The cost of putting up a homebased business need not be extravagant. In fact putting up a homebased business is a lot cheaper than renting an office space or shop downtown. Many entrepreneurs often do not have much money in their pocket to start a large business from home. However, just having a dream is sometimes the biggest capital one needs to start a business from home.
However like any business enterprise, cost is a major consideration that should not be left unrestrained. Many people that go into business for themselves tend to lose track and start spending on a variety of items even before the business has had the chance to take off. Before starting a homebased business, it is best to create a financial plan that will incorporate where the money should be invested first in order to make a profit.
Putting up a homebased business should be approached with caution. Heading into the business without taking into account costs and income will only lead to failure. Remember to be prudent with regards to expenses so as not to go over board and at the same allow the business to grow steadily and strong.
Tips to Cut Costs of Putting Up a Homebased Business
The costs involved in putting up a homebased business will depend largely on the type of business. However in most cases, entrepreneurs can start using most of the items already found within the home to help cut down on costs. Most homes today already have a slew of technical equipment like computers, printers, and fax machines. These items will be sufficient enough to cover some of the basic office equipment until substantial profits are met. In fact, using these items can cut down the initial cost of putting up a home business by about half.
As much as possible, keep extras to a minimum such as business cards, stationary as well as supplies. Although it can be exciting to have one’s own name on a card as business owner or manager, the costs of these items can add up to a considerable amount when ordered at a professional shop. Fortunately, there are numerous software graphics programs that are simple enough for even a non-technical person to operate.
The cost of advertising a homebased business is another expense that most entrepreneurs can keep at a minimum. The World Wide Web is a wonderful medium to advertise a homebased business as it does not cost much to set-up a website.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Affiliate Marketing - some thoughts and ideas
Affiliate Marketing - what is it?
It is a very simple process where you as the affiliate sell or promote a merchant's product or service for which you will receive a commission. This process is probably the lowest cost business model when starting an Online Business, and as such is the most popular method with many newcomers to Internet Marketing.
This business model exists in many different forms and are commonly called Affiliate Programs. You join the affiliate program that the merchant is operating that is selling the particular product you are interested in promoting. The most common types of programs are as follows:
1 - Pay per click - each visitor you send to the merchant's site will earn you a commission.
2 - Pay per lead - each lead you send to the merchants site will earn you a commission.
3 - Pay per sale - commission will be paid by the merchant for each sale made at his website.
Each one of the above returns a certain payment for delivering the click, lead, or sale. By far the largest number of businesses utilizing this model work on a Pay per Sale system.
Many Internet Marketers will guide the beginner into Affiliate Marketing because it is considered to be the simplest business model to get started and develop. It is also considered to be the cheapest method of starting your Internet Business.
Your prime costs will be in the promotion of the product or service. All costs associated with the product, sales page, delivery, after sales services, as well as merchant services set up and costs, will be to the merchants account.
When starting your Internet Business through affiliate marketing there are five steps to follow:
1 - Find your niche market which shows enough demand as well as a reasonable supply, as well as one that would support future business growth.
2 - Find out what the market is searching for in terms of solutions to problems, or a product/service for which there is a shortage of supply or even a deficiency.
3 - Research the available affiliate products and services for something that will fill the deficiency or fix the problem.
4 - Promote the product by every means available to you.
5 - Although this is not necessarily essential, owning your own website can increase your methods of promotion, but more importantly it allows you to presell the product before redirecting them to the merchants sales page.
The final item regarding your own website needs serious consideration as it will be the way to go to develop and grow your business and to start creating an opt-in list of targeted potential customers.
Creating a trust between you and your customers, as well as your partners, is of prime importance to your business. This trust will serve you well as your customers will gradually consider you to be their expert in this niche and they will take your recommendations and buy. Do not think for one minute that without it you will be able to succeed. Affiliate Marketing, like any other business model, relies entirely upon the trust you painstakingly build over a period of time.
It is a very simple process where you as the affiliate sell or promote a merchant's product or service for which you will receive a commission. This process is probably the lowest cost business model when starting an Online Business, and as such is the most popular method with many newcomers to Internet Marketing.
This business model exists in many different forms and are commonly called Affiliate Programs. You join the affiliate program that the merchant is operating that is selling the particular product you are interested in promoting. The most common types of programs are as follows:
1 - Pay per click - each visitor you send to the merchant's site will earn you a commission.
2 - Pay per lead - each lead you send to the merchants site will earn you a commission.
3 - Pay per sale - commission will be paid by the merchant for each sale made at his website.
Each one of the above returns a certain payment for delivering the click, lead, or sale. By far the largest number of businesses utilizing this model work on a Pay per Sale system.
Many Internet Marketers will guide the beginner into Affiliate Marketing because it is considered to be the simplest business model to get started and develop. It is also considered to be the cheapest method of starting your Internet Business.
Your prime costs will be in the promotion of the product or service. All costs associated with the product, sales page, delivery, after sales services, as well as merchant services set up and costs, will be to the merchants account.
When starting your Internet Business through affiliate marketing there are five steps to follow:
1 - Find your niche market which shows enough demand as well as a reasonable supply, as well as one that would support future business growth.
2 - Find out what the market is searching for in terms of solutions to problems, or a product/service for which there is a shortage of supply or even a deficiency.
3 - Research the available affiliate products and services for something that will fill the deficiency or fix the problem.
4 - Promote the product by every means available to you.
5 - Although this is not necessarily essential, owning your own website can increase your methods of promotion, but more importantly it allows you to presell the product before redirecting them to the merchants sales page.
The final item regarding your own website needs serious consideration as it will be the way to go to develop and grow your business and to start creating an opt-in list of targeted potential customers.
Creating a trust between you and your customers, as well as your partners, is of prime importance to your business. This trust will serve you well as your customers will gradually consider you to be their expert in this niche and they will take your recommendations and buy. Do not think for one minute that without it you will be able to succeed. Affiliate Marketing, like any other business model, relies entirely upon the trust you painstakingly build over a period of time.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
No Website - Don't Let That Stop You From Making Money Online
You've heard about Online Marketing as a way to make a nice bunch of change, but you don't have any programming skills and wouldn't know an html code if it bit you. Can you still become successful and make money Marketing Online?
Yes. You can.
There are a number of ways to make money online without a website. We'll discuss how you can blog your way to big bucks.
Blogging is a website (don't worry no website skills needed) that you update every few days with posts about your chosen subject. Visitors can comment on your posts for others to see. You can place advertising on your blog - provided automatically by Google - and get paid whenever anyone clicks on one of those ads.
You can also use a blog to sell products as an affiliate. Affiliates get a commission, determined by the product owner, for each sale that is generated as a result of one of your visitors buying the product. ClickBank is used by thousands of product owners as a payment processor and as a method to pay affiliates. It is free for affiliates to sign up and find products they would like to promote.
LiveJournal, blogger.com, and wordpress.com, are just a few of the free sites where you can quickly and easily set up your blog.
Pick a market niche you're familiar with as the topic for your blog. Every few days post on your blog. Of course that's not all you need to do. You have to get people to your blog to read it and hopefully click on your paid ads, or on the products you're promoting as an affiliate.
Most of the blog sites are searchable by keywords. Search on the same words you've used for your site to find other blogs. Then leave a comment on the relevant blogs and include your link to your own blog. If you don't have time you can hire people to comment for you. The cost runs between 10 cents and a $1.00 per comment posted.
You can submit your blog's url to search engines so if someone wants information on 'how to raise guppies' and that's the subject of your blog, your blog shows up for visitors to find.
You can also write articles on 'how to raise guppies' and distribute those articles to directories. Ezinearticles.com and GoArticles are two directories which are favored by Google. Again if someone is searching for 'how to raise guppies' your article will show up. They click on the article and then click on your blog.
With a little bit of research and time you can become successful and increase your bank account with Online Marketing just by blogging.
Yes. You can.
There are a number of ways to make money online without a website. We'll discuss how you can blog your way to big bucks.
Blogging is a website (don't worry no website skills needed) that you update every few days with posts about your chosen subject. Visitors can comment on your posts for others to see. You can place advertising on your blog - provided automatically by Google - and get paid whenever anyone clicks on one of those ads.
You can also use a blog to sell products as an affiliate. Affiliates get a commission, determined by the product owner, for each sale that is generated as a result of one of your visitors buying the product. ClickBank is used by thousands of product owners as a payment processor and as a method to pay affiliates. It is free for affiliates to sign up and find products they would like to promote.
LiveJournal, blogger.com, and wordpress.com, are just a few of the free sites where you can quickly and easily set up your blog.
Pick a market niche you're familiar with as the topic for your blog. Every few days post on your blog. Of course that's not all you need to do. You have to get people to your blog to read it and hopefully click on your paid ads, or on the products you're promoting as an affiliate.
Most of the blog sites are searchable by keywords. Search on the same words you've used for your site to find other blogs. Then leave a comment on the relevant blogs and include your link to your own blog. If you don't have time you can hire people to comment for you. The cost runs between 10 cents and a $1.00 per comment posted.
You can submit your blog's url to search engines so if someone wants information on 'how to raise guppies' and that's the subject of your blog, your blog shows up for visitors to find.
You can also write articles on 'how to raise guppies' and distribute those articles to directories. Ezinearticles.com and GoArticles are two directories which are favored by Google. Again if someone is searching for 'how to raise guppies' your article will show up. They click on the article and then click on your blog.
With a little bit of research and time you can become successful and increase your bank account with Online Marketing just by blogging.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The Personal Touch of Automating Your Homebased Business
Running your own homebased business can be both a blessing and a curse. Truth be told, almost everyone has advice for how you should run things; react to situations, and how to spend your time and money. One common theme is to automate absolutely everything possible, using the reasoning that you will need to "get on with things" and grow your business. While this holds some truth... it is not entirely factual.
Any home business will have a front end, and a back end. Now, when you start your venture, you will begin to realize that everything takes time to do... and some things take even more time to get done right. Always have a vision of what your front end will look like: what will the customer see, what will draw them in, what is the initial offer, are the graphics matching the copy writing, is the offer attractive in appearance, and so on. Once done, this will likely stay pretty static - especially if it's working to make sales! So, after it's set - you are free to hand any small modifications off to be done by someone else... investing your newly found "free" time toward growing your business.
Now, to address the back end. Once your offer has been snatched up by hungry customers, you have the opportunity to offer a secondary product... this is your back end. Planning the delivery and execution of this offer is usually much quicker than the front end work. However, this still requires your own personal touch. The back end is the easiest way to grow your profits... you simply contact the customer with another, similar offer. Your cost to market and attract the customer is zero - as you've already acquired them as a customer. You simply want to match the customer's desires with a product which you can supply... this cannot be automated, but the processes around sending the offer and processing the payment can definitely be automated. It's the personality within the offer that can never be automated.
Automation can make your communication with the customer easier, and it can make the payment processing easier... this can be seen almost every time. However, the personal matching of customer desires with the perfect product... along with a superior offer cannot be automated - it require human feeling and emotion. So, yes - do automate what you can. But, after the automation is done, be sure to inject emotion and feeling into your business - as this will grow your business more than anything else possibly could.
Any home business will have a front end, and a back end. Now, when you start your venture, you will begin to realize that everything takes time to do... and some things take even more time to get done right. Always have a vision of what your front end will look like: what will the customer see, what will draw them in, what is the initial offer, are the graphics matching the copy writing, is the offer attractive in appearance, and so on. Once done, this will likely stay pretty static - especially if it's working to make sales! So, after it's set - you are free to hand any small modifications off to be done by someone else... investing your newly found "free" time toward growing your business.
Now, to address the back end. Once your offer has been snatched up by hungry customers, you have the opportunity to offer a secondary product... this is your back end. Planning the delivery and execution of this offer is usually much quicker than the front end work. However, this still requires your own personal touch. The back end is the easiest way to grow your profits... you simply contact the customer with another, similar offer. Your cost to market and attract the customer is zero - as you've already acquired them as a customer. You simply want to match the customer's desires with a product which you can supply... this cannot be automated, but the processes around sending the offer and processing the payment can definitely be automated. It's the personality within the offer that can never be automated.
Automation can make your communication with the customer easier, and it can make the payment processing easier... this can be seen almost every time. However, the personal matching of customer desires with the perfect product... along with a superior offer cannot be automated - it require human feeling and emotion. So, yes - do automate what you can. But, after the automation is done, be sure to inject emotion and feeling into your business - as this will grow your business more than anything else possibly could.
5 Internet Marketing Affiliate Program Mistakes To Avoid
Internet marketing affiliate programs can do wonders for an entrepreneur looking to have success online. When you talk with people online, you will hear an equal amount of people who have failed and succeeded. The difference between the two is minimal, but there are some simple mistakes that can be costly. Here are 5 affiliate program mistakes to avoid.
1. Not having a plan: With the internet changing as frequently as it does, it is essential that you have a plan of some sort. While your plan is certain to change with the internet, having a plan will prepare you for what is to come. If you know where you want to take your affiliate program, bumps and curves along the road will only momentarily throw you off.
2. Selling the program: It can become quite easy to get caught up in the game and begin to sell the program as opposed to the product itself. What you have to realize is that you are going to make your money off of commissions through selling the product. Too many people sign up and then attempt to sign as many other people up as they can. While it is perfectly fine to try to sign people up you are not going to get rich off of second-tier commissions. Stick to where the money can be made.
3. Going through the motions: There is nothing worse than a salesman that is going through the motions and appears to be looking at a sheet of paper with guidelines. If you want to have success with an internet marketing affiliate program, you have to have passion and believe in what you are selling. This is not to say that every person you talk to is going to sign up or purchase something. But you will sound so much more influencing if you believe in what you are saying.
4. Moving to quickly: While time is money on the internet, each customer is potential money as well. Take the time to talk with prospects so that you leave a lasting impact on them. Jumping from one customer to the next too quickly will do nothing for you. If you show each prospect that you truly care about them and their needs, they will be more inclined to listen. From there, you can sell your product on a more personal level and give them reasons for how your product can truly benefit them.
5. Be yourself: The last thing you want to do is create a typical affiliate program page to sell off of. This looks too automated and far to cliche. If you want to have success, personalize your page and show people you are an individualistic. There are thousands of affiliate program sites that are identical; mix things up and make yours stand out.
While there are hundreds of things you can and should try to avoid with your internet marketing affiliate program, try not to get too caught up in worrying about these things. You are going to make mistakes, but try to move on without a hesitation. These are a few of the mistakes you may encounter along the way. But as long as you remain confident and goal-oriented, you will set yourself up for success with affiliate marketing.
1. Not having a plan: With the internet changing as frequently as it does, it is essential that you have a plan of some sort. While your plan is certain to change with the internet, having a plan will prepare you for what is to come. If you know where you want to take your affiliate program, bumps and curves along the road will only momentarily throw you off.
2. Selling the program: It can become quite easy to get caught up in the game and begin to sell the program as opposed to the product itself. What you have to realize is that you are going to make your money off of commissions through selling the product. Too many people sign up and then attempt to sign as many other people up as they can. While it is perfectly fine to try to sign people up you are not going to get rich off of second-tier commissions. Stick to where the money can be made.
3. Going through the motions: There is nothing worse than a salesman that is going through the motions and appears to be looking at a sheet of paper with guidelines. If you want to have success with an internet marketing affiliate program, you have to have passion and believe in what you are selling. This is not to say that every person you talk to is going to sign up or purchase something. But you will sound so much more influencing if you believe in what you are saying.
4. Moving to quickly: While time is money on the internet, each customer is potential money as well. Take the time to talk with prospects so that you leave a lasting impact on them. Jumping from one customer to the next too quickly will do nothing for you. If you show each prospect that you truly care about them and their needs, they will be more inclined to listen. From there, you can sell your product on a more personal level and give them reasons for how your product can truly benefit them.
5. Be yourself: The last thing you want to do is create a typical affiliate program page to sell off of. This looks too automated and far to cliche. If you want to have success, personalize your page and show people you are an individualistic. There are thousands of affiliate program sites that are identical; mix things up and make yours stand out.
While there are hundreds of things you can and should try to avoid with your internet marketing affiliate program, try not to get too caught up in worrying about these things. You are going to make mistakes, but try to move on without a hesitation. These are a few of the mistakes you may encounter along the way. But as long as you remain confident and goal-oriented, you will set yourself up for success with affiliate marketing.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
10 Myths About Starting Your Own Home Based Business
Many solo entrepreneurs believe certain things about starting their own home based business that are just not true. Continuing to believe in these myths can lead you down the path to destruction. Here are some of them:
• Since I’m just working for me, there is no need for a business plan. Would you go on a trip without a plan? Would you get married without a plan? Plans are good. They will help you get focused and stay that way. A good business plan will help you to think through all the aspects of your home based business and see you on your way to success.
• I’ll have to invest in expensive software to get a good business plan. Nope. Software may help, but you don’t need it. How do you think all those businessmen succeeded before the invention of the computer?
• Then I’ll need to hire a consultant to write my business plan for me. You are the one who knows what you are going to do. If not, then all the consultants in the world can’t help you. Try a coach or mentor to guide you, rather than do things for you.
• I should get one of those home based business plan templates that sound really complicated. Complicated is good, right? Wrong! Simple is better.
• I need to have everything perfect before I start. If you wait that long you may never start. Fix it as you go. Just make sure the major points are as good as they can be.
• If I don’t do everything my business plan says I’m a failure. Sometimes detours or changes can be beneficial to your long-distance plan. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
• My business plan must be typed, at least 50 pages long with a professional looking cover. You can write it in hieroglyphics on the wall – so long as you can understand it and access it when you need to.
• I only need a business plan if I’m getting a loan. Would you invest in any business without seeing a prospectus? You’ll be investing in this one! Just do a budget and run it by your accountant.
• If I have a home based business plan in my head - that will do. But can you remember it? Can your friends give you advice by reading your mind? Can your accountant?
• Friends and family are all I’ll need to give me advice. Could a city man tell a farmer how to run his farm? Only if your family are accountants and market research experts will they be qualified to give the right advice.
• Since I’m just working for me, there is no need for a business plan. Would you go on a trip without a plan? Would you get married without a plan? Plans are good. They will help you get focused and stay that way. A good business plan will help you to think through all the aspects of your home based business and see you on your way to success.
• I’ll have to invest in expensive software to get a good business plan. Nope. Software may help, but you don’t need it. How do you think all those businessmen succeeded before the invention of the computer?
• Then I’ll need to hire a consultant to write my business plan for me. You are the one who knows what you are going to do. If not, then all the consultants in the world can’t help you. Try a coach or mentor to guide you, rather than do things for you.
• I should get one of those home based business plan templates that sound really complicated. Complicated is good, right? Wrong! Simple is better.
• I need to have everything perfect before I start. If you wait that long you may never start. Fix it as you go. Just make sure the major points are as good as they can be.
• If I don’t do everything my business plan says I’m a failure. Sometimes detours or changes can be beneficial to your long-distance plan. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
• My business plan must be typed, at least 50 pages long with a professional looking cover. You can write it in hieroglyphics on the wall – so long as you can understand it and access it when you need to.
• I only need a business plan if I’m getting a loan. Would you invest in any business without seeing a prospectus? You’ll be investing in this one! Just do a budget and run it by your accountant.
• If I have a home based business plan in my head - that will do. But can you remember it? Can your friends give you advice by reading your mind? Can your accountant?
• Friends and family are all I’ll need to give me advice. Could a city man tell a farmer how to run his farm? Only if your family are accountants and market research experts will they be qualified to give the right advice.
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