Today Magazine

Author: Justin Luke

  • Market Like a Pro-Creative Marketing You Can Do on a Budget

    Market Like a Pro-Creative Marketing You Can Do on a Budget

    Some business owners think they need to cut their creative marketing budgets during a recession. But doing that can be the kiss of death for a business! During a recession you need to do more work than ever to continue attracting customers and bringing them through your door or onto your website.

    Reality is reality, though. And your reality may be that you simply don’t have the money you used to have to do marketing.

    This doesn’t mean you give up on marketing. Instead, you need to market smarter. And that’s where Guerrilla Marketing, a concept invented by Jay Conrad Levinson, comes in.

    If you’ve ever seen Levin’s website, you know that it has something of a military feel to it. That’s because Guerrilla Marketing takes a lot from guerrilla warfare. Not because the marketing message is more aggressive but because Guerrilla Marketing focuses on doing more with less.

    This kind of marketing isn’t about your budget. It’s about your creativity. It’s about finding unique ways to get prospects’ attention and make a lasting impression.

    With that in mind, here are a few creative marketing ideas inspired by Levinson’s Guerrilla Marketing concept:

    If you’re running a massage business, get 3 or 4 people to hand out very small samples of body lotion during lunch hour in your local downtown. Make sure there’s a small bow on each bottle and that your business’s logo, name, and number are printed on the bottle, the bow, or an attached business card.
    Are you doing Internet marketing? Create a contest that’s related to your business and advertise it on social networking sites. Make sure to offer a prize that has real value, and make the contest fun. People will forward the message on to their friends, in effect doing your marketing for you.
    Another idea for businesses that are tied to communities is to be a part of public events. Have a booth at the local art fair, for example. But don’t just sit there! Hold a raffle, do demonstrations, put on a few classes. And have some of your people walk around the fair handing out invitations to these events.
    Create the kind of video that gives people belly laughs. Put it on YouTube and link to it from your social networking accounts. You don’t have to do anything as big budget as the new Old Spice cologne videos, but take a look at those to see what I mean. And then look at how many page views Old Spice is getting. Do something funny enough, and that could be you.
    One of the good things about recessions is that they force us to be more creative. Our marketing efforts are no exception to this rule. Use these suggestions as a starting point. Let your creative mind go into overdrive, and create your own Guerrilla Marketing campaigns to make the most of the budget you do have. Creative marketing isn’t an option during a recession. It’s a requirement.

  • What is Sales And Marketing Strategy? You Should Know

    What is Sales And Marketing Strategy? You Should Know

    People who do sales and marketing offline know that the skill sets involved are very different—and it’s no different when you’re doing business over the Internet. Just like in the offline world, you need strong marketing to get people “into the door.” But once the prospects are on your website, you’re only going to earn money from them if you can sell them well enough to close the deal.

    The easiest way to tell you about the differences between sales and marketing is to tell you what each does and doesn’t do. The picture becomes clearer when you contrast the two.

    Marketing is like sending out an invitation. The invitation tells people what’s up, gives them an idea of why they want to attend, and makes it easy for them to reply. Good marketing does all of these things.

    Selling is what happens after you get them to the event—in this case, onto your website. You do sales on the Web pretty much like a salesperson does it in a store or a sales meeting. You answer any questions, make an offer, and guide the prospect through making the purchase.

    Every aspect of marketing has to be done correctly to get prospects to your website. Your marketing has to show, tell, and sell people on the fact that you have something worth checking out. You do marketing in as many venues as you can: You market on social networking sites, through article directories, on YouTube, and more. All of these marketing messages are geared toward one goal—getting people interested enough to check you out.

    I’ve written elsewhere in various other blogs about the reasons that traditional marketing doesn’t work anymore. In this article, it’s enough to say that for your marketing to work to get people to come to you, the marketing messages have to have some value in and of themselves. In other words, you’re giving something away to get something you want—information or samples to get people to come to your website.

    Once the prospects are on your site, you’re still going to market to them. You’ll give them free articles and maybe a few additional samples to encourage their interest.

    But you’re not giving anything away when it comes time to sell. At that point, the only questions are quantity and how the customer wants to pay.

    Don’t think that this makes your sales process any less important than your marketing process, though. To keep your customers’ trust, you have to have a secure way for them to pay you online. You’re going to want your own secure shopping cart or use a legitimate service like PayPal to process their payment. And you’re going to need to have an efficient delivery service that gets the product to the customer on time.

    I think you can see how sales and marketing work together on the Internet. Both have to be working well for either to work at all. So make sure you know the differences and are doing everything you can in both areas to make your business shine.

  • Last-Minute Tax Tips for Internet Business Owners

    Last-Minute Tax Tips for Internet Business Owners

    About the only downside to being an Internet businessperson is that tax time can get complicated.

    Depending on how you’re working online, you may have to deal with quarterly self-employment taxes this April as well as file your final return for 2009.

    If that weren’t enough fun, you’ve got 1099 forms to deal with for any contract workers you’ve hired.

    I firmly believe that the only business owners who should file their own taxes are entrepreneurs who are in the tax business.

    But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a basic idea of the kinds of deductions you could have coming, as well as a general idea of tax laws. After all, how else are you going to judge whether your CPA is doing right by your business?

    With that in mind, here is a list of the kinds of deductions you may be entitled to. Keep in mind that I am not an accountant or tax advisor, and I am not giving you advice on how to do your own business’s taxes.

    These are just the kinds of deductions that are most likely to apply to your Internet business, taken in part from a December 2009 post by Josh Spaulding on his blog:

    Your computer. You may need to be able to show how much time the machine is used for business as opposed to personal use.
    Travel expenses for any conferences you’ve attended. Also the fees for those conferences.
    Freelancers you’ve hired to help with your business. Think of this deduction as the payment you get for filling out those 1099s.
    Home office space. This is a tricky one—ask your accountant how it works.
    Advertising for your business.
    Fees paid to your Internet provider.
    Mileage to any business-related meetings. If the meeting was at a restaurant, you can deduct some of those expenses too.
    Of course, your taxes might also be complicated depending on the type of Internet business you own. For example, affiliate marketers have been in the news because states are increasingly trying to use affiliate businesses as a hook to require merchants to collect sales taxes. Amazon pulled the plug on the affiliate businesses in Colorado recently over just this issue.

    One thing I’m increasingly encouraging my fellow Internet business owners to do as a result of these changes is to become more aware of the ways that tax laws can affect us.

    Affiliate marketers in Colorado were able to force at least some changes to make that state’s law less of a burden. As states are increasingly crunched by the recession, it’s up to us as business owners to make sure our voices are heard in these debates.

    You may not think you have a lot of power. After all, you’re just one person. But the fact is that single-owner Internet businesses fall into the most important sector of our economy—small businesses.

    It’s up to us not only to do our taxes this year but to make sure that our Internet businesses can continue to thrive every year.

  • One-Stop Source for Profitable Home Businesses Information

    One-Stop Source for Profitable Home Businesses Information

    When looking for information on profitable home businesses, are you tired of endlessly going from Internet site to Internet site? Well, relax! Here you’ll find more resources than you ever dreamed possible to help you reach your goal of creating and owning your own profitable home business.
    On our site you’ll find ideas, resources, how-to’s, tips, guides, articles on profitable businesses. You’ll never have to spend hours looking through a lot of useless information on creating a profitable home based business again. Think of the time you’ll save!

    Time that you can spend on starting and building one of the home businesses ideas you may already have—or that you find here. We have the most up-to-date information on home-based business that are both realistic and profitable. You won’t want to miss a single page!

    We won’t say that building profitable home businesses is easy. But with some research, which we’ve done for you, plus planning and determination, you can have the profitable home business you’ve always dreamed of having. Again, this site will show you the how-to’s and offer simple guides to help you reach your goal.

    As you begin thinking about joining the ranks of owners of profitable home businesses, it’s good to have a source you can turn to again and again for the hot-off-the-press information and resources you need. Here, you’ll feel as if you’ve found a friend who truly wants to help you succeed in your dream of having a profitable home based business that you’re proud of.

    Don’t be fooled, though, into thinking that having a profitable business happens overnight. It doesn’t. Profitable businesses take time and effort on your part. Watch out for anyone who says they can make you a millionaire overnight. If that were possible, everyone would be one. That isn’t to say, however, that you can’t become one with a realistic and profitable home based business plan.

    Because many owners of profitable businesses have become millionaires through effort and determination. First, though, they had a plan and understood what was needed to create profitable home businesses. They understood what was necessary and took the needed steps to own a profitable business.

    And there are many ways you can go about this. This site will help you by providing information on all sorts of profitable home businesses—realistic and profitable. The need for realistic expectations just can’t be stressed enough. This is vital if you want your vision of having a profitable business become a reality.

    But what you need first and most is information in order to have a profitable home business of any kind. You already know that. That’s why you’re here, after all, and that’s what the Profitable Home Business site is designed to do—provide you the information you need so that you can hit the ground running when you decide to take the step to become the owner of a profitable business.

    So enjoy your visit to our site. While you’re here, brush up on your knowledge of a wide variety of profitable home based business. Learn what you need to know so that you can develop a realistic and profitable business plan. Study the guides. The more you know, the easier it is to create a home business that’s a profitable business.

    Because ensuring your business is a profitable business is what it’s all about. You’ll find this site invaluable as you pursue your own profitable business. And it’s free! Now how’s that for a deal? Which means you not only get all the information on creating your own profitable home business at the click of a mouse, you don’t have to waste a single penny to get it.

    That leaves more money in your pocket to put toward one of the many profitable business ideas you have rattling around in your head. While they rattle around up there, read on. And come back often. We’re here for you 24/7!

     

  • How to Do Profitable Home Businesses? You Should Know

    How to Do Profitable Home Businesses? You Should Know

    How to find profitable home businesses such as a website, while having more time for your family, friends, and hobbies. Start your own website business online. You will be able to work from home, at your own pace, set your own hours and vacation. No more time clocks, demanding bosses, or long drives to work. Sitesell can do that for you, and all at a very reasonable price.

    Site Build It! is the complete, all-in-one traffic-building system. You get all the software, tools and techniques that you need to build income and targeted traffic. All tied together in a terrific, time-saving, step-by-step process.

    For an example, take a look at what it helped me to do in a very short period of time. On November 24th, 2004 I went online with www.Planning-a-Baby-Shower.com using Site Build It. As of Feb 2nd, 2005, I have had 37,891 total visits, 28,574 total visitors, and 78,715 pages viewed. As of Feb 2nd, 2005, according to Alexa, which ranks websites, my Alexa rating was 115,615 out of 56.1 million websites. This puts my website in the top 1% of all websites.

    SBI (Site Build It) surveyed 1,000 randomly selected SBI websites purchased less than 2 years prior and which had registered their domain more than 6 months previously. SBI found that 62% ranked in the top 3% of all websites, 53% ranked in the top 2%, and 35% ranked in the top 1% of all websites on the web. The vast majority of SBI websites were built by first time website owners, just like myself.

    SBI makes it accessible to anyone who wants to succeed on the Net. No consultants, reference books, or business tools needed, nor deep pockets. Everything needed to build your site and get traffic is in the program. Explained in simple to understand terms. All you need to succeed is Motivation, Passion, and Effort.

    To succeed at your online business, you need one that is…
    Easy to Build
    Maintenance Free
    Low Cost
    Credible (you have your own domain)
    A powerful traffic-builder and customer convertor
    Site Build It!-Basic (SBI-B) does all of the above and more.

  • Increase Your Website Profits With An Irresistible Sales Letter

    Increase Your Website Profits With An Irresistible Sales Letter

    If you would like to convince your visitors, with a powerful Sales letter that works, persuade them that your product is irresistible, as well as bringing them a significant benefit, then this might be the most important letter you’ll ever read.

    Here’s why:
    Your Sales Letter will make or break your business. Compelling ad copy sells. You can have the best product/service but if your Sales letter will not persuade your visitor to buy, you cannot succeed

    Now, I know you’re probably skeptical. That’s normal and healthy. Let me give you two good reasons we can back up what we claim:

    Two Reasons To Believe What I Say
    Reason one: Bottom line! It is a proven fact that nobody can sell without a good sales letter.

    Reason two: Your product/service deserves the best, do not settle for second-rate meaningless hype.

    Here is a summary of the benefits you receive
    1) Fast and efficient service
    No waiting for days. Costing you valuable sales

    2) We work with you personally

    working with you one on one to guarantee your satisfaction

    3) templates available or plain text to fit your web design

    Your choice of the best presentation for your prospects

    Warning: Do NOT buy any Sales copy/Rewrites/Articles
    unless it meets the following 3 criteria

    1: Makes your website into a hot-selling value-added sales machine

    2: Entices your visitor to buy and not get turned off by useless hype

    3: Convince your visitor that your product/service has the benefits he needs.

    In summary, here’s what you get:
    You will get hot-selling ad copy that will increase your sales.
    Personalized service, we will work with you one on one until you are 100% satisfied
    Fast efficient service, no waiting for days, we value your time!
    Don’t wait, ramp up your business sales now. Don’t let your competitors get the edge on you.
    We will work with you one-on-one until you are 100% satisfied.

    We will do a test on your next 10,000 visitors. If the sales page I create for you does not make more profit for you than your current page, I will refund the difference up to the entire fee

  • Apple iPhone5 – The Most-Awaiting iPhone

    Apple iPhone5 – The Most-Awaiting iPhone

    Considering the massive sales of iPhone 4S handsets (approximately 20 million) in the last quarter, the next generation of iPhones is expected to repeat the history. According to analysts, Apple will be able to sell around fifty million iPhone 5 smartphones in 2012 and 2013. The new iPhone 5 was expected to be released in October, 2011, but in the end we had iPhone 4S instead. The release date of latest iPhone has become a hotly debated topic in the cyberworld, and there are many speculations about it. Everyone, especially iPhone lovers are curiously waiting for the new iPhone 5.

    Well, no matter when the iPhone 5 hits the market, it will definitely be a breakthrough. The best thing about this handset which is much rumored these days is its price. The handset’s price is expected to be starting from 299 dollars and may go up to 825 dollars. So, it may turn out to be quite an affordable handset for common man. Until now, all the generations of iPhones have similar looks, and users have already made it clear that they want a change. So, the design of iPhone 5 is rumored to be inspired from Apple’s stylish notebook, MacBook Air. With this kind of design, the Apple iPhone will look thinner, making it a very sophisticated and unique smartphone.

    When it comes to the processor, Apple is expected to use a quad core processor. RAM may be increased up to at least one GB, with possibilities of it even being increased up to 2GB. Some amazing features that the handset is expected to have are:

    4 or 5 inches bigger display screen
    8 MP Camera
    60 percent better design, and 40 percent better resolution
    Home button removed
    Up to 64G internal storage
    3D display
    iCloud integrated
    Improved voice controls
    Improved battery time
    And to be available in white and black colors.
    The rumors suggest that the next generation iPhone 5 will have 4G LTE connectivity. As per latest reports, Apple iPhone 5 is expected to be released this year at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

  • What is iCloud? You Should Know

    What is iCloud? You Should Know

    iCloud is a cloud computing and cloud storage service from Apple Inc., introduced on June, 2011 at WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference). This new service will help you to keep your devices in sync. It eliminates the hassle of manually transferring your iTunes purchases, documents and photos to your iPhone, iPad, iPod and MacBook Air. It will use your Apple ID to sync the files wirelessly. Simply put, you can store data on remote computer servers for download to many devices, such as iOS based device, and computers running Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It also replaces MobileMe service of Apple, and acts as data syncing center for contacts, e-mail, notes, bookmarks, to-do lists and calendars.

    iCloud is the recent branding of cloud computing services offered by Apple. Previously, it was branded as MobileMe in 2008, Mac in 2002 and iTools in 2000. Third party OS X and iOS developers can implement iCloud functionality through iCloud API. Below are given some features of Apple’s iCloud service:

    Find My iPhone: Previously a part of MobileMe, Find My iPhone allows you to track the location of your iOS device or Mac. You can see the device’s location on a map, with a circle showing radius which depicts margin of error. Moreover, you can display a message, play sound on device even when it is in silent mode, change the password on device, and erase its data remotely.
    iOS backup and restore: iCloud service gives you an option to back-up your iOS devices online, alternatively you can also decide to continue to back-up to your computer.
    Back to My Mac: This feature was also formerly a part of MobileMe. As before, it allows you to remotely login to other computers that are configured with the same ID (Apple ID) as that of Back to My Mac.
    Photo Stream: This service allows you to store most recent 1000 photographs on iCloud servers for 30 days, for absolutely free. When the photo is clicked on device with Photo Steam enabled, it will be automatically uploaded to iCloud servers. This service also comes in Apple TV, whereby it allows users to view their recent photographs wirelessly on their HDTV.

  • Windows 8 – Features and Specifications

    Windows 8 – Features and Specifications

    The upcoming version of Microsoft Windows, Windows 8 features an innovative metro style interface which is especially designed for touch-screen input. It has a support from ARM processor architecture, as well as x86 microprocessors from Intel and AMD. The server counterpart of this latest operating system is codenamed as Windows Server 8. In June 2011, the technology giant unveiled Windows 8, along with some of its features at Taipei Computex 2011 in Taiwan, and at D9 Conference in California. The feature that was highlighted was its new user-interface.

    Some amazing features of Windows 8:

    Windows 8 will be available for even chips in tablets and handsets, along with laptops and personal computers. This means that all devices can support the same version of the operating system.
    The latest operating system is really a breakthrough when it comes to passwords. This feature is essential particularly to touchscreens and tablets that require you to enter complex and long passwords. Windows 8 will allow you to use pictures and gestures for authentication. This means, the users can select a picture and gesture on that picture; for example taping a particular area, circling an object or drawing line between any two points, as password.
    Windows 8 offers two options: refresh and reset. The refresh will allow you to re-install windows, retaining your personal settings and data, whereas reset will delete all your settings or data, and resets the operating system to the initial stage. This is an important advantage over previous versions like Windows Vista and Windows XP whereby the speed of OS was slowing down with the usage and time.
    Usually we all get annoyed by those warnings regarding updates and the laptop needing to restart. With Windows 8, all updates are consolidated at one single date. The updates wait till month’s security release, which means just one computer restart for a month.
    If you have many file transfers going on, this operating system will consolidate all of them into a single display popup, with detailed view.
    Moreover, Windows 8 operating system incorporates a new boot process known as Secure Boot, which will ensure that the OS does not get affected by any kind of malware.

  • What To Do When Banned By Google ? You Should Know

    What To Do When Banned By Google ? You Should Know

    Even if you haven’t violated any SEO rule, you might still have to go through the ultimate nightmare: being banned from Google’s index. No doubt Google is a kind of monopolist among popular search engines, but it is not a bully firm that bans sites for pleasure. It just complies with the best SEO practices and penalizes the websites that misbehave. Getting the site unbanned is a lengthy process, and at times the search engine won’t even tell the reason why it banned your site in the first place. This makes things even more difficult.

    Here are given some important steps that you should follow to get reconsideration by Google for getting unbanned:

    Send Google Reconsideration Request: In order to get your site included in Google’s index, you need to send a Google reconsideration request. A way to know your website is penalized by Google is that all of a sudden it does not have any page rank on it. Enter your website address into Google, if you don’t find any of your pages or articles in results, it is likely you have been banned.
    Give information about your domain: While sending Google Reconsideration request, keep in mind that you are sending it to a real person employed by Google, and someone will actually read the request. So be polite and give detailed information about the domain. Tell them the SEO rules you may have violated and explain the background of your site. This will show that you are really serious about resolving the problem.
    Verify your website: Login to your webmaster account and verify the website. Go to this link http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/reconsideration, this is the place that you can use to send reconsideration request to Google. Besides, you can also use the e-mail address [email protected] to send the information to Google representatives.
    Be Realistic and provide proof: Instead of trying to blame Google, provide real proof of the changes you have made for reconsideration. Be thoughtful and thank them for the effort and time they are taking to investigate your request.
    You have to be patient, as it may take many weeks for Google representative to get back and answer Google reinclusion request. In all, it may be a complicated and time-consuming process to get your site unbanned, but with proper research and information, you will indeed get positive results.