Consider the products and services offered by your website and then use your imagination to create a fun contest that will appeal to the average customer you will be targeting with this promotion.
If your website is devoted to parenting issues, you could hold a contest where entrants describe their funniest parenting mishap or the most embarrassing thing their children said in public, etc.
Contests can also be used in conjunction with the release of a new product. Suppose you had a website for busy women which offers tips on how to manage time better and that you were preparing to present a new product that discusses what to do to make it through the holidays. A possible contest that you could hold is asking for funniest Thanksgiving food disasters or best tip for holiday shopping time-saving.
Contest prizes can be arranged by owners of other websites or can come from your very own products and services. If you choose to go with a different website for prizes, you won’t have to spend any money on them and the other website’s owner will probably be happy to receive some free publicity. If you do this, be sure to mention the name of the provider of the prizes on your website.
For the less creative, simply asking for visitors to submit their personal information and holding a giveaway choosing a random winner from the submissions is still a great idea. You can use the same system for prizes that was outlined in the previous paragraph.
A giveaway can also be used to increase your customer retention. If you have a service- based business, such as virtual assistance or graphic design, you could hold a monthly drawing and each time one of your customers paid for a service that month, they receive an entry form. For example, if a client paid for three graphics that month, they would be entered three times. Your customers may want to win a prize so bad, that they keep buying your services each month just to have a chance at winning.
To be successful, you’ll want to promote your contest as much as possible. You’ll want to send a notice to your mailing list as well as putting information about the contest on the main page of your website and blog. If you offer a podcast, make sure you mention it to your listeners.
A large number of other sites will allow you to advertise your contest with them as well. Google “contest submission sites” to get a hold of some good possibilities. Press releases can also be well utilized to stimulate interest for your event.
Giveaways and contests can boost the amount of traffic your website receives, greatly benefiting your business. As you use them, think about the results and how you can adjust your ideas in an attempt to match your customers’ interests as well as possible.
By Trisha Frauenhofer
When you are thinking about starting up your own online business you will want to have a pre-launch plan in place before jumping in with both feet. Consider it the blue print to creating a successful business.
I cringe at it now, but when I look at my first business plan, it was a disaster, and it wasn’t (in retrospect) that my internet business failed spectacularly. I hadn’t put together a realistic budget, and I’d just assumed that marketing would “happen on its own”. I took out a loan, based on a second mortgage without identifying where the revenue potentials were.
I designed my own web site, rather than hiring someone to do it for me. Now, I’d taken a college extension course, and I read a few books about Meta tags, but when I look at my old site, I sigh. It was overly elaborate, it barely used CSS style sheets, and it was more work than was feasible to maintain. This time around, I hired a pro - and they installed a lot of server side tools, like WordPress, to let me focus on running my internet business, not maintaining my web site.
About the only thing I did right last time was learn the ins and outs of using Register.com for setting up my domain names. My designer helped me find a hosting provider who could install the software I wanted to make this all work, which helped a lot.
Internet speed is one important aspect of My Internet Business Pre-Launch plan that I think many people do not take into consideration. No one surfing the net will want to wait a long time for your page to load onto their computer. So unless you plan to only target customers with high speed internet access, remember all the glitz and flashiness will not matter much to those who do not have the time to load it.
If you want to target everyone from high speed internet to dial up and GPRS modem users then keep it simple and to the point. More is not always better, especially if no one stays around to see it.
So, the next step, after the site is up, is bringing in visitors. This is the marketing part of the business plan, and near the end of the pre flight check list. In most cases, this means getting your shop into the top twenty results for a search engine keyword hit. There are countless articles on how to do this, but the realistic way to do it is Google Ad Words.
A sure fire method it getting traffic to your store is to get your business in the top twenty search engine results. Keep your business in plain sight for everyone to see. Advertise on related web sites and you will see customer traffic begin to pull into your web site. Back links, keywords, SEO’s, and strategically placed ads should all be created by your design firm, and will get you high search engine rankings.
There are several reasons why a Home Based Business could be right for you.
An Internet business permits flexibility of working hours, lower start-up costs and not having to commute. Other advantages include; more leisure time with family and friends, independence and being your own boss. Even if you don’t have a lot of money, you can start a Home Based Business and enjoy the advantages of establishing a new career of your very own.
It takes hard work, research, focus and patience in order to be successful in any offline or online business. The money you earn will not come instantly. Many people will advertise quick money schemes. Be aware, you cannot make money in less than a month.
A person’s passion or hobby can easily determine the direction of their new Home Based Business. It can be something fun and interactive with others who share your same interests.
When you invest the time to research your passion or hobby it allows you to explore the direction and marketplace that you would find fun and interesting. Many times other new and exciting business opportunities can arise from this research and that would allow you to create an additional online business.
Some people might consider focusing their new business on trying to solve specific problems that an average person might encounter. The best customers are the ones who need help and are frustrated, therefore, willing to spend money to get a resolve to their problem. By creating an e-book, videos or tutorials are just some of the many ways to provide such a service.
Do you know of a mentor in your field whom you trust or respect? If so, research how they got started and don’t hesitate to mimick their business techniques. Why re-invent the wheel when the path to their success and yours has already been created. Discover how they are promoting their products or service and where they are advertising online and offline.
Your success depends largely on your advertising. In order for your Home Based Business to get a lot of attention, whereby they purchase your product or service, you need to get them to your website. That is referred to as traffic and is definitely a primary key to your success.
To begin advertising you would need to learn a few techniques to aid you in getting the traffic to your website. Once you have these skills you can apply your new knowledge to your Home Based Business and any other business venture in the future without spending a fortune.
A couple hints on where to find free advertising are; articles or press releases, emailing, forums, classified ads and blogs.
Let’s not forget about relationship building, which is another very vital aspect to your success. In order to continue to attract repeat business, you should try to make your customers feel like they are interacting with a person that they have known almost all of their life. People are much more likely to buy from someone that they feel they can trust.
If you are looking for a change in lifestyle, like many of us who have work from home jobs, be open to new opportunities that will offer that change.
If you are thinking about starting a Home Based Business, always remember, it is a learning process. There are companies that can help you get started and they will also share with you the secrets necessary to be successful so that you don’t have to re-invent the wheel.
About the Author:
Before you do anything make sure you check Melissa Paige’s excellent free report about online job opportunities, and creating personal wealth
The quickest way to getting eyeballs on your business these days is by establishing an online presence and central to establishing a powerful online presence is choosing a domain name that will attract the right customers.
Unfortunately, many people overlook this important step. Let’s look at a few tips for getting a domain that will attract the right customers to your site.
1. Make Sure Your Domain Describes Your Business
Your domain name should make it clear to your visitors what your website is about, even before they land on the site. Don’t make them guess what you’re offering.
For example, if your name happens to be Sue Brown and you own a hair salon called Sue’s Hair Salon, get a domain name like, www.sueshairsalon.com instead of www.suebrown.com. Seems pretty obvious, but you’ll be amazed at how many business owners use their personal names as domain names instead of choosing one that specifically describes their business.
Keep it as short as possible as well. It’s easier for your customers to remember and they’re less likely to make typing errors when they enter it in their web browser.
2. Get A Domain That Includes Your Keywords
It’s becoming increasingly important for business owners to have their websites indexed and ranked well in search engines like Google.com, MSN.com and Yahoo.com. And it helps this cause tremendously if you have a keyword-rich domain name. The reason for this is simple: Your potential customers search using specific keyword phrases to find what they’re looking for.
If you’d done the research and used these customer-specific keyword phrases in your domain name, more than likely your website will be listed on the very first page of the search engines, outranking your competitors because you had exercised due diligence where keyword-rich domain names were concerned.
There are plenty of other things you’ll need to do to get good rankings in the search engines, but your domain name sets the foundation for everything else. Also, avoid using dashes in your domain even if it makes it easier to find a keyword-rich name. Hyphens are believed to hurt your rankings in some search engines.
3. Do You Really Need .com?
Well, the answer is yes and no. There’s no reason you can’t use a different extension like .net or .biz if that’s the only way you can get the domain you want. It’s not the best choice however, because everybody thinks in terms of .com. If your site uses something else, it’s going to be an uphill battle to get people to recognize your site. If someone else already owns the .com version, they’re going to get a lot of free traffic thanks to your marketing.
How would you feel if you spend time and money marketing your website and some of those people wound up on your competitor’s customer list instead?
If you’re setting up a website for specific types of organizations, a non-profit group for example which should use .org, the best way to go is to stick with .com.
So don’t rush into picking your domain name. Research your market and find the keyword phrases that people are searching for. There are quite a few websites that let you research this information, such as Wordtracker.com and GoodKeywords.com. Putting the effort in up front will pay off in the long run.
About the Author:
Struggling to get your internet business off the ground but feel adrift in a sea of gurus and products promising instant riches? Visit the Internet Marketing Chaos site for a hype-free look at how to start and run your business. Visit http://www.netmarketingchaos.com for more helpful info This and other unique content ‘domain name’ articles are available with free reprint rights
By Jennifer A Thomas
There are so many ways to make money on the internet.
I have a few things Listed below for you to consider…
1. You can create and sell your own products, start an affiliate program and get other people to promote your products…
2. You can try to get listed in the search engines and create content sites with Google Adsense ads…
3. There are lots of traffic brokers who buy traffic from Yahoo, Google, MSN or other search engines and submit that traffic to their affiliate site or sites to earn commissions…
4. Internet marketers build a list of prospects by creating squeeze pages, and promoting various affiliate products to a list of prospects when they feel the need or need money…
I believe that focus or the lack of…is one of the obstacles that stands between the successful internet business that people in this industry dream of…
People ask me to evaluate why they are failing online and I found that most people may use these extravagant websites, promoting at least 10-20 different affiliate products with different banners flashing all over the place
Seeing this immediately notifies me to what the underlying problem may be…
This person might be Unfocused!
But you can’t do everything at the same time and expect to do anything very well.
Now here is my point…
You need to find a proven business model to follow and follow that business model until it’s profitable.
You cant jump from one thing to the next and give up before you actually start experiencing results.
I am living proof of the fact…if you are persistent and consistent, stay focused on your dream, you will be sucessful.
Guaranteed!
To Your Success and May God Bless!
About the Author:
By: Jennifer A Thomas Subscribe Completely FREE to my Completely Researched Work From Home Program. Learn The Latest Marketing Method and Proven Strategies. Let me show you how to Earn Cash Daily right from the convenience of home.
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