Saturday

10 Ways To Explode Your Own Brand

1. Company Name.

The name of your company is an integral part of the branding process. You need to ensure that your customers understand who you are and what your represent through your company name.

2. Website.

Your website needs to offer your prospects a big picture look at your entire brand. Everything on your site should promote the promise that you are making to your clients and customers.

3. Mission Statement.

Your company mission statement should be a natural extension of your brand. The Geek Squad states, “We’re an army more than 18,000 strong, on a singular mission to rid the world of rogue technology. We’re still oddly dressed, but we’re now oddly dressed and saving the day across the globe.” Brilliant.

4. Phone Tactics.
Yes, branding even entails how you answer the phone. Think about ways that you can integrate your brand and your business phone. The Geek Squad doesn’t just “answer the phone.” Instead you are prompted to enter your “top secret pass code” or speak to a Geek Squad Special Agent. The on-hold music consists of a compilation of spy movie theme songs.

5. Dress Code.
If you can incorporate your brand into the way that you or your employees dress, this will even add more believability to your brand. Of course, Geek Squad employees dress in white shirts, dress pants, “geeky” ties and yes, some even flaunt the pocket protector.

6. Tweets.

If you’re going to use Twitter as a marketing tool, make sure that you use it as a platform to develop powerful brand awareness regarding your small business. @GeekSquad tweets daily tips on fixing your computer, removing spyware and other “geeky’ topics that their dedicated customer-base loves.

7. Blog.

One of the most important marketing tools for today’s small business is maintaining a blog. There is no better way to communicate directly with your prospects, customers and clients. At the Geek Blog, the writers go into depth about geeky technology, geeky facts and geeky jokes.
8. Videos.

Have you heard about GeekSquad TV? That’s the ingenious Geek Squad videos that showcase the intelligence and utter geekiness of these likable employees. Again, their videos continue to drive home the fact that these guys know what they’re doing.

9. The Car You Drive.

If you are creative enough, branding can even be a part of the car you drive. Take a look at the “Geek Mobile,” a compact, little VW emblazoned with the Geek Squad logo. If that doesn’t create brand awareness, I don’t know what would!

10. Consistency.

One of the most crucial aspects of branding a small business is that you must be absolutely consistent. Every single interaction that your customers have must send the same message. You are ultimately creating experiences for your prospects, clients and customers that create trust and build emotional attachments to your company.

So, as you begin the task of building a brand that creates fierce and intense loyalty in your market area, don’t forget about the Geek Squad. They are branding masters.


Try The Power of Brandingand start creating your home based small business brand.

Thursday

How to Use Social Networking Sites to Drive Traffic to Your Site

Social networking sites seem to be the biggest thing on the Internet right now, and there are no signs that this will change anytime in the near - or far - future. The fact is that social networking sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and others, have given people the opportunity to express themselves, meet new people, and communicate effectively, and nobody is going to give that up.

Social networking on the Internet may seem like a new concept to most people - but it really isn't. The first social network appeared on the Internet as far back as 1995, with Classmates. Classmates offers people the opportunity to reconnect with old classmates from High School and College, and is still in operation today - and doing quite well.
Social Networking Features

Social networking sites often have common elements. Some have more features than others. In all cases, you are able to create your profile.

Other features include messengers, email systems, blogging features, friend's lists, and comments sections. Some social networking sites will allow you to send individual emails to other site members, or to send broadcast emails out to all of the people on your network or friend's list.

Most social networking sites will allow anyone to join, and are typically free to join. However, there are some that require a fee for membership, such as Ryze, and some that require an invitation from another member, such as Pownce.

Connect with Other Like-Minded People

Many people view social networking sites as 'something to do.' However, they are much more than that. Social networking sites allow members to express and develop identities, to build relationships, to garner trust among their peers, and much more. The social networking sites simply provide the means - it is the members who create the content of the site, making these social networking sites user content driven.

Internet Marketers, large corporations, and even television shows make use of social networking sites. For example, many popular reality television shows have profiles on the more popular social networking sites.

This encourages public participation. They use the concept that 'everyone wants to feel like they are a part of something' and it is successful - because social networking sites allow everyone to be a part of something, regardless of who they are, where they are located, their sex, religion, beliefs, careers, backgrounds, or any other consideration that exists. Everyone who has access to a computer with an Internet connection has a 'voice' and they can use it with ease thanks to social networking sites.

You might like to connect with me on the best known social networking sites FacebookLinkedin and Twitter.
Signing up is usually very easy, and only requires you to submit your name, your location, a screen name, a password, and of course a valid email address.

Today, it is estimated that there are more than 200 social networking sites in existence. You can get a more complete list of social networking sites, as well as the 'theme' or group of people that each site caters to and the number of members through Wikipedia. Vist the Wikipedia site and search for social networking websites.

Marketing Via Social Networking Sites

The popularity of social networking sites stems from the Search Engines. The Search Engines love these sites, as they always contain fresh content. What's more, if you look at the Alexa rankings for some of these sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, etc., you will find that they are amoung the most popular sites on the Internet.

Although you can't advertise on these sites, you can create a profile and include a link to your web site. This will provide a great way to not only increase your ranking in the Search Engines, but also drive traffic to your web site.

Social Networking Sites also provide you with a great way to spread your content all over the Internet. For example, you can share your articles, news, and post comments.

Where to start?

Explore Social networking for business and drive traffic using social networking sites.

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Saturday

"Triple D" principal

In your business and in your home life apply  "Triple D"
principal for making more money, getting healthier and leading a balanced/low stres lifestyle.

When a task is presented that will take your time, time that you 
could either devote to your family or spend on your business/career
 that would yield you more money; make sure you either:

* Ditch it - Before spending time on a task, evaluate that task 
to see if it really needs to be done at all. Most people find when 
looking back, about 50% of tasks were a waste of time and did not yield
 any monetary or emotional gratification.



* Delegate it - There are plenty of tasks that do need to be 
done. So evaluate if this task needs to be done by you. Is it something
 that someone else could do? Remember you should save your time 
for things that require your attention.

* Dominate it - This is all you. If does not matter if you are
 working on a marketing plan for your company or working on your
 child's third grade science project. Be in the moment and
 strive for extraordinary every time.

 Learn HOW and explode your small home based business.





Tuesday

Goal-Setting Rules


There are several important rules that accompany effective goal setting.

First
Your goals must be in harmony with one another, not contradictory. You cannot have a goal to be financially successful, or to build your own successful business, and simultaneously have a goal to spend half your day at the golf course or at the beach. Your goals have to be mutually supportive and mutually reinforcing.

Second
Your goals must be challenging. They must make you stretch out without being overwhelmed. When you initially set goals, they should have about a 50 percent or better probability of success. This level of probability is ideal for motivation, yet not so difficult that you can become easily discouraged.

Third
You should have both tangible and intangible goals, both quantitative and qualitative. You should have concrete goals that you can measure and evaluate objectively. At the same time, you should have qualitative goals, for your inner life and your relationships.

Fourth
You need both short-term goals and long-term goals. You need goals for today and goals for five, ten, and twenty years from today. The ideal short-term timeframe for business, career and personal planning is about ninety days. The ideal long-term period for these same goals is two to three years. These time horizons seem to be the ideal for continuous motivation.

Fifth
The ideal life is focused, purposeful, positive and organized so that you are moving toward goals that are important to you every hour of every day. You always know what you're doing and why. You have a continuous sense of forward motion. You feel like a "winner" most of the time.

Sixth
The decision to become a goal-setting, goal achieving, future focused person gives you a tremendous sense of control. Your self-esteem increases as you progress toward your goals. You like and respect yourself more and more. Your personality improves and you become a more positive, confident person. You feel happy and exited about life. You open the floodgates of your potential and begin moving faster and faster toward becoming all that you were meant to be.

Take Action 
Map out your short-term, long-term, qualitative, and quantitative goals for your future in both your personal and professional life.




Friday

Five ways to make good use of your E-marketing efforts

E-marketing can help you win more customers but how do you get best results? Identify your goals and then pick the most appropriate tactics. For example:

1. Demonstrate your expertise – a more traditional target audience might like to read an e-newsletter, online press releases or online articles whilst Twitter, Linked In or Facebook can also keep your market up to date with your (relevant) insights.

2. Stimulate sales – e-mails to existing customers let them know about special offers, while Google Local, pay per click advertising and Froogle reach new customers. Some also advertise on third party sites or use affiliates to drive sales.

3. Develop relationships – use blogs, social networking and your own site to communicate pertinent information which your audience can read and share. Then disseminate your messages via email, RSS, blog directories and your own social networks.

4. Expand your contacts network – join social and business networking sites and participate (courteously) in discussions. Include your business (and website) in industry directories and local area directories.

5. Encourage warm leads to your business – search engine optimisation and online advertising are very effective at delivering new leads. Your website then needs to convert potential customers into sales or enquiries. If your site gets visitors but few enquiries or sales, review the content and use website statistics to spot the blockages.

Learn How To and make good use of your online marketing efforts.


Passive/ Attraction Marketing Strategy for Work from Home Businesses

If marketing has not been your favorite thing to do in business, most likely you're just going about it the wrong
way.

What if marketing wasn't about prospecting, cold calling, asking for referrals, or any other type of selling tactics?

What if marketing was really about creating value?

"Passive marketing" (sometimes known as "attraction marketing") here's why this approach is absolutely awesome:

- Passive marketing tactics don't require you to keep asking for business;

- You can leverage them - do it once, use it over and over again;

- They allow you to generate revenue even when you're not working with clients;

- Most importantly, using these strategies make you absolutely irresistible to clients.

So what does "passive marketing" looks like in practical terms?

- Creating an audio product

- Developing a live program

- Putting together a toolkit

- Speaking in front of large audiences

- Publishing a newsletter

- Creating a community subscription web site

- Writing a book

- Creating a network of vendors and partners

- Conducting monthly tele-seminars

- Starting an online school or university in your niche

- Organizing live events for your target audience

- Developing a workshop and licensing it to others

- Starting your own radio show

...among many others. THAT'S what will attract clients to you like bees to honey!


Dont know where to start? Grab yours now before they're gone.


Saturday

EZINE - a Win-Win Tool to Attract Free Home Business Leads, Generate Traffic for Free and Explode Your Work At Home Business

E-mail newsletter or ezine is one of the online/internet marketing tools you could use to supplement and leverage your efforts and get more people into the marketing funnel.

How could you use ezine as a lever?

Ezine Will Attract Prospects And Grow Your Business!

1. An ezine lets you grow a MAILING LIST to market to over and over again.

2. An ezine will SELL MORE services or products for you.

3. Publishing an ezine positions you as an EXPERT in your field.

4. An ezine will STAY IN TOUCH with your clients and prospects for you, automatically, on a regular basis.

5. An ezine will effortlessly SPREAD THE WORD about you and your business.


Ezines are one of the most cost effective ways to advertise your home business. Used properly, they can generate outstanding results.

Learn from Ali Brown AKA The Ezine Queen  HOW apply ezine advertising