Internet Marketing for Small-Scale Businesses
by Cedric Loiselle

With competition steadily rising among businesses, it’s quite impossible for entrepreneurs not to be compelled to bolster their game with an effective marketing strategy. Now that we are in the internet age, marketing schemes have evolved along with the relentless rise of technology. Years ago, newspaper ads, bulletins, and print ad marketing were the trends that brought numerous businesses on top of the rest – until internet marketing came into picture.

Today, many businesses depend on web marketing strategies to win over their respective markets. And it does not even merely apply to the bigwigs, as even small-scale businesses are seeing positive results with minimal investment on advertising. True enough, advertising can be a risky investment for startups or local ventures since it would be a huge loss to recover if in case the campaigns backfire. Businessmen should not fret, though, as there are several ways in which their humble beginnings can rise up the ladder with the help of free advertising and cost-effective web marketing strategies.

The following are some methods through which you can maximize the benefits of internet marketing for your humble online business:

Niche Blogging
By keeping a blog through which netizens can be updated about recent events and breakthroughs on a particular niche, you will be inviting a considerable amount of audience. This blog should be kept as compelling as it can be -- provided with photos, videos, and other resource materials that your audience will be interested in. Bear in mind that plugging your business too much is not advisable as it might only ward off viewers. Offer valuable information to your market that will not only keep them on your website long enough, but will also make them keep on coming back.

Social Media
Since social networking sites are now viral, it is a great idea to take advantage of these highly saturated networks. By updating your social network with relevant scoops and information about your specific niche, you can gain followers and eventually get them to look at the products and services that your business offers. Moreover, you can use your social network account to let your blog be known to an extended network of viewers. For instance, you can post your blog’s URL to your social network so that your followers can easily access it.

Video Marketing
With video sites like YouTube now gaining more popularity than ever, you can use videos to plug business. If you don’t have the skills needed to create compelling videos, hiring someone to do them for you doesn’t even remotely cost a fortune. Using your blog and social networks, you can increase the viewership of your videos by featuring them on your posts or tweets.

While these techniques don’t require expert skills to successfully carry out, you can have someone else do these tasks for you. Outsourcing your marketing efforts can be a cost-effective way to promote your business, plus you are given more time to attend to other important matters that will also be beneficial in your business endeavors.

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Article Source: Internet Marketing for Small-Scale Businesses

Why are $100 drop cards the number one offline marketing tactic? Author: Jon Patrick

Thе numbеr оnе оfflіnе mаrkеtіng tооl bу fаr іѕ thе $100 drор саrd, thіѕ nеw tооl wіll drаmаtісаllу сhаngе thе wау уоu gеnеrаtе nеw tаrgеtеd trаffіс оfflіnе. Thе fасtѕ аrе ѕіmрlу thіѕ уоu nеvеr wаnt tо рut аll уоur еggѕ іntо оnе bаѕkеt, mаrkеtіng іѕ lіkе fіѕhіng уоu ѕhоuld hаvе аѕ mаnу hооkѕ іn thе wаtеr аѕ роѕѕіblе. Mаrkеtіng оfflіnе wіth drор саrdѕ рrоvіdе а vіаblе tооl fоr аnу nеtwоrk mаrkеtеr, rеgаrdlеѕѕ оf ѕkіll lеvеl, tо аttrасt nеw рrоѕресtѕ аnd роtеntіаl сlіеntѕ. Thеѕе саrdѕ rеаllу dо wоrk.

I knоw уоu mау bе а lіttlе сurіоuѕ аbоut thе $100 mаrkеtіng tооl аnd whаt thеу dо? Wеll іt\'ѕ еxасtlу whаt thе nаmе іmрlіеѕ іt\'ѕ а buѕіnеѕѕ саrd оf ѕоrtѕ but mоrе ѕресіfісаllу thе nаturе аnd dеѕіgn іѕ whаt аttrасtѕ реорlе. Sресіfісаllу а сеrtаіn tуре оf саrd thе $100 оnе wіll оutреrfоrm mоѕt оthеr tуреѕ. Thе gеnіuѕ оf thе саrd іѕ whаt\'ѕ іmроrtаnt, thіѕ раrtісulаr саrd lооkѕ lіkе а rеаl $100 bіll. Thеу саn bе gіvеn оut lіkе buѕіnеѕѕ саrdѕ оr ѕtrаtеgісаllу drорреd іn lосаtіоnѕ оf уоur сhоісе.

Sоmеthіng fun аnd rеаllу еаѕу tо uѕе, уоu саn lеаvе уоur рhоnе numbеr, уоur wеbѕіtе аnd/оr уоur mеѕѕаgе whаtеvеr уоu wіѕh. Thеѕе саrdѕ аttrасt nеw рrоѕресtѕ lіkе wіldfіrеѕ, Hоw роwеrful wоuld іt bе tо hаnd ѕоmеоnе а $100 bіll аftеr а bеnеfіt, рrеѕеntаtіоn оr ѕосіаl gаthеrіng. Thе numbеr оf wауѕ thаt уоu саn uѕе thеѕе саrdѕ аrе vіrtuаllу unlіmіtеd. Yоu wаnt реорlе ѕееkіng уоu оut аnd lооkіng tо соnnесt wіth уоu аnd drор саrdѕ аrе vеrу uѕеful tооl tо саrrу оut thе tаѕk аt hаnd. I bеlіеvе thеу соmе іn dеnоmіnаtіоnѕ оf $10, $20, $50, $100.

Nоw dоn\'t gеt mе wrоng аll drор саrdѕ, јuѕt lіkе аll реорlе аrеn\'t thе ѕаmе. If уоu wеrе tо dесіdе tо uѕе thіѕ tооl, quаlіtу аnd еуе арреаl іѕ оf thе utmоѕt іmроrtаnсе. Whісh еvеr уоu сhооѕе іt nееdѕ tо bе ѕоmеthіng thаt whеn уоur рrоѕресt ѕееѕ іt thеу аrе соmреllеd tо lооk аt уоur mеѕѕаgе аnd rеаd іt. Whо соuld аѕk fоr аnуthіng mоrе, thіѕ рutѕ уоu rіght іn thе rасе. Thе $100 bіll саrdѕ wоrk еxtrеmеlу wеll bесаuѕе whеn уоur рrоѕресt іѕ gіvеn оnе оr ѕееѕ оnе оn thе grоund, thеу wіll рісk іt uр! Whаt dо уоu thіnk wоuld gо thrоugh thе mіnd оf ѕоmеоnе аftеr уоu hаnd thеm $100 fоr а tір, оr а buѕіnеѕѕ саrd, еtс!

Thеѕе mоnеу drор саrdѕ lооk vеrу rеаl јuѕt lіkе U.S. сurrеnсу, but hеrе іѕ а tір tо іnсrеаѕе уоur rеѕроnѕе rаtе аnd еlіmіnаtе сurіоuѕ реорlе аnd/оr рrеtеndеrѕ frоm соntасtіng уоu аnd wаѕtіng vаluаblе tіmе. Yоu ѕhоuld kеер уоur mеѕѕаgе ѕhоrt аnd ѕіmрlе аnd lеаvе оnlу уоur wеbѕіtе аddrеѕѕ. Thіѕ wіll drіvе trаffіс tо уоur wеbѕіtе оr blоg аnd реорlе саn vіеw уоur рrоduсtѕ аnd ѕеrvісеѕ, аnd іf thеу wаnt mоrе іnfоrmаtіоn thеу саn rеасh уоu thrоugh уоur wеbѕіtе. Mаrkеtіng іѕ аll аbоut trаffіс аnd еxроѕurе, іf реорlе dоn\'t gеt tо ѕее whаt уоu hаvе hаvе tо оffеr, уоu buѕіnеѕѕ wіll fаіl. Thіѕ іѕ thе tуре оf mаrkеtіng tооl thаt саn rеаllу bе fun, аnd thеу аrе wоrk tоо. I саn реrѕоnаllу аttеѕt thаt уоu wіll hаvе а blаѕt wіth thеm

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/why-are-100-drop-cards-the-number-one-offline-marketing-tactic-6050062.html

About the Author

Drop Cards can Explode your business! check out Drop Card Marketing Mastery and try it today!

Jon Patrick
Crafting a Life of Prosperity and Purpose!

Ways To Boost Response With Mobile Marketing
by Wenthold Raimondi

Do not use text abbreviations in your mobile marketing message. While it is acceptable for person to person communication, it looks unprofessional coming from a business. Also avoid using all caps in your message. Your consumers will feel like they are being yelled at. However, it is acceptable to use all caps in your call to action.

Steer clear of texting abbreviations. When you shorten your messages using chat speak, you make yourself and your business seem less professional and credible. Take the time to spell everything out to make sure your messages are clearly understood, and that you come across in a professional and polite manner.

If you are designing a mobile message, get the most mileage out of your next tact by also including something similar in your basic internet marketing campaign. This will work to ensure that your best material is distributed to as many people within your market as possible. There is no reason to keep your efforts separated.

If you are using email as part of your mobile strategy, consider using a text strategy instead of HTML. If you haven't optimized your HTML creative for a mobile device, the email itself can be incredibly hard to read in a mobile environment. A text email is perfect for mobile users, as it will appear exactly the same way across all email clients and it's easy to read on small screens.

Your thinking should change completely for mobile marketing if you hope to be successful, because you're not really dealing with an one-on-one customer-client relationship anymore. You're now dealing with people out in public browsing their mobile devices. This means you need to train your brain to think like a busy person and what would grab their attention.

Make sure your customers know their business is appreciated. Give them special offers, discounts based on hallmark goals or even a simple thank you note. They need to know you value their business or they may take it to someone who will go that extra step.

Brief and non-business related links and text messages are allowable in network marketing, but make sure you are sending out relevant content that your subscribers would enjoy or find helpful. This should only be done occasionally because you do not want to appear to be a spammy sender and have customers unsubscribe.

Failure to make your mobile marketing cross-platform capable, will cost you dearly. The variety of mobile devices available is staggering, and there are multiple platforms to be compatible with. Your ad campaign should target iPhones, Android devices, Blackberry, Windows mobile and tablet devices.

Take a look at all conversion opportunities. You should be thinking about what you can do to achieve conversion on your mobile landing pages. Free apps, downloads, opt-ins and sign-ups are a few you can use, but you can also set up click-to-call or click-to-book options by embedding the right links on the pages

Well, hopefully the aforementioned collection of tips will help you know what to do and expect when it comes to mobile marketing. When handled with skill, this feature of marketing will prove to be a valuable aspect of your marketing plan.

About the Author

Tip of the day: Use T Shirts to promote your business, it works. Click here for more info. T Shirt Printing

Build Momentum and your Sustainable Success is Assured

Author: Andrew Horton

I am sure we all know someone like Jane, she was really inspired last week and decided that she finally wanted to change her life. She set herself a goal to double her income by the end of 2013 and vigorously started taking action on Wednesday, so that she could finally start to deliver on the promises she has made to herself.

She was really productive on Thursday; she completed all her goal priorities and even a few more. Friday was a little more challenging as she had a lunch date at noon, which was due to finish at 2 pm. She never got back to the office on Friday, as the company at lunch, was really great and she got carried away with chatting all afternoon.

By Monday morning the motivation needed to tackle her goal priorities had disappeared completely. She tackled her day on Monday, feeling really guilty about not getting to her goal specific activities, but justified not doing anything related to realising her goals, by spinning her wheels and feeling really busy all day. Do you know someone like Jane, or worse still, do you do the same thing every time you set yourself a goal?

It is time for you to jump aboard the "MO" Train

Big meaningful goals are never achieved in a day, by overloading yourself and trying to do everything you need the first day. They are achieved daily, by consistently carrying out small almost insignificant goal specific actions.

When you have a daily routine and time set aside every day, to carry out your goal specific activities, you have boarded the "MO" train. The daily dedication and commitment, you make and keep with yourself, to carry out the goal specific actions necessary to achieve your goals. Is what will, over time, create the momentum you need to succeed.

As you consistently take action every day, you will start to build momentum. Momentum is the great exaggerator, for both good and bad. When you have no momentum, it feels like you are going nowhere and nothing seems to be happening. On the other hand, once you start to build momentum, everything just seems to fall into place and the results start to show.

Push Yourself to Achieve the Breakthrough

The way to succeed at achieving any goal is to accept that, you will at first need to apply some willpower, to push you from build-up to breakthrough. The secret is to gradually increase your goal specific workload and to eventually create a new daily success routine or success habit set to support your daily activities.

Stay focused and driven, the first part of any success journey is cluttered with distractions and temptations. Don't allow yourself to seek out the instant gratification associated with, pleasure in the moment. Keep focused on the outcome you want to achieve.

Know Why is your Goal Important to you

You can only stay focused on taking the daily action, necessary to achieve your goals, if you have a crystal clear vision about exactly what you want to achieve and you know why you want to achieve it in the first place.

If I placed a ladder on the floor and offered you $ 1000 to walk over the ladder. I am certain that you would gladly walk over the ladder and take my money. If I however change one thing and I suspend the ladder between two high-rise buildings and again make the same offer, most people would see the risk and no longer be willing to walk across the ladder.

How about if your child was on the other building, that building was on fire, and the flames were licking at your child's feet, would you not run across the ladder and rescue your child? What changed? The only thing that changed was the reason why you wanted to cross the ladder. So as you can see if you have a large enough reason why you want to achieve anything, nothing can or will stop you.

As you Gather Momentum, Push the Pedal down Harder

When you have discovered your burning child on the building or rather you have discovered why achieving your goal is really important to you, no obstacles, roadblocks or challenges will be able to stop you. As you consistently take action every day, the momentum will gather and as you consistently follow through, nothing can stop you from succeeding.

As you build your new daily success routine or success habit set. You will move from good to great. Celebrate every small victory along the way, but resist the temptation to ease up, when you achieve a really great breakthrough. Keep the balls rolling and you will see the massive benefits accrue, as the compounding effect of your daily actions keeps adding up and the momentum grows.

Achieving your goals and realising your dreams, is not about luck. Unless by LUCK, you mean "Labour Under Correct Knowledge". Success is simply the result of consistently taking goal specific action every day and never allowing yourself to be distracted by the temptation, to seek out pleasure in the moment. Now that you know that success is that easy, what are you waiting for, get aboard the "MO" train today.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/goal-setting-articles/build-momentum-and-your-sustainable-success-is-assured-6028520.html

About the Author

Hi my name is Andrew Horton; I am an inspirational Speaker, Master Teacher, Radio and TV Host, Global Traveler and Author. My area of focus is in the field of human behavior, expanded awareness and enlightenment. I travel the planet constantly researching, learning and seeking ways to unlock the mysteries of the human mind. I delve into the inner workings of the universe, always looking for ways to understand my role in making things better and contributing to the improvement of the human experience. Please visit my website to sign up for a daily inspirational message by following this link Daily Inspirational Message. This is your daily call to action, a reminder to do things better each day. Visit my website at http://www.andrewhorton.co.za

5 Easy Ways to Enhance the Readability of Your Writing Author: Krista Stryker

You know you're a good writer.

You got A+'s on all of your papers in high school and college. You passed your English classes with flying colors. You rocked the school paper as editor.

In short, you've been told you were an all star writer your entire life.

So now that you're in the real world, why isn't anyone reading your precious words?

You're not writing for your English teacher anymore

Your English teacher might have praised you for your use of colorful adjectives.

She might have loved your long, verbose sentences. Your two page-long paragraphs.

But here's a wake up call: you're not in English class anymore.

Writing for the real world is different. People don't go to your blog/sales page/website to read.

They go to get the information.

That means that they want your content to be as easily to ingest as possible. If they could inject it Matrix-style into their brain, they would.

But since that's not an option (yet), you have to make it as easy as possible for them to read. Or, you'll lose them for good.

So how do you unlearn all of the writing skills you learned in the first few decades of your life?

Start by following these five techniques:

1. Make your sentences short

There's something about long, windy sentences that induce an, "oh-my-god-this-looks-hard-I-can't-read-this-I-don't-have-time," sort of reaction in the average person's brain.

It's easy to avoid this: just make your sentences short. Especially the first one.

Successful copywriters figured this out ages ago. Short sentences dramatically increase response.

There's just something about a short, easy to read sentence that draws the reader in and urges her to go on reading.

And that's your goal, right?

2. Use shorter paragraphs

Forget everything you learned about writing paragraphs in English class. If you're a copywriter or any sort of online writer, you need to break up your paragraphs.

Ideally, this means keeping them to one to three sentences, max. It may feel foreign the first time you try it, but once you start doing it, you'll learn to love it. I promise.

Especially when more people start reading (and finishing!) your content.

3. Use subheads

Want to ensure that the laziest person in the world still gets the gist of your article?

Then use subheads.

Subheads make your writing scannable. They make it so that even if the reader refuses to read the entire article, she'll still get an overall notion of what it's about.

Imagine your subheads like miniature headlines. They should draw the reader in and give her a summary of what's ahead. They should always be compelling and informative, and keep your reader moving along through your content.

For best results, try to use subheads every 3-5 paragraphs when writing online.

4. Use bulleted lists

People love lists. Why? Because they're:

• Easy to read
• Easy to scan
• They give a lot of information quickly

They also provide a visual break for your reader, since they appear different from the rest of your text.

Basically, lists make your article more appealing. Use them whenever possible.

5. Test it

What's the best way to know the true readability of your content? Test it.

There are lots of different ways to do this, but one of the oldest and most common ways is the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score. This test uses a mathematical formula to calculate the average number of syllables per word and the average number of words per sentence for a 100-word block of text.

Results for the Flesch-Kinkaid Reading Ease score are measured on a scale of 1-100--1 being very complicated and 100 very easy to read. Most copywriters and online writers should try for the 60-70 range.

And if you want a second simple way to test readability, give the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score a try. Based on grade levels from 0-12 (0 being the lowest and 12 being the maximum), this test measures syllables and sentence length.

Again, since you're not writing for your English teacher, you should generally aim for a 7th-8th grade level--that captures more than 80 % of U.S. adults.

So what are you waiting for?

Go make your content more readable today. The readers of the world are waiting.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/copywriting-articles/5-easy-ways-to-enhance-the-readability-of-your-writing-5996803.html

About the Author

Krista Stryker is a freelance copywriter helping awesome health, fitness & wellness companies get their message out to the world. Find her at kristastryker.com where she divulges her favorite copywriting tips or follow her on Twitter @kristastryker.