How to Find a Top Rated Affiliate Program

Submitted By: Jay Jayesser

I want to help you find a decent and honest program that you can make money from without been scammed.

If you're reading this, then more than likely you want to find out about affiliate marketing and want to make money online. Well, that's the idea of joining a quality rated affiliate marketing network because the only way such a program can do well is to provide affiliates with the tools and resources they need to make money.

So what are the ideal features of a good income affiliate marketing program?

Well firstly, such a program will normally offer good affiliate commission. The affiliate company are aware that the product is popular and will sell well so they don’t mind foregoing a larger part of their profits to encourage potential affiliates to join. If you take a couple of hours a day researching, improving your website, and using SEO techniques then you are more likely to earn good commissions. And if your conversion rate is high enough, you will be making a lot of money in a short time.

Secondly the program should offer quality support such as free website templates, content, articles, tutorials, guides, forums and lots of information and advice on the niche market you are going to be operating in. There is nothing worse than joining a program that promises a lot but doesn’t deliver due to poor support. If you get access to keywords and traffic tracking that’s a bonus.

You should also look at how the products are sold. If the managers of the program expect you to buy the products then sell them on their behalf chances are you have been duped.

You should also do research on the affiliate program. Don’t take their word for it – search the net for independent reviews then you will know if its for you or not.

Make sure you will be able to devote the time to do affiliate marketing. Unfortunately you won’t become a super affiliate overnight. You will have a lot to learn to be able to become a good affiliate that can market products. Keyword research, article writing, SEO, affiliate id tracking and more. But joining a top rated affiliate program goes a long way to making your dreams come true as fast as humanly possible because the sad alternative is to do the same amount of work for less money. And that runs contrary to the fact that you deserve to get as much as possible for your efforts.

Poor commission and tiny percentages on low priced items are not the way to go for you. Instead of wasting your time with such programs (and lets face it there are many), start off the right way by joining a program that can launch your potential a top rated affiliate program? Why should you invest your own money in a business that is unlikely to bring a little if any advantage to you the affiliate? Avoid the may scams ou there - believe me I have been a victim of many in my time. They just take your money and thats that end of the matter.

Economy Driven by Internet Sales

Submitted By: John Zuro

With 401k's diminishing, the stock market rapidly falling, layoff's on the rise, the housing market crashing, and the borrowing in the ball park of around a trillion, where is our financial security going? Most would say, out the window but, I would say for the time the Internet is driving what's left of our financial institution. Perhaps in the future this will change, however for the time it is a fact that Internet sales are still holding up in the tens of billions per year.

If there was a time to wait, I wouldn't have investigated like I did to find out how to stay alive and well in this crisis.

Get a hold of as much knowledge as you can about Internet marketing as you can. Avoid spending money on turnkey programs that lure you in by saying FREE. You will end up spending around $300.00 and only end up with one website and no knowledge of the way to actually build your own. There will be nothing but the bottom of the barrel site with very little gain shown. Don't fall for that as I did, many of times. They were alright with a lot of time on my end tweaking and adding but, in the long run the time spent and the money made were pretty even so, not really worth my time.

Since I joined the club I'm currently in I've discovered multiple streams on income. From the most advanced techniques on E-bay trading to perfecting keyword mastery. With this club you will learn how to find your niche, reverse engineer it, get it search engine optimized, get it to the press, and start profiting from it. Even without a niche you can take the affiliate route and make money according to your time and investment. From profitable blogging to intense social marketing, there are still options to the rising unemployment in our Nation.

Time is getting short but not completely out. Your choice, get in get out or, stay in till the end. I'm cautious but not going anywhere for a while. The nominal investment to this club is worth it's weight ten times over in gold.

When your in you will see nothing but full HD videos on everything to making money online that you ever wondered about. Updates are done every month and new tutorials are added. Carbon copy others or institute your own creativity into the game. The most I've waited for a reply about a question I had was 18hrs. That is what I have never been able to find, anywhere. I-thrive is an online school for this and runs around $5000.00. The only difference is that you can talk to someone on the phone. A great program if you have the money but, if not this club is the best for you.

Take the time to check out the Internets #1 coach and get started with the affiliate program without even joining. No loss to you, whatsoever. You will not be disappointed in the least.

Powerful "New" Marketing Strategy: Setting Expectations

Submitted By: Hamilton Wallace

Sometimes the most profound “new” marketing strategies strike you at first as not new at all. “Hey, I knew that already” doesn’t disqualify something from dramatically changing your business.

Enter setting expectations. Or more accurately, setting the right expectations. Or even more accurately, NOT not setting expectations. As a small business marketing consultant I pay a lot of attention to this stuff!

Problem: When you install an enterprise software system, the vendor must convert all the user company’s data to conform to the new system. This is normally cumbersome and takes lots of fine-tuning to get right. Meanwhile, the decision-makers at the user company start thinking, “Wait a second, this new expensive software can’t even handle the data our crappy current software handles just fine. What are we getting ourselves into.” And eveything about the installation after that seems to go a bit rockier. Why? Everything is seen through what-are-we-getting-ourselves-into eyes.

Solution: Let me tell you about one part of the installation process that can be frustrating. Data conversion takes a lot of fine-tuning. In fact, you may wonder at times why the new software can’t handle data your old system handles just fine. Don’t worry. This is a natural part of every installation and nothing to worry about.

Setting the right or more realistic expectations can improve the customer experience even though what actually happens to the customer doesn’t necessarily change. You’ve experienced this. You “get off on the wrong foot” with a vendor or customer and then notice every time there is a small glitch in the relationship. And the glitches reinforce your growing concern about their reliability. Your frame of reference: the customer or vendor is unreliable. You “get off on the right foot” and those same small glitches don’t reinforce anything. Your frame of reference: they can be trusted and a little glitch here or there doesn’t matter.

I don’t mean setting high expectations.

Problem: When a landscaping contractor remodels your back yard, the place looks awful (all torn up) for about 80% of the time. During that time the homeowner starts to question whether the contractor knows what he’s doing. After the homeowner arrives at that conclusion or level of discomfort, they notice every little imperfection.

Solution: Let me tell you how you’re going to feel throughout some of the project. Your back yard is going to look completely torn up for a long time. You’ll be thinking hey, they’re supposed to be done is three days and it looks like World War Three out there. Don’t worry. Everything comes together during the last few days of the project. I know it’s hard to imagine, but that’s just the way these projects work.

My experience is that most companies don’t set too high an expectation going into new customer relationships, it’s that they don’t set any expectations.

Problem: When a new patient comes into an Oncology practice (after they’ve been diagnosed with cancer) the first two contacts they have are with a scheduler (appointment setting, forms to fill out, medical information to bring) and a financial counselor (insurance, reimbursement). Patients can start to feel like the practice is more interested in getting paid than curing them. This can lead to the patient questioning their quality of care when they experience the little bumps that are part of any healthcare process.

Solution: All of us in the practice are here to help you beat your cancer. As you come into the practice, you’ll find there will be a lot of paperwork to get past at first. That’s just part of the system so please bare with us. We like to get all that handled up front so you and your care team can focus on one thing, your healing.

Without an attempt by the practice to set expectations, the cancer patient is left on his or her own to make sense out of what happens.

Look at the customer experience through the customers’ eyes. There are typically small “interventions” you can make early in the relationship that can help set realistic expectations. Realistic expectations foster comfort and a comfortable prospect or customer is a much happier prospect or customer.

MLM Fear

Submitted By: Karl Auerbach

Ever wake up with the MLM Fear? You know, those feelings that come over you all of a sudden and scream “YOU’RE GOING TO FAIL!” It happened to me this morning, and it was wicked. That sick feeling in the pit of my stomach was so intense I almost couldn’t get out of bed. The feeling stayed with me until I reached for my wrist (more on that later).

Jerry Clarke calls this phenomenon part of Murphy’s Committee’s attacks to make sure we don’t succeed. We could even go back to the sixties (1960s) and use the phrase immortalized by Spiro Agnew: Nattering Nabobs of Negativity (N-cubed!). Whatever you call the feeling, the MLM Fear is nothing more than an expression of the fear emotion from within.

Tony Robbins in his Lessons in Mastery series talks about emotions identifying them as action signals. Emotions tell us something is occurring in our lives and if we want to avoid pain and maximize pleasure, we need to take some sort of action.

MLM Fear is an action signal telling us that we’re not prepared for something that is happening or is about to happen. It could also be telling us that something we’re doing isn’t enough and we won’t achieve ours goals unless we change our approach.

This first MLM fear can result from inactivity. You signed up for this new business but aren’t taking an active role in promoting the business and duplicating your upline. In this case, the MLM fear is that the MLM “business” is going on around you, but your inaction will result in your failure. You’re simply not prepared for success.

The second MLM fear can result from taking action, for example, making cold calls, but not making any sales or signing up new members. Perhaps you’re only making a couple of calls a night or you could be a powerhouse making dozens of calls a night. If you’re doing all this action and not seeing any results, the mind eventually interprets this as inadequate and formulates the conscious message that you won’t achieve your goals.

So how do we deal with MLM fear? First, we need to identify the feeling we have as fear. Second, we need to interrupt the pattern of thought or actions that results in this fear. Third, we need to substitute a new, better way of thinking, of responding to the situations that result in MLM fear.

The first step is relatively easy. Whenever you have the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach, it’s probably MLM fear. If you have a sense or feeling of dread, of impending doom, it’s probably MLM fear.

Granted, it could be something other than MLM fear. If you’re being audited by the IRS, that sick feeling may be caused by the audit fear rather than the MLM fear. Perhaps you’re going through some personal crisis. This can also result in fear other than MLM fear. Or, like me, you could be cowering in fear because your wife insists on going out dancing. However, if you don’t want to be governed by fear even in these areas, the following may help overcoming even those fears.

The second step is breaking the pattern of thoughts or actions that lead to MLM fear (or other fears). Personally, my path to fear lies in my thoughts more than my actions or the way I hold or move my body. It’s usually results from my overlooking something I need to do to make my MLM business successful. It begins with guilt for not doing what is required and quickly moves to fear anticipating failure.

There are a number of mental ways to interrupt these thought patterns. But I happen to like a physical way to overcome this MLM fear: a sturdy, strong rubber band around the wrist. Whenever I felt the MLM fear coming on, even when I felt those first inklings of guilt, I reached down to my wrist, grabbed that rubber band, pulled it out almost to the breaking point, and then let go.

Talk about pain! The first days I tried this method my wrist was actually swollen from snapping the band so many times. But by day three, my mind would not let me even consider MLM fear, or any other fear. What I was doing was associating massive pain with MLM fear, and no pain with not feeling the fear.

The method isn’t perfect. There are still days/times when I feel the MLM fear like this morning. But all I have to do now is reach for my wrist and the fear goes away. I’ve reconditioned my mind.

The third step in overcoming MLM fear is to develop a new, better way of thinking and responding to MLM fear. This may seem simplistic but I found that repeating certain key words after snapping the band, or reaching for my wrist, seems to work for me.

Here’s how it works. Close your eyes and take deep breaths from the stomach (deep breathing). This calms the mind and body by lowering the heart rate and overall respiration. Then softly but firmly repeat the key words over and over in your mind, almost meditating on them. I’ve found the best words are “confidence,” “success,” and “courage” to deal with MLM fear.

But also realize that you may have to change your approach to overcoming MLM fear. For example, if you’re currently making cold calls trying to recruit people, making calls every night, and you’re still experiencing MLM fear, then perhaps you need to find a different way of achieving your goals. There are other methods of recruiting besides cold calling that work quite well. Do yourself a favor and explore other avenues to success, confidence, and courage.

MLM fear is not something you have to accept. You can take positive, active steps to manage your fear and overcome it. Try these techniques out the next time you feel fear crowding in on your plans for success. Your wrist may not like it, but the rest of you will.

Consumer Marketing Strategies: Sizing Your Market With Direct Mail Sites

Submitted By: Michele DeKinder-Smith

Think of how much time and energy it would take to find out exactly how many people in your city or region have a passion for sports and fitness. Or how many of those people are also pet owners, and with household incomes between $50,000 and $200,000 a year.

This kind of information is very valuable, and that's why direct mail websites want you to pay for targeted lists such as the one detailed above. But, what most people don't realize is that simply obtaining the number of people in a given area who fit a certain criteria is also extremely valuable, whether you choose to purchase their contact information or not.

In order to sell you a list, direct mail sites have to tell you the number of leads that will be included on that list. This means these sites can act, in essence, as a free online resource for savvy entrepreneurs looking to size their target market.

There are many ways that sizing a target market can help entrepreneurs make informed business decisions, some of which have been discussed in previous Jane out of the Box articles. This article will focus specifically on how to use information obtainable from direct mail sites such as InfoUSA and MelissaData to minimize risk in terms of new ventures and expansion.

Say you're contemplating starting a new business. You have a concept for an upscale climbing gym in a town where you know there's no shortage of rock-climbing and fitness enthusiasts—but do enough of them make enough money to afford your proposed membership rates? You might want to check out the stats on one of the direct mail sites listed above, under the heading of Consumer Lists, creating a list based on household income $50,000+ and using 'health/diet/fitness' as a category under a tab that represents Hobbies and Interests/Lifestyle Indicators. When you visit MelissaData, for instance, you will find a "Lookup" tab, including a myriad of free lookups to represent certain data, perhaps even the specific target you are seeking. The number you get will give you a good idea of whether there are enough people in your target demographic to get your new business off the ground.

Or, say you own a pet-grooming business with a solid clientele, but have seen flat profits over the last few years. Your customers are always asking you if you know of a good all-natural dog biscuit, so you've considered expanding your business by creating your own dog treats, in-house. You've even had the idea of selling them at other local businesses around town.

Before you sink the time and resources into developing this new business venture, you might want to use InfoUSA to discover how many people in your area have Hobbies and Interests in both 'health/diet/fitness' and 'pets/animals.' After all, this is your target market. Most other pet-owners will just continue to purchase their dog-biscuits at the grocery store.

When you find your results, ask yourself: Is this potential market big enough to justify the funds I would need to float this new business venture? (It makes sense to find out before you move forward—especially if funds are already somewhat tight.)

Let's say you own a nightclub that's doing well in a certain metropolitan area, and you're looking to expand. Before you make a decision on where to locate your next club, it would probably make sense to do a basic demographic search on singles between the ages of 21 and 40 in each of the areas you're considering. The answers you get may confirm your intuition, and they may not. Either way, you'll have the information you need to move forward with seeking the right location to support the people in a given demographic to make your next nightclub equally successful as your first.

There are many more ways you can use direct mail searches to determine the size of your potential market. Once you become familiar with search parameters on each site and put them to work in whatever way best serves your needs, you can continue putting that information to use in making key business decisions.

And, if the time comes when you want to move forward with direct marking to your target demographic, either via phone or direct mail, go ahead and purchase that list from the direct mail site of your choice. It's a great way to thank them for providing such great information, free of charge!

The Basics of a Marketing Partnership

Marketing partnerships are getting more and more popular, and why not? They can be great money-saving, sales-producing relationships. Less costs + higher sales = marketing partnership. That’s an equation, which is a no-brainer!

Of course, a marketing partnership takes time to develop and you need to find a committed partner who wants the best for you as well as his company. Read on to find out what exactly entails a marketing partnership, what a marketing partnership can’t fix and some strategies to make a marketing partnership work.

What Exactly is a Marketing Partnership?

A marketing partnership is two (or more) professionals or two (or more) businesses that have similar prospects, common marketing needs and ideally, complementary products or services.

These people unite to combine marketing and sales tactics within a shared target market. Each business remains its own identity, and will continue to market and makes sales outside the partnership. The partnership is not two businesses merging together; it’s two businesses helping one another and sharing marketing resources.

The partners can share:

• Color printing costs, so that they both can create and market professional, four-color brochures, flyers, and other marketing materials they otherwise couldn’t afford

• Shipping costs of supplies that they both use

• Bulk discounts for marketing items they both use

• Sales calls

• Joint marketing materials, touting their complementary products or services

Partners can share any aspect of the marketing campaign they’d like. Partnerships work in every industry and can benefit any size company but work especially well for smaller companies or new companies who don’t yet have the marketing budget to do the more expensive marketing they’d like to do.

As mentioned earlier, the businesses in the partnership can have complementary products or services that they bundle together in sales or marketing materials. An injury attorney and a doctor, for instance can bundle their services together and market to the same target audience without competition – an injured person needs to see a doctor as well as consult a lawyer. Offering a discount for both services will win more clients for both professionals.

A Marketing Partnership is Not a …

…quick fix. If you have sales problems or marketing problems, a partnership will oftentimes not be your answer for a quick fix. First of all, you’ll have a hard time finding a partner that wants to help you out, unless you can help them, and if you’re having sales problems, that’s not likely the case. Also, if you have a problem on your own, it’s likely something that your company isn’t doing right, not something that you can rely on another entity to fix. Remember, partnerships take time to develop and time to work.

… contract. Many partnerships are informal agreements that boost both parties’ bottom lines. They are two businesses combining efforts to meet prospects’ needs that they couldn’t otherwise do on their own. Partnerships should never be some kind of secret takeover of one company.

…free ride on your partner’s abilities. Both businesses need to pitch in to market successfully. If one partner is doing more than the other, that partnership will not last long. You can’t expect someone to offer to do all the work for you without getting something back in return.

How to Choose a Marketing Partner

Keep the following in mind when looking for a partner:

Choose a business with a good reputation. Whoever you partner with will impact your image, so make sure you find a business that the community and/or industry respects. More importantly, make sure you respect this business.

You’ll need to show the potential benefits of the partnership. When you initiate a partnership, you’ll need to convince businesses that the partnership will benefit them as well as you. Do some research and show them why the partnership will work and be profitable for both of you.

Be ready to do the majority of the work, at first. Whoever you partner with may be skeptical at first, so you’ll need to keep yourself involved and committed and take initiative in the first few marketing projects. A great way to attract a partner quickly is to have some clients or customers already lined up, just waiting for the partnership to happen. Producing new clients right away will most likely be enough to entice even the most skeptical partner!

The benefits of a marketing partnership can enhance business for both parties involved and is also a great way to get connected in the industry. If you’re ready to do the work to establish the partnership and keep it up, get out there and start scouting!

Kaye Z. Marks is an avid writer and follower of the developments in the color printing industry and how these improvements benefit small to medium scale businesses.

Read more articles by: Kaye Marks

Ads Take a While to Start Working

Many factors affect how long it will take for an ad campaign to start working. In other words, people want to know when they’re going to start seeing money pour in from new customers and the answer is: there is no definitive answer.

What I can tell you though, is what factors go into affecting this time period before you start seeing results from your ad campaign, called the “ramping up period.”

Product purchase cycle

The product purchase cycle refers to how many times per week, per month or per year a consumer is looking to purchase your type of product. For instance, the purchase cycle for food items, like one week for milk, will be much shorter than the purchase cycle of five years for televisions. The longer your purchase cycle, the longer you’ll need to advertise before you reap the rewards.

A general rule to estimate your ramping up period is to calculate 20% to 40% of your product purchase cycle. So, if your purchase cycle is 12 months, you won’t feel the effects of your ads for about 2.5 to 5 months.

Your percentage of the total ads for your type of product

This is referred to as “share of voice.” For instance, if you sell digital cameras, when shoppers research digital cameras on Google’s Web site, how many online ads do you have on Google compared to your competitors? How many television ads do you have running in prime time compared to other digital camera manufacturers?

The larger your percentage of the total ads for your type of product, the shorter your ramping up period.

The persuasiveness of your ads

If your ads only give information and don’t persuade people to take action, your ramping up period will be longer. If you don’t include a call to action of some sort, like “Call now” or “Visit our Web site,” no customer is going to be motivated to contact you at all.

People are comparing your message to your competitors’ messages, and whoever convinces the consumer that they need this product is who wins. Your message should be informative and persuasive. Show your product’s benefits and try to get the consumer to realize that they need your product now.

Your choice of ad delivery

You basically have two options for ad delivery: visual and audio. Of course, you can also have a combination of both, as in a television commercial.

A common myth is that people remember more from seeing words, rather than hearing them, but the opposite is actually true. Think about it – how many songs can you sing compared to how many television commercials you can repeat?

So you can surmise that products with a shorter purchase cycle should go with visual ads and products with longer purchase cycles should choose auditory ads, which is definitely a possibility. It’s only a possibility though, because of the other factors that influence the ramping up period.

As you can see, there are so many always-changing factors that it’s hard to pin down a definite time period to judge the effectiveness of your ads by. Your best bet is to use the 20% to 40% estimate of your product cycle.

Read more articles by: Kaye Marks

Being Positive - Not Too Little, Not Too Much

Make no mistake, you can overdo it. If you are getting ready to make a cold call, watch out for that adrenaline rush of positivism than may simply swamp out your client. This may come as an unwelcome surprise, but in many sales situations, by being too positive you can do more harm than good.

This may be a strange thing to hear in the light of the classical sales training programs, which fervently advocate a maximum of enthusiasm and self-confidence. The trouble is, they don’t tell you when to stop. Too much of any good thing can turn out to be a problem: ingesting too much vitamin C or drinking too much water can end up by damaging your body. It’s the same in sales, the reason being that your customer won’t be on the same wavelength as you at the beginning of the call.

Listen, align and adapt

So where does this leave us? You need to do a little personal development to be ready to present yourself to your customer. Positive thinking is fine and positive actions are even better. They just need to be aligned to the situation in hand. One good thing that it is difficult to do too much of is listening to your customer. If you listen with all of your senses, meaning not only listening to the words they speak, but also picking up on body language, even the way they shake your hand at the beginning of a meeting, you will pick up a great deal of information about their receptivity to your call. By using this information, you will know how to adapt your level of positivism for the best sales effect.

Making sure that you listen will help you to avoid unwarranted assumptions. Another potential trap from sales development training folklore is the notion of believing so hard in a certain outcome that you end up getting the results that you want, simply by the power of your belief. Get ready for some bad news. You can believe as hard as you want that the customer will buy from you, but if they don’t want to, then they don’t want to and that’s all there is to it. Belief is good when it is in your own capabilities and the things that you control. The law of attraction has shown that when you want something related to your own capabilities and the things you can control, you can make positive changes in your life. Customers, however, are often not controllable. Your job in sales is typically more to create a situation that optimizes the chance of the customer wanting to buy from you.

Your customer wants warmth and naturalness

On the other hand, marching into a cold call with nothing but cold logic is unlikely to win you many sales either. Customers appreciate a minimum of warmth in a relationship. They like the idea that someone will make constructive suggestions as a friend meaning in a way where it is evident that you have the customers best interests at heart.

Warmth and naturalness that you adjust to the nature of your customer are the two things that will stand you in best stead. Listen actively to all the verbal and the nonverbal communication and while speaking to your customer politely, take the stance of a business friend who wants to bring them a maximum of benefit.

Read more articles by: Mike Cosentino

A Personal Mission Statement to Get on Track

A personal mission statement to get on track

Big corporations have mission statements that crystallize the reason for their existence and the goals that they have set themselves into a few simple words. Little corporations also have mission statements to do the same thing. Now it’s your turn. A personal mission statement can be both a simple and powerful tool to help define your direction and make the right decisions both at work and at home. It's like having your own success quote forecast for the future.

Simple, clear and relevant

To be useful and effective, a personal mission statement needs to be simple, clear and relevant. To get an idea of examples that measure up to this standard, try leafing through some annual reports for different businesses, all checking out their corporate web sites on the Internet. You are likely to come across their mission statements in one place of another. If the statement immediately conveys to you what the corporation is all about and what it expects to do, then you have probably found a good example. Make a note of it, as it can become a useful model for you to make your own as part of your personal image development program.

A tool for quick and effective decisions

By defining your personal mission statement in this way, it can serve as an excellent decision tool for you. Whenever you have a particular decision to make and the choice is not obvious between the different options, simply compare with your personal mission statement to see which option comes closest to who you are and what your objectives are. That option will then be the best choice for you. Carefully defining and sticking to your mission statement will be like charting your course over the ocean to safely arrive at your destination.

A statement that grows with you

You’ll make your personal mission statement on the basis of what you want to do and what key wishes or passions you want to satisfy. It will also take into account any particular characteristics that you have and that may have set you apart compared to other people. Your statement will also grow and change with you as time passes, in order to maintain it has not only an objective but also an ambition.

Available for use in the blink of an eye

Making it memorable, giving it a “hook”, will also help you to take it with you where every you go and apply it whenever necessary. This is an important aspect of your personal goal planning through a personal mission statement. Any statement that you cannot easily remember is at an immediate disadvantage. You will often come across situations where you will not have time to go dig out your personal mission statement from the depths of your desk in your home. It needs to be lodged securely and conveniently in your brain. As long as you define it in clear and strong terms, such as “this is why I exist and this is what my reason for being here is”, then you’ll find it a handy and even essential tool for all occasions.

Read more articles by: Mike Cosentino

Branded Tin Packaging: The Gift That Keeps Giving

As young children, we are often more fascinated by the wrapping paper and the box than by the actual present inside and this does not change much as we get older. From the purple Milk Tray box, to the multi-coloured Quality Street chocolate tin, attractive packaging appeals to customers and can become as much a part of the brand image as the product itself. Companies therefore spend millions attempting to find an original way of packaging their products that will not only fulfill the practical need to protect what they are selling, but will also create a lasting impression.

As one of the most reliable packaging solutions, tin has long been used as a material for holding products, being beneficial in both its protective properties and its adaptable aesthetics. During the 1950s, with a substantial growth in canned food consumption, tin, which ensured the safe transportation and storage of food, became a central feature of household life.

Tin is an extraordinarily versatile packaging material, which can be adapted to serve the practical needs of the product it contains. The packaging can be both functional and attractive and can be used for a seemingly endless variety of products including food and beverages, health and beauty products, household goods, and many different types of gift.

In recent years there has been an explosion in tinplate gift packaging. Companies have realized that it is an ideal medium for the creation of original branding. This can be done using litho and screen printing to print the desired image onto the surface of the metal. Alternatively, or in conjunction with printing, the tin can be embossed. This process creates an impression or ‘indent’ into the metal. It is similar to engraving a name onto an identity bracelet, and makes the box stand out from other similar products on the shelf. In addition, a stylish edge can be given to the packaging by using silverglow tinplate.

One of the valuable features of the tinplate gift box is the long lasting impression it can make on the receiver. This is because many people use empty tins to hold items ranging from spare nuts and bolts or buttons to their most precious love-letters. Although the tin has a new function, its original use is still evident.

In a competitive world where creating the right impression means everything, having the opportunity to give your gift box an exciting and distinctive look can be serious business. This is especially true in the multimedia arena where tin has an important role to play. Special release CDs, DVDs and computer games are packaged in metal containers so that they stand out from the crowd and so that the customers know they are getting something special.

Recent CD and DVD packaging projects include the films Terminator 2, and Total Recall; while a 20 DVD James Bond collection was showcased within a single tin box. The music industry is also getting in on the act, and the popular metal band Iron Maiden celebrated their 25th Anniversary with a metal casket containing 3 CDs, a shot glass and a scroll, which won the ‘Best Promotional & Giftware’ entry in the MPMA Best-in-Metal Awards.

Metal gift boxes are a unique way to package a product and make it stand out even in a hugely competitive market. Tinplate is both functional and striking, and can be used to stamp a brand and a style onto a potentially collectable item.

Read more articles by: Rob Christmas

What Does Your Business Card Say About You

While business card printing may be an affordable advertising option, you should not take the design of your business card lightly. Your business card makes a statement about you as an individual and your business as a whole. Without proper planning and design, you could be making the wrong statement to those you are giving your business card to throughout your day.

The first step in choosing the right business card design is choosing the right type of card, and this is not as simple as it might seem. A basic business card is one option. These are the plain cards with one color printing on simple cardstock. They give your contact information and a little more information about your business, but they rarely contain images.

If you want something a little more colorful, you may want to invest in picture cards. Picture cards contain your picture in some form, usually a small photograph. If you want people to remember what you looked like the next time you meet, this is a great option.

Do you want your business card to provide incentive to potential customers to visit your business? If so, consider a multipurpose card. These cards have some offer on them, such as a discount coupon, which you will honor if the customer brings the card with them to their first visit. You can add this feature to just about any business card design if you wish.

If you want a business card with a little extra pizzazz, consider a tactile card. These cards are made to feel different than other business cards. They may be printed on a special surface, such as metal, or they may have raised or embossed designs that can be felt with the fingers. Keep in mind that commercial color printing companies will charge extra for this type of card because of the added work it takes to design and print them.

Once you have chosen your basic design, you will need to decide what you are going to put on the card. Remember, simple is usually better with a business card. Avoid the temptation to cram the card full of information. Your slogan, name, title, business name, contact information, and perhaps one other piece of information are all that is needed on a business card. Keep it short, sweet, and professional. If you have a website, be sure to include it on the card. Add a logo or small image to make it look attractive.

Now that you have a design in mind, it is time to order. Choose your finish: either smooth, linen, or laid, and decide how many cards you want to order. Order as many cards as possible, because you will get a discount for the larger sized orders. You will also need to choose the colors used on your cards.

Many business owners choose two-color cards to help their cards stand out, yet save money on printing. You can choose as many colors as you want, however. Once you have made these decisions, you are ready to order classy, professional business cards that will make the right impression about you and your business.

Read more articles by: Katie Marcus

How to Get Your Customer in a Good Mood

Have you noticed how somebody’s mood can affect your own? You can be on top of the world and meet up with somebody who talks only of their problems, to find that your own good mood starts to evaporate the more you keep company with that person. Conversely you may feel that nothing is going right for you and then bump into a friend whose naturally cheerful disposition ends up having you feel that life isn’t so bad after all.

In just the same way, you have the opportunity to positively influence the moods of the people that you meet. This is how the law of attraction works. There’s an art, or maybe even a science, to it. In the same way that if you meet someone who is overly cheery and takes positivism to excess, it is quite possible to overdo it and set off an adverse reaction in the other person.

Start practicing self improvement

Before your next sales call, try the following experiment. Find a group of people that you know and try to get the feeling for the mood of that group. Take note of what the individuals in the groups say, how they say it, and if it’s necessary try to get a feeling for what might be going on in their heads while they say it. You might find that the group is generally positive and upbeat, or that perhaps there is a less positive feeling associated with it. Ask yourself what effect the mood of the group might be having on you. You may well feel your own mood being pushed either towards the more positive, or the more negative, depending on the mood of the group.

If the mood of the group is more towards the negative, the next step is to try, yourself, to influence the mood of the group. Try to inject some words of inspiration into the conversation by using positive words and a positive tone. Give it a few minutes in order to see if you can detect any upswing in mood of the group. What you will probably see is that if your efforts are a little more positive than the general mood of the group, the group will slowly respond by moving towards the positive. However if your positive energy largely outstrips that of the group, then you may find that you have no effect. Worse still, the group may move yet more towards the negative as a kind of reaction sets in.

Everyone can benefit – Including You

The lesson in this is that you can influence a person’s mood if you act in a more positive way, but still at a level that is compatible with theirs. Interestingly, the same thing holds true for when you want to improve your own mood. The same method of finding more positive things to think and to say without going overboard will have you shifting your own mood towards the positive. Maybe you will look at a picture of a vacation you loved or read some inspiration quotes. With practice you’ll be able to accelerate the process so that if you ever get out of bed in the morning and your self-motivation seems at an all time low, you will have a handy process to move from one on a scale of ten for maximum good mood to eight or nine. This is where you need to be in order to consistently sell well.

Read more articles by: Mike Cosentino

Online Marketing Blog-A Great Way to Earn Cash

Our economic situation nowadays compels us all to find more ways to earn lots of cash. This can be a little bit tough to think about since earning a cent is getting hard these days. But that’s only in the real world. You may go to the digital world and see what is in store for you. You will know right then that the internet can offer us great chances of earning easy cash online. So how can that be possible? You create a blog, express your thoughts and keep them live. When you’re done with that, the next thing you have to learn about is online marketing blog.

For beginners who are just about to get in touch with the blogosphere, now is your chance to change your lifestyle into something easy at your own pace. You wouldn’t believe it but hundreds of internet users have become millionaires just by keeping them busy online. Not all of them are old age. Some were teenagers when they started invading the virtual world. Well, it’s not yet too late for you. The truth is that there are still a lot of people who are not aware that the internet has a gold mine open for anybody. But now it is starting to blossom everyday. It actually becomes a dominant force for people who are searching for ways to make some cash online. And online marketing blog is their key to their dream. A dream that seemed to be beyond our reach, but now comes nearer to those who seek for it.

Being a newbie to this craft should not hinder you from doing what you want. Everyone, even professional bloggers, all started from being a newbie. You must be always on the go to grab those blogging opportunites available to make some cash, and lots of it. There are no boundaries on these opportunities so with earning money. Young and old can grab this great opportunity, and you are one of them. Now you are almost ready to start, and you have started your blog. But that is not the end of all yet. You have to remember that in every business, marketing should go with it for a real business success. That is where online marketing blog enters the scene.

As to how you can do that is very easy as long as you read and understand the following unorthodox ways in online marketing blog:

1. Flip blogs. This is done by tweaking your blog, do everything you can to drive traffic into it before you do the selling. A good readership is your ultimate goal here. A blog without readers is useless. Make it worthy to read about, and make everyone online get interested to what your blog talks about. You can earn a profit just by doing this for about a few hundred dollars to thousand more dollars.

2. Donations. You may notice that many bloggers are already asking for donations to make some cash out of their content posted in their blogs.

3. A Blog for Business. Blog is also open for companies and businessmen. It is their one way of raising a bar with their business or company. Some would use it as a job portal to hire bloggers and article writers on the web.

4. Network Blogs. Bloggers are making some extra cash by grabbing sponsored blogging opportunites. There are advertisers who are seeking for bloggers to fill their blog with content, or to simply promote their sites for search engine optimization purposes.

Read more articles by: Ray W

Make Money Writing Articles

I wrote this story using some old stories I have heard over the years. One day I combined them with a story line and came up with the following. Many of my friends told me I should publish it. I like (clean) jokes, and I like to write. So, here is my little story. I hope you will enjoy it.

The Grand Adventures of
Ida and Liz

Two elderly women (Ida and Liz) were out driving in a large car - both could barely see over the dashboard. As they were cruising along, they came to an intersection. The stoplight was red, but they just went on through.

The Liz (in the passenger seat) thought to herself, “I must be losing it. I could have sworn we just went through a red light.”

After a few more minutes, they came to another intersection and the light was red again. Again, they went right through. Liz was almost sure that the light had been red but was really concerned that she was losing it. She was getting nervous.

At the next intersection, sure enough, the light was red and they went on through. So, she turned to the Ida and said, “Ida, did you know that we just ran through three red lights in a row? You could have killed us both!” Ida turned to Liz and said, “Oh, crap! Am I driving?”

Well they finally got to their destination. The two elderly ladies had been friends for many decades. Over the years, they had shared all kinds of activities and adventures. Lately, their activities had been limited to going to tea rooms a few times a week, and to playing cards. This day, they had gone to tea. After being there a while Liz looked at Ida and said, “Now don't get mad at me. I know we've been friends for a long time, but I just can't think of your name! I've thought and thought, but I can't remember it. Please tell me what your name is.”

Well Ida just glared at her. For at least three minutes she just stared and glared at her. Finally she said, “How soon do you need to know?”

Anyway, before they could head home Liz thought she had to call 911 on her cell phone to report that the car has been broken into. She was hysterical as she explains the situation to the dispatcher: 'They've stolen the stereo, the steering wheel, the brake pedal and even the accelerator' she cried! The dispatcher said, “Stay calm. An officer is on the way.” A few minutes later, the officer radios in. “Disregard,” he says. “She got in the back-seat by mistake.”
Ok so they started to head home with Liz driving this time. As she was driving down the freeway the car phone rang. Answering, she heard her grandson’s voice urgently warning her, “Grandma-Liz, I just heard on the news that there's a car going the wrong way on Interstate 77. Please be careful!' “Heck baby boy, said Liz, It's not just one car. It's hundreds of them!” And so it goes.

Read more articles by: Bailey StJames

Oodles O' Google Tools

Google’s position as search engine leaders is undisputed, and they wield enormous power over all who have designs on having a successful “paid search” campaign, otherwise known as Adwords. They basically call the shots on what are the ingredients of a successful campaign and they are first and foremost customer focussed. And that is understandable – they have every intention of continuing at the forefront of both paid and organic search. Organic search is what you see in the main body of the search returns when you do a search query on Google; paid search results are the more compact ads denoted “sponsored links” which appear along the right-hand side of the page (and sometimes at the top of the main page also).

And they have every right to “call the shots”. They are sometimes touted as being one of the Internet marketer’s enemies, as always playing “hardball” with the frequent “slaps” that they deliver. But at the end of the day, they must strive to deliver a positive search experience to their customers. Advertisers are going to be compelled to have ever more focussed, specialised campaigns as Google seeks to eliminate redundancy. For affiliate marketers, there is an ever-increasing need for their campaigns to include useful content for their prospective customer, and to deliver just what their ad says will be delivered.

And you could never accuse Google of leaving the web marketing community to fend for themselves. What a plethora of tools they have made available – and 90% of them are free.

Within Adwords itself there are many valuable tools for refining an advertising campaign:

Keyword Tool – A keyword tracker/keyword suggest tool that provides up-to-date keyword search volumes.

Campaign Optimiser - Performs analysis on a live campaign and suggests additional keywords and ad variations.

Website Optimiser – A more comprehensive feedback tool that monitors several important metrics to do with website layout and content. It takes a while to get up and running with this, but any time taken to implement it will be repaid with interest.

Budget Optimiser – Where you can tell Google your monthly budget, and ask it to go and get the maximum number of clicks for you. (I have found with Budget Optimiser that I never overspend, as I do when I have control over the campaign myself)

Keyword Diagnosis – The latest addition to the armoury of the pay-per-click advertiser. This will actually analyse which keywords are performing and which ones you are better off without. And it tells you why they are not performing, and what you can do to remedy it.

All of these tools are freely available within the Adwords interface and I am convinced that the majority of PPC advertisers don’t even realise that they are available. They are probably as good, if not better than many of the commercial keyword tools that are available.

I have not even mentioned the other great Google resources, like Suggest Labs, Google Analytics and iGoogle, which is your own branded page that you can load with various SEO statistics and data on popular searches. A discussion of these and other resources like Google Webmaster Tools, may be better to leave for another occasion.

Read more articles by: Tom McCarrick

Trade Show Preparations

The problem with trade shows, and really with going out of town anywhere, is that you’re naturally divided from your primary resources. When things potentially go wrong you don’t have easy access to the best way to solve things.

This means you have to do everything you can to be sure that you’ve planned for a variety of different issues. Of course, you can never plan for all of them, because until you know what’s going to happen next that just isn’t possible.

Instead you set up a system that allows you to handle a number of different problems just in case they happen, and that gives you the ability to take on the surprises without missing a beat.

Take for instance any marketing material that you might accidentally leave behind. A trade show without marketing material is a trade show with a lot of missed opportunities. However, if you want to be sure this never happens to you there are two easy steps to take.

The first is by having all of your marketing material on a disc so you’ll have back ups of the designs. The second is by being aware of any kind of printing company you can make use of in the city your trade show is at. I’d call ahead too to make sure you can get your orders done quickly. Now you’ve set up a safety net for when those various copies potentially get left behind.

Something else to consider is getting some label printing done ahead of time. What this does is gives you a nice way of making sure your brand name and logo is on anything you want.

Consider if you were intending to hand out some free staplers and accidentally leave them behind. Getting a number of replacements staplers might be a little pricey, but you should be able to do it with relative ease even on short notice. But getting those same staplers with your logo on them as well? That might take a lot longer.

Well, with label printing you can just get the staplers and then use the labels to ensure your company name is still on them. This might not be the most technologically advanced way of going about it, but you’ll still be able to hand people something for free that has your company name on it, so you don’t have a complete loss.

You need to be sure that you’re ready for anything that might come up. I gave one example where label printing can be put to good use, and there are a variety of different ways you can make use of them.

The point isn’t really to plan for each thing that might happen, but have an overall back up plan that can cover as many issues as possible. Last of all, when those problems do come along, if you stay calm and keep your cool, you’ll be much better prepared for handling them.

Read more articles by: Chelsea Nicole