

Find more tools for your business at http://www.1uptoyou.com.

Staying On Top of the Swine Flu

2009-05-15T12:07:00.000-07:00

No, it doesn't have anything to do with business or marketing, but since surviving the Swine Flu seems to be on the tip of everyone's tongue these days I thought it might be a good idea to offer readers a little bit of additional information.

First and foremost, the Swine Flu is a version of an influenza virus that primarily inhabits pigs and, while it has been known to jump to humans in the past, has never before developed the kind of sweeping airborne contact spread it has now. Because Swine Flu spreads from person to person via direct contact, here's what the CDC and other leading professionals have to say about keeping yourself healthy and protecting yourself from the Swine Flu:

1) Keep your immune system healthy. In many cases of Swine Flu the virus is little more than a cold, bringing a fever and the sniffles and running its course in a day or so. A majority of the cases where serious illness has been seen has been among immune-compromised patients, including children and the elderly. Get plenty of exercise and sleep, watch your diet and don't forget your vitamin C!
2) Wash your hands-a lot. After you use the bathroom, after touching a public shopping cart, after blowing your nose, after shaking hands…anytime you might have come in contact with Swine Flu germs, wash up!
3) If you think you're sick, stay home. Not only will this stop the Swine Flu from spreading through your workplace, allowing your body to rest rather than forcing it to keep going will go a long way toward helping you recover quickly. Once you've been symptom free for 24 hours you're probably good to go.

**Note: You CANNOT get Swine Flu from eating pork or from drinking water, unless you put your mouth on a drinking faucet recently infected by someone with Swine Flu, so you can make those pork chops tonight worry free.**

Creating Your Home Office

2009-05-15T12:05:00.000-07:00

There's little in life more satisfying than being able to tell people, "I work from home"-until the realities of the situation catch up with you. When you're constantly chasing documents out from under couches, rescuing briefs from sticky fingers and ruing the fact that you can't buy five minutes to string a thought together without someone asking you a question, you might be missing the office more than you thought! That's why you need to set up an effective and efficient home office.

The first thing to do is decide where your office is going to be. A room with a door would be ideal; however, if you don't have a guest bedroom to spare any corner of the house where you can set up a bookshelf and a desk will do! Choose a corner of the house where you will be able to work undisturbed (if you have small children the middle of the living room probably isn't going to be it), preferably away from distractions like the television or the front door.

You're going to want shelving units for books and resources, some sort of filing cabinet to keep your papers organized, space for your computer, printer, fax machine and phone line (if necessary) and a comfortable chair.One of the biggest benefits of not being in the office is that your home office can be as comfortable or as uncomfortable as you want it to be! While a desk chair would be ideal there are plenty of people who have opted to place a recliner or loveseat in their office space in front of their desk instead. It's all about what works for you.

Working from home can be an incredibly satisfying experience, but without the proper space and resources you're going to find yourself more frustrated than you ever were cooped up in the office.

Find more resources for your business at http://www.1uptoyou.com/.

Develop Your Key Leadership Skills

2009-05-15T12:03:00.001-07:00

As we wrap up the end of an eclectic week of blogging I'd like to take a second to invite all my readers to chime in on what leadership qualities they value in their boss. What makes a good manager? What drives a company forward rather than sending it sprawling into the dirt? Most importantly, how can you develop your leadership qualities?

Contrary to popular belief, leadership skills can in fact be learned. Some people seem to have been born with the ability to inspire others to follow them, while others struggle to get their waitress's attention in a crowded restaurant. There are hundreds of factors that blend to make an effective and charismatic leader, but these are factors that you, no matter who you are or what you do for a living, can master.

First and foremost, listen-and let go of your ego! An effective leader is one who knows how to work as a team, which means the first step in developing your leadership skills should be to learn how to let go of your need to micromanage and accept that you're (probably) surrounded by people who know how to do their job. Let them do it.

Learn to encourage rather than browbeat. Occasionally a stiff disciplinary hand will be needed, but you'll find you get a great deal more with honey than with vinegar when you're working with employees and fellow team members. More importantly, learn how to set the example. Your employees will usually be willing to put as much of themselves into their jobs as you do, but you'll probably find you'll have trouble getting them to do any more!

There are thousands of leadership conferences around the world every year. Take advantage of them, and use their resources to help you develop your own leadership skills. Remember, in the fight against nature vs. nurture in the leadership environment nurture wins every time!

Find more tools for success at www.1uptoyou.com!

5 Tips to Balance Your Work and Home Life

2009-05-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

There's nothing more rewarding than owning or running your own business, or knowing that you've played a key role in the success of someone else's. The only problem is, success comes at a price-and all too often the cost is your personal life! So what do you do when the separation between your work life and your home life becomes virtually non-existent? Here are some great tips on how to separate your work life and your home life to give you the best of both.

1) Decide when closing time's going to be-and stick with it. If your work day never ends your family and/or "me" time is never going to begin. Wrap it up at 5 or 6, and don't do anything else unless it absolutely, positively WILL NOT wait until tomorrow.
2) Take advantage of some flexible scheduling options! One of the privileges of not being paid by the hour is that you often have a lot of flexibility in your schedule (as long as you're getting done what you need to get done). That means that weeks you find yourself with no choice but to crank in some late hours you can duck out of the office for an hour or two to have lunch with the family, making sure everyone knows you haven't forgotten about them.
3) Join a gym! It's hard to find time to exercise when you're putting in 40+ hours per week, but the longer you spend sitting in front of a desk the worse you're going to feel. By joining a gym your investment in your gym membership will force you to find time to balance your work and home life.
4) Commit to spending time with family and friends. If you commit to joining your friends for dinner every Wednesday, or taking part in a book club every other Sunday, you'll be obligated to walk out of the office and into life outside of work.
5) Build a support network. When you're buried under a pile of paperwork so high you can't see to dig your way out it's easy to get bogged down with stress. Having a supportive network of friends to help you handle your housework, run errands, take care of the kids or just lend an ear to remind you there's life away from the office will go a long way toward helping you find that ideal balance between your work and home life and remind you why you love doing what you do.

How to Fire an Employee

2009-05-08T10:18:00.000-07:00

I just realized that this week's blog posts have focused pretty heavily on maintaining your employees in your business, and in a nod to that theme and to Office Space I thought I'd wrap up the week with some tips on firing your employees. (After all, who could forget the "Mikes" stating that the best time to fire an employee was at the end of the day on Friday? Fewer scenes that way…)

When you work with someone you develop a relationship with them, good or bad, and that relationship is going to impact your ability to let them go. Everyone has that one employee that they just can't wait to say good-bye to, either because they weren't doing their job or they just didn't mesh personally with the rest of your office. When you've got a good employee, however, that you've got to let go for one reason or another it can be a little harder. Here's what the experts have to say about how to fire an employee:

1) Don't let the news get around. The only people who need to know an employee is going to be fired (besides yourself) is anyone else that will be present at the termination meeting.
2) Earlier in the week is better than Friday if you have an option on the timing of their termination.
3) Pull them aside to have the meeting, and get straight to the point. Tell them why you're letting them go, and be honest about it. If they have made a mistake that's forced their termination, tell them. If you're simply forced to let them go due to budget cuts, be honest about that too.
4) If you're offering them a severance package, go over the details at that time.
5) Offer to let them clean out their desk now or have you mail their possessions. If security is an issue, have a member of your security staff watch them as they pack their belongings and exit the building. Employees who have been fired for performance reasons may prefer not to have to explain to their co-workers and therefore opt to have you mail their belongings; employees who are being let go for other reasons may want the chance to say good-bye.
6) Be sympathetic, but don't waiver. The minute you start debating your decision you've already lost.

Don't forget to give out letters of recommendation if warranted, and answer their questions honestly. Remember, this is going to be difficult for both of you; however, handling it calmly and coolly will pave the way for a smoother termination and improved relations if either of your circumstances change farther down the road and you find yourselves working together again.

Find more tools for your business at www.1uptoyou.com.

Using a Hiring Agency

2009-05-07T10:14:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post we talked about the ins and outs of hiring good employees-after all, your employees are the bread and butter of your industry! Sometimes you don't have time to step into the labor intensive process of looking around for an employee that meets your specifications, however. After all, it takes time and effort to target trade publications, and screening the resumes of hundreds of potential candidates can feel like more trouble than it's worth. It takes less time out of your day to just do the job you need someone else to do than it does to go on a hiring spree.

That's why many companies decide to bring in a hiring agency.

Hiring agencies specialize in sifting through the resumes of their own potential pool of applicants and finding one that will meet your needs. They'll check out their background and qualifications, as well as their education and personal skills, to find out how they match up with the job descriptions you send them. Once the candidates have passed their test they'll be passed on to you!

Bringing in a hiring agency can save your human resources people hours of aggravation, especially if yours is a small business and you ARE your human resources department! It's important, however, that you pick the right hiring agency. Look for one that specializes in placing individuals in your industry, and if they happen to be local that's even better. (That saves you having to worry about bringing in applicants from California for a job in New York, since most of them are going to want help with their relocation that your current profit margins may not be able to provide.)

Once you've brought the right hiring agency into the mix you can sit back, relax and focus on your marketing strategies knowing your business is in good hands.

Strategies for Hiring Good Employees

2009-05-05T23:30:00.000-07:00

Your employees are a vital part of your business, acting as front line communication between you and your customers. In many cases, your employees are the foundation your business is built on-after all, how often does the company CEO have time to get to know each and every one of their consumers? It's sad but true-if you spent all day interacting with your customer base you'd never get anything else done! That's why hiring good employees is one of the most important steps you'll ever take in ensuring the success of your business.

The first step to hiring good employees is advertising in the right places. If you're looking for an entry level worker and on the job training is provided local advertising (newspapers, help wanted signs) are a perfectly acceptable method of searching for employees. If you're looking for an employee with certain skills or certifications, however, you're going to have to be a bit more selective.

Advertising in trade publications and taking part in career fairs are great ways to get in touch with employees that have the credentials you need.

Once you have a pool of candidates it's time to start the interview process. Try to keep your interview questions general as opposed to leading) and cover all your bases. Ask them about their skills and their education, as well as specific job experiences that have prepared them for the challenge you're asking them to take on. Find out how they respond in a crisis, and don't be afraid to toss some psychological questions in there-it's a good way to see how easily they shift gears as well as breaking through their interview persona.

When the interview is done and you've got four or five candidates you like, check their references. It's tempting to skip this step, but good employees almost always have a strong work history and a long list of satisfied employers. If they've done the job well in the past there's a good chance they'll do the job well in the future, making them an extremely valuable resource and allowing you to offer them the job, then sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

How to Save Money on Groceries

2009-05-05T23:19:00.000-07:00

One of the most important things you can do right now is save money on your overhead to stretch your budget as far as it will go, whether you're talking about your business budget or your household expenses. While food certainly isn't an optional expense, there are things you can do to help you save big bucks at the grocery store.

1) Make a list. It seems like common sense, but by making a list of groceries you need for the week and sticking to it you can avoid spending money on impulse buys that will drive your grocery bill up. See something on sale you just can't say no to? Cross an item off your list and exchange the two. You can always have spaghetti next week!

2) Buy store brands as often as possible. Store brands can save you a lot of money on your groceries because you're not paying advertising fees, and in most cases the products are the same quality as their brand name equivalents.

3) Clip coupons. Yes, it can get a little tedious at times, but coupons can save you a lot of money at the grocery store and are widely available in newspapers and magazines. Just be careful you don't fall into the trap of buying something you don't need just because you have a coupon for it!

4) Sale shop. If you have a choice between the DiGiorno pizza that costs you $7 and the Freschetta that's on sale for $5, go for the Freschetta. That $2 can add up over time! Store specials and sales can save you a fortune when you're stocking your cupboards.

5) Never, ever grocery shop when you're hungry. It's the oldest rule in the book, but it bears repeating. When you're standing in a grocery store and your stomach's growling you're going to walk out with way more food than you really need-and chances are you're not going to be stocking up on vegetables.

The Truth About Super Bowl Advertising

2009-05-05T22:54:00.000-07:00

The screaming fans. The national media coverage. The fact that hundreds of football hating Americans tune in every year to watch the commercials. There's a definite appeal to advertising during the Super Bowl, which is why companies pay millions of dollars for the privilege each year. That thirty second slot is seen by over 130 million people (on average) which is tremendous exposure. But did you know that Super Bowl advertising might not be as effective as you think it is?

A recent study preparing to publish in Managerial and Decision Economics this summer shows that researchers have found no quantifiable evidence to prove that advertising during the Super Bowl is any more effective than advertising during prime time or other "peak" times and locations. Those companies that have seen a boost in their sales are either new to the scene and still climbing the growth curve of their products' life cycle or pulling out all of the creative stops to make commercials that are almost as interesting as the game.

After all, who doesn't remember the Budweiser frogs?

There's a lesson to be learned here. Sometimes the fickle market can be misleading, and advertising attempts that seem like they should present you with a huge yield are actually remarkably ineffective. This is why it's so important to do your research before deciding where you're going to spend your advertising budget-especially if you're a small business counting your pennies and trying to lower your overhead. Sometimes deals that sound too good to be true really are, and the last thing you want to do is waste your precious resources when they could be put to better use somewhere else.

Find more marketing information and resources for your company by visiting http://www.1uptoyou.com/.

The Pros and Cons of Billboard Advertising

2009-05-05T22:49:00.000-07:00

When you're stuck in a car traveling for miles down the highway there's nothing more interesting (besides insulting the other drivers) than spending your time checking out the highway billboard signs. Their widespread appeal and ability to attract the attention of weary travelers with nothing else to occupy their time makes billboard advertising an extremely popular way to get the word out about your business; however, before you go out and buy the first billboard space you see it's important to truly understand the pros and cons of outdoor advertising.

The advantages of billboard advertising are pretty obvious. You've got a fairly large pool of travelers that goes past your billboard every day, which means there's a good chance you'll increase your exposure dramatically. And because billboards are large (and technology has given us the ability to do so many cool things with them) you've got huge amounts of creative freedom with which to play to transform your billboard virtually any way you want to.

On the other hand, billboard advertising tends to be expensive-really expensive. The average cost of a highway billboard sign runs between $900 and $2500 a month depending on size and exposure, with off-highway billboards running anywhere from $200 on up. Because you can't really target your billboard advertising attempts the way you can most other marketing strategies you're going to be buying into the mass media mindset and hoping it works. This can make for a fairly dubious returns on your investment. Finally, if you're going to be spreading your billboard advertising attempts across a wide field you're going to find it very difficult to regulate your billboards. (The whys of that have always seemed rather dubious, but the statistics never lie.)

Creative billboard advertising has the capability to boost your profits dramatically, but it's important to do your research and ensure that you've done everything you can to make your billboard convey the message you want to send to appeal to your target market.

Find more marketing info and tools for your company at http://www.1uptoyou.com/.

Automatic Savings Plans

2009-05-01T06:39:00.000-07:00

In my last post I talked about ways to stop spending money, saying that it wasn't enough simply to save. That doesn't mean that focusing on saving your money isn't important! If you've read through any of your recent Social Security reports you'll find that even the federal government is working hard to encourage people to save their money and put it away for retirement, and the easiest way to do that is through some form of automatic savings plan.

After all, you can't spend your money if it's not there!

You have many, many options when it comes to automatic savings plans. The simplest is to look into a retirement plan of some sort, like a 401K or an IRA, which has the added benefit of generating a return over time; however, that doesn't take care of your short term goals or protect you if your investments fall through. Automatic savings plans like those offered through ING Direct (for example) provide you with an invaluable way to save money for both your long and short term goals.

How does it work? It's simple. You arrange for the company to make an automatic withdrawal from your qualified bank account on a regular interval (usually payday) for whatever amount of money you feel you can live without and want to put into a savings account. This can be as little as $20 a week…it's all about cumulative effects!

Over time this balance builds up and you can consider moving your money from an ordinary savings account to long or short term CDs (certificates of deposit) that will generate a high interest return in exchange for leaving your money with a particular bank. While you're not going to find yourself sitting on a cool million by the end of the first year, an automatic savings plan takes away your responsibility to save your money and provides you with a simple, easy way to prepare for your future.
Find more information to help you weather the recession and prepare for your future at http://www.1uptoyou.com.

Easy Ways to Stop Spending Money

2009-05-01T06:34:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed that even though you try to be careful with your money you still find yourself scrambling to pay the bills at the end of the month? It's amazing how money can flow like water from your pocket if you're not careful. Since today's economy virtually requires every man, woman and child to learn how to tighten their belts, it pays to learn how to stop spending money.

That's right. It's not enough just to learn how to save money (or even how to make money). Any fourth grader with a basic book on investments can do that. You need to learn how to plug the leak and stop money from flowing out of your house at the rate it has been if you're going to learn how to make the most of your financial resources. In other words, instead of learning how to save money you first have to stop spending it!

The first thing you need to do is sit down and make a list of things you HAVE to spend money on each month. Things like water, electricity, telephone and car insurance aren't optional. Once you've figured these things out you can start to figure out what you can STOP spending money on!

How much are you spending at the grocery store each week-and what are you buying? Many people don't realize that just shopping at the grocery store instead of going out to eat isn't a guarantee that they'll save money. In light of today's recent trends toward overpriced organics and the number of sweets and sodas on the market you might be surprised to find that you're spending way more money than you have to on food each week.

I'm not saying you have to forget the healthy stuff altogether-I'm just suggesting you look for some alternatives! Whole wheat breads and pastas are available through many generic retailers for a fraction of the price of their brand name competitors, and in many cases they're just as healthy. Steroid free meats can be purchased through retailers like Wal-Mart and Target for considerably less than most natural food stores, and do you really need all those cookies, sodas and frozen foods? Finding ways to save money at the grocery store isn't as hard as you might think!

You might be surprised at how easy it is to blow through $100-200 a month on little things like candy bars, knick knacks and Starbucks. Reasoning that it only costs you three to four dollars a day doesn't change the fact that that three to four dollars a day is going to total up to $120 or more at the end of the month! Try to carry healthy, non-perishable snacks in your purse, car and/or work desk, and pack your lunch as often as possible when you're out and about.

Finally, there's the shopping trips. How much of what you've bought in the last month did you really need versus what you bought because it was on sale? The first key to stop spending money is to stop buying things you don't really need and focus on the things you do. If you can master that you'll be amazed at how fast your savings account will grow.

Find out more about maximizing your financial resources during the recession by visiting www.1uptoyou.com.

Publications That Help You Keep Up with the Marketing Industry

2009-04-30T17:25:00.000-07:00

Whether you're a CEO at the top of the food chain or the grunt in public relations, you need to know what's going on with your company, your competition and the trends in your industry. How do you do that? By keeping up with the headlines of most major publications and tracking the actions of your competition to stay two steps ahead (or at least only one step behind) of the rest of your niche.

Because marketing trends are changing constantly in the face of an ever more selective audience, cynical consumerism and what can only be considering an excess of information courtesy of the Internet, companies are working harder than ever to find and take advantage of new marketing opportunities that will allow them more direct access to their niche. The question is, where can industry leaders find this information? Through the industry's online publications, available anywhere in the world 24 hours a day.

To find cutting edge marketing information to use in your own market research, check out these online publications:

DMNews

American Marketing Association

Advertising Age

Marketing Power

AMA Blog

Brandweek

Direct Marketing News

For more information on launching your own marketing campaign, visit us on the web at http://www.1uptoyou.com.

Don't Underestimate the Power of Business Cards

2009-04-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

Have you ever gotten really, really annoyed with salespeople who leave their business card everywhere they go? It seems like overkill sometimes when you're handing your name and number out to every Tom, Dick and Harry that come along, with very little discrimination between those people who might actually give you a call and the people who are going to use your business card for a coaster-if you're lucky.

If you're going to be a successful salesman (and, regardless of what type of industry you happen to be in, that's exactly what you are when you're trying to build your customer base) you're going to have to move past that mistaken impression and exploit the true potential of business cards!

What is it that makes business cards such an invaluable tool? Take your pick! Business cards are the perfect resource to grow your customer base. They're reasonably inexpensive to manufacture by the hundreds (Snapfish.com will actually make your first set for you for free!), they're hard for people to say no to and they fit into a pocket or wallet-where they can be forgotten until they're needed again?

How many times has someone casually mentioned something to you in passing only to leave you digging through your wallet looking for the business card of "this guy you talked to last week"? Most people are too polite to decline when you hand them your business card, tucking them away with the intent to either quietly throw them away later, show a friend or (wonder of wonders) actually give you a call for business purposes. Whether they need that information today, tomorrow or twenty years from now, they have it.

And as long as that information's available to them, sooner or later they're going to use it.

Learn more about promoting your business at www.1uptoyou.com.

The Importance of Market Research

2009-04-29T16:35:00.000-07:00

When it comes to planning your business, you probably thought it out to the last detail. Tallied your inventory, ran background checks on your employees, staked out the perfect location for your manufacturing and/or retailing needs and posted flyers all over town. But did you remember to do your market research?

Believe it or not, when it comes to promoting your business market research is the most important step you're ever going to take. Why? Because without your market research you're going to be throwing out your advertising dollars like they were candy and you were riding on a float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade hoping you get lucky and hit someone who's interested.

The days of mass marketing and universal markets are long gone. Today's consumers have too many choices and too many media outlets to choose from, so without targeting your efforts effectively you're going to be flushing your money down the drain. You need to know:

1) Who you're marketing to.
2) What problem your product is going to solve for them.
3) How much money they have to spend on your product.
4) What age group and/or ethnic group you're marketing to, and what their core values are.
5) Who your competition is.
6) What separates you from your competition.

This is only a small sample of the market information you need to have before you can successfully send your business public, but without it you're not going to be able to reach your target market and your profits are going to suffer. Your market research is vitally important, and whether you choose to do it yourself or hire a marketing team to do it for you it's up to you to make sure that research is done well, and it's done right.

For more information on marketing research, visit us on the web at http://www.1uptoyou.com.

What is IMC?

2009-04-29T16:33:00.000-07:00

If you've been in the marketing world for more than a day you know you're not marketing to your grandmother's generation. Today's consumers are smarter, savvier and more demanding than they've ever been before, and it's up to you as a marketer to make sure you're giving them what they want. More importantly, it's up to you to make sure they know your company can give them what they want, and in today's highly segmented market mass media marketing isn't going to do it. That's why so many firms are shifting their attention from random, individualized advertising to integrated marketing communications.

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) involves drawing together every part of your advertising, marketing and public relations campaigns and tying them up with a bow. It's about branding. It's about presenting a unified front and image of your company to your consumers for them to carry in their minds rather than handing them so many diverse messages that they don't have a clue what you are, much less who you are or what you stand for.

IMC makes sense, but you'd be surprised how long it took many companies to hop on the bandwagon. The problem most businesses run into is that they have different teams controlling different aspects of their campaigns. So their advertising team might have very little to do with their public relations department, who might in turn have almost no communication with market research.

You can see why this is a guaranteed recipe for disaster.

Before you do anything, sit down with all of your department heads and draw together the image of the company you want your consumers to have and the image you want to portray, and make sure everyone understands. You're all going to have to work together to promote your company and build the brand, image and loyal consumer base that will keep your profit margins climbing.

To help establish your integrated marketing communications campaign, visit us on the web at www.1uptoyou.com.

AMA Publishes "10 Minutes with Gunilla Broadbent"

2009-04-28T08:32:00.001-07:00

Piet Levy of the American Marketing Association recently published an interview with Gunilla Broadbent, president of the ESOMAR Council and GB Global Positioning. See what she has to say about marketing, research, the recession and the future of today's marketers.

Q: How is the international marketing
research world faring in the recession?

A: Every time we’ve had a recession, the
research industry has basically weathered
that pretty well. If you look at research as
a portion of marketers’ budgets, compared
to advertising and other things they do,
it’s very, very minor. But it is extremely
important for the success of their future….
This is the onetime when [clients] really need to make
sure they are on top of things, and that they
have the consumer intelligence they need
to continue to nurture their brands.

Q: What is it about international market
research, specifically, that makes it an
important component of a marketer’s
strategy, even during these tough times?

A: I think the growth opportunities for
both marketers and for research is really
the emerging markets, where we have
continued to see an increase in consumption
and a continued growth in the middle
class populations who have increasing
amounts of money they can spend. Our
[U.S.] market is going to be more stagnant,
and Western Europe as well. There’s going
to be an increased desire and an increased
need to do research in China, India,
Brazil [and] Russia, but also in other
emerging markets.

Q: Your argument is not just for more
marketing research, but also perhaps
different research. In what way?

A: We need to be more sensitive and listen
more to the consumer. We need to not
just ask questions of them or ask questions
to them. We need to engage them in a
conversation, listen to them and understand
what they’re saying. We have to step out
a little bit from that old, very traditional,
rather strict scientific role that we used to
play and just be a little bit more creative and open-minded. You can do qualitative as
well as quantitative to get the two perspectives,
and I think that’s important to
understanding a particular market that
you’re not so familiar with.

Q: Even though you argue that your
industry is traditionally recession-proof,
economic problems are certainly taking
a toll on your clients. How has that
impacted the way you do business?

A: We have to become more creative and
smarter as to how we spend money because
budgets, no doubt about it, are going to be
scrutinized, and in some instances cut. So
we have to figure out a way [to] provide real
insights and real intelligence, perhaps with
a lower price tag. Already, online research is
cheaper than doing face to face or telephone,
so that will continue to increase in
importance. We also, perhaps, have to look
at smaller sample sizes and at spending less
money for each type of research that we
need. It’s up to the researcher to be creative
and innovative in coming up with the best
possible methodologies for the best possible
price. I think there’s going to be a lot of
pressure on us to do that.

Q: Aside from the economy, what are some
other challenges affecting international
marketing research?

A: Less developed markets have in some
instances no self-regulation, no real established
professional standards, and that is
very important for us to continue to
encourage the more developed countries to
actually impose that and help developing
countries to establish that. We, as a market
research industry, frequently have been
criticized that we just deliver numbers and
then we walk away from it, and there’s no
real sense of what the implications are and
what [clients] need to do next. I think it’s
very important for us to listen to our clients
and to make sure we meet their needs. And
therefore, the training of researchers today
is very important. We need to emphasize
more of a role of management consultant
than of a researcher, and that would help to
elevate the whole research profession and to
bring us closer to the boardrooms.

Read the full interview at http://www.marketingpower.com/ResourceLibrary/Publications/MarketingNews/2009/43/6/Knowledgebase_10_Minutes_Broadbent.pdf.

For more marketing information and news, visit us at http://www.1uptoyou.com/.

Designing Your Colored Ads

2009-04-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

When they talk about marketing these days it seems like 90% of it is wrapped around the need to launch a strong Internet marketing campaign. But what they don't tell you is that the Internet isn't the end all-be all of the marketing world-or that the same principles you'll use when learning how to make colored ads for newspapers and magazines are going to be the ones that help you shape your Internet marketing efforts.

Why is it important to know the basic principles of designing colored ads? Because you want people to look at them. You want them to pause and, in that split second that makes up the time it takes them to make a decision, decide your ad is worth their time. It's worth it for them to stop and look to see what you have to say.

If you can't catch their attention, you're wasting your time anyway!

Learning the ins and outs of successful colored ads can take years (which is why most advertising agencies have a creative team that don't do anything but!) but here are a few pointers to get you started:

1) Photos work better. It's tempting when we're designing colored ads, especially online, to give in to temptation and use cartoons, drawings or clip-art to make our point; however, studies show that photos invariably snag people's attention faster and leave a more lasting impression than the average cartoon.
2) Leave some blank space. One of the greatest changes ever made in the advertising world took place when advertisers discovered the power of blank space to give their ads impact. Don't overwhelm your readers. If they wanted to be barraged with images they'd be watching television right now!
3) Keep it simple. They don't have to have all the fine print in the first ad. Your ad is designed to make them come looking for information, not overwhelm them with it!

Find out more about boosting your business at www.1uptoyou.com!

The Benefits of Running a Brick and Mortar Store

2009-04-27T11:16:00.000-07:00

With all of the clamor and commotion that's been going on with e-biz and e-tailing consumerism is slowly but surely drawing away from the brick and mortar store. Watch out, all you netrepreneurs out there! As much fun as it may sound to jump on the "dot com" bandwagon and launch a strictly web based e-tail business, there are a number of disadvantages to it that could spell death to your business. Sometimes, a brick and mortar store is by far the better option.

A brick and mortar store is generally a better choice than an e-biz if:

1) You're marketing to a specialized niche in your location.
2) You're marketing consumables. (Bait and groceries don't ship as well as you'd think they would.)
3) You're offering a product that your customers want to touch, taste or scan before they buy. There's a reason why Amazon hasn't completely annihilated the book business and Barnes & Noble is still going strong. People want to flip through their books before they buy them!
4) You're offering a hands-on service. It might be as simple as running an office out of your home, but if you're offering plumbing, HVAC work or anything else that's going to require you to meet with people face to face you're going to want a spot where you can make that happen. Your customers want to know who they're dealing with before they sign that check!
5) You're selling clothing. It doesn't matter how many online clothing retailers there are, nothing beats actually getting to try an outfit on before you buy. After all, it almost never looks the same once you get it off the rack!

You see? Brick and mortar stores aren't completely obsolete in today's digital age. Now it's up to you to choose the option that's right for you.

Discover more info and resources to launch your business at http://www1uptoyou.com.

Building Your Direct Mailing List

2009-04-27T11:15:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered why it is that small businesses have such a good relationship with their customers while big businesses turn profits but never really "see" their customers until one of them threatens to drag them into court? The foundation of today's marketing and advertising campaigns isn't built on the mass marketing appeal of the past but on an up close and personal, "getting to know you" basis, which is why building a direct mailing list for your business is so important.

By building your direct mailing list, either through e-mail or snail mail (or both, if you're lucky!) you'll be able to let your customers know you're interested in them and in letting them know about what's happening in your industry. Direct mailing lists keep your customers up to speed on what your business is doing and lays the foundation for plenty of repeat business.

The question is, how do you build your direct mailing list?

There are a couple of ways you can build your direct mailing list. If your store runs out of a physical location you can ask your customers to leave you their name and address/email address when they come in to shop. Make sure you tell them what they're signing up for though! The idea is to make them feel like they're getting added value out of the deal, not picking up another stalker that's going to flood their mailbox with SPAM! The good news is, owning a physical storefront puts you in a prime position to enjoy the returning business a direct mailing list can generate-especially if you throw some coupons into the mix.

You always have the option of buying a mailing list. This can get you started by piggybacking on the back of other marketers who have culled through the huge realms of consumers out there to find those that are interested in your niche or industry. Be careful, however. If you're using a randomly generated direct mailing list your mailings will have to be full of value-there are other marketers out there doing the exact same thing, and it won't be long before these consumers go into overdrive and just start deleting or throwing away anything that pops up in their mailbox.

The third way to build your direct mailing list is to include an opt-in option on your website. (Pro Tip: You should be doing this anyway!) Your website is a valuable tool, and by giving people an anonymous opt-in option you're getting willing customers rather than unwilling victims. Just make sure your opt-out process is just as simple!

Discover more tools to build your direct mailing list at www.1uptoyou.com.

Starting Your E-Biz

2009-04-21T07:49:00.000-07:00

It's all over the web that e-tailing is the way to go, so all you e-tailers out there that have been quietly making a living doing precisely that for years-sorry. The secret's out! For those of you looking for a great way to launch your new business, however, setting up an e-biz (or an e-tail outlet if you're bound and determined not to be just another dot com) is a great way to get started.

Setting up an e-biz is easy once you decide what kind of business you want to launch. Choosing your business is often the hardest part of the entire process. Why? Because too many people focus on profit margin rather than personal satisfaction and fall into the oldest sales trap in the book:

YOU CAN'T SELL SOMETHING YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN!

When you're choosing your e-biz, don't decide to go into bath and body products if you can't stand the smell of scented soaps. Sooner or later your customers are going to pick up on your distaste for what you're selling, and it's going to be downhill from there! Choose a product you believe in, and the rest will flow smoothly from there.

Once you've chosen a product the rest is easy. Your first step should be to find a reliable web server. All the marketing you're getting ready to do isn't going to do you a lick of good if your visitors can't find their way to your site! Then purchase a domain. Your domain should be something simple, associated with your business and easy to remember-for example, www.Amazon.com. Everyone in the planet can remember that Amazon.com is where they go to buy from Amazon. Short, simple, easy to remember. You can't go wrong!

Then it's time to design your site. There are three simple elements you want to remember when you're designing your website:

1) It should be easy to navigate.
2) It should have an efficient check-out process.
3) It should be aesthetically pleasing.

That’s it! That's why they tell you that starting an e-biz is so simple-because it's fast, inexpensive and can be done regardless of your level of business expertise.

Good luck!

Find more tools to launch your business when you visit www.1uptoyou.com.

Turning Your Website into an Information Superhighway

2009-04-20T09:34:00.001-07:00

What do you think today's most successful e-tailers are really dealing in? Fancy advertising isn't the key to big time sales in today's global economy. Consumers are more informed about their products and their accompanying niches than ever before, and they want to work with companies who are going to help them become even more informed about the products they're buying. That's why the best thing you can do to promote your business via the web is to turn your site into an information superhighway.

How do you do that? This is where all those SEO articles you've been hearing about come into play. Marketing is a complex network of resources working together to help your business succeed, not single resources spinning off on their own. Your SEO articles are going to accomplish two things; they're going to bring your website to the attention of the search engines, and they're going to give your consumers the information they need to make an informed decision on the products they want to buy.

What type of information should your website have? Before they make a purchase your consumers are going to want to know about the latest industry trends and innovations, new discoveries made and in-depth information on their products. That isn't what's going to keep them coming back, however. If you go to Amazon.com, undoubtedly a world leader in e-tailing, you'll find that along with their products and reviews they also have extensive access to booklists and articles giving more information about the field and related industries. That's what you want to give your consumers.

Think about everything you read and study to learn more about staying ahead in your niche, then share that information with your consumers. They want to know, and the fact that you're willing to tell them will go a long way toward helping you earn their trust and grow the market share you deserve.

For more information on building your website and growing your consumer base, visit us on the web at www.1uptoyou.com.

Easy Ways to Build Your Customer Base

2009-04-20T08:03:00.000-07:00

When you're attempting to build a business the most important thing you can do is build your customer base. If no one knows you exist they can't possibly become loyal customers, can they? That's why focusing on your marketing efforts and spreading the word about your products and services is the single most important step in helping your business get off the starting block.
Here are some easy ways to grow your customer base:

1) Address your niche, and cut back on your mass marketing. It's important to let as many people as possible know you're there, but it isn't going to do you much good if your target market doesn't know you exist! Focus your marketing efforts.

2) Leverage your niche expertise. When you're going to be paying thousands of dollars to have your vehicle repaired, who would you rather work with-a mechanic with thirty years of experience under his belt or the teenager down the street who tinkers with cars in his spare time? Experience and knowledge count. Growing your customer base relies on you letting your consumers know your business has both.

3) Encourage word of mouth marketing. Offer "bring a friend" and referral discounts to your existing customers, and offer special "two for one" deals on your products and services that will encourage them to buy extras for their friends.

4) Be a part of your community. Growing your customer base doesn't just depend on your products. It's up to you to be an active part of your community so that people know you aren't just a nameless, heartless corporate giant-you're a company with a conscience that wants to see its community grow.

Yes, mass marketing efforts are important-but they aren't everything. Sometimes it's all about getting personal with your clientele. For more resources to help you grow your customer base, visit www.1uptoyou.com.

Marketing to Friends and Family

2009-04-20T07:51:00.001-07:00

In the previous post we talked about the tools that contribute to the success of an independent distributor in today's fast paced world. One of those tools is a strong network built among your friends and family; however, even though these people are almost guaranteed to become your most loyal customers they're also the ones who are the most difficult to market to. Why? Because your relationship is not, and never will be, strictly professional. Damages to your professional relationship will lead to dents and dings in your personal one, and vice versa. That leads many distributors to wonder if it's really worth taking the risk at all.

Don't wonder. Your friends and family are a valuable resource, not only because they're the most likely to make a purchase (even if it's only to make you happy!) they're also the most likely to refer your products and services to their friends. When it comes to friends and family, however, the rules of marketing aren't quite the same as they would be with a complete stranger. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

1) Keep your product presentation casual, and skip the sales pitch-they've already heard it. Instead, let them see you using your own products. Leave your catalogs lying around the house where they're likely to flip through while chatting with you. This casual presentation takes the pressure off and lets them make an informed decision while at the same time feeling like they're helping you out.

2) Whenever possible, let them take your products and services for a test drive first. If you've been building sheds for family members for years it's not going to be hard to sell them on your home repair services-and while they still might demand free labor in the name of family you'll get plenty of referrals! If your family has never seen your work and/or products, however, they're going to be understandably leery. Let them see what you have to offer, then start talking sales price.

3) Make sure your products and services are high quality. It's tempting to exploit the family relationship if you know your products aren't up to snuff-but why would you want to? It's not worth the guilt trip over Christmas dinner-trust me.

4) Let their no be no. It's the first rule of sales-don't accept the customer's first refusal. When you're dealing with family and friends you really need to. Remember, more lies in the balance than a potential sale-and they'll respect you for not pushing the issue.

Discover more key marketing resources at www.1uptoyou.com.

Being an Independent Distributor in a Corporate Market

2009-04-20T07:32:00.000-07:00

Have you ever noticed how time seems to be going backward rather than forward in the business world today? Once upon a time independently owned businesses and independent distributors were the only options available. Then corporate giants moved in and started pushing them out of the way! In the face of economic recession and the new opportunities offered via the web these corporate giants are slowly losing ground. Small businesses are becoming the "in" thing of the 21st century!

If you're considering being an independent distributor for a company like Hoover, Avon or Mary Kay, whose entire business is built on building a personal relationship with their consumers, now is the best possible time to do it. That doesn't mean that the journey is going to be all chocolate and roses, however. You're still going head to head with major corporations like WalMart (who is rapidly gaining a monopoly on the retail market in the face of today's recession whether they mean to or not!), which means you're going to have to take advantage of all of the guerilla marketing tactics at your disposal.

First and foremost, door to door marketing isn't just ineffective-it's annoying! Today's consumers have been overexposed to selling techniques like mass media marketing and door to door sales, which means the only thing you're likely to do if you knock on a door is watch is close in your face. Widespread distribution for today's independent distributor relies heavily on:

a) Building a network of their friends and family, particularly for consumables like make-up that will need to be repurchased regularly. Not only does this open the door to repeat customers, you're also more likely to draw in referrals from people who are more comfortable doing business with a "friend of a friend" than a nameless, faceless stranger.

b) Mass market-tastefully. Hand out your business card regularly, and pass around flyers. Plan events (like parties) and invite people regularly. This will allow your potential customers to feel like doing business with you was their choice-not yours.

c) Launch a website. Yes, they could go to the company's website to buy their products, but why would they want to? Launch your own site with information about your products and their benefits, as well as new industry updates, information on parties and upcoming events and links to other valuable resources. Put your URL on your flyers and cards, then sit back and relax. Today's consumer loves having the chance to privately examine your merchandise and draw their own conclusions before feeling as though they have to decide whether or not they want to buy. A good website is a more successful selling tool than any door to door pitch will ever be.
Discover a host of resources to help boost your independent distribution network at http://www.1uptoyou.com/.

An Easy Guide to Choosing Your SEO Keywords

2009-04-18T11:23:00.001-07:00

It's all over the web-the secret to a strong Internet advertising campaign is to make sure you're choosing the right keywords! The problem is, how do you know if you're choosing the right keywords to make sure your site's getting the SEO attention it deserves? How do you make sure the search engines are on your side?

There are two simple steps to choosing SEO keywords. First and foremost, imagine you're a consumer rather than a developer thinking about your products. If you were looking for your products on the web, what words would you use to look for them? What words describe them? What words describe the value benefit you're offering?

You should end up with a pretty long list when it's all said and done. Don't worry if some of them are a little bizarre-you're going to end up using them later on! (But that's a story for another blog…) The next thing you want to do is take advantage of the keyword tracking tools available through the major search engines. If you visit http://www.google.com/sktool/?utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-sk&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=top%20keywords# you can find some helpful suggestions for keywords from Google, or you can purchase keyword tracking software to find the top listed keywords for each engine. There are other resources. It's up to you which ones you prefer to use.

Now, cross reference your lists. What keywords are on both? You want to be careful when using this method to determine your keywords because overly specific keywords are going to generate too little traffic, while incredibly popular ones are going to toss you in the pool with too many competitors. Imagine hundreds of sharks and three little tiny fish-the fight for food is going to be tremendous!

Once you've found four or five potential keywords, stop. That's enough to get you started. Now it's time to stop looking and start optimizing!

Discover the tools you need to maximize your SEO campaign by visiting http://www.1uptoyou.com/.

Polishing Your Resume

2009-04-16T05:19:00.000-07:00

There's nothing more rewarding for most of us than the joys of running our own business, but let's face it-the aggravation and worry (and attention to minutiae) that go hand in hand with running a business. And there are some professions that just don't lend themselves to setting out on your own-laboratory work, for example! If you work in one of those fields that just doesn't encourage professional independence, or you're happier letting someone else deal with the details, you're in good company-and you're going to need to keep your resume up and running!

The first thing you need to do before you take your resume on a job hunt is check and see if it's current. You'd be amazed at how long we can go between resume updates as long as we're employable. If you don't double check your resume before you take it out on the market you might find that the last five to ten years worth or "relevant" job experience you've obtained aren't even mentioned-the rough equivalent of professional suicide!

When making your resume, be sure it is direct, to the point and geared toward the job you're applying for. When you mention your education make sure you highlight the areas that pertain to the field you're trying to enter. The same principle applies to job experience; if you worked as a grunt, occasionally stepping into a supervisory role, and you're applying for a position in lower level management you're going to want to make sure that supervisory experience is emphasized. It's all about gearing your experience toward your target market.

Don't toss in too much detail, however. Resumes longer than a page and a half long are usually skimmed with little attention to detail, and your would-be employer might miss something pertinent because they're too busy trying to wade through the minutiae you didn't really need.

Whether you choose to provide references on your resume is entirely up to you; some employers prefer not having to go to the trouble to contact you to check your references when they have hundreds of applicants, others simply don't care. Most professionals recommend keeping your references private until requested, and to maintain a current list that you can rapidly produce and send via email should your employer request it.

For more information on succeeding during the recession, visit us at www.1uptoyou.com.

How Recession is Actually Helping Small Businesses

2009-04-16T05:09:00.001-07:00

It's hard to imagine today's current economic recession actually helping with anything, but recession is an important part of the business cycle for a reason. First and foremost, it helps weed out weaker businesses without the resources to outlast what's guaranteed to be a temporary condition. Despite that fact, however, recession serves another valuable purpose; it can give small businesses the impetus they need to succeed!

Wait. If industry giants like Circuit City are buckling under the pressure of recession, how can it help small business with infinitely fewer resources? The fact that small businesses have fewer resources is exactly what makes them prime targets to outlast a recession. Fewer resources equals smaller overhead. A business being run from a home has fewer expenses; you're not paying for office rental, electricity, multiple phone lines, and any of the other myriad expenses that go hand in hand with running a large facility.

Because most small businesses don't stock huge amounts of inventory, they're less likely to be left hanging with the expense for inventory that simply didn't sell. They also generally employ fewer employees and have the capability to function with even less, helping them ride out the recession and get things back on stable ground.

Perhaps most importantly, because small businesses tend to operate with less overhead and a smaller staff they can often offer their customers less expensive, more personalized goods and services. For example, a smaller used auto retailer might be able to "take orders" from their customers when they go to auction rather than leaving them coming back time and time again hoping they'll have what they're looking for. And they might be able to offer their financially pressed customers a "discount" for their services that will earn them a customer for life when things go back to normal.

The bottom line is, with the recession in full swing consumers are looking for a better way to buy their goods and services-and they're not afraid to take a chance on a smaller business if it will give them what they want at a price that they can afford. Are you going to let this opportunity pass you by?

Recession, Pawn Shops and the Golden Opportunity

2009-04-16T05:04:00.000-07:00

Recession is a part of the endlessly fluctuating cycle of life for businesses, helping the strong survive, pushing the weak out of the running and reminding everyone to appreciate it when things are going well! The other thing recession does is give certain types of businesses a boost, encouraging people to shop places they would normally avoid and look to sources of income that they would normally consider to be inferior or tacky.

In other words, in the middle of a recession is a great time to be a pawn shop!\

Yes, pawn shops are feeling the pinch just like everyone else, but let's face it-if you're going to go looking for cheap electronics devices, jewelry and one of a kind gifts anyplace but Amazon or eBay, where better to go than a pawn shop? They're able to offer a huge selection of second hand items that they've purchased from people just like you looking for a way to unload their excess belongings for a profit. (Did you know that the average American has a minimum of $5,000 worth of "junk" lying around their house?)

Pawn shops tend to have a ready supply of inventory, and although they pay for the pieces they purchase they're still able to keep their shelves stocked for considerably less than the average electronics store-and the diversity of their inventory means they usually manage to corner their own share of the market without having to put too much effort into advertising. Pawn shops have seen a boom in business in every economic dip that history has seen, and it's a trend that continues into today's business world.

Give your pawn shop a boost during today's recession using the resources at www.1uptoyou.com.

Building Your Brand

2009-04-10T13:46:00.000-07:00

What is it that makes a business successful? Is it a stunningly sophisticated product? A genius mind sitting at the controls of their marketing campaign? Savvy pricing practices? The answer to that is…all of the above. You see, strong product, a good marketing campaign and smart pricing are all vital elements to building your brand, and a successful brand is the key to enjoying success in your business.

Think about it. When you think bottled water, what do you think about? Probably Dasani or Fiji. What about pizza? Pizza Hut and Dominoes have been leaving their mark on the industry for years. When people are considering buying a bottled water or going out for pizza these are going to be the first names that spring to their mind, not only because they've tried (and are happy with) their product but also because they've spent years and millions of marketing dollars to build their brand.

A brand name is more than a name you slap on the side of a bottle. A brand name is something that garners respect. When someone thinks about your brand name you want them to automatically think of you as a leader in the field, a strong innovator with high quality products and services and good pricing practices. The brand is going to represent your company even when you aren't at the helm; for example, look at McDonald's. It's very rare to find two McDonald's restaurants with the same owner, but you know just what to expect when you walk in. The company has built up their brand name, and their franchisers are holding up their end of the bargain.

A strong brand name is vital to the success of your business, for several reasons. First and foremost, it allows you to expand. Consumers are more willing to take a chance on you if they know you have a reputation for high quality products and services, even if you're in uncharted territory. The reputation you've already built will help hold you up until you've established yourself in that field. Secondly, it distinguishes your competition and helps you hold on to your market share when new competitors come into the mix.

In other words, your brand is your foundation. Treat it well, and you'll watch your company grow. Ignore its importance and it won't be long before your company comes crumbling down.

Learn more about building your brand at http://www.1uptoyou.com/.

What Does Advertising Do For Your Business?

2009-04-10T13:37:00.000-07:00

You hear over and over again the importance in Internet marketing, but how often do you actually stop and think about the power of advertising for your business? Yes, there is in fact a difference between Internet marketing and advertising-sort of. It's a little confusing, but there you have it!

To break it down into marketing terms, advertising is part of your marketing campaign. The first step of any good marketing campaign should be research-research into your target market, what they want and, more importantly, how your product or service is going to give it to them!

What you're going to find is that your target market isn't always a single group of individuals. Very often it covers several different groups, and each of those groups has their own wants and needs. Now, you have two choices when it comes to selling your products to these groups. You can either:

a) Build a personal relationship with each and every one of your customers, which is great if you're specializing in B2B commerce and can work with each company's buyer personally but not very effective if you're attempting to market directly to a large consumer market, or

b) Launch an advertising campaign geared toward mass marketing using widespread media like the Internet, newspapers, radio and television.

Advertising doesn't have to be the dull, boring ads that have been lying around for years. Your ads are the first opportunity your customers and clientele have to get to know your company, so it's important you use each ad to convey the way you want your customers to see you. Do you want to have a laid back, friendly persona or are you all business?

Advertising is one of the most important tools you're going to have when it comes to promoting your business, so it's important to make the most of it! Find the tools you need to succeed at http://www.1uptoyou.com/.

Develop Your Own Recession Proof Business

2009-04-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

In today's tight economy it's easy to focus on what businesses are going under because of the recession and lose sight of the huge fields of opportunity that are opening up as people shift their focus back to the basics. Now is the prime time to open your own business, when your ability to operate with smaller overhead will make you a serious competitor in the pricing wars with many larger corporations, and if you branch out into a recession proof business you're guaranteed to enjoy not only a steady income now but also the security that comes with knowing that your business will stay afloat.

1) Home Repair. It doesn't matter how bad the economy is, when your septic tank backs up or your basement floods you're going to have to call in the troops! That's why plumbing, HVAC and other home repair services are all but guaranteed to be a recession proof business. Try and keep your inventory and services as basic as possible and your prices competitive you should be able to safely dodge the after effects of the recession.

2) Health Care. Unless you happen to already be a freelancer it might be hard for you to break into the health care services as an entrepreneur; however, now's a great time to step into this understaffed industry and start laying the foundation for what promises to be a stable career.

3) Funeral and Tax Services. Everything changes in life except for death and taxes, making funeral and tax services among the most profitable and recession proof businesses on the market. If you can find a way to break into these industries you're going to be in an excellent position to enjoy tremendous success.

As long as you have a product or service people want you're guaranteed to be able to make a success of any business venture; however, using these business ideas as a foundation will help you grow a recession proof business that will bring you the income and security you've been looking for.

Learn how to make your income grow in spite of the recession at www.1UpToYou.com.

How the Internet Is Keeping Our Economy Afloat

2009-04-07T16:38:00.000-07:00

The Great Depression. If anyone had to take their fingers and point at the source of the little voice nagging at the back of their heads it would be the haunting specter of the Great Depression and the huge strides that the government took to get the economy back on track-huge steps that today's government seems reluctant to take in the face of overwhelming debt stemming from our extended stay in Iraq. So how are we going to get things moving again?

The Internet might hold the secrets to keeping our economy afloat. After all, e-commerce has been a driving force in keeping things from sinking into depression for the past two years. The fact that the web throws the door wide open for International commerce and an increasing number of small businesses has helped our society get back to its roots, when businesses were small and major suppliers sold via mail order.

If you look at most of the publications that have stemmed from the recent recession, one theme is consistently seen: Experts advise that this is the prime time to launch an Internet business. On the surface the entire concept of trying to start a business when major players like Circuit City were floundering completely ridiculous. Regardless, these small web businesses have proven to be a driving force of income for many victims of the rising unemployment sweeping from coast to coast-a situation that promises to get worse before it gets better.

These small businesses are prospering due to the very nature of a free economy. Because these small companies have lower overhead they're able to offer products and services at a lower cost, drawing away customers from big businesses who can't afford to get into a pricing war. They also appeal more to special niche markets, eliminating the expense of mass marketing and building a personal relationship with their target market that keeps their business growing.

Only time can tell how long it's going to take for our economy to pull out of its current slump, but until then there's no doubt that the Internet is going to continue to play a major force in keeping America out of the devastation that would lead to a second major depression.

Come and discover how the Internet can help you and your family through the recession at www.1uptoyou.com.

Choosing Your Target Market

2009-04-06T11:26:00.000-07:00

Do you know what the single most important aspect of your marketing campaign is? No, it's not making sure you have the right selection of keywords, or the fanciest collection of graphics, of the hottest, hippest designs. It's not even making sure you have the hottest, hippest products on the market (although that does help). There's a market for just about every product. The key element in the success of your marketing campaign is making sure you're marketing to the right people.

Do you know how to identify your target market? Do you know what a target market is? With the increasing popularity of e-biz the number of marketers stepping out onto the web without learning what it takes to really make their marketing dollars count. That's how Google AdWords has managed to convince so many entrepreneurs to sink hundreds or even thousands of dollars into campaigns that are fighting a losing battle!

Your target market is the group of people that need your products and services and those that want or will use them. In other words, they're the people who are most likely to make up your potential clientele. These are the people you want to focus every aspect of your marketing campaign on. Today's consumer has too many choices; the prospective profit of mass marketing has gone out the window. It's all about direct marketing and building a personal relationship with your consumer, whoever that may be.

To identify your target market and shape your campaign around their needs and wants, ask yourself:

a) What does my product do? What need does it fill?
b) What age group is my product for? (Adults, teens, children?)
c) Is my product gender specific? Men and women tend to shop with different ideals in mind, so it's good to weigh that information in when you're making your marketing decisions.

Identifying your target market is the key factor in building a marketing campaign that will create the kind of profits you want to see. Come see how we can help you make the most of your target market at www.1uptoyou.com.

What is a Microblog?

2009-04-03T12:56:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Twitter, Facebook and MySpace microblogging has become the hottest trend on the web. But do you know the difference between a microblog and a regular blog? More importantly, do you know what microblog can do for your marketing campaign?

If you've never seen a microblog, just close your eyes for a moment and remember back to the last time you were on Facebook or MySpace (the two most powerful social media moguls on the web). Do you remember your update bar that you could use to fill your friends in on what you were thinking, saying or doing at any point in time?

Ex. John is wondering why they only give you enough room to write one sentence?

Sound familiar? This is a microblog-an opportunity to touch base with your reader community in one sentence or less. Microblogs tend to generate much more publicity than blogs do, their simplicity and their social nature encouraging people to chime in. On Facebook and MySpace your community can chime on your microblog to let you know what they think about your status; however, through other microblog sites you can do so much more.

Building a community around your microblog is almost ridiculously easy, because you don't have to provide any supporting details. You can share fun information, a thought, an opinion, a fact, a question or a piece of fiction without having to tell people why. There's no better way to encourage someone to chime in than to deliberately leave out key pieces of information and allow them to fill in the blanks. Using this technique you can build a strong community around your microblog, generating ideas and information for your niche as well as building a huge potential consumer base for your products and services.

To discover how to make microblogging (and regular blogging too!) work for you, visit us on the web at http://www.1uptoyou.com/.

Building a Community Around Your Blog

2009-04-03T12:39:00.000-07:00

This is the wave of the future. We have technology at our fingers that we couldn't have even dreamed about two short decades ago. So why is it that the most powerful marketing tool at our disposal is still the community watering hole?

Granted, that community watering hole has changed a bit over the years. It's morphed from an actual watering hole to local restaurants and stores and, as time and tech marches on, blog spots and chat rooms out on the World Wide Web. We've touched briefly on the benefits of viral marketing and word of mouth endorsement, but there's no way to over emphasize the potential that comes from developing and building a community around your blog.

The first step to laying out a plan for building your blogging community is to decide what type of blog you want to have. Are you a microblogger? Or do you have too much to say to cram it into a single sentence?

Since microblogging is a topic for another day, let's focus on building a community around your blog. The real benefit of blogs is that they give you the ability to share what's on your mind with your friends, family, business associates and the competition you want to show how far they're going wrong! Blogs are a chance to briefly and succinctly make a point, share information or present an opinion. The bigger the community is around your blog, the more effective it's going to be as a business tool.

There are three primary techniques for building a community around your blog:

1) Market your blog to your niche market. You want to make sure the people who matter know your blog's out there. If they're interested they're more likely to become a part of your community-and to bring their friends on board as well.
2) Encourage debate! Sharing an opinion is a great way to encourage others to actively participate in your blog, making it a real community rather than a place to go and read-something.
3) Respond to comments. When your readers take the plunge and comment on your blogs they want to know that you're going to listen-and that you're willing and able to actively converse with them about it!

Building a community around your blog is a vital step in your marketing process. Learn how at www.1uptoyou.com.

Print Advertising: Alive and Kicking After All These Years

2009-04-02T16:32:00.000-07:00

It's easy to look at today's Internet crazed society and believe that, like Elvis, print advertising is dead. Gone. Never to be seen again. Which, of course, is why so many companies are still launching email campaigns, taking out space in phone books, placing ads in the newspaper and launching articles and advertisements in magazines and newspapers.

Maybe print advertising isn't as gone as you thought it was.

While it's true that print advertising isn't the most effective (or inexpensive) promotional opportunity out there, it's still one that shouldn't be ignored. Despite the growing trend of digitized literature there are still people who prefer the feeling of holding a book in their hands, or buying a newspaper that you can do the crossword puzzle in. Consumers are still buying books, magazines and newspapers, which still makes them prime territory for a strong marketing campaign.

Of course, as mass media marketing is going flying out the window and television and radio advertising is losing its power a new, improved method print advertising has come into power-direct mail marketing campaigns. Direct mail marketing campaigns let you put together postcards, brochures and informational packets and send them to members of your direct target market, located either through your website or because they're visitors to your business's physical location. This process is repeated ad nauseum throughout the year, letting your customers know when you're having a sale, what new products and services you're offering and, most importantly, that your business is still alive and kickin'.

Print advertising isn't dead, it's just been pushed down most people's priority list over the years. Too bad the same can't be said about the King…

Come discover the real secrets of effective marketing at www.1uptoyou.com.

The Benefits of Multi-Channel Marketing

2009-04-02T16:29:00.000-07:00

It's tempting for many of us to take our marketing campaign and build it around d a single, core form; television, for example, or the Internet. PPC marketing or SEO development. There have been so many gurus preaching about the virtues of specialization that it's easy to overlook the importance and benefits of maximum exposure. It makes sense, if you think about it. The more people hear about your product or service the faster your business is going to grow.

But how much do you really know about multi-channel marketing?

Most companies are focusing intently on building their campaign through the Internet, and we'll touch on the in a second; however, right now let's talk about the importance and benefit of taking advantage of some older types of marketing as well. For example:

1) Email marketing
2) Television advertising
3) Print advertising
4) Radio advertising

Yes, people spend more time on their computers than just about anywhere else these days; however, that isn't the only place they spend their time. Television stations such as NBC and FOX are still making profits, and the radio is still alive to commuters who don't have anything else to do on the long haul to work. That's a huge target audience you don't want to lose!

Internet marketing is important to, and it presents tremendous potential in a channel for reaching your target market en masse. With the Internet you have the ability to reach consumers in target markets all over the world, not only in the U.S. but also in Canada, Brazil, South Africa, China, Russia, France, England and Saudi Arabia-to name a few. That much marketing power is nothing to sneeze at!

What most people don't realize is that when you're talking about Intenret advertising you're actually talking about several marketing techniques:

1) PPC advertising
2) SEO optimizing
3) Print ads
4) Social marketing
5) Viral marketing

Think of your marketing campaign like a body; a strong body is made up of many elements, and all of those elements have to be healthy and strong to operate with maximum efficiency. That's exactly what you want your marketing campaign to do, and multi-channel marketing is the only way you're going to be able to do it.

Discover the power of a well established marketing campaign at www.1uptoyou.com.

What Happens in D.C., Stays on YouTube

2009-03-31T21:22:00.000-07:00

Jeff Dunham fans know full well his opinion on YouTube, but unless you've experienced the power of YouTube first hand you probably haven't realized just how far YouTube can go in bringing America together-and breathing new life into your marketing campaign.

Think of YouTube as television taken out of its mass media form, stripped of all of the annoying commercials and posted where the whole world could see it. Commercial free television-can you see the potential? Millions of people all over the world tune in to YouTube every day to find information, clips and personal videos. That means that YouTube is one of the most popular (and astonishingly simple) ways for you to spread the word about your opportunity.

When you're launching a YouTube video you have ten minutes to show your viewers everything you want them to see. This isn't a commercial. Commercials lose viewers, and too much video SPAM may even get you kicked off YouTube (if enough people complain about it). Think of it as an info-mercial; keep it light, keep it fun, keep it informative, and tell the people what they want to hear. They want the Who, What, When, Where, Why of what you're trying to tell them, and they're not going to be happy with less-unless you're going on…and on…and on…in which case they will be thrilled with less!

Apply the KISS method to your video, and get it online before you have the chance to talk yourself into adding anything else. Then, embed links to your YouTube content on your site. Voila! Instant viral marketing in a style that your target market is actually wanting to see. It's a win-win situation for everyone.

Learn more about the power of Internet marketing at http://www.1uptoyou.com/.

The 411 on PPC Marketing (Or, Why Google AdWords Isn't as Cool as You Think It Is)

2009-03-30T15:09:00.000-07:00

You see ads everywhere-which is pretty funny when you're talking about something called AdWords. It seems like every time you turn around someone's hailing Google for inventing the online marketing method to end all online marketing methods. But what's left when you take away the hype? Google AdWords might be the biggest game going in the PPC marketing community, but it isn't the only one. And it's definitely not the only game in town when it comes to spreading the word about your opportunity.

PPC marketing made a name for itself back when it first hit the market, but most of the people who bought into the game didn't realize just how steep the pot was going to go. Ask yourself this: When you're sitting in your computer chair at midnight bored to death, how many of the "Sponsored Ads" on your search engine page do you randomly click on without having any real intention of buying anything?

Imagine that scenario repeating itself several hundred times a minute and you'll understand why PPC marketing is sadly overrated as a successful online marketing technique. When you buy into the PPC game you agree to pay the search engine or web page that's hosting your ad a certain amount of money for each visitor that stops by. That amount can be as low as a single penny or as high as five, ten, even twenty dollars, depending on the popularity of the keywords you want to use. Every time someone comes by and randomly clicks on your link they're siphoning away precious dollars from your marketing budget-money you shouldn't be expected to have to give up.

The solution? SEO. Social media. Viral marketing. There are thousands of alternatives to sinking hundreds of dollars into a PPC marketing campaign. Come check out how we can help you enjoy maximum brand recognition on the web without sucking your marketing budget dry at www.1uptoyou.com.

The Power of Viral Marketing

2009-03-27T13:54:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen how fast a virus can spread through an elementary school classroom? It gets on desks and toys, coats puzzles and hands. It gets into the air vents and pays a visit to the classroom next door. In two weeks or less that virus can visit every single person in that school at one point or another. It's potent, spread through simple exposure and direct person-to-person contact. Kids give it to each other without even realizing they're doing it.

Behold the power of viral marketing.

Of course, since "virus" is a dirty word in the cyber community we've given it a new name. It's a social message spread via word of mouth marketing, and marketers around the globe are taking advantage of its power.

Viral marketing is effective, quick and cost efficient. Simply pull in a small community of clientele that's happy with your products and services and encourage them to add a link to your website to their blogs, e-mails and forum posts. (Most marketers offer some type of commission as compensation for this.) These same customers then take their enthusiasm for your products and their knowledge about the industry and give your company the best support framework possible.

This group will tell their friends, who will tell their friends, who will tell their friends. Your products will appear in homes and diaper bags, your services discussed over dinner and ice cream. Before you know it your customer base will have grown exponentially without you having to practice any type of targeted marketing campaign at all.

All you need are a few good friends.
Come discover more about the most powerful marketing techniques on the web at www.1uptoyou.com.

Easy Ways to Save Money in Today's Economy

2009-03-27T13:52:00.000-07:00

Anyone who can look around and say there's a possibility that our country is in a recession obviously hasn't opened up their eyes very far. Our economy is sinking fast, and despite efforts from our new president it's not expected that consumers will begin to see notable change for at least another year-possibly two. That leaves today's Americans trying to find ways to stretch their income farther than it was ever meant to be stretched in an attempt to stay three steps ahead of collections.

Fortunately, there are plenty of fun and unique ways to save money without having to live on a steady diet of water and Ramen. Implementing these principles not only during the recession but after will help you lay a foundation for financial security that will never leave you struggling-even if the bottom does decide to drop out from underneath the mortgage industry again.

1) Stop eating out and start shopping in bulk. You'd be amazed at how much money we as a society waste on food. Not only do we spend an unnecessary amount of money on restaurants and take out, we also spend more money on groceries than is really necessary. It's generally far less expensive to buy inexpensive items in bulk than it is to buy by the meal or by the day.

2) Cut unnecessary expenses. Yes, that gym membership is fun, but you could get the same workout by walking and doing push-ups and other aerobic and strength training activities in the living room. If you're serious about saving money you're going to have to learn to say goodbye to your unnecessary expenditures.

3) Budget. It's easier to go to the grocery store and shop indiscriminately, but let's face it-that's how you end up walking out of there with $200+ worth of "stuff," much of which you don't really need. The same principle applies when you're talking about entertainment. Your ability to save money relies almost entirely on your ability to designate your resources-and to know when it's gone it's gone.

Come discover more about making money in spite of the recession at www.1uptoyou.com.

Choosing the Right Online Business Plan

2009-03-27T13:50:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post I talked about whether online business plans were "real" or if they were just another harebrained, get rich quick scheme dreamed up by the latest wanna-be millionaire who knows he'll make more money promoting an online business plan, collecting membership fees and annual dues, than he ever will actually doing the work! The answer is-yes. Some online business plans are perfectly legitimate business opportunities with a virtually limitless earning potential if your selling skills are up to par.

Others aren't worth the virtual paper they print their promotions on.

The secret to success when it comes to online business plans is choosing the plan that's right for you. A truly successful online business plan has to have a few things going for it in the first place.

1) It has to be legit. If you're being pulled into a company that won't even tell you what their product line is until they've explained their pyramid scheme to you, this probably isn't something you want to be a part of. An online business plan with no other web presence than the one you found it on, one that has repeatedly received negative reviews by members or one that is regularly flagged as a potential "scam" aren't the real deal. Hot tip of the day: Before you send them a dime, check them (and their mailing address) out with the Better Business Bureau. It's free, takes less than a half an hour, and you'll feel a lot better about signing on the bottom line to become a part of whatever it is that they're doing.

2) You have to enjoy it!! If you had to flag the number one reason that most businesses and sales don't succeed, it's because the people behind them don't believe in what they're doing anymore-not really. They've become complacent, content to sit back and let the world pass them by and try to make a living selling products and services for all the wrong reasons.

Choosing the right online business plan isn't hard. Just do your homework, listen to your instincts and make sure you're not committing yourself to an endeavor that might never work out the way you want it to just because you've had enough of the nine to five grind.

Come discover more about the most powerful marketing trend sweeping the web at www.1uptoyou.com.

Making the Most of Free Online Marketing

2009-03-27T13:49:00.000-07:00

How many times have you lamented the fact that your marketing budget just wouldn't stretch as far as you wanted it to? The Internet has opened up hundreds of new opportunities for marketers around the globe, and one of them is a ready-made extension of their marketing budget in the form of free marketing using social media.

Think about it. Why do you buy most of the things you buy? Is it because you saw an ad on television, or because you happened to see a poster downtown? What about the restaurants you go to? Chances are, the reason you do most of the things you is directly related to the fact that your friends are doing it too. It's peer pressure at its finest, but since you're not in high school anymore they've come up with a new name for it.

Social media marketing.

Word of mouth marketing, even on the web, is free. Blogs, forums, information sharing sites and social media megamalls like MySpace and Facebook don't charge you a dime to post blogs and informational articles or to establish an online presence with your own profile page. But millions of people a day visit these sites, guaranteeing tons of free exposure for your business. You can say and do anything you want on these sites as long as you're not blatantly marketing, which means you can share the best parts of your business without having to slave over the usual strategies of keywords and press angles.

Your business can exist in its purest form-information shared between friends.

Social media marketing is free marketing, and free marketing is a consumer base you don't have to overextend your already overtaxed marketing budget to reach. That same consumer base is exposed to your products and services without feeling the pressure associated with traditional marketing methods. It's a win-win situation for everyone.

Come discover more about the most powerful marketing trend sweeping the web at www.1uptoyou.com.

Are "Get Rich Quick" Online Business Plans for Real?

2009-03-27T13:47:00.000-07:00

Long gone are the days when you had to pay a visit to a brick and mortar store to make a purchase. It seems like all of the retail community has gone online, and with it have gone the feel-good entrepreneurs who promise you that using their designated online business plans and a little bit of their professional marketing technique you can make a miniature fortune without ever leaving the confines of your home.

The prospect of making $1,000 a week from home your first month, or even your first six months, is impractical and rings of a single individual having accomplished the task (probably out of sheer desperation). Most online business plans don't have the expected return promised by their press, especially MLM and pyramid schemes that require you to pull in five or ten associates before you ever see a dime. Sometimes you'll reach your true earning potential after months or even years of work, other times the business will fall flat on its face.

But for every online business plan that doesn't work there are hundreds of others out there that do.

Think about it. Online business plans take advantage of the very best that the Internet has to offer-a virtually limitless potential consumer market ready and waiting for the right entrepreneur or affiliate to come along and pluck it. The Internet has eliminated the demographic boundaries that used to limit a company's earning potential, making it possible for a housewife in Boise, Idaho to make more money each month than a New York City shopkeeper. You have a better potential market than any brick and mortar store on earth, no matter what your opportunity happens to be.

The important thing to understand is that when it comes to online business plans, there's no such thing as "one size fits all." A business plan that helped your neighbor double their income might fail completely if you attempt to use it because it's simply not suited to who you are. It's not a matter of determining whether or not online business plans can make money as much as it is determining whether or not a particular online business plan can make money for you.

Come discover more about the most powerful marketing trend sweeping the web at www.1uptoyou.com.

Basic Internet Marketing Techniques

2009-03-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

There's nothing more powerful than marketing when it comes to the growth, expansion and, ultimately, the success of your business. The ability of your marketing team to take advantage not only of traditional marketing techniques, such as television and radio advertising and print ads, as well as new strategies opened up by the widespread availability of Internet marketing strongly impacts your ability to get the most marketing bang for your buck and reap maximum profits for minimum effort.

There are three basic principles of Internet advertising you need to understand. The first, and probably the most widely publicized, is SEO marketing. SEO, search engine optimization, is among the most crucial of basic Internet marketing techniques. Over 99% of Internet users use a search engine to find goods and services when they go online. Of those web surfers, very few of them are actually willing to read beyond the first two or three pages of results.

If you want to get those web surfers to your site, you have to get your site on those first few pages, and to do that you have to use search engine optimization techniques.

The second principle of Internet marketing is pay per click marketing. If you've studied up on Internet marketing techniques you've already heard of Google AdWords. Pay per click ads are ads that you place on high traffic sites. Rather than paying a flat fee for their run time, however, you pay the carrier each time someone strolls by and clicks. Since Internet surfers can randomly click on those hundreds of time a day without ever buying a thing it's important to properly target those ads to make sure that they're getting to the people you want to see them.

The final, and most cost effective, method of Internet marketing is social media. Facebook, MySpace, blogs, forums, Yahoo! answers, emails…all of these provide you with an invaluable access to hundreds of members of your target market, and because most of them are freely accessible marketing using these tools doesn't cost you a thing.

Internet marketing opens the doors to hundreds of cost effective marketing strategies, and once you've mastered the art of properly utilizing them you're going to love the change you see in your business.

Come discover more about the most powerful marketing trend sweeping the web at http://www.1uptoyou.com/