Of course July 4th is the Independence Day here in the United States, but July also has the other following notable events:

July 10: Teddy Bear Picnic Day
July 14: MLB All Star Game
July 19: Hot Dog Day
July 20: Anniversary of the first moon landing
July is National Adopt a Cat Month
July is Candy Month

Just some ideas for those of you with designs that fit into these categories. Use these events and more to help draw people to your site and generate interest in your wares.

In the past Cafepress would have received 80%+ of all new designs. But oh well, you know how it goes … you screw with me and I push back. Oh, and just so the folks from Cafepress, who I know stop by and read this site, know all of those five designs you have gotten also went up on other sites as well. You folks are no longer getting exclusive designs like in the past where nearly half or more of my designs were exclusively sold through Cafepress. Have some competition pie.

How can this benefit you as a network marketer? It is not only you who sees other marketers time and again, they also see you time and again. But in order for you to make an impact on them and draw them to you, you need to make a positive impression that will be a memory attached to your name. To be the person that this person decides to join the next business under you need to attract them to you, and they need to like you. This means you need to create personal branding for yourself. You need to create an opportunity for them to actually WANT to be a part of your business, buy your product, or whatever else your final goal is.

No e-mail list is exclusive. The fact is, each and every person is on many other marketers contact lists and so they receive e-mails from all kinds of people. If you have an e-mail list (which you should, or else you should start building one) you need to remember that it is not exclusive to you. These people are receiving messages from other people. When the next business launches or the next product is launched, they could potentially receive an invitation from many other marketers, not just you! Do you offer your prospects a reason to work with you instead of all the other people they could work with? Now you can see the value of personal branding. Once you have built a personal brand so people trust and like you, they will be much more inclined to go with you instead of all those other people… and that is when you start making the real money.

As I said in the introduction, people are not interested only in the product, service, or opportunity. The compensation plan and all those minor details will not make them instantly join you. YOU will make them join you. That means that the impression you give them will help them decide if they want to work with you or not.

So how do you create personal branding? I will cover this briefly because there are really many possibilities, but there are some major tips I can give you:

1) Always strive to offer more support to your downline, more helpful tips and content for your e-mail list, and more quality relationships than anyone else. This in turn will provide you with a loyal membership that will want to always stand by your side, no matter what. I know many people who have huge lists compared to me, yet when I send an offer to my list they are highly responsive because of this.

2) Use websites to brand yourself. Offer people who don’t know you the ability to read and learn more about you online, without even interacting personally with you. It is surprising how connected someone can feel to you just by reading your printed words on your website, listening to your audio, or viewing your video. No matter who you are, you need a website. The network marketing industry is relying more and more on personal connections, and if you aren’t following the wave you could be left behind while the ones who started branding themselves now pick up the pieces you left behind. I have had people read my blog, my bio I posted on my website or articles I have written and later during our first actual conversation they tell me that they feel like they already know me! If people feel like they know you before you even talk to them you are on the right track. On your website create a personal bio and tell your story. Explain how you got into network marketing, why you wanted to get into it, and what your goals are. Paint the picture and allow them to see themself as a part of it.

3) On each promotion you create, include your name, and also a photo picture when applicable, with a personal touch. If you promote splash or lead capture pages online try to create your own so you can add a personal touch and a photo. Think of the individual that you would be talking to, and write like you were actually speaking to them. This way your words will mean something to them and draw them in.

4) Write a regular newsletter to your contact list. I dedicate myself to writing at least one quality article per week. If I would write more maybe they would not be as top quality and I want to offer the best I can to my subscribers. If your contacts are seeing value in being on your list they will not want to unsubscribe because they know they will become more knowledgeable and in turn improve their online business. If you help them improve their business they will be more likely to return the favor and work with you. Always seek out to learn and increase your knowledge and you will always have more to write about. If you have a blog you can easily post your newsletters to it and increase traffic and exposure.

There is much more you can do but that should help you get started. Remember to focus on creating quality relationships with others. As a rule, ask more about them and their experiences than you do talking about your own. Instead of thinking of a way to get people into your business try focusing on how you can help them and build a relationship with them. You will then experience more joy and sense of accomplishment throughout your business. The students I have had and the people I have seen most successful in network marketing are those that you can recognize by their name alone. Next time when someone sees you in another business, especially in social networks, give them a reason to say… “I remember you because…”

Dive in and get noticed!

I have noticed while browsing through the articles over on my blog that most of them don’t appear to be very friendly towards new bloggers.

You often find that the more experienced you become in a subject that it actually gets more difficult to write helpful articles for people that are new to it.

This is my first article to be aimed at people new to blogging and concentrates around the most popular methods in which one can make an income from their blog.

I’m sure you know that the web is crawling with advertisements but if you are relatively new to blogging or Internet marketing in general you may not know that the advertisement industry is a market that literally anyone can tap into and take a share of the profits.

Due to the sheer size of the web and the opportunities available a blogger is able to make money from his or her blog in many, many different ways no matter their skill or experience level. I am now going to introduce you to the most common means by which bloggers are currently making the most money….

Pay Per Click Ads

Pay Per Click ads are literally everywhere you look on the Internet and are probably the most popular and most effective way in which a blogger can cash in from their blog. As a PPC publisher by publishing the ads on your pages you gain the opportunity of earning revenue every time someone clicks one of your ads.

Google currently offers the largest, most successful Pay Per Click ad service. Unless this is the first time you have used the Internet I can say that you have at least came across an AdSense ad if not even clicked on one before. These are the self and same ads that you can publish on your own website or blog in order to make money.

There is one major factor in making money from PPC and that is targeted traffic. The big thing with current Pay Per Click ad programs is that the ads are contextually relevant to your websites content. Contextual ads are ads that are served to you website or page based upon its actual content. Since the ads are relative to the content this increases the chances of someone visiting your site actually clicking the ad since it is more likely to be displaying something interesting to them. For example if you have a blog about football and you are running context based ads on your site then the ads will be related to football While this works most of the time there are some situations in which the ads served on your page may not seem relevant to the content. This can be caused by a few things but two of the main causes are poor use of keywords in your content and the lack of advertisers in your niche if it is a very small one.

Widgets

Widgets are extremely popular and usually reside in a bloggers sidebar. There are constantly new services popping out from the virtual woodwork and throwing new widgets at people. Quite a new entry to the advertising widgets playing field is Widgetbucks. They are called Widgetbucks simply because they serve their ads in a widget. Other than this they are essentially the same thing as most other PPC programs. If you search around for other widgets you can use to monetize your blog you should have no problems finding some interesting ones.

Selling Services

If you can offer any form of service online then this can potentially hold massive profits. Maybe you are a professional writer or designer. Services like these can be incredibly profitable and your blog is a great place to advertise and sell them.

Selling Digital Products

Anything that you can offer through online distribution methods can be sold as a digital product. Fewer people are buying music, video games and software and are now opting to purchase them digitally. If you have the ability to create any form of digital product be it a video game, music track, sound effects, screen savers then you have the opportunity to market them through your blog or website.

When it comes to selling digital products, one place I highly recommend is Clickbank. If you have a digital product you would like to sell you can allow Clickbank to handle it all for you for a small commission. Clickbank not only allows you to sell your own products but you can also sell other peoples products too. They allow you to sell other peoples products via a specially formatted link on your website or blog and you will receive commission on every sale you generate.

Merchandise

With so much competition online for sales of physical products this is probably the hardest revenue stream to break into. However, selling physical products can still make you a lot of money if you do it properly.

By merchandise I don’t mean wide screen TVs, furniture, video games, movies or anything like that. Recently a family member mentioned to me how she likes to write poetry and she showed me some that she had already written. After looking through the 3 inch thick folder and reading a few poems it dawned on my that this could be a valuable skill to her. The cherry on the cake was when she said that she had previously had two of her poems published in a poetry book so I suggested selling them online as framed pictures with the poems as an overlay and seeing as how she can roll poetry off her tongue like….something that rolls a lot i also suggested writing custom verses for people for special occasions. We are now discussing various ways in which her poetry could be integrated into different products and have plans to build a blog where she can market them.

For those who you who do not have the means to create a physical product you can always use a service such as Cafepress. Cafepress allows you to run a store full of products with your own designs such as mugs and shirts and will even print books with your own content which you can then sell for a profit. All you need to do is create a design and you can upload it to the website and preview it on your products. The products that Cafepress offer are sold at a standard price which you can then add to. Whatever the difference in price after adding to it will be your profit.

Paid Reviews

A paid review is where you may get contacted by another blogger or website owner with a request for you to write a review and post it on your blog for a one time payment. This income stream relies quite a lot on the status of the blogger. If you are a new blogger then you shouldn’t expect to get results like this until further down the line when you have established yourself better.

Paid Writing

This wouldn’t be a direct revenue stream from your blog but it would more than likely be your blog that would get you noticed for your writing skills. A skilled writer may find the content on their blog enticing other bloggers to request a paid post for their own blog.

Affiliate Marketing

It is difficult to succeed in affiliate marketing as it requires quite a bit of knowledge in general marketing in order to do well. Affiliate marketing is the closest thing to selling your own products and is very different to other ways of making money online which makes it quite a difficult task. While being one of hardest ways to generate a return if you keep at it and become successful the rewards can be huge. Running affiliate ads on your blog is easy and you could probably expect to make a few dollars here and there but to make the big money will take quite a bit of time, research and experience. As an affiliate you will be promoting another persons product. When you generate a sale you will receive a commission for it. The biggest affiliate program to date is probably the one which Amazon run but there are so many companies now that offer affiliate programs that you can be sure to find a product that you can promote through your blog. Amazon currently offers commission of around 4% on most products but the more expensive products such as electronics tend to have a set commission. If your main purpose of blogging is to generate an income then be sure to look into affiliate marketing. You should however be prepared for some hard work if you want to make a decent reliable profit from it.

Donations

One of my favorites. I haven’t placed a donation link on my primary blog just yet but i will be doing so in the near future as soon as i start to offer free wordpress plugins and templates. Donations tend to bring in more on blogs and sites that offer free services such as website templates, blog themes, WordPress plugins, scripts, free graphics, sounds – anything that you would expect to cost a fair amount of money that is offered for free has a greater chance of generating a donation from a happy customer. The reason why free services tend to work the best is that a lot of the time someone may be looking for a plugin or a script to gain certain functionality from their own website but can’t afford to hire a professional to do it for them. If they find what they are looking for for free on your website they may feel inclined to send you a donation as a thank you!

Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket and NEVER give up if something isn’t working out as you’d hoped it would. A lot of blogs fail simply because of the fact that the blogger has become disheartened by their results.

I urge you to experiment with any form of potential income stream you can lay your hands on. If something doesn’t perform well then you can always take it down and try out something else in its place. Experimenting with different ways to monetize your blog can be quite fun and it is interesting to see the different results from each method.

If you are interested in my articles or services then please take a look over at my personal website – MrMunro.com.

Contact me at mrmunro@mrmunro.com

Launching a website takes a lot of time and energy and, in some cases, money. Every for-profit site owner has the dream of being able to reap the rewards of a money-making website to make up for all the blood, sweat, tears poured into it. Whether you are selling products or services or both, it is can be important to have other ways to monetize your site. Finding free ways to bring in money is ideal, and Google Adsense has provided one very popular option to do just that. However, Adsense may not be the best fit for every site. There are pros and cons to consider as you ask yourself, “Should I put Adsense on my website?”

The potential pros to Adsense are relatively clear: you receive payment each time a visitor to your site clicks an Adsense ad. More visitors= more clicks= more money for you. Obviously, many people are making money from this pay-per-click program, because Adsense is indeed everywhere you turn online. It may seem like every website in the world utilizes Google Adsense. Still, it is possible that this program could be more of a deterrent than benefit to certain types of sites.

For example, if a visitor comes to your site and clicks on a Google ad, there is a chance they will move on to where the ad takes them without returning to your site. Although you made a few pennies from the ad click, the visitor will no longer be purchasing from you.

There is plenty of competition out there for your site; so it would seem an advertisement placed on your site competing with your own products might not be the most lucrative situation.

Perhaps the best use of Google Adsense is for sites that are simply informational. In this way, there is no product competition-only an ad to enhance your informational articles and give your site credibility. What is the best way to determine if Google Adsense is for you? Consider the goals for your site and decide whether the pay-per-click ads will add to your site while adding to your income, or if it will only redirect your potential customers, leaving you with some pocket change from the click as well as the loss of a sale.

I recently took a walk through my local Target store. Doing some normal shopping, I was enamored by all the products available for sale. What made it more impressive was just by briefly looking at a product I knew who the company was and what they sold.

Can potential customers or even in some cases, current customers look at what you sell or offer and know it is you? More importantly, when they see your business name, do they get a good feeling or one that is not so good?

Whether you are looking to start a new business or increase a current one, if you follow these five steps, you are sure to get it going.

What does Nike, Dell, Microsoft, the NFL and Fisher Price all have in common? Regardless of what they sell, you know who they are, and what they have to offer. In other words they have embedded their brands into society`s minds.

According to S.C.O.R.E. you should “Spend a little money to create a professional logo, business card and stationery. Present a professional image.” This could not be more true. The previously mentioned companies literally spend millions to embed that branding. Now you do not need to spend that much, but you need to get your name out there and let people know who you are and what your business is all about.

Whether you fix homes, sell electronics, or are a business consultant, make sure you belong to the 21st century business world. If you do not have a website make it a top priority in creating a Web site. Your web site is today’s calling card. You really shouldn’t do business without a web site. You can create one for literally pennies, and even get your local high school student to do it for almost nothing. Give customers a place to go to learn about your business in their spare time.

This next tip applies more to new businesses but for existing ones you can use this to keep your momentum going. That is, make your first sale. Even if your first sale is at a discounted rate or to a relative or friend, for peace of mind and to get the ball rolling, it is key to get that first sale out of the way.

Next you want to get some testimonials. Testimonials are customer accounts as to why they liked your product or would recommend your service. Whether you are new to business or not, you need to get testimonials. Once you make that first sale, do a follow up call, email, snail mail or whatever and ask the customer to give you some feedback. Anything positive that they respond with can be used as a customer account to further strengthen your business.

Finally, build a buzz around your business. S.C.O.R.E. says you should, “look for a special promotion, big event, email campaign or something out of the norm for your business to get people talking about you, your product or service.”

Whatever your business is, whatever you sell or provide, use these 5 tips above and you can get the ball rolling for a successful business.

By: Bruce A. Tucker

If you have found that all of your efforts to bring visitors and sales to your website have failed, there are some steps you can take to improve things -sometimes dramatically. In your efforts to make your website fantastic and appealing to your visitors, has it become too flashy? Are there too many distracting aspects of your website? Are you missing some important components? If so, here are some helpful tips to increase your website’s sales.

Simple Does It

One thing you want to remember when designing any business-related website is to make it simple. Your visitors want and expect a website that is easy to navigate and find exactly what they are looking for. The more complex a website is, the less likely your visitors are to start buying.

Can Your Visitors Reach You?

If you do not list your contact information, you are basically telling your customers to not bother buying from you. It is important to be sure that you list all of your contact information. This includes your telephone number, address, email address, and even your fax number. Your visitors want to make sure that they are able to contact you if there is a problem with their order, and essentially want to make sure that you are indeed a real business.

Post Shipping Costs

Make sure that your shipping costs are disclosed upfront and are readily available. Your checkout page should include your shipping costs and you should also provide a separate shipping page that displays not only the costs, but your policies as well.

Your Policies Are Important

When writing your policies, make sure that they are easy to understand and very simple. You do not need to use a lot of big and legal words to get your point across. In fact, the more simple you make your terms of service and other policies, the easier they are to understand and the more likely your customers are to trust you.

If You Offer a Guarantee, Post It

Your customer wants to know about your guarantees. Generally these should be displayed right on the home page of your website and throughout as well. A guarantee tells your customers that you back your products and are willing to say so.

How Do You Accept Payment?

Accepting multiple forms of payment is always a great thing. Many users do not have credit cards or do not trust using one on the internet, and who can really blame them? This is why you should offer a wide variety of different payment options. This might include not only credit cards, but debit cards, electronic checks, money order, checks, and even Pay Pal or the like. The more ways to pay you offer, the more likely the prospective buyer will be able to pay.

Sales and Incentives Pay Off

If you are lacking in sales, you want to offer your potential customers a reason to buy. For example, offer incentives. Buy one get one free, free shipping, discounts, and specials go a long way in enticing customers to buy. If they get something extra out of their purchase, they are much more likely to start buying.

Remember, visitors to your website are looking for you to give them an enjoyable shopping experience. This includes being open about your contact information, guarantees, incentives and the different ways they can make a purchase. They wouldn’t visit your website if they didn’t already have some intention to buy. Give them the proper experience and you will see your revenues rise.

Believe it or not, most online store owners pass up a chance to substantially increase their sales.

Studies estimate that up to 75% of online transactions are abandoned before they are completed. That’s a lot of potential sales leads for someone who is willing to do a little follow up.

Online shoppers abandon carts for several reasons, and understanding those reasons will help you to recover some of those sales.
Many shopping carts are abandoned because the buyer got nervous, or had second thoughts. Maybe they decided to think about things for a while.

If you use a shopping cart which requires the shopper to sign up for an account before adding an item to their cart, you’re in luck. You should have the shoppers telephone number. Give them a call.

It might just be that a friendly phone call with a sincere effort to help complete the sale will calm any fears or give you an opportunity to answer any objections.

Having mentioned this, I want to point out that a shopping cart which forces a shopper to set up an account before adding an item to the cart can deter a fair number of shoppers as well.

If your cart allows a shopper to add items to a cart before giving contact info, you might think that there’s no way to contact the shopper, but that may not be the case. There is a company named Second Bite which contacts your shoppers who abandon carts, and use some pretty advanced technology to try to identify the shopper.

Another reason why orders are not completed is because of failed credit cart transactions. You might think it would be fruitless to follow up on these leads, but the truth is that providing a credit card number online confuses the heck out of some people. A lot of rejections are because they give the wrong address, or don’t understand how to find their security code. A friendly call from you might resolve the situation.

Even a declined transaction might be converted to a sale with a simple phone call. After all, just because the shopper doesn’t have funds today, this doesn’t mean he or she won’t have sufficient funds tomorrow.

Give it a try! You’ll be pleasantly surprised.